Beijing's top representative office in Hong Kong said on Saturday that sanctions imposed by Washington on senior Hong Kong and Chinese officials were "clowning actions" that would not frighten or intimidate Chinese people. Separately, the Hong Kong government said the sanctions were "shameless and despicable" and represented "blatant and barbaric" interference in China's internal affairs. "We will not be intimidated," a government spokesman said. The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Luo Huining, the head of China's Liaison Office, as well as Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and other current and former officials that Washington accuses of curtailing political freedoms in the global financial hub. The move accelerates rapidly deteriorating Sino-U.S. ties, more than a month after Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation on Hong Kong that drew condemnation from Western governments and sent a chill across the city. "The unscrupulous intentions of the U.S. politicians to support the anti-China chaos in Hong Kong have been revealed, and their clowning actions are really ridiculous," the Liaison Office said in a statement. "Intimidation and threats cannot frighten the Chinese people." Luo, the most senior mainland political official based in the Chinese-controlled territory, said U.S. sanctions on him indicated he was doing what he "should be doing for my country and Hong Kong", according to the statement. Luo has oversight over the implementation of the contentious security law that allows mainland security agents to be officially based in China's freest city for the first time. As well as Luo and Lam, the sanctions target Hong Kong police commissioner Chris Tang and his predecessor Stephen Lo; John Lee, Hong Kong's secretary of security, and Teresa Cheng, the justice secretary. Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing, was also named. Police chief Tang told local media on Saturday that maintaining the security of the country and Hong Kong was his responsibility, and foreign sanctions were meaningless. The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets of the officials, prohibit them from carrying out business in the country and generally bar Americans from doing business with them. Beijing-backed leader Lam has previously told local media she has no assets in the United States. Hong Kong financial regulators moved to calm market fears on Saturday, as banks in the city grappled with the implications of the sanctions. The markets watchdog said it was not aware of any aspect of the sanctions that would affect how financial firms carry out their normal operations in the city. "DRACONIAN" SECURITY LAW Washington said the "draconian" security law had undermined its autonomy and set "the groundwork for censorship of any individuals or outlets that are deemed unfriendly to China." The U.S. sanctions come a week after Hong Kong postponed a Sept. 6 election to the Chinese-ruled city's legislature by a year, citing a spike in coronavirus cases, prompting democracy activists to question whether the pandemic was the real reason. Washington said the election delay was the latest example of Beijing undermining "the democratic processes and freedoms that have underpinned Hong Kong's prosperity." The security legislation targets what Beijing broadly defines as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison. Beijing and the Hong Kong government have said the law will not affect rights and freedoms, and that it is needed to plug security loopholes. They said it will only target a small minority of "troublemakers." Fifteen people have been arrested under the law so far, including four aged 16-21 who were detained last week. Beijing imposed the legislation directly on Hong Kong just before midnight on June 30, circumventing the city's legislature, and leaving the city's officials in the dark on the details of the law until it was implemented. The law has steered China further on a collision course with the West, prompting countries including Australia, Canada and Britain to suspend extradition treaties with Hong Kong. The legislation allows agents to take suspects across the border for trials in Communist Party-controlled courts, one issue that has raised alarm at home and overseas. Some Hong Kong people have fled the city to set up home overseas, while immigration consultants have reported a surge in inquiries of people looking to leave. Hong Kong authorities have issued arrest warrants for six pro-democracy activists who fled the city and were suspected of violating the new security. Some political analysts say the security law coming directly from Beijing and bypassing Hong Kong's legislature signals the start of a more authoritarian rule in the semi-autonomous city and a march toward mainland control. Critics of the law say it erodes basic rights and freedoms, guaranteed when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, while supporters say it will bring stability after a year of often-violent anti-government and anti-China unrest. Also read: US to end dependence on China, others for pharma, medical supplies, says Donald Trump Also read: Trump administration seeks crackdown on Chinese companies listed in US By Supantha Mukherjee and Anne Kauranen STOCKHOLM/HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia's new chief executive Pekka Lundmark said he will take time to re-acquaint himself with the Finnish telecom equipment maker as he works toward setting a strategy, as the company jostles for position in the highly political 5G race. U.S. government pressure to limit the use of China's Huawei [HWT.UL] presents an opportunity for Nokia as next generation technology is rolled out, but Lundmark would not be drawn. "Maintaining good relations with governments in pretty much all parts of the world is extremely important," Lundmark said in a video interview with Reuters on Friday. "We are talking to governments in different parts of the world, but that's pretty much business as usual for us." He also declined to disclose his thinking on Nokia's broad range of product portfolio and strategy. The company made product mis-steps last year, although it managed an unexpected rise in second-quarter underlying profit as it took on less low-margin business. "What we will be doing now is to preview the current plans and then potentially make new plans as to how we develop the portfolio," said Lundmark, who took on the Nokia top job last weekend. "I have theories and ideas in my mind, but again day five is far too early to talk about them." He said he hoped to be able to give more detail "before the end of the year". Lundmark will work closely with Sari Baldauf, one of the most high-profile female leaders in the global telecoms industry, who took over as chairwoman of Nokia earlier this year. "The board absolutely expect management to prepare the strategic direction and then present it to them," he said. Lundmark previously spent 10 years working in Nokia's network business in the 1990s and then 20 years working elsewhere. Most recently he was CEO of Finnish energy company Fortum. "This job is my dream job," he said of his new role. "It's definitely kind of a homecoming for me." (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Anne Kauranen in Helsinki; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Frances Kerry) Reported US drone sale to Taiwan a political stunt: experts Global Times By Huang Lanlan and Du Qiongfang Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/7 20:43:41 China on Friday sharply criticized a reported plan by the US to sell military drones to the island of Taiwan, saying that the move seriously undermines China's sovereignty and security interests. Mainland experts noted that the potential sale is more of a political stun that has little military value. The US was considering selling the island at least four SeaGuardian surveillance drones, which have a range of 6,000 nautical miles (11,100 kilometers), much higher than the 160-mile range of the island's current fleet of drones, Reuters reported on Thursday. The approximately $600 million deal still requires approval from US Congress, but the US Department of State has "tacitly authorized the sale of the unmanned aerial vehicles," according to Reuters. If completed, the deal would be the US' first sale of "sophisticated" drones to Taiwan, the report noted. In Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday harshly criticized the plan, calling the move a serious violation of the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, particularly the China-US Joint Communique on arms sales to Taiwan signed on August 17, 1982, stipulating that Washington must gradually reduce its arms sales to the island. "This move has severely undermined China's sovereignty and security interests, and has seriously violated the basic norms of international relations," Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the ministry, told a routine news briefing. Wang added that "the Taiwan question bears on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity" and urged the US to "stop arms sales to and military ties with Taiwan, so as to avoid causing serious damage to China-US relations and stability across the Taiwan Straits." Despite the political seriousness of the potential sale, the MQ-9B SeaGuardian surveillance drone would play a very limited role for the Taiwan separatist authority as it wouldn't match the island's geographical position, said Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie. The wide range of the drone originally designed for the US military may not work well in the Taiwan Straits, where the Chinese mainland's People's Liberation Army (PLA) holds air superiority, Li told the Global Times on Friday. "The PLA can defend [against any action] with its advanced drone technologies, many of which have surpassed those of the US," he said. The deal has caused uproar among netizens on the island, with some Facebook users referring to the Tsai Ing-wen authority as an ATM machine that continuously hands out money to the US. US Congress will likely approve the deal, which allows the Trump administration to play its "Taiwan card" to provoke the mainland, Li predicted. "Trump's failures in fighting COVID-19 and saving the US economy have forced him to take a tougher attitude toward the Chinese mainland for re-election votes," he noted. It is not yet known whether the US intends to sell unarmed SeaGuardian drones to Taiwan as surveillance aircraft or if a sale would involve weapon-equipped drones, said Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute. "In any case, it is laughably presumptuous that the separatist Taiwan authority intends to battle against the mainland by buying a few weapons," Zhang told the Global Times, saying US weapon sales could intoxicate the island's separatists but would have little actual military effect. The Trump administration last month loosened restrictions on exports of military-grade aerial drones that fly at a speed below 800 kilometers per hour, once categorized as lethal "category-1" weapons alongside smaller cruise missiles. The administration announced in May that it would sell 18 heavyweight torpedoes to Taiwan. Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe on Thursday stated China's principled position on the Taiwan question in a phone call with US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. In the rare phone conversation, Wei urged the US to improve the management and control of maritime risks and avoid taking dangerous moves that may escalate the situation. Still, the phone call between the top defense officials itself sent a positive signal that shows their willingness to communicate and that neither side would like to see military conflicts or armed confrontations, an anonymous military expert told the Global Times on Friday. The US' plan to sell drones to the Taiwan region, however, has deviated from the effort to maintain communication, and could strain relations between the two militaries, observers said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Lithuania, 08 Aug 2020 - In the modern era, there are many talkative individuals who love to talk with strangers, and for them, social media is one of the finest ways to find strangers. 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Former Duke and Duchess of Sussexes Pince Harry and Meghan Markle will release their new book "Finding Freedom" next week. It is a new explosive biography that narrates the relationship between Harry and Meghan before they got married. However, it seems that the new biography adds to the already damaged relationship between Prince William and Prince Harry. Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton also felt being betrayed and desperately sad over the content of the new biography. According to a published report in The Mirror, Kate Middleton got upset about how the book portrayed her husband, Prince William. The book labels her husband as a "snob," and it also implies that Kate Middleton was "frosty" when Meghan Markle was still Prince Harry's girlfriend. The book is one of the most anticipated biographies of the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes from their relationship, arrival in the royal family, and their departure. According to the royal insider Lady Colin Campbell, Kate Middleton is so distressed about the book than anyone else. Campbell said, "I am told everybody is extremely upset that William is not a snob. But since Harry has been with Meghan, they've sought every excuse to find a reason to be resentful of everybody and everything." This is the first biography released by the former senior royals after they left their post. In another publisher article in the Observer, Prince William, Kate, and Prince Harry's relationship began to deteriorate after Prince William told his brother not to rush things with Meghan Markle. The book stated, "Don't feel you need to rush this. Take as much time as you need to get to know this girl." According to a published article in KNEWZ, the book claimed that Prince William and Kate Middleton did not visit Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at their Cotswolds home. Additionally, it was also stated that Kate Middleton did not help fix the relationship between Prince William and Harry. However, close friends and those who know Prince William and Kate Middleton said that what the book claimed is not true. In a statement they anonymously shared with the Daily Mail, their friends said that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were more than welcome to Prince Harry and Kate Middleton. Following this report that portrays Kate Middleton and the release of the book "Finding Freedom" next week, fresh reports emerged that Prince Harry is not coping all that is happening with them in Los Angeles including Meghan Markle. Royal biographer Angela Levin described Prince Harry as the shadow of his former self and has lost his charismatic and mischievous charm since they moved to California. She also added that Harry seems to be focusing on negatives in his life rather than positive things. Levin said on ITV's "Royal Rota" that Harry has changed a lot since they first met. He added, "I found that he was charismatic and had royal stardust about him. "He was brilliant with people, especially if they were physically, emotionally, or psychologically damaged, he had a mischievous charm to him." Check these out! Jurnee Smollett maintains her brother's innocence. (Photo: Jim Spellman/Getty Images) Jurnee Smollett is standing by her brother, Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a hate crime and lying to the police about it in January 2019, in her first public comment regarding his situation. Its been f***ing painful, the actress told The Hollywood Reporter, one of the most painful things my familys ever experienced to love someone as much as we love my brother, and to watch someone who you love that much go through something like this, that is so public, has been devastating. I was already in a very dark space for a number of reasons, and Ive tried to not let it make me pessimistic. But everyone who knows me knows that I love my brother and I believe my brother. Jussie was arrested in February 2019 on charges of filing a false report, in which he alleged that two masked men attacked him in Chicago at about 2 a.m. on Jan. 29. They allegedly tied a rope around his neck, poured an unknown liquid on him and made a reference to President Trumps Make America Great Again campaign slogan. He was soon after cut from his successful Fox series Empire and has continued to deal with the legal fallout. Charges against him were dropped in March 2019, but a grand jury brought new charges against him in January of this year. He has always maintained his innocence. Actor siblings Jussie and Jurnee Smollett are two of six kids. (Photo: Leon Bennett/Getty Images) In fact, Jurnee said she couldnt say everything she wanted, because of her brothers ongoing legal case. They are two of six siblings in a close family. The former Friday Night Lights star, who will soon appear in HBOs Lovecraft Country, said shes had a lot of support in the aftermath. We are blessed to have a community of people who know him, and know that he wouldnt do this, she said. She added hes doing OK, and that he lived with her for a while after she filed for divorce from Josiah Bell in March. I mean, f***, man, I look at him sometimes and Im like, Hes so strong, Jurnee said. She explained that her brother, who faces trial at an upcoming date, is staying creative, as creatives do by singing, writing, working on music. Story continues Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: A New Mexico youngster performing a comedy routine with a chef puppet while preparing Italian wedding soup is one of 38 finalists in the national and virtual Military Kids Got Talent content sponsored by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. And he is looking for your vote by noon by Friday, Aug. 14. Ian Collins, 12, of both Rio Rancho and Santa Fe, has joined entrants of all ages doing everything from singing, dancing, performing card tricks, gymnastics, playing musical instruments, ballet and of course comedy routines. His gig is, while making Italian wedding soup, his puppet sidekick Luigi make bad jokes and comically interferes with Ians efforts. Collins, son of a retired military chaplain, attends the International Virtual Learning Academy and loves to cook, according to a news release. His father does the voice of Luigi off screen. Visit hiddenheroes.org/talent for a gander at the 38 finalists in five age groups and note the performers initials. That is how you vote for them. For example, to vote for Ian Collins text IC to 512-855-6431. You can find a clip of his routine about 23 minutes in to a 30-minute video on the website. The contest spotlights children and survivors of U.S. military service members and veterans when many milestones and celebrations have been canceled due to COVID-19, organizers said. We are excited to be able to recognize them for who they are, and give them a chance to have fun sharing their special talents, Steve Schwab, CEO of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, said in a statement. We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com. I think that whoever did this was probably trying to intimidate me, rather than actually hurting me or my family, Passino said. Passino said the bombing was one of the reasons why he didnt run for a second term as mayor. He said his duties as mayor a job that paid about $3,500 a year were also taking too much time away from his main occupation, running a busy auto collision shop. I finished out my term and that was it for me, Passino said. After the bombing, my wife was no longer happy living in Holley, so we moved to Brockport, and weve been happy in Brockport ever since. The former mayor and his wife told The News that they are thankful for the good lives theyve had, and that they hold no grudges against the bomber or bombers. I grew up in Holley. After what happened, it was good for me to get out of there, Janet Passino said. They say in life that you dont have to forget things, but you should forgive. Thats what weve done. I think about the bombing when that time of year rolls around, but we have moved on with our lives. We dont hold grudges. A man has paid tribute to his fiancee after she tragically died in an explosion in Lebanon. Sahar Fares, 27, was one of the 154 people killed at the port in Beirut on Tuesday with a further 5,000 injured. Ms Fares, a member of the Beirut Fire Brigade who responded to a fire at the port before the explosion, was due to be married in June next year. Her fiance Gilbert Karaan wrote a heartbreaking Instagram post on Wednesday to his beautiful bride, saying instead of being married in June 2021, it will be tomorrow, my love. Everything you wanted will be there except seeing you in your white dress, he wrote. You broke my back, my soul. You burnt my heart, my heart. The taste of life has gone now that youre missing from me. Sahar Fares, 27, was due to be married to Gilbert Karaan, 29, in June next year. Source: Instagram/ Sahar Kares Mr Gilbert watched as Ms Fares responded to the fire, according to the New York Times. Ms Fares had called him to show her future husband the fire consuming parts of the port on Tuesday evening. She went to investigate but soon realised something was about to explode. Mr Karaan pleaded with her to run for cover but she couldnt get free of the blast. On Thursday, a wedding party was held to honour Ms Fares before she was buried. Video captured by MTV Lebanon shows uniformed members of the fire brigade carrying her casket through a guard of honour. Family and friends also helped carry the coffin through the crowd. Ms Fares' casket is taken through a guard of honour by the Beirut Fire Brigade. Source: MTV Lebanon President Michel Aoun told local media its not known what caused the explosion. Mr Aoun, who had previously said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port, said the investigation would also look at whether the blast was due to negligence or an accident. Twenty people had been detained so far, he added, while one source said an initial probe blamed negligence. While the United States has said it did not rule out an attack, Israel, which has fought several wars with Lebanon, has denied any role. Story continues A military helicopter douses the flames at the port. Source: Getty Images Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the cause was unclear, but compared the blast to a 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's powerful Shi'ite group Hezbollah, denied what he said were "preconceived" comments both domestically and abroad that the Iran-backed group had arms stored at the port. He called for a fair investigation and strict accountability for anyone responsible without any political cover. "Even if a plane struck, or if it was an intentional act, if it turns out this nitrate had been at the port for years in this way, it means part of the case is absolutely negligence and corruption," he said. The customs director and a predecessor were arrested on Friday. with Reuters Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Sorry! This content is not available in your region The world is buzzing with the success of the television drama 'Normal People', and of course, the steamy chemistry between the two actors Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones. And now the Drogheda woman responsible for pairing the two for the roles of Connell and Marianne is being recognised on a global scale! Casting director Louise Kiely from Meadowview has now been nominated for an Emmy, the television equivalent of an Acadamy award. 'It is kind of special I suppose,' says Louise modestly. 'It's funny there has been such interest in the show, and I think it is a mixture of finding two wonderful actors, and then being well-directed, well scripted, well costumed and from an already well-loved book, so the audience was taken on a journey by talented people.' She says Paul had been suggested at an early stage, and they then had a variety of what they call 'chemistry reads', to see if sparks fly. 'The list had been getting shorted for the female character, but as soon as Daisy and Paul were in the room together, the fire was lit,' she says with a laugh. Louise had a circuitous route to Drogheda via Maynooth and even Johannesburg, and has a Degree in Law from University College Cork, and also attended The Gaiety School of Acting. She was even an actor for a time before setting up Louise Kiely Casting in 2005. Since she settled in Drogheda nine years ago, Louise has been immersed in the local arts scene and her proud mum and dad Maureen and Pat Kiely have even moved to the town, living in Roschoill. 'I am great friends with Collette Farrell from the Droichead and the Thornton brothers (Colin and Darren) and have worked with them on a number of projects,' says Louise, who was casting director on A Date for Mad Mary set in Drogheda, and also hits like Sing Street, Ripper Street and Damo and Ivor. 'A Date for Mad Mary' went on to be nominated at film festivals across the world, winning Best Film at the Irish Film and Television Awards in 2017 - the same year fellow Droghedean Deirdre O'Kane hosted the ceremony - a proud moment for everyone involved. 'My parents have always been so supportive, and we all love living in Drogheda now, as it really has a very vibrant arts scene.' Louise is one of four nominations for Normal People in the Emmys' Paul Mescal has been nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series, Lenny Abrahamson for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series and Sally Rooney and Alice Birch for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series. Congratulations poured in from all over Ireland for the nods, with executive producers of Normal People and co-founders of Element Pictures, Andrew Lowe and Ed Guiney saying 'Congratulations from all of us at Element to Paul, Lenny, Sally, Alice and Louise for their Emmy nominations'. Taoiseach Micheal Martin also tweeted his message of support and congratulations for the talented team. 'This is a lovely thing to come in the middle of all this doom and gloom, and fingers crossed we will take some if not all of the awards,' adds Louise, 'Although I see Paul tweeted that he is Irish, after one of the papers in England said that he is a British actor. I am proud of being Irish and living in Drogheda, so won't be lured to Hollywood anytime soon.' Sadly, just like fellow awards nominee Helen Behan (BAFTA & IFTA), Louise won't get a chance to don a frock for the IFTAs or Emmys. 'It is shame as it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, which would be amazing,' she says. 'But I'll still wear the frock, and who knows, we might even roll out the red carpet in Meadowview!' Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 22:09:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Saturday announced 200 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country so far to 5,079. Eight new recovered cases and one new death were reported, bringing the total recoveries to 660 and death toll to 108, the center said in a statement. China donated medical aid to Libya in June to help the country's pandemic battle, including 834 nucleic acid diagnostic kits, 5,000 medical protective suits, 15,000 N95 face masks, 100,000 surgical masks, 5,000 pairs of goggles and 5,000 pairs of medical gloves. Enditem Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ella Ide (Agence France-Presse) Rome, Italy Sat, August 8, 2020 08:03 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c704a3 2 Art & Culture Raphael,tomb,Italy,arts,history,artist Free Art sleuths have created a 3D reconstruction of the face of Italian painter Raphael, solving an age-old mystery over his final resting place, Rome's Tor Vergata University told AFP Thursday. The artist, a child prodigy and part of a trinity of Renaissance greats along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, died in 1520, aged only 37. A red rose graces his tomb in Rome's Pantheon all year round. His body was exhumed in the 19th century, at which point a plaster cast of his skull was made. But experts were not sure the remains really belonged to Raphael, for the excavation also unearthed other full and partial skeletons. Several of the skeletons belonged to the artist's students, but others went unidentified. Popular myth has it that the Renaissance painter, who was said to have had an active sex life, succumbed to syphilis in 1520, though experts widely agree that he died of pneumonia, possibly after visiting lovers late on freezing nights. As Rome marked 500 years since his death this year, the university team set about making a 3D reconstruction of the plaster cast. It found a clear match with the Raphael pictured in portraits by other artists in the period, as well as the artist's self-portraits, molecular biology expert Mattia Falconi told AFP. "We have concrete evidence for the first time that the skeleton exhumed in 1833 belongs to Raffaello Sanzio," Falconi said. Read also: It wasn't the sex: Bloodletting fatal for Raphael, study claims 'Not his nose' A 3D-reconstruction "only captures 80 percent of the original face, but there's no doubt about the result. It looks nothing like the students we know are buried there, and it would be too much of a coincidence for a stranger to look so similar". Falconi said the only part of the face that could not be reconstructed this way were the ears -- "but fortunately Raphael had long hair that covered his ears". Confirmation the skeleton is Raphael's opens the door to further analysis of the skeleton to determine hair and eye color. A project to re-exhume the body this year was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, but if it resumes Falconi said his team would be interested in seeing how faithful the artist was to his real self. "The 3D model shows the eyes and mouth (in the portraits) are his, but he has been kind to himself about his nose," he said. "We know that Raphael often painted himself younger than his years, and this model allows us to see him as he really was". A life-size 3D-printed bust of the man dubbed the "Prince of Painters" by fellow artist and famed 16th-century biographer Giorgio Vasari will go on display at the museum at his birthplace in Urbino in Italy's Marche region. Despite his premature death, Raphael produced a vast oeuvre of seminal work, much of it at the Vatican, whose opulent museums include several rooms filled with his frescoes. Completed by Raphael's students after his death, they remain some of the Vatican's most popular rooms. Topics : Raphael tomb Italy arts history artist Maria Palacio had made it. She grew up on a coffee farm in Colombia. She knew how little money coffee farms and their workers made. When she came to the U.S. in 2010, she wanted to change that, so she founded Progeny Coffee in Palo Alto to help bring growers out of poverty. Soon, she began supplying Google, Facebook, Microsoft and LinkedIn, providing coffee for the tech companies huge campuses, which allowed her to bring awareness to the coffee farmers she started all of this for. Then tech companies began sending workers home, closing their campuses in Silicon Valley and their towers in San Francisco in the weeks before the coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic. Sales at the company, now based in Berkeley, dropped by 97% after shelter-in-place hit, Palacio said. As a family-owned company, we have put everything, everything into this, she said, just to see all of that crumble in a second. Palacio, who is now using federal money to pay her 10 employees, is far from alone. UC Santa Cruz researcher Robert Fairlie found that in California, Latino businesses have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic the number of Latino business owners whose firms were active dropped 43% from the beginning of February to the end of April, compared with a 19% drop in white owners of active businesses. Before the pandemic, Latinos were opening businesses at a faster rate than any other demographic group, according to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. A survey by small business lender Camino Financial found that 70% of Latino-owned businesses in the U.S. had to close their doors at some point since mid-March not necessarily closing for good, but at least temporarily halting operations while figuring out how to survive. The type of business matters a lot, too. According to a survey by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative, Latinos are more likely to own businesses in the hard-hit food service and hospitality industries. If these closures become permanent, 2 million jobs in the U.S. could be lost, according to Marlene Orozco, lead research analyst on the Stanford study. Isabel Caudillo had to lay off four of her 12 employees from her San Francisco restaurant, El Buen Comer, when she lost most of her business as a result of the pandemic. It was more of a sit-down place, her son Vlad Caudillo explained, so customers dont enjoy the food as much when its takeout. The restaurant is on a hill, so outdoor dining is impractical. Now, its pretty much just Caudillos family working at the restaurant. The takeout orders, plus some partnerships with local organizations like La Cocina, Dine11 and SF New Deal, have kept them afloat for now, but they arent sure what will happen if those funds run out, Isabel Caudillo said. Weve been pretty lucky, Vlad Caudillo said, but he misses seeing and serving the restaurants really loyal customers. Most of the people that come here, weve known since we opened. Only 1 in 6 Latino-owned businesses that generate more than $1 million in revenue have enough cash on hand to survive over six months, compared with 1 in 4 white-owned businesses of a similar size, the Stanford study found. I think it fundamentally goes back to legacies and histories of (lack of access) to financial services, Orozco said. Latino businesses have been left behind. Latino-owned businesses also have received government-funded pandemic relief, like the federal Paycheck Protection Program, that has been essential in keeping businesses afloat. The Stanford study found that while 33% of Latino-owned businesses applied for PPP loans, only 10% were approved. White-owned businesses, on the other hand, were approved at a higher rate a similar percentage applied but 17% were approved. Of those approved, only 3% of Latino-owned businesses received full funding, compared with 7% of white-owned businesses. Dilsa Lugo owns Los Cilantros in Berkeley. She lost 90% of her sales because of the pandemic, but has been working with La Cocina and World Central Kitchen to stay in business. She applied for a PPP loan through her bank, but didnt get approved. She doesnt know why. It was a mess, Lugo said. Shes still in business, but was only able to keep four of her employees. Of the Latino owners who didnt apply for the federal aid, 69% said it was because they didnt believe they would qualify, and 19% needed technical help with the somewhat complicated application, according to Camino Financial. They struggled understanding how to calculate the funding eligibility piece, Sean Salas, chief executive at Camino Financial said. And of course, there are limited resources available to Spanish-speaking or Spanish-dominant business owners. Salas Los Angeles startup focuses on lending to those customers. The PPP was able to help keep Progeny Coffee and El Buen Comer in business, but isnt a panacea. The program requires companies to use at least 60% of the money to cover their employees paychecks in order for the loan to be forgiven, which means people have to keep working. Brenda Juarez runs El Pipila in San Francisco with her sister and her mother, who owns the restaurant. They got approved for the PPP loan, but when Juarez asked her employees about coming back to work, they werent ready to yet because of the coronavirus. She had to give up the loan so that they wouldnt owe any money. They had around $10,000 in savings, but that was all spent within the first month of the pandemic paying employees and operating costs. Now, just she, her mother and her sister are working, and theyre not taking paychecks. Its been really hard, Juarez said. But I knew I need to do that for my mom, and I knew I needed to do that for myself and my sister just so we can feel something productive again. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Despite the disparities in resources, Latino business owners tend to be just as optimistic about the future as their white counterparts. Nationally, 80% of Latino business owners and 79% of white business owners report that they think theyre likely to recover from the pandemic, according to the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative. Palacio, for example, decided to start selling directly to customers, letting them subscribe online for regular coffee shipments. Its not profitable yet, and its far from making up the sales she used to have, but its growing, she said. She describes the experience of the pandemic devastating her business as a journey. With every challenge, there are opportunities, she said. The Juarez family added burritos to their menu, despite their matriarchs hesitancy, because they knew burritos were the type of takeout item that would sell. We needed to customize to whatever people were looking for, Juarez said. The business owners say that leaning on community has been a major factor in helping them survive. Palacio, Juarez and Caudillo each said that help and guidance from the various groups for business owners that theyre a part of have been a major factor in their ability to navigate this pandemic. I know for a lot of companies out there, they just feel so lonely and so scared, Palacio said. You need to really rely on the power of community. Ive always believed in hiring from the community and promoting from within, Miguel Galarza, owner of Yerba Buena Engineering and Construction, said. Through the good times and the bad times, we try and stick together. Camino Financial also found that despite the wave of temporary closures, 67% of Latino businesses have reopened to some extent, and of the remaining 33%, many expect to reopen. Latino business owners are a lot more resilient than I think we give them credit for, Salas said. Theres always a bright side, Lugo said. We dont have to lose hope. Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev The U.S. economy needs an even more stringent shutdown than the last time if it's going to defeat the coronavirus, Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said. In a Friday New York Times op-ed he authored with Michael T. Osterholm, a professor and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, Kashkari argues that the government should issue a shelter-in-place order "for everyone but the truly essential workers" for up to six weeks. March's lockdown, issued as the coronavirus became a pandemic, was not sufficiently stringent and has led to the U.S. lagging other stricter nations when it has come to containing Covid-19, they said. The result "could make what we have experienced so far seem like just a warm-up to a greater catastrophe." "To be effective, the lockdown has to be as comprehensive and strict as possible," Kashkari and Osterholm wrote. "If we aren't willing to take this action, millions more cases with many more deaths are likely before a vaccine might be available. In addition, the economic recovery will be much slower, with far more business failures and high unemployment for the next year or two." During the initial lockdown, the shuttering of American businesses led to the loss of at least 20 million jobs, only about half of which have been recovered during the restart. Congress stepped in with rescue funding that has swelled the national debt by $3 trillion to $26.5 trillion, and Kashkari's Fed also has expanded its balance sheet by nearly $3 trillion by lending and providing liquidity through various vehicles. This article was first published by Stratfor Worldview and is reprinted here with permission. With the drawdown of U.S. forces in Germany underway, a reduction of U.S. forces in South Korea is now more likely than ever, given evolving U.S. defense priorities and longstanding trends on the Korean Peninsula. Rumors of an imminent U.S. force drawdown in Korea have been circulating since at least 2019, and President Donald Trump has made it clear he wants to reduce large overseas basing. South Korea, however, is a particularly contentious case, as any changes to the size and structure of U.S. forces must take into consideration both the local mission of deterring against North Korea, as well as the broader U.S. strategic mission of refocusing on great power competition, particularly with China. And that will require reassessing South Korea's own national defense capabilities, the benefits and risks of having a large forward force based on the Asian mainland, and the impact of any shift in forces on the overall perception of U.S. commitment and reliability with other allies and partners in the region. The Question of U.S. Forces in South Korea Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has sought to reduce its large-scale overseas basing, both to reduce financial and political costs and create a more flexible and responsive force structure better adapted to the changing threat dynamic. Cost-sharing agreements are often contentious, and the current stalemate between the United States and South Korea has dragged on with no end in sight. U.S. basing is also often a source of protest inside South Korea, over land use, accidents or illegal behavior by U.S. personnel, and the perception of continued occupation. Reducing the U.S. footprint and shifting more to naval, air and rotational units could ease these tensions. Under the current National Defense Strategy (NDS), Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is now reviewing the overall posture of U.S. forces abroad, with the mandate toward a more flexible forward posture. Since the early 2000s, U.S. forces in Korea have moved out of the major facility at Yongsan in Seoul. The United States has also pulled most of its forces south of the Han River. During the Iraq War, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush cut total troop numbers in Korea by nearly 12,000 as well, in part because forces based in Korea cannot be readily used for contingencies elsewhere. Amid reports that the Pentagon had already recommended force restructuring in Korea, Esper said on July 21 that he had given no order to withdraw forces, but then emphasized that he was reviewing all geographic combatant commands in line with the current NDS, with a desire for more rotational forces and greater strategic flexibility. In that context, a longstanding suggestion for reshaping the U.S. military posture in South Korea is a further shift toward more naval and air assets, and reduced U.S. ground forces potentially moving more ground forces to a rotational basis, rather than extended deployments. Doing so would maintain a deterrent presence in Korea and retain the benefit of training with South Korean forces, while still reducing constraints due to limits on the deployment of Korean-based forces to conflicts elsewhere. Rotational forces also have a smaller footprint in overseas basing, as they do not include family or family support functions that extended deployments entail. The restructuring of U.S. forces, however, is complicated by U.S. operational control (OPCON) over South Korean forces in the event of war. South Korea has had its military under U.S. OPCON since the Korean War in the early 1950s, with the South Korean military only regaining formal OPCON of its own forces in peacetime in 1994. Over the decades, the transfer of wartime OPCON to South Korea has been delayed numerous times due to its military's perceived unreadiness and occasional flare-ups of tensions with North Korea. For South Korea, particularly under liberal governments like that of current President Moon Jae In, OPCON transfer is a critical step to fully realizing its independence and national pride. Korea was under Japanese control from 1910 to 1945, and has had its military under U.S. OPCON since the Korean War. And while its alliance with the United States remains important for Seoul, the nature of the two countries' military relationship is still at times seen as paternalistic The Case for Restructuring There are several arguments in support of such a restructuring. For one, U.S. forces in South Korea are largely a Cold War left-over and are limited in use for operations outside the country. South Korea, Germany and Japan continue to represent the largest hosting of U.S. forces abroad, and the largest expenditures for basing. Prior to the announced drawdown, Germany hosted more than 35,000 U.S. forces, South Korea more than 26,000 and Japan more than 55,000, according to the latest tally by the Heritage Foundation's Defense Manpower Data Center. The Pentagon has traditionally avoided using U.S. forces stationed in South Korea for operations elsewhere, both due to the North Korean threat and to South Korean political concerns. The balance of forces on the Korean Peninsula also currently favors South Korea, reducing the necessity of a large ready U.S. presence. That balance was an important consideration in U.S. President Richard Nixon's decision to reduce forces in South Korea in 1971, desiring for Seoul to carry more of the burden for its own national defense. A revision of U.S. intelligence estimates of North Korean strength also played a role in reversing President Jimmy Carter's decision to further reduce forces in South Korea less than a decade later. North Korean capabilities no longer require the U.S. force posture currently configured in South Korea as well. While North Korea has significantly improved its missile and rocket capabilities, the effective counter is not necessarily more forces open the ground, but rather improved missile defense capabilities and the development of South Korean counter-strike capabilities. South Korea has been constrained in the latter for decades by the United States for fear of triggering a war with North Korea that would lock Washington into conflict. But Washington recently agreed to allow Seoul to develop solid-fuel rockets and has expanded its acceptable payload size. South Korea has also recently identified ground and air-launch missiles as a key component of its force development, along with local missile defense. Given the developments in the South Korean military and the situation in North Korea, it is unlikely that Pyongyang would see a reduction of U.S forces in South Korea as an invitation to roll tanks south. The Case Against Restructuring But there are also valid arguments against a U.S. withdrawal from South Korea, including: Preserving a key, amphibious entry point to Asia in the case of a U.S.-China conflict. South Korea's most concrete value to the U.S. defense posture is perhaps its role as an amphibious bridge between the maritime world and the Asian continent. Strategic competition between the United States and China plays out where the maritime power of the United States meets the continental power of China. Korea has long been the bridge between maritime Japan and continental China, for culture as well as warfare serving as the launching point for the Mongol invasions of Japan in the 13th century, the Japanese attempted invasion of China in the 16th century, and the Japanese imperial invasion of Asia in the late 19th and early 20th century. The United States is strengthening military ties with other amphibious points around the Chinese periphery, including Vietnam and India. And while South Korea may be vulnerable due to its lack of strategic depth, its proximity to the Chinese north fleet and Beijing also makes it a key strategic point. Maintaining the longstanding U.S.-South Korea relationship. In both South Korea and the United States, support of a continued robust U.S. force presence is often based on the two countries' 70-year military partnership. U.S. forces fought in Korea, Korean forces fought alongside the United States in Vietnam, and the two continue to train together. Reassuring other allies of the United States' commitment to the region. A robust presence of U.S. forces in South Korea also serves as a consistent reminder to North Korea, and perhaps China, of a U.S. commitment to protect its democratic allies in the region. Since the end of the Cold War, North Korea clearly took this to heart, and its military development has shifted from a focus on overwhelming the South Korean ground forces to a missile, rocket and cyber-heavy emphasis that targets the U.S. forces and interests. Countering these capabilities requires a nearby U.S. presence, just as countering Russian threats or Iran's missile and nuclear developments require U.S. military operations across Europe and the Middle East, respectively. A reduction of forces could signal that, despite its Pacific Defense Initiative, the United States is more concerned with keeping competition and conflict bottled up in Asian waters far from U.S. shores, rather than strengthening and defending its allies and partners. Despite hosting more U.S. troops, Japan is particularly sensitive to any changes to the presence of U.S. forces in South Korea, which helps buffer it from Asian conflict. Japan has been very vocal each time a major revision to U.S. forces in South Korea has been contemplated, as a complete withdrawal would leave Japan the frontline. And while Tokyo has gone far to reinterpret its pacifist constitution, there is still strong political and social sentiment against Japan's role as a regional belligerent. Current Dynamics Facilitate Restructuring The United States is not going to simply abandon South Korea, but will instead continue to reshape its overseas force posture reducing singular large basing in favor of more flexible and dispersed permeant and rotational presence, while allowing for the concentration of forces as needed, rather than as dictated by existing large basing. With the U.S. presidential election less than three months away, there is pressure on Trump to take action on issues it wants to see accomplished before a potential change of government, and reducing U.S. forces abroad has been a key issue from the start of his administration. With South Korea currently under a liberal government, and seeking to heal rifts with North Korea while strengthening its own national defense capabilities and industry, a tailored reduction of U.S. forces may not meet significant resistance from Seoul, though it would certainly play into the deadlock over cost-sharing. While always a contentious issue, there may now well be an alignment of factors that make this the time for the United States to start once again downsizing its military presence in South Korea. Kerala's Kumbalangi to be first synthetic pad-free village in India How Kerala Police CCSE under Cyberdome is fighting crimes against children Rescuers at Kozhikode Airport asked to go into self-quarantine: Kerala Health Minister India oi-Briti Roy Barman Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 08: All those who were involved in rescue operations at Kozhikode Airport should go into self-quarantine, said K K Shailaja, Kerala Health Minister. Kerala plane crash: How it happened | Why plane overshot runway | Oneindia News She asserted that the state government will conduct COVID-19 tests of all the rescuers. This comes after 20 people were killed and scores injured when an Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 on board overshot the tabletop runway in Kozhikode airport in Kerala on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions, officials said. Kerala plane crash: AI Express says three relief flights arranged to assist passengers, families The pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Sathe and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were among those who died, police and airline officials said. Sathe was a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and had served at the force's flight testing establishment. Meanwhile, the black box from the crashed Air India Express aircraft in Kozhikode, Kerala has been recovered. Earlier a DGCA official said that the Digital Flight Data Recorder had been recovered from the aircraft. The floorboard was being cut to recover the Cockpit Voice Recorder. This was a Vande Bharat repatriation flight. The mishap occurred at 1941 hrs. No fire was reported at the time of landing, an AIE statement said. "The plane went into the valley and brokein two portions.There were a total of 190 passengers including the crew. It comprises 174 adults, 10 infants and six crew members. The rescue operations were over within one-and-a-half hours. All the valuables and packages have been taken into custody," Gopalakrishnan told reporters at the Airport. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 8, 2020, 12:44 [IST] When we dream, our brains are filled with noisy electrical activity that looks nearly identical to that of the awake brain. But University of California, Berkeley, researchers have pulled a signal out of the noise that uniquely defines dreaming, or REM sleep, potentially making it easier to monitor people with sleep disorders, as well as unconscious coma patients or those under anesthesia. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people undergo overnight studies to diagnose problems with their sleep, most of them hooked up to an electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor brain activity as they progress from wakefulness to deep, slow-wave sleep and on into REM sleep. But EEGs alone can not tell whether a patient is awake or dreaming: Doctors can only distinguish REM sleep by recording rapid eye movement -- hence, the name -- and muscle tone, since our bodies relax in a general paralysis to prevent us from acting out our dreams. "We really now have a metric that precisely tells you when you are in REM sleep. It is a universal metric of being unconscious," said Robert Knight, UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience and senior author of a paper describing the research that was published July 28 in the online journal eLife. "These new findings show that, buried in the electrical static of the human brain, there is something utterly unique -- a simple signature," said co-author and sleep researcher Matthew Walker, UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience. "And if we measure that simple electrical signature, for the first time, we can precisely determine exactly what state of consciousness someone is experiencing -- dreaming, wide awake, anesthetized or in deep sleep." The ability to distinguish REM sleep by means of an EEG will allow doctors to monitor people under anesthesia during surgery to explore how narcotic-induced unconsciousness differs from normal sleep -- a still-unsettled question. That's the main reason first author Janna Lendner, a medical resident in anesthesiology, initiated the study. advertisement "We often tell our patients that, 'You will go to sleep now,' and I was curious how much these two states actually overlap," said Lendner, a UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow in her fourth year of residency in anesthesiology at the University Medical Center in Tubingen, Germany. "Anesthesia can have some side effects. If we learn a little bit about how they overlap -- maybe anesthesia hijacks some sleep pathways -- we might be able to improve anesthesia in the long run." Sleep soothes the brain Sleep, as Walker wrote in his 2017 book, "Why we Sleep," "enriches a diversity of functions, including our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions and choices. Benevolently servicing our psychological health, sleep recalibrates our emotional brain circuits, allowing us to navigate next-day social and psychological challenges with cool-headed composure." Disrupted sleep interferes with all of this, increasing the risk of medical, psychiatric and neurological diseases. Most sleep research focuses on the synchronized, rhythmic waves that flow through the neural network of the brain, from the slow waves that signal deep sleep, typically in the first few hours of the night, to the higher frequency waves typical of dream sleep. These waves pop out above a lot of general activity, also called the 1/f, that has typically been dismissed as noise and ignored. advertisement But Knight and his lab have been looking at this "noise" for a decade and found that it contains useful information about the state of the brain. In 2015, for example, he and Bradley Voytek, a former doctoral student now on the faculty at UC San Diego, discovered that the amount of high frequency activity increases with age. Lendner has now found that a faster drop-off of high-frequency activity, relative to low-frequency activity, is a unique signature of REM sleep. "There is this background activity, which is not rhythmic, and we have overlooked that for quite a long time," Lendner said. "Sometimes, it has been called noise, but it is not noise; it carries a lot of information, also about the underlying arousal level. This measure makes it possible to distinguish REM sleep from wakefulness by looking only at the EEG." Since slow waves are associated with inhibition of activity in the brain, while high frequency activity -- like that found during wakefulness -- is associated with excitatory behavior, the sharper drop-off may be an indication that many activities in the brain, including those related to muscle movement, are being tamped down during REM sleep. The new measure quantifies the relationship of brain activity at different frequencies -- how much activity there is at frequencies from about 1 cycle per second to 50 cycles per second -- and determines the slope, that is, how fast the spectrum drops. This 1/f "drop-off" is sharper in REM sleep than in wakefulness or when under anesthesia. Lendner found this characteristic measure in the nighttime brain activity of 20 people recorded via EEG scalp electrodes in Walker's UC Berkeley sleep lab and in 10 people who had electrodes placed in their brains to search for the causes of epilepsy as a necessary prologue to brain surgery to alleviate seizures. She also recorded brain activity in 12 epilepsy patients and 9 other patients undergoing spinal surgery with the common general anesthetic Propofol. Lendner is now reviewing brain recordings from coma patients to see how their brain activity varies over the course of a day and whether the 1/f drop-off can be used to indicate the likelihood of emergence from coma. "More importantly, I think it is another metric for evaluating states of coma," Knight said. "1/f is very sensitive. It could resolve, for instance, if someone was in a minimally conscious state, and they are not moving, and whether they are more alert than you think they are." Iran Is No. 1 Sponsor of Terrorism, U.S. Says Ahead Of UN Arms-Embargo Talks By RFE/RL August 07, 2020 The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has called Iran "the world's No. 1 sponsor of terrorism," a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States plans to hold a UN Security Council vote next week to extend an arms embargo against Iran. Ambassador Kelly Craft also warned Russia and China that they will become "co-sponsors of the No. 1 state that sponsors terrorism" if they use their veto to block the resolution to extend the embargo. The United States hopes Russia and China "will see the importance of peace in the Middle East," Craft said. But she added that the partnership between Russia and China was clear: "They're just going to be promoting chaos, conflict, and mayhem outside their borders, so we have to just corner them." Craft and Brian Hook, the top U.S. envoy for Iran, briefed a group of reporters following Pompeo's announcement on August 5 that the United States will call for a Security Council vote next week on a U.S.-drafted resolution to extend the arms embargo that is due to expire in October. Hook announced hours after the briefing that he was stepping down. The foreign ministers of Russia and China have indicated they intend to veto the resolution if it gets the minimum nine votes in the 15-member council. In letters last month to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council the two countries were sharply critical of the U.S. effort. Pompeo told reporters on August 5 that there were countries "lining up" to sell weapons to Iran and warned that this would further destabilize the Middle East, put Israel and Europe at risk, and endanger U.S. lives. If the Security Council doesn't prevent Iran from buying and selling weapons when the embargo ends, Washington has said it will trigger a "snapback" of all UN sanctions on Iran. The snapback mechanism was included in the 2015 nuclear agreement in the event Iran was proved to be in violation of the accord, which provided sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. Russia and China, as well as European allies that signed the pact, have questioned the U.S. claim it is still a participant able to trigger the snapback mechanism. The United States quit the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran. In response, Iran gradually started breaching its nuclear commitments. Pompeo and other Iran hard-liners in Washington claim the United States remains a participant in the accord because it was listed as such in the 2015 resolution that enshrined the deal and can therefore bring back sanctions since Iran has not fully complied with its nuclear commitments. Britain, France, and Germany are concerned about the arms embargo being lifted but have said they are trying to reach a compromise out of concern Iran will completely exit the nuclear deal and act on threats to pull out of a key nonproliferation treaty. With reporting by AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran- terrorism-u-s-ambassador-to-un-arms- embargo-extension/30770700.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mindspace Business Parks REIT, with an issue size of Rs 4500 crore, made its market debut on August 7, with a premium of nearly 11 per cent against its issue price of Rs 275 per unit. This, say real estate experts, may encourage more real estate developers to enter the REITs market and improve the fund flow into the sector. The units of Mindspace Business Parks REIT owned by K Raheja and Blackstone is the second REIT to be launched in the country. Mindspace Business Parks REIT made its market debut on August 7 and closed with a premium of over 10 per cent against its issue price of Rs 275 per unit. The units of the REIT listed at Rs 304, reflecting a gain of 10.54 per cent from the issue price on the BSE. During the day, it touched a high of Rs 308.90, zooming 12.32 per cent. Later, it closed at Rs 303.87, up 10.49 per cent. On the NSE, it closed at Rs 303, a gain of 10.18 per cent after debuting at Rs 302, a rise of 9.81 per cent. Commenting on the listing, Jonathan Gray, president and chief operating officer of Blackstone, said: "Blackstone is honored to be partners with the Rahejas to help create India's second public REIT. Like Embassy last year, Mindspace has tremendous assets and a real commitment to producing shareholder value." 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 Investors have demonstrated a strong interest for Mindspace REIT and this has resulted in huge over-subscription of the issue. Some of the key factors for the success of this REIT are strong developer credentials combined with positive outlook for commercial real estate, established portfolio that ensures stability of returns via rental income. This clubbed with the fact that the majority of distribution of income is by way of tax-free dividend works very well in investors interest, said Ramesh Nair, CEO and country head (India) JLL. This is a great sign for the future of commercial real estate in India as it shows market and investor confidence for the long term. REITs will allow greater participation from retail investors in the asset class. The commercial office space segment has been growing from strength to strength over the past few years with sustained growth in rentals across prime business districts. We expect this momentum to regain in the near future which would encourage more participants to enter the REITs market and improve the fund flow into the sector, said Knight Frank India CMD Shishir Baijal. Sharad Mittal, CEO, Motilal Oswal Real Estate Fund, said, the listing of the Mindspace REIT at around 11 percent premium shows that a balanced product like REIT is preferred by both institutional and retail investors. Despite the recent weakened sentiment around commercial real estate, a diversified portfolio of grade A assets with strong rental collections as demonstrated by the Mindspace REIT finds flavor with the retail investor. This listing will augur well for future investments in asset backed financial products and commercial real estate in India. Experts also said that there could be one more REIT launched by the end of this financial year. Every asset in the market is currently chasing a huge amount of liquidity. There is enough liquidity in the global market and India still remains very attractive. The commercial office space story for India is still intact and returns are bound to be attractive. We would see one more REIT getting launched before the end of this financial year, Anuj Puri, Chairman - ANAROCK property Consultants, told Moneycontrol. It is important to note here that notwithstanding the lockdown and the pandemic, the listed commercial real estate players in the country have collected almost 97 percent of the rents in the April-June quarter. This indicates that the commercial real estate market continues to remain robust despite the focus on work-from-home and some reduction in commercial real estate footprint. Commercial leasing activity last year was around Rs 4 crore and this year new leasing is expected to be in the range of Rs 2.5 crore despite the lockdown, Puri says, adding this accounts for almost 60 percent of leasing in 2019. The launch indicates the coming of age of Indian commercial real estate market story. It was a one REIT stock story until now. Launch of a REIT by one more player adds to the maturing of the commercial real estate listed space. With the REIT market deepening there are clearly more avenues for larger foreign institutional players like pension, retirement funds and insurance companies to deploy long-term capital in asset backed space instruments, said Anckur Srivasttava of GenReal Advisers. REITs are listed entities that invest in income-generating properties and distribute at least 90 percent of their income proceeds to unit-holders through dividends. After registration with SEBI, units of REITs will have to be mandatorily listed on exchanges and traded like securities. SEBI notified REIT's regulations in 2014, allowing setting up and listing of such trusts, which are popular in some advanced markets. A host of Indian film celebrities took to Twitter to express their shock at the tragic loss of lives in Kozhikode, Kerala. An Air India flight carrying passengers from Dubai crashed on Friday night after overshooting the runway in bad weather. Amitabh Bachchan tweeted: A terrible tragedy .. Air India crash in Kerala, Kozhikode airport , plane skids off the runway on landing in heavy rain .. Prayers .. T 3620 - A terrible tragedy .. Air India crash in Kerala, Kozhikode airport , plane skids off the runway on landing in heavy rain .. Prayers .. Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) August 7, 2020 Paying his condolences, Shah Rukh Khan wrote: My heart goes out to the passengers and crew members onboard the #AirIndia flight. Deepest condolences to the bereaved families who lost their loved ones. Thoughts and prayers... My heart goes out to the passengers and crew members onboard the #AirIndia flight. Deepest condolences to the bereaved families who lost their loved ones. Thoughts and prayers... Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) August 7, 2020 Actor Akshay Kumar, who is in the UK for the shoot of his upcoming film Bell Bottom, wrote: Terrible news! Praying for the safety of all the passengers and crew onboard the #AirIndia Express flight. My deepest condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. Terrible news! Praying for the safety of all the passengers and crew onboard the #AirIndia Express flight. My deepest condolences to those who have lost their loved ones Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) August 7, 2020 Ajay Devgn was one of the earliest to tweet. He wrote: Disturbed by the #AirIndia flight tragedy. My prayers are with all the passengers and crew members onboard and deepest condolences to those who lost their loved ones. Disturbed by the #AirIndia flight tragedy. My prayers are with all the passengers and crew members onboard and deepest condolences to those who lost their loved ones. Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) August 7, 2020 Actor Mahesh Babu took to Twitter to express his shock. He wrote: Deeply saddened by the news of #KozhikodeAirCrash. My condolences to all the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the unfortunate incident. Prayers for a speedy recovery of all those injured. Deeply saddened by the news of #KozhikodeAirCrash. My condolences to all the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the unfortunate incident. Prayers for a speedy recovery of all those injured. Mahesh Babu (@urstrulyMahesh) August 8, 2020 Actor Shraddha Kapoor wrote: Very heartbreaking to hear about the #KozhikodeAirCrash. Prayers and healing to the injured passengers. Deepest condolences and strength to those who have lost their loved ones. Very heartbreaking to hear about the #KozhikodeAirCrash. Prayers and healing to the injured passengers. Deepest condolences and strength to those who have lost their loved ones Shraddha (@ShraddhaKapoor) August 7, 2020 Huma Qureshi, also in the UK for the shoot of Bell Bottom, expressing her sadness wrote, My thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, @airindiain crew and deepest condolences to the families of the deceased #KozhikodeAirCrash. My thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, @airindiain crew and deepest condolences to the families of the deceased #KozhikodeAirCrash Huma S Qureshi (@humasqureshi) August 7, 2020 Aditi Rao Hydari wrote: Love and healing to the passengers and crew members of @airindiain. My prayers and condolences to people who lost their loved ones in the #KozhikodeAirCrash. Love and healing to the passengers and crew members of @airindiain. My prayers and condolences to people who lost their loved ones in the #KozhikodeAirCrash Aditi Rao Hydari (@aditiraohydari) August 7, 2020 Also read: Kriti Sanon posts cryptic message as Rhea Chakraborty is questioned about Sushant Singh Rajput: Sun will shine again Actor Prithviraj Suumaran said it was a sad day for Kerala. He wrote, Its been a very very sad day for Kerala. And as the fortunate amongst us, sit in the comfort of our homes, waiting or the world to return to how we knew it, I cannot shake off the feeling that so many others, all hopes of a happy tomorrow ended today. May you find the strength to hold on and tide through. My deepest condolences to the families and loved one of thise who left us from Rajamala and Calicut. Prayers. The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 on board overshot the tabletop runway at Kozhikode airport on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a gorge 35 feet below and broke into two, killing at least 17 people. (With PTI inputs) Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Chennai: Chronology of major milestones in the four-decade political career of AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa who passed away Monday night. June 24, 1991: Sworn in Chief Minister for the first time after she leads AIADMK to a huge win in assembly elections. May, 1996: Amidst charges of corruption during its rule, AIADMK loses in the assembly elections. DMK returns to power. July 11: Then Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy files private complaint in a court accusing Jayalalithaa of amassing wealth worth Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate to her known sources of income during 1991 to 1996. Dec 7: Jayalalithaa arrested. Charges of corruption, including accumulation of disproportionate assets, follows. April, 1997: DMK Government sets up three special courts to try 47 corruption cases against Jayalalithaa, her former cabinet colleagues and others. 1997: Prosecution launched against Jayalalithaa, her close friend Sasikala and two others in a Chennai Court in DA case. June 4, 1997: Charge-sheeted in DA case. 1999: Discharged in coal import deal case by special court; Upheld by Madras High Court. February 2, 2000: Special court convicts her in Pleasant Stay Hotel case related to permission granted for construction allegedly flouting rules. October, 2000: A special court in Chennai convicts Jayalalithaa in TANSI land deal case. May 14, 2001: Jayalalithaa leads AIADMK to landslide win in assembly elections; Sworn in Chief Minister though she was disqualified to contest elections. September 21, 2001: Jayalalithaa unseated as CM after Supreme Court quashes her appointment as she was disqualified to contest polls due to TANSI case conviction. December 4: Madras High Court acquits Jayalalithaa in the TANSI case and Pleasant Stay Hotel case. Feb 21, 2002: Jayalalithaa elected to Assembly in a bypoll from Andipatti constituency. March 2: Jayalalithaa sworn in Chief Minister. November 18, 2003: On a petition by DMK, Supreme Court transfers the trial in DA case to Bengaluru. November 24: Supreme Court upholds Jayalalithaas acquittal in TANSI case. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Anxiety and fear weave coarsely through the testimonies of many young people who have shared their experiences of the Covid-19 crisis. The Irish Examiner joined forces with SpunOut.ie to ask young people, often maligned through the coronavirus, about the real impacts of the pandemic on their lives. The virus hit at a crucial time in their development - as they were studying or beginning to build a career. But as schools shuttered and businesses imploded, they said that they watched their opportunities slip away while suffering paralysing uncertainty. Long periods in isolation have brought back the darkness of mental illness while support services have been difficult to access. Having grown up in one global recession, they now face another, searching for work in a hyper competitive jobs market with little to no professional experience while the reality of insecure and badly paid work allows them to see little possibility of ever owning their own home. Max, 21, from Sligo, a young transgender man, said that the crisis has meant that hormone treatments have been cancelled, "adding to the already ridiculously long waiting list for transgender patients to receive the therapy they need to feel comfortable in their own skin." And some of his LGBTQI+ friends have been forced back to live with families who disapprove of their sexuality causing untold mental and emotional distress. Niamh, 20, from Cork, the first person from her family to go to university, should have been boarding a plane for a once in a lifetime opportunity to study at Texas State University this September. "Now that that chance has all but been ripped away from me," she said. "As of right now I do not really know what the next year of my life will look like." Health Minister Brad Hazzard says there is "no appetite" to cap the number of venues people can attend within a certain time frame but warned restrictions are under constant review after doctors sounded the alarm about infected people hopping between bars, pubs and restaurants. Mr Hazzard told The Sun-Herald NSW was doing "fairly well" and he wanted to "certainly move toward elimination" of COVID-19 in the state, but "the jury's out" on whether that is possible. Health Minister Brad Hazzard said there was no appetite to introduce caps on venue visits but restrictions were under constant review. Credit:Nick Moir Federal Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth yesterday implored young people to "pull back" on socialising, saying pub crawls were not "the right thing to do" in a pandemic. The NSW government is under pressure from the pub lobby not to impose more restrictions. The Australian Hotels Association's NSW director John Green said it was vital to "keep the economy ticking along" and hotels were already operating at a quarter of capacity with very low turnover. EDWARDSVILLE Former county official Rob Dorman filed a suit Wednesday claiming former county board member Lisa Ciampoli lied about him in the course of an investigation of computer spying. Dorman claims that Ciampoli told a police officer that Dorman swiped an election petition out of her hands as she was attempting to file at the Madison County Clerks Office. Dorman was fired as director of information technology as a result of a broader investigation into computer spying by him and former Director of Administration Doug Hulme, who also was fired. The suit claims video evidence shows otherwise. Ciampoli, now a candidate for state representative, could not be reached for comment. Ciampoli told the officer that Dorman suddenly appeared at the counter in the office and attempted to prevent her from filing the documents. The allegations in Dormans suit are connected to an investigation by the Madison County County Public Corruption Task Force. Dorman claims the incident at the Madison County Clerks Office sparked a criminal investigation that cost him his job, even though he was never charged. Plaintiff was completely exonerated, he claims in his suit. He claims that, in addition to losing his job, his reputation was sullied. He is asking for at least $50,000 in actual and punitive damages. He is represented by Richard Bullock, of Collinsville. Madison County Sheriffs Deputy Capt. David Vucich said in April the case is still being pursued as a criminal case after Illinois Attorney Kwame Raoul declined to prosecute. Vucich said potential computer spying in Madison County government is now continuing as a potential criminal case of perjury and official misconduct. It was a gross abuse of power, said Vucich, chief of detectives for the Madison County Sheriffs Office, and a member of the task force. Vucich said there is an overwhelming amount of digital evidence and credible witness testimony to bring charges. The investigation began in January 2018 when officers seized computers from the Madison County Administration Building. Vucich said members of the task force have obtained evidence from county computers, plus statements from other county officials that would tend to support the criminal case. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Kozhikode, Aug 8 : A large group of top political personalities, including Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan , and various of his cabinet colleagues will arrive at the Karipur international airport on Saturday. Late on Friday, an Air India Express flight, returning from Dubai under the Vande Bharat mission, crashed at the "table top" Kozhikode airport leaving 18 of the 190 people aboard dead, including pilot, Capt D.V. Sathe and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar. While the lone Union Minister from Kerala, Minister of State for External Affairs who hails from Kozhikode has already arrived. A full team of the Director General of Civil Aviation is also here to take part in the crash probe. State Minister of Local Self Government A.C. Moideen who reached the accident site told the media that 18 people have lost their lives and the condition of a few of the passengers who are currently in the hospital is reported to be serious. a total of 123 people had suffered injuries were under treatment at various hospitals in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts. State Health Minister K.K.Shailaja said that Covid tests would be conducted on the dead and then the autopsy would be conducted. "Since its Covid times, in the best interest of all, numerous people who took part in the rescue operation will have to undergo Covid test. All will have to cooperate in this, as this is the need of the hour," said Shailaja. According to information now received there was trouble with the landing gear and that's why the experienced pilot after aborting his first attempt to land, lifted the aircraft and flew for about 15 minutes to empty the fuel tank and then landed. Had the veteran pilot not risen to the occasion, the tragedy would have been larger. The plane skidded off the runaway as it landed on its second attempt amid heavy rain, plunged 35 feet into the valley below, and broke into two pieces. Following the accident, which occurred at 7.41 p.m., the Kozhikode airport has been closed and the flights scheduled to land there have been diverted to Kannur airport, about 80 km away. Latest updates on Kerala Air India Plane Crash -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text New Delhi: Alleging that individuals prone to impulsive control have exposed the Tata Group to perilous violation of regulatory requirements, ousted Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry on Tuesday said his fight is to protect the conglomerate from capricious decision-making by Interim Chairman Ratan Tata. Refuting remarks that he was trying to take over control over all Tata Group activities, Mistrys office alleged that those individuals were seeking to procure unpublished price sensitive information from listed group companies, breaking down governance. Mr Mistrys fight today is to protect the Tata Group from capricious decision-making by the Interim Chairman, his office said in a statement. Mistry, who on Monday sought government intervention to remedy and repair breakdown in the governance of Tata Trusts, without naming Ratan Tata, said individuals prone to impulsive control who have inflicted severe damage and enormous financial loss to all stakeholders of the Tata Group, including shareholders. They have also exposed the Tata Group to perilous violation of regulatory requirements, seeking to procure unpublished price sensitive information from listed Tata Group companies, breaking down governance, the statement by his office added. It further said: This has the potential to hurt shareholders values... Never before has the Tata Group, including the philanthropic objectives of the Tata Trusts been in jeopardy to this extent and scale. On Monday, Tata Sons had alleged that Mistry converted the group into personal fiefdom with unilateral actions, destroying precious institutional memory of House of Tata. Refuting the allegation, the statement said far from Mistry taking over control over all Tata Group activity, he was subjected to an unprecedented scrutiny of nearly 50 individuals who appraised his corporate performance. The governance guidelines developed under Mistry in consultation with the Board of Directors of Tata Sons, and CEOs and independent directors of various Tata Group operating companies required him to be subjected to such scrutiny, it added. This approach empowered Boards of Directors both at Tata Sons and the Tata Group operating companies. It created an effective check and balance against any individual becoming larger than life. So there was no question of anything remotely like what is sought to be alleged, it said. Highlighting Tata Sons statement that Mistrys family holds over 18 per cent interest in the company, his office said: If he (Mistry) were to indeed seek to make Tata Group companies break away from Tata Sons, he would have been hurting his own familys financial interests. Lady Diana's biographer Andrew Morton has claimed that Meghan Markle may have felt frustrated by the fact she could not speak for herself. Speaking during Channel 5 documentary, Harry and Meghan: The New revelations, which airs tonight at 9pm, the royal author, most famous for writing Diana: Her True Story, reveals how he feels for 'poor' Meghan, who had wanted to do her best when she joined the royal family. The documentary takes a deep dive into upcoming book Finding Freedom, and focuses on the events which led to Prince Harry and Meghan's decision to step down as senior royals and to move to the US. It follows the couple's trajectory from their engagement to their first year of marriage, strained relationships with the press and rumours of a rift with The Firm. Commenting on the Duchess of Sussex's first steps as a royal, Morton claims opinionated 21st-century woman Meghan was bound to struggle to adapt to the 'say nothing' royal rule of thumb - adding that Finding Freedom was her chance to set the record straight. Channel 5 documentary, Harry and Meghan: The New revelations, which airs tonight at 9pm, dives into the claims of upcoming book Finding Freedom, which gives the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's perspective on the lead up to Megxit (pictured in London on March 5) While both the authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex themselves have denied any royal involvement, some have argued Harry and Meghan are behind some of the most telling quotes in the bombshell book. Morton goes on to say that he believes Finding Freedom was Meghan's way of trying to express how she approached the royal family and 'how she was dismayed by the easy criticism of everything that she was trying to do.' 'She's been frustrated by the fact that she's not been able to give her side of the story,' he explains. 'All kinds of stories have come out about her, and she's not been able to answer back, and it's something she's found immensely frustrating.' Andrew Morton (pictured) attends the press night after party for 'The Diana Tapes' at the Stockwell Playhouse on June 26, 2018 in London Morton adds that Prince Harry's apparent hostility for the media, and especially for tabloids and paparazzi, has only grown stronger over the years. The documentary touches on the fact that Meghan, being an active, outspoken feminist and wanting to speak on different political issues, was going to experience a 'culture clash' with the traditional - and white - royal family. Morton also says he feels that modern woman Meghan wanted to do her best when she moved to the UK to be with Harry. 'I feel for this poor girl, I mean, she came into this country, parachuted in,' he explains. 'She's marrying into a very difficult family, that everybody finds difficult to come into. 'And she's someone who didn't know an awful lot about British history, British culture and as she said herself 'she's gonna hit the ground running'. 'And she hit the ground running, but she found she came up against a brick wall.' Morton says Meghan Markle wanted to do her best in the early days of her engagement to Harry in 2017. Pictured, announcing their engagement at Kensington Palace in London on 27 November 2017 Looking back at Meghan's first engagement with the Queen, which took place at Merseyside in 2018, Morton says Meghan 'was trying her best' but had no idea how to behave. 'She didn't know the protocol, she didn't know the etiquette. I'll give you a perfect example,' he explains. 'She went up to Liverpool with the Queen, and she's sitting on the chairs and it's a windy day. 'She doesn't know what side of the car to get into,to get out of, what hand to hold her handbag in, and you can see that kind of confusion in her face.' 'Meghan, even though she's an actress, has had to swap the red carpet for the royal road show.' Lady Colin Campbell, who wrote Meghan and Harry, the real story, does not share Morton's sentiment and says the duchess was too American to fit in with the royal. 'Meghan has very American expectations, she is all about confidence, go-getting, hustling, and all of those Hollywood things that she has been brought up to regard as desirable,' she explains. Harry and Meghan: The New Revelations airs on Saturday at 9pm on Channel 5. The death toll in the massive landslide in Idukki district rose to 55 on Thursday. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan visit the landslide-hit area on Thursday. More compensation and relief measures for the landslide victims will be also announced by the government. Former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has warned politicians against politics of bitterness and violence and charged them to forge... Former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has warned politicians against politics of bitterness and violence and charged them to forge a common agenda that would promote peace and sustainable development in the nation. The former President further urged them to put the interest of the nation first, adding that politics was not about dividing the people and fighting enemies. He spoke on Friday during a virtual conference organized by the umbrella body of Ijaw cultural associations known as the Ijaw Nation Development Group(INDG). Speaking further, the former President said: To the politicians amongst us, let us shun politics of bitterness and violence and pursue our common interest, regardless of party affiliations. Politics is not about creating and fighting enemies, it is not about dividing the people. Politics is about aspiring for a platform and the ability to utilise it to positively impact our people and develop the nation. Irrespective of party differences, let us forge a common agenda that will promote peace, unity and prosperity among our people. As a crusader for functional democracy and good governance in our country and continent, I will like to see our people play key roles in the emergence of who leads them and how they are led. Nothing drags a people and a nation back more than social crisis occasioned by the struggle for leadership. We cannot pretend to love our people if we place our personal ambitions over and above everything else and allow it to frustrate the peoples will and our common good. Dr. Jonathan also preached unity and love stressing that Nigerians must aspire to build bridges that would sustain a national climate of peace and progress regardless of the challenges. As Nigerians, we must realise that our existence, as well as our success depends on our mutual solidarity beginning from the family unit. The former President also commended the organisers for seeking to advance an agenda that would promote the development of Ijaw land. He however further urged them to collaborate with other ethnic nationalities for greater harmony towards achieving the desired goal of sustainable development. According to him the bid should reflect a determination to unify all Ijaw interest groups in Nigeria and in the diaspora towards achieving the desired goal. This is not to say that we should work in isolation because many of the issues that affect Ijaw land also affect people of other ethnic groups and nationalities. I am pleased that you do not intend to operate in isolation but through mutual partnership and collaborations with other ethnic groups in our country. This is the spirit that we must encourage. The former President noted that the Ijaw are a great people with a rich and diverse heritage whose history of valour, enterprise and heroism dates back to many centuries. Where we are today, the way we are perceived and the state of our development is not a true reflection of the values we espouse as a people but we should not live in despair of opportunities lost or dreams deferred. The former President further noted that Ijaw leaders across many generations had contributed immensely to protect the interest of the Ijaw nation and Nigeria when given the opportunity to serve the nation in key positions. He addd that great men of ijaw land had in the past played key roles in many industries including the media, the maritime industry, the Nigerian Navy and made names in the popular sport of Wrestling, among others. We had the likes of Ernest Ikoli, Rear Admiral Nelson Bossman Soroh, Daniel Igali and a host of others who have promoted the Ijaw nation as individuals or while serving in government Although I agree that our collective commitment may not have erased the entire worries and issues within our communities, we succeeded in putting off the flames of despair in some quarters and putting on the candle of hope in other areas. The development of any society is like a relay race; the touch or baton is passed on from one group/generations to another. Those who are presently leaders at all levels of government and the private sectors must use their positions to continue the race for our development as a people, he said. Mumbai, Aug 8 : With a new high of 12,822 cases, Maharashtra's Covid-19 tally on Saturday shot past the half-million mark, while the state saw 275 more deaths, health officials said. Saturday's tally surpasses the previous peak of 11,514 cases on Thursday. The total number of cases now stands at 503,084, and the death toll at 17,367 - both highest in the country. The Health Department said that of the total cases, 147,048 are active. According to Saturday's figures, there was one death roughly every 5 minutes and a staggering 534 new cases every hour. However, the state recovery rate rose to 67.26 per cent, while the current mortality rate stood at 3.45 per cent. On Saturday, 11,081 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 338,262. Of Saturday's fatalities, Pune again notched the highest deaths, at 67, followed by Mumbai's 58, and Thane's 48 deaths. Mumbai's deaths -- again in the 50-plus range -- took its toll to 6,751, while the number of cases increased by 1,304 to 122,316. There were also 17 deaths in Raigad, 14 in Palghar, nine in Kolhapur, eight each in Nashik, Dhule, and Sangli, seven in Solapur, six each in Jalna and Nagpur, four in Ratnagiri, three in Beed, two each in Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Aurangabad, and Yavatmal, and one each in Satara, Latur, Osmanabad, and Akola. The MMR (Thane division) saw its toll shooting up sharply by 137 to 10,629, while 3,744 new cases took its tally to 263,619. Pune district's total cases have now reached 109,988, with the death toll increasing to 2,633, while Thane district had 103,642 cases with 2,961 fatalities, as on Saturday. With 75 more fatalities, the Pune division's death toll has reached 3,367 and the case tally zoomed up with 3,409 new cases to 126,715. Nashik division has recorded 1,400 fatalities and 47,076 cases, followed by Aurangabad division with 668 deaths and 20,077 cases, Kolhapur division with 405 fatalities and 15,297 cases, Latur division with 327 fatalities and 9,822 cases, Akola division with 312 fatalities and 9,734 cases, and Nagpur division with 205 deaths and 10,243 cases. Of the eight divisions, only Latur and Akola remain in the sub-10,000 cases bracket, though the numbers of new infectees continue to mount steadily. Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine now stands at 989,612, while those in institutional quarantine total 35,625. Every investor in Burford Capital Limited (LON:BUR) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Dont tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio. With a market capitalization of UK1.2b, Burford Capital is a decent size, so it is probably on the radar of institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about Burford Capital. View our latest analysis for Burford Capital What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Burford Capital? Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing. As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Burford Capital. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Burford Capital's earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters. Our data indicates that hedge funds own 6.4% of Burford Capital. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Invesco Ltd. is currently the largest shareholder, with 9.5% of shares outstanding. With 6.4% and 5.1% of the shares outstanding respectively, Conifer Management, Llc and Mithaq Capital are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Christopher Bogart, the CEO has 0.0413606 of the shares allocated to his name Story continues After doing some more digging, we found that the top 14 have the combined ownership of 51% in the company, suggesting that no one share holder has significant control over the company. 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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily. Insider Ownership Of Burford Capital The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it. Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group. Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Burford Capital Limited. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth UK106m. Most would see this as a real positive. If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, 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 BUR. 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. Private Company Ownership We can see that Private Companies own 5.1%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company. Next Steps: It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Burford Capital better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Burford Capital you should be aware of, and 1 of them is significant. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. 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. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-09 06:57:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BRUSSELS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) starts on Saturday to allow travelers from eleven non-EU countries to enter its external border, after removing Morocco from its latest "safe list". According to the COVID-19 situation monitored by the World Health Organization, as of Saturday Morocco reported 30,662 cases, with 1,018 new infections. A total of 461 people have died due to the virus in the country, 12 of them being newly confirmed. Reviewing the latest epidemiological situation and containment measures around the world, the Council of the EU updated late Friday the list of countries for which temporary restrictions on travel into the EU should be lifted. The latest safe list only consists of 11 countries, the least since the bloc began to issue recommendations on June 30. Starting from Saturday, the Council of the EU asked the EU member states to gradually lift the travel restrictions for residents of Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay. It also recommended that residents of China be allowed to travel to the EU, subject to confirmation of reciprocity. The Council of the EU used to update the list every two weeks, but the previous update took place only a week ago on July 30. It said it will assess the epidemiological conditions constantly and "if the situation in a listed third country worsens quickly, rapid decision-making should be applied." The recommendations are not legally binding, and the EU member states have the authority to make their final decisions. Enditem Portland Rioters Hurl Chunks of Concrete at Police During Clashes Rioters threw chunks of concrete, rocks, and other projectiles at police officers in Portland, Oregon, late on Aug. 7, as clashes between them and officers spilled again into nearby residential streets. Unrest in the city has continued virtually unabated since it started in late May. People gathered outside the Penumbra Kelly Building, where law enforcement offices are based, about four miles east of downtown, around 9:45 p.m. Police officers, taking a more aggressive stance under new direction from Police Commissioner Ted Wheeler, announced that people would be arrested for trespassing if they didnt leave the property. As officers made arrests, the crowd hurled rocks at them. The mob soon broke off concrete pieces from a nearby retaining wall, smashed them into smaller pieces, and launched them at the police, according to a Portland Police Bureau incident summary. Others shined lasers at officers. Frozen or hard-boiled eggs and commercial-grade fireworks were also thrown. The mayhem at the building continued for several hours until Oregon state troopers and Portland police officers worked together to begin dispersing the crowd to the east. During the resulting clashes, rioters alternated fleeingat one point, entering the backyard of a private home, prompting a man living there to run out and tell them to leaveand facing off with law enforcement, using tactics they practiced in a park earlier in the day. Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington on Aug. 6, 2020. Undated displayed photographs show federal officers responding to rioting at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Ore. (Toni L. Sandys/Pool/AFP via Getty Images) Portland Police Sgt. Brent Maxey speaks at a press conference at the Justice Center in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 6, 2020. (Dave Killen/The Oregonian via AP, Pool) Rioters in Portland use sophisticated tactics and formations, organized with supply lines, federal law enforcement officials told Congress this week. Theyve given no indication theyll stop committing violence and some expressly say they have no demands, short of the abolition of the current law enforcement system. I dont believe that they have any intention of stopping. And what theyre really trying to do is completely dismantle Portland as we know it, Portland Police Sgt. Brent Maxey, an 18-year veteran of the force, told reporters in a briefing this week. Wheeler, a Democrat who is also mayor, condemned the violence in a news conference on Aug. 6. He said the rioters are committing attempted murder when they trap people inside buildings and try to burn them down. Rioters have started turning to attempts to disable police vehicles. On the night of Aug. 6, they placed rebar ties in the road. Early on Aug. 8, they used pool noodles filled with nails. The flurry of attacks from rioters forced police to keep their distance, the bureau said in a statement apologizing to homeowners for the noise. A pool noodle with nails embedded inside. Noodles were placed in roadways to puncture the tires of law enforcement vehicles in Portland, Ore., overnight on Aug. 7, 2020, police officials said. (Portland Police Bureau) Nails in the tire of a law enforcement vehicles in Portland, Ore. (Portland Police Bureau) The crowd eventually dispersed by 2:30 a.m., the bureau said. The police force struggled to respond to both the riot and the crime unfolding elsewhere in the city overnight. At one point, there were two separate shootings and 16 priority calls in the North Precinct. Other precincts are available to help, but response times are delayed right now, the bureau said. Portland is dealing with a surge in violence, with 99 shootings taking place in July, a spike from 35 in the same month last year, police officials said this week. Fifteen deaths occurred in July alone. Wheeler said officers should be focused on responding to the record gun violence, not to arson and other crimes committed by rioters. He plans to unveil a comprehensive plan to address the rise in shootings. President Donald Trump told reporters in New Jersey on Aug. 7 that his administration would step in and quell the continued violence in Portland if asked to do so by the mayor and Democratic Gov. Kate Brown. We will go in to stop the problems in Portland [in] 24 hours, just like we did in Minneapolis after they really hurt that city, he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8, 2020 09:32 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c775b2 1 Lifestyle Independence-Day,discount,promotion,price,program,#Indonesia75 Free Indonesia will commemorate its 75th Independence Day on Aug. 17. Though the celebration will be held amid the COVID-19 pandemic, various brands have been gearing up to mark the day with discount offers and promotional programs. Below is a list of some of the institutions, restaurants and fashion brands that are offering Independence Day deals: PT KAI State-owned train operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI) often provides special prices for long-distance train tickets. For now, PT KAI is offering discounts of up to 75 percent until Aug. 31 for 13 trains, including Mutiara Selatan train from Gambir in Jakarta to Malang in East Java; Turangga train from Gambir to Surabaya Gubeng in East Java; Bima train from Gambir to Malang; Harina train from Bandung in West Java to Surabaya Pasarturi in East Java; and Mataram train from Pasar Senen in Jakarta to Solo Balapan in Central Java. The promotion also applies to the Sembrani train from Gambir to Surabaya Pasarturi; Argo Bromo Anggrek train from Gambir to Surabaya Pasarturi; Senja Utama Solo train from Solo Balapan to Pasar Senen; Kertajaya train from Pasar Senen to Surabaya Pasarturi; Matarmaja train from Pasar Senen to Malang; Wijayakusuma from Cilacap in Central Java to Ketapang in East Java; Sawunggalih train from Pasar Senen to Kutoarjo in Central Java; and Pasundan train from Kiaracondong in West Java to Surabaya Gubeng. Passengers are required to follow health protocols, including bringing negative COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results or non-reactive rapid test results that are valid for 14 days during the trip and wearing face shields, masks and long-sleeve clothing. Tickets can be booked on the KAI Access app, website and via PT KAI ticketing partners. Dunia Fantasi Amusement park Dunia Fantasi, commonly known as Dufan, in Ancol Dreamland Park, North Jakarta, is offering discounted tickets with prices starting from Rp 110,000 on weekdays and Rp 150,000 on weekends. The program is valid until Aug. 31 and tickets can be booked on the park's website. Visitors must bring their Jakarta ID cards (KTP), while those who live in Jakarta with ID cards from other provinces should bring a Certificate of Domicile (Surat Keterangan Domisili) from neighborhood units (RTs) or community units (RWs). Hush Puppies Discounts of up to 75 percent are featured by fashion brand Hush Puppies. The program is available at the brands outlets in the country. Founded in 1958, Hush Puppies is known for its footwear products and bags. Haagen-Dazs Theres always a room for dessert. From Aug. 9 to 14, ice cream brand Haagen-Dazs will allow you to pre-order its products on its official shop on e-commerce platform Lazada. Available in Java, Makassar in South Sulawesi and Medan in North Sumatra, the program will offer discounts of up to 50 percent with an additional price cut of up to 7.5 percent. The program requires customers to pick up their ordered items at Haagen-Dazs outlets after completing their payment. Shaburi and Kintan buffet You may want to visit shabu-shabu (Japanese hot pot) restaurant Shaburi and all-you-can-eat restaurant Kintan Buffet at 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays to Fridays, as both establishments offer a 15 percent discount for all-you-can-eat packages. Available until Aug. 31, the program is for dine-in only. Holland Bakery Established in 1978, Holland Bakery is one of the most legendary bakery chains in Indonesia. It currently runs more than 400 outlets in various provinces. The bakery will offer a 75 percent discount on all products on Aug. 17 for offline purchases. Ta Wan Are you planning to celebrate Independence Day by having a meal with your nearest and dearest? Chinese food establishment Ta Wan is holding its August Deal program where it provides a set menu for four people with prices starting from Rp 170,000. Two options are available, namely August Deal 1 which includes almond sauce chicken, lie hong kian egg roll, braised kalian with garlic, fried shrimp with sesame seeds and steamed rice; and August Deal 2, which consists of kung pao chicken, Vietnamese salad, seafood hot plate, salted pepper fried squid and steamed rice. The promotion is valid for dine-in only from Mondays to Sundays until Aug. 18 for Greater Jakarta and Aug. 16 for outside Greater Jakarta. PHD Pizza Hut Delivery (PHD) will offer a special price for its two regular pizza menus. From Aug. 14 to 17, one classic pizza and one beef rendang (meat slow-cooked in coconut milk and spices) pizza will be sold for Rp 75,000. Make sure to order via the restaurant's app or website to get the promotion. (wir/wng) President Donald Trump signs executive orders extending CCP virus economic relief, during a news conference in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 8, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images) Trump Takes Executive Action to Provide Reduced Enhanced Unemployment Payment President Donald Trump took executive action on Saturday to extend the weekly enhanced unemployment payment at a reduced level. He signed a memorandum during a press conference on Saturday afternoon as the negotiations between the White House and the Democrats collapsed. The new payment will be $400 per week. The federal government will cover 75 percent of the cost while the states will pay the rest, he said. The president said that some governors might not be happy with the actions, suggesting that he didnt negotiate with all governors before the announcement. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) didnt immediately respond to an email request for comment. The president also, via executive orders or memorandums, deferred payroll tax for Americans earning less than $100,000 per year from Sept. 1, authorized the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to offer eviction protections to renters and homeowners, and extended the term of relief to student loan borrowers from Sept. 30 to the end of the year. President Donald Trump signs executive orders extending coronavirus economic relief, during a news conference in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 8, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images) The paymentwhich was authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and was $600 per week on top of existing unemployment benefitsexpired on July 31. The White House and the Democrats failed to reach a deal on extending the payment. The White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin started negotiations with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Aug. 1. At this point, its clear Democrats want to play politics with American jobs, Meadows wrote in a Twitter post right before Trumps press conference. Since Democrats wont step up and do their job, @realdonaldtrump will do it for them. At this point, its clear Democrats want to play politics with American jobs. To workers all over the country: D.C. Democrats may not have your back, but President Trump does. Since Democrats wont step up and do their job, @realdonaldtrump will do it for them. Mark Meadows (@MarkMeadows) August 8, 2020 There are several areas in which the two sides disagree with each other. The Democrats want a comprehensive stimulus package costing $3.4 trillion, while the White House prefers a smaller bill as the first step in addressing the most important issues, including an extension of enhanced unemployment payments and eviction protections for tenants. Pelosi and Schumer also want $915 billion in aid for state and local governments included in the bill, to which the White House offered $150 billion. Trump said on Saturday that many requirements from the Democrats are irrelevant to the outbreak, including bailout money for states and local governments, articles to ban voter ID and signature verification, and universal mail-in ballots. Meanwhile, the Democrats are blocking measures supporting K-12 school reopening, additional money for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), additional money for hospitals, testing, and vaccines, and direct payments of $3,400 for families of four, he said. The president said on Friday that he will use executive power to extend the enhanced unemployment payment and suspend the payroll tax. He announced during an unplanned press conference on Friday that he would defer the payroll tax until the end of the year, enhance unemployment benefits until the end of the year, defer student loan payments and forgive interest indefinitely, and reinstate a federal moratorium on evictions. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as novel coronavirus and caused the disease of COVID-19, originated from Wuhan city in China and has infected over 19 million people and claimed lives of more than 718,000 outside China according to government data collected by The Johns Hopkins University. The Chinese regime claimedwhich has been highly doubtedthat there are only 88,649 infection and 4,681 death inside China. Its widely reported that the Chinese regime covered up the outbreak and refused to share information with other countries. As a result of the outbreak, countries around the world became more aware of the dangers of the Chinese regime and its socialist ideologies. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-09 05:07:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close OTTAWA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and one wounded by a tornado, which hit an area near Virden of Canadian Manitoba province Friday night, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Saturday afternoon. The tornado touched down at around 8:10 p.m. local time Friday and carried away two cars, throwing them into a nearby field. The police found two young people dead and another seriously wounded on the scene. Enditem 6 Rajasthan BJP MLAs reach Gujarat, more likely to follow India pti-Deepika S Porbandar, Aug 08: Half a dozen BJP MLAs from Rajasthan arrived in Porbandar in Gujarat on Saturday ahead of the Assembly session in their home state on August 14. More BJP legislators from Rajasthan will arrive in Gujarat, one of the legislators said after landing here by a chartered plane. Talking to reporters after arrival here, BJP MLA Nirmal Kumawat alleged that the Congress government in Rajasthan was "harassing" opposition MLAs, and said they were here on a pilgrimage to Somnath to seek mental peace. Rajasthan: Listen to voice of people to save democracy, Ashok Gehlot to MLAs "There have been political developments in Rajasthan for the last one month due to factionalism in the Congress. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot lacks majority. He is harassing and putting mental pressure on BJP MLAs using SOG (Special Operations Group) and departmental raids," Kumawat alleged. "In view of this, we decided to reduce our mental pain by paying a visit to Lord Somnath. We are here to save ourselves from the Congress government which is putting pressure on us to vote for it," the BJP MLA added. Some more MLAs were also arriving in Gujarat as per the decision of the top BJP leadership, he said. Another MLA in the group of six said they were likely to stay in Gujarat for two days. Congress MLAs are currently holed up in a Jaisalmer hotel as the party has accused the BJP of horse-trading following the revolt by Congress leader Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs loyal to him. The BJP legislators who boarded the flight from the Jaipur airport on Saturday were Nirmal Kumawat, Gopichand Meena, Jabbar Singh Sankhla, Dharmendra Kumar Mochi, Gopal Lal Sharma and Gurudeep Singh Shahpini, the party sources said. Sudhir Suryawanshi By Express News Service MUMBAI: The 83-year-old Neela Sathe, mother of pilot Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, said she was proud of her son, who while losing his life in the Kozhikode plane tragedy was able to save the lives of 170 of his passengers. Neela Sathe said whom to save and whom to kill is in God's hands. "In the plane crash, the lives of 170 passengers were saved but the person who saved their lives got killed. It was the wish of god. We are proud that our son sacrificed his life for the country," said Neela Sathe, who had lost another son Captain Vikas Sathe in Jammu a few years ago. Deepak Sathe's father Vasant Sathe was also in the army and retired as a colonel. He stays in Nagpur with his wife. Deepak Sathe passed out of the National Defence Academy, and was a topper in the 58th course and had won the 'Sword of Honour'. ALSO READ | Kozhikode air mishap: One-year-old Azam's maiden journey to Kerala turned out to be his last He served in the Indian Air Force for 21 years before joining Air India as a Commercial Pilot in 2005. Deepak was an experienced plane operator with 36 years of flying experience. He leaves behind his wife and two sons, both IIT Mumbai pass-outs. Nilesh Sathe, a cousin of Deepak Sathe, wrote an emotional post on social media saying Captain Deepak had called him a week ago. He sounded jovial as always then. "When I asked him about the 'Vande Bharat' Mission, he was proud of bringing back our countrymen from Arab countries. I asked him, "Deepak, do you fly an empty aircraft since these countries are not allowing entry of passengers?" He had replied, "Oh, No! We carry fruits, vegetables, medicines etc. to these countries and the aircraft never flies empty." Nilesh also recounted a past air crash in the early nineties that Deepak Sathe survived when he was in the Air Force. "Deepak was hospitalised for six months with multiple skull injuries and nobody thought he would fly again. But his strong willpower and love for flying made him clear the test again. It was a miracle," said Nilesh. Deepak Sathe's aunt Meena Sathe recalling the 1990 air crash involving Captain Deepak said he had the determination to fight and come out of any crisis. She said that they used to talk a lot over the phone and through social media. "Deepak was very curious to know about various developments in the pharmaceutical sector because I worked there. He had also shared some of his landing experiences in low-visibility situations," Meena Sathe said. ALSO SEE: Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will take oath as countrys new Prime Minister on August 9 after his alliance won a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary elections. He will be sworn in as prime minister for the fourth time at a historic Buddhist temple, with the ruling Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP) further tightening the grip on power. Mahindas SLPP registered a landslide victory with a two-thirds majority in Parliament, which is needed to amend the Constitution in the favour of Rajapaksa family. In late 2018, Sri Lanka went through a constitutional crisis when the power equations kept shifting. The then President Maithripala Sirisena appointed Mahinda as the Prime Minister but the Supreme Court declared the move unconstitutional. The apex court had also overturned Sirisenas decision to dissolve the parliament and ordered a stay on the snap elections. The Sri Lankan Parliament consists of 225 lawmakers who are elected through the proportional representation system for five-year terms. SLPP won in 145 constituencies and the alliance bagged a total of 150 seats, getting the special majority required to introduce sweeping constitutional changes. Read: Sri Lanka: Rajapaksa Alliance Wins Two-third Majority In Parliamentary Election Read: PM Modi Congratulates Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa Over Successful Conduct Of Polls Seeks constitutional amendment The 19th Amendment to the Constitution has curbed presidential powers while strengthening the role of parliament. The SLPP will now seek to repeal the amendment and restoring the vast powers of the President. Mahinda served as the countrys President for nearly a decade and the younger Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the helm, the family now wields extensive power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi dialled his Sri Lankan counterpart on August 6 and congratulated him on the successful conduct of parliamentary elections. PM Modi commended the government and electoral institutions of Sri Lanka for effectively organising elections despite constraints of the coronavirus pandemic. Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that the Prime Minister appreciated the Sri Lankan people for their enthusiastic participation in the elections, adding that it reflected the strong democratic values shared by both countries. Read: Sri Lanka: Voters Assemble In Long Queues Wearing Masks As Poll Begins Read: Sri Lanka: Rajapaksa Hope To Further Tighten His Grip With Outright Win (Image: AP) Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week? Linda Lamberth dutifully wears a mask and practices social distancing, but at 66, she figures a little additional protection couldnt hurt. So Lamberth rolled up her sleeve Friday and became the first participant in a Baylor College of Medicine clinical trial testing the effectiveness of an experimental coronavirus vaccine, one of the worlds great hopes to halt the pandemic and restore a semblance of normalcy. There needs to be a vaccine, and if I can help that process, I thought that was something I should do, said Lamberth, a Spring resident who works in a Texas Medical Center laboratory that conducts research on bacteria. Its nice to know that my taking the vaccine could make life safer for other generations, both younger and older, and that if evidence from the trial shows it works, itll make others want to get it. The Baylor trial brings to Houston the latest chapter in the battle against the coronavirus pivotal, late-stage testing of a vaccine candidate developed in record time using new genetic technology. If it works, it could result in more wide-scale deployment by early next year. The vaccine, arguably the most hyped of the many coronavirus vaccines in development, was made by the biotech firm Moderna. At the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, researchers last week began testing another genetic vaccine, made by Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech. The vaccines, both part of President Donald Trumps Operation Warp Speed project to accelerate an effort that usually takes years, are the two furthest along of more than 100 in development. Through the two trials, 60,000 people will receive either the vaccine or a placebo at more than 200 sites this summer. Neither participant nor medical staff providing the inoculations will know which is being given. The trials will assess whether fewer vaccinated people contract COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. They will also determine whether the vaccine prevents severe cases of COVID-19 and death; whether it blocks the infection entirely; and whether effectiveness requires one or more doses. Both Houston-area trials are still enrolling participants and open to those interested in volunteering. Those who are eligible include people whose work or home circumstances put them at high risk of exposure and those who are older or have underlying conditions that raise their risk of complications from COVID-19. The head of the Baylor trial said interest has been robust, a reflection of the promise the two vaccines have demonstrated and the widespread public interest in a vaccine as an answer to the virus relentless spread. Were hopeful based on previous research in animals and small clinical trials, said Dr. Hana El Sahly, a Baylor professor of molecular virology and microbiology and a primary investigator of the national Moderna trial. But we need to conduct rigorous testing before drawing any conclusions about whether the vaccine works. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said last week that results showing a vaccine protects 60 percent of people who get it would be a major, huge step at controlling this outbreak. He said ideally the figure would be higher, but well take that amount. Both the Baylor and UTMB trials aim to enroll about 300 participants and wrap up in September. Researchers will monitor the participants for two years but begin analyzing the data before then. El Sahly called it difficult to know how long it will take to have meaningful data because it depends on the prevalence of the virus in communities, but said the earliest would be at least a few months. UTMB already has inoculated more than 50 patients in the Pfizer/BioNTech trial. Baylor, whose strategy is to start slow and pick up speed, has a few more participants scheduled to be inoculated Monday, El Sahly said. UTMB will also be a site for the Moderna trial, likely starting next week, officials said. That trial will be in League City. The Pfizer/BioNTech trial is on the island. DM Clinical Research, a clinical arm of HCA Gulf Coast division, is giving either of both vaccines or a placebo at sites in Houston and Tomball. Those are open only to employees. A Baylor/Texas Childrens team has its own coronavirus vaccine under development, but it not expected to go into clinical trials until early next year. todd.ackerman@chron.com Prime ministers comments come as anger swells over devastating explosion that wrecked much of Beirut and killed scores. Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has said he will request an early parliamentary election in a bid to defuse a worsening crisis following a devastating explosion at the port of the capital. Diabs comments on Saturday came as security forces clashed with protesters angry at the countrys ruling class which they hold responsible for Tuesdays explosion that ripped through Beirut, killing more than 150 people and wounding some 6,000. We cannot get out of this crisis without early parliamentary elections, Diab said in a televised address, echoing demands of a mass protest movement that erupted in October last year calling for the removal of leaders it deemed corrupt and inept. On Monday, I will propose to cabinet a draft bill for early parliamentary polls, he added. The protest on Saturday drew large crowds [Tamara Saade/Al Jazeera] Diab, whose cabinet won a vote of confidence in parliament in February after the anti-establishment protests forced the resignation of his predecessor, Saad Hariri, said he was not to blame for Lebanons severe economic and political trouble. In his address, the prime minister urged all political parties to put aside their disagreements and said he was prepared to stay in the post for two months to allow time for politicians to work on structural reforms. In May 2018, Lebanon held its first parliamentary polls in nine years after the deeply divided legislature repeatedly extended its own term. But the election failed to shake up the multi-confessional countrys entrenched ruling class. Shortly before Diabs speech, a group of demonstrators in Beirut took over the foreign ministry as a new headquarters for their uprising. Protesters also broke into the energy and economy ministries. Some of the protesters pulled the portrait of President Michel Aoun off the wall and smashed it on the ground. The government has pledged to hold those responsible for Tuesdays explosion accountable, but many Lebanese are not convinced. During Saturdays protests, some set up nooses on wooden frames as a symbolic warning to the countrys leaders. Officials have said 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which is used in making fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years without safety measures at a port warehouse. (Natural News) More than 100 law enforcement officers trying to keep the peace in Portland amid ongoing riots have been injured by commercial-grade lasers that protesters are reportedly using as weapons to fight racism. According to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) senior official Ken Cuccinelli, eye injuries are on the rise from these powerful lasers, which similar to laser pens can damage the retina when pointed directly into them. Weve had more eye injuries from lasers, he stated before the Senate Judiciary Committees subcommittee on the Constitution, adding that these are commercially available that you are seeing used now in Portland to a degree that we have never seen before. Entitled, The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence, the panel, headed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, is investigating ways to put an end to all of this violence while still allowing those who legitimately want to protest to make their voices heard. Weve had more eye injuries than I can ever remember among our officers in another incident, Cuccinelli added. Of all our injuries, eyes are number one, 113 out of 277 injuries to DHS officers working in Portland. Cuccinelli, who currently serves as acting deputy secretary of DHS, further testified that commercial-grade lasers have the ability to inflict serious eye injuries within a matter of seconds. And they do this by causing the human eye to see the color green more intensely than other parts of the color spectrum. Your eye, the human eye, sees the green part of the spectrum more brightly than, say, red, something like 10 times brighter, he explained. The body has about a .02 second look-away reaction and one of the challenges is, if you are not looking at the person who is assaulting you with the laser, you cant figure out who is performing the assault. Portland protesters who emerge after 11 p.m. are looking for violence, Cuccinelli says Worse is the fact that Portland protesters seem to be coordinating their laser attacks from multiple angles, which makes it even more difficult for law enforcement officers to look away or otherwise protect themselves from potentially permanent eye damage. Using the word coordinated to describe these attacks, Cuccinelli says that the worst of it tends to emerge later on at night after the legitimately peaceful protesters have already gone home. This is sort of the Portland formula, he says. There is peaceful protesting until 10 or 11 p.m., and then they go away and maybe some of them come back, but the group that comes back is, A, much bigger, but also, they come back for violence. According to Erin Neeley Cox, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas and co-head of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Task Force on Violence Anti-Government Extremists, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched more than 300 different domestic terrorist investigations since May 28. And these do not even include any potential civil rights violations investigations or violent crime incidents associated with these ongoing riots. This just goes to show how serious the situation has become. And to help clarify it, even more, Cruz showed a video during his opening statement that contrasted the peaceful demonstrations led by the late Rev. Martin Luther King and the violent insanity taking place on a nightly basis in Portland. Time to start mass arrests of Antifa and BLM terrorists, wrote one commenter at The Epoch Times. [P]rosecute all and execute the leaders. If we the people have to do it we will. We will not let these parasites continue. Lasers should be met with lethal force, wrote another. More of the latest news about the situation in Portland is available at Chaos.news. Sources for this article include: TheEpochTimes.com NaturalNews.com GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Thieves made off with 19 vehicles at a soon-to-open Grand Rapids used car dealership early Friday, marking the largest such theft in Grand Rapids. Don Miller, owner of Autowest of Grand Rapids on 28th Street just east of Madison Avenue, said thefts were both aggravating and sad. The thieves used large rocks to break into an office and steal 72 sets of keys, then managed to drive off with 19 vehicles. Autowest of Grand Rapids was set to have a grand opening ceremony Saturday. It will still open as planned, but maybe with not as much fanfare as originally planned. We havent even gotten our feet wet and this happens, Miller said. It really hurts. Miller thinks a crew of thieves, maybe six to eight people, were involved in the thefts. Police recovered three vehicles parked at a Taco Bell nearly across the street, then another vehicle behind an Auto Zone. The thefts represented about one fifth of the dealers 72-car inventory and the loss was estimated at about $328,000. Miller said he and other staff worked hard Friday to haul in other vehicles from two other dealerships he owns, in Allegan and Plainwell. Among the vehicles taken were a Jaguar and a 2020 Ford Edge Titanium. The inventory is insured, Miller said, but it can take months to sort out insurance arrangements. Our employees have dedicated so much time to make sure this was a successful opening. And theres a lot of people who poured their heart and soul into this to get where were at, he said. He said a glitch with the buildings internet connection may have prevented surveillance cameras at the business from working properly, but staff was still working Friday to see if any footage could be accessed. Anyone with information about the thefts can call Grand Rapids police at 616-456-3400 or Silent Observer at 616-774-2345. More from MLive Police identify man struck, killed by motorcycle while pushing wife in wheelchair Grand Rapids police release draft strategic plan aimed at community policing, crime reduction Rana Daggubati and Miheeka Bajaj, the much-loved couple are now married. The much-in-love couple tied the knot in a traditional ceremony which was held in the Ramanaidu Studios, Hyderabad, on August 8, 2020. Ram Charan and Allu Arjun, the mega heroes attended the wedding ceremony and wished their dear friend Rana and his bride Miheeka. Reportedly, Ram Charan and Allu Arjun are the only stars from the Telugu industry to attend the wedding. Rana Daggubati's family members who are active in the industry, including uncle Venkatesh, cousin Naga Chaitanya and his wife Samantha Akkineni, were a part of the wedding ceremony, and all related festivities. Finally my hulk is married wishing @ranadaggubati #miheeka a very happy life together!! pic.twitter.com/RJEw5CZq0L Ram Charan (@AlwaysRamCharan) August 8, 2020 Ram Charan, who is one of the closest friends of Rana Daggubati from the film industry, shared a few pictures which were clicked from the wedding venue, on his social media pages. The actor, who captioned the pictures 'finally my hulk is married', wished Rana and Miheeka a happy married life through his post. Ram Charan was accompanied by his wife, Upasana Kamineni. Allu Arjun, on the other hand, attended the Rana Daggubati-Miheeka Bajaj wedding sans family. As per reports, Arjun's wife Sneha Reddy decided to not attend the wedding, considering the safety of their kids. The Ala Vaikunthapurramloo actor has created quite a stir among his fans with the stylish new get-up he sported for the event. Allu Arjun looked dapper in the offwhite ensemble that goes with the theme of the wedding, along with a new hairstyle and sunglasses. Also Read: IN PICS: Rana Daggubati And Miheeka Bajaj Tie The Knot Rana Daggubati & Miheeka Bajaj Wedding: Samantha To Sushanth; Tollywood Celebs Congratulate Couple Women activists of the Congress on Saturday staged a demonstration outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence here over the issue of women's safety. They demanded justice for the 12-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and brutally attacked at her home in Paschim Vihar on Tuesday. At least 50 activists converged outside the residence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor. They carried placards which read, 'we need protection', 'we won't accept brutality against minor children'. Police have arrested a 33-year-old man named Krishna in connection with the case. A local court on Friday sent him to five-day police remand. The girl is battling for her life at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Kejriwal, Delhi BJP Chief Adesh Gupta and Delhi Congress Chief Chaudhary Anil Kumar had visited AIIMS and met the girl's family. Wellington: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern launched her campaign for a second term by reminding voters of her leadership credentials and pledging to steer the country through the economic crisis unleashed by COVID-19. The September 19 election is "more important than ever" because of the pandemic, Ardern told Labour Party faithful in Auckland on Saturday. "It's about the future. It's about leadership and it's about values," she said. "It's about whether we stop and change to another team, or whether we keep those we know and we trust." New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks at the Labour Party 2020 election campaign launch. Credit:Getty Labour is riding high in opinion polls after Ardern led the country through one of the world's strictest lockdowns and achieved the rare feat of eliminating community transmission of the coronavirus. By contrast, the main opposition National Party has been beset by internal ructions and scandals, prompting it to change leaders twice this year. New Zealand now faces its biggest economic challenge in generations, with unemployment set to surge after the loss of international tourism, a key foreign exchange earner. The next government will need to create new industries and jobs, and find a way to safely reopen the border, which has been closed to foreigners since the pandemic struck. WASHINGTON The Postal Service on Friday announced a substantial reorganization meant to increase efficiency as Democratic lawmakers demanded an inquiry into whether changes by President Trumps postal officials could threaten the effective use of mail-in ballots for the November election. Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general and a major donor to Mr. Trumps campaigns, was named to oversee the service in May. On Friday, he shifted top personnel, including some decades-long veterans of the Postal Service, and made changes to its organizational structure. The new organization will align functions based on core business operations and will provide more clarity and focus on what the Postal Service does best; collect, process, move and deliver mail and packages, the Postal Service said in a statement. The changes come at a time of heightened scrutiny for Mr. DeJoy, as critics charge that changes to overtime policies and other previous actions threaten to slow delivery of ballots when millions of people are expected to vote by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic. She wanted to embarrass her family, publicly and privately, to punish them for not accepting that she was transgender, Justice Hollingworth said. "She said in evidence that it was not her obligation to pay for her own surgery. This belief that her parents must pay for her surgery has become the obsession of her life for the past two decades, she said. Ms Joss, born Jeffrey Joss, said she had experienced gender dysphoria as a child. She told the court she had a depressing and isolated childhood, never directly talking about her condition with her parents, but insisted that they were aware. It was her parents' unwillingness to accept her gender identity that underpinned their disagreement. Notwithstanding Jessicas behaviour, including her plans to kill him, Peter continued to support her financially. Supreme Court judge Elizabeth Hollingworth At 28, Jessica moved to Germany which she admitted may have hurt her father who remained deeply traumatised by the Holocaust. At 30, she moved to the US and attempted to join the marines, but was unable to complete basic training due to a back injury. She married and subsequently divorced a woman who was not Jewish. On both occasions her parents paid for many of her expenses and flew her home. By 1999, aged 40, Ms Joss had grown unhappy with her life. The court heard that on one occasion, Ms Joss went to her parent's Orthodox synagogue on a Saturday morning, stood up, and told the congregation that she was transgender. This publicly embarrassed her conservative parents, as it was no doubt intended to do, Justice Hollingworth said. That June she travelled to Tajikistan, via India, to join the Northern Alliance in their fight against the Taliban. She went there, in the words of Justice Hollingworth, with very little money, no relevant skills, and no concrete plans. [Her mother] Judith disapproved because Jessica was proposing to go and fight for Muslims, Justice Hollingworth said. When Ms Joss met with the Northern Alliance in the mountains of Tajikistan, they suggested she work teaching English instead of fighting with them. Within a month of arriving she had run out of money. Ms Joss told a friend of her parents that she had offered to work for the Iranian government in foreign affairs, apparently motivated by her disdain for the bloody Americans. I told them I was willing to work for their government in foreign affairs helping them pursue their national interest, the letter, tendered in court, said. It got very close, with Tehran saying no at the last moment. The Iranian ambassador was in favour. In August 1999, not long after she returned from overseas, her parents organised for Ms Joss to receive $800 per week, plus personal expenses including healthcare. It was on the condition, however, that she not contact her parents and cease denigrating her parents in a manner that would undermine their standing in the Jewish community. Peter and Judith did not want their private affairs talked about, and were no doubt embarrassed by the way Jessica had behaved, Justice Hollingworth said. On August 13, 1999, Ms Josss neighbour called her mother, Judith, to warn her that Jessica was planning on killing Peter with a crossbow the next day. Peter and Judith contacted a lawyer friend, and their family doctor, before calling the police. The police went to Jessicas flat, where they arrested her and seized a crossbow. No charges were laid, because Peter asked the police not to. Instead, Ms Joss was admitted to The Alfred hospital psychiatric unit as an involuntary patient. The court said that apart from this one incident, Ms Joss has no other psychiatric history. Justice Hollingworth said Jessicas gender dysphoria was something that was very difficult for her Orthodox family to accept, and that even 20 years after being told her mother still does not accept that Jessica identifies as a woman. Judith continues to refer to Jessica as Jeffrey, and to use male pronouns when speaking of her. That rejection of her identity has, understandably, been very painful for Jessica, Justice Hollingworth said. But even though Peter and Judith did not understand the implications of Jessica being transgender, they continued to support her financially. The only thing Peter was not prepared to pay for was the gender reassignment surgery ... even though she still had reasonable earning capacity after her discharge from hospital in 1999, Jessica chose not to seek employment for more than 20 years, she said. 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. Treasury Sanctions Individuals for Undermining Hong Kong's Autonomy U.S. Department of the Treasury August 7, 2020 WASHINGTON Today, the Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on 11 individuals for undermining Hong Kong's autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly of the citizens of Hong Kong. These actions were taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13936, "The President's Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization," which President Trump issued on July 14, 2020. E.O. 13936 declares a national emergency with respect to the situation in Hong Kong, including recent actions taken by the People's Republic of China to fundamentally undermine Hong Kong's autonomy and democratic processes, and provides for the imposition of sanctions on actors engaged in these malign activities. E.O. 13936 also builds on and implements provisions of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 and the Hong Kong Autonomy Act of 2020. The recent imposition of draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong has not only undermined Hong Kong's autonomy, it has also infringed on the rights of people in Hong Kong, allowing mainland China's security services to operate with impunity in the region, mandating "national security education" in Hong Kong schools, undermining the rule of law, and setting the groundwork for censorship of any individuals or outlets that are deemed unfriendly to China. Today, Treasury is sanctioning Carrie Lam, Chris Tang, Stephen Lo, John Lee Ka-chiu, Teresa Cheng, Erick Tsang, Xia Baolong, Zhang Xiaoming, Luo Huining, Zheng Yanxiong, and Eric Chan. "The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong and we will use our tools and authorities to target those undermining their autonomy," said Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin. Carrie Lam, Chief Executive, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam is the chief executive directly responsible for implementing Beijing's policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes. In 2019, Lam pushed for an update to Hong Kong's extradition arrangements to allow for extradition to the mainland, setting off a series of massive opposition demonstrations in Hong Kong. Lam is designated for being involved in developing, adopting, or implementing the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (National Security Law). Chris Tang, Commissioner of Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) Chris Tang, as the Commissioner of the HKPF, has enthusiastically supported the Hong Kong National Security Law. The HKPF besieged Hong Kong Polytechnic under his leadership, along with arresting hundreds of protestors. Chris Tang also sits upon the newly established Committee for Safeguarding National Security. He is designated for coercing, arresting, detaining, or imprisoning individuals under the authority of the National Security Law. Stephen Lo, Former Commissioner of HKPF Stephen Lo was the previous commissioner of the HKPF until 2019. Under his leadership, over 4,000 protestors were arrested and 1,600 injured in clashes. Stephen Lo is designated as a leader or official of a government entity whose members have engaged in activities to prohibit, limit, or penalize the exercise of freedom of expression or assembly in Hong Kong. John Lee Ka-chiu, HKSAR Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu is the Secretary for Security in Hong Kong, where his office is responsible for all security-related policies. John Lee Ka-chiu is also a member of the Executive Council of the HKSAR government, an organ for assisting the Chief Executive in policy-making, and has introduced a new police unit dedicated to enforcing the Hong Kong National Security Law which will have intelligence gathering and investigation capabilities. He is designated for being involved in coercing, arresting, detaining, or imprisoning individuals under the authority of the National Security Law, as well as being involved in its development, adoption, or implementation. Teresa Cheng, HKSAR Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng is the Secretary for Justice for Hong Kong. As head of the Hong Kong Department of Justice, Teresa Cheng has said that her major responsibility is implementing and safeguarding national security in the HKSAR. She is designated for being responsible or involved in developing, adopting, or implementing the National Security Law. Erick Tsang, HKSAR Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs In April, Erick Tsang assumed the post of Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland affairs, the office that maintains relations between the HKSAR government and mainland Chinese government. He is designated for being responsible for or involved in developing, adopting, or implementing the National Security Law. Xia Baolong, Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council In February 2020, Xia Baolong was announced as the newest Director for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, an organization within the State Council designed to assist the premier in dealing with affairs related to Hong Kong and Macao. The Office has stated that it is entitled to supervise affairs in Hong Kong, including implementation of the Basic Law of the HKSAR. Xia Baolong is designated for being a leader or official of a government entity that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, or autonomy of Hong Kong. Zhang Xiaoming, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council Zhang Xiaoming is former Director and current Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, where he is in charge of daily operations. As Director, he backed the controversial 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill. He is designated for being a leader or official of a government entity that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, or autonomy of Hong Kong. Luo Huining, Director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office Luo Huining is mainland China's top official in Hong Kong, as the Director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office. The Liaison Office has claimed that it is entitled to intervene in Hong Kong affairs despite the Basic Law's prohibition on interference in the affairs which the HKSAR administers in accordance with the Basic Law. Luo Huining is also a National Security Advisor to the Committee for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong. He is designated for being a leader or official of a government entity that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, or autonomy of Hong Kong. Zheng Yanxiong, Director, Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong Zheng Yanxiong is the inaugural director of the newly created Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong. The Office was established under the Hong Kong National Security Law and has broad powers to supervise local authorities and directly investigate major cases. As the Office's Director, Zheng Yanxiong is designated for being a leader or official of a government entity that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, or autonomy of Hong Kong. Eric Chan, Secretary General, Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the HKSAR Eric Chan, the director of the Chief Executive Office, was appointed by Beijing to be the Secretary General of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security as recently established by the Hong Kong National Security Law. The Committee's work is not to be made public and its decisions are not subject to judicial review. As such, Eric Chan is designated for being responsible for or involved in developing, adopting, or implementing the National Security Law. The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong in their ongoing pursuit of freedom and democracy. The 11 individuals designated today have implemented policies directly aimed at curbing freedom of expression and assembly, and democratic processes, and are subsequently responsible for the degradation of Hong Kong's autonomy. The United States will use the authorities in the Executive Order to continue to pursue those that implement these nefarious policies. Sanctions Implications As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of the individuals named above, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by them, individually, or with other blocked persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC or otherwise exempt, OFAC's regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods or services from any such person. More information on the entities designated today. #### NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Luxembourg's classification as a risk zone has caused issues for residents and their everyday life. The restrictions have had a knock-on effect on economic and social aspects for many in Luxembourg. Letzebuerg als Risikogebitt / Rep. Tim Morizet Very few cross-border workers are currently commuting through Schengen, as the summer holidays are in full swing. A small number of German tourists can be found, although they are in the minority - Luxembourg was designated a risk zone by Germany in recent weeks. The borders might still be open, but normality seems a long way away. Local businesses Economically, Luxembourg's classification has been a catastrophe, for large and small businesses alike based around the border. Ursula Peifer, owner of a pet store in Perl, just over the German border, explained their customer footfall has dropped significantly as a result of the restrictions. The store's Luxembourgish and French clients form the majority of their customer base and in normal times, supply a large amount of the shop's profits. The knock-on effect has spread further afield, as Ute Klassen confirmed. She runs a butcher's in Rheinland-Palatinate, and explained the Luxembourgish clientele went a long way to keeping the region's economy going. Many business owners in the area have expressed growing concerns over their futures while deprived of their usual customer base. On the Luxembourg side of the border, the effects are noticeably less stark - although petrol stations are quieter, many customers in stores are made up of residents and cross-border workers who have remained loyal. Risk of xenophobia? In recent weeks, a social issue has raised its head as a result of the restrictions. A Luxembourg resident stated the closure of the borders during the high point of the pandemic brought back bad memories, particularly exacerbated by the sight of police patrolling border zones, armed with machine guns. Video report in Luxembourgish: Elsewhere, the German government's decision to place Luxembourg on a risk zone list has caused anger among some Luxembourgers. Small acts of aggression have become more commonplace in shops and supermarkets. A witness described a Luxembourger verbally abusing a pregnant German woman in a supermarket after the latter felt ill and removed her mask. In Bettembourg, another German woman left the Parc Merveilleux amusement park with her children and discovered a note affixed to her windshield which read "Nazis out!". Such incidents have become more commonplace in recent weeks, on both sides of the border. Although they are not exclusive to Luxembourg, residents along the Moselle are concerned over what the future may hold, particularly if the German restrictions continue. YOU learn a lot about peoples ethics when money is involved. Even really rich people can take the wrong route for money. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/8/2020 (528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion YOU learn a lot about peoples ethics when money is involved. Even really rich people can take the wrong route for money. The current Trudeau family scandal may be a litmus test. Mother, brother and wife received fees from a charity that received federal government funds. This may be how Justin Trudeau will be remembered, overshadowing any accomplishments. Hes been an MP since 2008 and is in his second term as prime minister. This may be a defining moment, fairly early in his career. Conversely, his father, Pierre, served as PM with a short interruption for 16 years with no personal financial scandal. He was elected in 1965 and quickly became parliamentary secretary to prime minister Lester Pearson, then justice minister and then prime minister in 1968. Thirty-five years after Pierre Trudeau left office and 20 years after his death, theres never been the controversy around the former prime minister Trudeau that there is with the sitting one. Both Pierre and Justin grew up wealthy. Pierres father sold his string of gas stations for $1 million in 1932, and the family enjoyed a chauffeur and domestic help. Pierre made frequent trips to New York City, spent summers at Old Orchard Beach, time in the Laurentian Mountains and canoeing. He could go places and do things his contemporaries couldnt. Many people who grow up with money are frugal. Many just dont carry any money a common rich persons habit. There are many stories of Pierres frugality, and some might even be true. Hes said to have had the lapels narrowed on his suit jackets when styles changed, and even the collars of his shirts removed, turned over and sown back on to give them new life. Justin has a net worth in the millions, family property and income from several sources, including his fathers book royalties. He has made as much as $450,000 annually in speaking fees. He makes $357,000 as prime minister, and taxpayers look after many expenses. His mother, Margaret, is about as wealthy, and Justin will likely inherit a good portion of that. Justin dominates a room, as his father did. An old joke in his fathers years was that when Pierre came into a room, the room changed. When his rival Joe Clark came into a room, someone sent him out for coffee. I encountered the former prime minister a few times, first at a famous dinner at the Seaforth Armoury in Vancouver. He went outside, punched a protester, came back in, borrowed my cutlery and was completely charming for brief bursts. I bumped into him on the street in Montreal after his retirement and at a news conference to launch his book. I got the same icy stare to size me up as everyone else got. My father knew Pierre better. He said he had innumerable intense, 90-second conversations with him as an MP, minister and prime minister. These were because Pierre lived in Cantle House on the corner of Peel and Sherbrooke streets in Montreal. It was one of the first apartment-hotels, used by the great and near-great for Expo 67. My father had supervised construction, and then leasing and management of it and the rest of a small real estate empire. Even before he became justice minister and rose to prominence, Pierre was dapper, sometimes in an ascot and sometimes in sandals. He was proper, known for having female guests wait for him in the lobby while he changed. Perhaps it was just necessity he had a bachelor apartment with little more than books and art. On being elected, sycophants left Pierre magnums of champagne, flowery notes, flowers and such. My father, being a skinflint, placed a two-ounce bottle of rye from an airplane in the Trudeau apartment. He used the back of his business card to write "for all those little headaches." Trudeaus rejoinder letter featured a sprawling P.S.: "No headaches so far." The relevance of this perspective about Pierre to the current scandal involving son Justin is twofold. Pierre was a skinflint as bad as or worse than my father. Pierre was leaving Cantle House, or other circumstances required some moving of personal effects. My father kept a gang of workers on staff in the little real estate empire, so made arrangements to move the Trudeau effects, likely from Cantle House to his mothers home. It seems my father offered to do this for nothing, having rejected a higher estimate with a moving company, but also noted the few hundred dollars the move actually cost. 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. Pierre wrote a gracious letter indicating hed pay the reduced and actual amount. Smart move. Good ear for a new PM, and his good ear trumped his parsimonious nature. Shame Justin doesnt have the same ear. If he doesnt, his staff should. If they dont, cabinet colleagues should. This current scandal involves an enormous amount of money many times the sponsorship scandal of the turn of the century and also involves the prime ministers family members and at least one cabinet members family. Judging by the amount of money at stake, and cabinet and family involvement, this may be the largest scandal in Canadian history. Pierre would not be pleased. Allan Bonner is a crisis manager based in Toronto. Troy Media A drowning on a popular Oregon river has experts reminding people that even though getting out on the water is a great way to cool off, rapids and cold temperatures can be dangerous without the appropriate precautions. A 68-year-old man, Michael Marquand, drowned on Thursday after his boat capsized in rapids while he was rafting on the Deschutes River in Wasco County with family members and friends. The Deschutes is one of the most popular rivers in Oregon for rafting and other water recreation, and there are many opportunities to enjoy it safely. But its important to note that while air temperatures may be climbing, water temperatures may still be hazardous. The U.S. Geological Service keeps track of river temperatures, which users can check before they hit the water. According to the nonprofit National Center for Cold Water Safety, any water temperature below 70 degrees Fahrenheit should be treated with caution. According to the USGS, the high temperature in the Deschutes River as of 2:45 p.m. Friday was 65 degrees. By contrast, the USGS reported that the Willamette River in Portland was 75 degrees Friday, and the Columbia River at The Dalles was 70 degrees. When cold water makes contact with your skin, cold shock causes an immediate loss of breathing control, said the National Center for Cold Water Safety on its website. The result is a very high risk of suddenly drowning even if the water is calm and you know how to swim. The danger is even greater if the water is rough. Inability to coordinate your breathing with wave splash greatly increases the danger of inhaling water. There have been several river drownings in Oregon this summer, including two just days before Marquand, on the Columbia River near Hood River. In several of the drowning cases this summer, victims either werent wearing life jackets or did not have them secured. Public safety officials have urged people recreating on the water to wear life jackets, regardless of their experience or swimming skills. Deschutes County Sheriffs Sgt. Nathan Garibay said one of the best precautions people can take is to scope out the water before jumping in, to be aware of hazards like logs or other things under the surface, or rapids. Even strong swimmers can become fatigued, he said. He also encouraged people to wear life jackets, even in situations where the law doesnt require it. Marquand was wearing a life jacket, according to officials, but he may not have been wearing it properly. He warned against going out on the water alone, urged people to closely supervise children around water, and advised people who are going out in groups to talk beforehand and come up with a plan for how they might rescue someone, should the need arise. He also advised people to watch their alcohol intake on the water, because drinking can affect both judgement of the water and swimming ability. Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, commander of Fort Hood, Texas, will no longer be transferred to Fort Bliss as Army leader determine who to hold accountable for culture at his current base Army leaders have delayed the planned transfer of the Fort Hood commander, as a team of independent investigators heads to the base to determine whether leadership failures contributed to the murder of a soldier earlier this year, and several other deaths. Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, commander of Fort Hood, Texas, was slated to go to Fort Bliss, which is near El Paso, and take over leadership of the 1st Armored Division. Command of a division is a key step in an Army officer's career. The Army said in a statement Friday that he will now stay at Fort Hood, as Army leaders consider whether there were systemic problems at the base, and who should be held accountable. Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, 20, was killed and dismembered by a fellow soldier. She had been missing since April, and her remains were found and indentified last month. The soldier suspected in Guillen's slaying, Spc. Aaron Robinson, shot and killed himself early last month as police were trying to take him into custody. A civilian, Cecily Aguilar 22, of Killeen, has been arrested and charged with allegedly helping Robinson dispose of Guillens body. Speaking at Fort Hood on Thursday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said members of the independent panel will arrive at the base by the end of the month to begin their review. The 3rd Cavalry Regiment, which is stationed at Fort Hood, is also conducting a routine internal investigation into the matter. Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, 20, was killed and dismembered by a fellow soldier. She disappeared from the base on April 22 Texas authorities have charged 28-year-old Brandon Michael Olivares in connection to the May killing of Pfc. Brandon Rosecrans McCarthy was asked whether anyone, including leaders, will be disciplined or fired. He said that the independent panel will look into the 'command climate of the installation,' to determine if there is a 'sexual harassment-type toxic environment that exists.' McCarthy said that will help the Army 'better understand more broadly, is it 3rd ACR (Armored Cavalry Regiment) or is it larger? Is it the entire installation?' He acknowledged that there have been other deaths and incidents of violence that could point to broader problems. Texas authorities have charged 28-year-old Brandon Michael Olivares in connection to the May killing of Pfc. Brandon Rosecrans, according to a release from the Harker Heights Police Department. In addition to those murders, the body of another Fort Hood soldier, Pvt. Mejhor Morta, was found last month by Stillhouse Hollow Lake, a reservoir near the base Olivares was already in the custody of the Bell County Sheriff's Office on unrelated charges and was given an additional murder charge for the killing after a warrant was issued on August 5. Harker Heights Police said that an investigation revealed that the pair had been traveling together in Rosecrans vehicle before the suspect allegedly shot him. Olivares is said to have then thrown the service member's body before leaving the scene. His bond has been set for $1,000,000. Authorities retrieved the victim's vehicle on May 18, just a few miles from where his body was found. It was found burning. Members of the independent panel will arrive at the base by the end of the month to begin their review In addition to those murders, the body of another Fort Hood soldier, Pvt. Mejhor Morta, was found last month by Stillhouse Hollow Lake, a reservoir near the base. In June, officials discovered the remains of another missing soldier, Gregory Morales, about 10 miles from that lake. Once the independent panel's investigation is done, McCarthy said that if the panel's conclusions 'point to leaders or individuals, in particular, of course we will take the appropriate accountability' measures. The five members of the independent review panel are: Chris Swecker, a North Carolina lawyer and former FBI inspector; Jonathan Harmon, a lawyer and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; Carrie Ricci, a lawyer for the Department of Agriculture and a retired Army officer; Queta Rodriguez, a former Marine who works with veterans' services; and Jack White, a lawyer and West Point graduate. Brig. Gen. Matt Eichburg has been assigned to temporarily command the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss 'until further notice,' according to Army Col. Cathy Wilkinson. Normally an Army division is headed by a two-star major general, but on rare occasions one-star brigadier generals can be put in command. Ghislaine Maxwell- the notorious sex crime offender Jeffrey Epstein's ex-girlfriend, is presently facing serious sex-trafficking charges. In new court documents gathered, George Clooney is dragged into the controversy. How? According to the UK Sun, Maxwell boasted about her romantic engagements with none other than, George Clooney. The documents detailed how she boasted to her alleged victim, Virginia Giuffre, about her sexual experiences, one of which is with the actor. "One [time] she came back giddy as a schoolgirl with an explosion of news, with all the buildup and excitement in her voice you'd think she was the next crown princess," Giuffre wrote of Maxwell in her book. The book, which was unsealed by a New York judge last week, revealed that Maxwell herself said that she had given George Clooney a "b**w j*b in the bathroom" of some random event. Maxwell was so happy she never let the story die, probably harping about it repeatedly. In her 139-page manuscript, "The Billionaire's Playboy Club," Giuffre revealed that the socialite never had qualms about bragging about her trysts. In fact, she loved to brag about all these rendezvous with several lovers George Clooney Part of Jeffey Epstein's Crimes? No Giuffre did not write when or where the sexual act happened exactly, or maybe Maxwell did not tell. But the book claims it was one time when Maxwell and Clooney took a trip in 2001. To clarify, even though the actor's name was dragged into the controversy, he was in no way, shape and form, claimed to be involved with underage sex, unlike Prince Andrew, another famous personality involved in the case. There is also no mention of Clooney doing anything wrong or being part of Epstein's many crimes. Paris Hilton was Almost a Victim? Yes Another interesting tidbit released recently by Mail Online UK is that Maxwell even tried to recruit Paris Hilton for Jeffrey Epstein. After only sighting her for the first time! Christopher Mason, a journalist revealed that the socialite even stopped in her tracks and went "oh my god" upon seeing a young Hilton. She was not going "oh my god' just because Hilton is a pretty girl -everybody knows that - but because she wants her for Epstein. She even said so as much, describing Hilton as "perfect for Jeffrey." She then asked a friend to introduce them, Mason revealed. Mason, a British journalist based in New York did not reveal when exactly this happened. But it can be surmised that it happened around 2000, when Hilton signed up to be part of Donald Trump's modeling agency. If that is the case, Hilton would be just 19-years-old. Not necessarily a minor, but certainly young! Mason shared this revelation in an episode for a. new docuseries entitled, "Surviving Jeffrey Epstein," to be aired on Sunday. The story is not implausible, since. there is a photograph of Maxwell and Hilton together. On this occasion, Hilton was talking with Trump, and on her left, is Maxwell. It is now widely known that Maxwell, apart from being Epstein's ex-gf, was also one of his key assets in recruiting young girls. It's unclear how Hilton escaped her clotches, but that's beyond fortunate. The government has decided to upload the health parameters of COVID-19 patients under treatment in state-run and private hospitals on the health department's website, so that family members are able to know their condition, a senior official said on Saturday. A mechanism is being prepared for the purpose and it would start within two weeks, he said and claimed that no other state in the country has such a system now. The health department's move followed allegations that family members of infected people are not getting proper information on their health condition from hospitals. "A patient's oxygen saturation level, pulse rate, blood sugar level, the functioning of different body parts whether or not a patient needs life support system. Every possible information will be provided on the website," the official said. Till Friday, had 24,652 active COVID-19 cases. The state health department has started maintaining records of all corona patients admitted in both government and private hospitals and monitoring their condition via the Critical Covid Patient Management System (CCPMS) launched on August 1. At least 96 government doctors are monitoring all Covid19 patients 24x7 under the CCPMS, the official said. "Since this team of doctors is already monitoring them, it'll be easy for us to upload the health parameters of individual patients on the website. This would make it clear who is in a critical condition and who is not. There would be transparency," he said. There were allegations that family members were not informed of a patient's death even after the last rites were completed by the authorities. (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.) Matthew Modine opens his photography exhibition "Full Metal Jacket" diary Redux for the 25th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick's film during the 7th International Roma Film Festival Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis via Getty Images Being a person of conscience comes with a cost. Matthew Modine was offered the starring role of "Maverick" in the 1986 film "Top Gun," but he declined, rejecting the film's militarism and Cold War anti-Russian nationalism. "Top Gun" would make almost 360 million dollars. Tom Cruise's career would be launched to the stratosphere. Among the other "What ifs?" in Modine's career is turning down the role of "Marty McFly" (which would be played by Michael J. Fox) in "Back to the Future" as well as Charlie Sheen's character in "Wall Street." Modine would go on to act in smaller more intimate films as well as large Hollywood projects such as the World War 2 film "Memphis Belle," playing Dr. Martin Brenner in the Netflix series "Stranger Things," and of course his very memorable performance as Pvt. Joker in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket." The actor has not stopped living a life of conscience and principle, where at age 61 he continues with his public commitment to advancing human and civil rights, secular humanism, and the overall struggle to make American society (and the world) more just, equitable, and good. To that end, Modine has produced documentaries such as "The Brainwashing of My Dad" which highlights the harmful impact of Fox News and the broader right-wing propaganda disinformation machine on its viewers and American society as a whole. In this conversation, Modine reflects on his career and what living a life of principle means in the Age of Trump. Modine also shares his thoughts on white privilege, human empathy, dignity, and the dangers of denying the uncomfortable facts of America's origins. Story continues He also ponders the enduring power of "Full Metal Jacket" and why so many men fail to understand that the movie is a matter of fact indictment of violence, militarism, and regressive masculinity and not an endorsement of such values. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. Given the state of the world with the Age of Trump, the pandemic, economic misery, and other troubles, how are you feeling? How are you making sense of it for yourself? You can only be here and now in the moment. Therefore, if you are present and in the moment, it helps prevent you from falling into anxiety. Now that does not mean that you and we are not vulnerable to anxiety given all the social unrest in our country. [With] the death and the illness, it is easy to become anxious. I have been involved with the struggles for social justice since I was a child. I grew up with the civil rights movement and the efforts to empower women. We felt like we had made so much progress in that regard but now we are in 2020 with the Age of Trump and this tumult. We now clearly see that the struggle for progress was far from complete. We have a tremendous journey in front of us as a country for social equality, for racial justice, and for equal opportunities for all sexes. The fight goes on, the journey continues. What I have chosen in my personal life is to be on the right side of history. We're in a season of death with the pandemic and Donald Trump and other disasters. There is also the George Floyd protests and people's uprising. You are a man of conscience. How are you locating yourself in this moment? I am not a person of color, but I do have the experiences shared with me from non-white people in my life family members and friends and what I learned from them. An analogy. Horses wear blinders to cover their eyes so they can only see straight forward. Those blinders are a way to understand white privilege. David Alan Grier is my children's godfather. I remember telling him he could use my car when I was out of town. This was before Rodney King. David said to me, "Are you crazy!" I was confused, and he explained that he, a Black man, would be stopped by the LAPD and they would pull him out of the car and assault him because they would assume he had some type of warrant or other violation and he was driving my BMW. Then the Rodney King assault happened, and I said to myself, "Oh, that's what David was talking about." Back to the analogy, my horse blinders got opened up a little bit wider. I'm starting to get a little bit more peripheral vision about the inequities and injustice of white privilege. I was in Atlanta talking to a friend who is not white and the police slowed down and shined the spotlight on him. I was indignant and started yelling at the police. My friend did not move, he didn't put his hands in his pocket, he didn't reach for his cell phone. Why? Because he knew that if he made any quick movements, if he put his hands in his pocket, those policemen are going to react to a completely different way than they would to me. Those white privilege blinders on my head got opened even wider in that moment. You never really understand another person until you see things from their point of view. White Americans will never literally be able to live the life of, be inside the skin of a Black American, but we can take the steps to be more conscious and more empathetic of other people's experiences. Donald Trump embodies a type of crude, primitive, backwards, violent masculinity. There is public opinion and other research which shows this is part of his appeal to his followers. One would imagine that such people men in particular would find "Full Metal Jacket" a very appealing movie. Somehow, they likely think that Kubrick was endorsing war when in fact he was not. Moreover, I have met many people who joined the Marines after watching "Full Metal Jacket." I would ask them, "What damn movie were you watching?" It is weird to me when I meet people who say they saw "Full Metal Jacket" and then went and joined the military. Yes, the military can provide life-changing opportunities but "Full Metal Jacket" is not an advertisement for joining up. People young people especially should not passively watch a commercial for the Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy, or other branch of the service. Be active watchers. Think about what you are seeing. Watch what the ad is saying, watch what the direction and the language and the excitement of that video. Are you one of the few? Are you one of the proud? Do you have what it takes to be a Marine? The ad is challenging one's sense of manhood. This is very attractive to some people. What we tried to do with "Full Metal Jacket" is to present what happens in boot camp when there's somebody who doesn't fit in and then we have to collectively beat his ass until he gets his head screwed on straight. In "Full Metal Jacket" we see the horrible outcome. Trump's fascist appeal is of course tied to guns and nationalism and militant right-wing Christianity. Those themes are omnipresent in "Full Metal Jacket." Michael Herr wrote the screenplay for "Full Metal Jacket." He also wrote the voiceover for "Apocalypse Now." He is a great writer. We kept guns away from my son for his entire childhood. And then one day we were out hiking and he picked up a stick and held it like a pistol and went "pow pow." I didn't know where he learned that behavior from. I asked Michael about it, and he said, "It's like a virus. It's in our bloodstream. It's in the American bloodstream, the gun and violence." That's the foundation of our country. America's foundation is the slaughter of Indigenous people and the enslavement of Black people. That is what America is trying to build its house on. America has a love affair with guns that is deeply tied to the country's past. As a people we have not properly realized and struggled with the real origins of the United States. We have not educated ourselves about the past. Instead, we have largely tried to gloss over it. You were offered the Tom Cruise role in "Top Gun." You turned it down because you did not want to endorse militarism. Did you ever regret that choice? Living a life of principle often, as with your choice about "Top Gun," comes with a great financial cost. Not at all. Not for one second. Cruise said that he felt that "Top Gun" was a movie about individualism and personal strength. I just thought the movie was jingoistic. I had just come back from East Berlin. That was when I learned about the Russians and their losses fighting the Nazis. I was at the Berlin Film Festival, and they asked me would I like to go into East Berlin. I said, "I can't go to East Berlin, I'm American." They said, "No, you can go to East Berlin because you are an American. It's the Berliners who are the ones that can't go." So, I accepted the invitation. We went across Checkpoint Charlie and saw all the soldiers with machine guns, [and] Russian soldiers touring around. Going to East Berlin from West Berlin was like going from a technicolor life to black and white. It was like a movie. I went on a tour of sorts, and then they took me to this monument. It was for the millions of Russians who had died fighting in World War 2. In my schooling I was not taught about the Russians involvement in the war and stopping the Nazis. And then I met these Russian soldiers, and they were just like my oldest brother Mark who had gone to Vietnam. I smoked with them and I gave them some American cigarettes, and they gave me pins from their uniforms. We laughed and joked around. These soldiers were just like young people in America. The Russian people are not evil, horrible monsters. That left quite an impression on me. You lived during the 1980s and saw the end of the Cold War. How have you negotiated the reality of those years with your role in "Stranger Things" and the heavy nostalgia and grossly distorted view of the Reagan years it depicts? There is reality, and then there is "Stranger Things." One of the movies from my childhood was "American Graffiti." It was about a small pocket corner of America that George Lucas understood and grew up in. He was romantic and nostalgic about his youth. I think of "Stranger Things" in a similar way. In the end, "Stranger Things" is not about reality or politics. You produced the documentary "The Brainwashing of My Dad," which is about how Fox News and the broader right-wing echo chamber has damaged so many people. What attracted you to that project? What we discovered while doing a Kickstarter to fund the documentary was that Jen Senko's experience was not isolated. People donating to fund the movie would share how their parents and grandparents and other relatives were basically brainwashed by Fox News and the right-wing media. Jen Senko's story was a national one. As we developed the documentary we learned from psychologists and historians that Fox News and other parts of the right-wing "news" media are indeed using brainwashing techniques to control their audience and change who they are. Why does "Full Metal Jacket" still resonate more than three decades after its initial release? As long as there are boot camps for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, fire departments, police departments and the like, anyone who goes through that experience will feel connected to what we portrayed in "Full Metal Jacket." The genius of Stanley Kubrick is that he created a piece of art that is not timestamped. It is as relevant today as it was in 1987. Related Articles Following the excellent forthright and humble message of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State, in his 2020 Eid-El-Kabir Sallah message to Lagosians, which was inspired by the viral online video of the small charming boy asking his mother to calm down and give him last chance, APC leaders, after surviving a very turbulent time, need to calm down. To paraphrase Governor Sanwo-Olus message, our leaders, in commemoration of the sacrifice they all made individually and collectively to save the APC combined with their abiding faith and commitment to promote progressive politics in Nigeria need to demonstrate high sense of self-restraint. Our leaders need to be moderate, responsible and committed to progressive politics in order to defeat reactionary and conservative politics in Nigeria. No party in the history of Nigerian politics survived leadership crisis of the magnitude experienced in the APC leading to the dissolution of the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC. From the First Republic to the current Fourth Republic all political parties that went through leadership crisis ended up with divisions and breakaways. None survived and remained united. It is to the credit of the APC leadership that after the June 25, 2020 emergency National Executive Council (NEC), the party is united and the leadership of His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni Caretaker/Convention Working Committee is never in contest. All leaders of the party across the country are united behind the Caretaker/Convention Working Committee. Without any hesitation, all party members must pay special tribute to President Muhammadu Buhari for brokering this new era and perhaps our last chance as a party to demonstrate our progressive credentials. The mere fact that we are able to come out of that crisis demonstrate part of our progressive credentials largely because one of the reasons for leadership splits and breakaways as a result of internal leadership crisis in political parties in Nigeria was because of refusal to allow party structures to function. In fact, in our case, the leadership crisis was also further entrenched in the party because structures of the party were undermined, and individual leaders become superior to party structures and attempted to railroad their personal positions on party members. It took less than an hour of a meeting of the relevant party organ, NEC, guided by a leader who belong to everyone but belong to no one to resolve a leadership problem that was more than one year old. What that experience should tell our leaders and members is that we should have stronger faith in every structure of the party. Advertisement Perhaps, as a reminder, we should constantly emphasise that progressive politics is about being dynamic, action oriented and ensuring that we are able to bring about improvement in politics, government and the conditions of life of the generality of our people. To achieve all of these, we have to be goal oriented with clear vision of what we want and where we want to take our society and nation. For instance, since everything political must take its bearing from issues of electoral prospects, how should our leaders and members conduct themselves such that we are able to win elections at all times? We need to remind our leaders that the last leadership crisis was triggered by the deep concerns around the diminishing electoral viability of the party. The reality is, resolving the last leadership crisis with the dissolution of the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC has not solved the problem of diminishing electoral viability of the party. Therefore, what is it that needs to be done to address the problem of diminishing electoral viability of the APC? Do our leaders even agree that the APC is faced with the problem of diminishing electoral viability? This may be the problem partly because if our leaders are unable to recognise that the APC is faced with the problem of diminishing electoral viability then there is a big problem. In the present day Nigeria, with tempers very high everywhere and all manner of negatively imposed public perception, which are false and mostly engineered by our political opponents, it is only people who dont believe in the votes of citizens as determinant of electoral victories that will imagine that APCs electoral prospects are high. Perhaps, we need to recall that with the exception of Presidential election of 2019, in virtually all elections between 2018 and today, in almost all cases where APC won, it was marginal. In Ekiti 2018 Governorship election, for instance, APC won with less than 20,000 votes. In Osun State 2018 Governorship election, we had to go for rerun before we could win. This was almost the experience in virtually all cases. We lost states like Bauchi, Adamawa, Oyo, etc. where it would have been guaranteed since we won these states during the Presidential election with wide margins. One of the things that should be humbling for every APC leader and member is that whatever is our current electoral credential as a party is on account of the personal popularity of President Buhari. If that is recognised, then we need to check whether we want to take advantage it, or we want to squander it? The contrast to recognising the power of votes of citizens is to conduct politics based on conquest mentality. In which case then political campaigns will not be about winning the support of citizens. It will be about conquering and imposing ourselves as the preferred choices of Nigerians. That cannot be the face of the Nigerian progressive politics APC want to promote. That is the kind of politics associated with PDP, which Nigerians detest and as a party, APC, we offered ourselves as the alternative with a commitment to mobilise Nigerians to bring about change by way of ensuring that people are first and foremost the determinant of who manage governments in the country. It is important that immediately following the resolution of APCs internal leadership crisis with the emergence of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni Caretaker/Convention Working Committee, internal party debate is promoted on issues of strategies to bolster our electoral viability. This should not be taken for granted. The test for all of this is Edo and Ondo Governorship elections. How our leaders are able to work as a united front and the messages of hope and how determined we are as a party to inspire citizens into voting our candidates should be the focus. In other words, our campaigns and our candidates must project the aspirations of the people and the future our party offers. Without any doubt, the signal coming from Governor Rotimi Akeredolu SAN of Ondo State after emerging as the candidate of the APC is very encouraging and clearly consistent with the kind of progressive politics APC leaders should be promoting. Immediately after the July 21, 2020 APC primary, notwithstanding that Governor Akeredolu won the primary election convincingly with 2,458 votes with his closest rival Mr. Olusola Oke who came second polling 262 votes, Governor Akeredolu has been going round, meeting all those who contested the elections with him and negotiating reconciliation. This demonstrate that Governor Akeredolu is magnanimous in victory, at least within the party. With this, it should be expected that Governor Akeredolu will approach the campaigns for Ondo Governorship election based on a strategy of winning the votes of Ondo people. The message he seems to be conveying is that he respects the rights of the people of Ondo State to make their choice and he is offering himself as a worthy consideration to be the choice of the people. The reverse seems to be the case in Edo State. As opposed to reconciliation, it is loud drums of war that has taken over the airwaves in Edo State. Comrade Oshiomhole has relocated to Edo State and taken over the APC campaign and the campaign is proceeding in a manner that suggest the Edo State Governorship election is an extension of the personal battle between the Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki and Comrade Oshiomhole. The APC campaign is personalised around Comrade Oshiomhole and the candidate of the party, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is an onlooker. The soundbite from the Edo APC campaign is so offensive to the point where Comrade Oshiomhole appear to be disowning almost every APC in Edo State between 2016 and now. To that extent, it simply means Comrade Oshiomhole is disowning himself, which may be why he went on his knee begging Edo people for forgiveness. We need to appeal to Comrade Oshiomhole to calm down. This campaign is not about his person. More importantly, we need to stress the point that part of the political vision of any progressive is that once elected into government, we commit ourselves to issues of agricultural development, jobs creation, education, health, infrastructural development, poverty eradication and rapid technological development. APC has ruled Edo State since the time of Comrade Oshiomhole as Governor of the state. Up to today, whatever achievement Edo State experienced under Governor Obaseki, between 2016 and now, APC must own it, just like we should be able to accept some of the setbacks. Anything Governor Obaseki is able to achieve must be credited to APC as a party. Our Edo campaign should be able raise the awareness of Edo people that had Governor Obaseki been in PDP, it would have been impossible for him to record any achievement. Based on the personalised way the APC Edo State campaign is being carried out, PDP all of a sudden is coming out very strongly to campaign for votes. If the Edo State APC campaign is to go ahead this way, when APC win the election who will run the affairs of the state as Governor? Is it Comrade Oshiomhole or Pastor Ize-Iyamu? If our party want Edo people to vote for our candidate, Pastor Ize-Iyamu must be very visible and be seen as the face of the campaign. Comrade Oshiomhole should take a backseat and play the facilitatory role our leaders play in all similar circumstances. Lagos state Governorship election since 2007 present a good model. Without any doubt, our leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, may be argued to be very influential in the emergence of candidates, from Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode to our current Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu. But once a candidate emerges, the responsibility of executing the campaign largely belong to the candidate on account of which the particular candidate become the face of the campaign. It is important that Comrade Oshiomhole endorse a situation where the party is able apply the Lagos model to the Edo State Governorship campaign especially because we want the Edo people to be able to have confidence on our candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and believe that when they elect him, he will be the one that will govern the state. The responsibility for ensuring that this is done rests with the Mai Mala Buni Caretaker/Convention Working Committee. Good enough, they have setup a National Campaign Council under the leadership of His Excellency, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Governor of Kano State. Governor Gandujes National Campaign Council should be able to assume leadership and take the necessary steps to redirect the Edo State APC campaign to have a clear progressive bearing. As part of those steps, it should ensure that APC campaign messages appropriate all development achievements recorded under the APC administration of Governor Obaseki. In addition, we must take steps to also cut the oxygen supply to PDP campaign, which is presenting our party and our candidate as promoters of violence. Our campaign for the Edo election should therefore amplify messages of peace and what we need to do to achieve that. Having come out of a very difficult crisis, our leaders and all our party members must be vigilant to ensure that our politics is not recklessly managed as to reduce us to the level of just working to win elections by all means. That is far from progressive politics. Our leaders did not make all the sacrifices they made to achieve the merger of 2013 and resolve our last leadership crisis just because we want to win elections by all means, including violent conducts. As progressives, our commitment to winning elections must be about earning the confidence of citizens. If anything, President Buhari should be our model at all times, especially when it borders on conducting political campaigns. It is to his credit that he never associates his political campaigns with violence since 2003, which is partly the reason why he could host his political campaigns with mammoth crowd running into millions without any violent incident. APC need to live up to its name by regulating the conducts of its leaders, especially during election campaigns. We cannot claim to be progressives and conduct ourselves in an unaccountable manner. PDP cannot hold our politics hostage through the use of violence, and we come as APC, seeking to defeat them through violence. After recording much progress in the country by ensuring higher political competition based on which our people are able to vote and their votes count, only to turn around and begin to accommodate conducts of some of our leaders which promote the behaviour that election is about conquest. Once, as a party we are unable to check that then we lose our progressive orientation. Being progressives come with a commitment to develop our politics and ensure that political development guarantee freedom to elect leaders, which should also promote our socio-economic development. We need to be wary at the global trend whereby political campaigns only highlight problems based on a strategy of dismissing governments. While recognising that there are legitimate grounds to constantly critique our governments, objectivity would require that we go beyond the convenient boundaries of political sentiments. We need to at all times, as progressives, be able to assess our governments to determine whether we are making progress or not. For instance, based on report by Fareed Zakari GPS CNN programme of December 29, 2019 entitled, Democracy has taken a detour this century. Can it get back on track? Out of 179 countries studied by the Variety of Democracies Institute, 158 showed some form of backsliding between 2008 and 2018. It went further to state that the trend towards autocratisation is growing, when the leaders in those countries were elected through a democratic process. What backsliding and autocratisation simply suggest is that even as democracy, there is the possibility to lose freedom and become dictatorial. As progressives, our leaders and our party must emerge as the catalyst for our national democratic development. It is important that we engage these issues of assessment of our democratic journey based on a clear sense of history. How can we for instance assess any democratic progress or lack of it without having to relate it with our experiences under PDP? Even in the context of experiences under PDP, is it possible to lump everything that could have been our experiences under one categorisation? One can argue that, despite many feats and starts, and even detours there have been a number of significant democratic gains. The challenge of ensuring that our democracy serves as a facilitator of national development is the huge task before all of our leaders and our party, APC, being the Nigerian brand of progressive politics. To achieve that require that we remain focused and continue to initiate political reforms in the country with a strong conviction that in the end democratic governance is all about political negotiations. It is not an end in itself but a means to an end. There is nothing sacrosanct about political reform initiatives. The important thing is that as progressives, we must be always vigilant to ensure that political initiatives are producing the expected results of guaranteeing freedoms and where we noticed any observed gap, we should be able to review and where necessary come up with new initiatives. At all times we must be able to learn the right lessons. Democratic governance will remain fragile and unsustainable where the objective conditions are those of extreme poverty, hunger, unstable economies, wars, massive unemployment, and other serious socio-economic privations. While it has been recognised that democracy may have its own intrinsic attributes, which are worthy for human development, it is nevertheless, an instrumental attribute (the so-called democratic dividend) as an enabler to development which could be more compelling in determining the level of buy-in amongst various stakeholders and hence make it sustainable in the long run. As a nation, our experiences, although very challenging, some specific development tangibles have been achieved, which should encourage us to acknowledge that we are making progress as a democracy. It is true that we have witnessed slow pace of socio-economic developments both in terms of initiatives and execution. In some cases, projects get abandoned by elected governments even after expending almost 100% of project costs. That was the narratives, for instance, of the 2nd Niger Bridge, the East West highway, etc. This is now changing. Just take the January 1, 2020 New Year message of President Muhammadu Buhari, in which the President informed Nigerians that the Federal Government will by the end of 2020/21 achieve the following: Complete 47 road projects across the country; Complete the 2nd Niger Bridge; Complete 13 housing estates under the National Housing Project Plan; Commission Lagos Ibadan and Itakpe Warri rail lines; Commission Lagos, Kano, Maiduguri and Enugu international airports; Commence Ibadan Abuja and Kano Kaduna rail lines; and Commence construction of Mambila power project. Already, the Abuja Kaduna train was commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari since July 2016. And in July 2018, the Abuja Light Rail was similarly commissioned by President Buhari. There are other initiatives of the Federal Government such as the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) now transformed into Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, which is saddled with the responsibility of citizens empowerment through Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Home Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP). With all these initiatives, one can project that by 2023, it should be possible to travel to most parts of the country by train and road transportation will be much easier. Our major airports will meet international standards. Through the NSIP, many Nigerians who are less privileged could be empowered. This however does not mean we will not be faced with other development challenges. Issues of industrial development and expanding the productive sectors of our national economy will continue to confront us. The capacity of our governments to attract foreign direct investments will continue to be a source of challenge. This is because foreign direct investment is largely a function of the capacity of our governments to make our domestic environment attractive for business through regulation. Some of the associated dynamics related to issues of regulation have to do with management of other social interests. The challenges to democratic consolidation and progress are multidimensional in nature. Most times, we over concentrate attention on the Federal Government, which may mislead us into some implied conclusions that initiatives at national level or lack of it is the problem of our democracy. While it is true that the influences of federal government initiatives or lack of it have strong impacts on sub-national governments, we need to also appreciate that our democratic context is also enriched by circumstances whereby some state governments become compelled by political factors to ensure they are self-sufficient without having to depend on federal resources. A good testimony to that is Lagos State. Today, Lagos State budget of over one trillion Naira present a good example of the abundant opportunities our progressive politics represents. We can indulge ourselves with some comparative analysis of whether without democracy and the challenges of being in a political opposition to the government at the federal level, Lagos State could have become what it is as the richest state in the country without being an oil producing state. Today, Lagos State Government and not Federal Government is initiating a fourth mainland bridge. Remember, the third mainland bridge is till today a project of the Federal Government. The case of Lagos is cited to highlight the point that in many of our states, our democracy is facilitating developments. Many of our states are executing infrastructural projects. Challenges of road development and maintainance, rural electrification, human development through corresponding investments in education and health and the whole gamut of urban renewal are being initiated by many states. Apart from the case of Lagos, visit Abeokuta in Ogun State, Benin City in Edo State, which in every respect has been a progressive state, Kaduna and Kano States, Jos in Plateau State, Lafia in Nasarawa and see the massive infrastructural work going on, one cannot but appreciate the fact that these are tangibles of democratic dividends, which we all yearn for. No doubt much more could be done. To achieve that we need to expand the space for political competition in the country. Most times we engage the discussions of progressive politics based on some superfluous assumptions that takes for granted challenges around building one of the primary vehicle that drive all democratic process, which is the party. We tend to imagine a political party only as a Special Purpose Vehicle, simply geared towards winning the next elections. Issues of operating conditions for a political party to serve as a facilitator for progressive politics and democratic development are hardly given primary consideration. For instance, how a party mobilises its funding and issues of membership management are mostly overlooked. Without addressing these issues, the capacity of APC to be internally democratic and serve as a vehicle for democratic development will be weak. Part of the important challenges confronting APC today, include the need for inbuilt structures that can facilitate internal reconciliation and dispute resolutions. Given that electoral contests will always come with strong disagreements by contestants and aspirants, the strength of our democracy will be contingent on the capacities of our party, APC, being the ruling party to first undertake internal party reconciliation initiatives. This is where all leaders and members of the party will be required to support the Mai Mala Buni Caretaker/Convention Working Committee to deliver on its mandate of producing a new leadership for the party that should reflect a new atmosphere of leadership unity and harmony. The other important issue is also the extent to which elected representatives are committed to provisions of the partys manifesto. This is an area that test the capacity of our parties to regulate the conducts of its members including elected representatives. Related to that is the level of understanding of provisions of our partys manifesto by our candidates. Is our partys candidate able to translate provisions of our partys manifesto into policy proposals and recommendations for governments? This is not exclusively the responsibility of the candidate. It should be part of the responsibility of the campaign council. Both in the cases of Ondo and Edo States, our campaign councils should be in a position to put all these in place. Beyond elections, is APC discharging the fundamental functions of interest articulation and aggregation? Are there structures in our party that engage non-governmental organisations such as organised private sector, civil society organisations, labour, youths, women, people living with disabilities, etc.? Discharging the functions of interest articulation and aggregation is the substantive credential that should confirm our progressive credentials. For instance, in both Ondo and Edo States, we should be able to have leaders and representatives of interest groups campaigning for our candidates in the coming elections based on the belief that once we win the elections, these interest groups will be accommodated based on possible negotiated agreements. The fact that democracy provide political choices in varying forms is the most important democratic opportunity which needs to be expanded beyond just elections. While periodic election of leaders is very important, in the end what distinguishes our politics as progressive is the commitment to specific policy choices that protect the livelihood of majority of our people. While progress in this direction may be slow, we can be able to confidently argue that so far, the priorities of the current Federal Government under President Buhari around infrastructural development and the fight against corruption, is endearing the government to a broad sections of organised private sector and some non-governmental organisations. This is however is yet to graduate to the level of political negotiations and agreements based on which the corresponding interests could regard themselves as being organically associated with the APC as a party. All these are not easy to achieve. To even commence the process of developing the APC and our politics to conform with the requirement of progressive politics, we need to strongly appeal to all our leaders to calm down and give us our last chance as a progressive party to meet the expectations of our people to be able to earn the credentials of being a progressive party! This position does not represent the view of any APC Governor or the Progressive Governors Forum HANGZHOU, China, Aug. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On the afternoon of August 7, Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV and Tourism launches the "Linking Hangzhou" international roadshow online, in a bid to enhance the global influence of Hangzhou as a "new economy conference destination." While presenting a new chapter of the cosmopolitan metropolis, it also envisions the revival of Hangzhou's cultural and tourism industries in the post-COVID-19 era. The event leverages live-streaming platforms and online video conferencing technology at home and abroad, and simultaneously promotes Hangzhou's MICE resources to customers worldwide for the first time. It not only demonstrates the vitality of Hangzhou as a "new economic conference destination," but also showcases the infinite potential of Hangzhou, a historically and culturally famed city with ever-lasting charm, as it embraces the future. At the same time, the event also invites 37 Singaporean MICE customers to join Hangzhou-based enterprises in online business negotiations in an endeavor to promote the city's new image and attract more international conferences. Highlight 1: Hangzhou's First Online International Promotion in the Post-COVID-19 Era The "Linking Hangzhou" international roadshow is an exploratory measure of Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV and Tourism, which for the first time live-streams its MICE promotion worldwide. Having adapted to the post-COVID-19 era, the bureau advertises Hangzhou's strengths and resources as a new economy conference destination to the world through Dingtalk, BizConf Video and social network platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. With the help of digital technology, the bureau is dedicated to launching local cultural and tourism industries onto a new journey of quality and efficiency improvement. By breaking through the physical limitations of face-to-face communication and building a scenario-rich conference ecosystem, the bureau is leveraging the treasure trove of with intelligent digital technology to expand the boundary of meetings. To top off last year's "Hello Hangzhou", China's first large-scale immersive conference visualized with the most cutting-edge technology, this "Linking Hangzhou" promotion transcends the barrier of space and time and visualizes simultaneous connection through intelligent conferencing system, convening MICE practitioners worldwide for closed-door business negotiations online. The innovative event not only achieves customized matchmaking between MICE suppliers and customers in a more efficient way, but also gives a shot in the arm for the recovery of the cultural and tourism industries and the development of MICE industry. In addition, the promotion video Time to Meet Hangzhou, which premieres globally, showcases the diversity of Hangzhou from four dimensions: comfortable lifestyle, cultural experience, booming industries, and creativity. Following the video three MICE products, including the exploration of new economy industry, traditional cultural experience, vibrant teambuilding and Hangzhou locals' lifestyle, are presented to feature Hangzhou's new image as a thriving city with traditional Chinese charm and vitality in the post-COVID-19 era. Highlight 2: Exploring Hangzhou with Singaporean Experience Officer Frankson Lee, General Manager of InterContinental Hangzhou and a Singaporean, is featured in a short clip as the experience officer who joins four local MICE suppliers to explore exciting MICE venues in Hangzhou and brings a "Singaporean perspective of Hangzhou." By diving into the infinite charm of MICE industry, Frankson takes the audience on a thrilling trip to discover Hangzhou's latest MICE products. His trip includes the introduction to Zhe school of qin, an intangible cultural heritage that amasses thousands of years of traditional Chinese culture; canoeing, a delightful, recreational teambuilding activity; a visit to Alibaba, a corporate champion that embodies Hangzhou' achievements in digital economy; and a visit to Chenghuang Pavilion which abounds with Hangzhou's beauty and cultural heritage. At the half-century-old West Lake Guqin Society, Frankson learns the essence of Chinese music from Xu Junyue, an inheritor of the Zhe school of qin, and talks about poetic lifestyle in the melody of the instrument. Guided by Alibaba Group PR expert Zhang Yuan, Frankson pays a visit to Alibaba's headquarters to discover its innovative corporate culture and management philosophy, and the unique charm of an international enterprise and representative of China's new economic industry. On the beautiful Xianghu Lake, he ventures on a low-carbon aquatic trip and is given a glimpse to the passion and vitality that Hangzhou will offer in the 2022 Asian Games. In Chenghuang Pavilion at the peak of Mountain Wu, he gives a go at diancha under the guidance of Xu Zhigao, an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage from Song Dynasty, and peeks into the integration of the past and the present. Hangzhou, as a MICE destination, captures the imagination of its visitors with ever-growing charm. Highlight 3: Bridging Supply and Demand for Recovery The roadshow also features the online matchmaking of 37 Singapore-based quality MICE customers with 31 MICE service providers in Hangzhou for potential cooperation in the future. While enhancing the connection of both sides, their dialog on supply and demand has paved the way for the development of cross-border MICE cooperation in the post-COVID-19 era. Singapore-based customers such as Experia Events Pte. Ltd., a former organizer of the Singapore Airshow, M.I.C.E. Matters, a professional MICE company with projects in over 30 countries, and TLC Events Pte. Ltd., a front-running digital MICE company, along with the representatives of high-caliber enterprises and associations, such as Autodesk Asia, SiS Asia and Hemispheres Foundation, attend the event. During the one-hour business negotiation, they join Hangzhou-based MICE service providers in 3 rounds of interviews, which expands the international market of Hangzhou's MICE industry and fuels the city's new takeoff as an international conference destination with new business opportunities presented in real-time interaction. SOURCE Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV and Tourism EDWARDSVILLE The Madison County Sheriffs Department has been able to start transferring prisoners to Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) facilities after a judge ruled the state could not prohibit the transfers. The sheriffs department was recently able to transfer 18 of the 55 prisoners in Madison County who had been convicted and sentenced. They were taken to the Graham Correctional Center on Thursday. As of Friday the county had 271 inmates in custody, including 21 being housed at the Alton Police Department, Jail Administrator Capt. William Marconi said. At Fridays Madison County Board Judiciary Committee meeting, Chief Deputy Sheriff Maj. Jeff Connor said the jail numbers were still too high, but it is an improvement. He said the transfer took eight hours. Each inmate had to have a test on site and be cleared before they move on to the next inmate, he said. The number of prisoners awaiting transfer had continued to increase since Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued executive orders barring the transfers in an effort to limit the spread of coronavirus in the states prison system. But, that created issues in county jails throughout the state. Sheriffs from several counties across the state, including Madison County, filed suit against the orders through the Illinois Sheriffs Association. A Logan Circuit Court judge ruled Monday that the order preventing the transfers was against state law and ordered the state to begin accepting prisoners. In Madison County, an effort to decrease the jail population in part because of the need to set up separate isolation areas for prisoners because of COVID-19, but also because of an ongoing $14 million jail renovation project had brought the inmate population down to less than 200 from the mid-300s, but the numbers started creeping up again. The Madison County Jail saw a sharp increase of prisoners in July compared to June, and an even more dramatic increase from April, when the impact of the coronavirus on jail operations began taking effect. On May 28 the Illinois Sheriffs Association filed a lawsuit against Pritzker and the IDOC for refusing to accept transfers since March 26. This has left the sheriffs to bear not only the burden of protecting their detainees and county-sentenced inmates from the threat of the virus, the association said in a released statement, but also those who rightfully should be in the custody of IDOC at a time when space and inmate population are critical components to battling the spread of the virus. Jails continue to accept new arrestees and manage the spread of the virus simultaneously. Greene County had moved five prisoners from its facility to the states care by Tuesday. Greene County Sheriffs Rob McMillen said keeping the prisoners has been a burden. We are a 21-bed facility, and yesterday we were holding 22 inmates, which was low for the past few months, McMillen said Wednesday. Being able to ship out five inmates, bringing our population down to sixteen, makes things a lot more manageable. The jail has been housing on average 25 inmates since March, not holding some lower-level offenders because of the lack of space. One hundred years ago and up until 1929, France's territory covered about 8.7% of the Earth. With 72 countries belonging to France at different points in its history, it was one of the largest empires in the world. Today, there are still over a dozen overseas territories that belong to France, scattered in the Caribbean, and in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Most of them are island states in the southern hemisphere of the world. Some islands are vacation spots with tropical dry heat, that vary in price range from exclusive to accessible; others portray the typical island nations living conditions, and some are absolutely unique places to the rest of the world. Here is a closer look at some of the most notable islands that make up overseas France. St. Martin Half-governed by the Dutch empire under the Netherlands' rule, and half by France, St. Martin is a two-in-one destination, boasting two distinctive languages, cultures and strong personalities at each side. Having been to both the Netherlands and France, one can easily imagine a miniature Europe with a tropical climate, sitting on the Atlantic Ocean. Marigot town, St. Martin. Image credit: Sean Pavone/Shutterstock Wallis and Futuna Just over 140 miles away from each other, these two French islands in the midst of the Pacific Ocean have diverse heritages: Wallis' people come from Tonga, while the Futuna traces from Samoa. Although their languages are different, they are mutually comprehensible. What unites them is their competitive mindset. Being the home to the central government, as well as more populated with about 10,750 people, gives Wallis a heightened feeling of importance. Mayotte The Arabs invaded this island in the 15th century, converting its inhabitants to Islam, and being paid a visit by the Portuguese and French a century later. The Malagasy tribe from Madagascar invaded and took over at the end of the 18th century, leaving behind its dialect to the present day. Finally, in 1843 the French took control, possibly having liked what they saw on their initial voyage. Now, it is a homey island with a very noticeable French influence. Its maritime warm and humid climate causes the temperatures to hold from 75F to 81F (24-27C), with December being the warmest month of the year. The hills, full of lush evergreen tropical trees and houses in between, lead down to a habitable shore with ports, used for fishing and shipping out Mayotte's main exports, ylang-ylang extract and farmed fish. Mayotte imports goods like food products, machinery, chemicals, and transport equipment, with France as its main trading partner, as well as its source of consistent economic aid. The prominent ethnic composition of Mayotte is the Mahorais of the Sunni Muslim religion, although there are also some Roman Catholics. Mayotte also has a very young population, working in healthcare, computer sciences and telecommunication. Clipperton Island This ring-shaped tiny island, 600-some miles (1,000 km) away from Mexico, was named after a British pirate. Swarming with little crabs, as well as covered by pointy corals and smelling like ammonia when it is not raining from May to October, this island is virtually uninhabitable and only desirable to the French for militaristic and scientific purposes. It is interesting that at one point, the US, France, Britain and Mexico, all claimed ownership of it and fought bitterly in its shark-infested waters for its strategic location and a surface layer of guanothe droppings of seabirds, bats, and seals that make up a nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich fertilizer. Saint Barthelemy This small harbor-sheltered island with only one town, Gustavia, named after Sweden's monarch Gustav III, is a popular winter getaway for the French, the Americans and other Europeans. Previously occupied by France in 1648, it was sold to Sweden in 1784, and then returned back to the French in 1877 after a citizens' vote. As a vacation spot for the rich and famous, it is only accessible by a ferry ride from St. Martin, or a 15 min flight from its two airports. The airport at St. Barts has gained worldwide recognition for planes flying meters above the vacationing crowd's heads. Reunion A melting pot of cultures, this island nation is comprised of Africans, people from Madagascar, Asia and Europe. The different traditions, cuisines, and religions exist symbiotically in the Indian Ocean, East of Africa's coast, far from the politicized world. Every way one turns poses a sight to behold: from sharp mountain peaks, volcano displays and high-falling waterfalls to fine-sanded beaches hugging crystal blue waters that are also home to many whales. The famous "savage" ashen-colored coasts of this castaway heaven, are said to transport one to a moon-like environment. Saint Denis is the capital of the picturesque Reunion Island. Image credit: julienjanusko/Shutterstock Guadeloupe Consisting of large and small islands, Guadeloupe uses the Euro and is part of the European Union, with four deputies in the National Assembly. It is not part of the Schengen zone, however, which consists of 26 European countries, through which European citizens can travel visa-free. The two biggest Guadeloupian islands, Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre, are joined by two bridges. Basse-Terre is also the name of Guadeloupes capital, situated on the island of its namesake. The airport is located on Grande-Terre, but not too far from the bridge, so that it is easily accessible for the people of the capital. Smaller islands are the La Desirade, Les Saintes, and Marie-Galante. Martinique Although smaller by land and population than Guadeloupe, the island of Martinique also has four deputies in the National Assembly. It is either a 4.5-hour ferry ride or a quick flight over from Guadeloupe. Martinique is a popular tourist destination. Image credit: Damien VERRIER/Shutterstock Kerguelen Islands Located in the extreme deep south of the Indian Ocean, this "speck in the sea" actually consists of the main Desolation Island, and roughly 300 tiny surrounding islands. Active glaciers cover the Desolation Island for nearly 100 miles (160 km), peaking at up to 6,445 feet. For curious tourists, it is reachable exclusively by a ship that costs 15,000 Euros for a cabin spot, and departs only four times per year; the icy location does not host the necessary conditions for an airport. Not surprisingly, Kerguelen does not see many visitors but is a permanent home to French scientists, engineers, and researchers, 50 to 100 at any given time. They are governed by the same government as their mother country, meaning that not only do the same laws apply, but island nations have representatives in the French parliament, and the people can vote when elections are held in mainland France. Interestingly enough, this is unique to France alone, as it is not the case with the United Kingdom's and the US' self-governed overseas territories. Rating Action: Moody's upgrades Sherwin-Williams' ratings to Baa2; commercial paper rating to P-2 Global Credit Research - 06 Aug 2020 New York, August 06, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") upgraded The Sherwin-Williams Company's ("Sherwin") senior unsecured ratings to Baa2 from Baa3 and upgraded the commercial paper rating to P-2 from P-3. The outlook is stable. "Sherwin-Williams has demonstrated resilience during a historically difficult macroeconomic environment in 2020 and reduced debt by more than $2 billion since acquiring Valspar in June 2017, " said Ben Nelson, Moody's Vice President -- Senior Credit Officer and lead analyst for The Sherwin-Williams Company. Upgrades: ..Issuer: Sherwin-Williams Company (The) .... Commercial Paper, Upgraded to P-2 from P-3 ....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture, Upgraded to Baa2 from Baa3 Outlook Actions: ..Issuer: Sherwin-Williams Company (The) ....Outlook, Changed To Stable From Positive RATINGS RATIONALE Moody's upgraded the ratings to reflect continued improvement in the company's earnings, cash flow, and credit metrics despite an unprecedented shock from outbreaks of Coronavirus in the United States and around the world. Sherwin's business has held up better than rated peers in the coatings industry and the vast majority of rated chemical companies. Revenues fell modestly and EBITDA improved in the first half of 2020 following the company's aggressive pivot to focus on curbside pickup, delivery, and other methods to maintain business levels during rolling lockdowns, limitations on retail businesses, and adoption of social distancing policies across the United States. This demonstrated very clearly the strength and flexibility of its excellent brands, strong retail network, fleet of delivery vehicles, and customer-focused mentality. The company generated $1.8 billion of free cash flow over the past four quarters, maintained an excellent liquidity position, and successfully completed attractively-priced debt offerings. Story continues Sherwin' Baa2 senior unsecured ratings balance the strength of the company's business model and stated intention to reduce leverage against longer-term event risk in a still-fragmented global coatings industry. The company's business model features an excellent position in the North American architectural paints business, strong retail network, and demonstrated ability to operate successfully through economic cycles. Acquiring Valspar Corporation (The) in June 2017 strengthened the company's growth platform in more industrially-oriented end markets and international geographies -- both of which remain modest contributors to earnings and cash flow today. Management reiterated an intention to reduce leverage to 2.0-2.5x (Debt/EBITDA; management's definition) and reported leverage of 2.8x on a trailing twelve months basis ending 30 June 2020. The rating incorporates that management will achieve this target in the coming quarters through a combination of earnings improvement and/or debt reduction. The rating also assumes that the company will continue to increase its regular dividend over time and resume share repurchases in the second half of 2020, which will slow deleveraging compared to a scenario where substantially all free cash flow is deployed toward debt reduction like 2018 and 2019. M&A opportunities in the coatings industry remain significant and event risk is a meaningful factor constraining the pace of improvement in the company's ratings. Environmental, social, and governance factors are important factors influencing Sherwin-Williams' credit quality. The company is exposed to ESG issues typical for a company in the specialty chemical industry, including manufacturing products that are subject to specific regulatory scrutiny. Coatings companies typically have lower environmental risks related to manufacturing processes compared to other specialty chemical companies. Governance risks are similar to other publicly-traded chemical companies. The most significant ESG risk for Sherwin-Williams is social risk related the company's exposure to health and safety issues related to the legacy use of lead in coatings products. Sherwin-Williams has been successful at defending against lead paint litigation for the past several decades with modest expected cash payments today. FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS The stable outlook assumes that adjusted financial leverage will track down into the 2.25-2.75x range and retained cash flow-to-debt will track above 20% (RCF/Debt) over the next 12-18 months. Moody's could upgrade the ratings with expectations for adjusted financial leverage sustained below 2.5x, retained cash flow-to-debt increasing toward 25%, and free cash flow-to-debt sustained comfortably above 10%. Moody's could also downgrade the ratings with expectations for adjusted financial leverage sustained above 3.0x, retained cash flow-to-debt sustained below 20%, or adoption of more aggressive financial policies. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Sherwin-Williams is engaged in the manufacture, development, distribution, and sale of coatings and related products to professional, industrial, commercial, and retail customers. The company manufactures products under well-known brands such as Sherwin-Williams, Dutch Boy, Krylon, Minwax, Thompson's Water Seal, and many more. Sherwin-Williams branded products are sold exclusively through a chain of nearly 5,000 company-operated stores and facilities, while the company's other brands are sold through leading mass merchandisers, home centers, independent paint dealers, hardware stores, automotive retailers, and industrial distributors. The Sherwin-Williams Global Finishes Group distributes a wide range of products in more than 115 countries around the world. The company generated about $17.7 billion of revenue for the last twelve months ended 30 June 2020. The principal methodology used in these ratings was Chemical Industry published in March 2019 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1152388. 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. Benjamin Nelson VP - Senior Credit Officer 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 Glenn B. Eckert 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. 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Maria Moroz, an ally of opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has been detained on eve of tense vote. The campaign manager of Belaruss leading opposition candidate has been detained on the eve of a tense presidential election, her office said. A spokeswoman for presidential hopeful Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said Maria Moroz was detained on Saturday. It was not immediately clear on what grounds she had been held. She probably wont be released before Monday, spokeswoman Anna Krasulina told the AFP news agency. Tikhanovskaya herself is OK, said the spokeswoman, adding, however, that the candidate who has emerged as the greatest challenge in years to longtime President Alexander Lukashenko had left her flat and would spend the night before the crucial vote elsewhere. Moroz was also briefly detained on Thursday after visiting the Lithuanian embassy in the capital, Minsk. Also on Saturday evening, police detained, but then released, a top ally of Tikhanovskaya, Maria Kolesnikova. Kolesnikova was originally a member of the campaign team for Viktor Babariko, the former head of a local bank who was detained after he launched his presidential bid. After Babarikos arrest, Kolesnikova became the joint face of the opposition campaign backing Tikhanovskaya, who has drawn huge crowds to campaign rallies throughout the country after she was allowed to participate in place of her husband, a popular anti-government blogger who was jailed and barred from running. Lukashenko has headed the ex-Soviet country bordering Russia since 1994 and Sundays polls are expected to hand him his sixth term. The 65-year-old has presided over an aggressive crackdown on the opposition and Tikhanovskaya has charged that he will rig the vote. Lukashenko, who is Europes longest-serving leader, jailed two of his main rivals in the elections, while another would-be candidate fled the country. The president has accused Moscow and Western countries of meddling in the elections. Early voting began in the country of 9.5 million people on Tuesday, with official turnout during the past four days already at more than 32 percent. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:38:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Saud Abu Ramadan GAZA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- On Saturday, tens of thousands of children returned to schools in the besieged Gaza Strip following a five-month closure of educational institutions due to the outbreak of coronavirus in the Palestinian territories. All the schools run by Hamas government's Ministry of Education, private schools, and schools run by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), reopened on Saturday morning with instructions of taking all the precautionary measures against the pandemic. The Ministry of Education and the UNRWA announced starting the new academic year 2020-2021 one month ahead of the annual schedule to catch up the period which was interrupted by the outbreak of COVID-19 in March. According to the ministry and the UNRWA, all the schools in the Gaza Strip were sterilized in the past couple of days. The school hour was reduced to five instead of seven, said the Ministry of Education officials. The students would study the remedial curriculum that have not been completed through last year, said the officials, adding that everyone should wear facemask and gloves. Farid Abu Azra, head of UNRWA Education Program in Gaza, told Xinhua that "we have a series of programs that aim at presenting psychological support to the students who have been negatively affected by staying at home for a long period." "Besides, we will teach the students in our schools how to deal with the new virus by urging them to follow health and preventive precautionary instructions and adopt these measures to be as part of the children's daily routine," according to Abu Azra. He explained that UNRWA schools would manage to integrate traditional education with distance learning, to reduce the number of hours students stay at schools. UNRWA said that it had received 285,768 Palestine refugee students in 277 schools, including 32,083 in the first grade of primary school. Meanwhile, Ayman al-Yazoory, a senior official in the Hamas-run Ministry of Education, told Xinhua that "there are 402 governmental schools and 265,000 schoolchildren in the Gaza Strip." UNRWA said in an official statement that the afternoon shift would start an hour and a half after the end of the morning period, to sterilize schools between the two periods. The statement also said that it decided to cancel the canteens (cafeterias) in the current period, calling on students to bring their own food and water bottles from their homes. Ziad Thabet, undersecretary of the Ministry of Education in the Gaza Strip, told Xinhua that during August, schoolchildren would receive remedial materials, while the number of classes per school day would be 4 classes only. He explained that the ministry had prepared multiple scenarios to deal with the school year, including different stages. On March 22, the Hamas-run Gaza government, declared a state of emergency, imposing a series of precautionary restrictions. All schools, universities, mosques, and restaurants have been shut down, and public gatherings have been prohibited, especially in the marketplaces. The densely populated Gaza Strip, home of more than two million Palestinians, didn't record any COVID-19 infections among the populations in the cities, towns, and refugee camps. However, since March 5, the Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza recorded 78 infections of Palestinians, citizens of the Gaza Strip that traveled abroad and returned to Gaza through Rafah crossing point with Egypt or Erez Crossing point with Israel. Besides the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for more than 13 years, Hamas authorities, which have been ruling the coastal enclave since 2007, is strictly dealing with preventing the pandemic in the territory. Hamas controls the two main crossing points either between Gaza and Egypt or between Gaza and Israel, and any Gaza citizen who comes from abroad through the two crossing points is immediately taken to quarantine outside the densely populated areas. Enditem The Trump administration has steadily ramped up its actions in a broader economic and geopolitical fight with China Washington: President Donald Trumps sudden decision late Thursday to restrict two popular Chinese social media services from the United States has created confusion about how broad the bans on doing business with China could ultimately be. That confusion may be part of the point. Citing national security concerns, the Trump administration announced that it would bar people and property within US jurisdictions from carrying out transactions with WeChat and TikTok, the two Chinese-owned apps, after 45 days. But the White House did not define what those transactions included, leaving companies bewildered about whether they may be forced to fundamentally change their business within a matter of weeks. Stoking this kind of uncertainty is something that the Trump administration has not been apologetic about in the past. Some White House advisers see it as a feature rather than a bug of their policy process, arguing that the risk of further crackdowns will dissuade US companies from operating in China. That, they said, is a good thing because Chinese policies like civil-military fusion have undermined the ability of both Chinese and US companies to operate independently in China. Mobile apps like TikTok and WeChat that collect your personal or business information and that can track, surveil or monitor your movements put you and your family in the crosshairs of an Orwellian regime, Peter Navarro, White House director of trade and manufacturing policy, said in an interview. He posed a question to mothers in the US: Its 10 p.m. Does the Chinese Communist Party know where your children are Navarro acknowledged that some multinationals might oppose the measures but said that the American public is tired of the corporate greed that, before the Age of Trump, sent our jobs overseas and now endangers our national security and privacy. Critics countered that the Trump administrations unpredictable actions threaten to compromise the secure business environment that the United States is known for, in which rule of law prevails and the government rarely interferes in the market. The government inserting this much uncertainty into the business landscape and into the user landscape is deeply problematic, said Matt Perault, a professor of Duke Universitys Center for Science & Technology Policy. On Friday, TikTok, which is owned by Chinese internet conglomerate ByteDance, said in a statement that it was shocked by the recent executive order, which was issued without any due process. It said it had sought to work with the US government for nearly a year but instead found the White House paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses. A spokesman for Tencent, the parent company of WeChat, which is widely used in China and around the world as a messaging and payments app, said it was reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding. The Trump administration has steadily ramped up its actions in a broader economic and geopolitical fight with China, starting with a trade war that put tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese products in 2018 and 2019. It also introduced restrictions on other kinds of Chinese technology, including clamping down on exports to Chinese telecom giant Huawei. The sudden, vaguely worded order from the White House on Thursday night, which came without further explanation or a media briefing, followed a familiar model for some of the other policy announcements on China from the Trump administration. Many have left multinational companies in suspense for days or weeks about the specifics. With policy moves like tariffs and export controls, the Trump administration wielded uncertainty as a source of leverage, using it to frighten companies into compliance and leaving themselves room to back down or escalate the situation. The executive orders on WeChat and TikTok leave the determination of what constitutes a transaction up to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. According to the language of the orders, Ross will make that determination in 45 days, meaning it would not be clear to businesses what will be included in the ban until it actually goes into effect. It may be that it wont be nearly as bad as people might fear, said Jason Waite, a partner at the law firm Alston & Bird, adding that the administration might discover legal or practical concerns with putting the order in place in the interim. It is a 45-day surprise. People familiar with the deliberations said administration officials clearly intended to target the presence of WeChat and TikTok on the Google and Apple app stores, cutting off downloads and updates for the Chinese apps. It is unclear if the restrictions could affect other parts of the Chinese companies sprawling portfolios and business dealings, particularly for Tencent. The order appears to bar transactions with Tencent or its subsidiaries that are specifically related to WeChat. That suggests it would not affect Tencents sprawling investment relationships and business dealings with companies such as Tesla; Snapchat owner Snap; the NBA; Activision Blizzard, the maker of the video game World of Warcraft; and Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite. But many US companies, including Visa, Mastercard and Starbucks, have more direct partnerships with WeChat in China to use its payment platform and e-commerce functions. Whether those kinds of activities would be barred in China or around the world, or whether phone-makers like Apple would be allowed to sell mobile phones installed with WeChat, remain up in the air. The Trump administration has left itself a lot of wiggle room in terms of what is covered, how quickly prohibitions will be carried out, and how the order will be enforced, said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Relations. Other Chinese tech companies could find themselves as the next target of the Trump administration. US officials viewed the executive orders on TikTok and WeChat as a template that could be applied to other Chinese companies, and some have discussed whether services like Alibabas Alipay pose a similar national security concern, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Theres definitely a chilling effect, said Samm Sacks, a fellow in cybersecurity policy and Chinas digital economy fellow at New America, a think tank. But she said that companies like Alibaba and Tencent had long understood the risks of operating in the United States. This latest move may have come as a surprise, but their real growth strategies have never focused in the US, she said. Theyve always known it was a hostile environment. Ana Swanson c.2020 The New York Times Company Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said there is a noticeable increase in COVID-19cases in the state following the return of residents who were stranded in other parts of the country, especially in containment zones with many cases. Addressing a press conference in Dharamshala on Saturday, the chief minister reiterated that no previous government had any experience to tackle a pandemic-like situation of such proportions as COVID-19 but asserted that the government was handling it well. The state has reported a total of 3,151 cases till Friday with 13 deaths so far. During this pandemic, the entire world including India is facing aneconomic crisis. Himachal [Pradesh] too suffered an economic loss of around Rs 1,300 crore in the first quarter of financial year 2020-21. Our financial liabilities have increased by Rs 737 crore due to some budget announcements," Thakur said. He added that salaries, wages and pensions of government employees have been disbursed on time thanks to the Central government that has not reduced the state's financial dues. Thakur added that the private sector including tourism, transport and other businesses had faced its worst crisis and the revenue loss is estimated to be around Rs 30,000 crore but there are green shoots with these sectors slowly coming back on track. Though public movement is almost unrestricted in the country after Unlock 3, he claimed that HP is the only state in north India that is still registering the incoming people entering the state to keep a track of their contacts for monitoring during the pandemic. Bringing back stranded people of HP was the duty of the state government, Thakur said, adding that around 2.5 lakh Himachalis were brought back so far by the state government from the rest of the country. The CM said many talented people with various skills have also returned to the state during this period and the government has made provisions to enable them register online to link them to the relevant industries for re-employment. He said, Some people criticised our guidelines for the touristsbut none of the tourists have beenreported positive for so far. After Unlock 1, we opened the public transport with initial occupancy at just 10 per cent but it is now picking up slowly and has reached 40 per cent. He said the government is now emphasising on the pace of development works so that the economy could be geared up. We came to know that around Rs 12,000 crore are lying unspent in various departments. So, we have instructed officials to take up these works on priority, the chief minister further said. (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.) Daniel Dvoress has won Event #48: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER on GGPoker for a massive score of $1,489,289! The Canadian high roller, one of the most accomplished players without WSOP gold with over $15M in winnings on his Hendon Mob, defeated a 6,299-player field to capture his maiden bracelet. Caio "Ez4ENCE" De Almeida of Brazil finished runner-up, making himself a millionaire in the process as well with $1,072,428. Russia's Anatoly "Mr_Deer" Filatov completed the podium and received $772,251 for finishing third. For some of the elite, crossing their name off the infamous "best player without a bracelet" short list might mean getting a monkey off their back. However, it wasn't the case for Dvoress a fixture in high rollers across the globe as he hasn't put himself into that spot to begin with, instead shying away from the limelight in Sin City. In an extensive feature with PokerNews leading up to the delayed MILLIONAIRE MAKER final table the event was paused for six days to accommodate for livestreaming on Saturday Dvoress touched on never having traveled to Las Vegas to compete in the WSOP. Check out the PokerNews feature on Daniel Dvoress "I'm likely missing out on some EV, especially with the Main Event, but have been enjoying taking previous summers off and focusing on things outside poker," he said, also citing an unfavorable tax treaty between the US and Canada as a reason. "Between other live events and the usually packed online schedule right before the summer with SCOOP and everything surrounding it, I'm usually pretty burned out by the summer and welcome the time to focus on health, fitness, and doing things outdoors." But in 2020, the world is different. With COVID-19 turning the tournament calendar on its head, the online WSOP on GGPoker suddenly provided a unique opportunity for Dvoress to capture a prize that wasn't on his radar to begin with. And while he generally stays away from short-term poker goals where variance rears its head all too often, the fact was he had a rare chance to add to an already splendid resume. "While a bracelet wouldn't be the difference between success and failure, it would be a way to leave my mark in the WSOP forever," Dvoress said. Leave a mark he did, as his victory was nothing short of dominant. He maintained the chip lead start to finish and eliminated his final five opponents single-handedly and in record fashion to end the tournament in style. 2020 WSOP Online Event #48: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER Final Table Results Place Player Country Prize 1 Daniel Dvoress Canada $1,489,289 2 Caio "Ez4ENCE" De Almeida Brazil $1,072,428 3 Anatoly "Mr_Deer" Filatov Russia $772,251 4 Michael "MrFabulous" Nugent Canada $556,095 5 Alejandro "pepealas" Caridad Argentina $400,412 6 Neville "NevSlater" Endo Costa Brazil $288,356 7 Ronny Kaiser Switzerland $207,644 8 Tomasz "SushiJanushi" Cybulski Poland $149,523 9 Aneris "TaiwanNumba1" Adomkevicius Lithuania $107,671 The final hand Short Stacks Looking to Ladder As a textbook example of how ICM affects final tables, the players competed into very shallow waters right off the bat with five out of nine stacks starting off below the 10 big blind mark. With each jump being worth at least $40,000, laddering up was on many a player's mind, which resulted in plays like Ronny Kaiser folding his blinds to leave himself half a big blind. Dvoress, meanwhile, put his chip lead to work, relentlessly flinging his chips around to put the pressure on the other finalists. The blinds even moved up after the first hand, making it one of the shallowest final tables in recent memory. One of the shorties had to budge soon and it would be Aneris "TaiwanNumba1" Adomkevicius to break first, followed by Tomasz "SushiJanushi" Cybulski before Ronny Kaiser's short stack adventure would end. All three players busted out holding three or fewer big blinds. While not being involved in the eliminations up to that point, Dvoress was active in every other hand, picking up tons of blinds and antes with his ubiquitous shoves to never see his chip lead come under threat at any stage. He'd go on to eliminate the remaining players starting with Neville "NevSlater" Endo Costa, who also had just three big blinds in his final hand. Anatoly "Mr_Deer" Filatov finished in 3rd place ($772,251) Dvoress Finishes It in Style If there was a time at the final table where Dvoress' lead was slightly challenged, it would be after the hand where Caio "Ez4ENCE" De Almeida doubled through the chip leader. Not to be denied, Dvoress won the next four hands uncontested to distance himself from De Almeida and the others again. After the break, the Canadian separated himself even further when Caridad would fall with queen-jack against his eights in the biggest pot of the tournament up until that point. Within mere minutes, the tournament was over as Dvoress also eliminated Nugent and Filatov in short order, before making quick work of De Almeida in two hands. In the final hand, the Brazilian's crumbs went in with king-eight. Dvoress looked him up with the king-queen and held up to make good on his opportunity. Due to the massive prize pool of nearly $9 million, De Almeida also became a poker millionaire for his second-place finish. As Ontarios back-to-school plans face increased scrutiny with thousands of parents calling for smaller elementary class sizes, leaders at the Hospital for Sick Children say that keeping classroom numbers low enough to enable physical distancing is key to curbing transmission of COVID-19 in schools. SickKids President and CEO Dr. Ronald Cohn told the Star he will not back a plan that does not ensure proper physical distancing between students. If you have a certain number of children in a class and physical distancing will be compromised by the number of children in the class, then we cannot and will not support this, Cohn said. Asked specifically about kindergarten classes with potentially 30 students in a single classroom, Dr. Upton Allen, head of infectious diseases at the hospital, said: To me, personally, it seems like a lot. And I think that its certainly something that needs to be looked at. Both physicians said the provinces school plan, released on July 30, adopted a majority of the recommendations in a guidance document led by SickKids and co-authored by more than 30 public health and medical experts. But they emphasized the necessity of a multi-pronged approach to keeping schools safe, including, among other things, cleaning, masking and physical distancing. They said each measure is critical to the bundled response. Each compromise you make in the bundle is, by a certain degree, going to increase the risk, there is no doubt about it, Cohn said. If class sizes are not reduced, and that has an impact on other aspects of the bundle, that is a problem. And I would hope that through creative solutions we will be able to avoid that. Despite concerns over elementary class sizes, Cohn and Allen both said schools are the best places for kids come September, noting the risks of keeping children at home for the duration of the pandemic. They also expressed worry over a growing movement among some parents to create private learning pods. Cohn said he believes the province understands the complexity of reopening schools during a pandemic. While Ontarios current plan is the most-comprehensive in Canada, we have to strive for the best possible implementation, he said. Premier Doug Ford has called the provincial school plan for Ontarios two million students the best plan, bar none, across the country, saying it was developed in consultation with the best medical minds in Canada. The SickKids-led guidance document states that smaller class sizes should be a priority strategy as it will aid in physical distancing and reduce potential spread. The plan the government unveiled last week requires students from Grade 4 to 12 to wear masks, and caps high school classes in large urban boards at 15, but has drawn fire from parents, teachers and public health officials for retaining usual class sizes for elementary students. At Queens Park on Friday, Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce again defended the plan, saying they had provided boards with resources to enable physical distancing, and were working with boards to find solutions. Were giving the boards $30 million to hire new staff, Ford said. More staff equals smaller classrooms. Lecce added: Weve already provided guidance to school boards in the context of using the full footprint of their schools their gymnasiums and cafeterias. Ultimately, weve encouraged them to be innovative and look for solutions within the context of utilizing spaces in their schools and many of them are doing that as we speak, he said. Ford said on Friday that the plan is all about flexibility a statement Allen said was encouraging. I would hope there may be some opportunities for further discussions, Allen said. Cohn said SickKids had not had a conversation with the province in the last couple days. When pressed about what is considered a safe number of elementary students in a class, Cohn and Allen would not provide a specific cut off, emphasizing that the size and orientation of individual classrooms would determine physical distancing needs. This is where we need to listen to the school boards and the teachers, Cohn said. If they say, If we dont reduce class sizes, then we are also not able to maintain physical distancing and other things, and then I do think this needs to be revisited. In an email Friday, Toronto District School Board spokesperson Ryan Bird said the board is working with the (education) ministry to explore options to lower elementary class sizes but that the limited funding the government has provided for additional staff is not enough to cover the requirements for a system our size, let alone the entire province. As we explore these different options, its important to note that, depending on funding, other strategies may have to be considered, such as shortening the school day, reassigning teachers from non-classroom roles and lowering class sizes only in areas deemed at risk by Toronto Public Health, Bird said. Toronto Public Health expressed concerns this week over the boards plan to retain full-size elementary classes which, as Bird noted, was prescribed by the ministry. Dr. Janine McCready, an infectious diseases physician at Michael Garron Hospital who reviewed the SickKids school document, said she was disappointed the Ministry of Education did not incorporate the recommendation for smaller class sizes at the elementary level. Smaller class sizes support physical distancing, which is really the most important intervention (inside a school), she said. With smaller cohorts of students, if there is an exposure, its a much smaller exposure ... The more kids you are exposing, there is a higher risk of causing a broader outbreak. McCready said while there is no specific cut off for classroom numbers that makes a student cohort safe, smaller groups will help distance students from each other and aid teachers who need to monitor children for symptoms, hand washing and mask-wearing. If you put more kids in the class, you are making it higher risk that all those other mitigation strategies wont line up and there will be a higher chance of exposure, she said. Is 15 kids different than 16 kids? No. But is 15 kids different than 30 kids? Certainly. McCready said she hopes the government will listen to the experts and take the feedback to heart. I worry that if we go back with higher class sizes, especially in higher-risk communities, we may see spread within those classes faster. That will set us back and cause so much anxiety with communities and families. As of Friday, some 180,000 people had signed a petition urging the government to reduce class sizes. Cohn, a pediatrician, acknowledges that anxiety levels are high among parents, but urged caution to those considering creating learning pods, which would bring children from several families together for home-schooling with a private tutor. He said pods require the same public health measures as schools, such as masking, enhanced cleaning and physical distancing, to be safe. Cohn also emphasized the importance of keeping community transmission low for the reopening of schools to succeed, as well as keeping kids home if theyre not 100 per cent. T he lion has always been the most revered of the big cats, and the animal everyone hopes to spot when they go on safari. But in the past century, numbers of wild lions living on the African continent have dwindled from 200,000 to 20,000, according to big cat conservation charity, Panthera. Ahead of World Lion Day (on Monday, August 10), the New Big 5 project has released some stunning images of lions in the wild to celebrate the brilliant animal and highlight Pantheras Project Leonardo. Project Leonardo looks to ensure the long-term survival of lions on the african continent by increasing the total population of lions by 50 per cent over the next 15 years to at least 30,000 lions. Panthera Lion Program Director, Dr. Paul Funston says: As we celebrate another World Lion Day, pausing to acknowledge this extraordinary wild animal, we must also recognise the particularly fragile state of this species. With fewer than 20,000 remaining in the wild, lions are disappearing right before our very eyes. Urgent action from the global community through financial support of lion range states and conservation organizations like Panthera to protect these wild cats is one of the most critical ways in which we can help to grow, rather than lose, Africas lions by World Lion Day 2021. Elie Wolf via www.newbig5.com Graeme Green, British wildlife photographer and New Big 5 project founder, adds: Lions are one of my favourite animals to photograph and to spend time with. Its impossible to imagine Africa without lions. As well as being incredible animals and wildlife icons, theyre also vital to the natural balance and the future of Africa. Thats why for World Lion Day 2020 the New Big 5 project is working to help raise money for Pantheras important work to ensure the long-term survival of African lions and to increase their numbers across the continent. Click through the gallery to see some incredible images of lions in the wild. For more information on the New Big 5 visit, newbig5.com and for information on Project Leonardo, visit: panthera.org. The toll from a landslide at Rajamalai in Keralas Idukki district went up to 27 as rescuers on Saturday pulled out 12 more bodies from a mound of debris and slush while search operations for 42 missing people continued despite heavy rains. State minister M M Mani, who is camping in Idukki, said there is little hope of finding any survivors now. The situation is really bleak, he said. Heavy rains triggered the landslide on Friday and buried a colony of tea plantation workers. The Idukki district administration said the number of missing people is likely to go up as many students staying in hostels had returned to their homes in the area due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The estimate of the missing people is based on the employment registry of the workers employer, Kannan Devean Hill Plantation (KDHP) Limited. But local leaders said many like students and guests are not accounted for in the registry. There is some confusion about the exact number of missing, said Idukki collector H Dineshan. Relatives of the missing people have crowded the area and were seen pleading with rescue officials to search at particular points. Some of them broke down saying at least they should get bodies of the missing. District panchayat president Kochu Thresia said Rajamalai is not landslide-prone area and that is why they did not take many precautions. During 2018 and 2019 floods, the area was least affected. Power and communication lines were cut off over the last four days. This really aggravated the situation, said Thresia. He added heavy rains lashing the area disrupted rescue work several times. At least six teams of the National Disaster Response Force are involved in the rescue operations in Idukki, where some areas have received 220 mm rain. Union minister V Muraleedhran, who is from Kerala, said he will visit Idukki on Sunday on Prime Minister Narendra Modis directions. Modi has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 2 lakh each for the victims and the state government Rs five lakh. KDHP also announced a relief of Rs 2 lakh each to those killed in the landslide. The weather department has issued a red alert for five districts, including Idukki and Wayanad, where all major rivers are in spate and dams have swollen because of heavy rains. Five more flood-related deaths were reported from other areas of the state. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who represents Wayanad in Parliament, urged his party workers to lend a helping hand to the Kerala government. Heavy rains in Kerala have resulted in floods and a massive landslide in Munnar in which many have lost their lives. This is a terrible tragedy. I urge all our Congress party workers and leaders to lend a helping hand at this time and do whatever they can to mitigate the suffering of our brothers and sisters who are in need of help, wrote Gandhi on his Facebook page. He added he is particularly concerned about his parliamentary constituency and is closely tracking the situation there. The yearly flooding and landslides in Kerala are a grim reminder that we have to work harder to protect our environment and create sustainable development models that allow us to cope with changing weather patterns and extreme climatic disturbances. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON May 25 marked the 39th anniversary of the founding of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Across the Gulf, the occasion was welcomed as an opportunity to reflect on how the COVID-19 pandemic might spur and heal an institution the GCC. June 5 marked the third anniversary of the air, land and sea blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt on Qatar. Over the last weeks, rumours that Doha might be considering leaving the GCC intensified after news of an attempted coup against the Al Thani royal family were shared by Saudi Twitter users and media outlets. It was later dubbed a Saudi-led disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting the royal family. Asked about the veracity of those rumours and the future of the GCC, Qatars Deputy Foreign Minister Lolwah al-Khater not only labelled allegation of a Qatari secession wholly incorrect and baseless, but added that, Qatar hopes the GCC will once again be a platform of cooperation and coordination. An effective GCC is needed now more than ever, given the challenges facing our region. At the forefront of the challenges mentioned by al-Khater is COVID-19, the pandemic that has been debilitating the world. The impacts it will have on gulf countries foreign policy decisions is far from certain. As Ambassador Gerald Feierstien from the Middle East Institute notes, COVID-19 might have a stabilising effect on the GCC: as governments in the region grapple with the domestic fallout of the pandemic, their priority will certainly be ensuring internal stability rather than sustaining regional competitions. Related: Ocasio-Cortez Could Deal A Fatal Blow To U.S. Oil Pipelines The very story of the GCC, however, suggests otherwise, meaning the security dilemmas that inhibited the GCC role as a multilateral body are likely to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 emergency. Historically diffident allies Bringing together Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar and Oman, the GCC was formed in Abu Dhabi in 1981, during the Iran-Iraq war. Originally, the Council was created with two goals in mind: coordinating resistance to outside intervention in the Gulf while boosting free trade among its member states. As time went by, the GCC promise of serving as a coordinated bloc faltered as its member states started relying on external powers -first and foremost the United States- as security guarantors. Washingtons military and economic support were crucial for two reasons: to maintain the bloc security against rival neighbours such as Saddam Husseins Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran, but also to secure the GCC states against one anothers expansionist aims. The outsourcing of military security to external guarantors such as the US posed a security dilemma in an organization that had originally been created to resist any outside intervention in Gulf affairs. At the same time, the political ascent of Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ) in the UAE and of Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) in Saudi Arabia meant trust started giving way to diffidence within the GCC, as Saudi Arabia and the UAE moved to dominate the blocs political agenda. The economic blockade of Qatar, therefore seen as an attempt by the part of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to put Doha -problem child of the Gulf- in line, after repeatedly criticizing Qatar due to its pursuit of autonomous regional policies such as the support for the Muslim Brotherhood. The impact of COVID-19 It can be argued that the GCC is increasingly a hostage of the Saudi-Emirati power play, and the spread of Coronavirus risks dealing a fatal blow to an already weak institution. Faced with the health hazards and the economic downturn caused by the spread of the virus, countries in and outside of the Gulf have been prioritizing domestic over external policy considerations. This is especially true for the United States, now grappling with the devastating economic recession caused by COVID-19 as well as with the countrywide protests erupted after the death of George Floyd, an African American man, at the hands of the police. Related: Oil Market Contango Returns In A Sign Of New Glut The emergence of these fault lines will likely force the United States to shift its attention inward. An even more drastic American disengagement from the Middle East is hence to be expected in the coming months. This will have immediate consequences at the GCC level. Lacking the presence of an external security guarantor able to secure the GCC both from external threats and internal power dynamics, the security fears of smaller GCC states are likely to accelerate, as Saudi Arabia and the UAE will continue vying for dominance within the bloc. Possible Scenarios: A fragile alliance Qatar will be forced to look to other guarantors to reduce its reliance on the whims of the GCC and minimize the effects of the blockade. It will reasonably turn to Ankara, particularly emboldened as a result of Erdogans aggressive military campaigns in Libya and Syria. The masterminds behind the 2017 blockade, on the other hand, will have little to no motivation for bringing the standstill to an end: if it is true that both Saudi Arabia and the UAE will have to focus their energies on dealing with the domestic fallout of COVID-19, it is also true that, as the Yemeni case teaches, flexing their muscles on the regional arena has been a recurrent way to divert the attention away from the many domestic challenges both countries face. The idea that bold foreign policy actions may bolster internal legitimacy in times of crisis is one of the reasons why it is unlikely that the Qatar blockade will end any time soon. Rather, the COVID-19 emergency may cause the GCC members to further entrench in their initial positions and exacerbate the security dilemmas that have long prevented the effectiveness of the GCC. By Global Risk Insights More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Carrie Bickmore has urged Australians to help each other cope amid the coronavirus pandemic. In her column for The Sunday Telegraph's Stellar magazine, The Project host said 'mental health doesn't discriminate'. The 39-year-old revealed she's 'lost count' of the number of people who have admitted to struggling, but feel guilty to complain as others are doing it tougher. 'Mental health doesn't discriminate': Carrie Bickmore (pictured), 39, said she's 'lost count' of the number of people struggling amid the pandemic... and urges Australians to help each other cope, in her column for The Sunday Telegraph's Stellar magazine Carrie told her readers that while we kept a sense of optimism at the start of the pandemic, some Australians are now struggling to keep their head above water. 'I've lost count of the number of people who have said they are struggling, but don't feel they can complain because there are others far worse off than them,' she wrote. Carrie encouraged Australians to not discredit their emotions or judge others who they perceive to not be doing it tough. 'But diminishing our feelings is the worst thing we can do. Just as criticising people who at face value have nothing to complain about is not helpful either,' she penned. Cracks starting to show: The Project host told her readers that while we kept a sense of optimism at the start of the pandemic, some Australians are now struggling to keep their head above water 'Everyone's circumstances are different. It's not a competition and mental health doesn't discriminate,' the mother-of-three added. Carrie concluded by urging Australians to not judge, and help one another forward out of the pandemic. The TV presenter's column comes after it was revealed calls to suicide crisis service Lifeline have reached record levels, amid a huge spike in unemployment, business closures and loneliness. Lifeline Australia chairman John Brogden said phone calls are being made to the suicide crisis service every 30 seconds. In it together: Carrie encouraged Australians to not discredit their emotions or judge others who they perceive to not be doing it tough Victorians have seen a massive 30 per cent increase in calls to the hotline since July, as the state battles a second wave of coronavirus. Canberra has also seen a 21 per cent increase in calls - 4,400 a month, amounting to 900 more than any other month. On June 30, the New South Wales government contributed $6million to Lifeline to ensure the services continue throughout COVID-19. Lifeline's Crisis Support director Mandy Larsson said it's a dire situation and more help is needed for Australians. Not a competition: 'Everyone's circumstances are different. It's not a competition and mental health doesn't discriminate,' the mother-of-three added 'It is a sensational number of calls and there are more and more callers in Canberra and across the nation that need support at the moment,' she told the ABC. Lifeline has taken additional steps in hiring more workers who want to help those in need. 'We have started a new recruitment round and we have had an overwhelming response to our need,' she said. Ms Larsson said employees are working extremely hard to ensure all calls are answered and working longer days. If you are struggling, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. Gov. David Umahi of Ebonyi has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to retain the current armed force service chiefs against the backdrop of calls from several quarters to replace them. Umahi gave the advice on Friday in Abakaliki while laying the foundation stone of the Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Abakaliki. The governor said that instead of replacing the service chiefs, the president should increase military funding and other logistics as well as enhance programmes that would make them work optimally. The president should also increase his meetings with them and enhance mechanisms that will make the civil populace co-operate and provide them with relevant information. Advertisement It is difficult for people to do anything without information and at this stage of our security situation, whosoever that is coming to replace them will start learning the ropes, he said. Umahi said that Nigerians like change a lot which makes everyone desire to taste every seat. This is not what we need at this crucial time of our security challenges as every decision taken by the present service chiefs are not taken by them alone, but with other senior officers. No man wants to die, so there is no way the army can sabotage itself. It was unfortunate that my colleague (Borno Governor) was ambushed, but I commend the army for the way it handled the matter professionally and with humility, he said. Umahi pledged the state governments co-operation to ensure the completion of the hospital and commended the army for its friendly disposition to the Ebonyi civilian populace. Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff, said that the 200-bed reference hospital was in line with the armys policy of enhancing the welfare of its personnel and their families, including families of the deceased. Buratai, represented by Lt.-Gen. Lamidi Adeosun, the Chief of Policy and Planning of the Nigerian Army, said that the occasion was a demonstration of the armys resolve to provide efficient healthcare delivery to its personnel and the populace within the South-East zone of the country. The internal security efforts of the army have resulted in casualties which require tertiary level of medical care of which our reference hospitals provide. The hospital will cater for troops in various operations, forward operating bases in Taraba, Benue and Cross River and provide tertiary health care for army formations in the south-east and south-south geo political zones, he said. Maj.-Gen. Yakubu Usman, the Chief of Administration of the Army, said that the hospital, which should be completed in six months, would be fully staffed and meet international standard. U.S. Justice Department Moves To Seize Ukrainian Tycoon's Property By Todd Prince August 07, 2020 The United States has moved to seize U.S. real estate belonging to a powerful Ukrainian tycoon with links to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The Justice Department's August 6 civil forfeiture complaint targeted commercial properties in Texas and Kentucky belonging to a company controlled by Ihor Kolomoyskiy. It came two days after FBI agents raided offices of Kolomoisky's and his partners in Miami and Cleveland. The civil complaint accuses Kolomoyskiy and his Ukrainian partner, Hennadiy Boholyubov, of stealing "billions of dollars" from their PrivatBank through bogus loans and laundering it into the United States with the help of two American partners. The Ukrainian tycoons and the two American partners, Uriel Laber and Morechai Korf, then used the money to acquire U.S. commercial properties as well as U.S. steel and alloy plants. The men "rarely paid it back," the FBI said in its complaint. "When the loans came due, other loans were used to pay off the old loans, or, in some cases, they were repaid with income from the investment of the misappropriated funds," the FBI said. In a written comment to RFE/RL, Kolomoyskiy, whose media company informally backed Zelenskiy's successful 2019 presidential bid, denied the allegations. "All investments in the United States were made from own funds received in 2007-2008 from the deal with Evraz and from the income from other businesses, held at PrivatBank. All other [allegations] are categorically rejected," he said. The Ukrainian government nationalized PrivatBank in December 2016 after regulators discovered a $5.5 billion hole they said was caused by the tycoons directing their bank to issue loans to companies they controlled. The FBI on August 4 raided the headquarters of their U.S. business partners in Miami as well as an office of theirs in Cleveland, where they own three commercial properties. A spokesperson for the two men declined to comment on the raids. Kolomoyskiy, Boholyubov, and their Miami partners jointly owned their U.S. assets via various Delaware-registered companies under the Optima umbrella name, including Optima Ventures, their real estate holding company. The FBI is seeking to seize the former CompuCom headquarters in Dallas, claiming the men "misappropriated" $15 million from PrivatBank to help purchase the property. Optima Ventures agreed to buy the building in 2010 for $47.4 million, taking out a $32.2 million mortgage in the process. Optima Ventures paid down the mortgage last year but did not pay the property's taxes that were due by July, a possible sign the company suspected the FBI would attempt to seize it. Kolomoyskiy, a billionaire who owns metals and energy assets, is considered to be one of the most influential tycoons in Ukraine. He fled Ukraine in 2017 amid concerns over prosecution and a falling out with then-President Petro Poroshenko. However, he returned to the country from self-imposed exile in Israel a month after Zelenskiy defeated Poroshenko in April 2019 in a landslide. Western officials and institutions have expressed concerns over Kolomoyskiy's proximity to the president and his attempts to recover PrivatBank. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-justice -department-ukraine-seizure -zelenskiy/30770699.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The U.S. has imposed sanctions against a rebel leader in the Central African Republic, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a statement on Friday. Mr Pompeos office imposed sanctions on Bi Sidi Souleymane, leader of the Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation (3R) rebel group. The group is accused of committing numerous human rights abuses and displacing thousands in the troubled country since 2015, the statement said. The sanctions freeze the rebel leaders asset and impose a travel ban on Mr Souleymane, also known as Sidiki Abbas. Mr Souleymane directly perpetrated torture, the statement said. Todays action signals that the United States will not tolerate those who commit human rights abuses and will prevent such actors from benefiting from the U.S. financial system, said the statement. The move by the U.S. follows similar sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council earlier this week. Under Mr Souleymanes leadership, 3R also carried out campaigns of rape, arms trafficking and violence. For instance, on 21 May 2019, 3R killed 34 unarmed civilians in three villages, summarily executing adult males, the UN Security Council said. Bi Sidi Souleymane openly confirmed to a UN Entity that he had ordered 3R elements to the villages on the date of the attacks, but did not admit to giving the orders for 3R to kill, it added. Mr Souleymane signed a 2019 peace agreement and was appointed a military advisor to the government of Prime Minister Firmin Ngrebada. In 2020, however, he announced the groups withdrawal from the agreement following a disagreement over his role and returned to the bush. (dpa/NAN) Turkey is ready to help rebuild the port of Beirut, which was destroyed by a massive blast on Tuesday, Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay said during a visit to Lebanon on Saturday. Turkey's port of Mersin, on the Mediterranean, is ready to assist the port of Beirut, he said, without elaborating. Search Keywords: Short link: A Florida teacher wrote a mock obituary for herself to protest the state's plan to reopen schools in the fall amid the coronavirus pandemic. The state's education commissioner issued an executive order that required all schools to open for "at least" five days a week in the fall, subject to any advice and orders from state and local health departments. "We have a moral imperative to do our absolute BEST to return #FLschools to full operation," the state's Department of Education said in a tweet on July 8. "Our childrens education & our economy are all depending on us to make a collaborative effort to reopen our school campuses." The state's largest teachers union, the Florida Education Association, said the order violates a constitutional mandate to keep public schools "safe and secure" and has sued to block it. Image: Whitney Reddick (Courtesy Whitney Reddick) Meanwhile, teacher Whitney Reddick of Jacksonville, Florida, expressed her concerns about the safety risks of reopening schools by posting a mock obituary for herself on Facebook. "With profound sadness, I announce the passing of Whitney Leigh Reddick," it begins. "She left us while alone in isolation and on a ventilator at a Duval county hospital in Jacksonville, Florida." Reddick, 33, went on to talk about her family, including her 14-month old son, writing, "He will have a hole only a few children bear." "She fought with vigor for things she believed in," the obituary continues. "She stood up to injustice, embraced those who differed from her, and truly listened when spoken to. Whitney never took the easy path, she was assertive, strong-willed, and bossy, she loved that word because, to her, it meant female leadership." It ends by saying that Reddick "succumbed to the ignorance of those in power." "She returned to work, did her best to handle all the roles placed on her shoulders; educator, COVID-security guard, human shield, firefighter, social worker, nurse, and caregiver but the workload weakened her, and the virus took hold," it reads. Story continues Reddick told NBC News in a phone interview on Saturday that she decided to write the obituary after reading stories of teachers who have contracted the virus and some who have died, including a summer school teacher in Arizona. "It was an overwhelming sadness," she said. "It just stuck with me that, I may not pass away, but somebody is going to. To me, somebody who does something to serve their community and has a serving heart, I don't want to lose that person." She said the purpose of the obituary was to highlight concerns many teachers have about returning to in-person classes amid the pandemic. "I wanted to portray that sadness ... and being introspective and thinking about the choices that our lawmakers are making," she explained. "I really wanted the gravity of their decisions to weigh." Reddick said that after talking with her husband she decided to return when her school opens on Aug. 20, which she said was a tough choice. "As much as I feel strongly about the stance that I have taken, if students are returning to a face-to-face setting, I'm going to be there to make sure that they have the best possible education in the safest environment that I can provide," she said. Reddick said she has already started planning how she will try to keep her classroom safe and enable students to social distance. In Iowa, several teachers also wrote their own obituaries and sent them to Gov. Kim Reynolds, who announced in July that public school students have to go back to class at least half-time. I wrote my obituary just to bring attention to Kim Reynolds not having a plan and not knowing anything," Jeremy Dumkreiger, a Sioux City teacher, told NBC affiliate KWWL in Waterloo. "I hope to God not to use it and I dont expect to, but its just one of those things where I want people to think about it. This is serious." What if one of those kids gets COVID and takes it home to their grandma or their parents and that parent dies. Can you imagine the stress and trauma that will cause on somebody? he added. I cant imagine this learning environment is going to being conducive to learning, and I think were going to need to hire more counselors. The governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said that Nigerias next president in 2023 should emerge from the southern part of the country. Mr El-Rufai said this on Saturday in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service. The southern part of the country is supposed to produce the president come 2023; I dont support a northerner to vie for the seat after President Muhammadu Buhari, based on Nigerias political arrangement, Mr El-Rufai said. His remarks came over a week after President Buharis influential nephew, Mamman Daura, said he was against zoning of the presidency. Mr Dauras comment was criticised by political groups and leaders in the South, who expect that based on the unwritten zoning arrangement, power will go to the region after Mr Buharis tenure ends in 2023. The president is a native of Katsina, in the north-west. Mr El-Rufai said although the power shift arrangement among the various regions of the country is unconstitutional, it is, however, a political design that must be respected. I believe that (there is) no developed country across the world that considers leadership based on where someone comes from. However, in Nigerian politics, there is an arrangement that we all believe on rotational leadership. We are aware of that, anyone who denies that is wrong, the governor said. Mr El-Rufai said although he supports power rotation at the national level, he was against a similar arrangement in Kaduna where he is governor. In Kaduna, I dont work with people because they came from a particular zone, rather, I work with you based on your capacity to deliver on a task given to you and your ability to keep public trust, Mr El-Rufai said. The governor also debunked the speculation that he is aspiring for the presidency, saying the speculation has been there for a while from the time he was a minister of the FCT. It is a baseless speculation. I dont want to be president; only God decides someones future whether you like it or not, I have never shown interest for the presidency. Washington U.S. intelligence officials believe that Russia is using a variety of measures to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of the November election and that individuals linked to the Kremlin are boosting President Donald Trump's reelection bid, the country's counterintelligence chief said Friday. U.S. officials also believe that China does not want Trump to win a second term and that Beijing has accelerated its criticism of the president and its efforts to shape American opinion and public policy. The statement from William Evanina comes amid criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats that the intelligence community has been withholding from the public intelligence information about the threat of foreign election interference in the upcoming election. On Russia, U.S. intelligence officials assess that it is working to "denigrate" Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia "establishment" among his supporters, Evanina said. He said that would track Moscow's criticism of Biden when he was vice president for his role in Ukraine policies and his support of opposition to President Vladimir Putin inside Russia. The latest intelligence assessment reflects concerns to varying degrees about China, Russia and Iran, warning that hostile foreign actors may seek to compromise election infrastructure and interfere with the voting process. Those concerns are especially acute following a wide-ranging effort by Russia to interfere in the 2016 election on Trump's behalf. On the stage, Beatrice Roberson held a large photograph of her son, Jemel Roberson, who was shot and killed by a Midlothian police officer while working security outside a Robbins bar in 2018. Nearly two years later, no charges have been filed in connection with her sons death, which happened as he subdued a shooting suspect outside the bar. Ceasefire offers opportunity for eastern Ukraine peace push, says president Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during an interview in Donetsk Region By Natalia Zinets TARAMCHUK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine wants to build on a lull in fighting in the eastern Donbass region to push for a lasting peace settlement at a new round of four-way talks with Russia, France and Germany, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Reuters. Dressed in a T-shirt and khaki trousers, Zelenskiy was speaking on a visit to the area on the 12th day of what Kyiv hopes will be a permanent ceasefire agreed with Russian-backed forces on July 27. Zelenskiy, 42, was a comic actor when he won a landslide election last year promising to end the conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people and brought Western sanctions on Russia. Once a political novice, he has since secured prisoner exchanges with Russia and phased troop withdrawals at selected hotspots. "This is an opportunity to save our guys and continue the diplomatic dialogue," he said on Friday during a whistle-stop tour along more than 100 km (62 miles) of the frontline. If the ceasefire holds, "the first big step has been taken, it is necessary to meet in the Normandy Format," he said, referring to the four-way talks named after the French region where they were first held. HOLDING FIRE Zelenskiy inherited the conflict that began after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula six years ago. Ukraine says Russia then engineered quasi-separatist uprisings across a belt of eastern Ukraine that escalated into a full-scale war. Moscow denies the claim. A ceasefire agreed under Zelenskiy's predecessor in Belarus in 2015 stopped the worst of the fighting, but soldiers and civilians were still regularly killed in flare-ups. The July 27 truce broke down within hours. But Kyiv says the shooting has been sporadic and on Thursday international monitors for the first time recorded no ceasefire violations within a daily reporting period. The next round of peace talks is due in Berlin but there is no date fixed. Kyiv wants to press for Red Cross access to its prisoners and a timeline for Russian-backed forces to withdraw. Story continues Zelenskiy said Ukraine was willing to show flexibility on a key sticking point giving legal special status to the Donbass region after holding local elections there, providing this stopped short of federalisation. But local elections could only take place once Russian-backed forces withdraw. "I think this issue is very important: first security, then elections," he said. The first year of Zelenskiy's presidency was overshadowed by Ukraine's unwitting involvement in events that led to the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump had pressed Ukraine to launch an investigation into his Democratic rival for the 2020 presidential race, former Vice President Joe Biden. Zelenskiy said bilateral support for Ukraine would remain strong regardless of who won the upcoming election. "They are our partners indeed," he said. "I believe that their strategic course does not change, regardless of who is the president." (Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Mike Harrison) Wing Commander Deepak Vasant Sathe lost his life in the plane crash tragedy that happened on Friday evening at Kerala's Kozhikode airport. He was an accomplished fighter plane pilot before he chose to become a commercial pilot. Know more about his life here. Wing Commander Deepak Vasant Sathe is among 18 people who lost their lives in the Kerala plane crash catastrophe that befell on Friday. At Keralas Kozhikode airport, an Air India Express flight carrying 190 people broke into pieces as it skidded off a tabletop runway due to heavy rain. The flight was missioned to bring Indians stranded in Dubai, due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis back to the country. The flight carried 184 passengers that included 10 children and 4 members of the cabin crew. The two pilots who were present in the Air India Express flight IX-1344, Deepak Vasant Sathe and Akhilesh Kumar died in the plane crash on Friday. Wing Commander Deepak V Sathe flew planes for Air India formerly, as he was a decorated former Indian Air Force pilot. He was an award-winning pilot who flew planes for the forces before flying the Air India Express planes. Reportedly, Sathe was experienced in flying Boeing 737 planes, he held a sword of honour from the Air Force Academy, Hyderabad. He was an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and an excellent Squash player. Reports say that Sathe was an established fighter pilot before he opted to become a commercial pilot. His co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar was recently married, it had just been a year to his marriage. Also read: 19 people including both pilots dead in Kozhikode plane crash Terrible news coming in that Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, pilot of the #AirIndia flight, has died in todays accident at Kozhikode. Am hearing hes ex-IAF. Deepest condolences to his family. pic.twitter.com/OLHHWlGTD3 Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) August 7, 2020 Heartbreaking ! Deeply distressed to hear abt the #AirIndia tragedy at Kozhikode. We lost ace pilot,our senior Wing Commander DV Sathe,Ex NDA, Sword of Honour,1984 commissioned,retired as an ace test Pilot..an inspirational figure in aviation industry. Tribute pic.twitter.com/nrBiiCiz4o Major Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) August 7, 2020 Also read: Air India plane crash probe: Two investigation teams leave for Kozhikode Air India Express flight IX-1344 was a part of the Vande Bharat mission under which, Indians who are struck abroad are being brought back to India amid the coronavirus outbreak. As per the reports, a flight-tracking website stated that the pilots tried to land the aircraft several times on the tabletop runway, surrounded by deep gorges. Also read: AI Express plane tried to land twice before crashing, says official Bon voyage Captain DV Sathe Wing Commander DV Sathe was a pilot in the IAF before he joined #AirIndia. One of the confirmed death report coming from tragic #KozhikodeAirCrash RIP Sir. pic.twitter.com/JX1iINwiXt Memesarelife (@_MemesAreLife59) August 7, 2020 Good news everybody! After close to five months, the U.S. Department of State has rescinded its "Do Not Travel Advisory". The Level four travel warning, which was pushed out last March, warned Americans to stay the hell within their borders because the rest of the world was waaaaaaay too full of COVID-19 for anyone to risk travelling abroad. Now, it's totally cool with them for folks to leave the United States, if they want to. From the U.S. Department of State: On August 6, in close coordination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of State lifted the Global Level 4 Health Advisory. The Global Advisory, initially put in place on March 19, 2020, advised U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19. With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the Department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice (with Levels from 1-4 depending on country-specific conditions), in order to give travelers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions. This will also provide U.S. citizens more detailed information about the current status in each country. We continue to recommend U.S. citizens exercise caution when traveling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic. Awesome provided where you want to wander is on the list of nations interested in seeing Americans within their borders. Right now, the said list is pretty limited. However, many of the locales willing to allow U.S. citizens to meander their lands are absolutely lovely. As a Canadian, there are currently a ton of options of where I can travel to (not gloating here, it is what it is). Given that a new wave of COVID-19 (or more of the same damn wave, depending on how you look at it) is expected to hit un this fall, despite being a full-time nomad, I'll be staying home, this year. For me, there are too many unanswered questions about whether the health insurance I purchase when I'm travelling overseas will be enough to provide me with the care I need, were I to get sick. There's also the medical capabilities of the nations you're visiting to considerare there enough beds and ventilators for the country's citizens, let alone foreign travellers? Finally, how in the hell would I get home if the part of the globe I was paying a visit to decided to go back into lockdown? Even though most of us are itching for a change of scenery, it's likely not the time to wander too far afield, just yet. Image via Wallpaperflare Drive-thru movies are making a comeback and even concerts are getting on board to adhere to social-distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic. So as members of ISKCON International Society for Krishna Consciousness prepared for their most sacred day of the year, Janmashtami, the anniversary of Krishnas birth, Saranga Thakur Dasa wondered: Why dont we do a drive-thru festival? Earlier this year, Dasa, a priest and vice president of ISKCON Houston, was optimistic that COVID-19 would be contained and Janmashtami could unfold as usual, with the typical 5,000 to 8,000 attendees. We were excited but wanted to be cautious, he said. Plans were made to reopen ISKCON Houston on June 21. Staff purchased hand sanitizer and thermometer wands to prepare. Then the cases started to jump, Dasa said. And they kept going up. The concept of a safe, drive-thru experience made sense. If people cannot go in to see the Lord, maybe the Lord can come out for them, Dasa said. Minutes after ISKCON Houston posted a link to RSVP, more than 100 families registered. We were pleasantly surprised, Dasa said. The free event begins at 6 p.m. Aug. 11 and continues through midnight at ISKCON Houston, 1320 W. 34th St. People can come, dress up, just like they are going to a festival, Dasa said. Normally, everyone would drive up and get out to see the Lord. This year, ISKCON Houston asks attendees to stay in their cars; the temple will bring the deities and ceremonies outside. In addition, there will be a livestream for those who prefer to stay home. Viewers can look inside the decorated temple, and His Holiness Romapada Swami will be giving an online discourse. Theyll have the full experience just in a safe mode, Dasa said. Were going to make it as close as possible to the real thing. Exclusive Zoom links will enable families to virtually present offerings to Krishna. Though Janmashtami is central to the Krishna Consciousness movement, the holiday is celebrated by all denominations of Hindus. Hindus of Greater Houston have hosted 30 years of Janmashtami festivals bringing various traditions from the citys temples together, according to the organizations president, Thara Narasimhan. Indias greatness and diversity lies in the fact that every state celebrates Janmashtami in their own unique way, she said. In the past, Hindus of Greater Houston held a massive free event at George R. Brown Convention Center, complete with music, dance and Indian cuisine. Recently, the organization decided to move the festivities, alternating among area temples. Narasimhan has attended the Hindus of Greater Houston Janmashtami since it started in 1990. This year, the 31st annual festival was to be held at the Vallabh Priti Seva Samaj temple, 11715 Bellfort Village. But COVID-19 is forcing festivities to go virtual. Narasimhan is grateful that technology will make the celebration possible in spite of the pandemic. And she is looking forward to using technology to continue Hindus of Greater Houstons most popular Janmashtami tradition: the childrens costume parade. All children are invited to dress up as Krishna or a character from Krishnas life story and send in videos or photos. Nikunj Zamwar, a senior at Seven Lakes High School in Katy, volunteered to organize the online effort. Rasesh Dalal, a longtime member and trustee of VPSS temple and a board adviser of Hindus of Greater Houston, explained that since COVID-19, rituals have continued despite limited attendance. Instead of members visiting deities in person at the temple, which is an important part of worship, Dalal uses WhatsApp to share daily photos with them. He said that VPSS was looking forward to hosting the event with Hindus of Greater Houston, expecting 5,000 attendees on its 15-acre campus. We will celebrate differently, but we will still celebrate. Its Gods birth and that has to be celebrated, he said. Im personally disappointed, Dalal said. People are saying, For my whole life, I have not missed going to this. Its very sad that people will not be able to come, but you have to respect the circumstances. Tanglewood resident Avnie Malani plans to celebrate at home with her family. Last year, her now 20-month-old son Kiaan Krish Malani was awarded a prize for the youngest participant in the costume contest at the Hare Krishna temple. Usually, we go to the temple, but this year will be different, Malani said. Well have prayer with the grandparents. Continuing to celebrate holidays is important in these turbulent times, she added. Its nice just to keep faith and religion and cultural normalcy. Sugar Land resident Shradha Bhutada is downsizing the gathering she usually hosts at her home before going to the temple. This year, Ill just do something like that, she said. But we want it to be a little more of a celebration for the kids to enjoy. Her 9-year-old son, Sahaj, and 2-year-old daughter, Juhi, are past participants in the costume contest, and they look forward to this holiday all year. Sahaj is very aware of the pandemic, she said. He understands that it wont be the same as last year. For Juhi, as long as theres a party, she enjoys it. Bhutada hopes that Houstons Hindu community will continue to honor the holiday in their own ways. They have to keep it alive even if we are just celebrating on a small scale, with family and friends, she said. Vishnu Ramnarine, president of the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir in northwest Houston, explained that normally the temple comes alive during Janmashtami with sacred songs, music and rituals to celebrate Krishna. Because of the pandemic, a small number of participants will perform the ceremonies of adoration, or puja. For the first time in the temples history, there will be no devotees to observe the holiday in the building. Instead, we will connect on Facebook Live, Ramnarine said. Members of the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir are Hindus who originally immigrated to Trinidad and Guyana from India in 1838 to 1917 and then came to the U.S. Our culture was never lost, Ramnarine said. The temple today is not only a place of worship but also a community center, where traditional music, cuisine and dress are preserved. He explained that Janmashtami is a festive occasion and that the story of Krishnas birth is significant. The scriptures teach that Lord Krishna was born to end the reign of an evil king who was damaging the Earth. The baby was carried across a river to hide from the ruler, who had imprisoned his parents. He comes here when there is a decline in righteousness and fights evil, Ramnarine said. Holding onto hope and justice are timely these days, he added. Lately, he said, the pandemic has given people time to pause, reimagine their priorities, become closer as a family and strengthen their faith. Sometimes, we have to step back and start again, he said. This is a time to readjust and change direction. Ramnarine explained that though observances will be different, this is not a time to despair. He said that God is at work in the health care providers, risking their lives for others and the researchers working to find vaccines and treatments. Though the temple is quieter than usual on Aug. 11, 2020, there is profound manifestation of divine reality across the world in the countless acts of caring, he said. Lindsay Peyton is a Houston-based freelance writer. The Bono Regional Police Command is investigating the circumstances leading to the registration of about 63 persons suspected to be Ivorians who allegedly entered Ghana illegally and participated in the just-ended mass voters registration exercise conducted by the Electoral Commission (EC). They were arrested by security personnel led by operatives of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) at Douboo, one of the unapproved entry points on the Ghana Cote DIvoire border after they had successfully been registered and issued with their Voters ID cards in the Banda constituency in the Bono region. Luck eluded them when the Ivorian registered KIA Rhino truck they were travelling on back to Cote DIvoire broke down at the border post, which is in the Jaman North constituency. Government vindicated The arrest of these suspected Ivorians give credence to the governments decision ahead of the registration exercise to beef-up security at the countrys borders. At the time of filing this report, the suspected Ivorians had been brought to Sunyani, the Bono regional capital by the GIS and handed-over to the Police for further action. The Second-in-Command of the GIS in Sunyani, Chief Superintendent Henry Akar told the media that some of the suspected Ivorians managed to escape arrest while a few others have been hospitalized due to the trauma they claimed to have suffered at the hands of the Immigration Officers during their arrest. Beside the new Voters ID cards, he said most of them were also in possession of the recently issued Ghana card; adding that both ID cards belonging to the suspects have been seized pending further investigations. When our reporter interacted with the suspects, it came to light that most of them cannot speak any of the Ghanaian languages and could only communicate in French while a few could speak the twi language. When questioned, the driver of the Kia vehicle, Kwame Krah, said one Yaw at Tempi in the Ivory Coast hired him to convey the people from Tempi to Kabrono in the Banda District for the registration exercise. NDC scribe fingered In a related development, the Bono Regional NPP Chairman, Kwame Baffoe Abronye is calling for the immediate arrest of Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the General Secretary of the opposition NDC for being behind the bussing of the accosted Ivorians into the country. Chairman Abronye believes that the alleged Ivorians arrested were part of some 2,000 Ivorians who attempted to register earlier at Banda but were prevented by the military in a video that went viral on social media about a week ago. In a Statement, Chairman Abronye accused Mr. Asiedu-Nketia for personally hiring the Kia Rhino truck, paid for it and brought the Ivorians into the country, housed them at Seikwa and helped them to register and acquire the EC cards. The Regional NPP Chairman further alleged that three of the Ivorians are relatives of Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, popularly called General Mosquito but are resident in Cote DIvoire. They are Ivorians and not residents of Ghana. They were led into the country by Asiedu-Nketia and this vindicates the military for preventing 2000 persons loaded in the Kia Rhino truck who attempted registering in constituency. I therefore called on the Ghana Police Service to immediately arrest, investigate and prosecute Asiedu-Nketia for aiding and abetting illegitimate persons to Ghana to acquire Ghanaian ID cards illegally, the statement partly read. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Pretty much no one is happy with U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts. And that may suit him just fine. Vice President Mike Pence joined a chorus of right-wing criticisms of the Supreme Court's leader, telling CBN News on Wednesday that the Republican-appointed Roberts "has been a disappointment to conservatives." Pence rebuked Roberts for a handful of recent votes, including one in June to invalidate a Louisiana law restricting abortion. Those attacks come even as liberals say the real problem is Roberts's larger body of work and steady effort to bolster conservative legal causes. Roberts has signed on to recent orders restricting voting access during the pandemic and letting President Donald Trump keep building his border wall. Together, the dueling critiques are bolstering an image Roberts has long sought to foster -- that of a court that decides cases independently, not based on ideological leanings or party preference. "The chief justice is probably thrilled that conservatives are unhappy with his recent rulings," said Adam Winkler, a professor at UCLA Law School. "Although profoundly conservative himself, with a strongly conservative voting record, Roberts has said he wants the Supreme Court to be seen as being outside of politics." Pence's criticisms came on the same day that a new Gallup poll showed public approval of the Supreme Court at its highest level in more than a decade, at 58%. With both Democrats and Republicans giving positive marks, the court's approval towers above Trump's 41% mark and Congress's 18% support in the most recent Gallup poll. The positive numbers came after the close of a Supreme Court term that by one measure was a conservative success. The five Republican-appointed justices formed the majority in 10 of the 14 rulings that were decided by 5-4 votes, according to Scotusblog, which tracks the court's docket. The group backed religious rights, buttressed presidential power over federal agencies and curbed lawsuits by people claiming violations of their constitutional rights. In addition, Roberts in recent weeks has joined his conservative colleagues in a series of emergency orders -- issued without argument or in many cases explanation -- that have limited voting rights, lifted coronavirus-related requirements on prisons and let Trump keep using diverted Pentagon funds to build border fencing. "Even if he doesn't always side with the Trump administration, the fact is he does so very frequently," said Elizabeth Wydra, president of the progressive Constitutional Accountability Center. "Simply because Chief Justice Roberts can't or won't accept the most extreme and outlandish arguments put forth by Trump, it doesn't make him liberal -- it just makes him a jurist who takes his job seriously." But conservatives have seized on high-profile exceptions to Roberts's pattern, including his 2012 vote to uphold the core of Obamacare, his vote during the just-completed term to block Trump from ending the DACA deferred-deportation program and his vote in July against a Nevada church that sought to ease limits on the size of its services during the coronavirus pandemic. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on Twitter after the church vote that Roberts "has abandoned his oath." "Conservatives are deeply alarmed that Roberts seems to be behaving like a politician rather than a judge," said Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, which has worked to secure confirmation of Trump's court nominees. The vilification of Roberts could help Republicans motivate their base in the November election, much as a Supreme Court vacancy in 2016 helped spur Trump voters then. Trump has already appointed two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, as well as more than 200 lower court judges. Democrats are also trying to make a campaign issue out of the court, whose two oldest members, 87-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg and 81-year-old Stephen Breyer, are both Democratic appointees. The party's platform is set to include a call for "structural court reforms," a plank that ultimately could mean term limits for justices. Roberts's opinion in the abortion case could energize voters on both sides. Reproductive-rights advocates expressed alarm that he suggested a willingness to give states more freedom to restrict abortion. But Roberts ultimately voted to strike down the law the court was reviewing -- Louisiana's requirement that clinic doctors get privileges at a local hospital -- saying it was identical to a Texas measure the court invalidated four years earlier. And he showed little inclination to give conservatives their long-sought wish of overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide. The Louisiana ruling "has been a wake-up call for pro-life voters around the country who understand in a very real sense the destiny of the Supreme Court is on the ballot in 2020," Pence said. It will be months or even a year before Western Australia reopens its borders, the state's leader has said on the day it was originally slated to welcome interstate travellers once more. Premier Mark McGowan announced on June 23, when Victoria only had a couple of hundred active cases, that the borders would not reopen on August 8 as planned. On Saturday, he said it could be a year before they do. It will be months or even a year before Western Australia reopens its borders, the state's leader has said on the day it was originally slated to welcome interstate travellers once more. Rottnest Island is pictured 'It's a long way away. I can't put a date on it, but it is certainly months,' he told reporters. 'As to whether it's before the end of the year, as to whether it's before the middle of next year, I cannot put a date on it.' 'Every time you try and put a date on it, you have to change.' Western Australia eradicated community transmission in April, but the number of active cases in NSW and Victoria continue to grow each day. Mr McGowan has previous ruled out a travel bubble with other states which have maintained low cases, and says the eastern states will have to eliminate community spread before he will consider lifting border restrictions. His strict stance triggered a legal battle with Clive Palmer, who is challenging the border closures in the High Court. Premier Mark McGowan announced on June 23, when Victoria only had a couple of hundred active cases, that the borders would not reopen on August 8 as planned. On Saturday, he said it could be a year before they do 'What I can guarantee you is we won't bring down the borders before we're forced to by the High Court, which hopefully doesn't happen, or before we get health advice it's safe to do so,' Mr McGowan said on Saturday. It comes as the further easing of restrictions in the state have been delayed again. The last remaining restrictions on gatherings within the state's borders had been due to end last month, allowing capacity crowds of 60,000 at Optus Stadium and the removal of the two square metre rule at pubs and other venues. But WA's chief health officer has again recommended delaying the move to phase five, citing concerns over outbreaks in the eastern states. Premier Mark McGowan says it won't come into effect until August 29 at the earliest. 'As a nation, we have entered the most dangerous phase of this pandemic,' he said on Friday. There can't be many homeowners who didn't visualise sparkling new double-glazed windows or smart solar panels on their roof when Rishi Sunak announced his 2billion Green Homes Grant last month. With up to 10,000 available for energy efficient home improvements, many people started thinking about how to spend a large cheque from the Chancellor. But the scheme's details have finally been unveiled on the Government's website and, as always, the devil is in the small print. Catch: You can't get a discount on double-glazing unless you are also applying for an improvement on a specific list that includes loft or cavity wall insulation The scheme is littered with catches. First, all except the poorest homeowners will have to stump up a share of the cost themselves. Rather than covering the total amount, vouchers will be worth around two-thirds of the cost of the improvements. Second, there is a strict hierarchy of works. For example, you can't get a discount on double-glazing unless you are also applying for an improvement on a specific list that includes loft or cavity wall insulation. And that's just scratching the surface. Here, we guide you through Rishi's latest boost for homeowners. What exactly is the Green Homes Grant? The Government has come up with a scheme to make our homes more energy efficient. It is handing out up to 10,000 per household to install insulation and double-glazing. It says this should cut carbon emissions, save people money, create and protect jobs and boost the recovery from the coronavirus lockdown. Broadly speaking, you decide on what needs to be done and the Government will pay the majority of the cost. However, in practice it's not that simple. What changes can I make? Get ready to learn all about 'primary' and 'secondary' measures', Under the scheme, the Government has divided energy-efficient home improvements into two categories: primary measures and secondary measures. Primary measures are either insulation for example, in a cavity wall, loft, or roof or low carbon heating, such as ground source heat pumps, or solar thermal systems (or solar panels, in plain English). Secondary measures, on the other hand, mean draught proofing, double-glazing or triple-glazing (where you are replacing single glazing), secondary glazing, upgrading to energy-efficient doors or heating controls and insulation, such as thermostats and smart heating controls. Outlay: Solar panels are costly - a whole system can set you back as much as 6,200 Why are there two categories of work? Here is the crucial point: you are only allowed to claim for one of the secondary measures if you are also installing one of the primary measures in your home. That means you can't get money off double-glazing unless you're also carrying out insulation or heating works at the same time. And in the case of secondary measures, you are only allowed to claim up to the amount you are claiming for the primary measures. So if you're claiming 1,000 for your under-floor insulation (primary) you can only claim a maximum of 1,000 for your double-glazing (secondary). Baffled? You won't be the only one. It's a lot to get your head around. Ultimately, the Government doesn't want to hand out money willy-nilly it wants to target its 2 billion of help at those who most need it. The bad news is that the catches keep coming. For example, you are only able to upgrade to energy-efficient doors if you are replacing doors installed before 2002. To add to the confusion, hot water tank insulation is placed under secondary measures rather than under the primary 'insulation' measures. And if you want to install low-carbon heating (a primary measure) you have to make sure you have or are getting adequate insulation too (the other primary measure). Can I get my loft insulation replaced? Sadly not. The scheme will not cover replacement insulation, but it will cover 'top ups' for example, more insulation on top of what you already have. What about old double-glazing? This comes under the secondary measures but don't think you can get rid of your tired old existing double-glazing under this scheme; it's only for replacing single glazing. Hierarchy of works: Primary measures are either insulation for example, in a cavity wall, loft, or roof or low carbon heating, such as ground source heat pumps How much cash will this scheme give me? For most homeowners, the vouchers will be worth about two-thirds of the cost of the improvements, up to a maximum of 5,000 per household. In the Government's own example, a homeowner installing cavity wall and floor insulation costing 4,000 would only pay about 1,320, with the Government contributing the remaining 2,680 through the voucher scheme. But those on low incomes or certain benefits should be able to get the whole cost covered, up to that headline-grabbing 10,000. Those who can apply include all live-in homeowners, including long-leaseholders and shared ownership, landlords of private rented sector domestic properties and park home owners including traveller sites. For some work, it is likely that permission from the freeholder might be needed, such as shared ownership homes. However, new-build homes and commercial premises do not qualify. So who gets the full 10,000? Beware: The cost soon mounts up Upgrading your home to help save the planet will bring you savings over time, but the initial outlay can be expensive. The cost of replacing external windows and doors is at least 2,500 to 3,000 for a typical three-bedroom semi and a lot more for period buildings. uPVC double-glazed windows will set you back around 100-200 each and the same again for fitting. Cavity wall insulation is around 725 for a detached house, going down to 475 for a semi-detached and 330 for a flat. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that a typical air source heat pump installation costs around 6,000 to 8,000. A single solar panel can cost around 350-500 while a whole system can set you back as much as 6,200. To qualify for the full 10,000, you must be receiving at least one income-based or disability benefit, such as universal credit or disability allowance. However, only owner-occupied homes or park homes will be eligible. For the full list see this document by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (PDF). Even if you are only expected to take a small grant, it may still be worth getting the work done the Government says you will reap the benefit by lower energy bills. In their own example above, installing cavity wall and floor insulation could save you more than 200 a year on bills as well as reducing their home's carbon footprint by cutting 700kg of CO2 a year from your home. How do I know which work I need? The Government says that advice on exactly what you need to do to make your home more energy efficient will be available from its Simple Energy Advice website. While the website which is still in beta testing mode will contain information about suitable home improvements, there is no requirement to follow its advice and individual homes will not be assessed. All work must be carried out by approved TrustMark and Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) registered tradespeople and the Government is advising them to apply for accreditation so they can take part. Homeowners will be given a list of approved local tradespeople who could carry out the work. How do I apply for the grants? The exact details of how to apply are yet to be revealed. But it is understood that when the process is launched, you'll need to fill out an online application, get a quote from an approved supplier and have the quote approved. The scheme is set to go live next month and is likely to last until March. What help can I get outside England? Although this particular Green Homes Grant is for England only, there are various other energy efficiency schemes running across all four home nations such as Warmer Homes Scotland, the Nest scheme in Wales and Affordable Warmth Scheme in Northern Ireland. Check your local council website to find out what schemes are available in your area. In Scotland, Home Energy Scotland offers free advice on energy savings and helps people find funding for energy efficiency schemes, from interest-free loans, to grants, the Warm Homes Discount and Renewable Heat Incentive. In Wales, the Nest scheme provides free home energy efficiency improvements for people on low incomes or certain medical conditions. The Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Programme provides funding for energy efficiency schemes across Northern Ireland. What other help is available? The main scheme for vulnerable and low income households is the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). This is free or discounted work provided by the big energy companies to help reduce carbon emissions and tackle fuel poverty. You have to meet strict criteria, which typically includes claiming benefits of some kind from the Government. The scheme is paid for by the Government but delivered by the energy firms themselves, who will factor the discount into the price you are quoted or offer the work free. The scheme is offered across the UK. For more information, see Simple Energy Advice's website. MUMBAI: Mumbai is grappling with its annual monsoon mayhem, which has resulted in heavy floods, water-logged streets and widespread ravages in several parts of the city. Several trains have been cancelled and rescheduled as heavy rains accompanied with strong wind continue to lash the entire city resulting in extreme waterlogging and floods, especially in Suburbs. Devastating videos of trees uprooted, submerged vehicles on street, water entering hospitals and residences have emerged on the internet. Amid the havoc that the downpour has brought in the city, a video, expected to have been shot in West Mumbai, has emerged on social media. The clip that features a woman, shows her warning drivers about an open manhole on the street while she stands in the water-logged road. As per reports, the lady stood on the street for almost 5 hours warning people about the open manhole. "This lady apparently stood in the rain for five hours & warned commuters about an open manhole. How often have you encountered such selfless acts of kindness?" read the caption. Watch the viral video below: This lady apparently stood in the rain for five hours & warned commuters about an open manhole. How often have you encountered such selfless acts of kindness? pic.twitter.com/ZNTPhcAxQy Harsh Mariwala (@hcmariwala) August 8, 2020 The video did not take much time to go viral. It has been widely shared and liked and has gone on to receive hundreds of accolades from the social media users. The woman's kind gesture seems to have won the hearts of netizens. A patient in northern China has died of the plague in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region - the second death from the disease in the last week. The victim died from multiple organ failure in a case of the bubonic plague on Friday, the Bayannao'er city health commission said on its website. This comes after China's Inner Mongolia region saw another death from the plague in Baotou last week, leading the city to issue level-three epidemic warnings. Following Friday's death in Bayannao'er, or Bayannur, the area where the deceased lived has been sealed off, the commission confirmed. China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has seen its second death of the plague in the last week after a patient died in Bayannao'er on Friday It added that seven close contacts were placed under medical observation, but all tested negative for the plague and showed no symptoms. On Thursday, the Baotou city health commission confirmed another person died of a different form of the disease four days earlier. The city of Baotou, in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said the victim had contracted the enteric plague. The unidentified individual died on Sunday after suffering circulatory system failure, the Baotou Health Committee said in a statement on Thursday. The fatality occurred at the Suji Estate at the town of Shibao in Darhan Muminggan United Banner, near the Chinese border with Mongolia. Officials ordered the city to enter a precautionary warning period, which is set to last until the end of the year. Authorities isolated nine people who had had close contact with the deceased, as well as 26 respective close contacts. Following the first death, Baotou city issued level-three epidemic warnings and locked down Suji Estate, in Darhan Muminggan United Banner, where the fatality occurred (file photo) All of the 35 quarantined residents were sent to isolation camps, given precautionary drugs and taken polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which detect the bacterium that causes plague. None of them had a fever, and all their test results were negative, the statement said. Officials locked down Suji Estate to prevent the spread of the disease. The government admitted that the city was facing a potential epidemic of plague among humans. Authorities said they had carried out door-to-door health checks for the locals and increased the intensity of anti-epidemic education. They added that workers were thoroughly disinfecting the home of the deceased as well as the surrounding farmhouses daily. Officials have also launched a campaign to kill fleas and rodents. None of the residents in Suji had a fever or tested positive for plague, the notice said. A resident of Baotou, in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, died after contracting the enteric plague on Sunday The news comes as the northern Chinese region detected a case of bubonic plague last month. A herdsman from Bayan Nur in Inner Mongolia was confirmed on July 4 to have the disease, known as the 'Black Death' in the Middle Ages. The bubonic plague, one of the four forms of the disease, is one of the most devastating diseases in history. The enteric plague, also known as the pharyngeal plague, attacks a person's digestive system and can arise as a result of exposure to infectious aerosols or by ingestion of infected meat. The other forms of the disease are the pneumonic plague, a severe lung infection, and the septicemic plague, which affects a person's blood systems. China has largely eradicated the plague, but occasional cases are still reported. The last major known outbreak of the disease was in 2009, when several people died in the town of Ziketan in Qinghai province on the Tibetan Plateau. This is the moment a solar powered car began its attempt to become the fastest in the world. The Nuna Phoenix, of the Vattenfall Solar Team, set off this morning at the National Road Traffic Agency test track in Lelystad, the Netherlands. The car needs to complete 548 miles in 12 hours to break the current record, which was set by the Nuna8S in 2017. Each of the car's four drivers is expected to be in the vehicle for around three hours, needing to travel at speeds of around 46mph to break the record. The goal is for the car to drive more than 882 kilometers in 12 hours on solar energy alone The Vattenfall Solar Team with students from TU Delft, attempting to break the world record with solar car Nuna Phoenix on the test track of the National Road Traffic Agency It is anticipated the Nuna Phoenix will cross the finish line at 7pm local time, news outlet Sleutelstad reported. A similar attempt to capture the title in Australia last year went up in smoke after the NunaX burned out during the race. This year's race was due to take place in America but was cancelled amid the coronavirus pandemic. The team says its goal is to inspire the world in the field of high-end technology and promote sustainability through renewable energy Every two years the team designs and builds a brand new Nuna, with one goal in mind: becoming world champions in solar racing Team leader Niek Hogenboom told Omroepflevoland that he wanted to prove his team was one of the best in the world by 'driving on nothing but the power of the sun'. Every two years the team - made ups tudents from the Delft University of Technology design and build a brand new Nuna. They have won the World Solar Challenge in Australia seven times, most recently in 2017. President restricts Cabinet to 26; PM to be sworn in today By Damith Wickremesekera View(s): View(s): President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will swear-in a Cabinet of Ministers numbering 26 next Friday (August 14) and not avail himself of a Constitutional provision that allows him to enlarge his Cabinet if he opts to go in for a National Government with parties outside the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) alliance. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution permits a Cabinet of 45 Ministers if there is a National Government. President Rajapaksa has decided that the SLPP will function as a single political entity despite the wide support from its partners. The new Cabinet will be sworn in at a ceremony to be held at the Magul Maduwa or the Audience Hall of the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy. Today, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will be sworn-in from the precincts of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya. All newly elected SLPP parliamentarians and those from the alliance partners such as the the SLFP, the NFF, the MEP, the PHU, the CP, the DLF, the LSSP and the CWC have been invited to take part in todays ceremony besides special invitees. President Rajapaksa has also decided not to avail himself of the existing constitutional provisions that allow him to swear-in 45 ministers if it is a National Government. With the swearing-in of a new Cabinet of Ministers, President Rajapaksa is also to name a larger team of State and Deputy Ministers. This is under a new concept where holders of such office will be given specific responsibilities and called upon to execute them. They will centre on several development projects, a government source said yesterday. The total number of Deputy and State Ministers is not expected to exceed 40, the same source said. This is notwithstanding the Constitution providing for 45 deputies and non cabinet ministers if it is a National Government. The SLPP-led alliance won 145 seats and now has a two-thirds majority with the support from the EPDP (2 seats), SLFP (1 seat), National Congress (1 seat) and Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (1 seat). Chennai: Political satirists and editor of Thuglak, a tamil magazine, Cho Ramaswamy passed away in Chennai on Wednesday. He was 82. Cho Ramswamy was admitted in Apollo Hospital last week after he complained of breathing problems and poor food intake. He is survived by his wife and two children. The demise of veteran editor is also condoled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Cho Ramaswamy was insightful, frank & brilliant. Pained by his demise. Condolences to his family & countless readers of Thuglak," he said in a tweet. Cho Ramaswamy was a multidimensional personality, towering intellectual, great nationalist & fearless voice who was respected and admired. a Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 7, 2016 Above all, Cho Ramaswamy was a dear friend. I have been to his annual readers meeting which were an unprecedented editor reader interface. a Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 7, 2016 Cho Ramaswamy was insightful, frank & brilliant. Pained by his demise. Condolences to his family & countless readers of Thuglak. a Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 7, 2016 The Prime Minister noted that Ramaswamy was respected and admired by many. "Cho Ramaswamy was a multidimensional personality, towering intellectual, great nationalist & fearless voice who was respected and admired," he said. "Above all, Cho Ramaswamy was a dear friend. I have been to his annual readers meeting which were an unprecedented editor reader interface," he said. Born in the family of lawyers (his father, grandfather and uncle were well-known lawyers), Cho by-professional was a lawayers but later he took to theatre, before entering into journalism. His political satire Mohamed Bin ThuglakA wasA a critically-acclaimed play. Cho was also conferred A B.D. Goenka award for excellence in journalism, he was also nominated to Rajya Sabha by the BJP government led by A.B. Vajpayee. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. US President Donald Trump speaks after touring the Whirlpool Corporation Manufacturing Plant in Clyde, Ohio, on August 6, 2020. JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images CIA analysts told the White House that though it is possible for the Chinese government to access TikTok user data, there is "no evidence" that it has done so, per a New York Times report. However, President Trump still moved forward with an executive order Thursday night prohibiting US companies from doing business with not only TikTok's parent company ByteDance but also WeChat, a popular app for Chinese citizens. The executive order goes into effect on Sept. 20 and is the latest development in a web of US-led efforts to distance Chinese tech firms over national security concerns. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A recent report from the CIA indicates that the Chinese government has not accessed American user data from the video-sharing app TikTok. According to The New York Times, CIA analysts told the White House that though it is possible for Chinese officials to obtain data from users of the app which is owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance there is "no evidence" that the Eastern nation has done so. Related video: What's going on with TikTok? However, President Trump still moved forward with an executive order late Thursday barring US companies from "any transactions" with TikTok's parent company, ByteDance. The order argues TikTok "continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States" and will go into effect on Sept. 20. The CIA assessment is the latest development in a long series of efforts made by American officials to distance Chinese tech firms from US users over national security concerns. Lawmakers are uneasy about the Chinese government possibly accessing American user data through apps such as TikTok. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has unveiled a US plan to crack down on Chinese apps and services. Dubbed the "Clean Network," the program would block "untrusted" Chinese apps from app stores. However, experts have found that TikTok collects data similarly to how US firms, such as Facebook, do so. Relations between the US and China have grown increasingly strained as a result, a tension that is exacerbated in part by the coronavirus pandemic, for which President Trump blames China. Read the original article on Business Insider Belarusian authorities have deported three correspondents from Current Time ahead of a crucial presidential election in the country. The three reporters -- Iryna Romaliyskaya, Yury Baranyuk, and Ivan Hrebenyuk -- have also been banned from entering Belarus for 10 years. The journalists were detained August 7 at a hotel in the capital, Minsk, and taken to a nearby police station. It was not immediately clear why they were detained. The journalists, who are now in Ukraine, said that they were interrogated at the Minsk police station about their activities in Belarus. As far as I understood, the reason [for the detention and subsequent deportation] was yesterdays broadcast of Current Time, Romaliyskaya wrote on Facebook, referring to Current Times live coverage of a Minsk gathering by supporters of opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Belarus Votes For President Read our ongoing coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent. Current Time, a Russian-language TV network led by RFE/RL with cooperation from VOA, had applied for accreditation for the reporters weeks prior to traveling to the country. But the Belarusian Foreign Ministry had not responded to their applications. Romaliyskaya and Hrebenyuk are citizens of Ukraine, while Baranyuk is a Russian citizen. "Our Current Time journalists were detained in the course of professionally carrying out their work covering the Belarusian presidential election," Daisy Sindelar, RFE/RL's acting president, said in a statement. "The failure by Belarusian authorities to grant credentials is yet another example of their contempt for the rights of a free press and the right of Belarusians to uncensored information," she said. "We are outraged by their detention and demand respect for the internationally recognized rights of journalists to do their work." Aside from Current Time, RFE/RLs Belarus Service has accredited reporters in the country as part of RFE/RLs coverage of the election. The August 9 election is shaping up to be among the biggest challenges to President Alyaksandr Lukashenkas 26-year rule. Opposition candidates, including Tsikhanouskaya, have mustered sizable rallies in cities and towns across the country. Thousands gathered in a Minsk park on August 6 in support of Tsikhanouskaya, with demonstrators later marching through the citys streets clapping and chanting "Long live Belarus!" and "Go away! The latter chant was an apparent reference to Lukashenka. Authorities have detained several members of Tsikhanouskaya's campaign team as well as supporters, accusing them of holding unsanctioned rallies. Two sound engineers, who played a Soviet-era rock song that was popular around the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 at a rally, were detained August 7 by police and charged with minor hooliganism and disobeying police. They were sentenced to 10 days in jail. The talks between military representatives of India and China to discuss disengagement in the Depsang plains north of Galwan area started on Saturday morning near the Line of Actual Control, sources said. The sources said that the Major General-level talks between Indian and Chinese armies is taking place at Daulat Beg Oldie for the de-escalation of troops and material in the Depsang plains. General Officer Commanding of 3 Mountain Division, Major General Abhijit Bapat, is leading the talks from the Indian side. The main agenda of the meeting is to address the situation in the Depsang plains that has seen big mobilisation of around 15,000 Chinese troops opposite Depsang. The Depsang plains is a table-top plateau to the north of Galwan and remains a major hotspot due to its strategic location since it provides access to the logistical hub and airstrip at Daulat Beg Oldie and the critical Karakoram Pass in the north. The meeting will seek to work out a system of pulling back troops and de-escalation from the 900 sq km plains situated at an altitude of 16,000 feet. The Indian Army holds a majority of the Depsang plains area while the People's Liberation Army holds its eastern edge. Chinese troops are concentrating on an area called 'Bottleneck', 25 km from the strategic airfield at Daulat Beg Oldie. The troops on either side are denying patrolling rights to each other in the "grey zone" areas, where the perception of the Line of Actual Control varies by several kilometres. Saturday's meeting is the outcome of the Lieutenant General-level meetings, five of which have been conducted since June 6. Depsang plains has seen two major stand-offs in 2013 and 2014, besides dozens of face-offs annually when the troops of the two countries come close while patrolling. In the meantime, the Indian government has witnessed that China's commitment to disengagement at the Pangong Tso lake remains "unsatisfactory". India has directed its armed forces to prepare for a long haul. An Indiana city will be the second to test out a new app that will alert traffic lights that bicyclist are approaching to change the light green. Fort Wayne will implement the GiveMeGreen! app software at nine intersections throughout the city, allowing for the lights to sense when a cyclist is within 300ft of an intersection. The app - developed by Sensys Networks - links the various lights to smartphones of those who have downloaded the app, WANE reports. Fort Wayne will implement the GiveMeGreen! app software at nine intersections throughout the city, which will alert traffic lights on when cyclist approaches Fort Wayne city officials are looking for cyclist to test out the app and provide feedback on its usefulness (one of the nine intersections) 'It doesn't mean the light will be green when you get to the intersection, but it will be much sooner than if you rode over to the button and pushed it,' said Amy Hartzog, Program Manager of Greenways and Trails. 'We believe the technology will improve the rider experience whether you're on a leisurely ride or your daily commute.' 'It doesn't mean the light will be green when you get to the intersection, but it will be much sooner than if you rode over to the button and pushed it,' said Amy Hartzog, Program Manager of Greenways and Trails Fort Wayne city officials are looking for cyclist to test out the app and provide feedback on its usefulness. 'We are trying this as a test project, and we need cyclists to try it out and give us feedback,' added Brent Spindler, Director of Traffic Operations. 'We think it's going to work well, especially when a bike comes to an intersection with little traffic.' Indiana has had a noted history of collisions between pedalcyclist, pedestrians and motorists in the city. According to the 2018 Indiana Crash Facts from the Indiana University Public Police Institute, 822 pedalcyclist were involved in collisions in 2018. Of those, 22 cyclist were killed and another 610 were injured. The crash facts also show that 1,758 pedestrians were involved in collisions and of those, 115 people were killed while 1,378 were injured. Fort Wayne is the second city to use the app, with Santa Clarita, California, the first city to try out the program in 2019. 822 pedalcyclist were involved in collisions in 2018. Of those, 22 cyclist were killed and another 610 were injured The system will also include a 'bicycle-only' light at each intersections along the bike trail which will confirm to them that they have been detected by the app (stock) In a press release shared last February, when the Californian city announced that it was doing the program, GiveMeGreen! shared that the app would apply 'normal pedestrian crossing signal timing function.' 'This will allow pedestrians and bicyclists to use the same signal phase and will not cause any delay for motorists,' the release added. In that particular city, new signs were also created to alert motorist that bicycles and pedestrians were crossing the intersection at the next available green light. Fort Wayne will be the second city to try out the program The system will also include a 'bicycle-only' light at each intersections along the bike trail which will confirm to them that they have been detected by the app. 'This free app will greatly benefit both bicyclists and motorists by providing better information about the presence of bikes at these intersections,' Cesar Romo, Chief Traffic Signal System Administrator for the City of Santa Clarita, said at the time. 'GiveMeGreen! not only improves safety, but also improves the ride experience for Santa Clarita's legions of bicyclists with automatic and reliable advance detection.' This pilot system demonstrates the flexibility of the Sensys Networks platform, as it integrates with third-party signs and City traffic controllers. Rating Action: Moody's assigns Ba1 CFR to Asplundh; sr. secured credit facility rated Ba1; outlook stable Global Credit Research - 07 Aug 2020 New York, August 07, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service, (Moody's) assigned a first-time Ba1 Corporate Family Rating and Ba1-PD Probability of Default Rating to Asplundh Tree Expert, LLC (Asplundh), a leading provider of vegetation management services and specialty construction and maintenance services for utilities, railroads, and municipalities in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Moody's also assigned a Ba1 rating to Asplundh's proposed $750 million senior secured revolving credit facility expiring 2025 and $2,000 million senior secured term loan due 2027. Proceeds from the term loan, will be used to pay a $2.0 billion dividend distribution to shareholders. The outlook is stable. "Pro forma for the $2.0 billion dividend recapitalization, Asplundh will maintain sufficient financial, operating and strategic flexibility given its modest leverage, stable profitability and defensive end markets," said Emile El Nems, a Moody's VP-Senior Analyst. Pro forma for the transaction, Moody's expects debt leverage by year end 2020 (inclusive of Moody's adjustments) to be at 2.8x. Assignments: ..Issuer: Asplundh Tree Expert, LLC .... Probability of Default Rating, Assigned Ba1-PD .... Corporate Family Rating, Assigned Ba1 .... Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility, Assigned Ba1 (LGD3) .... Senior Secured Term Loan, Assigned Ba1 (LGD3) Outlook Actions: ..Issuer: Asplundh Tree Expert, LLC ....Outlook, Assigned Stable RATINGS RATIONALE Asplundh's Ba1 Corporate Family Rating reflects the company's strong market position as the leading provider of vegetation management services and of specialty construction for utilities, railroads, and municipalities in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In vegetation management (about 70% of fiscal year 2019 revenue), Asplundh is five times the size of its next competitor and is one of a few national providers with the scale, safety records, and operating experience required for large corporate clients. In addition, Moody's rating is supported by the company's defensive end markets, high level of recurring revenue, solid margins, modest leverage and a good liquidity profile. At the same time, Moody's rating takes into consideration the company's competitive dynamic in its specialty construction segment and overall revenue exposure to the utility sector. Story continues Governance risks considered for Asplundh include the company's financial policy with respect to dividend distribution, the number of independent members who serve on the board of directors and the significant decapitalization in the company's recent transaction. This is partially mitigated by Asplundh's commitment to maintaining a modest leverage and a good liquidity profile. Pro forma for transaction, Moody's projects debt-EBTDA to be at 2.8x by year-end 2020. The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation that during the weak economic environment caused by the coronavirus outbreak, Asplundh will maintain stable revenue and profitability, generate significant free cash and de-lever its balance sheet. This is largely driven by Moody's expectation that the company's defensive end markets will remain supportive of its underlying growth drivers. Asplundh has a good liquidity profile. Pro forma for the transaction, Asplundh's liquidity position is supported by $119 million of cash, a $750 million secured revolving credit facility which will remain mostly undrawn and Moody's expectation that the company will generate significant free cash flow in 2021. FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS The ratings could be upgraded if: A long term commitment by management to a conservative financial policy The company attains a capital structure that allows for maximum financial flexibility The company further diversifies its revenue stream and improves its liquidity profile Debt-to-EBITDA is below 3.0x for a sustained period of time EBITA-to-Interest expense is above 6.0x for a sustained period of time Retained cash flow-to-net debt is above 25% The ratings could be downgraded if: The company's liquidity profile deteriorates A larger than expected cash distribution to shareholders Debt-to-EBITDA is above 4.0x for a sustained period of time EBITA-to-Interest expense is below 4.5x for a sustained period of time Retained cash flow-to-net debt is approaching 20% 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. Headquartered in Willow Grove, PA and founded in 1928, Asplundh is North America's largest provider of vegetation management, construction and other services that support the operations of utilities, rail roads and other industries. The vegetation management division consists primarily of clearing tree growth from power lines, maintenance of rights of-way, herbicide brush control, and storm debris removal. While the construction and other service activities include overhead and underground utility related construction and maintenance, meter reading and installation, street light construction and maintenance, electrical testing, planning and engineering services, etc. 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. 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. Emile El Nems Vice President - Senior Analyst Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. 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China-US ties plunge further over Hong Kong sanctions WORLD: China today (Aug 8) slammed the United States for imposing barbarous sanctions in response to Beijings crackdown in Hong Kong, capping a dramatic week of deteriorating relations between the worlds two biggest economies. politicsChinesetechnology By AFP Saturday 8 August 2020, 12:36PM Washington yesterday sanctioned a group of Chinese and Hong Kong officials - including the citys leader Carrie Lam. Photo: AFP In the toughest US action on Hong Kong since China imposed a sweeping new security law on the territory, Washington yesterday sanctioned a group of Chinese and Hong Kong officials - including the citys leader Carrie Lam. The move came after President Donald Trumps administration forced Chinese internet giants TikTok and WeChat to end all operations in the US, in a twin diplomatic-commercial offensive set to grow ahead of the US presidential election in November. China today criticised the sanctions as barbarous and rude. The ill intentions of US politicians to support people who are anti-China and messing up Hong Kong have been clearly revealed, Beijings Liaison Office in Hong Kong said in a statement. The Treasury Department announced it was freezing the US assets of Chief Executive Carrie Lam and 10 other senior officials, including Luo Huining - the head of the Liaison Office. It accused the sanctioned individuals of being directly responsible for implementing Beijings policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes. The move criminalises any US financial transactions with the sanctioned officials. In a short statement, Luo said he welcomed the blacklisting. I have done what I should do for the country and for Hong Kong, he said. I dont have a dimes worth in foreign assets. Tensions spike ahead of election Beijings security law was imposed in late June, following last years huge pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, sending a political chill through the semi-autonomous city. Since then, authorities have postponed elections, citing the coronavirus pandemic, issued arrest warrants for six exiled pro-democracy activists and launched a crackdown on other activists. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the security law violated promises made by China ahead of Hong Kongs 1997 handover that the city could keep key freedoms and autonomy for 50 years. Todays actions send a clear message that the Hong Kong authorities actions are unacceptable, Pompeo said in a statement. The US measures come three months ahead of the November election in which Trump, who is behind his rival Joe Biden, is campaigning hard on an increasingly strident anti-Beijing message. As public disapproval has grown for his handling of the pandemic, Trump has pivoted from his previous focus on striking a trade deal with China to blaming the country for the coronavirus crisis. Tik Tok, WeChat bans On Thursday, Trump made good on previous threats against WeChat and TikTok - two Chinese-owned apps with major audiences that US officials say pose a national security threat. In an executive order, Trump gave Americans 45 days to stop doing business with the platforms, effectively setting a deadline for a potential, under-pressure sale of TikTok to Microsoft. The move also threw into doubt the American operations of WeChats parent firm, Tencent, a powerful player in the video game industry and one of the worlds richest companies. China condemned the move as arbitrary political manipulation. The new restrictions sent Tencent shares tanking as much as 10% at one point in Hong Kong trade yesterday, wiping almost US$50 billion off its market capitalisation. Trumps order claimed TikTok could be used by China to track the locations of federal employees, build dossiers on people for blackmail and conduct corporate espionage. TikTok has repeatedly denied sharing data with Beijing. WeChat is a messaging, social media and electronic payment platform and is reported to have more than a billion users, with many preferring it to email. The latest US actions follow a protracted battle over Huawei, the Chinese network and smartphone giant accused by the Trump administration of being a tool for espionage. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin's Regular Press Conference on August 7, 2020 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China AFP: According to the New York Times, the US is scrutinizing whether Saudi Arabia is using the Chinese expertise to move toward the development of a nuclear weapon, so can you give us more details onthis nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia and what's your reaction to this US inquiry? Wang Wenbin: The US allegation is groundless. China and Saudi Arabia are comprehensive strategic partners. Our bilateral relations have grown steadily and soundly, with fruitful cooperation in various fields. China and Saudi Arabia maintain normal energy cooperation. China has been working to promote the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in the world with a responsible attitude. We will continue our strict fulfillment of international obligations in non-proliferation, and pursue cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy with other countries on the basis of mutual respect and shared benefit, so as to contribute to global sustainable development. The Paper: US Ambassador to China Terry Branstad visited Shanghai yesterday. Branstad said that in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the medical supplies from China to the US have saved lives. He expects to promote bilateral exchanges and cooperation, and overcome the influence brought by the COVID-19. What is your comment? Wang Wenbin: The pandemic respects no borders and races. To defeat this mankind's common enemy, solidarity and cooperation is our most powerful weapon, and saving lives is the most urgent task. We know what the US has been going through at this critical moment and have provided large amounts of medical supplies to the US. We also made it easier for the US to purchase medical goods from China. Statistics show that by August 2, China has provided 26.5 billion masks, 330 million protective gowns, 31 million pairs of protective goggles, 610 million pairs of surgical gloves and 11.5 thousand ventilators to the US side. We hope that the US will prevail over the pandemic at an early date. We also hope that a few US politicians can stop politicizing the epidemic, stigmatizing the virus, and shifting blames to China. They need to work with the international community to overcome the influence of the pandemic. AFP: US President Donald Trump signed executive order on August 6 to restrict transactions with Chinese-owned social media like the owners of TikTok and WeChat in the US. So what's China's reaction to that? Wang Wenbin: Relevant companies have been doing business in the US in accordance with market principle and international rules as well as US laws and regulations. The US, under the pretext of national security, has time and again used state power to wantonly oppress non-US companies, nothing short of bullying. China firmly opposes that. We noted that such practice has triggered flurry of doubts and criticisms from many Americans and people from other countries. As a Chinese saying goes, "a just cause rallies abundant support while an unjust one finds little." The US side has put selfish interests above market principle and international rules to the detriment of US users and companies, willfully resorted to political manipulation and oppression, which will only end up with its demoralization, eroded national image and trust deficit. All this will boomerang. We urge the US side to heed the rational call from at home and abroad, correct its mistakes, stop politicizing economic issues and bringing down relevant companies, and provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for the normal operation and investment of companies from all countries. South China Morning Post: In April, China offered to donate $50 million to the WHO to fight COVID-19. According to the latest WHO work report released in August, China has donated $25 million so far. When will the remaining $25 million be in place? President Xi Jinping pledged in May $2 billion over two years to help with global epidemic response. In what form will this assistance be delivered? Wang Wenbin: China will honor its commitment. TASS: My question is about US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar's visit to Taiwan. It would be the highest level trip since 1979. My question is what China's response could be if the US will continue such official contacts with Taipei? Wang Wenbin: I took a similar question yesterday. We urge the US to correct its mistake, abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques and stop official ties with Taiwan in any form. China will take firm countermeasures in response the wrongdoing of the US side. Phoenix TV: On your first question, is there any updates on visa extension for Chinese journalists in the US? The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong issued a statement on June 6, calling on the Chinese and US governments not to use journalists' visas as a weapon in dealing with international disputes. Do you have any comment? Second question, it is reported that the US plans to sell arms to Taiwan again, this time at least four large Sea Guardian surveillance drones and some spare parts, with a total value of more than 600 million dollars. What is China's response? Wang Wenbin: As for what's been going on in the media sector between China and the US, the facts and the right and wrong cannot be clearer. The US side provoked first, and China only took necessary and reciprocal countermeasures to the US unreasonable suppression of the Chinese media outlets working in the US. What China has done is legitimate and justified self defense. The US has been ratcheting up its pressure on the Chinese media from registering them as "foreign agents" to enlisting them as "foreign missions", from refusing visas to more than 20 Chinese journalists to imposing de facto expulsion of Chinese journalists working in the US. And now, its discriminatory and restrictive visa policy means that all the Chinese journalists stationed in the US, including those stationed in the UN, can only have visas with a validity length of 3 months, thus causing great disruption and inconvenience to their normal reporting there. The US side should immediately redress its mistakes, stop its political discrimination and unjustified suppression against Chinese media and journalists, and guarantee that the safety, property, press freedom and other legitimate rights and interests of these Chinese journalists will not be violated and their normal reporting activities not affected. If the US refuses to correct its course and insists on making more wrong steps, China is faced with no other choice but doing what is necessary and legitimate to safeguard its rights and interests. That said, China's commitment to the basic state policy of opening-up has not changed and will never change. We welcome media from all over the world, including those from the US, to work and report in China in accordance with laws and regulations, and we will continue to assist them in doing their job here. Regarding your second question, US arms sales to Taiwan seriously breach the three joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique, which severely undermines China's sovereignty and security interests, and gravely violates basic norms of international relations. China firmly opposes this. The Taiwan question concerns China's sovereignty, territorial integrity and core interests. China has firm resolve in upholding its sovereignty and security. We urge the US to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques and stop arms sales to and military ties with Taiwan, lest it should further harm China-US relations and cross-strait peace and stability. TASS: My question is also about US President Donald Trump's executive orders banning transactions with the owners of Chinese tech firms ByteDance and WeChat. My question is whether China is considering any countermeasures against US companies doing business in China? Whether ByteDance, TikTok, WeChat or Tencent have applied to the Chinese government for any help in this situation? Wang Wenbin: I have just stated China's principled position on relevant issue. I want to reiterate that the US has frequently used its state power to arbitrarily oppress non-US companies under the pretext of national security. This is a blatant act of bullying that will boomerang on it. We urge the US side to heed the rational call from at home and the international community and correct its erroneous practices. China will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of its companies. Reuters: Another Canadian has been sentenced to death in the Foshan people's intermediate court today in addition to a Canadian citizen who was sentenced to death yesterday. This is the fourth Canadian sentenced to death in China in recent times. In previous cases, Canadian officials have made a link between Meng Wanzhou's case and these death penalties. Are you concerned about China-Canada relations and do you have any comment on this most recent case? Wang Wenbin: China is a country under the rule of law, and its judiciary handles cases independently in strict accordance with law. The Canadian side is well aware of China's solemn position on the Meng Wanzhou incident as we already made it very clearly on many occasions. This is a grave political incident. China urges the Canadian side to immediately release Ms. Meng Wanzhou and let her return to China safely. The current difficulties in China-Canada relations are not caused by China. The Canadian side knows very well what the crux of the problem is. We urge the Canadian side to take immediate and effective measures to correct its mistakes and make concrete efforts to put bilateral relations back on track. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kwon Yae-rim (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network) Sat, August 8, 2020 07:03 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c6fdc0 2 Entertainment Rocket-Punch,anniversary,K-pop,South-Korea Free Rookie girl group Rocket Punch had a very busy year. Since debuting August last year, the band already released three mini-albums. The latest one titled Blue Punch was released Tuesday, three days before their first anniversary. Following Pink Punch and Red Punch, this album centers on the theme of summer and consists of six tracks with Juicy as the lead track. Our debut song Bim Bam Bum was also an energetic track, but this one especially exudes summer vibes. Recording it was really fun, said member Juri in a yellow summer dress during an interview with The Korea Herald. We paid attention to a lot of the details while recording. I personally focused on giving out a cool vibe with my vocals to take away the heat of the summer, said member Suyun. To amplify the effect, she bleached her hair for the first time and dyed it in grayish purple. Her first idol hair, added Juri. With Juicy, the band had an opportunity to reunite with composer and producer Iggy Yongbae whom they worked with on their debut album. We were so happy to see him again and work with him in a much more relaxed manner than a year ago, said leader Yeonhee. Among the many changes that the group had gone through since debut, their more laid-back attitude was the biggest improvement they said they noticed in themselves, attesting to their growth and journey of becoming a seasoned act. Read also: K-pop stars SuperM to return with debut album 'Super One' When we first made our rounds at broadcast music shows, we didnt even know when to bow or introduce ourselves and we were acting all clumsy. But now just by looking at each other in the eye, we know what others are thinking and learned how to handle things on our own, said Yeonhee. Its such a nice feeling to recognize faces too. People recognize us and we also recognize some staff members whose faces we had seen before. In terms of their proudest moments from the past year, member Dahyun chose their debut showcase while Yeonhee picked their first fan meeting. Juri said when their fandoms name was decided. When we heard our fandoms official name Ketchy we were actually in Tokyo. But the fandom name culture is something we dont have in Japan, and it felt very special and cute, said Juri who previously was a member of J-pop group AKB48. As a goal for their second year, and many more to come, the sextet didnt want anything grandiose -- though a No. 1 spot in music shows would be nice, they said laughingly. I remember how we all used to say our role model was Girls Generation when we debuted. But these days, I see them as a group we look up to rather than a group we want to become, said Yeonhee. Were very proud of the group that we had evolved to become. I would say our new role model is actually Rocket Punch ourselves. Our wish is to keep being Rocket Punch. Topics : This article appeared on The Korea Herald newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post TANZANIA, Tanzania - Iran is urging the United Nations to hold the United States accountable for the interception of an Iranian passenger plane by two U.S. fighter jets in the skies over Syria last month, which it called an unlawful and an adventuristic act. Irans U.N. ambassador, Majid Takht Ravanchi, said in identical letters to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. Security Council circulated Friday that Iran expresses its strongest objections against this violation of international law and will pursue the issue through relevant international bodies. Ravanchi said a Mahan Airlines Airbus A310 en route from Tehran to Beirut on July 23 was aggressively and unexpectedly intercepted by two U.S. F-15 fighter jets while travelling through internationally specified air corridors in Syrias airspace. In reaction to the offensive and hazardous manouverings of the United States fighter jets and in order to save the civil aircraft and passengers lives, the airliner had to change altitude abruptly, causing injuries to the passengers onboard, the ambassador said. U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a Central Command spokesman, told The Associated Press at the time of the incident that a U.S. F-15 conducted a standard visual inspection of the Iranian plane at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) from the airliner. He said the inspection was meant to ensure the safety of U.S. coalition troops in al-Tanf in Syria as the plane was flying over that area. He said once the aircraft was identified as a passenger plane, the F-15 safely opened distance from the aircraft. The Iranian ambassador said that in line with provisions of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Irans civil aviation organization contacted Syrian authorities and called for a prompt and accurate investigation of the incident. He said Iranian authorities also launched an investigation after the plane returned from Beirut. The results of both investigations will be released after the revision and finalization of the collected data and information by both teams, Ravanchi said. It is obvious that the act by the United States fighter jets is a flagrant violation of the aviation security and freedom of civil aviation reflected in the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and its relevant annexes as well as an infringement of the 1971 Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation, he said. Ravanchi said: It is incumbent upon the United Nations to reject such an unlawful and yet adventuristic act and hold the United States accountable for this irresponsible behaviour. Japan is Asia's first industrialised economy, yet it ranks 121, below Angola on the Gender Gap Index. Journalist Yumi Araki returns to Japan to explore what it means to be a woman in a society with an entrenched patriarchy. At a finishing school, it's back to basics with a crash course on becoming the perfect Japanese wife. But this prescribed rulebook that once guided the conduct of Japanese women is slowly being rewritten as Japan's society changes. Yumi meets women who challenge the status quo by choosing career over marriage and others who are forging a new paths by breaking into male dominated industries. - CNA Cathaoirleach of LMETB, Cllr. Nick Killian, Chief Executive, Martin OBrien and Cllr. Dolores Minogue, Cathaoirleach LCC with (L-R) Vivienne Brannigan, Kelvin Harvey, Aiden OBoyle, Project Manager, Dr. Aisling Sheridan, Sadie Ward McDermott, Eamonn Quinn and Therese McArdle at the Peace IV Small Grants Funding launch held in the new Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence in the Xerox Technology Park. Picture Ken Finegan/Newspics LMETB have launched a funding opportunity under Peace IV to support groups and organisations in Louth who are working to further the goals of peace and reconciliation. Funded through the EU Peace IV programme and managed by Louth County Council in conjunction with the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), this programme opened for applications on July 24 and closes on August 28. Speaking at the launch, the Martin O'Brien, Chief Executive of LMETB stated that 'LMETB are proud to work with Louth County Council, to deliver this very valuable programme to build positive relations and foster the values of peace and reconciliation in our local community. 'Under this programme, grants of between 4500 to 70,000 will be provided to community groups based in ] Louth, to promote sustainable peace building initiatives. LMETB are committed to the development of the local community and this is just one of many successful initiatives which have been developed through the Peace programme, in conjunction with Louth County Council and SEUPB over many years.' Mr O' Brien acknowledged the support of Louth County Council the Peace IV office in particular in this regard. Also in attendance on the day were the Cathaoirleach of LMETB, Cllr. Nick Killian, the Cathaoirleach of Louth County Council, Cllr. Dolores Minogue and Therese Mc Ardle of the EU Office, Louth County Council. The Director of Further Education and Training in LMETB, Sadie Ward McDermott, speaking at the event, indicated that 'LMETB's Small Grants Programme proposes to build and extend the capacity of minority groups within Co. Louth. LMETB aims to combine the learning from the previously funded PEACE projects into the new Small Grants Programme. This funding allows LMETB to continue to work with specific target groups such as children and young people, new communities, minority faith groups such as the Muslim Community and Church of Ireland, ex-political prisoners and disadvantaged young people in Louth. Through the Small Grants Programme, LMETB aims to deepen its engagement with these groups and communities to build positive relations.' The Small Grants Programme will incorporate a series of actions aimed at enhancing the capacity for peace building among minority groups. Dr. Aisling Sheridan, AEO, said 'LMETB are delighted to have been awarded this funding by the Louth PEACE Partnership. This project builds on the excellent work carried out by LMETB under the PEACE III Programme and provides a unique opportunity to build better relations across the county.' Applications are to be submitted before noon on August 28 and can be completed or downloaded at www.lmetb.ie Left Behind films celebrate 20th anniversary with special trilogy edition Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Left Behind" trilogy, based on the No. 1 New York Times bestselling book series of the same name, is filled with narratives seen in today's headlines: conspiracy theories, misinformation campaigns, censorship, and a deadly virus spreading worldwide. The successful series, produced by Cloud Ten Pictures, sold more than 10 million copies on VHS/DVD 20 years ago. This year, Cinedigm is releasing a digitally remastered "Left Behind" special edition that will be available on Sept. 1. Each film went through a 4K scan and a color upgrade to improve the 20th anniversary edition. Along with the new and improved visual experience, Left Behind will now include several never-before-seen bonus features, including access to a full-length documentary where biblical scholars and theologians discuss their views on the rapture. The world we see on the news every day is scarier and more uncertain than it has been in at least a generation, said Left Behind screenwriter, producer and Cloud Ten Pictures founder Paul Lalonde, in a statement shared with The Christian Post. The world foretold in the Bible and dramatized in the Left Behind films has never been more real than it is now. Its really happening, exactly as the Bible predicted thousands of years ago. The movies are known for their message of warning, preparedness and salvation. And star popular actors Kirk Cameron and Louis Gossett Jr. The fear and uncertainty of the book of Revelation comes to life in the 'Left Behind' trilogy. Millions vanish, the society is in chaos, evil is lurking, the world is at war; this is the premise for the ground-breaking faith-based trilogy, the special edition description reads. The anniversary release features all three iconic films: 'Left Behind,' 'Left Behind: Tribulation Force' and 'Left Behind: World at War.'" Directed by Vic Sarin, Bill Corcoran and Craig R. Baxley, the Left Behind" trilogy will be a two-disc release. The following is a breakdown of the special features included: Disc 1 Left Behind: The Movie Mass hysteria grips the world when millions of people suddenly vanish into thin air. The rapture prophesied in the Bible has happened, and those left behind scramble to find the truth in a world of turmoil and deception. Left Behind: The Movie bonus Hollywood premiere special lost and found scenes! Left Behind II: Tribulation Force bonus Unearthed cast and crew Interviews Extra behind-the-scenes B-roll footage Left Behind: World at War bonus Kirk Camerons candid interview on sharing the Gospel B-roll of cast and crew filming scenes at "secret hideout" set Lou Gossett Jr. is a Class Act Disc 2 Left Behind II: Tribulation Force Journalist Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron) and his Tribulation Force try to warn the world that their new world leader is not the Messiah, he is the exact opposite the one the Bible calls the antichrist! Left Behind: World at War The world is now united under one man, Nicolae Carpathia (Gordon Currie) and the violence and mayhem seems to be under control. But with the help of Buck Williams, American President Gerald Fitzhugh (Lou Gossett Jr.) fights back against the supernatural plot to deceive to world. NEW DELHI: Krishan alias Kake, the 33-year-old burglar, who has been charged with brutally assaulting and injuring a 12-year-old minor inside her house in Delhi's Peeragarhi, has been found out to be a repeated offender. According to the Delhi Police, Krishan was involved in a similar violent incident in the past. He had attacked a woman with a brick in 2006 in Sultanpuri while committing a burglary. The woman had died in the incident. The same year, he tried to kill his brother while he was caught stealing from his house. The accused told police that he was released from jail after completing his term, a claim being verified by the police. Meanwhile, the condition of the 12-year-old victim, who suffered severe injuries in a physical and sexual assault, continues to remain critical and she is on ventilator support, sources at the AIIMS said. The minor, undergoing treatment at Delhi AIIMS, was shifted to the neurosurgery ICU of the hospital on Thursday night. On August 4, the girl was physically assaulted and allegedly also sexually abused at her west Delhi home by the accused, who hit her on the face and head with a sharp object. Her rectum and intestines were injured severely by some kind of impalement for which she needed immediate intervention and that is why she was operated upon as soon as she reached the hospital, a senior doctor at the AIIMS had told PTI. The accused was arrested by the Delhi Police, who during an interrogation said that he had entered the girl's house with the intention of carrying out a burglary. The gate of the house was partially open and he entered the premises. He took a suitcase and was leaving the house when the girl saw him and raised an alarm. He took a sewing matching and threw it on the victim. The girl tried to fight, following which the accused caught her and stabbed her with a pair of scissors several times and fled the spot, a senior police officer said. A case has already been registered under Indian Penal Code section 307 (attempt to murder) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act at Paschim Vihar West police station. Kozhikode, Aug 8 : Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan who arrived here with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and a few of his cabinet colleagues on Saturday, expressed deep sadness at the tragedy after visiting the injured at the Medical College hospital. "In the past 48 hours, Kerala has seen two tragedies and this has affected the state very badly. I got a call from the President who has conveyed his deep condolences," said Khan. It was on Thursday night that a landslide near Munnar in Idukki district left 23 people dead. Around 50 people residing in four tea estate lines are missing after a portion of a huge hill came down on them. And on Friday night an Air India Express flight from Dubai skidded off the runway at Kozhikode airport and fell into a 35 feet deep gorge, leaving 18 dead and several others injured. Vijayan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him soon after learning about the accident. "The flight had 190 people on board and included six crew. Eighteen people including the two pilots and a crew member have died. Among the dead are 14 senior citizens (seven men and 7 women) and four children. 149 of the injured passengers are in various hospitals, 23 of them have been discharged, while the condition of 21 is serious," said Vijayan. One passenger of the ill-fated flight has tested Covid positive and the results of all the others are awaited. "The pilot and co-pilot and a crew member have lost their lives and Air India will take possession of their bodies. From 3 p.m. onwards the bodies of the victims will be handed over to the relatives. We have announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh to the families of the deceased, while the cost of the entire treatment of all the injured will be borne by the State. If need be, the State will again come to the help of all if there is a need," said Vijayan. "I will take this opportunity to thank each one who came to the rescue of the passengers the moment the accident occurred and it includes locals, airport officials and also the health professionals," added Vijayan. Both Khan and Vijayan also inspected the accident site. Latest updates on Kerala Air India Plane Crash -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text A State College borough councilwoman is again finding herself amid controversy over comments she made. This time, the comments were made in private correspondence which has since been posted and shared more than 200 times on Facebook with an individual voicing concerns over the boroughs new ordinance requiring masks and social distancing. Theresa Lafer did not apologize Friday for referring to business owner Brooklynn Wingert as a real new order Nazi, but her remarks were condemned by State College borough leadership. This exchange is from one individual and is not reflective of the council as a whole or the borough of State College, Mayor Ronald Filippelli and Council President Jesse Barlow said in a joint statement. Personally, we do not agree with the language used in this exchange. We want to emphasize that the borough of State College values everyones participation in local governance. We encourage everyone to offer their comments and opinions. After the State College Borough Council unanimously voted Tuesday to pass an ordinance that requires masks in public, forbids long lines and caps gatherings in residences at 10 people, Wingert who has three stepchildren living in State College and whose husband owns Wingert General Contracting in Bedford emailed every council member, saying that the ordinance is a violation on our rights as American citizens. I do not live in State College, but I do business there as well as spend a decent amount of money at the local businesses, she wrote Wednesday morning. I will no longer be taking contracts that are located in State College, and I will be taking my money elsewhere to support boroughs who support the Constitution and the freedoms of Americans. Wingert said the decision to pass the ordinance was contradictory, adding that protecting the innocent seems to only apply to COVID-19, and restrictions damage businesses, workers and their families. Lafer was the only council member to respond from her borough email. She thanked Wingert for sharing her pointless and feckless opinion. Following a second message from Wingert, Lafer ended the chain with two lines. Wow!! A real new order Nazi, she wrote. How proud you must be at least a century behind the times, but still an acolyte. In a response sent to the CDT from her Penn State email Friday, Lafer said she has been receiving letters for some time from a group that uses fascist, political rhetoric to attack her. The most recent one was sent Friday morning, she wrote. She did not specify whether Wingert was part of that group, but Wingert said Friday that this was her first correspondence with the councilwoman. Since I do not know or know of these writers, I can only define them by their own words and actions, Lafer wrote. Apparently, they do not like my analysis of their words. Lafers words also sparked controversy last year when she said she might be inclined to shoot somebody, during a conversation about a noise waiver during a borough council meeting. Rating Action: Moody's affirms Maybank's ratings Global Credit Research - 07 Aug 2020 Singapore, August 07, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service has today affirmed the A3 long-term foreign currency deposit and A3 long-term foreign currency senior unsecured debt ratings of Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank). Moody's has also affirmed Maybank's Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) and Adjusted BCA of a3, and the bank's long-term foreign currency subordinated debt rating of Baa2 (hyb). The rating outlook is stable. For the detailed list of affected rating please refer to the end of this press release. RATINGS RATIONALE The affirmation of Maybank's A3 ratings and a3 BCA reflects Moody's view that the bank's financial performance will remain resilient, underpinned by its robust track record over the past decade, strong capital buffers, favorable funding and ample liquidity. The rating action also takes into account Moody's expectation of a moderate strain on bank's asset quality and profitability due to the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Maybank's capital is strong, supported by the bank's dividend reinvestment plan and modest credit growth. The bank's tangible common equity as a percentage of risk-weighted assets of 19.1% as of 31 March 2020 exceeded that of its peers in the region and provides ample buffer against risks. Funding and liquidity are strengths of Maybank, underpinned by its position as Malaysia's largest bank by assets. The bank has a strong deposit base and good market access, while its liquidity buffer is in line with the regional peers. In the past few years, the asset quality of Maybank's overseas loans -- which are mainly in Singapore and Indonesia -- has deteriorated due to the bank's relatively highly concentrated loan exposures to sectors such as oil & gas, shipping and structured trade credit amongst others. The gross impaired loan ratios for the bank's operations in Singapore and Indonesia registered 4.0% and 4.9%, respectively, as of 31 March 2020, compared to 2.0% for Malaysia. Story continues Despite the weakening in asset quality, Maybank has de-risked its international loan book and reduced its concentration to large borrowers. As such, Moody's does not expect a further material deterioration in the quality of the bank's international corporate loans. In line with the trend for other peers in the region, Moody's expects the quality of Maybank's retail and small and mediums-sized enterprise (SME) loans to deteriorate due to the economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak in the various countries of its operations. Based on data as of May 2020, about 60% of the bank's loans are under repayment moratoriums until October 2020. Moody's expects impaired loans will increase once the loan deferment period ends. Credit costs will also increase because of the strain on asset quality and will hurt profitability. However, Maybank's strong loss absorbing buffers put the bank in a comfortable position to weather the economic shock. Maybank's A3 ratings also take into account Moody's expectation of a very high level of support from the Government of Malaysia (A3 stable) based on the bank's dominant and leading market share of 17% of system deposits as of the end of March 2020, as well as the bank's importance to the country's banking system. However, this support assumption does not result in any rating uplift because Maybank's a3 BCA is already at the same level as Malaysia's sovereign rating of A3. FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATING UP An upgrade of Malaysia's A3 sovereign rating would likely lead to an upgrade of Maybank's A3 deposit rating, on account of the government support uplift incorporated into its rating. Maybank's a3 BCA is already at the same level as Malaysia's sovereign rating, and its BCA will not be upgraded without a sovereign upgrade given the credit linkages between the bank and the government. WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATING DOWN The outlook on Maybank's ratings could be revised to negative if (1) the sovereign rating outlook is revised to negative; or (2) there is a significant weakening in the bank's standalone credit profile, resulting in a multi-notch downgrade of its BCA. Moody's could downgrade the bank's BCA if there is a material decline in capital because of a strain on asset quality and profitability. Moody's could also downgrade Maybank's BCA if the continues to experience large defaults in its international operations, leading to a weakening of asset quality and profitability. 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. Malayan Banking Berhad, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, reported total assets of MYR845 billion ($195 billion) at 31 March 2020. LIST OF AFFECTED RATINGS ..Issuer: Malayan Banking Berhad .... Adjusted Baseline Credit Assessment, Affirmed a3 .... Baseline Credit Assessment, Affirmed a3 .... Long-term Counterparty Risk Assessment, Affirmed A2(cr) .... Short-term Counterparty Risk Assessment, Affirmed P-1(cr) .... Long-term Counterparty Risk Rating (Foreign and Local Currency), Affirmed A2 .... Short-term Counterparty Risk Rating (Foreign and Local Currency), Affirmed P-1 .... Long-term Bank Deposit Rating (Foreign and Local Currency), Affirmed A3; Outlook maintained at stable .... Short-term Bank Deposit Rating (Foreign and Local Currency), Affirmed P-2 ....Long-term Senior Unsecured Multicurrency Medium-Term Note Program (Foreign Currency), Affirmed (P)A3 ....Long-term Subordinate Multicurrency Medium-Term Note Program (Foreign Currency), Affirmed (P)Baa2 ....Long-term Pref. Stock Non-cumulative Medium-Term Note Program (Foreign Currency), Affirmed (P)Baa3 ....Long-term Subordinate Debt (Foreign Currency), Affirmed Baa2 (hyb) ....Short-term Commercial Paper (Foreign Currency), Affirmed P-2 ....Long-term Senior Unsecured Debt (Foreign Currency), Affirmed A3; Outlook maintained at stable ....Outlook, Maintained at Stable ..Issuer: Malayan Banking Berhad, Hong Kong Branch .... Long-term Counterparty Risk Assessment, Affirmed A2(cr) .... Short-term Counterparty Risk Assessment, Affirmed P-1(cr) .... Long-term Counterparty Risk Rating (Foreign and Local Currency), Affirmed A2 .... Short-term Counterparty Risk Rating (Foreign and Local Currency), Affirmed P-1 ....Long-term Senior Unsecured Multicurrency Medium-Term Note Program (Foreign Currency), Affirmed (P)A3 ....Long-term Subordinate Multicurrency Medium-Term Note Program (Foreign Currency), Affirmed (P)Baa2 ....Long-term Pref. Stock Non-cumulative Medium-Term Note Program (Foreign Currency), Affirmed (P)Baa3 ....Short-term Commercial Paper (Foreign Currency), Affirmed P-2 ....Outlook, Maintained at Stable ..Issuer: Malayan Banking Berhad, Singapore Branch .... Long-term Counterparty Risk Assessment, Affirmed A2(cr) .... Short-term Counterparty Risk Assessment, Affirmed P-1(cr) .... Long-term Counterparty Risk Rating (Foreign and Local Currency), Affirmed A2 .... Short-term Counterparty Risk Rating (Foreign and Local Currency), Affirmed P-1 ....Long-term Senior Unsecured Multicurrency Medium-Term Note Program (Foreign Currency), Affirmed (P)A3 ....Long-term Subordinate Multicurrency Medium-Term Note Program (Foreign Currency), Affirmed (P)Baa2 ....Long-term Pref. 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Press Release August 8, 2020 De Lima slams authorities' growing disregard for civil, political rights of civilians Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has called for a Senate investigation into the cases of growing disregard for basic civil and political rights among law enforcers, especially during quarantine period. In filing Senate Resolution (SR) No. 490, De Lima cited the unlawful seizure of protest materials during a mass at the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila before the President's the State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 27. "This incident is the latest outrage committed by agents of the administration during the quarantine period, following the massacre of army intelligence personnel by policemen in Sulu, and the threatened deportation of an Overseas Filipino Worker in Taiwan who criticized the government on social media," she said. "These acts evidence a growing disregard for basic civil and political rights among our law enforcement personnel," she added. Reportedly, Philippine National Police (PNP) officials clad in fatigue uniforms entered Quiapo Church while the Liturgy of the Word was being celebrated and forcibly took the personal property of a churchgoer, including, among others, placards and other materials intended for use at a mass activity during SONA later in the day. The incident happened following the statement of NCRPO Chief PM/Gen. Debold Sinas warning that individuals who would show placards along Commonwealth Avenue amid Duterte's SONA would immediately be arrested and processed in Camp Karingal where PNP lawyers would determine which charges would be lodged against them. Notably, however, these statements of General Sinas were directly controverted by those of Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra saying that placards containing one's expressions on national issues are covered by the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression. De Lima pointed out that the policemen in the Quiapo church incident failed to present a warrant, court order, or any other lawful process authorizing the seizure of the aforementioned personal property. "Aside from being an ipso facto violation of the Bill of Rights, the above-mentioned seizure, being attended by violence against or intimidation of persons, quite possibly constitutes robbery as defined by the Revised Penal Code," she said. "Considering that the above act interrupted a religious ritual as it was being celebrated at one of the holiest sites of Philippine Catholicism, also constitutes a crime against religious worship," she added. Dateline Myanmar Govts Move to Protect Migrant Voting Rights: Too Little, Too Late? -- Ye Ni: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! As the Union Election Commission (UEC) said it is preparing for Myanmar migrant workers to be able to cast votes in the coming election, we will discuss the situation in Thailand, where the majority of Myanmar migrant workers are working. U Htoo Chit, director of the Phang Nga-based Foundation for Education Development in Phuket in southern Thailand, and U Aung Kyaw, chairman of the Bangkok-based Myanmar Migrant Workers Rights Network in Thailand, join me to discuss this. Im The Irrawaddy Burmese editor Ye Ni. As the UEC has made public the initial voter lists inside the country, it is also working to register the eligible voters outside the country. Myanmar migrant workers have to fill in Form 15 to cast a vote. According to its interviews, the UEC apparently wants to register more Myanmar migrant workers than in the previous elections. We heard that the UEC is coordinating with relevant governments via Myanmar embassies and consulates for documented Myanmar migrant workers to be able to cast votes, particularly in Thailand and Malaysia. Are Myanmar migrant workers in those countries interested in the election? Even if they are interested, do they have easy access to Form 15? Even if they can cast votes, will they come and cast votes at embassies, consulates and labor attache offices? Htoo Chit: We have made repeated requests to the government since 2016 to take steps for Myanmar migrant workers to be able to vote. We also presented our recommendations to the UEC in Naypyitaw in March before the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Myanmar. We also said that we would cooperate in the process. We also saw in news reports that the UEC has taken an interest in voting rights of migrant workers. But the realities regarding the situation in southern Thailand and Myanmar migrant workers in Malaysia are quite different. Like in the previous elections, workers have to fill out Form 15 and send it back to the embassies. What is different is that the government has made an announcement about [Form 15] this time. But still migrant workers are largely constrained and their knowledge is very limited. First of all, it is difficult for them to get Form 15 by themselves. So we suggested that, if possible, embassies, labor attaches and civil society organizations should distribute Form 15 on a wide scale to migrant workers working in factories and workshops. Our foundation is doing what we can in this regard. We phoned migrant workers nearby, asked them to come to our office and talked to them, gave them forms and kept the [completed] forms. I mean thus far I havent seen the Myanmar government working actively and on a wider scale to register Myanmar migrant workers. Those forms are due to be sent back on August 5. This is just the stage to verify if the voters are eligible. Even if they are eligible, if they have to cast a vote at the embassy in Bangkok or the consulate in Chiang Mai, it is unrealistic. It will be OK only for Myanmar migrant workers who live near Bangkok and Chiang Mai. But it is unrealistic for Myanmar migrant workers in other parts of Thailand to travel to those places and cast votes. We dont know if it is even possible for Myanmar migrant workers to fill out Form 15. It would be better if the government can extend the deadline for submission of Form 15. Most of the migrant workers do not know that Form 15 has to be sent back by August 5, so the government needs to work systematically if it wants to see a large number of migrant works cast votes in the coming election. YN: What is your view, Ko Aung Kyaw? There are large numbers of Myanmar migrant workers in Mahachai [Samut Sakhon] near Bangkok where your organization is based. Are they interested in the election? Was Form 15 distributed on a wide scale among Myanmar migrant workers in Mahachai? Do you think Myanmar migrant workers from Mahachai will cast votes at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok? Aung Kyaw: Unlike in previous elections, the UEC made an announcement about Form 15. It announced on July 3 that Myanmar migrant workers have the right to vote and that they have to fill in Form 15 and send it back [to embassies] between July 16 and August 5. [Migrants] were interested, but they do not have time and it is costly for them to travel to the embassy to obtain the forms. So, in cooperation with nearby civil society organizations [CSOs] and religious organizations, we took out the forms and distributed them as far as we can. About their interest in the election, many said they wanted to cast votes in the 2015 election but they did not have a chance. But this time, the government has made an announcement and the embassy said it would come and give copies of Form 15 at our request. So many Myanmar migrant workers have become interested in the election. In some wards, migrant workers are helping their colleagues to fill in Form 15, after working hours. Their interest has grown a lot compared to the 2015 election. But many challenges remain. We ourselves are workers, and we have to work six days a week and only rest on Sunday. So, we only get one day per week to educate the Myanmar migrant workers [about Form 15]. We therefore cant travel to all the places and educate all the migrant workers. Not as many Form 15s as expected were sent back because the government has done a poor job in educating Myanmar migrant workers. Though Myanmar migrant workers are interested in voting, they dont even know how to fill in Form 15. As Ko Htoo Chit said, those who are working in Thailand are different from those working in Japan, Australia, South Korea and Singapore who are skilled laborers. Those working in Thailand have received little education and many of them cant write Burmese. We have come to know this because we have helped them fill out the forms. Some have the will, but have no ability, and therefore gave up as the deadline approached. The government has to educate on a wide scale if it does not want Myanmar migrants to lose their citizens rights. And the deadline must be extended. The deadline from July 16 to August 5 is too strict. To save the time and money of migrant workers, we gathered their forms at our office and forwarded their forms to the embassy. But there were hundreds of forms and we could not check all the forms. The embassy told us that a certain number of forms are incomplete and they need to be filled out again. So, despite the large number of forms submitted to the embassy, not all the forms will be eligible. On the form, they have to fill in their detailed address and I am afraid they dont know their detailed address. There are many challenges even in filling out Form 15. Even if they can submit the forms and are eligible to vote, there will be obstacles for them to cast an advanced vote at the embassy. I have made suggestions in my interviews with media agencies and also presented my recommendation to the embassy that polling stations be opened through negotiations between the two governments in Mahachai, where some 400,000 Myanmar migrant workers are working. This will help the Myanmar government to prevent Myanmar citizens from losing their rights. YN: It is fair to say that the government has worked for the first time for the voting rights of Myanmar migrant workers. The UEC and the government acknowledge that there are challenges, and apparently they are working to find solutions. The Myanmar government said it is working with Thai authorities for Myanmar migrant workers to be able to cast votes in places like Mahachai, Mae Sot and Ranong. Even if the Thai government allows polling stations in those places, there may be Myanmar migrant workers who do not know about parties and how to cast votes. Cant these be challenges? How are labor rights organizations like yours and the embassy working together to address those challenges? HC: We have repeatedly presented our recommendations whenever we meet relevant government officials, especially election officials. Since 2016, we have provided recommendations as to how to protect migrant workers and how to ensure their voting rights, which are their fundamental rights. As Ko Aung Kyaw has said, we are a non-governmental organization (NGO) and we have constraints. We have limited human resource and are also constrained in engaging with government departments. The president said that when a person is disenfranchised it means his fundamental human rights are violated. The UEC is working for Myanmar migrant workers to be enfranchised. But in reality, there are hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrant workers working under the Memorandum of Understanding between two governments. Both the government and overseas employment agencies know at which factories in which areas they are working. So the labor attache of the embassy can go to the factories in collaboration with employers. There are some COVID-19 regulations imposed by the Thai government. We can follow those dos and donts. Schools have reopened in some areas and we have accepted over 200 upper secondary students as we were able to meet the guidelines of Thai authorities. We have been able to hold meetings with workers. Recently, representatives of the Mon Party came and talked with Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand. We should be able to run voter education in collaboration with the government. But then, time is very limited and the government also needs to run voter education on social media. Some migrant workers do not even know how many parties there are in Myanmar. Most of the migrant workers we have met are first-time voters, usually aged between 18 and 24. And there are also older migrant workers who have never cast a vote. Ninety percent of the migrant workers we have met have never cast a vote. They want to cast a vote and there is a need to run basic voter education for them. There are migrant workers who think there are only two parties. They think they have to choose only between the USDP [Union Solidarity and Development Party] and the NLD [National League for Democracy]. They dont know how many candidates they have to vote for, for example, ethnic people who live outside their state have to choose an ethnic affairs minister to represent them [for instance, Karen ethnic affairs in the Yangon regional government]. Though the time is limited, we can get this done through cooperation between the government and CSOs. Particularly, government staff personnel need to work carefully. We can say that more migrant workers will cast votes in the coming election compared to in previous elections. Whether they will be able to cast votes will largely depend on the government and the UEC. We have repeatedly told them that we are ready to help them and cooperate with them. It is up to them to cooperate with us. Some embassy staff told us that they would send copies of Form 15 to us. But they did not send them until July 30. So, we had to photocopy Form 15 ourselves. We can fill in and submit the forms on the behalf of Myanmar migrant workers. But the copies of a citizenship ID card or passport must be attached to the form. How can they photocopy them? So, we are thinking of going mobile by bringing a printer in the car. We can submit the forms for them, but it is difficult to get the photocopies of their IDs. There are many workers who work in rubber and oil palm plantations in remote areas, which are far from photocopier shops. These challenges will remain. What we are doing on our part is not yet effective. Perhaps the embassy is distributing the forms near Bangkok. What is more important is that ethnic people account for a large proportion of migrant workers. Previously, ethnic opposition parties like Rakhine, Mon, Karen and Kayah and Chin ethnic parties worked together with us to run voter education. But due to COVID-19, they cant come to Thailand. What was lucky is that as there are Mon CSOs based here, and they came and explained about the Mon Party. So, I think more migrant workers will cast votes in the coming election. YN: Ko Aung Kyaw, what is your view? AK: The UEC officially announced on July 3 [about registration of migrant workers]. Starting from that day, we took out Form-15 and educated migrant workers nearby. We have been doing what we can as a NGO. But there are millions of Myanmar workers in Thailand and we can educate only a few of them. We welcomed the governments move [to register Myanmar voters aboard], but it should have cooperated with us and worked intensively since July 3 on voter education. The Myanmar Embassy in Thailand and the Myanmar government should have worked on a wide scale. I am not blaming them for not reaching Myanmar workers in Thailand. There are over 70 provinces in Thailand and it is difficult for them to travel to each province to meet Myanmar migrant workers. Whats more, there are travel restrictions due to COVID-19. But they can run voter education campaigns through media to attract the interest of Myanmar migrant workers and explain to them how to fill out Form 15. What CSOs and NGOs are doing will not be as effective as government activities. I believe the government is working in good faith to ensure suffrage for Myanmar migrant workers, but its performance fell short of our expectations. The UEC made the announcement on July 3, but the Myanmar Embassy only took steps around July 20 to distribute forms and run voter education. The deadline for submission of Form 15 is August 5. As I have said earlier, we can only meet directly with migrant workers one day per week, on Sunday. We had no time. As a result, they will lose their fundamental rights. Not everyone who has submitted Form 15 will be allowed to cast a vote. Inside Myanmar, there are also errors in voter lists. Migrant workers still cant check if they are on the voter list. Even if they are eligible to vote, they dont know the policies of parties. If we and the government cant even work together regarding the distribution and submission of Form 15, it is much more difficult to collaborate on voter education, which is a more complicated issue. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Workers and Farmers Reject Parties, Push New Voices for 2020 Election Volunteers Help Myanmar Migrant Workers Register to Vote in Thailand A traditional Afghan council is expected to back a proposal for the government to release a final group of 400 Taliban prisoners, a move that potentially paves the way for intra-Afghan peace talks. Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Loya Jirga gathering Afghan politicians and community leaders, said August 8 that all 50 committees of the assembly supported the release of the remaining 400 Taliban prisoners convicted of involvement in high-profile attacks in the country. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is expected to make a final decision on the Taliban prisoner release on August 9, when the council makes an official announcement on its third day of meeting. The release of the prisoners is the last hurdle to opening peace talks between the internationally backed government in Kabul and the Taliban under a peace deal between the militants and the United States. Abdullah, who is also head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, said that intra-Afghan peace talks can begin three days after a potential prisoner release. The Loya Jirga committees also asked both sides of the conflict to observe an unconditional cease-fire ahead of intra-Afghan peace talks. Kabul has released 4,600 Taliban inmates out of the 5,000 pledged in the landmark agreement signed in February by the United States and the Taliban, but authorities have balked at freeing the remaining prisoners demanded by the Taliban. Ghani has said that he could not release the last batch of Taliban prisoners without the approval of the 3,200 delegates in the Loya Jirga, a traditional gathering of ethnic, religious, and political leaders who decide on matters of national importance. A survey circulated at the Loya Jirga said the choice was between freeing the Taliban prisoners so that talks could begin, or refusing and the war would continue. Among other things, the U.S.-Taliban deal calls on the Taliban to guarantee that Afghanistan will not be used as a staging ground for terrorist attacks on the United States or its allies. Ahead of the Loya Jirga, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged attendees to take advantage of a historic opportunity to reach peace. "We acknowledge that the release of these prisoners is unpopular," Pompeo said in a statement on August 6. "But this difficult action will lead to an important result long sought by Afghans and Afghanistan's friends: reduction of violence and direct talks resulting in a peace agreement and an end to the war." Afghan officials have described the remaining prisoners as dangerous. Of the 400 Taliban prisoners left, around 200 are accused by the Afghan government of masterminding attacks on embassies, public squares, and government offices, killing thousands of civilians in recent years. The Taliban says it has freed all 1,000 government prisoners it had pledged in the agreement with the United States and insists on its demand for the release of the remaining 400 prisoners on its list. The United States has reportedly proposed the Taliban prisoners be transferred from Afghan jails to a location where they would be under both Taliban and Afghan government surveillance. Despite the U.S.-Taliban deal, the Taliban attacks since February have killed 3,560 Afghan security personnel, according to the government. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has documented more than 1,280 Afghan civilians deaths during the first half of 2020 -- mainly as a result of fighting between Afghan government forces and Taliban militants. With reporting by AP and dpa New Delhi, Aug 8 : The Mumbai Police, in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, denied that sending IPS officer Vinay Tiwari into quarantine was aimed at obstructing the investigation by the Bihar Police in the case registered by late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's father in Patna. It also submitted that pending the present proceedings, the Central Bureau of Investigation ought not to have gone ahead to register a case and constitute a team for conducting the investigation. On August 5, the top court had sought a response from Mumbai Police, during the hearing of plea by Rhea Chakraborty seeking transfer of case filed by Sushant's father from Patna to Mumbai. Clarifying on the quarantine of the Bihar Police officer, the police said: "In fact, such step was taken by the Municipal Corporation for Greater Mumbai and not by police authorities." The Mumbai Police insisted that in view of the facts and circumstances of present case, it is only the Maharashtra government, which is competent to give consent under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, for transferring the case to the CBI because the cause of action has arisen solely and completely within the state alone. Not only the death but each and every part of the cause has taken place in Mumbai, it said, noting that neither the jurisdiction lay in Bihar nor the investigative jurisdiction lay with the Bihar Police. It also argued that Sushant's father, despite being aware of the fact that the Mumbai Police were investigating his son's death, did not ever make any request to register an FIR against Rhea and her family members. "On the contrary, the statements of all the close relatives of the deceased, including the respondent No. 2 (Sushant's father) as soon as possible after the said death, demonstrate that none of them had any suspicion about the suicide committed by the deceased or against anybody whosoever in that regard," said the affidavit. It said it is important to note that these statements were recorded first in point of time, unlike the subsequent statements with numerous improvements that are apparently tainted with after-thought, to say the least. The Mumbai Police also said the CBI should have waited for the final decision of the present proceedings in the apex court. "Suffice it to say that, the indecent haste with which the CBI has proceeded in this regard speaks for itself," said the affidavit. It maintained that it is investigating the incident fairly, properly, professionally and impartially. It also said the investigation into the case is still ongoing and hence it is in the interest of justice that the details of the investigation are not shared with any other person, except the top court. The top court is slated to hear the matter on August 11. Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery As communities across the country face an uncertain road ahead, Bowling Green State University will now be able to expand its reach in helping northwest Ohio communities plan for economic recovery. The Center for Regional Development (CRD) at Bowling Green State University has received a $300,000 CARES Act grant to support economic and workforce development recovery strategies across a 27-county region in northwest Ohio. CRD will use the funding to leverage economic and demographic data analytics, as well as public facilitation expertise, to assist communities to position themselves to recover from the economic effects of the pandemic. Our local communities are navigating never-before-seen challenges due to COVID-19, said Dr. Russell W. Mills, senior director of CRD. This funding is critical in allowing CRD to bring additional staff capacity and expertise on board to expand our reach and support northwest Ohio. The additional funding by the CARES Act grant will also allow CRD to support grant applications by local governments and other governmental partners to address the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. A team of BGSU graduate students from the public administration program and the applied statistics and operations research program will play an integral role in developing economic recovery strategies. The graduate students will perform data analysis and developing data visualization tools, identifying best practices and solutions from other communities. They also will conduct interviews with leaders from around the region. The grant will support additional capacity for the Rural University Consortium, an Economic Development Administration (EDA) University Center operated in partnership between CRD and the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs at Ohio University. BGSUs grant was part of the U.S. Department of Commerces Economic Development Administration awarding $7.8 million in EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance grants to universities across the nation. The grants are to boost their capacity to support regional economic development strategies in response to the coronavirus pandemic. CRD, supported by a local planning grant from EDA, is leading the update of the Toledo region Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) that will guide the regions economic development activities over the next five years. We are very thankful for our long-standing partnership with Ohio University and EDA in operating our University Center and serving communities in northwest and Appalachian Ohio, Mills said. This funding will allow CRD to further BGSUs role as a public university for the public good by expanding its efforts to assist communities understand the impact of COVID-19 on their local economies and better plan for economic recovery and resiliency. Industry stalwarts hail Arvind Kejriwals ambitious Electric Vehicle Policy India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: The ambitious Electric Vehicle Policy of the AAP government, launched by CM Arvind Kejriwal earlier today is receiving appreciation from the industry stalwarts across various sectors. The scheme was launched with an aim to boost Delhi's economy, reduce pollution levels in the city, and generate employment in the transport sector. Welcoming this move, the industry leaders echoed that the scheme will take the electric economy in the country forward. The need of the hour is initiating a similar electric policy in other states of the country, and the electric policy of the government will be a milestone in the electric economy of the country. Industry stalwarts hail Arvind Kejriwal's ambitious Electric Vehicle Policy: Many industry leaders and environmentalists have come forward to appreciate the move of the AAP government. Mahesh Babu, CEO of Mahindra Electric and Naveen Munjal, MD of Hero Electric, took to Twitter to welcome the move and promised cooperation with the government to ensure sustainable implementation of the policy. A very long term futuristic electric vehicle policy: Mahesh Babu (CEO Mahindra). Mahesh Babu, CEO, Mahindra Electric, tweeted, "My compliments and thanks to Delhi Govt. And @ArvindKejriwal for Delhi announcing a long term futuristic Electric vehicle policy. Mahindra will work jointly to transform the mobility to sustainable in Delhi." My compliments and thanks to Delhi Govt. And @ArvindKejriwal for Delhi announcing a long term futuristic Electric vehicle policy. Mahindra will work jointly to transform the mobility to sustainable in Delhi. https://t.co/DMSg4wSeb9 Mahesh Babu (@Maheshsbabu) August 7, 2020 We welcome this electric vehicle policy: Naveen Munjal (MD Hero Electric): Naveen Munjal, MD, Hero Electric, tweeted, "@Hero_Electric welcomes the latest Electric Vehicle Policy by @CMODelhi @ArvindKejriwal. This is a great move towards a pollution-free nation." @Hero_Electric welcomes the latest Electric Vehicle Policy by @CMODelhi @ArvindKejriwal. This is a great move towards a pollution-free nation. Naveen Munjal (@nmunjal) August 7, 2020 Addressing a press conference earlier in the day, CM Arvind Kejriwal had said that the EV Policy launched by the AAP government in Delhi will serve a two-fold objective. In a bid to boost the economic revival of Delhi, the AAP government has launched the EV Policy which, along with contributing to the electric economy of Delhi, will also generate employment and revenue in the transport sector. Second, the EV policy will also lead to a pollution-free Delhi. In the last five years, the people of Delhi have collectively worked together to reduce pollution levels by 25 per cent, and the EV policy will help to reduce it further. It further aims to establish Delhi as the EV capital of India and make Delhi a world-leader in the field of electric vehicles. Advertisement The recently published study sheds light on this issue. Four years ago, researchers led by Prof. Dr. Heiko Reutter from the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Bonn discovered a gene that is abnormal in sick children. The gene bears the cryptic abbreviationexplains Magdalena Rieke, who is completing her doctorate under Prof. Reutter.The researcher also benefited from the expertise of a university working group that only marginally deals with congenital malformations: Prof. Dr. Benjamin Odermatt researches the cause of neurological diseases at the Section of Neuroanatomy.The zebrafish serves as a model organism. Not only because it can be easily kept in an appropriate habitat and reproduces quickly: Many of its genes are also found in a very similar form in humans.This also includes SLC20A1.explains Rieke.The researchers were furthermore able to show that the gene is also active in human embryos, particularly in structures involved in the formation of the excretory organs and genitalia.In human patients, the researchers found three different mutations of SLC20A1. These anomalies often occur spontaneously. Therefore, even children whose parents are completely healthy may be affected.Rieke and her colleagues were able to demonstrate the effect of one of these mutations in human cell cultures: It interferes with the controlled degradation of cells, the, a very important step in tissue remodeling.During embryonic development, not only are masses of new cells produced, but some are also deliberately destroyed. This is for instance how the opening of the intestine to the outside, the anus, is created. Researchers refer to the process of programmed cell death as apoptosis.speculates Rieke.SLC20A1 contains the building instructions of a protein that is located in the cell membrane, the fat-like envelope that surrounds the cells.This protein resembles a long worm that has arranged its body in numerous tight loops that repeatedly run from the outside of the membrane to the inside and back.Computer models suggest that at least one of the mutations discovered prevents correct folding. This is thought to severely disrupt protein function, and thus also the activation of apoptosis.It is not yet possible to derive immediate insights for the treatment of BEEC directly from the results.stresses Rieke, who herself works as an assistant doctor in the field of pediatric and adolescent medicine.In addition to various working groups from Bonn and Germany, research institutions from Sweden, Great Britain, Italy, India and the Netherlands were also involved in the study. It is thus also an example of successful international cooperation.Source: Eurekalert John Boyne is a classic example of an author who writes a book so huge that it overshadows everything else he had done before and will ever do again. In his case, that book was The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, his first children's book, which sold millions. If he never wrote another book after that, his place in literary history would already be assured. Less successful writers have every right to look on enviously; but many who do find themselves in that fortunate position often complain that the work for which they're best known can become an albatross around their necks, and few ever manage to produce another as striking. Boyne may have bucked the trend with his new novel, his 12th for adults. The title of A Traveller at the Gates Of Wisdom may make his book sound like some sub-Paulo Coelho mystic word salad, but it's a hugely ambitious saga whose plot spans 2,000 years and does more in its 400-odd (sometimes very odd indeed) pages than many writers achieve in their entire careers. There's a but, and it's a huge but; but we'll come to that in due course. It begins in Palestine in AD1. The narrator's father is a Roman soldier sent out to slaughter newborn baby boys in the towns around Bethlehem on the orders of King Herod. The same character then keeps reappearing at various points in time, on all continents and through all periods of history - Guatemala in 420, Sweden in 1133, India in 1385, Japan in 1743, culminating in the USA in 2016, followed by a further episode 60 years in the future, fulfilling the prophecy 200 pages earlier, in 13th century Greece, that he would live "among the stars". It sounds fantastical, but it has been done in various forms before. Think of the TV sitcom Blackadder. The same characters keep popping up at different points in history. That one also zips forward to the far future. The story here follows in a single narrative that just happens to be broken up by long stretches of time. So, in 800AD he is at the monastery in Kells, where the monks are at work on their famous book, though he himself is not a monk, and doesn't think God exists. Next time he appears, it's in a different monastery in Nepal 62 years later, where he's still not a monk and doesn't think Buddha exists. Then he's in another temple in Indonesia in the year 907, the same soul in multiple incarnations. Some of the situations in which the narrator finds himself are tragic, others comic. He even meets Lady Macbeth in what can only be described as peculiar circumstances. "Some killings are justified," she tells him. Well, she would say that, wouldn't she? In an age when cultural appropriation has become such a bone of contention, it's a bold move to take on the personas of so many people from different cultures which are not one's own, but Boyne does so without fear. To insist on the oneness of identity at a time when self-identification has become fractured into ever smaller units of difference is equally audacious. Sometimes the novel feels like a travelogue, skimming on the surface rather than delving deep into the periods and cultures it is rooting among; and there is always the risk that some chapters, each a short story in its own right, will fall flatter than others. Sometimes too the interwoven themes of colonialism, conquest and relations between men and women are touched on too cursorily. The last two centuries - during which a lot has happened, to say the least - are passed over in only about 50 pages. Video of the Day But the sheer verve and ambition of it all dispels any doubts. It bears comparison to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, which also ranges across various civilisations and time periods, but this one is more accessible. It's apt too that it ends in space, tying into the latest ideas about quantum physics and everything being connected, and nothing only being one thing. Now here's the but. It comes in the final chapter, which centres on the 2016 election of Donald Trump. It's crude, cartoonish, didactic and heavy-handed. It hits the reader on the head with polemic where the earlier sections had teased them with allusion. The parallel between King Herod at the beginning, slaughtering the holy innocents, and Trump at the end couldn't be clunkier. What follows is an epilogue which, if anything, is even worse, containing a scene of such childish wish-fulfilment that it beggars belief that Boyne's editors didn't beg him to take it out. It's rare to see an author set fire, literally in this case, to his own painstakingly constructed narrative, all for the sake of a cheap joke. After persevering through thick and thin for hundreds of pages, it's hard not to be cross with Boyne for not having the patience or discipline to make his final point more subtly; but it's his novel, and he can do with it whatever he likes. It's still worth reading, just slightly less magisterial than it might have been. TDT | Manama The coronavirus (COVID-19) took three lives in Bahrain yesterday, the Ministry of Health reported. The deceased included a 43-year-old expatriate woman, a 52-year-old Bahraini man, and a 68-year-old expatriate man. Their passing brought the total coronavirus-related deaths in the Kingdom to 150. The Health Ministry expressed its condolences to the victims families. Meanwhile, the ministry announced early this morning that out of 7,656 COVID-19 tests conducted yesterday, 299 new cases were detected. These included 121 expatriate workers and 178 contacts of active cases. There were zero new travel-related cases. The new active cases brought the overall number of confirmed registered cases in Bahrain to 41,835, dating back to when the first case was reported in February of this year. There were also 341 additional recoveries from COVID-19 yesterday, bringing the Kingdoms total number of discharged individuals to more than 39,000 at 39,007. Following those recoveries, the current total of active cases continued to drop, as the number went to 2,678. Of these, 48 are in critical condition and 75 are receiving treatment. The remaining 2,630 cases are stable. The total tests conducted in Bahrain increased to 850,648. By PTI KOZHIKODE: It was a journey, Sahira Banu undertook from Dubai to fulfill her long cherished dream of a job. However, that would always remain a wish unfulfilled as she never made it to her home town at nearby Mukham and died when the Air India Express flight on Friday night overshot the runway at the Karipur airport here, fell into a valley and broke into two portions. Sahira, an Ayurvedic Pharmacist, had gone to Dubai along with her three children 10 months ago to join her husband, Nijas. But as she got a job offer from the nearby Kottakal Arya Vaidya Sala, the young woman decided to return to Kerala, according to Jameela, a close relative. While Sahira's two children-- eight year old son and four year old daughter, who were injured,have been discharged from two hospitals, her one-year-old son died along with his mother,Jameela told PTI. Relatives of Sahira are yet to recover from the shock of the tragedy. Sahira's husband Nijasis expected to reach here tonightfrom Dubai, Jameela said. The children have not been informed about the twin tragedies. Ruksana, another relative of Jameela, who was also in the flight, suffered a leg injury. However her two-year-old daughter was unhurt, Jameela added. ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson // Becker, PLLC is a nationwide products liability law firm with experience representing victims of pressure cooker explosions. The firm represents over 200 clients who have been severely burned by exploding pressure cookers designed and sold by numerous manufacturers. Johnson // Becker filed multiple Complaints in Florida state court on behalf residents of California, Minnesota, Missouri (2), North Carolina and Oklahoma alleging that Sunbeam Products, Inc., the manufacturer of the Crockpot Express, misrepresented the safety of their pressure cookers. In each of the Complaints, the Plaintiffs state that their pressure cookers exploded while under pressure, and that as a result of the explosions, the Plaintiffs sustained severe burn injuries. The Complaints also claim that the Crockpot Express is marketed as having "safety features" which are supposed to prevent the unit from both building pressure if the lid is not closed properly, as well as the lid from being removed until all the pressure is released. However, the Plaintiffs allege that the Crockpot Express contains defects which allow unsuspecting consumers to remove the lid while the cooker is still under pressure causing the scalding hot contents to be projected from the unit. This suit is filed by Michael K. Johnson, Lisa A. Gorshe, Kenneth W. Pearson and Adam J. Kress of Johnson // Becker, PLLC. Michael K. Johnson is a founding partner of Johnson // Becker, PLLC. Michael, Ken and Adam exclusively handle injury cases, with an emphasis on national products liability litigation, including cases involving burn injuries from defective products. To learn more about Johnson // Becker's product liability cases, or to arrange a free, no obligation case review, please visit Johnson // Becker at https://www.johnsonbecker.com/product-liability/pressure-cooker-lawsuit/, or contact Johnson // Becker directly at (800) 279-6386. SOURCE Johnson // Becker, PLLC Related Links https://www.johnsonbecker.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dyaning Pangestika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8, 2020 12:30 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c7c749 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,Muhammadiyah,coronavirus,face-mask,health-protocol,religious-leaders Free Local religious figures should play a larger role in educating people about COVID-19 health protocols, an official from Muhammadiyah, the countrys second-largest Islamic organization, has said. Muhammadiyah COVID-19 Command Center vice secretary Deni Wahyudi Kurniawan said local public figures should set an example by adhering to health protocols strictly, such as consistently wearing face masks in public places. If Islamic scholars, clerics and members of the Mosque Prosperity Council [DKM] urge the public to wear face masks, I believe many will follow their example, Dani said during a discussion on Friday. Read also: Jakarta collects more than Rp 2 billion in PSBB fines The Islamic organization has issued a regulation requiring officials working at its educational institutions to wear masks. Public figures have also been urged to educate people about the importance of wearing masks. According to a Muhammadiyah survey, public awareness about the importance of wearing masks in public places is still low, except in houses of worship and office buildings. Our challenge is [to increase the awareness] of people in the streets, at traditional markets and at gathering places, said Deni. Separately, Muhammad Makky Zamzami of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the countrys largest Islamic organization, said public figures who did not take the pandemic seriously were hindering campaigns to encourage mask wearing. He added that NU had been actively campaigning to convey the importance of strict health protocols and of wearing masks in public places. Washington: The US Supreme Court has tossed out a USD 399 million patent award from Samsung over copying Apples iPhone design, sending the case back to a lower court on Tuesday. The justices ruled 8-0 that Samsung should not be required to forfeit the entire profits from its smartphones for infringement on design components, in a case closely watched by the tech industry. The 11-page ruling found that the USD 399 million penalty one element of a major patent infringement casewas inappropriate because it represented Samsungs entire profit from the sale of its infringing smartphones for copying the iPhones rectangular front face with rounded edges and a grid of colourful icons on a black screen. But the court stopped short of delving into details of the degree to which the patent infringement should affect the penalty. The parties ask us to go further and resolve whether, for each of the design patents at issue here, the relevant article of manufacture is the smartphone, or a particular smartphone component, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the opinion. Doing so would require us to set out a test for identifying the relevant article of manufacture and to parse the record to apply that test in this case. The court sent the case back to the appellate court in Washington to resolve the details of the case. Two trams operating on a quiet intersection in the Melbourne Central business district on August 06, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images) Victoria State Records 466 New Virus Cases, 12 Deaths on Aug 8 Victoria has recorded 466 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 further deaths, including another man in his 30s. Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed on AUG 8 that the latest victims include a man in his 30s, two men in their 70s, two men and three women in their 80s and four females in their 90s. Of the 12 deaths, six are connected to outbreaks at aged care facilities. The deaths take the states toll to 193 and the national figure to 278. It comes after the Australian Medical Association criticised the federal Infection Control Expert Group for not advising P2 or N95 respirator masks be used in all COVID-19 care settings. The Australian Society of Anaesthetists has also questioned whether Melbourne hospitals have adequate control guidelines. Melbourne anaesthetist Dr David Story told AAP major hospitals with COVID-19 wards were all using P2 and N95 masks. He said many clinicians felt fear and uncertainty but that the ICEG was a respected body to be trusted. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation aimed its strongest critique at private aged care providers to which a large portion of health worker infections are linked. Get your infection control practices and training in order and roster more registered and enrolled nurses, a spokeswoman said. Benita Kolovso, Andi Yu in Melbourne Brent Scowcroft, a preeminent foreign policy expert who helped shape America's international and strategic decisions for decades as the national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush and as a counselor to seven administrations, died Thursday at his home in Falls Church, Va. He was 95. His death was announced by a family spokesman, Jim McGrath, who did not cite a specific cause. Scowcroft wanted to be a fighter pilot after World War II, but a plane crash changed the young man's life and, as it turned out, gave the nation one of its most authoritative military intellectuals a diplomat, linguist, tactician on nuclear arms and missile systems, and a scholar of global politics who became an influential voice in Washington for more than 40 years. He accompanied President Richard Nixon to China in 1972, oversaw the Ford administration's evacuation of Americans from Saigon in 1975, laid groundwork for President Jimmy Carter's Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the Soviet Union in 1979, evaluated the MX missile systems for President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and directed Bush's strategy in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Scowcroft was a principal architect of U.S. policy toward post-communist Russia, a leading Republican voice opposing the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a voice in President Barack Obama's selection of a national security team after the 2008 elections. He also wrote books, taught at universities and counted among his many proteges Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates, both national security experts who became secretaries of state and defense for President George W. Bush. Most closely associated with moderate Republicans like Ford, Howard Baker and Colin Powell, Scowcroft was a self-effacing former Air Force general who did not smoke or drink. He preferred working quietly in small groups. Brent Scowcroft was born March 19, 1925, in Ogden, Utah, the son of James and Lucile (Ballantyne) Scowcroft. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1947, joined the Air Force and envisioned life as a fighter pilot. But Jan. 6, 1949, his P-51 Mustang developed engine trouble after taking off from Grenier Army Air Field in New Hampshire and crash-landed. His injuries were not critical, but he assumed he would never fly again and considered other military career options. In 1951, he married the former Marian Horner, who died in 1995. He is survived by their daughter, Karen Scowcroft, and a granddaughter. Uel Adair President ILCU (third from left) who unveiled a plaque to mark the ILCU celebrating 50 years of Credit Unions in Ireland at Nora Herlihy Memorial Centre, Ballydesmond with (from left) Norma OConnor, Christy Killeen Secretary Chapter 23, Leo Daly, Jack Harrington, Margaret Collins, John Hume Former President ILCU and John Long. Photo by Michelle Cooper Galvin John Hume in the company of sculptor Paula OSullivan and a bust of Nora Herlihy at the Visitor Centre in Ballydesmond. Photo John Tarrant Twenty years ago, John Hume saluted Ballydesmond heroine Nora Herlihy This week's passing of John Hume recalls a day from 2000 when Ballydesmond rolled out the red carpet to welcome 400 dignitaries for the official opening of a visitor centre in honour of a woman described by the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize recipient as the greatest woman in the history of Ireland. Ballydesmond native Nora Herlihy was the driving force behind the foundation of the Credit Union movement in Ireland, in her honour, a new Nora Herlihy Centre in Ballydesmond paid tribute to her initiating a ground-breaking co-operative movement. A day to remember in Ballydesmond began with Mass co celebrated by Fr Ciaran Carroll, a nephew of Nora Herlihy. The Cullen Pipe Band led a parade to the Nora Herlihy Memorial Centre where John Hume officially opened and unveiled a specially commissioned bust of Nora Herlihy, sculptured by Paula O'Sullivan. Having served as National President of the Irish League of Credit Unions, Mr Hume spoke of a close friendship with Nora Herlihy and added that prior to the founding of the Credit Union Movement, the poor and working class borrowed from the loan sharks. He added that Nora Herlihy's philosophy underlined working together for the common interest, the Credit Union shared as a common ground by people from different backgrounds thanks to the endeavours of a "remarkable lady" during the 1950/60s. "The greatest woman born in the State - that's Nora Herlihy, let's hope the State will acknowledge her deeds in time," said Hume to a standing ovation. Away from the formalities, John Hume sang a song close to his heart, The Town I Loved So Well, and others to perform on a wonderful winter's day were Mary Dilworth, Padraig and Mary Forde, pupils from Ballydesmond National School and the best of Sliabh Luachra music. On the passing of one of greatest statesmen and peacemakers ever seen in the country, as with Nora Herlihy, history will rightfully recognise John Hume as an Irish hero. PARIS (AP) A seemingly endless field of sunflowers is in bloom in east-central Illinois, a golden spectacle thats drawing families from all corners of the Wabash Valley and beyond. L&A Family Farms just south of Paris is welcoming folks back this year to its annual sunflower maze as the first blooms unfolded. The fields this year feature 10 total acres across two adjacent five-acre plots. The farm staggered the planting of the two plots to maximize its total bloom time. The first plot was in full bloom on July 27 and the second followed a week or later, said Everett Lau, marketing manager for the farm. Ellen Roberts, who visited with her daughter Ava and mother Vicki Cole, said theyve missed the bloom in years past but were determined not to do so again this year. Weve missed it for the past couple years and we decided we were going to see it before it was gone this year, said Roberts, of Saint Joseph, Illinois. Lau said a sunflower bloom may only last 10 days, if weather cooperates. That unusually small window makes visiting that much more special, Roberts said. We knew it was going to be really hot today, but we knew we needed to come when we could to catch it in full bloom, he said days after the first bloom. And its been well worth it, added Cole. Lau said the farm has made some COVID-19 considerations, like making this years event feature a one-way path through the fields and not a maze as in years past. He said the change is to prevent people from having to double back from a dead end and create logjams throughout that would have made distancing difficult. The family has added touches of levity to the years change with guide signs throughout the field that direct the flow of traffic and have, Share the love of sunflowers, not COVID-19, written on them. Maze or not, Karen Hogancamp said traveling from Lowell, Indiana some three hours north of the farm was well worth seeing her favorite flower in bloom. And its something to do while new COVID-19 cases are on the rise, said Hogancamps daughter, Ashley Carew. Its one of the few things still open, Carew said. You can get outside and get some sun and still be out and away from people. Lau said offering families the opportunity to stretch their legs and experience a little slice of farm life is what L&A Family Farms is all about. We love giving people the opportunity to come out here and escape the big city and get a taste of what farm life is like, Lau said. And when its in full bloom like it is today, people will come from all over just see the sunflowers, walk the fields and get those pictures for Instagram. Denman and Berry both served in the U.S. military with Goudreau. In May, Goudreau told The Washington Post that Berry and Denman were supervisors of a force he claimed numbered about 60 Venezuelans. Most, if not all of them, were former military and police defectors recruited in Colombia, he said. The education of our children is crucial for their welfare, their health and for their future. That is why it is a national priority to get all pupils back into school in September. The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it. Back in March, we had no option but to close schools to all but vulnerable children and those of critical workers, as part of our wider effort to protect the NHS and save lives. One of the most uplifting sights as our country came together during the lockdown was the transformation of living rooms and kitchens into classrooms, as millions of parents rose to the challenge of educating their children. 'The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it' Pictured: Prime Minister Boris Johnson visiting the Discovery School in West Malling, Kent, in July this year For many, this was achieved while juggling the pressures of work and childcare, compounded by the mounting toll of the restrictions necessarily imposed by our fight against coronavirus swings and slides locked up, playdates banned, grandparents unable to help. It was and for many families continues to be a truly Herculean effort of which I will always be in awe. It was also supported by many brilliant teachers providing remote learning for their pupils, the thousands of laptops and tablets we bought and shipped to the children who needed them to access online resources, and the stunning creation of Oak National Academy, which developed an entire online curriculum in just a matter of weeks. But we are in a different situation now to the one we faced earlier this year. Thanks to the enormous sacrifices made by the British people, we have made very significant progress in our fight against the virus. The number of infections has been forced down from an estimated 157,000 in early May to around 28,000 at the start of this month. Scientists have learned more about how the virus spreads and how we can control it. Crucially, studies have shown that children face a much lower risk than adults. This pandemic isnt over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do is become complacent. But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so. Because there is ultimately no substitute for a child learning at school to give them the knowledge, skills and wherewithal to succeed in life. Its why weve had compulsory schooling in this country for 140 years, and the evidence is incontrovertible. Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health. Sport England reports one in three children has done less physical activity in lockdown, with many suffering from poorer mental health, including through reduced access to vital support. 'Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health' Most painfully of all, the costs of school closure have fallen disproportionately on the most disadvantaged, the very children who need school the most. Surveys estimate that while the majority of pupils have been learning at home, as many as a quarter of pupils were doing less than two hours of school work a day. Children in the richest families spent over 75 minutes more per day on home-schooling than those in the poorest, and one study predicted that the attainment gap between children from economically deprived households and their peers could widen by more than a third. The Childrens Commissioner has reported increased risk of exposure to domestic violence, exploitation and addiction, both at home and on the streets. The longer this continues, the more likely it is that some will tumble out of education, employment or training altogether, never to return. On top of all this, there are the spiralling economic costs of parents and carers unable to work without the school or wraparound childcare they depend on; and the devastating long-term cost looming from the stunting of our childrens future productivity. This damage is taking place all over the world, with the United Nations Secretary General last week warning of a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress and exacerbate entrenched inequalities. We simply cannot allow this to continue. Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible. I have always believed that talent is uniformly distributed but opportunity is not, and the first step to changing that is by helping those who have fallen behind to catch up. So we are investing 1 billion in catch-up support, including a new 350 million National Tutoring Programme. We have announced 14 billion extra for schools and a new ten-year school building programme, as part of the Governments mission to build back better. But first of all we must open the school gates to all pupils once again. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has advised that the risk to children themselves of becoming severely ill from coronavirus is low. Our test and trace system is up and running already, it has identified almost 200,000 people who might otherwise inadvertently spread the virus, and advised them to self-isolate and we have worked closely with teaching unions and school leaders on measures to ensure that our schools are Covid secure. Grouping children into bubbles, staggered drop-off times, regular handwashing and providing schools and colleges with a number of home-testing kits for those who would be unable to access a testing centre. It is a detailed plan for getting all of our children back to school in a way that is safe. In June, we began the phased return of Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 and, after some initial apprehension, many parents reported how much happier their children were and what a relief it was to be back. Now we must all work together to bring this best practice to the task of reopening schools to all pupils in September. Nothing will have a greater effect on the life chances of our children and nothing is more important for the future of our country. Boris Johnson says reopening schools next month is a 'moral duty' and a 'national priority' as he takes on the teaching unions Boris Johnson today throws down the gauntlet to union leaders blocking the return of pupils to classrooms by insisting the country has a moral duty to reopen schools next month. In an exclusive article for The Mail on Sunday, the Prime Minister declares that a resumption of normal teaching is now his national priority. The rallying cry will further crank up the political pressure over the issue, which is fast becoming a totemic test of the Governments ability to reboot the economy and move the country safely out of lockdown. Mr Johnson writes: Now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so. The rallying cry will further crank up the political pressure over the issue, which is fast becoming a totemic test of the Governments ability to reboot the economy and move the country safely out of lockdown Pupils were sent home at the start of lockdown in March, and only the children of key workers have been able to enjoy a measure of normal classroom teaching since then. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has come under intense pressure as critics warned that the lay-off was widening the educational divide between rich and poor, and preventing many parents from returning to the workplace. Mr Johnsons words come after Dr Mary Bousted, head of the National Education Union, urged schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has come under intense pressure as critics warned that the lay-off was widening the educational divide between rich and poor, and preventing many parents from returning to the workplace Many parents have been angered after schools told them they will educate their children only until lunchtime on at least one day of the week, on the grounds that they need time to implement extra safety requirements such as deep cleaning and staggered break times. In other developments: This newspaper has established that there has not been single case of a pupil infecting a teacher with the virus anywhere in the world; New research laid bare the damaging educational impact on pupils who have missed schooling during the lockdown; The coronavirus death toll rose by 55 yesterday, to 46,556, compared to a rise of 74 last Saturday, while 758 new infections were reported, 13 fewer than a week ago; Scientific advisers warned that the UK-wide reproduction rate, R, is between 0.8 and 1.0, the point at which the virus starts spreading exponentially again; Oxford University researchers developing a vaccine were embroiled in an ethics row about whether to deliberately infect human volunteers and warned that although there was a 50 per cent chance of a jab being available next year, it was likely to be only partially effective and carry side-effects; A survey found that barely half of the adult population is committed to being immunised against Covid-19; France is on the brink of joining the list of countries from where British travellers will have to go into quarantine upon their return; Young people in Preston were being urged dont kill Granny as the city was subjected to new lockdown measures following a spike in infections; Up to 16 children and staff were forced to isolate at home after a coronavirus outbreak at a nursery in Bury, which has also been put into local lockdown. The Prime Minister stressed the importance of getting all children back in school in September during a series of No 10 meetings last week, emphasising his expectation that education should be the absolutely last sector to be asked to close in local lockdowns with businesses such as shops, pubs and restaurants forced to close first. In his article, Mr Johnson argues that it is crucial for their welfare, their health and for their future that children should return to the classrooms full-time. He writes: We can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it. He spoke of the uplifting sight as millions of parents rose to the challenge of educating their children amid the added pressures of lockdown, but said that had to end. Highlighting the damage to children from poorer families in particular, Mr Johnson says: Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. 'The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health. Sport England report one in three children has done less physical activity in lockdown, with many suffering from poorer mental health, including through reduced access to vital support. Most painfully of all, the costs of school closure have fallen disproportionately on the most disadvantaged, the very children who need school the most. Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible. Mr Johnsons words come after Dr Mary Bousted, head of the National Education Union, urged schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe Last night, Mr Williamson said: Schools are the best place for childrens education and wellbeing and that is why their return to the classroom next month is our priority. 'Every decision we have taken leading up to this point has been informed by the best scientific and medical advice. I believe the vast majority of teachers, parents and children would agree that now is not the time to bring the sacrifices of the last four months to a standstill. The right measures are in place for all children to return to school in September. Let us come together to make sure that happens. Kozhikode Flight Tragedy: Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor And Other Bollywood Stars Pour In Their Condolences While the outbreak of the coronavirus continues to impact just about every business in the state, restaurants have been hit particularly hard. The constantly-changing restrictions that go along with efforts to slow the spread of the virus have caused a great deal of uncertainty, as well as loss of profits, for many restauranteurs around New Jersey. Some even fear this may be a near-fatal blow for the industry, with the president of the New Jersey Restaurant & Hospitality Association Marilou Halvorsen telling a state Senate committee in June that a full 15% to 18% of New Jersey restaurants may never reopen. While many restaurants are being forced to close their doors, the owners of El Gordo Peruvian Eatery are opening an additional location. El Gordo, which has three restaurants across North Jersey, will be opening a new location on Aug. 21. The Union Township location will be the fourth for El Gordo, and the third one opened under ambitious owner Lizeth Morales. Morales, who has a background in sales management, joined the business started by her mother, Monica Velis, who opened the first El Gordo in Passaic in 1996 and still runs it to this day. After opening her first location in Passaic in 2012 (which she later sold to her chef in 2018) followed by one in Jersey City in 2017, Morales opening of the Union Township location figures to be the most challenging one. In January of this year, I came across our location in Union, said Morales on the genesis of the new eatery. I really loved the town, loved the diversity, loved the growing aspect of it. After securing her first SBA loan to purchase the property, Morales began the undertaking of opening the new location: crafting a menu, securing food and equipment suppliers, designing a layout. We were in the process of all of this and then the pandemic started, said Morales. Obviously, it brought everything to a halt. To this day, Ive been in the restaurant business for eight years and this is the most challenging time that Ive ever gone through. Whereas the managers and operators of chain restaurants received COVID-19 protocols and procedures from corporate offices, Morales was forced to craft a plan for herself. When youre a small restaurant owner like myself, like my mother, said Morales. Its not like you have lawyers on our team and plan specialists and fancy PR agencies. It really was just us, just figuring out every day. Whatever Morales needed to figure out, she did, keeping all the El Gordo locations open. Chef Jose Flores prepares food boxes that were donated to hospital workers in Jersey City. A lot of it was due to the constant communication between my team and I, Morales said on how she was able to keep her customers and employees safe while staying open. It had to be us together figuring out what is the best way to run the business while keeping all these things in mind. Morales also found a way to help those who have been helping others during the outbreak of the coronavirus, creating a program through which customers could donate 10 dollars to cover the cost of a food box for a frontline healthcare worker, with many customers even covering the cost of multiple meals. Once the donations were received, El Gordo would package up a few dozen meals and deliver them to frontline workers, mostly at Christ Hospital in Jersey City and Jersey City Medical Center. Workers at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark received 30 meals in the most recent round of donations on June 6. Throughout the pandemic, we provided a total of over 500 meals, said Morales. I was just fortunate to have so many customers who wanted to donate. And the beauty of it, when you start getting the community to support, its always such a great feeling. Morales ultimate goal is to turn El Gordo from the humble eatery started by her mother into a nationwide Peruvian chain. El Gordo serves Peruvian staples like rotisserie chicken and seafood ceviche as well as its signature green sauce that is served alongside just about every dish. A dish of ceviche at El Gordo. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Casey Roland may be reached at croland@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. A Virginia rape suspect was freed from jail during the coronavirus pandemic due to concerns regarding the disease. He went on and killed the woman who had accused him of rape, according to police offials. Ibrahim E. Bouaichi shot and killed the woman in late July after he was released on April 9, according to reports and Alexandria police. Bouaichi was charged with cases of rape, strangulation, and abduction. The police identified the woman as Karla Elizabeth Dominguez Gonzales. Gonzales testified against Bouaichi in Alexandria District Court in December last year. The suspect was jailed without bond in Alexandria until the pandemic hit. Bouaichi's lawyers argued that he should be freed awaiting trial as the virus endangered inmates and the attorneys. He was then released on a $25,000 bond over the opposition of a prosecutor. Circuit Court Judge Nolan Dawkins allowed Bouaichi's release on the condition that will only leave his Maryland home to meet his lawyers or pretrial services officials. Bouaichi was accused of killing Gonzales on July 29. Authorities said that federal marshals and Alexandria police has seen the suspect and pursued him in Prince George's County on Wednesday. Bouaichi crashed his vehicle and apparently shot himself, according to police officials. As of Thursday, Bouaichi was in grave condition. Judge Dawkins retired in June and failed to comment on The Washington's Post request for response. Bouaichi's attorneys, Manuel Leiva and Frank Salvato, told Fox News that they are saddened by the tragedy both families have suffered in the incident. The lawyers said, they "were looking forward to trial. Unfortunately, the pandemic continued the trial date by several months and we didn't get the chance to put forth our case." Police said that the victim was a native of Venezuela and did not have family in the United States. COVID-19 and Prisons In mid-March, the first case of the coronavirus pandemic was tested in Riker's Island, which is the main jail complex in New York City. Within two weeks, over 200 cases of the disease have been recorded within the facility despite efforts to decrease the spread. In Chicago, the same situation happened at the Cook County jail with about 350 inmates and staff members testing positive for the coronavirus disease as of early April. Many other jails and prisons have reported outbreaks of COVID-19 and case related deaths. Practicing social distancing in prisons and jails pose a challenge. A study published in JAMA network says that people who are incarcerated will be at higher risk of exposure, as correctional officers and other staff frequently leave the facility and then return. It added that social distancing is physically impossible. With number of COVID-19 cases increasing in U.S. prisons, its health care systems are struggling to accommodate the increase in sick calls. Although the U.S. Constitution ensures that there right to health care for people who incarcerated are being given, available medical care varies and services have been challenged by the increased needs of the aging prison population. "Incarcerated persons may be charged co-payments that are high relative to their wages, and this will deter their seeking care, although little revenue is generated," the study cited. Check these out: You Won't Believe How Great Jail Life Can Be in These Venezuelan 'Party Prisons' 10 Minutes After His Release from Jail, Man From California Was Sent Back To Prison Pablo Escobar's Notorious Crime Partner Released from US Jail Ankara, Aug 8 : Turkey has resumed energy exploration activities in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "We have resumed the drilling activity," Xinhua news agency quoted Erdogan as saying to reporters after Friday prayers. He added that Turkey had sent Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa, a Turkish seismographic research and survey vessel, to the area for that purpose. On Thursday, Egypt and Greece designated an exclusive economic zone between them in the Mediterranean Sea with an agreement signed in Cairo, allowing them to maximize the use of available resources in the zone and tap the oil and gas reserves there. Referring to the latest agreement, Erdogan blamed Greece for not keeping its promises regarding drilling activities in the region, describing the deal as "worthless". Turkey and its NATO ally Greece have long been at odds over the energy resources in the region as Ankara has been opposing the drilling efforts of several countries there without its involvement. 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He also defended the measures undertaken by the state government to manage the situation. "Instead of giving some constructive ideas to the government, is it right to play politics and waste time during these challenging times,?" Ashwath Narayan was quoted as saying by his office in a release, in response to Congress' criticism of the government's handling the flood situation. The Deputy Chief Minister said the opposition has these days criticised the government over the Covid-19 issue and now it was the floods. The opposition leaders need some issue to keep harping against the government, he said. "In a democratic setup, the opposition party must work constructively.They must lend a helping hand to the government and work responsibly in emergency situations like these. If there are lapses on the part of the government, let them highlight the same," he added. Leader of the Opposition in the assembly Siddaramaiah on Thursday had accused the state government of having failed to come to the rescue of the flood affected and raised questions about its very existence. Stating that the government had been efficiently handling the flood situation, which hit the state after the Covid-19 outbreak, Narayan said people living in places of danger are being shifted to safer places. As immediate relief, the government has announced Rs 10,000 relief to the families affected by rain and Rs five lakh compensation for completely damaged houses. The government would extend all help to rain-hit families on the lines of relief extended to those affected last year, he said,they would also will appeal to the Centre in this regard. "District in-charge ministers are taking care of the flood-hit regions in their respective districts. Even the district administrations are equally working hard in handling the situation. We are doing everything we can to help the affected families. Along with medical help, we have provided relief materials and the required resources in all the affected districts," Narayan added. Swollen rivers and flood like situation continue to threaten lives and property in several parts of Karnataka that have been ravaged by torrential rains for the last few days. The Deputy Chief Minister also warned doctors, paramedical staff and others necessary in the fight against Covid-19 with legal action if they remain absent from work. "...doctors and para-medical staff must diligently carry on the assigned duty. The government has already provided them with all the necessary safety equipment. In addition, they are also being given Covid-19 allowance and insurance cover. Legal action will be taken against those who fail to report to duty immediately," Narayan said. The Bombay High court on Friday directed the superintendent of the Arthur Road jail to provide Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) promoter Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan with all his medical record of his treatment at the jail hospital and two government hospitals in Mumbai. The division bench comprising justice RD Dhanuka and justice VG Bisht has ordered the jail superintendent to supply the record to Wadhawan, an accused in the massive fraud at Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank, by August 10. The directive came on a petition filed by the HDIL promoter seeking a direction to the jail authorities to forthwith shift him either to Nanavati, Lilawati or Criticare Hospital in Mumbai for necessary treatment. Arguing for him, senior advocate Amit Desai pointed out that though Rajesh Wadhawan has been suffering from various ailments such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, pulmonary disorder, insomnia, peripheral neuropathy, borderline high creatinine, chronic UTI, respiratory disorder, lung injury with hypoxic respiratory failure, he was being referred to various government hospitals for treatment. Desai also complained that none of the medical records of the HDIL promoter was furnished to him, though an application under the provisions of Right to Information Act was made by him. He added that the accused in the PMC Bank fraud case was not able to ascertain his health condition or the treatment provided to him. Additional public prosecutor Prajakta Shinde, however, submitted that the petitioner only required an endoscopy, which can be done at King Edward Memorial Hospital at Parel. She also pointed out that all other parameters of the HDIL promoter were in order and thus he was not required to be shifted to any private hospital for treatment. Advocate Hiten Venegaonkar, who appeared for the Enforcement Directorate, pointed out that Wadhawan has filed a plea for the same relief before the sessions court and it has not been decided yet. In view of this, the bench directed the sessions court to decide the plea on or before August 19 after hearing both the sides. HC also granted liberty to the prosecution to produce his latest medical reports for consideration of the sessions court. On September 30, 2019, the economic offences wing of the Mumbai Police registered an offence in connection with the purported fraud at PMC Bank, a multi-state cooperative bank having 137 branches in six states. According to the Reserve Bank of India, the PMC bank had masked 44 problematic loan accounts involving advances to the tune of Rs. 7,457.49 crore, most of which went to the HDIL, by tampering with its core banking system to ensure the loan accounts did not reflect in the regular bank record and were not visible to auditors. The bank had created 21,049 fictitious accounts to ensure its master data matched with the loan disbursals of Rs. 7,457.49 crore, the RBI had stated in an affidavit filed in the High Court. Shimla, Aug 8 : Himachal Pradesh state capital's airport at Jubbarhatti -- located 2,196 metres above the sea level -- is one of country's 'riskiest' table-top airport like Kozhikode and needs timely expansion, aviation experts said on Saturday. On an average, 12 to 15 unscheduled domestic flights arrive every month at the Shimla airport, officials said. Also a heli-taxi service is operated from here regularly under the Udan-II (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme. State officials told IANS that they have raised the issue with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) a number of times to explore the possibility of expansion of the airstrip at Jubbarhatti, some 22 km from here, to facilitate safe landings of aircraft. At present, the runway is less than 1,200-metre long and its expansion is facing abnormal delays owing to nearby forest area and private land. For the runway extension, the minimum required length is 1,500 metres which enables a 40-seater aircraft to operate as per the new safety norms, a state civil aviation official, requesting anonymity, told IANS. In 2015, national carrier Air India's subsidiary Alliance Air conducted a test-flight to restart regular service between New Delhi and Shimla. The trial run of a 42-seat plane was successful. Officials said landing aircraft at the Shimla airport is a challenge because of the gorges surrounding the runway. Likewise, the airstrip in Kullu town runs parallel to the Beas river. "Though various safety measures have been adopted at the Shimla airport, the runway should be expanded on priority, keeping in view the safety of the passengers," an airport official said here. The state government has plans to develop a world-class airport in Mandi district to boost the state's tourism industry. For this, the Civil Aviation Ministry last year gave in-principle approval for its construction. The state's third airport is located at Gaggal near Dharamsala in Kangra district. The oil ministers of the GCC bloc comprising the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman today joined Iraq in reaffirming their full commitment to the Opec+ deal on curbing oil production in order to further speed up the oil market's rebalancing. The current developments and future prospects of the global oil markets were deliberated by the oil ministers of the respective countries during a conference call today (August 7). It was attended by Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud; UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei; Kuwaiti Oil Minister Dr Khaled Ali Al Fadhel; Bahraini Oil Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa; Omani Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhi and Iraqi Minister of Oil, Ihsan Abdul Jabbar Ismail. The six ministers reviewed the continued recovery in global demand and progress made towards implementing the Opec+ agreement. At the end of the phone call, they issued a joint statement where they said the positive signs of improvement shown recently in the global economy are "very encouraging". Hailing the efforts made by all countries of the world to re-open their economies in a safe manner, the ministers reaffirmed their full commitment to the Opec+ deal on curbing oil production in order to further speed up the oil market's rebalancing. The joint statement also called upon the members who made limited progress on compliance during May, June, and July to further deepen their cuts to make up for it. The GCC ministers reiterated their thanks to the Iraqi Minister of Oil for his country's cooperation and efforts in rebalancing the oil market, reaffirming the significant role played by Iraq in ensuring the success of the Opec+ deal. Full compliance to the Opec + deal, including making up for the limited progress on adherence, would speed up the recovery of the global oil market to the best interest of oil consumers and producers alike, the energy industry and the world economy, said the joint statement.-TradeArabia News Service The sanctions are aimed at penalizing Beijing for curtailing anti-government demonstrators in Hong Kong. There was no immediate response from Hong Kong or Beijing. The Treasury Department announced the sanctions against Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other government leaders on Friday, the latest in a series of moves the Trump administration has taken against China amid rising tensions over the coronavirus and trade disputes. The United States has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong's pro-China government leader and other Hong Kong officials for allegedly suppressing freedom in the former British colony. Hong Kong citizens have enjoyed civil liberties that don't exist in mainland China since Britain relinquished control of the territory to China in 1997. Earlier this year, however, China imposed a new national security law that undermined Hong Kong's autonomy, drawing criticism from pro-democracy activists and Western countries. "The recent imposition of draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong has not only undermined Hong Kong's autonomy, it has also infringed on the rights of people living in Hong Kong," the Treasury Department said in a statement. In addition to Lam, the sanctions target Hong Kong's current and former police chiefs and eight other officials for orchestrating a campaign to curtail political liberties in the territory. The penalties also freeze any U.S. assets the Hong Kong officials hold and generally prohibits Americans from conducting business with them. Because of a surge in coronavirus cases, Lam recently announced a one-year delay to a legislative election in which pro-democracy activists hoped to win a majority of the seats. The U.S. denounced the postponement, declaring it was another move by China to undermine democracy in Hong Kong. Polish opposition members of parliament on Thursday formed a rainbow with their outfits at President Andrzej Duda's swearing-in in solidarity with the LGBT community after he was accused of running a campaign laced with homophobic rhetoric. Duda, an ally of the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, argued ahead of the July vote that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people 'are not people, it's an ideology'. His words were condemned by the opposition and members of the international community. The MPs, from Poland's 'Left' grouping, donned rainbow masks and brightly-coloured outfits in shades of the rainbow, sitting in rows, as Duda was sworn in, in the lower house of parliament, the Sejm. Poland's left-wing lawmakers dressed in rainbow colours to show support for the LGBT community outside the parliament building ahead of the swearing in ceremony of President Andrzej Duda for a second term, in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday President Andrzej Duda attends the ceremony of taking over the sovereignty over the Polish Armed Forces on August 6, 2020 in Warsaw. The Polish President was sworn in for a second term in office They also posed for photos in and outside parliament with rainbow and white and red Polish flags. After seeing the snap circulating on Twitter, many took to the comments section to praise the MPs efforts of solidarity. 'Andrzej Dudas swearing-in ceremony. Dont ever let anyone tell you that your vote for The Left is a wasted vote. After all theyre the only ones who stand in solidarity with Polish LGBTQ+ people,' wrote one, while a second penned: 'Major love and respect to the Polish MPs who co-ordinated their outfits to create a rainbow flag at the swearing in for their homophobic president Andrzej Duda.' Members of the Polish parliament pose for a picture holding LGBT flags and a Polish flag, on the day of a swearing-in ceremony of Andrzej Duda as Polish President in Warsaw Polish opposition members of parliament, who donned rainbow-themed masks representing colours of the LGBT flag in support of the LGBT community in Poland, took a selfie in parliament during a swearing-in ceremony of Andrzej Duda as Polish President (pictured) A third commented: 'Reasons to be hopeful. A group of Polish MPs coordinated their outfits in the design of the rainbow flag at the swearing in ceremony of the homophobic President Andrzej Duda.' 'The MPs were just metres away from Duda in the Chamber today. Hes described LGBT rights as an ideology and presided over Poland becoming the worst performing EU country on LGBT rights. Thats why this image matters so much and gives at least a little hope for LGBT Poles.' Duda, who was elected in 2015, has also been widely criticised for lashing out at same-sex marriage and vowing to ban same-sex couples from adopting children. He won a second term last month after an acrimonious campaign laced with homophobic language and appeals to religious conservatives, raising fears of further discrimination among LGBT+ Poles. Many were quick to take to Twitter in praise of the MPs stand for solidarity (pictured) 'We wanted to remind President Andrzej Duda that ... in the constitution there is a guarantee of equality for all,' Left MP Anna Maria Zukowska said. 'We don't want a similar situation during his next term as there was during his campaign, when the president dehumanized LGBT people by denying them the right to be people.' PiS has argued that LGBT rights are part of an invasive foreign ideology that undermines Polish values and the traditional family. In his swearing-in speech, Duda reiterated his pledge to keep 'family as the foundation stone of society ... as our most precious good.' Some Polish towns have been told they will lose European Union funding after declaring themselves 'free of LGBT ideology'. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Gwladys Fouche and Nora Buli (Reuters) Oslo, Norway Sat, August 8, 2020 18:05 528 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c85d39 2 News Norway,coronavirus,COVID-19,travel Free Norwegians should avoid all travel abroad, even to countries with few COVID-19 cases, to prevent a resurgence in the coronavirus, the health minister said on Friday. "There is still little contamination in Norway but we see increased contamination in countries that used to have control over their situations," Bent Hoie told a news conference. While not a member of the European Union, Norway belongs to the passport-free Schengen travel zone. It had some of the strictest travel restrictions in Europe in the early phase of the pandemic before gradually lifting them from June. In another move, bars and restaurants may no longer serve alcohol after midnight, Hoie said. Authorities would also issue fresh recommendations on wearing face masks on Aug. 14, he said. Norway and other Nordic countries, unlike many other European nations, are not currently mandating them in public spaces. Read also: Norway hits cruises with restrictions after virus outbreak The one exception, Hoie said, would be for people arriving from countries that Norway has placed on a ten-day quarantine, including France, Switzerland and Belgium. Effective immediately, such travelers must wear face masks from the moment they cross the border, or arrive at the airport, until they reach their homes to start quarantine. On Thursday, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said authorities would put on hold a planned easing of restrictions and reimpose others to prevent a return to full lockdown. With a population of 5.4 million, Norway has seen an increase in infections in recent days. It had a total of 9,468 cases as of Friday, up 59 from the day before, with 256 deaths, according to the Norwegian Public Health Institute. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (L) and Governor General Julie Payette look to the gallery as they wait to deliver the Throne Speech in the Senate chamber on December 5, 2019 in Ottawa. (Photo by Fred CHARTRAND / POOL / AFP) (Photo by FRED CHARTRAND/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) "Prime minister," the clerk of the privy council is reported to have advised, "your biggest problem is in Rideau Hall." That was in 2006, when Stephen Harper was prime minister and Michaelle Jean was Governor General. Fourteen years later, amid a run of unflattering stories, Justin Trudeau and Julie Payette might try to find some solace in the fact that this is not the first time the viceregal office has been said to be the location of a sizeable problem. But the potential stakes of such a problem cannot be taken for granted. And the pressing question for both Trudeau and Payette is whether the former astronaut can continue to represent the Queen without doing significant damage to one of the foundational institutions of Canadian democracy. Jean hit turbulence even before she had formally assumed the role. Soon after her appointment was announced by Paul Martin, Jean was questioned about her dual citizenship with France and she and her husband were accused of sympathizing with Quebec separatists. By 2006, when Harper's Conservatives came to office, she was reportedly proving to be a difficult fit for the office. A few years later, there was a minor clash between Jean and Harper's respective offices over whether the Governor General could rightfully refer to herself as Canada's head of state. But Jean was able to leave Rideau Hall in 2010 with her head held high. Her decision to grant Harper a prorogation of Parliament in December 2008 was controversial, but her handling of that request sidestepped what could have been a democratic crisis. She brought new life to the office with a focus on young people, made special effort to embrace her role as a wartime commander-in-chief, and won praise as the country's "empathizer-in-chief" for her open-heartedness. Chris Wattie/Reuters She was also not the first Governor General to find trouble. Her immediate predecessor, Adrienne Clarkson, came to be described as "controversial," in part because of questions about her expenses. Years earlier, Jeanne Sauve was criticized for seeming to weigh in on the debate over the Meech Lake accord and blamed after the grounds of Rideau Hall were closed to the public. Story continues After the newsworthy turns of Clarkson and Jean, Harper went in a different direction. Instead of a well-known television personality, Harper chose a university administrator, David Johnston. Among the attributes of Johnston that Harper praised was his "humility." The Johnston years were active, but comparatively quieter and free of tumult. Then Trudeau found someone more in line with the Clarkson and Jean examples a former astronaut and only the second Canadian woman to visit space, who speaks half a dozen languages, sings and plays piano. 'Anytime she becomes the story, it's not good' Because another interesting appointment has run into trouble, prime ministers might now be advised to prioritize a capacity for boringness when assessing potential governors general. There would be risk in that too that a series of dull appointees might leave a relatively obscure office seeming that much less relevant. There is something to be said for choosing a national representative who brings at least a little excitement to the office. But the only thing worse than an uninteresting governor general might be a governor general who is too interesting or interesting for all the wrong reasons. And Payette might be testing the limits of how newsworthy one can allow themselves to become. "Anytime she becomes the story, it's not good," says Barbara Messamore, a history professor at the University of the Fraser Valley. Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press While the examples of Jean and Clarkson suggest controversies can be overcome, Payette is contending with a difficult combination of questions about her approach to the job, her treatment of staff and her use of public funds. The resignation or dismissal of a governor general might reflect poorly on both the office-holder and the prime minister who was behind the nomination. But the potential ramifications of the current situation go well beyond the personal reputations of Payette and Trudeau. The viceregal office is easily dismissed as an archaic ornament a leftover remnant of British rule and the days before Canada became a mature democracy. But the Crown remains a central element of Canada's democratic structure. And there is much to be said for the stability, democratic safeguards and historic success of constitutional monarchy, particularly as compared with the American presidential system. Messamore uses an analogy of a fire extinguisher. "It's brightly coloured, it's conspicuous. But we never use it and then people say, 'Well, why don't we just get rid of it? It's useless,'" she said. "This is the difficulty when the governor general becomes controversial and particularly over expenses, these are the questions people ask me. And the explanation, unfortunately, isn't a short one." On any given day of the week the Governor General might seem like a simple figurehead charged with mere formalities. But it is the Governor General who ensures the peaceful transition of power and imposes a certain measure of restraint on the prime minister of the day. It is the Governor General a non-partisan officer who is expected to maintain their distance from political debates who the prime minister must ask to suspend Parliament or call new elections. It is the Governor General who presides over the formation of a new government and, in rare circumstances, settles disputes over who should be entitled to seek the confidence of the House of Commons. It is in that specific circumstance that damage to the office could have the most acute impact. "In the context of a minority parliament, in particular, where the Governor-General's discretionary authority can be decisive, there should be no questions or concerns about her judgment," Philippe Lagasse, a constitutional scholar, wrote last month in the Globe and Mail. Beyond that, there is the risk that controversy or scandal could endanger the future of the office itself. Any loss of public faith has at least the potential to lead to the sort of change perhaps to an elected head of state that could have significant consequences for the country and its democracy. As Payette and Trudeau consider how to move forward, it is the weight of that institution that is bearing down on them. WASHINGTON - The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong officials, including the pro-China leader of the government, accusing them of co-operating with Beijings effort to undermine autonomy and crack down on freedom in the former British colony. The sanctions are the latest in a string of actions the Trump administration has taken targeting China as tensions between the two nations rise over trade, COVID-19 and other issues. President Donald Trumps offensive against China comes as he assigns full blame to Beijing for the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., deflecting criticism of his own handling of the pandemic that threatens his re-election. The Treasury Department announced sanctions on Carrie Lam, the leader of the government in Hong Kong, and 10 other officials. The sanctions were authorized by an executive order that Trump signed recently to levy penalties against China for its efforts to curtail anti-government protesters in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has long enjoyed civil liberties not seen in mainland China because it is governed under a one country, two systems principle in place since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. However, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong earlier this year, raising widespread concerns about the Chinese government cracking down on the anti-government protests. The recent imposition of draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong has not only undermined Hong Kongs autonomy, it has also infringed on the rights of people in Hong Kong, the Treasury Department said in a statement. Treasury said the new law has allowed authorities in mainland China to operate with impunity in Hong Kong, has mandated national security education in Hong Kong schools, undermined the rule of law and laid the groundwork to censor individuals and outlets deemed unfriendly to China. The U.S. said Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, is directly responsible for implementing Beijings policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes. Last year, Lam pushed to allow citizens to be extradited to the mainland, setting off massive opposition demonstrations in Hong Kong, according to Treasury. Hong Kong Commerce Secretary Edward Yau called the sanctions unreasonable and barbarous and said they would harm U.S. interests in the city, an Asian financial and shipping hub. One of the sanctioned officials, the head of the central governments liaison office in Hong Kong, said being included on the list shows that he has done what he should for his country. I dont have a penny of assets abroad. Isnt it in vain to impose sanctions? Of course, I can also send 100 U.S. dollars to Mr. Trump for freezing, Luo Huining said in a statement on the offices website. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., a member of the Senate intelligence committee, called Lam Beijings hatchet woman. He said she has worked with the Chinese Communist Party to kill Hong Kongs autonomy and gut the rule of law. These cowards betrayed the freedom-loving people of Hong Kong and deserve to pay a steep price, he said. Also sanctioned was Chris Tang, the commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force, for allegedly coercing, arresting, detaining, or imprisoning individuals under the new security law, and the former police commissioner, Stephen Lo. Fridays action blocks all property or other assets that the individuals have within U.S. jurisdiction. The remaining officials sanctioned were: John Lee Ka-chiu, secretary for security in Hong Kong who has introduced a new police unit that will have intelligence gathering and investigative abilities, to enforce the new security law. Teresa Cheng, secretary of justice. Erick Tsang, secretary of constitutional and mainland affairs. Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao affairs office; and deputy director Zhang Xiaoming. Zheng Yanxiong, director of a new office for safeguarding national security in Hong Kong Eric Chan, secretary general of the committee for safeguarding national security The Chinese Communist Party has made clear that Hong Kong will never again enjoy the high degree of autonomy that Beijing itself promised to the Hong Kong people and the United Kingdom for 50 years, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. President Trump has made clear that the United States will therefore treat Hong Kong as one country, one system, and take action against individuals who have crushed the Hong Kong peoples freedoms. On Thursday, Trump ordered a sweeping but unspecified ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of the consumer apps TikTok and WeChat. The Trump administration has expressed concern that Chinese social media services could provide American users personal information to Chinese Communist authorities. TikTok, a company owned by Beijing-headquartered ByteDance Ltd. that has 100 million users in the United States and hundreds of millions worldwide, said it doesnt store American user data in China, has not given information to Beijing or censored content at the Chinese governments request. WeChat denied comment. The Trump administration already was embroiled in a tariff war with Beijing over Chinas technology ambitions. Washington has blocked acquisitions of some U.S. assets by Chinese buyers and, due to security concerns, has cut off most access to American components and other technology for Huawei Technologies Ltd., a maker of smartphones and network equipment that is Chinas first global tech brand. Mahesh Babu Superstar Mahesh Babu sent prayers for the speedy recovery of the injured and offered condolences to the family and friends of the ones who lost their lives in the unfortunate incident. He tweeted, "Deeply saddened by the news of #KozhikodeAirCrash. My condolences to all the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the unfortunate incident. Prayers for a speedy recovery of all those injured." Allu Arjun Stylish Star Allu Arjun, who has a huge fan base in Kerala condoled the families of the victims through Twitter as he wrote, "Very tragic plane accident in Kerala. Absolutely shocked to see something like this in Kozhikode. Condolences to the near n dear of the demised. May the soul of the passed rest in peace. Prayers to the injured to be safe & recovered at the earliest." Varun Tej Konidela The F2: Fun And Frustration actor Varun Tej Konidela expressed condolences as he tweeted, "Really saddened to hear about the #KozhikodeAirCrash Praying for the injured and the deceased." Kriti Kharbanda Kriti Kharbanda, known for her role in Bruce Lee: The Fighter starring Ram Charan and Rakul Preet Singh in the lead roles, shared her disappointment with the year 2020. She shared The Hindu's tweet on the flight crash and tweeted, "Why is 2020 being so cruel?" Allu Sirish Allu Sirish, who has been a part of Malayalam film 1971: Beyond Borders and the Telugu remake of Mollywood film ABCD - American Born Confused Desi tweeted, "Saddening to hear about the #AirIndia at Calicut. My Prayers to the deceased. I also pray the remaining passengers are safe. 2020: Please we've had enough." Asia India: Migrant construction workers in Kerala protest over death of colleagues About 100 migrant contract construction workers in Palakkad, Kerala gathered where three migrant colleagues were found badly beaten beside the railway tracks on Monday evening, near the Indian Institute of Technology, where they worked. Two of the workers were found alive but died of their injuries on the way to hospital. The workers who rushed to the site refused to hand over the deceased worker to the police, demanding compensation for the three victims who were all from Jharkhand state. The workers allowed the body to be shifted to hospital on Tuesday morning after holding talks with the district labour officer, police and other officials. Police initially claimed the victims had been hit by a locomotive but this was later rejected by railway officials. Destitute Tamil Nadu fishermen demand government support Traditional fishermen in Tamil Nadu demonstrated on Tuesday in Chennai, the state capital, to demand the government protect their fishing rights and for income assistance during the coronavirus lockdown. Fishing, the only source of income for the traditional fishermen, was banned for the majority of Indias COVID-19 lockdown. Many fishermen have not received the meagre monetary compensation promised by the state. The protest was organised by the Coordination Committee of All Tamil Nadu Fishermen Association (CCTFA), an umbrella group of at least 15 fishing groups. The association wants new members admitted to the fishermen welfare board and fishermen cooperative societies. The CCTFA alleges that no new fishermen have been added to the welfare board in the past three years and called for all traditional fishermen over 18 years old to be admitted immediately. App-based transport delivery workers protest in Delhi Hundreds of app-based transport and delivery workers protested in Delhi, Hyderabad and other parts of the country on Wednesday over the governments failure to provide financial compensation for income loss during the coronavirus lockdown. They have not been given any relief from the government or app-based employers. The All India Coordination Committee of Road Transport Workers Organisations, which organised the protest, has a long list of outstanding demands. This list includes the government forcing app-companies to reduce the commission rates to 5 percent, minimum wages for delivery workers as per the state labour laws and the waiving of road, vehicle and border taxes and tolls. The union is also demanding social security coverage and health insurance, withdrawal of enhanced excise duty on diesel/petrol and a roll back of oil company price increases since June. Indian Railway workers continue campaign against privatisation Hundreds of railway workers protested outside the City Railway Station in Mysuru, Karnataka state on August 2 against the Indian governments move to corporatise production units of Indian Railways and the privatisation of passenger trains. The demonstration was part of the All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC) national campaign for an end to all railway privatisation in any form, including the introduction of private trains, sale or closure of railway stations, hospitals, workshops and other railway property, including land. The All India Railwaymens Federation and its affiliate, the National Railway Mazdoor Union, held a protest in Mumbai on July 16 threatening to strike over the issue of privatisation. Sri Lanka: Colombo Port workers end strike against privatisation Unions representing striking workers at Colombo Port ended a three-day walkout on Sunday following a meeting with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaske. Thousands of workers, including engineers, technicians and administrators, struck on July 31 over the planned sale of the ports eastern terminal to an Indian-Japanese consortium. Work stopped at all terminals as workers blocked access to Colombo Port and held rallies and sit-down protests. The port unions are demanding the Eastern Container Terminal to be taken over by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. The port privatisation plans were first initiated by the previous Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government. Current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has insisted that the plan will go ahead. According to media reports, the unions suspended the strike claiming talks with the prime minister were successful. No details, however, have been provided. Cambodia: Hotel workers protest in Siem Reap About 70 workers from the Le Meridien Angkor Hotel in Siem Reap city, a popular tourist destination, demonstrated outside the hotel on Thursday to oppose a wage cut and for reinstatement of three union leaders. One worker told the media that hotel management suspended operations in April but reopened last month, declaring it was cutting 35 percent from staff salaries from July to September. Protesters demanded that the cut be reduced to 20 percent. The workers also demanded reinstatement of three union leaders fired in early July for allegedly persuading others to protest. Australia Woolworths workers in Victoria refuse to enter infected warehouse About 240 workers at a Woolworths distribution centre in Laverton, a south-western Melbourne suburb, refused to work on Monday morning after hearing that a co-worker had tested positive to COVID-19 three days earlier. Their action followed the infection of 35 workers at Woolworths Mulgrave distribution centre and the infection of up to 60 employees at other Woolworths facilities. The United Workers Union (UWU) demanded intensified anti-coronavirus measures at Laverton, including a deep clean overseen by health representatives, a 72-hour shut down with paid pandemic leave, and the testing of all current and new staff. Woolworths claimed that it had conducted contract tracing when the COVID-19 positive worker was detected and cleaned the site in line with Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recommendations. Despite possible further infections the DHHS did not order for the site to close or for staff members to isolate. Worksafe Victoria ordered the workers back to work after 11 hours on Monday evening, after doing a site inspection and after Woolworths agreed to appoint an on-site hygienist. The UWU complied with the demand and has not organised any future industrial action over Woolworths unsafe work practises or the companys increased productivity demands. 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The changes will not result in an immediate reduction of the USPS workforce, the agency said in a statement. USPS added, however, that to prepare for future changes it was seeking approval to allow some non-union employees to take a voluntary early retirement. DeJoy, a major Republican donor without any prior USPS experience, said the changes were needed to address the postal services dire financial situation. Related: 'Disastrous at a time like this': the US Postal Service is on the brink of crisis Last month, USPS employees were told the agency was prohibiting overtime and employees were instructed to leave mail behind if it delayed them on their routes, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post. In recent weeks, places across the US have reported long delays; some neighborhoods in Philadelphia, for example, reported some residents were going longer than three weeks without receiving mail, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. There are worries mail delays could leave many Americans disenfranchised in the November election. Dozens of states including key swing states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania all require ballots to arrive by election night in order to be counted. More than 65,000 mail-in votes have been rejected during the 2020 primaries and observers are worried that slower mail could lead to more people getting disenfranchised this fall. Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, announced on Thursday he was investigating the delays and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, sent a letter to DeJoy urging him to reverse the changes. Democrats have also asked the USPS inspector general to look into the changes. Story continues DeJoy disputed on Friday that the changes at USPS were motivated by partisanship. While I certainly have a good relationship with the president of the United States, the notion that I would ever make decisions concerning the Postal Service at the direction of the president, or anyone else in the administration, is wholly off-base, he said Friday. Despite any assertions to the contrary, we are not slowing down election mail or any other mail. DeJoy said the postal service had ample capacity to deliver election mail and deflected responsibility for any mail delays that could potentially occur. He noted USPS had long had delivery standards in place. We cannot correct the errors of the election boards if they fail to deploy processes that take our normal processing and delivery standards into account, he said. USPS has long advised voters to put their ballots in the mail at least a week before election day. But many states allow voters to continue to request ballots within that window, making it unlikely that they can get their ballot delivered in time. While DeJoy seemed to blame local election officials for that problem, state legislators are actually the ones who bear the responsibility for changing the deadlines, said Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser at the Democracy Fund who is an expert in vote-by-mail procedures. In the past, USPS has bent over backwards to deliver ballots in a timely way close to election deadlines, Patrick said. But now, she said, the postal service was sending mixed messages about whether or not they would go to such lengths to ensure delivery this fall. They havent said, We are dedicated to election mail, even if it means overtime, she said. USPS officials have also signaled recently that they are going to more strictly enforce the delivery times guaranteed by the different classes of mail election officials choose to use for their mailings, Patrick said. Some states, particularly those in the western US that automatically mail ballots to every voter, send their election mail as marketing mail, which allows them to send it at a lower cost. Marketing mail had a guaranteed delivery time of three to 10 days, but USPS has traditionally given prioritized attention to ballots that have an official election mail logo. More recently, Patrick said, USPS officials have emphasized officials will get speed for the delivery they pay for. STAMFORD Three days after Isaias stormed through Stamford, leaving 144 roads blocked and roughly 10,000 customers without power in its wake, work continued Friday to open roads, remove downed trees from snarled power lines and reintegrate frustrated residents onto the power grid. Thirty-one roads still remained blocked around the city Friday afternoon, and 5,100 customers were without electricity to power their lights, refrigerators and air conditioners. Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross vowed that the vast majority of customers without power around the state will have their power back on by late Tuesday night. The utility came under fire Thursday by Stamford Mayor David Martin, who called for a state investigation its response to Isasis. Martin blasted the utility for its performance in preparing for and responding to the storm, and for what he said was its poor communication and cooperation with city officials. If Eversource is unwilling to provide information to the Public Safety team of one of Connecticuts largest cities, I can only imagine the frustration and outrage our residents are experiencing many of whom have no power and no estimate for when it will return, the mayor said in a statement. Gross said he was unable to provide any time estimates for Stamford, but said Eversource continues to pour resources into state restoration efforts. We continue to press on. We understand the urgency to get the power back on for our customers and we are pushing as hard as we can, he said. Public Safety Director Ted Jankowski said the city still has many 911-priority incidents and blocked roads that require an Eversource response to ensure safety. Trees and other rubble entangled with power lines cannot be remedied until the utility cuts power. Jankowski said ETAs have yet to be provided by the company. We continue to demand that Eversource provide more Utility Crews dedicated to Stamford, to respond to the numerous 911 priority incidents that require utility company response, Jankowski said in a statement. Jankowski said that Eversources work center on Glenbrook Road, which covers Stamford, Greenwich and Darien currently has 31 tree crews assigned to it. Westhill High School continues to be used as a charging station for residents without power and will be open between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com By PTI AIZAWL: Among five airports in the country having tabletop runways, Mizoram's Lengpui airport is safe for landing of passenger aircraft like Airbus A320 and mid size cargo planes, an official said on Saturday. The official's assertion came in the backdrop of an Air India plane crashing at Keralas Kozhikode airport, killing at least 18 people Friday. J.Lalhmingliana, Principal Consultant in the Civil Aviation wing of the General Administration department, told PTI that the runway having 2,500 metres length and whose breadth is 45 metres, has enough space and is strong enough for safe landing. Lengpui airport, the lone one in Mizoram, is located about 32 km northwest of capital Aizawl. The construction of the airport began in 1995 and it was inaugurated on December 8,1998 by former deputy prime minister L K Advani. Four airports having tabletop runways at Kozhikode, Mangalore (Karnakata), Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) and Pakyong (Sikkim) are operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), while the Mizoram's Lengpui airport is with the state government. Tabletop runways are constructed on hilly or elevated terrains. Also, there could be low lying areas adjacent to such runways and there could be gorges at the end of such runways. Lalhmingliana said that the airport has almost all the required safety features like Instrument Landing System (ISL), runway lights and Doppler Very High Frequency Omni Range (DVOR), among others. He said that the two-decade-old airport is fit for landing of passenger aircraft like Airbus A320 carrying 190 to 200 passengers and cargo planes and transport aircraft like C-17 Globemaster, Il-76 and super hercules, among others. "Unless there is human error, plane crash and other accidents are unlikely to happen," he said. He said that the airport had witnessed a minor incident 10 years ago, when a charter airline-North East Shuttle- carrying around 15 passengers fell off to not so a deep gorge due to wrong landing by an inexperienced pilot. However, there were no casualties, he added. Lalhmingliana said that the runway of the airport is normal though it has been classified as tabletop. According to the official, renovation and extension of the airport- its building and terminal- is in progress during Covid-19 period. He said two airlines- Air India and IndiGo are currently operating from the airport. While Air India operate on Kolkata-Aizawl-Imphal route on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, IndiGo operates on Kolkata- Guwahati-Aizawl sector on Monday, Friday and Saturday, he added. Dunmore called 911, saying a person had been shot, the shooter was still on the scene but didnt identify himself as the shooter. When police got there, Dunmore told them the two had struggled in the office and the gun, which was not found immediately, went off accidentally, prosecutors said. President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on Aug. 4, 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo) Trump Administration Recommends Executive Action as Stimulus Talks Break Down Trump administration officials stated on Friday that they plan to recommend that President Donald Trump take executive action on several stimulus provisions as talks between Democrats and Republicans falter. Unfortunately, we did not make any progress today, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters following talks. We discussed the same issues. Trump, meanwhile, wrote on Twitter around the same time that his administration will be going a different way. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are only interested in Bailout Money for poorly run Democrat cities and states. Nothing to do with China Virus! the president said in reference to the COVID-19 pandemic. Want one trillion dollars. No interest. We are going a different way! The $1 trillion in funding to state and local governments has been one of the main sticking points for White House officials. Trump later in a news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, told reporters that the funding would be used for non-pandemic-related reasons, essentially providing a bailout to those locales. Trump said that the executive order will be drafted by the end of the week, while suggesting that he will probably be sued again, likening the effort to his executive orders on constructing the southern border wall or the travel ban on several countries. Earlier in the week, the president suggested that he would sign executive orders to continue unemployment insurance payments of $600 per week and a moratorium on evictions. The extra unemployment payments were authorized in the CARES Act, passed in March, but theyand the eviction moratoriumexpired last month. Left off the table in the executive order are the up to $1,200 stimulus payments and checks that were also sent out earlier this year. Pelosi and Schumer both said Friday that they made a $2 trillion deal offer to the White House, but Mnuchin said it was a non-starter for negotiations. Well take down a trillion, if you add a trillion in. They said absolutely not,' Pelosi said in a news conference. I will once again make the offer: Well come down a trillion, you go up a trillion, and then well be within range of each other, Pelosi added. But again, this a very different set of values across the table. Schumer said that its not possible for a slimmer bill to be passed by Democrats in Congress at this time. The House doesnt have the votes to go south of $2 trillion, Schumer added. Senate Democrats cant go south of $2 trillion, so thats what compromise is all about. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Saturday discussed Lebanon's urgent humanitarian, medical and reconstruction needs following Tuesday's devastating blast at Beirut port. "President Aoun thanked the UK for the support provided to date, including the release of 5 million pounds ($6.5 million) in emergency funding and deployment of HMS Enterprise," Johnson's office said in a statement. "With Lebanon facing threats from a financial crisis, coronavirus and the effects of this tragic blast, they agreed to work with international partners to ensure the countrys long-term recovery and rehabilitation." Search Keywords: Short link: I had an idea, since we are in the era of protests, and riots, and (public worker) unions threatening to go on strike if they actually have to work. How about taxpayers going on strike and protesting and not paying any more to taxes until the mess in the city and the state get all cleaned up with these pension funds and other issues? Any thoughts on this? Michael Zych This article originally appeared in The Inquirer on Sept. 6, 1984. It was during the first rainy days of August when Carlos Torres of Wynnewood decided to postpone his weekend retreat to the shore. Instead, he saved his neighbors life. On the Sunday afternoon of Aug. 5, when he would have been sunning at the shore if not for the gloomy weather, Torres rescued Richard Gleeson from his burning home on Old West Wynnewood Road near Lancaster Avenue. Last week, he received a commendation for bravery from Lower Merion Police Superintendent Salvatore Frustaci. We were watching TV in my office and my girlfriend said, It smells, Torres, 33, recalled Tuesday. Then an old man in a car knocked on my door and said my neighbors house is on fire. Then he left. Torres, who moved to Wynnewood two years ago, said he kicked and banged on Gleeson's door, but no one answered. He said he was about to break into the home, from which smoke billowed from the second-floor windows, when he realized that Gleeson's door was unlocked. Torres climbed the stairs of the home four times - the flames and the smoke chased him back during the first three attempts before he could find Gleeson, who was unconscious and lying on his bed. When the smoke was too thick for Torres to find the bedroom door the first two times, he ran up the stairs a third time, covering himself with a wet towel. When that did not help, Torres, a former lifeguard in New York, ran home and grabbed his buoyancy vest which provides oxygen for up to five minutes from his scuba equipment. "From the stairs up, you couldn't see two inches in front of you," Torres said. "The smoke was so thick I couldn't find the door. I couldn't see anything. But I know the design of his house and where his bedroom is, but I kept hitting the wall. I thought it was his bedroom door. Then I realized his bedroom was about four steps back from where mine is. I found him by touching. When I took him out, I put him across my shoulders. He almost broke my back coming down those stairs. Karin Motero, Torres' girlfriend and a resident doctor at Lankenau Hospital, put Gleeson in her car and drove him to Lankenau. He was admitted for smoke inhalation, Torres said, and released a day later. He didnt remember anything, Torres said of Gleeson, who could not be reached for comment. Both his nostrils and his mouth were filled with smoke and he was black. I was black, too. It took me three hours to get the stuff off my body. My hair got a little burned. But if I wasnt here, he couldve died. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared on Friday that the state's schools are now permitted to reopen for the school year 2020 notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuomo wrote on Twitter on Friday, "Every region is well below our COVID infection limit, therefore all school districts are authorized to open. If the infection rate spikes, the guidance will change accordingly. School districts are required to submit plans to NYS for review." All school districts in all regions are authorized to reopen in the fall. Cuomo noted that they will continue to oversee the infection rate of the novel coronavirus culminating up to the first day of classes. The New York Governor stated that the state's rate of confirmed cases stands at 1 percent which he lauded as great news and that it is currently the best situation in the nation, reported Patch. There were five fatalities recorded. Every student and teacher are required to don face masks and adhere to physical distancing. Face masks will be supplied to individuals who do not have them. Last month, the governor said that the state's schools are merely allowed to resume in-person learning once a region has arrived at Phase Four of reopening, reported Disrn. The rate of daily infection in that region must be consistently at 5% or lower over a 2-week average. On New York schools' reopening, Cuomo said, "If anyone can open schools we can open schools. That's true for every region in the state, period." Also Read: Dr. Anthony Fauci's Family Bombarded by Death Threats, Harassment Last month, Cuomo stated that in the event that schools are technically open, it is still dependent on parents' consent whether they would allow to send their children. Amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, numerous significant concerns remain regarding the reopening's safety and logistics. However, Cuomo's declaration was a significant and anticipated green light to school districts aiming for the return of the students. A crucial note made by Cuomo is that he is not requiring schools to reopen but simply confirming that they are allowed to do so, so long as there is no relapse in any region's average rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases. New York City was the initial epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States which has the largest school system in the nation as it serves over 1.1 million students. There are a recorded 732 school districts across New York. As a safety precaution, Cuomo underscored that schools will have to close if the regional rate of COVID-19 cases rises over nine percent over a one-week average. All of New York adheres to the state necessities for school reopenings as of now. New York school districts have been submitting reopening plans to the Cuomo government for weeks. Cuomo stated that these would be approved by the New York Board of Health on Friday. However, Cuomo cautioned that the Board of Health also had the power to disapprove such plans of New York schools reopening. One hundred twenty-seven districts have yet to submit such plans and 50 plans submitted are either deficient or incomplete. New York's Department of Health will notify such districts whose plans are either of the two. Related Article: Japan Secures 120 Million Doses of Probable COVID-19 Vaccine @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Tom and Sharon Lind of Midland are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. They were married Aug. 8, 1970, in Francesville, Indiana. They have two children, Rebecca Zottneck of McKinney, Texas, and Mike Lind of Midland. They have four grandchildren. Both Sharon and Tom are now retired. Tom was formerly vice president at MidMichigan Health in Midland. Sharon was a homemaker who constantly sought new creative opportunities, including writing her book, Fur Design for the Non-Professional. How they met: Tom and Sharon met at a bar in Indianapolis. Love blossomed when Sharon subsequently hustled her future husband in a game of pool. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Beijings top representative office in Hong Kong said on Saturday that sanctions imposed by Washington on senior Hong Kong and Chinese officials were clowning actions that would not frighten or intimidate Chinese people. The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Luo Huining, the head of Chinas Liaison Office, as well as Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and other current and former officials that Washington accuses of curtailing political freedoms in the global financial hub. The move ratchets up already strained tensions between the United States and China, more than a month after Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation on Hong Kong that drew condemnation from Western governments and rights groups. The unscrupulous intentions of the U.S. politicians to support the anti-China chaos in Hong Kong have been revealed, and their clowning actions are really ridiculous, the Liaison Office said in a statement. Intimidation and threats cannot frighten the Chinese people. Luo, the most senior mainland political official based in the Chinese-controlled territory, said US sanctions on him indicated he was doing what he should be doing for my country and Hong Kong, according to the statement. As well as Luo and Lam, the sanctions target Hong Kong police commissioner Chris Tang and his predecessor Stephen Lo; John Lee, Hong Kongs secretary of security, and Teresa Cheng, the justice secretary. Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing, was also on the list. The sanctions freeze any US assets of the officials and generally bar Americans from doing business with them. The Treasury Department said Beijings imposition of draconian national security legislation had undermined Hong Kongs autonomy and set the groundwork for censorship of any individuals or outlets that are deemed unfriendly to China. Beijing imposed the law directly on Hong Kong just before midnight on June 30, circumventing the citys legislature, and the citys officials were not aware of the details of the law until it was implemented. Police chief Tang told local media on Saturday that maintaining the security of the country and Hong Kong was his responsibility and foreign sanctions were meaningless to him. The security legislation targets what Beijing broadly defines as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison. Some political analysts say the national security law coming directly from Beijing and bypassing Hong Kongs legislature signals the start of a more authoritarian rule in the semi-autonomous city and a march toward mainland control. Critics fear the legislation will crush wide-ranging freedoms in Hong Kong denied to people in mainland China that are seen as key to its success as a global financial centre. Supporters of the law say it will bring stability after a year of sometimes violent anti-government protests that plunged the city into its biggest crisis in decades.. A police officer in Logan, Utah, was fired after a state investigation concluded he mishandled explicit photographs that were used to extort University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey, the Logan Police Department announced Friday. In October 2018, 21-year-old McCluskey told the University of Utah Police Department that her ex-boyfriend Melvin Rowland was extorting her for money by threatening to release explicit photographs of her. She then sent those photographs to Officer Miguel Deras, the on-duty campus police officer, according to a report summarizing the Utah Department of Public Safetys (UDPS) investigation into Deras conduct. A little over a week later, McCluskey was shot and killed by Rowland, who later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The UDPS investigation began after the Salt Lake Tribune reported back in May that Deras had inappropriately downloaded, shared and bragged about the photos of McCluskey to his co-workers. The Tribune reported that Deras had saved the photos to his personal phone. However, the investigation did not find evidence that Deras had downloaded the images or sent them to anyone other than the detective assigned to the case, Chatman said in his statement. However, as the Tribune notes in its coverage, the report says Deras had gotten a new phone since McCluskeys killing and the information which was ultimately recovered may have been the products of backups (or partial or incomplete backups) from the previous phones he had owned. The UDPSs investigation found that Deras showed the photographs of McCluskey to a small number of officers who inappropriately commented on the photos before, during or immediately after a shift change briefing, the University of Utahs Chief of Police Rodney Chatman said in a statement on Wednesday. I am deeply disturbed by this finding and disappointed in the officers who were present and who did not report this incident through appropriate university channels. Story continues Deras had since left the universitys police force and was working for the Logan Police Department. In a statement released on Friday, the Logan Police Department said Deras employment had been ended effective immediately after the UDPSs report concluded he had mishandled sensitive evidence in the McCluskey case. Our continuing efforts to hold sacred the publics trust and our duty to serve and protect has resulted in todays decision, Logan Chief of Police Gary Jensen said in a statement. Chatman also said the University of Utah is pursuing action against individual officers based on the findings in [UDPSs] report. Deras attorney Jeremy Jones released a letter in response to the UDPSs investigation on Wednesday, saying, This report directly falsifies virtually every aspect of the Tribunes original reporting and roundly corroborates Officer Deras account of events as released on May 19, 2020. Contrary to the prior reporting Deras did not inappropriately download images to his phone. He did not electronically share them with another officer He is not, nor has he ever been, a boogeyman. When asked for comment on Deras firing from the Logan Police Department, Jones told TIME, Unfortunately this is what happens when you have somebody get tried in the media. We really perceived the original reporting in this story to have been thoroughly debunked and falsified. Unfortunately, that hasnt stopped the public pressure campaign from costing Miguel Deras his job. This is a clear attempt to obfuscate, said the Tribunes Senior Managing Editor Matt Canham when asked to comment on Jones statements. If anyone wants to know what happened here, read The Salt Lake Tribunes investigative reporting, or read the Department of Public Safety report, or the comments from the University of Utah police chief or the comment from the Logan Police Department. Following the recent release of the report, students at the University of Utah protested, calling for Deras firing. A Change.org petition titled Fire and Press Charges against Miguel Deras for Distributing Lauren McCluskeys Photos, which launched three months ago, has at least 135,446 signatures as of Saturday afternoon ET. Mumbai, Aug 8 : Family, friends and relatives of Captain Deepak V. Sathe, the pilot who was killed in Friday's Air India Express aircraft crash at Kozhikode International Airport, find it hard to believe their loss. "Its hard to believe that Deepak Sathe, my friend more than my cousin, is no more..." said a stunned relative Nilesh Sathe on his community's social media post. Nilesh described his cousin as an "experienced aerial operator with 36 years' flying experience", who passed the National Defence Academy, Pune, with flying colours by topping the 58th Course and was awarded the 'Sword of Honour'. His ex-colleagues said Capt. Sathe also topped the Air Force Academy, Hyderabad, and was conferred the President's Gold Medal and later served in the Indian Air Force for 21 years before joining as a commercial pilot with Air India in 2005. Nilesh recalled how he spoke with Capt. Sathe last week and found him "jovial as always". "When I asked him about the 'Vande Bharat Mission', he felt so proud of bringing back our countrymen from Arab countries," said Nilesh. When Nilesh queried whether Capt. Sathe flew empty aircraft since those countries are not allowing entry of passengers, Sathe had replied: "Oh, no. We carry fruits, vegetables, medicines, etc. to these countries and never the aircraft flies empty... That was my last conversation with him." A friend from Capt. Sathe's days at the private school, Cambrian Hall, Dehradun, Pradeep Singh Bisht, said since he hailed from an army family background, "Deepak was a 'good fighter' from his early days". "He always stood up for right causes, supported the truth and was never scared of calling a spade a spade... Academically, he was brilliant and harboured a deep passion for flying from his school days. His father, Brig. Vasant Sathe was posted at the IMA Dehradun for at least five years when Deepak and I became close friends," Bisht told IANS from Dehradun. Later, Bisht travelled the world as a merchant navy officer, while Capt. Sathe joined the NDA and achieved his childhood dream of becoming an Indian Air Force pilot, and post-retirement, with Air India. "10 days back, when we last spoke, as always, he was very caring and concerned about everybody, spoke with my son at length, enquired about our old schoolmates, teachers, their well-being," said Bisht. Mumbai realtor Nitin Sunderji Shah who chatted with Capt. Sathe last week, said he sounded very concerned about "my family's wellbeing in the Covid-19 crisis" and called the pandemic a big challenge before humanity. "He died as he lived - for others... He gave his life to save the lives of the migrants arriving by that flight on Friday evening. I hope the government officially acknowledges Capt. Sathe's unparalleled act of bravery and the supreme sacrifice for his country," said an emotional Shah, his voice choking with emotion. Nilesh Sathe recollected how Capt. Sathe had survived a crash in the early-90s when he was with the IAF, and was hospitalized for six months for multiple skull injuries, "and nobody thought that he will fly again". "But his strong willpower and love for flying made him clear the test again. It was a miracle," he added. Capt. Sathe is survived by his wife Sushma, two sons - both IIT Bombay graduates, including elder son Shantanu - who got married on March 8, a fortnight before the national lockdown started and currently is in the USA, while younger son Dhananjay works for a firm in Bengaluru, and daughter Anjali, living in Mumbai. The other son of Brig. Vasant Sathe, who lives in Nagpur, Capt. Sathe's brother, Capt. Vikas Sathe was an Indian Army officer who sacrificed his life while serving in the Jammu region a few years ago. The family lives in the posh Powai suburb of Andheri east where a pall of gloom descended in the area after the tragic news broke out late on Friday of the air tragedy which has claimed 18 lives so far. (Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in) Latest updates on Kerala Air India Plane Crash -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed The tragic accident in Kerala last evening when a plane attempting to land amid heavy tailwinds and rain on the table-top runway at the Kozhikode airport has once again shone light on the safety concerns over flight operations at such runways in the country. Eighteen people, including two pilots, were killed in the accident. The safety concerns were first raised following the 2010 Air India Express crash in Mangalore that killed 160 people on board. A court of enquiry report by a former Indian Air Force chief had warned of the hazards of overshooting the paved surface during take-off. ALSO WATCH | Kerala plane crash murder, not accident: Expert who flagged safety issues The Air India Express flight crash on Friday brings back the memories of the 2010 air crash that too occurred after the plane overshot the runway at the table-top airport in Mangalore. The report by Air marshal BN Gokhale had noted tabletop airports require extra skill and caution while carrying out flight operations. The hazard of undershooting and overshooting, in particular, can lead to grave situations, as was the case in the Mangalore accident. The so-called tabletop airport has limited space at the ends of the runway, and several international airlines had stopped flying bigger aircraft into Kozhikode due to safety issues over the length of the runway. While the length of the runway 24/06 is adequate for operations by aircraft such as Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-800, the downward slope at end of R/W 24 leading into hill slope is not recommended if one is to consider the hazards of overshooting the paved surface during takeoff or landing. There is a concrete structure at the end of R/W 24, which cannot be classified as obstruction as per ICAO Annexure-14, since it is below the approach and take off funnel, the report had said. There are three tabletop airports in India from where scheduled flights operate. These are Mangalore, Kozhikode and Lengpui. Because of the undulating terrain and constraints of space, these airfields require extra skill and caution while carrying out flight operations. The hazard of undershooting and overshooting, in particular, can lead to grave situations, as was the case in this accident. These table-top runways also have a problem of access roads around the airfield, which may need to be used in case of aircraft accidents, it added. The narrow and winding roads can delay and hinder the rescue operations, the report had said. The Air India Express flight with 190 on board overshot and fell 50 metres off the end of the runway at the Kozhikode airport in treacherous conditions on Friday, breaking into two - making it one of the deadliest commercial aviation disasters in the country in nearly 10 years. The crash occurred around 7.40pm, when it was raining. It bears eerie similarity to the 2010 Mangalore airport crash when a plane, also an Air India Express Boeing 737, overshot a table-top runway and crashed nose-first into the ground. Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said it was raining heavily when pilots of the Boeing 737 plane from Dubai tried to land. The regulator said after landing at Runway 10, the plane continued running till the end of the runway and fell into the valley and broke into two portions. The visibility was 2,000 meters amid heavy rain, after landing at runway 10 and it overshot the runway and broke down in two pieces, a DGCA official said. According to a playback on flight-tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane circled the airport twice before attempting to land. In its second instance, it aborted the attempt with 2,000 feet to go before the crash landing. The civil aviation ministrys accident investigation division Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will conduct a detailed investigation into the Air India Express flight crash at Kozhikode airport in Kerala. An Air India Express flight took off around 0200 hours from Delhi to Kozhikode carrying investigating officers from DGCA and AAIB, CEO of Air India express and other officials of AI and AIE, said AAIB. A second aircraft took off from Mumbai to Kozhikode around 0600hrs in the morning carrying Angels of Air India and GO employees who will coordinate and liaise with various agencies and provide support and assist families of those affected in this incident, the national transporter had said in a statement. The recovery of Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) will help piece together what happened during the last moments of the flight. Both have since been recovered, said aviation minister Hardeep Puri this morning. According to Robert A Clifford, lead counsel in the case against Boeing for the last major Boeing crash -- the 737 Max 8 crash in Ethiopia on March 10, 2019 -- and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices, Chicago, the investigation into what caused todays Air India crash will likely focus on the plane itself and pilot error. Early indications point to pilot error. The weather being involved probably speaks to pilot flight error, but the aircrafts safety systems could have played a role. Investigators will need to evaluate the flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder, and other devices, along with expert evaluation, to determine what happened, he said. The 2010 report had cautioned of operations at such critical airfields. The DGCA has classified certain airfields as critical which need special qualification for the flight crew to undertake operations. The criteria for classifying airfields as critical are based on various factors such as terrain, length of runway, predominance of inclement weather etc. There are 11 such airfields, which include the table-top runways of Mangalore, Kozhikode and Lengpui. In addition, airfields such as Patna, Jammu, Leh, Port Blair, etc also qualify as critical airfields. The operators can add some more airfields as critical, in case additional caution needs to be exercised during operations. As per SOP of Air India Express, three airfields at Mangalore, Kozhikode and Pune qualify as critical airfields. These airfields are, therefore, cleared for operations by experienced flight crew and take off and landings have to be carried out by the pilot in command (PIC) only, said the report. Following the Mangalore crash, the court of Inquiry recommended setting up of an independent Indian Civil Aviation Safety Board (ICASB) urgently in view of rapid growth of aviation in the country. Such independent safety organisations have been set up in the USA, UK, Canada, France and Indonesia to name a few. The ICASB will focus on all flight safety related issues to suggest proactive measures, to minimise accidents and incidents, it had said. Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC) had also warned the authorities 10 years back that Kozhikode runway was very risky for landing during rains and harsh weather conditions. In a letter addressed to the chairman of Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC) and civil aviation secretary, CASAC member Captain Mohan Ranganathan had pointed that the Runway 10 of the Kozhikode airport could be risky for landing in tailwind conditions in rain. I understand that Runway 10 ILS is being used on a trial basis at Calicut. Some of the crew are accepting even VOR approach on Runway 10. The reason is the lower minima than Runway 28. However, all the flights that land on Runway 10 in tailwind conditions in rain, are endangering the lives of all on board, he had said. He also said that the airport does not have the minimum Runway End Safety Area (RESA) The runway strip is just half the minimum width laid down in ICAO Annex 14. This fact was known to the DGCA team that has been conducting inspections and safety assessments during the past several years. Have they considered the danger involved? Has the DGCA or the airlines laid down any operational restrictions or special procedures? he had written. He also added that the Air India Express accident in Mangalore should have alerted the Airport Authority to make the runway conditions safe. It is a dangerous situation, especially in wet conditions. Runway 10 approaches should not be permitted in view of the lack of RESA and the terrain beyond the end of the runway. RATIO of 240m should be immediately introduced and the runway length has to be reduced to make the operations safe, he had said. The Boeing 737 jet, on a Vande Bharat mission as flight AIX 1344 from Dubai, was bringing in Indians who were stranded abroad due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In all there were 174 adult passengers on board, 10 infants, two pilots, and four crew members. As a PR queen, Roxy Jacenko has planned her fair share of parties. And on Saturday, the 40-year-old held a stunning event for her daughter Pixie Curtis' ninth birthday at Sydney's The Langham. Sharing photos to Instagram, Pixie was treated to a 'staycation' at the lavish hotel, complete with statement balloons, a custom sloth cake, high tea and manicures. Birthday girl: Roxy Jacenko and Oliver Curtis treated their daughter Pixie Curtis to a 'staycation' at Sydney's The Langham Hotel for her ninth birthday on Saturday (all pictured) 'Where did nine years go! Pix loved my 40th dress so my incredible friend made her a miniature one for her 'dinner party' this evening complete with crystal trim,' Roxy captioned a photo of herself at the venue with Pixie and husband Oliver Curtis. Pixie looked adorable in the red dress and silver strappy shoes, as she posed for a photo next to a custom '3D sloth' cake made by Mastello Creations. Joined by her pals, the youngster enjoyed manicures and pedicures at The Langham's spa, followed by high tea in one of the hotel's function rooms. Gorgeous: Roxy shared photos to Instagram including this one of a dining table in one of the hotel's function rooms, boasting statement florals and personalised place cards Event details: Decor also included a statement balloon display in the shape of the number nine Sweet treat: Roxy went all out for the cake, arranging for a custom '3D sloth' by Mastello Creations The dining table featured statement florals by Boutierre Girls and calligraphy place cards, while party guests also received a box of presents on arrival at the hotel. Statement balloons, in the shape of the number nine, added an extra wow factor, alongside a backdrop of balloons in various shades of pink. Roxy shares Pixie with husband Oliver Curtis, who she wed in 2012. They are also proud parents to six-year-old son Hunter. Delicious: Pink and blue cookies with sprinkles were also on hand for Pixie's pals to enjoy Thoughtful: The Sweaty Betty PR founder had also arranged 'welcome gifts' for Pixie's pals on arrival at the hotel The famous family reside in a $6.6million mansion in Sydney's Vaucluse. Roxy runs a number of successful businesses including Sweaty Betty PR and Pixie's Bows. She just launched her latest venture - XRJ Celebrations - an event decorating business with best pal Jess Ingham. If you could build your own dream team of Hollywood besties, Jennifer Aniston would surely be top on the list. The 51-year-old actress first won over the worlds collective heart in 1994, starring as the kind-of-spoiled but entirely good-hearted Rachel Green on Friends. In the nearly three decades since, shes continued to infuse a humor and charm into her onscreen characters that makes her seem relatable off the screen as well. But who actually gets to call Aniston a friend in real-life? From an ex-husband to a childhood bestie, heres a closer look into the whos who of Anistons friend group. Courteney Cox Getty Images Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox played on-screen BFFs for 10 years as Rachel Green and Monica Geller. And in real-life, its not all that different. In addition to never missing each others birthday celebrations and dinner parties, the two have been a part of each others most monumental moments in life. In 2004, Cox named Aniston the godmother to her daughter, Coco, with then-husband, David Arquette. And in 2015, Aniston asked Cox to be her maid of honor when she married Justin Theroux (Cox was also in attendance at Anistons 2000 wedding ceremony to Brad Pitt). Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox in 1999 / Getty Images There's absolutely no judgment in Court. Youll never feel scolded. Shes extremely fair, ridiculously loyal and fiercely loving, Aniston told More magazine in 2014. Ive slept in her guest bedroom a lot, she added of their friendship. Without giving away too much of my private stuff, all I can say is shes been there for me through thick and thin." The rest of the Friends cast The Friends cast in the 90s / Getty Images It goes without saying that Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer would also be a part of Anistons off-screen crew. Though they most famously established their relationship playing friends on TV, the cast (Courteney Cox, too, of course) has remained close in the nearly two decades since the Friends series finale aired in 2004. Over the years, the cast has all kept in touch, with Aniston sharing that they still manage group get-togethers despite conflicting work schedules and living far away from one another. It happens once every two years, said Aniston of their reunions in a 2019 appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. But the girls, all the time, she noted of her more frequent dinners with Cox and Kudrow. When Aniston joined Instagram in 2019, she nearly broke the social media platform with her first post - a selfie with her former Friends castmates. (She actually did set the record for the fastest time to reach one million followers on Instagram, as recognized by the Guinness World Records, FYI.) And in February 2020, it was announced that the long-awaited Friends reunion fans had been pushing for was finally in the works. Sandra Bullock Jennifer Aniston and Sandra Bullock in 2020 / Getty Images Aniston and Bullock go back almost as far as the Friends cast. In Anistons cover story for Interview magazines March 2020 issue, Bullock played interviewer, where it was revealed the two met through a mutual ex-boyfriend, Tate Donovan. After meeting again at a mutual friends wedding, the two quickly struck up a friendship of their own, with Bullock frequently attending Anistons dinner parties. I look at you at your dinner table, because you sit at the same place all the time, and you are surrounded by these extraordinary people that youve known for so long, Bullock said of Aniston during the interview. via Instagram (@jenniferaniston) I just get to sit back and go, Im so lucky to sit here with my family and be a part of this world, she continued. You share your wealth, the wealth of your friendships. You literally go, Here are my friends, theyre going to love you, too. Heres my family, theyre going to love you, too. Heres my home, stay as long as you want. Thats a rare thing. A lot of people dont have that. More recently, Aniston helped Bullock celebrate her 56th birthday - pandemic style. Celebrating our girl properly distanced with so much love, Aniston wrote alongside a photo of a small group of friends wearing their masks. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SANDY WE LOVE YOU, she added to her Instagram story post. Justin Theroux Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux in 2016 / Getty Images Yes, it is possible to be friends with your ex, as evidenced by Aniston and Theroux. The two began dating in 2011 and became engaged a year later. In 2015, they married in a small ceremony held in their backyard (with many of the friends on this list in attendance), but by 2017, Aniston and Theroux had announced their separation. However, their friendship is still going strong. Theroux posted on his Instagram story from Anistons Friendsgiving in 2019, and he never misses wishing her a happy birthday on social media either. Theroux could even be seen congratulating Aniston on her recent Emmy nomination for her role in The Morning Show after she posted her excitement to Instagram. Reese Witherspoon Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston in 2011 / Getty Images They may currently be co-starring in The Morning Show together (they also both serve as executive producers on the show), but Aniston and Witherspoon have actually known each other since Anistons Friends days. In 2000, Witherspoon made one of the greatest cameos of the series as Rachel Greens younger sister, Jill (she and Aniston even reenacted their favorite scene in an interview in 2019). She was so sweet to me, Witherspoon recalled of first meeting Aniston in an interview with Harpers Bazaar. I was really nervous, and she was like, Oh, my gosh - dont worry about it! I marveled at her ability to perform in front of a live audience like that with no nerves, she said, adding, They would change all the lines and she was just so effortlessly affable, bubbly and sunny. Weve been friends ever since. Rita Wilson Its unclear when actress Rita Wilson and Aniston became friends, but shes part of Anistons regular dinner crew. In fact, Wilson and her husband, Tom Hanks, would even go on double dates with Aniston and Theroux when they were a couple. Additionally, Wilson and Aniston both share Greek roots. Anistons father was born in Greece and Wilsons parents are both of Greek descent - she and Hanks were recently given Greek citizenship by the countrys prime minister. Laura Dern Jennifer Aniston and Laura Dern in 2018 / Getty Images Dern has often been spotted at birthday parties and holiday celebrations with Aniston over the years. Unsurprisingly, Dern and Cox are also best friends. On Christmas Eve, Dern posted a photo with her children and Cox and her daughter, sharing that celebrating together was a 14-year tradition. And if youre keeping track, Dern is also friends with Anistons ex, Brad Pitt, and she recently starred alongside Reese Witherspoon in the television series, Big Little Lies - so yes, everyone in Hollywood really does know each other. Dern and Aniston share another strange connection. Dern was engaged to actor Billy Bob Thornton, who suddenly left her in 2000 to marry Angelina Jolie while Dern was away for work. Jolie also famously married Anistons ex, Pitt, though the two have since separated. Jimmy Kimmel Jimmy Kimmel and Jennifer Aniston in 2013 / Getty Images Jimmy Kimmel and Aniston are such good friends that he officiated her 2015 wedding to Justin Theroux. The late-night talk show host is also a frequent guest at Anistons Thanksgiving and Christmas parties - despite his pretty bold Friendsgiving request. In 2018, Kimmel teased Aniston about her annual Thanksgiving friends dinner when she appeared on his show. On Thanksgiving, I cook a lot of stuff - the normal turkey, yams, the whole deal - but at your event, we had all of those things, Kimmel said, noting that Anistons dinner takes place the day before the holiday. So then Im making the same thing everyone had the night before, again, griped Kimmel, whose wife, Molly, and children are also regular guests at Anistons home. Maybe on Friendsgiving, we could designate another special meal that we have thats not turkey, he suggested, adding that Italian or Mexican food would be nice. Ever the gracious host, Anistons 2019 Friendsgiving included Jimmys F**king Enchiladas, which she hilariously shared on Instagram. Chelsea Handler Chelsea Handler and Jennifer Aniston in 2011 / Getty Images Comedian Chelsea Handler joined Aniston and Theroux on the couples honeymoon in 2015 (actor Jason Bateman and BFF Cox also reportedly tagged along). In 2017, Handler and Aniston reportedly had a falling out, but the two have since made up. Handler was a guest at Anistons 50th birthday party in 2019, and she even welcomed Aniston to Instagram later that same year. Jason Bateman Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston in 2016 / Getty Images Actor Jason Bateman and Aniston have appeared in five films together over the years, including Horrible Bosses. But theyve also been close friends for many years. In an interview on Chelsea Handlers show in 2017, Aniston shared that shes known Bateman since they were 23-years-old. Aniston even paid tribute to Bateman when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2017. The part that Im the luckiest that I get to witness is Jason Bateman the husband, the father, the fantastic friend and, as we lovingly call him, the grandfather, she said in her speech. Chris McMillan Chris McMillan and Jennifer Aniston in 2013 / Getty Images How far back does their friendship go, you ask? McMillan was the man behind one of the worlds most famous hairstyles, creating The Rachel for Aniston in the late 90s. The look was not one of Anistons favorites, as she told Allure in 2011. I love Chris, and he's the bane of my existence at the same time because he started that damn Rachel, which was not my best look, she said, even admitting that she couldnt figure out how to style the cut herself. But the two have remained close friends ever since. While McMillan attends all of Anistons dinner parties, hes also her go-to man on set (he works with her on The Morning Show) and at photoshoots. In 2018, Aniston presented McMillan with InStyles Hairstylist Of The Year award. Reflecting on their then-nearly 25 years of friendship, she said, You're one of the most passionate and kind human beings that Ive had the good fortune of getting to know and I get to call you my family. I feel blessed every day for that. Jennifer Meyer Jennifer Meyer is one of Hollywoods go-to jewelry designers, and she counts many of her A-list clients like Aniston among her friends (Kate Hudson and Courteney Cox are also part of that list). Meyer even designed Anistons and Therouxs wedding rings when they were married in 2015. Andrea Bendewald Actress Andrea Bendewald might just be Anistons most enduring friendship, as the two have been friends since they were 14. Bendewald was reportedly a bridesmaid at Anistons first wedding to Brad Pitt in 2000, and Aniston served as maid of honor when her bestie got married a year later. Though Bendewald is most well known for her role in the 90s sitcom, Suddenly Susan, she did make a cameo appearance in season 7 of Friends (as Monicas wedding dress nemesis). She and Aniston are sharing the screen again, as Bendewald has a recurring role on The Morning Show. Water Permit Vote for Orange County Desalination Plant Postponed Following three contentious hearings, the Santa Ana, California, Regional Water Quality Board on Aug. 7 postponed a key vote for a proposed water desalination plant in Huntington Beach. It was the latest in a series of bureaucratic delays for the politically sensitive desalination plant and its developer, Poseidon Resources. The postponement comes after hundreds of people made public comments before the board during the July 30, July 31, and Aug. 7 hearings. The panel postponed the decision until September, saying its better to extend the process than overlook something pertinent. We want to be sure we make the best possible decision, said Chairman William Ruh. The proposal has sparked controversy among Orange County activists, environmental groups, and proponents of the $1.4 billion project for nearly two decades. Advocates say the desalination plant will provide a reliable, drought-proof, locally controlled source of water, while opponents have raised concerns about the expense of the project, the cost of the water, and the plants effect on the environment. To issue the permit, the Regional Water Quality Board has to determine if the project ensures the protection of marine life by using the best available site, design, technology, and mitigation measures, according to a Poseidon staff report. The technical name for the document is a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. If Poseidon receives the water discharge permit approval in September, the last major hurdle before starting construction would be a permit from the California Coastal Commission. In order to qualify for that permit, the company must show the plant will be in compliance with the policies of the California Coastal Act. It will be just as big of a hurdle, John Kennedy, an executive director of the Orange County Water District (OCWD), told The Epoch Times. The Coastal Commission has their own statutory requirements. I dont think it will be easy. Desalination would turn seawater into safe, purified drinking water by removing salt and other impurities so it meets or exceeds local, state, and national drinking water standards, according to a report by the Huntington Beach Water Desalination Facility. The proposed plant would be one of the largest desalination facilities in the country, pumping out an average of 50 million gallons of drinkable water per day to more than 400,000 people, according to the OCWD. It would serve 19 cities and agencies. The estimated cost of the desalinated water would be $2,266 per acre-foot by 2023, according to Kennedy, but a possible $465 per acre-foot subsidy from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California could reduce the net cost per acre-foot to around $1,800. Bottom line, the plant could reduce the demand for imported water by half, according to Kennedy. Currently, imported water costs $1,100 per acre-foot and about half of the water used in Orange County is brought in from hundreds of miles away, according to the Municipal Water District of Orange County. The water comes from the delta region of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers and from the Colorado River, which are both vulnerable to drought and stress on their ecosystems. According to the Huntington Beach Water Desalination Facility, if the project receives all of the required permits, Orange County could be using the plant as a source of drinking water by 2025. If finally approved, building the plant would create an estimated 3,000 new construction jobs in the community. Talented Millstreet actor Stefan Healy is set to follow in the footsteps of acting greats after being accepted into one of the world's best drama schools - The London Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). That's a considerable achievement, given the huge numbers that apply and enduring a strenuous series of auditions as explained by Stefan. "There were only 14 places available this year, and after four rounds of auditions, I got accepted into the school," said Stefan. "It is a three year course and provides a full professional actor training, I will be following in the footsteps of some of the great actors, including some of my personal favourites Kenneth Branagh, Taron Egerton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fiona Shaw. "My dream of getting accepted into one of the world's best drama schools has been realised and I'm absolutely over the moon to have gotten in. It's hugely exciting, looking ahead to a new chapter of my life and I'm going to give it everything," he said. In his younger days, Stefan participated in local Scor na bPaisti and Scor na nOg Novelty Act competitions and volunteered for a role in the Millstreet Community School TY Play, joining the Banteer Drama Group and performed in John B. Keane's The Field and Sam Cree's Family Fever in the Glen Theatre. That allowed Stefan successfully pursue Drama and Theatre Studies in UCC where he harboured the hope of becoming a professional actor. "I will be living in London for the three- year duration of the course, it's a BA (Hons) Acting degree, learning many actor training techniques, as well as work on voice, movement, dance and singing. Working on several projects every year, mainly consisting of theatre but also film, television and radio work," said Stefan. "In the final year of the course there are showcases attended by theatre and film makers from all over the country. When graduating in 2023 and completing professional actor training I would love to work in the London West End, also working on films and television, open to whatever opportunities arise when I finish," he said. Bill Maher has insisted 'it's possible' that 'horny guy' Bill Clinton was on pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's 'sex island'. '"Bill Clinton, a horny guy, on sex island? Ridiculous!"... Look, it's possible,' the comedian and political commentator said Friday on his HBO show 'Real Time With Bill Maher'. This comes after newly-released court documents from Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Guiffre claim Clinton was spotted on the Caribbean island of Little Saint James some time after his presidency ended in 2001. The former president has repeatedly denied ever visiting the island and maintains he knew nothing of the dead billionaire's years of abuse of young girls. Bill Maher insisted 'it's possible' that 'horny guy' Bill Clinton was on pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's 'sex island' on Friday on his HBO show 'Real Time With Bill Maher' (pictured) Maher made the shocking allegations during a tense exchange with Clinton's former aide Paul Begala Friday amid a discussion over whether the Democrats could or should roll out the Clintons as part of Joe Biden's race for the White House. 'Now, Bill Clinton. People are saying that there are witnesses who saw him on Jeffrey Epstein's sex island,' Maher said on the show. 'Obviously, it's denied.' Begala shrugged off the suggestion, shaking his head, which prompted Maher to double down on the claims. 'You shake your head like, "Oh that's impossible! Bill Clinton, a horny guy, on sex island? Ridiculous!"' Maher mocked. 'Look, it's possible,' Maher continued. Maher went on to say that Clinton, as well as wife and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, are 'huge distractions' for the Democratic Party. 'My question is, you know, [Clinton] has assets and he has... things that are not quite assets,' Maher said. 'And same with Hillary. What do the Democrats - what should they do?' Bill Clinton (with Hillary Clinton) has repeatedly denied ever visiting the island and maintains he knew nothing of dead billionaire Epstein's years of abuse of young girls Pictured convicted sex offender Epstein in 2017. Newly-released court documents last week claim Clinton visited the Caribbean island of Little Saint James some time after his presidency ended in 2001 Begala, who served as a White House adviser during Clinton's administration, refrained from commenting on his ties to Epstein and instead heaped praise on his former boss. 'Bill Clinton has credibility on the economy, which is the one issue holding Trump up right now. It is still holding him up,' Begala said. 'I guess people saw him portray a CEO on a cardboard set for 14 years on NBC because they feel like he's a businessman... Bill Clinton can puncture that. 'And if it were me, that's what I would send him out to do.' Last week, a trove of explosive court documents were unsealed in the wake of Epstein's former girlfriend and alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell's arrest on sex crime charges and perjury. In the documents, Roberts, one of Epsteins prime accusers, claims Clinton stayed on Epsteins Caribbean island because he owed him 'a favor' and says she saw him strolling into the darkness with two girls during a visit. Virginia Roberts Guiffre (pictured during an interview last year) said Epstein told her Clinton was visiting because 'he owes me a favor' Jeffrey wanted his evening massage [...] leaving our guest of honor to find company elsewhere, Roberts wrote in her proposal for a book called The Billionaires Playboy Club, chronicling her time on the island with Epstein and Maxwell. Strolling into the darkness with two beautiful girls around either arm, Bill seemed content to retire for the evening. Roberts said the women were two lovely girls who were visiting from New York, but does not identify them. She said they sat next to the former president at dinner. Bills wife, Hillarys absence from the night made it easy for his apparent provocative cheeky side to come out, Roberts wrote. Teasing the girls on either side of him with playful pokes and brassy comments, there was no modesty between any of them. Roberts told investigators in the documents that Epstein told her Clinton was staying on the island because the former president owed him 'a favor'. 'He never told me what favors they were. I never knew. I didn't know if he was serious. It was just a joke,' she said. She claimed the visit came some time after his presidency ended in 2001. Roberts said she, Maxwell and two other 'young girls' from New York were also on the island at the time. When investigators asked if all of them were staying on the island 'including Bill Clinton', Roberts replied: 'That's correct. He had about 4 or 5 different villas on his island separate from the main house and we all stayed in the villas. The latest claims come after a former employee on Epstein's island told a Netflix documentary earlier this year that he once saw Clinton with the pedophile on the island. A former Epstein employee also claimed this year to have seen Clinton on the island (pictured) Clinton and Ghislaine Maxwell pictured together on billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's private plane back in the early 2000s. Clinton has admitted to flying on Epstein's private jet on four occasions Steve Scully, a 70-year-old former worker on the island, claims he saw Clinton sitting with Epstein in the porch of the island's villa. Scully, who maintained the phones and internet on the island, claims in the show that he saw no other guests around at the time of the two men's meeting. It is not clear when the alleged meeting took place on the island - which was allegedly the base of years of sexual abuse and trafficking of girls as young as 14 at the hands of Epstein. 'This was a lie the first time it was told, and it isn't true today, no matter how many times it's repeated,' Clinton's spokesman said at the time. The former president has always denied ever visiting the pedophile's island where several Epstein victims say abuse took place. On the release of the documents, Clinton's spokesman doubled down on this and said he has 'never been to Little St. James Island'. He added: 'He'd not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade. Well before his terrible crimes came to light.' Clinton has admitted to flying on Epstein's private jet on four occasions. The court documents were released last week by a judge following Maxwell's arrest last month. Roberts' testimony was first used as evidence during a 2015 defamation case that she brought against Maxwell which was settled out of court in 2017. The nine-year-old testimony was revealed in a tranche of court documents that were unsealed after Epstein's alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell (pictured together) was arrested and charged with procuring young girls for sex with the pedophile Maxwell, 58, is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on charges of luring underage girls so Epstein could sexually abuse them. She has denied all the allegations. Maxwell had been lying low since Epstein's death last year but was arrested in early July, when authorities swooped on her luxury home in New Hampshire where prosecutors say she was hiding out. She was romantically involved with the pedophile from around 1992, but then became his 'right-hand woman', managing his property empire and, it is alleged, his trafficking of minors. Epstein was found hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan last August. His death was ruled a suicide but his attorneys and some family members claim he was murdered to stop him from sharing what he knows about other high profile, powerful people. Ayodhya, Aug 8 : The Nepalese priest who performed the bhumi pujan rituals for the construction of the Ram Mandir here on August 5, strongly criticised Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli for his statements on Lord Ram and Ayodhya. Nepalese priest Acharya Durga Prasad Gautam became a fan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as despite the slight tension between India and Nepal, he talked about cultural relations between the two countries during the bhumi pujan. Gautam told IANS, "It was a matter of great pride for me to sit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and perform bhumi pujan." Condemning the statements made by Oli about Lord Ram and Ayodhya, Durga Prasad, a resident of Oli's home district, said the whole world knows Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya and absurd statements by Oli will create trouble for the Nepalese as a lot of them are living in India. He, however, expressed happiness that a communist at least recognised the existence of Lord Ram. Durga Prasad said Oli's statement is being condemned all over Nepal as it has hurt the sentiments of a lot of people there. "Ram was born in Ayodhya, even children know it. It does not require a certificate from Oli or anyone else," the priest added. He said that such statements will not affect the centuries old relationship between the two countries. The priest said, "People are taking his statement as a joke. The culture of the two countries is similar from marriage rites to worship rituals and from Vedas to father-in-law and son-in-law relationship. He made such a statement about Lord Ram, being a communist. Those who earlier used to question Lord Ram's existence are now believing in it. It is disgraceful to make such a statement while serving as Prime Minister of a country." Talking about the bhumi pujan rituals, he said they were performed amid the chanting of Sanskrit shlokas and at times they were explained to PM Modi in Hindi to avoid any error. Modi was extremely patient while performing the rituals. There was a distance between the people there due to the SPG protocol but whenever PM Modi faced any problem, the fellow priests went to him and explained the rituals to him. He said his fellow priests, Chandrabhan Pandey and Acharya Jayaprakash, were from Kashi. A total of 21 priests joined the bhumi pujan rituals, of which one was from Nepal, four from Ayodhya, five from Delhi, one from Basti, five from Kashi, one from Prayagraj, three from South India and one from Vrindavan. He said that it is necessary to have a 'Yajaman' in such kind of rituals, so former VHP chief Late Ashok Singhal's nephew was sitting with his wife as the main 'Yajaman'. As many as 10 patients died while 296 persons tested positive for Covid-19 in Ludhiana on Saturday. It is for the second consecutive day that the district has recorded 10 deaths. The death toll here has now touched 158. Of this, 70 deaths were recorded in the last eight days alone. Those who succumbed to the virus on Saturday, include two females and eight males. They are: a 24-year-old woman of Janta Nagar, a 54-year-old woman of Haibowal Kalan, a 60-year-old male from Anand Nagar in Khanna, a 66-year-old male from BRS Nagar, a 55-year-old male from Rahon Road, a 14-year-old male from Bhamian, a 58-year-old male from Rahon Road, a 58-year-old male from Konke Kalan, a 35-year-old male from Konke Kalan, a 52-year-old male from Uttam Nagar and a 50-year-old male from Old Sabzi Mandi. TALLY TOUCHES 4,808 With the fresh infections, the districts tally has mounted to 4,808. The new cases include five healthcare workers, eight police personnel, an undertrial, four pregnant women and three domestic travelers. Deputy commissioner Varinder Sharma said that currently, there are 1,683 active cases in the district. He further said that till date, a total of 70,904 samples have been taken, out of which reports of 69,010 samples have been received. As many as 63,637 samples came back negative while 1,894 are pending. He said 565 persons from other districts have also tested positive here. As many as 404 persons were sent into home quarantine on Saturday. The deputy commissioner appealed to residents to follow the directions of the Punjab government and stay indoors to break the chain. BEIRUT - Shortly after Charbel Hitti got to Beirut's port on Tuesday, he felt something was off. He turned to a colleague behind him as he put on his black-and-yellow firefighter gear and said so. And then everything went black. Hitti, 22, along with his cousin and uncle, all Beirut firefighters, had responded to what they assumed was an ordinary blaze in a warehouse at the city's port. Hitti and his cousin, Najib Hitti, 20, had sped off in a firetruck while his uncle, Charbel Karam, 32, had jumped into an ambulance. On the way, Karam had taken the chance to place a video call to his wife and 2-year-old daughter. "We're firefighters!" he told his daughter playfully. "We're going to put out a fire." He hung up as the firetruck sped past, with Najib at the wheel, and the ambulance raced to catch up. When they arrived at the port, grayish white smoke was billowing above the sea. There was a weird clanging sound. Someone yelled, "Yallah, yallah, yallah, yallah," Arabic for "Let's go; hurry up." Charbel Hitti turned to another firefighter, who was recording the scene on her cellphone, and he shared his sudden misgivings. He never had a chance to explain what seemed so wrong. A tremendous explosion, ignited in a warehouse storing about 2,750 metric tons of highly volatile ammonium nitrate, instantly obliterated much of the port, sending a huge mushroom cloud of reddish smoke into the air and a staggering shock wave across much of downtown Beirut. At least 10 firefighters and other emergency responders are thought to have been killed. (The cellphone recording, however, survived.) Charbel Hitti, his uncle and cousin had grown up together as best friends in the small mountain village of Qartaba an hour outside the city, got jobs together as Beirut firefighters and made sure they had shifts together so they could put out fires as a team. As a result, they almost certainly lost their lives together. But no one is holding a funeral so far, not until they recover at least some of their remains. On the night of the explosion, family members scrambled down to Beirut, frantically rushing from the port to the destroyed firefighter headquarters to every hospital that was treating the injured. "I was praying that I find . . . " said Najib's sister, Marinella Hitti, her voice trailing off. "Their head. Or their hand. Or their foot. I was praying I find a part of their body, any part I can identify them by." She tore through the hospitals, lifting sheets off injured men. One blackened victim, not yet dead, could have been her brother Najib. She grasped at his arm, trying to locate the Chinese character tattoo he had. "I was praying, when I was searching the body of this deformed man, that God willing this deformed man is him. I don't care if he's deformed or broken or missing limbs or whatever. I just want to find him." But it wasn't him. Her uncle George rushed to the hospital morgue, opening every refrigerated mortuary cabinet. One body looked like that of his son, Charbel Hitti, and he started searching for a telltale tattoo. "He started flipping his body left and right to see if it's him," Marinella recalled. "But there was no tattoo." And there is still no news. The families cannot turn on the television anymore. Marinella continues to urge on her friends who work with Beirut's civil defense force: "I tell them, "These are your brothers, like they're my brothers. Shout out for them, maybe they'll answer. Because I need him.'" The nights are the hardest, because that is when the search parties stop their work, unable to continue because Beirut lacks the electricity needed to provide light for the searches. Karam's wife, Karlin Hitti, 24, said she does not sleep, waiting for any word of any remains of her husband, brother and cousin. (Karlin is also Najib and Marinella's sister.) She goes to church and screams, confident she says that the Virgin Mary is listening to her. Karlin passes her time running through the memories of the three firefighters. Her sentences are halting, incomplete. Her words get caught in her throat. She rocks back and forth in her seat, her eyes glazed from exhaustion and days of crying. "When they would come back from their service, they would come here and reach the top of the street and would call out to me: 'The Nescafe is finished, can you make us Nescafe? Let's drink more Nescafe.' " Her voice broke as she spoke. "They would come after every shift and sit next to me." A ghost of a smile appeared when Karlin recalled her husband. "We've all been together since we were children. I used to say, if I ever got the chance to be with someone like Charbel, I would immediately marry him," she said. "I used to say, 'What a guy, handsome and green eyes.' " They'd had an affair, keeping it secret from the tightknit village, she recounted. The secret lasted all of one week. On June 25, they'd celebrated their third anniversary in the best way they could under coronavirus lockdown: alone in their RV under the trees, dining on delivered sushi. Karlin laughed at the memory, visibly surprised by her own peals. "I want them to bring me his smell. Just his smell. I just want his smell," she said. Her sister Marinella will sleep only in their brother Najib's bed. She has placed his motorcycle helmet in a place of honor in the living room and holds on to a tiny Velcro patch bearing the Lebanese flag - part of Najib's uniform. "Usually, when one person is lost in a family, it's a tragedy in every sense of the word," Marinella said. "We have three. Three heroes that left us here. And all we can do is pray for them." Tears flowed. Then anger took over. "No one told them what's inside. No one told them," Marinella said, referring to the ammonium nitrate in the warehouse. It had been stored there for six years despite repeated warnings by government officials of the peril it posed. "If they had died martyrs for Lebanon, we wouldn't have a problem. But they died as martyrs for what? For what? So the thugs on the seats keep money in their pockets?" Her voice growing strong, Marinella continued, her eyes fixed on a faraway spot in the room, giving the illusion she was speaking to herself. "We're going to the streets. We're going to have a revolution," she said, venting her rage at Lebanon's political class, whose corruption and ineptitude are now widely blamed not only for the explosions but for the country's wider economic collapse. "They took everything else from us, but not our brothers," she said. Marinella scrunched up the front of Najib's Harley Davidson T-shirt, which she now wears, and inhaled the aroma. "I can still smell him," she said, closing her eyes and smiling peacefully. "He loved Harleys. He wanted to get one. He didn't have time." As one of 1.1 million women in the United States named Karen, seeing my name used as a randomly selected, lazy label for racist, privileged white women behaving badly is soul-crushing. I am a non-racist Karen who has sent masks to family and friends since February to keep them safe, who has marched in Washington several times over the past 3.5 years, beginning with the day after President Trumps inauguration. And I am sure there are many other like-minded women named Karen out there. One reason given as to why the name Karen has become a label is that it is considered antiquated. So, I guess that makes it an ageist as well as sexist slur. It was among the top 10 most popular baby names in the United States between 1951 and 1968, according to Social Security data. I was one of four in my St. Pius X class in Bedford, Ohio. I think that the name was popularized by a helpful, cheerful character in the movie All About Eve, which was released Jan. 15, 1951, two weeks and a day before I was born. We Karens moved through several grades. We were well-behaved, even humble (it was a Catholic grade school, after all) mostly quiet, friendly and cheerful. Engineered Material Arresting System is also called an arrester bed. It's a bed of engineered material laid out at the end of the runway, that helps arrest and bring to halt an aircraft that has overrun. In May 2010, an EMAS could have helped Air India Express flight IX812, landing at Mangalore airport, from rolling down the runway and burst into flames. Of 166 passengers and crew, only eight survived. This was the first accident involving Air India Express, a unit of India's flag carrier Air India. Just a little over 10 years later, in similar circumstances, another Air India Express flight - IX1344, overshot the runway in Kozhikode airport, slid down the slope and split into two. The latest official statements say 18 have died, including the two pilots. An EMAS could have prevented the aircraft from sliding down and could have saved lives at the Kozhikode airport, which like the one in Mangalore, is a table-top and rests on a hill. The Kozhikode airport could have got one, if the authorities had listened to the recommendations given by a safety advisory committee set up by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, after the 2010 crash. "We had pushed for it. But that hasn't happened, either in Mangalore or Kozhikode," Mohan Ranganathan, who was one of the members of the advisory committee, told Moneycontrol. That a similar accident has happened 10 years apart could be a telling comment on the safety standards of the country's aviation industry. "It is the failure of the system," says Yeshwant Shenoy, a lawyer and aviation safety activist. "Just marking the airport as critical or risky is not enough," adds Shenoy, pointing to DGCA's 2011 listing of 11 risky airports in India that included the one in Kozhikode too. "Many of these measures, also highlighted by International Civil Aviation Organization, are recommendations. But when it comes to a table-top airport, these should be made mandatory," adds Ranganathan. A table-top runway sits on a hill, with one or both sides dropping to deep gorge. These runways can create an optical illusion to the pilots, making their job risky. The disaster - Tailwind, rubbers and a wet runway The Air India Express IX1344, which was one of the repatriation flights operated under the Vande Bharat Mission, had taken off from Dubai on August 7 at 3.40 pm. It was scheduled to land in Kozhikode at 7.40 pm. The conditions were harsh. The state had been lashed with torrential rain and the Indian Meteorological Department had issued a red alert for three districts, including Kozhikode. Earlier in the day, a landslide in Idukki had claimed 18 lives. One will have to wait for the preliminary investigation constituted by the government to come out with its report, to understand what exactly happened with the Air India Express flight. But that the two pilots at the cockpit - Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe and first officer Akhilesh Kumar - had to twice abort landing, was signal enough that the circumstances were severe. "The approach was for runway 28, but the pilots couldn't land. Then they chose to come from the opposite runway 10, which could have had tailwinds," says Amit Singh, an industry veteran and Fellow of London's Royal Aeronautical Society. The tailwind would have increased the speed of the aircraft, making landing even more difficult on a runway that was wet, and possibly was 'contaminated.' A runway, explains Singh, is contaminated if it has water more than 3mm deep. Adding to the complexity would be the presence of rubber. Every time an aircraft lands, it leaves behind up to 20 kg of rubber - depending on the plane's make - on the runway. The rubber deposit happens when the wheels touch the ground, the impact also emitting a puff of smoke. Too much of rubber deposit can damage the runway surface, affecting landings. Singh points out another factor that would have made things difficult for the pilots in a night when visibility was low because of heavy rains. "It was a blackhole approach as the airport doesn't have ground lights," says Singh. A blackhole approach can make pilots think they are higher than they actually are. All these factors - speed, rubber and water, can reduce the aircraft's capacity to brake. "Especially so if the runway has a slope, like in Kozhikode. Runway 10 is at a height of 315 feet, goes up to 335 and then it goes down. So, tailwinds, high speed, rubber and on a slope, the aircraft ability to brake is compromised," says Singh. Flight IX1344 overran the runway, went down the slope and split in two by the impact. Captain Sathe reportedly died on the spot. Co-pilot Kumar was severely injured but later succumbed to his injuries. If only there was an EMAS to stop the aircraft. The Mangalore crash and the aftermath Ranganathan points out that some of the safety advisory committee's recommendations were followed at the Mangalore airport. This includes enhancing the runway end safety area (RESA), which extends from the runway and can be as long as 90m. The RESA helps if the aircraft has overrun or during undershoots. The Mangalore airport also installed a frangible antenna that will break on impact. In 2010, the antenna was mounted on a concrete structure which the ill-fated Air India Express flight struck, adding to the damage. Interestingly, the airport did have an arrestor bed made of sand, which is however not as effective as an EMAS. Both, at Mangalore and Kozhikode, the Airports Authority of India and the DGCA are said to have declined the proposal to have an EMAS. Instead at Kozhikode, a report by The Hindu in June 2018 points out, the RESA was widened to 240 metres from 90 metres , complying with the ICAO recommendations. Though this may have reduced the length of the runway to 2,700 metres from 2,850 metres, security experts say that the length is sufficient for landing and takeoff. While this would help, the table-top airport also needed an EMAS, something that the Ministry of Civil Aviation had recommended to the DGCA during the Court of Inquiry into the Mangalore crash. There are global examples to show that EMAS has helped prevent tragedies. Many of the airports in the US for instance have EMAS. In one of the instances where the system came to the rescue, a Boeing 737 aircraft with 117 persons aboard had overrun the runway at California's Bon Hope Airport. Fortunately, the EMAS brought it to a halt. Neither was the aircraft damaged, nor - and more importantly - was any passenger or crew injured. The cost factor So why are airports in India against installing the EMAS, despite its life-saving qualities? It comes down to the cost. A report by The Hindu, again from 2018, sheds more light. It quotes Kozhikode Airport's then Director JT Radhakrishna saying that the EMAS proposal was rejected as it would have entailed high operational and maintenance cost. The director further said that the airport couldn't afford the bill of Rs 100 crore, the cost of an EMAS. Ranganathan points out that while the technology is expensive, it also needs to be completely replaced after an impact. "It can't be repaired," he says. In other words, every time an EMAS is used, the airport will have to shell out at least Rs 100 crore to get a new one. While Rs 100 crore is an expensive tag, does it compare to the loss of lives? There are also intangible costs, like the loss of operations at an airport after a crash or even an overrun. "How does Rs 100 crore compare to the thousands of crores we otherwise spend on erecting statues. What is more important? What stops the government from incentivising airports to buy these life-saving systems," asks a senior industry executive. Safety experts like Ranganathan and activists like Shenoy have warned that an aviation tragedy is waiting to happen in any of the airports in the country. Just in July 2019, an Air India Express flight veered off the taxiway. Fortunately, there was no damage or injury. But the Air India Express flight IX1344, was not as lucky. California County to Give $1,250 Stipend to Some COVID-19 Sufferers Californias seventh most populous county will give people infected with the CCP virus a one-time lump sum payment of $1,250 under a pilot program meant to help vulnerable residents unable to work while self-quarantining after contracting the potentially deadly bug. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved the program, which will initially be limited to some 7,500 residents referred to by designated clinics in five high-risk neighborhoods in Alameda County, according to a letter (pdf) from Lori Cox, director of the countys Social Services Agency. Vanessa Cedeno, policy director for the Board of Supervisors, told the Los Angeles Times that a key success factor in Alameda Countys efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 is to make sure people who have contracted the virus safely isolate at home. If people are afraid to get tested or they cannot isolate safely when theyre COVID positive, then our efforts to contain the virus are not going to be as successful, Cedeno said. She added that some services like emergency food delivery can help, but at the end of the day, you cant meet everybodys basic needs. Sometimes people just need the money. The stipend is meant for those who cant afford to lose two weeks worth of wages to quarantine. Many County residents who test positive for COVID-19, especially hourly workers, will need assistance in order to isolate as they cannot afford the loss in wages, Cox said in her letter to supervisors. We expect many of these individuals in need of assistance will be part of the essential workforce who are unable to work remotely and thus are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19. In order to qualify for the program, which has an overall budget cap of $10 million, stipend recipients must certify they have tested positive for COVID-19 and must be undergoing quarantine. They must also show that theyre not receiving unemployment benefits or paid sick leave. Whatever makes it a lot easier for people to deal with this pandemic would be great, said Robert Mangrobang, a resident waiting to get tested for COVID-19 at Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center in Alameda County, KPIX reports. Twelve hundred dollars or even more would be ideal for comforting a lot of families. Immigration status will not be taken into account in determining eligibility, the Los Angeles Times reports, adding that the board hopes to launch the pilot within the next few weeks. Alameda Countys $1,250 pilot is similar to a program launched in San Francisco called Right to Recover, which gives eligible COVID-19 positive recipients a two-week stipend that corresponds to that citys minimum wage. California has 540,000 confirmed cases of the CCP virus, with over 10,000 deaths. After years of mounting complaints and calls made to law enforcement and the fire marshal, the Mill Creek Office Building at 4702 FM 1960 W in northwest Houston has met the wrecking ball and was razed last week. The action comes following a lawsuit by Harris County Attorney Vince Ryans office earlier this year when it became such a fire hazard and public nuisance to the community. InvestCorp Partners, the owners of the property, failed to safely secure the property despite numerous requests, citations and visits from Harris County law enforcement and the Harris County Fire Marshals Office. Abandoned buildings can become magnets for crime in a neighborhood, causing a serious nuisance, said Ryan. In addition, transients were squatting in the building and setting fires. This is dangerous not only for the people illegally living in the property but also for firefighters, who would have to enter the building to search for them if a fire occurred. According to the lawsuit filed by Ryan, the 40,806-square-foot office building had been vacant for at least a decade. There were several areas of access-points into the building including several shattered floor-to-ceiling windows. The property was full of broken glass, large amounts of debris and construction materials and graffiti. Officers have responded to this location for calls of criminal trespass, copper theft, illegal drug use and reports of runaways staying on the property. In June, a visit to the location by Bethany Dwyer, assistant county attorney in the environmental division, the fire marshal, the property manager and attorney representing the owners sealed the deal for demolition. Walking into the building, you could tell this was probably a nice place in its heyday, Dwyer said. The atrium-type building had nice trees and spoilage that we had them remove to prevent a fire. Dwyer said they could also see that they had begun to tear down facades and building materials that might be used for kindling. What walls remained were covered in graffiti. You could tell a rival gang had removed previous turf gangs graffiti and put theirs up, she said. While walking through the atrium of the building, they entered a small walkway where there was a person sleeping there who didnt want to leave. Fire marshals are peace officers and they were able to move him along. Having the community involved in the case helps us get a resolution, she said. We dont get happy results like this always so its nice to be able to do that for the community. The demo began on July 30 and at the time they discovered two people living in the building. If a fire had erupted in the building, the responding fire agency couldnt treat it as an empty building because of people living there which would mean they would have to clear the whole building first. There were no sprinklers since it was an atrium and a building under five stories, she said. Fires double every 30 seconds. She already had structural concerns particularly if a fire was to break out furthering endangering anyone living there and for firefighters. Dwyer said after years of denial, the property owner and attorney agreed it was not salvable. I think they saw that it was an unsafe situation and conceded to demolish the building. We appreciate the owners agreeing to demolish this hazardous property, said County Attorney Ryan. When the work is complete, my office will withdraw our lawsuit. The office building is a two-story, Class B multi-tenant office building located on approximately 2.0 acres in the submarket. It is located along FM 1960 between Interstate 45 and TX 249 just minutes from George Bush Intercontinental Airport. It sits on prime real estate surrounded by master-planned communities, fine restaurants and multiple retailers. They were initially trying to sell the property and then the pandemic hit and of course that changed everyones plans, Dwyer said. Dwyer became familiar with the property three years ago while pursuing a lawsuit against a neighboring property. We can only do what the statutes allow us to do and in the last couple of years, we really have the criminal activity that falls under one of those statutes, she said. People camped out inside were starting fires inside. With that type of activity, we were able to sue, Dwyer said. Many of the complaints were to the fire marshals office and law enforcement. Patrons of Victors Restaurant adjacent to the property were being confronted by some of the dwellers and even robbed in the parking lot. The motel behind it, named Champion Lodge Hotel at the time, had also been cited because of drug activity and possible human trafficking. We believe a lot of it came from the vacant building with them crisscrossing between the two properties, she said. To their credit, the hotel management stepped up. They really did work well with us to implement better security measures. I think those will really help and demolishing the vacant building will too. This will make the whole neighborhood safer, she said. Some of the measures taken by the hotel was to no longer accept cash transactions for rooms and having guests present an identification for rental of the rooms. All of those were measures to hold patrons more accountable particularly for human trafficking, Dwyer said. Community members were ecstatic and grateful for the action. This demolition is a victory for local residents, who refused to allow this nuisance to persist in harming their community, Ryan said. We in the County Attorneys Office believe our Harris County residents have the right to a safe neighborhood and we will continue to fight for them. Milan Marinkovich, the attorney representing the owners, did not respond to calls for an interview. dtaylor@hcnonline.com A Colorado district attorney has launched an investigation into officers with the Aurora Police Department after they mistakenly detained a black family at gunpoint and forced four frightened children onto the ground. Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler declared in a statement that no one, not even police officers, are above the law. 'Public accounts of the incident in a parking lot near Iliff and Buckley are very concerning,' wrote Brauchler, The Denver Post reports. 'Everyone is entitled to be treated equally under the law. No one is above the law. If our investigation determines that the officers involved committed a crime, I will not hesitate to file charges and prosecute them.' Scroll down for video DA George Brauchler launched an investigation after officers with the Aurora Police Department mistakenly detained a black family on Sunday The incident unfolded last Sunday when Brittney Gilliam drove her six-year-old daughter, 12-year-old sister and two nieces, aged 14 and 17, to a nail salon in Aurora. The group was approached in the parking lot by at least five officers who drew their firearms and handcuffed some of them. Authorities said they mistakenly pulled over Gilliam's SUV after a stolen vehicle report listed matching license plates. They later said they had stopped the wrong car and were actually looking for a motorcycle with the same license plate number from Montana. Video of the children crying and desperately pleading for their mothers sparked outrage. The involved officers later said they stopped the wrong vehicle and were looking for a motorcycle with the same license plate numbers in Montana The DA's investigation into officers' response will be separate from the criminal investigation Brittney Gilliam (pictured) had driven her six-year-old daughter, 12-year-old sister and two nieces, aged 14 and 17, to a nail salon in Aurora. The group was approached in the parking lot by at least five officers who drew their firearms and handcuffed some of them It is the latest blow to the Aurora Police Department after the police-involved death of Elijah McClain cast them into the national spotlight amid anti-racism protests. The DA's investigation into officers' response will be separate from the criminal investigation. Police Chief Vanessa Wilson said the department is cooperating with the investigation and, in fact, she welcomes it. 'I also recognize and share the concern over what transpired which is why I immediately ordered an internal affairs investigation,' the statement said. 'I have promised transparency to a community who not only demands it, but deserves it.' Earlier this week, Wilson announced that she would review the department's training and protocols due to the incident. She admitted to The Denver Post that dispatched officers made two mistakes in their handling and detainment of the family. Firstly, they did not verify the license plate number in the National Crime Information Center to double check the information on the stolen motorcycle. Secondly, the officer should not have made the children lie on the ground despite the department's policy to treat stolen vehicle interactions as high-risk. According to Wilson, the officers should have thoroughly assessed the situation and adjusted their actions. Both District Attorney George Brauchler and Police Chief Vanessa Wilson have condemned officer's actions after video surfaced on social media After the incident was revealed, Wilson issued an apology to the family on behalf of the department. 'We have been training our officers that when they contact a suspected stolen car, they should do what is called a high-risk stop,' she wrote. 'This involves drawing their weapons and ordering all occupants to exit the car and lie prone on the ground.' 'I have called the family to apologize and to offer any help we can provide, especially for the children who may have been traumatized by yesterday's events. 'I have reached out to our victim advocates so we can offer age-appropriate therapy that the city will cover. In response, Gilliam and her family released their own statement that called for reform at the Aurora Police Department. 'We expect policing in our communities to reflect our values. Far too often in Aurora, it has not,' the statement read. 'The Aurora Police Department needs a fresh start, and we are encouraged by the partnership we have started to build with Chief Wilson. The Aurora Police department released a statement apologizing to the family over the mix-up 'We urge her to move quickly to transform the culture of the force, hold officers accountable, and bring much-needed reform to the department.' Additionally, Gilliam told The Denver Post that such an incident would never have happened to a white family, Now, Gilliam said she understands the Black Lives Matter and anti-racism protesters who have called for the police department to be reformed. A reckoning against the Aurora Police Department, and the law enforcement institution as a whole, sparked three months ago when George Floyd was killed in police custody on Memorial Day in Minneapolis. The viral footage of Floyd pleading 'I can't breathe' while a white officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes galvanized Americans to protest police brutality. The family, who has filed a complaint, is now being represented by Denver attorney David Lane, the law partner of McClain's family lawyer Mari Newman, according to 9News. McClain was placed in a lethal chokehold by Aurora police officers on August 24, 2019, after he had been stopped while walking home at night. Police were called to the scene after receiving reports of a man wearing a ski mask 'acting sketchy' and flailing his arms. McClain, a massage therapist described by friends and family as an 'oddball, vegetarian, athlete, and peacemaker' who loved animals, was handcuffed and placed in a carotid control hold, restricting his bloodflow, before losing consciousness. Paramedics later sedated him with ketamine, sending him into cardiac arrest. He was declared brain dead and removed from life support six days later. McClain was placed in a lethal chokehold by Aurora cops after he was stopped while walking home on August 24, 2019. Police confronted McClain after receiving reports of a man who looked 'sketchy' Cold Chain Logistics Market Research Report by Temperature (Chilled and Frozen), by Service (Blast Freezing, Inventory Management, Labelling, Storage, and Transportation), by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 New York, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Cold Chain Logistics Market Research Report by Temperature, by Service, by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913884/?utm_source=GNW The Global Cold Chain Logistics Market is expected to grow from USD 152,691.07 Million in 2019 to USD 327,218.75 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.54%. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Cold Chain Logistics to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Temperature, the Cold Chain Logistics Market studied across Chilled and Frozen. Based on Service, the Cold Chain Logistics Market studied across Blast Freezing, Inventory Management, Labelling, Storage, and Transportation. Based on Application, the Cold Chain Logistics Market studied across Bakery and Confectionary, Dairy Products, Fish, Meat, and Seafood, Fruits and Vegetables, Pharmaceuticals, and Processed Food. Based on Geography, the Cold Chain Logistics Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed 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 Cold Chain Logistics Market including AGRO Merchants Group LLC, AmeriCold Logistics LLC, Burris Logistics Inc., Interstate Cold Storage Inc., John Swire & Sons Ltd, Kloosterboer Group B.V., Lineage Logistics Holdings LLC, Nichirei Corporation, Preferred Freezer Services Inc., SF Express Co. Ltd, Snowman Logistics Ltd, and VersaCold Logistics Services. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Cold Chain Logistics 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 the market 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 Cold Chain Logistics Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Cold Chain Logistics Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Cold Chain Logistics Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Cold Chain Logistics Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Cold Chain Logistics Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Cold Chain Logistics Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913884/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Bella Thorne showed off her svelte summer body on her Instagram page this Friday as she got ready for the weekend. The 22-year-old posted a video of herself sauntering across the beach in a fashionable print bikini. Wearing her signature red hair down, she added a touch of glitz to the ensemble by clasping on a string of pearls. Looking fab: Bella Thorne showed off her svelte summer body on her Instagram page this Friday as she got ready for the weekend Bella headed toward the camera and stopped walking once she had achieved a close-up on her enviably taut midriff. She geo-tagged the post to the Esperanza private beach resort in Cabo San Lucas, where she recently traveled for a summer vacation. 'I put my phone on a swing and took this hello,' Bella captioned for the benefit of her 23.4 Instagram followers. The Famous In Love star has been seen since last month soaking up the sunshine with her boyfriend Benjamin Mascolo. A place in the sun: The 22-year-old posted a video of herself sauntering across the beach in a fashionable print bikini Glamour: Wearing her signature red hair down, she added a touch of glitz to the ensemble by clasping on a string of pearls has been dating her Italian hunk since early last year but the pair had to go into self-isolation separately for nearly five months amid the coronavirus pandemic. During their period of separation Benjamin hunkered down in his native Italy while Bella stayed home in Los Angeles. In March the United States imposed a travel ban on European countries and this summer, as cases spiked in America, the European Union responded in kind. Bella and Benjamin finally met up again on July 7 and she gushed on Instagram: "After 5 months reunited & it feels so good.' When you got it: Bella headed toward the camera and stopped walking once she had achieved a close-up on her enviably taut midriff Luxury: She geo-tagged the post to the Esperanza private beach resort in Cabo San Lucas, where she recently traveled for a summer vacation She then asked her followers: 'where shall we go next ??since ben isnt allowed in America yet... and I cant go to Italy unless I have a work permit there.' Apparently the sizzling sensations have decided the location will be Los Cabos, which began reopening in mid-June. Their vacation shenanigans have been on display on social media, and they have also been glimpsed on a luxury yacht off Cabo. Behind the scenes: 'I put my phone on a swing and took this hello,' Bella captioned for the benefit of her 23.4 Instagram followers Together again: The Famous In Love star has been seen since last month soaking up the sunshine with her boyfriend Benjamin Mascolo Bella and Benjamin were recently at the center of a swirl of engagement rumors when she was seen with a ring on her left hand fourth finger. However her representative told JustJared: 'Bella and Benjamin are very much in love and very happy, but there are no wedding plans in the near future.' In late July it emerged Bella is selling her quirkily designed Sherman Oaks home on the market with an asking price of $2.55 million. Details: She has been dating her Italian hunk since early last year but the pair had to go into self-isolation separately for nearly five months amid the coronavirus pandemic Building on efforts to protect Illinois workers and communities in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) will file emergency rules for businesses, schools and child care establishments regarding the use of face coverings and gathering sizes. These rules do not apply to individuals and penalties will not exceed a misdemeanor and a $75-$2,500 fine. As Ive visited with and listened to mayors and health departments all across our state, its clear there is still an even greater need to get people to wear masks especially to protect frontline workers, whether theyre at the front of a store asking you to put on your mask or whether theyre responding to 911 calls to save those in distress, Pritzker said. Illinois has made substantial progress in our fight against COVID-19 because the vast majority of communities and business owners have done the right thing. These rules will help ensure that the minority of people who refuse to act responsibly wont take our state backward. These rules come as COVID-19 cases are increasing, especially in southern Illinois counties. We know that face coverings are key to helping prevent the spread of COVID-19, but it only works if everyone wears them, said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. We are seeing cases increasing each day and hearing about people not complying with the masking mandate. This rule is an effort to help keep all of us healthy and decrease the risk of contracting COVID-19. New IDPH COVID-19 Emergency rules These rules provide multiple opportunities for compliance before any penalty is issued, giving local health departments and local law enforcement more leeway to support community public health in a productive manner. While existing, pre-pandemic enforcement laws, like, revoking a license, are stringent and severe, these rules provide flexibility for local communities and a measured process to help keep people safe. That process is as follows: First, businesses will be given a warning in the form of written notice and encouraged to voluntarily comply with public health guidance. Second, businesses that do not voluntarily comply will be given an order to have some or all of their patrons leave the premises as needed to comply with public health guidance and reduce risks. Third, if the business continues to refuse to comply, the business can receive a class A misdemeanor and be subject to a fine ranging from $75-$2,500. The emergency rules also reinforce the authority of IDPH and local health departments to investigate COVID-19 cases and reaffirm that businesses have a responsibility to cooperate with those investigations. Local officials were not in a hurry to enforce this mandate. I will have to have a discussion with the village attorney and the village board about this, if the rules actually go into effect, said Maryville Mayor Craig Short via email Friday. Maryville has not implemented an ordinance to require mask wearing and penalties for failure to do so. We are already doing the first step of the governors proposed emergency rules education and personal responsibility, he continued. The proposed emergency rules will still have to go through the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) to be effective. The governor tried to do this in May and the JCAR was skeptical and referred him to the legislature. I believe several of the members of JCAR are still skeptical. Short said Maryville will continue to monitor the situation and encourage its businesses, residents and visitors to be responsible. I will echo the sentiments of OFallon Mayor, Herb Roach, in that I am disappointed that the state is making the rules and expecting local governments to take action, exposing us to any liability that results from those actions, Short said. The State of Illinois is passing the buck down to the counties and the municipalities on this one. Short said Maryville continues to encourage following the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) guidelines. Kevin Head, city administrator in Edwardsville, echoed Shorts comments via email Friday. It is our understanding that the governor proposed emergency rules for IDPH still have to go through JCAR (Joint Commission on Administrative Rules) next week, he said. The proposed rules I read state that IDPH and local health departments are the enforcement mechanism. We will need to hold until there is more to come next week. The governor also signed Senate Bill 471 to help protect workers who continue to serve on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. Senate Bill 471 As Illinois essential workers continue to serve on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19, Pritzker signed SB 471 to expand workplace protections. To directly protect workers in retail, the law adds a penalty for assaulting or battering a retail worker who is conveying public health guidance, such as requiring patrons to wear face-coverings or promoting social distancing. This provision sends the message that its vitally important for workers to be both respected and protected while serving on the front lines. As we continue to adapt to the changes forced on us by the current pandemic, we have to also create a response that addresses the long-time issues it has exacerbated, said Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford. Our essential workers put their lives at risk for us to stay safe, and it is clear that we have to continue to do better to protect working class people with a renewed commitment to providing basic rights for everyone. The law also increases paid disability leave for any injury that occurred after March 9 by 60 days for firefighters, law enforcement and paramedics whose recovery was hindered by COVID-19. More specifically, eligible employees include: Any part-time or full-time State correctional officer or any other full or part-time employee of the Department of Corrections Any full or part-time employee of the Prisoner Review Board Any full or part-time employee of the Department of Human Services working within a penal institution or a State mental health or developmental disabilities facility operated by the Department of Human Services Any full-time law enforcement officer or full-time firefighter These measure build upon the Pritzker administrations efforts to protect the safety and livelihood of Illinois residents by continuing to enforce all labor laws during the pandemic. SB 471 takes effect immediately. Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at (618) 659-5735 Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., attends the school's commencement ceremonies in Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S., May 11, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake Liberty University announced on Friday that President Jerry Falwell Jr. is going on an "indefinite" leave of absence. "The Executive Committee of Liberty University's Board of Trustees, acting on behalf of the full Board, met today and requested that Jerry Falwell, Jr. take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University, to which he agreed, effective immediately," read a statement from the school. Liberty University is an evangelical Christian school in Lynchburg, Virginia, founded by Falwell Jr.'s father Jerry Falwell, a televangelist and conservative activist. Falwell Jr. was heavily criticized this week after he posted and deleted a photo of himself on a yacht with his pants unzipped and his arm around a woman. It's unclear if this pressure led to his leave of absence. "Yeah, it was weird. She's pregnant. She couldn't get her pants zipped and I was like trying to like I had on a pair of jeans I haven't worn in a long time and couldn't get zipped either," he said in response to criticism of the photo. "So, I just put my belly out like hers. She's my wife's assistant she's a sweetheart. I should have never put it up and embarrassed her. I've apologized to everybody. I promised my kids I will try to be a good boy from here on out." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Liberty University announced on Friday that President Jerry Falwell Jr. is going on an "indefinite" leave of absence. "The Executive Committee of Liberty University's Board of Trustees, acting on behalf of the full Board, met today and requested that Jerry Falwell, Jr. take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University, to which he agreed, effective immediately," read a statement from the school. Liberty University is an evangelical Christian school in Lynchburg, Virginia, founded by Falwell Jr.'s father Jerry Falwell, a televangelist and influential conservative activist. Story continues Falwell Jr. was heavily criticized this week after he posted and deleted a photo of himself on a yacht with his pants unzipped and his arm around a woman. GOP Rep. Mark Walker, of North Carolina, a former faculty member at Liberty University, called for Falwell Jr. to step down in a tweet on Thursday. "Jerry Falwell Jr's ongoing behavior is appalling," Walker said in a tweet. It's unclear if this pressure led to his leave of absence. "Yeah, it was weird. She's pregnant," he said in response to the photo, to local radio station WLNI. "She couldn't get her pants zipped and I was like trying to like I had on a pair of jeans I haven't worn in a long time and couldn't get zipped either. So, I just put my belly out like hers. She's my wife's assistant she's a sweetheart. I should have never put it up and embarrassed her. I've apologized to everybody. I promised my kids I will try to be a good boy from here on out." This is the latest in a string of controversies from Falwell Jr., including Liberty University's plan to bring students back to campus in March during the coronavirus pandemic. Later on Friday Jerry Prevo, chairman of Liberty University's Board of Trustees, released the following statement: Read the original article on Business Insider By PTI THANE: A medical practitioner from Bhiwandi in Thane district of Maharashtra has been booked for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl at his clinic on July 31, police said on Saturday. The incident occurred after the doctor had examined all patients inside his clinic and sent away his staff, he said. The accused has been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. No arrest is made in the case so far, the official added. Manila, Aug 8 : Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Saturday expressed optimism that the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) can overcome the COVID-19 pandemic through joint efforts. "We are confident that the ASEAN way of partnership and mutual aid will help us overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and move forward with our community-building endeavors," Duterte said in a brief statement on the bloc's 53rd founding anniversary. Duterte added that the pandemic is an opportunity for the Southeast Asian region to be more resilient. "Bouncing back from the pandemic appears to be a daunting task. But if pursued with friends, the burden is shared and transformed into an opportunity to create a more resilient Southeast Asian region," he said. "With a deeper sense of common purpose, we will continue to work together as one ASEAN and strengthen partnerships with friends within and outside the region." Though the challenges remain, Duterte said ASEAN's "commitment to community-building has never been stronger". Duterte noted that ASEAN is now the fifth largest economy in the world, driving growth and development in across the region. According to Duterte, ASEAN "is at the centre of mechanisms promoting peace and stability in our rapidly changing regional environment". "More importantly, ASEAN is moving closer to becoming one politically cohesive, economically integrated and socially responsible community," Duterte added. The Philippines is a founding member of ASEAN which also comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Tourists gasp as two lionesses elegantly pad across the track, barely glancing at the jeep-load of city dwellers escaping lockdown at a game reserve in Gauteng, South Africa's coronavirus epicentre. Visitors have flocked from the capital Pretoria and financial hub Johannesburg since the government allowed South Africans to travel for leisure within their provinces last week. The announcement brought a small sliver of relief to the country's tourist industry, which has missed out on more than $3.9 billion in revenue since South Africa went into lockdown on March 27. As the only park in Gauteng offering sightings of the popular "Big Five" -- buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino -- Dinokeng Game Reserve has attracted nature lovers who would normally drive to remote larger parks elsewhere in the country. "It's actually amazing, we have had a lot of support from locals," said Gavin Sterley, manager of the four-star Mongena Game Lodge in Dinokeng, which reopened a week ago. Tourists wearing coronavirus face masks at the Dinokeng Game Reserve just outside Pretoria. By Michele Spatari (AFP) "They are all booking and coming for game drives, dinner and that type of stuff." Mongena closed its doors two weeks before the start of lockdown, when President Cyril Ramaphosa banned travellers from badly infected countries in an early bid to stem the spread of COVID-19. Before the pandemic, around 80 percent of Mongena's guests came from abroad, while locals mainly visited for business events. Sterley believes the easing of intra-provincial travel restrictions could add to the business. The lodge is fully booked through August by South Africans eager to holiday after months of confinement. "It is a big marketing opportunity for us," Sterley told AFP. 'Breath of fresh air' Lindy Jansen Van Vuuren, 42, beamed up at her husband as a pair of nyala antelope sidled past the jeep and trotted lightly towards the sunrise. The Johannesburg-based couple had spent two nights in Mongena and were next headed to the neighbouring Magaliesberg mountain range. "It is the first time we are holidaying in Gauteng and it is actually really nice so close to home," Van Vuuren exclaimed. "A breath of fresh air." "You go on a two-day break and it feels as if you have gone a week," she said. Graphic design student Natasha Zachariades, 20, shared the enthusiasm. "We usually go down to the coast or overseas for our holiday but obviously we can't do that," said Zachariades, who came from Pretoria after finishing her exams. "It has been the most relaxing couple of days that I have had in a long time," she noted, thrilled after spotting a giraffe. Big game -- here, a lioness -- seen during a guided safari tour at the Dinokeng Game Reserve outside Pretoria. By Michele Spatari (AFP) Apparently grinning from behind his face mask, ranger Stian Loubser pointed out rhino tracks and elephant droppings along the way. "We are trying to be as virus-safe as possible while also trying to create a nice guest experience," he explained, excited to be "back in the bush". After the morning drives, guests rubbing sanitiser over their hands trickled into the restaurant for lunch. All tables were marked with reservation tags, highlighting signs of recovery after four months without income. "I don't think anything will make up for the losses we have made but we can carry on," said Sterley, noting that 80 percent of staff had returned to work. "We will see how long it stays like this," he added, fearing a "dip" in demand once travel to other provinces is allowed to resume. The trick, said Sterley, will be brushing up service and providing enough incentive for locals to return. "Just give them the best experience possible," he said. "That's all we can do for now." sch/sn/bmm STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Meiers Corners woman charged with multiple counts of harassment as a hate crime was a burden and potential threat to several of her neighbors, including multiple children as young as 3 years old, authorities allege. Lenore Arce, 70, faces charges that include five-counts of first-degree hate crime/harassment, three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, five counts of third-degree stalking and five-counts of fourth-degree stalking. Despite Prince Charles being hurt by revelations in the upcoming biography, Finding Freedom, the Prince of Wales has not forgotten his fatherly duties and remains in regular contact with Prince Harry. The biography offers hurtful insights into Harry and Meghan's relationships with his brother and sister-in-law, his father and the Royal Family as a whole. When the revelations first emerged it was suggested that there would be no way back for Prince Harry as he had burned his bridges with his family. However, the Prince of Wales, who was said to have been hurt by some of the claims in the book, has been in regular contact with Prince Harry in the hope that the door can be kept open for a return, the Sun reports. A royal insider claims that despite being hurt by revelations in the upcoming biography Finding Freedom, Prince Charles remains in regular contact with Prince Harry A royal insider told the paper: 'Since his move to Los Angeles they have been in regular contact. Charles is not an avid user of texts but there are video and phone calls. 'The book has never been a massive talking point between them and Charles is determined that it is not an obstacle.' The insider also said that Prince Charles has provided Harry with financial support to help his relocation to California and that their father-son relationship remains strong. Charles stepped in to walk Meghan down the aisle in 2018 and is now using funds from his Duchy of Cornwall to part-fund the Sussexes' new American lifestyle. Another royal insider told the Sun that Harry used his father as a sounding board when deciding whether to move away from royal duties. The insider also said that Prince Charles has provided the Sussexes with financial support to help with their relocation to California and that his and Harry's father-son relationship remains strong The insider said: 'Charles knows what it is like to be conflicted within the royal household. Harry has always been his own man and will do what he thinks is right.' This news comes only days after the High Court ruled that the identities of five friends who form a key part of Meghan Markle's case for invasion of privacy after parts of a letter she wrote to her estranged father were published will not be made public for now. Mr Justice Warby upheld an application by Meghan's lawyers that their identities should remain secret. The five individuals were named as the sources of a People magazine article in 2019 in legal papers submitted by Meghan to the court earlier this month, although their identities were not made public. Mr Justice Warby added that the decision to keep the identity of the friends anonymous was an interim one. If any of them are called as witnesses to the trial, which is expected to take place next year, their identities could still be revealed, subject to a court decision. The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) guidelines is to address key challenges in the fishing sector. The VGGT guidelines were unanimously endorsed on May 11, 2012 by the UN Committee on World Food Security as an international instrument that can be used by many different actors to improve the governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forest. It is a voluntary and not legally binding instrument. Mr Benjamin Adjei, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Assistant Representative in charge of Programmes, said the guidelines was to serve as a reference and to provide guidance to improve the governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests. Mr Adjei speaking at the opening of a two-day media workshop, said the livelihoods of Small-Scale fishing folks would be improved with the effective implementation of these guidelines. He said guidelines have an overarching goal of achieving food security for all and to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security. The workshop is to strengthen the capacity of media organizations and journalists to improve reporting on VGGT and Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF-Guidelines) with particular application to the management and protection of fish landing and processing sites in the face of intense pressures for land-use changes along the coast. The event being organised by Friends of the Nation (FoN), a Non-Governmental Organisation in collaboration with FAO is also to prepare journalists to support advocacy for policy reforms on securing and documentation of fish landing sites to contribute to sustainable fisheries livelihoods. He said the general principles were to recognize and respect all legitimate tenure right holders and their rights. He said they should take reasonable measures to identify, record and respect legitimate tenure right holders and their rights, whether formally recorded or not; to refrain from infringement of tenure rights of others and to meet the duties associated with tenure rights. Mr Adjei said it was also to safeguard legitimate tenure rights against threats and infringements and promote and facilitate the enjoyment of legitimate tenure rights. The FAO Assistant Representative said it was to provide access to justice to deal with infringements of legitimate tenure rights and prevent tenure disputes, violent conflicts and corruption. Madam Yaa Danso, National Programme Assistant, FAO Regional Office for Africa, said with the understanding of the SSF guidelines, journalists could create awareness and explain issues better to the public. She said "it will also enable them to effectively communicate to policymakers and stakeholders." She said if journalists play their roles well, they could help stakeholders to ensure sustainability in the fishing sector. Mr Kyei Kwadwo Yamoah, Programmes Manager, FON, said as part of their capacity building, they have organised media engagement, produced video documentaries and organise national multi-stakeholder policy dialogue. He said the organisation had also organised capacity strengthening workshop for fishing communities, advocacy and sensitisation activities. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Toll rises to 19 as black box of Air India Exrpess flight is recovered Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri inspects the crash site of an Air India Express flight that crashed at the Kozhikode airport on Friday night, August 7, 2020. (PTI) Kozhikode: The black box of the ill-fated Air India Express flight that crashed at the Kozhikode airport in Kerala has been recovered even as the toll in the Friday nigh disaster rose to 18 with another passenger succumbing on Saturday. The Air India Express flight from Dubai, with 190 people on board, overshot the tabletop runway at the airport while landing in heavy rain and fell 35 feet down a slop and broke into two. Investigations into the cause of the mishap are underway with top officials of the airlines and aviation regulator DGCA rushing here. As authorities launched investigations into the crash, Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri arrived in Kozhikode to take stock of the situation and implementation of relief measures. "Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved. AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) is conducting investigations," Puri tweeted. An official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the DFDR and CVR are with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau and will be sent to Delhi for further investigation. Puri announced Rs 10 lakh interim relief for each of the deceased, Rs 2 lakh for those seriously injured and Rs 50,000 for those who suffered minor injuries. Malappuram district collector K Gopalakrishnan said one more passenger succumbed to injuries, taking the toll to 18. Barring one, all those who had perished in the accident have been identified, he told reporters. The condition of 16 passengers among 149 those admitted to various hospitals, was serious, he said. Amid the tragedy, a coroanvirus scare has surfaced with samples of one of the passengers who died in the mishap testing positive for the pathogen. Kerala health minister K K Shailaja has asked all those who took part in the rescue operation to go on self-quarantine as a precautionary measure and get themselves tested. Air India Express said four crew members of the flight were safe, while the employees union of the low-cost air carrier said they were under treatment in hospital for injuries. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said this week that he would welcome international court intervention to settle a maritime boundary dispute if his country and Turkey remain deadlocked. His comment at a security forum Wednesday was followed by a deal between Egypt and Greece on Thursday that designates an exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean. The zone contains important oil and gas reserves, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said. The moves increased the stakes in a growing regional energy war that is quickly drawing international attention, including from the United States. Ive been honest in telling the Turks and telling the global community, if we cannot agree, lets go to court, Mitsotakis said. Lets go to The Hague. The Hague is a city in the Netherlands that hosts about 200 international government organizations, including the International Court of Justice, which is the main judicial arm of the UN, the International Criminal Court and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu swiftly met the announcement with condemnation. Greece-Egypt agreement is null and void. Will continue to resolutely defend rights of Turkey and Turkish Cypriots at the table and on the ground, he wrote in s tweet. Why it matters: In November, Turkey and Libyas interim government, the Government of National Accord, signed a maritime boundary treaty. The agreement established an exclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean Sea that demarcates a 35-kilometer (18.6-nautical mile) sea boundary separating the two countries' economic zones. The move was seen on the international stage as contesting Greek and Cypriot sovereignty in the eastern Aegean and imposing on those countries gas drilling in the waters, said Nicholas Burns, an international politics professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Mitsotakis said November's deal is null and void and "clearly violates Greek sovereign rights because it recognizes no exclusive economic zone to the Greek islands." Turkey has criticized Greece for blocking it out of energy reserves in the Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean and said Turkish vessels have begun exploration missions in the waters. But the missions are more than just research and exploration, Mitsotakis countered, and include illegal drilling in the Cyprus exclusive economic zone along with attempts to weaponize migrants and refugees. Turkey and Greece hosted exploratory meetings to discuss the matter as early as 2002, until Turkey cut off the discussions in 2016. Energy reserves in the maritime boundary play a crucial role in kick-starting Greek's economy. The Greek government faced a severe debt crisis following the global financial crisis of 2007-08. In 2015, the country received a loan worth about $300 million meant to revitalize energy projects. Whats next: Following the signing of their November agreement, Turkey and Libya have seen an increased partnership, culminating in a meeting Thursday of foreign ministers from Libya, Malta and Turkey. The leaders discussed a strengthened partnership that includes the return of Maltese and Turkish companies to Libya and support in upgrading the capabilities of the Libyan Coast Guard. In their two meetings since Mitsotakis became prime minister in July, Turkey and Greece have ceded no ground on their sea boundaries dispute. "In our first meeting, I told him that honestly, let's try to do a restart in the Greek, Turkish relationship," Mitsotakis said, and later added, "Unfortunately, I didn't get the response I was expecting." Know more: Correspondent Hagar Hosny highlights a Turkish military drill in the eastern Mediterranean last month that was countered by an Egyptian and French drill amid quickly escalating tensions in the seas. Amazon India wrapped up its two-day Prime Day sale just yesterday. The e-commerce giant has now quickly announced yet another sale as a follow up, scheduled from August 8 to 11. The Freedom Sale is expected to offer deals across categories including smartphones, consumer electronics, large appliances, TVs. Notably, Flipkart had announced its Big Saving Days sale which is currently still on and will continue till August 10. Amazon has also partnered with State Bank of India (SBI) to offer customers 10% instant discount of up to Rs 1,500 on a minimum purchase of Rs 5,000. There are also no-cost EMI options on various credit cards, debit cards as well as from Bajaj Finserv & Amazon Pay Later. Here is a list of deals that you can expect during the sale, specifically in the electronics and technology departments: Smartphones & Accessories Up to 40% off on mobiles from top brands Exciting exchange offers up to INR 13,500; No cost EMI starting INR 1,665 per month Offers on recently launched Samsung M31s, OnePlus Nord and Redmi Note 9 Watch out for great deals on OnePlus, Xiaomi, Samsung, OPPO and Vivo Up to INR 4,000 off on OnePlus Up to INR 5,000 off on Xiaomi Up to 6 months No cost EMI on top selling Samsung M series smartphones Up to INR 25,000 off on flagship Samsung smartphones and additional exchange offers up to INR 4,000 Up to INR 10,000 off on Apple with unbelievable offers on iPhone 11, iPhone 8 Plus Mobile Accessories starting INR 99 Up to 70% off on Power banks, Bluetooth & Wired earphones Consumer Electronics Up to 70% off on Headphones Up to 70% off on Cameras Accessories Camera devices starting INR 2,416 per month Up to 60% off on Speakers & Home audio Personal Computers & Wearables Up to 30% off on Laptops Up to 50% off on printers Computer Accessories & Peripherals starting INR 99 Up to 40% off on Gaming Accessories Up to 50% off on Hard Drive; Up to 70% off on Pen Drives and Memory Cards Fitness Trackers starting INR 999 Up to 60% off on Smartwatches Up to 60% off on Monitors; Up to INR 40,00 off on Desktops Up to 45% off on tablets Large Appliances Air conditioners | Up to 45% off, NCEMI starting INR 1419/month Refrigerators | Up to 40%, NCEMI starting INR 849/month Washing machines | starting INR 6,399, NCEMI starting INR 769/month Microwaves | Up to 45% off, NCEMI starting INR 459/month Up to 60% off on Chimneys from top brands like Elica, Faber and Kaff Televisions Up to 60% off on Television; No Cost EMI starting from INR 799/month LED TVs starting from INR 5555 Up to 60% off on Smart TVs, starting from 7999 Up to 50% off on premium TVs from TCL and Sony Amazon Devices Flat 33% off on Echo Dot Flat INR 6500 off on Echo Plus Min. 30% off on Echo Smart Displays Up to INR 3000 off on Kindle E-readers Books, Video games & Software Up to 50% off on Fiction & Non Fiction Books Up to 50% off on Text Books, School Books & Exam preparation books Up to 65% off on e-learning courses, antivirus & office softwares Up to 50% off on Video games & accessories By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 08, 2020 | 10:54 AM | PADUCAH Two candidates for mayor of Paducah have expressed disapproval with ordinances up for final approval at Tuesday's City Commission meeting.Richard Abraham says he is against a city ordinance introduced July 28 that would extend the right of first refusal for the sale of property adjacent to a local hotel. The item is on the agenda for final approval at Tuesday's meeting.Abraham shared his opinions in a statement written on Thursday. This followed an open letter written to city leaders Wednesday by McCracken County Judge-Executive Craig Clymer that called the extension a "bad deal."Abraham said he opposes extending the agreement with the owners of the Holiday Inn Paducah Riverfront, which would give them two additional years to purchase property next door, where a health care facility once stood. The extension would also allow the hotel's owners to prevent the potential sale of the land by the city, and Abraham believes that any property that could potentially be used as another hotel development site should be under the city's control.Abraham said that Clymer's comments led him to believe, "I am not the only one thinking that this extension of the ROFR, is specifically focused on taking that old nursing home site away from the city for discussion of placement of Weyland Ventures hotel."He said a consultant hired by the city gave seven possible locations for a downtown hotel, not just the "city block" site involving Weyland Ventures, which is another ordinance being considered for final approval at Tuesday's meeting. Abraham said city leaders must listen to the concerns of their constituents about this deal, and a new hotel at any other site in that area would benefit everyone, while not altering the "city block" area, which is used for many other activities and for parking.George Bray, who is also running for mayor, said at the July 28 meeting that he is against the development agreement with Weyland Ventures, due to the uncertainty of the current pandemic and how it could affect the TIF district. He also cited unknown potential remediation costs, lack of competition by potentially interested local developers, and several other details in the deal that should be revisited.Bray said, "Let's slow down and consider that we are in the driver's seat, and this is the most valuable piece of property that we have in the city. I know Weyland is a fine development firm, and if this project is attractive they will stay interested."At the July 28 meeting, Bray and Abraham both pointed out that three-out-of-four of the commissioners that will vote on the ordinance will not be in office next year, and both men indicated there is no need to approve the deal immediately, when future city leaders will be dealing with the details during their terms.Here is Abraham's complete statement: On the Net: Climate action crusader Craig Reucassel refuses to let us put aside our escalating environmental problems while were preoccupied with surviving the pandemic. In the first of this three-part series taking the issue from households to big business and to the government, he explains in his trademark graphic way just how poorly Australia fares in the carbon-footprint-per-capita stakes. His famous Canberra doorstop stunts pack a punch. Anh chats to Dr Richard Harris in the latest artistic episode. Credit: ANHS BRUSH WITH FAME: DR RICHARD HARRIS Tuesday (August 11), 8pm, ABC Thai cave rescuer and anaesthetist Dr Richard Harris has told his incredible story many times, but in the calm space of Anh Dos studio, he appears to relax into a longer, more detailed explanation of what went down in Chiang Rai in 2018. The remarkable feat, which Harris credits to the entire team, takes up so much of the conversation there is only time for a brief backgrounder on his life prior. This is a warm and fascinating exchange. The recent admission by behemoth electric utility Commonwealth Edison that it repeatedly bribed minions of Illinois House speaker Mike Madigan for years (of course, Madigan knew nothing about all this; sure, right) was breathtaking for its brazenness. The bribery is a classic example of otherwise upright citizens fueling the culture of corruption that has tainted our state since at least the late 19th century. This is known as the Illinois Way of doing political business, that is, paying off the political gatekeepers to get your way with legislation and other needed favors. In this case, ComEd, as its referred, agreed to pay $200 million of company money to the federal government, presumably to keep the prosecutors from going after the individual company executives who perpetrated the bribery. Ironically, this is yet another payoff, to my mind. A quick look at my archives (jimnowlan.com) shows that I have written about our culture of corruption a dozen times since 2010. What do I mean by that? Not that all of us are corrupt, but that too many of us would take advantage of government if given the opportunity, say, to get a DUI fixed or grease the skids to win a state contract. And we might expect our big campaign contribution would take us to the front of the line when we need something from government. When teaching American politics to pre-law students at the University of Illinois in the early 2000s, I queried each class as to whether they would pay a bribe under the table to get a sibling out of a really tough DUI charge. Consistently, two-thirds of the students in each class said, Yes, they would do so (responding anonymously). Why, I asked? Because anybody else would do so if in their situation, and because thats the way its done in Illinois. I call this a pattern of learned behavior, or a cultural value, passed along from father to son and daughter, and around the neighborhood. Thats what ComEd consciously decided to do, in a tough situation. ComEd is a regulated utility, so it needs the OK of the legislature to get its rates upped and for many other of its objectives. Madigan, speaker of the House for almost four decades, literally owns the space in which ComEd has to operate. Madigans arrogance of dominance was so galling that ComEd even acceded to his demand that the company put one of his political fiends on their board of directors. This exchange could not have happened in Minnesota and Iowa, though it could in some other states that also are known for political corruption. I checked with knowledgeable reporter-editor friends of mine in Minnesota and Iowa, asking: How would utilities and other big businesses in your state respond if they were told they had to pay to play? I was told the companies would simply say: We wont play your game, and if you persist in your demands, were going to spill the beans to law enforcement. Yeah, but Illinois is different, ComEd execs might retort. Our company and stockholders could suffer badly if we didnt play ball, perhaps theyd say. ComEd officials could have just said, No, as in Minnesota and Iowa. The company might suffer, initially, from certain politicians who like the Illinois Way. Yet, can you imagine elected officials ultimately harming the flow of reliable electric power to their own constituents? The guilty ComEd company execs who have escaped prosecution are, Im sure, church-going paragons of virtue and success in their leafy suburbs. Yet they and others of us who would pay to play are as much a part of the culture of corruption as the elected officials who want to feather their political nests with ill-gotten bribes. The Illinois culture of corruption wont fade away until we all Just Say No. That would then become a new learned behavior, passed along to future generations. Jim Nowlan is the lead co-author, with J. Thomas Johnson, of Fixing Illinois: Politics and Policy in the Prairie State (University of Illinois Press, 2014). Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal PHOENIX Large portions of New Mexico and much of neighboring Arizona face severe or extreme drought conditions. The latest weekly Drought Monitor map released Thursday shows areas of extreme drought in northern New Mexico near the Colorado border and in New Mexicos southeastern corner while areas of severe drought are seen in other parts of those regions of the state as well as much of southern and south-central Arizona. The Drought Monitor said the West has seen temperatures well above normal in the past week and that much of the region has been dry with only spotty precipitation in places, though the monsoon provided some relief to eastern New Mexico. The Drought Monitor map is produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. New Mexicos water supply has suffered this year from underwhelming spring runoff and a hot, dry summer. Agencies have pursued emergency supplies to meet demand for farmers, municipalities and wildlife along the Rio Grande. But with those actions come consequences for future water obligations, water managers told New Mexico state lawmakers Thursday during a meeting of the Water and Natural Resources Committee. Conditions are dire in northern New Mexico. Water supply has been cut off for some Rio Chama acequias with water rights dating back to the 1600s. Water shortages have always been here, but have been recently complicated in the last decade by climate change and federal storage operations, said Tim Seaman, president of the Rio de Chama Acequia Association. In mid-July, New Mexico received permission from Colorado and Texas for an emergency release of 12 billion gallons of stored water from El Vado Reservoir. State engineer and New Mexico Rio Grande Compact Commissioner John DAntonio said the Albuquerque stretch of the river would have dried up by now without that water. But usually that stored water is delivered to Elephant Butte Reservoir after the irrigation season as part of New Mexicos obligation to downstream users under the Rio Grande Compact. The emergency use means New Mexicos water debt could grow to as much as 100,000 acre-feet in 2021. The benefits that the middle valley received through this effort far outweigh that debit scenario that were going to have to face next year, DAntonio said. Hopefully, well get a healthy monsoon and snowpack. Southern New Mexico farmers are sympathetic to the water woes of upstream farmers, said Gary Esslinger, treasurer and manager for the Elephant Butte Irrigation District. But the EBID board was against the emergency water release, citing concerns of digging a deeper hole for southern New Mexico water managers next year. Were already in a dire condition at Elephant Butte, Esslinger said. Were certainly concerned that were not going to get any water down here. One way or another, the rivers drying up. Its just a tough time right now. Storage in Elephant Butte Reservoir is currently at about 8.5% of capacity. But EBID estimates the reservoir could be at 50,000 acre-feet, a mere 2.5% of capacity, by Sept. 30. More than half of the state is experiencing severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Meteorologists have said a La Nina weather pattern is possible this winter, which could mean a drier winter for New Mexico. Theresa Davis is a Report for America corps member covering water and the environment for the Albuquerque Journal. 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 Azerbaijan to ban foreigners from visiting Nagorno-Karabakh occupied part European Parliament new speaker elected Armenian National Interests Fund participates in Abu Dhabi Sustainable Development Week summit North Korea fires missiles for fourth time this year ECHR recognizes violation of Armenian PM's rights after 2008 elections Turkey reveals plans to produce combat aircraft Karabakh official: Azerbaijan presidents impudent behavior is due to OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs silence Azerbaijan special services force Artsakh resident to intelligence work Copper price is stable Minister of State: OSCE MG Co-Chairs must accept exercise of Karabakh people's right to self-determination Armenia President, UAE Minister of State discuss possibilities of cooperation in science and technology Investigation into criminal case of several Armenia soldiers returned from Azerbaijan captivity is over Canada sends detachment of special forces to Ukraine Armenia ex-President Kocharyan, former deputy PM now MP Gevorgyan case trial resumes 2 more persons die of coronavirus in Artsakh Armenia family has 10th child Converse Bank brings Apple Pay to customers Gold is getting weaker Lacote: French institute to operate in Armenia (PHOTOS) Ardshinbank Brings Apple Pay to Customers Armenia President in UAE, meets with Emirati environment minister Armenia legislature approves changes to several laws Differences in data on coronavirus deaths in Armenia are corrected 360 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Norway to begin Breivik early release hearing Economy minister to head Armenia side of commission on economic cooperation with Kazakhstan Mexico crime photojournalist killed Newspaper: Criminal case against Armenia archbishop dropped Newspaper: Opposition Armenia Bloc in parliament to toughen its tactics Scientists discover large breeding colony of icefish in southern Antarctica China creates low-gravity artificial moon Tehran welcomes normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations Russian and Iranian Foreign Ministers discuss regional issues UN Secretary-General: Vaccinate whole world to end pandemic Giant asteroid to fly past our planet Armenian President meets with Executive Director of Mubadala Investment Company UAE counting on Turkey Indonesia to move capital by 2024 Passenger traffic at Armenian airports decreased by 30% Armenian Investigative Committee: Six soldiers captured in November arrested Turkish government to discuss Rubinyan-Kilic meeting results German FM threatens Russia in case of aggression against Ukraine Armenian MFA senior staff meets with ambassadors to European countries Turkish court acquits German journalist Mesale Tolu Turkish UAV intercepted over Greek island Protest in front of Armenian Health Ministry France introduces vaccine passes Bitcoin begins to lose out competitors Exchange rates in Armenia Safari browser caught leaking user data Xi Jinping: Confrontation between major powers can have disastrous consequences Lukashevich: Russia concerned that OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs may not be able to visit Nagorno-Karabakh Court obligates Armenia ruling force MP to prove ex-President Sargsyan lost more than $100M in casinos Ex-ruling party official: Armenia authorities may renounce Genocide, Karabakh Armenian PM's party decides to provide free textbooks to non-state schools Times: Johnson prepares cadre purge to save his own skin Pecresse accuses French government of inaction after Aliyev's statements on her Karabakh visit Armenia President attends Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week forum opening Armenia legislature ruling majority member: It is possible for us to have neighborly relations with Azerbaijan President approves Artsakh government decisions on provision of financial assistance Armenia parliament opposition faction leader on canceling US visit: We must fulfill our international duties Fire in Abu Dhabi kills three people ANIF Anti-Crisis Fund to invest in Armenia cargo transportation Azerbaijan to soon open bus routes to Artsakhs occupied Shushi Attention readers: Were launching a books newsletter Saturday, and itll include a calendar section like the one below. Sign up now to receive the free weekly Bookmarks newsletter, which will provide updates about Oregon books and authors. Many of the updates will appear first -- or only -- in the newsletter. Now, on to the appearances scheduled for the coming week. All these events are free but require registration. > Hilary Moore and James Tracy discuss their nonfiction book No Fascist USA!: The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Todays Movements, with historian-organizer Mark Bray. 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9, via Powells Books. Register here. > David Sheff discusses his biography of Jarvis Jay Masters, "The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place," with Masters and author Rebecca Solnit. 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 10, via Powell's Books. Register here. > James Preller presents his picture book about the first day of school, "All Welcome Here." 11 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11, via Green Bean Books. Join here. > Andrew Proctor, executive director of the Portland nonprofit Literary Arts, holds a virtual town hall following the nonprofit's recent announcement that it is moving the Portland Book Festival and the rest of its 2020 programming online. 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11. Register here. > Casper ter Kuile discusses his book "The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices" with pastor and author Nadia Bolz-Weber. 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11, via Powell's Books. Register here. > Shruti Swamy discusses her short story collection "A House is a Body" with author Kiese Laymon. 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, via Powell's Books. Register here. > Jill McCorkle discusses her novel "Hieroglyphics," about the difficulty of truly knowing your parents, with author Jayne Anne Phillips. 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13, via Powell's Books. Register here. > Kate Elliott discusses her science fiction coming-of-age adventure, Unconquerable Sun, with the writing duo known as Kit Rocha, via Powells Books. Register here. awang@oregonian.com; Twitter: @ORAmyW Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2020) Roscosmos, the Russian state space agency, does not intend to participate in the United States' new Artemis lunar exploration program and the proposed Lunar Gateway space station, the head of the agency Dmitry Rogozin told Sputnik in an interview. "The US Artemis project for landing on the moon and the creation of the Lunar Gateway space station are clearly American programs, which place other participants on the sidelines. This is very strange. It is reminiscent of NATO, where US troops in Europe feed at the cost of European countries. This is not at all like the international cooperation seen in the International Space Station. At the moment, the Artemis and Gateway programs are not at all international, which of course, we cannot accept," Rogozin said. During the same interview, Rogozin told Sputnik that Russia and China will start talks this coming fall to discuss the potential concept and goals of a joint lunar base. US President Donald Trump has publicly backed attempts to resume manned flights to the Moon by 2024. The US space agency NASA subsequently announced the launch of the Artemis program, which will also help explore the potential of manned flights to Mars. NASA has also announced plans to build the Lunar Gateway space station, which will orbit close to the Moon. Initially, foreign partners were invited to participate in the project, and Roscosmos and NASA even signed an agreement to work on a proposed near-Moon station in 2017, although these joint plans have yet to develop. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been rushing to strike a deal on the next stimulus package. For those who will meet eligibility requirements, there will be up to a $1,200 stimulus check to head your way once the pending proposals are approved. However, officials who hold the decision to release the next stimulus checks have been split along partisan lines about how the program could affect the economy. The Hill reported that the negotiators met for three hours on Thursday night, but there were no results yet. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said, "We're very far apart. It's most unfortunate." She also added that the current proposal is "not enough money for money in the pockets of the American people." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters if lawmakers cannot conclude and compromise on significant issues by Friday, President Donald Trump is looking at issuing executive orders as an alternative. Mnuchin also echoed Pelosi in describing the camps as divided on substantial matters. The next stimulus rescue package will include another direct payment and a range of financial aid that will benefit hundreds of millions of Americans before the end of 2020. So far, here are the proposed benefits that the qualifiers may get if Congress makes a deal in the final relief bill: Aims to accelerate spending Qualified individuals and families will receive a stimulus payment based on annual income, dependents, age, and other factors. The first stimulus checks under the CARES Act had problems. And after three months, the recipients are still waiting for their payment. The next stimulus payment is not taxable, and you can use it wherever you need it to spend, such as house expenses, clothing, food, and so on. The House of Representatives' Heroes Act called for $1,200 stimulus checks for more people this time. Meanwhile, the White House supports another round of stimulus and likely a part of the final bill. More unemployment benefits The first stimulus also included additional weekly checks for people who applied for unemployment. The program was granted by the CARES Act, providing an extra $600 per week that expired on July 31. But officials are seeking another unemployment boost. Democrats supported the extension of the $600 rate and balked at the Senate proposal, which would extend the benefit based on the 70 to 75 percent of the total lost wages. On the other hand, Republicans support the idea to continue but at a reduced rate. According to the NY Times, after the political stalemate, the GOP negotiators reportedly signaled their willingness to consider the $600 weekly allowance. Employee retention tax credit An employer can receive refundable tax credits under the program. The employer can refund the wages paid to an employee during the pandemic. However, the program isn't a direct payment to the employer. Instead, the employer encourages to keep workers on the payroll through the program. Return-to-work payment of as much as $450 per week Senator Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, proposed the bonus of as much as $450 a week. The next stimulus program attempts to provide temporary weekly bonuses for unemployed workers to secure a new job or rehire on top of their wages. In May, the White House expressed interest in the proposal, and Portman continued the idea. However, Portman's proposal is not part of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other Republican senators' proposals presented last week. Payroll Protection Program This program is intended to retain your job. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) provides forgivable loans to small businesses to keep employees on the payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic. The PPP got off to a rocky start as it did not meet the goals set for it by Congress. Senator Susan Collins of Maine said the Republican proposal would target the hardest-hit, the small businesses. Payroll tax cut Trump pushed the idea of including temporary payroll tax cuts for months. This proposal is to give a person more money in the bank this year. The next stimulus package proposal may include cutting both employee and employer's share of payroll taxes. Rental assistance The rental assistance would help the renters pay rent and assist landlords with their expenses despite less rent money coming in. The program would help qualified renter pay rent temporarily. They would also be safe from evictions for a year and help cover rental property owners' costs. The House Democrats included the eviction moratorium in the HEROES Act. However, Trump earlier said the eviction protections would be part of the program. Congress is looking to extend the separate program while it works on the final bill with unemployment insurance. Check these out: $1,200 US Stimulus Mistakenly Send to Foreign Workers Living Overseas Will You Receive Your Next Stimulus Payment Sooner Than You Think? Trump Weighs Signing Executive Order on Next Stimulus If Congress Fails to Act by Friday Moody's Investors Service headquarters in New York. / Yonhap By Park Jae-hyuk Moody's Investors Service has drawn sharp criticism here for "flip-flopping" on its outlook for Korean securities firms, according to industry officials, Friday. They said the global credit rating agency's "indiscreet" action could have caused turmoil in the domestic financial market and unnerved investors worldwide. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moody's put the ratings of seven Korean brokerage houses under review for a downgrade in April. The seven firms were KB Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, Mirae Asset Daewoo, NH Investment & Securities, Samsung Securities, Shinhan Investment and IBK Securities. Three months later, the agency restored its credit outlook for five among the seven, without downgrading their ratings. Mirae Asset Daewoo and Korea Investment & Securities were the two companies whose credit outlooks were changed to negative. Moody's attributed the latest confirmation of the ratings to its expectation of slower risk-asset growth as a result of various prudential regulatory measures recently implemented or under discussion by the Financial Supervisory Service. It also cited the securities firms' varying degrees of measures implemented to increase long-term funding to strengthen their liquidity and funding profiles and its expectation of profit recovery in the coming quarters driven by buoyant brokerage activities and mark-to-market valuation gains on bond portfolios following weak earnings in the first quarter. NICE Investors Service director of financial industry analysis Lee Hyuk-joon, however, urged Moody's to be more cautious about its action, saying it should have focused more on medium- to long-term changes in the market than on each company's temporary business performance when taking rating action amid the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. "Credit ratings cannot go up and down as easily as stock prices do," he said in a recent column. "Under this financial crisis-like situation, hasty rating actions could cause additional gigantic risks to the Korean financial market." He warned that frequent rating action could contract business sentiment, lowering ratings of companies further. He noted this could also make credit ratings less useful. In contrast to Moody's, S&P Global Ratings did not place the ratings of the seven securities firms under review for a downgrade, although the agency also thought COVID-19 would have a negative impact on the industry. It just adjusted the credit outlook for Mirae Asset Daewoo to negative from stable. Lee called for foreign and domestic credit ratings agencies to be more mature, given that they have witnessed significant changes in the business environment this year. The Korea Times asked Moody's its opinion of Lee's column, but it did not respond. Market analysts agreed that credit ratings agencies should be more careful when taking rating action, particularly on financial firms, because it could be regarded as a sign of risk to the entire system. "The 2008 global financial crisis started as Fitch made a downward adjustment on its outlook for banks in July," Kiwoom Securities analyst Seo Young-soo said. "The crisis worsened as S&P and Moody's followed Fitch's adjustment in October." Canada to levy huge tariffs against U.S. re-imposing duty on Canadian aluminum Canada is to levy 3.6 billion Canadian dollars (about 2.7 billion U.S. dollars) on U.S. products as countermeasures against U.S. President Donald Trump re-imposing a 10-percent tariff on Canadian aluminum, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Friday. Freeland told a news conference that the countermeasure tariffs will take effect in 30 days after the Canadian government consults Canadians on precisely which U.S. products to target. "Canada will respond swiftly and strongly." On Thursday afternoon, Trump announced his decision to impose the new tariff on Canadian raw aluminum from Canada as of Aug. 16, citing national security concerns as the basis for slapping Canada with the tariff. Freeland said that Canadian aluminum is a threat to American national security "is a ludicrous notion." She said the United States chose to spark a new trade conflict by slapping tariffs on Canadian aluminum. "It will only hurt an economic recovery on both sides of the border." Freeland added that the Trump government is "the most protectionist administration in U.S. history." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed Thursday night to take countermeasures after Trump announced his decision to re-impose tariff on Canadian aluminum imports. "We will always stand up for our aluminum workers. We did so in 2018 and we will stand up for them again now." Trump had imposed a 10-percent tariff on Canadian aluminum in March 2018, and then Canada retaliated with billions of dollars in tariffs on U.S. products. The United States later removed it for the renewed North American free trade agreement. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Sat, August 8, 2020 15:00 528 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c7ec80 2 Environment Brazil,deforestation,environment,Amazon,forest Free Brazil on Friday hailed figures showing a reduction in July of deforestation that has spooked international investors, though environmentalists warned it was too early to proclaim success. Official data showed a swath of Brazil's Amazon rainforest about the size of London -- more than 1,600 square kilometers -- was cleared in July, down from the 2,250 km2 lost in July 2019. That shows government efforts have achieved an "inversion of the trend", said Vice President Hamilton Mourao, who heads Brazil's National Amazon Council. An analysis of longer-term figures for the world's largest rainforest is more worrying, however. The 4,730 km2 of deforestation in the Amazon from January 1 to July 31 was slightly above the 4,700 km2 from the same period in 2019, the country's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said. The difference is much greater when examining 12-month figures: The 9,200 km2 lost from August 2019 to July 2020 was sharply higher than the 6,800 km2 cleared in the previous 12 months. The administration of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is under pressure to stop Amazon deforestation and forest fires, after international investment funds that collectively administer close to $4 trillion in assets wrote an open letter to the leader in June, urging the end of projects that accelerate the area's destruction. Bolsonaro's policies have opened up protected and indigenous areas to mining and farming, but the investors' call has been taken seriously by a government that needs capital to reignite an economy ravaged by the coronavirus. Mourao last month committed to cutting deforestation and forest fires "to an acceptable minimum." Environmentalists, however, were not optimistic about the latest numbers. "We cannot celebrate that we haven't surpassed the 2019 record. That's positive, but it's important to understand that 1,600 km2 is a lot," Ane Alencar, science director at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, told AFP. "The fires usually start in June, accelerate in August and peak in September." The NGO Climate Observatory blamed policies under Bolsonaro, a climate change skeptic. "This isn't ineptitude, it's planned," the group said. Read also: Brazilian Amazon fires surge in July Fires on the rise Alencar warned that clearing so much land will inevitably lead to another alarming season of forest fires. Last year, the number of fires in the Amazon put Bolsonaro's government at loggerheads with the international community, which demanded enhanced protection for the rainforest. Satellite data show the number of forest fires in the Amazon were up last month by 28 percent on July last year. "Whoever cuts down trees wants to get a return on their investment, and so they burn the cut-down vegetation to clear the land... so stopping fires is the exact way to start in controlling deforestation," Alencar said. Topics : Brazil deforestation environment Amazon forest Finding the perfect gift for your significant other can be tough for anyone, but celebrities are in a particularly tricky position. For one thing, their partners are often accustomed to the most luxurious of lifestyles, so its going to take something unique and thoughtful to impress them. On top of that, there are plenty of examples among famous peers of over-the-top and extremely expensive gifts, which can lead to a bit of competition. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are both extremely successful actors with significant net worths of their own, so back when the pair was still a couple, they had to come up with creative ways to express their love. Jolie found some truly unusual gifts for her ex-husband, including a waterfall! Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had an unconventional relationship Angelina Jolie | Christopher Polk/Getty Images for The Critics Choice Awards Jolie and Pitt first met while co-starring as married assassins who didnt know about each others double life. In 2004 the sparks were flying on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and the resulting headlines were scandalous. Brad Pitt was married to beloved actor Jennifer Aniston at the time. The pair had long been a fan favorite, and their story of being set up by their agents back in 1998 was the stuff of a Hollywood rom-com. The public was scandalized by what they saw as a home-wrecking affair. While Pitt and Jolie both denied anything happened between them until after Pitt and Aniston had officially begun divorce proceedings, the pair became a very public couple quickly. In fact, Jolie took to the press to gush about falling in love on the set of the film: We just became kind of a pair. And it took until, really, the end of the shoot for us, I think, to realize that it might mean something more than wed earlier allowed ourselves to believe. Aniston found these comments hurtful and inappropriate, and the public largely agreed, chastising both Pitt and Jolie. The pair weathered forward, though. They created a large, multicultural family through adoptions that spanned the globe, and the jet-setting family started to grow on the public. By the time the couple finally wed in 2014, Brangelina had become a normal part of the pop culture world, and the past scandal had largely faded in memory. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitts divorce was scandalous "I see myself as mom first. I'm so lucky to have that role in life. The world can like me, hate me or fall apart around me and at least I wake up with my kids and I'm happy." -Angelina Jolie Happy Mother's Day! pic.twitter.com/GtVSuOyImW . (@jolievibe) May 9, 2020 Just as the start of their relationship had drawn so much attention and gossip, the end was a scandal as well. After several years and several children together, Jolie and Pitt finally married in 2014, but they would begin divorce proceedings just two years later in 2016. The divorce came after a heated exchange on a private plane where Pitt, allegedly intoxicated, got into an altercation of some kind with his son Maddox, who was 15 at the time. Pitt was investigated for and cleared of child abuse charges. The next few years were rocky, but the pair eventually came to amicable custody terms and now seem to be co-parenting peacefully. Pitt has also been open about his attempts to make better choices regarding alcohol and his own mental health. The marriage involved some extreme gifts Angelina Jolie Advocating for a Reconciliation Between Brad Pitt and Kids https://t.co/TaQTQnhrHY Ace News (@AlifTvNews1) August 5, 2020 The whirlwind marriage may have come to an end, but fans still remember the intensity and boldness of one of Hollywoods most famous couples. Jolie, in particular, was fond of gifting her husband lavish and unique presents as tokens of her love. She once gifted him a $1.6 million helicopter just because. In another instance, Jolie presented Pitt with a 200-year-old olive tree. Among these impressive and unusual gifts was something Jolie definitely couldnt wrap up and hand over to Pitt. She gifted him with an actual waterfall. According to Shape, Pitt was taken with a visit to Frank Lloyd Wrights Fallingwater, and that inspired her to purchase a waterfall in California and present it to Pitt. Borussia Dortmund will reportedly offer Jadon Sancho a new contract with a sizeable salary increase if Manchester United don't match their 108million asking price by Monday. The two clubs are at an impasse of a transfer fee for the England star with United believing Dortmund's asking price is too high given the current economic climate. And German newspaper Bild report that Dortmund will try and tempt Sancho to stay at the Westfalenstadion with an enhanced deal on the 190,000-a-week he currently earns. Borussia Dortmund 'will offer Jadon Sancho a new contract with a pay increase' if Manchester United don't meet their asking price of 108m by their deadline of Monday Sancho was top of manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's list of transfer targets for next season Sancho (left) pictured in training this week as Dortmund build up to the new German season Bild report that Sancho's annual salary will be increased from 6 million euros (5.4m) to 10 million euros (9m), his third contract improvement since joining Dortmund in 2017. His present deals run until June 30, 2022. However, that wage packet is still considerably less than Sancho would be offered at Old Trafford, which reportedly would around the 340,000-a-week mark. Dortmund have used this tactic before to keep hold of important players for a little longer, including striker Robert Lewandowski, who was wanted by Bayern Munich in 2013 but moved in 2014. The same happened with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before he joined Arsenal. United's deal for Sancho, 20, looked to be close to fruition early last week but the asking price continues to prove a stumbling block. Dortmund are digging in their heels over Sancho's transfer fee, demanding 108m for him Sancho in 2019-20 In all competitions Matches 44 Minutes 3,274 Goals 20 (17 Bundesliga, 2 Champions League, 1 German SuperCup) Assists 20 (17 Bundesliga, 2 Champions League, 1 German SuperCup) Advertisement Dortmund are determined to get 108m for one of their star assets, especially off the back of an excellent season that saw Sancho score 20 goals and contribute 20 assists in all competitions. But United feel the price is too high given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their finances and threatened to walk away from negotiations. Dortmund have set Monday as a deadline for United to commit to paying their asking price because they don't want a transfer saga to disrupt pre-season preparations. The squad head to the Swiss resort of Bad Ragaz for a training camp on Monday as they count down to the new Bundesliga season. Dortmund have a number of pre-season friendlies lined up before they host Borussia Monchengladbach on the opening weekend of the new Bundesliga season on September 18-21. They face Rheindorf Altach in Austria on Wednesday before playing Austria Vienna on August 16 as part of their training stay in the country. Further matches against Duisburg on August 22 and Paderborn on August 28 have also been arranged. Sancho is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's No 1 summer transfer target and a statement signing after United qualified for next season's Champions League following a third-place finish in the Premier League. But with Dortmund refusing to budge on their valuation, the Premier League club have a list of alternative targets believed to include Bayern Munich's Kingsley Coman. The glamorous French Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez is requiring face masks outdoors starting Saturday, threatening to sober the mood in a place renowned for high-end, free-wheeling summer beach parties. More cities and towns, especially in tourist areas, are imposing mask requirements as Frances coronavirus infections creep up again, with more than 2,000 new cases reported on Friday the biggest single-day rise since May. The uptick corresponds with Frances summer holidays, when vacationers head off in droves, often to seashores, for festive gatherings with family and friends. As of Saturday, wearing a mask outdoors is also compulsory in some crowded parts of Marseille, Frances second-largest city. Paris is expected to announce similar measures in the coming days. Municipal police give facemasks to pedestrians in Saint-Tropez, southern France, Saturday Aug 8, 2020. (AP) In Saint-Tropezs famed resort, a top spot for the international jet set, several restaurants had to close for two weeks after some staff tested positive for the virus. The area where mask-wearing is mandatory includes the picturesque port, the open-air farmers market and the narrow streets of the old town lined with chic shops and art galleries. A 135-euro ($159) fine applies to those who dont comply. The measure does not apply to children under 11. France has already made mask-wearing mandatory in all indoor public spaces nationwide. Health authorities on Friday reported 9,330 new cases this week and said the virus is increasingly spreading especially among young adults. More than 593,600 tests were carried out during the week. France has reported a total of more than 30,300 deaths from COVID-19 in hospitals and nursing homes. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter There are almost true crime docos every week on streaming services now. Some channels even specialise in the genre. 6 part HBO whodunnit Ill Be Gone in the Dark screens on FOX Showcase and Binge from tomorrow, a week ahead of the Golden State Killer case set to returning to the US courts (avoid spoilers?). To stand out from the pack, true crimes need a unique hook (or a Tiger King) and the angle here is crime writer Michelle McNamara, wife of actor (and doco producer) Patton Oswalt. McNamara was addicted to crime solving, through her blog True Crime Diary, magazine articles and books. She was obsessed with uncovering the East Area Rapist aka Golden State Killer -a predator who committed at least 13 murders, and more than 50 rapes in California between 1973 and 1986. But it was a case that terrified Sacramento and bamboozled US police, with McNamara determined to piece together the clues, often drawing upon online communities and like-minded amateur sleuths. Everyone has their cause. This is what I was born to do. Im like a rat in a maze given a task, she admitted. I had a murder habit and it was bad. I would feed it for the rest of my life. Yet as the press release tells us, this is also about McNamaras relentless determination for justice which helped keep the case alive and who tragically died of an accidental overdose while writing her book. But director Liz Garbus, amongst others, draws upon considerable footage of McNamara that helps us see her piece this jigsaw together. There are interviews with former police who detail their frustration in tracking down this man who terrorised women in their homes, and sometimes tying up their husbands while he raped their wives. Theres even a sense of how rape was considered less of a crime in the 70s where women supposedly enticed men through their fashion or behaviour absolute time warp stuff. Others who remember McNamara -friends, editors and Patton himself- also help paint a picture of a most-determined crusader. Yet the interviews with former victims of the E.A.R. are amongst the most chilling stuff. I have no idea how these survivors can bring themselves to detail such horrific incidents for the camera, and at times I felt like it bordered on true crime porn. More power to them, for showing incredible courage. Its clear from her writing that McNamara was a gifted storyteller, painting images that were gruesome but compelling for those driven by mystery and a search for justice. Ill Be Gone in the Dark is definitely a down-the-rabbit-hole experience where you too become more and more addicted to solving it with her. 8:30pm Sunday on FOX Showcase and all episodes available on Binge. One of the symptoms of the Covid-19 can be frequent hiccups, American physicians reported in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Doctors came to this conclusion after examining a 62-year-old patient from Chicago who did not have the typical symptoms of Covid-19, in particular cough, fever or chest pain. At the same time, the man suffered from hiccups for four days. However, he tested positive for coronavirus and dark fields were detected in his lungs. He also suffered concomitant chronic diseases. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday praised the 'fast-response' of the local people and officials in being the first to reach the aircraft crash site here to rescue passengers, braving inclement weather and COVID-19 fears, "which made all the difference." The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the tabletop runway at the airport here while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions on Friday night, killing 18 people and injuring many others. Vijayan, who is at Kozhikode to visit the injured, said in a tweet that the fast response of the local people and the officials made all the difference. "Yesterday, the fast response of local people and officials made all the difference. They braved bad weather and COVID fears to rescue their fellow beings. The long queues of people who wanted to donate blood was just one example," Vijayan said. Twitter and other social media platforms were flooded with images and videos of locals rushing to rescue the victims, arranging vehicles to transport the injured to hospitals and queueing up to donate blood even late at night. "We have seen this many timeswhen there is adversity, the people of Kerala come together to fight it. Humanity, the greater goodness that binds us all, is the bedrock of our society. Let's take a moment to congratulate the people of Malappuram and Kozhikode," Vijayan said. The Malappuram district collector K Gopalakrishnan had said on Friday that 110 passengers were admitted to various hospitals in Kozhikode and the others, to hospitals in Malappuram. The flight carried 190 passengers, including 174 adults, 10 infants and six crew members. - Tosin Arogundade has joined other Nigerian inventors that are proffering solutions to some of the problems the country is facing - The young man, alongside one other person, invented the pressing iron that uses gas - According to Tosin, he and his partner spent three years working on their invention A young Nigerian man identified as Tosin Arogundade has invented the pressing iron that uses gas. Tosin said he together with other person had been working on the project for three years, adding that their invention was up to standard. READ ALSO: Rwandans forced to attend all-night lectures as punishment for not wearing mask, violating curfew Tosin Arogundade and his invention. Photo: Tosin Arogundade. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Taita Taveta: 2 women build ICU bed with distance sensor to encourage social distancing The young man joined other Nigerians who had demonstrated that the country had a lot of creative minds that will go places if given the opportunity to showcase their creativity. Tosin said they need help for their invention to be mass-produced for use. The young man's invention is timely in a country where electricity is one of the major problems facing the populace. READ ALSO: Untapped brains: Homa Bay youths who trained in agricultural technology in Israel decry lack of employment A lot of Nigerians are reported to have come up with inventions that could be improved for the good of the country. However, many of them have not been given the necessary attention by appropriate agencies. Before Tosin's invention can be approved for mass-production, it has to be approved by relevant agencies, which will assure Nigerians that it is safe to make use of it. READ ALSO: Her influence is eternal: Moi Girls high school alumnis moving tribute to fallen principal Hellen Cheramboss In other news, Emeka Nelson, a Nigerian from the eastern part of the country, remains celebrated in his own right for being able to create a machine that converts wastes to petrol. The machine does other things and there is hope that Emeka's innovation will help Nigeria's struggling economy. The young man shared a post on Facebook with a list of the things the machine could do with alongside photos of the invention. READ ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook founder becomes centibillionaire as fortune surpasses KSh 10T On the post, the young Nigerian man said that the machine transforms hydrocarbon-related wastes like plastic, nylon and so on. He further revealed that the machine would be able to transform this type of waste into kerosene, diesel, tiles, interlocking stones, bricks and roofing sheets. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly Source: TUKO.co.ke The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius declared a state of environmental emergency on late Friday (August 7, 2020) after a Japanese-owned ship that ran aground offshore days ago began spilling tons of fuel. Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth announced the development as satellite images showed a dark slick spreading in the turquoise waters near environmental areas that the government called 'very sensitive'. Mauritius said the ship was carrying nearly 4,000 tons of fuel and cracks have appeared in its hull. PM Jugnauth said that his government was appealing to France for help, saying the spill 'represents a danger' for the country of some 1.3 million people that relies heavily on tourism and has been hit hard by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. "Our country doesn't have the skills and expertise to refloat stranded ships, so I have appealed for help from France," he said. Le naufrage du #Wakashio represente un danger pour l'ile Maurice. Notre pays na pas les competences et lexpertise pour le renflouage des navires echoues, cest ainsi que jai sollicite laide de la #France a @EmmanuelMacron. pic.twitter.com/30m2pQzEy4 Pravind Jugnauth (@PKJugnauth) August 7, 2020 "Bad weather has made it impossible to act, and I worry about what could happen on Sunday when the weather deteriorates." Jugnauth shared a photo of the vessel, the MV Wakashio, tilted precariously. Letat d'urgence environnementale a ete decrete. A state of environmental emergency has been declared. https://t.co/QH60CbC9y1 Pravind Jugnauth (@PKJugnauth) August 7, 2020 Sea rough beyond the reefs with swells. Ventures in the open seas are not advised, according to the Mauritius Meteorological Services. Video posted online showed oily waters lapping at the shore as people murmured and peered at the ship in the distance. Online ship trackers showed the Panama-flagged bulk carrier had been en route from China to Brazil. The French island of Reunion is the closest neighbor to Mauritius, and France's Foreign Ministry says France is Mauritius's 'leading foreign investor' and one of its largest trading partners. "We are in a situation of environmental crisis," the environment minister of Mauritius, Kavy Ramano, said, calling the Blue Bay Marine Park and other areas near the leaking ship 'very sensitive'. "We are in a situation of environmental crisis". Kavy Ramano, Minister of the Environment of #Mauritius pic.twitter.com/xp03LbHrGL Ministry of Environment (@Environment_MU) August 7, 2020 After the cracks in the hull were detected, a salvage team that had been working on the ship was evacuated, Ramano told reporters Thursday. Some 400 sea booms have been deployed in an effort to contain the spill. Government statements this week said the ship ran aground on July 25 and the National Coast Guard received no distress call. The ship's owners were listed as the Japanese companies Okiyo Maritime Corporation and Nagashiki Shipping Co Ltd. A police inquiry has been opened into issues such as possible negligence, a government statement said. Tons of diesel and oil are now leaking into the water, as per an environmental group Greenpeace Africa's climate and energy manager Happy Khambule. "Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe d'Esny and Mahebourg are at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius' economy, food security and health," Khambule stated. A government environmental outlook released nearly a decade ago said Mauritius had a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan but the equipment on hand was 'adequate to deal with oil spills of less than 10 metric tonnes'. In case of major spills, it said, assistance could be obtained from other Indian Ocean countries or from international oil spill response organizations. NEW DELHI: India and China hold Major General-level talks at Daulat Beg Oldi area on Saturday (August 8) to discuss disengagement at the Depsang plains where mobilisation from both sides has escalated tensions. The talks, aimed at discussing disengagement by Chinese side at the LAC, began at 11 am today, said Army sources. This is the sixth round of military-level talks, held in an effort to expedite the disengagement process between the two nuclear-power nations. The last Corps commander-level talks between India and China was held on August 2. On August 7, Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora visited a number of airbases along the LAC in eastern Ladakh and took stock of the IAF's operational preparedness to deal with any eventualities in the region, officials said. They said Air Marshal Singh visited the strategically crucial air base in Daulat Beg Oldie, known as one of the world's highest airstrip where the IAF has deployed a number of its key platforms in view of the tense border row with China. The airbase is situated at an altitude of 16,600 feet. In his interaction with senior air warriors, the IAF Vice Chief asked them ensure a high state of combat readiness at all times, an IAF spokesperson said. During the visit, Air Marshal Singh also flew Chinook chopper and a light combat helicopter, they said. The IAF Vice Chief also held talks with Lt Gen Harinder Singh, the commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps of the Indian Army. Lt Gen Singh has held five rounds of high-level military talks with Chinese army's Major General Liu Lin, the commander of the South Xinjiang military region, in an attempt to resolve the border row. In the last two months, the IAF deployed almost all its frontline fighter jets like Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar and Mirage 2000 aircraft in the key frontier air bases in eastern Ladakh and elsewhere along the LAC. The IAF has been carrying out night time combat air patrols over the eastern Ladakh region in an apparent message to China that it was ready to deal with any eventualities in the mountainous region. The IAF has also deployed Apache attack choppers as well as Chinook heavy-lift helicopters to transport troops to various forward locations in eastern Ladakh. In the August 2 meeting, the Indian side had insisted on complete disengagement of Chinese troops at the earliest, and immediate restoration of status quo ante in all areas of eastern Ladakh prior to May 5 when the standoff began following a clash between the two armies in Pangong Tso. The Chinese military has pulled back from Galwan Valley and certain other friction points but the withdrawal of troops has not moved forward from the Finger areas in Pangong Tso since mid-July, according to sources. India has been insisting that China must withdraw its forces from areas between Finger Four and Eight. The mountain spurs in the area are referred to as Fingers. Alhaji Nasiru Mohammed, National Communications Officer of the NDC Zongo Caucus, has questioned the audacity of the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye to talk about sacrificing for Ghana. The Speaker, on Tuesday, urged Ghanaians to learn lessons from the sacrifices of the countrys founding fathers who laid down their lives for the independence of Ghana. But according to Alhaji Nasiru, Prof. Mike Oquaye himself has some questions to answer to Ghanaians when it comes to sacrifice. Speaking on UTVs Adekye Nsroma, he noted that although the forefathers of the nation suffered for the country, the focus should not be on only them when celebrating the sacrifices of people, particularly on Founders Day. If we really want to talk about sacrifice...let us not run away from the fact that a lot has sacrificed and still sacrificing till today. You cannot tell me that the market women who go through a lot to bring foodstuffs into our markets are not sacrificing for this country, he said. Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Two-year-old Isaac Oehlers has been identified as the Australian who was killed in the massive explosion which rocked Beirut on Tuesday. The horror blast tore through large sections of the Lebanese capital, killing at least 157 people and injuring nearly 5,000. Little Isaac is thought to be one of the youngest victims of the explosion, which has overwhelmed local hospitals and devastated the city. His distraught family, believed to be from Western Australia, released a statement on Saturday night, confirming their 'beautiful boy' had died during the horrific blast. A two-year-old boy named Isaac Oehlers (pictured) has been identified as the Australian who was killed in the massive explosion which rocked the Lebanese capital earlier this week The scale of the damage and destruction in the Lebanese capital is captured in this haunting image (pictured, a police officer at the scene of the blast on Friday) Rescue teams are pictured clearing out debris in Beirut on Saturday (pictured) as they continue to search for survivors 'We are heartbroken by the sudden and tragic loss of our beautiful boy following the disaster in Beirut,' the family said in a statement. 'Isaac was two and will be deeply missed by family and friends. 'The family would like to thank everyone who has offered comfort and support to us, and would like to express our condolences to everyone in Lebanon who is suffering from this devastating tragedy.' Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Australian embassy had also been 'significantly' damaged in the deadly explosion but staff escaped with minor injuries. He said prior to the coronavirus pandemic, about 20,000 Australians were usually in Lebanon. The massive explosion killed at least 157 people, including one Australian, a two-year-old boy believed to be from Western Australia (pictured, the blast on Tuesday) It obliterated the immediate surrounding buildings, where firefighters were still battling flames hours later (pictured) and even inflicted damage on districts miles away An Australian consular team has travelled to Beirut to help the local team with any Australian casualties. Witnesses have stressed the sheer enormity of the blast, which was heard 125 miles away in Cyprus, and likened it to a 'nuclear bomb'. It obliterated the surrounding buildings, where firefighters were still battling flames for hours, and even inflicted damage on districts miles away from the blast site. One witness said: 'I saw a fireball and smoke billowing over Beirut. People were screaming and running, bleeding. Balconies were blown off buildings. Glass in high-rise buildings shattered and fell to the street.' General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim said: 'It appears that there is a warehouse containing material that was confiscated years ago, and it appears that it was highly explosive material.' Lebanon's interior minister said ammonium nitrate had been stored in the unit since 2014, with experts agreeing that the chemical would cause the red plume of smoke which burst up from the blast. The blast (pictured on Tuesday) laid waste to surrounding buildings and even wreaked havoc on districts miles away from the explosion A man reacts at the scene of an explosion at the port in Lebanon's capital Beirut on August 4 (pictured) Around 2,700 tonnes of the chemical exploded, causing a 'strange smell' at the port which led officials to instruct civilians to leave for fear of any harmful toxins. Prime Minister Hassan Diab vowed in a televised address that 'those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price,' and declared Wednesday a day of national mourning. The port's governor told journalists he does not know the cause of the explosion and said he had never seen such destruction, comparing the sobering scenes to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were obliterated by atomic bombs in the Second World War.' Charbel Haj, who works at the port, said the explosion started as small explosions like firecrackers before he was suddenly thrown off his feet by the huge blast. Dramatic footage shows smoke billowing from the port area shortly before an enormous fireball explodes into the sky and blankets the city in a thick mushroom cloud (pictured) Images showed port buildings reduced to tangled masonry, devastating the main entry point to a country that relies on food imports to feed its population of more than six million. UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters at the time it was not immediately clear what the cause was. 'We do not have information about what has happened precisely, what has caused this, whether its accidental or man-made act,' he said. Explosion rocks Lebanon during time of deep economic turmoil The explosion comes amid political tension in Lebanon, with street demonstrations against the government's handling the worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. Late last year investigators revealed what was effectively a state-sponsored pyramid scheme being run by the central bank, which was borrowing from commercial banks at above-market interest rates to pay back its debts and maintain the Lebanese pound's fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. In January mass protests against the corruption allegations and a faltering economy led to the fall of Prime Minister Saad Hariri's government. His predecessor , Independent Hassan Diab, cut the country's budget by $700million and put in place a financial rescue plan a month later. But Lebanon's problems have persisted after the Covid-19 pandemic forced global border closures, and protests have returned after the Lebanese pound fell in value, despite a lockdown being imposed in March. Many businesses have been forced to close, but as prices continue to rise with a devalued currency some are struggling to buy basic necessities, and the prime minister warned that Lebanon was at risk of a 'major food crisis'. Analysts suggest the crisis has been prolonged because of political sectarianism, with the president, prime minister and speaker split between the three largest cultural groups; Christians; Shia Muslim; and Sunni Muslims. Parliament is also drawn down the middle between Christian and Muslim members. With the country's governance in need of unity between the competing groups, external powers have been able to interfere in the country. Iran, for instance, backs the militant Hezbollah Shia movement. Advertisement But in the days that followed it has been revealed that a stockpile of dangerous chemicals including ammonium nitrate had ignited. The Lebanese government had been housing the materials at a warehouse on the wharf since 2013. World leaders from offered their heartfelt sympathies for the people of Lebanon. Boris Johnson offered to help the crisis-hit country, tweeting: 'The pictures and videos from Beirut tonight are shocking. 'All of my thoughts and prayers are with those caught up in this terrible incident. The UK is ready to provide support in any way we can, including to those British nationals affected.' Offers of aid also came from bitter rivals Israel, with which it is still technically at war. Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, on behalf of the State of Israel, have offered the Lebanese government - via international intermediaries - medical and humanitarian aid, as well as immediate emergency assistance,' said a joint statement from the two ministries. Last week, Israel accused the Lebanese group Hezbollah of trying to send gunmen across the UN-demarcated Blue Line and said it held the Lebanese government responsible for what it termed an attempted 'terrorist' attack. Hezbollah said all of the country's political powers must unite to overcome the 'painful catastrophe'. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that France stood 'alongside Lebanon' and was ready to help, tweeting: 'France stands and will always stand by the side of Lebanon and the Lebanese. It is ready to provide assistance according to the needs expressed by the Lebanese authorities. Iran's foreign minister has said it is standing by to help Lebanon recover from the fallout of the explosion. Countries in the Gulf paid tribute to victims of the explosion as Qatar said it would send field hospitals to support Lebanon's medical response. Qatar's ruler Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani called President Michel Aoun to offer condolences, according to the state-run Qatar News Agency. Sheikh Tamim wished 'a speedy recovery for the injured,' adding that he 'expressed Qatar's solidarity with brotherly Lebanon and its willingness to provide all kinds of assistance'. Elsewhere in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates' Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash tweeted that 'our hearts are with Beirut and its people'. He posted the tribute alongside an image of Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, illuminated in the colours of the Lebanese flag. 'Our prayers during these difficult hours are that God... protects brotherly Lebanon and the Lebanese to reduce their affliction and heal their wounds,' he wrote. Gulf countries including Qatar and the UAE maintain close ties with Beirut and have long provided financial aid and diplomatic assistance to mediate Lebanon's political and sectarian divisions. Firefighters spray water at a fire after the explosion rocked Beirut on Tuesday (pictured) Pictures shows the scene of an explosion at the port in the Lebanese capital Beirut, which lay waste to surrounding buildings (pictured on Tuesday) The explosion in the port city area left buildings across Beirut in ruin (pictured, a building near the port) Jad Sakr, Save the Children's country director in Lebanon, said: 'We are shocked and devastated by the explosion today. 'Our child protection teams are ready to support the government's efforts, which will almost certainly go on for several days to come. 'It is vital that children and their families get access to the services they urgently need, including medical care and physical and emotional protection.' He added: 'The incident could not have occurred at a worst time and has hit communities who were already suffering from the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and the economic deterioration. 'Beirut's main port, now completely damaged, is vital for much of the food, grains and fuel that Lebanon imports, and families will immediately feel the shortage in basic needs as a result of this tragedy.' To donate or offer support visit: The Lebanese Red Cross or Impact Lebanon. Lebanese President Michel Aoun holds a High Defence Council meeting at the Baabda Palace following the blast (pictured) People with disabilities have been left 'feeling abandoned' by the Government's lack of guidance on the re-opening of day services for adults with disabilities. That's according to locally based Faye Hayden, a campaigner for disability rights. Members of the 'Enough is Enough' group staged a protest on Wednesday 29th July near the Convention Centre in Dublin, as the Dail was in session. The group represent People with Disabilities and their carers from around the country. Ms. Hayden was in attendance at the protest. She said: "Despite great focus being placed on a roadmap to safely and comprehensively re-open hairdressers, beauticians, restaurants and retail outlets, most disability day service providers, of which there are almost 1000 in Ireland, remain closed or are opening for a minimal number of hours. "As of yet, no significant HSE guidance or direction has been issued to facilitate the re-opening of these services People with disabilities once again feel abandoned and de-valued, feeling it necessary to take to streets of Dublin to protest against this injustice, many angry that more uproar has been demonstrated about pubs not re-opening than these vital services that are a lifeline to disabled people and a vital respite for their Carers who are exhausted." Local Disability Rights Activist Faye was at the protest to represent the people of Sligo and Leitrim, giving a speech at the event to 'highlight the impact of the lack of services and how this challenge has made little progress in over 30 years'. Faye highlighted the plight of disabled persons and their carers by calling on this Government to ratify the Optional Protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Faye also highlighted the burnout being experienced by many of the 175,000+ Carers around the country, who during lockdown did not receive sufficient, if any support or respite and were on duty 24/7 caring for vulnerable family members, often more than one relative. She called on the Government, to not only fully re-instate day services, but also move forward the rights of disabled people and their carers with a consistent and comprehensive package of supports for all. Linda Comerford, spokesperson for Enough is Enough stated: "Adults with disabilities are missing their friends, their routines and their support workers. "Many are regressing, becoming withdrawn and are having increased challenging behaviour and feel lost. "For families and parents to witness this and continue, despite our best efforts to help our loved ones is gut wrenching." Thousands of San Antonio families are desperately struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table because of massive layoffs and record unemployment spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 160,000 San Antonio residents have filed for unemployment since March, and we know many of their jobs will not return in the post-COVID economy. This is a crisis of historic proportions for our community, and the COVID-19 damage highlights long-term inequities and fractures in our citys economic foundation. Last week, we unveiled the economic recovery plan crafted by the team of business and community leaders that I assembled in July. Council members Rebecca Viagran and Adriana Rocha Garcia are the City Council liaisons to the Education and Workforce Leadership Team and played a crucial role in developing the plan. The plan builds on our short-term COVID-19 recovery and resiliency workforce development program, which was funded with CARES Act revenue to help residents in the mid- to long-term recovery process. As many as 40,000 families could get a new economic start through retraining and or additional education over the next four years under the proposal. The plan offers an opportunity for these San Antonians displaced by COVID-19 to enter a career with a future not just a job to cover next weeks bills. We arent trying to reinvent the wheel with this proposal. Instead, we have taken advantage of some important work already done in our community, including the citys poverty plan, Alamo PROMISE, UTSAs Bold PROMISE, the San Antonio Economic Development Foundations strategic plan and the citys Status of Women report. The program will provide a second phase of economic recovery, expanding upon and moving beyond the quick-turnaround, short-term workforce efforts made possible by the federal CARES Act. An estimated 10,000 San Antonians will be helped by that program, which will continue until next fall. Our midterm-to-long-term proposal focuses on two paths for building a career: workforce training certificates and higher education degree completion. Certificates in some career fields can be obtained in programs lasting from two weeks to 12 weeks, preparing workers for jobs such as maintenance and repair technician, certified nursing assistants and child development associates. In a path designed for workers who already have some secondary credits, two- and four-year degree programs will be available to prepare them for targeted industries. The targeted industries identified as areas of opportunity in a recent SA Works COVID job report include manufacturing, aerospace, bioscience, health care, financial services, technology, cybersecurity, construction and trades. Participants will receive assistance in dealing with barriers that typically thwart adults seeking to upgrade their careers, such as child care and transportation. Emergency assistance will be provided in appropriate situations for necessities such as utility bills and car repairs. If approved by voters in November, an existing one-eighth cent sales tax that will become available next spring would be redirected to the program. The tax, which is being used for the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, will generate an estimated $38.5 million a year for four years. VIA Metropolitan Transit Authoritys board, acting in its role as the Advanced Transportation District, is expected to place a measure on the ballot authorizing use of the sales tax for transit after our economic recovery plan is fully financed in 2025. This week, I will be asking my City Council colleagues to call an election, placing the economic recovery measure before voters on Nov. 3. I am committed to the continuation of the aquifer protection program and funding completion of the greenway trails. We have crafted a plan to keep the aquifer program operating as part of city government as it does today, using funds the city receives from the San Antonio Water System. The aquifer programs Conservation Advisory Board will examine this plan and funding alternatives. The sales tax will be collected by the aquifer program through next spring, and the program has adequate funding to continue through 2021. We are working with our Bexar County partners to complete the greenway trails. The COVID pandemic exposed cracks in our economic foundation, and we can no longer ignore the poverty that has existed in our community for decades. We must provide avenues for San Antonio families to move forward on steady career paths not just move from one job to the next. Returning to our pre-COVID status when 60,000 families sought help from the San Antonio Food Bank each week is unacceptable. San Antonio doesnt have to be one of the poorest big cities in America. We can beat the odds and change our trajectory. Lets seize the opportunity in front us. Ron Nirenberg is mayor of San Antonio. Maybe Judge Luttig was right all along. I had the misgivings youd expect back in late May, when I disagreed with J. Michael Luttig, the stellar scholar and former federal appeals court judge, regarding how the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals should handle the Flynn case. At the time, that courts three-judge panel had not yet heard oral argument on Michael Flynns mandamus petition i.e., Flynns request that the panel find that federal district judge Emmet Sullivan was acting lawlessly. Sullivan had not only failed to grant the Justice Departments motion to dismiss the criminal case against Flynn; he had appointed a former federal judge (the overtly anti-Trump John Gleeson) to posit the argument abandoned by DOJ to wit, that Flynn should proceed to sentencing because he had pled guilty to a false-statements charge, waiving his right to contest the case any further in exchange for the governments agreement not to file any other charges. Basically, Flynn was asking the appellate court to order Judge Sullivan to dismiss the case. In a Washington Post op-ed, Luttig contended that there are ample grounds in the actions the district court has already taken for the appeals court to order that the governments motion to dismiss be heard by a different judge, and it should so order. It is interesting to revisit this assessment in light of an order issued by the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday. The Circuit directed that the participants in the dispute over Judge Sullivans actions, including Judge Sullivan himself, must address the question of whether Sullivan should either recuse himself or be disqualified by the Circuit. Arguments in the case will be heard this coming Tuesday, August 11, in a rare en banc review by the full Circuit (i.e., all active judges who have not taken senior status, minus one who has recused himself, so it will be a ten-judge panel). Lets back up for a moment. Back in May, I disagreed with Luttig because I thought the more important issue was prejudice to Flynn, not the harm Sullivans apparent bias was causing to the courts integrity. At the time, the D.C. Circuit had given Sullivan ten days to respond to Flynns mandamus petition. I argued that, rather than reassigning the case to another judge, the Circuit should give Sullivan a chance to explain himself. If he was unable to do that to the Circuits satisfaction, I posited that the Circuit should then order him to dismiss the case. Story continues After Luttig and I, among other commentators, weighed in on what the appellate court should do, a three-judge panel heard argument. The panel granted Flynns mandamus petition and ordered Sullivan to dismiss the case. The 21 majority reasoned that, with possible exceptions that do not apply in Flynns case, the Justice Departments discretion to end a prosecution is unreviewable. A dissenting opinion countered that mandamus, which is an extraordinary remedy disfavored by courts absent truly egregious judicial lawlessness, was premature i.e., that Sullivan should be permitted to conduct a hearing and, if he decided not to grant dismissal, Flynn could then appeal. That would be the normal route to appellate review in a criminal case. After the panel ruled for Flynn, Judge Sullivan asked the Circuit to rehear the case en banc. Sullivans petition was remarkable because he is not a party in the case. The only parties in a criminal prosecution are the government and the accused. The judge is the arbiter, not a litigant. The court is not supposed to have a stake in the outcome. It is unseemly for a judge to act as if he has become invested in the outcome of a case the way a party is. It strongly suggests a loss of judicial perspective. Nevertheless, the D.C. Circuit granted Judge Sullivans petition. It vacated the panels ruling and agreed to full-court review. At first blush, this seemed like doom for Flynn. After all, the full court skews heavily Democratic: seven of the ten judges who will hear the case were appointed by Democratic presidents. There are only four Republican appointees, and as noted above, one (appointed by President Trump) has recused himself. In modern times, there are enough blatantly politicized judicial decisions that people can be forgiven for assuming that partisanship always trumps law. Indeed, in the three-judge panel decision, the two majority judges who ruled in Flynns favor were Republican appointees, while the dissenter was a Democratic appointee. Nevertheless, the mandamus litigation in Flynns case is not a brute political matter. Anyone who listened to the oral argument could tell how reluctant the judges seemed about issuing a mandamus writ against Judge Sullivan, even if they were convinced that he was wrong on the law. Furthermore, the main Circuit precedent, United States v. Fokker Services B.V. (2016), which clearly indicates that the Justice Departments dismissal motion should be granted, was written by Chief Circuit Judge Sri Srinivasan. He is often touted as a potential Supreme Court nominee in a future Democratic administration. For him, then, the case is a Catch-22: Walking away from his own reasoning in Fokker would be a bad look, while ruling in Flynns favor would be very unpopular among Democrats. In addition, we should note that any of the Circuits judges could have asked for en banc review by the full court. None did. The case is being heard because Sullivan himself pressed the issue. The complications presented by the mandamus dispute were evident in the Circuits initial order scheduling the rehearing en banc, which added an intriguing directive: The parties should be prepared to address whether there are no other adequate means to attain the relief desired (quoting from the Supreme Courts 2004 decision in Cheney v. U.S. District Court). I interpret this somewhat cryptic assertion to indicate that, while the Circuit judges have agreed to reconsider the panels ruling because courts are generally hostile to mandamus, that hardly means the judges approve of the circus that Sullivan has made of the Flynn proceedings. The judges seemed to be signaling that they know the case should be dismissed, but theyd prefer not to slam a longtime district judge if there is some way to avoid doing so. Perhaps they could deny the writ, but couch the denial in a way that reminded Judge Sullivan that a court must neither take over the prosecutors role nor probe the executives decision-making in a matter that the Constitution commits to executive discretion. That is what makes Wednesdays subsequent order regarding the en banc proceeding so interesting. The Circuit instructs counsel for Flynn, the Justice Department, and Judge Sullivan to consider the effect of Congresss disqualification statute (Section 455 of Title 28, U.S. Code). Specifically, the participants in the mandamus dispute are told to address the laws mandate that a judge be disqualified in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned, particularly if the judge is a party to the proceeding. Manifestly, at least some of the Circuits judges (Id wager most of them) are disturbed by the degree to which Judge Sullivan has exhibited bias and become invested in Flynns case. This is exactly the problem on which Judge Luttig focused back in May. It could thus turn out that Luttig presciently homed in on the dispositive issue. I believe, though, that its more a matter of new developments breaking, perhaps inevitably, in favor of disqualification. At the time Luttig wrote his op-ed, I still think it would have been premature for an appeals court to jump in and disqualify Judge Sullivan. The parties were not pushing for Sullivan to be removed, just that he be directed to grant the dismissal motion. And even in making his disqualification argument, Luttig conveyed some hesitation. He said the Circuit panel should grant the mandamus but in a more limited way than Flynn was suggesting: Have Judge Sullivan pick a different adviser (someone other than the explicitly biased Gleeson), then promptly rule on the motion to dismiss, explaining his reasoning in full so the appellate court could review it. That is not consistent with Luttigs other suggestion of having the case reassigned to another judge. But it was right: As things stood back in May, Sullivan should have been given an opportunity to do the right thing. Most of us were hoping hed correct himself, rather than need to be corrected by a higher court. Plus, lets put personalities aside, as well as the understandable distaste judges have for mandamus (which essentially asks them to dress down a colleague). A federal appeals court also has very practical reasons for discouraging mandamus. The regular appellate process calls for a criminal case to be appealed only at the end of the lower court proceeding. At that point, the trial or plea is over, sentence has been imposed, the judgment has been entered, and the appeals court can deal with all the claims of error at once, with finality. Courts do not want to encourage litigants to start viewing mandamus as a way to appeal to the higher court in the middle of the lower court proceedings, any time a party claims a judge has made an error. Chaos would reign and cases would never end. That said, things have significantly changed in the nearly three months since we analysts first opined on the mandamus dispute. For one thing, Judge Sullivan retained his own counsel to argue the case on his behalf before the panel, as if he were a party. Then, when the panels decision did not go the way he wanted it to go, he took the highly unusual step of seeking en banc review. As the Justice Department pointed out, Sullivan did not have standing to seek reconsideration; he is not a party and did not comply with the rules government officials are supposed to follow before seeking a rehearing. More to the point, by seeking full-court reconsideration of the mandamus matter when both the Justice Department and Flynn are seeking dismissal of the case, Sullivan is both causing prejudice to the defendant and stoking suspicion about the executive branchs motives. How, then, could Sullivan continue to be considered a fair and impartial judge, fit to rule on the Justice Departments dismissal motion? That question may signal something about the wisdom of the D.C. Circuit judges that I previously failed to appreciate. The Justice Departments contention that Sullivan lacks standing seemed compelling to me. I was surprised when the Circuit appeared to ignore it in granting Sullivans request for full-court review; I thought theyd deny it and let the panels ruling stand. But is it possible that the Circuit saw this as a graceful off-ramp? When none of the Circuits judges asked for full-court reconsideration, that signaled to Sullivan that if he wanted it, he would have to ask for it himself. The Circuit judges probably calculated that if the irascible Sullivan made a formal application for rehearing en banc, it would be manifest that he had transformed himself into a party in the Flynn case. Then the Circuit could use the disqualification rule to nudge him aside for the sake of maintaining the judiciarys reputation for objectivity. That would avoid all the downsides of issuing a mandamus writ while gently reminding lower court judges that they are supposed to remain umpires in these contests, not become one of the players. To sum up, whatever one may have thought about the gravity of Sullivans irregular behavior back in May, he has now clearly crossed the Rubicon. It is incumbent on him to recuse himself. If he cant bring himself to do that a failure that would further demonstrate a lack of judicial detachment the D.C. Circuit should disqualify him. Either way, the case should be reassigned to a new judge, who should promptly grant the Justice Departments motion to dismiss. Ill conclude with a verity that seems sadly lost on Judge Sullivan: Granting the Justice Departments dismissal motion would not be a judicial endorsement of the motion, much less a court ruling that Flynn is not guilty. Judge Sullivan is absolutely entitled to believe the Justice Department is wrong to dismiss the case, and that Flynn is as guilty as the day is long. What a judge is not entitled to do, however, is substitute his view for the prosecutors on the question of whether a prosecution should continue. In our system, separation of powers principles make that the Justice Departments call. More from National Review Paris on Saturday made face masks compulsory outdoors in crowded areas and tourist hotspots, as infections in and around the French capital rose and the global death toll crept past 722,000. The decision to make face masks mandatory outdoors in Paris and its surrounding areas from Monday morning was widely expected after a formal request earlier in the week by mayor Anne Hidalgo. The mask will be obligatory for all those aged 11 and over "in certain very crowded zones", said a police statement. They include the banks of the Seine River and more than a 100 streets in the French capital, including tourist destinations like Montmartre, where the Sacre Coeur basilica is located. In the southern English resort of Brighton, people have flocked to the beaches as temperatures soar. By Glyn KIRK (AFP) "All the indicators show that since mid-July the virus is again circulating more actively in the region," said the statement. Around 400 people were testing positive for COVID-19 in the region every day, with the 20-30 age group particularly affected. Several French towns and cities have already introduced similar measures, as well as parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain. As temperatures soared across western Europe, holidaymakers crowded beaches despite health warnings about the risk of infection. On Saturday, a day after Britain recorded its hottest August day in 17 years at 36.4 degrees Celsius (97.5 Fahrenheit), much of its southern coastline was packed with tourists. Number of new cases per day, trend in countries and regions. By Simon MALFATTO (AFP) By lunchtime, officials in Bournemouth were calling on people to stay away from the golden seven-mile beach, warning that most of the stretch was so busy that "safe social distancing is not possible". Local authorities in Germany warned that some beaches and lakes would be closed if there were too many people. In Brandenburg state, police were already turning people away from the beach at Prenzlau lake. "First time I've experienced that in 30 years," said Prenzlau site manager, Ronny Klein. Some places of work remain vectors of infection. Meat giant Danish Crown announced Saturday that it had shut down a major slaughterhouse in Denmark after nearly 150 employees came down with the virus. Indian strike As of 1600 GMT, Europe has recorded more than 3.3 million cases of coronavirus and suffered 212,861 deaths from the virus, according to an AFP tally drawn from official sources. But the hardest-hit region, is now Latin America and the Caribbean, with more than 5.4 million cases and at least 215,944 deaths as of Friday. Women health workers in the front line of the battle against the virus in India want better pay and conditions. By Money SHARMA (AFP) India meanwhile, has more than two million infections -- its caseload having doubled in three weeks -- and has recorded 42,518 deaths. It now has the world's third-highest pandemic caseload after the United States and Brazil. Women health workers in several Indian states staged a two-day strike from Friday and plan a mass protest in New Delhi on Sunday for better pay, a higher pension and anti-virus protection equipment and testing. Shiksha Rana, a social health activist in New Delhi, told AFP at least 200 health workers -- and their families -- had been infected in the Delhi region alone. "We had to crowd-fund money for their treatment and food for their families," she said. Back to school in Gaza Palestinian children returned to school in Gaza after a five-month suspension due to a coronavirus lockdown -- but with fewer classes and special safety measures in place. The United Nations agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, said over 285,000 pupils had returned to its 277 schools. It had provided material to sanitise the schools and trained staff on the measures to take and would review the situation in a week. Gaza, under Israeli blockade since 2007, has reported 78 cases of the COVID-19 illness, with one death. Germany meanwhile expanded its list of high-risk countries and regions. Travellers returning from some regions in Bulgaria and Romania will have to take a coronavirus test -- unless they can supply a recent results showing they have tested negative. Taiwanese airlines have been innovating to try to alleviate the financial hit for the coronavirus downturn. China Airlines is offering children courses on how to be flight attendants. By Express News Service KOCHI: Missing his flight to Kerala turned out to be a double blessing in disguise for 38-year-old Malappuram native Naufal Mon Vettan. Not only he escaped the accident, but he also got back the job he lost in Sharjah. Im thankful to Allah and my prayers are for the families of the victims, he said, yet to get over the fact that its a new life for him by the quirk of fate. This is his story. After having lost his job, Naufal reached the Dubai airport 9 am to board the flight to Kozhikode on Friday the ill-fated airplane which slipped off from the tabletop runway killing18 and injuring several others in the next few hours. My COVID tests were through and I got my boarding pass. But at the emigration counter, they told me that my visa had expired and I need to pay another 1200 dirhams to proceed, he told TNIE from Sharjah. Naufal worked in Al Wahda Private School, Sharjah, under the Athena Education in Dubai. The company had cleared all my documents. I tried to procure the money the emigration officials charged at the airport itself so that I could return back to Kerala. But before anything could happen, the flight took off, he said. There has been an extension for visa expiries till December this year due to COVID-19 to help people stranded in the UAE. However, in emigrations computer system it showed that Naufal's visa had expired on July 12. So, they put the fine amount from July 12 to August 7, which comes to about 1200 dirhams, he said. Naufal said he came to know about the accident later when returned back to his room. While I'm happy that I didnt board the ill-fated flight, Im also sad learning about the accident and the victims. Several people have died. My prayers are with their families, Naufal said. Does he know anyone on the flight? There is a man I know who took the flight. He is injured but hes okay. He called me. But there is another woman and a small child. I dont know what happened to them, said Naufal. There was one more pleasant news waiting for Naufal. After learning about his narrow escape, the company has decided to call reinstate him with a salary raise. Im thankful to the officials at Athena for reinstating me. Im told theres a salary hike too, he said. As investigation into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput continues, friends, family members and fans of the late actor have been using the hashtag #Warriors4SSR to post their demands for justice. Actress Ankita Lokhande too shared a post on Instagram with the trending hashtag. In the photo, she is seein posing with a framed picture of Sushant's late mother. In the caption, she wrote, "Believe you both are together #warriors4ssr." Some of Sushant's family members commented on Ankita's post. His sister Shweta Singh Kirti said, "Yes they are... Luv u baby... stay strong.... we hav to fight till we find justice." His niece Mallika Singh wrote, "He always missed nani ji so much. I believe so too." Read: #Warriors4SSR Crosses 2 Million Posts On Twitter As Fans Demand Justice for Sushant Singh Rajput Last month, when the late actor's father lodged an FIR against Rhea Chakraborty, Ankita took to her Instagram and shared a post which read 'Truth Wins'. The 'Manikarnika' actress had also said in interviews that SSR was not the kind of person who would be depressed and kill himself. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday questioned Rhea, her brother Showik, her chartered accountant Ritesh Shah and her former manager Shruti Modi for over eight hours in connection with the money laundering probe. Meanwhile, the Central government has requested the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the death case of the Dil Bechara actor. Lebanese protesters stormed government buildings in Beirut and temporarily took over the Foreign Ministry, as more than 110 people were wounded during mass anti-government demonstrations. The countrys prime minister Hassan Diab also announced late on Saturday that he would introduce a draft bill to parliament to allow early elections. Chanting down with the regime, thousands had taken to the streets wielding nooses and demanding accountability for the blasts, which killed more than 150 people and wounded a further 6,000. Shots sounded through the streets as riot police fired volleys of tears gas and rubber bullets at protesters who threw back rocks in the capital, brought to a standstill by the skirmishes. The Lebanese Red Cross said that more than 110 were wounded and a further 32 taken to hospital. A police spokesperson later confirmed that an officer had been killed after falling down an elevator shaft while being chased by protesters. Dozens of demonstrators meanwhile broke into the foreign ministry, where they burnt a framed portrait of the president Michel Aoun, a representative for many of a corrupt political class seen to be culpable for both the explosions and the countrys deep economic crisis. Security forces later retook control of the building. Banners reading Beirut capital of the revolution were hung across the front of the building as furious demonstrators chanted down with the presidents and all of them means all of them a central slogan to the protest movement. The ministry of environment was also set on fire. Lebanese citizens had been gathering en masse since Saturday morning, demanding accountability for the blasts that devastated the capital, expecting to leave more than 300,000 homeless. The exact cause of what is being called the largest non-nuclear blast in modern history, is not known. But Mr Aoun admitted on Friday night that he knew the warehouse that caught fire at Beirut port had dangerous explosives in it. The ignition of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored poorly in the port is thought to have caused the massive blast. We are a beautiful, resilient and educated country with talented and resourceful people all of that has been squandered by our corrupt government, said protester Jihan, 60, who held a Lebanese flag, surrounded by her entire family. They destroyed my home. We are here tonight to take the country back before we lose it, and our lives, for forever, she added. A few streets away near Martyrs Square, tensions soared when protesters screamed at members of the security forces: who is going to feed your children and give them healthcare? Youre the same as us. A group set fire to bins forcing one of the main roads shut, as the security forces stormed the protest lines beating anyone who would not move. Earlier in the day in the main protest square protesters had hung nooses along a wooden frame that they said were meant for the politicians they accused of destroying the country and murdering the people many times over. Within hours of the rallies erupting, security forces had fired tear gas into the crowds, many of whom were carrying brooms and shovels from the clean up efforts in the surrounding destroyed streets. We are all against the government and want to see the politicians hang, said Ghada Agha, 48, whose advertising business and home were both destroyed in the blast leaving her jobless, penniless and homeless. Our president put us in this and situation he has killed so many times over, and we cannot survive any more. They have destroyed our homes, our businesses they stole our money, our savings, and our future. Many of those gathered said that Lebanon was already on its knees due to an unprecedented financial crisis, that had seen food prices soar and families starve, as well as 20 hour power cuts a day over chronic fuel shortages before Tuesdays devastating blasts. Soldiers in vehicles mounted with machine guns patrolled the area. Demonstrators run to take cover from tear gas fired by police during a protest (REUTERS) Really the army is here? Are you here to shoot us? Join us and we can fight the government together, a woman yelled. Resign or hang, read another placard. Among those joining the protesters were many injured in the blast. Her arm in a sling, Carmen Khoury, 48, a university administrator told The Independent she was pinned under a car from the pressure wave and the woman standing next to her was killed. We have the most corrupt government in the world, they have done nothing to protect their people. Even now after the explosion, they have left us to look after ourselves, she said. She explained she was part of an activist group that was housing those left homeless by the explosion as well as helping clear the debris, as no government initiative had been launched to deal with the crisis. I have lived through two wars and this is truly the worst days I have ever had to deal with. Additional reporting by Reuters Noel Fielding and his girlfriend of ten years Lliana Bird are expecting their second child together. Radio presenter Lliana revealed the happy news on her Instagram page, showing off her baby bump while cooking pancakes, on Friday. The couple are already parents to daughter Dali, who they welcomed in 2018. Expecting: Noel Fielding and his girlfriend of ten years Lliana Bird are expecting their second child together (pictured together in 2015) Revealing her bump on Instagram, Lliana told her followers that she would be taking maternity leave from her radio show. She wrote: 'Ive actually been baking a little something myself this lockdown so im starting my mat leave from @radiox this week, 'And whilst ill keep on posting my lazy mum recipes for you all here on insta, im also delighted that the bad ass lady that is @pollyjames will be keeping my show seat warm in the coming months on the #SundayChill. 'Wishing her love and luck and please show her lots of support. Meanwhile ill keep posting lazy mum recipes and videos as often as i can on here so see you soon!' Glowing: Lliana looked incredible as she cooked up some pancakes and showcasing her bump in a polkadot playsuit during her Instagram video Mama: She is already a mother to daughter Dali, who was born in 2018 Announcement: The radio presenter told her fans that she would now be taking maternity leave from her show Lliana looked sensational as she cooked the pancakes while wearing a polkadot playsuit which emphasised the size of her bump. The news comes after Noel returned to filming The Great British Bake Off at a new location closer to judge Paul Hollywood's home. There were concerns that the Bake Off would not happen this year, thanks to the global health crisis plunging film and TV production into doubt. Filming again: The happy news comes as Noel resumed filming on Bake Off (pictured with Paul Hollywood) But it was confirmed in July that the 2020 series will go ahead, following a shooting delay of three months amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The popular Channel 4 show had been scheduled to go into production back in April, before the pandemic, and subsequent lockdown, scuppered all plans. However, Sky Studios CEO Gary Davey brought all hopes for the show's return back to life on Wednesday, when he revealed that filming is 'going very well'. It was also reported that the shows judges and presenters went into quarantine in the run-up to filming, to allow for close interaction on the set. Indian commercial pilots association has issued a press statement on Saturday stressing on the need to avoid speculation and theories around the crash of Air India Express flight AXB1344 , which broke into two after dropping around 35 ft into a valley after overshooting the runway in wet conditions while landing at the Karipur international airport in Kozhikode, Kerala on Friday night, killing 18 people and critically injuring scores of others. Since the mishap, questions have been raised on the quality of the airport strip, the dangers of landing at a tabletop airport, DGCAs handling of issues flagged time to time and any possible errors made by the pilots, both of whom have perished in the accident. We stress on the need to avoid speculation and theories as to the circumstances of this accident. We are also willing to offer any assistance to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau in order to help gather facts and any other safety and security information which may be pertinent to this tragic event, the statement from the association said. Also Read: Day after Kozhikode air crash, stories of heartbreak and heroism Civil aviation minister was more direct in his rejection of speculations about the cause of the accident and ruled out any laxity on the part of the aviation authorities. He also addressed the issue of the air strip being inadequate for landing of wide body aircrafts. I would like to remind my colleagues that the aircraft involved in the incident at Kozhikode was a B-737-800 which is NOT a wide body aircraft. As far as wide body aircraft are concerned, DGCA had carried out a thorough assessment & prescribed comprehensive mitigation measures, he said in a statement on Saturday. The flight was operated by Deepak Sathe, a highly rated former India Air Force pilot and his co-pilot from Mathura, Akhilesh Sharma. Sharmas wife Megha is expecting a child within a fortnight and has not been told about her husbands death. Civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri earlier today said that the pilots operating the Air India Express flight were very experienced. Deepak Vasant Sathe, who was the commander of the flight, had 10,000 hours of flying experience on the Boeing 737 aircraft. He had flown 6,662 of these hours as the commander. His 32 year old co-pilot, Akhilesh Sharma, had experience of 1,728 hours of flying with the 737 aircraft. Also Read: Air India mourns Kozhikode tragedy with black logo on social media handles Puri added that Sathe had also landed successfully on the challenging tabletop Calicut airport at least 27 times, including more than 10 times this year itself. The civil aviation ministry has ordered a probe by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). Two black boxes containing the digital flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder have been recovered from the crash site earlier today and will be crucial to the investigations. The AAIB is mandated to investigate aircraft accidents and obtain a preliminary report before assisting in setting up the committee of inquiry and formal investigation in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules. The spaces at the ends of the runway at the Kozhikode airport has been questioned as inadequate for landing in tough situations. Several international airlines had stopped landing bigger aircraft at the airport due to safety concerns. The crashed flight had also aborted two landing attempts last night before making the final attempt from the opposite side. It aborted the second attempt with 2,000 feet to go. Civil aviation expert Captain Mohan Ranganathan believes that the pilot should have diverted to Coimbatore, as the conditions in Kozhikode were not conducive for a landing. Ranganathan says that he had warned the authorities in 2011 after the Mangalore crash that the Calicut runway was unsafe for landing and needed to be reevaluated. After the clearance of all decks for three capitals in Andhra Pradesh, Vizag has begun to forge ahead in attracting new investments. On 5th August 2020, the State Government signed an MoU with The Boston Group. After the clearance of all decks for three capitals in Andhra Pradesh, Vizag has begun to forge ahead in attracting new investments. On 5th August 2020, the State Government signed an MoU with The Boston Group, in the presence of Rathnakar Pandugayala, Special Representative to AP Government for North America & Mr. Subu Kota, the Chairman of The Boston Group and People Prime Worldwide. This fundamental move is expected to create 250+ jobs in the IT sector of the State. A native of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, Subu Kota is an Indian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist who has established nearly 50 companies in the last 50 years that he has lived in the United States of America. His broad experience ranges from Information Technology Consulting, e-Learning Services, to Pharmaceuticals Research and Manufacturing. Speaking on the occasion he said I am delighted to be signing this MoU today, to strengthen our relationship with the Andhra Pradesh Government. Vizag has a huge potential for growth & is becoming one of the most attractive investment destinations in India. Collaborations like these are crucial at this time while the world is fighting a pandemic. This new center will deploy its employees in R&D on Learning platforms and leveraging advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Cyber Security and Human Resources. We believe there is immense potential in Tier II cities like Vizag with the talent pool comprising of graduates and post graduate professionals. Also read: Mauritius declares environmental emergency as oil spill crisis worsens Also read: Centre likely to reopen schools and colleges in phased manner from September: Report Mr. Ravi Aleti, CEO of People Prime Worldwide (a subsidiary of The Boston Group) said Vizag is an upcoming city with its own advantages such as Connectivity, Cosmopolitan Population, top Educational Institutes and Universities, as well as Medical and Support Services. We would work with States Ministry of Information Technology in opening our office in SEZ zones in Vizag. Sri Subu Kota garu concurs with CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddys decision of making Vizag an IT Hub, which is home to many talented professionals from educational institutes all across the city, Rathnakar added. Sri Gowtham Reddy garu, state IT minister has come up with a new IT Policy (2020-2025) with many incentives to encourage IT investments in Andhra Pradesh. About The Boston Group: Founded in 1988, The Boston Group (TBG) started with a core business of providing software consulting and IT services to Fortune 500 and mid-market clients. Since then, TBG has expanded its range of services to include IT outsourcing, e-Learning, and a series of vertical market solutions, including e-governance. TBG today has a presence in five countries and serves clients in a broad range of industries, including pharmaceutical, financial, insurance, manufacturing, higher-ed, banking, and retail. Also read: PM Modi to launch Rs. 1 lakh crore financing facility under PM-KISAN scheme tomorrow Moscow: In a fresh warning to the West, Russia has said that any incoming ballistic missile launched at its territory will be perceived as a nuclear attack that warrants a nuclear retaliation. The warning from Russia came in the form of an article published on Friday. The warning in the official military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) is aimed at the United States, which has been working to develop long-range non-nuclear weapons. According to Washington Post, the article mentioned a previously published piece on Russia's nuclear deterrent policy that envisages the use of atomic weapons in response to what could be a conventional strike targeting the nation's critical government and military infrastructure. The Krasnaya Zvezda article quoted several top-ranking officers of the Russian military's General Staff, Maj-Gen Andrei Sterlin and Col. Alexander Khryapin as saying that there will be no way to determine if an incoming ballistic missile is fitted with a nuclear or a conventional warhead, and so the military will see it as a nuclear attack. Any attacking missile will be perceived as carrying a nuclear warhead, the article said. The information about the missile launch will be automatically relayed to the Russian military-political leadership, which will determine the scope of retaliatory action by nuclear forces depending on the evolving situation, it added. ''The argument reflects Russia's concerns about the development of weapons that could give Washington the capability to knock out key military assets and government facilities without resorting to atomic weapons,'' the article stated. In line with Russian military doctrine, the new nuclear deterrent policy reaffirmed that the country could use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack or an aggression involving conventional weapons that threaten Russia's existence. The policy document offered a detailed description of situations that could trigger the use of nuclear weapons, including the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction against Russia or its allies. It is to be noted that relations between the US and Russia are currently at the post-Cold War level over the Ukrainian crisis, the accusations of Russian meddling in the US 2016 presidential election and other issues. Russian officials have dubbed the US-led missile defence programme and its plans to put weapons in orbit as a top threat, arguing that the new capability could tempt Washington to strike Russia with impunity in the hope of fending off a retaliatory strike. The Krasnaya Zvezda article emphasized that the publication of the new nuclear deterrent policy was intended to unambiguously explain what Russia sees as aggression. Secretary of State has rejected congressional subpoenas issued for him and for the State Department to provide information and testimony to lawmakers about two politically charged developments. The refusals set the stage for an escalation in the confrontation between the State Department and the Democratic-controlled House ahead of November's elections. In letters sent to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Pompeo and the State Department's acting legislative affairs chief said on Friday they had no intention of complying with the subpoenas. They said the subpoenas were politically motivated, without merit, and unnecessary as the information and testimony could be otherwise obtained. The letters were obtained by The Associated Press shortly after they were sent to Capitol Hill. While congressional subpoenas are legally binding, the Trump administration through various Cabinet agencies has repeatedly refused to comply with House demands with little consequence. In one letter, Pompeo said committee chairman, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, was out of line in issuing the subpoenas, which he said were outrageous and ignored the State Department's good faith efforts to answer questions about the firing of the department's inspector general and the provision of Ukraine-related documents to Republican-controlled Senate committees. Engel had issued the subpoenas on July 31 and Augst 3, complaining that Pompeo and the State Department were stonewalling repeated requests for information on both matters. The first subpoena demanded that the State Department turn over to Engel's committee copies of thousands of pages of documents he said the department had given to the Senate regarding former Vice President as well as his son, Hunter, for his work for a gas company in Ukraine while his father was vice president. It also asked for internal department emails about responding to Congress. It said Pompeo had delivered more than 16,000 pages of records to the Senate but refused to send the same materials to the Democrat-led House. In response, the State Department's acting head of legislative affairs, Ryan Kaldahl, said the agency was not obliged to provide the documents to any committee not conducting its own investigation into the matter. He suggested that Engel's committee seek copies from its Senate counterparts. Kaldahl also said the committee had not shown that its demand was for a legitimate legislative purpose and suggested that it was entirely partisan. The department is unable to consider whether any accommodation is possible in response to the committee's requests unless the committee explains in detail its legislative purpose, he wrote. The second subpoena demanded the testimony of four senior State Department officials about the firing in May of department Inspector General Stephen Linick, which Democrats have alleged came in retaliation for probes the watchdog was conducting into Pompeo. Pompeo has denied knowledge of any investigation into his own conduct. In rejecting that subpoena, Pompeo said in a letter to Engel that most of the officials in question, including the Under Secretary of State for Management Brian Bulatao and others, were prepared to be interviewed voluntarily and repeated that offer. Mr. Bulatao and the other requested witnesses will appear and unambiguously refute your baseless accusations and provide full transparency before the elected representatives of the American people, Pompeo wrote. "Furthermore, let me express how outrageous it is for you to suggest that the depart,ent is 'stonewalling' any investigation into the president's replacing of Steve Linick, he wrote, citing at least four offers for Bulatao and others to appear before the committee. Congressional aides have said those offers were unacceptable because they were contingent on dropping other avenues of inquiry. This is not the first time Pompeo has rebuffed a House subpoena. He did not comply with a subpoena to provide documents during the House's impeachment inquiry into Trump ast year, and several other Trump administration officials refused to testify in that probe. The administration's record of complying with subpoenas is poor and has left congressional Democrats flustered with little recourse except in the courts. The House Judiciary Committee sued former White House Counsel Donald McGahn for his refusal to testify about former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report in April 2019, and that case has been tied up in courts. On Friday, an appeals court said that the committee can make the claim in court, reversing an earlier court decision. While the decision was good news for the committee, the matter won't be resolved any time soon. One of the dissenting judges in that case noted that the House session ends January 3, and the chances that the committee hears McGahn's testimony anytime soon are vanishingly slim. (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.) Your browser does not support the video tag. In the first few months as leader of any organization youre pretty much living your life in a fishbowl. Fairly or not, every one of your meetings, speeches, actions, or scratch of your head are going to be on the peoples minds. How will you compare to the previous president? Now that you are voted in, how is this going to affect me? Regardless of what you are saying, what are your real intentions for the organization? How will you fare in a time of crisis? These questions, and all those that follow are definitely fair game in my book. Becoming president of the Stamford branch of the NAACP when the pandemic has harmed many throughout the City of Stamford is probably the most complicated task I have taken on in my life. But I do so with passion, love and service to neighbors, youth, and fellow Stamfordites of all walks of life in mind. During a time of crisis you dont have much time to get it right so I want to share a little about what your local branch has been up to these past few weeks. In late 2019 the branch began to form a new executive committee with the intent to reinvigorate our efforts to bring full fairness and equity to the marginalized and ensure everyones survival as truly free people in this country. The focus areas of our chapter align to the national office to include bringing parity to Federal Advocacy (voting rights and political representation, expanding youth and young adult engagement), education, economic opportunity, criminal justice, health, and ethical treatment of our climate and environment. Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nations oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization. For too long, though, we have marched, we have protested, and we have mourned our lost ones. Business as usual has been costing us our livelihood and our lives. We recognize this and we are innovating and adapting to find common purpose during significant racial and cross-movement discourse that has stubbornly persisted well into the 21st century. The pandemic has been disproportionately affecting communities of color, Blacks make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for 23 percent of COVID-19 deaths nationwide. This disparity has played out here in Stamford. The total number of positive tests per 1,000 for Blacks and Hispanics have been running at twice the rate of our white counterparts. This virus has claimed 150,000-plus lives to date, including our very own immediate past president of the Stamford NAACP, Jack Bryant. For that reason, targeted coronavirus testing has been our branchs No. 1 priority; it is essential for health equity and mitigates the negative impact of COVID-19 on our city. Right now, the focus is still on continued funding for expanded testing and protocols that follow the guidelines recommended by public health experts wearing face coverings in public, maintaining physical distance, exercising proper hygiene, minimizing crowds and carefully reopening businesses. In collaboration with the City of Stamford, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Stamford Fire Department and Stamford Police Department, we brought free testing to more than 500 hard-to-reach individuals that yielded handfuls of positives that might not otherwise have been discovered. The Stamford NAACP has provided more than 28,000 masks to 2,800 apartment units in 26 buildings with affordable housing. None of this would have been possible without having raised more than $23,000 toto purchase required supplies and items needed for safety precautions for each doctor, nurse or program volunteer. Our leadership on this front has yielded significant increases in testing in the Black community, putting us roughly on par with the non-Hispanic white population. The latest data shows we are achieving our objectives. Equally important, our goals for our local chapter include creating events that address our civil discourse and increasing community involvement in our fight for true freedom. We want our local chapter to be a safe haven that responds from a place of openness. Just this past month we collaborated with Picture That, an award-winning art consultancy led by Valerie A. Cooper, founding owner of the Stamford-based business. Sixteen Black Fairfield County artists served as the frontline workers for the project to raise consciousness and counter acts of violence while creating space for Black imagination, innovation, and Black joy. If you havent witnessed the awe-inspiring event and breathtaking fine art in our street, I encourage you to visit the Ferguson Library Plaza and take in the inspiring view. While the NAACP National Board of Directors doesnt have an official platform for statue removal, we do recognize monuments are not history, and the continued elevation of those who have done wrongdoings in this country is a signal to people of color that America has not repudiated racism. In that respect, we have prioritized transforming the collective understanding of our nations history which does involve reassessing which legacies should be celebrated. People are gaining a new understanding that it is impossible to win economic justice without racial justice. Economic justice is about fairness across generations ensuring the economic promise of rising living standards for successive generations and that no particular group of people are specifically left out of the opportunity. Our local branch is concentrating on growing responsible sharing in banking practices and access to the capital markets. It is important to note small and medium-sized Black-owned businesses have been hit the hardest by the COVID-19 crisis. The loss of more than 400,000 firms represents 40 percent of Black businesses nationwide. Stamford has more than 50 Black-owned businesses, many of which suffered tremendously. Additionally, Black employment is disproportionately concentrated in consumer-facing service industries and the retail sector, as well as local government all hit hard in our city by pandemic-related slowdowns. During a time that calls for social distancing, the Stamford Branch of the NAACP has been challenged to strike the right balance of becoming rightfully activated by the massive uprisings against racial injustice and police violence across the country while enduring the toll of the pandemic. We see these things as inextricable. Im sure we wont get it right every time. Nonetheless, it is our promise to work with executive, legislative, and regulatory powers at every level to begin to rewrite the rules and reimagine private enterprise, democracy and shared unity so communities of every background cannot only survive but thrive. I have already been impressed with how our community has embraced our new NAACP and are collectively working together to tackle the most important issues of education, housing, criminal and police reform. We can work together if we hear and respect each others voice. Now is the time to undo and unravel what has been propagating within our communities and the nation for 400 years. I know we can do it. One thing Ive learned from standing with the community at our recent street mural event is that we are all in need of healing, and coming together can be a real, genuine source of jubilation that we all badly need after experiencing crisis. For those moments of joy I have observed and shared with others I am grateful. Guy A. Fortt is president of the Stamford NAACP Branch. The terror of raging wildfires in northern Russia saw desperate Arctic villagers evacuating by boat to escape 35ft flames and choking smoke. 'Panicking' residents in remote Svatay fled on the Alazeya River when they feared their settlement would be destroyed. The village is 140 miles above the Arctic Circle and has been encircled by fires for weeks, culminating in the exodus when locals felt their lives in danger. The infernos fuelled by high winds have wiped out ancient trees, and roasted alive wildlife including sables and rare birds. The terror of raging wildfires in northern Russia saw desperate Arctic villagers evacuating by boat to escape 35ft flames and choking smoke Larger animals like moose have escaped into the taiga and tundra, say locals. The unprecedented carnage is seen by many as being a startling consequence of climate change in the extreme north, with smoke from wildfires covering an area of Siberia equivalent to one-third the size of Canada. One resident said: 'We never had this before, this weather and the fires.' Firefighters were desperately seeking to prevent the flames reaching Svatay's diesel generator. The village is 140 miles above the Arctic Circle and has been encircled by fires for weeks, culminating in the exodus when locals felt their lives in danger The infernos fuelled by high winds have wiped out ancient trees, and roasted alive wildlife including sables and rare birds More footage shows forests on the edge of regional capital Yakutsk engulfed by smoke from unprecedented wildfires after a dry, hot summer. The worlds coldest city, and the largest above the Arctic Circle, is blanketed by smoke. Darya Borisova, head of the village administration in Svatay, where there is a state of emergency, said: 'There was a real threat.' She said the 450 locals 'got scared' when villagers fled by boat. The unprecedented carnage is seen by many as being a startling consequence of climate change in the extreme north Smoke from wildfires covering an area of Siberia equivalent to one-third the size of Canada Emergency workers flew to the far flung outpost with reports of hundreds of people fighting the surging flames. Rains eventually came and gave a respite in Svatay but firefighters remain on alert in a village that has become a symbol of the changing Arctic. The smoke has disrupted annual river supply routes essential for outlying villages in the worlds coldest inhabited region, Yakutia. Other villages even further north are also hit by fires. Some are zombie infernos - peat burning underground where the permafrost has thawed due to excessive summer heat now known in these regions in living memory. The worlds coldest city Yakutsk, and the largest above the Arctic Circle, is blanketed by smoke Legal experts said there is also no law that explicitly prohibits companies from voluntarily offering a gift to the government, as long as it is not made under duress and the gift does not benefit any particular individual government officials. But they also warn that extracting a large cash payment as a condition of a TikTok sale would undermine the integrity of a legal process that operates with specific, objective standards. That could set a precedent that deters similar deals in the future by injecting uncertainty into the prospect of any big business deal. That appears to be exactly what Mr. Trump wants. The federal government has a role to play in a potential arrangement between Microsoft and TikTok because of concerns that the Chinese-owned video app could pose a national security threat by funneling personal information about United States citizens to the Chinese government. In an executive order issued late Thursday, Mr. Trump banned the app from operating in the United States, but said the ban would take effect in 45 days, apparently to give Microsoft time to explore a possible purchase. This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans personal and proprietary information potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage, Mr. Trump said in the order. Those concerns have also prompted a review by a special government panel that examines national security threats, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, also known as CFIUS. In the past, the committee has required companies to take tangible steps to reduce the risk that their products or services could threaten the security of the United States. But experts in the process said that there were no provisions in the law that would justify Mr. Trump demanding a cash payment to mitigate security issues. Iran is urging the United Nations to hold the United States accountable for the interception of an Iranian passenger plane by two US fighter jets in the skies over Syria last month, which it called an unlawful and an adventuristic act. Iran's UN ambassador, Majid Takht Ravanchi, said in identical letters to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council circulated Friday that Iran expresses its strongest objections against this violation of international law and will pursue the issue through relevant international bodies. Ravanchi said a Mahan Airlines Airbus A310 en route from Tehran to Beirut on July 23 was aggressively and unexpectedly intercepted by two US F-15 fighter jets while traveling through internationally specified air corridors in Syria's airspace. In reaction to the offensive and hazardous manoeuvrings of the United States fighter jets and in order to save the civil aircraft and passengers' lives, the airliner had to change altitude abruptly, causing injuries to the passengers onboard, the ambassador said. US Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a Central Command spokesman, told The Associated Press at the time of the incident that a US F-15 conducted a standard visual inspection of the Iranian plane at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) from the airliner. He said the inspection was meant to ensure the safety of US coalition troops in al-Tanf in Syria as the plane was flying over that area. He said once the aircraft was identified as a passenger plane, the F-15 safely opened distance from the aircraft. The Iranian ambassador said that in line with provisions of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Iran's civil aviation organization contacted Syrian authorities and called for a prompt and accurate investigation of the incident. He said Iranian authorities also launched an investigation after the plane returned from Beirut. The results of both investigations will be released after the revision and finalization of the collected data and information by both teams, Ravanchi said. It is obvious that the act by the United States fighter jets is a flagrant violation of the aviation security and freedom of civil aviation reflected in the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and its relevant annexes as well as an infringement of the 1971 Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation, he said. Ravanchi said: It is incumbent upon the United Nations to reject such an unlawful and yet adventuristic act and hold the United States accountable for this irresponsible behaviour. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sheji S Edathara (The Statesman/ANN) New Delhi Sat, August 8, 2020 10:01 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c789ee 2 World Kerala,India,plane-crash,Air-India-Express Free At least 16 people including two pilots have reportedly died after an Air India Express flight from Dubai skidded off the runway and broke in two while landing at Karipur International Airport in Keralas Kozhikode district. Dubai-Kozhikode Air India flight (IX-1344), which was part of the Vande Bharat mission that has been bringing back Indians from abroad amid the Coronavirus pandemic, skidded off the runway and plunged deep down 35 ft. into the valley below while landing at the table-top airport. The incident occurred at 7:41 p.m. on Friday. Over 100 people are learnt to be injured while at least 15 are critically injured and have been rushed to Kozhikode Medical College and other nearby hospitals. The aircraft with 190 persons onboard battled heavy rains while landing. Although the aircraft broke in two, it, fortunately did not catch fire at the time of landing, thus averting a major disaster. Prayers for the departed souls of Kerala #planecrash #airindia. May God give strength to their families. pic.twitter.com/BUo8lSycso J.LAWRENCE (@LawrenceLawru) August 7, 2020 Police and fire force personnel were immediately pressed into action to carry out rescue operations. An NDRF team has also been rushed to the spot to join the search and rescue mission. As per the Civil Aviation Ministry, there were 174 passengers, 10 infants, 2 pilots and 4 cabin crew onboard the aircraft. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Air India Express flight landed on Runway 10 amid visibility of 2,000 metres in heavy rain, but continued running till the end of runway, fell down the valley and broke into two pieces. According to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24, the aircraft circled the airport several times and made two attempts to land. Meanwhile, the DGCA has ordered a detailed inquiry into the incident. The aviation regular, in a latest update, told news agency ANI that the aircraft was at full speed while landing at the Karipur Airport and overshot the runway. Meanwhile, an urgent meeting called by the Civil Aviation Ministry is underway at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan. DGCA Director-General, officials of the ministry, Airport Authority of India and Air India Express are reportedly present at the meeting. Following the tragedy, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan informed that he has directed all the concerned officials to make necessary arrangements for rescue and medical support Vijayan has also directed Local Self Government Minister AC Moideen to rush to the accident site. The Kerala CMO, meanwhile, informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to CM Pinarayi Vijayan over phone about the plane crash. The CM informed the PM that a team of officials including Kozhikode and Malappuram District Collectors have arrived at the airport and are participating in the rescue operation. PM Modi, in a tweet, also expressed his grief over the loss of lives in the incident and prayed for the recovery of those injured. Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Kerala CM @vijayanpinarayi Ji regarding the situation. Authorities are at the spot, providing all assistance to the affected. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 7, 2020 President Ram Nath Kovind tweeted that he was deeply distressed to hear about tragic plane crash of Air India Express flight at Kozhikode. The President added that he spoke with Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and inquired about the situation. Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted: Distressed to learn about the tragic accident of Air India Express aircraft in Kozhikode, Kerala. He added that he has instructed the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to reach the accident site at the earliest and assist with the rescue operations. The Air India Express in a statement said, We regret that there has been an incident regarding our aircraft VT GHK, operating IX 1344 DXB CCJ. Due to crash landing of the flight, it may affect the network but Vande Bharat Mission continues. The national carrier also informed that help centers are being set up at Sharjah and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Consulate General of India, Dubai released the following helpline numbers 056 546 3903, 0543090572, 0543090572, 0543090575. Kozhikode Collector also shared the Helpline Number 0495 2376901 for the relatives of passengers onboard the flight. The chief ministers office also shared some helpline numbers. By Juarawee Kittisilpa and Chayut Setboonsarng BANGKOK (Reuters) - More than 1,000 anti-government demonstrators rallied in Bangkok's commercial district on Saturday after two protest leaders were arrested and held overnight. Human rights lawyer Anon Nampa, 35, and student activist Panupong Jadnok, 23, were charged on Friday and held in connection with a series of protests demanding greater democracy. They were released on bail on Saturday pending further investigation of the charges and on the condition that they do not re-offend. "The court's condition was that the two not repeat actions like allegations from this case," Anon's lawyer, Weeranan Huadsri, told Reuters, but they could join legal protests. Charges against Anon and Panupong include sedition and violating an emergency decree imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. At a protest on Monday, Anon had also made an extremely rare call for reforms to the powerful monarchy, but he was not charged over that. Anon and Panupong appeared in good health when they exited the court and pledged to continue protesting. "We will join protests that are in accordance with the constitution, he said. He said he had always acted peacefully in accordance with the constitution and that government should stop its harassment. Their release, however, did not appease more than 1,000 demonstrators who moved ahead with an anti-government rally in Bangkok's shopping district. "Do not harass the citizens," protesters shouted at a bridge in front the MBK shopping centre despite police appeals to disperse. They chanted "Police get out" and "Dictatorship shall fall" and gave the three-finger salutes of pro-democracy protesters who are demanding the dissolution of parliament, amending the constitution and new elections. Police Colonel Patikorn Sornchai said the protesters were clearly breaking the emergency law on Saturday after being told to disperse and they would be investigated. Story continues Demonstrations have returned to Thailand's streets to call for removal of the government of 2014 coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha after a disputed election last year that activists say was engineered to ensure his hold on power. "We cannot stand the tyranny and oppression that is being inflicted on the Thai people," said 22-year-old student Pattanun Arunpreechawat. "We have to come out to show that." (Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Jiraporn Kuhakan and Matthew Tostevin; Editing by William Mallard and Angus MacSwan) Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter and the main force behind the OPEC+ production cuts, faces a too familiar dilemma just four months into the new collective agreement to curtail output in order to rebalance the market crushed by the pandemic-driven demand crash. The global oil demand recovery seems to have stalled just as OPEC+ starts to ease the production cuts by 2 million barrels per day (bpd) as of August 1. OPECs leader finds itself in an all-too-familiar position: should it try to regain its own market share again, or should it continue to try forcing full compliance with the cuts, hoping that a tighter market will drive oil prices higher. Recent signs that oil demand recovery is now slower than many analysts expected could prompt the Saudis to go back to the market-share game, instead of ensuring their unwavering compliance with the OPEC+ cuts, hoping that all others will finally stop cheating and cut as much as they are supposed to, Clyde Russell, a columnist for Reuters, writes. There are increased uncertainties on the oil market on both the demand and supply side. Demand recovery is surely not V-shaped, and it may have stalled as economies re-open in fits and starts and new localized lockdowns as COVID-19 cases return to grow in many countries. At the same time, global oil supply is also subject to speculation, as OPEC+ and North American producers restore part of the previously curtailed production. Related: Oil Prices Could Break $50 In 2021 Saudi Arabia has promised that the higher production from the eased cuts would go to its domestic market, not to the global oil market. Saudi Arabia has also promised that the actual OPEC+ cuts in August would be higher than the 7.7-million-bpd as per the agreement because laggards had promised over-compliance to offset previously poor compliance. The biggest laggard in the deal, Iraq, is promising additional cuts of around 400,000 bpd this month as part of its compensation schedule. Considering that Iraq has never fulfilled a promise as part of the deal since 2017, its not certain it will do so this time. The easing of the OPEC+ cuts as of August comes as signs mount that the oil demand recovery is stumbling, including in OPECs key market Asia. This could prompt Saudi Arabia to cut its official selling prices (OSPs) for the first time in four months. Oil refiners and traders in Asia largely expect Saudi oil giant Aramco to cut the price of its crude oil going to Asia in September as faltering oil demand recovery is depressing refining margins and weakening the Middle East oil benchmarks against which the producers in the Gulf set their prices for Asia. Saudi Arabia typically releases the pricing for its crude around the fifth of each month, but this month, Aramco delayed the OSP announcement for several days because of a Muslim holiday. Profit margins for processing crude into gasoline in Asia evaporated through July, crashing from $2.37 per barrel on July 1 to just $0.04 at end-July, according to Reuters estimates. The worlds third-largest oil importer, India, is seeing refiners cut processing rates because fuel demand has slowed in recent weeks as fuel prices are higher and parts of India are again under local lockdowns, while the monsoon season is also stalling economic activity and transport, officials at refineries told Reuters last week. Against these bearish developments in terms of demand, Saudi Arabia had no other choice but to cut its prices for Asia for September. Related: Natural Gas Has Replaced Over 100 U.S. Coal Plants In The Last Decade If the weaker-than-expected demand recovery persists beyond September, it could frustrate the OPEC+ efforts to tighten the market and draw down inventories. Having moved from managing the immediate surplus of the crisis, the OPEC+ cuts are now managing the recovery, Roger Diwan, vice president financial services at IHS Markit, said in a note on Thursday. The recent display of restored harmony among OPEC+ heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Russia illustrates that the strategic debate within the group over price levels and market share has time to run, he said. As long as prices hold in the current range, demand concerns will likely help keep the agreement on course. When prices surpass $50/bbl, potentially lifting capital spending in the United States higher, that is when changes to the tenor of the discussion, and the divergence of interest could start to play out, Diwan noted. By Tsvetana Paraskova More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Gardai have made a number of seizures of animals in recent weeks, including the recovery of 10 dogs during a search operation in Rathkeale, Co Limerick last weekend. In a statement on its website, DoneDeal said it had taken the decision as it works on further solutions to improve animal welfare. The company said it had already introduced measures in the dogs section to further improve transparency around their advertisement, such as capturing microchip numbers, however, it said it was not possible to manually review every ad placed on the website. The company said it was working closely with several animal welfare groups including the ISPCA in order to find the best possible solutions to maximise transparency and protect animal welfare. However it said it feared that removing the section may push activity offline and lead to reduced transparency when it comes to advertising dogs. Dog-trafficking Advertisement It comes as the Irish Times reported on the dog-trafficking trade in Ireland, finding that stolen dogs can frequently change hands a number of times before eventually being sent to the UK to be resold for a higher price. Speaking to the paper, gardai confirmed a black market for dogs, with Detective Sergeant Michael Reidy of Newcastle West saying they were aware of a lot of dogs that are being stolen in the Munster region" being sold on in the UK. At European level, pups are now the third most-trafficked entity. After drugs, its guns, and then pups. The detective led the investigation into the dogs recovered in Rathkeale, with intelligence gathered by his team suggesting that the 10 dogs were bound for the UK and due to be shipped out as early as the recent Bank Holiday Monday. The price of all dogs has gone through the roof in recent times. Its become a very lucrative industry, Det Sgt Reidy told the paper. Vet Finbarr Heslin told the paper that at European level, pups are now the third most-trafficked entity. After drugs, its guns, and then pups. The legal dog trade in Europe is worth 13 billion a year. This comes as there have been calls for laws to be changed so that dogs cannot be advertised for sale on social media or online marketplaces like DoneDeal. Fist raised in a black power salute, a woman in a crop top and shorts poses with members of a sinister new paramilitary-style protest group. Imarn Ayton, 29, has been ubiquitous during demonstrations in London following the death of George Floyd whether bringing traffic to a halt in Brixton, standing atop a van outside Westminster station or whipping up crowds in Parliament Square with her ever-present loudhailer. In recognition of her poster girl status, Vogue magazine featured her in its current edition celebrating black activists. But last week saw the actress and part-time drama teacher on parade with a secretive group whose startling appearance in all-black uniform and what appeared to be stab-proof vests has caused much disquiet. Imarn Ayton, 29, has been ubiquitous during demonstrations in London following the death of George Floyd Their attire which included a balaclava worn by at least one member also seemed to belie their wholesome name: Forever Family Force. According to sporadic media posts, the group is united in the battle against racism, inequality and injustice. Beyond this, its publicly stated aims drenched in amorphous, woke rhetoric get rather lost. For instance, FFF says it wants to mobilise, organise and centralise community initiatives to empower and support organisations with similar objectives. Insisting on peaceful protest, Ms Ayton has been an eloquent advocate of racial equality. She distanced herself from Black Lives Matter protests in Britain because she says it was hijacked by a group of far-Left activists. And she voiced fears that some may have donated towards a fundraising campaign without realising that those behind it want to abolish the police. But The Mail on Sunday has discovered that the FFFs leader, Khari McKenzie, has himself some rather unsettling ideas about the police, which he appears to believe can be supplanted by his security force. In one social media post, the 28-year-old rapper wrote: Cops are the Opps [opposition]... Self Defence by Any Means Necessary. He boasts of 100 members trained in martial arts that we know will work as a security force for the people. In recognition of her poster girl status, Vogue magazine featured Ms Ayton in its current edition celebrating black activists Elsewhere he adds: When we need to roll out we are uniformed and we can take that energy to our communities. 'The reason why a lot of youths get into the gangs is because they see the strongest thing is the gangs they look up to the power. In addition, McKenzie is accused of airing disturbing antisemitic posts, blaming Jews for slavery and describing the Jewish communitys alleged role in the slave trade as the original holocaust. Most recently, he leapt to the defence of grime artist Wiley, who was dropped by his management following a series of horrifying antisemitic outbursts on social media. McKenzie reasons that his group of serious members organised, disciplined and uniformed will be respected by gangs across Britain, especially if they have an economic structure to them. How much Ms Ayton is aware of these ideas is unclear. She did not respond to requests for a comment. She did, however, post footage on Instagram in which she parades with female FFF members, or lionesses as they call themselves, during last weeks march in Brixton for African Emancipation Day. Ms Ayton distanced herself from Black Lives Matter protests in Britain because she says it was hijacked by a group of far-Left activists It is held on the first day of August each year to mark both the anniversary of the date in 1834 when the Abolition of Slavery Act came into force, and to campaign for Britain to pay reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. In the sequence, the cry lionesses! is heard, the cue for male soldiers to split down the middle and salute the women making their way through a central channel. Waiting to greet them is Ms Ayton, megaphone dangling in her left hand. She then strolls back through the ranks and takes her place in front of the formation. Once there, she drops her head in solemn repose and raises her right fist. In response to the footage, comments by one Instagram user appear to assume that the film depicts armed militia in America. One such group across the Atlantic the charmingly named No F****** Around Coalition (NFAC) has suggested the US government hand over the state of Texas to African-Americans so that they might form an independent country. Evidently delighted by the comparison, Ms Ayton, who teaches in Teddington, South-West London, replies to the comment: Its a compliment if you thought we were the NFAC in America. The influence of American groups on the FFF is striking. Comparisons have been made with the Black Panthers, the radical far-Left protest group which wore similar garb as it campaigned against police brutality in 1960s America. Once, McKenzie referred to himself as a real Black Panther, but he has also made clear his admiration for the NFAC, sharing footage of them protesting in March in Louisville, Kentucky over the police shooting of a black nurse. In it, NFAC leader John Grandmaster Jay Johnson, wearing black combat fatigues and carrying automatic weapons, rallies his troops through a loudhailer. United: Khari McKenzie of Forever Family Force and rapper Megaman Johnson has boasted that his men all ex-military are expert shooters and has said: We dont want to negotiate, we dont want to sing songs, we dont bring signs to a gunfight. We are an eye-for-an-eye organisation. Commenting on the film just weeks before the FFF made its debut in Brixton, McKenzie notes that his original vision of Gang Unite has come to life. Gang Unite is his long-held ambition for gangs to drop their opposition to one another for a greater, but as yet unidentified, cause. He says: Can we not see the countless videos of police brutalising us every day? Is this the legacy we pass down to our children, or will we be able to look at them and say we put our differences to one side, and came together to make a change for them? 'Dont want to talk to [sic] much on the [Insta]gram, but we have our first fifty brothers and sisters, and our training space, whos to ready join and get organised? In another rallying cry, he called for real freedom fighters to get involved in the security arm. He said: We are preparing the community to be able to defend itself from any attack. When his security force was ready to make its public debut before bemused and in some cases alarmed bystanders in South London last week, the US influence was clear in the military-style call and response drills. One shouted, I dont know what you been told, to which the others cried, Familys taking back these roads! Journalist and free speech campaigner Inaya Folarin Iman later described the spectacle as sinister, writing that their presence would not have been out of place in a dystopian land of revolutionary chaos and conflict, rather than the well-ordered streets of our capital. McKenzie has been vocal in his opposition to BLM UK, often criticising the organisations support of an LGBT family structure in social media posts. In an Instagram live video, he said: I dont understand having two dads. He also appears to have the backing of Dwayne Vincent, better known as Megaman, the leader of the former notorious South London rap collective So Solid Crew. In a series of Instagram live videos, the pair discuss their intention to have a team of people out there searching for injustice on every level. Ms Ayton has voiced fears that some may have donated towards a fundraising campaign without realising that those behind it want to abolish the police He also intimates that Megaman is involved in the economic side of FFF. But in their conversations, Megaman was clearly alive to the incendiary nature of a lot of McKenzies dubious comments. He told him that they needed to iron up certain corners of your speech when it comes to your speaking on behalf of the organisation. He was clearly talking from experience. When So Solid Crew broke on to the music scene in 2000, their concerts attracted violence and they were forced to abandon their debut national tour in 2001. After two Birmingham teenagers were shot dead in 2002, the then Culture Minister Kim Howells laid part of the blame on idiots like the So Solid Crew glorifying gun culture and violence. However, the band was always insistent on their opposition to violence. Megaman was himself acquitted of murder in 2006. It remains to be seen whether there will be a similar disconnect between the words and actions of Forever Family Force. The crucial black box from the Boeing 737 which crashed on Friday has been recovered and is being taken to Delhi for further investigation, the Airports Authority of India said At least 18 people died and 149 were injured after a special Air India Express flight brining home Indians stranded abroad by the COVID-19 pandemic, skidded off the runway at the Kozhikode Interantioanl Airport in Kerala on Friday night, nosedived into a gorge 35 feet below and cracked in two. After 24 hours since the ill-fated flight overshot the tabletop runway while landing at the airport, the condition of 23 of the 149 injured remains critical, the Kerala government said. "Earlier, 23 were discharged after being provided initial medical assistance," Kerala chief minsiter Pinarayi Vijayan said. One person died today, taking the toll in the mishap to 18. According to a list of the 18 victims released by Malappuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan, four of the deceased were children three girls and a one-year old boy and seven were men and other women. Two girls were aged two and the other was five. As many as nine of the passengers who lost their lives were from Kozhikode (also known as Calicut) while two hailed from Palakkad and five from Malappuram. The pilot Deepak Sathe and the co-pilot Captain Akhilesh Kumar were the other two victims. Both the Central and Kerala governments have announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the deceased. "The state government has decided to provide a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of those who have lost their lives. The medical expenses of those under treatment will be taken over by the state government," Vijayan told reporters, adding that the state government will take a decision on providing further assistance to help them get their lives back on track if required. The crucial black box from the Boeing 737 was also recovered and will be taken to Delhi for further investigation, said the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Plane swayed violently, says survivor In a telephone interview from his hospital bed, Renjith Panangad, a plumber who was returning home for the first time in three years after losing his job at a construction company in Dubai, told The Associated Press that the plane swayed before the crash and everything went dark. He said he followed other passengers who crawled their way out of the fuselage through the emergency exit. A lot of passengers were bleeding, said Panangad, who escaped without major injuries. I still cant comprehend what happened. As I am trying to recall what happened, my body is shivering. He said the pilot made a regular announcement before landing, and moments after the plane hit the runway, it nosedived. There was a big noise during the impact and people started screaming, he said. AIE arranges relief flights for passengers The Air India Express said four crew members of the flight were safe, while the Employees Union of the low-cost carrier, said they were receiving treatment at a hospital for injuries suffered in the mishap. It said families of the deceased pilots have been escorted to Kozhikode. The airline also said three relief flights had been arranged to assist passengers and their family members affected in the accident of the aircraft which was being operated under the Centre's Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indians stranded abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic. Civil Aviation Minister announces interim relief; black box recovered Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri flew down to Kozhikode and visited the accident site with his ministerial colleague V Muraleedharan and others. The Union minister announced an interim relief of Rs 10 lakh for each of those who died, Rs 2 lakh for the seriously injured and Rs 50,000 for those who suffered minor injuries. This would be over and above all the other compensations, which might be forthcoming from different agencies, insurance of the aircraft etc, he said. "I might mention that the Air India aircraft are properly insured and discussions will be made with passengers and their families at the appropriate juncture in line with the Montreal Convention of international civil aviation organisation," Puri said. He also assured the kin of victims that steps would be taken to get compensation in line with an international convention of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Puri took stock of the relief measures and said he would hold consultations "with senior civil aviation officials and professionals", adding that the reasons for the mishap were being investigated. He also appealed to the media not to speculate on the cause of the accident, saying that the required information would be retrieved from the black box of the aircraft. Digital Flight Data Recorder & Cockpit Voice Recorder of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved. AAIB is conducting investigations. pic.twitter.com/WCOPV5ETTf Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) August 8, 2020 An official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told news agency PTI that the DFDR and CVR, which jointly make up the "black box" in an aircraft, are with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and will be sent to Delhi for further investigation. The CVR keeps a recording of all the conversations taking place in the cockpit while the DFDR has a record of flight data such as airspeed, altitude and fuel flow. These can help in finding out the cause of the crash, he said. COVID-19 fears surface On Saturday, as reports emerged that at least two of the patients in the ill-fated plane were COVID-19 positive, fears over the spread of COVID-19 emerged among those who helped carry out the rescue operations. State Health Minister KK Shailaja asked all those engaged in rescue operations to go into self-quarantine and get themselves tested. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), too asked its personnel, who it said were among the first responders at the accident site, to go into preventive quarantine. "We are identifying our personnel, who rescued the passengers who have tested positive for the coronavirus," CISF Special Director General (Airports) MA Ganapathy told news agency PTI. Around 50 CISF personnel and their family members were involved in the rescue operation, said another official. Meanwhile,Vijayan also praised the immediate assistance offered by local people and authorities, which ensured minimum loss of lives in a disaster of such a large magnitude. Yesterday, the fast response of local people and officials made all the difference. They braved bad weather and COVID fears to rescue their fellow beings. The long queues of people who wanted to donate blood was just one example. Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) August 8, 2020 "Even though 18 precious lives have been lost due to the impact of the crash, the rescue operations were a miraculous work. The general public and the officials played a big role in spearheading the rescue operations," he said. Earlier, the Kerala chief minister also said that the post mortem process has been expedited despite the COVID-19 threat and is expected to finish before evening. "All the accident victims will be tested for COVID-19 including those who died in the crash," Vijayan said. He, however, said that so far, only one victim has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Pilot used different runway, says AAI The AAI said that the Air India Express plane had touched down near a taxiway that is around 1,000 metres from the beginning of the runway at the Kozhikode airport. The pilot of the ill-fated flight IX-1344 could not sight the runway in the first landing attempt due to heavy rains. An AAI spokesperson told PTI that runway 28 was in use and in the first landing attempt, the pilot could not sight the runway and requested for runway 10. The visibility was around 2,000 metres, he said. The civil aviation minister said that the pilot in-command of the crashed Boeing 737 aircraft Deepak Vasant Sathe, a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF), was one of the most experienced commanders with more than 10,000 flying hours and had landed aircraft 27 times at the Karipur airport in the past. Meanwhile, reports emerged of a notice issued by the DGCA to the director of the Kozhikode airport last year which had citied "various critical safety lapses" including cracks on the runway, water stagnation and excessive rubber deposits. The DGCA notice was based on inspection conducted after an Air India Express flight coming from Dammam in Saudi Arabia had a "tail strike" while landing at the Calicut (Kozhikode) airport on 2 July last year, an official said. In a statement on Saturday evening, the DGCA said, "Based on the above findings, a show-cause notice was issued to the airport director at Calicut for non-compliance and advised to take immediate action on findings. The Airport Director, Calicut sent a compliance report on 5 August, 2019. After examination of the compliance report, all the major findings were closed." Captain Mohan Ranganathan, a civil aviation expert said that he too had flagged concerns over the runway 10 at the airport in a communication to then Civil Aviation Secretary Nasim Zaidi in the aftermath of an Air India Express aircraft crash at Mangalore airport in 2010, which claimed 158 lives. "...all the flights that land on Runway 10 in the tailwind conditions in rain, are endangering the lives of all on board," Ranganathan had said. Regarding the Kozhikode airport accident, Ranganathan was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying that the runway has a steep downslope and no safety area. The warnings were ignored... in my opinion, it is not an accident but a murder. Their own audits have had flagged safety issues Ranganathan said, adding that the crash could have been avoided. Kozhikode airport in Kerala comes under the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The airport has a tabletop runway. But AAI Chairman Arvind Singh noted that prior to COVID-19, there were around 70 departures as well as 70 arrivals at the Kozhikode airport on a daily basis. After domestic flights resumed on 25 May, there have been 10 departures and 10 arrivals every day. He, however, said that said "corrective action" will be taken after receiving the probe report. Condolences pour in Meanwhile, condolences poured in from many countries, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Russia and the Maldives. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said he was shocked and saddened to hear about the tragic plane crash at Kozhikode. Russian President Vladimir Putin too conveyed his condolences to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent his condolences to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the tragic plane crash at Kozhikode: India in Russia 18 passengers of an Air India Express flight died after it crash-landed in Kozhikode, Kerala yesterday. pic.twitter.com/nr1sCwIBgf ANI (@ANI) August 8, 2020 With inputs from agencies We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. 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Digital Editor In the olden days, before a global pandemic, a Canada-U.S. trade war would set off all-points alarms all over the federal government. But unlike a pandemic, Donald Trumps bully gambit with tariffs is something Justin Trudeaus government has handled before over and over, again and again. You could say that Trudeau and his team havent been this frustrated with Trump since the last time he tried to turn a pandemic into a trade war which was in April, a scant few months ago. Stay tuned as well for more. The presidential order at the heart of Aprils dispute revolving around America-first policies on pandemic relief expires on Monday, Aug. 10, which means that Canada may need once again to remind Trump, very soon, about how to treat friends of the U.S. Here we go again, could well be the title of a book on how Canada has learned to handle Trump. Sure, pandemics may have second waves, but Trumps trade tiffs are starting to resemble the enduring regularity of tides. So the reaction to Trumps announcement of aluminum tariffs on Thursday followed what has unfortunately developed into a much-repeated drill here in Canada: measured but firm remarks from Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland; populist outrage from Ontario Premier Doug Ford and diplomatic silence from Trudeau himself. Whats worked before may well work again; theres something to be said for practice. It is remarkable that Canada has developed a predictable routine to respond to an unpredictable U.S. president, treating his countrys closest neighbour as a convenient prop for re-election and distraction in this case, distraction from the wildly mismanaged pandemic south of the border. Back in April, well recall, Trump set tempers flaring in Canada when he unrolled an America-first policy for the production of pandemic-related supplies in the U.S., which would have forbidden exports of items such as masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) to Canada. The outrage in Canada was immediate Ford and other premiers thundered at their COVID-announcement podiums about how the U.S. was betraying its friend in Canada and ignoring all that it gets from this country in trade and historic goodwill. It sounded, in fact, a lot like what Ford was saying on Friday about the new aluminum tariffs. Who does this in times like this? Ford said, articulating what other no-nonsense Canadians would be saying about this Trump move. Who tries to go after your closest ally, your closest trading partner, your number one customer in the entire world? Who would do this? Well President Trump did this. And I encourage the deputy prime minister to put retaliatory tariffs on as many goods as possible. Freeland, who had talked with her good friend Ford that very morning, did just that an hour later or more correctly, announced that retaliation was pending. Again, its a routine developed through several rounds now with Trump: let the provinces speak up, as angrily as they please, while Ottawa pursues solutions through quiet and more diplomatic channels and buys some time for cooler heads to prevail at the White House. I will continue to work closely with the provincial and territorial leaders, business owners and unions, Freeland told reporters. Id like to thank them for their solid defence of Canadian national interests. We did defend them the last time that the United States introduced trade actions. And we will defend them now as well. Canadas response to these unwarranted tariffs will be swift and strong. Trump, Canada has learned from bitter experience, is someone who turns every foreign relationship into a trade spat, so it helps that Freeland is a former trade minister, who helped negotiate the new NAFTA arrangement that only came into effect in July. Here Canada will go again, responding to Trump as it did when he slapped steel and aluminum tariffs on this country in June of 2018, prompting a detailed, dollar-by-dollar retaliation from Canada, aimed at political swing regions of the U.S. In the face of these new tariffs, Canada will also be fanning out across the States, to persuade Americans that bad trade relations with this country are counterproductive, just as it did during other tariff and Nafta-related flare-ups. I am confident, as we were last time around, that ultimately common sense will prevail. I just hope that happens sooner rather than later, Freeland said. So many unprecedented things have happened to Canada-U.S. relations since the pandemic broke out a closed border being chief among them. A trade tantrum from Trump, regrettably, isnt new or original, even in this uncharted territory. We do know this: If Canadas response this time doesnt work, its not for lack of practice. Susan Delacourt is an Ottawa-based columnist covering national politics for the Star. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt Read more about: Actor Kriti Sanon has shared a cryptic post about weathering a storm, as the pressure mounts on Rhea Chakraborty in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. Rhea on Friday appeared at the Mumbai offices of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning. Sushant died by suicide on June 14. In her note, Kriti wrote, It is cloudy, It is foggy, Its all so unclear. But they say Truth is like the Sun. Its always there... So dont speculate. Just patiently wait. For its gonna be windy for a while and it is gonna rain. But remember my friend, sometimes a storm is just making way for the Sun to shine again. In her caption, she added a hashtag: patience. Kriti, who worked with Sushant in the film Raabta, was among the few Bollywood personalities to have attended the actors funeral. Two days after his death, Kriti had written a remembrance post on social media. Sush.. I knew that your brilliant mind was your best friend and your worst enemy.. but it has broken me completely to know that you had a moment in your life where Dying felt easier or better than Living, she had written. I so wish you had people around you to get you past THAT moment, i wish you hadnt pushed the ones who loved you away.. i wish i could have fixed that something which was broken inside you..I couldnt.. I wish so so many things.... A part of my heart has gone with you.. and a part will always keep you alive.. Never stopped praying for your happiness and never will.. Also read: Sushant Singh Rajputs sister Shweta Singh Kirti says we will win in new post Kriti had also commented on the online vitriol that she had been subjected to in the wake of Sushants death, and the insensitivity surrounding its coverage in the media. Sushants death is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation, after a turf war broke out between the Mumbai and Bihar police departments. Rhea and her brother Showik Chakraborty presented themselves for questioning on Friday. They have been accused of abetting Sushants suicide, among other allegations. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON For the second time within 42 days, Oyo state governor Seyi Makinde met again with the immediate past governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko behinds c... For the second time within 42 days, Oyo state governor Seyi Makinde met again with the immediate past governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko behinds closed door ahead of the governorship election scheduled for October 10 this year. Sources said that Makinde who visited Mimiko at his Ondo country home with two other leaders of the party in Oyo state including Senator Hosea Agboola were on a reconciliation mission and to woo him back to the PDP. Makinde whose last visit to Mimiko was on June 26, to plead with him to forgive his grandson, the PDP governorship candidate, Eyitayo Jegede. Jegede was the Attorney General and Justice Commissioner for eight years under Mimiko. Their relationship became frosty after the 2016 election which was won by the incumbent Rotimi Akeredolu. For over three years the duo went their different ways over some irreconcilable differences until Jegede again won the partys ticket to contest in the October 10 governorship election. The emergence of a third force, the Zenith Labour Party led by Mimiko on which platform the deputy governor Hon Agboola Ajayi who came second in the PDP primary wanted to contest has unsettled Jegede and leadership of the PDP. Makinde was said to have tried to mediate between the duo ahead of the election but failed. His night visit to Mimiko on Thursday in Ondo town was also to plead with him to support Jegede in the election. Sources said that the meeting between the two leaders could not achieve the desired result because Mimiko had given his word to the deputy governor who was billed to defect to the ZLP next week. Mimiko was said to have informed Makinde that it was too late for him to support Jegede because of his commitment to the third force. Recall that Jegede himself had visited Mimiko in Ondo during the week to seek for reconciliation and support for his ambition. His visit after over three years was seen by members of the ZLP in the state as belated. The media aide to Mimiko John. Paul Akinduro confirmed to newsmen that the Oyo state governor and other leaders of the party visited Mimiko. Akinduro said it was a closed door meeting between Makinde and his host. It was gathered that following the disquiet within the PDP in the state over the choice of deputy governorship slot, the candidate yesterday met with six of his co-contestants including, Dr Eddy Olafeso, Dr Bode Ayorinde, Hon Banji Okunomo, Godday Erewa, Hon Sola Ebiseni and Senator Boluwaji Kunlere. The meeting which was held behind close door took place at the Alagbaka GRA in Akure, the residence of the candidate. Sources said that the candidate sought for their support and unity ahead of the coming election. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 04:15:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The total number of COVID-19 cases in Yemen's government-controlled provinces increased to 1,796 on Friday, as 28 new cases were confirmed. The Yemeni Health Ministry said in a brief press statement that during the past 24 hours, the number of recoveries in the government-controlled areas increased to 907 since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus on April 10. Also, the government announced that the death toll from the virus climbed to 512 in different areas under its control, including the southern port city of Aden. The Yemeni government called on donors and relevant international humanitarian organizations to provide support to help contain the pandemic. Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa. Enditem US executive orders targeting Chinese apps a 'shameless' act of hegemony: FM Global Times Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/7 16:01:58 The US will eventually taste the bitter fruit of choosing self-interest over market principles, intl rules, which will only lead to the decline of morality, national image, and intl trust: Chinese FM on US executive orders targeting TikTok and WeChat . China urges the US to correct its wrongdoings, stop politicizing economic issues and cracking down on related firms, and provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for normal operations and investment by businesses from all countries: FM The US frequently uses national security as an excuse to abuse state power and groundlessly clamp down on related firms, a shameless act of hegemony; China resolutely opposes it: Chinese FM NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address ALTON A heartfelt favorite organization will bring its mobile unit to Metro East for a special public opportunity to honor Americas veterans. Wreaths Across Americas (WAA) Mobile Education Exhibit will visit Alton from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, at Riverfront Park, which plans to reopen by the day of the event, Alton National Cemeterys Margaret Hopkins said. All safety precautions will be adhered to during this health crisis, Hopkins said. At the same time as the WAA education exhibition, an Alton Muny Band ensemble will be playing from 10-11 a.m. at the park. This is even more reason to come to the park that day, Hopkins said. Local volunteers who bring Wreaths Across America in December to Alton National Cemetery will be hosting the mobile education exhibit as a kick-off to this years fundraising effort to lay wreaths throughout Alton National Cemetery on Wreaths Across America day, Dec. 19. Alton is among three planned Illinois stops for the mobile unit, including Columbia and Bloomington. These visits will be special chances for people to come by and get a free exhibit tour. Dignitaries, veterans and other interested groups are urged to come join the organization, its leaders said, as this is a singular opportunity to learn more about Wreaths Across America, the work being done to honor veterans and get a first-hand account of what it is like to deliver 2.5 million wreaths each year in December, as well as how it impacts U.S. families. The goal of the Wreaths Across America Education Exhibit is to bring local communities and the U.S. military together with education, stories and interactive connections. Wreaths Across Americas mission is to Remember, Honor, Teach. More Information If you go: What: Wreaths Across America Mobile Education Exhibit, hosted by Wreaths Across America, Alton chapter When: 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 12 Where: Riverfront Park, Alton Info: Free exhibit tours open to public; park will be open for the exhibition. An Alton Muny Band ensemble will be playing from 10-11 a.m. Social distancing, sanitation and COVID-19 safety procedures will be in place to protect the health of all visitors in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations for large gatherings. See More Collapse Members of the committee will be there during the day to answer questions, take names of interested volunteers and accept donations, Hopkins explained. The mobile education exhibit will help to teach not only the next generation, but all community members and visitors about the services and sacrifices of the nations military. All veterans, active-duty military, their families and the local community are invited and encouraged to speak with Wreaths Across America volunteers to learn more about the organizations mission. The goal of the Wreaths Across America Mobile Education Exhibit is to build community awareness and understanding of the organizations yearlong mission to remember, honor, teach, said Executive Director Karen Worcester, Wreaths Across America. However, in light of the current health crisis, we feel this exhibit has taken on even more meaning by providing the opportunity for people to safely participate in something with safety measures in place that is both educational and fun, while supporting and giving back to the community during this uncertain time. This event is open to the public with social distancing, sanitation and COVID-19 safety procedures in place to protect the health of all visitors in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions recommendations for large gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Im proud to have the opportunity to mimic the courage and valor of our countrys veterans by forging ahead with this event and offering folks the hope we can still be united for a great cause, Wreaths Across America spokesperson Amber Caron said. Im also hopeful that families use this as an opportunity to teach community spirit, as well as having significant meaning for so many. Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organizations mission Remember, Honor, Teach is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at thousands of veterans cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond. We know that the ceremony will look different this year, Hopkins said, because of the pandemic, but we are moving forward with our plans to accomplish the mission to remember, honor and teach. For more information and to donate, visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org. The Tax Collector, a new crime thriller starring Shia LaBeouf, has been ripped to shreds by film critics. The movie, which is written and directed by Suicide Squads David Ayer, follows LaBeouf and Bobby Soto as two enforcers for a crime lord who run into trouble when an old rival reappears. Critics have slammed the film for perpetuating negative stereotypes of Latino people, with The Los Angeles Times writer Carlos Aguilar saying: One of the most atrocious viewing experiences of the year, The Tax Collector relies on a trite visual language built on obvious flashbacks and bland imagery that match the unimaginatively dreadful writing where every Latino in sight is a gangster." Jeannette Catsoulis, for The New York Times, described the film as a generic gangland banger with a madly illogical plot. She adds that LaBeouf did his best given the circumstances. Varietys Peter Debruge pulled no punches, writing that the movie is bloody, barely coherent and about as fun as having your face dragged across asphalt from a moving SUV. IndieWires Eric Kohn called the film a slog of vulgar threats and violent outbursts, adding that it trades substance for anger until the credits bring some measure of peace. The Tax Collector has been controversial in the lead up to its release. Ayer was forced to defend LaBeoufs role earlier this year after it was suggested he was playing a character of Latin-American descent. However, Ayer has said that while LaBeoufs character is influenced by Latino culture, the actor is in fact playing a white man. Ayers 2012 police thriller End of Watch, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, was also controversial. It was condemned by some critics for its depiction of almost exclusively black and Latino criminals. By PTI KOLKATA: West Bengal CPI(M) Saturday filed a police complaint against a fake social media post attributed to party general secretary Sitaram Yechury. CPI(M) state secretary and Politburo member Surya Kanta Mishra in a letter to Kolkata Police deputy commissioner to the cyber crime cell said an image of Yechury is being circulated in the social media with the watermark of a website. "In the said image malicious statements are being attributed to our General Secretary in a manner which will ultimately lead to communal disharmony," Mishra said in his complaint. He shared the link of the social media post attributed to Yechury. It also appears that the said social media page has a website spreading a variety of other malicious misinformation. Kindly take steps against the persons spreading such misinformation and restrain them from publishing such inflammatory material," he added. A Kolkata Police senior official confirmed the receipt of the complaint and said it was being looked into. Nearly half a million utility customers in Connecticut remained without power Friday, three days after Tropical Storm Isaias ripped through the state. Public officials say Connecticut's two main energy companies weren't ready for the storm. Some reports estimate that it will take more than a week to fully restore power. In Westport, almost the entire town remains without power as crews work to clean up possibly the hardest hit community in Connecticut, according to officials. Strong winds and heavy rains hit the region Tuesday, ripping down trees and wires across the state. With many people facing several nights in the dark, Connecticut's governor called for an investigation into how utilities responded to the storm. (Representative Image) Representative Image The BJP on Saturday shifted six of its MLAs to Gujarat's Porbandar ahead of the Rajasthan assembly session beginning August 14, according to party sources. They left on a chartered flight for BJP-ruled Gujarat from the Jaipur airport. The legislators will be staying at a luxury resort there and likely to visit the Somnath temple, the sources said. According to them, 12 party MLAs on Friday had left Rajasthan for Gujarat's Ahmedabad where they camping at a resort. However, state BJP chief Satish Poonia rejected suggestions that his party has started herding their MLAs to a place like the Congress did ahead of the crucial assembly session. Congress MLAs are holed up in a Jaisalmer hotel as the party has accused the BJP of horse-trading following the revolt of its leader Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs loyal to him against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. All legislators are united and there is no distrust, Poonia said, adding that people in the Congress government are trying to spread rumours and confusion" about BJP MLAs on social media and other forums. Poonia said soon a meeting of the BJP legislature party will be held, which will be attended by all MLAs. Meanwhile, BJP MLA Ashok Lahoti, who accompanied the six legislators to the Jaipur airport, said they were being "harassed" and voluntarily went on a pilgrimage. "Some BJP legislators are being harassed through police and the administration. Those legislators who are being harassed have gone on a pilgrimage voluntarily," Lahoti told reporters after coming out of the airport. Deputy Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore said, "If some BJP MLAs went on an educational tour or roam around collectively then it cannot be termed badabandi' (fortification)." He said the BJP stays away from such a culture. The BJP legislators who boarded the flight from the Jaipur airport on Saturday are Nirmal Kumawat, Gopichand Meena, Jabbar Singh Sankhla, Dharamveer Mochi, Gopal Lal Sharma and Gurudeep Singh Shahpini. The airport authorities too confirmed that six passengers were on the flight to Porbandar. During a helicopter flypast, an AFP reporter saw a gaping chasm on the lower part of the Planpincieux, from which two cascades of water flowed towards the valley The threat that a massive chunk of glacier loosened by soaring temperatures could collapse near an alpine resort on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc mountain range has slightly eased, a local mayor said Saturday. Security measures around the danger area were being "gradually relaxed", local officials said. Climate change has been increasingly melting the world's glaciers, creating a new danger for the town of Courmayeur, a resort community in Italy's Aosta Valley region, near the French border. The town was put on high alert on Wednesday as a block of ice estimated at about 500,000 cubic metresthe size of the Milan cathedral, one official saidfrom the Planpincieux glacier risked falling and threatening homes. A "red zone" at the base of the slope was also evacuated, with 20 residents and around 55 holidaymakers moved from the area. Earlier Courmayeur mayor Stefano Miserocchi said Saturday that things were looking up. "We are in a phase of slight improvement, the situation is a little better," he told AFP. "However we have not yet returned to the situation before the closure," of the road to Val Ferret, a small valley normally busy with tourists at this time of year, he added. An alternative one-way road was being made accessible from Saturday for those living in Val Ferret who wish to travel down and out of the area and for those with reservations elsewhere in the area. Some locals were dismissive of the closure, lamenting that it further affected a tourism season already hit by coronavirus measures. However Mayor Miserocchi said it was "urgent and vital" to move people directly in the path of a potential ice fall, as more scorching temperatures are forecast over the coming days. Ludovic Ravanel, a researcher at the University of Savoie Mont Blanc who studies glaciers and rockfalls in the Alps, defended the decision to evacuate the area. "We cannot leave people under the threat of such an avalanche of ice," he told AFP. Global warming link 'obvious' Aosta Valley natural risk management director Valerio Segor said the situation was "especially delicate" because the heat "upsets the water level between the ice and the rock, and in turn the stability of the glacier." He said the problem was "that not enough water can escape, it stays under the glacier like a bubble and risks lifting it up"which could tip its most fragile section to tumble into the valley, Segor told AFP earlier in the week. But Miserocchi said Saturday that "the circulation of water under the glacier has resumed... it was this point that worried us a lot". During a helicopter flypast, an AFP reporter saw a gaping chasm on the lower part of the Planpincieux, from which two cascades of water flowed towards the valley, as it hung from the mountainside like a gigantic block of grey polystyrene. Researcher Ravanel said that Planpincieux's "link with global warming is obvious". "A particularly strong glacial retreat over the past three decades, combined with increasingly frequent heatwaves, explains the current situation," he said. There are more than 4,000 glaciersvast, ancient reserves of icedotted throughout the Alps, providing seasonal water to millions and forming some of Europe's most stunning landscapes. But they are under severe threat from climate change. In September and October last year, the Planpincieux glacier also threatened a partial collapse, after which extra surveillance measures were put in place. A study last year by Swiss scientists found that Alpine glaciers could shrink between 65 and 90 percent this century, depending on how effectively the world can curb greenhouse gas emissions. 2020 AFP WASHINGTON - The U.S. Postal Service says it lost $2.2 billion in the three months that ended in June as the beleaguered agency hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic piles up financial losses that officials warn could top $20 billion over two years. But the new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, disputed reports that his agency is slowing down election mail or any other mail and said it has ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on time for the November presidential contest, when a significant increase in mail-in ballots is expected. Still, DeJoy offered a gloomy picture of the 630,000-employee agency Friday in his first public remarks since taking the top job in June. Our financial position is dire, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, a broken business model and a management strategy that has not adequately addressed these issues, DeJoy told the postal board of governors at a meeting Friday. Without dramatic change, there is no end in sight, DeJoy said. While package deliveries to homebound Americans were up more than 50%, that was offset by continued declines in first-class and business mail, even as costs increased significantly to pay for personal protective equipment and replace workers who got sick or chose to stay home in fear of the virus, DeJoy said. Without an intervention from Congress, the agency faces an impending cash flow crisis, he said. The Postal Service is seeking an infusion of at least $10 billion to cover operating losses as well as regulatory changes that would undo a congressional requirement that the agency pre-fund billions of dollars in retiree health benefits. The agency is doing its part, said DeJoy, a Republican fundraiser and former supply chain executive who took command of the agency June 15. DeJoy, 63, of North Carolina, is a major donor to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. He is the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who is not a career postal employee. In his first month on the job, DeJoy said, he directed the agency to vigorously focus on the ingrained inefficiencies in our operations, including by applying strict limits on overtime. By running our operations on time and on schedule, and by not incurring unnecessary overtime or other costs, we will enhance our ability to be sustainable and ... continue to provide high-quality, affordable service, DeJoy said. While not acknowledging widespread complaints by members of Congress about delivery delays nationwide, DeJoy said the agency will aggressively monitor and quickly address service issues. DeJoys remarks came as lawmakers from both parties called on the Postal Service to immediately reverse operational changes that are causing delays in deliveries across the country just as big volume increases are expected for mail-in election voting. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that changes imposed by DeJoy threaten the timely delivery of mail including medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers and absentee ballots for voters that is essential to millions of Americans. In his remarks to the postal board of governors, DeJoy called election mail handling a robust and proven process.? While there will likely be an unprecedented increase in election mail volume due to the pandemic, the Postal Service has ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on time in accordance with our delivery standards, and we will do so,? DeJoy said. However ... we cannot correct the errors of (state and local) election boards if they fail to deploy processes that take our normal processing and delivery standards into account.? Later Friday, DeJoy released another memo detailing changes that reshuffle dozens of officials on his executive leadership team. The former chief operating officer, David Williams, was moved to lead logistics and processing operations, while Kevin McAdams, vice-president of delivery and retail operations, was removed from leadership. DeJoy said the changes which also include a management hiring freeze would improve efficiency and align functions based on core business operations. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, said DeJoy should not be instituting such major changes during the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic with a national election around the corner. Maloney, who has called DeJoy to testify before her committee next month, demanded he halt these changes now. DeJoy ran into similar resistance at a closed-door meeting Wednesday with Schumer and Pelosi. Schumer called it a heated discussion and said Democrats told DeJoy that elections are sacred. They urged him not to impose cutbacks at a time when all ballots count,? Schumer said. In separate letters, two Montana Republicans, Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte, also urged the Postal Service to reverse the July directive, which eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and mandates that mail be kept until the next day if distribution centres are running late. And 84 House members including four Republicans signed yet another letter blasting the changes and urging an immediate reversal. It is vital that the Postal Service does not reduce mail delivery hours, which could harm rural communities, seniors, small businesses and millions of Americans who rely on the mail for critical letters and packages, the House members wrote. The flurry of letters came as the top Democrat on a Senate panel that oversees the Postal Service launched an investigation into the operational changes. Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said DeJoy has failed to provide answers about the service delays, despite repeated requests. Democrats have pushed for $10 billion for the Postal Service in talks with Republicans on a huge COVID-19 response bill. The figure is down from a $25 billion plan in a House-passed coronavirus measure. Key Republicans whose rural constituents are especially reliant on the post office support the idea. Trump, a vocal critic of the Postal Service, contended Wednesday that the Post Office doesnt have enough time to handle a significant increase in mail-in ballots. I mean youre talking about millions of votes. .. Its a catastrophe waiting to happen.? Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin, on Thursday, convicted and sentenced Akinola Opeyemi and Owolabi Olajide to three months of community service for internet fraud. The convicts were prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ilorin Zonal Office on separate one-count charges of cheating and impersonation to which they pleaded guilty. According to the statement released by the anti-graft agency, the duo are to sweep the Physics Department of the University of Ilorin and the premises of Saint Anthony Secondary School, Ilorin, for three months or pay N50,000 option of fine each. An operative of the Commission, Olarewaju Lamidi, who reviewed the fact of the case disclosed that trouble started for the convicts when in March 2020, the Ilorin Zonal Office of the Commission placed some areas of the city on surveillance, following intelligence on the activities of internet fraudsters in the municipality, and arrested the defendants and others as a result. Also, analysis of iPhones and laptops recovered from the convicts yielded fraudulent email addresses and messages, which the convicts confessed to be theirs. Delivering his judgment, Justice Oyinloye said, I have carefully considered the evidence before the court, the exhibits tendered and the uncontroverted testimony of the prosecution witness. This honourable court holds that the prosecution has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendants are hereby convicted as charged. In sentencing them to community service, the judge directed the Head of Physics Department, University of Ilorin, and the Principal, Saint Anthony Secondary, to issue an assessment letter on the convicts compliance with the judgment to the Chief Registrar of the Kwara State High Court, at the completion of their community service. Poor level of compliance, the judge stated, would earn the convicts a direct six months imprisonment, the statement read. Syracuse, N.Y. Juan Rivera and Payton Dunn have begun their college careers at Syracuse University by spending their first two weeks in quarantine. They spend 23 hours a day inside. There is no air conditioning. They are allowed to interact with a group of only 15 to 20 people. With their one hour of time outdoors, they are checked in and out of the dorm and given strict instructions on the path theyre allowed to walk. Food is delivered to a common room each day in brown paper bags and delivery options are forbidden. About 3,000 Syracuse students from 34 different states are subject to Gov. Andrew Cuomos quarantine orders. Those orders require individuals coming to New York to live apart from other people for 14 days to avoid any chance they pass on the virus. Most Syracuse students are doing their quarantine off campus but about 420 are doing it in dorm rooms, an experience that is costing some SU freshmen $1,000. The most important thing, both say, is that they might be in isolation but they are not actually alone. The school has split arriving students into family units that include students living on three floors in each residence. Its weird to be only allowed outside an hour a day, and we cant have food delivered, but at least we can interact with the group were here with, Rivera said. The social interaction takes away from us thinking its like prison. I dont think its been that bad. But its also only been a few days. It might get tougher. Dunn, who is from Richmond, Virginia, lives on the second floor of Sadler Hall and can interact with 20 students on the bottom three floors. Rivera, who is from West Palm Beach, Florida, lives on the 11th floor of Lawrinson Hall and can interact with about 15 students from floors 11, 12 and 13. They hang out with each other in common areas. They often coordinate group meetings through social media. Theyre supposed to either keep their distance or wear masks when they are together. Students are not monitored during those interactions or during limited time outside the dorms. Syracuse recently announced that a group of students had been placed under interim suspension for violating quarantine orders. It did not say whether those students were among the 420 students quarantining in dorm rooms or if they were quarantining elsewhere. Move-ins were done quickly last weekend, with each receiving about an hour to get supplies into their living spaces. Rivera moved in by himself. Dunns mom helped. They checked in at Manley Field House, where the school conducted coronavirus screening of students through saliva pool sampling. The school said it would have results in 72 hours. Neither student has been told the results of their pool but, if they had been positive, the schools reopening plan dictates each would be tested individually. Neither one has. Rivera said many members of his cluster have gotten to know each other by playing card games. Sometimes the distancing rules get bent but they always wear masks when they are together. The newness of the experience and meeting new people has kept it from feeling too boring. The quarantined students get a small breakfast and two more meals delivered to a common area each morning where students take it from a table in a brown paper bag. Students choose from four meals for lunch and dinner each day, from sandwich wraps to hamburgers to Thai food. Its been surprisingly good, Dunn said. Rivera said students in his group still crave delivery from local restaurants. He said they have been told that the school is trying to set up a system that would allow students to obtain those meals. Everyone is craving something normal, Rivera said. The biggest challenge, they expect, is the potential of going stir-crazy. For two weeks the students will be expected to remain indoors in their three-floor pod for 23 hours a day. They are permitted one hour outside that is scheduled by the school. The school has created paths they are supposed to stay on, to avoid others. Im allowed to walk around the Visual and Performing Arts building, Falk and Maxwell, and around a few parking lots, Dunn said. Students check out and check in at the dorm. Sometimes its done via paper. Sometimes, Department of Public Safety officers take IDs and return them when students come back. Dunn said the biggest challenge is spending so much time indoors in rooms without air conditioning. Hes set up three fans in his dorm room, propping them up on Pringles cans to aim them. It gets ridiculously hot in the dorms, Dunn said. I brought two fans. They supplied me a third, but it takes a while to cool down. Rivera is participating in the schools Summer Start session, giving him classwork to occupy his days and new classmates to fill his nights. Dunn is part of the schools Bandier program and spends much of his free time on his computer, where he mixes and produces music. His roommate is a rapper, and the pair have already collaborated on one song, titled Remember the Alamo, that Dunn finished during quarantine. The school has put together some digital programming. Some of it focuses on important school issues like sexual assault, while others attempt to teach students about campus traditions. Some are open forums allowing students to meet and have conversations with those in other dorms. It keeps me from going absolutely insane, Dunn said. It is boring a little bit because theres not as much choice for stuff to do. But I think Syracuse is doing a good job trying to keep us pretty busy. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS AND COLLEGES Syracuse reopening plan: Nearly 2,000 students could need to quarantine; Sheraton will be used during the year College students confront falls reality: A lot of people are upset were paying more for less Syracuse University may look much different when students return: Sports, parties, office hours, more Syracuse University will require negative coronavirus test from students before they arrive on campus Syracuse University releases suggestions for fall reopening: Dont hold doors and keep 12 months of PPE How will Syracuse University test 20,000 students for coronavirus? By pooling their saliva Contact Chris Carlson anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1639 Britain is to call on France to crack down harder on migrants attempting to cross the Channel by boat, including taking them back to French ports rather than shepherding them to the UK. Immigration Minister Chris Philp will meet French counterparts next week in a push to eventually shut down the Calais-to-Britain route, and will call for migrants caught trying to cross the Channel to be fingerprinted and face real consequences. These include being deported or being taken into custody for breaking the law. Mr Philps comments come after dozens more migrants arrived on UK shores on Friday with one council revealing it had taken 400 unaccompanied migrant children into its care already this year. The Home Office also said it is possible that the Royal Navy could be brought in to patrol the Channels migrant traffic a move branded completely potty by one Ministry of Defence source. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Philp said he would work with French authorities to stop these illegal migrants from getting in the water in the first place, a move he said would be in Frances best interests as well as Britains. Shutting down this route completely will mean illegal migrants no longer have any reason to flock to northern France meaning no more camps near Calais and no criminal gangs operating with impunity on French soil. He said France should also ensure that migrants caught trying to reach the UK by boat cannot do so again, saying they should be removed from Calais and given options to either seek protection in France or return to their home country. And illegal migrants need to be fingerprinted so they know that, once detected, they face real consequences if they try to cross again. A Border Force officer escorts a young family thought to be migrants from a Border Force vessel in Dover, Kent (Gareth Fuller/PA) Mr Philp also said boats intercepted by French authorities should be returned to France rather than shepherded across the Channel, citing cases in which vessels just 250 yards from the French coast had not been hauled back. Story continues We need to intercept those who manage to leave France and return those who make it to our shores, he said. Thats why I will continue to push my French counterparts to look hard at interceptions at sea. Mr Philp said Britain would renew its offer to facilitate joint exercises to show French officials how boats can be intercepted and returned safely. Flights are also planned in the coming days to return people to France, and Britain will be seeking to ramp up this activity. Meanwhile, Kent County Council leader Roger Gough said the 400 migrant children the authority has taken into its care this year include 60 in the first week of August, with 23 arriving on Friday alone. A record number of crossings took place on Thursday (Gareth Fuller/PA) Speaking on BBCs Newsnight programme, Mr Gough said enormous pressure is being put on Kent County Council amid rising numbers of unaccompanied young migrants arriving in the UK. Weve had so far some 400 of these young people come into our care this year and in recent weeks and months it has been particularly rapid, he said. So 65 in May, 85 in June, 70 in July and so far about 60 in August, including the 23 that you mentioned today. On Thursday, at least 235 migrants made the dangerous journey in 17 boats, setting a new single-day record. And amid continued fine weather and calm waters on Friday, more than 130 migrants made it to the UK in 13 boats, the Home Office said. Earlier on Friday, Home Secretary Priti Patels spokesman confirmed that Navy support is one of the potential options being considered, alongside discussions on bolstering Border Force resources in the Channel. Priti Patel is considering enlisting the Royal Navys help to deal with migrants attempting to cross the Channel (Dominic Lipinski/PA) Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is waiting for advice from officials and taking stock of the situation before taking the matter further, his spokesman said. The MoD has an ongoing arrangement to offer military aid to civil authorities (known as MACA), he said, but this has previously been in the form of technical support and advice rather than putting big boats in the Channel. The idea of using the Navy was branded a completely potty idea by an MoD source, who said such action would be inappropriate and unnecessary and that military resources should not be used to address political failings. We dont resort to deploying armed force to deal with political failings. Its beyond absurd to think that we should be deploying multimillion-pound ships and elite soldiers to deal with desperate people barely staying afloat on rubber dinghies in the Channel. It could potentially put peoples lives at even greater risk. Border Force is effectively the Home Offices own navy fleet, so it begs the question: What are they doing? The Times reported that ministers are considering blocking migrant boats in the Channel before they enter British waters, modelled on Australian tactics used against migrants arriving by boats from neighbouring Indonesia. Before the first case of COVID-19 hit the La Crosse area, finding affordable, quality housing was difficult. A large college town on the border of several rural communities, the city of La Crosse has experienced rising rent prices and stagnant wages in recent years, and many households are enduring unlivable situations in the spaces they can afford. But the pandemic has only worsened housing conditions. One 54-year-old cab driver in La Crosse has been on several waiting lists to be approved for low-income housing for more than a year. She wished to remain anonymous because of ongoing legal battles with a former landlord. She currently pays $530 a month to live in a one-bedroom apartment, and is trying to find something more affordable for her $9-an-hour wages. But because of the pandemic, shes been out of work and collecting unemployment, which she knows might run much lower if the $600 weekly boost is discontinued and she also suffers from COPD and is unsure whether shell even be able to return to work when things subside. If I lose the extra unemployment, I would only be getting $116 a week, the woman said, worried about also paying medical bills and prescriptions. Im stuck. The woman has lived in La Crosse for most of her life and said shes watched prices go up over the years, in part because of an increase in property taxes. The gap is getting bigger and bigger. People are getting poorer and poorer, she said. In the city of La Crosse, about 37% of its households have a housing problem, such as cost, overcrowding, or kitchen and plumbing issues, and one in five households has a severe need. Specifically, 2,730 renters in the city are severely cost burdened meaning they pay more than 50% of their income toward rent. And the floor on rent keeps rising. The fair market rent in La Crosse County, which is a goal post used to price affordable housing properties, is currently at $596 for a one-bedroom and $793 for a two-bedroom, making it essentially the lowest rental prices offered. On top of that, a United Way study recently found that more than a third of La Crosse area households experience poverty. Before COVID, renting in the city was difficult. Now with COVID, the rental market is even tighter, said Caroline Gregerson with the city of La Crosse. Because the college rental market places a floor on the market, renting in La Crosse has always been difficult. Its difficult to find quality housing thats affordable, Gregerson said. For one family who moved to the area two years ago, thats been exactly the problem and now COVID-19 is keeping them in an unlivable situation. Every morning we go out with the metal detector and find two or three nails, said Jason Derr of his backyard. Two years ago, Derr and his wife Erin moved with their three young children from Portland into a house on La Crosses South Side, sight unseen. The family moved to the area because the cost of living was so low, both recovering from the economic crash of 2008. Derr said he found his dream job as a campus minister at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and after scrounging Craigslist for a spot to live, they finally found something affordable with a property manager that seemed really kind. But after moving in, Derr said they discovered that the garage that was listed with the property had been torn down, leaving nails scattered around the yard, and it took his property manager more than a year to repair things around the house like exposed wires, holes in the walls and crumbling drywall. Eventually, an inspector would tell them that the ceilings in their master bedroom were too low and against code. And most recently, the familys oven has been broken for more than 100 days. Derr said many requests for it to be repaired or replaced have gone unanswered or ignored, and when a response was finally given, he said management said it would do nothing because it considered it a cosmetic repair. The family has since received a new oven from a church friend, but the old appliance sits on their patio because management wont tell them whether to trash it or wait for them to pick it up. Our biggest concern is, why arent things being fixed in a timely manner? Derr said. When I tell them that there are 60 nails in the backyard with little feet, why am I being told theres nothing they can do about it? Before moving into her current one-bedroom, the cab driver also lived in a less-than-liveable space. I still cringe thinking about it to this day, she said, remembering the mice running around her kitchen and jumping off the counters. They told me theyd fix it, but they didnt, she said. She eventually went to the county health department, which ordered the owners to set mouse traps. But she said it caused the landlord and his family to lash out at her by throwing things, shoveling snow onto her sidewalk, taking away her parking spot, threatening to enter the apartment late at night without her permission and even accusing her of planting the mice. I didnt know where to turn, she said. This went on and on, and I tried getting out of the lease. The Derr family has looked into buying a home in the area to get some more stability. I keep an eye on Craigslist. Im seeing a lot of wonderful homes, but more expensive than we can afford, Derr said, adding that affordable properties are often mixed in with college housing, which is less family-friendly. The family has recently renewed its year-long lease because of concerns about what COVID-19 will do to their jobs, but theyve since found out that the owner is working on selling the home, jeopardizing their stay there. We would love to be able to move. In an ideal world thats what we would do, Derr said. Its the summer of COVID, he continued, and we dont know what the fall is going to bring. Since the moratorium on evictions in Wisconsin was lifted at the end of May, more renters have been on the brink of losing their homes than last year. June specifically brought an increase, and 51 evictions were filed against La Crosse residents in the month, compared to 30 residents in June of last year, according to Legal Action of Wisconsin, adding that its similar across the state. Eviction rates have evened out for now, though, likely because of rental assistance and stimulus checks finally coming through. We are seeing many, many people who have still not seen unemployment benefits come through, or working with people who have reduced work schedules or are just returning to work and have gotten behind on their rent payments, said Kim Cable of Couleecap. The agency has helped close to 200 households in the La Crosse area using the Wisconsin Rental Assistance Program, and in just three months $338,000 has been given for rent assistance alone. The needs are significant there. Were literally working with families right now who have no cash coming into their household, Cable said. Trying to just keep these households afloat, so that they dont end up in eviction, or God forbid, end up in our homeless system, which is also overextended, she said. But just as the pandemics future is uncertain, so is this relief. We are pretty anxious that well see another spike coming up, once the federal eviction moratorium is lifted and the $600 unemployment bonus is gone, said Rachel Fox Armstrong with Legal Action. We do think that its likely that this is a temporary phenomenon, she said. I dont have a crystal ball, but right now from this standpoint, here in August, were still seeing people who have lots of needs that probably will be ongoing for the near future, Cable said. U.S. lawmakers are still working to create a second round of federal relief that could trickle down to local efforts, but as muddied debates continue its unclear what the future for unemployment and housing relief will look like in that bill. Were anxious, were scared, Derr said. I just want my bubble, my little space to be safe for my people." 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. TROPHIES First responders stepped up Tuesday to help people caught in life-threatening situations, as streets, roads, yards and houses were flooded by the fast-rising waters of Tropical Storm Isaias. On Stocker Mill Road in Palmer Township, rescuers used a boat to evacuate Colleen Schutze and her two children as flood waters from the nearby Bushkill Creek washed away a fence and lifted a 2,000-gallon oil tank off its base, filling her house with noxious fumes. Rescuers also evacuated her grandfather, Bill Mutschler Sr., from the property next door. The effort was handled by Bethlehem Township and Palmer Township firefighters, along with Pennsylvania Water Rescue. Emergency workers in Franklin Township, Hunterdon County, arrived in time to help a man whose Ford pickup truck was partially-submerged on a road near the South Branch of the Raritan River. Township police, the Quakertown Fire Company, and South Branch Emergency Services and its Water Rescue Unit responded to the call for help Tuesday afternoon on Hamden Road. Many other vehicles became stuck in rising floodwaters, leading authorities to issue warnings about driving into standing or running water of unknown depth on roadways. In many cases, road crews and police had to rush to set up barriers at frequent flooding sites because of the freakish nature of the storm. Pennsylvania Water Rescue dealt with a controlled frenzy of calls for help Tuesday, according to Chief Branden Bachman, responding to six calls in a short time frame. In addition to the home rescue on Stocker Mill Road, members of the Easton-based volunteer organization responded to a stranded Jeep and a house that was inundated by water at Meadow Avenue in Palmer Township. They also came to the assistance of Jeremy Carrington at Bushkill Park in Forks Township, who said he was safe in the roller rink but was going to stay in the flooded park to oversee vintage rides that have been restored. Some items from the park picnic tables, parts of a miniature train and a car from an amusement ride floated downstream. Kudos to all those who prepared for the storm and were ready to go on rescue calls on a moments notice. TURKEYS A Bethlehem man accused of bilking the federal government in a biofuel scam was sentenced to seven years in prison and told to pay $10.2 million in restitution. David Dunham, 40, was found guilty of fraud after a four-week trial in April 2019. Prosecutors said Dunham, owner of Smarter Fuel LLC in Wind Gap and co-owner of Greenworks Holdings LLC of Allentown, sold U.S. Environmental Protection Agency credits for producing biofuels that he never produced and in some cases never possessed. He received millions from the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture based on the same claims, obtaining nearly $50 million in fraudulent revenue from 2010 to 2015, according to court documents. U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain described Dunham as a thief dressed up in green energy clothing. The St. Elias Maronite Catholic Churchs 22nd annual Lebanese Food and Cultural Festival on its church near the UAB campus in Birmingham this weekend, with some major changes to reduce the chances of spreading COVID-19. The festival this year offered only drive-through and take-out food only, with marked drive-through lanes in the parking lot and a temporary parking area for to-go orders. Volunteers working the festival wore masks as they directed traffic and took orders, and taped markers on the ground to show six feet of distance for people waiting in line. Until 7 p.m. Saturday, fans of one of Birminghams long-running food events can order from a limited menu that includes kibbe, rice, meat and spinach pies, green beans and rice. Organizers offered dessert sampler plates, but those were sold out by 1 p.m. Saturday. The church is also holding a silent auction on Facebook, that also ends at 7 p.m. The church said it would donate some of the proceeds from this years festival to the victims of the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon this week that killed at least 158 people and wounded thousands. The festival normally includes music, dancing, tours of the church and other events that were not offered this year due to the coronavirus. The festival also normally takes place in April, but was delayed this year because of the virus. The video below is from the 2018 festival. Technavio has been monitoring the agricultural biologicals market and it is poised to grow by USD 6.56 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 12% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200807005362/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Agricultural Biologicals 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 Frequently Asked Questions- At what CAGR is the market projected to grow during the forecast period 2020-2024? Growing at a CAGR of almost 12%, the market growth will accelerate during the forecast period of 2020-2024. What is the key factor driving the market? Growing of organic food products is one of the key factors driving market growth. Who are the top players in the market? Agrinos AS, BASF SE, Bayer AG, Certis USA LLC, Evogene Ltd., Isagro Spa, Novozymes AS, Syngenta AG, UPL Ltd., and Valent BioSciences LLC. are some of the major market participants. Which region is expected to hold the highest market share in the market? Europe What is the major trend of the market? Increasing prices of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is a major growth factor for the market. What is the year-over-year growth rate of the global market? The year-over year growth rate for 2020 is estimated at 10.01%. The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Agrinos AS, BASF SE, Bayer AG, Certis USA LLC, Evogene Ltd., Isagro Spa, Novozymes AS, Syngenta AG, UPL Ltd., and Valent BioSciences LLC are some of the major market participants. The growing of organic food products market will offer immense growth opportunities. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Growing of organic food products market has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Agricultural Biologicals Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Agricultural Biologicals Market is segmented as below: Product Biopesticides Biostimulants Biofertilizers Geography Europe North America APAC South America MEA Application Cereals and Grains Fruits and Vegetables Oilseeds and Pulses Other Crops 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=IRTNTR43832 Agricultural Biologicals 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 agricultural biologicals market report covers the following areas: Agricultural Biologicals Market size Agricultural Biologicals Market trends Agricultural Biologicals Market analysis This study identifies increasing prices of chemical fertilizers and pesticides as one of the prime reasons driving the agricultural biologicals market growth during the next few years. Agricultural Biologicals Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the agricultural biologicals market, including some of the vendors such as Agrinos AS, BASF SE, Bayer AG, Certis USA LLC, Evogene Ltd., Isagro Spa, Novozymes AS, Syngenta AG, UPL Ltd., and Valent BioSciences LLC. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the agricultural biologicals market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. 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Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Agricultural Biologicals Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist agricultural biologicals market growth during the next five years Estimation of the agricultural biologicals market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the agricultural biologicals market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of agricultural biologicals market vendors Table of Contents: Executive Summary Market Landscape Market ecosystem Value chain analysis Market Sizing Market definition Market segment analysis Market size 2019 Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 2024 Five Forces Analysis Five forces summary Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition Market Segmentation by Product Market segments Comparison by Product Biopesticides Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Biostimulants Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Biofertilizers Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by Product Market Segmentation by Application Market segments Comparison by Application Cereals and grains Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Fruits and vegetables Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Oilseeds and pulses Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Other crops Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by Application Customer landscape Customer landscape 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 Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the market 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 Agrinos AS BASF SE Bayer AG Certis USA LLC Evogene Ltd. Isagro Spa Novozymes AS Syngenta AG UPL Ltd. Valent BioSciences LLC 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 focuses 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/20200807005362/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/ The president of MassCOP, one of the largest police unions in Massachusetts, told President Trump during an in-person meeting last month that the pending police reform bill would not allow law enforcement to put (their) hands on anyone unless if its during an arrest. Its a complete assault on the people who are paid to protect the citizens, MassCOP President Scott Hovsepian said during a meeting at the White House on July 31. Hovsepian did not immediately respond to a request to clarify his comments. The thrust of Hovsepians comments centered around local efforts to curtail qualified immunity, a legal doctrine and an oft-used defense in court by police officers. The Massachusetts House passed the police reform bill last month. The package would create a police certification process with civilian oversight, ban choke holds and restrict no-knock warrants, among other things. Lawmakers extensively debated use of force standards, qualified immunity and supervisory powers in the legislation. House lawmakers received hundreds of letters from first responders and countless emails from officers and civilians opposing the qualified immunity provisions. They also received emails and messages expressing support of the limits, as members of the public said they felt officers could be better held accountable for alleged misconduct. Qualified immunity does not serve to protect illegal and unethical actions of police officers. Rather, it ensures that a public official, who often must make a split-second decision, does not hesitate in a dangerous or lifesaving situation, one letter, signed by 42 police and correction officer unions in Western Massachusetts, wrote. The law enforcement officers argue limits to qualified immunity should be studied, not implemented. Sen. William Brownsberger, a Belmont Democrat who helped draft the bill, said previously that it would not change how the courts measure reasonableness when officers are making split-second decisions in rapidly changing situations. Rather, it would enable the courts to rule on civil rights lawsuits even if there isnt already a legal basis to label something a civil right. Hovsepian told Trump that he hopes the arguments put forward by law enforcement officials would help to slow the process of the bill reaching Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Bakers desk. Were working very hard, the unions are sticking together, were working very hard and hopefully we can curb some of this, Hovsepian said. Related Content: As the adage goes: "when you are in a hole stop digging". Amended for Rio Tinto it would read "when you are in a cave stop blasting". For the past few months the pressure has been mounting on Rios management and board. But on Friday, when a Senate inquiry heard that the miner annihilated 46,000 years of invaluable archaeological and Indigenous cultural history to derive $135 million worth of iron ore, Rio effectively detonated itself. Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques...speaking at a federal inquiry reignites tensions between Mr Jacques and his predecessor Sam Walsh. Credit:Bloomberg The long and rich history of listed companies making mistakes of this magnitude suggests heads must roll. It is a point that Rios current boss Jean-Sebastien Jacques has studiously avoided over the past couple of months. He has deadbatted all questions on board and management consequences begging instead that everyone hold fire until an internal investigation is completed as early as September. When asked during the Senate grilling about whether any penalties had been imposed, Jacques said no single person was responsible and there had been no consequences to date. Study: Disinfection Byproducts in Drinking Water May Increase Risk of Low Birth Weight Infants Even More Billions in U.S. Farm Bailouts Risk Violating Trade Agreements At Hillsborough County Commission Candidate Virtual Forum, All Candidates Voice Support for 100% Renewable Energy Energy Dept. Sued Over Hiding Details of Loan Guarantee for Appalachian Gas Liquids Project Smaller Farms Hit Hard by COVID-19 but Get Little Help From USDA Groups Sue Trump Administration Over Harmful NEPA Rules EWG News Roundup (8/6): National Pesticide Law Reform, Attacks on Childrens Health and More After the Pipelines Death, Will Duke Energy Shift From Gas to Renewables? After the Pipelines Death, Will Duke Energy Shift From Gas to Renewables? KYODO NEWS - Aug 8, 2020 - 12:57 | All, Coronavirus, World The number of confirmed new coronavirus cases in Africa has topped the 1 million mark, with the death tally now standing at more than 22,000, the World Health Organization said Friday. Still a lack of testing on the continent, which has a population of 1.3 billion people, leaves the real spread of the virus unknown, health experts say. Related coverage: India exceeds 2 million coronavirus cases Philippines says nation has yet to start Avigan clinical trial Japan reports 1,580 new virus cases, hits daily record The surge reflects the over 530,000 infections reported in South Africa, which account for more than half of the total on the continent. The country ranks fifth in the world for confirmed virus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. Among 54 African nations, the other hardest-hit countries include Egypt at around 95,000, Nigeria at more than 45,000, Ghana at about 40,000 and Algeria at over 34,000, according to data from the U.S. university. WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said Thursday the number of infections in Africa could be higher, given an underreporting of cases caused by the lack of testing. In a Twitter post, Moeti said the international body will support African countries to decentralize testing, tracing, isolation and treatment. Some African countries have shrugged off the serious impact of the virus spread. Tanzania's President John Magufuli has repeatedly played down the threat from the virus. Magufuli declared the country "coronavirus-free" and the country discontinued announcing new cases since it last confirmed a cumulative total of 509 infections on May 8. WASHINGTON On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health and Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), awarded $5 million to five recipients to combat substance use disorders (SUD) and opioid use disorders (OUD) in Michigan. Ferris State University, (Big Rapids), Emma L. Bixby Medical Center (Adrian), Luce Mackinac Health Department (Newberry), Michigan Center For Rural Health (East Lansing) and Sanilac County Health Department (Sandusky) received $1 million each as part of the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Implementation (RCORP-Implementation) to enhance and expand service delivery for SUD and OUD in rural communities. The Hamilton cast is back to bring fans more to look forward to. The Latino Victory Fund is going to feature them, and fans might not know how to "Say No To This". The Latino Victory Fund plans to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment that grants women's right to vote. The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920. They found the best way to do this by talking to some of the women in the Original Hamilton cast. Members of the Hamilton cast will be taking part in a virtual fundraiser for the Latino Victory Fund. The featured cast members, as per their website, are Lin-Manuel Miranda and the original Schuyler Sisters - Phillippa Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Jasmine Cephas Jones. In it, they will talk about their own on-screen and off-screen experiences as women of color. It is a one-night-only event that is only for to those who gave a donation. Apart from the coming live stream, the Schuyler sisters have also appeared together during the first #HAM4CHANGE live stream last August 1. It raised money for charities that fight against racial injustice. A second #HAM4CHANGE is also in the works and set for August 9. It will also feature a slew of Hamilton cast members like Daveed Diggs and Anthony Ramos, said a Playbill article. The Latino Victory Fund event will take place on August 25 at 8:30 PM ET through Zoom. It will be moderated by journalist Soledad O'Brien and chaired by Loretta Everett Kaufman. Latino Victory's Goal During the fundraiser, donors are open to pledge $10 or more to the Fund, said People. The donations will support the charity in all of its projects to create better Latinx political power in all levels of government. The event website said the Latino Victory's goal is to identify, recruit and develop people who will be fit for public office from school boards, to the Senate and even the White House. They are also building a permanent base of Latino donors that will support their cause. It also said they partner with other leading groups to shape the public discourse and reflect the growing influence of the Latinx community to the world. According to a Billboard report, Latino Victory Fund's CEO and President Rayes said donors can look forward to "hearing these luminaries" talk about the role of women in Hamilton. Soo, Goldberry and Jones will also talk about their experiences in the rehearsal of the hit musical play and their views on working on the show as women of color. The fundraiser is also an acknowledgement of the fact that women of color were not given the right to vote until 1965. It was in this year when the Voting Rights Amendment was passed. Rayes said Latino Victory wants people to see what the amendments mean, "we have come, and how far we have to go." Those who want to donate can register and find the Zoom conference link here. As of August 7, the website said that most people are donating $25 to the cause. Want to read more? Take a look at these! Disney Gets the Job Done: Lin Manuel-Miranda's 'Hamilton' to Hit Disney Plus Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'Hamilton' Drives Download Surge on Disney+ Immigration Nation: Docuseries About Reality in a Nation Now on Netflix Racism. View it as tainted water, the measles, or the flu. It is a public health crisis if one believes the Colorado Department of Public Heal Dhaka, Aug 8 : All Bangladesh government employees have been ordered to return to their offices, ending a window for 75 per cent of staffers to work from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported. The Cabinet Division directed the ministries and offices to restore the usual working hours to 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told bdnews24. Many ministries have verbally informed their officials and employees about the matter. Some have already started working at full capacity, while others are preparing to bring all its employees back to work. Nevertheless, the attendance restriction will still apply to the elderly and sick employees along with expectant mothers. As of Saturday, Bangladesh has reported a total of 252,502 coronavirus cases, with 3,333 deaths. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 8 Trend: On August 7, President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic made a phone call to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. President Aleksandar Vucic extended condolences over the killing of Azerbaijani servicemen during the events on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in July as a result of Armenian provocations. At the same time, the Serbian President expressed his regret over the use of Serbian-made weapons by Armenia during those military clashes. He noted that a high-level Serbian delegation would soon be dispatched to Azerbaijan to investigate the situation. Aleksandar Vucic emphasized that he highly valued the friendly relations with Azerbaijan, which were based on strategic partnership, and, in confirmation, invited President Ilham Aliyev to pay an official visit to Serbia. President Ilham Aliyev expressed his gratitude for the phone call. The President noted that the fact that the Armenian side used military ammunition produced by Serbia while subjecting to fire the positions of the Azerbaijani Army and civilian population was received with concern by the Azerbaijani society, adding that Azerbaijani servicemen and a civilian were killed as a result of that firing. President Ilham Aliyev expressed his satisfaction with the Serbian President`s decision to dispatch a high-level delegation in order to investigate the above-mentioned fact and discuss cooperation prospects. During the telephone conversation, the sides agreed to avoid in the future the actions that could jeopardize friendly relations between the two countries. President Ilham Aliyev thanked President Aleksandar Vucic for inviting him to visit Serbia. Educators from around the country have been reflecting on what they teach and how they teach it in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the national protests that followed. Some lessons up for reconsideration: the dismissive take that it was simply "the norm" that Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves in the late 1700s and language around Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of America. "You're messaging that people were not here thousands of years before Columbus," said Stefanie Wager, a former teacher in Des Moines, Iowa, who is president of the National Council for the Social Studies. As the nation faces a moment of racial reckoning, many long-held conceptions are being challenged, as seen in the toppling of Confederate monuments and the push to defund police. What's taught in U.S. classrooms is no exception. NBC News spoke with teachers around the country who said they were working to reshape lesson plans to better reflect the fullness of America's multicultural history. Additions to history classes might include lessons on intersectional figures, such as Bayard Rustin, the Black man who organized the 1963 March on Washington but was largely shunned in the civil rights movement because he was gay. "I did hear a lot of responses from teachers about their need to have more education around Black history because of George Floyd," said LaGarrett King, the founding director of the Carter Center for K-12 Black History Education at the University of Missouri. IMAGE: LaGarrett King (University of Missouri) Wager said: "I think that has been on the forefront of everyone's mind," along with how they're going to teach safely during the coronavirus pandemic. "These two big topics have been the talk of the summer for sure." Download the NBC News app for breaking news and alerts That was reflected at the third annual Teaching Black History Conference, which King hosted last month. More than 1,000 teachers about 700 more than last year attended to hear educators from around the world and to discuss improving their lessons. Unlike the previous in-person events, this year's conference was held virtually with a series of video sessions. Story continues King, who is an associate professor of social studies education, said it's important to understand intersectionality within Black history in terms of "exploring the full humanity of Black people," including women, LGBTQ people, the disabled, the poor and other groups. Janella Hinds, a global studies teacher at a high school in New York City, said teachers also re-examined those topics at the recent convention of the American Federation of Teachers, a major teachers union. "There are educators who in the spring started to think about anti-racist instruction and conversations about how to uproot acts of supremacy that students are experiencing," said Hinds, vice president for academic high schools at the United Federation of Teachers, a union representing New York City's public schoolteachers. "It's not everybody, for sure, but we do have a lot of teachers, especially on the high school level, who have been doing some amazing work around incorporating the current events into the courses of study into our convention," she said. Hinds said she was working with her school, Brooklyn's High School for Public Service, on creating an elective course focused on activism and movements against oppression, as well as linking current events into her global studies class. Image: Michael Vateri (Douglas R. Clifford / Tampa Bay Times via AP file) "It's about thinking about this long history of oppression and resistance. This is part of the American experience," she said. Adina Goldstein, a seventh-grade social studies and English teacher in Philadelphia, said she had been thinking about how to turn her social studies class into more of an ethnic studies course to reflect more African American and Latin American history. That would, in turn, reflect the identities of the majority of her students. Goldstein, who is Chinese American and Jewish, said she recently spoke with a former African American history teacher, who said "something really insightful to me: 'We teach what we know.'" Goldstein noted that while the majority of students are Black and Latino in Philadelphia, nearly 70 percent of teachers are white. She said she believes school districts should invest in giving teachers resources and continuing education so they can educate themselves and improve their curricula to better reflect their students' identities. IMAGE: Adina Goldstein (Ashlee Mintz) "I need to take that time, and that's what I've been doing a lot this summer, to learn about Latin America and really center not just on white academic voices but center on academic voices that are Latinx," said Goldstein, who teaches at Vare-Washington Elementary School. Goldstein said that before the end of the academic year, some teachers had a virtual "learn in" in which seventh- and eighth-grade students studied George Floyd, police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. The students undertook group activities, like writing letters to Congress and state representatives, creating art to express how they felt, and listing ways they could help and resources they could use to better understand what was going on, Goldstein said. They also discussed how the current situation applied to their community and school and how they could support the Black community within their school. "That was something that was really, really powerful, and the things that my students wrote and the art that they produced was unbelievable," she said. "It never stops just making me so proud and excited to see how much kids are able to really think critically about the world around them." Kimberly Rodriguez, an English language arts teacher at John Adams High School in the New York City borough of Queens, said she would be working with her school this month to shift lessons to relate more to their students' lives in the wake of the national moment. IMAGE: Kimberly Rodriguez (Kimberly Rodriguez) She said she would be working with all departments to see how they could fit culture-responsive teaching into their curricula, which includes bringing more diverse backgrounds into their lessons and then relating them to students' experiences. "It's great for them to voice their opinion on how they feel and what's going on in their life, and as educators, we need listen and be there," she said. "How can we let that live in our curricula? How can we let that live in our lessons? How can we take a break from testing and ask students their perspectives of what's going on in their lives?" Anton Schulzki, a high school teacher in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said the state recently held a virtual conference at which dozens of social studies teachers discussed changing their approaches to their curricula to move beyond their own biases. Image: George Floyd protest in Chicago (Nam Y. Huh / AP file) "Up front was the issue of race and how we need to change our approach," he said. Schulzki said the conversation specifically covered how Native American history, LGBTQ history and the histories of other minorities groups are taught. "There's a decided push for us to really begin to re-examine our own biases and how we approach things in our classroom. There's a push among a lot of teachers, period, across the country to really examine how we approach things," said Schulzki, who is president-elect of the National Council for the Social Studies. That effort won't be easy for teachers everywhere, especially in districts where progressive changes probably wouldn't be well-received, he said. "For some, it will be easy to jump into. For others, I can understand their caution, because there are a lot of things that teachers have to deal with. There are some school districts across the country that don't look favorably on changing an established curriculum, and that's hard," Schulzki said. Still, he said, "we need to have these conversations, and it needs to start with the colleagues in your school." They have been happily married for eight years. And David Tennant's wife Georgia showed off her playful side as she took to Instagram on Saturday to share a snap of the actor, 49, in the nude. David was exposed by his actress wife, 35, for recording the adverts of his upcoming series of 'David Tennant Does A Podcast With...' in nothing more than his birthday suit. Bare all: In a hilarious snap posted on social media Georgia Tennant revealed that her husband David Tennant was recording his next podcast series in the nude on Saturday afternoon In the amusing Instagram snap, she called David 'Lady Godiva' as she revealed he was finishing all of his podcast ads in the nude. Even though they were recording from a sound proof studio, it wasn't enough to cool the Doctor Who actor down from the scorching British heat, so his only option was to get completely naked. She wrote: 'Me and Lady Godiva doing the podcast ads. #maybehesbornwithitmaybeitsmanscaped.' Interview time: The upcoming series from the Doctor Who star, 49, will air on August 11 2020 and will feature a range of interviews with the movers and shakers of the world In attempt to cover his modesty, David shied away from the camera and even hid behind his other half. On her Instagram story, the actor insisted 'don't show them me' as he recorded the final elements of his podcast with the help of his wife. The thespian launched his own podcast in 2019 named 'David Tennant Does A Podcast With...' He peels the curtain back on some of the world's biggest names and leads insightful conversations with the likes of Michael Sheen, Whoop Goldberg, Sir Ian McKellen, Gordon Brown and many more. Recording for their next series is well underway, as Georgia, who is also a producer, showed a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of their podcast process. In the nude: The actress and producer, 35, joked that her husband was 'Lady Godiva' as he tried to avoid the camera and retain his modesty as he recorded the final adverts for his show The upcoming series will feature an array of A-list guests including Judi Dench, Stacey Abrams, Dan Levy, Tim Minchin, Brian Cox and more. Aside from the odd social media snap, the couple tend to keep their private life away from the spotlight. They share five children together, Ty, 18, Olive, nine, Wilfred, seven, Doris, five, and their 10-month old daughter Birdie. Podcast time: The actor turned podcast creator has interviews with Stacey Abrams, Tim Minchin, Judi Dench, Jim Parsons, Brian Cox and more for his upcoming August series Georgia confirmed the arrival of her fifth child in October with a hilarious Instagram post, as she compared the birth to that of David's Good Omens co-star Michael Sheen's daughter Lyra. The actress became pregnant for the first time as a teenager after a fleeting relationship with a university student, which resulted in the birth to Ty at 17. He was later adopted by David in 2012. Ty revealed the name of his youngest sibling during an appearance on Lorraine last month, excitedly telling the host he wanted to give a shout-out to his family. Family ties: David and Georgia have five children called Ty, 18, Olive, nine, Wilfred, seven, Doris, five, and also a child named Birdie who was born in October He said: 'Hi mum, I love you mummy. Hi dad, Wilfred, Olive, Doris, Birdie I love you all. Sorry, I've always wanted to do that,' which led Lorraine to agree that he 'had all the family covered.' During the interview, Ty also spoke of the moment he met his adopted dad on the set of Doctor Who when he was just five years old. The budding actor spoke of his close bond with the sci-fi superstar whom he calls his father, and why he would love to be the third Doctor in the family. Runs in the family: Ty was adopted by his father in 2012 and has followed in his footsteps, landing acting gigs in War Of The Worlds, Casualty and Tolkien David met Ty's mum when she had a guest role in the 2008 episode The Doctor's Daughter - and it was then when Ty met his TV hero. 'It was great, I was five when I first met my dad, my mum was working on Doctor Who at the time,' Ty said. 'I watched him on TV as the hero, and it was crazy how much your life can change.' Ty has followed in his father and mother's footsteps, starring as Tom in H. G. Wells' War of The Worlds. A sign is pictured outside Pfizer Headquarters in the Manhattan borough of New York City (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc said on Friday it signed a multiyear agreement to make COVID-19 treatment remdesivir for developer Gilead Sciences Inc, which is under pressure to increase tight supplies of the antiviral drug. Gilead is aiming to make enough of the drug by the end of the year to treat more than 2 million COVID-19 patients, and agreed to send nearly all of its remdesivir supply to the United States through September. But hospital staffers and politicians have complained about difficulties in gaining access to the drug, which is one of only two to have demonstrated an ability to help hospitalized COVID-19 patients in formal clinical trials. There are also fears of shortages outside the United States, and separately on Friday, Britain's Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc said it has started manufacturing remdesivir at its Portugal plant. Gilead said its manufacturing network for the drug had grown to more than 40 companies in North America, Europe and Asia to add capacity. Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of U.S. state attorneys general urged the federal government to allow other companies to make Gilead's remdesivir, to increase its availability and lower the price of the antiviral drug. Pfizer will provide contract manufacturing services through its McPherson, Kansas, plant, the drugmaker said. It was not immediately clear if Pfizer would supply only for the U.S. market. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter to Pfizer in 2017 saying that the process for manufacturing sterile injectable drugs at the Kansas plant was out of control and put patients at risk. The FDA said several products were contaminated with multiple foreign particulates but a subsequent FDA inspection found that the issues had been resolved. Pfizer, with Germany's BioNTech, is also rushing to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus. Pfizer has helped other drugmakers manufacture their products before. It makes Epipen emergency allergy treatments through its Meridian Medical Technologies business and also operates a contract manufacturer called Center One. (Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Matthew Lewis) Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy President Donald Trump has insisted that neither China nor Russia want him to be reelected, claiming that China would 'own' the U.S. if Joe Biden were elected to the presidency. 'If Joe Biden was president, China would own our country,' Trump said in remarks at a press conference on Friday night, responding to reports about foreign interference in the November election. 'If China makes a deal with the United States with Joe Biden in charge they would own our country,' he went on. Asked about reports that Russia is engaged in 'denigrating' Biden to help Trump's campaign, Trump brushed off the concern, saying 'I am the last president Russia wants to see in office.' 'If Joe Biden was president, China would own our country,' Trump said in remarks at a press conference on Friday night in New Jersey Trump was responding to intelligence reports that claimed China is in favor of Biden Chinese leader Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends the completion and commissioning ceremony for the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in Beijing on July 31 Trump cited his moves to get European members of NATO to increase their defense spending, and his stance against a Russian oil pipeline to Germany, the Nord Stream 2, including the threat of sanctions to halt its construction. Earlier on Friday, a new warning from U.S. intelligence singled out Russia, China and Iran are attempting to interfere in the election, with Russia allegedly opposed to Biden and China opposed to Trump. In the case of Russia, the motive appears to be to run down Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden, who is days away from accepting his party's nomination to challenge President Donald Trump. The assessment came from Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence Security Center, in language that has become commonplace after years of hearings and testimony, as well as indictments of Russian officials alleged to have worked for a Kremlin-backed troll farm that hacked Democratic emails in 2016. 'We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former vice president Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia 'establishment.' he said. But in a new twist, his statements are focusing on the three countries. U.S. intelligence has assessed that China is hoping President Donald Trump does not win reelection. This comes after Trump, who campaigned by blasting China trade practices, launched a trade war that knocked down the country's economic growth. Trump has repeatedly attacked China for spreading what he calls the 'China virus,' prompting angry pushback against the administration from Beijing. Trump has repeatedly mentioned China when confronted about Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. He has also claimed that Biden would be a tool of China. Biden committed an early campaign stumble last May when he appeared to downplay Chinese economic influence. 'China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man,' Biden said. U.S. intelligence assesses that Russia is taking measures to 'denigrate' Democrat Joe Biden 'We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former vice president Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia 'establishment,' said William Evanina, the government's chief counterintelligence officer President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) as they pose for a group photo ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit leaders gala dinner in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 10, 2017 Russia is seeking to 'denigrate' Democrat Joe Biden, U.S. intelligence says The assessment says its primary concern is with China, Russia, and Iran. Here Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, speaks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during their meeting in Tehran, Syria, Monday, Feb. 25, 2019 In a statement, Evanina provided the U.S. intelligence agencies' most recent assessment of election threats to the November presidential election. 'Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer,' Evanina said. 'We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran.' China views Trump as 'unpredictable' and does not want to see him win reelection, Evanina said. China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of the November election in an effort to shape U.S policy and pressure political figures it sees as against Beijing, he said. 'Although China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, its public rhetoric over the past few months has grown increasingly critical of the current administrations COVID-19 response, closure of Chinas Houston consulate and actions on other issues,' he wrote. This Tuesday, April 28, 2020 file photo shows Jerome Fedor, left, voting using social distancing at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, in Cleveland, Ohio. Ohio's elections chief says his office plans to remove about 120,000 inactive Ohio voter registrations from state voter rolls after the November election. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File) The State Department is offering $10 million for information on U.S. election hacking connected to a foreign government Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is demanding the release of more information on threats to U.S. elections The Trump administration has warned of hacking threats by Russia and China On Russia, U.S. intelligence officials assess that Russia is working to 'denigrate' Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia 'establishment' among his supporters, Evanina said. He said that would track Moscows criticism of Biden when he was vice president for his role in Ukraine policies and support of opposition to President Vladimir Putin inside Russia. On Iran, the assessment said Tehran seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions as well as Trump and divide America before the election. 'Irans efforts along these lines probably will focus on on-line influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content,' Evanina wrote. 'Tehrans motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trumps re-election would result in a continuation of U.S. pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change.' The State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for anyone providing information on foreign interference in the U.S. elections, as the administration provides warnings to Congress in private about the threat. The agency's Rewards for Justice program, which offers a similar amount for information on the head of ISIS. It also is used to try to get information on terrorist attacks and bring terror leaders to justice. The payment was issued in a notice posted online. 'RFJ is offering up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction of or under the control of a foreign government, interferes with any U.S. federal, state, or local elections,' according to a release by the program. It cites a statute relating to computer fraud and abuse indicating a particular interest is election hacking. The program is administered by State's Diplomatic Security Service. 'Persons engaged in certain malicious cyber operations targeting election or campaign infrastructure may be subject to prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. 1030, which criminalizes unauthorized computer intrusions and other forms of fraud related to computers. Among other offenses, the statute prohibits unauthorized accessing of computers to obtain information and transmit it to unauthorized recipients,' it notes. The posting comes days after the Trump administration provided a classified briefing to lawmakers about election interference threats. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe was among those who met with lawmakers. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) demanded the information be made public. 'Shocked & appalledI just left a 90 minute classified briefing on foreign malign threats to our elections. From spying to sabotage, Americans need to see & hear these reports,' he wrote this week. Without revealing what precisely he learned, Blumenthal added: 'Protect our democracy from destruction by declassifying key intel describing the danger of foreign subterfuge to our elections. Congress has been briefed, but sworn to secrecyunacceptably.' 1 of 2 Air India Express plane crash: 18 dead, 100 injured and 1 passenger killed in crash tests positive for Covid-19 The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 on board overshot the tabletop runway at Kozhikode airport on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two, killing at least 18 people. At least 30 CISF personnel who were on the frontline rescue operations yesterday have been quarantined as per regulations. The Air India Express flight that crash landed at the Kozhikode airport in Kerala has killed 18 people, including the two pilots. Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said had the plane caught fire after skidding off the runway at the tabletop airport due to heavy rainfall. The Air India Express flight was carrying 190 people, including 6 crew members. With Kerala receiving heavy rainfall over the past few days and a red alert being issued for Friday, the rainfall became hazardous for the flight to land in Kozhikode. The aircraft overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two pieces. Over 100 passengers have been injured following the crash. Hardeep Singh Puri, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan will be reaching Kozhikode today while a probe team from Air India Express will fly for Kozhikode from Delhi to investigate the crash. Read More... Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 02:36:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul, Turkey, on Aug. 7, 2020. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkey has resumed energy exploration activities in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. (Xinhua) ISTANBUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkey has resumed energy exploration activities in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. "We have resumed the drilling activity," Erdogan told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul, noting that Turkey had sent Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa, a Turkish seismographic research and survey vessel, to the area for that purpose. On Thursday, Egypt and Greece designated an exclusive economic zone between them in the Mediterranean Sea with an agreement signed in Cairo, allowing them to maximize the use of available resources in the zone and tap the oil and gas reserves there. Referring to the latest agreement, Erdogan blamed Greece for not keeping its promises regarding drilling activities in the region, describing the deal as "worthless." Turkey and its NATO ally Greece have long been at odds over the energy resources in the region as Ankara has been opposing the drilling efforts of several countries there without its involvement. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 04:10:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on Aug. 7, 2020 shows the general view of Poros island, south of Athens, Greece. A continuing surge in the number of confirmed coronavirus infections in some parts of Greece has forced authorities to impose the first curfew during the tourism season on the Saronic Gulf island of Poros. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) ATHENS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- A continuing surge in the number of confirmed coronavirus infections in some parts of Greece has forced authorities to impose the first curfew during the tourism season on the Saronic Gulf island of Poros. Wearing masks, many tourists rushed to the port of Poros on Friday morning, speeding up their departure earlier than planned after the strict restrictive measures took effect to prevent the further spread of the virus. A total of 30 COVID-19 cases were diagnosed on the island, while more people were waiting for results, Greek national broadcaster ERT reported on Friday. "The measures are essential," Mayor of Poros Giannis Dimitriadis told Xinhua. "People can go out. Our daily life can continue with more measures and respect for the rules," he added. Greek authorities imposed a 10-day curfew, including the mandatory use of face masks on the entire island, both in indoor and outdoor areas. Until Aug. 17, all stores must stay closed from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. daily, and gatherings of more than nine people in both public and private spaces are banned. Also, local festivals, open markets, and parties are suspended. To Spyros Michail, owner of a cafe bar in Poros, the curfew represents another blow to businesses on the island during this year's harsh tourism season. "Most of the people will go away. It's not good for the island. We are going to have a serious problem for the rest of the summer," Michail told Xinhua. "This weekend, we had expected to have a 90-percent occupancy in hotels and rooms. But when people hear of the news of lockdown, they will stay away. But this is not a lockdown. We feel safer with the stricter compliance with the measures," president of the trade and professionals association of Poros, Dimitris Sixeris told Xinhua. Though Greece reacted swiftly to the first wave of the pandemic, relaxation toward social distancing and mask-wearing has brought a new spike of COVID-19 cases across the country, local media reported. As part of the government's efforts to slow down the spread of the virus, Greece's Civil Protection Ministry announced on Friday that all religious processions, as well as any type of bazaars, are suspended. It also extended a ban on standing customers in all bars, clubs, bar-restaurants, and live music venues until the end of August. On Friday, Greek health authorities reported 151 new confirmed COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, bringing the total infections to 5,270 since Feb. 26 when the first case was registered. Forty-six new infections were detected in the Attika region, where the island of Poros belongs to, and 38 in the Thessaloniki region in northern Greece. Seven of the new cases were confirmed during checks at the country's gateways. This came one day after the National Organization of Public Health (EODY) confirmed 153 new cases, the biggest daily spike since the end of the lockdown on May 4. No new deaths were reported, and the total number of fatal cases remains at 210. Currently, 14 patients were treated in intensive care units, while 129 have been discharged from ICUs. Enditem (Photo : Gerd Altmann from Pixabay) Experts warn that brain-computer interface like the Neuralink chip could be hacked The hype around Elon Musk's mysterious Neuralink brain-computer interface (BCI) is getting bigger as the billionaire tech CEO is slowly detailing how the chip would work, but experts have a warning: the chip, along with other neural interfaces, could be hacked. Security Experts Warn About BCIs According to a Daily Mail report, experts have issued a warning that hackers could target these BCIs, including Musk's Neuralink chip, to create a worse breach than anything else. Based on the report, hackers could exploit the tech, read and steal thoughts and memories, and delete your skills, which could be easily mistaken for a Black Mirror episode--only that it could happen in real life. Elon Musk has been working on Neuralink since 2016 when he first founded it. Not much has been said about the company, nor the brain chip they have been working on except a few details that Musk has announced over his Twitter account. Read Also: [BEWARE] China's All-Seeing Massive Surveillance Could Monitor Every 'Millimeter' of an Entire Population Competing With AI But one thing is for sure: Musk said he has been developing the neural interface so that humans could compete with artificial intelligence and avoid a looming Singularity apocalypse, which is the theory that AI and robots will soon overtake people. In a previous interview with the New York Times, Musk predicted that in the next five years, humankind could already be overtaken by AI, and although humanity won't become extinct, it could be "uncomfortable." A few of the details that the tech CEO has shared via social media is the chip's ability to cure depression, change the wearer's mood, hear things they weren't able to hear before, and even cure mobility problems, which could be helpful for people who have paralysis due to injured spines. But while BCIs, specifically the Neuralink's chip, appears to be a great answer to many problems with our bodies, security experts are worried. Why Target Neural Interfaces? ZDNet reports that experts believe that cybercriminals would try and hack into these types of technologies, especially as they could use it to bring down large corporations to even nations as they could read the minds of political leaders, business executives, and such. Furthermore, experts could soon use these neural chips as an authentication mechanism as our brain activities' patterns are incredibly unique. They believe it could be used to permit access to sensitive data, which is why cybercriminals think it would be worthwhile to hack into these systems, despite the challenge they would face in replicating brain waves. But in the event a hack takes place, what are the repercussions? "What type of damage will [an attack] do to the brain, will it erase your skills or disrupt your skills? What are the consequences - would they come in the form of just new information put into the brain, or would it even go down to the level of damaging neurons that then leads to a rewiring process within the brain that then disrupts your thinking," said director of research Dr. Sasitharan Balasubramaniam from the Waterford Institute of Technology's Telecommunication Software and Systems Group (TSSG). To avoid these worst-case scenarios, manufacturers such as Musk's Neuralink would have to ensure the security of these interfaces by using all sorts of familiar measures to "ensure that no unauthorized person can modify their functionality." Read Also: [VIDEO] Human Tongues Could Control Games, Phones, or Computer Through This Device! This article is owned by TechTimes. Written by: Nhx Tingson 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. While the U.S. Supreme Courts recent decision gives Dreamers a chance to relax, the question is, for how long? About 700,000 or so immigrant youth are known as Dreamers and are allowed to remain in this country under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, a program the court said can remain in effect for now. The DACA program shields immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children. Those accepted into DACA not only have protection from deportation, but they become eligible for work authorization, a Social Security number and a drivers license. The Trump administration has fought vigorously to terminate DACA, established by President Obama in 2012. Keep in mind that the DACA recipients were brought here as children. They went to school here. They have contributed to our society. They are our neighbors and our friends. They pay taxes and contribute to our economy. Many have known no life outside of the U.S. They are, in effect, Americans in every way except, of course, legally. While these Dreamers are breathing a sigh of relief, they arent the only ones to benefit from the courts decision. Many Americans dont realize the broader impact of this decision and the importance these workers have on our economy. At least for now, employers can be assured they wont be losing these employees immediately. Some estimates indicate that replacing DACA workers with new employees would cost $6.3 billion in hiring and training costs. Clearly, that is a burden that American business does not need, particularly at this time when the economy is contracting. In Connecticut, DACA has allowed many people to live, go to school and work here legally. Estimates range from 5,000 and up. Ending DACA is estimated to cost Connecticut $315.3 million in losses annually including lost tax revenue, lost spending at Connecticut retailers, lost revenue at state colleges and reduced revenue at just about every aspect of Connecticut business. DACA recipients are teachers and health care providers. They are business owners. They are hourly workers. And they are students. Since the program was established these Dreamers have bought homes and joined the workforce. If the DACA recipients were deported, the federal government would lose about $90 billion in taxes. Even more stifling than the economic cost of ending DACA, is, of course, the huge emotional impact of deportation. Many of the individuals in the program have spent most of their lives in the United States. What ever happened to our belief in the quote on the Statue of Liberty, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free? Unfortunately, there are still many uncertainties about the future of DACA. While the U.S. Supreme Court decision rejects the Trump administrations 2017 attempt to end DACA, the decision is a Band-Aid, as the court did not rule on Trumps executive authority to rescind DACA. While the administration did not file for a re-hearing, it also appears that officials are refusing to implement and restore the program. The administration recently announced it would limit renewals from deportation to one year, instead of the usual two, and not accept new applications. According to the National Immigration Law Center, first-time applicants interested in applying should consult an attorney or Department of Justice accredited representative to get an individualized assessment on their DACA eligibility and any risks before applying. There is little question that DACAs future is in limbo. The longer this stalemate continues, the more adverse the impact for these Dreamers. The uncertainty of DACAs future can have negative implications for the employee-employer relationship, too. Employers may wonder whether they should hire those in the DACA program. They may think: Whats going to happen down the road? Do I want to train someone if two years down the road DACA will be destroyed? Such discrimination is illegal. Employers, by law, must treat DACA employees the same as everyone else. For now, the DACA program is legally intact. But lets hope, for the sake of our country, it stays that way. Jessica A. Slippen is an attorney with Stratford-based Mitchell and Sheahan. She handles employment litigation matters before state and federal courts and administrative agencies and can be reached at 203-873-0240 or JSlippen@mitchellandsheahan.com. Work to build a seawall to protect exposed coastal residences along part of Sydney's northern beaches could start within months even before key legal and financial issues are resolved. The owners of the first group of 10 properties at Narrabeen are preparing to sign financial agreements by the end of August, with a plan to choose a contractor by the end of next month, said Garry Silk, a resident who has been leading efforts to build a revetment wall since a huge storm smashed his strip in 2016. Progress on a seawall for the Collaroy-Narrabeen beach may finally be in sight after decades of wrangling. Credit:Brook Mitchell Northern Beaches Council mayor Michael Regan said it has taken more than 40 years to wrangle an agreement that should finally see work begin on the roughly $20 million project. Residents will pick up 80 per cent of the bill, with the state government and council splitting the rest. The 1.1-kilometre wall will eventually protect not only 49 exposed properties but also Pittwater Road and its gas and communications lines. It may also serve as a model for other at-risk beaches such as at Wamberal and Byron Bay. Jersey Shore may have starred guidos and guidettes, but the roommates had plenty of interactions with people summering in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Many of these sub-characters became known in their own right for both good and bad reasons. Find out which sub-character Jenni JWoww Farley wishes she had spent more time with on the show. Nicole Snooki Polizzi and Jenni JWoww Farley | Peter Kramer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images The Jersey Shore roommates were always making friends Filming a reality series in Seaside Heights garnered a lot of attention for the Jersey Shore cast. Sometimes, people simply wanted to say hello to their favorite roommates. Unfortunately, most of the time, passersby were looking to start a fight. When drunk people saw the cameras, it was a very hostile experience, Guadagnino explained to Vulture. We almost got into fights every single night we went out. Its amazing to think about wouldnt you not want to fight with a person in front of a camera? One of the most memorable altercations from the series was also one of the most horrific. Snooki took a punch to the face During Jersey Shores first season, Nicole Snooki Polizzi was hit in the face by drunk bar patron Brad Ferro. The former gym teacher was visibly intoxicated, as captured by MTV cameras. RELATED: Jersey Shore: Why Snookis Punch Was Cut From the Show When he mistook Polizzis shots for his own, she confronted him. He then punched Polizzi in the jaw. As her roommates swarmed to help Polizzi, the cops were called. [There was] a verbal altercation after which [Ferro] struck [Polizzi] in the face, Seaside Heights Detective Steve Korman told the New York Post. She sustained an injury to the inside of her mouth due to the punch. Ferro was arrested on charges of assault and disorderly conduct. Brad Ferros attack united the cast of Jersey Shore As tragic as Polizzi getting hit was, the assault brought the Jersey Shore roommates closer together. Prior to that, Polizzi felt like an outsider in the house. When she arrived at Danny Merks shore home, she made a poor first impression on her roommates. That all changed when Polizzi was hit in the face. Her past behavior was forgotten when she was attacked. Pauly DelVecchio, Mike The Situation Sorrentino, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, and Guadagnino followed Ferro and the cops out of the bar in defense of their roommate. Meanwhile, Sammi Sweetheart Giancola and Jenni JWoww Farley tended to Polizzis bleeding mouth in the bathroom of the bar. After that night, the roommates held Polizzi in high regard. She was no longer an outsider she was part of the family. Jenni wanted more time to deal with Brad Ferros actions A reality television account on Twitter recently shared a video of that infamous night at the bar. One fan replied to the tweet, writing: But why was Jenni the first person to sock him while all those men were around? Every female needs a [JWoww] in their life. Wish I had longer with him https://t.co/XzgiNyUd4m JWOWW (@JENNIWOWW) July 29, 2020 RELATED: Nicole Snooki Polizzi and Deena Cortese Just Announced a Special Project Farley took notice of this tweet and expressed her desire for more time with Ferro. The night Polizzi was punched, Farley reacted the quickest to the situation, reaching over Polizzi to strike Ferro. Had she been given more time with him, who knows what might have happened. Assistant municipal commissioners insist that they understand the significance of corporators to neighbourhoods and have not sidelined them. Tulip Brian Miranda, a corporator of Mumbais H-East wards Kalina, has been running a community kitchen since the enforcement of the lockdown. Every day, she distributes 1,000 food packets to needy families. But when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharashtra government decided to initiate food distribution, Miranda wasnt consulted about the diversity of her ward. I was simply asked to inform them what my requirements were, said Miranda, a member of Indian National Congress party. As the local area representatives, corporators are imagined to be a citizens first point of redressal over an inaccessible MLA or MP, but in Mumbai, the municipal corporation officers hold far more power. Miranda is one of 227 local corporators elected by 12.5 million Mumbaikars every municipal election. The citys 227 wards are grouped into 24 municipal wards headed by assistant municipal commissioners, who are bureaucratic appointees and not elected representatives. We have been totally sidelined, Miranda said. Whatever decisions have been taken, they (BMC) have not even intimated us. We have not been kept in the loop. The city also has deputy municipal commissioners, who oversee departments such as health, education, environment, among others. The additional municipal commissioners work as department heads, and finally, at the helm is the municipal commissioner. All of whom derive their power from the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888. When citizens repeatedly complained to Corporator Miranda about the unavailability of rations, it led her to question the efficacy of the BMC officials during the pandemic. I know every nook and corner of my ward and have my own volunteers. If we were entrusted with the job (of food distribution), we would have done it categorically with analysis of what area requires how much (food). Like Miranda, Harish Chheda, a BJP corporator of the R-North wards Mandpeshwar colony, agrees that the corporators role has been limited. He was asked to enlist those residents in his ward who dont have ration cards. But, he said, Out of 1,000, BMC has only distributed about 25 kits so far, putting the onus of follow-ups on him. Effective COVID-19 management requires coordination with the elected representatives. But unfortunately, Chheda said, since the lockdown, there hasnt been a single council meeting. The administration hasnt even tried to take opinions from the local representative. A corporator typically attends various council or General Body Meetings (GBMs) of the corporation, along with other departmental or committee meetings that he or she is part of. Politician vs bureaucrat On 14 March, the state government issued a notification under the colonial Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, giving BMCs municipal commissioner, typically a senior IAS officer, more power in order to control the pandemic. According to the administrations current structure, at any given ward across the city, it is the municipal commissioner and the assistant municipal commissioners that are spearheading the fight against COVID-19. In order to manage the pandemic, BMC broke down their response from a centralised process to decentralised ward control rooms. But corporators were not a part of these rooms. In fact, in the absence of meetings or city-wide consultation, a corporators role during the pandemic is largely determined by their own initiative. The administration is stretched, Asif Zakaria, an INC corporator for H-West wards Bandra Talao area, said. As elected representatives, we should have more power, but as (at the moment) we can only recommend, suggest, propose while the administration executes. We should make the best of the existing resources. Zakaria believes that his job is to connect the people and the administration, and to do so, he has been self-driven, consistently approaching the assistant municipal commissioner of his ward with enquiries and suggestions. Many corporators around the city have accepted their primary role as a coordinator between the citizens and the administration, trying to make most of the status quo. Broad view Praja Foundation, a non-governmental organisation focussed on accountable governance, has been distributing relief material across the city, and 95 percent of their relief work has been possible through the help from corporators. We undervalue their role but they are the people who can be most effective in times of crisis, said Milind Mhaske, director, Praja Foundation. In an ideal scenario, the council, the health committees, the ward committees would have met regularly, but corporators have done a lot on their own initiative, said Mhaske. But they're not allowed to do anything in their capacity as elected officials. he added. The problem is indicative of the challenges with city governance in India. Technically, the council (comprising of elected officials) should have led policy-making and decision making, but across the country, we have administrators who have taken decisions without having local knowledge, Mhaske said. The power lies with the commissioner and not the council. The council hasnt met to pass resolutions or make budget provisions since February. Instead, on 20 April, BMC issued a notification allowing corporators to spend Rs 10 lakh from their fund for PPE kits, sanitisers, masks, and other materials related to COVID-19 relief. Mhaske calls it a disposable amount which deflects focus from the main issue which is the elephantine BMC budget. Corporators across the city, however, have used the fund for various purposes. Sujata Patekar, a Shiv Sena Corporator from R-Norths Ekta Nagar area, used the money to provide oxygen cylinders to a hospital, to distribute sanitisers, masks to anganwadi workers, and oxygen metres to buildings. Patekar believes that corporators and administration are two wheels of the same cart and need to work together. Another Sena corporator, Rajul Patel, of K-West wards MHADA colony area, said that the burden on the BMC is immense. And if because of that responsibility, they didnt interact with us, were not angry about it. But that has not stopped residents from seeking answers from their corporators. Residents approached Rutuja Tiwari, Mumbais M-East wards corporator, but after a dissatisfying response, theyve been reliant on local activists and charities, said Balasaheb Sable, a citizen of Maharashtra Nagar. Throughout April and May, Sable had been distributing food packets in Mumbais M-East ward. The government, too, distributed khichdi, but in the patchwork of chawls, Slum Rehabilitation Aurhority buildings and slums. Food was not reaching everyone, said Sable. Radha Vijayan Nair of Kandivalis (East) Lokhandwala Township, said corporators are focused on slums and not buildings. We tried to reach her (Corporator Surekha Patil) for some help but she wasnt available. Assistant municipal commissioners insist that they understand the significance of corporators to neighbourhoods and have not sidelined them. We are working together, Sandhya Nandekar, the assistant municipal commissioner for R-North ward, said. We have had zoom meetings with them, told them about our actions and taken their suggestions. The relief material has gone through corporators. Their volunteers are helping us find symptomatic patients in slums. Prashant Sapkale, assistant municipal commissioner of K-East ward, also said that corporators have helped in high-risk contact tracing. Ive been in touch with all 14 of my corporators on a daily basis. Theyre not only involved in relief work but also in day-to-day operations. Missing link If at the beginning of the lockdown, citizens found it challenging to access information, elected corporators or local representatives didnt seem to fare any better. Miranda said information about which patient in her ward was admitted in hospitals or who was discharged wasnt made available. Her wards assistant municipal commissioner, the late Ashok Khairnar, made it accessible only after a request. But the same secrecy was maintained even when the corporation created a COVID-19 camp for the police at the Mumbai University campus. They dont correspond or coordinate with me unless I have an issue and I reach out to them, Miranda said. Mirandas role, then, like of all other corporators, has been of coordination. She has been the eyes of the neighbourhood. When she noticed people filling the streets, she insisted that Ashok Khairnar enforce a stricter lockdown, Chedda, too, noticed how the antiviral Remdesivir injections were not available at BMC hospitals and wrote to the commissioner. He uses this as an example to illustrate how corporators have direct contact with people and their problems. No one can be more active in a ward than a corporator, he said, adding that they be used a lot more. The last council meeting with corporators was held in February. My suggestion is that there be a meeting as soon as possible. This article was first published in Citizen Matters, a civic media website and is republished here with permission. (c) Oorvani Foundation/Open Media Initiative. Barb Benoit moved to a small community along a bay near Big Chute in Severn Township 36 years ago looking for peace and quiet. And, for the most part, she has enjoyed the area. But that all changed in 2017 when a new owner purchased a nearby five-bedroom house. Her first clue that it had become a rental was the day she saw 12 people jump off the dock, which was followed by a night of loud partying. She later found the property advertised on Airbnb. It scares me, said Benoit, adding she has approached the homeowner and isnt too shy to approach disruptive renters and read them the riot act. I should not be policing somebody elses rental. It really irks me, she said. (The owner) is gone. He takes the money and walks away. She believes the property has been removed from the international short-term accommodation site, but it continues to be rented out, now largely to families. Although, that can also be disruptive. Shes been concerned about jet-skis speeding in the small bay where people paddle and the shooting of guns on residential property. And shes worried other homes in the area are also being used as rentals. Benoits experiences reflect those of others in rural areas and cottage country in and around Simcoe County. And there have been efforts by many of those municipalities to control the situation. In July, Oro-Medonte Township passed a zoning amendment defining temporary accommodation of a dwelling unit of 28 days or less as commercial operations, which are not permitted in a residential zone. While many permanent residents who have been asking council to crack down on short-term rentals are happy, proponents argue they are an important aspect of the areas tourism sector. Opponents have until Wednesday, Aug. 12 to file an appeal. There will be an appeal, said Barry Sookman of the Oro-Medonte Association for Responsible STRs, who believes the municipality is taking a sledgehammer approach. Its absolutely not the way to go. He wants the municipality to come down hard on the few who rent out their properties as noisy party houses through fines or through a licensing approach, adding he vets guests before allowing them to use his property as a control measure. Waterfront resident Kim Pressnail is concerned that disruptions from unruly renters will continue unabated without controls. Pressnail, who has been actively looking for enforcement to deal with disruptive rentals since having endured weekend-long disruption in his neighbourhood in recent years, says all residents have had up to this point is a night-time noise bylaw. But he says its rarely enforced. The trick, says Craig White, is balancing controls with the desire to maintain the economic benefits rentals can bring to a community. White manages about 160 cottages across Ontario through his company CottageLINK Rental Management and says he shares the concerns of neighbours of short-term rentals, like Benoit. One of the major banes of our existence is cottage owners who rent indiscriminately, given the ease with which owners can now list and rent out their spaces, he said. There are cottages on some lakes where the owners really have no intent of ever using their properties. They dont care about their neighbours; theyll put groups of 15 or 20 people in week after week and they dont even look at the makeup of the group, White added. White says his company typically rents to families and limits who can use a property. A maximum of six people will be allowed to stay in a three-bedroom home, for instance. And White says his company wont rent to groups of people under 25, rejecting 20 to 25 per cent of those wishing to do so. Municipalities are often left trying to control unruly behaviour in the absence of landlords, which White says could leave them walking a tightrope. Earlier this year, Severn Township Mayor Mike Burkett asked Simcoe County council to address the issue on behalf of the 16 member municipalities. County officials responded by presenting a seminar with experts who had used various approaches to address the issue. Its not isolated to Severn, its not isolated to Oro-Medonte. It seems to be North America-wide people are having issues with it, said Burkett. Severn has hired an outside consulting firm to explore the issues. It has also passed an interim control bylaw, which prevents new operations but grandfathers pre-existing short-term rentals, limiting its effectiveness. A public hearing on the issue, originally planned for spring when snowbirds were expected home, was suspended as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Severn, Burkett added, has had success simply by reaching out to the handful of identified problematic properties, pointing out how crowds of people can be problematic to neighbours and overwhelm septic systems. But there is concern that the municipality surrounded by water will have more issues to deal with if it doesnt address the issue. I know to come up with a solution is going to be very difficult. So this is why Im interested in what Oro-Medonte has done and I want to see what the outcome is, he said. Among those presenting to county councillors earlier this year was Toronto municipal law and land-use planning lawyer Leo Longo, a year-round, part-time Collingwood resident. He has acted for both individuals defending their long-term rentals and municipalities trying to control them. He points to two basic approaches used by municipalities. One is to define short-term rentals as a land use and then regulating that use in the zoning bylaw. Another is to create a licensing process to control how they operate and imposing inspections to ensure they meet minimum requirements. The fact this seems to be a hot issue is because there isnt one template applied across to each municipality. Each one has its own view, he said. He points to the Town of the Blue Mountains which has been dealing with the issue since 2009 with a bylaw that prohibits short-term rentals in identified residential neighbourhoods largely consisting of single-family homes, but allows them in the higher-density residential zones with condominium buildings. They recognized from the start that simply zoning wasnt sufficient, said Longo, who represented the town, which established a licensing system to ensure their safety and to get a handle on who was operating and what was utilized where. The bylaw was upheld in appeal by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) as well as the divisional court. Commercial uses sometimes are incompatible with residential uses next door so thats why we have zoning bylaws to put in various uses that creates a liveable community and one that doesnt have incompatibility between uses, he said. Its still an ongoing issue that municipalities are facing. And time doesnt stand still. What worked yesterday isnt quite enough for today, says Town of the Blue Mountains Coun. Rob Sampson. Council is now in the process of converting its licensing program to create a sub-component targeting the largely online advertising of illegal short-term rentals. That conversion is still in the process. Weve been through a number of public consultations on how that will happen and I suspect in the fall council will be presented with the final version, said Sampson. So our previously standalone (short-term accommodation) licensing arrangement will be part of a much larger program. Its an important part of the tourism business in our area, but its also an issue local residents want us to keep an eye on because, frankly, while were prepared to have some short-term accommodation rental units, they need to operate properly without major noise issues because residents want to live a quiet, peaceful life up here, he added. And thats kind of why they come here. They dont come up here to live next door to the hot-tub parties at 2 oclock in the morning. The Saudi men arrived at Torontos Pearson International Airport on a fall day. Among them were DNA forensic experts, a senior military officer and a member of Saudi Arabias ministry of foreign affairs. Holding tourist visas, they approached different customs kiosks. When questioned by border officers, they said they were not together. In fact, they were a team of mercenaries known as the Tiger Squad a group allegedly sent by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman just days after the brutal death of prominent Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. Their alleged target? Saad Aljabri, a former top Saudi intelligence official who had sought exile in Toronto. They had tracked him to Canada using malware on his phone. They were here to execute him. This is the extraordinary scene from 2018, seemingly out of a Hollywood spy thriller, that is painted in the allegations of a 100-plus-page lawsuit filed Thursday by Aljabris lawyers at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. None of the allegations have been proven in court. Even though the alleged murder plot was thwarted after the team members failed to get past suspicious border officers, Aljabris life remains today in dire peril, the lawsuit asserts. 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 The threat of Mont Blanc glacier collapse caused red zone imposition and evacuation on the valley region. Last Friday, an alpine resort in Italy was on high alert as officials feared that a glacier's chunk might be dislodged from Mont Blanc massif's slopes and plummet down the mountain. The tarmac road that leads to the lush valley below Planpincieux glacier, near Courmayeur town and the border of France and Italy, was blocked by guards and a barrier. The Current Situation There is a possibility that a large ice block that measures roughly 500,000 m, comparable to the Milan cathedral, can break free from its perching spot approximately 2,600 to 2,800 meters above the sea level. Authorities ordered an evacuation last Wednesday night from the "red zone" located at the slope's base. It was enforced for a minimum of 72 hours, moving 75 people composed of about 20 locals and the rest being tourists. Val Ferret is a valley found in the region of the Aosta Valley. It's usually filled with tourists at this time of the year; however, it is blocked now. It is near a tunnel which traverses the Alps between Italy and France. The "red zone" is four kilometers, at least from the entrance of the tunnel, where tourists still stroll through Courmayeur's streets. According to Stefano Miserocchi, the mayor of Courmayeur, it was vital and urgent to move the people away from the direct path of the possible icefall. He issued a high alert in the 72-hour duration of the evacuation. High temperatures are expected in the next three days, as Europe braces for a heatwave. Over 4,000 glaciers dot the Alps, which are currently under threat due to climate change. Last year, Swiss researchers conducted a study that found that these glaciers can shrink from 65 to 90 percent in this present century. The rate will depend on how emissions of greenhouse gases can be reduced effectively. READ: Global Warming: Norwegian Arctic Archipelago Breaks Highest Temperature Record Dangers of Glacier Collapse According to Valerio Segor, natural risk management director of Aosta Valley, the situation is especially delicate because the high temperatures affect the water level situated between the rock and the ice, which affects the glacier's stability. If not enough water escapes, then it will stay beneath the glacier, which can lift the glacier and cause the most fragile part to collapse. A chasm was observed on Planpincieux's lower part, where two water cascades flowed to the valley, hanging from the side of the mountain. The same danger from a different part of the ice occurred last autumn. READ ALSO: Melting Permafrost Due to Climate Change Threatens Gas and Oil Network in Russia, Causes Oil Spill Locals Angry Courmayeur locals, together with La Palud, a neighboring community, did not like the evacuation and criticized the move. The tourism workers and residents were worried that the alert would affect their livelihoods. A La Palud hotel owner named Rocco even said that it is a joke since the authorities do it each year. He thinks there is no problem at all. Ludovico Colombati, another hotelier, had the same sentiment. His house is located less than two kilometers from the glacier. He says the risk is very low and says the movement of the glacier and the detaching of its blocks are all normal. He adds that the administrators fear responsibility if something happens. READ NEXT: The South Pole Warming Very Quickly, and The Reason Why is Complicated Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 8) The number of Filipinos injured in the explosion that ripped through the Lebanese capital of Beirut a few days ago has risen to 42, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced on Saturday. "By day's end yesterday, the number of injured OFWs stands at 42, an increase of eleven from the previous report, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said in a statement, citing information from the Philippine Embassy in Beirut. Arriola said two other Filipinos, one of whom is a household service worker, are missing while the number of Filipinos who died in the massive blast remains at four. The department previously said the number of Filipinos affected by the Beirut blast could change due to the magnitude of the reported destruction there. The DFA said it also chartered a flight to evacuate some Filipinos from Lebanon, including the remains of the blast victims. Evacuees are expected to arrive home on August 16. At least 137 people have died and 5,000 were wounded following the blast in Beirut, CNN has reported. The city is decimated with thousands of residents left homeless and sustaining up to $5-billion worth of damage, with the blast's impact further straining a medical system already burdened by coronavirus, it added. Availability of jobs at India's auto companies has shrunk significantly over the last two years, as the industry goes through one of its worst slowdowns. More than 60 per cent of the total workforce fell by 24 per cent in 2019-20, against 2017-18. In July last year, as auto companies recorded their worst sale in 20 years, 35-year-old Sumit Lal, who worked as a fitter with one of Indias leading two-wheeler firm, was asked to proceed on temporary leave by his employer. One year has passed since then and Sumits wait to return to Manesar - the countrys largest auto hub - continues. He now works as a daily wager despite having a degree from ITI, Begusarai. Availability of jobs at Indias auto firms have shrunk significantly over the past two years, as the industry goes through one of its worst slowdown. An analysis of the employee data at top auto firms shows that hiring of contractual workers - more than 60 per cent of the total workforce - fell by 24 per cent in 2019-20, against 2017-18. Most firms said the slowdown had forced them to reduce number of temporary workers as they reduced production hours. Temporary workers and student trainees are primarily hired for a cycle of seven to eight months. Then, there are outsourced hires that are primarily engaged in non-core areas such as loading and unloading of raw material, security, and canteens. The auto sector is one of the largest job drivers in India and on average employs 8 per cent of total employment in all industries. Take the instance of the countrys largest car producer Maruti Suzuki. As of March, the company hired 17,337 temporary workers, including student trainees, 11.4 per cent less, compared to March 2018. The firm said there had been a contraction in demand in 2019-20 due to multiple challenges which was closely followed by Covid-19 pandemic. Passenger vehicle sales in FY20 fell 18 per cent, compared to the previous year. "Manpower deployment changes according to volumes. "The firm hires and trains temporary workers for a fixed period to meet these business exigencies, a company spokesperson said. He said despite production halting during lockdown, it didnt lay-off any employee. We have paid wages and allowances during the entire lockdown period. Tata Motors, which has been trying to reduce its employee cost over the past few years, has almost halved the number of temporary workers to 19,169 in FY20, compared to 38,107 in FY18. Hiring of flexible workforce is directly related to volume of production, which, in turn, is aligned to market demand. "Such a worker is engaged for a specific period when there is a surge in activity, a Tata spokesperson said. Mahindra & Mahindras temporary workforce dropped by 7.9 per cent in FY20, compared to FY18. Managing director Pawan Goenka had earlier said that the carmaker had to retrench about 1,500 temporary workers in 2019 due to the slowdown. Temporary workforce may be rationalised when production isnt at full capacity. "As we ramp up, we look to increase manpower, a spokesperson said. Executives said job generation was likely to stay muted as they did not expect a revival in demand in the near future. This is despite a significant number of workers migrating to their villages. The idea of hiring temporary workers is to have the flexibility to rationalise according to production demand. "Presently, factories are operating at not more than 60 per cent capacity due to which there is not much requirement of labour, said R C Bhargava, chairman at Maruti Suzuki. For blue-collar workforce, new hiring will have to wait for a while, said Rahul Mishra, principal at consulting firm Kearney. Firms are scaling down operations. So, there is likely to be surplus labour availability in the near future, he said. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters Her images were critical to the development of plate tectonic theory the idea that plates, or large sections of Earths crust, interact to generate the planets seismic and volcanic activity. Earlier researchers particularly geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener noticed how well the coastlines of Africa and South America fit together and proposed the continents had once been connected. Tharp identified mountains and a rift valley in the center of the Atlantic Ocean where the two continents could have been ripped apart. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 07:16:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A villager from Quxu County demonstrates his horse-riding skills during a celebration of the Ongkor Festival in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Aug. 6, 2020. The Ongkor (Bumper Harvest) Festival, a national intangible cultural heritage, is celebrated annually by local people as they pray for good harvests of crops. (Photo by Soinam Norbu/Xinhua) WASHINGTON - Minneapolis resident Stephanie Wilford, who is considered high risk for covid-19 because of a heart condition, planned to vote by mail in her state primary Tuesday. But with just days left until Election Day, the 60-year-old had not received her absentee ballot. In fact, her public housing complex of 567 residents had mysteriously stopped receiving any mail for more than a week. "I'm pissed off. We're not getting mail for some reason," said Wilford, who now plans to go to the polls in person Tuesday. "I've had one heart attack already, and I'm not trying to have another." Confusion and frustration rippled through the Charles Horn Towers housing complex, three gray concrete high-rises in a neighborhood still scarred by the protests that followed the death of George Floyd in police custody, as a sudden mail stoppage prevented residents from getting absentee ballots in advance of Tuesday's primary. The reason was unclear: Some blamed a rumor of an outbreak in the high-rises that scared off postal carriers, even though the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority said just three residents have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19. The U.S. Postal Service said in a statement to The Washington Post that it halted service there until it could be sure that proper social distancing measures were in place. Although delivery resumed Friday - nine days after residents first reported the stoppage - voters said it was too close to Election Day to feel confident that if they put their absentee ballots in the mail they would arrive in time to be counted. The episode provides an early look at the kind of problems that could enmesh voters across the country in November, when an influx of absentee ballots and high turnout are expected to collide with a potential surge of coronavirus cases. Mail delays have been reported in various states in recent weeks as the Postal Service has rolled back overtime and extra delivery trips under the direction of a new postmaster general, a top donor to President Donald Trump. The sudden halt to mail service in Horn Towers is an acute reminder that, all too often, those who face barriers to voting are the poor and people of color. Residents of Horn Towers are predominantly Black and Somali speakers, with a median gross annual income of less than $10,000, according to housing officials. Fliers posted at the property by the Housing Authority said officials were working to resolve the mail problems, and urged residents to call local postal supervisor for more information. Some who called said they were placed on hold for so long that they gave up. Markus Ellis, a 49-year-old resident, said his mother tried to get her mail by going to the post office, but could not get any answers. Ellis said he was still waiting Friday for his absentee ballot to arrive. Now he plans to show up at the polls in person. "I can't wait any longer, because I want my vote to count," he said. "It's stalling our votes, and that's not right at all. We feel like every person's vote should matter." As with many cities and states throughout this year's primaries, Minneapolis has had a record number of absentee ballot requests for Tuesday's election - nearly seven times the number cast in the 2018 primaries, according to city election officials. The city has seen a surge of voter interest around the competitive race of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who rose to national prominence as a member of the "Squad" of four liberal women of color elected in the 2018 wave of Democrats who regained control of the House. She is running against Antone Melton-Meaux, a mediator and first-time candidate. Residents of Horn Towers first reported that they were not receiving mail on July 29, said Jeff Horwich, a spokesman for the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. Housing officials were told that postal workers had "concerns about covid-19," Horwich said. However, the agency said just three residents have tested positive. "Looking at the actual numbers, it appears to have been more of a matter of perception than reality of covid cases in that building," Horwich said. The Housing Authority has required masks and social distancing of the residents at all of its properties, and is providing coronavirus testing on-site. However, the Postal Service said in a statement that it had concerns about social distancing on the property and worked with the building's management to make sure that letter carriers would be safe delivering mail. "There are rare situations when social distancing cannot be guaranteed because of the placement of mailboxes or mailrooms," the statement said. "In this situation, USPS worked with building managers to create safeguards in the distribution area. . . . We regret the temporary inconvenience to our customers." According to the Postal Service, the stoppage delayed the arrival of two or three ballots at the complex. All deliveries were back to normal by the end of Friday, the agency said. But during a visit to the property Friday, a reporter for The Washington Post interviewed three people in a small group of residents who were still waiting for ballots, indicating that the number of delayed ballots was likely larger. According to city records, at least 95 ballots had been mailed to the complex since late June and just 55 had been completed and returned as of Thursday night. It is unknown why the outstanding ballots have not yet been returned. Ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday and arrive at the city elections office by end of business on Thursday to be counted. After inquiries from The Post, elections officials printed fliers for Horn Towers on Friday, alerting residents to how they can vote if they have not yet received a ballot or if they do not feel confident putting their ballot in the mail. Voters can visit the city elections department on or before Election Day to request and cast a new absentee ballot in person. The city tracks when a voter's ballot has been returned in the mail, so it can cancel an extra ballot and ensure that only one vote per person is counted. Voters can also drop off absentee ballots at the city's repositories. "We're trying to provide as many options as possible so that every voter's ballot counts," said Grace Wachlarowicz, Minneapolis's director of elections. State officials on Friday suggested that voters who had not yet mailed their ballots should consider other options. When asked by Minnesota Public Radio whether it would be safe for voters to mail their ballot Friday, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said: "It depends how much risk you are willing to tolerate." But for many residents in Horn Towers, voting in person or visiting the city elections office may be difficult. About two-thirds of the residents there report a disability, and nearly 70% are over 62 and at greater risk of falling severely ill with the coronavirus, according to data from the Housing Authority. The towers are one block from Lake Street, a commercial corridor where many shops and businesses were destroyed by fire in the unrest following the police killing of Floyd. Across the street, the boarded-up remains of a burned-out Wells Fargo Bank are visible. Sitting Friday in the outdoor courtyard, which had only recently reopened after being closed because of the pandemic, residents of Horn Towers wore masks as they spoke about their anxiety and frustration over the mail. Checks they needed to pay bills and medications were stalled for days. Gary Madsen, 67, a Vietnam War veteran who has lived in the complex for 14 years, said he had not received his diabetes medication for eight days. His wife received her ballot Friday, when delivery finally resumed. She filled it out and mailed it back, but was worried it wouldn't arrive in time to be counted, he said. "This was the worst mistake they could have made, at a time when we are facing an election and need our meds," he said, sitting in a wheelchair bearing an American eagle sticker with the word "Veteran." "This is a situation that should not have ever happened." - - - Goyette reported from Minneapolis. Less than two months out from the federal budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will be forced to self-isolate in a rental property in Canberra for two weeks to attend the next sitting of Parliament. At least a dozen Victorian MPs and nine of their staffers have registered with ACT authorities to self-isolate for 14 days, so they are out in time for parliament resuming on August 24. Treaurer Josh Frydenberg will self-isolate for 14 days in Canberra to attend Parliament. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui More MPs will be given permission to self-isolate in their homes in Victoria - which some have labelled the "family hostage option" because it forces others living in the house to also quarantine. They will likely jump straight on a RAAF VIP flight in a fortnight to take them to the nation's capital. The two different options may shed further light on the differences in quarantine regimes between Canberra and Victoria, with the ACT government running a strict approach with regular and random police checks. KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- Many sexual assault survivors, family, and friends were mourning the death of Daisy Coleman on Friday night. She was a survivor and advocate who died by suicide this week. Tonight, a vigil to remember the young woman, what she overcame, and her life beyond the focus of a Netflix documentary. Every time he heads out to report on a protest, Donovan Farley has a panic attack. The freelance journalist has struggled with the attacks since June 7 when Farley says a police officer hit him on the head with a baton and maced him twice in his face, an encounter that was captured on video. He said he was recording officers kneeling on a protester. As he slips on his collared shirt, blazer and dress pants, he sips his Coca-Cola with CBD mixed in and smokes a CBD pen to keep his anxiety at bay. He also does some yoga. It usually doesnt work. He messages in some group chats with the other freelance reporters and live streamers. Most nights there are at least a dozen of them at the protests, watching and recording and tweeting. Before the federal agents began to leave the city, they expected to get tear gassed. They wonder whether they will get shot with less-lethal munitions, shoved or arrested. He tries not to think about that too much as he grabs his bag and press pass and heads downtown. Freelancers contribute to protest narrative Since the beginning of the protests, there have been freelance journalists and live streamers on the ground covering the events. Some of them have worked at local publications as reporters or photojournalists, while others are published in publications such as Rolling Stone or The New York Times. Some just decided to lend their cameras and platforms to capture the events for an online audience. Throughout the night they tweet, record video, take photos, livestream the protests and write articles. Some speak to national news organizations about the demonstrations. By working on the ground, they have provided a direct view of the protests for Portland residents and people across the U.S. They have seen the streets blanketed with tear gas and recorded videos of dramatic arrests. They have witnessed moments that have helped shape the national narrative which the general public might not have seen otherwise. Live streamer @Matcha_Chai recorded a video of a federal agent grabbing a protester and putting them into an unmarked van the night before Oregon Public Broadcasting wrote an article about it. Farley got video of a naked person walking up to a row of officers. Images from the confrontation went viral. Freelance reporter Garrison Davis captured the moments after Donavan La Bella was shot in the face with less-lethal munitions by federal agents. In the video, people can see the blood splattered on the pavement. I dont know if the story would be where it is right now if it werent for the freelancers, freelance reporter Nathan Howard said. By having all of these live streamers out there who are able to sustain themselves and make this a job, they are able to make sure that there is constantly an eye on the situation. Police response Some of the freelance reporters working in Portland are veterans of protest coverage. Reporter Alex Milan Tracy has reported on protests in Germany, London and other demonstrations in Portland. He has seen police horse charges and law enforcement use water cannons to evict anarchists from the Liebig commune. He said the munitions he has seen law enforcement use at previous demonstrations are nothing compared to the spectrum of crowd control munitions used at the Portland Black Lives Matter protests. He said he has never felt more threatened, and not by the protesters. This is something that I have not experienced at this level anywhere else, Tracy said. That is just the sheer blanketing of the streets with tear gas, night after night in some cases. Howard, who was previously a staff photographer at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Newport News-Times and The Columbian, said he has covered previous Portland protests where the police officers took a more hands-off approach. When the far-right Proud Boys marched in the city followed by antifa counterprotesters, police only got involved if there was a fight or things began to really escalate, he said. He said the officers at recent protests seem more aggressive, specifically regarding how much tear gas and how many less-lethal munitions have been used. The overwhelming police response, whether or not you think its appropriate, is pretty unprecedented, Howard said. The Department of Homeland Security and the Portland Police Bureau did not respond to a request for comment as of publishing. Prepared for the worst Journalists and live streamers who are out almost every night face possible injury from law enforcement and possible arrest. Freelance reporter Andrew Jankowski was planning on heading downtown on July 16 until he saw that there were already many reporters in that area. So, he decided to go to a protest in Southeast Portland. Jankowski thought this demonstration might be slower, safer. He was in the group of protesters, tweeting and recording video, when police announced that the demonstration was an unlawful assembly and ordered protesters to leave. The group complied and moved along Burnside. Jankowski moved with the crowd. At one point, black-clad officers began to flank the group on the right. Jankowski turned left, attempting to move around the officers -- but then law enforcement sped up and sprinted into the crowd. Jankowski ran away from the charging officers only to run into others. He was pushed to the ground and placed under arrest. Didn't see what led up to @AndrewJank's arrest. A person asked, "Have they told you why they are arresting you?" AJ: "No, something about misconduct." "Do you have a press pass?" AJ: "Yes. It's on my chest." It was. I was barely able to see or film. I could see it clearly. pic.twitter.com/eJjsCQAan6 e c o n o m y b r e a k f a s t (@econbrkfst) July 17, 2020 He wore a helmet with the word press written in duct tape and wore a piece of printer paper attached to his chest that listed different publications, such as the Portland Mercury and Willamette Week, he had contributed to. He was accused of disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer. His arraignment is set for September 22. While only handful of journalists have been arrested or detained, nearly all covering the protests for any length of time have inhaled tear gas. Many have been hit by crowd-control weapons. Most of them have purchased gas masks. Some of them have gotten used to the pain. Youre exposed to so much tear gas that you develop an immunity, freelance reporter Garrison Davis said. Some of them still suffer from the effects of tear gas, such as Alissa Azar, who has had her period eleven times since the protests began. Oregon Public Broadcasting has interviewed more than two dozen protesters who said they have also experienced irregular menstrual cycles since being exposed to tear gas, and the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research is looking into the effects of tear gas on people. Some freelance reporters say they were targeted by police while recording officers actions. Freelancer Mike Bivins was pepper sprayed in the face while recording federal agents pushing back a group of protesters. That night Bivins was wearing a light pink shirt and khaki pants. He had a laminated press pass. heres what I saw before the feds pepper sprayed me at point blank. #pdxprotest #portlandprotest pic.twitter.com/AB14BjzuTA mikeford barely human biziths (@itsmikebivins) July 21, 2020 Farley said he was getting video of federal agents releasing tear gas on July 20, standing alone from the protest group, when he was shot in the ribs with a non-lethal munition. It ripped through his press pass. The ACLU filed a class action lawsuit against the city and police in late June for journalists and legal observers who had been mistreated by law enforcement at the protests. The Department of Homeland Security and Marshals Service were added to the suit on July 17. The first lawsuit secured a temporary restraining order that blocks local law enforcement from arresting, threatening to arrest or using physical force against the press or legal observers unless they reasonably know the person committed a crime. The ACLU also won a temporary restraining order against federal law enforcement on July 23, which a judge extended by two more weeks on Thursday. The press pass The restraining orders gave journalists more legal cover to remain in areas protesters have been ordered to leave. To make sure those protections are recognized, the freelance journalists and live streamers make sure they are clearly labeled as press. Some of them put on helmets with press written over duct tape or wear vests labeled press. Some have laminated press passes that look like the ones staff reporters wear. Many of them try to stand out from the crowd by wearing brighter colors, typically avoiding black clothing. The phones, cameras, backup batteries and other gear they carry also helps separate them from the protesting group. Hypothetically, this would help law enforcement recognize the journalists that need to be protected as outlined in the restraining order. However, there have been protesters who have worn clothing with press written on it that have no intention of covering the event. On July 20, freelance reporter Sergio Olmos, who has been published in the New York Times and the Portland Tribune, tweeted a video of a protester wearing a black sweatshirt with press is white letters on the front. In the video he said he wore the shirt to protect himself from being shot by federal agents. Protestor masquerading as press @TheBrandonPaape says hes wearing press to protect himself against being shot by Feds pic.twitter.com/TDyrUgUBxh Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) July 25, 2020 Tracy said that people who pose as press endanger journalists because it can lead police to question journalists legitimacy. This can be especially dangerous for freelance journalists who do not always have press passes that look official. Even further, there is some debate over what specifically classifies someone as press. There is no certification that qualifies someone as a journalist and the Constitution specifically prohibits the government from determining who is and isnt press. This allows even people who have not received journalistic training to be a journalist and cover events as such. Also, while there are specific guidelines that newsrooms operate under, independent members of the press do not have to follow any guidelines but those they set themselves, and sometimes those of the organizations they sell their work to. One of these guidelines that differs amongst journalists is that of objectivity. In journalism classes and training courses, journalists are typically trained to strive to refrain from using biases while they report. However, some of the freelance journalists or live streamers out covering the Portland protests do not share beliefs regarding objectivity. Azar said she stands separately from the protest group and performs like a journalist, but the main reason she attends the protests is to document and highlight police brutality. I am not necessarily someone that claims to be there objectively, Azar said. Suzette Smith said she tries to be objective, but she is not shy about the fact that she supports the Black Lives Matter movement. Farley said he does not always attempt to be objective when he tweets about the protests. Some of this journalistic objectivity that we adhere to is sort of an archaic thing that contributes to these systems of oppression that everyone in the streets is trying to fight, Farley said. Am I expected to go out of my way for journalistic objectivity when this group has been assaulting me for two months? Objectively they are committing crimes against my person. Five seconds could change everything Farley went back out to the protests on July 22, two days after he was shot in the ribs. Even though he was still hurting, Farley said he recognized the importance of the movement and of the work he was doing in the field. Every moment captured contributes to the overall understanding of the protests, and each of these journalists bring a different perspective to add to that understanding. Any moment could be the most important one of the protests yet, which is why its important to have as many cameras out on the ground as possible. Five seconds could change everything, Tracy said. At any point we could become major influencers of how we see these events. -- Madison Smalstig l msmalstig@oregonian.com l @madi_smals l Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories Beijing: Beijing reacted angrily after Donald Trump opened a new front in the Sino-American Cold War when he banned Chinese-owned social media giants TikTok and WeChat. The US president's move gives Americans 45 days to stop doing business with the platforms, citing national security concerns for the incendiary move. The logo for Tencent Holdings' WeChat app, right, and the logo for ByteDance's TikTok app on a phone. Credit:Bloomberg The apps could be banned from Apple and Google app stores, thereby removing them from US distribution. His twin executive orders mark the latest in a series of rows. The contentious issues include human rights abuses in Hong Kong, the global influence of Huawei, and the genesis and spread of coronavirus. The prime minister of Mauritius has declared a state of environmental emergency and appealed to France for urgent assistance as oil from a grounded cargo ship spills unabated into the island nation's protected waters. Rough seas have hampered efforts to stop fuel leaking from the bulk carrier MV Wakashio, which ran aground two weeks ago, and is polluting pristine waters in an ecologically critical marine area off the southeast coast. "A state of environmental emergency has been declared," Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth posted on his Twitter account late Friday. The tanker, belonging to a Japanese company, was carrying 3,800 tonnes of fuel when it struck a reef at Pointe d'Esny, an internationally-listed conservation site near the turquoise waters of the Blue Bay marine park. The environment ministry announced this week that oil had begun seeping from the hull, as volunteers rushed to the coast to prepare for the worst. Poor weather hampers salvage efforts Leaking oil has already damaged the coral reefs, lagoons and white-sand shores upon which Mauritius has built its reputation as a green tourism destination. Aerial images showed the scale of the damage, with huge stretches of azure sea stained black by the spill. A spokesman at Mitsui OSK Lines, which operates the vessel, said fuel was being airlifted by helicopter from the stricken bulker to shore but poor weather was complicating matters. "We tried to place a containment boom near the ship but it's not working well due to high waves," the spokesman told the French AFP news agency in Tokyo on Saturday. Some of the fuel was in separate tanks and may not be at risk of leaking, he added. Urgent appeal for help from France Prime Minister Jugnauth, after touring the disaster site, expressed fears the crisis could worsen with bad weather forecast over the weekend. He made an urgent appeal for help. "The sinking of the Wakashio represents a danger for Mauritius. Our country does not have the skills and expertise to refloat stranded ships, so I have requested the help of France" and its president, Emmanuel Macron. In a statement issued Saturday, the French embassy in Mauritius said a military aircraft from the nearby French Indian Ocean island of Reunion would make two trips to the disaster area with pollution control equipment. Two experts would also be aboard, the statement added. Twenty crew members were evacuated safely from the ship when it ran aground on 25 July. These measures are likely to push the traditional and informal sectors into crisis, just like the British pushed the weavers into unemployment and poverty Handlooms are the second largest employment generating sector in the country, next only to agriculture. Around 31.45 lakh weavers households and 68.86 lakh artisan households continue to make a living today, due to the support of a civil society which respects the importance of preserving Indias traditional heritage. Handlooms and handicrafts are a source of livelihood for around 32 million people, a majority of them belonging to economically impoverished Backward Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Minorities. The handlooms and handicrafts sector has withstood several crises since the British colonial era and the subsequent neglect of Indian government. The abolition of the All India Handloom Board (AIHB) on 27 July this year, and the All India Handicrafts Board on 4 August, by the central government, is another instance of this neglect, and reveals the present regimes partisan favouritism towards big industries and the capitalist lobby rather than the employment generating informal sector. The abolition of these institutions mars the welfare orientation of the current government and its goals of sabka vikas and sabka saath, considering that even the British rulers didnt deny their importance in protecting the handloom sector. Despite the lack of government support, the handlooms and handicrafts sectors have made significant contributions to Indias economy: [In the previous financial year] while handicrafts earned Rs 36,7898 crore through exports and Rs 12,678 crore in the domestic market, handlooms earned Rs 2,280.18 crore in exports and Rs 2,75,000 crore in domestic trade. *** The All India Handloom Board (AIHB) was established on the recommendations of a Fact Finding Committee constituted in 1941 to study the serious setbacks faced by handlooms during 1914-1940. The Committee, tasked with suggesting measures to protect the handloom sector, submitted its report in 1942. The 1942 Report observed that the crisis in the sector was due to severe shortage of yarn (raw material) required by handlooms and obstacles in the supply of cotton from abroad during World War I; and the Boycott Foreign Goods call given by national leaders of the Indian freedom struggle on 7 August 1905. The crisis deepened with Swadeshi Mills forced to produce cloth from handmade yarn and sell it in the local market. On the other hand, the British dumped textiles made in Manchester mills in the Indian market, while the British East India Company simultaneously imposed taxes to wipe out Indian handlooms and the Swadeshi Movement. The handloom sector suffered untold misery with loss of work, as they struggled to sell handloom cloth in a local market that had been flooded with mill cloth. At the same time, India was facing a severe drought and agrarian crisis as well. Many handloom weavers unable to make a living could not leave the sector as there was no industry in India that could absorb them at that time. The overall crisis was so severe that the colonial government could not avoid talking to the leaders of the handloom sector in 1940, finally appointing the Fact Finding Committee in 1941. In its 1942 report, the Committee recommended appointing the All India Handloom Board, stressing the need for a bridge between the government and handloom weavers to understand the issues faced by the sector, to advise better means and arrangements to develop supply of raw material, marketing, handloom cloth production, Research & Development Centres to ensure improvement in the standard of living of the handloom weavers in the country. It also recommended the reservation of certain cloth products exclusively to handlooms to avoid competition with mills particularly products made of coarse yarn like chadders, towels, dhoti with -inch border, saris with 2- inch border, etc. The Government of India subsequently passed the Cotton Textile (Control) Order in 1948 and subsequent legislations with protective measures based on these very recommendations of the Fact Finding Committees 1942 report to prohibit production of these varieties of cloth by mills. The Indian Parliament, adopting the Industrial Policy Resolution on 6 April 1948, stressed on rural economic development through cottage, village and small scale industries, for the generation of employment and development of rural India. Further, the Cottage Industries Board (CIB) was established by the government of India to promote the rural economy through cottage and small scale industries, providing large number jobs for lower investment. Besides, the Standing Handloom Committee was clubbed with the CIB. The All India Handloom Board and All India Handicrafts Board were separated from the Cottage Industry Board in 1952 to retain due importance for and prioritise the concerns and issues of handloom weavers and artisans. These sectors engaged women to a large extent and functioned as an agency of their empowerment, thanks to the tireless efforts of national leaders of the freedom struggle like Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Pupul Jayakar, who worked as the warp and the weft of the mission to preserve the handlooms and handicrafts of India. Because of Chattopadhyay and Jayakar, the handicrafts and handloom sector grew to access improved marketing avenues, supply of raw material, and R&D Centres. The abolition of the All India Handloom and Handicrafts Boards signals the governments departure from the national fostering of the traditional value of production. The abolition of these boards suggests that the government is withdrawing its responsibility to the sector thats struggling to retain its presence in the local and global markets despite the adverse situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. At a time when it should be extending great support to a sector that employs a large section of the population, the government is pampering capital-intensive mega-enterprises at the cost of people-intensive traditional and informal sectors that provide livelihoods to the poorer sections across the country. Withdrawal of government responsibility to handlooms and handicrafts also amounts to a denial of state and central government support to uphold the Constitutional provisions of the right to livelihood, under Articles 41, 43, and 43 (A). The timing of the withdrawal and increased neglect of the sectors at a moment when sales of handlooms and handicrafts in domestic and export markets are growing, means the government intends to provide impetus to industrial capitalist lobbies to capture the informal sector. Per capita handloom cloth consumption increased to 31.85 meters in 2016-17, which marks a 12.66 percent growth from 2015-16. Handicrafts and handlooms have great potential in the export market, which the big capitalists plan to capture. Self-reliant and independent artisans and weavers who are currently living with pride despite low incomes are going to be forced to work for mechanised production units in the near future as their autonomous enterprises are starved and discriminated against, with the current government policies of neglect and deprivation. The handlooms and handicrafts of the country are likely to be wiped out with the threat of changes that the central government wants to thrust on the informal sector. The abolition of the handloom and handicraft boards are not sudden moves, but intensification of government policies pursued from 2013-14 to 2020-21, characterised by the decline in budget allocations from Rs 6,018 crore (15.77 percent) to Rs 485 crore (13.80 percent) for the handloom sector. During the same period, budget allocations for handicrafts have increased from 6.28 percent to 11.05 percent. This slight increase, however, was far lower than the proportion of growth of the handloom and handicraft sectors in terms of employment and exports. Discrimination towards this sector reveals that artisans and handloom weavers are not as important to the government as the industrial capital lobby, which is why there is no mention of handlooms and handicrafts [being] allotted any share of government assistance under the Rs 20 lakh crore economic revival plan of the Atmanirbharta Mission announced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. *** The current moves of the government are likely to push the traditional and informal sectors of the country into deep crisis, just like the British colonial powers pushed the weavers into unemployment, poverty and starvation. While the Indian Merchants Act 1889 imposed restrictions on the use of khadi yarn by mills into a punishable act, the Governor General approved a legislation in continuation of that passed by the Indian Legislature on 13 March 1934. Mahatma Gandhi assessed the importance of handlooms and started the Khadi Movement as a symbol of resistance to foreign rule. Hand spun yarn and cloth produced on the handlooms alone was considered as handloom; no product made on machine or motor power was considered national and handloom. Gandhi also encouraged organisations at the grassroots level to boycott foreign cloth as the British Raj was buying cotton from India at low prices and selling the cloth subsequently manufactured at high cost. Gandhis speech on 22 July 1921 dwells on khadi as an integral part of the independence struggle, and its symbol. Similarly the slogan of Boycott Foreign Goods against Manchester-produced commodities (mill cloth, soaps, cigarettes, oils, etc) brought together Indian masses into one national identity cutting across caste, religion, etc. Also read: India's handloom, handicraft sectors have resilience to combat COVID-19 crisis setbacks. But they need calculated support Boycott Foreign Goods was a strategy to ensure that the Hindus and Muslims do not divide into separate factions but fight collectively against the colonial powers with a focused objective of protecting the handlooms. Deeply touched by the plight of handlooms fraught by the shortage of raw material and crisis in the markets, Mahatma Gandhi gave the clarion call for a Bonfire of foreign cloth and Boycott of foreign cloth. On 31 July 1921, in front of Elphinstone Mill, foreign cloth was burned and Indians were asked to wear only handlooms. Coming to the present context, the only difference is that the rulers then were British and now they are Indians. There are no efforts to support the handlooms and handicrafts from the government side when they are competing with power-loom fabrics and machine-made crafts in the local markets at lower prices. On the other side, there is sloganeering and campaigning around Make in India, Vocal for Local etc, but unless there is a call from the Prime Minister on boycotting foreign power-loom fabrics and machine-made crafts, these campaigns and slogans dont carry any meaningful message. Otherwise, history will repeat itself, where weavers and artisans have to bear the brunt of an unimaginable economic crisis. Already during this coronavirus lockdown, two from Andhra Pradesh and 12 from Telangana have died by suicide; there is not yet any clear information on how many such suicides have happened in the country. *** If handloom weavers and artisans have to overcome this situation, the government has to immediately announce an economic package for them as part of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan on the pro rata basis of dependent population. The Handloom and Handicraft Boards have to be immediately revived and put back into action. Instead of filling these with political appointments who have little awareness about the sectors, capable persons who have rich experience in the field must be appointed as Board members, which alone reflects the governments commitment towards the cause of handlooms and handicrafts. The Boards have to function as the facilitators between the weavers and artisans, their representatives and the government and prepare as well as implement plans for supply of raw material, providing credit support and market linkages, and enable weavers and artisans to access various welfare measures announced by the government. The way the British taxed handlooms, the present GST on handlooms and handicrafts should be abolished and adequate funds must be allocated in the plan budgets. The government should treat this as their immediate responsibility as opposed to waiving huge loans given to big corporates. Last but not least, civil society has to make an unflinching effort in planning measures to reduce unemployment and sustain the rural economy, which in turn will obviate the present social and political crises and ultimately protect the weavers and artisans who are tirelessly competing with mechanised industry. Macherla Mohan Rao is the president of the National Federation of Handlooms and Handicrafts Ontarios child-care centres will be receiving about three per cent of a major influx of cash from the federal government meant to help cope with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the provinces premier said Friday. Doug Ford said $234.6 million would start flowing to licensed daycare providers, First Nations Child and Family Programs and other child-care operators in the coming weeks. The money comes as part of the Safe Restart Agreement, a $19-billion deal between Ottawa and the provinces and territories, of which Ontario will receive $7 billion. This is about giving parents certainty, Ford told a news conference. This is about giving their employers certainty. And above all its about protecting our kids and the staff who care for them. Ford said the money will be used to allow the province to provide face coverings for staff in child-care settings, hire new employees if needed and otherwise bolster cleaning and public health protocols. Education Minister Stephen Lecce, who oversees the provinces child-care portfolio, said the money could also be used to retrofit school-based daycare locations to make them safer, as well as offset revenue losses from the months when child-care centres were closed or operating at a limited capacity. It can be used ... to make up those dollars, to really help those operators get through the worst of it, Lecce said. He said the money would flow in short order, but did not provide a specific date. Ontarios child-care centres, shuttered during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, have been gradually ramping up operations since June, when the province began moving regions into Stage 2 of its pandemic recovery plan. The government has said that daycares have the green light to operate at 100 per cent capacity once again as of Sept. 1. Child-care providers have previously said they were not receiving promised funding on time, leaving staff either unable to open their facilities or to safely care for as many children as they wished. Andrea Hannen, executive director of the Association of Day Care Operators of Ontario, said thats still the case in many areas across the province. She blamed the bottleneck on municipalities, who are responsible for distributing child-care funding under the terms of the provincial Child Care and Early Years Act. We need the province to investigate why it is taking some municipalities so long to provide child-care licensees with the provincial funding they have been promised, Hannen said in a statement. Without this funding, a lot of licensed child-care centres are likely to remain closed even once schools have reopened. Some municipalities started flowing the promised funds weeks ago, others are still telling centres that it wont be paid out until at least September. That simply isnt good enough, according to the minister of families, children and social development. Ahmed Hussen called for greater collaboration between all levels of government to ensure that the sector can play its intended role as a vital part of the countrys economic recovery plan. Its not a luxury, its a necessity, Hussen said. Were doing everything that we can to actually exercise federal leadership, but provinces and municipalities also have to work with us to make sure that we all prioritize the sector. Hussen said Ontario is receiving a large proportion of the child-care funding allocated under the Safe Restart Agreement, which earmarked $625 million for such settings across the country. He said the federal government is also in the process of renegotiating Ontarios share of a $400-million, bilateral contract to support child-care centres across the country. Details of Ontarios funding allocation, he said, should be finalized in the coming days. Doly Begum, child-care critic for the provincial opposition New Democrats, said the Ontario government should do its part by matching the newly announced funds from Ottawa. The federal contribution to reopening Ontarios child-care centres is simply not enough to support the thousands of centres across Ontario struggling to reopen safely, Begum said in a statement. The Ford government must pitch in and ... bring that funding up to a level that helps centres hire more early childhood educators, get additional spaces in place and ensure cohorts are smaller and safer. The latest announcement came as Ontario recorded its fifth straight day of fewer than 100 new COVID-19 cases. The province reported 88 new cases and no new deaths associated with the virus Friday morning. Read more about: Gerry Adams' tribute to John Hume was about as sincere as a Conor Murphy apology. The Sinn Fein minister had to apologise for saying the brutally murdered Paul Quinn was involved in criminality. Adams, Sinn Fein's emeritus president-for-life, was rolled out this week to reflect on the death of Hume. He gave his own unique take on the Hume-Adams talks, which paved the way for the peace process. Needless to say, it was self-serving and presented Adams's own version of history. Sinn Fein TD Padraig MacLochlainn, one of the more independent-minded members of the party, was thorough in his praise of John Hume: "The Irish people will forever owe the great John Hume an immense debt of gratitude for his courage and fortitude in pursuing the peace process." The shiny new Mary Lou McDonald Sinn Fein owes a heck of a lot to Hume for bringing the so-called Republican movement in from the cold and releasing it from an unwinnable conflict. He showed a purely political alternative to the violence of the Provisional IRA. Hume staked his reputation at a time when nobody would touch Adams or the Provos' political wing. The viciously personalised backlash against the then SDLP leader from the southern establishment showed the enormous risk Hume was taking. The pages of the Sunday Independent were savagely critical of Hume's willingness to engage with the still active IRA in the Troubles of the early 1990s. Eamon Dunphy, at the time a columnist with the paper who was scathing of the talks, graciously accepted this week that Hume was right. Bertie Ahern revealed Aengus Fanning, the late editor, sought to make up with Hume some years later, which was achieved over pints in Fagan's in Drumcondra. The level of animosity at the time illustrated the leap of faith Hume was taking during a period when those south of the border would wake up each morning to the backdrop of RTE's correspondent Poilin Ni Chiarain citing the endless murders overnight in Northern Ireland. Hume was respected as a statesman, revered as an architect of the peace process and regarded as a politician who made enormous sacrifices for his people, while Adams was - and still is - reviled by many for his association in the public mind with the IRA and its terrorism. Whatever about character assassination, the Republican movement threatened Hume and his family, attacking, picketing, vandalising their home, and branding him a traitor. The Provisional IRA even considered killing Hume in the early 1980s and planned to make it appear it was perpetrated by loyalists, given his popularity in the nationalist community. The theory goes that the Republican movement were worried about Hume's growing influence in Dublin, London and Washington and felt he had to be taken out. The leader who the Provos weighed up murdering ultimately became a saviour of the Republican movement. Despite never, ever, ever being a member of the IRA, Adams's status as the godfather of the euphemistically labelled 'Republican family' means he retains a certain status in Sinn Fein. He hasn't gone away, you know. The contrast between John Hume's funeral and that of former IRA commander Bobby Storey was stark. Pat Hume's request that people stay home to respect the Covid-19 restrictions and light a candle in the window was a marked difference to the 'Republican family' a month earlier, which appeared to show scant regard for the spirit of the social distancing guidelines with Storey's funeral. The funeral, with Adams flanked in the cortege by McDonald and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, was a throwback to the bad old days. The display summed up the reluctance of parties south of the border going into government with Sinn Fein. Latter day Sinn Fein is the largest party in the country north and south. But the deification of the Provos and continual justification of the campaign of violence even saw Mary Lou McDonald, who grew up in the badlands of west Rathgar, ridiculously claim she would have joined the IRA. Meanwhile, the SDLP wanders like an orphan on the political landscape south of the border. In the post-Hume period, Sinn Fein easily eclipsed the SDLP in Northern Ireland. As Bertie Ahern's Fianna Fail kept Sinn Fein at bay, the SDLP craved the Fianna Fail fairy dust and ability to take on the Shinners. As far back as 2002, after Ahern's return to power for a second term, there was talk of a merger. Fianna Fail hired guns went north for the 2003 Assembly elections - and returned just as fast. In the wake of the retirements of Hume, Seamus Mallon, Brid Rodgers and Eddie McGrady, Sinn Fein beat the SDLP to become the largest party on the nationalist side. The tipping of the scales that has remained since. Until last year's Westminster election losses, Ahern masterminded Sinn Fein's only electoral setback of the post-Good Friday Agreement period in the 2007 general election. Fending off Mary Lou McDonald's advance in his own Dublin Central backyard, he targeted Sinn Fein's Sean Crowe in Dublin South-West as he saw Fine Gael's return as a threat. Sinn Fein gains south of the border were modest until the economic crash changed the dynamic as Fianna Fail went into meltdown and the Labour Party got punished for cleaning up the mess. Sinn Fein has profited most from the decline of the two parties the SDLP is closest to south of the border, mopping up seats and electoral territory Fianna Fail and Labour held previously. Micheal Martin has struck a weird co-operation accord with Colum Eastwood, leader of the SDLP, which hasn't progressed too far. Indeed, SDLP MP Claire Hanna opposes the link-up and openly canvassed for Fine Gael and Labour during the general election campaign. Let's be clear, Sinn Fein is a serious political outfit, with a proper strategy for developing candidates and winning seats with a proper organisation on the ground. The party undoubtedly has its talents in McDonald, a capable leader supported by Pearse Doherty, Eoin O Broin and Louise O'Reilly. The party now holds an important position as the leaders of the Opposition, tasked with holding the Government to account. Power seems close and yet still far away due to the shadow of the past cast by Adams, who, as the late Seamus Mallon put it in an interview with The Irish Times before his death "has his hand in too many awful events, too many". Hume deserves the credit he doesn't receive for his contribution to Sinn Fein's development, at the unselfish expense of his own party. The only barrier to Sinn Fein now is the homage to Adams and the murderous campaign of the Provos. Congress held an antitrust hearing on the predatory actions of the nation's largest tech firms last week. It demonstrated to the American public what they already instinctively knew was true: that the Big Tech cartels are out of control and playing by their own set of rules. But what the hearing brought to the forefront of the discussion that was not as well known before is that the mega-firms of Facebook, Amazon, and Google all appear to regularly steal from competitors or threaten them into submission to grow in size and power. Google found itself on the defensive for the entirety of the hearing, with the opening question from subcommittee chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) being "Why do you steal?" The committee heard from numerous businesses, large and small, that provided evidence of Google's seemingly blatant theft of content and data. As demonstrated by the hearing, the examples of what appear to be outright theft on the part of Google are clear as day. The company allegedly poaches Yelp reviews and has threatened to delist the website from Google search results if it objects. The Supreme Court is also set to review how Google copied coding verbatim from Oracle's Java library to create Android after commercial licensing negotiations broke down. This seeming theft allowed Google not only to enter the mobile operating market, but also to outmatch its competitors. Now it is using its power to push a baseless "fair use" legal defense in the courts that would allow it to continue taking competitors' intellectual property in the future. Google's abuses are so great that it has sparked a separate investigation by the Department of Justice. Google wasn't alone in the hearing. Our representatives also found that Amazon, the digital retail giant, is no less guilty of these harmful practices. Rep. Pramilia Jayapal (D-Wash.) focused on how Amazon is strategically and unfairly taking sales data from its third-party vendors. It uses this information to create Amazon-branded products that compete against them in the marketplace. The relationship, while referred to by Amazon as mutually beneficial because of the multi-billion-dollar platform it provides vendors, seems to be heavily tilted in favor of the ecommerce giant. Rep. Mary Scanlon (D-Pa.) mentioned Amazon's foray into the diaper business and how it bled over $20 million a month to put one seller on its site out of business. It seems that Amazon helps vendors only until it doesn't need them anymore and by then, the vendors often have nowhere else to go. Perhaps Cicilline said it best when he concurred that the behavior of Amazon was that of a drug-dealer. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) pushed Amazon on its theft of software to create its successful Echo speaker. He referenced a Wall Street Journal article that discussed how Amazon met with a small cloud computing company about new technology, only to allegedly steal it for its Echo speaker. CEO Jeff Bezos denied any wrongdoing. Representatives' questioning also exposed how Facebook has behaved in an equally anti-consumer manner. Long the target of free speech scrutiny, the world's largest social network appears guilty of predatory business practices. Facebook's acquisition of Instagram was a target of the panel, with private communications between Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom indicating that Facebook had threatened the image-sharing site with financial ruin if it didn't sell. Zuckerberg was also quoted as saying Facebook would simply buy competitors to keep its market position, much as Standard Oil did during the first major trust busts a century ago. Although not mentioned in the trial, Snapchat executives have relayed a similar story about Facebook's attempts to purchase their app. It paints a damning picture of the onetime Silicon Valley darling, out of touch and out of control. As Zuckerberg explained his acquisition strategy, Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) could only comment, "Mr. Zuckerberg, you're making my case." There remains some division about how Congress should proceed with its investigation, but Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) stated that there is a need to bring regulators up to speed to enforce current laws and protections better. In his closing remarks, Chairman Cicilline said that while they don't yet know what specific steps they will take, it was clear that "all [of the targeted companies] need to be properly regulated and held accountable." He found that the best way to do so would be to "ensure the antitrust laws first written more than a century ago work in the digital age." Congress rarely is a place for bipartisanship, but so egregious are Big Tech's actions that even congressmen can't help but find common ground. Now they join the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court, and the states' attorneys general in using their full power to bring these abusers to justice. If they don't get things done, we can rest assured that President Trump has America covered. "If Congress doesn't bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders." Sleep tight, crony tech. Dr. Michael Busler, Ph.D., is a public policy analyst and a professor of finance at Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in finance and economics. He has written op-ed columns in major newspapers for more than 35 years. Its drawing little attention, unfortunately, but theres a political tragedy unfolding in Latin America that should be ringing alarm bells everywhere. Bolivias Oct. 18 presidential elections might result in former President Evo Morales populist leftist Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) partys return to power. Morales and his party have a history of electoral fraud, political repression, intimidating opposition parties, corruption and close ties with Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and the worlds other worst dictatorships. If MAS wins the elections, it will most likely not be thanks to the support of most Bolivians, but because of a divided field of about a half dozen anti-Morales candidates. Their selfishness and short-sightedness are dividing the anti-Morales vote, and could be paving the way for his party to regain power. Among the main culprits is right-of-center interim President Jeanine Anez, who took office last year with the mandate to organize free elections. Shortly thereafter, she betrayed her promise not to run for office herself. In the best tradition of Morales, she is now abusing her presidential powers in her quest to stay in office. Most polls show that the MAS will not win the first-round vote and would be forced to run a runoff with the second-place candidate. In that case, many believe that an anti-populist and pro-free-market candidate would win. This is why Bolivias elections have not caused much alarm in the democratic world. But that calculation might be wrong. It doesnt take into account undecided voters or COVID-19-related factors that may tilt the vote toward Morales candidate, Luis Arce. Morales himself is campaigning for Arce from Argentina, after being barred from running for office himself. Morales unconstitutional election in October 2019 to a fourth-term in office was declared marred with irregularities by two separate electoral monitoring missions from the Organization of American States. According to a recent poll by Bolivias Mercados y Muestras polling firm, published by the Pagina Siete newspaper, the Morales-backed candidate has 24 percent of the vote, followed by former president Carlos Mesa with 20 percent, interim president Anez with 15 percent, plus other candidates with smaller percentages. Story continues But the same poll also shows that 20 percent of likely voters are undecided. That percentage probably includes many Morales supporters who are afraid of disclosing their true preference to pollsters, one of the polls organizers told me. In addition, when Bolivian voters are asked by pollsters if they plan to go to the polls despite the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 20 percent of Mesa and Anezs supporters said they will probably not turn out, while only 3 percent of the Morales-backed candidate give the same answer. Morales supporters are more likely to vote than others, pollsters say. Several U.S.-based Bolivia watchers tell me that a Morales party victory is very possible. When you have a very polarized electorate, where one of the poles is totally unified and the other is split among many candidates, the winner will be the first one, Eduardo Gamarra, a Florida International University professor and Bolivia expert, told me. Its an old rule of politics, which applies perfectly well in todays Bolivia. Making things worse, there is a widespread belief among many anti-populist Bolivians that a Morales party victory would make it even more authoritarian. Morales, who ruled between 2006 and 2019, now thinks it was a mistake on his part to give the opposition even limited space to compete in his fraudulent elections last year, they say. Clearly, Bolivias anti-populist candidates should learn from Venezuelas opposition, which last week announced a united front of 27 pro-democracy parties. Bolivias pro-democracy presidential hopefuls should cast aside their personal ambitions and unite behind the most popular candidate among them. Legally, its too late to do a primary election to pick a single anti-populist candidate. But that could be easily resolved by hiring a reputable international polling firm and finding out who is the most popular candidate among them. All anti-populist candidates could commit to supporting whoever comes out No. 1 in that poll. If Bolivias anti-populist candidates dont team up, they would be responsible for a potential Morales party victory that would push the country into populist authoritarian rule, greater political repression and even greater poverty. It would be a real and totally preventable political tragedy. Dont miss the Oppenheimer Presenta TV show at 8 p.m. E.T. Sunday on CNN en Espanol. Twitter: @oppenheimera Welcome Guest! You Are Here: The huge damage inflicted on youngsters by a long break from school has been laid bare by several new studies. Interrupted schooling has deep and long-lasting effects on children, according to Oxford University researchers who used data from school closures in a disaster zone. They said the study has relevance for other disasters, including the Covid-19 pandemic. The study found that childrens test scores in areas of Pakistan hit by a 2005 earthquake were between one- and-a-half and two years behind their peers in untouched areas. In another study, US researchers looked at the effects of the summer slide when children forget over the long holidays what they have previously learned to estimate the impact of school closures caused by the coronavirus (file photo) Those affected face losing 15 per cent of their earnings every year for the rest of their lives. In another study, US researchers looked at the effects of the summer slide when children forget over the long holidays what they have previously learned to estimate the impact of school closures caused by the coronavirus. It said students are likely to return to the classroom with less than 50 per cent of the knowledge and skills they had in maths. Meanwhile, a major UK study into the long-term consequences of the Covid crisis on the younger generation is being undertaken by Exeter University. Dr Lee Elliot Major, the universitys professor of social mobility, said: What is already clear is that the drastic losses in learning will have profound impacts on the lives of many children and young people. Every extra week away from face-to-face teaching adds to the cumulative damage over a lifetime. We need to assess the short-term risks of containing the virus against the longer-term, but in many ways more profound, risks of damaging the prospects for a whole generation. Natalie Perera, executive director of the independent Education Policy Institute (EPI), said: Pupils across the country have suffered huge learning loss since the lockdown began, with the most disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils hit the hardest by school closures. The period of disruption faced by schools is likely to have increased the achievement gap between the poorest pupils and the rest, which is already 18 months of learning by the end of compulsory education. The Government must offer maximum support to schools so that they are able to continue with pupils education in a safe and secure environment. Maura Regan, chief executive officer of Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust, which runs 18 academies in the North-East, told The Mail on Sunday that schools owe it to society to have staff back working so that childrens education can get back on track and parents can return to work. Interrupted schooling has deep and long-lasting effects on children, according to Oxford University researchers (file photo) In essence we need to get children in school in September. Id like to see us back full time and back permanently full time, she said. There is a balance to be struck between the risk and the priority of getting children back and the economy going. But the detrimental impact on children, especially the most vulnerable who might not have the drive or the parental support, is huge. Other research shows that the least well-off children have suffered the most from being out of school. An Institute for Fiscal Studies report found children from better-off households are spending 30 per cent more time each day on educational activities than children from the poorest fifth of homes. Boris Johnson says reopening schools next month is a 'moral duty' and a 'national priority' as he takes on the teaching unions By Glen Owen, Political Editor For The Mail on Sunday Boris Johnson today throws down the gauntlet to union leaders blocking the return of pupils to classrooms by insisting the country has a moral duty to reopen schools next month. In an exclusive article for The Mail on Sunday, the Prime Minister declares that a resumption of normal teaching is now his national priority. The rallying cry will further crank up the political pressure over the issue, which is fast becoming a totemic test of the Governments ability to reboot the economy and move the country safely out of lockdown. Mr Johnson writes: Now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so. The rallying cry will further crank up the political pressure over the issue, which is fast becoming a totemic test of the Governments ability to reboot the economy and move the country safely out of lockdown Pupils were sent home at the start of lockdown in March, and only the children of key workers have been able to enjoy a measure of normal classroom teaching since then. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has come under intense pressure as critics warned that the lay-off was widening the educational divide between rich and poor, and preventing many parents from returning to the workplace. Mr Johnsons words come after Dr Mary Bousted, head of the National Education Union, urged schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has come under intense pressure as critics warned that the lay-off was widening the educational divide between rich and poor, and preventing many parents from returning to the workplace Many parents have been angered after schools told them they will educate their children only until lunchtime on at least one day of the week, on the grounds that they need time to implement extra safety requirements such as deep cleaning and staggered break times. In other developments: This newspaper has established that there has not been single case of a pupil infecting a teacher with the virus anywhere in the world; New research laid bare the damaging educational impact on pupils who have missed schooling during the lockdown; The coronavirus death toll rose by 55 yesterday, to 46,556, compared to a rise of 74 last Saturday, while 758 new infections were reported, 13 fewer than a week ago; Scientific advisers warned that the UK-wide reproduction rate, R, is between 0.8 and 1.0, the point at which the virus starts spreading exponentially again; Oxford University researchers developing a vaccine were embroiled in an ethics row about whether to deliberately infect human volunteers and warned that although there was a 50 per cent chance of a jab being available next year, it was likely to be only partially effective and carry side-effects; A survey found that barely half of the adult population is committed to being immunised against Covid-19; France is on the brink of joining the list of countries from where British travellers will have to go into quarantine upon their return; Young people in Preston were being urged dont kill Granny as the city was subjected to new lockdown measures following a spike in infections; Up to 16 children and staff were forced to isolate at home after a coronavirus outbreak at a nursery in Bury, which has also been put into local lockdown. The Prime Minister stressed the importance of getting all children back in school in September during a series of No 10 meetings last week, emphasising his expectation that education should be the absolutely last sector to be asked to close in local lockdowns with businesses such as shops, pubs and restaurants forced to close first. In his article, Mr Johnson argues that it is crucial for their welfare, their health and for their future that children should return to the classrooms full-time. He writes: We can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it. He spoke of the uplifting sight as millions of parents rose to the challenge of educating their children amid the added pressures of lockdown, but said that had to end. Highlighting the damage to children from poorer families in particular, Mr Johnson says: Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. 'The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health. Sport England report one in three children has done less physical activity in lockdown, with many suffering from poorer mental health, including through reduced access to vital support. Most painfully of all, the costs of school closure have fallen disproportionately on the most disadvantaged, the very children who need school the most. Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible. Mr Johnsons words come after Dr Mary Bousted, head of the National Education Union, urged schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe Last night, Mr Williamson said: Schools are the best place for childrens education and wellbeing and that is why their return to the classroom next month is our priority. 'Every decision we have taken leading up to this point has been informed by the best scientific and medical advice. I believe the vast majority of teachers, parents and children would agree that now is not the time to bring the sacrifices of the last four months to a standstill. The right measures are in place for all children to return to school in September. Let us come together to make sure that happens. Not a single confirmed case of a school pupil passing on coronavirus to their teacher exists anywhere in the world, says a leading expert By Stephen Adams, Medical Editor for The Mail on Sunday No confirmed cases exist anywhere in the world of school pupils passing on Covid to their teachers, an expert has said. All the available evidence points to children being poor spreaders of the virus, said Professor Mark Woolhouse, who cast doubt on the theory that reopening schools will trigger a deadly second wave. Last week, a modelling forecast published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health warned that opening schools across the UK in September could lead to a tsunami of new cases, more than twice the size of the first wave. But Prof Woolhouse said a second study published in the medical journal the same day, which found infected children in Australian schools had passed the virus on to hardly anyone, had been largely ignored. During the first wave, 15 schools and ten nurseries in the state of New South Wales reported 27 cases where children or staff had attended while infectious with Covid-19. Fifteen of these index cases were staff and 12 were children. Class pledge: Boris Johnson on a visit to a Kent school last month These 12 children were in close contact with 103 staff, found contact tracers. Only one of them was discovered to have passed the virus on to a member of staff in a single instance, although this is understood to have occurred in a nursery. Nor did infected children pass the virus on to their classmates to any great degree, with that happening in only two of 649 close contacts a virus attack rate of just 0.3 per cent. By contrast, the 15 infected staff members passed it on to 4.4 per cent of colleagues who were close contacts (to seven out of 160). Prof Woolhouse, head of infectious disease epidemiology at Edinburgh University, said: Science progresses by people publishing research. So what we do as carefully as we possibly can is scan whats been published in the literature to see if there are any reported cases, in this case of a child transmitting to a teacher in the classroom. The fact that there arent any that we can find, and there still arent, doesnt mean that its not possible in principle and doesnt mean that it wont happen on occasion. Prof Woolhouse, head of infectious disease epidemiology at Edinburgh University, said: Science progresses by people publishing research.' 'But it does suggest that out of all the ways that we see and have found this virus to transmit and remember, there are thousands and thousands of transmission events that have been inferred [from contact tracing] out of all those thousands, still we cant find a single one involving a child transmitting to a teacher in a classroom. He added: Even if this virus doesnt spread easily among the children, it certainly will spread among staff if it gets the opportunity. 'The evidence so far is that the most dangerous room in the school is not the classroom, its the staff room. So schools need to pay attention to that, and not take their eye off the right ball. Prof Woolhouse advises the Government on coronavirus as a member of the Scientific Pandemic Group on Modelling (SPI-M), although he stressed he was speaking in a personal capacity. Academics concluded reopening schools without improving contact tracing could trigger a second wave up to 2.3 times the size of the first, leading to 250,000 more deaths His comments come amid renewed calls for caution by teaching unions, with the National Education Union urging schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and to refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe. The unions will have felt emboldened to speak out by last weeks modelling study, by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and University College London (UCL). Academics concluded reopening schools without improving contact tracing could trigger a second wave up to 2.3 times the size of the first, leading to 250,000 more deaths. Prof Woolhouse said that apocalyptic outcome was highly unlikely given the current evidence. He added: Im slightly worried that, just through an accident of timing, schools will get blamed for pushing the R number over 1. But all activity can contribute to R rising, not just schools. BORIS JOHNSON: Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than is absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible The education of our children is crucial for their welfare, their health and for their future. That is why it is a national priority to get all pupils back into school in September. The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it. Back in March, we had no option but to close schools to all but vulnerable children and those of critical workers, as part of our wider effort to protect the NHS and save lives. One of the most uplifting sights as our country came together during the lockdown was the transformation of living rooms and kitchens into classrooms, as millions of parents rose to the challenge of educating their children. 'The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it' Pictured: Prime Minister Boris Johnson visiting the Discovery School in West Malling, Kent, in July this year For many, this was achieved while juggling the pressures of work and childcare, compounded by the mounting toll of the restrictions necessarily imposed by our fight against coronavirus swings and slides locked up, playdates banned, grandparents unable to help. It was and for many families continues to be a truly Herculean effort of which I will always be in awe. It was also supported by many brilliant teachers providing remote learning for their pupils, the thousands of laptops and tablets we bought and shipped to the children who needed them to access online resources, and the stunning creation of Oak National Academy, which developed an entire online curriculum in just a matter of weeks. But we are in a different situation now to the one we faced earlier this year. Thanks to the enormous sacrifices made by the British people, we have made very significant progress in our fight against the virus. The number of infections has been forced down from an estimated 157,000 in early May to around 28,000 at the start of this month. Scientists have learned more about how the virus spreads and how we can control it. Crucially, studies have shown that children face a much lower risk than adults. This pandemic isnt over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do is become complacent. But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so. Because there is ultimately no substitute for a child learning at school to give them the knowledge, skills and wherewithal to succeed in life. Its why weve had compulsory schooling in this country for 140 years, and the evidence is incontrovertible. Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health. Sport England reports one in three children has done less physical activity in lockdown, with many suffering from poorer mental health, including through reduced access to vital support. 'Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health' Most painfully of all, the costs of school closure have fallen disproportionately on the most disadvantaged, the very children who need school the most. Surveys estimate that while the majority of pupils have been learning at home, as many as a quarter of pupils were doing less than two hours of school work a day. Children in the richest families spent over 75 minutes more per day on home-schooling than those in the poorest, and one study predicted that the attainment gap between children from economically deprived households and their peers could widen by more than a third. The Childrens Commissioner has reported increased risk of exposure to domestic violence, exploitation and addiction, both at home and on the streets. The longer this continues, the more likely it is that some will tumble out of education, employment or training altogether, never to return. On top of all this, there are the spiralling economic costs of parents and carers unable to work without the school or wraparound childcare they depend on; and the devastating long-term cost looming from the stunting of our childrens future productivity. This damage is taking place all over the world, with the United Nations Secretary General last week warning of a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress and exacerbate entrenched inequalities. We simply cannot allow this to continue. Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible. I have always believed that talent is uniformly distributed but opportunity is not, and the first step to changing that is by helping those who have fallen behind to catch up. So we are investing 1 billion in catch-up support, including a new 350 million National Tutoring Programme. We have announced 14 billion extra for schools and a new ten-year school building programme, as part of the Governments mission to build back better. But first of all we must open the school gates to all pupils once again. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has advised that the risk to children themselves of becoming severely ill from coronavirus is low. Our test and trace system is up and running already, it has identified almost 200,000 people who might otherwise inadvertently spread the virus, and advised them to self-isolate and we have worked closely with teaching unions and school leaders on measures to ensure that our schools are Covid secure. Grouping children into bubbles, staggered drop-off times, regular handwashing and providing schools and colleges with a number of home-testing kits for those who would be unable to access a testing centre. It is a detailed plan for getting all of our children back to school in a way that is safe. In June, we began the phased return of Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 and, after some initial apprehension, many parents reported how much happier their children were and what a relief it was to be back. Now we must all work together to bring this best practice to the task of reopening schools to all pupils in September. Nothing will have a greater effect on the life chances of our children and nothing is more important for the future of our country. They have been isolating with their family in Los Angeles during the coronavirus pandemic. But Sylvester Stallone got out of the house and headed to the beach with his wife Jennifer Flavin, daughter Scarlet and a friend on Friday. The group was spotted walking down the beach in Malibu near the water, soaking in the sun. Beach day: Sylvester Stallone got out of the house and headed to the beach with his wife Jennifer Flavin, on Friday in Malibu The Rocky, actor, wore all black in a plain short sleeve tee, skinny jeans and sneakers. Sly, 74, shielded his eyes from the sun in reflective silver shades. Meanwhile, Jennifer, 51, gave peak at her incredible toned figure, as she wore soft black shorts and a blue crop top revealing her midriff. She also donned black shades, and as the group seemed far away from others, they didn't don face masks but still complied with COVID-19 guidelines. Monochrome: The Rocky, actor, wore all black in a plain short sleeve tee, skinny jeans and sneakers Toned: Meanwhile, Jennifer, 51, gave peak at her incredible toned figure, as she wore soft black shorts and a blue crop top revealing her midriff The couple seemed to be having an important chat as the actor grabbed his wife's shoulder and she reached her arm around his back. Walking with them was a family friend, in a black summer midi dress and black sunglasses. The couple's youngest daughter Scarlet, 18, also joined them bringing a friend along herself. Friends day: Walking with them was a family friend, in a black summer midi dress and black sunglasses Beach ready: The couple's youngest daughter Scarlet, 18, also joined them bringing a friend along herself Lockdown love: Sylvester and Jennifer marked their 23rd wedding anniversary in May while on lockdown The youngest of their three daughters wore shorts, a flowing white beach shirt over a bikini. Sylvester and Jennifer marked their 23rd wedding anniversary in May while on lockdown. The couple cozied up for a sweet photo as she wrote 'Happy anniversary to us! 23 years.' Years together: They welcomed daughter Sophia in 1996 and wed in a civil ceremony at The Dorchester Hotel in London on May 17, 1997 Shielded: Sly, 74, shielded his eyes from the sun in reflective silver shades The couple initially met in 1988 and began a relationship that ended in 1994, when the actor had a relationship with model Janice Dickinson. He reconciled with Jennifer, 51, in 1995 after a DNA confirmed he was not the father of Janice's daughter Savannah. They welcomed daughter Sophia in 1996 and wed in a civil ceremony at The Dorchester Hotel in London on May 17, 1997. Silver plate: Jennifer shared a selfie with her husband Sylvester Stallone marking their 23rd wedding anniversary while on lockdown in Los Angeles, in May Origins: The couple initially met in 1988 and began a relationship that ended in 1994, when the 73-year-old actor had a relationship with model Janice Dickinson (pictured together in 1990) Together the actor and former model went on to welcome two more daughters Sistine in 1998 and Scarlet in 2002. Sistine shared a snap of the couple from their civil ceremony with Jennifer in a white crop top, veil and low-rise jeans, and Sylvester in a plain black tee and dark jeans. '23 years of marriage,' she wrote with a heart emoji. 'Their second wedding lol.' (Natural News) Summary: mRNA vaccines undergoing Covid-19 clinical trials, including the Moderna vaccine, rely on a nanoparticle-based carrier system containing a synthetic chemical called polyethylene glycol (PEG). (Article republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org) The use of PEG in drugs and vaccines is increasingly controversial due to the well-documented incidence of adverse PEG-related immune reactions, including life-threatening anaphylaxis. Roughly seven in ten Americans may already be sensitized to PEG, which may result in reduced efficacy of the vaccine and an increase in adverse side effects. If a PEG-containing mRNA vaccine for Covid-19 gains FDA approval, the uptick in exposure to PEG will be unprecedentedand potentially disastrous. Moderna documents and publications indicate that the company is well aware of safety risks associated with PEG and other aspects of its mRNA technology but is more concerned with its bottom line. A dozen Covid-19 vaccines are undergoing clinical trials, leading a crowded field that now numbers approximately 170 candidates. Several of the U.S. contendersModerna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Arcturus Therapeuticsare deploying never-before-approved messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, an experimental approach designed to turn the bodys cells into viral-protein-making factories. A key technical challenge is to get the vaccines bulky RNA payload into the cells intactwithout it breaking down prior to arriving at its destination. In other words, mRNA vaccines will not work without an in-built delivery mechanism that enables the mRNA to shove its way into a cells cytoplasm. The chosen solution is to use trendy biotech carrier systems involving lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). LNPs encapsulate the mRNA constructs to protect them from degradation and promote cellular uptake and, additionally, rev up the immune system (a property that vaccine scientists tamely describe as LNPs inherent adjuvant properties). The LNP formulations in the three Covid-19 vaccines are also PEGylated, meaning that the vaccine nanoparticles are coated with a synthetic, nondegradable and increasingly controversial polymer called polyethylene glycol (PEG). Moderna acknowledged the potential for its proprietary LNPsand PEGto produce systemic side effects, In the corporate prospectus supporting Modernas stock market launch in late 2018 (an initial public offering that set a record for the biotech industry), the company was frank that its technical approach has numerous risks. Specifically, Moderna acknowledged the potential for its proprietary LNPsand PEGto produce systemic side effects, particularly given the scientific literatures documentation of these types of side effects for other LNPs. In comments not generally seen by the public, Moderna stated (p. 33): [T]here can be no assurance that our LNPs will not have undesired effects. Our LNPs could contribute, in whole or in part, to one or more of the following: immune reactions, infusion reactions, complement reactions, opsonation reactions, antibody reactions . . . or reactions to the PEG from some lipids or PEG otherwise associated with the LNP. Certain aspects of our investigational medicines may induce immune reactions from either the mRNA or the lipid as well as adverse reactions within liver pathways or degradation of the mRNA or the LNP, any of which could lead to significant adverse events in one or more of our clinical trials. [Emphases and links added] Far from expressing concern over clinical trial participants welfare, that section of the prospectus concluded that any one of these problems could materially harm [the companys] business, financial conditions, and prospects. Investigators who once assumed that the polymer was largely inert are now questioning its biocompatibility and warning about adverse immune responses that include probably underdiagnosed life-threatening anaphylaxis Stealthy PEG PEG is widely used in drugs, personal care products, lubricants, gels (such as ultrasound gel), food additives and more. For example, PEG is a notorious ingredient of the controversial Bayer laxative MiraLAX, a medication used for constipation and to prep individuals for colonoscopy. Many parents of chronically constipated children have accused MiraLAX of provoking severe neuropsychiatric symptoms in their offspring, including mood swings, rage, phobias and paranoia. The biopharma and vaccine industries appreciate PEG for its capacity to endow nanoparticles with stealth properties, which allow the particles to evade detection by the immune system and make an end run around the bodys ordinary defenses. In recent years, however, PEG has come under increasing scrutiny. Investigators who once assumed that the polymer was largely inert are now questioning its biocompatibility and warning about PEGylated particles promotion of tumor growth and adverse immune responses that include probably underdiagnosed life-threatening anaphylaxis (also called hypersensitivity). These undesirable responses have, on occasion, halted clinical trials. In addition, case studies highlight underrecognized cross-reactivity between PEG and polysorbates (surfactants/emulsifiers present in many products, including some vaccines), meaning that individuals may experience dangerous hypersensitivity to both. As a result, some scientists argue that it is time to develop alternatives to replace PEG. U.S. and Dutch researchers declared in 2013: [T]he accumulating evidence documenting the detrimental effects of PEG on drug delivery make it imperative that scientists in this field break their dependence on PEGylation. Drug company concerns center on a different issue: PEG-specific immune responses can actually reduce the efficacy of PEG-containing therapeutics. It must have worried many in the pharmaceutical industry when a 2016 study in Analytical Chemistry reported detectable and sometimes high levels of anti-PEG antibodies (including first-line-of-defense IgM antibodies and later-stage IgG antibodies) in approximately 72% of contemporary human samples and about 56% of historical specimens from the 1970s through the 1990s. The researchers confessed that the results were entirely unexpected. They also confirmed that sensitization to PEG could be induced through exposure to PEGylated drugs or could be pre-existing in individuals never treated with PEGylated drugs but most likely . . . exposed to PEG through other means. Unfortunately, while four out of five doctors already regularly prescribe PEGylated drugs, only one out of five are aware of the potential for anti-PEG antibody responses and only a third even know that PEG is in the drugs that they are prescribing. PEG and Covid-19 vaccines The populations increased exposure to PEG-containing products makes it natural to assume that anti-PEG antibodies will continue to be both widespread and inevitable. However, if one of the PEGylated mRNA vaccines for Covid-19 gains FDA approval, the uptick in exposure to PEG will be unprecedentedand potentially disastrous. Unfortunately, while four out of five doctors already regularly prescribe PEGylated drugs, only one out of five are aware of the potential for anti-PEG antibody responses and only a third even know that PEG is in the drugs that they are prescribing. A Vanderbilt University researcher agrees that there is a widespread lack of recognition that PEG hypersensitivity is possible, much less that it manifests on a regular basis. Moreover, while it could be very important to screen patients for anti-PEG antibody levels prior to administration of therapeutics containing PEGincluding vaccinessuch testing is currently only available in research settings and not commercially. mRNA vaccines are not the only vehicle for PEG involvement in Covid-19 vaccine production. For example, researchers at Germanys Max Planck Institute report developing a process for Covid-19 vaccine production to purify virus particles at high yield. The process involves adding PEG to a virus-containing liquid and passing the liquid through membranes: The high PEG content causes the viruses to attach themselves to the cellulose surface while the impurities flow straight through the membranes. Pre-Covid-19, researchers were also praising PEG as an inexpensive additive helpful for addressing vaccine storage challenges, particularly for vaccines that use genetically engineered adenoviruses; they noted that up to 80% of the cost of vaccination programs is due to the cold chain problem (that is, keeping vaccines cold) and that PEG can increase the vaccine half-life from seven to over 30 days at room temperature. Three of the Covid-19 vaccines undergoing clinical trials (Johnson & Johnson, Oxford and CanSino) are adenoviral vector vaccines. admitted that anti-PEG antibodies present significant challenges to the clinical efficacy of PEGylated therapeutics Down and dirty As the excerpts from the Moderna prospectus illustrate, Moderna scientists are fully aware of PEG-related safety concerns. Addressing the efficacy side of the equation, a mid-2019 study by authors who are or have been employees of Moderna, Inc. and receive salary and stock options from Moderna, Inc. likewise admitted that anti-PEG antibodies present significant challenges to the clinical efficacy of PEGylated therapeutics and will require strategies to overcome [their] effects. Nonetheless, with the incredibly high corporate stakes surrounding Covid-19 vaccine development, Modernas published reservations about PEG and its LNP technology have not stopped it from contesting (thus far unsuccessfully) the LNP patents of its competitors or glossing over side effects in its initial Covid-19 clinical trials. In its prospectus, Moderna admits only that unacceptable health risks or adverse side effects could make it difficult to recruit or retain clinical trial participants and that an unfavorable benefit risk ratio could inhibit market acceptance if their product proceeds to market. The stakes are even higher for the individuals that governments and companies will target to receive a vaccine. Covid-19 vaccine developers have not disclosed whether they are taking any steps to screen their clinical trial participants for anti-PEG antibodies or whether they are doing anything to mitigate the potentially life-threatening risks of hypersensitivity reactions. If almost three-fourths of the U.S. population has anti-PEG antibodies, then these are far from trivial questions. Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org In wake of the tragic accident, involving an Air India Express flight at Keralas Kozhikode airport, Opposition parties in Goa have advised caution vis a vis the upcoming greenfield airport at the Mopa plateau in North Goa. While the Goa Forward party has questioned the decision of the state government last month to reduce the length of the runway, the Aam Aadmi Party in Goa has said that the upcoming airport was also based on a tabletop model, like the aviation facility at Kozhikode, which could bode risk in the future. Last night we had a devastating air crash in Kerala as the aircraft supposedly overshot the runway. Shockingly our @GovtofGoa has in July this year resolved to reduce the length of the runway at the proposed Mopa Airport! Goemkars can decide what is going on under present Govt!, former Chief Minister and Goa Forward party president Vijai Sardesai tweeted on Saturday. For latest updates on Air India Express flight crash, click here In July this year, the Goa cabinet had passed a decision to reduce the length of the airport from 3,750 to 3,500 metres, in order to comply with the parameters of the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Goa currently has one operational airport, which functions out of an Indian Navy base at Dabolim in South Goa. The first phase of the upcoming airport at the Mopa plateau in North Goa is expected to be operational next year, with the completion of the project delayed on account of legal tangles, following petitions filed by green activists. 18 persons died and several dozen were injured, after an Air India Express flight ferrying 190 passengers, crash-landed at the runway of the Kozhikode airport in a tragic accident earlier on Saturday. The Aam Aadmi Party has also cautioned against the upcoming airport, claiming that like the facility at Kozhikode, where the tragic accident occurred, the new airport too was based on a tabletop model. Goas Mopa Airport is designed as a tabletop airport built on a hilly plateau like the airports at Mangalore and Kozhikode, where the limitation on runaway lengths have caused aircraft crashes that have claimed hundreds of lives, AAP spokesperson Siddharth Karapurkar said in a statement. Washington The principle of religious freedom is important to most Americans. But as President Donald Trump touts his support for it during his reelection bid, there are notable fault lines among people of different faiths and political ideologies over what it truly means. About 8 in 10 Americans said religious freedom issues are at least somewhat important to them, with 55 percent saying they are very important, according to a newly released poll conducted by The University of Chicago Divinity School and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. While 35 percent of U.S. adults overall said they believe their own religious freedom is threatened at least somewhat, conservatives were more likely than liberals to say so. Across the largest U.S. religious denominations, evangelical Protestants were especially likely to perceive risks to their freedom to worship. A divide over religious freedom for Muslims was particularly apparent in the poll. About half of Americans said U.S. Muslims' freedom to worship is threatened at least somewhat, including 7 in 10 atheists and agnostics, about 6 in 10 Catholics, and about half of white mainline and nonwhite Protestants. Only about 3 in 10 white evangelicals, however, said Muslim Americans' religious freedom is at least somewhat threatened. The poll's findings suggest that, as Trump leans into religious freedom as a touchstone of his outreach to devout voters, conservatives and evangelicals who make up the core of his base hold distinctly different perspectives on the topic than other Americans. Whether those divergent views can be joined and harnessed to make progress on the issue for a wide variety of faiths remains an open question. "No one's religious freedom is an island, and if the government is empowered to take religious freedom away from Muslims or other religious minorities, the government is going to be empowered to take away religious freedom from other religious groups," said Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at the nonpartisan Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Becket has racked up legal victories for Christian clients, including last month's Supreme Court ruling that upheld the ability of religious schools and other institutions to make certain employment decisions without facing discrimination claims. But the nonprofit firm represents members of all faiths, and Goodrich said "it's vitally important, for the health of religious freedom over the long term, that Americans care for religious freedom for those with whom they deeply disagree." In the poll, 77 percent of liberals said Muslims' freedoms were threatened at least somewhat, compared with 32 percent of conservatives. Liberals also were roughly three times more likely than conservatives to perceive threats to atheists and Buddhists, and somewhat more likely to perceive threats to Jews, 56 percent to 41 percent. By contrast, by roughly two to one, more conservatives than liberals said evangelical Protestants, Catholics and other Christians face threats to their religious freedom. Andrew Lewis, an associate political science professor at the University of Cincinnati who focuses on religion, said a "polarization of religious freedom" has developed over the last two decades, with potentially negative consequences. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "Religious freedom has always been a contested question in America," Lewis said, "but the fact that it's entered into our politically partisan landscape is bad for thinking about how we protect the rights of people." The poll was conducted in February, before the coronavirus wreaked havoc in the country, but has not been made public until now. And some of its findings have resonated more sharply since the pandemic began. For example, 46 percent of evangelicals said their religious freedom was under threat, compared with 27 percent of mainline Protestants, 36 percent of Catholics and 40 percent of Americans affiliated with other religions. Another UChicago Divinity School/AP-NORC poll conducted in the early weeks of the pandemic found white evangelicals were particularly likely to say in-person worship should be allowed in some form, and 46 percent said that barring those services would violate religious freedom. David Nirenberg, dean of The University of Chicago Divinity School, pointed to "communications bubbles in certain faith communities" that often reinforce to believers the assertion that their religious liberty is imperiled. "We're seeing some of that now mobilized again in the public health response" to the virus, Nirenberg added, including restrictions on in-person worship and other behavior that are "represented in some of those same communities as an attack on their religious liberties." 'Lee Kuan Yew told me he used to look to India, especially the writings of Nehru and Sardar Panikkar, for guidance on governance.' 'It's ironic that India should have so much to learn of the spirit of democracy from his son,' notes Sunanda K Datta-Ray. Photograph: PMOIndia/Twitter IMAGE: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong takes a selfie with Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi after they and Ho Ching, Lee's wife, dined at the Komala Vilas restaurant in Little Singapore, November 24, 2015. Forty-three-year-old ethnic Punjabi Pritam Singh, leader of Singapore's Workers Party, has made history by becoming the island republic's very first prime minister in waiting. In this respect, tiny Singapore, supposedly saddled with a controlled political system, has upstaged the world's largest democracy. Not only is Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong democratic enough and confident enough to reject the notion of an Opposition-free Singapore, but he is magnanimous enough formally to acknowledge Pritam as Leader of the Opposition. I knew Pritam when we were both Fellows of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies when I was interviewing Lee's father, creator of modern Singapore, to write Looking East to Look West: Lee Kuan Yew's Mission India. Generations overlap, and, later, Pritam and my son Deep were both doing their post-graduate studies at King's College, London, and staying at Goodenough Hall in Bloomsbury. I shall never cease to regret that although I was in Singapore during his lifetime, I did not take the trouble of calling on David Marshall, the first chief minister, and founder in 1957 of the Workers Party. It was only when sifting through his archival papers and talking to his English widow, Jean Mary Gray, that I realised what an opportunity I had missed. It's not generally known that Singapore's honeymoon with India began with Marshall, a Baghdadi Jew with Indian connections who made no secret of his tremendous respect and admiration for Jawaharlal Nehru. But I did get to know, albeit slightly, Singapore's first Opposition MP, the Workers Party's flamboyant yet tragic Jaffna-born J B Jeyaretnam, who was called to the Bar from my grandfather's Inn of Court, Grays, in London. Hounded with one libel case after another, forced to sell his law books to pay legal debts, driven into bankruptcy, JB was a prickly, almost cantankerous, man. He gave me a lecture once on barristers not advertising because I had asked for his card. He must have noticed that successive Indian high commissioners gave him the widest possible berth at diplomatic events. Seeing him at a Russian reception once, the Malaysian first secretary told me with deep regret that Kuala Lumpur's delicate relations with Singapore didn't permit the Malaysians to invite JB to their functions. Jeyaretnam had a lively mind. He knew his law and was intensely interested in the Indian Supreme Court's ban on Parliament tampering with the Constitution's basic features. He was also the only Singaporean who could stand up to Lee Kuan Yew in debate and give as good as he got. Sycophantic Singaporeans mockingly repeated Lee's old jibe that he sounded like a stuck gramophone record. I once saw Lee himself ostentatiously making a great show of reading The Straits Times newspaper all through JB's speech in parliament with the speaker saying nary a word. Some joked that when JB died, the ruling People's Action Party would make an offer he couldn't refuse to his son, Philip, a successful lawyer and author of Raffles Place Ragtime, a delightful and incisive novel on Singapore life. Despite it all, JB's scowling features and wispy whiskers were not to be derided. Over a thousand mourners attended his funeral. IMAGE: Pritam Singh of the Workers Party arrives at a nomination centre ahead of the general election in Singapore June 30, 2020. Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters Lee Hsien Loong could have said that the Workers Party's 10 seats (50.49 per cent of the vote) did not entitle its head to the formal dignity of Leader of the Opposition. He could have used the PAP's 83 seats (61.24 per cent) to continue a single-party dictatorship under parliamentary camouflage. Instead, he wisely recognised that diversity is of the essence of democracy and that the stronger the ruling party, the greater its responsibility for laying the foundations of a permanent structure of consensual governance. As Leader of the Opposition, Pritam is assured of the appropriate manpower support and resources to sustain his parliamentary role. The Opposition has been decimated in India, but the Congress did improve its position from 44 in 2014 to 52 in today's Lok Sabha. That leaves it only three members short of the stipulated 55 to be the recognised Opposition. With his appreciation of the spirit of the parliamentary system, his freedom from jealousy and ability to think of future stability, Lee Hsien Loong would not have allowed a technical objection like that to stand in the way of creating a balanced parliamentary equation. His father told me he used to look to India, especially the writings of Nehru and Sardar Panikkar, for guidance on governance. It's ironic that India should have so much to learn of the spirit of democracy from his son. Feature Production: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com Medical workers evacuate a resident from the Epping Gardens aged care facility in the Melbourne suburb of Epping on July 30, 2020, as the city battles fresh outbreaks of the COVID-19 coronavirus. (WILLIAM WEST/ Getty Images) Victorian Health Workers Seek Better Protection As Victorian healthcare workers continue to be strongly represented in daily COVID-19 case increases, some are calling for greater virus protection. The state reported 450 new infections of which 139 were healthcare workers on Aug 7. The total active cases among healthcare workers is 911. There were 11 deaths, taking the state toll to 181 and the national toll to 266. The Australian Medical Association criticised the Infection Control Expert Group for not advising P2 or N95 respirator masks be used in all COVID-19 care settings. And the Australian Society of Anaesthetists questioned whether Melbourne hospitals had adequate control guidelines. Melbourne anaesthetist Dr David Story told AAP that major hospitals with COVID-19 wards were all using P2 and N95 masks. He said many clinicians felt fear and uncertainty but that the ICEG was a respected body to be trusted. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation aimed its strongest critique at private aged care providers to which a large portion of health worker infections are linked. Get your infection control practices and training in order and roster more registered and enrolled nurses, a spokeswoman said. All providers should be ensuring all their clinical and non-clinical staff have access to the Victorian Governments free face-to-face infection control training delivered by Monash University. Questions over Victorias failed hotel quarantine program continue with Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton declaring it impossible to tell if the state had completely eliminated community transmission before the problems were discovered. A $3 million hotel quarantine inquiry, led by former Family Court judge Jennifer Coate, is now due to begin on August 17. Premier Daniel Andrews is not answering questions about the inquiry, saying he wants the government to be at arms length to avoid self-assessment. Andi Yu in Melbourne Police have arrested a woman suspected of driving drunk, swerving into oncoming traffic and crashing into an 18-year-old, killing her, in late June. Bernadette Etsitty, 40, was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center Friday morning. She is charged with homicide by vehicle. According to online court records, Etsitty has been charged with driving under the influence three other times dating back to 2006. The most recent case, in 2018, was dismissed when an officer didnt show up to court hearings. According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, on June 23, around 8:15 p.m. officers were called to Candelaria and Richmond NE for a head-on two-vehicle crash. When they arrived they found 18-year-old Roxana Saenz dead. The other driver, Etsitty, was taken into custody after officers said she showed signs of being grossly intoxicated and told them she drank a 12-pack of beer before driving. Surveillance footage showed Etsitty driving a Chevrolet Silverado pickup east on Candelaria and then swerving into the center yellow painted median and colliding with Saenzs Honda Civic, according to the complaint. Etsittys blood alcohol analysis was about twice the presumed level of intoxication and officers said they found two empty 23.5-ounce Smirnoff Ice Smash cans and an empty 24-ounce Steel Reserve can in her truck. An arrest warrant was issued July 2. Saenz had just graduated from Del Norte High School and was planning on attending the University of New Mexico and becoming a veterinarian, according to a GoFundMe page raising money for her memorial. At age 17, Roxana was part of the staff at Blue Cross Animal Clinic, the page reads. This job allowed her to pay her own rent, pay her own bills and was able to purchase a 1995 Honda Civic. File image Long, long ago, in a country far, far away, there was a King who lived in his palace with hundreds of dogs, each given its own room, and cared for by a servant who adorned them with silks and gold. The marriage of the Kings favourites, Roshanara and Bobby, involved a ritual nikah, a decorated four-horse carriage procession, fireworks, and performances by nautch girls. Frederic Chopins Funeral March written, his lover George Sands claimed, to mourn the passing of her dog Maquis would be played when a dog died, as they were buried with state honours. Last week, this magic-realist kingdom, documented in Ann Morrows cracking read Highness, was resurrected in Pakistans nationalist imagination, after Islamabad issued a map laying claim to the territories of Mahabat Khan Babi III in Indias Gujarat, along with pre-independence Jammu and Kashmir. For all the nationalist fervour Prime Minister Imran Khans map has whipped up, though, theres one strange fact: this isnt a new map. Pakistan has always laid claim to all of Kashmir, and Junagarh. (Below: maps from Atlas of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 2012) Theres a bigger story here: Nation-states are, among other things, acts of imagination. Fantasies have fed cartographic efforts in all South Asian nation-states, a process that tells us something important, the anxieties that underpin the nationalisms that birthed them. Through much of the summer of 1947, as the fate of his kingdom and dogs hung in the balance, Mahbub Khan III had been on vacation in Europe. He returned home just before August 15, and decided to join Pakistan ignoring the wishes of his mainly Hindu subjects and the imperatives of geography, as the terms of Indian independence entitled him to do. British paramountcy was lapsing, the argument went, leaving the rulers of the so-called Princely states free to join India, Pakistan or independence. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistans founding patriarch, had promised that he would not allow Junagarh to be starved out or tyrannised but this was a promise considerably more easy to make than keep. Faced with the prospect of a Pakistani enclave deep inside India, and the prospect of communal violence breaking out in the region, New Delhi responded by choking the kingdoms supplies, and threatening the use of force. Babriawad and Mangrol, among the complex, interlocked feudal possessions of Junagarh, rebelled and acceded to India. Insurrection broke out against Mahbub Khan IIIs rule inside Junagarh itself. Even as Shah Nawaz BhuttoMahub Khan IIIs prime minister, and Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhuttos fatherimplored Pakistan to place aeroplanes at our disposal and also an armed forceit became clear nothing of the kind would happen. Bhutto handed India control of Junagarh, and left. New Delhi still had the problem, though, of how to legitimise its rule of Junagarhwhich had, after all, legally acceded to Pakistan. In February, 1948, ninety-five percent of the kingdoms 200,000 registered voters participated in a referendum; a less-than-overwhelming 91 picked Pakistan. That referendum is at the heart of Prime Minister Khans decision to reissue a map staking claim to the kingdom: if a referendum could be held to settle the fate of a Hindu-majority kingdom which joined Pakistan, why not one for Muslim-majority Kashmir, which joined India? There are many good responses to that question key among them, as scholar C Christine Fair has pointed out, that Islamabad has not honoured the United Nations resolutions which sought to enable onebut thats not the issue here. Living in Karachi until his death in 1951, the Maharaja was set up as a living emblem of Pakistans ambitions: his expansive fleet of cars, by treaty, bore special, red licence-plate emblazoned only with the word Junagarh. In the years after the 1971 war, though, the claim to Junagarh seemed to slowly disappear from Pakistans official consciousness the consequence of defeat in all three wars it launched to capture Kashmir. Indeed, in the Atlas of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 2012, geographer Martin Lewis has noted, Junagarh appeared in separate maps both as a part of Pakistan and as a separate, independent country. Through reasserting Pakistans territorial claims, Prime Minister Khan seeks to cast himself as the leader of Pakistan not as it is, but as it ought to be, a homeland for the Muslims of South Asia. Like ideologue Chaudhary Rahmat Ali's map of Pakistan, the one Prime Minister Khan has is driven by ideology, not the tawdry realities of geopolitics. (Below: Chaudhary Rahmat Alis map of Pakistan, c. 1940) Expansive claims are not, of course, a uniquely Pakistani preoccupation. Sri Lanka fought bitterly with India until 1976when good sense prevailed in New Delhiover its claims to Katchatheevu, 285 acres of uninhabited volcanic island in the Indian ocean that neither country had any real use for. Nepal has become increasingly assertive over its claims to Kalapani, occupied since 1962 by Indian border guards, and never meaningfully administered by either country. Bangladesh and Myanmar even had a naval stand-off in 2008, over energy-rich maritime territory. New Delhis claims to Aksai Chin and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, similarly, reflect nationalist ambition and sentiment, not hard-nosed reality: No government since 1971 has shown any actual intent to retake these territories, public pronouncements notwithstanding. Indias map-making process on its eastern borders illustrates, however, cartographic processes can become embedded inside popular consciousness, fuelling myth-making which makes sensible decision-making difficult. Few Indians, for example, know that Indias first official map, issued in 1950, included no claim to Aksai Chin, recording its Ladakh frontier with China as undefined. New Delhi didnt even come to know China had begun building a road through Aksai Chin in 1951, for the good reasons that there were no Indian officials there. Prime Minister Nehru, advised that asserting Imperial British claims to the borders with China were necessary to strengthen Indias case that it had sovereignty over all of Kashmir, later pushed the borders eastwardsthe first step along the long road to war in 1962. Beijings claims were, similarly, built whole out of thin air. In 1958, an official map first asserted claims over the whole of what was then Indias North-East Frontier Agency, with the exception of Tirap, as well as parts of Ladakh. Prime Minister Zhou En-lai responded to Indian protests by claiming that the maps were based on old Kuomintang cartographyadding that China hadnt surveyed its boundaries, nor consulted with other countries on the issue. For the most part, what we now think of as historical borders were the outcome of imperial Qing and British expansionism, Berenice Guyot-Rechards path-breaking scholarship teaches us, as the two empires struggled to assert power over populations which had no sense of being either Chinese or Indian. In many cases, cartographic imagination is shaped by geopolitical need. Indian media reports, for example, sought to contest Chinas claims to the Galwan valley by asserting that it was discovered by the Ladakhi adventurer Ghulam Rasool Galwan. The claim was first made by the great chronicler of the Himalaya, Harish Kapdia, who attributed it to the nineteenth century adventurers Fanny Bullock and Willan Bullock. There is no reference in the couples book, though, to Galwannor a claim of discovery made in Galwans 1923 autobiography, Servant of Sahibs, or Francis Younghusbands record of the expedition during which he travelled to the region. The word Galwanwhich translates as thief, and is used in early twentieth century ethnography to describe a caste of pony-thievescould simply have been used to denote the use of the valley. Galwans autobiography, interestingly, describes a rich array of criminals, tribal chieftains and traders traversing the inner Himalayasbut no semblance of effective control by any colonial government. Little imagination is needed to understand why such tenuous claims to territory are so important in South Asias political culture: In regions where feudalism still influences social and cultural mores, the having of land, and the seizing of it, are critical signifiers of authority. Territory is important not as a space in which nation-states govern or even as a resource but as a signifier of the prestige and authority of leaders. This should not surprise us: The modern European nation-state, as the scholar Charles Tilly taught us, was birthed by endless conflict between warlords, followed by nationalist expansionism which, among other things, resulted two world wars. Millions died before Europe understood the value of negotiation and compromise. Europes bloody follies, though, are pitfalls to be avoidednot models to be emulatedas South Asias desperately-poor nation states struggle to drag their enormous populations towards economic security. Theres a thin line between nationalist fantasy and official cartography, and crossing it can have real costs. Imran Khan isnt the first Pakistani leader to nurse fantasies: the Pakistani military commanders who commanded the war of 1947-1948 in Kashmir used the code-name General Tariq, invoking the commander of the Ummayid conquest of Gibraltar, while the wars of 1965 and 1971 were suffused with imagery drawn from medieval conquests in India. The outcomes should make clear to him and other nationalists across the region something no one over four years old should fail to understand: imagining things to be true doesnt make them true. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Aldrin Rocky Sampeliling (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8, 2020 17:21 528 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c84961 3 Opinion Taiwan,indigenous-people,Indonesia,China,language,Austronesia Free I once had a short conversation with two Chinese diplomats. On the many issues surrounding the country turmoil in Hong Kong among them I remembered one of them remarked that Taiwan was the red line, meaning China would do whatever it took to protect its sovereignty over Taiwan. And they were not afraid to do so, he added. I took the diplomats words to mean that war was a possibility if conflicts between nations continued to escalate. Indeed, the one exceptional trigger for a war involving China is Taiwan, Kishore Mahbubani wrote in his recent book Has China Won? The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy. The answer is simple; the Chinese had learned the hard truth after years of humiliation from the Opium War to the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, and they wouldnt let that happen again. Any suggestion from a Chinese leader to abandon Taiwan would be politically suicidal. That moment I was reminded of my encounter during a collaboration project with archeologist Mitu M. Prie, who introduced me to the concept of Austronesia. The word Austronesia derived from the German austronesisch, which is based on Latin auster south wind and Greek island. Austronesians, therefore, are people of the southern islands. Academics use this term to refer to people who speak Austronesian languages that mostly live in the island nations across the Indian and Pacific Ocean in the southern hemisphere. It is almost universally accepted among linguists that Austronesian history began with groups of people who developed some distinctive languages and cultures after for some millennia being isolated in Taiwan. Known today as Taiwanese indigenous groups, some of these people after a long pause (about 1,500 years) are thought to have migrated to the Philippines, from where they spread the language, developed more advanced boat technology (outriggers and sails), and initiated what is known today as the greatest expansion of its time the Austronesian expansion. The Austronesian-speaking people through some period of time traveled as far afield as Madagascar in the west, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the east, New Zealand in the south and Hawaii and arguably southern Japan in the north. Some argued that, due to their nature of being long-distance voyagers, Austronesians and particularly Polynesians might have touched the shores of South America, but mostly chose to return and reside in previously settled islands. These groups brought with them domestic dogs, pigs, chickens, cultigens, pottery, loom weaving, tattoo culture, as well as seafaring skill and boat technology. Although the cultures and languages evolved through spatiotemporal differentiations as well as complex interactions with other non-Austronesian groups as they dispersed, the trace of similarities can still be identified to this day. Having been previously settled by earlier groups which included agriculturalists and seafaring groups as well as later being situated at the crossroad of global trade, most Indonesians today are of mixed ancestry. However, except for the majority of tribes in Papua, some in Nusa Tenggara and Maluku as well as a few others, most Indonesian ethnic groups today speak Austronesian languages, with the national language Indonesian being one of the examples. Moreover, a study published in 2014, which was based on samples that are limited to a number of ethnic groups, suggested that there were once substantial Austronesian migrations to Indonesia, with some ethnic groups in Indonesia today such as Toraja and highly likely the majority of ethnic groups on Sulawesi Island and Kambera people still having significant Austronesian ancestry (of similar genetic composition as indigenous groups in Taiwan); dominant among Batak Toba and Dayak ethnic groups as well as Malay people; and moderate among Javanese, Sundanese, and the rest that were studied. Another genetic study published in 2016 found that both Indonesians and Taiwanese indigenous groups already shared genetic ancestry from postglacial migration of people from Sundaland thousands of years before the Austronesian expansion took place, and the expansion mainly brought acculturation and language shift rather than large-scale migrations to Indonesia. On this latter stance, prominent linguist Robert A. Blust said the position was rather difficult to fathom, a view that is shared by archeologist Peter Bellwood. However, notwithstanding if the 2016 study was true, that does not eliminate the fact that Taiwanese indigenous groups do share a strong common ancestry with many Indonesian ethnic groups today and more importantly the fact that most Indonesians speak Austronesian languages. Taiwan has understood and realized the significance and has attempted to embrace the Austronesian family especially in the Pacific countries, where the relationship between Taiwans indigenous languages and those of the regions is undisputed. The attempt was considered to be partly political for Taiwan to differentiate itself from mainland China. Some events such as the Austronesia Forum, which was on a hiatus since 2007 but resumed in 2018, have been held to consolidate the movement. However, the attempt has not yielded significant results. Even today, China, argued by some to be the origin of pre-Austronesia, seems to be gaining traction among Pacific island countries in a diplomatic tug-of-war that will likely intensify in the foreseeable future. Being the cradle of the Austronesian languages and cultures, I think it is in the interest of the Indonesian government and island nations across the Indian and Pacific Ocean to take an even greater active involvement in the Taiwan Issue. These countries, the Austronesians, should do whatever it takes to prevent conflicts from happening in this region, as they can obliterate the remnants of Austronesian origins. As of 2019, about 70 percent of Taiwanese indigenous dialects had been classified as endangered languages, and some are dying out. Furthermore, this should be the start for Indonesia to embrace the other Austronesian nations, less because of political motivation but more due to the awareness of the historical connection and the importance of preserving nature and particularly the oceans that connect the sparse islands in the southern hemisphere. This is true especially in a time when the impacts of climate change loom and will heavily affect the island nations. The last time I saw the data, the Pacific island countries were among the worst performers in city governance. Indonesia too does not manage its urbanization effectively. As cities, if not well managed and sustainably developed, are among the main contributors to climate change, perhaps it is now more than ever that these island countries/regions including Taiwan joined hands to work on issues that matter to their existence. *** The writer is a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Advanced International Studies (INADIS). Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. By AFP HONG KONG: China on Saturday slammed the United States for imposing 'barbarous' sanctions in response to Beijing's crackdown in Hong Kong, capping a dramatic week of deteriorating relations between the world's two biggest economies. In the toughest US action on Hong Kong since China imposed a sweeping new security law on the territory, Washington on Friday sanctioned a group of Chinese and Hong Kong officials -- including the city's leader Carrie Lam. The move came after President Donald Trump's administration forced Chinese internet giants TikTok and WeChat to end all operations in the US, in a twin diplomatic-commercial offensive set to grow ahead of the US presidential election in November. China on Saturday criticised the sanctions as "barbarous and rude". "The ill intentions of US politicians to support people who are anti-China and messing up Hong Kong have been clearly revealed," Beijing's Liaison Office in Hong Kong said in a statement. The Treasury Department announced it was freezing the US assets of Chief Executive Carrie Lam and 10 other senior officials, including Luo Huining -- the head of the Liaison Office. It accused the sanctioned individuals of being "directly responsible for implementing Beijing's policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes". The move criminalises any US financial transactions with the sanctioned officials. In a short statement, Luo said he welcomed the blacklisting. "I have done what I should do for the country and for Hong Kong," he said. "I don't have a dime's worth in foreign assets." Tensions spike ahead of election Beijing's security law was imposed in late June, following last year's huge pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, sending a political chill through the semi-autonomous city. Since then, authorities have postponed elections, citing the coronavirus pandemic, issued arrest warrants for six exiled pro-democracy activists and launched a crackdown on other activists. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the security law violated promises made by China ahead of Hong Kong's 1997 handover that the city could keep key freedoms and autonomy for 50 years. "Today's actions send a clear message that the Hong Kong authorities' actions are unacceptable," Pompeo said in a statement. The US measures come three months ahead of the November election in which Trump, who is behind his rival Joe Biden, is campaigning hard on an increasingly strident anti-Beijing message. As public disapproval has grown for his handling of the pandemic, Trump has pivoted from his previous focus on striking a trade deal with China to blaming the country for the coronavirus crisis. TikTok, WeChat bans On Thursday, Trump made good on previous threats against WeChat and TikTok -- two Chinese-owned apps with major audiences that US officials say pose a national security threat. In an executive order, Trump gave Americans 45 days to stop doing business with the platforms, effectively setting a deadline for a potential, under-pressure sale of TikTok to Microsoft. The move also threw into doubt the American operations of WeChat's parent firm, Tencent, a powerful player in the video game industry and one of the world's richest companies. China condemned the move as "arbitrary political manipulation". The new restrictions sent Tencent shares tanking as much as 10 percent at one point in Hong Kong trade on Friday, wiping almost $50 billion off its market capitalisation. Trump's order claimed TikTok could be used by China to track the locations of federal employees, build dossiers on people for blackmail and conduct corporate espionage. TikTok has repeatedly denied sharing data with Beijing. WeChat is a messaging, social media and electronic payment platform and is reported to have more than a billion users, with many preferring it to email. Brasilia, Aug 8 : Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased 34.5 per cent between August 2019 and July 2020, with a total of 9,205 square km of forest destroyed. On Friday, tThe National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which calculates deforestation using the Real-Time Deforestation Detection System, which monitors the world's largest forest by satellite, said that 1,654 square km of forest were destroyed in July, less than that in the same period last year, reports Xinhua news agency. This is the first time in 14 months that destruction in the Amazon recorded a monthly decline. Meanwhile, the world's largest rainforest also witnessed 2,248 fires in June, the highest level for the month in 13 years. Overall, there were 6,803 fires, a rise of 28 per cent. The figures came at a time when the Brazilian government is receiving harsh criticism from the international community for its alleged lack of commitment in combating the destruction of the Amazon. In response, the Brazilian government promised to tighten enforcement to limit environmental crime in the region. Deforestation in the region has soared since President Jair Bolsonaro took office last year, according to conservation groups. He has argued that more farming and mining in protected areas of the forest were the only way to lift the region out of poverty. Bolsonaro's environmental policies have been widely condemned but he has rejected the criticism, saying Brazil remains an example for conservation. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 16:44:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOGADISHU, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- A huge explosion targeting a military base rocked the Somali capital Mogadishu early Saturday, police and witnesses said. The witnesses said that the explosion was heard near Bar-Ayaan junction in Wardhigley district of Mogadishu after a suicide bomber reportedly drove a vehicle laden with explosives into a military base. Government forces have in recent days intensified operations in the southern regions against al-Shabab extremists, who have been hiding in rural areas and conducting ambushes and planting landmines. An operation on Thursday killed six al-Shabab militants in the southern region of Lower Juba. Enditem The Monster of Manzanita and Other Fright Night Sights on Oregon Coast Published 08/08/20 at 4:44 AM PDT By Andre' GW Hagestedt (Oregon Coast) Is there such a thing as pre-karma? Can you get punished in kind for wacky stunts perhaps years before youve done them? If so, I honestly wonder if thats my lot. After all, the long string of clown pranks Ive played on friends in Portland in recent years (and even in Cannnon Beach) really gained steam at The Clubhouse bar near me for a time. Then came the moth pranks on my dear friend Becky who works there, and the other antics targeting bartendresses Keely and Ashlie with their phobias. Most recently the clown pranks emerged again, this time at the nearby Dutch Bros, where two girls got especially wide-eyed and one oh-so-gleefully told me her heart rate elevated. OK, so Im an occasional menace of a humorist. Did this cause a karmic pay-it-forward thing in previous years, as I explored the Oregon coast and got a few jolts in the night? Whatever the case, the frights have turned out to be vastly amusing tales. Case #1: the Monster of Manzanita (photo at top). Its the summer of 2005, just before Oregon Coast Beach Connection was born, and Im (again) wandering the beaches of Manzanita after dark in a questionable state of sobriety. Thank you drinky-poos at the San Dune Pub and elsewhere. This is about 3 a.m., and I discover a brand new kind of terrifying visage. Somewhere in the dark of this black beach, silhouetted against the lights a motel casts on the waves, is a strange, dragon-like shape. I edge closer and closer, inspecting it ever more intently. I get the chills just a bit. I quickly fire off some shots of it and run away it does not give chase. Upon examination of the little digital screen the creature appears to have set the world on fire behind it. OK, thats probably my drunken photo technique (actually its on purpose, a trick I learned shooting live bands). Sure enough, some twisted, demonic shape juts upward from the sand, in a kind of ready-to-pounce position. I illuminate this creepy creature with the light from my camera, and its features become clear: a long, thin and craggy body, with a head somewhere between a horse and an evil giraffe. Theres probably a horrific number of teeth lurking in various rows inside that pointed snout. Surely there are. The following day I head back to the beach and I see it clearly now in broad daylight: someone has ingeniously stuck two driftwood logs together. To this day Im still not sure if they intended to make it look like a creature or not. Case #2: Scary Running Man. Early on a summers night in Seaside, with haze causing the beach to glow in odd ways, Im taking night photos of the ethereal scene. Its gorgeous and surreal, and Im thousands of feet from anyone else. Or so I thought. Standing next to my tripod in the dark, taking exposures that are minutes long, you tend to zone out and become unaware of things. All of a sudden, a large figure in the dark starts running my direction, and within seconds I realize this guy is coming right at me. Great. Im about to get robbed of my nifty camera gear, and just like in space, in Seasides nether beaches no one can hear you scream. Scream I do, like a little girl. Hes got a light on his head, I see now, and as I reach for my wallet, ready to surrender it to him, I scream What the hell do you want!!! He quickly freaks out, apologizes profusely, and then explains he was engaged in some kind of beach hide-n-seek game with his son. Hed seen my flashlight and thought I might be the kid. Holy crap. I think at this point he was now more scared than I was: he was bounding away as fast he could. Within seconds, although still shaking, I burst out laughing at the whole misunderstanding. That guys got an awkward tale to tell. Case #3: Screams in the Dark. On my way home from the central Oregon coast one night, I stop at Lincoln Citys D River access to take some last-minute night shots. Two girls arrive in the empty parking lot and head for a walk on this murky beach, and as they get just past the seawall they suddenly scream. In the midst of that, I thought I heard something else creepy as well, some third voice. As they came back 10 minutes later, I asked them what happened and they explained there was a giant sea lion just below me (Im at the seawall), and it roared at them as they came close. Id been there 20 minutes already and couldnt see him in the dark. Taking one of my digital cameras a I lit up the scene and sure enough, this pinniped behemoth was about 20 feet from where I was. He let out some disgruntled noise as I illuminated him. I took a couple of flash shots of the big guy, then called the local Marine Mammal Stranding Network to report it. Back in Portland, the following day or so, I interviewed Jim Rice, head of the network in Newport. He said a volunteer had checked on the creature but it had already gone. Rice told me they knew which sea lion it was, and for some reason it simply wanted a little R n R on dry land for awhile. The girls were a bit lucky, however, as all it did was grunt a warning at them. There are times they get aggressive towards passersby, and theyve got a nasty bite. Oregon Coast Hotels in this area - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted Lebanese and French rescuers search for victims or survivors amid the rubble of a building in the Gemayzeh neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 6, 2020. (AFP via Getty Images) Trump Administration Sends Aid to Lebanon After Beirut Blast The United States is sending food, water, and medical supplies to Beirut after a massive blast at a port killed 154 people and injured 5,000. Under the direction of President Donald J. Trump, the United States is delivering critical emergency aid to Lebanon following Tuesdays horrific event in Beirut, national security adviser Robert OBrien said in a statement. The United States extends our condolences to all of the families of those lost in this tragedy. We stand firmly with the people of Lebanon and will continue to offer our full support through this difficult time. The U.S. Embassy in Beirut is working to determine additional needs. A U.S. Disaster Assistance Response Team has been deployed to coordinate and deliver the aid. After the blast destroyed Lebanons only major grain silo, U.N. agencies helped provide emergency food and medical aid. Aid offers have also poured in from Arab states, Western nations, the Vatican, and beyond. Destruction is seen after a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Hassan Ammar/AP Photo) The explosion on Tuesday destroyed a swath of Beirut and sent seismic shockwaves around the region. While the cause of the blast remains unknown, Lebanons president did not rule out an attack. The cause has not been determined yet. There is a possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act, Lebanon President Michel Aoun told local media. Aoun, who had previously said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port, said the investigation would also weigh if the blast was due to negligence or an accident. Twenty people had been detained so far, he added. Security forces fired tear gas at a crowd in Beirut on Thursday, as anger boiled over at the ruling elite, who have presided over an economic collapse. A drone picture shows the scene of an explosion at the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo) Officials have said the blast, whose impact was recorded hundreds of miles away, might have caused losses amounting to $15 billion. That is a bill Lebanon cannot pay after already defaulting on a mountain of debt and with talks stalled on a lifeline from the International Monetary Fund. Hospitals, many heavily damaged as shockwaves ripped out windows and ceilings, have been overwhelmed. I lived through part of the civil war. I saw people being shot in front of me. But never has there been such a horror, said Dr. Assem Al Hajj at Beiruts Clemenceau hospital, which he said had treated 400 victims. As exhausted rescuers combed wreckage to find any survivors, grieving families camped outside the port where their loved ones were last seen. Some victims were hurled into the sea because of the explosive force. We would like to go inside the port to look for my son but we cant get permission, said Elias Marouni, describing his son George, a 30-year-old army officer. Dozens are still unaccounted for. Reuters contributed to this report. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 8) One of two ostriches spotted running around a Quezon City village early this week and went viral died due to stress, the owner said upon surrendering the other animal to the government. Environment Undersecretary Benny Antiporda said on Saturday that a certain Jonathan Cruz handed over one ostrich to the Wildlife Rescue Center Friday afternoon. Sad to say, yung isa raw namatay dahil sa stress (he said the other ostrich died due to stress), Antiporda said. Authorities asked the owner to attend a technical conference at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on Monday. [This is ] to prove kung talagang namatay 'yung isa, una, pangalawa (first, if one ostrich really died and second), how did they end up in Mapayapa Village, Antiporda said. Antiporda said the owner presented a permit to transport the flightless birds from a province in Mindanao all the way to Nueva Ecija, but it remains unclear why they were brought to Quezon City "without securing the proper documents." The owner lives in Barangay Balingasa in Quezon City, Antiporda said, while the ostriches were seen Tuesday in a private subdivision in Barangay Pasong Tamo, some 13 kilometers away. DENR personnel went to the village that day but they were denied entry as the guards insisted that the ostriches were captured and returned to the owner. As videos of the ostriches circulated on social media, netizens poked fun at the unusual sight, but some also raised concerns over the welfare of the wild animals and if its legal to keep them. Ostriches can be kept as pets, said Dr. Rona Rose Sinaon of the Biodiversity Management Bureau, but owners should secure a Certificate of Wildlife Registration from the department. Republic Act 9147 states that possession of wildlife is illegal unless the person can prove "financial and technical capability and facility" to take care of the animal. CNN Philippines' Carolyn Bonquin contributed to this report. 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 60%.. Tonight Overcast. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 2F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. "O, The Oprah Magazine" bought 26 billboard slots across Louisville, Kentucky, this week calling for the arrest of officers responsible for Breonna Taylor's death, the publication said. What' they're saying: "Demand that the police involved in killing Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged," the billboards one for every year of Taylor's' life read. The billboard includes a quote from Winfrey: "If you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it." Why it matters: The ad buy comes amid a flurry of activity in Winfrey's campaign for justice for Taylor. Winfrey in July gave up her "Oprah Magazine" cover for the first time to feature Taylor, who died after police shot her while she was sleeping in her own home. "She was just like me. She was just like you," Winfrey wrote in the magazine, discussing the decision to feature Taylor on the cover last month. "And like everyone who dies unexpectedly, she had plans. Plans for a future filled with responsibility and work and friends and laughter." "Imagine if three unidentified men burst into your home while you were sleeping. And your partner fired a gun to protect you. And then mayhem ... We have to use whatever megaphone we have to cry for justice," she adds. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. The big picture: Taylor's case is one of several elevated by recent Black Lives Matter protests across the country. But officers involved in her death have still not been arrested, prompting a rallying cry for accountability in the Louisville police force. Qualcomm is known for having excellent top-tier mobile platforms but they arent cheap, however a recent rumor suggests that the company may release a less expensive version of the Snapdragon 875. The rumor comes from Digital Chat Station on Twitter. Who posted a translation of a recent couple of statements that were overheard during a communication event held by Oppo. Based on the information, it sounds like Qualcomm will make it easier for brands like Oppo and OnePlus to integrate the Snapdragon 875. If the details are accurate, then consumers might be able to expect a lower price on phones next year. Advertisement The Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 may come in multiple Lite versions According to Digital Chat Station, the Snapdragon 875 may come in a Lite version. Not just one, but potentially multiple Lite versions. The reason for this would be so that the Snapdragon 875 is more affordable. Qualcomms top-tier mobile platforms are more expensive. Partly due to the fact that manufacturers have to purchase the modem separately. Because it isnt integrated with the chip. This in turn leads to a more expensive device by the time it reaches consumers. Its either that or the manufacturer potentially makes devices at a loss. If you remember some of OnePlus earliest devices, those phones were much less expensive. Advertisement Qualcomms older mobile platforms also had integrated modems. Its current hardware does not. By taking the Snapdragon 875 and offering Lite versions to manufacturers, they should have the ability to integrate Qualcomms hardware and still keep the cost down on devices. A Lite version would probably be less powerful For Qualcomm to make a less expensive version of the Snapdragon 875, or a Lite version, itll have to cut costs on its own manufacturing. Which would mean removing features. That would probably lead to a slightly less powerful mobile platform. Though how much less powerful is unclear. For one, theres no confirmation from Qualcomm yet on the Snapdragon 875 let alone a Lite version of it. Advertisement It likely wont announce any such hardware till later in 2020. That being said, even if it would be a less powerful mobile platform than a standard Snapdragon 875 or 875 Plus, it could still be very capable. All of this of course is speculative since it isnt coming straight from Qualcomm or the manufacturers that its working with. Regardless, less expensive flagship Qualcomm mobile platforms would mean saving money. All without having to compromise on specs and performance. Two police personnel, including an assistant sub-inspector (ASI), was suspended in Madhya Pradeshs (MP) Barwani district, located about 313 kilometres (km) south-west of the state capital Bhopal, by the superintendent of police (SP) on Friday evening after a video clip went viral on social media. The 50-second clip showed a policeman is dragging a Sikh by his hair in public amid pushing and jostling, while his companion, belonging to the same faith, is pleading with the law enforcers not to beat him, with folded hands. The incident, which reportedly occurred at Palsud, a town in Barwani district and located about 35 km from the district headquarters, on Thursday, sparked a nationwide outrage among the members of the Sikh community and its backlash echoed on social media. The MP unit of the Congress, which is the main opposition in the state, demanded stern action against the two police personnel responsible for the incident that reportedly occurred during a routine check on vehicles. The Sikh, identified as Prem Singh, is a resident of Palsud and a granthi at the local Gurdwara, even though the police claimed otherwise. The district police authorities, however, denied the charges of excesses. They claimed that Singh is facing three criminal charges and his turban fell off during an argument with the policemen, who had stopped him to check his vehicle. Barwani district police administration put out a press release to calm down the frayed nerves and the social media outrage over the purported manhandling of a member of the minority Sikh community. Superintendent of Police (SP) Nimish Agrawal has suspended ASI Seetaram Bhatnagar and head constable Mohan Jamre for not initiating action, as per the laid-down procedure. A probe into the incident has been assigned to the sub-divisional officer of police (SDoP), Rajpur, the release stated. During a check on vehicles on Thursday evening, two Sikligars (members of Sikh community), who were travelling on a motorbike were stopped. One of them is Prem Singh, a resident of ward no. 15 of Palsud. Police record showed Prem Singh is facing theft charges under three police stations in Jabalpur district. He got into an altercation, when he was asked to show his two-wheelers papers. The on-duty police personnel suspected him of driving the vehicle under the influence of alcohol and wanted him to accompany them to a police station for a medical examination. The police personnel has been suspended and a probe has been initiated since they didnt follow the laid-down procedure while conducting the check on the vehicle, it added. Later, Singh alleged that the police personnel had demanded Rs 250 from him after he had failed to furnish his two-wheelers papers. He further alleged that they started thrashing him, when he pleaded his inability to pay up Rs 250 because he had earned only Rs 200 on that day. MP Congress president Kamal Nath has spoken in favour of Singh. Prem Singh, who is a granthi, was beaten by the police personnel in an inhuman manner. Such atrocities are an insult to the Sikh religion and cant be tolerated. The state government must take strict action against the guilty, he said, Union minister for food processing, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, a Sikh herself, tweeted, Beastly attack on Giani Prem Singh granthi and other Sikhs in MP is an outrage against humanity. Utterly reprehensible & unacceptable. Sikhs all over the world are deeply shocked. I urge CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan to take immediate and exemplary action against all those guilty of this brutality. Several other Sikh leaders, including Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and national spokesperson of SAD, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, condemned the incident and demanded immediate action against the guilty police personnel. MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is under home quarantine after his recovery from coronavirus disease (Covid-19), also tweeted, In Barwani district, ASI Seetaram Bhatnagar and head constable Mohan Jamre have been suspended immediately for inhuman treatment to our Sikh brothers. Such brutality with Sikhs will not be tolerated in any way. The matter will be probed by the DIG (deputy inspector-general), Indore, and strict action will be taken in this regard. Adriana Adele, who teaches yoga, near her home in Philadelphia. "Theres a lot of emotional processing that happens on a deeper level when we give ourselves the time to slow down and breathe, she says. Read more A week after thousands of Philadelphians flooded the streets in June in a massive protest over George Floyds death, Adriana Adele led a free outdoor yoga class at Logan Circle for the citys Black community. Dozens showed up for the session, which was part of Spirits Up!, a six-day wellness series that focused on healing for protesters and people who had experienced racial traumas. During my class, on one side you could see the Art Museum, and on the other side you could see City Hall, said Adele, an instructor at Three Queens Yoga in Queen Village and Maha Yoga in Center City. In that moment, it felt like a manifested symbol of being a Black practitioner of yoga having to find your center and your breath amidst the chaos of a bustling city. While yoga is not a cure-all, studies have shown that survivors of intimate-partner violence, people who suffer from depressive symptoms, and those who deal with high levels of stress benefit from the practice. An increasing body of research also shows that racism and discrimination have an effect on peoples health. A 2018 study published by the American Heart Association found that in Black women, chronic low-grade inflammation, which can damage healthy cells over time and increase the risk of heart diseases, is associated with the stress of dealing with frequent racial discrimination. READ MORE: Black teens who experience daily racial discrimination show depressive symptoms, study find Yoga is about cultivating a sense of presence with what is, said Adrienne Dolberry, co-owner of Studio 34 Yoga in West Philadelphia. That is the time for you to get still and listen in a deeper way about whats going on, and with trauma recovery, thats part of it. Robbin Alston, a psychologist and the owner of Ase Yoga Studio & Tea Room in East Falls, said yoga can help people who have experienced trauma because its a space where they dont have to worry about feeling different from others. Its not based on this diagnosis or that, she said. You just focus on breathing, inhaling and exhaling, and that calms your nervous system. Alston said its impossible to separate systemic racism and stress. In fact, recent research shows that stress can be passed down genetically, she said. Were not dealing with past-traumatic stress disorder, but present-traumatic stress disorder, Alston said. Its current. Its not like it happened and its over. We have to see that what happened in the 1960s was not that long ago. Adele said yoga gives people hope when theyre trying to process racial trauma by providing a safer space to learn how to heal. COVID and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter has made a lot of Black people tired, she said. Theres an exhaustion that comes with chronic racial trauma. READ MORE: Coronavirus has exposed deep race inequity in health care At Studio 34, yoga instructors are mindful of people who might be recovering from trauma during classes. They do not make hands-on corrections without consent given through a yellow card that participants can put at the front of their mats, Dolberry said. We want to give people the opportunity to work in an environment that offers choices and options, since there isnt a choice involved in trauma, she said. Although the practice of yoga has roots in India, the industry more often caters to white people in the West, Adele said. She pointed out that if someone is the only Black person in a yoga class, it can be hard for them to relax and feel rejuvenated from a session. Thats why Adele began teaching a weekly yoga class via Zoom centered on breathing and resting for Black practitioners after Floyds death. She announces the class times on Instagram, and each class has raised donations for different Black-led or Black-centered community initiatives. Latifah McMullin, a Realtor who completed her yoga-teacher training last year, has been attending Adeles Zoom classes to relax after so much civil unrest. When Adriana first put together the Breathe and Rest class in June, a few of us were starting to get used to the new normal, she said. And then all the racial tensions came to light, and it was like, Where are we? Whats going on? Why is this happening? Everything felt like it had just gone to hell. McMullin teaches a free yoga class at Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia on Sunday mornings, but she also sets aside time to focus on her own practice. She said Adeles class, in a space full of Black people and taught by a Black teacher, helps her decompress. Shes even fallen asleep a couple of times during the class, McMullin said. A lot of Black folks were looking for a space to be in [the yoga community], Adele said. A lot of people didnt know how much rest they needed until they slowed down. Theres a lot of emotional processing that happens on a deeper level when we give ourselves the time to slow down and breathe. READ MORE: What racism does to your heart and your health Dolberry said that to be welcoming to all kinds of people as a yoga studio, its not enough to post a Black Lives Matter message on Instagram, develop a quarterly event series for diversity, or hire some Black folks. The real work for inclusion can often be harder, like creating an internal accountability group for white employees or having conversations about blind spots, she said. You have to look at what the real mission of your studio is and ask yourself if its really aligned with centering and uplifting people of color, said Dolberry, who teaches the POC Yoga class at Studio 34 Yoga. What was really nice about June was that for us, as owners, we could just hold the space for our community members and instructors because people knew us already as folks who have been doing the work. It didnt feel like we had to be reactive or performative, because people already knew we were ready to be there for them. This article, NASA ditching insensitive nicknames for cosmic objects, originally appeared on CNET.com. The terms we use to describe the cosmos aren't immune to scrutiny at a time when many people are working to remove racist language. Just as tech terms are being reevaluated, NASA is also reconsidering how we talk about space. "As the scientific community works to identify and address systemic discrimination and inequality in all aspects of the field, it has become clear that certain cosmic nicknames are not only insensitive, but can be actively harmful," the space agency said in a statement Wednesday. "NASA is examining its use of unofficial terminology for cosmic objects as part of its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion." Nicknames are especially popular when it comes to galaxies and nebulae. Check out Arp 142, which consists of NGC 2336 and NGC 2937. Those designations might not ring a bell for most people, but you'd definitely remember "the Penguin and the Egg" galaxies because they look like an adorable penguin guarding an egg. NASA gave two examples of cosmic objects it'll no longer use nicknames for. Planetary nebula NGC 2392 has been called the "Eskimo Nebula." "'Eskimo' is widely viewed as a colonial term with a racist history, imposed on the indigenous people of Arctic regions," NASA explained. NASA already added a note to a 2008 image release showing NGC 2392 that explains the decision to retire the nickname. The agency will also use only the official designations of NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 to refer to a pair of spiral galaxies that were known as the "Siamese Twins Galaxy." This reexamination of cosmic names is ongoing. "Our goal is that all names are aligned with our values of diversity and inclusion, and we'll proactively work with the scientific community to help ensure that. Science is for everyone, and every facet of our work needs to reflect that value," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Rachel Lambo and her mother, Sade, started Sade Baron, their clean beauty body brand, with an ambitious mission: make beautiful vegan products that work for every skin type and that are actually affordable. The duo has come a long way since selling bars of soap at a Toronto festival: Sade Baron is now stocked at coveted retailers including the Detox Market. Last week, Rachel, the brands CEO, sat down with Eva Hartling of The Brand is Female for an Instagram Live with The Kit about taking her side hustle to new heights and how she envisions the clean beauty revolution unfolding. This is an edited transcript of their talk. Tell me how the idea for Sade Baron came about. I know getting your mom involved took some convincing! My mom is a registered nurse and a midwife by trade shes that person who is always helping people. About 10 years ago, when I just started working in the beauty industry, I said to her, Youre always helping people out with natural remedies, why dont we do something together? I found her a soap-making class, and she did a course for a couple of years and learned from master soapmakers and skin-care chemists. But it took a long time to convince her to think about starting a clean beauty brand. When we started, she was in her early 50s and she said, I dont think its possible for someone in their 50s to start a brand. She had thought about the idea 20 or 30 years ago, but there were just not a lot of women in business at that time. It took two years of building up confidence and telling her that this is something we could do. Sade Baron focuses on body care, which youve described as your favourite part of care. Why? Over time, our bodies go through a multitude of roller-coasters. When you have children, for example. I hear from my friends that their hair starts falling out or their skin feels really dry. We want to consider the body as you move through life and through your life changes, and we want to create products that are good for every body, so it works if you have supersensitive skin or if you have challenges with body acne, which is very common. A lot of people are embarrassed to talk about it, but some people get acne on their chests, backs or their legs. We want to consider ingredients that were good for the body and we also wanted to make sure that we used superfood ingredients that could feed the skin. We have essential fatty acids on a layer of our skin, which are produced by eating things like fish and nuts that have really high omega 3, 6 and 9s. We added those oils into the formulation, as a kind of topical approach to feeding your skin, the largest organ on the body, with the good stuff. There have been several unicorns, like the Glossiers of the world that have launched very successful brands, and I think thats inspired many entrepreneurs to go into beauty. How did you approach making sure you had something that stood out on the market? We wanted to do body care because we actually loved it, and to get the really high-end beautiful stuff youd have to go to a department store. We wanted to make a beautiful, high-quality product that was packaged beautifully and could be used by anyone, male or female, and we also wanted to be sure that people could afford it. We also wanted to be authentic in our messaging. We didnt want to say, Were working with people on a small farm. We wanted it to be about me and my mother trying to build this together. We tell everybody, I probably touched one of your products, or packaged them or labelled them. Our story is a human story and we want to hold on to that as we grow. It really does matter to me. I want to have a relationship with any customer that reaches out to me. We reach out to our customers and ask them to model for our campaigns, because we want people to know theyre real human beings nothing is being Photoshopped. When we create new products, we actually send out an email to all our customers asking if they want to test our product, for free, obviously. We just let them test it and give us feedback, and let us know what they think because thats really important. Like a built-in focus group. Exactly. We want real feedback. Some people tell us they dont like this or I dont like the smell of this. We want to create a brand that is customer-driven. We want the customers to have a say, or sometimes even drive the car and tell us, Hey, this is what Im looking for. Im constantly applying that feedback to make the brand better in every way, including how we can be more sustainable and where we get our ingredients from. Lets talk about being a clean beauty brand. Do you think thats the future of beauty? I think so, personally. It was happening a few years ago, but now its become mainstream. Its this new part of peoples lives, this other dimension people realize both the consequences of not having clean beauty products and they also have the choice to have clean beauty products. So its the choice and the availability on the market. Its become part of peoples lives because they want to live a better life; they want to feel great and they want to also be able to support small businesses and makers. There will definitely be more growth. I think it will take over aisles in the grocery stores eventually, like Whole Foods and the drugstore. Its a category they cant ignore anymore. You see that with businesses like the Detox Market. They have customers who are shifting their entire budget from shopping at a drugstore to shopping there, where they feel they can trust the products completely. A lot of would-be entrepreneurs dream about their first business. You started this clean beauty brand as a side hustle and its still a side hustle for you, although the company is growing and scaling up. How have you been managing doing both? The reality is that its really hard to manage. There are days where I forget to email people, or I have to shuffle things to the next day. I still work full-time because I didnt want to take the risk of putting all my resources into a business. I wanted to make sure it was sustainable and could grow. I wake up early and I do as much work as I can, and then get back to it after my other job finishes. My days and my weekends are basically full of work, catching up and doing everything I can. I work with a few contractors who help in some aspects of the business, and my mom takes care of the manufacturing of the products, so Im not totally by myself. But it is definitely a big time investment to work 12- to 15-hour days. Then, within that, you have to pivot and find new ways of telling your story. Its hard! But its worth it. Over the last couple of months, related to the Black Lives Matter movement and support for racial justice, weve seen a lot of interest in Black-owned brands in Canada. What are your thoughts on supporting BIPOC-owned brands related to Sade Baron? I think its an incredibly important moment from a political angle and a community angle. As it relates to us as a brand, were incredibly grateful that people want to support us. I think people didnt know who we were for a long time and then, when I started getting tagged, it was amazing; it made my heart melt. My mom had just turned on our Instagram and she was like, Oh my God, where are these people coming from? And I said to her its because theyre trying to support Black-owned businesses. Our customers started tagging us. It was such a great experience to see that it was with unity and love and care for human beings that made them say, Lets support them. I do also want to ensure that for myself and my personal identity, my skin colour shouldnt be the only motivation to support. Its a great way forward to spotlight Black-owned brands and its important to be driving the conversation forward. I hope, though, that in 10 years this is the new standard. In 10 years, it shouldnt matter who the person is behind it, but that its a really good brand and a really good product. I truly hope inclusivity becomes the standard. Sade Baron Detox Body Wash, $10, Sade Baron Citrus Blend Body Souffle, $15, sadebaron.com This article contains affiliate links, which means The Kit may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by advertising. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information. ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The city of Anchorage was granted a temporary restraining order against a local business after hearing arguments from the city attorney, meaning the diner must comply with the citys emergency order, a judge ruled. Superior Court Judge Eric Aarseth heard arguments from Anchorage attorney Kate Vogel and Kriners Diner during a telephone hearing Friday before granting the citys motion for a temporary injunction, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Mayor Ethan Berkowitz issued the emergency order temporarily prohibiting indoor dining at restaurants and breweries to limit the spread of COVID-19 as the number of confirmed cases increased. Kriners Diner continued dine-in service after the order went into effect Monday. The diner was given a stop-work order from the city Tuesday. Blake Quackenbush, who represented the diner, argued that the emergency order violates the Alaska Constitution and said the city has also not shown any evidence that business practices at Kriners Diner have contributed to the spread of COVID-19. Kriners Diner will still be able to file an answer to the complaint from the city, which could lead to further hearings, but for now the diner must comply, Aarseth said. If the diner does not comply, owners Andy and Norann Kriner could be charged with contempt of court. After the ruling, Andy Kriner said he did not plan on complying. 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. The vast majority recover. General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu has called on the education authorities not to spare the final year students caught on tape disrespecting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Some WASSCE students, who are the first beneficiaries of the Free SHS policy, were spotted in a viral video blaming the President for their inability to write their Integrated Science paper on Monday, August 3, 2020, and therefore rained insults on him. John Boadu, speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', stated that such ill-bred behaviour of the students should not be entertained and therefore urged the authorities to enforce the rules governing the education system, ensuring that the students are well disciplined. ''We need to insist in being disciplined and making sure that the rules that we have used to run our schools over the years are strengthened. And if some of the tutors also fall foul of the law, we should take action on them,'' he said. Meanwhile, the National President of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Alhaji Yacoub A.B. Abubarkar has indicated that any student found guilty after investigations into the incident will not go scot-free. In an interview with Ghanaweb, he believed the students' misbehaviour is as a result of the free SHS programme. We actually did not expect such a thing to come out . . . sometimes when you dont suffer to acquire certain things, the tendency is that you dont value it until you begin to lose it. Maybe it is because of the way they had everything free throughout, there was no suffering on their part neither did their parents suffer so much as far as education is concerned, he said. However, he stressed that appropriate punishment will be meted out to the students. The parents of the students have been invited and they will be meeting the disciplinary committee to discuss the issues. Under normal circumstance, such actions should definitely attract punitive measures to serve as a deterrent to other students," he stated. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Gurugram, Aug 9 : Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's flying squad have busted another illegal call centre operating from Sohna Road that allegedly duped 600 foreign nationals of Rs one crore, police officials said on Saturday. Acting on a tip-off, a police team lead by Deputy Superintendent of Police Inderjeet Yadav conducted a raid at Green Rock Enterprises located in JMD Megapolis Mall on the Sohna road late Friday night. At that time, 30 employees were on duty. They lead the police to mastermind Vikram Verma, resident of Hari Nagar, Delhi, who was nabbed later. The employees claimed they, too, had been duped and had no idea that it was a fake call centre that came into existence on July 13. "The employees were trapping foreigners to clear pop-ups and provide antivirus in the name of technical help. They had remote access software for pop-ups and using the name of antivirus software, namely Mcafee, Bit Defender, Trenmicro and Kasper Sky. They duped more than Rs 1 crore from over 600 foreigners," investigating officer Yadav told the media. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 17:40:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOGADISHU, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people were killed and 14 others injured following a suicide bombing in the Somali capital here on Saturday, a medical charity confirmed. Abdikadir Abdirrahman, director of Aamin Ambulance said they have rushed the injured to the hospital after a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into a military base in Mogadishu's Wardhigley district. "So far, we know that eight people were killed and 14 others injured in the blast," Abdirrahman said. Dhame Sadik Adan, a police spokesman, confirmed that the terrorists had targeted a military base, resulting in unknown casualties. "There was a huge blast in Wardhigley district and there are casualties which I have not established now. We will provide more information later," Adan told Xinhua over the phone. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the al-Qaida allied terrorist group, al-Shabab, which has been fighting to overthrow the Western-backed government, has staged such attacks in the past. Enditem Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Allahabad Division Bench has sought responses from Centre and the Uttarakhand government within six weeks on Indian Forest Services (IFS) officer Sanjiv Chaturvedis application that a decision be taken on his request to seek deputation in the national anti-corruption body Lokpals investigation wing. The order was issued on August 4, but a copy of the order was made available on Saturday. HT has a copy of the order and other related documents. In November last year, Chaturvedi, a 2002 batch IFS officer, who is currently Chief Conservator of Forests in Uttarakhand, had written a letter to Lokpal seeking deputation to serve in its investigation wing. The state government gave its no-objection certificate to Centre government regarding his deputation plea on December 23 last year, leaving it for Centre to take the final decision. Responding to the NOC, the Union ministry of environment and forests wrote to the state government on February 4 that the notification of vacancy in Lokpal, relevant to subject matter, maybe furnished to this ministry to further process the request of Sanjeev Chaturvedi, IFS, at the earliest Following the development, Chaturvedi filed an application in CAT Allahabad bench, whose circuit bench sits in Nainital for a week every month in normal times. During the epidemic, the circuit bench of CAT could not sit in Nainital and this case was heard through video conferencing. Chaturvedi in his plea had sought relief from CAT to summon the records of the case and issue directions to Centre to pass appropriate orders on his deputation plea in Lokpal with positive recommendation in view of fulfilment of all the statutory requirements under IFS Cadre Rules, 1966, on grounds of equity.. in accordance with the objectives of the establishment of the institution of Lokpal.. in public interest and not to reject his deputation plea on any ulterior/subjective/oblique consideration. In his application, Chaturvedi stated that there may be attempts on the part of Respondent No.1 (Centre), to get the said NOC withdrawn so as to pre-empt the case of applicantwhich if allowed would result in irreparable loss to applicant.. The IFS officer, while seeking interim relief, stated in his application that Centre and Uttarakhand government be directed to maintain status quo, in respect of NOC/recommendation granted by the state government in its December 23, 2019 letter till the disposal of the case (in CAT). Hearing the matter on August 4 through video conferencing, the Allahabad bench of CAT ordered Let counter reply on behalf of both the respondents (Centre and Uttarakhand govt) be filed within six weeks. Applicant (Chaturvedi) is directed to file his rejoinder within two weeks thereafter. Both the counsels are also directed to file their objection separately on the request of interim relief within three weeks. The matter has been listed for next hearing on August 27. Chaturvedi served as Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of AIIMS, Delhi (June 2012 to June 2016), where he came into the spotlight for his fight against corruption and investigating over 200 cases of graft. In 2015, he was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award for his fight against corruption. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's coronavirus tally reached 282,645 with the detection of 782 new cases in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said on Friday. Seven more fatalities were also reported overnight, pushing the death toll to 6,052, it said. With the detection of the 782 new cases, Pakistan's coronavirus tally now stands at 282,645, the ministry said, adding that 258,099 patients so far have recovered from the deadly disease. The country has currently 18,494 active cases, it said. Of the total reported cases, Sindh recorded the maximum number of 122,759, COVID-19 patients, followed by Punjab at 94,040, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at 34,432, Islamabad at 15,182, Balochistan at 11,821, Gilgit-Baltistan at 2,287 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) at 2,124 cases. The authorities have so far performed 2,079,333 tests, including 20,461 overnight, to detect the novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, Pakistan fully restored its domestic flight operation from August 6 midnight. The government had resumed domestic flights partially in May as nation-wide lockdown eased. Aviation Division spokesman Abdul Sattar Khokhar said the government had earlier allowed all airports, except Turbat, Pangjur, Dalbandin, Zhob, Pasni, Moenjo Daro, Nawabshah and Bahawalpur airports, to resume domestic flight operations. Romania Due to a significant increase of coronavirus infections in Bulgaria and Romania, the German Federal government warns against tourist travel in several regions of the two countries in the EU. The Bulgarian tourists is one of the stronghold of Varna with the German Party tourists in the popular holiday resort of Golden beach, which is often compared to the Ballermann on Majorca. Varna is also one of the two most important airports is located on the Bulgarian black sea coast. affected Next affected in Bulgaria, according to the Travel advice of the foreign office on the Internet, Blagoevgrad and Dobrich, in Romania, in the districts of Arges, Bihor, Buzau, Neamt, Ialomita, Mehedinti and Timis. The most important Romanian holiday regions in Transylvania and the Black sea are excluded from the warning. The ten regions in Bulgaria and Romania were at the same time recognised by the Robert Koch-Institute as at-risk areas. Holidaymakers returning from such areas, must be since Saturday on the Coronavirus test. the Germans are The most important group of tourists for Bulgaria, in addition to the Russians and the British. Gold beach is considered the longest party mile in Bulgaria, and eifert for many years, the Ballermann on Majorca. There are some Bars such as "beer king", and "Ballermann 6" after the fashion of the Playa de Palma are even named. Reports about the lack of Corona-protection measures in the destination has rejected the Bulgarian tourism industry. Bulgaria and Romania are already in the fourth and fifth country of the European Union, for the in whole or in part prior to holiday travel will be warned. In addition, there are travel warnings for Luxembourg, the Belgian province of Antwerp, and three regions in Spain: Aragon, Navarra and Catalonia with the tourist metropolis of Barcelona and the beaches of the Costa Brava. The only regions outside of Europe, for which the travel warning was previously repealed, are four holiday regions in the Asian part of Turkey, the third most popular Travel destination for Germans. bookings can be canceled free of charge A travel warning is not a ban, but should have a significant deterrent effect. However, it also has a positive side for consumers: it allows travelers to cancel reservations free of charge. After the outbreak of the Corona of a pandemic, the Foreign office had at 17. March pronounced for the first time a global travel warning for tourist travel. For more than 30 European countries, it was repealed in mid-June, first of all, again, in the meantime, but for the five countries referred to reactivated. This usually happens when the number of Corona-new infections exceeds the mark of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days. However, it can also block other reasons, such as Entry or lack of hygiene measures. Updated Date: 08 August 2020, 14:20 Rwandans sent to late-night lectures | Image: France24/AFP Rwanda is taking a different approach to combating COVID-19 by sending those caught breaking curfews or not wearing masks to stadiums for all-night lectures on the dangers of coronavirus. According to official figures, since mid-July, about 70,000 people accused of ignoring the 9:00 pm curfew or rules on mandatory face masks have been ordered by police to sit through hours of speeches at local arenas or detention centres. Every evening, in stadiums across Rwanda, public health messaging is blared through loudspeakers to spectators seated at least a metre apart in the stands, imploring them to be ambassadors in the fight against the new virus. The sessions conducted under the watch of armed guards wrap up around dawn when those attending are sent home with strict orders to self-quarantine. Jado son Nizeyimana said he was stopped by police for wearing his mask incorrectly and was told to report to the nearest stadium. From now on, Ill wear it wherever I am, he told AFP. Hundreds have been corralled into classes at arenas across the country, including the national stadium in Kigali. The press is often invited to attend so that images broadcast of those being reprimanded might dissuade others from ignoring the regulations. Police, meanwhile, have taken to informing bosses of their employees transgressions. Others were given a choice: they could avoid public admonishment if they paid a fine of 25,000 Rwandan francs ($26/22 euros), well out of reach for many in a country where a waiter earns as little as $60 a month. I was arrested twice, and spent the night at the stadium on both occasions. Both times I was caught after curfew. The alternative was to pay a heavy fine, but I dont have any money. I am looking for a job, said 25-year-old Elly Niganze. As of Thursday, Rwanda had recorded five deaths and just over 2,000 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, with less than 900 active infections in the nation of 12.5 million. Meanwhile, testing for the illness at above 280,000 puts Rwanda among the better achievers on the continent. Police say the heavy-handed approach plays a part in curbing the spread of the virus. Were still finding many people breaking the rules, all the time. Its as if some are doing it intentionally to frustrate police. I want to tell you it will not happen, police spokesman John Bosco Kabera told reporters. We have started communicating with institutions and employers of people who have been arrested to take measures and ensure that they are self-isolated once they are released. Rwanda imposed one of Africas first total shutdowns in March, closing non-essential shops, shuttering schools, suspending public transport and banning all unnecessary travel outside the home. *** Source: TheGuardian Syracuse, N.Y. -- A U.S. government agency says it is putting a recently announced deal to help Kodak move into the production of pharmaceuticals on hold, saying allegations of wrongdoing raise serious concerns. The U.S. International Development Finance Corp. said in a tweet late Friday that it would not move forward with a $765 million loan to Rochester-based Kodak until the allegations are cleared. On July 28, we signed a Letter of Interest with Eastman Kodak. Recent allegations of wrongdoing raise serious concerns. We will not proceed any further unless these allegations are cleared, the agency said. On July 28, we signed a Letter of Interest with Eastman Kodak. Recent allegations of wrongdoing raise serious concerns. We will not proceed any further unless these allegations are cleared. DFCgov (@DFCgov) August 7, 2020 It did not specify what allegations it was referring to. However, questions have been raised about a surge in the price of the companys stock before the July 28 announcement that the DFC, on orders from President Donald Trump, would provide a $765 million loan to the former photography giant to support the launch of Kodak Pharmaceuticals, a new arm of the company that would produce critical pharmaceutical components. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday asking it to investigate whether insider trading laws have been broken. She also asked the SEC to look into whether Kodak board members were buying stock in the company while they were secretly negotiating the loan with the Trump administration. After the news of the deal came out, Kodak disclosed in regulatory filings that it had issued stock options to several executives on July 27 before its shares soared. Kodak CEO James Continenza was among the recipients. On Friday, Kodak announced it has appointed a special committee of independent directors to oversee an internal review of recent activity by the company and related parties in connection with the announcement of a potential loan by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to support the launch of Kodak Pharmaceuticals. Trump has been pushing for the nations supply of critical pharmaceuticals to be manufactured in the U.S. rather than in China and other nations. The Kodak project was expected to create 300 jobs in Rochester. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order requiring the federal government to purchase certain drugs from American manufacturers rather than from overseas companies. Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 By Trend Non-grocery stores will open from August 10, and other restrictions will be also eased in Azerbaijan, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of the Department of Economic Issues and Innovative Development Policy of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Shahmar Movsumov said. Movsumov made the remark in Baku during the briefing of the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, Trend reports on August 8. According to him, this corresponds to the experience of foreign countries. The assistant to president also stressed that the more the quarantine regime is softened, the higher is the risk of a re-growth of infection, which was observed in other countries. "While we make the softening, there is a high probability that the number of infected people will increase. Our main goal is to reduce the rate of infection. To this end, measures should be taken in three directions. The first direction envisions compulsory compliance with the quarantine regime, the second - control over the implementation of these rules, and the third direction provides for the timely identification of the infected persons," Movsumov said. He added that on August 8, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov will hold an expanded meeting in connection with the control of compliance with the established rules. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz SEATTLE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2020 / Riverdale Oil & Gas Corporation (OTC Pink:RVDO) (the "Company"), announced today that the Company has entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement with Hempstract, LLC. Having completed due diligence, the parties agreed to mutually beneficial terms and executed an Asset Purchase Agreement on August 6, 2020. Under terms of the transaction, Riverdale Oil & Gas Corp will acquire all assets including licenses, equipment, materials, inventory, assignment of all lease, service, and vendor contracts. Assets include 3,125 kilograms of CBD Isolate valued at $10,700,00 along with material assets and equipment valued at over $750,000. Following the acquisition, the company will be reclassified as a subsidiary corporation under Riverdale Oil & Gas Corporation. Richard Hawkins, CEO of Riverdale Oil & Gas Corp commented on Agreement: "We are so thrilled to finalize this purchase agreement with Hemstract and we are eager to start this next chapter for the company to diversify into this new and exciting industry." About Riverdale Oil & Gas Corporation Riverdale Oil & Gas Corporation (OTC Pink:RVDO) is a Nevada registered publicly-traded company. About Hempstract, LLC Located in Warden, Washington, Hempstract offers business partners premium CBD Solutions they can trust at competitive prices. Hempstract and its laboratories go to great lengths to ensure that all of its solutions are of the highest quality and control standards and provides pure, high-quality, and safe, CBD isolate and oil to its customers. For more information, please contact: Richard Hawkins IR@rvdoil.com Forward-looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements" which are not purely historical and may include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the development, costs and results of new business opportunities and words such as "anticipate", "seek", intend", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "project", "plan", or similar phrases may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with new projects, the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company's reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based products. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-k, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information, please visit www.sec.gov. Story continues SOURCE: Riverdale Oil & Gas Corporation View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/600707/Riverdale-Oil-Gas-Corporation-RVDO-Executes-a-Mutual-Definitive-Agreement-to-Purchase-Hempstract Third body from capsized ferry found THAILAND: The body of a woman missing since a ferry sank of Koh Samui last Saturday night (Aug 1) was found on Friday, bringing the confirmed death toll to three. Two people were still missing. accidentsdeathdisastersmarine By Bangkok Post Saturday 8 August 2020, 10:06AM Rescuers bring the body of Naparada Chanhan, 42, a sales staff member of the capsized Raja 4 Ferry, to a navy ship in Surat Thani yesterday (Aug 7). Photo: Supapong Chaolan. Divers from a Seal unit of the 2nd Naval Area Command, rescue foundation staff and foreign diving instructors have all been involved in the search for those missing. Yesterday (Aug 7) a diving team cut open the steel gate of a washroom on the ferry and found the body of Naparada Chanhan, 42. A ferry staff member who sold goods onboard, she had been trapped inside when the ship began to sink. The body was loaded onto a jet ski and taken to the Royal Thai Navy ship Tor 237, where her waiting husband, Panya Sukchanasongkram, 43, burst into tears. The body was later taken to Koh Samui Hospital for an autopsy. Mr Panya said he would take his wifes body to Wat Bang Nam Jued in Don Sak district of this southern province for funeral rites. While he thanked the Surat Thani governor, Samui district chief, soldiers, marine police and divers for their help, he said he wanted the ferry owner to take responsibility for the incident. The Raja 4 ferry with 16 people on board, including drivers of three lorries loaded with garbage and one pickup truck, sank during a storm on the night of Aug 1. Eleven people were saved, three have been confirmed dead and two are still missing: crewman Tiwakorn Vachararit and lorry driver Chaichan Laosap. Surat Thani governor Witchawut Jinto said a check with social security records showed that Naparadas family would receive B40,000 for funeral costs, B819,000 in compensation for her death and a B40,811 pension for the elderly, or B899,811 in total. The family of skipper Tewin Surat will receive B1.88 million from the provincial social security office, and relatives of crewman Siravut Thongboonyang B1.07 million, said the governor. Hi everyone. Hope you are doing well. We have entered into the third week of series of posting the tips. So happy that you have been finding the tips helpful. This week we have come up with another useful tip which is not only helpful for the beginners but also for those who have already started their preparation. So, here we go!Most of the students who prepare for GMAT are working professionals and a good number of them have a tough time managing the work-life balance alongside studying for GMAT. Hence, it is quite natural for GMAT Preparation to take the back seat whenever another important commitment comes up. What should we do in such cases?I highly recommend students to ensure that they build a habit of learning every day. Even on days, youve some extra workload, try and sit to study for 30 mins just to maintain the habit. I dont mean to say that you should put stress on yourself on an already stressful day. All I mean to say is, Dont Procrastinate. Dont tell yourself that it doesnt matter. Ill make up for the lost time over the weekends.Trust me, Procrastinating is a bad habit. You wont realize how it affects your learning initially, but in the end (probably in the last 30 days before GMAT), you will realize how much stuff you have left to do and how little time is left. Most students end up entering the fire-fighting mode and eventually end up missing their goal. What's the solution? The solution is to ensure that you dedicate a slot for studying every day, just as you dedicate some time in the day to go to office. Speak to family, get their buy-in as well on this slot and focus on studying every day in this slot. Timing and duration of the slot will vary on basis of your schedule and personal preferences, but make sure youve a slot fixed. Dont procrastinate and even on a busy day try to study at least for 30 mins. Other Benefits Another benefit of regular study is that it increases your efficiency. You can internalize things well if you learn daily rather than just on weekends. Remember only disciplined people can master a test like GMAT.Unless youve a very hectic work schedule which doesnt leave any time to study on weekdays, I strictly advise against studying solely on weekends. What is the best way to do it? Now you must be wondering how do I motivate myself to study every day. Its really simple. Having a proper study plan will help you do it. Having said that, many students organize the topics and make a plan but eventually dont follow it. Can you guess whats the reason for it? Not having proper deadlines! For example, imagine there is a construction project going on. The project to be constructed is a home and the workers are employed, budget is allocated and the blue-print of the project is also made. Do you think these are enough to finish the project? If you say yes, then you are missing a small logic here. Do the workers have a proper deadline? No! When the workers have no deadline to meet, they become lethargic and the productivity goes down. So, before the start of the project, the workers are given a deadline so that they finish the project under specified time. Having said that, workers dont randomly work to meet their deadline. They try to finish a specific task and only then move to the next task. For example, they move to painting the walls only after finishing the construction of walls and coating them.Similarly, having a proper deadline will motivate you to finish the task under a stipulated time. Having said that, a person who can dedicate 5 hours a day cannot have the same deadline as a person who can dedicate only 3 hours a day. As most students are working professionals, and are at different positions, the number of hours they can dedicate is not the same. So, a generic plan would not suffice. Then what is the solution? The solution is a personalized study plan! Sounds good but what does it actually mean? A personalized study plan is something which takes into account the number of hours a person can dedicate in a week and the approximate deadlines and then creates weekly tasks based on that. For example, a person who can dedicate 20 hours a week and plans to appear for the test in 3 months has to have different weekly tasks compared to a person who can dedicate 40 hours a week and plans to appear in 45 days.This will help students stay motivated right till the end because they have weekly deadlines to meet. Students can focus on just finishing the tasks scheduled for the day and take care of their office work. But what if theres an emergency or there comes a situation where you have to extend your work timings? Will the personalized study plan still work?This makes way for something called an adaptive plan. In this hectic life, there might be a few situations where you are forced to extend your work timings and you cannot finish the tasks scheduled. In this situation, the plan has to adjust itself a little bit and move the tasks scheduled to a further date. How do I make this personalized study plan? You must be wondering if its possible to manually create a personalized study plan or is there any software to do that. We have heard all your concerns and developed a course called which uses AI technology and provides you with a personalized study plan. It takes into account the number of hours you can dedicate in a week and helps you by creating weekly tasks with clear deadlines. Now a question must have popped up in most of your heads. Should I buy the course to get the personalized study plan? Be rest assured! We have something called a free trial of the course. You can register for it, enter the number of hours you can dedicate in a week, enter the date youre planning to take the test and thats it. You have your personalized study plan. You can also access a few concepts videos and practice quizzes so that you get that feel of following a personalized study plan.Hope it helped! Im sure most of you will be changing your approach by shifting towards a study plan and eventually achieve your dream GMAT score. All the best!_________________ Alma College will soon begin offering its first graduate degree with the launch of a master of fine arts degree in creative writing, and has hired prolific writer Sophfronia Scott to lead the program. The new MFA program is the first graduate degree Alma College has offered in its 134-year history. Its low-residency format is designed for students who want to continue working while earning a degree. Participants will come together four times over the two-year curriculum to take part in 10 days of intensive lectures, workshops, readings and one-on-one time with a world-class team of visiting faculty members. After each residency, writers will return home to continue their studies one-on-one with a faculty mentor, creating and submitting packets of creative and critical work on a monthly basis. The end goal is the development of a graduate lecture and a creative thesis, leading to a substantial manuscript. This MFA program will attract a new kind of student to Alma, said Kathleen Dougherty, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. The college has taken major steps to increase the diversity and inclusivity of our campus and the MFA program will take that to a whole new level. An Alma College strategic investment task force spent three years considering different areas of study to add to its offerings before selecting the MFA in creative writing. The task force considered the MFA to be a good fit because of Almas strength in the liberal arts, particularly its rich history in English studies. Alma College President Jeff Abernathy said the low-residency MFA program is the only one of its kind in Michigan, as well as several other nearby states. To grow our first program in a core humanity like English is an incredible opportunity for us. Were matching the needs of our society with the strengths of Alma College, Abernathy said. We have an opportunity within this program to build our reputation for excellence in the liberal arts. Scott, the programs founding director, is the author of multiple novels, memoirs, and collections of essays, as well as of fiction and creative nonfiction works published in journals nationwide. A graduate of Harvard University, she completed her MFA in Creative Writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She helped create and launch an MFA program at Regis University, in Colorado and has also taught in the MFA program at Bay Path University, in Massachusetts. Scott is the recipient of a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts. I love the team feel of the college and the enthusiasm for the MFA program. Im thrilled to be a part of this team and think were going to build something the entire college is proud of, Scott said. Im interested in bringing people together and helping them develop their creative voices, she added. The Alma MFA will be an amazing and supportive artistic community. Scott previously became acquainted with Alma College when she served as a guest writer in 2017, and her books have been taught in English courses at the college. A native of Lorain, Ohio, she now lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Sophfronia will be an inspiring director of the MFA program for Alma College. She brings a wealth of experience in MFA programs and she has a vision that will build Almas reputation across the country and beyond. That was very much our aspiration here, Abernathy said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 01:56:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- China urges the United States to stop arms sales to and military ties with Taiwan to avoid further harming China-U.S. relations and cross-Strait peace and stability, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday. Spokesman Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing when asked to comment on reports saying the United States plans to sell arms to Taiwan again. U.S. arms sales to Taiwan seriously breach the three China-U.S. joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique, severely undermine China's sovereignty and security interests, and gravely violate basic norms of international relations, said Wang. "China firmly opposes this." "The Taiwan question concerns China's sovereignty, territorial integrity and core interests. China has firm resolve in upholding its sovereignty and security," said Wang. "We urge the United States to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques and stop arms sales to and military ties with Taiwan, lest it should further harm China-U.S. relations and cross-Strait peace and stability," he said. Enditem Press Release August 8, 2020 Gatchalian on flexible learning transition: assist small private universities with financial woes Senator Win Gatchalian is seeking increased government support for small and medium-sized private universities' transition to flexible learning amid the CoViD-19 pandemic. A flexible approach to teaching and learning means students can learn when, where and how they prefer it to be. In a Senate panel hearing, Gatchalian raised that these smaller institutions have limited financial capacity and technical expertise to install online and flexible learning systems. Without the systems and expertise to implement remote learning, the students of these small schools would eventually suffer, Gatchalian said. According to Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Prospero De Vera III, there are more than 1,000 small private universities catering to around 525,000 students nationwide. The CHED Chairman added that there are more students enrolled in private higher education institutions (HEIs) compared to public tertiary institutions. Based on CHED data, there are 1,833,170 students (53.87 percent) enrolled in private HEIs while 1,575,645 (46.22 percent) are enrolled in public institutions. The CHED Chairperson added that while free software can be used to develop learning management systems, small private universities tend to have a shortage in hardware and manpower for these systems. "I found out that an online system is very expensive. It's not cheap," Gatchalian said during the hearing, citing the experience of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela, which recently subscribed to an application to deliver full online learning. "Smaller universities may have a difficult time in acquiring an online system. My fear is if we don't help the small, medium private universities and more than 50 percent of the population in our universities will be affected," Gatchalian added. Under the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act (Senate Bill No. 1564) or Bayanihan 2.0, three billion pesos is allocated to create "smart" campuses in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs). This entails investments in information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, acquisition of learning management systems, and other equipment to implement flexible learning. CHED, however, seeks to expand the coverage of this budget so that small private universities will also be covered. To help learning institutions affected by lockdown measures, Bayanihan 2.0 also seeks to develop a loan program by appropriate government financial institutions (GFIs) to help academic institutions prepare for the implementation of blended learning. For Gatchalian, the challenges hounding the education sector add urgency to enacting Bayanihan 2.0, which will finally make much-needed funding available for academic institutions ahead of the school year's opening. "Ang pagkakaroon ng moderno at matatag na sistema ng edukasyon ay mahalaga sa pagbangon ng ating bansa mula sa mga naging epekto ng pandemya. Hindi na natin dapat paghintayin pa ang modernisasyon ng ating mga paaralan, kabilang ang ating mga pamantasan, upang maipagpatuloy natin ang edukasyon at matugunan ang pangangailangan ng ating mga mag-aaral," Gatchalian concluded. Procurement of expensive aircraft parts to be done after approval of senior official: Air India Operations from India to US to be curtailed/revised from Jan 19 due to 5G roll-out: Air India Kerala Air India crash: Wing Commander Sathe was a decorated pilot India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: Wing Commander Deepak Vasanth Sathe, the captain of the ill-fated aircraft that crashed at Calicut on Friday was a decorated pilot. Kerala plane crash: Ex-IAF pilot dies, had tried to land safely | Oneindia News During his 22 year career in the Indian Air Force, he learnt flying the Soviet origin MiG-21. He was awarded the coveted sword of honour in recognition of his skills when he graduated from the Air Force Academy at Dundigal near Hyderabad in 1981. He was also a former alumnus of the National Defence Academy. In Pics: Rescue operations at Air India Express crash site end; 20 dead He joined the IAF in 1981 and quit prematurely in June 2003. He was a very skilled pilot and had mentored several young pilots. Twenty people were killed and scores injured when an Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 onboard overshot the tabletop runway in Kozhikode airport in Kerala on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions, officials said. US President Donald Trump believes that he is the last person whom Russia and China would like to see as the US president, the US leader told reporters in Bedminster, New Jersey, TASS reports. "The last person Russia would like to see in office is Donald Trump, because nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have," he said on Friday, adding that China and Iran have the same stance. The statement came in response to a report by National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) Director William Evanina. According to the US intelligence official, Russia is trying to "denigrate" Trumps election rival, former Vice President Joseph Biden. China and Iran, at the same time, are reluctant to see Trump re-elected, the US official added. When asked to comment on the reports of alleged foreign interference into the US polls, Trump replied: "We are going to look at that very closely." The US intelligence services incriminate Russia of meddling in the 2016 US elections. These alleged influence attempts were investigated by former head of FBI Robert Mueller for almost two years. On April 18, 2019 the US Department of Justice made public his final report where the US special counsellor acknowledged that no collusion has taken place between Russian authorities and the US presidential candidate Donald Trump who had won the election. Trump himself repeatedly denied suspicions of any wrongful contacts with Russian officials during the election campaign. Moscow also repeatedly denied rumors of attempts to influence the US elections. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier said that as the presidential election approaches, more and more "paranoid reports" of Russias alleged interference would appear. "They certainly have nothing to do with the truth," he added. The management of Bright Senior High School says the principal and teachers of the school could not have given the order for the students to leave the school premises without writing the final exams as has been reported. In a strong defense put up by the management of the school, a statement has issued to clear the head of the schools proprietor as someone who did not instigate the violence incident which took place in his school in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). The management of Bright Senior High School however asserted that the WAEC officials rather prevented the principal from entering the school last Thursday when the attack happened even though the proprietor, Bright Amponsah, has been accused of ordering students to attack officers of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). The management in its statement stressed that none of the teachers of Bright Senior High School was allowed to partake in the invigilation of the Social Studies examination on August 6, 2020. The school was reportedly upset with the strict measures put in place by WAEC-appointed invigilators. Similar reasoning led to disturbances at the Juaben Senior High School and Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School. Bright SHS in the statement maintained that the principal and the teachers could not have instructed the students to stop writing the paper and leave the school premises as has been reported. The school further said it condemned any act of violence, assault, damage to property and any such similar vices and will not condone any student or teacher to perpetrate such activities. Police and the National Inspectorate Board are currently engaged in investigations into the incident. The Bright Senior High School assured that it is cooperating fully with law enforcement agencies to bring to justice to any persons who might have engaged in any unlawful activity on the said day. Developments since incident Following the incident, WAEC has relocated the WASSCE at the Bright Senior High School in Kukurantumi to Ofori Panin Senior High School. WAEC in a statement said it had decided to relocate the examination center to ensure the integrity of the examination and safeguard the lives of examination officials. The proprietor of the school was also picked up by police from the Eastern Regional command along with four other teachers. They have been granted bail with a surety each to reappear at the Regional Police Command. The police said they have been cautioned for assault and causing damage. 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. Featured Video New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (August 8, 2020) launched "Gandagi Mukt Bharat", a week-long campaign for 'swachhata' in the run-up to Independence Day. During this week, each day till August 15 will have special 'swachhata' initiatives in urban and rural India to re-enforce the 'jan andolan' for 'swachhata'. PM Modi launched the campaign while inaugurating the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra (RSK) which is an interactive experience centre on the Swachh Bharat Mission at the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti at Rajghat in New Delhi. Prime Minister @narendramodi inaugurates the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra - an interactive experience centre on the #SwachhBharatMission, at the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti at Rajghat, New Delhi (1/2) https://t.co/2yd2gKPJWL pic.twitter.com/w6GEXGrDig PIB India (@PIB_India) August 8, 2020 The RSK is a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and was first announced by the Prime Minister in April 2017, on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha. The RSK has a balanced mix of digital and outdoor installations tracking Indias transformation from having over 50 crore people defecating in the open in 2014 to becoming open defecation free in 2019. PM Modi also took a tour of the three distinct sections of the RSK where he first experienced a unique 360 audiovisual immersive show in a Hall 1 which provides an overview of the Swachh Bharat journey. He then moved to Hall 2 that contains a series of interactive LED panels, hologram boxes, interactive games and much more on the SBM. PM Modi also saw the installations in the lawn adjacent to RSK which showcase three exhibits which are synonymous with the SBM - Mahatma Gandhi leading people to the Swachhata pledge, Rani Mistris of rural Jharkhand and children 'swachhagrahis' who call themselves Vaanar Sena. He also briefly visited the RSK souvenir centre and then interacted with 36 school students from Delhi, representing all States and Union Territories of India at the amphitheatre of the RSK. The children shared their experiences with 'swachhata' activities at home and at school, and their impressions of the RSK. One of them also asked the Prime Minister what his favourite part of the RSK was, to which the Prime Minister replied that he most enjoyed the portion dedicated to the inspiration of the SBM, Mahatma Gandhi. After interacting with the children, PM Modi addressed the nation and reminisced the journey of the Swachh Bharat Mission and dedicated the RSK as a permanent tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. Prime Minister @narendramodi also interacts with 36 school students from Delhi, representing all States and Union Territories of India at the amphitheatre of the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra, adhering to social distancing protocols. (2/2) https://t.co/2yd2gKPJWL pic.twitter.com/T9oBSu0qDy PIB India (@PIB_India) August 8, 2020 He lauded the people of India for making 'swachhata' a 'jan andolan' and urged them to continue to do so in the future. He reiterated the importance of 'swachhata' in our daily lives, especially during our fight against the coronavirus. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister, Jal Shakti and Rattan Lal Kataria, Minister of State, Jal Shakti were also present on the occasion. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed the Government to take measures to avoid the second wave of COVID-19. "Ukraine knows how to summon up if necessary. It's time for the government to take measures to prevent a second wave of coronavirus infection, which can have dire consequences not only for the economy, but also for our human capital," President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said, the press service of the Head of State informs. Given the rapid growth in the number of COVID-19 cases in Ukraine, the President instructed Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to urgently assess the readiness of hospitals to help patients, to provide institutions with all the necessary equipment. In addition, the Head of State instructed the Government to provide medical workers with personal protective equipment in full amount and to strengthen control over compliance with quarantine measures. Also, the Cabinet of Ministers must revise the operation of the entry points on the administrative border with the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. As of August 8, Ukraine has reported 79,750 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 1,489 new cases recorded over the past 24 hours. Today, the Government will convene an extraordinary meeting due to deteriorating epidemic situation. ol Coronavirus news in the DC, Virginia and Maryland area FAQ: D.C. | Maryland | Virginia What you need to know: Symptoms guide | Delta variant | Other variants | How mental disorders elevate covid risk | Booster shots in D.C., Maryland and Virginia Mapping the spread: Known deaths and cases in the region | Nationwide cases Vaccine: Breakdown | State tracker | Mapping the vaccination divide | D.C. employees required to get vaccine | Md., Va. state workers need to show proof of vaccination Masks: Masks FAQ | Masks and vaccines in D.C. area schools | DC requires masks during high covid transmission | Prince Georges requires masks for children | Montgomery considering lifting mask mandate Get the latest local news: Morning newsletter | Afternoon newsletter Have a question about the delta variant? Ask The Posts science reporters. Ties have soured between China and Canada on a number of fronts China sentenced another Canadian to death on drugs charges Friday, the second in two days to be handed the punishment, as tensions soar between Beijing and Ottawa. The Foshan Intermediate People's Court in the country's southern province of Guangdong said Ye Jianhui had been sentenced for trafficking and manufacturing drugs, and would have all his assets confiscated. According to the state-run Global Times, authorities seized more than 217 kilogrammes of white crystals containing MDMA from Ye and five others in 2016. The rest of the group were also sentenced on Friday and one other death sentence was issued, while the others were given lesser punishments. It comes a day after a court in the provincial capital Guangzhou handed a death sentence to Canadian national Xu Weihong on a charge of making drugs. Last year, China also sentenced two other Canadians to death on drug trafficking charges as ties have deteriorated between the two countries on a number of fronts, including the arrest of top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Canadian pleas for clemency for the pair, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg and Fan Wei, have so far not been successful. On Friday, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told a news conference that Ottawa strongly and steadfastly "opposes the death penalty" on moral grounds. "We oppose it clearly and always, everywhere around the world. We believe it is a cruel and inhumane punishment," she said. When asked about the latest case Friday, China's foreign ministry said its "judicial organs handle cases independently in strict accordance with the law". "We urge Canada to take immediate and effective measures to correct its mistakes and make concrete efforts to bring bilateral relations back on track," spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular press briefing. - Deteriorating ties - Relations have deteriorated rapidly between the two countries in a number of areas over recent years. Story continues Two other Canadian nationals have been detained by Beijing on spying charges -- including a former diplomat -- a move widely considered retaliation for Meng's arrest in Canada. The United States wants Meng extradited to face trial on charges related to Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei's alleged violations of US sanctions against Iran. In June, Beijing formally charged the two men with espionage. Beijing keeps its data secret about the number of death sentences it carries out every year. But according to Amnesty International, China is the world's top executioner, with thousands believed to be killed each year. ehl-rox-amc/sst Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been plagued by a wave of intrigues and controversies ever since their relationship became public in 2016. Two years later in 2018, the former "Suits" star married her real-life prince and officially became a member of the British royal family. Right then and there, she knew that her life would completely change -- from being a Hollywood B-lister and now the Duchess of Sussex. Unfortunately, things did not go quite as planned, as the couple announced their decision to step down from their roles as senior members of the Firm last January 2020. Sure enough, the decision was a huge blow to the Firm and its image. However, the Sussex couple didn't stop there, as they continuously fire controversial claims that pain Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family in a negative light. With that said, we take a look at the three times Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ruined the royal family's image. Monarchy "Blindsided" by the Sussexes' Royal Split After they made the shocking decision, it was reported that the controversial couple never informed Buckingham Palace or anyone from the royal family about their plan. With that, the Queen and the rest of the monarchy felt "disappointed" and "blindsided" by their announcement, as cited by BBC news. In addition, a Palace spokesperson told the outlet that the discussion about their future had begun "in very early stages" as they had to work through some "complicated issues." To recall, Queen Elizabeth II called for an emergency meeting with senior royals at Sandringham to discuss the couple's new role. Dubbed as "Sandringham Summit," the urgent assembly was attended by Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry, with Her Majesty leading the team to find a "workable solution" to the crisis. "The Queen has convened a meeting of all four royal households and 'tasked' them with coming up with a 'workable' future role for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex within 'days not weeks,'" per royal correspondent Rebecca English of the Daily Mail. Royal Family on Finding Freedom A couple of months after officially leaving the monarchy, an unauthorized biography of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle titled "Finding Freedom" was announced to be released this August. Written by royal journalists Carolyn Durrand and Omid Scobie, the book will reportedly delve into the true story between the relationship of the Sussexes and the Cambridges, as well as the alleged "unfair" treatment of the royal family to the former Hollywood actress. Following this, Vanity Fair claimed that the person who will be "most upset" with this bombshell book is none other than the Queen, as this will only "open old wounds at a time when everyone wanted to move on." Prince Harry and Meghan Markle "Attacks" the Commonwealth After their split with the royal family, the most sought-after couple appeared in virtual ceremonies and delivered compelling speeches about various humanitarian and social issues. Last July, the duo spoke to young leaders from the Queen's Commonwealth Trust and gave their two cents about racial justice and equality around the world. They also took a subtle swipe at the Queen, as they called for the Commonwealth to "acknowledge the uncomfortable past" and the effects of colonialism. This sparked outrage from the public and experts, including veteran royal photographer Arthur Edwards who advised Prince Harry to stop "insulting" the one thing Queen Elizabeth II "cherishes above all things" -- and that is preserving the Commonwealth. READ MORE: Royal Heartbreak: 3 Signs of Queen Elizabeth II's Complicated Relationship With Her Kids Did Jacob Elordi regret doing "Kissing Booth 2" with his ex, Joey King? Was it hard for him to be back on the series, so much so that he could not bear watching the finished product? In a a recent interview with Variety, Jacob Elordi said that he is yet to watch his Netflix hit, "THe Kissing Booth 2." The first installment was so successful that there was a second, and now an upcoming third installment. And yet, it appears that Elordi cannot even bear seeing his own work. Ashamed? Regretful? Triggered? Triggered by his ex Joey King? "I haven't seen it. You've seen more than I have. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, but I haven't," Elordi said in an interview published Thursday morning. Joey King refuses to let that go in record though. According to ET Online, the actress called out Elordi on his statement through a tweet. "Jacob watched it. He's capping," King wrote in a Tweet that has since been deleted. If she's only playing and joking, then there should not have been a need to delete the tweet. But if she's offended or not, fans would never know. With "The Kissing Booth 3" trailer already out and the actual film around the corner, one can only hope Elordi finally watch the the second installment. It can be remembered that Jacob Elordi and Joey King were not just an on-screen couple, but also off-screen. They did not date just a few times too. Instead, they were together for a year and a half before deciding to call it quits. When interviewed by ET's Katie Krause, Joey King grouched about being in a relationship with the media constantly on their business. "In this world, everyone wants to know your business and what you're doing," King said. while reflecting on the pressure of dating in the public eye. "I think it's very interesting when you go through things and people kind of feel like they're owed an explanation, but I understand." She's moved on though. In recent months, new romance rumors already started to whirr about her and Taylor Zakhar Perez dating, her "The Kissing Booth 2" co-star. Perez however, already told the media that even though he loves King dearly, the two are not dating. He also shared that they are so close, they were quarantine buddies. They lived near each other so it was easy to check up on each other during the lockdown. They also spent some vacation together during King's birthday. He also revealed that back in South Africa, they often had dinner together, where he cooks for her sometimes and she cooks him on other times. Certainly, Perez gave the vibes that they are dating because of all these and yet he denied it. His long message for King on her birthday, is a tough one to beat, couple or not. Perez even said he admires King so much for not just welcoming him with open arms on the second installment of this hit Netflix film, but for going through with it given that her ex is her main co-star. After threatening a friends family, barricading himself in their home, fleeing to the roof and spending nearly 13 hours negotiating with a SWAT team Friday, a Medford resident surrendered to authorities early Saturday morning, police said. The incident began Friday morning on the 100 block of Carnation Drive in Deptford Township when a 26-year-old man visited an acquaintances home. He began to destroy property and break windows, police said. When the homeowner confronted him, the individual reportedly brandished a knife, but the owners family managed to escape and call for help around 10:15 a.m. Patrol officers arrived at the scene and attempted to speak with the individual, but he locked the door and barricaded himself inside. At that point, the Gloucester County SWAT team was activated as per protocol, Deptford Police Detective Robert Jones told NJ Advance Media. Gloucester County SWAT arrived, they attempted negotiating with him for several hours at which point he was able to flee to the roof of the home. When he made it to the roof, SWAT team members used a PA system to communicate with him and eventually used a ladder provided by Deptford Fire Department to negotiate face-to-face. Around 12:15 a.m., authorities brought the individual down on the ladder. Gloucester County SWAT began negotiating fairly quickly, I would say 11:30 in the morning, and he finally came down at 12:15, roughly, Jones said. So almost 13 hours of negotiating and a lot of that time he was on the roof, believe it or not, for probably nine hours. Jones said that it is possible that the individual endured a change in mental status, indicating he might have been suffering from mental health issues. Jones declined to comment on whether police suspected he was intoxicated. The individual was charged with several offenses, though Jones was unable to specify what the offenses were. He was taken to a medical facility for crisis evaluation. He sustained minor cuts to his hands. Police were not aware of why the individual had visited the friends home in the first place or why he began destroying property. The Police activity on Carnation Drive has been peacefully resolved, read a post on the Deptford Police Department Facebook page. Good Intent Road has been reopened to traffic. Thank you to the residents of Carnation Drive for your patience and support. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Josh Axelrod may be reached at jaxelrod@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. This has been the year of surprises, shocks and twists. So what better way to mark the midpoint than the publication of a book that was hotly anticipated a decade ago, but is now consigned to fan subculture? I'm talking, of course, about Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer's retelling of the events of Twilight from the perspective of Edward, the 104-year-old sparkly vampire love-interest to protagonist Bella Swan. Shelved in 2008 after an internet leak and finally published during a global pandemic, Midnight Sun's road to publication has been a saga of its own. To some Twi-Hards, it's been a long wait. But these fans are now in their late twenties or thirties, and times (and fan culture) have moved on. Despite not being a fan, I've always found the snide commentary on the series (usually by middle-aged men) more egregious than the books themselves. Everyone loved to hate Bella, but she was a decent protagonist, and I liked the strong choice narrative of the original series. In contrast, Edward's internal narrative, self-loathing and possessive, is difficult to plough through. He makes a show of feeling bad about stalking Bella, but doesn't stop. He fantasises about murder constantly. That's to say nothing of his misogyny. Bella is 'different' to other girls - she doesn't wear make-up, she reads Victorian novels and she knows who Debussy is. Almost every other female character is toxic and shallow, but most vilified is his vampire foster-sister Rosalie, who is still bitter that Edward didn't instantly fall in love with her when they first met more than 50 years previously. Some of Edward's faults as a narrator are inevitable. Twilight is, at its core, a moody mystery, but we know how that story ends. There's no tension in Edward's anguish over his feelings for Bella because we know he gives into them. It doesn't help that Edward can read the minds of everyone (apart from Bella), including his sister Alice, who can see into the future. Each time he must make a moral decision (should he watch Bella sleep?) he looks into Alice's mind to see what he does in the future, and resigns himself to it. He berates himself often for making the wrong choice, but it's ultimately pretty meaningless. In her defence, Meyer doesn't expect us to see Edward in Midnight Sun as a 'good person', but she doesn't offer much serious criticism either. He is so self-loathing yet hypocritical that it borders on hilarious. His disgust at his desire for Bella's blood (his 'own personal brand of heroin') is obviously a metaphor for sexuality: there are at least 170 references to Edward's shame at his lust, more than one every five pages. An 'incel' Edward would have brought the book a satirical edge, as would an Edward whose Victorian morality is at odds with the emerging hook-up culture. As it is, Midnight Sun is difficult to justify. The original book was 544 pages; this clocks in at 756, with only limited new scenes and information. Conversations are word-for-word the same as in Twilight, and Edward just isn't interesting enough to justify hearing these from his side. Once you've understood that he hates himself for his 'inability' to stay away from Bella despite wanting to hurt her, there's not much more to add. The whole book feels stale. Binge-reading Midnight Sun in 2020 is an exercise in discomfort. Edward grows angry with Bella when he feels 'tempted', he watches her sleep without her consent and he's very aware of the difference in their age and maturity levels. It's telling that the character he most resembles is not his father, Carlisle, but instead a paedophile he killed as a new vampire. Video of the Day Edward watched the man grapple with his urge to kidnap, rape and kill a five-year-old girl, despising himself, but eventually giving in (although Edward kills him before he harms the girl). It mirrors Edward's internal struggle in such a disturbing way that I can only assume that Meyer intended it, but it's a bizarre choice for a romantic lead. Then again, Edward's behaviour was always coercive; some advocacy groups even use the books as a teaching tool for recognising the signs of an abusive relationship. The 13 years Meyer has spent on Midnight Sun have clearly weighed her down. "Every single word was a struggle," she says in a New York Times interview. "Writing him made me more anxious, and that's one of the reasons it was hard to be in that story. His anxiety combined with mine was potent." Perhaps (metaphorically) exorcising Edward is something she needed to do to move on. And if she produces something better and fresher next time, maybe these 756 pages of self-flagellation and quasi-Catholic guilt will have been worth it. But somehow, I doubt it. I can only hope that we leave the 'stalking as an expression of true love' trope back in 2008, where it belongs. Adamawa State House of Assembly has granted the approval of N550 million Agricultural loan to Gov Ahmadu Fintiri. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the loan was to enable the state government procured 5,000 metric tons of NPK fertiliser for the 2020 farming season. The approval followed a letter sent to the house by the governor, read and considered at the special plenary session summoned by the Speaker of the House, Alhaji Aminu Abbas on Friday in Yola. The house considered the letter following a motion by Majority leader, Hammantukur Yetisuri, member representing Jada Mbulo and seconded by Muhammed Mutawali, member from Girei. Advertisement The governor, in the letter, explained that the State Executive Council at its 8th meeting held on June 24, 2020 ratified the approval by the governor to the ministry of agriculture for the procurement of the fertiliser. According to the governor, the sum of N450 million naira out of the total amount would be used for procurement of 5,000 metric tons of NPK 20-10-10. He said that the money would be paid through Irrevocable Standing Payment Order (ISPO). Fintiri said that the remaining N100 million would be used for logistics to the ministry of agriculture and urged the house to approve it. After long deliberations on the letter by the lawmakers, Abdullahi Yapak and Kate Mamuno of Verre and Demsa constituencies, moved and seconded the approval of the letter to enable government procured and provide the fertiliser for farmers in time. The speaker, therefore, directed the Clerk to communicate the resolution of the house to the executive. An array of provinces provide potential buyers with unlimited beauty Under the current legal framework of the Law on Housing 2014, while foreign buyers are now permitted to own residential property in Vietnam only, they cannot buy other property types such as second homes or holiday properties, despite the high demand shown for it. Vietnam is one of few countries in the region which have not yet permitted this type of purchase. Others such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand have been providing incentives to woo foreign buyers for such property types. The main reason for this, according to DKRA Vietnams research and development director Nguyen Hoang, was because non-national involvement in the purchase of some projects could impact national security. The Ministry of Construction (MoC) however believes that the proposal would become one of several long-term solutions that could reduce the stockpile in the holiday market while the domestic investment capital flow is limited. Hoang from DKRA said if this proposal is approved, it could be an active solution to push up the vacation property segment in Vietnam with many added benefits such as diversifying demand for the market and attracting more investment from foreign individuals. Apart from that, if the government permits foreign buyers to own such property in Vietnam, developers will be forced to improve themselves in terms of transparency and more effective operation and management, in order to meet the strict requirements from international owners. The United Nations World Tourism Organization last year recognised Vietnam as one of the worlds 20 fastest-growing travel destinations. Pre-pandemic, Vietnam welcomed approximately two million foreign visitors in the month of January alone. According to Michael Piro, COO of Indochina Capital, Vietnam is also continuing to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) despite the turmoil in June alone, FDI attraction grew 3.1 per cent on-year. This has led to a significant increase in interest from property buyers from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong markets that are top foreign investors and key tourism source markets for Vietnam, said Piro. Other advantages to lure overseas buyers into Vietnam include attractive and competitive land prices, while rental yields remain high. Average rental yield for high-end, luxury condominiums in Ho Chi Minh City is twice as high as that in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and about 2.5 percentage points higher than in Bangkok. Buyers have a plethora of choice in terms of location for their second homes in Vietnam, with stunning landscapes, vibrant cuisine, and hospitable populations making the country a perfect destination for such a venture. Allowing foreign investors to enter the hospitality market can help boost the quality of offerings, which will increase funding in tourism infrastructure and improve investor returns, Piro said. He added that Indochinas experience in developing branded residences as second homes in many provinces has shown that motivated buyers are willing to invest through long-term lease contracts, if they cannot acquire land use rights certificates. Thailand successfully increased the number of returning visitors by raising foreign home ownership levels, and Piro believes Vietnam can trigger a similar effect by easing regulations to allow investors to own hospitality products such as condotels and villas, which would act as their holiday or second homes. To prevent threats to national security due to control over large land areas, interventions such as imposing a minimum value on the price of hospitality properties can be set to avoid foreign dominance in the affordable segment, and require all foreign-owned properties to be leased back into a mandatory rental pool managed by the operator, he added. Akin to residential products, foreign ownership of hospitality property can be kept limited to projects from experienced developers. Figures from the Vietnam National Real Estate Association show that holiday and second home properties have been developing strongly over the last five years. The whole market is estimated at $23 billion capital value with hundreds of thousands of products with more than 82,000 tourism apartments, 28,000 villas, and more than 15,000 townhouses. The Charlottesville Police Departments use of what it calls investigative detentions was at an all-time low in June after reaching a six-month high in May. The coronavirus pandemic doesnt seem to have had much overall impact on the departments use of the practice, commonly called stop-and-frisk, although it is changing the neighborhood encounters. Black people remain far more likely to encounter an officer in the city than white people based on their percentage of the population, which is about 17%. Since the data was first presented in September 2018, at least 1,039 people have been stopped across 814 encounters. Of those 564, or 54% were black, and 467, or 45%, were white. Since then, police have conducted 453 arrests, of which 224 were white people, 224 were Black and five were Asian. The number of encounters could be higher because, before December, the information didnt factor in people who were stopped more than once. The public data presented for the past three months does not indicate that anyone was stopped more than once. Between April and June, police stopped an average of 36 people in 26 encounters per month, both the lowest numbers over a three-month period since data was first reported. Police arrested an average of 15 people per month. While the numbers are trending downward, the rate of decline is much sharper for white people than Black people. The number of Black people stopped per month is down 27%, as is the number of Black people arrested. In comparison, police are stopping white people 53% less than September 2018 and arresting them 53% less. The average number of people stopped per month is down 42% and the number of arrests are down 43%. Between April and June, officers stopped a total of 108 people in 80 encounters, both low marks compared to other three-month periods. Of the people stopped, 68 were Black and 40 were white. Forty-seven people were arrested, of whom 27 were Black and 20 were white. Rose Hill Drive saw the most stops over the three months with 14, followed by Ridge Street with eight and 29 North with six. The Corner, which usually sees some of the most encounters, only had one stop. The decline is likely because University of Virginia students were sent home before the school year ended and have yet to fully return to the city. Black people were stopped the most at Westhaven and Rose Hill Drive, which both saw nine stops, followed by 29 North with six. White people were stopped the most downtown with seven encounters followed by Rose Hill with five and Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital with four. Overall, 129 people have been stopped in Belmont, 96 in downtown and 86 on The Corner. Black people have been stopped 62 times in Belmont and 37 each around Ridge Street and Fifeville. White people have been stopped 66 times in Belmont, 62 downtown and 58 times on The Corner. As the coronavirus pandemic continues, it is not drastically changing the departments use of stop and frisk. Department spokesman Tyler Hawn said that officers are using personal protective equipment during investigative detentions and the Emergency Communications Center is asking screening questions during calls. Officers are also decontaminating procedures after any close contact and sanitizing vehicles before and after their shifts. As of Friday, data during the pandemic was only available for March, April, May and June. The pandemic took hold in mid-March but, other than June, the department data is largely in line with other months. May saw 45 people stopped, of whom 30 were Black, the most in each category since December. June was by-far the lowest use of investigative detentions with 24 people stopped in 22 encounters. Fourteen of the people stopped were white and 11 were Black. Officers arrested 11 people, of whom seven were white and four were Black. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Queen sent her well wishes to Princess Beatrice as she turns 32 today, and her sister Eugeine shared a never-before-seen picture taken of the pair before her sister's wedding on July 17. Taking to Instagram, the official Royal Family account shared an adorable photo from when the Princess joined Her Majesty at a Maundy Thursday Service at York Minster on April 5, 2012, as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Alongside the snap, which shows Beatrice admiring a bouquet of colourful flowers while the smiling monarch looks on, the caption reads: Wishing Princess Beatrice a very Happy Birthday! Her Royal Highness is The Queen's 5th grandchild.' Meanwhile, Princess Eugine - Beatrice's sister - also shared a happy snap of the pair to wish Beatrice well on her birthday, which was taken just before her wedding to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi last month. 'Happy happy Birthday dear Beabea,' Eugine wrote in the caption. 'Here we are on the eve of your wedding. Still rocking a scrunchie or hair accessory (since the 90s) and huge smiles on our faces.' Princess Beatrice's mother, Sarah Ferguson, also posted a sweet throwback of her daughter picking some fresh pink flowers from a garden and gushed: 'Happy Happy Birthday My Dearest Beatrice. 8.8.88 at 8.18pm was one of the greatest and most proud moments of my life. You are unique and simply one of the most special people on this planet. Your ever loving and devoted Mum.' The Queen led tributes to her granddaughter Beatrice on her 32nd birthday today. The Royal Family Instagram account shared a post of the monarch and the princess together as they leave the traditional Royal Maundy Service at York Minster on April 5, 2012 Alongside the photo, the caption read: 'Wishing Princess Beatrice a very Happy Birthday! Her Royal Highness is The Queen's 5th grandchild' (pictured) Princess Eugine - Beatrice's sister - also shared a happy snap of the pair to wish Beatrice well on her birthday, which was taken the day before her wedding The caption read: 'Happy happy Birthday dear Beabea. Here we are on the eve of your wedding. Still rocking a scrunchie or hair accessory (since the 90s) and huge smiles on our faces.' Sarah Ferguson has taken to Instagram and shared a sweet throwback snap of her daughter to mark her 32nd birthday today (pictured) In the caption, the Duchess of York branded Princess Beatrice 'unique' and 'one of the most special people on the planet' (pictured) The celebrations come just weeks after the princess, who is ninth-in-line for the throne, tied the knot to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, in the grounds of Royal Lodge, in Windsor Great Park. Royals fans from across the globe were quick to take to the comments section to praise the photo and to send their birthday wishes to the Princess. 'A beautiful photograph of The Monarch & The Princess. Granny & Grand daughter,' wrote one, while a second penned: 'Happy birthday, a wonderful photo yet again.' A third agreed: Happy birthday Princess Beatrice! What a beautiful post,' while a fourth added: Happy birthday and have a great day.' The celebrations come just weeks after the princess, who is ninth-in-line for the throne, tied the knot to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi (pictured, together), at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, in the grounds of Royal Lodge, in Windsor Great Park Royal fans from across the globe were quick to take to the comments section to send their birthday wishes to Princess Beatrice (pictured) Beatrice married on Friday 17th July wearing both a tiara and vintage dress generously lent to her by her grandmother. The wedding bridged three Royal generations with Princess Beatrice becoming a stepmother to Edo's son Wolfie, four, who acted as both best man and page boy alongside his two young cousins. Beatrice's sister Eugenie, 30, was maid of honour. A small party was held afterwards at Royal Lodge, Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York's Windsor home, with many of the 20 guests staying overnight some in glamping pods outdoors. The photographs were released the following day to ensure that they did not overshadow the ceremony to confer a knighthood on Captain Tom Moore, the former Army officer who raised 33 million for charity in a sponsored walk leading up to his 100th birthday in April. Blood donation appeal from Lazio Region as people prepare to go on summer holidays. The Lazio Region, which includes Rome, has launched an appeal for people to donate blood before they go on vacation. "It is a gesture of generosity towards others and donors will receive the serological test [for detection of covid-19] for free," said the regional health councillor Alessio D'Amato. For details of how to give blood see Lazio Region website. More than 10,000 people have died from coronavirus in South Africa since the pandemic arrived in the country in March, the health ministry said. The continent's most industrialised economy has registered 553,188 infections, more than half of the continental caseload, and the fifth-biggest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. Minister Zweli Mkhize said in his daily update statement that 301 new virus-related deaths had been recorded. "This means we have breached the 10,000 mark, with 10,210 cumulative deaths now recorded," he said. Source: Aljazeera Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 23:05:07|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. - - - - KUWAIT CITY -- Kuwait on Saturday reported 472 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 71,199 and the death toll to 474, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Currently, 7,919 patients are receiving treatment, including 125 in ICU, the statement added. The ministry also announced the recovery of 476 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 62,806. - - - - HANOI -- Vietnam reported a total of 26 new cases of COVID-19 infection on Saturday, bringing its total confirmed cases to 810 with 10 deaths from the disease so far, according to its Ministry of Health. Three cases have recently entered Vietnam from abroad and were quarantined upon arrival while the rest were recorded domestically, said the ministry. - - - - LUSAKA -- Zambia's COVID-19 cases reached 7,903 as the country continued to see a surge in cases, its health ministry said on Saturday. The country recorded 416 new cases in the last 24 hours from 1,003 tests conducted, according to Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya. Speaking during a daily COVID-19 update, the health minister said the country also recorded three more deaths during the last 24 hours, bringing the total deaths to 203 while six patients were discharged, bringing total recoveries to 6,431. - - - - TAIPEI -- Two people tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan Saturday, raising the island's total number of COVID-19 cases to 479, the local epidemic monitoring agency said. The new patients, a couple, both developed fever, cough and running noses in the Philippines but did not go to the hospital there, the agency said in a press release. - - - - TRIPOLI -- The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Saturday announced 200 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country so far to 5,079. Eight new recovered cases and one new death were reported, bringing the total recoveries to 660 and death toll to 108, the center said in a statement. - - - - HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection reported 69 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong above 4,000. The newly reported cases, including two imported cases and 67 local infections, brought Hong Kong's total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 4,007. Enditem The fire at the Campbellfield address started about 4.30am on Sunday, Fire Rescue Victoria said in a statement. More than 60 firefighters have contained a fire at a factory in Melbourne's north that startled nearby residents, with loud bangs heard coming from the site. The blaze has since been contained by fire crews and has been brought under control. Smoke from the fire has been billowing into the air and is being blown towards nearby homes by winds to the south-west. Craigieburn resident Kaz Abdulrahman said the crackling sounds and explosions caused by the fire were enough to wake most of the area, followed by almost 45 minutes of continuous sirens as fire trucks rushed to the scene of the blaze. "I woke up about four-thirty and it sounded like something was going off," he said. "It was a phenomenal amount of smoke, I've never seen anything give off that much smoke," he said. What I can see happening in London and in Colombo within years is a progressive migration out of these capital cities, to outlying towns, as staff and workers will no longer need to live there for work purposes. by Victor Cherubim The beauty of the English language is the fact that to keep pace with the idiom, we must be adept with its vocabulary. Need I say, we in Sri Lanka think of the Queens English, as if it was set in stone. There is the evolutionary aspect of its spoken and written word. Other than malapropisms, there is the continued change in the usage, or the way words and expressions are scribed or in fact spoken. What exactly is the big deal of the way English is written and spoken? Many of you can teach me Twitter or connect in LinkedIn or even Tik ToK But how many of you know the latest use of anagrams like WFH (Work from Home), TTI (Test, Trace, Isolate) or WTGIF (Way to get in front) or LM (Lead Magnet). Jobs, jobs, jobs The issue today as far as the use of the language for jobs search, you need to be conversant how English is used on social media platforms and is interpreted and read by AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the jobs market We hear of so many Apps in the market to apply for jobs. You need to attract, connect, and really sell your CV to your prospective employer(s). The days of sending your CV with all your educational qualifications, experience, skill sets, and references is long gone. Today you need a Lead Magnet to entice your prospective employer to target you and pick you for the vacancy on offer. We hear of many hundreds of applicants searching for one job. You must convince the technology that you are the most suitable candidate for the post hardly advertised, but you have researched, and which is on offer. Competition is so great with employer selection procedures that AI matches you instead of the human Personnel Manager, who you had to convince in the past of your ability and capability. Savvy with modern ways of recruitment There is a significant overlap between workers who are vulnerable to lose their jobs in the forthcoming global recession and those who are likely to do so in future due to technology like AI and automation. What I think happened when I came to Britain over 50 years ago and what is happening in the workplace today can hardly be considered similar? I started work at 8.30 am and worked till 4.45 pm in a Shipping Office, then at 5 p.m. I attended Lyons Tea Shop and progressed or rather was promoted from Attendant to Chief Cook until 7.30 p.m. I then attended City of London College at 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.to continue studying for my Shipbrokers professional qualification. It was an experience I never forgot. No doubt, I was tired, but I enjoyed the flexibility of work. The Future of Work Everyone wanting a job today must be ready and prepared for the future of work. The impact on people as workers, and place of work, or offices has moved from a distant hypothetical, to a very immediate priority. We are warned that the GDP in the UK will fall by a conservative figure of 9 % in 2020. This translates to about 7.6 million people (workers) are under threat of being laid off, remaining in furlough, which option is highly unlikely as the Chancellor of Exchequer has stated it will end on 31 October 2020, or more likely having their hours and pay cut. The risks are high impact on workers with the lowest incomes. In fact, nearly 50% of all at risk jobs, are in occupations earning less than 10 per hour, mainly found in already hard-hit sectors of the economy, such as hospitality, retail and construction. If we look beyond COVID-19, researchers suggest that the future of work, particularly for women and for a variety of different skills and talent categories, patterns of recruitment may become even more divergent in the future. We note, of course, the future of work is not taking place right here and now, but is bound to anticipate or happen in the months and the year ahead Those most at risk of job loss? Most affected as per research, are those who will be in jobs prone to automation, particularly, white collar jobs, particularly, at entry level. Some other researchers maintain they are seeing businesses collapsing across a range of industries every day, which means people are losing their jobs at all levels, and that is not linked to technological advancement. What can we see as some of the trends in the workplace in Sri Lanka? We can anticipate some aspects of COVID 19 and other aspects of technological advancement, both to accelerate in Sri Lanka. Perhaps, like in UK there could be the influx of contract workers, but not as bad as the hire and fire work practices in the West. One thing we may anticipate is work whenever, wherever, and however you want, taking shape. Of course, this affords flexibility, but many will find it hard to manage their time, and indeed their individual freedoms. Thus, time management and money management will become important. Most at risk is the amount and size of the so called, office, with the long-term strategy being the location of the office. What I can see happening in London and in Colombo within years is a progressive migration out of these capital cities, to outlying towns, as staff and workers will no longer need to live there for work purposes. People are already adjusting to remote working. Another way of adjustment is the idea of variable workforce, a mix of permanent, part-time, and contingency workers to tackle job projects, causing a redesign of jobs soon. In 2010, the late Barnaby Jack, a world-renowned security researcher, hacked an ATM live onstage at the Black Hat conference by tricking the cash dispenser into spitting out a stream of dollar bills. The technique was appropriately named "jackpotting." A decade on from Jack's blockbuster demo, security researchers are presenting two new vulnerabilities in Nautilus ATMs, albeit virtually, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Security researchers Brenda So and Trey Keown at New York-based security firm Red Balloon say their pair of vulnerabilities allowed them to trick a popular standalone retail ATM, commonly found in stores rather than at banks, into dispensing cash at their command. A hacker would need to be on the same network as the ATM, making it more difficult to launch a successful jackpotting attack. But their findings highlight that ATMs often have vulnerabilities that lie dormant for years in some cases since they were first built. Barnaby Jack, the late security researcher credited with the first ATM "jackpotting" attacks. Now, 10 years later, two security researchers have found two new ATM cash-spitting attacks. Credit: YouTube So and Keown said their new vulnerabilities target the Nautilus ATM's underlying software, a decade-old version of Windows that is no longer supported by Microsoft . To begin with, the pair bought an ATM to examine. But with little documentation, the duo had to reverse-engineer the software inside to understand how it worked. The first vulnerability was found in a software layer known as XFS or Extensions for Financial Services which the ATM uses to talk to its various hardware components, such as the card reader and the cash dispensing unit. The bug wasn't in XFS itself, rather in how the ATM manufacturer implemented the software layer into its ATMs. The researchers found that sending a specially crafted malicious request over the network could effectively trigger the ATM's cash dispenser and dump the cash inside, Keown told TechCrunch. Story continues The second vulnerability was found in the ATM's remote management software, an in-built tool that lets owners manage their fleet of ATMs by updating the software and checking how much cash is left. Triggering the bug would grant a hacker access to a vulnerable ATM's settings. So told TechCrunch it was possible to switch the ATM's payment processor with a malicious, hacker-controlled server to siphon off banking data. "By pointing an ATM to a malicious server, we can extract credit card numbers," she said. Bloomberg first reported the vulnerabilities last year when the researchers privately reported their findings to Nautilus. About 80,000 Nautilus ATMs in the U.S. were vulnerable prior to the fix, Bloomberg reported. A Nautilus spokesperson would not confirm the figure. Successful jackpotting attacks are rare but not unheard of. In recent years, hackers have used a number of techniques. In 2017, an active jackpotting group was discovered operating across Europe, netting millions of euros in cash. More recently, hackers have stolen proprietary software from ATM manufacturers to build their own jackpotting tools. Send tips securely over Signal and WhatsApp to +1 646-755-8849 or send an encrypted email to: zack.whittaker@protonmail.com The moment hit Barbara Henry around 3 p.m. Thursday in the small town of Roxbury, where shes been first selectman for 22 years. Enough was enough. No crews in two days. No crews anywhere in the Litchfield County hill towns as far as she could tell. Shed tried to get a straight answer, or any answer, from the Eversource liaison assigned to Roxbury. Nothing. Then, 48 hours after the storm knocked her town out of power she knows of only four houses with juice word came that Roxbury wasnt even on a restoration work schedule. Thats when I lost it, Henry recounted to me Thursday night. It didnt help that the town hall generator was about to give out. She summoned Bill Cario, the only town police office on duty. On a suggestion from Bernie Meehan, the civil preparedness director, Henry dispatched Cario to the Eversource work station in Hawleyville, a section of Newtown. Rumor had it there were idle crews there. I said, Go and handcuff somebody and bring him back here, Henry said. Cario looked at her funny. I said, Im absolutely serious. Cario trekked to Hawleyville, cajoled employees and returned with one Eversource crewman in a bucket truck, no handcuffs needed. The lineman worked on a cell tower for an hour, then declared his shift was over, Henry said. If you think shell sit back quietly going forward, think again. Under her direction she swears shes not proud of this an outside contractor working for the town cleared trees that were still entangled with downed wires. Downed wires that Eversource had not come around and declared safe to move. Brave? Stupid? If it wasnt for COVID Id give him a huge hug, he was incredible, Henry said, adding that contractors and the 5-person town road crew with no help from Eversource reopened every road in Roxbury, including two state roads, all of them blocked by Isaias Tuesday afternoon. This is a picture of chaos. And although Roxbury may be isolated, the chaos most certainly is not. With nearly 600,000 Connecticut customers still in hot, sticky darkness, down from nearly 1 million at the peak, most of them belonging to Eversource, the company has once again botched a storm. Botching an easy forecast Theres necessary chaos and theres needless chaos. Necessary chaos is the shutting down of a whole economy to beat back a pandemic. There was no clean way to do it but it had to happen and yes, the COVID-19 shutdowns have created havoc and uprooted lives. Needless chaos is a super-regional monopoly electric utility with $8.5 billion in annual revenue failing to manage a restoration after failing to predict a storm path when everyone else got it right. How much chaos? On a scale of 1 to 10, Id say its an 11, said Joe DeLong, head of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, whos not typically given to overstatement. Wasnt Eversource the victim of fickle, unknowable Mother Nature? Nope, said Bill Jacquemin, meteorologist at the Connecticut Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. It was no mystery that Isaias was headed up the Eastern Seaboard just west of New York City, leaving Connecticut on the more severe, windward side of the storm with heavy rain squalls and a high danger of tornadoes. It wasnt difficult at all. The models were really coming together, Jacquemin said. Over the years there have been some that were just crazy difficult. This wasnt one of them. So forget the old you cant predict a hurricane excuse. Besides, Jacquemin said, with few springtime storms, a dry summer and the air full of particles from the trade winds enabling more condensation, we were ripe for serious tree damage in this storm. Eversource, in documents filed with the state Monday after all that forecasting was clear predicted outages of 125,000 to 380,000, and instead sustained more than 800,000. United Illuminating, with a more urban, less tree-heavy territory along the shore, where flooding wasnt a big threat, correctly predicted a lesser hit for its territory. Craig Hallstrom, Eversources president of regional operations, contends Isaias was tough to predict. This storm kind of wiggled its way up the coast, he said Thursday in Cheshire, in comments reported by my colleague, Luther Turmelle. We have two different weather services, including one from UConn. He said UConn updated its original prediction. Live wire or not-live? That blown forecast, in any case, might have led to the Eversource failure to line up enough restoration help until the weekend after a Tuesday storm; we dont know yet. What we do know is that the companys reporting system for outages failed under pressure Tuesday. And despite a history of doing so, Eversource this time around has failed to send around people who can quickly determine wires are not live, so state, town and private crews can do their jobs. Dozens of city and town leaders, Henry included, gave executives at Eversource and United Illuminating which has outperformed its larger peer but still drawn criticism an earful late Thursday in a call arranged by Gov. Ned Lamont. Many said the utilities in the past were faster to identify downed wires as live or not-live. That was a huge, huge area of frustration, DeLong said, recounting the Thursday phone meeting. We could do so much if you would just send one person for a few hours and say, This lines active, this one isnt. Thats what led Henry to take matters into her own hands in Roxbury. As she sees it, this was the tradeoff: The lines appeared dead, and she had residents trapped. What if someone needed an ambulance? Lamont, earlier Thursday, toured one such problem area in West Hartford. A fallen tree entangled with power lines fully blocked a residential street. The governor came upon a circle of portable chairs opened in the street, near the downed tree and lines. Hey, is this your party? Lamont said to Kerry Kato, in the driveway right there. Im just kidding. After a few minutes of Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, neighborhood kids and the media gaggle hanging around, some right under the tree, West Hartford Fire Chief Greg Priest had had enough. He ordered everyone, governor included, to move farther from those dangling lines which Eversource had not yet declared safe. Later, after apologizing to the governor, Priest told Town Manager Matt Hart, Were going to have to send some people out to the neighborhoods to keep residents away from danger. A perfect gentleman Hart, like Henry in Roxbury and so many other town leaders across the state, said he was unhappy with the small number of crews in West Hartford one tree crew late Wednesday, not much more on Thursday, for 13,000 customers in the dark but he was satisfied with the towns Eversource liaison, whose territory also includes Hartford and Rocky Hill. The network of outreach managers mushroomed after the state and municipalities identified communication as a crushing weakness of Eversource then Northeast Utilities in the 2011 storms, especially the Halloween Noreaster snowstorm. He is a perfect gentleman, Henry said of the guy assigned to her town. But you know what? Theyre not giving him any information to give us. Thats the problem as we enter the weekend: no clear schedules or time estimates for restoring power, especially in the small towns. Hallstrom said Eversource will have 1,200 crews on the ground by Friday, up from 450 Wednesday. Were really starting to ramp up, he said. We try to work very closely with the communities, see what their priorities are. In Roxbury, with a post office and one general store, now closed, Henry calls the situation a total failure, and blames Eversource management. The chaos in Connecticut unfolds as coronavirus, for all its evils, has delivered an influx of even more than the usual number of New Yorkers to Litchfield County. Theyre talking about going back, Henry said, because theyve got to work from home. dhaar@hearstmediact.com Florida Representative Shevrin Jones, who survived COVID-19, said he was turned away from donating plasma at a blood bank on Friday because he is gay. Jones, the first openly gay and LGBTQ Black person elected to the Florida Legislature, said he decided to donate his antibody-rich plasma after his own battle with the coronavirus. His desire to do so was amplified after learning his fifth-grade teacher was on a ventilator because of the disease. It stings, Jones said. It stings pretty bad. As a means to try stopping the transmission of HIV starting in 1985, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a recommendation that men who had sex with other men dating as far back as 1977 should not be permitted to donate blood or plasma. In 2015, the language was changed, allowing gay men to donate if they have abstained from sex with other men for one year. In early April, because of the nations dire need for blood and plasma due to the coronavirus pandemic, the rules were further relaxed to a three-month abstinence period. Jones and his brother Derrick went to One Bloods mobile blood donation bus which was parked and their fathers church in Pembroke Park. Shevrin Jones said his blood pressure was taken and his iron level was tested. When everything checked out OK, Jones said he was handed a tablet with 40 questions to answer. It was somewhere midway through that Jones came across the first question regarding his sexuality. Then again at the very end was another question regarding sex. A worker, he said, went over his answers with him and when they got to the end, he said he was told he was being deferred for three months, with no mention of an abstinence requirement. A call to One Blood Friday night was answered by voicemail. Jones said he last gave blood about three years ago and said he doesnt recall any questions about his sexuality at the time. He said he was aware of the dire need and heard that the restrictions changed, so he figured he was good to go Friday. Story continues You think about the time we are in. We are in a real critical time, Jones said. Its 2020 and we are still following these antiquated rules that members of the LGBTQ Plus community cannot participate in the donation of blood or plasma in this case rich in antibodies to save a persons life. Jones first became ill on June 26. Five days later, he learned he had COVID-19. The next two weeks he was all over the place like a yo-yo, he said. Some days hed feel fine and other days were just awful, he said. He said at times his body temperature was 103 and he had trouble breathing. Twice he went to the emergency room. But, Jones soldiered through the misery. After learning about his teacher, his immediate thought was to help her. Hes healthy now, hes in good shape and works out, his blood work has come back negative for the disease, he said. And lo and behold, its not possible to help, he said. Jones said Monday he intends to call One Blood as well as his congressional colleagues. He said hed also like to speak with U.S. Senator Marco Rubio. Eileen Kelley can be reached at 772-925-9193 or ekelley@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @reporterkell. 2020 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Free senior high school education is here to stay, the flag bearer of the biggest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr John Mahama, has said. The former President says he has no intentions of scrapping the free SHS policy as being peddled by his opponents. What he intends to do, he explained, is to fix the problems that have bedevilled its implementation. Free SHS has come to stay, Mr Mahama told people in the Northern Region where he is touring. If anyone comes to you that I, John Mahama, the son of E.A. Mahama, is going to cancel free SHS, tell that person he or she is a bloody liar, he said. What I am against is the poor implementation that has put a lot of burden of parents, Mr Mahama explained. What the next NDC government will only do is to improve on its implementation. We will ensure that we put up more infrastructure to accommodate all the students and abolish the double-track system so that they can all go to school at the same time, he added. The free SHS policy was a major campaign promise by President Nana Akufo-Addo ahead of the 2016 elections. He had it implemented in 2017, the first year of his first four-year term. Source: classfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Whither justice, Mother Lanka? View(s): The ideal of a good judge originates from the ancient goddesses of justice, who were personification of the moral force in judicial systems. The Roman goddess Justitia (Lady Justice) symbolised perfect justice, which was expected to be pursued by human judges as well. Their female character was due to the high rank of women in ancient society. By the end of the medieval period, independent professional judges with real legal knowledge had been appointed in England. These good and loyal men had slowly come to keep almost entirely away from politics and steadily gained popularity. In the meantime, all judges, even professional ones had been required to possess seven moral qualities: wisdom, humility, fear of God, hatred of money, love of truth, amiability, and good reputation. In modern times, the greatest strength of the judiciary is the faith of the people in it. Faith, confidence and acceptability cannot be demanded, they have to be earned. And that can be done only by developing the inner strength of morality and ethics. Judicial virtues must therefore be identified, developed and practised. Judicial independence and impartiality are the most important sources of legitimacy and authority for judges and consequently, of public trust in judicial institutions. With the expansion of the domain of judicial power, they have even acquired more importance than in the past. These attributes are sine qua non for justice. But do we have it? Recently, I enquired from a lawyer the possibility of court action in public interest in regard to violation of peoples rights by the government. The answer I got was, Courts? Tassie are you dreaming. Such is the disdain in which our judicial system is held today. This was too much for me to contain and I mentioned it to Dr. Frank de Silva, a former Inspector General of Police, who has written widely on the prevailing justice system. He confirmed it saying, It is a reality, and we have to live with it. A highly regarded law academic, Prof. Savithri Gunasekere, was openly critical recently of the Supreme Court for not giving reasons for its order in an important public interest litigation. Her article received wide publicity in the media. There are financial ramifications that pave the way for these injustices: Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has only a nominal role in justice. Private Interest Litigation dominates the scope of justice. The difference is clear. The reason that that the latter, the private cases, prevail over the public interest is apparent. The grounds for the divergence echo lucrative considerations. PIL can muster very little financial commitment whereas private cases command money and resources even at astronomical levels. The disparity tells on the quality of justice and as the senior lawyer put it, Courts? Tassie are you dreaming and another said that it is a reality, we have to live with it. The divergence from the core point of justice, in these two directions, is the critical fact of current experience. And this is of recent incidence, about three or four decades, which was hardly the case in the hundred or more years previously. The problem is in the fact that market economy and values have now intruded governance, and includes the judiciary, the legislature and the executive, where matters can be bought and sold in the order of exchange. PIL is then sold out in the justice process while other litigation looms large in the whole sphere. PIL cases are relegated to postponements sine die crowded out by the more affluent. The question is: Do we really have to live with the prevailing injustice? Have there not been similar periods elsewhere, say in France, during the French Revolution? Judges and the nobility they protect, better beware of the storming of the Bastille Fortress and the guillotine. (The writer is a Retired Senior Superintendent of Police. He can be contacted at seneviratnetz@gmail.com) Shirley Doyen was exhausted. The Christalain nursing home, which she ran with her brother in an affluent neighborhood in Brussels, was buckling from Covid-19. Eight residents had died in three weeks. Some staff members had only gowns and goggles from Halloween doctor costumes for protection. Nor was help coming. Doyen had begged hospitals to collect her infected residents. They refused. Sometimes she was told to administer morphine and let death come. Once she was told to pray. Then, in the early morning of April 10, it all got worse. First, a resident died at 1:20 a.m. Three hours later, another died. At 5:30 a.m., still another. The night nurse had long since given up calling ambulances. Doyen arrived after dawn and discovered Addolorata Balducci, 89, in distress from Covid-19. Balduccis son, Franco Pacchioli, demanded that paramedics be called and begged them to take his mother to the hospital. Instead, they gave her morphine. Your mother will die, the paramedics responded, Pacchioli recalled. Thats it. The paramedics left. Eight hours later, Balducci died. Runaway coronavirus infections, medical gear shortages and government inattention are woefully familiar stories in nursing homes around the globe. But Belgiums response offers a gruesome twist: Paramedics and hospitals sometimes flatly denied care to elderly people, even as hospital beds sat unused. Weeks earlier, the virus had overwhelmed hospitals in Italy. Determined to prevent that from happening in Belgium, the authorities shunned and all but ignored nursing homes. But while Italian doctors said they were forced to ration care to the elderly because of shortages of space and equipment, Belgiums hospital system never came under similar strain. Even at the height of the outbreak in April, when Balducci was turned away, intensive-care beds were no more than about 55% full. They wouldnt accept old people, Doyen said. They had space, and they didnt want them. Belgian officials say denying care for the elderly was never their policy. But in the absence of a national strategy, and with regional officials bickering about who was in charge, officials now acknowledge that some hospitals and emergency responders relied on vague advice and guidelines to do just that. The situation was so dire that the charity Doctors Without Borders, known in French as Medecins Sans Frontieres, dispatched teams of experts more accustomed to working in war-hardened countries. On March 25, when a team arrived at Val des Fleurs, a public nursing home a few miles from European Union headquarters, they were greeted by the stale smell of disinfectant and an eerie stillness, pierced only by the song of a caged canary. Seventeen people had died there in the past 10 days. There was no protective equipment. Oxygen was running low. Half the staff was infected. Others showed signs of trauma common in disaster zones, a psychologist from the medical charity concluded. The director and her deputy were sick with Covid-19, and the acting chief collapsed in a chair, crying, as soon as the team met her. I never thought I would work with MSF in my own country. Thats crazy. We are a rich country, said Marine Tondeur, a Belgian nurse who has worked in South Sudan and Haiti. Tondeur was horrified at her countrys response. I feel a bit ashamed, actually, that we forgot those homes. Test, Return, Infect Belgium went into lockdown on March 18. Dozens of nursing-home residents had already died. Three days later, Jacqueline Van Peteghem, a 91-year-old resident at the Christalain home, was sent to UZ Brussel, a nearby hospital, where she was tested for Covid-19. Within days, her test came back positive. The Doyens assumed Van Peteghem would remain hospitalized for treatment and to prevent the disease from spreading to scores of other residents. But her symptoms had stabilized, and Steve Doyen, Christalains co-owner, said that a hospital doctor declared her healthy enough to return home. So, on March 27, paramedics in hazmat suits delivered Van Peteghem, on a stretcher, to the door of Christalain. Steve Doyen greeted them wearing a surgical mask. Is this mask all you have? the paramedics asked, he recalled. Yes, he said. Good luck, they responded. No one can be certain if Van Peteghems return was the reason, but Covid-19 infections in the home increased. Residents began dying. Van Peteghem, who initially survived the virus, died last month. By late March and early April, hospitals quietly stopped taking infected patients from nursing homes. The policy officially it was just advice took shape in a series of memos from Belgian geriatric specialists. Unnecessary transfers are a risk for ambulance workers and emergency rooms, read an early memo, signed by the Belgian Society for Gerontology and Geriatrics and two major hospitals. The gerontology society says that its advice drafted in case of an overwhelmed hospital system was misunderstood. The society is not a government agency, doctors there note, and it never intended to deny hospital care for the elderly. But that is what happened. It is impossible to know how many deaths were preventable. But hospitals always had space. Even at the peak of the pandemic, 1,100 of the nations 2,400 intensive care beds were free, according to Niel Hens, a government adviser and University of Antwerp professor. Maggie De Block, Belgiums national health minister, declined to be interviewed and did not respond to written questions. In interviews, senior hospital doctors defended their policies. They said that nursing-home staff sought hospital care for terminally ill patients who needed to be comforted into death, not dragged to the hospital. If nursing-home residents were denied admission, they say, it was because a doctor determined that they were unlikely to survive. Nursing-home administrators are adamant that was not the case. At a certain point, there was an implicit age limit, said Marijke Verboven of Orpea group, which owns 60 homes around Belgium. The Doctors Without Borders teams concluded their nursing-home missions in Belgium in mid-June. Some members returned to developing countries. Others now work in another rich nation in crisis: the United States. Today, De Block speaks about the nursing homes as if they were an unfortunate footnote in a story of a successful government response. She notes with pride that Belgium never ran out of hospital beds. We took measures at the right moment, she said in an interview, adding, We can be proud. (Newser) Arizona apparently has had enough of "America's toughest sheriff." Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has lost the Republican primary to regain his old job, reports Reuters. His former chief deputy, Jerry Sheridan, defeated him in a close, three-way race, with Sheridan securing 37% of the vote to Arpaio's 36%. This marks the third loss in four years for the 88-year-old Arpaio, known for his anti-immigration and tough-on-crime policies, notes the New York Times. After losing in 2016 to current Sheriff Paul Penzone, a Democrat, Arpaio lost badly in a run for the Senate in 2018. story continues below "I'm a little shocked losing," Arpaio said, per the Arizona Republic. "This will be the last time I run for office." Sheridan, for his part, praised his former boss and said "he will never be irrelevant." Arpaio was very much in sync with President Trump, and his loss may not bode well for the president in Arizona, per the Times. The state, which Trump carried by 5 points in 2016, is widely seen as up for grabs in this year's election. (Sacha Baron Cohen once duped Arpaio.) New online platform looks to reverse 70% faith dropoff for college freshman Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A new online platform has emerged with the goal of addressing the massive amount of Christian students who leave their faith during college by connecting them with other believers to establish or join Gospel-centered communities wherever they are. The faith-based nonprofit group Campus Renewal has launched an initiative called Every Student Sent. According to the organization, the effort hopes to reverse a trend in which 70% of students abandon their Christian faith after entering college. Every Student Sent replaces the previous platform of Campus Ministry Link, which was founded three years ago with a similar goal. The initiative enables Christian college students to access a database with information about the campus ministries and Christian groups at nearly every school in the country. John Decker, the strategic partnership director for Every Student Sent, told The Christain Post that the platform will enable rising college freshmen to apply to a college ministry. From there, students can join a social group around that ministry. [The] students actually get to meet with each other and work together before they land on campus and work with a campus staff member, Decker said. Therefore, whether the college is virtual or physical this year, they can build a community long before they arrive on campus. Decker believes that it is important to get students involved with campus ministries as early as possible in their college careers because the first 72 hours on a campus often dictate which crowd a student will tag around with. That crowd, he said, will usually define their college spiritual experience. Every Student Sent works to reinforce the vision of Campus Renewal, which is to strengthen the influence of the body of Christ on campus by bringing students, campus ministries, and local churches together in prayer and evangelism. To really grow as a Christian, your faith is cemented when a student actually gets to lead another student to Christ, Decker proclaimed. We have seen that when students for the first time participate in leading their friends to Christ, their faith gets cemented. While the target audience for Every Student Sent is college students, the platform also features special tools for Christian high schools and churches so they can upload all of their students and then check their progress, Decker added. But helping students maintain their faith is not the only mission of Every Student Sent. Its important that students find their correct career and major and calling. We have a growing set of resources to help them with that as well as helping students minimize student debt, he added. When asked what caused the massive dropoff in faith among college students, Decker explained that students are not prepared with the right worldview. They are not prepared for the social pressures that affect a young person, he said. According to Decker, this problem appears to be getting worse, not better. It used to be that 30% of students would come back to their church by the time they were age 30, the strategic partnership director said. But now because culture is becoming less Christian, these students are not coming back to church as much anymore. Every Student Sent hopes to address the lack of preparedness among rising college students through an extensive learning management system that incorporates missional training for students so they are ready for college, he said. In addition, Every Student Sent is working with major ministries and other leaders to develop a library of material to help make students college-ready. Decker is optimistic about the influence that Every Student Sent will have on the youth of the United States. The amount of interest between leaders of all faiths and ministries and denominations is a testament to the fact that Gods bringing unity to youth missions," he said. "And so, this seems like an opportune time for a national awareness so that it becomes normal for every student to prepare and connect for college using Every Student Sent. In January 2019, LifeWay Research released survey data showing that about 66 percent of young adults who attended a Protestant church regularly for at least a year as a teenager dropped out for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22. KYODO NEWS - Aug 8, 2020 - 14:04 | All, World The Mauritius government declared a state of environmental emergency on Friday over a large amount of fuel that leaked into the sea from a stranded Japanese-owned bulk carrier off the country's coast. The wreckage of the Panama-flagged vessel Wakashio "represents a danger for Mauritius," which does not have the skills to refloat stranded ships, said Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth in a Twitter post, accompanied by an aerial photo showing a dark brown swath of oil leaking from a tilted ship spreading in blue turquoise waters. The Indian Ocean island nation has asked for help from France, the prime minister also tweeted. Wakashio was found to have run aground on a coral reef off Mauritius on the night of July 25 local time, according to the Mauritius government. The vessel belongs to Nagashiki Shipping Co. and was operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., a spokesperson of the ship owner in Okayama Prefecture said Friday. The grounding occurred near Pointe d'Esny, an area designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, which is close to Blue Bay Marine Park, another Ramsar site. Tokyo-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said in a statement Friday that Wakashio was en route to Brazil area from China via Singapore when it ran aground. "The fuel oil leaked while a rescue operation was under way on Aug. 6" Japan time, the major shipping company said, confirming the leakage has been "affecting local sea and land areas tremendously." "We will make an all-out effort to resolve the situation early," the statement said. The spokesperson of Nagashiki Shipping said Friday, "In order to reduce the impact on the environment, we have put up booms and commenced recovering the oil." The vessel was carrying around 200 tons of diesel and 3,800 tons of bunker fuel, according to local reports, but it is unknown how much has leaked. The approximately 300-meter-long tanker, built in 2007, was carrying no cargo at the time. All 20 members of the multi-national crew evacuated safely and are unharmed, according to the Japanese companies. Mauritius, with a population of around 1.3 million, is located around 2,000 kilometers east of Mozambique off the southeast coast of Africa. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 18:16:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A medic performs COVID-19 testing at a Chinese-built lab in Baghdad, Iraq on July 29, 2020. (Xinhua) BAGHDAD, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- It is a race against time. Medics are shuffling piles of swab samples waiting for COVID-19 testing in a Chinese-built lab in Iraq. From boosting testing capacities to setting a high standard of testing protocol, the lab has played a critical role in helping the Iraqi Ministry of Health (MOH) battle COVID-19 since its inauguration in Baghdad's Medical City on March 25, lab director Mohammed Ghanim Mahdi said. BUILT AT CRITICAL TIME "The lab was equipped and established by a donation from the Chinese government at a critical time," Mahdi said. "When this lab was established, Iraq had only one working lab fighting COVID-19." Mahdi said the lab has facilitated the Iraqi campaign to fight against COVID-19, especially in the first few weeks of the viral outbreak in Iraq. Iraq has been suffering fragile health systems due to years of conflicts and violence. Before the Chinese-built lab went into operation, the Central Public Health Laboratory in Baghdad was the only place to conduct PCR testing, facing mounting pressure to test samples across the war-torn country. With the help of advanced Chinese equipment and 50,000 diagnostics kits, so far the new lab has tested some 28,000 samples. Approximately 20 percent of them were positive, Mahdi said. "Two or three weeks after beginning testing in the new lab, the MOH initiated plans to add labs. Since that time more and more labs have been brought into service," Mahdi said. However, concerns have been raised as Iraq has become the new epicenter of COVID-19 in the Middle East. On Friday the MOH registered the highest daily increase of 3,461 confirmed cases, the worst in Middle East countries. The tally of infections has reached 144,064 cases. The rise in cases has been blamed on the easing of lockdown regulations by authorities and non-compliance of prevention measures. The epidemic has flared up in some communities. "We still need to increase testing abilities," Mahdi said. "The testing rate needs to be at least five or ten percent of our 40 million population in order to detect more and more cases." A MODEL LAB Besides building the lab, a group of Chinese experts brought technical training and testing protocols to the new facility. The Chinese lab sets a good example as Iraq expands labs in all provinces, Mahdi said. In the new lab, 82 percent of the samples posted results in 6 to 10 hours. "The Chinese experts are very supportive and helpful," Mahdi said. "When they were here, they gave us all the technical training we need. They are also sending me all the documents. This can be a treasure for us." "They are showing us the way to establish a good lab," Mahdi said, noting that an important feature of the lab is its ability to receive samples around the clock all days of the week. Thirty lab workers are divided into three shifts, enabling the lab to complete 700 to 1,000 tests a day. WENT THROUGH DARK MOMENT Mahdi, who holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology, led lab procedures through the dark moments, conquering shortages of testing kits, working all-night shifts, receiving too many cases and watching infection rates grow as the epidemic took a toll on health personnel in Iraq. Unfortunately, seven members of the lab staff have been infected by COVID-19, Mahdi said, "but fortunately they all returned to work after recovery." Zina Anwar Mohammed, a female medic in the lab, told Xinhua that she was infected with COVID-19 on May 28. Her parents later passed away due to severe symptoms of COVID-19. "I decided to return to my work three days after my father's death," she said. "I want to work diligently and help others, so they will not experience a tragedy like mine." She burst into tears. Mahdi recalled that the most difficult time was a continuous shift of three days in the lab and his fear of passing the infection to his family. "When you are not able to kiss your kid because you are doing dangerous work, this is one of the sacrifices in your life," he said. In a minus-80 degree Celsius freezer Mahdi and his colleagues are saving all positive cases in the lab for future research and testing. "Once there is a new vaccine, a new testing strategy, this can be useful for further testing," Mahdi said. Enditem The Centre on Saturday advised 13 districts across eight states and a Union territory to focus on ramping up testing and addressing delays in diagnosis results, flagging that the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) case fatality rate in these regions was higher than the national average and that they contributed 14% of all deaths due to the disease in India. At a meeting chaired by Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, the states were told to ensure adequate availability of ambulances, according to the Union health ministry. The 13 districts are: Kamrup Metro in Assam, Patna in Bihar, Ranchi in Jharkhand; Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Ganjam in Odisha, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh; North 24 Paraganas, Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata and Maldah in West Bengal, and Delhi. Also read: As Delhi testing hits high, 1,404 Covid-19 infections added The districts account for 14% of all deaths due to Covid-19 in India, according to the Centres data. So far, the infectious disease has killed 42,518 people across the country, with 933 deaths being reported on Saturday, according to data shared by the Union health ministry. The case fatality rate the percentage of deaths among the number of cases detected stood at 2.04% on Saturday, according to the governments data. In comparison, the CFR in Delhi stood at 2.8%, even as it reduced from a high of 4.1% in mid-June. Two high-level meetings, chaired by Bhushan, were held on Friday and Saturday to advise and support states reporting higher number of cases and deaths due to Covid-19. These districts account for nearly 9% of Indias active cases and about 14% of Covid-19 deaths. They also report low tests per million and high confirmation percentage... A surge has been observed in daily new cases in four districts Kamrup Metro in Assam; Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh; and Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha in Kerala, the Union health ministry said. In view of reports from some areas that patients were dying within 48 hours of being admitted to health facilities, the Union health ministry asked the states to ensure timely referral and hospitalisation of people who are diagnosed with Covid-19. While the daily numbers of deaths have risen over the recent days, India has reported one of the lowest Covid-19 mortalities compared to the total cases, with about 30 deaths per million population. The global average stands at 91 deaths per million population. The highest mortality rate has been reported by the United Kingdom, with 684 deaths per million population, followed by the US, with 475 deaths per million, according to data shared by the health ministry. Also read: IMA says nearly 200 doctors in India have succumbed to Covid-19; requests PMs attention There could be multiple factors at play and a retrospective analysis of data after the pandemic is over will help us understand what these factors are, said Amit Singh, associate professor, Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. There are four other coronaviruses that cause common cold; infection with these might have resulted in cross-protection against Sars-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19. Or, it could be that most of us have been given BCG vaccine. It is a controversial topic, but perhaps studies will show whether the T-cell immunity from the vaccine is actually protective against Covid-19, he said. On Friday, the Union health secretary also held a virtual meeting with 16 other districts in four states Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka reporting Covid-19 mortality higher than the national and states averages. Saturdays meeting, however, focused on 13 districts in eight states and a UT. The states and the UT were advised to address the issues of low laboratory utilisation, low tests per million population, decrease in absolute tests from last week, delay in test results, and high confirmation percentage among the health care workers, the health ministry said. They were asked to ensure timely assessment and make advance preparedness for infrastructure such as ICU beds, oxygen supply and other areas based on the prevailing caseload and estimated growth rate, the ministry said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON PRESIDENT BUHARI ON IZE-IYAMU: TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY, PDP MUST SACK ITS GOVERNORS AND SENATORS The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which has been struggling to clear its name from alleged deals with the underworld in Dubai and the United States has, to our surprise, found the voice to attack the anti-corruption war of the Muhammadu Buhari administration following the Presidents endorsement of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the All Progressives Congress, APCs dashing candidate for the governorship election in Edo State. Forgetting its own history and antecedents, the PDP said in a garrulous statement that the President ought to have been aware that the Candidate is standing trial for corruption, and then went on rant against the governments war against corruption, alleging its failure. Let PDP first withdraw the governorship nominations it gave to Ahmadu Fintiri and Bala Mohammed of Adamawa and Bauchi States respectively, before it opens its mouth and talk on the efforts of this administration in fighting corruption. Or else, it should shut its mouth forever and leave us to do what it dares not attempt. Both PDP governors were actually on bail from criminal trial on several counts of fraud and embezzlement. Justice A. R. Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, July 1, 2016 granted bail to the former acting governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri. He was charged on June 30, 2016 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, alongside his company, Mayim Construction and Properties Limited on a five-count charge of money laundering to the tune of N2.9 billion. In the case of Bala Mohammed, the PDP Governor of Bauchi State, the EFCC, on Wednesday, May 10, 2017, arraigned the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, before Justice A. M. Talba of the Federal Capital Territory, High Court sitting in Gudu, Abuja, on a six-count charge bordering on abuse of office, false declaration of assets and fraud to the tune of N864 million. Bala, while in office as minister, allegedly received N550 million as bribe from Aso Savings and Loans Limited with respect to some properties in the Asokoro area of Abuja. He is said to have corruptly abused his position as Board Chairman of Aso Savings by allocating four numbers fully detached duplexes and 11 numbers semi-detached duplexes valued at N314 million through the Presidential Taskforce on Sale of Government Houses, to himself. The former minister is also accused of making false declaration of his assets. Pastor Ize-Iyamu is being prosecuted by the EFCC alongside Lucky Imasuen, former deputy governor of Edo State, Chief Dan Orbih, PDP Chairman in Edo State and other leaders of the party in the state, Tony Aziegbemi and Efe Erimuoghae. Under the countrys laws, only the courts can convict. A suspect remains a suspect until conviction. But, if in the view of the PDP, a suspect is guilty as charged, then they must show examples by withdrawing the nomination of their governors and the partys numerous Senators and other legislators standing trial in various courts of the country. A party which 16 years in office destroyed the countrys economy and infrastructure has no moral authority to criticize the accelerated infrastructure development drive, largely drawing its energy from the Buhari anti-corruption campaign. A government that sees corruption in the past administration and sees corruption in its own administration, and fights it with equal gusto, cannot be placed on the same scale with those who, by their words and deeds said corruption is a way of life and Nigerians should learn to live with it. This clean-up drive by the President Buhari administration will only speed up with the ongoing investigations and trials. The current administrations cleansing exercise of the government, politics and economy in line with the zero tolerance for corruption, will not be distracted. Garba Shehu Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity) August 8, 2020 Business chambers welcome election result By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s): The National Chamber of Commerce (NCC) Sri Lanka welcomed the election of a new government which will be able to meet the economic challenges in the aftermath of COVID-19. The country needs structural and other reforms necessary which are critical to unlocking impediments to growth, chamber officials said. The NCC noted that the government should take prompt action to allow the importation of essential raw material for local value added industries removing existing barriers and tackle fundamental economic imbalances and problems facing the country. Chairman of the Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE) Chamath Kottage told the Business Times that they are very positive about future handling of economy under the vision of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to gain prosperity and splendour. The government has a clear majority and mandate given by the people to achieve this vision with a robust export growth strategy and a regionally competitive incentive framework for attracting foreign direct investments on a larger scale while supporting local entrepreneurs. He expressed the belief that the new administration will implement necessary economic reforms removing red tape and bureaucracy of the public sector paving the way for entrepreneurs to contribute to the countrys GDP. Priority should be given to eliminate corruption, waste and irregularities and provide necessary assistance for local industrialists to weather the COVID-19-storm, he emphasised. When contacted, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) said it was planning to issue a statement after the appointment of the new cabinet of ministers. The short term task of the new government is to treat the COVID-19- ailing economy without political and economic disruptions, eminent economist and retired Central Bank Deputy Governor Dr. W. A. Wijewardena said. The present challenge for Sri Lanka is to address the deteriorating growth the country is currently experiencing and to revive the economy with a concerted effort to reach higher growth. He noted that it is essential to look into recent economic disruptions and how past lessons may help to make predictions on some of the possible outcomes during the recovery from the COVID-19 disruption. Sri Lankas economic growth for the first quarter of 2020 has dwindled drastically to minus 1.6 per cent compared to 3.7 per cent during 2019s first quarter, official data showed. Under this set up it is not possible to achieve the target of 6.5 per cent or higher GDP growth rate before 2025 as earmarked in the policy statement issued by the President, he said adding that the government should spring into action to gain a positive growth. A fresh wave of fear threatened. The police wouldnt leave a card for nothing, would they? If it was important, they wouldnt go off duty without leaving a report. Kens voice of reason almost convinced me. Come on. He put an arm around me. Well sort it out in the morning. The phone rang sharply. I went to answer it, assuming it was Anders. Its Graham, Annabet. Hes gone. I was confused, silent. At first, I did not recognise the caller. Then I realised it was Anders business manager, Graham. Are you there, Annabet? Anders is gone. Hes dead. My scream was guttural. I clutched at my chest and dropped the phone. Ken rushed forward and picked it up. Who is this? I heard him ask as I staggered to the balcony and ran out into the cold May night. I needed air. Couldnt breathe. Needed to escape, to get as far away as I could. The following morning, with a heavy heart, I rang Constable Smith. He asked me to call the police station in Wollongong, a seaside city close to where Anders lived. A journal and letters were removed from the scene, the policeman told me. You can collect the journal. The coroner cant release the letters yet. He must have left a letter for me. Please can I read it? There had to be a letter for me. Ill see what I can do. He added, We also have the clothing he was wearing. Do you want that? His clothing? Do I want the clothing he died in? Christ! No no, I swallowed hard. Please dispose of it. His voice softened. Im sorry. Its just a formality. Also, he was wearing a stone on nylon cord around his neck. Would you like that? Please leave it on his body, I answered. My eyes shut tight against his memory. It was important to him. Ill collect the rest tomorrow morning. The last time I saw Anders, just over a week before, he was wearing the stone. We were in his kitchen enjoying a glass of champagne. We clinked glasses, cheered one another. I had no inkling it was my final cheer to my brilliant brother. Anders appeared calm, somewhat self-absorbed, nothing out of character. The public celebrated Anders as an award-winning sommelier, a food luminary and respected ceramicist. But for me he was a caring, intensely creative younger brother. When he was a child, I always tried to protect him. He was cooking for eight. Elin and I had basically invited ourselves. Elin had rung me that morning. Im really worried about Anders. I think hes contemplating suicide. Hes anxious about money. I thought she was being overly dramatic. Never in my daily conversations with Anders had I detected any negativity rather the opposite. But she was working with Anders in the main office at Margaret Fultons Kitchen, and I had no idea what she was observing. Our mother had died the previous year, leaving a reasonable inheritance to us. Elin and I had given our share to Anders to invest in his business. I think we should visit him, Elin had said. I pandered to her fears but I wasnt buying into them. When we arrived, Anders appeared calm, somewhat self-absorbed, nothing out of character. I felt no sense of alarm. I looked into his soft brown eyes and laughed as he flicked back his long fringe. His fine hair fell forward, continually bothering him. I look like Im part of Hitlers youth movement, hed say, sardonically. A cigarette dangled from his lips, a linen tea towel was slung across his shoulder as he moved spices and condiments from pantry to benchtop. Whats on the menu? I asked. Lamb, he replied, pulling a large cast iron pot out of a cupboard. The sun bathed us through wide windows as I laid the dinner table and Anders padded barefoot around the kitchen. The mood was relaxed, our conversation light. I talked about Ken, who hed not long met. A real sweetie, Anders said. We avoided talk of the business. I marvelled at his skill and speed chopping onions and carrots, curled fingers guiding the chefs knife. Do you remember the nicks you got when you first started working? He looked up from the chopping board. Cutting lemons was the worst. As he moved, a stone swung gently against his black T-shirt. It hung from nylon fishing tackle knotted at the nape of his neck. How incongruous. I thought of all the expensive watches he had to choose from, the elegant cufflinks, the designer clothing. It looked strangely out of place. Whats that? I stretched out my hand to touch it. He fingered it lightly. Clear quartz. His tone was vaguely patronising. Well, yes, I can see that! But why are you wearing it? Clear blocked energies. You know, balance the chakras. He turned away. I sensed he was embarrassed. Chris suggested I wear it. Chris, his guru. Anders sent me to Chris once when he thought I needed his guidance. We didnt get on. Well, it cant hurt. I tried to sound supportive. Guess not, he shrugged. I sat like a stuffed dummy as Ken drove me to Wollongong police station early on Monday morning. I recall little of the two-hour trip down the coastal road. It was a highway to further grief. One of Kens friends called his mobile, offering commiserations. How does he know? I asked. Its on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald. I wasnt surprised. Ken had spent the previous day fending off phone calls from journalists. Some of Anders friends rang me. My telephone number was unlisted, so how they knew how to contact me was baffling. I only spoke to one. Theres a Margaret Whitlam on the phone, Ken said. The wife of former prime minister Gough Whitlam was a good friend of my brother. His talent and personality was his entre into privileged circles. Im here to collect some of my brothers belongings, I told the policeman at the front desk of the police station. Name? Ousback. Anders. He ran his finger down the lines of a large logbook that lay open on the counter, then spun the book around towards me and pointed. Sign here. He handed me a pen. As simple as that. No formality. No discussion. No sympathy. Just sign here. I scribbled my name. He handed me a large sealed manila envelope which I clutched to my chest. Kens hand guided me into a small concrete courtyard attached to the old police station. I sat on a timber bench under a pine tree. The sun was surprisingly warm for the day before winter. I yanked open the envelope. Anders trademark pale yellow bond paper was instantly recognisable, as was his handwriting. Names were spelled out in thick black ink on three envelopes. Annabet. Elin. Graham. Elin and Graham had travelled down to Wollongong together, arriving at the same time as me. I handed them their letters and they moved away to read in private. I took a deep breath and opened my letter. I took my reading glasses off, sat back in the bench, my eyes shut tight to the sun. I felt Kens hand on my thigh. You can read it if you like. Only if you I think you should. A million memories swirled through my mind. Giggling children running along Balmoral Beach. Sharing birthdays, Christmases, secrets: Dont tell Dad I wont if you dont tell Mum Forging separate lives, relationships. But the bond between us was unbroken, until this decision, this hideous decision that I must appreciate and forgive. Edited extract from Red Herrings for Breakfast (Bad Apple Press) by Annabet Ousback, on sale now. Lifeline 13 11 14. President Donald Trump claimed Friday night that federal agents could immediately and very easily put a stop to ongoing protests in Portland that have escalated in recent nights outside local police precincts. Trump did not mention that the demonstrations grew in July after his administration dispatched officers to police the federal courthouse at the heart of the protests. Instead, he praised those officers for their fantastic job. Trump indicated he did not intend to dispatch federal officers to other parts of the city, however, unless asked by Oregons governor or the mayor of its largest city. Both of those Democrats have decried a federal police presence in Oregon. The president devoted more than five minutes to events in Portland more than an hour into a lengthy address Friday from a New Jersey country club. He said anarchists and mobs have been given free rein and that leftist Democrats want to replicate Portlands lawlessness across the country. The president has repeatedly slammed the Portland protests against police brutality and systemic racism since late June, after a few dozen protesters pulled down a statue of George Washington. Federal officers began engaging with protesters in early July. They clashed with protesters for weeks, routinely filling the two blocks of downtown at the heart of demonstrations with clouds of tear gas. Tensions decreased only after state police took over the security of the federal courthouse eight days ago. Yet Trump said federal officers could nevertheless solve the current Portland situation. A much smaller group of protesters has gathered in recent nights for direct action events at Portland police buildings. Protesters have lit fires in trash cans, damaged doors and windows and thrown things at officers. Portland police have responded in force every night, including once with tear gas. The presidents spotlight on Portland arrived just as protesters plan to gather at Laurelhurst Park in Southeast Portland. The crowd will likely then march to a nearby building shared by Portland police and the sheriffs office, where police and protesters have clashed multiple times. As he appeared to read from prepared remarks, Trump described the situation as an angry mob full of lawless rioters. We will go in and stop the problems in Portland in 24 hours, Trump said. But he noted, Were supposed to be asked. The gatherings now focus squarely on local buildings -- not the federal courthouse. Trump assigned particular blame on Mayor Ted Wheeler, who he said ordered police to stand down and left the city unprotected. Wheeler has been an object of Trumps ire in the recent past. Mayor Wheeler has abdicated his duty and surrendered his city to the mob, the president said. Wheeler, who is also the citys police commissioner, has condemned the recent protests. A spokesman for Wheelers office said he had no response to the president. Wheeler had said Thursday that people who show up at the demonstrations are playing into Trumps hand by providing video footage for reelection campaign ads. But Trump called Portland a road map for America among the radical left seeking to elect Joe Biden. They look at Portland as a thing that they want, Trump said. Thats what they want. Why? Who knows, doesnt matter. Its a different thinking, but its a mess. On Thursday night, protesters gathered at Floyd Light Park in Southeast Portland, close to the Portland Police Bureaus East Precinct. Police quickly deemed the assembly unlawful after about 200 people converged outside the precinct. A few frontline protesters had splashed paint on the building, lit a fire in a trash can and argued with two bystanders who appeared to be trying to intervene. A game of cat-and-mouse ensued over the evening as police rushed protesters and broke the crowd into smaller groups throughout the city. More than a dozen were arrested. Similar scenes played out the two previous nights, outside the East Precinct on Wednesday and at the police union headquarters in North Portland Tuesday. Samantha Swindler, Ryan Fernandez, Molly Harbarger, Jim Ryan, Dave Killen, Betsy Hammond, K. Rambo and Mark Graves of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report, as did Piper McDaniel for The Oregonian/OregonLive. -- Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR -- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Senior military commanders from India and China on Saturday met in the Daulat Beg Oldie sector and held talks on reducing tensions along the contested Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, with focus on thinning the buildup of troops and weaponry in Depsang plains where the forward deployment of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army has disrupted the Indian Armys patrolling patterns, people familiar with the developments said. Heightened concerns about Depsang come from an earlier intrusion in this sector in 2013, when the PLA set up positions 19 km into the Indian side of the LAC and triggered a face-off that took three weeks to resolve. The PLAs forward deployments in Depsang have hindered the access of Indian soldiers to several patrolling routes including the ones leading to Patrolling Points (PP) 10, 11, 11A 12 and 13, said one of the officials cited above. The military buildup in this sector includes deployment of tanks and artillery by the two armies, said a second official. The Depsang plains lie south of DBO in a strategic area that the military calls Sub-Sector North (SSN). DBO is the countrys northernmost outpost where India operates an advanced landing ground to support its forward military deployments. Depsang is more of a pressure point as the PLAs reported deployment in forward areas has disrupted the Indian Armys patrolling pattern. It has become more time consuming for the army to dominate the LAC. But as long as talks are on there is hope for a mutually-acceptable solution to the dispute, said Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia (retd), a former director general of military operations. The latest round of military talks between division commander-ranked officers came days after their bosses (the corps commanders) met on August 2 to discuss the next stage of disengagement at a time when negotiations have hit a roadblock due to differences between the two sides in the Finger Area and the PLAs reluctance to vacate positions held by it in what New Delhi claims as Indian territory. The outcome of Saturdays talks wasnt immediately known as there was no official word from the army. The division commander-ranked officers have met a few times after the border row erupted in early May, but this was their first meeting after the corps commanders from the two sides began discussions on disengagement and de-escalation on June 6. The latter have met five times so far. The Finger Areaa set of eight cliffs jutting out of the Sirijap range overlooking the Pangong Lakehas emerged as the hardest part of the disengagement process with little hope of immediate resolution. The August 2 military negotiations came three days after Chinese ambassador Sun Weidong said his countrys traditional boundary line on the northern bank of the Pangong Lake was in accordance with the LAC and there was no case of Beijing expanding its territorial claim. The ambassadors contention was a clear indication of the Chinese hard line on its claims in the Finger Area, the officials said. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 8 By Fidan Babayeva - Trend: The export of products from Azerbaijan to Turkey increased by 19.7 percent year-on-year from January through June 2020, amounting to $1.47 billion, Trend reports referring to the statistical bulletin of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan Republic. As reported, Turkey's share in Azerbaijan's total exports increased from 12.36 to 19.21 percent in 1H2020. During the reporting period, imports of Turkish products to Azerbaijan increased by 9.2 percent compared to the same period in 2019. According to the data, the import of Turkish products to Azerbaijan in the first six months of this year amounted to $739.53 million, while a year earlier - $677.4 million. Turkey's share in Azerbaijan's total imports increased from 9.66 to 14.82 percent of the total. The volume of foreign trade operations between Azerbaijan and Turkey amounted to $2.21 billion, which is 16 percent more than in the same period last year. The foreign trade balance of the two countries for the reporting period was positive and amounted to $737 million. From January through June 2020, Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover amounted to $12.67 billion, which is 34.1 percent less than the same period in 2019. The balance of foreign trade turnover on an annualized basis decreased by 10 percent and remained negative, amounting to $2.69 billion. --- Follow the author on Twitter: Fidan_Babaeva Canadian-Australian author and former model Tara Moss is struggling to get home because airlines keep cancelling flights. It's a predicament faced by thousands of people around the world, while cash-strapped airlines drag their heels over refunds and reportedly bump economy-class passengers. Author and model Tara Moss with her husband Berndt Sellheim and daughter Sapphira, 9. Credit:Berndt Sellheim When Moss arrived in Sydney in early March, it was before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. The dual Canadian and Australian citizen was carrying a single suitcase for what was meant to be a short work trip before returning to the west coast of Canada, her home since 2018. Instead Moss wound up bunkered down with her husband and daughter at their second home in the Blue Mountains. Volunteers help decorate the room of an impoverished child in Shuanglongbu Village, Jimo District in Qingdao City, East China's Shandong Province, on August 4. [Xinhua/Liang Xiaopeng] Hope Room, a project of helping children in need improve their living and studying conditions, was launched in Qingdao City, East China's Shandong Province, on August 4. The project aims to build independent living and learning space for children from impoverished families who are aged 8-14 and to provide necessary furniture and school supplies. Tutoring and psychological counseling are also offered to facilitate their healthy growth. Up till now, six children in Jimo District of the city have benefited from the project. Volunteers tutor a boy, one of the beneficiaries of the Hope Room project at his home in Shuanglongbu Village, Jimo District, in Qingdao City, East China's Shandong Province, on August 4. [Xinhua/Liang Xiaopeng] Volunteers carry a new set of desk and chair into the room after the renovation is completed. [Xinhua/Liang Xiaopeng] (Source: Xinhua/Translated and edited by Women of China) The latest projection from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington estimates that 295,011 people will have died from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States by December 1. This figure is almost double the current tally, which stands after yesterday at more than 164,000. Chris Murray, the lead researcher on the project, noted in an interview with National Public Radio that the coming onset of fall and winter weather played a large role in the IHMEs projection. November is a month when we expect the increase of transmission due to seasonality will start to be stronger, he said. We would see approximately a 50 percent increase in transmission, everything else being the same. While Murrays team does not publish this figure, the doubling of deaths over the next four months also implies a doubling of cases in the US to about 10 million by the end of the year, up from the current count of nearly 5.1 million cases. Worldwide, there are currently 19.5 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, 6.2 million of which are currently active, and more than 720,000 deaths. The model has two additional projections: one involving mass mask wearing and another where social distancing restrictions are eased. In the former scenario, if 95 percent of Americans wear a mask, the number of graves that need to be dug will rise by only 64,000. In the latter scenario, including sending potentially infected children back to school, the number of men, women and children dead will soar to 391,723. Such a drastic increase in the death toll further exposes the lie by President Donald Trump that it is safe to reopen schools. This homicidal policy is, however, not limited to Trump and the Republicans. The Democrats are fully complicit in the rush to reopen the schools even as the pandemic rages out of control, just as Democratic governors and mayors have overseen the reopening of businesses and the campaign to force workers back to work without any real protection from the virus. The essential unity of both parties in forcing workers to resume pumping out profits for the corporations and banks was underscored Friday by New York Governor Andrew Cuomos announcement encouraging the reopening of schools across the state, including in New York City. As teachers, students and parents are very aware, the pandemic is not abating and opening schools will result in a vast increase in the transmission of the virus, endangering the lives of the students as well as their teachers and family members. The suffering and death caused by the premature reopening of workplaces across the country will be revisited by the Trump administration on the nations children. These grim figures are coming from what has been generally treated by the White House as the definitive projection model. The IHME (funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and Chris Murray first rose to prominence at the end of March when they predicted that the peak of the disease would be April 15 and that 84,000 would ultimately die. The methodology was heavily criticized at the time and ultimately shown to be a vast underestimation of both the deadliness and duration of the pandemic. In that same vein, their current scenarios are likely lower limits on the true scale of what is to come. In addition, there are a variety of societal impacts of the disease not measured by the IHME model. As early as March, researchers noted that a significant percentage of survivors of COVID-19 in China had developed persistent heart, lung and brain damage. In the ensuing months, this has been borne out, as more studies reveal that even those with no or mild symptoms can develop coronavirus-related blood clots, muscle weakness, fatigue, strokes and liver and kidney failure. For every patient who dies from the coronavirus, dozens more suffer from a myriad of long-term medical conditions that may plague them for months, years or even the rest of their lives. Nor is there any accounting of how many have died from other deadly illnesses or conditions. During the height of the pandemic in New York City, dozens of people were found dead in their homes from strokes or heart attacks because the medical system was unable to reach them amid the deluge of severe and critical coronavirus cases that emerged over several weeks. Others were prevented from getting cancer treatments and other lifesaving procedures, resulting in even more so-called excess deaths. It is likely that the real death toll as a result of the pandemic is 50 percent higher than what is officially reported. The coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Deborah Birx, has also warned of an increase of coronavirus cases in the coming weeks. Nine citiesPortland, Omaha, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Washington DC, Baltimore and Bostonas well as Californias Central Valley region are all seeing an increase in the number of tests that are returned positive, indicating that the virus is entrenched and spreading in even more areas of the country. Birx noted in a leaked phone call with state and local officials on Wednesday that Although were seeing improvements in some of the red states and some of the states have actually moved from being in a red categorythat was more than 10 percent test positivityto under 10 percent, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia moved back into the yellow states status. This is also reflected in data from CovidExitStrategy.org, which shows that 30 states have uncontrolled spread of the disease. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top US expert on infectious diseases, concurred with Birx in an interview with CNN. What Dr. Birx is saying, he said, is now is the time to accelerate the fundamental preventative measures that we all talk about: masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds, outdoors greater than indoors, washing hands, et cetera. He continued, Those kinds of simple things can actually prevent that uptick from becoming a surge. So, she was warning the states and the cities to be careful, because this is a predictor of trouble ahead. What neither mentioned is the disastrous role reopening factories and plants has played in driving up the case numbers in the states mentioned. Auto plants in Kentucky have been some of the major vectors of transmission after they were reopened with only token safety measures in May. Recent data from the Tennessee Department of Health has revealed that more than 7,500 children between the ages of 5 and 18 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the months since the state lifted social distancing restrictions. These are the essential superspreader events, a term coined by Birx, which have caused such a sharp rise in cases over the past month. While parties and large gatherings are certainly a way for the disease to jump from person to person, those are encouraged and made possible by the muddled, improvisational and piecemeal approach to reopening by local, state and federal officials. Instead of a comprehensive and coordinated national lockdown to halt the pandemic in its tracks, the piecemeal approach approved by Trump allowed states to lock down (or not) on their own timetable. As a result, since May 1, when states began reopening, 4 million cases and 96,000 deaths have been recorded in the US. Mid and smallcaps are catching up with largecaps and investors are looking for stocks which have underperformed as they are reluctant to chase stocks at such steep valuations, Sacchitanand Uttekar DVP Technical (Equity), Tradebulls Securities, said in an interview with Moneycontrols Kshitij Anand. Edited excerpt: Q) Bulls remained in control of D-Street in the week gone by. What led to the rally or the optimism? A) The week ended 29th May 2020 was when the index closed above its 5-Weeks EMA for the first time post an intermediate corrective wave swing being established around 8806. Since then it has been 10 weeks of advancement & the index is yet to register a close below its progressing 5-Weeks EMA level which is now around 10,990. The ongoing rally is a part of the larger degree corrective move of its prior declining phase which commenced from 12430 towards 7511 with its internals placed perfectly in form of a zig-zag formation. If we dissect the move to detail then the journey from 10840 till now, it has been the most volatile due to high frequency of sector rotations, and leadership rotations within the index constituents. The recent optimism off late has been due to progress in the vaccine development, easing off in lockdown rules across vital states across India & some further hope on the debt moratorium related announcement during the MPC meet & RBIs resolution framework committees judgement. A) Nifty Pharma is witnessing yet another strong quarter as the month of July seems to have replicated the move to some degree as witnessed in April20, as it helped the sector to surpass all its major hindrances placed around 10400-10800 zone in one go. IT on the other hand has been confidently trending higher backed by domestic demand as well as a global rally in tech stocks. Both the sectors could provide some cushion in case of any uncertainties arising due to scare of another wave of the pandemic. Dollar strengthening has been vital for both these sectors as despite most of their constituents quoting around their respective 52-week highs any declining opportunities should be utilised by investors to ramp up their exposures towards such defensives as the valuations across the street looks overstretched again. A) Brent crudes volatility seems to be making a comeback post its 9 weeks of a tepid move as it gets ready to challenge its 200-Days EMA zone. Paris, Aug 8 : France has reported 2,288 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the biggest daily spike since the end of April. In the past week, France registered more than 9,330 new infections, bringing the country's total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases to 197,921, the health ministry said on Friday. Since May 9, when the French government started a gradual de-confinement, some 787 clusters have been detected, of which 288 remained active. Over the past 24 hours, 21 clusters were identified, the ministry said on Friday, Xinhua reported. "The indicators are deteriorating, confirming a more active circulation of the virus throughout the territory, especially among young people," the health ministry warned. "We must strengthen vigilance, mobilise ourselves to respect barrier measures, common sense gestures in the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic," it said. As of Friday, the number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients fell by 49 to 5,011, continuing a downward trend of two and a half months. Currently, 383 people needed intensive care, 7 fewer than the number on Thursday, while 12 additional coronavirus-related fatalities were recorded, bringing the total deaths to 30,324. French scientists expected a second wave of the coronavirus could hit the country in autumn or winter as a result of social mixing and absence of distancing and barrier measures during the summer holidays, local media reported. They asked French authorities to anticipate all the possible scenarios and prepare a prevention plan for the country's most populated metropolitan areas, and to consider local lockdown according to the epidemic situation. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) The body of a five-month-old baby, allegedly kidnapped from home while his parents were asleep, was recovered from a jungle in Assam's Cachar district, police said on Saturday. The body was dug out in the jungle in the Rangirghat area on Friday and sent for postmortem to the Silchar Medical College and Hospital, they said. The baby was abducted on the night of August 4 after the kidnappers entered the house through a window, police said. The kidnappers demanded Rs 10 lakh as ransom from the family, a source said. Three persons have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping, and they took the investigators to the spot where the body was found buried, police said. The motive behind the kidnapping and the killing is yet to be fully ascertained as an investigation is underway, they said. Assam Assembly Deputy Speaker Aminul Hoque Laskar demanded that those behind the incident should be hanged. Laskar, who is an MLA from Sonai where the incident happened, told PTI that he has asked police to take strict action against the accused and ensure that the case is tried in a fast track court. Michelle Rosemarie Miley had almost given up on acting when she decided to audition for a role in When the Wind Can Touch Your Skin. Choosing to focus on her career as a teacher she had drifted away from acting, allowing her talents to go unused. 'I got into acting after college (Trinity, where she studied Biochemistry) and got an agent straight away and had some auditions,' Michelle (32) explains. 'I was shortlisted for the role in My Name is Emily. But my dad passed away then and I got out of acting for a while.' But she couldn't quite shift the acting bug and when an opportunity came to audition for the role of Aoife in When the Wind Can Touch Your Skin arose she decided to go for it. However, no sooner had she got the part when production was halted. The film's director, Michael Kuntz, was about to become a father and so the project was delayed. Yet, according to Michelle, who is from The Stripe in the Rower, it was worth the wait. 'We shot it last March in Galway and the Aran Islands, I loved working on this project, it felt like I was getting another chance,' she says. 'This is my first real big role, I play Aoife, she is an enigmatic, mysterious woman, she meets a man called Simon, he's a photographer, and he becomes quite taken with her. 'They form a connection even though she initially tries to keep him at bay. She brings him around the islands and lets him into her world, they discover they've both had their hearts broken in the past. The film ends with you wondering whether they will meet again or was this just a brief encounter.' Performed in English, Irish and French, When the Wind Can Touch Your Skin is a short film and has just begun its tour of the festival circuit. And that tour has led to critical acclaim for Michelle, not just acclaim, but awards too. Winner of Best Supporting Actress at the the Varese International Film Festival in Italy, she since followed that up with a Best Actress award at the Istanbul Film Awards. The film itself also won best film at the latter and at the Bucharest Short Film Factory, and has been selected to screen at festivals across Europe, America and Asia. And for the former St Mary's student, this has all come as a big surprise. 'I've been surprised by its success, I couldn't believe it when I won the first one, I was over the moon,' Michelle says. 'I will pursue acting this time, winning those awards has given me the impetus to do it, but I will continue to teach too.' Her next project is a film entitled And the Sun Disappears which is set during the Irish famine and will have an entirely Irish script. Before that however, she hopes to bring When the Wind Can Touch Your Skin to her home village. 'It's still going round the festival circuit, it had its first Irish screening in The Underground Film Festival in Dublin on July 23. We could certainly arrange to have it screened locally, I could get in touch with the Director.' Should it be screened somewhere in the South East, Michelle will hope to attend and bring her mother Teresa, and sister Angelina with her. Because although she is elated with her success, the coronavirus has thus far put paid to her hopes of attending film festivals across the globe. 'All the screenings have been online so far,' she says. 'But there's an awards ceremony in Varese in October, I might be able to go to that.' Habiba Sule Adejoh A 22-year-old Nigeria-born student at the University College London, in United Kingdom has made the Africa communities and especially Nigerians across the world proud, Abuja Press has reported. The girl identified as Habiba Sule Adejoh, daughter of MOP President, Dr. Suleiman Adejoh has been celebrated across the world, as she becomes one of the few Nigerians in history, who has graduated with a first class from the University College London. Habibah Adejohs historic graduation has made headline and coverpage stories across international newspapers and mediums across the world. President of University College London in the United Kingdom, Prof. Micheal Arthur congratulated the young and intelligent Habibah Sule as well as the entire 2019/2020 graduaring students and wished them the best life endeavours. On graduation, Habibah Suleiman Adejoh dedicated her result to God, her family and Members of Messengers of Peace-MOP, as well as AFM Members. She thanked them for the courage and supports she received throughout her academic years in the UK. Habibah Suleiman is an indigene of Kogi State, from Ogugu community in Olamaboro Local Government Area. Habiba Suleiman Adejoh was a student of Bells School in Otta, Ogun state, owned by Former Nigeria President, HE Olusegun Obasanjo, before proceeding to the University College London in UK. Her historic educational attainment her attracted loads of felicitations via several social media handles, especially from Member of MOP across the world, who congratulated her and called Habibah a genius. OTTAWATwo Canadians have been sentenced to death by a Chinese court, renewing concerns heightened tensions between Ottawa and Beijing could mean harsh treatment of Canadian citizens in China. Ye Jianhui and Xu Weihong both received death sentences in separate drug cases this week in Chinas southern province of Guangdong. A total of four Canadians have been sentenced to death by Chinese courts over the past two years. Over those two years, relations between Chinas ruling Communist Party and the Canadian government have cratered following the arrest and detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who faces extradition to the United States on fraud charges. But before connecting the fates of Ye and Lu to frosty international relations, an expert in Chinese law and politics cautions that very little is known about their alleged crimes. Its natural for people to draw the connection, said Wei Cui, the director of the Centre for Asian Legal Studies at the University of British Columbia. What we can say is, in general, people should be concerned about the Chinese criminal system because its not transparent Whatever these people did, we should be concerned about the process theyve gone through. But whats clear is that foreigners are subject to this kind of criminal process in China, always, and so its not clear were seeing an uptick even in prosecutions (of Canadians). Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland condemned Chinas use of the death penalty in general on Friday. But unlike the detention of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, the Canadian government has not alleged Chinese officials acted arbitrarily against Ye and Lu at least not yet. Heres what we know, and what we dont know, about the situation. Whats the case against Ye and Xu? Chinas typically opaque court system has released few details in either case. What is known about the allegations has been gleaned from Chinese media reports. Xu is alleged to have manufactured ketamine, a powerful pain killer, by stockpiling ingredients and tools to make the drug in October 2016. According to media reports, Chinese police seized 120 kilograms of the drug from Xus home and another address. Yangcheng Evening News reported that Ye and an accomplice also manufactured and transported drugs between May 2015 and January 2016. Police seized approximately 218 kilograms of MDMA from a room used by Ye and Lu Hangchang. Police seized roughly 218 kilograms of white crystals infused with the designer drug MDMA from a room used by the two, and found another 9.84 grams of the drug in bags and residences used by Lu and others, the newspaper said. Their death sentences will be automatically reviewed by the Supreme Peoples Court, Cui said. China typically has harsh penalties for drug offences. The country also frequently hands out death sentences. While official figures are not released, Amnesty International estimated China executes more than 1,000 people each year. What about the other two Canadians sentenced to death? Fan Wei, another Canadian citizen, was given the death penalty in April 2019 for allegedly taking part in a multinational drug smuggling case. Robert Schellenberg was originally given a lighter sentence for allegations of drug smuggling. But after Canadian authorities arrested Huaweis Meng in Vancouver in 2018, Schellenberg was retried and handed a death sentence. Cui noted that, unlike in Schellenbergs case, theres been no indication of judicial irregularities in the cases against Ye and Xu. In the case of the two Michaels, and also in the Schellenberg case, we have reason to believe they are specifically a retaliation to Canada, he said. How has the Canadian government responded? Let me say this: Canada opposes the death penalty. We oppose it clearly and always, everywhere around the world. We believe it is a cruel and inhumane punishment, and we make that clear to all of our interlocutors everywhere, said Freeland at a press conference on Friday. We have made that clear in our conversations with China, and we will continue to do so. Her comments echoed Global Affairs Minister Francois-Phillipe Champagne, who told the CBC Thursday that Canada (opposes) the death penalty every step of the way. We have said it time and time and time again to the Chinese government and will continue to do that, Champagne said. What about the Chinese government? In a press conference Friday, a spokesperson for Chinas Foreign Ministry was asked if the death sentences had any connection to the chilly diplomatic relationship between the two countries. Wang Wenbin responded that China is a country under the rule of law, and its judiciary handles cases independently in strict accordance with law, according to a transcript of the press conference. But he didnt waste an opportunity to add that Canada is well aware of Chinas anger over Meng Wanzhous arrest. The Canadian side knows very well what the crux of the problem is. We urge the Canadian side to take immediate and effective measures to correct its mistakes and make concrete efforts to put bilateral relations back on track. With files from the Stars wire service. Read more about: An April 5, 2020 file photo shows an envelope containing a 2020 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident in Detroit. The Census Bureau has announced it is cutting short its 2020 Census collection so it will have time to comply with President Trump's July 21 memorandum ordering undocumented immigrants to be excluded from Census-based reapportionment. Although Trump's order has been challenged as unconstitutional, the Census Bureau says it is ending the Census count early so it can get Census and reapportionment data to the White House in compliance with Trump's order before his term in office ends, rather than waiting until next spring, the original plan. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)AP Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 12:50:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WUHAN, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Central China's Hubei Province reported one newly imported COVID-19 case and no increase in domestically transmitted cases Friday, the provincial health commission said Saturday. The confirmed patient, arriving at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport from Tajikistan on Thursday, was put under quarantine upon arrival and diagnosed as a confirmed case on Friday. A total of 111 close contacts on the flight have been put under quarantine. By Friday, Hubei had four confirmed imported cases and one asymptomatic case. Hubei had reported a total of 68,139 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and 63,623 cases had been cured and discharged from hospitals. The disease has claimed 4,512 lives in the province. Enditem The Association of Pentecostal and Charismatic Clergy (APCC) has prophesied that a terrible situation awaits every Ghanaian over their loud silence on the persecution being carried out against churches by the Akufo-Addo led government. According to the Association, there is a sustained attack launched against the Church and its leaders for almost 4 years by the Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government as almost every influential Man of God in this nation. for almost 4 years, the church had faced stiff opposition from this governmentthe Akufo-Addo led government launched a vicious campaign against almost every influential Man of God in this Nation immediately after coming into office, APCC claimed. Strange and unimaginable inquisitions of Reverend Ministers and Bishops were vigorously pursued. That was the initial attempt to seek to get dirt of them and eventually use it as a point to blackmail them if they should dare speak up at any point, the APCC statement read. The Association again claimed that the Akufo-Addo government aimed at suppressing divergent views coming from the Church, attempting to push the Church to do the bidding of the government, marking the beginning of several attacks against the Church. Fast forward, the current state of affairs points to an unwritten decree and rule in Ghana that no one, be you a professional in your field of endeavor or a Pastor, big or small, must say anything that disagrees with the government or the current ruling political class. This muzzling of free speech and opinion and a subtle attempt at censoring the Clergy must be resisted with righteous indignation, they stated. The General Secretary of the Association of Pentecostal and Charismatic Clergy (APCC) Rev. John Armah who signed the statement, bemoaned the alleged calculated state-sponsored attack on Bishop Charles Agyinasare. His offense was he dared to ask a question in one of his sermons about the supposed financial sector cleanup. He asked if nothing could have been done by the government to prevent some of the now-defunct banks from collapsing. This he asked amongst other things. The governments communication machinery descended heavily on him with unprintable insults, threats, and attacks, they said. The APCC in its statement, however, warned that the governments tactics to silence the Church will not succeed, and therefore call on the government to halt the persecution of the Church. 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. Featured Video Nguyen Van Luy is arrested for smuggling a South Korean man into Cambodia, August 7, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Minh Luan. Border guards in Long An Province on Friday night caught a Vietnamese man trying to smuggle a South Korean into Cambodia for VND10 million ($430). The southern province's anti-crime forces and officers at My Quy Tay border gate found Nguyen Van Luy trying to illegally bring South Korean Jonghyeok- Chea, 23, into neighboring Cambodia. Luy, 32, confessed to the police both had hired a taxi from Ho Chi Minh City to Long An before traveling to the border by motorbike. Long An shares a 132 kilometer border with Cambodia's Svay Rieng and Pray Veng provinces. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, border guards in Long An have caught 46 people illegally entering Vietnam. Speaking at a regular press meeting Monday, Chief of Office of the Ministry of Public Security, Major General To An Xo said the country has recently witnessed a rising number of illegal entries from neighboring countries, mainly China. Since June, local public security forces and border guards have uncovered 21 cases involving the illegal entry of 177 Chinese nationals, launching five criminal investigations into 19 Vietnamese and several Chinese. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc earlier ordered the Ministry of Public Security to investigate the illegal entry of foreigners to Vietnam, following confirmation of the first Covid-19 community transmission in 100 days on July 25. People sit in Tantolunden park in Stockholm on May 30, 2020. HENRIK MONTGOMERY/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images Sweden has been a closely-watched example of a country which decided to not to implement a lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The government said that theirs was a long-term strategy that would eventually bring better results than lockdowns, which have brought their own problems including mass unemployment. Initially, the policy looked like a clear failure, as the virus spread faster than in comparable nations. However, Sweden's cases have started to decline recently, bringing them more in line with countries that did lockdown. But on balance Sweden's metrics are still lagging its neighbors, suggesting that their strategy has yet to redeem itself. One expert said it would be "dangerous" to paint Sweden's response as a success. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Sweden's coronavirus cases have fallen and remained down from their peak, returning it closer to comparable nations after its policy of avoiding sweeping lockdown policies had initially led to elevated deaths and infections. However, although its numbers of daily deaths and new cases has declined from its own peak, they still compare poorly to its immediate neighbors, which took a harder line on the virus. While most of Europe was confining citizens to their homes and closing businesses, Sweden relied on people to socially distance without drastically changing their lives. It introduced only a handful of rules, like banning visits to nursing homes and gatherings of more than 50 people. Related: Sweden used a controversial way to fight coronavirus The logic was that a gentler approach would be more sustainable in the long-term, and avoid a dynamic whereby the virus was kept at bay only as long as the nation could withstand severe restrictions. Initially, it did not look good the number of Swedish people dying from the virus soared in the lax environment. Its per-capita death rate became one of the worst in the world by March, as other nations were taking desperate measures to rein in the virus. Story continues More than four months later, Sweden is now on a trajectory much closer to that of other European nations. Its daily new infections have now fallen from a peak the end of June, and have stayed down since. But its current position still doesn't look good compared to many European countries. People enjoy the sunny weather in Tantolunden park near a sign about social distancing in Stockholm in May 2020, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. ENRIK MONTGOMERY/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images Sweden's cases have only been down from their peak for just over a month. In comparison, countries like the UK, Ireland, and Italy had their peaks earlier, in April and May, and cases have stayed down with no spikes since. This is what Sweden looks like: Sweden's coronavirus cases as of August 5. Worldometer Compared to Italy: Italy's coronavirus cases as of August 5. Worldometer The UK: UK coronavirus cases as of August 5. Worldometer And Ireland: Ireland's coronavirus cases as of August 5. Worldometer Many other European countries follow the same pattern. As well as having its decline in numbers later, Sweden also has had a less sharp decline overall. Over the last seven days, the UK, with a population of 66 million, has seen an average of 818 new cases a day. And Italy, with a population of 60 million, has seen an average of 208 cases a day. While Sweden, with around 10 million people, has seen an average of 212 new cases a day. That means Sweden's new daily coronavirus cases are, as a proportion of population, more than 1.5 times higher than those in the UK, and around six times higher than in Italy. The UK and Italy were two of the worst-hit countries in Europe. Sweden has also arrived at this point with a higher death rate than most countries in Europe. A senior couple eat dinner keeping distance from the rest of their family during the coronavirus pandemic on April 18, 2020 in Ostersund, Sweden. David Lidstrom/Getty Images Professor Luke O'Neill, an an immunologist at Ireland's Trinity College Dublin who is following European responses, previously told Business Insider that Sweden's total deaths are a strong sign that its approach failed. "Everywhere is reopening now and we're on the same playing field. So that initial number of deaths is what counts. And there's a lot more deaths in Sweden." Europe is worried about a second wave As they reopen, many European countries have started to see cases rise. These include Belgium, Spain, France, Greece, and Denmark. Others, like Germany, are warning that they are starting to experience a second wave. Sweden is not in this situation. But this position is not unique: other European countries, like Norway, Finland, Ireland, the UK, Italy, Portugal, have not seen any big spikes. The countries listed above followed more conventional strategies suggesting that Sweden's comparative lack of a resurgence is due to other factors. And Sweden is still worried that a second wave could come. Local governments are warning of crowding in areas where people are gathering for summer holidays, and Stockholm is warning that its restaurants are too busy. People sit in a restaurant in Stockholm on May 8, 2020, amid the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images Prof. Jan Albert, an infectious diseases expert at Sweden's Karolinska Instituet, told Business Insider that it would be "dangerous to push the message" that Sweden is performing better than the rest of Europe. He said that risk was especially high once schools and offices reopen after the country's long summer holidays. "We definitely have come down from a peak, but whether we will see an increase again later in the year, especially when workplaces and schools open up again, we don't know." "It's likely that we will see at least smaller outbreaks and possibly some kind of second wave or peak. "No one can say for certain that there won't be a second wave in Sweden, or in other places." Sweden's policies are still unusual Sweden has these concerns without having eased its restrictions. Its plan was designed to be long-term: it avoided a strict lockdown so the regime could continue for months on end without causing great damage, or demoralizing people so much that they gave up following the rules. But now, because Sweden hasn't eased its rules even as other countries started to reopen, in some respects its restrictions are harsher than elsewhere. Norway, for example, now allows some gatherings of up to 200 people, while Sweden is still at 50. The one area that Sweden remains an outlier is its policy on masks. A big sticker of the healthcare services of Sweden is placed on a pavement in the heart of Stockholm to instruct people to follow the 2 meters rule to reduce the risk of getting sick on May 4, 2020 during the new coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images Most countries are encouraging citizens to wear them, and many have made them mandatory in shops and public transport. Sweden has no such requirements and its Public Health Agency says that face masks are "not needed in everyday life." Swedish officials argue that time will prove their strategy correct, provided the nation avoids the spikes that can come with easing restrictions, or fatigued citizens deciding to ignore them. As many Swedish experts previously told Business Insider, whether the strategy was the right call will only be known in time. Read the original article on Business Insider The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 on board overshot the tabletop runway at Kozhikode airport on Friday night while landing in heavy rains. AP The flight went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two, killing at least 18 people. Read more Co-Pilot Akhilesh Kumar Killed In Air India Crash Would Have Become A Father In Two Weeks Captain Deepak Sathe and his deputy, co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were among the 18 people who were killed in the fatal crash of the Air India Express flight coming from Dubai to Kozhikode on Friday night. ANI Akhilesh Kumar is a native of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. He is survived by his wife Megha, who is pregnant. Read more Idukki Landslide Death Toll Touches 18; Rains Hamper Rescue Ops Kerala's miseries continues to pile up as a massive search operation using man and machine, is underway to find 50 odd people reported missing after a landslide in Kerala's Idukki district. Indiatimes Since the Thursday midnight tragedy struck Rajamalai, 18 people have lost their lives while more than a dozen have been rescued and are under treatment in various hospitals in Idukki, Kottayam and Ernakulam districts. Read more Girl Steals Phone From Private Detective To Pay School Fee, Victim Doesn't Go To Police A 16-year-old Indore girls crime of desperation had an effect she never expected. She stole a phone and mortgaged it so that she could pay her school fees, but her victim, a private detective, easily tracked her down. Getty Images After realizing why the girl stole his phone, the man decided not to go to police and gave her the money for her fees. Read more UP Police Inspector Dies Due To COVID-19 After Two Negative And One Positive Test An Uttar Pradesh Police inspector died due to coronavirus. He had tested negative for the COVID-19 test twice in eight days and later died after testing positive for the third time in a Lucknow hospital. AFP 47-year-old inspector Indrajeet Singh Bhadauriya was a native of Uttar Pradeshs Unnao district and joined the police force as a Constable in 1989. Read more As the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage San Franciscos economy and push more people toward poverty, a new city report says the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing is understaffed and unprepared to handle the swelling homelessness crisis. The report, published Thursday by the Budget and Legislative Analysts Office, paints a grim picture of a department tasked with handling one of San Franciscos most vexing and visible issues. According to the report, the department has a nearly 26% staff vacancy rate and high turnover, insufficient contract oversight and $26.5 million left unspent despite a spike in homelessness that is only expected to grow amid the pandemic. Abigail Stewart-Kahn, interim director of the department, said the issues outlined in the report should be understood within the context of the national and regional homelessness crisis, and the unforeseen and unprecedented impacts of the pandemic. She also says some of the staffing issues outlined in the report have already been addressed. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in (the department) completely re-creating its emergency system of care within weeks to protect COVID-19 vulnerable people experiencing homelessness and immediately shelter, feed and support approximately 2,300 people in shelter-in-place sites, Stewart-Kahn, who was appointed to the position in March 2020, wrote in a response to the report. Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle 2020 Its unclear how much the citys homeless population has increased since the pandemic began, but experts and providers say it could have jumped by as much as 20%. The issue has also become more visible since March, when shelters closed their doors to new residents and reduced capacity, leaving many with no choice but to sleep on the streets. Stewart-Kahn said the department also experienced a hiring freeze while half its staff was redirected to the citys COVID-19 response. That freeze has since been lifted, the department said, and it has begun filling new positions across the board. Still, issues around staffing and contract oversight have existed since the department was created by late Mayor Ed Lee in 2016 and critics say the pandemic has only amplified its shortcomings. The departments budget increased by 80% since its inception, to $364 million in the most recent fiscal year. Despite the increases, the report says millions of dollars have gone unused each year due to staff vacancies, underspending by community-based providers, and delays in implementing projects. Meanwhile, homelessness increased from 6,686 people to 8,011 between 2015 and 2019, according to counts taken once every two years. I think its pretty damning, Supervisor Matt Haney, whose district includes the Tenderloin, said of the report. How are we spending more and getting less? The report comes as City Hall embarks on an unprecedented budget season in which legislators must close a $1.5 billion deficit largely caused by the pandemic. Even though Mayor London Breed ordered each city department to slash their budgets by about 10%, she is still prioritizing investments to homelessness and housing programs. The mayor wants to place up to 6,000 people in housing and shelter over the next two years, an effort that will include acquiring or leasing 1,500 new units of permanent supportive housing. That plan which also includes the shorter-term pandemic responses for unhoused people, like safe-sleeping sites outside is expected to cost around $500 million. Those investments are largely hinged on November ballot measures that the mayor is expecting voters to pass. Photos by Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle Del Seymour, member of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board, said that the advisory board was looking forward to the budget commitments by the mayor. But knowing that there was such a large Homelessness Department budget surplus infuriated him. That really raised the hair on my neck, he said. Weve gotta come up with better oversight for our providers. At issue, he said, is that the department does not have documented policies that define contract and program managers overall roles and responsibilities. The department agrees in the report that it needs to create more clear guidelines and goals, and said it is working on standardizes contract terms. The Local Homeless Coordinating Board serves as an advisory board to the department. Though it meets regularly, it does not have any formal oversight over department operations or programs, outside of those funded by the federal Continuum of Care program. The homelessness department is one of the few major departments in the city without a formal commission, which would have authority to approve major contracts, set policy goals and vote on proposals like new shelters. Haney attempted to create an oversight commission last year, but he abandoned the effort after failing to get enough votes from his colleagues to put it on the ballot. But, he said, this report has made him consider reviving that effort especially considering the millions more dollars that the department may get after the November election. They have some explaining to do, he said of the department. As we spend more money on homelessness, this needs to be fixed. It is not something that can continue as is. Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:40:08|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Egypt sent on Saturday another batch of aid to Lebanon to help the country with facing the aftermath of the recent massive explosion that rocked the capital Beirut, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported. Loaded with 14 tons of aid, including foodstuff and flour, the Egyptian plane arrived at Rafic Hariri airport in Beirut earlier on Saturday. The first batch of Egyptian aid to Beirut was delivered on Thursday containing similar tons of medical supplies. The batches are part of an emergency air bridge through which Egypt vows to send planes loaded with necessary aid material to the disaster-stricken city. Also on Saturday, Egypt repatriated the bodies of the three Egyptians killed in the massive Beirut blast and sent them back to their hometown for burial. The explosions that took place in Beirut's port area on Tuesday left at least 154 people dead and more than 5,000 injured. Enditem By PTI BENGALURU: The vital parameters of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, under treatment for COVID-19 at Manipal Hospitals, are stable, sources in the facility said on Saturday. "The Chief Minister has been under treatment since his admission to Manipal Hospitals. At present, his vital parameters are stable. He is being closely monitored by a team of experts," director of the hospital Dr Manish Rai said in a statement here. The 77-year-old Chief Minister had, on the night of August 2, said he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is being shifted to hospital following doctors' advice. Officials have said the Chief Minister is engaged in work like signing files and holding review meetings from the hospital. Yediyurappa condoled the death of a Karnataka Administrative Service officer H Gangadharaiah due to a heart attack while on COVID-19 duty. "The Chief Minister has announced Rs 25 lakh as ex- gratia from Chief Minister's Relief Fund and a government job for a family member of Gangadharaiah and instructed that his last rites be performed with full state honours," the CMO said in a tweet. BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) Seizing the power of his podium and his pen, President Donald Trump on Saturday moved to bypass the nation's elected lawmakers as he claimed the authority to defer payroll taxes and extend an expired unemployment benefit after negotiations with Congress on a new coronavirus rescue package collapsed. At his private country club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump signed four executive orders to act where Congress hasn't, contending Washington's gridlock had compelled him to act as the pandemic undermined the country's economy and imperiled his November reelection hopes. Perhaps most crucially, Trump moved to continue paying a supplemental federal unemployment benefit for millions of Americans out of work during the outbreak. However, his order called for $400 payments, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving. Congress allowed those higher payments to lapse on Aug. 1, and negotiations to extend them have been mired in partisan gridlock, with the White House and Democrats miles apart. Trump largely stayed on the sidelines during the administrations negotiations with congressional leaders, leaving the talks on his side to chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Now Playing: Trump administration negotiators are heading back to the Capitol for last-ditch talks on vital COVID-19 rescue money. Democratic leaders summoned them for another try with the negotiations teetering on the brink of collapse. (Aug. 7) Video: Associated Press On HoustonChronicle.com: Ted Cruz goes up against Donald Trump in endorsement battles and loses Trumps embrace of executive actions to sidestep Congress runs in sharp contrast to his criticism of former President Barack Obamas use of executive orders on a more limited basis. And the presidents step-back from talks with Congress breaks with his self-assured negotiating skills. Now, Trump, who has not spoken with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi since last year, sought to play the role of election-year savior, with the $400 weekly assistance, as well as a deferral of payroll tax and federal student loan payments and the continuation of a freeze on some evictions during the crisis. It's $400 a week, and we're doing it without the Democrats, Trump said, asking states to cover 25% of the cost. Trump is seeking to set aside $44 billion in previously approved disaster aid to help states maintain supplemental pandemic jobless benefits, but Trump said it would be up to states to determine how much, if any of it, to fund. The president said at his club on Friday night that if Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need. Democrats had said they would lower their spending demands from $3.4 trillion to $2 trillion but said the White House needed to increase their offer. Republicans have proposed a $1 trillion plan. White House aides have watched the talks break down with apprehension, fearful that failure to close a deal could further damage an economic recovery already showing signs of slowing down. Fridays jobs report, though it beat expectations, was smaller than the past two months, in part because a resurgence of the virus has led to states rolling back their reopenings. On HoustonChronicle.com: The man behind the mask rule: Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert catches COVID, and criticism The presidents team believes the economy needs to stabilize and show signs of growth for him to have any chance at winning reelection. Aides were hoping to frame the expected executive orders signings as a sign that Trump was taking action in a time of crisis. But it also would reinforce the view that the president, who took office declaring he was a dealmaker, was unable to steer the process to an agreement. Trump said Saturday the orders will take care of pretty much this entire situation, as we know it. But they are far smaller in scope than congressional legislation, and even aides acknowledged they didn't meet the needs of all that was required. This is not a perfect answer well be the first ones to say that, Meadows said Friday as talks broke down. But it is all that we can do and all the president can do within the confines of his executive power, and were going to encourage him to do it. Trump said the employee portion of the payroll tax would be deferred from Aug. 1 through the end of the year. The move would not directly aid unemployed workers, who do not pay the tax when they are jobless, and employees will need to repay the federal government eventually without an act of Congress, where there is bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill. MORNING REPORT: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox In essence, the deferral is an interest-free loan that would have to be repaid. Trump said hell try to get lawmakers to extend it, and the timing would line up with a post-election lame-duck session in which Congress will try to pass government funding bills. If I win, I may extend and terminate, Trump said, repeating a longtime goal but remaining silent on how he'd fund the Medicare and Social Security benefits that the 7% tax on employee income covers. Employers also pay 7.65% of their payrolls into the funds. Both the House and Senate have left Washington, with members sent home on instructions to be ready to return for a vote on an agreement. With no deal in sight, their absence raised the possibility of a prolonged stalemate that stretches well into August and even September. Often an impasse in Washington is of little consequence for the public but not so this time. It would mean more hardship for millions of people who are losing enhanced jobless benefits and further damage for an economy pummeled by the still-raging coronavirus. Fridays negotiations at the Capitol added up to only a disappointing meeting, said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. He said the White House had rejected an offer by Pelosi, D-Calif., to curb Democratic demands by about $1 trillion. Schumer urged the White House to negotiate with Democrats and meet us in the middle. Dont say its your way or no way. That Capitol Hill session followed a combative meeting Thursday evening that for the first time cast real doubt on the ability of the Trump administration and Democrats to come together on a fifth COVID-19 response bill. Pelosi declared the talks all but dead until Meadows and Mnuchin give ground. The breakdown in the negotiations is particularly distressing for schools, which have been counting on billions of dollars from Washington to help with the costs of reopening. But other priorities are also languishing, including a fresh round of $1,200 direct payments to most people, a cash infusion for the struggling Postal Service and money to help states hold elections in November. Mnuchin said renewal of a $600-per-week pandemic jobless boost and huge demands by Democrats for aid to state and local governments are the key areas where they are stuck. Democrats have offered to reduce her almost $1 trillion demand for state and local governments considerably, but some of Pelosi's proposed cost savings would accrue chiefly because she would shorten the timeframe for benefits like food stamps. Pelosi and Schumer continue to insist on a huge aid package to address a surge in cases and deaths, double-digit joblessness and the threat of poverty for millions of the newly unemployed. Senate Republicans have been split, with roughly half of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's rank and file opposed to another rescue bill at all. Four prior coronavirus response bills totaling almost $3 trillion have won approval on bipartisan votes despite intense wrangling, but conservatives have recoiled at the prospect of another Pelosi-brokered agreement with a whopping deficit-financed cost. McConnell has kept his distance from the negotiations while coordinating with Mnuchin and Meadows. ___ Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor in Washington contributed to this report. Excellent Academic Path For Hospitality & Tourism Management Studies At One Of The Best World-Ranked University View(s): (Ranked #28 in the world for Hospitality & Leisure Management) The Management & Science University (MSU), one of Malaysias top universities complements the needs of highly skilled and expert human capital by offering Special Bachelor (hons) Degrees and Diplomas in Hospitality and Tourism Management. At the most recent world ranking, MSU has been ranked as the #28 best university in the world for Hospitality and Leisure Management Studies. In addition, the 2020 QS World University Rankings by Subject places MSU at number 2 in Malaysia for Hospitality and Leisure Management. Scoring in five subjects, Management and Science University (MSU) made both the Top 50 and Top 100 lists in the latest ranking exercise. MSU was also placed in the QS World Ranking Top 1.8% among the Asias best Universities and placed in the top 544th Universities of the world. MSU is also ranked as one of Malaysias top five private universities through an establishment audit done by Ernst & Young. Management and Science Institute (MSI) is the Colombo Center established by MSU. While the former offers a wide spectrum of diploma programs, the latter continues the Degree and Master programs for academics to become professionals in their chosen field. The Diploma in Hospitality & Tourism Management leading to the Bachelor (hons) Degree will expose the know how and hands on training in both the hospitality and tourism areas of practices. As such, the graduates of the programmes are expected to be competent in handling the common hospitality and tourism practice as well as become the forefront supervisors and lower level managers able to advice on routine decision-making process. The graduates will find ample opportunity in not only availing themselves to careers in hospitality and tourism industry but also in government services, academia and careers in internationally recognized hotels, event organizations and travel operators. These graduates will be absorbed into hotels, event companies, travel agents, transport operators, corporations and companies, banks, multimedia telecommunication companies, marketing agencies etc. after the completion of their degrees. The Diploma in Event Management offered by MSI is yet another popular programme at MSI. It is designed for individuals who wish to follow a career in organizing events in either private or government institutions. The diploma program is a useful step for anyone looking into career progress with hotels, event organizers, and travel operators, among others. The programme is conducted over a period of two years and offers students the unique opportunity to explore the different disciplines of events and management. Graduates of the program will learn to competently handle the common event practices and also act as supervisors and managers who provide advice on routine decision-making processes of the job scope. The Bachelor of Hospitality & Tourism Management (Hons) Degree is an undergraduate academic programme that leverages on a unique learning opportunity in the combined disciplines of hospitality, tourism, and management. The students pursuing the programme will be exposed both in the hospitality and tourism industry, as well as to the state-of-the-art technologies used in the fields of economics, management, and marketing. As such, graduates of the programme are expected to be competent to handle not only the common hospitality and tourism practice but also to provide advice on complex strategic issues in business decision making process. Sri Lankan students will now have a great opportunity to enroll MSUs quality education through its Colombo Center, MSI. For more information on MSI programmes call us at 0112576644, 0112576700, Hot Line 0770777880, email at enquiry@msi.edu.lk , www.msi.edu.lk or visit Management & Science Institute, No 300 Galle Road, Colombo 3. The Electoral Commission (EC) says it is collaborating with the respective security agencies to investigate the alleged illegal registration of some Ivorians in the ongoing voters' registration exercise. A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency said the initial investigation revealed that the said registration occurred at Banda Kabrono in the Bono Region. As a Commission determined to compile a register, which reflects eligible Ghanaians only, we take this matter very seriously. The Commission has launched a fullscale investigation into the matter, and will not shield any staff (permanent or temporary )found to have been involved in the alleged illegal registration of foreign nationals, it said. The statement said the Commission would use all legal means to ensure that the names of all ineligible persons were removed from Ghana's Voters Register. It called on all well-meaning Ghanaians to report illegal and unauthorized activities of any EC official to the Commission and the Security Agencies. The statement stressed, we are determined to compile a register that reflects eligible Ghanaians only. We will continue to work to ensure that the 2020 Voters Register bears the hallmark of credibility and integrity. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video APC national leader Bola Tinubu has finally showed Edo Gov Godwin Obaseki how foolish the decision was to desecrate the state legislative sanctum in the bid to control the lawmaking arm of government. Tinubu described Obasekis actions as the gravest possible assault on constitutional democracy and the rule of law and escalation of violence and tension in the state he purports to govern. Tinubu said this in a statement he personally signed on Friday. He hammered Obaseki, for making a mockery of Nigerias constitution by blocking the timely inauguration of two-thirds of the elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly, and now resorting to the strong-arm tactics of dictators. According to Tinubu, Obaseki had sponsors hoodlums to deface, indeed destroy, parts of the As a pretext for his refusal to allow the Edo House of Assembly to function, Governor Obasekis actions are perverse. This is a cowardly act and a move to thwart representative democracy in Edo. No renovation has been planned for the state house building. No appropriation was made in the states budget. The only reason any renovation could be deemed necessary is the destruction wrought by his own goons. Governor Obasekis governance of Edo State recalls the worst excesses of our military past and represents a direct threat to the democratic order. By his refusal to permit duly elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly to perform their constitutional duties, Governor Obaseki betrayed contempt for the people of his state and, unfortunately, his ignorance of Nigerias constitutional order. As a Governor he ought to know better than to obstruct the functioning of his own legislature, but perhaps he is in need of a quick lesson. The legislative function is, perhaps, the most foundational obligation of any government. In the UK, the Parliament was famously said to be that supreme and absolute power, which gives life and motion to the English government. In most democratic systems, the legislature is the arm of government containing within itself the peoples representatives in government. As such, the legislative arm is critical. It is an important symbol of democratic governance. The voice, will and desires of the people are reposed in their elected representatives sent to the legislature to express and distil their amorphous will into the laws and codes by which the society has agreed to live. In the context of a constitutional democracy such as ours, the legislatures authority stems, in effect, from the recognition that it is the authentic mouthpiece of the people, entrusted with the responsibility of representing their collective will and the power to interpret and mould it into the laws of the land. It is, in short, not to be toyed with as a plaything of an errant and ill-disciplined governor. Undermine the legislature and you imperil democracy and allow governance to descend into anarchy. Indeed, it is no coincidence that of the three arms of government, the powers of the legislature are enumerated first, in our Constitution. The legislature is the authority imbued with the power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the federation and states. Indeed, the Constitution makes clear that a Governors role primarily extends to the maintenance and implementation of the laws set down for him by his states legislature. In placing himself above the legislature, deciding who gets in and who is shut out, Governor Obaseki not only places himself above the nations constitutional order, he places himself above the people of Edo State whose representatives he so brazenly tramples upon. One can only wonder, given the desperation with which he has acted and his belligerent refusal to honour the free choice of the people of his own state, what mortal offence the majority members he has shut out have committed to warrant such treatment. Although Governor Obasekis conduct in the past year is undoubtedly impeachable, these legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them. What, then, is their offence? By all appearances, the Governor is punishing these legislators for their loyalty to a party that is no longer his own. If every governor behaves as he, obstructing the performance of any legislator who does not pledge to him their undying fealty, the entire edifice of democratic governance in Nigeria would grind to a complete halt. In his campaign for re-election, Governor Obaseki promises to represent and defend the interests of all the people of his state. Yet, so blinded is he by his personal ambition, he sees no irony in the fact that his actions have denied two-thirds of the people of his state their right to representation in the states only legislative chamber. Governor Obaseki must think the people of his state to be as foolhardy and ignorant as he, for even as he courts their votes, he continues to make a mockery of the institution of democracy in his own House of Assembly. If Governor Obaseki believes the people are not aware of this inherent irony, he will undoubtedly learn the cost of this grave miscalculation in the fullness of time. The rule of law and preservation of democracy is too important to sacrifice at the altar of any one mans ambition. Governor Obasekis woeful leadership of Edo State will hopefully be brought to an end soon by the very people whose rights he has so carelessly trampled upon. One can only hope that the damage he is doing to the most important of the states democratic institutions can just as easily be repaired. An engineering firm has been appointed to identify route options and develop initial designs for the proposed 1bn Cork light rail system. Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and the National Transport Authority (NTA) have confirmed today that Jacobs Engineering Ireland has been awarded the contract to do the work on the proposed Light Rail Transit (LRT) system which will run from Ballincollig, on the western outskirts of Cork city, to Mahon Point in the east. The 17km east-west Luas-style system is one of the biggest elements of the ambitious Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (CMATS). This proposed Luas scheme will provide a high-capacity, high-frequency public transport link from the eastern to the western suburbs of Cork and will serve a large number of significant destinations including Ballincollig, the proposed Cork Science and Innovation Park (CSIP), Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), Cork University Hospital (CUH), University College Cork (UCC), Cork City Centre, Kent Station/Cork North Docklands, Cork South Docklands and Mahon. TII chief executive officer Michael Nolan said he was very pleased to be able to announce the result of the tender competition for the route selection work. Image showing a planned LUAS for Cork sharing the old Blackrock railway line greenway. Light rail has proven itself in many cities, including Dublin, and TII is very enthusiastic about working with the NTA and all the regional stakeholders in taking this project forward in Cork, he said. NTA chief executive, Anne Graham, said when the NTA met with the elected members of Cork City Council in recent weeks, it was clear that there was overwhelming support for the measures contained in CMATS. It was also clear to us that if the strategy is to remain a credible document in the eyes of people in Cork, it is essential that progress is made on the delivery of the key elements, sooner rather than later, she said. That is why todays announcement is significant, and we believe that it is a clear signal that implementation of the Strategy is now under way. Alleging police inaction, a rape victim staged a protest outside the office of Ludhiana police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal on Saturday, demanding the arrest of the accused. The victim alleged that the accused was hiding in his house in Bilaspur but the police are not arresting him and are instead pressuring her to withdraw the case. The woman said the accused was her co-worker and had established physical relations with her on the pretext of marriage. However, later he refused to marry her. She then filed a complaint in the Punjab and Haryana high court following which panchayat members of his village intervened and assured to get them married before March 2020. However, in December 2019, the accused barged into her house and raped her again. Following this, she filed a police complaint but eight months on, no action has been taken, she alleged. The woman further said that the accuseds father filed a missing persons report at Jamalpur police station in a bid to save him. The woman said she will continue the protest till the accused is arrested. Focal Point station house officer, inspector Mohammad Jamil said cops have conducted multiple raids at the house of the accused in Himachal Pradesh, but he was not present there. He also refuted the claims of pressuring the victim to withdraw her complaint. Our Divisions Copyright 2021-22 DB Corp ltd., All Rights Reserved This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. Cross-party political support for the campaign for a third secondary school in north Wexford has been achieved after the campaign team met with Wexford's five TDs. Having the backing already from Gorey's two senators, Michael D'Arcy and Malcolm Byrne, Elaine Clarke of the campaign said that all concerned have agreed to work together on this project for Wexford as a whole with taking different approaches. 'We have to make ourselves more of a lobby group now, because we have two senators and five TDs and all councillors backing it. We're much more hopeful than we were four weeks ago because we've gotten very positive assurances from all of them which has been brilliant. Collectively, we can shout louder and we are all in agreement on that and that's definitely a big plus. 'In the last few weeks we've got good momentum but with the summer break, it'll give us a chance to talk to these people face to face as they aren't as busy. 'We're running out of time because the way we see it, next September is going to be the big crunch point,' she said. Local councillors have shown their support and the topic has been raised in political circles like the Seanad, while Sinn Fein's Johnny Mythen, Fianna Fail's James Browne and Independent TD Verona Murphy sent questions on behalf of the campaign to the Department of Education and Skills. Deputy Mythen asked about the latest demographic information used, including figures of projected population growth of second-level school-age children to analyse the projected need for future second-level schools as well as plans and if Minister Norma Foley would make a statement on the issue. He also asked when the last review of demographic information was carried out. Deputy Browne asked if the Minister would review the need for an additional school based on census figures and primary school enrolment data. While Deputy Murphy asked about the statistics and format used when determining the need for a secondary school in a particular area along with the breakdown of these figures for Gorey, Enniscorthy, New Ross and Wexford Town. All three received a similar response which read: 'The Department carries out nationwide demographic exercises to determine where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary level. Major new residential developments in a school planning area have the potential to alter demand in that area. In that regard, as part of the demographic exercises, the Department engages with each of the local authorities to obtain the up-to-date data on significant new residential development in each area. This is necessary to ensure that schools infrastructure planning is keeping pace with demographic changes as there is a constantly evolving picture with planned new residential development. 'Where data indicates that additional provision is required, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may, depending on the circumstances, be provided through either one, or a combination of, the following: utilising existing unused capacity within a school or schools, extending the capacity of a school or schools or the provision of a new school or schools. 'The requirement for new schools will be kept under ongoing review and in particular will have regard for the increased roll out of housing provision as outlined in Project Ireland 2040. 'Under this, the Department continues to make progress to increase the infrastructural capacity in the schools sector, in order to meet demographic and other demands and will also continue to monitor areas where the accommodation of existing schools may need to be expanded in order to meet the needs of the local population'. Senator Malcolm Byrne said that in his letter congratulating the new Education Minister, he raised the issue of the shortage of second level places and is now hoping to meet her shortly on this issue. Raising the issue on the floor of the Seanad, Senator Byrne said: 'The problem continues. We have a situation where there may not be sufficient places in Gorey and there seems to be no plans coming forward from the Department to address it,' he said. He also said that there would be difficulties social distancing where schools are already under pressure for places. Speaking to this newspaper, he said that he remains seriously concerned. 'I am frustrated that progress has been so slow but I am optimistic that with a new Minister that we can get things moving and ensure that children in the county are not left without school places. 'We should be starting building work now to meet the growing demand and I remain seriously concerned at the failure of the Department of Education to address this crisis facing Wexford schools'. Former Minister Paul Kehoe described his meeting the third secondary school campaign team as productive, and Labour TD Brendan Howlin also met the team and gave them advice. Pledging his support, Deputy Mythen said that he would be backed up by Gorey councillor Fionntan O Suilleabhain. 'The situation of current secondary school capacity has reached its limits in the Gorey district. The Department's response and use of empirical data is not corresponding with the current and growing demand for schools and places and they are very questionable. 'Gorey is the fastest growing town in Ireland and myself and my fellow councillor Fionntan O Suilleabhain are fully behind this campaign and are more than willing to help as much as possible in securing a new school for north Wexford,' he said. Echoing these remarks, Councillor Suilleabhain said that all parties must work together. 'Being on the board of both secondary schools in Gorey, I am acutely aware of the lack of capacity. As a local primary school teacher, I know the numbers coming out of the local primary schools, and we must also factor in the huge number of planning applications for extra housing that have been granted and also those that are in the pipeline. 'In addition, we have the movement of people from Dublin and elsewhere into North Wexford that's giving us a population increase. All parties must work together to force the hand of the new Minister, Norma Foley, to concede that the Department's data doesn't give an accurate picture of the reality on the ground and the crisis that we will face in September 2022. They must review the situation immediately,' he said. As well as being grateful for these supports, Elaine Clarke said that Councillor Andrew Bolger's involvement has also been an asset to the campaign. 'We've noticed particularly online that his age profile is reaching out further to a new group of people. He's very enthusiastic, he's fresh out of school and college and he realises how important it is for young people not to have that extra worry 'The majority of people his age don't have kids that are going into secondary school but they recognise that this is an issue that needs to be rectified and that has put new momentum to it. 'There is this whole new group that we hadn't tapped into yet, of new parents or not quite parents thinking ahead that we need to get this sorted long term in a growing town. We need to look forward,' she said. Cllr Bolger said that he was happy to lend his support. 'One of the first things I did a as a councillor was stand outside the Loreto primary school in Gorey and get people to sign the petition. It's important to send out a strong message if we are serious about Gorey being a good place to work, live and bring up families. We don't just want a school, we need a school. This is not something that teenagers should have to worry about as they have enough to deal with,' he said. The team have also voiced their concerns to District Manager Michael Drea and made contact with the Wexford Green Party members about the issue. 'Now that the new government is up and running, we need to try and make contact with the special advisory and push the issue. That was something we hadn't thought of before, but Paul Kehoe is going to look to see if we can get a feasibility study done by the Department on all primary schools in the district. If they were to grant a school, a feasibility would have to be done so we're pre-empting this,' she said. The campaign team have singled out the Waleran site in Gorey, and although previously they envisaged having no set patron, there are plans to meet with national representatives of Educate Together. 'There isn't an Educate Together secondary school here and it would be a third option for children and parents in primary school. We think it will enable us to get more of a push and national coverage, it might help us to get across the line a little bit quicker. 'As a campaign team, we had a bit of a mixed reaction to the news of the WWETB school for 1,000 students in Wexford town. It's encouraging that it has been granted and it's great for them but what's discouraging is that they started that campaign in 2016. 'We have complete support from parents, but we're trying to engage with all the different stakeholders involved'. Elaine said that there is thinking that the Covid-19 crisis might actually help the campaign, in terms of the requirement for more space to accommodate social distancing. 'It might be harder to get the Department's attention while all of this is going on but once we have that, we can show them that Gorey Community School and Creagh will be hitting capacity, and that with health and safety you don't want to be putting another 100 or so kids to somewhere that isn't suitable for those numbers. 'We all feel it's a good time to push that we need a new school for capacity as opposed to opening more classrooms within the school,' she said. Next for the campaign is to open a line of communication with the Department to try get the message directly to the Education Minister. The team are currently compiling files to prove the need and highlight the support already received. Part of this is the online petition, which has over 600 signatures recorded to date. The aim is to present the petition to the Minister. To sign the petition, search 'Third School for Gorey' on my.uplift.ie/petition President of the Young Professionals Network (YPN), Mr. Stephen Asiedu has urged the youth not to allow themselves to be used by politicians to instigate violence in the countrys general elections in December. Mr. Asiedu said the youth must put the future of the country first rather than working to satisfy the parochial interest of individuals who are mostly aged and will soon fade out of the system. According to him, if the youth allow themselves to be used by politicians to plunge the country into a state of insecurity, then there will be no future for generations to come. Speaking exclusively to electionandbeyond.com, the YPN President said as part of activities to get campaign messages across to the youth, the group would continue to engage in advocacy and direct interactions with the youth to help them understand the various laws that govern the electoral processes. The youth is the future of our country and oftentimes during elections and electoral processes they end up being used by political actors for the parochial interests of these politicians. We have advised that the youth should always look at protecting the future for themselves because if you do not do the right thing they will plunge the state into insecurity, he cautioned. Mr. Stephen Asiedu believes the good counsel will go a long way to help the youth in staying out of trouble before, during and after the elections. We will continue to engage the youth through advocacy and direct engagement to observe the very laws that govern this whole process. Let us not be used as agents of conflict but follow the rules and laws. We must make sure we are protecting our right and the right of every legitimate voter and try at all times to prevent violence because that is the only way we can safeguard the peace that we have enjoyed over the years, he stated. He indicated that YPN has already begun its advocacy on social media interacting with the youth and urging them to help maintain the peace in the country considering there is already the COVID-19 pandemic hovering around. On why he joined the Chief of Staff, Madam Akosua Frema Osei Opare when she toured ten registration centres in the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency on Sunday, August 2, 2020, he explained that the Chief of Staff from her days as MP and Lecturer at the University of Ghana has been an ambassador of peace and beacon of hope for people in that constituency. I see her as a mother so when I found out she was stepping out to register and tour some constituencies, I just felt it was in order to support her. She is one of the patrons of YPN and she has continually been our backbone. She has been a mother and a mentor to most of us and going forward we hope we can achieve more with her for the benefit of our members and the country as well. Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video By Express News Service In Keralas biggest plane accident, an Air India Express aircraft carrying 190 people on board, including crew, from Dubai to Calicut airport skidded off the table-top runway while landing in bad weather, fell 35 feet onto a road below and split into two at 7.41pm on Friday. At least 19 persons, including pilot Commander Deepak Vasanth Sathe and co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar, died while 40 suffered grievous injuries. The injured have been admitted to nearby hospitals. An official statement by the airline said the flight IX 1344 from Dubai to Kozhikode was a part of the ongoing Vande Bharat mission to bring stranded Indians from abroad. There were 184 passengers, including 10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew members on board the aircraft. No fire was reported at the time of the landing, the statement said. Rescue operations were launched with the help of local residents who gathered after hearing the loud noise. Fire and rescue teams of Kozhikode and Malappuram districts also rushed to the spot soon after the incident. The plane had overshot runway at 1941 hrs Friday night, according to a statement from Rajeev Jain, Additional DG, Media, Ministry of Civil Aviation After skidding, it fell onto the side of the nearby Cross Belt Road along the Kondotty-Kunnumpuram stretch. The aircraft had a 35-meter deep fall, splitting it into two pieces, leaving the debris all over the runway. Though a thick smoke came out from the cockpit, no fire was reported. The passengers who suffered major injuries were shifted to Kozhikode and Manjeri medical college hospitals. Rescue work got over at midnight. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it would investigate the crash. The flights scheduled to land at the Kozhikode airport were diverted to Kannur and Kochi. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed shock over the tragedy. Arrangments have been made at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, Beach Hospital, Farooq Hospital and other private hospitals, said Health Minister K K Shailaja. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who represents Wayanad in Parliament, said he was shocked by the accident. Deepest condolences to the friends and families of those who died in this accident. Prayers for the speedy recovery of the injured, he said. A spokesman said he can't reveal the names of the dead as their families need to be informed first. Details of the deceased #Karipur #airindia #planecrash Of the 11 died, bodies of six identified. 1. C P Rajeevan (61), Cherikka Parambil, Kokkallur, Kozhikode. 2. Sharafudheen (35), Mele Maruthakottil, Kunnamangalam, Pilasserry, Kozhikode. (1/n) TNIE Kerala (@xpresskerala) August 7, 2020 "As per the latest information from state authorities, search and rescue operation is over and all injured have been shifted to various hospitals. Air India Dubai helpline is +97142079444. CGI Dubai expresses its deep condolences for deceased passengers", informed Indian Embassy in Dubai. IN PICS | Kozhikode tragedy - Air India Express flight crash lands leaving at least 17 dead, over 40 grievously injured The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered a detailed inquiry into the matter. Such runways, which are located on hilltops, create the optical illusion of being at the same level as the plains below when a pilot comes in for a landing. The Kozhikode airport landing strip is a tabletop, like the one at Mangaluru. If the engine of the plane had caught fire, the devastation would have been massive, said Kondotty MLA T V Ibrahim. As per the initial assessment, the table-top runway along with bad weather resulted in the unusual landing, leading to the mishap, the MLA said. The incident brought back the nightmares of the May 22, 2010 crash of Air India Express flight IX812 at Mangaluru airport when the plane, after unable to land on the table-top runway, fell off the cliff and burst into flames, killing 158 people. A control room has been opened at the airport. The helpline number is 04832719493. Visuals from Calicut where the Dubai-Kozhikode #AirIndia flight carrying more than 180 passengers on board skidded during landing.@xpresskerala pic.twitter.com/pHysg2JtJ7 The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) August 7, 2020 It had been raining heavily at the time of the accident. Chief Minister also asked all government agencies to engage in rescue operations using all facilities. He instructed AC Moideen, minister for local bodies, to coordinate the rescue operations and deputed Kozhokode IG of Police to oversee the rescue operation. Health authorities also have been instructed to provide all possible medical aid to save the lives of victims. "Distressed to learn of this accident. Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers and their families," Pavan Kapoor, Ambassador of India to the United Arab Emirates said while reacting to the mishap. "Deeply anguished and distressed at the air accident in Kozhikode. Air India Express flight number AXB-1344 from Dubai to Kozhikode, overshot the runway in rainy conditions and went down 35 ft. into a slope before breaking up into two pieces," said Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. "Two investigation teams of professionals from Air India, Airports Authority of India & AAIB will leave for Kozhikode at 02.00 hrs & 05.00 hours. Rescue operations are now complete. Injured being treated at various city hospitals," he further said. "PM Narendra Modi spoke to Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan on phone about Karipur plane crash. CM informed PM that a team of officials including Kozhikode & Malappuram District Collectors & IG Ashok Yadav have arrived at the airport & participating in the rescue operation," Kerala CMO said in a statement. The Civil Aviation Ministry did an urgent meeting which is underway at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan. DGCA Director-General and officials of the ministry, Airport Authority of India and Air India Express were in the meeting. "Deeply saddened to hear about the accident of Air India Express flight IX1344 upon landing at Kozhikode airport. Our thoughts are with all those affected by this accident," International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in its reaction. Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Kerala CM @vijayanpinarayi Ji regarding the situation. Authorities are at the spot, providing all assistance to the affected. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 7, 2020 LANDING ON A TABLETOP RUNWAY Runways located in high altitude with one of both ends adjacent to a drop are known as tabletop runways. Such runways create the optical illusion of being at the same level as the plains below when a pilot comes in for a landing. The incident brought back the nightmares of the May 22, 2010, crash of Air India Express flight IX 812 at Mangaluru International Airport. The plane slipped off the tabletop runway, fell off the cliff and burst into flames killing 158 passengers. Shah asks NDRF to assist the rescue efforts Union Home Minister Amit Shah directed the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Friday night to rush to the spot at Kerala's Kozhikode to assist in the rescue-and-relief operations. "Distressed to learn about the tragic accident of Air India Express aircraft in Kozhikode, Kerala. Have instructed NDRF to reach the site at the earliest and assist with the rescue operations," Shah tweeted. "We must remember that it is a tabletop runway at Kozhikode. There seems to have been injuries among all the passengers and some of them are unconscious. An NDRF team has been rushed to the spot and should be reaching any time there to join search &rescue operation," said NDRF DG SN Pradhan. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, a Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad, also tweeted his condolences. Shocked at the devastating news of the plane mishap in Kozhikode. Deepest condolences to the friends and family of those who died in this accident. Prayers for the speedy recovery of the injured. Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 7, 2020 Kerala CM asked all government agencies to engage in rescue operations Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed his shock at the tragic mishap. The CM asked all government agencies to engage in rescue operations using all government facilities. The CM has deputed A C Moideen, minister for local bodies, to coordinate the rescue operations. AC Moideen has already left for Karipur from Thrissur. CM also has deputed an IG of Police to oversee the rescue operation. Fire and Rescue teams of two district's also have been engaged. Health authorities have been instructed to provide all possible medical aid to save lives of victims. President Kovind, Kerala Governor and Union Minister offer condolences "Deeply distressed to hear about tragic plane crash of Air India Express flight at Kozhikode, Kerala. Spoke to Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and inquired about the situation. Thoughts and prayers with affected passengers, crew members and their families", said President Ram Nath Kovind. "My heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their lives following the crashlanding of Air India Express flight at Karipur. My prayers for the speedy recovery of those injured", Kerala Arif Mohammed Khan said. "It's a sad and unfortunate incident. Perhaps, because of heavy rain in Calicut, it seems the pilot could not land and then in second attempt he landed but there was hard landing, after which aircraft skid off beyond runway," MoS MEA V Muraleedharan said while reacting on the plane crash incident. Among those died, six bodies have been identified. 1. Mohammad Riyaz VP (24), Palakkad 2. Shaheer Ziyad (38), Malappuram 3. Lailabi K V (51), Malappuram 4. Rajeevan Chekkaraparamabil (61), Kozhikode 5. Manal Ahammad (25), Kozhikode 6. Sharafuddeen (35), Kozhikode 7. Janaki Kunnoth (55), Kozhikode 8. Azam Mohammad Chembayi (1), Kozhikode 9. Shantha Marakkat (59), Malappuram 10. Akhilesh Kumar (crew member) 11. Deepak Sathe (crew member) 12. Sudheer Variyath (45), Malappuram 13. Shaiza Fathima (2), Malappuram 14. Ramya Muraleedhran (32), Kozhikode 15. Ayisha Dua (2), Palakkad 16. Shivathmika (5), Kozhikode 17. Shenobia (40), Kozhikode 18. Shahina Bhanu (29), Kozhikode (With Agencies' Inputs) A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to a man arrested in connection with the rioting in north-east Delhi while stating that he was not a part of a riotous mob and was seen rather calm, cool and composed in the CCTV footage of the riots played inside the court. Additional sessions judge Vinod Yadav said from the perusal of the CCTV footage, it is clearly apparent that Mohd Mobin Ali does not appear to be part of the riotous mob on February 26. The judge said Ali was merely returning from Phool Wali Masjid after offering namaz when the riots broke out in Usmanpur area. The court granted bail to Ali on a personal bond of 20,000 and one surety of like amount while directing him to not tamper with the evidence or influence any witness in any manner and maintain peace and harmony in the locality. According to Alis counsel, there was an apparent delay of about 24 hours in recording of FIR. He contended that his client has not been named in the FIR and was in judicial custody since April 20. He said that two CCTV cameras installed at the scene of crime, which is quite near to Phool Wali Masjid, clearly showed that the alleged accused person was just coming from the Masjid and going towards his house in the vicinity. However, the police had contended that Ali was identified by an injured person on March 13 after seeing the CCTV footage. He was then arrested under sections of unlawful assembly and attempt to murder. On Friday, the court observed that Ali was unarmed and appeared to be cool, calm and composed before granting him bail. To snatch a state government out of Congress hands is therefore a high-stakes game with national political implications, for it denies the party the essential fuel to run effective election campaigns, notes T N Ninan. IMAGE: Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra interacts with Chief Minister Ashok Gelhot and Congress MLAs at the Raj Bhavan in Jaipur. Photograph: PTI Photo Why is it so important to capture state governments though you did not get the voter's mandate? One answer could be that it helps to have control of the state administration for whenever the next elections are held. Police and other officials can be transferred as required to facilitate the ruling party's campaigning, made to look the other way when skulduggery is on (like moving voters' bribe money into a constituency), or deployed to engineer the support of local influencers and toughs. There is a less obvious possibility: Much of the money that can be milked from the government system for political use is at state, not Central, level. The double benefit is that the same money can be denied to the Opposition, which by definition is already at a disadvantage because it does not have access to the funds that control of the central government can help generate. Businessmen are usually willing to pay because their life can be made difficult or facilitated by the Centre's 'agencies', taxmen, bank officials (the infamous 'phone banking'), and sector regulators who hand out convenient decisions. While such funding is large and important, the fiscal reality as it has evolved puts the bulk of the government money in the hands of the states, not the Centre. The latter's total expenditure last year was about Rs 27 trillion, but most of that was pre-committed. Pay and pensions for over 10 million employees and pensioners, interest payments on government debt (climbing rapidly), and transfers to the states (more generous than in the past) accounted in more or less equal measure for a combined total of nearly three-quarters of the whole. Discretionary spending by the Centre was, therefore, no more than about Rs 7 trillion. Against this, the states spent Rs 34 trillion, of which pre-empted expenditure was much less than for the Centre. Interest payments, for instance, were less than 60 per cent of the central bill. So if there is money to be made out of kickbacks on government payouts, much the bigger opportunities are in the states. Think irrigation and road construction contracts, deals on liquor excise and mining leases (as in Karnataka's Reddy brothers and the riches of Bellary), and purchases of all kinds (power by state discoms, coal by power-generating stations, fodder by animal husbandry departments, tendu leaf purchase contracts ... the list is long). What is more, there is usually less scrutiny of state-level deals, unless you are unlucky like Lalu Prasad. Control of a state government or two is therefore crucial for the effective functioning of a party in the wilderness like the Congress. One reason why its chief ministers have been so powerful is that it is they who fund the party at the Centre. Think back to the power wielded by Y S Rajashekhar Reddy (and the rapid acquisition of wealth by his son) and Bhupinder Singh Hooda (all those permissions for change of land use), among others. To snatch a state government out of Congress hands is therefore a high-stakes game with national political implications, for it denies the party the essential fuel to run effective election campaigns. The price of a state legislator who is willing to switch party affiliation may seem large if it stretches (as various accounts have it) from Rs 15 crore to Rs 25 crore. But for bagging 15 or 20 legislators and swinging the balance in the assembly, a war chest big enough to hold Rs 400 crore is well worth putting out if that means denying a rival party the riches of a state exchequer (similar, in historical terms, to bribing Mir Jaffer to pocket, in due course, the Diwani of Bengal). What is more, since the Congress has little prospect of being anything more than a minor player in some large and medium states (Bihar, UP, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh), control of the bigger ones among the rest like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan becomes all the more important for its continuance as an effective force. The obverse is that denying these states to the Congress becomes crucial for achieving the declared goal of a 'Congress-mukt' Bharat. Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com A woman was slashed by a man with a knife hanging on a lanyard, after he allegedly accused her of getting too close to him on a New York City subway. Diana Quinonez, 29, a construction worker from Queens, was attacked by an unidentified man while they were on a southbound 7 train at the Roosevelt Ave.-Jackson Heights station in Queens around 4.30pm Wednesday. 'I got in and grabbed a pole that was next to him,' Quinonez told the New York Daily News. 'From what I understand, I upset him, and he told me "move, f**k you, move."' NYC woman Diana Quinonez, 29, was slashed by a man (pictured) who had a knife on a lanyard after he allegedly accused her of standing too close to him on the subway Quinonez said that nobody tried to intervene when the man barked at her and kicked her. She then used her video camera to record him as he attacked her, at which point he took his folding knife - hanging from a lanyard - and slashed her left arm with it. In the video, which was released by the NYPD, the man can be seen wearing a face mask as he sits on the train. He gestures aggressively at her before opening the folding knife and using his hold on the lanyard to swing the blade at her. Quinonez then exited the train while suspect remained inside the train, police told the newspaper. Quinonez used her cell phone to record video of the man as he attacked her. He appears to be opening the folding knife he was carrying in this image The man then stands up to approach Quinonez (left) and is pictured after swinging the knife at her. The knife (circled in red) can be seen hanging from a lanyard Despite the slashed arm, she refused further medical attention at the 82nd Street station, ABC 7 reported. Authorities are now seeking help in identifying the suspect. Quinonez told the newspaper that she is scared to get back on the train, which she needs to use to get to her construction sites. 'Truthfully I cant, I dont want to go to work,' Quinonez said, noting that she didn't go to work on Thursday or Friday, the two days following the attack, 'For fear... I think I dont have safety here.' Quinonez said that she is considering moving back to Paraguay, her home country, while her ex-boyfriend told the newspaper that the attack has made her scared to go outside. Anyone with information about the suspect's identity is asked to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. Shillong, Aug 8 : As the deadly coronavirus spreads across the country, Meghalaya became the latest state in the northeastern region to see its tally cross the 1,000-mark, with 1,023 Covid-19 cases as on Saturday. There are now only two among the eight northeastern states where the tally is yet to reach four figures -- Mizoram (566) and Sikkim (854). According to the health officials, on Saturday night, Meghalaya had 594 active Covid-19 cases, with 263 of them being personnel of the Border Security Force and other security forces. The state has so far seen six deaths due to Covid-19. Arunachal Pradesh's Covid-19 count crossed the 2,000-mark on Saturday after 101 more people, including 46 security personnel, tested positive. The northeastern states, as on Saturday night, had a total of 74,497 cases with 208 deaths. Assam led with 57,714, followed by Tripura (6,017), Manipur (3,635), Nagaland (2,688), Arunachal Pradesh (2,000), Meghalaya (1,023), Sikkim (854) and Mizoram (566). The region currently has 21,347 active cases. with 140 deaths so far, Assam also leads in fatality figures, and is followed by Tripura with 40, Manipur with 11, Nagaland with seven, Meghalaya with six, Arunachal Pradesh with three, and Sikkim with one. Mizoram is the only state in the region where thee have been no Covid deaths. The special flight had been carrying Indians stranded abroad by the coronavirus pandemic. Eighteen people were killed and more than 120 injured, at least 15 of them critically, said Abdul Karim, a senior police officer in southern Kerala state. The dead included both pilots of the Air India Express flight, the airline said in a statement, adding that the four cabin crew were safe. The two-year-old Boeing 737-800 was flying from Dubai to Kozhikode, also called Calicut, in Kerala. There were 174 adult passengers, 10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew on board. In a telephone interview from his hospital bed, Renjith Panangad, a plumber who was returning home for the first time in three years after losing his job at a construction company in Dubai, said the plane swayed before the crash and everything went dark. Advertisement He said he followed other passengers who crawled their way out of the fuselage through the emergency exit. A lot of passengers were bleeding, said Mr Panangad, who escaped without major injuries. I still cant comprehend what happened. As I am trying to recall what happened, my body is shivering. He said the pilot made a regular announcement before landing, and moments after the plane hit the runway, it nosedived. There was a big noise during the impact and people started screaming, he said. As the rain stopped on Saturday morning, searchers recovered a flight data recorder as the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau started work on the wreckage. Air India Express said its teams also reached Calicut to support and assist families of the victims. The wreckage of the plane was resting below a flat hilltop, its nose crashed through a wall. The aircrafts fuselage was split in two and cables dangled from the wreckage, with luggage and seats were strewn around. A similar tragedy was narrowly avoided at the same airport a year ago, when an Air India Express flight suffered a tail strike upon landing. None of the 180 passengers on that flight was injured. Kozhikodes 9,350ft (2,850m) runway is on a flat hilltop with deep gorges on either side, ending in a 112ft (34m) drop. Advertisement Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep S Puri said in a statement that the flight overshot the runway in rainy conditions and went down the slope, breaking into two pieces upon impact. Questions for investigators will involve not only the aircraft, weather and pilots but also the runway itself. Its end safety area was expanded in 2018 to accommodate wide-body aircraft. The runway end safety area meets United Nations international civil aviation requirements, but the UN agency recommends a buffer that is 492ft (150m) longer than that at Kozhikode airport, according to Harro Ranter, chief executive of the Aviation Safety Network online database. The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the countrys aviation regulator had sought an explanation from the director of Kozhikode airport in 2019 on finding various critical safety lapses, which included cracks in the runway, water stagnation and excessive rubber deposits. Officials from the aviation regulator said on Saturday that it is too early to tell whether the accident was a result of a technical fault or human error. Dubai-based aviation consultant Mark Martin said annual monsoon conditions appeared to be a factor, though it was too early to be certain of the cause. Low visibility, wet runway, low cloud base, all leading to very poor braking action is what looks like led to where we are at the moment with this crash, he said, calling for the European Aviation Safety Agency and the US Federal Aviation Administration to assist with the Indian governments investigation. Advertisement Kerala state health minister KK Shailaja asked local residents who joined the rescue effort to go into quarantine as a precautionary measure. The survivors were being tested for Covid-19, officials said. The Air India Express flight was part of the Indian governments special repatriation mission to take Indian citizens back to the country, officials said. All of the passengers were returning from the Gulf region. The passenger manifest of the flight, a copy of which was seen by the Associated Press, showed that a large number of passengers were stranded tourists and workers reuniting with their families after months away. Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Kerala CM @vijayanpinarayi Ji regarding the situation. Authorities are at the spot, providing all assistance to the affected. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 7, 2020 Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode, and that he had spoken to Keralas top elected official. Air India Express is a subsidiary of Air India. The worst air disaster in India was on November 12 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided mid-air with a Kazakhastan Airlines flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 on board the two planes. A-1 Auto Transport, Inc. has once again opened eligibility for its annual scholarship to Illinois students. The Illinois-based auto transport company strives to assist students cover part of their tuition with the scholarship. Students may be enrolled full or part time in an accredited college, university, truck driving or logistics training program. The parents of the students of Caleb University, Lagos State, on Saturday debunked speculations of having a running battle with the authorities of the university over school fees. The Vice-Chairman of the Parents Forum, Oritseweyinmi Boyo, made this known while speaking with journalists alongside a cross-section of the parents, highlighting that there has been no crack in their relationship with the university management. The parents explained that the body, Caleb University Parents Forum, has always been impressed with the school managements decisions over the years, adding that the parents have been relating with the university management through the body, and at no time was there an unresolved issue that could lead to any crack in their relationship. PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how about 121 parents complained about the management of Caleb University demanding for full tuition and also charged parents for services that were not provided, such as accommodation, internet, library, hospital and others. The parents also complained about the university making a decision on a Parents Forum which over 90 per cent of them were not on and charging them for the same forum. Reacting to the complaints of the parent, Nosa Owens-Ibie, the Vice-Chancellor of Caleb University told PREMIUM TIMES that the school charged the fees anticipating the early resumption of schools, whereby students will be able to access the services. Seeing the late resumption of schools across the country, Mr Owens-Ibie said the management gave parents the options of requesting a refund or carrying the extra fees forward. Although the University had anticipated physical resumption during the semester, delay in resumption has led to the institution advising students who paid accommodation fees, of the option of carrying such component of the fees forward or getting a refund. Students were however allowed to register for courses on the portal during the semester, irrespective of fee status, while those unable to pay fees due to COVID-19 challenges were given access to the universitys e-learning platform, he said. With all the dust now assumed to have been settled, Mr Boyo confirmed that some students had paid their accommodation fees in anticipation of resumption but were advised by the school management to either carry such fees forward or get a refund. He noted that he had personally called on any parent who had paid his or her childs accommodation fee, to come up with the receipts of such payment for a refund. The body commended the universitys management for ensuring no disruption in the school academic calendar with the e-learning initiative, which has enabled the students to interface with their lecturers. The forum chairman also advised any parent with better suggestions to either channel such through the parents forum or directly to the vice-chancellor and stop making demands on the university. He expressed the entire parents appreciation to the university management for coming up with a broader platform Caleb Connect, a mobile App, through which parents and alumni can communicate directly with the university, while the second App Caleb Watch takes care of the health and security needs of staff and students. The parents forum said with the two recently launched mobile applications, the stage has been set for even better communication between the university and its stakeholders, stating that it was the cordial relationship existing between the parents and the university management that made it possible for the parents to commence the construction of a well-equipped multi-million naira medical centre in the school, which is expected to be commissioned in the last quarter of the year. The Parents Forum treasurer, Juliana Falodun, in her remarks, commended the university for the effectiveness of the e-learning programme, stressing that with it, the university has been able to do everything online without any hitch. Some other parents which include Olubukonla Akinrinsola, Oluwafemi Ajayi, Kunle Kilasho, Adaobi Ekwempu and Uche Omitayo corroborated the forum leadership position that the school authority had made it known that it would either make a refund to those who had paid accommodation fees or get it carried forward. The body appealed to those who were making demands on the university to always get in touch with the schools management on any issue for clarification and advised members to team up with the Parents Forum to always appreciate the university management for its consistency in policy direction, ability to maintain the universitys high academic standard, as well as ensuring no disruption in their childrens academic activities in spite of the lockdown. The parents noted that with the effectiveness of the e-learning programme, the university should not discontinue the initiative even after the lockdown, but merge it with the traditional form of classroom teaching as it had reduced a lot of risk involved in travelling for lectures, meetings, project presentation/ defence and other activities. Meanwhile, some parents, who disclosed that their children did not pay the accommodation fees and had unfettered access to the e-learning portal, thanked the university management for making available to the students periodic guidelines, and also for organising both general training session, college and departmental level trainings for them to gain a mastery of teaching and assessment tools available on the e-learning platform. Maneshinde, however, did not say when the note was written or if it was handed over to the Mumbai police Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty arrives at Enforcement Directorate office for questioning in connection with a money laundering case, in Mumbai, Friday. (PTI) Mumbai: A day after she was grilled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged money laundering in Sushant Singh Rajput case, his girlfriend and actress Rhea Chakraborty on Saturday shared a picture of a note which she claims was written by the late actor expressing his gratitude for certain things in his life. Chakraborty (28) also shared through her advocate Satish Maneshinde a photograph of a water sipper, which is a piece of movie merchandise from Rajput's 2019 film "Chhichhore". "The only property of Sushant that I possess," she said in a message sent along with the photo to the media. The other picture shows a page of a notebook titled "Gratitude List" with seven serial numbers. "I am grateful for my life. I am grateful for Lillu in my life. I am grateful for Bebu in my life. I am grateful for Sir in my life. I am grateful for Ma'am in my life. I am grateful for Fudge in my life. I am grateful for all the love in my life," reads the note which Maneshinde said was written by the late actor in Chakraborty's notebook. In her message shared by Maneshinde, Chakraborty stated, "And this is his (Rajput's) handwriting...Lillu is Showik (Chakraborty's brother), Bebu is me, Sir is my dad, Ma'm is my mom and Fudge is his dog". Maneshinde, however, did not say when the note was written or if it was handed over to the Mumbai police which had registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) after Rajput's death in June this year. The actor (34) was found hanging at his residence in suburban Bandra on June 14. His father K K Singh on July 25 lodged a complaint with the Bihar police against Chakraborty, her parents Indrajit and Sandhya Chakraborty, her brother Showik, her former manager Shruti Modi and one Samuel Miranda, who Chakraborty had employed as the manager in Rajput's house. Based on the complaint, the Bihar police registered an FIR against the accused persons and booked them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including abetment to suicide, criminal conspiracy, cheating and wrongful confinement. K K Singh had also alleged financial irregularities in Rajput's bank accounts and properties, and claimed that Rs 15 crore was siphoned away from his accounts. The ED had on July 31 registered a case of money laundering against the Chakrabortys and others. The agency on Friday questioned Rhea Chakraborty, Showik, Indrajit Chakraborty and Shruti Modi for several hours at their south Mumbai office. Chakraborty had moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the FIR registered against her from Patna to Mumbai. The Bihar government had earlier this week recommended the probe in the Rajput death case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Johnny Depp has the most epic way to show the public the volatile relationship he had with Amber Heard. Recently, Depp ended his 16-day legal battle with News Group Newspapers (NGN), wherein he defended himself over the claims that he is a wife-beater. The London High Court and their followers witnessed how the former couple exchanged shocking allegations, as Heard stood as the star witness in the said lawsuit. The "Pirates of the Caribbean Star," for his part, also made several controversial claims to debunk the allegations about him. Before the trial, however, Depp already showed disrespect toward his ex-wife. Heard's Nickname -- From 'Slim' To 'Scum' Depp and Heard's short-lived relationship ended up as one of the the ugliest and most publicized breakups in Hollywood. The former couple first met during the filming of "The Rum Diary" in 2009. At the time, both Depp and Heard were happy with their relationships with Vanessa Paradis and Tasya van Ree, respectively. After they split from their partners in 2012, the two began seeing each other. Their relationship immediately progressed until they got engaged in 2014 and married in February 2015. Shortly after they tied the knot, Depp called the "Aquaman" star "SLIM" and had it tattooed on his knuckles. However, their marriage only lasted for over a year after Heard accused Depp of verbal and physical abuse. She then filed for divorce and obtained a temporary restraining order. Following their divorce, Depp threw shade at Heard by re-inking his tattoo from "SLIM" to "SCUM." A year later, he got the ink reworked again. According to a TMZ report, Hollywood Vampires bandmember Tommy Henriksen shared a photo of Depp's infamous tattoo, showing that he used a red anarchy A over the U on his middle finger. His SLIM-to-SCUM tat became "SCAM" after tweaking it again. Although he made two consecutive alterations on the tattoo, it was not the first time Depp altered one of his tattoos. The actor famously changed his tattoo "Winona Forever" (which he dedicated to his ex-girlfriend Winona Ryder) to "Wino Forever" soon after they broke up in 1992. Heard Responded To The Shade? After the photo of Depp's new tattoo emerged online, Heard hit back and shared her own version of it on her social media account. In July 2018, the actress posted a photo of her with clenched fists alongside the caption "#NoInkNeeded." The photo gained over a hundred likes, but her followers left mixed comments on it -- some showed support, while others called her the abuser and defended Depp. "My theory is that she is forwarding this trend towards Johnny Depp because he's got tattoos aka ink!" one follower wrote, while another commented: "And recently he's got a tattoo on his knuckle which is the reason why she's making fists!!" Some praised Heard, saying: "We love a shady queen." However, other netizens also called her out and left "I Stand With Johnny Depp" and "Amber The Abuser" messages on the comment section. Currently, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are waiting for weeks before they can get Judge Justice Nicol's decision following their court battle. READ MORE: Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Trial: 5 Most Intense Moments in Their 16-Day Legal Battle Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 22:48:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Visitors talk with an exhibitor at the Pre-Expo Supply-demand Matchmaking Meeting for Intelligent Industry & Information Technology Exhibition Area of the 3rd China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, east China, Aug. 8, 2020. The Pre-Expo Supply-demand Matchmaking Meeting for Intelligent Industry & Information Technology Exhibition Area of the 3rd CIIE was held on Saturday at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai. More than 60 exhibitors and 100 purchasers attended the meeting. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe) Written by ACM *Strasbourg/Angelo Marcopolo/- A "Sovereign and Geopolitical Europe" canNot Abandon to Foreign States the big "Security and Energy" Stakes in Mediterranean Sea, particularly at its South-Eastern Area, where EU Member States Cyprus and Greece must be Protected in front of Turkey's Bullying, which needs "Sanctions", stressed French President Emmanuel Macron, while receiving, at Elysee Palace in Paris, the President of Strategic Island Cyprus, Nicos Anastassiades, with whom he Wans to Boost Cooperation on Defense, before a crucial "MED-7" Summit, "at the End of August, or at the Beginning of September" 2020, as he announced Today, being partly but topically Echoed also from EU Parliament up to the USA etc., (See Infra). ----------------------------- - Speaking shortly After an Exceptionaly Important EU Heads of State/Government Summit in Brussels, (See: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/euhardbutbigdealneedsmore.html, etc), where its Franco-German core succeeded to reach a 27 Member States' Agreement on a "Revival Plan and Budget", "Condition" for "a more Ambitious and Sovereign Europe", as he pointed out, Macron Focused, Now, on "the Great Importance, for All Europeans, of Our Borders (and) Our Sovereignity, particularly in (South) Eastern Mediterranean" : - A "Vital" Area "for All Our (EU's) Countries, where Energy and Security Issues have Become Nowadays of Essential Importance, and are at the origin of Power Struggles, in particulalry of Turkey and Russia, which affirm themselves more and more, where the EU does Not Yet Count Enough", But "would commit a Grave Error IF it Left Our Security in the Mediterranean at the Hands of Other Actors" : "That's Not an Option for Europe, and, at any case, Not something that France might let it be", he Vowed. => - In this Context, Macron "Re-Confirm(ed), anew, France's Full Solidarity with Cyprus, as well as with Greece, in front of Violations of their Sovereignity by Turkey", as he Denounced. Indeed, "it's UnAcceptable for the Maritime Area of a State which is Member of Our (Europan) Union to be Violated or Threatened ! Those who do so, Must face Sanctions, and you can Count on France's Support on this matter", he promised. Because "Europe Must Protect its Sovereignity very, very Firmly". Turkey has, Notoriously, Harassed, (with WarShips) and Chassed Away an Italian "ENI" Energy Company's Ship due to Explore for more Oil/Gas Resources in EU Member Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone, repeatedly Threatened Many Others, Blocked off-shore Energy Explorations (including by France's "TOTAL", etc) with Arbitrary "Military Exercises" of the Turkish Navy, and Even, Provocatively, send, several Times, Its Own so-called "Exploration Ships", as "Barbaros" (sic !), etc. illegaly Inside Cyprus' EEZ. So that EU's Heads of State/Governments' Summits in Brussels have, Clearly and Repeatedly Condemned such Blatant Turkish Violations of the Interational Law of the Sea, even an EU Member's own Territorial Waters, (something that Ankara, nevertheless, Repeated, Afterwards, Also against Greece, in its EEZ at the Aegean Sea, Triggering Similar EU and USA Reactions). See relevant "Eurofora"s NewsReports from concerned EU Summits in Brussels, as, f.ex., at: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/macronimportanteustatementoncyprusturkey.html, etc. *** In Fact, EU disposes a Big New Potential in Natural Energy Sources (particularly Climate-Friendly Gas, withOut C02, etc) around EU Member Cyprus' Southern Coasts, to which are Added Also important Neighbouring Israel and Egypt's (probably Lebanon's too) similar UnderSea Resources, at the South-Eastern Mediterranean Round Hub, (Between 3 Continents), which has, basically, a Similar Geology to that of Oil/Gas - Rich "Gulf of Mexico", Thanks to which, the USA reportedly Covered Recently More than +50% of their Huge Energy Needs, soon Becoming (in Addition, Also, with some Other New Findings on Land) ... Exporters of Energy, for the 1st Time in their History ! Other Energy Resources are believed (already since 1974) to be at Greece's EEZ in the Aegean Sea, and, more Recently, around Creta Island, at the large. Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel have already Agreed in Delimitating their respective EEZ's (with Similar Negotiations evolving Later for Lebanon too), and are closely Cooperating Together on Common Energy Issues there, (Including with several Plans to Transfer Energy products into the EU, particularly with Israel, inter alia, also via the EU-Sponsored "East-MED" Pipeline project, and/or by Transforming Gas into Electricity on the spot, and Transporting it by an UnderSea Cable, as well as by Modern, High-Tech Ships able to carry Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, etc). With the expected Result for Europe to have, in the foreseable Future, Energy DIRECTLY Transported into EU's Industrial Core, i.e. Faster, Safer, and Cheaper than if it had, Otherwise, to Cross various Intermediaries... Macron has Already Spoken with "Eurofora" on that Issue, (which We are Following Since 2000/2001 : See Our relevant Publications, then, at "TCWeekly", etc), as Early as Since he was Economy Minister, Back on 2015 in Strasbourg (See: ..., etc), but also, Later-on, as President of the Republic, on 2017, during the "G20" Summit in Hamburg, Germany, (See: ..., etc). A Recent, New Possibility to, Eventualy, Help Resolve the Current Problem of EU's Need for "Own Resources" from 2021, was, also, Suggested by "Eurofora" on the occasion of the Latest EU Summit's Conclusions in Brussels on 21 July 2020, (See: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/euhardbutbigdealneedsmore.html, etc). --------------------------------- + "We (EU) Face, Also, the fact that Sovereignity is at Stake in Libya too", where "we canNot just Let some Foreign Powers, whoever they might be, Violate the Arms' Embargo", firmly stressed the French President, (shortly after even a Franch Ship, participating in a relevant EU Mission, was notoriously Bullied by Turkish Warships when it tried to Check a Cargo Suspected to Smuggle Prohibited Weapons towards the Tripoli Camp in Libya, against the Benghazi one - the Biggest). That's why "the (EU) Operation <> (Versus Arms' Trafficking towards Libya) is one of the European Replies, But it still Needs to be Strengthened, in order to gain in Credibility. It's a Necessary Condition in order to obtain a Cease-Fire, and trigger a real Impetus towards a Political Solution of the Libyan Conflict". _____________ (The Latest MED-7 Summit was organized in Cyprus on 2019) ------------------- => + "More widely speaking, EU Must engage in a Profound Analysis on the Security Issues in Mediterranean. In this Perspective, and in order to evoke All European matters", President Macron Announced his intention to "Welcome anew in France our Mediterranean Partners, on the occasion of a Summit of EU's Southern Countries, called "MED 7", towards the End of August or the Beginning of September" 2020, "which is Nowadays even More Important than Yesterday", as he pointed out. - Last, but not least, concerning "the Bilateral Relation" between France and Cyprus, ("which is Excellent", but "may be even More Deepened, particularly on Phrancophony and Economic Cooperation"), "it's well the Strategic area which Structures our Relationship", Macron stressed, "Thanking the Cypriots for the Excellent Welcome that they offer to our (French) Navy, with, Already, some 20 SeaPort Calls in 2020" ! --------------------------------- - Cyprus' President Anastassiades, "noted with Satisfaction" the French President's "role, which is Not Limited to Initiatives inside Europe, (as at the Recent EU Summit, Together wih Germany : Comp. Supra), But Extends and promotes France as a Pivot Country for Stability and Security in the ...Mediterranean", whenever, Unfortunately, Europe is Absent", as he observed, while Also "Thanking France for its Interest and always Firm Stance regarding the Solution of Cyprus' Issue". => "In particular", he "Thank(ed)" Macron "for the Initiatives undertaken so that, at last, the Mediterranean woN't be an Area Under Control by either Turkey, or Other Powers, But Not of Europe !" - Indeed, "Your Initiatives show which Should be Europe's Role, i.e. Not to beLimited into Declarations, But, through initiatives, to take over a Leading role, and Support (EU) Member States", Anastassiades stressed. - "What occurs during These Days, and, certainly, During the Previous Months", as, f.ex., inter alia, also "the Violation of the Republic of Cyprus' EEZ", (by Turkish Ships), "the Threat to Settle Famagusta", (a City Evacuated by its Greek Cypriot Inhabitants, obliged to Fleed Turkey's Military Invasion and Occupation since 1974, while UNO called to Preserve those Refugees' Homes, that Turkey is Now Threatening to Usurpate on 2020), "what is Going on, Or was Done, in Syria, Iraq", (i.e. even More Turkish Military Invasions and Occupations), "these Days and Hours in Greece", (i.e. a culmunation of Turkish Army's Threats, after Provocations, at Aegean Sea), "and in Libya", (where the Turkish Army is the Only Foreign Force which Intruded inside that Country, Ostensibly Importing Weapons, and Even Many Islamist Armed Gangs of various Extremists from Syria, who have Already coincided with Massive and Grave Human Rights Violations Recently Denounced by the UNO, near Tripoli, including, f.ex., Civilian People being Chassed Away, Family Homes Looted and/or Destroyed, Civilians ill-treated or Killed, etc), "show that there is a Vacuum from Europe's side !", he Deplored. - "But, Also, that, through Your (France's) Initiatives, a Ray of Hope Emerges, for European People, and, particularly, for the Countries Affected by the Role that Europe Must Play", Cyprus' President added, Optimistically. - Last, but Not Least, he said to be "Glad to Seek Together how to Deepen further our (France-Cyprus) Bilateral Relations, which are Excellent, Based on the Franco-Cypriot Strategic Agenda which was Signed on 2016, and, mainly, how to further deepen the Economic and Cultural relations, and Particularly the Cooperation on Defense", he stressed. >>> Indeed, on this Obviously Crucial point, President Anastassiades "ensure(d) that Cyprus will Always be the Most Welcoming Country concerning the French Navy, and Not Only" that, (Comp. Supra). In general, Cyprus "was always, and Continues to be, a Country of real Stability and Security in the Region", he Vowed. Inter alia, f.ex., in particular, he Reminded also the Fact that "we (Cyprus) Helped, in the Past, for the Evacuation of Chemicals from Syria", (to the point that one of them, Stored at the Island for Too Long, Exploded there on 2011..., See "Eurofora"s NewsReport from Elysee Palace, during a Summit there with former French President Sarkozy, at: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/sarkozycounseloronhelptoinvestigatecyprusexplosion.html, and: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/cypruspeopleaskchristofiastoresign.html, etc), and "we Helped during many Crisis in the Middle East, as in the case of Lebanon, (i.e. on 2006, when former French President Chirac took a UNO Mandate to Lead an International Peace-Keeping Force, between the Lebanese and Israeli Borders, in order to Succesfully Stop a Deadly Rockets' Conflict Between the 2 Neighbouring Countries, with the Help, Also of an EU-led Naval Force Monitoring the Coasts, which was Hosted in Cyprus, under German Leadership, then Visited also by Chacellor Angie Merkel : See "Eurofora" co-Founder's NewsReport, with Replies to Our Questions from Elysee Palace's Press Spokesman, Published, then, at "The Cyprus Weekly", etc). +"And, Eventually, If Needed, We (Cyprus) Will ANew Contribute in This Direction", he Promised for the Future. "Thanks Also to our Bilateral Relations with all Neighbouring Countries", (i.e. Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordany, Greece, Malta, etc. with the Only Exception, until now, of Turkey, which, notoriously, still Occupies illegaly a Part of the Island, since a 1974 Turkish Military Invasion and Occupation, insisting to Refuse even to have Normal Diplomatic Relations with the EU, UNO and CoE Member State of the Republic of Cyprus...). ------------------------- *** In the MeanTime, the Strategically Located Island (Unique in the World to be Located at the Crossroads of 3 Continents : Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as, directly Facing the Inter-Continental "Suez" Channel, etc), had its Defense Minister, Charalambos Petrides, meet officially in Paris, Earlier Today, with his French Counterpart, Florence Parly, Armies' Minister, (who had Already Visited Cyprus previously). --------------------------------------------------------- + By a Timely Coincidence, Macron's and Anastassiades' above-mentioned Topical Concerns vis a vis Turkey's Bullying, were Also Echoed at EU Parliament, in Brussels : Speaking just Before a Public MEPs' Debate, with EU Council and EU Commission's Leaders, Michel and Von der Leyen, on the Outcome of the Latest EU Summit, the experienced President of the Biggest Political Group of MEPs, that of ChristianDemocrats/EPP, Manfred Weber, from Germany, strongly Slamed Turkey's behavior on the "very Urgent Issue" of "the Situation in the Mediterranean Sea", as he stressed. - "We saw the Military Actions from the Turkish side, (now against Greece, but also, earlier, vis-a-vis Cyprus), we Also saw the decisions on the Hagia Sophia, which is an example of religious Chauvinism that such a Symbol and as a Monument of Peace and reconciliation is now changed", (from a 1.110 Years Old Christian Church, into a Mosque), Weber Denounced from the outset. - "This is Not only a GreekTurkish issue, it is not only a CyprusTurkish issue, it is a EuropeanTurkish issue !", he underlined. => - "That's Why", "We (EU) have to give Clear Signals that we Stand on the Side of Our (European) Citizens in Greece and in Cyprus", Weber Urged, Stressing that this was said in "the presence of President Michel and President von der Leyen". At any case, "we should keep the Dialogue open (vis a vis Ankara), no doubt about this". >>> "But, Now it is the Time to Act, probably also to consider Sanctions Against Turkey. We (EU) have to Act and we have to act Now !", he Urged. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ++ Moreover, it's Even USA's Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Philip Reeker, who, Speaking on Turkey, Later Today, he reportedly Stressed, that - "We (USA) are Concerned about Actions that are Provocative and Raise Tensions". - "Indeed, "US is Deeply Concerned about Turkeys stated plans to Survey for natural Resources in Areas over which Greece and Cyprus Assert Jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean", he confirmed. => As a Consequence, USA is "Urging the Turkish Authorities to HOLD operations that Raise Tensions", USA's Key competent Foreign Policy Top Official reiterated, (while Also reportedly Confirming, inter alia, that the Greek Island of Kastelorizo, Near the Turkish Coasts, Between EU Members Greece and Cyprus, has an UnderSea Shelf, according to the International Law of the Sea). (../..) ("Draft-News") Three arrested for drug trafficking in Carlisle County The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Bono Regional Secretariat has rubbished allegations by Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC suggesting that the Party and its General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah has helped Ivorians to illegally register for Voter ID Cards. The Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in a press release issued on Friday, August 7, 2020, called for the arrest of the NDC Secretary for allegedly transporting non-Ghanaians to registration centres at Banda for registration. In a reaction to the statement from Abronye DC, the NDC Bono Regional Secretariat says the assertions from the Bono Regional Chairman of the NPP are false. A statement from the Secretariat noted: It must be put on record that it is rather the NPP through their Parliamentary Candidate for Banda Constituency and the Chief Executive Officer for Middle Belt Development Authority, Joe Danquah and Abronye DC who are engaged in illegitimately sponsoring and registering Ivoirians as Voters in the Banda Constituency. The Party insist that Hon. Asiedu Nketiah has no blood relation to any of the 66 Ivoirians arrested with support of NDC Party Members in both Jaman North and Banda Constituencies who were later handed over to the Ghana Immigration. In line with that, the Party want the Attorney Generals Office to go ahead and prosecute the 66 Ivoirians who have illegally obtained Ghanaian voters ID Cards together with their known NPP guarantors, and their accomplices who hosted them on the nights of August 5 - 6, 2020 and gave them Residential Addresses to support their voter registration process. Read the full statement from the NDC Bono Regional Secretariat below: PRESS RELEASE To: All Media Houses NDC EXPOSES NPPs VOTERS REGISTRATION FRAUD IN BANDA CONSTITUENCY The attention of the NDC Bono Regional Secretariat has been drawn to a Press Release signed by Kwame Baffoe Abronye DC, released to the press today, August 7, 2020. Abronye DC generally accuses the NDC and its General Secretary, Hon. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah of leading Ivoirians to register as Voters in Ghana and making outright false allegations against the NDC in an effort to divert the attention of the public on the naked electoral fraud the NPP is perpetrating against the inhabitants of Banda and heating up the scheduled Voters Registration Mop-up Exercise in the Banda District. It must be put on record that it is rather the NPP through their Parliamentary Candidate for Banda Constituency and the Chief Executive Officer for Middle Belt Development Authority, Joe Danquah and Abronye DC who are engaged in illegitimately sponsoring and registering Ivoirians as Voters in the Banda Constituency. Ordinarily, we would have ignored these spurious daily allegations of Kwame Abronye DC, of which I am sure the press and general public are tired of by now, but it is also necessary we set the records straight about the 66 Non-Citizens who were protected by the entire Banda District Security Committee headed by the District Chief Executive (DCE) to go through the registration process at ease, instead of protecting the integrity of our electoral process and the 1992 Constitution of the Republic as they swore to uphold. Below are the facts of the matter: 1.These 66 Non-Citizens Abronye talks about were arrested yesterday Friday, August 7, 2020, on board a Kia Truck with Ivory Coast Registration number plate. They were was first chased and intercepted by NDC Branch Executive Members and Party faithful on the morning of August 5, 2020 at Dorbo, a Community in Banda Constituency and close to Ivory Coast Border. Our Party Members later handed over the Vehicle and its Passengers to the Ghana Immigration Officers along that Border Post, who subsequently failed to escort them out of the Country or hand them over to the police for prosecution as the law demands. 2. We had a reliable Intel around 5:30 pm on the same day, Wednesday, August 5, 2020, that the Kia Truck was being escorted into the Country through Makala to Kabronu. I as the Regional Secretary of the NDC for Bono Region personally followed up, took pictures and video clips of these Ivoirians stepping out of the Kia Truck at Kabronu. These videos and pictures I took have been attached to this release as evidence. 3. The case was reported to Ghana Immigration Service Officers in Banda Ahenkro to arrest these people for further interrogation or the vehicle to be towed to the custody of Ghana Police Service. The Driver of this Kia Truck left the vehicle at a vulcanizing shop near Kanka close to Kabronu under the pretext of fixing one of his tires. Again, I personally filed a report on this incident to the District Police Station. Also, Hon. Ahmed Ibrahim, MP for Banda, requested the District Commander to impound the Kia Truck to aid the Ghana Immigration Service to do further investigation, this was deliberately turned down by the District Police Commander. 4. I granted Radio and TV interviews with Journalists on Thursday, August 6, 2020, about the Ivoirians being brought in by the NPP led by Joe Danquah to register in Kabronu near Banda Ahenkro. The Video and audio interviews are available, my interview with UTV on this same incident precede yesterdays live news video that has gone viral by UTV. 5. Deliberately, no Military Team was ever present or involved in the patrolling of our land borders with Ivory Coast as was done in the Volta Region with Togo borders. Where were the Men of the National Security and State Security Service Officers when we reported the activities of the Kia Truck with Ivoirian license plate to the Ghana Immigration Service and the acting Banda District Police Commander? What is Abronye DCs locus standi in these vile allegations against Hon. Asiedu Nketiah? When was Abronye DC appointed as the spokesperson for Ghana Immigration Service? He was merely acting out his avowed penchant for malice and disaffection for the NDC and nothing more. 6. It is an accepted fact that it is wrong and illegal for political Representatives or Agents to harass or intimidate potential Registrant and physically prevent them from seeking to register as a Voters. NDC accredited Party Agent, Sekete Samuel Kofi, who was assigned to D/A JHS Kabronu Registration Center in Banda District, where majority of these arrested Ivoirians registered as Voters. Our party Agent successfully challenged 17 suspected Ivoirian Applicants as NOT GHANAIAN CITIZENS and hearing notices were subsequently issued to him. The End of Day Registration Report clearly collaborate this claim. It was the NPP Registration Agent at that registration centre who kept pleading for our Agent to withdraw his challenged against 17 suspected Ivoirians. Copies of these documents have been attached to this release as evidence. 7. Voter Registrants at Akayakrom were harassed, violently attacked and chased away while in a cue to register at Akayakrom Funeral Grounds Registration Centre. Evidence can be obtained at the Banda District Police Station and Banda Ahenkro Health Centre. 8. It is a plain lie from Abronye DC to state that, a Kia Rhino Truck containing over 2,000 persons believed to be Ivoirians were led by Hon. Asiedu Nketia, where the entire total registered voters in Banda District for the sixth phase is far below 2,000 registrants. We want to state for the records that, not a single Ewe or people living along the Bui River have been challenged based on THEIR GHANAIAN CITIZENSHIP 9. In his usual venomous attitude to any serious political topic in the region, Kwame Abronye rushed to the press to concoct baseless allegation, now it is against a law abiding Hon. Asiedu Nketiah, who has no criminal record unlike Abronye DC with dossier of criminal records. 10. Hon. Asiedu Nketiah has no blood relation to any of the 66 Ivoirians arrested with support of NDC Party Members in both Jaman North and Banda Constituencies who were later handed over to the Ghana Immigration. 11. If the NPP Government led President Nana Addo and his Attorney General believe in Abronyes baseless allegation, then the Attorney Generals Office should prosecute these 66 Ivoirians who have illegally obtained Ghana Voters ID Cards together with their known NPP Guarantors, including their accomplices who hosted them on the nights of August 5 - 6, 2020 and gave them Residential Addresses to support their voter registration process. We immediately call on the public to disregard the NPP Press Release and we openly refute the Abronye DCs publication and debunked his unfounded allegations that are being widely circulated as untruth. The allegations are libelous, wicked and a demonic attempt to offend the NDC General Secretary, Hon. Asiedu Nketiah, Hon. Ahmed Ibrahim and the NDC. Thank You! Signed DENNIS YEBOAH TWUMASI REGIONAL SECRETARY, BONO REGION (0248952441/0206906238) If New Jersey families havent gotten the email yet from their school districts, its probably headed to their inbox soon. Its time to say whether your kid is headed back to class this fall, or if your family is choosing the all-remote option and keeping your student at home for the start of the 2020-2021 school year. Most of New Jerseys nearly 600 school districts are asking parents to fill out forms and make a commitment to one plan or the other within the next few weeks as uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic continues. Gov. Phil Murphy said last month all public school districts must offer students the option of not returning to in-person classes if they have health concerns. Right from when the country was plunged into chaos and despair following the Coronavirus pandemic, Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has been a man on a mission, taking it upon himself to help out as many poor and needy people he can. . 18001213711 , , . . pic.twitter.com/Gik2eSCiQZ sonu sood (@SonuSood) May 25, 2020 Earlier today, the actor posted a message on Twitter with a special request to his fellow countrymen. My humble request to everyone who can afford to help a needy. Please come out of ur comfort world, adopt a patient in any hospital near you if you can or atleast someones medicine expenses. If you all do this I promise you half the misery will just vanish. #wakeupcall, Soods Tweet read. My humble request to everyone who can afford to help a needy Please come out of ur comfort world, adopt a patient in any hospital near you if you can or atleast someones medicine expenses. If you all do this I promise you half the misery will just vanish.#wakeupcall sonu sood (@SonuSood) August 8, 2020 What makes this message so crucial is that Sood himself has been witnessing, right from the start, how the poor and destitute are bearing the brunt of this pandemic, with absolutely no one to turn to. By now, its common knowledge how Sood is pretty much being seen as a hero of sorts, given his unending deeds of sheer selflessness, as the actor has been going out of his way to help anyone possible. Thank you @SonuSood for airlifting our Girls and sending them back home.. I am falling short of words to praise your heroic deeds.. Yes, You are "The Man of the Moment" dear #SonuSood Love from Bhubaneswar, #Odisha#SonuSood_A_Real_Hero #GharBhejo https://t.co/PgRUIP2BTK Sushrita (@SushritaR) May 29, 2020 From the poor, homeless, migrants, to stranded nurses and students, Sood has been relentless in his mission to provide immediate relief and aid to those who need it, and for that, he deserves the highest amount of praise and respect. The actors message calling on people to come out of their comfort zone and help the poor could not have come at a more apt time, as the nation is slowly trying to get back on its feet, in an attempt to get the economy going again. India has entered Unlock Phase 1. A major portion of the economy has opened up and more will open up after 8th June. We've been able to do this only because when the entire world was grappling under the COVID crisis, India reaped the benefits of the lockdown: PM Modi BJP (@BJP4India) June 2, 2020 At the end of the day, we are humans, and the biggest example of humanity is helping our fellow countryman in need, irrespective of where he or she comes from. If we do not help our people now, its a shame we will carry on for the rest of our lives. Thank you for the wake-up call Sonu Sood, we will do everything we can to help those who need us. (CNN) - The US sanctioned Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Friday for her role in crackdowns on political freedom in the region. Sanctioning Lam is a significant escalation, experts say. Friday's action against Lam and ten others is likely to further inflame tensions between Washington and Beijing. It is the latest move in response to China's imposition of a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong that criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference. "The 11 individuals designated today have implemented policies directly aimed at curbing freedom of expression and assembly, and democratic processes, and are subsequently responsible for the degradation of Hong Kong's autonomy," the US Treasury Department said in a statement Friday. Lam has defended the controversial law as a "crucial step to ending chaos and violence that has occurred over the past few months." "It's a law that has been introduced to keep Hong Kong safe," she said in July. "The legislation is lawful, constitutional and reasonable." The Treasury Department cited her as being "directly responsible for implementing Beijing's policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes." "In 2019, Lam pushed for an update to Hong Kong's extradition arrangements to allow for extradition to the mainland, setting off a series of massive opposition demonstrations in Hong Kong," the Treasury Department said. "Lam is designated for being involved in developing, adopting, or implementing the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (National Security Law)." CNN has reached out to Lam's office for comment. As a result of Friday's sanctions, "all property and interests in property of the individuals ... and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by them, individually, or with other blocked persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons, are blocked and must be reported to OFAC." "Today's actions send a clear message that the Hong Kong authorities' actions are unacceptable and in contravention of the (People's Republic of China)'s commitments under 'one country, two systems' and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a UN-registered treaty," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Friday. Under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy, Hong Kong retained limited democracy and civil liberties despite being under Beijing's control. US officials, including Pompeo, argue that the national security law shattered that premise, and Hong Kong no longer enjoys autonomy from mainland China. "The Chinese Communist Party has made clear that Hong Kong will never again enjoy the high degree of autonomy that Beijing itself promised to the Hong Kong people and the United Kingdom for 50 years," the top US diplomat reiterated Friday. 'A significant move' Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNN that the inclusion of Lam in Friday's tranche of sanctions is "a significant move." "This will have a pretty fundamental ripple effect through Hong Kong, including Hong Kong's position as a financial hub in Asia Pacific," he said. Blanchette noted that Hong Kong was "already moving to become a precarious market" after the announcement of the national security law, and now having Lam on the US sanctions list "will send a chill through the business community there." Julia Friedlander, a senior fellow and Deputy Director of the Global Business and Economics Program at the Atlantic Council, called the designation of Lam "a very significant escalation." However, she noted that Friday's actions, taken with the recent other measures against China by the Trump administration, seem like "escalation with no clear end trajectory." Following the passage of the national security law, Trump announced the US would revoke Hong Kong's special status. In mid-July, President Donald Trump issued an "executive order on Hong Kong normalization." Friday's sanctions were issued under that order. On Thursday, Trump issued an executive order that would ban the social media apps TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US in 45 days if they are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies. "Beijing is on the receiving end of a pretty steady stream of measures by the United States that it's having to focus on," Blanchette told CNN. "It's trying to both respond to these but also Beijing has an eye towards November. And it's calibrating its responses to US actions in a way that both signal resolve but don't alienate or potentially harm a redirect or a reset if there's another administration coming in." In addition to Lam, the US sanctioned Commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force Chris Tang, former police commissioner Stephen Lo, Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu, Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng, Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang, Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council Xia Baolong, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council Zhang Xiaoming, Director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office Luo Huining, Director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong Zheng Yanxiong, and Secretary General of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Eric Chan. This story was first published on CNN.com, "US sanctions Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam over democratic crackdowns" Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday launch a financing facility of Rs one lakh crore under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund. He will also release the sixth instalment of funds of Rs 17,000 crore to 8.5 crore farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme, an official statement said on Saturday. The virtual event will be witnessed by lakhs of farmers and cooperatives across the country. Union Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will also be present. The Union Cabinet had approved the Central Sector Scheme of financing facility under the "Agriculture Infrastructure Fund" of Rs one lakh crore. The fund will catalyse the creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets such as cold storage, collection centres and processing units, the statement pointed out. These assets will enable the farmers to get greater value for their produce as they will be able to store and sell at higher prices, reduce wastage and increase processing and value addition, it said. Rs one lakh crore will be sanctioned under the financing facility in partnership with multiple lending institutions. Eleven of the 12 public sector banks have already signed MoUs with the Department of Agriculture. A three per cent interest subvention and credit guarantee of up to Rs 2 crore will be provided to the beneficiaries to increase the viability of these projects. The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-KISAN) scheme, launched on December 1 2018, has provided a direct cash benefit of over Rs 75,000 crore to more than 9.9 crore farmers, it said. This has enabled them to fulfil their agricultural requirements and support their families. The scheme has also been instrumental in supporting farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the release of nearly Rs 22,000 crore. Also read: India's COVID-19 tally nears 21 lakh; record 61,537 new cases in 24 hours People carry their belongings into the Lucerne Hotel in Manhattan's Upper West Side: Screengrab / CBS New York was in the midst of a record homelessness crisis even before the coronavirus hit. Some 60,000 people were filling municipal shelters across the city every night. Nearly a third of that number was living in dorm-style facilities for single adults, sharing bathrooms, dining areas and sleeping facilities. When Covid struck, we recognised very quickly this was a recipe for disaster, said Jacqueline Simone, of Coalition for the Homeless, a New York charity. The problem was only going to get worse, they warned, as the economic crisis caused by the pandemic deepened. They, and other advocacy groups, asked the city to find new shelters for the homeless to protect them from the coronavirus outbreak. Using hotels, which were lying empty across the city due to the pandemic, were seen as a perfect solution. Some 139 commercial hotels quickly stepped forward, according to city authorities including a number of luxury hotels in Manhattan. But in recent days, residents of some wealthier areas of New York where some of the hotels are located have complained about what they describe as anti-social behaviour and drug use by homeless people in their neighbourhoods. In the Upper West Side, where the median house price is more than $1.8m, some residents have started a Facebook group to express their displeasure over the use of three high-end hotels in the area. Our community is terrified, angry and frightened, one member of the Upper West Siders For Safer Streets group told the New York Post. Another community group board member from the same area reportedly told the Post that it feels like the 1970s. Everyone who can move out is moving out. Tabloids have seized upon the increased visibility of homeless people in the neighbourhood, running photographs of groups of men gathering accompanied by outraged headlines. The response from these residents to a temporary solution to protect the homeless in a pandemic has prompted a backlash from charities and city officials. Story continues Its incredibly disheartening and yet not necessarily surprising that people are reacting to poor people of colour with all of the same stigma and bias that has marked many of these debates for years, said Ms Simone. One would hope the collective trauma of a pandemic, and the increasing economic uncertainty would give people more compassion. And yet were still seeing the same refrains of not wanting to have a certain person in your neighbourhood. The neighbourhood Facebook groups description claims that mentally ill chemical abusers and registered sex offenders have been moved to 3 hotels in the neighbourhood close to schools and playgrounds without any community vote or notice! The Independent contacted members of the group for comment, but received no response. The city told The Independent that there are no residency-restricted sex offenders residing at these locations and all individuals residing at these locations are permitted to reside there under State law. Isaac McGinn, of New Yorks department of social services, said authorities provide shelter to New Yorkers experiencing homelessness regardless of background. This includes helping people rebuild their lives and grow through second chances as they get back on their feet. He added: New Yorkers experiencing homelessness are our neighbours and the notion that they are not welcome in some neighbourhoods for any reason is an affront to basic decency. We dont discriminate based on peoples previous experiences or backgrounds, and we will not create gated communities within our City we extend a helping hand, no matter what. The row threatens to reignite a debate about how New Yorks class divide played out during the pandemic. Mayor Bill de Blasio recently lashed out at wealthier New York residents who fled the city during the crisis as fair weather friends. This city is for New Yorkers, this is for people who live here, work here, fight to make this place better, fight through this crisis, he said, blaming an uptick in crime in the city on a perfect storm of temporary problems caused by the coronavirus. Ms Simone said the complaints over homelessness demonstrated the same lack of awareness on the part of wealthier residents to the way in which the coronavirus has impacted the citys poorest. They are in these hotels because they deserve a safe place to stay as well. The rest of us are staying at home because thats the public health guidance. What about people who dont have a home? she asked. The use of hotels to temporarily house the homeless is more prevalent in New York than other cities because of the its right to shelter law, which legally obligates the city to provide shelter to anyone who asks for it. If shelters are full, they are placed in hotels. In 2018, the city of New York spent more than $350m on renting hotel rooms for shelters. The scheme has been welcomed by hotel owners, especially since the onset of the pandemic, which has driven down hotel occupancy rates dramatically. Vijay Dandapani, the leader of New Yorks Hotel Association, said the relocation of homeless people to hotels is a short-term solution that has saved lives and businesses. Almost every hotel wants to do this kind of business. This is short term. This is not permanent. The tabloids are focusing on entirely the wrong thing, he told The Independent. Last year we had 69 million visitors to the city. Right now it is zero, he says. Nobody is anticipating many people doing any kind of travel for the next year. In the meantime you have hotels with property taxes to pay. The city has not given an inch in that regard. He said without hotels opening their doors there would have been rampant infections in these homeless shelters, if not deaths. Mr Dandapani also noted the irony of residents complaints about a scheme that is helping hotels stay afloat when those same hotels help revive the area on the Upper West Side in question. Theres a lot of uproar about this hotel on the Upper West Side called the Lucerne. Ive been 30 years in the New York City hotel market, and I can tell you that that area was a dump. It was impossible to go within a hundred feet of the Lucerne, he said. Whoever that owner is put in $20m plus to make it what it was. Did these people thank these owners for the gentrification that resulted in their property prices going up? While he added that he understood the concerns of residents, he called for pressure to be put on the police to provide more security in the area, rather than trying to force the homeless out. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday wished for the speedy recovery of the 12-year-old sexual assault victim admitted at AIIMS and said a financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh has been provided to her family. AAP MLA Atishi said in a tweet that she met the father and sister of the victim at AIIMS and handed over a cheque of Rs 10 lakh to them on behalf of the Delhi government and the chief minister. "A financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh from the government was today provided to the family of the sexual assault victim. I pray to God that the girl recovers at the earliest to be with her family," Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi. He visited AIIMS on Thursday to enquire about the girl, and there he had announced that the Delhi government would provide financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh to her family. He had also said that the government will ensure strict punishment for the accused by engaging the best lawyers in the case. During the assault on Tuesday evening, the girl was hit with a sharp object by the accused on the face and head at her Paschim Vihar home, police said. Mahila Congress workers detained for protesting outside CM house Workers of the Delhi Mahila Congress, protesting outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's house here over the sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl, were detained by the police on Saturday. The workers of the party's Delhi unit seeking justice for the girl were "roughly treated" by the Civil Lines Police, the Delhi Congress claimed in a statement. "The Mahila Congress workers wanted to meet the chief minister but they were roughly treated and detained by the police," the party alleged. However, a senior police officer denied the charge and said that they were detained and released later on. Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar claimed that the law and order situation in the national capital is in a "total mess", and people, particularly women, are "unsafe". A man has arrested by police in connection with the assault Donald Trumps team has reportedly begun preparing for the debates against Joe Biden after confirming this week the president would attend the scheduled events, as one of his advisers suggested the former vice president could be a tough opponent to battle. Stephen Miller, an adviser to Mr Trump who has been studying Mr Bidens debate performances over the years, said he was actually a very good debater who doesnt have as many gaffes as he does in his everyday interviews, according to the Washington Post. The presidents adviser spoke on-the-record for a report that looked at how the Trump campaign has been preparing for what will likely be an unusual and unprecedented series of debates, at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has made running for the White House an entirely different game. Mr Miller told the newspaper he would be highly surprised if Joe Biden actually went through with all three debates despite the former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee having committed to the events before the Trump campaign did in a letter on Thursday. He added: I think their strategy will be to show up to one, show that he is able to function and then pull the plug on any additional debates. The president and his allies have lambasted Mr Biden for hiding in the basement during the pandemic, claiming the former vice president was refusing to hold campaign events as part of an alleged strategy to avoid public gaffes or controversy. In reality, Mr Biden has held multiple rounds of press conferences, delivered public speeches, launched a podcast and sat for a variety of media interviews since the pandemic began. However, he announced this week he would not travel to Milwaukee to receive the Democratic Partys nomination for president, instead participating in a scaled-down virtual Democratic National Convention. Mr Miller also said of the former vice presidents debate performances: I would make the argument that Joe Biden would even be the favourite in the debates since hes been doing them for 47 years. The Biden campaign has meanwhile remained tight-lipped about his debate prep, according to the Post, with one person involved in the campaign stating: The first rule of debate prep is that nobody talks about debate prep. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 23:35:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Various sectors in Hong Kong on Saturday strongly condemned the so-called U.S. sanctions against heads of Chinese government agencies responsible for Hong Kong affairs and officials of the HKSAR, saying the move is groundless and interfering in China's internal affairs. A statement issued by the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong said that the U.S. government's accusations against the officials related is totally groundless and arbitrary. The alliance said that any country has the right to safeguard its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. All walks of life in Hong Kong have welcome the enactment of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the HKSAR and spoken highly of the determination of the central government and the HKSAR government to ensure the steady and sustainable development of "one country, two systems." The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions strongly protested against the U.S. government's sanctions against Chinese officials and severely condemned the U.S. government's gross interference in China's internal affairs. It said in a statement that the national security law in the HKSAR promptly and effectively stopped the violent acts by rioters in Hong Kong, restored social order, protected the people's safety, thus enabling the HKSAR government to concentrate on the anti-epidemic work. Secretary for Justice of the HKSAR government Teresa Cheng said that the illegal so-called sanction imposed by the United States has further strengthened her belief in safeguarding national security. With the motherland's strong backing for the HKSAR, the U.S. government's move is doomed to be futile. Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau said that the outrageous and unreasonable acts of the United States will definitely affect the relations between China's Hong Kong and the United States. It is right and proper for Hong Kong to safeguard national security and foreign enterprises need a stable environment to operate in Hong Kong, he said, adding that if the United States unilaterally takes unreasonable action, it will ultimately affect U.S. businesses. Chan Man-ki, founding president of the Small and Medium Law Firms Association of Hong Kong, said that "one country, two systems" is the cornerstone of Hong Kong being an international financial centre and an international metropolis. American businessmen doing business in Hong Kong are beneficiaries of Hong Kong's prosperity and stability under "one country, two systems." She pointed out that the United States, confounding right with wrong and suppressing China with lies of so-called equality, peace, freedom and democracy, will reap the consequences. In response to the so-called U.S. sanctions, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said that unilateral sanctions imposed by foreign governments are not part of the international targeted financial sanctions system passed by the United Nations and have no legal effect in Hong Kong. The Non-official Members of the Executive Council said in a statement that the U.S. government's claim that the imposition of the so-called sanctions is in response to the enactment of the national security law in the HKSAR is unsubstantiated and sweeping. They express regret over the U.S. government's act which has undermined the relations between China's Hong Kong and the United States. Enditem A special flight carrying evacuees to India who had been stranded abroad because of the coronavirus skidded off a runway and split in two while landing yesterday in heavy rain in the southern state of Kerala, killing at least 17 passengers and injuring 123 more. Abdul Karim, a senior Kerala state police officer, said the dead included one of the pilots of the Air India Express flight. He said at least 15 of the injured were in critical condition, and that rescue operations were over. The two-year-old Boeing 737-800 flew from Dubai to Kozhikode, also called Calicut, in Kerala, India's southernmost state, the airline said. Kozhikode's runway is on a flat hilltop with deep gorges on either side ending in a 34-metre drop. Civil aviation minister Hardeep S Puri said in a statement that the flight "overshot the runway in rainy conditions and went down" the slope, breaking into two pieces upon impact. An inquiry will be conducted by the ministry's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, he said. Television footage showed rescue workers moving around the wreckage in pouring rain. The aircraft lay split into at least two chunks. The airport's runway end safety area was expanded in 2018 to accommodate wide-body aircraft. The runway end safety area meets UN international civil aviation requirements, but the UN agency recommends a buffer that is 150 metres longer than what exists at Kozhikode airport, according to Harro Ranter, chief executive of the Aviation Safety Network online database. Dubai-based aviation consultant Mark Martin said that while it was too early to determine the cause of the crash, annual monsoon conditions appeared to be a factor. "Low visibility, wet runway, low cloud base, all leading to very poor braking action is what looks like led to where we are at the moment with this crash," Martin said, calling for the European Aviation Safety Agency and the US Federal Aviation Administration to assist with the Indian government's investigation. There were 174 adult passengers, 10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew on board the aircraft. Indian premier Narendra Modi tweeted that he was "pained by the plane accident". Canadas new back-to-school COVID-19 guidelines include many of the measures already adapted by the Ontario government, but go further urging a phased in return to class, face shields for teachers and Plexiglas dividers. The federal document released Friday also suggests better ventilation for schools and moving classes outdoors where weather and space permit. Those are in addition to distancing measures Ontario schools already plan to adopt such as reduced hallway traffic and non-medical masks for students and teachers. The national guidelines recommend reduced room occupancy to allow for distancing, but there are no specifics about lowering class sizes. Concerns about class sizes have been raised by Toronto Public Health officials. The issue is a key point of contention between Premier Doug Fords government and many parents and teachers. They fear that current elementary class sizes in particular kindergarten and Grades 4-8 where classes can hit around 30 students puts too many children and teachers in the same room. Experts from the Hospital for Sick Children have also said they cannot support a plan where physical distancing is compromised by the number of students in a room. Toronto District School Board (TDSB) chair Robin Pilkey said she has received emails from parents telling her that the board has a moral imperative to lower class sizes. But it cant be done without more money for teachers. In some classrooms it will be fine and in some classrooms it will be problematic, she said. Its a tricky position weve been put in and Im hoping the (provincial) government will reconsider this, said Pilkey. Ontario has provided $30 million for about 300 additional teachers and boards have to apply for the funding on a case-by-case basis. If we do get money for that we would likely put it in areas of the city that have a higher incidence of COVID so we can make those classes smaller, said Pilkey. On Monday the board begins a pre-registration survey to determine how many children are coming back to school and plan class sizes and teacher placements accordingly. But Pilkey said its difficult for parents to say whether they want to send their kids back because they dont know what school will look like. Youve got to wonder if thats part of the governments strategy hoping people just wont come, she said. Students that dont return will receive online instruction but it wont necessarily be taught by the teachers from their own school. The board hopes to use teachers who cant return to school because of their own health considerations to run lessons remotely, said Pilkey. The TDSB already plans for teachers and students above Grade 4 to wear non-medical masks. While elementary classes will continue in as conventional a manner as possible, high school will lower class sizes by rotating students who will take turns going to school and have a modified quadmester program of learning where they focus on two courses at a time rather than the usual four. There are no plans to build physical barriers that could be potentially isolating for children in modern classrooms that dont easily support divided desk configurations, said Pilkey. But if it was the only way to keep kids safe, it could be considered. She said there is merit in looking at a phased-in start to the school year that would allow schools to see how things are working with smaller numbers in attendance. But that is a provincial decision and for now, everyone goes back on Sept. 8. Decisions havent been made about face shields for teachers but it could be considered for staff that move from class to class. Pilkey said she couldnt see an objection if staff felt safest wearing them. The federal document called, COVID-19 guidance for schools Kindergarten to Grade 8, is not prescriptive but designed to be used alongside provincial guidelines with local health conditions in mind, Canadas Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said. Given that physical distancing may not always be possible in school settings its important to layer multiple measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread, she said. Measures will vary across school settings and student populations. The province has responded to some of school boards priorities such as personal protective and cleaning equipment, mental health, special education and training, said a statement from Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association (OPSBA). However, a number of school boards remain concerned about the lack of sufficient funding to reduce class sizes as recommended in the Sick Kids report, as well as the federal guidelines, she said. Abraham said the association will continue to advocate for sufficient funding to make the return to school as safe as possible. A spokesperson for Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce called the Ontario back-to-school plan a living document that is meant to adapt to scientific advice as it emerges. We are proud to lead the nation in funding per student, an aggressive masking policy for Grades 4 to 12, hiring over 1,300 custodians and an additional cleaning funding, along with the hiring of 500 public health nurses to support student health in our schools, said Alexandra Adamo. Read more about: The establishment of a Divisional Protected Services Unit (DPSU) for the Cork North Garda Division, staffed by specially trained officers, will help speed up the process of investigations into domestic violence and crimes of a sexual nature. Thats according to Chief Superintendent Tom Myers, who was speaking on Tuesday at the official launch of the Fermoy-based unit, which had been delayed for a number of months following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is one of 25 DPSUs being established by An Garda Siochana under its Modernisation and Renewal programme charged with investigating specialist and sensitive types of crimes including child abuse, human trafficking, sexual and domestic violence. The Fermoy-based unit will be staffed by a team of two detective sergeants, eight detective Gardai and 10 Garda members drawn from stations across the division, which covers a large area incorporating Kanturk, Mallow, Fermoy, Midleton, Cobh and Youghal. A section of the station in Fermoy has been specially set aside for the new unit following the recent relocation of the traffic corps section to Mitchelstown Garda Station. Chief Supt Myers said all members of the new unit have specific skills and experience in relevant areas such as child welfare and have undergone additional training for what he said would very challenging roles. It can be very traumatic for victims to be waiting lengthy periods for a conclusion to their investigations. The creation of this dedicated unit will speed up these investigations, he said. The process for victims has not changed. Now we have a unit of specialist Gardai to investigate and co-ordinate their investigations across the Cork North Division and I would encourage victims to come forward to us, he said. Speaking at the launch, which was attended by representatives from the Cork-based Sexual Violence Centre, the Support After Crime Services, the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit and Tusla, Chief Supt Myers stressed the importance of the unit working in tandem with key stakeholders and community partners. He said the establishment of partnerships and relationships at a local level was essential, pointing out that the problems presented to, and faced by, Gardai could not be solved by them working alone. As you will be aware, it can be extremely difficult for victims to report crimes of this nature. Therefore, a co-ordinated approach between Gardai and other organisations providing services and support to victims is required. The establishment of partnerships at local level is crucial in providing a holistic victim centred service. The protection of vulnerable people is everybodys business, said Supt Myers. Investigations of this nature can be complex and victims need to be reassured that they will get the maximum support and service once they report to An Garda Siochana. We will continue to work with our community partners as we have always done but now have the opportunity to do this in a more structured and coordinated fashion through the Protected Services Unit, he concluded. Hryvnia strengthens to UAH 27.65 to U.S. dollar on Aug 10 17:25, 08.08.20 2972 The official forex rate against the euro for Monday is fixed at UAH 32.68 per euro. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks to the media about the new national security law introduced to the city at her weekly press conference in Hong Kong. (AFP) Washington: The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong officials, including the pro-China leader of the government, accusing them of cooperating with Beijings effort to undermine autonomy and crack down on freedom in the former British colony. The sanctions are the latest in a string of actions the Trump administration has taken targeting China as tensions between the two nations rise over trade, COVID-19 and other issues. President Donald Trumps offensive against China comes as he assigns full blame to Beijing for the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., deflecting criticism of his own handling of the pandemic that threatens his re-election. The Treasury Department announced sanctions on Carrie Lam, the leader of the government in Hong Kong, and 10 other officials. The sanctions were authorized by an executive order that Trump signed recently to levy penalties against China for its efforts to curtail anti-government protesters in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has long enjoyed civil liberties not seen in mainland China because it is governed under a one country, two systems principle in place since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. However, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong earlier this year, raising widespread concerns about the Chinese government cracking down on the anti-government protests. The recent imposition of draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong has not only undermined Hong Kongs autonomy, it has also infringed on the rights of people in Hong Kong, the Treasury Department said in a statement. Treasury said the new law has allowed authorities in mainland China to operate with impunity in Hong Kong, has mandated national security education in Hong Kong schools, undermined the rule of law and laid the groundwork to censor individuals and outlets deemed unfriendly to China. The U.S. said Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, is directly responsible for implementing Beijings policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes. Last year, Lam pushed to allow citizens to be extradited to the mainland, setting off massive opposition demonstrations in Hong Kong, according to Treasury. Hong Kong Commerce Secretary Edward Yau called the sanctions unreasonable and barbarous and said they would harm U.S. interests in the city, an Asian financial and shipping hub. One of the sanctioned officials, the head of the central governments liaison office in Hong Kong, said being included on the list shows that he has done what he should for his country. I dont have a penny of assets abroad. Isnt it in vain to impose sanctions? Of course, I can also send 100 U.S. dollars to Mr. Trump for freezing, Luo Huining said in a statement on the offices website. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., a member of the Senate intelligence committee, called Lam Beijings hatchet woman. He said she has worked with the Chinese Communist Party to kill Hong Kongs autonomy and gut the rule of law. These cowards betrayed the freedom-loving people of Hong Kong and deserve to pay a steep price, he said. Also sanctioned was Chris Tang, the commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force, for allegedly coercing, arresting, detaining, or imprisoning individuals under the new security law, and the former police commissioner, Stephen Lo. Fridays action blocks all property or other assets that the individuals have within U.S. jurisdiction. The remaining officials sanctioned were: John Lee Ka-chiu, secretary for security in Hong Kong who has introduced a new police unit that will have intelligence gathering and investigative abilities, to enforce the new security law. Teresa Cheng, secretary of justice. Erick Tsang, secretary of constitutional and mainland affairs. Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao affairs office; and deputy director Zhang Xiaoming. Zheng Yanxiong, director of a new office for safeguarding national security in Hong Kong Eric Chan, secretary-general of the committee for safeguarding national security The Chinese Communist Party has made clear that Hong Kong will never again enjoy the high degree of autonomy that Beijing itself promised to the Hong Kong people and the United Kingdom for 50 years, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. President Trump has made clear that the United States will therefore treat Hong Kong as one country, one system, and take action against individuals who have crushed the Hong Kong peoples freedoms. On Thursday, Trump ordered a sweeping but unspecified ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of the consumer apps TikTok and WeChat. The Trump administration has expressed concern that Chinese social media services could provide American users personal information to Chinese Communist authorities. TikTok, a company owned by Beijing-headquartered ByteDance Ltd. that has 100 million users in the United States and hundreds of millions worldwide, said it doesnt store American user data in China, has not given information to Beijing or censored content at the Chinese governments request. WeChat denied comment. The Trump administration already was embroiled in a tariff war with Beijing over Chinas technology ambitions. Washington has blocked acquisitions of some U.S. assets by Chinese buyers and, due to security concerns, has cut off most access to American components and other technology for Huawei Technologies Ltd., a maker of smartphones and network equipment that is Chinas first global tech brand. Democrats rejoiced at the news that the New York Attorney General is aiming to dissolve the National Rifle Association. Mondaire Jones, the progressive rising star expected to win New Yorks 17th Congressional District seat, Thursday summed up the prevailing Democratic view: Dissolving the NRA would remove one of the biggest impediments to gun safety measures at the state and federal level. But thats a dangerous assumption for Democrats to make. Even if the NRA is gone or tied down by litigation, about 43 percent of Americans will still live in gun-owning households. A fervent gun rights culture of hunters, collectors, open carriers, militia members and self-defense enthusiasts would still persist. Conservative media outlets would still cater to their fears. Other competing gun rights groups such as Gun Owners of America, National Association for Gun Rights and the Second Amendment Foundation would still channel the views of the gun rights grassroots to elected officials and new organizations could crop up to do the same. Besides, the new lawsuit probably wont kill off the NRA in six months time. And while it had already been suffering from internal strife, weak fundraising and staff layoffs, the easiest way for the NRA to rekindle its fundraising is to start 2021 with a Democratic president, Democratic Senate and Democratic gun control legislation. And dont be surprised if a Democratic presidential victory will spark a spike in gun sales, which is what happened in 2008 when Barack Obama won. Already this spring and summer, weve experienced the biggest gun sale surge in 10 years, in panicked reaction to the pandemic and the racial justice protests. Such frenzied buying is a reminder to politicians that the gun owner constituency remains present, intense and engaged. Democrats have a tendency to rationalize why we cant have nice things by villain-izing individuals and organizations. We cant solve the climate crisis because of the Kochs. We cant fix the economy because of Wall Street. And we cant control guns because of the NRA. Such narratives have elements of truth but miss the bigger picture: To enact legislation in a republic, you need a broad coalition of support. Successful coalitions usually require some degree of bipartisanship to contain inevitable opposition from large groups of voters, not just small cabals of elites. Story continues The political conundrum over gun control Democrats have long faced is that their proposals poll well yet face vehement and debilitating minority opposition. Since a dedicated gun rights voter is more likely to punish a politician than an intermittently engaged gun control supporter (whose interest in the subject often fades between public mass shootings), many politicians are not reassured by consistently pro-reform polling data and shy away from taking a tough vote. Stickers that read The NRA has long nurtured a gun culture that contributes to our political polarization. Fifty years ago, the historian Richard Hofstadter explored America as a Gun Culture, which noted the "extraordinarily efficient lobby of the National Rifle Association. But Hofstadter also recognized the NRA was exploiting a gun culture with roots that reach all the way to our founding: The popular possession of the gun was a central point in a political doctrine that became all but sacrosanct in the Revolution. The American answer to civic and military decadence, real or imagined, was the armed yeoman. You could erase the NRA today and that gun culture would remain, for someone else to exploit. Might things change after a 2020 blue wave? Might Democratic success in the right-leaning suburbs and lingering revulsion from mass shootings in Parkland and Las Vegas, compounded by a weakened NRA, alter the political calculus? There is some evidence of this. For example, in 2018, Lucy McBath, a mother of a gun violence victim largely known for her subsequent gun control activism, won a House seat representing suburban Atlanta long held by Republicans. But in that same election, Republican Brian Kemp won Georgias gubernatorial race after running an ad in which he proves his commitment to the Second Amendment by pointing a gun at a nervous teenage boy courting his daughter. If Democrats take back the Senate this year, it will likely be thanks to voters in gun-friendly states like Georgia, and those new senators wont suddenly become insulated from Americas cultural divide. Gun control advocates may be particularly excited about the prospects for the Democratic challenger in this years Arizona senate race, Mark Kelly. He is the husband of former House member and gun violence victim Gabby Giffords. Together they founded a gun violence prevention group, which is now named after her. However, Kelly is not running hard on gun control. Not one of Kelly's TV ads even mentions guns. And when discussing his views on his campaign website, Kelly is careful with his language. He is quick to note that he is a gun owner and a combat veteran. And he sticks with measures and phrases that poll strongly such as, universal background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of stalkers and domestic abusers. He does not use the word ban, not even for semi-automatic assault weapons, even though such a ban is a focal point for many gun control advocates. Other promising Democratic candidates tread even lighter than Kelly on guns. Montanas Steve Bullock, Maines Sara Gideon, Kansas Barbara Bollier and South Carolinas Jaime Harrison dont even include a gun section in their platforms. Iowas Theresa Greenfield, North Carolinas Cal Cunningham and Kentuckys Amy McGrath are in line with Kelly and steer clear of mentioning an assault weapons ban on their websites, though Cunningham does explicitly back a ban on high-capacity magazines. The relatively daring Democratic Senate candidates who specify support for an assault weapons ban on their websites are Colorados John Hickenlooper, Georgias Jon Ossoff and Texas MJ Hegar. Nevertheless, none of them are highlighting their gun control views in TV ads. Protesters against the NRA gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in Dec. 2019. The problem with not talking much about gun control during the campaign is that even if you win the presidency and the Congress, you havent built much of a mandate for action. Sometimes mandates dont matter, and the majority party can still find the votes for its pet issues. But sometimes it matters a lot. Bill Clinton learned that the hard way on energy taxes and gays in the military. George W. Bush learned that the hard way on Social Security privatization. And Barack Obama learned that the hard way on gun control. A lack of emphasis on gun control by Obama and his fellow Democrats in 2012 hamstrung their efforts to pass a compromise background check measure in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre that occurred one month after Election Day. Without evidence from the election that gun control was a political winner, the horrific murder of school children and teachers wasn't enough to compel Congress to act. At the time, some on the left complained that Obama did not demand enough, and didnt push harder for restoring the now-expired assault weapons ban. But Obama reasonably concluded that he had to limit his ambitious to what could get 60 votes in the Senate, if he was to have any chance of getting it through the Republican-led House. Only one promising piece of bipartisan legislation was on the table: the expanded background check bill forged by West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey. But Toomey proved unable to bring along more than three other Republicans. And Manchins rural bona fides werent enough to keep the entire Democratic caucus unified. So the bill ended up three votes short. In the 2020 presidential primary Joe Biden, referring to his role in passing the 1993 Brady Bill and the now-expired 1994 assault weapons ban, bragged, I'm the only one on this stage who has taken on the NRA and beat them, and beat them twice. What was different back then? Bill Clinton won the presidency with a bigger mandate to act on gun control, and there was significant bipartisan compromise to turn that mandate into law. Clinton explicitly backed both measures in the second 1992 presidential debate, which with nearly 70 million viewers was the second-most watched presidential debate in history at that point. Then in 1993, to get the Brady Bill passed, backers had to swallow an NRA-backed bipartisan amendment that weakened the bills background check system. (Biden didnt exactly beat the NRA on that one but compromised with it.) The NRAs fingerprints were not on the 1994 assault weapons ban. But that, too, was the product of a hard-fought bipartisan compromise, as it was part of the controversial 1994 crime bill. The overall legislation was a mix of liberal crime prevention programs, conservative punitive measures and money for police departments. Wide support from police organizations helped to marginalize the NRAs influence. Some on the left will argue that 2021 isnt 1993. Todays Republican Party is less reasonable, and tomorrows Democratic Party majority need not constrain itself to whatever Pat Toomey thinks is reasonable. And unlike in 2013, Democrats could eliminate the filibuster, pass a bigger package in the Senate on a narrow party line vote, and get it rubber-stamped by a Democratic House. But in recent days, Senators Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, Jon Tester and Dianne Feinstein have reiterated their opposition to eliminating the legislative filibuster. And any incoming Democrats from red and purple states, several of whom are running as independent-minded, bipartisan problem-solvers, will not be inclined to take one of the most partisan acts imaginable in their first year in office. Why the resistance? Probably so they arent forced to take up-and-down votes on culturally polarizing legislation like an ambitious gun control package. Anti-gun demonstrators march across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York in June 2014. Gun control proponents may not want to wait online to buy tickets to Manchin-Toomey: The Sequel. But Toomey may be quite eager for a second chance at a big bipartisan win. Pennsylvania is looking awfully blue, and Toomey is up for reelection in 2022. Skeptics of compromise are correct that Manchin-Toomey proved that bipartisan support from a swing state Republican and a red state Democrat is not sufficient for gun violence prevention legislation to succeed. However, those remain necessary ingredients for any such legislation to overcome not just the NRA, but the cultural polarization that will fuel attacks on any compromise bill with or without the NRA. The best way to overcome that polarization is not through partisan procedural maneuvering, but with electoral successflipping red states while explicitly running on gun control. If the Democratic slate of Senate candidates isnt prepared to do that, then the burden falls on Joe Biden. Of course, Biden may have good reason not to either. Gun control is hardly the only pressing issue the next administration is going to face. Theres an economic crisis, and climate crisis. There is pent-up demand among immigrant advocates for creating a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented. There is renewed demand for police reform. There is persistent demand for expanding health insurance and lowering health care costs. All of these areas will require significant investments of political capital. Biden would be perfectly rational in concluding that running hard on gun control is not worth the risk. Yet Biden is both a longtime gun control advocate and a consummate retail politician. If anyone can craft a set of compromise policies and related messages that can satisfy swing voters, contain gun rights opposition and prove red states can be flipped while actively supporting specific gun safety measuresbe it universal background checks or bans on certain weaponsits Joe Biden. In making that political calculation, Biden should not presume the NRAs weakened state makes gun control legislation any easier to pass. If he wants to prioritize gun control in 2021, he will need to prioritize it in 2020, take the political risk and earn a real mandate. Americas cultural divide on guns remains. Only a savvy and skilled politician can cross it. Around 19 people, including both pilots, were killed after an Air India Express plane with more than 190 on board skidded off the runway on Friday at the Karipur airport in Kozhikode in Kerala. Officials said 16 of the 172 injured are in a critical condition. The plane, part of the Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indian nationals from overseas during the coronavirus lockdown, skidded off the tabletop runway and fell into a 35-feet deep valley, breaking into two portions. While condolences poured in from across the country, for some, it brought back nightmarish memories of the 2010 Mangalore crash which claimed over 150 lives and is still considered to be one of the deadliest aviation disasters in India. The tragedy at Karipur airport bears an uncanny resemblance to the one in Mangalore ten years ago. For one, both are table top airports. A table top runway is usually built on top of a plateau or a hill with one or both ends adjacent to a steep precipice. In both crashes, the Air India planes were flying in from Dubai, had experienced pilots at the helm, heavy showers were reported at the time of landing and in both cases, the planes skidded off the runway. READ: Keralites Donating Blood, Preparing Food Packets After Air India Crash Restores Faith in Humanity READ: Air India Passenger's Last Facebook Post Hours Before He Died in Kerala, 'Back to Home' The similarities are unmissable, and several netizens were quick to point that out. Some Twitter users also said that tabletop runways are notorious for being difficult and even dangerous when it comes to landings and asked why precautionary measures had not been taken. Take a look: I remember the Mangalore #AirIndia crash as I lived in Karnataka in 2010, That time also the pilot had overshot the runway.Why can't we make our airports safer? Why we shun the whistleblowers like @flyingbeast320 when they speak of the rot in the system. #planecrash Dr Gaurav Garg (@GauravGarg888) August 7, 2020 Terrible images coming of Air India Express aircraft overshooting at Kozhikode where its raining heavily.Again like the 2010 crash of Air India Express IX-812 a Dubai flight. This time evening then it was early morning. pic.twitter.com/zeNYjHoMwM Tarun Shukla (@shukla_tarun) August 7, 2020 Calicut crash brings back the horror of the 2010 Mangalore crash. Both table-top runways with deep ditch at the end. Overshooting in such runways can be deadly. So, safety measures post-Mangalore will come under focus. https://t.co/YQgrrTbQuF Pranab Dhal Samanta (@pranabsamanta) August 7, 2020 This reminds me of the Mangalore Airport tabletop runway accident from few years ago. Why cant we decommission such unsafe runways. Just corruption and greed over human lives! https://t.co/zl3IV2Ih44 Varun Krishnan (@varunkrish) August 7, 2020 Shocked to hear about the news of the #AirIndia #planecrash in #Kozhikode. The aircraft has broken into two, pilot dead. The last time I remember a major crash on India soil was the #AirIndiaExpress crash in Mangalore in 2010. I had covered it extensively at the time. Frank Rausan Pereira (@frp09) August 7, 2020 Mangalore 10 years ago. Now Kozhikode. Why do we continue to operate these badly designed airports with table top runways? Eventually it'll be forgotten and the blame will conveniently be pinned on "pilot error". https://t.co/amX9kwSwVv The Grad Student (@GradStuden) August 8, 2020 Aviation regulator DGCA had issued a show-cause notice to the director of the Kozhikode airport on July 11 last year after it found "various critical safety lapses. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation pointed to cracks on the runway, water stagnation and excessive rubber deposits among other lapses in its show-cause notice. Zomato said it would allow female employees take ten days of leave in a year on account of menstrual cycle, starting August 8. The number ten was arrived at after taking into account that the average woman's menstrual cycle lasts 14 days, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal said in a blog post. "At Zomato, we want to foster a culture of trust, truth and acceptance. Starting today, all women (including transgender people) at Zomato can avail up to 10 days of period leaves in a year," Goyal said. "Zomato understands that men and women are born with different biological realities. It is our job to make sure that we make room for our biological needs," he said, adding that there should be no shame or stigma attached to applying for period leave. Employees should feel free to tell people on internal groups, or emails that you are on your period leave for the day. Addressing men, the company said that they should not be ashamed if a female colleague says they are on period leave. "This is a part of life, and while we dont fully understand what women go through, we need to trust them when they say they need to rest this out," said Goyal, adding that "I know that menstrual cramps are very painful for a lot of women and we have to support them through it if we want to build a truly collaborative culture at Zomato," BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah's leader on Friday denied accusations that his Iran-backed movement has arms warehoused at Beirut port, calling for an investigation into the biggest explosion to hit the Lebanese capital. In a televised speech, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called Tuesday's explosion 'an exceptional event' that required unity and calm. The heavily armed Shi'ite Hezbollah would make its political position clear after the dust settles, he added. BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah's leader on Friday denied accusations that his Iran-backed movement has arms warehoused at Beirut port, calling for an investigation into the biggest explosion to hit the Lebanese capital. In a televised speech, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called Tuesday's explosion "an exceptional event" that required unity and calm. The heavily armed Shi'ite Hezbollah would make its political position clear after the dust settles, he added. Nasrallah praised solidarity and aid pouring in from around the world, including a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron. He said this presented an opportunity for Lebanon, already deep in financial crisis. Rescuers were sifting rubble to try to find anyone still alive after the explosion of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that killed 154 people, injured 5,000 and destroyed a swathe of the Mediterranean city. President Michel Aoun said the investigation would examine whether the cause was negligence, an accident or outside interference such as a bomb. Officials have said the explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port. Nasrallah - whose faction is a big backer of the current government along with Aoun and other allies - asked why the ammonium nitrate was at the port no matter the cause of the blast. "Even if a plane struck, or if it was an intentional act, if it turns out this nitrate had been at the port for years in this way, it means part of the case is absolutely negligence and corruption," he said. Israel, which has fought many wars with Hezbollah and is an enemy state of Lebanon, has denied any role in the explosion. Nasrallah called for a fair investigation to reveal the truth and strict accountability for anyone responsible without any political cover. Otherwise, "that means there is no state." He said if political parties trusted the Lebanese military as they say, they should let it investigate the blast, without mentioning an international probe which others have called for. From right after the blast, he said without naming names, some political powers in Lebanon and the region had sought to blame Hezbollah. "They came out with preconceived statements... They want to say to Beirut's people that those who destroyed your homes and killed your children are Hezbollah," he added. "I absolutely, categorically deny the presence of any missiles or any material for us in any warehouse at the port." (Reporting by Ellen Francis, Ghaida Ghantous and Beirut team; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Andrew Cawthorne and Nick Macfie) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Trend Visits of foreign doctors to Azerbaijan are organized on the basis of interstate agreements, Head of the Disease Control and Prevention Department of the Management Union of Medical Territorial Units (TABIB) Yagut Garayeva said. Garayeva made the remark during a briefing of the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers held on August 8, Trend reports. According to her, the visits have been arranged with involvement of official representatives of these countries. Garayeva added that in many countries, the number of infection cases is decreasing, and the situation is being taken under control. In particular, I want to note that the specialists who arrived [in Azerbaijan] from Italy are representatives of different provinces of the country and are specialized in different fields. We planned in advance what kind of assistance they could provide us upon arriving in Azerbaijan, she said. Saturday, August 8th, 2020 (12:01 am) - Score 2,893 New UK ISP Beacons Telecom (related Facebook page) has today revealed some of the first details about their plans to deploy a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit-capable broadband network across rural parts of Wales, which is already starting to connect some of its first customers. The provider first came to our attention last year (here) after they were name dropped by Hen Beudy Services as part of that companys application for Code Powers from Ofcom, which can help to speed-up the deployment of new fibre optic networks and cut costs by reducing the number of licenses needed for street works. At the time we didnt know much about Beacons roll-out plan, only that they had an ambition to build a new full fibre network across rural parts of Wales and, possibly, then extending out to the western (border) counties of England. Since then the provider appears to have been quite busy and theyve already begun some of their first optical fibre installations in four areas (Coed Y Paen, Gilwern, Tretower and Llangenny lane Crickhowell/Llangenny area). We have ambitions to reach 1,000 completed installations by the end of 2020, which has proved to be a testing year amid the ongoing pandemic, said Dylan Thomas, Sales Director for Beacons Telecom, to ISPreview.co.uk. However, it has proved to us all that the demand for FTTP is massive right now. NOTE: By completed installations they mean live customers, not premises passed. The provider has also recently had a six figure funding application approved for the town of Gilwern, where theyve completed over 20 installations and plan on completing another 150 in the near future. The investment for this is coming from the Governments gigabit broadband voucher programme(s). On top of that they also have 13 ongoing projects and multiple other DCMS funded projects (vouchers) in the pipeline. All of this represents good news for Wales, which until now has lacked the same diversity of alternative network suppliers as seen elsewhere in England. We strongly believe we have what it takes to become the number one broadband provider in Wales and we want to let the world know, added Dylan. Admittedly that would mean beating Openreach and Virgin Media for gigabit coverage and take-up, which is still a long way off. Meanwhile customers tend to pay from 24 per month for a 100Mbps package with a 20GB usage allowance (36 for unlimited usage) on a 12 month contract term, which rises to 66 for an unlimited 200Mbps service. Some areas also have the option of a cheaper 160Mbps+ tier (e.g. Gilwern, Crickhowell), which is due to a mix of local competition and requirements of the voucher scheme. Going forward Beacons Telecom claims to be only weeks away from deploying a new full fibre network to Pentrebach, Glangrwyney, Llangenny. After that theyre a few months away from hitting Llangattock, Govilon and Crickhowell. A few more areas are also very close behind those. Not bad for a new entrant into the market and we wish them well. Frustration and fear are the prevailing emotional attitudes that characterise the people of Kildare, Laois and Offaly today. Timahoe townland in Co Kildare - as distinct from the larger Timahoe village in Co Laois - is at the eye of the Covid storm, with inhabitants of the latter annoyed at the collateral damage caused by association. The townland, northwest of Prosperous and Clane, is now ground zero in the invisible war, its lanes, trees and hedgerows as unchanged as ever, yet somehow harbouring the enemy. The giant squat O'Brien Fine Foods plant, universally acknowledged as an exemplary employer and a shirt sponsor of Kildare GAA through its Brady Family Ham label, is closed and apparently deserted, though some are working from home. Read More Two-hundred metres away, Josephine O'Brien and her own family manufacture racing silks - Kildare being famed far and wide as home to the Curragh and many kings of the turf. She marvels that she only heard the news about 80 cases a short walk away on RTE television. In her late 60s, with husband Brian aged 72, she says she wasn't outside her door for the first four months of the crisis. "This was just down the road, and my nephew works in the place, yet I didn't hear of it until I watched the news. I have a brother who is just up the road again and he is immuno-suppressed. It is just unbelievable. "It's a very good company, a huge number of people are working there, with families dependent on it. It's a worry, a bodyblow for the whole lot of us." She sells her handmade silks all over the world - Dubai, Japan, South Africa, America, England - and has recently been inundated with orders as a result of racing's return. "It's manic," says Josephine, who has roped in her family to cope with this welcome surge, and who has known highs and lows in 40 years in business. "In lockdown, we were all like caged animals, and then we got out of it, and I suppose we have all become a bit lax in the last little while." Other local businesses are less inclined to comment. "Least said the better," said one contacted in Clane, reflecting a general uneasiness among locals to 'talk up' the topic. There is also the traditional Irish reluctance to intrude on a private sorrow, and perhaps a feeling that bad luck might itself be contagious, with families and workplaces interwoven across the three counties. The very eye of the storm may seem untroubled in its largely agricultural setting, but the workers commute in and then ripple home at the end of their shifts. A worker who was tested, but won't reveal the result, declared: "Nobody looked sick, nobody sounded sick, nobody was coughing. If you've no symptoms, you can't know." There is full awareness that individual employees might have brought their "infectivity" back to where they live. Nobody wants to blame individuals, but in one dormitory centre, a member of clergy pleaded: "These people are from all backgrounds and there are new Irish among them. If you identify a small place, you might as well hang a sign on their door. If you give my name, they'll have the place and then the person," he said. "I wouldn't mind otherwise. "There's a feeling, it's not exactly a bereavement, but close to it - an anxiety, a shared anxiety that is growing. "There's this phrase that we're all in it together, and whether we are or not, I think people would instinctively know the dangers of getting into an area of blame. It could be terrible for community relations." A statement from O'Brien's, which had two previous cases among its workforce in May, both stemming from outside interaction, expressed bewilderment over its current "very high" level of asymptomatic cases among staff. It outlined all previous efforts and steps, before adding: "Given this level of rigour and our comparatively low level of confirmed cases up to this point, this sudden spike is difficult to comprehend." Many ordinary folk are so sick of the subject, and sore at its tightening hold on the three counties, that they see no point in discussing it publicly - though they are now wearing masks more than ever, literally and figuratively. A name-withheld message to a local radio station gave voice to barely suppressed annoyance at the turn of events - and the obvious threat of returned restrictions: "You cannot lock down, or there will be blue murder. End of." A man behind the counter of a shop said angrily: "No comment. Do you not understand? No comment." The idea that publicity drives away the public seems to be an unspoken rationale - and customers were few and far between before the latest developments. The harsh comments of some are nothing more than a manifestation of hurt and pain. "I've had it up to here, and I'm not adding to it," said the owner of a guest lodge. "We want people to come back." - As the world continues to battle with the deadly coronavirus, another disease has been reported in China - The disease, called the bubonic plague, has claimed one life, forcing authorities to seal off a Chinese village - This is the second time bubonic plague - a centuries-old disease - has been reported in China in 2020 PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! A Chinese village has been sealed off after a resident died from bubonic plague, a centuries-old disease responsible for the most deadly pandemic in human history. After the death was reported to health authorities in Baotou city on Sunday, August 2, the victim was confirmed to be a bubonic plague patient on Thursday, August 6. In a statement by the Baotou Municipal Health Commission on Thursday, the patient died of circulatory system failure, 9 News reports. Briefly.co.za notes that Suji Xincun village, where the dead patient lived, was sealed off to curb the spread of the disease. This is the second time bubonic plague - a centuries-old disease - has been reported in China in 2020. Photo credit: Bloomberg Source: UGC READ ALSO: Covid-19 corruption: Ramaphosa appoints committee to probe allegations According to the statement, daily disinfection of homes has been ordered by authorities. The statement also indicated that all villagers have so far tested negative for the disease. The commission disclosed that nine close contacts and 26 secondary contacts of the patients have been quarantined and tested negative. Recall that this is the second case of bubonic plague in China in 2020. The previous case was discovered in July in Bayannur but the patient did not succumb to the disease. In other news, Briefly.co.za reported President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a committee to handle allegations of corruption relating to the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa. This committee will be chaired by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola and will deal with all allegations of graft concerning procurement of Personal Protective Equipment and other state responses to the crisis. Lamola will be joined by Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, Police Minister Bheki Cele, Public Service Minister Senzo Mchunu and COGTA Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Source: Briefly News Coconut Milk Market Research Report by Grade (Thick and Thin), by Distribution (Department Stores, Grocery, Online Retailers, and Super or Hyper Stores), by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 New York, Aug. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Coconut Milk Market Research Report by Grade, by Distribution, by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913875/?utm_source=GNW The Global Coconut Milk Market is expected to grow from USD 859.97 Million in 2019 to USD 1,586.14 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.74%. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Coconut Milk to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Grade, the Coconut Milk Market studied across Thick and Thin. Based on Distribution, the Coconut Milk Market studied across Department Stores, Grocery, Online Retailers, and Super or Hyper Stores. Based on Application, the Coconut Milk Market studied across Bakery, Confectionery, Cosmetics & Personal Care, Food & Beverage Manufacturing, Food Services, Frozen desserts, and Household. Based on Geography, the Coconut Milk Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed 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 Coconut Milk Market including Celebes Coconut Corporation, Fresh Fruit Ingredients Inc., Goya Foods, GraceKennedy Group, M&S Food Industries, Mc Cormick & co, Pacific Foods of Oregon, Thai Agri Foods, The Sambu Group, and The Whitewave foods. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Coconut Milk 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 the market 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 Coconut Milk Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Coconut Milk Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Coconut Milk Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Coconut Milk Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Coconut Milk Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Coconut Milk Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913875/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg arrived for a press conference on June 11, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images) Australian Treasurer Urges States to Stump up More Cash to Help the Economy Cope With Covid-19 Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is applying pressure on states and territories to stump up more cash to help the economy cope with COVID-19. The national virus death toll on Aug 8 reached 278 as restrictions on movement and borders continued to take a hammer to business. Frydenberg championed the federal governments $314 billion spend on bracing Australia against the virus, including through programs such as JobKeeper and JobSeeker. By comparison, he said states and territories had promised about $44 billion. The states can do more, the states need to do more. They have the balance-sheet strength to do so, he told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday. He singled out Victoria, saying nearly half the states private sector workforce will be on JobKeeper in the coming months. The expectation is that of the four million Australians who will be on JobKeeper in the September quarter, some 1.5 million of them will be Victorians. He said the support could come in various forms, such as small business grants, tax relief or bringing forward infrastructure projects. The Victorian government has already made some announcements, theyve made around a half-billion-dollar announcement recently for small business grants and some relief for those businesses, but of course it needs to do more. West Australian premier Mark McGowan on Saturday announced $150 million for tourism upgrades for sites across the state including Perth Zoo, Rottnest Island and the Dampier Peninsula. Were spending (the money) wisely on projects that can be implemented quickly and create the opportunities for private sector investment to build on them, and solve long term problems, McGowan said. He also announced spending as part of a broader $5.5 billion COVID-19 recovery plan on infrastructure upgrades through the Peel region south of Perth. Tasmania on Saturday also expanded its small business recovery program, previously announced as worth $20 million. Opposition Health spokesman Chris Bowen asked the government to be specific in what it wants. Melbourne COVID-19 deaths, hospitalisations and lockdowns could be over this year, says WHO India logs over 2.82 lakh new cases, 441 deaths in last 24 hours SC pulls up Andhra, Bihar for non-payment of compensation to kin of Covid victims Arjun Meghwal tests positive for coronavirus India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Aug 08: Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Saturday said he has tested positive for COVID-19 and admitted to AIIMS here. The minister of state for heavy industries and parliamentary affairs said after developing COVID-19 symptoms he was tested twice and found positive in the second report. However, he said his health is fine. King Liar actress Natasha Suri tests positive for coronavirus "After developing symptoms of COVID-19 I had undergone test and was found positive in the second report. On the advice of doctors, I got admitted to AIIMS and I request all those who came in contact with me to take care of their health," he said. Meghwal is BJP MP from Bikaner. He had recently claimed that a particular brand of 'papad' had a role in boosting the immunity and antibodies that could help cure COVID-19. A video of the minister endorsing 'Bhabhiji papad', which he called a health supplement, had gone viral on social media. "Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative, a papad manufacturer has come up with this product that will aid the formation of antibodies to fight the coronavirus," the minister had said in the video, "This papad will prove useful in the fight against coronavirus." Another MP from Rajasthan and Union Minister Kailash Chaudhary has also tested positive for COVID-19. 5 highlights from Senate hearing on anarchist violence: Cruz slams Dems for not denouncing Antifa Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Solutions to curb the violence caused by Antifa and radical anarchist groups were discussed in a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing this week, with one prominent Democrat walking out after being challenged to denounce Antifa. The hearing of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was titled The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence. During the hearing, Cruz denounced Antifa, a far-left movement comprised of organized militant groups who claim to oppose fascism but instead commit violent assaults, vandalism, arson and other criminal activity to thwart free speech. Recently, they've been seen committing violent acts in protests nationwide, including in Seattle and Portland. Cruz accused Antifa of stealing the protests of minorities searching for racial justice, and denounced Democrats on the subcommittee, such as Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, for refusing to denounce Antifa by name. The following pages list five highlights from the hearing. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Showing the first signs of growth in FY21, the new business premium of life insurers saw a 6.9 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth to Rs 22,986.10 crore in July. Ever since the coronavirus outbreak in India and the subsequent lockdown from March 25, this is the first month that life insurers have seen a growth in first year premium collection. Data from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) showed that, while for the April 1 to July 31 period the life insurers saw a 12 percent YoY decline in premium to Rs 72,321.53 crore, July was an outlier. In the industry, private insurers saw a 26 percent YoY growth in first-year premium collection to Rs 7,815.14 crore in July 2020. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) saw a flat premium (decline of 0.9 percent YoY) of Rs 15,170.95 crore. Among the listed insurers, HDFC Life Insurance posted a 40.8 percent YoY increase in new premium to Rs 1,975.75 crore. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance saw a 10 percent YoY decline in new premiums to Rs 848.74 crore. SBI Life Insurance saw a 42 percent YoY rise in first-year premium to Rs 1,909.03 crore in July 2020. The first-year premium collection data for July 2020 showed that all bank-led insurers started seeing positive growth. This is amidst an easing of the lockdown across India and more customers walking into bank branches. Since March, life insurers have been seeing a double-digit decline in new premiums. In March, there was a 32 percent YoY decline in first-year premium. In April 2020, the decline was at 32.6 percent. Life insurers' new premiums saw a 25.4 percent YoY decline in May 2020 while in June 2020 life insurers saw a 10.5 percent decline in new premiums compared to a year-ago. Bank-led players see growth in premiums For July, IndiaFirst Life Insurance that has Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank (now merged with Union Bank of India) as the bank promoters saw a 251.2 percent YoY growth in new premium to Rs 385.87 crore. Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance that has Bank of India and Union Bank as its Indian promoters saw a 109.3 percent YoY growth in new premium to Rs 85.4 crore in July. Another life insurer, Canara HSBC OBC Life that has Canara Bank, HSBC and Oriental Bank of Commerce (now merged with Punjab National Bank) also saw a 20.7 percent YoY growth in premium to Rs 111 crore in July. Industry officials are of the view that once public transport like local trains and metro rail resumes across the country, there will be a further improvement in new premium collection for life insurers. As lockdowns and curfews were introduced around the world to protect citizens from Covid-19, daily life moved online. In terms of work, many companies utilised digital programmes such as Skype and Zoom to allow employees to work remotely, while various e-learning initiatives were also established, enabling students at the primary, secondary and tertiary level to continue their studies from home during the pandemic. In Bahrain, for example, the Ministry of Education set up an online portal for students and teachers that was updated daily with thousands of lessons, sample exams, e-books and other learning materials. Elsewhere, social distancing measures led to spikes in demand for e-commerce platforms and online delivery services. For example, in Indonesia digital transactions rose by 102.5% year-on-year in the first four months of 2020. In the UAE, figures from Ken Research showed that online grocery orders had increased by 80-100% in the first months of the year as a result of the virus, while some online retailers in Saudi Arabia saw a 200% increase in average sale during the early stages of the pandemic. Cyber threats on the rise While the increased adoption of digital solutions has played a significant role in reducing the risk of contracting the virus, as well as allowing people to continue to work and study, it has also increased cybersecurity challenges. Put simply, the more people that are using digital platforms, the more pressure is placed on existing cybersecurity controls, and the greater the chance of potential attacks. This is particularly relevant for those working from home. While firms often have cybersecurity defences installed in offices and on company computers, the same is not always true of employees working remotely. According to McKinsey, the shift towards remote working has amplified longstanding cybersecurity risks such as people accessing unsecured data without VPN software, and the physical and psychological stressors that often lead to employees bypassing controls and taking risky options in order to complete assigned tasks. Similar threats apply to financial platforms. With increased activity and a significant increase in the value of money being transferred, many analysts believe there is a heightened cyber threat on insecure platforms. This is particularly pertinent in emerging markets: less affluent people are more likely to use unsecured digital channels or older methods that utilise SMS or USSD to conduct financial transactions. There has also been numerous high-profile reports of individuals and institutions being targeted by hackers since the start of the pandemic. Related: UK To Invest In Europe's First Geothermal Lithium Recovery Plant For example, a phishing attack in India purported to offer people a free Netflix subscription during the lockdown if they filled out a survey and forwarded the message to 10 people. In August INTERPOL noted that it had witnessed a significant amount of Covid-19-related cyber threats, such as coronavirus-themed online scams and phishing emails impersonating government and health authorities, as well as malware targeting health care institutions. To demonstrate the scale of the threat, INTERPOL said that between January and April one of its private sector partners had detected 907,000 spam messages, 737 incidents related to malware and 48,000 malicious URLs that were all related to Covid-19. While individuals and small businesses are a threat, larger institutions have also become targets. In a statement released in late April, the World Health Organisation said that it had experienced a five-fold increase in the number of cyberattacks since the outbreak of Covid-19, with the email addresses and passwords of thousands of people working on tasks in response to the virus being leaked online. Digital solutions to digital challenges In light of increased digital activity and the heightened cyber threat, companies and governments alike have been looking to strengthen their defences. We have seen a surge in uptake of data centre services, much of which is driven by e-commerce. In the first two weeks of ECQ [enhanced community quarantine] we had close to 50,000 new connections, Al Panlilio, president and CEO of Smart Communications, and the chief revenue officer of Philippine telecoms company PLDT, told OBG in late July. It was therefore very important for us to offer cybersecurity to the market. We began to offer three months of access to our endpoint advanced security service and three months of free access to our cybersecurity portfolio for hospitals, as we noticed that the health sector was the target of many attacks during the start of ECQ. Given the scale of the threat, many governments or businesses in emerging markets may lack the necessary expertise and resources to build adequate safeguards. To overcome this, some in the industry have called for the development of regional cybersecurity resource centres, where multiple countries and/or bodies could pool knowledge to bolster protection. Advocates say that while such a development would add to, rather than supplant, existing cybersecurity structures, they could also be used to develop talent and drive innovation in the sector. By Oxford Business Group More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: There has been no shortage of royal headlines the past couple of years. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot; Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, too. Queen Elizabeth II became Gan-Gan to a few more heirs (hello, Prince Louis, Archie Harrison and Lili Diana!) andnot sure, you might have heard?Harry decided it was high time for a career change, among other changes. And with so many of her cousins dominating the news cycle, what with their international tours and headline-making interviews, Princess Beatrice, the eldest daughter of Prince Andrew (racking up his own less-than-favorable clips of late thanks to his ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein) and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, remained relatively quiet. It wasn't until her little sis, Eugenie, wed longtime love Brooksbank in October 2018 that royal watchers thought to ask of the royal, "Hey, what is she up to?" The answer, it turned out, was falling in love. Sometime in the fall of 2018, Beatrice, currently ninth in line to the British throne, was acquainted, or, rather, reacquainted with Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, a 38-year-old millionaire property developer and son of an Italian count. Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi: Romance Rewind The relationship, while too new to debut at her sister's all-important Windsor Castle vows, first leaked out not quite three years ago, when The Sun shared they were two-months deep into a laugh-filled romance. They became officially official in March 2019 when Beatrice, vice president of partnerships and strategy at technology company Afiniti, arrived to a gala at The National Portrait Gallery in London with Mozzi on her arm. Princess Beatrice, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi As the move would suggest, she and the Edinburgh University grad had grown quite serious in those first six months together, with some in the royal's inner circle predicting she just might be the next princess bride. "They've been on holidays together and Beatrice introduced him to Fergie and her dad," an insider told The Sun. "Things are moving very quickly and it wouldn't surprise anyone if they got engaged within a short period of time." Story continues A year does not a fast-tracked engagement make. But Beatrice's decision to accept Mozzi's bespoke Shaun Lane round-cut diamond during a September 2019 Italian getawaymarrying him 10 months later on July 17 some two weeks after Britain's coronavirus-related wedding restrictions were liftedwas downright speedy in comparison to her previous entanglements. Save for a brief teenage romance with Paolo Liuzzo that ultimately unraveled when an assault and battery charge stemming from his involvement in the 2002 death of a college student became public, Beatrice spent the whole of her late teens and twenties with former Uber executive Dave Clark. Duchess Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew, Princess Beatrice A psychology student at Maine's Bowdoin College and son of a well-off corporate lawyer, Clark's first royal connection was actually Prince William, the duo becoming friends during a study abroad program through the University of Edinburgh. Years later, the future king would introduce his school chum to younger cousin Beatrice at a 2006 party thrown by Pierce Brosnan's son Sean Brosnan and, in a boon to the prince's matchmaking skills, the twosome hit it off immediately. As Beatrice studied history at Goldsmiths, University of London, Clark served as head of astronaut relations at Virgin Atlantic and together they built up quite the circle of well-heeled friends, the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Ellie Goulding and Karlie Kloss (who inadvertently revealed Beatrice's private Instagram when sharing her own engagement news in 2018) assuming they would one day be dancing alongside Queen Elizabeth at the couple's wedding. Princess Beatrice of York, Dave Clark Clark also became a fixture at such key events as the Royal Ascot and London's Chelsea Flower Show and even joined the philanthropic-minded Beatrice as she ran the London Marathon while tied to some 36 pals all wearing matching neon tutus to raise money for Children in Crisis. His willingness to so completely attach himself to their eldest child earned Clark the approval of Beatrice's parents, Andrew and Sarah, the latter of whom is so close to her girls they often refer to themselves as "the tripod." Sharing that she had dubbed him "Mr. Smiley" due to his tendency to maintain a sunny disposition and, well, smile a lot, Sarah told People in 2008, "I love Dave. He's cool. I'm really proud that he's with Beatrice." The way she saw it, the author explained, "Beatrice is so special, it takes someone very nice to be with herto appreciate how good she is." Princess Beatrice, Dave Clark Along with her intelligence, generosity of character and affinity for the arts, Beatrice also proved to be a devoted, loyal girlfriend. When aviation and aerospace specialist Clark scored a gig as head of external affairs at Uber in 2015, the royal, then an international production analyst at Sony Pictures Entertainment, followed him, first to San Francisco, where she enrolled in a business course, and then New York, gaining employment at investment banking firm Sandbridge Capital. But just when tabloids began predicting an engagement was in the offing, speculating that Clark was waiting until after Princess Charlotte's birth to propose because the spare heir's May 2015 arrival knocked Beatrice down to seventh in the hierarchy, relieving Clark the responsibility of gaining the reigning monarch's permission to marry, he and Beatrice broke up instead. Initial reports hinted the summer 2016 split would be temporary, akin to William and Kate taking a breather before they ultimately reunited and set about their course as England's future king and queen. Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrices Best Sisterly Style Moments "It is very much a break. It is amicable and mutual," an insider insisted to People. "They both need space after a period of ten years to see what they both want." While her family was said to be shocked by the turn of events, all involved parties remained hopeful that this would just be a blip en route to a happy ending. Says the insider, "They are both open-minded about what might happen in the future." Except what happened was that Clark crossed paths with advertising executive Lynn Anderson and proposed within a matter of months, the couple marrying in an Italian extravaganzajust months before Eugenie's vowsat the same five-star resort where Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel chose to marry. Perhaps wisely, Beatrice spent that weekend on holiday with her mom in the South of France. Princess Beatrice, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi Though the end of her decade-long romance was said to be on the best possible of terms considering how tough it is to unravel 10 years worth of shared experiences, Beatrice still found herself in the unique position of navigating the landmine-filled dating scene for the first time in her adult life. Not only was she forced to contend with the same trivialities that plague any twentysomething, she had to go about the business of love knowing full well countless royal watchers would weigh in. "Growing up in the media, it's...interesting," Beatrice shared in the September 2018 issue of British Vogue, the sisters choosing to grant a rare interview in light of a milestone year that saw Eugenie celebrate her wedding and Beatrice her 30th birthday. "We've had some serious grounding from our parents. They've had their fair share of terrible media interest and it makes us stronger. We believe very strongly in who we are, and the support system of our friends and our family is pretty incredible. There's no point being angry with anyone for beating us upwe just need to shine light and love in the world." Princess Beatrice, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi So when the press invented a relationship between Beatrice and personal trainer and business consultant James Williams, two friends choosing to have a meal together often all it takes for well-known names to reach confirmed couple status, she let it roll off her back. Williams' actual girlfriend, onetime Bachelor contestant Lucinda Aragon, was actually the one to shut down the rumors explaining it was a simple case of a pal offering up a ride. "They're just friends," Aragon, a self-described free spirit who competed for Juan Pablo Galavis' affections explained to The Sun. "They've known each other for a long time. They were at a group dinner and everyone else was like: 'We are not gonna get photographed.' So James was like: 'I'm not going to leave her by herself.' He's a very nice guy." In fact the rumors that had popped up after Williams was spotted piloting the princess in his six-figure Bentley had left her more amused than annoyed: "We're just having a really good laugh over all the comments." The Best Royal Wedding Dresses of All Time Beatrice also didn't speak out when she was paired off with Wilfred Frost, the CNBC host and son of famed journalist Sir David Frost, later that month. While it remains unclear if the duo's outing to The British Heart Foundation's Beating Hearts Ball was an actual date or just a friend filling in as plus-one to a black tie affair, by the latter half of 2018 Beatrice was decidedly single. According to People she and Mozzi had run in the same social circle for years, Beatrice even attending the 2011 funeral for his step-father, lawmaker Christopher Shale. A close friend of both Beatrice's parents and former British Prime Minister David Cameron, the 56-year-old Shale died quite unexpectedly of natural causes at the Glastonbury music festival. So while Beatrice and Mozzi might not have necessarily needed an introduction (and the whole meet-the-parents process was likely more akin to, hey, remember this guy, considering Beatrice's mom is also godmother to Edo's younger brother), The Sun's source said they were reconnected "through a mutual chum," and that the two "hit it off instantly and have a real laugh together." Princess Beatrice, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi The duo, spotted strolling across a Kenyan beach in January 2019, also have a shared connection to philanthropy. Along with Banda, a property and design business he founded in 2007 while still in his early twenties, Edo, as he's known to pals, also created Cricket Builds Hope, a charity that uses the British game as a tool for positive social change in Rwanda. As a royal, Beatrice is the patron to a handful of organizations, including the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre, which helped her deal with the affliction in her teenage years. But she's also attached herself to the Be Cool, Be Nice campaign against cyberbullyingan area she's doubtlessly well-versed inand co-founded Big Change, an organization aimed at promoting youth projects, with friends Sam Branson and Holly Branson (the offspring of billionaire business magnate Richard Branson). Both halves of the couple are also a soft touch when it comes to their family. While Mossi shares his one-bedroom London flat (so innovative it was featured in House & Garden) with Christopher Woolf, his 4-year-old son (referred to as Woolfie) with architect ex-fiancee Dara Huang, Beatrice has dedicated a fair amount of her public remarks to gushing about her kin. Inside Princess Eugenie and Beatrice's Unbreakable Sisterly Bond While in Toronto in October 2017 to support WE Day, held in connection with cousin Harry's beloved Invictus Games, she spoke to Hello! about the role her mom and grandmother have played in shaping her world. "They are both formidable women," she said. "I think having female role models is incredibly important and I am very lucky that I happen to be related to these two incredible women. I find my grandmother inspiring every day because her overwhelming sense of duty is linked with an overwhelming curiosity. Every day she's curious to learn something new, to do something new and I think that at 91 years old, she goes out into the community with a genuine curiosity as to how she can be a force for good in the world. She also looks for ways in which she can inspire communities, and I admire the way that she works so hard." Princess Beatrice, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi As for her mother, Beatrice called the Duchess of York "probably one of the most misunderstood women in the world." She's dealt with more than her fair share of stressors, the princess noted, "and every single minute she created joy. I am so lucky that I get to learn from her every single day. I'm inspired by her ability to give, even when she's going through something hard. Her grandmother always said, 'When you feel bad about yourself, go out there and do something for somebody else.' That's an incredible motto that my family has always lived by. My mother is just remarkable." Fortunately for Mozzi, his new mother-in-law seems to approve of her daughter's suitor, showing her support by giving him a follow on Twitter. And when it came time to announce the engagement, the statement she and Prince Andrew put out could best be described as laudatory. "We are thrilled that Beatrice and Edoardo have got engaged, having watched their relationship develop with pride," the friendly exes shared. "We are the lucky parents of a wonderful daughter who has found her love and companion in a completely devoted friend and loyal young man." Princess Beatrice Announces Engagement To Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi Sarah later called the news "extraordinary" in a chat with Hello!, revealing she's known Edo since he was four and found his mum quite lovely: "It's really, really good news. I'm really, really proud of them both." Wedding plans remained in flux pretty much up until the point Beatrice walked down the aisle in Grandma's borrowed Norman Hartnell dress and the Queen Mary diamond fringe tiara. The originally scheduled May 29 vows at London's St. James's Palace certainly weren't going to be flashy by royal standards, Beatrice paring down her sister's 850-person guest list to a tidy 150. "Beatrice is more reserved and discreet. She holds back more, she is very polite, very well-educated but more formal and quiet in her personalty, so I think it will be a very different wedding to Eugenie," a source predicted to People in October. But just how different became clear this spring as COVID-19 canceled nuptials worldwide. Her original date scrapped, Beatrice and her groom began crafting a new plan as Britain lifted restrictions in early July. With their mothers' help, "They swung into action and brought it all together in two weeks, which is quite extraordinary," a friend told People of the revamped affair that saw some 20 loved onesincluding guest of honor, Queen Elizabethwatch the pair wed at All Saint's Chapel in Windsor Great Park. Princess Beatrice, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, Wedding An equally intimate reception followed, with 30 guests feting the newlyweds under a flower-filled tent, dancing to music streamed in via iPhone as to not violate the live music ban, and off the couple were to France for a brief getaway. Adding to their family of three is in the cards as well, with the duo announcing they are expecting a baby together this fall. "They're besotted with each other," a source told People. "They're down-to-earth and fun and have a great sense of humor." Hence why Fergie was recently telling Royal Central that her daughter is "the happiest I have ever seen her in my life" despite the stress of wedding planning in the thick of a pandemic. "She and Edo have a great love for each other and passion for life," she continued. "For them to be getting married fills my heart with joy." (Originally published March 16, 2019, at 3 a.m. PT) New Delhi, Aug 8 : The talks between military representatives of India and China to discuss disengagement in the Depsang plains north of Galwan area started on Saturday morning near the Line of Actual Control, sources said. The sources said that the Major General-level talks between Indian and Chinese armies is taking place at Daulat Beg Oldie for the de-escalation of troops and material in the Depsang plains. General Officer Commanding of 3 Mountain Division, Major General Abhijit Bapat, is leading the talks from the Indian side. The main agenda of the meeting is to address the situation in the Depsang plains that has seen big mobilisation of around 15,000 Chinese troops opposite Depsang. The Depsang plains is a table-top plateau to the north of Galwan and remains a major hotspot due to its strategic location since it provides access to the logistical hub and airstrip at Daulat Beg Oldie and the critical Karakoram Pass in the north. The meeting will seek to work out a system of pulling back troops and de-escalation from the 900 sq km plains situated at an altitude of 16,000 feet. The Indian Army holds a majority of the Depsang plains area while the People's Liberation Army holds its eastern edge. Chinese troops are concentrating on an area called 'Bottleneck', 25 km from the strategic airfield at Daulat Beg Oldie. The troops on either side are denying patrolling rights to each other in the "grey zone" areas, where the perception of the Line of Actual Control varies by several kilometres. Saturday's meeting is the outcome of the Lieutenant General-level meetings, five of which have been conducted since June 6. Depsang plains has seen two major stand-offs in 2013 and 2014, besides dozens of face-offs annually when the troops of the two countries come close while patrolling. In the meantime, the Indian government has witnessed that China's commitment to disengagement at the Pangong Tso lake remains "unsatisfactory". India has directed its armed forces to prepare for a long haul. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text PROVIDENCE The thief coronavirus has robbed Americans of many of their summer pleasures, but it cant steal the annual Perseid meteor shower as it builds to its peak, when 50 to 75 shooting stars an hour may be seen in the skies over Rhode Island. Whether youll be able to see this dazzling show in Earths celestial canopy depends on the weather in Rhode Island during the showers Aug. 11-13 peak. The National Weather Service says skies over the next week will be sunny with a chance of thunderstorms on Wednesday. The hours between midnight and sunrise are the best time to scan the sky for the summertime classic, which is known to produce fireballs. The moon is in its last quarter phase, and that will mar the sky show a bit. But the Perseids tend to be bright, so you should be able to see a fair number of them. The brightest of meteors are known as fireballs, and theyre at least as bright as the planets Jupiter or Venus. NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke says the Perseids produce more fireballs than any other meteor shower to the extent that hes nicknamed them the fireball champion. During the Perseids, its not unusual to see a fireball every few hours, Cooke says. NASAs research suggests the Perseids are rich in fireballs because of the size of Swift/Tuttles nucleus about 16 miles (or 26 kilometers) in diameter. Most other comets are much smaller, with nuclei only a few kilometers across. As a result, Comet Swift-Tuttle produces a large number of meteoroids, many of which are large enough to produce fireballs, he wrote for NASA. Though viewing is best after midnight from anywhere in the sky, the evening hours may offer a special treat known as an earthgrazer. Theyre rare, but a sight to behold a long, slow and colorful meteor that streaks horizontally across the sky. The peak dates arent the only time to see the Perseids, which have been streaking across the sky since mid-July and will continue through Aug. 24. So consider watching past the peak dates, and especially after Aug. 17, when moonless skies prevail, according to Earthsky.org. Story continues The rambling Delta Aquarid meteor shower continues through mid-month, so you may see a few of those, too. The Delta Aquarids are not as prolific as the Perseids, but up to 10 percent of them leave persistent trains that is, glowing ionized gas trails that can last for a second or two after the meteor passes. Dark skies are the best for meteor shower viewing. In Rhode Island, some good options include the Frosty Drew Observatory in Charlestown. Either shower can be seen from anywhere in the sky, though Earthsky.org advises placing yourself in the moons shadow near a barn or other structure. The meteors will be more visible. The other thing required for successful meteor watching is patience. NASAs Cooke told Space.com meteor shower watching requires an investment in preparation and time, but is the simplest form of astronomy there is. Theres no need for a telescope or binoculars, which actually are a disadvantage because the more sky youre able to see, the greater the chance of seeing a meteor. Give yourself half an hour to 45 minutes to adjust to the dark skies. And, Cooke advises, avoid looking at your phone while youre waiting to see a shooting star. You know, that's something about meteor observing: You let your eyes adapt to the dark, and what kills [meteor viewing for] most people nowadays is that they'll look at their phones, and that bright screen just totally trashes your night vision," Cooke said. Each meteor shower has a radiant point where the meteors appear to originate; with the Perseids, its the constellation Perseus. But the farther you get away from it, the better the chances of seeing longer streaks and fireballs. Meteors are produced when the Earth passes through debris left behind by comets as it orbits the sun. The Perseids are produced from dust from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which last entered our solar system in 1992 and wont return again until July 2126. There are no meteor showers in September, but the fall offers plenty of opportunity to see shooting stars, especially during those from the Geminid meteor shower. The only thing the Perseids have over the Geminids is that they occur in the summer, when its comfortable outside, but the Dec. 7-17 shower is known to produce up to 120 multicolored meteors at their peak. This article originally appeared on the Providence Patch Photo credit: Scott Olson - Getty Images From Car and Driver Cars for Freedom is a program that allows NRA supporters to donate their cars to the NRA. The just-filed lawsuits over financial improprieties have not yet impacted the process, but since the New York suit seeks the dissolution of the NRA entirely, that could change. The NRA received 4184 donated vehicles in 2017, the most recent numbers available, and reported $1,931,798 in revenue from its vehicle donation program. The group that runs the NRA's car-donation program, CARS, works with more than 5000 nonprofits in the U.S., considers itself apolitical, and just had "Christmas level" donations in July. New York State took legal action against the National Rifle Association this week, alleging that the gun rights group committed fraud against its members by spending millions of NRA charitable assets for private benefits, including on lavish vacations and "personal financial benefits." New York's Attorney General is seeking the dissolution of the NRA. In a separate lawsuit, the Washington, D.C., attorney general has also sued the NRA. There is one aspect of the case that could affect some car owners. Or people who want to own one less car, at least. The NRA Foundation is the charitable organization that exists to support the NRA. While the New York Attorney General's office is not seeking the dissolution of any affiliated charities, the DC filing does go after the NRA Foundation. The NRA Foundation operates Cars for Freedom, which is a way for people to give up their used cars to the NRA as a tax-deductible donation. Without naming Cars for Freedom specifically in the legal complaint, DC alleges that the NRA used the Foundation's funds and "financially exploited" the charity, and the New York lawsuit also takes issue with how the Foundation was run. NRA Took in $1.9 Million in Donated Cars in 2017 There is money to be found in the Foundation's coffers. The NRA Foundation gave over $18 million to the NRA in 2017 (the last year for which searchable information was available online). Its Cars for Freedom program is recent, having started in 2016 with the announcement that "Donations to the initiative are tax-deductible and will be used by The NRA Foundation to educate the country, protect freedoms and reawaken American values." According to federal tax documents, the NRA received 4184 vehicles in 2017 and reported $1,931,798 in revenue from the vehicle donation program. Story continues Photo credit: NRA via Facebook Neither the NRA nor the NRA Foundation returned Car and Driver's requests for comment, and both the New York and DC attorney general offices declined to comment on the record. But we did speak with the organization behind the scenes that processes all of the cars that people donate to the NRA. Actually, the groupCharitable Adult Rides & Services, a.k.a. CARSprocesses most of the vehicles that people donate to nonprofits around the country. The people we spoke to at CARS made clear they are an apolitical organization that works with more than 5000 nonprofits in the U.S., processing around $2 million each week for all of the nonprofits it works with. CARS is a business-to-business group that takes vehicle donations for any group that has been approved as a legitimate 501(c)3, but it does not work with political parties or political campaigns. CARS said that despite the legal actions, people who want to support the NRA can still donate their cars and they even expect the NRA to try to capitalize on the lawsuits to get even more people to donate in order to raise funds for the legal defense. CARS hasn't seen an uptick in NRA vehicle donations just yet, but the lawsuits were only recently filed. Charitable Car Donations in General Are Up Unrelated to the NRA issue, CARS did see a slowdown in donations when COVID-19 hit the U.S. earlier this year, in part because people usually donate their vehicle before buying a new one, and that process was halted when many dealerships were closed earlier this year. But then July ended up being one of the highest months on record in 15 years. The person we spoke with said it was "Christmas, New Year's, and tax-filing level of donations." Aside from simple pent-up demand, possible reasons for the recent increase are that people were feeling more generous given the problems so many organizations are facing right now or because they realize they don't need two cars. There is another car-related aspect to the lawsuit, regarding the use of rental cars when NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and other executives traveled. Despite the NRA's own rules that state that NRA employees should use public transportation like taxicabs and local transit options when they travel since "such means of transportation is cost-effective," the lawsuit alleges LaPierre frequently used or approved "costly black car services," including one day when his senior assistant "incurred over $1100 in black car bills for her husband's trips to and from airports." Or the time this same assistant spent "approximately $100,000 in black car expenses for two chauffeured vehicles" during a two-week trip to France. That's a lot of donated vehicles. You Might Also Like Abhishek Bachchan has tested negative for COVID-19. Sharing the news on Twitter, the actor expressed gratitude for the doctors treating him at the hospital. He also thanked his fans for their prayers. He first tested positive on July 11 following which he was admitted at the Nanavati hospital in Mumbai. Read: Abhishek Bachchan Tests Covid-19 Negative, Writes 'I Told You Guys Id Beat This' Also read: Amitabh Bachchan to Abhishek Bachchan: 'Welcome Home Bhaiyu, God Is Great' A 'gratitude list,' reportedly written by late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, in Rhea Chakraborty's notebook has surfaced. According to CNN-News18, the list shared by the actress' lawyer included the names of the people Sushant was "grateful for" in his life. Read: Sushant Singh Rajput Was 'Grateful' for Rhea Chakraborty In His Life, Claims His Gratitude List Also Read: Sushant Singh Rajput Death Case: Maharashtra Govt Files Probe Report in SC, Hearing on Aug 11 After a 10-hour long interrogation by the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) on Friday, Badshah has reportedly admitted to shelling out over Rs. 75 lakh for promoting his music album with fake likes and followers. He was questioned again on Saturday and is likely to be summoned again on Sunday for other related aspects of the probe, said the sources. Read: Rapper Badshah Admits to having Paid Rs 75 Lakh for Fake Social Media Likes, Followers: Report Rana Daggubati and Miheeka Bajaj are all set to tie the nuptial knot on Saturday and Samantha Akkineni seemed quite thrilled about the wedding festivities that began two days ago. Samantha shared a cheerful candid picture with Rana from his haldi ceremony. Read: Rana Daggubati-Miheeka Bajajs Wedding: Samantha Akkineni Shares Happy Candid with Groom-to-be Also Read: Terrible News: Shah Rukh, Amitabh, Akshay Condole Deaths In Kozhikode Plane Mishap Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani on Friday were spotted in Khar, Mumbai. The duo was clicked by the paparazzi making their way out of filmmaker Karan Johars old office. The duo visited the Dharma Production office late afternoon with breathing masks on. However, the purpose of the visit is not known yet. Read: Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani Spotted at Karan Johars Office in Mumbai Also read: Streaming Now: Prakash Jha's Thought-provoking Film Pareeksha, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's Music in Bandish Bandits The popularity of The Office might have only grown since its been available on Netflix. But the reactions to certain moments are different with time. Rashida Jones, who played Karen Filippelli, thinks one relationship on the show couldnt be written today. Steve Carell said The Office wouldnt work today Ed Helms as Andy Bernard, Rashida Jones as Karen Filippelli, Kate Flannery as Meredith Palmer, Steve Carell as Michael Scott, Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin, Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Lapin on The Office | Chris Haston/NBC/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank Many fans are hoping the cast will reunite to create new episodes one day. But Steve Carell, who played Michael Scott doesnt seem interested in doing that. Because The Office is on Netflix and replaying, a lot more people have seen it recently, he told Esquire. And I think because of that theres been a resurgence in interest in the show, and talk about bringing it back. But apart from the fact that I just dont think thats a good idea, it might be impossible to do that show today and have people accept it the way it was accepted ten years ago. The climates different. Carell pointed out Michaels inappropriate behavior as being one the reasons it wouldnt work. The actor actually left the show before it ended. However, he did return to make an appearance in the finale. An episode was edited due to blackface One of the episodes that didnt age well was Dwight Christmas. The episode shows Dwight (Rainn Wilson) trying to get the office to celebrate the holiday following the traditions of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Dwight dresses up as Belsnickel and explains how hes supposed to give gifts to those who are good. Mose (Michael Schur) also dresses up as Black Peter, which uses blackface. However, Dwight calls him when hes in the parking lot and tells him to not come into the office in the offensive makeup. The small scene was edited out and can no longer be found on streaming. Other actors have pointed out other ways the show couldnt be done the same way today. She doesnt think Toby and Michaels relationship would be written today Jones was a guest on the Office Ladies podcast to talk about the episode A Benihana Christmas. The episode shows Pam (Jenna Fischer) and Karen teaming up against Angela (Angela Kinsey) to make their own Christmas party. Michael also goes to Benihana and brings back a waitress to the office that he tries to hit on. Michael wouldnt have a job with that behavior probably, Jones said. She then went on to talk about Michaels hatred for Toby (Paul Lieberstein), who works in human resources. And thats the funny thing too that Toby is the enemy, the actor said. She described the character as sensitive and tries to take care of people. Michael hates him so much for it because hes killing his party and this feels like a relationship you couldnt even write today really, Jones said. Michaels hatred of Toby is usually played for laughs. Their scenes show how terrible Michael is as a boss. Jones is certainly isnt alone in thinking the sitcom did some things that wouldnt work today. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 09:59:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Aug 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. efforts to clamp down on popular short video-sharing app TikTok is part of a broader attempt to curb China's technological sector, a Turkish expert has said. "This move can be considered as the latest card used by the United States in its fight against China and its technological rise. This is a battle for technological dominance," Altay Atli, a scholar at Istanbul's Bogazici University, told Xinhua. "This is a new front of the battle," said Atli. U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order banning any U.S. transactions with the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, owner of TikTok, starting in 45 days. Atli, an Asia-Pacific expert, said that the Trump administration wants to push back against China's rise as a tech competitor. "We have to see this within the context of a strategic and multilateral fight for dominance. Tomorrow, Washington can pick up another company related to China," he noted, adding the U.S. move is discriminatory. TikTok has been downloaded over 175 million times in the United States and over 1 billion times globally, according to the executive order, which claims that the app automatically captures "vast swaths of information" from its users, posing risks to U.S. national security. A similar executive order has also been issued for WeChat, a messaging and social media app owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent. Atli said this latest move is part of the Trump administration's sanction-imposing ploy, which began with Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Trump also encouraged allies to put the Chinese company on a blacklist. The expert said Trump is trying to use the strategic battle with China as an electoral card to seek reelection in November's presidential elections. Trump's push came amid escalating rhetoric against Beijing over trade and the COVID-19 pandemic, Atli said. "The U.S. sees the rise of China as a threat, and the perception of this threat is being instrumentalized by President Trump." "Huawei is a much bigger piece to swallow and is not a daily concern of American voters while TikTok is in their daily lives and may have a different impact on voter choices," Atli noted. Enditem With the safe reopening of schools on everyones mind, it is critical that we as a community examine Danburys public education in its entirety. Our schools have suffered from chronic underfunding by city leaders. Despite higher state funding per student than peer districts such as Norwalk or Stamford, Danbury spends a third less per pupil from municipal funds. Years of neglect have left our schools in a precarious position, with widening disparities and an urgent need to expand facilities, with nowhere near the funding to do so. There are no shortcuts that will solve these problems. Some claim a charter school is a magic bullet. This is not accurate. A charter school would drain much-needed funds from our school budget. Danbury schools would lose state funding for students enrolled in the charter, but still have financial responsibility for many of the charters operational costs, like buses, school nurses, cafeteria workers. A charter school would intensify our existing problems and would only be available to a small and select number of Danburys students. We need solid, stable local and state funding of our public schools, not private donations subject to the whims and restrictions of the donors, regardless of their good intentions. And when Connecticut charter schools have closed their doors, the public schools were strained with unanticipated costs associated with returning students. A plan to address the challenges faced by Danbury schools must be guided by equity, responsibility and transparency. Our top priority should be to ensure equitable opportunity. We must strive to reduce disparities and improve test scores, graduation rates, and college readiness among all students. To be truly equitable, we must commit to inclusive, multicultural programs. This includes hiring teachers of color and opportunities to ensure that non-English speaking students learn and thrive. The plan must be responsible. Because Danbury is a great place to live and raise a family, student enrollment is growing at a faster rate than any other school system in our state. Accommodating more students requires new schools. The proposal for a new public middle and high school the Danbury Career Academy has great potential. It would add enough physical space to accommodate 1,400 students. Academically, it would give students a choice, much like West Side Academy, adding specialization areas with career pathways. The state will substantially reimburse Danbury for construction costs. But until we show a clear commitment to fund our schools locally there will be no additional state per pupil funding. Under current city leadership Danbury has fallen to 169 out of 169 Connecticut municipalities in per pupil spending. We cant pretend that we can offer the same opportunities to our children as students in other districts while spending the least amount of money per pupil in our state. Our public schools are the only way to ensure accountability and transparency, and real progress for all of our children not just some. Our community elects the school board. Our schools rely on parent participation, community engagement and oversight by elected officials. Board of Education meetings are open to the public, recorded and televised. Every contract for employees, consultants and contractors is transparent and available to the public. A charter school is not held to these standards. Decisions are made by appointed directors, behind closed doors and not subject to public review. My vision is to take the best of our schools, like the West Side Academy, and implement this model throughout our school system. We need technology exposure in the early grades and must continue this investment through the upper grades. Today, ESL students are segregated in classrooms and social interactions. We can turn challenges like this into opportunities with fresh ideas, such as an option to attend a dual language school, creating a fully integrated learning experience for English and Spanish speaking students. We face an urgent need for new investments and a new vision for our schools. I firmly believe that the best way to address these challenges is by renewing our commitment: Danbury Public Schools must provide equitable opportunity for all children regardless of race, place of origin, gender or income, both to ensure they can thrive and prosper as adults, and become engaged, informed citizens. A student in Danbury shouldnt have to hit the lottery to be a winner when it comes to education. State Sen. Julie Kushner, D-24th, serves the towns of Sherman, New Fairfield, Bethel and Danbury. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Diedrah Kelly (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8, 2020 08:22 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c71c45 3 Opinion Canada,ASEAN,multilateral-organization,multilateralism,Southeast-Asia,Canada-ASEAN-Business-Council Free Canada and Southeast Asia are divided by the Pacific Ocean, but they are linked by people-to-people, cultural and commercial ties and an array of shared interests that reach across geographical barriers. Harmony in diversity and inclusivity are as fundamental to the ASEAN Community as they are to Canada. Canada has two official languages and is home to people from more than 200 ethnic origins and speakers of more than 200 other languages. This diversity is spread across Canada and has many connections to Southeast Asia. For instance, there are 27,000 Indonesian language speakers in Canada, and Tagalog is among the most spoken languages in Calgary, one of Canadas largest cities, because of its large Filipino diaspora. Canada is proud of its vibrant and diverse culture and works hard to ensure inclusivity within its borders and also in its engagement with all of its partners, including ASEAN. During the current unprecedented challenges we face as a global community, Ive witnessed the active response of the longstanding ASEAN-Canada partnership. This has been made possible by the nature of ASEANs partnership mechanism, which puts the needs of its people at the forefront. As an ASEAN partner, Canada has been able to learn from ASEANs commendable efforts in mitigating the spread of COVID-19. This case has been particularly showcased by Vietnam, which has done a great job in keeping the number of confirmed cases low and successfully treating those who have fallen ill. Further, Canada is grateful to the Government of Vietnam and the nations airlines for helping diplomatic missions assist our citizens wishing to return home by ensuring continued departure flights and other services. Vietnam has shown us its commendable leadership in the international community, as chair of ASEAN and as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. In June, I had the honor to hand over 90,000 surgical masks to the ASEAN Secretariat as part of the 690,000 masks requested by ASEAN member states from Canada. This was made possible through the ASEAN-Canada Mitigation of Biological Threats Program, which has also delivered more than C$20 million (US$14 million) in programming since 2013 to strengthen ASEANs capacities to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19. In addition, this collaboration has supported our two regions in tracking the spread of COVID-19 through the use of Toronto-based big data software BlueDot, which combines artificial intelligence, public health, medical expertise and advanced data analytics to track, contextualize and anticipate infectious disease risks to develop national mitigation, preparedness and response measures. This specific partnership is just one of the many that define how Canada and ASEAN are forging ahead. On the socioeconomic front, under the joint Canada Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) project for ASEAN small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Canada has been able to learn about how ASEAN creates a competitive, resilient and innovative environment for small and medium enterprises, including by advancing womens entrepreneurship and more recently in the context of the pandemic what ASEAN member states are doing to help SMEs navigate the crisis and how partnerships can facilitate sustainable economic recovery. With the ASEAN Economic Community creating more jobs for the people of Southeast Asia, ASEAN is also ensuring that migrant workers are protected. Canada has observed these commendable efforts through the Triangle in ASEAN initiative, which is supported by the International Labor Organization. Triangle focuses on promoting and protecting the rights of migrant workers to promote equitable, inclusive and stable growth in ASEAN, with recent publications examining how migrant workers are among the most vulnerable in this pandemic and recommending actions for their protection. Guided by the ASEAN-Canada Joint Declaration on Trade and Investment, Canada is pleased to be part of ASEAN-led economic integration all for the growth and prosperity of the region. In fact, with bilateral merchandise trade reaching $27.2 billion in 2019, the ASEAN region is Canadas sixth-largest trading partner. The stock of known Canadian direct investment in ASEAN countries reached nearly $12.7 billion in 2018 and foreign investment from ASEAN into Canada exceeded $496 million in the same year. In June of this year, we held the fourth Annual ASEAN-Canada Trade Policy Dialogue to exchange additional views on a possible ASEAN-Canada Free Trade Agreement and move closer to deciding the next steps to deepen our economic relationship. Further, our Joint Feasibility Study also showed that ASEANs GDP would grow by US$39.36 million. We believe that Canada and ASEAN share a common understanding of the value of an open, rules-based trading system and its ability to facilitate economic recovery efforts. While numbers will always be solid proof of milestones achieved in our partnership, nothing beats the true people-to-people ties in day-to-day examples. Canada is delighted to see more Canadian brands getting more recognition by the people of Southeast Asia, including the establishment of what might be considered a Canadian institution, the Tim Hortons coffee chain, in Thailand and the Philippines. In recent years, Ive seen firsthand the growing Canada-ASEAN relationship that will help bring prosperity, security and resilience to both our regions. ASEAN is a natural partner to Canada, and Canada will continue to stand by ASEANs side. No pandemic will halt our partnership. In fact, the pandemic has underscored the importance of our partnership and highlights how much we can achieve when we work together. Now is the time to use this momentum to step on the gas pedal and not hit the brakes. Lets move forward to deepen our economic and social relationship. Happy 53rd birthday, ASEAN! *** The writer is ambassador of Canada to ASEAN. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Some 4,000 miles away from the hustle and bustle of Wexford's Main Street there's a hustle and bustle of a different kind. Colourfully dressed women and children busily move in and out of a purposely built clinic in Brikama in the West Coast region of The Gambia. For Keith and Catherine Jordan, it's a world apart from their business Westgate Design on the main street in Wexford, but it's also a place that they've grown very, very close to over the years. While visiting a family friend, Fr Sean Devereux on the missions in the Gambia, they first came across the clinic and felt compelled to help. 'We visited Sean and saw the poverty first hand,' Keith explained. 'The first time we visited was fairly rough. You see a lot of poverty and you just want to save the world, but obviously that's not possible.' 'We came across this clinic in a remote village. To call it a clinic is probably overstating it. It was a run-down shed. I grew up on a farm and I can tell you our cows were kept in better.' 'There and then we undertook to fundraise for the clinic.' A whole process followed. Fr Sean liaised with the village elders and the ball was started rolling. The Jordan family undertook a major fundraising campaign back home and local workers immediately set about completely renovating the clinic, which primarily caters for women and children, antenatal medicine and general first aid. The Kitty Clinic opened it's doors in 2010 at a total cost of 53,000, all of which was kindly donated by the people of Co Wexford. 'We had a massive opening and hundreds of people turned up from miles around,' Keith recalls. 'I remember I had to give a speech, which was translated into the local dialect.' The relationship with the well kitted out 'Kitty Clinic' in the Gambia has endured and the Jordan family continues to fundraise to maintain it. Anyone who has passed through Westgate Design may have noticed their famous golden pig in which people make donations. This is just some of the money which goes directly to the Gambia. One of the major fundraisers which the Jordan family hosted in recent years was a large concert in the National Opera House with Phil Coulter, who has himself visited the Gambia and seen the conditions that people are living in there. Back in January, Keith and Catherine were delighted to visit the clinic once again along with Fr Tom Dalton, for the first time in a few years, as political unrest had made in dangerous. However, they were delighted to see the clinic continuing to serve people from miles around and were moved to sign up to provide a further 10,000 over the next two years to carry out important maintenance and repairs. Keith was also delighted to meet up with a young man called John Gomez, who having met him a number of years ago, he had agreed to personally pay for his education. 'It's a real success story,' Keith says. 'He's probably 25 or 26 now and he's a computer programmer and he's looking after a whole community. When I first met him, you wouldn't believe what his home looked like, but now he lives in a nice house with his family. He's dying to visit Ireland and hopefully we'll be able to do that in the future.' Keith and Catherine were delighted to see how the donations of the people of Wexford were being used to great effect to make a huge difference to those in desperate need. 'I suppose you can only do what you can do,' said Keith. 'It's great to see the work that's being done at the clinic. In the scheme of things, 10,000 is not a massive amount of money. We're delighted to be able to help in any small way we can.' Former Independent Commission Against Corruption counsel Geoffrey Watson says the payment of salaries of two personal staff of NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet by the scandal-ridden insurance body icare should be referred to ICAC. Mr Watson SC, whose work with ICAC helped expose serious corruption or impropriety involving politicians on both sides of politics, including Eddie Obeid, and who is now a director of the Centre for Public Integrity, said the resignation of Mr Perrottet's chief of staff over the matter indicated it was a "serious breach" of conduct. Former ICAC counsellor Geoffrey Watson SC calls for the anti-corruption watchdog to look at the NSW Treasurer's staff salary scandal. Credit:Nick Moir He said there may be nothing wrong but it looked fishy. New York, Aug. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Cloud Computing in Industrial IOT Market Research Report by Sensor Type, by Model, by Cloud Type, by End User - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913858/?utm_source=GNW The Global Cloud Computing in Industrial IOT Market is expected to grow from USD 3,966.66 Million in 2019 to USD 7,078.35 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.13%. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Cloud Computing in Industrial IOT to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Sensor Type, the Cloud Computing in Industrial IOT Market studied across Optical Sensors, Pressure Sensors, Proximity Sensor, and Temperature Sensors. 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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 the market 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 Cloud Computing in Industrial IOT Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Cloud Computing in Industrial IOT Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Cloud Computing in Industrial IOT Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Cloud Computing in Industrial IOT Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Cloud Computing in Industrial IOT Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Cloud Computing in Industrial IOT Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913858/?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. __________________________ Algeria said on Saturday it will further ease its coronavirus lockdown, including shortening an overnight curfew, lifting some travel curbs and allowing large mosques to reopen. The North African country has recorded 34,155 coronavirus infections, with 1,282 deaths. In June, it resumed some economic activity, mainly in the construction and public works sectors, and allowed the reopening of some businesses. The new measures include lifting a travel ban on 29 provinces from Aug. 9 until the end of the month. During that period, a curfew will be shortened and will run from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. from the current 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., the government said. Mosques with a capacity of more than 1,000 worshipers can reopen from August 15, though weekly prayers on Fridays, which are usually attended by larger numbers of people, will remain banned throughout the country. The use of air conditioners in mosques remains banned, as does a prohibition of access for women, vulnerable people and children under 15 years, the government said. Algeria ended a curfew and travel restrictions for its remaining 19 provinces in July. Search Keywords: Short link: A dairy farmer in Inner Mongolia looks out onto the grasslands in Tuanjiecun, China, on April 30, 2019. (Betsy Joles/ Getty Images) China Seals Off Village Over Bubonic Plague Death in Inner Mongolia Chinese officials have locked down a village in Inner Mongolia after the country reported its first death of the year from the bubonic plague, the deadly infectious disease that centuries ago killed an estimated 50 million people. The victim died from an intestinal infection that caused circulatory system failure, the Baotou municipal health commission said on Aug. 6. The commission has also since quarantined nine close contacts and 26 secondary contacts and put out a level-three alert, the third-highest in a four-tier system, through the end of the year. So far, all villagers from Sujixin village, where the patient lived, have tested negative for the bacterial disease and have displayed no unusual symptoms such as fever. The commission said it will thoroughly disinfect the deceaseds residence and nearby homes daily. The Inner Mongolia government has ordered all 12 city-level and 57 county-level disease control centers to hire more officers and set up designated departments for plague prevention. Inner Mongolia confirmed a second death on Aug. 8 in Bayannur city, northwest of Beijing. The patient was from Urad Front Banner west of the city, and had died of multiple organ failure on Aug. 7 due to gland infection, according to an announcement from the citys health commission. Following that, the commission quarantined seven close contacts of the victim and began a campaign to eliminate fleas and rodents around the deceased patients residence, which has since been sealed off. The previous case in Bayannur prompted a level-three warning from the city government, which cautioned the public against hunting, eating, or carrying wildlife or related products that could carry the disease. The Bayannur Health Commission confirmed the case on July 5, and also warned that the plague carried the risk of being transmitted among humans. The herdsman who became sick was seen around the endemic areas before developing symptoms in his glands, Bayannur health officials said. He was receiving isolated treatment at a local hospital and was stable as of July 6. A groundhog, a member of the marmot family, in Ardmore, Penn., on June 14, 2013. (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images) Inner Mongolia subsequently identified three epidemic sites with Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the plague. Fu Ruifeng, the deputy director of the Inner Mongolia health commission, said during a press conference that they found four mice that had died of the plague in the town where the infection case was reported. The patient said he had not met with anyone who was feverish over the 10 days before he began feeling unwell, nor did he eat any wild animals or have any exposure to dead animals or mice. Gland infections usually result from bites from infected fleas, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while intestinal infections often occur when a person consumes animals that were infected with the plague, such as marmots, rabbits, and Tibetan sheep. Hunted for their furs, marmots were suspected to have brought the pneumonic plague between 1910 and 1911, which claimed some 60,000 lives. On July 1, Mongolia confirmed two cases of the bubonic plague involving brothers who ate marmot they illegally captured, according to Chinas state-run media Xinhua. On July 14, Mongolias health ministry reported that a 15-year-old had died after he shared marmot meat with two friends and fell ill. Mongolia imposed martial law on six counties in the province where the teenager died. A herdsman pastures sheep in Xilinhot of the Inner Mongolia region, China, on Aug. 8, 2006. (China Photos/Getty Images) Patients of the bubonic disease often exhibit high fever, chills, and sharp headaches. Those with intestinal infections may also have frequent vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pains. While the intestinal infection of the disease is relatively rare, it can quickly turn into septicemic or pneumonic forms, which are more infectious and deadly, Li Tong, a Beijing infectious disease doctor, previously told the state-affiliated Healthcare Daily. Such developments can happen in three or five days, which is likely what happened to the Sujixin patient, said Jiang Rongmeng, a Beijing-based national infectious disease expert. If not treated quickly, patients with septicemic infections can die within three days, according to the Chinese CDC. People urged to enjoy Wales safely as temperatures soar this weekend This article is old - Published: Saturday, Aug 8th, 2020 As temperatures soar this weekend and indoor hospitality prepares for its first weekend of opening since March, residents and tourists alike are being urged to enjoy Wales safely. The next couple of days are predicted to be busy across north Wales, with visitors and those on staycations heading to tourist hotspots to enjoy the warm weather. Hospitality businesses are also preparing for their first week indoor weekend of trade since restrictions were imposed at the start of lockdown. However people are being urged to visit Wales safely to continue to adhere to the social distancing and coronavirus guidelines that remain in place. Locally Wrexham Council has called on residents to plan ahead and adhere to the social distancing guidelines when visiting any pubs and restaurants in the area. Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism Dafydd Elis Thomas said those taking advantage of the good weather will be welcomed by many in the tourism industry, but warned that we all have our part to play in keeping Wales safe. The Deputy Minister said: We are now at the height of summer and with hospitality businesses able to open again, many people will be taking advantage of the good weather to visit Wales or explore their local area. After the difficulties for the tourism industry this will be welcome for many. If you are planning to explore and enjoy what Wales has to offer this weekend remember to do so safely. There are a few things which we can all do to help keep ourselves, our families and communities safe. Plan ahead and check local arrangements such as parking facilities. If where you want to go is very busy think about an alternative which is quieter there are plenty of places to choose from. You might discover something new. Remember to maintain social distance, and keep two metres apart from others, including when outdoors and on the streets. Its great to see that most tourist businesses are now open and we all have a part to play in keeping everyone safe, and ensuring our restaurants, pubs, cafes and attractions can remain open. We can enjoy the wonderful countryside and attractions here in Wales over the summer. Lets all do so safely. Visit Wales are encouraging visitors to make a pledge to care for Wales and each other. To sign the pledge visit: https://www.visitwales.com/promise Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.8 By Eldar Janashvili - Trend: The Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF) paid out compensations worth 402.3 million manat ($236.6 million) to 17,900 depositors of the liquidated Atabank OJSC, Amrahbank OJSC, AG Bank OJSC and NBC Bank OJSC via the Kapital Bank OJSC and International Bank of Azerbaijan OJSC as of August 6, 2020, Trend reports referring to the fund. According to ADIF, 7,600 depositors of Atabank were paid 170.8 million manat ($100.4 million), and 5,100 depositors of Amrahbank - 121.7 million manat ($71.5 million). The compensation payments have begun from June 1, 2020, which are made in non-cash form through debit cards of Kapital Bank and the Khazri fast money transfer system in 35 branches of the bank. Compensation of 2,300 depositors of AG Bank amounted to 29.8 million manat ($17.5 million), and 2,900 depositors of NBC Bank - to 80 million manat ($47 million). Compensation payments for these banks have started from June 16, 2020, which are paid in non-cash form through debit cards of the International Bank of Azerbaijan in its 20 branches. According to Article 28.3 of the Law of Azerbaijan "On Deposit Insurance", ADIF will accept applications from depositors within a year from the day of the first publication of the notice of compensation payment. Moreover, in accordance with the decision of Azerbaijans Constitutional Court, the issue of payment of deposits accepted in Atabank OJSC, AG Bank OJSC and NBC Bank OJSC will be addressed. (1 USD = 1.7 manat on Aug.8) In June, Michigan Ross Dean Scott DeRue committed to create a more inclusive and diverse experience at the B-school. Now two prominent alumni have added the weight of their fortunes to the effort. U-M photo In early June, as a firestorm of racial discontent swept the United States in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, business schools reassessed their efforts to achieve more diversity in their student and faculty ranks. Among them was the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, where Dean Scott DeRue issued a lengthy and detailed commitment to action that included the creation of a Deans Council for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion composed of students, faculty, staff, and alumni, and a DEI Curriculum Taskforce charged with looking at DEI broadly, and race specifically, in Ross School courses and co-curricular activities. The dean promised the work of the task force would lead to new courses focused on DEI. Two months later, another piece of the puzzle has emerged at the Ross School. A pair of prominent alumni Stephen Ross, the schools namesake, and Jeff Blau, CEO of Rosss flagship real estate corporation have given $6 million to help the B-school further its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in real estate business and investing, where the school has long been a leader and where it increased its investment in February of this year with the launch of a new center. The new gift, announced Thursday (August 6), will support a spectrum of initiatives that are designed to recruit and support more under-represented populations into the fold with innovative learning and work experiences. We want to work with either high school students or prospective MBAs to get them interested in business and investing, and really with a focus on students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in business leadership positions, Dean DeRue tells Poets&Quants. So even if they dont ultimately go into real estate, getting more diversity into business schools and thus into business is one element of this. Story continues ANOTHER LAYER OF REAL ESTATE EDUCATION AT MICHIGAN ROSS Stephen Ross with Ross School Dean Scott DeRue The Blau Initiative for Diversity in Real Estate and Infrastructure will have four components targeted at students from underrepresented backgrounds: sparking undergraduate and graduate student interest in business and investing prior to attending the University of Michigan; attracting and recruiting talented students to Michigan Ross by making it more affordable; creating unique transformational learning experiences, both inside and outside the classroom, with a focus on action-based learning; and creating opportunities for students to have work and internship experiences that they might not otherwise have. The Related Scholars Fund, named for Related Companies, Stephen Rosss multinational company, will provide scholarships to attract and support students from diverse environments who are underrepresented in business leadership, including students from low-income backgrounds, who are interested in pursuing careers in investing and/or real estate through Michigan Ross, the school says in a news release. The Ross School has positioned itself to make waves in real estate DEI: According to its most recent MBA employment report, 4.1% of 2019 graduates worked in real estate by function (earning a base median salary of $112,504), a high number relative to Michigans peer schools. In fact, only one school with a major real estate pathway in its MBA beats Ross: UNCs Kenan-Flagler-Flagler Business School sent 10% into real estate by function in 2019. Everyone else of note including UCLA Anderson, Wharton, Columbia, and Northwestern Kellogg had a smaller percentage go into real estate last year. Even before its announcement of the new Wesier Center in February, the Ross School offered a real estate certificate for graduate students that is a joint partnership with the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, allowing students to complement their MBA with a certificate in real estate. With the creation of the Weiser Center and now this new initiative and Related Scholars program, I think the collection of these resources for students who are interested in investing and interested in real estate as an asset class will really strengthen the Ross Schools positioning in terms of the business of real estate and give students who are interested in investing and real estate a world of opportunity and experiences that are really world-class, DeRue says. It will really put the Ross School in a leadership position with regards to this space. And when you put all of the pieces together, in terms of building the pipeline of diverse talent into business schools, making education more affordable, giving them transformational experiences, and creating connections to the world-class companies in real estate and infrastructure and investing that whole package is going to be really special for our students. Asked whether the Ross Schools investments in real estate education in 2020 signal an effort to become the top real estate B-school in the U.S., DeRue answers: I might argue we are already there. DONORS BOAST MORE THAN 8 DECADES EXPERIENCE IN REAL ESTATE Jeff Blau, CEO and general partner of Related Companies Stephen Ross formed Related Companies in 1972 and remains its chairman. The company today one of the worlds largest owners of affordable housing has over $60 billion in real estate assets owned or under development, including mixed-use, residential, retail, and office properties in premier high-barrier-to-entry markets. The company employs approximately 4,000 professionals. Blau, as CEO and a general partner as well as a 1990 graduate of the University of Michigan, has spent 30 years with Related Companies, directing and overseeing new developments in virtually every sector of the real estate industry and overseeing Relateds strategic direction and overall management. The Blau Initiative for Diversity and the Related Scholars Fund will integrate with existing University of Michigan and Ross outreach and access success programs, such as MREACH, Summer Business Academy, the Preparation Initiative, and the business schools Consortium membership. The Blau Initiative will support the Related Scholars Fund and other programs such as a new Michigan Ross Investing Academy; the Blau Career Development Series, which will include activities such as company visits and career mentorship opportunities and professional development workshops; and the Blau Internship Program, which will support internships at Related Companies. I am honored to make this commitment to Michigan Ross, and I hope it proves useful in getting more students from diverse backgrounds interested and involved in the fields of real estate and infrastructure investing, Blau says. Adds Stephen Ross: Ive been in real estate for more than 50 years and have a unique opportunity and obligation to foster more diversity in our industry. The Ross School is an ideal partner in this work. SEEING AN INCREASE IN DIVERSITY IN OUR CLASS In a major report in April, the Graduate Management Admission Council described an improving landscape for graduate business prospects of Hispanic descent, but a stagnating one for Black candidates. GMAC, which administers the Graduate Management Admission Test, found a rising number of test takers of Hispanic descent, but a flattening and even shrinking proportion of Black examinees, with most of the latter group hailing from New York, Texas, and Georgia. In the top 25 U.S. B-schools, Michigan Ross is in the bottom quarter for MBA minority representation, with 23.2% in the Class of 2019, down slightly from the previous two years. Dean DeRues Council for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion designated in his June commitment statement as the primary advisory group for DEI-related initiatives and priorities, establishing goals and tracking progress with visible metrics and reporting, and mobilizing people and resources to ensure we achieve our shared goals, was launched to help change that. The $6 million investment from Stephen Ross and Jeff Blau represents another step toward that goal, and one that already is paying off. DeRue says a day after the school announced the donation it has found its first student scholar to be part of the new program. We already have our first student coming in from Texas our first Related scholar, he says. So shes a pioneer. And so this year, both for our MBAs as well as our undergraduates, were seeing an increase in diversity in our class, and were really proud of that. But we also recognize that we have more work to do. DONT MISS: MINORITIES AT THE TOP 25 U.S. MBA PROGRAMS or GMAC PAINTS VIVID PICTURE OF THE CHANGING FACE OF BIZ ED The post Michigan Ross Gets Millions For New Diversity Efforts appeared first on Poets&Quants. How did Prime Minister Narendra Modi handle the Covid-19 pandemic? Is India confident that he can pull the economy back from the brink? Has he given a befitting answer to Chinese aggression on Indias border? Did the lockdown save lives, as claimed by the government or lead to an economic disaster? The answers to these questions concerning national importance are to be found in the latest edition of the India Today magazine's Mood of the Nation poll. On behalf of the India Today Group, the poll is conducted by Delhi-based market research agency, Karvy Insights in 19 states across the country. This survey is the most comprehensive indicator of the public mood on multiple key issues. A total of 12,021 interviews were conducted67 per cent rural and 33 per cent urbanacross 97 parliamentary constituencies in 194 assembly constituencies. In its 19th year, the bi-annual India Today Mood of the Nation survey has been the most credible tracker of the public sentiments in the country. The country has been witnessing crisis on multiple fronts and the pertinent question is how the nation has perceived Modis performance in these testing times. In the last survey conducted in January 2020, an overwhelming 68 per cent rated his performance as good. Can he better that rating? Or has he slipped in a crisis-hit environment? In last six months, the world has been afflicted by novel Covid-19 pandemic. India has been no exception, and, in fact, has emerged as one of the worst hit countries, along with the US, Brazil, Russia, and several European nations. Though the fatality rate in India has been one of the lowest in the world, the country currently has been witnessing spike in daily occurrence of infection. Despite several measures taken to control the pandemic by Union government and state governments, the entire country is unfortunately fighting the fatal corona virus, causing huge damage to human lives, livelihood and the economy. What made the situation more critical for India? Was it due to a border dispute with China or poor health emergency preparedness that was put to ultimate test? So how did the country perform on both accounts? In an economy devasted by a disease, how is the common man seeing his future? In short, how is the general mood of the country? The India Today Mood of Nation poll sought to find answers to these questions. To find answers to many such questions read India Today magazines special edition out on the news-stands on August 8 2020. You can also download the free digital copy on www.indiatoday.in/emag "Never before in the history of campaigning has an outside group been able to get a campaign manager fired," Wilson says. "Our ads have a proven and demonstrable effect at influencing his behaviour." The Lincoln Project's founders are not afraid of attention and not inclined to modesty. Some Democrats grumble that they are taking undue credit for Trump's falling poll numbers, and diverting fundraising from the party. Republicans loyal to Trump have labelled them cynical grifters out to make a quick buck. Steve Schmidt, a veteran Republican party strategist, is one of the co-founders of the Lincoln Project. Credit:MSNBC Their ads are not to everyone's taste. They can be crude and innuendo-laden, mirroring the tactics Trump uses to smear his opponents. There's no room at the Lincoln Project for Michelle Obama's dictum: "When they go low, we go high." One effort, in the style of a National Geographic documentary, portrayed Trump as "Impotus Americanus" ridiculing his hair, orange skin tone and weight. Another ad suggested Trump was in mental and physical decline. Another, ridiculing the crowd size at a Trump rally, said: "You've probably heard this before, but it was smaller than we expected and it sure wasn't as big as you promised." Wilson says that trying to defeat a president as unconventional as Trump requires unconventional tactics. "Were not just trolling Trump for the sake of it," he says. "Every day he is worried about us and freaking out about us is a day hes not attacking Joe Biden. If were in charge of his head, were in charge of his campaign." A changed landscape At the start of this year, the idea that anti-Trump Republicans could be playing an important role in the election seemed far-fetched, even laughable. The Never Trump movement an assortment of right-leaning campaign consultants, intellectuals, foreign policy figures and lawyers failed in its mission to keep Trump off the ballot in 2016. After Trump's shock victory, they watched in horror as the Republican Party united behind a man they believed to be a phony conservative and wannabe demagogue. "Never Trumpism is not dead, but it is on life support," conservative scholar David Azerrad wrote last year. "Were it not for the news media's eagerness to amplify the voices of those who hate the President, the movement would have long since been relegated to the more obscure corners of the internet." Wilson says: "I cant tell you the number of articles saying that conservatives who opposed Donald Trump were irrelevant dinosaurs." The low-water mark for the movement came with Trump's impeachment trial in January. Despite damning testimony from career public servants about Trump's dealings with Ukraine, none of the 197 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted for impeachment. Just one of the party's 53 senators Mitt Romney voted to convict the President. Trump's ability to overcome impeachment charges marked a low point for Republican opponents. But their fortunes have since risen. Credit:Bloomberg Now the Never Trump movement is on the offensive and enjoying a renewed sense of relevance. Jerry Taylor, the president of the centrist Niskanen Centre think tank, points not just to the Lincoln Project but to Republican Voters Against Trump, a separate political action committee. Then there is 43 Alumni for Biden, a group of former George W. Bush staffers campaigning for the Democratic nominee. "I would not underestimate their ability to move votes," Taylor says. "The Never Trump groups dont need to convince the majority of the Republican Party to jump ship. They only need to pry off 2 per cent of the vote Trump won last time around. Thats certainly not impossible. If its a close race, they could make a difference." Sarah Longwell previously led the Log Cabin Republicans, a group that works within the party to promote equal rights for gays and lesbians. After passionately opposing Trump's nomination, she is now the strategic director for Republican Voters Against Trump. Longwell says two developments have boosted the possibility of prying centre-right voters away from the President. First, there has been Trump's erratic handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Second, the Democrats chose a "reasonable, rational" nominee who is acceptable to voters in the political centre. As much as they disliked their party's nominee, in 2016 many anti-Trump Republicans could not cross the Rubicon and vote for Hillary Clinton. This time around most are advocating a vote for Biden. It would have been a different story had the Democrats put Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist, on the ticket. The centrepiece of RVAT's efforts is video testimonials from self-identified Republicans who say they will vote for Biden. Some recent examples include Tommy, an evangelical Christian from Texas who believes Trump is a false prophet and Louise, a "Reagan Republican" from Georgia who fears her party has morphed into a cult of personality. The ads are less slick and more down-to-earth than those of the Lincoln Project. Longwell says the ads featuring ordinary people speaking in their own words resonate with voters who distrust the media and political elites. "We are trying to create a permission structure for people who identify as Republican to vote for a Democrat," she says. "The one thing people still trust is people like themselves." Another difference from 2016 is that many prominent Never Trumpers have comprehensively broken with the Republican Party, not just its nominee. The Lincoln Project is running ads attacking Susan Collins, a moderate Republican senator in a tight re-election race in Maine, as a Trump stooge. Their premise is that the party needs to be burnt to the ground if it wants to have a hope of flourishing again. "Trump isnt an aberration of the Republican Party; he is the Republican Party in a purified form," Stuart Stevens, a Lincoln Project adviser and former senior strategist on Romney's 2012 campaign, writes in his new book, It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump. "He is the logical conclusion of what the Republican Party became over the last 50 or so years, a natural product of the seeds of race, self-deception and anger that became the essence of the Republican Party." Loading This makes it hard to predict what will become of the Never Trump Republicans if Biden wins in November. Having abandoned their political tribe, they have not necessarily found a home in the increasingly progressive Democratic Party. "Progressives would do well to keep a sceptical eye on the Lincoln Project," Jeet Heer wrote in left-wing journal The Nation, accusing the group's founders of wanting to return to "the hard-line military aggression of the George W. Bush era". Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders readers are warned this article contains an image of a deceased person. There is a word in Yolngu language to describe the feeling you get when you see the sun set: Djapa. It's the name Danzal Baker - aka Baker Boy - has given his new puppy, who gives him that feeling every day. He got the bulldog before coronavirus hit and worried about missing him when he was touring but the pandemic put paid to that. "Now its kind of a blessing in disguise," Baker says. The Darwin-born Yolngu singer-songwriter is counting his blessings in more ways than one, having scooped the pool at this year's National Indigenous Music Awards. He took out three gongs: best artist, song of the year and best video clip for the track Meditjin. Baker Boy performs during the Fire Fight Australia bushfire relief concert in February. Credit:Joel Carrett/AAP "Its so cool, I feel blessed and honoured to be honest," Baker, who lives in Bendigo, says. "I was freaking out [to win three] and now I feel devastated ... it would have been really cool to be on stage performing in front of all the people." George Floyd was a career criminal who, among many of his other crimes, held a gun to a pregnant woman's stomach during a brutal home robbery. By dying while a police officer had a knee across his shoulders, though, Floyd instantly became a Black Lives Matter and Democrat party martyr. Now, however, the accruing evidence shows that he was not a martyr who died because of police brutality. Instead, he was a self-destructive man who probably overdosed despite police efforts to save him. As Malcolm told the King in Macbeth when speaking of the Thane of Cawdor's death, "Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it." Alive, Floyd wasn't of much use to anybody; dead, he was a living symbol of the brutality that American police allegedly and constantly visit upon innocent black men. For those not swept up in the rapture of the Black Lives Matter movement, it was immediately apparent that the statement about systematic, anti-black police brutality was a lie. In early June, Tucker Carlson debunked the narrative about the police slaughtering black men across America: Additionally, the toxicology report on Floyd emerged. We learned that, in addition to severe heart disease, Floyd had massive amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamines in his body, as well as pot. (Regarding that heart disease, to the extent Floyd claimed recently to have had the Wuhan virus, that too could have affected his heart.) The final piece of evidence in George Floyd's death was full footage from one of the arresting officers' body cameras. It shows Floyd resisting the police, complaining from the beginning about an inability to breathe (so that the police called an ambulance), and foaming at the mouth. Former federal and state prosecutor George Parry looked at all the evidence about Floyd's arrest and wrote a must-read article explaining that, whatever else the police did that fateful night, they didn't kill George Floyd. George Floyd killed himself with an accidental overdose, something no doubt made worse because of his chronic heart disease: [T]he evidence proves that, when he first encountered the police, George Floyd was well on his way to dying from a self-administered drug overdose. Moreover, far from publicly, brazenly, and against their own self-interest slowly and sadistically killing Floyd in broad daylight before civilian witnesses with video cameras, the evidence proves that the defendants exhibited concern for Floyd's condition and twice called for emergency medical services to render aid to him. Strange behavior, indeed, for supposedly brutal law officers allegedly intent on causing him harm. Similarly, the evidence recorded by the body cameras worn by the police conclusively establishes that Floyd repeatedly complained that he couldn't breathe before the police restrained him on the ground. As documented by Floyd's autopsy and toxicology reports, his breathing difficulty was caused not by a knee on his neck or pressure on his back, but by the fact that he had in his bloodstream over three times the potentially lethal limit of fentanyl, a powerful and dangerous pain medication known to shut down the respiratory system and cause coma and death. He also had in his system a lesser dose of methamphetamine, which can cause paranoia, respiratory distress, coma, and death. I urge you to read the whole article here. There's something sick, ironic, and unhealthy about the fact that our country has been torn apart, not by an innocent victim of chronic police brutality, but instead by an ex-con who overdosed in front of the police, who, by calling for paramedics, tried to save his life. Floyd was a self-inflicted dead man walking by the time the police got to him. This is not the first time the left has used propaganda to make martyrs out of pathetic people whose lifestyles inevitably led to their deaths. In 1998, Matthew Shepard became a living symbol of the gay rights movement when he was found near Laramie, Wyoming, tied to a fence post, having been tortured and then beaten almost to death. He died six days later. Shepard's death was awful and tragic. What it wasn't, though, was a case of ugly American homophobia taken too far. Stephen Jiminez, a gay journalist, wanted to write a book about Shepard's martyrdom, only to discover that Shepard dealt methamphetamines and that the man who killed him was one of his occasional lovers. You can read Jimenez's findings in The Book of Matt. The left doesn't deal in facts; it deals in narratives. The facts are always more interesting, more complicated, and more likely to support a conservative worldview over the one that the leftists advance. Image: The Last Mile Of The Way, by 2C2K Photography; CC BY 2.0 UK Armed Forces Are Asked to Help Deal With Migrant Boats Crossing Channel LONDONBritains armed forces have been asked to help deal with boats carrying migrants across the Channel from France, the Defence Ministry said on Saturday after a spate of arrivals on the southern English coast. Taking advantage of a spell of hot weather and calm sea conditions, hundreds of people including children and pregnant women have made the dangerous 33 kilometre (21 miles) crossing in recent days, many in overloaded rubber dinghies and other small vessels. The Defence Ministry said it had received a formal request from the Home Office, or interior ministry, to assist the UK Border Force with its operations in the Dover Straits. We are assessing the requirements and are working hard to identify how we can most effectively assist, the defence ministry said in a statement. A Home Office spokeswoman declined to comment. More than 200 people arrived on the English coast on Thursday, followed by some 130 on Friday, and media reported more arrivals on Saturday as the hot weather persisted. A junior Home Office minister in charge of immigration compliance, Chris Philp, called the rise in arrivals shameful and sought to put pressure on France ahead of a meeting with his French counterpart in Paris next week. The French need to stop these illegal migrants from getting in the water in the first place, he said in an opinion column published in Saturdays Daily Telegraph newspaper, adding that Britain would seek to return to France those who made it across. Frances interior ministry said surveillance teams on the northern coast were intercepting migrants daily and it had mobilised extra resources. It said five times as many migrant boats had been caught between January and July compared with the same period in 2019. This is a joint problem which needs a joint operational response, a spokesman said. By Estelle Shirbon New Delhi: Lok Sabha will have a four-day holiday starting this weekend, with the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) on Wednesday deciding to have a holiday on December 12, besides Tuesday which has already been declared a holiday on account of Eid-e-Milad-un Nabi. Leaders of all major parties, who attended the BAC meeting held in Speaker Sumitra Mahajans chamber, raised the issue of declaring a holiday on Monday as in some southern states the Prophets birthday was being observed on Monday. After the leaders of Congress, BJP, NCP, TMC and others raised the demand, it was unanimously decided to have a holiday on December 12 as well. The BAC also decided to allocate four hours for the discussion and voting on Second Supplementary Demands for Grants (General) for 2016-17 and Demands for Excess Grants (General) for 2013-14, which are likely to be taken up on Thursday. The Committee also decided to allocate three hours for consideration and passage of the Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014, once it is passed by the Rajya Sabha. Earlier in the Lok Sabha also, Opposition members had sought a holiday on December 12. Sudip Bandopadhyay (TMC) had raised the issue after the House met at noon as he pointed out that December 13 has been officially declared a holiday for Milad-un Nabi, the Prophets birthday. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also supported this. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the matter can be discussed at the BAC meeting. He also used the occasion to urge the opposition members, who were protesting in the Well demanding a debate on demonetisation under a rule entailing voting, to start a debate on Wednesday, pointing out that the Session will end on December 16. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the meeting (Photo: VNA) Hanoi - Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired a virtual meeting on August 7 between Cabinet members and leaders of 12 cities and provinces that have reported COVID-19 cases over the past three weeks, to discuss measures aimed at containing the spread of the outbreak. The PM warned of the high risk of community transmission over at least the next two weeks, as such cases have risen by 298 since July 23.He emphasised that social distancing must be strictly implemented in all COVID-19 hotspots and that quick and accurate testing is key to containing the spread of the virus.He asked ministries, sectors, localities, and citizens to remain calm, fully follow disease prevention and control measures, and mobilise all possible resources for the task, especially in central Da Nang city and Quang Nam province, where a large number of infections have been recorded in recent days.It is necessary to intensify communications to maintain public vigilance and awareness about prevention and control, he stressed, adding that any ministry, locality, or citizen that does not follow regulations will be punished strictly.He requested that localities continue contact tracing and quickly conduct tests and concentrated quarantine to contain the outbreak.The PM asked the Health Ministry to provide assistance in terms of equipment and personnel for disease-hit localities and to prevent the risk of corruption related to medical biddings.He also stressed the need to wear a face mask in public, to manufacture ventilators, and to remain prepared to set up field hospitals in localities such as Da Nang and Quang Nam.The Ministry of Education and Training was urged to adopt specific measures to ensure the safety of students and teachers during the upcoming high school graduation examinations.Strict punishment must be imposed on those who produce or supply fake, low-quality medical equipment, he insisted.A report from the Health Ministry shows that, since July 23, Vietnam has reported 335 COVID-19 infections, including 37 imported cases, in 13 localities. All cases of community transmission are related to the Da Nang outbreak. There has been a huge spike in new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland today, but the number was expected because of increased testing particularly in the Laois, Kildare, Offaly counties. There are 174 new cases confirmed by the Department of Health this Saturday, August 8, a day after the three counties were placed on tighter restrictions. 118 of the cases are linked to them, but 110 are in Kildare. There appears to be only one new case confirmed in Laois. Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said the rise was not unexpected. While todays numbers of confirmed cases are high, they are not unexpected. As I said last night, we are expecting significant numbers of cases to be reported over the coming days. Throughout this week, we have been testing all workers in facilities where outbreaks of COVID-19 have been identified as well as close contacts of those people who have received COVID positive results. Tonights figures are a reflection of these measures with 118 of these cases linked to the counties of Kildare, Laois and Offaly. Our priority now and our reason for recommending the proactive measures announced last night, is to avoid these cases and clusters leading to widespread community transmission of the disease. The extra cases brings to 26,644 the total so far in Ireland. One more person has died, The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been informed. There has now been a total of 1,772 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland*. Of the cases notified today; 124 are men / 48 are women 69% are under 45 years of age 112 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case 5 cases have been identified as community transmission 110 cases are located in Kildare, 27 in Dublin, 7 in Cork, 7 in Offaly, 6 in Meath and 17 are spread across thirteen other counties (Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Donegal, Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, Tipperary, Wexford and Wicklow). Dr Glynn warned the rest of Ireland to take every precaution. 50 of tonights cases are located outside of these three counties and around the rest of the country. I once again ask everyone regardless of where you live in the country to take every precaution possible to help us control the spread of this disease and protect our most vulnerable. This means continuing to wash our hands, keeping 2 metres apart from one another, avoiding crowds, wearing face coverings where appropriate, covering our coughs and sneezes and downloading the COVID Tracker app. Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said; As outlined by the Acting Chief Medical Officer at the press conference last night, the 14-day incidence per 100,000 population in Kildare, Laois and Offaly is worryingly high. While the national incidence stands at 16.3 per 100,000, in Kildare it stands at 130.3, in Laois it is 69.7 and in Offaly it is 89.8. Should these cases result in widespread transmission, it could undo a lot of the good work that we have done as a country so far to control the spread of this virus. The measures introduced by NPHET last night represent a proactive and proportionate response to the current situation in these counties The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread. The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community. This photo provided by the North Korean government shows a military drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea on Monday, March 9, 2020. AP A North Korean artillery attack on South Korea could cause more than 200,000 casualties in one hour, a U.S. think tank report showed Friday. According to the RAND Corporation, the North maintains nearly 6,000 artillery pieces within range of large population centers in the South, enabling it to carry out a massive attack without using chemical or nuclear weapons. The report estimated casualty numbers under five attack scenarios, factoring in the approximate number of North Korean artillery weapons, population densities in potential target areas, and assumptions about whether people were outdoors, indoors or below ground at the time of the attack. A one-hour strike, using 5,700 long- and medium-range artillery pieces, along the entire length of the Demilitarized Zone, would hit all major population centers, including Seoul and Incheon, as well as the U.S. Army's Camp Casey, resulting in as many as 205,600 casualties, the report said. The other scenarios were a five-minute attack against a major industrial target, a one-minute attack along the DMZ, a one-minute attack against downtown Seoul and a one-hour attack against the central capital area. The minimum number of casualties was estimated at around 4,500 in a one-minute strike along the DMZ. "A key insight from the five scenarios presented is that the supreme challenge for the ROK, the United States, and their allies is avoiding a situation in which the DPRK feels compelled to strike the South with its conventional artillery; if the DPRK did initiate such a strike, the objective of the ROK, the United States, and their allies should be to stop the shelling while avoiding further escalation," the report says. ROK stands for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea; while DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "(It) is in the interests of all actors concerned to deescalate as quickly as possible once a provocation cycle starts and avoid the conditions that would lead to a military exchange in firepower from any of the sides. If such an exchange occurs, the results will be highly costly and bloody," the report added. (Yonhap) Nigerias Senator, Buruji Kashama, has reportedly died from coronavirus. Reports available to DGN Online suggest that he passed away on Saturday, August 8, 2020 at the First Cardiology Hospital, Lagos. Senator Kashamu was aged 62 and his death was confirmed by Senator Ben Murray Bruce in a tweet that read: I have just lost my good friend of forever to #COVID19. Until his death, Sen. Buruji Kashamu and I were inseparable. He died today at First Cardiology Consultants, in Lagos. May his gentle soul rest in peace. I pray his family and loved ones the fortitude to bear this heavy loss. The late Senator Kashamu between 2015 and 2019 was accused of being a drug lord. During his four-year tenure as Senator of Ogun East Senatorial District, the businessman was accused of winning his elections with forged certificates and battled for years with the federal government following attempts to have him extradited to the United States to face allegations of drug trafficking. Kashamu was also popular for leading an extravagant lifestyle and creating a faction in the Ogun States Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I have just lost my good friend of forever to #COVID19. Until his death, Sen. Buruji Kashamu and I were inseparable. He died today at First Cardiology Consultants, in Lagos. May his gentle soul rest in peace. I pray his family and loved ones the fortitude to bear this heavy loss. pic.twitter.com/OJGIt0VK3n Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) August 8, 2020 Source: premiumtimeng.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's anti-China speech at the end of July has undermined long-term U.S. interests, and appears likely to fail, like the country's many other foreign policies, according to a report published on The New Yorker on Wednesday. The comments in the article named "Why Trump Will Never Win His New Cold War with China" came after Pompeo delivered a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, where he launched a fusillade of ill-founded attacks, inciting an ideological hatred against China and the Communist Party of China, and tried to coax others into forming an alliance against Beijing. "To mindlessly hurl yourself against China is a misunderstanding of the situation in China -- and in East Asia," the U.S. weekly magazine quoted Stapleton Roy, U.S. ambassador to China in the 1990s, as saying. Many of America's old friends in the Asia-Pacific region have more trade with China than with the United States, he said, pointing out that U.S. allies do not want confrontation and a U.S. Cold War with China could be "quite lonely." Noting that China has improved living conditions for hundreds of millions of people with unprecedented speed, he said that "self-deception is very dangerous in diplomacy." In response to Pompeo's claim that the United States is more dependent on China than vice versa, The New Yorker said the fact is that the United States relies on China for many basic commodities, taking the example that China has surpassed Canada to become its second largest source of car parts. China has provided "the greatest contribution to global growth and fastest-growing destination for U.S. exports for fifteen years, until the Trump Administration," Robert Zoellick, former World Bank president, said at the Aspen Security Forum last month, according to the magazine. China has expanded its influence largely by investing in development projects, while the U.S. administration has reduced its engagement globally, the report said. China will be "the most consequential issue" in U.S. foreign policy for generations to come, Kurt Campbell, an Asia specialist who has worked at the State Department, the Pentagon, and the National Security Council, predicted at the Aspen Security Forum, according to the article. Yet, the United States is "really plummeting down a staircase towards an extraordinarily competitive, confrontational set of relations, which will have consequences that are very difficult to predict," he said. Netflix has your new binge-worthy true-crime series. Worlds Most Wanted is exactly what it sounds like: a show profiling some of the most notorious wanted criminals in the world. The bad guys (and one bad woman) featured on this five-episode series are among the worst of the worst and include terrorists, mobsters, and the man who financed the Rwandan genocide. Most are still at large, but authorities did manage to track one down just a few months ago. Heres what we know about these criminals and where they are now. Ismael Zambada Garcia RELATED: The Best El Chapo Movies, Shows & Documentaries You Can Watch Today Garcia is a Mexcian drug lord who is currently on the DEAs list of most-wanted fugitives. Also known as El Mayo, authorities say he was a feared leader of the Sinaloa cartel in the 1990s, working with the now-captured Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. Now in his 70s, hes reportedly taken over full control of the cartel since Guzmans arrest in 2017. Several of Garcias family members have been apprehended, including his son Vicente Zambada Niebla, who provided information on Guzmans crimes, as reported by Rolling Stone. But Garcia is still at large. He is believed to be hiding out somewhere in the Sinaloa mountains, according to Vice. Samantha Lewthwaite The Interpol website featuring a Red Notice for the arrest of Samantha Lewthwaite on September 26, 2013 | Oli Scarff/Getty Images) RELATED: Worlds Most Wanted: Kenya Mistook a Teen for the White Widow and Apologized With a Paid Vacation Samantha Lewthwaite, born in Northern Ireland and raised in England, became known in 2005 after her husband, Germaine Lindsay, killed 26 people in a London suicide bombing. Dubbed the White Widow by the British press, Lewthwaite who converted to Islam as a young woman intitially denied any involvement in her husbands crimes. But at some point afterward, she left the country. She later surfaced in Kenya, according to The Guardian, where authorities suspect her of having been involved in other terror attacks. Her whereabouts are currently unknown. Semion Mogilevich Semion Mogilevich | NETFLIX 2020 Back in 1998, Russian mob boss Semion Mogilevich was dubbed the worlds most dangerous gangster by the Village Voice. The native of Ukraine is alleged to have been involved in a wide array of violent criminal enterprises, including sex trafficking, drugs, arms dealing, and contract killings. More than two decades later, hes still at large and apparently living openly in Moscow. He has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a 2019 article in the Washington Post, and some of Mogilevichs associates also have ties to President Donald Trump. Matteo Messina Denaro Matteo Messina Denaro | NETFLIX 2020 Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro rose to the top of the Cosa Nostra after the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano in 2006, according to The Guardian. Hes been on the run from the Italian law since 1993, shortly after he was linked to a series of bombings that killed prosecutors who were going after the mob. Hes been accused of other crimes over the years, including the murder of a rival boss and his pregnant girlfriend. Denaro lives a flashy lifestyle and is known as a womanizer, according to the Globe & Mail. He flies under the radar of authorities by avoiding computers and phones. Denaro may also have had plastic surgery to change his appearance. Felicien Kabuga A wanted poster for Felicien Kabuga| SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP via Getty Images Felicien Kabuga is the only criminal featured in Worlds Most Wanted who has been captured. Kabuga, a Rwandan businessman, played a key role in financing the countrys 1994 genocide. Authorities say he provided money and support to militia groups that killed at least 800,000 Rwandans, mostly ethnic Tutsis. Through his businesses, the wealthy and politically connected Kabuga ordered machetes that were used to slaughter people during the genocide. His radio station also broadcast messages that inflamed the situation in the country, The New York Times reported. Afterward, he fled the country, where his money helped him evade capture for decades. But in May 2020, French authorities tracked him down. Hed been living in a Paris suburb under an assumed name. Kabuga will be tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Check out Showbiz Cheat Sheet on Facebook! The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, has set a ceiling price for the coronavirus vaccine at Rs 225 ($3) per dose. The Pune-based company entered into a partnership with Gavi (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (not clear) to produce 100 million doses for India and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). "The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, via its Strategic Investment Fund, will provide at-risk funding of US$150 million to Gavi, which will be used to support the SII to manufacture the potential vaccine candidates. Vaccines will be priced at maximum US$ 3 per dose and made available to the 92 countries included in Gavi's COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC)," SII said in a statement. The collaboration will provide "upfront capital" through the foundation's strategic investment funds to SII to increase manufacturing activity. The Serum Institute added that once they receive regulatory approval and WHO prequalification, the doses will be produced "as early as the first half of 2021". The distribution will be done through the COVAX mechanism. COVAX, co-led by GAVI, as well as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO, aims to provide equitable access to the vaccine. This is done by pooling funds from donor countries to purchase vaccines mainly for lower- and middle-income countries, including GAVI nations like India. Under the new collaboration, AstraZeneca's candidate vaccine, if successful, will be available to 57 GAVI-eligible countries. Whereas, Novavax's candidate, if successful, will be available to all 92 countries supported by the COVAX Advance Market Commitment, according to SII. The Serum institute has already joined hands with Astra Zeneca and Novavax to develop their coronavirus candidates. SII might begin its Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials in India within a week. Currently, phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the Oxford vaccine candidate are going on in the United Kingdom, phase 3 clinical trial in Brazil. Initial results from the first two phases of trials of the coronavirus vaccine conducted at five trial sites in the UK showed the inoculation had an acceptable safety profile. SII had raised around $100 million to invest in building its capacity to manufacture just the Oxford candidate vaccine, 'Covishield'. Meanwhile, the Phase-1 human clinical trials of the two COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and Zydus Cadila Healthcare Limited have been completed. There are more than 100 companies across the world, that are trying hard to make a vaccine against coronavirus. However, only a few companies' vaccine candidates have shown successful results, including the Oxford vaccine, Moderna, and Pfizer. In fact, the Swiss government on Saturday struck a deal with Moderna to supply Switzerland with 4.5 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The (Swiss) government is also in talks with other vaccine companies and has already allocated 300 million Swiss francs (nearly 330 million) for the purchases of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, the Swiss government did not specify the Moderna deal. Additionally, Russia is claiming that it is about to become the world's first country to create a coronavirus vaccine, planned as early as October. The vaccine has been developed jointly by the Gamaleya Research Institute and the Russian Defence Ministry. Also read: COVID-19 crisis in US: Dr Fauci cautions vaccine likely to be partially effective Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: Serum Institute ties up with Gavi, Gates Foundation for 100 million doses at $3 each The Essex County Prosecutors Office on Friday dismissed cyber harassment charges against the man who tweeted a photo of a Nutley police officer during a protest to identify the cop and four others who retweeted the picture. Kevin Alfaro, who set up an online fundraiser to pay for his legal costs, tweeted a photo of the officer which court records indicate said, If anyone knows who this b---- is throw his info under this tweet. He did not respond to a request for comment Friday, but said online he protested on June 26 against a Christopher Columbus statue in town. The counter-protestors seemed to be very friendly with the officers of the Nutley PD, some of whom had their badge numbers covered, Alfaro wrote online, adding that the officer was wearing a blue lives matter face covering. As a citizen exercising my 1st amendment rights, I felt threatened that a public servant was befriending blatant racists. The officer was identified in a summons written by a Nutley police detective as Peter Sandomenico, who was on-duty during the rally in front of police headquarters and town hall. The summons wrote that Alfaros tweet caused Det. Sandomenico to fear that harm will come to himself, family and property. Sandomenico did not immediately respond when asked if he received any threats as a result of the tweet. A police spokesman and Chief Thomas Strumolo did not respond to a request for comment as well. The tweet has reportedly since been deleted, but a summons against one of the retweeters identified the cop as Nutley police officer Peter Sandomenico. The Asbury Park Press reported the charges on Thursday. The prosecutors office confirmed the five people who were charged and told the Asbury Park Press on Friday that we concluded there was insufficient evidence to sustain our burden of proof. The tweet, which has reportedly since been deleted, was retweeted five times and liked by nine people as of July 31. The photo was retweeted by at least one friend of Alfaros, Georgana Sziszak. She said in a Gofundme set up to cover her legal costs and that she did not attend the rally. Once again (I) did not reply, threaten, or have information on this cop and just wanted to know his name which is public information, Sziszak, 20, wrote. Her attorney, Alan Peyrouton, told NJ Advance Media that Sziszak was scared when she was first charged since a felony conviction would bar her from voting and stay on her record. The original charge could have resulted in a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine, he said. What if the retweets went viral and there was like a thousand people who retweeted this? Peyrouton said. Youre gonna charge 1,000 people criminally? We are allowed to photograph the police in public. Were allowed to be critical of our government. Pension records show Sandomenico has been working with the Nutley Police Department since 2001 and currently makes $118,000 annually. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Ukraine needs about US$10 bln to restore occupied Donbas after reintegration, Zelensky's advisor says 23:20, 08.08.20 10849 This is about 5-7% of Ukraine's GDP. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 17:16:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close "China will rise!" Zambian student Gift writes songs to thank China for its effective anti-virus measures. The young man has just graduated from Southwest University with a master's degree in Chongqing, China. #COVID19 Biden, who is notorious for blowing past self-imposed deadlines, initially said he would make his pick this week but is now expected to choose his running mate next week. Even close allies have had a hard time keeping up with whom and how many he is considering, saying that every time they think he has narrowed the list down they hear a new name. He vowed months ago to name a woman to the ticket. Opponents of Peterboroughs mandatory mask order staged another protest Saturday afternoon in downtown Peterborough. Peterborough Public Health issued an order requiring people to wear masks inside businesses and most other indoor public places effective Aug. 1 to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, with people who cant wear a mask for medical reasons exempted. Neil Sheard organized a protest at Confederation Square and a march through downtown Peterborough on the first day the order went into effect. On Saturday, the group held another protest, following the same route as last weekends march, with city police officers on hand again to monitor the event. We got more people coming out today, Sheard told The Examiner. Peterboroughs Nick Onac took part in the protests both weeks and said the mandatory mask order is part of a larger treasonous agenda. Im here to fight for the basic freedoms of the people, Onac said. He said he came to Canada from the Transylvania area of Romania in 1995 after living under a Communist regime and witnessing the 1989 Romanian Revolution, which overthrew Nicolae Ceausescus government after 42 years of Communist rule. Im deeply disturbed about whats going on. Its all an agenda, Onac told The Examiner. Having lived under Communism, I can see the similarities of this. Its an impeachment of the basic human rights. The local opponents had planned to have some supporters from the Northumberland Rising group in Northumberland County, where a similar order had been issued by the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit in early July, join Saturdays rally but they couldnt come because of another rally in Northumberland, he said. A group called Mask Up Northumberland staged a counter-protest to the anti-maskers on Saturday at Victoria Hall in Cobourg. No new COVID-19 cases in Peterborough city and county, Curve Lake First Nation and Hiawatha First Nation emerged over the weekend, Peterborough Public Health reported Sunday afternoon. There have been 99 cumulative cases, with 94 recovered and two earlier deaths, leaving three active cases as of Sunday afternoon. The active cases include a man in his 20s, a man in his 30s and a woman in her 40s, according to Public Health Ontario. Peterboroughs cumulative rate remains at 67 cases per 100,000 people, less than a quarter of the provincial average of 293.5 cases per 100,000 people as of Sunday. Hundreds more did get tested over the weekend. More than 22,400 people, or about one in seven, have now been tested for COVID-19 in the Peterborough jurisdiction, the health unit also reported Sunday. There are five exemptions to the health units mandatory mask order: Children under two, or children under five either chronologically or developmentally who refuse to wear a mask and cannot be persuaded to by a caregiver. A person is incapacitated and unable to remove the face covering without assistance. Wearing a face covering would inhibit a persons ability to breathe, including during athletic, fitness or physical activity, or any activity that would preclude its use (such as swimming). For any other medical reason, a person cannot safely wear a face covering, including respiratory disease, cognitive difficulties in hearing or processing information. For any religious reason, the person cannot wear a face covering. with files from Clifford Skarstedt, Examiner photographer While most of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggars kids are growing up, marrying, and getting out of the huge family home, many of the kids are still living in the huge Arkansas estate. We often see the interior of the huge family home via Instagram when the Duggars have family nights. But recently, Jim Bob and Michelle posted a photo showing off the exterior of their home and it reminds their fans just how large the house is. Heres what they posted. The Duggar family grew up in a massive home in Arkansas Megyn Kelly sits down with the Duggar children of the TLC program 19 Kids and Counting at their home in Tontitown, Arkansas | FOX News Channel via Getty Images RELATED: Counting On: Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar Finally Sell Their Expansive Mansion Jim Bob and Michelle are known best for having 19 kids and that requires a huge house for raising them. Their home in Arkansas was customized just for their family, and its 7,000 square feet. As for how it was built, two house kits were put together to create one gigantic mansion back in 2006. And the home has a living space of 2,000 square feet so all of the family can comfortably gather in one room. We cant forget all of the amenities the home has, too. The Duggar family house has multiple sinks, ovens, microwaves, and washing machines. While they couldve designed the home so their kids could have individual rooms, thats not what they chose. Instead, all the girls stayed together in one room and all the boys stayed in another. So, how much did the home cost? Each house kit used cost about $80,000 each, which seems like a steal. Many of the Duggar kids still live at home Its typical for the Duggar kids to court, marry, and move out of the family home. But there are still many of Jim Bob and Michelles kids who are running around the family home. Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, Jordan, and miracle child Josie are all living with their parents, as most of them are too young to start courting or move out. Jedidiah and Jeremiah Duggar are the most recent ones to leave the Duggar home. The twins are 21 and moved into a place that they showed off on Counting On. They appear to be the first Duggars to move out prior to courting and marrying, too. And theyre still sharing a bedroom despite them no longer needing to. Jana Duggar is 30 and the oldest of the Duggar kids to still live with her parents. Shes unmarried as well and helps out with the home and raising her younger siblings. Jana stays in the girls room with all her younger siblings, too. The Duggars just reminded everyone how huge their home is on Instagram Fans got a glimpse of the outside of the huge Duggar home on Instagram. The Duggar Family Instagram posted a photo of some woodworking James created and their huge home is directly behind the art. James used a chainsaw to carve an old tree into his last name, DUGGAR, and it now stands outside of the home. Only James could think this one up and make it happen!! the Instagram post reads. After a few hours we started to see the letters take shape: D-U-G-G-A-R! I think he did a fantastic job on the whole thing, and if there was ever a doubt which family lives in this big house its the Duggars!! Fans seemed to love James handiwork but theres certainly no ignoring the home behind the carved tree trunk. Not trying to be nosey here but how many bedrooms does your mom and dads house have? It is huge! But i love it, a fan commented. Its an amazing house built with 2 house kits, to make one huge house, another verified. Since Jim Bobs in the real estate business, well have to see if any major changes happen to the Duggar property as the kids age and all move out on their own. Check out Showbiz Cheat Sheet on Facebook! The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. In early August, thousands of parents, educators, students, and community members took to the streets in over 25 U.S. states to call for safe and equitable schools. The protests, organized as a National Day of Resistance, In the late 1970s, the Episcopal Ad Project began releasing spots taking shots at television preachers and other trends in American evangelicalism. One image showed a television serving as an altar, holding a priests stole, a chalice and plate of Eucharistic hosts. The headline asked: With all due regard to TV Christianity, have you ever seen a Sony that gives Holy Communion? Now some Anglicans are debating whether its valid during the coronavirus crisis to celebrate virtual Eucharists, with computers linking priests at altars and communicants with their own bread and wine at home. In a recent House of Bishops meeting online, of course Episcopal Church leaders backed away from allowing what many call Virtual Holy Eucharist. Episcopal News Service said bishops met in private small groups to discuss if its theologically sound to allow Episcopalians to gather separately and receive Communion that has been consecrated by a priest remotely during an online service. Experiments had already begun, in some ZIP codes. In April, Bishop Jacob Owensby of the Diocese of Western Louisiana encouraged such rites among priests who have the technical know-how, the equipment and the inclination to proceed. People at home, he wrote, will provide for themselves bread and wine (bread alone is also permissible) and place it on a table in front of them. The priests consecration of elements in front of her or him extends to the bread and wine in each ... household. The people will consume the consecrated elements. Days later, after consulting with Americas presiding bishop, Bishop Owensby rescinded those instructions. I understand that virtual consecration of elements at a physical or geographical distance from the altar exceeds the recognized bounds set by our rubrics and inscribed in our theology of the Eucharist, he wrote. However, similar debates were already taking place among other Anglicans. In Australia, for example, Archbishop Glenn Davies of Sydney urged priests to be creative during this pandemic, while churches were being forced to shut their doors. During a livestreamed rite, he wrote, parishioners could participate in their own homes via the internet, consuming their own bread and wine, in accordance with our Lords command. While following the rite online, their fellowship with the body of Christ would be no less spiritual and no less real. We must not fall into the erroneous mindset of thinking that consecration of the elements is only valid for us if we are physically present to consume them, as if there were magic in the hands of the minister. These debates may seem strange, following decades of news about Episcopalians and some other Anglicans voting to modernize church traditions in many ways from the arrival of female priests and bishops to the decision to allow noncelibate gays and lesbians into the priesthood and the episcopate. However, churches throughout the global Anglican Communion have continued to maintain Eucharistic altar traditions common in Western Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, the American churchs modern Book of Common Prayer states, when describing the consecration of bread and wine: At the following words concerning the bread, the Celebrant is to hold it, or lay a hand upon it; and at the words concerning the cup, to hold or place a hand upon the cup and any other vessel containing wine to be consecrated. But these are not normal times, stressed the Rev. Dana Delap, in a Church Times essay entitled, How we shared the bread and wine on Zoom. She is a vicar in the Diocese of Gloucester in England. Delap stressed that she knows Anglican leaders are reluctant to make a theological statement without consideration. Still, at Easter, she allowed what she called the least-worst way to have Mass. After all, she wrote, What is the essence of consecration? Surely, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, whose action is not contained within the crusts of a loaf, the walls of a church or the doctrines of the Church, but who, through Gods grace, meets us in bread and wine. We unite with one another when we gather for communion, but also with the saints and witnesses of our faith through history. ... I want to believe in a God who meets us in our homes and places of work, as well as in our churches. Terry Mattingly leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi. A team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) investigating the crash of Air India Express aircraft at the Kozhikode airport recovered its black box on Saturday, officials said. The black box records the conversation between the pilots as well as with the air traffic control tower, apart from the flight data. The flight commanded by veteran pilot DV Sathe and co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar had skidded off on Friday evening and plunged 35 feet down the table-top airport runway, killing 18 persons. At least 123 passengers were injured, with a few in serious condition and undergoing treatment at various hospitals here. According to aviation guidelines, the DGCA will conduct a detailed probe and identify the real cause of the accident. All top officials of Air India Express are already here. Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri is slated to arrive in the city by noon, apart from Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, few of his Cabinet colleagues, state Chief Secretary and the DGP. As Indo-China tensions soar all eyes on meet at Daulat Beg Oldie-Tianwendian border meeting point India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: India and China are scheduled to have a meeting in a bid to reduce tensions. The meeting would be held at the Daulat Beg Oldie-Tianwendian border meeting point on the Line of Actual Control. While no date has been fixed as yet, sources tell OneIndia that the meeting is likely to take place in the next few days. The primary agenda of the meeting would be to reduce tensions at the Depsang Plains, where there is a massive build up of troops of both sides. The meeting would discuss ways to de-escalate as well as disengage. India will also seek restoration of patrolling rights for its soldiers. Following the meeting that was held last Sunday by the two sides, a high powered panel headed by National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval reviewed the Chinese response. Following the meeting, India conveyed to Beijing on hotline that it is in no hurry to de-escalate, unless and until the Chinese dis-engage as agreed by the military commanders. Also Read: During the meeting on August 2, China had suggested that India move back in order to break the deadlock. The west of Finger 4 was under India's control and the suggestion by China that India moves back here is not acceptable, officials familiar with the developments told OneIndia. The high powered committee also known as the China Study Group held discussions on Tuesday and analysed the response by the Chinese. The meeting that lasted three hours was also attended by Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, Foreign Minister, S Jaishankar and Army Chief General M M Naravane. The fifth meeting of the commanders was held on August 2. The panel headed by NSA Doval is informally known as the China Study Group. The source said that India reiterated to China for complete disengagement and de-escalation. India also sought for full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas as had been agreed upon during the earlier meetings. Kerala plane crash: Locals aid rescue, donate blood, arrange food | Oneindia News The Indian side also sought for restoration of status quo ante along the Line of Actual Control, the source also added. The official cited above said that the Doval led panel would analyse China's response during the talks. During the meeting of the military commanders on Sunday, India said that it wanted immediate disengagement at patrolling point 17 (Gogra) and Pangong Tso fingers. While the de-escalation at these points would be a short term solution, diplomatic channels are looking at a long term solution as well which would ensure that the soldiers of both sides are kept apart. In the current political climate impacted by a global pandemic, it is irresponsible of the United States to stir up the so-called new Cold War, Cuban analyst Eduardo Regalado told Xinhua. "In these times, what is being demanded is a model of cooperation and understanding, but the U.S. government does not seem to be listening to the international community and continues to be determined to create a bipolar challenge that is very risky," said Regalado, an Asian expert at the Cuban Center for International Policy Research. The analyst said that confrontation between the United States and China hurts everyone, as they are the two great engines of the global economy and countries with significant responsibility in global issues. In a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China is not the former Soviet Union and has no intention to become another United States. Unlike the former Soviet Union, China will not put any conflict with the United States at the center of its policy, Regalado said, adding that China is not looking to establish its own hegemony, but rather to promote cooperation and development. "China is not a giant with feet of clay," but "has very solid plans to boost internal development and create a new type of cooperation," Regalado said. Regalado saw U.S. hostility towards China as a "smokescreen" that seeks to divert attention from the current U.S. administration 's inability to solve the country's serious internal problems. Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California, stating that the policy of engagement with China, which has been applied by successive administrations since that of President Richard Nixon, has been a failure. Regalado views this statement as a continuation of the White House's strategy to undermine China's image in the world. "The claim is a sign of weakness and fear in the United States due to global acceptance of China in issues such as scientific exchange in confronting COVID-19," Regalado said. According to the Cuban researcher, the negative measures taken by the United States against China are part of a strategy to distract attention from the U.S. government's weaknesses so as to seek re-election for Trump in November. "Everything is a big media show to confuse the American electorate, but in reality, in the conflict with Beijing, those who benefit the least are low-income American citizens, whose access to quality products and services is from China." Actor Sushant Singh Rajput's father K K Singh, who accused Rhea Chakraborty, his son's live-in partner of cheating and swindling off money, claimed before the Supreme Court it was "continued criminal actions" by her and her family which caused death of his only son. He also alleged that the Mumbai police tried to hinder the investigation in the matter from the very beginning on the death of Rajput on June 14. Also read: Mumbai police sided with Rhea Chakraborty, Bihar police tells SC Responding to Rhea's plea for transfer of probe from Patna to Mumbai, he said the issue has become academic after handing over the case to the CBI at the instance of the Bihar government. He submitted that any case can be transferred only at the post-cognisance stage and not during the investigation. The top court, which had earlier sought a response from Bihar government and complainant Singh on Rhea's transfer petition is likely to take up the matter next week. In his detailed reply, Singh said, "The plea by Rhea undermined the feelings of a father who lives in Patna and who has sufficient proof and belief that it is due to her and her family's continued criminal actions for over a period of 1 year that has caused the death of his only son." He also alleged that attempt was made by the Maharashtra government to tarnish his image, by calling the case a political issue, which was the most unfortunate incident. "It highlights the mindset and the attempt to scuttle the entire case," he said, adding that it was noteworthy that no case has been registered by them and they did not allow the Patna Police to investigate the present case by quarantining their senior officer. The deceased was an Indian actor, who worked in super-hit movies such as Kai Po Che, M S Dhoni: Untold Story (2016), Kedarnath (2018) and many other movies. He claimed he had on February 19 and 25, 2020, informed the Mumbai police about his apprehension regarding the threat to the life of his son, however, no action was taken by the police. He said recording of statement of witnesses by the Mumbai police was "an eye-wash in the name of the enquiry" as they did not lodge an FIR. With regard to Rhea's claim of him using his influence in Patna, Singh said had it was so, she would have been arrested by now, who, he believe, abetted the suicide of his young son. Most historical documents about Nepal have characterised Rana Bahadur Shah, the third king of the Shah dynasty of unified Nepal (1777-1799), in many dimensions. While many labelled him Sanki or maniacal, irrational, stubborn, weak and funny, historian Chittaranjan Nepali defines him as skilful, witty and a statesman. Rana Bahadur Shah succeeded to the throne at the age of two and a half years when his father, Pratap Singh Shah, son of Prithvi Narayan Shah, died prematurely in 1779 due to smallpox after ruling for only 36 months. Queen Rajendralaxmi, the mother of Rana Bahadur Shah, acted as his regent till 1785 before dying of tuberculosis, followed by his paternal uncle, Bahadur Shah, till 1794. Rana Bahadur Shah dismissed and captivated Bahadur Shah in April 1794 and later killed. According to Nepali, Rana Bahadur Shah took swift and bold steps to break orthodox and superstitious practices of the society but faced stern opposition from the conservative society. One of the reasons for such revolt was the kings marriage to a Brahmin widow, Kantiwati. The marriage to Kantiwati Devi Not much has been written about Kantiwati Devi Mishra. The existing texts refer to her as a young Maithil Brahmin widow who had come to the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu. Rana Bahadur Shah, who already had two queens, Rajeshwari Devi and Suvarnaprabha, grew an infatuation with Kantiwati when he saw her and brought her to his palace against her wish. Kantiwati, being a widow, had vowed not to get remarried and therefore denied the offer of getting married to Rana Bahadur Shah. However, some historians say that Kantiwati consented to marry only after the king agreed to the condition put forward by her to make their son the crown prince of the country. They got married in 1793 and gave birth to Givarn Yuddha Bikram Shah, who was declared the heir to the throne immediately after his birth. Rana Bahadur Shah already had two sons from Suvarnaprabha, namely Ranodyot Shah and Shamsher Shah. Many historians say that Ranodyot Shah was the heir apparent of the king. However, Nepali dismisses the idea referring to the instruction in the big bell installed by the king at the Hanuman Dhoka Palace which mentions Suvarnaprabha as Bhogya Rani or a concubine and therefore making Ranodyot Shah illegible for the throne. Significance of the act The king, a Chettri, marrying a Brahmin widow was considered a taboo at the time, and violating the social and religious customs was an intolerable step for the orthodox society. The declaration of the illegitimate half-caste newborn as the crown prince infuriated the nobles of the societies more while some historians claim that the nobles agreed to accept Givarn Yuddha Bikram Shah as the riddance to the insane king. But, Chittaranjan Nepali believes that the king was not insane but tactful and that the king was labelled in a partisan manner as mad because he defied the traditions. Nepali believes that Rana Bahadur Shah showed his anti-caste discrimination beliefs by constructing the temple of Jagannath in Thapathali in southern Kathmandu in 1797 along with the Bhairavi Chakra. The inscription in the Chakra reads as People belonging to all caste are like Brahmins when initiated with the Bhairavi Chakra. Another step taken by the king was abdicating the throne in favour of Givarn Yuddha Bikram Shah, who was merely 18 months old in 1799. Nepali states that the pressure was mounting on the king from all fronts because of his anti-traditional states and was facing a political crisis. Rana Bahadur Shah abdicated his throne in doubt that his son might not be made the king after his death. Rana Bahadur Shah performed the coronation for Givarn Yuddha Bikram Shah and made the nobility pledge loyalty to the new king by making them sign a document. The mad king Rana Bahadur Shah did have a mental breakdown when his beloved queen Kantiwati died in 1799, around a year after his abdication. Kantiwati had contracted tuberculosis, an incurable disease at the time. By then, the former king had taken the name of Shri Param Nirgunanda Swami and was called upon as Swami Maharaj (the saint king). He had organised various Pujas (rituals in honour or pledge to the gods) wishing good health for Kantiwati while many physicians were also consulted. When Kantiwati died eventually, Rana Bahadur Shah became sad and angry and punished the attending physicians and priests. Similarly, he ordered the destruction of many statues of gods and goddesses around the valley. He later went to Banaras in 1800 and stayed there for four years before returning in 1804. After repatriation, he took the position of Mukhtiyar, before being assassinated by his half-brother, Sher Bahadur Shah, in 1806. This event was ultimately pivotal for the rise of Bhimsen Thapa. A commentary Nepali believes that the half-mad, insane and lunatic labels given to Rana Bahadur Shah were an example of prejudice shown by historians to discredit the change that the king wanted to propagate, with some even ridiculously claiming that the abdication was the victory of the people. Nepali states that the skilful arrangements of Rana Bahadur Shah to instigate his son as the king and the methodological and systematic steps against social traditionalism does not reflect lunacy but tactfulness. Whether lunacy or statesmanship, the steps were taken by Rana Bahadur Shah against the tradition of caste were way ahead of his time. An inter-caste marriage, even the one between a Brahmin and a Chhetri or even between the two Brahmins with hierarchical differences, is still considered a taboo. Moreover, he married a widow at that time when it is still considered a taboo now is another bold step taken. Furthermore, he made sure that their son, labelled illegitimate half-caste, would be made the king by abdicating his throne and making a detailed document on how the kingdom would function during the time of his son during his childhood and acquired pledges from almost everyone. This article is based on Reign and Abdication of King Rana Bahadur Shah by Chittaranjan Nepali in Mahesh Chandra Regmis Regmi Research Series Year 3 no. 1. Infectious disease expert Peter Collignon, who lives in Canberra, was in Sydney's Potts Point last month and grew uneasy with what he saw. "I walked past a number of restaurants and I thought: there are too many people in here too close together," he says. "We were invited into a restaurant and we thought 'no thanks'. We sat outside eating a pizza next to a heater. That was early July. Pubs and restaurants have since been the epicentre of COVID-19 outbreaks in Sydney that have kept daily case numbers bubbling away between 10 and 20. While fast, aggressive contact tracing has kept the outbreaks under control, there is a growing sense that socialising at venues poses a risk to the state's continued success. An empty Circular Quay: data from Apple and Google shows Sydneysiders are locking themselves down, with foot traffic and public transport use still significantly below baseline levels. Credit:James Brickwood Community anxiety lingers over the clusters, which have been geographically widespread (from Casula in the west to Potts Point in the east) and rapid in their growth (more than 100 cases are linked to Wetherill Park's Thai Rock outbreak). Constant news of where infected people have been, and daily warnings for others who may have visited those places, compound a sense that the virus is omnipresent and on the precipice of an exponential blowout. Many people feel another lockdown is inevitable, and some consider it desirable. Community Facebook groups are running polls about if and when it will happen. Mobility data from Apple and Google shows Sydneysiders are locking themselves down, with foot traffic and public transport use still significantly below baseline levels and trending down over the past month. Click here to read the full story. Engage4Change in partnership with Maynooth University is bringing the university out into the community as part of Communiversity (Community + University). Last month the university came to Omeath to talk to women about the courses that can be delivered there. Communiversity is about people; it brings the university out into local communities where people can attend courses in the familiar surroundings of their community centres and libraries, without having to worry about exams, essays or assignments. Communiversity gives people the chance to discuss topics that they might wonder about everyday but don't usually have a chance to explore in depth. Studies began on Friday, 24 July, in the Granvue Hotel, in the north Louth village. The first 3 weeks concerns exploring our history. This will be followed by 'economics for us' and 'community development'. Tony Weekes of Maynooth University said, 'Economics is about the way we live. It's not about growth rates, share prices, unemployment. It's about how we create a society which is served by the economy'. Margaret Nugent, also of Maynooth University, added 'Congratulations to Engage4Change for your initiative and determination in bringing the university into this community. Border dwellers have specialist knowledge that academia can learn from. We look forward to sharing the learning journey'. Miriam Moffitt, Maynooth University, said 'Engagement with communities, such as is happening in Omeath, enables people to engage with each other and with the past in a constructive and enriching way. It enables us to re-assess our perception of history and to gain new insights into the workings and depictions of the past through different lenses'. Meanwhile, Helen Thompson, Omeath District Development, remarked 'This Communiversity Initiative could only happen through the funding we have received from the International Fund for Ireland (IFI). This enabled us to create a legacy of personal development, empowerment and positive community engagement. 'Over the next number of weeks we will test the waters to see what the possibilities are to deliver accredited courses in Omeath in the future. Local people who attended the launch reacted positively. Tracy said 'I found the presentations very interesting, I am looking forward to next week'. Sharon commented 'The 'economics for us' presentation made me think about economics in a different way and I want to learn more'. 'I came along today out of curiosity and I loved the energy and enthusiasm of the presenters,' was Ann's opinion. Sometimes a market rally makes sense, but for many investors, the current run-up just doesnt. Bouncing back with incredible force, the S&P 500 has gained 50% since plummeting to a low point on March 23, with the index now landing just shy of its 52-week high. This impressive charge forward has come as investors shrug off COVID-19's devasting impact on the economy. Even the fact that the U.S. only added 167,000 employees to private payrolls in July, compared to the 1 million expected, hasnt been able to derail this bullish trading action. On top of this, gloomy COVID-19 headlines continue to make the rounds, with the number of new cases spiking in several parts of the world. Is Wall Street in for a major reality check? With so much uncertainty hanging in the balance, its hard to know for sure, but thats not to say investors should start playing the waiting game. The pros from investment firm Needham are pounding the table on two stocks, upgrading each based on their strong long-term growth narratives. We ran the names through TipRanks database, and found out that both have gotten a thumbs up from other analysts as well. Surmodics (SRDX) With innovative surface modification technologies, Surmodics provides intravascular medical devices as well as chemical components for in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests and microarrays. Given that there are multiple potential catalysts on the horizon, Needham is now counting itself as a SRDX fan. Following the CE Mark and European launch of the SurVeil drug-coated balloon (DCB) and the U.S. launches of three 510(k) products, 5-star analyst Mike Matson, who represents the firm, is anticipating a major ramp in revenue growth. With the CE Mark, a $6.5 million milestone payment from Abbott was triggered. SRDX is eligible for another $45 million in future milestone payments. It should be noted that the DCB market could shrink thanks to the concerns over potential paclitaxel-related long-term mortality, and the lack of randomized controlled clinical trial data could limit SurVeil sales. That being said, Matson argues SRDXs U.S. pivotal TRANSCEND trial might lead to adoption in Europe when 12-month data is presented, which could happen in C1H21. His FY21 and FY22 SurVeil sales estimates arent too shabby either, with the figures landing at $3 million and $6 million, respectively. Story continues Adding to the good news, SRDX launched its Telemark microcatheter in F1Q20 through a distribution agreement with Medtronic, with it planning to launch its 0.014 and 0.018 PTA balloon catheters via a distribution agreement with Cook Medical in CY20. Based on the structure of the agreements, SRDX will sell the product to its distribution partner, who will then sell to the end customers. Expounding on this, Matson stated, Management expects each product to generate ~$0.5-1 million in revenue in FY20, which we view as conservative, and we think ~$1-2 million per product is achievable in FY21, resulting in a meaningful contribution to SRDXs revenue growth (with just these three products adding ~2-3% to its FY21 revenue growth). And SRDX continues to work with other potential partners to establish distribution agreements for its other 510(k) products. The FDA clearance of SRDXs Pounce thrombectomy system, slated for C2H20 or C1H21, could also be a key catalyst for shares, given that longer-term, the products indications could be expanded to include peripheral venous, pulmonary embolism (PE) and even stroke procedures. Development milestones for SRDXs other DCBs, including Avess (for use in arteriovenous or AV fistulas in dialysis patients) and Sundance (for use below-the-knee), could also serve as catalysts. Matson added, We believe that increased demand in SRDXs In Vitro Diagnostic business driven by anti-body testing volumes could partially offset headwinds in the Medical Devices business... we believe SRDX is exposed to less elective procedures and could weather a second decline in procedural volumes better than other med tech companies. Everything that SRDX has going for it convinced Matson to join the bulls. To this end, he upgraded the rating from Hold to Buy and put a $61 price target on the stock. The implication? Upside potential of 26%. (To watch Matsons track record, click here) Do other analysts agree with Matson? They do. Only Buy ratings, 3, in fact, have been issued in the last three months, so the consensus rating is a Strong Buy. At $66.67, the average price target is more aggressive than the Needham analysts and implies shares could surge 37.5% in the next year. (See Surmodics stock analysis on TipRanks) Brooks Automation (BRKS) As for the second stock on our list, Brooks Automation provides automation, vacuum and instrumentation solutions for semiconductor manufacturing, life sciences and other industries. After delivering a better-than-expected operational performance, Needham is giving this name its stamp of approval. Much to the surprise of some on the Street, BRKS reported solid FY3Q20 results, with adjusted EPS increasing 60% year-over-year to $0.32 and revenue rising 8.1% year-over-year to $220 million. In addition, operating profit got a boost, growing 15% year-over-year to $30 million, and EBITDA was up as well. Writing for Needham, 5-star analyst Stephen Unger told clients that these results surpassed his forecasts. Further commenting on the performance, Unger stated, In particular, we are impressed with the level of customer engagement and new business wins logged by BRKS in FY3Q20, despite the global uncertainty, which bodes well for sustained double-digit revenue growth. Going forward, management guided for FY4 Q20 adjusted EPS of $0.32-0.40 on revenues of $229-241 million, which would reflect 15-21% growth. It should be noted that revenues for Semiconductor Solutions Group and Life Sciences are expected to dip. While COVID-19 has decimated the economy, Brooks Life Sciences segment could be a key beneficiary. In the immediate aftermath of COVID-19, outsourcing for laboratory services (Sanger sequencing, next-generation sequencing, and gene synthesis) is likely to receive a boost in demand given protocols established at customers to limit the congregation of laboratory personnel, while the outsourcing of sample storage can be used as a tool to free up existing laboratory space to decrease laboratory personnel concentration, Unger explained. What else is working in the companys favor? Even though theres still demand cyclicality within Semiconductor Solutions, product portfolio diversification bodes well for BRKS, in Ungers opinion. This is especially true when it comes to Contamination Solutions. Unger added, The adoption of these solutions is more secular in nature, driven by ongoing advancements in semiconductor complexity and the increased use of contract manufacturing (e.g., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) to fabricate advanced chip designs. Based on all of the above, Unger handed out an upgrade, bumping the rating up from Hold to Buy. He also set the price target at $72. This implies shares could jump 27% in the year ahead. (To watch Ungers track record, click here) Looking at the consensus breakdown, opinions are split evenly. 2 Buys and 2 Holds add up to a Moderate Buy consensus rating. In addition, the $57.25 average price target suggests modest upside potential of 0.72%. (See BRKS stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment. Heres some positive news from the crime beat. It is reported that, nationwide, robberies, rapes, drug offenses and burglaries are down during the first half of 2020. This trend is one of the rare good things to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fewer people have been venturing out the last several months, decreasing the number of robbery targets. Same thing with open-air drug deals and rapes, fewer people were out-and-about going to bars, nightclubs and other social gatherings. And even stupid criminals know not to try to commit burglary by breaking into a home where family members are hunkered down during the lockdown. Now for the negative. Homicides and gun violence are on the rise. Murders have spiked in 36 of the 50 biggest American cities that were studied during a newly released Wall Street Journal analysis of crime stats. On average, the nations homicide rate is up 24% so far this year compared to the same period in 2019. But in certain cities the murder rate is much higher. In Chicago homicides are up 52%. In San Antonio its 34%. Phoenix has seen a 32% rise in murders, Philadelphia 31% and Houston 27%. Gang activity is most frequently blamed for the rise as gang members are also feeling the economic pinch of isolation and turf wars have ignited, playing out on near-empty street corners. This years recent huge jump in gun sales may have also played a part in the rising inner-city death toll. It is such a shame because the U.S. murder rate had been significantly slowing since the early 90s. As for the idea that the escalation in murders is exclusively happening in American cities run by Democrats, such as the cities mentioned above baloney! According to the WSJ, Homicides are rising at a double-digit rate in most of the big cities run by Republicans, including Miami; San Diego; Omaha; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Jacksonville, Florida. And, by the way, the aforementioned San Antonio is led by a mayor who is a member of the Independent Party. Murder is truly a bipartisan problem. Im no social scientist, but Im thinking that its not just the cabin fever caused by COVID-19 isolation that has caused this increase in gun violence and murders. It seems obvious that the current spate of anything-goes-lawlessness and destructive anti-police fervor has added to the idea that illegal, anarchistic behavior wont be punished. As proof we see disproportionately few arrests given the growing number of destructive acts of property damage and, yes, even murders that have occurred in several states. It is as if were watching a national temper tantrum and no one is taking responsibility to stop it. Hey, if politicians are going to order law enforcement to stand down and not respond to protests that then turn into riotous rampages, why should anyone be surprised when the homicide toll rises not just in locations where peaceful protests are hijacked by criminals but in Any City, USA? If law and order can be so arbitrarily suspended, and citizen eyewitnesses can watch the destruction happen in real time on TV, where does that leave a civilized society? On the precipice of insurrection, I suppose. Overly cautious or politically correct city leaders, motivated to appease the loudmouthed minority calling for radical change, are ignoring the rule of law that has kept this country together for 244 years. Its as if elected officials are so bewildered by whats been occurring that theyve become paralyzed with indecision about how to restore public safety. Looking away from it is tacit approval. Hamstrung law enforcement is champing at the bit to be allowed to do its job and try to restore the peace. Citizens are astonished at what is happening to both their communities and to the idea that we are a country of laws which everyone must follow. Look, weve got to find some semblance of pandemic-era normalcy now. More and more Americans will be venturing out, ending the long quarantine. With more population out and about, criminals will surely find more targets. The clock is ticking. It is time to stop the long national nightmare and put an end to the lawless temper tantrums. They have been allowed to go on far too long. www.DianeDimond.com; email to Diane@DianeDimond.com. The First Information Report (FIR) lodged by the Bihar police in connection with actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death on a complaint filed by his father is politically motivated at the instance of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, the Mumbai police said in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on Saturday. The affidavit added the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has shown indecent haste in lodging a fresh FIR on the recommendation from the Bihar government and in constituting a team to probe abetment of suicide charge against Rajputs girlfriend, Chakraborty Rhea, her family members, and two friends. It insisted the CBI FIR is without legal sanctity as it was filed without the consent of Maharashtra, which alone is entitled to give consent and not Bihar. The indecent haste with which the CBI has proceeded in this regard, speaks for itself, regarding the bonafides of all involved in this exercise, said the affidavit filed through advocate Sachin Patil. Bihar government and police officials were not immediately available for comments. The affidavit was filed days before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Chakrabortys plea on Tuesday seeking the transfer of the FIR lodged in Patna to Mumbai. Rajputs father, KK Singh, separately filed his reply in the apex court terming Chakrabortys petition infructuous as CBI has taken over the case. Singh accused the Mumbai police of inaction and questioned why even after 54 days of inquiry, no FIR was registered. If the respondent No.3 [Maharashtra] has found no evidence qua the petitioner [Chakraborty ] in 54 days of inquiry, it only reflects one conclusion that the Respondent No.3 is trying to shield the Petitioner for the reason best known to them, Singh said in his affidavit through senior advocate Vikas Singh. The Mumbai police wondered why Singh did not approach them for registering FIR against Chakraborty and her family members. It added at best, the Bihar police ought to have registered a Zero FIR and transferred the same to Mumbai police seized of an inquiry into Rajputs death. The registration of the FIR.... [in] Bihar was politically motivated and due to extraneous reasons, the Mumbai police said. It cited a newspaper report saying while the Bihar police were hesitant to file FIR, it was Kumar and another minister who persuaded them to register it. Commenting on Bihars decision to recommend the CBI probe, the Mumbai Police said it bristles with malafides and same is void ab initio. Such a thing could lead to a chaotic situation as the accused or complainant would then choose their own state police to initiate an investigation into a case. The Director-General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Abdullahi, has said the coronavirus pandemic has escalated attempts at data breach and compromise in Nigeria and across the world. He said financial institutions are especially targetted for personal data compromise in view of the sensitive information they store. Mr Abdullahi stated this on Friday at the closing ceremony of a three-day virtual conference on COVID-19 and Securing the Financial Services Industry organised by Committee of Chief Information Security Officers of Nigeria Financial Institutions (CCISONFI). The director-general, however, said Nigeria has recorded impressive growth in data protection compliance. He said with a verifiable database of statutory audit reports filed by 588 entities, Nigeria leads the pack on the continent. Speaking on Nigerias journey towards implementing Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), Mr Abdullahi noted that despite low level of awareness and various challenges faced by stakeholders, the level of compliance is growing at a fast rate. He said, Before the introduction of the NDPR, no Nigerian entity could boast of compliance with data protection laws. Selected multinationals had some level of compliance imposed on them by their parent companies. However, it changed drastically within one year. From near zero compliance, the country has recorded impressive growth in data protection compliance. Mr Abdullahi added that the banking sector is a primary target for data breach due to the perceived value of data. He commended banks for their pro-activeness in compliance with NDPR and information technology standards and regulation. Your industry, the banking sector, is a primary target for data breach, and your level of compliance is building trust in your customers. Compared with other industries, you are fantastically doing well, but still, there is room for improvement for you to get to the Promised Land, he said. The NITDA boss revealed that, initially there was resistance from various quarters as to NITDAs statutory powers and capacity to implement the NDPR. He said that, The resistance helped to stimulate and focus the Agency on delivering valid results. Critical stakeholders represented by Data Protection Officers (DPO) have validated our innovative approach to NDPR implementation. And our role in pioneering data protection in Nigeria is also critical as the experiences garnered so far would be of immense benefit to the country. He further explained that in a survey conducted in July, 74 per cent of the respondents said NDPR met the need of the Nigerian environment; 76 per cent said the unique introduction of Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCO) helped in their compliance with the NDPR. 72 per cent noted that NITDA had provided the necessary support for industry adoption of the NDPR. He said the respondents put the rate of public awareness at 54 per cent, which is the lowest score, but, 85.3 per cent of the respondents stated that the NDPR compliance enhances good perception about their business. While recalling some achievements, Mr Abdullahi said, We have licensed 70 Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCO), which also created over 2,700 new jobs. The Data Protection sector is valued at N1,860,000,000, using median value of audit implementation cost. In addition to this, The African Union Working Group on Data Protection Harmonisation and Localisation on (Policy and Regulatory Initiative for Digital Africa- PRIDA) has appointed NITDA as Vice-Chair of the working group. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Island man was arrested in connection with a marijuana grow operation discovered in western Massachusetts worth an estimated $3 million, authorities say. Yebin Mai, 28, of Staten Island, and Bin Huang, 32, of Brooklyn, were charged with marijuana trafficking and each are being held on $100,000 bond following an arraignment in a Massachusetts district court, the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) announced online. Both defendants were due back in court Friday. Recreational marijuana is legal to possess in personal amounts in Massachusetts, and to sell at dispensaries, but only by state-licensed companies held to a standard of safety regulations, and taxed accordingly. Police were alerted in late July of suspicious activity at a home in Savoy, Mass. -- a rural town in the Berkshires -- after workers with the Eversource power company were dispatched to the address for a safety check. Wires purportedly had been overloaded and damaged by excessive electricity use from the house, while records indicated the home was using $10,000 in electricity every month, the state police said. The workers encountered Mai as he exited the house. The defendant told them he didnt speak English, refused them access to the house, then stuffed an envelope with $100 bills into one of the linemans vest pocket, police allege. When the worker attempted to return the money, Mai allegedly pushed the mans hand away. The crew then alerted police they were being blocked from performing their duties. When state police arrived at the scene, Mai attempted leaving the property with two other males in a pickup truck. When questioned by a state trooper, Mai allegedly said he did not speak English. The trooper returned the money and allowed the men to leave pending further investigation. Days later, after a warrant was issued, a police investigation uncovered nearly 3,600 marijuana plants packed into multiple rooms of the house, authorities allege. Huang is listed as the homeowner, after purchasing it in 2017 for $200,000 cash, authorities said. Authorities also are searching for two other men seen leaving the property with Mai in a white pickup truck on the day electric workers attempted to perform the safety check. Their identities are known to the Massachusetts State Police. A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR GROW HOUSE Officers who responded to the house in question cited the sound of multiple fans running inside, the MSP announcement said. After the power was shut off and the fans stopped running, the smell of fresh marijuana became much stronger around the residence, MSP said. The backyard was covered with debris from what appeared to be extensive renovations in the house, and mixed in with the debris were large green pots used for planting, and some large florescent light fixtures. Police said all of the windows were shielded from inside with curtains and what appeared to be plywood, while surveillance cameras tracked the comings and goings at each entrance. Behind the house, at the end of a worn path in a wooded area, was a very large pile of used potting soil. Roots and stalks in the soil where plants had been harvested were identified by troopers as discarded marijuana roots, based on their training and experience, according to state police. Inside the house, state and federal investigators entered the cellar where troopers detected an overwhelming odor of fresh marijuana. The room was full of marijuana plants, along with a network of lights, chemicals, a sophisticated hydro system and an advanced ventilation system, police said. Five other rooms in the cellar were used to store marijuana plants and growing supplies, in addition to multiple rooms on the first floor, state police said. FEDS: CHINESE NATIONALS BEHIND GROW OPERATIONS The bust in Savoy was one of two in Western Massachusetts that same week, MassLive reported. Federal Drug Enforcement Administration arrested two Chinese nationals at a warehouse in Monson, where they allegedly found 1,100 marijuana plants plus 3,000 more at four residential properties in that town and neighboring Palmer. The defendants, both in their 40s, were charged with manufacturing marijuana and processing marijuana with intent to distribute in U.S. District Court. One of the men told agents he traveled to the area from Chicago for the sole purpose of growing marijuana. The mans attorney referred to his client as a dupe, and a low-level player in a larger-scale marijuana trafficking ring. New Delhi: Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, who led the five-judge constitution bench in the Supreme Court which had struck down the controversial NJAC Act for appointment of judges, was today recommended as the 44th Chief Justice of India. Chief Justice of India T S Thakur on Tuesday wrote a letter recommending the name of Justice Khehar, who is the senior most judge of the Supreme Court to be his successor. Justice Khehar, 64, will be the first Chief Justice from the Sikh community and he will succeed CJI Thakur who will be demitting office on January 3, 2017. Justice Khehar, who will be sworn in on January 4, will hold the tenure for over seven months till August 27, 2017. Besides heading the bench in NJAC matter, Justice Khehar has also headed a bench which had set aside the imposition of Presidents Rule in Arunachal Pradesh in January this year. He was also a part of the bench which sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy to jail while hearing the matter relating to the refund of money invested by people in his two companies. Justice Khehar also headed a bench which recently gave a significant verdict holding that the principal of equal pay for equal work has to be made applicable to those engaged as daily wagers, casual and contractual employees who perform the same duties as the regulars. While the turf war between the judiciary and the executive over the appointment of judges for higher judiciary has intensified, Justice Khehar on the occasion of Constitution Day on November 26 had responded to the tirade from Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi by saying that the judiciary was working within its lakshmanrekha. Judiciary is mandated to shield all persons, citizens and non-citizens alike, against discrimination and abuse of State power. Liberty, equality and dignity of citizen have flourished substantially in India due to the pro-active role of judiciary in the country, he had said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. With the damage that Tropical Storm Isaias brought to Connecticut, United States President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for the state. Governor Ned Lamont said the powerful storm disrupted electrical power to hundreds of thousands of residences and knocked down trees across the state. The governor spoke with the US president on Thursday night to discuss the situation and advise him to make the decision immediately. The emergency order would allow Connecticut to request federal assistance. Debilitating storm According to Patch, approximately 52,000 United Illuminating and 415,000 Eversource customers have continued to have no electrical power on Friday morning. Analysts say it could take until Tuesday for Eversource to restore electricity to nearly all of its customers. Lamont said approval of the emergency order was very much needed as several hundreds of thousands of citizens in the state suffered through the disaster without electrical power for several days. The governor said they are continuing efforts and are coordinating with federal and local authorities to monitor damage to the state and make necessary requests for assistance from federal bodies to help with response, recovery, and rebuilding. The emergency order would also provide local towns with full reimbursement for any costs of damages brought by the storm. Lamon's administration is currently assessing the damage to the state and will discuss if they will apply for a major disaster declaration which would provide local towns with more federal assistance to help with damage costs. Also Read: Fauci Praises Trump's Coronavirus Policies That Saves People's Lives Senator Richard Blumenthal said a major disaster declaration would give homeowners who have suffered proprietary damages additional aid for repairs. On Friday, the Connecticut National Guard joined forces with more than 1,750 utility crews in the state to assist with clearing fallen trees and attempt to restore electrical power to over 400,0000 homes and businesses affected by the storm, as reported by US News. Slowly repairing damages Eversource had nearly 1,200 personnel working through the state of Connecticut while United Illuminating sent out 580 crews to the field. United Illuminating said power would be nearly entirely restored by Monday. State regulators have ordered an investigation to assess the preparation and response of both power suppliers to the storm that disrupted electricity to more than 700,000 households and brought winds with gusts of more than 60 mph that felled trees and electrical wires. On Friday, the National Weather Service confirmed a waterspout that had evolved into a tornado in Long Island Sound made landfall in Westport on Tuesday afternoon. A private meteorologist captured video footage of the event and showed it ripping the roof off of a residential home and causing other severe damages. According to FEMA, federal disaster assistance was made available to Connecticut to support state, tribal, and local response teams severely affected by Tropical Storm Isaias on August 4. The agency's website also states that Connecticut has access to funds to use for emergency protective measures. The government would provide support to all eight counties within the state. The assistance would also extend to the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribe and Mohegan Tribe of Indians. Related Article: Donald Trump Suggests Delaying Presidential Election Due to Possible Fraudulent Results in Mail-In Voting @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Training your lower body can often feel more gruelling than all those arm, chest and ab workouts, simply because you're working some of the largest muscles in your body. Plus, the recovery period can feel longer and more painful. Despite this, if we want to take on whatever hills, mountains or broken lifts life throws at us, we need our legs to be strong and mobile, which requires spending some time building power in our lower body. Personal trainer Aimee Victoria Long shares three key moves for getting your legs into great shape 1. Fire hydrants How to do them: "Start in a kneeling position on all fours with your wrists stacked directly under your shoulders and your hips over your knees. "Keep your belly button drawn in toward your spine, with a neutral back and your right leg bent at 90 degrees. On an exhale breath, lift your leg out to your side, stopping at hip height and ensuring you can feel the connection in your glutes and not your lower back. Inhale to draw the leg back to the ground. Repeat 12-15 times on each leg." Why are they effective? "Being in this box position mimics your most foundational gait; the crawl. When you're on all fours, you truly switch on your core stabilisers and strengthen your base. Although it looks like a fairly easy move, it works more muscles than you might think. Aside from your abs, this move primarily targets the glutes; chiselling them from all angles." 2. Barbell squats How to do them: "Before attempting this move, I recommend getting a qualified personal trainer at your gym to show you how to safely use the barbell. "Stand with your feet more than shoulder-width apart. Hold the barbell across your upper back using an overhand grip (a common mistake is allowing the bar to rest on your neck). Hug the bar into your traps [the trapezius muscle, across the upper back] to engage your upper back muscles. "De-rack the barbell and move a few steps back so you have enough space to perform the move. Slowly squat down with your head up and back straight. Lower yourself until your hips are aligned with your knees, with legs at 90 degrees. Drive your heels into the floor to push yourself back up, and keep good form until you're stood up straight. Do three sets of 12-15 reps." Why are they effective? "Barbell squats directly strengthen your posterior chain; the hamstrings, glutes, and the adductors [hip muscles]. They're also a whole body move. Your legs work to move the weight of the barbell and create a squat. Your abs and lower back muscles stabilise your trunk, and your upper back, shoulders and arms are working to balance the bar." 3. Bulgarian split squat How to do them: "Stand two to three feet (depending on your height) in front of a bench or chosen elevated service, such as a sofa or chair. "Extend one leg behind you and rest your toes on the bench. Toes can be flat or tucked, and you should ensure your hips and shoulders are square to the front of the room. Keep your torso upright and engaged by relaxing your shoulders down and actively pulling your navel to spine. Then slowly lower your back knee down towards the floor. "Your front knee will form approximately a 90-degree angle creating a lunge position. Ensure your front knee doesn't rotate inwards, and try to disperse the weight throughout the front foot. From here, drive yourself up to standing and squeeze your glutes at the top. You can hold a weight to make this move harder. Repeat 12 times on each leg." Why are they effective? "Split squats are a unilateral lift that not only improve strength but also balance, hip mobility and tone. By focusing on one side of the body at a time, you can work to build strength and resilience - especially on the weaker side of the body." There is widespread disappointment in Courtown and beyond after liquidators were appointed to Courtown Adventure and Leisure Centre. Conor Noone of Baker Tilly Chartered Accountants said that on Tuesday afternoon last (July 28), he and Neil Hughes were provisionally appointed as liquidators for Courtown Adventure and Leisure Centre in the High Court. He said that it is early days yet and more information would be gathered and the case would be heard on August 24. In a memo to staff on the same day, the Board of Management told said that the company had been granted an order of voluntary liquidation, and that the liquidators would meet with staff in the days that followed. In a statement to this newspaper, Chairperson of the Board Brian McGarry said that: 'The application to the high court has been granted and the affairs of the company will now be taken over by Neil Hughes of Baker Tilly, who have been appointed as the liquidators'. Reasons for this decision were singled out as 'cash flow difficulties' as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Board said that its members had been working tirelessly to prevent this course of action. The statement read: 'Prior to the Covid-19 lockdown, the centre was experiencing intermittent cash flow difficulties. Covid-19 has had a very significant effect on our income, and the Board, who are voluntary, have been working tirelessly to find a solution for many months'. The Board said that it had consulted with the financial, legal and governance aspects of the centre, but a funding solution had not been found. Despite this, the memo ended on a hopeful note that a new chapter could start at the centre. 'The Board have now been advised that it is not feasible to open the centre in its current form. 'We know that the centre having fallen victim to the current crisis will no doubt come as devastating news. We remain hopeful that the centre will find a new lease of life and be rejuvenated in the future, continuing to provide the excellent service that it always did - for the local and wider community of Courtown'. The Board acknowledged that the centre had been providing 'a necessary community service' such as contributing to tourism, development of health and well being via swim-lessons for school children and more. One group benefiting from such involvement, Courtown Swim Club, expressed its disappointment. 'We have 100 swimmers so now we're going to look at pools around the county, most of which already have their own swim club. We will do that as best we can as we don't want to lose our memberships. We have some fantastic up and coming swimmers in the club and they have missed their swimming over lockdown. 'We're disappointed about the lack of communication around this as we didn't get an opportunity to engage. The pool is a second entity of Courtown Waterford, which benefited from community enterprise and fundraising, so we are hopeful that the community could come together to support the re-opening of the pool as an important community facility. We're aware of cases across the county where this has happened, any of our committee members would be pleased to be represented on any further boards,' a spokesperson said on behalf of the committee. Roisin Duncan of Special Olympics Club Gorey Area said that 'devastation' was the only word to describe the news. She said that the majority of members of Special Olympics Club Gorey Area live in Gorey and the surrounding areas, and having the facility that they love so much close to home was ideal. She said that other options in possibly Arklow or Enniscorthy would have to be looked at, but that the Courtown centre was the most suitable venue for activities. A staff member, who preferred to remain unnamed, said that staff hope that there will still be a future for them working in Courtown. 'The place is going to liquidation, which is sad, but hopefully someone will be interested in this place soon and can reopen it because Courtown and Gorey people need it. 'Without the coronavirus lockdown we would be open and busy and we can be again,' they said. CEO of Seal Rescue Ireland Melanie Croce said that the centre adjacent to Courtown Adventure and Leisure Centre is not under threat at the moment. 'We heard the news last week and were contacted, and we're relieved that the liquidators took us into account. They have promised us that this will not impact our operations in any way because our lease is still there for the next number of months,' she said. In a statement last month, the Board of Courtown Adventure and Leisure Centre said that it had been exploring potential investment opportunities to ascertain the viability of reopening the centre and avoid closure. It read: 'In the past, the centre was co-funded by Wexford County Council, which we appreciate, however, as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown and restrictions, the certainty of funding is not clear. Without an injection of funds, the centre will not be able to meet its operational costs'. A spokesperson for Wexford County Council said that it was aware of the situation facing the Board at Courtown Adventure and Leisure Centre and would be willing to work with whoever is appointed to take over in the future. 'In the event that the pool was to enter some form of administration, it stands that the council would be happy to work with whoever is appointed to look at how the pool could be reopened and made available to the public,' the spokesperson said. Six MLAs from Rajasthan, who were elected to the assembly on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) tickets and subsequently merged with the Congress party in 2019, moved the Supreme Court on Saturday seeking transfer to the apex court of a disqualification petition filed against them by BJP MLA, Madan Dilawar before the Rajasthan high court. The petitioners contended that they are seeking transfer of the case to the Supreme Court because the legal issues raised in the petition before the Rajasthan high court are already under the consideration of the top court in another case from Assam, Mr. Mithou Krose v. Imtilemba Sangtam. Therefore, the present transfer petition is being moved so that there may be a uniform interpretation of the law, the plea filed through advocate Amit Pai said. The Congress government in Rajasthan is resting on shaky foundations after former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot along with 18 MLAs were rumoured to be quitting the party after he came out in the open against chief minister Ashok Gehlot. Rajasthan assembly speaker, CP Joshi had initiated disqualification proceedings against them but the same was stayed by the high court on July 24. An appeal by the speaker against the high court order is pending before the Supreme Court. Pilot and other dissident MLAs have maintained that they never had the intention to leave the Congress party and were merely exercising their right to criticize the party leadership and the functioning of the chief minister. Meanwhile, Madan Dilawar had moved the Rajasthan high court on July 28 seeking disqualification of the six former BSP MLAS on the ground of defection under 10th schedule of the Constitution. The six MLAs, Lakhan Singh, Rajender Singh Guda, Deepchand, Joginder Singh Avana, Sandeep Kumar and Vajib Ali were elected to the Rajasthan assembly in December 2018 on BSP ticket. They later submitted a joint application to assembly speaker intimating the latter of their unanimous decision to merge with the Congress party on September 16, 2019. The request was approved by the speaker on September 18, 2019. This was challenged by Dilawar who filed a plea before speaker in March 2020 for disqualification of the six MLAs on the ground of defection. The 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India contains provisions relating to disqualification of lawmakers for defection. One of the grounds for disqualification as per paragraph 2 of the 10th schedule is voluntarily giving up membership of the political party on whose ticket the lawmaker was elected. The speaker had rejected Dilawars plea on July 22 after which he approached the high court challenging the speakers decision. The high court issued notice to the speaker on July 30. The petitioners submitted that as per paragraph 4 of the 10th schedule, when two-thirds of the members of a political party within the assembly merges with another political party in the assembly, then such members will be immune from disqualification. There is no requirement that the parent party, i.e. BSP merging with Congress at the national level so as to save the members of the party within the assembly from isqualification. The entire basis for the petition (by Dilawar) pending before the high court is that there has been no merger between the BSP and the Congress. It is submitted that the speaker of the legislature, while acting under Paragraph 4, is not concerned with the happenings outside the legislature, so long as two-thirds of the legislature party (i.e. members of a party within the assembly) has accepted the merger, the petition said. In the present case, the entire legislature party of the BSP merged with the legislature party of Congress, and therefore, the condition laid down in paragraph 4 is satisfied to not attract disqualification, the plea added. It was also pointed out that this issue was pending before the top court in the case of Mithou Krose. That case is an appeal against a 2015 judgment of the Gauhati high court which had taken the view that the only requirement under paragraph 4 is of the merger of the legislature party and there is no requirement of the merger of the parent political party. There is an urgent need to clarify the law in respect to the scope of Paragraph 4 of the 10th schedule to ensure that there are no conflicting judgments, the petitioners said seeking a transfer of the case to the apex court. For a second day, a traditional council met in Kabul on Saturday to decide whether to release a final 400 Taliban prisoners, the last hurdle to negotiations between Afghanistans political leadership and the Taliban. The Kabul-Taliban negotiations are seen as a critical step toward lasting peace in Afghanistan and a roadmap to what the country might look like after decades of war, with the Taliban joining the political mainstream. They would follow a peace deal the insurgents signed with the United States earlier this year and would decide what constitutional changes would be made in a post-war Afghanistan, and how the rights of women and minorities would be protected. On Saturday, Abdullah Abdullah, the council's chairman and head of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation, said that while discussion "happened in a friendly environment", there are still concerns over the release of prisoners. Meanwhile the Taliban have rejected the meeting of the council of elders, known as Loya Jirga, claiming it had no legal status. Since the US-Taliban deal in February, the Taliban have not attacked American and NATO troops, but have continued to wage war on Afghan security forces. The US and NATO have also begun withdrawing some troops in line with the agreement. The deal calls on the Taliban to guarantee that Afghanistan will not be used as a staging ground for attacks on the United States or its allies. The withdrawal of US and NATO troops hinges on the Taliban meeting those commitments and not on a positive outcome to negotiations between the Taliban and Kabul's political leadership. The deal also called on Kabul to free 5,000 Taliban while the insurgents were to free 1,000 government and military personnel. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has so far freed all but 400 of the Taliban prisoners, insisting on a traditional council to decide their release, saying their crimes were too serious for him to decide on alone. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 17:59:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KABUL, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- An estimated 10 million Afghans have contracted with COVID-19 since the pandemic started spreading nationwide in February, the county's Ministry of Public Health said in a statement reaching Xinhua on Sunday. According to findings of a national survey conducted by the ministry and based on antibody tests applied on 9,514 people and technically supported by World Health Organization (WHO), in 34 Afghan provinces, 10 million people, making nearly one third of the country's population, have infected with the disease. The ministry estimated 31.5 percent of the country's population had contracted the virus, with the highest degree of infection in the capital Kabul, as more than half of the 5 million people in the city are infected. Afghanistan, due to a limited testing capacity, so far declared slightly over 37,000 COVID-19 cases officially with more than 1,300 deaths after the pandemic emerged in western Herat province and engulfed the country. "The survey would help us get better preparations for a possible second wave of the virus, as the second wave is happening everywhere in the world and we will not be an exception," the ministry said on its website. According to survey, 55 percent of population in Kabul province, including national capital Kabul city, 42.9 percent in eastern province, 36.3 percent in central provinces, 34.1 percent in southern provinces, and 32.4 percent western provinces, 21.1 percent in mountainous central provinces were infected with the illness, according to the survey. The ministry went to say that 42.3 percent people living in cities and 31.7 percent in urban were infected with the disease. The survey found that 30.8 percent children based in the cities and 23.4 percent children in urban areas have also been infected with the pandemic. Laboratories across Afghanistan have completed 92,585 tests since February. Enditem Two people are dead after being thrown from their vehicle by a tornado that touched down near Virden, Man., on Friday night, RCMP say. A man and a woman, both 18 and from Melita about 65 kilometres south of Virden were pronounced dead at the scene, the Mounties said in a news release Saturday afternoon. Virden RCMP responded to a report at about 8:10 p.m., local time, that a tornado touched down near Highway 83 and Road 50N in the rural municipality of Pipestone, just south of Virden, the release said. When they arrived, they found extensive damage at a farm and a vehicle that had been thrown near the highway. The 54-year-old man inside that vehicle, from Sioux Valley Dakota First Nation, was taken to hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries. Another vehicle, which carried the two people who died, was found more than a kilometre away from that site. RCMP officers and emergency medical services personnel searched the surrounding area for other possible victims, but none were found. RCMP in Virden, which is about 270 kilometres west of Winnipeg, are investigating. Meteorologist Alysa Pederson said the tornado started as a storm warning on the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, just west of Virden, at about 6:30 p.m. A tornado warning was issued at 7:49 p.m., said Pederson, who works for Environment and Climate Change Canada. The storm moved east, then southeast, and at 7:55 p.m. the tornado formed and lasted roughly 10 to 15 minutes, she said. CBC News STARS spokesperson Fatima Khawaja said an air ambulance was dispatched south of Virden Friday night but stood down by emergency medical services before they got to the scene. The nearby Wallace District Fire Department responded at about 8 p.m. and helped rescue the man from the vehicle in the ditch, said fire Chief Brad Yochim. Several grain bins at a nearby farmyard were destroyed, though no one there was hurt and the home was not damaged, he said. 'It rattled me to the core' Story continues Tammy Skelton said she was in awe as she used her phone to take a video of a tornado forming above her house in Virden on Friday night. But amazement turned to horror within seconds when the twister touched down near her home just before 8 p.m., local time, and started to pick up speed, hitting farms, snapping hydro lines and throwing vehicles from the highway. "That thing just turned. It went from, you know, [something] cool to watch to a terrifying monster in a split second," Skelton said. "It rattled me to the core ... watching people die in the field, and watching the guy in the car honking for somebody to save him." Bryce Hoye/CBC She said she stopped recording and dialled 911, worried about the people inside the white pickup truck she saw yanked up and mangled by the tornado and the red SUV she watched get thrown into a ditch. "I'm like, just dispatch everybody that you have, because this is a mess," she said. Mayor, reeve of municipality offer sympathy Skelton said she had trouble sleeping later that night, watching the clock until the early hours of Saturday morning as she ran back through what happened in her head. "Would it have made a difference if I had phoned that in five minutes earlier, 10 minutes earlier, instead of videoing?" she said. "I know that I can't change it and I know that even if I reported it five minutes earlier, it's not going to change that those people were there at that place and time. I know that, but still it just plops around in your head, right?" In her 20 years of running a horse and cattle farm in the area, Skelton said, she hasn't seen anything like what she witnessed on Friday. Even a tornado that ripped through her yard a few years ago tearing siding and the chimney off her house and scaring her so badly that she texted goodbye to family and friends as she sheltered in her basement paled in comparison, she said. "It shakes you. Like, it's not the same as just watching one skip across the field and look pretty and kick up some dust," Skelton said. "I've never seen anything so big and so terrifying." Bryce Hoye/CBC Debbie McMechan, the reeve of the rural Municipality of Two Borders, which surrounds Melita, offered thoughts and prayers for the families of the two young people from the town who died. "A loss of this nature resonates deeply through a rural area, as many folks will have watched these young people grow from little children to adults," she said in an emailed statement. "We will mourn the loss of their presence in our lives and the promise of their futures." Submitted by Tammy Skelton Virden's Mayor Murray Wright says he remembers feeling worried about people's safety when he saw the tornado approaching. "When I saw it, my first thoughts were, 'God I hope no one gets hurt,'" he said, offering sympathy to the families of the people who died. "It's quite a shock to the community, but the nice thing is rural Manitoba communities stick together so they're here now and everybody will be helping clean all this up the best we can." Local authorities led response effort A spokesperson for the Manitoba government said the province's emergency measures organization, fire commissioner's office, health department and other agencies were in contact with local authorities, who took the lead on responding. No request for assistance was received from local authorities, the spokesperson said. The emergency alert was broadcast to people in the the rural municipalities of Pipestone (including Oak Lake Reserve) and the rural municipality of Sifton (including Oak Lake and Deleau). Manitoba Hydro crews were restoring broken power lines in the Virden area as about half a dozen customers remained without power on Saturday morning. Misheyla Iwasiuk/Twitter@misheylaiwasiuk Spokesperson Bruce Owen asked people not to touch downed lines or equipment that was blown around by the storm. Environment Canada rated the twister an EF-2 on the the Enhanced Fujita scale, which weather agencies use to measure the force of tornadoes. The six-point scale goes from zero (weakest) to five (strongest). A collaborative team with people from the weather agency, the Northern Tornadoes Project and the University of Manitoba went to the scene to survey the damage Saturday morning, Pederson said. WATCH | Deadly tornado caught on video: Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Deutsche Post AG Global Credit Research - 07 Aug 2020 Milan, August 07, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Deutsche Post AG 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. Deutsche Post AG's (DP) solid credit profile is underpinned by its large scale and global presence as the world's largest logistics company and leading positions in the large domestic mail and the European parcel segments. DP's credit profile also reflects the challenges related to the structural decline in traditional postal services and the highly competitive market conditions, and the group's exposure to demand and pricing volatility in its global logistics and forwarding freight businesses. The coronavirus outbreak will temporarily impair the group's sales and earnings, but the company has ample financial flexibility to absorb the expected deterioration in cash flow generation, and Moody's expects its credit metrics to remain solid for the rating. Story continues DP's A3 rating incorporates a one-notch uplift from its BCA of baa1, reflecting the moderate probability of the company receiving support from the Government of Germany (Aaa) in the event of need. 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 methodologies used for this review were Surface Transportation and Logistics published in May 2019 and Government-Related Issuers Methodology published in February 2020. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of these methodologies. 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. Lorenzo Re Vice President - Senior Analyst Corporate Finance Group Moody's Italia S.r.l Corso di Porta Romana 68 Milan 20122 Italy JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454 Ivan Palacios Associate Managing Director Corporate Finance Group JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454 Releasing Office: Moody's Italia S.r.l Corso di Porta Romana 68 Milan 20122 Italy JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454 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. 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On July 15, Crown Beverage Cans Vung Tau Co., Ltd. from Singapore received an investment certificate for its $130 million project. With this, Crown Beverage Cans aims to become the leading supplier of beverage cans to major producers in Vietnam. As a developing country with a sizeable population that lies very close to Singapore, Vietnam has been approached by hundreds of Singaporean enterprises like Crown Beverage Cans which have left their major footprints here, earning strong confidence of locals. Commenting on Singaporean investments in Vietnam, Tan Soon Kim, assistant CEO of Enterprise Singapore, which is the government agency championing enterprise development, told media that Vietnam has a fast-growing middle class and has attracted many Singaporean firms, including caterers and retailers in recent years. Select Group, Jumbo Group, and Mr. Bean have all expanded to Vietnam, for example, he said, adding that Singaporean investors are also found in many other key areas in Vietnam like infrastructure, and technology-related industries. He said that in the context of Industry 4.0, the Vietnamese government is actively promoting smart city and e-government projects. This is a particular strength of Singaporean enterprises and they are seeking opportunities in this trend in Vietnam. We hope to contribute to digitalisation here, he said. Singapores smart city solution providers can meet the needs of various development projects related to logistics and smart infrastructure. Deeper investment schemes In late June, JR22 Vina Singco Pte., Ltd. from Singapore signed an MoU with Hanoian authorities to build a smart city with a hotel and office complex in Tay Ho district. Accordingly, JR22 would invest an additional VND220 billion ($9.57 million) to develop smart infrastructure there. Besides this, JR22 has also just attained an investment certificate for a complex of luxury apartments, commercial centre, and hotels in the city with the total investment capital of VND4.2 trillion ($182.35 million). With these two projects, JR22 officially entered the Vietnamese real estate market, along with compatriots VNSL Holdings Pte., Ltd. which plans to invest VND4.2 billion ($182.35 million) into a complex of mall, office, and cultural area; Twin Peaks, which is expanding investment by $246 million in its office project in Ba Dinh district; and a dozen other Singaporean investors. Roland Ng, president of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told media that more Singaporean enterprises, especially small- and medium-sized ones (SMEs), tend to expand their businesses into neighbouring countries like Vietnam. He also said that the abundance of young and skilled workers and the rise of the middle class has helped Vietnams consumer economy strongly flourish, which has accelerated urbanisation and the development of infrastructure. According to data from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), in the first seven months of 2020, Singapore had one major project in the country valued at $4 billion of registered capital. This is the Bac Lieu liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plant under the Bac Lieu LNG thermal power centre. Meanwhile, Sunseap International the global arm of clean energy provider Sunseap Group in Singapore last year also reached a new milestone by commissioning one of the largest solar farms in Vietnam with the scale of 168ha, capacity of 168MW peak, and the total investment capital of more than VND4.4 trillion ($191.3 million) in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan. The project generates electricity for 200,000 households in Vietnam. Another highlight of Singaporean investment in Vietnam are the four water treatment plants carried out by Darco Water Technologies and InfraCo Asia Development, which provides funding, leadership, and experience in designing, building, owning, and operating deal structuring. This project helps take feed water from rivers and treat it to potable standards to serve 15,000 households in Vietnam. The project is valued at $50 million. Singaporean groups have also been expanding operations in Vietnam in the field of finance. Major names include Syngience or United Overseas Bank (UOB), which last year opened a new branch in Hanoi, and has been promoting digital banking to improve the customer experience. E-commerce consultancy Innovative Hub also entered Vietnams e-commerce market last year by signing an MoU with Alibaba Group. Particularly, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has been beneficial to the companys operations and it is now thinking of widening its profile by introducing digital solutions for SMEs in Vietnam and the wider region. Preferred funding destination According to the latest Singapore Business Federation survey, Vietnam is among the most preferred destinations for Singaporean companies thinking of going regional. Along with education, manufacturing and processing, and healthcare, these companies are also keen on investing in startups and innovation. Meanwhile, data from the MPI shows that as of July 20, Singapore was Vietnams third-largest foreign investor, with the total registered investment capital of $55 billion for 2,544 projects, operating in numerous types of projects such as property, energy, finance, banking, IT, and tourism. Studying the Southeast Asian and Vietnamese economies for over two decades, Suan Tek Kin, head of research and executive director of Global Economics and Markets Research at UOB Singapore, said that Vietnam will likely attract further foreign investment in high-tech industries with the operation of smart factories. Over the middle to long term, Vietnam is striving to achieve sustainable development that will help to improve the quality of growth and elevate standards of living. These are also requirements of the new generation free trade agreements, Kin said. Meanwhile, Joongshik Wang, from Ernst & Young Corporate Finance, pointed out that global geopolitical factors have affected the operations and supply chains of companies across the globe, including those from Singapore, and many businesses are looking to shift their operations to Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam. The US-China trade tensions have led some businesses to change their supply chains and shift their manufacturing bases from China, benefiting Southeast Asian markets like Vietnam, he said. According to Wang, Vietnams achievements in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted its appeal as a safe destination for strong investment. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal The hard deadline for New Mexico cities and counties to apply for the states $50 million small business grant program is approaching, even as some details about the program still need to be ironed out. Midnight on Friday was the original deadline for municipalities to participate in the New Mexico Small Business Continuity Grant program, which allocates federal funding to New Mexico small businesses that have suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Debbie Romero, acting secretary of the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration, said municipalities can get the deadline extended to Wednesday if theyre struggling to put the application together on short notice. The program, which earmarks $50 million from a federal aid package, was announced by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham July 27. Romero said the goal is to provide local governments with flexibility to help businesses that need it the most. They know what businesses they have in their community, she said. They know which businesses are struggling. Rob Black, president and CEO of the New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry, said he hopes the program will let communities distribute the money in a way that fits their local needs. I think youre going to have a real diversity of programs around the state, Black said Businesses in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County are excluded from the program, a decision thats raised eyebrows in the local business community. Romero said the decision was made because the city and county were among the large communities that received direct funding from the federal CARES Act. This is for all the other local governments that didnt receive that funding, Romero said. Still, Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, said she was surprised and disappointed to learn about the decision. While there are other state and federal programs that Albuquerque businesses can pursue, many of them are loan programs, and Cole said many businesses are reluctant to take on more debt right now. Its the kind of state-level grant-making support weve been advocating for since the pandemic began, and it needs to apply statewide, Cole said. Romero said the grants can cover a wide variety of costs, from paying employees salaries to helping restaurant owners set up temporary outdoor dining spaces. Romero said the criteria for how the state will allocate the money has not been finalized, although it is expected to consider the impact of the virus in certain regions of the state. Devin Neeley, spokesman for San Juan County, among New Mexicos hardest-hit counties since the pandemic began, said the county submitted its application Thursday, seeking $2 million in grant funding for local small businesses. Neeley said he was hopeful that the grant program will work in conjunction with other business-aid programs to reduce the economic impact to the county. Journalism has been described by some as history written in a hurry! While this is a correct assessment of the role of journalists in the society, it also underlines why reporters must be well -trained and have the necessary intellectual wherewithal to responsibly perform their roles. The Sun newspapers report entitled: Schools resumption: Abia teachers test for COVID 19, Ikpeazu sacks over 5, 000 others, did not demonstrate an intellectual grasp of the subject, and ended up passing the wrong information to readers. While it reporting of the first part of the headline was fair enough, the second part that reported the sacking of teachers was unfair to the Governor of Abia State, Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, and to the readers who may have ended up being misinformed. Advertisement Part of the report published on Friday, August 6, reads: This is even as the state governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has ordered the sacking of about 5,600 teachers alleged to have been fraudulently employed by the Executive Secretary of Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB), Lawrence Ogbonna. The report is not only misleading, but mischievous by wrongly attributing to the governor and the state government an action that never took place. Interpretative journalism is good and helps the public understand important issues. But such interpretations must be within the context of the true meaning of the action or statement. The press statement from which the reporter got the story did not mention anything like the report claimed. The statement, signed by Chief ACB Agbazuere, the governors chief of staff, stated that the Abia State Governor, Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, Ph.D. has received the Report of the Investigative Committee on employments made without waiver at the Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB). The Governor has equally noted the submissions of the Committee to the effect that out of the 5,853 people said to have been employed between 2018 to 2020, Only 187 people were employed with waiver, leaving 5,666 people as employed without waiver. Anyone who understands the English language can easily interpret the above sentences to mean that the Abia State government has uncovered an illegal employment syndicate at the states Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB) which employs staff for the agency without government waivers. The scam was unearthed by the Investigative Committee on Employment inaugurated by Governor Ikpeazu in February this year. The committee found out that out of the 5, 853 persons employed by the agency between 2018 and 2020, only 187 were employed legally. With an expose like this, what is a responsible government supposed to do? Should a situation where some public officials decided to abuse their offices, took money from people and gave them government jobs illegally be condoned? So, the governor decided to act by punishing those involved in the sabotage of government process. The statement by Agbazuere quoted the governor as directing that the Suspended Executive Secretary of Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB), Mr. Lawrence Ogbonna, be retired compulsorily with immediate effect; that, in case, any of the 5,666 people employed without waiver, was asked to start work by anybody, such a person should stop forthwith, having been so employed unlawfully. A more resourceful reporter would have understood the action of the governor as uncovering of corruption in government. As far as the state government was concerned, the 5,666 people were not staff of SEMB since they were not employed by the state government. So, it is wrong to say they were sacked because they were receiving government funds illegally. It is similar to what has happened in other states and at the federal level where ghost workers were uncovered. In a show of magnanimity and compassion, Governor Ikpeazu also directed that those affected would be considered for employment whenever there is need to take new persons. He directed that Schools that have need for Teachers in some special areas should make their submissions to the Commissioner for Education and copy the Chief of Staff to the Governor. That whenever there is such need for Teachers; Government will nonetheless take recourse to the list of 5,666 people, for employment. The action of the governor would serve as deterrent to public officials who may wish to engage in such corrupt practices and a warning to members of the public not to allow unscrupulous government officials take advantage of them. Innocent Tochukwu wrote in from Umuahia, Abia State Child Rights International (CRI) has urged the Ghana Education Service (GES) to conduct investigations into matters arising with regards to the ongoing 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). Mr Bright Appiah, Executive Director, CRI, in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, recalled that final year students across the country had begun writing their final examinations, and for the most part the general atmosphere during this period had been calm. He said most schools had strictly adhered to the COVID-19 protocols provided by the Ghana Health Service. Mr Appiah noted that notwithstanding this, our attention had been drawn to the acts of indiscipline exhibited by students of certain schools, acts that we vehemently condemn. He said these acts had been incited by schools asking students not to observe the protocols, the outcome of the papers being written, issues with the fact that there was a strict compliance to the invigilation protocols causing students to urge other students to boycott and destroy school property. "In view of all the above, we urge the GES to conduct an investigation into the various matters that have arisen during this period and teaching staff, non-teaching staff and students involved in the investigation," he said. "The Service should administer discipline to students who have violated school regulations, however any action taken by GES should not deny children their right to write examinations." Mr Appian said the punishment must conform to the principle of children rights and welfare; declaring that "there is the need for GES or Government to take a second look at the examination culture in Ghana". He said the underlying causes for the issues arising (indiscipline, breach of COVID-19 protocols, rioting) was as a result of the manner examinations were conducted in the country. Mr Appiah said there was a collective effort whether knowingly or unknowingly by parents, school management, students and in some cases examination regulators to legitimize cheating during examinations. He said until that was changed, such occurrences would be repetitive. "We are recommending that, there be a national agenda to reform our examination system to conform to innovations and international standards as is the case in Singapore and other advanced countries. "We believe that if such measures are put in place the problems we are facing within the education system in relation to examination will be resolved," he said. "We urge all students to stay focused on their examinations and in their best efforts to ensure they ace their examinations." CRI is a non-governmental organization that is committed to the promotion and protection of the inherent dignity of every child. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Courtney Wild (C), alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein, looks on as her lawyers speak to the press at federal court following a bail hearing for Jeffrey Epstein, in New York City on July 15, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Alleged Epstein Victims Get Chance to Challenge Plea Deal, Appeals Court Rules Alleged victims of deceased convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein will have a chance to challenge a federal non-prosecution agreementoften referred to as Epsteins sweetheart plea deal, which was signed more than a decade ago. Courtney Wild, an Epstein accuser originally known as Jane Doe 1, as well as another plaintiff known as Jane Doe 2, had filed an original lawsuit in 2008 to overturn the non-prosecution agreement. They argued that Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors had violated their rights under the 2004 Crime Victims Rights Act (CRVA) by sealing the deal without consulting with or informing the alleged victims. The Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled on Aug. 7 (pdf) that the alleged victims will have their case reheard en banca legal term to mean that a case will be heard before the entire bench of a court, rather than just by a panel of judges selected from the bench. The decision vacates a previous 11th Circuit three-judge panels 21 ruling in April that had rejected Wilds argument. I had confidence this day would come, Wild said in a statement to media outlets. We have fought for 12 years, and as Ive said before, no matter how many obstacles pile up, we will never give up fighting for what is right. Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services sex offender registry on March 28, 2017, and obtained by Reuters on July 10, 2019. (New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout via Reuters) The non-prosecution agreement was signed in 2007 with the DOJ through the Southern District of Florida in Miami. Former Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta was the U.S. Attorney at the time. Acosta resigned as labor secretary after Epstein was arrested under separate new charges in July 2019. The plea deal relates to when Epstein was previously charged in 2007 with operating an international child sex ring involving at least 30 underage girls, which Wild was allegedly a part of, at Epsteins Palm Beach mansion and Little St. James Islanda 72-acre private island estate in the Caribbean. The plea deal, as shown attached in a recent federal court filing (pdf), involved Epstein pleading guilty in 2008 in state court, rather than federal court, to just two felony counts of soliciting an underage prostitute. Epstein had to register as a sex offender, and also provided undisclosed information to authorities under the deal. In exchange, Epstein avoided serious time behind bars, serving just under 13 months in a private section of the Palm Beach County jail in Florida. During that time, he was afforded a work-release program that allowed him to leave the jail for 12 hours each day, six days a week, and work unsupervised at his downtown West Palm Beach office. Epsteins 13-month sentence is believed to be one of the most lenient in U.S. history for a sex offender. Epsteins lawyers had argued that according to the plea deal, he was immune to any new federal charges for crimes committed during the time period of around 2001 through around September 2007. The Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, New York, on July 1, 2019. (Richard Drew/AP Photo) Epstein died at age 66 in August 2019 in a New York jail, and was determined to have committed suicide by the New York City Medical Examiners Office. His death triggered multiple investigations. Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins longtime associate, now faces charges of helping Epstein recruit and eventually abuse girls from 1994 to 1997, and is jailed in New York. If convicted, she faces up to 35 years in prison. Petition U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra in February 2019 ruled (pdf) that prosecutors of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Florida, including Acosta, broke the law (the CRVA) when they didnt inform the alleged 30 victims about the plea deal in 2007. In September 2019, Marra ruled to close the case brought by Wild and Jane Doe 2, thereby not scrapping the 2007 plea deal. He denied almost every request for relief, including ruling that they werent owed any money damages from the U.S. government, and refused to fulfill their demand that the government turn over FBI records linked to its investigation of Epstein. He also said that Epsteins death in August 2019 made the case moot. In an opinion, Marra wrote that the alleged victims request for restitution is essentially a request for money damages from the government, which is not allowed under the CVRA. In a challenge to Marras decision, Wild filed a petition with the appeals court in October 2019, asking the court to order Marra to provide relief to the alleged sex victims. In April, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court ruled (pdf) that the CRVA doesnt protect alleged victims before formal charges are filed. At the time the plea deal was struck, no charges had been filed. The latest appeals court ruling on Aug. 7 nullifies the three-judge panels ruling. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and former Sens. Orin Hatch (R-Utah) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who drafted and co-sponsored the CRVA, had filed an amicus brief (pdf) in May in support of Wilds petition for rehearing en banc. This is an important ruling for crime victims, not just for Epsteins victims but all victims of federal crimes, Wilds lawyers, Paul Cassell and Brad Edwards, told the Miami Herald on Aug. 7. We look forward to arguing before the full 11th Circuit that [the] secret plea deal violates the Crime Victims Rights Act and that this particular deal should be rescinded. Earth movers sift through the debris of a landslide in Idukki district on Kerala on Friday, August 7, 2020. Twenty-four people were killed when a mound of earth caved in on a row of houses of tea estate workers at Pettimudi. (PTI) Idukki/Kochi: Forty-six workers are still missing more than 36 hours after the massive landslide at a tea plantation in Idukki district of Kerala. Twenty-four people were killed when a row of workers' quarters was buried in an avalanche of mud before dawn on Friday. Personnel of the National Disaster Response Force, the police and fire service, aided by local people, were searching in the rubble for survivors on Saturday. The earth caved in on an row of 20 workers' dwelling units, locally called layams, at the plantation owned by Kannan Devan Hill Plantations Company in Pettimudy in Rajamala near Munnar. Records kept by the company showed that there were 81 persons in the lane houses. But local people dispute the figure because many workers, most of whom are from Tamil Nadud, tend to have relatives over. Further, this year there has been an infiltration of people into tea estates because of the coronavirus scare in the cities. Local residents said they fear many more casualties than what the administration is admitting. The NDRF's chief in charge of south Indian states, Rekha Nambiar said a 55-member team is engaged in the search operation, which is currently focused on a river nearby where bodies are likely to be stuck in the slush. Rescue teams have managed to retrieve 15 people from the debris since Friday morning. Injured people have been admitted to the Tata Hospital in Munnar and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical College in Kolencherry. Idukki district collector H Dineshan told PTI that rain has hampered the rescue effort, More rains have been forecast for the high ranges of Munnar on Saturday and Sunday. The India Meteorological Department has revised the red alert warnings for Idukki, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Kannur and forecast extreme heavy rainfall above 20 cm on Saturday. New Delhi An Indian jetliner trying to land during a torrential downpour in southern India on Friday night skidded off a slick runway, crashed into a wall, tumbled into a valley and split in half, killing at least 11 people and injuring scores. The Air India Express Boeing 737 was a special repatriation flight carrying more than 180 passengers from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Kozhikode, a city along India's southwestern coast Many aboard were Indians who had been stranded in the Persian Gulf during the coronavirus pandemic and had been waiting for months to return home. Indian media showed injured passengers lying on their backs in the hallways of a hospital, transported there by emergency workers in a drenching rain. According to news reports, as many as 120 people had been injured. Air India Express said in a bulletin posted on its Twitter account that 17 people were killed, including the two pilots. The captain of the flight was described by Indian news media as a decorated former military officer who had served as a test pilot for the Indian Air Force. All week in Kerala the monsoon rains have been pouring down. At least 15 people were killed by a massive landslide in the state earlier Friday, when a hillside of rock and sludge crashed into a workers' hostel on a tea plantation. The weather had been so bad that the India Meteorological Department had declared a red alert in three of Kerala's districts, including the area where the crash happened. "There is no doubt that extreme weather conditions contributed to this," Shashi Tharoor, a prominent member of Parliament from Kerala, said in a televised interview. "During our monsoons, things can be very, very difficult." Aviation experts said that it was hard to slow a plane on a wet and slick runway. According to a statement by Air India Express, the plane "overshot" the runway, which was on a flat hilltop, with deep gorges on either side. Pilots call such landing areas "tabletop" runways. And the runway at the Kozhikode airport has a history of safety concerns. Several international airlines had stopped flying bigger aircraft, including Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 jets, into Kozhikode because of issues over the length on the runway, raising the risk that pilots might lack enough landing space to stop an aircraft from plunging off the end. India's NDTV channel said that of all four airports in Kerala, Kozhikode has the shortest runway. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Air India Express said that there were 184 passengers, including 10 infants, aboard, along with four cabin crew members and two pilots. The plane skidded off the runway around 7:40 p.m. Rescue crews were still dousing the plane with water more than an hour later. "Considering the severity of the accident, the loss of life was limited," M.B. Rajesh, a former member of Parliament from Kerala, told the NDTV news channel. "That is a relief." He said that all passengers had been evacuated by 9:15 p.m. Flight radar suggested the plane may have circled the airport before trying to land. Survivors told local news media that the aircraft bounced up and down many times before landing. The runway abuts the edge of a valley, where the plane ended up. "The valley is about 50 feet deep, and it's no surprise that the plane, after skidding, broke in two," Tharoor said. Amanda Siebe has volunteered as a medic at nightly protests in Portland since the second week of June. The work is unlike anything the former emergency medical technician has encountered at mass gatherings. Siebe and dozens of other medics have had to constantly alter their operations since the protests began after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd in late May. Medic tents have been ransacked by federal officers, medic tables and supplies seized by local officers. Medics themselves have been shot with munitions while rendering aid to protesters. Medics also face the threat of arrest, as shown by the medic arrested in Southeast Portland early Saturday morning. Four medics, including Siebe, say injuries to protesters worsened when federal officers arrived weeks into the protests, although they all noted treating serious injuries before that. Normally its Band-Aids and a little bit of gauze, Siebe said. This time its full-on impact wounds, tons of tear gas, a lot of infected wounds from the dirt in the tear gas. The work of medics has slowed downtown as the number of protesters and injuries wane after federal officers agreed to let state police take over some command roles. But as clashes between Portland police and protesters escalate in other parts of town, many medics still have work to do. Portland protests continued for the 72nd consecutive night Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. Groups gathered at Laurelhurst Park located at Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard and Stark Street in Southeast Portland and then marched to a law enforcement building shared by the city and county at East Burnside Street and 47th Avenue. The demonstration arose hours after President Donald Trump claimed Friday denounced the mob of protesters that continue to meet nightly and said federal agents could immediately and very easily put a stop to the ongoing protests. Dave Killen/Staff Portland police flipped at least one medic wagon Thursday as medics were dispersing with protesters outside a police precinct, according to video footage and the accounts of two witnesses. Portland police drove over another cart of first-aid supplies and snacks, according to the medic group the cart belonged to. Portland police did something similar Aug. 1, when police scattered supplies belonging to a different medic group on East Burnside Avenue and left the cart behind. Portland police spokesperson Derek Carmon said he didnt have any information about the earlier incident. That incident, and at least two other similar incidents, were captured on video. Bija Young, a medic, said she was right next to the cart when it was seized by a Portland police officer Aug. 1. People started yelling This is medic supplies, and he just flips it over and dumps it all over the road, and then continues to push everyone and push the medics, Young said. Young is not associated with the group that operated the cart, Portland Action Medics. Medics have gathered in Southeast Portland city parks as they follow the shifting locations being used as gathering places by protesters. Sometimes, medics spend the majority of the evening making sure people are hydrated, other times, injuries can begin mounting as a result of police action early in the night. Since late May, the most common aid from medics has come in the form of eye flushes after a protester is doused with pepper spray, caught in a cloud of tear gas or comes in close contact with pepper rounds. A medic treats Black Lives Matter protester Lacey Wambalaba after exposure to chemical irritants deployed by federal officers at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Friday, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Since federal officers arrived in downtown Portland in early July, violent protests have largely been limited to a two block radius from the courthouse. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)AP Three medics who spoke with The Oregonian/OregonLive said federal officers targeted protesters and medics in more aggressive ways than local police. The medics said protesters more often suffered impact injuries in the head and face. Young said she had been shot with pepper rounds by federal officers while she was rendering aid. The ACLU of Oregon filed a lawsuit against local and federal police July 22 for attacking medics, alleging the targeted actions by police violate the medics Constitutional rights. A team of Oregon Health & Science University medical students has been at protests since June 11. OHSU medics have treated protesters with everything from impact injuries to burns and broken bones. Over time, OHSU medics have altered their operations to try to keep at least some of their team and supplies further away from law enforcement. Adrian Baris, one of the OHSU medics, said the most concentrated day of injuries to medics was July 4, when Portland police declared a riot and deployed tear gas and riot munitions twice in 24 hours. Although the group had been officially sanctioned by OHSU, the sanction was revoked by university officials July 31 amid liability concerns. Medics from OHSU are still present at protests, but are no longer officially associated with OHSU. Michelle Ozaki, OHSU medic, said Portland police have been less directly aggressive toward their group after Portland police arrested OHSU medic Michael Martinez and seized the groups table and supplies June 13. Martinez is a plaintiff in the case filed by the ACLU of Oregon. Baris saw police arrest Martinez as he filmed officers and remaining medics were pushed out of the area. Ozaki said she and Baris returned to the Justice Center around 3 a.m. June 14 in an attempt to retrieve their supplies. All that was left was a pile of trash. Ozaki and Baris asked officers remaining in front of the Justice Center about their medic supplies. They told us that we should have known what we were getting into; that it was a war zone and they claimed that it was most likely stolen by other people and not the police, Ozaki said. An OHSU faculty member eventually retrieved the table and some supplies, which Ozaki said was placed by a dumpster, rather than held by law enforcement. An OHSU medic has not been arrested since the arrest of Martinez. Baris said some have been injured by tear gas, batons and rubber bullets used by both local and federal officers. Michael Miller (left) looks through his bag of medical supplies. Miller is one of the plaintiffs in the recent ACLU of Oregon lawsuit, which was filed against the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service and the City of Portland for harming medics at the protests. The Witches are another group that has provided medical services to protesters, as well as helped connect protesters with food and other resources. One medic who works with The Witches said she and her peers believe they have been specifically targeted at times by federal officers. The groups medics had stopped marking themselves with red crosses for a time, because they felt it made them more likely to be targeted by law enforcement, said the medic, who asked her name not be used because of fear for her safety. I think that there is, at some level, a very clear calculus about targeting medics, the medic said. The Witches medical tent was torn apart by federal officers in the early morning hours of July 27. Footage and photos from various sources, including the medic who spoke with The Oregonian/OregonLive, showed federal officers dump tubs and drawers of medical supplies on the ground and leave the tent open to continued waves of tear gas. The medic had closed a clear plastic curtain around the tent with tape when the dispersal began. The medic said she believes federal officers may have tainted the supplies with some type of chemical. Independent journalist Jacob Hanning reported on Twitter the tent smelled like bleach after federal officers departed. The medic cart flipped by Portland police Thursday belonged to The Witches, who said they had two other medic carts confiscated by police Thursday night and early Friday morning during protests. The confusion leaves medics to navigate the crowd dispersals while trying to prioritize the treatment of protesters. -- K. Rambo krambo@oregonian.com @k_rambo_ Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Due to the pandemic, the signature threshold independent and new party candidates need to meet to be eligible for the ballot was significantly lower than it would otherwise be 2,500 signatures of registered voters in Illinois instead of the previous 25,000. The president spent two days on the front line. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pins his hopes on the Normandy format of peace talks between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, saying it is "the beginning of Donbas' freedom." "Normandy is the starting point for bringing civilization back to that long-suffering territory of ours when laws work, when human rights are respected. Normandy is the beginning of Donbas' freedom. And this is the beginning of a long journey. The next stop is Berlin, where we will formalize the intermediate successes of the armistice and move on. To finally have the warfare case over. And we will do everything to make it happen. And we will do it transparently, openly. And if something goes wrong, then everyone will see what has gone wrong and why. And who is to blame," Zelensky said on his Telegram channel on August 7. Read alsoZelensky outlines ways to achieve peace in Donbas "It is clear that today Donbas is mainly about war. Unfortunately, it is still going on at our home. But if we don't make efforts, it will not disappear. The Normandy format has given huge impetus to the development of the logistics of peace. Minsk [talks] hammer out the rules, providing an opportunity to discuss extremely difficult issues. And eleven days of the ceasefire prove that if everything is done in the right and persistent way, there will definitely be a chance. We've got it already," the president said. Zelensky also elaborated on his recent visit to the east of Ukraine. For two days' trip to Donbas, "I listened a lot, asked uneasy questions, looked into the eyes of different people," he said. "This is not my first trip to the Joint Forces Operation zone. And every time I get convinced that we have a professional and strong army, and we already have a super team of negotiators who will be able to build a sustainable peace on our terms," he said. According to him, these were also two days of frank conversations with soldiers on the front line, two days of active monitoring of the situation and work in the situation rooms, as well as scheduled visits to the front line. "Over the two days, I traveled 100 kilometers along the contact line. If you want to check the ceasefire regime go and control it yourself. I first of all believe the servicemen on the front line, who could compare the situation: what was the war like last year, what was it in the first half of 2020, what it is now... Despite minor provocations, we can say that we are able to fulfill our part of the extremely complex agreements. It is clear that our military perfectly and professionally assess all possible risks. But it is necessary that the other side could finally realize the value of peace and also observe the ceasefire with diligence," he said. Yet, he noted, difficult negotiations lie ahead. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on July 31 that the next meeting of Normandy Four leaders (Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia) in Berlin depends on the Russian Federation. Pratap Singh Bajwa Chandigarh: The Punjab Government has decided to withdraw the state police security from Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa after an assessment showed that he had virtually no threat perception and was, in any case, now getting the central security directly accorded to him by the Union Home Ministry. Disclosing this, an official spokesperson said that the state police security provided to Bajwa had become redundant since he had procured personal security directly from Home Minister Amit Shah. Advertisement Pratap Singh BajwaA mixed security component was, in any case, not considered good, particularly when the Rajya Sabha MP had, by opting for central security, showed that he had no faith in the state police. According to the spokesperson, contrary to claims made by Bajwa, the central security he had got was not at the behest of the Congress leadership. In fact, the Union Home Ministry had not even consulted the state government to gauge the threat perception, which is usually done before providing central security to any person. Advertisement Pratap BajwaBajwa, as Rajya Sabha MP, may have simply approached the partys leader in the House, Ghulam Nabi Azad, to seek central security, and as is the norm, the latter could have simply sent his request to the Union Home Ministry. However, for some reason, the Home Ministry chose not to discuss the matter of Bajwas threat perception with the state government in this case, which was a clear deviation from the norm followed in such cases, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson further said that Bajwa has actually been getting enhanced security from Punjab Police all this time, way beyond what he was entitled to as Rajya Sabha MP. Advertisement This was because the state government decided not to withdraw the greater security he had at his disposal as president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC). Punjab governmentIdeally, the enhanced security should have been pulled out as soon as he became MP, with virtually zero threat perception. Bajwa was given Z Category security cover by the MHA on March 19 and as of date has 25 CISF personnel for personal security, house protection and escort, besides 2 escort drivers. Advertisement Till March 23, he also had 14 PP personnel deployed with him but a few for withdrawn for Covid duties. He currently has 6 PP personnel and an escort with driver, which are now being withdrawn, said the spokesperson. Advanced space science, cargo transfers and orbital maintenance kept the three Expedition 63 crew members occupied Thursday aboard the International Space Station. Commander Chris Cassidy spent a good portion of his day working inside JAXA's (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Kibo laboratory module. The experienced shuttle and station astronaut retrieved the Handhold Experiment Platform-2 (HXP-2), packed with several experiments, from inside Kibo's airlock. The HXP-2 was grappled by Japan's robotic arm, removed from Kibo's Exposed Facility and placed inside the airlock last week. The small research platform housed a variety of experiment samples exposed to the vacuum of space for observation. Russia's newest resupply ship, the Progress 76 (76P) which delivered nearly three tons of food, fuel and supplies last month, continued to be offloaded today. Cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner unpacked electronics gear from the 76P and updated the space station's inventory system. Ivanishin then moved on to science exploring how bone marrow and enzymes adapt to weightlessness and studied Earth's upper atmosphere. Vagner checked station smoke detectors and transferred waste fluids into the Progress 75 cargo craft. On-Orbit Status Report Payloads Handhold Experiment Platform (HXP2): The crew retrieved and packaged ten Exposed Experiment Handrail Attachment Mechanism (ExHAM2) samples for return to the ground. The ExHAM samples were recently brought inside ISS through the JEM airlock and were exposed the external ISS environment to test various technologies. Some the experiment samples include carbon composite, radiator material, and a dosimeter. Taking advantage of Kibo's unique function of having both an airlock and a robotic arm on the ISS, the ExHAM facility enables space experiments to be performed in the exposed space environment, by attachment to the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo's Exposed Facility (EF). Systems Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) In Flight Maintenance (IFM): As part of regularly scheduled preventative maintenance, the crew performed a manual WHC flush tank fill. By using a post-flight analysis bag to capture any pressure relief, also known as the burp, they depressurized the flush water tank and water valve block to protect the dose pump. This pump is critical as it injects the pre-treat required to properly recycle waste urine. Oxygen Generation System (OGS) Water Sampling: Today the crew obtained water samples from the OGS Recirculation Loop for return-to-ground analysis. The Water Recovery System (WRS) reclaims wastewater from both the crew's urine and humidity condensate from USOS modules. This water, once processed, is used to feed the OGS system and needs to be maintained within certain parameters to ensure optimum system performance. The water samples taken from the OGS Recirculation Loop will be returned to the ground for microbial growth analysis and to ensure parameters are within limits on-orbit. Environmental Health System (EHS) Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Water Recovery System (WRS) Sample Analysis & Data Record: Crew performed an analysis of the water processing assembly (WPA) using the TOCA. The TOCA unit oxidizes organic carbon species present in the water to carbon dioxide gas and measures the concentration using nondispersive infrared spectroscopy. Analysis of the potable water using the TOCA occurs on a weekly basis. Completed Task List Activities: Restow items at NODE2 Forward Valve Box Remote Controller (VB-RC) Fastener Repair IFM Node 3 Moisture Filter and IMV Screen R&R Today's Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Ground Support for OGS Sampling RAIU 3 Troubleshooting RGA Data Staleness Event Characterization per Chit 18955 Look Ahead Plan Friday, 8/7 (GMT 220) Payloads: Droplet Formation Study GLACIER 4/5 Desiccant Swap JEM PLT3/PLT4 Swap MVP Locker Move Radi-N2 Retrieve/Handover SABL3 Relocate Systems: EHS CFM T+2 Saturday, 8/8 (GMT 221) Payloads: No Utilization Activities Systems: Crew Off Duty Sunday, 8/9 (GMT 222) Payloads: No Utilization Activities Systems: Crew Off Duty Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. TBU Temperature Check CONSTANTA-2. Cassette retrieval from - No.7, panel setup, preparation and execution JEM Airlock Pressurization and Leak Check Comm Reconfiguration for MRM1 Cleaning -4 smoke sensor needle in MRM1 Fire Detection System Health Maintenance System (HMS) ISS Food Intake Tracker (ISS FIT) TERMINATOR. Terminator-Limb PL Installation Handhold Exp Platform #2 (HXP2) Item Gathering JEM Airlock Slide Table (ST) Extension/Retraction Handhold Exp Platform #2 (HXP2) Sample Detachment 4 & Stow Transfer of cargo items and cables from Progress 444 (DC1) and IMS ops. Handover of cables Preparing to install cables for Payload Matching Unit () commanding via Payload Interface Monitoring Unit () Quick-disconnect screw clamps () maintenance in DC1 Vacuum Cleaning 28-120 Voltage Converter for SM printer (behind panel 231). Visual inspection of GFCI cable and extension cable Handhold Exp Platform #2 (HXP2) Stow Brine/urine transfer from to Progress 448 (SM Aft) Rodnik H2O tank 1, flushing H2O Tank 1 connector 1 and H2O Tank 2 connector 2 Environmental Health System (EHS) Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Water Recovery System (WRS) Sample Analysis & Data Record Oxygen Generation System (OGS) Water Sample TERMINATOR. Deinstallation of Terminator-Limb PL Restore nominal to [-2] connection SREDA-ISS. Hardware setup and activation Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Manual Fill Flight Director/ISS CREW CONFERENCE Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. SIDNEY A social media post Thursday showing residents of a Sidney apartment complex staging a peaceful protest drew action from the housing authority that oversees the facility. Nancy Bentley, chief executive officer of Housing Partners of Western Nebraska, said she and other staff members, including her director of maintenance, went to the Western Heritage Apartments Thursday to visit with residents and assess their issues, including a broken air conditioner and a backed up toilet that had reportedly not been fixed. We learned that there were a couple of people who had some concerns, and we certainly appreciate them bringing it to our attention, Bentley said, adding that the rest of the residents told her they were not having issues. Bentley said a plumber had been dispatched previously to fix the broken toilet, but there had been a second issue in the same unit. The broken air conditioner, she said, was from last August and it was repaired at that time. Were certainly facing some challenges, Bentley said. Like St. Paul on his way to Damascus, some Ohio General Assembly members seem to have had conversion experiences since federal agents arrested then-House Speaker Larry Householder, a Perry County Republican, and four other Statehouse figures on corruption charges. At issue: Bullet-fast passage in 2019 of House Bill 6, which creates subsidies, paid by Ohio electricity consumers, for two nuclear power plants once owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. HB 6, passed in July 2019, and immediately signed by Gov. Mike DeWine, also subsidizes two coal-burning power plants, one in Indiana. A group of electric companies that includes FirstEnergy and Columbus-based American Electric Power Co. owns the coal plants. Since last months federal round-up, members of Ohios House and Senate have introduced nine bills to rewrite or repeal HB 6 or, purportedly, strengthen Ohios campaign finance laws. Among legislators co-sponsoring these fig leaves are 12 senators and 22 House members who voted yes on HB 6. Like Capt. Renault (Claude Rains), the French cop in Casablanca, they evidently are Shocked! Shocked! to learn there were very obvious reasons to question HB 6 rather than ram it to passage. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Buoyed by the success of its two-day Prime Day sale, Amazon India on Saturday announced its 'Freedom Sale which will run until August 11 and includes hundreds of deals on popular mobile phones, laptops, TVs, Amazon devices and more. During the sale, customers can save more by getting 10 per cent instant discount up to Rs 1,500 with SBI credit cards on a minimum purchase of Rs 5,000. One can extend their budget with no-cost EMI on credit cards, debit cards, Bajaj Finserv and Amazon Pay Later, said the company at the end of two-day Prime sale. "The customers can also choose products from thousands of small businesses including artisans, women entrepreneurs, emerging Indian brands and local store owners from programs like Karigar, Saheli, Launchpad and Local shops,'' the company said in a statement. Potential consumers can enjoy up to 70 per cent off on headphones, up to 70 per cent off on camera accessories, up to 60 per cent off on speakers and home audio. Meanwhile, one can also get up to 30 per off on laptops, up to 50 per cent off on printers, up to 40 per cent off on gaming accessories and up to 60 per cent off on Smartwatches. Computer accessories and peripherals are available at starting Rs 99 and fitness trackers at starting price of Rs 999. In addition, customers will get access to 2,500 business exclusive deals for business customers on top of existing offers on top brands, GST invoice for inputs tax credit and discounts linked to bulk purchase like up to Rs 30,000 off on Laptops and up to 70 per cent off on headphones. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Kanye West and his seven-year-old daughter North joined the Put The Feeling On viral dance craze on Twitter this Friday. The trend comes from a video of a man called Mufasa leaping from a car and dancing up the road to the Nightcrawlers song as the vehicle moves slowly beside. In his version of the video, Kanye, 43, was joined by his firstborn daughter as they hopped off their vehicle to shake a leg on the street. Family time: Kanye West and his seven-year-old daughter North joined the Put The Feeling On viral dance craze on Twitter this Friday Kanye began the routine, singing a couple of lines from the number, then jumping out onto the road and beginning to dance. As he laughed cheerfully, his daughter followed him and started dancing alongside him, beaming from ear to ear. 'Do the dance!' Kanye affectionately encouraged her, and she briefly mimicked his choreography before deciding to get back into the vehicle and dance there. The automobile began moving so quickly that Kanye had to break into a run in order to keep up with it, chuckling all the while. So sweet: In his version of the video, Kanye, 43, was joined by his firstborn daughter as they hopped off their vehicle to shake a leg on the street Blithe spirit: Kanye began the routine, singing a couple of lines from the number, then jumping out onto the road and beginning to dance Kanye and his wife Kim Kardashian have flown to the Caribbean with their four children, allegedly as a last-ditch trip to salvage their marriage. An insider told The Sun that Kim 'offered to fully support a 2024 run for president if he got help and listened to the political consultants they hired.' However the source also claimed that he refuses to budge from the idea of running this year, saying: 'Kanye seems set on what he calls "God's plan" - that he becomes president. He's saying it's a higher calling.' 'Kimye' married in Florence six years ago and share four children - North, seven, Saint, four, Chicago, two, and Psalm, one. Having a ball: As he laughed cheerfully, his daughter followed him and started dancing alongside him, beaming from ear to ear Although there are rumors Kim is 'torn' about whether to divorce Kanye her representative told MailOnline the reports are 'absolutely not true.' Kim flew to Wyoming early last week for marriage crisis talks with Kanye and then returned home to Los Angeles while he stayed put. After his presidential campaign rally on July 19 in which he tearfully revealed he and Kim considered aborting North, he launched into a days-long string of Twitter rants denouncing his wife and his mother-in-law Kris Jenner. He accused Kim of trying to have him committed and of having an inappropriate relationship with the rapper Meek Mill. Father-daughter dance: 'Do the dance!' Kanye affectionately encouraged her, and she briefly mimicked his choreography before deciding to get back into the vehicle and dance there Kanye, who referred to his mother-in-law as 'Kris Jong-Un' in one of his outbursts, also posted and deleted a tweet claiming he was 'trying to divorce' his wife. Amid her husband's Twitter outbursts Kim, who was reportedly livid that he shared the abortion story publicly, made a statement saying the family was 'powerless' to intervene in Kanye's bipolar disorder issues inasmuch as he is an adult. Kanye eventually suspended the tweetstorms, apologizing to his wife 'for going public with something that was a private matter.' However a few days after his crisis talks with Kim he broke his silence on the social media platform to address the campaign rally. Good humored: The automobile began moving so quickly that Kanye had to break into a run in order to keep up with it, chuckling all the while 'I cried at the thought of aborting my first born and everyone was so concerned about me... Im concerned for the world that feels you shouldnt cry about this subject,' wrote the Power rapper. He followed that up with a Tweet that claimed: 'There is a tactic of 4 Ds Distract Discredit Dismiss To Destroy.' Kanye continued in the same tweet: 'I am quite alright Take a second and think about what is being projected here.' Dhaka, Aug 8 (UNI) Bangladesh will send a medical team with emergency medical and food supplies to Lebanon as a huge explosion rocked the capital of the country Beirut on Tuesday that left 137 people, including four Bangladeshi nationals, dead. Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momem informed it to his Lebanese counterpart Charbel Wehbe over the telephone on Friday, a foreign ministry press release said here today (Saturday). During the conversation, Momen said Bangladesh is ready to provide any emergency support to Lebanon in this crisis period. The foreign minister conveyed Dhakas deep condolence at the death of 100 people in the blast and also expressed gratitude to the Lebanese government for providing all cooperation, including treatment for the injured Bangladeshi nationals. At least four Bangladeshi nationals were killed and around 100 others, including 21 Navy personnel, who are on duty at Beirut the port under UN peacekeeping mission was injured in the deadly explosion, Bangladesh Embassy in Lebanon confirmed. The deceased have been identified as Mehedi Hasan Roni and Rasel Miah from Brahmmanbaria, Mizan from Madaripur and Rezaul from Cumilla, Embassys first secretary (labour) Abdullah Al Mamun told UNI. One of the injured Navy personnel admitted to American University of Beirut Medical Centre in a critical condition, while others were taken to Hamoud Hospital by helicopter or ambulance under the supervision of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The injured navy personnel are crew members of Bangladesh Navys battleship BN Bijoy, deployed at Beirut port was also damaged by the blast. The BN Bijoy anchored only 200 yards from the blast scene, has been actively engaged in counterterrorism, rescue and surveillance operations and providing training to Lebanese Navy as part of the UNIFIL activities. UNI MAZ RHK1221 Dhaka, Aug 8 : Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has written a letter to US President Donald Trump extradite the killers of the country's founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Foreign Affairs Minister AK Abdul Momen said on Saturday. Bu Sumi Khan Dhaka, Aug 8 (IANS) Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has written a letter to US President Donald Trump extradite the killers of the country's founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Foreign Affairs Minister AK Abdul Momen said on Saturday. Momen confirmed this IANS while returning to Dhaka after offering prayers at the tomb of the 'Bangabandhu' at Tungipara in Gopalganj. "We hope that one more murderer of Bangabandhu will be brought back to the country and tried in 'Mujibborsho' (the year of Mujib)," the Minister added. Meanwhile, Momen also said that four Bangladeshis were killed in the two explosions in the Beirut port earlier this week. He said discussions were underway to bring the bodies back to Bangladesh, but currently there were no direct flights from Beirut to Dhaka. On the directives of the Prime Minister, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry has made arrangements to send a flight with dry food including rice, biscuits, and noodles, to the Lebanese capital. Teachers and older students will be required to wear face coverings in the classroom when schools return, under official health advice issued yesterday evening. Updated guidelines from the HSE's Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) now require the wearing of face coverings in schools, similar to those worn in shops or on public transport, when a two-metre distance cannot be kept. All students at post-primary level, apart from specific exemptions, will be required to wear face coverings in the classroom. Staff, including teachers at both primary and post-primary levels, who cannot maintain a two-metre distance from students or other staff, will also be required to wear them. The coverings will also be required on all school buses, and special needs assistants (SNAs) will also be required to wear them, or in certain situations clear visors, in the classroom. The new guidelines follow calls from teaching unions to clarify if the health advice to schools, issued before changes to public policy that saw face coverings become mandatory, should be reviewed. Education Minister Norma Foley yesterday moved to assure schools that she has been working with health authorities to ensure that the advice underpinning a safe reopening is fully up to date. The HPSC confirmed that the recommendations published at the beginning of July still apply in schools, bar the advice on face coverings which has now been updated. A considerable portion of the 375m package announced last week to help schools reopen has already been paid, said Ms Foley. This has allowed schools to make vital progress in implementing necessary changes to safely reopen, by creating more space or installing additional hand-washing stations. The updated guidelines have been welcomed by the teaching unions. "Schools will have the option of ordering face coverings centrally on the newly established government procurement portal," said John Boyle of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation. Both the Teachers' Union of Ireland and the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland have called for the required resources to be issued as soon as possible ahead of schools reopening. MPI Minister Nguyen Chi Dung speaking at the launching ceremony In response to the prime minister's call for enhancing the national spirit in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic as well as promoting economic recovery, today (August 7, 2020), the Ministry of Planning and Investment and Facebook launched the "Vitality of Vietnam" programme, aiming to promote Vietnam's national image, encourage investment, and develop human resources for businesses, as well as support community development. The programme includes a series of meaningful activities comprehensively implemented in a number of fields to support businesses, promote tourism, innovation, and support local communities during and after the pandemic. The MPI launching the Vitality of Vietnam programme Under the "Proud Vietnam'' project launched by the MPI in late 2019 and following the success of the "Immense Vietnam" programme promoting tourism, the "Vitality of Vietnam" programme will continue to support businesses and local communities to overcome difficulties and recover during and after COVID-19. The programem will be broadcasted on the Ministry of Planning and Investment's website and the Vietnam Facebook page , providing business skills through a series of online workshops as well as strategies for businesses to find and develop national human resources through social media. Under the scope of Proud Vietnam, till the end of 2020, the two parties will implement several programes targeting different groups, including the Love Vietnam programme with a series of short films and music videos about autistic children and the White sticks Vietnam programme in a bid to support people with visual impairment. Launching the Each citizen is an ambassador campaign The event also officially launched the Each citizen is an ambassador campaign to encourage people to be ambassadors in fighting COVID-19 and contribute to economic growth and recovery. People are encouraged to film and submit 2-3-minute videos about the values that Vietnamese people have achieved in fighting COVID-19 as well as contributing to economic recovery. The meaningful messages gained from the campaign will be a source of encouragement for the whole country to overcome difficulties together. Pip the yachtie dachshund was due to fly into Sydney on Saturday afternoon following a five-month pandemic-induced separation from her owners. The Eilbeck family was eagerly awaiting the homecoming of their sausage dog, who has been on a 17,000-kilometre journey which started in South Carolina in March and took in numerous temporary homes and periods of quarantine. Pip pictured with Cam, Zoe, Max and Guy Eilbeck. But at the last minute, Pip's flight was cancelled on Friday, putting paid to what was meant to be an emotional reunion with the Eilbecks at home on Scotland Island, Pittwater. "I spent hours arranging to get her home and it has cost a lot more than it was supposed to," Zoe Eilbeck said. "I said to [husband] Guy: 'Am I still doing this?' He said: 'But it's Pip, she's part of the family.' " Harpal Cheema Chandigarh: The rundown condition of government hospitals, especially the Corona care centres in Punjab in terms of lack of medical care and other facilities, speaks volumes of their wanton neglect, posing a potential danger to the lives of patients, especially those infected with the novel coronavirus. Keeping the alarming situation in view, the Punjab government should immediately emulate the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi governments model to effectively deal with the catastrophic situation Advertisement Harpal CheemaThe Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leaders, including party legislators, on Saturday raised this demand with the Amarinder Singh Government in the saddle, in view of the surge in the Covid-19 cases in the state. In a joint statement issued from party headquarters on Saturday Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema, Deputy LoP Sarabjit Kaur Manuke, chief spokesperson and MLA Prof Baljinder Kaur and MLA Rupinder Kaur Ruby said that the unprecedented spike in cases had, on the one hand deflated the tall claims of the government for putting in place the combative measures, on the other shoving the hassled patients, especially those afflicted with Corona virus in a tizzy. Harpal Singh Cheema, through a video prepared by some patients at a Bathinda Corona care centre, which had gone viral, on twitter handle cornered chief minister Amarinder Singh, saying that food was not being served to the patient there, leaving them with no option but to ascending the rooftops to be heard. Advertisement CoronavirusHe slammed the CM over his false propaganda being peddled over the raft of facilities in place at the hospitals, which were corroborated by reports pouring in from various parts of the state. Prof Baljinder Kaur, Sarvjit Kaur Manuke and Rupinder Kaur Ruby said the state government should immediately ramp up facilities at Covid care centres, including adequate budget and wherewithal, setting up of a 24X7 helpline desk so as to keep a tab on the flow of number of patients and how fasts they were attended to. The AAP MLAs said: Punjab government should take a cue from the Delhi government and allow home covid care centres operate under the set guidelines. In Delhi, a covid patient is allowed to be treated at home under strict safety guidelines adhering to the safety norms. The patient is being provided free medicines and other facilities, saying the Punjab government could also adopt the model. Advertisement Rupinder Kaur Ruby on the occasion said the condition of the civil hospital and Covid care centres at Bathinda were in a ramshackle state and were battling an acute staff crunch. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Sometimes he does think about the passion, that nervousness he felt while writing his first book in Tamil 'Eru Veyyil -- the one that made major critics and readers take note of a young voice who wrote about a farming family and what they undergo after the government acquires their land for a housing project. Even at that time, his social concerns -- be it caste and other social issues -- found a place in the realistic work that had elements from his life. He was 25 then. Now, at 54, he tells IANS, "Sometimes I feel it could have been written with a bit more patience. Every time I read any part of the novel, I sink back into old times. The memories of my forefathers torment me. Isn't life but memories? But yes, post completing the novel, an enormous load was off my chest. There was this relief of unburdening, something that helped me move on to the next phase of my life." Now that Penguin Random House India has released the English translation of his debut work, with the title 'Rising Heat', the writer says it makes him extremely happy and is hopeful that it would get the same attention it received when it was published in Tamil. "The English translation is coming out nearly thirty years after I wrote 'Eru Veyyil'. Multiple editions have been published in Tamil. This is a novel that got noticed when it was first published and gave me an identity." The writer who hit international headlines post the book 'One Part Woman', published in 2010 and translated into English in 2013 faced a lawsuit filed against him by caste-based groups accusing him of hurting their religious sentiments, and he declared on his Facebook page: "Perumal Murugan the writer is dead. As he is no God, he is not going to resurrect himself. He also has no faith in rebirth. An ordinary teacher, he will live as P. Murugan. Leave him alone." However, in 2015, the Madras High Court dismissed the case against him. In an epilogue, the bench called on the author to start writing again: "Let the author be resurrected to what he is best at. Write." Murugan says that he did feel a difference in his writing when he started again post the judgment. "I realised a peacefulness akin to returning to one's own home after wandering around hither and thither. There are changes in my writing now. I've made the locations and their names imaginary. I've stopped naming the castes. Other than these, if there are any, only others have to point them out." Talking about the omnipresence of customs and traditions in almost all his works, the author feels that the life of an Indian all but spans over five or six categories of celebrations that includes temple festivals and weddings. "These celebrations continue on through traditions. Since I write inspired by my soil, these traditions also become part of my writing. Where is the life in a writing that distances itself from customs and traditions?" Noting the rise in Indian language literature being translated into English, the author adds, "India's mufti-faceted lives and regions are now getting within the reach of an English reader. This should flourish even more." Adding that this period of lockdown had given a lot of anguish, Murugan says that he has not been able to write anything much. "Though I finished some short stories but writing with ease can only happen for me after this infectious period ends." The Permanent Missions of Georgia and Ukraine to the United Nations issued a joint statement on the 12th year anniversary of the Russia-Georgia August 2008 war. Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman for the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations, posted the text of the statement on Facebook We condemn the continued occupation and steps towards de-facto annexation of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions of Georgia and call upon Russia to immediately start the implementation of its obligations under UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, the fundamental norms and principles of international law and the EU-brokered Ceasefire Agreement of 12 August 2008, including the full withdrawal of its forces from the internationally recognized territory of Georgia and to reverse its illegal decision on the recognition of the so-called independence of Georgias Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions, reads the statement. The diplomats welcomed Georgias compliance with the 2008 Ceasefire Agreement and Georgias unilateral reiteration and implementation of the non-use of force commitment and called on Russia to reciprocate. We are deeply concerned over the deteriorating security, human rights and humanitarian situation in Georgias occupied regions, including increased Russian military exercises and intensified military buildup, the process of intensified so-called borderisation, illegal installation of barbed wire fences and other artificial barriers along the occupation line, ethnic discrimination against Georgians and grave human rights abuses, among them violation of right to life, restriction of freedom of movement, illegal detentions and kidnappings, and lengthy closures of so-called crossing points that have further destabilized the situation on the ground and severely impacted the security and humanitarian conditions of conflict-affected people, the statement underscores. Ukraine and Georgia called on Russia as the power exercising effective control to enable full and unfettered access by international human rights monitoring organisations to the Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions of Georgia. We deplore the hybrid warfare tools intensified by the Russian Federation against Georgia and fabricated propaganda myths constantly attacking one of the laboratories of Georgia's National Center for Disease Control and Public Health - the Richard Lugar Center, which plays a crucial role in the fight against spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19) in Georgia, the diplomats noted. Permanent Missions of Georgia and Ukraine to the United Nations reaffirmed their full support for Georgias sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. ol PORT LOUIS Fuel spilling from a Japanese bulk carrier that ran aground on a reef in Mauritius two weeks ago is creating an ecological disaster, endangering corals, fish and other marine life around the Indian Ocean island, officials and environmentalists say. The MV Wakashio, owned by the Nagashino Shipping Company, struck the reef on Mauritius southeast coast on July 25. On Thursday, the government said fuel was leaking from a crack in the vessels hull and Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth declared a state of environmental emergency, pleading for international help. The sinking of the #Wakashio represents a danger for Mauritius," Jugnauth said. Environmental group Greenpeace said the spill was to likely to be one of the most terrible ecological crises that Mauritius has ever seen. Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe dEsny and Mahebourg are at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritiusa economy, food security and health," Greenpeace said in a statement. Satellite images released on Friday showed a slick spreading out into the turquoise waters surrounding the stricken vessel. Some fuel has washed ashore. France was sending specialist teams and equipment to help Mauritius deal with the spill, French President Emmanuel Macron said. A French military aircraft from the neighbouring island of Reunion, a French overseas territory, carrying pollution-control equipment would make two flights over the spill site on Saturday. A naval vessel carrying booms and absorbents would also set sail, authorities on Reunion said. When biodiversity is in danger, there is an urgent need to act," Macron said. You can count on our support." Nagashino Shipping Company said it had tried to free the the tanker but the effort was hampered by persistent bad weather. We will do our utmost working with the Mauritius authorities and relevant Japanese organizations to offload the oil still in the ship, clean up the spill and safely remove the vessel," Nagashino said in a statement. The tanker is 299.5 meters long and 50 meters wide and has a crew of 20, it said. It is flagged in Panama with Okiyo Marine, an affiliate of Nagashiki Shipping, listed as the owner. It is grounded at what the ministry of the environment has described as a sensitive zone with the leaking fuel spreading a black stain in the azure water endangering the diverse marine life that attracts tourists from around the world. Mauritius, famous for its pristine beaches, is popular with tourists who last year contributed 63 billion Mauritius rupees ($1.6 billion) to the economy. ($1 = 39 Mauritius rupees) (Additonal reporting by Omar Mohammed in Nairobi, Richard Lough in Paris and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; Editing by Mike Harrison and Angus MacSwan) Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor With the events involving the on-going WAEC examinations, Ive been compelled, in the exercise of my civic responsibility as a citizen, not a spectator, to reproduce below an article which was first published on this platform in July 2017 i.e. almost exactly three years ago. I found some of these things bad enough to talk about them three years ago but what is happening today, has gone beyond even my worst fears at the time. From where on earth did we get here to see (a) examination candidates (I mean school kids) violently demonstrating and destroying school property because of too strict invigilation; (b) not only publicly insulting the sitting President but also filming (with full face showing) and uploading it on social media because a particular paper was too difficult; and (c) students (our future leaders?), with the support and guidance of a school proprietor and staff, physically attacking and seizing property of examination officials because they wouldnt allow them to CHEAT? Please read on: OUR CHEATING AND BEGGING INSTINCT THE WOES OF GHANA After the publication of an article in the Daily Graphic some years ago I received a letter from someone who described himself as an intelligent and serious young boy desirous of continuing my education pleading for my assistance. According to him, the moment he read my article something told him that God had chosen me for him as the one and only to assist him to achieve his goals. And before you start wondering, I can tell you there was nothing in that article which suggested in any way that I was some rich philanthropist looking for needy people to assist. Neither did my name in any way sounded close to his to suggest that perhaps we were related in some way. Yet, without even attempting to find out my background or what I do for a living here was someone soliciting for my assistance only because my address indicated I was living in Switzerland. We Learn to Beg From Infancy Especially for those of us who attended primary schools in the rural areas back in the 60s it was such a wahala (apologies to Dr. Bawumia) to be left alone to enjoy the freedom of eating your one penny worth of rice served in anwonomo leaf. Virtually the whole school would be chasing you to let them have a bit of it even if in the end it would mean there would be nothing left for you yourself. It seems to be inherent in our genes that begging, and just begging for the sake of it, is a normal thing to do. It used to be the normal thing to do in my childhood days that during Christmas we would dress up in our Christmas dresses and go around town begging for Christmas presents. And of course, that was with the tacit support and encouragement of our parents. Elsewhere the culture is for people who want to give presents to send them personally or where time and distance would not allow, send them by other means including the post. It is an established norm in Ghana that once you travel away from home for any little while the expectation from the people you left behind is that youll bring them something and in many cases, especially if your journey took you outside the country you will create enemies for yourself if you leave someone out of your distribution list of akwansoadee (present from the journey). It is this culture, encouraged and nurtured from the home, that unfortunately has been carried on to our workplaces and public life to the extent that where you dont have the opportunity to beg for it, you cheat for it. And unfortunately, this seems to have been accepted by our society as normal. Cheating, Cheating And Cheating Everywhere You fill your tank at the fuel station and lets say your bill is GHC197.00. You give the assistant GHC200.00 and the next thing you see him/her do is engage him/herself in something else somewhere. More often than not, if you dont speak up you will never have your change or perhaps, youll be told that theres no change. Whereas in other places youre given a receipt if you buy even a cup of coffee, in Ghana you have to request for receipt for virtually every commodity you buy (not from the market but) from shops. One day I requested for a receipt for fuel I bought and I was shocked when the young girl demanded to know how much she should write. In her response to my query she confided in me that sometimes they incur the wrath of customers if they just write receipts without first being told what to write. Even at more respectable institutions like banks the situation is not different. Ive experienced a form of cheating at almost every bank where Ive had to cash foreign remittance. Just last week I went to cash some hundreds of Cedis and 48 pesewas at a bank in Sunyani. This nice lady gave me the exact figure of Cedis and an envelope. I took the trouble to count the notes at the counter expecting that by the time I finished she would have sorted out the pesewas for me. But that was not to be. I took a closer look at the receipt again and drew her attention to the fact that she had given me less than was due me. Then without any sense of shame she murmured something about coins before reluctantly pushing 50 pesewas at me. Thats the Ghanaian Bank Cashier for you. Only God knows how many odd pesewas of customers she keeps for herself each day. The Quality of Our Food Has Been Compromised Some time ago when you lived outside the country you had the belief that when you return home you would eat natural fruits and vegetables. Not so at all any more. It is not a secret that our farmers and fruit sellers have devised means to force-ripe our fruits and vegetables. So, it has come to the point that you cut open what looks like a very ripe tomato and its all green inside. You eat what looks like a ripe banana and if youve had the opportunity to taste real banana before you see that what youre eating is something else. You keep carrots in the fridge and within three days its like plastic. The other day it took no less than Professor Frimpong Boateng, a renowned medical doctor and Minister of Environment, Science & Technology, to disclose that people were using a chemical used for preserving human corpses, rather than salt, to preserve koobi. And as you would expect, koobi sellers were calling for the head of the Professor because he was collapsing their business by speaking the truth. Yes, because of our cheating instinct people no longer care about the effect of their practices on the lives of the public so long as they derive their livelihood from it. The result is that our farm products are day in and day out being banned from some foreign markets. I could write a whole book about the cheating instinct we all see around in virtually every aspect of our life as Ghanaians but perhaps what makes the situation even more alarming is that theres no indication that the authorities are interested in doing anything about it. Registration of Minors to Vote In National Elections It is an open secret that parents encourage minors to register and vote in national elections. Parents and guardians do collude with school authorities to allow school children to cheat in exams and the only thing you hear is a threat of naming and shaming guilty schools. Parents and guardians assist their wards to alter their ages to be able to join the military, police and other security services. People who have been engaged by government to spray cocoa farms end up extorting money from these poor farmers just as government officials extort money even from people as vulnerable as LEAP beneficiaries. And of course, Assembly Members openly extort monies from the Presidents nominees in exchange for their confirmation as MMDCEs. So, the question is: who is going to help to cure us of our begging and cheating instinct, which is the main underlying cause of our under-development? This is what I wrote just a little over three years ago, and in the light of recent happenings about the just ended voter registration exercise and the on-going WAEC examinations I feel very disappointed that if anything at all, the situation appears to be getting even more frightening. I pray Ill never have to revisit this subject again, but Im afraid, I may. Kwame Twumasi-Fofie Sunyani [email protected] Patna Superintendent of Police Vinay Tiwari arrived at Patna Airport from Mumbai on Friday after he was quarantined in Mumbai by the Maharashtra Police. He, along with other officers from the Bihar Police, went to Mumbai to investigate the death case. "When I reached the guest house in Mumbai, I received a phone call from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) around 10 in the morning and was told that certain procedures would have to be followed and I complied. The other four officers were not quarantined, neither were other people who arrived on that day. I think this speaks for itself about the intentions of the Maharashtra Police," he said while speaking to the media. On Friday, Tiwari had accused the authorities in Mumbai of obstructing the probe in the death case by quarantining only him, and not the four other officers that accompanied him. The BMC claimed that the quarantine was in accordance with the guidelines issued by the state government to prevent the spread of COVID-19. He further said, "I did not approach any senior officials regarding this as the issue is not about me personally. A thorough investigation is our constitutional right and the behavior of the authorities in Maharashtra hindered the investigation." Tiwari also said that the had been in the process of a speedy and fruitful investigation in the last few days and was headed in the right direction Earlier, a team of four officers of probing the case in Mumbai reached Inspector General Central office in Patna to submit a report on the case on Thursday. The officers refrained from speaking about the findings of the case. "Now that the case is with CBI, we will be sharing our findings with them," a police officer said. Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey had accused the of being unprofessional in their action of quarantining Tiwari and said that he was being kept as if he was arrested. Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case in the matter after the central government accepted the Bihar government's recommendation for a CBI probe in the matter. (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.) The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that the Air India Express plane was at full speed while making its landing at the Kozhikode International airport in Kerala, also known as Karipur airport, and overshot the runway on Friday evening. The Dubai-Kozhikode aircraft was at full speed while landing at the Karipur Airport & overshot the runway: Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ANI https://t.co/GpIvVe3BJs ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2020 The Boeing 737 aircraft on a flight from Dubai to Kozhikode overshot the tabletop runway at the airport at 7:41 pm on Friday. The fuselage broke into two after the aircraft overshot the runway at Karipur airport. This aircraft has been identified as IX 344. At least 19 people were killed in the mishap as the aircraft skidded off a hilltop runway and split in two while landing in heavy rain conditions at the airport. 19 people, including Captain Deepak Sathe, pilot-in-command, and Akhilesh Kumar, his co-pilot, lost their lives in this mishap. The flight was returning from Dubai as part of the government's Vande Bharat initiative to repatriate stranded Indians from foreign countries. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the flight "overshot the runway in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two pieces." Conductor Park Seung-you, left, and pianist Lim Yun-chan, participate in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, Tuesday. They will perform three Beethoven pieces in "Next Stage," a talent program that gives a chance to promising musicians to showcase classical music with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, in an concert on Naver, Sept. 28. Courtesy of Korean Symphony Orchestra By Park Ji-won The Korean Symphony Orchestra (KSO) will hold an online concert on Naver on Sept. 28, as part of its talent program to introduce promising musicians who could possibly lead the classical scene here in the future. "Next Stage," the orchestra's special yearly program and the name of the concert, will be co-hosted by The Korea Times. This is the third such concert since it was introduced in 2018 under the baton of conductor Cha Woong and featuring cellist Kim Bum-jun. The program is designed to give young artists the chance to play classical music with a large orchestra on a big stage. In particular, it aims to foster conductors by giving them full authority to organize the program from scratch. This year, award-winning cellist-turned-conductor Park Seung-you, and 16-year-old piano prodigy Lim Yun-chan, will play three Beethoven pieces, including Piano Concert No. 3, to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of the legendary composer. The two hope to showcase new interpretations of the Beethoven masterpieces. "I want to explore possibilities without being bothered by any perceptions on stage. By working together, I think that we can come up with new musical ideas and expect that these can be realized in the performance," Park said, with Lim echoing the view, during an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, Tuesday. What the two talented artists have in common is the winning of prestigious international and local competitions. Park won the Rookie of the Year award presented by the Music Association of Korea in 2011, and went on to win first and second prizes in international conducting competitions, including the London Classical Soloists in 2015. Lim, who debuted as a pianist at age 11, became a sensation after winning first prize at the IsangYun International Competition in 2019 as well as the UNESCO Audience Prize and SungYong Park Special Prize the same year. Pianist Lim Yun-chan Lim, who some say can become as famous as Cho Sung-jin due to his talent, has a one-track mind when it comes to classic music. His winning at the IsangYun International Competition surprised many because he was the youngest winner ever at the age of 15. He also won the second prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists in 2018. He is preparing to go to the Korea National University of Arts without going to high school, after beginning to learn the piano at age seven as a hobby. "I simply went to a piano school near my house as my mom recommended me," Lim said. He was selected as a student for the Seoul Arts Center's talent program for musical prodigies when he was a first year student in elementary school, and later attended the Korea National Institute for the Gifted Arts. He practices almost eight hours a day and his everyday routine is focused on this. "I just love music. I think I naturally became a pianist because I love doing it I don't listen to popular music. I only listen to classical music. When taking a rest, I listen to music. I study English in the morning, exercise and practice piano," Lim said. Lim's dreams are also about music. He wants to become a composer, as he thinks composing music is what pianists should do; and also play all of the Mozart Piano Sonatas by the age 20. "In the past, pianists were the songwriters. The custom cannot be seen lately. I think pianists should write music. Also, at 20, I want to play all of Mozart's piano sonatas." When asked about the upcoming performance, he said "I hope the audience can learn the message of hope as Beethoven's concerto is about this." Conductor Park Seung-you Park, who went to Austria in 2003 to study cello when she was 15, moved on to become a conductor in 2011 to better understand music, and "become a better person" at the same time. "My life's goal is to become a better person. I thought that becoming a conductor would make me a better musician because a conductor should understand the music more broadly. Conducting is a process of becoming a better individual," Park said during the interview. As someone who spent more than half of her life in Austria where Beethoven built his career, she stressed that the composer is part of her ordinary life and a great inspiration for her music as well. "There was a statue of Beethoven near my house. Whenever I encountered it, I bowed and talked to it about my routine and plans for music. I was raised surrounded by the legacies of the artist I later bought a small statue of Beethoven and brought it to Korea. Every morning, I bow to him as a routine." After winning multiple international awards, she decided to return to Korea and continue her career as a challenge to the music scene here, thinking the country is less important that the music itself. She currently directs the K Art Philharmonic Orchestra and teaches students as an adjunct professor at Sungshin Women's University. "People were never passionate about conducting before. But many senior conductors paved the way in Korea's classical scene as conductors. (I was thinking of staying in Austria,) but I thought the country where I stay doesn't matter because music is deeply the same anywhere." When asked about the upcoming performance, she stressed that Beethoven can give meaningful messages in terms of people keeping their humanity. "Beethoven's music can give a humanitarian messages to all in this difficult time. I hope that the music itself can move people's minds and excite them as well, which is something very special." For more information about the orchestra's "Next Stage," as well as ticket reservations, visit www.koreansymphony.com or call 02-523-6258. A tourist booklet featuring famous tourist destinations of island districts across Vietnam will be released next week. Famous tourist destinations located in island districts across Vietnam will be featured in a tourist booklet from Saigontourist. The booklet will be released next week. VNS Photo by Gian Thanh Son The work will include images and information about 12 island districts, including Bach Long Vi and Cat Hai of Hai Phong, Co To and Van Don of Quang Ninh, Con Co of Quang Tri, Ly Son of Quang Ngai, Phu Quy of Binh Thuan, Hoang Sa of Da Nang, Truong Sa of Khanh Hoa, Con Dao of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Kien Hai and Phu Quoc of Kien Giang. It will include information about the climate, population and economy of the districts. Cultures and lifestyle of local people will also be highlighted. The booklet has dozens of photos selected from a photo exhibition on Vietnamese seas and islands organised on HCM Citys Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street last weekend. The exhibition, called 12 Huyen ao Viet Nam (12 Island Districts of Vietnam), displayed black-and-white and colour photos by professional and amateur artists. Most of the works are about people and their challenges in daily life. I gained new experiences from looking at photos portraying people and soldiers who salute the national flag in Hoang Sa, said Nguyen Pham Quang Dai, a 10th-grade student at Viet Uc Secondary School in Phu Nhuan District, who visited the event on Sunday. Dai added: Our country is so beautiful. I have visited Con Dao twice. I will ask my parents to take our family to visit Phu Quoc after COVID-19." The events organiser, Saigontourist, in co-operation with its partners, released the booklet. They wanted to provide foreign and domestic visitors with more information about tours to Vietnamese seas and islands. VNS Tourists enjoy the pristine beauty of Co To island Located off the coast of Quang Ninh, Co To island is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful places found throughout the north of the country during the summer, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors each year due to its popularity. A trip to the pristine Phu Quy Island This was the first time that I had visited Phu Quy Island in Binh Thuan Province, one of the most beautiful islands in Vietnam. The trip gave me exciting and unfamiliar feelings at the same time. Former Armenian Police Chief Vladimir Gasparian on Saturday obstructed the work of an RFE/RL Armenian Service (Azatutyun) crew working on a report about government plans to dismantle some private houses illegally constructed near Lake Sevan. Gasparian, who served as Armenias police chief for seven years before being dismissed from this post after the change of government in May 2018, drove his vehicle in the direction of two Azatutyun reporters, almost running over them, after seeing that they were filming in the lakeside area where his house is presumably located. Gasparian further threatened to physically destroy the reporters, using phrases like Ill shoot you and Ill slaughter you. Using offensive language the former police chief demanded that the reporters not show his house in the report. The RFE/RL Armenian Service has reported the incident to police. We are horrified at this attack on our Armenian Service reporters, by no less than a former chief of police, RFE/RLs acting President Daisy Sindelar said. The reporters were covering a story of significant public interest when Mr. Gasparian nearly struck them with his vehicle, threatened to kill them, and forced them to erase their footage, Sindelar said. We demand that police investigate the incident, and that Mr. Gasparian be held accountable for endangering journalists who were simply doing their jobs, Sindelar said. The Azatutyun reporters were working on a follow-up story after newly appointed Environment Minister Romanos Petrosian said this week that authorities will start the process of dismantling illegally constructed facilities and housing near Lake Sevan already on August 10. According to media reports, a number of houses belonging to several former high-ranking officials, including Gasparian, are affected by the decision. Earlier this week the newly appointed minister ordered the dismantling of a lakeside resort where a party with the participation of a current pro-government lawmaker had been staged in breach of coronavirus safety rules set by the authorities. Minister Petrosian then said that the turn was now for illegally constructed facilities and housing around the lake that environmentalists say is endangered by them. Here we have no legal issues, as there are no ownership rights pertaining to these territories, consequently there are no prospects of legal actions [against the government], the minister said. Environmentalists argue that illegal structures both business facilities and private houses greatly damage the lakes ecosystem, as a result of which for several years now the usually blue Sevan waters have been turning green because of vegetation at some places during the summer. An environmental plan for Lake Sevan, which lies at 1,900 meters above sea level, aims to raise its level, and the buildings that are to be demolished lie below the level to which it is to be raised. Raising the level of the lake, the largest body of fresh water in Armenia, has been the stated goal of consecutive Armenian governments. Time seems to have stopped at the Port of Beirut. The Beirut Container Terminal Consortium (BCTC) vessel schedule has not been updated since Tuesday's massive explosion obliterated Lebanon's principal port. The BCTC website was down in the hours following the blast, believed to have been caused by ammonium nitrate stored in one of 12 warehouses at the Port of Beirut, at approximately 6 p.m. Tuesday. Although the site was back up Thursday, the vessel schedule shows the arrival of the CMA CGM Lyra this past Tuesday as pending. The Lyra in fact was in port and only about 1,640 yards from the explosion site, but the container ship, with a capacity of 11,400 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), was not damaged, according to the CMA CGM Group. CMA CGM's office in Beirut was severely damaged and one employee remained unaccounted for Thursday. Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. International (LBCI) identified the missing employee as Georges Roukoz. CMA CGM has 261 employees based in Beirut and said two were seriously hurt in the blast and many others suffered minor injuries. At least 137 people are now confirmed dead, 5,000 have been injured and dozens still are missing. The BCTC schedule shows the Maersk Nairobi slated to arrive on Wednesday. Maersk, like all shipping lines calling the Port of Beirut, has been scrambling to reroute vessels. Many, like the Nairobi, were diverted to Lebanon's Port of Tripoli. LBCI reported Thursday that Port of Tripoli officials were assuring the Lebanese people that the nation would not suffer a wheat shortage as a result of the suspension of operations in Beirut. There had been at least one-grain silo at the Port of Beirut. "A ship loaded with wheat for Al-Bahsas milling company will arrive from Ukraine loaded with 5,500 tons. Three other ships will also arrive within the coming few days. Workers will empty the ships at full speed without any hindrances and the port will provide the required logistical services and subsequently transport wheat to all the Lebanese regions," the statement read. Story continues Seven ships were at the Port of Beirut at the time of the blast. Two of them, the Mero Star and Raouf-H, were carrying grain from Ukraine. According to LBCI, officials also said the Port of Tripoli "was completely void of any chemicals, firecrackers or dangerous materials." Lebanese authorities believe more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at the Port of Beirut caused Tuesday's devastating explosion. Lebanon Prime Minister Hassan Diab has vowed to find "the person responsible for what happened and hold him accountable and impose the most severe penalties." According to various media outlets, the ammonium nitrate, used in agricultural fertilizer, arrived at the port in 2013 aboard the Russian-owned MV Rhosus. Because of alleged financial difficulties, the ship never left Beirut. Lebanese officials charge the dangerous chemical had been improperly stored ever since. Maersk said Thursday that none of its vessels were at the Port of Beirut at the time of the explosion. "However, Maersk containers were present in the port and we are doing our utmost to assess the scale of potential damage and the impact to any equipment and cargo. "We aim to individually contact all our customers whose cargo could have been directly impacted being at the port at the time of explosion and also provide further communication on inbound vessels destined for Beirut and this will be happening over the coming days," Maersk said in a customer advisory. Maesrk's office in Beirut also was seriously damaged, and three employees in the building at the time of the blast were treated at a hospital for injuries, the company said. "We are determined to find the best possible alternative solution for our operations while the port in Beirut remains closed, which we expect to last for the next few weeks. We are currently working on a solution with the port in Tripoli to enable the calls of our vessels there and will be communicating the details as soon as they are known," Maersk said. In addition to Maersk, other shipping lines that already have a presence at the Port of Tripoli include CMA CGM, United Arab Shipping Co. (USAC), Tarros and Arkas. USAC merged with Hapag-Lloyd in 2016. Italy-headquartered Tarros is an intra-Mediterraean shipping line, and the Turkish Arkas has 20 vessels that travel among ports along the Mediterranean and Black seas. The Port of Tripoli has eight berths and had been averaging 37 ship calls per month, according to its website. CMA CGM worker among missing in Beirut Death toll climbing after Port of Beirut explosion Seafarer welfare crisis ticking time bomb' Click for more FreightWaves/American Shipper articles by Senior Editor Kim Link-Wills. Photo by Clara Rayes on Unsplash See more from Benzinga 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Just days after the chairperson of Verdi, Christine Behle, signalled the unions agreement to far-reaching concessions, describing resistance in the form of strikes as completely inappropriate, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr announced that he would accelerate the companys program of job cuts. At a press conference in Frankfurt on Thursday, Spohr said the continuation of high losses meant the previously announced elimination of 22,000 full-time jobs had to be carried out faster than originally planned. The companys promise to refrain from compulsory redundancies could not be maintained, he said, under conditions of an intensified crisis in global air traffic. Investors reacted enthusiastically, driving up Lufthansas share price by 8 per cent. It is now clear that the state aid for Lufthansa, amounting to 9 billion, is being used to rationalise the company at the expense of the employees, downsizing in order to increase profits. The coronavirus crisis is being used to push through massive cuts in wages, jobs and social provisions. In doing so, Lufthansa is working closely with the three unions with which it negotiates: the Independent Flight Attendants Organisation (UFO), the Cockpit Pilots Union (VC) and, of course, Verdi, which has always functioned as Lufthansas in-house union. All three are represented on the Supervisory Board, with Verdi functionary Behle holding the influential and lucrative position of deputy chair. The trade unions are significantly involved in all strategic decisions. Many of the savings measures and cutback programmes are designed and developed directly by the trade unions and their economic and social institutes. This applies to the ReNew restructuring programme, which CEO Spohr presented at the press conference. Based on this programme, it has been possible to push ahead with job cuts. By the end of June, the number of employees had already been reduced worldwide by almost 8,300, to 129,400. However, this is only the beginning. In the next two years, productivity must be increased by 15 percent, Spohr said. All three unions agreed to the German governments multibillion-euro rescue package and even called rallies to support it. At the same time, they competed with each other in making savings proposals at the expense of the workforce. UFO signed an agreement with Lufthansa that will save the company half a billion euros by the end of 2023. Applied to the 22,000 cabin employees of the parent company covered by the agreement, this means an average loss of income of 23,000 over three-and-a-half years! The savings will be realised by suspending wage increases, reducing working hours with a corresponding reduction in wages, reducing management contributions to company pension schemes and cutting jobs. Also, there are voluntary measures such as unpaid leave, further reductions in working hours and early retirement. Those affected will thus not only lose a large part of their current income, but also their future pension provision. By the end of April, Cockpit had already offered annual savings of 350 million at the expense of pilots at Lufthansa, Germanwings, Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Aviation Training. There was talk of foregoing 45 percent of pilots salary. In the meantime, the pilots union has negotiated a cuts package totalling 850 million through June 2022. Verdi was directly involved in the governments negotiations on the Lufthansa rescue package, with Behle, who has been a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) for 27 years, playing a central role. Behle assured the executive board and shareholders that Verdi, too, was prepared to make massive cuts. In an interview with news weekly Der Spiegel, she stated that the union was and remains ready for negotiations and concessions. Necessary reductions in capacity are economic decisions that must not be considered wrong from the outset. The cuts being offered by the unions are so massive that Behle warned they were difficult to convey to a workforce without concrete compensation. She declared, Just imagine: An employee gives up 20 percent of his salary for two years and still gets laid off as a reward. In the end, he even gets less unemployment benefit. Thats not possible. In other words, Verdi and Co. are ready for anything. However, they think the company should, at least verbally, continue to rule out compulsory redundancies to be better able to implement the planned cuts. Verdi and the two other trade unions have always presented Lufthansas original announcement that it will not be making any compulsory redundancies for the next four years as a major consideration by the corporation. Now, Lufthansa boss Spohr has made it clear what it really amounts tonothing! It was always just a declaration of intent that would not be maintained if the economic situation for the company became difficult. It is quite possible that Spohrs latest announcement is part of a dirty deal and that Verdi will end up renewing lip service to a temporary renunciation of compulsory redundancies in order to push through even more extensive wage and social benefit cuts. But even if Spohr does not renew his already worthless promise and thousands of workers are summarily dismissed overnight, the unions will not lift a finger. When asked by Der Spiegel whether there was any chance at all of preventing or even striking against large-scale job cuts not only at Lufthansa but also at other European airlines, Behle replied, In such a situation, strikes make no sense. What was needed was simply reasonable cooperation. Several weeks ago, we wrote on the WSWS: The events at Lufthansa clearly show the bankruptcy of the trade unions and their perspective. This has now been fully confirmed. For decades, the trade unions have subordinated the workers interests to the profit interests of the corporations, within the framework of Germanys much touted social partnership. In Germany and most other countries, there are no mass dismissals and plant closures that do not bear the signature of the trade unions and their works council representatives. At Lufthansa, the unions are now going so far as to offer the destruction of tens of thousands of jobs and massive wage and social cuts in the name of rescuing the company. No job, no social gain, nothing at all can be defended within the framework of these organisations. In terms of their incomes and social status, the trade union officials, works council leaders and so-called employee representatives on supervisory boards stand much closer to the executives and major shareholders than to workers labouring on the assembly line or at office computers. Politically, they are vehement defenders of capitalism, whose bankruptcy is becoming clearer every day of the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis in aviation cannot be solved on a capitalist basis and a national scale. It requires the expropriation of the companies and their transformation into democratically controlled public institutions that serve the needs of society, not private profit. Workers in the aviation industry must break with the bankrupt trade unions and build independent action committees that network internationally and across company lines so as to organise the struggle to defend jobs and wages. The WSWS will support them in this. A huge fire ripped through a block of flats in Bournemouth on Saturday, with footage from the scene showing flames leaping from the roof before collapsing inwards. Firefighters are currently battling the blaze, which broke out in a third floor flat on Saturday afternoon, forcing residents to evacuate. At 11:10pm on Saturday night, fire crews said they were still at the scene fighting the blaze, and that a reduced crew would remain at the building overnight and into Sunday. Fire crews will also begin their investigation into what caused the fire. Earlier in the day, black smoke could be seen rising from the building on Holdenhurst Road in the seaside town. The road is expected to be closed off for some time. The fire has now been raging for more than eight hours, with witnesses saying that it spread further across the roof of the building. Rescue services, which have been stretched today as thousands of people descended on the south coast, have confirmed that no one was hurt in the fire. Fire crews from Westbourne, Ferndown, Wimborne, Verwood, Poole, Wareham, Redhill, Ringwood, New Milton and Lymington have been at the scene. A spokesperson for the fire service said that they had called for 12 pumps to be at the scene to allow for a supply of breathing apparatus, to ensure crews could rotate in the hot conditions. Flames could be seen spreading across the roof of the building in Bournemouth as firefighters sprayed water down from above. The building was evacuated earlier 'Holdenhurst Road in Bournemouth is full of fire appliances as crews deal with a flat fire,' Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service posted on Twitter. 'Everyone's safe but there are road closures in place, so avoid going in and out of Bournemouth by the Asda roundabout!' The call came into the emergency services at around 4pm, after which police urged people to avoid the area until it is reopened. Jean-Luc Carden, who lives near the scene of the incident, told the Bournemouth Echo: 'I went outside for a cigarette about 30 minutes ago and saw all the smoke billowing from the flats on top of the building. Witnesses at street level could see flames rising from the building as firefighters battled the blaze. Emergency services confirmed that no one has been harmed in the fire 'Half of the roof has now caved in and there are still flames at the back of the building.' He added: 'I have been at the top of my building for about 30 minutes now and it looks like it got worse in that time worse. The road is completely shut from the job centre to the actual building (where the fire is).' Another witness on Twitter said that at least half of the roof had fallen in, and that they could see inside the building their position. Dorset Police wrote in a statement: 'Officers are at the scene to assist the fire service with road closures and to help evacuate nearby properties. 'There are no reports of any injuries or people trapped.' The fire comes as Bournemouth beach was put on red alert as tourists flocked to the coast during the current heatwave being experienced across much of the UK. Red alert means that authorities believe maintaining social distancing - to reduce the risk of coronavirus spreading - is impossible, and that the area is unsafe for people. If you still dont know anyone who has tested positive for the virus, you are lucky. You are also probably not Black or Brown or poor. The tolls have been brutal in those communities. In my Mexican American family alone, four of my relatives have fallen ill to the virus. And just a few days ago, I learned that a classmate of mine, a woman who walked the same school hallways as me and grew up with the same people, passed away from the virus. Education Commissioner Pushed for Plan He Now Says Superintendents Favor WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. The commonwealth's commissioner of education may be overselling the grassroots desire to return to in-person instruction in comments he made earlier this week. On Tuesday, Commissioner Jeffrey Riley told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce that a "vast majority" of Massachusetts school superintendents favor hybrid or in-person models of instruction. The remark was reported by the State House News Service consortium and Commonwealth Magazine, a Boston-based non-profit. Riley appeared to be basing that comment on the initial plans districts were required to submit to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. But while Riley now trumpets what he characterizes as the preferences of superintendents, last month he was the one signaling to superintendents that they emphasize in-person instruction in their return plans. "Commissioner Riley is committed to having schools open," Mount Greylock Regional Schools interim Superintendent Robert Putnam told a subcommittee of the district's School Committee on July 14. "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." Putnam on Thursday confirmed his impressions of oral instructions that local school officials were given last month. "My comments were based on oral communications during a conference with the Commissioner," Putnam wrote in an email replying to a request for comment. "The directions given by the Governor and the Commissioner prioritized the goal of bringing students into schools in the 2020 school year." Superintendents were required to submit their initial reopening plans for remote, in-person and hybrid learning models to DESE on July 31. The second and final round of plans were due in Boston on Monday but the deadline was extended to Aug. 14 along with further requests for modeling for transportation, how social distancing will be implemented inside schools, communications with parents and tracking students' participation and grading. At least two school districts North Adams and Clarksburg are taking advantage of the extra time to hear from parents and delay votes on their preferred options until this coming week. The Pittsfield Public Schools and Hoosac Valley Regional School District have removed considerations for full in-school learning from their planning; instead, they are focusing on hybrid models and remote learning, with Pittsfield voting for a hybrid model. Riley on Tuesday talked about the importance of returning to in-person instruction for the development of children. "The doctors are very clear that all the negative effects of kids not being in school are much worse at this time, particularly given the data we have that (virus) transmission is low, Riley said, as quoted by Commonwealth Magazine Its nearly impossible to teach reading over Zoom to kindergarten and first graders." Riley's remarks came five days after the commonwealth's largest teachers union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, passed a resolution passed a motion calling on the state and local school districts to prioritize health above opening schoolhouse doors. "Therefore, the districts and the state must demonstrate that health and safety conditions and negotiated public health benchmarks are met before buildings reopen," read the resolution passed on July 29 by the 160,000-member union. After a 10-year conservation effort to double the worlds tiger population by 2022, tigers are making a remarkable comeback in Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Russia. The charity spearheading the initiative, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is taking pause for celebration while reminding its supporters that theres still work to be done. Despite radical progress, says the WWF, poaching and habitat destruction continue to threaten this ferocious yet vulnerable species. In the early 21st century, approximately 100,000 wild tigers roamed the earth. When the ambitious project TX2 launched in 2010, the WWF estimated that little more than 3,200 native tigers continued to exist in the wild across 13 countries. (Illustration Archna Singh/Shutterstock) Ten years ago, tigers were in such a perilous state that there was a very real risk of them becoming extinct, Becci May, regional manager of the Asian Big Cats team at WWF UK, told BBC Radio 1s Newsbeat. From that population low in 2010, they are finally making a remarkable comeback thanks to co-ordinated and concerted conservation efforts. This is an achievement that not only offers a future for tigers in the wild, but for the landscapes they inhabit and the communities living alongside this iconic big cat. Project TX2 was inaugurated by the leaders of the 13 countries where wild tiger numbers were in decline at the 2010 Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, explains the WWF. In partnership with their respective governments, and other organizations, the WWF described project TX2 as probably the most ambitious global recovery effort ever undertaken for a single species. (Illustration F. JIMENEZ MECA/Shutterstock) (Illustration Kirill Dorofeev/Shutterstock) The project is long-term, working toward increasing protection for tigers and either maintaining or restoring wildlife corridors to allow tigers to roam freely and breed in safety in their natural environment. As of 2020, wild tiger populations are thriving in five countries involved in the TX2 conservation effort: Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Russia. India is home to the greatest number of wild tigers, constituting 75 percent of the global population; numbers doubled between 2006 and 2018, totaling some 3,350 animals. Nepals recorded tiger population almost doubled in a similar time period, rising from 121 in 2009 to 235 in 2018. (Illustration Anuradha Marwah/Shutterstock) Russias Amur tiger numbers have increased by 15 percent during the 10-year conservation effort, resulting in a population of 540. Bhutans Royal Manas National Park was home to only 10 wild tigers in 2010; in 2019, the park registered 22. Tigers can thrive happily given enough space, food, and water, May explained to the BBC. So the progress is a result of tigers and their habitat being better protected. In China, there is even evidence of active breeding. In 2010, Chinas 20 wild tigers were thought to have crossed the border from Russia. Yet four years later, Chinese camera traps caught encouraging footage of a tigress and her cubs at Jilin Wangqing Nature Reserve in Wangqing County, northeastern China. (Illustration Travel Stock/Shutterstock) The WWF nonetheless implores that the key to sustaining wild tiger population increase is to focus on conserving the landscapes they inhabit and on educating the communities that support these habitats, including them as key players in the conservation effort. The reason why numbers have plummeted over the last 100 years or so is because of changes to land use, said May. Wildlife populations are also devastated because of snares being set to catch wildlife. Poaching for the illegal wildlife trade continues to be a major threat to wild tiger population growth. While community-based efforts rally on, consumers can also play their part in preserving natural habitats. We all need to read labels and ensure that the items we buy come from ethical, sustainable sources, said May, adding, We need to share our enthusiasm for tigers and tell our friends and family how important it is. While there are still only around 3,900 tigers in total living in the wild, project TX2 hopes to witness a doubling of their starting population of 3,200 by 2022. Symbolically, the next Chinese New Year will be that of the tiger. We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc A Cazenovia man who threatened police with knives and hatchets during a 23-hour standoff that shut down U.S. Route 20 is now facing charges of criminal contempt and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the village police chief. Cyril Gatewood, 38, of 57 Nelson Street, was armed with several knives and threw hatchets at law enforcement, Chief Michael Hayes said in a statement this evening. Before it was over, more than 60 law enforcement officers responded, according to Hayes. At times the man threw knives at officers, Hayes said. The man also threatened to harm himself, the chief said. People from the VA Hospital and a family friend helped police in the 23 hours of negotiations with Gatewood, Hayes said. It ended when Gatewood surrendered himself peacefully, Hayes said. The chief did not specify all the charges Gatewood faces. Instead, Hayes said Gatewood faces charges of criminal contempt, burglary and criminal possession of weapon, along with other charges. Agencies that assisted Cazenovia police include: New York State Police, the Madison County Sheriffs Office, Syracuse police and SUNY Morrisville police. Two ambulance corps and the Cazenovia Fire Department also assisted. The incident shut down a portion of U.S. Route 20 for nearly an entire day. Hayes thanked local businesses Latte Da Cafe, Tops, Mirabito, Dunkin Donuts, Walgreens that donated food and drinks to the responders during the incident. Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274. OPINION: Is Joe Biden hiding from the press and American public? A few letter writers, using almost identical talking points, sure think so. One even wrote a song. That and more in this edition of Letters to the Editor Seth Wenig In an opinion piece, Paul Gallay of Riverkeeper described past incidents at Indian Point as major malfunctions. Yet, none of those events, or the other plants operations he paints as "safety problems," have put the public in any danger. Tritium levels measured in test wells under Indian Point do not represent concentrations in the Hudson River or drinking water supplies. Levels in the river and beyond are essentially undetectable. Furthermore, this year federal regulators reported that bolts at all seven similar Westinghouse reactors--including Indian Point--were replaced. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined that their condition did not warrant shutdown or constitute a significant safety concern. While the 2003 report cited by Gallay made recommendations about outreach, monitoring and coordination, it did not find that estimates for safe, timely evacuation in an emergency were inaccurate. Finally, although Indian Point does not sit on an earthquake fault, nuclear plants are designed to withstand earthquakes, as did Virginias North Anna plant, built in the same Appalachian bedrock. Rehab centres and counsellors are treating a growing number of people for sex addiction, mainly compulsive porn consumption after the pandemic crimped the hook-up scene. Heide McConkey, the director of Affirmotive Sex Addiction Australia in Darlinghurst, said sex addiction has become harder to conceal from partners because people are either out of work or working from home. "The behaviour becomes more seen and noticed and creates more conflict in relationships, and people then present for counselling to try to fix the issues," Ms McConkey said. Compulsive porn consumption is one of the main types of sex addiction. Credit:Enigma/Alamy Stock Photo "Their partners find evidence of using porn, all sorts of porn, including gay porn, transsexual porn, whatever porn, which then brings a lot of questions into the relationship about sexuality and infidelity." A lawyer for journalists and legal observers suing federal officers returned to court Friday seeking an order to allow him to question Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad F. Wolf under oath on the administrations plan or schedule to withdraw extra federal forces from Portland. Attorney Matthew Borden said state and federal officials have made conflicting statements about the pullout and his clients want to get to the bottom of things. The American Civil Liberties Union is preparing later this month to urge the court to turn a temporary restraining order into a longer-lasting preliminary injunction to bar federal officers from assaulting, threatening to assault or arresting journalists or legal observers documenting demonstrations in the city to protest police violence and racism in the United States. The temporary order was extended this week to last through Aug. 20. U.S. Department of Justice attorney Joshua Gardner argued that the journalists and legal observers who filed suit havent met the high bar needed to depose a sitting cabinet secretary. He had offered to make a lower-level federal official available to the plaintiffs lawyers but they rejected that proposal, Gardner said. Gardner also pointed to documents already filed with the court. They dont provide a timeline for when the special detachment of officers will leave, but Homeland Security leaders do write that federal officers will remain in the city until theyre convinced federal buildings in Portland are no longer at risk. Wolf told a Senate committee on Thursday that the full contingent of Homeland Security officers sent to Portland will remain on standby in the city. He said Portland continues to see violent incidents targeting local police, referencing late-night unrest this week outside police precincts and the police union office. The federal officers have remained out of sight for more than a week since Wolf and Gov. Kate Brown made a pact to have state police on July 30 take over duty outside the federal courthouse downtown. Federal agents previously had spent several weeks responding with tear gas, riot-control projectiles and batons to a group of protesters targeting the courthouse with fireworks, fires and thrown rocks, bottles and other objects. A splinter group of protesters has now turned attention back to Portland police. The ACLUs suit urges the judge to stop the federal agents occupation of Portland. Their lawyers have submitted at least a dozen statements from journalists, photojournalists and legal observers who have suffered shots to the back, neck and legs from impact munitions fired by federal officers outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in the last month. In recent court filings, Allen Scott Jones, deputy director of operations for the Federal Protective Service, wrote that federal officers assigned to the courthouse are in a reactionary law enforcement presence with instructions to only respond to criminal activity outside of the facility in coordination with the Oregon State Police. The U.S. Marshal Service Special Operations Group officers also remain at the courthouse, ready to assist the Oregon State Police and Federal Protective Service when operationally required to quell acts of violence, wrote Andrew Smith, assistant director of the U.S. Marshals Service tactical operations division. That could occur when state police are outnumbered by rioters, Smith wrote. Oregon State Police have been deputized as federal officers, responsible for maintaining security outside the courthouse, including working inside and outside the fence, moving back violent crowds and making arrests as necessary, Smith wrote. U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon agreed with the Justice Department that the ACLU lawyer hadnt thoroughly exhausted less burdensome methods to find out the information the plaintiffs seek. Borden agreed to submit questions that must be answered under oath in writing by the federal defendants by 5 p.m. Monday. Federal officials will have by the end of the day Tuesday to answer any potential followup questions. The judge also approved a protective order on any confidential information presented to the plaintiffs. If the journalists and legal observers cant get their questions answered, Simon said, then we may need a deposition of Mr. Wolf, but I dont see the necessity of that yet. -- Maxine Bernstein Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212 Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian Subscribe to Facebook page Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Twin YouTubers Alan and Alex Stokes are facing felony charges for allegedly posing as bank robbers during a series of pranks last year that resulted in an Uber driver being held at gunpoint by police. The siblings, 23, are each facing a felony count of false imprisonment effected by violence, menace, fraud or deceit, and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting an emergency, the Orange County District Attorneys Office announced this week. According to prosecutors, the twins twisted pranks took place in their hometown of Irvine on October 15, last year. The brothers dressed in all black, wearing ski masks and carrying duffel bags full of cash pretended they had just robbed a bank while their videographer filmed them hailing an Uber from afar. When they got into the vehicle, the driver who was unaware of the prank allegedly refused to transport the twins after they told him their getaway driver had abandoned them. The exchange was witnessed by a bystander who believed the Stokes brothers had just robbed a bank and were now attempting to carjack the Uber driver. The bystander dialed 911, and when police arrived, they ordered the Uber driver out of the car at gunpoint, releasing him when they realized he was not involved. Police issued a warning to the Stokes brothers about the dangerous of their conduct and let them go, the DAs Office said in a press release. However, just four hours later, the Stokes brothers allegedly performed the same prank for a second time, this time on the campus of the University of California. Law enforcement again received emergency calls regarding a bank robbery, police said. These were not pranks, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. These are crimes that could have resulted in someone getting seriously injured or even killed. Law enforcement officers are sworn to protect the public and when someone calls 911 to report an active bank robbery they are going to respond to protect lives, Spitzer continued. Instead, what they found was some kind of twisted attempt to gain more popularity on the internet by unnecessarily putting members of the public and police officers in danger. The two so-called pranks were filmed and uploaded to the Stokes YouTube channel on October 20 last year, titled BANK ROBBER PRANK! (gone wrong). The video, which had more than one million views, has since been removed from public viewing. In the video, the twins are seen running over to the Uber and telling the driver, Our getaway driver just bailed on us, as they climb in. The driver replies, This is weird. Its not funny. You cant take this ride, get out of my car please. Later in the video, the two twins are heard recounting the encounter with the Uber driver to a group of students on the UC Irvine campus. Weve had the police called on us like all day, one of the brothers said. I called an Uber driver, right, and we both got in the car, and then the people saw us get into the car with like the ski mask and everything on, and then the Uber driver kicked us out of the car. One minute later, there were like 10 cop cars that pulled out like guns on him, he continued. They were like rifles. They thought he was the getaway driver, so they had like 15 guns hes like, Im not even a part of this. Yeah, poor guy. In another segment of the video, one of the brothers is depicted speaking with a police officer, telling him he had called the non-emergency phone number ahead of time to alert authorities of their prank. This is whats going to get someone potentially gun-stuck or someone hurt, the officer responds. We have people stopping in the middle of the street because theyre watching this, guys pulling off ski masks, throwing stuff on the ground changing clothes. A second officer tells him, youve gotta be smarter than that, man. I want you to be creative and do what you want to do, but youve got to be smarter than this, the officer continued. What do you think people are gonna do? Each of the brothers faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison if convicted on all counts, the DAs Office said. The twins boast four million subscribers on YouTube, and also have 24 million followers on TikTok. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Nokia's new chief executive Pekka Lundmark said he will take time to re-acquaint himself with the Finnish telecom equipment maker before setting a strategy, as the company jostles for position in the highly political 5G race. US government pressure to limit the use of China`s Huawei presents an opportunity for Nokia as next-generation technology is rolled out, but Lundmark would not be drawn. "Maintaining good relations with governments in pretty much all parts of the world is extremely important," Lundmark said in a video interview with Reuters on Friday. "We are talking to governments in different parts of the world, but that`s pretty much business as usual for us." He also declined to disclose his thinking on Nokia`s broad range of product portfolio and strategy. The company made product missteps last year, although it managed an unexpected rise in second-quarter underlying profit as it took on the less low-margin business. "What we will be doing now is to preview the current plans and then potentially make new plans as to how we develop the portfolio," said Lundmark, who took on the Nokia top job last weekend. "I have theories and ideas in my mind, but again day five is far too early to talk about them." He said he hoped to be able to give more detail "before the end of the year". Lundmark previously spent 10 years working in Nokia`s network business in the 1990s and then 20 years working elsewhere. Most recently he was CEO of Finnish energy company Fortum. "This job is my dream job," he said of his new role. "It's definitely kind of a homecoming for me." Inside Hook Former Los Angeles Angels director of communications Eric Kay has been charged by federal authorities in Texas with distributing fentanyl related to the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, the Los Angeles Times reported. Skaggs died at the age of 27 in his hotel room on July 1, 2019 before the Angels were slated to play the Texas Rangers. A medical examiner listed Skaggss cause of death as alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone intoxication with terminal aspiration of gastric contents, which means the pitcher choked on his own vomit. An affidavit filed in Fort Worth in support of the criminal complaint against Kay said the ex-Angels employee and Skaggs had a history of narcotic transactions and revealed that Kay would distribute these pills to [Skaggs] and others in their place of employment and while they were working. Five fields of fillies provided Northfield Park harness racing fans with sizzling miles, including a new track and world record clocking of 1:51.4 by Summer Touch, the 1-5 favourite in the first of two $50,000 Ohio Sires Stakes for two-year-old pacing fillies on a lovely August 7 evening. Summer Touch, a Ronnie Burke-trained daughter of Well Said-Real Touch-Real Desire, was given a perfect steer by Chris Page as she won her second OHSS contest, having captured a Leg 2 division on July 24 at Scioto Downs in 1:54.2. This homebred is owned by Burke Racing, Knox Services, Slaughter Racing and Weaver Bruscemi. Rainy Day Chic, a 20-1 longshot, was second for Brett Miller, followed by 45-1 longshot She Knows It All (Ryan Stahl) in third. The former two-year-old pacing filly world record for a half-mile track was 1:52.3, set by Looksgoodinaromper on Aug. 9, 2019 at Northfield Park. Burke harnessed another filly this one a trotter to another track record performance as Merry Ann trotted to a 1:56 clocking in the first of three $40,000 OHSS events. The 1-9 favourite used a front-stepping performance with Chris Page in the sulky for owners Burke Racing, Knox Services and Weaver Bruscemi as she notched her third win in five tries. This homebred daughter by Southwind Spirit-Witty Girl-SJs Photo was also a Leg 2 winner in 1:57.4. Imalovelylady was second at 11-1 for Anthony MacDonald while 10-1 Ozma got up for third with Aaron Merriman doing the driving. Burke continued his dominance as his Pinknperfect won the second $50,000 OHSS for two-year-old pacing fillies in 1:52.4, holding off a pair of determined rivals at the wire. Ronnie Wrenn Jr. steered the 7-1 daughter by Well Said out of the Pine Valley mare Pink Camo for Burke Racing, Steven Jefferis, Johnny Smith and Weaver Bruscemi as she captured her first OHSS contest. Bred by Rtk Racing, Pinknperfect upped her career earnings to $37,500. Leave Her Wild was second for Mike Wilder at 3-1 while 9-5 Gucci was a close third for Aaron Merriman. My Jazz cruised to a front-end victory for driver Anthony MacDonald and trainer Jason McGinnis in 1:57.1, a new lifetime mark, in the second OHSS division for two-year-old trotting fillies. The daughter of My MVP out of the Incredible Abe mare Loving Jazz left the gate at 3-1 odds, besting 45-1 rival I Am Winning (Brett Miller) easily and 10-1 Fiesty Pistol (Aaron Merriman) in late stretch. My Jazz, who was bred by Jake Wickey Jr., had finished third in Leg 1 and fifth in Leg 2 of this series. Undefeated Herculisa earned her third OHSS trotting title handily, looking much the best for driver Brett Miller as the 1-5 favourite and stopping the clock in 1:56.1. The daughter of My MVP out of the Andover Hall mare Herculotte Hanover is owned by the Jesmeral Stable and trained by Virgil Morgan Jr. She was a winner in both previous OHSS legs, in 1:58.1 and 1:56.2, and pushed her career earnings to $61,812 with this latest triumph. Herculisa was bred by Billy Walters, Joe McLead and Up Front Racing. Celebrate With Me (Kurt Sugg) was second-best at 5-1 with 20-1 Ciao Baby Hall getting up for third with Aaron Merriman at the lines. (With files from Ohio Standardbred Development Fund) Silencing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul was a feat of primeval brutality that sent a shudder through even the most hardened officials. The House of Saud, and in particular certain members of it, had gotten a taste for blood. Soon after Khashoggis slicing and dicing in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul at the hands of a specially assembled hit squad, another was sent ostensibly to do away with Saad al-Jabri, a former Saudi Arabian intelligence official. The plot was foiled. The curiosity of Canadian border agents about the squad was piqued as they attempted to enter the country at Torontos Pearson International Airport. The group denied knowledge of knowing each other. The discovery of a photo showing them in company suggested otherwise. Such cases have led Jabri to file a 107-page complaint in the federal court in the District of Columbia, accusing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of attempted murder in violation of the US Torture Victim Protection Act and international law. The lawsuit claims that a team of Saudi nationals travelled across the Atlantic Ocean from Saudi Arabia with the intention of killing Dr Saad. The list of accusations against the crown prince include corruption and deploying a team of mercenaries dubbed the Tiger Squad (Firqat el-Nemr), a unit with a record of conducting assassinations. According to Mustafa Abu Sneineh of the Middle East Eye, the squads mission is to covertly assassinate Saudi dissidents, inside the kingdom and on foreign soil, in a way that goes unnoticed by media, the international community and politicians. There was very little in the way of being covert or quiet in the way the Tiger Squad went about its dastardly business in October 2018 in the grounds of the Kingdoms consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggis killing was extravagantly cruel, vicious and indulgently brutal. The manner of doing away with Jabri promised to be similar, with a member of the squad drawn from the same department who had supplied personnel responsible for dismembering Khashoggi. Two bags of forensic tools kept them company. The language of the filed lawsuit is ostentatious, even dramatic. Few places hold more sensitive, humiliating and damning information about defendant bin Salman than the mind and memory of Dr Saad except perhaps the recordings Dr Saad made in anticipation of his killing. For those reasons, defendant bin Salman wants him dead and had been working to achieve that objective over the last three years. The extrajudicial killing would have also serve to sever access to a uniquely knowledgeable partner vital to US national security, and, in turn, to eliminate any threat posed to Defendant bin Salman by virtue of that partnership [with the US]. The lawsuit should not be shrugged off as the ravings of an ex-security official hungering for notoriety. Jabri has good reasons to fear being knocked off. For a time, he was close to Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the go-between for the Kingdom with the Five Eyes (US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) intelligence agencies. In 2015, the royal furniture shifted through death and design. King Abdullahs passing saw the coming to power of his half-brother Salman. Mohammed bin Salman took over the reins as defence minister and immediately got busy. In only two years, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef found himself usurped in his line to the throne in a palace coup engineered by bin Salman, who became crown prince. Jabri took his cue to leave, fleeing to Canada. The lawsuit argues the bin Salman threatened Jabri at various times in an effort to compel his return to the Kingdom where you will be placed under house arrest or become the subject of a global manhunt, beginning with filing bogus corruption allegations through INTERPOL to encourage his surrender to the men of the crown prince. This included a menacing WhatsApp message promising the use of all available means to silence him. Bin Salman would personally take legal measures, as well as other measures that would be harmful to you. The response from the Kingdom to this unveiling is bound to be more cautious this time around. To Khashoggis murder, it was amateurishly bumbling: first, abject, implausible denial, followed by the accidental killing thesis that the journalist perished in a fist fight followed by an acceptance, some three weeks later, that his killing was always intended. Care was taken to distance the crown prince and the royal family from the bloody episode, a stratagem aided by the sentencing of five squad members to death and three others to prison terms in closed proceedings. Being a member of the Tiger Squad has its drawbacks. The paw prints of the crown prince were, however, found to be credibly large by Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings. As her 2019 report noted, The circumstances of Mr Khashoggis death have led to numerous theories and allegations, but none alters the responsibility of the Saudi Arabia state. Fifteen men had acted under the cover of their official status and used state means to execute Mr Khashoggi. His murder was the result of elaborate planning involving extensive coordination and significant human and financial resources. It was overseen, planned and endorsed by high-level officials. It was premeditated. Bin Salman has shown himself to be a dedicated dissembler. He has charmed, wooed and warmed the hearts of many leaders. He has even given that lie of being a reformer some stuffing, an anti-corruption warrior keen to give the Kingdom a modernising lick of paint. In the meantime, he has set about eliminating and isolating his enemies. A man of such ilk will know that a certain quantum of hypocrisy in international relations will always tolerate murder and blood soaked hands, especially for a Kingdom possessing at least for the moment abundant natural resources. Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected] A-level pupils have won the right to know where they rank among their classmates ahead of next weeks A-level results day. The Information Commissioner's Office has confirmed that the exam script exemption, used to protect how markers have decided on a pupil's final grade, will stay in place this year but that it does not apply to rank order requests from pupils. The coronavirus pandemic interrupted the usual exam period leading to results being generated by a statistical model. A-level pupils have won the right to know where they rank among their classmates after the Information Commissioner's Office said that the class rankings submitted by teachers was not covered by the exam script exemption (stock image) The model will take into account factors such as where each pupil ranks in their class when calculating their results, with those at the top of the list potentially having grades raised and those at the bottom having their results lowered, the Daily Telegraph reports. The information commissioner says that if a formal request is made before the results are announced then the school will have five months to respond to the request or 40 days after the exam results are announced. If the request is made after results day then it must be dealt with as quickly as a normal request. The Association of School and College Leaders said that there had been some confusion over whether pupils were allowed to know their predicted grades. The association told the paper: 'Our understanding, at least initially, was that these would remain private, and that students would only be told their final calculated grade.' The coronavirus pandemic interrupted the usual exam period leading Ofqual calculating results using a statistical model They also acknowledged that predicted grades and pupil rankings are not exempt from subject access requests made under the Data Protection Act 2018. Under the General Data Protection Regulations, students are able to request information that the school has already submitted to the exam boards about them. This includes any comments about their predicted grades, their class ranking and any scores achieved in school tests - but they are not allowed to request information that they recorded themselves, such as mock exams or assignments. Head teachers had been under the impression that this information would remain confidential and now argue that by giving students this information, they have been placed in a difficult position. The information commissioner says that if a formal request is made, the school then have five months to respond to the request or 40 days after the exam results are announced To deal with concerns, head teachers have been advised by the Association of School and College Leaders not to reveal rank order positions unless pupils 'explicitly' request them. Ofqual's statistical model for calculating exam results has been introduced after concerns that some teachers were inflating predicted grades for some pupils. However, schools are also set to be faced with a flood of complaints because of Ofqual's model which is predicted to lower around 300,000 A-level results. Nearly 40% of A-level grades given by teachers in England will be downgraded when Ofqual issue exam results next week. Private schools have reportedly hired lawyers, with a 'flood' of appeals from angry parents expected. Education lawyers are working with schools which could face demands for blanket appeals over the results. Schools are also set to be faced with a flood of complaints because of Ofqual's model which is predicted to lower around 300,000 A-level results GCSEs are also expected to be downgraded at a similar rate, meaning more than 2 million grades set by teachers could be adjusted or ignored completely. Criticism over this year's exams is intensifying after Ofqual rejected 124,000 grade recommendations for students in Scotland earlier this week - a quarter of all entries. Ofqual will allow schools to appeal their results if they think they will vary greatly from previous years' but unlike Scottish students, English students are barred from getting their grades individually reconsidered. Neil Roskilly, chief executive of the Independent Schools Association, said he expected a 'flood of appeals' from schools. He told the Times: 'Parents will immediately be putting pressure on schools to make blanket appeals, schools are going to be inundated with requests from parents. 'Schools will put in more appeals, there's no doubt, driven by the perception of where they should be in league tables. 'The appeals process tends to benefit pushier parents and pushier schools.' Mrs Tina Mensah, a Deputy Minister of Health has reiterated government's commitment to breaking the barriers and changing the narrative to address the health needs of people in the country. This, she said required putting in place adequate measures to ensure the safety and environmentally sound management of health care waste to prevent adverse health and environmental impacts. Mrs Mensah was speaking at the launch of the review of the National Guidelines for Health Care Waste Management and the Health Care Waste Management Policy for Ghana in Accra. The policy document was reviewed by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation. It will be implemented by the two Ministries and their agencies in collaboration with the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. The review is supported by the United Nations Development Fund, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Environment Facility. Mrs Mensah said it was factual to note that healthcare activities protected, restored and saved lives but, "often we fail to ask ourselves what happens to the waste and by-products generated during the activities." She said, the WHO figures indicated that about 85 per cent of the total amount of healthcare waste generated was non-hazardous, implying that the remaining 15 per cent was composed of hazardous materials that may be infectious, toxic or radioactive. "Furthermore, an estimated 16 billion injections are administered worldwide each year, but not all of these needles and syringes are properly disposed-off after use". She said the phenomenon presented health risks to individuals and the entire eco-system as a whole. Professor Frimpong Boateng, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation said, healthcare waste was not exclusively generated only from health centers, but included other waste generated around the environment. He said there was the need for healthcare facilities to have liquid and other waste processing plants that processed waste before disposal, adding that, this policy when implemented will guide the country in finding solutions to the management of healthcare waste. Mr Kwabena Poku-Asare, Chief Director of the Ministry of Health in his opening remarks said the launch of the policy was timely as the world was experiencing a pandemic. He said the poor management of healthcare waste exposed the country's healthcare workers to danger and that the Ministry was committed to the implementation of the policy and to provide the necessary leadership to ensure its success. Dr Samuel Kabah, a Director at the Institutional Care Division of the Ghana Health Service said one of the most important things in healthcare delivery was waste management, adding that the GHS was bent on implementing the policy to benefit the country. Mr Kwaku Quansah, a Deputy Director at the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources said the rolling out of the policy document must be educative and include capacity building of healthcare waste management staff, infrastructure and logistics. There were solidarity messages from the partner agencies who supported the review. Healthcare Waste is the waste that include; liquid and solid, hazardous and non-hazardous waste generated from healthcare facilities and from the environment. ---GNA Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 8) Foreign spouses of Filipinos are no longer exempted from the entry visa rule, the Bureau of Immigration said on Saturday. The agency cited the July 30 resolution of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, which states that foreign nationals who are spouses, children, and parents of Filipinos need appropriate entry visas. Foreign spouses of Filipinos must now secure entry visas from our Consulates abroad before traveling to the Philippines. Otherwise, they will be denied entry by our immigration officers and sent back to their ports of origin," Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said in a statement. Port Operations Acting Chief Grifton Medina reminded foreign travelers to bring their authenticated marriage certificates and other supporting documents that prove they are married to a Filipino. "There have been many instances already wherein foreign passengers claiming to be spouses of Filipinos were turned back by our officers at the airport due to their failure to show proof of marriage," Medina said. The issuance of visas to foreigners has been suspended since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, but those married to Filipinos were previously allowed entry. Cy-Fair ISD Superintendent Mark Henry visited the Berry Center Aug. 5, where district staff were busy preparing student devices to distribute the following week. We are well into that process, Henry said. Weve got about 118,000 students in Cy-Fair ISD and weve got about 60,000 devices currently in our inventory. Of course, the board has approved for us to order 75,000 more, but as you might imagine, everyone across the country and across the world has ordered additional devices. The school district has been working toward a one-to-one goal one district-issued laptop or Chromebook for every student. While Henry does not anticipate all the devices to arrive by Cy-Fair ISDs scheduled start date of Sept. 8, he expects the available devices will be enough to cover students whove opted for at-home learning over face-to-face instruction. An uncertain semester: Parents of special needs, virtual students prepare to start the school year amid the pandemic We have enough devices for about half of our students and right now our trends are running that about half of our students are selecting face-to-face instruction, about half are selecting virtual or remote instruction; so, right now, were in pretty good shape if those numbers hold, Henry said. School districts across the northwest greater Houston region are busy preparing to accommodate virtual, and possible on-campus, starts to the new school year amid the rapidly changing circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of this week, Cy-Fair ISD is scheduled to begin both virtual and face-to-face instruction on Sept. 8, giving the district a few more weeks of prep time. Our board really had great foresight in making sure we did not start school early like some other districts did, Henry said. We have a little over three weeks of teacher professional development to start the year this year. So we frontloaded that professional development knowing that all of our teachers, even if they start with face-to-face instruction, because of the pandemic they could be forced to go to remote instruction; so were going to train every teacher on how to use our new platform. More Information Editor's note: Circumstances of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic are changing quickly. This article represents the information available at the time of printing. Please check your school district websites for more information and updates. See More Collapse On HoustonChronicle.com: Alief ISD students become first in Houston area to log in to new school year Cy-Fair ISD, along with several area school districts, have adopted the online learning platform Schoology. The district used the new program over the summer and Henry said many have expressed their preference for Schoology over the platform used at the end of last school year. Teachers just raved about it, Henry said. In fact, weve had a lot of our parents rave about how much improved our learning platform is. Opportunities will be available for students and parents to learn how to navigate the new at-home learning system, which Henry said will look more like a regular school day than last school year. There will be some recorded lessons, but also live instruction that will occur throughout the day. Students in virtual mode must be in attendance during the designated school hours to be counted as at school, he said. We dont make any claims and I dont think any school district does that the remote learning platform is as good as the face-to-face experience, Henry said. We know that. Research shows that. But we do have a much better platform, and these are unusual circumstances. So, were going to make the best with the technology we have. Cy-Fair ISD launched a reopening committee in April who have been strategizing to make returning to schools as safe as possible for students and staff. The school district projects campuses will be about half full once students who opted for in-person learning are able to resume face-to-face instruction. Henry said there should be ample room for social distancing. School facilities will be sanitized every evening, Henry said. Handwash stations and sanitizer will be available throughout the building. Everyone will be required to wear masks inside buildings. Plexiglass shields will protect teacher desks and student tables. Instead of using water fountains, students will have access to water bottle filling stations. I always tell people: school is going to be a safer environment than probably any public place that students have visited throughout this summer, Henry said. The school district is also depending on parents to keep children who are sick at home. At some point down the line, someone may get sick at school, but Henry said procedures and protocols will be put in place to address the situation if it occurs. Theres not one thing that were doing thats going to make a completely safe environment, but all of these together give us, we think, a great chance to be successful. Have we thought of everything that could happen? Probably not. But we think weve got 99 percent of the bases covered, Henry said. Preparing for the start of the school year has been a work in progress, Henry said, as Cy-Fair ISD continues communicating with health officials and seeking out the best methods of ensuring schools are safe for the start of on-campus learning. Were getting prepared, but the beauty is its still nearly five weeks until school starts, so weve got more time to get the school district ready and well have three weeks with our staff on campuses to get them comfortable and get them trained on what they need to do in order for us to be successful, Henry said. Students in Magnolia ISD to the north are scheduled to begin their school year Aug. 12 with online-only instruction. Magnolia ISD sent a letter to parents last week stating that the district would bring groups of students to campuses by grade level for small group support days one day a week starting Aug. 17, said Director of Communications Denise Meyers. Parents do not have to send their child if they dont want to, but we thought it would be a great way, for one: that we can put all of our safety protocols in place, making sure kids are coming in, washing their hands, sanitizing, those kinds of things; and two: give our kids a chance to see their teacher and say, Can you help me with this, and give them any kind of support that they may need, Meyers said. The small group support days are scheduled to last from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Meals will be offered on campuses, including breakfast for those who need it and regular lunch at a price determined by a students meal program status. Bus transportation will also be provided for students on their designated small group support days. Hand sanitizing station will be installed on buses. The bus driver and students in fifth grade or above must wear masks. Students will be spread out as much as possible and the transportation department is working on plans to sit siblings together on buses, where feasible. Bus drivers will run the air-conditioning and strategically open windows to provide more ventilation. Buses will be sanitized after every route. Really were trying to get our protocols in place and bring small groups up, Meyers said. The small group support days will continue through Sept. 4. Hopefully, Meyers said, students who opt for face-to-face instruction will be allowed to return to campus Sept. 8. On campuses, hand sanitizing stations have been installed in classrooms and at building entrances and exits, Meyer said. Plastic shields are in place at reception desks, library counters and the nurses office. Visitors, staff and children older than 10 will be required to wear masks in school. Were providing gloves and face shields to our staff especially for teachers, Meyers said. A kid needs to see their face and see their lips and see their expressions; you dont realize how important that is. Custodians will be disinfecting school facilities throughout the day using a non-bleach, non-ammonia product called Vital Oxide, Meyers said. At night, a deeper cleaning will be carried out using hospital-grade disinfectant. Magnolia ISD teachers began professional development Monday, Aug. 3, to prepare for the start of instruction. Theyve been working on best practices for online learning, really for more of the content-specific areas, and then were going to be using Zoom and Google Meet; so theyve been working on trainings for that as well to make sure teachers are familiar with how to use all of those, as well as online testing procedures and protocols, Meyers said. The school district chose Canvas as its online learning management system and is putting together student and parent training videos to help familiarize families with the platform, especially families of elementary school students, who used a different learning system at the end of last school year. Now everyones on Canvas. For the students, when they go into their Canvas on the first day of school, theres going to be a digital citizenship training and were asking students to do that so they understand what the guidelines are in terms of best practices and whats expected of them online, Meyers said. Magnolia ISD has sample schedules online outlining the intended structure of a students virtual school day. In a perfect world, Meyers said, a student would log on at 8 a.m. and participate in real-time synchronous instruction. But, thats not always possible. We have families who have both working parents, and so we understand that some of that instructions going to happen at night, Meyers said. Even though a teacher is teaching a synchronous class, that teacher will record the lesson and post it in Canvas for that student to access later that day. District campuses are scheduled to begin checking devices out to students who dont have a personal home computer Aug. 10. Magnolia ISD also announced that they are selling Chromebooks and laptops after some parents expressed interest in buying a device for their student. Thats been going very well, Meyers said. Its not required, but we thought we could offer that to our parents; so, thats been received very well. Neighboring Tomball ISD made the decision this week to delay the start of instruction. All students were previously scheduled to start school online Aug. 18. Now, the district plans to start the school year Sept. 8 with students participating in their chosen method of instruction either virtual or on-campus. Meanwhile, Klein ISD announced Aug. 4 that the district has requested specific metrics from the Harris County Public Health Department for what will constitute safe conditions to return to campuses for face-to-face instruction. As of this week, Klein ISDs plans are still to start the school year Aug. 19 with online-only instruction until at least Sept. 9. Spring ISD is asking families to confirm returning students information for the annual update process before the first day of instruction, Aug. 17. All students will begin the school year with virtual instruction for at least four weeks. The district distributed Chromebooks to high school students in early August, and scheduled distributions for middle and elementary school students the week of Aug. 10. mfeuk@hcnonline.com (Newser) A Venezuelan court has sentenced two former US special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a blunder-filled beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolas Maduro, the AP reports. Lawyers for the former Green Berets, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, said they were barred from the secretive jailhouse proceedings Friday night in what they consider a violation of their constitutional rights to a defense. Maduro's chief prosecutor announced the surprise decision late Friday night. "THEY ADMITTED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FACTS," Tarek William Saab announced on Twitter, adding that proceedings will continue against dozens of other defendants accused of assisting in the May 3 raid. He did not offer details. story continues below "Operation Gideon" was launched from makeshift training camps in neighboring Colombia and left at least eight rebel soldiers dead while more than 60 more were jailed. Ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, who operated a Florida-based security firm called Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility for the failed attack and had hired his two former army buddies to prepare a small cadre of deserting Venezuelan soldiers living at the makeshift camps. Venezuelan prosecutors have ordered his arrest. Goudreau is believed to be in the US, where he also is under investigation for possibly violating arms trafficking laws in connection to the botched incursion. Denman and Berry, both decorated former US service members, were found guilty of conspiracy, trafficking in illegal arms and terrorism. (Read more Green Beret stories.) By Michael Georgy BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese protesters stormed government ministries in Beirut and trashed the offices of the Association of Lebanese Banks on Saturday as shots rang out in increasingly angry demonstrations over this week's devastating explosion. The protesters said their politicians should resign and be punished for negligence they say led to Tuesdays blast, the biggest ever to hit Beirut, that killed 158 people and injured more than 6,000, compounding months of political and economic meltdown. A policeman was killed during the clashes, a spokesman said. A policeman at the scene said the officer died when he fell into an elevator shaft in a nearby building after being chased by protesters. The Red Cross said it had treated 117 people for injuries on the scene while another 55 were taken to hospital. Policemen wounded by stones were treated by ambulance workers. A fire broke out in central Martyrs' Square. Dozens of protesters broke into the foreign ministry where they burnt a portrait of President Michel Aoun, representative for many of a political class that has ruled Lebanon for decades and that they say is to blame for its current mess. "We are staying here. We call on the Lebanese people to occupy all the ministries," a demonstrator said by megaphone. About 10,000 people gathered in Martyrs' Square, some throwing stones. Police fired tear gas when some protesters tried to break through the barrier blocking a street leading to parliament, a Reuters journalist said. Police confirmed shots and rubber bullets had been fired. It was not immediately clear who fired the shots. Riot police shot dozens of teargas canisters at protesters, who hit back with firecrackers and stones. TV footage showed protesters also breaking into the energy and economy ministries. They chanted "the people want the fall of the regime", reprising a popular chant from the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. They held posters saying "Leave, you are all killers". Story continues The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said the U.S. government supported the demonstrators' right to peaceful protest and urged all involved to refrain from violence. The embassy also said in a tweet that the Lebanese people "deserved leaders who listen to them and change course to respond to popular demands for transparency and accountability". Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the only way out was early parliamentary elections. 'GO HOME!' The protests were the biggest since October when thousands of people took to the streets in protest against corruption, bad governance and mismanagement. You have no conscience, you have no morality. Go home! Leave! Resign, Enough is enough, shouted one of the protesters. What else do you want? You brought us poverty, death and destruction, said another. Soldiers in vehicles mounted with machine guns patrolled the area. Ambulances rushed to the scene. "Really the army is here? Are you here to shoot us? Join us and we can fight the government together," a woman yelled. Tuesday's blast was the biggest in Beirut's history. Twenty-one people were still reported as missing from the explosion, which gutted entire neighbourhoods. The government has promised to hold those responsible to account. But few Lebanese are convinced. Some set up nooses on wooden frames as a symbolic warning to Lebanese leaders. "Resign or hang," said one banner at the demonstration. The prime minister and presidency have said 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which is used in making fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years without safety measures at the port warehouse. ECONOMIC MELTDOWN The explosion hit a city still scarred by civil war and reeling from an economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus infections. For many, it was a dreadful reminder of the 1975-1990 civil war that tore the nation apart and destroyed swathes of Beirut, much of which had since been rebuilt. Some residents, struggling to clean up shattered homes, complain the government has let them down again. "We have no trust in our government," said university student Celine Dibo as she scrubbed blood off the walls of her shattered apartment building. "I wish the United Nations would take over Lebanon." Many people denounced their leaders, saying none of them visited the site of the blast to comfort them or assess the damage while French President Emmanuel Macron flew from Paris and went straight to the scene to pay his tribute. Macron, who visited Beirut on Thursday, promised aid to rebuild the city would not fall into "corrupt hands". He will host a donor conference for Lebanon via video link on Sunday, his office said. U.S. President Donald Trump said that he will join. "We don't want any government to help us," said unemployed protester Mahmoud Rifai. "The money will just go into the pockets of our leaders." Aoun said on Friday an investigation would examine whether the blast was caused by a bomb or other external interference. He said the investigation would also weigh if it was due to negligence or an accident. Twenty people had been detained so far, he added. 'WE CAN'T AFFORD TO REBUILD' Officials have said the blast could have caused losses amounting to $15 billion. That is a bill that Lebanon cannot pay after already defaulting on a mountain of debt - exceeding 150% of economic output - and with talks stalled on an IMF lifeline. For ordinary Lebanese, the scale of destruction is overwhelming. Marita Abou Jawda was handing out bread and cheese to victims of the blast. "Macron offered to help and our government has not done anything. It has always been like that," she said. "After Macron visited I played the French national anthem all day in my car." (Additional reporting by Maher Chmaytelli, Laila Bassam, Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Ezgi Erkoyun, Ellen Francis and Richard Lough; Editing by Frances Kerry and Nick Macfie) Eversource executives could see Tropical Storm Isaias barreling toward Connecticut, and they apparently had a pretty good idea of what it would look like when it got here, even as it changed course just before it hit. But the storm weather experts knew was coming the one that would rip down trees and power lines with heavy winds and cause outages for 60 percent of the companys customer base was nothing like the storm Eversource prepared for. Thats part of a big picture of the calamity that has regulators, elected officials and customers scratching their heads. In the weather forecast, the mystery is not how Eversource botched a forecast that others nailed correctly. Its how the regional utility, dominant in three states, likely had the right reports and still stood by a worst-case scenario of less than half the 800,000 customer outages that happened after the storm hit on Tuesday afternoon. The meteorological models were saying one thing and Eversource prepared for something totally different, said Marissa P. Gillett, chairwoman of the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, known as PURA. Were they looking at something completely different? Making a judgment call? I really dont know what they did. Even as more than 1,000 power restoration crews crisscross the state, the reasons are starting to come clear why Eversource a company thats been previously reprimanded for poor storm response and invested hundreds of billions of ratepayer dollars in improvements ended up flat-footed when the storm passed the western edge of Connecticut Tuesday afternoon. Other factors include a changing industry that employs fewer full-time workers and relies more on contractors; a changing climate that causes more extreme weather events; poor communication during and after the storm; and, at the end of the day, the financial cost of preparedness. Its all about money. Thats what drives it, said Lonnie Reed, who was co-chairwoman of the General Assemblys Energy and Technology committee the last time Eversource ended up on hot water over a fumbled storm response. The company, for its part, has not conceded it was caught unprepared. Executives maintain Isaias was a harsh storm that hit Connecticut where the state is most vulnerable: Large, old trees hanging over power lines. The models changed On Friday, July 31, with storm Isaias still well off the Florida coast, Eversource filed its pre-staging prediction estimating outages of 125,000 to 380,000. That was in line with meteorological reports at the time. But the company never updated its report after the models shifted and showed outages could surpass 625,000. Eversource claims the storm deviated from the predictive models it received from the Eversource Energy Center at the University of Connecticut and outside weather services, and blamed the unpredictability of weather for underestimating the number of outages that would occur from the storm. All storms are different and they often can change in size, strength and direction, said company spokesman Mitch Gross. We plan accordingly and adjust restoration plans as needed. Timing was also a factor as the company had to file its plan well in advance. State regulators require that we file prior to securing any outside storm restoration resources. We filed on that Friday, July 31 or risked losing these crews to another utility, Gross said. These resources are among the hundreds of line workers still hard at work helping restore power to our customers. Gillett said PURA never heard from the company again until after the storm hit and no attempt was made to update the pre-staging report once predictive models shifted on Sunday and Monday. The states other major power company, United Illuminating, by contrast, was spot on its predicted outages, and filed its pre-staging report on Monday, August 3, one day before the storm hit. While many storms are hard to predict, especially at the tail end of their path, Bill Jacquemin, meteorologist at the Connecticut Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, said Isaias was easy. By late in the weekend, meteorologists the storm was on a path to leave Connecticut on the eastern edge, where winds are strongest and tornadoes can develop. Jacquemin said with few springtime storms, a dry summer and the air full of particles from the trade winds enabling more condensation, serious tree damage in this storm was predictable. Eversource, apparently, disagrees. Until it hit, said Craig Hallstrom, Eversource president of regional electric operations, I would suggest nobody knew what was going to happen. A familiar pattern Reed, who led the legislatures energy committee in 2011 and 2012, when the state was hit by three devastating storms, has seen this pattern before. An she has watched the dramatic changes in the power industry. It has become common practice across the energy industry, not just at Eversource, to downsize the full-time workforce. That means fewer people on the ground, when the weather is good and the wind is slow, observing trees that might fall in heavy winds or power poles that might need to be reinforced. So, even though Eversource undertook substantial vegetation management in response to the outages caused by Hurricane Irene in 2011 (downgraded to a tropical storm as it hit Connecticut), the freakish October snowstorm that year, and superstorm Sandy in 2012, the ongoing work to prevent outages isnt what it used to be, some people say. The old Northeast Utilities, which owned Connecticut Light & Power, is now Eversource after a merger soon after the three big storms. These companies now are very corporate, Reed said. A lot of people making decisions are not former linemen. Theyre not out there and having experienced this stuff in real ways. To top it off, Reed said energy companies have added a step to their storm response as a result of relying heavily on contractors rather than full-time employees. Now, rather than employing regional linemen who know their areas well and can respond quickly in the event of an outage, contractors must first analyze and survey an area prior to making a recommendation for repairs. That added step takes time, and when the outages are so widespread, that could mean it takes extra days not hours to turn the power back on. Its literally a perfect storm, especially given climate change where there are more of these bizarre climate events and the power companies changing the way they operate, Reed said, adding, Its a new utility model and its not just Connecticut. Its lots of companies around the country. Companies are downsizing the people out in the field and upsizing the numbers of consumers, really creating an equation that is really is going to spell problems when you have emergencies. Inquiries of those three storms led to investments of more than $300 million in ratepayer dollars to gird the system, largely through more aggressive tree work and protecting equipment from flooding which was not a significant factor in Isaias. But personnel is still an issue. A study published in February of this year by PURA, the state regulatory agency, also noted the fine line Eversource toed in balancing the number of full time employees with contractors. Historically the power companies have relied on mutual aid to respond to extreme weather events, but in recent years, the companies have also used mutual aid resources for storms that did not reach the emergency threshold an event in which 10 percent of any utilitys customers are without service for more than 48 hours. It is therefore a reasonable concern that such a heavy reliance on regional affiliates, local contractors ... may place a constraint on the available line resources for an [electric utility company] during an extreme regional outage event, thus impeding restoration activities and extending restoration times, regulators wrote. In response to criticism this week about the companys heacy reliance on outside help, Hallstrom said, You cant hire thousands and thousands of crews based on [the idea] you just want to be prepared. Economically, financially that doesnt make any sense. Poor communication On Thursday, as more than 500,000 people were still without power nearly 48 hours after the storm made landfall in Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamonts chief of staff, Paul Mounds, said state crews were still waiting for communication from Eversource about how to proceed. It was reflected both by the governor and the agencies, the importance for Eversource to coordinate thoroughly with us and our emergency management teams and the municipalities and their departments of public works so they can make sure that its passable and its safe out there, Mounds said. After the 2011 and 2012 storms, Eversource added community liaisons to communicate with municipal leaders in the event of a major outage. But once the storm ended Tuesday, communities and state agencies alike reported they heard little from the company through its liaisons. Its not that the liaisons were unavailable; they just didnt have information. Even as executives met with Lamont, local leaders were left in the dark while they waited for crews to arrive and begin assessing downed lines known as the Make Safe protocols so that public works crews could clear roadways. Making matters worse, the companys outage reporting system crashed at the height of the storm. City and town leaders aired those grievances in a conference call late Thursday with Eversource and United Illuminating executives, arranged by Lamont. But it would be another day before Eversource declared it would hav the vast majority of customers back by Tuesday a week after the storm. The PURA study completed earlier this year also raised concerns about the companys ability to communicate in the event of a major weather event, and noted that in Eversource had previously had technical difficulties with its IT-based self-service reporting system during an October 30, 2017 storm. In performing this study, the Authority has identified additional areas concerning the Companies emergency response plans and procedures necessitating further review, and possible updating, regulators wrote. Specifically, the restoration management priorities, including the Make Safe protocol, and communications with state and local officials are two key areas to be revisited. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt The catch in all of this is that neither Pfizer nor Moderna, nor anyone else, actually has a proven vaccine. The situation is similar to what happened with the Salk polio vaccine in the mid-1950s. As I wrote in last weeks newsletter, to speed up that vaccine, the federal government gambled and placed a bulk order to start production at Connaught Laboratories before trials on patients had proved that it was safe and effective. Connaught, which played a crucial role in bringing the Salk vaccine to production, was the only game in Canada back then. This time around, many more companies are vying to make the coronavirus vaccine. The World Health Organization counts 28 possible vaccines now undergoing trials. Many more, including some Canadian candidates, are in earlier phases. To guide its vaccine shopping, as well as its investments in Canadian vaccines and vaccine production, the federal government has turned to a panel of experts with backgrounds in science, medicine, public health and vaccine manufacturing. As bets go, choosing Pfizer and Moderna is relatively conservative. Late last month, both companies began the first large-scale trials of their candidate vaccines in the United States. [Read: Moderna and Pfizer Begin Late-Stage Vaccine Trials] Assuming all goes well, Ms. Anand said, the first deliveries should appear next year. U.S. Representatives Elissa Slotkin (MI-08) and Haley Stevens (MI-11) are set to host two separate town halls on preparing for the return to school this fall, they announced in press releases on Friday. Slotkin will hold a telephone town hall at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, August 12, and Stevens was to host a virtual town hall at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, August 10 on Facebook Live. Slotkin said in her release she hopes to help answer parents questions on preparing for the return to school in the fall and supporting their children through in-person or virtual learning. She will be joined by several local professionals at the event, including: Dr. Robert Shaner, superintendent of Rochester Community Schools and member of Governor Gretchen Whitmers Return to Learning Advisory Council Dr. Phillis Meadows, senior fellow of the Kresge Foundation and member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicines committee on reopening schools Shenandoah Chefalo, faculty at the Center for Trauma Resilient Communities Stevens said in her release that she hoped to discuss education and how to provide a safe and effective learning environment for the upcoming school year. She will be also be joined by a panel of experts, including: Dr. Randy Liepa, superintendent of the Intermediate School District for Wayne County Chandra Madafferi, vice president of the Michigan Education Association Dr. Susan Canizares, Chief Academic Officer of the Learning Care Group Mark Bierley, CEO of Learning Care Group To participate in both town halls, see slotkin.house.gove/live for Slotkins town hall and Stevens Facebook for her town hall. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke wrote a letter to Gov. Brad Little, offering his support, encouragement and a suggestion. A statewide, one-size-fits-all approach, in my judgment, is ill-advised, Bedke wrote in the letter dated April 12. Rather, allowing public health districts the discretion to modify response policies regionally and locally would best begin the transition back to our pre-COVID-19 economy. At the time, the suggestion seemed preposterous, as new cases began to spike all over the state, and so much was still unknown about the virus, how it was going to spread and whether it was going to overwhelm our health care system. As time has passed, however, that localized approach has begun to take hold, and the strategy begins to make more sense. Idaho has had a wide disparity in how coronavirus has affected different parts of the state. While Ada and Canyon counties combined have had more than 12,000 cases of COVID-19 and nearly 90 deaths, for example, Lewis and Butte counties have yet to have a confirmed case. Other regions, such as the Magic Valley and Sun Valley, have been hot spots, while other parts of the state have managed to escape a widespread outbreak. Treating individual regions with a little more surgical precision makes sense. However, there are serious flaws in Idahos public health district law, written in 1970, that we have seen painfully played out as some public health boards struggle to respond to the pandemic. For example, disregarding recommendations from hospital officials and health experts, Southwest District Health board members last month failed to issue a mask mandate in Canyon County, where new cases, hospitalizations and deaths were spiking. I mean that is just, from my perspective, a complete failure of public health duty, and a complete abdication of their duty, Dr. David Pate, retired physician and former CEO of St. Lukes, told me in a phone interview Monday morning. And I think irresponsible. The good news is that the fixes are relatively simple and would make a district-by-district approach not only more palatable, but eminently more effective. Here are three main areas that should be fixed: HEALTH DISTRICT BOUNDARIES I cant speak firsthand for the boundaries all of the health districts, and at first blush, most of them seem to make sense. District 1 covers the Panhandle; District 2 covers North Central and includes Latah, Clearwater, Nez Perce, Lewis and Idaho counties; District 5 covers South Central and is centered around Twin Falls and the Magic Valley, and includes Sun Valley; District 6 is centered around Pocatello; and District 7 is centered around Idaho Falls. Districts 3 and 4, though, are problematic. Ada County is in one district, Central District Health, which also includes Elmore, Boise and Valley counties. Canyon County is in another district, Southwest District Health, that includes Owyhee, Payette, Adams, Washington and Gem. Splitting Canyon and Ada counties into two separate districts is a mistake. The two counties are so interconnected, it is vital to make unified public health decisions for both counties. Perhaps it makes sense back in 1970, when the legislature passed the law, to have a Southwest District Health (in Canyon County) and a Central District Health in Ada County Idaho looked a lot different back then, Pate said. But when you look at it today and you look at how infectious organisms work, it makes no sense to take a large metropolitan area and divide it in two and make completely separate and different decisions about how to mitigate a health threat. I suggest creating a Treasure Valley Health District that includes Ada, Canyon and Owhyee counties. Elmore County would join the South Central district in Twin Falls. That would leave Adams, Washington, Payette, Gem, Boise and Valley counties to make up what could be called the Western Idaho Public Health District. This also would eliminate someone from rural Adams County, population 4,250, making public health decisions for Canyon County, population 230,000. In 1970, when the public health district law was written and the boundaries were established, Canyon Countys population was 61,000. Nampa was about the size Kuna is today, at 20,000 people. Also, who is making those decisions is the next change that should be made. PUBLIC HEALTH DISTRICT GOVERNANCE Each district has a health board, whose members are appointed by county commissioners, which keeps that line of accountability to the voters. As it turns out, most health board members are county commissioners. Only one board member is required to be a licensed physician. Other than that, the only requirement for being a board member is, All members shall be chosen with due regard to their knowledge and interest in public health and in promoting the health of the citizens of the state and the public health district. As we saw during the debate over whether to mandate masks in Canyon County, which has the states highest rate of new cases, one board member for Southwest District Health, Viki Purdy, a county commissioner from Adams County, regularly posted anti-mask and conspiracy theories about the pandemic on social media. Purdy, a dairy farmer and rancher, won her last election in 2018, with 1,206 votes. In Purdys defense, Adams County has had only 18 confirmed cases of COVID-19. So whatever Purdy wants to think about mask use and the coronavirus hoax, that might be fine fine for Adams County. But thats not fine for Canyon County, which has a quarter-million people and two large city centers. As of Monday, Canyon County had 37 deaths and 4,869 total cases. Changing the geographic boundaries of the districts will help, but changing the requirements also would help. Rather than a vague mention of having knowledge and interest in public health, board members making decisions should have some sort of medical or health care expertise. Board members still could be appointed by county commissioners, thus maintaining that line of voter accountability. But the decisions must be made on the basis of some sort of medical expertise and knowledge. If were going to trust the health and welfare of people in health districts to these boards, then the board members need to be qualified, and qualified means that you must have an acceptance of the basic public health principles, Pate said. And you must be open to listening to health care experts and public health experts and make decisions, to the best of your ability of what you think will help protect the public health, it seems to me. Its that simple. Pate noted there are people who dont believe in going to the hospital or relying on medical treatment, and thats fine, and theyre entitled to those beliefs. Those people dont need to be on the St. Lukes health system board, though. People who dont believe in public education shouldnt be on the local school board. Those who dont believe in banking principles need not serve on a banking board. Similarly, he said, those who do not accept basic public health principles should not serve on a public health board. As we saw in the Southwest District Health boards recent decision to merely recommend face coverings, board members took no public testimony from public health officials, such as hospital CEOs and medical directors who had been making the rounds urging public officials to issue mask mandates. Board members, who themselves were not wearing masks or practicing social distancing, also apparently ignored submitted written testimony from St. Lukes officials who documented their alarm in the rapidly increasing number of new cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths. An angry gallery of public attendees heard none of that testimony, missing out on an opportunity to become educated in the local situation. One cant help but think that if medical experts and people with good medical and scientific knowledge were on the board, the decision would have been different and less politicized. At the very least, medical experts would have used data and science to explain their reasoning. Rather than have the bulk of boards governed by elected officials, with just one medical expert as a member, flip it around. HEALTH DISTRICT ORDER PENALTIES According to the public health district statute, It shall be unlawful for any person, association, or corporation, and the officers thereof to willfully violate, disobey, or disregard the provisions of the public health laws or the terms of any lawful notice, order, standard, rule, regulation, or ordinance issued pursuant thereto. In short, its illegal to violate a health districts order, such as a mask mandate. Unfortunately, the only penalty listed in the statute is a misdemeanor. As we saw with the mask debate, it is unreasonable to charge someone with a misdemeanor for violating the mask order. Health districts should have an option of issuing a citation, like a parking ticket, for those who violate any health order. REMOVING BOARD MEMBERS One more change that Pate suggested is making it easier to remove someone from the board, an issue that people, including myself, started asking about when Purdys views were discovered. According to the law, a majority of all the county commissioners in the district would need to vote to remove the board member. As I pointed out before, given the rural nature of some of these districts, its more than likely other commissioners would have the same views as Purdy, meaning that removing her from the health board would be a tall order. The law could be changed to require a majority of the health board itself voting to remove a fellow board member. The pandemic has shined a spotlight on the public health districts and elevated their importance, which is a good thing. But if Bedke and other legislators want them to play a bigger role in responding to health emergencies like the current coronavirus pandemic, they need to make some changes to the state law thats now going on 50 years old and is woefully out of date and inadequate. When legislators reconvene in January and discuss changes they need to make because of the pandemic, fixing the public health district law should be near the top of the list. Scott McIntosh is the opinion editor of the Idaho Statesman. You can email him at smcintosh@idahostatesman.com or call him at 208-377-6202. Follow him on Twitter @ScottMcIntosh12. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Nebraska will suspend visitation to its 10 state prison facilities for at least two weeks as the number of coronavirus cases grows statewide. The stoppage will begin Saturday and last at least two weeks, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said Friday in a news release. After two weeks, the agency will determine if it's safe to resume visitations. Visitation restarted July 15 after being stopped in mid-March. We were proactive in shutting visitation down when the coronavirus emerged several months ago, Corrections Director Scott Frakes said. Now that an uptick in positive cases is occurring, it is prudent to stop the program, until we know which direction the trend is going, particularly here in Nebraska. In addition to suspending visitation, Corrections is also halting all volunteer programs to address another point of entry for the coronavirus to come into our facilities, Frakes said. Corrections said 10 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, all of whom have recovered. Of the 48 staff members who have been diagnosed with the virus, 33 have recovered. There is more nuance to this depiction of arranged marriage than whats been shown in other films and TV shows featuring South Asians, which have long disdained match-made partnerships. On the sitcom New Girl, Cece Parekh and her parent-approved betrothed narrowly escaped their union, instead finding love with white people. In The Big Sick and Meet the Patels, matchmaking served as the obstacle to South Asian mens sexual liberty. Even Bollywood prefers meet-cutes. In fact, Western viewers rarely get to see South Asians in romantic partnerships with one another. Hollywood deserves blame for this for too long, one brown person on screen was revolution enough; two boggled producers minds. Bend It Like Beckham and Mississippi Masala featured Indian women dating outside the race. (Masala deserves praise for tackling anti-Blackness among South Asians.) On Master of None and The Mindy Project, the protagonists generally dated white people. But by 2020, South Asians have arrived on screens in more formats. Hasan Minhaj is the new Jon Stewart on Patriot Act; Bravos deliciously tawdry Family Karma showcases rich Indian Americans in Miami. Netflix and Amazon are investing in stories for Indian viewers. Now, desi creators can portray ourselves dating and marrying brown. Family Karma sees Indians courting (and sniping) within the community. Mindy Kalings comedy Never Have I Ever subverts familiar narratives: A woman trying to avoid a family setup ends up actually liking the guy. Matchmaking also reveals more textured dynamics within the community. A Sindhi woman bonds with a Sindhi man over their shared love of business playing on a stereotype that Sindhis are good businesspeople. A Guyanese womans quest to meet a man who understands her familys heritage as laborers who left India in the 19th century points to a rarely depicted migration history, which unfortunately goes unexplored in the episode. The series stops short of being revolutionary, and tacitly accepts a caste system that can have fatal consequences for those who cross lines. By coding caste in harmless phrases such as similar backgrounds, shared communities and respectable families, Yashica Dutt wrote in The Atlantic, the show does exactly what many upper-caste Indian families tend to do when discussing this fraught subject: It makes caste invisible. WATERLOO REGION As the Canadian economy slowly emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is growing concern many of this countrys youngest startup companies may lose access to a vital source of early funding. Companies often rely on so-called angel investors to fund the earliest stages of their growth, and its a crucial source of investment for businesses that arent yet big enough or have sufficient sales to capture the attention of major investment firms or banks. With growing global uncertainty over just how quickly the economy will recover from the pandemic, however, and with access to critical U.S. capital largely cut off due to border closures and reductions in travel, there are worries Canadian angel investment may dry up. Waterloo Regions tech and innovation sector owes much of its success to angel investors, said Iain Klugman, chief executive of local technology hub Communitech. It is the capital that launches almost every successful company in the history of Waterloo Region, Klugman said, citing local success stories such as OpenText, Vidyard and D2L (formerly Desire2Learn). It is the capital that launches innovation-based business; almost always the first (investment) round is driven by angels. Angel groups across Canada are calling on the government to create incentives to get Canadian capital off the sidelines and invested into homegrown companies and talent. And were not talking huge amounts of money, either. Klugman said many angels invest perhaps $50,000 to $100,000 of their own cash every year into companies often in exchange for convertible debt or an early ownership stake. Yet the pandemic and the economic malaise that has accompanied it could stall future investment as angels put a pause on potentially riskier endeavours in favour of safer bets, like real estate. Klugman fears this funding freeze will come just as the push for entrepreneurship picks up among university and college students graduating into a weak economy, and people recently laid off from work who may look to self-employment as a more viable option. Its time for the government to put into place some incentives, Klugman said. One option would be an angel tax credit worth up to 50 per cent of the investment, he said. Jess Joss is worried companies will lose more than just access to early-stage cash if angels stop investing. Think of these companies as seeds, and the angels are the water and fertilizer, said the chief executive of Equation Angels, an amalgamation of more than 100 angels from Kitchener-Waterloos Golden Triangle Angel Network, Burlingtons Angel One group, and Londons Southwestern Ontario Angels. These investors provide much-needed cash, but they also bring mentorship and access to their networks, said Joss, who is currently on leave from her position. Its not just money, but smart money. Ontarios 13 angel networks are also facing a fight for their survival. These groups help co-ordinate angels and their funding efforts in different regions across the province. Many operate as not-for-profit agencies, and in March 2019 they lost provincial funding they say was critical for day-to-day operations. Each group received a maximum of $50,000 per year. They may also soon lose funding made available through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, Joss said. The past decade has seen record levels of investment of more than $1 billion into early-stage companies (including a record-setting $163.9 million from angels last year), according to the National Angel Capital Organization, a group of 45 regional angel investment groups and 40 accelerators or incubators across Canada. Another potential model of angel investment is the Archangel Network of Funds, a consortium of nine angel investors who pool investor capital across three different portfolios in order to diversify the types of projects they fund. One of the partners in the network is Amber French, and she said angel investors often run their own business ranging from HVAC operators to patent lawyers and some have seen their businesses take a hit during the pandemic, which has taken a toll on their willingness to take on new investment opportunities. The Archangel Network is a good example of spreading money out and reducing the risk, said French, who is also the managing partner of Catalyst Capital in Kitchener. The long-term impacts of reduced investment into Canadas earliest startups could be dramatic, Joss said. If you lose a generation of angels, you lose a generation of entrepreneurs, and then you lose a generation of economic recovery for our country, she said. Mourners: Relatives at the funeral of Lebanese army chief Ayman Noureddine, who was killed by the explosion. Photo: Mohammed Zaatari/AP When Yusef Karam rushed back to the building that has been in his family for the past 70 years, he found destruction. His cousin had died when glass flew into his face, the tenants of the 20 flats where he lived were fleeing the ruins of their homes and the building that his father constructed was flattened. "It is a complete disaster," he said. Three days after the blast, 60 volunteers were still working to remove the debris that was piled high outside the ruin. Just 250 yards from the blast site, Mr Karam said his family home and business looked like "an atomic bomb had gone off", when he rushed there after the explosion. His cousin was dead, another tenant was blinded and others were severely injured. As the dust settles in Beirut and the mass volunteer-led clean-up mission continues, Mr Karam is among the hundreds of thousands who cannot imagine how they will rebuild their lives. The governor of Beirut estimates that up to 300,000 people have been left homeless by the explosion that brought the Lebanese capital to its knees on Tuesday. Hundreds of locals have offered their spare rooms to those who have been affected as aid organisations rushed to set up shelters. In a nation known for its hospitality, the shelters remain largely empty as Beirutis have fled to the mountains and the city outskirts to stay with friends, acquaintances and family. Waiting outside a Beirut hospital to collect his father's body, Mohammed Sayed said he had no idea how he would carry on. The economic crisis left him out of work more than nine months ago, forcing him to move back in with his elderly parents. He had only stepped out to buy water when the blast rocked his house and killed his father who was alone inside. Mr Sayed and his mother cannot afford to replace the windows in their flat and have no other place to stay. Lebanon was already facing a series of acute crises that amounted to its biggest threat to stability since the 1975-1990 civil war. "We are working without water, without electricity, we have a corrupt government. Now with what happened, I don't believe we can do anything anymore," said Mr Karam. "How do we fix the elevators, water supply, electricity?" Since the beginning of the year, cash-strapped banks have curbed withdrawals and will only release US dollars freshly transferred from abroad. "Our money is in the banks, but we cannot use it to buy materials. If you want to buy aluminium, you want to buy glass, you want to buy paint, you need fresh money into your account. If you go to the bank, they cannot give it to you," said Mr Karam. Initial hopes that insurance policies would cover repairs to homes and businesses damaged in the explosion have widely been dashed. Lebanon was already struggling to bring the necessary food and supplies into the country as they must be paid for in US dollars. To make matters worse, they now have no port. The only other borders are with war-torn Syria and arch enemy Israel. "Lebanon barely produces any glass, so how do we rebuild any of this?" asked pharmacy owner Paul, in Gemmayzeh, one of the hardest-hit areas. "I've owned this pharmacy for 35 years, I lived through the war. I have never seen such a moment. Within 10 seconds, I lost everything." People have been seen scrambling to sort through the rubble to collect as many raw materials as they can to help them survive the winter. Shop owners in nearby Mar Mikhael, less than a mile away from the blast site, are sleeping on chairs outside their shops to prevent looting. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Two former Green Berets have been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in Venezuela for their role in a failed coup attempt against President Nicolas Maduro. Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, were arrested on May 4 and charged with terrorism and conspiracy following an uprising nicknamed 'Bay of Piglets' - a reference to the failed coup against Fidel Castro in 1961. On Friday night the Venezuelan attorney general, Tarek William Saab, announced that the pair had been sentenced, following a 'trial' in which they were reportedly not permitted to see their attorneys. 'Following on from their arraignment, they have admitted their responsibility for the acts,' Saab tweeted. 'The men ADMITTED having committed crimes of conspiracy, illegal association, trafficking of weapons of war and terrorism as defined by the Penal Code: for this they have been sentenced to 20 years, months and nine days in prison.' Saab appeared to have omitted the number of months to which they were sentenced. 'The hearing continues with the remaining accused,' he concluded. Scroll down for video Luke Denman, circled right, and Airan Berry, circled top left, were arrested on May 4 Denman, 34, (left) and Berry, 41, (right) have been sentenced to 20 years in prison Tarek William Saab, attorney general, announced Friday that the pair had been sentenced Saab, Venezuela's attorney general, tweeted that the pair had admitted their role in the coup He said that the two have been condemned to '20 years, months and 9 days' in prison Two captains in the Venezuelan National Guard, Antonio Jose Sequea and Victor Pimienta, were among the Venezuelans arrested in the foiled raid. They had participated in a previous uprising against Maduro and are believed to have been among those leading the Venezuelans in the coup. The former governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, flew to Venezuela last month to urge Maduro to free several jailed Americans as a goodwill gesture aimed at easing tensions with the U.S. The Richardson Center, which seeks freedom for Americans held by hostile foreign governments and criminal organizations, would not confirm who he was lobbying for. Denman and Berry were likely on the list, along with six oil executives from Citgo five Venezuelan-Americans and one a permanent U.S. resident who were lured to Caracas for a meeting in late 2017 at the offices of the Houston-based companys parent, state-run oil giant PDVSA, when masked security agents swarmed a boardroom and hauled them away. Richardson also worked behind the scenes to bring home another American jailed in Caracas, former Mormon missionary Joshua Holt, who won his freedom in 2018. Luke Denman (right) and Airan Berry (left), were arrested on May 4 for their part in the plot The plan was to capture Maduro (pictured), secure an airport and then fly the Venezuelan leader to the United States Denman and Berry were arrested on May 4 alongside the dozens of Venezuelans after Maduro intercepted the plot. Authorities were said to be lying in wait for the mercenaries after showing ringleader Jordan Goudreau's face on state TV and naming the Americans a month before the plot even began. The former soldiers said they flew to Colombia on January 16 and, after training, they accompanied the troops by boat to Venezuela. The plan was to capture Maduro, secure an airport and then fly the Venezuelan leader to the United States. Goudreau, Denman and Berry had served together in Iraq and Afghanistan and Goudreau offered them the job in Venezuela through his Florida-based company Silvercorp USA. Denman (left) said 'jackpot' was the code name for President Nicolas Maduro among plotters Luke Denman (left) and Airan Berry (right) are pictured here during their arrest on May 4 The U.S. recognizes Maduro's rival Juan Guaido as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. In March, the U.S. announced a $15 million reward for information that let to Maduro's arrest or conviction. Goudreau is currently under federal investigation in the U.S. for arms smuggling after identifying himself as the person behind the plot, in a video posted to social media, claiming that he had provided the coup members with training and equipment. Former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau (center) has claimed responsibility for the failed coup He claims to have signed a $212 million contract with Guaido, which the opposition leader has denied. Maduro has presented the alleged signed contract during press conferences as proof that Guaido was involved in the plot to overthrow him. On May 8, Venezuela requested the extradition of Goudreau and two U.S.-based Venezuelans for their roles in the failed incursion. In a previous video broadcast on Venezuelan state TV on May 7, Denman claimed he was first approached about the job by Goudreau in early December but was given limited details about what was involved. In the interrogation video, Denman also stated that he had taken the job offer from Goudreau because he believed it was working to free the Venezuelan people from Maduro. He was questioned about the leadership of the plot and, when asked who commanded Goudreau, he claimed it was Donald Trump. President Trump and the U.S. government have denied any 'direct' involvement in the botched raid and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that 'every tool' will be used to secure the release of the Americans involved. The U.S. broke diplomatic ties with Maduro and closed its embassy in Caracas last year. Washington DC [USA], Aug 8 (ANI): Ambassador of India to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Wolf discussed important areas of the vibrant India-Pennsylvania relationship, encompassing economic and people-to-people ties during a conversation on Friday. Ambassador Sandhu and Governor Wolf discussed the ever-increasing trade and investment complementarities in the India-US relationship and cooperation in the fields of education and healthcare. Ambassador shared with the Governor the latest developments in the Indian healthcare and education sectors, including recent reform initiatives taken by India. "Both noted the important contributions, especially in economy, of over 200,000 members of the Indian diaspora in Pennsylvania, including those of nearly 10,000 Indian students in Pennsylvania's higher education institutions. Ambassador highlighted the new opportunities available for investments in India's higher education sector under the New Education Policy recently announced in India," read a press release from the Indian Embassy. "Wonderful conversation with Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania on our strong economic partnership and the important contributions of the Indian diaspora and Indian companies. Discussed the potential for collaboration in higher education; STEM areas; life sciences and health," Sandhu tweeted. According to the release, the total trade between India and Pennsylvania has grown to USD 3.21 billion (2019). "Today over 18 Indian companies, with investments of USD 540 million, are supporting 3,000 jobs in Pennsylvania. Many Pennsylvania based US companies spread across Food Processing, Agriculture, IT, and Chemicals sectors are present in India. Some notable investments include Hershey's, Kraft Heinz, Unisys, Air Products and Chemicals, FMC among others." Indian entrepreneurs and professionals "have a significant presence" in Pennsylvania in the IT and telecommunications, life sciences and manufacturing sectors. Indian high skilled talent adds to the competitive edge of the US economy. Ambassador Sandhu and Governor Wolf "agreed to work together" to further enhance the India-Pennsylvania relationship. (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.) The Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has granted bail to an 18-year-old student on the condition that he will have to keep away from social media for two months and plant five trees, a government lawyer said on Saturday. Harendra Tyagi, a resident of Aswar village of Bhind district, was arrested on June 23 for allegedly beating a local shopkeeper and was booked under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 294 (using obscene language), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 329 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt to extort property). Tyagi was arrested and taken into judicial custody on June 24, police said. Harendra Tyagis advocate Sushant Tiwari filed the bail application on the ground that Tyagi is aged 18 years and is a bright student. Tyagi secured 75% marks in class 12 in 2019. Tyagi is preparing for Pre-Agriculture Test (PAT) to take admission in the agriculture college.The test has been postponed due to Covid-19 and will be organised in coming months, and if he was not granted bail, it would spoil his future. Looking at the challenging time of Covid-19 pandemic situation, his case was sympathetically considered. Even otherwise, he learnt the lesson hard way and would mend his way and would become a better citizen, said Tiwari. Considering these facts, justice Anand Pathak granted him bail on Tuesday and also put a special condition of digital detoxification so that he could concentrate on his studies, says Kamlesh Kori, government lawyer presenting the police. In his order, the judge said, Applicant shall remove himself from the WhatsApp and Facebook group and other Social Media groups for next two months and would not be present on any social media platform at all for two months for digital detoxification for personal reasons or for other reasons, otherwise bail shall be considered withdrawn. Every month the applicant shall have to submit a report about his digital detoxification at the concerned police station and any default shall dis-entitle him from benefit of bail. Applicant shall complete his study of PAT. Kori said, He was granted bail on furnishing personal bond of Rs 50,000 with other conditions, including plantation of five trees. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Runway Friction at Kerala Airport Was Not Tested Before Air India Flight Crash-Landed in Heavy Rain, Say Sources Runway friction testing was not done at the Karipur airport near Kozhikode on Friday where an Air India Express passenger plane crash-landed on Friday evening, killing at least 18 people. Sources told News18 that a friction testing vehicle was brought from Chennai, however, it could not be used before the accident. A friction testing vehicle measures friction on airports runways, taxiways and highways. The system runs through a measuring wheel, which is mechanically geared to one of the rear main wheels of a base car. READ MORE Union Minister Says Pilot Saved Lives in Kerala Crash Even as DGCA Examines 'Judgment Call' of Landing The death toll from the crash of an Air India Express plane that overshot the runway in heavy rain near Kozhikode could have been higher had the pilot not switched off the engine in time, union minister V Muraleedharan, who visited the accident site on Saturday, said. The ministers assertion of the pilot saving lives comes even as DGCA chief Arun Kumar said it is too early to tell at this point whether the accident was a result of a technical error or human error. READ MORE How a Pending Fine at Dubai Airport Saved Kerala Expatriate from Boarding Ill-fated Air India Flight T Noufal was told at the Dubai airport on Friday afternoon that he wouldnt be able to board the Kozhikode-bound Air India Express as he had a fine pending. Noufal was dejected then but a few hours later, he was thanking his lucky stars as the aircraft crashed during landing, killing 18 people. And in another stroke of good luck, Noufal received a call from his Arab sponsor and later his company, saying he was being given his job back. READ MORE Actor Abhishek Bachchan Recovers from Covid-19, Tests Negative Abhishek Bachchan has tested negative for COVID-19. Sharing the news on Twitter, the actor expressed gratitude for the doctors treating him at the hospital. He also thanked his fans for their prayers. He first tested positive on July 11 following which he was admitted at the Nanavati hospital in Mumbai. READ MORE A promise is a promise! This afternoon I tested Covid-19 NEGATIVE!!! I told you guys Id beat this. thank you all for your prayers for me and my family. My eternal gratitude to the doctors and nursing staff at Nanavati hospital for all that they have done. THANK YOU! Abhishek Bachchan (@juniorbachchan) August 8, 2020 Amazon Freedom Sale Follows Prime Day, Scheduled From August 8 to 11 Amazon India wrapped up its two-day Prime Day sale just yesterday. The e-commerce giant has now quickly announced yet another sale as a follow up, scheduled from August 8 to 11. The Freedom Sale is expected to offer deals across categories including smartphones, consumer electronics, large appliances, TVs. Notably, Flipkart had announced its Big Saving Days sale which is currently still on and will continue till August 10. READ MORE AP The governor of Ohio has asked churchgoers to wear face masks, after one person attending church with coronavirus led to the infection of 91 other people across five different counties in the state. Posting a graphic showing the infections reach to his Facebook page, Ohio governor Mike DeWine explained how the virus spread from the church service on 14 June to 4 July. All it takes is one person to cause tremendous #COVID19 spread, the governor wrote. Mr DeWine underlined that while the case study stems from a church, it can take place anywhere. I continue to encourage everyone to wear masks and social distance whenever you gather including at worship services, he added. At a news briefing on Tuesday where the alarming graphic was displayed, the governor said it spread like wildfire, and described it as very, very scary. We know that our faith-based leaders want nothing more than to protect those who come to worship. We want to provide our faith communities with all the information we can from doctors and health experts to arm them with the tools to conduct the services safely. He added that while the state has been careful to exempt religious services from coronavirus regulations, Ohio is now asking worshippers to wear masks in church. A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health has declined to reveal the name of the church, citing the need to protect private health information. She added that those who may have come into contact with infected people had been notified through contact-tracing efforts, NBC reported. The graphic illustrates how widely one infected person can spread the coronavirus. Fifty-three people at the service became ill, and 18 of those went on to infect at least one other person. All 91 developed symptoms of the virus, the governor said. Mr DeWine also shared some recent examples of community transmission on Twitter earlier this week. He detailed cases where the virus has been passed between family and friends, including at a wedding and a bridal shower. Story continues None of us want to stay away from our families and of course, its natural to want to show affection when you see them, Mr DeWine wrote on Twitter. But this virus lurking. Please try to remember that you are showing love by protecting them. More than 96,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the state. Here are 3 examples of spread within family and friend groups that we learned about this week. Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) August 4, 2020 Read more Ohio governor tests positive for Covid-19 hours before Trump meeting Trumps campaign troubles could see Ohio turn back into a swing state Ohio sheriff refuses to enforce governors mask order Thirty-five-year-old Sharafu Pilassery was working in Dubai in a private firm and had been arranging for flight tickets for many stranded in the UAE amid the Covid-19 crisis. He had fed many people stranded without a job in the Arab country. Pilassery told his relatives and friends in India that he will be coming in the last along with his family, just that it turned out to be his last journey. Pilassery was among the 19 who got killed in Fridays airplane crash in Kozhikode, however, his wife Ameena and daughter Fathima, escaped with injuries. An active social worker among the expatriate community in Dubai, he got many chances to return to the country earlier but insisted on going back once the rush subsided, his friends recalled. ALSO WATCH | Eyewitness recounts Air India Express plane crash at Kozhikode airport Also read: Kozhikode plane crash not an accident but murder - Air safety expert Four hours before the accident, he posted a photo with his family donning protective shields and masks. Back to Home he wrote on his Facebook post as the trio boarded the plane. One of his friends, Shafi Parakkulam, who runs a small hotel, shared a post saying he was unusually tense and handed over some money to him asking him to ensure food for the needy. I even doubt he had some premonition about the impending tragedy. I never thought it will be our last meeting, wrote Parakkulam paying rich tributes to his friend. Netizens have flooded the social media to pay tributes to him. Parammal Afsals story is different from Pilasserys. Working in a shop in Dubai, when he arrived at the airport to board the Kozhikode-bound Vande Bharat Air India flight on Friday, he realised that his visa period was over by a few hours. Also read: Kozhikodes table-top runway risky for landing, officials warned 10 years ago The airport authorities asked him to produce his employment details and other formalities. He immediately rushed to procure them from his room but by the time he returned, the boarding was closed and he was bluntly told to take the next flight. The delay saved his life. The 27-year-old was planning to return for his marriage which was fixed last year. Dejected, he called his relatives back home and returned to his room. Soon relatives called him to say that it was a miracle he missed the flight. Now he is planning to take the next flight to Kannur, Kerala. It is a two-hour journey from Kozhikode to Kannur. A small state, Kerala has four international airports, thanks to its teeming migratory skills. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai police on Friday night detained two pro-democracy activists in Bangkok over a demonstration last month as leaders of the student protest movement vowed to escalate their anti-government demonstrations. Security officials physically carried human rights lawyer Anon Nampa, 35, and student activist Panupong Jasnok, 23, out of the Criminal Court in Bangkok as dozens of supporters shouted "officials must serve the people" in protest. At another protest on Monday, Anon drew national attention by calling for reforms of Thailand's powerful monarchy, a highly sensitive topic, but police said the arrest warrant served on Friday did not refer to that speech but to an earlier protest on July 18 for breaching internal security by "raising unrest and disaffection". The court declined just before midnight to process a police request to jail the two men for 12 days of pre-trial detention, with an official stating that the police proceedings were filed too late. Police said they would hold the two overnight and return with their petition at Bangkok's Criminal Court on Saturday morning. Protesters, led by student groups, are returning to Thailand's streets calling for the ouster of the government of 2014 coup-maker Prayuth Chan-ocha after a disputed general election last year that activists say was engineered to ensure his hold on power. "Today, we arrested these two men and we sent them to the court to ask them to be jailed, but because it is after the court's working hour, the court sent them to be detained by us," Police Colonel Purit Jintranan of Huai Khwang police station told reporters. Weeranan Huadsri, a lawyer for Anon, told Reuters his client denied all charges. Earlier on Friday, leaders of several student groups held a news conference at Democracy Monument to launch a wider "Free People" movement calling for new elections and planning a large protest for Aug. 16. (Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat, Editing by Robert Birsel and Howard Goller) Samsung Galaxy A51 samrtphone has received a price cut in the Indian market. The handset saw a price hike this April due to GST rate raise from 12 percent to 18 percent. Now, the device with 8GB has received a price cut of Rs 2,000 & is listed on Amazon.in at Rs 25,999. The Galaxy A51 6GB + 128GB model is available for sale at Rs 23,999. The 6GB variant was launched in India earlier this year & received the GST-related price hike in April. Samsung is also selling the handset with Rs 1,500 cashback offer for HSBC & SBI credit card holders. This brings the price down to Rs 22,499. This cashback offer is valid till August 15. Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Series, Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy Buds Live & Galaxy Watch 3 Launched. In terms of specifications, the handset features a 6.5-inch FHD+ super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2400x1080 pixels. The smartphone comes powered by Exynos 9611 SoC mated with up to 8GB of RAM & 128GB of internal storage, expandable up to 512GB. Samsung Galaxy A51 (Photo Credits: Amazon India) For photography, the device comes equipped with a quad rear camera module featuring a 48MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 5MP macro camera & a 5MP depth sensor. Upfront, there is a 32MP snapper for selfies & video calling. Samsung Galaxy A51 Phone Launched (Photo Credits: Samsung) The mobile phone is fuelled by a 4,000mAh battery with 15W fast charging support. The phone runs on Android 10 based One UI 2 operating system. The sleek looking device comes in three shades - Prism Crush Black, Prism Crush White & Prism Crush Blue. Additionally, the handset gets 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS/A-GPS & a USB Type-C port. Samsung Galaxy A51 with 6GB + 128GB costs Rs 23,999 whereas 8GB + 128GB model is priced at Rs 25,999 on the official Amazon India website. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 07, 2020 05:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Customers buy and sell gold at a jewelry shop in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, August 7, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. A supply shortage in Vietnam has widened the difference between domestic and global gold prices, according to experts, but authorities reject the claim. Gold prices have been rising relentlessly this year as investors sought a safe haven amid the uncertainties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Vietnamese gold prices have always been higher than international rates, but in recent weeks the difference has been widening. Prices of the popular SJC gold on Saturday morning was VND60.3 million ($2,594.87) per tael of 37.5 grams (1.2 ounces). This translated into a difference of $150, up from $40-100 last month. Huynh Trung Khanh, senior consultant to the World Gold Council in Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia, said the growing difference could be because there is a short supply and gold sellers have hiked prices. The chairman of the Vietnam Gold Investment and Trading Corporation (VGC), Tran Thanh Hai, concurred with him saying local distributors like Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC) and DOJI are concerned about a shortage and have pushed their prices up. DOJI reported a 30 percent surge in the number of customers in July and this month from a year ago. Bao Tin Minh Chau, another seller, said at times in recent weeks demand was several times higher than in the same period in past years. But authorities dismiss this. Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the State Bank of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City branch, said there is no short supply of gold bullion. Gold companies are only pushing up prices to hedge the risks arising from the global volatility, he said. Vietnam, with reserves of nearly $90 billion, could intervene in both the gold and foreign currency markets if necessary, he added. Publicly-traded government technology and services companies have sounded more willing and able to describe to investors some hiccups in procurement activity they are seeing because of the coronavirus pandemic. Add Perspecta to that group -- at least based on comments from its fiscal first quarter earnings call with investors Thursday. Like some of its peers, such hiccups Perspecta sees appear specifically within the intelligence community as agencies have mostly shut the doors for on-site access to everyone but mission-essential personnel. Many contractor employees are working in shifts, but occupancy is still down everywhere. Perspecta CEO Mac Curtis told analysts that over half of our sites are now operating at less than or equal to 50 percent occupancy -- a description that could help illustrate how agencies also are managing the numbers of people at their sites and why procurement delays are happening. We've seen not only the dialogue, the RFPs (requests for proposals), any conversation about moving to awards has slowed down precipitously, Curtis said. There was one deal that was intell that was awarded a little earlier in the quarter, but a lot of the intell stuff is a little slow just because they haven't been able to get to work. Some good news for Perspecta that Curtis shared: they are down to only a couple of hundred people that are working on shifts or locked out completely. How do those agencies play catch up in this final quarter of the federal fiscal year, which is traditionally seen as one of elevated contract spending, and then the rest of this calendar year? As you start to get back online with some of the intelligence community organizations, they've got a pace that they're going to have to keep to get a lot of things that when they weren't working, they couldn't get in the building, Curtis said. The end of the government fiscal year, that should be pretty good, and hard to predict what happens in December with election in the middle, but there's a lot being backed up, Curtis added. A lot of awards that have to happen, a lot of contract extensions that have to get done, just to keep things moving. Other agencies present a different story. Perspecta booked $1.2 billion in second quarter awards primarily in the defense, civilian and health areas. That puts its book-to-bill ratio at 1.4 times sales on a trailing 12 month basis. Civilian and health is where Perspecta has been at work on a reboot and the company expects that segment to return to growth in the second half of its fiscal year. In the meantime, Perspecta is seeking to account for impacts from COVID-19 in its updated full fiscal year financial outlook that includes expectation of a $75 million hit to revenue and $20 million hit to adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). Second quarter revenue of $1.11 billion included a $23 million reduction because of COVID-19. The new guidance is complicated because of the NGEN contract situation now before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to settle. Perspecta now sees $4.26 billion-and-$4.41 billion in revenue with a 15-to-16 percent adjusted EBITDA margin. Excluding contributions from NGEN, the guidance is $3.66 billion-to-$3.81 billion in sales and a 15.5-to-16.5 percent margin. One item to watch regarding the NGEN situation is what the Navy could do to continue that contract to run the global network also used by the Marine Corps. Right now, Perspecta is under contract for the services piece through the end of December and then the contract would be handed off to Leidos. Curtis said that Perspecta and the Navy are discussing a six-month extension of the work with three one-month option periods after that, which would keep the company on the job at least through the end of June 2021 and potentially up to September 2021. Also of interest to analysts was how Perspecta sees the landscape for acquisitions and whether they are seeing the same improvement other strategic buyers have. Perspecta has made two deals since it launched two years ago, most recently in May for DHPC Technologies. Two factors Curtis pointed to as in the picture for sellers are whether there will be a continuing resolution through the election season and potential extension of the CARES Act authority that lets contractors reimburse agencies for the cost of paid leave for employees that cannot get to their work site during the pandemic. Those items aside, Perspecta joins the group of those who see the M&A environment as at least starting to look better. I think you'll start to see it start to pick up because I do think there's money building up on the sidelines. I think there's an appetite, we just need to see people put their properties on the market, Curtis said. It's like the housing market, right? Just there's not enough properties out there. So I do hope it will pick up... But it's been pretty slow. Portugal may soon be included in the quarantine-free travel list, if coronavirus cases in the country continue to drop. The holiday destination favourite could be added to the 'safe-list' in weeks meaning British tourists would exempt from the 14-day isolation on their return. Ministers are said to be happy that cases in Portugal are now at a safe level but are monitoring the progress in 'weeks' rather than 'days.' They are reportedly discussing options to add Portugal to the list of 'safe' countries and the change could come into effect by the end of the summer. Portugal may be included on the 'safe' list for British tourists in weeks if cases remain low Portugal was excluded from the list of countries that are exempt from quarantine that was published by the UK Government in July. The list has since been updated but Portugal has continued to be left off the list of 'travel corridors' amid fears at its level of coronavirus infections. The decision promoted anger from Portuguese officials at the time as Portugal relies heavily on tourism. Portugal's Ministry of State and Foreign Affairs said: 'It is a decision that is neither substantiated nor supported by the facts.' Brits travelling home from Portugal could be exempt from the 14-day isolation by the end of summer According to The Sun, this decision could be reversed if cases in Portugal remain low for the next few weeks. However, Whitehall officials reportedly don't want to signal the go-ahead to holidays on the Algarve only to have to swipe them if cases start to rise again. A Whitehall source told The Sun: 'Portugal has made a lot of progress but the process of for dropping quarantine is far more gradual, where we monitor progress in weeks rather than days.' This will likely delay the green-light being given for another two weeks. The Algarve is a popular holiday destination for British tourists and the country is heavily reliant on tourism Portugal has had fewer coronavirus cases and deaths than some other south European nations, including neighbouring Spain. Spain was pulled from the 'safe-list' two weeks ago and a 14-day quarantine was imposed for anyone arriving from Spain. The UK Government announced the last-minute decision, coming into effect overnight, on July 25 in the wake of a spike in coronavirus cases. The decision left an estimated 600,000 British holidaymakers already in Spain or those preparing to fly out 'panicking' about a fortnight-long mandatory quarantine when they return to the UK - leaving some unable to work. Ministers are said to be happy that cases in Portugal are now at a safe level but are monitoring the progress in 'weeks' rather than 'days' which could delay the green-light being given for another two weeks Portugal has had fewer coronavirus cases and deaths than some other south European nations, including neighbouring Spain People who breach the government's rules can be fined between 100 and 1,000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and those returning to Scotland could be fined 480, with fines up to 5,000 for persistent offenders. Home Office figures revealed that just nine Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued to nine people breaching foreign arrival quarantine rules so far. The UK's Border Force issued the notices in relation to their completion of the passenger locator form. The form allows arrivals from countries deemed high-risk - such as Spain, the US and Mexico - to tell authorities where they will be quarantining and provide contact details. Spain was pulled from the 'safe-list' two weeks ago and a 14-day quarantine was imposed for anyone arriving in the UK from Spain, with fears that France could be the next Meanwhile Belgium, Andorra and The Bahamas were removed from the 'safe' list today and it is feared France could be the next nation to be axed. The French health authority reported cases of coronavirus are up by a third in the last week. New infections are being monitored in France, which has seen a rise in cases recently. More than 2,200 confirmed coronavirus infections were recorded yesterday a new daily record since the lockdown was lifted in June. It comes as Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned holidaymakers of the risk of travelling saying that ministers 'wont hesitate' to take drastic action if needed. There are 1,585 scheduled flights to France from UK airports up until the end of August, with an estimated 264,000 passengers heading there by air. However, five other nations were recently placed on the approved air bridge list on July 28, including; Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Caribbean islands' nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion at this hour. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times. Soaked in blood of injured: Locals rush in to save Air India Express passengers Dozens of local residents rushed to the airport in Keralas Kozhikode on Friday as they heard a terrible thud after the Air India Express plane overshot the tabletop runway at the airport and fell into a valley 35 feet below. Read more ED questions Rhea Chakraborty for 9 hours in Sushant Singh Rajput death case The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned actor Rhea Chakraborty for over eight hours on Friday in a money-laundering case it has registered in connection with Bollywood celebrity Sushant Singh Raputs suspected suicide on June 14. Read more Study finds asymptomatic Covid-19 patients spread virus similar to symptomatic ones A South Korean study, published in medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine, has found that asymptomatic carriers of Covid-19 spread the virus similar to the symptomatic patients. Read more Our thoughts are with everyone: UN aviation body saddened by Kerala plane crash The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations specialised agency for aviation, expressed grief over the tragic plane crash that occurred in Keralas Kozhikode on Friday. Read more Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni on same page as leaders: Former India spinner Maninder Singh picks Sourav Ganguly as the best India captain Maninder who has represented India in 35 Tests and 49 ODIs between 1982 and 19993 taking 88 and 66 wickets respectively, believes it is very important for a captain to instill belief in his team and also back his players. Read more Kriti Sanon posts cryptic message as Rhea Chakraborty is questioned about Sushant Singh Rajput: Sun will shine again Actor Kriti Sanon has shared a post on social media, in which she has expressed the importance of waiting patiently for the storm to subside, and for the sun to shine again. Read more Capybara gets pranked by naughty meerkat, video will make you laugh out loud. Watch Shared on Twitter by IFS officer Susanta Nanda, a clip shows a meerkats mischievous practical joke may just brighten up your morning. Read more George Galloway has welcomed his sixth child, after his wife Putri Gayatri Pertiwi gave birth to a baby girl on Saturday. The former MP, 65, took to Twitter to announce his daughter's arrival, and revealed both wife Putri, 35, and their bundle of joy were doing well. This is George and Putri's third child together since they married in 2012, as he's also dad to three children from his previous marriages. Baby news: George Galloway has welcomed his sixth child, after his wife Putri Gayatri Pertiwim gave birth to a baby girl on Saturday George tweeted: 'We are delighted to announce the natural home-birth of our third child -a girl - at 1.41am -8lbs 6oz. 'Mother and baby are both doing well. Pictures later! She has three brothers and two sisters by the grace of God. Huge thanks to the truly wonderful midwives Karen and Lucy.' In March George announced that he and Putri were expecting their third child together, tweeting: 'By the Grace of God there should be another New Galloway along in the summer. 'By His Grace @gayatrigalloway and I are expecting our third child (my sixth) and we are truly grateful.' Surprise! The former MP took to Twitter to announce his daughter's arrival, and revealed both wife Putri, 35, and their bundle of joy were doing well Mr and Mrs: George married Putri an anthropologist, in a hotel in Amsterdam in April 2012 (pictured that year) 'It's a....:' George announced his wife was expecting their third child in April, after sharing a snap of her prominent bump after attending a 20 week scan She is a Dutch-born researcher of Indonesian heritage who took a degree in cultural anthropology at the University of Utrecht. From 1979 to 1999, George was married to his former teenage sweetheart, Elaine Fyffe. They had a daughter, Lucy, and separated in 1987 but did not divorce for a further 12 years. The politician had already taken Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad, a Palestinian scientist, as a second wife in a Muslim ceremony in 1994. A year after his divorce from Elaine in 1999, he married Amineh in a civil ceremony. In 2009 Amineh obtained an uncontested divorce citing unreasonable behaviour. In divorce papers she said the marriage had irretrievably broken down because his friendships with other women left her depressed. Exes: Galloway with his first wife and former teenage sweetheart, Elaine Fyffe. The pair were married from 1979 to 1999. They separated in 1987 but did not divorce for another 12 years Second: The politician wed Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad in a Muslim ceremony in 1994. A year after his first divorce in 1999, he married her in a civil ceremony By this time Galloway already had a son, Zein, with his Lebanese former researcher, Rima Husseini, whom he had married in a Muslim ceremony in 2005. Speaking after his fifth child was born in 2017, George said he wanted his family to keep growing. He said: 'It used to be the tradition of Irish Catholic immigrants to have six children, so I'm not stopping here. 'As long as God gives me breath - and energy - there will be more. It's the best thing that ever happened to me. 'There's nothing that keeps you young like your children climbing over your face in the morning to wake you up. It's life-enhancing.' Along with his numerous years as an MP, George is known to many for his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, when he delivered a toe-curling impression of a cat. She never shies away from flaunting her sensational figure. And Anna Vakili was sure to set pulses racing as she donned a busty metallic bikini in a sizzling Instagram snap shared on Saturday. The Love Island star, 30, looked sensational as she posed up a storm while enjoying a luxurious day out at the Martinez Private Beach Club in Cannes, France. Sizzling: Anna Vakili was sure to set pulses racing as she donned a busty metallic bikini while soaking up the sun in Cannes for an Instagram snap shared on Saturday Anna commanded attention in her stylish bikini which boasted a structured metallic top to highlight her ample cleavage. She wore her long brunette locks down for the snap and let her tresses cascade over her back as she tipped her head back. The beauty kept her accessories to a minimum for the sunbathing session, donning a stylish gold bracelet and having her Louis Vuitton bag next to the sun lounger. Anna has been soaking up the sunshine in the French Riviera, making luxurious stops in Monte Carlo and Saint-Tropez for the past week. Glam: The Love Island star has been enjoying a luxurious break away to the French Riviera, with stops in Monte Carlo and Saint-Tropez (pictured in Cannes) During her trip she has shared a selection of sizzling bikini snaps of her making the most of the warm weather. And in another glimpse at her holiday, Anna showed her followers that she had met up with another Love Island alum Francesca Allen. The duo along with some other pals appeared to have partied the day away on Thursday, sharing snaps of them dancing on tables and enjoying some drinks. However it looked like Anna was paying the price on Friday as she relaxed on a sun lounger while holding a wet towel to her forehead. Poser: Anna also flaunted her peachy derriere in a thong bikini while stopping for lunch at La Guerite in Cannes on Friday It comes after Anna shared a plethora of snaps and video clips of herself partying at hugely popular local restaurant L'Opera earlier in the week. Among the footage, Anna was seen holding onto the arm of a mystery man donning a white top, whose face she ensured wasn't shown on camera. While his face wasn't shown, Anna panned the camera over their appetisers and main courses, showing that she was dining with one other person at the eatery. Sore head? Anna held a wet towel to her forehead in an Instagram Story post shared on Friday, after partying with her pals the day before Reunion: During Anna's trip to Cannes she met up with Francesca Allen, with the pair dancing on a table at their lunch spot On Monday Anna raised eyebrows when she shared bikini snaps of herself with the caption: 'The only pictures my man takes for insta are my ones' suggesting she may be enjoying her summer break with a new beau. MailOnline contacted a representative for Anna Vakili for comment at the time. Anna also treated her Instagram fans to a series of scantily clad snaps after posing up a storm in blue lingerie on her hotel balcony in Monte Carlo. The star flaunted her curves in the cornflower blue thong and lacy balcony bra on Monday, captioning the images: 'Life's sweet baby.' Anna appeared on ITV2's hit show Love Island in 2019 but had little luck in the villa, as two days after coupling up with Jordan Hames, he made moves on India Reynolds. Beau? Anna shared footage of herself enjoying a night out with a mystery man, whose face she ensured was kept away from the camera, earlier in the week Hint hint: On Monday, the reality star appeared to suggest she's embarked on a new romance More than 121,000 utility customers across New Jersey were still without power Saturday morning, four days after Tropical Storm Isaias swept across the state and left uprooted trees and broken electrical wires in its path. Here are the numbers of outages reported by the states three major utility companies as of 9:30 a.m. Saturday: JCP&L : 93,621 customers out of 1,131,724 93,621 customers out of 1,131,724 PSE&G : 24,000 customers out of 2,326,730 24,000 customers out of 2,326,730 Atlantic City Electric: 3,620 customers out of 545,636 3,620 customers out of 545,636 Atlantic City Electric attributes only 1,100 of its 3,620 outages to the tropical storm, according to a media release issued by the company on Saturday. Other customers remain without service due to the severe storms that moved through South Jersey on Thursday and Friday, Frank Tedesco, Senior Communications Specialist for Atlantic City Electric, confirmed. Moreover, as of 1:30 p.m. Saturday, 7,747 of the 72,322 New Jersey customers served by Orange & Rockland Utilities, Inc. were still without power. These powerless customers are located in Bergen and Passaic counties; none of their customers in Sussex County, the third of three New Jersey counties served by the company, are without power. Across New Jersey, 1.4 million homes and businesses reported losing power during or immediately after the fast-moving tropical storm. During his coronavirus press briefing on Friday, Gov. Phil Murphy acknowledged his frustration over the high outage numbers, recognizing that about 310,800 households still remained without power at that time. If youre one of the 310,800 and you dont have power ... I dont blame you for being upset and frustrated, Murphy said. Adding that the state will conduct a full after-action postmortem, as is standard in the aftermath of major storms, Murphy said JCP&L sticks out. Theyre good folks. I cant explain exactly why it feels like each and every time we talk about their service area, but ... about 222,000 of those almost 311,000 are their customers, Murphy said. Utility crews work to restore power in Jackson Township on Aug. 5, 2020, after Tropical Storm Isaias swept across New Jersey. Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for Murphy is not the only official to publicly recognize the power companys slow restoration of power to its customers. Mayors across the state and county officials have widely condemned JCP&Ls response to Tropical Storm Isaias, singling out their poor communication and inefficient progress in the wake of the storm. In a media release issued by JCP&L on Friday, the company said customers with continued power outages after Friday will be restored by 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday. FirstEnergy continues to work closely with its utility companies and mutual assistance organizations to secure additional resources to assist with restoring all impacted customers, the utility said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com. Jerry Falwell supports petition to change name of Lynchburg; calls city name an embarrassment Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. expressed his support for changing the name of Lynchburg, the Virginia city where his prominent evangelical Christian school is based. Although noting that the city is named after John Lynch and not the racially charged practice of lynching, Falwell said in a statement released last Friday that it would end any confusion. I personally support changing the name of the city of Lynchburg. Its been an embarrassment to Liberty University ever since we started, stated Falwell. That was one of the reasons Libertys original name was changed from Lynchburg Baptist College to Liberty Baptist College in 1976. Falwell added that many people from Liberty have told me that when they travel and tell people where theyre from, theyre often asked, Why in the world would you want to live in a racist place like that? Its because people take lynch and they think it means there were lynchings here, when the truth is it was named after a Quaker, he continued. Falwells statement came in response to a petition aimed at changing the name of the Central Virginia city of around 82,000 people due to concerns over its similarity to the term lynching. The online petition, which has as of Monday morning more than 5,500 signatories, was started by an individual named Daisy Howard to bring to the Lynchburg City Council. I understand it was named after a man named John Lynch, but why do we insist on explaining that when people react to its name poorly (understandably so)? Why do we insist on defending it? We understand the power in the word, stated Howard. We can honor John and his family by removing the word that has grown to mean something he would not be proud of. Recently, longstanding debates over names and imagery considered racist have reignited following the highly publicized killings of African Americans, mainly George Floyd. Many of these debates have centered on more overtly controversial items, such as Confederate imagery on public property or the Mississippi state flag. In Richmond, the capital of Virginia, multiple statues honoring Confederate generals that were prominently displayed on Monument Avenue have been removed over the past several days. This will eventually include the statue dedicated to General Robert E. Lee, which in particular has been the subject of many large protests and much vandalism in recent times. Donald Trump let Steve Mnuchin and Peter Navarro fight over the future of TikTok in a 'vicious' Oval Office 'verbal brawl' which the Treasury Secretary won convincing the president the Chinese app should be bought by Microsoft, according to anonymous sources. People familiar with the matter told the Washington Post how the fate of the Chinese video sharing app boiled down to a shouting match in the White House between the two men. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin argued TikTok should be sold to a US company while Trade Adviser Navarro disagreed calling for a total ban of the service on US soil, they said. The behind the scenes fight marked the latest saga in a political back and forth over how to handle the social media giant and culminated in Trump's decision to grant a 45-day deadline for a sale to be reached before it will be banned. TikTok is ready to strike back against the move, with the video-sharing service prepared to file a lawsuit as soon as Tuesday, according to NPR. Donald Trump let Steve Mnuchin (left) and Peter Navarro (right) fight over the future of TikTok in a 'vicious' Oval Office 'verbal brawl' which the Treasury Secretary won convincing the president the Chinese app should be bought by Microsoft, according to anonymous sources Sources told the Post the decision came about after Mnuchin and Navarro went head to head in what one described as a 'knockdown, drag-out' brawl in front of the president and several aides late last week. Mnuchin said he had spoken with Microsoft bosses and argued in favor of a sale to the tech giant on national security grounds, the Post reported. However, Navarrao blasted Mnuchin for being too soft on China and demanded TikTok be banned altogether, they said. The alleged clash marked the latest in a string of clashes between the two advisers, after the duo reportedly became embroiled in a slanging match on a trip to Beijing back in 2018. One former official told how the two men have long locked horns when advising the president, with Navarro 'the devil on [Trump's] shoulder while 'governor' Mnuchin likes to 'slow everything down'. 'I think Trump's instincts are to be aggressive toward China,' they said. People familiar with the matter told the Washington Post how the fate of the Chinese video sharing app boiled down to a shouting match in the White House between the two men TikTok plans to sue Trump over his ban, insider says TikTok is reportedly planning to sue the Trump administration over the president's executive order banning the Chinese app from the US. The video-sharing service is prepared to file a federal lawsuit as early as Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of California, NPR reported Saturday, citing an unnamed source who was directly involved in the forthcoming litigation. The outlet said TikTok will argue the order Donald Trump signed on Thursday is unconstitutional because it did not give the company an opportunity to respond, and that the national security justification given for the ban is baseless. 'It's based on pure speculation and conjecture,' the source said. 'The order has no findings of fact, just reiterates rhetoric about China that has been kicking around.' The White House declined to comment on the expected legal battle when approached for comment by NPR. However, spokesman Judd Deere did defend Trump's order, saying: 'The Administration is committed to protecting the American people from all cyber related threats to critical infrastructure, public health and safety, and our economic and national security.' In a statement TikTok vowed to 'pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure... our company and our users are treated fairly - if not by the Administration, then by the US courts'. Advertisement 'Navarro's like the devil on his shoulder, saying, 'Do it, do it.' Mnuchin is more like a governor, trying to slow everything down 'What about Wall Street? What about Phase 2 [of the trade deal]?' Navarro blasted the claims of a 'vicious' spat as 'hyperbole' but added that 'what happens in the Oval Office, should stay in the Oval Office'. 'One of the great strengths of the Trump administration is the president's reliance on strong, often opposing views, to reach decisions which are invariably in the best interests of the American people,' Navarro said in a statement to the Post. 'Because this is true, it is critical for a strong America that 'what happens in the Oval Office, should stay in the Oval Office' so I have no comment on what is clearly a malicious leak riddled with hyperbole and misinformation.' His comments come after the trade adviser hinted at his disapproval for the deal earlier this week when he questioned whether Microsoft's ties to China. 'The question is, is Microsoft going to be compromised?' he asked in an interview with CNN. Treasury Department spokesperson Monica Crowley confirmed to the Post that Mnuchin did participate in a meeting with the president to update him on national security recommendations but refused to comment on the specifics of the meeting. On Thursday, Trump issued executive orders giving TikTok parent company ByteDance 45 days to reach a deal to sell the app or its US arm will be shuttered. The order claims TikTok 'may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party,' and specifically cites TikTok videos that 'spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus'. It also states that the company 'reportedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive, such as content concerning protests in Hong Kong and China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities'. 'The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security,' it adds. Along with the executive order, Trump sent a letter to the House speaker and Senate president explaining the move. The letter states that TikTok 'automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users'. The behind the scenes fight culminated in Trump's decision this week to grant a 45-day deadline for a sale to be reached before it will be banned WHAT DOES MICROSOFT STAND TO GAIN FROM BUYING THE US ARM OF TIKTOK? TikTok's catchy videos and ease of use has made it popular, and it says it has tens of millions of users in the U.S. and hundreds of millions globally. Its parent company, ByteDance acquired Shanghai-based video app Musical.ly in a $1 billion deal in 2017 and relaunched it as TikTok the following year. In its statement, $1.5 trillion company Microsoft said it may invite other American investors to participate on a minority basis in the purchase of TikTok. Financial terms were undisclosed. ByteDance was valued at as much as $140 billion earlier this year. Any deal with Microsoft to buy TikTok could be worth billions of dollars. It could also expose the company, which already owns Xbox, LinkedIn and Skype, to tech savvy teens. Advertisement 'This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information - potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage,' it continued. This marked the outcome of weeks of flip-flopping from the president where he first said he would grant a sale of the app, then moved to ban it, before approving a sale once again. The executive orders sent stocks tumbling worldwide overnight and sparked fears of a backlash from Beijing. Meanwhile, Trump has said the US treasury should pocket a 'very substantial' portion of the TikTok sale. Microsoft has reportedly been in talks to acquire TikTok in a firesale, and Trump's order has now given the tech giant until September 20 to complete the deal. In a separate executive order, Trump issued a similar ban on the Chinese-owned messaging service WeChat, accusing the app of funneling personal information to the Chinese Communist Party. The TikTok saga has rumbled on far longer than the controversy over the last two weeks. Sources told the Post there has been many months of behind the scenes dealings. The US first raised concerns over TikTok being a potential national security threat last summer. This turned into a full-scale national security investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States this year, with concerns raised that the Chinese government could be accessing personal data on the app. ByteDance has denied that it shares data with the Chinese government, and Chinese state media blasted the US response to TikTok as 'madness'. Under a Chinese law introduced in 2017, companies there have an obligation to support and cooperate with the country's national intelligence work. Doug Leone, global managing partner of major TikTok investor Sequoia Capital, sought to persuade Trump to help the company, a source told the Post. Leone, who has given $100,000 to Trump's reelection campaign and sits on his reopening task force, allegedly said he would use his relationship with Trump to influence his decision over the video service. However, the White House ramped up its investigation when India banned the app at the end of June. Last month, the House of Representatives voted to bar federal employees from downloading the app on government-issued devices as part of a proposal offered by Representative Ken Buck. On Thursday, the US Senate then unanimously voted to approve a bill banning federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices. A finalized version of the bill, combining the House and Senate versions, would need Trump's approval to become law. Meanwhile, Microsoft has expanded its talks on TikTok to a potential deal that would include buying the global operations of the fast-growing video-sharing app, the Financial Times reported Thursday. Microsoft declined to comment on the report, after previously disclosing it was considering a deal for TikTok operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. According to the report, Microsoft has shifted its view because of the complexities of splitting the app and making it operable globally. TikTok operates in 150 countries. BRIDGEPORT Seven United Illuminating crews arrived in the city Saturday to work on power restoration for the more than 1,000 customers still without power in the states largest city. Mayor Joe Ganim said the seven UI crews were backed by city tree crews as cleanup and restoration efforts continued across Connecticut after Tuesdays damaging storm. A Louisiana man will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, according to a decision last week rendered by the state Supreme Court. His crime? Trying to steal hedge clippers from another persons home in 1997. In a 5-1 verdict, the court left intact the life sentence given to Fair Wayne Bryant, 62, all but closing off his final chance at reducing it. According to Louisiana law, the crime of attempted simple burglary carries no more than 12 years behind bars, but because the 1997 offense was his fourth felony, Bryant, who is Black, received a life sentence in 2000. The justices declined to review the sentence, which was upheld by the state appeals court in 2019, according to the decision. One justice recused himself. The Louisiana Supreme Court decision has sparked an outcry, and experts say the harsh punishment is hardly unique in a state that mandates that sentencing for a fourth felony be no less than 20 years in prison. There are hundreds of thousands of individuals who are in American prisons in Louisiana, in Mississippi and Florida and California, around the country, who have similar stories, Nicole Porter, director of advocacy at the Sentencing Project, told Yahoo News. Louisiana Supreme Court Building in New Orleans. (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) The courts ruling is also notable for the sharp dissent from Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, the only Black justice on the court and the first African-American to become its chief justice. This mans life sentence for a failed attempt to steal a set of 3 hedge clippers is grossly out of proportion to the crime and serves no legitimate penal purpose, Johnson wrote. Bryant, who was 38 at the time of the crime, was accused of stealing the clippers from the carport at a mans home in Shreveport in January 1997, according to the 2000 appellate decision. A police officer later found Bryant along with a pair of hedge clippers in a van that fit the description of the suspects vehicle. The homeowner identified Bryant as the person who was in his carport and said the clippers were his. Bryant said the clippers belonged to his wife. Story continues Bryant was sentenced to life because of four prior convictions, one of which was an attempted armed robbery. All his convictions, Johnson wrote in her dissent, involved a theft of some kind. Such petty theft is frequently driven by the ravages of poverty or addiction, she wrote, and often both. In her dissent, which was first reported by the Lens, a nonprofit news organization in New Orleans, Johnson said habitual offender laws are the modern manifestation of Pig Laws, which she defined as measures passed in some Southern states after Reconstruction that sought to re-enslave Black Americans by introducing extreme sentences for petty theft. Pig Laws undoubtedly contributed to the expansion of the Black prison population that began in the 1870s, Johnson wrote. In the PBS project Slavery by Another Name, historian Khalil Muhammad says Pig Laws focused on enhancing penalties for what had once been a misdemeanor [it] now becomes a felony. The exterior of the Supreme Court of Louisiana in New Orleans. (Paul Richards/AFP via Getty Images) It explains the level of punitiveness around robbery and burglary offenses and other property offenses in the United States, Porter told Yahoo News. Porter pointed to the case of Travion Blount, a Virginia man who was sentenced to six life terms for helping rob a house party in 2006 when he was 18, the Virginian-Pilot reported. Then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe pardoned Blount in 2018, reducing his sentence to 14 years. A criminal code that can sentence somebody to life for a robbery, for a property crime, values property more than it values human life, Porter said. And it is certainly rooted in the American imagination of who commits those crimes and the lack of value that the American imagination placed on those individual lives when those criminal codes were first adopted. And because white elites imagined Black residents as a potential offender in those times, it explains why those are viewed as rational sentences. Because the Louisiana Supreme Court isnt required to review every case that goes through the appellate process, its unclear where Bryant goes from here. Chris Aberle, the director of the Louisiana Appellate Project, which represented Bryant, told Yahoo News they can go as far as the Louisiana Supreme Court. The court can be asked for a rehearing, but thats only if the court actually reviewed the case, according to Aberle. The denial is final. Cases like Bryants arent common, he said, but they also arent rare. Theres no shortage of life sentences imposed for fourth-time offenders, regardless of the seriousness of the fourth offense, Aberle said. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: The mishandling of the pandemic fallout and his bid for early elections could bring down the Israeli prime minister. Akiva Eldar is an Israeli author and was formerly an editorial writer and columnist for Haaretz. Not long ago, I wrote an opinion piece for Al Jazeera English, suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will go down in history as the first leader who owes his seat to a virus. Indeed, in April, it was the public fear of the pandemic that made Blue and White alliance leader Benny Gantz violate his election promise to voters not to form a coalition with Netanyahu. The incumbent prime minister had used the military call for everyone to get under the stretcher to urge his political rivals to join forces with him in defeating the common viral enemy. He had presented an either-or option either a so-called unity government merging the political right and centre-left, or a fourth legislative election, which would be a blatantly unpatriotic, virtually treasonous choice. Gantz heeded his call and is probably already regretting it. Today, it increasingly seems like Netanyahu is not only unable to handle the political and economic fallout of the pandemic, but is also willing to throw the country into turmoil to save himself from jail. While Israel is facing a second COVID-19 wave, hospitals are filling to capacity, unemployment and bankruptcies are surging, and a budget hole is threatening Israels global financial standing, Netanyahu is pushing for a new election, despite just months earlier demonising such a prospect. In July, reports in the Israeli media revealed that the prime minister is seeking to dissolve the coalition and trigger early elections in a bid to regain control of the justice ministry and make sure that he is not forced from his seat to face trial. In effect, Netanyahu is dragging Israelis to the ballot box for the fourth time in less than 18 months at the start of what is forecast to be a grim winter. But this time, it may bring about his political demise. On August 2, coalition whip Knesset member Miki Zohar likened the relationship between Netanyahus Likud and Gantzs Blue and White to a couple that wants to divorce and are about to sign on it any minute. The brash lawmaker, who is one of Netanyahus closest confidants, added that it doesnt matter what we do, it is about to be over between us and Blue and White. Netanyahu has no guarantee of getting custody of most of the children, especially the many undecided and unemployed who are so sick of the whole thing that they may just leave their political home altogether. An April poll gave Netanyahus handling of the health crisis a 68 percent approval rating, whereas in the July Israeli Voice Index conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute only 25 percent of respondents approved of his performance in dealing with the crisis, and only 30 percent of the way he is running the government. In the spring of 2020, the coronavirus smiled on Netanyahu, portraying him as a national hero who brought the epidemic to heel, an irreplaceable unique leader worthy of glory and, of course, clemency. When the epidemic reared its head again in June, and Israel starred among the worlds most dangerous states, Netanyahus bragging that Israel was doing better than most countries became comedy stand-up grist. Netanyahu, who initially imposed stringent measures to stem the COVID-19 spread, decided to ease restrictions at the end of May under strong public and political pressure. He ignored the experts advising his National Security Council who insisted on adopting an orderly model for easing the lockdown, which might have significantly reduced the spread of the disease. In a June 27 letter to Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, the team wrote that the country has lost control of the pandemic and warned that absent immediate steps to stop the infections, Israel could find itself under another lockdown. Along with disregard for the advice of medical experts, Netanyahu displayed insensitivity over the economic plight of the many Israelis hard hit by the pandemic, including some one million unemployed and tens of thousands of small business owners. The government financial support to those in need has been too little and too slow. Despite the growing public anger, at the end of June, Netanyahu demanded that the Knesset approve retroactive tax refunds for expenses at his private villa in Caesarea. He eventually expressed regret over the timing, but not over the actual demand, which the Knesset granted His next lapse in judgement, which could cost him his seat, was lashing out at those demonstrating outside his official Jerusalem residence against government corruption, alongside artists, students, social activists and many others who feel the government has abandoned them to their fate Netanyahu painted the protesters as anarchists and leftists out to topple a strong right-wing leader. Contrary to his claims, the tens of thousands of protesters in Jerusalem and elsewhere around the country are hardly anarchists funded by extreme left organisations. Among the protesters I met, there were Likud voters, religious and ultra-Orthodox Israelis and even fans of the Netanyahu family. On July 31, Channel 12 aired a monologue by interior designer Moshik Galamin who had previously starred in Netanyahus election campaign clips. I am concerned about my future and that of my self-employed friends, those about whom you up there do not give a damn, the Tel Aviv celebrity opined on primetime television. This is definitely not an issue of right or left and I am quite definitely not an anarchist. You obviously know that I am not against you. I am simply Moshik Galamin, an independent businessman, a concerned citizen living in this country, who wants you to take me into account, too. The July Israeli Voice Index indicates that most Israelis do not want elections at this time not over the budget impasse between Netanyahu and Gantz or for any other reason. Netanyahu is already pointing the finger of blame at Gantz, who insists that Netanyahu honour his coalition agreement with Blue and White and submit a two-year budget rather than the one-year budget on which he now insists for what is left of 2020. The near future does not bode well for Netanyahu, and not only because of the refusal of the virus to meet his personal interests. In November, he may not only lose the election but he could also lose his White House benefactor and find himself having to deal with Democratic majorities in both chambers of the US Congress. As of January 21, his diary will be full of court appearances to defend himself against charges of corruption, and invariably against petitions arguing that he is unfit to remain in office. The virus that put Netanyahu in control now seems to augur his political demise. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. President Trump enters the White House press briefing room on Aug. 5. (Associated Press) As President Trump's standing in opinion polls falls and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic continues to come under withering criticism, letter writers expressing support for him rarely defend his record as much as they disparage his opponents. So, when a pro-Trump reader sent us a letter praising the president for his job performance (while taking a few easy shots at his critics, including the L.A. Times), I did not balk at publishing it. That didn't sit well with some readers. About three dozen sent us responses, and all but a few of them took issue with the decision to publish the letter or the writer's assessment of the Trump presidency as "promises made, promises kept." Here is what some of them said. Brian Symington of Los Angeles recaps some of Trump's most notable pledges: The letter from the Trump supporter is shocking in its ignorance of reality. He wrote that Trump's record is one of "promises made, promises kept." Hillary Clinton is not in prison, Mexico has not paid for a wall, the coronavirus has not disappeared, the economy is in a shambles, and the U.S. is currently a global laughingstock. Unfortunately, many of Trump's supporters live in denial. Catherine Crook of Camarillo explains "obsessions" over race, class and gender: The pro-Trump reader ends his letter by saying he will take "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness over obsessions about race, gender and class any day." White, straight, reasonably well-off males have had little to no impediments to their rights since the country's beginning. Women, however, weren't enfranchised until 1920 and still are underrepresented in public and private leadership. We earn less than men for comparable work. Nonwhite people have had to struggle through endless impediments to their ability to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as have nonstraight people and people living below the poverty line. We have to "obsess" over race, gender and class if we want to enjoy equal rights. Story continues Thus, we will not stop agitating. Marylane Graham of Costa Mesa was pleasantly surprised: It is no secret that the L.A. Times has a negative opinion of the president, so I was amazed and very pleased to see that it printed this letter. I agree with the opinion that Trump's record is one of "promises made, promises kept," and I will also cast my vote for him this November. Most of today's media have been negative and insulting to this president and his family. I hope that the L.A. Times will become more balanced on its opinion page. D.J. Ponder of Torrance notes a contradiction: What peculiar thinking of a local resident seeking life liberty and pursuit of happiness, but supporting a would-be monarchial autocrat. Preventing the coronation is what the Democratic Party's efforts are all about. Air India Express plane carrying 184 passengers crashed while landing at Karipur Airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening. Check how Bollywood celebrities expressed their grief over the loss of life. Bollywood actors Kareena Kapoor Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Akshay Kumar and others expressed grief over the loss of lives in the tragic crash-landing incident at Kozhikode International Airport in Kerala. At least 18 passengers died and over 120 were injured, including 15 seriously, when a plane coming from Dubai met with an accident at Karipur airport in Kozhikode, Malappuram Superintendent of Police (SP) said on Friday. Kareena Kapoor Khan shared a statement grieving the incident. Heartbreaking news..Prayers and condolences to the families of everyone affected in the #AirIndiaCrash at Kozhikode. A big salute to the late Captain Deepak Saithe, whose timely decision saved many lives. Deepest condolences to his families and also those of other crew members who lost their lives, she said. Actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra, on the other hand, took to Twitter to express grief over the tragedy and said, Extremely saddened by the devastating news about the plane crash in Kozhikode. I pray for the speedy recovery of all who are injured, and extend my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. May the souls of the departed rest in peace #AirIndiaCrash #KozhikodeAirCrash, she tweeted. Extremely saddened by the devastating news about the plane crash in Kozhikode I pray for the speedy recovery of all who are injured, and extend my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. May the souls of the departed rest in peace#AirIndiaCrash #KozhikodeAirCrash SHILPA SHETTY KUNDRA (@TheShilpaShetty) August 8, 2020 Terrible news! Praying for the safety of all the passengers and crew onboard the #AirIndia Express flight. My deepest condolences to those who have lost their loved ones Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) August 7, 2020 Condolences to the families who lost their members in the Kozhikode crash. Best wishes to those recovering in Hospitals. Kudos to the citizens of Calicut and the under-equipped staff of the airport. More strength to the already overworked medical professionals of Kerala. Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) August 8, 2020 Sonali Bendre Behl also took to Twitter to pray for the speedy recovery of the injured. Heart wrenching to see what happened in #Kozhikode. Strength and prayers to the families who lost loved ones. Praying for a speedy recovery for all those injured, she tweeted. Former Miss India Dia Mirza also expressed sorrow over the tragic incident and said, Deeply saddened to hear of the tragic @airindiain plane crash in Kozhikode. Expressing shock over the tragic incident, actor Akshay Kumar tweeted, for the Terrible news! Praying for the safety of all the passengers and crew on board the #AirIndia Express flight. My deepest condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. Esha Gupta expressed grief over the demise of the pilot, and tweeted, Prayers and condolences to the family and loved ones of Cpt Deepak Vasanth Sathe Sir. He wasnt just a regular trained pilot, he served as the Experimental Test Pilot in the IAF.RIP sir #AirIndiaExpress. Ajay Devgn took to Twitter and wrote, Disturbed by the #AirIndia flight tragedy. My prayers are with all the passengers and crew members onboard and deepest condolences to those who lost their loved ones. Disturbed by the #AirIndia flight tragedy. My prayers are with all the passengers and crew members onboard and deepest condolences to those who lost their loved ones. Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) August 7, 2020 Very heartbreaking to hear about the #KozhikodeAirCrash. Prayers and healing to the injured passengers. Deepest condolences and strength to those who have lost their loved ones Shraddha (@ShraddhaKapoor) August 7, 2020 Very tragic to hear about the #CalicutAirCrash. We mourn the loss of Wing Cmdr.DVSathe & Akhilesh Kumar who died saving passengers. Heartfelt condolences & strength to their families & those who lost their loved ones. Prayers & healings to the injured passengers.#CalicutAirCrash Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) August 8, 2020 Preity Zinta extended her condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and tweeted, Pained to hear about the Air India flight mishap at Kozhikode Airport. Praying for the health and safety of the passengers and the crew on board. My deep condolences to the family and friends of those who have lost their loved ones. Very heartbreaking to hear about the #KozhikodeAirCrash. Prayers and healing to the injured passengers. Deepest condolences and strength to those who have lost their loved ones., tweeted Shraddha Kapoor as she felt heartbroken to hear about the tragic incident. My heart goes out to the passengers and crew members onboard the #AirIndia flight. Deepest condolences to the bereaved families who lost their loved ones. Thoughts and prayers, tweeted Shah Rukh Khan. Megastar Amitabh Bachchan also prayed for the families of the deceased and said, A terrible tragedy .. Air India crash in Kerala, Kozhikode airport, plane skids off the runway on landing in heavy rain .. Prayers. Condolences to the families who lost their members in the Kozhikode crash. Best wishes to those recovering in Hospitals, tweeted southern superstar Kamal Haasan. Kudos to the citizens of Calicut and the under-equipped staff of the airport. More strength to the already overworked medical professionals of Kerala, he added. Very tragic to hear about the #CalicutAirCrash. We mourn the loss of Wing Cmdr.DVSathe & Akhilesh Kumar who died saving passengers,Heartfelt condolences & strength to their families & those who lost their loved ones. Prayers & healings to the injured passengers. #CalicutAirCrash Shatrughan Sinha tweeted. Randeep Hooda wrote, Terribly shocking to hear the tragic news of Aircraft crash of the #AirIndia that overshot the runway in Kozhikode which was Flying back from Dubai Prayers for the safety of all the passengers and crew members at Calicut airport. Esha Gupta took to Twitter as she expressed concern over the plane accident. She wrote, Praying for safety of everyone aboard the #AirIndiaExpress . Deeply shocked by the tragic crash landing of the #AirIndia aircraft that overshot the runway in Kozhikode. Prayers for all passengers, pilots & crew onboard and at Calicut Airport. Terrible year this year, wrote Disha Patani on Twitter. Actor Sunny Deol took to Twitter and wrote, Keral mein #airindia express vimaan ke durghatanaagrast hone se gahara dukh hua. Sabhee yaatriyon aur chaalak dal ke sadasyon kee suraksha ke lie praarthana karate hain. (Deeply saddened by the AirIndia Express plane crash in Kerala.We pray pray for the safety of all the passengers and crew members. Deeply saddened to hear of the tragic @airindiain plane crash in Kozhikode Heart goes out to families of the Pilots and Passengers May the injured recover soon. Dia Mirza (@deespeak) August 8, 2020 My heart goes out to the passengers and crew members onboard the #AirIndia flight. Deepest condolences to the bereaved families who lost their loved ones. Thoughts and prayers Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) August 7, 2020 Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar expressed grief over the tragic incident. He tweeted, Deeply saddened to hear about the #AirIndiaExpress tragedy at #Kozhikode My deepest condolences with the bereaved families and prayers for speedy recovery of passengers & crew members.#calicut @airindiain#AirIndiaExpress #kerala. Hoping and praying that there are no casualties, music composer Salim Merchant tweeted, Oh my God! Not anymore this year has been so unfortunate for everyone! I hope there are not too many casualties. Prayers. An Air India Express plane carrying 184 passengers including 10 infants, which was coming from Dubai, skidded while landing at Karipur Airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening. Two special relief flights have been arranged from Delhi and one from Mumbai for rendering humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and the family members in the crash-landing incident at Kozhikode, according to Air India Express. Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Flight Safety Departments have reached to investigate the incident, the Air India Express stated. Americans are being urged to, forced to, guilted into, and bullied into wearing masks. If we don't wear masks, Democrats smugly tell us, we're selfish killers who have no regard for the life and safety of others. But is that true? It turns out that the science about masks is anything but settled and that masks come with some significant downsides. Even as Fauci the Hypocrite says masks for thee but not for me, serious scientific authorities are moving in the other direction. Holland's scientific community holds that masks don't help and could hurt: 'Face masks in public places are not necessary, based on all the current evidence,' said Coen Berends, spokesman for the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. 'There is no benefit and there may even be negative impact.' [snip] [The Outbreak Management Team] believes they detract from a clear three-pronged message that has kept deaths from coronavirus down to less than half the rate in Britain: wash hands regularly, maintain social distancing of 1.5 metres and stay at home if suffering any symptoms. The one exception outside of the medical frontline has been on public transport, where masks are mandatory on the basis it is difficult to stay apart on crowded buses, ferries and trains. [snip] 'The evidence for them is contradictory. In general, we think you must be careful with face masks because they can give a false sense of security. People think they're immune from disease or stop social distancing. That is very negative.' Judging by what I see around me, the Dutch are correct. Most people handle and wear their masks in a way that confers minimal benefits and that can, instead, trap the virus inside people's masks. The Danes feel the same as the Dutch do: "All these countries recommending face masks haven't made their decisions based on new studies," said Henning Bundgaard, chief physician at Denmark's Rigshospitale, according to Bloomberg News. (Denmark has since updated its guidelines to encourage, but not require, the use of masks on public transit where social distancing may not be possible.) Adding to the mask debate is an announcement from two prominent New York dentists who claim that masks, by causing chronic dry mouth, are driving up the incidences of dangerous tooth decay and gum disease. They label this problem "mask mouth" and say it has the potential to be deadly: "Gum disease or periodontal disease will eventually lead to strokes and an increased risk of heart attacks," says Dr. Marc Sclafani, another co-founder of One Manhattan Dental. What's also changing the mask debate is that those well-run Asian countries that wear masks most of the time, and that seemed to have avoided the Wuhan virus, are suddenly being hit hard, despite the masks: [T]he case for masks has taken another body blow as we are seeing large spikes in heavy mask wearing countries like Japan and the Philippines. And the mask compliance champion as declared by the @nytimes Philippines pic.twitter.com/6fyxkS9j5v Kyle Lamb (@kylamb8) August 4, 2020 [snip] Just focusing on the United States, the states that had little masking early on did the best early on. Meanwhile, disaster areas like New York, which adopted mandates early, did far worse. California has never opened back up and has had a mask mandate. They ended up with the same spikes that Texas and Florida saw, which are now receding with far less deaths per capita than the North East saw during their spikes. Again, there's absolutely no correlation to be found. Like the famous Mesopotamian story Appointment in Samarra, it appears that, for now, we can no more outrun the Wuhan virus than we can outrun death. In some ways, the worst thing of all about masks is how they erase who we are. At the store, when you smile at a small child in a shopping cart, and the child stonily stares at you, you realize that the child doesn't see you. He sees eyes, and that's all. The compelling emotional states that the human mouth is capable of showing have vanished. Is that person mad at me? Happy to see me? Friend or foe? We can no longer read our fellow citizens. Even when we're in a room together, we are isolated from each other. Our entire nation men, women, and children has all the emotional expressiveness of a room full of women in burqas. Our individuality something that lies at the very heart of our inherent rights as expressed in the Bill of Rights becomes meaningless when we are all masked ciphers. If people want to wear masks, let them. But until we know that Dr. Fauci and his team are looking at the science, as the Europeans are, rather than making it up as they go along, mandatory masks have no place in America. Image: No, they've run out of face masks, by Bauschron; CC A-SA 4.0. The statement was made by Politburo member, Secretary of Party Central Committee (PCC) and Head of the PCCs Commission for Communications and Education Vo Van Thuong while attending the 10th national congress of the VMA for 2020-2025 tenure which took place in Hanoi on August 7. Speaking at the event, Politburo member Thuong lauded the achievements the VMA has made over the past years. He emphasised that music contributes to bringing the image of the land and people of Vietnam to the world as well as being an effective spiritual tool to create a connection across all borders and territories and called for solidarity to overcome all difficulties, especially the Covid-19 pandemic. Musicians and others working in the music field should thoroughly grassp the publics concerns as well as limitations and shortcomings to take measures for the development of the countrys music, added the Politburo member. He asked the VMA to continue to effectively implement the Party Central Committees resolutions and conclusions on the builidng and development of literature and the arts in this new period. It is crucial to uphold the values of traditional music in the context of the market mechanism, globalisation and the fourth industrial revolution, noted Politburo member Thuong. He urged the associatoin to improve professionalism in music activities and improve the position of Vietnamese music in all fields of creation, performing, theoretical research, criticism, and training. The congress elected 21 members of the VMAs Executive Committee for the 2020-2025 tenure. Associate Professor, Dr. Do Hong Quan was re-elected as the associations president. Virgin Atlantic Airways has been granted US bankruptcy protection as Richard Branson's carrier pursues a 1.2bn (1.3bn) rescue plan in the UK. The provisional ruling in Manhattan yesterday protects the airline's American assets and ensures that the debt reorganisation will be overseen under the British legal process. After Virgin's next major restructuring step in the UK, the company will return to the US court in September asking to make the protections permanent. That next step will be a meeting of creditors scheduled for August 25 where any holdouts can be forced to accept the restructuring even if some classes vote against it. Virgin Atlantic says that only one of four creditor groups, comprising trade suppliers, hasn't backed the plan yet. The rescue will bring in new money from Mr Branson and US hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management, while requiring a restructuring of existing debt. Bloomberg London: The Australian victim of the devastating explosion in Beirut has been identified as two-year-old Isaac Oehlers. In a statement, Isaac's family said: "We are heartbroken by the sudden and tragic loss of our beautiful boy following the disaster in Beirut. "Isaac was two and will be deeply missed by family and friends. Two-year-old Isaac Oehlers was killed in the blast. Credit: "The family would like to thank everyone who has offered comfort and support to us, and would like to express our condolences to everyone in Lebanon who is suffering from this devastating tragedy. DUBLIN, Aug. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "US Acne & Rosacea Market: Insights, Trends & Forecast (2020-2024)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The US acne market is expected to reach US$4.49 billion in 2024, recording growth at a CAGR of 4.12% during the period spanning 2019-2024. The US rosacea market is expected to reach US$1.8 billion in 2024, growing at a CAGR of 5.92% during the period spanning 2019-2024. Growth in the acne and rosacea market has accrued due to the rising youth population, the increasing purchasing power of consumers and escalating healthcare expenditure. The market is anticipated to experience certain trends like growing awareness about acne & rosacea and their treatments and the increasing importance of personal appearance. The US acne & rosacea market would face challenges regarding entry of generic drugs and side effects of therapies. Scope of the Report The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the US acne & rosacea market. 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 (Allergan, Bausch Health Companies, Leo Pharma, Sol Gel Technologies, Foamix Pharmaceuticals & Galderma) are also presented in detail. Market Segmentation and Insights The US acne market by drug type can be segmented as follows: topical drugs and oral antibiotics. In 2019, the higher share of the market was held by topical drugs, followed by oral antibiotics. The US acne topical drugs by brand can be segmented into the following: Epiduo Franchise, Aczone Franchise, Retin-A-Franchise, Onextin/Acanya and Veltin. In 2019, the dominant share was held by Epiduo Franchise, followed by Aczone Franchise. The US acne oral antibiotics by brand can be segmented as follows: Solodyn, Acticlate, Doryx Franchise and Targadox. The highest share of the market was held by Solodyn, followed by Acticlate and Doryx Franchise. The US acne addressable population by severity can be segmented as follows: moderate patients, mild patients and severe patients. The largest share of the market was held by moderate patients. The US rosacea market by drug type can be segmented as follows: topical drugs and oral antibiotics. The dominant share of the market was held by topical drugs segment in 2019. The US rosacea drug revenue by brand can be segmented into the following: Metrogel, Oracea, Soolantra, Finacea, Vasoconstrictors and Minocycline. In 2019, the dominant share of the revenue was generated by Metrogel, followed by Oracea. Key Topics Covered 1. Market Overview 1.1 Acne 1.1.1 Acne Overview 1.1.2 Causes & Symptoms of Acne 1.1.3 Classification of Severity 1.1.4 Treatment for Acne 1.1.5 Acne Treatment Continuum 1.1.6 Limitations of Acne Treatments 1.2 Rosacea 1.2.1 Rosacea Overview 1.2.2 Symptoms and Causes of Rosacea 1.2.3 Treatment for Rosacea 2. The US Acne Market 2.1 The US Acne Market Forecast by Value 2.2 The US Acne Market by Drug Type 2.3 The US Acne Topical Drugs by Brand 2.4 The US Acne Oral Antibiotics by Brand 2.5 The US Acne Market Forecast by Product 2.5.1 The US Minocycline Revenue Forecast 2.5.2 The US Retin-A Generics Revenue Forecast 2.5.3 The US Epiduo/Epiduo Forte Revenue Forecast 2.5.4 The US Aczone Revenue Forecast 2.5.5 The US Onexton Revenue Forecast 2.5.6 The US Solodyne Revenue Forecast 2.5.7 The US Oracea Revenue Forecast 2.5.8 The US Ziana Revenue Forecast 2.6 The US Acne Prevalence Forecast 2.7 The US Acne Addressable Population 2.7.1 The US Acne Addressable Population Forecast 2.7.2 The US Acne Addressable Population by Severity 2.7.3 The US Moderate Acne Population Forecast 2.7.4 The US Mild Acne Population Forecast 2.7.5 The US Severe Acne Population Forecast 2.8 The US Acne Topical Treatment Population 2.8.1 The US Acne Topical Treatment Population Forecast 2.8.2 The US Acne Topical Treatment Population by Severity 2.8.3 The US Acne Topical Treatment Moderate Population Forecast 2.8.4 The US Acne Topical Treatment Moderate Population Forecast 2.8.5 The US Severe Acne Topical Treatment Population Forecast 2.9 FMX101 2.9.1 The US FMX-101 Drug Market Share Forecast 2.9.2 The US FMX-101 Drug Cost Forecast 2.9.3 The US FMX-101 Drug Revenue Forecast 2.10 TWIN 2.10.1 The US TWIN Drug Patient Population Forecast 2.10.2 The US TWIN Drug Market Share Forecast 2.10.3 The US TWIN Drug Cost Forecast 2.10.4 The US TWIN Drug Revenue Forecast 2.11 SIRS-T 2.11.1 The US SIRS-T Drug Patient Population Forecast 2.11.2 The US SIRS-T Drug Market Share Forecast 2.11.3 The US SIRS-T Drug Cost Forecast 2.11.4 The US SIRS-T Drug Revenue Forecast 3. The US Rosacea Market 3.1 The US Rosacea Market Forecast by Value 3.2 The US Rosacea Total Cases Forecast 3.3 The US Rosacea Market by Drug Type 3.3.1 The US Rosacea Market Revenue and Prescription by Brand 3.4 The US Rosacea Prevalence Forecast 3.5 The US Rosacea Addressable Population 3.5.1 The US Rosacea Addressable Population Forecast 3.5.2 The US Rosacea Addressable Population by Severity 3.5.3 The US Mild Rosacea Population Forecast 3.5.4 The US Moderate Rosacea Population Forecast 3.5.5 The US Severe Rosacea Population Forecast 3.6 The US Rosacea Topical Treatment Population 3.6.1 The US Rosacea Topical Treatment Population Forecast 3.6.2 The US Rosacea Topical Treatment Population by Severity 3.6.3 The US Moderate Rosacea Topical Treatment Population Forecast 3.6.4 The US Mild Rosacea Topical Treatment Population Forecast 3.6.5 The US Severe Rosacea Topical Treatment Population Forecast 3.7 FMX103 3.7.1 The US FMX-103 Drug Market Share Forecast 3.7.2 The US FMX-103 Drug Revenue Forecast 3.8 VERED 3.8.1 The US VERED Drug Patient Population Forecast 3.8.2 The US VERED Drug Market Share Forecast 3.8.3 The US VERED Drug Cost Forecast 3.8.4 The US VERED Drug Revenue Forecast 4. Market Dynamics 4.1 Growth Drivers 4.1.1 Increasing Youth Population 4.1.2 Rising Purchasing Power 4.1.3 Escalating Healthcare Expenditure 4.1.4 Vast Market Opportunity 4.1.5 Sedentary Lifestyle and Unhealthy Eating Habits 4.2 Key Trends & Developments 4.2.1 Growing Awareness 4.2.2 Increasing Medical Tourism 4.2.3 Preference for Minimally Invasive Procedures 4.2.4 Importance of Personal Appearance 4.3 Challenges 4.3.1 Entry of Generic Drugs 4.3.2 Side Effects of Acne and Rosacea Therapies 4.3.3 Tough Regulations 5. Competitive Landscape 5.1 Global Market 5.1.1 Revenue Comparison - Key Players 5.1.2 Market Capitalization Comparison - Key Players 5.1.3 Research & Development Comparison - Key Players 5.1.4 Global Acne Market- Drug Comparison by Company 5.1.5 Global Late Stage Acne Market- Drug Comparison by Company 5.1.6 Global Mid Stage Acne Market- Drug Comparison by Company 5.1.7 Global Rosacea Market- Drug Comparison by Company 6. Company Profiles 6.1 Bausch Health Companies, Inc. 6.1.1 Business Overview 6.1.2 Financial Overview 6.1.3 Business Strategies 6.2 Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. 6.3 Allergan PLC 6.4 Sol Gel Technologies Ltd. 6.5 Galderma 6.6 Leo Pharma For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5kf6le Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com A member of a unit deployed by the military to disinfect Son Tra District in Da Nang, August 3, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong. Vietnam confirmed 30 new Covid-19 infections in four localities Thursday evening, taking the number of active cases to 345. Twenty of the new cases are in Da Nang, six in neighboring Quang Nam Province and one in the northern province of Bac Giang Province, all linked to the Da Nang outbreak. The remaining three cases in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau are imported, health authorities said. One of the confirmed cases in Da Nang, "Patient 718," a 67-year-old woman, died of Covid-19 and other diseases Wednesday afternoon, making her Vietnam's 10th Covid-19 fatality. Patients numbered 719-723 and 730, aged 30-51, were recorded in Quang Nam. Among these are two patients and a caretaker at the Da Nang Hospital and three people who had been in close contact with patients at the hospital who were later diagnosed with Covid-19. All six are now quarantined for treatment at the Quang Nam Central General Hospital. Patients numbered 724-729 and 731-743 , aged 1-69, were recorded in current Covid-19 hotspot Da Nang. Nine of them had come into close contact with Covid-19 patients. Five of them are patients, three caretakers and another a medical worker at Da Nang medical facilities. Another new patient is from Da Nang's Thanh Khe District, whose contact history has not been clarified. "Patient 744" is a 7-year-old girl in Bac Giang who had been in close contact with two previously confirmed Covid-19 patients and was in the same tourist group to Da Nang with three other Covid-19 patients. She's now being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. Patients numbered 745-747 were on a ship which traveled from Qatar and docked July 28 at the Vung Tau Port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. They were quarantined upon arrival and are now being treated at the Long Dien District medical center. Six others on the ship had previously been confirmed infected. Also Thursday, 11 Covid-19 patients at the Ba Ria-Vung Tau General Hospital were confirmed to have recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 392. The number of community transmission cases in Vietnam since July 25 has risen to 295 in 11 localities, all of them associated with Da Nang. Over 170,000 are in quarantine nationwide The pandemic has infected over 19 million people so far and its reported death toll has crossed 711,000. That captain requested the assignment to the Capital Cove Marina. But a dispatcher at the Districts Office of Unified Communications instead sent rescuers to the Anacostia Community Boathouse in the 1900 block of M Street SE, more than five miles away by road, and on the wrong river. The use-by dates on meat sold in supermarkets are to be extended. Bosses at the Food Standards Agency reviewing the shelf life of beef, lamb and pork are set to give the go-ahead for longer expiry dates before Christmas. Chilled beef, including cuts sold in trays with plastic wrappings, are currently given ten-day use-by labels. But in future, this timeframe is expected to be raised to 21 days in the fridge, with pork and lamb having 15-day and 14-day deadlines respectively. Bosses at the Food Standards Agency reviewing the shelf life of beef, lamb and pork are set to give the go-ahead for longer expiry dates before Christmas (file photo) The move follows a scientific report by British and Australian experts, funded by UK supermarkets and processors, which found it was possible to extend the shelf life of chilled meat without any incidence of botulism or safety issues. The report has already been assessed by the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food. FSA chief executive Emily Miles has now ordered further risk assessments before a report this autumn to the agency board. The move is part of a new drive to reduce 380,000 tons of meat waste a year in the UK, which is valued at 3 billion and is responsible for four million tons a year of greenhouse gas emissions. It is part of a drive to reduce 380,000 tons of meat waste a year in the UK, which is valued at 3bn and is responsible for four mil tons a year of greenhouse gas emissions (file photo) Around 243,000 tons of this meat is discarded by households. David Lindars, co-chairman of a joint FSA and meat industry committee overseeing the issue, said he expected approval before the end of the year. Mr Lindars, technical operations director of the British Meat Processors Association, said: 'We are optimistic shelf-life will be extended. 'At the end of the day, it is a decision for manufacturers and retailers to set the shelf life of meat products. But longer use-by dates will be a significant factor in reducing meat waste.' The urgency for an extended shelf-life is flagged up in a new report from the Waste and Resources Action Programme, which has the backing of farmers, processors, retailers and the catering industry. The 26-page Meat In A Net Zero World study also calls on consumers to help cut food waste and sets a target for a reduction of 100,000 tons in uneaten meat by 2030. According to WRAP, households throw out an average of 146,000 tons of pork per year alone including 34,000 tons of sausages, 22,000 tons of bacon and 21,000 tons of sliced ham. Research shows that around 20 per cent of these products are in unopened or almost full packs. The FSA spokesman said: 'We are currently undertaking a review of evidence regarding the shelf-life of vacuum and modified atmosphere packed chilled fresh beef, lamb and pork' with completion expected later this year.' During the pandemic, everyone is in need: Candace Cameron Bure teams with Salvation Army to help Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Actress Candace Cameron Bure has teamed up with the Salvation Army for a back to school give back to help meet the needs of families struggling financially during state lockdowns in response to the novel coronavirus. The Fuller House star, author and queen of Hallmark Christmas movies, has been working with The Salvation Army for many years as an ambassador so she jumped at the opportunity to link arms with them during the COVID-19 pandemic. "They help over 23 million Americans every single year but during back to school time, it's often a huge financial burden for a lot of families. To the point that some families have to choose whether they're going to put food on the table or buy their children's school supplies, Bure told The Christian Post in an interview on Wednesday. The Salvation Army is there to help, and they're asking everyone to get involved and help to pick up a few extra school supplies while you're out shopping or even shopping online, she said. The nonprofit organization is asking people to Stuff the Bus and donate supplies at nearly 4,500 Walmart stores around the country this weekend, Aug. 7-9. People can drop off new school items in one of the bins at Walmart or search their local Salvation Armys Registry for Good to donate online. The Salvation Army will make sure all supplies are given to children in the local community. "It's just a huge relief, the actress said. "What I love so much about The Salvation Army is that wherever you donate, it stays in your local community. So just know that you will be helping the children in your community," she stressed. A Salvation Army spokesperson recently told CP that people living in poverty are feeling the effects [of COVID-19] quicker and more significantly than others impacted by the virus. Because of these impacts, The Salvation Army is rapidly evolving services to ensure low-income individuals and families have access to desperately needed resources like food and shelter, the spokesperson added. The humanitarian ministry has provided more than 65 million meals to people nationwide affected by job loss and financial hardship due to state-enforced business closures in response to COVID-19. "During the pandemic, we just know that everyone is in need, everyone is in more need than normal, Bure declared. The Salvation Army has always been there to help. They do so much and not just with the back to school campaign. Salvation Army provides emotional care, spiritual care, they provide shelter, and meals for families, they provide daycare for all kinds of frontline workers." Bure said she believes the pandemic is helping people realize, We're not OK anymore. There's a lot of job loss, people can't go back to work and the struggles are very prevalent for all of us." As a way to encourage others to give to the cause, Bure read her book, Grow Candace Grow on social media. "I've written two children's books. I actually have a third one that will be out in January, but this is a series for 4- to 8-year-old kids, Bure who now has nine books under her name, said of her latest release. Reading was my all-time favorite activity to do with my children when they were little. I absolutely love reading because it's acting. You get to be these people in the book or the characters or give voices to the animals, whatever it is. So I've always loved it. It was always a dream of mine to write children's books. "In each book, you learn a little lesson. And that's what I love. As a mom, I always want to read something that gives our kids either a lesson to be learned or that we can talk about and discuss, she added. So in this book [Grow Candace Grow], it's all about having patience. Bure maintained that regardless of the times she will continue to be a positive force in Hollywood and on social media. "My relationship with God is my guiding light. I'm a Christian and I love the Lord with all my heart. I don't leave that at the doorstep when I work or if I'm on my social media; it is who I am! Bure declared. I love being able to use that platform of social media to share Scripture and hope that God gives each and every one of us because He loves us all so much. "I've just found that during this time, people are searching and wanting. And I feel incredibly blessed and humbled that people have found my social media as a form of hope and inspiration, knowing that they can come there and listen to God's Word. I just love it because God and His Word is the truth in my life, and I want to share that with everyone. I think it's the only source of real hope. More information about The Salvation Army's Stuff of Bus campaign can be found on its website. Keralas Model of containment of the Covid-19 pandemic was hailed not only in India but all over the world. After reporting the countrys first case on January 30, when a student returning from Wuhan tested positive in the Thrissur district, the state authorities, through a slew of measures that included innovative contact-tracing and isolation, strict policing and a robust local public healthcare system, flattened the curve by early May. From April 30 to May 12, Kerala either had no new cases of Covid-19 or the number was in single digits. The state had a total of just 577 cases on May 15. However, the government started to ease restrictions and open up certain sectors from mid-May in order to revive the economy. In addition, non-resident Keralites started returning home from May 7 on repatriation flights from the Gulf. By the third week of July, about half a million had made their way back from within India and abroad. As a result, there was a spike in cases from May 20. The national lockdown was also lifted on the 31st. The easing of curbs led to some laxity and social distancing norms were violated. The number of daily cases started to rise and crossed 100 for the first time on the 5th of June. The gradient has been steep over the last month. Although Kerala has the lowest number of cumulative Covid-19 cases among the major states of India, its cases have increased by over five times from the July 6 and its growth over the last month is the fourth-highest only after Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar. Kerala breached the 1,000-daily cases barrier on July 22 and since then has recorded above 1,000 daily cases on 10 of the 16 days. It reached its current peak of 1,310 cases on July 31. The capital of the state, Thiruvananthapuram, has borne the worst of the second wave in Kerala with cases rising by more than 20 times over the last month. The coastal regions have been severely affected with Poonthura and Pulluvila witnessing community spread. Thiruvananthapuram has averaged 225 daily cases for the last couple of weeks with a high of 377 on August 2. It went into a triple lockdown on July 6 a strategy which was successfully implemented in the hotspot Kasargod district in April. It basically means that the police will monitor and intervene at three different levels to control the community spread in the district. Even as the cases rise, there are two big positives for Kerala their low Positivity Rate and Mortality Rate. The states Positivity Rate of 3.4% is one of the lowest amongst all the states in the country. Amongst major states, only Punjab (3.3%) and Rajasthan (3%) have a lower Positivity Rate in India. Maharashtra with a Positivity Rate of 19.4%, Telangana 13.3%, Delhi 12.6%, Karnataka 10% and Tamil Nadu 9.2% are the worst 5 affected on this count. Most importantly, Kerala has done a remarkable job in keep the mortality numbers low. A total of just 98 Covid-19 deaths have been reported from the state the lowest among all the major states in India. Kerala had reported a total of just 4 deaths till the 24th of April. There were no deaths between the 25th of April and the 21st of May. Although, there have been 70 lives lost due to Covid-19 during the last month, the Mortality Rate in this period is just 0.28%. Overall, Kerala has the lowest Mortality Rate of 0.3% among major states in the country. The next couple of weeks will be crucial for Kerala. Will the state be able to re-implement its highly successful model of containment or will it go the Karnataka way? Time will tell. Air India Express Plane Crash Updates:The Union minister's remarks came after some aviation experts pointed out that his ministry had cleared wide-bodied planes to land in tabletop airports like Kozhikode Auto refresh feeds The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Civil Aviation Ministry senior officials, Airports Authority of India and Air Navigation Service members will Saturday hold a meeting in Delhi over the crash landing of the Air India Express flight at Kerala's Kozhikode International airport on Friday. The Kozhikode International airport in Kerala is unsafe and landing should not be allowed especially during wet conditions, Captain Mohan Ranganathan, a member of a safety advisory committee constituted, had warned more than nine years ago, Times of India reported. A DGCA official on Saturday said that the Digital Flight Data Recorder was recovered from the aircraft, while the floorboard was being cut to retrieve the Cockpit Voice Recorder, ANI reported. "Inspection is underway and the the DGCA has called for an inquiry," he told ANI. MoS external affairs V Muraleedharan, who reached the Kozhikode plane crash site early on Saturday, said he saw debris and the aircraft broken into two portions. He added that some part of aircraft was torn apart during rescue operations. Those who were involved in rescue operations at Kozhikode Airport should go into self-quarantine. State Government to conduct COVID-19 tests of all, said health minister KK Shailaja on Saturday. Two passengers who were on board the Air India Express flight that crashed at Kozhikode International Airport on Friday have tested positive for COVID-19, according to News18. Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has recovered Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder from the aircraft. These will be brought to Delhi for further investigation, ANI reported. The team includes Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta, State Police Chief Loknath Behera, Health Minister KK Shailaja, Industries Minister EP Jayarajan, Minister for Ports Ramachandran Kadannapally, Minister for Transport AK Saseendran and Excise Minister TP Ramakrishnan. Kerala Governor Arif Muhammad Khan and a team of Cabinet Ministers led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan have left Thiruvananthapuram for Karipur in Kozhikode in a special flight operated by Air India. Citing information from the Air Traffic Controller (ATC), the spokesperson said the aircraft touched down near taxiway 'C', which is approximately 1,000 metres from the beginning of runway 10. The total length of the runway is 2,700 metres. An AAI spokesperson said that runway 28 was in use and in the first landing attempt, the pilot could not sight the runway and requested for runway 10. The pilot of the flight could not sight the runway in the first landing attempt due to heavy rains. The Air India Express plane touched down near a taxiway that is around 1,000 metres from the beginning of the runway at the Kozhikode International airport, according to Airports Authority of India (AAI). One of the 18 passengers, who died in the Kozhikode plane crash on Friday, has tested positive for COVID-19, Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel told PTI. She said that the samples of the passenger, Sudheer Varyath (45), were sent for testing and it has returned positive for the disease. Called "Angels of Air India", this special assistance team had come together after the Mangalore air crash in May 2010 as well to offer assistance, including grief counselling to family members of the deceased. An Air India special assistance team has reached Kerala to provide support and assistance to families members of the 190 people who were on board the Air India Express flight that crashed at airport in Kerala's Kozhikode on Friday evening, NDTV reported. Reached Kozhikode to take stock of the status and implementation of relief measures after the air accident last evening. Will hold consultations with senior civil aviation officials and professionals, said Hardeep Singh Puri, Civil Aviation Minister. "The team is flying to Delhi and investigation will proceed. It is too early to tell at this point on whether it was technical error or human error. It's a 8,000 ft long runway, which is sufficient for a Boeing 737 to land. The aircraft landed 3,000 ft off that means something; a judgment call," News18 quoted Kumar as saying. After the Digital Field Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder were retrieved on Saturday, DGCA chief Arun Kumar said that it was too early to comment whether the plane crash at Kozhikode International Airport happened due to a technical glitch or a human error. People, wearing masks and disposable gloves, lining up outside blood banks have evoked praises on social media. Visuals of people queuing up outside blood banks in various hospitals in Kozhikode, to ensure that the injured passengers receive best treatment, have surfaced. Despite heavy rains, people volunteering to prepare food packages for distressed passengers show that humanity persists even in the face of a pandemic. Beginning with the news of landslide in Idukki district that killed 18 people, Kerala met with the second adversity on Friday when an Air India Express flight from Dubai crashed on landing at the Kozhikode International Airport, killing 18 people and injuring over 125. Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Saturday said that a probe into the incident is underway. He announced Rs 10 lakh interim relief for the kin of each of the deceased, Rs 2 lakh for the seriously injured and Rs 50,000 for those who suffered minor injuries. Cousin of co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar who lost his life in the Kozhikode plane crash said that his wife is expected to to deliver their child in the next 15-17 days. "Akhilesh joined Air India in 2017 and had come home last, before lockdown," said the cousin. The airline also said that the family of deceased co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar was also escorted from Delhi to Kozhikode. Pilot-in-command Deepak Sathe was an experienced Boeing 737-800 aircraft pilot, Air India Express said on Saturday. It added that the family members of the deceased were escorted to a Kozhikode hospital where his mortal remains were kept for post-mortem. Post-mortem examination of those who died in the Kozhikode plane crash will be completed by 3 pm on Saturday, The Hindu quoted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. He was speaking at a press conference held at the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode after he visited the injured. "A few patients are in critical condition, three of them are on ventilators. We visited the site of crash and two black boxes have been recovered," said Puri. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said that the precise cause of Kozhikode plane crash can be determined only after data analysis of the black boxes recovered from the aircraft. The medical expenses of those under treatment will be taken over by the state government, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at a press meet at Kozhikode Medical College. Kerala Governor Mohammed Arif Khan was also present. The Kerala government has announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to the families of those who died in the Kozhikode plane crash on Friday. At least 149 people are in various hospitals of Malappuram and Kozhikode, out of which 23 are in critical condition, said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan during the press meet at Kozhikode Medical College. Aviation regulator DGCA had issued a show-cause notice to the director of the Kozhikode airport on July 11 last year after it found "various critical safety lapses" in different places, including the runway and the apron, officials said on Saturday. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation pointed to cracks on the runway, water stagnation and excessive rubber deposits among other lapses in its show-cause notice. The DGCA conducted the inspection after an Air India Express flight coming from Dammam in Saudi Arabia had a "tail strike" while landing at the Calicut (Kozhikode) airport on 2 July last year, an official told news agency PTI.. "We are identifying our personnel, who rescued the passengers who have tested positive for the coronavirus," CISF Special Director General (Airports) M A Ganapathy told PTI. Another senior officer said the force has information that two passengers have tested positive for COVID-19. Around 50 CISF personnel and their family members were involved in the rescue operation and they have been asked to self-quarantine, he said. The force will also conduct COVID-19 tests of those who were exposed, the officer said. The CISF has directed its personnel to go into preventive quarantine after at least two passengers of the Air India Express flight that crashed in Kozhikode tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Saturday. The Central Industrial Security Force said it was the "first responder" to rescue passengers as its Assistant Sub-Inspector Ajit Singh was on runway patrol when the flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the table-top runway, fell into a 35-foot valley and broke into two on Friday. Fathima, another passenger, said the flight landed with heavy force and moved forward. Ashik, undergoing treatment at a hospital here, was thankful to the fire personnel who reached immediately and moved the injured to safety. Vijaymohan, who escaped with minor injuries and is recovering in a private hospital, said he thought it was a nightmare, unsure whether he was dreaming it all or living through it.are." I could see heaps of twisted metal spread around when I opened my eyes after the initial shock of the impact," said Vijayamohan, a resident of Malaparamba.His wife Jameema is admitted in the ICU. The couple had gone to Dubai in December to join their son but got held up due to the COVID-19 induced lockdown. Riyas' body was buried this afternoon at the Mollur Juma Masjid Khabarstan adhering to COVID-19 protocol, police said. Nizamuddin has been admitted to a hospital in Kozhikode with serious injuries. A villager said Riyas' family had fixed his engagement later this month after he completed the mandatory COVID-19 quarantine period. "Unfortunately, we lost him in the tragedy.We are in a state of shock," one of his friends told reporters. village are in a state of shock afer news emerged that Riyas, who was working with his brother Nizamuddin in Dubai, had died in the accident. It is a wedding that will never happen as the Air India Express plane crash at Kozhikode snuffed out the life of the prospective young bridegroom. Muhammed Riyas, 24, had taken the flight on Friday evening along with his brother after his parents fixed the marriage. His friends and local people at his native Mollur Both Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express have put up black logos on social media to offer condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the Kozhikode plane crash. Eighteen persons lost their lives while many were injured. On Saturday, he said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) should enforce the correct runway code for Kozhikode airport. "No aircraft larger than a 737 or a 320 should be permitted to land there. They should not permit any landing during monsoons on runway 10. The DGCA should enforce that all airlines should comply and do their monsoon training before the monsoons what is called ALAR training they have to do it without failure," he said. ALAR is Approach and Landing Accident Reduction. Aviation safety expert Captain Ranganathan, who had earlier flagged concerns about Kozhikode airport runway, on Saturday said regulator DGCA should not allow landing of flights during monsoons on runway 10 at the aerodrome. "Death due to an accident is something which happens when you don't know but when you knew the danger existed and you were warned about it and you took no action and an accident takes place, then it is definitely murder," Ranganathan told PTI. It is among the five table-top airports in the country along with Kozhikode, Mangalore (Karnakata), Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) and Pakyong (Sikkim). A day after the Kozhikode plane crash, an official asserted that Mizoram's Lengpui airport is safe for landing of passengers flights upto Airbus 320 and cargo flights. J Lalhmingliana, Principal Consultant in the Civil Aviation wing of the General Administration department, told news agency PTI that the runway having 2,500 metres length and whose breadth is 45 metre wide, has enough space and is strong enough for safe landing. Lengpui airport, the lone one in Mizoram, is located about 32 km northwest of capital Aizawl. I would like to remind my colleagues that the aircraft involved in the incident at Kozhikode was a B-737-800 which is NOT a wide body aircraft. As far as wide body aircraft are concerned, DGCA had carried out a thorough assessment & prescribed comprehensive mitigation measures. pic.twitter.com/7jjQS3deAd He said that the runway had been strengthened and flights were being operated after due permissions were obtained for wide body aircrafts. "Kozikhode Airport has a total footfall of 3.2 million passengers per annum with 70-80 aircraft movement per day. The total wide body operations are only 4 percent of the total," he said. Responding to criticism that the Kozhikode air crash occurred as landings were allowed despite several warnings, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri urged his fellow politicians and media to exercise patience, saying that the accident was being probed and the findings will be made public. In a series of tweets, Puri said that the aircraft involved in the incident at Kozhikode, a B-737-800, was not a wide body aircraft. "As far as wide body aircraft are concerned, DGCA had carried out a thorough assessment and prescribed comprehensive mitigation measures," he said. The short point is that raising such concerns is the normal work of @DGCAIndia . DGCA also strictly ensures that these are complied with & rectified under all circumstances. This was done by the airport operator. The bodies of pilot Deepak Sathe and First Officer Akilesh Kumar were handed over to their families on Saturday, reports PTI. The relatives came with the AIE officials and the remains were taken to Ernakulam to be taken to their respective native places,Malappuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan told the news agency. Kozhikode district collector S Sambasiva Rao told PTI that the bodies were embalmed after conducting post-mortem at the Medical College hospital in Kozhikode and were handed over to the families by evening. Air India Express Plane Crash Updates: Responding to criticism that the Kozhikode air crash occurred as landings were allowed despite several warnings, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri urged his fellow politicians and media to exercise patience, saying that the accident was being probed and the findings will be made public. At least 149 people are in various hospitals of Malappuram and Kozhikode, out of which 23 are in critical condition, said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan during the press meet at Kozhikode Medical College. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced Rs 10 lakh interim relief for the kin of each of the deceased, Rs 2 lakh for the seriously injured and Rs 50,000 for those who suffered minor injuries. After the Digital Field Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder were retrieved on Saturday, DGCA chief Arun Kumar said that it was too early to comment whether the plane crash at Kozhikode International Airport happened due to a technical glitch or a human error. An Air India special assistance team has reached Kerala to meet the families of the 190 people on board the Air India Express flight. Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has recovered Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder from the aircraft. These will be sent to Delhi for further investigation. Two passengers who were on board the Air India Express flight that crashed at Kozhikode International Airport on Friday have tested positive for COVID-19, according to News18. At least 18 were killed after a Dubai-Calicut Air India Express flight carrying over 190 passengers, including infants and crew members skidded off the tabletop runway at Kerala's Kozhikode International airport on Friday evening. Both the pilot and the co-pilot were killed in the crash when the aircraft fell into a 35-feet-deep valley before splitting into two parts. Four crew members are safe, Air India Express said in a statement. According to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, at 127 were admitted to hospitals and others have been released. Our task would have been much more difficult if the plane had caught fire. I am going to the airport (Kozhikode International Airport in Karipur): Hardeep Singh Puri, Civil Aviation Minister #Kerala https://t.co/4jXb4PAxQI ANI (@ANI) August 8, 2020 The aviation minister said a formal inquiry will be conducted by Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB). "Our task would have been much more difficult had the plane caught fire," Puri told ANI. Of the injured, at least 20 are in a critical condition, with some receiving spinal cord injuries due to the impact, Hindustan Times quoted hospital sources as saying. A DGCA probe team arrived in Kozhikode along with junior minister of external affairs V Muraleedhran early on Saturday. Kerala: Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan reaches #Kozhikode where Air India flight (IX-1344) crash-landed yesterday. 17 people including two pilots have lost their lives in the incident. Injured are admitted to hospitals in Malappuram & Kozhikode. pic.twitter.com/DimUR6tAhU ANI (@ANI) August 8, 2020 The Boeing 737 aircraft was coming from Dubai and was operating under India's Vande Bharat mission, an initiative to bring back stranded Indians from foreign countries. The flight was attempting to land in a bad weather when it overshot the runway around 7.40 pm on Friday and fell off the embankment. Speaking to India Today, Puri said, "Weather conditions being what they are, I'm told the aircraft couldn't be brought to a halt. As a tabletop airport, it imposes a challenge. There was a 30-foot drop to the ground below. Fortunately, the plane that broke into two didn't catch fire." Craft was at 'full speed' Puri will arrive at Kozhikode on Saturday afternoon. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told news agency ANI that the Dubai-Kozhikode aircraft was at "full speed". In a statement, the DGCA said, "Visibility was 2,000 metres and there was heavy rain." It said the flight, IX-1344, shot runway 10. The Kozhikode International airport, is known for its 'tabletop' runway - a runway located on the top of hills/terrain. Called as of the riskiest landings, the runway is raised up quite a bit over its surroundings with deep gorges at both ends. The pilot of the flight was a former Air Force pilot who also flew Airbus 310 for Air India before moving to Air India Express flying the Boeing 737. Wing Commander Deepak Sathe has won 'Sword of Honour' at AFA, was accomplished fighter pilot, and was HAL test pilot too, according to CNN-News18. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and governor Arif Mohammad Khan will visit Kozhikode on Saturday to meet those injured in the flight crash, ANI reported. "Two special relief flights have been arranged from Delhi and Mumbai, respectively, for rendering humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and the family members. AAIB, DGCA and Flight Safety Departments have reached to investigate the incident," Air India Express was quoted as saying by ANI. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 01:39:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on May 4, 2020 shows boxes of donated face masks before shipment at Wanxiang America's headquarters in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, the United States. (Xinhua) BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi said Friday that China and the United States need to jointly safeguard the foundation of bilateral relations and protect the friendship between the Chinese and American people. He made the remarks in a signed article titled "Respect History, Look to the Future and Firmly Safeguard and Stabilize China-U.S. Relations," which was published Friday. "From the outset of the normalization process, China-U.S. relations have always been based on the common understanding that both sides recognize and respect each other's different social system," said Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee. He recalled that leaders and statesmen of the elder generation in China and the United States acted in the fundamental interests of the two peoples and made the political decision of historic significance with their exceptional strategic vision and political courage to rise above the differences in ideology and social systems. Some U.S. politicians claim that in engaging and entering into diplomatic relations with China, the original U.S. purpose was to change China, and that U.S. policy of engagement with China has become a total failure, Yang said. "Their allegations are fanfare for ideological confrontation and the Cold War mentality," Yang said. "They are nothing short of discredit to the enormous efforts and contributions made throughout past decades by people across the two societies to promote the development of China-U.S. relations." "We need to take an attitude that is responsible to history and to the people. We need to stand up for what is right and set the record straight," he said. BRIDGEPORT State judicial officials will be re-opening courthouses around Connecticut for in-person criminal proceedings next week in an effort to clear the thousands of criminal cases that have been backlogged as a result of the pandemic. Nicknamed 25 at 2, starting Monday, non-incarcerated criminal defendants are being invited back to court 25 at a time. Its all being done with safety in mind, said Ralph Dagostine, director of criminal matters for the state Judicial Branch. We want to dispose of cases but we want to do it safely. The pandemic forced the temporary closure of a number of state courthouses in March and the suspension of thousands of criminal cases. While Priority One cases those involving major felonies and domestic violence were still being arraigned in court through video conferencing, all other cases involving defendants free on bond were continued to later and later dates. There is no schedule when criminal trials will reconvene. As of June 19, according to the Judicial Branch, there were 73,647 pending criminal and motor vehicle cases in the state. The geographical courts, which handle the minor felony cases, misdemeanors and motor vehicle cases, account for 71,079 of the pending cases. The Bridgeport GA court on Golden Hill Street has about 9,000 pending cases. Two weeks ago, the Judicial Branch began sending out letters to non-incarcerated defendants with cases pending at GA courts notifying them their cases had been scheduled on a new docket. Dagostine said beginning Monday, 25 defendants have been scheduled to come to court at 2 p.m. in an effort to have their cases resolved. They are going to be able to talk to a prosecutor in person and go before a judge in person, Dagostine explained. This doesnt mean their case is going to necessarily be disposed of that day, but at least it sets the wheels in motion. Its an interesting experiment, said Bridgeport attorney Frank Riccio II, president of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. There is equal concern about this from both attorneys and their clients on the safety of this because of COVID, but Im also sure that the state is doing everything in their power to protect people who go into state buildings. Dagostine said the reason they scheduled the docket for 2 p.m. is that arraignments would already have been completed and there would be fewer people in the courthouses at that time. He said they determined that 25 is the maximum number of defendants that can be processed safely in a courthouse at one time. He said the cases are being called back to court chronologically, starting with the March cases. Dagostine said the letter also tells defendants that they can seek a continuance but the expectation is that they will attend. Motions for continuance can be mailed, faxed or dropped off at the court before the scheduled court date. Courthouses in Norwalk, Derby and Manchester remain closed because of the pandemic, so Dagostine said defendants are being notified of the alternate courts they will report to. Access to justice is part of the mission of the judicial branch, he said. TreasureHunt Education has observed with disdain the misbehaviour of some groups of Senior High School students during the WASSCE 2020 period. It is quite an unfortunate situation to see students feel aggrieved, vandalise school properties and say unprintable words against the President of the Republic just because they felt the examination did not meet their expectations. Most of these students who engaged in these unruly behaviours have just turned eighteen (18) and are expected to act responsibly after their three (3) years of senior high education. TreasureHunt Education joins other bodies and individuals to condemn these acts of vandalism and insubordination displayed by the students. Inasmuch as confidence in expressing ones opinion is an excellent virtue to cultivate, it must be exercised with decency. In the wake of this situation, it is important to rethink our educational system and make it devoid of its current state of over-reliance on examinations. The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service need to do more work to inject an education of ethics and decency into the curriculum. TreasureHunt Education is of the view that the sector ministry, service and other affiliate bodies can devise some other creative ways of assessing students to get the best out of them. Lets get to work now to improve the status quo. Our students must be guided to understand that education is intended to bring out their talents and potentials. Education is to make them find who they truly are. In using the tools of education to achieve these purposes, it is critical to note that as the melodious chirp of the morning bird is not taught, so are the talents of humans that flow. It is, therefore, worthy of note that our in-born potentials may be realised anyway. However, education refines the potentials, talents and who we become. This purpose of education should settle our view of it. Our parents and guardians must ensure that our learners cultivate the necessary decency through socialisation at home. The religious bodies should also focus on giving some ethical education to our children. The nation can benefit from improved education we give our children now and posterity. To the misbehaviour of students, we say never again. Joseph Appah (Executive Director) TreasureHunt Education Nobody ever talks about them. Having arrived roughly between 1965 and 1980, these children seem to have slipped through the cracks of popular culture, their legacy being a few dumb movies and some aging icons, none of whom any millennial today could name. Born into households averaging 1.75 children, this tiny cohort sneaked through its small temporal window like an Army Special Ops unit. They landed on the scene just in time to rescue head-scratching parents from VCRs and DVD players, and even more miraculous, they could operate those wrist watches with the tiny buttons on the side. And they were the first generation who at a tender and formative age were plopped down in front of a computer screen. This was not a mere toy but something they would grow up side-by-side with -- microchip to monitor -- like a childhood friend with whom they would rise inch by inch and year by year. Their plastic twelve-year-old brains stretched, absorbed, adapted. They drew in this techno evolution -- from WordStar to Windows, from Pong to Super Mario Brothers, from floppy disc to Google Docs -- like breathing air. By the time they were in college they could traverse from PC to Mac and back again as deftly as any Baby Boomer changed lovers. They were ever more fleet and effective for having inherited no political ideology. By the time they began contemplating what democracy was, Reaganomics and Margaret Thatcher were locked in, capitalism and the free market simply the way of things. They participated in no protest picket parties, no marches on Washington, they carved out no itinerant confederacies, no Woodstock Nation, no Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. A good many of them were freshmen in college English classes, like the one I taught, trying to figure the angles on acing the midterm. Because classrooms had no desk computers to cheat from and only Wall Street millionaires carried cell phones, they were reduced to actually studying. They were far and away the smartest cohort of people I have ever taught. They were the last generation to know who Tom Bombadil was and disappointed the character was left out of the screen version of Lord of the Rings. The last generation to whom their mothers read aloud The Chronicles of Narnia before bedtime. The last generation to know the good-and-evil dialectic in George Lucas Star Wars, that sometimes, Luke Skywalker had to close his eyes and have faith in the Force. They have benign sounding kid-down-the-street names like Joe Gebbia, Lynsi Snyder, Brian Chesky, and Elizabeth Holmes. Its hard to find them on the internet, but from their built-in-good-environmental-taste Silicon Valley mansions they could buy and sell the vast majority of us a dozen times over. Many of the more famous among them tend to recede in the shadows of the Intellectual Dark Web. Joe Rogan, David Rubin, and Sam Harris, for whom the podcast is as comfortable as the old family divan, their political affinities hard to nail down, they resist standard binary labels. They call themselves Classical Liberals, Fiscal Libertarians, and Walkaways. Those on network and cable TV tend to be all business. Dana Perino, a political analyst, has no idea shes beautiful, and Tucker Carlson apparently doesnt care how his hair looks on any given day. Facebook is the most widely used product in history, and Breaking Bad is arguably the Macbeth of our times, but weve seen Mark Zuckerberg on television maybe twice, and most of us wouldnt know Vince Gilligan if he got in the shower with us. They came along, according to researchers Strauss and Howe, when the focus was more on adults than kids. Often called the Latchkey Generation, they were perfectly happy to let themselves in after school, to unburden themselves of heavy backpacks and run roughshod over the house -- eating as many Cheetos as they could in front of an hour of MTV, then another on Nintendo, two more plumbing the depths of the most recondite operations of the TV remote. When mom got home at six with an armload of Trader Joes, it was time to help put away groceries then hit the books in that overloaded backpack. Mark Twain once remarked in regard to raising teenagers: When a boy turns 13, put him in a barrel and feed him through a knot hole. When he turns 16, plug up the hole. There is something to be said for instilling self-reliance at a young age. Without the focused, pandering attention of guardians, a kid has the space to examine, experiment, and explore. And too much limelight, especially on a child, can foster self-obsession to the point of sociopathy. Listening to flattery over sound counsel has been, through history, the downfall of many a leader. Too much focused attention and doting on any one person, let alone a whole generation, neuters him of the truth. He is rendered incapable of speaking that truth to power, and instead only echoes the very lies that power tells: Defund the Po-lice being one of the most absurd among them. Gen Xers, many in their 40s, are now in the throes of raising teenagers themselves, some of those offspring now proud new citizens of CHAZ. Just to throw teachers into a tailspin, Gen Xers have even given those kids names like Shoichi and Rhonnielle, Gebbon and Rahual, names that aging college professors like me can neither pronounce nor spell. A clever strategy, the rationale for which I still struggle to understand. But Shoichi and Rahual are nowhere near the students their parents were, have little idea of that which they protest, yet they are out on the streets forcing unsuspecting others to literally kneel in deference to the party line in a struggle to save the world from Fascism just like their grandparents. Some perverse Circle of Life scenario, a surreal rerun from 1968. Maybe myopia, self-adoration, and hysteria, like the addiction gene, can jump a generation. But if we want advice on saving world, I think there are some people we forgot to ask. The In Between generation. Maybe because their label has been so obscured, none of us were paying attention when they pressed those wicked little buttons, when they fired up the machine and took the levers of control, when they put the Millennium Falcon into hyperdrive and blasted through the universe. We need to visit their tucked-away offices and take counsel with the people really running things. They are old enough to know whats right and still young enough to fight for it. But walk softly and beware the silent partner. She is always smart -- and always dangerous. (Natural News) When it comes to black and brown children excelling at school, the biggest barrier to their achievement, according to The New York Times, is white liberal women. In a new podcast it released called Nice White Parents, the Times argues that black and brown children need to overcome white parents, which are supposedly the most powerful force in our schools that is holding black and brown children back from reaching their full potential. Specifically calling out liberal white parents who claim that black and brown lives matter, but who tend to send their white children to exclusive, all-white schools, the Times says that white parents are creating massive barriers for black and brown children to achieve the same successes in life as their white counterparts. Many liberal white parents believe that sending their children to anything other than all-white schools would set their little ones up for failure by exposing them to less gifted and less talented blacks and browns. Thus, the Times is taking these folks to task for their blatant hypocrisy, which ironically is perpetuating more of the very same systemic racism that these white liberals claim to oppose. Apart from the complex educational issues at play including the inflammatory suggestion that minorities need to be around whites to succeed the podcast reflects the lefts broader effort to demonize an unlikely group as it seeks to reduce every issue in American life to questions of race: liberal white women, writes J. Peder Zane for Real Clear Politics. Trump-supporting conservatives and patriarchal white males are still in their crosshairs, but these women, long considered key allies in the cause, have become chief targets, Zane adds. White liberals are incapable of self-reflecting on their own hypocrisy Times columnist Charles M. Blow wrote a piece back in May in which he expressed his rage over white women weaponizing racial anxiety. He further described his angst as being directed at white women who use their white femininity to activate systems of terror against black men. Despite paying upwards of $2,500 a pop to host Race2Dinner meals, which aim to vilify white people and expose their systemic injustices, white liberal women are quickly becoming enemy number one of the left, which sees them as overly sensitive hypocrites who are easy to exploit, but who serve no legitimate purpose in the leftist agenda. In his book White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo explicitly calls out the liberal white people in general, whom he describes as average, well-intended people who see themselves as open-minded, and yet cannot answer the question: What does it mean to be white? DiAngelo goes on to vilify white progressives as being the most challenging in terms of activating and spreading the far-left agenda because we tend to be so certain that it isnt us who need to change. In other words, liberal white people are the least likely to self-reflect, and the most likely to self-project. Everyone else is always the problem, but never themselves, and the far-left agenda-pushers are taking notice of this as they seek to activate the next phases of their anti-white societal purge. If there is an endgame here besides the accrual of power and control, it is advancing the idea that being a nice person is no longer enough. Now that the vast majority of Americans are non-racists, the push is for everyone to become anti-racist, which is a whole different deal, writes Zane. Anti-racists are expected to actively strive each day to dismantle what they say is the systemic injustice that defines America. It means seeing every act as a political act that supports the existing tyranny if it doesnt purposefully seek to dismantle it. For more related news about lunatic liberalism, be sure to check out Libtards.news. Sources for this article include: RealClearPolitics.com NaturalNews.com live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Shabbir Kayyumi What is Falling Wedge? Wedges form when the prices of a financial instrument move within a narrowing range, angled either up or down. Whereas triangles are formed by the price moving sideways, wedges can make significant progress either up or down. In many cases, when the market is trending, a wedge is developed on charts. This wedge could be either rising or falling. Wedges can also appear at the end of a bullish or bearish trend. When the pattern completes, and the price breaks out of the wedge, it is usually in the opposite direction of the wedge and hence called as a reversal pattern. There are mainly two types of wedge patterns either rising or falling wedge. A falling wedge is generally considered bullish and is usually found in a downtrend. In the falling wedge where price is contained by two descending trend lines that converge because the upper trend line is steeper than the lower trend line. In other words, the highs are falling faster than the lows. These wedges tend to break upwards. Figure. Falling Wedge Trend lines are the best way to spot the narrowing of the channel, which is the first key sign that the reversal is on the way ahead. These reversals can be quite violent due to the complacent nature of the participants who expect the trend to continue. Though sometimes Wedge pattern are a continuation pattern however, most of the time it is a reversal pattern. Why to buy Bank of Baroda? The falling wedge pattern is characterized by a chart pattern which forms when the market makes lower lows and lower highs with a contracting range. Price chart of Bank of Baroda has shown falling wedge pattern since the last two months and very recently there has been break out from the pattern on the opposite side as expected of a falling wedge pattern. Buy Signal If you look closely at the below attached chart, you can see a falling wedge pattern in formation and recently stock has given a breakout from upper trend line for higher levels. We suggest buying in this stock, considering bullish technical parameters discussed above. Moreover, momentum oscillators RSI and stochastic is also supportive for positive movement. Figure. Falling Wedge and Buy signal on Bank of Baroda Profit Booking As per one of the method of Falling Wedge one can use previous swing line for profit booking. These levels are standing around Rs 53 and should provide immediate resistance on higher side, moving further Rs 56 will attract more profit bookings. So one can consider profit booking near Rs 53 and higher side towards Rs 54 mark. Stop Loss Entire bullish view negates on a breach of immediate support zone and in a case of Bank of Baroda, we will consider Rs 43 as a stop loss level closing basis. Conclusion We recommend buying Bank of Baroda around Rs 47.50 with a stop loss of Rs 43 for higher targets of Rs 53/56 as indicated in above chart. The author is Head - Technical Research at Narnolia Financial Advisors Ltd. Disclosure: Narnolia Financial Advisors/Analyst (s) does/do not have any holding in the stocks discussed but these stocks may have been recommended to clients in the past. Clients of Narnolia Financial Advisors Ltd. may be holding aforesaid stocks. The stocks recommended are based on our analysis which is based on information obtained from public sources and sources believed to be reliable, but no independent verification has been made nor is its accuracy or completeness guaranteed. The views expressed in this research report accurately reflect the personal views of the analyst(s) about the subject securities or issues, and no part of the compensation of the research analyst(s) was, is, or will be directly or indirectly related to the specific recommendations and views expressed by research analyst(s) in this report. : The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on Moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8, 2020 08:15 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c70f7e 1 Editorial #Editorial,ASEAN,Southeast-Asia,multilateral-organization Free It is a rather solemn day for ASEAN to commemorate its 53 years of existence. A year ago, Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo inaugurated a newly expanded ASEAN Secretariat building that he expected would usher in an era of more engagement among member states a place where ASEAN nationals would learn about the institution that seeks to bring this community of nations together to realize a dream of shared prosperity. But here we are today, faced with a pandemic that shows no signs of abating, with borders between neighboring countries unwillingly closed off and every man (and country) left to fend for themselves. Singapores tally of COVID-19 infections was overtaken by Indonesia for a while, before being overtaken by the Philippines. The United Nations secretary-general said last week that more work needed to be done if Southeast Asia wanted to stay on the path toward economic recovery, even if regional cooperation had thus far been robust. Then an emailed invitation arrived a few nights ago, announcing that this years ASEAN Day would be celebrated online, in line with physical distancing measures recommended by the state. It was a solemn reminder of the reality of the world today. Even so, every year we have to remind ourselves that ASEAN has come a long way as a regional organization, even though some continue to doubt its effectiveness. Today, we commemorate ASEAN Day in memory of the historic establishment of the regional organization in 1967. In recent years, the anniversary has been accompanied by big celebrations and fanfare, as the bloc pats itself on the back for pushing past half a century. The group managed to come out of a Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union, only to find itself in the midst of a new cold war for dominance between the US and China, centered on possible open conflict in the South China Sea. Even then, ASEAN has still managed to respond with optimism. Decades-old instruments have found new uses, as is evident in Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudis recent mention of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, as well as renewed commitment to the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality of 1971. The subtle push and pull from leaders, diplomats and international civil servants behind the scenes is a lasting testament to the resilience of a community of like-minded neighbors. As protectionism and toxic nationalism are on the rise due to the pandemic, ASEAN continues to champion unity to confront an unprecedented challenge, guided by the theme of being Cohesive and Responsive. This approach should be revisited and updated to fit the current context. ASEAN needs to remain relevant to the younger generations, by involving them in charting a future that nurtures a better sense of belonging even if it is a future rife with pandemics. It must also involve civil society in shaping policy direction and alignment of values, however uncomfortable they may be to those in power. Our one wish for ASEAN this year is that it may embrace even more change, so that we may be able to embrace one another. Kim Kardashian, 39, is currently in the Dominican Republic with Kanye West, 43, in an attempt to salvage their crumbling marriage and focus on their family as he attempts to get elected President of the United States of America. Despite the radical nature of West's bid, a source close to the situation alleged to The Sun on Friday that Kim 'offered to fully support a 2024 run for president if he got help and listened to the political consultants they hired.' But, instead of compromising with his wife of six years, Kanye has continued to forge his own path to an increasingly unlikely victory in the 2020 election. 'Kanye seems set on what he calls "God's plan" - that he becomes president. He's saying it's a higher calling,' the source continued. Not going well: A source alleged to The Sun on Friday that Kim Kardashian 'offered to fully support a 2024 run for president if [Kanye West] got help and listened to the political consultants they hired'; Kanye and Kim pictured in 2019 Due to West's mental state and chaotic presidential bid, a source close to the situation alleged to the newspaper that 'nobody would be surprised, or blame [Kim], if she quietly' ended the marriage by Christmas. The source explained that Kim 'thought that time away with the kids would remind [Kanye] of his most important job - being their dad,' but, instead, the rapper has continued to fixate on his presidential campaign. 'None of their friends can see the marriage lasting more than a couple of months if he ignores Kim and her requests and just goes ahead with what he wants, even if it upsets her.' Kim and Kanye wed in 2014 and share a total of four children, daughters North, seven, and Chicago, two, and sons Saint, five, and Psalm, one. Fighting on: But, instead of compromising with his wife of six years, Kanye has continued to forge his own path to an increasingly unlikely victory in the 2020 election God's plan: 'Kanye seems set on what he calls "God's plan" - that he becomes president. He's saying it's a higher calling,' the source continued; Kanye pictured in July As recently as Thursday, Kanye took to Twitter to double down on his run for the presidency and to remind his following that 'THE GOAL IS TO WIN.' Last month, West announced that he was officially entering the presidential race and has since made his way onto several state ballots as an independent candidate. But TMZ reported Friday that Kanye will not appear on the ballot in Illinois after 1,928 of his 3,128 signatures on his petition were deemed 'invalid' after careful review. West is now 'more than a thousand short of the 2,500 needed to be a Presidential candidate' on Illinois' ballots. Focus on Fatherhood: The source explained that Kim 'thought that time away with the kids would remind [Kanye] of his most important job - being their dad,' but, instead, the rapper has continued to fixate on his presidential campaign; Kanye pictured with daughters North and Chicago on Instagram in May Children involved: Kim and Kanye are parents to a total of four children, daughters North, seven, and Chicago, two, and sons Saint, five, and Psalm, one; Kim and her children pictured on Instagram in May Despite their marriage saving trip going awry, Kim took to Instagram to share a stunning fashion throwback with her followers on Instagram on Friday. Kim looked breathtaking as she modeled a figure-hugging dress with colorful swatches of paint decorating the bottom. The SKIMS founder wowed in the wood grain inspired garment, which fit hew hourglass figure like a glove. Adding an avant-garde touch, an array of paint splotches ran across the skirt. She accessorized with a chunky choker and a more delicate pendant. High art: Kim Kardashian looked stunning as she distracted herself from current marriage dramas with a chic fashion throwback Kim let her raven locks cascade over her shoulder in beachy waves while she pouted at the camera. Her glam, done by Kardashian/Jenner favorite Ariel Tejada, featured rosy cheeks, smokey eyes, and well-arched brows. 'Keeping things light,' her caption read: ' my favorite emoji is the magic sparkle what's yours?' Though the location was tagged from 'Somewhere in Malibu,' Kim is reportedly in the Caribbean trying to mend things with husband Kanye. Kim is reportedly 'exhausted' by the stress of dealing with her husband's bipolar episodes, as well as work and looking after the pair's children, according to People. The source also said that Kanye has refused to give up his unlikely tilt at the country's highest office in the 2020 election. Last chance saloon: Though the photo's location was tagged from 'Somewhere in Malibu,' Kim is reportedly in the Caribbean trying to mend things with husband Kanye. They're seen in February 2020 above 'Kim is not happy about it, but this isn't her focus,' they added. Kim and Kanye's reps declined to comment when DailyMail.com reached out to them. Meanwhile, on Thursday morning, Kanye tweeted out an image of daughter North West from when she made her debut rap performance on the stage at his Yeezy Paris Fashion Week 2020 show. The rapper's tweet comes just weeks after his political campaign rally and Twitter meltdown, where he discussed how he and wife Kim Kardashian once considered having an abortion when she was pregnant with North, and hinted that she once had an affair with rapper Meek Mills - which Kanye has since publicly apologized for. Kanye posted the image of North, adding a heart emoji along with the tweet. Stubborn: The source also said that Kanye has refused to give up his unlikely tilt at the country's highest office in the 2020 election. Seen here during a July rally Kim has also recently returned to Twitter; on Thursday she tweeted that she was 'so proud' of pal Lala Anthony's Essence cover, retweeting the cover and inside picture her friend had posted. North, seven, made her rap debut in March of this year, as she belted out lyrics while Kanye presented his Yeezy brand's Autumn/Winter 2020 collection in Paris during fashion week. North, then six, was the picture of confidence as she took the stage in front of the massive crowd which featured proud mom Kim - as Kanye joined her on stage and gave his support. Thursday: Kanye tweeted out an image of daughter North West from when she made her debut rap performance on the stage at his Yeezy Paris Fashion Week 2020 show His tweet comes as he is on a trip with wife Kim and their four children as what can only be described as a 'fortress' - as their relationship hangs by a thread following a series of public meltdowns, TMZ reported. They were seen leaving Wyoming via private jet as they stay on the remote estate to try and rebuild their relationship before its 'beyond repair.' Prior to their trip, Kim and Kanye were seen together during an emotional reunion in the car after she jetted to their ranch in Wyoming, following his series of controversial statements about their marriage, which she attributed to his bipolar disorder. Throwback: North made her rap debut in March of this year, as she belted out lyrics while Kanye presented his Yeezy brand's Autumn/Winter 2020 collection in Paris during fashion week; North, seven, pictured March 2, 2020 at the PFW Yeezy show All eyes on her: North, then six, was the picture of confidence as she took the stage in front of the massive crowd which featured proud mom Kim - as Kanye joined her on stage and gave his support; seen March 2, 2020 at the Yeezy Paris Fashion Week show During their trip to the Caribbean, they are reportedly keeping topics like Kanye's presidency campaign off the tale and politics in general, as they appear to be at odds on topics like pro-life and pro-choice, according to TMZ. After his presidential campaign rally on July 19, in which he tearfully revealed he and Kim had considered aborting North, Kanye launched into a days-long string of Twitter rants denouncing both his wife and his mother-in-law Kris Jenner. Last month, Kim took to Instagram following Kanye's controversial behavior, admitting that she was 'powerless' amid his meltdown, calling her husband 'brilliant but complicated'. She said: 'Those that understand mental illness or even compulsive behavior know that the family is powerless unless the member is a minor.' The reality star said 'his words sometimes do not align with his intentions' after Kanye last night claimed he has been 'trying to get divorced' from Kim since she met his fellow rapper Meek Mill at a hotel. Kanye said that Kim was 'out of line' to meet Meek Mill at a hotel in Los Angeles to talk about 'prison reform', and blasted her mother Kris Jenner as 'Kris Jong-Un' while accusing the pair of 'white supremacy.' However, Kanye apologized to his wife in a tweet last week. The rapper tweeted: 'I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter. I did not cover her like she has covered me.to [sic] Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me.' The Ghana Priorities Eminent Panel Conference was opened in Accra on Thursday, 6th August 2020. It will set out a data-driven approach to prioritisation of the best policies for the countrys future. Over the next four days, 28 teams of Ghanaian, regional and international economists will present their research on costs and benefits of the most promising policy pursuits to an eminent panel including Nobel Prize recipient Finn Kydland and six distinguished national economists. The panel will rank all the interventions and establish what will do the most good for every cedi spent. Ghana Priorities is a cooperation between the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and the award-winning think tank Copenhagen Consensus. Referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghana's Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia pointed out in an address given on his behalf that the Ghana Priorities Project couldnt have come at a better time. Especially in times like this, we need to avoid the arbitrary allocation of resources. Evidence-based choice-making is what is needed for sound sustainable resource allocation decisions. He concluded that the projects data-driven approach to policy prioritisation will provide a valuable platform for strengthening good governance and making informed public policy choices. We eagerly await the outcomes that emerge from this forum. Dr. Kodjo Esseim Mensah-Abrampa, Director General of the NDPC, said: Because resources are limited, we need to make choices. Economic data is the basis for objectively and reliably analysing our projects and policies. Ghana Priorities is a contribution to the national development process which will help us prioritise and make choices." Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service similarly pointed out the value of good data to inform the policy-making process. The conference continues at the Kempinski Hotel, Accra with research presentations on a wide range of topics, including health, gender, and sanitation. President Donald Trump's hand-picked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy launched a major overhaul of the U.S. postal mail service. Among the changes, the two top executives overseeing day-to-day operations have been let go and replaced with DeJoy's new picks, according to a reorganization memo released Friday. "The shake-up came as congressional Democrats called for an investigation of DeJoy and the cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery and ensnared ballots in recent primary elections," reports the Washington Post: Twenty-three postal executives were reassigned or displaced, the new organizational chart shows. Analysts say the structure centralizes power around DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major ally of President Trump, and de-emphasizes decades of institutional postal knowledge. All told, 33 staffers included in the old postal hierarchy either kept their jobs or were reassigned in the restructuring, with five more staffers joining the leadership from other roles. The reshuffling threatens to heighten tensions between postal officials and lawmakers, who are troubled by delivery delays the Postal Service banned employees from working overtime and making extra trips to deliver mail and wary of the Trump administration's influence on the Postal Service as the coronavirus pandemic rages and November's election draws near. It also adds another layer to DeJoy's disputes with Democratic leaders, who have pushed him to rescind the cost-cutting directives that have caused days-long backlogs and steady the Postal Service in the run-up to the election. DeJoy clashed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), in a meeting on the issue earlier this week. More at the Washington Post: Postal Service overhauls leadership as Democrats press for investigation of mail delays Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 21:33:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TAIPEI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Two people tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan Saturday, raising the island's total number of COVID-19 cases to 479, the local epidemic monitoring agency said. The new patients, a couple, both developed fever, cough and running noses in the Philippines but did not go to the hospital there, the agency said in a press release. They returned to Taiwan Thursday and informed the authorities about their symptoms upon arrival at the airport, the statement said. Taiwan recorded one COVID-19 patient Thursday. The man in his 60s returned from South Africa on July 25 and began to have symptoms on Aug. 3. Enditem Authorities believe Army Staff Sgt. Jared Esquibel Harless (pictured) had help from his wife when committing a murder-suicide in June Authorities believe Army Staff Sgt. Jared Esquibel Harless and his wife were both responsible for murdering their four young children before killing themselves two months ago. When authorities discovered the entire Harless family dead in the back of an SUV last month, they theorized that the 38-year-old father was solely responsible the deaths. Now, Lt. Jesse Salame said Harless had help from his wife, 36-year-old Sheryll Ann, and conspired together in the murder-suicide. A medical examiner confirmed that the family-of-five died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Lt. Salame admitted to the San Antonio Express-News that an official motive has not been determined, but listed several possible catalysts that could have triggered the deaths. 'A combination and life stress that was exacerbated by some mental health issues, and the stress that is not uncommon with having children with special needs as well,' were key factors in the apparent murder-suicide. Authorities identified the children as Esteban Lorenzo Harless, 4; Penelope Arcadia Harless, 3; Avielle Magdalena Harless, 1, and 11-month-old Apollo Harless. It's unclear which of the four children may have had special needs. Authorities discovered the dead bodies of Harless, his wife and their four children in the back of an SUV inside their San Antonio, Texas, garage Esquibel Harless was a US Army soldier assigned to the 470th Military Intelligence Brigade at Joint Base San Antonio and had moved to the neighborhood in January from Washington State. Neighbors told Fox San Antonio the family were new to the area but they never saw anything 'out of the ordinary'. On June 4, police officers responded to a gated subdivision where the Harless family had a two-story home. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the smell of carbon dioxide was so strong when officers arrived that it 'kind of blew everybody back out the door.' He said police had gone to the house for a welfare check requested by the husband's employer, who had been unable to reach him. 'They were OK yesterday because he checked in with his work,' McManus said. 'So it happened sometime overnight.' McManus said on the front door of the home was a 'cryptic note' with military jargon. A member of the military translated it to: 'Bodies or people inside, do not enter. The animals are in the freezer.' The chief said the note also hinted at booby traps. 'Based on the note that we received, we were very cautious about going in, and we were trying to find out what was in there before we made entry,' the chief said. Pictured: The scene in San Antonio, Texas after officers found a family of six, plus two pets, dead in a suspected murder-suicide When they entered, the cops were overcome by a heavy, noxious odor which turned out to be carbon monoxide. Police said they found some explosives after they entered, but they were not rigged, Ken 5 reports. The family was found in the back seat of a SUV inside the family's garage. Two pet cats were also found dead in the front seat. 'It's the whole picture. The adults, the children, the pets,' McManus said. 'Saying it's not pretty - there's no words to describe that.' At the time, McManus said there was evidence that 'it was not an accident' and he did not suggest that anyone outside the family was involved. Joint Base San Antonio issued a statement on Friday confirming the incident. 'Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the deceased. Additional information will be released pending next of kin notification. The case is currently under investigation by the San Antonio Police Department and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.' In the Lebanese cesspool of corruption and mismanagement, the actual reason for the Beirut blast or the identity of men behind it may never be known The Beirut blast earlier this week has triggered a second chain reaction of devastation, conspiracy theories and outpouring of Lebanese anger on streets. The spotlight is back on the most well-equipped and dangerously armed global terrorist organisation, the Hezbollah, and its connection to the assassination of the country's Sunni prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri by its four suspected members in 2005. The apocalyptic mushroom cloud over Beirut on 4 August, which enveloped the Lebanese in fear and consternation, and killed more than 150 while injuring over 5,000, could push down the once-known "Paris of the Middle East" further into global isolation and earn more opprobrium, triggered by the Iran- and Syria-backed Shia terror groups bloody past and its entrenchment in the corridors of power in Lebanon. The Hezbollah and its allies Amal Movement, Maronite Christian Marada, Druze Lebanese Democratic Party, Baath Party, Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party, Armenian Tashnag, Free Patriotic Movement (founded by current Maronite Christian President Michel Aoun) and a few independents command 70 seats in the Parliament of Lebanon. With the selection of Hassan Diab as the Prime Minister of Lebanon, the guerilla group's grip over the government has become dangerously firm. The Hariri mruder trial theory The nuke-like explosion, whose impact was felt as far as Cyprus, occurred three days before a UN-backed tribunal was slated to deliver verdict on Hariris assassination that could have indicted the four Hezbollah members Hussein Hassan Oneissi, Hassan Habib Merhi, Salim Jamil Ayyash and Assad Hassan Sabra. Following the devastating explosion, the verdict has been postponed to 18 August. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karim Sokhn (@ksokhn) on Aug 4, 2020 at 10:39am PDT It is pretty illogical to expect the Hezbollah to give up its four members, who disappeared from public life years ago. The explosion could be connected to the verdict, which would have pressured the terror group to turn over the four members. When Hariri was killed, mass demonstration and sectarian strife engulfed Lebanon, which itself faced global pressure. While the former prime minister son Saad Hariri was looking forward to 7 August (the verdict day) being a day of truth and justice for Lebanon and a day of punishment for the criminals, Hezbollah-backed Diab clearly stated that he wants no further turmoil and strive that could be triggered by such verdicts. Though the possibility of an accident triggering the blast cannot be ruled out, it would be naive to assume that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut Port would blow up like that just three days before the verdict. Hariri, who was backed by the West and Sunni Gulf Arab countries, was killed along with 21 others by a truck carrying 3,000 kilogrammes of explosives 2 kilometres away from the warehouse blast site. Foreign hand in a 'Hezbollah managed' port? The aftermath of Tuesday's blast has become murky with Aoun indicating a foreign hand in the bloody temblor. The Lebanese president said that investigators would probe possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act or whether it was caused due to negligence or accident. Israel denied any involvement immediately after the blast, yet conspiracy theorists pointed out that Israel could have triggered the blast. Hezbollah had threatened to retaliate against the killing of its member Ali Kamel Mohsen in an Israeli airstrike near Damascus International Airport in the last week of July. The explosion is no doubt an intricate and deadly concoction of conspiracy theories even US President Donald Trump termed the blast as an "attack" but one can also not point out the mismanagement of such a dangerous stockpile of a chemical used in terrorist strikes and the intention behind its storage at the port, which, like others, is controlled by the Hezbollah. Four years ago, Danny Danon, then-Israeli ambassador to the UN, had warned the UN Security Council (UNSC) that the Beirut Port is now the Port of Hezbollah with Iran supplying arms to the group by exploiting civilian maritime channels (the port)". According to The Jerusalem Post, Danon told the UNSC that Israel found that Iran and the Quds Force (the secretive elite unit of Irans Revolutionary Guards) have begun to advance the exploitation of the civilian maritime channels, and specifically the Port of Beirut, by sending dual-use items into Lebanon to advance Hezbollahs rocket and missile capabilities and conversion programme. The Hezbollah-Russia link A sinister angle to the Beiruts apocalypse was the sudden diversion of the Moldovan-flagged ship, the MS Rhosus, which started from Georgia to deliver the ammonium nitrate to Mozambique-based explosives company Fabrica de Explosivos de Mocambique (FEM), to Beirut in 2013. The ships owner Russian business Igor Grechushkin, who stays in Cyprus and has already been questioned after the blast, had told its Russian and Ukrainian crew that he was bankrupt and asked them to load extra cargo to cover the travel costs, according to CNN. But the crew refused to load the extra cargo as it was too heavy, forcing the MV Rhosus to drop anchor for several days. Ultimately, the ship was impounded at Beirut Port for failing to pay port fees, gross violations in operating a vessel and complaints filed by the crew, according to the Seafarers Union of Russia, the CNN reported. Grechushkin abandoned the ship and its crew. The ships Captain Boris Prokoshev's several letters to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking for help went unanswered. The MV Rhosus never reached Mozambique and the ammonium nitrate had been lying at the warehouse since 2014. According to The New York Times, the leaking ship finally sank at a short distance from the blast site in February 2018. On the non-delivery of the chemical, a spokesperson of FEM told CNN that it is not common. According to a CNN source, Its a dangerous material; its a very powerful oxidiser and is used for producing explosives. But its not like gunpowder that you just light a match and it will immediately go off like pyrotechnics. What makes the whole episode of a ship loaded with 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and owned by a Russian businessman making a detour to Beirut and anchoring there suspicious is the proximity of Russia to Syria and the Hezbollah. Also, Russia never designated the Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. In 2015, Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov categorically said that the country doesnt consider Hezbollah a legitimate socio-political force elected by people to the Lebanese Parliament a terrorist organisation because it had never committed any acts of terrorism on Russian territory. Several countries, including the US, the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union and Israel have designated the group as a terrorist organisation. It is unlikely that the chemical was stored without the knowledge of the Hezbollah, which has a vast intelligence network. Though Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah has vehemently rubbished claims that the terror group had stored missiles or bombs or ammonium nitrate at the warehouse, the guerrillas were busted in several countries London, Berlin, Thailand, Cyprus and Bulgaria for storing the deadly chemical and its top operatives were targeted by the Israeli Air Force for stashing Iranian long-range rockets and missiles in their homes. Hezbollah known to store ammonium nitrate Hezbollah, whose main goal is destruction of Israel, is notorious for storing ammonium nitrate in several countries to strike Israeli targets or kill Jews. In 2015, the London Metropolitan Police and the MI5 discovered three metric tonnes of the chemical kept in ice packs in a storehouse in London. The Shia militia group also used the same technique to store the chemical in Germany between 2012 and 2016. With Mossads help, Germany discovered hundreds of kilogrammes of ammonium nitrate stored by Hezbollah early this year and finally designated it as a terrorist group. According to the The Telegraph, the ammonium nitrate discovered in 2015 was to be used for proper organised terrorism and the MI5 arrested a man for allegedly planning terrorist attacks though not in the UK. In 2015, Hezbollahs military wing member Hussein Bassam Abdallah was jailed for six years in Cyprus after pleading to terror charges and for storing 8.2 tonnes of ammonium nitrate for three years in his house. Abdallah played the role assigned to him within the broader design of things so that eventually Hezbollah would be able to harm through terrorist attacks, Israeli interests in Cyprus, Judge Nicolaos Santis said. In fact, in a speech broadcast by the Lebanese Naharnet news website in 2016, Nasrallah threatened to bomb the ammonia storage tanks in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa which would be exactly as a nuclear bomb. We can say that Lebanon today has a nuclear bomb. Any rocket that might hit these tanks is capable of creating a nuclear bomb effect, he said, The Times of Israel reported. Subsequently, Israel removed the ammonia tanks from Haifa. If the port explosion wasnt an accident, the real culprits would never be apprehended considering the domination of the Hezbollah in the government and the way investigations crawl in Lebanon a case in point is the Hariri assassination; it has been 15 years but the killers have not been nabbed. Since the blasts rocked Beirut on Tuesday, more than 16 people have been arrested, including Lebanese customs department chief Badri Daher and his predecessor and Shafik Mehri and the ports general manager Hassan Koraytem. However, in the Lebanese cesspool of corruption and mismanagement, the actual reason for the blast or the identity of men behind may never be known. Sofia Richie was spotted wearing a kissy-lips face mask as she headed to the beach in Los Angeles this Friday. The 21-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie enjoyed a sunny day on the sand playing racket ball with a group of friends. She threw on a loose-fitted white T-shirt that was fashionably only partly tucked into her Daisy Dukes for her latest outing. Out and about: Sofia Richie was spotted wearing a kissy-lips face mask as she headed to the beach in Los Angeles this Friday Letting her blonde hair down, the half-sister of Nicole Richie accessorized with large shades and rounded off her look with open-toed sandals. She appeared to be enjoying herself as she played racket ball with her pals, in a group of four that was split into two-person teams. Her latest outing comes amid reports that she and 37-year-old reality TV dreamboat Scott Disick have cooled their equation a bit. 'Scott and Sofia have simmered down a little and Scott has been making a big effort to refocus on himself and his family,' an Us Weekly insider dished. Having a ball: The 21-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie enjoyed a sunny day on the sand playing racket ball with a group of friends Looking fab: She threw on a loose-fitted white T-shirt that was fashionably only partly tucked into her Daisy Dukes for her latest outing Legging it: Letting her blonde hair down, the half-sister of Nicole Richie accessorized with large shades and rounded off her look with open-toed sandals Such fun: She appeared to be enjoying herself as she played racket ball with her pals, in a group of four that was split into two-person teams 'Their relationship has taken a bit of a backseat and its not either of their main priorities right now,' the source shared. Sofia was seen spending time with Scott last month and there were rumors they may reignite their romance after taking a break in May. The dynamic duo spent Independence Day together and a People source said in mid-July that they are 'trying to make things work while taking things slow.' By the way: Her latest outing comes amid reports that she and 37-year-old reality TV dreamboat Scott Disick have cooled their equation a bit Turning down the heat?: 'Scott and Sofia have simmered down a little and Scott has been making a big effort to refocus on himself and his family,' an Us Weekly insider dished Back burner: 'Their relationship has taken a bit of a backseat and its not either of their main priorities right now,' the source shared Around the same time an E! News source said: 'They have hung out a handful of times in the last couple of weeks and are slowly easing back into a relationship.' This May Scott checked into rehab for 'emotional issues' and 'past traumas,' but checked out shortly thereafter. In the wake of his decision to leave rehab Us Weekly reported he and Sofia were 'on a break until Scott straightens himself out more.' Backdrop: Sofia was seen spending time with Scott last month and there were rumors they may reignite their romance after taking a break in May History: The dynamic duo spent Independence Day together and a People source said in mid-July that they are 'trying to make things work while taking things slow' Finally on May 27, the day after his 37th birthday, the magazine revealed that Scott and Sofia had decided to end their romance. Scott celebrated that birthday at a resort in Utah with his ex Kourtney Kardashian and the three children they amicably co-parent. Their digs of choice according to The Blast was Amangiri Resort, the same place Kourtney's sister Kim Kardashian rang in her own 37th birthday. Mr Joseph Kobina, the father of the WASSCE student who hurled insults on President Akufo-Addo has apologized to the First Gentleman of the land and to Ghanaians. "I apologise for what my son did; I plead with Ghanaians to help me apologize to the President..." he told Peace FM correspondent, Appiah Danquah. The final year student of Sekondi College who turned 18 years in May was recently seen in a video which has been widely circulated on social media hurling abusive words at President Akufo-Addo for not being able to write the paper for the day in the ongoing WASSCE. According to the father "I was disheartened when I saw the video; I couldn't believe it. I learnt the phone belonged to his friend in school because he doesn't take a phone to school. I am really sorry for his behaviour" Answering to the whereabouts of the boy's mother, Mr Kobina said "the condition of the mother is bad since she heard of what the son had done, so I hide some of the information from her" Listen to him in the video below Dismissed students Meanwhile, the Ghana Education Service has meted out punishment to students who were involved in the rioting and hurling of insults. The students have been dismissed from their various schools and barred from writing the exams. In a statement signed by the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Prof. Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, three Teachers; Thomas Anokye of Tweneboah Kodua Senior High School, Joseph Andoh of Sekondi College and Evans Yeboah of Kade Senior High Technical School have also been interdicted and barred from invigilation. Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Iran has urged the United Nations to hold the US accountable for the interception of an Iranian passenger plane by fighter jets over war-torn Syria in July. Irans UN ambassador, Majid Takht Ravanchi, wrote letters to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Security Council, calling the act unlawful and adventuristic. Ravanchi said that Iran expresses its strongest objections against this violation of international law and the government will pursue the issue through relevant international bodies. The Iranian diplomat added that a Mahan Airlines Airbus A310 en route Beirut was aggressively and unexpectedly intercepted by two US F-15 fighter jets while it was passing through internationally specified air corridors in Syrian airspace. In reaction to the offensive and hazardous manoeuvrings of the United States fighter jets and in order to save the civil aircraft and passengers lives, the airliner had to change altitude abruptly, causing injuries to the passengers on board, the letter read. Read: US Intelligence Official Claims Russia, China, Iran Are Meddling In Presidential Election Read: United States To Call UN Vote On Iran Arms Embargo Extension: Mike Pompeo 'Visual inspection' US Central Command had earlier issued a statement, claiming the fighter jets were on a routine air mission and conducted a standard visual inspection of the passenger airliner from a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters. US Central Command spokesperson Capt. Bill Urban said that the visual inspection of the airline was conducted to ensure the safety of coalition personnel at At Tanf garrison. Once the F-15 pilot identified the aircraft as a Mahan Air passenger plane, the F-15 safely opened distance from the aircraft. The professional intercept was conducted in accordance with international standards, said Capt. Urban. The Iranian envoy said that the countrys civil aviation organization contacted Syrian authorities and called for a prompt and accurate investigation of the incident. He added that Iranian authorities have also launched an investigation and results of both investigations will be released after the revision and finalisation of the collected data and information. It is incumbent upon the United Nations to reject such an unlawful and yet adventuristic act and hold the United States accountable for this irresponsible behavior, he said. Read: Elections Could Provide Window To Reduce Iran-US Tensions, Think Tank Proposes Phased Plan Read: Iran Announces Arrest Of Head Of US-based Exiled 'terrorist Group' Tondar French president Emmanuel Macron has been accused of trying to reconquer Lebanon rather than help it in the wake of the devastating explosion at its capital which killed 150 people. It comes as the country is expected to refuse humanitarian aid from Israel because the two neighbours are technically still at war. Visiting explosion-ravaged Beirut this week, France's leader comforted distraught crowds, promised to rebuild the city and claimed that the blast pierced France's own heart. 'France will never let Lebanon go,' Macron said. 'The heart of the French people still beats to the pulse of Beirut.' His critics have denounced his sentiments as a neocolonialist foray seeking to restore sway over a troubled Middle Eastern land. And critics online have dubbed him Macron Bonaparte, a 21st century Emperor Napoleon. Rubble from the devastating explosion in Beirut is seen while search and rescue operations continue French president Emmanuel Macron has been accused of trying to reconquer Lebanon rather than help it in the wake of the devastating explosion at its capital Visiting explosion-ravaged Beirut this week, France's leader (pictured hugging a resident) comforted distraught crowds, promised to rebuild the city and claimed that the blast pierced France's own heart 'France will never let Lebanon go,' Macron said. 'The heart of the French people still beats to the pulse of Beirut' Footage taken by a woman living near the warehouse showed thousands of sparks shooting into the air as plumes of black smoke rose above the port Boris Johnson tells Lebanese president the UK will 'stand by the country in its hour of need' UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Lebanon's president Michel Aoun the UK will 'stand by the country in its hour of need' after the devastating explosion in Beirut's port, Downing Street said. A No 10 spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister spoke to President Aoun of Lebanon this morning to convey the UK's deepest sympathies to the Lebanese people following Tuesday's devastating explosion. He also passed on the sincere condolences of Her Majesty the Queen. 'The Prime Minister reiterated the UK's long-standing friendship with Lebanon and commitment to stand by the country in its hour of need. 'The two leaders discussed the urgent humanitarian, medical and reconstruction needs following the blast at Beirut Port and President Aoun thanked the UK for the support provided to date, including the release of 5million in emergency funding and deployment of HMS Enterprise. 'With Lebanon facing threats from a financial crisis, coronavirus and the effects of this tragic blast, they agreed to work with international partners to ensure the country's long-term recovery and rehabilitation.' Advertisement But Macron's defenders - including desperate Beirut residents who called him 'our only hope' - praised him for visiting gutted neighbourhoods where Lebanese leaders are scared to go, and for trying to hold Lebanon's politicians accountable for the corruption and mismanagement blamed for Tuesday's deadly blast. Macron's visit exposed France's central challenge as it prepares to host an international donors conference for Lebanon on Sunday: How to help a country in crisis, where French economic ties run deep, without interfering in its internal affairs. 'We are walking on the edge of a precipice. We have to aid, support and encourage the Lebanese people, but at the same time not give the impression that we want to establish a new protectorate, which would be completely stupid,' said Jack Lang, a former French government minister who now heads the Arab World Institute in Paris. 'We must find new, intelligent solutions to aid the Lebanese.' France's ties with Lebanon reach back at least to the 16th century, when the French monarchy negotiated with Ottoman rulers to protect Christians - and secure influence - in the region. By the time of the 1920-1946 French mandate, Lebanon already had a network of French schools and French speakers that survives to this day - along with France's cozy relationships with Lebanon's power brokers, including some accused of fueling its political and economic crisis. A surprising online petition emerged this week asking France to temporarily restore its mandate, saying Lebanon's leaders have shown 'total inability to secure and manage the country.' It's widely seen as an absurd idea - Macron himself told Beirut residents on Wednesday that 'it's up to you to write your history' - but 60,000 people have signed it, including members of France's 250,000-strong Lebanese diaspora and people in Lebanon who said it's a way to express their desperation and distrust of the political class. Aside from a show of much-needed international support, many in Lebanon viewed Macron's visit as a way to secure financial assistance for a country wracked with debt. Critics online have dubbed him Macron Bonaparte, a 21st century Emperor Napoleon Warehouses full of goods including cars in the immediate area surround the blast were completely destroyed by the impact of the explosion the size of a small nuclear bomb Anti-government protesters hurl stones at Lebanese riot police during a protest against the Lebanese politicians who have ruled the country for decades, outside of the Lebanese Parliament in downtown Beirut on Friday evening People were out hurling stones at riot police outside Lebanese parliament ahead of a major protest planned in downtown Martyrs' Square on Saturday The French leader also managed to bring the divided political class together, if briefly. In a rare scene, the heads of Lebanon's political factions - some of them still bitter enemies from the 1975-1990 civil war - appeared together at the Palais des Pins, the French embassy headquarters in Beirut, and filed out after meeting Macron. But to many, the visit was seen as patronising. Some lashed out at the petition and those celebrating 'France, the tender mother.' It comes as Lebanon has been thrown into utter crisis while they struggle with a global health pandemic, economic catastrophe and ongoing unrest with Israel. Before the coronavirus pandemic country's debt-to-gross domestic product (the amount of money a country owes compared with what it makes) was the third-highest in the world. And nearly a third of the population was living below the poverty line. Last year it was also revealed that the state was running a scheme through its central bank where it borrowed from commercial banks at higher interest rates to pay back its debts to maintain the country's exchange rate with US dollars. At the same time, people were getting increasingly angry and frustrated about the government's failure to provide even basic services. There were reported daily power cuts, lack of safe drinking water and limited public healthcare. Once the coronavirus pandemic hit, the country was plunged even further in economic recesses. And by the time the coronavirus restrictions began to be lifted in May, the prices of some foods had doubled and the prime minister warned that Lebanon was at risk of a 'major food crisis'. He wrote, 'many Lebanese have already stopped buying meat, fruits and vegetables, and may soon find it difficult to afford even bread,' in the Washington Post. Lebanon ranked 137th out of 180 countries (180 being the worst) on Transparency International's 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index. The watchdog says corruption 'permeates all levels of society' in Lebanon, with political parties, parliament and the police perceived as 'the most corrupt institutions of the country'. One writer, Samer Frangieh, said Macron gathered the politicians as 'schoolchildren,' reprimanding them for failing to carry out their duties. Damaged cars are seen at the site of Tuesday's blast, at Beirut's port area, Lebanon, August 7 Several firefighters tragically seen attempting to stop a fire at the port moments before the devastating explosion are believed to have died in the blast The impact of the blast shook buildings, blew out windows for miles around and even threw cars metres into the air A man picks through the ruins of blown-out buildings in central Beirut following a massive explosion at the city's port There were other, more subtle jabs against France's show of influence. While Macron was touring neighbourhoods torn apart by the explosion, the health minister in the Hezbollah-backed government toured field hospitals donated by Iran and Russia, major power players in the region. Lebanon is expected to reject Israel's offer of humanitarian aid as the country's are technically still at war Israel's offer of humanitarian aid to Lebanon after the massive Beirut blast is unlikely to be accepted as the neighbours are technically still at war. The two neighbours have no diplomatic ties and mutual suspicion and animosity defines their relations. As Beirut reeled Tuesday after the devastating blast at the port ripped across the city, many eyes were on Israel. The military initially offered a traditional 'no comment' to queries about the possible source of the explosion, until later a government source added: 'Israel has nothing to do with this incident'. Hours later the government offered humanitarian aid to Lebanon. 'Israel has turned to Lebanon through international security and political contacts to offer humanitarian and medical aid to the Lebanese government,' a statement said. As Beirut hospitals became overwhelmed by the influx of thousands of injured, Lebanon's government did not comment. Aid has been streaming in from elsewhere, including from former power France and Iran, an ally of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement and key Israeli rival. Israel and Hezbollah last fought a 33-day war in the summer of 2006 that devastated parts of the Lebanese capital and killed hundreds. Government and diplomatic sources in Jerusalem say Israel has tried unsuccessfully since Tuesday to send medical equipment to Lebanon via the United Nations, which monitors a buffer zone between the two countries. Israel even sought to dispatch medical personnel to Cyprus, where Beirut victims could be treated, according to the sources. 'It is a very human gesture,' Amos Yadlin, former head of Israeli military intelligence, told reporters. 'It is a gesture that can bring the two nations together.' In Beirut, many have bitter memories of Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, its occupation of the country's south until 2000 and the 2006 war that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians. The fate of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees stuck in Lebanon for decades after fleeing or being driven out of their homes in waves following Israel's creation in 1948 is another thorny issue. Traumatised by the blast that devastated their capital killing more than 150 people, injuring at least 5,000 and leaving some 300,000 homeless, the Lebanese paid little attention to Israel's offer, other than to ridicule it. 'Israel should stop exploiting this catastrophe to whitewash its crimes against Lebanon,' one tweeted in English. Advertisement 'I get the people who want the mandate. They have no hope,' said Leah, an engineering student in Beirut who did not want her last name published out of concern for political repercussions. She spoke out strongly against the idea, and against those who see Macron as Lebanon's 'saviour.' She said that risks worsening Lebanon's divisions, as Maronite Christians and French-educated Muslims embrace Macron while others lean away. 'He hasn't resolved his issues with his country, with his people. How is he giving advice to us?' she asked. In Paris, Macron's domestic political opponents from the far left to the far right warned the centrist leader against creeping neocolonialism, and extracting political concessions from Lebanon in exchange for aid. 'Solidarity with Lebanon should be unconditional,' tweeted Julien Bayou, head of the popular Greens party. Macron himself firmly rejected the idea of reviving the French mandate. 'You can't ask me to substitute for your leaders. It's not possible,' he said. 'There is no French solution.' But he made a point of noting that he plans to return to Lebanon to verify that promised reforms are being undertaken on September 1, the 100th anniversary of the declaration of Greater Lebanon - and the beginning of French rule. It comes as a three-member Lebanese parliamentary bloc resigned today in protest at the Beirut blast widely blamed on government negligence and corruption, bringing to five the number of MPs to quit since the disaster. In an emotional speech during a funeral service for one of his top party officials who died in Tuesday's blast, Samy Gemayel announced his resignation and that of the two other MPs from his Kataeb party. 'Your comrades took the decision to resign from parliament,' Gemayel said, addressing Kataeb secretary-general Nazar Najarian, one of the 154 confirmed victims of the explosion at Beirut port. Gemayel criticised the reactions of several top politicians who argued the international aid effort following the disaster would be an opportunity to break the diplomatic isolation of Lebanon. 'A new Lebanon must be born on the ruins of the old one, which you represent,' he said, addressing the authorities at large and their clan leaders. The Christian party's three resignations from the 128-seat parliament come after those of Marwan Hamade from the party of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and independent MP Paula Yacoubian. Yacoubian told the CNN news channel that she was urging the entire parliament to stand down. 'As the MP of Beirut, I took the decision of resigning because I feel I'm a false witness in this parliament,' she said. 'There's nothing we can do, the decision-making is outside the parliament,' she said. 'Everyone should resign.' Lebanon's ambassador to Jordan also resigned in the aftermath of the blast, caused when fire spread to a depot where a huge amount of ammonium nitrate had been stored for years, unsecured. Early evidence shows top officials knew of its presence at the port and that safety procedures were knowingly and repeatedly violated. The government has promised a swift and thorough enquiry but public trust is low that an investigative committee chaired by top officials will uncover the real culprits. The blast at Beirut, which was initially believed to have been sparked by a store of ammonium nitrate at the city's port, has so far killed more than 150 people, left a further 5,000 wounded and more than 300,000 homeless. Both figures are expected to rise as search and rescue efforts continue. Kozhikode: Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and various of his cabinet colleagues arrived at the Karipur international airport on Saturday where the Air India Express flight crashed into three parts on Friday night. Soon after visiting the accident site, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan visited the injured who are admitted to hospitals in Malappuram and Kozhikode. Taking to Twitter, Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, ''My heart goes out to the families & friends of the 18 people who lost their lives in the air accident involving @FlyWithIX Flight IX-1344 in Kozhikode last evening & offer my heartfelt condolences. Reasons for the mishap are being investigated.'' "Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved. AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) is conducting investigations," said Puri. The investigation team has found a black box in the crashed Air India Express flight from Dubai to Karipur. The digital flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were also recovered. This information will help the investigation team to find out how the plane crashed. These devices record how high the aircraft was just before the crash, its position, speed, and communication between the pilot and air traffic control. The critical information obtained from these devices can be helpful in investigating the cause of an accident. After visiting the site Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan told media that 18 people have died in the crash which includes 14 adults and 4 children. He further informed that 149 injured are undergoing treatment in hospital and 23 people have been discharged. Civil Aviation Minister informed that the captain of the ill-fated flight had landed on this (karippur/kozhikode) airfield 27 times The Air India Express flight, returning from Dubai under the Vande Bharat mission, crashed at the "table top" Kozhikode airport leaving 18 of the 190 people aboard dead, including the pilot, Capt DV Sathe and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar. According to information now received there was trouble with the landing gear and that`s why the experienced pilot after aborting his first attempt to land, lifted the aircraft and flew for about 15 minutes to empty the fuel tank and then landed. Officials say the plane was speeding at the time of landing and crashed on the runway. The pilot tried to land the plane twice but was unable to do so due to bad weather. The pilot landed after circling the airport for some time. However, the plane skidded off the runway and plunged to a depth of 35 feet. An attack on police at an internment bonfire site in West Belfast which left at least 26 officers injured has been slammed as disgraceful. Police came under attack at Distillery Street with petrol bombs and other missiles as they facilitated the removal of a bonfire pyre. First Minister Arlene Foster slammed the disgraceful scenes and called for prosecutions. Our thoughts are with the injured officers. Disgraceful scenes. Important to see prosecutions in due course. A message must be sent that this is not acceptable. https://t.co/njWE1pudED Arlene Foster #ProudofNI. (@ArleneFosterUK) August 8, 2020 Our thoughts are with the injured officers. Disgraceful scenes. Important to see prosecutions in due course. A message must be sent that this is not acceptable, Mrs Foster tweeted. Superintendent Melanie Jones said officers tasked to Distillery Street came under sustained attack by a large crowd of youths. Superintendent Melanie Jones said the violence was completely unacceptable (Rebecca Black/PA) She said: At this point we can confirm that at least 26 officers have sustained injuries and are currently receiving treatment. Footage from evidence-gathering cameras will be reviewed and all efforts will be made to identify those involved in the completely unacceptable violence we have seen here today. We will continue to work with the local community, representatives and other partners to address this issue, but it is disappointing that some young people and their guardians are not listening to our repeated warnings. 26 police officers injured in Belfast disorder https://t.co/W5isFVFv1p Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) August 8, 2020 People who choose to engage in criminal and anti-social behaviour must understand it is unacceptable and must stop. People have a right to live in peace and to feel safe in their communities. Ms Jones urged parents and guardians to keep young people safe by knowing where they are going and who they are with. Young people must understand the dangers of getting involved in behaviour which could result in them injuring themselves or others, or ultimately, ending up with a criminal record, she added. Justice Minister Naomi Long and the Police Federation have criticised the attacks on officers. It is disgraceful that officers going about their work and serving communities should be targeted like this. 26 officers were injured in sustained petrol bomb & masonry attacks - a terrible tally. Our thoughts are with them and other colleagues. @PoliceServiceNI @ChiefConPSNI https://t.co/XZin5Pi5Cr Police Federation for Northern Ireland (@PoliceFedforNI) August 8, 2020 The Police Federation tweeted: It is disgraceful that officers going about their work and serving communities should be targeted like this. 26 officers were injured in sustained petrol bomb & masonry attacks a terrible tally. Our thoughts are with them and other colleagues. Ms Long responded: Absolutely disgraceful conduct. Officers should not face this kind of violence as they try to keep people safe. Residents are sick of this nonsense every year they want peace and quiet I hope that no-one was seriously injured and that they all make a full and speedy recovery. Previous years have seen bonfires lit in Belfast to mark the anniversary of internment without trial on August 9, 1971. This controversial policy saw thousands of mostly nationalists detained. Crowds watch in 2019 as a bonfire is lit in the New Lodge area of Belfast to mark the anniversary (PA) Last year a standoff developed between young people and police in the New Lodge area of North Belfast This weekend, police moved into a number of areas of Belfast to facilitate workers removing wood gathered for bonfires, while community talks prevented other pyres being built. A PSNI spokeswoman said officers are assisting other agencies. As a police service we have been clear in our position that we will always support other agencies to carry out their statutory functions and this includes the lawful removal of bonfire materials, she said. SPRINGFIELD As more school districts join the city in opting for a virtual start to the school year, administrators, parents and teachers are preparing to continue the remote learning model that has been in effect since the coronavirus pandemic closed schools in March. That closure was very abrupt and we could not plan for it because it was an emergency, said Springfield School Committee member and parent LaTonia Monroe Naylor. This decision was not made lightly, but we feel that our teachers are prepared and we are going to continue to support parents and students so that this is a successful start to the new year. The Pioneer Valley Performing Arts School Charter Public School in South Hadley and Northampton Public Schools were among those deciding this week to begin the year with remote learning. Schools are expected to make final decisions by Aug. 10. PVPA believes this is the safest, most equitable start to the school year while the future of the public health crisis remains uncertain. Additionally, due to the constraints of our school and our large geographic charter region, we acknowledge the possibility of spreading the virus across a wide-swath of Western Massachusetts, said Charlotte Donovan, director of enrollment and communications for the charter school. There are many people on both sides of the remote versus in-person teaching debate, but as Hampden County and other communities across the state are starting to see a spike in COVID-19 positive cases, school leaders are making what they feel is the safer choice, said Springfield School Committee member Maria Perez. We are carrying not only the weight of education, but the weight of the health of our students and staff on our shoulders. We also know that the number of COVID-19 cases for people of color has been higher and people living in cities also have a higher risk. We cannot safely distance our students six feet apart and we also need air quality tests done on all of our facilities, Perez said, referring to a report about the districts air quality given during the Aug. 6 Springfield School Committee meeting. In the report Patrick Sullivan, the citys executive director of Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management, said more testing needs to be done to assess the state of each school building. Over the past week we have been working on the assessment of the 57 school buildings in relation to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education plan that was presented to the school district on July 27 and after looking at their information and our information it became very clear that we need outside assistance... in evaluating the buildings to give the school board the information to make this important decision about the return of 26,000 students and over 3,00 staff members, he said. Sullivan said the city has hired Bob Kirchherr, an industrial hygienist with OReilly, Talbot & Okun Engineering Associates, to test the ventilation and filtration systems for all of the schools. We have looked at those 57 school buildings on paper. ... Some are old and some are brand new systems. To date we have not performed site inspections and we do need to do a comprehensive assessment of each school building and their ventilation system to insure we can meet the (DESE and The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) standards, Kirchherr said. The extended virtual learning period, in place until at least Nov. 4 in Springfield, will give Sullivan and Kirchherr the time to assess the buildings and report back to the school committee. In the meantime, the district is working with teachers and families to ensure they have the tools they need for a successful new year. We will be providing families with YouTube video tutorials as well as some other workshops so that they feel confident working on the computer with their children. We are also working to ensure teachers are using platforms that parents are familiar with and can navigate, Monroe Naylor said. Monroe Naylor said there have been some success stories during summer school including Up Academy Kennedy Middle School, which had participation of 25 out of 26 students each day for all of the summer school program. As we start this new year we have a plan. Several schools have had summer programs that are one hundred percent remote so they have had the opportunity to really explore other ways to work with our kids and provide equitable support to them, she said. With proper planning, preparation and professional development we can provide a much better curriculum to students though an online platform. Laverne Mickens is a third grade teacher at Rebecca Johnson Elementary School. She said she is ready to teach remotely she did it in the spring to close out the school year, and again during summer school. At Rebecca Johnson we have been having planning meetings to prepare for this or a hybrid model, so I feel confident that our administrators have been working to provide us with professional development to make sure we all know how to work with Zoom or Unified Classroom as well as the social emotional pieces because people need that also, she said. Mickens said she has found ways to engage with her students and their families and even contacted her incoming third graders caregivers personally to see what their thoughts were on coming back. Everyone of them told me they were keeping their children at home, so I would be teaching to an empty classroom, she said. Donovan said PVPA has been preparing for the possibility of remote learning. PVPA has spent the summer upgrading and improving the remote program implemented in the spring, with a focus on streamlining the program and building a comprehensive, thoughtful remote class schedule, she said. With a nearly complete course catalog, we are excited about our artistic and academic offerings and the abilities of PVPA teachers to provide students with the same level of expertise, rigor, and excitement as in the physical classroom. Whether its playing videos for them, singing and dancing with them, making sure they are feeling happy and motivated or teaching them new skills and a more in-depth curriculum in the fall, Mickens said she is ready for the challenge. If you are a good teacher you are going to make it work whether its on Zoom or in class. We have figured out ways to connect with our students and with their families, she said. Zoom isnt perfect, remote isnt perfect, but I would rather be working in an imperfect system and be alive than go back to a classroom and have one person, one child get sick or die. Thats one person too many. Related content: (Newser) This month, Oprah Winfrey put the late Breonna Taylor on the cover of her O magazine, the first time someone other than Oprah has fronted the publication. Now, Winfrey has stepped up her campaign to raise attention to the case with perhaps a bolder move: She's put up 26 billboards of Taylorthe 26-year-old EMT who was shot to death by police executing a no-knock warrantaround Taylor's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, reports Variety. They call for the officers involved in Taylor's death to be arrested and charged. One officer has been fired, but no charges have been filed, per CBS News. story continues below "If you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it," reads a quote from Winfrey on the billboard. It also directs people to the website of the social justice group UntilFreedom.com, which is focusing on Taylor's case. Last month, the group helped lead a march to the home of state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a protest in which 87 people were arrested. Louisville police have since banned no-knock warrants, notes NPR. (Taylor's family says that she survived the shooting initially but that police failed to give her medical attention.) By Trend The "truth" about the April 2016 battles, brought to the attention of the Armenian public by the third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan after a long silence, is a lie and slander, and just another unsuccessful attempt to restore his deeply tarnished reputation, Head of the press office of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli said. Dargahli made the remark while commenting on the recent statements by Sargsyan, Trend reports. He may succeed in convincing his comrades-in-arms in Armenia of what he says, but, in fact, the truth of the April battles is well known, the ministry representative said. After the April fiasco, Inquiry Commission of the Armenian Parliament, investigating the results of the battles, announced that only in manpower, Armenia had lost 560 soldiers, Dargahli reminded. The destruction of 33 Armenian tanks and 15 guns in these battles is also beyond doubt, the head of the press office stressed. In his words, by concealing the losses of the Armenian armed forces and deliberately understating the size of the territories liberated by the Azerbaijani army, Sargsyan wants to achieve his foul intentions and justify his incompetence. "He hypocritically denies the real facts and shamelessly declares that Armenians allegedly won the April battles, Dargahli added. He went on to ask: "The question arises: if, as he claims, they won these battles, then why, shortly after those events, his close friend and colleague, the then Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan and the entire top leadership of the armed forces of Armenia were dismissed?! Were the revolt of the Armenian society, mass protests of Armenian mothers, the spontaneous armed uprising of the Sasna Tsrer group against the authorities and, finally, the end of Sargsyan's political rule due to the heavy losses of the Armenian side, not an echo of the April triumph of the Azerbaijani army?" Only a hypocrite like Sargsyan, knowing that 2016 April battles took place in front of eyes' of world community, can deny the truth and talk about some kind of victory, Dargahli noted. Sargsyan is trying, in every possible way, to find an excuse for the defeat suffered by the Armenian armed forces in the April battles, and he is not ashamed to talk about some 'victory' at the time when the advanced units of the Azerbaijani Army, using only a small part of the available weapons and military equipment, liberated 2,000 hectares of their land in a short time Dargahli emphasized. "As for the fact that during the battles, Serzh Sargsyan allegedly did not insist that the Armenian army return this territory, since he preferred to save the lives of soldiers, this once again indicates that he understood perfectly well that in the case of an attempt, Armenia would suffer huge casualties both in manpower and military equipment, and in the occupied territories," the defense ministry's representative said. It can be certainly said that the April battles, and the losses suffered by the Armenian armed forces during these battles, became a real lesson not only for the then military-political leadership of Armenia, but also for the current regime, which perfectly realizes that the next clashes with Azerbaijani army will lead to irreversible losses, including the loss of power, as happened with the Sargsyan regime, he added. In particular, I want to note that Sargsyan who is trying to fool the Armenian public once again with his statement, pretending to be a hero, clings to a rotten straw to save his own skin," Dargahli concluded. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Boris Johnsons Europe advisor understood to have told colleagues he will stay on if a trade deal has not been agreed - AFP David Frost, the Prime Ministers chief Brexit negotiator, will oversee talks with the EU even after he takes up his new post as National Security Advisor (NSA) in September. Boris Johnsons Europe advisor is understood to have told colleagues he will stay on if a trade deal has not been agreed with Brussels by the Autumn. His appointment in June was intended to send a signal to the bloc that Britain was willing to walk away if a deal could not be struck over the summer. A government source said: Hes said he will stay in charge of the negotiations until they have been completed. He will take up the new post in September but plans to spend 90 per cent of his time on the trade talks if thats what is needed. The revelation will raise concerns that Mr Frosts dual role could leave the UK vulnerable in the event of a terrorist attack. His predecessor, Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill, who announced in June he was stepping down as the UKs top civil servant, faced criticism for combining that demanding role with acting as chief advisor to the Prime Minister on national security issues. Theresa May first appointed him as NSA in April 2017 but then also gave him the role of acting Cabinet Secretary in June 2018, while the late Sir Jeremy Heywood took a leave of absence on medical grounds, replacing him upon his retirement in October 2018. When his new role was announced, career diplomat Mr Frost, 55, said the EU talks would remain my top single priority until those negotiations have concluded, one way or another. The talks are due to resume in Brussels on August 17. As well as the promotion, Mr Johnson also gave a life peerage to Mr Frost, who was one of his key advisers as foreign secretary. Unpopular with security services However, reports soon emerged that his appointment was unpopular with military and security services who felt that Mr Frost was underqualified. Former Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell and former NSA Peter Ricketts also criticised the appointment amid concerns that the civil services impartiality was being eroded by giving a special adviser the post. Story continues Speaking in the House of Commons in June, former Prime Minister Theresa May highlighted the political nature of the appointment and questioned Mr Frosts readiness for the role. She asked Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove: " Why is the new national security adviser a political appointee with no proven expertise in national security?" Mr Gove said Mr Frost was highly qualified and would be accountable to the PM, pointing out there were precedents for non civil servants to take on such roles and that the official that oversees senior government appointments agreed this was appropriate in this case. He said Mr Frost would neither be a civil servant nor a special adviser but would have the status of an envoy. Welcoming Mr Frosts appointment, Mr Johnson described him as an experienced diplomat, policy thinker, and proven negotiator, with a strong belief in building Britains place in the world. Crediting him with negotiating the deal that finally enabled us to leave the EU in January, he added: In his new role I am confident he will make an equal difference to this countrys ability to project influence for the better. Mr Frost is coming under mounting pressure from Tory MPs to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement he struck with the EU last October and which passed through Parliament in January, after a Centre for Brexit Policy report endorsed by former ministers described it as seriously flawed and a poison pill. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 01:54:12|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close File photo taken on Aug. 31, 2018 shows then Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland (C) speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., the United States. Freeland started to serve as the 10th Deputy Prime Minister of Canada in 2019. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Canadian aluminum is a threat to American national security "is a ludicrous notion," says Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. OTTAWA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Canada is to levy 3.6 billion Canadian dollars (about 2.7 billion U.S. dollars) on U.S. products as countermeasures against U.S. President Donald Trump re-imposing a 10-percent tariff on Canadian aluminum, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Friday. Freeland told a news conference that the countermeasure tariffs will take effect in 30 days after the Canadian government consults Canadians on precisely which U.S. products to target. "Canada will respond swiftly and strongly." On Thursday afternoon, Trump announced his decision to impose the new tariff on Canadian raw aluminum from Canada as of Aug. 16, citing national security concerns as the basis for slapping Canada with the tariff. Freeland said that Canadian aluminum is a threat to American national security "is a ludicrous notion." U.S. President Donald Trump (L) welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on June 20, 2019. (Xinhua/Ting Shen) She said the United States chose to spark a new trade conflict by slapping tariffs on Canadian aluminum. "It will only hurt an economic recovery on both sides of the border." Freeland added that the Trump government is "the most protectionist administration in U.S. history." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed Thursday night to take countermeasures after Trump announced his decision to re-impose tariff on Canadian aluminum imports. "We will always stand up for our aluminum workers. We did so in 2018 and we will stand up for them again now." Trump had imposed a 10-percent tariff on Canadian aluminum in March 2018, and then Canada retaliated with billions of dollars in tariffs on U.S. products. The United States later removed it for the renewed North American free trade agreement. Bengaluru, Aug 8 : The death toll due to COVID- 19 in Karnataka crossed the 3,000-mark on Saturday with 93 more fatalities, taking the total to 3,091, a Health Department official said. At least 7,178 more people have tested positive for the disease, pushing the tally to 1.72 lakh, the official said. Continuing the daily trend, Bengaluru Urban accounted for the highest number of cases with 2,665 infections, raising the city's tally to 72,237, out of which 33,726 are active. Over the past few weeks, Bengaluru Urban's share of active cases has declined to 42 per cent by Saturday. Among other places, Ballari accounted for 607 cases, followed by Udupi (313), Belagavi (302), Raichur (295), Kalaburagi and Dharwad (261 each), Yadgir (200) and Dakshina Kannada (194). Meanwhile, on a positive note, 5,006 more patients have been discharged, raising the total number of recoveries to 89,238. Of the 1.72 lakh cases, 79,765 are active, while 683 patients are currently admitted to ICUs. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! Government has made savings of GHS1.5 billion in under-declared taxes in the telecommunications sector following the implementation of the Common Platform (CP) in the telecommunications sector since 2017. The introduction of the CP has uncovered that, prior to the introduction of the policy, GHS470 million in taxes was lost from potential under-declarations between 2015 to the first quarter of 2017, the Minister of Communication, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said. Answering questions on the floor of Parliament House on Friday, August 7, 2020, the Minister said an estimated amount of GHS300 million in taxes was also saved between the first quarter of 2017 to date as a result of the announcement of the implementation of the CP on March 8, 2017. Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful again disclosed that through the deployment of the CP and sophisticated up-to-date fraud management systems, the CP was able to record over 150,000 international calls into the country every month and thereby detecting fraudulent SIM automatically. This, she said, has saved the country of tax fraud of an additional GHS 327.3 million from the activities of SIM Card fraud since the inception of the CP in 2017. Over the life of the contract, the CP is expected to deliver tax savings of approximately GHS 799.6 million, the Minister stated. On Mobile Money Monitoring, the Minister disclosed that the CP has reported monthly usage for July 2020 of GHS 63.6 billion, 307.1 million transactions, with GHS104.6 million generated by the Operators in transaction fees, with further breakdowns of transaction types for informed policy decision making. Giving further benefits that the implementation of the CP has accrued to the country, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful also mentioned that the policy has resulted in savings of $1.1 million monthly over the previous contracts, resulting in a total of $66 million savings over the 5-year contract period. Under the previous NDC administration, the NCA was paying $915,969 to Afriwave, while the GRA was paying $1,675,492 to Suva, bringing the total payments to $2,591,462 monthly. The NCA, she said, now pays $596,490 and the GRA $894,735, a total of $1,491,225 to service providers. Additionally, unlike the previous contracts, the CP offers real-time monitoring of 2.5 billion transactions per day within the telecom sector, such as calls, SMS, Mobile money transactions and other transactions. Under Section 14 of the Communications Services Tax Act 2008 (Act 754), as amended by Section 7 of the Communications Service Tax (Amendment) Act, 2013, Act 864 mandated the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Communications to establish a common platform as a mechanism for verifying the actual revenues that accrue to service providers for the purpose of computing taxes due to Government under Act 864 and revenues accruing from levies under Act 775 as amended by Act 786 of 2009. Pursuant to this, KelniGVG was contracted on December 27, 2017, to build and operate a Common Monitoring Platform (CMP) which is an integrated single platform connecting to nodes in the networks of all Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and the Interconnect Clearinghouse (ICH) where traffic and revenues can be monitored. The National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) are the implementing agencies and beneficiaries of this project. The CP has four main components, that is fraud management, traffic monitoring, revenue assurance and mobile money monitoring. ---citinewsroom Photo courtesy Houston Police Department A Houston church leader has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a 9-year-old boy for months, according to a statement from the Houston Police Department, and detectives suspect there may be more victims. Jose Abel Mena, 60, the president and pastor of a church group called Pueblo de Dios, was charged on July 27 with continuous sexual abuse of a child. The charge stems from assaults dating back to Jan. 1, 2019, according to police. In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of Ricegrowers Limited (ASX:SGLLV) by taking the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. This will be done using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Believe it or not, it's not too difficult to follow, as you'll see from our example! We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model. See our latest analysis for Ricegrowers The calculation We have to calculate the value of Ricegrowers slightly differently to other stocks because it is a food company. Instead of using free cash flows, which are hard to estimate and often not reported by analysts in this industry, dividends per share (DPS) payments are used. Unless a company pays out the majority of its FCF as a dividend, this method will typically underestimate the value of the stock. We use the Gordon Growth Model, which assumes dividend will grow into perpetuity at a rate that can be sustained. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a company's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this case we used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.3%). The expected dividend per share is then discounted to today's value at a cost of equity of 7.1%. Relative to the current share price of AU$5.0, the company appears a touch undervalued at a 28% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind. Value Per Share = Expected Dividend Per Share / (Discount Rate - Perpetual Growth Rate) Story continues = AU$0.3 / (7.1% 2.3%) = AU$6.9 dcf The 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 Ricegrowers as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 7.1%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Moving On: Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. Why is the intrinsic value higher than the current share price? For Ricegrowers, there are three pertinent aspects you should explore: Risks: Case in point, we've spotted 1 warning sign for Ricegrowers you should be aware of. Future Earnings: How does SGLLV'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 Australian 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. By Krystal Hu (Reuters) - President Donald Trumps ban on transactions using popular Chinese messaging app WeChat will cut ties to families and friends in China, millions of users in the U.S. fear, as they become the latest casualties in the standoff between the two nations. WeChat, owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd , is popular among Chinese students, expats and some Americans who have personal or business relationships in China. By Krystal Hu (Reuters) - President Donald Trumps ban on transactions using popular Chinese messaging app WeChat will cut ties to families and friends in China, millions of users in the U.S. fear, as they become the latest casualties in the standoff between the two nations. WeChat, owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd <0700.HK>, is popular among Chinese students, expats and some Americans who have personal or business relationships in China. Most popular messaging apps in the U.S., including Facebook Messenger , Whatsapp and Telegram have been blocked in China. I came to the U.S. for free access to information. I feel Im targeted by Trump," said Tingru Nan, a Chinese graduate student at the University of Delaware. "Im living in constant fear now thinking I might get disconnected with friends and families. The ban will cut off far more than the up to 6 million Chinese people who live in the United States. In the past three months, WeChat has had an average of 19 million daily active users in the U.S., according to analytics firms Apptopia. Expats, who are adept at working around oppressive firewalls in their home country, are preparing backup plans while in America. Some WeChat users have started to share backup contacts for a limited number of apps that are still available in China, including Microsoft Corp's Skype and LinkedIn. Others plan to do what they do at home to get around the "Great Firewall," as the blockade of foreign apps in China is known, by using virtual private networks (VPN) that mask a user's identity on a public network. Allison Chan, a Chinese-American in Florida, uses a VPN every time she visits China to access U.S. sites like Facebook, Google and Twitter, which have been blocked by the Chinese government. "After the 45-day period is up, I'll experiment with it and see if we can still use WeChat," Chan said. She said WeChat has been a major tool for her and her parents to communicate with her grandparents in China. "I understood the argument about security, but for me, it was more about how I'm going to talk to my family," Chan said. My parents worried about my grandparents because their health has been declining and they want to get constant updates about them." Some Chinese expats in the U.S. worry that this is only the latest salvo in a worsening U.S.-China relationship. My parents are more worried than me when they saw the news, said Yun Li, a UX designer in Boston who is from Guangdong, China. They also asked me to seriously consider moving back to China given the current political environment, she added. (Reporting by Krystal Hu; additional reporting by Echo Wang; Editing by Ken Li and Leslie Adler) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The European Union is urging member countries to ease COVID-19 travel restrictions to allow unmarried couples to reunite after nearly half a year of separation, Euronews reports. EU member states have reopened their borders to each other although some restrictions apply and to a shortlist of approved third-countries where the coronavirus is deemed under control. But this list excludes most countries around the world including the US, Russia, Brazil, most African and Asian countries. This means citizens from these countries that are not EU residents may not be able to come to the EU. A spokesperson for the EU Commission told reporters on Friday that during a meeting with national border authorities on Thursday, Brussels "raised an issue directly affecting many people, namely, excluding unmarried partners of European citizens and residents from the travel restrictions into the EU. "Under the current legal situation, member states can allow unmarried partners with duly attested relationships to enter the EU if they choose to do so. We repeatedly encouraged member states to use this possibility. Currently, only a minority of member states do so. "We will continue to call on all member states to allow the entry of people in duly attested relationships with European citizens and residents without delay," he added. The Commission has not, however, explained what "duly attested" entails. Your browser does not support the audio element. The people of Vietnam and the thousands of hidden spaces nestled in the nooks and crannies of Ho Chi Minh City are among things that outgoing Canadian Consul General Kyle Nunas will miss most after finishing his tenure in Vietnam. With his three-year term as Canadian consul general having ended on August 7 after three years on mission, Nunas sat down for an exclusive interview with Tuoi Tre News in late July to look back on his time in the Southeast Asian country and discuss the connections he has built with Ho Chi Minh City. The following conversation has been edited by Tuoi Tre News for clarity, consistency, and coherence. Looking back on your time in Vietnam, what accomplishments are you most proud of? I came at a very interesting time. I arrived in August 2017 and within a few weeks I learned that I would be receiving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November that same year. When I arrived, many aspects of the two countries relationship were getting stronger, but some were just starting. At that time, the number of students from Vietnam studying in Canada had just gone from 5,000 to 7,500. The next year it was 14,000 and the year after we hit 20,000. I think that one thing I'm very proud of is that over the time that I've been here, the bilateral relationship has grown. Many more Canadian companies have grown interest in Vietnam. Outgoing Canadian Consul General Kyle Nunas speaks to your correspondents at an interview with Tuoi Tre News in Ho Chi Minh City on July 29, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre I was also very delighted to be able to champion a campaign on anti-single-use plastics. We are now seeing Vietnam starting to develop strong ideas about addressing plastic pollution. I've had chances to meet many young entrepreneurs and female business leaders. We created a campaign called Consul General for a day where we were able to engage with three generations of young leaders. Each year, we make the competition a little different and a little bit more challenging and I've really enjoyed meeting dynamic young people, especially young women who are proud of showing their fantastic skills and knowledge. This past year, we had a boy win our competition. After returning to Canada, what will you remember most about Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City? I'm going to miss the people. Everyone is always so warm, helpful, and kind. I think those qualities are all extremely touching. When I first came here in 1997 as a tourist I was struck by how warm the people were. I was in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta and I noticed that everyone had big smiles and was always welcoming. It's the community-mindedness of people in Vietnam that I find very inspiring. People look after each other. In many cultures in the West, we tend to focus on the individual a little bit more, sometimes too much. And I think during days like in COVID-19, we have to learn a lot more about how to do things for the greater good than just our own selves. That's a value held by Vietnamese people that I have really come to appreciate. Outgoing Canadian Consul General Kyle Nunas at an interview with Tuoi Tre News in Ho Chi Minh City on July 29, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre As Im also into photography, one of the things that I find interesting about Vietnam in general, but particularly in Ho Chi Minh City, is all the hidden spaces. There are places where you would never guess thered be a restaurant unless somebody told you. Sometimes you have to walk past scooters into the back of a building and find some hidden staircases to find some completely fantastic worlds you didn't know existed. And they're all over the place. You just never know what's down an alley or around a corner. I think that's something about Vietnam there's always more than meets the eye. I've done my best to explore. A few weeks ago, I went to an antique market which was amazing. Many foreigners don't even know about it because it's nestled between buildings with staircases, but there is a stage where people were playing music and there were all kinds of antiques. Its pretty much only Vietnamese there enjoying coffee and taking in the atmosphere. It took me three years to discover it. An antique market outgoing Canadian Consul General Kyle Nunas consider as one of the 'fantastic hidden worlds' in Ho Chi Minh City he discovered after three years living in the city. Photo: Kyle Nunas Lately, Ive been visiting a coffee shop near Tao Dan Park in District 1 where local people bring their birds to let them learn songs from each other in the early morning. People catch up with each other and keep the birds comfortable and out of the sun. Another thing that's really interesting for me is that its so hard to figure out where you are in Ho Chi Minh City. In my home city, we have a river that is almost a 'straight' river. If I'm looking at the river from my house, I'm facing north. But here with the Saigon River, you can face any direction and it will pop up everywhere. That's when you just have to allow yourself to get lost and discover. Why do you find these hidden spaces so attractive? I guess things here are very different from my hometown. I come from a very different climate and buildings are built very differently in Canada. So, for somebody like me from my country, we see those things as just incredibly exotic. The structures are very different. In Vietnam, people often have a lot of greenery inside their buildings. I also find those little courtyards very peaceful in the middle of a city. There's a lot of chaos but in a very exciting and artistic way. Kyle Nunas is seen in a photo he provided Tuoi Tre News showing him during his visit to a bird cafe near Tao Dan Park in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1. How about other places in Vietnam? I had been to a number of places, from Sa Pa to Hue, Hoi An, Da Lat, Mekong Delta, Phu Quoc, and more. There is so much to see and it's breathtaking. Since I came here in 1997, I have learned that Vietnam is one of the most beautiful countries and boasts such a dynamic landscape, including mountains, oceans, beaches, deserts, dunes, swamps, and rice fields. Its really pretty and its hard to not take photos because there are always features that just jump out at you. In this supplied photo, Kyle Nunas poses while sitting on a cyclo during his first trip to Vietnam as a tourist in 1997. Talking about tourism, I think the future of Vietnam depends on the future of its natural environment. There are natural treasures that many people would be jealous of. I believe that if you could protect the beauty of Vietnam, you can attract more and more tourists. How would you describe Vietnam to people who have never been? I pull up my pictures [laughter]. Over the past few years, the number of people from Canada that have said they're interested in coming to Vietnam has risen. How does one describe Vietnam? Well, it's different as you go from south to north. There is no places that is just like another and I think that's fantastic. If you don't like something in one place, there's a whole other part of the country that youll probably love. There are countries you can visit for a week and feel that youve visited them, but during my first two visits to Vietnam I felt I had only just scratched the surface. Even though Ive now lived here for three years I still feel as if I havent seen everything. There's a lot more to see. I would tell people about this beautiful place with so much diversity and it's a place that you need to take time to appreciate. Thank you! Below are some photos captured by Kyle Nunas during his time in Vietnam: A man sits by Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi in 1997. Photo: Kyle Nunas Kyle Nunas and his son at Hoan Kiem Lake in 2018 in a photo provided to Tuoi Tre News. 'I took a photo of a stranger from nearly this exact spot 20 years ago,' Nunas captions this photo. Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee building is seen in a 2020 photo taken by Kyle Nunas from Nguyen Hue Street in District 1. Saigon Central Post Office is seen in a photo taken by Kyle Nunas in September 2017. Photo showing the courtyard of an apartment building in Ho Chi Minh City by Kyle Nunas. A 'xe om' (motorbike taxi) driver is seen taking a nap on the sidewalk in a photo captured by Kyle Nunas. A sidewalk barbershop in Vietnam through Kyle Nunas' lens. Basket boats, a kind of fishing boat used by fishermen in Vietnam. Photo: Kyle Nunas A cyclo driver on Vietnam street through Kyle Nunas' lens Two women who are having coffee down an alley in Vietnam smile for a photo taken by Kyle Nunas in July 2020. A man is seen playing chess with a smile on his face in Vietnam. Photo: Kyle Nunas Kyle Nunas and his family during a trip to Fansipan mountain in Sa Pa, a famous resort town in the northern Vietnamese province of Lao Cai, in 2018 in a supplied photo. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size NOTE: The Press Council has not upheld a complaint about this article. Read the full adjudication here. When NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet stood on the podium at a glitzy black tie awards night for the whos who of the $60 billion workers compensation sector in November 2019 and gushed about icares achievements, few were buying it. Apart from icares senior executive team and board directors, and a bevy of contractors and consultants who had done well out of the state government controlled workers compensation scheme, that is. Perrottets glowing speech was widely recognised as a signal to the industry regulator SIRA, which was preparing to release a damning review into icare. Draft copies of the review had already been handed to icare executives and directors, including then boss John Nagle, and Treasury, outlining serious concerns with icare's management. NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet's steadfast support for icare has become a political problem. Credit:Steven Siewert To the astonishment of many, the Treasurer has continued to praise icare and its management team, despite mounting evidence of financial and operational mismanagement by the the workers compensation organisation. This week, that steadfast support began to cause Perrottet significant political problems, culminating in the resignation of his own chief of staff and calls for him to step aside. A joint investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Four Corners on July 27 revealed that icare is facing a looming financial disaster and that the regulator and bureaucrats in Treasury have been ringing the alarm bells about it since mid-2018. But the Treasurer, icare executives and the board insist the situation is not as dire as others say it is. "The icare team and the executive icare team do a superb job," the Treasurer said last week, the day after the joint investigation broke. Advertisement Earlier this week Nagle resigned after a grilling in parliament, which revealed he had been sanctioned by the board last year for "deficient" disclosure of a contract awarded to his wife. He said he lost his short term bonus as part of the sanction and threatened to resign. In an attempt to silence the critics Perrottet announced a review of icare by a retired judge, but the lack of transparency over contracts it has awarded and its financial position mean many questions remain unanswered. On Thursday evening Perrottets office was thrown into turmoil and his chief of staff resigned after revelations the salaries of two of his personal ministerial staff were paid by icare and had not been documented as required by regulations. The resignation of Nigel Freitas followed a series of questions from the Herald about the pay details of senior policy adviser Edward Yap and an administrative assistant, whose salaries while on secondment were paid for by icare. Problems with the regulator When Nagle and his colleagues got hold of SIRA's draft report in late 2019 they were far from impressed. Internal emails sent from Nagle to the secretary of the Treasury indicate a growing frustration with the regulator, referring to questioning and scrutiny from key bureaucrats in Treasury as evidence of the one way nature of the 'whispering' campaign that comes from SIRA. Advertisement SIRA's draft report outlined financial mismanagement by icare including incorrect weekly payments to injured workers, duplicate payments for diagnostic services and serious failures in its automated claims management system. This had resulted in almost 50 per cent of workers being incorrectly classified and was leading to delays in treatment of injured workers, internal Treasury notes say. The draft report said icare's move to a single claims agent, EML, was similarly problematic as EML staff lack the skills and experience for technical case management of personal injury claims and EML has been under-resourced since the inception of the new model and maximum caseloads have been exceeded which was impacting claimant outcomes. Shadow Minister Daniel Mookhey this week argued the Premier needed to stand aside the Treasurer while an independent investigation occurs. Employers pay their premiums to get sick and injured workers back to work, not to fund the board and managements delusions and the treasurers political operations, he said. NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge is also calling for the Treasurer to step aside until he has given a full explanation under oath at the parliamentary inquiry. We have heard case after case of injured workers thrown off the workers compensation scheme, struggling in poverty, and now we hear that hundreds of thousands of dollars are being bled from the scheme to pay for the Treasurers staff. Perrottets 'baby' Icare was set up in 2015 to replace the old WorkCover scheme and is considered Perrottets 'baby'. As finance minister he oversaw the new legislation, handpicked the board including its chairman, long time Liberal donor Michael Carapiet. Vivek Bhatia was appointed as the inaugural chief executive. When Perrottet was promoted to Treasurer in 2017 he retained ministerial responsibility for icare. Is there anything we cant do? Who will make it when pushed to the limit? Promotional video played to icare staff Advertisement Insiders, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said discussions about privatising icare were common. The organisation insures 284,000 NSW employers and their 3.4 million workers and protects more than $193 billion of NSW government assets, including the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, schools and hospitals. The plan was to transform icare into an ASX 50 company. The mantra was think big and dont behave like a public sector entity. To that end, almost $2 million was spent on putting a neon sign at the top of the Kent Street building, floors were renovated with expensive fitouts, an internal staircase built, and slick self-promoting videos made by professional film makers became the norm. Inspirational speakers were brought in to rally the troops, including a woman shortlisted to travel to space as part of a select group who would one day colonise Mars. Is there anything we cant do? Who will make it when pushed to the limit? the Mars 100 promotional video played. Bhatias lofty aspirations were shared with a group of executives who had worked with him at Wesfarmers Insurance and subsequently joined icare: John Nagle, Beth Uehling, Andrew Ziolowski, and Tony Pescott among them. The executives had no workers compensation experience but shared the vision and the big executive salaries and bonuses. They also wanted to make sure that although icare was a government-run entity, it would be a private enterprise in every other sense. An icare foundation was set up as a promotional vehicle with few checks and balances, and five insurance agents became one, EML, to manage all new claims. Advertisement A new claims management system was built by CapGemini and spearheaded by Bhatia. The software platform was built by Guidewire, which took Nagle on a trip to Las Vegas to speak at a conference - a trip that wasnt declared in icare's annual report, according to Nagle's answers in parliament this week. The CapGemini and Guidewire contracts and related consulting costs totalled $360 million. The Herald can also reveal that icares then chief risk officer declared to icare that he went to Dallas, Texas with RSA Archer in October 2017 and stayed at the Hilton. According to an icare Gifts and Benefits declaration obtained by the Herald, the chief risk officer said RSA Archer software was purchased in early 2017. The form was signed by Bhatia. Internal emails reveal that a gift declaration was lodged months after the trip when compliance started querying it. I understand that RSA Archer paid for your flight and accommodation expenses. I have checked the Gifts and Benefits register and found in accordance with the icare policy you have not provided the compliance team with a signed declaration. A sticker on the floor in the foyer of icare's building in Sydney. Credit:Kate Geraghty The chief risk officers response was, yes, the international travel and offer to pay my expenses was discussed with Vivek [Bhatia] who, in accordance with our internal Travel Policy, informed the chairman of the board. Weeks after the launch of the new claims management system Bhatia quit icare and went to work at QBE Insurance, leaving behind Nagle and his Wesfarmers friends to continue their work. (On Friday Bhatia announced he had resigned from QBE Australia to become CEO of ASX-listed information solutions company Link Group, which is chaired by icare chairman Michael Carapiet and includes another icare director Peeyush Gupta, who also sits on the NAB board.) Advertisement Jadon Sancho is yet to finalise his Manchester United switch but the forward has already started the settling-in process, joining a group chat with Old Trafford stars. The Red Devils are in pole position to land the Englishman from Borussia Dortmund this summer, with a four-year deal reported to have been finalised as talks over the structure of United's 108m transfer fee continue. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side are believed to have been Sancho's preferred destination from some time, with the 20-year-old ready to link up with the likes of Paul Pogba, Brandon Williams and Marcus Rashford - who he already plays Call of Duty with 'regularly' according to Jesse Lingard. Jadon Sancho has reportedly joined a Manchester United WhatsApp group amid transfer talk The forward has been back in training with Borussia Dortmund but his United move is close Sancho won't be an unfamiliar face if he moves, as he's already friends with Lingard and Pogba 'Manchester United are comfortable at this moment in time that they're not in any competition for the signature of Jadon Sancho,' the Transfer Window Podcast have reported. 'No other club has expressed the same level of interest and they're also very confident the player wants to come to Old Trafford. 'He has been in constant touch with England international colleagues who currently play for Manchester United. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side will look deadly up front for next season with Sancho's arrival Sancho's familiarity with United stars will excited fans who hope his talent will shine in England 'It's even believed he's on a WhatsApp group with some of the Manchester United players as well. 'Therefore United are very comfortable with their position, they believe that Dortmund will come round to the structure that they've suggested.' United fans are excited about Sancho's arrival after the wonderkid's 17 goals and 17 assists in the Bundesliga for Dortmund this season. The countries on the UK's quarantine exemption list have changed again. (Getty Images) The list of countries from which Britons have to quarantine for 14 days after returning has changed again. Here is everything you need to know about the latest coronavirus travel corridor developments. Which countries are the latest to have been removed from the quarantine exemption list? On Thursday, transport secretary Grant Shapps announced travellers arriving in the UK after 4am on Saturday (29 August) from Switzerland, Jamaica and the Czech Republic will have to quarantine for 14 days. It comes after Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago were also removed from the exemption list on 22 August. Other places to have been removed in recent weeks include: Aruba; France; Malta; Monaco; the Netherlands; Turks and Caicos Islands; Andorra; The Bahamas; Belgium; Luxembourg; and Spain. Which countries are the latest to have been added to the quarantine exemption list? At the same time as removing Switzerland, Jamaica and the Czech Republic, Shapps added Cuba to the list for the first time. It follows Portugal, Brunei and Malaysia, which were also added to the safe list earlier this month: meaning people dont have to quarantine when they arrive in the UK. Which other countries are on the quarantine exemption list? As of 4am on Saturday (29 August), people arriving in England from the following countries and territories do not have to quarantine for 14 days: Akrotiri and Dhekelia; Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Australia; Barbados; Bermuda; Bonaire; St Eustatius and Saba; British Antarctic Territory; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Brunei; Cayman Islands; the Channel Islands; Cuba; Curacao; Cyprus; Denmark; Dominica; Estonia; Falkland Islands; Faroe Islands; Fiji; Finland; French Polynesia; Gibraltar; Germany; Greece; Greenland; Grenada; Guadeloupe; Hong Kong; Hungary; Iceland; Ireland; the Isle of Man; Italy; Japan; Latvia; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Macao (Macau); Malaysia; Mauritius; Montserrat; New Caledonia; New Zealand; Norway; Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands; Poland; Portugal; Reunion; San Marino; Seychelles; Slovakia; Slovenia; South Korea; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; St Barthelemy; St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; St Kitts and Nevis; St Lucia; St Pierre and Miquelon; St Vincent and the Grenadines; Taiwan; Turkey; Vatican City State; Vietnam. Story continues Follow the links for guidance on Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Why are countries removed from the quarantine exemption list? Following the removal of Switzerland, Jamaica and the Czech Republic on Thursday, Shapps said: The decision on whether to add or remove a country is carefully made after research from the Joint Biosecurity Centre. A lead indicator is 20 cases per 100,000 over seven days but they take into account a wide range of factors: including level, rate and speed of change in confirmed cases. What does it mean for holidaymakers can I still travel to countries not on the exemption list? Yes, you can, though the 14-day quarantine on your return might have consequences for your work. The government has reminded people that travelling abroad at the moment comes with a risk, warning circumstances can change quickly. Shapps, who had to quarantine for 14 days after a holiday in Spain, had previously warned: As with all air bridge countries, please be aware that things can change quickly. Only travel if you are content to unexpectedly 14-day quarantine if required (I speak from experience!). What about travel insurance? Following Thursdays announcement, Patrick Ikhena, head of travel insurance at comparethemarket.com, warned: The restrictions apply to the whole country, even those areas with low infection rates, and as a result this unfortunately means that most travel insurance policies will no longer provide cover to Switzerland, Jamaica and Czech Republic. He added a decision to cancel a trip to avoid the mandatory quarantine rules would be considered a disinclination to travel and many policies would be unlikely to pay out. Coronavirus: what happened today Click here to sign up to the latest news and information with our daily Catch-up newsletter GAITHERSBURG, Md., Aug. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) (the Company) announced today that it has completed its previously announced offering of $450 million in aggregate principal amount of its 3.875% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2028 (the Notes). The Notes are fully and unconditionally guaranteed on a senior unsecured basis by all of the Companys direct and indirect subsidiaries that guarantee debt under its credit facilities. The Company has used the net proceeds of the offering to repay the $353 million outstanding under its $600 million revolving credit facility with the remainder to be used for general corporate purposes. The Notes were offered in the United States to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), and outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Notes were not registered under the Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. This press release is neither an offer to sell nor the solicitation of an offer to buy the Notes or any other securities, and there shall not be any offer to sell, solicitation of an offer to buy or sale of the Notes in any jurisdiction in which, or to any person to whom, such an offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful. Any offers of the Notes will be made only by means of an offering memorandum. About Emergent BioSolutions Emergent BioSolutions is a global life sciences company whose mission is to protect and enhance life. Through our specialty products and contract development and manufacturing services, we are dedicated to providing solutions that address public health threats. Through social responsibility, we aim to build healthier and safer communities. We aspire to deliver peace of mind to our patients and customers so they can focus on whats most important in their lives. In working together, we envision protecting or enhancing 1 billion lives by 2030. Safe Harbor Statement This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements, other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding the intended use of proceeds, are forward-looking statements. We generally identify forward-looking statements by using words like "will," "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "forecasts," "estimates" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on our current intentions, beliefs and expectations regarding future events. We cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will be accurate. Investors should realize that if underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could differ materially from our expectations. Investors are, therefore, cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release, and, except as required by law, we do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement to reflect new information, events or circumstances. There are a number of important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. In addition, new factors that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations emerge from time to time and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors, nor can it assess the impact of any such factor on the business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Investors should consider this cautionary statement as well as the risk factors identified in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission when evaluating our forward-looking statements. Investor Contact: Robert G. Burrows Vice President, Investor Relations 240-631-3280 BurrowsR@ebsi.com Media Contact: Miko B. Neri Senior Director, Global Communications & Public Affairs 240-631-3392 NeriM@ebsi.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 21:56:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolence on Saturday to his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Phu Trong, over the passing of Le Kha Phieu, former general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee (CPVCC). Xi said he was shocked to hear the passing of Comrade Le Kha Phieu, adding that he, on behalf of the CPC, the Chinese government and the Chinese people, as well as in his own name, extends deep condolences through Trong to the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the Vietnamese government, and Vietnamese people over the passing of comrade Le Kha Phieu, and expresses sincere sympathies to his family. Comrade Le Kha Phieu is an outstanding leader of the older generation of the CPV and Vietnam, said Xi, adding that he had led the Vietnamese people in achieving great accomplishments in Vietnam's socialist construction and renovation enterprises. Xi also said that Comrade Le Kha Phieu was a close comrade and friend for the CPC and the Chinese people, adding that he had made outstanding contributions to the development of China-Vietnam relations featuring "long-term stability, future orientation, good-neighborly friendship and all-round cooperation." The Chinese side attaches great importance to consolidating and developing the traditional friendship between the two countries, and is willing to work with Vietnam in enhancing political mutual trust and strengthening unity and cooperation so as to push forward the relationship of the two parties and two countries, as well as their respective socialist causes for new and greater development, Xi said. He believes that under the strong leadership of the CPVCC with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong as the head, the socialist cause in Vietnam is bound to yield new achievements, Xi added. Enditem Saturday morning turned into a nightmare for commuters between Delhi and Noida with the Noida police shutting the Kalindi Kunj border and placing barricades to check vehicles at the other entry points to Noida -- on Noida Link Road, Delhi-Noida-Direct Flyway, and Mayur Vihar Phase-2 -- as well as the entry points to Ghaziabad. The Noida traffic police said the restrictions were part of heightened security on account of a visit by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who was in Noidas Sector 39 to inaugurate a hospital. He later visited Sector 59 to inspect a Covid-19 management control room. Commuters complained about the unannounced border closure, which led to serpentine traffic queues at the Delhi-Noida borders. The situation was particularly bad at Kalindi Kunj, where vehicles were being turned back by the police. I was on my way from Sarita Vihar to Noida. At Kalindi Kunj, police had put up barricades stopping vehicular entry from the Delhi side. I was left waiting for an hour, before traffic cops told us that the restrictions will be removed only by afternoon, Saurav Kumar, a commuter, said. The Kalindi Kunj border closure had a cascading effect on the traffic on Delhi-Mathura Road, which became choked. Many said the chaos on the stretch was also aggravated by drivers reversing their vehicles on seeing the barricades and trying to make their way back against the flow of traffic. In a series of advisories issued on Saturday through their social media accounts, the Delhi traffic police informed commuters from Delhi about the barricading on the Noida borders and suggested that they take alternative routes. Traffic movement is very slow from Delhi towards NOIDA on Kalindi Kunj Flyover due to very tight barricading/checking by NOIDA Police. Motorists are advised to use DND, read the first advisory, issued at 10am. However, a while later, the high traffic volume on the DND Flyway route brought vehicles to a standstill. Being the weekend, the traffic was still under control. We were issuing regular advisories but the closure of borders was a call taken by the Noida police on account of VVIP movement. By evening, the traffic had eased, a senior Delhi traffic police officer said. A large number of trucks and bikers were also stranded. Noida traffic police said vehicles attached to essential services were allowed to proceed and others were requested to take the DND Flyway. We reinforced the border restrictions today (Saturday) morning which led to slow movement of traffic. The traffic on Kalindi Kunj route was stopped for less than 10 minutes due to the CMs visit and it did not cause any major snarls. However, for threat assessment, some vehicles were being checked and necessary documents verified, deputy commissioner of police, zone 1 (Noida), Sankalp Sharma said. Frustrated commuters took to social media to vent their anger. Many posted pictures and videos of the stagnant traffic, while others complained about the lack of prior information and absence of traffic personnel to redirect vehicles. Devendra Mawai, a commuter, tweeted, Whole Noida and Delhi border is blocked for last four hours without any prior information, its absolutely chaotic and there is a terrible jam on the Delhi-Noida border; Im on the Yamuna bridge for last three hours . Please allow smooth traffic. (sic) Noida also has weekend restrictions on account of the mini lockdown in place to help with Covid-19 social distancing norms. Police said the borders will be monitored as long as these lockdowns continue in the state. Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required! Stay logged in to skip the surveys. Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Saturday said the administration did not allow a second-year undergraduate student, who is 80% physically disabled, to enter the campus to appear for online exams. The JNU students union (JNUSU) said the student was made to wait for eight hours at the varsity gate and turned away. He [the student] had been informed that his exams were starting from August 10. As he could not access internet at home and could not concentrate on his studies, due to pre-existing issues at home, he decided to return to his hostel on the JNU campus, the JNUSU said in a statement. The union said the student waited outside the gate from 6am for around eight hours and was forced to return disappointed. He was even denied permission to use the washroom, the union alleged. In response, registrar Pramod Kumar said the university has formulated clear guidelines about the entry into the campus. So many students have left their belongings behind and we cant allow them to enter the campus to even collect it because that holds a two-way threat -- either they can get infected or infect others, he said. There have been 46 cases of Covid-19 in the JNU so far. We dont have quarantine or isolation facilities. We have a responsibility towards those residing on the campus. If we allow people to move in and out of the campus and that leads to more cases, who will bear the responsibility for it? he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON By Nakul Iyer, K. Sathya Narayanan and Peter Hobson (Reuters) - The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) said on Friday it would continue to accredit the Perth Mint after an investigation into allegations that it processed unethically sourced gold found no significant wrongdoing. The withdrawal of accreditation would have hurt the mint, one of the world's largest gold refiners, because big banks that dominate gold trading usually require it. The LBMA's guidelines aim to ensure that refiners do not process material whose production or trade contributes to human rights abuses, conflict, crime or environmental degradation. The Australian Financial Review newspaper said in June the Perth Mint had refined gold from small-scale gold miners in Papua New Guinea who used child labour and toxic mercury. The mint, owned by the government of Western Australia, has insisted it acted legally and ethically. The LBMA said its investigation had revealed no "zero-tolerance non-conformance," and that the Perth Mint would therefore remain on its "good delivery" list of refiners. It said it had uncovered less serious failings in the way the mint assessed supply chain risks, including the failure to categorise the company in Papua New Guinea from which it took gold as a high risk supplier. The mint must make improvements to its sourcing procedures and have these scrutinised by an outside auditor, the LBMA said. It declined to say what these were. It said it had removed its accreditation from the mint's previous auditor and was reviewing the accreditation of the company that auditor worked for, Bureau Veritas . Bureau Veritas did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Perth Mint CEO Richard Hayes said the LBMA had confirmed the rigour and integrity of the mint's procedures and that its recommendations would be implemented. He said a minority of the major banks that take gold from the mint had paused purchases during the LBMA investigation but he expected these to now resume. Following the Australian Financial Review report the Perth Mint said it would stop processing metal from artisanal and small-scale miners. Hayes said such gold accounted for 0.3% of the refinery's throughput. (Reporting by Nakul Iyer and K. Sathya Narayanan in Bengaluru and Peter Hobson in London; editing by Jason Neely and David Evans) Niamey, Niger (PANA) - The Nigerien government Saturday extended the state of emergency in the department of Filingue in the region of Tillabery, following terrorist attacks, a statement issued by the Council of ministers said A member of the NDC Communication team, Peter Mensah has condemned the alleged harassment and intimidation meted out to people of Ewe decent in Banda Constituency by military personnel during the voter registration exercise. Speaking in the UTV late News, Peter Mensah indicated that the deployment of the Military men in Banda was a sign of disrespect for rule of law by the ruling NPP. Ghana has been named the beacon of democracy due to our free and fair electoral process. So, it is very painful for the NPP government to dent our democratic credential through brutalization and intimidation. Even though NDC was against the new voter register, because we believe in the rule of law, we followed due process to the end. The President and NPP deployed the Military to intimidate and brutalize the residents of Banda and its environs because they have no respect for the rule of law." Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video He said the existing law allows for license revocations, which would be more costly than the fines allowed in the new emergency rules. Because they are emergency rules, they can only be in place for up to 150 days. The General Assemblys bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, has the authority to review emergency rules, and would have to approve the rules if they are to be adopted long-term. Pritzkers push for the new rules follows a similar attempt which failed before JCAR in May as the committee, after hourslong negotiations behind the scenes, appeared uninterested in imposing a fine structure for businesses that were already hurting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, a lead Democrat from the committee said he planned to bring the proposed rule changes before the full General Assembly after the Pritzker administration withdrew the emergency rules amid the opposition. General Assembly action would have bypassed JCAR, enshrining the rules into law, but such a bill never came up for a vote in the abbreviated May session. Pritzker suggested it will be different this time around, as the new version of the rule allows for education and warnings before the fine. BANGKOK More than 1,000 anti-government demonstrators rallied in Bangkoks commercial district on Saturday after two protest leaders were arrested and held overnight. Human rights lawyer Anon Nampa, 35, and student activist Panupong Jadnok, 23, were charged on Friday and held in connection with a series of protests demanding greater democracy. They were released on bail on Saturday pending further investigation of the charges and on the condition that they do not re-offend. The courts condition was that the two not repeat actions like allegations from this case," Anons lawyer, Weeranan Huadsri, told Reuters, but they could join legal protests. Charges against Anon and Panupong include sedition and violating an emergency decree imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. At a protest on Monday, Anon had also made an extremely rare call for reforms to the powerful monarchy, but he was not charged over that. Anon and Panupong appeared in good health when they exited the court and pledged to continue protesting. We will join protests that are in accordance with the constitution, he said. He said he had always acted peacefully in accordance with the constitution and that government should stop its harassment. Their release, however, did not appease more than 1,000 demonstrators who moved ahead with an anti-government rally in Bangkoks shopping district. Do not harass the citizens," protesters shouted at a bridge in front the MBK shopping centre despite police appeals to disperse. They chanted Police get out" and Dictatorship shall fall" and gave the three-finger salutes of pro-democracy protesters who are demanding the dissolution of parliament, amending the constitution and new elections. Police Colonel Patikorn Sornchai said the protesters were clearly breaking the emergency law on Saturday after being told to disperse and they would be investigated. Demonstrations have returned to Thailands streets to call for removal of the government of 2014 coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha after a disputed election last year that activists say was engineered to ensure his hold on power. We cannot stand the tyranny and oppression that is being inflicted on the Thai people," said 22-year-old student Pattanun Arunpreechawat. We have to come out to show that." (Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Jiraporn Kuhakan and Matthew Tostevin; Editing by William Mallard and Angus MacSwan) Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor The notion that Fillmores embrace of the Fugitive Slave Act was done purely in an attempt to hold the country together and keep the South from seceding loses credibility when examining his post-presidential life. The newly formed American Party, known as the Know Nothings for their practice of concealing their views, nominated Fillmore as its presidential candidate in 1856, an election won by James Buchanan. The American Partys hostility to Catholics and Irish immigrants was an affront to many residents of Western New York. As a former president, Fillmore performed many good works for Buffalo. He was founding chancellor of UB and played a key role in the founding of many of our institutions: the Buffalo Club, the Buffalo Museum of Science, the public library, the History Museum and what is now the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo General Medical Center and the local chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Fillmore deserves gratitude and respect for his civic contributions. But any memorial to him requires both balance and context just as it should in other parts of country that are reconsidering who deserves to be honored. We should not consider ourselves exempt. Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today. President Trump issued an executive order on Thursday that could bar U.S. citizens from transacting with TikTok, the wildly popular Chinese-owned video sharing app. The move follows a recent declaration by Trump that Microsoftwhich is in talks to buy TikTokshould pay a kickback of sorts to the U.S. Treasury for facilitating the proposed deal. All of this is extraordinary from a business and geo-political perspective, and raises the question of how the President is able to level such pressure on companies like TikTok in the first place. The answer lies with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an obscure but powerful body that has taken on vast new influence under the Trump Administration. The committeeknown by its unmelodic acronym CFIUS (Siff-ee-us) is unfamiliar even to many lawyers and government officials. But legal experts familiar with its operations explained to Fortune how CFIUS emerged from obscure 1970s origins to a force that is now reshaping U.S. commerce. A Ford-era relic reborn CFIUS is led by the U.S. Treasury Secretary and composed of the heads of nine powerful agencies, including the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Department of Energy. Several White House offices, including the National Security Council also participate in CFIUS business, while other agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, are reportedly vying for a seat at the table. The committee has the power to block or unwind deals involving foreign investors, and the President of the United Sates has ultimate authority over its decisions. CFIUS does not have to share reasons for its decreesor even disclose their existence. CFIUS has been around for decades but, despite its formidable powers, the committee has received little attention until recently. CFIUS was pretty lethargic for a long time, explains Amy Westbrook, a law professor who has written about its evolving role. Story continues Westbrookwho describes CFIUS investigations as a strange powernotes that the committee came into existence under President Gerald Ford amid concern about foreign companies obtaining leverage over U.S. oil supplies, but that it only received a formal mandate from Congress in 1988. As a country we like to think of ourselves as very open on foreign investment, says Westbrook, adding that people long thought of CFIUSto the degree they thought about it allin the context of select industries like airlines or weapons. The committee briefly received national attention in 2006 when members of Congresswith 9/11 in mindcalled on the Bush Administration to use CFIUS to block the sale of American ports to an entity owned by the United Arab Emirates. The controversy fizzled out, however, after the UAE company voluntarily gave up its plans for the ports. CFIUS would make news again six years later in an episode that underscored both the power and the secrecy of the committee. The episode in question involved the construction of Chinese-built wind farms in coastal Oregon, which led the U.S. Navy to call on President Obama to stop the project. The Obama Administration did exactly that, giving the U.S. company that had commissioned the wind farms only 90 days to unwind the project, all without providing an explanation for the decision or the process behind it. The company sued over the process but the case settled quietly. Such interventions, though, have been a rarityuntil 2018 that is. That year coincided with growing tensions between President Trump and China, and with a new law that expanded the scope of CFIUS oversight. The targets of the new law, called FIRMMA, include real estate transactions and those involving personal data. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said final FIRMMA regulations, issued in January, strengthen national security and modernize the investment review processthough the measures fell short of what China hawks like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl) have called for. In any event, the expansion of CFIUS appears to have facilitated the Trump Administrations investigations into TikToks operations, which have been underway since 2019. The specific legal transaction driving the CFIUS investigation has been the purchase by TikToks parent company, ByteDance, of the apps predecessor, Musical.ly. The latter was a Shanghai-based company with an office in Santa Monica, California, which acquired numerous U.S. based companies. Thanks to CFIUS, President Trump has the power to order Byte Dance to unwind the Musical.ly transaction and divest itself of U.S. customers. While TikTok has threatened to sue over the Trump Administrations new executive order, citing lack of due process, its unclear if the company would have a case. National security evolves from oil to social media data In the last two years, CFIUS has morphed from an occasional concern to a fixture for lawyers overseeing foreign investment in the U.S. Since the law changed and expanded, my guess is there have been 200 filings this year alone, says Veny Simidjiyska, a corporate attorney with Fox Rothschild. The filings are not just tied to transactions involving geo-political rivals like China, but for investments made by investors from the U.K. and other U.S. allies. Simidjiyska added that its impossible to know the precise number of filings since CFIUS provides little or no data about its activities. Likewise, she says there is little formal guidance about who or what is driving CFIUS interventions such as the one in the TikTok case. But the source of investigations is not hard to guess. Officially we dont know how decisions and directions are passed down to CFIUS, but unofficially its pretty obvious the instructions are from Congress or the President, says Simidjiyska. Byte Dances purchase of Musical.ly is not the only recent transaction to land in the cross-hairs of CFIUS. Other conspicuous interventions have involved the gay dating site Grindr and the medical site Patients Like Me, both of which were bought by Chinese companies. Simidjiyska notes that Grindr and Patients Like Mes possession of sensitive personal data has made them a national security concernnot least because that data could be fodder for blackmail by foreign governments. In response, she says her firm has been advising clients to be more pro-active in seeking approval from CFIUS for transactions. A go-ahead notice from CFIUS can be a critical legal shield for companies in the future. If a company fails to seek one, the transaction can be subject to a sudden order of unwinding down the roadthe very threat that appears to be looming over TikTok. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the CFIUS process is the total lack of transparency. For other corporate deals that are subject to federal oversightnotably for antitrust concernsthere are a long-established legal regimes that set out the rules involved, and a process for companies to challenge them. CFIUS, by contrast, is a black box since its decisions are nominally informed by national security concerns. But in the case of some CFIUS investigations, there may be other considerations at play. Westbrook, the law professor, says knows of at least one recently scuttled merger where he thinks board members for one firm may have used the specter of a CFIUS investigation as a poison pill of sorts to get out of the deal. Both Westbrook and Simidjiyska say the CFIUS regime should feature more transparency, in part because foreign investors are wary of triggering an investigationincluding a politically driven oneand seeing their deals unravel unexpectedly. The opacity of the process is disturbing, says Westbrook. Theres a great deal of opportunity for mischief. More must-read finance coverage from Fortune: This story was originally featured on Fortune.com When Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne in 1952, she promised to dedicate her whole life to the monarchy and to the citizens of the United Kingdom. However, that vow came with a price. The Queen is now the longest-serving monarch in British history, having headed the royal family for 68 years now. She has transformed the U.K and brought the nation to greater heights, all while changing the public's "elitist" perception of the Firm.. Her Majesty is one of Britain's most beloved royals, and she has been generally favored throughout the years. As mentioned though, things are not always easy for the Queen, as she had to sacrifice a lot in order to serve the crown. When her father King George VI died in February 1952 at the age of 56, then-Princess Elizabeth -- who was away in Kenya as part of her royal tour with Prince Philip -- assumed the title of Queen. At the beginning of her reign, Queen Elizabeth II was adjusting to motherhood, as her eldest son Prince Charles was only 4 years old while Princess Anne is two. With that said, she was never able to become truly a mother to her children. Considering that, here are the signs that Queen Elizabeth II's kids have a complicated relationship with their mother. Distant Mother Due to her duties as the head of the monarchy, which required her to be away for days or even months for royal tours and engagements, the Queen's kids grew up being taken care by nannies, as well as the Queen Mother. Moreover, Her Majesty's busy schedule caused her to have a complicated relationship with her kids, most especially with Prince Charles. In his 1994 authorized biography written by Jonathan Dimbleby, the Prince of Wales painted his mother in a negative light and described his parents as "emotionally reserved." He also recalled that the royal nannies are the ones who "taught him to play, witnessed his first steps, punished and rewarded him, helped him put his first thoughts into words." The Favorite Son Aside from Prince Charles and the Princess Royal, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh have two other children in Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. It has been rumored that Her Majesty has her favorite child, and although some may assume that its the heir to the throne, it was reportedly the Duke of York. According to the 2019 documentary Paxman on the Queen's Children by royal historian Piers Brendon, it was claimed that the Queen's third son is "obviously" her favorite due to his enthusiasm to serve his country. "Andy skipped university and went straight to naval college, which went down well with his naval officer father. He completed the Marines Commando course, just to show he could, before qualifying as a helicopter pilot," Brendon explained. "Then, aged just 22, he fought in the Falklands. And so, it's pretty clear that Prince Andrew is obviously Queen Elizabeth's favorite son. He was heroic during the Falklands War. It's clear that she has a soft spot for him." Prince Charle's Closeness With the Queen Mother Given that the royal kids grew up with their nannies and Queen Elizabeth II's mother, Prince Charles built a close relationship with the Queen Mother and vice versa. She viewed the heir to the throne as her favorite grandchild and even interfered when the Queen and her husband wanted the shy and sensitive Prince Charles to be sent to a remote Scottish boarding school in Gordonstoun. When the Queen Mother died in 2002 at the age of 101, the Prince of Wales delivered an emotional tribute to his "darling magical grandmother." "She meant everything and I had dreaded, dreaded this moment. Somehow I never thought it would come. She seemed gloriously unstoppable," he mentioned in his speech. READ MORE: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Trouble: 3 Heartbreaking Effects of 'Finding Freedom Zsa Zsa Gabor is going on a final farewell tour as her flamboyant widower plans to take her ashes on a trip around Europe before finally laying her to rest in her native Hungary She was the original Hollywood It Girl, famous for her nine marriages, self-parodying glamour and witty quips. Now, almost four years after her death, Zsa Zsa Gabor is going on a final farewell tour as her flamboyant widower plans to take her ashes on a trip around Europe before finally laying her to rest in her native Hungary. Zsa Zsa is in a beautiful gold urn which hasnt left my side since her funeral in January 2017, Prince Frederic von Anhalt told The Mail on Sunday last night. I sleep with it and she goes everywhere with me. If I had my way I would stay with her until my end but Ive just turned 77 and none of us knows what will happen with this pandemic so I decided its time to take her home to Hungary but not without first taking her on a tour of her favourite places. Von Anhalt said he intended to carry his wifes gold urn around Europe in a Louis Vuitton designer dog carrier that she bought for her favourite pet. She would carry her shih tzu Macho around it in. She loved that dog so I think its appropriate. Well go on one final tour of London, Paris, Vienna and Geneva and then head to Budapest. Zsa Zsa died of a heart attack in December 2016 just two months shy of her 100th birthday. She is widely credited with inventing modern celebrity and being the first of the famous-for-being-famous stars. The actress, whose husbands included hotel heir Conrad Hilton, actor George Sanders and investment banker Herbert Hunter, poked fun at her notorious love life with quips including: I am a marvellous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house. But even in death she is embroiled in controversy, with her former publicist Ed Lozzi criticising her widowers plans. Her widower is pictured above with her ashes. Zsa Zsas ashes will be buried in Budapests national cemetery. There will be a granite headstone with her photograph on it but no age He claimed that Zsa Zsa should be laid to rest alongside her daughter Francesca and sister Eva in Hollywoods Westwood Cemetery. Thats what she would have wanted, he said. Instead, shes being driven around in the glove box of a Rolls-Royce, going wherever her phony Prince husband wants to take her. Von Anhalt, who admits to buying his royal title from an impoverished German aristocrat, hit back: I was devoted to that woman through 30 years of marriage. She loved to travel. She loved Europe. Every year we would go to her favourite places. Her daughter and sister are buried in LA, and the other sister and mother are in Palm Springs. Zsa Zsa never liked sharing the billing. Her final wish was to go home to Hungary where she was always treated as a star. Von Anhalt had reportedly even asked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for a state funeral for his late wife. Zsa Zsa was born in Budapest in 1917 with the real first name Sari. She arrived in Hollywood with her mother, Jolie, and sisters, Eva and Magda, in 1941 to escape war in Europe. She made more than 40 films, including Queen Of Outer Space, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and Naked Gun 2, but it was her wild private life that made her famous. She was a regular on the talk show circuit, and in 1989, her notoriety grew when she was jailed for three days for slapping a Beverly Hills police officer who pulled over her car. Her widower said she milked the incident for publicity. Extravagant: The star is pictured with Frederic von Anhalt in 1990. Von Anhalt had reportedly even asked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for a state funeral for his late wife The case should have lasted three days and her first lawyer wanted to settle but Zsa Zsa knew the power of scandal, he said. That case went on for 14 days and made headlines around the world. She made millions from advertising and other work after that. Anything people like the Kardashians do today, they learned from Zsa Zsa. Zsa Zsas ashes will be buried in Budapests national cemetery. There will be a granite headstone with her photograph on it but no age. After age 60 she demanded we stopped counting, Von Anhalt explained. Im going to put 20th Century icon on there along with a picture of her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is what she would have wanted. First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on August 5, 1995 'They'd never have dropped it on Christians' WHILE many citizens of Nagasaki believe the atom-bombing shortened the war and may have saved lives, one Australian eye-witness says this is bunk. Boxer turned peace activist Tom Uren - a minister in the 1972-1975 Labor government of Gough Whitlam - was one of about 50 Australians captured at the fall of Singapore who were in prison camps around Nagasaki that fatal day. "We thought that an enormous ammunition dump or something like that had blown up..." The aftermath of the bombing of Nagasaki, August 1945. Credit:J. Norman Ingram/Cox News Service Photo Uren, who had suffered on the notorious Burma "railway of death" - where one prisoner was said to have died for every sleeper laid - had been transported to a gritty little coal- mining town called Omuta, 80 kilometres (as the crow flies) across the Ariake Sea from Nagasaki. Ceremony held to honor Chinese naval hospital ship PLA Daily Source: Xinhuanet Editor: Wang Xinjuan 2020-08-07 19:50:40 HANGZHOU, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- A ceremony was held on Friday to honor the Chinese naval hospital ship, Peace Ark. An order signed by Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military Commission, was read at the ceremony, and a certificate of first-class citation for merit was presented to the unit. Upholding the principle of building "a community with a shared future for humanity" and "a maritime community with a shared future," the hospital ship has visited over 40 countries and regions, and provided medical services to more than 230,000 people, covering a distance of over 240,000 nautical miles. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address President Donald Trump said Friday that he would take part in an international conference call for donors organizing aid for Lebanon after the giant explosion in Beirut. Trump, who talked earlier with the conference's organizer French President Emmanuel Macron, tweeted that "everyone wants to help!" "We will be having a conference call on Sunday with President Macron, leaders of Lebanon, and leaders from various other parts of the world," he said. The catastrophic blast at Beirut's port killed more than 150 and devastated swaths of the city, as rescuers continue to desperately comb the rubble for survivors. Officials have said a huge shipment of hazardous ammonium nitrate had languished for years in a warehouse at the port and somehow caught fire, leading to Tuesday's earth-shaking blast. Lebanon's hospitals, already strained by rising coronavirus cases and a severe economic crisis, were heavily damaged by the blast and overwhelmed by casualties. The World Health Organization has called for $15 million to cover immediate health needs. The United Nations said up to 100,000 children are among the 300,000 people made homeless, including many who have been separated from their families. Relief flights from Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates landed in Lebanon on Friday, following others from France, Kuwait, Qatar and Russia. Trump said three US planes loaded with supplies were on the way to Lebanon, as were first responders and medical workers. Search Keywords: Short link: Last summer we introduced Krisp, the company that provides noise cancellation for enterprise calls. Two weeks later we broke the news they were focusing on call centers and award-winning Sitel was first to deploy. As you might imagine, call quality is becoming more important in the age of coronavirus. In fact, everything having to do with communications and collaboration has grown in importance. According to TechCrunch: Now even more large companies have signed on, including one call center with some 40,000 employees. Baghdasaryan says the company went from 0 to 600 paying enterprises, and $0 to $4 million annual recurring revenue, in a single year, which probably makes the investment by Storm Ventures, Sierra Ventures, TechNexus and Hive Ventures look like a pretty safe one. Its a big win for the Krisp team, which is split between the U.S. and Armenia, where the company was founded, and a validation of a global approach to staffing world-class talent isnt just to be found in California, New York, Berlin and other tech centers, but in smaller countries that dont have the benefit of local hype and investment infrastructure. If you think the trend towards noise-canceling in the consumer market will follow with growth in the enterprise and contact center market as we do, then youll agree, the company seems to be very well positioned. See the ONLY UCaaS, CRM, Contact Center, Tech and Communications companies that matter at the ITEXPO #TECHSUPERSHOW. This Event has been called the BEST SHOW in 5 YEARS and the Best TECHNOLOGY EVENT of 2020. 2020 participants included: Amazon, Cisco, Google, IBM, ClearlyIP, Avaya, Vonage, 88, Comcast Business, BlueJeans, CoreDial, Dell, Edify, Epygi, FreeSWITCH, Fuze, Grandstream, Granite, Intrado, Frontier Business, Fujitsu, Jenne, West, Konftel, Intelisys, Martello, NetSapiens, OOMA, Oracle, OpenVox, Peerless Network, Phone Sentry, Phone.com, Poly, QuestBlue, RingByName, Sangoma, SingTel, SkySwitch, Spracht, Spectrum, Sprint, Tallac, Tech Data, Telarus, TCG, Teledynamics, Teli, Telinta, Telispire, Telstra, TransNexus, Unified Office, Vital PBX, VoIP Supply, Voxbone, VoIP.MS, Windstream, XCALY, XORCOM, Yealink, Yubox, and ZYCOO. Full List. Join 8K others with $25B+ in IT buying power who plan 2021 budgets! Including 3,500+ resellers! A unique experience with a collocated Future of Work Expo, SD-WAN Expo, and MSP Expo June 22-25, 2021, Miami, FL. Register now. China is taking multi-pronged measures to enable its vast number of migrant workers to find jobs as the country coordinates regular COVID-19 prevention and control with efforts related to economic and social development. According to a recent guideline jointly issued by 15 government departments, including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Development and Reform Commission, efforts will be made to broaden the channels through which migrant workers can seek employment, a move that relates to China's aim of "winning the battle against poverty." More policy support will be given to industries such as accommodation and catering, which are labor-intensive and major employers of migrant workers, while flexible employment will also be promoted in new occupations such as livestreaming salesperson and delivery person for online orders. Aside from seeking jobs in cities, rural migrant workers are also encouraged to make the best of opportunities in their local areas, for example, in the processing of agricultural and forestry products, as well as rural-leisure tourism. In addition, those who want to set up their own businesses will receive guidance from mentors. Rural migrant workers who have lost their jobs will be able to register their jobless status easily, accessing vocational training as well as various subsidies during the training courses. In arranging employment, priority will be given to migrant workers who are poor, according to the guideline. China has 290 million rural migrant workers, over 60 percent of whom normally leave their countryside homes to seek jobs in cities. By the end of the second quarter, there were a total of 178 million rural migrant workers in the cities, 97.3 percent of the level seen during the same period last year, said Li Zhong, vice-minister of human resources and social security, on Friday. We listen to local police and fire departments scanner traffic, but sometimes miss crimes, wrecks, fires or other incidents, especially if they happen overnight. If you know of something were not covering yet, please let Managing Editor Jeff Pownall know by emailing him at jeff.pownall@lufkindailynews.com , or submit a news tip online by visitinglufkindailynews.com/tips. By PTI LUCKNOW: Army Chief Gen MM Naravane visited the Central Command Headquarters here on Friday and reviewed operational preparedness of the troops. The Army chief, during his visit to the state capital, also met Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, officials said. Naravane was briefed by General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Central Command Lieutenant General IS Ghuman on both operational and administrative aspects, an official release issued by a Defence Public Relations Officer (PRO) said. The Army chief met Chief Minister Adityanath at his official residence here. "It was a courtesy meeting between the two. The chief minister presented a memento to the Army chief during the meeting," a state government official said. During his visit to the Army's Central Command Headquarters, Gen Naravane expressed satisfaction on the efforts being made to ensure capability enhancement and operational effectiveness of the forces and development of infrastructure in the central sector, the release said. He conveyed his appreciation to the Central Command for achieving a high degree of operational preparedness, it said. The Army chief was appreciative of the efforts being put in by the soldiers in the forward areas operating in very difficult weather conditions in high-altitude areas, the release issued by the Defence PRO said. Before departing from Lucknow, Gen Naravane also met the Governor at the Raj Bhavan. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Amid the economic crisis in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) will launch a nationwide 'Rozgar Do' (give employment) campaign for unemployed youth from August 9. According to the IYC the 'rozgar do' campaign will be launched by IYC chief Srinivas B.V. and its main objective is to raise the voice of the youth against unemployment. Speaking about the campaign, the IYC chief said "Today, over 30 crore employable youth in India are unemployed and are committing suicide everyday due to the ever-rising levels of unemployment. And sadly, the central government has completely ignored the voice of the youth." Targeting the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, he said that it came to power by promising jobs to two crore people every year. "Accordingly, 12 crore people should have received employment in the past six years, in contrast, due to the mismanagement of Covid-19 and the apathy of the government towards the younger generation and unregulated sectors, at least 12 crore people have lost their jobs so far," he said. "Keeping this in mind, we have decided to raise our voice against the government's apathy at the district and assembly levels," he added. Another IYC leader Varun Pandey said that the central government is constantly snatching employment opportunities from the younger generation by privatizing the railways and other government undertakings. The IYC national media in-charge Rahul Rao slammed the government's move of demonetisation and faulty implementation of the GST and said, "First demonetisation, then the wrong implementation of GST and decisions like the unthoughtful lockdown by the Modi government ruined the country's economy." Rao said millions of youth are unemployed due to the inefficiency of the Modi government and its incapability to provide employment. He said the IYC activists will organize sit-in demonstrations and agitations across the country raising the demands that posts lying vacant in various government departments should be filled immediately, privatization of railways and other government institutions should be stopped, financial help for the unemployed youth and curbs on posts being abolished in government departments. 76th anniversary of Quit India Movement: An agitation that shook foundation of British Rule Need to ensure fruits of development reach poor: Naidu On Quit India movement anniversary, Uttar Pradesh Congress to hold protest against Yogi govt Ahead of this Independence Day, recalling Quit India movement on its 78th anniversary India oi-Briti Roy Barman New Delhi, Aug 08: Amid the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic, India is celebrating the 78th anniversary of Quit India movement which is also known as August Kranti Diwas on August 8. Quit India Movement: A peek into a heroic movement in India's freedom struggle | Oneindia News Quit India movement is said to be one of the most significant movements in the history of Indian freedom struggle. The Indian National Congress launched the 'Quit India Movement' in August 1942, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, at the Bombay session of Congress Committee. This Independence Day why Indian Railways has been the real hero The aim of the movement was to force the British to withdraw from India. On August 8, 1942, Mahatma Gandhi gave the famous Quit India speech in which Gandhi made a 'Do or Die' call in his speech at delivered in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan (August Kranti Maidan). Gandhi along with other Congress leaders were arrested by the British Government under the Defence of India Rules next day. The first half of the movement was peaceful with demonstrations and processions. The peaceful protest was carried till Mahatma Gandhi's release. The second half of the movement was violent with raids and setting fire at post offices, government buildings and railway stations. Lord Linlithgow adopted the policy of violence to stop the movement. In his Quit India speech, Gandhi asked all Indians including teachers to leave their jobs and take part in the movement. The movement kept the Congress Party united through their difficult times. The British aressted the entire INC leadership that included Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Vallabhbhai Patel without trial and kept them till the end of the Second World War in 1945. British declared INC as an unlawful association and raided its all offices across the country and freezed their funds. Afterwards, due to weak coordination and lack of action plan, the movement declared failed one. Independence Day 2020: Education Ministry, MyGov to organise an essay competition for students After the then American President Franklin Roosevelt urged the British administration to consider some of the Indian leaders' demand, the movement conveyed to the British that India had the support of global leaders. Despite its failure, the Quit India movement is considered to have a significant impact as it made the British Government realize that India was ungovernable in the long run. The City of Winnipeg has won the legal battle for access to seized documents as it tries to establish a paper trail in an alleged $24-million fraud involving the construction of the downtown police headquarters. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/8/2020 (529 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The City of Winnipeg has won the legal battle for access to seized documents as it tries to establish a paper trail in an alleged $24-million fraud involving the construction of the downtown police headquarters. Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal released his ruling on Friday. He determined the city must be given "immediate access to any financial, accounting or banking documentation seized by the RCMP" from Caspian Construction and 26 other defendants named in the city's lawsuit. The suit was launched in January as part of the city's battle to get to the bottom of what happened with the troubled construction project. A five-year RCMP investigation into fraud allegations involving the HQ project ended in December, with no charges being laid after Manitoba's prosecution service found there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction. BORIS MINKEVICH / FREE PRESS FILES RCMP remove computer equipment from the Caspian office on McGillivray Boulevard in 2014. In June, the city argued in court that it was entitled to the seized documents, which include Caspian's invoices and accounting practices, correspondence with subcontractors, design development submissions, meeting minutes and change orders. In his 84-page decision, Joyal ruled it would be unfair to make the city continue its legal fight without seeing the documents. Joyal disagreed with the defendants' arguments that the city's request to access the documents should be denied. They argued relevant documents would be provided as part of the usual discovery process in the civil-law dispute, adding some of the documents were irrelevant or protected by lawyer-client privilege. Joyal noted the legal process has revealed "still unchallenged" evidence of $24-million worth of fraudulent, fabricated invoices submitted to the city for the HQ construction. The city claims it paid $24 million based on fake invoices, for work was never done, and is trying to determine where the money went. On Friday, a city spokesman expressed support for the judge's decision. "We are pleased with Chief Justice Joyals decision to grant the city access to the documents seized by the RCMP from Caspian Construction. Once we have had the opportunity to receive and review the documents, we will determine our next steps," David Driedger wrote in an email to the Free Press. The city's lawyer, Michael Finlayson, deferred questions to the city's corporate communications department. Caspian's lawyer, Jeffrey Baigrie, could not be reached for comment Friday. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The city claims Caspian and its president, Armik Babakhanians, office manager Pamela Anderson, Mountain Construction president Paul LaMontagne and Ottawa-based GRC Architects, as well as other contractors and consultants, were involved in a scheme to defraud the City of Winnipeg with fake invoices and secret commissions and kickbacks during the construction of the police headquarters in the former Canada Post building on Graham Avenue from 2011 to 2014. The project was initially budgeted at $135 million, but cost $214 million by the time it was completed. Former Winnipeg chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl is named as a defendant in the city's claim. Reached by the Free Press Friday, his lawyer, Robert Tapper, said there's no evidence Sheegl participated in a fraud scheme or took a bribe. Tapper successfully argued to sever the legal proceedings against Sheegl, separating the case from the main allegations contained in the city's lawsuit. The next court date is Sept. 11, after which Tapper is expected to seek permission from the court to question two RCMP officers who were involved in the criminal investigation. katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay A rare turtle has hatched at Riverview Park and Zoo. Pippin, a Sulawesi forest turtle, hatched on July 31 at the zoo after three days of slowly poking out of the shell. On Friday, Pippin was still tiny not much bigger than a toonie. The species is critically endangered: zoo curator Jim Moloney says there were fewer than 100 of these Indonesian turtles left in the wild at last count, three years ago. Riverview Park and Zoo in Peterborough is the only accredited zoo in Canada that has successfully bred the turtles, to Moloneys knowledge. Riverview Park and Zoo has four adult turtles of the species, plus two juveniles and this new hatchling. But they arent on exhibit: Moloney said theyre kept in the primate house, away from public view in a space where zookeepers keep a close watch on them. These little turtles are incredibly precious we have to be very careful with them, he said. Sulawesi forest turtles are endangered due to habitat loss and the illegal pet trade, states the website of The Turtle Conservancy. The zoo received its first ones from a private owner, Moloney said, who could no longer care for them. Breeding this species in captivity is difficult, Moloney said, in part because the female lays just one or two eggs per clutch (compared to a snapping turtle, for instance, which lays about 60 eggs per clutch). The first successful hatching at Riverview Park and Zoo happened in 2016. There are just four other facilities in North America where these turtles have been bred, Moloney said and one facility in the U.S. tried for 16 years before it had success. Because the species was only discovered in 1995, and Moloney said little scientific research has been done on them. It means theres data on how long the eggs need to be incubated or at what temperature, for instance local zookeepers had to figure it all out for themselves. Weve taken amazing records on everything weve done, Moloney said. Its still unclear whether Pippin is male or female: Moloney said close examination can be invasive for the hatchling. But it will be obvious soon enough, since the males develop a distinctive white head colouration as they mature (while the females head remains brown). The Riverview Park and Zoo has been closed since March, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the playground reopened July 22, it was still unclear Friday when the rest of the facility including the zoo, splash pads and washrooms would reopen. Xu Guoli A man in China has been arrested by police for allegedly killing his wife, cutting apart her corpse and flushing some of her remains down the loo in a gruesome case that has shocked the country. Xu Guoli, 55, has been accused of murdering his partner when she was asleep due to conflicts in family life, according to a citys legal authority. He allegedly dumped part of her wifes dissected remains in various locations and got rid of her body tissue partially through the toilet at their home in eastern Chinas Zhejiang Province. Mr Xu was formally arrested yesterday in the city of Hangzhou on suspicion of intentional homicide. In a statement, the citys legal authority said Mr Xus method of crime was cruel, and the nature of his act was evil. The chilling case emerged when Mr Xu reported to the police last month that his spouse had left home in the middle of the night and mysteriously gone missing. The victim Officers pinpointed him as the main suspect after discovering human tissue in the septic tank in their community, reported state broadcaster CCTV. According to the state-run media outlet, Mr Xu worked as a driver in Hangzhou before the case and his wife, 51-year-old Ms Lai, was a cleaner. The couple had divorced for unspecified reasons before remarrying in 2008. Mr Xu claimed he found his wife had vanished after waking up on the early morning of July 5. He noted that the couple had spent a day happily and harmoniously with their daughter the day before. CCTV released the last surveillance footage of Ms Lai, which showed her entering the lift with her daughter at around 5pm on July 4. Mr Xu and his daughter went to the police on July 6 to file a missing person report. Police conducted a thorough search in the community but failed to find any traces. Officers also viewed around 6,000 hours worth of security camera footage, but could not see Ms Lai leaving the building. Speaking to a local TV station on July 17, Mr Xu said that his wife could have left with other individuals in the middle of the night. He also voiced concerns about the future of him and his daughter to reporters. He said: What about my daughters life? What about my life? When exactly will my wife return? [We] dont even know if she is alive or dead. Ms Lai (circled) was last seen on security footage entering the lift with her daughter on July 4 The incident saw a breakthrough when police formed a special team to investigate the case on July 21 and decided to drain the septic tank of Mr Xus residential compound. Officers spent 25 hours extracting the waste and transported it to a lab with 38 trucks. Lab workers identified suspected human tissue in the refuse on the next day. Police summoned Mr Xu for questioning at 1am on July 23, and after nine hours of interrogation, the man admitted to murdering his partner and cutting her body into pieces. Mr Xu confessed that he had felt dissatisfied towards Ms Lai due to conflicts in family life, leading him to kill her during her sleep in the early hours of July 5. Last Thursday, the Hangzhou Public Bureau applied for permission to arrest Mr Xu. The Hangzhou Municipal Peoples Procuratorate, the government organ for legal supervision, granted the request on August 6. The case is under further investigation. *** Source: Daily Mail UK [music] michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, when the pandemic struck, the multi-billion dollar theater industry went dark, shutting down shows mid-production and preventing new shows from ever opening. But this summer, a small group of actors tried to bring the theater back to life. My colleague, Michael Paulson, tracked their journey. Its Friday, September 4. michael paulson So before the pandemic, I was seeing theater five or six times a week. My whole life revolved around Times Square and the Theater District. And of course, that came abruptly to a halt in early March. archived recording And the lights have dimmed on New Yorks famed Broadway. Broadway theaters today extended their shutdown. Shows will now remain dark michael paulson And then about three months into the Broadway shutdown, I get a call from this theater in Western Massachusetts, telling me they have some news. They have a plan. [MUSIC - ALL FOR THE BEST FROM GODSPELL] Theyre going to put on a show that summer in the Berkshires. archived recording (SINGING) When you feel sad. michael paulson And its going to be Godspell. archived recording (SINGING) Or under a curse, your life is bad. Your prospects are worse. michael paulson It is a show from 1971. Its about Jesus. And it depicts Jesus with a group of followers trying to instruct them in moral behavior by telling them parables. And for five decades archived recording (SINGING) Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, ba da. michael paulson this show has been done over and over and over again. [music - "day by day" from "godspell"] (SINGING) Day by day by day. michael paulson There have been 10,000 productions just over the last 20 years. archived recording (SINGING) Love thee more dearly. michael paulson Its been set in prisons and in homeless shelters and in refugee camps. archived recording (SINGING) Oh, dear Lord michael paulson People love it. archived recording (SINGING) Day by day by day. Day by day by day by day. michael paulson So of course, I was kind of excited. But I was also kind of disbelieving. Like, wow, theyre really going to do this? And theyre going to pull this off? This is a really complicated time for theater making. Because everything about theater seems risky. A large number of people in the cast of Moulin Rouge got the virus. A number of producers and theater owners got the virus. And probably most devastating for the Broadway community was the saga of Nick Cordero. [APPLAUSE] archived recording Please welcome Tony nominee Nick Cordero and his gangster michael paulson a really well-liked guy, young, seemingly fit and healthy, had gotten married relatively recently and had a new baby. Just relocated to LA and started feeling sick and was diagnosed with the virus. Spent months in the hospital. And ultimately, he died. So the big union, Actors Equity, that represents 51,000 professional actors and stage managers across the country has forbidden its members from auditioning, rehearsing, or performing in person. And every actor I know is unemployed. Unemployment is almost total in the theater world. There is no work. And that means not only no income, but it really threatens everyones access to health care. Because actors earn health insurance by working, and theyre not working. And so its a devastating time for a group of people who, already, many of them live on the edge. And so a couple months into the pandemic, here comes this theater in Western Massachusetts that wants to do Godspell. This is a region of the country that has a very low coronavirus caseload. Godspell only has 10 actors and doesnt involve any romantic entanglements or hand-to-hand combat. And the theater, the Berkshire Theater Group, is willing to do almost anything that Equity wants to get this show going. So based on all of that, the union agrees. This is the only musical with union actors taking place in the United States of America this summer. And everyone in the theater world is watching, some with horror, some with excitement, some with dread. The stakes are enormous. Because if this works, it might be a model for continuing to do some theater in some parts of the country and in other parts of the world. And if it doesnt work, its going to send a terrible signal about the ability of the theater world to limit risk. michael paulson OK. So just in case we use audio, just tell me your name and, like, what youre doing in this show. nicholas edwards My name is Nicholas Edwards and I play Jesus. michael paulson So I get to the Berkshires in late July. And I start to meet everyone. Theres 12 actors, 10 of them on stage plus the two understudies. michael paulson And youre a college student? speaker 1 Yes. Im going to be a senior this upcoming fall. michael paulson They range in age from 20 to 34. speaker 2 And there I played Elphaba for two and a half years on Broadway. michael paulson A few of them have Broadway experience. Most of them do not. speaker 3 So I just I just felt that this would be one of [music] speaker 3 the craziest, wildest experiences I could be a part of, especially right now. michael paulson So theyre all going to live together in a house. Theyre forming a kind of quarantine bubble. Theyre going to be tested three times a week for the virus. Theyre not going to go to the gym. Theyre not going to socialize. Theyre not going to date. Theyre not going to party. Theyre going to stay together. And there are two priorities are to make a great show and not to get sick. michael paulson Its Sunday afternoon in the Berkshires. And the cast is outside in a tent running through the song, We Beseech Thee. michael paulson So as the rehearsals got under way michael paulson So theyre sweating. The mics are starting to slip off their heads. michael paulson there are people all over the place with Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer. There are these rules about how many people can be in the bathroom at one time. And they get personal bins of, like, pencils and towels and scripts that are going to be sanitized every night. michael paulson Theyre spaced out about 10 feet apart from each other. There are two rows michael paulson And then there are all the performance rules. The stage is going to be carved up into these 10 areas that they call home bases. Theres going to be no physical contact between actors. And not only that, but theyre not going to even pass props from one to another. Only one person can touch a prop. michael paulson So right now, theyre relying on distance to keep them safe. michael paulson Yeah, its so weird, you know? Actors are used to kind of being really close to one another and reading one another and talking toward one another, singing toward one another. And Godspell is a show that is kind of about building community and often that involves things like hugging. And so suddenly, theyre in these boxes. And its absolutely strange. But its going. Theyre getting it down. And then, they hit a roadblock. The stage manager one morning is watching the rehearsal and he doesnt love what hes seeing. People are too close to each other. And they might be singing at each other. So he goes over to talk to the director. And the director is upset. They only have two weeks of rehearsal. Theyre halfway in. And he feels like he doesnt yet know the rules under which they have to operate. So he stops the rehearsal. And then Nick Edwards, the actor whos playing Jesus, he feels like he cant wait for all these people in the Berkshires to debate about what is and what is not permissible. And instead, he dials New York. He calls the union. And he says, we need some rules. We need some guidance. We need some definitive decision. And the news, although clarifying, is not great. Theyre going to have to restage most of the numbers that theyve already learned. Theyre going to have to use masks more often. Theyre going to have to stand behind screens more often. Theyre going to have to rethink a lot of the blocking in a way thats going to mean re-rehearsing much of the first half of the show. speaker 1 Do you need a chair? michael paulson No. Im trying to stay out of the way. speaker 2 Youre sure? speaker 1 Theres chairs in there. michael paulson So later that night, the actors all got together on the porch of this house that theyre sharing. speaker 3 We all signed a contract michael paulson Yeah. speaker 3 not knowing what the safety precautions were going to be. We all figured social distancing, wearing a mask, doing the right thing. And we thought that wed get to do a show on stage where we wont be touching, socially distant. And its just gotten so far that Im getting so stressed, so frustrated. michael paulson You know, theres some frustration and some second guessing. speaker 3 Like, well, I dont understand this whole floor thing. Im, like, its dirtier than the platform is. michael paulson Why is it OK for us to sit on the floor, but not to sit on a chair where others have sat? speaker 4 There was an article about a woman who was 20 years old and had to get a lung treatment for it. And youre, like, this could literally happen So I feel, like michael paulson And then somebody points out that people are getting sick all over the country. And people are dying. speaker 2 I think shying away from corona is a huge mistake, like, doing the show with less mask and less, like, trying to pretend like this isnt happening, I think its a bad idea. michael paulson And if they get this right speaker 4 This is literally a new form of theater that has never happened before. michael paulson they might be demonstrating a model of how performance can happen. They might be helping people get jobs. They might be saving theater. speaker 4 Actually, I was just talking to my friend about this whole thing. And she was, like, you dont realize that, like, this is going to go down in history books. You need to document this. And you might be the only show that happens during this time. And then I was, like, wow. I guess when you put it that way speaker 1 We should start video blogging, do diaries every day. michael paulson And thats how the conversation ends. I go back to where Im staying. And they go back to running lines. michael barbaro Well be right back. speaker 1 Hey, do you have your tickets? michael paulson Yeah. Well, I have it on my phone. speaker 1 Yeah. If you could pull those up and then zoom in on the bar code, thatd be great. michael paulson So finally, rehearsals are over and performances begin. speaker 1 And then hold it up to the window. michael paulson The shows in demand. And its been sold out. When the audience arrives, they have to have their temperature taken. speaker 2 Good afternoon, everyone. My name is michael paulson People were super excited to be seeing theater again. speaker 2 Its so great seeing people gathered here together to watch this amazing performance. And support michael paulson You could feel some kind of, are we really doing this energy, like, looking around, adjusting the mask, making sure your seat feels far enough from everybody else. speaker 2 And now, without further ado, I invite you to sit back, relax, have fun, and please join me in welcoming to the stage the cast of Godspell. [APPLAUSE] nicholas edwards Hi. My name is Nicholas, Nick. In March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic took away everything I worked my whole life for. michael paulson The original production of Godspell opens with this scene called the Tower of Babel, in which a bunch of philosophers are arguing about different ideas. michael wartella Im Mike Wartella. Five months ago, I lost my job and my social life and my means for keeping myself emotionally balanced and stable. michael paulson And this production cuts that. And instead, opens with each of these actors talking, in the first person, about their own experiences at the start of the pandemic. speaker 1 Since March of this year, I have felt helpless, alone, treated as if I am the cause of this pandemic just because Im Asian. speaker 2 Ive also struggled with an addiction for a bunch of years. And this stuff has really kicked up all the old feelings. speaker 3 I was six weeks out from ending the first national tour of Aladdin, a dream job. michael paulson And then theres, like, this transition. [INTERPOSING VOICES] And then the shofar sounds. And you realize, oh, yeah. Im going to see Godspell. [music - "prepare ye the way of the lord"from godspell] Prepare ye the way of the Lord. michael paulson And yeah, theyre putting on and taking off masks. And theyre occasionally ducking behind screens. And you cant help but notice that theyre staying apart from each other. [PIANO PLAYING] archived recording I baptize you with water for repentance sake. But He michael paulson Right at the beginning, theres this scene of baptism, where John the Baptist is baptizing everyone. And its mimed. You know? Hes not touching them. Hes not putting water on them. Its an actor holding a sponge in the air, pretending that water is coming out of it. And people far away from him are pretending that water is falling on them. [music - "save the people" from godspell] (SINGING)When wilt Thou save the people? Oh, God, have mercy when michael paulson And you know, you can feel the audience starting to relax, starting to enjoy this, starting to engage with it. [APPLAUSE] Theres this vaudeville number in the show that Jesus and Judas perform together. [music] And normally, its done with top hats and canes. But instead of canes in this production, they use yardsticks so that they can pretend to measure the six feet apart from each other. speaker 1 You try putting on skinny jeans after a COVID diet. Oh, my gosh. michael paulson And you know, they go through a kind of elaborate pandemic pantomime, where Jesus puts on gloves and makes the gestures of putting sanitizer on his hands. And Judas does something similar. Its a comedic number, but also a reminder of the kind of strange practices that weve all so quickly embraced in an effort to keep ourselves and each other safe. [music - "beautiful city" from godspell] I remember this one song in particular. nicholas edwards (SINGING) Out of the ruins and rubble michael paulson Its this ballad that Nick sings. And its called Beautiful City. And its, you know, this moving song about attempts to rebuild after a crisis. archived recording (nicholas edwards) (SINGING) We can build a beautiful city. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. We can build michael paulson And it felt especially moving for me. Because during rehearsals, Nick, the actor playing Jesus, had really struggled to get through it. [rehearsal audio playing] Hes, like, at center stage. And hes halfway through the song. And it starts to be about loss of faith. [audio static] And he chokes up. He cant finish. michael paulson He sits down and he buries his head in his shirt. And they have to stop the rehearsal. And the director says You know, if this was any time but this, we would come over and hug you. But we cant. And the other actors send him air hugs. [music] And he stumbles through it. nicholas edwards (SINGING) When your trust is all but shattered, when your faith is all but killed, you can give up michael paulson And the next few times I heard him do the song in rehearsal, hes still, like, you could feel, like, at that moment, his voice would catch. And he would have to work harder to get to the end. nicholas edwards (SINGING) build a beautiful city, not a city of angels, but finally michael paulson And so not only is the song moving, but knowing, like, how much it means to him, how much he himself had felt discouraged and afraid and hopeful and brave and alive nicholas edwards (SINGING) a city of man. michael paulson Yeah. I get lost in a way that, when theater works, you want to get lost. nicholas edwards So I tell you this. One of you among us will betray me. michael paulson You know, the show ends with this kind of mix of emotions. Jesus has been crucified. nicholas edwards (SINGING) Oh, God. Im dead. michael paulson But then theres this medley of songs as the community comes back together. [music - "prepare ye the way of the lord" from godspell] (CAST SINGING)Prepare ye the way of the lord. michael paulson And also, as the musical is trying to send people back into the streets, not feeling depressed cast singing of the Lord! [CHEERING] The crowd absolutely gives a standing ovation. [PIANO PLAYING] This, like, this enthusiasm, like, wow, they really did this. And wow, they were good. And wow, I really did this. I came back to a show. And I lived to tell about it. michael paulson So where are we now? Were still so far from Broadway restarting, from the kind of theater that so many of us used to see, where we sat cheek by jowl with other people in these old buildings. What we have is a small production of a 50-year-old musical under a tent in a rural corner of western Massachusetts. Its not a sustainable path forward for theater in America. Its not what we had before the pandemic. And its not what we hope to have. But I think its meaningful. Its a group of actors. Its a theater showing a way to make art, to see art for now. And its succeeding. The show has been selling out. Its extended. So far, the actors have been safe. And the audiences have been safe. The union has even decided to allow a few more shows to go forward. Theyre all small. Theyre all in rural New England. But this time, theyre going to be indoors. And for me, a guy who used to go see Broadway shows multiple nights a week, Im now contemplating the possibility of renting another car and driving to the White Mountains of New Hampshire so that next month I can see another experiment in making theater during a pandemic. michael barbaro Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. On Thursday night, the city of Rochester, New York suspended seven police officers involved in the suffocation of a Black man in their custody, Daniel Prude. archived recording You killed a defenseless Black man, a fathers son, a brothers brother, a nephews uncle. I mean, come on. michael barbaro Prudes family has expressed outrage over the case, much of which was captured in a video showing officers placing a hood over Prudes head and pressing his face into the pavement for two minutes. archived recording I mean, come on. How many more brothers got to die for society to understand that this needs to stop? michael barbaro Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters Oliver North cut a lonely figure as he walked through the Indianapolis airport, quietly slipping out of the city midway through the National Rifle Associations (NRA) convention which was still in progress. A day later, North announced from afar that he was not seeking a traditional second term as its president, while it also emerged that the New York attorney general was investigating the NRAs tax-exempt status. That was April 2019. More than a year later, the turmoil that heralded Norths departure has culminated in the New York attorney general, Letitia James, suing to put the NRA out of business, alleging that senior leaders used charitable donations for family trips to the Bahamas, private jets and lavish meals that shaved $64m off the organisations balance sheet in three years, turning a surplus into a financial crisis. The NRA has been the most powerful gun lobby in the world since another former president of the group, Hollywood actor Charlton Heston, promised to resist efforts to prise firearms from my cold, dead hands. It has fought to suppress research on the danger of guns in society, keep open loopholes for background checks on gun sales and even for firearms to be present in schools. The NRA also has been an electoral ally of Donald Trump, spending $30m to help him beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Democrats, gun control activists and others have fought long and hard to curb its influence. But in the end, the NRAs worst enemy was the NRA. Victim of its own success and hubris, it strayed from its core purpose and shot itself in the foot. Jamess lawsuit is not about politics but the actions of the NRAs leaders. Far from a heady battle over the second amendment and soul of America, the non-profit organisation has been brought low by allegations of petty corruption and banal self-dealing. The suit, filed in state court in Manhattan after an 18-month investigation, names the NRA as a whole and four senior executives including Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice-president who become the face of the NRA and frequently gives pro-Trump, red-meat speeches to thunderous applause. Story continues LaPierre, in charge of the NRAs day-to-day operations for nearly three decades, stands accused of spending millions of dollars on luxury black car services and private jet trips, including eight visits to the Bahamas, as well as accepting expensive gifts such as African safaris, hair and makeup for his wife and use of a 107-foot yacht. He also engineered a $17m post-employment contract for himself, according to the lawsuit. North, a retired lieutenant colonel infamous for the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, exited the NRA accusing LaPierre of behaving like a dictator. Chris Cox, the NRAs longtime lobbyist, quit after being accused of working behind the scenes with North to undermine LaPierre. At a news conference on Thursday, James said NRA leaders used millions upon millions from NRA reserves for personal use and failed to comply with the organisations own internal policies along with state and federal law. The NRA has operated as a breeding ground for greed, abuse and brazen illegality, James added. No one is above the law. The NRA is subject to New York law because it is registered as a not-for-profit organisation in New York, where it conducts most of its financial transactions. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president of the NRA. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images In the current toxic political climate, less than three months before an election, the theatre of James, a female African American Democrat from the liberal bastion of New York, seeking to dissolve the NRA will inevitably be seen through a partisan prism. On Thursday the US president branded the lawsuit a very terrible thing. But although the NRA has been seen by conservatives as a champion of the constitutional right for ordinary Americans to keep and bear arms, the conduct of its leaders has left many members with a sense of betrayal. The organisation went from a surplus of almost $28m in 2015 to a $36m deficit in 2018 and has been plagued by factional infighting and a legal battle with its longtime advertising agency Ackerman McQueen. Thomas Laumann, 60, an NRA member since 1984, said on Thursday: I dont feel good spending any of my hard earned dollars on an organisation thats full of graft and corruption. If theyre not out there defending the rights of the people or advocating for safety, but just more advocating for lining their own pockets, its almost like the politicians in Washington. Even if half of what has been reported is correct, its still a terrible violation of trust by members of the NRA. The people that are in charge are very powerful and theyve run roughshod over it and theyve buried what has happened. The only thing that would satisfy me would be for these individuals that I feel have transgressed our trust as a group to leave the organisation. Theyve alienated many, many young people that are strong proponents of all rights, including our second amendment, and pushed them aside. The old guard thats there is not going to give in. Its been their cash cow for decades. Theyve done some good but I would say the news thats come to light in the last two or three years, I dont trust them any more. Supporters of gun control reform protest against the NRA at their headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA Laumann, a building and grounds supervisor from Wales, Wisconsin, added: I understand the mission but for all the money theyve collected through charitable foundations and donations and honorariums when people pass, I think theyve greatly abused it for personal gain. Its disheartening that everyone we try to trust, that we thought was doing right for the community, for the good of everyone, is now become corrupt. More than a hundred people are killed every day by gun violence in America. The NRA has found its influence waning in the face of gun control groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, funded by the billionaire and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said: Even casual observers of the NRA can see that the organisation has changed over the last four decades from a safety focused non-profit to a front group for gun manufacturers and a personal piggy bank for its leadership. As attorney general James said today, the NRA leadership was determined to loot the organisations assets. Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, said: I want to offer my thoughts and prayers to the NRA, inverting a common Republican refrain after mass shootings. She added: The vast majority of NRA members actually support commonsense laws, like a background check on every gun sale. It is the leadership, the organisation, that has become so radicalised and they are propped up by greedy gun manufacturers. The bottom line is that they accumulated wealth and power as a special interest. They are certainly not a gun safety organisation. A day after the crash of an Air India Express plane, aviation safety expert Captain Ranganathan, who had earlier flagged concerns about the Kozhikode airport runway, said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) should not allow landing of flights during monsoons on runway 10 at the aerodrome. The ill-fated plane, coming from Dubai with 190 people, overshot runway 10, went down 35 feet on a slope and broke into two pieces. The crash killed at least 18 people, including the flight's two pilots, and scores were injured. "Death due to an accident is something which happens when you don't know but when you knew the danger existed and you were warned about it and you took no action and an accident takes place, then it is definitely murder," he said. In 2011, Ranganathan had warned that flights landing on runway 10 in tailwind conditions in rain at the Kozhikode airport endanger the lives of people onboard those flights. On Saturday, he said the (DGCA) should enforce the correct runway code for Kozhikode airport. "No aircraft larger than a 737 or a 320 should be permitted to land there. They should not permit any landing during monsoons on runway 10. The DGCA should enforce that all airlines should comply and do their monsoon training before the monsoons what is called ALAR training they have to do it without failure," he said. ALAR is Approach and Landing Accident Reduction. In June 2011, Ranganathan flagged concerns about the runway in a communication to then Civil Aviation Secretary Nasim Zaidi in June 2011. Ranganathan was then a member of the operations group of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee (CASAC). "... in spite of the danger if the crew accept a landing in wet and tailwind conditions, their concept of ALAR is very poor," he had said in the communication. It had come against the backdrop of an Air India Express aircraft crash at Mangalore airport in 2010. As many as 158 people had died in the crash. "... all the flights that land on Runway 10 in the tailwind conditions in rain, are endangering the lives of all on board," Ranganathan had said. With tailwind conditions, the descent of an aircraft at the time of landing might be affected. When asked whether he had received any reply or feedback on his report, Ranganathan replied in the negative. Kozhikode airport comes under the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The airport has a tabletop runway. On claims in certain quarters that the landing gear of the Air India Express plane might not have been deployed on Friday, Ranganathan ruled out such a possibility. "If the landing gear was not deployed, he would have stopped on the runway because the friction would have been so much if he landed on the belly. The 737 design is if your landing gear is not deployed it will touch down on the engines. The friction caused by the engines would have stopped the aircraft. So that is a complete misnomer," he said. On what could have gone wrong, Ranganathan said the pilot should not have attempted to land with strong tailwind. "During monsoons the winds are westerly and he should use only runway 28. The temptation to use runway 10 is only because the minima is lower and you can come below the clouds while for runway 28, he probably encountered clouds and he could not see the runway," he said. "If you are very tired, the tendency is to try and land. He must have tried to complete the flight as early as possible because you cannot make more than two attempts." (With inputs from PTI) Postmaster General Louis DeJoy denied claims that the U.S. Postal Service is deliberately slowing down the delivery of election-related mail, after it implemented new practices like eliminating most overtime. This has allowed undelivered mail to pile up in post offices. "Let me be clear that, with regard to election mail, the Postal Service and I are fully committed to fulfilling our role in the electoral process," DeJoy said Friday at a meeting of the Postal Service Board of Governors. "We will do everything that we can to deliver election mail in a timely manner consistent with our operational standards, and despite any assertions to the contrary, we are not slowing down election mail or any other mail." Democrats have raised concerns about the recent slowdowns in mail delivery, particularly since many voters will elect to cast their ballots by mail this November due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday, Democratic lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Carolyn Maloney called on the Postal Service inspector general to investigate DeJoy's recent changes. They say he hasn't adequately explained his decisions to cut the hours of operation of some post offices or to end overtime for postal workers, and they pointed to a recent report saying that his changes have already begun to result in delivery delays. The lawmakers have asked the Postal Service watchdog to audit all the recently implemented operational changes, analyze the impact they've had on mail delivery and forecast their effect on the mail service required for the upcoming election. The Democrats are also requesting that the IG assess whether DeJoy and his wife, who "reportedly own assets worth tens of millions" in competitors to the Postal Service, have fully complied with ethics requirements. DeJoy, a businessman who contributed to President Trump and Republican causes before he was appointed postmaster general in May, also said that he would not allow his relationship with the president to influence his position. Story continues "While I certainly have a good relationship with the president of the United States, the notion that I would ever make decisions concerning the Postal Service at the direction of the president or anyone else in the administration is wholly off base," DeJoy said. DeJoy's remarks came after Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to him on Thursday to ask him to reverse the recent operational changes. "These changes include reductions of overtime availability, restrictions on extra mail transportation trips, testing of new mail sorting and delivery policies at hundreds of Post Offices, and the reduction of the number and use of processing equipment at mail processing plants," the two Democratic leaders wrote. "We believe these changes, made during the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, now threaten the timely delivery of mailincluding medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers, and absentee ballots for votersthat is essential to millions of Americans." the letter continued. On Tuesday, the House Oversight and Reform Committee also requested that DeJoy appear before the Democrat-led panel to discuss the changes causing delivery delays. The committee plans to hold the hearing with DeJoy on September 17. Former First Lady Michelle Obama reveals she has "low-grade depression" White House trade adviser says Trump will sign executive order aimed at deregulating pharmaceuticals Mississippi reports highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #32 Posted on 8 August 2020 by John Hartz A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Aug 2, 2020 through Sat, Aug 8, 2020 Editor's Choice Five Years After Speaking Out on Climate Change, Pope Francis Sounds an Urgent Alarm The encyclical Laudato Si motivated many people to take action on global warming, but governments, the pope said, have lagged far behind. Pope Francis delivers his blessing from the window overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican during the Sunday Angelus prayer earlier this month. Credit: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty When Pope Francis issued his landmark teaching document on climate change in 2015, his words went straight to the heart of Susan Varlamoff. Varlamoff, 70, a biologist, read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in the 1960s and speaks proudly of a Catholic faith that embraces science and calls on church members to take care of the earth. Her sister, she said, died from cancer as a child, and she wondered whether her father's liberal use of pesticides in their suburban yard might have been the cause. She asked Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who was then the leader of 1.2 million Catholics in Atlanta and across much of Georgia, whether she could write a review for the archdiocese of the Pope's "Laudato Si': On Care for our Common Home," the first encyclical to be dedicated to the environment. Instead, he asked for an action plan. Click here to access the entire article as posted on the InsideClimate News website. Five Years After Speaking Out on Climate Change, Pope Francis Sounds an Urgent Alarm by James Bruggers, InsideClimate News, Aug 7, 2020 Articles Linked to on Facebook Sun, Aug 2, 2020 Mon, Aug 3, 2020 Tue, Aug 4, 2020 Wed, Aug 5, 2020 Thu, Aug 6, 2020 Fri, Aug 7, 2020 Sat, Aug 8, 2020 Klein Independent School District announced in late July that the district would begin the 2020-2021 school year 100 percent online on Aug. 19 in Klein Online for at least the first three weeks of instruction. With the intent to allow students back on campus as soon as safely possible, Klein ISD Superintendent Jenny McGown announced in an Aug. 4 update on the district website that after meeting with Harris County Public Health officials to convey her concerns about the school year, the district is asking public health officials to provide clearer metrics in determining what qualifies as safe conditions to return to school. McGown said district officials have been following instructions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies in working with local health officials concerning plans for on-campus education. Weve been running a race without knowing where the finish line is, McGown said. Our local health authorities must present a reasonable marker based on reliable metrics, so we all know what safe means. So, that we know when its safe to return to on-campus learning without compromising the health and safety of our staff, students, and families. Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced Friday, July 24, the order to close campuses in Harris County until at least September 8, which McGown said was met with both relief and disappointment by the community. That is why she is asking that health officials offer an accessible goal founded on objective, reasonable measure(s) that we can review and evaluate regarding when we can open school doors. McGown said in a letter to local health authority Umair A. Shah from Harris County and David Persse from the City of Houston that is it vital that the goal is accessible and visibly communicated to the district. So, that we can understand how decisions are being made by the public health authority and so we can feel confident in safely bringing our students and staff back together on campus for teaching and learning and for extracurricular activities, McGown said. McGown expressed in the update how with the lives of 54,000 students and thousands of employees in our care the districts remains committed to keeping the Klein communitys well-being and safety at the heart of each choice. McGown said in the letter that the district cant share orders with employees and families with partial information, limited collaboration and input concerning plans to reopen schools safely. She added that the district relies on the state, local officials and public health officials to offer well-defined and reasonable guidelines that permits them to do the difficult preparation that is required to make education available to students and to offer a safe environment. Together, we can work to make achieving that marker a reality, McGown said in the update. We may all be facing the unknown, but we can face the unknown as one, not divided; using facts, not fear; with hope, not despair. McGown said in the letter that the district simply wishes to work together so them and families can plan. So, we can feel confident in safely bringing our students and staff back together for on-campus learning and activities again, McGown said. alvaro.montano@chron.com Opposition TDs from the Midlands have highlighted what they consider "government failures" as Taoiseach Micheal Martin announced new coronavirus-related restrictions. Kildare, Laois and Offaly went into Ireland's first regional lockdown last night after there had been 289 confirmed cases of coronavirus recorded in over the last 14 days. The increase in cases in the region is linked to clusters at direct provision centers and meat processing facilities. The Movement for Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) said a return to "overcrowding" in direct provision centres in July contributed to the virus spread. Reada Cronin, Sinn Fein TD for North Kildare said "we are all paying the price" for government failures in fighting the pandemic. "Family businesses and employers (are) devastated by tonight's news." Catherine Murphy of the Social Democrats said there is a "real feeling that this could and should have been avoided". Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD for South Kildare Martin Heydon said he called the Minister for Health and the acting chief medical officer "to highlight the frustration and implications of such a decision on our counties". Mr Heydon described Friday as a "difficult day for residents and businesses in Kildare, Laois and Offaly". Barry Cowen, Fianna Fail TD for Laois-Offaly said that the National Public Health Emergency Team "dont want to inconvenience people, they want to protect lives". "No need to knock one another down with calls to stop this event or close another, simply follow ongoing and any updated professional advices on public health (and) be vigilant," he said. Stacey Hampton had fans doing a double take on Saturday as she unveiled a new look on Instagram. The reality star, 26, who rose to fame as Married At First Sight's blonde bombshell bride, debuted a head of dark brown hair as she enjoyed a night in with her gal pals in Adelaide. Wearing her much-darker tresses in an intricate, braided style, the mother-of-two looked almost unrecognisable as she posed in front of a plain white door. Welcome to the dark side! Married At First Sight's Stacey Hampton, 26, looked almost unrecognisable as she debuted dark brown hair in this stunning Instagram shot on Saturday 'Dinners in winter,' she wrote in the caption. Showing off her expensive taste, Stacey wore a Louis Vuitton tweed mini-skirt, matched with a figure-hugging white skivvy and black Fendi tights. The bronzed glamazon wore a heavy layer of makeup, including pink lipstick, dark eye shadow and a peach blush, and finished off her look with a chunky wrist watch. 'Friends that pay you out are friends for life': n a subsequent photo, Stacey (far right) was seen perched on the edge of a bed next to two friends New look: Stacey looked very different to how fans remember her on Married At First Sight In a subsequent photo, Stacey was seen perched on the edge of a bed next to two friends. 'Friends that pay you out are friends for life,' she wrote in the caption, before jokingly making reference to her dark spray tan by adding: 'Ps I went to Italy real quick and got sunburnt.' Stacey's new hair is the latest transformation for the reality star, who is currently in the process of getting her smaller tattoos removed. Tattoo removal: On Friday, the ex-'wife' of Michael Goonan documented herself getting her wrist tattoo removed On Friday, the ex-'wife' of Michael Goonan documented herself getting her wrist tattoo removed. The small inking bore the name Alastair - Stacey's late father who killed himself aged just 25. In June, she also shared a clip showing a technician at a clinic using a laser device on her foot. 'Ouch, but so worth it': In June, she also shared a clip showing a technician at a clinic using a laser device on her foot 'Ouch, but so worth it,' she said of the procedure on the post. Back in April, she revealed to her fans that she would be getting the smaller tattoos 'lasered off' in a Q&A video on her YouTube channel. In that discussion she also talked about her very detailed stomach tattoo, which she got as a tribute to her late brother, who died on the day she was due to give birth to her first child. Stacey rarely shows off the large tattoo because it's 'very sentimental' to her and makes her feel a 'little self-conscious' in public. Tattoo talk: Back in April, she revealed to her fans that she would be getting the smaller tattoos 'lasered off' in a Q&A video on her YouTube channel 'My stomach tattoo is very sentimental. When my brother died I was pregnant with my firstborn. So after he was born I got a tribute on my stomach.' The black and white tattoo has her brother's name and the words 'forever young'. She explained: 'I may or may not post a close-up one day, but it's very sentimental to me. Even with bikinis I'll wear a one-piece or put a sarong over it.' Jacinda Ardern's fiance has paid tribute to his 'not quite wife' at the launch of her election campaign. Clarke Gayford, 43, delivered a heartwarming speech about the 'world's most eloquent leader' on Saturday afternoon in front of supporters at Auckland Town Hall. He amusingly named himself the 'plus one' and shared a touching tribute to Ms Ardern, 40, revealing one of her annoying habits before welcoming her to the stage. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, left, is welcomed on stage by her partner Clarke Gayford at the Labour Party campaign launch in Auckland on Saturday Mr Gayford revealed his partner's very annoying habit of hiding the chocolate from him 'It gives me an enormous sense of family pride to introduce you guys to the best job applicant for prime minister that this country has ever produced, in my humble opinion,' Mr Gayford said. 'And although she might hide chocolates from her partner, she easily wins the favourite parent award from Neve Te Aroha each and every evening. 'Please welcome to the stage, my not-quite wife, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda,' he said with a huge smile on his face. The crowd erupted into applause as Ms Ardern and Mr Gayford shared a brief kiss on the cheek and embraced. A laughing Ms Ardern joined her partner on stage at the Labour Party's campaign launch Ms Ardern took the stage three years after being sworn in, ready to fight for a second term as New Zealand's prime minister Ms Ardern took the stage three years after being sworn in, ready to fight for a second term as New Zealand's prime minister. 'If you had told me then that our launch in 2020 would be in the midst of a global pandemic with our borders closed I would have found that very hard to fathom,' she said. 'If you'd told me that Clarke and I would have a toddler, I wouldn't have believed we would have been so lucky. 'And if you'd told me that we would have just completed a term in government with both New Zealand First and the Greens, I'd assume you'd been watching excessive amounts of Stranger Things. 'And yet here we are.' Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern,her partner Clarke Gayford, and their daughter Neve back in June 2019 New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (2nd L) and Deputy Prime Minister Kelvin Davis (L) attend the launch of the Labour Party's election campaign in Auckland on Saturday The centrepiece promise of Saturday's campaign launch was another new scheme to support employment; a $NZ311 million ($A287 million) pledge to underwrite 40,000 jobs. The popular prime minister thanked New Zealanders for their support over the past three years and listed her government's achievements. However, she said 'more needs to be done' showing that she is ready to stand by the people of New Zealand as she already done so. 'It's the very reason why this is election is more important than ever,' Ms Ardern said. 'It's about the future. It's about leadership and it's about values. It's about whether we stop and change to another team, or whether we keep those we know and we trust. 'Now, more than ever, is the time to keep going, to keep working. To do more for our people and their wellbeing, for our small businesses, for our economy and our recovery. 'So let's keep going. Let's keep rebuilding. Let's keep moving.' Ms Ardern confirmed her engagement to her Mr Gayford in May 2019 after she was spotted wearing a ring on her left hand (pictured on her 40th birthday) The couple's engagement came almost a year after the birth of their first child Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford in June 2018 Ms Ardern confirmed her engagement to her Mr Gayford in May 2019 after she was spotted wearing a ring on her left hand. Their engagement came almost a year after the birth of their first child Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford in June 2018. Mr Gayford, a well known broadcaster who hosted a fishing show called Fish of the Day, took a step back from his career to care for the couple's daughter. Ms Ardern and Mr Gayford first met at an awards event in 2012 but did not start dating until 2013 when a constituency issue brought them together, Stuff reported. Mr Gayford was upset about the potential loss of privacy proposed by the Government Communications Security Bureau Amendment Bill. He first went to local MP, Nikki Kaye, but got no response. He then wrote to Ms Ardern and the two met for coffee and bonded over a shared interest in music. Ms Ardern has previously spoken out about their wedding plans, saying neither her or Mr Gayford had a particular stance on marriage. 'I predict we will one day. We happen to have done things in reverse a little bit, but that happens in life sometimes too,' she told RNZ. Ms Ardern with her fiance Clarke Gayford and their daughter Neve Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-09 05:47:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CARACAS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab reported that the two Americans who participated in Operation Gideon, an act that aimed to overthrow the Venezuelan government, have been sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting to the crimes. U.S. citizens Luke Denman and Airan Berry have been "sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment," Saab announced on his official Twitter account on Friday night. The prosecutor said that the two former members of the U.S. military had "confessed to having committed the crimes of conspiracy, association, illicit trafficking in weapons of war and terrorism." Luke Denman and Airan Berry were captured in May along with six Venezuelan nationals in a boat carrying weapons off the coast of the central state of Aragua. Enditem Jammu, Aug 8 : Six persons were arrested after a terror module of the proscribed terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was busted by the Jammu and Kashmir Police. The police said that an FIR was registered on July 9 after a team of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu Police apprehended Mubashir Farooq Batt, a resident of Doda district in J&K and a BSc Nursing student in Kharar near Chandigarh, with a consignment of 1.5 lakh Indian currency notes concealed in a tiffin Box. The police said that during the investigation of the case, the SOG Jammu apprehended five more suspects involved in the module. They have been identified as Toqeer Ahmad Batt, Asif Batt, a surrendered terrorist and ex-Special Police Officer (SPO) in J&K Police, Khalid Latief Batt, Gazi Iqbal and Tariq Hussain Mir. "All the accused are in contact with a Pakistani handler named Haroon alias Khubaib (Mohd Amin Batt) who remained as a district commander of LeT in Doda and exfiltrated to Pakistan in 2007," the police said. The police said that during the questioning of the six arrested persons, it has surfaced that they received money amounting to Rs 12,19,704 through different means on different occasions as part of this module. The police said that they were also instrumental in recruiting LeT terrorists Abid Ahmed Bhat who was killed and Jamal Din who has surrendered. The police said that on August 5 on the disclosure of Tariq Hussain Mir, the SOG Jammu recovered three more tiffin boxes from his house, including Indian currency worth Rs 40,700 which he received as consignment on different occasions from Pakistani handlers as part of this module. "In continuation to the investigation of the above mentioned terror financing case, the involvement of four accused from Kashmir has surfaced. Moreover, it has come to notice that the module has its links in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab as well," the police said. A senior MP has called for the Metropolitan Police to investigate Dominic Cummings alleged second trip to Durham during the UKs lockdown following new evidence related to the incident. Meg Hillier, the Labour chair of the public accounts committee, said Durham Police and the Met should look again at the case after two people who claimed they saw Mr Cummings in Durham on 19 April complained to the police watchdog. Boris Johnson told Ms Hillier in April that he had seen evidence to prove his chief adviser was not in Durham on that date but refused to make such evidence public. Mr Cummings previously admitted to a trip to Durham during lockdown in late March, which he claimed did not break coronavirus restrictions, but denied allegations of a second trip and said he had evidence to prove he was in London on that day. If the PM just publishes the evidence hes seen there would be no need for police time to be spent on this the PM should put truth and public trust first and publish what hes seen, Ms Hillier told The Guardian. In a letter seen by The Daily Mirror, the Labour MP told Mr Johnson that the issue went right to the heart of trust in the government. She wrote: You spent six hours of your time discussing this with Mr Cummings at the height of the pandemic. You spent 90 minutes with senior MPs asking you questions on behalf of the public, now I urge you to take a few minutes to publish the evidence you have seen. Angela Rayner, Labours deputy leader, has also called on Downing Street to produce its evidence for Mr Cummings denial. A Downing Street spokesperson said on Thursday that the prime minister believed his adviser had behaved reasonably and considered the matter closed. Earlier this year, a Durham Police investigation concluded there was insufficient evidence to support the allegations of a second trip by Mr Cummings in April. It came as researchers said Mr Johnsons handling of the controversy had negative and lasting consequences for the publics trust in the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic. The authors of a study published in the Lancet medical journal found a clear decrease in public confidence in the government when the story broke in May, with trust continuing to fall sharply in the days that followed. The research, which analysed data from the UCL Covid-19 Social Study, showed public trust never recovered following the prime ministers refusal to sack Mr Cummings. China's defense minister warns US over 'dangerous moves' Iran Press TV Friday, 07 August 2020 6:25 AM China has warned the United States against taking "dangerous moves," on Taiwan after Washington announced it was sending a senior official on a diplomatic visit to the self-ruled island. In a 90-minute phone call with US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe said on Thursday that Washington needs to "stop erroneous words and deeds." He called on Washington to "avoid taking dangerous moves that may escalate the situation," in Taiwan and the South China Sea. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced on Wednesday that Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar will be leading a delegation to Taiwan on an upcoming visit to meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. China, which has sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, was angered by the announcement. Under the "One China" policy, almost all world countries recognize Beijing's sovereignty. The US also recognizes Chinese sovereignty over the island but has long courted Taipei in an attempt to counter Beijing. Tsai, however, welcomed the US diplomat's trip to Taiwan as "another testament to the strong Taiwan-US partnership." Washington, which has no formal diplomatic relations with Taipei by law, is the island's largest weapons supplier and an avid backer of Taiwan's secessionist president Tsai, causing increasing tensions with Beijing over trade and a host of other issues. Esper accuses China of 'destabilizing' activity Esper, for his part, once again accused Beijing of conducting "destabilizing" activity near Taiwan and the South China Sea. "Secretary Esper also communicated the importance that the PRC (People's Republic of China) abide by international laws, rules and norms and meet its international commitments," Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters. Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea and has repeatedly warned the US against its military activities in the sea, saying that potential close military encounters by the air and naval forces of the two countries in the region could easily trigger accidents. The United States, which sides with Beijing's rival claimants in the maritime dispute, however, continues sending warships and warplanes to the South China Sea to assert what it calls its right to "freedom of navigation," ratcheting up tensions with China. A separate Pentagon statement said on Thursday that both sides agreed on "developing the systems necessary for crisis communications and risk reduction." The high-level talks took place amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over a series of issues, including trade, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the coronavirus pandemic. Trump imposes bans on TikTok, WeChat In the latest move that escalates tensions, President Donald Trump issued executive orders on Thursday that would ban the social media apps TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US if they are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies within 45 days. Trump threatened to "take aggressive action against the owners." The move came after the Trump administration said this week that it was stepping up efforts to purge "un-trusted" Chinese apps from US digital networks and described TikTok and messenger app WeChat as "significant threats." It alleged that TikTok "automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users," such as location data and browsing and search histories, which "threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage." The purported concerns expose what the US government has been doing for years, forcing tech giants in the United States, Europe and elsewhere to share their smartphone data from their users with American authorities. The US has long been using national security concerns as an excuse to impose a ban on Chinese communication apps and technologies. The Trump administration has blacklisted Chinese tech giant, Huawei, in an attempt to block the company from getting any US telecom equipment and infrastructure contracts and prevent the transfer of American technology to the Chinese firm, citing "security concerns." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Dejan Lovren has added more silverware to his 2020 season, winning the Russian Super Cup final on his debut for Zenit St Petersburg. The defender left Liverpool after six years on Merseyside this summer, jetting off to Russia with a Premier League winner's medal around his neck. The 10m signing was thrown straight into the deep end on Friday, starting at the back as Zenit secured glory with a 2-1 victory over Lokomotiv Moscow. Dejan Lovren secured the Russian Super Cup on his Zenit St Petersburg debut on Friday The ex-Liverpool star shared the triumph online as old team-mates sent congratulations Lovren left Liverpool this summer for a 10m fee after securing the Premier League title Lovren shared his delight on social media by posting a picture with the trophy, attaching the caption 'First game, first title. Well done boys.' Former Reds team-mates Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino commented their congratulations on Instagram, with the Brazilian forward writing 'brate', which is Russian for 'brother'. Lovren's trophy cabinet is rapidly expanding, boasting the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, French Cup with Lyon and two Croatian titles with Dinamo Zagreb. Lovren spent six years with the Reds before falling out of the line-up under Jurgen Klopp The 31-year-old made 185 appearances for Liverpool after joining from Southampton in 2014, but is likely best remembered by Premier League fans for claiming he was 'one of the best centre-backs in the world' back in 2018. Lovren was ridiculed for the statement but left England with the last laugh after securing the title under Jurgen Klopp, having had his starting spot wrestled away by Virgil van Dijk. Zenit were as dominant as Liverpool in their 2019-20 league campaign, finishing top of the Russian Premier League with a 15-point gap to second-placed Moscow while the Reds finished 18-points clear of Manchester City. This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times. This latest installment is one of many ways The New York Times is examining the centennial of the 19th Amendment. When the Texas Rangers showed up outside the office of the newspaper El Progreso in 1914 with the intent of shutting it down, Jovita Idar, a writer and editor, was waiting at the front door to block them from entering. And she was not about to back down. The officers, who by then had gained a reputation for their violence against Mexicans, were furious over an editorial that criticized President Woodrow Wilsons order to send military troops to the Texas-Mexico border amid the Mexican Revolution. Idar argued that silencing the newspaper would violate its constitutional right to freedom of the press under the First Amendment. The Rangers eventually turned back. But the next day, when Idar was gone, they returned to ransack the office, smashing and destroying the printing presses. PC Gus Mirams (not pictured) has been dismissed from his job (Picture: Getty) A Met Police officer has been dismissed after liking a Facebook group linked to far-right organisation Britain First. PC Gus Mirams was dismissed without notice following a misconduct hearing. A panel was told PC Mirams, who was based at Central West Command Unit (AW), liked and made comments on a Facebook group linked to the far-right extremist group while off duty in July 2018. He also made offensive comments online, in response to photographs and videos including news stories about police officers taking part in Pride events, the hearing was told. Read more: 'Depraved' couple sexually abused schoolgirls after getting them drunk New Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police (Picture: Getty) While on restricted duties in July last year, he also attended the public gallery to observe an unrelated misconduct hearing. PC Mirams made "homophobic" and "racially offensive" comments in the presence of two members of the public and a security officer, the hearing was told. His comments used language and expressed views that could reasonably be perceived to be abusive, oppressive, victimising or offensive and did not treat certain communities with fairness, respect and impartiality, the panel concluded. Read more: PC Andrew Harpers mum slams killers for 'laughing' in court The panel ruled he breached the standards of professional behaviour in respect of authority, respect and courtesy, equality and diversity, orders and instructions and discreditable conduct. All the allegations were found proven as gross misconduct. A Met Police spokesman said: "The decision by the Panel was that PC Mirams is to be dismissed without notice." Ex-Saudi official: MBS sent kill team to target me Iran Press TV Friday, 07 August 2020 1:22 AM A former Saudi intelligence official files a lawsuit in the United States, accusing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of sending a hit squad to Canada to try and kill him. Saad Aljabri, who functioned as a top aide in the Saudi Interior Ministry for years, before being forced to step down and flee to Canada, where he is in self-imposed exile, filed the lawsuit in Washington on Thursday, The New York Times reported. The unprecedented legal case revolves around alleged attempts by the Saudi royal, who is also known as MBS, to stop Aljabri from "undermining the prince's relationship with the United States and [US President Donald] Trump administration," the paper wrote. It harks back to far-and-wide indications, including those reported by The Times before, that bin Salman has been trying to silence or eliminate his opponents through violent and potentially deadly means. The most egregious of the cases saw a Saudi kill team enter the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where bin Salman critic and former Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was about to show up in 2018 before executing and dismembering him. The dissident is widely believed to have been murdered on bin Salman's direct orders. 'Tiger Team' The suit filed by Mr. Aljabri alleges that a team of Saudi agents carrying forensic gear and including forensic experts arrived at an airport in Ontario in October 2018. They tried to enter on Canadian tourist visas but were turned away by Canadian border officials, it says. The effort, it says, has to do with the Saudi prince's beginning to organize a 50-man death squad, nicknamed the "Tiger Team," in the year running up to Khashoggi's assassination to take care of the royal's opponents. Aljabri says the crown prince has exhausted various measures to make him return to the kingdom, including offering him a job, taking his children hostage, and threatening to extradite him on corruption charges. In September 2017, bin Salman asked him in a text message, "Where should we dispatch the airplane to fetch you?" and later threatened to use "all available means" to reach Mr. Aljabri, including "measures that would be harmful to you," the suit specifies. Aljabri says the crown prince has been seeking him out because he was privy to so many secrets. "That combination of deep knowledge and enduring trust by top US officials is why there is virtually no one Defendant bin Salman wants dead more than" Mr. Aljabri, the suit says. Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler amid King Salman's ailing conditions, became heir to the throne after ousting his predecessor Mohammed bin Nayef. He has invariably enjoyed the Trump administration's unwavering support, including for a 2015-present Saudi-led war that has been waged against Yemen at the royal's initiative. The current US rulers have also refused to take the prince to task over Khashoggi's murder despite widespread reports and numerous indications that he had ordered the assassination. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address No casualties were reported among Ukrainian troops over the past day. Ukraine has reported three enemy provocations on Friday, August 7 as Russia's hybrid military forces three times violated the newly-agreed truce in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. "In particular, random shots from small arms were heard near the village of Novoluhanske. The enemy also opened fire once from an under-barrel grenade launcher near the village of Shumy, as well as once from an automatic grenade launcher near the village of Travneve," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in a Facebook update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on August 8, 2020. Since the shots were provocative, the Ukrainian soldiers didn't return fire, the report stresses. In addition, another two violations by the enemy were recorded near the villages of Uzhivka and Zolote-5, which are not controlled by the Ukrainian government. In these sectors of the front, the enemy carried out engineering work contrary to the agreements reached within the Trilateral Contact Group. Read alsoZelensky outlines ways to achieve peace in Donbas No casualties were reported among Ukrainian troops over the past day. Since Saturday midnight, no attacks by Russian Federation's armed formations have been recorded, the JFO HQ said. The situation is under full control of Ukrainian military. Background Participants in the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, and OSCE) on the peace settlement in Donbas on July 22 agreed on full and comprehensive ceasefire along the contact line from 00:01 on Monday, July 27. The new ceasefire regime was enforced at 00:01 Kyiv time on July 27. On the very first day of the newly-agreed truce, Russia's hybrid military forces mounted three attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Ukraine reported more fire provocations were reported over the past few days. CLEVELAND, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Friday that the state was relying on nearly two-decade old technology for coronavirus contact tracing in the state, making gathering aggregate data nearly impossible. The infrastructure for the Ohio Disease Reporting System, used to trace disease outbreaks statewide, is 19 years old, DeWine said during a coronavirus press briefing near his home in Cedarville. The system was only built to log general disease information, making more intricate data such as how many outbreaks are traced to different types of businesses incredibly difficult. DeWine said he understood why those asking for data were frustrated by the lack of data. We have ignored as a people -- Democrats, Republicans -- ignored public health, DeWine said. Weve got to stop ignoring public health. This ought to be a real wake up call for us. The Ohio Department of Health released limited anecdotal data to cleveland.com on Tuesday, which showed outbreaks traced to at least 50 bars across the state since July 1. ODH spokeswoman Melanie Amato said those figures dont represent the full scope of the disease in the state, something DeWine confirmed on Friday. DeWine said the system only logs basic information about diseases, such as if it was food borne. While hes shared stories about bars, house parties and other types of gatherings that have experienced outbreaks, that information is volunteered by local health departments. What we do is kind of bypass that system and go directly to the health departments to get as much information as we can about where outbreaks are happening in the community, DeWine said. The age of the states system is the second example of antiquated technology setting back Ohios response to the coronavirus. At the onset of the pandemic, the states unemployment system built in 2004 was overloaded by a flood of cases. The state almost immediately contracted with Deloitte to revamp the system. DeWine did not say whether he would direct the state to upgrade the disease reporting system to gather more valuable, searchable data. Decentralized disease reporting, a lack of funding and public officials ignoring health systems were the root causes, he said. Weve got to fix these systems, DeWine said. Weve got to get them up to date. The health department cant even tell you today the number of flu deaths we had. Thats just ridiculous. Weve got to get better data. Wee got to get it built into the system. DeWine said the state has also fallen short in other methods meant to collect data about the disease. The state announced in May it would administer random testing for coronavirus antibodies throughout the state to determine how many Ohioans have contracted the disease. Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said a report on the data would be released in early September, five months after the initial testing was announced. The economic conflict between the US and China began as a trade war, then extended to a technology war, and has now escalated into a capital war, with moves by the Trump administration to delist Chinese companies from American stock markets. The presidential working group (PWG) on financial markets, instructed by Trump in June to undertake an investigation, brought down recommendations on Thursday that would see companies already trading on US stock exchanges delisted from the beginning of 2022, unless US regulators gain access to their audits. Companies seeking new listings on US markets would have to comply by the end of this year. The move has been couched in terms of protecting investors in the face of bans by the Chinese government that prevent reviews of listed Chinese companies by the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. But the real reason for the move has nothing to do with investor safety. The dispute has been going on for more than two decades, and the move has been brought forward now as part of the widening economic offensive against China. The sudden concern for investor safety rings somewhat hollow under conditions where the arcane and secretive dealings on Wall Street, beyond regulatory oversight, have the capacity to plunge US and global markets into turmoil virtually overnight. The PWG, which includes representatives from the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Exchange Commission, started its deliberations in June. The new offensive came in the wake of a decision in May by the main US federal government retirement fund to scrap plans to move some of its investments into Chinese companies, following criticism by Trump. Members of the administration said the retirement funds would be exposed to significant and unnecessary risk by investing in companies that posed national security and humanitarian concerns and violated US sanctions. A letter signed by National Security Adviser Robert OBrien and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow warned against investments because there was a possibility that future sanctions will result from the culpable actions of the Chinese government with respect to the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Announcing the PWG investigation two months ago, Trump said that while China reaps advantages from American markets, the actions of its government to thwart our transparency laws raise significant risks for investors. The time had come, he wrote, to put an end to the practice that has tacitly permitted companies with significant Chinese operations to flout protections United States law requires for investors in United States markets. Accordingly, the PWG decided unanimously to recommend that the SEC take steps to enhance the listing standards on US exchanges by demanding access to audit working papers. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took the high ground of financial rectitude as he outlined the findings. The recommendations outlined in the report, he said, will increase investor protection and level the playing field for all companies listed on US exchanges. The United States is the premier jurisdiction in the world for raising capital, and we will not compromise on the core principles that underpin investor confidence in our capital markets. But the fact that it has taken two decades for these core principles to be invoked makes clear that there are other motivations at work. One need only recall the findings in 2011 of a Senate committee investigation into the 2008 financial crash, which found that the crisis was not a natural disaster, but the result of high-risk, complex financial products; undisclosed conflicts of interest; and the failure of regulators, the credit rating agencies, and the market itself to rein in the excesses of Wall Street. According to the committee chairman, Carl Levin, the investigation discovered a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest, and wrongdoing. But no one was jailed, and the speculation that led to the crash has escalated in the 12 years since then, fueled by the endless supplies of money pumped in by the Fed. The PWG said continued listing on US exchanges would require Chinese companies to provide access by the Public Company Oversight Board to the working papers of the firms carrying out audits, or failing that, due to Chinese government restrictions, a co-audit would have to be carried out by a firm the Public Company Oversight Board determined was able to undertake such work. Given the interconnections between Chinese firms and Wall Street investors, the PWG said that to reduce market disruption there would be a transition period extending to the start of 2022 to allow currently listed companies to comply. It will also take some time for the SEC to draft new rules and regulations to cover the new stipulations. The real significance of the latest moves and their underlying motivations can be grasped only when placed within their broader context. They form part of the escalation of the economic and technology warfare being waged by the US against China, which both the Republicans and Democrats are placing front and center of their presidential election campaigns. This war has been further escalated with the bans imposed by Trump on the very popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and the social media platform WeChat. It remains to be seen whether there will be any push back from Wall Street over the moves to delist Chinese companies, because of the impact it may have on significant US financial interests. But if there is, the administration has a response already prepared. In major speech last month, Attorney General William Barr issued a broadside against American corporations seeking to curry favor with Beijing and warned they would be subject to foreign interference laws if they became pawns in Chinas supposed plans to take over the global economy and dominate the world. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 21:31:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. efforts to clamp down on popular short video-sharing app TikTok are an "egregious" example of unfair economic competition for U.S. dominance in the international information space, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Saturday. "The actions of the U.S. authorities run counter to the basic principles of a free market economy and violate rules of the World Trade Organization," Zakharova said in a commentary posted on the foreign ministry's website. U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order banning any U.S. transactions with Chinese tech firm ByteDance, owner of TikTok, starting 45 days from then. Washington has also threatened to ban TikTok's business in the United States if it is not sold to a U.S. company before Sept. 15. These restrictions have violated a wide range of Washington's international obligations to ensure the free and wide distribution of information, the free choice of its sources, and to encourage cooperation in this area, Zakharova said. She said that Moscow is calling on Washington to reconsider its methods to preserve the monopoly of U.S. IT giants in international social networks and ensure they meet generally accepted values and international legal norms. "We hope that specialized international structures and human rights organizations will react appropriately and give an impartial assessment of these actions," she added. 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe The Egyptian air bridge is delivering medical aid, food, specialised medical teams, and construction materials and glass panels for reconstruction Egypt said it sent on Saturday the second batch of aid to Lebanon under an air bridge operated to provide emergency assistance to the heavily burdened country after the deadly warehouse explosion in the capital Beirut. According to state-run MENA agency, Egypt delivered to Beirut 14 tons of aid, including food and flour, amid new wheat woes after the deadly explosion destroyed the largest grain storage in the country already battling an economic crisis and rising coronavirus cases. The air bridge, instructed by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, aims to deliver medical aid, food, specialised medical teams, and construction materials and glass panels for reconstruction. A massive blast at the citys port on Tuesday damaged buildings across the capital and sent a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. Lebanese officials said the explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate, 2,750 tons of which had been stored in a warehouse at the port for six years after being confiscated from a ship. The explosion killed at least 150 people and injured around 5,000, according to data released by Lebanons health ministry. Egypt has taken several steps to provide assistance to Lebanon, including sending a planeload of medical supplies to Beirut on Wednesday. An Egyptian field hospital in Beirut is also providing aid to victims of the blast. Search Keywords: Short link: Noida: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated 400-bed Covid-19 hospital in Noida, sector 39 on Saturday (August 8). Noida District Magistrate Suhas LY was also present at the event. Meanwhile, due to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath`s visit in the district Section 144 has been imposed in Noida. The Noida police on Friday told media, "Section 144 has been imposed in Noida, ahead of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath`s visit on Saturday. People are not allowed to fly drones. 15 gazetted officers and around 700 constables who are on duty are required to undergo COVID-19 testing." Earlier on Friday, Yogi Adityanath had held a meeting with public representatives in Gautam Budh Nagar over the situation of COVID-19 in the district. He had asked officials to send teams of experts from the Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences and King George's Medical University to camp in Kanpur Nagar to guide and supplement the existing health infrastructure. The coronavirus tally in Gautam Buddh Nagar on Friday surged to 5,806 including 906 active cases, 4,857 recovered and 43 deaths, according to the state`s health department. The total number of COVID -19 cases in Uttar Pradesh now stands at 1,13,378, including 44563 active cases, 66,834 recoveries and 1,918 deaths as per the Ministry of Health data on Saturday. Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Chandler and Joey won't be there for you any time soon. The wait continues for the eagerly anticipated "Friends" reunion. The unscripted HBO Max special, featuring all six main cast members Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer is postponed again due to the coronavirus crisis, Variety reported Friday. Ben Winston was tapped to direct the reunion special, with original producers Marta Kauffman, David Crane and Kevin Bright serving as executive producers. The special was initially due to start production in March with a live audience, with the plans for it to be a major draw for the launch of HBO's new streaming service on May 27. However, the COVID-19 pandemic jettisoned production, which was due to resume in Los Angeles and elsewhere. California has more than 532,000 confirmed cases of the virus, the highest total of any state. Plans for the special to be wrapped by summer's end have been scrapped. Now there is no date set to start production, according to the Hollywood industry trade outlet. But fans can revisit the show's glorious past since all 236 episodes of "Friends" is available on HBO Max. WarnerMedia reportedly paid over $400 million for the rights to the show. Tribune News Service Grande is thankful despite Gaga scratch Ariana Grande may have Stockholm syndrome. After almost losing her eyesight on set working with Lady Gaga, the "Thank U, Next" chanteuse was thankful for the occupational hazard. In a video shared to Instagram on Thursday, Mother Monster offered fans a behind-the-scenes look at rehearsals for the "Rain On Me" music video her duet with Grande. The two pop superstars collaborated on the hit song, which was released May 22, but there was a small incident while rehearsing dance steps for the short film when Gaga accidentally scratched her singing partner's eye. "I shanked her with my nail by accident while dancing," Gaga said in the video. The clip then cut to a shot of Grande lying on the floor looking at her phone as someone asked her what had happened. "Lady Gaga scratched my eye," she said with a smile. "It's an honor, I hope it scars." The 34-year-old Oscar, Emmy and Grammy Award winner then asks for some Neosporin to treat the wound. Later in the clip, the pair wrestled as Gaga attempted to put ointment on the affected area. "I want it to stay," Grande insisted before running away. "You have a scratch on your face," said Gaga, chasing after the star. "You can't get infected before the video." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. This is a first for Grande, who has collaborated with a bunch of music divas, including Nicki Minaj, Jesse J, Iggy Azalea and most recently R&B legend Chaka Khan. But the scratch may pay off; "Rain On Me" received seven nominations for MTV Video Music Awards, set to take place Aug. 30 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Tribune News Service Wiig recalls years-long IVF struggle Kristen Wiig is getting candid about her "difficult" road to motherhood. Prior to welcoming twins with fiance and "Love, Sex and Missed Connections" actor Avi Rothman earlier this year, the "Bridesmaids" star remained relatively mum about the couple's years-long struggle with in vitro fertilization. "It was a very long road," the Oscar nominee, 47, told InStyle in a new interview out Friday. "As private as I am and as sacred as this all is, what helped me was reading about other women who went through it and talking to those who have gone through IVF and fertility stuff. It can be the most isolating experience." The "Saturday Night Live" alumnus noted that about three of her nearly five years with Rothman were spent "in an IVF haze." "Emotionally, spiritually, and medically, it was probably the most difficult time in my life," she explained. "I wasn't myself. There are so many emotions that go with it. There was a lot of stress and heartache." IVF took "a long f--king time," she said, noting she eventually clammed up about it "because I would get sad whenever someone asked. It's hard not to personalize it when you get a negative result. You go through so much self-deprecation, and you feel like your partner may be seeing you in a different way and all this other stuff we make up in our heads." Tribune News Service Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. Full marks to Yotel on the bravery front. Not many other spanking new hotels would swing open their doors when London has seldom been so quiet and when visitors from overseas are giving Britain a wide berth. But thats what happened this week in Clerkenwell, marking the budget chains first foray into the capital, following Yotels at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and one in Edinburgh. There are 212 rooms (sorry, cabins, as theyre called) and only four are occupied in addition to mine. The Inspector checked into Yotel's new outpost in Clerkenwell, central London. Pictured is the 'glamorous' atrium and bar But I think it will be an advantage. We will be in a better position once life returns to normal, says Pedro, a chatty member of staff from Portugal, who works behind the bar and helps out in the kitchen. Lets hope so because for 85 in the centre of town, this is terrific value. Its cleverly designed over six floors: minimalistic, tech-savvy, fun (reception is called Mission Control, staff are referred to as Crew and the bar area is Komyuniti, Japanese for community). Calling rooms cabins is a good way of managing expectations. And, yes, they are small, but comfortable, spotless, white all over and everything works. Press a button for the shower; another to turn the bed into a sofa; multiple power and USB charging ports; bunk beds for families and views of St Pauls Cathedral if youre facing south. Theres a gym in the basement and a grab and go food area near reception. Im looking to order and stay, which I do at the bar to the rear of the building. There are 212 cabin-style rooms that are 'small, comfortable and spotless' This is Yotels stand-out feature, with its own atrium and a glamorous air about it, enhanced by the high stools, sleek sofas and little booths. No frills neednt mean no thrills. The all-day menu includes a variety of flatbreads, bao buns, king prawn skewers and padron peppers. I go for sweet chilli crispy chicken, the peppers and paprika fries, all for 14, and Pedro is keen for me to try an Argentinian Malbec that, he says, spends some time in bourbon barrels. I cant stand being hermetically sealed at night. It feels so unnatural. But I dont hear a thing. You can get a cooked breakfast, but this is more a place for rolling your own yoghurt and drinking herbal tea. You will have a beautiful day, says Eric at check-out. And he means it. A military transport aircraft with pollution control equipment and a navy vessel to be sent by France for Mauritius aid Bystanders look at MV Wakashio bulk carrier that had run aground and from which oil is leaking near Blue Bay Marine Park in south-east Mauritius. (AFP) Johannesburg: The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius has declared a state of environmental emergency after a Japanese-owned ship that ran aground offshore days ago began spilling tons of fuel. Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth announced the development late Friday as satellite images showed a dark slick spreading in the turquoise waters near environmental areas that the government called very sensitive. Mauritius has said the ship was carrying nearly 4,000 tons of fuel and cracks have appeared in its hull. Jugnauth said his government had appealed to France for help, saying the spill represents a danger for the country of some 1.3 million people that relies heavily on tourism and has been hit hard by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Our country doesnt have the skills and expertise to refloat stranded ships, he said. Bad weather has made it impossible to act, and I worry what could happen Sunday when the weather deteriorates. Jugnauth shared a photo of the vessel, the MV Wakashio, tilted precariously. Sea rough beyond the reefs with swells. Ventures in the open seas are not advised, according to the Mauritius Meteorological Services. Video posted online showed oily waters lapping at the shore as people murmured and peered at the ship in the distance. Online ship trackers showed the Panama-flagged bulk carrier had been en route from China to Brazil. The French island of Reunion is the closest neighbour to Mauritius, and Frances Foreign Ministry says France is Mauritiuss leading foreign investor and one of its largest trading partners. A French statement Saturday said a military transport aircraft would carry pollution control equipment to Mauritius and a navy vessel with additional material would set sail for the island nation. We are in a situation of environmental crisis, the environment minister of Mauritius, Kavy Ramano, said, calling the Blue Bay Marine Park and other areas near the leaking ship very sensitive. After the cracks in the hull were detected, a salvage team that had been working on the ship was evacuated, Ramano told reporters Thursday. Some 400 sea booms have been deployed in an effort to contain the spill. Government statements this week said the ship ran aground July 25 and the National Coast Guard received no distress call. The ships owners were listed as the Japanese companies Okiyo Maritime Corporation and Nagashiki Shipping Co. Ltd. A police inquiry has been opened into issues such as possible negligence, a government statement said. A statement by Nagashiki Shipping Co. Ltd. said that due to the bad weather and constant pounding over the past few days, the starboard side bunker tank of the vessel has been breached and an amount of fuel oil has escaped into the sea. It added: Nagashiki Shipping takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and will take every effort with partner agencies and contractors to protect the marine environment and prevent further pollution. Tons of diesel and oil are now leaking into the water, environmental group Greenpeace Africas climate and energy manager Happy Khambule said in a statement. Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe dEsny and Mahebourg are at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius economy, food security and health, Khambule said. A government environmental outlook released nearly a decade ago said Mauritius had a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan but equipment on hand was adequate to deal with oil spills of less than 10 metric tonnes. In case of major spills, it said, assistance could be obtained from other Indian Ocean countries or from international oil spill response organizations. ID cards of people linked to an operation denounced by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro are displayed during a meeting with members of the Armed Forces in Caracas, Venezuela on May 4, 2020. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro confirmed the detention of two US "mercenaries" among 13 attackers involved in Sunday's two failed maritime raids. A Venezuelan court sentenced two former U.S. special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a failed beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolas Maduro, prosecutors announced late Friday. Former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry admitted to taking part in the May 4 operation orchestrated by a third ex-U.S. soldier who remains in the United States, Venezuelan's chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab announced on Twitter. "THEY ADMITTED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FACTS," Saab wrote, adding that the case will continue for dozens of other defendants. He did not offer details. "Operation Gideon" was launched from makeshift training camps in neighboring Colombia and left at least eight rebel soldiers dead while a total of 66 were jailed. Former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, who operated a private, Florida-based security firm called Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility for the failed attack. Venezuelan prosecutors announced that Denman and Berry, both decorated former U.S. service members, were found guilty of conspiracy, trafficking in illegal arms and terrorism. The two Americans arrested in the coastal fishing community of Chuao have ever since been widely displayed by officials on Venezuelan state TV as proof of their long-held claims that the United States is set on overthrowing Maduro's socialist government. The incident also unleashed claims that U.S. backed opposition leader Juan Guaido had authorized Goudreau through a signed agreement to carry out the attack, executed by two of Guaido's former political advisors. Guaido and U.S. officials have denied any role in the attack. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would use all possible means to win the freedom of Denman and Berry. A day before authorities announced that the two ex-Green Berets were sentenced, Venezuelan authorities opened the trial of six American executives of the Houston-based Citgo company. The six men were arrested over two years ago in Venezuela on corruption charges. The case had lingered for months until former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson met personally in July with Maduro in Caracas to urge they be released so they could return home to the United States. Both play out amid hostility between Washington and Caracas. The Trump administration last year threw its support behind opposition leader Guaido, who declared he was Venezuela's legitimate president, vowing to oust Maduro. Guaido blames Maduro for the once wealthy nation's economic and social collapse, while the socialist leader says Washington is manipulating Guaido to steal the nation's vast oil wealth. Tata Motors, Indias leading auto brand, today announced the rollout of an array of health and hygiene accessories for its customers. In line with the companys ongoing endeavor to ensure the safety of its customers at all times, these accessories are designed to provide car owners with an additional level of safety for their new & existing Tata cars. All these will be offered as Tata Motors Genuine Accessories and will be available across the Tata Motors outlets in the country. The details of the accessories range are as follows: Air-o-Pure 95 Air Purifier: The Air-o-Pure 95 air purifier comes equipped with an Active Carbon HEPA filter and UV-C light which improves the air quality, removes volatile organic compounds along with virus and bacteria and filters out hazardous smoke. The purifier is elegantly designed and easy to fit in the cup holder slot of all Tata cars. Air-o-Pure 95 Air Filter: Keeping in mind the customers health, this filter is capable of filtering out bacteria and virus of upto 0.3 microns, thereby improving the quality of the in-cabin air and saving customers from allergic reactions and respiratory disorders. This filter can be installed in the Nexon & the Harrier as of now, and will be soon introduced across the remaining New Forever range of cars. Health- Pro Sanitization Kit: Customers looking for a one-stop solution to maintain their safety while travelling can opt for an all-purpose Health- Pro Sanitization Kit from the Tata Motors outlets. This kit is specially designed to provide the customers with critical hygiene items like a Hand Sanitizer, N95 Masks, Hand Gloves, Safety Touch Key, Tissue Box, Mist Diffuser and a Driving Kit with covers for the exposed touch points like the steering wheel, handbrake, gear knob and the seats. Additionally, Tata Motors is also offering a vehicle air and surface disinfectant service which emits ozone to clean the air from bacteria / virus. Once kept in a closed car for 20 minutes, the system disinfects the in- cabin space. Lastly, to maintain safe distance between the driver and the passengers, the company has launched Separator Films, which creates a barrier between the front occupants and the rear passengers, thereby enhancing their safety. To know more about the health & hygiene range of accessories and services, customers can visit or call their nearest Tata Motors showroom or visit the website https://cars.tatamotors.com/. Procurement of expensive aircraft parts to be done after approval of senior official: Air India Operations from India to US to be curtailed/revised from Jan 19 due to 5G roll-out: Air India Because I am a soldier born to die: Emotional post on Wing Commander D V Sathe India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: A post on Facebook that would leave many teary-eyed was posted by Nilesh Sathe, the cousin of Wing Commander Deepak Sathe who was the captain of the ill-fated aircraft that crashed in Kozhikode on Friday. Kerala plane crash: Ex-IAF pilot dies, had tried to land safely | Oneindia News During his 22 year career in the Indian Air Force, he learnt flying the Soviet origin MiG-21. He was awarded the coveted sword of honour in recognition of his skills when he graduated from the Air Force Academy at Dundigal near Hyderabad in 1981. He was also a former alumnus of the National Defence Academy. Kerala plane crash: DGCA says it had issued notice to Kozhikode airport over safety lapses He joined the IAF in 1981 and quit prematurely in June 2003. He was a very skilled pilot and had mentored several young pilots. A soldier lays down his life: Read Nilesh Sathe's post: Its hard to believe that Dipak Sathe, my friend more than my cousin, is no more. He was pilot of Air India Express carrying passengers from Dubai in 'Vande Bharat Mission', which skidded off the runway at Kozhikode International Airport yesterday night. What is learnt is as follows: Landing gears didn't work. Ex IAF pilot made three rounds of airport to empty the fuel which saved plane from catching fire. That's why there was no smoke seen coming from the crashed aircraft. He turned off the engine right before the crash. He belly landed after the 3rd iteration. The right wing was ruptured. The Pilot martyred but saved life of 180 co-passengers. Dipak was an experienced aerial operator with 36 years of flying experience. A passout of NDA, topper in the 58th course and an awardee of 'Sword of Honour', Dipak served Indian Air Force for 21 years before joining as a Commercial Pilot with Air India in 2005. He called me just a week before and was jovial, as always. When I asked him about the 'Vande Bharat' Mission, he was proud of bringing back our countrymen from Arab countries. I asked him, "Dipak, do you carry empty Aircraft since those countries are not allowing entry of passengers?" He had replied," Oh, No. We carry fruits, vegetables, medicines etc to these countries and never the aircraft flies to these countries empty." That was my last conversation with him. Kerala plane crash: AI Express says three relief flights arranged to assist passengers, families He survived in air crash in early nineties when he was in Airforce. He was hospitalised for 6 months for multiple skull injuries and nobody thought that he will fly again. But his strong will power and love for flying made him clear the test again. It was a miracle. He leaves behind his wife and two sons, both pass outs of IIT Mumbai. He is a son of Colonel Vasant Sathe who stays in Nagpur along with his wife. His brother, Capt Vikas, was also an Armyman who laid his life while serving in the Jammu region. A soldier lays his life to save the lives of his countrymen. It reminds me of a poem by a soldier : If I die in a war zone, Box me up & send me home Put my medals on my chest, Tell my Mom I did the best Tell my Dad not to bow, He won't get tension from me now, Tell my brother to study perfectly, Keys of my bike will be his permanently Tell my Sis not to be upset, Her Bro will not rise after this sunset And tell my love not to cry, "Because I am a soldier Born to Die...." ... Nilesh Sathe Indian soldiers brave the chill stand up face to face with China Missing TA soldiers clothes found, family begs for his body India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: The clothes of a missing Territorial Army soldier have been found. The jawan had gone missing and his vehicle was found burnt in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. The father, while searching for his son found his clothes in an orchard near their house. His clothes were torn and there were blood stains on the ground, the father Manzoor Ahmad Wagay told The Indian Express. He asked the Mujahideen to forgive his son, if they can. If they cannot forgive him, please give his body back to us, the father pleaded. Soldier martyred, terrorist killed in encounter at Pulwama The officials suspect that he might have been kidnapped by militants. Kerala plane crash: How it happened | Why plane overshot runway | Oneindia News A vehicle registered in the name of Muzzaffar Manzoor, a resident of Shopian district, was set ablaze by unknown persons at Rambhama area of south Kashmir's Kulgam district late Sunday night, the officials said. They said Manzoor serves in the Territorial Army and could not be contacted. The officials said they suspect that he might have been kidnapped by militants, adding that efforts were on to trace him. It is fitting that John Hume was laid to rest on August 5, the same day as Daniel O'Connell 173 years previously. John greatly admired O'Connell and took to heart one of his sayings: no change is worth a "single drop of human blood. Human blood is no cement for the temple of human liberty". John Hume was that rare thing in Irish political life, a thinker and an intellectual, and he left his legacy in his remarkable speeches and writings. Two generations younger, I can't claim to have known him well, but my parents were among his many friends. On April 18, 1998, when I was 17, the SDLP organised a conference in west Belfast on the United Irishmen bicentenary. John was the keynote speaker. I spent time helping organise the catering logistics - that is, making the tea - and liaising with John and the other speakers. He was in high spirits and unusually relaxed and communicative. The Good Friday Agreement had been concluded on April 10 and the SDLP was in campaigning mode for the all-Ireland referendum to endorse the agreement and for the subsequent assembly election. Read More John was anxious that the awful violence of 1798 should not be romanticised, but simultaneously wanted to stress that the United Irish movement was the first peaceful, democratic body in a polity where no democracy existed, and the first movement with radical social and economic aims, with an international perspective and above all with the ideal of the unity of Catholic, Protestant and dissenter. His talk was superb, informed and pithy. He quoted with relish a remark of George Bernard Shaw from 1898: "Until Irishmen apply themselves to what the condition of Ireland is to be in 1998 they will get very little patriotism out of Yours Sincerely." In the coffee break, I had the temerity to ask John what I should read "about history about everything". Some of his suggestions went right over my head: no, I had never heard of The Open Society and its Enemies by Karl Popper, nor Ireland, 1912-1985 by JJ Lee. Never mind, had I heard of ATQ Stewart's The Narrow Ground? Luckily, I had seen that one on the bookshelf at home; years later, I discovered to my astonishment that Ian Paisley's favourite Irish history book was also somehow John Hume's. John was expansive. He told me that when he had co-founded the SDLP in 1970, he and others had not wanted 'trigger words' like 'Irish', 'nationalist' or 'republican' in the name. He was a Francophile and mentioned Jacques Delors, whom he greatly admired, as a man of faith and a democratic socialist. As always, he spoke about the virtues of credit unions and working to make a better life for ordinary people. That the greatest peace process was a job. That aspiring to Irish unity and economic betterment weren't mutually exclusive. "Daniel O'Connell and Michael Davitt have had a raw deal in labour history," he said. Of course, he added, he was an Irish nationalist: "I want Ireland to be controlled by the people of Ireland, all of them." Even at 17, I had heard several times what had been dubbed John's 'single transferable speech', about the Germans and French still being Germans and French, that difference should be embraced, that identity was just an accident of birth and that we should spill our sweat for Ireland, not the blood of others, but it still felt fresh and radical that day. I also recall strongly his rootedness and his pride in being from Derry, the unspoken solidarity between all people from that city, unlike Belfast with factions, rivalries, patchwork neighbourhoods and tensions. In truth, I never had an extended conversation with John again, but even as a teenager, I knew I was privileged to be in the presence of integrity, moral grandeur and a truth I couldn't have then put my finger on. La dar saol: an unforgettable day. Claire Hanna is SDLP MP for Belfast South Irans UN ambassador says Mahan Airlines A310 was aggressively and unexpectedly intercepted by US F-15 fighter jets. Iran has urged the United Nations to hold the United States accountable for the interception of an Iranian passenger plane by two US fighter jets in the skies over Syria last month, calling it unlawful and an adventuristic act. Irans UN Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said in identical letters to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council circulated on Friday that Iran expresses its strongest objections against this violation of international law and will pursue the issue through relevant international bodies. Ravanchi said a Mahan Airlines Airbus A310 en route from Tehran to Beirut on July 23 was aggressively and unexpectedly intercepted by two US F-15 fighter jets while travelling through internationally specified air corridors in Syrias airspace. In reaction to the offensive and hazardous manoeuvrings of the United States fighter jets and in order to save the civil aircraft and passengers lives, the airliner had to change altitude abruptly, causing injuries to the passengers on board, the ambassador said. Standard visual inspection 200724160508360 US Navy Captain Bill Urban, a Central Command spokesman, told The Associated Press news agency at the time of the incident that a US F-15 conducted a standard visual inspection of the Iranian plane at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) from the airliner. He said the inspection was meant to ensure the safety of US-led coalition troops in al-Tanf in Syria as the plane was flying over that area. Urban said once the aircraft was identified as a passenger plane the F-15 safely opened distance from the aircraft. The Iranian ambassador said in line with provisions of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Irans civil aviation organisation contacted Syrian authorities and called for a prompt and accurate investigation of the incident. He said Iranian authorities also launched a probe after the plane returned from Beirut, Lebanon. The results of both investigations will be released after the revision and finalisation of the collected data and information by both teams, Ravanchi said. It is obvious that the act by the United States fighter jets is a flagrant violation of the aviation security and freedom of civil aviation reflected in the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and its relevant annexes, as well as an infringement of the 1971 Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation, he said. It is incumbent upon the United Nations to reject such an unlawful and yet adventuristic act and hold the United States accountable for this irresponsible behaviour. Queen Letizia and King Felipe VI of Spain have been spotted for the first time since runaway former King Juan Carlos caused shockwaves around the country on Monday by announcing he was leaving his homeland. The Spanish royals, who were joined by daughters Crown Princess Leonor, 14, and Infanta Sofia, 13, waved from a car upon their arrival at the Marivent Palace in Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands on Saturday. It comes after Juan Carlos, whose eldest son Felipe VI became King of Spain in 2014 following the long-standing monarch's abdication, departed Spain after Swiss prosecutors opened an investigation into bank accounts allegedly held by Juan Carlos in tax havens. The family appeared to put safety first as they donned protective face masks ready for their summer holidays to officially begin - but it is now the next generation who are being deemed as saviours of the monarchy. 'Attention must turn to the future if the Bourbon monarchy is to survive,' according to The Times. 'It is a responsibility that rests of the shoulders of Leonor, and the reigning king, Felipe VI, knows that, as he introduces her to the country while trying to modernise the monarchy.' Spanish Queen Letizia, Infanta Sofia (2-L), King Felipe VI (R) and Crown Princess Leonor (2-L) wave from a car upon their arrival at the Marivent Palace in Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands in Spain on 7 August 2020, for their summer holidays On Monday, the Spanish Royal Household announced that Emeritus King Juan Carlos proclaimed his intended decision to move abroad so as to not interfere the image of the Spanish monarchy due to his alleged implication in an offshore account investigation The publication went on to say the young princesses are 'the future for a modernised monarchy.' 'Leonor is still very young, but modern, well-educated and a woman which is important as the feminist movement grows in Spain,' a palace source reportedly said. 'She is a great asset.' Leonor made her public-speaking debut at at awards ceremony in Barcelona last November, where she gave comments in Spanish, Catalan, English and Arabic. Meanwhile, she and Sofia read from Don Quixote on World Book Day in April, and addressed the nation in a video amid the coronaviurs pandemic. Spanish King Felipe VI (R) and Crown Princess Leonor (L) wave from a car upon their arrival at the Marivent Palace in Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain on Saturday Since Juan Carlos' departure, Spain has launched its own investigation based in part on information shared by Switzerland about cash the former king allegedly received as part of his involvement in a high-speed Saudi Arabia rail contract. The Spanish Royal Household has so far declined to comment on Juan Carlos's whereabouts. The news emerged in a letter to his son made public late in the day. He wrote 'Guided by my conviction I can offer the best service to Spaniards, its institutions and to you as King, I am communicating my decision to move away from Spain. 'It's a decision I am taking with deep feeling but with great serenity. 'I have been King of Spain for almost 40 years and during that whole time, I've always wanted the best for Spain and for the Crown.' Who is Spain's former king, Juan Carlos I? Juan Carlos I reigned as king of Spain from November 1975 until his abdication in June 2014 Juan Carlos I reigned as king of Spain from November 1975 until his abdication in June 2014. He was a popular monarch for most of his four-decade reign who played a critical role in the country's transition to democracy. He is the grandson of Alfonso XIII, the last king of Spain before the abolition of the monarchy in 1931 and the subsequent declaration of the Second Spanish Republic. Juan Carlos was born in Rome, Italy, on January 5, 1938, during his family's exile. He came to Spain in 1947 to continue his studies and entered the Zaragoza military academy. He completed his tertiary education at the University of Madrid and went on to marry Princess Sofia of Greece and Denmark in Athens in 1962. They went on to have two daughters and a son together: Elena, Cristina, and Felipe. Juan Carlos first began periodically acting as Spain's head of state in the summer of 1974. Fascist dictator Francisco Franco died in November the following year and Juan Carlos became king on 22 November 1975, two days after Franco's death. Juan Carlos was hailed for his role in Spain's transition to democracy and reforms to dismantle the Francoist regime. However the King and the monarchy's reputation began to suffer after controversies surrounding his family arose. In April 2012, Juan Carlos faced criticism for an elephant-hunting trip in Botswana during a time of financial crisis in Spain. King Felipe pictured with former king Juan Carlos and Spain's Queen Letizia at the Spanish National day military parade in Madrid on October 12, 2012 The public found out about the trip only after the King injured himself and a special aircraft was sent to bring him home. Spanish officials stated that the expenses of the trip were not paid by taxpayers or by the palace, but by businessman Mohamed Eyad Kayali. Corruption scandals circling the royal family closed in when his daughter, Princess Cristina, was accused of tax fraud in 2014 and became the first Spanish royal to stand trial. She was later acquitted, but her husband was sentenced. He abdicated in favour of his son, Prince Felipe, in 2014, and last year, Juan Carlos announced his decision to withdraw from public life, ending his remaining institutional functions and appearances from June 2019. Last August, he successfully underwent heart surgery in Madrid. In June 2020, Spain's supreme court prosecutor opened an investigation into Juan Carlos' involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia that was granted to a group of Spanish companies in 2011. King Felipe renounced his own inheritance and stripped his father of his palace allowance in March after reports the latter received $100 million from the late Saudi king and gave millions to a businesswoman. Advertisement He signed off the letter: 'With affection as always, your father.' It later emerged he had already left Spain by the time the letter was released by the Royal Household. His departure sparked mixed reactions, with monarchists and right-wing politicians accusing the government of forcing him into exile and critics of the former king accusing him of an amateur attempt to protect himself and his son from the corruption scandals threatening the future of Spain's dwindling royal family. It has since been alleged that Spain's runaway former King is hiding out in a 10k-a-night suite at a luxury Abu Dhabi hotel after fleeing amid corruption scandal. Former Spanish King Juan Carlos's hideaway is a 10,000-a-night presidential suite in one of the world's most expensive hotels in Abu Dhabi, it was claimed on Friday. Respected right-wing Spanish daily ABC reported the 82-year-old dad-of-three checked into the Emirates Palace Hotel on Monday evening, around the same time his letter to his son Felipe VI announcing his decision to leave Spain was made public. It said he had taken a private plane from Vigo near Spain's north-west border with Portugal on Monday with at least five other passengers including four bodyguards. (CNN) More than one million people in Africa have been infected with the novel coronavirus but health experts say the numbers do not give a "full picture" of the outbreak on the continent. As of early Friday morning, Africa had recorded a total of 1,008,154 cases, and more than half of these are in South Africa. Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, of the World Health Organization, said the cases are a small fraction of the global count but low testing in many African countries means infections have been under-reported. The health agency said while testing facilities have increased in some countries compared to when the outbreak began in February, Africa still fell behind the global benchmark. In Tanzania, the government claims it has defeated coronavirus and has not released any official data since May, and in Nigeria, the WHO is concerned that testing is not available at the grassroots level. "The challenge is how to decentralize these tests available in states and in countries like Nigeria where we need to get to people in the local governments," the agency's program manager for emergency response for Africa, Dr. Michel Yao told CNN. Long test result turnaround time Nigeria, the African nation with the largest population, has tested less than one percent of its 200 million inhabitants as of Friday, and some in the country say getting a coronavirus test can be challenge. While testing is free in state-owned laboratories, there are few of these facilities and they are in major cities. And sometimes, health officials have had to transfer samples to other states to confirm results due to a shortage of kits. The state of Lagos is the epicenter of the virus in Nigeria, with 15,580 cases. It has recently closed health centers specifically created to treat Covid patients. On Monday, the state's governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, announced that worship centers can accommodate half their capacity during services and restaurants are back in business, citing a steady decline in cases. There are concerns that people there are self-managing their symptoms at home. Lagos has tested 66,431 samples so far, a fraction of its 20 million residents. One resident told CNN he waited for two weeks to get a test at a government laboratory after he fell ill in June. "I was going there many times, and it was not until my daughter made many calls, and I ran into a doctor friend who was at the hospital that day that I was able to do the test," Segun Bello-Osagie said. Patient turned back Bello-Osagie said a nurse turned him back at the first hospital where he sought treatment when he became sick. "I was not allowed into the consulting area, and the nurse was shouting that I should not come in even though I was wearing a face mask, and she was dressed like an astronaut," Osagie-Bello told CNN. "She said, 'We can't help you here, we don't attend to Covid people here,' even though I hadn't even been tested." She referred him to a government hospital in the city attending to coronavirus cases. Osagie-Bello said he went home instead, fearing he may not endure the long drive and traffic to the hospital. He said he began using herbal therapies that many claimed had helped them when they had similar symptoms while he self-isolated at home. Osagie-Bello says that even though the government has proactively deployed measures to check the virus spread, the delays patients face could discourage them from going to hospitals. "I know some people who have had symptoms suspected to be Covid-19 gave up on getting testing," he told CNN. He added that some hospital officials may tell patients to come back the next day. Chike Ihekweazu, director of the Nigerian Center for Disease Control, acknowledged the slow turnaround time for testing and said the response was partly due to the challenge the country faced initially trying to repurpose its laboratories to test for the virus. Ihekwaezu said South Africa in contrast, which has the highest numbers of testing on the continent and the highest numbers of cases, was able to easily do this. Ihekweazu said the agency has been able to address problems sourcing kit reagents. But he was forced to turn to Twitter in April to seek testing material. He posted a message saying that the agency was "desperately" looking for more RNA extraction kits to expand testing in the country. "We recognise that improving access to testing for COVID-19 is a major priority. We will continue to work closely with other stakeholders and partners to ensure that Nigerians can be tested in a timely manner that will also contribute to the control of this outbreak," Ihekweazu told CNN. Another barrier to testing is cost, according to Mobihealth International CEO Funmi Adewara, whose organization is among those assisting laboratories with Covid-19 test sample collection, says. Private facilities charge $132 for tests in addition to the cost of processing the tests. The fee, she says, is prohibitive for a majority of Nigerians without health insurance. Many hit by the economic impact of Nigeria's five-week lockdown to tackle the pandemic. "How many people have that kind of money to pay for this test?" Adewara said. She add that Nigeria's testing model excludes asymptomatic carriers, a critical data point that could give health officials a clearer insight into the outbreak in the country. "We haven't tested enough to the point that we have data to interpret the pattern of infections if we're only testing those with symptoms, but the good thing is that the mortality rate seems low going by official figures," Adewara told CNN. Dealing with a new virus In the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, only two laboratories one in Senegal and one in South Africa had the capacity to test for the novel coronavirus. It took more than a week to confirm a positive case as samples were taken from different countries to these labs. There are now more testing facilities but Yao with the WHO said the global demand for test kits has limited Africa's testing capabilities as international suppliers prioritize requests from countries in Europe, Latin America and the US with larger caseloads than most African countries. But the African Union in partnership with aid organizations, including the WHO and the Jack Ma Foundation, has launched an initiative to aggregate demand across African countries to mobilize suppliers to produce more kits, according to Yao. "We need to test wider and wider, not only those who are sick to be more confident so we're not swimming in the dark," Yao said CNN John Maija Ehlinger and Jonny Hallam in Atlanta contributed to the story This story was first published on CNN.com "As cases in Africa pass one million, Nigeria has tested less than 1% of its population. Here's why." Women working from home are still being subjected to appearance-based discrimination. Photo: Getty Working from home under lockdown hasnt been easy. Juggling back-to-back Zoom calls, endless messages from overbearing bosses, loud housemates and childcare all against the backdrop of a global pandemic and the economic fallout has left lots of us exhausted. For many, remote working has meant throwing on a t-shirt and a pair of tracksuit bottoms before logging on to emails, video calls and projects. With so much going on, its understandable that our work attire has become less important. But even with offices closed, workplace sexism is still thriving and women are still being scrutinised over their appearance, even when working from home. READ MORE: How gender bias affects feedback and performance reviews Of a survey of 2,000 people by the employment law firm Slater and Gordon, 35% of women said they had experienced at least one sexist workplace demand since the lockdown was introduced in March. Most commonly, women were subjected to comments about the way they dressed, including to look nicer for the team and to appear more pleasing to a client. 34% of women were asked to wear more make-up or change their hair, while 27% were told they should dress more sexy or provocatively. Moreover, nearly 40% of women said these demands were targeted at them or other women in their teams rather than male peers, which left them feeling objectified, self-conscious and demoralised. Despite this, 60% didnt report the comments to HR and a quarter agreed to boost their beauty regime for fear of a negative impact on their career. Appearance-based discrimination is nothing new. Research from the University of Chicago and the University of California, Irvine, has shown women who put more effort into their appearance often earn more. But they also walk a fine line, with women who put too much effort seen as less qualified in traditionally masculine jobs, according to a 2014 study. It is categorically wrong for a manager or anyone in a position of power to suggest, even politely, for a woman to be more sexually appealing in the workplace, said Danielle Parsons, an employment lawyer at Slater and Gordon. Story continues This is a powerful form of coercion which makes women feel as if they must adhere to the managers request and be more visually pleasing to be successful at their job. This is demeaning to women. READ MORE: Why women need to stop apologising at work Although many people have struggled to keep their heads above water during the COVID-19 crisis, the gender inequality gap has remained firm. Over the last few months, women have borne the brunt of childcare responsibilities, household chores and homeschooling, ONS data has shown, leaving them burned out. Meanwhile, the gender gap has widened in terms of health and wellbeing. Women and mothers have suffered a dramatic decline in wellbeing during the lockdown period and displayed more signs of depression than men. Single mothers, who are least likely to own a house or a car and have the highest risk of depression, have fared the worst in the labour market, according to research by the University of Oxford. Women were more likely to have seen a reduction to their working hours during lockdown too, with lone parents hit the hardest financially. Its also safe to assume that some women will have had to shoulder the burden of keeping households financially afloat too, if a partner has been made redundant. READ MORE: Why the 'motherhood penalty' has been amplified by the lockdown Despite this, though, women are still being asked to dress sexier and penalised if they dont wear mascara to a Skype meeting. Its extremely disappointing that we are still having these conversations, particularly during this time when women are juggling a multitude of roles from home, and may be also struggling with childcare responsibilities. This type of archaic behaviour has no place in the modern working world, Parsons added. Requests of this nature are discrimination and unlawful where male counterparts arent treated in this way, or where such unwanted requests create a humiliating or degrading environment for women. By Trend Several Armenians who committed provocations against Azerbaijanis in foreign countries have been arrested, the State Committee on Affairs with Diaspora of Azerbaijan told Trend. The diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan in Belgium and the US are directly involved in bringing the Armenians who committed provocations against Azerbaijanis to criminal responsibility. In this regard, appeals were accordingly submitted to law enforcement agencies. In the countries where the incidents occurred, there are arrested among the Armenian provocateurs, said the committee. "The State Committee on Affairs with Diaspora maintains regular contacts with representatives of the diaspora who suffered during the action. Diaspora organizations also spoke out to law enforcement and other relevant bodies about the events, the committee added. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Facebook said on Thursday it recently removed a small network of accounts operating from Romania that had been promoting President Donald Trump's re-election campaign with stories about his support from conservatives, Black Americans, Christians and followers of the QAnon web of baseless conspiracy theories. Many of the 35 Facebook and 88 Instagram accounts posed as Americans, and some managed Trump fan pages, but they ran afoul of the social network's rules on what it calls coordinated inauthentic behavior. In addition to misleading people about their location, some account holders ran multiple personas with similar names that posted identical content, Facebook said. The network had a small reach, with only 1,600 accounts following the Facebook pages and 7,200 tracking the accounts on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. Facebook security policy head Nathaniel Gleicher said the company was unable to tell whether the Romanian group was motivated by money, ideology or government directive. The nonprofit Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Research Lab said some pages only shared content from Trump's page, while others promoted QAnon, which connects various theories around the idea that Trump is secretly waging a war against powerful Democrats who worship the devil and abuse children. The FBI warned last year here that QAnon would likely motivate extremists to commit violence. Bangladesh reports 2,611 new virus cases, deaths rise by 32 Bangladesh has registered 32 new fatalities from the coronavirus infection in a daily count, taking the death toll to 3,365. The tally of infections climbed to 255,113 after 2,611 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8 am Saturday, according to government data. Another 1,020 patients recovered from the disease in the same period, bringing the total to 146,604, DGHS Additional Director General Nasima Sultana said in a media briefing. The official figures put the recovery rate at 57.47 percent, while the mortality rate stands at 1.32 percent in Bangladesh. A total of 11,737 samples were tested at 84 authorised labs across the country with a positivity rate of 22.25 percent in the last 24 hours. Globally, over 19.38 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 721,411 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019. Source: , bdnews24.com Coastguard rescue staff are tasked to a casualty who had fallen into a cave Emergency response teams last night rescued an injured elderly man who had fallen into a rock-strewn cave close to the Giant's Causeway. The incident happened at Smuggler's Cove on the north coast beauty spot. The challenging terrain made extraction difficult and complex, according to rescuers. The elderly man - who had suffered a knee injury - was first moved by rope rescue stretcher over uneven and slippery boulders to the water's edge, then lifted into a coastguard water rescue stretcher, and finally on to the inshore lifeboat. He was then transferred to the all-weather lifeboat for transfer to a waiting ambulance at Portrush Harbour. A Coastguard spokesperson said: "It was established that the man had sustained leg and ankle injuries, and needed medical attention. "The Coastguard treated the casualty and then assisted with the transfer to the inshore lifeboat along with a paramedic." RNLI lifeboat operations manager at Portrush Keith Gilmore said: "We would like to send our best wishes to the gentleman involved and wish him a speedy recovery'. Meanwhile, police confirmed yesterday that a woman had died after going missing while swimming in the sea off Islandmagee's Brown's Bay on Thursday evening. Fears grew for the safety of the woman - who has not yet been named by the authorities - after she did not return on time from her swim. It's understood she had been in the water from at least an hour and half before emergency services reached her. The PSNI said the swimmer's death was not being treated as suspicious. Alderman Paul Reid, who represents the area on Mid & East Antrim Council, said last night: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to this lady's family at this tragic time. It should be a lesson to us all to be extremely careful, especially with the sea, where there are tides that can shift, ebb and flow very quickly. "The North Channel is cold at all times of the year. "Anyone that's out there in Brown's Bay, Portmuck or anywhere along the Antrim Coast should be extremely careful," Councillor Reid told the Belfast Telegraph. Widely Seen as Warning Shot, Russia Court Sentences Young Activists for Extremism By Charles Maynes August 07, 2020 A Moscow court convicted 7 young Russians on extremism charges Thursday sentencing several of the group to lengthy prison sentences in a closely watched case that seemed to encapsulate the limits of political youth activism in today's Russia. Prosecutors argued that the defendants most in their teens and 20's had organized an illegal online extremist chat group called "The New Greatness" with the intent of overthrowing the government in 2018. The accused all denied the charges and said evidence was fabricated. Indeed, to critics, the case was the latest example of the government's abuse of Russia's vague anti-extremism laws and subservient court system to crush perceived political rivals through any means necessary. The state's case was marred by credible accusations of torture and entrapment by Russia's Federal Security Services, or FSB. The government's key witness was an undercover FSB agent named "Ruslan D" who prosecutors say infiltrated the group to learn of their plans. Throughout the trial, the accused countered that the agent himself concocted "The New Greatness" label and pushed a radical political agenda to the other participants in an otherwise largely apolitical group chat. Supporting government evidence came from an additional suspect in the case Pavel Rebrovsky, who later cut a plea deal with investigators and was given a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence in April 2019. Rebrovsky has since rescinded his testimony saying it was given under pressure from state investigators. The judge cited Rebrovsky's initial confession as proof of the group's guilt, nonetheless. Authorities also promoted the group's guilt by releasing a video confession from another defendant, Ruslan Kostylenkov. Kostylenkov, 27, later retracted the statement explaining he had been coerced through torture and rape while in custody. He was given the harshest sentence a 7-year prison term. Two others were given 6.5- and 6-year prison terms. The remaining accused were handed suspended sentences, including Anna Pavlikova, who was a 17-year old high school student when the case began. Lawyers for all said they would appeal the ruling. Acquittals are exceedingly rare in Russia, with conviction rates hovering at over 99% in criminal trials. FSB Unbound Outside the courthouse, several hundred supporters most of them younger Russians gathered and shouted chants of "Not guilty!" and "Let them go!" While inside the courtroom, the defendants were forced to stand for 4 hours as the judge read his verdict in a hushed whisper. The case was widely seen as the latest legal warning shot against youth dabbling in politics particularly as the Kremlin has increasingly struggled to gain support among a generation that has essentially known one leader, Vladimir Putin, for their entire lives. In February, a court sentenced a group of young leftist activists to lengthy prison terms for running an "anarchist terrorist" cell called "The Network." The case was similarly tainted by allegations of fabricated evidence and torture at the hands of the federal security services. And, like in The New Greatness trial, the group's goal was allegedly ending President Vladimir Putin's rule. The initial arrests in The New Greatness occurred in March 2018, just days before Putin was elected to a new 6-year term. "It was a gift to the president from the FSB," said Alina Danilina, whose boyfriend, 22-year old law student Vyachaslav Kryukov, was sentenced to six years. "It's a catastrophe," she added about Thursday's ruling. "The worst happened." "There is no evidence, no objective reason for my involvement in this case," wrote Kryukov in a statement provided to VOA ahead of the verdict. "It feels extremely strange that they accused me of things I've always opposed. Extremism stands for hatred and violence I've never been like that." Indeed, the case seemed to point to a security apparatus untethered with many voicing suspicion agents were inventing threats simply to justify their continued existence and generous state funding. "These people have to do something to prove their effectiveness. So they forge these fake cases to show there is extremism and they are doing an important job," said Alexey Minyaylo, 35, a political activist who himself was arrested and faced charges of "inciting riots" against the government during a charged election season in 2019. "They know how to beat out a confession," he tells VOA in an interview. "What they don't know is how to gather evidence. And this is especially true when there is nothing to find." "It's a security service out of control," said Nikolai Svanidze, a veteran journalist who sits on Russia's Presidential Human Rights Council, in an interview outside the courthouse. "It means any provocateur can give false testimony and make an honest person guilty," added Svanidze, while noting similarities to the worst of Russia's Soviet-era repressions. "The scale is different, but the principles are the same." Torture Allegations The grim nature of the torture allegations were front and center throughout the trial even if judge refused to acknowledge them or investigate the charges. In October of last year, Kostylenkov and Kryukov slit their wrists during a courtroom hearing the two of them yelling "This is an unfair trial" and "Freedom for political prisoners" before being rushed to hospital. "Their nerves couldn't handle it anymore," said Kostylenkov's lawyer, Svetlana Sidorkina at the time. "All the evidence proves that they didn't commit a crime." Kostylenkov later detailed horror at the hands of FSB agents. In a letter written to a friend last March but only released to the media during the final phase of the trial, he said he had been beaten and sexually assaulted with a kitchen mallet to gain his confession. ndeed, the violence hovering over the case was captured in a stunt before the day's final verdict: Activists dressed as police slit the throat of a mannequin dressed as Christ spraying red paint on supporters before being detained by security officers. Meanwhile, Kira Yegorova, an actress, showed up to give a more low-key performance she was holding a teddy bear. "The state is destroying our children," she tells VOA. And yet for some the trial has meant there was also fast growing up to do. Kryukov's girlfriend, Alina Danilina 23, announced the verdict meant that she and Vyachaslav Kryukov were getting married. "It's the only way I can visit him in prison," she tells VOA. "We've lost for now," she added. "But I will fight until the end." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address President Donald Trump doesnt have the grounds to stop a defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who accused him of raping her, a New York state justice ruled Thursday. That decision is a big win for E. Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist who wrote last year that Trump raped her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. Last November, she sued the president for defamation after he accused her of lying about the incident and sought to collect a DNA sample from him. Trumps legal team asked the New York Supreme Court to put the case on hold and argued that a sitting president is immune to any civil lawsuits in state court. But state Justice Verna Saunders rejected that argument, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Trump couldnt refuse a subpoena for his tax returns on the basis of holding presidential office. That finding is applicable to all state court proceedings in which a sitting President is involved, including those involving his or her unofficial/personal conduct, Saunders wrote in her decision. Carroll tweeted that she was excited to move forward with her case, which will also allow her to continue seeking Trumps DNA. She says that she kept the dress she had on when Trump allegedly raped her and that genetic material a lab found on the dress may match his. WE MOVE FORWARD!! Judge Verna L. Saunders has DENIED Trump's assertion of absolute immunity! My attorneys, @kaplanrobbie, @JoshuaMatz8 & Matthew Craig are chomping at the bit to begin DISCOVERY! (This is the 2nd great ruling by a Black Woman today!)https://t.co/6yrP9BKBs2 E. Jean Carroll (@ejeancarroll) August 6, 2020 Carrolls attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said she looks forward to proceeding with the lawsuit, which can now play out in the final months of Trumps reelection campaign. We are now eager to move forward with discovery so that we can prove that Donald Trump defamed E. Jean Carroll when he lied about her in connection with her brave decision to tell the... Continue reading on HuffPost The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has ordered the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to provide adequate security for the 17 APC members of Edo State House of Assembly. This was contained in a letter with reference number HAGF/IGP/2020/Vol1/4, dated August 5, 2020, and titled: Re: Urgent and nationalistic appeal to intervene in the restoration of constitutional democracy in Edo State of Nigeria, Malami said that the security measure is necessary to quell any breakdown of law and order following the controversial inauguration of the 14 members-elect on Thursday. I am requesting that you kindly provide adequate security measures for the purpose of the inauguration of the concerned members and the subsequent sittings of the Edo State House of Assembly, he said. KanyiDaily had reported how 17 members of the House had on Thursday impeached the Speaker of the Assembly, Frank Okiye and his deputy, Roland Asoro, during an emergency session held at the assembly complex in Benin. The 14 lawmakers who were left out during the inauguration of the assembly in May last year, were sworn in during the exercise. The newly-sworn in lawmakers, including three others who had earlier sworn allegiance to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the state, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, declared that the speaker and his deputy were impeached. The lawmakers subsequently elected a member of the House representing Esan Central constituency, Victor Edoror, as speaker and Emmanuel Agbaje, Akoko-Edo constituency II as deputy speaker. Edo Assembly complex was shut down on Thursday by the state governor, Godwin Obaseki after suspected thugs took down the roof of the building, before pulling down the iconic mace figure inside the House. Junior External Affairs Minister V Muraleedharan, on Saturday, reached Kozhikode where an Air India Express flight crash-landed on Friday night. Muraleedharan will take stock of the situation and is likely to meet the injured and their family members. Deeply anguished to hear about the mishap in Calicut airport involving the flight from Dubai to Calicut. Was informed that the plane overshot the runway and seemingly nosedived.@narendramodi @AmitShah @HardeepSPuri @MoCA_GoI @JPNadda @DDNewslive @PIBTvpm V Muraleedharan (@VMBJP) August 7, 2020 The Union Minister tweeted, "Deeply anguished to hear about the mishap in Calicut airport involving the flight from Dubai to Calicut. Was informed that the plane overshot the runway and seemingly nosedived." In a reply to his own tweet, the junior External Affairs Minister stated that Kozhikode airport is a 'tabletop' airport. A tabletop runway is a runway on top of a plateau or hill with one or both ends adjacent to a steep elevation that meets at a gorge. Such an airfield poses challenging conditions for landing. The junior Cabinet Minister stated in another tweet that Air India and AAI officials briefed him about how the accident took place. In his tweet, the Union Minister further said that the investigation to ascertain several aspects of the tragedy is still on. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:09:13|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Red Crescent Society (IRCS) has delivered some 15 tons of foodstuff aid to Lebanon's Red Cross after the deadly explosions in Beirut, official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday. The assistance has been delivered to Lebanon's Red Cross to be distributed among the people affected by the blasts in Beirut, Mohammad-Baqer Mohammadi, the deputy head of IRCS, told IRNA. "The IRCS has also sent a special group to Beirut on Friday to assess the damages to the city," the report said. IRCS has already sent 95kg of emergency medical supplies to Beirut, beside setting up a field hospital in the city. Senior Iranian officials have voiced willingness to supply whatever kind of humanitarian assistance Lebanon needs after the massive explosion at the Port of Beirut. The huge explosions on Aug. 4 caused the death of hundreds of people and injured thousands, while it also caused massive damage in the port. Enditem But other events, which charge for tickets, drinks or other amenities, perhaps illustrate how some people are looking to capitalize on the publics restlessness. Osvaldo Chance Jimenez, 44, who has helped organize underground parties in New York City in the past, said the growing number of events risked seeding future outbreaks, which would likely disproportionately affect communities of color, particularly in Brooklyn and Queens where many of the gatherings are taking place. Mr. Jimenez has used his Instagram account, @hilovenewyork, to draw attention to what he sees as reckless behavior. He pointed to yacht parties where organizers are selling tickets for up to $100, and a requirement at a day club at the Ravel Hotel in Long Island City, Queens, that guests pay between $35 and $50 to take a rapid coronavirus test on site, as examples of what he called vulture capitalism. It is the arrogance of money, he said. These people do not care. Lauren Flax, a D.J., producer and artist based in Brooklyn, said people should not be partying yet. Ms. Flax has lost work and is living off unemployment checks and other government assistance. But she said that even thinking about holding a dance party would be irresponsible before there was a better understanding of the virus and better testing technology. I dont think any of us should be thinking about our career right now, she said. Asked this week about the rave under the Kosciuszko Bridge, and an illegal boat party with more than 170 guests that was held over the weekend, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the authorities had moved quickly to address a few cases of wrongdoing and that most people were following the rules. But where we see something wrong, we got to go in and stop it immediately, the mayor said. President Trump announced on Friday he will pursue an executive order requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, something that is already law. Why it matters: The Affordable Care Act already requires insurers to cover pre-existing conditions. The Trump administration is currently arguing in a case before the Supreme Court to strike down that very law including its pre-existing condition protections. The big picture: Even if this wasnt already law, its unclear what authority the president has to unilaterally require insurers to cover pre-existing conditions. What he's saying: "Over the next two weeks I'll be pursuing a major executive order requiring health insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions for all customers," the president said. "That's a big thing. I've always been very strongly in favor. We have to cover pre-existing conditions so we will be pursuing a major executive order requiring health insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions for all of its customers. This has never been done before." The bottom line: It has been done before in the exact law Trump is trying to overturn. The weather department has issued a red alert for several districts in Kerala warning of heavy rains on Saturday, a day after a landslide in Idukki district caused at least 21 deaths in a reminder of the massive 2018 tragedy precipitated by flooding and landslides due to incessant rains and overflowing of dams. Red alert has been issued for Idukki, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Kannur districts for heavy to very heavy rains and an orange alert has been issued for tomorrow for Pathanamthitta, Alapuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad and Kasargod district in the state. The meteorological department said heavy rainfall will continue till Sunday. Flood like situation continues to prevail in the state at several places and the state irrigation department has said that all major rivers in the state are in spate and sluice gates of some dams will be opened to ease the pressure. The regional meteorological office in Thiruvananthapuram has confirmed the presence of a low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal and it is expected to gain strength by Saturday triggering heavy rains till Sunday. The National Disaster Response Force has rushed six teams to Wayanad and Idukki, the worst affected districts this year. Also Read: Day after Idukki landslide, rainfall in Kerala likely to continue, says IMD Strong south westerly/westerly monsoon flow prevailing over the Arabian Sea. Under its influence, scattered heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy falls is very likely to continue over Kerala and Mahe during the next 24 hrs, IMD said. Meanwhile Ernakulam district administration has declared that the district has suffered a loss of Rs 1.22 crore in widespread damage to houses and agricultural land caused by heavy rainfall on Friday. It informed that 852 displaced people were currently living in 30 relief camps set up by the administration. Eight relief camps have been opened for senior citizens. According to the District Administration, many houses and agricultural lands have suffered huge damage including in Chellanam, the coastal village in the city. Also Read: Mumbais August average rain covered in just seven days of the month In Idukki, three more bodies were recovered from the Rajamala landslide incident on Saturday as the death toll rose to 21. A search operation is underway for the missing people in the landslide. On Friday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had announced ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakhs to kin of the deceased. Adverse weather conditions are slowing down the operations to rescue affected people. The chief minister had said yesterday that the Indian Air Force could not join the rescue efforts due to adverse weather conditions. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON REGINAA doctors association in Saskatchewan is joining the call from teachers, some parents and the Opposition NDP urging the provincial government to apply more caution when reopening schools in September. The Saskatchewan Medical Association said Friday its leaders recently met with the provinces chief medical health officer and other officials to discuss the back-to-school plan unveiled earlier this week. Premier Scott Moes government plans to send students back to class in as normal a way as possible. There are some restrictions, but masks will not be mandatory and class sizes wont be reduced. The Ministry of Education has encouraged teachers and parents to take a look at more detailed safety plans developed by school divisions. Saskatchewan doctors think its prudent to set the safety bar higher at the outset, then lower it when we know what we are dealing with, association president Dr. Barbara Konstantynowicz said in a news release. The medical association said doctors have concerns and want to see more clear direction about wearing masks. Closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowded spaces with many people, and close-contact settings with close-range conversations are not uncommon in schools and these realities need to be front and centre in back to school plans. In response to the associations concerns and recommendations from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Education Minister Gord Wyant said Friday officials are looking at making masks mandatory. He said six million masks have been ordered and will be available for the school year if they are required. Weve always said that this is a very fluid situation, said Wyant, who defended the governments plan as safe for staff and children. The Public Health Agency of Canada recently released guidelines for operating K-12 schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, recommending non-medical cloth masks for children older than 10. Wyant said the government strongly believes in the advice the provinces chief medical health officer, whose recommendations have factored in the community spread of COVID-19, which is different for every jurisdiction. The key for the Government of Saskatchewan and for the people of this province is to make sure that students go back to school in as safe a way as possible and is as normal a way as possible, Wyant said. Well continue to look for advice. ... Dr. Shahab is the chief medical health officer in this province and the advice hes been giving us so far has been very good and I have no reason to doubt the advice hes giving us now. The Opposition NDP has slammed Saskatchewans back-to-school plan as one of the worst in Canada for failing to address the concerns of families and teachers. The Saskatchewan Teachers Federation has also said it believes masks should be mandatory. Sit-ins were planned Friday at the offices of Saskatchewan Party legislature members by parents who said they want more safety precautions implemented and smaller class sizes. DANBURY - Residents rallied Saturday morning in support of officers in the wake of a recent reform bill and nationwide protests over policing. As Spring Branch ISD plans to move forward with reopening plans, teachers, parents and administrators have mixed feelings on returning to class during a pandemic. The coronavirus has created only bad options, SBISD parent Adam Oblath said. I dont know if I like any of the options and truthfully, in a pandemic, there arent any good options, said Oblath. Youre asked to choose between bad, pretty bad and the worst. Related: Spring Branch ISD ensures students have access to devices Winding journey On July 15, SBISD released their LearnSBISD plan to reopen schools, a plan which allows families to choose in-person classes or distance-based home learning for the start of school. Families had until July 31 to respond to SBISD with their decision. Two hours before SBISDs scheduled board meeting on July 20 to discuss LearnSBISD, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, along with the Harris County Public Health Department Executive Director Dr. Umair Shah, issued a joint recommendation to all Harris County Superintendents that all schools should remain closed for in-person learning until October due to the possible spread of COVID-19. The board then called a special meeting on July 24 to consider possible calendar adjustments due to that recommendation. It was that morning when Hidalgo and Shah issued a county-wide order prohibiting in-person instruction until Sept. 8, resulting in SBISD postponing their meeting until July 29. On July 28, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a letter with his guidance to the mayor of Stephenville, stating, local health authorities may not issue blanket orders closing all schools in their jurisdiction on a purely prophylactic basis. The decision to close schools on such a preventative basis-whether public or private-remains with school system leaders who should consult with relevant public health authorities. In SBISDs July 29 meeting, Superintendent Jennifer Blaine recommended two options to SBISDs board of trustees: a virtual start on Aug. 17, the originally planned start date with the intent to return to the original LearnSBISD plan on Sept. 8 barring no additional health orders. The second option would be a virtual start on Aug. 24, requiring the board to adjust the original calendar. The board voted 6-1 for the Aug. 24 start date, with consideration for families who chose in-person learning. We know and we acknowledge that we have families who selected in-person learning and so those families may or may not have been planning to go virtual and so we would certainly want to make sure our teachers have adequate time to reach out to all of their families and answer questions and start building those relationships, said Blaine in the July 29 meeting. MORE FROM RYAN NICKERSON: Bellaire teens do good deeds amid coronavirus challenges As of July 28, 66 percent (21,671) of SBISD families responded to the LearnSBISD options. Of those families, 53 percent selected distanced learning for the initial weeks of the school year, and 47 percent selected in-person learning. The plan was never intended to provide families with the option to go virtual for the entire semester, according to Blaine, which has caused frustration with some teachers and parents who are concerned with the health of their students and themselves. Regardless, there is a group of SBISD teachers who are unfazed regarding going back to in-person learning, who, according to President of Spring Branch American Federation of Teachers Craig Adams, are getting the most attention from the school board. There are some that are going back to school and theyre okay with it, and thats fine, said Adams. But there are some that are very nervous and that too should be okay. But seemingly its not as, of right now. Adams, along with many other members of the teachers union, have expressed their concern that once teachers and students are back in school, COVID-19 is going to arrive as well. I feel furious about my friends and colleagues of mine who are teachers in the district that are forced to not have a choice, said Oblath. They are either having to resign or, theyre forced to have their kids in a school environment. They dont get to choose to opt-in or out. But having an entirely virtual option does not present a viable solution to many parents in the district who either cannot afford the technology required for their students to partake in online learning or cannot take off work to facilitate the learning. If you are a single parent that works two jobs or even a multiparent household where they have to work multiple jobs just so they can feed themselves, they dont have the flexibility to choose to opt-out, said Oblath. For many teachers in the district, any path for them to start teaching again is a viable option. SBISD educators described the district as more prepared than other districts in Houston due to SBISD preparing for back-to-school since March. The district has been using the learning management system itslearning for years and because of that, many teachers feel well equipped to seamlessly transition to online learning. ryan.nickerson@hcnonline.com Good morning on this warm August Saturday in Chicagoland. SOS worked! WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) Three men have been rescued from a tiny Pacific island after writing a giant SOS sign in the sand that was spotted from above, authorities say. The men had been missing in the Micronesia archipelago for nearly three days when their distress signal was spotted Sunday on uninhabited Pikelot Island by searchers on Australian and U.S. aircraft, the Australian defense department said Monday. The men had apparently set out from Pulawat atoll in a 7-meter (23-foot) boat on July 30 and had intended to travel about 43 kilometers (27 miles) to Pulap atoll when they sailed off course and ran out of fuel, the department said. Searchers in Guam asked for Australian help. The military ship, Canberra, which was returning to Australia from exercises in Hawaii, diverted to the area and joined forces with U.S. searchers from Guam. The men were found about 190 kilometers (118 miles) from where they had set out. I am proud of the response and professionalism of all on board as we fulfill our obligation to contribute to the safety of life at sea wherever we are in the world, said the Canberras commanding officer, Capt. Terry Morrison, in a statement. Covid and Alcohol: From Zoom happy hours to wine oclock memes floating around on social media, the pressure to grab a drink to take an edge off your pandemic anxiety can sometimes feel strong. Not being able to visit friends or enjoy many out-of-home activities leaves some people feeling like they dont have much else to do, so why not enjoy a glass of wineor two or three? Indeed, data from Nielsen indicates people are drinking more. For the week ending May 2, total alcohol sales in the U.S. were up by more than 32% compared to the same week one year ago. These figures have some medical experts worried. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) have issued communications warning people to avoid excessive drinking, saying it may increase COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. Beyond that, alcohol consumption is already a major public health problem in the U.S., the NIAAA says. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 2006 to 2010, excessive alcohol use was responsible for an annual average of 88,000 deaths, including 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20 to 64 years. And studies have linked alcohol consumption to an increased risk of breast and other cancers. While it is too soon to definitively know the effects of the pandemic on drinking patterns or how alcohol consumption impacts COVID-19, Yale Medicine experts say there are logical concerns based on what has already been proven about how alcohol changes the human body. The no drama llama: The protests in Portland, Ore., have been calmer in recent days. The shift away from large-scale clashes with police deploying tear gas came after the Trump administration pulled back federal law enforcement officers. But even during the intensity of the unrest, there were pockets of calm around Caesar McCool. Caesar, better known as Caesar the No Drama Llama, is a retired 6-year-old Argentine grand champion show llama that now works as a therapy llama and llamactivist. One of his best talents is offering emotional-support hugs, which people line up to give him at protests and other places where Caesar shows up. Hes somewhat of a celebrity llama. Llamas generally are not known to be cozy with humans, and at 5-foot-8 and 350 pounds, Caesar could appear intimidating. But Caesar doesnt turn from affection or back away from chaos. When people meet Caesar, they tend to melt in his calm presence, said his caretaker, Larry McCool, who lives in Jefferson, Ore., on the Mystic Llama Farm. I dont care how big, how staunch, how intense that somebody is it could be a big marcher in total riot gear, and he will come up and give Caesar a big hug, said McCool, 66. Its all I can do to just keep him from snuggling. Caesar and McCool were at a Portland protest late last month, standing in Pioneer Square with 10,000 protesters when violence broke out in the distance. People were shouting and flash bombs were being deployed by police. McCool said he quickly moved Caesar, emphasizing that he is careful about Caesars safety. He said that when protesters later saw Caesar his long, regal neck making him the height of a person they stopped to pet his soft wool. His calm demeanor rubbed off on them, McCool said. Theyll be clapping, chanting, stomping, and all of a sudden Ill get up with Caesar and the next thing I know, everyone will just band around Caesar, said McCool, who spent four hours there, leaving at 11 p.m. Police sometimes react to Caesar the same way protesters do, McCool said. During a recent large protest in Portland, Caesar and McCool ambled by a group of Portland police officers who were stationed in a parking lot near the unrest. The officers pet Caesar and asked to take photos, McCool said. The same thing happened at the Salem Womens March this year. Caesar brings calm and defuses tension within these extremely volatile situations because everyone loves him as much as he loves everyone, McCool said. Mary Lederleitner: Are your political views and convictions growing in intensity? Are you finding yourself feeling angrier than you used to be about a variety of political issues? Are people in your extended family, community, or church becoming angrier? In addition to being in the midst of a global pandemic, widespread demonstrations about racial injustices, and an election year, we live in a media saturated environment where hate and division trigger wider viewership, larger ratings, and significantly higher advertising revenue. In such an environment, how can we as individual Christians, or as pastors or ministry leaders tasked with leading others, know when we are getting sidetracked, especially when believing youre right and that others are wrong triggers intense and addictive feelings? Media outlets on both the left and right are using language and tactics to inflame anger, alienate, and disparage whomever the other might be and, as a result, there are growing levels of disrespect and hatred towards people who hold different political views. As followers of Christ who are engaging in this process, are we starting to cross a line that shouldnt be crossed? And, if we are, how can we know when this is happening, and what are the costs? Quick, reliable Covid tests now being tried: nside a tent outside the National Center for Supercomputing Applications on the University of Illinois campus, Uni High teacher Joel Beesley swiped his university ID card and was handed a small vial. He drooled into the vial, and later in the day, he found out he had tested negative for COVID-19. The ability to take a quick, cheap test just blocks away from their school might just be the reason Uni High students will be able to return to the building sometime this fall. Uni High will begin the year with remote learning, but it may eventually move to a hybrid model of in-person and online learning. To put it simply, the test developed down the street would be the only reason thats possible. Theres no way we would even try to have hybrid school without the capacity to have weekly testing, Uni High Director Elizabeth Majerus said. The ease of testing is super valuable, not having to go far away. The fact that its very simple to do is very helpful. After the UI accomplishes its gargantuan goal of testing 10,000 students and faculty on campus every day this fall, its saliva test could theoretically offer a lifeline to K-12 schools in Champaign-Urbana and beyond. Preliminary conversations about such a process began a few weeks ago. At the Champaign school boards July 13 meeting, Superintendent Susan Zola said that UI chemistry Professor Martin Burke, one of the tests originators, had reached out to her earlier that week to talk about a collaboration. They reached out, and we have some cabinet-level staff that are working with them, Zola said the next day. With a community thats rich in resources and expertise and technology, were excited that we might be able to partner with the university on a very quick and efficient test that would give more data than we would normally have around teachers and staff if we were actually able to administer that kind of a test. To get to that point, though, wont be simple. Tim Keller asks about which justice: Which justice? There have never been stronger calls for justice than those we are hearing today. But seldom do those issuing the calls acknowledge that currently there are competing visions of justice, often at sharp variance, and that none of them have achieved anything like a cultural consensus, not even in a single country like the US. It is overconfident to assume that everyone will adopt your view of justice, rather than some other, merely because you say so. Biblical justice. In the Bible Christians have an ancient, rich, strong, comprehensive, complex, and attractive understanding of justice. Biblical justice differs in significant ways from all the secular alternatives, without ignoring the concerns of any of them. Yet Christians know little about biblical justice, despite its prominence in the Scriptures. This ignorance is having two effects. First, large swaths of the church still do not see doing justice as part of their calling as individual believers. Second, many younger Christians, recognizing this failure of the church and wanting to rectify things, are taking up one or another of the secular approaches to justice, which introduces distortions into their practice and lives. Traveling during Covid When I check into my room, I clean every surface with wipes all door handles, light switches, the remote control and the phone. In the bathroom, I also wipe down the showerhead. Im 6 feet 2 inches, and I always end up adjusting it. If I stay for multiple nights, I only let the cleaning service into the room every fourth day. Once I have cleaned the room for myself, letting someone else come in only forces me to clean the whole place again. I leave trash and dirty towels outside the door and get fresh towels in return. Now that various states have gone back into lockdown mode, some hotels may require a letter stating that youre an essential worker before they allow you to check-in, so keep one ready. Forcing and coercing history to fit our mold: it is what it is. (Or it was what it was) Not satisfied with the removal of historical figures, leftists in Illinois want to remove history classes from school. State Rep. LaShawn K. Ford of Chicago assembled with local leaders on Sunday to pressure the Illinois State Board of Education to cease teaching history classes and remove history books and curricula in public schools. Citing historical practices that have supposedly overlooked minority contributions to this country, Ford and his allies want to abolish all history classes until a suitable alternative is developed, according to a statement from his office. Ford is currently sponsoring a bill in the state legislature that would require that elementary schools teach students about the civil rights movement. But his criticisms of the current Illinois history curriculum go much further. He said in a press conference Illinois current teaching of history has led to a racist society and demands an end to history until this is corrected. Ford and his allies argue that history has overlooked the contributions of black, female, Jewish, and, LGBTQ voices, and by perpetuating this underrepresentation, public school history classes are contributing to systemic racism. Joining Ford with the announcement was Meleika Gardner of We Will, a Chicago-based womens and racial justice group. The miseducation of our children must stop. It is urgent that it comes to an end, she said. Miseducation. Profound word choice, though it seems like she is actually arguing for an effective reeducation. Ford and others would much prefer a rewriting of American history in the form of the 1619 Project, which has already been taught in Chicago public schools since the fall. While leaders in Chicago have gladly embraced the New York Times revisionist history, they would like to force it onto the rest of the Illinois public school system. Rather than have actual history be taught in schools, Chicago progressives prefer to suspend history classes indefinitely until they get their desired revisionist history in every Illinois public school. They have gone further than merely asking for changes in the curriculum; they want to end history classes as we know them. Thatched roofs from seaweed: Savosolar Plc Company Announcement, Insider information 8 August 2020 at 2.30 p.m. (CEST) Savosolar has signed agreement with newHeat on delivery of solar heating plant in France Solar thermal plant for district heating in the city of Narbonne with value of EUR 850 thousand Savosolar Plc (Savosolar) has signed an agreement with newHeat SAS on the turn-key delivery of a solar thermal field in Narbonne, France. After having developed and designed the project, newHeat will own and operate the system and sell the heat to the district heating company of Narbonne. Works for delivery will begin in August, and the hand-over will take place in early 2021. Size of the solar heating plant in Narbonne is ca. 3,000 m2 and the value of this contract is about EUR 850 thousand. The delivery to Narbonne is the first of the won tenders published by Savosolar on 11th June 2020. Negotiations on the agreement for delivery of the other project published in June continue, and the parties aim to finalize also that agreement as soon as possible. Jari Varjotie, CEO of Savosolar: We are very happy to continue our excellent collaboration with newHeat with the delivery of Narbonne system. newHeat is a very active and competent large scale solar thermal project developer in the fast-growing market, and Savosolar delivered in 2018 for them the Condat system for paper mill process heat production. These projects illustrate our strong position as a leading supplier of large solar heating systems in France and elsewhere. SAVOSOLAR PLC For more information: Savosolar Plc Managing Director Jari Varjotie Phone: +358 400 419 734 E-mail: jari.varjotie@savosolar.com Savosolar Plc discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Market Abuse Regulation ((EU) No 596/2014, MAR). The information was submitted for publication by the aforementioned person on 8 August, 2020 at 2.30 p.m. (CEST). About Savosolar Savosolar with its highly efficient collectors and large-scale solar thermal systems has taken solar thermal technology to the next level. The companys collectors are equipped with the patented nano-coated direct flow absorbers, and with this leading technology, Savosolar helps its customers to produce competitive clean energy. Savosolars vision is to be the first-choice supplier to high performance solar installations on a global scale. Focus is on large-scale applications like district heating, industrial process heating and real estate systems market segments with a big potential for rapid growth. The company primarily delivers complete systems from design to installation, using the best local partners. Savosolar is known as the most innovative company in the business and aims to stay as such. The company has sold and delivered its products to almost 20 countries on four continents. Savosolars shares are listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Sweden with the ticker SAVOS and on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland with the ticker SAVOH. www.savosolar.com . Story continues The companys Certified Adviser is Augment Partners AB, info@augment.se , phone: +46 8-505 65 172. U.S. postal workers load their trucks with mail for delivery from their postal station in Carlsbad, California. But the new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, disputed reports that his agency is slowing down election mail or any other mail and said it has "ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on time" for the November presidential contest, when a significant increase in mail-in ballots is expected. The U.S. Postal Service says it lost $2.2 billion in the three months that ended in June as the beleaguered agency hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic piles up financial losses that officials warn could top $20 billion over two years. While package deliveries to homebound Americans were up more than 50%, that was offset by continued declines in first-class and business mail, even as costs increased significantly to pay for personal protective equipment and replace workers who got sick or chose to stay home in fear of the virus, DeJoy said. "Without dramatic change, there is no end in sight, DeJoy said. "Our financial position is dire, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, a broken business model and a management strategy that has not adequately addressed these issues, DeJoy told the postal board of governors at a meeting Friday. Still, DeJoy offered a gloomy picture of the 630,000-employee agency Friday in his first public remarks since taking the top job in June. Without an intervention from Congress, the agency faces an impending cash flow crisis, he said. The Postal Service is seeking an infusion of at least $10 billion to cover operating losses as well as regulatory changes that would undo a congressional requirement that the agency pre-fund billions of dollars in retiree health benefits. The agency is doing its part, said DeJoy, a Republican fundraiser and former supply chain executive who took command of the agency June 15. DeJoy, 63, of North Carolina, is a major donor to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. He is the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who is not a career postal employee. In his first month on the job, DeJoy said, he directed the agency to vigorously "focus on the ingrained inefficiencies in our operations, including by applying strict limits on overtime. "By running our operations on time and on schedule, and by not incurring unnecessary overtime or other costs, we will enhance our ability to be sustainable and ... continue to provide high-quality, affordable service, DeJoy said. While not acknowledging widespread complaints by members of Congress about delivery delays nationwide, DeJoy said the agency will "aggressively monitor and quickly address service issues. DeJoy's remarks came as lawmakers from both parties called on the Postal Service to immediately reverse operational changes that are causing delays in deliveries across the country just as big volume increases are expected for mail-in election voting. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that changes imposed by DeJoy "threaten the timely delivery of mail including medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers and absentee ballots for voters that is essential to millions of Americans. In his remarks to the postal board of governors, DeJoy called election mail handling "a robust and proven process. While there will "likely be an unprecedented increase in election mail volume due to the pandemic, the Postal Service has ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on time in accordance with our delivery standards, and we will do so, DeJoy said. "However ... we cannot correct the errors of (state and local) election boards if they fail to deploy processes that take our normal processing and delivery standards into account. Later Friday, DeJoy released another memo detailing changes that reshuffle dozens of officials on his executive leadership team. The former chief operating officer, David Williams, was moved to lead logistics and processing operations, while Kevin McAdams, vice president of delivery and retail operations, was removed from leadership. DeJoy said the changes which also include a management hiring freeze would improve efficiency and "align functions based on core business operations. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, said DeJoy should not be instituting such major changes during "the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic with a national election around the corner. Maloney, who has called DeJoy to testify before her committee next month, demanded he "halt these changes now." DeJoy ran into similar resistance at a closed-door meeting Wednesday with Schumer and Pelosi. Schumer called it "a heated discussion" and said Democrats told DeJoy that "elections are sacred." They urged him not to impose cutbacks "at a time when all ballots count, Schumer said. In separate letters, two Montana Republicans, Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte, also urged the Postal Service to reverse the July directive, which eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and mandates that mail be kept until the next day if distribution centers are running late. And 84 House members including four Republicans signed yet another letter blasting the changes and urging an immediate reversal. "It is vital that the Postal Service does not reduce mail delivery hours, which could harm rural communities, seniors, small businesses and millions of Americans who rely on the mail for critical letters and packages, the House members wrote. The flurry of letters came as the top Democrat on a Senate panel that oversees the Postal Service launched an investigation into the operational changes. Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said DeJoy has failed to provide answers about the service delays, despite repeated requests. Democrats have pushed for $10 billion for the Postal Service in talks with Republicans on a huge Covid-19 response bill. The figure is down from a $25 billion plan in a House-passed coronavirus measure. Key Republicans whose rural constituents are especially reliant on the post office support the idea. Trump, a vocal critic of the Postal Service, contended Wednesday that "the Post Office doesn't have enough time" to handle a significant increase in mail-in ballots. "I mean you're talking about millions of votes. .. It's a catastrophe waiting to happen. The Railways has ordered an inquiry after body of a Covid-19 patient was allegedly swapped with the body of another patient who died of a kidney ailment at a railway hospital in Kolkata, officials said on Friday. While the body of the patient, who died of a kidney ailment, was cremated by the civic body following Covid-19 protocols, the body of Covid-19 positive patient is now lying in the hospital as it cant be handed over to the family. The family members of the Covid-19 patient identified the wrong body. As per the protocols of the hospital, we have recorded the entire body-identification process on video camera. There was no fault on our part, said a senior official of the BR Singh Hospital. Also read: Study finds asymptomatic Covid-19 patients spread virus similar to symptomatic ones On August 1, 68-year-old Kalpana Bhakat was admitted in the hospital with kidney ailments. On August 3, her swab tests were sent for Covid-19 test. She, however, died on the same day. The body was kept in the hospital as test results were awaited. On Friday, when the test results came, it was found that Bhakat had tested negative. But when we went to take the body we found that it was not the body of our patient but belonged to someone else. The hospital authorities later checked the records and found that another family has taken our patients body. The body which was being handed over to us was that of a Covid-19 positive patient, said a relative of Bhakat. Soon after the incident, the local police station and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation were alerted as the body of the actual Covid-19 positive patient needed to be cremated following safety protocols. We have been intimated, said Ajoy Prasad, Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police (eastern suburban division). The railways have formed an enquiry committee to probe the incident. A four-member enquiry committee has been set up to probe into the incident, said a spokesman of the Eastern Railway. Have the first two decades of the 21st century been good for film? It's a vexed question, but now seems a pertinent time to pose it, with cinemas across the globe either closed or three-quarters empty. Add to the pandemic the looming threat of streaming giants such as Netflix, Apple and Amazon Prime, who understandably have little interest in the traditional theatrical distribution model, and you have a potentially apocalyptic scenario. Grim times then, but there have been massive box-office hits in the years since the turn of the millennium that raised attendances and made cinema-going seem once again relevant. Avatar, James Cameron's hi-tech, high-concept behemoth dominated multiplexes at the turn of 2009 and became the biggest box-office hit ever. In 2008, Marvel dipped its toe into big budget cinema with Iron Man, the first instalment of a mighty franchise that would dominate mainstream movie-making for a decade. Disney would eventually take over the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as George Lucas's Star Wars franchise, which was rebooted in spectacular fashion with The Force Awakens in 2015. Bond had been given a shot in the arm in 2006 with the casting of Daniel Craig, a man who - unlike his immediate predecessors - looked like he might actually be able to kick your head in. Expand Close Daniel Craig played 007 for the second time in Quantum Of Solace (EON Productions/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Daniel Craig played 007 for the second time in Quantum Of Solace (EON Productions/PA) Lots of bums on seats, then, to watch these warring mega-franchises, but their success came with a heavy price tag in Hollywood, where producers and studios desperate for success became ever more risk-averse as they remade any old story with built-in audience recognition. As a consequence, original screenplays and grown-up dramas grew ever thinner on the ground, sending all the good writers towards television, which enjoyed a corresponding golden age. In effect, Hollywood was slowly strangling itself. That said, many great films have been made over the last 20 years, in America and elsewhere, which have expanded the language of cinema and made audiences think. Below is my very personal list of the best movies of the past two decades, in genre categories, which made the task tougher. Best Action In the Bourne films, Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon brought the action thriller to a whole new level, creating fight scenes more visceral than anything seen before. Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity saw Sandra Bullock's astronaut plunge thrillingly towards Earth, and in The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan gave us the first superhero masterpiece. But Nolan outdid himself in Dunkirk, his staggering recreation of the famous wartime siege. Using real boats, planes and water rather than CGI, he created a moving, pin-sharp, largely wordless evocation of what it must have been like for those poor men stranded on that beach. Video of the Day Best Drama Expand Close Alex Hibbert and Mahershala Ali in Moonlight / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Alex Hibbert and Mahershala Ali in Moonlight Terrence Malick made a spectacular return to form with The Tree of Life, an introspective rumination on life and God, Charlie Kaufman was similarly noodly in the startlingly original Synecdoche, New York. Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will be Blood was a great American epic, spoilt only by the faintly ludicrous "I drink your milkshake" ending. The best drama of all for me was Moonlight, Barry Jenkins' poetic cliche-subverting account of a boy, who endures a tough start in a Miami housing project before being taken under the wing of an unlikely saviour -the local crack dealer. Best Comedy I thoroughly enjoyed those delightful early 2000s American comedies Little Miss Sunshine and Juno. Richard Linklater's Before Midnight was a splendidly honest relationship comedy, while Whit Stillman's Jane Austen adaptation Love & Friendship was a sophisticated delight. Thor: Ragnarok was easily the funniest film of 2017, but my favourite comedy of the past two decades is Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, a middle-European period caper starring Ralph Fiennes as a dashing concierge who's fondness for wealthy, older women will be his undoing. Funny, silly, oddly wise. Best Animation Pixar upped the ante with clever and funny, high-concept comedies such as The Incredibles and Up, Studio Ghibli produced one of their finest animated sagas in Spirited Away, Marianne Satrapi took on the endemic misogyny of the Iranian state in Persepolis, and Charlie Kaufman used stop motion to chart a mid-life crisis in his thoroughly grown-up animation Anomalisa. But you can't go past the excellence and imagination of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. If only all superhero films were as clever and funny and human as this beautifully made, perfectly judged adventure. Best Documentary Waltz with Bashir, Man on Wire, Grizzly Man, Pina and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer were just some of the documentary features that stuck in my mind in this golden age for the genre. But the documentary of the last two decades that proved impossible to forget was Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing. The banality of evil was brilliantly exposed by in this boldly original film. Following a failed coup in 1965, the Indonesian authorities embarked on a bloody anti-communist purge. Oppenheimer tracked down the leaders of a Sumatran death squad and politely asked them to re-enact their work. The results were fascinating. Best Sci-fi I liked Ex-Machina, The Martian, and Denis Villeneuve's splendid but oddly unpopular sequel Blade Runner 2049. But the Canadian maestro outdid himself with Arrival, a high-concept drama that should rank with the greatest sci-fi movies, and used imagination rather than special effects to brilliantly depict a mysterious alien invasion. When 12 extra-terrestrial craft appear and hover silently above the Earth, scientists must do their best to make contact with visitors who seem ominously uncommunicative. Best Horror Expand Close Scarlett Johannson in Under the Skin / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Scarlett Johannson in Under the Skin Jordan Peele has shaken up a tired genre with Get Out and Us, two films that proved you can scare people and discuss serious issues at the same time. And there are plenty of other younger film-makers, like Ari Aster and latterly Leigh Whannell, bringing new ideas to the table. But my favourite horror of the last 20 years is Jonathan Glazer's 2013 mini-masterpiece Under the Skin. Scarlett Johansson plays an alien succubus who takes the form of a beautiful woman in order to lure unsuspecting Glaswegians to their doom. It's like nothing else I've seen. Best Irish Film Expand Close Pat Collins' mesmerising peripatetic tale Silence / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Pat Collins' mesmerising peripatetic tale Silence Irish cinema has come on in leaps and bounds over the past 20 years, with improved structures allowing a host of talented young writers and directors to flourish. Plenty of outstanding Irish films have been made, from Lenny Abrahamson's Garage to Frank Berry's Michael Inside, but my personal favourite was Silence, Pat Collins' mesmerising peripatetic tale in which a young Irishman returns to western Ireland from Berlin to record landscapes unpolluted by human sound. Somewhere along the way, a job becomes a kind of spiritual quest. Best Foreign Language Film Here is a category so broad one was inevitably spoilt for choice, so I'm going to select two favourites. Leviathan, Ida, A Prophet, The White Ribbon, A Separation, Volver, Dogtooth and Parasite were among the excellent foreign features since 2000, but my best two were Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda's touching portrait of a dysfunctional underclass family, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's epic Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, in which a doctor and a lawyer assess the human condition while searching for a missing man. The Texas Film Commission and the Governors Commission for Women will co-host an online Women in Tech & Innovation Forum on Sept. 1-4. The four-day conference and free and includes a series of panel discussion and presentations designed to inspire women in the creative and tech industries. Its also been designed for female leaders, entrepreneurs and creative tech professionals that are interested in professional development in Texas. Leaning back and making a rude gesture with both hands, a hotel quarantine security guard poses for a photo taken outside by a returned traveller. The guard is wearing a mask but failing to socially distance from two colleagues, who also look at the camera and make hand gestures. The image, taken outside one of Melbourne's quarantine hotels, appears to support the accounts of dozens of workers and returned travellers who say private security guards failed to take the operation seriously. It was uploaded to social media on July 3, just before Victoria began to record triple-digit figures of new daily cases. The guest who uploaded the photo was also able to get an exercise bike delivered to their room after persuading hotel workers and security guards in several conversations. This image taken outside one of Melbourne's quarantine hotels appears to support the accounts of dozens of workers and returned travellers who say private security guards failed to take the quarantine operation seriously One guest was able to get an exercise bike (pictured) delivered to their room after persuading hotel workers and security guards in series of conversations Staff inside a hotel in Melbourne are seen moving luggage for guests in quarantine on June 25 Victoria's deadly second wave of coronavirus has been traced back to failures in the hotel quarantine program and Premier Daniel Andrews is facing growing calls to be held responsible. As he battles to save his state and his job, more stories are emerging of how it went so wrong. Travellers and hotel workers have said some security guards ignored social distancing, slept on the job and even asked guests to order them room-service coffees. The debacle first came to public attention on May 27 when the infection of a security guard at the Rydges on Swanston hotel in Carlton, inner-north Melbourne was announced. The following week, on June 6, the spread of the deadly virus appeared under control as zero cases were recorded for the first time since March 5. But on June 17 an outbreak erupted at the Stamford Plaza in Melbourne's CBD and 21 new cases were recorded across the state. It emerged that guards working for private security firms - contracted by the Andrews government to run the quarantine scheme - had breached social distancing requirements and failed to enforce the rules. There were reports they had allowed separate families to play cards and that some guards had even had sex with returned travellers. Fast forward seven weeks and Victoria is suffering 7,637 active cases, 181 people have died and stage-four restrictions have locked people in their homes at night and put up to 400,000 out of work. One quarantine guest reported that he was allowed to pack into a lift with two other security guards before the guard received a walkie-talkie message saying COVID-19 had been detected in the hotel As Mr Andrews (pictured on Friday) battles to save his state and his job, more stories are emerging of how the hotel quarantine program went so wrong Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has said it is conceivable that all Victoria's cases could be traced back to outbreaks stemming from the hotel quarantine system. In recent days further stories have emerged of guards and guests breaking the rules during quarantine. One guest reported that he was allowed to pack into a lift with two security guards before one received a walkie-talkie message saying COVID-19 had been detected in the hotel. Other guests reported guards were either playing on their phones or falling asleep in corridors when they were supposed to be making sure no-one left their rooms. One anonymous hotel worker said security guards failed to take the job seriously. The worker said guards left their masks on the floor and only put them on when managers came around to check on them. Guests reported that guards had fallen asleep on the job during the hotel quarantine operation Melbourne is enduring state-four lockdown with hundreds of new daily coronavirus cases per day and calls are growing Premier Daniel Andrews to be held responsible for the quarantine failure. Pictured: Army in Melbourne According to the worker's Reddit post, guards packed into lifts, failed to socially distance and left rubbish lying around in their break area. 'Ive seen ten security guards sharing the same lift talking and chatting,' the worker wrote. 'A group of them laughed because I asked them to socially distance, thinking I was joking. 'One security guard asked a guest to order him a coffee via room service. It goes on and on.' The worker also claimed guards would 'often fall asleep in their chairs on the guest floors, have their heads down with earphones in and not even notice hotel staff passing.' Premier Andrews has faced huge criticism for not using the police and the ADF to run hotel quarantine as the New South Wales government did. Victoria has suffered a second wave of coronavirus after the disease escaped from hotel quarantine. Pictured: A body is removed from St Basil's care home in Fawkner, Melbourne On Thursday he said that he is accountable for mistakes made by his government but he refused to answer questions about the disaster. Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien has called for a criminal probe into care home deaths and said government ministers should be investigated over the failures of hotel quarantine. 'It is becoming clearer by the day that the Andrews Labor Government's mismanagement of hotel quarantine, contact tracing and aged care services have been the drivers of Victoria's second wave of COVID-19,' he said. 'Criminal investigations into COVID-19 associated deaths must examine the actions and decisions of Andrews ministers.' A judicial inquiry into the disaster will not report until in November. Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier said Victorians deserve answers now. 'Victorians should not have to wait months for answers about how Daniel Andrews has made such a mess of Victoria's hotel quarantine,' she said. Enjoy four new art shows, PHS student art, and Artscape's Pittsfield Paintboxes featuring work by more than a dozen accomplished regional artists on Friday, Aug. 7 from 5-8 p.m. and all month long ! Be sure to maintain a physical distance of six feet from other individuals and wear your mask. See you soon! For the month of August, thehas been re-imagined to encompass outdoor locations perfect for a socially distanced walk around downtown, plus three indoor locations. New Delhi: The Maharashtra government on Saturday (August 8, 2020) submitted its investigation report in the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput to the Supreme Court. The probe report was submitted to the top court in a sealed cover. According to sources familiar with the development, the state government submitted the details of the investigation conducted so far. It is also slated to file a separate affidavit, either on Saturday itself or on Monday. The apex court then listed the matter for hearing on August 11. Meanwhile, the state's Home Minister, Anil Deshmukh said that the Maharashtra government will abide by the Supreme Court`s order in connection with the Mumbai Police investigation into the actor's death case. When asked whether the Mumbai Police will hand over the investigation in the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or conduct a parallel probe, Deshmukh said, "We will abide by the Supreme Court Order." "The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter on August 11. We will see what the court orders and take further action accordingly. Currently, Mumbai Police is investigating the case very professionally," he told reporters. Notably, the CBI has registered an FIR against actor Rhea Chakraborty and others in connection with the actor`s death after the Centre accepted Bihar government`s recommendation to transfer the probe in the matter from Patna. An FIR was registered in Patna on a complaint filed by KK Singh, Rajput`s father, under sections related to abetment to suicide. The actor was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14. This comes as the apex court is slated to hear on August 11 a petition filed by Chakraborty seeking the transfer of the investigation in Rajput`s death from Patna to Mumbai claiming the former has no jurisdiction in the matter. The size of the Army may be too small for war, a former general has warned. General Sir Mike Jackson, who was Chief of the General Staff from 2003 to 2006, said the Armys armoured corps was a shadow of what it was a few decades ago. He said the 80,000-strong Army would now struggle to fight a battle in the way it did in the past. His comments came as defence chiefs are carrying out a major review of the military, which is due to conclude in the autumn. General Sir Mike Jackson, who was Chief of the General Staff from 2003 to 2006, said the Armys armoured corps was a shadow of what it was a few decades ago The Ministry of Defence is under pressure to deliver military capability for less money and also to modernise the force to meet diverse threats but it has dismissed claims that Army numbers could be cut. Speaking to ABF The Soldiers Charity for its podcast General Talk, Sir Mike said: When I joined, the Cold War was very cold. The whole strategic posture was deterrence of the then Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. It needed mass. We had a comparatively large army for peace time. But he said it has shrunk since. It worries me that 80,000 may not be big enough, he added. The former Para said the Army could fight a conventional battle at a pinch, but it would take some preparation time. Sir Mike said: We are down to the position where really if we get it right we can field a single division. Perhaps of two or three brigades. That is [the] maximum effort we could expect of todays Army. A brigade has around 6,500 troops, while a divison typically has between 8,000 and 25,000 personnel. When Sir Mike joined the Paras in 1970 the Armys regular strength was 176,000, with 80,000 reservists. He added: The Royal Armoured Corps is pretty much a shadow of what it was when I joined. The MoDs review could see soldiers moved into other areas, for example cyber, to match the threat and skills needed as the world changes, sources said. A report by the Royal United Services Institute think-tank last year warned that British troops would be comprehensively outgunned in a war with Russia due to a critical shortage of artillery. The website says temperatures will be taken; I imagine P will be feverish Yikes! We are now at the stage of sending each other photos and videos! Nothing remotely X-rated, of course. But still, sending photos is definitely one stage up from being a pen pal. I am talking about me and the new one, P*. He texted a suggested date to meet for lunch 19 August and also a YouTube video of a man in bed with a labrador. I am thinking of getting a puppy. I want this! he wrote. I was in bed, so I sent him a photo of Gracie, sleeping next to me on her special pillow. I cant wait to meet Gracie as well! Well done for recognising which dog, just from a rump and one ear in the air. He is leaving me to book lunch, as I know (have been banned from, more like) all the local eateries, I have dogs, heels. I email my local country house hotel, now taking bookings without rooms, thank the Lord and my unwaxed nether regions. The website warns that temperatures will be taken on entry at the gate; I imagine P will be feverish. Can I book a table for two, one vegan, not sure about the other one. And three dogs, so perhaps outside? In the shade if hot Anyway, Ive been thinking this week about red flags. This isnt a new Dido single its the warning signs you always get when you meet someone new, and which all too often (in my case) ignore. Its a gut feeling. Intuition. With my previous three and a half men, I knew in my heart it wouldnt work out. There were signs only a woman knows, even within the first few seconds of meeting. Trevor he of the high-waisted trousers, whom I met when he was the PR on the door of some early 90s pop thing called me at my office the next day to berate me for leaving early. On our first date, he told me off for being late. My future husband was too laddish and forward when we first met, barging into my office to interview me for the BBC, and brought flowers awful spiky ones, waxy ones, lillies! to our dinner date. Never, ever bring flowers to a restaurant (what if the pollen gets on my outfit?!). The Osama bin Laden lookalike correctly guessed my age; what a complete b******. If only Id listened to my gut, Id be a lot further ahead, dating wise. But there arent any red flags with P**. When we met for a drink, ooh, eight years ago, he said, Wow. You look amazing. Stunning, actually. He has a spine, too. When I wrote about our first date in this column, saying he was way too short for me, he went online beneath my column and said I couldnt walk in my heels, and it looked as though my upper lip had been waxed! Threaded would have been more apt, but he was in the general ballpark. When I rejected him, he texted to say, You know your worth. Which is true and proves hes insightful. Ooh. Email from the hotel. The booking is approved. They must have forgotten about Gracie Runny Poogate from my last visit. I text P to let him know. At first, I composed something along the lines of what I always do detailed instructions, advice, where to park, styling tips with appropriate websites, address of the nearest barber, the name of my Harley Street dentist. Then I pressed delete, delete, delete, turned over a new leaf, stopped acting like his mummy, and just sent him the time and postcode. He will either sink or swim. Shall we place bets? Shall we? *I must remind myself he did say he just wants to be my friend. **So far Liz Joness one-woman show, 8 Stone and Still Full of Issues, has been moved to 2021, with extra dates added. Please visit lizjonesgoddess.com for details or stalk her @lizjonesgoddess LISTEN TO LIZ JONESS PODCAST! Join Liz as she dissects her weekly You Diary, delves into the archives and screams, Why did I write that?! Find it now at mailplus.co.uk/lizjones, iTunes and Spotify. (Natural News) Foreign governments have been influencing and infiltrating American universities, using large sums of money, contracts, gifts and special agreements for espionage purposes, instilling propaganda, and to get what they want out of American institutions. In fact, an investigation by the Department of Education found that American universities, including the likes of Harvard, NYU and Yale, have accepted up to $6.4 billion in hidden foreign donations. This revelation has prompted Congress to demand that all universities hand over the records of the foreign donations. The multi-million-dollar gifts pose a national security threat from rogue regimes and foreign special interests. American universities must produce all records of bribes received from communist China and other rogue regimes The Head of House Oversight and Reform, Virginia Foxx, and House Education and Labor Committee head James Comer joined the head of the House Judiciary, Representative Jim Jordan in a powerful investigation into the foreign influence of American universities. The representatives wrote to the University of Chicago, the University of Delaware, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Harvard, and New York University, demanding that each institution produce all unredacted records of financial gifts and special agreements with foreign nations dating back to March 2015. The lawmakers agreed that foreign governments are leveraging money to get some kind of benefit from the universities. Chinese political dissident Guo Weng knows full well how China uses money to manipulate other countries to do what they want. He testifies that the CCP uses five percent of their trade with the US to advance their influence over lawmakers and other institutions. The trade volume between the U.S. and China was $7.37 trillion in 2018. Five percent of that trade total is approximately $36.8 billion. So, the CCP is using an estimated $36.8 billion to manipulate US officials, control internet speech, manipulate media messaging, incite riots, control regional trade and resource allocation, while bribing U.S. politicians and businessmen to comply with communism and to keep mum on Chinas abuses. This manipulation may extend to American universities as well, as the poison of communism slowly seeps into the education system. This is now evident by the amount of Marxist ideas that are promoted in American colleges, and by the left-wing violence that is spilling into the streets. Among the current revelations, the nation of Qatar donated large sums of money to American universities, classifying the gifts as trade secrets. U.S. law requires that the purpose and the sum of the gift be disclosed by foreign nations, but Qatar kept the gifts classified. Since 2015, Harvard University routinely accepted at least thirty-one gifts or contracts from China and other competing nations, totaling $101 million. Harvards chemistry department was caught in a lie earlier this year with the Department of Defense after the university tried to hide their $1.5 million bribe from scheming Chinese researchers. These prestigious universities have also accepted tens of millions of dollars in contracts from China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran, allowing these foreign nations to gain influence over the higher education system in the U.S. These gifts and contracts also allow these nations to spy on the U.S., and infiltrate student education using propaganda techniques. The Education Department holds concerns about the level of dependency colleges have on foreign funding, leading to multiple national security risks. Many of the universities wrote back to Congress attempting to hide the donations as confidential. Education Department General Counsel Reed Rubinstein told lawmakers that: The evidence suggests massive investments of foreign money have bred dependency and distorted the decision making, mission, and values of too many institutions. For more on Chinas manipulation, visit CommunistChina.news Sources include: NYPost.com NYPost.com NaturalNews.com In a televised speech, prime minister Hassan Diab called on all political parties to put their disagreements aside and work together. He said he is ready to stay in the post for two months to allow for politicians to work together on implementing structural reforms. Thousands of people poured into Beiruts main square on Saturday, where they set up symbolic nooses to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for Tuesdays explosion at the Port of Beirut. A group of protesters including retired army officers stormed the Foreign Ministry, saying it would be the headquarters for a revolution and called on the current government to resign. Retired army officer Sami Ramah read a statement on the buildings steps after dozens of protesters pushed their way into the building. This authority must step down, he said. Advertisement The huge blast was caused by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate improperly stored at the port for more than six years, apparently set off by a fire. It was the biggest in Lebanons history and caused an estimated 7.6 billion-11.5 billion worth of damage, according to Beiruts governor. It also left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. The protest Saturday was the first significant demonstration since the explosion and organisers planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead. As the protest got under way however, small groups of young men began throwing stones at security forces. Near parliament, riot police fired tear gas at protesters who hurled stones and tried to jump over barriers that closed the road leading to the parliament buildings. The protesters later set fire to a lorry that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament. The gathering at Martyrs Square and outside the parliament building and government headquarters came amid popular anger against Lebanons political leadership. The countrys ruling class, made up mostly of former civil war-era leaders, is blamed for widespread corruption, incompetence and mismanagement that contributed to Tuesdays explosion. Advertisement The army issued a statement reminding the protesters to act peacefully and abstain from closing roads or attacking public or private property. Police also issued a statement after the protests began urging people to act in a civilised way far away from violence. The protest came as senior officials from the Middle East and Europe arrived in Lebanon in a show of solidarity with the tiny country that is still in shock suffered after the blast. Lebanon is mired in its worst economic and financial crisis in decades making it difficult for many people who had their properties damaged to fix them. In a show of anger, the president of the Christian opposition Kataeb party said its three legislators have decided to resign from parliament over this weeks disaster. Sami Gemayel called on every honourable member of parliament to resign and work for the birth of a new Lebanon. A senior Kataeb party official was killed in the blast, which claimed at least 154 lives, wounded more than 5,000 people and laid waste to the countrys largest port and nearby areas. Also killed were 43 Syrians, the countrys embassy in Beirut said. Lebanon is home to some one million Syrian refugees. Advertisement The Dutch foreign ministry said Saturday that Hedwig Waltmans-Molier, the wife of the Netherlands ambassador to Lebanon, had also died of injuries sustained in the blast. Documents that surfaced after the blast showed that for years officials had been repeatedly warned that the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port posed a grave danger, but no one acted to remove it. Officials have been blaming one another since the explosion and 19 people have been detained including the ports chief, head of Lebanons customs department and his predecessor. We will support Lebanon through all available means, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League told reporters after meeting President Michel Aoun on Saturday. Mr Aboul Gheit said he would take part in a donors conference for Lebanon in France on Sunday and convey Lebanons demands to the international community. Later on Saturday the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, arrived in Beirut for a brief visit. Turkeys vice president and the countrys foreign minister arrived Saturday and met Mr Aoun, saying that Ankara was ready to help rebuild Beiruts port and evacuate some of the wounded from Lebanon to Turkey for treatment. At the site of the blast in Beiruts port, workers were still searching for dozens of missing people. Bulldozers were also seen removing debris near the giant grain silos that are still partly standing. International aid has been flowing to Lebanon for days and several field hospitals have been set up around Beirut to help treat the wounded. The ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilisers and explosives, originated from a cargo ship called MV Rhosus that had been travelling from Georgia to Mozambique in 2013. It made an unscheduled detour to Beirut as the Russian shipowner was struggling with debts and hoped to earn some extra cash in Lebanon. Unable to pay port fees and reportedly leaking, the ship was impounded. In 2014, the material was moved from the ship and placed in a warehouse at the port where it stayed until the explosion. BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 8 By Tamilla Mammadova Trend: Germany will provide Georgia with 310 million euros in aid to help the country fight COVID-19 as well as to implement various regional projects, Trend reports citing the Ministry of Finance of Georgia. As reported, 180 million euros will be allocated for anti-COVID-19 measures, while the remaining 130 million euros are aimed at implementation of projects in regions. "Today, Georgia is one of the largest recipients of German financial support per capita. This proves how important our relationship is", said Georgian Finance Minister Ivane Matchavariani after signing the loan agreement. The minister added that from 130 million euros allocated for regional projects, 80 million euros will be provided to Kazbegi municipality and 50 million euros will be spent on the development of Imereti region. On July 31, Germany allocated a 170-million euros loan and a 28.5-million euros grant to Georgia as part of an agreement signed between the governments of the two countries. To date, within the financial and technical cooperation with Germany, more than 1 billion euros in funding in the form of grants, technical assistance and soft loans have been allocated for Georgia. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila6197935 LOUISVILLE, Ky. First, Oprah Winfrey put Breonna Taylor on the cover of O, The Oprah Magazine. Now the media mogul is spreading her message with billboards demanding justice for the Kentucky woman shot to death during a police raid. Twenty-six billboards displaying a portrait of Taylor are going up across Louisville, Kentucky, demanding that the police officers involved in her death be arrested and charged, according to social justice organization Until Freedom. That's one billboard for every year of the Black woman's life. The billboards, funded by the magazine, showcase the magazine cover dedicated to Taylor, the Courier Journal reported. Also displayed is a quote from Winfrey: "If you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it." Until Freedom thanked the Oprah magazine for its work on the billboards. "Together, we will make sure no one forgets #BreonnaTaylor's name and recommit to the fight for justice for her and her family," the group said in a tweet. The decision to delay Monday's planned reopening of 'wet' pubs wasn't much of a surprise. But it was a kick in the teeth for 3,500 establishments that have been shut down since the middle of March. Now many of them will never open their doors again. By and large, we have behaved rather well during the lockdown. The vast majority of us understood that the life-changing restrictions were for the greater good and while we weren't happy about it, we went with the flow. There was a sense that we were all in this together, but as the average rural publican has now discovered, that simply isn't the case. You can only keep the people onside when they think they are being treated fairly - I spoke to a few of my friends in the bar trade during the lockdown and while they weren't pleased with shutting their doors, they accepted that everyone was in the same boat. How can the Government justify large gatherings outside large pubs in Dublin when small, country pubs are told to stay closed? There's an inherent injustice in that. Frankly, and I say this as someone who lives in Dublin, it would have made more sense to delay the capital's boozers reopening and allow the rural pubs to operate. It's a devastating blow to businesses and to many small towns, where pubs are the social heartbeat. Obviously, there is the economic impact - at this stage I reckon we all know at least one person who has decided to skip a planned trip down the country because everywhere will be closed. Then there is the extra cost incurred by places that spent thousands on deep-cleans and various refurbishments. That money has now been wasted - purely because of the mixed signals from the Government. Public patience is beginning to wear thin, and publicans' patience has all but vanished. Can you blame them? They know something the powers-that-be don't seem to care about - this is the end of traditional rural pub as we know it. At this stage, I wouldn't be surprised if they're not allowed to open until January - at which point it will be too late for most of them. When we look back and review the official approach to the pandemic, we will inevitably find that they made some mistakes. This will be the biggest, by far. It's unfair, but it is also profoundly irrational - we still have an open border and our airports continue to operate with virtual impunity. Let the pubs open. Congressional Democrats stung by the Obama administrations soft-pedaled approach to Russian election interference in 2016 have a plan to prevent a repeat under President Donald Trump: make as much noise as possible, early and often. For weeks, top Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate have been blaring warnings and demanding briefings and public disclosures from the intelligence community, shrugging off Republican charges that theyre politicizing intelligence. And Democrats can now point to evidence that their pressure campaign might be working. On Friday, the Trump administrations counterintelligence chief publicly confirmed that Russia is attempting to harm Joe Bidens candidacy in 2020. The official, William Evanina, even singled out a pro-Russia Ukrainian, Andrii Derkach, as a key participant in the Kremlins new effort. The statement, which also indicated that Iran and China prefer a Trump loss in November, was hailed by Democrats as vindication of their strategy to lean on the administration for additional disclosures to help educate the public. Normally the customer of the intelligence community is the president, the national security apparatus, the secretary of Defense and members of Congress. But every four years, the customer should be the American people, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview. They're the decision-makers on Nov. 3. And they paid for this intelligence and they ought to be able to see it, added King, who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate. Whether Democrats succeed in their effort to wrest more information into the public domain could be critical to blunting Moscows latest interference effort, they say, as well as shielding Biden from the attacks that dogged Hillary Clinton in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. And Democrats arent likely to end their push just yet. While some lawmakers acknowledged that the statement was indeed significantly more detailed, they said it still conflated Chinese and Iranian interference with Russias more sophisticated efforts. The claims about China and Iran notably lack the degree of specificity Evanina offered about Russia. Story continues Unfortunately, todays statement still treats three actors of differing intent and capability as equal threats to our democratic elections, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement on Friday. Pelosi has taken the leading role in steering the partys message on foreign interference in the election, in a shift from her approach in 2016, when Barack Obama sat in the Oval Office and was the nations top Democrat. In increasingly vocal terms, shes accused the intelligence community of withholding crucial details from the public, including information about the Kremlins intentions. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) authored a public letter to the FBI last month demanding an all-Congress briefing on specific interference threats aimed at lawmakers. Their demands come as intelligence officials have acknowledged privately to lawmakers in recent days that Russia is seeking to boost Trumps reelection prospects and denigrate Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Despite the criticisms from Pelosi and Schiff, the new disclosure seemed to satisfy Senate Intelligence Vice Chair Mark Warner, who issued a joint statement with Committee Chair Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that generally praised Evanina for the disclosures. King, too, hailed the new releases. Calling out Mr. Derkach, who's a Ukrainian associated with Russia I think that's important to know, because now when we see materials with his name on it, we'll know from whence it came, King said. Top of mind for Democrats is avoiding what many see as the mistakes of 2016, when the Obama administration decided to sit on the most explosive details of Russias effort to aid Trump in the presidential election. At the time, Obamas aides defended the decision as an effort to avoid taking steps that Republicans would interpret as an attempt to influence the election. But both in real time and hindsight, top congressional Democrats viewed Obamas reticence as a significant miscalculation. And this time, theyre even more fearful that Trump long vexed by the perception that Russia helped him win the presidency might seek to squelch evidence of Russian interference in 2020. Democrats were disappointed with how the Obama administration dealt with the threat in 2016, and we made that known they lost valuable time when they could have been informing the public of and inoculating them against Russias interference campaign, a senior House Democratic aide acknowledged. But worse than not acting soon enough is downplaying the threat when you know it exists, creating a false equivalence between countries, and seeking to sow confusion for the political benefit of one party, the aide continued. This is what the Trump administration is doing. Evanina emphasized on Friday that more public details are forthcoming, for the purpose of better informing Americans so they can play a critical role in safeguarding our election. Despite these assurances, rank-and-file senators who have been briefed on recent intelligence have dialed up their warnings in recent days. Shocked & appalledI just left a 90 minute classified briefing on foreign malign threats to our elections, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote in a recent tweet. From spying to sabotage, Americans need to see & hear these reports. Asking for a friend -- whats the point of spending billions of dollars on intelligence gathering if when you discover a foreign agent trying to manipulate your countrys domestic politics, you keep it hidden and do nothing about it? added Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Ahead of Fridays disclosure from the administration, Democrats worries about Russian interference in 2020 had reached such a fever pitch that some were even contemplating the most extreme step possible: publicly disclosing classified intelligence on the House or Senate floor, where senators are shielded from repercussions under the Speech or Debate clause of the U.S. Constitution. Im not going to take anything off the table, Warner, a member of the Gang of Eight, which receives the highest-level intelligence briefings offered to Congress, said in an interview Thursday. I have not given up hope that we wont get that information out. But it is absolutely incumbent that the American people know. Murphy agreed that reading the most urgent intelligence on the Senate floor should be a last resort if the administration doesnt declassify it. But he said he wouldnt be the one to take that step. I frankly dont know what additional information is in the hands of the Gang of Eight. So that speaks to my inability to set strategy. But what Ive seen is really important for the American public to know, Murphy said in an interview. I dont have any plans to make classified information public, but in some way shape or form, if the administration isnt willing to tell the American people the details of this interference, then someone has to. The Speech or Debate clause has rarely been used to justify the disclosure of classified information. In 1971, then-Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) read the Pentagon Papers into the congressional record, and was immune from federal charges due to those constitutional protections. Warner, in justifying his position, referenced countries that make their citizens better equipped by learning more about foreign efforts to interfere in their elections, and said the Trump administration should do the same without compromising sensitive intelligence sources and methods. He also said the U.S. should heed the mistakes of the Obama administration, which came under heavy scrutiny in a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report over its handling of Russias meddling. The idea that [the Trump administration] wouldnt learn, and allow knowledge of a Russian disinformation campaign to be carried out, would be unconscionable, Warner added. Several lawmakers, though, believe it will not ultimately be necessary to disclose sensitive information on the floor of the Senate. Rubio, Warners counterpart atop the Intelligence Committee, said Warner has a right to do that but urged caution. Ultimately, I suspect that if everyone is patient you will find that the career professionals at the intelligence community will, each week that goes by, release information in a way that doesnt compromise our sources and our methods, and provides the American people what they want, Rubio said. So I think we'll be in a different place in a couple weeks. Intelligence officials began briefing all lawmakers this past week on election security and the threats of foreign interference, as Democrats continued to urge the Trump administration to detail the threats publicly. But Democrats say these steps are no substitute for informing Americans when details of a specific plot are known, especially with the election less than three months away. Other lawmakers are seeking immediate punitive measures. For example, Rubio and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) have been pushing legislation for months that would sanction Russia or any other country found to be interfering in U.S. elections. None of these people are Republicans or Democrats, Rubio said. They want to get us to fight against each other, and there are multiple nations now involved in this. POLITICO has reported that in addition to their public letter, top House and Senate Democrats urged the FBI to brief Congress on classified details about efforts by Derkach to spread misinformation about Biden to congressional investigators. The classified addendum to their letter specifically mentions Sen. Ron Johnsons (R-Wis.) investigation targeting Biden and his son Hunter as a source of their concern, arguing that the GOP-led investigation is employing Russian disinformation to tar a political opponent. Johnson has denied those charges. Some Democrats, including Warner, have speculated that Evanina and others might be facing internal politically motivated pressure over how much information to reveal about Russias intentions, especially given how Trump might react. The president has refused to publicly condemn Russia for its interference in the 2016 campaign, and has questioned the intelligence communitys conclusion that the meddling was intended to help him win. Still, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expect the intelligence community to disclose more information in the coming weeks. Senators emerging from classified briefings with Evanina and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe earlier this week said the Trump administration was preparing to make more information public, in an apparent nod to Democrats concerns. Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report. A fashion-obsessed Vietnamese influencer who showed off his collection of designer handbags on Instagram is accused of stealing them from high-end stores in Sydney and Melbourne. Trung Bao Le, 25, was charged with stealing about $50,000 worth of luxury handbags from designer labels including Dior, Bally, Chloe and Louis Vuitton. The popular social media star then posed with the allegedly stolen items on Instagram, where he has over 50,000 devoted followers. Scroll down for video. Trung Bao Le, 25, (pictured) was charged with stealing $50,000 worth of luxury handbags. Daily Mail Australia is not alleging this bag was stolen Officers arrested the fashionista on Friday in Sydney's Randwick before a search of his home in Surry Hills uncovered a treasure trove of expensive handbags, police allege. The fashion business graduate appeared before Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday where his legal aid solicitor Paul Johnson acknowledged his client has a 'fixation' on fashion, life as an online influencer and being pictured with 'expensive property'. The court also heard he had an 'uncontrollable addiction' to designer clobber. Mr Johnson argued that because all the bags have now been seized, Le should be granted bail, The Daily Telegraph reported. 'He is terrified about what's happened and where he is at the moment and how busy it is in there (Surry Hills police cells),' he told the court. Pictured: This $2,900 Christian Dior handbag was allegedly among the luxury items at Le's home which were seized by police Pictured: This brown leather handbag from Chloe was allegedly among the luxury items at Le's home which were seized by police. It retails for about $3,000 The prosecution were adamantly opposed to Le's bail application, but he promised to 'delete his social media pages' to help 'deal with addiction'. 'If this is almost a fetish then how do we deal with someone addicted to this sort of behaviour?' Magistrate Chris McRobert asked the accused, commenting it was an 'uncontrollable obsession'. To which Le said: 'If you let me on bail I will delete my Instagram, social media, delete everything.' Magistrate McRobert accepted the offer and granted Le bail with a range of strict conditions that forbid him from using social media and entering retail stores other than supermarkets. Le has also been made to report to Surry Hills Police Station everyday. The case has been adjourned until August 14, where it will resume in the Downing Centre Local Court. Le is pictured on Instagram, where he has over 50,000 followers, modelling a Dior hand bag. Daily Mail Australia is not alleging this bag was stolen Pictured: This Danse Lente hand bag which police say they seized retails for about $500 Pictured: This elegant Christian Dior bag was allegedly among the luxury items at Le's home which were seized by police (Newser) The former Dallas cop who killed an unarmed Black man in his own homea deadly mistakehas formally appealed her sentence, per CNN. Amber Guyger's lawyers are calling her murder conviction unfair because she considered Botham Jean, 26, a threat at the time. A lighter sentence for criminally negligent homicide would be more appropriate, they say: "Her mistaken belief negated the culpability for murder because although she intentionally and knowingly caused Jean's death, she had the right to act in deadly force in self-defense." Guyger entered Jean's apartment in 2018 thinking it was her own, the court heard, and considered him an intruder. Jean was sitting on his sofa eating ice cream and watching TV at the time. story continues below Jean's family didn't exactly jump at Guyger's appeal. "After admitting her crime and asking Botham Jean's family for mercyGuyger's actions in filing this appeal reflect someone who is not repentant but instead was hoping to play on the family's sympathies at the time that they were most vulnerable," they say. Jean's younger brother famously forgave Guyger and hugged her on the last day of the trial, but Jean's sister, Allisa Findley, sees value in punishment: "She should have received life, so she should take her 10 years in prison and shut up," she tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "If the court was to do this it would prove that, yes, there is systemic racism and white privilege does prevail over Black life." (Guyger said she hates herself "every single day.") Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8, 2020 09:32 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c775b3 1 World COVID-19,coronavirus,virus-korona-indonesia,Tablighi-Jamaat,India,New-Delhi,Foreign-Ministry,repatriation Free A court in India has found hundreds of Indonesian members of Islamic missionary movement Tablighi Jamaat guilty of violating visa and COVID-19 quarantine rules. Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said as many as 431 Indonesians had accepted the court ruling as of Friday. They were required to pay penalties ranging from 5,000 Indian rupees (US$67) to 10,000 rupees. The 431 Indonesians will receive assistance to get a clearance from the Indian Foreign Ministry as well as an immigration exit permit as the requirements to return to Indonesia, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said in a press briefing on Friday. More than 400 Indonesians had gone on trial throughout July for allegedly violating immigration and quarantine policies in the South Asian country. They were stranded in India after attending a Tablighi Jamaat gathering in the capital of New Delhi. Read also: Hundreds of Indonesian 'tabligh' attendees sent to judicial custody in India During the hearings, most defendants admitted to committing violations but told the court that they had never intended to break the law. Retno added that five Indonesians had pleaded not guilty, prompting their trials to continue. The Indonesian Embassy will continue to provide legal assistance. In addition, 286 Indonesian members of the missionary group were undergoing legal proceeding outside Delhi. According to the Foreign Ministry, 751 Indonesian nationals attended the gathering, 50 of whom had been repatriated to Indonesia. The government, through its representatives in India, continues to seek the return of the other 701 citizens, said Retno. Indias official coronavirus case tally passed 2 million on Friday, with 41,585 deaths, as reported by AFP. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A lot of things were going right in Southeast Asias two great archipelago nations before the coronavirus came around. Indonesia and the Philippines had relatively robust economies tended by well-regarded policy makers, and the benefit of young, educated populations. Both countries were poised to become bigger regional forces in the decades to come. Indonesia and the Philippines took different approaches to battling Covid-19, but the outcome has been the same: deep growth contractions and signs that recoveries when they do come will be shallow. These countries were always going to take a hit, given the way global growth has incinerated. Yet they also suffer from home-grown missteps and submerged logs that made a terrible situation worse. Indeed, the numbers paint a grim picture. The Philippines reported Thursday that gross domestic product shrank 16.5% from a year earlier, the biggest plunge ever and far worse than forecast. A day earlier, Indonesia recorded a fall of 5.3%, the most since the Asian financial crisis tore the country apart in the late 1990s. Both are also vying for the unhappy mantle of the most coronavirus infections in the region: Indonesia has 116,871 cases and the Philippines 115,980 as of Wednesday. Then consider some of the preexisting conditions. Commercial life is concentrated in tightly packed metro regions Jakarta and Manila beset by poor infrastructure and an underdeveloped healthcare system. In a cruel twist, neither is anchored in the global supply chains that buttress neighbors Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam. That ought to mean less exposure to the collapse in global demand. In practice, it hasn't offered much of a cushion. The most obvious lever to pull is fiscal policy. Yet Jakarta doesnt appear up to the task: Only about 20% of additional spending earmarked to address the pandemic made its way into the economy. Jokowi has complained of red tape and a lack of urgency on the part of bureaucrats in charge of disbursing cash. Indonesia's GDP showed a decline in government spending in the most recent quarter. In a briefing Wednesday, top officials pledged more outlays to put a floor under activity. Somehow the government is still clinging to the idea of escaping a full-year contraction, with the growth forecast between a decline of 0.4% and an expansion of 1%. That looks like wishful thinking. Story continues The signature policy of President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, has been bolstering infrastructure. That's floundering, too. Fixed capital formation tumbled 8.6% from a year earlier, as workers stayed home from factories and the supply of materials fluctuated. This is a real danger sign. Infrastructure is vital to Indonesias future; its deficiency challenges Jokowi's ambition to rid the economy of its constraints and position it as one of the regions most consequential in the 21st century. While the lapses arent as egregious in the Philippines, politicians could be doing a whole lot more. Government spending increased 22% last quarter, one of the few areas of the economy to point upward. Even so, lawmakers are still deliberating a spending plan and a proposed corporate income tax cut that President Rodrigo Duterte hopes can support families and businesses hit hard by the pandemic. The amount the Senate has proposed 140 billion pesos ($2.9 billion) is far less than what governments elsewhere in Southeast Asia are providing.The republic is a great exporter of labor, with remittances usually accounting for about 10% of GDP. The virtual cessation of international travel and rising joblessness in host countries have put the brakes on money sent home from abroad. Domestic helpers in Singapore say they are supporting entire villages now. That means paying for food, shelter, medicine and education. This dry tap is one reason consumer spending sank 15.5%.Social distancing has also put shopping on hold. That was particularly true in the Philippines, where the Manila area and the main island of Luzon locked down hard and early. Indonesia didn't go for anything as comprehensive, relying on patchwork local initiatives and curbs on domestic travel during national holidays. That relative laxity probably spared the economy a double-digit dip. But with millions at risk of falling back into poverty, its cold comfort. During the preceding five years, economic growth in the Philippines averaged more than 6% and was projected to surpass 7% in 2020, exceeding long-time emerging-market stars like China and India. That notion is in tatters. Indonesias expansion had been remarkably consistent recently, at around 5% a year. But while Jokowi wanted his second and final term to lift that number toward 7%, anything above zero would now be a big win. For all the superlatives of second-quarter econometric carnage, a longer-term calamity might be the twilight of aspiration. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Daniel Moss is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian economies. Previously he was executive editor of Bloomberg News for global economics, and has led teams in Asia, Europe and North America. 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| 2020-08-08 06:00:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A woman wearing a face mask is seen in a shopping mall in Cairo, Egypt, on Aug. 7, 2020. Egypt registered on Friday 141 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total infections in the country to 95,147, said the Egyptian Health Ministry. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) CAIRO, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Egypt registered on Friday 141 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total infections in the country to 95,147, said the Egyptian Health Ministry. It is the sixth consecutive day for the daily COVID-19 infections in Egypt to fall below 200. The daily count started to exceed 200 on April 23 until it hit a record 1,774 cases on June 19. Also on Friday, 20 patients died from the novel coronavirus, brining the death toll in Egypt to 4,971, the ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement. The spokesman added that 1,655 patients left hospitals after fully cured, increasing the total recoveries to 50,553. On Thursday, the Egyptian cabinet decided to ban anyone from entering the country without a recent PCR test that proves free from COVID-19, except for tourists coming via direct flights to the airports of Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada, Taba and Marsa Alam. Egypt announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Feb. 14 and the first death from the highly infectious virus on March 8. From the first week of July, the daily coronavirus infections and fatalities in Egypt started to gradually decline along with an increase in daily recoveries. Egypt resumed international flights in early July, after it lifted a partial nighttime curfew imposed since late March, and reopened restaurants, cafes, theaters and cinemas, as well as hotels, museums and archeological sites, all with limited capacity. Easing restrictions is part of a "coexistence plan" adopted by the government over the past weeks to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming economic activities. Egypt and China have been working together on 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 the North African country, the latest of which was in mid-May. Enditem US Freezes Assets of Hong Kong Leaders, Chinese Officials 2020-08-07 -- The United States on Friday announced sanctions against Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and other senior officials for their role in curbing the city's promised freedoms, and in implementing a draconian national security regime. Announcing the sanctions, the State Department said that the Chinese Communist Party had made clear that Hong Kong would never again enjoy the high degree of autonomy promised under the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, and that the city will no longer be regarded as a separate jurisdiction from mainland China by the U.S. "The United States will therefore ... take action against individuals who have crushed the Hong Kong people's freedoms," it said in a statement on its official website. Under an Executive Order already signed by President Donald Trump, the U.S. Treasury will freeze the U.S. assets of Lam, her chief of police Chris Tang, and secretary for security John Lee, as well as those of constitutional affairs secretary Erick Tsang and newly appointed head of national security Eric Chan. Former police chief Stephen Lo and justice secretary Teresa Cheng are also named as targets under the sanction order. Ruling Chinese Communist Party officials Zhang Xiaoming and Xia Baolong will also be sanctioned for being part of a body, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) under China's State Council, that "threaten[s] the peace, security, stability or autonomy" of Hong Kong, the State Department said. Luo Huining and Zheng Yanxiong, who as national security adviser and head of the national security office respectively, have ultimate responsibility for implementing a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by decree from July 1, are also named. "This law, purportedly enacted to 'safeguard' the security of Hong Kong, is in fact a tool of CCP repression," the State Department statement said. The U.S. Treasury said in a separate statement that the national security law had allowed China's feared state security police to operate with impunity in Hong Kong, undermining the rule of law. "The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong and we will use our tools and authorities to target those undermining their autonomy," Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement. "As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of the individuals named above ... that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, are blocked," the Treasury said, adding that U.S. citizens and residents are barred from any business transactions with those named. It said Lam was "directly responsible for implementing Beijing's policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes." Reuters quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying that Lam's recent postponement of elections to Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LegCo) for one year, citing coronavirus concerns, had intensified U.S. deliberations on sanctions. Police charge 24 over vigil The announcement came as Hong Kong police pressed charges against 24 activists, including 2014 student leader Joshua Wong, for taking part in a banned candlelight vigil in the city's Victoria Park to commemorate the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen massacre, a fixture in Hong Kong's political calendar since 1990. "Months after the Tiananmen Square vigil this year, I was just informed by Hong Kong Police that they will charge me with 'knowingly taking part in an unauthorized assembly'," Wong said via Twitter. "Clearly, the regime plans to stage another crackdown on the city's activists by all [possible] means," Wong said, adding that his first court appearance in the latest public order charge against him had been set for Sept. 15. Pro-democracy lawmaker Eddie Chu, former student leader Lester Shum, and leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organizes the annual vigil, were also among those charged. Tens of thousands of people defied the ban to attend the vigil on June 4, 2020, holding a peaceful and socially distanced event to commemorate those who died at the hands of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Beijing on the night of June 3-4, 1989. Journalists fear targeting Meanwhile, foreign journalists in the city hit out at recent delays to work visa renewal applications, suggesting that they are being targeted as part of a tit-for-tat media sanctions war between Beijing and Washington. The Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) called on the Hong Kong government to clarify the impact of the new national security law on journalists working in the city, and said it has asked the government to guarantee, among other things, that journalists will be free to continue their work without intimidation or obstruction. "So far, Hong Kong authorities have not provided such clarity or guarantees," it said in a statement on Friday. "This downward spiral of retaliatory actions aimed at journalists helps no one, not least of all the public that needs accurate, professionally produced information now more than ever," the FCC said. China's Hong Kong-based foreign ministry commissioner said that retaliatory sanctions were being made in response to "political suppression of the Chinese media," in a reference to Washington's designation of state media entities as foreign diplomatic missions, and its slashing of their staff numbers. "Any freedom shall be exercised within legal boundaries," it said. "We are firmly against external interference in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs as a whole on the pretext of the freedom of the press." The American Consulate in Hong Kong hit out at a report in China's state-run Global Times newspaper suggesting that anyone who meets with its staff could be seen as "colluding with foreign powers" under the remit of the national security law. "These meetings are neither secretive nor mysterious," the consulate said. The Global Times' allegations "underscore the fact that the new law is not about security, but to silence democracy advocates and threaten people engaging in free speech," it said in a statement. Reported by RFA's Cantonese and Mandarin Services. 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 August 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 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 Economists have predicted that Vietnams GDP may be negative this year as the possibility of a second outbreak exists. The Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR) in early July predicted that Vietnams GDP may grow by 2.2-3.8 percent in 2020. Drawing up different scenarios about epidemic performance in the world, economists believe that Vietnams economy will still grow thanks to domestic demand. However, they did not consider the possibility of a second outbreak in Vietnam. After tens of Covid-19 cases were discovered in Vietnam in recent days, Nguyen Duc Thanh, former director of VEPR, told VnExpress that if a lockdown is imposed in large economic centers in Vietnam, it would be a great success if GDP just goes flat. The economy is likely to witness a negative growth rate as a risk for a second outbreak is existing. All the resources that support the growth no longer exist. The economy is likely to witness a negative growth rate as a risk for a second outbreak is existing. All the resources that support the growth no longer exist. Economists believe that the consumption level, which increased rapidly after social distancing was removed, and high travel demand would help the economy recover in Q3. However, the factors, which they had high hopes for, have nearly disappeared. Meanwhile, northern provinces are entering autumn and winter, when it will be more difficult to control the epidemic than in the summer. Thanh said the goal of obtaining positive growth rate is not practical. Vietnam needs to strive for a low negative growth rate and narrow the gap between this years and last years GDP. Meanwhile, Tran Tho Dat from the Hanoi National Economics University is more optimistic. He said that in Q2, when Vietnam applied a social distancing policy, the country still gained a positive growth rate of 0.36 percent. If Covid-19 comes back, its impact on the economy would not be as strong as it was in Q2, because Vietnam has experience in fighting the epidemic. Dat admitted that it is now more difficult than ever to predict the economic performance in the last six months of the year because the economy relies on many uncertain factors. Thanh said Vietnams economy has not bottomed out and is now the beginning of a new decline, which is different from the first decline. But now, when businesses are hungry and face more difficulties, their resistance is very weak, Thanh said, adding that the number of businesses to be dissolved may soar in H2. Nguyen Xuan Thanh from the Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management thinks that in addition to tax payment extension policies, the government needs to consider launching more practical fiscal support packages. Kim Chi Vietnams GDP forecast to grow 3.8 percent this year Vietnams economic growth rate this year would reach 3.8% if there is no second COVID-19 outbreak in the second half of the year and economic activities gradually resume. The Americans have been widely displayed on Venezuelan national TV as proof of US intentions to overthrow the president. A Venezuelan court has sentenced two former United States Army Special Forces soldiers Green Berets to 20 years in prison for their part in a failed beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolas Maduro. Former soldiers Luke Denman and Airan Berry admitted to taking part in the May 4 operation orchestrated by a third ex-US soldier who remains in the US, Venezuelans chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab announced on Twitter late on Friday. They admitted their responsibility for the facts, Saab wrote, adding the case will continue for dozens of other defendants. He did not offer details. Operation Gideon was launched from makeshift training camps in neighbouring Colombia and left at least eight rebel soldiers dead while a total of 66 were jailed. Former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, who operated a private, Florida-based security firm called Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility for the failed coup detat. Venezuelan prosecutors announced that Denman and Berry, both decorated former US service members, were found guilty of conspiracy, trafficking in illegal arms, and terrorism. The two Americans, arrested in the coastal fishing community of Chuao, have since been widely displayed by officials on Venezuelan national TV as proof of their long-held claims that the US is set on overthrowing Maduros socialist government. US government role? The incident also unleashed claims that US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido had authorised Goudreau through a signed agreement to carry out the attack, executed by two of Guaidos former political advisers. Guaido and US officials have denied any role in the plot. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would use all possible means to win the freedom of Denman and Berry. A day before authorities announced the two ex-Green Berets were sentenced, Venezuelan authorities opened the trial of six American executives of the Houston-based Citgo company. The six men were arrested two years ago in Venezuela on corruption charges. The case had lingered for months until former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson met personally in July with Maduro in Caracas to urge they be released so they could return home to the US. Both play out amid hostility between Washington and Caracas. The Trump administration last year threw its support behind opposition leader Guaido, who declared he was Venezuelas legitimate president, vowing to overthrow Maduro. Guaido blames Maduro for the once-wealthy nations economic and social collapse, while the socialist leader says Washington is manipulating Guaido to steal the nations vast oil wealth. Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/07/2020 -- Latest added Global Consumer Banking Market research study by AMA Research offers detailed outlook and elaborates market review till 2025. The market Study is segmented by key regions that are accelerating the marketization. At present, the market players are strategizing and overcoming challenges of current scenario. The study explored is a perfect mix of qualitative and quantitative Market data collected and validated majorly through primary data and secondary sources. Major Players in This Report Include, Commercial Bank of China (China), Barclays (United Kingdom), HSBC Group (United Kingdom), Bank of America Leasing & Capital, LLC (United States), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (Japan), Citigroup, Inc. (United States), BNP Paribas Leasing Solution (India), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (United States) and China Construction Bank (China). Free Sample Report + All Related Graphs & Charts @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/96716-global-consumer-banking-market Consumer banking is also known as the retail banking, it is the delivery of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to any organizations, corporations or other banks. Which are frequently defined as comprehensive banking. The latest edition of this report you will be entitled to receive additional chapter / commentary on latest scenario, economic slowdown and COVID-19 impact on overall industry. Further it will also provide qualitative information about when industry could come back on track and what possible measures industry players are taking to deal with current situation. Each of the segment analysis table for forecast period also high % impact on growth. Market Drivers - High Growth in Retail Sector Market Trend - High Adoption from Large Size Organizations Restraints - Rising Security Issue from End Users Opportunities - Rising Number of New Technology Related Market Entrants Challenges - High Cost Associated With the Consumer Banking Hardware Solutions The report concludes with in-depth details on the business operations and financial structure of leading vendors in the Global Consumer Banking market report, Overview of Key trends in the past and present are in reports that are reported to be beneficial for companies looking for venture businesses in this market. Information about the various marketing channels and well-known distributors in this market was also provided here. This study serves as a rich guide for established players and new players in this market. The Global Consumer Banking segments and Market Data Break Down are illuminated below: Services (Transactional Accounts, Savings Account, Debit Cards, ATM Cards, Credit Cards, Mortgage, Home Loan, Car Loan), Bank (Community Development Bank, Private Banks, Public Banks, NBFC), Solutions (Hardware Solutions, Software Solutions), Technology (Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Biometric, Others) For Early Buyers | Get Up to 20-50% Discount on Various License type of this Premium Version of the Report: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/request-discount/96716-global-consumer-banking-market The regional analysis of Global Consumer Banking Market is considered for the key regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and Rest of the World. North America is the leading region across the world. Whereas, owing to rising no. of research activities in countries such as China, India, and Japan, Asia Pacific region is also expected to exhibit higher growth rate the forecast period 2020-2025. Highlights of the report: - A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent market - Important changes in market dynamics - Market segmentation up to the second or third level - Historical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volume - Reporting and evaluation of recent industry developments - Market shares and strategies of key players - Emerging niche segments and regional markets - An objective assessment of the trajectory of the market - Recommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market Limited scope research document specific to Country or Region meeting your business objective. GET FULL COPY OF Latest Edition of United States Global Consumer Banking market study with COVID-19 Impact Analysis @ USD 2000 And, 2020 Released copy of Europe Global Consumer Banking market study with COVID-19 Impact Analysis @ USD 2500 Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Global Consumer Banking Market: Chapter 1: Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Global Consumer Banking market Chapter 2: Exclusive Summary the basic information of the Global Consumer Banking Market. Chapter 3: Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Global Consumer Banking Chapter 4: Presenting the Global Consumer Banking Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis. Chapter 5: Displaying the by Type, End User and Region 2014-2019 Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Global Consumer Banking market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions. Chapter 8 & 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source finally, Global Consumer Banking Market is a valuable source of guidance for individuals and companies. Get More Information: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/reports/96716-global-consumer-banking-market Key questions answered - Who are the Leading key players and what are their Key Business plans in the Global Consumer Banking market? - What are the key concerns of the five forces analysis of the Global Consumer Banking market? - What are different prospects and threats faced by the dealers in the Global Consumer Banking market? - What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors? Definitively, this report will give you an unmistakable perspective on every single reality of the market without a need to allude to some other research report or an information source. Our report will give all of you the realities about the past, present, and eventual fate of the concerned Market. Thanks for reading this article, we can also provide customized report as per company's specific needs. You can also get separate chapter wise or region wise report versions including North America, Europe or Asia. About Advance Market Analytics Advance Market Analytics is Global leaders of Market Research Industry provides the quantified B2B research to Fortune 500 companies on high growth emerging opportunities which will impact more than 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Our Analyst is tracking high growth study with detailed statistical and in-depth analysis of market trends & dynamics that provide a complete overview of the industry. We follow an extensive research methodology coupled with critical insights related industry factors and market forces to generate the best value for our clients. We Provides reliable primary and secondary data sources, our analysts and consultants derive informative and usable data suited for our clients business needs. The research study enable clients to meet varied market objectives a from global footprint expansion to supply chain optimization and from competitor profiling to M&As. Airport Authority of India chairman Arvind Singh said Saturday that issues with the runway at the Kozhikode airport where an Air India Express flight crashed Friday evening had been resolved. Directorate General of Civil Aviation had some issues with the runway in 2015, but after resolving those issues, clearance was given to it in 2019. The jumbo jets of Air India also used to land there, ANI quoted Singh as saying. He also said that the aircraft could not land on the designated runway. The aircraft could not land at a runway on which it had to, then landing was tried on another runway where the mishap happened. We are monitoring situation and the airport will become operational soon. An alternative facility in Nagpur is also under progress, he said. At least 18 people, including the pilot and the co-pilot, were killed when the aircraft with 190 people on board overshot the runway amid heavy rain at Kozhikode airport and fell into a valley and split into two. The flight was bringing Indians stranded in Dubai amid Covid-19 pandemic under the governments Vande Bharat Mission. A probe 10 years ago after a similar crash at Mangalore airport, had pointed out the dangers of tabletop runways. India has three tabletop airports from where scheduled flights operate. These are Mangalore, Kozhikode and Lengpui (Mizoram). The probe report said that because of the undulating terrain and constraints of space, these airfields require extra skill and caution while carrying out flight operations. The hazard of undershooting and overshooting, in particular, can lead to grave situations, as was the case in this (Mangaolre) accident. These table-top runways also have a problem of access roads around the airfield, which may need to be used in case of aircraft accidents, it added. Fridays crash at Kozhikode has an eerie similarity to the Mangalore accident on 22 May 2010 when a Boeing 737-800 Air India Express Flight from Dubai crashed on landing at Mangalore amid rain. The aircraft had overshot the runway and fell a hillside and burst into flames killing 158 of the 166 people on board. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Latin America and the Caribbean surpassed Europe on Friday to become the region hardest-hit with coronavirus deaths, as India passed the milestone of two million infections. The world's worst-affected region has reported 213,120 fatalities in total, 460 more than Europe, according to an AFP tally based on official data. In Brazil, demonstrators released 100 biodegradable red balloons as the country's coronavirus death toll nears 100,000. Worldwide there have been more than 19 million cases of coronavirus and over 715,000 deaths from the illness since it was first reported in China at the end of last year. In Latin America, which is already the region with the largest number of infections at 5.3 million, deaths continue to soar. Over the last week, 44 percent of global fatalities from COVID-19 - 18,300 out of 41,500 - occurred in the region. More than half the region's infections, some 2.9 million, are in Brazil, which has also recorded 99,702 deaths among its 212 million people, according to worldometer.info. Marcio Antonio do Nascimento, right center, and Lucas Cruz, hold a Brazilian national flag as red balloons are released to honor the victims of COVID-19 in a demonstration Crosses and red balloons were placed by Rio de Paz in tribute to the almost 100,000 victims Countries in Latin American with highest coronavirus cases Brazil - 2.9 million Mexico - 469,407 Peru - 463,875 Chile - 368,825 Colombia - 367,196 Argentina - 235,677 Ecuador - 91,969 Bolivia - 87,891 Advertisement On Saturday, demonstrators - organised by non-governmental organisation Rio de Paz - met on Copacabana beach to plant 100 black crosses and release 100 red balloons in tribute to the near-100,000 victims of the coronavirus. The demonstration was driven by taxi driver Marcio Antonio do Nascimento Silva who lost a son to COVID-19. Antonio Carlos Costa, president of Rio de Paz said: 'Public power and society need to answer a question to which we are told the 100 thousand deaths by coronavirus: why are we the second country in death toll? 'From the rational, exempt and honest answer to this question, depend on the changes Brazil needs to go through in order to live in a country in which the sanctity of human life is respected.' Only the United States has been worse hit than Brazil. It added 1,062 new deaths on Friday to bring its toll to just over 161,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The second worst-affected country in Latin America, Mexico, passed 50,000 deaths on Thursday. In the United States, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said schools could reopen this fall if they meet certain criteria. Schools in several US states have reopened for in-person classes - but some have already been hit by large quarantines of students and staff following fresh outbreaks. The US economy regained 1.8 million jobs in July, according to government data, and the unemployment rate fell to 10.2 percent, but with COVID-19 cases spiking in several states economists raised concerns that the labor market could take a turn for the worse. Brazil has recorded almost 3 million coronavirus cases - second most in the world to the US Mexico has recorded more than 450,000 cases of coronavirus with 51,311 deaths Workers dig fresh graves in the Municipal Cemetery of Valle de Chalco , near Mexico city that opened to accommodate the surge in deaths amid the ongoing new coronavirus pandemic The virus has flared up again in areas where it appeared to have been curbed and has steadily spread across India and Africa. India's cases have doubled in three weeks, reaching two million on Friday following a record daily jump of more than 60,000 new infections. It is only the third country after the United States and Brazil to surpass two million cases. Official figures show the world's second most populous nation has also recorded 41,500 deaths. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government imposed one of the world's strictest lockdowns in late March, with tens of millions of migrant workers losing their jobs almost overnight. But with the economy in tatters, restrictions have been steadily eased. Experts say the true numbers of cases and fatalities are grossly under-reported as causes of death in the country of 1.3 billion people are rarely properly recorded. The stigmatization of those infected has put off many from getting tested. Police personnel check vehicles during a day-long complete lockdown imposed by the state government against the surge in COVID-19 coronavirus cases in Siliguri, India, today 'There's both the fear of the disease as well as of isolation and quarantine,' Rajib Kumar, who heads the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, told AFP. However, there have been some positive indicators in Africa, where health authorities warned against complacency amid hopes that the pandemic is peaking in some parts of the continent. 'African countries are doing their best, despite... limitations' such as weak health systems, Mary Stephen of the World Health Organization's Africa office, told AFP. Some countries have seen declines of around 20 percent in cases but there remain fears of a second wave. 'Because we don't see many people like we used to see in Italy, like 1,000 people dying (a day), people tend to relax, they think the risk is not so much in Africa,' said Stephen. SRINAGAR: The Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday (August 8, 2020) arrested at least six over-ground workers (OGW) of Pakistan-backed terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba in connection with the terror-financing case probe. Sharing more details, Mukesh Singh, Inspector General of Police, Jammu, said, After receiving inputs about a terror-financing network in Jammu that is assisting Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Special Operations Group (SOG) Jammu arrested and interrogated one Mudasir Farooq Bhat. During interrogation, he admitted about his links with LeT. Singh further informed that on the basis of information received from Bhat, the SOG arrested 5 other people associated with ''Lashkar-e-Taiba. They have been identified as Tauqir Ahmad Bhat, Asif Bhat, Khalid Latif Bhat, Gazi Iqbal & Tariq Hussain Mir, he said. One 'Maulavi' (cleric) is also among those who have been arrested, the IG Mukesh Singh said. With this, the J&K Police has busted a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terror financing network in Jammu, Singh said. A case has been registered under Section 38 (Membership of LeT) and 40 (Financing and other support activities) of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act," said Singh. He said that all these accused were working for Haroon Ilias Khubeb (Mohammad Naveen Bhat), resident of Doda. Haroon was trained with the LeT in Pakistan in 1997. "Haroon came back to Doda and was involved in LeT activities. He then went back to Pakistan in 2006. Since then he has been working for the organisation and is active there," Singh said. "Haroon has created this network in Jammu which had been taking part in LeT activities for the last two-three years. A man named Abid Ahmad Bhat was recruited and was killed in an encounter in 2018. Another person named Jamaldin was recruited and had been arrested in 2019 and is in jail at present," the Inspector General said. They were being paid for performing terror activities and a total of Rs 12.5 lakh has been transferred to them through Attari Border and other channels. Hawala transactions were made through Mumbai and some of the money was transferred through electronic mode, the IGP informed. IG Mukesh Singh said they were planning something bigger in the future. We don't have any specific information regarding any activity that they were planning on the 5th or 15th of August, but yes the attempt was to reactivate and probably, they were planning something bigger in future, IG Singh said. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been probing the J& terror funding case and the agency has arrested several people having links to Pakistan-based terror groups and sympathisers in connection with the case. The central probe agency had registered cases against unknown people in connection with the cross-border terror financing for jihadi activities in Kashmir and carried out raids at several locations in J&K. Samir Sharma Death Case: After Lapses In Disha Salians Forensics Reported, Mumbai Cops Get Meticulous In Their Approach Advertisement Donald Trump Jr, his sister and girlfriend took part in a 'Trumpilla' in the Hamptons on Friday ahead of a potentially lucrative weekend of fundraising in the region by the president. Trump is hoping to rake in $15 million in campaign cash on Saturday in a series of fundraisers in the Southampton area of Long Island, including a stop at the home of Don Jr. and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle. On the eve of the event Don Jr, 42, was spotted participating in a Trump rally on a series of boats off the coastal town of Montauk, 25 miles along the coast from Southampton. Also at the boat parade was Don Jr's sister Tiffany, 26, and her boyfriend Michael Boulos. In a blue swimsuit and white loose-fitting pants, Tiffany waved from the deck at the other participants in the 'Trumpilla'. Boaters across the nation have been taking to the waterways to show their support for the president, ahead of his election battle this November. Donald Trump Jr, his sister and girlfriend took part in a 'Trumpilla' in the Hamptons on Friday ahead of a potentially lucrative weekend of fundraising in the region by the president Donald Trump Jr was pictured with his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle participating in a 'Trumpilla' near Montauk on Friday Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who now serves as the fundraising chair of the election campaign, was seen on Friday Guilfoyle, in a long black dress, took to the seas after she had visited a hair salon in nearby Bridgehampton for the event Tiffany Trump is pictured arriving at the dock in Montauk with her boyfriend, Michael Boulos, ahead of the flotilla Tiffany later swapped her swimsuit and white pants for a dress. Here boyfriend Michael wore a MAGA cap to show his support for the cause A small group of protesters yelled out their opposition to the event, but failed to make a significant impact. After the gathering, the First Family were whisked away by a waiting fleet of SUVs, ahead of Saturday's fundraisers. The fundraiser at the home of his son and his son's girlfriend is only one event in a series of fundraisers Team Trump has embarked on this month after trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in second quarter fundraising. Guilfoyle serves as the fundraising chair for the re-election campaign. She was seen getting her hair done at Blow, in Bridgehampton on Friday, ahead of the fundraiser. Donald Trump Jr. posted multiple videos showing Trump fans celebrating on the Trumpilla One photo showed Don Jr's girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle with a Donald Trump look-a-like Don Jr. also posed for a picture with a look-a-like of his presidential father on Saturday On the eve of the event Don Jr, 42, was spotted participating in a Trump rally on a series of boats off the coastal town of Montauk, 25 miles along the coast from Southampton Tiffany Trump also shared pictures of the celebratons to her Instagram. Her pictures show boats with dozens of pro-Trump flags Her tenure with Team Trump came under fire when some staff complained to Politico and The New York Times about her management skills and her use of private airplanes. But her defenders point to her successful fundraising record and her ability to reach new donors for the Republican Party. Plus she is close to the Trump family given her relationship with the president's eldest son. The president will also attend an event Saturday at the Southampton home of billionaire former hedge fund manager John Paulson, one of Trump's closet allies on Wall Street. Kimberly Guilfoyle is seen center wearing a Make America Great Again cap before boarding the boat Kimberly Guilfoyle is seen above at the event where around 40 boats attended the parade sailing around Montauk Trump Jr is seen above at the boat parade. He will host a fundraiser at his home for his father on Saturday Tiffany wore a mask before getting on the boat in Montauk where she then took it off Tiffany laughs alongside her boyfriend and Trump supporters on board the boat in Montauk The event, organized by 'Boaters for Trump', saw dozens of Trump supporters take to the waters off the Hamptons All types of boats participated in the festivities - from large yachts to smaller fishing boats and pleasure crafts Enthusiastic crowds of Trump supporters, flying the flag for the president and Mike Pence, took to the water on Friday The First Family were protected by Secret Service agents and members of the Marine Patrol, out on the waters One flag declared the event to be 'Trumpstock 2020'. Others hoisted giant images of the president's face President Trump will attend a fundraiser on Saturday at the Southampton home of Kimberly Guilfoyle (above) and Donald Trump Jr. Kimberly Guilfoyle was spotted at Blow hair salon in Bridgehampton on Friday ahead of the fundraiser with the president Tickets for the dinner event are priced up to $500,000 per couple, according to an invitation obtained by CNBC. The series of events is expected to raise $15 million for the Trump Victory Fund, a joint fundraising apparatus for the president's re-election campaign, the Republican Party and some state parties. The Southampton area was celebrating Trump on Friday too when supporters staged a boat parade in the president's honor around the area. It's unclear how restrictions surrounding the coronavirus pandemic have impacted in-person fundraising. New York only allows for gatherings of up to 50 people and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has encouraged people to wear masks, particularly when unable to socially distance. Guilfoyle reportedly caused panic in the Southampton neighborhood, home to many wealthy and influential people, after her COVID diagnosis. Shortly before it, she and Don Jr. were spotted at an outdoor rooftop party where few people wore masks. She tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of President Trump's July 3 celebration at Mount Rushmore. She and Don Jr. returned to New York instead of staying at the celebration. President Trump also fundraised in Ohio on Thursday when he was in the state to visit a whirlpool factory Donald Trump Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle were in Washington D.C. on July 22 for fundraisers The couple are popular surrogates for the president on the campaign trail and regular fundraisers for the Republican Party, using their big-name draw and down home style to raise money for state parties and GOP candidates across the country. On July 22, both Don Jr and Guilfoyle posted photos to their Instagram accounts of their time at the White House as part of a fundraising trip to Washington D.C. Team Trump has stepped up its fundraising effort after Biden beat President Trump in second quarter fundraising: $282 million to $266 million. The president made a comeback in July when his team raised $165 million that month compared to Biden's $140 million. The new totals have put the two campaigns essentially even when it comes to cash on hand. But President Trump is spending this weekend focused on his campaign coffers. He attended a fundraiser at a yatch club on Lake Erie in a posh Cleveland neighborhood on Thursday that raked in $5 million for his campaign. And Ivanka Trump brought in $4 million dollars for her father's re-election campaign in her first virtual fundraiser Wednesday that featured a surprise appearance from President Trump. Ivanka Trump appeared on the zoom call with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, a source with knowledge of the fundraiser told DailyMail.com. During the fundraiser, President Trump made a surprise phone call to Ivanka and spoke briefly to her and the more than 70 donors on the call. Ivanka Trump brought in $4 million dollars for her father's re-election campaign in her first virtual fundraiser Wednesday President Donald Trump made a surprise call into the zoom fundraiser to speak to Ivanka Trump and the more than 70 donors - father and daughter are seen together at the White House at a June event The money from the fundraiser went to the Trump Victory fund. Ivanka Trump, who serves as an unpaid adviser in the White House, is the second highest requested fundraiser next to the president, according to the source. She will be in Wyoming later this month for a high-dollar fundraiser with prominent GOP businessman Foster Friess. Friess told CNBC the first daughter, her husband Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle will all be at the August 10 event. With the election less than 100 days away, the competition is heating up and the pressure to fill the campaign coffers is building on both presidential candidates. Surveillance video captured footage of a man in a white Ford truck stealing outdoor mats the night of July 28 from outside Keller Williams Realty, 22371 W. Village Drive, in Dearborn. The man was described as white, and wearing sunglasses, a red Under Armour shirt, blue jeans and red shoes. A spokesperson for the realty said the stolen mats belong to Cintas Corporation, and Keller Williams would be responsible for the cost of the stolen items. Up to 250,000 bikers are heading into rural South Dakota for one of the worlds biggest motorcycle rallies as many health officials across the nation continue to warn against even small gatherings. Thousands of bikers rumbled through the streets of Black Hills some without masks for the start of the 10-day event in the city of Sturgis. One rider who rode in from Arizona said that while he didnt want to die, I dont want to be cooped up all my life either. Stephen Sample, 66, added: This is a major experiment. It could be a major mistake. The mayor of Sturgis said he couldnt stop people for coming and instead encouraged personal responsibility and promised officials would be giving out masks. A city survey found that more than 60 per cent of Sturgis residents wanted the event postponed, and some have stocked up on supplies with a plan to self-isolate from the incoming crowds. The spectacle is centred on Sturgis and fans out to surrounding towns, bringing in more than $1m in city and state tax revenue, according to local media. (Getty Images) Typically, the event draws 500,000 people to the area, but this year is expected to be half that due to the coronavirus outbreak. On June 15, city council members voted 8 to 1 to forge ahead with the 80-year tradition. Average new daily cases reported in South Dakota have risen in recent weeks but remain under 100, and the state records an average of one or two deaths a day from Covid. The integrity of the scholar would be under attack if he were told what he was to think about and how he was to think about it, Sir Robert Menzies said while visiting the University of NSW in 1964. Universities are meant to be the great defenders of freedom of speech. They know it is through free and open debate, through exploration of new and foreign ideas, that discoveries are made in all fields of human endeavour. Institutions and their scholars must be free to speak and teach how they see fit, without compromising their instruction to appease other interests. This is what academic freedom is all about. UNSW has found itself embroiled in a censorship debate. Credit:Louise Kennerley And yet last week, that very institution where Menzies spoke those words has had to fight off accusations it trammelled on free speech and sold out on academic freedom when it pulled off its website an article which included quotes from one of its academics criticising Chinas security crackdown in Hong Kong. It also deleted a tweet promoting the article. UNSW took the publications down after receiving a barrage of complaints from "severely offended" Chinese students. Then, facing accusations of censorship, the university republished the article on a less mainstream page, and tagged it as opinion. Hong Kong and Chinese officials by turns condemned and mocked a Friday move by the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Hong Kongs chief executive, Carrie Lam, and 10 other senior officials for their roles in a prolonged crackdown on political dissent in the city. The Hong Kong government and several of the officials targeted dismissed the impact of the penalties, while also condemning them as blatant and barbaric interference in Chinas domestic political situation. The head of Chinas liaison office to Hong Kong, Luo Huining, said on Chinese media that the American efforts were a waste because he had no holdings in the United States, adding that he could send $100 to President Trump to give him something to freeze. The condemnations and dismissals come as relations between the United States and China have deteriorated to a historical low point, and follow on the heels of a move on Thursday by the Trump administration to penalize two of the most successful apps to come out of China, TikTok and WeChat. Analysts say there is little hope relations will improve in the short term, with the American election looming and many Trump administration officials determined to reset the relationship between the worlds two largest economies. DANBURY Residents rallied Saturday morning in support of officers in the wake of a recent reform bill and nationwide protests over policing. Danbury police Sgt. John Krupinsky and others denounced the reform bill signed by Gov. Ned Lamont late last month, arguing it would hurt officers ability to protect themselves and the community. It destroys good cops, said Krupinsky, president of the Connecticut State Fraternal Order of Police. Good cops wont be able to do their jobs. Krupinsky said he and some of the older officers may leave policing if the bill is not adjusted. Among other changes, the bill creates the office of an inspector general to investigate complaints of police misconduct, requires police and correction officers to intervene when witnessing brutality, mandates body and dash cameras, bans chokeholds in most circumstances and clarifies that deadly force can be used only when police exhaust all reasonable alternatives. The rally was promoted on Facebook by Back the Blue CT, with the event page including a banner from the organization Act for America, which is considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center to be an anti-Muslim hate group. Back the Blue CT said it is not affiliated with Act for America, but discovered the organization when trying to create an event to support police. So we thought we had to have a group to get this going and share a blueprint. So we reached out and used the picture, Back the Blue CT said in Facebook message. The writer declined to give his name. But that was it. We never worked with them. Never discussed anything and actually didnt do anything with them. This was an independent, community-led event. Simply showing support. Back the Blue is an Act for America activism campaign to build support for officers, according to Act for Americas website. At least one attendee held a sign, which read I proudly support our police, that can be downloaded from the organizations website. The about page for Back the Blue CT describes itself as against violence and divisiveness, against racism or bigotry in any form and firmly against the hate and attacks on our police. The rally comes as protesters locally and nationwide have criticized police brutality and systemic racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white Minneapolis cop. Speakers included Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour, State Rep. Steve Harding, R-Brookfield, State Rep. Bill Buckbee, R-New Milford, a woman whose husbands life was saved by Danbury officers and others. Back the Blue has held rallies recently in Stamford and Hartford, while other events have been held across the country. Krupinsky, who introduced all the speakers, said the rally was not connected to Act for America. We have nothing to do with them, nor do we want anything to do with them, he said as more than 100 people gathered in front of the Danbury police station before speeches began. This is about unity. He said he was contacted over the phone by the Back the Blue organization to speak and did not know who the organizers were or what they looked like. No one from Back the Blue spoke at the event, but the organization posted photos from the event on its Facebook page. In his speech, Krupinsky denounced hate. Weve had no contact with any hate group, Krupinsky said to the crowd at the beginning of the event. They are not welcome. They can grab their gear. Local activists denounced the rally due to its perceived connections to Act for America. Carolina Bortolleto, co-founder of Connecticut Students for a Dream, which supports undocumented immigrants, said it was shameful the event was held in the diverse city during a pandemic and shortly after a storm that has left thousands without power. She criticized the mayor, chief and Krupinsky for their involvement. The fact that a police officer organized this rally and it was allowed to proceed further shows that the police are a white supremacist organization, Bortolleto said in an email. How are minority communities in Danbury supposed to be feel safe in our town or trust our police when we are victims of crimes if we know that are own police collaborates with known hate groups and white supremacist organizations? The Fairfield County Anti Racism Education Collective also opposed Saturdays rally. This does nothing to foster communication between police and communities of color, but rather contributes to certainty that white supremacy is systemic and deeply rooted in our law enforcement, said Jean Hislop, the groups administrator. We further condemn Mayor Mark Boughton for appearing at this event. Blue lives do not exist. Blue is the color of a uniform one puts on. We stand in solidarity with communities of color and again repeat Black lives matter today, and every day. A section of Main Street was shut down on the northbound side, where a fire truck was parked to display a large American flag. Attendees wore T-shirts that said Back the Blue and carried Thin Blue Line American flags, which support the police. Ryan McGee, co-owner of New England Uniform, a business on Main Street that makes attire for law enforcement, said he created the shirts, but was not involved in the organization. Were just here to support the police, he said. They are the backbone of our society. One man held a sign that said I back the blue and stand against racism. ... In case youre wondering, you can do both. Ridenhour, who is black and has told protesters he wants to work with them to improve the department, thanked those who attended Saturday for their backing of the department. It means a lot to all the men and women in the Danbury Police Department, he said. It means a lot to me and please help us in our quest as we ensure proper and equitable service to our community. Boughton thanked the officers for the acts of kindness they perform throughout the community. This city is blessed with, I think, the finest police department in the state of Connecticut, he said. Warnings had piled up for years that nursing homes were vulnerable. The pandemic sent them to the back of the line for equipment and care. BRUSSELS Shirley Doyen was exhausted. The Christalain nursing home, which she ran with her brother in an affluent neighborhood in Brussels, was buckling from Covid-19. Eight residents had died in three weeks. Some staff members had only gowns and goggles from Halloween doctor costumes for protection. Nor was help coming. Ms. Doyen had begged hospitals to collect her infected residents. They refused. Sometimes she was told to administer morphine and let death come. Once she was told to pray. Then, in the early morning of April 10, it all got worse. First, a resident died at 1:20 a.m. Three hours later, another died. At 5:30 a.m., still another. The night nurse had long since given up calling ambulances. The death toll from an Indian passenger aircraft accident has risen to at least 18. A senior official said on Saturday (August 8) at least 16 people have been severely injured. The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered from site. A top official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said both "black boxes" have been found. The Air India Express plane was repatriating Indians stranded in Dubai due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Boeing-737 plane skidded off the table-top runway of Calicut International Airport in heavy rain on Friday (August 7), crashing nose-first into the ground. Such runways are located at an altitude and have steep drops at one or both ends. The plane's pilot and the co-pilot were killed in the accident. An injured passenger being treated in a hospital said the pilot tried to avoid the crash. "The pilot tried a lot to land us safely in the rainy weather. It was cloudy and around 7-7.30 pm in the evening, we crash landed. It was difficult to land, he tried a lot." All passengers admitted to hospitals are being tested for COVID-19. This was India's worst passenger aircraft accident since 2010. The flight was carrying 190 passengers and crew. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said authorities managed to rescue most of the passengers because the plane did not catch fire. He added that only an investigation would reveal the cause of the crash. Washington The principle of religious freedom is important to most Americans. But as President Donald Trump touts his support for it during his reelection bid, there are notable fault lines among people of different faiths and political ideologies over what it truly means. About 8 in 10 Americans said religious freedom issues are at least somewhat important to them, with 55 percent saying they are very important, according to a newly released poll conducted by The University of Chicago Divinity School and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. While 35 percent of U.S. adults overall said they believe their own religious freedom is threatened at least somewhat, conservatives were more likely than liberals to say so. Across the largest U.S. religious denominations, evangelical Protestants were especially likely to perceive risks to their freedom to worship. A divide over religious freedom for Muslims was particularly apparent in the poll. About half of Americans said U.S. Muslims' freedom to worship is threatened at least somewhat, including 7 in 10 atheists and agnostics, about 6 in 10 Catholics, and about half of white mainline and nonwhite Protestants. Only about 3 in 10 white evangelicals, however, said Muslim Americans' religious freedom is at least somewhat threatened. The poll's findings suggest that, as Trump leans into religious freedom as a touchstone of his outreach to devout voters, conservatives and evangelicals who make up the core of his base hold distinctly different perspectives on the topic than other Americans. Whether those divergent views can be joined and harnessed to make progress on the issue for a wide variety of faiths remains an open question. "No one's religious freedom is an island, and if the government is empowered to take religious freedom away from Muslims or other religious minorities, the government is going to be empowered to take away religious freedom from other religious groups," said Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at the nonpartisan Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Becket has racked up legal victories for Christian clients, including last month's Supreme Court ruling that upheld the ability of religious schools and other institutions to make certain employment decisions without facing discrimination claims. But the nonprofit firm represents members of all faiths, and Goodrich said "it's vitally important, for the health of religious freedom over the long term, that Americans care for religious freedom for those with whom they deeply disagree." In the poll, 77 percent of liberals said Muslims' freedoms were threatened at least somewhat, compared with 32 percent of conservatives. Liberals also were roughly three times more likely than conservatives to perceive threats to atheists and Buddhists, and somewhat more likely to perceive threats to Jews, 56 percent to 41 percent. By contrast, by roughly two to one, more conservatives than liberals said evangelical Protestants, Catholics and other Christians face threats to their religious freedom. Andrew Lewis, an associate political science professor at the University of Cincinnati who focuses on religion, said a "polarization of religious freedom" has developed over the last two decades, with potentially negative consequences. "Religious freedom has always been a contested question in America," Lewis said, "but the fact that it's entered into our politically partisan landscape is bad for thinking about how we protect the rights of people." The poll was conducted in February, before the coronavirus wreaked havoc in the country, but has not been made public until now. And some of its findings have resonated more sharply since the pandemic began. For example, 46 percent of evangelicals said their religious freedom was under threat, compared with 27 percent of mainline Protestants, 36 percent of Catholics and 40 percent of Americans affiliated with other religions. Another UChicago Divinity School/AP-NORC poll conducted in the early weeks of the pandemic found white evangelicals were particularly likely to say in-person worship should be allowed in some form, and 46 percent said that barring those services would violate religious freedom. David Nirenberg, dean of The University of Chicago Divinity School, pointed to "communications bubbles in certain faith communities" that often reinforce to believers the assertion that their religious liberty is imperiled. "We're seeing some of that now mobilized again in the public health response" to the virus, Nirenberg added, including restrictions on in-person worship and other behavior that are "represented in some of those same communities as an attack on their religious liberties." Actor Sushant Singh Rajputs sister, Shweta Singh Kirti, has shared pictures and videos of a digital billboard calling for justice for Sushant, in California. The actor died by suicide on June 14, at the age of 34. Bhais Billboard in California...Its up on 880 north, right after the great mall parkway exit. Its a world wide movement, she wrote in her caption. The first picture in the post shows the billboard, with Sushants face and the rallying cry on it. The second is a video, which perhaps increases the veracity of the post. In a separate post, she shared another video of the billboard, taken from a passing car. You are beating in our hearts, she wrote. Sushants niece, Mallika Singh, who now has a verified Instagram account herself, wrote in the comments, May we all have the strength to keep going. The posts come a day after Sushants girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik presented themselves for questioning at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) offices in Mumbai, after Sushants father filed an FIR against them for abetting the actors suicide, siphoning his funds, among other allegations. Also read: Kriti Sanon posts cryptic message as Rhea Chakraborty is questioned about Sushant Singh Rajput: Sun will shine again Shweta had said in a social media post on Friday, We will get justice... we will find the truth!! In a separate post, shed cryptically shared a message that read, Someone said be careful who you mess with because you dont know who protects them in the spiritual world. Sushants death is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation, a move that Shweta had welcomed wholeheartedly, after a turf war broke out between the Mumbai and Bihar police departments. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The skyrocketing demand for a highly effective anticancer drug is leading to the demise of a yew tree in Nepal. The Taxus mairei, one of the three species of yew trees growing in Nepal, is critically endangered in the country. It yields a compound called 'taxol' that is a proven anti-cancer agent. Realizing the need to protect the fast-disappearing Maire's yew tree, a team of conservationists led by Kumar Paudel and Reshu Bashyal from Greenhood Nepal launched a project in 2018 to estimate its population in Nepal and engage the local community in its conservation. Their study revealed some shocking facts. World Atlas spoke with Kumar Paudel, Co-founder and Director at Greenhood Nepal to learn more. A Valuable Tree On The Verge Taxus harvester segregating the leaves soon after harvest. Image credit: Kumar Paudel/Greenhood Nepal In Nepal, yew trees have been traditionally harvested for a variety of needs and more recently, to cater to the increasing demands of the modern pharmaceutical industry. These trees are famed for the compound taxol that is present in their leaves, barks, and trunks. The compound is extracted from these trees to produce a drug that is used in cancer treatment. Although yew trees are also cultivated, wild trees are not spared for taxol extraction. Experts warn that the world cannot afford to lose the wild gene pool of this tree. The latter is always of greater significance as it is more diverse and associated with robust populations that can withstand stress better than their "pampered" cultivated counterparts. A group of women harvesters entering the forest in Kavrepalnchok, Nepal. Image credit: Kumar Paudel/Greenhood Nepal Given the unregulated exploitation of wild yew trees and little studies existing to warn conservationists of their conservation status, Paudel and his team decided to investigate the matter further. Here is what first drew Greenhood Nepal's attention to the country's yew trees: "We had seen people harvesting yews while visiting communities during the pangolin field research in Kavrepalachok, Nepal. Looking at the exploitation of these trees, we had some doubts about their survival in the wild. Meanwhile, in 2017, I saw yews widespread in Oxford, UK, and that was different than what I had seen in Nepal. These incidents stimulated my passion to learn more about the yews of Nepal," said Paudel, Co-founder and Director of Greenhood Nepal, a non-profit organization driven by science that concentrates on human dimensions of nature conservation. In Need Of Urgent Conservation Greenhood researcher collecting data in the field. Photo: Reshu Bashyal/Greenhood Nepal As the Greenhood Nepal team started examining the conservation status of the yews of Nepal, they understood that proper evaluation of their population, especially that of the Taxus mairei species, was urgently needed. Hence, they launched a project in 2018 with advisory support from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, University of Oxford, to estimate the wild population of the species in Nepal and to learn about the impact of the harvesting methods used by local communities on these trees. The results of the study revealed some concerning facts. "Our study showed that only a few hundred of Maires yew trees (except seedlings and saplings) are left in the wild in Nepal. However, the propagation and cultivation of these trees in private lands are increasing due to high market demands," informed Paudel. A nursery person showing a propagated Taxus mairei in his Nursery, Nepal. Image credit: Kumar Paudel/Greenhood Nepal The study also found that the tree had restricted distribution limited to only three districts of Sindhuli, Makwanpur, and Kavreplanchowk in Central Nepal. The researchers suggested that long-term unsustainable harvesting of these trees in the absence of proper guidelines is the possible cause of such low numbers. They also exhibited concern over the fact that these trees are now being propagated by the stem cutting method affecting their genetic diversity. "Maires yew is one of the 13 species of yews worldwide. Among that Nepal hosts three species - Taxus mairei, Taxus contorta, and Taxus wallichiana. These species are among the most exploited medicinal plants in Nepal. Unlike the other two species, Taxus mairei is nationally critically endangered and reported from only three districts of Central Nepal. Uncontrolled harvest can lead to the extinction of the species in the wild in the country as there are not many of them left," warned Paudel. Greenhood researchers consulting with a local nursery in Kavrepalanchok to understand their propagation and cultivation practises. Image credit: Kumar Paudel/Greenhood Nepal Given the severe issues threatening Maire's yew tree in Nepal, it is evident that urgent and necessary actions need to be implemented to protect them in the country. Paudel and his team are working in the direction to ensure the same. "Greenhood Nepal is working for the long term survival of the wild Taxus mairei in Nepal. We have estimated the wild population and drafted sustainable harvesting guidelines. We are working with communities to train them to practice the sustainable harvesting method in a way that is beneficial to both the yews and the communities," he said. While the Maire's yew tree may be saved just in time, there are many species of flora on the brink around the world. Often, they go ignored, due to a phenomenon called "plant blindness" that leads to limited attention given to plant conservation. However, there can be no argument on the fact that plants are important for both environmental and human health. The faster the world realizes this, the better it is for the future generations of the planet. The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius declared a state of environmental emergency late Friday after a Japanese-owned ship that ran aground offshore began spilling tons of fuel. Mauritius has said the MV Wakashio was carrying nearly 4,000 tons of fuel and cracks have appeared in its hull. A video posted online by Mauritius resident Gregoire Rouxel showed oily waters lapping at the shore. Rouxel said that the unpleasant smell of oil could be smelled from miles away. On Friday, divers were using a containment boom to help contain oil leaking from the MV Wakashio ship, according to French news agency MU Press. A police inquiry has been opened into issues such as possible negligence, a government statement said. Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said his government was appealing to France for help, saying the spill represents a danger" for the country of some 1.3 million people that relies heavily on tourism and has been hit hard by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The army has deployed around 40,000 troops along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh to tackle the heavy build up by the Chinese New Delhi: Amid the ongoing border tensions with China, Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane firmly told his commanders to be prepared for any "eventuality" and maintain the highest operational preparedness. He gave the remarks during his recent visit to the Tezpur-based 4 Corps, which looks after the China border with Arunachal Pradesh. "The Army Chief has told all his commanders to be prepared for any eventuality and maintain the highest level of operational preparedness on the front," Army sources told ANI. The Army Chief was on a two-day visit to Eastern Command where he was briefed on the Indian and Chinese deployments and build up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) there. The Chinese Army has maintained four to five Combined Armed Brigades, which are like the Integrated Battle Groups being planned to be set up by the Army for warfighting. The Indian Army has deployed around 40,000 troops along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh to tackle the heavy build up by the Chinese. The Chinese Army has also made significant deployments opposite Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. During the talks with the Indian side, the Chinese are refusing to disengage from the Finger area completely and have been raising insignificant issues to buy time. The new Nokia Oyj Chief Executive Officer Pekka Lundmark took the reins at Nokia on August 1. Nokia Oyj Chief Executive Officer Pekka Lundmark said the Finnish networks maker plans to stand clear of geopolitics as the technology industry increasingly is thrust into trade and political conflicts. Lundmark, who took the reins at Nokia on August 1, is finding his footing in a tense situation that pits China -- and Nokias rival Huawei Technologies Co. -- against the US and other governments moving to ban the Chinese supplier from their fifth-generation mobile networks. I think it would be a big mistake if individual businesses would start to drive their political agenda, he said in an interview on Friday. Its very important that businesses play it straight and stay where they should stay. We do not have a political agenda, we are a pure business. US President Donald Trumps administration has been pressuring allies against using Huaweis equipment, which it argues could pose a danger to network security. Huawei has forcefully and repeatedly denied these allegations. Huawei isnt the only Chinese tech firm targeted: on Thursday, Trump moved to ban Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat social media apps. Huaweis troubles have brought some business Nokias way, the company said last month. The US and the UK have signaled theyre considering some form of aid to Nokia and its Swedish competitor, Ericsson AB, to ensure competition in the supply of 5G gear. Nokia lags behind rivals in the 5G race, and thats what Lundmark has been brought in to fix. Five days into his new job, the CEO said he is busy speaking with customers and has begun mapping a path forward. My goal definitely is that I would be able to say something more concrete before the end of the year on what next steps we should take on the market, he said. That may seem like a long time for shareholders, reeling from a 40% drop in the stock price since a 2015 high (on the day it announced the purchase of Alcatel-Lucent). Theyve been waiting since early March for Lundmark to take the reins, and many have expressed hopes he would act fast to start a turnaround. Lundmark said he has plans for an investor day in due course -- a rare event at Nokia, which has only held two Capital Markets Days since 2009, the last one in 2016. We have had our ups and downs in Nokias performance and the company has gone through a fundamental transformation, he said. But Im also cautiously optimistic about the situation right now. Uzbekistan aims to become one of the worlds largest gold producers within the next several years that will be achieved through more development of its domestic gold regions. According to latest data, published by the Uzbek State Committee for Geology, the country currently has 63 large-scale gold mining fields, which have total reserves of more than 2,500 tonnes of gold, and probable reserves (in categories C1 and C2) of 5,990 tonnes. Of these, at least nine are currently in the developmental stage and there is a possibility the number of such fields will increase already shortly. Implementation of these plans will be also part of the last years order, which was given by the Uzbek President Shavkat Mirzeev to the national government and which involves an increase of domestic gold and silver production by almost two times by 2021-2022. As Resourceworld reports, at present, the annual volume of gold production in Uzbekistan is estimated at 100 tonnes (in 2017 89.9 tonnes; in 2019 88.5 tonnes) and will significantly increase in years to come. In fact, the development of the Uzbekistan gold mining industry began at the end of 1960s, when the Soviet government gave a green light for the development of Muruntau, a gold mine that has one of the worlds largest reserves. After the collapse of the USSR, most of these projects stalled and resumed only in recent years, when the Uzbek government announced its plans to invest up to US$750 million in the development of Muruntau. Most of the funds for the project will be allocated from state sources. Located in the mountains in the southwest of the Kyzyl Kum desert of the Navoi region, the mine was discovered in 1958 and commercial development began in July, 1969. The worlds largest gold-mining open pit was then established with a length of 3.5 km, a width of 2.7 km and a depth of 600 metres. Most of gold will be produced at plants operated by the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine (NMMC) which already accounts 70% of gold production in Uzbekistan. As part of the plans of the Uzbek government, the beginning of more active development of Muruntau will ensure replenishment of gold reserves utilizing the almost complete utilization of NMMC. The NMMC is comprised of four hydrometallurgical plants, one heap leaching mine and one gold processing mill. Since 1991, ore processing at NMMC has almost tripled, while the volume of gold production has increased by almost 40%. As planned, development of Muruntau and other local gold mining fields will involve the participation of foreign investors. As part of the plans of the Uzbek government, particular attention will be paid to attract investors from Canada. Last year, B2Gold Corp. announced their intention to conduct geological exploration of three promising gold deposits in the Navoi region. At that time, the company had not ruled out the possibility of beginning active gold mining within Uzbekistan, which may become the next stage after the completion of exploration. In the meantime, the Uzbek government hopes that attracting foreign investors will create conditions for the transfer of some Western gold mining technologies to domestic producers, which may provide a further impetus for the development of the countrys gold mining sector in the future. In addition, it is hoped that foreign investors and gold mining specialists will provide an opportunity to better assess the geological reserves of the republic in accordance with international standards. In general, the Uzbek government hopes successful implementation of these plans will allow the increase gold reserves up to 474 tonnes worth US$18.75 billion within the next five years. According to the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, current gold reserves are estimated at US$13.1 billion. At present, gold remains one of the major export items for Uzbekistan, most of which is exported to Switzerland. Implementation of these plans will be part of the ambitious state plan for Uzbekistan to join the worlds top five gold-producing nations. Mankatha is undoubtedly one of the best films of Thala Ajith. Being a blockbuster at the theatres, fans and followers of the actor had requested the director Venkat Prabhu for a sequel to the 2011 film. The action-thriller that marked the 50th film of the actor, proved to be a lucky charm for Venkat too, as he turned into one of the most bankable directors of Kollywood after its release. Not too long ago, a rumour surfaced the internet about the humongous collaboration of Ajith Kumar and Vijay for Mankatha 2. It was also reported that the director has approached Thalapathy to narrate the story. Well, recently during an interaction with The Hindu, Venkat Prabhu said that he has a few ideas for a film, which is only possible if both the stars accept the offer. He was quoted by the news daily as, "It will be the best thing for people after COVID-19. It could instantly bring back the theatre experience for fans. I don't know if I will be the one to bring them (Ajith and Vijay) together on screen or if it will be someone else. I have a few ideas, but it can only move forward if both accept." Interestingly, he also revealed that he has pitched the same idea to the actors. He said, "When I pitched an idea of them working together, they were like 'Yes, pannalaame' (we can do it)." We are sure this piece of news might have excited the fans, who are eagerly awaiting for the big two stars to share screen-space in a big-budget film. Well, we have our fingers crossed and hope that the big project gets a confirmation sooner or later. For the unversed, Ajith and Vijay have earlier collaborated for 1995 film Rajavin Parvaiyile directed by Janaki Soundar. Master Stunt Choreographer Siva Drops Unrevealed Details From The Vijay Starrer CONFIRMED: Thala Ajith's Varalaaru And Vaali Are Not Getting Hindi Remakes! Federation Square will be opened up to the Yarra in a post-pandemic world with riverside activities and the promotion of its waterfront venues such as Riverland and Pilgrim. Melburnians desire for the square to be better connected to the Yarra River, Birrarung Marr and nearby sporting and arts precincts was one of the key messages to emerge from a consultation report conducted as part of a government review into the future of the square. The review was ordered by the government last year after it abandoned controversial plans to build a flagship Apple store at the square. Federation Square CEO Xavier Csar projected on the screen of a deserted Fed Square. Credit:Simon Schluter This followed Heritage Victorias refusal to allow the demolition of the Yarra Building to pave the way for the Apple store and increase connection with the Yarra River. By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell nearly 2% on Friday, limiting their weekly gain due to concerns the global recovery could falter from a resurgence of coronavirus cases. By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell nearly 2% on Friday, limiting their weekly gain due to concerns the global recovery could falter from a resurgence of coronavirus cases. The rise in infections remains the dominant issue for the fuel demand outlook. Cases in the United States are still rising in a number of states, while India recently reported a record daily jump in infections. More than 700,000 people have died in the worldwide pandemic. Brent crude fell 69 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $44.40 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 73 cents, or 1.7%, to end at $41.22 a barrel. Brent rose 2.5% for the week, while WTI gained 2.4%. Talks between U.S. lawmakers over another round of stimulus have stalled, meanwhile. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pull White House representatives out of talks and instead issue executive orders to address economic needs. "The U.S. Congress can't seem to come up with a plan for the next round of stimulus and it's creating doubt for U.S. economic recovery," said Gary Cunningham, director of market research at Tradition Energy. OPEC member Iraq pledged to cut output further in August, which helped support prices. The nation has been a laggard in fully meeting its pledge as part of an April deal to reduce supply. Crude has recovered from lows reached in April, when Brent slipped below $16, a 21-year low. "Keeping the price levels would be unrealistic," Bjornar Tonhaugen of Rystad Energy said of this week's rise. "Traders rushed to the task today to correct the gains, remembering the invisible enemy, COVID-19." U.S. non-farm payrolls for July came in slightly better than expected, but still showed employment growth slowed. U.S. Democratic leaders said the jobs report showed more investments were needed. U.S. energy companies cut the number of oil and natural gas rigs this week to a record low for a 14th week. U.S. oil rigs fell by four to 176 this week, their lowest since July 2005, according to data from energy services firm Baker Hughes Co . (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; Additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London, Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Shu Zhang in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Alexander Smith) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The pandemics toll on friendships goes deeper than mere political polarization the confusion of a mask with support for big government. Its more about discovering personality differences between you and your relatives and friends, including different levels of risk-tolerance and what might seem like irrational optimism on one side vs. hysterical alarmism on the other. At a time when many of us are losing sleep, picturing ourselves or someone we love gasping for air in a crowded emergency room, these differences are painfully relevant. A s many as 750,000 coronavirus tests have been recalled by their manufacturer after amid safety concerns, the Department of Health has said. The UK's medicines and healthcare products regulator (MHRA) told producer Randox on Saturday to recall the kits which were sent out to both care homes and individuals. But the Government said this was a precautionary measure, with the testing kits posing a low safety risk. The results of Randox tests are still valid, the Department of Health added. Samples are taken at a coronavirus testing facility in Temple Green Park and Ride, Leeds, as NHS Test and Trace is rolled out across England. / Danny Lawson/PA Wire/PA Images The news comes just weeks after Matt Hancock told Brits not to use Randox kits until further notice, with the health secretary calling the swabs "not up to standard". A Department of Health spokesperson said on Saturday: "We have high safety standards for all coronavirus tests. Following the pausing of Randox kits on 15 July, Randox have now recalled all test kits as a precautionary measure. "Our testing support for care homes continues as any resident or member of staff with symptoms can immediately access a free test and we are exploring ways to increase the amount of testing, making full use of available lab capacity." Randox, based in Northern Ireland, claims to be responsible for up to 17 per cent of coronavirus tests carried out in the UK, and has sent out about 1.3 million tests so far. Coronavirus testing staff / PA The Department of Health has also told Randox to recall Randox test kits from NHS test and trace settings. Randox said that the decision to recall the tests was because of a lack of EC certification - meaning they are not allowed to be used in the European Economic Area. Randox said in a statement: "Randox Laboratories have today taken the decision to recall Covid-19 sample collection kits, following the identification of incomplete EC certification. On 15th July DHSC placed these kits on hold due to the absence of swab certification from an external supplier. "To date, Randox have not been provided with evidence to satisfactorily support the CE marking for these swabs. So, noting the lack of CE certification by the supplier and that some kits remain in the field at this time Randox has, as a regulatory measure, initiated the recall of those kits used within the National Testing Programme." The former senator and businessman, Buruji Kashamu, is dead. Mr Kashamu died Saturday at the First Cardiology Consultants Hospital in Lagos, his friend and former colleague at the Senate, Ben Murray-Bruce, confirmed. I have just lost my good friend of forever to #COVID19. Until his death, Sen. Buruji Kashamu and I were inseparable. He died today at First Cardiology Consultants, in Lagos. May his gentle soul rest in peace. I pray his family and loved ones the fortitude to bear this heavy loss, Mr Murray-Bruce wrote on Twitter. The cause of death was not immediately clear although the former lawmaker had been reported to have been ill from COVID-19, the deadly respiratory infection caused by the coronavirus. Nigeria has so far recorded over 45,000 infections since the pandemic broke out in February. Mr Kashamu was the founder of Western Lotto Limited, one of Nigerias lottery operators. He served as the senator representing Ogun East in the eighth National Assembly and for years was wanted in the United States for alleged drug offenses. He always denied wrongdoing. Shweta Shares A Photo Of Sushant's Billboard In California Shweta shared a picture of a billboard which features the Raabta actor's face along with the hashtag on it. She captioned it as, "Bhai's Billboard in California...It's up on 880 north, right after the great mall parkway exit. It's a world wide movement." 'You Are Beating In Our Hearts,' Says Shweta Sushant's sister also shared a video, taken from a passing car. She captioned the video as, "You are beating in our hearts." Click here to watch the video. Earlier, Shweta Had Shared A Cryptic Post She shared a message on her Instagram page that read, "Someone said be careful who you mess with because you don't know who protects them in the spiritual world." Shweta shared this cryptic post at the same time when Sushant's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik arrived for questioning at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Mumbai. A CBI Probe In Sushant's Death Case CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) has stepped in to investigate Sushant Singh Rajput's death case after a turf war broke out between the Mumbai and Bihar police. The move has been welcomed by the late actor's family and fans. By Express News Service ALAPPUZHA: A controversy has erupted over the upcoming Malayalam movie Kurup, a Dulquer Salmaan starrer, about the controversial murder of Chacko of Alappuzha by Sukumara Kurup in 1984. In a press conference at Alappuzha Press Club on Friday, Chackos son Jithin said, My father is for me just like what Mammootty is for Dulquer Salmaan. In the teaser released prior to the release of the film, Dulquer, the hero of the film, says ini njan vicharikkanam, enne pidikkan (now, I have to decide when I shall be caught), signalling the makeover of a killer to a hero. This cannot be tolerated by us, Jithin said. Just like every Malayali, I have also been frightened by the name of Kurup from childhood days, a heinous murder convict who had escaped the clutches of law. But in the film, the hero says this line giving an anti-hero image to Sukumara Kurup, said Jithin, who is now 36. When his father was murdered, he was in her mothers womb. The film sends out a wrong message and the younger generations will mistake Kurup for a hero. What is the role of my father in the film? The film producer and the actor are trying to glorify Kurup. The film must be released only after it is screened before us and objectionable parts are removed, Jithin said. Chackos wife Santhamma also attended the press meet. Chacko, who was a film representative, was murdered on January 21, 1984, when he was returning home from Karuvatta after work. The gang offered him a lift in their car and strangled him. After the murder, Chackos face was burnt in the car porch of Kurups house at Cheriyanad. The car was then pushed into a paddy filed at Kunnam near Mavelikkara, Chackos body was placed in the drivers seat and the car burnt. Sukumara Kurup, his brother-in-law Bhaskara Pillai and driver Ponnappan were the accused in the case, but Kurup absconded after the murder and he has never been caught. The murder was committed to claim Rs 8 lakh of assured amount in the insurance policy he had joined in Abu Dhabi. Jithin and his mother said they have sent a legal notice to Dulquer and the films producer demanding them to remove the objectionable portrayal of Kurup as a hero in the film. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Air India Express on Saturday said that it will pay an interim compensation to the victims of Friday's Kozhikode accident in order to provide them immediate relief. Accordingly, the airline will give an interim compensation to the injured and kin of the deceased passenger. "The airline is adequately insured and will pay compensation in accordance with applicable law at the appropriate juncture," the airline said in a statement. "To provide immediate relief, as an interim compensation AI Express will give Rs 10,00,000 to the next kin of the deceased passenger 12 years and above, Rs 5,00,000 to the passengers below the age of 12 years, Rs 200,000 to critically injured passenger and Rs 50,000 to the passenger who are injured in the incident," the statement said. As per the statement, emergency 'Response Team Members' of Air India with Air India Express have already been sent to the accident scene, and all will render necessary help to assist the emergency services and local authorities to the passengers. Latest updates on Kerala Air India Plane Crash -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The New York City Department of Education, which oversees 1.1 million public school students across the five boroughs, plans to offer blended learning when school starts this fall. In this photo, a student gets off the bus at Hunt Elementary School in Jackson, Mich. (J. Scott Park | MLive.com)J. Scott Park | MLive.com Suddenly embattled Senate candidate Matt Lieberman. Photo: YouTube Atlanta entrepreneur Matt Lieberman had several things going for him when he became one of the first Democrats to announce his candidacy in the November special election to replace Senator Johnny Isakson, who resigned for health reasons. He had an early start, some name ID thanks to his fathers fame, and a good fundraising base. But he had a largely unknown skeleton in his closet that probably should have kept him from making a Senate bid in a racially polarized state where he would depend heavily on Black voters: a novel he penned and self-published in 2018 that has now led the head of Georgias NAACP to call on him to withdraw from the contest, as reported by HuffPost: A Democratic Senate candidate in Georgia wrote and self-published a deeply bizarre novel in 2018, featuring a main character who believes that for most of his life he owned an imaginary slave who could communicate with plants and animals The main character, an elderly white southern man named Benno, regularly deploys the N-word and says some members of the Ku Klux Klan were basically good people. The 213-page novel, in which the racist main character tells the story of his life to a narrator with a biography similar to Liebermans, ultimately suggests Lucius functioned as a sort of pet for Benno. More problematically, the semi-autobiographical narrator exhibits a lot of sympathy for the old bigot, according to HuffPost. I know my approach to this delicate subject is not palatable for every reader, Lieberman wrote in a statement. I expected some readers to react with disgust. On that front, Lieberman was right. James Woodall, the president of the state NAACP chapter, told HuffPost in a phone interview the book contained racist tropes. He said Lieberman should drop out of the Senate race I havent read the novel and cannot personally make a judgment about it, but it certainly sounds like Lieberman deliberately leapt into troubled waters and swam a few unnecessary laps: Benno characterizes Lucius not only as cheerful and obedient, like my pup and a damned good slave, but as having a supernatural ability to communicate with animals and insects, and to give Benno the power of comprehension by holding his hand. In fact, Benno claims, Lucius believes that Black people evolved along with the rest of the animal kingdom and sit at the top of the food chain, and white people evolved separately. Because they evolved along with the rest of the animals, he explains, the Negro is connected in like a soul way to all those critters and all those animals hes passed on through. Depicting Black people as having a closer connection to the animal kingdom and as having mystical powers they can impart to white protagonists is a textbook example of the magical Negro trope, in which Black characters are portrayed as vessels for wisdom or supernatural powers that can provide enlightenment or aid to white protagonists. It most definitely sounds like Lieberman would have to spend a goodly portion of the short period left before Novembers special election explaining himself: Lucius own words, as performed by Benno, are written in a broad, stereotypical dialect. In one scene, Benno describes him making conversation with the moon: How is you up there, Mistuh Moon? And then maybe hed say something like What did da sun say to da moon? No thats not right, Mistuh Moon. Mistuh Sun said wake up! to da moon. And then hed quietly laugh again. Gotcha, Mistuh Moon. I gotcha on dat one. Lord have mercy. If he stays in the race, Lieberman will struggle against consensus party favorite Raphael Warnock, pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, whose understanding of race relations in Georgia is a bit more personal and a lot less difficult to explain. In the current trajectory of the contest, one Democrat will likely face one Republican (either appointed senator Kelly Loeffler or Representative Doug Collins, engaged in a vicious contest to outflank each other to the Trumpian right) in a January 2021 runoff. Lieberman has a lot of explaining to do, or a campaign to fold. China: Street preacher arrested for 'illegal evangelism' witnesses to police Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Chinese Christian man was sentenced to 10 days in jail this week for the act of illegal evangelism as the Communist Party escalates its crackdown on street evangelism. Chen Wensheng, who is part of the Xiaoqun Church in Hengyang, located in Chinas Hunan province, was sentenced on Aug. 3 after authorities detained him because of his evangelistic activity, persecution watchdog China Aid reports. A street evangelist, Chen often carries a wooden cross inscribed with the words Glory to our Savior and Repent and Be Saved by Faith as he shares the Gospel with passersby. Because of his evangelistic efforts, Chen is frequently arrested and detained at the police station, where he's repeatedly urged officers to believe in Jesus. During his latest detention, his cross was confiscated by officers. Video footage shared by China Aid shows Chens street evangelism booth, while another shows him sharing his faith with officers as he leaves the station following a separate arrest. When officers asked him whether believing in Jesus can bring money, he responded that believing in Jesus is not for money, but to gain eternal life. In China, evangelism is banned outside of registered religious sites. International Christian Concern reports that with the crackdown against house churches in China, street evangelism has become increasingly difficult. Those who evangelize face harassment or detention, while others see their churches further restricted by authorities. In 2018, more than 20 members of a street evangelism team from the heavily-persecuted Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, one of the area's most well-known unregistered churches, were detained for proselytizing on a public street and holding a worship service in a public park. ICC's new report on religious suppression in China documents how the CCP routinely targets Christians through its legal framework, Sinicization, closure or demolition of churches or places of worship, arresting of Christians, and social pressure. Such persecution is part of Chinese President Xi Jinpings efforts to stamp out religion and enforce greater control over people's lives. Gina Goh, ICCs regional manager for Southeast Asia and the author of the report, said Chinas vaguely worded Constitution allows the government to define what falls within the realm of normal religious activities, giving the government the authority to crack down on certain religious practices or even disband them. There are an estimated 100 million Christians in China. Scholars have said that, given the growth of Christianity in China, there could be more Christians in China than anywhere else in the world by 2030. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom ranks China as a Country of Particular Concern in its 2020 report on global religious freedom. And Open Doors USA ranks China at No. 23 on its 2020 World Watch List of the 50 most dangerous countries for Christians. More than 300,000 people in Kenya have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many Kenyans who lost their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic accuse the government of misusing foreign aid to help them. Many say they are yet to receive any money. Al Jazeeras Catherine Soi reports from Nairobi, Kenya. WASHINGTON The No. 2 official assigned to the U.S. Space Force is getting his chance to officially join the new service. Air Force Lt. Gen. David DT Thompson was tapped as the Space Forces vice chief of space operations and for promotion to the rank of general, the Pentagon announced Friday. Thompson previously held the position of vice commander of Air Force Space Command, which was dissolved in December and redesignated as the U.S. Space Force. Although he became a de facto deputy to Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Jay Raymond in recent months with Thompson involved in standing up the new service as well as explaining its role to the public he works for Space Force headquarters without technically being a member. During the Air Force Association conference in February, Thompson spoke about the importance of building the new space service. He revealed that a crew assigned to the Space Force at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, had detected that Iran on Jan. 2, 2020, launched a missile inbound for Al Asad Air Force Base in Iraq. One particular crew member was tasked with relaying information on the threat to U.S. troops at Al Asad. If she had not detected that launch, determined where it was, where it was going and who was under threat and released warning messages that got to the 300 plus Americans at Al Asad Air Base, Im firmly convinced wed be talking today about dead Americans, Thompson said, according to an Air Force release. A graduate of the Air Force Academy and lifelong space operator, Thompson has held command positions as head of 45th Operations Group at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, from 2005 to 2007, and he led the Aerospace Data Facility at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, from 2007 to 2009. He served as director of space forces at U.S. Air Forces Central Command from 2009 to 2010, and was vice commander of the Air Force Warfare Center from 2010 to 2011. Before becoming the vice commander of Air Force Space Command in June 2015, he held positions at U.S. Strategic Command as the deputy director of global operations from 2011 to 2014, and then the director of plans and policy. As an engineer by trade, he has worked on experimental rocket propulsion efforts and helped lead military satellite and space lift programs over the course of his career. By William Schwartz | Published on 2020/08/07 Following his attention grabbing performance in "Steel Rain 2: Summit" actor Shin Jung-keun has been confirmed to also be starring in the upcoming blockbuster "Alien". Though "Alien" first started filming back in March it's only been with the release of "Steel Rain 2: Summit" that interest in the actor rose to the level that interested fans were curious what he was planning next. Advertisement In "Steel Rain 2: Summit" Shin Jung-keun plays the role of Jang Gi-seok, the second in command of the North Korean submarine which has hijacked various world leaders for nefarious ends. Shin Jung-keun has made a strong niche for himself in recent years, playing characters who are integral to the story and distinctive yet not having much in the way of name recognition. His last major drama appearance was in "Hotel Del Luna" as the titular supernatural hotel's longest serving employee. He's also played critical supporting roles in such dramas as "Pinocchio", "The Time We Were Not in Love", and "Mr. Sunshine". He was also the lead in the 2018 movie "The Soup" which had played on the festival circuit. What role Shin Jung-keun will play in "Alien" is as yet unknown, and may possibly have been unrevealed until now because it is a spoiler. Written by William Schwartz Chinese illegal miners take over Bosomtwe Range Forest Despite the ban on illegal mining in the country, a group of Chinese miners have defied President Akufo-Addo's orders and have taken hold of the Bosomtwe Range Forest Reserve at Minti within the Bosome Freho District of the Ashanti region. With the alleged backing of some political bigwigs, the Chinese have flouted the orders with impunity calling the bluff of leadership. A visit by Graphic Online to the site revealed that efforts by both the police and the Inter ministerial taskforce to flush them out have proved futile. Currently, they have taken over a concession owned by an indigene within the district with relevant documents and have refused to leave the site. Indeed, Graphic Online investigations indicate that the Chinese were once arrested by the Asiwa police command for encroaching on the concession but were surprisingly released without any charge. The indigenes alleged during the visit that the police were forced to released the suspects following a call by a known political actor but the police have denied the allegation. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Indian-Americans have welcomed India's decision to restore the Overseas Citizens of India card benefits, including the visa free travel to the country, which were suspended in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The OCI card, which allows lifelong visa free travel to India with certain limitations to people of Indian-origin, was suspended by the Indian government on April 11 amidst a nationwide lockdown and travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The sudden decision had created chaos and anxiety among the hundreds and thousands of Indian-origin people. A large number of them had taken to the social media platforms like Twitter to vent out their anger. The travel restrictions on those having OCI cards were subsequently relaxed, which so far has been mainly in the emergency categories, those travelling for work or minors with OCI card holders whose parents are Indian citizens. On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs notified to restore the full travel privileges for OCI card holders for having passports of the US, the UK, Germany and France. India has created an air bubble (bilateral air travel arrangements) with all these countries. "We welcome the decision of the Indian government on the OCI card holders from the US, the UK, Germany and France. This was long due. This decision and creation of an air bubble with these countries would end unnecessary harassment of thousands of Indian-origin people from these countries," social activist Prem Bhandari said. Bhandari, who has been taking up the cause of OCI card holders for the past several years, said that abruptly banning OCI card holders, even due to a pandemic, resulted in a lot of heartburn among the Indian-origin people. "If we cannot take shelter in India during a crisis like this, who else will help us?" he asked. Over the past few months, Bhandari, who heads Jaipur Foot USA, has been leading efforts on behalf of the Indian-American OCI card holders to lift travel restrictions. Bhandari said that he spoke with senior Indian officials, including Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla. The decision to restore visa free travel for Indian-Americans would facilitate a greater people-to-people exchange between the two countries, said Alok Kumar, former president of the Federation of Indian Associations of the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which is one of the largest esteemed umbrella organisations of the Indian community. "It's the Indian diaspora which plays the most important role in strengthening bilateral relationship between the world's oldest and largest democracies," he said. New Jersey-based social activist Deepender Singh said: "This is a great news for OCI card holders since the Indian government has considered the need for relaxation of visa and travel restrictions for more categories of foreign nationals who wants to travel to India and Indian nationals intending to visit other countries like the US, the UK, Germany and France". There will be addition of many countries in the air bubble scheme, Singh said. "Wonderful air bubble initiative started by the Indian government for OCI citizens. This way they can visit their family," said Indian-American Rajendra Bafna. In its notification, the Ministry of Home Affairs said it has further considered the need for visa relaxation and travel restrictions for more categories of foreign nationals who want to travel to India and Indian nationals intending to visit other countries in the context of the air bubble scheme. Indian missions of these countries with whom the air bubble arrangement is in place will grant appropriate visa, provided papers of the applicants are in order and there is no adverse input about them. "We welcome the relieving news that the government of India has uplifted the travel sanction on OCI card holders. While being thankful, we urge the government of India to consider the OCI card holder community in virtually the same ballpark with nearly the same extended privileges as those extended to NRIs and Indian citizens," said Ankur Vaidya, Chairman of the Federation of Indian-Associations. Also read: UP to bid for Centre's MedTech park, identifies land near Jewar airport Beirut: Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Friday not to hold the Shiite militia responsible for the massive blast at Beirut's port, as many Lebanese point to Hezbollah as a source of problems that helped bring about the tragedy. Nasrallah - in a televised address as the death toll from Tuesday's explosion and fireball topped 150 - responded to growing calls that Hezbollah be held at least partially accountable. An aerial view of heavily damaged buildings in Beirut, Lebanon. Credit:Getty The group, which has a powerful place in Lebanon's government, is widely believed to use the port facility for its own smuggling operations and more generally because it operates a parallel state outside official structures, contributing to the weaknesses in institutions to run and regulate the country. Hezbollah is strong enough to counter challenges from any faction, Nasrallah cautioned in address televised live by the movement's Al-Manar TV station. The technical issues with the runway at the Calicut International Airport where the Air India Express flight crashed on August 7, had been resolved, Airport Authority of India (AAI) Chairman Arvind Singh said on August 8. News agency ANI quoted him as saying: Directorate General of Civil Aviation had some issues with the runway in 2015, but after resolving those issues, clearance was given to it in 2019. The jumbo jets of Air India also used to land there. For live updates on Air India Express flight crash click here The aircraft could not land at the runway where it had to, then landing was tried on another runway where the mishap happened. We are monitoring situation & airport will become operational soon: Arvind Singh, Airports Authority of India (AAI) Chairman on #KozhikodePlaneCrash pic.twitter.com/WiFxXlA4ai ANI (@ANI) August 8, 2020 The AAI chairman also said that the Air India aircraft that crashed could not land on the designated runway. It had to land on the second runway, where the mishap took place, he added. The pilots of the Air India Express flight had circled the airport several times and tried to land the aircraft safely at least twice but could not do so due to unfavourable weather conditions. When they finally landed the plane on the runway (not the designated one), it skidded off the wet runway and fell into a 35-feet gorge, splitting into two and killing 18 persons on board. Notably, about a year ago, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had issued a show-cause notice to the Karipur Airport authorities, highlighting several safety concerns such as excessive rubber deposits that could prove dangerous for safe landings during heavy rains. The Federal Government has, in 16 cycles disbursement, spent N9.074billion on Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and another N5.178billion on School Feeding Programme from inception in 2017 till date in Jigawa. Bala Chamo, the state Coordinator, Social Investments Programme (SIP), who made this known at a news conference in Dutse on Saturday said the N9.074 billion was spent in nine local government areas. The state coordinator also said that arrangement had been concluded for the payment of the newly enrolled beneficiaries of N-Power programme from the remaining 18 local government areas of the state. He expressed optimism that the newly enrolled beneficiaries should be receiving credit alerts for their first payment from Tuesday, Aug. 11. Mr Chamo said that the N9.074 billion was used as payment of stipends in 29 months to 728,367 beneficiaries from its inception in August/September 2017 up till March/April 2020. On School Feeding Programme, he said N6 billion had been spent to provide lunch meals to pupils in primary classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 pupils in the state. He said this was funded jointly by both the Federal and the state government. Mr Chamo said N5.178 billion was released by the Federal Government for the feeding of pupils in primaries 1, 2 and 3 classes for 168 days from its inception on Nov. 27, 2017. READ ALSO: The state coordinator added that the state government also supported the Federal Government by providing N878million for the feeding of pupils in primaries 4,5 and 6 classes which brought the total to N6billion. Mr Chamo said 441,057 pupils were fed in primaries 1,2 and 3 classes from November 2017 to July 2019. He said that 434,995 pupils of primaries 4, 5 and 6 classes were also fed during the period under review across the 27 local government areas, adding that the pupils fed combined were from no less than 2,000 schools. (NAN) Albuquerque is experiencing many of the same violent crime trends for the first six months of 2020 as other major cities across the United States and Canada, according to a report released by the Major City Chiefs Association. The report compiled data from 67 cities throughout the country, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago and Denver, and found that, in general, rape and robbery decreased, while homicide and aggravated assault increased. According to preliminary data from January to June 2020, most large cities experienced increases in aggravated assaults and homicides as compared to the same period in 2019, Rebecca Atkins, a spokeswoman for the Albuquerque Police Department wrote in a news release. Albuquerque reported 162 additional assaults this year, or a 6% increase over the same period last year. Homicides, on the other hand, decreased slightly in Albuquerque, bucking the national trend as 46 of the 67 other cities reported an increase. There were four fewer in the first six months of the year compared to 2019. Robbery also decreased in Albuquerque, dropping 12% from 777 incidents to 682 and rape decreased 18% from 285 to 233. The report does not include property crime. This data is preliminary and will change as more police reports are verified for accuracy, Police Chief Micheal Geier said. But the mid-year report provides a snapshot of violent crime across the country during a tumultuous period when big cities have been dealing with the coronavirus and protests. APDs mid-year statistics have had flaws in the past and last year the department discovered it had dramatically overstated year-to-year improvements. In response to questions about how the department could ensure the numbers are accurate, spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said it has hired additional staff, identified and fixed data issues from the past, and are releasing stats using the same methodology the FBI will be requiring of all police departments in the country. We verified that all reports for the reporting period were completed and in the system, so that they were accounted for, Gallegos wrote. We emphasized, the MCCA report emphasized, that the data from all departments for this report is preliminary and subject to change. As we verify additional police reports, the numbers will change. Beijing: China has sentenced a fourth Canadian citizen to death on drug charges in less than two years following a sharp downturn in ties over the arrest of an executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei. Ye Jianhui was sentenced by the Foshan Municipal Intermediate Court in the southern province of Guangdong on Friday. Ye had been found guilty of manufacturing and transporting illegal drugs, the court said in a brief statement. A security officer wearing a face mask to help protect against the coronavirus gestures outside the Canadian embassy in Beijing on Thursday. Credit:AP Another suspect in the case was also given the death penalty and four others were sentenced to between seven years and life in prison, it said. Death sentences are automatically referred to Chinas highest court for review. Ties between Canada and China have nosedived over Canada's late 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, a company executive and the daughter of Huawei's founder, at Vancouvers airport at the request of the US, which wants her extradited to face fraud charges over the companys dealings with Iran. Jerry Falwell Jr. agrees to take 'indefinite leave of absence' from Liberty U after posting unzipped pants photo Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Jerry Falwell Jr. agreed Friday to take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as president and chancellor of Liberty University at the request of the board of trustees. The Executive Committee of Liberty Universitys Board of Trustees, acting on behalf of the full Board, met today and requested that Jerry Falwell, Jr. take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University, to which he has agreed, effective immediately, the university said in a statement released Friday. The board's request came days after Falwell expressed regret over posting a photo of himself at a costume party on a yacht during his family's vacation that showed him wearing a T-shirt and jeans that were unzipped to expose his abdomen and underwear. His right hand was around the waist of his wife's assistant who was wearing a tank top and unzipped shorts, exposing her midriff. In an interview with the WLNI's "MorningLine" Wednesday, Falwell explained the context of the photo that he posted on Instagram last weekend and subsequently deleted. His wife's assistant, he said, is pregnant and was unable to zip up her shorts. Shes pregnant, so she couldnt get her pants zipped, he told the radio station. I had on a pair of jeans I havent worn in a long time, so I couldnt get mine zipped up, either. And so, I just put my belly out like hers. I should never have put it up and embarrassed her, Falwell added, explaining that he has apologized to everybody about the vacation photo taken during a costume party. In a statement released Friday night, Jerry Prevo, chairman of the Liberty University Board of Trustees, acknowledged the "unprecedented success" and growth the university has experienced with Falwell at the helm and explained that the decision "wasn't made lightly." "In the 13 years that Jerry Falwell, Jr. has served as president of Liberty University, Liberty has experienced unprecedented success, not only academically and financially, with a world-class campus, but also spiritually. As we enter our 50th Anniversary year, we have been blessed to grow to a record 120,000 students, both residential and online, and continue to fulfill our founders mission to Train Champions for Christ across the world. "Unfortunately, with this success and the burdens of leading a large and growing organization comes substantial pressure. Today, my colleagues and I on the Liberty University Board of Trustees and Jerry mutually agreed that it would be good for him to take an indefinite leave of absence. This was a decision that was not made lightly, and which factored the interests and concerns of everyone in the LU community, including students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff, leaders of the Church, as well as the Falwell family. "To support Jerry through this period, we ask that our entire community lift him up in prayer so he may be able to fulfill Gods purpose for him and for Liberty University." In a statement to The Christian Post late Friday, Pastors Chris Williamson, Eric Carroll, and Maina Mwaura the organizers of a June 1 letter to Falwell signed by 35 black pastors, ministry leaders and athletes who graduated from Liberty University and warned they'd stopped donating to the university because they disagreed with Falwell's political rhetoric and activism said his leave of absence was the right decision. "We believe the Board of Trustees made the right decision in asking Mr. Falwell to take a leave of absence, and we are praying for him, his immediate family, and our entire Liberty family during this season," they said. "First and foremost, it is our desire that Mr. Falwell would experience healing and restoration that only God can give. Liberty is a special place, and the God that we serve is a powerful God to lead the school into its next season. Liberty University deeply impacted us as students and we hope that its leadership can return to a focus of training 'young champions for Christ' with Biblical conviction for the Gospel and justice." Friday evening, Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., a former pastor of 16 years who also worked at Liberty University as a guest lecturer, said on Twitter: "I pray for Jerry Jr. and the Falwells, and I take solace in the Christian principle that forgiveness and redemption is available to all." Walker added: "Though not easy, this is the right call for @LibertyU students & family. Liberty is such an important institution to our nation, our next generation of leaders & faith. The Liberty family impacts the world every day for things that are good and righteous." Earlier on Friday, before the board announced its decision, the congressman called on Falwell to step down. "Jerry Falwell Jrs ongoing behavior is appalling. As a Music Faculty Advisory Board Member and former instructor @LibertyU, Im convinced Falwell should step down. None of us are perfect, but students, faculty, alumni and @LUPraise deserve better," he wrote on Twitter. The image of Falwell and his wife's assistant was shared extensively after Robert Downen, a religion reporter with The Houston Chronicle, posted it on Twitter Sunday. wut is happening pic.twitter.com/8iEOr9EeRQ Robert Downen (@RobDownenChron) August 3, 2020 "Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. I promise thats just black water in my glass. It was a prop only, Falwell wrote in the caption of the now-deleted photo along with other images of the costume party inspired by the long-running comedy series Trailer Park Boys." The comedy actors are known for setting a record for the highest number of f-words in a film by saying the curse word 935 times in the movie "Swearnet." Some accused Falwell of hypocrisy, citing Liberty Universitys code of conduct that prohibits students from consuming media that contains lewd lyrics, anti-Christian message, sexual content, nudity, pornography either on or off campus. Falwell, the son of Liberty Universitys founder, the famed preacher Jerry Falwell Sr., took over as president after his father's death in 2007. In just over 10 years, the university has grown from a combined student body of 38,000 to more than 100,000 (resident and online), making it the second-largest nonprofit university in the world and the second-largest private nonprofit university in the nation. Angry protesters storm govt buildings as tens of thousands rally against Lebanons ruling class after deadly explosion. Thousands of protesters have gathered in central Beirut seeking justice over Tuesdays catastrophic explosion as riot police fire tear gas at those trying to break through a barrier to the parliament building. One policeman killed in the Beirut clashes; dozens of protesters wounded. Lebanese authorities have taken into custody 19 people as part of an investigation. US President Donald Trump says he will join a conference call to discuss aid to Lebanon. At least 158 people were killed in the explosion and more than 6,000 others injured, but numbers are expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue for missing people. Here are the latest updates: Saturday, August 8 23:35 GMT Hundreds injured during demonstrations in Beirut More than 728 people have been wounded following protests in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in response to the deadly blast that killed at least 158 people on Tuesday. Protesters ahve been demanding action from the government amid the economic crisis the country is facing even before the disaster struck. 18:59 GMT Lebanese army expelling protesters from foreign ministry The Lebanese army drove out a group of protesters who had taken over the foreign ministry building in central Beirut hours earlier. The demonstrators, led by retired army officers, had stormed the building and declared it the headquarters of the revolution, but they were expelled three hours later when large army reinforcements muscled in. 18:38 GMT US says supports right of Lebanese to peaceful protest, urges political reforms The US government supports Lebanese demonstrators right to peaceful protest and urges all involved to refrain from violence, the US Embassy in Beirut said. The embassy also said in a tweet that the Lebanese people deserve to have leaders who listen to them and change course to respond to popular demands for transparency and accountability. 1/2 The Lebanese people have suffered too much and deserve to have leaders who listen to them and change course to respond to popular demands for transparency and accountability. U.S. Embassy Beirut (@usembassybeirut) August 8, 2020 18:13 GMT Army and protesters clash near Beiruts main highway Army soldiers and protesters clashed by Beiruts main ring road near the city centre amid ongoing anti-government rallies, an Al Jazeera reporter said. The army attacked protesters with sticks, beating a large number of them, while demonstrators responded by throwing rocks at the troops. Take off the suit and come stand with us, then you can wear it again with honour, a protester said as a number of them confronted a line of soldiers. Tell us what you get from being with them? We really dont understand it, why are you doing this to us? Riot police used excessive amounts of tear gas in a bid to disperse protesters trying to break through a barrier leading to the parliament building [Tamara Saade/Al Jazeera] 16:57 GMT Latest Lebanese Red Cross figures from protest site At least 238 proesters have been wounded in central Beirut; 63 protesters have been transported to nearby hospitals; 175 others have been treated at the scene of the protests. 16:38 GMT Protesters storm Association of Banks HQ, energy ministry A group of protesters have stormed Lebanons Association of Banks, as well as the Lebanese energy ministry as part of their attempt to take over the countrys ministries. ABL head Salim Sfeir and CB Governor Riad Salameh two keys figures in the collapse of the Lebanese pound and economy. Protesters stormed the Association of Banks, "." Banks shut down after the #BeirutExplosions when people needed their withheld cash the most.#_ pic.twitter.com/oxs9vYN8hC Lara Bitar (@LaraJBitar) August 8, 2020 16:18 GMT Policeman killed in clashes with demonstrators in Beirut, police says A Lebanese policeman was killed in clashes with demonstrators in central Beirut, a police spokesman said. The protests against the ruling political establishement have also left more than 100 people injured and dozens hospitalised. Dozens of protesters have been wounded at the site of the protests, according to the Lebanese Red Cross [Tamara Saade/Al Jazeera] 15:49 GMT Prime Minister Hassan Diab calls for early parliamentary elections Lebanons Prime Minister Hassan Diab has called for early polls after Tuesdays deadly blast, saying it is the only way out of the countrys crisis. In a national address, the premier said he will introduce a draft bill proposing early elections as thousands of angry protesters took to the streets. We cant exit the countrys structural crisis without holding early parliamentary elections We need a new political elite and a new parliament, Diab said. He added that a national investigation into the blast will expand until it gets to everyone involved in the explosion. They want politicians hanged, they want politicians executed, Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr said [Tamara Saade/Al Jazeera] 15:47 GMT Protesters take over Lebanese economy ministry building A group of protesters have taken over the offices of the economy ministry in downtown Beirut, throwing down a rain of documents and a picture of President Michel Aoun, an Al Jazeera reporter at the scene said. Protestors have taken over the #Lebanon economy ministry, throwing down a rain of documents and a picture of President Michel Aoun. A man next to me shouts focus on the bills man, tear up my bills. pic.twitter.com/RAHtyOyk6K Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) August 8, 2020 15:28 GMT At least 32 protesters taken to hospitals, 110 treated at the scene At least 32 demonstrators have been transported to nearby hospitals from Beiruts protest site, the Lebanese Red Cross said. More than 110 others are being treated at the scene in Martyrs Square. 15:01 GMT Protesters take over Lebanese foreign ministry A group of protesters led by retired Lebanese army officers stormed the foreign ministry in central Beirut and declared it the headquarters of the revolution. The demonstrators also burned a portrait of President Michel Aoun. We are staying here. We call on the Lebanese people to occupy all the ministries, one demonstrator said on a megaphone. The takeover, which was aired live on local TV, happened as most of the security forces attention was focused on a tense demonstration against the ruling elite a few hundred metres down the road. Protesters break into the foreign ministry https://t.co/a70Q6qGv3B Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) August 8, 2020 14:45 GMT At least 28 protesters taken to hospitals, 102 treated at the scene At least 28 demonstrators have been transported to nearby hospitals from Beiruts protest site, the Lebanese Red Cross said. More than 100 others are being treated at the scene in Martyrs Square. 14:23 GMT At least 22 protesters taken to hospitals, 87 treated at the scene At least 22 demonstrators have been transported to nearby hospitals from Beiruts protest site, the Lebanese Red Cross said, adding that 87 others are being treated at the scene in Martyrs Square. 14:10 GMT At least 14 injured protesters taken to hospital At least 14 demonstrators have been transported to nearby hospitals from Beiruts protest site, the Lebanese Red Cross said. It added that 44 others are being treated at the scene in central Beirut. Get back get back their shooting No problem, let them. pic.twitter.com/gO5W72dVVP Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) August 8, 2020 14:03 GMT Lebanese army to protesters: Do not encroach on public and private property The Lebanese army issued a statement on its official Twitter account urging protesters not to destroy or damage public and private property. The Armys command expresses its understanding of the pain that is in the hearts of the Lebanese people and reminds the protesters of the obligation to adhere to peaceful means of expression, and refrain from blocking roads and encroaching on public and private property, the statement read. pic.twitter.com/mpFVwXxFiP (@LebarmyOfficial) August 8, 2020 14:00 GMT Thousands gather in Beiruts Martyrs Square Thousands of people poured into Beiruts main square hanging up symbolic nooses that they say officials should be hanged with over this weeks blast amid clashes between protesters and riot police near parliament. Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr at the scene said civil society groups have been calling on people to return to the streets, saying enough is enough. Theres a lot of anger, a lot of rage, people are calling for revenge and justice. They say today is about justice for the victims of Tuesdays blast, Khodr said. They want politicians hanged, they want politicians executed. According to Khodr, there is a sense of defiance among the demonstrators, despite security forces using excessive amounts of tear gas in a bid to disperse them. People have pushed back, there has been running battles as protesters try to storm the parliament building. Demonstrators throw stones during a protest as they try to break through a barrier to get to the parliament building following Tuesdays blast, in Beirut, Lebanon [Thaier Al-Sudani/Daylife] 13:58 GMT Death toll rises to 158, Lebanon health ministry says The death toll from Tuesdays catastrophic explosion has risen to 158, the Lebanese health ministry media office said. The number of people injured exceeds 6,000 and 21 are still reported missing, it said. 13:27 GMT Lebanese riot police fire tear gas at protesters in Beirut Lebanese riot police fired tear gas at demonstrators trying to break through a barrier to get to the parliament building in central Beirut. Hello, this is Farah Najjar taking over from my colleague Umut Uras. 11:40 GMT Aoun and Johnson agree to work on recovery from blast British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Lebanese President Michel Aoun discussed Lebanons urgent humanitarian, medical and reconstruction needs following Tuesdays devastating blast at Beirut port. President Aoun thanked the UK for the support provided to date, including the release of five million pounds ($6.5m) in emergency funding and deployment of HMS Enterprise, Johnsons office said in a statement. With Lebanon facing threats from a financial crisis, coronavirus and the effects of this tragic blast, they agreed to work with international partners to ensure the countrys long-term recovery and rehabilitation. Johnsons office says Lebanon faces threats from a financial crisis, coronavirus and the effects of this tragic blast [Reuters] 11:00 GMT Lebanons Kataeb Party: Three MPs resigning from parliament Lebanons Kataeb Party, a Christian group which opposes the government supported by the Iran-backed Hezbollah, announced the resignation of its three MPs from parliament. The decision was announced by party chief Samy Gemayel during the funeral of a leading member of the group who died in the catastrophic explosion at the port of Beirut on Tuesday, which destroyed parts of the Lebanese capital. The Kataeb MPs have decided to move to confrontation for the sake of a free, sovereign, independent Lebanon, he said. I invite all honourable (MPs) to resign so that the people can decide who will govern them, without anybody imposing anything to them. 10:30 GMT At least 43 Syrians among people killed in Beirut blast At least 43 Syrian nationals were among those killed in a massive explosion in the port of Beirut on Tuesday that destroyed parts of the Lebanese capital, according to the Syrian embassy in Beirut. 10:00 GMT Independent MP to resign from mafia parliament Paula Yacoubian, a Lebanese independent member of parliament, said that she will resign later in the day. Theres no point being in parliament anymore, it is a mafia. And someone should show them how to do it, she told Al Jazeera. 09:30 GMT Wife of Dutch envoy to Lebanon dies after being hurt in Beirut blast The wife of the Dutch ambassador to Lebanon died on Saturday after being seriously injured in the massive explosion that tore through Beiruts port, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said. Hedwig Waltmans-Molier, 55, was injured by the explosion as she stood next to her husband, ambassador Jan Waltmans, in the living room of their house in Beirut, the ministry said. Tuesdays blast caused extensive damage to the Dutch embassy, injuring four other people connected to it. 09:00 GMT Turkey says it is ready to help rebuild port of Beirut Turkey is ready to help rebuild the port of Beirut, which was destroyed by a massive blast on Tuesday, Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay said during a visit to Lebanon. Turkeys port of Mersin, on the Mediterranean, is ready to assist the port of Beirut, he said, without elaborating. 08:30 GMT Frances Macron to co-host Lebanon donor conference French President Emmanuel Macron will host a donor conference for Lebanon via video-link on Sunday, his office said, as countries mobilise to help rebuild Beirut after this weeks massive blast. The conference, which will be co-chaired by the United Nations, will seek pledges from participants including US President Donald Trump. It is expected to decide how to distribute the aid so it benefits the people directly. Macron, who visited Beirut on Thursday, promised angry Lebanese crowds that aid to rebuild the city ravaged by Tuesdays huge explosion would not fall into corrupt hands. French President Macron delivers a speech during a press conference in Beirut on Thursday [AP] 07:45 GMT Arab League ready to mobilise efforts to help Lebanon Arab League Chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Saturday he would seek to mobilise Arab efforts to provide support to Lebanon after a massive explosion destroyed parts of its capital Beirut this week. Speaking after a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, he also told reporters that the Cairo-based league of Arab states was ready to assist the investigation into the blast. We are ready to help with all our means, he said. 07:00 GMT More than 60 still missing after Beirut mega-blast: ministry More than 60 people are still missing in Beirut, four days after a massive explosion at the port left more than 150 people dead, a health ministry official said. The number of dead is 154, including 25 who have not yet been identified, the official told the AFP news agency. In addition, we have more than 60 people still missing. The health minister said on Friday that at least 120 of the 5,000 people who were injured on Tuesday are in a critical condition. 02:33 GMT WHO worried Beiruts coronavirus outbreak could worsen The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is scrambling to deploy $1.7m worth of personal protective equipment to Beirut after 17 containers filled with supplies and equipment for the COVID-19 response were destroyed in the citys devastating chemical explosion. Dr Rick Brennan, the WHO emergencies director for the eastern Mediterranean region, said 6,100 people were injured in the blast and stressed the importance of balancing the coronavirus response with pressing immediate needs such as trauma care and psychosocial support. This massive extra burden of injured people, displaced people, means that resources are going to have to be focused on that response and we worry that an already overburdened health system and the Ministry of Health is now going to be overstretched to meet the needs of both the COVID response and the emergency response. 00:13 GMT Trump to join aid conference call for Beirut US President Donald Trump has said he will join a conference call with Lebanese President Michel Aoun and other world leaders on Sunday to discuss aid for Lebanon. Trump, who spoke earlier with the conferences organiser, Fraces President Emmanuel Macron, tweeted that everyone wants to help!. We will be having a conference call on Sunday with President Macron, leaders of Lebanon, and leaders from various other parts of the world, he said. He said he told Aoun that three large US aircraft were en route to Lebanon to deliver medical supplies, food, water and medical personnel. We will be having a conference call on Sunday with President Macron, leaders of Lebanon, and leaders from various other parts of the world. Everyone wants to help! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2020 Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the deadly blast in Lebanon. Im Umut Uras in Doha. You can read the updates from yesterday (August 7) here. An Air India Express flight carrying around 190 passengers from Dubai under the Vande Bharat Mission accidently skidded in Kozhikode on Friday evening, crashing and killing at least 19 people including both the pilots. While the MEA has released helpline numbers, PM Modi and President Kovind have also promised all possible support in relief assistance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday expressed grief over the Air India flight accident in Keralas Kozhikode. PM Modi spoke to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan regarding the situation. Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Kerala CM regarding the situation. Authorities are at the spot, providing all assistance to the affected, PM Modi tweeted. Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Kerala CM @vijayanpinarayi Ji regarding the situation. Authorities are at the spot, providing all assistance to the affected. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 7, 2020 President Kovind also informed that he spoke to Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan to inquire about the situation. Deeply distressed to hear about the tragic plane crash of Air India Express flight at Kozhikode, Kerala. Spoke to @KeralaGovernor Shri Arif Mohammed Khan and inquired about the situation. Thoughts and prayers with affected passengers, crew members and their families, his tweet read. Deeply distressed to hear about the tragic plane crash of Air India Express flight at Kozhikode, Kerala. Spoke to @KeralaGovernor Shri Arif Mohammed Khan and inquired about the situation. Thoughts and prayers with affected passengers, crew members and their families. President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) August 7, 2020 Also read: Kozhikode plane crash: Helpline numbers issued, relief operations underway Also read: AI Express plane tried to land twice before crashing, says official An Air India Express plane carrying 190 passengers including 10 infants, was coming from Dubai, skidded while landing at Karipur Airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening. Kondotty Police said that Dubai-Kozhikode Air India flight (IX-1344) skidded off during landing at Karipur airport at around 7.45 pm today. Also read: Air India plane crash probe: Two investigation teams leave for Kozhikode Will Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie divorce or not? Brangelina's relationship is faring better, but it was debunked that they are far from holding off their divorce proceedings. The pair had been formerly one of the hyped celebrity couples in Hollywood. They have six children together. The former couple is still ailing from family wounds brought upon by their argument on a flight from Nice in 2016 wherein the "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" actor was reportedly inebriated and hostile in the presence of their youngsters. Jolie urgently filed for divorce as an aftermath of the incident and has reconciled with Pitt in the following years. Now that both are back in good terms, the 45-year-old actress wants her kids to strengthen ties with their father, reported "Us Weekly." According to a source, the "Maleficent" actress has been upholding a reconciliation between the father and his oldest kids: Maddox, 19, Pax, 16, and Zahara, 15. For the sake of their six children, the past few months have witnessed Pitt and Jolie waving the white flag and coming to a truce, reported Pink Villa. Brangelina is reportedly undertaking family therapy sessions and working towards a more pleasant relationship as the divorce is yet to be finalized. Australian news outlet "Who" has published a cover narrative alleging that Pitt and Jolie have put their divorce on hold for the time being, reported Gossip Cop. Also Read: Brad Pitt Reunited With Angelina Jolie? Actor Seen in Ex-Wife's House for the 2nd Time in 2 Weeks The tabloid indicated that as the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down legal proceedings, the pair is making progress in their relationship. When Jolie filed for divorce with Pitt in 2016, she cited that he is a child abuser and therefore, requested for child custody. The young ones are spending time with Jolie and in addition, Pitt. The father's relationship to eldest sons Maddox and Pax is currently depicted as "non-existent" and Pitt is grappling to regain his children's faith in him. Though Jolie has been actively encouraging the children to patch their relationship with their father, sources are not convinced that there is a seamless path forward. (The exes who separated after a total of 12 years of married life also share Shiloh, 14, and 12-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.) The now-sober actor is eager to fix his relationship with his college student child Maddox, but the former is not prepared for reconciliation yet. A source said, "He's holding on to a lot of anger." For more than one sighting, the paparazzi have recently photographed Pitt riding his motorbike outside Jolie's Los Feliz mansion in Los Angeles. On the divorce between Pitt and Aniston being put on hold, Gossip Cop claims that the aforementioned tabloid's approach is a classic bait-and-switch. The cover alleged that the former couple mended ties by putting family first. According to Gossip Cop, the narratives indicated could be accurate, but it does not translate to the divorce being hold off. The celebrity fact check website debunked the "Who" article that in reality, Pitt and Jolie are merely in a better place as former partners. While the divorce is being finalized, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are not legally together. Should they decide to stop the divorce, it would require a paper trail. No trail exists, thus the published story is false. Related Article: Brad Pitt Reunites With Angelina Jolie? Actor Seen in Ex-Wife's House for the First Time Since Divorce @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Nothing could serve as a more haunting reminder of the transience of life and happiness than the tragic demise of 35-year-old Sharafu Pilassery, who was happy to finally be returning home. The story of the last Facebook message posted by Pilassery, who died in the August 7 Air India Express flight crash, has gone viral. The resident of Keralas Kunnamangalam was returning from Dubai with his wife and child in the fateful flight that skid off the Karipur Airport runway and split into two, killing 18 on board. Hours before the Air India flight crashed, Pilassery had shared a picture of himself and his family in PPE kits and face shields and captioned it Back to home. Alas, his wish remained unfulfilled. According to a Times Now report, Pilassery succumbed to his injuries at the Babys Memorial Hospital. His wife Ameena Sherin and daughter Isa Fathima are still seeking treatment; the latter is said to be in a critical condition. The young fathers friend Shafi Parakkulam, who runs a hotel in Dubai, also penned a heartfelt note where he mentioned how Pilassery had donated money to help buy food for the poor before boarding the fateful flight. Pilassery is among the 18 people who have died in the Air India flight crash. Several others have been injured in the accident, and officials have claimed 16 of them are in critical condition For live updates on Air India Express flight crash click here 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. Cousins Jaerson Alvarez and Wilmer Rodriguez, both 18, drowned Sunday in the Trinity River. The young men died doing what they always did in life reaching out to help someone in need. Alvarezs brother-in-law Osman Ariel Nieto said they and family went to the river for a late day of fishing when they heard a man screaming for help. They spotted a man and his daughter struggling in the water. Nieto tried to reach them first and was able to get the girl to shore but struggled in the thick and slippery sand lining the riverbank. Alvarez tried to help but slipped in, becoming stuck in a deep pit in the river. Rodriguez went in to try and get him out but also became stuck in the muck and a swirling current. Their bodies were recovered Monday by authorities. Neither of them could swim, Nieto said, but it was just in their nature to try and help. Both can be described in three simple words, he said: Heart of gold. Now the family is facing funeral costs for both of the young men they lost and the added expense of getting their bodies back to their homeland of Honduras for burial. More Information At a glance Go Fund Me account for Jaerson Alvarez and Wilmer Rodriguez, who both drowned Aug. 2 in the Trinity River:gofundme.com/f/funeral-fund-for-trinity-river-heroes See More Collapse Nieto said it will cost about $6,000 each to get them to Honduras. Friends, including Sarahi Barahona, who knew the boys since they were young growing up in Honduras, and others gathered at the home of Roy Herrera and Lupita Rodriguez Friday morning, cooking and plating food to sell in a fundraising effort to help with funeral costs. Marinated chicken and fish were breaded and bubbled along with steak fries in a large fryer outside the home. A large pot of Spanish rice made earlier by Ana Peraltes sat atop a warming plate. Adriana Vasquez filled containers with chicken, fish, rice, fries and salad, stacking them for pickup as orders rolled in from those who saw their posts about the fundraiser on social media. A Go Fund Me account has been created to help with costs. Early Friday afternoon, Nieto cried as he gathered with family and received a call that the account had already raised about $10,000. He said they hope to raise more to secure a home for Saydi Rivas, Alvarezs fiancee, whom he was to marry Aug. 9, and their infant daughter, Emily, born July 15. kbrent@beaumontenterprise.com John Joe and Anne Cullen have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at home with their children and grandchildren. Although they had originally hoped to have a larger celebration, this intimate party saw five of the couple's children and seven grandchildren celebrate their special day at their home in Bowling Green on July 26. John Joe was born in Gusserane and worked in Bausch and Lombe and then Albatross before his retirment. Anne was born in Saltmills and worked as a pastry chef for a local priest. According to the couple's son, Paul, they met in one of the local dance halls before being married in Waterford in 1970. 'We had a very small get together with the immediate family; only four sons, one daughter, with another son who couldn't make it as he is living in London. Also, we had seven grandkids there, with one in London as well,' Paul said. The couple received vouchers for their favourite shops as gifts, and Paul said they have mostly been self-isolating since the beginning of lockdown. 'My mother has been staying in the whole time,' Paul said. 'She's only been going out maybe once a week. My dad has been sneaking out the odd time though.' And Paul said visitors to the family rarely leave hungry or empty-handed, 'My mother is always baking. You never leave their house hungry or without something to take with you.' The driver of a car targeted by police during a drug investigation in St. Catharines says he was traumatized when police used distraction devices during his arrest, court was told. Desjon Golding, a resident of Scarborough, appeared in an Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Friday and was granted a conditional discharge and placed on probation for 18 months on a charge of drug possession. Niagara Regional Police launched an investigation in August 2018 into drug trafficking in St. Catharines. During the course of the investigation, police stopped a car in the area of Oakdale and Eastchester avenues. Golding, who was 20 at the time, was not the target of the police probe. Some residents in the area reported hearing gunshots near the old hospital building, but police later confirmed the sounds were actually distraction devices that were used in an arrest, by our Emergency Task Unit. Court was told Golding now experiences anxiety and remains traumatized by the event in relation to how police stopped his vehicle. He and another man were taken into custody while a third male, the original target of the investigation, managed to evade arrest. Police searched the vehicle and seized 5.8 grams of fentanyl mixed with heroin. A number of character and reference letters were submitted to court on Goldings behalf. The authors describe a young man who is respectable, responsible and caring. Court was told the defendant volunteered at a community centre in Toronto following his arrest where he mentored youth and took the initiative to talk to them about why its important to stay in school and why they should not use drugs. He also wrote a letter of apology to the courts. Judge Donald Wolfe said the first-time offender is aware of the gravity of his conduct and that a criminal record could undermine his attempts to prepare for future employment. When it comes to existential angst, youd have to go some to beat the near-despair found recently by Star reporter Rosa Saba among young Canadians walloped by the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Young people are going to be footing the bill for this pandemic for the rest of their lives, said one young Toronto businessman. It just kind of seems bleak at this point, said a graduating college student. Life as we know it is over, added another millennial. Little of this dismal outlook is new for a demographic cohort born between 1980 and 1996 that was delivered into economic and social revolution and has been hit by one crisis after another. They were the first digital natives, the product of helicopter parenting and often children of divorce who came of age as the middle class was shrinking and inequality rising. They are the best-educated generation in history, but more deeply indebted, slower to launch and facing greater barriers to building wealth. Enter the pandemic and they faced lost jobs, disrupted education plans, rising debt and increasing anxiety. By and large, life was put on hold in what should be the prime of life. Worse still, the coronavirus setback came on top of an economic hammering described last year by Joseph C. Sternberg in a book whose title speaks for itself: The Theft of a Decade: How the Baby Boomers Stole the Millennials Economic Future. When the Great Recession of 2007-08 hit, aging politicians and policymakers made decisions that favoured their interests over their heirs, he wrote. They abandoned investing for the future, he said, to pay for the economic sins of the present. That was added to globalizations ongoing hollowing-out of the middle of the job markets, of workers rights, essentially a shredding of the social contract and shattering of the expectation that every generation could expect to do at least as well as the one before it. The one experience millennials share is that our early adult years have been dominated by an economy that has failed us over and over again. It can safely be said that the Boomer-Millennial divide is not without rising recrimination and much misunderstanding. This month, American lawyer and journalist Jill Filipovic will publish OK, Boomer, Lets Talk, in which she seeks to cross that most notorious of chasms a generation gap. For starters, boomers should consider that the circumstances facing millennials are not the result of individual bad choices, but of the political and economic environment boomers created. Likewise, the young should acknowledge what the previous generation provided, she said. By and large, millennials were raised in a world of unparalleled security and comfort, freedom and choice. Filipovic notes one of the unlikely outcomes of the moment. That the precarity of Millennial life is increasingly being felt by people who arent Millennials. And that there is nothing like shared pain to enhance mutual understanding. Her book should give millennials cause to take heart. Down the road, they will be the beneficiaries of the greatest inter-generational wealth transfer in history. Meanwhile, demographic power is shifting. Millennials at about 27 per cent of the total population in Canada have overtaken baby boomers as the largest generation. In Canada, Abacus Data says millennials are the new driving force of Canadian politics. And what they will need to address above all, in ways their elders have not succeeded, is growing inequality of income and wealth. Even among millennials there is a divide. The Broadbent Institute has noted that millennials whose families made it possible to achieve post- secondary credentials without student debt, who lived at home longer or who had financial assistance from their families in order to pursue low- or non- paying internships or training programs in high-paying fields had enough of an advantage to save enough money to invest in the housing market by the time they were 30 and are on a different trajectory. The takeaway, it said, is that without policies to ensure social mobility, such as increasing government funding to ensure anyone admitted to post-secondary programs can graduate without student debt, wealth generates wealth from generation to generation. In her book, Filipovic suggests theres one thing boomer parents bequeathed to millennials that will be key in this regard. Values. The Baby Boom generation was almost equally split along partisan lines, she said, and liberal boomers generally lost the battles of their times to conservatives. But it was the liberal Boomers who won the hearts and minds of the kids, she said. All the hippies, commies and feminists who conservative boomers thought they left behind in the 70s are back. Moreover, those millennial progressives are not as racially homogenous as boomers and, as recent events have shown, they are more inclined to take on injustices based on race, sex and social circumstances. So all may not be lost. Young Canadians should not be over hasty in declaring the end of days and booking one-way tickets to the slough of despond. As Beckett said, You must go on, I cant go on, Ill go on. Iran Mocks Resignation Of U.S. Envoy, Appointment Of His Replacement By RFE/RL August 07, 2020 Iran has ridiculed the resignation of the U.S. government's point man on Iran policy under President Donald Trump, accusing the White House of "biting off more than they can chew." The mocking tweet, posted on August 7 by Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi, came a day after the State Department announced that Brian Hook was departing. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Elliott Abrams, another diplomat who has led the Trump administration's push to topple Venezuela's leadership, would temporarily take Hook's place. No reason for Hook's departure was given. In a post to Twitter, Musavi mocked the move, saying there was "no difference" between Hook and Abrams, and John Bolton, Trump's hawkish former national-security adviser. "When U.S. policy concerns Iran, American officials have been biting off more than they can chew," he wrote. Hook's surprise departure came ahead of a planned UN Security Council vote next week to extend an arms embargo against Iran. Hook became the U.S. special envoy in August 2018, not long after the Trump administration announced it would withdraw from the 2015 international nuclear accord that lifted crippling sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran agreeing to curb its nuclear ambitions. Since then, the Trump administration has steadily ramped up its pressure and rhetoric against Tehran. Despite severe economic problems, Iran's leadership has so far refused to budge or give in to U.S. pressure. Abrams, who will be taking over from Hook, was a key figure in the 2003 Iraq War. He will take on the Iran portfolio as he continues his work seeking to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Pompeo said. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-mocks- resignation-of-u-s-envoy-appointment-of -replacement/30772060.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address In what looks like an attempt at damage control via obfuscation, executed in a tearing hurry, the defence ministry, without an explanation, removed from its website a document containing its first official admission that China had transgressed into Indian territory in May. The move has sparked some consternation. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi flagged it on Twitter, bluntly accusing the Prime Minister of lying to his citizens. At an all-party meeting called by the government on June 19, the PM had famously said, Neither has anyone intruded into our frontier there, neither is any intruder there, nor is any of our posts occupied by someone else. That was good news for Beijing the Chinese media had then used it to justify its assault on Indian soil. The statement was indeed contradicted by 14 Corps commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh as well as external affairs minister S. Jaishankar who earlier called for restoration of status quo ante. It dishonoured the sacrifice made by 20 Indian soldiers in Galwan valley on the night of June 15. The disappearance of the document, which had thus crossed Mr Modis line, acts as a face-saver for him and his government. It also keeps intact the triumphalism following the egregious bhoomipujan gathering at Ayodhya on Wednesday. Following the Galwan valley face-off, there have been five rounds of talks between India and China. China has resisted putting Pangong Tso on the table in the latest round. Beijing is firm in its assertion that it is on its own territory and has, citing a road constructed by it during the 1999 Kargil war to stake claim, asked India to pull back instead. The ministrys document, too, reflected this reality as it had mentioned a protracted standoff. So all isnt glory and hunky-dory in days ahead. Hundreds of thousands of unused coronavirus testing kits are being recalled by the government due to safety concerns. The packs have been sent out by healthcare giant Randox to care homes and individuals throughout the pandemic. But on Saturday morning the UKs Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency asked the company to recall up to 750,000 of the kits after safety issues emerged. Exactly what those issues are has not been revealed but it is understood the Department for Health and Social Care has asked for the sterility of some swabs to be independently verified. A spokesperson said the risk was low and the recall was a precautionary measure. They said: We have high safety standards for all coronavirus tests. Following the pausing of Randox kits on 15 July, Randox have now recalled all test kits as a precautionary measure. The pause in mid-July was announced by health secretary Matt Hancock who said at the time that some of the kits were not up to standard. The healthcare giant is based in Northern Ireland and claims to be responsible for up to 17 per cent of the total tests carried out in the UK. About 1.3 million of its tests have been sent out so far. Around 200,000 coronavirus tests are now being provided across the UK each day. The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Saturday announced 200 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country so far to 5,079, Trend reports citing Xinhua. Eight new recovered cases and one new death were reported, bringing the total recoveries to 660 and death toll to 108, the center said in a statement. China donated medical aid to Libya in June to help the country's pandemic battle, including 834 nucleic acid diagnostic kits, 5,000 medical protective suits, 15,000 N95 face masks, 100,000 surgical masks, 5,000 pairs of goggles and 5,000 pairs of medical gloves. MILOVICE, Czech Republic Wild horses, bison and other big-hoofed animals once roamed freely in much of Europe. Now they are transforming a former military base outside the Czech capital in an ambitious project to improve biodiversity. Where occupying Soviet troops once held exercises, massive bovines called tauros and other heavy beasts now munch on the invasive plants that took over the base years ago. The animals are turning the former Milovice base 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of Prague into a miniature version of the steppe that once rolled across the continent. Wiped out in the wild, the animals now have the chance to live together again in relative freedom. Conservationists deployed them at Milovice five years ago. Now they hope to enlarge the sanctuary by one third to some 360 hectares (890 acres) this year. The animals task is to improve biodiversity among local plants by eating invasive ones while saving endangered species, said Dalibor Dostal, the director of European Wildlife, an organization behind the project. Its a miraculous change, Dostal said. Nobody expected that the whole process would go ahead so fast and the area would change so much in just a few years. He said the large animals are as key in preserving the ecosystem as trees are for forests. David Storch, an environment professor at Pragues Charles University who was not involved in the project, agreed. He said the project is absolutely unique because it shows that nature can be preserved not only by protecting it from human activities but also by actively shaping it with the big-hoofed animals. The selection of the animals was based on the experiences of conservationists in various countries. Domestic animals such as sheep were ruled out because they would feed on endangered plants as well. Mechanical cutting of the invasive plants is too costly. While invasive grasses are a delicacy for wild horses, European bisons and tauros prefer bushes, creating an ideal partnership. The invasive plants began to grow after the Soviet troops who stayed on after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of then-Czechoslovakia finally withdrew from the base in 1991. Former military bases are considered places with great biodiversity, the conservationists said, because soldiers activities simulated the impacts of hoofed animals. The Czech project includes tauros that were transferred from the Netherlands, where a cross-breeding program aimed at coming close to the original species, the aurochs, started in 2008. That wild ancestor of todays cattle became extinct in the 17th century. Wild horses were transported from Britains Exmoor National Park, while European bisons came from several reserves in Poland. The project now has herds of 27 European bisons, 25 aurochs and some 70 wild horses. The animals move freely on the pastures on the former military base year-round. With water sources available, they are able to care for themselves, even in winter. The landscape quickly saw signs of transformation. Flowers started to dot the area as early as the second year of the project as the large herbivores reduced the tall, dense invasive grasses. Today, the whole area changes its colors over the course of the year, depending on what flowers are in bloom. The most precious is the star gentian, also known as cross gentian. The blue flower is now flourishing at Milovice, more than anywhere else in the country. The former base also has become abundant in other animals and insects. The Adonis blue, a butterfly, has been spotted there for the first time since 1967. If we give nature a chance, if we give it time and space, it can take care of many things, said Miloslav Jirku, a biologist with the Czech Academy of Sciences who has been involved in the project from the start. At the very beginning, I thought that lots of species that used to be here in the 1990s would have to be returned artificially. Today, a number of them are already here without us doing anything about it. Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor Australians looking to buy a house in some of Sydney's most exclusive suburbs can save up hundreds of thousands of dollars by choosing a home just one neighbourhood away. Sydneysiders are being encouraged to buy in 'bridesmaid' suburbs, the areas that are still attractive but are cheaper and less desired than their 'bride' postcodes next door. Many families are finding they are saving enormous amounts by choosing homes in areas slightly further away from the beach with smaller blocks. These suburbs are often overlooked by buyers and renters which has managed to keep prices well below average of surrounding areas. Sydneysiders are being encouraged to buy in 'bridesmaid' suburbs that are much more affordable than more exclusive or well known areas (pictured Cronulla in Sydney's east) A house in Caringbah (pictured) can be snapped up for $1.13million compared to the nearby suburb of Cronulla which sells homes at around $2.1million Homes were often cheaper in areas that had properties under development, Realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee said. 'The factors that lead to the (price) gaps are things like beach access, housing is tight, block sizes and physical geography,' she said Families looking to move into the coastal Shire town of Cronulla can save up to $935,000 if they choose to buy a home in the nearby suburb of Caringbah which has prices ranging from $1.13million. The average price of homes in Bondi are also a staggering $2.37m cheaper than properties in Sydney's exclusive Vaucluse. A two bedroom unit in Manly costs around $875,000 but buyers can snap up an apartment for $675,000 by opting for nearby Manly Vale instead. Suburbs like Brookvale (pictured) in the northern beaches can have an average house price of 424,000 less than neighbouring Dee-Why Houses that are also further away from the beach will have lower prices (pictured home in Bondi) Brookvale in the northern beaches has an average house price of $1.32m - $424,000 less than Dee-Why. Breakfast Point boasts $1.2million apartments while Wentworth Point - just 20 minutes away - has properties on offer for $770,000. Homes in Bella Vista in Sydney's west are on the market for $1.65million but ten minutes away in Lalor Park a four-bedroom home is on offer for $805,000. Ms Conisbee said moving to these neighbourhoods would benefit new homeowners. A two-bedroom apartment in Manly (left) can cost $875,000 but buyers can snap up an apartment for $675,000 by opting for nearby Manly Vale (right) instead 'In some of these locations I would say they're worth saving the money you can enjoy some of the amenities that the blue-chip suburbs have,' she said. The real estate expert said that while the biggest gaps in prices were on the Northern Beaches, areas like Miranda, Asquith and North Ryde were also much more affordable than their surrounding postcodes. North Ryde had five-bedroom homes on the market for $1.75million while nearby Lindfield in Sydney's North Shore had prices at $2.7million for four bedrooms. The leafy northern suburb of Warrawee has four-bedroom homes on offer for $1.9million while just a suburb over in Asquith, five-bedroom houses can be snapped up for $1.4million. Nicola Sturgeon - Reuters Nicola Sturgeon spent much of July telling anyone who would listen that the prevalence of coronavirus in England was five times higher than in Scotland. The figure was deployed to justify her refusal to rule out effectively closing the border by imposing quarantine on travellers from England, and her highly controversial move to set her a Scotland-only policy on air bridges, which airports warned put livelihoods at risk. The day after she first made the claim, masked nationalists in hazmat suits descended on the border near Berwick-upon-Tweed, shouting abuse at English plague carriers. Scottish protesres - Euan Cherry Alongside their saltires and SNP flags (the First Minister refused to confirm whether her party took any disciplinary action against participants) the wording on their banner was instructive: Keep Scotland Covid Free. Sturgeons five times claim later turned out to be as dodgy as the one painted by protesters onto a bedsheet. In a rare intervention, the UK statistics watchdog rebuked the Scottish Government for its use of misleading figures, saying the un-caveated comparison should never have been made. How did Sturgeon respond? An mea culpa at Holyrood, where she managed to make the claim three times in just one day, for misleading MSPs? A P45 for the official or, more likely, the SNP spad who provided the First Minister with unsound data? Instead, she accused opposition politicians who dared challenge her on the episode of politicising the crisis. That day, she was named the worlds fifth most eloquent world leader alongside the likes of Jacinda Ahern of New Zealand and Germanys Angela Merkel. Judges praised her for her straight talking. Scottish unionists didnt know whether to laugh or cry. And of course, Scotland has not been Covid free since February. Early on, Ms Sturgeon took the decision to keep a major outbreak at a conference in Edinburgh from the Scottish public. A kiltmaker who dressed delegates and a guide who took them on a walking tour across the city questioned why they were never spoken to by contact tracers and wondered whether they had unwittingly played a role in spreading the virus across the Scottish capital. Story continues According to recently-published figures from the Office for National Statistics, Scotland had the third-highest rate of excess deaths in Europe by the end of May, behind only England and Spain. A write-up of the story in The National, a pro-independence daily newspaper dubbed by some as 'McPravda', informed readers that England had the worst excess deaths in Europe. It merely noted that the ONS had also published figures for Scotland, but did not inform readers what these were. In Scottish care homes, Covid-19 has been catastrophic. Almost half - 46 per cent - of Covid-19 deaths registered have come in care homes, compared to under 30 per cent in England and Wales. When confronted with the disparity, Ms Sturgeon simply claims the English figures, drawn up by the independent ONS, must be wrong. Jamie Jenkins, a former head of health analysis at the ONS, said: The main pitfall in comparing countries total Covid-19 deaths is that you are at the mercy of how each define and collect their own data. But to overcome this, focusing on excess deaths, which are the total number over the average, means you can remove such issues. "You can do this and compare England and Scotland with the rest of Europe, as recently done by ONS. The data shows England has seen the highest excess deaths in Europe through the pandemic with Scotland worse than any other country with the exception of Spain." It is true to say that coronavirus deaths in Scotland have fallen drastically over recent weeks, compared to England. But even here, the public may not quite be getting the full picture. According to the daily figures cited at her briefings (Sturgeon has maintained her daily press conferences long after the UK Government ditched theirs, with opponents complaining they have become party political broadcasts) there have been no deaths in Scotland since July 16. However, unlike in England where anyone who has tested positive and subsequently dies is counted as a Covid-19 death, whatever the cause, in Scotland it is only counted if death came within 28 days of their first positive Covid test. National Records of Scotland (NRS) figures, which include all cases where coronavirus is mentioned on a death certificate, present an alternative, and more comprehensive, analysis. While these are also mentioned by Sturgeon at her briefings, these only come out once a week, and are presented alongside the more flattering statistics. This weeks NRS figures, for example, showed that there were in fact 34 Covid deaths in Scotland over the four weeks to August 2, compared to the three recorded under Sturgeons more commonly cited measure. Criticism of 'stay alert' message Even on Sturgeons more cautious approach to easing lockdown, differences with England are not as pronounced as they might appear. She was scathing of the UK Governments move away from the stay at home slogan, which was replaced with stay alert. Sturgeon led a chorus of disapproval, saying I dont know what it means, only to quietly ditch her own stay at home message a few weeks later in favour of the equally cryptic stay safe. To uproar from businesses, she also initially refused to countenance changes to the two-metre rule until the virus was virtually eliminated, only to then announce exceptions that were remarkably similar to UK Government changes. As one exasperated UK Government source put it: Weve been hammered for going for one metre plus. Then she announces two metres minus. Sceptics also question what role population density has had on differences in figures. Scotland has one of the lowest rates of people per square kilometre in Europe, while England has the third highest. The area covered by just one of Scotlands 14 health boards - NHS Highland - is larger than Wales, yet it serves fewer people than live in the London borough of Ealing. Glasgow and its surrounding areas aside, Scotland simply does not have the urban concubations, where people inevitably mix in far closer proximity, that England has. So whatever Sturgeons foot soldiers might claim, Scotland is certainly not Covid free. Opinion polls suggest that she has convinced Scots that she is making a better fist of tackling the virus that Boris Johnson (The First Minister recently recorded an approval rating of +60, while the Prime Minister was on -39, and even voters in England think she is doing a better job). Devolved leaders of Wales and Northern Ireland, Mark Drakeford and Arlene Foster, would be justified in wondering where their plaudits are, given both have presided over better figures than Scotlands. Those who claim those impressive poll ratings are at least in part explained by Ms Sturgeons undisputed talent for communicating with voters, alongside her willingness to pick fights and stoke grievances with London while leaving the Treasury and Number 10 to worry about the economic recovery, might just have a point. People go to great lengths to avoid our border lockdown ... people try to deceive our police, people lie on their border passes ... police have now served more than a dozen notices to appear in court, he said. Why 'good' people do 'bad' things Queensland University of Technology ethics expert Alistair Ping says people should pause before judging those who break restrictions too harshly. Dr Ping has written and researched extensively into the question of why good people do bad things. He said while there were examples of egregious flouting of the rules, most breaches have been minor - people visiting family during lockdown, people in nightclubs not social distancing and so on. What it hinges on for every individual, Dr Ping said, was whether they could justify to themselves that they were still a good person despite doing something society had deemed to be bad. We all have a story we tell ourselves about whether were good or bad, and most of us will tell ourselves were good people, he said. The rational mind likes to protect that story, so we dont like to reassess ourselves as being bad. So the key relationship here is between intentions, actions and justifications. Lets take an example where you live in Byron Bay and your girlfriend or boyfriend lives on the Gold Coast. You start from the assumption youre a good person, but you really want to see your partner, and the border restrictions are really unfair. It doesnt actually apply to me, because Im a good person, right? So Ill lie on my border pass because its not hurting anybody and Im a good person. Also, its a stupid rule anyway. Suddenly youve justified doing the wrong thing without having to reassess yourself as being bad. By the same token, Dr Ping argued, society at large could dismiss people who broke rules as bad without examining whether they might make similar decisions. We assume that ethical decision-making is a rational cognitive process and as a result we assume from there that 'bad' people do bad things, he said. The problem is that all the research tells us that only about 5 per cent of the population is habitually acting against societal values, so our assumption that ethical decision-making is rational is flawed. Risk v reward of rebellion University of Queensland Criminologist Professor Lorraine Mazerolle agreed that a small percentage of a population was consciously flouting laws put in place to protect the community from disease. Professor Mazerolle said she based the likelihood of whether someone would breach pandemic restrictions on a risk-versus-reward scenario. When people weigh up the risks and benefits, and the benefits outweigh the risks, then part of their decision-making is they will violate laws, she said. The other really big piece of this is legitimacy of authority. These new rules around not crossing borders and movement restrictions, if people dont understand the laws, they dont see them as legitimate, then that is a really significant factor that impacts whether theyll be willing to follow those laws. Professor Mazerolle said the big challenge for the government and police was to convince people that the laws were being put in place for good reasons, and to enforce them consistently. Loading Just saying to someone 'Do this!' will not elicit compliance. What will is having authorities convey trustworthy motives, convey neutral intentions, not singling anyone out, being fair, and that the authorities are saying it in a manner that conveys understanding, she said. If people are being confronted with dialogue that is not procedurally just, that is when you will see people not buying into the laws. Professor Mazerolle, along with her colleague Dr Sarah Bennett, has developed a standard script for officers on COVID compliance duty to use, with the basic framework being used in Queensland and Victoria, as well as in parts of New Zealand. She said Australians in general had a fairly high trust in authorities compared with similar nations, and therefore the compliance rates across the country had been high. How successful authorities had been in convincing people to comply with laws varied from state to state, she said. Although you have to wonder, if someone is hiding in the trunk of a car, they clearly understand what the laws are, theyve just made a decision that its worth their while to try to get around them, she said, in reference to an incident on the Queensland-NSW border recently. Strange times, stranger behaviour University of Southern Queensland lecturer in justice studies Suzanne Reich said a lot of what she was seeing in people breaching laws was fear. In a case when theres a crisis at hand, it incites fear in people, and the way people respond to fear is different, she said. Some would comply and trust authorities to protect them, and other people for a variety of reasons will not comply. Dr Reich said she believed authorities had done a good job in getting the messages out about what people needed to do to stay safe. But people were reacting to an unprecedented situation, she said, which meant the way they behaved might not be normal. People will do strange things in strange times where there is that fear of the unknown and they perhaps want to insulate themselves from that, Dr Reich said. Airlines in Taiwan are now offering sightseeing flights to residents, satisfying their itch to travel. In addendum, the new venture also supports the business which has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic since long now. These Flights to nowhere not only aim to satisfy the airlines customers but also have a mock drill for children. 'Tour of the island' According to reports, the special programme for children includes flight attendant lessons amongst others. The first batch of the course saw overwhelming participation from over 50 children. All children, decked in proper uniforms, served the passenger in mock cabins. Meanwhile, another group of children took a two-hour-long flights over the island and the soaring mountain range that runs down its spine. Read: Russia Officially Resumes International Flights Read: International Flights Remain Suspended Till Aug 31; Travel Bubbles With Countries Likely Last month, Songshan Airport in Taiwanese capital Taipei attempted to 'break the monotony by offering similar free flights. A total of 60 people got the opportunity to become the first passengers on board the fake flight. All the passengers got their boarding passes, went through immigration, security checks, and boarded an Airbus A330. Read: EVA Air To Operate Celebratory Flight To Nowhere On 'Father's Day' In Taiwan Taiwan, in July, also became the first country to resume ship travel with its cruise Explorer Dream to kickstart the tourism industry which was shut down due to the global health crisis. The service which is part of the Dream Cruises brand resumed on July 26. The company that its cruise would operate for two and three-night of Taiwan Island-hopping beginning next month. The Explorer Dream would depart from Keelung and will be calling at Penghu, Matzu, and Kinmen islands. Read: Taiwan Airport Offers 'fake Flights' For People Missing Air Travel Amid COVID-19 Lockdown The government is to spend GH200 million to provide free electricity to lifeline consumers across the country over the next three months, the Minister of Energy, Mr Peter Amewu, has stated. He said the supply of free electricity would enable more than 65 per cent of lifeline consumers in the three northern regions as well as an average of 25 per cent of such customers in the southern part of the country to enjoy the support. The minister revealed this when he interacted with the press outside the Chamber of Parliament on Friday. Context President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 14th address to the nation on governments interventions of COVID-19, announced that the water and electricity relief had been extended for three and six more months respectively. Unlike the first intervention which saw the lifeline consumers enjoy free electricity while all others paid 50 per cent of the power they consumed, this latest relief is targeted at only the lifeline consumers. The Managing Director of ECG, Mr Kwame Agyeman-Budu, told the Daily Graphic last week that nearly 1.7 million consumers of electricity would benefit from the governments coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief for the rest of the year. Of this number, identified as lifeline consumers, about 1.1 million are served by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), with nearly 600,000 also served by the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo). They fall within the group of consumers who use up to 50 kilowatts of power per hour or about GH20 worth of power in a month. Mr Agyeman-Budu explained that the figures were arrived at from the data the company gathered from the implementation of the initial relief that was carried out from April to June this year as part of the governments intervention to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Questions Mr Amewu had appeared before Parliament to answer questions pertaining to investments in renewable energy for the past one year, the supply of power to deprived communities and street light bills collected. On July 24, this year, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, announced the three-month extension of free water and electricity supply for lifeline consumers in Parliament. The move, he said, was to ameliorate the hardship facing Ghanaians as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19. Reducing renewable tariffs Responding to the question on investment channelled into the renewable energy sector, Mr Amewu said since 2017, the government had taken steps to address the challenges it inherited in the sector. He said renewable energy power purchase agreements (PPAs) to produce 2,265 megawatts (MW) at an average price of $0.1 9 per kilowatt hour (kWh) were signed. This is far above what our electricity network could accommodate. Indeed, PPAs were signed for tariffs as high as $0.31 KWh more than twice the average end-user tariff, he said. To remedy the imbalance in investment by renewable energy independent power producers (IPPs), he said all the PPAs were reviewed and their capacities were reduced from 2,265MW to 515 MW, which could be accommodated within the network. Price/KWh was also re-negotiated and reduced from an average of $0.19/KWh to $o.12/KWh. Further engagements with scheduled PPAs are ongoing to achieve tariffs below $0.10, which is the ministrys ultimate goal, he added. Investments in renewables The minister added that his ministry had developed a renewable energy master plan which clearly provided the capacity and investment required on yearly bases. We have put a moratorium on new PPAs until the 515MW signed PPAs have been executed and provided for competitive bidding of renewable energy projects with focus on utility scale solar power plants, Mr Amewu said. He told Parliament that besides the investment by the IPPs in the renewable energy sector, the ministry had also facilitated investments by the government in the construction of the first phase of 17MW solar park by the Volta River Authority (VRA) in Lawra and Kaleo in the Upper West Region at the cost of $25.3 million, with work on the project currently about 40 per cent complete. The minister pointed out that discussions were ongoing between the government, the VRA and the KM of Germany for additional financing for another 17MW, which would bring the total solar energy production from the two plants to 34MW. Mr Amewu indicated that Parliament had approved the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose hybrid (solar and hydro) project, which was underway. He said the project, estimated to cost $48 million, would be connected to the national grid. Renewables and MDAs Mr Amewu added that the government intended to have public institutions such as ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) integrate solar in their buildings to reduce their high electricity bills. To that end, he said, the Ministry of Energy in 2019 added another 60kWh solar photovoltaic (PV) to its existing capacity. In addition, the ministry has also awarded contract for the construction of a solar plant to supply about 60 per cent of the total electricity demand at the Jubilee House. The engineering, procurement and construction is being carried out by BSIL/SPS, a wholly-owned Ghanaian company, and work is 70 per cent complete. This project will be commissioned by December 2020, Mr Amewu said. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video UN set for showdown over US Iran arms embargo push US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft and President Donald Trump at the White House in December 2019 The UN Security Council is set next week to roundly reject a US resolution to extend an Iranian arms embargo, diplomats say, setting up a lengthy showdown with repercussions for the Iran nuclear deal. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that the United States would put forward its long-awaited resolution despite ardent opposition from Russia and China. But UN diplomats say opposition to the resolution's current form is so widespread that Washington is unlikely even to secure the nine votes required to force Moscow and Beijing to wield their vetoes. "The resolution takes a maximalist position on Iran," one diplomat told AFP. Another said the draft "goes beyond the current provisions" of the ban on conventional weapons sales to Iran that ends on October 18. The embargo is due to expire under the terms of a resolution that blessed the Iran nuclear deal, signed in July 2015 and officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Under the deal, negotiated by then US President Barack Obama, Iran committed to curtailing its nuclear activities for sanctions relief and other benefits. President Donald Trump pulled America out of the accord in May 2018 and slapped unilateral sanctions on Iran under a campaign of "maximum pressure." Iran has since taken small but escalating steps away from compliance with the nuclear accord as it presses for sanctions relief. European allies of the United States -- who along with Russia and China, signed the deal with Iran -- have voiced support for extending the conventional arms embargo but their priority is to preserve the JCPOA. The US text, seen by AFP, effectively calls for an indefinite extension of the embargo on Iran and uses hawkish rhetoric. Diplomats fear the resolution threatens the nuclear agreement. Iran says it has the right to self-defense and that a continuation of the ban would mean an end to the nuclear deal. Story continues "The focus should remain on preserving the JCPOA," a third diplomat told AFP. "It is the only way to provide assurances about the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. No credible alternative to this instrument has ever been proposed since the US withdrawal," they added. Experts say the gulf between the US and its allies threatens a summer of discontent at the Security Council as the October 18 deadline approaches. - Torpedo nuclear deal? - "This is a car crash that everyone knows is going to happen," New York-based UN expert Richard Gowan told AFP, describing the US draft as a "poison pill of a text." UN-watchers suggest that EU countries on the Council could be brought on-board by a short-term extension of the embargo if it helps preserve the nuclear deal. Or members may propose their own draft resolution, but finding consensus is likely to be difficult with China and Russia intending to veto. The United States has threatened to try to force a return of UN sanctions if it is not extended by using a controversial technique called "snapback." Pompeo has offered the contested argument that the United States remains a "participant" in the nuclear accord as it was listed in the 2015 resolution -- and therefore can force a return to sanctions if it sees Iran as being in violation of its terms. He points to Iranian support to Yemen's Huthi rebels, who are under assault from US ally Saudi Arabia, as an example of an arms violation and has expressed alarm at indications that China is already preparing arms sales to Iran upon the embargo's expiry. European allies have been skeptical on whether Washington can force sanctions and warn that the attempt may delegitimize the Security Council. Kelly Craft, the US Ambassador to the UN, told journalists Thursday that Washington's first objective was an extension but it is prepared to use "all tools available." A push for snapback "seems very likely," according to Gowan, of the International Crisis Group think-tank. "At worst that could torpedo the nuclear deal once and for all, which may be what Pompeo wants. "This could be a mess in terms of Council politics parallel to that over Iraq in 2003," he said. pdh/jh Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a deal on a new coronavirus relief bill Friday, and you know what that means: Its executive action time (cue soaring eagles, the Hannity theme, and gun fire). Donald Trump had suggested that, should negotiations stall, he could sign a series of presidential orders to unilaterally cut payroll taxes, continue the enhanced unemployment benefits that officially expired last week, extend the lapsed federal eviction moratorium, and pause student debt payments. And as of now, it looks the administration is going ahead with the plan. Advertisement Two of these ideasthe tax break and UI extensionare basically half-baked schemes that dont seem likely to accomplish all that much due to practical limitations. The eviction moratorium and the break to student borrowers could be actually fine and useful, however, which is a somewhat odd thing to write about any aspect of Trumps coronavirus response. Combined, theyre obviously not even close to an acceptable substitute for an actual aid bill, especially the more expansive version Democrats have pushed for, and so we can only hope they turn out to be temporary stop-gap measures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyway, lets take them in turn. Unilateral payroll tax deferral: A very dumb idea Trump has been fixated on the idea of cutting payroll taxes to stimulate the economy for months now. It has never made sense, and never will make sense, since by definition, cutting payroll taxes gives the most help to people who need it least right now (namely, people who still have well-paying jobs, as opposed to the unemployed). Even Senate Republicans, who typically see tax cuts as the solution to all of lifes various problems, were basically embarrassed by the whole concept and omitted it from the bill they slapped together last month. Advertisement Advertisement But some conservatives, such as Trumps outside economic adviser Stephen Moore, have nonetheless suggested that the president should just take command and give Americans a payroll tax break on his own. The idea is that the Treasury Department has power to delay tax collection dates in an economic emergency, which it used when pushing back this years filing day from April until July, so Trump could just announce that hes pausing collections for the time being. The kink in this elegant plan is that Trump cant actually rewrite the tax code, and employers are going to owe the money eventually. In all likelihood, that means theyll continue withholding it from their workers earnings, and few people will actually see their take-home pay increase. If youre an employer and [Treasury Secretary] Steven Mnuchin says, I dont need to see that money for a year, what do you do? University of Chicago tax law professor Daniel Hemel told CNBC. You could give it to the employee, but then a year from now you might be on the hook for the money. Advertisement Advertisement In his Wall Street Journal op-ed about the payroll tax cut, Moore suggested that Trump could skirt around this issue by promising to pass a bill next year waiving any deferred payroll tax liability. But thats pretty obviously not going to happen. Its a dumb pointless plot. After talks broke down Friday, Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told the press that they would recommend that the president sign orders on unemployment insurance, evictions, and student debt, and pointedly left the payroll measure off the list. Hopefully that means the administration is dropping the idea, but its not entirely clear yet that Trump has finally let it go. (Update, August 8: He did not, in fact, let it go. Trump announced on Friday evening that hed be signing an executive order on payroll tax deferment, along with the three other actions Meadows and Mnuchin recommended.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unilaterally extending unemployment: A pretty iffy idea Extending the unemployment insurance benefits that have recently lapsed would be a great help to out-of-work Americans. According to Politico, which published a helpful explainer of this plan, Trump is considering an order that would give states the ability to pay out an extra $200 to $600 a week in help. The administration would do this by raiding some of the money that Congress set aside for state aid in the CARES Act, which hasnt been spent yet. The administration thinks it could probably funnel about $81 billion into UI this way, which is probably enough for about one month of benefits, at least going by the most recent monthly Treasury statement. (Update, August 8: On Friday evening, the Washington Post reported that, among other options, the administration is also considering trying to redirect unspent funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agencys budget, even though were in the middle of hurricane season.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But there are also reasons to question whether it would work. Its not crystal clear whether the move would be legal, and Democrats are signaling theyd oppose it. As Politico notes, the CARES Act also requires the feds to distribute state and local aid according to a population-based formula, which could make things tough, and states might be required to pay any money back they werent entitled to, which could chill their enthusiasm for this plan. (Also, its probably going to take states a while to program any new payments into their system, by which point Congress may well have reached an actual deal that could require them to start all over again. Unilaterally extending the eviction moratorium: A completely reasonable idea Advertisement It is honestly insane that every single city and state hasnt put a freeze on evictions, given that were in the middle of a plague and kicking families onto the street is bound to exacerbate our public-health crisis. The CARES Act included a 120-day moratorium that protected tenants who either receive federal rental assistance or live in a property with a federally backed mortgage, which recently sunset. Bringing that back, at least as a stopgap, seems like a no-brainer right now, even if landlords will be upset about it. In the long term, it might be helpful to put together an actual rental assistance program, so small-time property owners dont end up defaulting on their mortgages, but thats not something the Trump administration can do flying solo.) Plus, the administration has previously acted on its own to help people stay in their homes; back in mid-March, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued an eviction and foreclosure moratorium on single family homes with a Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgage.1 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unilaterally halting student loan payments: Also a completely reasonable idea Does the federal government really need to be shaking down borrowers for their student loan payments right now? No, which is why the Trump administration stopped asking for interest payments early in the crisis and Congress paused collection entirely as part of the CARES Act. Its not entirely clear what Trump plans to do on this front, but hopefully hell go maximalist here and keep them paused. Itll help a few people on the margins. With all of that said, the much more helpful move here would be to just reach a deal with Democrats on an actual relief bill. I mean, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi once again trying to bail out the economy in the middle of Trumps re-election effort. A sane president would be thanking them for the offer. Wealthy Sydneysiders are taking out long-term leases on properties normally rented out on Airbnb and using them as second homes to escape the city during the pandemic. While the Airbnb market has sunk in inner-city areas, adding to a glut of rental apartments going cheap, demand remains strong in harbourside pockets of Sydney and regional holiday towns. Julian Jones, a long-term Airbnb host in the Blue Mountains. Credit:Dean Sewell That was partly driven by some Sydneysiders taking out long-term leases on properties normally let through Airbnb or Stayz, and splitting their time between there and home, said Emily Sim, chief executive of property management for the Ray White Group. "People who have the means are going and renting a holiday house permanently and living between Sydney and the holiday house," she said. "They're saying 'oh well, we can't go to Europe this year, let's rent a holiday house for six or 12 months'." As Fort Bend ISD parents and students ready for the first day of online school, Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Education Agency officials continue to issue guidelines and mandates in preparation for districts to begin offering optional face-to-face learning in the coming weeks. However, facing risks created by the ever-changing realities of COVID-19, state lawmakers, local health officials and representatives from teachers groups officials continue to voice concerns about re-opening schools before the rate of infection has slowed. The governor should prohibit any school district from beginning classes, in-person or remotely, before Sept. 8, Rep. Ron Reynolds said in an interview Thursday, Aug. 6. After that date, districts should be allowed to reopen buildings to in-person instruction only after consultation with local health authorities, teachers, other school employees and parents and with strict safety standards enforced. Districts that choose to provide only online instruction must not be penalized with a loss of state funding. Related: Medical officials warn schools could suffer widespread COVID-19 outbreaks TEA officials and Republican law makers in charge of the process argue they favor local control and have given district officials leeway by allowing virtual instruction for the first four to eight weeks before students must be allowed the option to return to classrooms. A local school board can choose to make their decision based on what the local health authority says, Gov. Abbott told reporters recently. Nothing is stopping them from doing that, and they can fully adopt whatever strategy the local public health authority says. Fort Bend ISD and other districts were given the option of starting the school year with virtual classes for up to eight weeks if trustees approve the second four-week session. Individual campuses can be closed during the year with students returning to online classes if theres an outbreak to allow for disinfecting and cleaning protocols. But beyond that, disricts that do not re-open schools for face-to-face instruction potentially face the loss of state funding under the current guidelines. And, although students and families who are not comfortable with the risk of infection can choose to remain with online classes, teachers are not given a choice, leading a number of teachers to retire early or quit their jobs, according to representatives from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which recently reported already more than 200 members have died from COVID-19 related causes. AFT officials continue to raise concerns about the lack of planning around infection control measures combined with the pressure to re-open schools while coronavirus infections remain high puts lives at risk. During the July 28 AFT meeting delegates approved a resolution supporting the option of locally approved safety strikes as a means to ensure the health and safety or teachers amid uncontrolled infection rates. We know that kids need in-person learning and that remote instruction is no substitute for it, but it has to be safe. To state the obvious, we cannot rebuild the economy, including reopening schools, until we get the virus under control, AFT President Randi Weingarten told members at the gathering. AFT members have been on the front lines protecting, educating, feeding and caring for others. Teachers, paraprofessionals and professors shifted to remote instruction in a nanosecond an incredible display of dedication and flexibility. But, I mourn those we have lost. More than 200 AFT members have lost their lives to COVID-19. Lets be clear, Weingarten told members, just as we have done with our healthcare workers, we will fight on all fronts for the safety of our students and their educators. But if the authorities dont get it right, and they dont protect the safety and health of those we represent and those we serve, nothing is off the table not advocacy or protests, negotiations, grievances or lawsuits, or, if necessary as a last resort, safety strikes. For Reynolds, the risks also hit close to home as he is father to two elementary-school aged students enrolled to attend Fort Bend ISDs Scanlan Oaks Elementary School next year. My heart goes out to the students, parents, staff and all stakeholders as they prepare to start the 20-21 school year under the cloud of COVID-19, he said. I will continue to keep fighting to make sure that all stakeholders are safe before I support students returning to school. On HoustonChronicle.com: This is dangerous: Faculty at Houston-area colleges worried by return to campus The first day of school for Fort Bend ISD students is Monday, Aug. 17, with plans for the first four weeks as online classes and the option of another four-week extension if trustees vote to approve the decision. If that proves to be the outcome, it would mean schools would re-open for face-to-face instruction on Monday, Oct. 12. knix@hcnonline.com Could you clarify if one is able to move from one superannuation fund to another without triggering Capital Gains Tax (CGT)? I want to switch from a retail super fund to an industry fund. My fund holds about $340,000, mostly non-concessional contributions, as I boosted up my super over the past three or four years heading into retirement. There was about $40,000 capital growth in my fund prior to the March stockmarket crash. My accountant advises that CGT would need to be paid on that amount, but then I stumbled upon some information on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's (ASIC) website that simply changing super companies does not incur CGT and that a member can switch through their myGov account. This makes sense in that: a) one must be entitled to move from a non-performing fund to a better one without penalty i.e. incurring a CGT; and b) one is not realising a benefit just transferring the preserved cash. I am conflicted between my accountant's advice and what I read on the ASIC website. J.B. When you roll over from one fund to another, you do not incur a personal CGT liability, as you would if, for example, you were selling a property. However, that is not to say CGT is not payable. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission's (ASIC) website explains how to consolidate multiple super funds in your name. Credit:Jim Rice Money in a super fund which is a form of trust is owned by the trustee, who acts on behalf of the trust's beneficiaries and is responsible for the tax liabilities of the fund i.e. it must pay 15 per cent tax on the fund's earnings, reduced by one third to 10 per cent for capital gains. The exit unit price at which you can roll out of a super fund takes into account any such accrued tax liability i.e. $340,000 is transferable in your case, less any exit fee. Cash is the usual mode of transfer. ASIC's Moneysmart website explains how to consolidate multiple super funds in your name. It requires you to create a myGov account at my.gov.au and then link this to the Australian Tax Office. Then you can consolidate your funds. (CNN) - An Air India Express plane crashed in the South Indian state of Kerala after skidding off the runway and breaking into two while landing at Kozhikode Calicut International Airport. At least 16 people died in the crash, including both pilots, and 46 people are seriously injured, according to CV Anand, Central Industrial Security Force's Inspector General. The flight, number IX-1344, overshot the runway in rainy conditions, "went down 35-feet into a slope before breaking up into two pieces," Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told CNN. The flight from Dubai to Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, had 190 people on board, according to Air India Express. "There are 174 passengers, 10 infants, 2 pilots, 4 cabin crew on board the aircraft," the statement said, adding that "no fire reported at the time of landing." Images from the scene showed a broken fuselage with pieces of the plane scattered across what appears to be a field, as well as people searching through the debris. Bad weather Puri told CNN that amid bad weather conditions the pilot had "tried to land earlier, but then did a turnaround." "The aircraft would not be brought to a halt by the end of the runway, and there's a 35-foot drop in a gorge," he said, adding that the plane -- fortunately -- did not catch fire. A formal investigation into the crash will be conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), Puri told CNN. He later wrote on Twitter that "two investigation teams of professionals" from Air India, Airports Authority of India and AAIB will "leave for Kozhikode" early on Saturday. According to Anand, the evacuation of the plane ended after the "last female passenger was pulled out of the wreckage at 23.10 p.m. IST," he told CNN. The plane was one of the repatriation flights operated by the Indian government to bring back nationals stranded abroad due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, information on the Air India website shows. Friday's crash comes more than a decade after an Air India plane overshot a runway in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, crashed into a ravine and burst into flames -- killing 158 people. According to Reuters, both Mangalore International Airport -- site of the 2010 crash -- and Kozhikode Calicut International Airport have tabletop runways, which it describes as having a steep drop on one or both ends of the runway. Kerala's Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called on police and fire officials "to take urgent action" following news of the crash. "Have also directed the officials to make necessary arrangements for rescue and medical support," Vijayan said in a tweet. Both India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar sent their condolences to the families of the victims on Twitter. "Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest," Modi wrote on Twitter. Air India Express is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, according to its website. It operates 25 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Air India plane crashes in Kerala after skidding off the runway" The Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the Palghar mob lynching incident, has filed a third charge sheet in the case in a local court, officials said on Saturday. In a related development, the CID also filed a charge sheet against two minor accused in the case in a juvenile court at Bhiwandi in Thane district on Friday, they said. Last month, the CID had filed two charge sheets, one running into 4,955 pages and another of 5,921 pages, in a court in Dahanu taluka in Palghar district. As many as 154 people have been arrested and 11 juveniles detained in connection with the incident, police have said. In all, three FIRs related to murder, armed rioting and other charges were registered in connection with the incident, in which two seers and their driver were lynched by a mob at Gadchinchale village in Palghar on April 16 when they were travelling in a car to Surat (Gujarat) to attend a funeral amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown. "The CID Crime has now filed a charge sheet in the third FIR, which was registered at Kasa Police Station in Palghar. The case relates to a police officer opening fire," an official said on Saturday. The charge sheet was submitted in a Palghar court, he said. Another official said, "The state police is preparing a report about the inquiry against the police personnel and action taken against them, as the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Maharashtra government to bring on record those details too." The apex court had on Thursday asked the state government to apprise it of the inquiry and action taken against the errant police personnel in the lynching case. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy had also asked the state government to also file the charge sheet before it, saying it would like to examine them. Meanwhile, a top official of the state CID said that the charge sheet against two minor accused was filed at the Bhiwandi juvenile court on Friday. "The two minors were found to be actively involved in the attack on two seers and also indulged in other violent acts. Their involvement in the crime was established based on the evidence collected by the police," he said. According to another official, nine other juvenile accused have not been named in that charge sheet. The brutal mob attack took place amid rumours that child-lifters were roaming in the area during the lockdown. The case was later handed over to the CID for probe. The victims were identified by the police as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushil Giri Maharaj (35) and their driver Nilesh Telgade (30). The accused in the case were charged with murder, armed rioting and using criminal force to prevent a public servant from doing is duty, among other offences. 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. 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. The government had also sent the then Palghar district police chief, Gaurav Singh, on forced leave. Conklin, N.Y. One woman was killed and another was injured Friday in a shooting at a Binghamton-area apartment complex. The double shooting happened shortly after midnight in Conklin, about 15 minutes southeast of Binghamton. The New York State Police rushed to the 1205 Conklin Road apartment complex around 12:20 a.m. after a caller reported a shooting. When troopers arrived, they found two women who had been shot in the parking lot. Alison I. Salisbury, of Binghamton, was pronounced dead at the scene, troopers said. She was 38 years old. Shannon E. Brooks, 42, of Conklin, had been shot in the hand. She was treated at UHS Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City and released, troopers said. The suspect Lance R. Johnson, 45, of Binghamton fled after the shooting, troopers said. He was arrested after a traffic stop in Binghamton. Johnson has been charged with second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. Hes being held in the Broome County Sheriffs Correctional Facility, custody records show. Troopers did not say if Johnson knew the women. 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. She recently went public with her new beau Brandon Myers after they were spotted packing on the PDA in Ibiza. And Gabby Allen was sure to set pulses racing as she flaunted her sizzling physique in a black thong bikini in a video shared to Instagram on Saturday. The Love Island star, 28, looked sensational as she showed off her peachy derriere in the barely-there swimwear. Wow! Gabby Allen looked fantastic as she flaunted her sizzling physique in a black thong bikini in a video shared to Instagram on Saturday Gabby started her sizzling short clip by wearing a pair of stylish black sunglasses and rearranging her bikini top. She then put the glasses on top of her head and made a cheeky grin as she lifted one shoulder and zoomed the camera in towards her. The blonde beauty exuded confidence as she posed up a storm and wore her locks up in a messy bun. Poser: The Love Island star made sure all eyes were on her as she posed up a storm in the barely-there swimwear and a pair of stylish black sunglasses Gabby has been soaking up the sun in Spain but revealed on Instagram Stories on Saturday that she is now back in the UK. The reality TV star shared that she was trying to unpack and wasn't having much luck in getting her clothes pile to go down. She showed her fans how her suitcase was still brimming with swimwear and slinky outfits despite her efforts and she 'didn't even know where it all goes now'. Cheeky: The blonde beauty grinned as she posed up a storm in her sizzling clip So much to do! Gabby also told her fans that she was struggling to unpack her holiday suitcase, showing them lots of bikinis and clothes still laying on the floor It comes after Gabby went public with beau Brandon Myers last week after initially denying romance rumours. The reality TV personality was spotted in the throes of a passionate smooch with her boyfriend last Thursday, as they packed on the PDA during a trip to the beach. The couple face a 14-day quarantine when they returns to the UK as the government pulled its air bridge with the holiday hot spot following a spike in COVID-19 cases. Last month, Gabby insisted Brandon was a 'really good friend' but nothing more following relationship speculation. They were first reported to be dating in May, when the Ex On The Beach hunk posted a flirty comment under one of her scantily-clad bikini snaps. Sizzling: Gabby flaunted her jaw-dropping figure in a barely-there white bikini as she enjoyed a lavish yacht ride during her holiday to Ibiza She told OK!: 'No. We've known each other for a long time. He's the loveliest person and a really good friend of mine, but that's all it is. 'Someone must have seen him comment on a picture on my social media, and automatically assumed he's my boyfriend.' Their romantic holiday comes after her ex Marcel Somerville revealed that he is expecting his first child with influencer girlfriend Rebecca Vieira. US Arms Sales to Taiwan Violate One China Principle, Beijing Says on Reports of Possible Drone Deal Sputnik News 07:36 GMT 07.08.2020(updated 08:05 GMT 07.08.2020) Beijing's statement comes in response to reports suggesting that Washington is looking to surreptitiously sell four SeaGuardian surveillance drones to the breakaway province. US arms sales to Taiwan seriously violate the One China principle and should be stopped, China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily news briefing. Reuters reported on Thursday, citing six anonymous sources, that Washington has been engaged in talks with the Taiwanese authorities on the sale of four SeaGuardian surveillance drones. The potential deal requires congressional approval before being finalised and is expected to be presented to lawmakers in September. Last month, the United States approved a $620mln recertification package to Taiwan for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 air defence missiles. Beijing condemned the deal and imposed sanctions on US defence corporation Lockheed Martin. Beijing has repeatedly called Taiwan a sensitive issue in its relations with Washington, as China considers the island to be part of its territory under the One China principle. The Chinese authorities have also repeatedly protested over the supply of weapons by the US to the island. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address We believe an improved remote learning model that engages students for the full school day is the right way to begin the new school year based on both the evolving public health situation and feedback from our families, CPS CEO Janice Jackson and Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade said in the email. ... We are taking additional time to work with school leaders and labor partners to ensure the plan we finalize for the new school year is thorough and thoughtful, and we will be sharing those guidelines as soon as they are ready. Illustration picture of Wechat and TikTok apps near China and U.S. flags By David Shepardson and Alexandra Alper WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has unveiled sweeping bans on U.S. transactions with the Chinese owners of messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok, escalating a high-stakes confrontation with Beijing over the future of the global tech industry. The executive orders announced Thursday and effective in 45 days come after the Trump administration this week flagged increased effort to purge "untrusted" Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks, calling Tencent Holdings Ltd's <0700.HK> WeChat and Bytedance's popular TikTok "significant threats." China said on Friday the companies comply with U.S. laws and regulations and warned that the United States would have to "bear the consequences" of its action. "The U.S. is using national security as an excuse and using state power to oppress non-American businesses. That's just a hegemonic practice," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing. TikTok has come under fire from U.S. lawmakers over national security concerns surrounding data collection as distrust between Washington and Beijing grows. Reuters on Sunday reported that Trump has given Microsoft Corp 45 days to complete the purchase of TikTok's U.S. operations. "We are shocked by the recent Executive Order, which was issued without any due process," TikTok said in a statement on Friday, adding that it would "pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure that the rule of law is not discarded". The ban on U.S. transactions with Tencent, one of the world's biggest internet companies, portends further fracturing of the global internet and severing of long-standing ties between the tech industries in the United States and China. "This is the rupture in the digital world between the U.S. and China," said James Lewis, a technology expert with Washington-based think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. Story continues "Absolutely, China will retaliate." On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expanded a program dubbed "Clean Network" to prevent various Chinese apps and telecoms firms from accessing sensitive information on U.S. citizens and businesses. Trump's new orders appeared coordinated with Pompeo's announcement, Lewis said. "We are reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding," a Tencent spokesperson said. ByteDance declined to comment. BIGGEST TARGET WeChat has been downloaded a relatively small 19 million times in the United States, showed data from Sensor Tower. In China, however, the app is ubiquitous as a medium for services as varied as games and payment. It is also a common platform to communicate with individuals and businesses outside China. U.S. social media and messaging services such Facebook Inc's WhatsApp and Messenger are blocked in China, where a "great firewall" prevents citizens from freely accessing the worldwide web, and where online communication is routinely monitored and censored. U.S. concerns about China's tech industry had until recently focused on telecom equipment vendor Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL]. As relations soured over a host of economic and human rights issues, it has sanctioned numerous other Chinese tech firms. Tencent is the biggest target yet. It is Asia's second most-valuable company after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd with a market capitalization of $686 billion, and is among the world's largest social media and video game companies. It opened a California gaming studio this summer and owns minority stakes in numerous gaming and internet firms around the world, including U.S. messaging app operator Snap Inc . Trump's order sent Asian stock markets lower on Friday, with Tencent shares falling as far as 10.1% before recouping some of its losses in afternoon trade. [MKTS/GLOB] The yuan , a barometer of Sino-U.S. relations, posted its steepest drop since the United States expelled China from its Houston consulate a little over two weeks ago. [CNY/] SWEEPING POWER Trump issued the orders under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law that grants the administration sweeping power to bar U.S. firms or citizens from trading or conducting financial transactions with sanctioned parties. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will identify transactions covered after the orders take effect in mid-September. Tension has been simmering between the two powers for months, with the United States taking issue with China's handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak and moves to curb freedoms in Hong Kong. The increasingly aggressive posture towards China comes as Trump bids for re-election in November. Trump said this week he would support Microsoft's efforts to buy TikTok's U.S. operations if the U.S. government got a "substantial portion" of the proceeds. He nevertheless said he will ban the popular app on Sept. 15, though some Republicans have raised concerns about potential political fallout. The app may be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, and the United States "must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security," Trump said in one order. In the other, Trump said WeChat "automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users. This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information." The United States is not alone in its concern about Chinese internet apps: WeChat and TikTok were among 59 mostly Chinese apps that India outlawed in June for threatening its "sovereignty and integrity". The WeChat order would effectively ban the app in the United States by barring "to the extent permitted under applicable law, any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd." It was not clear whether the sanction would effect Tencent's other holdings in the country. INCONVENIENCE Meanwhile, WeChat users in the United States were quickly evaluating alternatives. "Banning WeChat is against America's liberal principles," Jeason Ma, a 33-year-old in Los Angeles who obtained U.S. citizenship in November, told Reuters. "Most of our family and friends are in China. This will cause significant inconvenience to our lives." Ma has been sharing his account information for WhatsApp and messaging rival Line Corp <3938.T> with friends and family, fearing he could lose access to WeChat. The order "calls TikTok a national security threat," said Derek Scissors, an expert on Sino-U.S. economic relations at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank. "Either we've missed the threat for three years or it just became one and yet we are waiting 45 days." (Reporting by David Shepardson and Alexandra Alper; Additional Reporting by Mohammad Zargham, Echo Wang, Nandita Bose, David Shepardson, Jane Lee, Colin Qian, Tom Westbrook and Cate Cadell; Writing by Jonathan Weber; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing) DENVER Denver police, the Senegalese community and relatives of the family killed Wednesday morning in a Green Valley Ranch house fire pleaded for the publics help Friday, with the department offering a substantial award for assistance solving one the citys most serious arson cases in years. Police announced the $14,000 award during a Friday afternoon news conference, seeking information into the fire that killed five members of a Senegalese family. They were identified as Djibril Diol, his wife, Adja Diol, and their 3-year-old daughter, Kadidia Diol, along with Djibril Diols sister, Hassan Diol, and her infant daughter, Hawa Beye. Firefighters responded around 2:40 a.m. Wednesday to a fire raging at the Truckee Street home. They were unable to save the family, but three others living in the house jumped from the second floor of the house and survived without life-threatening injuries. They have not been identified. Investigators quickly labeled the fire as an arson and on Friday they asked the public for information that could lead to an arrest. Beyond the money, what Im asking for is a heartfelt plea, Joe Montoya, a Denver police division chief, said. I want people to look into their hearts and understand that this was a family that was thriving. They were heading the right direction. Denver fire and police investigators have not said why they think the fire was suspicious or what motive someone might have for targeting the Diol family. As Muslim advocacy groups this week questioned whether the incident was a hate crime, Montoya said investigators dont want to get tunnel vision on a potential motive. A Muslim family of fiveincluding two young children, all recent Senegalese immigrantsjust died in a severe house fire in Denver. Local law enforcement suspects the fire may have been intentionally set. https://t.co/MzP9SqcDI9 Aysha Khan (@ayshabkhan) August 6, 2020 The fire devastated Colorados Senegalese community and dozens gathered outside the burned house Wednesday to mourn and watch investigators pick through the house for clues. At Fridays news conference, Papa Dia, founder of the African Leadership Group, said the African community is not used to seeing something like this take place. We consider ourselves part of this society, part of this great nation we call home, he said. And this is a time where you dont want to feel alone. An investigator stands in front a house where five people were found dead after a fire in suburban Denver, Colorado, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. A fire department spokesman said the fire's heat pushed back a police officer trying to rescue the people who were on the home's first floor. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)AP The tragedy prompted an outcry of support from Mayor Michael Hancock to Senegals president, Macky Sall, who tweeted that he would be following the investigation from West Africa. Senegals consul general, Elhadji Ndao, flew in Thursday from New York to pay his respects. People were shocked back in Senegal, he said. Theres consternation almost anger. These were young people who were known to be peaceful. A GoFundMe to help the family pay for funeral expenses and other costs has raised more than $142,000 in two days. Moussa Diol, whose brother died in the fire, could barely speak as he stepped behind the podium Friday to ask for justice. Nobody deserves this, he said quietly. By Sam Tabachnik, The Denver Post (TNS) Belarusian authorities have ramped up pressure on the opposition and independent election observers ahead of the August 9 presidential ballot amid concern strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka will use fraud and repression to extend his 26 years of rule against an energized opposition. Law enforcement on August 8 detained the campaign chief of opposition presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Two other campaign staff members were also summoned to the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption for questioning and have not been heard from. Tsikhanouskayas spokeswoman, Anna Krasulina, told RFE/RL that campaign chief Maryya Maroz was detained in Minsk and would go before a court on August 10. It was not clear why she was detained. In response to the threats against her staff, Tsikhanouskaya left her flat in Minsk for security reasons to an undisclosed location. Late in the evening, security forces also briefly detained Maryya Kalesnikava, the representative of jailed presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka and a close ally of Tsikhanouskaya. Kalesnikava told RFE/RL that police claimed they had mistakenly detained her and she was released. Separately, the Minsk-based Vyasna human rights center on August 8 reported dozens of cases of police harassment and intimidation at polling stations, as well as the detention of independent election observers during early voting. Analysts say Lukashenka's rule looks increasingly vulnerable ahead of the August 9 election, but that he is likely to win through a combination of fraud and a widening crackdown on dissent. The lead-up to the vote has been marred by dubious disqualifications and an unprecedented scale of detentions and other persecution against a backdrop of a pandemic and pro-democracy protests. Tens of thousands of opposition supporters have attended daily rallies in recent weeks in support of Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old political novice who says she will release political prisoners and call fair elections if she wins. She entered the race after her husband, Syarhey Tsikhanouski, a firebrand vlogger, was arrested and then barred from collecting signatures to get on the ballot. Tsikhanouskaya has urged voters to combat electoral fraud and set up multiple organizations to monitor the presidential poll, which began on August 4 with early voting. Opposition politicians, rights activists, and critics of Lukashenka have called on citizens to refrain from early voting, charging that it gives government loyalists more opportunities to rig the election results. The Central Election Commission said on August 8 that turnout during the early voting period was 32.24 percent of the country's 6.8 million eligible voters. Belarus Votes For President Read our ongoing coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent. One election-monitoring campaign said August 8 it had documented inconsistencies in the first three days of early voting at polling stations where observers of the initiative were present. Campaign observers with the opposition group Honest People recorded turnout of 45,613 voters compared to the Central Election Commissions figure of 89,439 at several hundred ballot stations. According to the initiative, about 50 of its observers have been detained during the five days of early voting. The Honest People campaign was initiated by former Belgazprombank chief Babaryka, whose presidential campaign and that of another disqualified presidential candidate have joined forces to elect Tsikhanouskaya. Meanwhile, the Voice platform, which calls on voters to send photos of completed ballots for the presidential election, has counted over a million registered users who have promised to help keep track of the vote. The platform was launched by the Honest People initiative. Ahead of the vote, the Prosecutor-Generals Office threatened to block the website of the Voice platform after Lukashenka on August 6 stated that it was necessary to assess the legitimacy of alternative vote counting initiatives. Central Election Commission head Lydia Yarmoshyna has accused the Voice platform of "organizing mass riots" and forming a shadow electoral body. HAMDEN The primary Tuesday includes a Democratic face-off to run for the states 17th Senate District between Jorge Cabrera, the party-endorsed candidate, and Justin Farmer, a Hamden councilman who petitioned for the ballot slot. This year, because of the pandemic, voters could elect to vote by mail instead of in person. The winner in the primary will run against incumbent Republican Sen. George Logan, R-Ansonia, in the general election in November. The 17th District includes Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Derby, Hamden, Naugatuck and Woodbridge. Cabrera is a business representative and director of organizing for United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 919. He won a Democratic primary in 2018 to face Logan in the general election, falling 77 votes short of a victory in the latter. The second time around, you learn so much, Cabrera said. I think the voters have a familiarity they didnt have before since Ive shared my values and the work Ive done for 25 years. Theres more of a platform and a base from which to reach people. This time around, the issues are similar, but theres a heightened level of struggle people have been facing because of the pandemic, Cabrera said. This is really about who can best represent this district and the current incumbent hasnt done that, Cabrera said. I hear it all the time access to health care, supporting our schools, and opening up trades, so that college isnt the only option. Thats what I hear from voters constantly. Cabrera has been endorsed by the Working Families Party, Bethany Democrats, the Derby Democratic Town Committee, Beacon Falls Democrats, the Woodbridge Democratic Town Committee and about a dozen labor and trade unions. We feel were in a good position, Cabrera said. Were still working hard, of course, and will until the very end, but weve got our plan and executed it. Farmer also has fought a hard campaign. I think we have a good shot, Farmer said. We fought from a campaign that political insiders didnt take seriously. Farmer represents Hamdens 5th District on the Legislative Council, where hes been an advocate for environmental issues, policing and equitable economic development. Throughout his campaign, Farmer has been a proponent of regionalization efforts, LGBTQ and social justice, and voting equity. We have changed the conversation in the state of Connecticut with this election and I feel theres a lot more work to be done, so Im exited to continue that work past Aug. 11, regardless of what happens, Farmer said. We probably have the biggest campaign thats existed for a state-level race and its all grassroots, Farmer said. It people coming together for a moment of change. Its inspiring to be around young people who are ready for change. A lot of people are having a hard time getting young people out. Im excited and ready for Tuesday, Farmer said. A lot of the conversations were having is people want to see change. Farmer, 25, said even though people older than him might not share all the same views, theyre happy to see young people working for change. Farmer said the honesty hes shared with voters has helped him make inroads with the communities throughout the district and people know where he stands on issues because of his actions. Hes been endorsed by Planned Parenthood Votes! CT, Connecticut Young Democrats, Democratic Socialists of America, Run For Something, Hamden Action Now, Sunrise Connecticut, Sunrise New Haven and the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition. Cabrera has campaigned as the candidate whos been around the block politically. The biggest distinction is I have a longer resume of experience, Cabrera said. Ive been doing this for 25 years, helping workers get better wages and working in the legislature as an aide so Im in a much better position to work in government to get things done. I have the experience because Ive been doing it for so long. Farmer is running as an agent of change. This election, November especially, people have to decide where they want the country to go and the fact weve inspired a ton on young people, this is what we need, Farmer said. We need them to have a place in the system. Weve done the same thing decade after decade and if we want to see the change we want, it starts with the younger generation. mdignan@hearstmediact.com Earlier this year comedian Peter Helliar discussed suffering 'full body tremors' after becoming run down while filming How to Stay Married. Now, the 45-year old has revealed that it isn't 'a new thing' for him and he has suffered from them for years. On Saturday, Peter explained to The Weekend Australian that his body tremors reoccurred last summer following a very busy year. Health battle: Earlier this year comedian Peter Helliar (pictured) discussed suffering 'full body tremors' after becoming run down while filming How to Stay Married. Now, the 45-year old has revealed that it isn't 'a new thing' for him and he has suffered from them for years 'I didn't have a break at all last summer - I used my holiday time away from co-hosting The Project to make How to Stay Married, and I was loving it,' he said. But in the final week of shooting Peter revealed that the stress of doing so much caught up with him. 'I started having body tremors, which isn't a new thing for me - it feels like you're holding a lawn mower with one hand.' Working hard: As well as acting on How to Stay Married alongside Lisa McCune (pictured), Peter is credited as writer, director and producer, and is even involved in the casting process As well as acting on the Channel 10 sitcom alongside Lisa McCune, Peter is credited as writer, director and producer, and is even involved in the casting process. Peter said the tremors lasted for 'about six weeks' and he still doesn't know what causes them. 'When I was younger I had a lot of tests done to try and work it out,' he added. In the meantime Peter said that the COVID-19 pandemic has enabled him to slow down and 'be a bit more present'. Telling all: In May the TV presenter spoke on The Project about his most recent battle with the 'tremors' admitting that they got so bad while filming How to Stay Married that he couldn't stay on his feet In May the TV presenter spoke candidly about his most recent battle with the 'tremors' admitting that they got so bad while filming How to Stay Married that he couldn't stay on his feet. 'There are scenes where I'm sitting down for no reason because I couldn't really stand anymore,' he said on The Project. 'I had all these body tremors in a week, I was directing an episode and acting as well. Peter went on to explain that the tremors occur when he gets 'a little too run down or stressed.' Radka Vodickova celebrates after finishing the women's division of the TECHCOMBANK IRONMAN 70.3 Vietnam 2019 (Photo: organising board) Da Nang - The TECHCOMBANK IRONMAN 70.3 Vietnam 2020 has been rescheduled for May 2021 in the central city of Da Nang after being postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event organisers released a statement on August 6, saying the tournament could not be held after being delayed twice in 2020. The race, which was to begin on May 8-9, was rescheduled for September 4-6. However, the coronavirus outbreak, which occurred in the central city in late July after a two-month break, forced organisers to push the event to next year. The TECHCOMBANK IRONMAN 70.3 Vietnam will be held on May 7-9, 2021, and all registrations among athletes in 2020 will be valid for the new event. Following the new plan, the Newborns Vietnam will be held on May 7, while the Sunrise Sprint Vietnam and Ironkids Vietnam will be organised on May 8. The main race, TECHCOMBANK IRONMAN 70.3 Vietnam, will be on May 9, the organisers announced. The race, which normally takes place on May 10 in Da Nang, was won last year by two-time world champion Patrick Lange of Germany. Da Nang is the only city in Vietnam hosting the race with the participation of 5,000 athletes each year. The race would create revenue of 10 million USD from tourism and services. New Delhi, Aug 9 : The ill-fated Air India Express flight from Dubai to Kozhikode tried to land amid heavy rains and low visibility at around 16 minutes before it landed and skidded off the table top runway causing a major accident. As per flight data tracker, the Flight Radar 24, the IX1344/AXB 1344 Air India Express flight, manoeuvred a descent to the runway and reached as low as 1,975 feet, 16 minutes before it skidded. The last few minutes were extremely crucial in reading the adverse conditions that the pilots and the plane were facing. After this abortive attempt, the place gained an altitude again to circle and come back after reaching an altitude of 7200 feet. The plane skidded off the runway in heavy rain in its second attempt at landing. The last reading for the plane was at an altitude of 925 feet and a speed of 174 knots. Flight No. IX1344 from Dubai to Kozhikode was to cover a distance of 2,673 km in 3 hours and 37 minutes, but it took the flight 3 hours and 56 minutes. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said, "Because of the weather conditions, he (the pilot) could not land the first time, so he did a turnaround and tried to approach it from a different direction." He added that the crash appears to have been caused by a slippery runway. A deadly combination of a slippery runway, strong tailwind, bad weather conditions, and landing ahead of the threshold spot could have resulted in the skidding of the ill-fated Air India Express in Kozhikode that has reportedly claimed 19 lives. Caroline Flack attends The Beauty Awards 2019 on November 25, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Lia Toby/Getty Images) Caroline Flack was being harassed by an unnamed person before the incident which led to her arrest, it was revealed during the inquest relating to her death. Though reporting on the harasser has been forbidden by the court, coroner Mary Hassell has confirmed it is not Flacks partner, Lewis Burton, who she was with on the night she was arrested for domestic abuse charges. According to a psychiatrist who treated Flack after the incident in December, she was suffering a deterioration of her mental state following her arrest, with the harasser potentially adding to her stress. Read more: Caroline Flack took her own life after she found out she was being prosecuted, inquest rules However, prosecutors said the harassment was not connected with the alleged assault on Burton, and Flack should have reported it as a separate incident to police. The inquest heard how the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) initially planned to caution the star, but she was charged on appeal to review the decision by police. This resulted in Flack facing a criminal trial, which her family branded a show trial. TV presenter Caroline Flack arrives at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court charged with assault. (Photo by Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images) Mum Chris Flack issued a statement to the Press Association on behalf of herself and Flacks twin sister Jody. The statement says: "She was like all of us and that is why she was loved by everyone who actually knew her. "She did not hide from her mistakes and did not crow about her successes. "Because she was successful and because she was so open about her life and her loves she became an easy target for cruel and spiteful people who, if they knew the pain they caused, would be ashamed." They also praised the coroner for "the intelligence and compassion she brought to these proceedings". The statement continues: "She treated Caroline with dignity and respect and allowed us to ask questions and finally get answers to things that have been giving us sleepless nights ever since Caroline felt she had no choice but to take her life rather than face the humiliation of a show trial." Story continues Read more: Caroline Flack 'had suicidal thoughts' prior to her death, inquest hears Addressing the CPS, the statement adds: If it had been an ordinary person you wouldnt have prosecuted. I just think you should be disgusted with yourself. There is nothing we can do to bring Caroline back. That girl killed herself because you put an appeal through. Flack committed suicide in February, weeks before her trial was set to start. By Elvira Pollina, Andreas Rinke and Francesco Guarascio (Reuters) - France and Germany have quit talks on reforming the World Health Organization in frustration at attempts by the United States to lead the negotiations, despite its decision to leave the WHO, three officials told Reuters. The move is a setback for President Donald Trump as Washington, which holds the rotating chair of the G7, had hoped to issue a common roadmap for a sweeping overhaul of the WHO in September, two months before the U.S. presidential election. The United States gave the WHO a year's notice in July that it is leaving the U.N. agency - which was created to improve health globally - after Trump accused it of being too close to China and having mishandled the coronavirus pandemic. The WHO has dismissed his accusations. European governments have also criticised the WHO but do not go as far as the United States in their criticism, and the decision by Paris and Berlin to leave the talks follows tensions over what they say are Washington's attempts to dominate the negotiations. "Nobody wants to be dragged into a reform process and getting an outline for it from a country which itself just left the WHO," a senior European official involved in the talks said. The German and French health ministries confirmed to Reuters that the two countries were opposed to the United States leading the talks after announcing their intention to leave the organisation. A spokesman for the Italian health ministry said that work on the reform document was still underway, adding however that Italy's position was in line with Paris and Berlin. Asked about the position of France and Germany, a senior Trump administration official said: "All members of the G7 explicitly supported the substance of the WHO reform ideas." "Notwithstanding, it is regrettable that Germany and France ultimately chose not to join the group in endorsing the roadmap," he said. Story continues A spokesman for the British government declined to comment on the latest developments but added that Britain supported the WHO and urged a reform of the body "to ensure it remains flexible and responsive". The talks on WHO reform began about four months ago. There have been nearly 20 teleconferences between health ministers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations, and dozens of meetings of diplomats and other officials. A deal by the G7, which also includes Japan and Canada, would facilitate talks at the G20 and United Nations, where any changes would have to be agreed with China, Russia and other major governments not in the G7. It is unclear whether a G7 summit in the United States, at which Trump hopes leaders will endorse the roadmap, will now go ahead in September as planned. U.S. officials have not said what reforms Washington has sought. But an initial reform roadmap proposed by Washington was seen by many of its allies as too critical, with one European official involved in the negotiations describing it as "rude". Despite changes to the original text, Washington's push remained unacceptable, mainly to Germany, sources familiar with the negotiations said. FUNDING AND "POLITICIZED MANAGEMENT" In the weeks before the collapse of the talks, negotiators had told Reuters positions were getting closer as Washington softened its approach and European negotiators started to see the reform process as a means to make the WHO more independent from political pressure.. European governments had also began to make sceptical remarks about the WHO in public, with Germany's health minister urging the WHO to hasten a review of its handling of COVID-19.. In private, some Europeans have supported a tougher line, with some criticising WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and what they see as politicised management of the pandemic. "Everybody has been critical of Tedros," a negotiator from a European G7 country told Reuters. A German government source said: "It must ... be ensured in future that the WHO can react neutrally and on the basis of facts to global health events." But European governments want to make the WHO stronger, better funded and more independent, whereas the U.S. withdrawal of funds is likely to weaken it - Washington is the single largest contributor, providing 15% of the budget. Some Europeans see Trump's criticism of the WHO as an attempt in the run-up to the U.S. election to distract attention from his handling of COVID-19, and Berlin's ties with Washington have been strained by his decision in July to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Germany. Plans to reform the WHO are unlikely to be definitively shelved, especially if Trump is defeated in the November election. European governments want Washington to remain a WHO member and a financial supporter, and they have shown an interest in boosting their own funding to the body. (Reporting by Elvira Pollina in Milan, Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Jeff Mason in Washington, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; additional reporting by Marisa Taylor, Giselda Vagnoni, Guy Faulconbridge, Thomas Escritt and Tangi Salaun; Writing by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; editing by Timothy Heritage) A Board member of the National Peace Council (NPC), Nana Professor S.K.B Asante, has called for the cessation of the incessant attacks on the integrity of the NPC from political actors and sections of the media. Speaking at the launch of a committee for the implementation of the code of conduct on political vigilantism, he said the NPC had been attacked on numerous occasions for not condemning and denouncing certain alleged wrongful acts by political players. He described such attacks as misinformed, which stemmed from failure to appreciate the scope of the NPCs mandate. It is my considered opinion that the National Peace Council does not have the mandate to denounce the acts of any party to a dispute or any player in the political or communal arena. In my respectful submission, a careful analysis of the NPCs functions, as spelt out in sections 2 and 3 of the National Peace Council Act 2011 (Act 818), does not disclose any such mandate, he said. NPCs mandate Nana Prof. Asante, who is also the Paramount Chief of Asokore in the Ashanti Region, said the mandate of the NPC was to develop mechanisms for conflict prevention, management and resolution and to build sustainable peace in the country. This remit provides no basis for periodical and instant condemnation of any acts of any entity. Denouncing is clearly distinguishable from facilitating and developing mechanisms for peace, he said. Contribute to peace A member of the NPC, Maulvi Mohammed Bin Salih, who is also the Amir of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, said the committee would see to the implementation of the code of conduct on political vigilantism signed by the two biggest political parties the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He said in the wake of certain politically motivated vigilante activities, the two parties signed the code of conduct after talks brokered by the NPC, supported by other stakeholders. The Code of Conduct, which is one of the deliverables of the roadmap, envisages a monitoring mechanism by the NPC to ensure effective compliance by all stakeholders particularly political parties, he said. He called on the general public to contribute to the maintenance of peace before, during after the 2020 elections to ensure that the country continues to live in harmony and also cement its enviable status as an oasis of peace in the sub-region. Committee Members of the committee are Mr Vincent Azumah of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP); Dr Imurana Mohammed, National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE); Sheikh Armiyawo Shaibu, Spokesperson of the National Chief Imam; Very Reverend Father Lazarus Anondee of the, Catholic Bishops Conference and Mr Fred Tetteh of the Electoral Commission. The rest are Rev. Dr Cyril Fayose of the Christian Council of Ghana; Mr Jones Applerh, National Commission for Small Arms and Light Weapons; Mr Kwesi Jonah, of the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG); Nana Kwabena Aborampah-Mensah, of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, and Maulvi Mohammed Bin Salih, Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana. #GhanaVotes2020# Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Boris Johnson today throws down the gauntlet to union leaders blocking the return of pupils to classrooms by insisting the country has a moral duty to reopen schools next month. In an exclusive article for The Mail on Sunday, the Prime Minister declares that a resumption of normal teaching is now his national priority. The rallying cry will further crank up the political pressure over the issue, which is fast becoming a totemic test of the Governments ability to reboot the economy and move the country safely out of lockdown. Mr Johnson writes: Now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so. The rallying cry will further crank up the political pressure over the issue, which is fast becoming a totemic test of the Governments ability to reboot the economy and move the country safely out of lockdown Pupils were sent home at the start of lockdown in March, and only the children of key workers have been able to enjoy a measure of normal classroom teaching since then. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has come under intense pressure as critics warned that the lay-off was widening the educational divide between rich and poor, and preventing many parents from returning to the workplace. Mr Johnsons words come after Dr Mary Bousted, head of the National Education Union, urged schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has come under intense pressure as critics warned that the lay-off was widening the educational divide between rich and poor, and preventing many parents from returning to the workplace Pupils pose NO RISK of spreading Covid, study reveals A landmark coronavirus study has found the risk of transmission in classrooms is minimal, ratcheting up pressure on the Education Secretary to fully reopen schools. Boris Johnson is understood to have warned that Gavin Williamson's 'head will be on the chopping block' if pupils are not back in lessons next month. The Prime Minister has declared resuming classes a 'national priority' and is planning an advertising blitz to urge anxious parents to send their child back to class. His campaign was yesterday bolstered by encouraging scientific evidence which found a low threat of catching infection in schools. Government Sage adviser Professor Russell Viner outlined the forthcoming Public Health England study and stressed that reopening schools was 'imperative'. 'A new study that has been done in UK schools confirms there is very little evidence that the virus is transmitted in schools,' he told the Sunday Times. 'This is some of the largest data you will find on schools anywhere. Britain has done very well in terms of thinking of collecting data in schools.' The PHE study, which will be published later this year, tested more than 20,000 pupils and 100 teachers. Advertisement Many parents have been angered after schools told them they will educate their children only until lunchtime on at least one day of the week, on the grounds that they need time to implement extra safety requirements such as deep cleaning and staggered break times. In other developments: This newspaper has established that there has not been single case of a pupil infecting a teacher with the virus anywhere in the world; New research laid bare the damaging educational impact on pupils who have missed schooling during the lockdown; The coronavirus death toll rose by 55 yesterday, to 46,556, compared to a rise of 74 last Saturday, while 758 new infections were reported, 13 fewer than a week ago; Scientific advisers warned that the UK-wide reproduction rate, R, is between 0.8 and 1.0, the point at which the virus starts spreading exponentially again; Oxford University researchers developing a vaccine were embroiled in an ethics row about whether to deliberately infect human volunteers and warned that although there was a 50 per cent chance of a jab being available next year, it was likely to be only partially effective and carry side-effects; A survey found that barely half of the adult population is committed to being immunised against Covid-19; France is on the brink of joining the list of countries from where British travellers will have to go into quarantine upon their return; Young people in Preston were being urged dont kill Granny as the city was subjected to new lockdown measures following a spike in infections; Up to 16 children and staff were forced to isolate at home after a coronavirus outbreak at a nursery in Bury, which has also been put into local lockdown. The Prime Minister stressed the importance of getting all children back in school in September during a series of No 10 meetings last week, emphasising his expectation that education should be the absolutely last sector to be asked to close in local lockdowns with businesses such as shops, pubs and restaurants forced to close first. In his article, Mr Johnson argues that it is crucial for their welfare, their health and for their future that children should return to the classrooms full-time. He writes: We can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it. He spoke of the uplifting sight as millions of parents rose to the challenge of educating their children amid the added pressures of lockdown, but said that had to end. Highlighting the damage to children from poorer families in particular, Mr Johnson says: Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. 'The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health. Sport England report one in three children has done less physical activity in lockdown, with many suffering from poorer mental health, including through reduced access to vital support. Most painfully of all, the costs of school closure have fallen disproportionately on the most disadvantaged, the very children who need school the most. Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible. Mr Johnsons words come after Dr Mary Bousted, head of the National Education Union, urged schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe Last night, Mr Williamson said: Schools are the best place for childrens education and wellbeing and that is why their return to the classroom next month is our priority. 'Every decision we have taken leading up to this point has been informed by the best scientific and medical advice. I believe the vast majority of teachers, parents and children would agree that now is not the time to bring the sacrifices of the last four months to a standstill. The right measures are in place for all children to return to school in September. Let us come together to make sure that happens. Not a single confirmed case of a school pupil passing on coronavirus to their teacher exists anywhere in the world, says a leading expert By Stephen Adams, Medical Editor for The Mail on Sunday No confirmed cases exist anywhere in the world of school pupils passing on Covid to their teachers, an expert has said. All the available evidence points to children being poor spreaders of the virus, said Professor Mark Woolhouse, who cast doubt on the theory that reopening schools will trigger a deadly second wave. Last week, a modelling forecast published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health warned that opening schools across the UK in September could lead to a tsunami of new cases, more than twice the size of the first wave. But Prof Woolhouse said a second study published in the medical journal the same day, which found infected children in Australian schools had passed the virus on to hardly anyone, had been largely ignored. During the first wave, 15 schools and ten nurseries in the state of New South Wales reported 27 cases where children or staff had attended while infectious with Covid-19. Fifteen of these index cases were staff and 12 were children. Class pledge: Boris Johnson on a visit to a Kent school last month These 12 children were in close contact with 103 staff, found contact tracers. Only one of them was discovered to have passed the virus on to a member of staff in a single instance, although this is understood to have occurred in a nursery. Nor did infected children pass the virus on to their classmates to any great degree, with that happening in only two of 649 close contacts a virus attack rate of just 0.3 per cent. By contrast, the 15 infected staff members passed it on to 4.4 per cent of colleagues who were close contacts (to seven out of 160). Prof Woolhouse, head of infectious disease epidemiology at Edinburgh University, said: Science progresses by people publishing research. So what we do as carefully as we possibly can is scan whats been published in the literature to see if there are any reported cases, in this case of a child transmitting to a teacher in the classroom. The fact that there arent any that we can find, and there still arent, doesnt mean that its not possible in principle and doesnt mean that it wont happen on occasion. Prof Woolhouse, head of infectious disease epidemiology at Edinburgh University, said: Science progresses by people publishing research.' 'But it does suggest that out of all the ways that we see and have found this virus to transmit and remember, there are thousands and thousands of transmission events that have been inferred [from contact tracing] out of all those thousands, still we cant find a single one involving a child transmitting to a teacher in a classroom. He added: Even if this virus doesnt spread easily among the children, it certainly will spread among staff if it gets the opportunity. 'The evidence so far is that the most dangerous room in the school is not the classroom, its the staff room. So schools need to pay attention to that, and not take their eye off the right ball. Prof Woolhouse advises the Government on coronavirus as a member of the Scientific Pandemic Group on Modelling (SPI-M), although he stressed he was speaking in a personal capacity. Academics concluded reopening schools without improving contact tracing could trigger a second wave up to 2.3 times the size of the first, leading to 250,000 more deaths His comments come amid renewed calls for caution by teaching unions, with the National Education Union urging schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and to refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe. The unions will have felt emboldened to speak out by last weeks modelling study, by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and University College London (UCL). Academics concluded reopening schools without improving contact tracing could trigger a second wave up to 2.3 times the size of the first, leading to 250,000 more deaths. Prof Woolhouse said that apocalyptic outcome was highly unlikely given the current evidence. He added: Im slightly worried that, just through an accident of timing, schools will get blamed for pushing the R number over 1. But all activity can contribute to R rising, not just schools. Missing out on school is disaster that lasts forever - as the huge damage inflicted on youngsters by a long break from the classroom is laid bare by several new studies By Julie Henry for The Mail On Sunday The huge damage inflicted on youngsters by a long break from school has been laid bare by several new studies. Interrupted schooling has deep and long-lasting effects on children, according to Oxford University researchers who used data from school closures in a disaster zone. They said the study has relevance for other disasters, including the Covid-19 pandemic. The study found that childrens test scores in areas of Pakistan hit by a 2005 earthquake were between one- and-a-half and two years behind their peers in untouched areas. Those affected face losing 15 per cent of their earnings every year for the rest of their lives. In another study, US researchers looked at the effects of the summer slide when children forget over the long holidays what they have previously learned to estimate the impact of school closures caused by the coronavirus. It said students are likely to return to the classroom with less than 50 per cent of the knowledge and skills they had in maths. Meanwhile, a major UK study into the long-term consequences of the Covid crisis on the younger generation is being undertaken by Exeter University. In another study, US researchers looked at the effects of the summer slide when children forget over the long holidays what they have previously learned to estimate the impact of school closures caused by the coronavirus (file photo) Dr Lee Elliot Major, the universitys professor of social mobility, said: What is already clear is that the drastic losses in learning will have profound impacts on the lives of many children and young people. Every extra week away from face-to-face teaching adds to the cumulative damage over a lifetime. We need to assess the short-term risks of containing the virus against the longer-term, but in many ways more profound, risks of damaging the prospects for a whole generation. Natalie Perera, executive director of the independent Education Policy Institute (EPI), said: Pupils across the country have suffered huge learning loss since the lockdown began, with the most disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils hit the hardest by school closures. The period of disruption faced by schools is likely to have increased the achievement gap between the poorest pupils and the rest, which is already 18 months of learning by the end of compulsory education. The Government must offer maximum support to schools so that they are able to continue with pupils education in a safe and secure environment. Maura Regan, chief executive officer of Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust, which runs 18 academies in the North-East, told The Mail on Sunday that schools owe it to society to have staff back working so that childrens education can get back on track and parents can return to work. Interrupted schooling has deep and long-lasting effects on children, according to Oxford University researchers (file photo) In essence we need to get children in school in September. Id like to see us back full time and back permanently full time, she said. There is a balance to be struck between the risk and the priority of getting children back and the economy going. But the detrimental impact on children, especially the most vulnerable who might not have the drive or the parental support, is huge. Other research shows that the least well-off children have suffered the most from being out of school. An Institute for Fiscal Studies report found children from better-off households are spending 30 per cent more time each day on educational activities than children from the poorest fifth of homes. BORIS JOHNSON: Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than is absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible The education of our children is crucial for their welfare, their health and for their future. That is why it is a national priority to get all pupils back into school in September. The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it. Back in March, we had no option but to close schools to all but vulnerable children and those of critical workers, as part of our wider effort to protect the NHS and save lives. One of the most uplifting sights as our country came together during the lockdown was the transformation of living rooms and kitchens into classrooms, as millions of parents rose to the challenge of educating their children. 'The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it' Pictured: Prime Minister Boris Johnson visiting the Discovery School in West Malling, Kent, in July this year For many, this was achieved while juggling the pressures of work and childcare, compounded by the mounting toll of the restrictions necessarily imposed by our fight against coronavirus swings and slides locked up, playdates banned, grandparents unable to help. It was and for many families continues to be a truly Herculean effort of which I will always be in awe. It was also supported by many brilliant teachers providing remote learning for their pupils, the thousands of laptops and tablets we bought and shipped to the children who needed them to access online resources, and the stunning creation of Oak National Academy, which developed an entire online curriculum in just a matter of weeks. But we are in a different situation now to the one we faced earlier this year. Thanks to the enormous sacrifices made by the British people, we have made very significant progress in our fight against the virus. The number of infections has been forced down from an estimated 157,000 in early May to around 28,000 at the start of this month. Scientists have learned more about how the virus spreads and how we can control it. Crucially, studies have shown that children face a much lower risk than adults. This pandemic isnt over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do is become complacent. But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so. Because there is ultimately no substitute for a child learning at school to give them the knowledge, skills and wherewithal to succeed in life. Its why weve had compulsory schooling in this country for 140 years, and the evidence is incontrovertible. Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health. Sport England reports one in three children has done less physical activity in lockdown, with many suffering from poorer mental health, including through reduced access to vital support. 'Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health' Most painfully of all, the costs of school closure have fallen disproportionately on the most disadvantaged, the very children who need school the most. Surveys estimate that while the majority of pupils have been learning at home, as many as a quarter of pupils were doing less than two hours of school work a day. Children in the richest families spent over 75 minutes more per day on home-schooling than those in the poorest, and one study predicted that the attainment gap between children from economically deprived households and their peers could widen by more than a third. The Childrens Commissioner has reported increased risk of exposure to domestic violence, exploitation and addiction, both at home and on the streets. The longer this continues, the more likely it is that some will tumble out of education, employment or training altogether, never to return. On top of all this, there are the spiralling economic costs of parents and carers unable to work without the school or wraparound childcare they depend on; and the devastating long-term cost looming from the stunting of our childrens future productivity. This damage is taking place all over the world, with the United Nations Secretary General last week warning of a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress and exacerbate entrenched inequalities. We simply cannot allow this to continue. Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible. I have always believed that talent is uniformly distributed but opportunity is not, and the first step to changing that is by helping those who have fallen behind to catch up. So we are investing 1 billion in catch-up support, including a new 350 million National Tutoring Programme. We have announced 14 billion extra for schools and a new ten-year school building programme, as part of the Governments mission to build back better. But first of all we must open the school gates to all pupils once again. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has advised that the risk to children themselves of becoming severely ill from coronavirus is low. Our test and trace system is up and running already, it has identified almost 200,000 people who might otherwise inadvertently spread the virus, and advised them to self-isolate and we have worked closely with teaching unions and school leaders on measures to ensure that our schools are Covid secure. Grouping children into bubbles, staggered drop-off times, regular handwashing and providing schools and colleges with a number of home-testing kits for those who would be unable to access a testing centre. It is a detailed plan for getting all of our children back to school in a way that is safe. In June, we began the phased return of Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 and, after some initial apprehension, many parents reported how much happier their children were and what a relief it was to be back. Now we must all work together to bring this best practice to the task of reopening schools to all pupils in September. Nothing will have a greater effect on the life chances of our children and nothing is more important for the future of our country. After a Dadar school hiked its fees, the parents of students studying there have complained to the state education department about the institutes decision. According to the parents, the school decided to impose the fee hike despite the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) opposing the move. In a letter sent on Thursday, the parents of Sane Guruji English Medium School said the members of the PTA had disagreed on the 12% fee hike proposed by the school for Class 1. The fee went up from 2,400 to 3,200 per month for Class 1 students. This is a big hike and parents had clearly mentioned that it is unacceptable. Despite that, the school has gone ahead with the hike, stated the letter to the education department. However, Mohan Mohadikar, the schools trustee, said that only the entry-level fee has been hiked. Parents whose children were in Senior KG last year, have to pay the same fees for Class 1 this year. So as such, there will be no difference for those parents. Besides, we have also waived off the term fees for this term, considering the fact that school activities wont happen owing to the Covid-19 situation. We have also allowed parents to pay in installments and have not discontinued classes even if parents have pending payments, he added. However, parents have alleged that the school was violating the terms of the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fees Act) 2011. For Class 1, the school should charge the amount which was the same for the class last year. Any addition to it will be considered a hike, said a parent, who did not wish to be named. By Trevor Hunnicutt and James Oliphant (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden is expected to announce his running mate ahead of his party's national convention that kicks off on Aug. 17. Biden has vowed to choose a woman as his potential vice president. Here are the contenders likely under consideration, according to people familiar with the process. Senator Kamala Harris Following widespread protests over racial injustice and police brutality, pressure increased on Biden to choose a woman of color. Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian parents, fits the bill. Harris, 55, is widely viewed as a favorite. She is a battle-tested former presidential candidate and ex-prosecutor who has shown an ability to go on the attack - a valued asset for a running mate. A first-term senator from California, she has already been heavily vetted by the media and rival campaigns. Harris endorsed Biden after dropping out of the race. But her criticism during a Democratic primary debate of his opposition to school busing rankled some people close to Biden, who worry about her ambition and loyalty - and mounted a late-minute campaign to deny her the nomination. Former national security adviser Susan Rice Rice, 55, served as President Barack Obama's national security adviser during his second term, where she worked hand in hand on foreign policy matters with Biden, who was Obama's vice president. Prior to that, Rice served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Obama and has advised several other Democratic presidential candidates on national security. A Black woman, Rice could help drive the African-American vote, the Democratic Partys most loyal constituency. But she has never run for public office, which means she would be untested on the campaign trail. Her involvement in the controversy over the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, likely would make that incident a campaign issue. Trump aides also have signaled that they would accuse Rice of being part of a "deep state" conspiracy to surveil Trump campaign officials during the 2016 presidential election - allegations Rice has denied. Story continues Representative Karen Bass A late addition to Biden's shortlist, Bass, a congresswoman from Southern California and chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, would add a progressive voice to the ticket. Bass, 66, has an extensive background in police reform efforts and has spearheaded the legislative response in the House of Representatives to the killing of George Floyd by police in May. But concerns have been raised among Democrats about past remarks by Bass seemingly honoring Cuban dictator Fidel Castro - statements she has now disavowed - and her membership as a young activist in a group that supported the Cuban revolution. That could make a Biden-Bass ticket vulnerable in the key swing state of Florida, which has a large Cuban-American electorate. Representative Val Demings Biden has said Demings, 63, an African-American congresswoman from battleground Florida, is on the shortlist for running mate. The former Orlando police chief served as one of the managers of the House' impeachment proceedings against Republican President Donald Trump but has a lower profile among voters nationally. Demings' background in law enforcement and her relatively unvetted past as police chief could be viewed as risk factors to a Biden campaign that wants to appeal to progressive voters. Senator Tammy Duckworth Duckworth, 52, has a compelling personal story and would help bolster the campaign's national security credentials. The senator from Illinois is a combat veteran who lost her legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004. She went on to become the first woman with a disability and the first Thai-American elected to Congress. Duckworth, however, has not been on the forefront of civil justice issues like Harris, Bass and others on Biden's list. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Bottoms, 50, is the first-term mayor of a city that has been riven by protests over Floyd's death and the shooting of another Black man, Rayshard Brooks, by Atlanta police in June. Atlanta also has been a hot spot in the coronavirus pandemic, putting Bottoms on the front lines of the country's two largest challenges of the moment. While Bottoms was an early supporter of Biden, her lack of experience on the federal level may doom her chances. Biden, who would be the oldest U.S. president, has insisted his No. 2 be ready to assume the presidency at any time. Senator Elizabeth Warren Warren, 71, has spoken with Biden regularly since dropping out of the Democratic nominating race and endorsing him. The senator from Massachusetts is seen by Biden advisers as a bridge between the former vice president and people skeptical of his commitment to progressive policy priorities. The selection of Warren, however, could fuel allegations by the Trump campaign that Biden favors an overly leftist agenda, while potentially alienating moderate voters in battleground states that Biden is cultivating. Former Georgia state representative Stacey Abrams Considered a political rock star in progressive circles, Abrams, 46, is best known for nearly defeating Republican Brian Kemp in the 2018 race for governor of Georgia, traditionally a Republican-leaning state. She was the first African-American woman in U.S. history to be a major party gubernatorial nominee. She also served as the top Democratic leader in the state House of Representatives. Since her loss to Kemp, Abrams has become a national advocate for fair elections, establishing a group, Fair Fight, that combats voter-suppression efforts. Because of her relative lack of experience on the executive and federal levels, Abrams has not been considered a top contender for the No. 2 slot. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham Lujan Grisham, 60, became the first Latina Democratic governor of a state in 2018, after serving six years in Congress. Biden's campaign has been pushed by allies to consider a running mate who could boost his support among Latino voters, potentially the largest minority voting bloc in the November election. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer Whitmer, 48, raised her profile as the governor of a battleground state hit hard by the coronavirus. But she came under fire earlier this year from some Michigan residents for a stay-at-home order that they viewed as too onerous. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Peter Cooney and Nick Macfie) Roland Li/Chronicle Protesters marched on Market Street and gathered in front of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in San Francisco Saturday afternoon as part of a statewide campaign to shut down ICE detention centers and stop the transfer of people from prisons and jails. The noon march started on the Embarcadero and proceeded up Market Street to the 600 block of Sansome Street, where hundreds of protesters gathered in front of ICE offices and listened to speakers on the back on a flatbed truck. Even as the Andhra Pradesh police is investigating the death of 10 people by consuming hand sanitiser in Prakasam district last month, four more died in a similar manner in separate incidents in the temple town of Tirupati on Friday. The victims Veeraiah, Kumaraswamy, Venkataratnam and Srinivasulu belonging to Scavengers Colony in Tirupati town succumbed at SVRR government general hospital, where they were admitted by their relatives on Thursday evening. Their families told us that they were alcoholics and might have consumed sanitiser as they could not get liquor due to the lockdown. We are awaiting the forensic report to confirm if they consumed only hand sanitiser or anything else, Tirupati (urban) superintendent of police A Ramesh Reddy said. There are three dealers supplying hand sanitisers in the town but there is no evidence of all the four buying it from the same shop and consuming it together. Investigation is on, Reddy said. Our enquiries with their families revealed that they were financially sound, he said. Tirupati East police has registered a case under Section 176 of Criminal Procedure Code (suspicious death). YSR Congress party MLA from Tirupati Bhumana Karunakar Reddy visited the hospital and called on the families of the four victims. Earlier in July, 10 persons had died after consuming alcohol-based sanitiser at Kurichedu town in Prakasam district within a span of two days. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The American government has a lot to say about democracy, the rule of law and fair elections abroad when one or another state has gotten in the way of the interests of Wall Street. However, the United States is not a democracy in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an oligarchy, with a political system controlled by two parties, the Democrats and Republicans, that represent this oligarchy. This basic political fact is thoroughly exposed by the ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week, effectively ending the Socialist Equality Party election campaigns legal challenge to Californias undemocratic ballot access laws in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. On June 30, my running mate Norissa Santa Cruz and I filed a lawsuit against California Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Alex Padilla, both Democrats, challenging the states decision to require us to collect nearly 200,000 physical signatures to appear on the ballot. Given the pandemic that has raged throughout the period when signature-gathering is allowed, any attempt by us to fulfill this requirement would certainly have contributed to spreading COVID-19 and significant deaths. On July 20, California District Judge Dolly M. Gee, nominated by former President Barack Obama, ruled against our challenge, siding with the position of the Newsom administration that we should have risked life and limb to fulfill this requirement. We appealed this decision to the Ninth Circuit, which set a timetable that would have concluded the case well after ballotswithout our names on themwere already printed. On July 27, a three-judge panel on the courtcomprised of judges appointed by both Democrats and Republicansdenied a request that the appeal be heard on an expedited basis. Our motion for reconsideration of this decision was denied by the same panel on Wednesday, August 5. This effectively ends the SEPs legal case, since any decision would be made after the state already took the action that the lawsuit was aimed at preventing. The appeals courts decision is a political, not a legal ruling based on the merits. There is ample precedent for expedited hearings involving cases of this character, and there are absolutely no defensible legal grounds for denying the request. The panel of judges announced its decisions with one-paragraph rulings that did not address any of our arguments. In essence, it is saying: We do not want to hear the case on its merits as the legal issues are clear, so we will prevent the case from being heard in time. The entire response of the ruling class and its state to the SEP challenge has been determined by one political motive: Keep socialists off the ballot! The decision of the Ninth Circuit judges not to decide our case until after ballots are printed was determined by this overriding political necessity. A similar decision was made in July against the SEP in its challenge to ballot access requirements in Michigan, also controlled by Democrats. We are currently appealing that decision. To call the situation Kafkaesque would be a gross understatement. A deadly pandemic is raging throughout the country. More than five million people in the US have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 163,000 people have died, with more than 1,000 added to this horrific toll every day. The latest estimates are that 300,000 people will have died by the beginning of December. California currently has one of the highest daily infections of any state (at more than 6,000) and one of the largest daily death counts (at over 140). Yet the state would have the SEP and its supporters physically interact with hundreds of thousands of people, sharing clipboards and pens, and overall creating the best conditions for spreading the disease! Some of the arguments advanced by the state are particularly grotesque and absurd. In his initial opposition to our lawsuit, the California attorney general argued that if we won it would cause an unmanageable and overcrowded ballot that would create voter confusion" and frustration of the democratic process. The voters of California are, apparently, too ignorant to be able to choose between more than a handful of candidates sanctioned by the state. In fact, the only frustration that would result would be the frustration of the ruling class that voters would have options outside of the representatives of the ruling class itself. In 2003, the specific circumstance created by a recall election created conditions in which 135 candidates were on the ballot, with no confusion or frustration. The SEP candidate in the election, John Burton, won a substantial vote. The state also argued that we should have gathered signatures over social mediaon which socialist politics is heavily censoredand by mail. This would require sending individual signature forms to 200,000 people, who would have to print the forms, sign them, physically meet with a notary public to have them notarized, and mail them back. Even if such a byzantine procedure were possible, it would cost something on the order of $20 million for the notarizations alone. Then you have the fact that the Democrats have announced in their own election campaign for Joe Biden that they will be doing no door-to-door campaigning because of the pandemic. The Democrats are planning to hold their convention later this month virtually, again because of the pandemic. In other words, socialists should risk their lives and the lives of the public at-large just to get on the ballota task that the Democrats and Republicans need not perform because they are on the ballot automatically. The entire system of ballot access in the United States is grossly undemocratic. For decades, states have attacked the right to vote by putting up increasingly onerous restrictions and requirements: early deadlines, signature-gathering requirements and other limitations designed to make it as difficult as possible to participate. Many of these requirements are flagrantly discriminatory. They make it easy for Democrats and Republicans and difficult for everyone else. These barriers have been repeatedly upheld by the courts as serving state interests. With these two lawsuits in Michigan and California, the SEP has completely exploded these rationales. Under conditions of the pandemic, these requirements are being enforced when it is as clear as day that they are effectively impossible to satisfy. This proves that these ballot access restrictions are designed for one purpose only: to exclude opposition from the electoral process, and specifically to exclude socialist opposition. The Ninth Circuit's refusal to hear our appeal is not made from a position of strength, but from a position of weakness. Our arguments were irrefutable, and the state's arguments were absurd, so the judges decided to run the clock out in order to avoid having to make any decision at all. The representatives of the ruling class, Democratic and Republican, are terrified of the growth of social opposition. The policy the oligarchy has implemented has produced mass death and devastation. While the rich have used the pandemic to amass even greater wealth, they stand atop a powder keg. There is growing support for socialism and opposition to capitalism. In the resolution adopted by the Socialist Equality Party at its Congress last month, we wrote: The first half of the year has been dominated by the response of the ruling class to the pandemic. The response of the working class will come to the forefront in the second half. The disastrous consequences of the ruling class policies have delivered a staggering blow to the legitimacy of the capitalist system. This is already happening. There is mounting anger among teachers and parents to the back-to-school campaign. Workers are beginning to organize and fight back against the efforts to force them to sacrifice their lives and the lives of their loved ones to pump out profits for the rich. The cutoff of federal unemployment benefits, leaving tens of millions impoverished and in danger of eviction, is producing a social explosion. In the upcoming electionsif they are even heldthe Democrats and Republicans are offering a choice between two right-wing representatives of the oligarchy, Trump and Biden. The decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is a further demonstration of the basic truth of Marxism: the state is not a neutral body. It is an instrument of class rule. Real social change will not come through this corrupt and antidemocratic apparatus, but from the development of a mass revolutionary movement of the working class. And this is coming. Norissa and I will continue to wage a determined fight in the elections. The SEP will be on the ballot in a number of states that do not require in-person signature gathering. In other states, we will have write-in status, including in California. In the coming weeks, we will be holding online campaign meetings to explain the perspective of socialism. The central aim of this campaign is to build a socialist leadership in the working class. We call on all workers and youth to make the decision that flows inexorably from the reality of the pandemic and the nature of class rule: Join the SEP and take up the fight for socialism! By Jarrett Renshaw NEW YORK (Reuters) - With less than 90 days until Election Day, Republicans are scrambling to counter the effects of Donald Trump's verbal war on mail ballots amid growing evidence that it has helped Democrats heading into the crucial Nov. 3 contest By Jarrett Renshaw NEW YORK (Reuters) - With less than 90 days until Election Day, Republicans are scrambling to counter the effects of Donald Trump's verbal war on mail ballots amid growing evidence that it has helped Democrats heading into the crucial Nov. 3 contest. The U.S. president's unsubstantiated attacks on mail voting as vulnerable to fraud have soured many of his supporters on this alternative to in-person balloting as coronavirus sweeps the country, more than two dozen Republican officials from six politically competitive states told Reuters. Democratic voters, meanwhile, are embracing mail ballots at rates well ahead of their Republican counterparts, according to data from recent state and local elections. The trend has alarmed them, the Republican officials said. They worry Democrats will bank significantly more mail votes by November, a deficit that may be tough to overcome if the pandemic depresses turnout on Election Day. Fearful of losing the White House and getting thumped in down-ballot races, party operatives quietly are taking matters into their own hands. Local Republican candidates are recording phone messages promoting mail balloting as safe and reliable, officials said, while volunteer door knockers have memorized talking points to persuade skeptical voters that their state's system is fraud-proof. There is a real concern that (Trump's actions) will end up suppressing the Republican vote," said Amy Koch, a Republican strategist in Minnesota who is working on several races there. "We are trying to tell voters that mail voting here in Minnesota has safeguards, but I worry that Trump has the biggest megaphone and can blow the whole thing up." The Trump campaign would not comment specifically on the assertion of Koch and other Republican officials that the president is undermining turnout efforts. Campaign spokeswoman Thea McDonald said "President Trump has consistently and rightly said that where a voter cannot make it to the polls, they should request an absentee ballot. Knowing that many of the president's supporters trust only what he says, the party has taken to using Trump's own words to tout mail voting. In key battleground states, including Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, officials last month sent fliers to millions of Republican voters urging them to request absentee ballots for November's election. The mailers featured part of a Trump tweet from June 28: Absentee Ballots are fine because you have to go through a precise process to get your voting privilege." But it obscured the remainder of that message: Not so with Mail-Ins. Rigged Election!!! 20% fraudulent ballots?", according to a copy of the mailer seen by Reuters whose content was confirmed by the Republican National Committee. The RNC defended this selective use of Trump's words as "completely in-line with President Trumps message," spokesman Mike Reed said. LAGGING IN BATTLEGROUNDS The terms absentee voting and mail-in balloting have become synonymous in most U.S. states; both generally mean filling out a ballot at home, then dropping it in the mail or returning it in person. Trump has tried to draw a distinction. Sixteen states require an excuse to vote absentee, such as illness or travel. The other 34 states allow any registered voter to request a mail ballot. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the latter system is prone to fraud. Election experts who have studied decades of U.S. elections say such chicanery is rare. What's clear is that mail ballots drive turnout in states that have made it easy to vote this way, and Democrats are far outstripping Republicans in embracing it this year. In competitive Pennsylvania, which last year began allowing anyone to request an absentee ballot without a reason, a record 1.28 million Democrats requested mail ballots for its primary elections in June versus 526,706 Republicans, a two-to-one edge that dwarfs their 55% to 45% voter registration advantage in the state, election data show. Looking ahead to November, the battleground state of North Carolina points to a continuation of that pattern. Voters there are already able to request mail ballots for the presidential contest. As of Thursday, the 121,717 applications recorded are running 10 times higher than the total at this time in 2016, according to data from the North Carolina Board of Elections. Of those, Democrats requested 60,502 compared to 18,974 for Republicans, a three-to-one advantage. Republican concerns also run deep in coronavirus-ravaged Florida, the biggest prize among battleground states with 29 Electoral College votes. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016, partly on the strength of a Republican edge in mail balloting and support from older, white voters who embrace this style of voting. But that advantage has evaporated heading into the upcoming August 18 primary elections featuring state and congressional races, seen as a bellwether for November. Democrats account for 47% of the record 2.9 million absentee ballot requests versus 30% for the Republicans, state data as of Thursday show. Republican officials are so concerned about the trend that they, too, sent a mailer to Florida party members last month featuring an edited Trump tweet purporting to show the president's support for mail balloting. "The presidents base skews older - this is the same population at high risk for COVID and most worried about in-person voting," said Dan Eberhart, a Republican fundraiser. "If I was the president Id be making sure these people had ballots in the mail and could safely vote at home." Florida is among the states that allow mail voting without an excuse, the system Trump has derided as fraudulent. Still, on Tuesday he took to Twitter asking Florida supporters to vote by mail, saying the state's process is "Tried and True." Florida is a must-win state for Trump to have a shot at a second term. Trump himself has voted absentee there since he became a Florida resident last year. Steve Simeonidis, Democratic chairman of Miami-Dade County, the largest in Florida, said his party is dominating mail ballot requests in the state thanks in part to aggressive outreach to its voters. He said Trump's attacks are a "farce" aimed at suppressing turnout among his opponents, a strategy that appears to have backfired. "Ive never seen a more disorganized messaging strategy," Simeonidis said. "Hes doing our work for us. 'WE HAVE MADE OUR BED' Many of the two dozen Republican officials who spoke with Reuters said they shared some of Trump's concerns that the system is vulnerable to tampering. But they said his efforts to clarify his message in support of mail balloting in certain circumstances has only sewn confusion. Republican officials working to promote mail balloting on social media have been met with resistance from Trump supporters. Eight in 10 Republicans surveyed said that increased voting by mail will lead to widespread fraud in the Nov. 3 election, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on July 31 showed. By contrast, a far smaller percentage of Democrats - three in 10 - agreed that expanded mail voting could lead to fraud. They also have more trust in the system. Some 80% of Democrats said their ballots would be accurately counted if cast by mail, compared to 60% of Republicans who agreed, the same poll showed. Republican consultant Charles Hellwig in North Carolina is working with several state and congressional candidates to record phone messages encouraging people to vote early, including voting by mail. We are doing our best to inform people that North Carolina has important safeguards. Some don't want to hear it," Hellwig said. "The question is will these same people show up on Election Day if we are still seeing a surge in coronavirus cases. We have certainly made our bed in this." (Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Marla Dickerson) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. A man who stabbed a 93-year-old pensioner multiple times has been jailed for 11 years with the last 12 months suspended. James Reilly (31), Gort na Glaise, Blackrock, had previously admitted a charge of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Mr Donie Lynch on the afternoon of 10 August, 2019. The defendant also pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary while in possession of a knife, for which he received 9 years. Passing sentence last week, Judge Martina Baxter said it had been a deliberate, vicious and unprovoked attack. She said it had been premeditated and Mr Lynch and his wife Kathleen, who witnessed the attack, were vulnerable and defenceless. At a sentence hearing in Dundalk circuit criminal court last May, evidence was given that Mr Lynch had initially gone to help Reilly who had asked for water for his car as he passed by the elderly gentleman who was sitting outside his house in Sandy Lane, Blackrock. However, Reilly followed Mr Lynch to the back of the house, said he wanted money and produced a knife which he pointed at Mr Lynch's heart. The victim and his wife Kathleen, who was aged 89 at the time, tried to prevent the man entering the house. Reilly stabbed Mr Lynch four times in the stomach before fleeing. It was feared he might die before he underwent emergency surgery in the Lourdes Hospital. He was discharged on 21 August. Victim Impact Statements were read out in court, and they detailed how the Lynchs' lives had been changed by the incident. Neither Mr or Mrs Lynch were present for the hearing. Reilly, a chronic heroin user, was arrested on 11 August and has been in custody since. He has 19 previous convictions for offences including possession of drugs, theft, forgery, driving without insurance, being drunk in charge of a vehicle and causing criminal damage. His barrister said it was a 'cowardly, vicious, unprovoked attack on an elderly gentleman and his wife'. Sentencing had been adjourned for reports to be completed on the defendant. The Niagara Region Public Health Unit reports two raccoons in St. Catharines have tested positive for rabies. They are the second and third raccoons to test positive for rabies in Niagara this year. In 2019, five animals tested positive for rabies, including a bat, dog, raccoon and two skunks. Officials warn residents not to approach any wild animal including those that appear to be in distress because of the risk of injury or contracting an infection like rabies. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, along with SPCAs and humane societies, continue to conduct surveillance for animals with rabies. Public Health is advising residents to take protective measures for rabies: Ensure pet dogs and cats have current rabies vaccinations (typically needed annually by law); Prevent pet dogs and cats from roaming off-leash or unsupervised; Avoid all contact with wild animals and prevent contact between pets and wildlife. They are also asking residents to report wild animals exhibiting abnormal behaviour (particularly raccoons) to local animal control services: Welland SPCA: 905-735-1552; Lincoln County Humane Society: 905-682-0767; Niagara Falls Humane Society: 905-356-4404; Fort Erie Humane Society: 905-871-2461. An animal with rabies may not display symptoms and so all bites or scratches, however mild, from an animal must be assessed to ensure the person bitten or scratched is not at risk. Immediately report all animal bites and scratches of humans to Niagara Region Public Health at 905-688-8248, ext. 7590 or toll-free 1-888-505-6074. Niagara Region Public Health is available to take calls about animal bites 24-7. Two other men, ages 20 and 21, suffered wounds to the shoulder, and to the groin area and leg. Both of those victims were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where one was listed in good condition and the other was in critical condition, police said. They celebrated their daughter Sophie's first birthday earlier this week. And on Saturday, model Tahlia Giumelli and footballer Tom Burgess, both 28, announced that they're expecting a second baby in a matter of months. In a photo posted to Instagram, Tahlia beamed as she showed off her blossoming bump while posing with Tom and Sophie. Coming soon: They celebrated their daughter Sophie's first birthday earlier this week. And on Saturday, Tahlia Giumelli and Tom Burgess, both 28, announced that they're expecting a second baby in a matter of months. All pictured She wrote in the caption: 'Only months away from Sophie meeting her little brother or sister.' 'Can't wait to have a new addition join the family before the year is out,' she added, and shared a similar sentiment alongside a photo of her family on Instagram Stories. Earlier this week, the parents threw a party for Sophie's first birthday, with Tahlia paying tribute to her fast-growing toddler in an Instagram post. She wrote at length: 'To our Sophie girl. You're a big 1 year old now. There's no denying you weren't planned, you were the last thing on our minds and yet you must have known how much we needed you in our lives. Tahlia wrote in the caption: 'Only months away from Sophie meeting her little brother or sister. Can't wait to have a new addition join the family before the year is out' and shared a similar sentiment alongside a photo of her family on Instagram Stories Love her: Earlier this week, the family celebrated Sophie's first birthday. Tahlia wrote on Instagram, 'There's no denying you weren't planned, you were the last thing on our minds and yet you must have known how much we needed you in our lives' 'You certainly changed our lives for the better. You're a force to be reckoned with, you're determined that's for sure, you have a personality that lights up a room, you aren't shy, you love your puppy and dancing to The Wiggles is your jam. 'You've made your daddy and I laugh so much we have cried and you bought our family closer together. You've made the big problems little. 'You're the gift that keeps on giving and you were the best surprise to come into our lives,' she concluded. Tom also paid tribute to the tot, writing on his Instagram: 'And just like that our little girl is 1! Such an amazing year of our life having you with us, they say life changes when you have kids and it definitely does and for the better!' Happy birthday! The new parents threw a party for their little girl with presents and a tent Tom also paid tribute to the tot, writing on his Instagram: 'And just like that our little girl is 1! Such an amazing year of our life having you with us, they say life changes when you have kids and it definitely does and for the better!' Sophie Heather was born over a week earlier than expected at the Royal Hospital for Women Foundation on August 3, 2019, after a 15 hour labour. 'A huge thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the messages of love and congratulations from everyone,' Tahlia said two days after the birth. Welcome! Sophie Heather was born over a week earlier than expected at the Royal Hospital for Women Foundation on August 3, 2019, after a 15 hour labour 'We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful network of people who love and care for her,' she added. In December 2019, NRL star Tom and his model girlfriend announced their engagement. Tahlia confirmed the happy news on Instagram while proudly showing off her new diamond ring. Ready to wed: In December 2019, NRL star Tom and his model girlfriend announced their engagement. Tahlia confirmed the happy news on Instagram while proudly showing off her new diamond ring How sweet! The South Sydney Rabbitohs star proposed on a farm while the couple were on holiday celebrating their three-year anniversary. Pictured on a previous vacation She told her Instagram followers the proposal was the 'perfect' ending to 2019. The South Sydney Rabbitohs star proposed on a farm while the couple were on holiday celebrating their three-year anniversary. 'And our 2019 ended just perfectly!' Tahlia wrote. 'Where it all begin in 2016. Our first holiday at the farm and three years later he's down on one knee at the same place!' Their relationship first made headlines in April 2017, when The Daily Telegraph reported they had been quietly dating for at least six months. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday announced an interim relief of Rs 10 lakh for each of those who died in the Air India Express crash at the Karipur airport in Kozhikode. He also assured the kin of victims that steps would be taken to get them compensation in line with an international convention of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Taking stock of the crash of the Dubai-Kozhikode AIE flight in Kozhikode and the relief measures, the minister said pilot in-command of the plane, Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, among those killed in the accident, was one of the most experienced commanders with more than 10,000 flying hours. Addressing the media after visiting the accident site, along with his ministerial colleague V Muraleedharan and others, the minister announced Rs 10 lakh for each of those who died in the plane crash, Rs 2 lakh each for those who suffered serious injuries and Rs 50,000 for those with minor injuries. This was over and above all the other compensations, which might be forthcoming from different agencies, insurance of the aircraft etc, he noted. "I might mention that the Air India aircraft are properly insured and discussions will be made with passengers and their families at the appropriate juncture in line with the Montreal convention of international civil aviation organisation", Puri said. "First of all, every passenger in the aircraft has been accounted for. 23 people were discharged because they had only minor injuries. A total of 149 are in the hospital receiving treatment. "We are working very closely with the state and central machineries to tide over the difficult situation and extend possible support to the families of deceased passengers and provide all kinds of assistance to the injured persons," the said. The minister said the aircraft was captained and operated by 'one of our most distinguished, experienced commanders', Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe. "In fact, the Captain had more than 10,000 hours of flying experience. He has landed on this very air piece, I think as many as 27 times including this year", Puri said. The co-pilot Captain Akhilesh Kumar, 32, who also died in the mishap, had a total flying experience of 1,723 hours. The cabin crew on board are all safe. He appreciated the local airport authority officials, all other agencies and locals who participated in the rescue operations soon after the accident. The Boeing 737 aircraft overshot the tabletop runway at the airport in Kozhikode on Friday nighty while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions. Puri said reasons for the mishap are being investigated and it will be premature for him to speculate on what the precise cause of the accident was. "All parts of the system including the Airports Authority, DGCA, AAIB and all other agencies are cooperating, two black boxes have been found", the minister said. Responding to queries on the cause of the accident, the minister appealed to the media not to speculate as all the data required for the probe will be in the black boxes of the aircraft and the cause of the contributing factors for the mishap will be revealed through the enquiry. Asked about the speculation on the fuel in the ill-fated aircraft, Puri said the flight was carrying enough fuel. "I myself have asked these questions. I asked my colleague, CMD of Air India, how much fuel did he (the pilot) have? I have an answer. There was fuel. The issue is... let us await the findings of investigation," the minister said. It is permitted for voters who are physically disabled, who are students or spouses or dependents of students who are attending school out of their county of residence. It is permitted for voters who cannot vote because of employment on election day, or those who plan to be on vacation on election day, or those who are in the hospital within a four-day period before election day or had a death or funeral in the family within three days of the election, or those who care for sick or disabled people. SPRINGFIELD - The American Civil Liberties Union delivered a lengthy list of questions about what Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gullunis office is doing about police misconduct in the regions largest city. The civil rights watchdog specifically focused on a U.S. Department of Justice report made public July 8, which portrayed Springfield narcotics detectives as a rogue unit whose members routinely defaulted to excessive force, filed false police reports and trumped up charges. What actions has your office taken in response to the DOJ report? Has your office determined, by inquiring with DOJ or otherwise, which specific officers were implicated are implicated by the DOJ report in committing or condoning misconduct? If so, who are they? were among the questions posed in a five-page letter sent Aug. 6 to Gullunis office. The DOJ report cited a litany of examples when narcotics detectives allegedly used excessive force, but did not include suspects names, nor the names of particular officers in its summary. Some of the instances were obvious as they had received intense media coverage, while others were more obscure. One man alleged he was clothes-lined by a detective as he rode by an arrest on a motorbike; another reported he was kicked and beaten by several officers after a foot chase; and still another said he was pulled from his car after a brief car chase, then also kicked and beaten even though he was not being combative. Police officials have said they are working to piece together the alleged event in comparison with the reports allegations and have found flaws in some of the narratives. However, an aide to Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood said the department has been working in tandem with the Department of Justice to implement reforms before the report became public. The department was working with outside consultants and the DOJ long before the report was published, in anticipation of the recommended remedies that ended up in the report, said Capt. Philip J. Tarpey III, citing a widespread roll-out of body-worn cameras and revamps of the departments Internal Investigations Unit and a community police review board which answers to Mayor Domenic Sarno. Weve been cooperating with the DOJ and will continue to cooperate, Tarpey said, adding that the police department has a good relationship with the district attorneys office. However, the ACLU questions whether the relationship is too good, and whether the prosecutors office is too entrenched with the police department. For any officers implicated, has your office engaged in a review to identify the cases in which any of those officers participated or is participating as an investigator, witness, or other member of the prosecution team? If so, which are they? the letter persists. A spokesman for Gulluni said his office is reviewing the letter. We are giving the letter a careful review, and comment thoughtfully on it in a reasonably short period of time, said James Leydon, communications director for Gulluni. The ACLUs letter also cites previous public records requests it posed to the district attorneys office last year, focused on whether the agency maintained a running list of Brady or Giglio officers -- legal jargon for cops tainted by misconduct and considered unfit to testify in criminal cases. Your office revealed that you maintain no list of officers known or suspected to have committed an offense whose disclosure may be required under (Brady) ... your office has no formal policies, procedures, or analyses concerning its attorneys obligations ... and your office has no written systems in place to track whether Brady disclosures are made in the appropriate cases, the letter reads. The ACLU sent the letter as legislation over police reforms is still being debated on Beacon Hill. Rahsaan Hall, racial justice director for ACLU Massachusetts, said only a handful of 11 district attorneys across the state maintain lists of officers whose credibility may be compromised by misconduct. Police misconduct isnt just a police issue, prosecutors have a responsibility to address it, Hall said. Gulluni has brought criminal cases against Springfield police officers -- particularly those accused of sexual misconduct. Former Officer Daniel Cintron was accused of child rape, but a jury deadlocked last year. A jury-waived retrial is scheduled for September. Two other officers were acquitted in 2019 for raping an adult woman. Still, Hall says he considers Gullunis performance on police accountability to be poor. If the largest police department in the county that generate a majority of cases that office prosecutes is engaged in misconduct, and you dont have people dedicated to seek out that misconduct and prosecute it, there is going to be a lack of motivation to change the culture of that department, Hall said. The state attorney generals office and U.S. attorneys office both have cases pending against Springfield police officers focused on brutality and misconduct. But, Hall, a former Suffolk County prosecutor, said local district attorneys offices are best positioned to police the police. The DAs office is in a better position to know about this misconduct because they are rooted in the community I think because of that relationship, they are in the best position to influence the department, he said. Global leaders including US President Donald Trump will participate in an international aid conference on Sunday to support Lebanon, as the country, crippled by corruption, a banking crisis and growing popular defiance against the authorities, is seeking massive relief after blasts in Beirut. The video-conference will be co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and the United Nations. Macron said he would make sure any aid goes directly to the Lebanese people and not into corrupt hands, during a visit to Beirut on Thursday. Several allies of Lebanon have offered support since Tuesdays explosions in the port of Beirut that left over 150 people dead, many missing, more than 5,000 injured and close to 300,000 people homeless as the blast partially destroyed the city. Authorities said the biggest explosions in Beiruts history caused an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion worth of damage. Gulf states, European nations and the US have sent mobile clinics, food and medicine to the country. European Council President Charles Michel was in Beirut on Saturday and promised support. The chief of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, pledged to mobilize regional efforts to provide support. Turkey said it is ready to help rebuild the port, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay during a visit to Lebanon on Saturday. Also read: Wife of Dutch envoy to Lebanon dies after being hurt in Beirut blast The country, which is almost entirely reliant on imports of fuel, food and material, may use Turkeys Port of Mersin, on the Mediterranean, until the Port of Beirut is rebuilt and Ankara is ready to also help reconstruct the buildings nearby and send medical assistance and food aid, the agency said on Twitter. Promises of relief come as the leader of Lebanons Hezbollah rejected rumors that the militant group had stashed weapons at Beiruts port before this weeks devastating explosions. Officials have blamed the accident on a vast store of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, unloaded from a ship in 2014 and kept at the port despite repeated safety warnings. We dont have anything at the port, not weapons, missiles or ammunition or nitrate or anything else at all. Not now, not in the past or the future, Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech. Lebanons president Michel Aoun said on Friday an investigation would examine whether it was caused by a bomb or other external interference. The cause has not been determined yet. There is a possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act, Aoun said. To protest the current government supported by Hezbollah, the Kataeb party -- a Christian group that opposes the ruling majority -- announced the resignation of its members from the parliament on Saturday, Lebanon-based MTV channel said on Twitter. The general secretary of the party, Nizar Najarian, was killed in the explosion. He was chairing a meeting for the party at its headquarters near the site of the blast. Marwan Hamade, from the party of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, and independent lawmaker Paula Yacoubian also announced their resignations. A Shattered Beirut Leaves Lebanese Asking If They Have a Future Lebanon has arrested 20 people, including port and customs officials, and placed everyone who had an official role at the port since 2014 under house arrest. A team of French explosive experts arrived in Beirut Thursday to help with the investigation thats being led by the Lebanese army and police intelligence. The explosion came as Lebanon is reeling under its worst financial meltdown in decades and the governments inability to implement reforms and tackle corruption as demanded by the international community. The administration is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a $10 billion loan program, but those negotiations had stalled over internal disputes. S Lalitha By Express News Service BENGALURU: In the midst of the gloom in the aviation industry, Bengaluru has something to cheer about. Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) has emerged as the second busiest airport in the country, a position long held by Mumbais Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, as per latest statistics released by the Airports Authority of India. Figures for the first quarter of financial year 2020-2021 were made public earlier this week. By recording 4,54,704 international and domestic passengers from April to June 2020, it has beaten Mumbai, which had 3,19,412 passengers in the same period. New Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport had the maximum patronage with 12,31,338 passengers in the same period. All the airports have shown a dip in patronage by 92% to 97%. Whats worse, even Kolkata has gone above Mumbai, thereby pushing it to fourth position (see box). According to a KIA official, an average of 180 Air Traffic Movements (arrivals and departures) were recorded at Bengaluru in June, compared to nearly 700 ATMs before stoppage of regular flight operations. As per data (of Aug 6), a total of 91 arrivals and 94 departures occurred at the airport. This included international as well as Vande Bharat Mission flights. International footfall in the 4.5 lakh figure in Bengaluru stands at 19,427, stats show. A senior aviation official attributed the dip in performance by Mumbai to far more stringent restrictions in place at the airport there, and reduced number of operations due to Covid-19, rather than any major improvement by other airports. A spokesperson of airport operator Bangalore International Airport Ltd said, Ever since domestic scheduled operations were allowed by the Centre on May 25, 2020, state governments have had varied approaches to the number of flights allowed in order to manage Covid-19. That, coupled with local curfews and lockdowns, has led to an alteration in travel patterns. Under the circumstances, it is expected that changes are likely in traditional passenger numbers across airports in India. On possible policy steps being taken by the government to boost passenger traffic, Director General of Civil Aviation, Arun Kumar, told TNIE, We have laid down the Standard Operating Protocol. Likelihood of getting infected on board a flight is extremely unlikely, as has been established. Some airlines may close down: EXPERT Aviation expert Captain Mohan Ranganathan spoke about the bleak scenario of the aviation industry right now. There is no business, family, or tourism travel. Hotels too are shut. Hence, there is no chance that domestic travel will pick up for at least three years, he said. International travellers contribute to nearly 50% of domestic travel and this segment is now completely closed. Only those stranded abroad are coming by the few international flights being operated, he said. By the time, things become normal in the domestic segment, a few airlines would have shut, he added. No one told them whats inside. No one told them, Antonella said, referring to the ammonium nitrate in the warehouse. It had been stored there for six years despite repeated warnings by government officials of the peril it posed. If they had died martyrs for Lebanon, we wouldnt have a problem. But they died as martyrs for what? For what? So the thugs on the seats keep money in their pockets? Grocery workers demonstrate outside a Food 4 Less store in Los Angeles where 28 workers have reportedly become infected with COVID-19. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) This started as a week of positive news, finally, in California's battle with the coronavirus. After nearly two months of skyrocketing cases, hospitalizations and deaths, there were the first signs that the COVID-19 spike was ebbing and new cases were beginning to decline. But by Friday, state officials were still scrambling to fix a coronavirus-tracking database that had suffered glitches, rendering the numbers inaccurate. It came as the state marked another sober milestone: 10,000 deaths from the virus. The breakdown in the electronic collection of coronavirus test results has further rattled confidence in how the state is responding to the coronavirus in recent months. It's a big turnaround from the spring, when California was hailed as a model for the nation. Dr. Mark Ghaly, California's health and human services director, said Friday that between 250,000 and 300,000 results have not been uploaded to the database. Some of those are either duplicate records or tests for other diseases the department keeps track of. And to this point, the vast majority of coronavirus results have been negative. Ghaly says the glitch would probably not change the picture of the state's progress when it is recorded. "We believe that the trend is stabilizing and coming down," he said. But after a long, deadly summer turned California from exemplar to cautionary tale, officials and residents alike were floored to learn that the data being used to make life-changing decisions whether to keep schools and businesses closed, among them were unreliable. In the states hard-hit Central Valley, leaders worry the problem will erode the already limited confidence in the governments response to the virus. Were very concerned about it both from a health and safety perspective but also from a public trust perspective, said Stanislaus County Supervisor Kristin Olsen. It is very hard to garner community trust and compliance if they dont have faith in the numbers being reported. Story continues Even officials in counties largely in sync with the state's approach were frustrated. These metrics as a whole are what we used to guide our decision making, Los Angeles County health officer Dr. Muntu Davis said during a news briefing Thursday. At the moment I dont have clear expectations or understanding of what the state is finding in terms of their investigation [of the missing data]. In Orange County, where officials have at times cast doubt on the accuracy of hospitalization data and case counts, Supervisor Michelle Steel said the correct total number of infections was critical to the countys plans to reopen. The public health officials and policymakers across the state rely on this data to understand COVID-19's spread and make decisions on opening and closing schools, business and gatherings, she said. It is essential to know the extent of the problems with the CalREDIE system and understand how it is affecting the data we report. Without an accurate picture of confirmed cases, many local officials who rely on the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE) have scrambled to conduct their own tallies to understand the spread of the virus in their communities. Several counties throughout the state are applying for waivers to reopen schools. That allowance, like counties permission to reopen certain businesses, relies heavily on data tied to case counts and hospitalizations. Since officials discovered the backlog, the state stopped adding and removing counties from its list of areas experiencing higher rates of transmission, which subjects them to more restrictions than other parts of California. Thirty-eight counties, representing 97% of the state population, are currently on the list. San Mateo County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow expressed dismay Thursday over the states decision to freeze its watchlist, and doubted that the numbers affect the county. "I wish to apologize to all the businesses that were closed this week. I am not supportive of these actions and, for San Mateo County, I believe they are misdirected and will cause more harm than good, he said in a statement Thursday. Our numbers indicate we are in a relatively stable state in regards to the spread of the virus." In the early days of the pandemic, California was a leader in the response. It was the first state to impose a stay-at-home order, and that was credited with keeping cases and deaths lower than in hot spots such as New York and New Jersey. But California rapidly reopened its economy in May, and experts say that led to a jump in cases. By July, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other leaders had rolled back some of the reopening, and there are signs those changes are helping slow the outbreaks. California the nation's most populous state now leads the nation with more than 500,000 confirmed cases. But even at 10,000 deaths, it remains far behind New York, which has recorded more than 30,000 fatalities. Its unclear if the lost test results are scattered throughout the state or contained to a small number of counties. Statewide trends do not always mirror individual counties experiences. Los Angeles County is approaching 5,000 fatalities and has topped 200,000 cases. Trinity County has had two confirmed cases. Earlier this week, L.A. County officials said that the lost numbers could have a large effect on its caseload. "We are really worried that were losing some cases and that may in fact result in some small increases in transmission in the weeks ahead, L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Wednesday. The county went as far as to contact 81 labs to retrieve the accurate count of lost data. In an attempt to retrieve a full count, independent from the state, officials also asked residents to contact the public health department if they tested positive. Ghaly said Friday that the state is developing a new coronavirus tracking system because of the recent deficiencies of CalREDIE Simply put, the CalREDIE system was not built for this volume of data, he said. In order to create a lasting solution, we are accelerating the development of a new laboratory reporting system for COVID-19. Ghaly said the state would work through the backlog of records over the next 24 to 48 hours. He said state missteps compounded a problem that began with a server outage, and he promised a full investigation. He added that the data snafu had no effect on hospitalization or death data and the state did not change its response policies based on the incomplete information. The state reported 6,069 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, including 1,828 in intensive care, as of Wednesday. In describing the problem, Ghaly said a July 25 server outage created a delay in records coming into the states lab reporting system. The state implemented what he described as technical changes that allowed the records to flow into the system more quickly. The changes were supposed to be temporary, Ghaly said, but the state did not disable them, causing further delays in our reporting of lab data and creating an extensive backlog. Simultaneously, we discovered that we were not receiving data from one of our largest commercial labs for a period of five days, Ghaly said. This was due to a certificate that the state neglected to renew timely. This resulted in data not being able to transmit to the state. Ghaly identified the lab as Quest Diagnostics and said the company had been unable to send test results to the state from July 31 through Aug. 4. It is unclear if Los Angeles Countys caseload has been affected. CalREDIE was first connected to public health departments across the state in 2012, receiving a government technology award that summer. But though it had been used for other important statewide efforts in the past notably in helping gather information over concerns about the Zika virus beginning in 2015 such uses were much more limited than its central role during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some local health officials complained in late March that not all labs were connected to the statewide system. And in late June, sporadic reports appeared from some counties of problems with the systems data. When asked why it took so long for local concerns about the system to come to his attention, Ghaly said hes working to understand the communication issues at California Health and Human Services and the California Department of Public Health. We are aware that individuals there were knowledgeable of some of these challenges, and we are doing a complete look into how that communication both could have been better and where it went wrong, Ghaly said. John Hume's political hero Charles Stewart Parnell dominated the Home Rule Crisis of the 1880s; in similar fashion, Hume was the single most important politician of the Northern Troubles. He first attracted public attention in 1964 in a series of powerful Irish Times articles that challenged the sterile tenets of Northern nationalism. He acknowledged that nationalists were right to demand equal rights - rights denied to them by the majority-unionist regime - but "they have remained silent and inactive about their duties". Such comments attracted more nationalist criticism than positive unionist interest, but they announced the arrival of a powerful new voice in Irish politics. Read More When the civil rights crisis broke out, Hume appeared to be the arch modernising moderate of nationalism. In December 1968, he opposed the ultra-leftist People's Democracy Movement in their concept of a march from Belfast to Derry, which would inevitably traverse many strongly loyalist areas. His preference was to allow the moderate unionist prime minister Terence O'Neill to implement a reform programme that would eliminate the most glaring of Catholic grievances: the gerrymandering of local government of the City of Derry. The march would be attacked by loyalist hardliners at Burntollet Bridge and O'Neill's tacit understanding with moderate Catholics was destroyed by the subsequent inflammation of communal tension. Hume formed the Social Democratic and Labour Party with a group of like-minded politicians, in particular the west Belfast leaders Gerry Fitt and Paddy Devlin, and Austin Currie in Tyrone. The theme was still a left-of-centre moderate nationalism. In fact, as the Troubles deepened, first Devlin and then Fitt left the party, claiming that it had become too sectarian and Catholic nationalist in outlook. In the spring of 1969, Hume was elected to the Stormont parliament. He was powerless, however, to prevent the collapse of Northern Ireland into widespread communal violence. In the summer of 1970, Nell McCafferty, the renowned feminist journalist, wrote an Irish Times article entitled 'Anarchy amok in political impotence in the Bogside'. It catches a moment of rancid sectarianism very different in tone from the civil rights movement, as the Provisional IRA achieved lift off. Rioters, frequently drunk, stage pitched battles with the British army, howling racist abuse at the black soldiers. An IRA man has blown up himself and his daughters as he tries to make a bomb. Hume strides the streets of the Bogside imploring people to take a step back and telling them that many will share that family's fate unless a political and non-violent path is taken. Hume was unable to stop the Provisional IRA getting off the ground, and this organisation was to take the lion's share of the human life lost in the violence of the Troubles. But there was one moment when politics appeared to triumph. In 1974, following a conference at Sunningdale, a power-sharing executive, including Hume as a minister, was established at Stormont. However, it collapsed as the result of a loyalist workers' strike enforced by much intimidation. This was a decisive moment for Hume. While he always paid tribute to Brian Faulkner, the moderate unionist who had led the executive, he became increasingly disdainful of the unionist community as a whole. He came to believe that it was essential to impose a constitutional initiative over their heads. Many unionists came to believe - citing his opposition to the border poll of 1973 - that he did not accept the principle of consent when it came to a united Ireland. From 1973, Hume insisted that the British wanted to disengage by stealth, another theme that alarmed unionists. With great skill, he internationalised the Ulster question, in particular by creating powerful connections in America. Bill Clinton was to describe him as the Martin Luther King of the Troubles. Hume's efforts eventually bore fruit in the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. A settlement was imposed on the unionists as Dublin was given a say in the affairs of Northern Ireland by the Thatcher government. In this project, Hume was aided enormously by the incompetence of the unionist leadership in Westminster, which invested everything in the hope that Enoch Powell - by then one of their number - would restrain the British prime minister. Thatcher, however, soon became sharply disillusioned with the projected security and stabilising benefits of the agreement. In particular, the political and military marginalisation of the Provisional republican movement failed to materialise. In the late 1980s, Hume responded by entering into talks with Gerry Adams, the leader of that movement. It dismayed many in his party. Eddie McGrady, the MP for South Down, briefed a Northern Ireland Office official that Sinn Fein and the IRA were "the scum of the earth". But the dialogue, when published, revealed the consistency of Hume's Parnellism. His hope that ending the unionist veto on constitutional change would bring them to accept their role in a reformed Irish politics was a modified idea of Parnell's. He also borrowed from an 1891 speech by his predecessor arguing that unless unionist consent was freely given to a united Ireland, Irish unity would have upon it a "fatal clog" and a "fatal drag". The Hume-Adams talks, while not in themselves successful, were part of a process that included secret British contacts with the IRA leadership that helped to bring about the peace process of the 1990s. In this work, the British government was greatly reassured by the fact that Hume now appeared to be fully committed to the principle of consent, and that his theory that any new agreement should be subject to a referendum north and south was potentially a very helpful idea. When Hume talked about an "agreed Ireland" it became clear that it would not be a united Ireland without unionist consent. This was the key idea of both the Downing Street Declaration of 1993 and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. By that point, Hume had handed over the actual negotiating of the compromise to Seamus Mallon; the unionists found him a rather more workmanlike counterpart. But in broad intellectual terms, the agreement reflected Hume's long-term thinking more than any other Northern Irish politician's. Paul Bew is a historian whose works include 'Ireland: The Politics of Enmity 1789-2006' (2007) and 'Enigma: A New Life of Charles Stewart Parnell' (2011) Kochi, Aug 8 : I have lost a good friend who was a great human being and a pilot par excellence, says retired naval commander Sam T.Samuel recalling Deepak Vasant Sathe, the pilot of the ill-fated Air India Express flight that crashed killing 18 on board including the two pilots. Kochi, Aug 8 (IANs, including the rights to health, to food and to life itself," they added. Alena Douhan, a UN Special Rapporteur, said that sanctions were adding to the suffering in countries like Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. The experts also welcomed efforts by many states, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations to try to help sanctioned countries fight COVID-19. "We particularly welcome the willingness of the European Union, the UK, Switzerland, Russia, China, the US and other donors to ship much needed medical supplies," they said in the statement. Latest updates on Kerala Air India Plane Crash -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to show Dr. Kathleen Allen is employed by the VA medical center. Colleagues of a New Mexico Heart Institute cardiologist stricken with COVID-19 have gone public to support the physician and his work, with one criticizing the Journal coverage of the death of one of the physicians patients and another cardiologist stressing the safety measures being taken by the medical community to provide care. The Journal on Sunday reported the COVID-19 deaths of Bob and Barbara Warren, and that Dr. Charles Kim, an interventional cardiologist, was fighting for his life in the ICU at Lovelace Medical Center. The Journal further reported that Kim was the Heart Institute physician who performed a cardiac catherization July 1 on Bob Warren, a Los Lunas resident, who died on July 27. Warren had been informed he had been exposed while at the Lovelace Heart Hospital in Albuquerque, where his outpatient procedure occurred. His wife, Barbara Warren, died of the virus on July 25. Family members believe she contracted the virus from him. Dr. Kathleen Allen this week described Kim as one of our angels who has saved thousands of lives. She suggested, among other possibilities, that Kim may have been infected by his patient. Dr. Sean Mazer, president of the Heart Institute, urged people not to delay necessary health care due to fear of contracting the virus. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, we have seen delays in care result in preventable deaths and disabilities, he said. Both his and Allens comments were included in separate letters they sent to the Journal in the wake of last Sundays story, and which were published Friday. Family members say Bob Warren, 77, had tested negative for COVID-19 as part of his pre-surgical screening process, and both he and Barbara, 84, took exceptional precautions to keep from getting the virus. Warrens family has criticized the Heart Institute for waiting too long, in their view, to notify him of his exposure and for not taking better precautions to prevent him from contracting the virus. In her letter to the newspaper, Allen, who is employed by the VA Medical Center, criticized the Journal coverage, saying the Kim family is suffering in the same way the Warren family is and that Kims privacy had been invaded. Everyday he goes to work he places himself at risk of acquiring a life-threatening illness which is exactly what has occurred, Allen wrote. Perhaps he worked just one day too many and perhaps Mr. Warren was the patient he should not have touched. She wrote that while it is possible Warren got the virus from Kim, there are many possibilities including that Kim acquired the virus from Warren. In response, Warrens daughter-in-law Sharon Jonas said, The facts speak for themselves. Other than that, we have no further comment. A top official in the Lovelace Health System, which owns the Heart Institute, told the Journal in July that the source of outbreak couldnt be ascertained. Lovelace didnt respond to specific questions about Warren or Kim, citing federal health care confidentiality rules. Kims sister Sharon Kim had chronicled his struggle with the virus in public social media posts. By Monday, her Facebook public page had been taken down. More than 100 potentially exposed Several days after his cardiac procedure, Bob Warren began to show symptoms of COVID-19, including a fever of more than 103, his family has told the Journal. He decided to get another test, which was positive. Warren contacted the Heart Institute about his symptoms and ultimately was told that he may have been exposed by a health care worker. There was no mention of Kim. A DOH spokesman told the Journal on July 10 that the state began an investigation on Sunday, July 5, after the test result involving a Heart Institute physician was reported to us by Lovelace medical officials. In addition, three employees of the Heart Institute have since also tested positive for COVID-19. The DOH said more than 100 had been potentially exposed to the virus. Two of those patients received calls about their possible exposure on Monday, July 6, and didnt acquire the virus, according to Journal interviews. Jonas has said her father-in-law didnt receive a call, but learned about his exposure later that week after he phoned the Institute twice to try to report his symptoms. Typically, state public health officials, and now a new private contractor, perform contact tracing to try to identify how a person became infected and alert others potentially exposed to self-quarantine and get tested. In this case, Lovelace did its own contact tracing and the DOH said it was satisfied with the efforts. Meanwhile, Kims colleagues responded this week to voice support of him and to highlight his care for patients. Mazer wrote in his letter to the Journal, We must continue to support all of our front-line workers who take risks and in some cases, also get sick. Without naming Kim, Mazer wrote that one of his partners and close friends was in the ICU. he and my partners risk their health and their familys health at the hospital and office every day. My partner took every precaution that we currently have. Unfortunately, he is one of the 16 million people who got COVID-19 from another person. Mazer described his partner and friend as a brilliant, gentle steady physician who has been called, often in the middle of the night, to save our neighbors lives from heart attacks for more than 20 years. Delayed procedures In March, hospitals in New Mexico stopped performing non-emergency surgeries and procedures on the order of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham as a way to free up hospital space for a potential surge of COVID-19 patients. In the weeks that followed, some hospital administrators raised concerns that patients who were afraid of contracting the virus were delaying routine visits and ending up with worsened conditions. The combined result was a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars to New Mexico hospitals. Lovelace, among other hospital systems, ended up placing some employees on unpaid furloughs and taking other cost-cutting measures. The prohibition on non-emergency procedures was lifted April 30, allowing some patients who had waited for treatment to receive care. As a physician, I encourage those in our community not to delay care out of fear when the greater risk could be from avoiding treatment, Mazer wrote. The medical community is ready to safely provide the care you need. Above all, as New Mexicans, we must remain clear that while individuals are affected, no one person is to blame. We are all in this together. Lebanon's president Friday rejected any international probe into the catastrophic port blast, saying a missile or negligence could have been responsible as rescuers desperately combed the rubble for survivors. The entrenched ruling class has come under fire once again since Tuesday's explosion, which killed at least 154 people and devastated swathes of the capital. The revelation that a huge shipment of hazardous ammonium nitrate had languished for years in a warehouse in the heart of the capital served as shocking proof to many Lebanese of the rot at the core of their political system. Even Lebanese President Michel Aoun admitted Friday that the "paralysed" system needed to be "reconsidered". "We are facing changes and reconsidering our system, which is built on consensus, after it was seen to be paralysed and incapable of swiftly executing decisions," Aoun told reporters. He pledged "swift justice", but rejected widespread calls for an international probe, telling a reporter he saw it as an attempt to "dilute the truth". "There are two possible scenarios for what happened: it was either negligence or foreign interference through a missile or bomb," he said, the first time a top Lebanese official raised the possibility that the port had been attacked. What ignited the massive shipment of the chemical remains unclear -- officials have said work had recently begun on repairs to the warehouse, while others suspected fireworks stored either in the same place or nearby. Near the seat of the explosion, by the carcass of the port's giant grain silos, rescue teams from France, Russia, Germany, Italy and other countries coordinated their search efforts. Four bodies were uncovered near the port's control room, where a significant number of people were expected to have been working at the time of the blast. No one has been found alive. "I am waiting to hear that you have been rescued alive, my dear," tweeted Emilie Hasrouty, whose brother is among the missing. I am paralysed with fear." At the port, reduced to an enormous scrapyard, excavators removed mangled shipping containers to clear a path for rescuers. Civil defence teams anxiously watched a sniffer dog as he paced around a gap under a fallen crane. Beirut has received a stream of international assistance since the blast, with the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, set to visit the ravaged capital on Saturday. International police agency Interpol on Friday said it would dispatch to Lebanon a team of experts who are specialised in identifying victims. French President Emmanuel Macron was the first world leader to touch down in Lebanon on Thursday, where he pressed officials to enact deep reform ahead of an aid conference planned in the coming days. Macron spoke on Friday to US President Donald Trump, with the White House saying they would work "with international partners to provide immediate aid to the Lebanese people". The World Food Programme promised food to affected families and wheat imports to replace lost stocks from the port's disembowelled silos. The World Health Organization, meanwhile, called for $15 million to cover immediate health needs. Lebanon's hospitals, already strained by rising coronavirus cases and a severe economic crisis, were heavily damaged by the blast and overwhelmed by casualties. Relief flights from Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates landed in Lebanon on Friday, following others from France, Kuwait, Qatar and Russia. Two days after the blast, Lebanese were flocking to a 20-tent Russian field hospital newly established in the capital's largest sport stadium. The United Nations said up to 100,000 children are among the 300,000 people made homeless, including many who have been separated from their families. With destruction from the blast engulfing half of the capital and estimated to cost more than $3 billion, world leaders, advocacy groups and Lebanese have demanded an international probe to ensure impartiality. But Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement said Friday the army should lead such a probe because it was "trusted" by all. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah denied accusations the Shiite party had been storing arms at the port, saying: "We have nothing in the port." Lebanon's probe has so far led to 21 arrests, including the port's general manager Hassan Koraytem, other customs officials and port engineers, a judicial source told AFP. Dozens more were being interrogated by Lebanon's military court, which is focusing on administrative and security officials at the port as well as government authorities who may have ignored warnings about explosive materials. "The list of arrests will reach the top guys, who are now among the suspects," the source said. Lebanon's central bank also ordered asset freezes for seven port and customs officials, an official and a banking source told AFP. The measures did not dampen the anger in Beirut's streets, where dozens of demonstrators scuffled with security forces firing tear gas late Thursday. And volunteers clearing debris have chased out two government ministers who tried to visit devastated neighbourhoods with furious chants of "resign". An anti-government protest is planned for Saturday afternoon under the slogan, "Hang them by the gallows". Daniel Andrews government had one main job, more or less. It was up to the Victorian community to manage social-distancing and self-isolation. But as soon as it became clear the vast majority of Australias coronavirus cases were coming from overseas arrivals, the need to create an inviolable hotel quarantine system was laid totally bare. That was on his government. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, palming off the tough questions. Credit:AP All states had to rush their quarantine set-up, and the process was messy, involving much human distress and some very bad hotel food. It has become increasingly clear, despite Premier Andrews attempts to deflect questions, that his government bungled this in Victoria with the appointment of private security contractors to manage the hotel quarantine inmates. Media reports this week said many of the guards couldnt cope with the stress and hostility of the pent-up people. They lacked the professionalism and discipline the armed forces or the police brought to quarantine enforcement in other states. An Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people onboard overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport on Friday in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two pieces, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said. He said 16 people lost their lives in the accident. Expressing deep "anguished and distressed" at the accident, he said relief teams from Air India and Airports Authority of India (AAI) are being immediately dispatched from Delhi and Mumbai. "All efforts are being made to help passengers. A formal enquiry will be conducted by AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau)," the minister said on Twitter. "Deeply anguished & distressed at the air accident in Kozhikode. The Air India Express flight number AXB-1344 on its way from Dubai to Kozhikode with 191 persons on board, overshot the runway in rainy conditions & went down 35 ft. into a slope before breaking up into two pieces," he said. In a tweet later, he said. "As per the flight manifest there were 190 people on flight AXB-1344 including 174 adult passengers,10 infants, 4 cabin crew & 2 pilots. Unfortunately, 16 people have lost their lives. I offer my heartfelt condolences to their next of kin & pray for speedy recovery of the injured." In another tweet at 12.01 am, he said the rescue operations were complete. "Two investigation teams of professionals from @airindiain @AAI_Official & AAIB will leave for Kozhikode at 02.00 hrs & 05.00 hrs. Everyone has now been rescued from the aircraft. Rescue operations are now complete. Injured being treated at various city hospitals," he said. Before Puri, his ministry said in a statement that there were a total 190 persons onboard the aircraft -- 174 passengers, 10 infants, 2 pilots and four cabin crew. The ministry said the B737 aircraft overshot the runway at 7.41 PM on Friday but no fire was reported at the time of landing. "As per the initial reports, rescue operations are on and passengers are being taken to hospital for medical care," the ministry noted. The Air India Express is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India and it has only B737 aircraft in its fleet. It is learnt that pilot-in-command Deepak Sathe died during the accident. He was a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF). He had served at the IAF's flight testing establishment. The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also confirmed what Puri said earlier. Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in India since March 23 amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, since May 6, special repatriation flights have been operated by Air India and Air India Express under the Vande Bharat Mission to help stranded people reach their destinations. Private carriers have also operated a certain number of flights under this mission. A spokesperson for the Air India Express said that help centres are being set up at Sharjah and Dubai for affected people. "We regret that there has been an incident regarding our aircraft VT GHK, operating IX 1344," the spokesperson added. No fire was reported during the aircraft's landing, the Civil Aviation Ministry said. "Air India Express flight IX 1344 operated by B737 aircraft from Dubai to Calicut overshot runway at Kozhikode at 1941 hrs tonight. No fire reported at the time of landing," the ministry said in its statement. The Air India Express is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India and it has only B737 aircraft in its fleet. Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in India since March 23 amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, since May 6, special repatriation flights have been operated by Air India and Air India Express under the Vande Bharat Mission to help stranded people reach their destinations. Private carriers have also operated a certain number of flights under this mission. A spokesperson for the Air India Express said that help centres are being set up at Sharjah and Dubai for affected people. "We regret that there has been an incident regarding our aircraft VT GHK, operating IX 1344," the spokesperson added. Also read: Air India Express flight was at full speed while landing at Kozhikode airport, says DGCA Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-09 06:12:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Governor Mike DeWine of U.S. midwestern state of Ohio said on Saturday he tested negative again for the coronavirus, two days after he initially tested positive just ahead of President Donald Trump's visit to the state. The Republican governor announced the negative results on Twitter, thanking "everyone who sent along good wishes." DeWine took a rapid point-of-care antigen test for COVID-19 on Thursday morning in Cleveland as part of the White House protocol for anyone scheduled to come in contact with the president. After testing positive, DeWine was immediately driven back to the state's capital city Columbus, where the governor, his wife and four members of his staff took another test, a polymerase chain reaction test, at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. The result was checked twice, both negative. That test is the most commonly used test in the country and is considered the gold standard by medical professionals, according to a report by The Politico, adding that more than 1.3 million Ohioans have been tested with it. The conflicting results spur many questions about tests in the country, where many people can't get lab results on the more accurate version for weeks, the report noted. Enditem "I am fading a little bit. The sun's starting to come out." John and I had been Skyping for more than five hours. We'd Skyped for more than five hours earlier that week, too. And the week before. And nearly every week going back almost a decade. It's been more than six years since we saw each other, in 2014, because I live in New Zealand and John's across the Pacific in the US state of Oregon. Yet thanks to modern technology we've never been closer. And thanks to COVID-19, too. Ben and best friend John in Seattle in 2014, the last time they met in the same location. Credit:Ben Mack Like many best friends, we've been together through thick and thin, ever since we first met in high school and would skip class to see each other and sign up for other classes based on whether we'd be together. We'd even visit the toilets together. Hilsa, the queen of fish, which millions of Bengalis crave for, is yet to keep its annual date with monsoon and West Bengal this year. On an average, a Hilsa catch of 20,000-25,000 tonnes in a year is considered to be normal. The maximum yield comes during monsoon, when the fish migrates upstream into rivers from the Bay of Bengal to breed. But so far, the catch has been less than 100 tonnes this year. In recent times, 2016 was, undoubtedly, the best, said a senior official of the state fisheries department. In June, when the over two-month-long coronavirus disease-induced (Covid-19) lockdown restrictions were lifted, fishermen associations had exuded hope that this year could see a bumper Hilsa catch, as the Ganges and its tributaries were less polluted due to the lockdown coupled with bountiful rains. There is an annual ban to catch Hilsa between April 15 and June 14 during its breeding season. Fishermen had suspended work from end-March due to the lockdown. The rivers were also relatively clean, which made us optimistic that there could be a bumper catch this year. However, the insignificant catch mostly includes Hilsa, which are less than a kilogram (kg) in weight, said Shyamsundar Das, joint secretary, West Bengal United Fishermen Association. Experts said that cleaner river water is not enough to attract shoals of Hilsa. Several other factors might have contributed to a poor catch, including siltation at the mouth of the rivers, poor flood pulse, inadequate rainfall and unfavourable wind pattern. Hilsa will migrate upstream into the rivers if they find a depth of 8090 feet at their mouth. Unfortunately, prolonged siltation in some parts of the rivers have reduced their depth to less than 30 feet that are likely to go up to 60 feet during peak monsoon. Inadequate rainfall in the upper catchment basins has led to poor flood pulse, which could have led to a drastic shortfall in Hilsa catch this year, said Utpal Bhowmik, a Hilsa expert and the former head of the riverine fishery division at Central Inland Fishery Research Institute. Perhaps, Hilsa is moving towards Bangladesh following tremendous resistance in our rivers and, as a result, is avoiding channels in West Bengal, said Pradip Chatterjee, convener, National Platform for Small Scale Fish Workers. However, all is not lost for Bengal Hilsa lovers, as hope springs eternal to tickle an inveterate Bengalis palate. There is still some time left, as the Hilsa season lasts until October in Bengal. A good monsoon in August-September will make up for the poor catch this year, said Das. On the contrary, rivers in neighbouring Bangladesh the happy hunting ground for Hilsa such as the Brahmaputra have good flood pulse because of heavy rains in their upper catchment areas. Fishermen associations in West Bengal said that Bangladesh has had a bumper Hilsa catch this year one of the countrys major exports to international markets. Bangladesh, like Bengal, had suffered a jolt in early 1990, when the countrys Hilsa population had dwindled rapidly due to a raft of factors, including climate change, overfishing, and reduction in water flow in its rivers. However, the Bangladeshi government strictly enforced seasonal ban on Hilsa fishing that led to a rebound over the past two and half decades. Earlier this week, the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in North 24 Parganas district on the Indo-Bangla border had seized around 126 kg of Hilsa, while the consignment was being smuggled into the country from Bangladesh. A senior BSF official had said that it was the largest consignment of Hilsa seized in recent times and the first this year. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Can Americans still have a sensible and friendly political discussion across the partisan divide? The answer is yes, and we intend to prove it. Julie Roginsky, a Democrat, and Mike DuHaime, a Republican, are consultants who have worked on opposite teams for their entire careers yet have remained friends throughout. Here, they discuss the weeks events with Tom Moran, editorial page editor of The Star-Ledger. Q. The unemployed took a big hit this week when the $600 in supplemental weekly benefits expired in the face of another stalemate in Washington. How are those families supposed to cope? Who should they hold responsible? Mike: The $600 additional benefit, while important and well-intended, is not sustainable long term. Seasonal businesses throughout the state have had a difficult time hiring employees because of it. The additional federal benefit on top of the state benefit could add up to $65,000 a year. Many who make less than that would be unlikely to look for work during a pandemic if they can make more not working. Julie: Hundreds of thousands of people in New Jersey are out of work because of COVID. How are they supposed to provide for their families if there are no jobs? This is when government should step in with a safety net but the Doctrine of the Republican Faith has deemed that these people would rather collect unemployment and eat bon bons than find jobs, which are unavailable. There is an illness within the GOP that holds ideology to be sacred at the expense of reality. Its all very nice to be a high school sophomore obsessed with Ayn Rand. Its very different when your constituents are on the cusp of economic devastation but dogma dictates that they fend for themselves, no matter the real-life costs. Mike: Republicans in Congress voted for all these benefits earlier this year, so clearly they are not as dogmatically opposed as you suggest. Julie: Yes, and ever since, senators like Lindsey Graham (R-Lifetime Member of the Public Dole Club) have decried giving out those unemployment benefits. Meanwhile, the job outlook keeps getting worse. Maybe instead of reading Atlas Shrugged, Republicans should read the Grapes of Wrath to see what happened the last time the safety net completely shattered. Enough of this nonsense. Congress is not flailing. The Republican majority in the Senate is flailing, because the Republican majority is made up of Republicans, and the Republican Party is made up of hyper-ambitious lunatics. https://t.co/pVONUGEENW Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) August 3, 2020 Q. On Wednesday, Republican leaders in Trenton asked the state Supreme Court to block Murphys plan to borrow up to $9.9 billion to balance the budget during this crisis. What happens if they win? Huge tax hikes and spending cuts? Mike: It would mean Democrats have to make difficult choices. Borrowing is easy. Raising taxes is hard. Cutting spending is hard. Julie: Speaking of hard decisions, I would respect the Republican position more if they told us what Plan B is if their Plan A succeeds and the Supreme Court rules their way. I recognize that Republicans want to campaign against huge tax hikes and spending cuts under Governor Murphys watch if their court challenge is successful but I hope the governor makes clear that it is actually their obstruction that would be responsible for even more economic pain for New Jerseyans if their court challenge succeeds. Mike: Cut spending. There's the plan. Democrats wanted the governorship and the majority, and with that comes responsibility. Julie: That sounds great. Now the Republicans just need a detailed plan of what they would cut to balance a budget decimated by a pandemic. Ill wait with bated breath. Q. In New Jersey, several colleges cancelled plans for in-person teaching, but Gov. Phil Murphy is still hoping to open public schools in September. I dont think it will happen. Do you think we can pull it off without triggering significant new outbreaks? Mike: I applaud the governor for sticking to his commitment to get schools open. The virus has been well-contained in New Jersey. School districts and private schools have made good plans to get kids some level of in-person schooling. Make no mistake if we dont go back to school in September, kids wont see school until Spring of 2021. No one is going back once cold and flu season comes because every sore throat or runny nose will be feared to be COVID. It would be a disaster to have no in-person learning for a year, which is what we are looking at. We have to get back in the Fall for at least some portion of the school year. Individual schools and districts should be given flexibility on plans and closures. Julie: As I said last week, we are living in Dreamland if we dont think schools will go back to remote learning the moment a teacher or student tests positive for COVID, which is bound to happen even before cold and flu season. Rather than engaging in this Kabuki dance, the state should be planning now to make remote learning more synchronous, effective and accessible for every student. Well, schools certainly dont need to be the canary in the coal mine on this issue. A massive amount of time and energy is being dedicated to in-school planning. If were not really going to be in-school Sept, then let us focus on a better virtual plan. https://t.co/Tb3dN3LFQS Rocco Tomazic (@FBPSsup) July 27, 2020 Q. President Trump ordered the Census to halt its door-to-door canvassing a month early, leading to fears that the count will miss millions of people, especially the poor and immigrants. Whats his motive? What can Democrats do? Mike: His motive better not be to undercount. He should not change anything. Lets do the best we can to count as we have in other decades. We have more challenges this year going door to door due to COVID, so we should not be shortening the timeframe. Julie: This move is the biggest gift to Republicans of the Trump-McConnell era, on par with the stacking of federal judges. The Senate has refused to extend the time for Census data collection, which is necessitated by the inability of enumerators to canvas hard-to-reach households during the COVID crisis. The decision by Trumps incompetent census director to cut the count short will lead to a massive undercount of people of color, immigrants, rural residents and other already-disenfranchised communities. It will lead to fewer federal resources sent back to the states and it may lead to a loss of a congressional seat here in New Jersey. If I were Attorney General Grewal, I would look at my options and consider bringing a lawsuit immediately in conjunction with other states. Q. Democrat Rep. Andy Kim, who won New Jerseys closest race in 2018, flipping the third district from red to blue, announced that hes raised over $5 million to fight off a challenge from newcomer David Richter, a Republican who plans to dip into his personal fortune to finance the campaign. What will that race hinge on? Mike: The campaign will hinge on two things. First, the president must either win or keep it close in that district to give Richter a fair shot. Second, Rep. Kim ran two years ago as an independent-minded Democrat. He said he would not vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker during the campaign to prove his centrist nature, and then went against his word and voted for her on his first vote. He has voted with Pelosi 95 percent of the time. Thats not who the independents in that district thought they were voting for. Julie: I don't think Nancy Pelosi is an existential threat to this nation the way voters believe Donald Trump is, but whether that assessment is correct is what this race will hinge on. If Ocean County residents are still enamored with Trump, it will be a real race for Rep. Kim. If they have soured on the president and he can bump Burlington County turnout up relative to Ocean County, he will be in better shape. His incredible money haul shows that there is real energy behind his campaign. Q. Finally, what was your take on the Axios interview with Trump on the pandemic? It reminded me of an episode of Veep. But it wasnt. Mike: The Fox News Sunday and Axios interviews were certainly tough for Trump, but you have to do tough interviews if you want to be president. Hopefully Joe Biden will leave his basement and do a difficult interview someday. Rumor now is that he may not even debate. At some point, Biden needs to earn the presidency, not just hope Trump fumbles it away. Julie: I tried watching VEEP when it first aired but it seemed too unrealistic and ridiculous. Then Trump was elected and it turns out VEEP was prophetic, not comical. If every journalist interviewed Trump the way Jonathan Swan did, the last five years might have gone very differently. I hope the rest of the media takes note of what real journalism looks like, which includes real follow-ups to questions and the refusal to move on from absurd answers. As for Biden, he's been around a long time and voters know who he is. That's why he is leading in poll after poll. Mike: The same media that decries Trump created him in 2015-16 for ratings purposes. The symbiotic relationship between his poll numbers and their ratings is interesting to watch. It is a joke when they complain about each other. Fox News is onto something here... he is NOT okay pic.twitter.com/PgFpVchkdR The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) August 4, 2020 Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. Sushant Singh Rajput Death Case: ED Grilled Rhea Chakraborty With These 14 Questions After Allegations Of Money Laundering Were Posed An Air India flight with 190 people on board, including 184 passengers and 6 crew members overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet into a slope at 07:40 pm on Friday evening. A total of 18 people, including Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, pilot-in-command, and Akhilesh Kumar, his co-pilot, have lost their lives in the mishap. This aircraft has been identified as IX-1134. 127 passengers have been injured in this incident and are being treated at Kozhikode Medical College, Baby Memorial Hospital, MIMS Hospital, Maithra Hospital and Beach Hospital respectively. Air India Express has also set up a passenger information centre so that family and friends of those who may have been on board the ill-fated flight can get updated information. The toll free number to contact Air India Express passenger information centre is 1800 2222 71. All those people who are contacting from international locations need to use the international country code. Besides this, the carrier will also keep updating its official website- www-airindiaexpress.in from time to time. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aircraft was at full speed while landing at Kozhikode International Airport, also known as Karipur Airport, when it overshot Runway No 10 late Friday evening. Meanwhile, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan stated that he has instructed police and fire department officials to take 'urgent action' in the wake of the Kozhikode airport mishap. Also read: Air India crash: Pilot of ill-fated flight earlier flew MiG-21s in Indian Air Force The difficulties being experienced by publicans was the subject of a lengthy debate at last week's meeting of the Ballymote-Tubbercurry Municipal District, which heard calls for a stimulus package to be introduced to aid the pub sector. A motion from Cllr Michael Clarke called on the government to put in place measures to help the sector. Cllr Clarke said as a publican himseld he was only too aware of the challenges, and he has had a lot of colleagues in touch with him about the tough time they are experiencing. He said that it was his view that it would be reckless for pubs to reopen while the virus remains active, but he acknowledged the huge loss of revenue pub owners have suffered since the start of the pandemic. They are a crucial part of the community he said, particularly in rural areas where they often act as a social outlet. Offering his support for the motion, Cllr Gerard Mullaney said that publicans had not been treated well since the start of the pandemic. A stimulus grant would help, Cllr Mullaney argued. Cllr Dara Mulvey also supported the proposal, calling the pub a 'focal point' of Irish society. He said that many pubs support local sporting teams and lotto draws, and people are now missing the social aspect. Cllr Joe Queenan described the rural pubs as 'the big casualty' of Covid-19, and said that families involved in the industry are being 'hard done by'. The issue of house parties was raised by Cllr Martin Baker, who said there are 'huge problems' with 'huge consequences down the road'. Cllr Paul Taylor acknowledged the worrying time this is for publicans. On the issue of restart grants, raised by Cllr Clarke, CEO Ciaran Hayes said that due to a change in the restart grant the council was asked to stop issuing grants. He said the council had yet to receive details of the new restart scheme from the government. Over 500 businesses in Sligo benefitted have received funding so far, Mr Hayes told councillors. Cllr Clarke finished by saying that the work of the finance team, led by Marie Whelan, was 'exceptional' during the course of the pandemic and he was proud to be a member of the council at a time when they did so well. (Photo : Alexander Wang/Unsplash) Maze got hold of 10TB of Canon data (Photo : image.canon) Lost images in cloud storage (Photo : image.canon) Lost images in cloud storage After a massive data breach leaking 20 GB of Intel's confidential internal documents that have been shared on Twitter, Canon faces a much worse attack with 10 TB of files allegedly stolen for unknown ransom. A lot of details are unclear about the incident as Canon has been cautious about the details they release in public. However, Gizmodo cited the earlier report by Bleeping Computer claiming that Maze ransomware has targeted the camera company. Maze got hold of 10TB of Canon data Meanwhile, ransomware operators Maze told BleepingComputer that they were able to get hold of 10 TB of data and private databases as part of the attack on Canon, no other details were provided, particularly any proof of stolen data, how much the ransom is, and the number of encrypted devices. Maze operates ransomware attacks that compromise a system then spread until it gets access to the Windows domain controller and administrator account. The cyber attackers will then download unencrypted files from servers and backups and save them to their own servers. Maze will deploy the ransomware throughout the network and it will threaten to distribute the stolen files unless the victim pays the ransom. This group of ransomware operators was responsible for other high-profile attacks to institutions like Xerox, LG, Conduent, Chubb, MaxLinear, Cognizant, VT San Antonio Aerospace, and the City of Pensacola, Florida. Meanwhile, Canon told BleepingComputer that they are "currently investigating the situation." Lost images in cloud storage A Bleeping Computer's unnamed source shared an image of a notification from Canon's IT department that was sent at about 6 a.m. on August 4. The message read that the company "is experiencing widespread system issues" that affected multiple systems and applications like Microsoft Teams, company emails, and image.canon where Canon users save their photos. While it was initially first thought that the image.canon issue was related to the ransomware attack, Maze denied causing the outage. The website was unavailable from June 30 while it only showed status updates until August 4 when it went live again. The website posted a company statement explaining why the site was down for six days. According to the statement, the company detected an issue on July 30, which involved the user's 10GB storage. The mobile application and web browser services of image.canon were suspended while conducting further investigation. Canon claimed "there was no leak of image data," although the company probe also found that some photo and video files before the morning of June 16 were lost. Meanwhile, on Friday, August 7, Canon has issued another statement on apologizing for the recent issues in the cloud platform. The company explained that the "lost files" were caused by its recent update on its storage software that transpired on July 30. Indeed, the company claimed it was due to an error in the code that led some images stored for over 30 days were missing. However, the company said it has identified and corrected the code that caused the error. Ultimately, Canon said there was "no unauthorized access" to "image.canon" or any leaked images from the incident. Also, while still images can now be restored, lost videos are still being retrieved. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 10:56:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A woman wearing a face mask walks across a zebra crossing in Washington, D.C., the United States, Aug. 7, 2020. U.S. unemployment rate fell in July for the third straight month, indicating an improvement in a labor market ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. But analysts warn that uncertainties remain and recovery has a long way to go. U.S. employers added 1.8 million jobs in July, and the unemployment rate dropped to 10.2 percent amid reopening efforts, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. unemployment rate fell in July for the third straight month, indicating an improvement in a labor market ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. But analysts warn that uncertainties remain and recovery has a long way to go. U.S. employers added 1.8 million jobs in July, and the unemployment rate dropped to 10.2 percent amid reopening efforts, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The unemployment rate previously soared to a record 14.7 percent in April amid COVID-19 shutdowns. It declined slightly to 13.3 percent in May and then fell to 11.1 percent in June, as businesses gradually reopened across the country. The largest employment increases in July occurred in leisure and hospitality, government, retail trade, professional and business services, other services, and health care, according to the report. "The recovery in the labor market remains intact, but the pace is slowing," Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote in an analysis, adding that unemployment remains "staggeringly high." House noted that nonfarm payrolls have yet to recover even half of the jobs lost since February. "Payrolls remain 12.9 million below pre-pandemic levels, a bigger hole than at even the worst point in the aftermath of the Great Recession," she said. Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) senior fellow and Harvard professor Jason Furman, and Harvard Kennedy School research associate Wilson Powell argued that the official unemployment rate continues to understate the unemployment rate from a historically comparable perspective. In an analysis published Friday, the two experts noted that an extra 1.4 million people who were "not at work for other reasons" were counted as employed, and 4.7 million people have left the labor force since February, which means "realistic unemployment rate" was 12.0 percent in July. Furman and Powell also noted that an additional 8.4 million of the unemployed since February reported being on temporary layoff, and if all of these people were immediately called back to work and the labor force adjusted accordingly -- a very optimistic scenario -- the "full recall unemployment rate" would still be a very elevated 7.0 percent. "These data suggest the temporary labor market problems are very deep and that even if individuals on temporary layoff returned to work very quickly, the United States would still have a recessionary level of unemployment for some time to come," they said. House said it becomes clear that businesses will be contending with a pandemic economy "for some months to come," as job losses are shifting from temporary to permanent. "That brings us to a more dangerous phase of the crisis," she said. The jobs report came one day after the Labor Department reported the number of initial jobless claims in the United States had fallen to 1.186 million last week, following an increase for two consecutive weeks amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. With the latest numbers, more than 55 million initial jobless claims have been filed over the past 20 weeks, indicating a mounting economic fallout related to the pandemic. The extra 600-U.S.-dollar weekly unemployment benefits, which helped nearly 30 million Americans, expired last week, but Republican and Democratic lawmakers remain deadlocked on the next COVID-19 relief bill. According to economists at Wells Fargo Securities, in the absence of a new supplemental jobless benefit, aggregate U.S. household income will lose roughly 72 billion dollars a month and is likely to weigh meaningfully on consumer spending. With the pace of re-openings slowing in recent weeks, House said further gains in the labor market will be more incremental and a full recovery is years away. "The initial bounce from widespread re-openings is now behind us. Further improvement will occur in fits and starts and depends on the course of the virus," she said. DOUBT ABOUT RECOVERY Despite the decrease in unemployment, the slow job growth and further spread of COVID-19 have cast shadows on U.S. recovery pace. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington on Thursday updated their forecast that there will be 295,011 coronavirus deaths by Dec. 1, based on the current projection scenario. In early May, the IHME forecast the United States would have 134,000 COVID-19 deaths by early August. As of Aug. 7, the country has 160,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Masks and other protective measures against transmission of the virus are essential to staying COVID-19-free, but people's inconsistent use of those measures is a serious problem, said IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray. "It appears that people are wearing masks and socially distancing more frequently as infections increase, then after a while as infections drop, people let their guard down and stop taking these measures to protect themselves and others ... And the potentially deadly cycle starts over again." There are fewer transmissions of the virus in Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, Murray noted. The drop in infections appears to be driven by the combination of local mandates for mask use, bar and restaurant closures, and more responsible behavior by the public. However, repeated shutdowns for virus containment actually remain as "a threat to the labor market, which is already weak," said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in White Plains, New York, according to a Reuters report. "Without effective virus containment, the recovery remains at risk from ongoing job losses that could further restrain incomes and spending," Farooqi said. Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States hit over 4,937,441 and fatalities surpassed 161,200 as of Friday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. Enditem (Xinhua writer Tan Jingjing in Washington contributed to this story.) Investigating officers from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will on Saturday start their probe into the Air India Express flight crash at Kozhikode airport in Kerala. Nineteen people, including the planes two pilots, were killed on Friday when the jet ripped in two after it overshot and skidded off the runway upon landing, officials said. Hundreds of people were injured, many seriously, after the Air India Express Boeing 737 from Dubaia coronavirus evacuation flightplunged down a slope in heavy rain on its second attempt to land in Kozhikode. Catch all the updates from the Kerala air crash here Officials said that 190 passengers and crew were onboard the plane that plummeted 35 feet off the table-top runway of Karipur airport, also known as Kozhikode International Airport. Here is what we know so far: An Air India Express (AIE) flight took off around 2am from Delhi to Kozhikode carrying investigating officers from DGCA and AAIB, AIEs chief executive and other officials of AI and AIE. A second plane took off from Mumbai to Kozhikode around 6am on Saturday carrying Angels of Air India and GO employees who will coordinate and liaise with various agencies and provide support and assist families of those affected in this incident. The third flight took off from Delhi around 6am carrying the AIs CMD and other senior officials. The civil aviation ministry has said the aircraft overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport at 7.41pm on Friday. No fire was reported at the time of landing, it said. Visibility was 2,000 metre and rains were reported. Aircraft was at full speed while landing and overshot the Runway 10. It continued running to the end of the runway and fell down in the valley and broke down into two pieces, civil aviation regulator DGCA has said. The Air India Express pilots attempted two landings before the final one at the tabletop runway but aborted due to tailwind. According to weather radar, the approach was for runway 28 but as pilots found difficulties they went around twice and came from the opposite side on runway 10 and the plane crash-landed at Keralas Kozhikode airport, a senior investigator from DGCA told news agency ANI. Captain Deepak Sathe, the pilot-in-command, and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were among those who died. Sathe, 59, was a former wing commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and had served at the forces flight testing establishment. The four-cabin crew members are safe, said the Air India Express in a statement. All the passengers have been rescued in operations, which took place amid heavy rains, and injured are being treated at various hospitals in Malappuram and Kozhikode. There were 184 passengers, including 10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew onboard the aircraft, the ministry added. It was a repatriation flight operated by the Centre under the Vande Bharat mission to bring home Indians hit by international travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. AFP reported 15 of those on board had lost their jobs and 12 were returning for a medical emergency. Two people on board were coming back for their weddings. The new coffee-infused Coke is said to contain more than double the ammount of caffeine compared to the classic and half the calories, which is perfect for those who are looking for a burst of energy for the day. Back in 2006, Coca-Cola had introduced Coca-Cola Black, which was a similar product that only lasted for 2 years before being discontinued. Vice President Jaideep Kibe said, "As people have been in lockdown or working from home, theres a real opportunity to get that boost, that little pick-me-up, whether its the slump in the afternoon or mid morning." Money laundering: Jaqueline to appear before ED on Dec 8 From Lous Vuittons to Hermes to Gucci gym clothes: What conman Sukesh gifted Jacqueline Fernandez IAF Pilatus case: ED raids multiple locations India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided multiple premises in various cities in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged corruption in the purchase of 75 Pilatus basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2009, officials said. They said the agency is covering at least 14 premises including a dozen in Delhi and one each in Gurgaon and Surat. The central probe agency had filed a money laundering case to probe the deal and is carrying out the action to collect evidence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said. With Rafales touching down, IAF looks to raise squadron strength from 31 to 42 The case involves absconding arms consultant and alleged middleman Sanjay Bhandari, who is already facing separate ED and CBI probes for corruption and alleged possession of undeclared assets in the country and abroad. Kerala plane crash: Locals aid rescue, donate blood, arrange food | Oneindia News Bhandari is stated to be in the UK at present and the ED is set to initiate extradition proceedings against him. The CBI had filed a criminal case in the Rs 2,895 crore Pilatus deal last year in June. The ED has taken cognisance of this complaint and it is probing the money laundering angle and alleged creation and generation of illegal assets by the accused. The CBI had booked Bhandari, unidentified officials of the Indian Air Force, the Defence Ministry and Switzerland-based Pilatus Aircraft Limited in the case. The Swiss company was one of the bidders for the contract floated in 2009. The CBI has alleged that Pilatus had entered into a criminal conspiracy with Bhandari and Bimal Sareen, both directors of Offset India Solutions Private Limited, and dishonestly and fraudulently signed a Service Provider Agreement with Bhandari in June 2010, which was in violation of the Defence Procurement Procedure, 2008. It was allegedly done to get the contract for supply of 75 basic Trainer Aircraft to the Indian Air Force. The agency had alleged that the company made a payment of CHF 1,000,000 in the account of Offset India Solution Private Limited with the Standard Chartered Bank, New Delhi in two tranches in August and October 2010. Defended Rafale deal as did not want it go the Bofors way: Former IAF Chief B S Dhanoa In addition, Rs 350 crore was also transferred in Swiss Francs from 2011 to 2015 in the bank accounts of Dubai-based Offset India Solutions FZC, also belonging to Bhandari. Pilatus dishonestly and fraudulently signed a Pre-Contract Integrity Pact on November 12, 2010, with the Defence Ministry, deliberately concealing the facts about service provider agreement with Bhandari, the CBI had alleged. The inquiry showed that Pilatus allegedly concealed payments made to Bhandari's companies in India and Dubai, the CBI had said while registering its FIR three years after it initiated a preliminary enquiry to probe the deal. The CBI had said it is suspected that the commission amount was allegedly paid to influence the officials of the IAF, the MoD and other government departments associated with the procurement. Pilatus bagged the contract on May 24, 2012, for Rs 2,895.63 crore. "Offset India Solutions Pvt Ltd. and other Indian companies of Bhandari and his wife Sonia Bhandari received Rs 25.5 crore during June 2012 to March 2015 in lieu of cash provided by Bhandari from various companies of Deepak Aggarwal," the CBI had said. Bhandari allegedly routed money through purchase of various companies and cash transactions involving Aggarwal and one Himanshu Verma, it was alleged by the CBI. "There is a strong suspicion that the aforementioned huge cash amount were the part of the commission amounts paid by Pilatus Aircrafts Limited to Bhandari to obtain the contract," the CBI alleged. Besides Bhandari, the CBI has also booked his companies Offset India Solutions Pvt Ltd, Offset India Solutions FZC, UAE, Aggarwal, Verma, Sareen and unknown others for criminal conspiracy, cheating and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. The ED has booked Bhandari in two other PMLA cases and it has filed a chargesheet against him few months back in a case of alleged possession of illegal foreign assets and creation of undisclosed assets. N Sathiya Moorthy By Wednesdays parliamentary polls held no surprises for Sri Lanka watchers. The election has ensured continuity along with political stability that the island nation got with the election of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in November last. Sri Lanka needed stability for ensuring national security and economic revival, and ending the constitutional impasse in the wake of last years Easter Sunday serial blasts and more recently the Covid-19 pandemic. With strategic Tamil and Muslim allies, the ruling SLPP-led combine of Rajapaksas (President Gotabaya and Prime Minister Mahinda, a two-term President earlier) has won a two-thirds majority, or 151 seats (including the Speaker) out of a total of 225. Equally important, the poll has sounded the death knell for the nations two oldest parties. The United National Party (UNP), Sri Lankas GoP, lost badly to the breakaway SJB headed by ex-deputy Sajith Premadasa, son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa who was slain by the LTTE. The UNPs long-time boss and three-time PM Ranil Wickremesinghe too could not make the grade. The UNPs traditional rival, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), was weakened after the Rajapaksas walked out to found the SLPP. The party now won a single seat, from the Tamil North, the first in 40 years. The partys former President Maithripala Sirisena could win his parliamentary seat from his native Polonnaruwa district only by contesting on the Rajapaksa SLPPs Lotus Bud symbol. Indian concerns: Interestingly, Sri Lankas immediate concerns are also those of neighbouring Indias for its southern neighbour. The Sri Lankans have given themselves political stability after five years of failed experimentation with a patently unhappy wedding of inconvenience. The unsuccessful cohabitation between former president Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe was also the main cause for the nations multiple woes, barring Covid of course. Before the Easter Sunday blasts last year, India had provided intelligence all through. Yet, New Delhi had to sit it out when the Sri Lankan establishment did not even send out an extra police constable to the streets on the fateful day, 21 April 2019. Inquiry commissions have since attributed it to the lack of communication between the top two in the government, Even without it, Sri Lankas economy was tottering, also due to the previous Rajapaksa regimes profligacy, leading to what amounted to a debt trap involving China. The new government talked of containing the debts, but kept borrowing from China for even non-essential expenditure like building more expressways. But the Easter blasts hit the nations tourism economy. Just when there were signs of revival, the pandemic struck. India cannot afford a failed economy in its southern neighbourhood too for more reasons than one. Ahead of the polls, India committed itself to a $400 million currency-swap facility sought by the new regime in Sri Lanka. Their request for an additional $1.1 billion swap facility and three-year moratorium on around $900 million in loans are under continuing negotiations. So possibly is Indias engagement with developing the Colombo Port Eastern Container Terminal. The previous government had signed a tripartite deal that also included Japan, but the current rulers are under pressure from labour groups and self-styled Sinhala-Buddhist supra-nationalists to rescind it. Baby and the bathwater: India has a more direct involvement in terms of the revival and possible implementation of the 13th Amendment to the island nations Constitution, effected as far back 1987or a version suited to the times. Indias hopes of helping to find a peaceful conclusion to the ethnic strife did not bear fruit. After three decades of war and violence and the militarily forced exit of the LTTE, 13-A is still the only valid document for the nations Tamil minority to cling on to. Owing to Indias later-day disposition to the LTTE, there are those in Sri Lankas Tamil community and polity who have thrown the baby with the bathwater. The parliamentary polls have weakened the multi-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA), with a much lower 10 MPs. Their voice is not the sole authorised and authoritative voice of a majority of Tamils anymore. Two hard-line Tamil nationalist parties have won three seats between them: Former Supreme Court judge C V Wigneswaran has won a lone seat for the Tamil Peoples Alliance (TPA) and Gajendra Kumar Ponnambalams Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) has got two. Three pro-Rajapaksa Tamil parties in the North and the East have won a total of four seats. This has made the post-poll revival of ethnic negotiations more complex and uncertain. It has also come in the midst of the Rajapaksas eagerness to fast-track other promised constitutional reforms on restoring executive power, haphazardly taken away under the predecessor regimes 19th Amendment, that too when the iron is still hot. Linked to the political solution for the ethnic issue is the UNHRC resolution on a war crimes probe that will come up for a crucial vote in March next year. Nearer home, civil society is concerned about the possible return of authoritarianism, securitisation and worsebut that is for the people to vote upon, when the much-delayed elections to the nine Provincial Councils are held sooner than later. N Sathiya Moorthy Distinguished Fellow and Head-Chennai Initiative, Observer Research Foundation (sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com) I am OMI | Events | People | Places | Participate Ray F. Wilson Ray was born in the mid-1940s, and his remarkable memory for people and businesses reaches back to when he was three years old! He obviously has very fond recollections of his childhood on Jules and Granada Avenues. He remembers the landlord with the free soda machine in the hallway, the mom-and-pop grocery rivalries in the area, and the big Halloween celebrations on Ocean Avenue. Ray also discusses the tumultuous racial issues in the OMI back then: a local married couple split up when the Japanese-American wife was relocated to the internment camps; the enmity towards a returning U.S. soldier of Filipino ancestry; and most dramatic of all, the efforts by local whites to stop realtors from selling to African-Americans. When the intimidation didn't work, Ray says he heard it became dangerous: "The black guy came out of his house or something, and this guy came out with a shotgun. Bam! Let him have a full load of buckshot in the gut. [...] Didn't kill him... [...] I mean, the poor guy didn't know. You know, he just moved in, didn't know what, you know. It wasn't his fault. He just wanted to buy a house, and he moved in." In another incident, Ray remembers a neighbor in Ingleside Terraces calling his mother: "She says, 'You know, a black moved in next door to poor Marcy.' And she was complaining and everything. She says, 'You know, I'm thinking of getting out of here..." "And my mother says, 'Well, if he has the money, and he looks nice, and he's got a nice family, why not?' And that was the end of their friendship." More Ray memories: On Farragut School:"--talk about a dilapidated school. They complain and scream and holler about the schools nowadays, and all of this. They're going through such misery being in school. Jeez, these are palaces, I mean, compared to what Farragut was at that time. I mean, even the hallways smelled like urine in those days. It was pretty bad. The bathrooms, you just wanted to wait until you got home. "They tried. They did their best. They had about three or four janitors there all the time. Even during the day they were there." On the development of Merced Heights: "I was very disappointed when we went over there and I looked up and said, 'Where's my goddamn hill?' You know, up there on top of the hill, all houses now. I don't know what they did. They just took all that--it was beautiful. Nice spot. You could go up there and have a picnic and whatever. [...] It was like a miniature mountain." On seeing "War of the Worlds" at the El Rey theater in 1953: "The line went all the way up around the block, the line did, to get in, when it first started. The special effects, you know. That theater was packed, the uppers and lowers. Whenever there was something like that, the whole theater was full. All neighborhood people, too. Everybody would say, 'Oh, hi. You came to see it, too,' and everything. All people mostly from the neighborhood. [...] Oh, yeah, we went there all the time. Anytime the movie would change, especially my father, he'd go, take me down there, and we'd go. They had kids' matinees there every Saturday. Folded popcorn things were always thrown up in the air, and all the candy going through the air and everything, but we had a hell of a lot of fun, though." Ray and his family moved around to different parts of the Sunset after leaving the OMI. He now lives in Daly City. Read the complete Ray Wilson interview! Images: 1) Ray Wilson, November 2002 (WNP photo); 2) Ray Wilson with mother in front of 210 Jules Avenue in the early 1950s. (Courtesy of Ray Wilson.) Contribute your own stories about the OMI! This project is made possible by a grant from the CALIFORNIA COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES with generous support from the San Francisco Foundation, as part of the Council's statewide California Stories Initiative. The COUNCIL is an independent non-profit organization and a state affiliate of the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES. For more information on the Council and the California Stories Initiative, visit www.californiastories.org. By Aurora Ellis and Maria Caspani NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than 160,000 people have died from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, nearly a quarter of the global total, according to a Reuters tally on Friday, as the country debates whether schools are ready to reopen in coming weeks. The country recorded 160,003 deaths and 4.91 million cases, the highest caseload in the world By Aurora Ellis and Maria Caspani NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than 160,000 people have died from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, nearly a quarter of the global total, according to a Reuters tally on Friday, as the country debates whether schools are ready to reopen in coming weeks. The country recorded 160,003 deaths and 4.91 million cases, the highest caseload in the world. Public health experts have voiced concern for weeks that Americans in some quarters were resisting wearing masks and maintaining safe social distances. Coronavirus deaths are rising in 23 states and cases are rising in 20 states, according to a Reuters analysis of data the past two weeks compared with the prior two weeks. On a per-capita basis, the United States ranks 10th highest in the world for both cases and deaths. Friday's grim milestone marks an increase of 10,000 deaths in nine days in the United States. Many of those died in California, Florida and Texas, the top three U.S. states for total cases. While new infections appear to be declining in those states, new outbreaks are emerging coast to coast. Dr. Deborah Birx, the lead coordinator for the White House coronavirus response, warned of worrying upticks in the rate of tests coming back positive in several cities, including Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Washington. In Massachusetts, which has been praised for having one of the most effective containment strategies in the country, Governor Charlie Baker reduced the maximum number allowed at outdoor gatherings from 100 to 50. Nearly 300,000 U.S. residents could be dead from COVID-19 by Dec. 1, University of Washington health experts said on Thursday, although they said 70,000 lives could be saved if Americans were scrupulous about wearing masks. Throughout the country, U.S. officials, teachers' unions, parents and students were debating how to reopen schools safely. President Donald Trump has urged states to resume in-person classes, saying the virus "will go away like things go away," but health officials have told states with rising counts to be on guard. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday some 700 school districts in the state could reopen classrooms, but insisted schools do extensive consultation with teachers, students and parents beforehand. New York school districts are free to opt for only remote learning, in-class learning or some hybrid of the two. Safety plans for reopened classrooms must first be approved by the state's Department of Health, Cuomo said. "If you look at our infection rate we are probably in the best situation in the country right now," Cuomo told reporters. "If anybody can open schools, we can open schools." In New York City, where 1.1 million children attend the country's largest network of public schools, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said students' attendance will be limited to between one and three days each week. Parents in New York City have until Friday to request all-remote learning for their children. Chicago Public Schools, which make up the country's third largest school district, reversed course this week, saying students would stick with remote learning when the school year begins. Some states, including Florida and Iowa, are mandating schools provide at least some in-person learning, while the governors of South Carolina and Missouri have recommended all classrooms reopen. Texas had initially demanded that schools reopen but has since allowed districts to apply for waivers as the state grapples with a rising caseload. The Houston Independent School District has said that the school year will begin virtually on Sept. 8, but will shift to in-person learning on Oct. 19. (Reporting by Aurora Ellis and Maria Caspani in New York; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Howard Goller) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Cross-border militancy, curfews, terrorism, the forced exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits the beautiful vales of Kashmir have been marked by continuous conflict and complete breakdown of civilian-state trust in the past few decades. As someone whose family was forced at gunpoint to leave behind their ancestral homes in Srinagar in the early 1990s, author Avanti Sopory could have chosen to dwell on the negative and to paint Kashmir in shades of bitterness in her writing. Instead, the Gurugram-based mother of two writes about its beauty, folklore and fairytales. In this interview, the 42-year-old shares her thoughts on her homeland. In your latest book The Kashmir That Was, you have tried to recreate an older, idyllic time in Kashmir - Bollywood movie shoots, theatre enthusiasts, laid-back village scenes. What inspired you and what was your vision for this book? I think it is important that the youngsters of the country and Indians in general should know that there is more to Kashmir than meets the eye. The many years of unpleasant narrative about Kashmir have shadowed its real and more romantic culture under a garb of hatred and fear. As a native, I wished to bring out the unseen, unheard and undiscovered part of Kashmir a state that has birthed leaders of international repute, actors par excellence, world-class musicians, and artisans hailed for their supreme craftsmanship. Kashmir was once a thriving centre for local and national theatricals. It was once as normal and as beautiful as any other part of India. Kashmiri Pandits often admit to having mixed feelings about Kashmir there is love and nostalgia but also anger and betrayal. What are your thoughts? As you have rightly said, there are mixed feelings. I was born there and spent my childhood there. In 1990, when my family moved to Delhi, I wasnt aware that, in my little memory box, I was carrying the most precious and treasured times of my life. Those childhood memories are still frozen in my hippocampus, like stills from a movie. When I close my eyes, there is a jigsaw puzzle of various events, conversations, anecdotes, discussions, artefacts, journeys, food, places, family, cousins, friends, school... Whenever I shut my eyes, these memories haunt me. I guess anyone who is forced to leave their home and hearth under the merciless threat of the gun has every right to feel angry. To make matters worse, our exodus was never acknowledged by any ruling establishment, media, or anyone in power. Nobody blinked an eye! How did your community get back on its feet after the events of January 1990? Kashmiri Pandits have been forced out of the valley a number of times. But each time, we have risen from the ashes like the phoenix. We are a resilient set of people. Education has been of primary importance, irrespective of the social or cultural status of the families. My great-grandfather was the first ornithologist in Kashmir, and an author par excellence on the subject. Both my maternal and paternal families are replete with academics, media entrepreneurs, social workers and thought leaders. History may not have been kind to us, but we have all been able to carve out a niche for ourselves. Many Kashmiri Pandits feel let down by successive Indian governments for lack of support and rehabilitation. What are your views? Yes, that is true. Successive governments have been hostile towards our condition and our cause has been completely sidelined. For 30 years, we have been at the receiving end of hopeless lip service, dished out by each political party. We are a displaced community within our own country. Even in 30 years of our exile, none of the ruling governments has been successful in providing a sustainable structure for us. Modern-day Kashmiris of both religions face discrimination in the rest of India the Muslims for being Muslims, and the Pandits for running away from militant-torn Kashmir in the 1990s. Have you also had to face such censure? When we had just migrated to Delhi, I overheard a woman on a bus say, Why did these Kashmiri Pandits run away from the Valley? They are a weak bunch of people who could not stand up and fight. There was a tinge of ridicule in her voice. As a child, I didnt understand what that meant, but now I wonder what the woman had been thinking. She probably didnt know that we were a handful of law-abiding families up against a planted and planned group of militants who had threatened us to leave our own house or face death. Wasnt this some kind of discrimination in my own country? I think that people living in other parts of India were and still are often ignorant about the mass exodus of lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits from their birthplace. Are there any films, authors or artists in popular culture who you think have successfully portrayed the traumatic experiences of the Kashmiri Pandits? Yes, there have been plenty. But what comes to mind right now is the movie Shikara (2020). I think it was very brave of Vidhu Vinod Chopra to make such a film. What according to you is the solution to the Kashmir problem? Kashmir will cease to be a problem the day Pakistan stops meddling. Since 1947, they have sponsored terrorism, sabotaged development and exploited the religious sentiments of the people. They continue to create a noise around the so-called atrocities in Kashmir at diplomatic, social, political and international levels. Thats the cause of the unrest in the Valley. It may sound strange to many but, socially and culturally, Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims have a lot in common be it their food, names, wedding rituals, or spiritual alignment and Sufism. A picture from Avanti Sopory's childhood Both Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims have lived for long in mutual warmth, respect, cooperation, community strength, mysticism, spirituality, devotion, and empathy. We hope to relive those days once again. I let the red of the memory bleed me crimson, Shudder with the splash and freeze within, I plug the gash, hold my heart tight, Ah! fond memories engulf me like the dark of the night, Of times not stung, no venom spread, Of life unadulterated, we natives lead, I let the red of the memory inundate me, Of a past so ecstatic, my present should see, I too was a performer in the Act 7 of Valley, Those hearty times also belonged to me, Snowballs, scent of just-mowed grass, frolics of childhood, Crisp was air, those picnics were real; now praying for a chance of likelihood. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 12:20:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Yosley Carrero HAVANA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Imayasil Campoalegre, 47, lives with her elderly mother and adolescent son at a two-bedroom apartment in Havana's Arroyo Naranjo district. She has enhanced cleaning and disinfecting procedures at home, going out only to buy food and other daily necessities. Like Campoalegre, many Havana residents have intensified their precautionary efforts as lockdown restrictions have been reimposed in the city which saw a surge in new COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. Campoalegre, a private sector employee, said that returning to normal life is important for her because the crisis has had an impact on people's lives. "I do not want to see stores closed and public transportation canceled once more. We need to work hard to save Havana from becoming a ghost city due to a second outbreak," she told Xinhua. "Even though the situation is getting complex, I believe local authorities can successfully manage it with our help." In Havana, the new epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic with 1,559 cases, a night-time curfew starting at 11 p.m. will be imposed in the coming days, according to the Cuban government. Since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis in the island in March, a total of 2,829 cases have been reported with 88 deaths. Cubans have been urged to abide by social distancing requirements and adopt a responsible behavior as the country has implemented a phased recovery plan. "If we are not able to slow the spread of the disease, we will return to the pandemic phase," Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said on state TV. As part of a government plan, transportation and urban mobility will be until 11:00 p.m., while the hours of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs were also restricted until 9:00 p.m. Public transportation between Havana and nearby provinces will be limited to essential services. "We are on the brink of a second outbreak, which can be reversed if we act with discipline," said Jose Antonio Torres Iribar, president of the provincial defense council in Havana, adding that "a lack of risk perception is perceived among citizens." Havana started to ease its three-month lockdown restrictions in early July. Since then, thousands of people have flocked to beaches and seaside hotels across the country. Francisco Duran, national director of epidemiology at the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, said that nearly 61 percent of COVID-19 cases in the country are asymptomatic while 323 patients under 20 years old have tested positive for the virus. Health authorities said that no fewer than 2,400 tests are carried out every day in Havana's hardest-hit areas where doctors and nurses are going door-to-door in search of suspected cases. So far, 195 health workers in Havana have tested positive for the virus. Among them is Livan Lopez, 25, a Cuban nurse who contracted the virus while working. "The novel coronavirus is very contagious and has caused me lasting lung damage. People who do not comply with social distancing requirements are risking their lives," Lopez said. "We should not let our guard down," he stressed. Enditem NHS workers march from St. James' Park to Downing Street, London (Picture: AP) NHS workers have marched in cities across the UK to demand higher wages after they were excluded from a pay increase for around 900,000 public sector workers. Some health workers will not receive the pay bump announced a couple of weeks ago because they are in the final year of a three-year pay deal. Instead, they are due a pay rise next April, but unions want the government to show its appreciation for NHS staff by bringing it forward to this year. Doctors and dentists were the only NHS employees who benefited from the announcement from chancellor Rishi Sunak. Health workers pose with placards, during a socially distanced demonstration in Glasgow, Scotland (Picture: AP) Another image from the protest in Glasgow (Picture: AP) Nurses and other frontline NHS workers stage a protest at No 10 Downing Street (Picture: Getty) It has prompted a wave of 37 socially distanced protests across England, Scotland and Wales which all started at 11am on Saturday. One of the health workers, Laura Duffell, told Yahoo News UK on Friday that NHS staff feel they have been stabbed in the back after months on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said: I dont think the government has appreciated the sacrifices people have made. Duffell is a matron at the trauma centre of a central London hospital. It was three times over its intensive care capacity at the peak of the outbreak. NHS workers demonstrate in London (Picture: AP) NHS workers at a rally in Parliament Square, London (Picture: Getty) An NHS worker protests outside Downing Street (Picture: Getty) Duffell is helping to organise the London protest, which will see workers march on Downing Street. More than 500 health workers have died so far following exposure to coronavirus. The NHS staff are staging socially-distanced protests to demand the government recognises their role in the coronavirus fight. Protesters gathered in St Jamess Park and on Horse Guards Parade in central London ahead of their demonstration in the capital. NHS workers hold a minute's silence to pay tribute to NHS staff who have died with coronavirus (Picture: Getty) NHS workers march from St. James Park to Downing Street (Picture: Getty) An NHS worker outside No 10 Downing Street (Picture: Getty) A woman holds a 'honk for our NHS' sign in Parliament Square (Picture: Getty) Coronavirus: what happened today Click here to sign up to the latest news and information with our daily Catch-up newsletter Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov held discussions with the Head of the EU Delegation Kestutis Jankauskas on Azerbaijan-EU partnership and the recent Armenian provocation in the state border. During the meeting, Bayramov said that Azerbaijan highly commends the mutually beneficial partnership with the European Union and noted with satisfaction the EU's firm position in support of Azerbaijan's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Furthermore, the minister informed the EU representative about the military provocation committed by Armenian armed forces in the direction of Tovuz region of the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on July 12, and the goals that Armenia failed to achieve, as well as the aggressive policy of Armenia, which stands as a basis for the tensions in the region. It was also emphasized that Azerbaijan is committed to the settlement of the conflict through negotiations, but negotiations have to be real and substantive, not imitation. Bayramov noted that taking the same approach to the aggressor state Armenia and Azerbaijan, as a victim of the aggression, is unacceptable. He stressed the necessity of withdrawal of the occupying forces from all the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the return of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons to their homes as demanded by the UN Security Councils resolutions. Referring to a statement made by the Spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS), Jankauskas noted that the EU called to refrain from actions that provoke tension in the region. He also emphasized that the EU Special Representative is also closely monitoring the situation and the Union is interested in ensuring peace and security in the region. Moreover, the sides exchanged views on a number of issues on the EU-Azerbaijan cooperation agenda, including strategic energy partnership, transport projects, solidarity and cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, the continuation of negotiations on a new comprehensive agreement that will form the legal basis of bilateral relations, and other issues. --- Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Every day Tonya Scibilia craves the one hour she can leave the house for exercise and make eye contact with other people. I know it will be 23 hours before I can do that again, says Ms Scibilia, who lives alone. Its really emotionally tough. I am an extrovert but I think its innately human to like to have contact with people and that just ceases. Ms Scibilia, who works in HR, thinks the government is doing an exceptional job steering Victoria through the coronavirus crisis. She vigilantly follows the rules. She hasnt hugged her family since March. She orders her groceries online to minimise her risk of being infected with COVID-19 at the supermarket. Tonya Scibilia wants to highlight the mental health impact on people living alone during lockdown. Credit:Justin McManus But she is frustrated that single people are not given the same opportunity to have human interaction as intimate partners who live separately but are permitted to visit one another. Senior military commanders from India and China are holding talks on Saturday to discuss the next stage of disengagement by the Chinese side along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh sector, people familiar with the development said. The major general level meeting, which comes after the fifth round of talks between corps commander ranked officers on August 2, began at 11am in the Daulat Beg Oldi area on the Chinese side of LAC. The situation in the Depsang plains will also be discussed. The last round of negotiations was held at Moldo on the Chinese side of the LAC as talks entered a critical phase due to serious differences between the two armies in the Finger Area near Pangong Tso. It also came amid the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army reluctance to vacate positions held by it in what New Delhi claims to be Indian territory. Also Read: The PLA Aggressors: Chinas eight top commanders who led Ladakh adventure The Finger Areaa set of eight cliffs jutting out of the Sirijap range overlooking the Pangong Lakehas emerged as the hardest part of the disengagement process with little hope of immediate resolution, one of the officials in the know of the developments had said then. The August 2 military negotiations had come three days after Chinese ambassador Sun Weidong said his countrys traditional boundary line on the northern bank of the Pangong Lake was in accordance with the LAC and there was no case of Beijing expanding its territorial claim. The ambassadors contention was a clear indication of the Chinese hard line on its claims in the Finger area, said a second official. Also Read: China offers a new normal to end Ladakh border standoff. India shoots it down The Indian Army used to patrol right up to Finger Eight that New Delhi considers within Indian territory before the PLA grabbed positions on Finger Four overlooking Indian deployments. The new positions held by the PLA have curtailed the scope of Indian patrols. Fingers Four and Eight are 8km apart. The Indian claim line in this sector extends to Finger Eight, while the Chinese claim is up to Finger Four where the PLA has set up permanent bunkers, pillboxes, observation posts and tented camps over the last three months. Tensions between India and China have risen since May after India said it had detected multiple intrusions into its territory by Chinese troops. The ties strained further after a violent clash between soldiers of the two sides in June in which 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops were killed. After delays in passing the coronavirus relief last Wednesday, the White house threaten executive action if no action is taken by dilly-dallying Democrats. In the talks over the coronavirus relief, the GOP agreed to extend the unemployment insurance and some issues that weren't solved last Wednesday with the Democrats. The two-hour talk that included Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Steven Mnuchin, with Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff. Meadows told reporters that nothing was agreed on, as reported by CNBC. Both Congress and the administration are at odds on what benefits will be continued after ending on the last day of July. Since the discontinuance of the relief package, many Americans have lost income support, and are currently waiting for officials to pass a relief bill. When interviewed by CNN last Wednesday, Meadows remarked that President Donald Trump is inclined to go ahead on his own. Benefits for joblessness and a stoppage of eviction should the DEMs keep stonewalling him, or if they are not allowing a deal. His warning could be a way to push the buttons. For all intents, congress decides and not the president, according to Barrons. Meadows added that if Congress gets lead-footed, the president-elect will decide on his own, according to CNN. Schumer was interviewed by reporters and he said the Democrats are still in the discussions, not avoiding it. He said the Republican president has mentioned differences that are blocking a decision. Nancy Pelosi was not saying anything about when the deal can be struck. It seems the Democrats are playing their card close to get the most favorable decision/ Also read: Coronavirus Benefits Ending on July 31, Citizens Will Stop Getting $600 a Week One California Democrat added that an end to the coronavirus relief talks is close. But, gave grim remarked how soon will it be approved by congress. The Trump administration on Tuesday sweetened the pot with an extension to the federal unemployment insurance way into December worth $400 weekly. Although the bigger $600 weekly benefit was floated a better deal. Most Republicans in the Senate pushed a plan for insurance at $200 weekly till September, altering the benefit later on to 70% wage replacements. Another concern is the extended eviction moratorium into December, according to sources. The Democrats lessened their pitch for post-funding to $10 billion, compared to the original $25 billion. Regarding this matter, four negotiators were in conference with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy last Wednesday. Schumer mentions some heat about how the mail-in votes will be delivered and picked up. This is the major concern that was primary to voting in November. Worried about the COVID-19 pandemic that is happening. Neither of the two camps gave any comments on their differing proposals. Concessions on either proposal are progressing from stalemates, between the Democrats and the Republicans. Even with progress on the deal, both parties have not agreed on other particulars of the coronavirus relief that is glaringly dissimilar. Schumer stoically said no deal with the extended $600 weekly jobless benefit. He added that the White House is not in agreement with the $600, saying again there's no deal without it. Related topic: Coronavirus Aid: Democrats, White House to Discuss $1 Trillion Bill @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Energy bills will fall by an average of 84 a year after the price cap on suppliers was slashed to a record low. From October, a typical family should pay no more than 1,042 a year, compared with 1,126 at present. However, this is still as much as 250 a year more than households would pay if they switched to the cheapest tariffs. Energy bills will fall by an average of 84 and from October, a typical family should pay no more than 1,042 a year, compared with 1,126 at present Around 11million loyal customers are thought to be overpaying on their energy bills each year. This is because they are on their suppliers default or standard tariff, which is typically the most expensive. Most suppliers charge close to the maximum amount permitted by the price cap, which is set by energy watchdog Ofgem. However, firms also offer a range of far cheaper deals to new customers. So households which switch regularly can save hundreds of pounds every year. There are currently 22 deals that cost under 850 a year, on average. Those with pre-payment meters are also protected by a price cap, but it is higher. From October these customers will pay an average of 1,075 a 95 saving. Energy prices are lower as a result of the pandemic causing demand to fall because fewer businesses have been able to operate as usual. Around 11million loyal customers are thought to be overpaying on their energy bills each year because they are on their suppliers standard tariff, which is typically the most expensive And after the cost of wholesale electricity and gas fell 18 per cent and 22 per cent in the first three months of this year compared with the previous quarter, Ofgem has cut the cap to an all-time low. Victoria Arrington, of comparison site energyhelpline.com, said: Now is a particularly good time to consider switching. In addition, these deals lock in todays low price for 12 months or more, protecting from any potential future price rises. For example, the cheapest fixed deal from Outfox the Market costs an average of 787 a year, according to energyhelpline.com. This would save households 255 a year. Lets stop pretending that California will educate its children this fall and instead transfer our educational resources into COVID-19 control. As the pandemic worsens, California parents, teachers and students have been distracted by a bitter war over how to reopen education. But, as the father of three public school students, Ive learned that its a war that cant be won. All three school strategies the full reopening of schools, distance learning and a hybrid of in-person and online education will weaken the educational system and leave our children further behind. Reopening schools while society fails to respond to COVID-19 not only could spread the virus but also will cause many teachers and students to stay home, causing enrollment collapses and teacher shortages. Meanwhile, distance learning, which is severely limited by state rules and teachers unions, will only see children fall further behind (because they lack technology or home setups to participate), or slip away from school altogether. Online lessons will deepen kids screen addictions, and put more stress on parents who are ill-prepared to serve as in-home educators. The third major option, hybrid plan, merely fuses all the costs and problems of in-person and distance learning into one unmanageable mess. So why do we keep spending time and money trying to make these unworkable options work? Since we cant or wont get back to safe and effective schooling until the pandemic is under control, the fastest way back to school is to repurpose the education system to control the pandemic. There are so many opportunities if we make Californias top educational priority the pandemic. Billions could be pulled from Californias $80-billion education budget to supplement all aspects of the COVID-19 response, from testing to the development of treatments. The schools also could provide personnel for the fight. To manage the virus, California needs an army of contact tracers at least 40,000, and perhaps many more. And California has more than 300,000 teachers. Teachers and school staffers, as trusted members of communities, are ideal for contact tracing work, which requires intimate conversations with all kinds of people. Students, too, have an important role to play. State officials have maintained that they dont have enough people to enforce rules on masking and social distancing, but thats because they havent tapped Californias 5.3 million school-age children. Give the kids authority to accost anyone without a face covering, and I expect youd see compliance approach 100%. Moving educational resources to the pandemic response wouldnt be an abandonment of education. Our state officials, our school districts, and organizations representing school employees have already given up on any real education for the 2020-21 school year. They just havent been honest enough to admit it publicly. The legislature and school officials have reduced the number of instructional minutes (by an hour a day for grades 4-12) and have suspended state assessments of student learning. There is little accountability for teachers who dont interact with students much during distance learning. Worse still, the state budget has been changed to ensure that schools are funded and teachers are paid whether or not students show up. This is a departure from the standard policy of tying school funding to student attendance. This funding change is called hold harmless. It means that a school will receive the same funding it had based on attendance back in February before the pandemic. This creates incentives for schools to abandon or just lose track of the hundreds of thousands, poor, special-needs, and hard-to-reach students across the state. As a result, many young Californians will disappear from education all together. The same hold harmless provision hurts responsible and public-spirited schools, districts and charters that step up to serve more students in the crisis. One very cynical way of thinking about our educational reality is that the education system has used the crisis to protect its funding while relieving itself of its core responsibilities. Teacher unions resistance to reopening schools in a pandemic, and participating in our poorly designed distance learning, makes sense, out of an abundance of caution. What does not make sense is to keep funding schools the biggest piece of our state budget when our pandemic response is starved for public resources. The best solution is to shift our teachers and school employees to an all-out effort against COVID-19. It wont be easy for teachers and school staff to switch to work for which theyve not been trained. But such a shift is necessary for more than fighting COVID-19. The shift should provide protections for schools and school jobs in the short run. And in the longer term, shifting school staff into emergency response will answer a mounting political criticism: Why are scarce California tax dollars supporting diminished education and closed schools, especially when pandemic response is lagging? Requiring schools, teachers, staff and even students to focus on the pandemic would also provide some educational lessons. We might show ourselves, and our kids, that we can move beyond conflict and debate in a crisis. Our schools will need those lessons, and that sense of unity, when it eventually becomes time to go back to school safely, and educators face the daunting challenge of making up for all the lost education that COVID is costing us. Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zocalo Public Square. Students of the Plainview Independent School District will need to utilize their own technology equipment should families choose to the online school option. Superintendent H.T. Sanchez clarified during a special called board meeting on Thursday that the district has never committed to providing laptops for those students who dont attend in-classroom instruction. So for the parents that are giving us the opportunity to educate their students on campus, its not right to take the laptops from them, he said. He noted that the laptops that have been acquired by the district over time have been purchased by specific campuses for specific purposes. We have campuses that made a concerted effort to set the money aside and use federal money to buy them for their purposes, he said. Sanchez and the board have the authority to ask those campuses to provide those laptops for different purposes, he added, but its not the right thing to do. The district has been fielding calls from parents claiming the district committed to provide them, according to Sanchez. After looking through his notes and meetings records, he said, he did not find such claims. At the last meeting in July, Sanchez said the Board discussed looking into avenues to be able to provide online instruction. Actually at that meeting, it was very intense in stating that the commissioner stated no, we dont have to provide the technology because of limited circumstances nor connectivity, Sanchez said. Its not the responsibility of the district to provide that, though we said we would begin looking at avenues to provide it sometime in the future. We spent some time talking through the challenges there. It was also noted that shipment of the most recent laptop purchase approved by the board has been delayed. Brent Richburg, chief technology officer, told the board that the vendor through which the laptops were purchased told the district to expect another four- to six-week delay from the September delivery date. The district ordered Lenovo Chromebooks and the manufacturer has been cited with human rights violations, which is why the shipment is delayed, he said. He also told the board thousands of other orders were ahead of the district. Prior to discussing the laptops, Sanchez also noted to the board that the Texas Education Agency asked districts to consider an online education option. It wasnt required. Please know, Board, that by law, were not required to have an online option, Sanchez said. We could have, like some smaller school districts, said its all in-person or nothing. School districts have a choice, he said. The only way the current plan can change is ultimately down the School Boards approval at the suggestion of the local health authority. While TEA has also stated that it will providing funding to school districts for the students whose families choose the online learning option, theres also the possibility the agency could hold back some of those funds. One of Australia's most notorious child killers could be released from prison in a matter of months after applying for parole. Kevin Riley, now 59, and his brother Jim were convicted of the horrific rape and murder of seven-year-old Shaun Phillips in 1988 - a case which remains one of South Australia's most infamous crimes. The child killer is now appealing to be let out of jail after 32 years, but Shaun's father, Gary Phillips, has called for the paedophile to be left to 'rot in prison'. Crown prosecutor Ann Vanstone told the Supreme Court at the time of the trial that Kevin's brother Jim said the chilling words 'I'm going out to get a boy' before snatching little Shaun. One of Australia's most notorious child killers could be released from prison in just a matter of months (pictured, Kevin Riley with an inmate in drag at an infamous prison party) After Jim abducted Shaun near his home in the Adelaide suburb of Cowandilla, he then took the child to Kevin's flat several hundred miles away. Riley, who was 27 at the time, watched his brother, 28, sexual assault Shaun, strangle him, smash his head with a tomahawk and hold his head under water. When police asked Riley if he also had sex with Shaun, he said 'yes', but that the little boy was already dead. Mr Phillips said that despite their intellectually handicap, both brothers knew exactly what they were doing - and even cleaned up the flat before dumping Shaun's body in a neighbour's driveway. 'Jim Riley took Shaun back to Kevin's flat. Kevin could have said no,' Mr Phillips told the Adelaide Advertiser. 'This is the person we want walking free around Adelaide? No. Let him rot in prison.' Mr Phillips has written a letter to the state's parole board 'through the eyes' of his beloved son Shaun urging corrections authorities to keep him locked up. He said he has 'complete confidence' in the parole board and hopes they will make the right decision. Shaun Phillips (pictured) was murdered in 1988 by the Riley brothers and his father says they should be left to 'rot in prison' After being sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 23 years, Kevin first applied for release in 2003. The request was promptly denied and parole board chairwoman Frances Nelson QC, said he 'represents a risk to the community in that the likelihood of him re-offending is high'. He has remained in Port Lincoln Prison for the past 15 years after originally being held with his brother at Mt Gambier Prison. Jim is still locked up in Mt Gambier Prison after being sentenced to life with a non-parole period of 28 years. But even behind bars controversy has followed the notorious killer. In 2006, Riley was pictured at Port Lincoln Prison with a number of inmates dressed in drag for a party. The incident became known as the 'jailhouse rock' fiasco and angered many victims of crime. To be released on parole after being sentenced to life in prison, 'lifers' must be interviewed by the parole board in person. Due to COVID-19 restrictions no lifers are currently being interviewed. 'When we are able to undertake those interviews again there will be a backlog, so I would not anticipate that happening until later in the year,' Ms Nelson said. Treasury Sanctions Militia Leader in Central African Republic for Human Rights Abuse U.S. Department of the Treasury August 7, 2020 Corresponding UN Security Council Designation Highlights Global Focus on CAR Washington Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), corresponding with an action by the United Nations Security Council, took action against Bi Sidi Souleymane (Souleymane), also known as Sidiki Abbas. Souleymane leads the Central African Republic (CAR)-based militia group Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation (3R), which has killed, tortured, raped, or displaced thousands of people since 2015. Souleymane himself has also directly participated in torture. In addition to Treasury's action, the UN Security Council's CAR Sanctions Committee has implemented an asset freeze and travel ban on Souleymane. "Under Souleymane's leadership, the 3R militia committed brutal atrocities against innocent civilians," said Deputy Secretary Justin G. Muzinich. "The United States will continue to aggressively use its tools and authorities to target and expose human rights abusers, wherever they are." 3R, one of numerous militias and armed groups currently operating in the CAR, uses murder, kidnapping, and illicit taxation to achieve its goals, as well as clashes with other militias. On September 27, 2016, 3R raided the village of De Gaulle, killing at least 17 villagers, and raping women and girls. During and immediately after 3R's raid on De Gaulle, Souleymane and other 3R members tortured villagers. On May 21, 2019, 3R killed at least 34 unarmed civilians in three villages in northwest CAR's Ouham-Pende province, summarily executing adult males. 3R conducted this violence despite signing a peace agreement on February 6, 2019. Following numerous unilateral violations of the Peace Agreement, 3R announced its suspension of participation in Peace Agreement implementation in June 2020. Executive Order (E.O.) 13667 authorizes designation of persons contributing to the conflict in the CAR, including those who are responsible for serious abuse or violation of human rights in the CAR, or those threatening the peace, security, or stability of the CAR, among other criteria. OFAC has previously designated human rights abusers in the CAR, including the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), LRA leader Joseph Kony, and his sons, LRA commanders Salim and Ali Kony. OFAC has also designated numerous anti-Balaka and ex-Seleka militia leaders for threatening the peace, security, or stability of the CAR and individuals and entities supporting armed groups with weapons and money. OFAC designated Souleymane pursuant to E.O. 13667 for being responsible for the targeting of women, children, or any civilians through the commission of acts of violence (including killing, maiming, torture, or rape or other sexual violence), abduction, forced displacement, or attacks on schools, hospitals, religious sites, or locations where civilians are seeking refuge, or through conduct that would constitute a serious abuse or violation of human rights or a violation of international humanitarian law. As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of Souleymane that are in or come within the United States or that are in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC. OFAC's regulations generally prohibit all dealings by U.S. persons or those within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated persons. Additionally, the corresponding UN sanctions obligate all UN Member States to impose an asset freeze and travel ban. View identifying information on the individual designated today. ### NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chennai, Aug 8 : Air India Express on Saturday said it is adequately insured and would pay the compensation in accordance with applicable law at appropriate time after its Dubai-Kozhikode flight crashed at Kozhikode airport a day ago. The airline also announced immediate financial relief to the families of those who died in the accident and to those who were injured. As many as 18 people, including two pilots were killed and several injured in the accident. "The airline is adequately insured and will pay compensation in accordance with applicable law at the appropriate juncture," Air India Express said in a statement. "To provide immediate relief, as an interim compensation Air India Express will give: Rs 10,00,000/-to the next kin of the deceased passenger 12 years and above; Rs 500,000/ to the passengers below the age of 12 years; Rs 200,000/- to critically injured passenger and Rs 50,000/- to the passenger who are injured in the incident," the airline said. Air India Express has established a passenger information centre and a toll free number has been made available for family or friends of those who may have been on board of the ill-fated flight IX-1344. The toll free number is 1800222271. For those calling from abroad, international country code has to be added. The Emergency Response Team Members and other teams of Air India with Air India Express team have already been sent to the accident scene. All will render necessary help to assist the emergency services and local authorities to aid the passengers, the airline said. Latest updates on Kerala Air India Plane Crash -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text New Delhi: In the 9-hour long interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), actress Rhea Chakraborty was asked a volley of questions on Friday. After her grilling session, the actress has released a diary, claiming it belonged to Sushant Singh Rajput. In the diary page shared, the late actor had made a 'grateful list' with names of Rhea and her family in it. Rhea said: "The only property of Sushant I possess." The diary which Rhea claims is Sushant's and is written by him mentions lillu which is Rhea's brother Showik Chakraborty, Bebu is Rhea, Sir is her father Indrajeet, Ma'am is her mother and Fudge is Sushant's dog. She was probed in the presence of father Indrajeet Chakraborty, brother Showik and manager Shruti Modi respectively. As per sources, Sushant's friend and flatmate Siddharth Pithani is likely to be probed by the financial agency today. He was summoned to be in Mumbai for questioning a day back. The ED will probe Rhea's father Indrajeet Chakraborty, brother Showik Chakraborty on Monday (August 10, 2020). Along with Rhea, her brother was also the director of two of Sushant's companies. The Enforcement Directorate had registered a money laundering case against Rhea under Personal Money Laundering Act (PMLA) involving the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, a team of the financial probe agency reached the residence of Chartered Accountant Sandeep Sridhar and quizzed him a few days back. Rhea's associate Samuel Miranda and her CA Ritesh Shah were also probed in relation to the death of the actor. The ED came into action after the case was registered by the ED against Rhea and her family members. It was over Rs 15 crore amount which was allegedly spent by Rhea. The sum was withdrawn from Sushant's account, reportedly. It was after Sushant's father KK Singh had filed an FIR against Rhea in Patna. The ED has named Rhea and her family members in the case on the basis of the Bihar Police FIR. Denver--(Embargoed for 7 a.m. EST August 8, 2020)--Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) carrying anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene alterations who received ensartinib experienced substantially longer progression-free survival than a matched group of patients who received crizotinib, according to a presentation at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer Virtual Presidential Symposium. The results were presented today by Leora Horn, MD, Ingram Associate Professor of Cancer Research in the Division of Hematology/Oncology and director of the Thoracic Oncology Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, Tenn. View a video interview of Dr. Horn discussing the trial here: https://vimeo.com/444703327/6ad043dd00 ALK-positive lung cancer occurs in approximately 5% to 7% of patients with NSCLC, mostly in patients younger than age 55. Mutated forms of the ALK gene and proteins have also been found in other types of cancer, such as neuroblastoma, and anaplastic large cell lymphoma. These changes directly contribute to the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. Ensartinib (X-396) is a novel next-generation ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). According to Dr. Horn, in Phase 1 and 2 studies, ensartinib showed promising activity in patients with ALK+ NSCLC who were ALK TKI treatment naive or received prior crizotinib or second-generation ALK TKIs, including strong activity in patients with brain metastases. Crizotinib is an anti-cancer drug acting as an ALK, MET, and ROS1 inhibitor, approved for treatment of some subtypes of patients with NSCLC (including ALK+) in the United States and other countries worldwide. Dr. Horn and her colleagues at the participating cancer centers randomized 290 patients with ALK+ NSCLC to either ensartinib or crizotinib--the prespecified intent to treat (ITT) population with locally determined ALK+ NSCLC. Patients were stratified by prior chemotherapy, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, brain metastases, and geographic region. Baseline characteristics were well balanced between the two groups: median age was 54.1; 26% of patients had prior chemotherapy, and 36% of patients had baseline brain metastases (5% had prior brain radiotherapy). The modified ITT population (the prespecified patient population that was ALK+ as confirmed by central Abbott FISH test) included 247 patients, of which 121 received ensartinib and 126 received crizotinib. At the July 1, 2020 data cutoff, based on a pre-planned interim analysis design (at 75% of progression-free survival events) treatment was ongoing in 64 ensartinib-treated patients (45%) and 25 crizotinib-treated patients (17%). There were 139 patients who experienced disease progression (as assessed by blinded independent review committee, BIRC) or death, which represented 73% of progression events in the ITT population and 119 BIRC-events or deaths (63%) in the mITT population. According to Dr. Horn, the trial's analysis demonstrated a statistically significant difference between patients who received ensartinib, with a median progression-free survival of 25.8 months compared with 12.7 months with crizotinib, with a median follow-up of 23.8 and 20.2 months, respectively (HR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.36-0.75; P=.0003 by log-rank test). In the mITT population, the median progression-free survival has not been reached yet for the ensartinib arm vs. 12.7 months for the crizotinib arm (HR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.32-0.71; P=.0002 by log-rank test). The overall response rate was 75% versus 67% with crizotinib; among patients with measurable brain metastases, the BIRC-assessed intracranial overall response rate was 64% with ensartinib versus 21% with crizotinib. The time-to-treatment-failure rate in the brain in patients with no baseline brain metastases was also significantly lower with ensartinib compared to crizotinib (4% vs 24% at 12 months). "In patients with ALK-positive NSCLC, ensartinib significantly prolonged progression-free survival over crizotinib with a favorable safety profile, representing a new option in the first-line setting," Dr. Horn concluded. "This is a remarkable achievement that gives patients with ALK+ lung cancer and treating physicians a safe and effective new treatment choice to control the disease before any other ALK TKI has been used. The study continues to follow patients that are on treatment and will be updated at upcoming conferences," said Li Mao, M.D. and CEO of Xcovery Holdings, Inc., the sponsor of the study. ### About the IASLC: The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) is the only global organization dedicated solely to the study of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. Founded in 1974, the association's membership includes more than 7,500 lung cancer specialists across all disciplines in over 100 countries, forming a global network working together to conquer lung and thoracic cancers worldwide. The association also publishes the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, the primary educational and informational publication for topics relevant to the prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of all thoracic malignancies. Visit http://www.iaslc.org for more information. About the WCLC: The WCLC is the world's largest meeting dedicated to lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies, attracting more than 7,000 researchers, physicians and specialists from more than 100 countries. The goal is to increase awareness, collaboration and understanding of lung cancer, and to help participants implement the latest developments across the globe. The conference will cover a wide range of disciplines and unveil several research studies and clinical trial results. For more information, visit wclc2020.iaslc.org. All In Credit Union demonstrated its thankfulness for essential workers by participating in the Credit Unions Care Challenge. Following donations to local organizations by All In Credit Union employees, All In received donations from the Southeastern Credit Union Foundation to continue its support of local businesses. Lisa Hales, Senior Vice President of Member Experience for All In Credit Union commented, Giving back to the community is a core value of our organization, which is why the Credit Unions Care Challenge was a cause we wanted to support. In doing so, our employees had the opportunity to effectively help us distribute funds in meaningful ways to those on the front lines. Employees chose to use the money to purchase food, merchandise or other items from their favorite local businesses. Some branch locations decided as a whole to donate the funds to local organizations or by buying lunch for their staff. All In donated a total of $8,750. Local organizations that received donations are listed as follows: Andalusia, Ala.: Andalusia Police Department, Andalusia Fire Department, Andalusia Distributing Company Crestview, Fla.: Emergency Management Services Health officials in Northern Ireland will consider local lockdowns to avoid having to close the country down again. Photo Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press Health officials in Northern Ireland will consider local lockdowns to avoid having to close the country down again. Restrictions could be imposed on individual towns and villages, or even parts of counties, where cases spike. Last night three counties in the Republic were placed back into partial lockdown. Limited restrictions were implemented in Kildare, Laois and Offaly for two weeks from midnight. Taoiseach Micheal Martin said: There are a number of localised clusters which are a serious concern. We cant afford to wait and see. It comes amid mounting concern about the virus in Northern Ireland. On Thursday the Department of Health reported 43 new cases the highest daily total since May 13. Yesterday a further 15 cases were confirmed. The R number the viruss reproductive rate is estimated to be around 1.3, meaning it is spreading exponentially again. In England and Scotland, health officials have moved to tighten restrictions on towns and cities where cases have surged, including Aberdeen, Leicester and Manchester. And yesterday the Department of Health said similar measures could be taken here. A spokesperson: With lockdown restrictions being eased it is likely that we will see clusters and outbreaks of Covid-19. In circumstances where the number of cases continues to increase a range of measures will be considered, including the introduction of local lockdowns if necessary and depending on the circumstances as they arise. In Kildare, Laois and Offaly, residents will not be allowed to travel outside of their counties except for in limited circumstances, including travel to and from work. Restaurants, bars, cinemas and gyms will be closed. In Northern Ireland, the daily number of coronavirus cases is now around three times the level seen in early July. However, numbers remain well below those recorded earlier in the year. At the height of the crisis in April, 159 cases were confirmed on one day. Yesterday Prof Young said he did not necessarily expect a spike but added: I will not be surprised if the number of cases increase significantly. I certainly hope we do not have to go back to the lockdown and we will do everything possible Im sure to avoid that even if other measures need to be taken. Meanwhile, figures published by Northern Irelands statistics agency now link 855 deaths to the virus. Nisras weekly bulletin showed there was one death here in the past week where Covid-19 is thought to have been a factor. Its figures are separate to those collated by the Department of Health, which count mainly hospital deaths. The departments data is based on deaths where a patient recently tested positive for the virus. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 8 By Fidan Babayeva - Trend: Google remained the most popular search engine in Azerbaijan and held 94.18 percent of the market as of Aug. 1, 2020, Trend reports with reference to the StatCounters Global Stats report. The share of Google search engine in Azerbaijani market decreased by 0.39 percent in July 2020 compared to the previous month. The market share of Russian Yandex search engine in the reporting month increased by 2.4 percent having amounted to 3.2 percent. There was also a slight decrease (by 0.17 percent) in the share of Yahoo search engine, which as of Aug. 1, 2020, amounted to 0.68 percent. The rest of the market made up 0.87 percent and was distributed among other search engines, including Mail.ru with 0.37 percent (0.05 percent more compared to June 2020), and Bing with 0.43 percent, which is 0.07 percent more than a month earlier. Advertisement Dr. Balram Bhargava, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), commented, "India has demonstrated consistent capability in delivering low-cost and high-quality medical research, while also maintaining technical and scientific rigor. ICMR is deeply supportive of our cutting edge vaccine research and manufacturing prowess, of which SII is one prominent example. This partnership signifies yet another step in India's efforts to bolster the fight against this global pandemic."SII has signed two agreements for the supply of Covid-19 vaccines, the first being AstraZeneca-Oxford's candidate, for which the company has agreed to produce up to 1 billion doses for low and middle-income countries. The Oxford University vaccine candidate has received permission to start phase-2 and three trials in India last week.The second agreement is with the US-based Novavax that has granted the company exclusive and non-exclusive licenses for development, co-formulation, filling and finishing, registration, and commercialization of its NVX-CoV2373 vaccine product for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Novavax trials are yet to start in India.The deal, built on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between AstraZeneca and Gavi, reportedly guarantees 300 million doses of AstraZeneca's candidate vaccine to the wider COVAX Facility, to be supplied upon licensure or prequalification, the statement by the SII read."The rampant spread of the virus has rendered the entire world in an unimaginable halt of uncertainty. And to ensure maximum immunization coverage and contain the pandemic, it is important to make sure that the most remote and poorest countries of the world have access to affordable cure and preventive measures. Through this association, we seek to ramp up our constant efforts to save the lives of millions of people from this dreadful disease," said Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India.Source: IANS Parents in County Wexford who are isolated from their children following separation or divorce, have welcomed the unanimous passing of a motion by Wexford County Council, calling on the Irish Government to recognise Parental Alienation as a form of child abuse requiring specific legal measures. Wexford became the 24th county in Ireland to officially request that the relevant Government departments recognise Parental Alienation as a crime and a form of coercive control and implement recommendation 36 of the October 2019 Report on the Reform of the Family Law System. The move follows the lobbying of Wexford TDs, senators and councillors by alienated parents including a Wexford mother who described the council decision supported by all members as 'an important day for me and many other parents and their children'. 'The most important and terrifying thing is that it is our children who suffer the most and the negative effects of this suffering will affect their lives and indirectly the whole of society in the future.' The mother-of-four who experienced domestic violence and coercive control, is alienated from her two older children and said her heart is broken 'every minute of every day' by the estrangement. One father who wrote to local TDs has not seen his three children for seven years. 'Parental Alienation has ruined my life and my three children's lives and the State, instead of rectifying the wrong, has compounded this,' he said. 'Can you imagine your children taken away from you, turned against you and then, to pour fuel on the fire, to have to fight the Family Law Court system that compounds the injustice?' The motion was brought by Mayor of Wexford Cllr Leonard Kelly, who explained that Parental Alienation arises where a child whose parents are separating or divorcing is influenced by one parent into rejecting any relationship with the other previously-loved parent. 'This leaves the rejected parent at breaking point with court the only option to try fight for access to see their own children.' Welcoming the council's unanimous support, Cllr. Kelly said 'it is great to see that we are supporting alienated parents, this is something that is very important. 'I was contacted by parents seeking to have it recognised as a real and serious issue. It's something we really need to have a look at and I hope the Irish Government will address it and put the necessary interventions, supports and services in place.' Wexford Fianna Fail TD James Browne raised the issue in the Dail in mid-July, asking the Minister for Justice and Equality Helen McEntee to make a statement on the position regarding Parental Alienation and its impact in Ireland. The Minister replied that Parental Alienation has been described as a situation where a child's resistance or hostility towards one parent is not justified and is the result of psychological manipulation by the other parent. 'The issue of parental alienation is highly complex and I am aware that some professionals advocate for the classification of parental alienation as a clinical disorder affecting children, while others raise concerns that taking this action could act as a means of masking other serious issues such as genuine allegations of child abuse. The phenomenon most commonly occurs in the course of family break-up or divorce,' she said. 'While there is no specific legislative provision regarding parental alienation in Irish family law, section 246 of the Children Act 2001, provides for an offence of frightening, bullying or threatening a child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to the child's physical, mental or emotional health or wellbeing. 'There is also a range of legislative provisions in place for dealing with child welfare particularly regarding the relationship between a child and his/her parents or guardians, providing the framework for a legal response to a wide spectrum of child welfare issues. Deputy McEntee said she was also aware that the Report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality on Reform of the Family Law System, which was published late last year, considered the issue of parental alienation among a broad range of issues in the area of family law. She added that all of the recommendations in the report are currently being examined by her Department. Alienated Children First is an organisation in Ireland offering support to parents who need it and can be contacted at support@aps.ie. krishnaprasadgg BHPian Join Date: Dec 2019 Location: KL52 Posts: 398 Thanked: 2,355 Times re: A Petrolhead's Eurotrip experience on a budget! Lots of automotive experiences @ 2 lakhs / person Part 2.1 - Frankfurt,Germany - Pisa, Italy - Bologna, Italy Leaving from Germany to Italy Now that initial leg at Germany attending the IAA the next step was to board a flight to Pisa, Italy the agenda there was just to visit the leaning tower of Pisa click a few photographs, catch a train early next morning to Bologna central railway station. We took this route intentionally so that we could do a factory tour of the Ducati factory and being this close to Bologna and not doing so should be a crime punishable by making you eat pizza with banana as the topping. No, I am not kidding. Anyways. After the IAA we were supposed to crash at our AirBnB booking. We still had to freshen up after landing in Germany that morning. So after the exhausting long walks, we took at the IAA we set about to board our train to take us near to our accommodation for the night. And that is when we learned that we had another 3-4KM of walking left to do from that station. It was while dreading this walk that we faced our first encounter of racism. We 3 took a 4 seat space facing each other in the train and suddenly the person sitting one row behind diagonally to us, stood up walked away from us a few meters towards the door, and was scowling and muttering something under his breath in disgust all while looking at us. For a few seconds we were taken aback, we did nothing to interfere with his personal space or were we loud or obnoxious. All we were doing was taking a breather after 10-12kms or walking around. But a few minutes later we were all over it and enjoyed the train ride to our accommodation space. After yet another long walk but this time with our luggage on our back we went to our Airbnb which was a very cozy spot, freshened up, and slept like a log until our next flight to Pisa from Frankfurt. Oh by the way we walked our way to the Frankfurt airport too. Walking our way to the Frankfurt airport Almost reaching Frankfurt airport Now we landed at Pisa airport by around 7 PM or so, and trust me when I say this, there are bus stands in our country that are bigger than this airport. Anyways, we exit the airport and look for buses to take us to our accommodation to Pisa, but to our distress, there are no buses available in that route and we have around 7-8kms to cover. So surprise surprise we started walking again as Taxis are super expensive and especially in Pisa chances of scams are high. So we decided to walk, the walk seemed never-ending especially with the backpacks on our back, finally, we reached our accommodation and where just waiting to freshen up when another surprise was waiting for us, the room we booked had no restroom attached to it. There was 1 common restroom for 4 private rooms. So what happened was the "hotel" we booked was an old Italian house which had been converted to a restaurant cum *lodge type arrangement. But the hostess was very generous and was curious that 3 people from India are at her place when we mentioned the San Marino GP her face lit up, turns out she is a huge Valentino Rossi fan, I mean it's not a big surprise as we are in Italy. Walking from Pisa airport to our accommodation at Pisa After freshening up we enquired about the possibility of going to the leaning tower but as expected the place was shut for the day and no hope left for that. So in our quest to save money and walk to the place we ended up missing our chance to see the leaning tower. Oh, such is life. The next thing on the agenda was to eat a king's meal as we were famished beyond our wits. By now I am starting to find the effect of deciding to choose my converse shoes as my choice of footwear for the entire trip, my foot had started forming blister from all the walking and my skin was rashing up quite bad with all the walking around. I could barely put a foot forward but dinner was needed after all. So we soldiered on for about 200 meters and saw a pizzeria outside which was practically empty, so decided this is it and each of us ordered a full large pizza and finished it up in no time. The owner of the restaurant was a chap of our age and he was very curious and amused at our story and decided to give us a special discount on the pizza and soft drinks as we were also his last customers for the day. Then we go to sleep and prepare for the early morning train to Bologna central. But wait there is more, the drama doesn't end there. We wake up in time and get ready and the driver that our hostess had arranged for us to take us to the train station arrived right on time. This was another sweet Asian descendent lady who spoke fluent Italian from what I could deduct was very sweet and courteous to us and since she also spoke English she hurried us along to the station driving with some intense Italian passion. But we reached safe and sound and the hour-long wait for our train starts. I wish I could tell you the drama ends here, but now there's more. The train has arrived and we have exactly 2 mins to board, as per the teleprompters the train is at platform 10. We reach at platform 10 only to realize that they made a mistake and its platform 1. We run with all our might and reach platform 1 still not sure which announcement to trust, the train is about to start moving and we had no other choice but to board the train, if we boarded the wrong train then our San Mario GP is down the drain. We decide to risk it anyway and wait till someone shows up to ask them if we are on the right train. Some 15 mins later we find someone and to our relief, we were on the right train after all. So far our stay in Italy has been eventful, to say the least, in some way I feel that is the only way to experience Italy. Leaving from Germany to ItalyNow that initial leg at Germany attending the IAA the next step was to board a flight to Pisa, Italy the agenda there was just to visit the leaning tower of Pisa click a few photographs, catch a train early next morning to Bologna central railway station.We took this route intentionally so that we could do a factory tour of the Ducati factory and being this close to Bologna and not doing so should be a crime punishable by making you eat pizza with banana as the topping. No, I am not kidding.Anyways. After the IAA we were supposed to crash at our AirBnB booking. We still had to freshen up after landing in Germany that morning. So after the exhausting long walks, we took at the IAA we set about to board our train to take us near to our accommodation for the night. And that is when we learned that we had another 3-4KM of walking left to do from that station. It was while dreading this walk that we faced our first encounter of racism. We 3 took a 4 seat space facing each other in the train and suddenly the person sitting one row behind diagonally to us, stood up walked away from us a few meters towards the door, and was scowling and muttering something under his breath in disgust all while looking at us. For a few seconds we were taken aback, we did nothing to interfere with his personal space or were we loud or obnoxious. All we were doing was taking a breather after 10-12kms or walking around. But a few minutes later we were all over it and enjoyed the train ride to our accommodation space. After yet another long walk but this time with our luggage on our back we went to our Airbnb which was a very cozy spot, freshened up, and slept like a log until our next flight to Pisa from Frankfurt.Oh by the way we walked our way to the Frankfurt airport too.Walking our way to the Frankfurt airportAlmost reaching Frankfurt airportNow we landed at Pisa airport by around 7 PM or so, and trust me when I say this, there are bus stands in our country that are bigger than this airport. Anyways, we exit the airport and look for buses to take us to our accommodation to Pisa, but to our distress, there are no buses available in that route and we have around 7-8kms to cover. So surprise surprise we started walking again as Taxis are super expensive and especially in Pisa chances of scams are high. So we decided to walk, the walk seemed never-ending especially with the backpacks on our back, finally, we reached our accommodation and where just waiting to freshen up when another surprise was waiting for us, the room we booked had no restroom attached to it. There was 1 common restroom for 4 private rooms. So what happened was the "hotel" we booked was an old Italian house which had been converted to a restaurant cum *lodge type arrangement.But the hostess was very generous and was curious that 3 people from India are at her place when we mentioned the San Marino GP her face lit up, turns out she is a huge Valentino Rossi fan, I mean it's not a big surprise as we are in Italy.Walking from Pisa airport to our accommodation at PisaAfter freshening up we enquired about the possibility of going to the leaning tower but as expected the place was shut for the day and no hope left for that. So in our quest to save money and walk to the place we ended up missing our chance to see the leaning tower. Oh, such is life.The next thing on the agenda was to eat a king's meal as we were famished beyond our wits. By now I am starting to find the effect of deciding to choose my converse shoes as my choice of footwear for the entire trip, my foot had started forming blister from all the walking and my skin was rashing up quite bad with all the walking around. I could barely put a foot forward but dinner was needed after all. So we soldiered on for about 200 meters and saw a pizzeria outside which was practically empty, so decided this is it and each of us ordered a full large pizza and finished it up in no time. The owner of the restaurant was a chap of our age and he was very curious and amused at our story and decided to give us a special discount on the pizza and soft drinks as we were also his last customers for the day. Then we go to sleep and prepare for the early morning train to Bologna central.But wait there is more, the drama doesn't end there. We wake up in time and get ready and the driver that our hostess had arranged for us to take us to the train station arrived right on time. This was another sweet Asian descendent lady who spoke fluent Italian from what I could deduct was very sweet and courteous to us and since she also spoke English she hurried us along to the station driving with some intense Italian passion. But we reached safe and sound and the hour-long wait for our train starts.I wish I could tell you the drama ends here, but now there's more. The train has arrived and we have exactly 2 mins to board, as per the teleprompters the train is at platform 10. We reach at platform 10 only to realize that they made a mistake and its platform 1. We run with all our might and reach platform 1 still not sure which announcement to trust, the train is about to start moving and we had no other choice but to board the train, if we boarded the wrong train then our San Mario GP is down the drain. We decide to risk it anyway and wait till someone shows up to ask them if we are on the right train. Some 15 mins later we find someone and to our relief, we were on the right train after all.So far our stay in Italy has been eventful, to say the least, in some way I feel that is the only way to experience Italy. Electoral Commission's (EC) registration exercise, which came to an end on Thursday, August 6th, 2020, was characterized by violence and nationality challenges at some registration centres across the country with members of the two main political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) pointing accusing fingers at one another. The NDC accused the NPP of trying to disenfranchise some people and also played the tribal card on the Akufo-Addo government arguing that the deployment of Military to some Regions was an attempt to intimidate people and prevent them from participating in the exercise. One would have thought that these were the only things that occurred during the exercise but seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt has given an intriguing revelation about what some Military personnel were also doing to some people who decided to go and register their names for a voter ID card. Speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'' on Friday, Kwesi Pratt disclosed to the amazement of the panel that some people's nationality was challenged just because the security personnel greeted them in French word ''Bonjour'' and they responded ''Bonjour''. According to him, that was enough for those people to be branded as non-Ghanaians and so not permitted to register their names. ''They ask you 'bonjour' and when you respond 'bonjour', they say you're a Togolese . . . Another thing is that they challenge your handwriting saying your handwriting is Togolese handwriting, so you're not a Ghanaian...'', he said. To him, these were some of the petty things that caused some people to be angry, resulting in chaos in some of the registration centres. ''The issue of nationality is a complicated matter. It's not that simple . . . Why won't there be a fight if you're using handwriting to verify a person's citizenship?'' he questioned. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Perhaps it was the hot pink tank top allegedly stuffed with womens wear, but the public has helped police ID an accused lingerie thief at a Pa. Walmart. As WJAC-TV in Johnstown reports, photos of the suspect posted by Richland Township Police have quickly led to the suspects ID and to charges against the man who was not immediately named. The suspect accused of stealing women's lingerie from the Walmart near Johnstown on Monday evening was featured on Cambria County CrimeWatch. Police issued thanks to the community for their assistance in nabbing the accused nightgown napper. READ MORE: Registered sex offender accused of stalking Pa. community, videotaping women and children in stores The Offices Dwight Schrute back in Scranton, Pa. -- sort of Road rage at red light results in fist fight at intersection: Pa. police Pa. police hunt hit-and-run motorcyclist who injured girl on skateboard Pregnant Pa. woman says she was punched in the face due to her race: Why did you do that? Pa. assistant principal jailed, accused of asking girl, 11, for explicit photos on Snapchat Pa. girl, 6, shot in chest during gun battle, as Philly nears 100 kids shot this year: report Star football player at Pa. high school accused of shooting, killing his older brother Pa. woman accused of fatally shooting boyfriend in back of head in bed after argument over sex: state cops Pa. man, 53, accused of arranging sex with girl, 15, by offering $100 allowance for being a good girl: cops Driver arrested, charged in fatal hit-and-run of I-81 construction worker Catholics in the United States hope to aid the Church in Africa as it confronts both pastoral needs and the growing needs caused by Covid-19. By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp In 2004, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) authorized the Solidarity for the Church in Africa fund. Catholics are invited to donate to this fund through an annual diocesan collection that takes place in July and August. Information regarding this collection appeared on the USCCB web site on Friday. Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, is the Chairman of the USCCBs Subcommittee on the Church in Africa. Regarding this years appeal for funds, he says: In Africa, we continue to witness the most dramatic growth of the universal Catholic Church that features abundant vocations to the priesthood and religious life as well as immense energy and enthusiasm among its youth. Sadly, in many African countries, the Church lacks the resources to meet basic pastoral needs in areas like the formation of leaders, youth ministry, catechesis, and support for seminaries. As the Church in Africa confronts the growing health and economic needs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the pastoral needs supported by the Solidarity Fund become even more urgent. Test of solidarity The vision undergirding the fund is one of solidarity. That vision was articulated in 2001: The critical challenges and enormous potential facing Africa today serve as the opportunity forand test ofour mutual solidarity. Our response to this vocation of solidarity with the Church and peoples of Africa enables us to express love 'in deed and in truth' (1 John 3:18), a love that creates no borders and sets no limits to what might be accomplished together in Christ." Projects funded Past funding helped support a pro-life conference in Ghana. Learn more in this video: Solidarity fund helps Church in Ghana Another project awarded funds targets youth training in Uganda. Learn more in this video: Solidarity fund helps Church in Uganda In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the fund allows the Naomi Center in Kisantu to provide vocation training and faith formation to migrants and illiterate mothers. It offers literacy, sewing and life skills classes with the view of allowing women to enter the job market. In 2019, the Subcommittee approved 101 grants in the amount of almost $2.4 million. These funds supported pastoral programs in over 30 African countries. Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Saturday that it was too early to compare Kerala plane tragedy with Mangaluru accident. He was addressing a press conference in Kozhikode where a plane crash on Friday evening left 18 people dead and several others injured. The minister said that a conclusion cannot be reached before probe begins into the crash. Table top is everywhere. It is true it poses some challenges to pilot. We can wait for the outcome of the probe. We learnt lesson from Mangaluru mishap and it is too early to compare with the mishap that happened 10 years ago, the minister said after taking stock of the situation at the crash site on Saturday morning. ALSO WATCH | Kerala plane crash murder, not accident: Expert who flagged safety issues The crash occurred at the Kozhikode airport when an Air Inidia Express plane with 190 passengers and crew members overshot, fell 50 metres off the end of the runway and broke into two. The flight was bringing Indians stranded in Dubai amid Covid-19 pandemic under the governments Vande Bharat Mission. The minister said that the Centre was working closely with the state government to alleviate the suffering of the affected, announcing an assistance of Rs 10 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased. He said that 149 injured people were admitted to hospitals , out of which 23 have been discharged after being treated. Praising the pilot of the plane Capt Deepak Sathe, who along with co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar died in the crash, Puri said Sathe was a coveted professional. The aircraft was being captained and operated by one of our most experienced and distinguished commanders, Captain Deepak Sathe. In fact, he had landed on this airfield as many as 27 times, including this year, the minister said. The digital flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the Air India plane have been recovered are being brought to Delhi for further investigation. (with inputs from agencies) Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 02:00:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close This photo taken on Aug. 7, 2020 shows the crash-land scene of Air India plane at Kozhikode Airport, southern Indian. (Str/Xinhua) An Air India plane with around 195 people, including 189 passengers and six crew members onboard, skidded off the runway at Kozhikode Airport, killing at least 14, injuring 123 others. NEW DELHI, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in Friday evening's aircraft crash-landing accident in southern India has risen to 14, with 123 others injured, a local police officer has confirmed. Private news agency Asian News International (ANI) quoted Malappuram's superintendent of police as saying that "14 dead, 123 injured and 15 seriously injured in Kozhikode plane crash incident." Earlier, a top official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had said that at least six persons, including two pilots, had died in the mishap. The cause of the accident has not been announced yet, but media reports said that the pilots tried to land the aircraft amid heavy rains and it skidded off on the wet runway. The mishap took place at 19:41 hours (Indian Standard Time) when the Air India plane, a Boeing 737, with around 195 people, including 189 passengers and six crew members onboard, skidded off the runway at Kozhikode Airport. The plane broke into two parts. The Kozhikode Airport is said to be a "tabletop airport", having a deep valley at the end of the runway. Among the passengers were at least 10 infants, said media reports. The plane took off from Dubai on Friday evening carrying Indian citizens stuck there amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The DGCA official also said that among the dead were the two pilots. All others onboard the ill-fated plane have been evacuated from the accident site and are being given first aid. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed sadness at the tragedy in a tweet message, saying authorities are at the spot providing all assistance to the affected. Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India, also tweeted confirming the mishap. It said the accident will not stop its "Vande Bharat Mission" to bring back Indians stuck overseas amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The biggest tourist success story of modern times has been Spain. When my elder brother - coincidentally, but happily in the circumstances, called Carlos - used to go to Malaga in the 1960s, it was just a fishing village where the ass and cart was the local means of transport. Prices were low and life was simple. Spain was formally classified, according to the European historian Tony Judt, as "backward". Many British people also boycotted Spain (a) because it was headed by Franco until 1975 and (b) they objected to the cruel tradition of the bullfight. Actually, I'm with those cranky old animal lovers here: I think the corrida is absolutely horrible, and I don't care if Ernest Hemingway was a fan. When I attended a bullfight in Spain, I earnestly hoped the bull would defeat the matador, and if this exhibitionistic display of machismo ended with the guy being gored, then bravo to the bull! The nicest thing about Argentina was that as soon as it won independence from Spain, it banned the corrida. And one of the best things about football is that as soccer's popularity rose in Spain, the bullfight's popularity declined. And then the astonishing success of Spain's tourism industry was also a major factor in changing the country. Tourism as a mass industry began in the late 1950s: in 1959, Spain had three million visitors, which was already considered remarkable. By 1973, this had risen to a fantastic 34 million. By 2018, this number had more than doubled to an all-time high of over 82 million. More than 18 million Brits visited Spain, plus 11 million French and 11 million Germans - and over two million Irish, which is getting on for half the population. Spain had become the second-most visited country in the world. The country, said Michael Portillo in a recent TV documentary on great railway journeys of Europe, is going through a "golden age" right now. Alas, that has been paused. Spain's extraordinary ability to attract tourists has been catastrophically hit by the pandemic, as it leads the "red list" of countries inadvisable to visit. Others have been hit as well, but Spain's dependence on the tourism industry is colossal. Is it goodbye Costa Brava, Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol for the foreseeable future? It seems so. What made Spain such a phenomenal tourist success? At the beginning, it was because it was so underdeveloped and unspoilt. I stayed in Sitges near Barcelona as a teenager in the 1960s and sat on a semi-deserted beach desultorily trying to amuse the children I was minding at the time. I thought the place might be nice if it had more people. Soon enough, these glorious beaches would be thick with people: Spain would mean raves in Ibiza, while Benidorm became a byword for cheap budget holidays, and Marbella, down by Malaga, was high chic. Spain had tapas bars - a great invention where you could snack continuously on delicious little mouthfuls - and fabulous late-night eating, as the populace prepared to start the night at 10pm. It had street life, and the flamenco, and it was the source of one of the most refreshing habits of humankind - the siesta, which might be used for actual rest, or for a session of canoodling. Spain had vivacious, extrovert people who, as tourism grew, could speak more English, but the Spanish language itself seemed sufficiently accessible for most visitors to get by - hola and por favor and adios and a few more like that went a long way. (Along with English, Spanish is the most widely spoken global language, perhaps because it is accessible. And there is the little matter of the Spanish Empire.) But behind the cheap holidays of sun, sand, sea, sangria and the sound of the castanets, Spain also had a deep cultural hinterland which we understood. The Irish links with Spain go back to the Armada (and probably before), to Galway's trading links with the Iberian Peninsula, and the Irish College at Salamanca, a beacon in Penal times. In the 20th century, Spain had a continuous demand for Irish governesses, their stories beautifully chronicled by Kate O'Brien - a noted Hispanophile - and Maura Laverty, who added delicious Spanish food to the text. Spain is, after Jerusalem and Rome, a prime place of pilgrimage - last year, the Camino de Santiago attracted over 300,000 pilgrims, from 200 countries (in the 1980s, only a couple of hundred walked it). Avila, linked with St Teresa of that name, was a huge attraction - author Vita Sackville-West was a devotee. As was Montserrat, where St Ignatius Loyola lay down his sword before the image of the Blessed Virgin in 1522 and founded the Jesuit order. The stunning Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona is the most visited monument in Spain, though George Orwell thought it so hideous, he wished the anarchists had destroyed it. I had the Prado museum, and Madrid's other fabled galleries, on my bucket list to visit any day now. Will it be any year now? Hopefully. Spain is a great country of huge contrasts, dramatic extremes and glittering culture, and it would be tragic for its people if the current crisis devastated its tourism. Arnon Nampa, a lawyer and one of the leaders of recent anti-government protests in Thailand, is pictured after his arrest at a police station in Bangkok, Aug. 7, 2020. Thai police made their first arrests Friday in connection with anti-government rallies staged in various parts of the country since mid-July, hauling in two protest leaders on eight charges including sedition. Among the pair arrested was Arnon Nampa, a 35-year-old lawyer who, four days earlier, had led a rarely seen public protest, where demonstrators openly challenged the monarchy the countrys most powerful institution by calling for curtailing its influence. Im arrested, Arnon announced on his personal Facebook page late on Friday, as police officers approached him with an arrest warrant outside his Bangkok home. The other activist, Panupong Jadnok, was arrested from Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok, according to Weeranun Huadsri, an attorney with Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a legal aid group representing the two activists, told BenarNews. Weeranun said warrants were also expected for at least 28 others wanted by police on similar charges. A press release issued by police said they had charged Arnon and Panupong under laws and regulations related to sedition; organizing gatherings of 10 or more people to threaten unrest; leading mass gatherings that could spread the coronavirus; and five other offenses. The two were arrested on those preliminary charges in connection with demonstrations from July 18 onwards, according to the statement from police. Large anti-government demonstrations broke out in Bangkok and Chiang Mai on the weekend of July 18-19 and later spread to other areas, with protestors demanding the ouster of the government headed by Prayuth Chan-o-cha, a former junta chief and 2014 military coup leader. The protests, spearheaded by a network of university students calling itself the Free Youth movement, among other demands, have pressed for the dissolution of parliament and amendments to the 2017 Constitution, which they alleged was designed to keep Prayuth and other ex-military leaders in power. Weeranum said Arnon, Panupong and the other wanted activists could face up to 14 years in prison, if prosecuted and convicted of the charges. Late on Friday night, police took the two activists to the Ratchada Court for processing but court officials refused to process their case because it was after hours, and ordered the officers to take them back to the police station in Huay Kwang, a district of Bangkok. In the lobby of the courthouse, dozens of supporters of the two activists were waiting as a group of policemen stood by to take them back to the police station. Then a minor scuffle broke out as the officers took hold of Arnon and Panupong. If you think you have the power, just arrest me, Arnon challenged them, as seen on the Facebook Live feed broadcast by the Free Youth movement close to midnight. I am well pleased to sacrifice freedom for my principles. Lets all come out and fight. Dont waste your time to Free Arnon. Just striving for our demands, Arnon said in a message sent out later through his lawyer. On Monday, Arnon took to the stage dressed in a Harry Potter outfit as he led a demonstration calling for curtailing the power of the monarchy, which has long been shielded by Lese-Majeste, a strict law that forbids any criticism of the royal family. We have democracy with the king as the head of state, but the monarchy has much more power than the system allows, he said during that demonstration. We need to seriously deal with this matter and allow everyone to speak out publicly and with due respect to the institution, otherwise we cant solve problems. In the days that followed, Prime Minister Prayuth urged anti-government activists not to incite turmoil and make things worse at this time. Later, Gen. Apirat Kongsomong, the chief of the Royal Thai Army, indirectly criticized the protesters, according to the Associated Press. COVID-19 can be cured but the disease that cannot be cured is the hatred of the nation, AP quoted Apirat as saying in a speech to cadets. After Arnon and Panupong were arrested, global rights watchdog Amnesty International said they were taken into custody ahead of more anti-government protests planned for the weekend. In a statement, the group called on the authorities to drop charges against the two. This is yet another entirely disproportionate response from the Thai police to peaceful activism, clearly intended to intimidate and dissuade protestors from taking to the streets this weekend, said Piyanut Kotsan, the director of Amnestys Thai office. Having endured months of harassment, Arnon Nampa and Panupong Jadnok now face a repressive new set of criminal charges simply for exercising their right to protest. Mumbai, Aug 8 : A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Bollywood actor Rhea Chakraborty for over eight hours in a money laundering probe vis-a-vis the Sushant Singh Rajput case, her brother Showik again arrived at the agency's office here on Saturday for the second round of questioning. ED officials began to question him after he arrived at the ED office around 12.15 pm. He was also quizzed on Friday by ED officials when he accompanied his sister Rhea to the financial probe agency's office. ED sources said that the agency suspects illegal money transactions and investigators have a clear picture about the whole matter. The agency has asked for income tax returns of the last five years from the Chakraborty family. The ED took over the case on the basis of a Bihar Police FIR on the complaint of Sushant's father KK Singh, who alleged that Rs 15 crore was withdrawn or transferred from his son's Kotak Mahindra Bank account holding Rs 17 crore. The ED had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Rhea and her family members on the basis of Singh's complaint submitted at the Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna. The ED is seeking details of the financial transactions of the two companies in which she and her brother were directors along with Sushant. Sushant and Rhea were said to be in a live-in relationship before the actor's death in June. Sushant's father has accused Rhea of taking money from his son and also threatening to disclose his medical reports to the media. Sushant's family had also accused her of keeping him away from them. Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Campsites are bursting at the seams. And thanks to chic new kit from a portable cinema to chandeliers Antonia Hoyle and family find you really can enjoy the flap of luxury THIS TENTS AN AIR-RAISING EXPERIENCE Kepler 9 Nightfall Air Tent, 1,070, blacks.co.uk Not so much a tent as a bungalow in a (massive, 42kg) bag, the Berghaus nine-person inflatable pod tent is cathedral style, so called because of its soaring proportions. With three three-berth bedrooms, an entrance hall, living area with skylights, porch and two doors, theres plenty of space. It has inflatable beams instead of poles, which means I put the whole thing up easily in 45 minutes. This is amazing, Mummy! screams nine-year-old Rosie as she arranges her bedroom, delighted. Not so much a tent as a bungalow in a (massive, 42kg) bag, the Berghaus nine-person inflatable pod tent is cathedral style, so called because of its soaring proportions EVERYTHING AND THE KITCHEN SINK Sea To Summit kitchen sink, 23.43, amazon.co.uk This nifty, wallet-sized pouch contains a heat and leak-proof bag that can be filled up with ten litres of water. Free standing, with carry handles to transport it from tap to tent door, it doesnt make washing up fun, but does make it a lot easier. This nifty, wallet-sized pouch contains a heat and leak-proof bag that can be filled up with ten litres of water THE CAMPFIRE THAT FOLDS UP Kamoto fire pit, 155, primus.eu Nothing symbolises camping fun quite like an open fire, and with this portable, foldable fire pit which comes with a cooking grid theres no need to damage the ground or risk setting the rest of the camp alight. It took minutes to set up and the children loved toasting marshmallows on it. Nothing symbolises camping fun quite like an open fire, and with this portable, foldable fire pit which comes with a cooking grid theres no need to damage the ground or risk setting the rest of the camp alight Shatter-resistant acrylic champagne flutes so classy they could be mistaken for crystal and an elegant blue jug with matching tumblers CHAMPAGNE FLUTES TO FOOL YOUR FRIENDS Four acrylic fizz flutes, 17.96; smoky blue acrylic jug, 16.99; four smoky blue tumblers, 15.49, all lakeland.co.uk Shatter-resistant acrylic champagne flutes so classy they could be mistaken for crystal and an elegant blue jug with matching tumblers. It feels more cordon bleu than campsite. I didnt know camping was supposed to be fancy, Mummy, says my seven-year-old son, Felix. A CINEMA IN YOUR TENT Alcatel 3T10 tablet & speaker, 169.99, jdwilliams.co.uk This robust tablet comes with an audio speaker station, so the whole family can enjoy movie night in your tent. Half the price of an iPad and just as easy to set up. This robust tablet comes with an audio speaker station, so the whole family can enjoy movie night in your tent SLEEPING BEAUTY Coleman extra durable raised double airbed, 99.99, cotswoldoutdoor.com With 32 air springs to offer support, and a height to replicate the feel of a real bed, this feels as comfortable as a quality home mattress. With 32 air springs to offer support, and a height to replicate the feel of a real bed, this feels as comfortable as a quality home mattress BARBECUE IN A BAG Cobb premier charcoal barbecue grill and carry bag, 133.50, lakeland.co.uk This barbecue is under 4kg, has a moat for liquid to infuse food with flavour and a dome to stop the fire blowing out. This barbecue is under 4kg, has a moat for liquid to infuse food with flavour and a dome to stop the fire blowing out GLAMPING IT UP 5m Luna Bell Tent, 989, boutiquecamping.com; two-tier tea-light chandelier, belltentboutique.co.uk 50.99 For those attracted to glamping luxury camping the dome-shaped Luna Bell Tent looks more like a fashion-conscious circus venue than a humble campsite home, replete with striking reflective purple guy ropes. The tent, which took me 1hr 15 mins to put up, has four zipped windows, a built-in groundsheet and zipped mosquito doors. Five metres in diameter and held up with a foldable pole in the centre for a double height ceiling, it is huge inside and although it claims to sleep four, would fit my sons entire class, were he allowed to invite them over. I love the style and fact its less claustrophobic than conventional tents, but the children preferred the Berghaus. So what if its prettier? asks Felix. It doesnt have cool rooms. For those attracted to glamping luxury camping the dome-shaped Luna Bell Tent (pictured) looks more like a fashion-conscious circus venue than a humble campsite home, replete with striking reflective purple guy ropes LIGHT UP THE NIGHT Lumify USB solar vintage bulb lights, 34.99, thesolarcentre.co.uk A string of ten retro-style light bulbs powered by a solar panel on a stake in the ground, these were a faff to set up but incredibly pretty when lit, and stopped me tripping up on an overnight loo trip. A string of ten retro-style light bulbs powered by a solar panel on a stake in the ground, these were a faff to set up but incredibly pretty when lit, and stopped me tripping up on an overnight loo trip TABLE THAT CUTS CLUTTER Coleman 2 in 1 camp table and storage, 99.99, coleman.eu A clever table that contains a built-in cupboard to avoid clutter, which folds away when not in use. There is also a handle for easy transportation. A clever table that contains a built-in cupboard to avoid clutter, which folds away when not in use. There is also a handle for easy transportation SCRUB UP NICELY Liberrway portable travel shower, 39.99, amazon.co.uk With many campers having to book bathroom appointments, it makes sense to bring your own shower. Put this battery-operated pump, connected to a hose with a shower head, in a big bucket of water (warm unless youre a masochist) and it will give 45 minutes of washing. With many campers having to book bathroom appointments, it makes sense to bring your own shower YOU'LL LOVE THIS SEAT Kelty Low Loveseat, 90, wildbounds.com This two-seater portable love seat contains two drinks holders, adjustable arm rests and roll-tote storage that makes carrying it to camp easy. Its so comfy I could barely tear myself off it. FRESH WATER AT THE PUSH OF A PUMP Lifesaver Cube, 119.99, iconlifesaver.com Leave bottled water behind with this five-litre water filter that removes bacteria and viruses to make cooking, washing and tooth-brushing safe. COOL PACKAWAY COATS Craven Kids Waterproof Packaway Jacket, 22, tog24.com Stop sulks caused by rainy weather with these lightweight childrens coats, which contain a pocket to pack away and come in colours bright enough to jazz up the dreariest day. Stop sulks caused by rainy weather with these lightweight childrens coats, which contain a pocket to pack away and come in colours bright enough to jazz up the dreariest day. AND DONT FORGET THE DOG! Packable, waterproof dog bowl, 19.95; portable dog bed, 79.95, ruffwear.co.uk Of course, pups need to be prepared for camping adventures too. Our four-month-old labrador Herbie loved his packable, waterproof dog bowl and portable dog bed with waterproof base. Of course, pups need to be prepared for camping adventures too. Our four-month-old labrador Herbie loved his packable, waterproof dog bowl and portable dog bed with waterproof base MAGICAL PROJECTOR FOR AFTER DARK FUN Outdoor Adventure camping projector, 14.99, glow.co.uk For tired minds that need to unwind, this camping projector displays 24 camp-themed images, from animals to campfires, on the side of the tent, and doubles as a night light. My children were enchanted. Iranian news agencies on Saturday confirmed earlier social media reports that a Lebanese man and his daughter with possible connection with Lebanese Hezbollah were shot dead in their car. The murder took place near the house of Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the former Deputy Commander of Iraq's Popular Recruiting Forces (IPRF), on Friday night. Al-Muhandis himself was killed on Januray 3 when U.S. missiles targeted Qassem Soleimani. Some Arab media say the victim, named as Habib Davoud, was a Hezbollah operative. The bodies were found shortly after the shooting in the car belonging to the victim by neighbors at 9 on Friday night. Mehr News Agency quoted an "informed source" of the Criminal Investigation Police as saying that the two "victims were shot dead by a man on a motorbike in Golestan Avenue, an affluent neighborhood in the north of the capital Tehran, and named them as Habib Dawoud, 58, and his daughter Maryam, 27. The Police has not issued a statement yet but has started their investigations. Iranian news agencies at first did not mention the nationality of the victims and only called them "Arabic-speakers". They also said the victim was a "professor of history". So far, apart from the Students News Network (SNN) no other Iranian media outlet has made any mention of Al-Muhandis' house in Tehran. SNN is close to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Public Relations Department of Tehran Province Governor's Office on its Telegram Channel said based on eyewitness reports from social media the assailant fired four bullets from the sidewalk on the driver's side of the car and a fifth bullet hit a passing car and then fled a motorbike. The report may be an indication that the incident has serious security dimensions. Edy Cohen, an Israeli researcher who specializes in the Arab-Israeli conflict and terrorism, in a tweet in Arabic Friday night called the victims "Hezbollah officials" and said the killing was "an assassination". Radio Farda cannot independently verify whether Dawoud is affiliated with the Hezbollah. Some Iraqi news websites have called the incident an "assassination", also said the incident took place near Al-Muhandis' house, and called Davoud a Hezbollah operative or official. Since the beginning of 2020, about a million cases related to cyberthreats have been recorded in Ukraine, including website attack attempts, DDoS attacks, and spread of malicious software. The National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine collects information on such threats from all state cybersecurity actors and analyzes it. In 2020, about a million cases related to cyberthreats have been recorded in Ukraine: application layer attacks, scanning attempts, website attack attempts, phishing, DDoS attacks, spread of malicious software, and more, the press service of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine informs. To promptly respond to such threats and prevent possible attacks, the National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity is stepping up cooperation with private sector companies. In the last month alone, the NCCC has signed memoranda of cooperation with three dozen private foreign and Ukrainian companies. Such a memorandum provides for the exchange of information between the NCCC and a specific organization on cyber threats and incidents in the field of cybersecurity for prompt information, response, prevention of possible attacks, and mutual assistance if necessary. As reported, the National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity is an agency under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, established in accordance with the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of January 27, 2016 "On Cyberecurity Strategy of Ukraine". ol The Kano State Government says it has designated 12 centres for exit students of the 33 public boarding secondary schools, to write the West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination. The WAEC examination is scheduled to begin on August 17. The Executive Secretary, Kano State Secondary Schools Management Board (KSSSMB), Bello Shehu, told journalists in Kano that the measure was to protect students and stem further spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Mr Shehu disclosed that students from GGUC Kachako, GGSS Sumaila and GGSS Albasu would sit for the examination at Government Girls Unity College, Kachako. He said that Government Girls College, Kano was designated as examination centre for students of the GGSS Kura and GGSS Madobi. While students of the GGASS Danbatta and GGASS Tudun Wada would write the examination at Government Girls Arabic College Goron Dutse. Mr Shehu added that: Students of the GGSS Kwa are to write their examination at Government Girls College Dala. And those of the GGSS Yar Gaya and GGSS Kabo are to converge at Government Girls Secondary School Shekara while those of the GGC Gezawa and GGSS Jambaki are to meet at Government Girls Secondary School Jogana. GSS Kafin Mai-Yaki, GC Tudun Wada and GSS Kwankwaso are to write their examination at Government Secondary School Karaye. Students of the GSS Rano, GASS Tsangaya and GSS Ajingi are to meet at Government Secondary School Sumaila. Mr Shehu added other examination centres are GSS Danbatta for students of the GSS Bichi and GSS Bagwai and GSCS Wudil, while thowe of the GSS Dawakin Tofa would write the examination at Government Secondary School Gwarzo. READ ALSO: According to him, students of the GSS Tudun Maliki and Chinese Bilingual College are to remain in their respective schools. The secretary noted that students of other 161 public schools would sit for the examination in their respective schools. He urged parents to ensure that their wards reported to the designated centres on Sunday, August 9. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state government had fixed August 9 for resumption of exit students of boarding schools while those of day secondary schools would resume on August 10. More than 11, 000 students registered for the WAEC examination in 191 public secondary schools in the state. (NAN) Amid the ongoing nepotism debate, writer Apurva Asrani comes out in support of actress Janhvi Kapoor, who recently received backlash by the netizens, when the trailer of her upcoming film Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl was released online. Apart from trolling the actress brutally, netizens also boycotted her film, and said that they won't watch the film because it casts a star kid in the lead role. While liking or disliking a film is totally a viewer's choice, writer Apurva Asrani says that one shouldn't boycott a film just because a star kid features in it. He told a leading daily, "If you make the debate about nepotism, you can allow yourself to be mean and cruel to people like Janhvi. Which is exactly what is happening right now. The real problem is the bullying, the ganging up and not giving the deserving a chance. That is what many did to Sushant, and I raised my voice to say it's not okay. Now they are ganging up and bullying Janhvi." Angad Bedi Says It's Unfair To Boycott Gunjan Saxena Because It Will Rob Off His Livelihood! While taking a stand for Janhvi, Apurva said that she maybe the daughter of an actress (Sridevi), but she is a human being with a beautiful heart, who worked really hard on her film. Apurva urged people to judge Janhvi's performance all they want, but they should not get personal & vindictive. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta also called out the trolling culture and said, "All this nonsense narrative should not come into your judgement about the film. Also, in this whole thing, the abusive concern has come up on social media. People have found some voice for vicarious abuses, what it actually does is defeat what people are trying to fight. They are defeated by this kind of shallow, mean behaviour." Actress Pooja Bhatt also shared her thoughts on trolls and said, "I don't have time, energy or interest in hating the haters; I'm too busy loving the lovers." Inputs- Hindustan Times Worried about your mental well-being or of someone you know? Help is just a call away. Reach out to the nearest mental health specialist at COOJ Mental Health Foundation (COOJ)- 0832-2252525, Parivarthan- +91 7676 602 602, Connecting Trust- +91 992 200 1122/+91-992 200 4305 or Sahai- 080-25497777/ SAHAIHELPLINE@GMAIL.COM From high jewellery to fashion jewellery to watches, from gems to packaging and technology. More than 300 companies have decided to exhibit at VOICE - Vicenzaoro International Community Event, the innovative format that Italian Exhibition Group is organizing to take place, live at the Expo Centre in Vicenza from 12th to 14th September 2020 and which will be the first opportunity for the gold and jewellery industry to reunite and launch business and export activities since the standstill enforced by the pandemic. A new layout to order to attend the show in total safety, planned under the banner of the #safebusiness protocol defined by IEG in line with the trade show community. The exhibition area at VOICE will be accompanied by conferences, training and business matching. Exhibition 2019 VOICE-Vicenzaoro The sectors key players that have decided to join the industrys voice by choosing VOICE as the international visibility event after seven months of lockdown, include Damiani together with Crivelli, Leo Pizzo, Mirco Visconti from the high jewellery district of Valenza Po. And again, many excellences from the districts of Vicenza, with Fope, Roberto Coin, Pesavento, Karizia, Chrysos, Ronco, Chiampesan, Riccardo Orsato, Alessi Domenico, Silvex, Daveri Vicenza and from the district of Arezzo names like Unoaerre, Giordini, Richline, Fratelli Chini, Quadrifoglio, Amen. From the Campania region Aucella, Bruno Mazza, Coscia, De Simone, Idea Coral, Mattia Mazza will bring to VOICE the art of corals and cameos. And Enzo Liverino will also return to Vicenza to strengthen the VOICE Community. From the rest of Italy there will be brands such as Annamaria Cammilli, Rosato, Pianegonda, Brosway, Rue des Milles, not to mention high-level foreign exhibitors like the Spanish company Damaso Martinez. The watch segment will see Swiss producers Corum and Victorinox as well as the German brand Junghans. The complete list will be available shortly on https://www.vicenzaoro.com/it/voice. A truly great system initiative, accessible to all Italian and foreign B2B traders and buyers who will be able to physically touch the products in Vicenza in a particular outfitted contest with an elegant and essential look&feel. Due to their sheer size, the large Expo Centre areas, while rigorously arranged to conform to the health regulations, will allow for fluid access and maximum usability of the spaces thus avoiding lengthy waiting times. Moreover, VOICE will also transmit its content in worldwide streaming especially for those areas that are still not able to travel to Italy - on its website and its YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels, thus taking its exhibitors collections and innovations to the international markets. Brace yourself for what's expected to be the first US presidential election conducted mostly by mail. It's likely to be a wild ride. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, voting by mail in a contactless and socially distant way seems like a no-brainer. States have made the option widely available -- only 10 now require voters to provide an excuse beyond fear of Covid-19 when requesting a ballot by mail -- and some three in four Americans are expected to embrace the option for the Nov. 3 presidential election, up from one in four in the 2018 contest. But running a vote-by-mail ... In every crisis, companies will inevitably suffer from falling revenue and profits. During a typical business cycle, businesses will undergo a downturn and upturn of demand for their products and services. Every now and then, however, the world encounters a major event that dislocates the global economy. During 2008-2009, the world went through a Great Recession when the US subprime mortgage market collapsed, plunging the banking system into disarray and causing a punishing bear market. Almost 11 years after, we are faced with the COVID-19 pandemic that has wreaked havoc on a wide swath of industries and businesses. Numerous businesses, including REITs, have slashed or eliminated dividends to conserve cash during this crisis. However, there are a handful of companies that have managed to maintain their dividends despite these tough conditions. Here are four of them that you may wish to consider adding to your watchlist. iFAST Corporation Limited (SGX: AIY) iFAST is a wealth management financial technology (fintech) company with assets under administration (AUA) of S$11.15 billion as of 30 June 2020. The group has built a well-established fintech ecosystem that connects product providers to end-clients and is present in Singapore, Malaysia, China, India and Hong Kong. For the first half of 2020, gross revenue grew 33% year on year to S$77 million, while net profit attributable to shareholders doubled from S$4.1 million to S$8.2 million. The strong performance was due to an acceleration of digital adoption in the wealth management industry, leading to record net inflows of S$1.25 billion in the first six months of this year. iFAST has maintained its interim dividend of S$0.0075 for the quarter. Last year, the fintech group paid out a total dividend of S$0.0315. The group is retaining cash both to grow its business and for funding its digital bank ambitions should it be successful in clinching the licence. As a recap, iFAST partnered with Yillion and Hande Group in China to bid for a digital wholesale bank licence back in January. Story continues In June, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that iFAST was one of nine companies that have met the eligibility requirement to progress to the next stage of evaluation. Neo Group Ltd (SGX: 5UJ) Neo Group is an integrated food solutions provider. The group has been named the number one events caterer in Singapore and its catering arm owns brands such as Deli Hub and Orange Clove. Neo also runs other business segments such as food retail, food manufacturing and trading of supplies. For the groups recent full fiscal year 2020 earnings, it posted a slight increase of 2.7% year on year in revenue. Net profit jumped by 21.2% year on year to S$6.3 million despite the pandemic crimping demand for events catering. Neo has maintained its final dividend of S$0.005, even while construction is taking place for its new headquarters and catering hub at 30B Quality Road. Raffles Medical Group Ltd (SGX: BSL) Raffles Medical Group, or RMG, is an integrated healthcare services provider. The group owns its flagship Raffles Hospital at Bugis as well as a network of clinics spread around Singapore. It also operates medical facilities in 13 other cities across China, Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia. RMG recently announced its first-half 2020 earnings, with revenue dipping by 5.4% year on year as hospitals saw the deferment of elective surgeries along with fewer offshore patients. Profit after tax plunged by 41.6% year on year to S$16.3 million, largely due to start-up expenses incurred for its new Chongqing hospital in China. Excluding the China division, net profit after tax would have declined by a smaller 3.7% year on year. Despite the challenges, the group has maintained its interim dividend of S$0.005 and has a healthy cash position of S$151.5 million to weather the downturn. Hongkong Land Holdings Limited (SGX: H78) Hongkong Land Holdings, or HKL, is a major property investment, management and development group. The group owns and manages around 850,000 square metres of prime office and luxury retail properties in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Indonesia. For the first half of 2020, HKL reported a 24% year on year decline in net profit attributable to shareholders due mainly to rental relief extended to retail tenants and fewer residential developments completed. However, the group has maintained its interim dividend of US$0.06 per share. Chairman Ben Keswick gave a mixed outlook for the second half, with underlying profit expected to improve due to higher development property completions in China, but offset by continued stress on retail and commercial property rents brought about by the pandemic. Download your FREE special REITs report: How You Can Make Money Investing In REITs During This Pandemic HERE or in the box below! We cover the pandemics impact on REITs in Singapore, and dive into the different sectors of Hospitality REITs, Retail REITs, Commercial REITs, Industrial REITs, Healthcare REITs. Disclaimer: Royston Yang owns shares in iFAST Corporation Limited and Raffles Medical Group Ltd. The post 4 Companies That Have Maintained Dividends Despite the Pandemic appeared first on The Smart Investor. FLORENCE, S.C. Pee Dee pets can breathe a bit easier because of a donation of pet oxygen masks to several fire departments. Pet Oxygen Kit Project Inc. on Thursday donated 77 pet oxygen kits to equip fire departments covering four South Carolina counties in the Pee Dee region. In Florence County fire departments received 45 of those kits enough to equip every fire department in the county with one kit for each of their first-out engines, said Sam Brockington, county fire/rescue coordinator. Although these counties represent the Pee Dee region, our mission is to equip every station in South Carolina with these life-saving kits to save our pets who are so dear to all our hearts, said Mary Ellen Tobias, co-founder of Pet Oxygen Kit Project Inc. "The pet oxygen masks are a great asset for any fire department to have," said Howe Springs Fire Marshal Michael Page. "We help any and all people in need and animals too." There are three different sized masks in each kit the same masks that veterinarians use in their offices, Page said. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} "Anything that breathes air we can use this to apply the oxygen to," Page said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 19:42:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi will pay an official visit to the United States to meet with the U.S. President Donald Trump on August 20 for talks on bilateral ties and cooperation in various fields. Al-Kadhimi would head a government delegation on his visit, which came at an official invitation from the United States, said a statement by the Premier's office without saying when al-Kadhimi would leave. The visit will include discussing challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as bilateral relations and means to enhance cooperation in the fields of security, energy, economy, and investment, the statement said. The relations between Baghdad and Washington have witnessed a tension since Jan. 3 when a U.S. drone struck a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces. However, on June 11, U.S. and Iraqi officials launched a strategic dialogue session via video conference in which the United States pledged to continue reducing its forces in Iraq and confirmed that it does not seek permanent military presence in the country. More than 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against the Islamic State militants, mainly for training and advisory purposes. Enditem Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: The spurt in the number of Covid-19 cases has made Manipur government ramp up testing. It is the last state in the Northeast to record a Covid-19 death. There were hopes initially that the state will remain largely unaffected but that has been proven wrong. A young woman, who is a student of the Bristol University in the UK, was the states first Covid-19 patient. She has recovered since. As per the latest figures, the state has altogether 3,466 cases including ten deaths. There are now 1,530 active cases. The state has a population of 27.2 lakh, according to the 2011 census. In the initial days, we had limited facilities. We used to send samples to Pune for retests and then wait for the results to come. We now have the infrastructure in place that is helping us to conduct 2,500 tests a day. So far, 94,808 tests have been conducted with the states positivity rate being recorded at 3.39%, Health Minister L Jayantakumar said. The state is conducting RT-PCR along with antigen tests. The Minister said the 50,000 antigen kits, which arrived in the state on Friday, would help ramp up the tests. We had set up quarantine centers at all assembly segments and till date, some 39,000 returnees have been quarantined at community level, 19,500 at institutional quarantine centres and 2,500 at paid quarantine centers. So, we have handled around 61,000 returnees so far, Jayantakumar said. The Minister said as Manipur is a poor state with limited resources, the pandemic and resultant lockdown had badly affected its economy. In May, he had written to Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan seeking funds of Rs. 100 crore to tackle the disease. Jayantakumar said even as the state was tackling the pandemic, another issue it was concerned about was the treatment of non-Covid patients. He said the government had issued an order making it mandatory for all hospitals to admit non-Covid patients. A pregnant tribal woman had died two days ago after she was allegedly denied admission by five hospitals. Manipur-Myanmar Border To Remain Sealed The Manipur government is in no hurry to open up the states border with Myanmar for trade. Jayantakumar said the state government was closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation in the state as well as the neighbouring country. An immediate opening up of the border is not tenable as Myanmar is also affected by the pandemic and the country has limited healthcare facilities, the Minister said. A sizeable number of the traders in Manipur depend on border trade with Myanmar. The government initially enforced a ban on the import of packaged food items. Later, it sealed the border. Goods falling under 22 categories, both perishable and non-perishable, are allowed to be imported from Myanmar. The goods are mostly food items, including fish and fruits. Ahead of the outbreak of Covid-19, the everyday import of goods via the Myanmar border was to the tune of Rs 10 crore. Apart from the traders, the transporters are also at the receiving end. 09.08.2020 LISTEN By this statement, the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) wants to commend the blessed Emir of Qatari His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and the Qatari Government for acting swiftly to provide humanitarian aid and rescue mission to save lives in Lebanon, after a massive explosion that hits that Middle-east country, on Tuesday 4th August 2020. This shows the commonality that exists among humanity. In the COVID-19 age, many countries infrastructures are already close to breaking point. This means that any new superimposed stress or crisis can push struggling states into failed states - a catastrophic fate, which should be avoided in Lebanon. The government of Lebanon was already in dire frustration that Covid-19 virus pandemic has stretched its countrys healthcare infrastructure beyond its capacity, with media reports of thousands now injured, and over 135 persons have died. The number of victims is expected to rise as many people are still missing in the capital, Beirut. Lebanon is in dire need; the 4th August, 2020 destruction is massive and the Arab nation is already in dire economic straits. The images we saw on our TV screen are truly appalling, we are shocked by the massive devastation, and trust that our world that has been moved by the devastation will follow Qatars effort in extending international humanitarian solidarity with Lebanon, to help save lives. The Beirut explosion has only added to the suffering caused by Lebanon's already battered economy. In addition to the Covid-19 crisis, Lebanon has been coping with a debilitating economic crisis that put its people under extreme hardships. The Lebanese are suffering like never before in the country's history. Lebanon is home to over 1.5 million refugees. This catastrophe will hit them and the most vulnerable first. Hospitals are overburdened and the planned COVID lockdown has been called off in the aftermath of the deadly and devastating explosion. It is not clear what caused the massive explosion. There are a number of theories floating but we urge that everyone wait for the results of a proper, independent and transparent investigation. We hope all nations put politics aside and provide unconditional humanitarian aid to Lebanon. Qatars humanitarian solidarity export is a role-model for other countries to follow not only in Lebanon, but also in Africa, Yemen and other parts of the world that face humanitarian crisis. Qatars humanitarian solidarity is unconditional and has nothing to do with either political or religious connotations. It is purely a humanitarian work, which the blockading countries of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Egypt misrepresented as act of terrorism. Hence, they have imposed an illegal, unjust and criminal blockade, to punish Qatar for providing humanitarian aid to poor countries of the world. While the world focuses on Lebanon, the crisis in Yemen should not be avoided, to save that country from becoming the Rwanda of the Middle-east. The Saudi Arabia-led foreign coalition and the Houthi armed group engaged in a bitter conflict in Yemen, with each side in the conflict unleashing terror and genocide on innocent civilian population. While the countrys humanitarian crisis has been relegated into a full-blown catastrophe, powerful countries like the United States, France, Britain and other weapons suppliers continue to sell arms and ammunition to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, whose activities in Yemen constitute genocide and war crime against humanity. Reports coming out of Yemen indicate that the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi forces have been indiscriminately attacking, killing civilians and blocking humanitarian aid, including food and medicine to the civilian population in that Arab nation. The United Nations has warned that without a dramatic change in the situation, nearly half of Yemens population will be at risk of starvation if not putting millions at the risk of death. Concluding, the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) extends its sincere condolences to all who lost loved-ones in the massive explosion in the port of Beirut and wishes all the injured a speedy recovery. We call upon all people of good will in the world to provide immediate humanitarian aid to the people of Lebanon. The Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) supports a transparent, honest and independent investigation regarding the explosion in Beirut and its causes. Justice must prevail and the right of the victims to know the truth be upheld. The perpetrators of the heinous crime must be held accountable in a competent court of law. QATAR GOES TO LEBANON WITH PURE HUMANITARIAN ITEMS AND RESCUE TEAM TO SAVE LIVES! Sender: Fatmata B. Bangura Acting Prgramme Coordinator Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) For and on behalf of volunteers of the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci at the White House in Washington on April 17, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters) Fauci: Chances of CCP Virus Vaccine Being Highly Effective Are Not Great The prospect of scientists developing a highly effective CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccine is not great, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is a top infectious disease expert. Speaking about the vaccine in a discussion with the Brown University School of Public Health, Fauci said Friday, The chances of it being 98 percent effective is not great, which means you must never abandon the public health approach. Vaccine effectiveness refers to the percentage of people given vaccines who are actually protected from infection. As of now, its unclear whether CCP virus vaccines will even protect one out of every two people that get them, according to Fauci. We dont know yet what the efficacy might be, he said, but added, I believe well get an effective vaccine. The virus causes a disease called COVID-19 that kills a small percentage of patients but causes few or no symptoms in many others. A nurse prepares a shot as a study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., gets underway in Binghamton, N.Y., on July 27, 2020. (Hans Pennink/AP Photo) Efforts to combat diseases include control, elimination, and eradication. Weve only eradicated one human infection in the history of the planet. And thats smallpox. But what weve done very successfully, is that weve eliminated polio from the United States and a lot of other countries, weve eliminated malaria. And then weve controlled other diseases to a really good level, Fauci said. So what Im shooting for is with a vaccine, and good public health measures, we could bring it down to somewhere between really good control and elimination. Thats what the vaccines gonna do, but its not going to do it alone. Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, last month said his agency would greenlight a vaccine as long as its safe and at least 50 percent effective. We all want a vaccine thats 100 percent effective, but thats just not realistic, Hahn said in a discussion with Dr. Howard Bauchner, editor in chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association. We said 50 percent. And the reason was because we felt that that was a reasonable floor, given the pandemic. But also, it really gave to the manufacturers and developers, the number of people that they needed to enroll, the subjects they needed to enroll, into the trials, to actually detect that in a statistically significant way, Hahn explained. Thats been batted around among medical groups, but for the most part I think the infectious disease experts have agreed thats a reasonable floor, of course hoping that the actual effectiveness will be higher, he added later. No matter how effective the vaccines are, approval wont come if theyre not safe, according to officials. Under President Donald Trump, the federal government has committed billions of dollars to the companies working on vaccines, including Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Noxavax. RN Jose Muniz gives a CCP virus vaccination to a volunteer at Research Centers of America in Hollywood, Fla., on Aug. 7, 2020. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) The latest announcement came on August 5, when the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was spending approximately $1 billion to support large-scale manufacturing and delivery of the Johnson & Johnsons investigational vaccine candidate. The deal gives the U.S. government 100 million doses, with the option to acquire more. Operation Warp Speed, a federal effort, is aimed at delivering 300 million vaccine doses to Americans by January 2021. The speed and the progress is incredible. This virus was described in the middle of January. Six-and-a-half months later, we have started two phase 3 trials for vaccines. Normally, it takes at least five years to do this, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, Trumps vaccine czar, said on a podcast on July 31. And whats extraordinary is that we havent cut any one of the key scientific corners, I would say, whether from an efficacy standpoint or from a safety standpoint. The elderly population and others with comorbidity, or underlying health conditions, will get vaccines first, according to the doctor. South African police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse dozens of protesters outside the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria on Friday, an AFP photographer said. Close to 100 mainly Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa gathered to protest economic hardship and a recent crackdown on dissent and political opposition back home. Earlier this week Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed to "flush out" critics who he described as "dark forces" and "terrorists" after the authorities thwarted anti-government protests. On Friday police were seen pushing and shoving the protesters from the front of the Zimbabwean embassy building, situated in a leafy Pretoria suburb not far from the Union Buildings, the seat of South Africa's government. Some protesters were drapped in Zimbabwe's national flag, while others waved cards, one reading "Mnangagwa: You are going to The Hague! Murderer! Thief!" South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday said he had appointed two special envoys to go to Harare "following recent reports of difficulties that the Republic of Zimbabwe is experiencing". Mnangagwa took over from longtime ruler Robert Mugabe after a coup in November 2017 and many Zimbabweans complain that the country's situation has only gotten worse since. The Zimbabwean government has dismissed allegations of rights abuses and a crisis in the country as "false". "There is no crisis or implosion in Zimbabwe. Neither has there been any abductions or 'war' on citizens," government spokesman Nick Mangwana said in a statement. Protesters at the Zimbabwean embassy in South Africa. By Phill Magakoe (AFP) Also on Friday, Human Rights Watch said at least 60 people in Zimbabwe had been arrested in connection with the failed protests last Friday. "The Zimbabwe authorities have increasingly arbitrarily arrested critics of the government," the rights watchdog said in a statement. It urged the regional bloc Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union to "urgently and publicly speak out against the Zimbabwe government's crackdown on peaceful anti-corruption protests on July 31, 2020". The High Court in Harare on Friday denied bail to the opposition politician who called the protests. It was Jacob Ngarivhume's second attempt for bail following his arrest days before the planned protests. A magistrate court had last month rejected his bail application and he appealed to the High Court. "The defence council did not convince the court that if released the accused will not participate or invite demonstrations," High Court judge Tawanda Chitapi said. Often called peoples least favourite browser, Microsofts Edge is going to remain on Windows devices and will soon be impossible to uninstall. The Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge will soon be impossible to uninstall from Windows devices. Launched in January this year, the Chromium-based version replaced the older, outdated HTML-version (Edge Legacy). So far, Microsoft had opted for a phased rollout of the new browser, but it is soon going to push it out for all users. According to a Microsoft blog, once the new browser has been pushed out and the transition is complete, users will no longer be able to remove Edge Chromium from their computers. At least via the traditional way. For all intensive purposes, Microsoft Edge is used to download Google Chrome and then we forget about it. According to statistics, Edge Legacy holds just about 0.98% of the browser market as compared to Chromes 65.89% (as of end of July). With the new Chromium-based version, Microsoft is hoping to gain a little more space in the market. The new version comes with a host of speed, performance and security upgrades that brings it more in line with the modern web browser that we are used to. And it's doing better than Mozilla Firefox. Also, it is going to be forced upon all Windows users as a part of a system update. This update is also going to make it permanent (of sorts) on Windows devices. Microsoft writes in the blog post that they want to ensure all Windows customers have the latest Microsoft Edge browser for the performance, privacy and support features it offers. The post adds that the new version of the Edge is going to be included in a Windows system update, thus the option to uninstall it or use the older legacy version is no longer going to be available. The newer version of the browser has been well received but the inability to uninstall it is going to annoy a lot of users. However, if users are desperate to get rid of the browser, Deskmodder has a way to work around it. Please note - only experienced users attempt to uninstall Edge by this method. Heres how you go about with it - - Navigate to C: \ Program Files (x86) \ Microsoft \ Edge \ Application - Select the current version number - Locate setup.exe - Navigate to the file path within Command Prompt - Execute the following command: setup.exe --uninstall --system-level --verbose-logging -- force-uninstall A toddler has been killed by his own father in a freak holiday accident in Spain. The 18-month-old boy died after being run over by his dad as he went to run errands. The tragedy is understood to have happened as the unnamed driver reversed in his 4x4 from a rented holiday villa in Conil de la Frontera near Cadiz where the family were staying with friends. The boys own dad rushed him to a medical centre where he was transferred to nearby Puerto Real Hospital but died shortly after arrival. The tragedy is understood to have happened as the unnamed driver reversed in his 4x4 from a rented holiday villa in Conil de la Frontera near Cadiz (pictured, file photo) where the family were staying with friends A local police investigation is underway into the incident, which happened late yesterday morning/late Friday morning in an area of Conil called El Colorado which consists mainly of country and holiday homes and some shops. The youngster was pronounced dead around 4pm yesterday/on Friday. Town mayor Juan Manuel Bermudez described what had happened as devastating and tragic. Conil de la Frontera is on the Costa de la Luz. Most tourists are Spanish although it is also popular with small numbers of German and British holidaymakers. The clean, sandy beaches are the areas main attraction. On Wednesday a second child on holiday in Spain died within the space of a week in a Costa Blanca swimming pool. The four-year-old Belgian boy was found in the water shortly after his parents made a stopover at a relatives house in the Brit-popular area of Ciudad Quesada near Torrevieja. The boys own dad rushed him to a medical centre where he was transferred to nearby Puerto Real Hospital (pictured, file photo) but died shortly after arrival His family had only arrived hours earlier and were due to stay the night before continuing to Castellon further north. Local reports said one one of his relatives, described as a nurse, jumped into the pool to pull him out and emergency responders spent nearly 45 minutes trying to revive him without success. The previous Wednesday a Dutch girl also aged four drowned at a pool in Calpe north of Benidorm. She reportedly ended up in the pool after going outside while her mum was looking after her younger sibling. Taiwan analysts play down China military drills ROC Central News Agency 08/07/2020 10:26 PM Taipei, Aug. 7 (CNA) Taiwan security analysts on Friday played down the importance of a military exercise to be staged by China in the East China Sea, and ruled out a link between the drills and an upcoming visit by a U.S. official to Taiwan. Taiwanese media have speculated that the military exercise might be a protest against a visit to Taiwan by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Alex Azar in the coming days. Azar will be the highest ranking U.S. cabinet official to visit Taiwan in four decades. Beijing sees the visit as Washington disregarding its One China Policy, under which it defines Taiwan and the mainland as a part of one China, and violating the agreements between the two sides. On Thursday, China's Maritime Safety Administration posted a notice on its website about a three-day, live-fire exercise between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. from Aug. 11-13 in waters off the Zhoushan Archipelago. Commercial ships are not allowed to pass through the designated area during this period of time. Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Shih Shun-wen () declined to comment on the matter, stressing that Taiwan's authorities are closely watching China's military deployment and will respond quickly to any contingency in the region. In response to the speculation, Lin Ying-yu (), an assistant professor at National Chung Cheng University's Institute of Strategic and International Affairs, said China's military drills near Zhoushan might have little connection to Azar's visit to Taiwan. Judging from the location that is some 550 km from Taiwan, the timing and the types of war games to be staged, Lin said the Zhoushan military drills are not aimed at seizing Taiwan. Turning to confirmed reports about a recent telephone call between Chinese Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe () and his U.S. counterpart Mark Esper, Lin said this signaled that two-way communication channels have not been disconnected. The U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement issued on Thursday that Wei and Esper talked on the phone that day, with the latter expressing concern about China's destabilizing activity in the vicinity of Taiwan and the South China Sea. According to Xinhua New Agency, Wei urged the U.S. side to stop erroneous words and deeds, improve the management and control of maritime risks, avoid taking dangerous action that may escalate the situation, and safeguard regional peace and stability. With China's increased military maneuvers and growing encounters between U.S. and Chinese forces, Lin forecast that the two countries will likely have an armed conflict at sea. Exchanging views could help avoid a recurrence of the clash between a U.S. EP-3E reconnaissance plane and a Chinese military aircraft in 2001, he contended. Institute of National Defense and Security Research senior analyst Su Tzu-yun (), meanwhile, said China's military exercise near the Zhoushan Archipelago is routinely held every year. Against such a background, this year's drills should not be politically motivated, he said. Su, however, warned that regardless of the scale of China's military maneuvers, Beijing always tries to make the international community believe that it is targeting Taiwan. It is a propaganda and psychological war, he said. "Taiwan should act cautiously and there is no need for Taiwan to overreact," he said. (By Flor Wang and Matt Yu) Enditem/cs NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. Investors can purchase shares before the 13th of August in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 10th of September. Eli Lilly's next dividend payment will be US$0.74 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$2.96 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Eli Lilly has a trailing yield of 1.9% on the current share price of $152.93. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing. View our latest analysis for Eli Lilly Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Fortunately Eli Lilly's payout ratio is modest, at just 45% of profit. Yet cash flows are even more important than profits for assessing a dividend, so we need to see if the company generated enough cash to pay its distribution. Over the last year it paid out 52% of its free cash flow as dividends, within the usual range for most companies. It's positive to see that Eli Lilly's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut. Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends. Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing? Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. It's encouraging to see Eli Lilly has grown its earnings rapidly, up 23% a year for the past five years. Story continues Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Since the start of our data, 10 years ago, Eli Lilly has lifted its dividend by approximately 4.2% a year on average. It's good to see both earnings and the dividend have improved - although the former has been rising much quicker than the latter, possibly due to the company reinvesting more of its profits in growth. The Bottom Line Has Eli Lilly got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? From a dividend perspective, we're encouraged to see that earnings per share have been growing, the company is paying out less than half of its earnings, and a bit over half its free cash flow. Eli Lilly looks solid on this analysis overall, and we'd definitely consider investigating it more closely. While it's tempting to invest in Eli Lilly for the dividends alone, you should always be mindful of the risks involved. For example - Eli Lilly has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of. If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend. 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. US President Donald Trump's ban on transactions using popular Chinese messaging app WeChat will cut the ties of millions of users in the United States to families and friends in China, it is feared, as they become the latest casualties in the standoff between the two nations. WeChat, owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, is popular among Chinese students, expats and some Americans who have personal or business relationships in China. Most popular messaging apps in the United States, including Facebook Messenger , Whatsapp and Telegram have been blocked in ... This week, the Bank of England forecast the economy would contract by 9.5 percent over the year. The latest Bank of England forecast says the British economy is facing its biggest annual decline for 100 years. And bankers warn it could take more than a year to get back to pre-lockdown levels, provided there is not a second surge of coronavirus infections. Al Jazeeras Neave Barker reports from London, UK. On stunning electoral victories and the value of impermanence View(s): Any one of us indulging in melodramatic weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth on Wednesdays election victory of the Rajapaksa-led pohottuwa (Sri Lanka Podujana Party, SLPP) must heed the admonition that this has come five years too late down the line. The sum of failed political legacies Clearly, these lamentations should have been evidenced when the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe alliance commenced betraying key electoral promises in its 2015 upset win which was hailed as stunning, in much the same way that editorialists gush over the Rajapaksa comeback in 2019 and 2020. Then we had lame justifications as to why corruption cases against fraudsters of the Rajapaksa regime were not progressing, a whitewashing of the Central Bank bond scams under its own watch and a constitutional reform initiative influenced by political jockeying as much as a spluttering transitional justice process. By all this, it must not be thought that no democratic gains ensued. On the contrary, there were significant advances. Regardless, the whole was undercut by the sheer inability of the yahapalanaya alliance to reach out to the pain and travails of the electorate, from Devundara to Point Pedro. Instead, a debilitating elitism persisted, becoming the persistent stamp of that administration. The yahapalanaya elite believed condescendingly that Colombo could dictate what was good to the great unwashed and could pull the wool over everyone elses eyes. When the Central Bank financial scandal erupted, some Ministers were heard to say that villagers would probably mistake James Bond for the bond scams. What we see today are the consequences of that failed thinking. If the United National Party (UNP)s top tier leadership thought that entering into deals with the Rajapaksas to delay key prosecutions would split the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) into Rajapaksa and Sirisena camps, that cynical strategy badly backfired. In turn, former President Maithripala Sirisenas sheer inability to fill the Presidential seat with authority and his foisting of electoral rejects to Parliament through the National List were no better. Finally, that Sirisena-Wickremesinghe legacy is not only the decimation of their political parties but also setting the democratic movement in Sri Lanka back by decades. The fault is not in our stars Yet critiques to that effect, very early on in 2015, were swept aside. The fault, as Cassius said, lies not in our stars but in ourselves, in that we are underlings. At a point when we could have taken control of our own destinies, we stepped back and allowed the rot to deepen. Similarly, we must stop falling into convenient traps of self-delusion at this stage. As much as pohottuwa flag bearers fall into error in drum beating that the 2015 yahapalanaya win was due to the minority vote, the 2019 and 2020 poll outcomes are not solely attributable to racists in our midst. To say that is both patronising and inaccurate. True, some results are explainable on that basis, witness high preferential vote holders from ruling pohottuwa ranks from Colombo and Gampaha. Even so, both poll results go beyond that simplistic rationale. This was a vote by an electorate fed up of democratic labels which not only yielded precious little at the kitchen table but also belittled them as rude yokels. The capturing of a sizeable amount of seats by the UNP breakaway and still wet-behind-the-ears Sajith Premadasa-led Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) in Wednesdays polls signify that the old dynamic has changed. The adage kapuwath kola, kapuwath nil, (loosely translated to say that even if one is physically cut, allegiances to one or the other of the two old parties will not change), no longer holds sway. And as the SLPP and the SJB is born out of the detritus and dust of the SLFP and the UNP, that may be no bad thing after all. In fact, the beaten UNPs post election statement issued under the hand of the General Secretary who was unceremoniously tossed out of his electoral seat, entirely misses this point. It bewails that movements have replaced political parties. But what did it expect, pray? That despite going so grievously wrong in both internal and national policies, its constituents would just continue to vote for the party because of its name? Or that clever legal games, backstabbing and adroit manipulation by a few would suffice to quell sheer disgust by the electorate at its failure upon failure, betrayal upon betrayal of the public trust? Other lessons to be learnt Akin to the demise of the nations old political parties, the liberal school of thought (or more accurately, what remains of it) will meet a fate worse than death absent critical self-reflection. In other words, it will merely become irrelevant to the long march of Sri Lankan history. Months ago I wrote in these column spaces that constitutional rights and equality under the Rule of Law must re-anchor themselves to the fundamental tenets of social justice and community rejuvenation. It must capture at least some of the passion of the 1980s and the 1990s where activism was rooted in like-minded civil societies that went beyond Colombos elite. As proudly part of a once vibrant brand of lawyers whose commitment to social democracy went beyond the monetized professionalism of legal practice, the practice of public interest law was fuelled by that passion. Through the decades, that determination has died a slow and torturous death at the hands of a glory-driven preoccupation with Colombos power politics linked to cripplingly dependent donor dominated agendas. This must change. Formation of radical centres irreversibly linked to old, tired and failed ideologies will not do. That much is clear. Yet as we enter upon a new Rajapaksa era, politicians must not be elevated into toweringly frightful monstrosities who cannot be combated. To do this is counter productive. It would sap, at the very onset, any viable resistance as the nation confronts new perils of militarisation and dynastic power. Strategic and not sledgehammer-like In fact, despite the entry of the odd murderer or two and openly communal voices who are bound to claim the floor of the House as their own, Sri Lankas post election environment points to potential reversal of democratic gains being strategic, not sledgehammer-like. As some noises from the victorious SLPP made clear on Friday, scrapping the 19th Amendment is distinguishable from its reform. There is a past here which cannot be forgotten. The gently democratic 17th Amendment was succeeded by the Rajapaksa-dynasty 18th Amendment, obediently rubber stamped by a compliant Court and passed by a genulfecting Parliament. It was this which led to the 19th Amendment. Are we really going to repeat that same, weary cycle all over again? Time will tell as to what is in store. But our history is replete with politicians who were stripped of their seeming invincibility. This includes the war-winning Mahinda Rajapaksa-led SLFP which occupied 144 government seats in the 14th Parliament but was ejected from power a bare four years later. Two-thirds majority or not, there is no reason to think that the impermanence of power will be different this time around. For that, Sri Lankas democratic resistance must go beyond mere regime change, that hugely deceptive facade of 2015 which catapulted the country into this instant quagmire. On that success or failure will depend much. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 12:27:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, started its 21st session Saturday to review multiple draft laws and law revisions. Bills on the agenda include draft laws on urban maintenance and construction tax and deed tax, and draft revisions to the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency and the Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention. During the four-day session, lawmakers will also deliberate draft amendments to the Copyright Law, the Organic Law of the NPC, the Rules of Procedure for the NPC, the National Flag Law and the National Emblem Law, among others. Enditem The passage of local reparations in places like Evanston, Illinois last fall and Asheville, North Carolina more recently are worrisome on many levels, not least of which because they invite potential for inciting even further racial division. Their passage also prompts the uncomfortable but entirely legitimately requisite questions of who is responsible for black enslavement in America and therefore who is responsible for paying? A reading of the 1860 census reveals some fascinating details into the realities of slavery. While its universally known is that whites owned slaves in the early United States; almost universally unknown is that free blacks owned a fair number themselves. In the lead-up to the Civil War, the free population of the entire United States, which also counted approximately 10% the black population (the other 90% of blacks were enslaved in 15 southern states), stood at just over 27 million. The slave population was just under 4 million. Of the 25-27 million whites, 1.6% of them individually owned slaves. That number has been cited frequently as being misleading, given that most whites belonged to a greater family unit. And indeed, that is the case; when accounting for families as opposed to individuals, an argument can be made that about 7.4% of all white families in the United States owned slaves. Obviously, all of them were in the South, but it is worth sticking to nationwide totals given that the entire nation today is being held responsible for this sin. It wouldnt be consistent for Black Lives Matter to say that just 25-30% of southern white families owned slaves while at the same time demanding fully 100% of all white families today repent for past wrongdoings. Importantly, it needs to be observed that more than just 7.4% of white families were involved in the slave-based economy of the south. Whether that was through transporting slaves, selling slaves, or manufacturing cotton or tobacco products procured through slave labor, the prevalence of slavery dominated the southern economic infrastructure. If we are going to accept that all whites, including those eking out a living in dying Appalachian coal-mining towns or quadriplegic military veterans, should foot the bill for black millionaire athletes, all for the sins of forefathers long gone (or not even forefathers at all), then it is only fair to assess the sins of all previous slaveowners. That means if were being consistent, blacks owe other blacks reparations, too. Referring to an 1830 census, of the 320,000 or so free blacks, almost 4,000 of them owned a total of 12,760 slaves . On its face, this might seem insignificant given that over 4 million slaves were freed in 1865. However, it makes sense to remain logically consistent with the left, which dictates that all whites ought to be burdened with the onus of paying reparations when most white families owned zero slaves (or came here after slavery was abolished altogether). Every slave matters in this conversation. Black ownership wasnt a new phenomenon in the 1800s. Sources dating back to 1650 reveal that one of the first court-won challenges codifying human chattel as property went to a black man. A local court ruled in favor of Anthony Johnsons ownership of John Casor, declaring that the former owned the latter for life. This reveals a few unfortunate truths for the left. First, a (presumably) white judge ruled in favor of a black, protecting him with the same judicial proceedings as any other landowner. Second, and completely related, this black man was a landowner. Third, almost as soon as the "1619 Project" kicked off, blacks were right there with the evil white man in owning slaves to earn a profit. I will eagerly wait for Nikole Hannah-Jones to amend her academic work. Many blacks owned just one or a handful, but when able they amassed more than most whites. In the 1820s, a free black by the name of John Caruthers Stanly owned 163 slaves , spread across three plantations. He hired white slave masters to oversee each operation. William Ellison was another free black that, upon his death on the eve of the Civil War, owned 63 slaves and was wealthier than 90% of all South Carolinians. He forgot to tell the other 90% that they had privilege. When accounting for the regularity of black ownership of slaves, one historian observed that free black slave owners as the total number of free black heads of families was quite high in several states, namely 43 percent in South Carolina, 40 percent in Louisiana, 26 percent in Mississippi, 25 percent in Alabama and 20 percent in Georgia. How can we pillory whites today when, nearly identical percentages of southern white and black families owned slaves? At the peak of black ownership of black slaves, it is estimated that 7.5% of all free blacks engaged in the practice, reaching a high of 12% of the free black population in Virginia. This is not insignificant. While contemporary observers would say that these free blacks were just being complicit in a white-centric world and thus absolved of responsibility, couldnt that same argument be made that all actors of their time were simply doing what the system allowed for? To be clear, reparations of any kind are divisive and unwarranted. They are harmful, disingenuous, and entirely unfair, regardless of historical realities. But, if this is the direction we are headed, then is it time for the black community to open up its checkbook...for itself? The historical realities would suggest so. Parker Beauregard loves America and wants you to save it with him. He has been published on American Thinker, Right Wire Report and various online outlets. Contact him at thelastbesthope@protonmail.com. WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer urged the White House to join them again on Friday in talks on proposals for coronavirus relief. Trump has threatened to pull White House negotiators out of talks and instead issue executive orders to address economic needs. In a statement, Pelosi and Schumer said the latest jobs report showed more investments were needed, and called on White House negotiators "to join us once again at the negotiating table today to secure a bipartisan agreement". (Reporting by Susan Cornwell, Editing by Franklin Paul) News of Mr. Gatess book was reported earlier by Business Insider. Image Wicked Game will be published this fall. Credit... Simon & Schuster Other books from former Trump aides and associates are in the pipeline, including a memoir from Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trumps former lawyer, who is serving a three-year prison sentence for campaign finance violations and other crimes that were part of an effort to pay for the silence of two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohens book is tentatively titled Disloyal: The True Story of Michael Cohen, Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump. Last month, Mr. Cohen, who was on furlough because of the coronavirus, said that a decision to return him to prison was an attempt by the administration to punish him for writing the book, and a judge agreed, ordering him released back to home confinement. Mr. Gates, who has never spoken publicly about his experience on the Trump campaign apart from his testimony, is likely to face fewer obstacles to sharing his account. He never served in the administration so does not face a government review to ensure he isnt sharing classified information. In his book, Wicked Game, Mr. Gates adds context to the publicized, politicized public account provided in the Mueller investigation, including information that was left out of the report, he said in an interview on Friday. Readers hoping for another explosive tell-all about the president may be disappointed. Mr. Gates said he isnt trying to settle scores and that his book takes a middle of the road approach, a position that could hamper the books commercial prospects in a polarized media environment. At one point, Mr. Gates had a deal with a big publishing house, but it fell through because he declined to make changes that the publisher requested, including removing passages that were critical of the Mueller investigation, he said. Instead, Wicked Game is being released by a smaller, independent press that specializes in conservative political books, as well as business, self-help, health, military and Christian titles. Mr. Gates co-wrote it with Mark Dagostino, who has worked on books with Chip and Joanna Gaines and Hulk Hogan. Its not a salacious book, Mr. Gates said. He added that his book will shed new light on the inner workings of the Mueller investigation, which he is highly critical of, as the books subtitle, An Insiders Story on How Trump Won, Mueller Failed, and America Lost suggests. He describes the hard-nosed tactics prosecutors used and notes that Robert S. Mueller III never interviewed him. Mr. Gates said he isnt aiming to walk back his guilty plea. I accepted the charges, and I knew the consequences that were associated with them, Mr. Gates said. At the end of the day, they did find me as the most credible fact witness. A Senate report has revealed how top management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) paid themselves N85.6 million to attend a graduation ceremony in the United Kingdom at a time Nigeria was on lockdown and airports shut. The report shows that approval for the funds was made in April at the time when countries were on lockdown and flight activities suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The money was shared in April for a supposed trip in June, none of the officials travelled for the trip and none of them had returned the money as of July when the Senate investigated the matter, the lawmakers said. This is one of the many revelations that emerged from the National Assemblys investigation into spending by the NDDC, which has generated mixed reactions among Nigerians. The Senate had, on May 5, set up a seven-member ad-hoc committee to probe the financial recklessness of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC. The committee was particularly asked to probe the IMC for allegedly squandering N40 billion in three months. In the same vein, the House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta commenced an investigative hearing on the alleged mismanagement of N81.5 billion between January and July by the commission. There were accusations and counter-accusations from the investigative hearings conducted by the Senate and House committees in July, between some lawmakers and members of the NDDC, amid startling discoveries. Besides how lawmakers allegedly hijacked NDDC projects and how the commission spent N1.3 billion for staff as COVID-19 relief funds, another revelation is how the NDDC spent a total of N85.6 million on the graduation ceremony in the UK. This was contained in the report of the Senate ad-hoc committee obtained by PREMIUM TIMES. The Senate had on July 23 considered the report that exposed the reckless and budgetless spending by the IMC. Top among the beneficiaries are the Managing Director, Daniel Pondei; the acting executive director, projects, Cairo Ojougboh; another director, Luke Ibanga, and a Seledi Wakama who got the lion share of the fund. Daniel Pondei, Acting Managing Director of NDDC. [PHOTO CREDIT: Official web page of NDDC ||www.nddc.gov.ng/] The report According to the document, the NDDC account shows a one-off travel expenditure with the description tagged Delegate to attend graduation ceremony of NDDC scholars in the United Kingdom in June 2020. The total cost of this trip was N85.6 million, covering 14 staff to travel to the United Kingdom. And the travellers include Messrs Pondei, Ojougboh and lbanga. The report listed 14 beneficiaries paid different amounts for the graduation. They are: Saledi Wakama (N33.3 million), Messrs Pondei, Ojougboh and Bassey Etang who got N4.6 million each, Mr Ibanga (N3.5 million), Nimite Ateki and Allwell Hanachor, who got N3.2 million each. Others are, Chinyere Madume (N3 million) and Marg Consultant (2.9 million). While Irene Okezie, Clara Braide, Bestman Nnwoka, Omoren Usenobong and Kubiat Bassey were paid N2.9 million each. Two other beneficiaries were also listed in the overseas travel expenditure but for different purposes. They are Ekpebu Lawrence who was paid N4.6 million for participation at International Labour and Employment Relations Association in South Korea 2018 and Abgenglasede Nosa paid N3.6 million for attending 2019 Association of Certified Fraud in Texas 2019. The report said these payments demonstrate a form of internal control failure in the NDDC, especially with the managements choice to subject such transactions as cash payments to Individual staff. And that the corporate affairs department in collaboration with the Human Resource Department should have been responsible for direct payments for visas to the relevant embassies and airlines as direct cash payment to staff could be abused. It is also curious that these payments were made on the 17 April, 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown for a June 2020 trip. Obviously, monies had been paid to the 14 staff involved. There was no evidence that these trips took place as Nigeria and the United Kingdom were on lockdown during this period with all international flights and consular services by the UK High Commission suspended. The EIMC team explained that the trip was planned to take place In June and September without any consideration for the Covid-19 pandemic, therefore an early disbursement of fund (CovId-19 was already here in April!) was made to enable staff make timely visa arrangements, part of the report read. The committee however said since the trip is no longer going to hold, everyone paid must refund the monies paid to them for the trip. This comes at a time many Nigerian students under the NDDC scholarship are stranded abroad because of the lack of funding from the commission. PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the commission paid scholarship grants to Mr Pondei and other top officials rather than to the suffering students. In May, the students wrote to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, complaining that life for them abroad has been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic which has prevented them from even engaging in menial jobs for survival. Advertisements President Muhammadu Buhari has, however, directed the NDDC to pay the fees and stipends of scholars of the commission who are facing hardships abroad. Since the revelations emerged, individuals and civic groups have called for the prosecution of guilty NDDC officials as well as sanction of lawmakers who are complicit in the NDDC scandal. Russian developers created a platform for self-testing of AI medical services Experts from the Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine have developed a platform for self-testing services which is based on artificial intelligence and designed for medical tasks, such as for analyzing diagnostic images. The first working prototype of the platform is hosted on the popular GitHub service, and developers from all over the world can take part in its improvement by adding verification criteria depending on the purpose of the services. Sergey Morozov, CEO of the Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine, spoke about this at the thematic week dedicated to artificial intelligence which was part of the program of the European Congress of Radiology (ECR 2020). Before implementing a service based on artificial intelligence (AI) into routine clinical practice, it is necessary to test it for technical readiness, as well as to verify whether it meets the stated characteristics. It is called analytical validation of the algorithm. The services that have passed it are allowed to be integrated into medical systems, including city healthcare. Integration is a complex and expensive process, so it becomes a barrier for many teams that cannot guarantee the required accuracy and speed of the algorithm processing data of the system into which they are integrated. Currently analytical validation is performed manually. Manual validation allows accidental or deliberate deviations from the approved test program, as well as manipulation of datasets, and also can potentially put different test participants in unequal conditions. To solve these problems and automate the verification process, ensuring trust of users, specialists of the Center for Diagnostic and Telemedicine have developed a platform that allows developers of AI-based services to independently conduct preliminary tests (analytical validation) of their algorithms. A prototype of the platform has been hosted on the GitHub, and the first version of the service for exchanging datasets and data analysis results has already been uploaded. The platform provides an opportunity for the unlimited number of accesses to single samples of data instances from the test set in order to fine-tune algorithms. It has uniform rules of use, and it is possible to test several services simultaneously. At the same time, the platform records the time that the software spends on data processing (time-study), and the developers receive an automatic report on the results of testing, - explains Sergey Morozov, CEO of the Center for Diagnostic and Telemedicine. By automating the entire process on the self-testing platform, the human factor is minimized, which makes data manipulation (to improve results) impossible. In addition, the comparison of the service's verification results with the reference data is absolutely transparent - the developer can see what metrics were used, and how the final result reflected in the report was calculated. Anyone can take part in improving the platform and add necessary metrics to it, which will be used to evaluate the algorithm's performance for certain medical purposes (for example, for analyzing radiographs or mammograms). However, the addition of the platform will be monitored - the only metrics that have scientific justification will be included in the platform operating on the basis of the Center, - notes Nikolai Pavlov, the developer of the platform, Head of Dataset Labeling Conveyor of the Medical Informatics, Radiomics and Radiogenomics Sector, Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine. The creators of the platform invite developers of AI algorithms, programmers and researchers to take part in updating and improving the platform in order to develop a uniform, universal, and user-friendly tool for self-testing of artificial intelligence algorithms intended for medical purposes in the international community. At the moment, there is no such tool aimed specifically at the clinical implementation of services based on AI technologies. ### This story has been published on: 2020-08-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. By William Schwartz | Published on 2020/08/07 "It's Okay to Not Be Okay" maintained its top position in the Good Data Report this week. With the drama set to end this coming weekend, "It's Okay to Not Be Okay" is well positioned to sweep the Good Data Report for its full run. Four of its actors also appeared in the top ten for performers, with Seo Ye-ji at number one, Kim Soo-hyun at number two, Oh Jung-se at number four, and Jang Young-nam at number seven. Advertisement "Once Again" meanwhile had its ninth straight week at number two. Chun Ho-jin and Jo Mi-ryung, both older than the typical set of actors popular on social media, came in at number eight and number nine for performers. The new drama "Flower of Evil" has started out strong at number three, though, with lead actor Lee Joon-gi and lead actress Moon Chae-won holding third and fifth place for performers. Social media comments have praised the drama's spooky tone. "Backstreet Rookie" stumbled somewhat into fourth place, with interest in the drama lagging going into its final week. Lead actress Kim Yoo-jung was number six for performers while Ji Chang-wook was number ten. In fifth place, "Secret Forest 2" made its first appearance, though the drama does not start until August 15th. This bodes well for hype in the South Korean drama industry, which has not had a major hit since "The World of the Married" ended in May. Written by William Schwartz State requests modification to Zaragoza Canal to accommodate cruise ships Chetumal, Q.R. The Federal Secretary of Tourism says several agencies are requesting a modification so the Zaragoza Canal could be another state cruise destination. Miguel Torruco Marques, Federal Secretario de Turismo says he and the Government of the State of Quintana Roo will request from the Secretary of the Navy of Mexico the modification of the Environmental Impact Statement of the dredging of the Zaragoza Canal to make it an arrival destination for tourist boats. During a virtual meeting with tourist businessmen from Chetumal and Bacalar, Torruco Marques explained that the actions they are carrying out today are to deal with the abandonment of the southern part of the state for the past several years by federal and state administrations. He says the proposal to modify the canal dredging project is new, adding that the state government would like to expand its depth from three to six meters. The manifestation of environmental impact is to increase the depth of the canal to six meters, which would allow the entry of small cruise ships and the construction of a Zaragoza marina to open the potential for tourist activity, adding that the modification request is in the process of being presented to the Secretary of the Navy. Dredging to a depth of six meters would allow the arrival of cruise ships The work, added Torruco Marques, should be completed in mid-2022, despite delays presented due to the COVID-19 pandemic and technical complications theyve experienced such as solidification of the canal sediments. The rear admiral and deputy general director of Works and Dredging of the Secretary of the Navy Angel Melo Moya, indicated that the project is only 10 percent complete and that they are in the best position now to meet the new request. (Reuters) - A senior Iranian official said on Friday there was no difference between the outgoing and incoming U.S. special envoys for Iran because American officials bite off more than they can chew. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Thursday that the top U.S. envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, was leaving his post and the U.S. special representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, would add Iran to his role. Hooks surprise departure comes at a critical time when Washington has been intensely lobbying at the United Nations to extend an arms embargo on Iran and as the U.N. Security Council prepares to hold a vote on the U.S. resolution next week. Pompeo did not give a reason for the change but wrote in a tweet that Hook was moving on to the private sector. Theres no difference between John Bolton, Brian Hook or Elliott Abrams, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a tweet under the hashtag #BankruptUSPolicy. When U.S. policy concerns Iran, American officials have been biting off more than they can chew. This applies to Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump and their successors, Mousavi added. President Donald Trump last year fired his national security adviser John Bolton, a veteran hardliner on Iran who advocated military action to destroy Tehran's nuclear programme. Hook, 52, was named to the top Iran role at the State Department in late 2018 and has been instrumental in the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran since Trump pulled Washington out of world powers' 2015 nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic. Abrams, 72, a Republican foreign policy veteran, was named U.S. special representative for Venezuela in January 2019 and has led a hawkish approach aimed at removing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (Reporting by Shahrzad Faramarzi; Editing by Mark Heinrich) TDT | Manama A team of Bahraini experts went to Beirut yesterday with ample supplies of emergency medicines, first aid materials and respiratory ventilators, to expedite Kingdoms relief operations and support victims of the devastating blast. Dr Mustafa Al-Sayyed, the Royal Humanitarian Foundation (RHF) Secretary-General, who is with the relief team, told BNA before departure yesterday morning that they are looking forward to delivering the aid to pain-stricken people as soon as possible. Later yesterday, Dr AlSayyed said, the team of Bahraini youths visited the blasthit areas, to assess their needs, and deliver the relief materials. Lebanons Health Minister Hamad Hassan thanked Bahrain for its noble stance and praised the directives of HM the King to provide aid to Lebanon to help it face the painful disaster. Upon directives from His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Honorary President of the Royal Humanitarian Foundation (RHF) and under the patronage of HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Representative of HM the King for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Dr Mustafa Al Sayed delivered the shipment of urgent humanitarian aid to Lebanon. Shaikh Nasser praised HM the Kings patronage of the RHF and his generous humanitarian gesture towards the people in Lebanon. We are honoured to extend to His Majesty King Hamad our sincere thanks, appreciation and gratitude for his continuous humanitarian initiatives in helping the needy and the afflicted, Dr Al Sayed said. The Bahrain Red Crescent Society earlier said it has donated $50,000 to the Lebanese Red Cross through International Red Cross and Red crescent organisation. The Society also announced yesterday the launch of its Bahrain assists Beirut campaign aimed at collecting donations and providing relief, medical, health and psychological support to the Lebanese people. The society appealed to citizens, residents and institutions in the Kingdom to make donations to the Society to help the needy in Lebanon. The BRCS expressed optimism that the campaign will generate great interaction in Bahrain. Gulf states were among the first to respond to the crisis with emergency relief materials to ease pressure on Lebanons medical system, already strained by the coronavirus pandemic. Lebanons Prime Minister Hassan Diab has called on friendly countries to support a nation already reeling from its worst economic crisis in decades as well as the impact of the coronavirus. The Lebanese Red Cross has said that more than 5,000 people were being treated for injuries after the explosion. 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. It's no longer news that, once the Wuhan virus descended on New York City, the rich did what rich people always have down when plague appears: they packed up their goods and their money and left for comfortable country homes where they could wait out the disease. The New Yorkers who remained in the city ranged from the upper-middle-class down to the homeless. Mayor Bill de Blasio then had the bright idea to bring these two classes together, something that's working out about as well as you would expect. It's also a preview of coming attractions for the rest of America should Biden win the White House and Democrats take full control of Congress. The last time Democrats had their way with New York City, back in the 1960s through the 1980s, they reduced that vibrant city to a dirty, crime-ridden ghost of itself. The city turned around beginning in 1994 when Republican Rudy Giuliani took over. His successor, Michael Bloomberg, governed as a Republican and managed to keep New York City safe and functioning. Then Bill de Blasio came along. The downward slide that started when de Blasio assumed the mayor's office has become a free fall this summer, a casualty of de Blasio's waltz with the Wuhan virus. As Monica Showalter has written, Governor "Killer" Cuomo, whose policies slaughtered thousands of elderly people in nursing homes, and Mayor "Trotsky" de Blasio, who's systematically driving out the rich, are engaged in a power struggle with a hapless New York City caught between these two leftist narcissists. Cuomo is still sufficiently connected to reality to try to stem the outflow of the city's super-rich, who are responsible for 50% of NYC's tax base. The mayor, however, is saying the equivalent of "good riddance to bad rubbish." When he says he doesn't like rich people, de Blasio isn't kidding. Having rid the city of half of its tax base, de Blasio is now working on pushing out the second tier of taxpayers, those affluent people who live in the city's Upper West Side. As part of his plan, de Blasio is moving homeless people into the Upper West Side's luxury hotels, all of which have been sitting empty for months: Hundreds of homeless people who have been put up in luxury hotels on Manhattan's Upper West Side by the city as part of its efforts to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in shelters are terrifying residents by urinating, sleeping and taking drugs in the streets. In July, it emerged that 139 of the city's iconic hotels which had been forced closed for months had agreed to take in homeless people for $175 per person, per night as part of a scheme by the city to try to avoid a breakout of COVID-19 in homeless shelters. San Francisco has already discovered that mentally ill, drug-addicted homeless people are not good hotel guests. Worse, in NYC, by moving some homeless into hotels, de Blasio managed to attract large numbers of other homeless people to the streets and hotels of the Upper West Side: A Facebook group, in which residents have shared pictures of men urinating, masturbating and laying [sic] sprawled out on sidewalks near the hotels, has been set up and there are other complaints on Twitter. [snip] Local residents have reported seeing fights, have been verbally abused or harassed, seen people spitting despite the ongoing pandemic and have also seen people looking for, or using drugs. Nearly 300 homeless drug and alcohol addicts have reportedly been living at the Lucerne alone since last week, with one homeless man Angel Ortiz, 60 telling The Post 'whatever drug you can imagine is done there.' Meanwhile, according to the same article, "[t]rash has been accumulating across New York City after the budget of the sanitation department was cut by more than $100 million." The New York Post also graphically describes just some of the sex offenders now planted near playgrounds and schools, almost certainly violating state law. If you want to see what one of America's finest cities looks like under the tender, loving care of a hardcore Marxist, you have to check out the photographs in this Daily Mail article. People have called de Blasio incompetent, but he's not. His governance is entirely in line with his ideology and his ideology is what is now powering the Biden campaign. Everyone knows that Biden will not be president even if he wins. Instead, the country will be run by people aligned with Bernie's openly communist policies people just like de Blasio. New York, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco with each of these cities, you're getting a sneak preview of the American future the Democrat party has planned for the rest of us. Image: Homeless in New York by bakerfishsticks, CC BY-ND 2.0. On 12th May, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a landmark call for an Atmanirbhar Bharat and asked all Indians and businesses to be Vocal for Local. This move has reminded all about the Swadeshi Movement during Indias fight for Independence. Also read: MyGovIndia Goes Live on ShareChat Amidst Indias Vocal for Local Demand Coming amid challenging times, Vocal for Local is seen as giving a major impetus to homegrown businesses and brands as well as local Apps. We at Adgully support this movement wholeheartedly, and are compiling an exhaustive repository of all local/ homegrown businesses, brands and Apps. This compilation will serve as a one-stop ready industry reckoner for businesses domestic and global looking for information on Indian brands and Apps. We are reaching out to you to share the details of homegrown/ local brands or Apps in your company. Kindly mail us at: varun@adgully.com nehal@adgully.com Press Release August 7, 2020 Villanueva: COVID-19 testing in workplace to help IATF determine clustering of cases, ordering targeted lockdowns The 16.5% contraction of the economy in the second quarter of the year--the worst recorded in nearly three decades--should serve as a warning for policymakers not to rely on lockdowns alone to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, according to Senator Joel Villanueva. Villanueva asked the government to consider implementing heightened disease monitoring in workplaces after the Department of Health identified this as among the areas where COVID-19 is transmitted, aside from communities. "We have always advocated for workplace disease monitoring because of the strong likelihood of transmission when there is a gathering of people at a single location. Workplace monitoring should have been included as part of the minimum requirement in the resumption of business operations. We have to ensure that we are able to control the spread while allowing a portion of the economy to operate," Villanueva said in a statement. "We urge the Department of Labor and Employment to continue with its labor inspections to ensure that minimum health standards are strictly observed in workplaces and encourage employers to implement regular, randomized testing among its workforce. "If infections spread in the workplace and remain undetected, asymptomatic workers could bring the disease to their homes and communities. We will have uncontrollable spread of COVID-19 and we will be forced to do ECQs," he added. "Our policymakers should not rely on implementing lockdowns alone. It disrupts the economy and it disrupts lives. Every time a worker is forced to stay home and does not have an opportunity to earn, it hinders their access to basic goods and decent quality of life. It also affects our economy since we are largely driven by household consumption," continued the lawmaker, who chairs the Senate labor committee. He also appealed to the government to consider providing assistance to employers who would implement regular, randomized testing among its workforce to help them defray the cost and encourage the practice. The lawmaker asked the Employees' Compensation Commission to immediately process medical assistance claims of workers who would be placed under quarantine. Villanueva underscored the importance of heightened disease surveillance in workplaces after authorities reported that another workplace yielded nearly 300 workers positive for COVID-19 in Laguna on July 30. "This only shows that DOLE should consider making mandatory the conduct of regular, randomized testing in workplaces to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 in the workplace," he said, adding that the agency should also ensure that disinfection should be done in workplaces regularly as well. With the modified enhanced community quarantine reimposed in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal and Laguna until Aug. 18, the government sought to slow down the spread of the infection as hospitals in the capital are nearing its maximum capacity. Healthcare workers have pleaded with the government to rethink its strategy in preventing the spread of COVID-19 as the easing of movement restrictions contributed to the surge in the number of cases. As of Aug. 6, the government reported that there are 119,490 confirmed cases, with 3,561 cases tagged as new. Since July 30, the number of new cases averaged by at least 3,000 cases daily, with the highest single-day tally recorded on Aug. 4 with 6,263 new cases. MONTREAL, Aug. 7, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - Boralex Inc. ("Boralex" or the "Corporation") (TSX: BLX) is pleased to announce that it has completed the approximately $805 million refinancing over 16 years for its 230 MW Niagara Region Wind Farm (NRWF) in the Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada. NRWF was commissioned on November 2, 2016 and is held in partnership with the Six Nations of the Grand River Indigenous community. Boralex operates the site and has a 50% stake in the farm. "This is our third major refinancing in less than a year, which shows the confidence our financial partners have in Boralex and the execution of our strategic plan," said Patrick Lemaire, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boralex. "These refinancings, totalling $2.7 billion, were arranged at very good conditions and have greatly improved Boralex's financial flexibility, reducing its corporate credit facility by over $260 million and generating total annual recurring savings of $22 million. The NRWF refinancing will also improve the overall performance of this asset, benefiting both Boralex and our partner the Six Nations of the Grand River." Taking advantage of the very good market conditions, Boralex successfully reduced the borrowing rate for NRWF and also freed up approximately $65 million to $70 million, which will be used to reduce Boralex's corporate credit facility. The combined impact of the lower borrowing rate and related expenses, plus the lower interest expense on the corporate credit facility will result in annual recurring savings of more than $5 million in interest expense. Boralex was supported in this transaction by a group of seven banks. They are, in order of their respective participations in the total refinancing amount: KFW-Ipex Bank, CaixaBank, Federation des Caisses Desjardins du Quebec, Societe Generale, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Associated Bank and Credit Industriel et Commercial (CIC). Financial Advisor Plan A Capital Inc. was also instrumental in the success of this transactions. "The Banks and our Financial Advisor were outstanding partners and I'd like to thank them for handling the refinancing in a period when financial markets were highly uncertain and volatile due to COVID-19," said Bruno Guilmette, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Boralex. "The success of this transaction speaks to the commitment and confidence that financial institutions have in the renewable energy sector, which will be very important in making this sector a pillar in the economic recovery plans of governments around the world." About Boralex Boralex develops, builds and operates renewable energy power facilities in Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. With an installed capacity of 2,040 MW, Boralex is a leader in the Canadian market and France's largest independent producer of onshore wind power. Boralex is recognized for its solid experience in optimizing its asset base in four power generation types: wind, hydroelectric, thermal and solar. Boralex ensures sustainable growth by leveraging the expertise and diversification it has developed over the past 30 years. Boralex's shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BLX. More information is available at www.boralex.com or www.sedar.com. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Some of the statements contained in this press release, including those related to future performance, are forward-looking statements based on current expectations, within the meaning of securities legislation. Boralex would like to point out that, by their very nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties such that its results or the measures it adopts could differ materially from those indicated by or underlying these statements, or could have an impact on the degree of realization of a particular forward-looking statement. Unless otherwise specified by the Corporation, the forward-looking statements do not take into account the possible impact on its activities of transactions, non-recurring items or other exceptional items announced or occurring after the statements are made. There can be no assurance as to the materialization of the results, performance or achievements as expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Unless required to do so under applicable securities legislation, management of Boralex does not assume any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or other changes. SOURCE Boralex Inc. For further information: Media, Isabelle Fontaine, Director, Public Affairs and Communications, Boralex Inc., 819-345-0043, [email protected]; Investor Relations, Stephane Milot, Director, Investor Relations, Boralex Inc., 514-213-1045, [email protected] Related Links www.boralex.com Kravchuk stressed Ukraine is ready to make concessions if appropriate steps are taken from the "other side." Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) and first president of independent Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk has announced four possible options that could be used to achieve a full ceasefire in Donbas. "We see this should be done through negotiations first, through discussions second, through compromises third, and by making appropriate concessions fourth," he told Obozrevatel TV channel. Kravchuk stressed Ukraine is ready to make concessions if appropriate steps are taken from the "other side." Read alsoOnly random shots recorded in Donbas amid truce, General Staff chief says At the same time, he opposed any ultimatums. "The Ukrainian side is ready to offer and demand that the signatures that have been put be respected both by us and by people subordinate to certain structures in those regions. So that we really start a truce seriously and for a long time, not in words, but in deeds," the official added. Background Participants in the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, and OSCE) on the peace settlement in Donbas on July 22 agreed on full and comprehensive ceasefire along the contact line from 00:01 on Monday, July 27. The new ceasefire regime was enforced at 00:01 Kyiv time on July 27. On the very first day of the newly-agreed truce, Russia's hybrid military forces mounted three attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Ukraine reported more fire provocations were reported over the past few days. K-12 students throughout the southern region of the U.S. are returning to school during the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in crowded halls, quarantines and chaos. The big picture: Students across the country are gearing up to hit the books once again while managing social distancing and mask mandates. Districts and communities are taking a variety of approaches, some of which include hybrid online, at-home class models or schooling-from-home. States including Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi largely opted to begin sending students back to class as usual, promising to implement coronavirus safety measures. Reports from students' first weeks back have been mixed. The state of play: A Georgia sophomore was issued a suspension tis week which was later rescinded for posting a photo on Twitter of crowded hallways with few masked faces at North Paulding High School. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. Also in Georgia, at least 260 students in the Cherokee County School District were quarantined after 11 students and two staffers tested positive for the virus after reopening for in-person learning on Aug. 3, KTLA notes. Schools in Corinth, Mississippi welcomed students last week, but sent 116 students to quarantine by week's end due to exposure, the New York Times reports. A wave of schools in northern Alabama have seen staff test positive since school re-started, WAAY 31 reports. Five high schoolers in south Alabama entered quarantine this week after a single day back following exposure to a positive COVID-19 case, the website "AL" reports. Between the lines: Many school districts made an effort to guard students and staff from exposure, implementing plastic barriers and grab-and-go lunches. What to watch: Districts will continue to start the academic year over the next few weeks. But ongoing coronavirus spikes could change whether that happens in-person or virtually. IPS Officer Vinay Tiwari has said that Bihar Police's probe into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput was progressing well until it got stymied on August 2. Tiwari, who is leading the probe, was forced to quarantine himself by municipal authorities upon his arrival in Mumbai a week back. Tiwari returned to Patan late Friday night and is currently posted there as the SP City (East). Tiwari didn't reveal much information about the investigation carried out by his team during their visit to Mumbai. He said that talking about the investigation would be "inappropriate". "I had duly informed my counterparts in Mumbai about my official tour. I had sought accommodation and requisitioned a vehicle. Since my visit and its purpose were well known, people from the media approached me with their questions at the airport itself, to which I replied," Tiwari told reporters upon his arrival at Mumbai airport on July 27. The IPS officer, who was released from quarantine on Friday, remarked with disappointment that despite intimation about his tour "nobody came to the airport to receive me". "Nonetheless, I checked into a guest house and then went out to meet members of my team, who had been in the city since July 27, and take stock of the investigation. At around 10 pm, I received a call from BMC authorities who spoke about the need to quarantine me. As a law abiding person, I returned to the guest house and extended my cooperation," Tiwari said. "It is for all to see that a few visitors to Mumbai, where so many people reach every day, are quarantined in this fashion. Even my four subordinates were not placed in quarantine. Now, try to make sense of that," he remarked wryly. The four junior rank officials had returned from Mumbai on Thursday. Tiwari, however, hastened to add that he did not wish to take personal affront for being quarantined and pointed out that "it was our constitutional right and obligation to carry out an investigation into the FIR lodged in Patna. Things moved fine till August 2 after which everything got derailed". To prying queries about whether his investigation sensed any connivance of the Mumbai Police with actress Rhea Chakraborty, accused by Rajput's father of abetting his son's suicide, Tiwari said, "I would not say anything on that. It would be inappropriate to do so." "But I must add, our investigation had progressed at great speed in 10 days and had moved in the right direction," he concluded. (With inputs from PTI) Also Read: Rhea Chakraborty shares Sushant Singh Rajput's diary page; claims she only has one belonging of late actor Also Read: Air India Express crash: Deceased passenger tests COVID-19 positive BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.8 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: An accident occurred on the 23-kilometer part of the Galmaz-Gazimamed gas pipeline with a diameter of 720 millimeters, on Aug.7, at about 20:55, Ibrahim Ahmadov, deputy head of the public relations and events department at Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, told Trend. The gas pipeline was put into operation in 1975. This gas pipeline operates within the internal distribution system and is not connected to other gas pipelines. The accident has been localized and the fire has almost been extinguished. The explosion didnt cause any restrictions on gas supply throughout the country and no interruptions in gas supply are expected. All strategic facilities are supplied with gas, he said. (GMT - 23:38) An explosion has occurred on one of the gas pipelines of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR in Hajigabul, Ibrahim Ahmadov, deputy head of the public relations and events department at SOCAR, told Trend. This is one of our main gas pipelines, presumably a gas pipeline that is connected to the Galmaz underground storage facility. The explosion took place far from settlements. Therefore, there is no threat to the population and there are no victims either, he said. Ahmadov noted that the leadership of Gazexport, which operates SOCAR's pipelines, is at the site. The pipeline itself is already blocked, gas is no longer pumped to it. When the gas that remains in the pipe runs out, the fire will stop. The cause of the explosion is unknown at the moment. Presumably, the reason is corrosion, which led to a gas leak and, accordingly, an explosion, he said. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Heroes and Hand Raisers is a new series created by United Way of Midland County in partnership with Midland Daily News. Each week, snapshots of volunteerism and human generosity via quotes, photos, snippets and stories will shine a spotlight on those who are impacting our community by raising their hand to help meet the needs of their neighbors. The following is by the Corteva Agriscience Midland Team. On Tuesday, May 19, our quiet and peaceful communities along with the lives of many area residents were drastically altered when structures around the Edenville and Sanford dams gave way after two days of relentless rain. While several Corteva Agriscience employees worked to make sure that facilities in the Midland I-Park were safely shut down, many more were packing up some of their most important belongings as quickly as possible to evacuate for safety, as news of dams breaching was shared. Corteva leaders were aware that hundreds of employees and their families were at risk of the waters reaching their homes. Once the site was secure, a Corteva Community Support Team was rapidly formed to manage the needs of our co-workers, their families and the community. The newly-formed team worked to call all employees to make sure everyone was safe and to determine who required help and what they needed. Over the course of three days, all affected employees were accounted for and their needs were compiled, ranging from cleaning supplies and PPE to meals to safe overnight lodging and long-term housing. A Facebook group now with more than 170 members was created to enhance emails that were being sent looking for volunteers to assist in moving debris out of homes and yards, cleaning basements and making bagged lunches at the Corteva Michigan Office and Health Center to deliver to work crews. Dozens of meals were made or purchased from local restaurants. Over 50 volunteers put in more than 300 hours of work to assist 20 of our most affected employees and their families. The Community Support Team felt its mission was accomplished three weeks after flooding hit the Midland community. Once the emergency needs for employees had been met, continued employee and community assistance efforts were transferred to the established Partnerships committee, which works with the community and United Way of Midland County to deploy volunteers as needed. Flood relief efforts are still underway, and the team continues to use the new Facebook page to share volunteer opportunities when they exist as employees shift from clean-up efforts to the long process of repairing and rebuilding their homes and lives. While news of flooding in Midland hit the national news, colleagues, suppliers and other business partners from around the country reached out to see how they could help. It was decided that the needs of our Midland employees were being met by the support team, so any financial assistance that could be shared should be focused to United Way of Midland County and surrounding communities. The leaders of Corteva issued a match challenge: the company would match $100,000 in donations to United Way of Midland Countys flood relief efforts. It took only seven days to reach that goal, with $31,000-plus of employee donations combining with other corporate and endowment donations. In total, $105,350 was raised for United Way of Midland County. There were so many heroes in our community during the flood disaster and Corteva employees were proud to help play a part in the recovery of their community and neighbors. NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WeissLaw LLP, a national class action and shareholders' rights law firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, announces an investigation of Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) ("COF," or the "Company"), its Board of Directors, and certain Company officers for, among other things, possible breaches of fiduciary duty and violations of federal securities laws. If you are a shareholder of COF who wishes to discuss the investigation or have any questions about this notice and your rights or interests, visit our website: http://www.weisslawllp.com/capital-one-financial-corporation/ Or please contact: Joshua Rubin, Esq. WeissLaw LLP 1500 Broadway, 16th Floor New York, NY 10036 (212) 682-3025 (888)593-4771 [email protected] On August 6, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the "OCC"), announced that it assessed a civil penalty of $80 million against the Company in connection with its 2019 data breach. In July of 2019, COF announced that a hacker exploited a weakness in the firewall of its cloud server to expose the personal information of nearly 100 million U.S. customers and 6 million Canadian customers. The breach, which occurred between March 22 and 23, 2019, compromised approximately 140,000 social security numbers and 80,000 linked bank account numbers, and exposed the personal information of customers who applied for credit card products between 2005 and early 2019. The OCC found that COF "failed to establish effective risk assessment processes . . . and [failed] to correct [] deficiencies in a timely manner." WeissLaw is investigating whether COF's Board made false or misleading statements regarding the safeguarding and protection of customers' personal information. If you wish to discuss this investigation or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact Joshua Rubin of WeissLaw LLP at (888)593-4771, or by e-mail at [email protected]. WeissLaw LLP has litigated hundreds of stockholder class and derivative actions for violations of corporate and fiduciary duties. We have recovered over a billion dollars for defrauded clients. SOURCE WeissLaw LLP Related Links https://weisslawllp.com The leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has directed the petroleum tanker drivers to withdraw their services from Lagos State from August 10. The union said the decision followed the failure of various authorities in the state to address three major issues that have caused pains and harrowing experiences on the hapless drivers for several months. In a statement issued by Williams Akporeha, NUPENG national president, on Saturday, the union said they are left with no choice but to down tools. It is sad and disheartening to note here that we had made several appeals and reports to Lagos State Government and the Presidential Task Force for the decongestion of Apapa on these challenges but all to no avail, read the statement. We cannot afford to fold our arms while our members are being consistently and continually extorted, intimidated, harassed and victimized by different groups and segments in Lagos, hence we highlight to the general public the following three major challenges Petroleum Tanker Drivers are facing in Lagos State. The union listed the three major issues to include extortion of drivers by security agents, the menace of containerised trucks, and harassment by area boys. It is really disturbing and as well inexplicable that security agents who are expected to ensure free-flow of traffic and protection of road users now use their uniforms and arms to intimidate, harass and extort money from Petroleum Tanker Drivers. This reprehensible conduct is taking serious tolls on the psychological, emotional and financial state of Petroleum Tanker Drivers and their capacity to effectively and efficiently deliver services to the nation. This menace must stop and the leadership of these security operatives in Lagos State must go all out to call their men to order with immediate effect. Every one of them should be contented with their salaries and allowances rather than turning hapless Petroleum Tanker Drivers to money-making machine. According to the union, the menace of trucks at Apapa, Kirikiri and Beach Land axis of Lagos and collusion of government officials are hindering petroleum tankers from loading activities at depots and tank farms: Persistent traffic gridlock and indiscriminate parking of containerized trucks on major Lagos roads and bridges leading to Apapa port, Kirikiri, Beach Land, Satellite Town, Ijegun, are another major setbacks bedevilling the smooth running of the operations of Petroleum Tanker Drivers in Lagos State, the union said. As at today, MRS depot has been held captive for more than three months from discharging products to Petroleum Tanker Drivers despite heavy availability of Petroleum products stockpiled in their tank farm facilities. For safety reasons, Petroleum Tanker Drivers cannot continue to struggle with these containerized trucks in these corridors considering the inflammable nature of the products our members carry and we cannot afford to undermine safety standards, procedures and protocols in the course of our services. This is a situation that appears to have defied solution, considering governments non-intervention, lack of sensitivity over the years and collusion by those called upon by the Presidency to proffer solutions to the problem. On the harassment by area boys, the union said tanker drivers have continued to work in fear due to incessant attacks by members of various notorious groups who have developed a penchant for extorting money forcefully from them. READ ALSO: Petroleum Tanker Drivers now battle with both Area Boys and Area God-fathers amidst deplorable state of the roads in Lagos State, and this is really causing PTD lots of havoc on a daily basis. A distance of just about 10 kilometres for example, now takes seven to eight hours of manoeuvres and meandering by petrol tankers, many of which break down in the process, upturning their contents, killing PTD members and endangering the lives of several other Nigerians who traverse the roads. Consequently, as a socially responsible organization, we have made wide consultations with various leadership organs of our Union and with other key stakeholders in the oil and gas industry and therefore resolved to embark on an indefinite strike beginning from 12 a.m., Monday, August 10, 2020, if there are no decisive and convincing actions from Lagos State Government to address these concerns and challenges. Ajeet Singh, 31, a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) assistant sub-inspector, was on patrolling duty at the Calicut International Airport on Friday when he heard an ear-splitting sound. As Singh turned about, he saw an aircraft at the edge of the airports runway as it plunged into the valley and crashed hardly 20 metres from the CISFs security post where he was standing. The Air India Express plane, carrying 190 passengers and crew from Dubai, skidded off the tabletop runway amid heavy rain before it plunged, killing 18 people on board in Indias worst passenger aircraft accident since 2010. I was from 1pm-9pm shift [duty] and was checking the register at our CISF security post where ASI [assistant sub-inspector] Mangal Singh was on duty. Soon, as we saw the plane plunge towards us, as an instinctive reaction, both of us ran away from the site as it appeared that the aircraft will fall on us. Seconds later, as we realised the plane was full of passengers, we ran towards it. It had [by then] broken into three pieces tail, body, and cockpit, Singh said. Ajeet Singh, 31, a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) assistant sub-inspector Singh, who was the first respondent at the crash site and the first rescuer to enter the damaged aircraft, said the he alerted the quick reaction teams and the CISF control room immediately. He added that they, in turn, alerted the agencies concerned local police, Airports Authority of India (AAI), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and firefighters. After alerting others, I entered the aircraft. The first person I pulled out safely was a senior citizen who had his legs stuck between his seat and an iron angle...I also picked up a six-month-old child and brought him out safely. Singh added many passengers were unconscious and some crying in pain or for help. Most of them had their bodies entangled... There were many children, even infants. Singh said his priority was to pull out those who were still alive and could move around without assistance. He added that the aircraft fuel was flowing out heavily, and they feared it might catch fire. But probably because it was raining heavily, the debris did not catch fire despite a lot of fuel spilled around. Because of the force with which the cockpit must have crashed into the wall, it was completely damaged. Probably this was the reason the two pilots could not be saved. A portion of the wall has also collapsed. A First Information Report over the accident was filed on the basis of his statement. Also read: Kozhikode plane crash: Flight was shaking, it was a nightmare, recount survivors At least 50 CISF personnel, officials from Kerala police, AAI staff, firefighters, airline crew and 20-30 civilians joined the rescue operation that lasted close to three hours. Deputy commandant Kishor Kumar AV, the chief airport security officer (CASO) at the airport who led the rescue operation, acknowledged Singhs role. Our control room then informed all the agencies..., Kumar said. One of the major challenges was visibility. It was dark and the area had been put on red alert due to heavy rain. Also, a lot of fuel had spilled out from the plane, which could have caught fire; there could have even been an explosion. Despite the risk, our men continued the rescue and did not step back even once, he said. Soon, rescue officials arrived at the spot with emergency lights and other equipment. The cutters and other equipment were used to cut cables and metallic body of the aircraft and make way for the rescue teams to enter the aircraft and pull out passengers safely, the deputy commander said. Kumar said most challenging was to bring out the two pilots, who were found unconscious and later declared dead. Because of the impact of the crash, cockpit cabin got separated from the rest of the aircraft and had rammed the perimeter wall of the airport. The speed of the plane must have been very high because the cockpit cabin got stuck into the wall. We found a JCB machine on the main road across the wall. It was used to demolish a portion of the wall. The firefighters and medical staff then used equipment to cut open the body of the aircraft to pull out the two pilots. Their rescue alone took close to an hour. Their bodies were badly damaged. Both of them were rushed to the hospital without any delay, the officer said. Special director general, CISF, MA Ganapathy said after moving all the passengers safely to hospitals, officials started taking their luggage out. It was a mammoth task because many people on the flight were returning after year; they had a lot of luggage full of valuable like jewellery, electronics and cash. CISF, along with the local police, carefully preserved the luggage of the passengers, which will be returned to them in due time, he said Clergy lead the pallbearers as they carry the coffin of PC Andrew Harper during his funeral at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, England, on Oct. 14, 2019. (Ben Birchall - Pool/Getty Images) Widow of Killed Policeman Calls for Tougher Sentences The widow of a British policeman who was killed after being dragged behind a getaway car has launched a campaign to make killing emergency services workers punishable by life in jail. Police Constable Andrew Harper was killed while on duty in Berkshire, England, in August 2019. His three killers, Henry Long, 19, Albert Bowers, 18, and Jessie Cole, 18, were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter at Londons Old Bailey in July. Long, the driver of the getaway car, was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Bowers and Cole, the two passengers in the car, were sentenced to 13 years each. Harperss Law Widow Lissie Harpers campaign, named Harpers Law, calls for harsher sentencing for the convicted killers of emergency services workers. Her campaign is backed by the Police Federation of England and Wales. Lissie Harper has vowed to fight for a change in the law in memory of her late husband so that anyone killing a police officer, firefighter, nurse, doctor, or paramedic is jailed for life, the Police Federation said in a statement. In the statement, Harper called for the British public and politicians to back her campaign. She said that as a police officers widow she had witnessed first-hand the lenient way criminals who kill emergency services personnel are dealt with by the British judiciary. (L-R) Jessie Cole, Albert Bowers, and Henry Long, who were convicted of killing Police Constable Andrew Harper in Berkshire, United Kingdom, on Aug. 15, 2019. (Thames Valley Police) The people responsible for wreaking utter despair and grief in all of our lives will spend an inadequate amount of time behind bars, she said. The men who had taken her husbands innocent and heroic life had shown no sorrow or remorse, she said, yet could continue with their lives and be free to reoffend after they are released from jail. According to the Police Federation, Harper intends to meet with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel in the coming weeks when she will call for a change in the law. Call of Duty Andrew Harper was killed in on Aug. 15 last year while still at work several hours after his scheduled finishing time, according to trial documents. As they were the closest officers on duty at the time, he and a colleague responded to a late-night report about the theft of a quad bike. He approached a car parked in a country road with Long, the driver, and passengers Bowers and Cole inside. The car had a looped strap coming from the boot area that had been used to tow a stolen quad bike. The car sped off after Harpers ankles became entangled in the looped strap. He was then dragged by the ankles for around a mile and swung from side to side like a pendulum in an effort to dislodge him, the trial documents said. He died in the road from the catastrophic injuries he had sustained. Andrew Harper was 28 at the time of his death and had been married to Lissie Harper for just 4 weeks. Pakistan on Friday announced to fully resume international flights from Sunday, over four months after it suspended the operations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. These operations shall be conducted in accordance with established guidelines and SOPs as issued from time to time, the Civil Aviation Authority said. "Government of Pakistan has been pleased to allow all types of International and Domestic Flight Operations to/from all airports across Pakistan as per authorisation granted to all foreign and domestic operators PRE-COVID-I9 Summer schedule 2020, including cargo and special flight operations with effect from August 9, 2020 11.59 pm," according to a NOTAM issued by the authority. All flight operations were suspended towards the end of March but later international and domestic flights were allowed on selected routes. Pakistan fully restored its domestic flight operations from August 6 midnight. On Thursday, the government announced to reopen all economic and social sectors. Pakistan's coronavirus tally reached 282,645 with the detection of 782 new cases in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said on Friday. Seven more fatalities were also reported overnight, pushing the death toll to 6,052, it said. With the detection of the 782 new cases, Pakistan's coronavirus tally now stands at 282,645, the ministry said, adding that 258,099 patients so far have recovered from the deadly disease. The country has currently 18,494 active cases, it said. Of the total reported cases, Sindh recorded the maximum number of 122,759, COVID-19 patients, followed by Punjab at 94,040, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at 34,432, Islamabad at 15,182, Balochistan at 11,821, Gilgit-Baltistan at 2,287 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) at 2,124 cases. The authorities have so far performed 2,079,333 tests, including 20,461 overnight, to detect the novel coronavirus. Portland police chief Chuck Lovell slammed incomprehensible violence on Thursday after rioters moved to target city police precincts. Riots in Portland have been ongoing since the May death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers. Rioters targeted the citys federal courthouse for two months, assaulting federal officers with explosives and in some cases shining lasers to blind officers. City police began coordinating with federal officers to protect the courthouse last week. However, rioters are now targeting Portlands police stations. Last nights violence by rioters at our east precinct was incomprehensible, Lovell said at a virtual press conference on Thursday. We have people who are intentionally planning to go out and attack precincts, trap people inside, [and] set fires to these buildings. Lovell continued, We have nightly violence where officers get mortars thrown at them, rocks, commercial grade fireworks, and these senseless attempts to injure officers and destroy police facilities [are] reprehensible and [they] need to stop. Lovell said that the riots were intended to injure officers and could not be considered connected to the George Floyd protests. A local NBC affiliate reported that rioters attempted to start a fire at Portlands East Precinct. Additionally, a memorial to a Portland police officer who died while pursuing a suspect who shot a child was vandalized. The memorial to fallen officer Thomas Jeffries was tagged last night during a riot at Portland's East Precinct. He died in 1997 pursuing a man wanted for shooting a child. #portlandpolice @KGWNews https://t.co/eVVFna0BBA pic.twitter.com/6LbzYrJ2PB Eric Patterson (@KGWphotog) August 6, 2020 A rough night at Portland Police Bureau's East Precinct. Police called it a riot around 10pm last night. A security camera was vandalized and fire set at the front door as officers dodged items thrown at them. @KGWNews #PortlandProtests #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/cZWhtBD4hg Eric Patterson (@KGWphotog) August 6, 2020 The Department of Homeland Security announced that crowds outside the federal courthouse peaked at 50 people over Wednesday night, however now local law enforcement was bearing the brunt of the assaults. Story continues While criminal violence towards federal officers and property has receded, Portlands rioters have since redirected their attacks to local law enforcement, employing many of the same violent tactics previously used against federal officers and property, the DHS said in a statement. More from National Review Tipping point: Banks recalling loans pose long-term threat to Phukets tourism recovery Bhuritt Maswongssa, who serves as the Southern Thailand representative on the Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT), has called for government intervention on banks now calling in business loan repayments, warning that lack of action will send many hotels and other tourism-related businesses into bankruptcy and cause damage that will take the tourism industry years to recover from. tourismeconomicsCOVID-19 By Tanyaluk Sakoot Saturday 8 August 2020, 09:00AM Today, nearly all hotels on the island have bank loans. There are only a few hotels that do not have loans with the banks. This leaves many businesses on the island exposed to critical risk from not being able to make loan repayments during the current economic situation, said Mr Bhurritt, who also owns and operates the Patong Resort Hotel as the General Manager. Some hotels may still be able to re-negotiate their loans or restructure them if they still have assets that they can use as collateral, but many hotels have been closed for a long time without any form of revenue, so it makes no sense for banks to be foreclosing on unpaid loans and seizing a property that will not make any money, he added. We need the government to make a deal with the banks in order to help hotels and other tourism-related businesses on the island. If this does not happen, many hotels and tourism businesses are likely to go bankrupt, he warned. Worse, once these businesses close permanently, [beyond Phuket] hundreds and thousands of employees will be laid off, and that will aggravate the economy even further, he said. Mr Bhuritt also called for serious representation be sent from Bangkok to assess the actual economic impact the COVID crisis is having on Phuket. In this situation, we need a proactive person to come to see Phuket as fast as possible, he added. Mr Bhurritt warned that lack of government intervention on bank loans could push enough tourism-related businesses into bankruptcy to cause a downward spiral for the industry that would take years to recover from. His concerns echoed those of TCT President Chairat Trirattanajarasporn, who late last month warned that the industry as at a tipping point, with 30% of tourism-related businesses believed to have already exited the market in the first half of this year, a trend that could spell heavy long-term damage to the industry as a whole. Many related businesses were terminating their operations or selling off assets, choosing not to wait for an uncertain recovery, with those most heavily affected being tour operators, bus services with small vehicle fleets, restaurants, souvenir shops and hotels that used to focus on foreign tour groups, especially the Chinese market, Mr Chairat explained. Phuket Chamber of Commerce (PCC) President Thanusak Phungdet agreed that the industry was now at a critical juncture, especially now with businesses under threat from bank loan repayments. The tipping point is all the businesses now facing problems making repayments to banks, because hotels and other businesses simply do not have the money to pay back the loans, he said. This will of course directly affect all the staff at these businesses who will become unemployed, he added. Mr Thansuak also called for a top-level representative from Bangkok to come to Phuket to assess the true situation on the island, someone who can help us in practical terms, he said. I dont care who it is, but it must be someone the Prime Minister listens to and trusts, he said, without acknowledging that Deputy Prime Minister Jurin Laksanawisit was on the island for exactly that purpose less than two weeks ago. We also ask that the Bank of Thailand send someone to Phuket along with the CEO of each bank to hear firsthand the problems owners of hotels and other businesses are facing right now, he added. Third, we expect the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration [CCSA] to choose Phuket to be the first province to receive tourists from abroad, then the CCSA can use Phuket as the model for other provinces to use in receiving international tourists, Mr Thanusak said. Bhummikitti Ruktaengam, President of the Phuket Tourist Association, has already called for Phuket airport to be allowed to receive direct international flights, stating with chartered f lights and private jets, saying the province already has three hotels accredited as Alternative State Quarantine (ASQ) venues. At present, Phuket has three ASQ facilities. Another 16 hotels are awaiting approval. Mr Bhummikitti said tourists in ASQ will help drive the industry and are likely to stay longer than the 14-day quarantine period, while tourists under travel bubbles may have a shorter length of stay, he told the Bangkok Post. The province is preparing capacity for up to 20,000 tourists a day with 50 ICU beds equipped for coronavirus cases, he added. The plan to open the province to chartered flights and become an ASQ destination was discussed with the Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew late last month. The idea of welcoming private jets from Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore will be discussed later, he said. If Phuket cannot get international flights until the end of the year, then the province will have only B80 billion in tourism inf low, compared with B440bn last year, Mr Bhummikitti said. ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zomedica Pharmaceuticals Corp. (Zomedica) (NYSE American: ZOM), a veterinary health company, announced that Robert Cohen, Interim Chief Executive Officer, has been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors. Also appointed to the Board of Directors is Christopher Wolfenberg of the law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. Mr. Cohen joined Zomedica in June of 2020 following successfully serving as President and Chief Executive Officer at a series of early stage medical device and biotechnology companies. Prior to his 20 years in the CEO position, he was a member of senior management at large multinationals including St. Jude Medical, Inc., Sulzermedica, and Pfizer Inc. Mr. Wolfenberg is a leading business lawyer in Calgary, Canada focused on public and private securities transactions in the technology, energy and mining industries. Named by Acritas as a "Star Lawyer," he acts as a Director and Officer of a number of public, private, and not-for-profit entities. "Since Rob joined the Company, the Board has been pleased with how quickly he has had a positive impact on our efforts and immersed himself in all of the critical tasks that will lead to our commercial success, said Jeff Rowe, Chairman of the Board of Zomedica. I am pleased to welcome both him and Chris to the Board of Directors, and look forward to working together to bring Zomedica's TRUFORMA technology platform to market." Annual and Special Meeting The Corporations Annual and Special Virtual-Only Meeting (the Meeting) is to be held at 8:30 a.m. (Toronto Time) on Friday, September 25, 2020. Due to concerns regarding the coronavirus outbreak and to assist in protecting the health and well-being of our shareholders and employees, the Corporation is holding the meeting as a virtual-only meeting, which will be conducted via live audio online webcast, where registered shareholders and duly appointed proxyholders, regardless of geographic location, will have an opportunity to participate at the meeting. The Corporations meeting materials are being sent to shareholders using notice-and-access provisions in applicable securities legislation. It is anticipated that meeting materials will be available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov on or about August 14, 2020 Story continues Amendments to Amended and Restated By-law No. 1 There are a number of items of special business to be considered at the Meeting. Among these items, shareholders will be asked to ratify and confirm amendments to Zomedica's Amended and Restated By-law No. 1, which were effected pursuant to the adoption by the Board on August 6, 2020 of "Amended and Restated By-law No. 1 (2nd Version) (the By-law Amendments). The By-law Amendments are currently effective, and the Board is required to submit the By-law Amendments to shareholders for consideration at the Meeting. The By-law Amendments will cease to be effective if they are not ratified and confirmed by the shareholders at the Meeting. The By-law Amendments update and modernize the Corporations by-laws, and amendments include the following provisions: To allow the Corporation to hold shareholder meetings by electronic means, to allow shareholders to participate in a meeting by electronic means, and to allow shareholders to vote at a meeting using electronic means, if the Corporation makes available a communications facility for that purpose; and, To change the quorum at a meeting of shareholders to be two persons present and holding or representing by proxy not less than 25% of the outstanding common shares entitled to be voted at the meeting. The By-law Amendments currently are being filed on the Corporations SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. The By-law Amendments are discussed in the Corporations Management Proxy Circular and Proxy Statement prepared in connection with the Meeting, which will be available shortly. About Zomedica Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Zomedica (NYSE American: ZOM) is a veterinary health company creating products for companion animals (canine, feline and equine) by focusing on the unmet needs of clinical veterinarians. Zomedicas product portfolio will include innovative diagnostics and therapeutics that emphasize patient health and practice health. With a team that includes clinical veterinary professionals, it is Zomedicas mission to provide veterinarians the opportunity to lower costs, increase productivity, and grow revenue while better serving the animals in their care. For more information, visit www.ZOMEDICA.com. Follow Zomedica Reader Advisory Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" or forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking information) within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur and include statements relating to Zomedicas expectations regarding the public offering. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; uncertainty as to the timing and results of development work and pilot and pivotal studies, uncertainty as to the likelihood and timing of regulatory approvals, availability and cost of capital; the ability to identify and develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; veterinary acceptance of our products; competition from related products; the level of expenditures necessary to maintain and improve the quality of products and services; changes in technology and changes in laws and regulations; our ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships; risks pertaining to permits and licensing, intellectual property infringement risks, risks relating to future clinical trials, regulatory approvals, safety and efficacy of our products, the use of our product, intellectual property protection, risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact upon Zomedicas business operations generally, including Zomedicas ability to develop its diagnostic products, and the other risk factors disclosed in our filings with the SEC and under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking information to conform such information to actual results or to changes in our expectations except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Investor Relations Contact: PCG Advisory Group Kirin Smith, COO ksmith@pcgadvisory.com +1 646.863.6519 Media Contact: Meredith Newman mnewman@zomedica.com +1 734.369.2555 ext. 119 Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 17:22:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DHAKA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's COVID-19 cases rose to over 255,000 on Saturday with about 2,600 new cases reported, and deaths from the virus increased to 3,365. Senior Health Ministry official Nasima Sultana said in a briefing on Saturday that "2,611 new COVID-19 positive cases and 32 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh." "The number of confirmed infections in the country totaled 255,113 while fatalities stood at 3,365," she said. According to the official, 11,737 samples were tested in the last 24 hours in labs across the country. She said the total number of recovered patients in the country stands at 146,604 with 1,020 new recoveries. According to the official, the COVID-19 fatality rate in Bangladesh is now 1.32 percent and the current recovery rate is 57.47 percent in the country. Enditem New roads, water and electricity for housing developments will be fast-tracked across Sydney in a $100 million construction boost to help deliver hundreds of social and affordable homes. In a historic funding agreement between the Morrison and Berejiklian governments, $100 million in loans and grants will be provided to the NSW government to fund critical infrastructure for 781 new homes. The key services such as roads, water, sewerage, electricity and telecommunications for affordable housing will be delivered through the $1 billion National Housing Infrastructure Facility. The Berejiklian government has identified construction as crucial to its COVID-19 economic recovery plan and has committed to new investment in social and affordable housing. After meeting for less than two hours on Friday, Democratic leaders and Trump administration officials broke off negotiations on a fifth coronavirus stimulus bill with no additional meetings planned. Two weeks of fruitless negotiations between Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer on one side, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on the other, have yielded nothing. Despite the social and economic catastrophe millions of workers and their families face following the expiration of a federal $600-a-week unemployment enhancement and a partial eviction moratorium, neither side felt compelled to reach an agreement. While the $2.2 trillion CARES Act can be rightly characterized as the organized theft of trillions of dollars in social wealth by a parasitic ruling class, the extra jobless pay and ban on evictions included in the law have helped over 30 million jobless workers remain fed and housed over the past four months. Citing the jobs report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which showed that 1.8 million jobs were added in July, President Donald Trump tweeted out a graphic extolling the supposedly Great Jobs Numbers! He also touted them repeatedly in a bizarre press conference at which he threatened to issue an executive order that would temporarily extend the supplemental benefit, likely at a sharply reduced level, as well as the eviction moratorium, but tie these measures to a suspension of the payroll tax, which would halt funding for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The 1.8 million jobs added in July is nearly one million less than the 2.7 million recorded in June and well below the 4.8 million added in May. Overall, the BLS reported that unemployment fell to 10.2 percent, still the highest level in 38 years. The BLS figure for underemployment, a more accurate representation of the objective situation, which includes unemployment, involuntary part-time work and other considerations, is 17 percent. Schumer and Ron Wyden (Democrat from Oregon) introduced legislation in early July that would reduce the federal jobless supplement in phases as the unemployment rate in a given state drops: a $100 reduction in payments for every percentage point below 11 percent. This means that had the Democratic proposal been signed into law, the federal weekly benefit would be reduced in most states to $500. Of the 1.8 million jobs added in July, nearly 600,000 were in leisure and hospitality, the sector of the economy most impacted by the pandemic. The second largest growth sector, roughly 502,000 jobs, was in restaurants and bars. Both of these are low-wage sectors with large numbers of part-time and temporary jobs. The July jobs report showed that the average hourly pay of blue-collar workers declined by 11 cents in July, a sharp drop indicative of the campaign of job destruction and wage-cutting launched by the ruling class under the cover of the pandemic. The expiration of the $600-a-week federal enhancement has reduced the average income of over 30 million jobless workers by between 60 and 80 percent, leaving millions unable to afford basic necessities. The Urban Institute estimates that 12.3 million households, or 28 percent of the 43.8 million rental units in the US, were covered by the now expired federal moratorium. Researchers for the National Low Income Housing Coalition, in a report published August 7, estimated that 3040 million people in America are at risk of eviction throughout the rest of the year. The researchers bluntly wrote that the US may be facing the most severe housing crisis in its history. The housing crisis is already here, as attested to by surveys conducted by the Census Bureau beginning in late June through July. Survey results indicate that some 19 million children (more than 1 in 4) live in a household that is behind on rent or mortgage payments, isnt getting enough to eat, or both. Reporters for the World Socialist Web Site spoke to Gerald from Pennsylvania, who was laid off recently. I was working as a teller, he said. It wasnt a very good job; I was just making $12 an hour and we didnt get full time. They didnt trust us. They would move us around from one branch to another, so we never had the chance to get to know anyone. When the shutdown started, at first they said it was just going to be two weeks, but that stretched out longer and longer. I checked my account. I got my last extra payment last week. I only get about $180 from the state and they take taxes out of that. I live with two roommates. Ones still working but the other is like me, laid off. Rents are outrageous and we don't know what we will do. Amazon is hiring. They either already have or will be soon opening a new warehouse. They havent called me yet. They say they are cutting unemployment because people would rather stay home then go to work. Thats not true. There arent enough jobs for everyone who is out of work. The politicians had all this time to fix things. Trump thinks he can talk his way out of everything, and they dont want to listen to the scientists. They can give all this money to the banks and corporations, why cant we have masks and testing? Before this, I never had to file for unemployment, said Amanda, a former dog walker and childcare worker who lives in Manhattan. I was self-employed. I only received $182 a week from the state. I did receive the $600-a-week bonus, which was a real help, but that ended last week. Asked about the bipartisan ruling-class drive to force workers back on the job without protection from the virus, Amanda said, It is completely unethical, and the pandemic is worse now. They are trying to shove people back to work. There are no jobs because the service industry is only half open. I think the [benefit] should be extended until we have a vaccine or a solution to the pandemic. Now they [the Democrats and Republicans] are fighting and it will take weeks for them to pass anything. I know the Republicans are talking about a $300-a-week benefit, but only half of the Republicans want to pass that. In cities, you cant survive off $300 a week. They dont want to extend it, because if they wanted to extend it, they would have done so. Working class people are seeing that they dont care about us. More people are waking up now. But they are pitting workers who are employed against the unemployed. Speaking about the immediate future, she said: I think it is only going to get worse. Politicians are pretending the pandemic has gone away so they can open the economy back up. But I do have hope. And if the SEP continues to talk to people and workers, I have a lot of hope. The key is to educate them and to tell working-class people that they can change things. Staff return to work at St Basils Home for the Aged in Fawkner on August 07, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images) Australian Aged Care Top of Mind for Nations Leaders Aged care homes remain top of mind for the nations leaders as more Australians face travel restrictions because of COVID-19. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders on Aug 7 agreed to ongoing audits of the aged care sector after recent deadly outbreaks in Melbourne nursing homes. The audits will look at preparedness to cope with the disease, which has killed 181 aged care residents in Australia. Victoria accounts for 150 of those, with seven of the latest 11 deaths reported on Friday as the national toll rose to 266. Acting Chief Health Officer Paul Kelly said the audits would examine preventative measures and training to respond to outbreaks. Preparing for the worst, hoping for the best, he said. The stress testing is expected to aid a national aged care outbreak response plan in two weeks. Queensland has closed its borders to NSW and ACT residents as of Saturday in a bid to prevent a second outbreak occurring in the Sunshine State. Queenslanders returning home faced heavy traffic with delays of up to two hours at border crossings. The Northern Territory has reopened its borders to all Queenslanders and residents from NSWs Eurobodalla Shire and the Blue Mountains. More workers and businesses will receive the governments JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme when it scales back in September, after the eligibility requirements were eased. The program will cost a further $15 billion and the changes are designed to cushion the blow of Victorias tough restrictions. Rebecca Gredley in Canberra 6 Rajasthan MLAs knock SC for transfer of disqualification plea from HC India pti-Deepika S New Delhi, Aug 08: Six MLAs, who were elected to the Rajasthan Assembly on a BSP ticket but later merged with the Congress, have urged the Supreme Court to transfer to itself the petition pending in the high court for their disqualification for violating the party whip. They have contended that similar petitions, raising questions on disqualification under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, are pending before the Supreme Court and, therefore, the plea filed against them in the Rajasthan High Court should be transferred to the top court. Rajasthan: Listen to voice of people to save democracy, Ashok Gehlot to MLAs They said the high court cannot exercise the power of judicial review in "purely political questions" but can examine questions if they emanate from a constitutional duty or obligation. The Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs said in their plea it would be in the interest of justice that the matter is transferred to the top court and heard together with similar petitions filed there. Two petitions have been filed in the Rajasthan High Court, one by BJP MLA Madan Dilawar and the other by BSP National Secretary Satish Mishra. Dilawar has challenged the merger of the BSP MLAs into Congress, questioning Assembly Speaker CP Joshi's order dismissing his complaint without allowing him to have his say. Mishra has challenged the defection of the MLAs but they have not sought transfer of this plea to the Supreme Court. The MLAs said to the top court that Dilawar, aggrieved by the Speaker's decision, has filed a writ petition before the high court on the ground that there was no merger of the BSP with the Congress, and hence the exception under the Tenth Schedule could not be attracted. Dilawar and other respondents have raised questions that are similar to those already pending before the Supreme Court, the BSP legislators said in their petition to the top court. "It is important to also note that there is an urgent need to clarify the law in respect of the scope and purport of Paragraph Four of the Tenth Schedule, to ensure that there are no conflicting judgments, involving substantial questions of interpretation of the Constitution, by an interpretation by this Court," the plea said. It said the Tenth Schedule is applicable only to members of the legislature, and only for the purpose of disqualification of such members in the event of defection, unless exempted. They said under the scheme of the Tenth Schedule, only in the case of happening of the merger, which is the merger of two-thirds of "the legislature party" with "another political party", the "original political party" has merged with another political party, immunizes such members of the House from disqualification. "It is submitted that in the present fact situation, the entire legislature party of the BSP has merged with the legislature party of the INC, and therefore, the condition laid down in. Paragraph 4 (of Tenth Schedule) is satisfied to not attract disqualification," it added. On July 30, the high court had sought the response of the Assembly Speaker and its secretary on the pleas challenging the induction of the BSP MLAs into the Congress. Sandeep Yadav, Wajib Ali, Deepchand Kheria, Lakhan Meena, Jogendra Awana and Rajendra Gudha contested and won the 2018 assembly election on a BSP ticket but they defected to Congress in September 2019. They submitted an application for the merger on September 16, 2019, and the Speaker allowed their induction into the Congress two days later. The merger was a boost to the Ashok Gehlot-led government as the tally of the Congress increased to 107 in the house of 200. Amid a political crisis triggered by a rebellion by Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs, the Speaker had moved the top court for a stay on the high court's order which had asked him to defer disqualification proceedings against the sacked deputy chief minister and the 18 others. On July 31, the Rajasthan Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi also moved the top court challenging the high court order asking the Speaker to defer disqualification proceedings. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Disturbed by incidences of doctors not receiving proper beds and treatments after getting infected with Covid-19, the Indian Medical Association has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday to draw his attention. The association said that such incidents would create a demoralising effect on the healthcare community, who are also at the frontline of the corona war. "Disturbing reports have appeared about doctors and their families not getting beds for admission and also lack of drugs in many cases. It is pertinent to draw your attention to the demoralising effect it will have on our healthcare community," the letter read. The association demanded adequate care for doctors and their families. "We need his (PM) attention and indulgence because of the rising concerns of the safety of doctors during this Covid crisis. An increasing number of doctors are getting infected and losing lives due to Covid," said R.V. Asokan, secretary-general of IMA. Besides, the association also demanded the extension of state-sponsored medical and life insurance facilities for doctors in all sectors. As per the IMA, 40 per cent of the doctors who succumbed to the pandemic are general practitioners who work in private sectors or independently. "It is pertinent to mention Covid does not differentiate between the Government and the private sector. "Of all the fatalities we recorded, the substantial number of them are General Practitioners. A significant proportion of the population consults them for fever and related symptoms. They remain the first point of contact and care. They also happen to spend quality time in consultation and practising clinical medicine," Asokan said. The data shared by the IMA revealed that 87 per cent of the doctors who died due to COVID were above 50 years of age. "A huge chunk of them were already in vulnerable group. Yet, they did not deter from their duty to treat everyone despite facing the risk to their lives," Asokan added. The IMA also said that the highest number of casualties was recorded from Tamil Nadu, where 43 doctors died due to the Coronavirus, followed by Maharashtra and Gujarat which recorded 23 deaths each. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text PHILIPSBURG:--- Last Tuesday afternoon was another closed door virtual meeting of Parliament with the Prime Minister in attendance to apprise Parliament of the negotiations with the Dutch Government regarding liquidity assistance and specifically the proposal by the Dutch Government to legislate a Caribbean Reform Entity (CRE). In the meeting, the Members of Parliament were informed of Governments first official response to the proposal put on the table by State Secretary R. Knops regarding this CRE. As with most of these closed-door meetings with the Government, one is left wondering, what the secrecy is all about stated United Democrats Member of Parliament, Wescot-Williams in a recent statement. The MP believes that the population is entitled to hear their Government defend its position on any topic in Parliament, and are equally entitled to hear the reactions of their representatives in Parliament. While I support, especially during these times, finding ways to more efficiently use the time of Ministers and Members of Parliament and that informal communication between the Parliament and Government also can be constructive, the premise of formal political dialogue via the highest body in the land, should never be relegated to a sort of secret society, she stated. This, regardless of how strong or large any Government coalition is. In fact, the broader the coalition, the more need for that openness and accountability by the Ministers, and always with respect for the separation of powers. Case in point: the same proposal for a CRE by R. Knops was, as is required for Kingdom Council of Ministers deliberations, confidential and could not be shared with the Parliament of St. Maarten by our Government, the same Government that was expected to agree with this proposal and ensure its Parliament supported the proposal. State Secretary Knops decided the same day however to provide HIS Parliament with the information, in so doing making the whole package public, Wescot-Williams further elaborated. So while I am all for more efficiency by means of e.g. a) structuring the question hour of Parliament and making this a standard part of open communication between the two layers of Government; b) sending questions for meetings ahead of time and eliminating the long adjournments or the rushing off of answers; c) not obliging Ministers to read hours and hours of answers, which are provided in writing anyhow, Government should respond timely to questions by MPs, and this should go hand in hand with Governments respect for the role of Parliament and for the duties of every individual Member of Parliament, MP Wescot-Williams concluded. Queensland Police secretly waded out in to the Brisbane River after midnight in the pitch dark on Saturday to get onto a houseboat to serve Supreme Court documents to a Brisbane City councillor. The documents required Cr Sri to appear before the Supreme Court on Saturday. The police action appears linked to a planned but postponed rally and sit-in on the Story Bridge to protest refugees being held at a Kangaroo Point motel. By 4pm on Saturday neither Queensland Police nor the Justice Department have explained why it was necessary to serve documents at 1am to force Cr Sri to appear before the Supreme Court. With its belligerent disregard for the rest of the world, Chinas ruling regime has overplayed its hand in several ways. Among the most telling examples is the abrupt change in fortunes of Chinas Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. Huawei was once poised to help reinvent how the world communicates, with its technological lead in next-generation 5G networking, which is about 100 times more powerful in speed and functionality than the current 4G technology. But today, Huawei is radioactive. In many of the worlds biggest markets, it has become politically difficult or impossible for telecom operators to buy Huawei gear for 5G networks. And so, Huaweis growth prospects suddenly appear constrained, effectively limited to Huaweis home market of China. The likely prospect of stunted growth at the $165-billion (revenues) Huawei was not self-inflicted, unlike most corporate crises. Huawei is collateral damage to a hostile Chinese foreign policy. Thats ironic. With its brutally insensitive foreign policy, Beijing has been inadvertently sabotaging a Huawei it has long counted on to spearhead Chinas industrial renaissance and increased global influence. Canada is pretty much the last shoe to drop in this rare drama of a Leviathan industrial enterprise humbled by its own countrys misguided geopolitics. Ottawa has yet to decide on welcoming or banning Huawei in Canadian 5G networks. Complicating the issue, of course, is the 19-month-long arbitrary imprisonment by China of Canadian nationals Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Ottawa insists the two issues are not linked. But it has to worry that a negative decision on Huawei could jeopardize the release it seeks of the two Michaels. Yet, Canadas decision on Huawei has effectively been made. It was made in June, when the giant Canadian telecoms Bell Canada and Telus Corp. selected Huawei rivals Ericsson AB of Sweden and Nokia Corp. of Finland as lead suppliers to their 5G networks. That was quite a blow. Since none of Canadas other telecoms have committed to Huawei in 5G, Huawei has lost Canada as the one remaining major Western economy with which to showcase Huaweis prowess. Thats despite Huaweis continued technological lead over its competitors in 5G. And Huawei still underprices its rivals, which it is able to do thanks to its huge captive Chinese market. And customers like Telus were so committed to Huawei that the Vancouver-based telecom went public early this year with a warning to Ottawa. If Huawei equipment was banned, Telus declared, it might have to rip out and replace $1 billion worth of Huawei gear, an expense it would have to pass to its customers. So how did Huawei lose Telus and Canada? Well soon see, but first a bit of background. For years, Huawei has been described as a juggernaut. After all, more than three billion people use Huaweis telecom networks and devices, including smartphones. But most of those people are in Mainland China, which Huawei relies on for almost 60 per cent of its total revenues. After 33 years in business, Huaweis sales in the Western Hemisphere are a paltry 6.1 per cent of revenues. Even more startling is that Huawei sales in its Asia-Pacific backyard are a mere 8.2 per cent of revenues. That has to hurt. Asia-Pacific is home to the worlds fastest-growing economies, and some of the largest ones. Huaweis paucity of orders outside its home market in recent years undoes almost a decade of effort by Huawei to reduce its reliance on China. For Huawei to keep growing, it needs to start posting double-digit rates of revenue growth outside China. But for some time to come, that is an unlikely prospect. Its true that Huawei has not been able to stanch Western fears that, like all Chinese firms, it must do the Communist Party of Chinas bidding if asked a potential national security threat. Beijing responds to those concerns with Rottweiler diplomacy, badmouthing every country that dares raise this point of obvious relevance. Its also true that the Trump administration has channelled much of its fear and loathing of China into weakening Huawei. But if Chinese President Xi Jinping is wondering who to blame for a looming stall-out in Huaweis growth, he need only look in the mirror. China refuses to recognize Taiwans sovereign status. So, of course, Taiwanese telecoms do not use Huawei equipment just one of Huaweis many Asia-Pacific dead zones. With Chinas menacing armada of warships in the South China Sea, a threatened Japan the worlds third-largest economy has banned Huawei in its 5G networks. So have Singapore and Vietnam, also fearful of Chinas territorial aggression. China has meddled in the internal political affairs of Australia. Australia has banned Huawei from its 5G networks. China props up an otherwise doomed North Korean ruling regime that is threatening the security of the entire region. So South Koreas two leading telecoms, KT and SKT, naturally shun Huawei equipment. In May, China launched a shooting war on its Indian frontier. Dozens of people died and China has taken control of a slice of disputed territory. India, the worlds second-largest country, has banned Huawei gear from the huge state-owned telecoms MTNL and BSNL. And Indias giant privately owned Reliance Jio telecom has spurned Huawei. The U.S. has cut off much of Huaweis supply of U.S. semiconductors (chips), the worlds best. Telecoms in Canada, the U.K. and across Europe now doubt the quality of Huawei gear. That blow to Huawei could have been avoided if China had de-escalated its trade war with the U.S. by negotiating in a spirit of compromise rather than intransigence, after decades of abusive Chinese trade practices worldwide. Still, it wasnt until last month that Britain finally banned Huawei from 5G. At that time, London was coping with an all too customary vituperative opposition from Beijing in its bid to repatriate hundreds of British nationals in Hong Kong after Beijings ham-fisted imposition of anti-civil-rights laws there. Which leaves just Canada as the only member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance including Britain, America, Australia and New Zealand which has not yet banned or restricted the use of Huawei gear in 5G. Again, though, that decision has effectively been made. It was made in June by Bell and Telus. Not coincidentally, that decision followed revelations that Chinese authorities had covered up the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan for weeks last winter, leaving the world unprepared for a looming pandemic. Huawei is no angel. Few hulking enterprises are. But its among the few enterprises of its enormous size and importance that can trace most of its woes to a home countrys wilful alienation of the world. Read more about: The US Army and Navy have agreed to unban Jordan Uhl, the activist who linked to a Wikipedia page listing US military war crimes in their Twitch chats. After the incident, Uhl wrote an article criticizing the military for using Twitch to scout for potential recruits, especially since recruiters can interact with kids as young as 13. In a letter sent to Columbia Universitys Knight First Amendment Institute, which represented Uhl, the Navy justified his ban by pointing out that he violated the channels spam policy when he kept posting similar messages over a period of three days. The Navy agreed, however, that it needs to post comprehensive rules on its page to ensure its viewers are aware of them. It has already posted its policies under its About section and has unbanned Uhl and all other previously banned users as a gesture of good faith. The Armys letter was much shorter, merely telling the Knight Institute that it has approved its request to unban Uhl. It previously told Vice, however, that its reinstating access for accounts previously banned for harassing and degrading behavior on its Twitch stream. The Army is also returning to the platform after pausing its streaming activities following Uhls ban, which generated a lot of criticism from First Amendment groups. It told Vice that its now reviewing and clarifying its policies and procedures for the stream. While neither military branch mentioned the reason for the other users ban, the Knight Institute said in a statement that they were prohibited from posting in chat for engaging in core political speech. The institutes whole statement reads: The coronavirus is spiking in Californias youth prisons, but the state is not releasing young prisoners for their safety as it has done in adult lockups. Sixty-five cases were reported in the states three youth prisons as of Thursday about 9% of the population prompting corrections officials to temporarily halt transfers to the facilities in Stockton and Ventura County. Two of those cases were still active as of Monday, officials said. More than a dozen staff had tested positive for the virus as of last week. The prisons run by the Division of Juvenile Justice have long been denounced by advocates for dehumanizing conditions, high costs and poor outcomes. In May, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to permanently shut the facilities in coming years as part of his plan to remake the juvenile justice system. The rapidly growing outbreak has fueled calls to release some youths early and immediately stop shipping young people to the prisons, which house roughly 800 people up to age 25 found guilty of serious and violent crimes. Many rehabilitative programs and family visits have also been paused, forcing youths in custody to languish and wait out their sentences in greater isolation, advocates said. Thousands of adult prisoners, meanwhile, have been released in an effort to save lives amid devastating outbreaks at several jails and prisons. Normally Id go pick up my son, Id go grab him, said Jane Faalataina, whose son contracted the coronavirus at a youth lockup in Stockton, causing him to run a fever and lose his sense of taste. Im a mother that goes out of the way for her kids, anything that goes wrong, Im there to handle it. But I felt helpless, I felt frustrated. I felt like less of a mother, honestly. It didnt start out this way for the youth prisons. As the coronavirus started to spread throughout California in March, Newsom issued an executive order halting all admissions into the youth lockups, citing crowded conditions that made them an ideal environment for the virus to thrive. For nearly three months there were no confirmed cases among the hundreds of youths who remained in custody, a sign that outbreaks could be kept out of the large, shared living spaces that had been ravaged in other parts of the state and country. But those early victories have since vanished. The state resumed admissions to youth prisons May 26. About three weeks later, the first coronavirus case was confirmed among the young people in custody. By early July, at least nine youths had become infected, according to data collected by advocates, and it grew from there. Todd Trumbull Where were at now is really a worst case scenario, said Maureen Washburn, a policy analyst at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, which has long fought abuses at Californias youth prisons. It has been alarming to see the numbers doubling and tripling since the initial case was reported. Division of Juvenile Justice spokesman Mike Sicilia said the agencys focus has been and continues to be on ensuring the health, safety and wellness of the youth in our custody and our staff. Everyone in the facilities is required to wear a mask and is regularly tested staff every 14 days and youth upon admission, if they display symptoms or if theyve been in contact with someone known to have had the coronavirus. Before admissions were paused, youths were let into the prisons only in small groups and were isolated for roughly two weeks until they tested negative for the virus twice. The department has not released information on how many young people have contracted the virus in each prison, citing medical privacy, but said 65 youths had tested positive as of Thursday. Most of the young people have been asymptomatic and all but two have since recovered, Sicilia said. A few had fevers and loss of smell and were subsequently moved into a medical housing unit. Those who test positive are housed separately in medical isolation or quarantine in their housing units, which advocates say can deepen the damage done by these institutions. Faalataina said her son has been in an isolation unit since testing positive roughly a month ago and that his sense of taste and smell are still off. The main updates she receives come from her son, since the Division of Juvenile Justice has provided her with little information about the outbreak. My son said, Mom, Im young, Im going to be OK. And I understand that, but I hear of people dying from COVID-19, Faalataina said. These are the thoughts that run through a mothers mind. Last year, Newsom announced plans to shift responsibility of the youth prisons from the state corrections department to the more rehabilitation-focused Health and Human Services Agency. In May facing a growing budget crisis due to the pandemic Newsom proposed shutting down the youth prisons altogether. The plan was discussed in a State Assembly hearing Thursday, when lawmakers and advocates expressed excitement and concern. Under separate proposals, intake at the facilities would either end Jan. 1 or commitments would run through 2023, before shifting responsibility to county-run juvenile halls and camps, which are mostly empty following decades of declining youth crime. In a recent count, for example, San Franciscos 150-bed juvenile detention center held an average of just 12 youths, according to state data. Alameda Countys facility, with a capacity for more than 350, had 33 youths. The Chronicle examined the emptying of county-run youth lockups, and the enormous costs of operating them, in the series Vanishing Violence. Some lawmakers at the hearing said they were concerned that juvenile halls, which are designed for short-term detentions, will need support to treat youths for longer periods. Advocates fear that phasing out youth prisons could result in more teens being prosecuted as adults and receiving lengthy jail or prisons terms. 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 time to close DJJ, but we urge policymakers to do it the right way, said Elizabeth Calvin, senior advocate in the childrens rights division of Human Rights Watch. If not done with careful planning, its closure will send California backwards. The needs these youth have, and the trauma theyve endured, can not be taken lightly, and we must ensure that we are not just another failed system that they will cycle through, said Santa Barbara Probation Chief Tanja Heitman. While shutting down the youth prisons appears to be on the horizon, it does little for the hundreds of young people currently in custody dealing with a spiraling coranavirus outbreak. Some advocates and parents of youths detained at the prisons are not only concerned about their childrens health, but also the lack of services offered due to the pandemic. Family visits have stopped, along with many programs for youth. Denise, whose 19-year-old son tested positive for the coronavirus at the youth prison in Ventura County, said his college courses were canceled and he has been confined to his room roughly 22 hours a day, prompting him and several others to start a hunger strike. Hes also working through the trauma of recently losing his sister, who died of COVID-19, she said. Right now theyre just prisoners: Theres no school, no programs, theyre not even letting them go outside for fresh air, said Denise, who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her sons juvenile record. In general, The Chronicle does not identify juveniles accused or found guilty of crimes to protect their privacy, under the newsrooms reporting policies. Theres no hope for rehabilitation in there if theyre just going to keep them locked up in their rooms, she said. And theyre supposed to be rehabilitating them. The Anti-Recidivism Coalition, which runs workshops and classes in the facilities, had to move most of their curriculum focused on coping skills online with groups no larger than 10 youths. Policy coordinator Miguel Garcia said that some of the trade education programs have had to stop completely. Reduced opportunities and contact with the outside world have left incarcerated youths more distressed, Garcia said. Without programs, a lot of youth lose that motivation to move forward, Garcia said. When I spoke to some of the youth during a virtual presentation I did inside, there were concerns about whether people were thinking of them. They hear about this mass exodus of people being released and they are wondering, Am I a part of that? Am I going home? Christina, whose 19-year-old son is at a facility in Stockton, said the pared down services and growing number of coronavirus cases has her concerned about her sons mental and physical well-being. Its hard enough worrying about your kid when theyre incarcerated, then you add this to the mix, said Christina, who requested The Chronicle not use her last name to protect her sons juvenile record. I want to hug my kid, I want to know that hes safe, and I want to know that the people who are supposed to be keeping him safe are doing everything they can, but I have no control over that. ... Its probably the worst feeling in the world. Joaquin Palomino and Cynthia Dizikes are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jpalomino@sfchronicle.com, cdizikes@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoaquinPalomino, @cdizikes Steve Rahmn lost his home in 2017 when the historic Tubbs Fire tore through Santa Rosas Coffey Park neighborhood. Three years later, he has devoted his professional life to fire preparation. Rahmn helps run a company that sells and installs generators to keep peoples lights on when Pacific Gas and Electric Co. intentionally turns off power to cope with windy weather. When you lose power up in these rural areas, you lose your water, you lose your well, said Rahmn, chief operating officer at Firebrand Safety Systems. A lot of these areas want generator backups for protection. As peak fire season arrives in the wake of a dry winter, Californians are gearing up for the worst, with the catastrophes of the past several years looming over the effort. All but two of the states 20 most destructive wildfires started from August to December, and 10 of them occurred in the last five years. PG&E reshaped the fire-prevention landscape in Northern California last fall by intentionally turning off power for millions of people. The shut-offs, and the peak fire danger that brought them, are poised to return soon just as the coronavirus pandemic has shifted everything again. Heres what you need to know about this transformed landscape. Fighting fires and a virus: Fire season has been much more intense than it was this time last year. As of a few days ago, firefighters had battled nearly 5,800 wildland blazes that burned about 205,000 acres, compared to about 3,400 fires that blackened nearly 47,000 acres one year earlier, according to Cal Fire. The increase is not surprising. Northern California in particular benefited from a long, wet winter last year and saw a dramatic reversal of fortunes this year, making its forests and grasslands more fire prone than they were in 2019. Just about all of the northern state is in some level of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Our fuel conditions are primed and ready for those larger, more destructive fires, said Cal Fire spokesman Robert Foxworthy. We are set up to have above normal, significant fire potential in at least some portion of Northern California through October. The pandemic sharply limited the ranks of inmate crews the state has historically relied on to help battle blazes. So Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last month that the state would hire 858 seasonal firefighters, and that process is well under way, according to Foxworthy. COVID-19 is affecting some of Cal Fires operations, too. Base camps where firefighters typically gather to eat, rest and plan for the day now require masks and have spread out more to allow for social distancing. Morning briefings have far fewer people in attendance and are broadcast over the radio. For sleeping accommodations, Cal Fire is trying to house more people in off-site hotels instead of cramming them into trailers. Crews are sticking together and operating as a family unit, Foxworthy said. Theyve done some good planning, said Scott Stephens, a UC Berkeley fire science professor. But one thing we know about firefighting for sure is it is a group activity, and the only way it works is if you actually work very, very strongly as a group. Foxworthy said the actual firefighting has not changed because of the coronavirus: Cal Fire still aims to keep 95% of all fires contained to 10 acres or less. As of late last month, just 33 of the agencys roughly 9,000 employees had tested positive for the virus, he said. California has also secured a more advanced helicopter that can fight fires much more aggressively than Cal Fires current aircraft, and officials plan to bring in 11 more of them eventually, Foxworthy said. But one of the key improvements in the new helicopters their ability to fight fires at night likely wont roll out this year. Thats because pilots and crews need to be trained and certified in the new nighttime capabilities, Foxworthy said. Evacuating while keeping your distance: When huge, menacing wildfires have raged through Northern California communities in years past, evacuated residents have typically crowded into large indoor shelters. That should not happen this year, given the high risk of coronavirus transmission in such an environment. If a huge and fast-moving inferno ignited tomorrow, emergency officials would still direct evacuees to safe places away from the fire zone. But instead of immediately crowding into a gymnasium, National Guard armory or local community center, evacuees might have to wait in their cars for a while, said Mark Pazin, chief of the law enforcement branch at the California Governors Office of Emergency Services. People fleeing a major fire wont have to sleep on cots crammed side by side, either, Pazin said. Working with the American Red Cross, emergency leaders hope to offer people hotel and motel vouchers instead, he said. To the extent any large indoor space is needed, officials would ensure social distancing, according to Pazin. We cannot herd people into a huge complex and have everybody walking over each other having the possibility of cross contamination, he said. Those days are gone. In rural Modoc County, at the far northeastern corner of California near the Oregon and Nevada borders, flames have twice prompted socially distant evacuations this year. In one instance, evacuees went to hotel rooms and in another an RV park just relocated somewhere safer, said Heather Hadwick, deputy director of Modoc Countys Office of Emergency Services. Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California Those occurred during a large complex of fires that started last month and have burned more than 83,000 acres in Modoc and neighboring Siskiyou counties. We had discussed with public health (officers), if we had to do a large-scale shelter, that wed have two sites: one for vulnerable people and one for the general population that would still have the room there to keep the social distancing, Hadwick said. Thats the worst-case scenario for us. PG&E plans for greater safety: Californias largest privately owned power company, PG&E, just emerged from a 1-year-long bankruptcy case prompted by its responsibility for some of the states most horrific fires. For the worst of those, the 2018 Camp Fire, PG&E recently pleaded guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter. Company leaders are desperate to avoid a repeat scenario. As of last month, PG&E had trimmed trees around more than 1,300 miles of power lines, installed 75 fire-watching cameras and put 169 new weather stations in place, according to company data. PG&E also installed more resilient power poles, covered wires and buried some lines underground along 138.5 miles in high-fire threat areas. The virus wont stop PG&E from turning off power again when dry, fast winds blow through this year. But the company says it is trying to make each blackout affect fewer homes and businesses than it would have under the same circumstances in 2019. PG&E has installed hundreds of devices that allow the company to separate its electric grid into smaller pieces and put some switches on high-voltage power lines that allow it to keep the lights on in certain low-risk areas. And its using generators to keep electricity flowing at certain lower-risk substations that could otherwise lose power because they connect to a transmission line that traverses a more dangerous place. In recent days, PG&E conducted a companywide power shut-off drill that it said included testing better procedures to communicate with customers. Thats a necessary measure, given the companys missteps last year. The drill also included power line inspections, among other features. Some people who endured last years shut-offs are taking matters into their own hands, if they can afford to do so. Rahmn, of Firebrand Safety Systems in Santa Rosa, said his company has averaged about three generator installations per week and we could always do more. The process is costly, reaching as much as $20,000, he said but the surety is worth it for some. Fire survivors dont handle overwhelming very well, Rahmn said. We all used to be able to multitask like crazy. I find in myself, that skill set has lessened now. So when things are overwhelming, you kind of shut down and move on to something else. Offering that little peace of mind is important to us. J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris To paraphrase one of Brideshead Revisiteds most famous lines: we have been here before. In November, Little, Brown will release the 75th anniversary edition of Evelyn Waughs novel, set in the interwar years and centered on an Oxford student who becomes enchanted and then disillusioned with his friends aristocratic family. The book has enjoyed various renaissances since it was first published in the U.K. in 1945 and in the U.S. the following year. The 1982 paperback edition of the novel, for example, published around the time that PBS began airing the BBC TV adaptation starring Jeremy Irons. Its sold almost 600,000 copies, according to Bowen Dunnan, publishing associate at Little, Brown imprint Back Bay. Since then, the book has been cemented as part of the Western canon, appearing in the Modern Librarys 1998 list of the 100 Best Novels and, more recently, on New York Public Librarys list of 125 beloved books from the last 125 years. (A film adaptation starring Emma Thompson was also released in 2008.) Dunnan says the book has continued to appeal to readers thanks to its timeless themes, namely class, aspiration, and generational change. It feels like a British Great Gatsby to me, he says. He adds that readers latch onto and remember certain images from the novel, including the fictional familys Rolls-Royce and their estate, both of which feature prominently in the cover of the new edition. To mark the anniversary, Little, Brown had intended to take part in a festival celebrating the book at Castle Howard, an opulent estate in North Yorkshire, England, where both screen adaptations of the novel were filmed. But because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the festival, originally scheduled for this summer, was canceled. Its perhaps fitting for a novel concerned with the decline of the aristocracy that promotion will now take place largely on the democratic turf of the Web. Dunnan is looking forward in particular to a social media read-along, and seeing, he says, people bringing different perspectives to the book. Return to the main feature. New Delhi: Continuing the effort to disengage peacefully at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India and China on Saturday (August 8, 2020) held a Major General-level talk at Daulat Beg Oldi area over the withdrawal of Chinese troops from the Depsang plains in the Ladakh region. As per sources, the sixth round of military-level talks began on Saturday morning at around 11 AM and concluded by 7:30 PM, in order to ease the tensions that escalated in June when the two countries engaged in violent clashes in Ladakh's Galwan valley. The brutal clashes on the night of June 15 resulted in 20 Indian soldiers getting killed in action, while over 50 reportedly died in China's Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) camp. "The two sides focused on disengagement from Depsang Plains, where the Chinese have marched with over 17,000 troops along the LAC," reported ANI news agency. The last Corps commander-level talks between the two countries were held on August 2 in which the Indian side had insisted on complete disengagement of Chinese troops at the earliest, and immediate restoration of status quo ante in all areas of eastern Ladakh. Earlier on August 7, Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora visited forward air bases in the Ladakh sector and interacted with air warriors of the combat units currently operating in the sector. He also reviewed operational preparedness at IAF bases. The VCAS urged all air warriors, NCs(E), DSC personnel & Civilian staff to continue discharging their duties with utmost sincerity & ensure a high state of combat readiness at all times. He also flew Chinook and Light Combat Helicopter during his visit. Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) August 7, 2020 Subsequently, the IAF has reportedly deployed most of its frontline fighter jets like Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar and Mirage 2000 aircraft in the key frontier air bases in eastern Ladakh and other critical places along the LAC. Notably, amid simmering tensions between the two armies, India has also recently got hold of 5 Rafale fighter aircraft, which according to former Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal (retd) BS Dhanoa will give the country a strategic advantage in case of any aerial combat with China in the mountainous Tibet region, reported PTI news agency. The Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria & AOC-in-C WAC Air Marshal B Suresh welcomed the first five IAF Rafales which arrived at AF Stn Ambala today.#IndianAirForce#RafaleInIndia#Rafales pic.twitter.com/xNK97fwynf Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) July 29, 2020 The India and China relations have soured ever since the June 15 clashes and resulted in many strict actions from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. Types of obituaries The Missourian publishes two types of obituaries family obituaries and life stories. A family obituary is the version submitted by a funeral home or family. Please see the submission form for details on cost and deadlines. Family obituaries A life story is a closer look at a person's life and involves a reporter contacting family and friends. Life stories are based on newsworthiness and consent of the family. Life stories. The Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the Air India Express flight that crashed in Kozhikode airport in Kerala on Friday night was recovered from the site on Saturday morning. Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri who flew from Delhi to the accident site said there was no need to speculate as a probe has been ordered adding that there was no question over the pilots competence. The recovery of Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) will help piece together what happened during the last moments of the flight. Puri said the pilots operating the Air India Express flight were very experienced. Commander of the aircraft Deepak Vasant Sathe, a former fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force had 10,000 hours of flying experience on the Boeing 737 aircraft. Out of that he flew 6,662 hours as commander. Sathe had landed on the challenging air field of Calicut 27 times including more than 10 times this year itself while co-pilot, Akhilesh Kumar who was 32 years old also had experience of 1,728 hours of flying with the 737 aircraft. ALSO READ | Both Air India Express pilots killed as plane with 191 on board skids off runway in Kozhikode The aircraft was captained and operated by one of our most experienced and distinguished commanders - Deepak Sathe. He had landed on this airfield as many as 27 times, including this year. He was a very accomplished, experienced, decorated person in command of the aircraft. There is absolutely no doubt over their competence, Puri said. Puri left from Delhi to Kozhikode on Saturday morning along with two probe teams. One flight took off around 0200 hours from Delhi to Kozhikode carrying investigating officers from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), CEO of Air India Express and other officials of the national transporter. Another flight from Mumbai to Kozhikode took off around 0600hrs in the morning carrying rescue teams of Air India to provide support and assist families of those affected in this accident while a third flight will take off from Delhi around 0600hrs carrying the CMD and other senior officials of AI. ALSO READ | Co-pilots wife unaware of his death in Kerala crash. Is expecting a baby in 15 days Reached Kozhikode to take stock of the status & implementation of relief measures after the air accident last evening. Will hold consultations with senior civil aviation officials & professionals. Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder of the aircraft have been retrieved. AAIB is conducting investigations. It is very unfortunate that 18 people including the two pilots have lost their lives in this air accident. I once again offer my condolences to the families of the bereaved and wish a speedy recovery to those injured, Puri tweeted. The civil aviation ministrys accident investigation division Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will conduct a detailed investigation into the crash. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is a division of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India which investigates aircraft accidents. The bureaus role is to conduct independent aircraft accident investigation and to obtain a preliminary report on the accident and assist in setting up of the committee of inquiry and formal investigation in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules. According to Air India, there were 190 people on board the Air India Express flight AXB1344 including 174 passengers, 10 infants and four crew members. Air India Express is a subsidiary of state-run airline Air India. The so-called tabletop airport has limited space at the ends of the runway, and several international airlines had stopped flying bigger aircraft into Kozhikode due to safety issues over the length of the runway. Puri said that there was no need to speculate on what happened during the crash till the probe has been completed and DGCA files an investigation report . He also said that it was fortunate that the plane didnt catch fire. We will look into all the issues. Let me tell you that there are table-top airports not just in our country, but all over the world. These airports pose a problem but then landing clearances are given based on the experience of the pilots. Let us not speculate as a full and comprehensive probe will take place, he added. According to a playback on flight-tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane circled the airport twice before attempting to land. In its second instance, it aborted the attempt with 2,000 feet to go before the crash landing. The crash has claimed at least 18 lives including the two pilots. Air India Express on Saturday said it will provide an interim compensation of Rs 10,00,000 to the next kin of the deceased passenger 12 years and above, Rs 5,00,000 to the passengers below the age of 12 years, Rs.200,000 to critical injured passenger and Rs.50,000 to the passengers who are injured in the incident. Air India Express regret to confirm that its flight IX-1344 from DXB to CCJ was involved in an accident on the 7th August 2020 at Calicut. As an immediate relief, the airline will provide interim compensation to the to the next kin of the deceased and to the injured, the airline said. MEMPHIS, Tenn. - U.S. Senate candidate Marquita Bradshaw said Saturday that her campaign fundraising is in full swing and she plans to visit all 95 Tennessee counties as she tries to flip the seat from Republican to Democrat. Bradshaw won Thursdays Democratic primary election in the contest to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, who is retiring. She faces Bill Hagerty, a former ambassador to Japan who was endorsed by President Donald Trump in the GOP primary, in the Nov. 3 election. The progressives win over a field of Democrats, including establishment choice James Mackler, has drawn national attention in a Senate race where the focus had been on a contentious GOP primary featuring Hagerty and Nashville doctor Manny Sethi. Bradshaw is the first Black woman nominated for statewide office by either major political party in Tennessee. An environmental justice and labour issues activist and community organizer, Bradshaw is a single mother who has battled foreclosure and bankruptcy and struggled with student loan debt while working jobs with no health insurance. She has also become a respected community leader in Memphis. She faces an uphill battle: Republicans have held both Senate seats in Tennessee since 1994, and Trump remains popular enough in the red state that Hagerty mentioned the president at every turn. Bradshaw held a Facebook event from the den of her Memphis home Saturday in which she asked for volunteers and donors to buttress her campaign. Bradshaws campaign relied heavily on social media, and on a network of community organizers across the state, to help her connect with voters. For the primary, Bradshaw spent about $5,800 through March, the last time she reported any campaign finance activity, records show. Now she faces Hagerty, who spent $9.6 million through mid-July. She said her campaign raised $110,000 in small donations within 24 hours and she plans to visit each of Tennessees 95 counties while obeying social distancing guidelines in place during the new coronavirus outbreak. The way a single mom spends a dollar is not going to be the same way a rich man spends a dollar, she said. It goes a whole lot longer and a whole lot further. Hagerty on Saturday attended a GOP unity event with state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, Gov. Bill Lee, and Alexander in Franklin, an affluent Nashville suburb. Bradshaw said she plans to spend time in Shelby County early next week before heading to other locations later in the week. She encouraged supporters to help register voters. The whole strategy for this campaign is to make everyone feel like theyre talking directly to me and voicing their concern as a citizen, so we can come up with solutions, no matter what part of Tennessee youre in, she said. Paris mandates masks in some areas; Ireland reports highest number of cases since May; Gaza children return to school. Authorities in the French capital will impose the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors in busy areas from Monday amid a rise in coronavirus cases. The total number of United States coronavirus deaths surged past 160,000 with more than 4.9 million confirmed infections across the country. More than two million people have now been confirmed infected in India, which is the third-worst hit country by COVID-19. At least 19.3 million people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, while the global death toll crossed 719,000. Nearly 11.7 million have recovered. Here are the latest updates: Saturday, August 8 23:02 GMT Trump signs coronavirus relief orders after talks with Congress fail US President Donald Trump has signed executive orders partly restoring enhanced unemployment payments to the tens of millions of Americans who lost jobs in the coronavirus pandemic, as the United States hit almost five million COVID-19 cases, according Reuters news agency. Negotiations broke down this week between the White House and top Democrats in Congress over how best to help Americans cope with the heavy human and economic toll of the crisis, which has killed more than 160,000 people across the country. Trump said the orders would provide an extra $400 per week in unemployment payments, less than the $600 per week passed earlier in the crisis. Some of the measures were likely to face legal challenges, as the U.S. Constitution gives Congress authority over federal spending. This is the money they need, this is the money they want, this gives them an incentive to go back to work, the Republican president said of the lower payments. He said 25 percent of it would be paid by states, whose budgets have been hard hit by the crisis. 20:40 GMT South Africa coronavirus deaths top 10,000 More than 10,000 people have died from coronavirus in South Africa since the pandemic arrived in the country in March, the health ministry said. The continents most industrialised economy has registered 553,188 infections, more than half of the continental caseload, and the fifth biggest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. Minister Zweli Mkhize said in his daily update statement that 301 new virus-related deaths had been recorded. This means we have breached the 10,000 mark, with 10,210 cumulative deaths now recorded, he said. 20:10 GMT Thousands protest against Netanyahu over COVID-19 response, corruption allegations Thousands of Israelis rallied outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus residence in Jerusalem as anger mounted over corruption allegations and his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Your time is up, read the giant letters projected on to a building at the protest site, as demonstrators waved Israeli flags and called on Netanyahu to resign over what they say is his failure to protect jobs and businesses affected by the pandemic. The protest movement has intensified in recent weeks, with critics accusing Netanyahu of being distracted by a corruption case against him. He denies wrongdoing. Netanyahu, who was sworn in for a fifth term in May after a closely fought election, has accused the protesters of trampling democracy and the Israeli media of encouraging dissent. 18:35 GMT Paris prefecture says face mask order to be in place for 1 month Face masks must be worn outdoors in Paris along the banks of the River Seine and along the Canal St Martin as well as in open-air markets and other places where social distancing is difficult, the Paris prefecture. Masks will be mandatory from 0600 GMT on Monday and the order will remain in place for one month, the prefecture said. 17:05 GMT Ireland reports highest number of new COVID-19 cases since early May Ireland has reported 174 new cases of COVID-19, by far the highest number of infections since May and up from 98 on Friday and an average of 58 cases per day for the past week. Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn said 118 of the new cases were linked to the three counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly where some restrictions on movement were reintroduced on Friday following a surge in cases there. While todays numbers of confirmed cases are high, they are not unexpected, Glynn said. Our priority now is to avoid these cases and clusters leading to widespread community transmission of the disease. Authorities in Ireland have recorded more than 26,000 infections since the pandemics outbreak in March [File: Paul Faith/AFP] 16:35 GMT Pakistan announces resumption of international travel Pakistan has announced that it will allow the full resumption of all types of international flights to and from the countrys airports from Sunday amid a steady decline in COVID-19 deaths and infections. The announcement comes weeks after Pakistan partially reopened its airports for domestic and international commercial flights. A complete ban on domestic and international commercial flights was imposed in March when Pakistan enforced a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Later, the restrictions were gradually eased and Pakistan witnessed a peak in virus deaths and infections in June. Pakistan on Saturday reported only 14 fatalities from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, raising its total COVID-19-related fatalities to 6,068. 16:20 GMT Italy reports 347 new coronavirus cases Italy has reported 347 new coronavirus infections, a day after it surpassed the 500-case barrier for the first time since late May. Italy had 552 confirmed cases on Friday. With Saturdays update from the health ministry, Italys daily caseload returns to the 200-300 range of new infections it has maintained for several weeks. Government officials have urged Italians to keep their guard up, given Spain, France and Germany have seen daily infections top the 1,000-mark recently after the easing of virus lockdown measures. Italian officials have blamed the new clusters largely on newly arrived migrants and Italians returning home from vacation outside their home regions. Another 13 people died in the last day, making Italys confirmed COVID-19 death toll 35,203 the sixth highest in the world. 16:00 GMT Masks compulsory in parts of Paris from Monday Wearing a mask will be compulsory in parts of Paris and its wider region from Monday to combat a rise in coronavirus infections in and around the French capital, police have said. The mask will be obligatory for all those aged 11 and over from 8am (06:00 GMT) on Monday in certain very crowded zones, the police said in a statement on Saturday, without yet detailing which areas were affected. All the indicators show that since mid-July the virus is again circulating more actively in the region, the police said, adding that some 400 people were testing positive for COVID-19 in the region every day, with the 20-30 age group particularly affected. 15:20 GMT Gaza children return to school despite virus fears Hundreds of thousands of children have returned to school in Gaza after a five-month suspension aimed at reining in the spread of the novel coronavirus in the crowded Palestinian territory. Ziyad Thabit, undersecretary of the education ministry in the Hamas-ruled enclave, said pupils would follow a remedial curriculum throughout August and classes would be limited to four a day. The United Nations agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, which provides education to hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza, said more than 285,000 pupils had returned to its 277 schools. In a statement, it said it has put in place preventative measures such as providing all the necessary materials to sanitise schools and training staff on how to use sanitation materials effectively. It said it would cancel morning assemblies and keep children in classrooms during breaks to avoid too many pupils gathering in one place at a time. UNRWA said over 285,000 pupils returned to classes across the 277 schools it runs [Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu] 15:15 GMT President Kenyatta says Kenya ready to welcome tourists again President Uhuru Kenyatta encouraged tourists to return to Kenya, saying the country was safe and open for business even with coronavirus cases having tripled in the past month. Kenyatta said the country was ready to receive domestic and foreign visitors, and that he was satisfied with measures taken by the tourism sector to protect travellers from COVID-19. I want to take this opportunity to encourage every single Kenyan to take advantage and to travel You can travel, you can move, Kenyatta said in a statement issued by his office. And now as you know, we have also opened up our skies and flights are coming. We welcome all those who choose to come. Kenya recorded 699 new infections on Saturday, taking the countrys overall tally to 25,837 roughly three times the number of a month ago. It has recorded 418 deaths from the disease, government figures show. Kenya recorded 699 new infections on Saturday, taking the countrys overall tally to 25,837 roughly three times the number of a month ago [Njeri Mwangi/Reuters] 14:45 GMT Algeria eases coronavirus restrictions, including travel curbs and curfew Algeria has announced it will further ease its coronavirus lockdown, including shortening an overnight curfew, lifting some travel curbs and allowing large mosques to reopen. The North African country has recorded 34,155 coronavirus infections with 1,282 deaths. In June, it resumed some economic activity, mainly in the construction and public works sectors, and allowed the reopening of some businesses. The new measures include lifting a travel ban on 29 provinces from August 9 until the end of the month. During that period, a curfew will be shortened and will run from 11pm to 6am from the current 8pm to 5am, the government said. Mosques with a capacity of more than 1,000 worshippers can reopen from August 15, though weekly prayers on Fridays, which are usually attended by larger numbers of people, will remain banned throughout the country. Algeria has so far recorded more than 34,000 coronavirus cases including 1,282 deaths [Ryad Kramdi/AFP] 14:30 GMT UK medics protest, demand pay raise after pandemic struggle Hundreds of healthcare workers have rallied in cities across Britain, demanding the government acknowledge their hard work during the coronavirus pandemic with a hefty pay increase. In London, demonstrators most wearing masks and observing social distancing marched to the gates of Downing Street, home to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, chanting, Boris Johnson, hear us shout. Pay us properly or get out. Medics have been hailed as heroes during the pandemic by the government and public. But some say a decade of public spending cuts by Johnson and previous Conservative prime ministers left the state-funded National Health Service struggling to cope. Demonstrators hold placards that read Fight for NHS, pay rise now [Kate Green/Anadolu] 14:10 GMT Britain makes wearing of face masks mandatory People in Britain must wear masks in most indoor settings starting from Saturday as the country tries to squash a rise in coronavirus infections that has followed the easing of lockdown measures. England and Scotland now require face-coverings in most indoor spaces, including places of worship, museums, cinemas, banks and libraries. They were already mandatory in shops and on public transport. A swath of northern England has been put under tougher restrictions that bar households from mixing, after a surge in infections that authorities blame partly on people meeting up in homes and pubs. Britains official coronavirus death toll stands at more than 46,500, the highest in Europe. 13:35 GMT Germany adds parts of Bulgaria, Romania to virus-risk list Germany has added parts several areas of Bulgaria and Romania to a list of places considered high risk for coronavirus infections, requiring compulsory tests for travellers returning from those places from Saturday. In its latest travel warning update, the foreign ministry put Bulgarias Blagoevgrad, Dobrich and Black Sea tourist hotspot Varna on its list of places where infections were rising rapidly. Seven places in Romania Arges, Bihor, Buzau, Neamt, Ialomita, Mehedinti and Timis were also added. This means that travellers entering Germany after visiting these sites must take a coronavirus test on arrival unless they can produce a test taken in the previous 48 hours. Germany uses the yardstick of 50 new infections per 100,000 residents in the past seven days to determine if a country or region should go on its high-risk list. It recently added three regions in Spain to the list in a blow to the fellow EU member state. 11:48 GMT Ukraine closes checkpoints at Crimean border to control coronavirus Ukraines government said it has temporarily closed its border with Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. All three crossing points between the mainland and Crimea, which is defined by Ukraine as an occupied territory, will be closed from August 9 to August 30, a government statement said. Only Crimean residents with Ukrainian citizenship will be allowed to enter Ukraine. Ukrainians who permanently live on the mainland will be able to return home during the three-week closure. Ukraine has registered a steady daily increase in new coronavirus infections since the end of July. The number of confirmed cases rose by 1,489 in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases is at 79,750, including 1,879 deaths. 11:19 GMT At least 17 participants of Afghan grand assembly positive for coronavirus At least 17 participants of a major Afghan grand assembly have tested positive for the new coronavirus, officials said, a day after the high-profile gathering began in Kabul to deliberate over the fate of Taliban prisoners and the beginning of the peace process in the war-torn country. After being called by the Afghan government, the gathering, known as the loya jirga, began on Friday with more than 3,600 participants amid tight security and the COVID-19 pandemic to debate whether Taliban prisoners should be freed, removing a major obstacle in the peace talks. 200807033215517 It was not immediately clear if the testing was done before or after the assembly began, but there is a fear the infection could have spread given the size of the gathering, which took place under a tent. Afghanistan has officially recorded 37,015 cases of the virus and 1,307 COVID-19 deaths, but officials said this week at least 10 million people may have been infected. 09:57 GMT Children walk back to school in Gaza after five-month shutdown Hundreds of thousands of children walked through the streets of the Gaza Strip to return to classes after five months of shutdown though authorities said they were ready to close schools again if coronavirus cases spike. Gaza, mostly cut off from the world by an Israeli-led blockade, has not recorded any COVID-19 cases in the towns and refugee camps where about two million Palestinians live. Health workers will sanitise Gazas 751 schools twice a day, officials said. Children do not have to wear masks but must bring their own lunch and outdoor breaks are banned. About 40km (25 miles) away in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which has reported a spike in COVID-19 cases, high school classes began this week but elementary schools remain closed. West Bank health officials have reported 94 deaths and 13,600 cases, most of them in the last two months. 08:43 GMT Poland reports 843 new coronavirus cases Poland has reported 843 new coronavirus cases, according to the health ministrys Twitter account, the seventh daily record in two weeks. Poland reported 51,167 cases of the new coronavirus in all, and 1,800 deaths. 07:14 GMT Australias Victoria state reports 450 new coronavirus cases Australias second-most populous state of Victoria on Friday reported 11 coronavirus-related deaths and 450 new infections in the last 24 hours, compared with eight fatalities and 471 cases a day earlier. The state began a six-week total lockdown on Thursday, closing down shops and businesses to contain a second wave of infections requiring its five million residents to stay home. Victoria reported its deadliest day of the coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday with 15 deaths and a record daily rise of 725 cases. 06:29 GMT Four US deaths tied to methanol-based hand sanitisers Alcohol-based hand-sanitisers can help stop the coronavirus from spreading, but drinking the products turned out to be deadly for four people in two states. Health officials reported this week that 15 adults were poisoned in Arizona and New Mexico in May and June after drinking hand-sanitiser. Besides the four who died, three had continuing vision problems, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. All had consumed sanitisers containing methanol, or wood alcohol. The active ingredient that kills germs in legitimate sanitisers is ethyl alcohol, which is consumable. But some companies have been replacing it with poisonous methanol, which is used in antifreeze. 05:25 GMT New Zealands Ardern launches COVID election campaign New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern kicked off her re-election campaign, pledging a 311 million New Zealand-dollar ($205m) rescue package for businesses affected by the coronavirus lockdown. She told her supporters in Auckland that the measure was aimed at securing the jobs of 40,000 people employed by companies that had suffered serious financial losses as a result of the pandemic. When people ask, is this a COVID election, my answer is yes, it is, Ardern said. Read more here. Jacinda Ardern attends the launch of the Labour Partys election campaign in Auckland on August 8, 2020 [Michael Bradley/ AFP] 04:55 GMT India reports 933 deaths India has recorded 933 new COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours as fresh infections surged by another 61,537 cases to reach nearly 2.1 million. The Health Ministry said the number of total deaths stood at 42,518, including more than 20,000 in the past 30 days. An average of about 50,000 new cases has been reported each day since mid-June. The ministry asked state authorities to test grocery shop workers and street vendors, saying that if undetected they could potentially spread infection to a large number of people. India has the third-highest caseload in the world after the US and Brazil. 03:32 GMT Australias Victoria records 466 cases, 12 deaths The Australian state of Victoria has reported 466 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 deaths, including another man in his 30s. Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said six of the deaths were connected to outbreaks at aged care facilities. The figures were released as the city of Melbourne remained in lockdown and under an overnight curfew. On Friday, Victoria reported 450 new cases and 11 deaths. That was down from a record 725 infections reported a week earlier. Protective services officers speak to a woman at the Southern Cross Station in Melbourne on August 7, 2020, as the city goes into a strict new lockdown [William West/AFP] 03:20 GMT New Zealand accepts ICC decision to postpone Cricket World Cup New Zealand says it could have probably hosted the womens Cricket World Cup next year but supports the decision of the International Cricket Council (ICC) to postpone the event for a year. The ICC announced its decision on Friday to shift the 50-over tournament until February 2022 because of the uncertainty around COVID-19. One of the concerns was the fact that no teams had played since March and time was running out to hold a qualifying tournament to find the final three sides. This is obviously a disappointing decision for cricket players and fans around the world, New Zealand Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson said in a statement. The organising committee in New Zealand has been working with the government to ensure a safe and enjoyable tournament could be played. We could have done it in 2021, but now we will look to 2022. As a government we have reiterated our commitment to supporting the tournament. 02:19 GMT El Salvador court rebukes presidents decree to reopen economy The constitutional chamber of El Salvadors Supreme Court of Justice has declared that an executive decree to establish protocols for the gradual reopening of the economy was unconstitutional. The court said President Nayib Bukeles decree outlining a stage-by-stage reopening contradict[s] constitutional parameters established earlier to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. In every country in the world, governments are ordering reopening, gradually, to control the pandemic, Bukele said on Twitter. In El Salvador, today that is also unconstitutional. 02:00 GMT Mexicos president defends virus record Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the president of Mexico, has defended his governments record fighting the coronavirus and ruled out a change in strategy after the official death toll surged past 50,000. The Latin American nation of 128 million recently overtook the United Kingdom to become the third hardest-hit country in terms of total virus deaths, after Brazil and the United States. But Lopez Obrador said in terms of deaths relative to population size, we have not been so hard hit, and on that basis, Mexico ranks fifth in the Americas, behind the US, Brazil, Chile and Peru. And if we compare ourselves with Europe, there are more deaths in Spain, France and England than in Mexico, he said. 01:41 GMT Rare syndrome linked to COVID-19 found in nearly 600 US children Nearly 600 children have been admitted to US hospitals with a rare inflammatory syndrome associated with the novel coronavirus over four months during the peak of the pandemic, the CDC said in a report. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare but severe condition that shares symptoms with toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease, including fever, rashes, swollen glands and, in severe cases, heart inflammation. It has been reported in children and adolescent patients about two to four weeks after the onset of COVID-19. The CDC report said state health departments across the country reported a total of 570 MIS-C patients diagnosed with the illness from March 2 to July 18. Among the MIS-C cases, all patients tested positive for COVID-19 and 10 died, the CDC said in the report. 00:45 GMT Mexico warns of prolonged pandemic as cases rise Mexico has posted 6,717 newly confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the countrys accumulated total to 469,407. Officials also said the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths rose by 794 to a total of 51,311. Hopes for a significant decline in cases have been frustrated by continued high infection rates, with Assistant Health Secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell warning that this is going to be a prolonged pandemic. 00:13 GMT Italian cabinet approves $29bn stimulus package Prime Minister Guiseppe Contes cabinet has approved a stimulus package totalling 25 billion euros ($29bn) to revive an economy battered by the coronavirus crisis. The plan, which has to be approved by parliament, allows for greater tax benefits for Italys southern regions and calls for cruise liners to resume sailing from August 15 and for trade fairs to take place from September. It also extends emergency monthly payments to vulnerable families ranging from 400 to 800 euros ($472 to $943) as well as a sum of 500 million euros ($589m) allotted for overtime payments to stretched health workers. We are protecting jobs, we are supporting workers, we are reducing the tax burden, we are helping the regions, Conte told reporters. He also said social distancing and face masks would be mandatory until September 7, adding: These are the minimum rules. Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Im Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives. For all the key developments from yesterday, August 7, go here. With the Delhi High Court on Friday allowing Delhi University to conduct online open-book examinations, students said their anxiety levels have gone up with some differently abled students worried that they wont be able to take exams in the absence of scribes and assistive devices. Students said the varsity should come out with clear guidelines on the conduct of the exams. A final year student of Gargi College, who didnt wish to be identified, said its now the onus of the varsity to resolve the issues that have risen during the mock tests and also give clarity on the rules. The court has said that students will be given an extra hour to upload answer sheets. We were already being two hours and an extra hour for uploading answers. Will we be given three hours or four hours now? she asked. Rajesh Jha, Executive Council member of the varsity said the students had to approach the judiciary when the university administration became autocratic and despotic. The teachers and students have been opposing the online open book exams (OBE) and the judgement has vindicated their grievances to a large extent, he said. Now there is an urgent need to take a relook at online OBE in the light of disastrous mock tests. Academic Council and Executive Council must be convened immediately, he said. Some specially abled students said the move means they might not be able to take exams in the absence of scribes and assistive devices. Deepak Gupta, a visually impaired student from Rohtas in Bihar, said he wont be able to appear for the exams since he does not have clarity on whether the nearest Computer Service Centre is ready to facilitate them. With no access to the internet, Gupta said the high courts decision has led to an increase in anxiety levels among students like him. Many of my friends wont be able to take exams and we do not have clarity on facility of scribes and even access to study material. In this scenario, how will we appear for the exams? Another visually impaired student, Mohit Kumar Pandey, said the varsity has not made available a facility for scribes and there is no access to study material. Pandey, a student of St Stephens College, said he could not take the mock tests since he didnt have a scribe and expressed inability to appear for the open book exams. He also raised concerns about the coronavirus situation and said it does not seem likely that the varsity will be able to hold offline exams even in September. Alok Yadav, a differently abled final year student of Ramjas College, said the varsity is being biased and is only looking at those students who have access to internet and technology. I am in a small village in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh. For attending a phone call, I have to go the terrace since there is no network. How will I take the exam in such a situation? he asked. When I left Delhi during the time of lockdown in a hurry, my assistive devices and study material were left behind. I do not have a scribe or the assistive devices for studying. We also have to prepare for entrance exams and our admission for Masters. It seems unlikely that our issues will be resolved in the next two days. The Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) said any form of online/blended exam is discriminatory, unjust and lacks sanctity. Students without means and deprived of online teaching and study materials will be penalized. Students who are honest and do not resort to immoral practices will be penalized too. An examination, after all, ranks students, it said in a statement. An option for offline exam at a later date does not alter the discriminatory, unjust and immoral character of the OBE, it added. It is beyond our comprehension that why a more credible and uniform system of evaluation could not be adopted at a time when students and their families are battling health and livelihood issues. We wish to tell our students that teachers will stand with them, the statement said. DUTA also said an offline examination appears to be infeasible in the near future. It threatens safety of students, who are spread across the country, and discriminates against those who could not access online academic interactions. The zealous manner in which the Government and the UGC are insisting on an examination knowing well that the offline mode is infeasible any time soon is a clear indication that as a precursor to the NEP 2020, they want to showcase an online examination, it added. PTI SLB RDM RDM The air was chilly, the trees still bare, yet the sky was clear and bright. March 3, 1913, was shaping up to be a perfect day for a grand and purposeful parade. Thousands of showily dressed suffragists had amassed in Washington from across the nation - indeed the world - to march along Pennsylvania Avenue on the eve of President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. A young woman in striking white robes and a golden crown sat astride a white horse at the vanguard of the procession. Row upon row of suffragists followed, gliding by on floats and golden chariots or on foot bearing banners aloft amid the cacophony of marching bands and the buzzing crowd, wrote Rebecca Boggs Roberts in "Suffragists in Washington, D.C.: The 1913 Parade and the Fight for the Vote." Professional women in thematic costumes - including writers stained with ink - marched alongside college women arranged by alma mater. A spectator observing the vast sea of faces that day might have been excused for thinking that all the marchers were White. Yet a combing of the crowds would have revealed African American women, unlisted in the official program, who had for decades battled racism within the movement to take their rightful place in history. Among them were the 22 young founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. at Howard University debuting as warriors for their race. There was Bertha Pitts Campbell, a vivacious young student who loved to dance but as valedictorian of her Colorado high school knew how to be serious, too. There was her sorority sister, Osceola Adams, a Georgia native with a dramatic flair who drew applause on the university stage. And marching nearby was Vashti Turley Murphy, a stylish woman who was pursuing a career as a teacher. Segregated in the back of the suffrage parade by its White organizers, the Deltas and other African American women were pioneers in paving the way for future Black political activism. More than a century later, African American women's powerful role as political organizers and committed voters is once again in the spotlight as presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden considers naming a Black woman as his running mate. Yet their presence at the 1913 parade is still not widely known. "We don't yet have the story of women's suffrage in a way that shows Black women's impact and our significance in the movement," said Paula Giddings, professor emeritus at Smith College who has written about the role of Black women in American society. "The story is the way it is now because Susan B. Anthony wrote it that way. That's the power of narrative - historians will go back to that story. The next thing we need to think about is how to re-narrate the story." - - - At the turn of the 20th century - more than 50 years after the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls - many White women remained opposed to suffrage, fearing a fall from their domestic pedestals. Meanwhile, Black women, with less to lose and so much to gain, were almost uniformly in favor of the vote. If "White women needed the vote to acquire advantages and protection of their rights," noted Adella Hunt Logan, the leading suffragist of the Black Tuskegee Women's Club, "then Black women needed the vote even more so." Black women viewed the vote as a means of protecting themselves against sexual exploitation. They also saw it as a way to boost education for African Americans by exerting influence on school boards and state legislatures. And as the great majority of Black women were employed, they believed enfranchisement could help secure their rights in the workforce. Although Black men technically had been able to vote since the 15th Amendment's passage in 1870, they had been effectively disenfranchised, particularly in the South. The passage of the 19th Amendment, Black women reasoned, could re-empower the race, carving away at white supremacy. When Black women get the vote, "it will find in her a tower of strength of which poets have never sung, orators have never spoken and scholars have never written," wrote Black feminist and civil rights activist Nannie Helen Burroughs in the August 1915 issue of the Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Meanwhile, NAACP co-founder W.E.B. Du Bois praised the moral scrupulousness of Black women, who he believed would never sell their votes as some poor Black laborers had. "You cannot bribe a Negro woman," Du Bois declared. And yet racism within predominantly White suffrage organizations, including the National American Woman Suffrage Association, prevented the integration of Black women into the movement. White suffragists were loath to elevate Black concerns or feature Black women in their public events, lest they alienate Southern politicians. So Black women set about organizing themselves. In 1896, two Black women's civil rights groups merged to form the National Association of Colored Women under the leadership of prominent Black women's civil rights activist and suffragist Mary Church Terrell. By the 1900s, Black suffrage clubs had been launched all over the country. In 1913, Ida B. Wells-Barnett founded the nonpartisan Alpha Suffrage Club in Illinois, which that year granted women limited voting rights. Wells-Barnett viewed enfranchisement and Black political representation as essential in passing a federal bill against lynching, which had surged since Black men won the vote. Wells-Barnett and other Black suffragists were encouraged in their activism by their White peers in Illinois - but that support had its limits. As organizing for the March 3 parade got underway, led by 28-year-old Alice Paul, Wells-Barnett was forbidden to march with the all-White Chicago delegation out of fear that her presence would offend Southern women. The fiery crusader, her 60-member strong suffrage club and the other African American activists were consigned to bring up the rear. - - - The 1910s were a heady time at Howard for Campbell and her classmates. Alain Locke, the first Black Rhodes Scholar and chronicler of the Harlem Renaissance, taught young Campbell philosophy. And the famous mathematician and sociologist Kelly Miller underscored her mother's maxim of an "education being a gateway to everything," Campbell told her biographer Pauline Hill in "Too Young To Be Old: The Story of Bertha Pitts Campbell." In 1912, Campbell, Adams and Murphy joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in search of like-minded sisters. But by the end of the year, they and 19 other members had left the AKAs to form their own sorority in pursuit of a high-minded calling: the betterment of their race. "We wanted to change some ideas," Campbell later recalled to Giddings, author of "In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement." "We were more oriented to service than to socialize." On Jan. 13, 1913, the first chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. opened for business. It didn't take long before its members found an opportunity to prove their mettle. What better way, the ambitious sisters reasoned, to publicize their purpose than to take part in the national suffrage parade? They were urged on, according to some reports, by Mary Church Terrell, whose National Association of Colored Women was headquartered in the District of Columbia. In truth, the Deltas were also, like most of their peers, "frisky and boy-conscious" according to a history of the Deltas' first 50 years by Mary Elizabeth Vroman, and the prospect of leaving campus was clearly an added draw. Somehow, the sorority secured the permission of Howard's president, perhaps with Terrell as their champion, as long as the women agreed to be escorted by a male chaperone. There were rumors that the parade would be met by catcalls and perhaps violence, an even more fearful prospect for the young Black women. On the gleaming morning of March 3, 1913, Campbell, a senior, donned her cap and gown and joined the other Delta founders at the rear of the parade. "Some cheered, however, many jeered and tried to disrupt the marchers by throwing things, spitting on, beating and slapping the women, and trying to pull the women off the floats," Campbell recalled in the biography. And yet the Deltas' arrival to the final rally at Memorial Continental Hall, Terrell by their side, resounded just as they had intended. The Deltas and other African American marchers who overcame resistance and indignities "are to be congratulated that so many of them had the courage of their convictions," Du Bois wrote in the April 1913 issue of the Crisis. Some reported that the Deltas broke from their segregated section to mix with the rest of the parade. Barnett-Wells was also seen slipping into line between the White women of the Chicago delegation, thus living up to her motto: "One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap." It would take seven more years before the passage of the 19th Amendment, but the course for Black female engagement in politics was set. In 1914, the first Black alderman, Oscar De Priest, was elected in Chicago with the backing of the Alpha Suffrage Club, a harbinger of Black political muscle in the city that has endured to the present. But the battle by African Americans to exercise their voting rights in the face of racism continues to this day, with Black women still at the fore. The Deltas' participation in the 1913 parade has become a touchstone for the sorority, which now claims 300,000 members, including seven in the halls of Congress. The Deltas run voter registration drives, battle for access to the voting booth, serve as poll workers and train women to run for office, National President Beverly Smith said. The organization is gathering its records so they can be included, finally, in the archives of the Library of Congress. "This is the perfect moment to do it. . . . It's important for us to make sure the story is told right and that Delta is recognized," Smith said. As for Campbell and her sorority sisters, Adams adopted the stage name of Osceola Archer and later went on to teach dramatic arts at Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C. Vashti Turley Murphy founded the Baltimore alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, sat on the board of directors of the city's YWCA and married Carl Murphy, publisher of the Afro-American newspapers. And Campbell herself? She moved to Seattle soon after graduating and became a grass-roots organizer. She co-founded the Christian Friends for Racial Equality, an organization that for decades worked to expand housing and other opportunities for African Americans, and was the first Black member of the board of directors of the YWCA of Seattle-King County. On a sunny and bright and hot August day in 1981, Campbell led 10,000 Deltas, wearing white and waving banners, on Pennsylvania Avenue to commemorate the early highlight of her life. At 92, she insisted on marching with her sisters. New Delhi: Top American lawmakers on Wednesday expressed concern over the alleged curbs imposed by India on a Christian charity organisation whose representatives appeared before a Congressional hearing seeking change in New Delhi's policies related to foreign funding of NGOs. "It is my hope that by bringing attention to this issue, as we're doing here today, the 145,000 children will not be tragically denied the services they desperately need, and that American families....can continue to send the USD 38 a month for food and education fees to the poorest of the poor," said Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the powerful House Foreign Relations Committee. Royce joined by other lawmakers and representations of human rights bodies and Compassion International (CI) the Christian charity organisation which is often accused of being engaged in religious conversions in India -- rued that the recent effort to regulate foreign funding and enforce taxation laws has made it impossible for them to carry out work among poor children in India. "In India, it (CI) is the single largest contributor of aid for children living in extreme poverty," Royce said. "We have spent nine months and hundreds of hours dealing with the Indian bureaucracy on this, and it looks like the bureaucracy is trying to run out the clock," Royce said. Compassion International says in 2011, the Indian government made significant changes to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), which is the law that regulates NGOs' receipt of foreign funds into the country. The Indian Government has asserted that its policies initiated in 2011 is not aimed at one particular NGO. Congressman Eliot Engel, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he has been concerned by reports that NGOs are having difficulty registering and operating in India. "Civil society plays a pivotal role in democracy, holding government accountable and standing up for the rights of marginalised groups. So it's troubling that a country with such a long tradition of an empowered and active civil society might be going down this path," he said. Testifying before the committee, Stephen Oakley, general counsel and vice president of the General Counsel Office at Compassion International, alleged that the Home Ministry and the Income Tax Department are harassing NGOs like his which are engaged in charity works among poor children. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. To boost 'self-reliant India' endeavour, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday urged the industry to identify the sectors heavily reliant on imports, particularly from China, and look for substitutes towards indigenous production to make India a super power. Asserting that a case study is in the offing based on three years of imports and exports, Gadkari said China's 70 per cent of exports pertained to ten sectors that included electrical machinery and equipment accounting for 26.09 per cent of its exports worth USD 671 billion and machinery including computers grabbing 10.70 per cent of its exports worth USD 417 billion. Road Transport, Highways and MSME Minister Gadkari while addressing a CII event "India@75 Summit - Mission 2022" urged the industry to look beyond metropolises and developed cities to lay a network of industries and ventures in rural, far-flung and tribal areas which never grabbed attention. "It pains me that 90 per cent of the focus of industry bodies is on major industries in big cities and metropolises. There is seldom any focus on rural, tribal and remote areas. There is a need to change it... Advance sector wise planning is the need of the hour to make India a super power," Gadkari said. "China's 70 per cent of exports are from 10 sectors," Gadkari said and urged CII to identify what was imported in India and how can that be replaced with indigenous production for 'self-reliance' while assuring all government support in this initiative. He said of the China's exports, apart from machinery and equipment, furniture and related things accounted for exports worth USD 100 billion, plastics products (USD 84 billion), vehicles (74.40 billion) and clothings (USD 66.80 billion). "CII should identify sectors to boost exports and reduce imports. In some areas we will have to increase import duty to encourage Indian manufacturers," he said. Assuring all possible help to the industry for making rural and tribal areas their hub, the minister said a wide network of highways, railways and waterways was bound to bring down logistics cost. He also said that a host of initiatives including redefining the definition of MSMEs will yield rich dividends. The minister informed that the government is working on a scheme for inclusion of smallest units under the MSME ambit and providing for their micro-financial requirements. He also stressed the need for upgradation of technology by industry players and urged them to explore joint ventures to bring in foreign low cost capital. In addition, he urged the industry to come up with the list of obsolete legislations hindering their growth so that steps could be taken to facilitate new ventures besides. "There is an urgent need to create employment, and focussing on rural, agriculture, tribal and village areas including 115 aspirational districts could be beneficial. The target is to shift about 7-8 per cent of population from overcrowded cities to upcoming smart cities and villages," the minister said. He exhorted the industry to explore investment opportunities on the sides of proposed 22 new expressways. He also asked the industry body CII to draft a proposal for insurance of highway stretches, saying this will do away the requirement of bank guarantees. "This will speed up financial closure of road projects and finance raising, facilitating faster project completions," he said. The minister also said that he was in discussion with Uttarakhand government for developing Auli, a famous tourist destination, into a world-class place so that it becomes a venue for events like the World Economic Forum that takes place in Davos, Switzerland. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 19:05:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- An AirAsia flight suffered a bird hit in the eastern Indian city of Ranchi on Saturday, following which it was forced to abort the take-off, officials said. The plane heading for Mumbai suffered bird hit during the take-off at the Ranchi airport in the capital city of Jharkhand. All the passengers onboard are reported to be safe. This incident comes a day after a tragic plane crash in the southern state of Kerala killed 18, including two pilots. "AirAsia India aircraft VT-HKG operating from Ranchi to Mumbai as flight i5-632 encountered a bird hit during scheduled departure at 11:50 a.m. (local time) today," an official said. "The take-off was aborted immediately." Officials said the aircraft is currently being inspected and would be allowed to depart after the technical clearance. Local media reports said there were 176 passengers on board the 180-seat aircraft. Enditem Geneva, Aug 8 : A group of UN experts have called for the lifting of all unilateral sanctions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, so that people in countries under sanctions can protect themselves against the deadly virus. "Sanctions should be lifted, or at a minimum eased, so people can get basics like soap and disinfectants to stay healthy, and so that hospitals can get ventilators and other equipment to keep people alive," Xinhua news agency quoted the experts as saying in a joint statement on Friday. "Sanctions that were imposed in the name of delivering human rights are in fact killing people and depriving them of fundamental rights, including the rights to health, to food and to life itself," they added. Alena Douhan, a UN Special Rapporteur, said that sanctions were adding to the suffering in countries like Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. The experts also welcomed efforts by many states, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations to try to help sanctioned countries fight COVID-19. "We particularly welcome the willingness of the European Union, the UK, Switzerland, Russia, China, the US and other donors to ship much needed medical supplies," they said in the statement. COLONIE Lauren Williams has worked at the Center for Disability Services' mail center for nearly 20 years. She just lost her job. The decision had nothing to do with her. You see, the state unexpectedly canceled the contract that would have kept Williams, who has Down syndrome, and 50 other developmentally disabled workers employed. The decision stunned officials and employees at the Center, which has done mail work for the state for years and had worked with the non-profit New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID) to secure the contract. The Center had even spent $4 million to upgrade printers, software and other technology as it prepared to take on the $55 million, five-year deal to provide mail services for the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which signed off on the contract in February. But last month, the state's Division of Budget nixed the plan, deciding the state could save money by doing the work itself. The decision was highly unusual, to say the least. NYSID head Maureen O'Brien says this is the first time in her organization's 45-year history of managing state contracts that the Division of Budget has stepped in to cancel an approved contract. "This is new ground for us," O'Brien recently told the state's procurement council. Meanwhile, the Center for Disabilities Services feels like the state pulled a rug out from under them. "We just don't know what happened," said Greg Sorrentino, the Center's CEO. "We followed the plan." At the Center's mail-fulfillment facility on Karner Road in Colonie, the impact of the decision is already obvious. The newly purchased machines are idle. Massive rolls of paper purchased for the state work are stacked in a warehouse and may go to waste. And Williams and other workers sit at home. "This is going to be devastating for her," Williams' mother, Donna Lamkin Faddegon, told me Thursday, when she had not yet told her daughter the news. "It's a big loss for her, for her life." Supervisors at the mail fulfillment center say its disabled workers are a dedicated and appreciative workforce. Many willingly endure a long commute, taking the bus along Central Avenue to a job that provides empowerment, independence and normalcy. Like Williams, some of the people losing their jobs are long-time employees. Freeman Klopott, spokesman for the budget division, stressed that the contract cancelation had nothing to do with work quality. "This one proposed new contract just didn't make fiscal sense for the state especially during these financially uncertain times," Klopott wrote in an email, adding the state would save about $20 million by handling the work in-house. Hey, I'm all for the state saving money. Who isn't? It is certainly true New York needs to cut costs, perhaps now more than ever. Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the state is expecting a $14 billion deficit thanks, in part, to pandemic-related revenue shortfalls. But in this case, the state's bean counters seem as myopic as Mr. Magoo. They're missing the bigger picture. For one thing, advocates for the Center doubt the state will really save $20 million. O'Brien notes that the nixed contract required the Center to have a complicated back-up plan in case of an emergency shutdown of the Karner Road facility. Take away that requirement, she says, and the state's cost savings largely disappears. Meanwhile, as a recent study by the Rockefeller Institute of Government found, employment for the developmentally disabled significantly reduces New York's public assistance costs. And profits from the Center for Disability Services' mail facility fund its health clinic, reducing the state's Medicaid burden. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. So how much, if anything, are we really saving here? "The budget division stands behind the fact-based analysis which drove the states decision," Klopott said. There is also, of course, the unmeasurable human cost. Since the landmark Willowbrook consent decree in 1975 overhauled state care for the disabled after the uncovering of horrific abuse, New York has recognized that organizations with a largely disabled workforce should be a "preferred source" for some state work. The recognition is about using state spending to make New York a better and more humane place. It's about helping those who most need help. Yet the nixing of the Center for Disability Services contract resulted in 20 immediate layoffs and will prevent the Center from hiring 30 additional developmentally disabled employees. Those jobs are vital lifelines for folks who, in many cases, struggle to feel like full members of society especially now. Last month, I wrote a column about the toll pandemic restrictions were taking on developmentally disabled residents of group homes. Because of state rules, many were essentially confined to their houses, unable to work, visit family and otherwise lead the lives they had known. Williams, 43, who lives in a group home in Altamont, was among those residents. Her mother said Williams, after months of confinement, was eager to return to her job as a mail-processing clerk. "It's about the pride and dignity of work," Faddegon said. "She wants to get back to what has been important to her life. She wants to get back to work." And now her job is gone. cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill For these specialized masks to help, she writes, its not those of us who are deaf or hard of hearing who have to wear them. Instead, its hearing people who want to make themselves understood. To unlock the true potential of clear masks for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, she says, We need you to do your part. Until you brought that up, I didnt even realize it was that many, Johnson said. But it is something that has to happen. It is a bad situation anytime you have to let anybody go, but in this position, every now and then, you have to. You have to run the office and make sure it is running correctly. But it has nothing to do with gender at all. I have worked with a lot of really good lawyers and judges who are women. That was not a factor. Johnson acknowledged that part of the reason he fired the two women this week was because he learned they were looking for other jobs. It is my understanding that they were already looking for jobs elsewhere, but that was not totally the reason why they were fired, Johnson said. I cant divulge all the personnel matters. That was part of it, but it was nowhere near as simple as that. It is very unpleasant. It is not a good day when you have to do that, but it is something that has to be done. But there were multiple reasons for what happened. Another prosecutor fired by Johnson had been given a promotion and a $5,000-a-year pay bump about three weeks before she was terminated, county records show. She was packing boxes to move into a bigger, more-desirable corner office as part of her promotion on the day she was fired. New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that India and China have "huge premium" in reaching "understanding" and giving the size of both countries, "the world has a lot riding on" both the countries. Speaking at a virtual event - India@75 Summit - organised by industry body CII, the EAM said, "we are neighbours, at least as the modern state we are neighbours...What it does is, its a huge premium in reaching some kind of equilibrium or understanding between the two, not just in my interest but in there interest too and how to do that is one of the big challenges we face and someone at their end will be saying something." He added, "the world has a lot riding on us, giving our size and impact.. there are problems, problems are laid out and very central to our foreign policy calculations. " India-China ties suffered a blow after the Galwan clashes in Eastern Ladakh of 15th June when forces from both sides had a violent face-off. India lost 20 of its soldiers, while china accepted it suffered casualties but never came out with a number. Drawing parallels between India and China, the EAM explained, "We are a neighbour of China, China is already the 2nd largest economy of the world and we will one day be the 3rd largest economy. We are demographically unique countries--in the billion-plus category. we happen to be neighbours, the period of our difficulties was similar... the period of our re-emergence in international politics is also not that far apart. we are seeing a parallel but the differential rise of 2 countries." On current global dynamics, EAM Jaishankar called for "issue-based" criteria for partnership given "nature of the world is of overlapping interest". Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 21:39:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council on Saturday submitted a bill to an ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, asking the NPC Standing Committee to make a decision for the sixth Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to continue operation. Enditem India insisted on 'complete disengagement' in all its talks with China on eastern Ladakh row: Govt India-China hold Major General level talks at Daulat Beg Oldie India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: India and China are holding Major General level talks to discuss de-escalation and disengagement. The meeting is being held at the Daulat Beg Oldie-Tianwendian border meeting point on the Line of Actual Control. The primary agenda of the meeting is to reduce tensions at the Depsang Plains, where there is a massive build up of troops of both sides. The meeting would discuss ways to de-escalate as well as disengage. India will also seek restoration of patrolling rights for its soldiers. Hard talk on the hotline: India snubs China on step back suggestion Following the meeting that was held last Sunday by the two sides, a high powered panel headed by National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval reviewed the Chinese response. Following the meeting, India conveyed to Beijing on hotline that it is in no hurry to de-escalate, unless and until the Chinese dis-engage as agreed by the military commanders. During the meeting on August 2, China had suggested that India move back in order to break the deadlock. The west of Finger 4 was under India's control and the suggestion by China that India moves back here is not acceptable, officials familiar with the developments told OneIndia. The high powered committee also known as the China Study Group held discussions on Tuesday and analysed the response by the Chinese. The meeting that lasted three hours was also attended by Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, Foreign Minister, S Jaishankar and Army Chief General M M Naravane. The fifth meeting of the commanders was held on August 2. The panel headed by NSA Doval is informally known as the China Study Group. Kerala plane crash: Locals aid rescue, donate blood, arrange food | Oneindia News The source said that India reiterated to China for complete disengagement and de-escalation. India also sought for full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas as had been agreed upon during the earlier meetings. The Indian side also sought for restoration of status quo ante along the Line of Actual Control, the source also added. The official cited above said that the Doval led panel would analyse China's response during the talks. During the meeting of the military commanders on Sunday, India said that it wanted immediate disengagement at patrolling point 17 (Gogra) and Pangong Tso fingers. While the de-escalation at these points would be a short term solution, diplomatic channels are looking at a long term solution as well which would ensure that the soldiers of both sides are kept apart. Hours after its launch, Gov. Charlie Bakers COVID-19 compliance hotline was hit with profane tirades about the governors restrictions, fake complaints and even a picture of a mans genitalia. The pornographic missive, sent the day of the reporting lines launch, was sent by an account named Good German with the subject line no mask compliance. An email to the address was not returned Friday. That email was tucked between messages calling the new reporting portal a rat line and complaints about Baker for not wearing a mask while delivering his COVID-19 briefings, even though he usually stands 6 feet away from others. How many times have we seen Gov. Baker (R.I.N.O.) giving press conferences without himself (wearing a mask) one complaint said, calling Baker a Republican In Name Only. Is this a new Communist site? another person asked. Dozens of messages like this came into the state, though it made up a small fraction of the more than 900 complaints the Department of Labor Services received in the reporting systems the first week. A handful of people filed other fake complaints, such as reports of unmasked dogs, or asked to report the Legislature or governors that condoned Black Lives Matter protests. (The BLM protests in Massachusetts, however, were largely masked and 2.5% of demonstrators who participated in testing tested positive for COVID-19.) The majority of complaints, however, appeared to be sincere efforts to report alleged COVID-19 compliance violations. Some resulted in verbal warnings, written warnings and fines, such as the complaints about the Colonial Hotel in Gardner hosting a wedding that drew more than 300 people. Others were closed or remain pending as of early August. A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development did not immediately respond to questions about how the DLS processes complaints or how staffers deal with phony complaints. Baker announced the new reporting channel in mid-July after concerns from residents, lawmakers and workers rights advocates that the state had no infrastructure to enforce businesses that reopened without safety standards in place to limit the spread of COVID-19. That new portal, like the AGs workplace violation hotline, relies on customers and patrons to report violations they see. That hotline received more than 900 complaints over two months from employees concerned about safety conditions in the workplace. The state website lists local boards of health where residents can direct their complaints but also includes an email address and phone number where they can report violations to the state. People filed hundreds of complaints in the first week about businesses failing to keep people 6 feet apart, customers and employees flouting the mask order and, in some cases, employees or managers traveling to hotspots and returning to work without quarantining for two weeks. The quarantine complaints for that week came two weeks before the state upgraded its two-week quarantine advisory to an order. Still, the reporting line has its detractors. Some of the emails the state portal received in its first days accused the state of unfairly targeting struggling businesses and called on the Baker administration to speed up its reopening process. A handful of the calls and emails were little more than rants cursing out the governor. Massachusetts is in the third phase of reopening, allowing indoor retail services and day camps with restrictions in place. Bars and arcades are not allowed to open just yet. Some of the states leading health officials are calling on the Baker administration to roll back its reopening plans due to a recent uptick in cases, attributed to large gatherings where people werent wearing masks or socially distancing, or doing either. Some have called for Baker to reduce the size of public gatherings allowed in the state until the COVID-19 positive test rates falls back below 2%. Dr. David Rosman, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, issued a statement Thursday expressing concerns about the increase in cases over the past three weeks. The MMS appreciates and supports Governor Baker and his administrations thoughtful approach to carefully phased reopening, he said, but urges prompt reconsideration of certain public activities as data indicate a worrisome trend toward a possible resurgence of cases. Baker held off on rolling back restrictions until Friday, when he announced the second step of Phase 3 would be postponed indefinitely due to increasing COVID-19 rates in clusters throughout the state. Related Content: The Corkman has learned that Cork County Council has given the green light to a planning application for the long-awaited refurbishment works at the Patrician Academy. While it is not yet known what, if any, conditions have been attached to the planning permission, it is understood a senior council official was due to sign off on the decision by council planners to sanction the project on Wednesday. The development has come more than four years after a blaze ripped through the upper floors of the new extension at the school campus, rendering the structure unusable and forcing the temporary relocation of pupils to other sites around the town. Last September it emerged there was finally some light at the end of the tunnel following the lodging of a planning application with Cork County Council for a major refurbishment plan at the secondary school. It made provision for the construction of a three-story 3,307 m2 extension, to the existing protected structure, incorporating 11 classrooms and other rooms, to replace the fire-damaged two-storey extension. It also incorporated various other demolition works and the removal of the pre-fabricated classrooms. Planners subsequently requested further information on the application submitted by the Department of Education, with the authority only receiving the requested information in June, raising concerns that a decision may be pushed back beyond the August deadline set by the council. Speaking to The Corkman local county councillor Gearoid Murphy said news that planning has been approved will come as a huge relief to the school community, pupils and their parents. I understand the planning application was a complex one, with several factors having to be taken into account such as built heritage, which is partly why this process has taken so long. That said, it has been allowed to drag on for far too long causing great uncertainty. In fact some parents had contacted me saying they were concerned their children might have to spend their entire time in secondary school being taught in pre-fabricated buildings, he said. This is a very important issue for Mallow and one that I and several other politicians have been making representations on. Hopefully this decision will pave the way for a contractor to be appointed to the project and that the works will commence as soon as possible, either later on this year or in early 2021, he added. Mallow-based Labour TD Sean Sherlock said it was vital that funding for the project is ring-fenced to ensure construction will take place as soon as possible. The Department of Education and Skills must now commit to the future of the Patrician Academy, he said. by Vladimir Rozanskij He introduced the treasures of Orthodox spirituality to the West. He worked extensively with Pavel Evdokimov and Olivier Clement, and was a great ecumenical figure who studied with the Jesuits, taught Protestants and Catholics, and backed Russias religious revival during and after the atheist regime. He recognised the "Babylonian captivity" of the Russian Church (excessive dependence on state power) and the need to let oneself be carried away by the "shocking breath of the Spirit". Moscow (AsiaNews) Father Boris Bobrinskoy, one of the great representatives of Russian theology outside of Russia, passed away yesterday morning at the age of 95. Protopresbyter of the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe (now the Patriarchal Exarchate in Western Europe), Bobrinskoy was the former dean of the St Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute[*] in Paris, the last member of the great generation of Russian theologians who brought the treasures of Orthodox spirituality to the attention of the West. Born in 1925 to an aristocratic family of Russian exiles in Paris, Boris was from childhood a friend of Vladimir Lossky, son of the philosopher Nikolay Lossky, who became the main voice of The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, to cite the title of his most notable work published in 1944.[] Bobrinskoy studied with Russian Jesuits in Meudon, and completed his studies in 1949 at St Sergius, the Orthodox institute founded in 1924 by Sergei Bulgakov, Georges Florovsky and Nikolai Berdyaev, to name only the better known figures. Florovsky himself, founder of the theological "neo-patristic" current, supervised Bobrinskoy's thesis on the "Sacrament of Chrismation in fourth century Eastern Fathers". Bobrinskoy tried to introduce the practice of Confirmation in the Orthodox Church in line with the ancient Syriac Fathers, separating it from the baptismal rite with which it is inserted in the Byzantine liturgy. He studied for several years in Athens, deepening the hesychastic spirituality of St Gregory Palamas and the monks of Mount Athos. After he returned to Paris in 1951, he taught history of the Ancient East and Dogmatic Theology, focusing in particular on the Trinitarian theology. He also became parish priest at the St Alexander Nevsky Church in Paris. For many years he was one of the main points of reference of the Russian community in Paris, together with the historian of theology Paul Evdokimov, and patrologist and theologian Olivier Clement. Boris Bobrinskoy played a leading role in the ecumenical dialogue during and after the Second Vatican Council, teaching at the Protestant University of Neuchatel in Switzerland and at the Catholic University of Paris. In the 1970s he was also very active on radio and television, and in various publications. His radio programme La Voix de lorthodoxie,[] carried by various stations, became famous, supporting the religious revival in Russia at a time of dissent and samizdat, and after the end of the atheist regime. In his works he denounced the "Babylonian captivity" of the Russian Church, not only during the period of Soviet persecution, but also as a result of its excessive dependence on state power throughout its history. He proposed a spiritual renewal, letting oneself be carried away by the shocking breath of the Spirit" that transforms the whole of life into the life of the Church. To give it some sense, he came up with a Russian term, votserkovlenie zhizni[] (churching of life), that was later used to describe Russias religious revival in the 1990s as a form of return of the world to the Church. [*] Institut de theologie orthodoxe Saint-Serge. [] Essai sur la theologie mystique de l'Eglise d'orient (1944); English edition, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (1957). [] The voice of Orthodoxy. [] . Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 21:00:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The president-elect of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir will visit Pakistan from Aug. 9 to 10 on the invitation of the government of Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan said on Saturday. Bozkir, a veteran Turkish diplomat, was elected president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly in June 2020. "Bozkir's visit is an important opportunity to inter alia highlight Pakistan's strong and substantive contributions to the United Nations efforts in the promotion and maintenance of international peace and security, especially through our contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Operations around the world," the foreign ministry said in a statement. The ministry said that Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will have wide-ranging talks with the president-elect of the UN General Assembly on issues relating to the main pillars of the UN work, including peace and security, development and human rights. Pakistan remains committed to supporting the role of the UN General Assembly on the questions relating to international peace and security, economic and social development, promotion and protection of human rights, peaceful settlement of international disputes, refraining from the threat of use of force, and developing friendly relations among nations, according to the statement. Enditem The tragic air crash at Kozhikode, in which at least 18 people were killed, has triggered fresh hopes that the spotlight would be back on "risky" airports like the one here which suffers from many deficiencies and has seen one of the major plane accidents in the country's history two decades back. The Jaiprakash Narayan International Airport, reckoned among the 20 busiest ones across the country, had hit the headlines on July 17, 2000 when more than 60 people were killed when a Delhi-bound Boeing 737 from Kolkata ploughed through a residential locality. Prior to landing, the pilots sought permission for a 360 degree turn as they were "high on approach" but upon receiving clearance from the ATC, the plane "stalled shortly after commencing the 360 degree turn and crashed". Those killed included 49 passengers, out of 52 on board, both pilots, all the four air hostesses and six local residents, who were crushed by the huge metal body running at high speed. A court of inquiry was ordered and Admiral P Rajkumar had concluded in his report "the cause of the accident was loss of control of the aircraft due to human error (air crew)". However, the report noted in its observations about the airport having a short runway, running into about 6500 feet, 2500 feet less than the one at Kozhikode even though it was not a "tabletop" like the one in Kerala. The report said that it "sufficed" until the 1970s, when "only light aircraft were being operated from the airfield" but requirements changed when big commercial jets like Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 started running from the airport. "The runway length was extended to its present dimension which was the maximum the airfield could accommodate" the report pointed out adding that it was causing "operational constraints". Speaking on condition of anonymity, an aviation official said, "you just need to board a flight from somewhere to Patna and you will sense that something is amiss. Pilots have to brake violently and the judder can be felt by all passengers on board. Smooth landing is simply not possible". He said "a lot of manoeuvring" is required by pilots, both while landing as well as take off since besides the short runway the airport also has the disadvantage of densely populated residential localities and commercial establishments at a short distance and the slightest undershooting or overshooting could have catastrophic consequences. An old resident of Gardanibagh locality concurs. "We cannot forget the sight on that day. We had heard about plane crashes, seen pictures of these in newspapers. But to behold the wreckage right in front of us, with residential quarters on road number 29 reduced to a rubble buried under metallic wreckage was something else. "Till this day, we shudder and prayers come on our lips whenever we hear the roar of an aircraft, which was quite often since the airport is barely a kilometer and a half away", he said. The aviation official, meanwhile, seems frustrated that the proposed shifting of the airport to Bihta, about 35 km from the city, has been hanging fire. "Given the topography of the city, the current location of the airport is not suited for air traffic. In addition to the acknowledged pitfalls of a short runway, flights here routinely suffer bird hits since markets dealing in meat, fish and poultry are situated not too far away, he added. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Friday warned of a very high risk of COVID-19 community transmission as he urged national determination, solidarity and responsibility over the next two weeks to stamp out the current outbreak. The risk of the disease spreading widely in the community in Vietnam remains very high for at least the next two weeks, the prime minister said while presiding over a virtual meeting on COVID-19 response on Friday morning. The number of community-transmitted cases in Vietnam has risen by 333 since July 25, when the detection of a 57-year-old male patient in the central city of Da Nang ended the countrys streak of 99 days with no local infection. The government chief thus ordered authorities to take greater responsibility and more drastic efforts to contain the pandemic, especially in outbreak hotspots. Greater determination, solidarity and responsibility from the entire political system is needed, he stressed. Provincial and municipal leaders are permitted to decide on specific measures in order to promptly and effectively minimize infection rates while medical facilities must stay vigilant to prevent the emergence of new COVID-19 outbreaks. Social distancing must be strictly implemented in all COVID-19 hotbeds and fast and precise testing is the key to contain the spread of the virus, Phuc emphasized. Phuc also stressed the need to wear a face mask at public places and in big cities, manufacture ventilators, and stay prepared to set up field hospitals in such localities like Quang Nam Province and Da Nang, which are the hardest hit by the current COVID-19 outbreak in Vietnam. Speaking at Friday meeting, acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long reported that the number of people having installed the contact-tracing app Bluezone, which was domestically developed to track down people having close contact with COVID-19 patients, has shot up recently, especially in Da Nang, Quang Nam, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and northern Quang Ninh Province. Over 8.5 million people have installed the app as of Thursday, August 6. The Ministry of Health said the app needs at least 50 million active users to have a meaningful impact on contact tracing. Notably, 21 cases of people with direct and indirect contact with COVID-19 patients have been traced through the app, Long said. Vietnam has recorded 789 cases of COVID-19 as of Saturday morning, with 395 recoveries and ten deaths. More than 166,000 people are quarantined nationwide at hospitals, accommodation facilities or at their homes. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! You are here: China China on Friday lowered its flood-control response posture from Level III to Level IV, the lowest level of its four-tier emergency-response system for floods. The downgrading came as water levels in the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, and Taihu Lake continued to fall, said the Ministry of Emergency Management. The ministry urged related localities to continue to keep a close eye on the situation and strengthen the prevention of possible disasters. All-out efforts should be made to help affected residents restore life and coordinate re-construction work, said an official with the ministry. Victoria has passed the peak of its second wave of coronavirus, modelling suggests, and new case numbers are expected to drop over the next week if Victorians remain vigilant. Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said on Saturday that for the first time since June, every positive COVID-19 case in Victoria was infecting less than one other person on average. Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said Victoria's position had improved but the public must stay vigilant. Credit:Justin McManus After 466 new cases and 12 more deaths on Saturday, Professor Sutton said the state's effective reproduction rate was about 0.9, meaning every 10 cases will infect nine others on average. Coupled with stage four restrictions introduced in Melbourne last week, he said Victoria should soon push down its seven-day average of 520 cases a day. Without a vaccine, our best methods for preventing COVID-19 are all behavioural: handwashing, mask wearing, social distancing, isolating. But when Australian Defence Force personnel knocked on the doors of 3000 people across Melbourne who were meant to be in isolation last week, in about a quarter of cases they werent there. It's ridiculous. It's unacceptable. And it is dangerous, said Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville. Ms Neville is experiencing a harsh truth well known to behavioural scientists: it is very, very difficult to get 6.6 million people to completely change their behaviour. Two hundred sixty students and eight teachers from a suburban school district in Atlanta, Georgia have been put in quarantine after several teachers and students tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during the first week of school. In a statement posted on its website, the Cherokee County School District said there were at least 11 students and two staff members, who tested positive for COVID-19. According to CNN, the students and staff, who may possibly be exposed to the positive patients, had been told to quarantine for two weeks. Students now under observation were from the elementary, middle, and highschool of the county. On Monday, the district returned to an in-person learning system. Dr. Brian Hightower, the district's superintendent, sent a letter to the school community regarding the incident. "We have staff and students reporting presumptive, pending, and positive COVID-19 tests everyday, and this will continue as we operate schools during a pandemic," Hightower said. The superintendent noted that they are now working with the Department of Public Health to contact trace, quarantine, and notify the school community. Hightower added that for transparency, the school officials are taking further actions such as posting school notification letters and details about the case weekly. "We know we're under a microscope, as national media follows the reopening of schools in the country," Hightower wrote. "But know that our decisions are not based on what people in Kansas or New York think, nor are we concerned about 'optics' or 'image' -- we're focused on doing best for our community," he added. Hightower lauded the school community for the support they have to reopen schools simultaneously in person and in a new digital learning program to start the school year on time. He also reminded students about the importance of wearing masks. He pointed out that although many were already wearing masks routinely, students must always be reminded of the importance of masks, especially when they cannot apply social distancing. Keeping schools open depends on the entire community, and parents must keep their children home when they are sick. "We need to social distance whenever we can, and always wear masks when we cannot," Hightower said. According to the school district, a Cherokee County second grader was probably the first child who tested positive for COVID-19 after attending the first day of school. The Sixes Elementary School in the Cherokee County School district began in-person classes on Monday. But after a second grader tested positive, a classroom was temporarily closed for deep cleaning, and the teacher and 20 other students had been asked to quarantine for two weeks. As schools started to reopen for the new academic year, school administrations and parents are making hard decisions to ensure the students' safety against the pandemic, while getting the education they need. Many have responded with completely remote schooling, while others opted to return to classrooms. According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, the system in the reopening of schools will stay safe if safety measures are prioritized. Check these out: Health Workers Want Paid Leave Before Schools Reopen FDA: Keep Your Hands Clean, but Beware of These Harmful Sanitizers The Youth Are Vulnerable to COVID-19 Too, Says WHO 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 death toll in Air India Express flight crash landing incident at Kozhikode in Kerala surged to 17, the Air India Express informed on Friday (August 7). The 17 deaths include two pilots. Four-cabin crew members on board the aircraft are safe said Air India. The pilots who died in the air disaster incident are Capt D.V. Sathe and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar. Meanwhile, 137 passengers have been injured and admitted to hospitals out of which 14 remain critical. "Air India Express Limited regrets to confirm that its flight IX-1344 from DXB (Dubai International Airport) to CCJ (Kozhikode International Airport) was involved in an accident on August 7, 2020 at Calicut. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the passengers and crew and their families. We would like to inform that as of now there are 17 confirmed deceased including two pilots. The four-cabin crew members are confirmed safe," the air carrier said in the statement. Emergency Response team members, as well as Special Assistance Team members, have been pressed into service from Cochin, Mumbai and Delhi to render all possible assistance to the passengers as well as to the family members, the statement added. Also Read: Unaccompanied child found at Kozhikode airport after Air India Express plane crash, authorities ask for identification Moreover, the Air India Express has arranged a "special relief flight from Mumbai and Delhi" for rendering humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and their family members.It has also established a passenger information centre and a toll-free number has been made available for the family or friends of those who may have been on board flight IX-1344. " Air India Express established helpline number 1800 2222 71 for people to get updates. It said, ''For those calling from outside, please call international country code.'' Air India Express Dubai- Kozhikode IX-1344 flight, carrying 190 people - 184 passengers, including ten infants, six crew members including 2 pilots were on board the aircraft from Dubai under the Vande Bharat Mission. The flight, IX-1344, bound for Kozhikode from Dubai skidded during landing at the Karipur Airport at around 7.45 pm, said the Kondotty Police. Also Read: Former IAF pilot Deepak Vasant Sathe flying Air India Express plane killed in Kozhikode crash The plane fell around 35 feet down and apparently the front half took the damage but people in the rear half have survived. The Kozhikode International Airport, also known, as Karipur Airport is a tabletop airport. The flight was flying the Centre's Vande Bharat Mission. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed pain over Air India Express plane accident and spoke to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on phone about the plane crash. PM Modi took to Twitter saying, "Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan regarding the situation. Authorities are at the spot, providing all assistance to the affected." Company to Promptly notify SEC and FINRA that it has no connection to, never authorized, and does not know source of Genviro! Swift Kit video LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2020 / Decision Diagnostics Corp. (OTC:DECN) www.decisiondiagnostics.co, through its subsidiary Pharma Tech Solutions, Inc., today stated that it will, concurrent with this release, voluntarily notify the SEC and FINRA about an unauthorized video concerning the company's GenViro! Swift Kit that appears to have been posted online and in Social Media. The company will state to the SEC and FINRA that neither it nor its employees had anything to do with the video. "The company unequivocally has had nothing to do with, did not authorize and does not know the source of the video www.covid-free.life and does not endorse it," said DECN CEO Keith Berman. Although the video contains a purported disclaimer stating it was not authorized by DECN, the company will voluntarily submit a letter to both the SEC and FINRA completely disassociating ourselves from any involvement in the preparation, posting or any aspect having to do with the video. ABOUT DECISION DIAGNOSTICS CORP Decision Diagnostics Corp. has been the leading manufacturer and worldwide distributor of diabetic test strips engineered to operate on legacy glucose meters for 18 years. DECN's products are designed to operate efficiently and less expensively on certain glucose meters already in use by almost 7.5 million diabetics worldwide. The company's GenViro! products are designed to test for Covid-19, and applications for Emergency (EUA) Waivers have been submitted to the U.S. FDA. The finger stick test kit is currently being readied for international sales and an agreement for distribution has been signed for sales to commence in multiple countries including India, Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia. Registration in those countries where such documentation is required is the responsibility of the distributor. Story continues Forward-Looking Statements: This release contains the company's forward-looking statements which are based on management's current expectations and assumptions as of August 6, 2020, regarding the company's business and performance, its prospects, current factors, the economy, and other future conditions and forecasts of future events, circumstances, and results. CONTACT INFORMATION: Decision Diagnostics Corp. Keith Berman (805) 446-2973 info@decisiondiagnostics.co www.genultimate.com www.genultimatetbg.com www.pharmatechdirect.com SOURCE: Decision Diagnostics Corp. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/600712/DECN-Publicly-Disavows-Covid-19-Swift-Kit-Video-as-Produced-by-Outside-Unauthorized-Party The stockpile of ammonium nitrate that likely caused the Beirut blast was being stored alongside fireworks in a hanger widely known to be dangerous, port workers have said, expressing fury at the fire fighters being sent to their death. A current port worker, whose asked to remain anonymous, revealed to The Independent that it was well known in the port that Hangar 12 housed a potentially deadly mix of explosives, and may at one point have contained weapons. The source was not working at the time but says he was close to the port when the explosion ripped through Beirut, killing over 150 people including his friends and colleagues. He said he felt the authorities had sent fire fighters to their deaths as although low-level employees like himself were not permitted to know exactly what was inside, and didnt realise the full extent of the danger, he claims the volatility of Hanger 12 was well known. Everyone knew it was dangerous, they knew there were confiscated explosives there, and possibly weapons but we didnt know exactly what, he said, distraught. Its a tragedy to throw the firefighters into the blaze there, to their deaths, he said. Fire fighters who work at the port and were off duty on Wednesday described their heartbreak and anger at losing 10 colleagues in the blast. They also raised questions at why instead of ordering an evacuation National Security requested the team, comprised of nine male fire fighters and a female paramedic, be deployed to the site. Another source at the port confirmed that fireworks were also stored alongside the ammonium nitrate, which is understood to be a point of questioning among the 16 port officials arrested. He said the fireworks were supposed to sell at auction and were only temporarily there. The Lebanese authorities believe that 2,750 tonnes of poorly stored ammonium nitrate, which is used to make fertilisers and bombs, was set alight, creating what is believed to be the largest non-nuclear blast in modern history. Anti-government protesters try to remove a concrete wall installed by security forces in Beirut, Lebanon (AP) Reports have suggested that fireworks may have been stored within the same hanger that caught fire while welding work was being conducted nearby. Photos taken within the port of the initial fire showed the crackle and pop of what looked like fireworks going off, before the full blast erupts. Several leaked letters sent over the last six years between the Beirut Port Authority, customs, security forces and the judiciary show that they were aware of the presence of the ammonium nitrate and the danger it posted after it was confiscated from a ship in 2013. The security forces apparently investigated the situation in late 2019, and referred the findings to the prime ministers office, army intelligence and customs. Lebanese president Michel Aoun admitted on Friday night he was informed of the deadly stockpile at least three weeks ago and immediately ordered military and security agencies to do what was needed. But he suggested his responsibility ended there, saying he had no authority over the port and that previous governments had been told of the presence of the cargo. One fire fighter, who asked not to be named as he was not permitted to speak to the media, said he did not understand therefore why his co-workers were sent to put out the blaze. Recommended Tales of kindness in beleaguered Beirut If national security knew there was a problem in Hanger 12, why did they request the fire fighters come and put out the fire there? he asked. He also questioned why none of the officials responsible for knowing what was in the warehouse were at the port at the time of the explosion. I was sent a photo of the team trying to open the warehouse door by force, there should be two keys for each warehouse, which those officials would have had. Why werent they to give them keys? Is it because they didnt want to risk being there? he asked. A Lebanese protester carries a wounded demonstrator away from clashes in downtown Beirut (AFP/Getty) He also spoke of his heartbreak having lost so many team members. Eli Khozami, whose body was discovered overnight Saturday, was married less than a month ago while Charbel Karam, who is still missing with her baby girl. Sahar Fares, the female paramedic, was confirmed dead soon after the blast and buried in an emotional funeral on Thursday with her fiancee. The rest of the missing Najib and Charbel Hitti, Ralph Mallahi, Joe Noun, Rami Kaaki, Joe Bou Saab and Mathal Hawa are presumed dead. You eat, work and live with these people. They are closer than family the firefighter said. I feel like a lost ship. I havent been able to cry, I am numb. Both the port workers and the fire fighter described the horrific scenes and heartbreak in the aftermath of the blast. When I reached the port didnt find anything in the place, the building was almost destroyed, said one of the port workers. The scene was indescribable, there were bodies everywhere. As demand is very weak now in the world market, Vietnam needs to respect every new opportunity to boost exports. In late June, the first consignments of Vietnams litchis hit the shelves of 250 conenience stores, supermarkets and Aeon Style shops in Japan. It is estimated that 200 tons of fresh litchis were exported to Japan by air and by sea in the 2020 litchi crop. Japan is now the third largest import-export market of Vietnam. The General Department of Customs (GDC) reported that in the first five months of 2020, the two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and Japan reached $15.6 billion, an increase of 2.2 percent compared with the same period last year. Of this, Vietnams exports to Japan brought turnover of $7.83 billion and the country imported $7.77 billion from Japan. Nguyen Huu Tin, director of the HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC), said while Vietnam has controlled Covid-19, the pandemic globally is still unpredictable and the economy is facing big challenges. However, the new normal status is an opportunity for enterprises to improve and find new ways to exist and develop. Now is time for businesses to upgrade technology and equipment to make products at lower costs and become more competitive. Exporting products to the Japanese market through the retail channel is considered a band-aid solution for now. In 2019, Vietnam exported $381 million worth of products through Aeon retail chain alone, of which 75 percent were garments. Exporting products to the Japanese market through the retail channel is considered a band-aid solution for now. In 2019, Vietnam exported $381 million worth of products through Aeon retail chain alone, of which 75 percent were garments. At present, Vietnams catfish products are favored by Japanese consumers. The total catfish exports to Japan through Aeon reached 1,200 tons in 2019. According to deputy director of the Domestic Market Department Le Thi Viet Nga, Aeon committed to increase the purchase of Vietnamese goods to sell at its supermarket chain in Vietnam and the region. The group strives to export $500 million worth of Vietnams products in 2020 and $1 billion in 2025. In an effort to boost export of Vietnams products through supermarket chains, ITPC has been joining forces with Japanese importers to apply solutions to promote trade and help the business community develop supply chains and expand the partnership. However, businesses understand that while Japan promises great opportunities, it has always been a very choosy market. Experts said that it is difficult to bring Vietnams goods to Japanese supermarkets in Vietnam, but it is even more difficult for Vietnams goods to enter supermarkets in Japan. According to Nguyen Thi Duy Xuan from Aeon Vietnam, Vietnams businesses have to satisfy six requirements to be able to bring their products to Aeon, including traceability. Kim Chi Vietnam receives positive view in global exports as EVFTA takes effect: report Vietnam is expected to continue growing its share of global exports despite decline amid the resurgence in the COVID-19 pandemic after three months of no local transmissions, according to an HSBC report. Vu made his statement while attending a ministerial-level open online debate of the UN Security Council on the linkages between terrorism and transnational organised crime held on August 6. At the debate, Vu shared the common concerns on the impact of terrorism and organised crime on the peace, security, and sustainable development of UN member countries, particularly given the complex developments of COVID-19. The diplomat noted the member countries hold the top responsibility in the fight against these forces, adding that their responses should respect the UN Charter, international law, and involved nations independence and national sovereignty, while following the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and other related resolutions of the UN General Assembly and Security Council. He said in such a process, the UN can play an active role in building an overall approach to tackle the root causes of the problem like poverty, inequality, and unemployment. Vu highlight a need for increased international and regional cooperation, particularly in curbing terrorism financing and recruitment, while supporting the engagement of UN anti-terrorism agencies and regional organisations in the fight. He called on the international community to increase assistance for countries, particularly developing ones, in information exchange, anti-terrorism capacity improvement, and relevant legal development. Vu informed participants that Vietnam has made efforts in completing its legal, economic, and financial systems to mitigate the risk of terrorism financing, prevent international organised crime, and carry out its missions in line with international standards. ASEAN, meanwhile, always considers the terrorism fight a top priority in intra-bloc collaborations, the diplomat stated. Chandrika Rai, a former Bihar minister and a confidant of Lalu Prasad, chief, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), who later became his relative through a matrimonial alliance, is all set to do a political somersault and join the ruling Janata Dal (United). He is likely to join the JD(U) after he is discharged from Patnas All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where is undergoing treatment following contracting SARS-CoV-2, which causes coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Rai, the son of former Bihar chief minister Daroga Prasad Rai, has made up his mind to contest the upcoming assembly elections slated to be held in October-November from his traditional Parsa assembly seat. However, his next political move became evident from a social media post. He appealed to his supporters to register their names, along with their mobile numbers, on JD (U)s digital platform. Rai, whose daughter Aishwarya was married to Prasads eldest son Tej Pratap in 2018 until it fell apart a few months later over marital discord that had hit the headlines and strained the ties between the two well-known political families of Bihar, has been a six-time lawmaker. He had become a member of the Bihar legislative assembly (MLA) for the first time on a Congress ticket in 1985. However, though he was denied a ticket by the Congress for a second successive term, he won as an Independent and later joined the RJD. He was a prominent member of successive RJD governments, helmed by Prasad and then by his wife Rabri Devi following his indictment in the multi-crore fodder scam. Rai was also a minister in the short-lived mahagathbandhan, or the grand alliance government, among the JD(U), the RJD and the Congress. Speculations have been rife that Rai will join JD(U) since he quit the RJD in February. He fell out with Prasads family after Tej Pratap filed for divorce months after marrying Aishwarya in 2018. Later, Aishwarya had complained of being ill-treated by Prasads family members. In the 2019 parliamentary election, Prasad had fielded Rai from the Saran Lok Sabha seat, despite Tej Pratap Yadavs stiff opposition. Rai had lost to the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) Rajiv Pratap Rudy, a former Union minister. Though Rai quit the RJD in February, he had snapped all ties with the party prior to that, as he had stopped attending its organisational meetings. RJD has chalked out plans to checkmate Rais next political move. The party has inducted Rais niece Karishma Rai, the daughter of his elder brother Bidhan Chandra Rai, on July 19 and is considering to field her against him from the Parsa assembly seat. In Bihars family political saga, one more scene-stealer appears to be on the cards. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON NEW HAVEN Eight guns were seized and nine arrests made in areas of recent violence over the last week and a half as city police crack down on crime, according to police. Two arrests made Aug. 2, police said, helped stop retaliation for the homicide earlier that morning. The arrests and gun seizures spanned from July 26 through Wednesday. Between July 1 and July 25, police seized 12 guns. These gun arrests helped stop violence and saved lives, Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson said. In many of these cases, community members called the police and officers were able to safely take people into custody and get the guns off the streets. Police Chief Tony Reyes said the department will not tolerate gun violence. We will continue to work in collaboration with our state and federal partners to arrest those responsible for violence in our city, he said. Below is a breakdown of those arrests: AUG. 5: On Wednesday around 8 p.m., police were driving on Henry Street toward Dixwell Avenue behind an older model Chevrolet. A registration check showed that the plates belonged to a Chevrolet Impala, police said. The driver was later identified as 22-year-old Paul Witherspoon. Witherspoon was previously charged in connection with a New Haven hit-and-run last August. He was in a vehicle with Stephanie Washington in April 2019 that was fired upon by Hamden and Yale police officers. Washington was wounded. Also on Aug. 5, police served a search warrant at a Chapel Street home after a federal investigation and arrested 18-year-old Marquay Foster, who police said was found in possession of a loaded gun, ammunition and an empty high-capacity magazine. Foster was taken into custody on state charges. AUG. 2: Detectives and task force members were working on crime suppression in the Hill area, where there had been a homicide earlier that morning on Aug. 2. Police got a tip about two men in a car on Greenwich Avenue with a shotgun. Police said officers canvassed the area, finding two men in a black sedan on Greenwich Avenue at Third Street. The men, identified by police at 27-year-old Angel Viera and 27-year-old Joshwua Figueroa, had a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with seven shotgun shells on the floor of the passenger side with seven shotgun shells. Another three shotgun shells were found in Vieras pocket, police said. The two are convicted felons. They were taken into custody and charged. The same day, police got a tip about a man in an SUV with a gun inside it again, in the area of Greenwich Avenue. The car drove off, but police pulled the driver over at Howard Avenue and Second Street. Police identified the driver as 28-year-old Brandon Mendoza. When police searched the car, they found a pistol with rounds n the magazine. Mendoza was taken into custody and charged. Police said he refused to cooperated when they tried to interview him, but did say that the recent homicide victim was a friend of his and that he had dropped him off the night prior to the homicide. JULY 31: On July 31, officers got information that there were several men from the Exit 8 group, carrying guns in the parking lot of the Essex Townhouses on Quinnipiac Avenue, according to police. As officers drove into the housing complex, they spotted about 15 people. Some people in the group took off running when they saw police, prompting a foot pursuit. Police detained 26-year-old Jaquan Gray and 26-year-old Denzel Suggs. He was found with a 9mm handgun, stolen out of Hamden, police said. Suggs had a 22-caliber handgun in his pocket when he was arrested, according to police. Police said Gray and Suggs are convicted felons. They were taken to police headquarters and charged. JULY 28: Members of the Shooting Task Force saw a driver sitting in a car in the parking lot of the Valley Street Townhouses on July 28. The complex has no-trespassing signs. When the driver, later identified as 18-year-old Antonio Allen, saw the police officers, he got out of his car with only one shoe on and started to quickly walk away, according to police. As he continued to walk, with officers asking him to stop, police said he reached into another car which then left the area. Officers detained Allen. In plain view of the parked car he had been sitting in earlier, police said, was a clear bag containing marijuana. There was also a black handgun with an obliterated serial number on the passenger side floor, police said. Allen did not have a valid pistol permit and was charged. JULY 26: On July 26, patrol officers responded to a Clinton Avenue home for a report of a domestic dispute where a weapon was used. The victim told police she argued with her 25-year-old husband and he stuck a gun in her mouth, according to police. Officers later found the man, who fled before police got to the call, on Grand Avenue and took him into custody. They found a 9mm handgun in the truck of the car, police said. Since the suspect was identified by police as the victims husband, Hearst Connecticut Media has withheld the individuals name to protect the identity of the victim. BROOKLYN, MI In 2015, Michigan International Speedway and other NASCAR tracks politely asked fans to leave the confederate flags at home. The tracks started an exchange program where fans could swap a confederate flag for a free American flag. But the confederate flags continued to fly even at northern tracks like MIS. Conversations about race and the confederate flag reignited this summer in the United States after George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes sparking protests and unrest. The NASCAR Cup Series only Black driver Bubba Wallace called for NASCAR to ban confederate flags at racetracks. A few days later, the sport with strong southern roots did just that. But like any rule, the question becomes, How do you enforce that? MIS wont have to worry about it for this weekends races, as fans arent allowed to attend because Gov. Gretchen Whitmers Executive Order 2020-160 prohibits fans at sporting events due to the pandemic. "We've got time between now and the next (race weekend)," MIS President Rick Brenner said. "There will be other tracks that go in front of us. We'll look to learn from lessons in other places and adopt them here to make sure that our environment remains inclusive and welcoming to everyone." There was pushback to the ban at Talladega Superspeedways June race in Alabama. A plane flew above the track with a banner boasting a confederate flag and the words Defund NASCAR. Trucks flying the flags paraded around the track and a tent was set up outside the property selling confederate flag merchandise. Once fans can return to MIS, the flag ban will be enforced on all MIS properties, a spokesman said, including the 11 campgrounds the track owns. The ban cant be enforced on private campgrounds or other areas off the property. "We want our events to be as inclusive and welcoming for everyone to come and feel welcome here and be part of this great experience," Brenner said. A confederate flag is painted on top of a "Dukes of Hazzard" bus at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn on Saturday, June 8, 2019. (Mary Lewandowski | MLive.com) Mary LewandowskiMary Lewandowski While MIS is without fans, a few NASCAR tracks have allowed a limited amount of spectators in recent weeks thanks to more lenient state restrictions. New Hampshire Motor Speedway was allowed to have up to 12,000 socially-distanced fans last weekend and Bristol Motor Speedway allowed up to 20,000 spectators for the All-Star Race in July. Neither track had a situation with fans and confederate flags, track officials said. Both tracks are owned by Speedway Motorsports. MIS is owned by NASCAR. Bristol and New Hampshire were prepared for enforcement, officials said, and were treating confederate flags like any other item on its prohibited items list, like guns or glass. If a flag was spotted on the way in, security would ask the person to return it to their vehicle. If found inside with a confederate flag, an usher would ask the person to remove it and security would be called if they refuse. The person would be asked to leave if they don't, officials said. While compliance is fairly straightforward for fans in the grandstands, it becomes muddier once camping returns. The confederate flag is most visible in the MIS infield and surrounding campgrounds, as people bring them in their campers and then fly them up a temporary flagpole once they set up their campsite. Will there be roaming security guards at MIS scouring the property for flags? How effective is forcing people to stash flags in their vehicles, when their vehicle is a parked camper on the property? There will be other gray areas MIS will have to consider, come 2021. What if a person has the confederate flag tattooed on themselves? What if their camper has it painted on the side, or has a confederate flag sticker? What about Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia which has the confederate flag painted atop the iconic orange 1969 Dodge Charger, nicknamed The General Lee? NASCAR and MIS want to be inclusive and unoffensive while not alienating its customers. Luckily, MIS has a few months to figure out how that can be done. RELATED STORIES What Michigans Brad Keselowski, social media, journalists are saying about NASCAR banning the Confederate flag First MIS NASCAR race without fans sees 6 crashes by front grandstands, double OT finish NASCAR driver tests positive for COVID-19, will miss Michigan race Autistic racer Armani Williams of Grosse Pointe breaking through barriers at 190 mph Former Holland, CMU linebacker Nathan Ricketts now starring on NASCARs pit roads Michigans Brad Keselowski badly wants to win at MIS. But if it happens this weekend, it might sting. Set mainly in the Tangier of the 1950s, Little Birds (Sky Atlantic) is based on Anais Nin's erotic short stories but, after watching two episodes, I found it about as sexy as a soggy dishcloth. Nin's erotica, which she wrote to order for wealthy male clients in the 1940s, were collected in two books (Delta of Venus and Little Birds) that were published after her death in 1977 and were notable for their elegance and nuance as well as their sexual frankness. Some of these stories have been reimagined for this six-part series, whose framing device has repressed young Manhattan heiress Lucy being dispatched by her controlling father to exotic Tangier, where she is to marry English aristocrat Lord Hugo Cavendish-Smythe. Before she gets there, though, we see Lord Hugo writhing in the sand with a Moroccan prince and we also see local dominatrix Cheriza plying her trade by urinating on one of her clients. When Lucy arrives in Tangier and discovers that Lord Hugo isn't capable of fulfilling her desires, the stage is set for her sexual awakening by other means. All of this is presumably meant to be titillating, but I was mainly reminded of such supposedly risque soft-porn films of the 1970s as Emmanuelle, in which Sylvia Kristel succumbed to the advances of various dodgy (make that predatory) men in her bid for sexual liberation. Kristel, though, had a certain allure, whereas Juno Temple, who plays Lucy, is so stilted and mannered and pouty that you just don't care what happens to her. The same goes for Hugh Skinner as Lord Hugo - indeed, this actor has been so amusing as a clueless Prince William in the spoofing sitcom The Windsors that it's almost impossible to imagine him as anyone else. Colonialism and racism are touched on in the opening episodes, and binge-watchers may well tell me that the sumptuously shot series gets more absorbing as it goes along, but I'm afraid two hours were more than enough for this viewer. If Lord Hugo kept reminding me of the actor's Prince William skit, I've been spending most of A Suitable Boy (BBC1) waiting for Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith to drop in on their way back from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Yes, I know that doesn't really make sense, given that the entire cast of A Suitable Boy are non-white, but there's something about the production values and tone of this series that seems quintessentially British rather than truly Indian - attributable, no doubt, to screenwriter Andrew Davies's expertise in adapting English literary classics. Spitfire Paddy (RTE1), produced and directed by Gerry Johnston, was a tale of derring-do recounted in a Boy's Own manner by Philip O'Sullivan. It was very engaging, and enlightening, too, for those of us who knew nothing about the World War II exploits of Dubliner Brendan Finucane. Nicknamed Paddy by his English colleagues, he joined the RAF in 1938 at the age of 18 and by the time of his death on a 1942 flying mission he was only 21. Video of the Day In the interim, his skills and bravery had made him a hero in Britain and beyond, with newspaper headlines celebrating his exploits as he shot down more than 30 enemy planes - and this despite the fact that he thought war "a terrible way to settle anything". There were good interviews with some of his old RAF colleagues, while well-edited archive footage contributed to the film's vivid recall. Just as celebratory was Jurgen Klopp: Germany's Greatest Export (Channel 4), a somewhat awestruck profile of the media-friendly manager who, a few weeks back, brought Liverpool back to national triumph after three decades in the Premier League doldrums. Narrator David Morrissey set the tone from the outset, describing the genial Klopp as "the big German with the reassuring smile". Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard followed suit, noting "the big warm smile" and "the big warm cuddle", while German colleague Jurgen Klinnsmann assured us that Klopp "has always been a people person". And so he seems to be, telling the assembled media when he took up the job with Liverpool in 2015 that, unlike Jose Mourinho's claim to be "the special one": "I'm the normal one". Once Upon a Time in Iraq (BBC2), which ends on Monday night, has been an outstanding series, and equally impressive was the opening instalment of the two-part Cuba: Castro vs the World (also BBC2). Produced by Norma Percy, who was behind the riveting 1995 series The Death of Yugoslavia, this first episode went from the overthrow of Batista in 1959 up to Castro's 1980s military interventions in Angola and other places far distant from his Caribbean dictatorship. As in The Death of Yugoslavia, Percy got interviews with most of the main players, whether US or Soviet officials or senior colleagues of Castro. It made for an absorbing hour and was preceded by Colin Stafford-Johnson's excellent Wild Cuba, recently premiered on RTE1. Trinity College immunologist Luke O'Neill, famous since Covid struck for his endearingly eccentric and twinkly media contributions, was among the global experts assembled for Race Against the Virus (Channel 4). Paced like a thriller, this took viewers from the first outbreak in Wuhan through cruise ships off Japan to frightening surges in Italy via calamitous Cheltenham attendances and Boris Johnson boasting about shaking everyone's hand. An Arizona sheriff has devised a helping hand for local law enforcement by introducing a new collective: the Citizens Posse. Speaking to The Epoch Times via email, the Pinal County Sheriffs Office said that the Citizens Posse is an academy-type program wherein residents are invited to learn more about how, and why, law enforcement officers do what they do. We feel an important step in maintaining strong relationships with our communities is to sit down together and hear from the other side, the sheriffs office told The Epoch Times. This is our attempt to welcome curious residents into our home to learn. The representative added that the participants who would be willing may also be enlisted as volunteers who may be called upon in times of a major emergency, including floods, wildfires, or widespread unrest. While we never know what the future will hold, we want to be prepared to protect our families and communities. The new PCSO Citizens Posse program offers a training course designed to show residents the reality of police work. Click here for more info: https://t.co/X69f4HusFM pic.twitter.com/uDPxpkuY2u Pinal County Sheriffs Office (@PinalCSO) July 30, 2020 Unlike the sheriff, deputy, and current countywide law enforcement staff, the Citizens Posse members will not be required or expected to conduct daily patrols, the sherrifs office said. Sheriff Lamb posted a video to Twitter on July 31, introducing his Citizens Posse to the masses. He said: 2020 has been quite the year, and while we never know what the future will hold, we want to be prepared. Often, Im asked what you can do to help us if we ever need the support, the sheriff said. Thats why Ive created a Citizens Posse. Giving people like you the opportunity to learn the basics. The sheriff said to become a member of the Citizens Posse, a Pinal County resident will have to undergo a minimal criminal background check and a four-hour training session, including the basics of constitutional law, search and seizure protocol, appropriate use of force, basic firearm safety, home safety, and the signing of a legal waiver. (Illustration somsak suwanput/Shutterstock) Sheriff Lamb hopes that the Citizens Posse will be proactive as opposed to reactive. In addition, Lamb intends for the Posse to help reeducate people about the realities of life behind a law enforcement badge. Its just an opportunity to get [the Pinal County residents] to more education, the sheriff told The Arizona Republic. They can hopefully squelch some of the frustration that theyre feeling right now in these uncertain times and at the same time get some training. Referring to nationwide public cries for police reform after the death of George Floyd in May, Lamb told the outlet that a lot of people chime in on things they dont have any clue about. I see so many people talking about police work, and they dont have the slightest clue about what its like to go out and do the job, he said. If you dont like how police are then come be a cop and help us change it, Lamb concluded. At the time of writing, the Pinal County Sheriffs Office has already received over 400 email inquiries, the report stated. We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev congratulated the President of the Republic of Singapore Her Excellency Madame Halimah Yacob. "Dear Madame President, It is on the occasion of the national holiday of your country that on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan I wish to offer my most cordial congratulations and best wishes to you and the friendly people of Singapore," Azerbaijani president wrote. "The present level of Azerbaijan-Singapore relations and cooperation within the international bodies, particularly, the Non-Aligned Movement is gratifying," the head of state said. "On this notable day, I wish strong health and happiness to you, and everlasting prosperity to your people," Azerbaijani president wrote. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 8 Trend: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev congratulated the President of the Republic of Singapore Her Excellency Madame Halimah Yacob. "Dear Madame President, It is on the occasion of the national holiday of your country that on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan I wish to offer my most cordial congratulations and best wishes to you and the friendly people of Singapore," Azerbaijani president wrote. "The present level of Azerbaijan-Singapore relations and cooperation within the international bodies, particularly, the Non-Aligned Movement is gratifying," the head of state said. "On this notable day, I wish strong health and happiness to you, and everlasting prosperity to your people," Azerbaijani president wrote. MERCEDES SCHLAPP, Trump campaign senior adviser: Even come Election Day, you could still cast a ballot three days later if you dont have a postmark, or seven days later if you have a postmark. ... Say you vote for Joe Biden, then you find out in Nevada that President Trump wins. You can go to your family members, you can go to your colleagues and say, Guess what, do you still have that mail-in vote? Lets cast it, because you can cast it several days after the election. CNN interview Tuesday. Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today. Beer drinkers in Colorado and Minnesota may experience the biggest sticker shock of their life Friday, which also happens to be International Beer Day. In some stores, a six-pack of Fat Tire beer will ring up for a stunning $100, instead of the usual 12 bucks or so. Thirsty shoppers dont need to panic, at least not quite yet. The change is a temporary effort by Fat Tires creator, New Belgium Brewing, to highlight the impacts of climate change. The $100 price tag, the brewer says, is what a six-pack of beer could cost in 50 years if more decisive action isnt taken against carbon emissions. According to CEO Steve Fechheimer, New Belgium is already grappling with those impacts on a daily basis, and its far from alone. Frankly, our entire agricultural supply chain is already being pretty impacted by climate change, Fechheimer tells Fortune. In any given year, thats drought or floods that wipe out part of our barley or hops crop, or a freeze in Florida that means we cant get access to the citrus fruits we had contracted for the year. Theyre happening way more frequently and way more severely than in the past. A store display featuring Fat Tire beers new price: $100 per six-pack. The price change, limited to certain stores, is part of an effort to highlight the threat of climate change. New Belgiums repricing stunt is also meant to draw attention to the recent certification of Fat Tire as a carbon-neutral product. The company says its the first nationally available beer to earn that distinction. The carbon-neutral certification is issued by SCS Global Services, which also oversees gluten-free and non-GMO certifications. Fechheimer says its an arduous process that involves measuring carbon outputs at every point of a products supply chain, buying credits to offset what cant be eliminated quickly, and outlining a plan to get rid of the rest. New Belgiums efforts to combat climate change and earn that carbon-neutral certification have included powering its brewing plants with solar and other renewables, and working with suppliersparticularly bottle manufacturersto reduce their impact. Story continues When customers take a sixer of Fat Tire to the checkout at certain partner stores (New Belgium wouldnt say how many), the beer will ring up at the climate changeinflated price. The customer will then get some marketing materials explaining the motive for the stunt, but, a spokesperson says, will ultimately be able to get his or her suds for the usual price. The point is to really highlight what all of us are feeling as brewers, and make it clear to consumers how severe this is, Fechheimer says. And maybe get them to think about the issue in a slightly different way. The U.S. has experienced a craft beer renaissance in recent decades, which New Belgium helped create since its founding in 1991. But Fechheimer warns that the smaller brewers his company paved the way for could be the most impacted by the costs of climate change. The small and medium-size [breweries] are the ones that get squeezed, he says; bigger operations get better access to the shrunken output of disrupted harvests. If Fechheimer wants to get consumers attention, thats a scenario likely to do the trick. The postclimate change world wont just mean grappling with constant natural disasters and mass forced migration: You might also be limited to drinking Coors. More must-read energy sector coverage from Fortune : This story was originally featured on Fortune.com One person had to discard hundreds of dollars worth of food. Another has three small children and has no idea when power will be restored. Several others said they have not seen a single Eversource truck since Tropical Storm Isaias pounded Connecticut Tuesday afternoon. Comments residents submitted to Hearst Connecticut Media show a collective frustration about the response from the utility companies in the wake of widespread power outages. Epic failure, wrote Laura Laspalluto, a Stamford resident. While a few commentators took aim at United Illuminating, the power company that serves parts of Fairfield County and the New Haven region, most of the criticism was aimed at Eversource. The utility company reported about 480,000 Connecticut customers were still without power late Thursday night. Eversource said it had restored power to more than 435,000 customers at that point. But the companys presence has not been seen in many neighborhoods still in the dark, residents said. Norwalk resident Stacey Hebert said she didnt see an Eversource truck until Thursday in the citys Cranbury neighborhood. A number of residents complained about the breakdown in communications from the utility company. In the wake of the storm, Eversources alert system that provides updates to those without power stopped working something the company acknowledged in a recorded phone message to customers. While they have no control over the severity of the storm, the fact that ALL forms of communication with their customers phone, website, app, social media failed at once demonstrates abysmal backup planning, Laspalluto wrote. Erica Siberon, a Bridgeport resident and UI customer, said she has been without electricity since 3 p.m. Tuesday. I have three small children and this needs to be handled in a more timely manner, she said. Several said they were frustrated after Eversource hiked electricity rates this month, a move that was halted by the states Public Utilities Regulatory Authority just days before the storm. I cant help but think that their lack of response is payback for PURAs investigation into their delivery fee raises, Hebert said. Perhaps they feel that without a lack of service customers will now pay more? Or is this their way of getting back at the public for complaining? Gov. Ned Lamont has joined the chorus of local officials and residents blasting the utility company. Lamont has declared a state of emergency and called for PURA to investigate the utility companies response to the storm. On Thursday, the governor requested the Connecticut National Guard to help in the restoration efforts. Eversource said line and tree crews are working around-the-clock to repair the widespread damage to the electric system with personnel brought in from Canada, Michigan and Massachusetts. Eversource said it anticipates power to be nearly restored by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday with many customers getting restored sooner. We know how urgently our customers need power and we will work tirelessly with every crew and resource we can muster until they all have power again, Eversource President of Regional Electric Operations Craig Hallstrom said in a statement late Thursday. With crews from Canada, Michigan and Massachusetts working alongside our Eversource crews, we remain laser focused on this restoration and are committed to staying on the job around-the-clock until every customer has power back. We are grateful to our customers for their patience and recognize the tremendous inconvenience that being without electricity presents during the ongoing pandemic and hot days of summer. A four-year-old boy is in hospital with head injuries after a motorbike crashed through barriers and hit him during an indoor race in Sydney's west on Saturday morning. A CareFlight helicopter arrived at the event site in Eastern Creek at about 10.50am and the boy was treated by a specialist doctor and paramedics at the scene. CareFlights aeromedical crew treated the four-year-old boy for injuries to the head. Credit:CareFlight Media He was taken by ambulance to the Children's Hospital in Westmead in a stable condition. "NSW Ambulance paramedics arrived by road at the same time and joined CareFlights specialist doctor and NSW Ambulance critical care paramedic to help the injured," CareFlight said in a statement. Six Mekong countries have been urged to address regional low water flows as the Lower Mekong River Basin (LMB) endures record lows for the second consecutive year, according to a Mekong River Commission (MRC) report. A man rides his machine boat along the Tonle Sap Lake in Kampong Khleang, passing floating houses on silts. (Photo: Mekong River Commission) The MRCs Situation Report, which explores hydrological conditions in the LMB during January-July 2020, preliminarily identifies multiple possible causes of the low flows and drought this year. Among these are abnormal low rainfall affected by the El Nino weather phenomenon, prolonged low flow conditions carried over from 2019, and lower water flow contributions from the Mekong tributaries. The low flows have caused Cambodias Tonle Sap Lake to experience extremely dry conditions, with reverse flows at their lowest on record since 1997. Using available monitoring, rainfall and weather data from the MRC and other global sources, the report adds that operations of the mainstream dams in the Upper Mekong Basin and the tributary dams in the LMB may have affected the present low flow conditions. However, the MRC Secretariat has been unable to obtain official data and information to verify the potential impacts of storage operations in the upper basin. We call on the six Mekong countries to increase data and information sharing on their dam and water infrastructure operations in a transparent and speedy manner with the MRC. It is time to walk the talk and to act in the common interest of the entire Mekong River Basin and the affected communities, said An Pich Hatda, the MRC Secretariats Chief Executive Officer. The 32-page long report points out that the current low flows could have severe impacts on Cambodia due to a loss of fisheries and irrigation potential. Vietnam may experience reduced productivity in the Delta rice bowl, and agricultural productivity in Lao and Thailand may also be affected. The report suggests that the MRC member countries, including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, should request hydropower operators and irrigation operators to adjust their near-term operations and monitor potential bank erosion. If the low flows persist, according to the report, the four countries should consider requesting China to discharge a water supplement, as they did in 2016, to relieve the situation in the LMB, especially during the upcoming dry season./.VNA Serum Institute of India plans to make 300 million doses of AZD1222 by December, and will begin phase-2 trials soon. It has also tied up with Novavax for development and commercialisation of its candidate. IMAGE: Andressa Parreiras, Biomedic, and Larissa Vuitika, biologist, work in a laboratory during the extraction of the virus genetic material in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The ministry of health convened The Technological Vaccine Center of the Federal University of Minas Gerais laboratory to conduct research on the coronavirus in order to diagnose, test and develop a vaccine. Photograph: Pedro Vilela/Getty Images. Serum Institute of India (SII) has inked a pact with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, to make 100 million doses of a potential vaccine. This is for low- and medium-income countries, and with a price cap of Rs 250 a dose. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, via its Strategic Investment Fund, will provide at-risk funding of $150 million to Gavi for supporting SII in the manufacture, the company noted. Priced at $3 a dose, the vaccines will be made available in 92 countries, including India. These are those included in Gavis Covax Advance Market Commitment (AMC). Covax is an initiative by the World Health Organization (WHO) -- which is managed by Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) -- to ensure equitable distribution of the vaccine. SII also has a tie-up with Oxford-AstraZeneca for its candidate AZD1222, which is under advanced stages of clinical trial. SII will supply 1 billion doses to AstraZeneca, which has already committed to 2 billion doses of AZD1222. SII plans to make 300 million doses of AZD1222 by December, and will begin phase-2 trials soon. It has also tied up with Novavax for development and commercialisation of its candidate. It will have exclusive rights for that in India (during the term of the deal) and non-exclusive rights during the pandemic period in all countries, besides upper-middle or high income countries. SII said Gavi and the Foundation would provide upfront capital to help increase manufacturing capacity. The funding will aid at-risk manufacturing by SII for AstraZenecas and Novavaxs candidates, which will be available for procurement if they are successful in attaining full licensure and WHO's pre-qualification. The arrangement also provides the option to secure additional doses if the vaccines arm of the ACT Accelerator sees the need. Serum's tie-ups with AstraZeneca and Novavax will continue. Besides the 100 million doses it will supply to Gavi-led Covax (at Rs 250 each), it will be free to price the vaccines in India. To make our fight against Covid-19 stronger and all-embracing, SII has partnered with Gavi and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance the manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of future Covid vaccines for India, along with low- and middle-income countries in 2021, said Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India. Earlier this week, AuTuTu released its top 10 list of the highest performing smartphones tested in July. On Friday, AnTuTu released a new list, ranking the top 10 SoCs (System on a chip) for the first half of 2020. The top chipsets range from a score of 249151 all the way to 401108. The top three rankes on the list were the Snapdragon 865, the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+, and the Snapdragon 855+. MediaTek is a new contender in high-end chipsets, and the Dimensity 1000+ has its 5G integrated into the SoCs modem. The Snapdragon 865 must use a separate X55 Modem for 5G support. The next three spots are taken by the Kirin 990 5G, the Snapdragon 855, and the Kirin 990. These SoCs all scored in the lower 300,000s. The last four are the Dimensity 1000L, the Kirin 980, Kirin 985 5G, and the Dimensity 820. You might be wondering why no Exynos chipset appears here. Thats because this top 10 list only counts domestic Android mobile phone performance. AnTuTus domestic market is China, and Samsungs flagships headed for China (and North America) use Snapdragon chips. Qualcomm leads AnTuTu performance scores, and MediaTek is finally making the effort to compete at the Qualcomm level, though still behind a notable gap in scores. Source Via Three children were among 11 people killed in a fire Saturday at an apartment block in the Czech Republic that police believe was set deliberately. Police said one person was detained in connection with the blaze that saw five people jump to their deaths in the eastern city of Bohumin near the Polish border. Regional police chief Tomas Kuzel told public Czech Television that police suspected arson was the cause and that they had detained one person in the case. "I think we are good when it comes to the culprit," Kuzel said without specifying whether the detained person would be charged with arson. He likened the fire to a case in 2013 when a man caused a gas explosion and fire that killed three children and two other people as well as himself. He reportedly hated his fellow tenants. "It's similar," Kuzel said of the conflagration seven years ago in the eastern Czech town of Frenstat. "The culprit there also basically liquidated a block of flats and left many people dead." Lukas Popp, a spokesman for local firefighters, told AFP the fire had broken out on the 11th floor of the concrete block of flats in Bohumin on the Czech-Polish border, some 300 kilometres (190 miles) east of the capital Prague. "Six people died on this floor, including three children and three adults -- and a dog," he added. "Our firefighters were on the site really fast but during the action, five people jumped out of the 12th-storey window and died," said Popp. Regional fire squad head Vladimir Vlcek told Czech Television he did not want to speculate about the causes of the fire for the moment. "But the fire was very quick to develop, which is not normal. A fire like that typically affects one room, but this one hit the entire flat, all the rooms are burnt down," he said. Vlcek added it was not clear why the five people had jumped out of the window when their flat was not yet hit by the blaze. "All we would have needed was dozens of seconds to inflate the jumping cushion and the impact would not have been so tragic," he said. Regional governor Ivo Vondrak said that besides the victims, thirteen people were injured in the fire, including two firefighters and one police officer. "The fire alarm was declared at 17:49 (1549 GMT) and the firefighters were on the site at 17:54," Vondrak added. Popp said the fire had been localised and investigators were looking into the causes of the deadly blaze. Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacek described the fire as "a huge tragedy" in a tweet. "My deepest condolences to the bereaved," he said. Both candidates are well funded, but Van Drew ended the primary season with more money at hand because he didnt have to spend much in the primary race. Kennedy had five opponents, two of whom were considered possible winners. Motivated Democrats drive up turnout for July 7 primary The hotly contested Democratic primary in the 2nd Congressional District unofficially won Van Drew ended with $1.1 million in the bank, Froonjian said. Amy Kennedy had to spend quite a bit $1.4 million and mind boggling for a primary in South Jersey. That also tells me she is able to raise money. Its not easy to raise funds in a presidential year, though, he said, when presidential candidates suck up so much of the donations. It just means they have to work harder, Froonjian said, and do it without using the personal touch nearly as much. All these changes are happening at the same time that the nation is going into one of its most divisive and emotion-laden elections. The COVID-19 pandemic and the up-swell of demand for more equitable treatment of Black men and women by police are bringing many issues to a head, Kennedy said. Shore, Cape Regional, Inspira get federal CARES Act funding South Jersey hospitals shut out from the first round of government COVID-19 funding received BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.8 By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend: Visits of foreign doctors to Azerbaijan are organized on the basis of interstate agreements, Head of the Disease Control and Prevention Department of the Management Union of Medical Territorial Units (TABIB) Yagut Garayeva said. Garayeva made the remark during a briefing of the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers held on August 8, Trend reports. According to her, the visits have been arranged with involvement of official representatives of these countries. Garayeva added that in many countries, the number of infection cases is decreasing, and the situation is being taken under control. In particular, I want to note that the specialists who arrived [in Azerbaijan] from Italy are representatives of different provinces of the country and are specialized in different fields. We planned in advance what kind of assistance they could provide us upon arriving in Azerbaijan, she said. Pompeo Calls on Afghan Assembly Loya Jirga to Release Remaining Taliban Prisoners Sputnik News 03:21 GMT 07.08.2020 WASHINGTON (Sputnik) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the all-Afghan assembly Loya Jirga to release the remaining Taliban* prisoners and thus remove the last obstacle to the resumption of the intra-Afghan negotiations. "The United States commends the participants of the Loya Jirga to be convened on 7 August to consolidate national support for peace. We understand that they will decide on the expeditious release of the remaining Taliban prisoners from their list, the last obstacle to the start of intra-Afghan negotiations", Pompeo said in a statement on late Thursday. "While the decisions and conduct of both parties to intra-Afghan negotiations will affect the size and scope of future US assistance, the United States affirms its support for sustainable peace and an enduring partnership with Afghanistan", he added. On 31 July, spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Qatar Suhail Shaheen said that the Taliban movement completed the release of 1,000 Afghan prisoners. According to Taliban, Kabul has so far freed only 4,400 detainees. The Afghan government and the Taliban committed to releasing each other's prisoners 5,000 and 1,000, respectively as part of a peace deal negotiated by the group and the United States in the Qatari capital of Doha on 29 February, with the outlook to launch intra-Afghan talks. *Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address During its 53 years of constant development, ASEAN has been affirming its position in the region and the world. browser not support iframe. On the occasion of the Associations founding anniversary (August 8), Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Ibnu Hadi has granted an interview to Vietnam News Agency on the development of ASEAN as well as Vietnams contributions to the bloc during its term as ASEANs rotating chair in 2020. Looking back on the history of ASEAN since its foundation in 1967, Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Ibnu Hadi recalls the blocs constant development in all spheres, including socio-politics, economics and trading, contributing to peace and stability in the region and the world. Commenting on Vietnams performance as the blocs rotating chair during the first half of this year, the Ambassador says despite upheavals on the world scale due to COVID-19 since March, most ASEANs processes have been conducted on time under Vietnams leadership. He also voices opportunities and challenges facing ASEAN after 2025. Among which, one of the main challenges is maintaining regional peace and stability, according to the Ambassador./VNA US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has spoken with his counterparts from five key partners and allies, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, on the collective fight against the coronavirus pandemic, according to his spokesperson. This was Secretary Pompeo's second call with Jaishankar in as many days. Pompeo and his counterparts discussed the importance of continued close coordination in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, State Department Spokesperson, Morgan Ortagus said in a readout of the calls with foreign ministers of India, Australia, Brazil, Israel, and South Korea. "They noted the importance of close cooperation to reopen our economies and counter disinformation, while also addressing the need for concerted efforts to prevent future pandemics," Ortagus said on Friday. Jaishankar and Pompeo have maintained regular contact with each other during the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over seven lakh lives and infected nearly 19 million people worldwide. The top two diplomats have spoken over phone at frequent intervals, at times on a weekly basis. India and the United States have enhanced their co-operation bilaterally and also with their key allies and partners like Australia, Brazil, Israel, Japan and S Korea on a host of issues including the collective efforts against coronavirus. Prominent among them include ensuring supply of personal protective equipment, medical supplies, and essential drugs. They have also been coordinating on the issue of research on a vaccine for COVID-19 and therapeutics for the deadly disease. Pompeo spoke over phone with Jaishankar on Thursday. He spoke separately with the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Locsin, according to a readout of the call. During their wide-ranging conversation on Thursday, the two leaders shared assessments on regional and global issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Indo-Pacific and Quadrilateral coalition. "Reviewed our bilateral cooperation including working of relevant mechanisms. Shared assessments on regional and global issues including South Asia, Afghanistan, Indo-Pacific & beyond," Jaishankar wrote on Twitter. "Exchanged views on responding to the coronavirus challenge. Discussed meeting in the Quad format in the near future," Jaishankar said in another tweet. India, the US and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China's rising military maneuvering in the region. Beijing claims almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory. China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Beijing has impeded commercial activity like fishing or mineral exploration by countries like Vietnam and the Philippines, claiming that the ownership of territory belonged to China for hundreds of years. Investors seeking new ways to boost their income following the collapse in UK dividend payouts should consider exploring overseas funds, experts say. While average dividends have tumbled by about 50 per cent in Britain, those companies based abroad have lowered payouts closer to 20 per cent. And while overseas yields the payout you get for every pound you invest traditionally tend to be lower, they are now looking increasingly competitive. Ben Yearsley, investment consultant at Fairview Investing, says: 'Historically companies in the UK have prided themselves on offering among the best yields that can beat the competition abroad. While average dividends have tumbled by about 50 per cent in Britain, those companies based abroad have lowered payouts closer to 20 per cent 'While normally they might well offer the most attractive returns, when a crisis hits it is worth searching out fresh opportunities elsewhere. I would suggest looking globally at emerging markets, Asia, and separately, Japan.' Among those that Yearsley likes the look of is the JP Morgan Global Emerging Markets Income Trust. This investment trust has been steadily paying out dividend yields of about 5 per cent a year in the past five years 5.1p for every share last year and investors still have a healthy prospective dividend yield of 4.6 per cent for 2020. The top holding in this trust is Taiwan Semiconductor, which accounts for 8.80 of every 100 in the fund. This innovative computer chip maker believes in paying out healthy cash dividends every year, last year handing out $8.5billion to investors that believed in the firm. But as with many global firms, it has warned that dividends may be lower this year. The 408million JP Morgan trust has shown strong returns recently up 8.5 per cent in three months but over 12 months is down 14.5 per cent. Yearsley says: 'Emerging markets tend to be for the more adventurous investor but income seekers should certainly look to a more global portfolio in these uncertain times. Perhaps you might put 20 per cent of your income portfolio in emerging markets and Asia funds and a further 10 per cent in Japan.' Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services, agrees now is an ideal time for income seekers to cast their eye abroad. He says: 'Diversification is key.' However, he thinks for this reason global funds are often the best choice for those seeking income overseas for the first time. Top holding: Innovative computer chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor accounts for 8.80 of every 100 in JP Morgan Global Emerging Markets Income Trust 'It is not just because of the extra choice but also because of the extra risk of investing your pound sterling in a foreign currency means a global fund can be a good option,' McDermott explains. 'During times of a crisis the pound is usually weak, so investing abroad can be more expensive. But on the other hand, if there is a global recession, other currencies such as dollar and euro are also likely to be hit.' Among his recommendations is Guinness Global Equity Income fund. This 988million fund was launched a decade ago and typically pays out a yield of 2.6 per cent a year. Among its major holdings are international giants such as Microsoft and British American Tobacco. McDermott says: 'You tend to get more technology stocks in global income funds than in those based in the UK. Larger firms are often better placed to pay out dividends.' Laura Suter, personal finance analyst at AJ Bell, believes there is no point researching the swathes of companies in overseas stock markets when you can pay experts to do the legwork just as long as you choose a team with proven skills. TB Evenlode Global Income invests in companies like eBay, American computer chip giant Intel and payroll company Paychex She says: 'Stick to a fund or investment trust where the investment manager can determine which income payers are likely to keep paying in the pandemic. 'With a global equity fund investors can hedge their bets across different countries and markets.' She says one option is TB Evenlode Global Income, which invests in about 40 large firms around the world. About two-fifths of this 700million fund is in US firms. 'The fund managers hunt out holdings with low levels of debt and high profits,' Suter says. 'This means they will hopefully be better placed to ride out the pandemic and continue to pay yields.' Among the fund's top holdings are online marketplace eBay, American computer chip giant Intel and payroll company Paychex. It has historically paid out a steady but reliable 2.3 per cent a year in yields and is predicted to do so again at the next payment date on October 31. The fund is up 6 per cent in the past three months though still down 1.9 per cent over 12 months. Suter believes those hunting for income opportunities in Asia could look to the Jupiter Asian Income fund, run by Jason Pidcock. The 680million fund invests 7 in every 10 in Asian companies, with the remaining 3 in 10 mostly in other global stocks. Among its top holdings are Samsung Electronics and Link REIT, a real estate investment trust in Asia. The fund is up almost 11 per cent in the past three months. Since its March 2016 launch, it has returned 56 per cent, turning 1,000 into 1,560. A favoured Asian dividend payer liked by Yearsley is Schroder Oriental Income. This investment trust currently offers a projected dividend yield of 4.4 per cent for the year. In the past three months it has risen by 12 per cent but is still down by around 13 per cent over the past year. Looking at Japan-focused funds, Yearsley suggests Baillie Gifford Japanese Income Growth. The 729million fund typically pays out an annual income of 2.5 per cent. 'While this might seem relatively modest, the income stream is steady not suffering the peaks and troughs of UK fund dividend payers,' Yearsley says. The fund has also so far survived the recent coronavirus crisis relatively well, with returns up by 6 per cent over the past three months although it is down 3 per cent for the past 12 months in total. McDermott admits that the US is not traditionally a dividend-paying stock market often paying no more than about 2 per cent a year but it is hard to ignore due to its recent boom in fortunes. He says: 'A fund such as the JP Morgan US Equity Income puts its money in big companies that are strong enough to pay relatively decent yields.' It has historically paid out about 2.5 per cent a year with holdings that should weather the recent storm. Top holdings include the pharmaceutical giants Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb, each making up 2.6 per cent of the 3.1billion portfolio. Over the past three months it is up 4.2 per cent yet has struggled over the year falling by 6.1 per cent. Donald Trumps decision to slap tariffs on aluminum from Canada didnt make any economic sense when he did it the first time in 2018. It makes even less sense the second time around. Start with the timing. Trumps slap at Canada comes barely a month after the new, updated version of NAFTA officially came into effect. At a minimum, the tariffs violate the spirit of cross-border cooperation that was supposed to come with whats now known (in Canada, at least) as CUSMA. To make things even worse, it all comes as both countries are trying to rev up their economies after the COVID-19 shutdown. Turning on your neighbour and leading trade partner at such a delicate moment makes no sense. But it was never about economics. Back in 2018, Trump used tariffs on aluminum and steel to put pressure on Canada and Mexico during the NAFTA negotiations. This time, the new tariff is a transparently political move to buff up Trumps claim to be the protector of American manufacturing. No coincidence that it was announced in rust-belt Ohio, the most critical swing state in Novembers presidential election. Trumps ludicrous claim that the tariff is justified by a threat to U.S. national security just adds insult to injury. The 10-per-cent levy on aluminum, as many pointed out two years ago and again this week, will only penalize American consumers and workers. Theyll pay more for everything made from aluminum, from beer cans to cars. Even most of the U.S. aluminum industry is against the move. They know they cant meet American demand and they dont buy Trumps claim that Canada is flooding their market. Two years ago, the Trudeau government made the best of a bad situation. It imposed dollar-for-dollar tariffs of its own on American goods and focused on getting the North American trade deal renewed with as little damage as possible along the way. This time around, the government again has no choice but to impose retaliatory tariffs if the Trump administration doesnt change its tune. But the real game now is to wait out Trump. His erratic and destructive behaviour on the trade front is just one more reason to wish fervently for his defeat in November. In the meantime, its tempting to respond with the kind of emotion that Premier Doug Ford showed on Friday when asked about Trumps move. Were up against a real battle right now, said the premier. Its us against them. Ford said Canadians should hit them where it hurts. He called on Ontario companies to label their products Made in Canada or Made in Ontario so consumers can use their spending power to buy local rather than supporting American producers. In the heat of the moment, that sounds good. But is this really the road we want to go down? If the United States is intent on shooting itself in the foot by raising prices for its own consumers (which is what tariffs do), does it make sense for us to get even by lopping off some of our own toes? Buy Ontario has a nice ring to it, but if its followed by Buy Quebec, Buy Manitoba and Buy Michigan, will that leave anyone better off in the long run? Securing guaranteed local access to key strategic goods like personal protective equipment is one thing. Buying Ontario-made potato chips on principle, rather than perfectly decent snacks from Manitoba or Ohio, is another. Presumably we want people in Manitoba, Ohio and everywhere else to buy our excellent chips and not snub them out of a misplaced sense of local pride. But this is the road Trump wants to send us down a self-destructive downward spiral of protectionism that will leave everyone worse off. In the short run, simple self-respect demands that Ottawa stand up to Trumps unjustified tariff. But lets not lose sight of the real goal: defending a rules-based system of free and truly fair trade that benefits everyone. Read more about: Mayank Singh By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Division commanders of the Indian and Chinese armies met on Saturday for a long overdue discussion on the Depsang bulge standoff in eastern Ladakh. "Major Generals of both sides met at 11am at Daulat Beg Oldi. Depsang is included in the itinerary," a senior army officer said. The two sides will also discuss other areas where talks for disengagement have not made much progress. The Indian side is being led by Major General Abhijit Bapat, the General Officer Commanding of the 3 Division, which is entrusted with defending LAC in Ladakh. The meeting is significant as the Depsang area has remained out of the discussions so far. The Chinese army has moved to a point called the Y-Junction at the Depsang bulge, a narrow outlet. The Chinese are in a position to prevent Indian soldiers from reaching five patrolling points, each of which cover an area of 10-15 sq km. ALSO READ | World has lot riding on India and China relations: Jaishankar on LAC crisis The patrolling points are 10, 11, 11A, 12 and 13. The Chinese side has not honoured an agreement between the Corps Commanders for disengagement from all the standoff points. While the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has moved back from the Galwan Valley, it has continued its presence at Gogra (PP 17A) and on the ridge of Finger 4 on the northern side of the Pangong Lake. The ambiguous behaviour of the PLA has prompted the Indian side to begin preparations for a long haul, with winter stocking of troops in full swing. So far five Corps Commander level talks have taken place. India has insisted on a complete disengagement and moving back to the pre-May locations from the standoff locations. Even after the agreements, the Chinese side has not disengaged. There have been multiple talks at diplomatic level as well, but without any result. Both sides have committed around 40,000 troops, including armoured vehicles, artillery and missile launchers apart from major infantry troops on the ground in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army has also made precautionary deployments on other portions of the LAC. ALSO READ | PM should begin 'satyagraha' by cleaning 'garbage of falsehood' on Chinese aggression: Rahul Ready for long haul The Army has already made elaborate plans to maintain current strength of troops and weapons along the LAC during the harsh winter months in eastern Ladakh and all other sensitive areas. There are a few places in the markets today that remain exciting, even during all this volatility. One of those areas is the electronic vehicle (EV) market. EV stock has done well almost across the board, and that includes pretty much any stock that has to do with EVs. You can see this clearly when looking at companies such as Tesla Motors and NIO. Both of these companies have been on a tear as of late. Tesla is up 225% year to date, and NIO is up 242% as of writing. Both have strong potential among EV stock companies to continue to see huge explosions. But there are a few things that have to happen first. The breakdown First of all, vehicle delivery numbers need to increase dramatically. NIO delivered a record number of cars during the second quarter of 2020, hitting 10,331 vehicles. Thats a dramatic increase from last quarter and should continue to increase as the company now has a partnership with China. Tesla, meanwhile, delivered 90,650 cars during the second quarter, which caused the EV stock to soar. But each company still needs to up its game. While thats a dramatic increase for both companies, other major car brands are in the millions for each quarter. This leads to the next problem. The pandemic needs to end. If COVID-19 remains, EV stock will remain low, as the car makers cannot build as many cars and cannot expand as hoped. The companies also cannot ship to other countries, as the United States remains banned from entry for a number of countries. Finally, EV stock companies need one thing: more lithium. Lithium powers the batteries used by EVs. Again, the pandemic has brought lithium mining to a halt, but once the pandemic subsides, there should be a huge boost in production to make up for lost time. The Canadian EV stock While there arent any EV stock companies in Canada, there are those that you can still take advantage of during the EV boom. That would be a company such as Lithium Americas (TSX:LAC)(NYSE:LAC). The company is a Canadian lithium producer; it mainly operating projects from its Cauchari-Olaroz in Argentina and Thacker Pass in Nevada. Story continues The Argentina project ceased production for about a month after the outbreak, but as of April 20 it was back on a limited basis. Its Reno, Nevada project also ceased operations for now after producing 10,500 kilograms of lithium. The company had a net loss of $14 million for the first quarter of 2020. Its likely that the lithium producer will have another tough quarter thanks to the pandemic. But thats what makes this an ideal buying opportunity. If the company manages to announce any good news, such as full-scale production, share prices should soar for this EV stock. Share trade as of writing at $8.25 per share, which is still up 83% since January, despite the bad news. Clearly, investors are still convinced this stock has huge future potential. I would agree and think as EV stock companies really take off, Lithium Americas could eventually hit triple digits. It could take a while, making the company the perfect buy-and-hold stock in todays market. Meanwhile, it could easily reach all-time highs near $14 per share in the next year. The post 3 Things EV Stock Bulls Need to Happen Soon appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading Fool contributor Amy Legate-Wolfe has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. David Gardner owns shares of Tesla. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020 It is not surprising Cairo is one of the very first countries to open an air bridge of medical and food supplies to Lebanon. The giant explosion which hit Beirut Port, causing unprecedented destruction and rendering thousands dead or injured, was the size of a devastating earthquake that went beyond Lebanons boundaries to be felt in Cyprus. During crises, the essence of real leadership and strong ties among states is shown. This is the natural role Egypt has been playing for centuries. As the elder sister that has wide ranging capabilities and despite its own internal hardships, Egypt has the will and the ability to move forward during times of economic, political and natural disasters. Egyptians used to share their food with their Arab brothers and we have seen Egyptian flights carrying medical supplies to China and Italy during the pandemic. Cairos role was extended to approach some African states, offering help and medical supplies during the lockdown caused by COVID-19. Egypts grand role is derived from its civilisation and culture. Its strong historical ties with Arab neighbours, especially Lebanon, have always been part of its traditions. Egypt has always had strong and special ties with the Levant, the area that includes Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. But when it comes to Lebanon, the Lebanese have formed part and parcel of the Egypt cultural renaissance early last century in cinema, theatre, and music, as well as in trade and journalism. Until this very day, Al-Ahram still carries the names of its Lebanese founders Selim and Beshara Taqla. The newspaper which was found some 144 years ago and became the jewel of journalism in the region was crowned by the writings of Khalil Motran who was born in Lebanon and died and was buried in Egypt. Motran represents the melting pot for the Egyptian and Lebanese cultures. At the same time, Cairo used to play a leading role in Lebanon as a mediator between parties especially when political, ethnic or religious conflicts erupted. Egypts role was accepted by all parties because it has established an equal space of respect and appreciation among all of them. Time has come for Egypt to play its natural role. Cairo should not be limiting its assistance to offering medical supplies and food. Beirut was burned and turned upside down because of the current political disputes that have been shaking the country for months. It is time for all those involved in Lebanon's political arena to put their differences aside and look deep down into the core of their problems. There are hundreds of challenges resulting from this crisis but there are also thousands of opportunities to be seized. It is high time for the Lebanese feuding parties to put an end to the current ethnic and religious conflict. Lebanon should not become an arena for ethnic disputes. Meantime, regional and international conflicts should not reflect on Lebanon. Beirut is known for being the point connecting East and West and is characterised by its cultural, economic and political openness. It should never become an arena for conflicts, but rather a place for unity. Some countries, such as Turkey and Qatar, have been offering help, buying time and loyalties and making use of the economic crisis there, for Lebanon to become a new Syria. It was not long ago when the very same countries offered help to Damascus, paving the way for their armed militias to destroy the country. Lebanon should revisit the core of its identity. It should not bear the consequences of the current conspiracies to dismantle the Arab world. We should try harder to put an end to foreign interferences and armed militias. The bridge of supplies should be the right connection between Lebanon and its Arab neighbours. It should be a bridge that connects all Lebanese together, a bridge to a better future. Search Keywords: Short link: A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has drawn a parallel between Edo States governor, Godwin Obaseki, and Nigerias past military dictators. Obasekis governance recalls the worst excesses of our military past and represents a direct threat to the democratic order, Mr Tinubu wrote in a statement on Twitter, Friday. IN DEFENCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY The recent actions of the Governor of Edo State represent the gravest possible assault on constitutional democracy and the rule of law and escalation of violence and tension in the state he purports to govern. Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@AsiwajuTinubu) August 7, 2020 Mr Tinubu said this on the heels of the crisis rocking the Edo State House of Assembly after some lawmakers loyal to the APC were sacked. Mr Obaseki himself, now seeking re-election in September on the radar of the Peoples Democratic Party, won his first term on the platform of the APC. He decamped to the PDP after he lost this years primary to APCs preferred candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, following a fallout with the partys former chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. Reacting to the sack of some pro-APC lawmakers by the State Assembly, Mr Tinubu has now accused Mr Obaseki of highhandedness, disregard for the constitution and working against the people of Edo State. Mr Obaseki has resorted to strong arm tactics of dictators by refusing to permit duly elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly to perform their constitutional duties, Mr Tinubu noted. READ ALSO: This, Mr Tinubu added, shows Mr Obaseki (portrayed) contempt for the people of his state and, unfortunately, his ignorance of Nigerias constitutional order. Mr Obasekis actions represent the gravest possible assault on constitutional democracy and the rule of law and escalation of violence and tension in the state he purports to govern. Not satisfied with making a mockery of our constitution by blocking the timely inauguration of two-thirds of the elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly, Governor Obaseki has now resorted to the strong-arm tactics of dictators. First, he sponsors hoodlums to deface, indeed destroy, parts of the House of Assembly building in Benin, feigning the building is undergoing renovation. Then, he imports sand and gravels to prevent access to the assembly complex. In effect, the man has spent state funds to thwart the very apparatus of the state government he was sworn to uphold. He has squandered public money to defeat the very will of the public. This is tragic beyond words. No renovation has been planned for the state house building. No appropriation was made in the states budget. The only reason any renovation could be deemed necessary is the destruction wrought by his own goons. The crisis rocking the Edo State House of Assembly reached a height on Thursday when Victor Edoror was sworn in as speaker, after Francis Okiye was ousted as speaker during a meeting at an undisclosed location in Benin, the state capital. Mr Edoror, who was impeached as deputy speaker in 2018, was elected speaker by 17 lawmakers said to be loyal to Adams Oshiomhole. Since 2019, when they were elected, 14 of the states 24 lawmakers were not sworn in. These 14, alongside three others that had been sworn in, saw to the removal of Mr Edoror. Actor Rhea Chakraborty on Saturday released a page from Sushant Singh Rajput's (SSR) diary and a photo of his sipper. The actor, who is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges of abetting SSR's suicide, said the only belonging of Sushant she has is his sipper. Rhea shared an image of a black-colored sipper with India Today channel with Rajput's film Chhichhore written on it. She also shared a piece of a page from Rajput's diary which had a gratitude list written on it. "I am grateful for my life. I am grateful for Lillu in my life. I am grateful for Bebu in my life. I am grateful for Sir in my life. I am grateful for Maam in my life. I am grateful for Fudge in my life. I am grateful for all the love in my life (sic)," the note reads. The 28-year-old told the channel that "it was (Sushant's) handwriting". She added that "Lillu is Showik (Rhea's brother), Bebu is me, Sir is my dad, Ma'am is my mom and Fudge is his dog". Rhea was questioned by the ED for about eight hours on Friday in connection with the money laundering angle in the actor's death. Her father, Indrajit Chakraborty, Showik, Chartered Accountant (CA), Ritesh Shah, and business manager Shruti Modi, who also worked for Rajput, were also questioned. The ED's line of questioning, officials said, revolved around Chakraborty's income, investments, business deals, professional deals, and links. As per ED, while Chakraborty has filed Income Tax Returns stating an income of about Rs 14 lakh, the value of her investments are reportedly higher. Meanwhile, the ED had summoned Rajput's friend and roommate Siddharth Pithani to appear on Saturday in connection with a money laundering case that stems from a complaint filed by the actor's father with the Bihar Police in connection with his death, they said. Rajput's 74-year-old father K K Singh, who resides in Patna, had on July 25 filed a complaint with the Patna police against Chakraborty, her parents (mother Sandhya Chakraborty and father Indrajit Chakraborty), brother Showik, Miranda and Modi and unknown persons accusing them of cheating and abetting his son's suicide. The father also alleged financial irregularities in bank accounts of his son. In the complaint, Singh alleged that Rs 15 crore was siphoned off from Rajput's bank account in one year to accounts of persons not known or connected to the late film star. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8, 2020 08:41 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c7224b 1 Politics KPU,President-Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,general-elections,PTUN,DKPP,ethics-council Free President Joko Jokowi Widodo will not appeal a Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) ruling that annuls his approval to the dismissal of General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioner Evi Novida Ginting Malik. Presidential expert staff member Dini Shanti Purwono said Jokowi respected the ruling and would follow up on it. The President will issue another decree to revoke a decree stipulating Evi Novidas dismissal as a KPU commissioner, Dini said on Friday. She added that Jokowi would not appeal the ruling because the presidential decree on Evis dismissal was based on a ruling made by the Election Organization Ethics Council (DKPP). The council discharged Evi in March for allegedly falsifying the 2019 regional election results in West Kalimantan. "The substance of the issue lies on the DKPP's ruling, not in the presidential decree," Dini said. Read also: Court cancels Jokowis dismissal of KPU commissioner Evi filed a lawsuit with the PTUN in March against Jokowis decree. The court ruled in her favor in July, ordering the President to revoke the decree, rehabilitate Evis name and restore her position at the KPU. The PTUN judges cited serious juridical defects by the DKPP in the decision-making process for Evis dismissal, arguing that she had not been afforded her right of defense as the council had not questioned Evi prior to issuing the ruling. Responding to the Presidents decision not to appeal, Evi said she was grateful, conveying her hope to return to her position at the KPU as soon as possible. The restoration of my position at the KPU will help the commission in organizing the upcoming elections in 270 regions, she told The Jakarta Post on Friday, referring to this years regional elections slated for Dec. 9. However, DKPP head Muhammad said Evis dismissal was still valid, even if Jokowi revoked the decree. He added that the 2017 Elections Law stipulated that all rulings made by the ethics council were final and legally binding. "Evis status will still follow our last decision, Muhammad said on Friday. He added that the council would not have any discussion with the KPU regarding Evis status. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan, North Sumatra Sat, August 8, 2020 17:38 528 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c84fdf 1 National Sinabung,Mount-Sinabung,Volcano,North-Sumatra,eruption,PVMBG,volcanic-ash,Karo Free After being inactive for more than a year, Mount Sinabung in Karo regency, North Sumatra erupted early on Saturday morning, spewing ash 2,000 meters into the air. The volcanic ash reached Berastagi, which is located around 30 kilometers from the volcano. Muhammad Nurul Asrori of the Sinabung observation post said the volcano began erupting at 1:58 a.m. and continued for one hour. He advised local residents and tourists to stay outside a 3-km radius from the mountain top. We need to stay cautious because Mt. Sinabungs status is still at level III, Siaga [Alert], Nurul said. There were no casualties in the eruption, but several local residents living around the volcano were shocked by the event. The ash covered the residents' plantation and killed crops. Read also: Threat of Mount Sinabung eruption threatens Lake Lau Kawar tourism A villager of Naman Teran, Pelin Depari, said residents living 5 km from the volcano could hear the mountain rumbling, although they could not see the eruption directly because Sinabung was covered by fog. It is traumatic because it has been a year since the last time Mt. Sinabung erupted, said Pelin on Saturday. He added villagers were now cleaning their houses and fields of the volcanic ash. Karo Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) acting chairman Natanael Perangin-angin said the last time Sinabung erupted was in June 2019. We thought we were safe. I hope there wont be another eruption. He added that at least four districts were affected by the eruption, namely Naman Teran, Merdeka, Berastagi and Dolat Rayat. Although the volcanic ash covered the districts, authorities said no residents had been displaced by the eruption, Natanael went on to say. Officials of the disaster agency, along with local military and police personnel, had distributed 1,500 masks and assisted locals in cleaning the volcanic ash. The local fire department dispatched five trucks to help the cleaning. Read also: Mountains rumbling: Five most active volcanoes in the archipelago The 2,460-meter Mt. Sinabung roared back to life in 2010 for the first time in 400 years. After another period of inactivity, it erupted once more in 2013 and has remained highly active since. Sixteen people died in one of Sinabungs eruptions in 2014. Two years later, another eruption killed seven people. Apart from Mt. Sinabung, volcanic authorities have also placed Mt. Karangetang in North Sulawesi at alert level Siaga. Indonesia is home to about 130 volcanoes because of its position on the Ring of Fire, a belt of tectonic plate boundaries circling the Pacific Ocean where frequent seismic activity occurs. (kuk) CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE) is expected to be declare the results of SSLC or Class 10 exams on Tuesday (August 10). The TN SSLC Result 2020 would be announced at 9.30 am. Once the results are declared, students can check their scorecrad on the official website of the board, dge.tn.gov.in, dge1.tn.nic.in, tnresults.nic.in. The results will also be displayed on alternative websites like - dge2.tn.nic.in, manabadi.co.in, schools9.com. Here's how you can check your Tamil Nadu SSLC Class 10 results 2020 online: 1. Visit the official website- tnresults.nic.in 2. Click on the link of 'SSLC Exam - March 2020 Results' 3. Enter the registration number and date-of-birth 4. The result will appear on the screen. Check for any discrepancy 5. Save and download the result 6. Take a print copy of the same and secure it for future The Tamil Nadu SSLC Result 2020 will also be accessed via an app. In order to access the results via the app the students will have to download the TN SSLC Result app on their smartphone. To check their scorecard, visit the Results link in the app and enter credentials like Date of Birth and registration number and submit details. The Tamil Nadu class 10th SSLC Results 2020 will appear on the screen. The Tamil Nadu Class 10 exams were held from March 27 to April 13 and around 9 lakh students appeared for it. The Tamil Nadu's DGE has decided that 80% weightage will be given to marks in quarterly and half-yearly assessment tests, 20% weightage will be given to attendance. It may be recalled that Tamil Nadu Board Class 12 Results 2020 was announced on July 16. Tamil Nadu SSLC Result are usually released in late April or early May. In 2019, SSLC Result was announced on April 29, 2019. Ths year the results were delayed due to coronavirus pandemic. The pending examinations have also been cancelled by the government. Tokyo: China has warned Japan that a ban on Beijing-based ByteDance's short-video app TikTok would have a "large impact" on bilateral relations, broadcaster TBS reported on Friday, citing unnamed Japanese government sources. A group of lawmakers in Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has decided to push for steps to restrict the app over concerns data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, local media has reported. The Australian government has said it will not ban TikTok. Credit:Bloomberg Japan's foreign ministry was not immediately available to comment. The government has not said it is considering banning the app. US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday a sweeping ban on transactions with ByteDance even as Microsoft Corp negotiates a possible acquisition of the video sharing app, in an escalation of tensions between the two countries. Announcement: Moody's update on Sovereign calendar issuers Global Credit Research - 07 Aug 2020 London, 07 August 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service is releasing this update regarding the EU Sovereign Rating calendar activity scheduled for 07 August 2020 to provide additional clarity on EU sovereign rating activity. This update is provided as a service to the markets and does not constitute a formal rating action publication. For the latest and most complete information regarding the issuers listed, including the full formal text related to any credit rating action releases, please see the individual issuer pages found at www.moodys.com. RATINGS THAT WERE UPDATED FOR ISSUERS ON THE CALENDAR FOR 07 August: Not Applicable -- no ratings were updated for the issuers listed on the calendar RATINGS THAT WERE NOT UPDATED FOR ISSUERS ON THE CALENDAR FOR 07 August Baden-Wuerttemberg, Land of https://www.moodys.com/BadenWuerttembergLand Bavaria, Free State of https://www.moodys.com/BavariaFreeState Berlin, Land of https://www.moodys.com/BerlinLand Brandenburg, Land https://www.moodys.com/BrandenburgLand Czech Republic, Government of https://www.moodys.com/CzechRepublicGovernment Malta, Government of https://www.moodys.com/MaltaGovernment Nordrhein-Westfalen, Land of https://www.moodys.com/NordrheinWestfalenLand Saxony-Anhalt, Land of https://www.moodys.com/SaxonyAnhaltLand Moody's Sovereign Release Calendar designates two dates for the potential release of both solicited and unsolicited sovereign credit rating actions, in accordance with EU Regulation 462/2013 ("CRA3"). It includes sovereign issuers that are covered by a Lead Analyst based in the EU, as required by CRA3 and, in order to provide greater market clarity, it also includes EU sovereign issuers that are covered by Lead Analysts based outside of the EU. The Sovereign Release Calendar is available at: https://www.moodys.com/SovereignReleaseCalendar NOTE TO JOURNALISTS ONLY: For more information, please call one of our global press information hotlines: London +44-20-7772-5456 , New York +1-212-553-0376 , Tokyo +813-5408-4110 , Hong Kong +852-3758-1350 , Sydney +61-2-9270-8141 , Mexico City 001-888-779-5833 , Sao Paulo 0800-891-2518 , or Buenos Aires 0800-666-3506 . You can also email us at mediarelations@moodys.com or visit our web site at www.moodys.com. Story continues This publication does not announce a credit rating action. 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HONG KONG: Hong Kong financial regulators sought to calm market fears on Saturday as global financial firms in Hong Kong weighed cutting ties with local clients after the United States imposed sanctions on senior Hong Kong and Chinese officials. Washington imposed sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and 10 other top officials for what it calls their role in curtailing political freedoms in the territory, prompting a sharp rebuke from Beijing. The escalation in U.S-China tensions comes after Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation on the financial hub in late June. Western governments condemned the law, while supporters said it would restore stability after a year of often-violent pro-democracy, anti-China protests. Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission "is not aware of any aspect of the (law) or the U.S. sanctions ... that would affect the way in which firms carry on their normal operations in Hong Kong", said a spokesman for the Hong Kong markets regulator. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the banking regulator, said in a circular that "unilateral sanctions" had no legal status in Hong Kong, and unlike United Nations sanctions, banks in Hong Kong were under no obligation to comply with them. The circular did not elaborate on the impact on the financial sector. After Friday's sanctions, which the Hong Kong government called "shameless and despicable", U.S. and non U.S.-banks are assessing what action to take amid fears of getting caught in the crosshairs of Sino-U.S. tensions. "Most foreign banks in Hong Kong have been working internally for the last few weeks to prepare a list of people who will the main target of the U.S. sanctions," said a senior banker with a leading European bank in Hong Kong. Banks in Hong Kong will now "forensically examine the networks of the people named on the sanctions lists and see if there are any banking relationships which would put the banks at risk," another banking source said. The sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. The sanctions prevent U.S. companies and people globally from any dealings with the 11 sanctioned people. They do not directly apply to non-U.S. entities, "but those companies would breach the rules if they dealt with a sanctioned person while also interacting with a U.S. person or the U.S. financial system, for example a bank processing a wire transaction via a U.S. correspondent bank," said Nick Turner, a lawyer specializing in sanctions and anti-money laundering at the law firm of Steptoe and Johnson in Hong Kong. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics Around 20 people were killed on Friday in an attack by an armed group on a cattle market in the east of Burkina Faso, a local governor said. Officials did not blame any group for Friday's attack, but Burkina Faso is caught up in a jihadist insurgency that began in Mali and has spread to neighbouring countries. "Unidentified armed individuals burst into a cattle market in Namoungou village in the region of Fada N'Gourma and attacked the population," the governor, Colonel Saidou Sanou, said in a statement. "According to an initial toll, around 20 people have been killed and numerous others wounded." An attack on the Kompienbiga cattle market, also in the east of the country, left around 30 dead at the end of May. Burkina Faso is one of the world's poorest countries and the insurgency has killed more than 1,100 people and forced nearly a million people from their homes. According to the UN, jihadist and inter-communal violence was to blame for 4,000 deaths last year in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. BEIRUT - Public fury over this weeks massive explosion in Beirut took a new turn Saturday night as protesters stormed government institutions and clashed for hours with security forces, who responded with heavy volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets. One police officer was killed and dozens of people hurt in the confrontations, which played out in streets that were wrecked from Tuesdays blast at the port that devastated much of the city and killed nearly 160 people. Dozens were still missing and nearly 6,000 people injured. The disaster has taken popular anger to a new level in a country already reeling from an unprecedented economic and financial crisis and near bankruptcy. Activists who called for the protest set up symbolic nooses at Beiruts Martyrs Square to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for the explosion. The blast was fueled by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored at the port for more than six years. Apparently set off by a fire, the explosion was by far the biggest in Lebanons troubled history and caused an estimated $10 billion to 15 billion in damage, according to Beiruts governor. It also damaged 6,200 buildings and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Resignation or hang, read a banner held by protesters, who also planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead. Some nooses were also set up along the bridges outside the port. Khodr Ghadir, 23, said the noose was for everyone who has been in power for the last 30 years. What happened was a spark for people to return to the streets. A placard listed the names of the dead, printed over a photo of the blasts enormous pink mushroom cloud. We are here for you, it read. Dozens of protesters stormed the buildings of government ministries and the headquarters of the banking association, turning their rage to state and financial institutions. Earlier Saturday, the protesters entered the empty buildings of the foreign ministry, declaring it a headquarters of their movement. Others then fanned out to enter the economy and energy ministries, some walking away with documents claiming they will reveal the extent of corruption that permeates the government. Some also entered the environment ministry. Many protesters said they now had only their homes and even those are no longer safe. They blamed the governments inefficiency and political division for the country ills, including the recent disaster that hit almost every home. The violence unfolded on the eve of an international conference co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres aimed at bringing donors together to supply emergency aid and equipment to the Lebanese population. In a televised speech Saturday evening, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the only solution was to hold early elections, which he planned to propose in a draft bill. He called on all political parties to put aside their disagreements and said he was prepared to stay in the post for two months to allow time for politicians to work on structural reforms. The offer is unlikely to soothe the escalating fury on the street. In central Beirut, some protesters threw stones at security forces, who then released heavy tear gas. Near parliament, protesters tried to jump over barriers that closed the road leading to the legislature. The protesters later set on fire a truck that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament. At least 238 people were hurt in the clashes, and 63 of them needed to be taken to the hospital, according to the Red Cross. Several protesters were carried away with blood running down their faces. At one point, gunfire could be heard, but its source was not immediately clear. The countrys ruling class, made up mostly of former civil war-era leaders, is blamed for incompetence and mismanagement that contributed to Tuesdays explosion. The current leaders bloodline needs to end. We want the death of the old Lebanon and the birth of a new one, said Tarek, a 23-year-old university student who had prepared a mix of water and paint in a bottle to throw at the police. No peaceful protest would bring about change, he said. Sandy Chlela, a 35-year old from Kousba in the north, disagreed with Tarek. She said she had no illusion that the protests would bring change, but the demonstrations were a necessary expression of anger and puts some pressure on the politicians. I know it will not change much but we cant act as if nothing happened, the computer programmer said. The state, which is investigating the cause of the explosion, has been conspicuously absent from the ravaged streets of Beirut, with almost zero involvement in the cleanup. Instead, teams of young volunteers with brooms have fanned out to sweep up broken glass and reopen roads. The U.S embassy in Beirut tweeted that the Lebanese people have suffered too much and deserve to have leaders who listen to them and change course to respond to popular demands for transparency and accountability. Documents that surfaced after the blast showed that officials had been repeatedly warned for years that the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port posed a grave danger, but no one acted to remove it. Officials have been blaming one another, and 19 people have been detained, including the ports chief, the head of Lebanons customs department and his predecessor. The protests came as senior officials from the Middle East and Europe visited in a show of solidarity with the tiny country that is still in shock. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, arrived in Beirut for a brief visit. Turkeys vice-president and the countrys foreign minister met Aoun and said that Ankara was ready to help rebuild Beiruts port and evacuate some of the wounded to Turkey for treatment. At the site of the blast, workers continued searching for dozens of missing people. A man suffered serious stabbing injuries following a car chase on a street in Manchester in a suspected gang 'taxing' incident on Friday night. The drama ended with a dark saloon car crashing on Great Western Street in Moss Side shortly before 8.30pm. Detectives are investigating whether the stabbing was part of a 'taxing' between rival factions. One man was taken to hospital with serious stab injuries thought to have been sustained near Mesob restaurant on Princess Road. The victim remains in hospital with serious injuries on Saturday, although his condition is not thought to be life-threatening. A large part of Quinney Crescent at its junction with Great Western Street was cordoned off last night as forensics specialists searched the area. The cordon had been lifted by Saturday morning and the area had returned to normal. No official word has come from GMP about the incident this morning although the Manchester Evening News understands detectives are investigating whether it may have been a 'taxing' incident, where one group robs another. The police cordon following a stabbing on Friday night had been lifted and Quinney Crescent returned to normal on Saturday morning (pictured) One eye-witness, who declined to be named, described how two cars came 'racing' through the traffic lights at the junction of Great Western and Princess Road and then one of the vehicles blocked in the other. One of the men in the pursuing car got out and stabbed a man in the dark saloon, he said. The victim managed to stagger a short distance but collapsed outside Mesob restaurant, said the witness. Pictures from the scene showed blood stained clothes on the pavement outside the restaurant. Residents living on Quinney Crescent said they saw a damaged dark blue car parked diagonally across the Great Western Street before paramedics and police raced to the area outside Mesob restaurant on Princess Road. Vashtie Codrinrgton, 70, said: 'I heard raised voices and what sounded like a car speeding off. 'I looked out and it was next to the lamppost. It had some damage done to it. 'We were told there was a man lying in the road further up on the main road. 'I'm not sure if that was the person from the car or someone else. Not long after the police were here. It's obviously very concerning happening so close by.' Another nearby resident said: 'I was lying on the couch and I heard a bang. I came out and the car was was next to the lamppost. It was damaged. 'Whoever was in it must have jumped out and ran over the other side of the road as that's where the ambulance was. About five minutes later all the police were here. 'There were loads of them and they taped the street off from near my house right up to the main road.' Another person who lives nearby said: 'I believe two boys in cars were chasing each other. I could hear the car engines. One must have got out and ran as when I looked out the car was there with no one in it but the door was open. I didn't see the other car.' Last night a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police told the M.E.N: 'At 8.29pm police received reports of an assault and a possible stabbing on Quinney Crescent. 'Officers are in attendance and located one victim. Their injuries are believed to be serious.' The last month has seen a spike in violence in Moss Side , with one man being shot in the head at a rowdy lockdown party on June 21, while July 26 saw police called to a disturbance in which a 17-year-old died at the scene. Another 17-year-old has been charged with the murder of teenager Mohamoud Mohamed, who was pronounced dead after a row in Rusholme, Manchester. Greater Manchester Police said the suspect is set to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court on Monday. The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, remains in custody, police added. Greater Manchester Police have launched a Major Incident Public Portal so that anyone with information in relation to this murder can also submit their information online A 17-year-old teen has been arrested on suspicion of murder after Mohamoud Mohamed was fatally stabbed during a fight in the Moss Side area of Manchester on July 26 Last week, Detective Inspector Benjamin Cottam thanked people in the Moss Side area, who he said 'rallied around each other over the past few days and have shown great resolve' following the incident. Police were called to Henbury Street, Moss Side, at around 7.15pm on July 26 after reports of a disturbance. Mohamoud, from Moss Side, was pronounced dead at the scene. It's alleged Mohamoud, who is known as Momo to his friends, was chased, cornered and then attacked in an alleyway. Police said a group of males armed with weapons chased Mohamoud and a group of his friends toward the alleyway. He became separated from his friends and was cornered at the mouth of the alleyway before being stabbed in the chest. Mohamoud staggered into the alleyway but was attacked a second time, leaving him unconscious on the ground. His attackers fled and the teenager died at the scene despite the efforts of paramedics who tried to revive him. Masks are the mark of the times, symbolic of so much more than a means for virus protection. The true masking in America is the nefarious hidden agenda of the Democrat party, co-opted by socialist ruffians. The good news is that portions of the electorate are moving from the bewilderment stage on what is happening to our country to revealing the left's inner sanctum on how and why they are attacking our nation. The more our minds dig for the ground truth, the more the subversive anti-America plot is revealed. There is a war on small business right now in this country. The battle lines are tied to the tenets of capitalism and free markets, which value property rights and private ownership of production, versus socialism and communism, which value "workers" and communal or state property. When we think of property rights, land and home ownership comes to mind. But it also includes the right to own and operate a business and be the beneficiary of the risks and rewards. The Marxist goal is to deplete the ranks and efficacy of small business in America and have the remains subsumed by fewer and larger corporations, as well as government. The next stage will focus on dividing the leadership and workforce in large corporations. The "workers" can then revolt and take over the last private masters of industry in partnership with the state. Right now the revolutionaries need the titans of industry on their side. Non-cooperation is synonymous with blasphemy. Evidence of this was the apoplectic response of the left's messengers when the CEO of Goya Foods did not sing their tune. It is amazing, the speed with which private property rights of businesses were suspended by government dictates under the umbrella of pandemic lockdowns. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reported in May 2020 a record fall in private employment (versus public employment). "The largest decline for any size group was for employers with 20 to 49 employees, with a decline of 21.5 percent. The smallest decline was for employers with 1,000 or more employees, with a decline of 13.3 percent." Traditional tools for inhibiting small business growth include stifling regulation and burdensome taxation. The weapon of choice is now COVID-19-sanctioned lockdowns and restrictions. A recently published Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) study, titled "The impact of COVID-19 on small business outcomes and expectations," highlights the vulnerability of small businesses during the initial impact of the lockdowns, many of which were already financially fragile. Survey analysis reports that 43% of businesses temporarily closed and 39% on average reduced active employment. The median firm with monthly expenses over $10,000 had only enough cash on hand to last roughly 2 wk. Three-quarters of respondents only had enough cash on hand to last 2 mo or less. The crisis duration plays a central role in the total potential impact. For a crisis lasting 4 mo instead of 1 mo, only 47% of businesses expected to be open in December compared to 72% under the shorter duration. This is a lengthy paper worth reading, which "provides insight into the economic impact of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) on small business." The data and the definition of small business in the U.S. are deep and wide in complexity, and they vary immensely depending on factors such as timing, industry sector, type of ownership, firm versus establishment, non-employer businesses, number of employees, and average annual revenue. Reporting varies significantly using these factors. The total number of small businesses counted can range from 20 million to over 30 million in the U.S. However, the reporting consistently shows that small business constitute over 99% of all businesses and up to 50% of private sector employment. Small business is often referenced to fewer than 500 employees. Surprisingly, the percentages remain high at over 98% for fewer than 100 employees and 89% for fewer than 20 employees. In 2012, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) stated that "in 2010 there were 27.9 million small businesses, and 18,500 firms with 500 employees or more." That is a ratio of 1,508 small businesses for every one large enterprise. Small business and capitalism have a symbiotic relationship relying on competition and private ownership. A quick read called "Capitalism Explained" offers a concise overview of types of economic systems. The importance of private property rights is central to capitalism, including a system to protect these rights. Think of it like this: A restaurant provides quality food and excellent service because the owners want to build a strong reputation and earn money for a long time. But if the restaurant could be taken away at any time, and all work and investment were lost, the owners would be less willing to pour their time, effort, and money into it. Private property rights also mean the owners of property are entitled to the value it creates through its activities (like business operations) or its sale. That restaurant owner gets to keep the profit from his day-to-day operations. He also gets to sell the business one day and keep that money. When private property isn't recognized, but instead shared by the public, a problem called the tragedy of commons may emerge. If everyone owns a resource, everyone will have an incentive to extract value from it and no one will have incentive to conserve it or reinvest it. Socialism moves the ownership of property and production into the community, and communism eliminates private property wherein all production and property are managed and owned by the state. When we connect the dots, advocates of socialism and communism welcome undermining private ownership of business, and the best tactic would be to start with the most vulnerable: small business. Small businesses have been further decimated during the lockdowns by online completion with Big Tech (a big winner), BLM looting and riots, and the emboldening of criminals via actions by liberal prosecutors and anti-police elected officials. Juxtapose the New Jersey gym-owners striving to gain access to their own business with anarchists destroying and terrorizing Main Street shops. The former are arrested and vilified; the latter are held unaccountable and free from the jaws of the law. Grit, patience, fortitude, innovation, investment, independence, sacrifice, and delayed gratification characterize the nature and will of small business owners in America. Just as the globalists hollowed out middle-class America in the last decades, the social-justice Marxists seek to hollow out private enterprise, starting with small business. From the beginning, Trump fought for middle class America. It is time to declare protection and promotion of small business in America. Peers called yesterday for ministers to put an end to the unedifying saga of Afghan interpreters being abandoned to the Taliban. Lord West, a former head of the Royal Navy, said he had spent six years calling on the Government to honour its debt to those who risked their lives supporting British forces in Afghanistan. He said the foot-dragging gave a terrible message to people UK troops might need to rely upon in a future war. Lord West, a former head of the Royal Navy, said he had spent six years calling on the Government to honour its debt to those who risked their lives supporting British forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban regularly targets interpreters who assisted western forces in Afghanistan His calls for around 150 interpreters to be given sanctuary were echoed by crossbench peer Baroness Coussins, who said the delays were unacceptable. Ministers promised that 50 translators would be allowed to come to Britain under new rules but just two have been allowed in two years later. In addition, the Government pledged that interpreters already in the UK could be reunited with their wives and children but this too has so far not materialised. It came as two former Afghan translators for the British military told how they survived Taliban ambushes. Both said it was a miracle they escaped and described how they have been forced into hiding after Afghan police warned them they were on a Taliban death list because of their work for UK forces. Photographs of gaping bullet holes in the windscreens and doors of the vehicles of the men, who were the eyes and ears of troops in Helmand, show how close they came to being hit. The pair, named Hamim and Mayar, say they are telling their stories to illustrate the dangers faced by former interpreters refused sanctuary in the UK. Hamim, 45, said: We have no safety, no future here waiting for the Taliban to hunt us down. This week the Mails Betrayal of the Brave campaign highlighted the names and stories of 48 interpreters living in fear of the Taliban after the UK refused to grant them visas. The Government said it remained committed to ensuring a fair system for the resettlement of interpreters. TWIN FALLS Magic Valley groundwater is getting worse and excessive fertilizer use is to blame, according to the Idaho Conservation League. The leagues 2020 Magic Valley groundwater report looked at data from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the Idaho Department of Water Resources and other state agencies. That data shows nitrate and phosphorus levels increasing in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, which provides about 300,000 Idahoans mostly in the Magic Valley with drinking water. Nitrogen and phosphorus arent inherently bad. Theyre critical for plant growth, and theres some nitrate and phosphorus in groundwater naturally. The problem, Central Idaho Conservation Associate Josh Johnson said, is that farmers are applying more fertilizer than their crops can use. When crops dont uptake the nitrate and phosphorus in fertilizers, the leftover nutrients seep into the ground and make their way into the aquifer. Extra nutrients in water might not sound like a big deal. But they can lead to excessive plant growth toxic algal blooms for instance, which can kill fish and make swimmers sick. High nitrate levels in drinking water could also lead to negative health effects for people who drink that water decade after decade. The conservation groups report says manure from dairy cows is responsible for the Magic Valleys groundwater pollution. Most of the regions dairy manure ends up being spread on agricultural fields as fertilizer. As long as there are 425,000 dairy cows here theres going to be 50 million pounds of dairy waste a day and were going to have to figure out something to do with that, Johnson said. Its not all on the dairy industry, but at least some of it is. Lots of manure In the past few decades the Magic Valley has become one of Americas biggest dairy producing regions. Idaho is now the countrys third-biggest dairy state, and 70% of that dairy comes out of south-central Idaho. The number of cows here grows every year. In 2019, the Magic Valley had 425,000 dairy cows. Each cow produces an average of 120 pounds of manure a day. Manure is a great fertilizer. But there are a couple of reasons it might not always be applied to land in the right amounts, Johnson said. First, manure is heavy and bulky. In most cases, dairymen want to apply their manure to nearby farmland, or sell it to someone who owns farmland nearby. When a dairyman has to ship manure farther, he loses money. Because of that, there are relatively strong incentives to use manure as locally as possible. There might not be as many incentives to apply that manure in the right amounts. In many instances, applying extra fertilizer doesnt harm crops much, if at all, even if the crops cant use it up. The Idaho State Department of Agriculture inspects all dairies to ensure they dont use too much manure on their own farms. Idaho Dairymens Association CEO Rick Naerebout said the state inspects each dairy an average of five times a year to make sure theyre adhering to an approved nutrient management plan. Those plans prevent dairymen who also farm from over-applying manure, Naerebout said. Theres no ag industry more regulated than the dairy industry, he said. That level of oversight doesnt exist for non-dairymen, however. If a dairyman sells his manure to a third-party, the third-party doesnt have the same application restrictions. Still, Naerebout said he doesnt agree with the claim that excessive manure use is the definitive cause of high nitrate and phosphorus levels. In general, one cow produces in a year enough manure for one acre of farmland. Naerebout pointed out there are 2.1 million irrigated acres of ag land in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer area. Clearly theres enough acreage there to have a balanced nutrient management system, he said. The problem with nitrates The primary issue with excess phosphorus is harmful algal blooms. Nitrates contribute to algal blooms too, but they can also affect people more directly. Federal drinking water standards set a 10 milligrams per liter cap on nitrate levels. Above that threshold and infants can get sick with blue baby syndrome if an infant ingests too much nitrate it can have difficulty transporting oxygen throughout its body. But that 10 milligram standard was set half half a century ago, specifically for blue baby syndrome, Johnson said. There isnt a huge amount of good information on how long-term nitrate exposure affects adults, but there have been scientific studies that suggest long-term exposure to nitrate levels higher than 2 milligrams per liter can lead to an elevated risk for colorectal cancer, thyroid disease and neurological birth defects. In a non-agricultural area, a background nitrate level might be 0.05 milligrams per liter, Johnson said. Most parts of the Magic Valley have nitrate levels in the 2 milligram range or higher. Thats not crazily high, Johnson said its comparable to other agricultural regions throughout the U.S. But because of the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifers geology, any negative effects of high nitrate levels wont be felt equally throughout the Magic Valley. It depends on how the groundwater flows. According to state groundwater data, more than 40% of groundwater well samples in Twin Falls, Cassia and Minidoka counties had nitrate levels higher than 5 milligrams per liter. Gooding (18%), Lincoln (11%) and Jerome (9%) counties had fewer well samples with nitrate levels higher than 5 milligrams per liter. People who get their water from a city as opposed to a private well have some of that nitrate filtered out, but Johnson said levels that high should still be cause for concern. Dairy pushes back Naerebout said the report is frustrating because it failed to recognize the Idaho dairy industrys efforts to protect the environment. We feel like we are doing our part to be good stewards of the land, he said. We take water quality very seriously. The Idaho Dairymens Association has invested $2 million toward the Idaho Center for Agriculture Food and the Environment (CAFE). University of Idaho researchers working at the CAFE will be studying new ways to turn manure into sellable products. In the future, there could be manure processing operations on individual dairies that turn cow waste into different types of fertilizer than can be marketed more widely. Research at the CAFE could make manure more valuable, which might change how its used here. To be able to have manure be a revenue stream on the dairy is a vision of the industry, Naerebout said. Naerebout also emphasized that the Idaho Dairymens Association encourages farmers to plant cover crops and till their fields less often. Cover crops and conservation tillage can help reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that leach into groundwater. Its honestly a little bit disappointing that ICL didnt also recognize those efforts by the industry, Naerebout said. Virtually everyone agrees that increasing the use of cover crops and conservation tillage would help both farmers and the environment. Both of those practices help fight erosion. The main snags are the up-front cost and education. If your familys been farming a certain way for generations it can seem like a big risk, financially and otherwise, to all of the sudden stop tilling your fields every winter, Johnson said. Naerebout said its also frustrating that the ICL points a finger at dairy when the cause of the nutrient pollution isnt clear. Groundwater data shows the presence of elevated nitrate and phosphorus levels, but the data doesnt reveal the source. Synthetic fertilizers and non-dairy manure could be playing a big role, too, Naerebout said. Manure is the original organic fertilizer, he said. Its not this scary, negative thing the report makes it out to be. There are a few ways to solve the excessive nutrient problem, Johnson said. The state should keep ramping up groundwater monitoring capacity. On top of that, more farmers need to plant cover crops and practice conservation tillage. Plus, the state should establish a singular regulatory agency to monitor manure use more closely and transparently, tracking the fertilizer even when it leaves a dairymans land. Theres definitely improvements we can make, Johnson said. The goal here is to make sure everyones accountable. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The German medical Association criticizes the Corona test is compulsory for travellers returning from high-risk areas. To test "a lot is reasonable, the test obligation however, is activism, I think a little", said the Chairman of the Association, Ulrich Weigeldt of the newspaper "world". The risk areas were classified as "much too sweeping" and many family doctors not willing for a huge "rush to Test". Weigeldt described it as "absurd" that trip the returnees would have to make to the doctor to be credible, to be abroad such as through a Boarding Pass or hotel bill. "We are Doctors are there to treat people and not the foreign office of the Federal Ministry of health. How to check because this is also a hotel bill? Who was there when exactly where is it? Weigeldt said. "The delusion is funny." free trials Who is coming from high-risk areas to Germany, you must by this Saturday, on the return to Germany, to the Virus get tested for free. Alternatively, a negative test result can not be submitted more than two days old. Returnees from high-risk areas without a negative Corona Test have to go for two weeks in quarantine a requirement that was already in the past. What countries as high-risk areas are in place, a list of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) are shown. Currently, there are around 130 of the world's nearly 200 States are out of Egypt, through Russia to the United States. From the EU's Luxembourg are currently in the Belgian province of Antwerp and some areas of Northern Spain on the list. 1122 new infections in Germany The number of coronavirus infections in Germany is the third day in a row above the threshold of 1000 new cases. The health authorities in Germany were reported to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) 1122 new infections within a day. Since the beginning of the crisis have been infected, therefore, at least 215.336 people in Germany demonstrated that the Virus Sars-CoV-2, reported to the RKI on this Saturday morning. In comparison to Friday, on the 1147 new cases were reported, the number something. On Thursday, the number of new infections with 1045 Corona cases had, for the first time over the threshold of 1000 is located. This was last updated on January 9. May have been exceeded. After that, the number was decreased in tendency, since the end of July, the values rise again. Updated Date: 08 August 2020, 02:19 With any luck, the wine industrys looming loss of an important tax break which it warns could see closures and large-scale job losses if no solution is found could turn out to be a tempest in a teapot. Or a wine bottle. As Niagaras daily newspapers reported this week, since 2006, 100 per cent Canadian wine has been exempt from a federal excise tax. It took 12 years, but in an extremely competitive international market another country finally cried foul. Australia challenged the exemption at the World Trade Organization. Basically, Canada knew it had a weak case and agreed to negotiate a settlement. In June 2022, it will repeal the exemption. If thats how it ends, the outcome for the Canadian wine industry will be painful coast to coast. The tax would add an estimated 50 cents to the price of each bottle, or about $6 per case. If the wineries absorb the cost, it will hurt a lot. They could pass it on to the consumer, but thats risky in an international market where foreign producers can keep their prices low because they are often heavily subsidized by their governments. If we dont have a replacement program, it will have a devastating impact on the wine industry in Canada and in Ontario, said Wine Growers Ontario president Aaron Dobbin this week. The good thing is, time is on their side. The industry and the federal government have nearly two years to work out a solution. Just a wild guess: The wineries end up absorbing the cost, then Ottawa finds a new tax break or subsidy for them to make up for it. Basically, the money gets recirculated back to them, they arent forced to raise prices and industry employment isnt affected. Another wild guess: It wasnt a coincidence Australia was the country that challenged Canadas tax exemption. Dobbin noted that it, ironically, offers a subsidy to its wine producers that is similar to Canadas, which it fought at the WTO. Under different circumstances, Canada might choose to go tit-for-tat and launch a similar challenge against Australia. But Canada sells so little wine in the Australian market it wouldnt be worth the effort. In other words, Australia had nothing to lose. Meanwhile, its easy to imagine a lot of other wine-producing countries watching this case unfold with some satisfaction, knowing a competitor has just lost its edge. In Niagara, a lot of people will be closely watching as Canada Emergency Response Benefit winds down and people without work are shifted to Employment Insurance. Most people will not receive as much as they did under CERB, which paid $2,000 a month. Currently, EI provides 55 per cent of a workers average insurable earnings, to a maximum of $573 per week. Its an especially urgent question in Niagara, where so many are employed seasonally or juggle part-time jobs in our tourism and service-based economy. Niagara was one of the hardest-hit regions and recovery has been slow. Figures released Friday by Statistics Canada in its monthly labour market survey, showed only about 4,000 people here recovered their employment since mid-June. The regions unemployment rate barely changed, dropping to 12.5 per cent in the week of July 12-18 just as Niagara was readying to move to Stage 3 reopening from 12.9 per cent in mid-June. A few weeks into Stage 3, we hope the employment picture has improved since the last survey was taken. But Niagaras economy remains on shaky ground and the tourism industry lost some of its best months due to COVID closures. Fingers crossed, we look to the near future. Attila Yilmaz has struggled to hire Australian employees during the coronavirus pandemic A chef says he has struggled to hire Australian employees during the coronavirus pandemic because they are happy receiving the JobSeeker payment. Attila Yilmaz recently posted an advertisement for a couple of roles at Pazar Food Collective in Canterbury, Sydney's south-west. Mr Yilmaz was inundanted with 470 applications but only two of the candidates were Australian citizens, while an additional two were permanent residents. 'I don't want to sound like an old man, but I just don't feel like the youth of today are willing to do the work these foreign workers do,' he told the ABC. Mr Yilmaz, who pays his workers above award wages and full entitlements, is concerned the JobSeeker payments are encouraging Australians to stay at home. Mr Yilmaz was inundanted with 470 applications for his restaurant in Canterbury, in Sydney's south-west, but only two of the candidates were Australian citizens, while an additional two were permanent residents 'I don't want to sound like an old man, but I just don't feel like the youth of today are willing to do the work these foreign workers do,' he told the ABC (pictured: Mr Yilmaz's restaurant) 'It's been a very good deal for people in an industry that's been broken for a very long time,' he said. The JobSeeker payment is financial help for Australians between 22 and the Age Pension age, who are looking for work. The elevated unemployment benefit will remain at $1,100 a fortnight until September 27. From that date until the end of the year the $550 coronavirus supplement will be cut by $300 to make the overall fortnightly payment $800. The mutual obligation rules requiring people to search for four jobs a month restarted on August 4. Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously claimed Australians were refusing to work because the JobSeeker payment was too high. Mr Yilmaz, who pays his workers above award wages and full entitlements, is concerned the JobSeeker payments are encouraging Australians to stay at home The JobSeeker payment is financial help for Australians between 22 and the Age Pension age, who are looking for work. The elevated unemployment benefit will remain at $1,100 a fortnight until September 27. Pictured: Australians wait outside a Centrelink office during the coronavirus pandemic 'Well, on JobSeeker, we doubled the payment with the supplement because we knew unemployment was going to be rising steadily and it has and that's been devastating,' he told 2GB radio in June. 'What we have to be worried about now is that we can't allow the JobSeeker payment to become an impediment to people going out and doing work, getting extra shifts. 'And we are getting a lot of anecdotal feedback from small businesses, even large businesses where some of them are finding it hard to get people to come and take the shifts because they're on these higher levels of payment.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:08:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TOKYO, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan increased by 1,565 to reach 47,464 as of Saturday evening, according to the latest figures from the health ministry and local authorities, with prefectural governors discouraging people to visit their hometowns during the Bon Festival season. The figure excludes the 712 cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama near Tokyo. The death toll in Japan from the pneumonia-causing virus currently stands at a total of 1,055 people, including 13 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. The health ministry also said there are currently 140 patients considered severely ill with ventilators or in intensive care units. In Tokyo, the epicenter of Japan's outbreak, 429 new cases of infections were reported on Saturday, exceeding the 400 mark for the second straight day, with the capital's cumulative total now reaching 15,536, the highest among Japan's 47 prefectures. With the number of infections resurging across the country, the National Governors' Association on Saturday urged people to carefully consider whether to visit their hometowns during the Bon Festival period. At an online meeting, the governors also requested the central government to increase the amount of extraordinary grants for local governments to fund various measures in an effort to stem the spread of the virus. Enditem Syracuse, N.Y. Onondaga County today reported 21 new cases of coronavirus since Thursday, more than half of which involved people who share households with others who have the virus. Twelve of the new cases occurred in households with previous infections. Of the rest, five cases were attributed to community spread; two were blamed on travel (from Florida and Rochester); one occurred in a senior living facility; and one is still under investigation. All told, 3,430 county residents have tested positive for Covid-19 since March. There were no new deaths since Thursday, officials said. A total of 201 county residents have died from the virus. There were 14 people in local hospitals with Covid-19 today. Three of them were in critical care. Six were awaiting discharge to nursing homes, pending a negative test result. There are currently 125 active cases of Covid-19 in the county, up five since Thursday. The number of active cases has generally declined from a peak of 941 on June 8. Both hospitalizations and active cases are at their lowest levels since late March. According to the state Department of Health, an average of 0.7% of people tested in Onondaga County were positive for the virus during the seven days ending Thursday. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Central NY school reopening plans are finally in; none are the same Restarting NY: Can you have a wedding this summer in NY state? Cuomo: NY school reopenings at risk if coronavirus keeps spreading nationally NY State Fair 2020: Deep-fried faith continues for a socially distanced event as cancellations begin Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com News tips? Contact reporter Tim Knauss of syracuse.com/The Post-Standard: email | Twitter | | 315-470-3023 The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shifted at least 17 of its Rajasthan lawmakers to Gujarats Porbandar since Friday ahead of the start of the state assembly session from August 14 amid the crisis chief minister Ashok Gehlots government faces with his former deputy Sachin Pilots revolt. The shifting of the lawmakers began on Friday, when 12 of them were sent to Porbandar. Five more legislators were flown on a chartered flight from Jaipur. BJP leaders said the Congress was trying to approach their legislators, especially those from Mewars tribal belt, to win their support. Also read: Six days before Rajasthan showdown, Vasundhara Raje meets Rajnath Singh We had an input that the Congress was approaching our legislators in the Udaipur division through administrative officers and other influential people of the area. So we decided that they should all be at one place where they can be protected, said state BJP president Satish Poonia. Another party leader said there was an effort to approach weak legislators. We alerted our MLAs [members of legislative assembly] before August 6 and told them to be together, said BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria, who is from south Rajasthan. The Congress government is set to fall and the party is approaching our legislators for support. So we have to protect our people. Also read: Rajasthan police file final report in 3 cases related to toppling of Gehlot govt The Gehlot camp has claimed the support of 101 legislators in the 200-member assembly. Eighty-six Congress, 14 Independents, and legislators from smaller parties supporting the ruling party are at two hotels in Jaisalmer. State Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra denied the BJPs allegation. There is no danger to our government and we do not indulge in horse-trading, which is an exclusive domain of the BJP, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON * Aoun does not rule out bomb, though negligence also suspected * Highly explosive material stored at port for years * Israel swift to deny role, Turkey compares blast to 2005 bomb * Blast could cost already bankrupt Lebanon up to $15 billion * Working through night, rescuers hunt for more survivors * Hezbollah leader suggests negligence and corruption at fault (Adds port official detained) By Michael Georgy and Ellen Francis BEIRUT, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Lebanon's president said on Friday its investigation into the biggest blast in Beirut's history would examine whether it was caused by a bomb or other external interference, as residents sought to rebuild shattered homes and lives. Rescuers sifted rubble in a race to find anyone still alive after Tuesday's port explosion that killed 154 people, injured 5,000, destroyed a swathe of the Mediterranean city and sent seismic shockwaves around the region. "The cause has not been determined yet. There is a possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act," President Michel Aoun told local media. Aoun, who had previously said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port, said the investigation would also weigh if the blast was due to negligence or an accident. Twenty people had been detained so far, he added. One source said an initial probe blamed negligence. While the United States has said it did not rule out an attack, Israel, which has fought several wars with Lebanon, has denied any role. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the cause was unclear, but compared the blast to a 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's powerful Shi'ite group Hezbollah, denied what he said were "preconceived" comments both domestically and abroad that the Iran-backed group had arms stored at the port. He called for a fair investigation and strict accountability for anyone responsible without any political cover. Story continues "Even if a plane struck, or if it was an intentional act, if it turns out this nitrate had been at the port for years in this way, it means part of the case is absolutely negligence and corruption," he said. The customs director and a predecessor were arrested later on Friday. At Beirut's Mohammad Al-Amin mosque, next to Hariri's grave, chief cleric Amin Al Kurdi told worshippers in a Friday sermon that Lebanese leaders bore responsibility. "Who is the criminal, who is the killer behind the Beirut explosion?" he said. "Only God can protect, not the corrupt ... The army only protects the leaders." Security forces fired tear gas at a crowd in Beirut on Thursday, as anger boiled over at the ruling elite, who have presided over an economic collapse. The small crowd, some hurling stones, marked a return to the kind of protests that had become a feature of life as Lebanese watched their savings evaporate and currency disintegrate, while government decision-making floundered. 'WHERE IS THE STATE?' "There is no way we can rebuild this house. Where is the state?" said Tony Abdou, an unemployed 60-year-old. His family home is in Gemmayze, a district a few hundred metres from the warehouses where 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored for years near a densely populated area. A security source and local media previously said the fire that caused the blast was ignited by welding work. Volunteers swept up debris from the streets of Beirut, which still bears scars from a 1975-1990 civil war. "Do we actually have a government here?" said taxi driver Nassim Abiaad, 66, whose cab was crushed by wreckage as he was about to get in. "There is no way to make money anymore." For many, the explosion was symptomatic of years of neglect and corruption. "The problem is this government and all governments before it," said Dr. Mohammed Kalifa, 31. Officials have said the blast, whose impact was recorded hundreds of miles (kms) away, might have caused losses amounting to $15 billion. That is a bill Lebanon cannot pay after already defaulting on a mountain of debt - exceeding 150% of economic output - and with talks stalled on a lifeline from the International Monetary Fund. Hospitals, many heavily damaged as shockwaves ripped out windows and ceilings, have been overwhelmed. "I lived through part of the civil war. I saw people being shot in front of me. But never has there been such a horror," said Dr. Assem Al Hajj at Beiruts Clemenceau hospital, which he said had treated 400 victims. HUNTING THE MISSING As exhausted rescuers combed wreckage to find any survivors, grieving families camped outside the port where their loved ones were last seen. Some victims were hurled into the sea because of the explosive force. "We would like to go inside the port to look for my son but we can't get permission," said Elias Marouni, describing his son George, a 30-year-old army officer. One weeping mother called a prime-time TV programme to plead with authorities to find her son, Joe. He was found hours later: dead. Dozens are still unaccounted for. In Beiruts Karantina district, a Polish rescue team took a break near a once three-storey building that was completely flattened. One woman and her two teenage daughters were killed, a neighbour said. Charbel Abreeni, who trained port employees, showed Reuters pictures on his phone of killed colleagues. He was sitting in a church where the head of a Virgin Mary statue was blown off. "I know 30 port employees who died, two of them are my close friends and a third is missing," said the 62-year-old, whose home was wrecked and his shin wrapped in a bandage. "I have nowhere to go except my wife's family," he said. "How can you survive here? The economy is zero." After the blast destroyed Lebanon's only major grain silo, U.N. agencies helped provide emergency food and medical aid. Aid offers have also poured in from Arab states, Western nations, the Vatican and beyond. But none, so far, addresses the bigger challenges facing a bankrupt nation. (Reporting by Michael Georgy, Ellen Francis and Ghaida Ghantous in Beirut; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Nick Macfie and Matthew Lewis) The United States Embassy in Nigeria, Friday, expressed concern over allegations of interference by security forces in political matters ahead of the gubernatorial elections in Edo and Ondo States. The embassy also stressed that it was disappointed with the role played by some political actors in Edo state adding that it is worried about the deteriorating political climate of the state. In a statement via its twitter handle @USinNigeria with the caption, U.S. Embassy Statement on 2020 Off-Cycle Elections in Edo and Ondo States, it stated that the US being a long-time friend of Nigeria, it will continue to follow political developments ahead of off-cycle elections in the country. The statement reads: The United States supports a democratic process where the will of the Nigerian people is reflected in the results, and does not favour any party or candidate. We are concerned with reports of the deteriorating political climate in Edo State and are disappointed with the role played by some political actors in the state. We are especially concerned with allegations of interference by security forces in political matters, which we will continue to monitor closely in the run-up to gubernatorial elections in the state in September. As we approach the 2020 off-cycle elections in Edo and Ondo, we urge all stakeholders to work towards a free, fair, transparent, and peaceful process. We encourage all stakeholders, including INEC, political parties, and the security services, to continue to improve the electoral process. We look to Nigeria as an important leader on the African continent. As a democratic partner of Nigeria, the United States remains committed to working together to achieve our mutual goals of peace and prosperity for the citizens of both our countries. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 12:18:58|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CARACAS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Friday that the United States is using the issue of human rights as a strategy to "try to undermine the legitimacy of the Venezuelan state." "They do it as part of those propaganda laboratories, of dirty warfare. They do not value, nor see, nor do they care about the real figures," the attorney general said. Saab, who has been the head of the Public Ministry since 2017, highlighted the fact that the Prosecutor's Office has charged 584 individuals with human rights violations over the last three years. In the fight against corruption, Saab said 10,299 indictments have been made so far, and a total of 1,741 people have been convicted of corruption in the last three years. Among these cases, 21 happened in the oil industry and 103 officials from the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela company and its subsidiaries have been prosecuted, including 28 senior managers. Enditem For the hundreds of families who lost loved ones in amongst Syrias torture chambers, the truth behind their tragic deaths is now being discovered. Thanks to new efforts to identify bodies from tens of thousands of photos smuggled out of Damascus seven years ago. For their families, closure doesnt always bring comfort though. The teenage brother of Syrian artist and teacher Fida Al Waer, was taken at a checkpoint in 2012 and finding his photo ended hope of seeing him alive. "We mourned him again when the photo was found. We always had hope he would be released. I would see him in my dreams alive and that he would return and see him again after that. On the picture, it seems that he had been dead for a while, I don't know, that's what the photo looks like." More than fifty-three thousand photos were lifted on discs and thumb drives, all by a former Syrian army photographer, codenamed 'Caesar', who fled in August 2013. His job was to keep records of the deaths in military prisons, but is now hiding in an undisclosed country for his own safety. Reuters could not immediately reach him for comment. Its been 5 years since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last commented directly on the Caesar photographs when he dismissed them as allegations, but now theyre back in the spotlight. In June the U.S. brought in tough sanctions bearing Caesar's name giving them the ability to charge anyone alleged to have committed war crimes against the civilian population. He and his allies argue that the war has largely been won, and it is now time for the world to allow Syria to rebuild. The U.S. laws apply to any countries doing business with Damascus, making that extremely difficult. Especially with campaigners using the renewed attention launching a new push to identify the dead, which estimates put at 6,785. Basel, Switzerland, August 07, 2020 Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX: BSLN) announced today that the marketing authorization application (MAA) for the antifungal isavuconazole (Cresemba) for the treatment of patients with mucormycosis, which was submitted by Basileas license partner Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE, Pfizer), has been accepted for regulatory review by the Center for Drug Evaluation at the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China. David Veitch, Chief Executive Officer, said: China is commercially a very important market for Cresemba, accounting for more than 15 percent of the global market for newer antifungals. We are therefore very pleased with the progress Pfizer is making in China, in order to address the unmet medical needs of patients suffering from invasive mold infections. In November 2017, Basilea and Pfizer extended their existing license agreement for Europe (excluding the Nordics), Russia, Turkey and Israel, to include China, including Hong Kong and Macao, and sixteen countries in the Asia Pacific region. Under the agreement with Pfizer, Basilea is still eligible for regulatory and sales milestone payments of up to approximately USD 630 million, in addition to receiving mid-teen royalties on sales. Cresemba has been approved in more than 50 countries to date and is currently marketed in 45 countries, including the United States, most EU member states and several additional countries inside and outside of Europe. For the twelve-month period to the end of March 2020, total "in-market" sales of Cresemba amounted to USD 220 million, a more than 30 percent growth year-on-year.1 About Cresemba (isavuconazole) Isavuconazole is an intravenous (i.v.) and oral azole antifungal, commercialized under the trade name Cresemba. In the 27 European Union member states, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and the U.K., isavuconazole is approved for the treatment of adult patients with invasive aspergillosis and for the treatment of adult patients with mucormycosis for whom amphotericin B is inappropriate.2 Cresemba is also approved in the United States and several additional countries in Europe and beyond.3 It has orphan drug designation in the U.S., Europe and Australia for its approved indications. Basilea has entered into several license and distribution agreements for isavuconazole covering the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa region, Canada, Russia, Turkey and Israel. Story continues About Basilea Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focused on the development of products that address the medical challenges in the therapeutic areas of oncology and infectious diseases. With two commercialized drugs, the company is committed to discovering, developing and commercializing innovative pharmaceutical products to meet the medical needs of patients with serious and life-threatening conditions. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: BSLN). Additional information can be found at Basilea's website www.basilea.com. Disclaimer This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements, such as "believe", "assume", "expect", "forecast", "project", "may", "could", "might", "will" or similar expressions concerning Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. and its business, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical studies for product candidates. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For further information, please contact: Peer Nils Schroder, PhD Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Phone +41 61 606 1102 E-mail media_relations@basilea.com investor_relations@basilea.com This press release can be downloaded from www.basilea.com. References IQVIA, March 2020. In-market sales reported as moving annual total (MAT) in U.S. Dollar corrected for currency fluctuations. European Public Assessment Report (EPAR) Cresemba: http://www.ema.europa.eu [Accessed: August 06, 2020] The registration status and approved indications may vary from country to country. Attachment Demonstrating the bipartisan support for the campaign to reopen schools in the US, New Yorks Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo gave the green light for all school districts in the state to resume in-person instruction in the coming weeks. Making the blanket announcement, Cuomo declared, Good news, all schools can reopen. In issuing this mandate, Cuomo is providing crucial political support for the Trump administrations drive to reopen schools at no matter what cost to human life. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference, May 27, 2020, at the National Press Club in Washington [Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin] With multiple students immediately becoming infected in numerous schools that reopened last week, there has been a mounting wave of opposition to the resumption of in-person learning. The intervention by Cuomo intensifies the homicidal campaign demanded by the ruling class that schools reopen. This is an essential component of the broader return-to-work campaign, which is necessary for the financial oligarchy to bolster the mountain of debt created by the CARES Act. As one teacher succinctly stated on social media, The billionaires command it. Despite its hand-wringing and supposed concern for safety, the Democratic Party is equally beholden to the financial oligarchy, which finds sharp expression in New York, the center of Wall Street and American capitalism. Shortly after Cuomos press conference, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, also a New York Democrat, declared, If we don't open up the schools, you're going to hurt the economy significantly." New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio now has the support of the state to go ahead with reopening the largest school district in the country, with over 1.1 million students and 75,000 teachers, which will set a precedent for districts across the US. At his press conference, Cuomo stated, We have the best infection rate in the country. If any state can do it, this state can do it because weve been smart from day one. Cuomo ignores the fact that for months New York was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, searing the consciousness of millions with horrific images of overflowing hospitals, the digging of mass graves on Hart Island, and trailers filled with decomposing corpses. To date 32,817 people have died in the state, more than double the death toll for any other state in the US, and over 449,000 people have been infected. New York City was among the last major cities to impose social distancing measures. It refused to close schools until faced with an incipient teacher rebellion and kept the mass transit system running throughout the pandemic. In pushing to reopen schools, Cuomo is preparing the ground for even more atrocities against the working class of the state and the region. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) concluded that the widespread closure of schools in mid-March saved at least 40,600 lives over a 16-day period and resulted in an estimated 1.37 million fewer infections over a 26-day period in the spring. In justifying his call to reopen the schools, Cuomo stated, By our infection rates, all school districts can open. Everywhere in the state, every region, is below the threshold that we established, which is just great news. While New York does have a test positivity rate of one percent, relatively low among US states, the claim that this alone will prevent a mass resurgence of the pandemic is completely unscientific. If every district in New York were to reopen, roughly 2.6 million students and 212,000 teachers would be in classrooms, without the necessary safety measures in place. Cuomo himself confessed that 127 of the states 749 school districts have not even submitted a reopening plan, while state officials deemed an additional 50 plans to be either incomplete or deficient. The essential preconditions for maintaining low positivity rates are the establishment of widespread and rapid testing and a robust contact tracing program, both of which are nonexistent across the US, including throughout New York. Given the open character of state borders, with the virus accelerating in neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut, there could easily be a major upsurge in New York at any time. Furthermore, for any school to reopen safely, it would have to be retrofitted with modern air ventilation systems, thoroughly cleaned at least daily and limited to small class sizes, among other measures. The state anticipates cutting upwards of 20 percent of education funding this fall, and New York City alone plans to cut over $400 million, making the implementation of adequate safety measures an impossibility. The scene photographed from North Paulding High School in Georgia, in which students were packed into hallways and many were not wearing a mask, will similarly unfold at schools that reopen across the country, leading to a rapid spread of the virus. In announcing the reopening authorization, Cuomo hinted at the immense opposition among parents and educators, stating, I have been deluged with calls from parents and teachers, and there is a significant level of anxiety and concern. In response, a public relations blitz will now begin in every district across the state, with Cuomo demanding that each district release a public notice on its plans for providing remote learning to those who demand it, as well as their plans for testing and contact tracing within individual schools. Districts must also hold multiple public meetings by August 21 to supposedly address the concerns of parents and teachers. Cuomos announcement provoked a flood of opposition on social media, with educators, parents and students denouncing the move on Facebook and Twitter. One retired teacher commented on Facebook, How disgusting that teachers will be vilified for not being willing to sacrifice themselves on the altar of the economy. I'm retired, but angry for my daughter and son-in-law who will be in school, and worried because I help with childcare and risk exposure now. Another wrote, Forcing teachers and staff to risk their health and possibly lives. And of course putting our children and their families in harms way!! How many lives must be sacrificed?? In contrast, the teachers unions and progressive Democrats have been decidedly muted in their response. New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) President Andy Pallotta merely repeated the falsehoods issued by Cuomo, concluding that if districts need to phase in the reopening of buildings, so be it. American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten tweeted the NYSUT statement, adding, Absolutely right. The United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the largest teachers union in New York City, quoted UFT President Michael Mulgrew as simply saying that reopening schools in the city is still an open question, provoking huge opposition to the union on Twitter from rank-and-file teachers. Mulgrew plans to adhere to anti-strike laws that apply to teachers in the city and will go only so far as pursuing legal action as a last resort. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, has said nothing about Cuomos announcement. For that matter, she has been silent over the past month about the broader drive to reopen schools. Bernie Sanders has also provided silent consent, releasing no statements on the issue. To prevent the unsafe reopening of schools, educators, parents and students must organize independently of the pro-corporate unions and Democratic Party and form a network of rank-and-file committees in every school and neighborhood. These committees must be guided by science. They must fight to connect with ever broader sections of the working class to prepare for a nationwide general strike against the reopening of the schools and the broader reopening of the economy, which has accelerated the spread of the pandemic. Only through a broad-based movement of the working class will society be able to contain the pandemic, vastly expand public education funding and ensure that the social interests of the working class take precedence over private profit. We urge all those who wish to take up such a struggle to contact us today and sign up for the WSWS Educators Newsletter. Chicago police investigating the Jussie Smollett case apparently inadvertently taped 37 seconds of a private conversation between a key witness and his lawyer last year -- a tape that has since made it into the hands of Smolletts defense team, which says it helps prove the actors innocence. The video of conversation between Olabinjo Osundairo and his attorney, Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez, was given to special prosecutors, who unwittingly turned it over to defense attorneys as part of a routine exchange of potential evidence. When they realized they had done so, prosecutors asked the defense attorneys to confirm that they would not view it or use it, given that conversations between lawyers and their clients are confidential, attorney Sean Wieber said in court Friday. But Smolletts attorneys believe the tape shows what they have long argued: that Osundairo and his brother, who are the suspects-turned-witnesses at the heart of the case, were coached on a phony story to frame Smollett as a way to escape being charged themselves. We believe its evidence of them conspiring to come up with a story, defense attorney Tina Glandian said in court Friday. It is a significant statement that we would like to introduce into evidence. Judge James Linn, who is presiding over the case, hinted strongly that the tape would not ever be made public, saying this is clear cut attorney-client privilege. Somebody forgot to turn off the tape at the police station, Linn said. The lawyers are trying to use this now, and Im not sure it will be available. But before rendering a formal decision, Linn requested to see the video in his chambers to determine whether the defense could use it. The revelation came at a routine pretrial hearing in the former Empire actors second criminal case, which was charged in February by a special prosecutor after the initial case was abruptly dropped. Olabinjo Osundairo and his brother, Abimbola, are key witnesses in the Smollett case. Their statement to police turned the onetime Empire actor from victim to suspect, launching a high-profile case that has seen roller-coaster twists in the past 18 months. Schmidt Rodriguez, could not immediately be reached for comment on Fridays development. A special Cook County grand jury indicted Smollett in February on six counts of disorderly conduct alleging he orchestrated a racist and homophobic attack on himself in downtown Chicago in January 2019. The allegations were similar to charges brought by States Attorney Kim Foxxs office last year. Foxx had recused herself from overseeing the prosecution, revealing shed had contact with a member of Smolletts family early in the investigation at the request of Tina Tchen, Michelle Obamas former chief of staff. But in appointing attorney Webb as special prosecutor last year, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin wrote that Foxx botched the recusal by handing the reins to her top deputy. Because the recusal was invalid, the entire process played out without a real prosecutor at the helm, he wrote -- opening the door for Smollett to be charged again by a separate team of special prosecutors. Smolletts defense team has launched an effort to get the new indictment thrown out, arguing that the prosecutors were not appointed appropriately. Linn has not yet ruled on that request. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A hero builder rushed to save the life of a six-year-old boy today after he was swept out to sea on an inflatable swan as Britons flocked to the coasts on one of the hottest days of the year. Sam McKeeder, from Towyn, said the boy was about 200 metres off the shore at Black Rock Sands in North Wales when he found him face-down and unconscious in the water. The grandfather, who was on the beach with his family when he heard the child's mother shout for help, patted the boy on the back before he threw up and started breathing again. The dramatic rescue took place on a day when Britains beaches were packed for the second day running, as people all-but abandoned social distancing to bask in the sunshine. Emergency services attended Black Rock Sands in North Wales today after a six-year-old boy was swept out to sea on an inflatable swan The rescue happened on one of the hottest days of the year where brits flocked to beaches all over the country 'He was totally unconscious, I turned him around and patted him on his back and then a lot of water and sick came up, and he started breathing again,' the granddad told North Wales Live. The boy's father had been told to stay onshore by the coast guard while he called 999 and waited for his son with and by the time the boy got to shore there were paramedics waiting for him. The boy was given oxygen and airlifted to Ysbyty Gwynedd by a coastguard rescue helicopter. Sam McKeeder (pictured), 57, is a builder and granddad who swam out to rescue the six-year-old boy who had come off the inflatable swan and was face-down in the water Another man had tried to get to the boy too but the boy was too far away from shore the man was too exhausted. A spokesman for Holyhead Coastguard said: 'I wish people would leave the inflatables at home as they are designed for swimming pool not for the sea.' It comes as Brits swarmed to beaches across the UK during the hot weather this weekend with Friday being the country's hottest August day since 2003. People in Bournemouth were seen coming out of tents today after setting them up last night to make sure they would get the best spots. Local police in North Wales reported 'a considerable build up of traffic' in Abersoch as drivers made their way to the beach despite a councillor's plea for visitors to avoid towns. In Sandbanks, drivers said they had to wait 40 minutes in a queue to get into the car park. By the afternoon, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council's beach check app showed 19 of its 24 beaches under red alert, warning people to avoid the areas because safe social distancing was not possible. Bournemouth beach was once again packed even by mid-morning as sun-seekers arrived in their droves to soak up the sun Crowds had already started gathering on Bournemouth beach in early hours of the morning ahead of another day of sizzling temperatures Social distancing appeared to be non-existent once again as crowds flocked in huge numbers to Brighton beach today Today also saw a swimmer die in a water-filled quarry at Bawsey Pits near King's Lynn in Norfolk. He got 'into difficulty' and emergency services were called this morning after he was reported missing. Four crews of firefighters used two rigid inflatable boats and a drone to search for the man whose body was eventually pulled out of the quarry. Swimming is banned in the quarry as it was a sand workings feature with underwater obstructions and deep sides, meaning there are sudden changes in depth. Emergency services (pictured) searched the quarry at Bawsey Pits near King's Lynn in Norfolk for the swimmer and eventually found his body The quarry is dangerous to swim in because the sides are deep and there are underwater obstructions which causes the depth to change Slate has relationships with various online retailers. If you buy something through our links, Slate may earn an affiliate commission. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. All prices were up to date at the time of publication. In August 2008, Stephenie Meyer announced that she had stopped working on the fifth Twilight book after the first 12 chapters of the unfinished manuscript were leaked online. She wrote on her website at the time, If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldnt dovetail too well with the original story. Benevolently, she made the leaked chapters available for free on her own site for readers, but the project was put on hold indefinitely. Advertisement And that seemed to be the end of the saga until May of this year, when Meyer resuscitated her dormant fandom by announcing that after 12 long years, fans would finally be able to get their hands on Midnight Sun, which retells the events of the first Twilight book from the perspective of vampire paramour Edward Cullen, rather than the series usual narrator, Bella Swan. Below, in an edited and condensed conversation, Slate staffers and recovering Twi-hards Rachelle Hampton and Rebecca Onion discuss reading Midnight Sun and what light it sheds on the rest of the series. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rachelle Hampton: Lets start by laying out our Twilight bona fides. How did you come to the series? Rebecca Onion: I was in grad school and I had a bunch of friends who liked to ironically (and not-ironically) consume pop culture together, usually stuff that had hot men in it. We did Vampire Diaries, Misfits, the Outlander books. We did Twilight together in sort of a quasi-book group and watched whatever movies were available. Mind you, we were all between the ages of, like, 27 and 32, but we were all pop-culture nerds, so we had an excuse. Advertisement Advertisement What about you? Hampton: I was in middle school when Twilight came out, so it was quite literally everywhere for the majority of my adolescence. I dont think I could have avoided reading the books even if I wanted to, which luckily, I didnt. Its probably one of the first series that I really imprinted onpun intended. Onion: Hahahaha CREEPY Hampton: My friends used to play a game at lunch where theyd flip to a random spot in one of the books, read a section, and then Id tell them what happened before and after. That is the level of Twilight obsession I was at. Advertisement Onion: What was your favorite book? Hampton: Oh Eclipse, 100 percent. I am ashamed of how quickly I pulled that out a decade later, but Eclipse had the most plot, which my girl Stephenie Meyer is not great at, and also the most Jacob before he fell in love with a baby. Advertisement Onion: The most Jacob before he fell in love with a baby, from which I infer that you are Team Jacob. Hampton: All the way Team Jacob (before he fell in love with a baby, which, once again, I have to disavow). My Jacob sympathies made Midnight Sun a bit of a slog to get through. I think if I wasnt Team Jacob before, this book would have turned me. But before we get into this absolute unit of overwrought angst, what team are you on? Advertisement Advertisement Onion: I am so torn!!!! I love Jacob for who he isforthright, sincere, honest, a hot woodsy werewolfbut I also really, really like everything about the early 20th century. And so to the degree that Edward is an Edwardian I like him for being extremely, like, well-read and intelligent and piano-playing and concerned about moral rectitude and such. But at the same time, hes a stuffed shirt, and reading Midnight Sun is like being stuck inside a stuffed shirts brain for 10 hours. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hampton: Wow that is exactly what repels me from him (and Bella). Every allusion to classical literature or music or anything of note made me want to gag from pretension. Oh, you both love Jane Eyre and hate disco? How original. Liking Victorian fiction is not a substitute for a personality! Onion: Yes, its personality by way of syllabus. I was going to ask you how much you remember about the Bella-POV first book and which parts of this one felt super new as opposed to that one. Hampton: Unfortunately, I have a near photographic memory for this series, which causes me nearly as much pain as Edward constantly seems to be in. The parts that are new speak directly to the criticisms that Meyer has faced over the past decade. From fleshing out Bellas character by having her go out of her way to be kind to some poor lonely children in school to the ways that Edwards inner monologue directly addresses his stalking tendencies to finally gaining insight into how Alices visions work, this book definitely serves as a bit of a middle finger to everyone whos spent the past few years nitpicking the series for plot holes. Advertisement Advertisement Onion: I noticed that a bit re: the stalking thing. You get to see the part where Edward decides to sneak into Bellas room and watch her sleep, several nights in a row, before they even really KNOW each other from his POV. And I guess he did it because hes worried about her dying? He needs to be there to crush any brown spiders that come out of her closet (which he does one night to one poor spider). Advertisement Hampton: Yes, Meyer seems to think that accountability means addressing how toxic your behavior is and then continuing to do it anyway, but its fine now because you know its wrong. Onion: The explanation is just as unsatisfying in this book. He is extremely overbearing! I also felt like this POV on the reasons they fell in love is maybe even more upsetting. He loves her mostly because shes self-sacrificing, which isnt really something I remember from her books or the movies. He sees her as a complete Angel in the House type, Victorian shy lady who will do anything for her family and friends. Advertisement Hampton: I am not a person who thinks that fictional characters need to model how to behave in the world, but I will say that as someone who read this series as a teen, it sets a really, really bad example of what a relationship needs to look like. The self-sacrificing bit was definitely played up more here than it was in the original books. Advertisement Advertisement Its a choice I dont quite understand because Bella is fundamentally pretty selfish, which is the only interesting thing about her. She wants one thing and will stop at nothing to get that one thing, to the exclusion of all other things. Onion: Yes! I have always thought of her as deeply annoying because after the first blush of meeting Edward, etc., she just wont freaking shut up: make me a vampire make me a vampire. Advertisement Hampton: It is deeply annoying but also we love a girl who knows what she wants! Onion: Like, poor everyone else in your life who youre planning to leave behind. But, like, Edward keeps being like youre 17, you dont know what you really want and Im like hes correct honestly. Advertisement Advertisement Hampton: Truly, shes like: Parents? Dont need em. Speaking of, Midnight Sun really made me think her mother is absolutely terrible. Onion: Oh yeah, narcissist! That was an interesting twist. Bella always described her mom as sort of fancy-free and superfun, but Edward sees the way Renee reverses roles and makes Bella into the caregiver, and isnt really on board with it. Thats one of the only times I found Edwards mind reading intriguing instead of completely annoying to read about. Advertisement Advertisement Hampton: Can we talk about age here? Meyer did not do a good job of making their age difference seem any less creepy. It was one of the things that I was really searching for. There were a few throwaway lines on how Edward is still actually 17, or Bella growing bored with him as she got older. But then he would go and call her contemporaries children! You cant have both, my guy! Onion: You mean, when he was fantasizing about ripping them all limb from limb, to get at her sweet, sweet blood??? Hampton: Honestly, it just made me think about Lisa Taddeos Three Women, which is a book I didnt actually enjoy, but one of the characters is groomed by her high school teacher through Twilight. Its honestly stunning when you read it through that lens, the ways that Edward makes Bella feel like theyre equal enough for a relationship but not equal enough to make her own decisions. Advertisement Onion: Honestly, a man born in 1900 MIGHT feel that way about a girl he likes. He might prize her self-sacrificing nature above all other things. Let me ask you this, did Midnight Sun still grab you the way the other books did? Because despite how annoying all of the different devices wereEdward reads minds! His sister Alice has visions! Sometimes Edward is reading a mind with visions!I still couldnt stop reading, especially when I was first diving into it, in the first 300 pages or so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hampton: Ugh, I want to say no, but I stayed up till 5 a.m. reading this in one go and though I want to blame that on having to prepare for this chat, there were definitely parts where I couldnt stop smiling. Advertisement Onion: Lolololol. She GOT YOU. Stephenie got you! Hampton: But I wasnt exactly invested in how Edward saw or fell in love with Bella? What this book brought me was a chance to see characters I loved from a different perspective. Getting to see more of Emmett (who is the absolute star of this book) and Alice and even hearing Edwards first impressions of Jacob were really rewarding. Onion: The way he describes his mind as restful and pure. Very sweet. Hampton: This is directly in contradiction with the romance novels Ive been reading where I was like, OK when do we see the main couple in a room together again? Onion: Yes, usually youre like side characters, blah dee blah. Advertisement Hampton: Yes, exactly! But I think thats also because Meyer largely chose to do a scene-for-scene remake of Twilight. Despite the extra 100-odd pages, theres really not much that happens in Midnight Sun that we didnt already know about. Advertisement Onion: Right, so we dont get any extra Edward-Bella stuff, really. Its all, meadow reveal of sparkles, Phoenix trip with tracker in pursuit, etc. Hampton: And Meyer seemed almost bored during the part where Edward and co. are tracking James, the big bad of the book whos got it in for Bella. Thats really the only part we never saw any glimpse of before, because Bella and Edward separated at that point. Advertisement Onion: I totally agree about the parts of this that are about his family, though. His family was the worst part of the movies. They were like barely meaningful; you just kind of skimmed over them with your eyes. And even in the Bella POV books, there wasnt much there. I found the backstory parts for especially Emmett and also Jasper more interesting in this book than before. Love Emmett!! Advertisement Hampton: Sweet, sweet Emmett, the platonic ideal of a himbo. Onion: I guess it makes sense that obviously Edward would have more to say about them than Bella. I also felt like I got Carlisle, Edwards father figure, a lot more from this book. Hampton: Even Jasper, who I do not like based on the fact that he fought for the Confederacy, got a great edit here. I definitely understood his talent, which is his ability to influence other peoples emotions, a lot better when it was explained from Edwards perspective. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Onion: I feel like I never even knew he HAD a talent before! Maybe I just forgot. Hampton: Esme remains a cardboard cutout of a mom. I just want to know if the Cullen family has Black friends. Onion: Cullen family, go on Ziwes show. OK, question: Do you think this book will a) turn people on to Twilight who never knew about it/consumed it before, or b) remain interesting only to those who, like us, spent the 2000s mainlining this crap, or c) neither, be a flop? Hampton: I dont know if this book will turn anyone onto the series, though I also think its nearly impossible to have existed in the 2000s and 2010s without having consumed Twilight in some ways. Midnight Sun is definitely for the fans, though, and Meyer acknowledges that up front in the dedication. When I heard this book was coming out, despite how much I truly think Twilight is trash, I knew I was gonna spend real money on it. This is the trash that made me!!! Advertisement Onion: I will say, if any other former fans out there want to forget the intervening decade for a couple hours or escape from pandemic thoughts, this will do the trick for at least a day. Advertisement Hampton: On a slightly serious note, despite how irrevocably Twilight changed meincluding by teaching me the word irrevocablyMidnight Sun mostly made me very happy that the YA space no longer looks like it does in 2005. Toxicity aside, Im just glad that girls who arent white can find heroines that look like them. Onion: Bella is so white, its part of what Edward loves about her! As Edward keeps saying in Midnight Sun, you can practically SEE her blood. Advertisement Hampton: If I had to read how her skin is apricot and cream one more time, I was gonna throw my Kindle across the room. That does bring me to a final point, which is that if people are going to spend money on this book, they should spend some time reading up on the Quileute Tribe which has been forced to negotiate the rights to their own oral histories, ancient regalia and mask designs, and even the sanctity of their cemetery in the aftermath of Twilight. Onion: Yes, you make an excellent point. Twilight was Not Good for a lot of people just forming their ideas about romance, but it was REALLY NOT GOOD in this other way. The two young men want to make everything right. "Where's here, for the Corona-testing?", asks the one with unuberhorbarem Swabian accent the folder in the arrivals area of the Frankfurt airport. "Up and over the bridge," answers the man in the yellow vest. He is with his left Arm in the rough direction. Some of the stairwells to the two men, however, are not yet sure where to go. In the departure hall you need to pull a Lufthansa employee to Rate. Only with the help of the friendly lady that is actually for departing Business Class passengers can find the test center of the German Red cross. It is located such as that of the company's Job on the bridge between Terminal 1 and the remote station of the Frankfurt airport. Niklas Zimmermann volunteer. F. A. Z. Twitter The two Tanned, entering on Saturday shortly before 12: 30 p.m. the Frankfurt test center, have a flight out of Tel Aviv behind. You are, in spite of their very loose clothing, no tourists. In Israel, which is classified by the Robert-Koch-Institute (RKI) as a risk area, they were on a business trip."The chief wants to know if we have a Corona," says the one. However, even if the wouldn't want: Since this Saturday is a test compulsory for travellers returning from high-risk applies to a regulation of the Federal Minister of health, Jens Spahn (CDU) areas. The Tests are free of charge for you. Alternatively, the returnees at the earliest, 48 hours before departure or up to 72 hours of arrival at the house doctor in Germany. in some cases contradictory information at Least at the Frankfurt airport, it does not come on the first day of mandatory Testing, to the large crowds. "We have a latent, higher Numbers," says Benedict Hart, the head of the DRC testing center. In the past few days there have been about 1800 Tests per day. "We will see if we can crack today the 2000." A few days before mandatory Testing was announced, the number of currently seven smear cabins quickly double. Both the DRC, as well as Job have hired in the past few days, numerous temporary staff. Briefly more employees than travelers in the test center early in the afternoon. The influx of course, but always"wave", reports Hart. Because the staff was recruited in the short term, it is in the instructions for the test saddle, not willing to always. A Job employee that is a Registered between the two test centre says the travel returnees from the areas at risk would need to register at these tables. See your Job colleagues a few meters further, but in a different way. You send a out of Egypt flown in genes passenger directly to the test centre on the left, which is provided for Arriving from high-risk areas. An airport employee says, however, that the DRC and the Job jointly operated test center links to be provided for incoming travelers, and that Job right for the departure of the flight willing. Also, this is not correct: in fact, the Job centre covers the fee-based voluntary testing. "We are the Department of Spahn," says, however, DRC-a man Hard. passenger proposes stricter rules Fortunately, it has been advised from Cairo, flown in genes woman properly. Just 13 minutes after entering the center, she leaves this again with your great white rolling suitcase."What's wrong with that?" she replies to the question, how has the test procedure with the registration and smear felt. She, however, has no too great confidence in their fellow travelers. "Many slip through", she suspects, and makes a proposal:"The travellers should be directly from the airplane to the test center directed." When in the airport no one checked, do the test obligation no sense. As is the case of the two Tel Aviv shows travellers from the area of Stuttgart, but also those who want to test themselves, only with trouble of the way to the test centres. Directly in the arrival hall in the Terminal, there are no signs, which lead to the Corona-Tests. Who instead follows the sign of the "Medical Center", must soon find that there is nobody waiting for the test willing to travel returnees. DRC-head of the Center, Hart praised improvement: "We are with the airport operators," in good conversations. Also he had been complaining of the passengers on the not just simple search for the test center. Updated Date: 08 August 2020, 13:19 We are living in uncertain times. We see this reinforced daily on the news, even as we deal with the personal and local implications of the global pandemic. For many of us it may seem as if were living in a world of diminished choices. But I think, in many ways, that were still contending with the same essential choice we have always faced. Every time that we turn on the radio, pick through newspapers, or scroll down our social media feeds were making a decision choosing how what we see or hear or read affects us; choosing whether to graze over the experience of others or to slow down and absorb their reality; choosing whether or not to bear witness. Ive been thinking about the role of the witness in times of social upheaval for six years a preoccupation that grew in tandem with work on my third novel. The Certainties is set in 1940 in Portbou, Spain. It begins with a man standing on a balcony overlooking the sea, trying to decide if hed prefer to die with his shoes on or off. The man is 50 years old, and fleeing France in the wake of the German advance. His story is informed by my own reading of history, and by more modern humanitarian crises that were going on around me as I wrote the migrant crisis foremost amongst them. Its also a book informed by those who have witnessed atrocities in particular, journalists and soldiers such as Romeo Dallaire, who has described seeing things one cant un-see, acts of witness so vivid and difficult that they create another person the kind of witnessing where the person who walks into a room is not the same person who walks out of it. When I began writing The Certainties my life was good and news stories highlighting the problems of the world were largely set elsewhere. Like many Canadians, my husband and I watched the migrant crisis unfold through the news, and were inspired to act. With a group of friends, we privately sponsored a Syrian family and brought them to British Columbia. During all that time, I taught university and worked on my book, thinking about forced migration through the lens of lExode the exodus, in June 1940, that saw more than eight million people flee south from Paris, an event that is still regarded as one of the largest migrations in human history. Throughout this time I was also corresponding with a friend whod been in the military. He was moving between some of the worlds worst hot spots seeing in person some of the things I read about in my morning news. A tension began to grow in our friendship and I sensed this was because of the difference between his experience in the world as an actor in the drama, carrying the burden for the rest of us and my own role: as a student of history, a storyteller, someone who uses evocation to speak to the sorts of things he was actually living. We were unable to bridge the divide, and because of this, I started to think my interest in writing about humanitarian crises from a desk in Canada was absurd. What good is a novel? I wondered. What can a book of fiction actually do? In 2016, with this friends guidance, I applied to the Canadian Forces Artists Program, which allows civilian artists to participate in Canadian Forces missions around the world in order to facilitate the creation of works of art that might serve as a bridge for communication between the military and the general population. I decided that anyone writing about witness should get as close to the front line as possible. I believed, wrongly, that to witness means being in danger, risking your life. The following year, just as I was settling on whether to go to Afghanistan, Iraq or Mali, my husband of 23 years, Glenn, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The ER doctor who walked us down the hall and showed us the MRI of Glenns brain used the words tumour and inoperable in the same sentence and a trap door we hadnt seen dropped open beneath us. A terminal diagnosis reminds you that time is the gift, and that relationships are everything. And so, from the very beginning of Glenns illness, we asked our community to come closer. We held a gathering where our friends looked at right-to-die and end-of-life options alongside us; I surprised Glenn with an epic backyard birthday party, complete with a set of music by our friends band. Meanwhile, Glenn took a standup comedy class something hed previously been too self-conscious to do. When he was through his first round of chemotherapy we went back to the Europe we loved and drove around France and Spain with a wheelchair in the back of the car. We laughed and we cried, and sometimes we did both together. Getting into an airport shuttle bus in Barcelona at 4 a.m. the driver looked at Glenn and asked Terminal? and Glenn turned to me and said Fastest diagnosis yet. I wrote this down in my journal. I wrote, and I watched, and I wrote. I had already deferred my Canadian Forces placement for a year when the director of the program suggested I join Operation Precise Response a joint Canadian and NATO forces exercise that involved training with live biological, chemical and radioactive weapons at CFB Suffield in Alberta. I wasnt sure about leaving my husband for eight or nine days, but Alberta was only a short plane ride away and Glenn encouraged me to go. Hed been a reservist in his teens, had his basic military training and, more to the point, he understood what a privilege the experience would be for me. My first few days at Suffield I concentrated on understanding how the military exercises worked. I observed simulations that mirrored the kind of newsworthy events that could occur in real life: a suspect bag is found on an airport truck; a bombed building has been reduced to rubble; a rogue lab is discovered in someones apartment. In each scenario, teams (wearing the hazmat suits that COVID has made iconic) were sent in to assess and neutralize the threat the explosives experts usually going in first, followed by a team who looked for chemical, biological or radioactive weapons. Around day four I started doing interviews. I kept picturing something Id seen on a monitor in the command centre: a suited-up bomb tech had opened the back of a van to discover a rusty barrel spiked with wires leading to an object I couldnt quite see. I had watched him standing in complete stillness for five or more minutes, my heart racing. This is why I started the first sets of interviews with the same questions: How do you deal with the uncertainty of the situation? How can you deal with not knowing whats in front of you? What I learned about bearing witness at Suffield mostly came through these interviews. One of the French soldiers I spoke to had gone into the Bataclan in the immediate aftermath of the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris that killed 90 people; he was looking for bombs amongst the bodies of the dead. Another soldier I spoke to a medical officer had spent time in Ebola camps. A Canadian bomb technician I interviewed described how hed point out to his signaler all the places he was likely to be killed before he headed downfield. Over dinner one evening, a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons described taking tissue samples from the remains of the dead in Syria and flying them to the Hague in order to assess whether chemical weapons had been used in the attack. Two of the Canadian soldiers with whom I drove to and from the base every day had lost fellow soldiers and friends in Afghanistan. Witnessing, I began to realize, is different from seeing; its a heightened kind of attention to another human being, a kind of taking in that involves the sublimation of self and the foregrounding of another. Many of the soldiers stories some too personal to cite here have stayed with me. I have come to understand that to hear someone speak about what theyve seen sometimes means picking up and carrying their story with you as you go forward in your own life. And this is what, in turn, happened as my husband was dying: our friends and family witnessed for us, and Glenn allowed himself to be seen in a way that was so vulnerably human it was simultaneously a feat of bravery. Two months before my husband died, during his bucket-list August, Glenn and I hosted a fine wine pinot tasting so that, Glenn, a wine expert, could leave some of his wine knowledge behind. We also went camping with the help of a close friend. That trip reminded me of another camping trip, 10 years earlier: Glenn and I beside a fire under the stars. That evening, I asked him and myself: Say you live to be a hundred years old, youre on your deathbed, going peacefully. By what standard do you judge your life? Wed both stayed silent until it was clear we each had our answers, answers that strangely had the same sentence structure, like parallel thoughts. Glenn said: By what Ive seen and how Ive understood it. I said: By what Ive learned and how Ive used it. For me now, the crucial thing is that it matters less how the act of witnessing occurs than how it informs your behaviour. In other words, what matters is if, and how, you allow anothers reality to alter your course. Six months after Glenn died I was shopping for groceries, and unexpectedly, struck by something that unpegged a memory, I burst into tears in the condiment aisle, crying to the point that breathing was difficult. No one stopped to ask if I was OK. At least 10 or 11 people went blurrily past me as I tried to regain my composure. Items were picked up and put into carts or baskets. No one fetched a manager, no one said, Hey. Bearing witness is tricky. To really see someone means getting involved. And we human beings are largely risk-averse; we dont like to be seen as intrusive or interfering. In the days after my public breakdown, I asked myself what I would have done, and the answer made me change my behaviour. Two weeks later I saw a young woman walking across a Rona parking lot crying into her phone, and I walked toward her and said, Are you OK? She gave me a dirty look and I backed away. But then, three paces later, she stopped, turned in my direction and mouthed, Thank you. My novel is set at the end of the Spanish Civil War, and during the Second World War. In its pages, people stay distant, they are full of distrust. Wariness pervades them and the world they move through. Fascism is the enemy of witness: it convolutes reality and promotes falsehoods. It says, baldly: what you think you see is not what you really see. And so The Certainties begins with a man weighing up what hes seen, and making calculations about the sort of world he thinks will come. That night at the campfire more than a decade ago, when I said to Glenn that I thought my sense of self my sense of the value of the work I will have done on this earth will be filtered through the lens of how Ive used what Ive learned, I think what I really meant to say was that my sense of self will depend upon how fully Ive witnessed the lives of others. How the stories Im graced with inform my sense of the disparate, unruly (and sometimes magnificent) cast of humans moving around this earth. What can a novel do? It can say that simplest and most difficult of words, Look. It can direct our attention. And if done well, it can make us feel we carry what we witness into our own lives. Cher Wei Hon at the Tay Ninh People's Court in southern Vietnam on August 7, 2020. Photo courtesy of Vietnam News Agency. Cher Wei Hon was sentenced to death at Tay Ninh People's Court on Friday for smuggling 10 kg of methamphetamine from Cambodia. The court found 40-year-old Cher, residing in District 5 of Ho Chi Minh City, guilty of "illegal transportation of banned substances." According to the indictment, at 3:15 a.m. on June 29, 2019, the Southern Drug Prevention Special Force, cooperating with the Border Guard Station at Moc Bai in Tay Ninh Province that borders HCMC, stopped and searched a car driven by Duong Hung Tam, 27. Cher was in the car. Cher subsequently identified the large amount of white crystals inside the vehicle as meth. According to the police, the total volume of meth seized reached 9.95 kg. Cher said he had met a woman named Quynh at a karaoke parlor in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After borrowing VND200 million ($8,600) from her, he worked for her to pay off the debt. At first, Quynh tasked Cher with transporting iPhones and iPads from Cambodia to Vietnam, followed by running drugs across the border for $500 to $1,000 a trip. He was arrested en route to delivering the meth to HCMC. Cher later stated he had conducted five such trips successfully before being caught. Police have not managed to track down Quynh while Tam was set free after no connection could be established between him and Cher other than that of mere transportation. Meth and other kinds of synthetic drugs have become more popular in Vietnam of late, favored by the hard-partying youth. The country has become a key trafficking hub despite employing some of the worlds toughest drug laws. Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 gm of heroin or over 2.5 kg of methamphetamines face capital punishment. The production or sale of 100 gm of heroin or 300 gm of other illegal narcotics is also punishable by death. US officials believe Russia is boosting Trumps re-election bid, and China does not want Trump to win a second term. The top United States counterintelligence official on Friday warned that Russia, China and Iran will all try to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, with Russia already trying to undercut presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden. In an unusual public statement, William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said those countries were using online disinformation and other means to try to influence voters, stir up disorder and undermine American voters confidence in the democratic process. The statement comes amid criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats that the intelligence community has been withholding from the public specific intelligence information about the threat of foreign election interference in the upcoming election. Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden is set to speak on Thursday night [File: Andrew Harnik/The Associated Press] On Russia, US intelligence officials assess that it is working to denigrate Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia establishment among his supporters, Evanina said. He said that would track with Moscows criticism of Biden when he was vice president for his role in Ukraine policies and his support of opposition to President Vladimir Putin inside Russia. The latest intelligence assessment reflects concerns to varying degrees about China, Russia and Iran, warning that hostile foreign actors may seek to compromise election infrastructure and interfere with the voting process. Those concerns are especially acute following a wide-ranging effort by Russia to interfere in the 2016 election on behalf of current US President Donald Trump through both the hacking of Democratic emails and a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord among US voters. Trump has routinely resisted the idea that the Kremlin favoured him in 2016, but the intelligence assessment released Friday indicates that unnamed Kremlin-linked actors are again working to boost his candidacy on social media and Russian television. Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer, said Evanina. We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia and Iran. China views Trump as unpredictable and does not want to see him win re-election, Evanina said. China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of the November election in an effort to shape US policy and pressure political figures it sees as against Beijing, he said. Although China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, its public rhetoric over the past few months has grown increasingly critical of the current administrations COVID-19 response, closure of Chinas Houston consulate and actions on other issues, he wrote. On Iran, the assessment said Tehran seeks to undermine US democratic institutions as well as Trump and to divide the US before the election. Irans efforts along these lines probably will focus on online influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-US content, Evanina wrote. Tehrans motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trumps re-election would result in a continuation of US pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change. The White House responded to Fridays news with a statement saying the United States will not tolerate foreign interference in our electoral processes and will respond to malicious foreign threats that target our democratic institutions. The United States is working to identify and disrupt foreign influence efforts targeting our political system, including efforts designed to suppress voter turnout or undermine public confidence in the integrity of our elections, said the statement from National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot. In a separate statement, the Trump campaign said it did not want or need foreign assistance and said China and Iran were opposed to Trump because he has held them accountable after years of coddling by politicians like Joe Biden. The remains of seven Marines and one sailor killed in a training accident off the coast of Southern California late last month were recovered on Friday in a U.S. Navy underwater salvage operation, according to the authorities. The servicemens remains will be sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before being released to their families, the I Marine Expeditionary Force said in a statement. The amphibious assault vehicle they were in was also recovered, and the accident remains under investigation. Last week, after a 40-hour search, the eight missing servicemen were presumed dead, and the search-and-rescue effort became a recovery operation. On Sunday, the seven Marines whose remains were found, all riflemen, were identified as Pfc. Bryan J. Baltierra, 18; Lance Cpl. Marco A. Barranco, 21; Pfc. Evan A. Bath, 19; Pfc. Jack-Ryan Ostrovsky, 20; Cpl. Wesley A. Rodd, 22; Lance Cpl. Chase D. Sweetwood, 18; and Cpl. Cesar A. Villanueva, 21. India Today Group has announced that it will shut down its newspaper Mail Today. Dwaipayan Bose, Editor, Mail Today will take charge of Indiatoday.in and report to Vice Chairperson Kalli Purie. Employees of Mail Today were informed about the decision in an internal mail shared by Aroon Purie, Editor-in-Chief, India Today Group. India Today entered the print space in 13 in collaboration with Daily Mail Group in the UK. French President Emmanuel Macron pledged on Saturday to send teams and equipment to help Mauritius deal with an oil spill that environmentalists fear could be a major ecological disaster. The bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground on July 25 on a reef on the south east coast of the Indian Ocean island. Pravind Jugnauth, prime minister of Mauritius, declared a state of environmental emergency and pleaded for international help on Friday. "The sinking of the #Wakashio represents a danger for Mauritius," Jugnauth said in a tweet. Macron responded by saying France was deploying teams and equipment from neighbouring Reunion Island. A military aircraft from Reunion carrying pollution-control equipment will make two flights over the spill site on Saturday, while a naval vessel carrying booms and absorbents will also set sail, authorities on Reunion said. "When biodiversity is in danger, there is an urgent need to act. France is there. Alongside the Mauritian people. You can count on our support," Macron said in a tweet. The carrier, belonging to a Japanese company but Panamanian-flagged, ran aground on July 25 and its crew was evacuated safely. The ship was empty at the time but was carrying 200 tonnes of diesel and 3,800 tonnes of bunker fuel, according to the local press. "The ministry has been informed... that there is a breach in the vessel MV Wakashio and there is a leakage of oil," the environment ministry said in a statement. "The public in general, including boat operators and fishers, are requested not to venture on the beach and in the lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe d'Esny and Mahebourg." Shipping websites say the Wakashio was built in 2007, with gross tonnage of 101,000 tonnes and deadweight tonnage of 203,000 tonnes, and a length of 299.95 metres (984 feet). The grounding happened at Pointe d'Esny, which is listed under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, and near the marine park of Blue Bay. Story continues 'Catastrophe' Anti-pollution systems have been sent to the two sites, the ministry said, adding that the government was asking the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion for assistance. "We are in an environmental crisis situation," Environment Minister Kavy Ramano told a press conference. "This is the first time that we are faced with a catastrophe of this kind, and we are insufficiently equipped to handle this problem," said Fishing Minister Sudheer Maudhoo. The ministers said that all attempts to stabilise the ship had failed because of rough seas, and efforts to pump out the oil had also failed. Ecologists fear the ship could break up, which would cause an even greater leak and inflict potentially catastrophic damage on the island's coastline. The country depends crucially on its seas for food and for tourism, boasting some of the finest coral reefs in the world. "The current oil spill on the reef near Pointe d'Esny on the south east coast of the Mauritian island is likely one of the most terrible ecological crises ever seen on the small island country," the environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement. (FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS) Chandigarh, Aug 8 : The Punjab government has decided to withdraw the state police security of Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa, who has been slamming his own party's state government, after an assessment showed that he had virtually no threat perception. He was, in any case, getting central security directly accorded to him by the Union Home Ministry. Disclosing this, an official spokesperson said on Saturday that the state police security provided to Bajwa had become redundant since he had got personal security directly from Home Minister Amit Shah. A mixed security component was not considered good, particularly when the Rajya Sabha MP had, by opting for central security, shown that he had no faith in the state police. According to the spokesperson, contrary to claims made by Bajwa, the central security he had got was not at the behest of the Congress leadership. In fact, the Union Home Ministry had not even consulted the state government to gauge the threat perception, which is usually done before providing central security to any person. Bajwa, as Rajya Sabha MP, may have simply approached the party's leader in the House, Ghulam Nabi Azad, to seek central security, and as is the norm the latter could have sent his request to the Union Home Ministry. However, for some reason, the Home Ministry chose not to discuss the matter of Bajwa's threat perception with the state government, which was a clear deviation from the norm followed in such cases, the spokesperson said. He said that Bajwa had actually been getting enhanced security from the Punjab Police all this time, way beyond what he was entitled to as a Rajya Sabha MP. This was because the state government had decided not to withdraw the security he had at his disposal as president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC). Bajwa was given Z Category security cover by the Union Home Ministry on March 19 and as of date has 25 CISF personnel for his personal security, protection of residence and escort, besides 2 escort drivers. Till March 23, he also had 14 Punjab Police personnel deployed with him but a few were withdrawn for Covid duties. He currently has six state police personnel and an escort with driver, which are now being withdrawn, said the spokesperson. In a recent interview with a leading daily, Sanjana revealed that Sushant told her to not give her 100 percent in every shot, an advice that proved to be crucial for her. She said, I'm in almost every frame of the film so I have to shoot day after day without any breather so he would teach me how to conserve energy. He asked me not to give my 100% in every shot, when the camera is facing your back, conserve your energy. This was a tool kit he was developing by just years of working. Dil Bechara also marked Sushants close pal and casting director Mukesh Chhabras directorial debut. Sushant Singh Rajputs Dil Bechara will always be a special film for Bollywood fans as it was the late actors last appearance on screen. The film had a digital release and managed to receive widespread appreciation on social media. Sushants Dil Bechara co-star Sanjana Sanghi recently spoke about her experience of working with the late actor. TikTok owner vows to sue over crackdown by 'modern-day pirate' Global Times By GT staff reporters Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/7 15:52:30 In a white-knuckle move that has led analysts to label him a modern-day pirate, the Trump administration issued an executive order on Thursday blocking all US deals with TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance after 45 days, even as Microsoft is in talks to secure a deal for the hugely popular video-sharing app in the US. A parallel executive order was also issued on Thursday to ban any US deal with Tencent, operator of Chinese messaging app WeChat, after 45 days, or starting September 20. The fresh blow to TikTok, whose success has made it a big thorn in the back of US regulators, is apparently unbearable, with its parent ByteDance hitting back with a rare, harshly worded statement on Friday vowing it will take the matter to court if the US government fails to treat it in an equitable way. The Chinese social media giant's 37-year-old founder Zhang Yiming has found himself in hot water over recent days, as some Chinese internet users branded him a "traitor" for accommodating the Trump administration's demands. In the statement on ByteDance's public WeChat account, the firm criticized the US government for disregarding the facts and local laws to determine contractual terms, and for even trying to intervene in negotiations between private firms. The US executive order set a dangerous precedence in the free and open market, and the firm will take all feasible measures to ensure that the rule of law is not abandoned, read the statement. "The declaration is long overdue, a clear sign that [the firm] has completely abandoned fantasy and stood to fight," Liu Dingding, a Beijing-based independent internet analyst, told the Global Times on Friday. The social media company has been caught in the middle, trying not to offend Chinese users while yielding to US demands, he said, estimating the firm's eventual move to take the US government to court - which could see ByteDance suffer a major setback - to have an impact, at most, on its US operations and service in pro-US markets such as India. Other than that, the company will benefit from a great deal of opportunities in its home territory; what's more, a number of countries and regions in Europe, Southeast Asia and South America will be vying for the overseas headquarters of the firm, the analyst said. In a move to extend its presence beyond the US, TikTok said on Thursday it would set up its first European data center in Ireland. A Tencent spokesperson also told the Global Times on Friday that the company is reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding. The crackdown on premium Chinese assets amounts to robbery, said Chinese analysts on Friday, labeling the unscrupulous president as a pirate in the modern era and warning that the example set by the US government utilizes executive power to prey upon foreign businesses. Trump's latest executive order seemingly intends to put greater pressure on ByteDance to rapidly divest TikTok, thereby forcing down its acquisition cost, Liu commented. Trump said on Monday that a TikTok ban in the US is set for September 15 if no acquisition deal is reached by that date. The deal, estimated to be worth about $50 billion, could have taken years to settle were it not for the coercion from the US government, Liu said. Microsoft is by no means the only interested buyer, and growing threats from the Trump administration to force the Chinese-origin service into a dead end mean it is impossible for other potential buyers to increase their bids, he said. Speculation about potential buyers other than Microsoft has continued in recent days. Apple shares briefly soared in the early trading session on Tuesday on reports that it is showing great interest in acquiring TikTok. The iPhone maker denied the market rumors shortly after. The new executive order is intended to accelerate the deal and is essentially a case of expropriation, Tao Qiang, a senior partner at the Beijing Yingke Law Firm Shanghai Office, told the Global Times on Friday. The acquisition is government expropriation on the grounds of security and national interests, setting it apart from normal commercial deals, Tao said. A raft of hostile actions against TikTok has mired the app and its parent ByteDance in uncertainty, and has been seen as playing into the interests of Facebook in particular. Facebook's photo-sharing app Instagram on Wednesday released its TikTok copycat Reels, in an effort to pounce on the local market. TikTok has been downloaded more than 175 million times in the US and over 1 billion times across the globe, according to the executive order targeting the app. The enviable social media success the Chinese app has gained, an annoying weak link for US tech behemoths including Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Apple, makes TikTok a coveted asset, industry watchers said. "TikTok has touched the bottom line of US national competitiveness," Hu Qimu, a senior fellow at the Sinosteel Economic Research Institute, told the Global Times on Friday. The video-sharing app incorporates an array of emerging technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, challenging the US' technological monopoly, Hu said. He referred to TikTok's outsmarting of Facebook on the latter's home turf as the export of cultural soft power, something the US fears. The attempt to force the sale of TikTok and a newly intensified clampdown reek of modern piracy, Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Friday. As Hu put it, the coronavirus pandemic has slammed US state coffers, especially as a new relief package remains elusive, and the Trump administration is possibly relying on a TikTok deal to aid its budget shortfall. Lambasting the latest actions taken against Chinese firms, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Friday that the US will eventually feel the impact of overriding market principles and international rules in favor of its self-interests. He said that will only result in the decline of its morality, damaging its national image and adding to its international trust deficit. The US has used national security as an excuse, frequently abused national power and groundlessly clamped down on related firms, a barefaced act of hegemony, Wang said, noting that China resolutely opposes this. China urges the US to correct its wrongdoings, and to stop politicizing economic issues, cease cracking down on related firms, and provide a fair, just and non-discriminative environment for businesses from all countries. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Controversial activist Rehana Fathima surrendered before the police in Kochi on Saturday, a day after the Supreme Court dismissed her anticipatory bail plea in cases against her for circulating a video in which she was semi-nude, allowing her minor children to paint on her body. Police said Fathima presented herself before the South Police station under the Kochi Commissionerate on Saturday afternoon. The activist will be produced before the magistrate court in Kochi after completing formalities of her arrest, they said. The allegation against Fathima, who made an attempt to enter the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa in Sabarimala in 2018, is that she asked her children, a boy and girl aged 14 and 8 respectively to paint on her semi-nude body. The video was shot by her and uploaded on social media. After the video was found by the Cyber Dome of Kochi Police, a case was registered against the activist in June, for offences punishable under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act), Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. Dismissing the anticipatory bail petition of Fathima, the Supreme Court on Friday had said the court is a little baffled at the kind of case that has come up before it. The top court further observed as to what kind of impression the children will get about the culture of this country through such videos. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari said this kind of thing is unthinkable and would leave the society in a bad taste. She had moved the apex court after the Kerala high court on July 24 dismissed her anticipatory bail plea, observing that it was not in a position to agree with the petitioner that she should teach sex education to her children in this manner. Earlier, the woman was also booked by the police in Pathanamthitta district under the Information Technology Act and the Juvenile Justice Act on a complaint lodged by Bharatiya Janata Party OBC Morcha leader A V Arun Prakash. The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights had also directed the police to register a case against the woman under various sections of the POCSO Act. After the Supreme Court allowed women in traditionally barred age groups of 10-50 into the Sabarimala temple in September 2018, Fathima made an attempt to enter the shrine, but had to retreat following protests by Hindu activists and devotees. Fathima was sacked from employment by the state-run BSNL in May this year for her intentional act of outraging the religious feelings of devotees through social media posts. THE Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board has received a prestigious award for the second time. Its Hospitality Education and Training Centre at Limerick Enterprise Development Park has become the first centre in the Republic of Ireland to be awarded with a consecutive European Framework for Quality Management (EFQM) Centre of Excellence Award. Operated by the ETBs Further Education and Training Division, the centre at Roxboro is dedicated to providing the highest level of culinary and hospitality training. It has built strong relationships within the Irish hospitality industry since its inception and links its learners directly with employment opportunities. Achieving this award for a second time acknowledges the centres continuing commitment to the highest level of success, as it engages with its learners, staff, industry and education partners, as well as government agencies and the local authority, said centre manager Bernadette Enright. We are delighted to announce our @HospitalityETC has become the first centre in the Republic of Ireland to be awarded a consecutive European Framework for Quality Management (EFQM) Centre of Excellence Award. Read the full story here: https://t.co/lZerNCML8G #FindTheBestInYou pic.twitter.com/MtYyBcZGFS Limerick & Clare ETB #HoldFirm (@LimClareETB) July 31, 2020 The coveted EFQM award is granted to Europes best performing organisations, following an in-depth audit of an organisations business processes and procedures. The Hospitality Education and Training Centre underwent a rigorous assessment to benchmark its performance against EFQM principles. One of the factors highlighted in the assessment was the unique partnerships and collaborations that have been established by the centre with hospitality industry employers. It became the first recipient in the 26 counties of the EFQM Centre of Excellence Award in 2016. Our centre is unique in that it delivers skills training directed at finding future employment within the hospitality industry specifically. I would like to thank Paul Patton, our director of further education and training, for his unwavering support of the centre over the last number of years. I also wish to acknowledge the support and friendship of Michael Fitzgerald and his contribution to the centre. This is an incredible achievement made possible only through the tremendous professionalism and enthusiasm all our staff bring to the centre every day, added Ms Enright. The Hospitality Education and Training Centre provides a variety of hospitality-focused Further Education and Training at its campus; ranging from entry-level to advanced, with the duration of training varying from three months to two years. It has seen hundreds of graduates pass through its doors keen to pursue a career in a variety of in the hospitality industry including chef, front-of-house, management, bar operations, barista and much more. Commenting on the award, George OCallaghan, chief executive of Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board, said: The Hospitality Education and Training Centre is a real example of what can be achieved through the effective partnership between further education and training and industry partners. The award is an acknowledgement of this partnership and the real beneficiaries are those learners who have successfully progressed to employment or further training. The award is an acknowledgement of the exceptional work that is being carried out at the centre and the standards that are there. Dr Tony Lenehan, executive director of European Framework for Quality Management Ireland, said: The EFQM Award to the Hospitality Education and Training Centre in Limerick recognises the professionalism of the centre in fulfilling its remit but also provides a valuable benchmark for other hospitality training centres around the country as they prepare individuals for valuable employment opportunities in the hospitality sector in their respective regions. The benefits of accreditation are substantial as it provides an international symbol and benchmark of operational excellence for the centre. For more Limerick news click here India and China can overcome their differences in the long-term if they reach some kind of equilibrium but achieving this is one of the big challenges faced by the country, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday. Jaishankar made the remarks while participating in an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as part of its India@75 Summit - Mission 2022 initiative. The event looks ahead at India in its 75th year of independence in 2022 and seeks to bring together stakeholders such as industry and government to work on a vision. Replying to a question on whether India and China, which are currently engaged in a tense border standoff, could be friends in the coming decades, Jaishankar said the two countries are neighbours and demographically unique as they are the only ones with populations of more than one billion. Also read | The PLA Aggressors: Chinas eight top commanders who led Ladakh adventure China is the worlds second largest economy and India is set to become the third largest, and the period of their difficulties and the period of their re-emergence in a very strong way in international politics were not far apart, he said. We are seeing the parallel but differential rise of the two countries... To my mind, what it does is it puts a huge premium on reaching some kind of equilibrium or understanding between the two [in the interests of both countries]. How to do that is one of the big challenges that we face, Jaishankar said. The border standoff, which emerged in the open in May, has taken India-China relations to a new low. Both countries have mobilised tens of thousands of troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), especially in Ladakh sector, after a brual clash on June 15 caused the death of 20 Indian soldiers and unspecified Chinese casualties. Efforts to disengage and de-escalate the tensions have run into problems as the Chinese side hasnt pulled back its troops are several key friction points on the LAC, such as Pangong Lake and Depsang. Jaishankar said he believes the world has a lot riding on India and China reaching equilibrium, given the size and impact of both countries. It is not an easy question to answer, there are problems [that are] well laid out. Certainly, its something which I feel is very central to our foreign policy calculations, he said. Also read: India, China to hold senior military-level talks, disengagement at friction areas on agenda He said a good foreign policy is one that addresses national and economic security and advances the countrys goals and aspirations in a competitive environment. Such a policy depends on skill and agility to build capabilities strongly, deeply [and] much faster, he added. In this regard, Jaishankar held up China as a remarkable example of our lifetime and pointed out that India too is doing its bit by weighing in on big issues such as climate change and shaping big debates on matters such as terrorism. Jaishankar also said Indias approach was based more on issues as the country is now dealing with a much more loose architecture with more poles and less rules, where overlapping interests are a key factor in working with other nations. The country which is able to navigate best by finding overlapping interests and working with most countries is going to be very successful in diplomacy, he said, adding that this would mean a country has to be less dogmatic and less dependent on global chains and global sources while striving for strategic autonomy. A Trump campaign in a yard in Carbondale, Pa., on July 31, 2020. Carbondale is one of many small towns in Pennsylvania that were long Democratic strongholds before Republicans made big gains in recent years. Read more CARBONDALE, Pa. Mayor Justin Taylor sat in his office in the century-old brick City Hall building overlooking downtown Carbondale, a framed photo of him with former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell on the wall. Taylor became mayor in this small city of 8,000 when he was 25, just a few years out of the University of Scranton. Now, 18 years later, Taylor is a husband, a dad, and an owner of multiple businesses (small-town mayors dont make much). He has also, like so many of his constituents, jettisoned whatever ties he once felt to the Democratic Party even if he hasnt formally changed his registration. Im honestly amazed at myself that I havent switched yet, Taylor said in an interview in late July. I dont get the Democratic Party anymore. Theyve moved so far left and it seems like its all about getting as many votes as possible, not about being the party of the working class. This (technically) Democratic mayor of a traditionally Democratic town off the I-81 corridor has shifted right along with Carbondale, Lackawanna County, and much of northeast Pennsylvania. While Democrats still outnumber Republicans in the state by about 780,000 voters, that edge has narrowed over the last four years as the GOP gained ground in once-safe Democratic bastions in northeast and southwest Pennsylvania. And if President Donald Trump wins the state again in November, it will be partly thanks to smaller towns like Carbondale scattered across Pennsylvania. We were always a Democratic town, always, said Lorraine Tomaine, 73, as she left a park where shed gathered for a book club meeting. But the town has become very, very conservative. Tomaine, a retired math teacher, recalled the famous adage by the Democratic strategist James Carville, who once described Pennsylvania as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in the middle. I really feel like I live in Alabama now, she said. While Trump has collapsed in the polls in Pennsylvania and nationally following his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, the race is likely to tighten in its final weeks. In a pivotal state Trump won by less than 1% of the vote in 2016 partly because of voters in Lackawanna County and bordering Luzerne County even small shifts in his favor in places like Carbondale could have outsized importance. And interviews with 20 residents and political operatives in the northeast suggest that places like Carbondale are trending even more pro-Trump than four years ago. To understand Carbondales political transformation, you need to go back to its roots. Residents proudly boast that Carbondale helped launch the Industrial Revolution. The countrys first underground mine started here in 1831, and a railroad system followed to transport coal to Philadelphia and New York. The Democratic Party was an early backer of labor unions, which fought for fair wages and safer working conditions for miners. As industrial jobs left, Carbondales population shrank. And in more recent years, political allegiances started to erode. My father was a lifelong Democrat, 46 years in the union, and he said, Youre going to register as a Democrat. And I said, OK, recalled Mike Mazza Jr., a 55-year-old carpenter. I would say right now if my father was alive I truly think I could swing him to vote Republican. Mazza switched this year. Hes always been more conservative on issues like abortion and gun control, he said. He thinks his former party gives too many handouts. Im just sorry I didnt wake up soon enough to vote for [Trump] the first time, said Mazza, who sat out the 2016 election. Carbondale is a white, working-class community with a largely older population. Main Street is lined with public housing and vacant stores some shuttered before the pandemic, others since. Theres still a family-owned bakery and restaurant, a coal-themed hotel, a YMCA, and an antiques shop. Many residents work about 20 miles away in Scranton, Joe Bidens childhood hometown, or for nearby companies like the Hendrick metal plant or the military equipment manufacturer Gentex. The city is home to the type of voters who have gravitated toward Trump: The population is 92% white, according to Census data, with a median family income of $40,000, 20% of the population living below the poverty line, and about 18% with college degrees. In recent years, some Black and Latino residents have moved in from New York and New Jersey. This area is mostly older residents on fixed income. Then you have a lot of people who are under- or unemployed, said Rob McDonnell, the owner of McDonnells restaurant. I think the left has gone too far left for older people in communities like this. Democrats still outnumber Republicans by about 2-1 in Carbondale, but thats down from 4-1 a decade ago, and several Democrats described themselves as Trump supporters who havent bothered to change their registration. I knew this was coming, but I didnt think it would come this soon, said Maria Gillette, Carbondales GOP chair. The Democrats, theyve just gone wild. Carbondale has endured its share of mockery over the years, slapped with the nickname Garbagedale as corruption scandals and weird crime stories made regional news. Taylor said Trump connected with people here who felt looked down upon. Weve been called the armpit of Lackawanna County, Taylor said. Trump supporters have been called white trash, the rednecks, and the hillbillies. And now theyre like, Yeah, OK, we are. And, you know what? We just registered Republican and were gonna vote. Taylor, who plans to vote for Trump, acknowledges the president has stoked racism. At a Black Lives Matter protest in June, a white man showed up with a gun and a Confederate flag. Im not a fan of that, Taylor said. Im not a fan of forcing people to pick sides and to push them into those far-reaching corners. For Maria Lawler, who grew up in Carbondale, the Trump signs and conservative rhetoric feel foreign. Lawler volunteers planting flowers and trees around town, but getting people involved has become harder, she said: As politics have become more divided, so has the town. That goes for her own house. Lawler is a Democrat and plans to vote for Biden. Her husband was a lifelong Democrat until Trump. No one talks to each other anymore, said Lawlers daughter, Amanda Fuerstenberg. Unless its on Facebook and then its just people attacking one another. While the town was settled by different immigrant groups working together in the mines and on the railroads, they lived on different sides of town, with their own churches, and, at one time, even their own fire departments. Some say the legacy of that persists. My heart hurts for the minorities in this town because I dont feel like theyre treated properly, Fuerstenberg said. In nearby Olyphant, Dave Mitchkos home has become a warehouse for people to pick up Trump signs in Lackawanna County. The Trump campaign gave him more than 14,000, which he distributes out of his garage. Olyphant, like Carbondale, is a former coal town where Democrats are losing voters, including Mitchko. He became a Republican last year, after he and his wife lost their jobs at WEA Manufacturing, which produced CDs and DVDs. The factory was the largest employer in Olyphant before the company closed it in 2018 and shifted production to Mexico. As Mitchko, 53, talked about how his family struggled with the layoffs, a neighbor across the street returned home, Latin music blasting from the car. They call me fat racist, Mitchko said, gesturing across the street to the house where Black Lives Matter and Mexican flags hung outside. Brittany Babcock lives there. She said the Black Lives Matter flag sparked arguments with her landlord and neighbors. She called the police after an argument escalated, she said, and her landlord later asked her to move out. I want to go, though, said Babcock. My anxiety is through the roof. I dont let my kids outside to play anymore. I keep both my doors locked. I never thought in 2020 that it would be like this, we would be racially profiled. All over a flag. Babcock, 26, registered to vote for the first time this year and said shes voting against Trump. I dont like Biden, to be honest with you, she said. But Trump is making this country worse every day. With roots in working-class Scranton, Biden has cast himself as the candidate who can win back voters who supported President Barack Obama before swinging to Trump. Polls and interviews show he doesnt generate the antipathy among white voters that Hillary Clinton did in 2016. Lackawanna County is the second most Democratic county in the state by percentage of registrations. Obama carried it by 27 percentage points in 2012, but Clinton, who also has ties to Scranton, won by just 3 points in 2016. Trump also picked up a huge haul of voters in Luzerne County, trouncing Clinton there by more than 26,000 votes, more than half of his margin of victory in the state. Obama won Luzerne in 2012. Lackawanna County is still almost entirely represented by Democrats in Harrisburg and Washington, and progressives have made other gains in local elections in the region. But even Biden supporters are nervous. I do look at the registrations and do worry, said Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, who endorsed Biden last week. She thinks Biden should win Lackawanna, but I dont think its a given. Frank Truman, a retired social studies teacher, thinks there are a lot of silent Biden voters in Carbondale. He happens to be a vocal one. I have no problems going up to a guy, 6-foot-5, a big goofy red hat on him, and telling him: Whats a matter? Are you stupid? Truman said at McDonnells restaurant, wearing an American flag face mask. Theres a certain amount of dignity that has to come with an executive office. And he doesnt have it. For some residents here, Bidens ties to nearby Scranton, which his family left when he was 10, actually make him less appealing. If he was crossing the street, I wouldnt cross it to say hello to him, said Nancy Free, a former editor of the Carbondale News who now works at the Gentex plant. What has he done for this region in 40 years in Washington? In interviews with a dozen Obama-Trump voters in the region, none planned to vote for Biden. Several are former elected Democrats who left the party. It used to be a much more moderate, big-tent party, Pat Rogan, the ex-president of Scrantons City Council and a Democrat-turned-Republican, said. Rogan pointed to immigration and trade as issues that have particularly motivated people to switch parties. There are very few people in this area who dont have a family member or who havent themselves had a job go overseas, he said. The mishap of an Austrian in Italy, in the Mediterranean country for plenty of the vortex: The man visited according to the media last Saturday, is a Museum in the Northern Italian Possagno in Treviso, dedicated to the sculptor Antonio Canova. In the midst of life-size statues he wanted a souvenir photo of themselves. He lay the figure of a lady resting on a bed in the feet - as it happened: the Statue parts from the broke toe. Since then, many Italians laugh at the footage of the incident. Even a Museum video of the accident has been circulating in the media. The Tourist have apologized in the meantime, as the news Agency Ansa wrote on Tuesday. He had signaled to do the damage to compensate. The police had determined, as it was called, extensive. Because the accident was left without registering. But with the help of images from security cameras and data, the need to specify visitors for the Corona-crisis at the Museum, he had been tracked down. In a letter of apology from the Museum on his Facebook page quoted, wrote the Tourist, he had only learned from the Austrian Newspapers of the incident. To him the damage he had caused was not noticed in the visit at all, which is why he had continued his visit to Italy as planned, without reporting in to the Museum. He was but fled not at all, but had simply continued his holiday after the end of the country to leave. The regional President of Veneto, Luca Zaia, thanked the "great Carabinieri" for the Track of the tourist. "Simple apologies are not enough," he wrote in the middle of the week on Facebook. The man had to pay. The Letter of the toes dropout is not apparent that he is sorry only, but also the Museum for information about the other steps that are required asks. If the damaged object is a plaster model of the marble statue of the "Venus Victrix" of the Italian sculptor, Antonio Canova. He got to 1805 the order was the then 25-year-old Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister, as the goddess of love, Venus, to represent. The marble statue attracts a lot of admirers in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. The plaster model is issued since 1829 in Possagno. Damage had to accept the"Gypsotheca" only during the First world war. In 1917, the roof was destroyed in a bomb attack, some of the plaster were damaged statues in the process. During the Second world war the statues were transported as a precautionary measure, in the temple of Possagno, where they remained until 1946. Toes they had not lost in all of the years. Updated Date: 08 August 2020, 07:19 iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 introduced a slew of features that prevent privacy-invasive apps from having a free run on your iPhone or iPad. But they dont do much to protect you against unscrupulous site trackers, insecure network connections, or sketchy internet service providers. That is where a VPN can prove to be a life-saver. VPN, short for virtual private network, provides a secure connection that helps preserve your privacy and anonymity on the internet. While that alone is reason enough to start using a VPN, you also receive a host of other additional benefits. Here are the top reasons to use a VPN on your iPhone or iPad. 1. Preserve Your Privacy Websites and apps love nothing more than to track you online. iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 do let you restrict apps and third-party cookies (in Safari) from doing that to a certain extent, but you are still left widely exposed. When you connect to a VPN on the iPhone or iPad, however, you get to mask your real IP (internet protocol) address, preventing trackers from profiling you based on your location. Instead, all they can see is a static or dynamic IP assigned to you by your VPN from a region that could be hundreds or thousands of miles away. Of course trackers can still use alternative means to keep a bead on you (with cookies, fingerprinting, and so on), but masking your IP should make things a lot tougher. Certain VPNs also let you quickly switch servers (which also changes the IP address) to further throw off trackers. Aside from that, you also get to avoid being tracked by your ISP. Since you are on a private network with a masked IP, your ISP will find it impossible to match you with your browsing activity. It may know that you use a VPN, but nothing else. 2. Protect Personal Information Most VPNs scramble your browsing activity with secure encryption protocols (such as OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPsec), making it next to impossible for hackers and snoopers to read your online activity. This holds true especially when it comes to public Wi-Fi networks, most of which are completely unsafe and ripe for exploitation. Activities such as shopping or banking on these networks can put sensitive data such as login credentials and credit card information at risk. If you go out and about regularly, its vital that you use a VPN on your iPhone or iPad and have your data encrypted at all times. 3. Block Advertisements Since websites have a hard time tracking you with a VPN around, you will experience a drastic reduction in targeted advertisements. But certain VPN services also feature ad-blocking capabilities that can completely stop ads from loading to your iPhone or iPad. This also extends to apps that you download off the App Store. Sure advertising revenue helps pay bills. But certain sites and apps abuse that to a great degree with constant (and often misleading) ads that can put your privacy at risk. Only Safari features native support for content blockers on the iPhone and iPad, so using a VPN that supports ad-blocking can also allow for improved performance on third-party browsers such as Google Chrome. 4. Access Geo-restricted Content Certain websites and streaming services are region-specific, as in you cannot access them from elsewhere for instance, Hulu is only available in the USA and Japan. This could be a huge issue if you travel around a lot. Thankfully, you can bypass geo-blocking rather easily via a VPN by connecting to a server within a supported region. However, streaming high definition video over a VPN can result in lags and delays. If this is your only reason for using a VPN on your iPhone or iPad, you may want to look for a service that prioritizes performance over privacy. 5. Bypass Internet Censorship Do you live in (or frequent to) a country with internet censorship? A VPN can help you unblock websites and apps easily. But a word to the warning; using VPNs in certain countries can be considered illegal and get you into serious trouble, so look up the local laws before you go ahead. 6. Avoid Bandwidth Throttling Despite not relaying this information publicly, some ISPs will throttle your bandwidth based on browsing activity. They may do this to alleviate network congestion in peak times, or it could merely be an attempt to push you into upgrading to a faster package. With a VPN, your browsing activity stays private and encrypted. This makes it impossible for your ISP to detect and put the brakes by monitoring what you do on your iPhone or iPad, be it streaming Netflix or playing PUBG. 7. Get Better Deals A VPN lets you avoid price discrimination. Websites often make use of smart algorithms to display different prices for products and services by region or country to generate the most revenue. This may or may not work all the time, but its possible to get better deals (say airline tickets) by connecting and accessing a website from a VPN server situated in another location. Just dont expect any huge savings. If you are now convinced about VPNs, you should now check out the best VPN apps for iPhone and Mac. Bottom Line VPNs arent the silver bullet to all privacy-related issues on the iPhone and iPad, but as you just saw, they do bring multiple advantages to the table and make accessing the internet a whole lot safer and convenient in general. Do note that even if you use a VPN, there are some security tips that you should follow when using a public Wi-Fi network on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Before opting for a VPN service, however, make sure to do the necessary homework by checking up on reviews and customer ratings a crummy VPN provider can do more harm than good. Furthermore, make sure to use a paid VPN with free VPN services, you never know how they process (and what they subsequently do) with your personal data. Once you have made up your mind on getting a VPN subscription, check out our roundup of the best VPN deals to get the most bang for your buck. The error, coming just days after Trump mispronounced Yosemite National Park's name as Yo Semites, resulted in much mockery and mirth on social media. US president Donald Trump, speaking at a Whirlpool factory in Clyde, Ohio, sent Twitter into a frenzy after mispronouncing Thailand as 'Thighland'. According to a report in Metro.co.uk, Trump said that in 2017, Whirlpool won relief from the ITC (US International Trade Commission), before going on to add that competitors shifted production to "Thighland" and Vietnam. Trump quickly repeated himself to correct the pronunciation of Thailand, adding, "Two places that I like their leaders very much do they take advantage of the United States? Not so much anymore." Needless to say, the error, coming just days after Trump mispronounced Yosemite National Park's name as Yo Semites, resulted in much mockery and mirth on social media. The last time Trump went to Thighland, it cost him $130,000. Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) August 6, 2020 CNN contributor Paul Begala tweeted, "Thighland is the home of the Yo Semites." Another posted, "Good thing there wasn't a geography portion on that cognitive test." American journalist Dave Weigel wrote: "A little afternoon trivia: The chief executive of Thighland is the Lord of the Thighs, not the prime minister." Thighland is just north of Kneecaragua. Pundamentalism (@Pundamentalism) August 6, 2020 Legendary journalist Dan Rather took to Twitter to slam Trump: When you see Thighland trending there are really only two options. An infomercial gone horribly wrong. Or the President of the United States. Come to think of it, arent those the same thing? Dan Rather (@DanRather) August 6, 2020 Trump has had a busy day, earlier launching a personal attack on Joe Biden and even questioning the former vice-president's faith in God. The US president claimed, Hes against God. Hes against guns. Hes against energy, our kind of energy. I dont think hes going to do too well in Ohio." Biden campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates responded by saying that Biden's faith is at the core of who he is and that "hes lived it with dignity his entire life, and its been a source of strength and comfort in times of extreme hardship. Illustration: Liu Rui/GT Days after former Australia prime minister Kevin Rudd warned in an article in the journal Foreign Affairs that the risk of a "hot war" between China and the US in the next three months was "especially high," Scott Morrison, the incumbent prime minister, said on Wednesday an armed conflict between the world's two largest powers is no longer inconceivable. Morrison also said building an Indo-Pacific alliance with like-minded nations will be a "critical priority" for his government, warning the pace of militarization in the region was unprecedented. Although the Morrison administration hinted at the likelihood of a potential China-US hot war, the situation is in fact viewed as an opportunity to promote the building of an Indo-Pacific alliance and to enhance the importance and presence of Australia in the Indo-Pacific region. How likely will a China-US hot war be? It's a question worth discussing. But a certain thing, as Morrison warned, is that the militarization in the Indo-Pacific region is accelerating. To be precise, the growing militarization in the region has begun since the US adopted the strategy of pivot to Asia. It has been quickened following the 2017 announcement of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy and the US repeated freedom of navigation military operations in the South China Sea. Australia itself has also been a contributing factor to the dangerous trend. Australia announced in early July that it would boost defense spending by 40 percent over the next 10 years and shift its military assets to focus on the Indo-Pacific region. Australia now vows to prioritize the building of an Indo-Pacific alliance, the core of which is to draw the US in. Therefore, to promote the implementation of the US' Indo-Pacific Strategy is of particular significance to Canberra. Australia is an important pillar of the Indo-Pacific Strategy. To implement the strategy, the US needs to enhance Australia's position in the Indo-Pacific region. This will bring Australia military, economic and political benefits. Besides, in terms of security, Australia needs the support of the US. Traditional European allies of the US are now gradually becoming alienated from Washington. Therefore Australia considers it a golden opportunity to cement a strong alliance with the US. The intensifying China-US competition also provides Australia a rare chance. The Trump administration is very different from its predecessors who sought engagement with China. The US now emphasizes decoupling with and containment against China. It gives Australia an opportunity to expand its regional clout and enhance its projection of power. The escalating regional militarization will have an adverse impact on regional stability, peace, economic integration and trade cooperation. It will also exert certain pressures on China. But it needs to be pointed out that the pressure is not necessarily unbearable for China. Kevin Rudd writes, "The once unthinkable outcome - actual armed conflict between the US and China - now appears possible for the first time since the end of the Korean War." China has never had any intention to provoke a military clash with any country. The US is the side to blame if the two countries really tragically slip into a hot war. One may ask: Why hasn't Australia, as an ally, persuaded the US to stop escalating regional tensions while signaling alarm? First, it's fair to say Australia is unable to influence the US. Second, Australia is quite an obedient ally of the US. It is more loyal than the UK and less independent than France. It dares not say "no" to the US as Germany did, and even cannot express its displeasure to the US as Japan did. Although both Rudd and Morrison warned of the risks of a possible China-US hot war, Canberra completely regards regional tensions as a speculative opportunity for its own gains and strategic ambitions. Australia has actually become an accomplice of the US to intensifying regional militarization and tension. The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Yu Jincui based on an interview with Yu Lei, chief research fellow at the Research Center for Pacific Island Countries, Liaocheng University and a research fellow at the Australian Studies Center at Beijing Foreign Studies University. The Biden campaign is working to define the vice presidential pick on its own terms. It has asked potential nominees to gather past footage of themselves so that they will be well-positioned to produce a slick introductory video of the pick, according to two people familiar with the request. Beyond that, the campaign has been trying to anticipate how each of the top contenders will fare and developing responses, according to a person familiar with the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The Delhi police have arrested an ex-employee of the Delhi Transport department for impersonating as a policeman and robbing people in the national capital. The man identified as Subhash Chander, is a resident of Loni in Ghaziabad and was on the prowl in Delhi looking for easy prey. His latest victim was a zomato delivery boy who was robbed of his mobile phone. However, the delivery boy managed to give the fraudster a slip just as he was trying to force him to withdraw cash from an ATM. The incident was reported on July 23 at IP Estate in Central Delhi. Aman who works for the food delivery App Zomato told police that after delivering food at Pandav Nagar he was returning via DDU Marg on his bike. He was stopped by a man in police uniform who was in an Auto. The police impersonator threatened legal action for rash and negligent driving and demanded Rs 8000 as fine. When the delivery boy expressed his inability to pay the fine the fraudster forced him to sit in the Auto and asked to withdraw the amount from an ATM. He also threatened that if the fine was not paid he would be implicated in a case. On reaching Connaught Place the impersonator sent him to the ICICI ATM to withdraw the money. Finding an opportunity, the delivery boy fled from the spot and managed to reach DDU Marg where his bike was parked. However his mobile phone was taken away by the accused. The Delhi police launched a manhunt for the accused and he was arrested from Loni in Ghaziabad. "During the interrogation, accused Subhash Chander disclosed that he used to work in Delhi Transport Department and was dismissed in 2005 on corruption charges. After dismissal there has no work to sustain his family. He started extorting and cheating people posing either as a Delhi Transport official or a Delhi Police official. He has committed several incidents in the area. The uniform which he was wearing at the time of incident was also recovered from his house," said Sanjay Bhatia, DCP Central. The Karnataka government on Saturday announced that it would provide aid of 5 lakh per family to those people whose houses had been destroyed up to 75 per cent by the heavy rains and flood-like situation affecting large parts of the state. It also said that 3 lakh would be provided to those people whose houses had been damaged by less than 50 per cent. Assistance of 10,000 per family would be provided to people whose household goods have either been lost or damaged due to the rains. Heavy rain continued to batter the coastal Karnataka districts of Udupi, Mangalore, Uttara Kannada as well as some of the northern districts of the state. Several major rivers continued to be in spate. However, the situation was a little better in Kodagu which has borne the brunt of very heavy rainfall. With the weather improving a little, an NDRF team finally managed to extract the body of Swami Ananda Teertha the brother of the chief priest at the temple of Talacauvery. However, four more bodies including that of the chief priest Narayan Achar, his wife, and two assistants are still missing after landslides in the Brahmagiri hills swept away the house in which they lived. One more person died in Chikamagalur district today taking the total number of people who have died due to the heavy rains in the state to four with four more people still unaccounted for. A political controversy broke out over the proposed move by the state government to open more liquor outlets in rural areas of the state and also permit the online sale of liquor. Former CM and JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy hit out at the proposed move saying After faltering in mopping up revenue the state government is mulling over allowing door delivery of liquor by enabling online sales besides starting new MSIL shops in rural areas. I demand that the state government drop its plans. The government should back out from taking such a foolish decision. Otherwise, agitation is inevitable, he warned. Kumaraswamy said that the opening of new liquor shops in times of distress will spoil the societys health. He also said that it is not fair for the government to fill its coffers by robbing peoples money like this. However, Deputy CM C N Ashwath Narayan accused opposition parties of playing politics even during floods and the Covid-19 pandemic. He said that they should play a constructive role. A senior government official, who did not want to be identified, as he is not authorized to speak to the media said, The excise commissioner has only held consultations on opening more stores and allowing online sales of liquor. No final decision has been taken yet, in this regard, and therefore any further comment on this might be premature. Could this be the a sign of things to come - closed shutters covering the windows at Blarney Post Office on a permanent, rather than nightly basis? Use it or lose it. Thats the unequivocal message from Blarney community activist and local businesswoman Kate Durrant, who has warned that the local post office is in imminent danger of closing its doors for good. The post office is currently under temporary management with An Post warning that it faces the possibility of closure unless a permanent manager can be found. An Post has said it is trying really hard to maintain the local service and has been searching for some time for a person to take on the vacant contract to provide post office services to the people of Blarney. We have advertised the vacancy on a number of occasions, have canvassed locally and negotiated for the post office to be taken over on a temporary basis until we found a replacement. But there is the possibility that if we cannot come up with that replacement then the post office could close, warned the company. Our hope is that someone comes forward even at this stage and we can work towards maintaining the local service and building a new business there, they added. Ms Durrant said that it was up to the people of the area to make use of the many and varied services at the post office, thereby making it a viable proposition for any potential new manager. If we learnt nothing else during the pandemic it was how important our local businesses are and none more so than our local post office, and our fabulous postmen and women who became extra eyes, ears and legs for our most vulnerable citizens while they cocooned at home, said Ms Durrant. We have a short time before the decision is made, so please drop into Blarney Post Office and pay a bill, buy some stamps or use one of their many other services as if we lose the village post office it is unlikely we will ever get it back. The bottom line here is that if we as a community do not use the post office more frequently, we will lose it, she added. Concerns about the future of the post office have also been raised by local county councillor Damien Boylan. I would hate to think that this vital part of village life, a lifeline for many of our older and more vulnerable citizens, would go. My genuine fear is that if it does close we may never have a post office in Blarney again as has been the case in so many small towns and villages throughout Ireland, said Cllr Boylan. Post Offices provide a crucial services for the many people who prefer to deal face-to-face rather than using technology and I will do everything in my power to ensure we keep a post office in Blarney, he added. Anyone interested in talking to An Post about this business opportunity and providing post office services to the people of Blarney should contact An Post Operations Manager Pat Cremin at pat.cremin@anpost.ie. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8, 2020 09:06 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c72e30 1 World Indonesia,Malaysia,death-penalty,marijuana Free Five Indonesian citizens in Malaysia are facing a possible death penalty for their alleged involvement in the smuggling of 230 kilograms of marijuana, the Foreign Ministry has said. The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (APMM) arrested the five onboard two wooden boats carrying the cannabis in waters off Langkawi on July 25, according to the ministry's director for citizen protection, Judha Nugraha. They were charged for violating Section 39b of Malaysias 1952 Dangerous Drugs Act. "Section 39b carries the death penalty, and thus our mission [in Malaysia] will provide legal assistance for the five Indonesian nationals through our embassy's lawyers," Judha said on Friday. The Indonesian Consulate General in Penang had been notified of the arrest on July 27 and had written to the APMM on the same day to seek consular access to the detained Indonesians, he said. Citing information from the APMM, Judha said the five Indonesians were currently undergoing a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. "We are hoping that the Indonesian Consulate General in Penang can immediately get consular access [to the detained citizens]," he added. (afr) Farmville detainees report that they have been pepper sprayed and fired at with a noise-distracting round in response to their protests on the spread of the coronavirus inside the facility, Thompson wrote. This is dangerous, as the use of irritants such as pepper spray can induce coughing, increasing a persons chance of catching a respiratory illness such as COVID. Industrial Asphalts to assist in coating roads View(s): Increased investments in highways and roads related infrastructure by the state is opening up opportunities for the oldest bitumen-producing company in the country. In a bid to participate in the nations infrastructure revival, Industrial Asphalts (Ceylon) PLC (IAC), an investment holding company and originally specialised in manufacture and distribution of specialised bituminous products, distribution of a range of surface coatings and marketing of industrial chemicals is to raise Rs. 150 million via a Rights Issue to expand its business. The Board of Directors has resolved to issue almost 750 million shares at 20 cents each, which incidentally was the last traded price. Net asset value per share is Rs. 825.32 as at 31 December 2019. The companys stated capital is Rs. 6.6 million. Major shareholder of Industrial Asphalts (Ceylon) (IAC) cum Managing Director G. Ramanan told the Business Times that the company realigned itself to the road construction sector from its earlier focus in protective coating sector (weather proofing). In 2017, with the softening of the economy we pulled back from this side of the business and concentrated on bitumen roads which are more commonly known as tarring roads. We unlocked the full value in our expertise in the roadside of the business. We hope to keep an eye to expand the coating sector as the demand improves with the rise of the economy, he explained. The company said the proceeds of the Rights Issue are to finance the working capital requirements to support the expansion of core activities. Mr. Ramanan said that the consumption will increase after government investment in infrastructure. This will be about two to three years into the future where an infrastructure driven stimulus package will increase the consumption levels. The government has big plans to revive roads not only in highways and expressways but also the widening of narrow roads and expanding single lane roads to double lane ones. (DEC) Daniel Kaluuya stars as Fred Hampton Jr in Judas And The Black Messiah (Image by Warner Bros) Judas And The Black Messiah director Shaka King has launched a staunch defence of casting British actor Daniel Kaluuya as Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton. During a virtual panel to mark the release of Judas And The Black Messiahs incredible trailer, King told Variety, Im well aware of the debate around British actors playing American Black, iconic figures. But I was born in America, my family is Caribbean and I have a South African name so I am, literally, emblematic of a diasporic way of thinking. Kidnapped Africans ended up all around the world. We have a lot more in common than people think, in terms of our experience and trying to overthrow white supremacy. Over the last few years various individuals, including Samuel L Jackson, criticised the casting of Kaluuya in Get Out and Cynthia Erivo in Harriet, both of whom earned Oscar nominations for their performances. David Oyelowos casting as civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in Selma was also attacked, too. But Shaka believes that the international ideology of the Black Panthers means that no-one should have an issue with their decision to cast Kaluuya in the leading role. Shaka King accepts the "Someone to Watch" Award from Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola at the 2014 Film Independent Filmmaker Grant And Spirit Awards. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images) The Panthers, ideologically, were very international. So I cant imagine there would be an objection. Maybe there would be, but I didnt go into this thinking there would be. Read more: 'Queen & Slim' actor Daniel Kaluuya reveals worst first date It also helps that Hamptons son Fred Hampton Jr was on set every day to make sure that Judas And The Black Messiah did justice to both Hamptons and the Black Panthers legacy. As well as Kaluuya, Judas And The Black Messiah also stars Lakeith Stanfield as William ONeal, the undercover FBI informant who worked against Hampton. Judas And The Black Messiah will be released in 2021. Anti-government protesters in Bulgaria have restored their traffic blockades in downtown Sofia, less than a day after they were removed by police. Some 5,000 protesters gathered in the capital for a 30th consecutive evening on August 7, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's conservative government over corruption. The protesters had occupied three major crossroads in downtown Sofia since July 29 and August 1 as part of the biggest protest wave in years in the EU's poorest country. Blockades had also been set up in Plovdiv and the Black Sea port of Varna, severely disrupting traffic. Police moved to remove the protesters tents on August 7 and warned that no more blockades would be tolerated. However, demonstrators in Sofia set up fresh tent camps at three major crossroads overnight, buttressing them with cordons of large garbage containers, park benches, and concrete street flowerpots. Despite their earlier warning, police didnt intervene. Protesters accuse both the government and the chief prosecutor of protectionism and dependence on behind-the-scenes oligarchs. Borisov on August 5 suggested he might take a back seat as prime minister to keep his government in power until its mandate expires in March 2021, but the government coalition decided the next day that Borisov should keep his post. Latest polls showed severely dented support for Borisov and his conservative GERB party. Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, remains its poorest and most corrupt member, according to Transparency International's corruption perception index. Based on reporting by AFP and dpa The death toll from Tuesday's catastrophic explosion at the port of Beirut has risen to 158, the Lebanese health ministry media office said on Saturday, News24 informs. According to News24, the number of people injured exceeds 6 000 and 21 are still reported missing. Riot police fired tear gas at demonstrators trying to break through a barrier to get to the parliament building in Beirut on Saturday during a protest over the government's handling of this week's devastating explosion in the city. Civil aviation ministrys investigation agency, Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), has recovered digital flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the Air India plane that crashed in Kozhikode, Kerala on Friday evening. The recovered components, that make up the black box of the aircraft, will help investigators figure out what prevented the Boeing Co. 737 from making a landing on Friday. The equipment will be brought to Delhi for further investigation. At least 18 people, including the pilot and the co-pilot of the plane, have been killed as Air India Express flight IX 1344 overshot the runway at Keralas Kozhikode airport and fell into a valley, breaking into two. The flight was bringing Indians stranded in Dubai amid Covid-19 pandemic under the governments Vande Bharat Mission. Also read: 18 dead, hundreds injured in AI Express plane crash - What all we know Digital Flight Data Recorder & Cockpit Voice Recorder of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved. AAIB is conducting investigations. pic.twitter.com/WCOPV5ETTf Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) August 8, 2020 The accident took place at around 7:41 pm on Friday when the Air India flight from Dubai was making a descent and preparing for landing with 190 passengers and plane crew on board. The Union civil aviation ministry and the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will hold an urgent meeting with Air India officials over the incident on Saturday at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union minister Amit Shah, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri, among many other leaders and politicians expressed grief over the accident. United Nations specialised aviation agency, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), also regretted the accident. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON With November's United Nations climate talks cancelled, green-leaning world leaders will be hoping the Australian government uses the downtime to rethink its controversial climate policies. The 26th session of the Conference of the Parties, or COP26, was set to be held in Glasgow in November but has been pushed to next year due to the pandemic. A previous COP developed the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the international pressure countries exert on each other through it continues to have a significant impact on domestic policies, including in Australia. International pressure on Australia is not expected to ease, despite the 12 month delay to international climate talks in Glasgow. Credit:Jonathan Carroll Australia's former top climate diplomat, Howard Bamsey, who led negotiations at a number of COPs, says despite the pandemics disruption to the Glasgow forum, the British government will continue to pressure Australia and other countries to increase their efforts on greenhouse gas emissions reduction. If the Prime Minister hasnt heard from [his British counterpart] Boris Johnson yet, he certainly will, says Bamsey, who is adjunct professor at Australian National Universitys School of Regulation and Global Governance, and was previously Australias special envoy on climate change. Technavio has been monitoring the document capture software market and it is poised to grow by 3.58 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 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/20200807005379/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Document Capture Software Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Although the COVID-19 pandemic continues to transform the growth of various industries, the immediate impact of the outbreak is varied. While a few industries will register a drop in demand, numerous others will continue to remain unscathed and show promising growth opportunities. Technavio's in-depth research has all your needs covered as our research reports include all foreseeable market scenarios, including pre- post-COVID-19 analysis. Download a Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impacts Frequently Asked Questions: At what rate is the market projected to grow? The year-over-year growth for 2020 is estimated at 11.34% and the incremental growth of the market is anticipated to be 3.58 bn during the forecast period. The year-over-year growth for 2020 is estimated at 11.34% and the incremental growth of the market is anticipated to be 3.58 bn during the forecast period. Who are the top players in the market? ABBYY Solutions Ltd., Adobe Inc., Canon Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Kofax Inc., Oracle Corp., Parashift AG, Rossum Ltd., Seiko Epson Corp., and Xerox Corp. are some of the major market participants ABBYY Solutions Ltd., Adobe Inc., Canon Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Kofax Inc., Oracle Corp., Parashift AG, Rossum Ltd., Seiko Epson Corp., and Xerox Corp. are some of the major market participants What are the key market drivers and challenges? The growing use of big data analytics is the major factor driving the market. However, risks of data theft and cyber attacks might hamper the market growth. The growing use of big data analytics is the major factor driving the market. However, risks of data theft and cyber attacks might hamper the market growth. How big is the North American market? The North American region will contribute 31% of the market share The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. ABBYY Solutions Ltd., Adobe Inc., Canon Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Kofax Inc., Oracle Corp., Parashift AG, Rossum Ltd., Seiko Epson Corp., and Xerox Corp. 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. Buy 1 Technavio report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 Technavio reports and get the third for free. View market snapshot before purchasing The growing use of big data analytics has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, risks of data theft and cyber attacks might hamper the market growth. Technavio's custom research reports offer detailed insights on the impact of COVID-19 at an industry level, a regional level, and subsequent supply chain operations. This customized report will also help clients keep up with new product launches in direct indirect COVID-19 related markets, upcoming vaccines and pipeline analysis, and significant developments in vendor operations and government regulations. Document Capture Software Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Document Capture Software Market is segmented as below: End-user BFSI Healthcare Government Legal Others 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=IRTNTR43116 Document Capture Software 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. The document capture software market report covers the following areas: Document Capture Software Market Size Document Capture Software Market Trends Document Capture Software Market Industry Analysis This study identifies the use of mobile-based data capture software as one of the prime reasons driving the document capture software market growth during the next few years. Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Technavio's in-depth research has direct and indirect COVID-19 impacted market research reports. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Document Capture Software Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist document capture software market growth during the next five years Estimation of the document capture software market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the document capture software market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of document capture software market, vendors Table of Contents: Executive Summary Market Landscape Market ecosystem Market characteristics Value chain analysis Market Sizing Market definition Market segment analysis Market size 2019 Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 2024 Five Forces Analysis Five forces summary Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition Market Segmentation by End-user Market segments Comparison by End-user BFSI Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Healthcare Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Government Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Legal Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by End-user 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 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 ABBYY Solutions Ltd. Adobe Inc. Canon Inc. Dell Technologies Inc. Kofax Inc. Oracle Corp. Parashift AG Rossum Ltd. Seiko Epson Corp. Xerox Corp. 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 focuses 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/20200807005379/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/ Pm Narendra Modi welcomed by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanth on the day of Ram mandir Bhumi Pujan in Ayodhya. PTI photo Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party on Friday sought an apology from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his remark that he would not attend the inauguration of the mosque to be built in Ayodhya, replacing the demolished Babri Masjid. In an interview to a television channel Thursday, Adityanath said he couldn't go for the mosque inauguration as a yogi and as a Hindu. Reacting to the remark, the opposition SP said he should seek an apology from the people of the state. When contacted, a UP Congress spokesperson, however, refused to comment on the chief minister's remarks over the mosque. "If you ask me as a chief minister, I have no problem with any belief, religion or community. If you ask me as a yogi, I will definitely not go because as a Hindu I have the right to express my 'upasana vidhi' (way of worship) and act accordingly," Adityanath had said. "I am neither 'vaadi or prativadi' (petitioner nor respondent). That is why neither will I be invited, nor will I go. I know, I won't be getting any such invitation, he said. The day they invite me, secularism of many will be in danger. That's why I want that their secularism should not be in danger and I continue to silently work to ensure that everyone benefits from government scheme without any discrimination," he said. He claimed that the Congress never wanted a solution to the dispute. They wanted the dispute to continue for their political benefit." "Attending roza-iftar with a skull cap is not secularism. People also know that this is drama. People know the reality," the CM said. SP spokesperson Pawan Pandey criticised Adityanath over his remarks, charging that he has violated the oath he took while assuming charge as the chief minister. He is the CM of the entire state, and not only of the Hindu community. Whatever the population of Hindus and Muslims in the state, he is the CM of all. This language of the CM lacks dignity, he said. He should seek an apology from the people for this," Pandey said. UP Congress media cell convenor Lalan Kumar said, "We don't have any comments on his mosque statement." But he credited the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for opening the locks on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid. Referring to the ruling BJP, the Congress spokesperson said, They play politics of fake Hindutva. The Congress has always talked about whatever is in the interest of people. Lord Ram is everyone's, but the BJP wants to show that Ram is theirs alone, he added. Yogi Adityanath had attended the groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for a Ram temple in Ayodhya, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the main guest. Last November, the Supreme Court had settled the Ayodhya land dispute, allowing the construction of the temple at Ram Janmabhoomi by a trust. The apex court had also ordered the allocation of a five-acre plot of land elsewhere in Ayodhya for the construction of a mosque, in place of the Babri Masjid which was demolished by kar sevaks' in 1992. A trust has been formed by the Sunni Waqf Board for building this mosque. The 18-day-old strike at Renault in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, Parana, against the dismissal of 747 worker is facing the threat of being sold out in a deal between the union and the company. The struggle, involving thousands of workers and their families in assemblies, picket lines and street protests, is under threat of being shut down with an agreement that validates the slashing of jobs. On Wednesday, a decision by the Labor Justice of Parana declared the layoffs at Renault illegal for being decided outside of a negotiation with the Metalworkers Union of Great Curitiba (SMC), and ordered the immediate rehiring of those fired. The Brazilian trade union federations and pseudo-left parties supporting them celebrated this decision as a victory for the workers at Renault. So did the SMC, as it rushed to set up a new round of negotiations with the company in order to get an agreement between the parties, no matter what the agreement is, in the words of the unions president Sergio Butka. We have a meeting scheduled [for Friday] to discuss a middle ground, which is important for the company, important for the workers, important for Parana, said Butka. Lets go back to the negotiations table, lets discuss the PDV (Voluntary Resignation Plan), lets discuss the PLR (Participation in Profits and Results), lets discuss competitiveness. The conditions that the union says it is negotiating are not a middle ground, but the companys terms presented in a sweetened form that can be sold to the workers as some kind of victory. Their aim is to to break the resistance that has grown over the last 18 days. In a video recorded on a picket line last Friday, the workers demonstrated their willingness to confront even violent police repression to defend their strike. The police are right over there. They are just waiting to beat up the workers, all of us injured workers, says the worker who was filming. Were going to keep recording to see when theyre going to advance towards the workers... Its not the union thats blocking the gate, its the workers. One of the main sources of the workers anger is the conditions under which the layoffs took place, targeting employees removed from job due to illness or injuries suffered at work. The wife of one of the fired workers, who is part of a group of wives who actively support the strike, told the World Socialist Web Site that the workers feel they have been worn out and discarded by Renault. [My husband] has injuries on both knees, both shoulders, his right ankle, right elbow and two spinal injuries, she said. He has always been healthy, and suffered all these injuries working there. Now he has to take medicine even to sleep. The feeling is that the company has taken advantage of the fragile moment of this pandemic to perform this cruelty. But the population understood this as wrong and the workers vote was 100 percent in favor of the strike. Many of those fired were off the job because of suspicions that they were infected with COVID-19. Its very sad because several were at home awaiting results, so the COVID positives may be greater than we know, she said. She added that despite the infections among its workers, the factory continued to operate normally until the strike broke out. Because of the large number of people, the contagion is inevitable. Several sectors [in the plant] have suspicious cases. The workers are afraid for their families at home, but they have to go to work and end up exposing themselves. Without being able to bypass the immense opposition that has arisen, from not only from those fired, but also their more than 7,000 colleagues, the union is trying to divert it to serve the companys interests. You are on strike because of the way the 747 left the factory, without any respect, without any care for human rights,v the unions spokesperson declared on its Wednesdays live stream. Of course, it is a prerogative of the company that hires us to terminate our contract, as long as it is done in a humane way. There is a way that it can be done. The jobs that Renault is seeking to destroy are jobs that wont come back. Regardless of the bonuses that are offered to each dismissed worker, they are going to be added to the army of unemployed, in which half of Brazilians are already enlisted, and which is growing rapidly around the globe. Clearly exposing the foundations of the SMCs policy, a union official declared at a rally at the factory gate on Thursday: vWe need Renault. Renault is a great company, a great brand and we want Renault in Brazil... We are not against capital, we are not against the businessmen. The open obsession of the Metalworkers Union of the Great Curitiba is to guarantee the productivity and competitiveness of the companies for which it operates. Such interests not only fail to correspond with those of the working class, they are actively hostile to them. Over the last ten years, Renault has broken sales records in Brazil, jumping from a national market share of 4.8 percent in 2010 to over 10 percent in 2019. These achievements, which the SMC calls their own, were obtained, on the one hand, through super-exploitation on the production lines, expressed in the large number of injured workers. On the other hand, they are owed to the substantial state incentives granted to Renault by the Competitive Parana program, which diverts public money from services needed by the working class to the coffers of billionaire shareholders. For Renault to continue, says the SMC to the workers, it needs more: new governmental incentives and new concessions from them, the slashing of jobs or valternatives that the company can use before simply dismissing. The crisis facing Renault workers today reflects the transformation of the nature of trade unions over the past decades, connected to the globalization of the capitalist productive process. The revolutionary development of information and transport technologies has allowed companies like Renault-Nissan to establish themselves as transnational corporations, operating through interconnected global supply chains, exploiting the workforce across national borders. Under these conditions, trade unions have ceased to defend even the minimum interests of the working class. In the globalized economy, the nationalist trade unions fight to attract the transnational corporations to their countries or regions, offering more competitive conditions, that is, cheaper labor. Workers must draw the necessary conclusions and adopt a program that corresponds to the objective conditions. The attacks on workers in Parana are only a part of a global plan of Renault-Nissan to destroy jobs in every country in which they operate. After receiving a 5 billion euro bailout from the French government, Renault announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide, 4,600 of them in France. And Nissan declared its intention to cut 20,000 jobs. Unlike the unions, the working class is not divided by national interests. Against the global restructuring plans of the transnational corporations, workers need to advance an international strategy of struggle. They must join their colleagues in other countries to fight for the maintenance of all jobs, decent wages and safe working conditions during the pandemic. Renault workers in Brazil have been harassed by supposedly international unions, such as Industriall and the United Auto Workers (UAW), feigning international support for their struggle. These organizations, which are fleeing the explosive revolts of the working class thousands of miles away, have direct links with European and American imperialist states. The global unification of the working class will not happen through these organizations; on the contrary. They are in Brazil only as police agents of transnational capital, seeking to contain the explosion of international class struggle. Workers need to create new politically independent organizations, rank-and-file factory committees. Through them, they will be able to appeal directly to their international colleagues, making extensive use of social media and the internet. The International Committee of the Fourth International, which publishes the World Socialist Web Site, is the only force committed to developing a strategy for this international struggle, with the perspective of transferring political power to the working class. KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools is looking to fill 160 open positions, everything from full-time teachers to bus drivers and support staff. District officials said there's been a teacher shortage for a few years running now, but they admit health uncertainties triggered by the coronavirus are exacerbating the situation. France is expected to demand 30million to help stem the flow of migrants across the Channel after 151 made the journey in the last 24 hours - as a former Royal Marine is tasked with heading negotiations. Britain's home secretary Priti Patel has teamed up with the defence secretary Ben Wallace to form a plan for tackling the migrant crisis in the UK. A source told The Telegraph French officials have asked the UK to pay 30million towards more beach patrols. Some 532 people have reached Dover after setting out in small boats and dinghies since Thursday - when a record-breaking 235 arrived in 17 vessels in one day. As a former Royal Marines Commando who served in Iraq and Kosovo, it is hoped Dan O'Mahoney can stop organised gangs smuggling people across the channel from Calais. Ms Patel said on Saturday night: 'The number of illegal small boat crossings is appalling. 'We are working to make this route unviable and we are arresting the criminals facilitating these crossings and making sure they are brought to justice.' A group of migrants attempting to cross the channel in a dinghy were picked up by the National Gendarmerie and taken back to Calais today A toddler (pictured) was carried to safety by the Border Force as officials work around the clock amid a sharp rise in the number of people making the treacherous journey Other images showed a suspected migrant being pushed along in a wheelchair by officials in Dover Four men, some using shovels as paddles, use a small dinghy to cross the English Channel on August 7 Mr O'Mahoney will take on the role of 'clandestine Channel threat commander'. He said: 'This role is vitally important in the fight to end the heinous crime of people smuggling across the Channel.' The recent heatwave and calm seas have encouraged more boats than ever to cross the vast 84km expanse of water. A wheelchair user, a pregnant woman, unaccompanied children and a newborn baby were among the latest to arrive this week. Under new plans Royal Navy and Border Force vessels would pick up migrants and take them to Dunkirk, northern France, rather than offering refuge in the UK. The idea will be presented to the French government in Paris on Tuesday. The youngster was carried from a boat containing at least six others. There appeared to be other young children on board Border Force officers escort a group of men - believed to be migrants - all wearing protective face masks in Dover Border Force vessel brings a group of people - including children - thought to be migrants into the port city of Dover Britain has so far paid more than 100million to fund the French response to the migrant crisis. In 2015, the UK paid 10 million towards security reviews and reducing the number of migrants waiting to cross. Another 17 million was paid in 2016, 36 million in 2017, 45 million in 2018, 3.25 million in 2019 and 2.25 million this year up until March. It comes as more than 4,000 migrants have already made the crossing to the UK so far this year - more than double the total for 2019. Officials are already disagreeing over whether millions more should be paid to help tackle the growing issue. Tim Loughton MP, the senior Conservative member of the Home Affairs select Committee which monitors immigration for Parliament, told the newspaper: 'It is pretty rich for the French to be demanding yet more money from UK taxpayers to deal with a problem that they have singularly failed to deal with on their own territory.' Border Force officer escorts a young family thought to be migrants from a Border Force vessel in Doveron Friday A tiny baby was spotted on Thursday morning arriving in Dover with its family after crossing the Channel in a dinghy - carried in what appears to be a gym bag Migrants were photographed using shovels to paddle their boats (pictured) and some have used paddling pools instead of proper vessels Meanwhile, a senior French government official blasted the accusation as a 'fantasy'. They said: 'The simple fact is that a huge amount of work is successfully being put into stopping these crossings.' Mr Wallace has agreed to tell advisers to put together a military response that could include using Archer class fast patrol boats off the south coast. US-made P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft, drones and helicopters could also spot migrants from the French coast so they can be intercepted by UK vessels. The plan will be presented by Chris Philp, the Minister for Immigration Compliance, at a meeting with French interior minister Gerald Darmanin. The group of weary migrants attempted to cross the channel by dinghy. They are pictured being escorted back to France The National Gendarmerie escorted the migrants back to France after they tried to cross the channel In a statement, the MoD said: 'We are assessing the requirement using the formal Military Aid to the Civilian Authorities process and are working hard to identify how we can most effectively assist. 'As ever the MoD will do all it can to support HMG requirements.' Pictures today emerged of a toddler being carried to safety by the Border Force from a boat containing at least six others. There appeared to be other young children on board the vessel as it docked in Dover. Other images showed a migrant being pushed along in a wheelchair by officials in Dover. On current trends, around 7,500 migrants will cross the Channel by the end of the year, according to an analysis of official figures by Migrationwatch. This would be nearly four times the 1,892 that entered the UK via the crossing in the whole of 2019, the campaign group projected. Almost 4,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year. Pictured: Children are picked up by the Border Force vessel Hunter after being brought into Dover, Kent on small boats crossing the English Channel on Friday Kent county council has seen more than 500 unaccompanied child migrants, 23 of which came in on Thursday alone. Council leader Roger Gough told The Times: 'Numbers started picking up last year with young people coming through in lorries. Then with the shutdown and disruption to freight channels, there was much more reliance on boats. 'We do not want a situation when there are adults in a setting with children and young people. Immigration still too high poll More than half of Britons think immigration is still too high despite years of Tory promises to bring it down, a study said yesterday. It warned Boris Johnson that if his points-based immigration system allows a wave of mass immigration, then voters will turn against him. The study from the Migration Watch UK think-tank said most recent polling found that 54 per cent think immigration has been too high over the past decade. Only 5 per cent think it has been too low. And more than six in ten said they believe the Government has been mishandling immigration policies. The analysis found that fears over the effects of large-scale immigration became a major concern after Tony Blair opened the doors to millions from both inside and outside the European Union. Worries declined after David Cameron came to power in 2010 promising to cut immigration back to 1990s levels and subsided further after the 2016 Brexit referendum. The report said: 'Most continue to have strong views about a perceived lack of effective immigration control.' Advertisement Ministers are said to be considering using Australia's 'push back' method - a tactic used to stop illegal migrants arriving from Indonesia - according to sources. It would involve using the navy to intercept migrant boats in the channel. But some are concerned that such drastic interventions could lead to drownings - with some questioning whether the move would be legal in the first place. One source in the Defence Ministry said it was 'completely potty' to get the navy involved, The Times reported. One group of 14 migrants - including a heavily pregnant woman - managed to land on the Kent coast this morning and came ashore in the village of Kingsdown, near Deal. Officers were seen taking away possessions in evidence bags as the migrants sat on the pebbles looking tired after completing their journey. Two other groups reportedly landed at Folkestone and Deal while multiple boats were brought into Dover Marina on what is expected to be another busy day for Border Force officials. A second extra large customs cutter was drafted in to help deal with people making the treacherous 21-mile journey across the world's busiest shipping route. The Dover Lifeboat did not return to the marina until shortly before 8pm on Friday after being called out to more migrants in trouble at 4.30pm. Their first call out was at around 3.30am and the crew were back at sea at 9am today with crossings expected to continue until at least midday. It comes after more than 130 migrants were picked up in 13 small boats on Friday. On Thursday, 235 people landed or were brought ashore from boats in the English Channel, a record number for a single day. In some cases, makeshift flotation devices have been created out of household items. The fleet of dinghies included a a girl aged around eight, another around 10 as well as at least five large groups of adults in the Kent town A group of people thought to be migrants were escorted by Border Force staff into Dover A man was found with empty lemonade bottles strapped to his body just four miles off the French coast in a highly-dangerous bid to swim to Britain. In another shocking case, a group tried to get to the other side of the channel in a children's paddling pool while some have tried wooden boats or kayaks. Harrowing images of children wearing lifevests being picked up by the Border Force vessel Hunter after being brought into Dover, Kent, on a small boat emerged this week. Home Secretary Ms Patel has said the Royal Navy could be called in to prevent boats reaching UK waters, though other senior officials and politicians say that could be impractical and potentially dangerous. She tweeted: The number of illegal small boat crossings is appalling and unacceptably high. 'The figures are shameful. France and other EU states are safe countries. Genuine refugees should claim asylum there, not risk their lives and break the law by coming to the UK. Pictured: A swimmer crosses the English Channel as, in the background, a dinghy carrying migrants is escorted by French border police on Friday 'I am working to make this route unviable. This involves: Stopping the boats leaving France in the first place and intercepting boats and returning those attempting to make a crossing. 'This is complex to do and we face serious legislative, legal and operational barriers.' But Labour former home secretary Jack Straw said any move modelled on Australia's controversial 'push-back' approach could have deadly consequences. 'I don't think that just trying to push these people back is going to work and it will only take one of these dinghies to capsize and everybody to drown, which is perfectly feasible, for their to be a hullabaloo, including in the Conservative Party, and for the policy to have to be reversed, so I wouldn't go down that route,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Border Force chief Tony Smith said extra resources may not solve the problem as the Navy would 'be in the same boat as Border Force in terms of policy. The only powers we have are search and rescue and that is what we have been doing'. He said that dangerous crossings of the Channel by boat will continue without an agreement with the French to return migrants. Dover Tory MP Natalie Elphicke said it was 'absolutely essential' to stop the continued migrant crossings and said 'all options need to be on the table' to keep them from arriving from France, including the Navy He said smugglers are exploiting a 'loophole' in the law of the sea which obliges vessels to rescue people once they enter the waters of their jurisdiction. 'I think it can be overcome by bilateral agreements, we've done that before with the French. 'Once you're on the waterways the law of the sea kicks in and we haven't, without a bilateral agreement on instant returns or joint patrols with the French, which would enable us to safely return them to France to be processed, we're going to see I'm afraid continual numbers of this. 'And we need to find a way of breaking this circle and stopping the pull factor which is fuelling the smuggling supply chains.' Among Friday's illegal arrivals there was a group of 12 men in their 20s, who were on a small vessel that was intercepted by Border Force officers Former Royal Navy officer Rear Admiral Chris Parry said 'innovative solutions' like using unemployed passenger liners to re-route migrants are needed. He said: 'We don't have to take them back to dry land. There's any number of unemployed passenger liners on the south coast at the moment, they could actually be taken there for processing for medical assessment and then onward routing either back to France or to the United Kingdom. 'I think people need to understand that the old ways are just not cutting it at the moment and we need to apply innovative solutions.' But Mr Smith said: 'Once they are under our jurisdiction we will immediately face asylum claims. The number who have reached Britain so far this year is now already double the total who arrived in the whole of 2019 'Without that agreement from the French to actually interdict people on the high seas and take them back to France the message is getting back to the migrants and to the smugglers that this is the way in and that does create a huge pull factor. 'We could see something very similar to what we saw in the Mediterranean three or four years ago where the word will get out that all you need to do is get out on to the English Channel, you will be brought into the UK and it's very unlikely you'll be returned.' MP for Dover Natalie Elphicke said more needs to be done to stop the crossings. She said: 'Putting an end to the small boats crossings crisis will only happen when migrants and traffickers alike know that they won't succeed in breaking Britain in this way. 'For me that has three parts: firstly making sure that the boats don't leave France in the first place, if they do leave French shores that they're picked up early, and returned immediately to France and if people do break into our country and arrive on our shores that they are turned back to France.' A border force vessel brought the group into Dover today after 130 people made the perilous crossing on Friday Asked about speculation that Ms Patel was considering drafting in the Navy, Ms Elphicke said: 'There's some discussion about the Navy, and what I'd say is that as we've gone into this record number of people crossing over this year all options need to be on the table. 'But whoever it is that's involved what we must make sure is that boats are deployed not to bring people into this country but to return them to France and for the French to do more to make sure that those boats don't leave in the first place.' Ms Elphicke said the UK has an 'incredibly important' role in humanitarian and asylum issues around the world. She added: 'What I don't agree with is that we should be encouraging or allowing illegal people trafficking that actually preys on some of the most vulnerable people and puts them at risk of their very lives. 'What we've seen here in Kent, here in Dover and Deal, is we've seen an unacceptable situation of small boats actually arriving at the beaches, of people getting off those boats and roaming round the area and that's very, very worrying and concerning for local residents.' It comes as migrants crossing the Channel were seen using makeshift flotation devices including lemonade bottles to make the dangerous journey. UK ministers plead with France to get tough on Channel migrants amid warning that 7,500 could cross by Christmas UK ministers have pleaded with France to get tough on migrants crossing the Channel to Britain after figures suggest that 7,500 migrants could cross by Christmas. Almost 4,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year, according to analysis of Border Force figures. This is thought to be more than double the total for the whole of 2019 where fewer than 2,000 are believed to have arrived in the country. On current trends, around 7,500 migrants will cross the Channel by the end of the year, according to an analysis of official figures by Migrationwatch. This would be nearly four times the 1,892 that entered the UK via the crossing in the whole of 2019, the campaign group projected. Advertisement Migrants were photographed using shovels to paddle their boats and some have used paddling pools instead of proper vessels. Clare Moseley of the Care4Calais charity told The Times: 'The people who do not have money, and not everybody can pay people smugglers, are seeing others getting across and are getting more and more desperate that they will be left out. 'They try kayaks, wooden rowing boats. It is terrifying.' Lucy Moreton, professional officer of the Immigration Service Union, said: 'Prices for crossing have fallen but for some people an average price of around 4,000 per crossing per individual is too much.' Ms Elphicke's fellow local Tory MP Damian Collins said the number of migrants crossing the Channel is 'shamefully high' and 'unacceptable' for his constituents. Speaking on Channel 4 News, Mr Collins, who represents Folkestone and Hythe, said: 'It's good to have more observation at sea and more ships that can intervene if there's a problem, but having the Navy there doesn't mean we can suddenly intercept migrants in French territorial waters any more than we would let the French navy conduct operations within ours.' Mr Collins said: 'It's clearly unacceptable for my constituents and for other people on the south-east coast to think that our borders are open, that anyone can get in a small boat, whoever they are, and make their way to the UK illegally. 'Having the Navy in the Channel is great, but it won't solve the problem unless they can patrol French waters and at the moment there is no agreement that they can.' The Home Secretary's spokesman said the 'fantastic weather' was behind the surge despite ongoing efforts to prevent them while Immigration Minister Chris Philp said he shares 'the anger and frustration of the public' at the 'appalling number' of crossings. Mr Philp is to visit France next week to speak with counterparts following a 'constructive' meeting with the country's deputy ambassador earlier this week. The fleet of dinghies included a girl aged around eight, another about 10, as well as at least five large groups of adults in the Kent town. The children, some too young to walk, were picked up by the Border Force vessel Hunter and taken into a white tent at the marina at 12.15pm. Some of the adults - who appeared mainly to be men - carried their possessions in plastic bags before they were processed. REUTERS A federal appeals court has ruled that the House of Representatives can sue to compel Don McGahn, a former White House lawyer, to testify about Donald Trump's dealings with Russia. Mr McGahn can continue to challenge the ruling and is unlikely to have to testify anytime soon. It is unlikely he will testify prior to the 2020 US election. However, congressional Democrats view the ruling as a win, as it confirms that they can win in federal courts that have been packed by judges appointed by Mr Trump. Two Trump-appointed judges sitting on the appeals court Neomi Rao and Greg Katsas recused themselves from the case. The court's final ruling was 7-2. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that Mr McGahn's refusal to testify is grounds for the House to bring him to court. In the trial-court ruling of the McGahn case, the judge included in her opinion the phrase: "Presidents are not kings." The House Judiciary Committee has sought testimony from Mr McGahn since 2019. Democrats on the committee want to question him about the Mueller Investigation and possible obstructive actions Mr Trump took to derail the probe. Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, said the ruling undermined the "wall of impunity that President Trump has tried to build for himself". "And it reaffirms the core principle behind the Supreme Court's ruling last month: No one not even the President is above the law," Mr Nadler said. The US Justice Department which is representing Mr Trump and his administration opposed the appeals court's ruling. It argued that courts should stay out of battles that can be considered largely political and allow lawmakers and legislation to compel actions from the Trump administration. "While we strongly disagree with the standing ruling in McGahn, the en banc court properly recognised that we have additional threshold grounds for dismissal of both cases, and we intend to vigorously press those arguments before the panels hearing those cases," Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told CNN. Story continues The dissenting judges in the case Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson and Thomas Griffith argued that the ruling will only lead to more lawsuits in the future, and predicted that political parties will rush to litigation when they are in dispute rather than settling disagreements through politics. "The majority's ruling will supplant negotiation with litigation, making it harder for Congress to secure the information it needs," Judge Griffith wrote. Read more Pelosi warns Trump against holding election speech at White House She's known for her raunchy Instagram photos. And on Saturday, Rebecca Lobie turned up the heat as she relaxed on a beach wearing a skimpy one piece swimsuit. The 32-year-old slipped her curvaceous figure into a bright blue one piece with white trimming. 'Fun in the sun': Steve Irwin's 'hot niece' Rebecca Lobie (pictured) turned up the heat as she relaxed on a beach in a skimpy one piece swimsuit on Saturday, sharing an imagine to Instagram. Her swimsuit had a plunging neckline and showed off a glimpse of her side boob Her swimsuit featured a plunging neckline and showed off an ample glimpse of her side boob. In the caption, she added a palm tree, sun and heart emoji, along with the hashtags: '#weekendvibes,' '#funinthesun,' '#beach,' '#beachlife,' '#itsbeenawhile,' '#bringbacksummer,' and '#boutinelababe'. Rebecca rose to prominence in September last year after her racy Instagram photos caught the attention of the wider media. She's not shy: Rebecca rose to prominence in September last year after her racy Instagram photos caught the attention of the wider media In the months since, she has grown in confidence and has she shared revealing pictures of herself in skimpy swimwear and underwear. Earlier this week, she flaunted her ample bust in a daring red swimsuit that left little to the imagination. Rebecca explained that she hoped to send some good cheer to the Victorians stuck in stage four lockdown amid the COVID1-9 pandemic. Beach babe: Earlier this week, she flaunted her ample bust in a daring red swimsuit that left little to the imagination. Rebecca explained that she hoped to send some good cheer to the Victorians stuck in stage four lockdown amid the COVID1-9 pandemic The blonde lives on the Sunshine Coast with husband Mick Lobie and their two young sons. She is the daughter of Frank Muscillo, who is married to Steve Irwin's sister Joy. According to her LinkedIn, Rebecca was previously managing director of the Irwin family business, Australia Zoo, but left in December 2015. Off the market! The blonde lives on the Sunshine Coast with husband Mick Lobie (pictured) and their two young sons During her tenure, she oversaw 'multiple food outlets' at the Sunshine Coast tourist attraction, as well as 'catering and functions'. In 2016, The Courier Mail reported that Rebecca, who is believed to be working as a restaurant manager near her home in Mooloolaba, had cut all ties with Australia Zoo. She is also no longer following her 21-year-old cousin, Bindi Irwin, on Instagram - despite the fact the pair were once close. US delivers humanitarian aid to Beirut By Tech. Sgt. Michael Battles, 379th Air Expeditonary Wing Public Affairs / Published August 07, 2020 AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar (AFNS) -- In a joint endeavor to assist the Lebanese Armed Forces and the people of Lebanon after a deadly explosion in Beirut, U.S. Airmen and Soldiers stationed in Qatar worked to load the first U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III with humanitarian aid, Aug. 6. Personnel from the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, Air Mobility Command's 8th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron and 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron on Al Udeid Air Base, and the Area Support Group-Qatar from Camp As Sayliyah worked to palletize food, water and medical supplies delivered to Beirut later that day. "Support of this magnitude at such speed wouldn't be possible without the joint effort of all members of Al Udeid Air Base, our U.S. Army counterparts at Camp As Sayliyah and our gracious Qatari partners," said Brig. Gen. Daniel Tulley, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing commander. "In the wake of tragedy, it truly takes a combined effort to make the mission happen. We do this every day in Qatar, and that's exactly what we are doing in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces." Soldiers from the ASG-Qatar at Camp As Sayliyah packed and loaded 11 pallets of humanitarian aid, which contained more than 28,800 military field rations, known as MRE or meals ready to eat, 11,520 bottles of water and two pallets of medical supplies and transported them to Al Udeid Air Base with support of a local Qatari transport company. "In short notice, ASG-Qatar assembled Soldiers and limited contract support to quickly palletize 11 pallets to be flight-worthy; consisting of water, MREs and medical supplies," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Pura, ASG-Qatar director of logistics. "(I'm) truly grateful to the Soldiers and civilians who stepped up to support the mission. I appreciate our Air Force personnel support from AUAB, it's nice to see a combined effort from all." Upon their arrival to Al Udeid, the pallets were received by Airmen from the 8th EAMS, and processed for loading onto a C-17 bound for Beirut. "At a moment's notice, our mobility Airmen and the global air mobility support system stand ready to take action in tough situations like the explosion in Beirut," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Nicholas Lee, 8th EAMS commander. "The 8th EAMS is proud to be able to answer the call to support the Lebanese Armed Forces and help those in need of supplies with rapid global mobility." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Funeral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM News Updates The daily news, sports, and events delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Upcoming Events This email is the events of the area delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens. India and China's commander-level talks are underway to take forward the disengagement process at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Major general-level talks are being held at a border personnel meeting point in Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) area on the Chinese side of the LAC today. This is the sixth round of Corps commander-level discussions to expedite the disengagement process between the two countries. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has pulled back from Galwan Valley and certain other friction points. However, the PLA has not moved forward from the Finger areas in Pangong Tso, Gogra, and Depsang as demanded by India. India has been insisting that China must withdraw its forces from areas between Finger Four and Eight. Mountain spurs in the area are referred to as Fingers. The formal process of disengagement between the two countries began on July 6. Both sides held several rounds of Major General-level talks in May and June before the level of negotiations was upgraded to the level of Corps commanders. According to news agency PTI, Saturday's talks will primarily focus on the disengagement process in Daulat Beg Oldi and Depsang areas. Meanwhile, the Indian Army and the IAF have decided to maintain a very high level of operational readiness in all areas along the LAC in Ladakh, North Sikkim, Uttarakhand, and Arunachal Pradesh until a "satisfactory" resolution to the border row with China gets resolved. The Indian army has already made elaborate plans to maintain the current strength of troops and weapons along the LAC during the harsh winter months in eastern Ladakh and all other sensitive areas along the LAC. Also read: Solar equipment makers in SEZs demand level playing field to counter imports from China Also read: COVID-19 impact: China's exports register fastest growth in 7 months; imports fall WASHINGTON - Army leaders have delayed the planned transfer of the Fort Hood commander, as a team of independent investigators heads to the base to determine whether leadership failures contributed to the murder of a soldier earlier this year, and several other deaths. Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, commander of Fort Hood, Texas, was slated to go to Fort Bliss, which is near El Paso, and take over leadership of the 1st Armored Division. Command of a division is a key step in an Army officers career. The Army said in a statement Friday that he will now stay at Fort Hood, as Army leaders consider whether there were systemic problems at the base, and who should be held accountable. Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, 20, was killed and dismembered by a fellow soldier. She had been missing since April, and her remains were found and indentified last month. The soldier suspected in Guillens slaying, Spc. Aaron Robinson, shot and killed himself early last month as police were trying to take him into custody. A civilian, Cecily Aguilar 22, of Killeen, has been arrested and charged with allegedly helping Robinson dispose of Guillens body. Speaking at Fort Hood on Thursday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said members of the independent panel will arrive at the base by the end of the month to begin their review. The 3rd Cavalry Regiment, which is stationed at Fort Hood, is also conducting a routine internal investigation into the matter. McCarthy was asked whether anyone, including leaders, will be disciplined or fired. He said that the independent panel will look into the command climate of the installation, to determine if there is a sexual harassment-type toxic environment that exists. McCarthy said that will help the Army better understand more broadly, is it 3rd ACR (Armored Cavalry Regiment) or is it larger? Is it the entire installation? He acknowledged that there have been other deaths and incidents of violence that could point to broader problems. In addition to Guillens murder, the body of another Fort Hood soldier, Pvt. Mejhor Morta, was found last month by Stillhouse Hollow Lake, a reservoir near the base. In June, officials discovered the remains of another missing soldier, Gregory Morales, about 10 miles from that lake. Once the independent panels investigation is done, McCarthy said that if the panels conclusions point to leaders or individuals, in particular, of course we will take the appropriate accountability measures. The five members of the independent review panel are: Chris Swecker, a North Carolina lawyer and former FBI inspector; Jonathan Harmon, a lawyer and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; Carrie Ricci, a lawyer for the Department of Agriculture and a retired Army officer; Queta Rodriguez, a former Marine who works with veterans services; and Jack White, a lawyer and West Point graduate. Brig. Gen. Matt Eichburg has been assigned to temporarily command the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss until further notice, according to Army Col. Cathy Wilkinson. Normally an Army division is headed by a two-star major general, but on rare occasions one-star brigadier generals can be put in command. SAD Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today held a massive protest march to the Raj Bhawan demanding an independent inquiry into charges that the liquor mafia had paid Rs 2,000 crore to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the party high command to thwart any inquiry into the illicit liquor trade being run under the patronage of Congress leaders and legislators in Punjab. The massive march, which was led by former MP Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra and included party workers from the Patiala Urban and Anandpur Sahib constituency besides hooch victim families, was stopped two hundred meters from the Raj Bhawan. Following this the protesters staged a dharna before courting arrest. Advertisement Prem Singh ChandumajraAddressing newsmen on the occasion, Prof Chandumajra said as per reports the liquor mafia had dispatched Rs 2,000 crore to Congress President Sonia Gandhi besides the Congress high command. He said it was because of this that the Congress government in Punjab was refusing to hand over the case file vis a vis the Rajpura illegal distillery cum bottling plant to the Enforcement Directorate. The liquor mafia knows that if the case file is handed over to the ED then the entire money trail from the source to the political benefactors will be exposed. This is why money was sent to the Congress high command so that it does not put pressure on the Congress government to hand over the case files to the ED and allow a free and fair inquiry into the illicit liquor trade business in Punjab. Advertisement Liquor Prof Chandumajra said with this new revelation showing that the Congress high command was also hand in glove with the liquor mafia in Punjab it was incumbent on Governor VP Singh Badnore to order an independent probe into the charges besides recommending immediate dismissal of the Capt Amarinder Singh led Congress government in the State. He said the chief minister was also under a cloud because he had presided over an Rs 5,600 crore excise loss as in charge of the Excise portfolio besides failing to take steps to avoid the hooch tragedy across three districts which led to the death of around 130 persons. Advertisement He said there was also an emergent need to dismiss Capt Amarinder Singh since the chief minister was refusing to take action against Congress legislators accused of distributing spurious liquor by the victim families. Justice can be done in the case only after the dismissal of the CM following which a murder charge under Section 302 should be registered against the guilty mlas besides sealing of two distilleries of Congress associates involved in the crime and confiscation of the properties of all the culprits, Prof Chandumajra added. Capt Amarinder SinghThe SAD leader also urged the Governor to take the list of Congress MLAs involved in distribution of spurious liquor from Rajya Sabha MP and former Pradesh Congress President Shamsher Singh Dullo and act upon it immediately. Advertisement The former MP also disclosed that Congress ministers were also indulging in daylight robberies by forcing panchayats to pass resolutions to give up panchayat land worth Rs 1,000 crore in Mohali district. He said recently the government had tried to move a resolution to take over 25 acres of land in Bari village and also in Balongi. He said the SAD would not allow panchayati land to be taken over in this way at any cost. Party leaders who courted arrest today included dharna Coordinator Charanjit Brar, Harinderpal Chandumajra, Surjit Garhi, Charanjit Kalawal, Harpal Juneja, Manjit Muddon, Paramjit Kahlon, Gurmukh Sohal, Avtar Mauli, Nardev Akri, Amritpal Khattra, Rajwinder Lucky, Sukhbir Ablowal and Brig Raj Kumar. Cross-FIRs were lodged after Youth Congress leaders and Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) supporters got into a brawl outside Member of Parliament (MP) Ravneet Bittus residence on Saturday. The LIP leaders were staging a symbolic protest against the shortage of ventilators at the civil hospital when the incident took place. LIP chief spokesperson Gagandeep Singh Sunny Kainth, who was leading the protest, said, When we reached the MPs house, over 200 Congress supporters had already gathered there. They attacked us when we questioned the failure of government and the MP. In the melee, some of our supporters turbans were also tossed in the air. The police, including the SHO remained a mute spectator. Following the incident, LIP leaders, including MLA Balvinder Singh Bains, staged a protest outside the office of police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal, seeking suspension of Division Number 8 station house officer Jarnail Singh, alleging inaction. MP Ravneet Bittu said, It is a condemnable incident and it should not have taken place. The incident took place due to an old enmity between the two groups as Kainth was also a part of the Congress once. A video has also surfaced wherein a LIP supporter is trying to attack Congress supporters with a kirpan. Doing politics at this time of crisis is also not good. I was not aware that so many Congress workers had gathered outside my house as I was not in the city. If I had known, I would have sent my representative or any officer to collect the LIPs memorandum. Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) Sameer Verma said, We have received complaints from both parties. The LIP leaders have not mentioned anything about the SHOs role in their complaint but we will still verify the allegations. SHO Jarnail Singh said that FIRs have been registered against supporters of both the parties. Former district president of Youth Congress, Rajiv Raja, Congress supporter Abbas Raja and others have been booked on the complaint of Kainth. LIPs Sunny Kainth and others have been booked on the complaint of Congress supporter Tarwinder Singh. The FIRs have been lodged under Section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (likely to spread the infection), 323 ( voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code. Your commitment on behalf of your various organizations and worthwhile initiatives serve to improve and enhance the quality of life throughout Atlantic City and Atlantic County, Courseys remarks read. Please know that your dedication and devotion is appreciated more than words can adequately express. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Washington moved his family to the city from Racine, Wisconsin, in 1990. He was informed of the opportunity to lead a church in New Jersey, and after a great deal of thought and discussion with his family, he decided to take the leap. It was a decision his children didnt agree with at first. I was the one that was never trying to come here, said Nycole Lyles-Belton, Washingtons daughter, and I promised that at 18, I was going back, but Im still here. The Rev. Aaron Washington Sr., James son, said once the frustration of moving subsided, he realized how the move was for the best. You guys bringing us out here gave us so many opportunities that we wouldve never had locked in the Midwest, Aaron said. We had the whole East Coast that just opened up for us because you brought us here. James agreed the decision was initially tough for the family. Bella Thorne showed off her svelte summer body in a stylish Dior bikini as she dwelled on the gorgeous beaches of Cabo San Lucas on Friday. The 22-year-old actress uploaded a series of sultry snapshots to her Instagram page on Saturday that gave fans a closer look at her designer swimwear and her hunky beau Benjamin Mascolo. 'Which one?' wrote Thorne in her post's caption, urging her following to select their favorite portrait from the bunch. Beach babe: Bella Thorne showed off her svelte summer body in a stylish Dior bikini as she dwelled on the gorgeous beaches of Cabo San Lucas on Friday Take it all in: The 22-year-old actress uploaded a series of sultry snapshots to her Instagram page on Saturday that gave fans a closer look at her designer swimwear In the first snapshot, Bella rocked noticeably damp tresses and beamed widely at the camera as the sun set behind her. Wearing her signature red hair down, she added a touch of glitz to her oceanside ensemble by clasping on a string of pearls. Then Thorne, with her arms out to her sides, posed for a second photo that showed her looking away from the camera, while drawing attention to her enviable shape. In a third and more candid picture, the Shake It Up star had an undeniable glow about her as she shifted her weight in the sand. Choices: 'Which one?' wrote Thorne in her post's caption, urging her following to select their favorite portrait from the bunch In love: For her post's final addition, Bella posed with Mascolo, who hugged her from behind and rested one of his tattooed hands on her stomach For her post's final addition, Bella posed with Mascolo, who hugged her from behind and rested one of his tattooed hands on her stomach. Thorne first modeled her Dior two piece for her 23.4million Instagram followers on Friday evening, when she uploaded a dreamy video to her page. In the clip, Bella headed toward the camera and stopped walking once she had achieved a close-up on her enviably taut midriff. She geo-tagged the post to the Esperanza private beach resort, where she recently traveled for a summer vacation. 'I put my phone on a swing and took this hello,' Bella captioned. Dreamy: Thorne first modeled her Dior two piece for her 23.4million Instagram followers on Friday evening, when she uploaded a dreamy video to her page A place in the sun: In the clip, Bella headed toward the camera and stopped walking once she had achieved a close-up on her enviably taut midriff The Famous In Love star has been seen since last month soaking up the sunshine with beau Mascolo in Cabo. She has been dating the Italian hunk since early last year but the pair had to go into self-isolation separately for nearly five months amid the coronavirus pandemic. During their period of separation Benjamin hunkered down in his native Italy while Bella stayed home in Los Angeles. In March the United States imposed a travel ban on European countries and this summer, as cases spiked in America, the European Union responded in kind. Glamour: Wearing her signature red hair down, she added a touch of glitz to the ensemble by clasping on a string of pearls Luxury: She geo-tagged the post to the Esperanza private beach resort in Cabo San Lucas, where she recently traveled for a summer vacation Behind the scenes: 'I put my phone on a swing and took this hello,' Bella captioned for the benefit of her 23.4 Instagram followers Bella and Benjamin finally met up again on July 7 and she gushed on Instagram: "After 5 months reunited & it feels so good.' She then asked her followers: 'where shall we go next ??since ben isnt allowed in America yet... and I cant go to Italy unless I have a work permit there.' Apparently the sizzling sensations have decided the location will be Los Cabos, which began reopening in mid-June. Their vacation shenanigans have been on display on social media, and they have also been glimpsed on a luxury yacht off Cabo. Together again: The Famous In Love star has been seen since last month soaking up the sunshine with her boyfriend Benjamin Mascolo Bella and Benjamin were recently at the center of a swirl of engagement rumors when she was seen with a ring on her left hand fourth finger. However her representative told JustJared: 'Bella and Benjamin are very much in love and very happy, but there are no wedding plans in the near future.' In late July it emerged Bella is selling her quirkily designed Sherman Oaks home on the market with an asking price of $2.55 million. Details: She has been dating her Italian hunk since early last year but the pair had to go into self-isolation separately for nearly five months amid the coronavirus pandemic At least 18 people were killed and more than 120 injured when an Air India Express flight from Dubai to Kozhikode crashed late Friday night, after skidding off a runway while landing in heavy monsoon rain in the south Indian state of Kerala. The plane was traveling to the city, also called Calicut, when it crashed at the Kozhikode International airport in Karipur. It was carrying people returning to India after being stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic. The aircraft nosedived and cracked in two. Among the 18 dead were both pilots of the Air India Express flight, the airline said in a statement, adding that the four cabin crew were safe. At least 123 people were injured in the crash, including 15 in critical condition, said Abdul Karim, a senior police officer in southern Kerala state. About 190 people were on board the plane, including 10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew, the airline said in a tweet on Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was "pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode," and that he had spoken to Kerala's top elected official. The Air India Express flight was part of the Indian government's special repatriation mission to bring Indian citizens back to the country during the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. All of the passengers were returning from the Gulf region, authorities said. Image: India plane crash (Reuters) Kerala state Health Minister KK Shailaja asked local residents who joined the rescue effort to go into quarantine as a precautionary measure. The survivors were also being tested for the virus, officials said. In a telephone interview from his hospital bed, Renjith Panangad, a plumber who was returning home for the first time in three years after losing his job at a construction company in Dubai, told the Associated Press the plane had swayed before the crash. "I still cant comprehend what happened. As I am trying to recall what happened, my body is shivering," said Panangad, who escaped without major injuries. Story continues Searchers also recovered the flight data recorder on Saturday, as the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said it had started work on the wreckage investigation. A similar tragedy was narrowly avoided at the same airport a year ago, when an Air India Express flight suffered a tail strike upon landing. None of the 180 passengers on that flight were injured. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep S. Puri said in a statement that the flight had "overshot the runway in rainy conditions and went down" a slope, breaking into two pieces upon impact. Officials from the aviation regulator said it was too early to tell at this point whether the accident was a result of a technical or human error. 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... (Photo Illustration: Daniel Fung/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) By David Scanlan (Bloomberg) -- Sun Life Financial Inc. has opened an office in Singapore and is looking for more acquisitions in Asia as the Canadian insurer expands its footprint in the region. The Toronto-based firm will target affluent clients in the city-state, offering insurance products through international brokers and private banks in the Asian financial hub. To be in Singapore is essential and critical to build out our high-net worth strategy within Asia, Belinda Au, chief executive officer of Sun Life Singapore said in an interview Friday. The company will start with about a dozen employees and add more over the next few years, she said. Singapore becomes the eighth market for Sun Life in Asia, where the company has 21,000 employees and C$52 billion (US$39 billion) in assets under management. Sun Life is looking to make more acquisitions in the region, after reaching a bancassurance deal in Vietnam last year to sell insurance via Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank, said Leo Grepin, president for Asia. Were very much looking for acquisitions in Asia across our core markets, said Grepin, who has led Sun Lifes Asian business from Hong Kong since January. Hong Kong Base The expansion in Singapore doesnt represent a pull back from Hong Kong, where the company has been operating for 128 years, Grepin said. The new national security law imposed by China in the city has raised concerns that global firms and affluent Hong Kongers may leave. We are very committed to Hong Kong and to our clients in Hong Kong, Grepin said. The Canadian firm would be interested in increasing its stake in a joint venture on the mainland with China Everbright Group if its partners wanted to sell. Sun Life holds about a 25% stake in the partnership, and can increase that to 100% under new China rules. Were very bullish on China, and over time wed be interested in increasing our investment, but theres no short-term plan to do so, Grepin said. Obviously that would require partners to sell down. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. ANALYSIS: Coronavirus is expected to lower fertility rates in high-income countries, and raise fertility in low-income countries, according to a new scientific editorial. Immigration counteracts effects of anticipated COVID-19 baby slump in Canada ANALYSIS: Coronavirus is expected to lower fertility rates in high-income countries, and raise fertility in low-income countries, according to a new scientific editorial. Immigration counteracts effects of anticipated COVID-19 baby slump in Canada ANALYSIS: Coronavirus is expected to lower fertility rates in high-income countries, and raise fertility in low-income countries, according to a new scientific editorial. Immigration counteracts effects of anticipated COVID-19 baby slump in Canada ANALYSIS: Coronavirus is expected to lower fertility rates in high-income countries, and raise fertility in low-income countries, according to a new scientific editorial. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Canada will have to continue supporting immigration if coronavirus is going to lower already-declining fertility rates. Coronavirus is expected to affect fertility differently depending on regional income levels, according to an editorial in Science magazine. High-income countries, such as Canada, are expected to see fewer newborns as a result of the pandemic, thus an older population, and a smaller population size. The Brookings Institution, a think-tank out of Washington, D.C., suggests that the U.S. could see anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 fewer babies born as a result of the pandemic. Canada is not expected to see the same kind of hit, CBC reports, but any dip in population growth will have impacts on the labour market. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs Before the pandemic, Canada was already seeing a decline in new births and an aging population. Canadas 9 million baby boomers are expected to reach retirement age in just 10 years. The Conference Board of Canada says immigrants will account for 100 per cent of the national population growth by 2034. In the early months of 2020, immigration already accounted for 82 per cent of Canadas population growth. Without immigrants available to support the needs of an aging population, the care and financial responsibilities will be passed on to Canadians. When young people have to provide enough income tax to support elderly Canadians, they end up paying more per person to provide the same benefits, economist Elisabeth Gugl told CBC. Gugl said immigration is the only alternative to supporting the aging population, noting that immigration has declined in recent months. Though Canada has issued a record number of Invitations to Apply (ITAs) for permanent residence through the Express Entry system this year, global measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 have hindered travel to Canada. Permanent resident visas fell 26 per cent in March, after Canada shut its borders for the latter half of the month onwards. In April, Canada only welcomed 4,000 immigrants. Numbers started to pick up in May when 11,000 new immigrants came to Canada. June data is expected to be available soon. The federal and provincial governments will need to keep immigration as a priority in order to ensure long-term economic recovery. The Science article suggested that dips in fertility rates have followed previous periods of high mortality for about a year. Fertility tends to increase one to five years after the event. However, the study noted the unique nature of the coronavirus makes it difficult to compare with historical data. The effects of coronavirus on fertility in Canada are expected to be seen in July and August 2021, the months when most babies are typically born in Canada. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved You might think Qualcomm would be happy with US trade bans limiting Huaweis access to chips, but it appears to be arguing just the opposite. The Wall Street Journal said it had obtained a Qualcomm presentation lobbying the US government to remove restrictions and let it sell Snapdragon processors to Huawei. The ban wont prevent Huawei from obtaining necessary parts and could just drive billions of dollars of US sales to foreign chip makers like MediaTek and Samsung, Qualcomm reportedly said lifting the chip ban would theoretically help American companies stay competitive. There could be a rapid shift in 5G chipset market share if Qualcomm is restricted while its foreign rivals arent, Qualcomm said. The company hasnt been shy about wanting Huaweis business. In its latest earnings call, CEO Steve Mollenkopf said Qualcomm was determining how it could sell to every phone maker, including Huawei. However, there werent indications of a lobbying campaign at the time. It also comes soon after Huawei settled a patent dispute with Huawei by paying $1.8 billion and striking a new license deal, although the two events arent necessarily linked. A few companies have managed to get exceptions to the US ban through licenses, such as Intel, Micron and Xilinx. Qualcomm isnt necessarily attempting an unrealistic feat. Even so, success is far from guaranteed. Smartphones represent a key part of Huaweis business, and allowing a major exception like this could be seen as weakening the ban. It might also be deemed inconsistent when software companies like Google are still barred from interacting with the Chinese firm. State assists only registered smallholders hit by drought By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s): Government plans to assist tea smallholders affected by the drought with replanting are insufficient since allocations are made for only those registered amounting to just six million plants on 480 hectares. Tea Smallholders Development Authority (TSHDA) officials told the Business Times that allocations are made to assist only 8160 farmers impacted by the drought who have smallholder properties that had in 2017, 2018 and 2019 obtained plants from the authority. The total acreage of smallholder properties is 120,000 H owned by a total of 496,000 farmers. The registered farmers that have requested for assistance are from Galle, Matara, Kalutara, Ratnapura, Nuwara Eliya, Kegalle and Badulla, TSHDA officials said. However, the industry complains that this assistance is insufficient as the drought had impacted a larger segment of the smallholders. Tea smallholders contribute 76 per cent to the total crop production in the country. In this respect, the Sri Lanka Tea Factory Owners Association President Chandima Wickremesinghe told the Business Times that there is a big impact on the crop this year compared to 2019 due to the drought and the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted that replanting had not been carried out at the required levels and that this year they expect production to dip to about 60-280 million kg. If prices continue to rise then since they are higher than last years levels they expect about a 10 per cent drop in revenue, he said. Mr. Wickremesinghe explained that the TSHDA is assisting in the replanting and while the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) had stated they would assist in replanting, this has not happened. Moreover, he pointed out that the assistance allocated is insufficient since we have a larger potential if the authorities work efficiently. The Tea Board has allocated Rs.150 million from the tea promotion fund to be spent on establishing 500 nurseries that would generate about 25 million plants that could be included into the tea industry by 2021/2022, officials at the TSHDA said. Picture a great restaurant, the chef up at dawn, dusting hand-milled flour on a butchers block. The chef under a spotlight, tweezing chive blossoms in the chaos of the pass, or fanning the wood fire under a row of shimmering, trussed birds. The chef is in sharp focus, but everything else everyone else is an inconsequential blur. I dont need to describe the chef to you. He is a man, probably. A genius, definitely. Lets say this genius is volatile, meticulous, impenetrable, charming, camera-ready. He doesnt just manage the staff behind a great restaurant. He is the great restaurant. For decades, the chef has been cast as the star at the centre of the kitchen. In the same way the auteur theory in film frames the director as the author of a movies creative vision, the chef has been considered entirely responsible for the restaurants success. Everyone else line cooks, servers, dishwashers, even diners is background, there to support that vision. This way of thinking has informed the industrys culture at every level. But the power of the chef-auteur as an idea is fading, and as restaurant workers organize and speak up about abusive workplaces, toxic bosses and inequities in pay and benefits, its clear that the restaurant industry has to change. The elevation of the chef to front and centre is relatively new. Until about 40 years ago, chefs were considered unglamorous, trolls of the stove, hidden behind the kitchens swinging doors. With a few exceptions, they werent thought of as artists, or visionaries. They couldnt generally aspire to magazine covers, or amass devoted, cultlike, international followings. They did not get book deals, or discuss their inspirations in interviews, or star in documentaries, or hire publicists to make horrific scandals disappear. In his 2018 book, Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll, Andrew Friedman documents the mythologizing of chefs, and their rise from obscurity. He writes that before the 1970s and 80s, chefs were anonymous workhorses, in many cases not only unknown, but thought of as interchangeable. The 1970s kicked off a shift, changing the way chefs were perceived in the United States. As Wolfgang Puck built a reputation for innovation in the kitchen at Ma Maison, and went on to open Spago, he helped usher in an era of American dining when chefs became names big names known to the public outside the restaurant business. As chefs inched toward auteurship, they were finally recognized for gruelling, previously undervalued labour. They were also given more room to reimagine dishes and menus, to tinker with how restaurants worked, and who they were for. They made restaurants infinitely more exciting place to dine, and to work. By the time I started cooking in restaurant kitchens, in the mid-2000s, willingly vanishing into the militaristic brigade system, the chefs status as an auteur was beyond question, and the deeply embarrassing phrase food is the new rock was tossed around with almost no sense of irony. One chef I worked for shared photocopied pages of Ferran and Albert Adrias cookbooks, in Spanish, so the staff could study the ratios and techniques used in the famous kitchen of El Bulli. It was thrilling, and many of us experimented with blowing isomalt sugar sculptures or setting hot jellies. That iconic photo of Marco Pierre White looking young and angry and sleepless and beautiful in his chef whites was a talisman for several cooks I knew. It appeared in his influential 1990 book, White Heat, which showed what was possible when an ambitious, brilliant young chef achieved total power: White wrote about his habit of putting cooks inside trash cans to punish them, among other forms of intimidation. Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain, was also canon. Throughout his career, Bourdain called for attention and respect for immigrants, workers in the country illegally, and the many underpaid, overlooked roles essential to a restaurant. But he was also a celebrity, and he upheld a romantic ideal of cheffing as the kind of brutal, impossibly demanding, but ultimately meaningful work that exalted misfits, drawing them together with a sense of purpose at least, for the duration of dinner service. This complicated, shared understanding of restaurant kitchens was often used to justify the work and the hours, and the unreasonable expectations in service of excellence and glory. It also explained away the gross, systemic deficiencies of the business, and normalized abusive work cultures. In his 2019 memoir, JGV: My Life in 12 Recipes, chef Jean Georges Vongerichten writes about the culture he fostered in the late 1980s at Restaurant Lafayette, which received a three-star review from Bryan Miller in The New York Times. The restaurants longtime dishwasher, referred to as Sam in the book, had been working at the hotel for 20 years, and took a 45-minute break while a critic was in the house. Vongerichten, who took the dishwashers place at the sink during that time, was furious. As his sous-chef held the walk-in door shut, trapping Sam inside, Vongerichten pummeled him. Im not proud of it, Vongerichten writes. After the dishwasher went to security to report the abuse, the kitchen closed ranks. Everyone in the kitchen knew what happened, he adds. But nobody said a word. Vongerichten went on to find international renown and open 38 restaurants all over the world. As of last fall, The Jean-Georges restaurant group managed 5,000 employees; its 2018 sales totalled $350 million. As chefs built big restaurant businesses, often referred to as empires, they became powerful brands, capable of obscuring abuse, assault and discrimination. And if they continued to make money for their investors, they often maintained their power as in the case of Mario Batali. Batali became one of the countrys most high-profile chefs and restaurateurs, opening popular restaurants, hosting shows on ABC and the Food Network, publishing a series of popular cookbooks, and playing a central role in Bill Bufords vivid book Heat, published in 2007. But in 2017, several women spoke up about Batalis pattern of sexual harassment and assault. It wasnt until 2019 that he divested from the Bastianich & Batali Hospitality Group, and stopped profiting from the restaurants hed established. In the same way, chef April Bloomfield severed her partnership with restaurateur Ken Friedman in 2018, after he was accused of sexual harassment, and she conceded in an interview that she hadnt done enough to end the abuse. Writer Meghan McCarron recently described the lasting power of auteur theory a way of thinking about restaurants that has come at a cost both hard to measure and impossible to ignore. In the food worlds under-examined version of this theory, singular visionaries are still seen as the sole architects of a restaurants greatness, McCarron wrote. The idea of a chef-auteur is tenacious, and sly it limits the narrative, and it sustains itself. Look at the homogeneity among major industry best-of lists from organizations like the James Beard Foundation, Michelin and the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants. White male chefs who already fit neatly into the stereotype of the auteur are overrepresented, praised for a highly specific approach to fine dining, then rewarded with more investment and opportunities to replicate that same approach. So many alternative kinds of food businesses are never considered for awards or investments. They dont fit into the chef-auteur framework, and in some cases have no desire to do so community farms with food stalls, roving trucks, collaborative projects, temporary projects, or family restaurants where three different cooks take turns in the kitchen, depending on their child care schedules. But for so many, its already too late. Theyve been excluded from the narrative, over and over again, to serve the idea of the auteur. Theyve been subject to abuse. Theyve been paid unfairly. Many have dropped out of the business altogether. The pandemic has exposed the fragility and inequity of the restaurant industry, disproportionately affecting Black people, people of colour, restaurant workers and those who keep the food chain running in the nations factories and farms. Bolstered by the power of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, workers are speaking up. The model for the industry, as it exists now, has to change. In a recent newsletter, Alicia Kennedy, a writer based in Puerto Rico, declared that the chef, as an ego, had become irrelevant. Whats next? she asked. And as reports of mouldy food and allegations of poor conditions for cooks at Sqirl surfaced this summer, Los Angeles writer Tien Nguyen asked another urgent question: What would food journalism look like if it centred on rank-and-file workers instead of chefs? Its hard but necessary to imagine these answers. And as workers unionize at places like Tartine in San Francisco and Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Oregon, theyre claiming power, demanding better conditions and pushing toward newer, fairer models. Other workers are pointing to the gap between how restaurants are perceived and how theyre run, as in Chicago, where more than 20 employees of Fat Rice challenged their employers social-media claim that it supported racial justice. Menus are collaborative, to some degree or another. Chefs lead that work, perhaps assigning tests, approving new dishes, or tasting them, editing them, and in most cases making the final decisions that shape the way the food comes to the table. But in some cases dozens of other cooks could be involved in the process. Restaurants are the work of teams, kitchens full of cooks and dishwashers co-ordinating with dining rooms full of servers, runners and bartenders. Each role, each day, plays a part in a restaurants success. One of my last fancy dinners before the pandemic shut down dining rooms in Los Angeles was at Somni, a small horseshoe bar inside the SLS Beverly Hills hotel owned by Jose Andres. The chef, Aitor Zabala, printed out a menu that credited everyone working dinner service. The porters on duty that night were Josue Rodriguez and Mario Alarcon. The detailed chocolate work was by Ivonne Cerdas and Lindsey Newman. About a dozen more cooks had worked on the exuberant, fast-flowing 27-course meal, and each one was listed, like the cast and crew on a playbill. When I asked him in an email about the design, Zabala replied that he wanted the whole team to feel connected to the restaurant, and responsible for its experience. He explained that its part of why meals at Somni include a service charge, and why all employees both contribute to service and share in those earnings. A menu is just a menu, but I found this one a tiny, eloquent gesture, urging diners to consider the restaurant as a whole a collective with so many people at work beyond the chef. TOPEKA, Kan. - Democrats are pinning their unusually high hopes for winning a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas for the first time in almost 90 years on a retired doctor and former Republican who vexed conservatives with her support for Medicaid expansion and abortion and LGBTQ rights. State Sen. Barbara Bollier represents a Kansas City-area legislative district in the same cozy and affluent suburbs along the Missouri state line where she grew up. Shes pitching herself as a voice of reason with a decades worth of working with lawmakers from both parties. As a moderate Republican, she bucked GOP leaders on abortion, health care, tax cuts and education funding. She angered conservatives two years ago by labeling as sick discrimination a measure protecting faith-based adoption agencies that dont place children in LGBTQ homes. Democrats are enthusiastic about Bolliers chances of winning the open seat and helping them recapture a Senate majority even after western Kansas Rep. Roger Marshall won the Republican primary over polarizing conservative Kris Kobach. Bollier raised more money ahead of Tuesdays primary than the top GOP candidates combined and says she entered the fall campaign with $4.5 million in cash. A very sharp mind, but independent in her thinking, said former state Rep. Tom Moxley, a moderate Republican and central Kansas rancher and farmer. About as bright as they come. Many Democrats saw Kobach, a former Kansas secretary of state known nationally for advocating restrictive immigration policies, as the best opponent for Bollier because he has alienated moderate GOP voters. Republican leaders believe the establishment-backed Marshall can reunite the party and rebuild a campaign war chest that had dwindled to $600,000. Bollier, who retired as an anesthesiologist in 1999, already has made health care a key issue. Shes chiding Marshall for joining other top Kansas Republicans in opposing an expansion of the states Medicaid health coverage for the needy and said she would build on the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act to expand Americans health coverage. People are interested in someone who will work for commonsense solutions, work across the aisle and work for Kansas, not political parties, Bollier, 62, said in an interview. When she switched to the Democratic Party at the end of 2018, she said she no longer could stomach the Kansas GOPs stance against LGBTQ rights or President Donald Trumps rhetoric. Ultimately you find out that your views just arent welcome anymore, Bollier said. Bollier was elected to the Kansas House in 2010, representing an area that long sent moderate Republicans but has turned Democratic. She sat next to Moxley for two years on the House floor and, he said, was active in forging bipartisan deals. Moxley appears in Bolliers latest television spot, saying she will be the first Democrat hell vote for in a Senate race. Democrats havent won a U.S. Senate race in Kansas since 1932. Bollier won her Kansas Senate seat in 2012. Five years later, she voted to reverse income tax cuts championed by GOP Gov. Sam Brownback, which had become nationally notorious for the severe budget shortfalls that followed. Shes very task-oriented, said Joan Wagnon, a former Kansas Democratic Party chairwoman and ex-Topeka mayor. She loves public policy. She studies. Many Republicans scoff at descriptions of Bollier as a centrist, particularly given her strong support for abortion rights. They argue that a Bollier victory would ensure a Democratic majority and that she would be a tool of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and fellow liberals. She will have a very liberal voting record, if she would get to the Senate, Marshall said. Some conservatives havent forgotten her March 2018 remarks against the measure protecting faith-based adoption agencies. LGBTQ-rights advocates saw it as sanctioning discrimination. Bollier, an elder at her Presbyterian Church, noted that the Catholic Church, which backed the measure, also preaches against other sins such as gluttony and greed but somehow same sex-marriage is bigger, then concluded: I know bigotry when I see it. Nine conservative GOP senators joined in a statement that excoriated Bolliers remarks as offensive and anti-Catholic prejudice. She never was integrated into the Republican Party, said Kelly Arnold, a former Kansas Republican Party chairman. The party members themselves never felt she was part of the Republican Party. But Joe Athon, a 48-year-old Democrat from the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, said he saw Bollier as a traditional Reagan-type Republican during her time in the Legislature. But in the current parlance and spectrum of things, she seems like a liberal compared to how far things have gone to the right, Athon said. But she is truly more someone in the middle. ____ Associated Press writer Heather Hollingsworth contributed from Mission, Kan. ____ Follow John Hanna on twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday moved the Supreme Court challenging the high courts interim orders granting stay on the formation of three capital cities for the state. In a special leave petition filed in the apex court, the state government argued that the high court had issued orders staying the implementation of gazette notifications on abolition of the AP Capital Region Development Authority and formation of three capitals for a decentralised development without any valid reasons. Stating that the high court orders were against the principles of natural justice, the state government requested that the Supreme Court put a stay on the high courts orders. The petition is expected to come up for hearing on Monday, an official in the chief ministers office familiar with the development said. On August 4, a three-member division bench of the state high court comprising Justice Rakesh Kumar, Justice Sesha Sai and Justice Satyanaryana Murthy granted a 10-day stay on the implementation of the gazette notifications and asked the state government to file a counter within 10 days. The high court issued interim orders acting on a petition filed by Rajadhani Rythu Parirakshana Samithi (Committee of farmers to protect the capital). It ordered that the state government maintain status quo with regard to Amaravati as the capital city and not to proceed with any moves with regard to the shifting of executive capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam. On July 31, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government issued two separate notifications one on abolition of the AP Capital Region Development Authority formed in December 2014 to develop Amaravati as the capital of Andhra; and the second one on formation of three capitals for the state executive capital at Visakhapatnam, judicial capital at Kurnool and legislative capital at Amaravati. Meanwhile, state legislative assembly speaker Tammineni Sitaram on Friday observed that the courts could not trespass into legislative functions. State legislature and judiciary are different pillars of democracy and they cannot trespass into each others powers, he said. He reminded that senior Telugu Desam Party leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, who the speaker of the assembly in combined Andhra Pradesh in 1977, had given a ruling that legislative decisions could not be challenged in the court of law. The same thing is still in force now. But the TDP leaders are moving the high court challenging the passage of the three capitals bill by the state legislature. Why is Ramakrishnudu opposing the bill now? Sitaram asked. Ramakrishnudu, however, said the courts could definitely review the decisions of the legislature when they were in violation of the Constitution and the laws of the land. He clarified on Saturday that his ruling given in the capacity as speaker in 1997 was still valid and said that the courts shall not interfere with the functioning or debates or rulings of the House. But if the House makes any legislation violating the Constitution or law, it can be questioned in the court of law, he argued. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Srinivasa Rao Apparasu Srinivasa Rao is Senior Assistant Editor based out of Hyderabad covering developments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana . He has over three decades of reporting experience. ...view detail Protesters and police clashed again Friday night, hours after President Donald Trump focused on the nightly protests during a press conference covering a range of issues. Trump said Mayor Ted Wheeler had failed to lead through the protest movement, giving anarchists and mobs free rein in the city since federal officers stopped policing the downtown demonstrations last week. Mayor Wheeler has abdicated his duty and surrendered his city to the mob, the president said during the press conference at a New Jersey country club. Wheeler, who also serves as Portlands police commissioner, has condemned the recent protests. The mayors spokesperson said he had no response to the president. Fridays escalation: As they have for several nights, a small group of protesters called for direct action on Friday and headed for police buildings on Portlands east side instead of downtown. Around 9:45 p.m., police declared the gathering unlawful and repeatedly warned people to leave. Instead, protesters threw eggs and rocks and according to police explosive devices. Police responded with stun grenades, pepper spray, impact munitions and physical force to push the crowd of 300 away from the Penumbra Kelly Building on East Burnside Street that city and county law enforcement share. Three Oregonian/OregonLive journalists on the scene observed some people throwing empty drink cans and water bottles at the buiding. They also saw two people throw eggs, then several more joined in. They also witnessed a person periodically point a green laser toward the building and officers atop it. The backdrop: Protests in Portland began in late May following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. The aggression in Portland peaked in mid-July when federal officers regularly used large amounts of tear gas and less-lethal munitions against protesters, several of whom received serious injuries. Federal officers retreated from nightly protest policing after Gov. Kate Brown reached a deal with Vice President Mike Pence. But a particularly tense standoff between Portland police and protesters took place on Wednesday night. Afterward, Wheeler called on non-violent protesters to avoid city gatherings where violence is likely to occur or intervene if they see destructive acts being initiated. He went on to say Thursday that city, county and state law enforcement agencies will do whatever is necessary to safely hold these individuals accountable who are engaged in criminal activity and bring these nightly activities to a close. Friday arrests: Police detained multiple people as they advanced through residential streets. Early in the night, police arrested a photojournalist and accused him of trespass. Police announced Saturday afternoon that they had arrested 24 people with charges ranging from interfering with a police officer and unlawful directing of light from a laser pointer to assaulting a public safety officer and resisting arrest. Other gatherings: The overnight demonstration, which appeared to dissipate around 1:30 a.m., was the most high-profile on Friday night. But it was not the only protest -- people also gathered in downtown and police said they did not engage with that crowd. Learn more Community members make impassioned plea for city officials to pay attention to Portland shootings, gang violence Portland protests, gun violence, defund the police: Front-line cops sound off (videos) Freelance journalists and live streamers face crowd control munitions, arrests to cover Portland Black Lives Matter demonstrations Portland protester Donavan La Bella undergoes additional surgeries but expected to be released from hospital soon Businessman holding tablet and showing a growing virtual hologram of statistics, graph and chart with arrow up on dark background. Stock market. Business growth, planning and strategy concept In the spring of 2019, Id discussed how investors should act with a low Canadian dollar. A lot can change in a year. Now, in early August, the Canadian dollar has surged while the U.S. greenback has slid in the face of domestic and global pressures. A year ago, the U.S. economy looked very strong. The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged global trade and activity, and there are few countries that have been as hard hit as Canadas southern neighbour. Today, I want to look at three stocks that are worth adding as the Canadian dollar continues to show strength in the face of its U.S. counterpart. A strong Canadian dollar has meant good things for gold stocks The weakening U.S. dollar has led to a momentous summer for gold. Investors saw the yellow metal surge to record highs. It was trading above the $2,050 mark at the time of this writing. Barrick Gold is one of the largest gold producers in the world. A strong Canadian dollar has historically meant a weak U.S. dollar. With that, the spot price of gold and Barrick Gold should benefit. That has certainly been the case so far this year. Shares of Barrick have climbed 63% in 2020 as of close on August 6. Miners are set to rake in profits on the back of golds incredible run in 2020. Barrick and its peers are still worth scooping up in the middle of the summer. This stock is defying expectations in this climate In the article linked above, Id discussed how this stock has had an advantage with a low Canadian dollar. Stella-Jones (TSX:SJ) is a producer, marketer, and seller of pressure treated wood products. It exports many of its top products, including utility poles, to the United States. This means that a high Canadian dollar has the potential to weigh on its business. Stella-Jones stock has increased 20% month-over-month as of close on August 6. The company released its second quarter 2020 results on August 5. EBITDA surged 20% year-over-year to a record $120 million. Meanwhile, net income climbed to $69 million or $1.02 per share. Story continues Shares of Stella-Jones still offer a favourable price-to-earnings ratio of 16 and a price-to-book value of 2.0. This is a rare company that has thrived in the face of this pandemic. Moreover, Stella-Jones boasts an excellent balance sheet. One company that will benefit from a stronger Canadian dollar on the ground Many top Canadian retailers rely on imports south of the border to stock their shelves. In this case, a high Canadian dollar can help to boost their operating costs. Dollarama is one top TSX stock that should benefit from this environment. Id recommended that investors scoop up Dollarama at a discount to start the year. Its shares have climbed 12% in 2020 so far. In the first quarter of the 2021 fiscal year, Dollarama achieved sales growth of 2%. The company kept its doors largely open during the pandemic as it offers essential services to its customer base. Still, investors should expect a stronger showing as the economy reopens. Im bullish on Dollarama, especially with a high Canadian dollar. The post 3 Stocks to Buy As the Canadian Dollar Rises appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading Fool contributor Ambrose O'Callaghan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020 A former United Nations Security Council (UNSC) listed terrorist and a convict were among the people that Pakistani missions had globally lined up to mark the first anniversary of abrogation of special status for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistani Mission in Afghanistan held a virtual meeting in which Gulbadin Hekmatyar, also known as the butcher of Kabul, and is a former UNSC listed terrorist, was present. Hekmatyar's links with Pakistani establishment are well known given the backing to him by Islamabad during the Afghan civil war in the 1990s. In New York, the permanent mission of Pakistan to the United Nations invited Ghulam Nabi Fai for a virtual event, a person who was earlier arrested by the FBI. Fai was imprisoned for 2 years by a US court for hiding transfer of $3.5 million fund transfer from Pakistan's notorious spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for lobbying with the US government on Kashmir. Pakistani envoy to UN, Munir Akram, and Pakistani envoy to Kabul, Zahid Nasrullah Khan, were also present in the virtual meet. Pakistani missions organised similar events in other countries as well. In Malaysia, Prof Muhamad Roslan, an economist and Shan Saeed, an economist were invited for the August 5. Notably, the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was recently present in an event on so-called "solidarity day on Kashmir". Under former PM Mahathir, the New Delhi-Kuala Lumper ties have hit a nadir. Besides him, President Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisation (MAPIM) Mohd Azmi Abd Hamid was also present. The MAPIM is an umbrella organisation of Muslim NGOs in Malaysia that had organised a visit of delegation on NGOs to POK in 2019. Pakistani PM Imran Khan was quick to thank him in a tweet for speaking against India. To mark one year of removal of special status for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan had done several anti-India things that include - releasing a new anti-India song, changing the name of a major highway in Islamabad to Srinagar highway and coming out with a new political map of Pakistan that shows the Indian territories as part of its own. India has dismissed the new map of Pakistan calling it "an exercise in political absurdity" and "ridiculous assertions" which neither "legal validity nor international credibility." Daredevils have been photographed leaping from Durdle Door's 200-ft-tall arch three months after cliff divers had to be rescued by air ambulance after seriously injuring themselves. Sunseekers climbed across the cliff before leaping into the water beneath them on the Dorset coast earlier today. Some were seen carrying inflatable rings as they made their way across the dangerous rock face. It comes just months after two men in their 20s were left with life-changing injuries and another broke his leg after jumping from the cliff. Sunseekers climbed across the cliff before leaping into the water beneath them on the Dorset coast earlier today Some were seen carrying inflatable rings as they made their way across the dangerous rock face before jumping in Dorset police previously described the danger posed by jumping from the cliff as 'critical'. In a post on social media an officer wrote: 'The arch of Durdle Door is approximately 200 feet in height. Hitting water from that height can be critical. 'This is further compounded by tides, currents and altering depth of the sea bed. It is not an appropriate location for this type of activity.' The divers launched themselves into the sea from a height during a day out at the beach on what was one of the hottest days of the year so far. One man dived headfirst into the sea despite the threat from tides and a changing sea bed depth. The mercury hit 84F (29C) on the Dorset coast on Saturday, with warm weather set to continue until Wednesday. On May 30 two air ambulances were called to Durdle Door after a man was knocked unconscious when he was dashed by rocks following a daring jump into the water. Dorset police previously described the danger posed by jumping from the cliff as 'critical'. Pictured, a man leaps into the sea while other swimmers wait below Hundreds of sunseekers made their way to the coast to enjoy sweltering August temperatures Ben Clark was at the beach at the time. He told The Sun: 'The lad did not come back to the surface, he just never came back up. 'He got CPR on the beach right in front of my eyes. Then a defibrillator was used.' The man, in his 20s, was dragged out of the water when he failed to resurface following the jump. An off-duty medical worker performed CPR before the air ambulance arrived to bring him to Southampton General Hospital. Another man was sent via air ambulance into critical care for a serious spine injury and the third was taken to hospital in a land ambulance where he was treated for a broken leg. A man traversed the steep rock edge while holding onto an inflatable ring. He later leapt into the water below It comes just months after two men in their 20s were left with life-changing injuries and another broke his leg after jumping from the cliff. Pictured, one of the jumpers on Saturday It comes as holidaymakers and sunseekers flocked to Durdle Door to cool off as temperatures soared across the country on Saturday. Drivers reported 40-minute queues for car parks in Sandbanks, which filled up throughout the morning, as the mercury rose to 95F and the RAC prepared itself for the busiest weekend of the year. Thanet District Council in Kent warned that high tides at its beaches in Broadstairs and Margate made social distancing 'difficult', and asked visitors to 'consider all the places you could visit' along its 19 miles of coastline, 'or come back when it's quieter'. Much like yesterday, crowds appeared unbothered by fears of coronavirus as groups mixed without masks - despite rising cases in the UK driving fears of a second wave. Another man leaps from a lower point at Durdle Door as visitors continued to cliff dive despite the dangers The chaos comes amid a plea for 'bold' young people to continue following social distancing rules as fears grow that they are catching the virus without knowing and passing it on to other members of their household. The Met Office said temperatures had already reached 95F at Frittenden in Kent early on Saturday. The day started with an 'impressive' 68F difference between parts of Scotland and south-east England, the Met Office pointed out. Forecaster Marco Petagna earlier said a breeze along the North Sea coast would keep temperatures in the high teens there, while England and Wales would generally see the high 20Cs or low 30Cs - with cooler temperatures in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Before embarking on their multi-year journey to document the plight of immigrants under the Trump administration, filmmakers Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz entered into a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. While this did not given the agency approval over the final product, which is a six-episode docuseries entitled Immigration Nation launching on Netflix Aug. 3, it was meant to ensure an agreement that the material they released would be factual, and [cognizant of] sensitivities and privacy issues. Such multimedia union contracts are not unusual, Schwarz tells Variety, and in this case, signing it allowed the directing duo unprecedented and unfiltered access inside one of the most polarizing government agencies. We would spend hours in the car with them, as theyre doing surveillance or driving from place to place, says Clusiau. Once you start talking to a person as a human, you start to understand more where theyre coming from in their job. And I think under this political climate and the way that things are in the nation, the ones who are boots-on-the-ground have a really hard job to do. I think a lot grapple with it. Some agree with the policies, some dont; theres a big spectrum there. Embedded with agents for 2 1/2 years, Clusiau and Schwarz followed agents as they knocked on doors looking for specific individuals but picked up additional immigrants (called collaterals) as well. They filmed inside ICE offices, just steps away from holding cells, as well. But Immigration Nation was never meant to be a cop show, Schwarz points out. The agency access they received allowed them to start their story there, looking at policies and practices from the inside-out lens, Clusiau says, the enhanced, aggressive tactics enforced by ICE agents to fill high arrest quotes are only one piece of a much larger broken system. Story continues Our show is ultimately a large part about an enforcement agency, and police accountability and social justice is at the forefront of this debate, Schwarz says. But its not a gotcha piece if we wanted to make a gotcha piece we could have thrown a lot more in. In order to provide a fuller picture to the immigrant experience, they followed specific individuals stories from those who are undocumented, to those who have experienced family separation and even those who were deported. They covered the bureaucracy that has led to more raids on illegal immigrants and longer waits for status updates for those in the country who are self-reporting; they visited rights groups such as ACLU of North Carolina and Resilience Force to witness some of the more grassroots endeavors underway around arrests and as wage theft; they even visited the border wall in Mexico, as well as a patch of desert known to be deadly for those crossing illegally. There were challenges in getting some of their subjects to open up, let alone agree to be filmed at all: We went out to California and nobody wanted to show their face because they felt they were so hated there, Schwarz says of ICE as an example. But the majority of the people profiled, Clusiau adds, felt that they felt there was an importance, for themselves and their community, to not continuously be in the shadows. Adds Schwarz: When people were tangled in the system, even in interviews, they actually wanted their story told because, to some degree, when youre already entangled you have a little bit less to lose and youre a little bit more wanting to share your truth. Those that did speak, I salute them for their courage, because a lot of them were taking risk and are still taking risks. To minimize those risks, Clusiau and Schwarz blacked out many surnames when interviewees chyrons appeared on screen. Primarily, this was the case ICE officials, which Schwarz notes was not part of their contract, just a courtesy ICE requested during the review process. To further make subjects comfortable, he shares that whenever they were following ICE ops, the film team would always separate ourselves from ICE and say, usually in our broken Spanish, Were independent journalists. Were not with [ICE]. May we come in? May we document?' If the person said no, they respected that. Although Clusiau and Schwarz did not know, when they first embarked on this docuseries, if any of the immigrant stories they were telling would have joyful moments, let alone happy endings. While they always had the intention, Clusiau says, of infuing some hope into their project, there were too many unknown, and at times seemingly random, factors at play with regards to who might be reunited with their children who had been taken to separate detention centers or were still in other countries, awaiting approval to enter the United States, for example. So when they managed to capture one or two of those moments, they became very important, she admits. Has it been a dark three years? Yes, definitely. Does it break your heart? More than I can ever tell you in words, adds Schwarz. We cant stop caring about this, thats my opinion. Were destroying so many lives, and its almost un-American. Our heritage is a nation of immigrants; we all unless youre a Native American came here one way or another, and a lot of them came with papers but some didnt. We came believing this country had some values, and I think its part of the beauty of the American dream really. Thats been challenged, and these people hurt. We are historically better than this. One of the most complex pieces of Immigration Nation was that policy was changing as they were filming. Although the show does not feature episodic end-cards with updates on where some of the key individuals within the series are today, Clusiau and Schwarz acknowledge the possibility of following up in any medium, especially if policy changes again after the November presidential election. With bring the boys back home,' Schwarz says, Biden has promised that, and we hope and dare Trump to promise that. The immigration system is broken and it has been so politicized that people just scream without thinking or listening or acknowledging the human toll. We wanted the viewers to understand that we should care more and theres stuff we can agree on. We shouldnt accept that the system destroys lives. We should change some things. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The Chairman of the Accra Caucus of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Western Region, George Sipa-Adjah Yankey is convinced the party will win at least 90% of the 17 parliamentary seats in the Region in the December 2020 polls. The former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Gas Company expressed this at a ceremony to inaugurate a 30-man Western Regional NDC 2020 campaign team. NDC currently has four parliamentary seats in the Western Region. Prior to the 2016 general elections, the NDC held 10 seats out of which they lost 6 during the 2016 polls. Mr. Yankey said the members of the committee must stay united, make sacrifices, and campaign at the grassroots level to ensure that the partys 90% parliamentary victory is guaranteed. We in the Western Region are very determined to win as many seats as possible. All would however depend on us the members of the committee, the sub-committee, and even the non-members of the committees to work together as a team. Everyone should commit their energies, resources, and time to support the campaign and with this, I'm sure we can achieve anything as a team. I recently went to the four constituencies I have adopted, namely Jomoro, Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira, Ellembele and Ahanta West. The enthusiasm I saw by the people at the various registration centres and at our meetings with our party members showed their readiness to fight for victory. So we need to motivate and encourage them through our work and get back to the grassroots. Following the flagbearer around would not win us any vote, but going to the roots of the constituencies would give us the 90 percent of the parliamentary seats, he said. The inauguration of the campaign team was supervised by Dr. Samuel Sarpong, a member of the NDCs National Campaign team who urged members not to be distracted by petty internal squabbles. The Western Regional Communication Officer, Richard Kirk Mensah told Citi News campaign team will be expected to coordinate party activities. The inaugurated Western Regional NDC 2020 campaign team will coordinate all party activities to secure victory in the December 7th polls. The team is led by our Regional Chairman, Nana Toku, and comprises of 7 frontline regional executives as well as representatives from the former Members of Parliament, former Ministers, former MMDCEs, former regional executives, cadres, pro forum members, and special interest groups. It is a COVID-19 period, so the party is not going to do those big rallies and funfair campaign. It is going to be issue-based, decentralized type of campaign where the constituencies would be detached to the branches to make sure our message gets to our grassroots. We are going to ensure that this campaign team would also take very key responsibility of special groups, thus Taxi drivers, the fisherfolks, farmers, the physically challenged and other constituents. Richard Kirk Mensah The Chairman of the campaign team who doubles as the Regional Chairman, Nana Toku in his acceptance speech also added his voice to the need to ensure party unity at all levels, as that will secure victory for the NDC. The Deputy National Organizer of the NDC, Chief Biney Nickson, in a speech he read on behalf of the flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, assured the party and Ghanaians at large that the party is ready to win power in the upcoming general elections. Chief Biney We have been tasked by destiny with nothing less than pulling Ghana back from the edge of disaster. We are charged with executing a rescue mission to alleviate hardship and suffering. It is a rescue mission to halt the corruption and collapse of our democratic institutions and restore hope and confidence in the future. The campaign team members are as follows. 1. Nana Kojo Toku Chairman 2. Hon. Capt(Rtd) Anthony Cudjoe 3. Hon.Daniel Eshun 4. Joseph Nelson 5. Japhet Baidoo 6. Richard kirk-Mensah 7. Daniel Darlington Atitso 8. George Dadzie Jnr 9. Gladys Egyin 10. Hafiso Alasko 11. Papa Assan 12. Hon.Charlotte Otua Odum 13. Samuel Idun 14. Hon.George sipa Yankey 15. Hon. Armah kofi Buah 16. Anita Annan 17. Hajia Sadika 18. Hon. Alfred Ekow Gyan 19. Hon Akwasi Opong-Fosu 20. Alhaji Mahama Fuseni 21. Shirley Grace Agyekum 22. Kissi Sam 23. Brigadier General Whajah 24. Mrs Acheampong 25. Mr Augustine Nyamekye 26. Jackline Dzapata 27. Malik Bobbenla 28. Dr. Mark Carl Ahin 29. Solomon Nkansah 30. Jonathan York. ---citinewsroom The United States on Friday slapped sanctions on Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam and 10 other senior figures, in a major new step against China's clampdown in the semi-autonomous city. In the most significant US action since China imposed a tough security law, Lam and the other leaders of the Asian financial hub will have any assets in the United States blocked. The move also criminalizes any US financial transactions with them. "The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong and we will use our tools and authorities to target those undermining their autonomy," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States was acting because Beijing had violated its promise of autonomy that it made to Hong Kong before Britain handed back the territory in 1997. "Today's actions send a clear message that the Hong Kong authorities' actions are unacceptable and in contravention of the PRC's commitments under 'one country, two systems' and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a UN-registered treaty," Pompeo said. The Treasury Department said that Lam, as chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, "is directly responsible for implementing Beijing's policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes." Other sanctioned officials include Chris Tang, commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force, and Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office, Beijing's office in the city. Washington's decision is "savage and unreasonable", the Chinese city's commerce secretary said Saturday, as he warned of possible blowback for US businesses in the international financial hub. "This kind of sanction -- if targeting officials or leaders of another country -- is savage, disproportionate and unreasonable," Edward Yau told reporters. "If the US unilaterally carries out this kind of unreasonable action, it will in the end affect US companies," he added. While Chicago Public Schools has pivoted to a remote learning start for fall, area Catholic schools are moving ahead with plans for a full return to in-person classes five days a week. Even as city and state officials struggle to contain the spread of COVID-19 and warned in recent days about the upward direction of infection numbers, the Archdiocese of Chicago reiterated its plans to reopen schools later this month. The decision has upset some parents, who are worried and dissatisfied with remote learning alternatives for those who opt out, and some teachers, one of whom is leaving the job rather than return to the classroom. The Chicago Archdiocesan school system which educates more than 70,000 students in Cook and Lake counties, a fraction of the size of CPS spread out over a much larger geographic area announced reopening plans in early July, calling for a full return to in-person learning, paired with proper safety measures. The dioceses of Joliet and Rockford have unveiled similar plans. The archdioceses chief human resource officer, Justin Lombardo, said the reopening plan is still in line with public health guidance, noting that the Catholic school system differs greatly from that of CPS. The Chicago Department of Public Health has come out to us and told us that they support our plan for reopening, based on the current situation, and that were doing what we need to do to reopen safely, Lombardo told the Tribune on Wednesday. We understand that if the public guidance changes ... were ready to pivot on that. But I think the important thing is to recognize school systems are different. Archdiocesan officials say they will make e-learning available for any family that is not comfortable returning to schools but provided few explicit details of what that would look like. For teachers on the other hand who express concern about the safety of in-person instruction, Lombardo said the archdiocese, will make every effort to find ways for them to continue contributing to the education of the children in the Catholic schools. Story continues With the start of the new school year weeks away, buildings are undergoing deep cleaning, while administrators stock up on PPE and supplies necessary to perform daily wellness checks. At St. Paul of the Cross School in Park Ridge, maintenance staff spent Wednesday afternoon installing social distancing markers outside building entrances. Principal Erika Mickelburgh has worked with the parents and teachers at St. Paul to produce a 35-page reopening plan, in line with the archdioceses guidelines. As she sat in her office Wednesday, boxes of infrared thermometers and child-sized face masks lined the back wall. Students will return to St. Pauls the last week of August, divided into groups that will have designated building entrances and staggered arrival times. Mickelburgh notes that the Park Ridge school is fortunate to have such a large campus, with ample outdoor space to hold elective classes as well as Mass. But one suburban teacher, who requested anonymity because of concerns about job security, said not all schools in the Catholic system have the space to make this plan viable. The teacher said co-workers are struggling to bring classrooms up to standards of the archdiocese and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though the schools plan is very detailed, the teacher expressed skepticism that it could be successfully followed. And it feels like were so focused on the safety details that at this point we cant even be focused on learning, the teacher said. The educator said input from the teaching staff has not been considered at any point in the planning process, even though it is their lives on the line. We as a collective are dedicated to what we do, and we truly believe in the mission of educating the next generation of the church, the teacher said. I would appreciate some consideration and some loyalty to me as a teacher. Some parents are facing similar tough choices, as they say it is now clear to them the archdiocese does not plan to change course before this fall. One North Shore parent, who asked to remain anonymous because of their connection to their school, said even as the situation with the pandemic has evolved, the archdioceses plan has remained the same. They are sticking to their guns, but that seems to be unrealistic, the parent said. A lot has happened since July. Previously, some parents raised concerns about plans floated at some Catholic schools to use outside providers for remote learning. Archdiocese officials said this week they are still finalizing plans for those who opt out of classroom instruction. Among the alternatives under consideration are prepackaged lessons from an unspecified outside educational company or a remote curriculum developed by the archdiocese. At St. Paul, only three children have opted for remote learning out of about 600 students, Mickelburgh said. The parent is holding out hope for some sort of remote program offered through the archdiocese but is growing increasingly worried as summer comes to an end, saying: You start to get scared and start to almost feel like you have no option but to send your child back. 2020 the Chicago Tribune Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. With a price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 55.5x Petropavlovsk PLC (LON:POG) may be sending very bearish signals at the moment, given that almost half of all companies in the United Kingdom have P/E ratios under 15x and even P/E's lower than 9x are not unusual. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/E. Petropavlovsk certainly has been doing a good job lately as its earnings growth has been positive while most other companies have been seeing their earnings go backwards. It seems that many are expecting the company to continue defying the broader market adversity, which has increased investors willingness to pay up for the stock. If not, then existing shareholders might be a little nervous about the viability of the share price. Check out our latest analysis for Petropavlovsk pe Want the full picture on analyst estimates for the company? Then our free report on Petropavlovsk will help you uncover what's on the horizon. What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The High P/E? There's an inherent assumption that a company should far outperform the market for P/E ratios like Petropavlovsk's to be considered reasonable. If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 9.6%. Still, lamentably EPS has fallen 20% in aggregate from three years ago, which is disappointing. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time. Shifting to the future, estimates from the six analysts covering the company suggest earnings should grow by 118% each year over the next three years. With the market only predicted to deliver 12% each year, the company is positioned for a stronger earnings result. With this information, we can see why Petropavlovsk is trading at such a high P/E compared to the market. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future. Story continues What We Can Learn From Petropavlovsk's P/E? The price-to-earnings ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations. As we suspected, our examination of Petropavlovsk's analyst forecasts revealed that its superior earnings outlook is contributing to its high P/E. At this stage investors feel the potential for a deterioration in earnings isn't great enough to justify a lower P/E ratio. It's hard to see the share price falling strongly in the near future under these circumstances. It's always necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 3 warning signs with Petropavlovsk (at least 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable), and understanding these should be part of your investment process. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with a strong growth track record, trading on a P/E below 20x. 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. Price of imported natural gas in Ukraine 60% up economy ministry 11:00, 08.08.20 2854 The price grew from US$88.4 to US$140.6. EU and UK flags He may have succeeded in ditching the Irish backstop and getting his Withdrawal Agreement through Parliament against all the odds. But as Boris Johnson prepares to redraw the Brexit battlelines with the EU as negotiations resume later this month, he once again faces the prospect of a backbench rebellion over the deal he struck with Brussels last October. Although senior Brexiteers endorsed the treaty when faced with a remainer rebellion that threatened to reverse the referendum result, there is mounting disquiet among leave MPs that the agreement still isnt worth the paper it is written on. As with Theresa Mays original deal, Tory members of the European Research Group (ERG) who universally endorsed the Prime Ministers replacement plan in January are now voicing serious concerns about its similarities to its predecessor. Former Conservative party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who is leading the charge, insists the creation of a border in the Irish Sea with customs and regulatory checks on goods crossing from Britain to Northern Ireland remains a major bone of contention. This sense of semi-detachment from the EU remains unacceptable to many, he told The Telegraph. There are also concerns over ongoing powers for the European Court of Justice over the UK, special legal privileges for EU citizens living in Britain and the threat that the UK could be forced to participate in ambitious EU defence and security arrangements. The EU is also challenging the right of the UK to take back control of its fishing waters after Brexit - not to mention the reported 160 billion cost of the UK apparently remaining on the hook for the blocs ongoing liabilities. Iain Duncan Smith A recent report by the Centre for Brexit Policy (CBP) calculated that a combination of liabilities arising from British membership of the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund and the EU Budget could produce a demand from Brussels of an extra payment rising to as much as 515 billion. Story continues The report, endorsed by veteran backbenchers Sir Bill Cash and former minister Owen Paterson, described the seriously flawed Withdrawal Agreement as a poison pill warning that unless the most controversial provisions are replaced, the Government will fail to deliver on its pledge to take back control of the UKs borders, laws, trade, and money when the country finally breaks with the 27-country bloc at the end of this year. Everyone knew this stuff before, Sir Iain admitted. The reason we voted for it is because we needed to be out of the EU in order to negotiate successfully as a sovereign nation after January 31. But the negotiators are going to have to block parts of it off. It isnt only the Tory old guard who are kicking up a fuss. Newly elected Conservatives in so-called Red Wall seats are also beginning to worry that Mr Johnson - already facing criticism over his handling of the coronavirus crisis - will not be able to fully deliver his election promise of getting Brexit done. There is little doubt that "red" Tory voters will switch back to Labour at the next general election if they get even so much of a whiff of retaliation. By a margin of 49 per cent to 26 per cent, people in so-called battleground Red Wall seats polled by Savanta ComRes for the CBP study agreed with the statement: Leaving the EU in 2020, rather than later, will mean that Britain recaptures the national independence it had before it joined the Common Market in 1973 sooner. This level of agreement rises to two thirds among "Red Wall" residents who voted Labour in the 2017 general election then switched to the Conservatives in the 2019 election and nearly three quarter of people who voted Conservative in both elections. Tory backbenchers are applying pressure on David Frost, Mr Johnsons EU sherpa, to secure a sovereignty complaint final deal with Brussels which torpedoes demands that Britains business and employment laws remain in lockstep with those formed in Brussels. They also want a flat refusal of the EU's proposed control of State aid rules on government support of domestic industries. Yet with just 144 days until the end of the transition period on December 31, just how likely is Brussels to cave into such demands? "Frosty", as the UKs chief negotiator is known in civil service circles, has asserted the UKs desire to be a fully independent country at the end of the transition period, throughout the negotiations in his quest to secure a Canada-style free trade deal. Yet even if we leave without a deal - the Withdrawal Agreement still stands. With the EU having just agreed a 750 billion Covid bailout package after days of infighting, there is a school of thought that the UKs best negotiating position may be to play the Germans off against the French over the services sector. Theres an argument that we shouldnt pay them any money at all if we dont get a deal, said one Tory. If we have acted in good faith but the EU has been obstructive. But our biggest lever is that Germany still requires London for cheap capital - and they do not want to see any of our financial services going to Paris. Germany needs a trade deal with Britain for its manufacturing and France needs it for its argi-produce, so the UK is in a very strong position to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement. Formal talks between the EU and UK are set to resume in Brussels on 17 August. The Trump administration is unwilling to go that far. Such a policy, Abrams said, would be an act of war. Trump wants a war, but not an open war; the U.S. military knows that it might be able to flatten Caracas, but it would not be able to win a war against the Venezuelan people. by Vijay Prashad and Erika Ortega Sanoja On August 4, 2020, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on Venezuela. Appearing before the committee was U.S. State Department Special Representative Elliott Abrams. Abrams, who has had a longand controversialcareer in the formation of U.S. foreign policy, was assaulted by almost all the members of the Senate committee. The senators, almost without exception, suggested that Abrams had beensince 2019responsible for a failed U.S. attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro. President Maduro From Republican Senator Mitt Romney to Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, Abrams received a severe tongue-lashing. There was no disagreement in the committee about the goals of U.S. policy, namely to overthrowwith force if necessarythe government of President Maduro. Murphy laid out the timeline of Trumps policy, which began with the recognition of minor Venezuelan politician Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela in January 2019 to the current moment, including how the United Statesin Murphys wordstried to sort of construct a kind of coup in April of last year. Abrams was unfazed. Obviously we hope that [Maduro] will not survive the year and we are working hard to make that happen, he said. The policyincluding a kind of coupremains intact. Abrams has now added another file to his post: he will be Trumps special representative on Iran; the man who failed to conduct regime change in Venezuela is now going to deepen U.S. attempts to overthrow the government in Iran. Venezuelan Reaction A clip from Murphys commentsincluding the kind of coup sentencecirculated widely on social media inside Venezuela. Senior members of the Venezuelan governmentincluding Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and Foreign Minister Jorge Arreazashared it. It was also shared by former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who acidly noted that Senator Murphy is surely a good person, but he doesnt even understand what he is acknowledging. What he is saying is that the U.S. government has tried to do a coup in Venezuela. This is what created outrage in the country. We asked Foreign Minister Arreaza to comment about Murphys use of the term coup in his statement about U.S. policy vis-a-vis Venezuela. Arreaza told us the following: U.S. spokespersons continue to openly admit to their crimes and illegal aggressions against the Venezuelan people. It is not only Murphya liberal Democratwho used the language of a coup. Trumps former national security adviserJohn Boltonrecounts in his book how Trump had said that, per John Kelly, it would be cool to invade Venezuela; Trump also said that Venezuela is really part of the United States. Speaking of Murphys comment and Boltons book, Arreaza said, these confessions are priceless evidence for the complaint we raised at the International Criminal Court. Even members of the Venezuelan opposition, such as Enrique Ochoa Antich, said that the open way in which Abrams and the U.S. senators spoke of armed action against Venezuela is painful and unacceptable. The entire Trump-Bolton-Abrams policy, he said, has failed to dent the government of Maduro. Illegal Ecuadors Correa correctly said that Murphy did not know what he had acknowledged. It is rare for a U.S. politician to care when they say things that violate international law. Murphys casual statement about a coup is in clear violation of the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), of which the United States is a member. Two articles from Chapter IV of the OAS charter explicitly outlaw a coup: No State or group of States has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State. The foregoing principle prohibits not only armed force but also any other form of interference or attempted threat against the personality of the State or against its political, economic, and cultural elements. (Article 19) No State may use or encourage the use of coercive measures of an economic or political character in order to force the sovereign will of another State and obtain from it advantages of any kind. (Article 20) There is no need to interpret these articles, because they are written very plainly. They say that not only is armed force forbidden as a form of interference, but so is the use of coercive measures of an economic or political character to violate the sovereignty of a country. The tenor of the Senate hearing was in total violation of the spirit and letter of the OAS charter and the Charter of the United Nations. But this has been the behavior of the U.S. government since at least 1954, when the Central Intelligence Agency overthrew the government of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala. Failure The U.S. senators certainly attacked Abrams for his failure. But what was the failure that bothered them? Not the failure to abide by the laws and conventions signed by the United States; that was not the problem. Universally, the senators attacked Abrams for not being able to succeed with his coup plans. They gave him advice about how to better overthrow the government of Maduro. Thus far, the U.S. government has denied Venezuela access to IMF funds, charged the leadership in Venezuela of drug-trafficking (with a hallucinatory indictment), and sent a carrier group to tighten the embargo on the country; none of these policies have succeeded, despite the full weight of the U.S. government behind them. Rather than concede that the government of Maduro has popular support, the United States wants to pursue its policy with even more draconian methods. The United States is currently conducting a hybrid war, which includes an economic war (sanctions and sabotage) and an information war (coloring the government as authoritarian). Some senators wanted the Trump administration to go beyond this highly destructive form of warfare. They wanted the U.S. government to run a full blockade of Venezuelan ports. The Trump administration is unwilling to go that far. Such a policy, Abrams said, would be an act of war. Trump wants a war, but not an open war; the U.S. military knows that it might be able to flatten Caracas, but it would not be able to win a war against the Venezuelan people. This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is the chief editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest book is Washington Bullets, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma. Erika Ortega Sanoja is a Venezuelan journalist. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 21:24:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KUWAIT CITY, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait on Saturday reported 472 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 71,199 and the death toll to 474, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Currently, 7,919 patients are receiving treatment, including 125 in ICU, the statement added. The ministry also announced the recovery of 476 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 62,806. On July 28, Kuwait started the third-phase plan of restoring normal life. During the third phase, labor capacity will increase to no more than 50 percent and visits to social care homes will be allowed. 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 MASON, MI A solemn funeral procession honoring a fallen Michigan State Police trooper made its way through his hometown near Lansing on Saturday. The vehicle procession through Mason on Saturday, Aug. 8, honored Trooper Caleb Starr, who died after his patrol vehicle was hit by a woman accused of drunken driving. Officers Saturday turned on their emergency lights in tribute to Starr, 33, who died July 31 of injuries sustained in the July 10 crash near Saranac. Officers from dozens of police agencies stood and saluted as they said goodbye to Trooper Starr. American flags lined the road and two firetrucks hung an American flag over the roadway for the procession. If you are viewing this using the Facebook app, please click here to view the photo gallery. Along with the officers, dozens of people came from all over mid-Michigan to pay their respects. Lisa Perkins of Dewitt and her husband, Jon, waved flags on the street corner. We came out today to support the family of Trooper Starr and to support the police officers, we really feel like they are in a hard place right now and they need all the support, Lisa Perkins said. Though the memorial service Saturday morning was private, with limited attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the funeral home offered a live-streamed video of the service online. Posted by Gorsline-Runciman Funeral Homes on Saturday, August 8, 2020 Around 10 p.m. on July 10, a woman driving east on Grand River Avenue, west of Nash Highway, crossed the center line and struck Starrs westbound patrol vehicle head-on, state police said. The woman was also seriously injured. Starr was taken to Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital where he died. Police allege that the other driver was intoxicated. This incident was caused by a drunk driver and this was very preventable, it was preventable. So the simple message behind that is if you drink, dont drive and you can prevent a tragedy like this, said Michigan State Police Lt. Brian Oleksyk, who spoke to reporters. Thomasina Shani Jones, 28, of Montezuma Creek, Utah, was arrested Monday Aug. 3, at a home in Ionia. Jones was charged with second-degree murder, operating with a high blood-alcohol content with a prior conviction, operating while license is suspended, revoked or denied, causing death, and operating while intoxicated. Jones is being held without bond, awaiting her next court hearing. Starr joined the state police force in September 2018 and was assigned to the agencys Lakeview post. He lived in Mason with his wife, Rachael, and their daughters, ages 5 and 2. A GoFundMe page was established in support of his family, and the Michigan State Troopers Assistance Fund is also accepting donations by mail or online. The Michigan State Police Troopers Association, which manages the fund, reminds donors to indicate their donation is intended to support the Starr family. Those who would like to pay their respects to the troopers family can leave a message here. Read more: Woman charged with murder in crash that killed Michigan State Police trooper State police trooper dies 3 weeks after head-on Ionia County crash Police believe Utah woman was drinking before crash that seriously injured state trooper Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Saturday warned the government would take over private medical colleges in the union territory if they did not cooperate by admitting COVID-19 patients in their hospitals. Government hospitals were doing their best to ensure that patients were taken care, he said at a virtual press conference. "We need the cooperation of seven private medical colleges as the number of infections has been on the rise now," he added. The chief minister said the managements of these colleges had accepted at one stage the plea of the government to make their hospitals available for admission of COVID-19 patients. "But there are still some colleges who do not pay heed to the government's repeated pleas to make the facilities in the colleges and hospitals available for patients referred by the government," he added. "If these colleges played a hide-and-seek game in honouring their commitment, the government would not hesitate to take over the institutions and there would be no other option. This measure would be in the larger interest of saving patients," the Chief Minister said. Expressing concern over the rise in the number of cases in in the last few days, Narayanasamy said the infected patients had to be given immediate treatment. The government had earmarked Rs 1.2 crore from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund and Covid-19 fund to purchase around 50,000 RTPCR equipment to test swabs. He said presently government hospitals in Karaikal, Yanam and Mahe had to rely on government facilities in neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala for testing, adding it took three days to a week to get the results. The chief minister further said the government had decided to set up testing facilities in hospitals in these three regions to speed up the process. He criticised the "negligence and careless attitude of people in adhering to safety norms" and said it had resulted in the rise in cases. Narayanasamy said he had received reports that people gathered in large numbers at temples and social functions and funerals which resulted in people contracting the virus and spreading the infection. "The State Disaster Management Authority would have its meeting on Wednesday next. If we find that there is continued negligence and careless attitude on the part of the people, traders, youth and women in following safety norms, the government will be forced to reintroduce stringent measures and total lock down permitting only essential services," he added. Narayanasamy said the life of people was more important and revenue mobilisation is secondary, adding "unless we take stringent measures the number of cases would go up faster... I think the trend of increase would continue till September." He said seven medical teams had been formed to go to different areas to monitor home quarantined patients. (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 woman wearing gloves drops off a mail-in ballot at a drop box in Hackensack, N.J., on July 7, 2020. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo) Tens of Thousands of Voters Receive Sketchy Mail-In Ballot Applications Voters across the country are receiving mail-in ballot applications that contain inaccurate and potentially misleading information, election officials say. The Center for Voter Information (CVI) and its affiliate the Voter Participation Center, both based in Washington, are sending the applications to voters in 20 states. The groups were founded by Page Gardner, who has worked on multiple Democrat campaigns. The group says it is nonpartisan but was founded with the help of John Podesta, President Bill Clintons former chief of staff, according to documents obtained by watchdog Judicial Watch. Voters in multiple Virginia jurisdictions recently received vote-by-mail applications from the Center for Voter Information with a reply envelope addressed to the incorrect registrars office, the state Board of Elections said this week. Fairfax County election officials warned voters about the inaccurate, potentially misleading mailing, emphasizing the mailing was not from the county. Dave Bjerke, director of elections for the City of Falls Church, tagged CVI on Twitter, writing, Its not helpful to mail absentee by-mail apps en mass without checking with election offices who process them. It is not election day but it feels like it by the number of calls Ive received from concerned citizens, he added. CVI said that approximately 500,000 applications sent to voters in Virginia included incorrect information. We are alerting voters about this inaccurate, potentially misleading mailing from the Center for Voter Information. Fairfax County did NOT send it. Learn more, including the most secure way to apply to #votebymail: https://t.co/NsA2oN35B2 pic.twitter.com/XPZSBT7zWj Fairfax County Votes (@fairfaxvotes) August 6, 2020 We know that voters are on high alert as the November election approaches, and we regret adding to any confusion, it said in a statement. The center also released a statement from Jonathan Shapiro, president and CEO of Smith-Edwards-Dunlap Company, the printer the center uses. Acknowledging a major error happened during the printing, Shapiro said the incorrect information was printed because workers failed to properly align a spreadsheet that matched voters with their local election office. We are keenly aware of the seriousness of this mistake. We added to the burden already felt by local election boards and made their jobs significantly harder. Worse, this error created confusion for voters who are trying to exercise their right to vote from home, safely and conveniently, he said, adding later, We have analyzed the root cause of this error and are taking steps to ensure that nothing like this can happen in future mailings. But its not the first time Center for Voter Information mailings have contained inaccurate information or details that violate the law. Some 80,000 North Carolina voters received mail-in ballot applications with information already filled out on the forms, a violation of state law, the North Carolina State Board of Elections announced in June. County boards of elections that receive an invalid absentee request form will send a letter to the voter informing them of the issue, the board said. The letter will include a blank request form for the voter to return. Third-party groups are legally allowed to send mail-in ballot applications. The efforts can be confusing or frustrating for voters and erode confidence in elections, especially when they are unsolicited, the state board said in a press release. The state and county boards of elections encourage third-party groups to consider the overwhelming toll that misleading or confusing mailings and other outreach efforts take on elections resources and the damage they cause to voters confidence in elections, Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the N.C. State Board of Elections, said in a statement. We need our elections officials to be focused on serving more than 7 million voters during a pandemic. The center in a statement blamed election officials and state lawmakers. As a convenience, CVI had filled out the names and addresses of the 80,000 North Carolina residents, as is common and legal in most states. However, the new state law in North Carolina is poorly worded, the group said. CVI believed that it was complying with the new law, and had received written assurances from the state regarding its mailing. Minneapolis election officials alerted voters about a CVI mailing, emphasizing they did not send the ballot applications. Florida election officials earlier this year also warned voters about mailings from CVI and its affiliate. A mass mailing being sent to over 188,000 voters includes potentially misleading information to registered voters and other residents, the office of Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link said in an alert in April. Voters have reported receiving pre-filled registration forms for deceased pets, voters who died 20 years ago, deceased children, and people who have never lived in Florida, the office said, adding that the groups use lists created from data that is outdated or incorrect. Officials in New Mexico, Louisiana, and Colorado have also expressed concern over CVI mailings. Gardner defended the Florida mailings in a statement to CBS12, saying, VPC and CVIs April mailings target historically disenfranchised Americans including people of color, unmarried women, and young people. The envelopes inside the mailings go straight to the elections officials, and thats how its been designed forever and we are in contact with elections officials, as we start every single mailing we let them know, Gardner told ABC11. We are doing a vote-by-mail mailing or a registration mailing telling them how many pieces. So we are trying to be very good partners with the state as well as very transparent, she added. Five states allowed mail-in voting for any voters before the COVID-19 pandemic: Oregon, Hawaii, Colorado, Utah, and Washington. Several states have dramatically changed policies in recent months, allowing widespread mail-in voting. Some states, such as Michigan and Wisconsin, are sending mail-in ballot applications to all voters. More 'county lockdowns' will be rolled out across the country in a bid to stamp out clusters of Covid-19 at their source. Gardai are to mount checkpoints in Kildare, Offaly and Laois for the next two weeks in an attempt to keep 385,000 residents in effective lockdown. Non-essential travel to and from the counties is now banned while restaurants, pubs and other industries were told they must close their doors. The move was met with a backlash from some business representatives who described it as a "knee-jerk reaction" and claim it will cost jobs. Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn admitted he was "not surprised that people are angry" but argued the situation "is really rapid, an awful lot can happen in 24 hours, never mind two weeks". Taoiseach Micheal Martin called for "constant vigilance" from the public and said he wants everyone to "continue putting the virus under pressure". "We are all responsible for each other. By acting responsibly and following the advice, each of us will protect all of us," he said. Irresponsible Mr Martin's warning came as the HSE announced 98 new cases of Covid-19 and the deaths of four people who contracted the virus. The figures included 35 new cases in Kildare, 26 in Offaly and five in Laois. However, CEO of County Kildare Chamber Alan Shine warned at least 1,200 people will be laid off due to a "needless, irresponsible and knee-jerk" Government reaction which has "failed business in the region". Mr Shine said there has been "absolutely no engagement or consultation" from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), the HSE or the Government with local businesses before they imposed the lockdown. "We are at pains to understand why Nphet and the Government could not take the stance to order a comprehensive sweep of community testing in the areas affected in Kildare, Laois and Offaly," he said. "It's incredible there is no testing area in Kildare with a population of over 220,000 people." Mr Shine said people with suspected cases have to travel to Dublin for testing, sometimes by public transport. Fianna Fail TD James Lawless was also critical of the lack of testing facilities in Kildare. "I am aware of one family who had to travel to a testing facility at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, and others who were invited for testing but did not travel due to difficulties in getting to the stadium," he said. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said the three counties were "paying the price" for a lack of inspections in meat factories and Direct Provision centres. "This must be urgently addressed, the community must be protected," she said. The decision to lock down the three counties followed a Nphet meeting which recommended the reintroduction of quarantine measures. Dr Glynn informed the Taoiseach and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly of their guidance. After the meeting, Mr Martin called Tanaiste Leo Varadkar and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan to inform them of the public health advice on the rise in cases. A memo on the new restrictions was then agreed through an incorporeal Cabinet meeting which involves a government official phoning ministers asking them for approval. Debate The decision angered some ministers who insisted locking down three counties should have been decided after a Cabinet debate. "There really should have been a Cabinet debate on such a significant decision which is impacting on hundreds of thousands of people," a minister said. Another senior government source said: "The warning signs have been in place for over two weeks so why no action before now?" Why no measures for meat factories or Direct Provision centres?" As of today, there will be garda checkpoints monitoring citizens movement around Kildare, Offaly and Laois. Cafes, restaurants and pubs operating as restaurants will have to close unless they are doing takeaway service or have outdoor dining. Indoor gatherings are to be reduced to a maximum of six people from no more than three households and outdoor gatherings limited to a maximum of 15 people. Cinemas, theatres, museums, galleries, bingo halls, casinos, betting shops and other indoor recreational and cultural outlets will also be closed. Kachins Complain of 'Tax' Collection by Ethnic Armed Group Amid COVID-19 2020-08-07 -- A rebel armed ethnic group is taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to extort money from Kachin businesspeople in Myanmar's far north, placing an undue financial burden on locals who already are struggling to make ends meet, residents said Thursday. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has imposed a "tax" on shop owners and jade traders, according to several residents who spoke to RFA's Myanmar Service on condition of anonymity out of concern for their safety. Kachin soldiers make the owners of small and medium-size shops pay 400,000 to 1 million kyats (U.S. $290-$726), but have demanded between 1 million and 2 million kyats from proprietors of large stores, one resident said. They collect about 50,000 kyats from bosses in the jade-trading business in the state, home to Hpakant, the world's largest jadeite mine. "During the COVID pandemic, many shops are closed," the resident said. "The entry to the Hpakant area is closed. The Union government has decreased taxes for poor people. They [KIA soldiers] should stop collecting 'tax' in the area." Locals said they are still being double-taxed by the government and the KIA. Kachin state's largely impoverished population suffers from being in a conflict zone since a cease-fire between the KIA and Myanmar forces ended in 2011, with central government authority challenged by militias, criminal groups smuggling drugs and jade, and other shady operators. Both the KIA and the Myanmar military are active in Hpakant, seen of repeated deadly jade mine disasters. Over the decades, residents have been subjected to rights violations and abuses such as extortion, forced recruitment and porterage, and restrictions on movement. In recent years, Kachin activists have reported cases of torture, murder, and rape allegedly committed by Myanmar soldiers. Nearly 100,000 displaced civilians who have been unable to return to their homes live in more than 130 camps in government-controlled, ethnic army-controlled, and contested areas. Representatives of the KIA are sending businesspeople letters with a phone number to call so they can hit them up for payments, a Hpakant resident said. "We have to contact them and then arrive at the appointed place," the local said. "Usually they ask for large sums of money as a tax." Police officer Tin Htwe from the Hpakant township police station said no one has filed complaints about the KIA collecting "taxes." "If they file a complaint, we will work on it. If someone is doing something illegal, we will make it known," he said. KIA spokesman Colonel Naw Bu acknowledged that the armed group is collecting tax to support its operations. "We ordered the collection of an amount that is comfortable for local people." he said. "We ordered our troops not to threaten the civilians." Darshi La Sai, Kachin state's resource and environmental conservation minister, said the lack of peace in Myanmar has created situations in which the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups can demand that people pay them money. "If the [government] achieves peace, then there will be only one military, and if the military is placed under the government's control, then only the government will be authorized to collect taxes," he said. But under the current circumstances, all ethnic armed groups also can demand payments in areas where they operate, Darshi La Sai said. "All ethnic armed groups will collect tax in territories they control," he said. About 1 million Kachin live in Myanmar, while 147,000 live in neighboring China. Reported by Soe San Aung for RFA's Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. 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 August 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address O ne of Donald Trump's leading evangelical Christian supporters has stepped aside from his university job after posting a photo of himself online with his trousers unzipped. Jerry Falwell Jr said he would take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as president and chancellor of Liberty University, among the world's largest evangelical colleges. Mr Falwell admitted that the photo was "weird", but added that it was "all in good fun". Liberty University's board said in a statement on Friday: "The Executive Committee of Liberty University's Board of Trustees, acting on behalf of the full Board, met today and requested that Jerry Falwell, Jr take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University, to which he has agreed, effective immediately." Jerry Falwell, Jr. / Getty Images The photo in question showed Mr Falwell with his arm draped around a woman who was not his wife. Her shorts were also unbuttoned. He appeared to be holding a glass of a dark-coloured liquid in his other hand. He said in a caption: "More vacation shots. Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. I promise that's just black water in my glass." The post has since been deleted. The university has a conservative code of conduct, with sex before marriage banned among students, and watching or listening to media content deemed "offensive to Liberty's standards and traditions", like songs with rude words or sexual materials, is also prohibited on campus. The photo sparked outrage and cries of hypocrisy from across the political spectrum. Republican congressman Mark Waller, chairman of the House Republican Caucus and an advisory board member at Liberty University, called for Mr Falwell to step down from his job at the Lynchburg, Virginia college. Mr Waller said: "Jerry Falwell Jr's ongoing behaviour is appalling. I'm convinced Falwell should step down." Speaking to WLNI, a local Virginia radio station, earlier this week, Mr Falwell acknowledged the criticism and said the woman in the photo was his wife's assistant. He said: "Yeah, it was weird. She's pregnant. She couldn't get her pants zipped and I was like trying to like I had on a pair of jeans I haven't worn in a long time and couldn't get zipped either. So, I just put my belly out like hers." Liberty University was founded by Mr Falwell's father in 1971. Mr Falwell was appointed president when his father died in 2007. The university has been called "a bastion of the Christian right" by the Washington Post and several Republican presidential candidates, including Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney, have given speeches on campus in recent years. Mr Falwell was an early supporter of President Trump and is considered influential in helping the-then presidential candidate gain the support of many evangelical voters in Mr Trump's first White House run. He has endured other controversial moments at Liberty University. In May, Mr Falwell posted a photo of a face mask showing one figure in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe, referring to a racism scandal involving the Democratic governor of Virginia. Pranab Mondal By Express News Service KOLKATA: In an example of communal harmony and humanity, Muslim neighbours of a Hindu man helped perform his last rites in Jhargram district of West Bengal on Thursday. The 62-year-old man died after suffering a cardiac arrest shortly after being refused treatment by a doctor at the local health centre as he had not gone through a Covid-19 test. From gathering wood for the funeral to carrying the body to the crematorium, the neighbours helped his family perform all rituals. Jugal Das was taken to Binpur rural hospital on Thursday morning after complaining of chest pain. There was a lady doctor at the healthcare centre. We told her that my father had fever five days ago. She refused to examine my father and asked us to conduct Covid-19 test first and come only if he tests negative. We had to return home. In the afternoon, he complained of severe chest pain and died, said Sujit, Jugals son. As the news of his death spread, Jugals neighbours arrived at his house to help the family. In our village, there are about 300 Muslims families and 10 Hindu households. I will never forget what they did for us when an educated doctor refused to treat my father, said Sujit. We always come forward whenever anyone is in distress. When Jugal was admitted to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata in 2009, I spent three nights at the hospital, Sheikh Kader, one of Jugals neighbours, said. Sheikh Siddiqui said he and others of his community collected wood, bought clothes and other items for Jugals last rites. It's the middle of summer and bulldozers are flattening two dozen private dachas in the picturesque district of Bustonliq, in northeastern Uzbekistan, to make way for a state project to turn the area into a tourist hub. We got a phone call from our neighbor who told us our dacha in [the village of] Khumson was being knocked down. We rushed to the village and saw that the walls of the house were already demolished, a homeowner told RFE/RLs Uzbek Service on August 4. "There were two vehicles, an excavator, and a team of about 10 workers at the scene," he said. "Some 40 percent of the dacha had already been destroyed." The man spoke on condition of anonymity fearing retaliation by authorities. Dacha owners in the Khumson and Khujakent villages claim officials havent given them any notice about the demolitions. Private summer homes are being razed when the owners are away, residents claim. Several other dacha owners in Bustonliq gave a similar account. Officials, however, insist they are not breaking any laws. Local authorities say they have a court order to demolish the summer houses that were built without planning permission. According to authorities, some of the houses built without authorization are located dangerously close to high-voltage electric transmission towers and a wind turbine. All these holiday homes have been constructed illegally and are subject to demolition. By law, in such cases the owners dont get any compensation, said an official at the Bustonliq district government. The official spoke to RFE/RL anonymously as they werent authorized to speak to the media. Local outlets reported that out of the 24 dachas on the demolition list, only two were deemed eligible for compensation to be paid to the owners. Some homeowners and journalists have questioned the impartiality of the judges who recently ruled in favor of the demolition. But nothing is stopping the government from going ahead with its plan. Two years ago, the Prime Ministers Office ordered the demolition of the premises that were built illegally. Also, the president had issued a decree, the official added. The official was referring to a 2017 document signed by President Shavkat Mirzioyev about creating a so-called free tourism zone in Bustonliq. The zone will be named Chorvoq. In 2018, the government announced plans to build modern hotel complexes, restaurants, and other infrastructure while expanding the roads in the rural area as part of the multimillion-dollar Chorvoq project. Locals Pay The Price Bustonliq is known for its scenic hilltops, mountainous rivers, and lush green landscapes. Located some 120 kilometers northeast of the capital, Tashkent, it has long been a popular holiday destination for city dwellers escaping the summer heat. There are already many hotels and a reservoir that attract mainly Uzbeks for vacations. The government in the Central Asian nation of some 30 million people now wants to develop the area into a potentially money-making tourism hub for international visitors. Many local residents believe they are paying the price for Tashkents ambitious projects. Dozens of homes were abruptly torn down in 2018 outside of the capital as authorities widened a road that became part of the so-called presidential highway frequently used by Mirziyoevs entourage. Authorities at the time said financial compensation and new homes were being given to the owners. Some complained they werent even given time to remove their furniture -- while others said the compensation didnt cover the cost of their homes and property that were seized from them. Supreme Courts Role Questioned Last month, the authorities organized a press tour for local journalists to the site of the illegally built dachas in Bustonliq to promote the governments side of the story. Among officials who took part in the tour was Supreme Court Deputy Chairman Kholmumin Yodgorov. He sought to convince reporters that leveling the dachas in Bustonliq was an entirely lawful act. His comments prompted a backlash from lawmaker Rasul Kusherbaev, who cast doubt on the Supreme Courts neutrality. Kusherbaev said it was strange that the deputy head of the country's high court, a supposedly independent body, was trying to justify the governments controversial action. The lawmaker was quoted by local media as saying: Doesn't that sound like the judiciary is acting as an advocate for the executive branch and unconditionally fulfilling its instructions? In Khumson, meanwhile, many dacha owners are not ready to give up on their properties. My mother stood in front of the excavator to stop the workers, one homeowner said. The workers quietly left. They havent yet come back. But it remains unclear if the homeowners are going to appeal the court ruling that approved the demolitions, paving the authorities way to raze the remaining dachas to the ground. Written by Farangis Najibullah and based on reporting by RFE/RL Uzbek Service correspondent Mehribon Bekieva This should upset the apple cart of the western world Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko earlier said that mass vaccination in Russia is expected to kick off in October. According to the minister, all expenses will be covered from the state budget. Russia will register its first vaccine against the coronavirus on 12 August, Deputy Health Minister Oleg Gridnev said Friday. At the moment, the last, third, stage is underway. The trials are extremely important. We have to understand that the vaccine must be safe. Medical professionals and senior citizens will be the first to get vaccinated, Gridnev told reporters at the opening of a cancer centre building in the city of Ufa.According to the minister, the effectiveness of the vaccine will be judged when the population has developed an immunity. The vaccine has been developed jointly by the Gamaleya Research Institute and the Russian Defence Ministry. By PTI MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has sought a clarification from the Maharashtra government after the court was informed that COVID test reports of Mahesh Raut and Anand Teltumbde, both accused in the Elgar Parishad- Koregaon Bhima case, bore identical findings on weight, height, and some other vital health parameters. The discrepancy was brought to the notice of the HC on August 5 by Raut's counsel Vijay Hiremath during a hearing through video conference. The state government had submitted the COVID test reports for both the accused on August 3, following previous orders of the high court. The contents of the report were made public on August 5. Raut's counsel Hiremath claimed that while the report said Raut had tested negative for coronavirus, his vitals and other details were exactly the same as that mentioned in Teltumbde's report. The COVID report for Teltumbde showed that he had developed antibodies for the coronavirus, which means he must have been infected by the virus at some point. Advocate Hiremath told the court that the said reports must not he accepted by the court. "I told HC that I was disputing my client's (Raut's) report. How can the weight, height, blood pressure, pulse, oxygen levels, everything be identical for two different persons?" Hiremath said. "We don't know if these reports belong to these persons or not?" he said. The court then raised the question of authenticity of the reports before the state. State counsel and public prosecutor YP Yagnik said he will take instructions from the Taloja prison authorities and get back to the court. "YP Yagnik, learned Public Prosecutor states that after re-verification he would make statement before this Court whether the medical report dated 3rd August, 2020, submitted by him before this Court is the report of the under trial prisoner Mahesh Sitaram Raut or not," the HC said. Raut, Teltumbde, and co-accused Vernon Gonsalves had approached the HC last month seeking that they be tested for coronavirus. In their pleas filed through Hiremath and senior counsel Mihir Desai, they had told the HC that they had all been in close contact with co-accused Varavara Rao at the Taloja prison. Rao had tested positive for coronavirus on July 16. He has been undergoing treatment at the Nanavati hospital in the city. The case pertains to caste violence that took place near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial in Pune district of Maharashtra on January 1, 2018, following alleged provocative speeches at Elgar Parishad conclave at Pune a day earlier. Teltumbde and several other rights activists were booked under stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for allegedly having Maoist links and conspiring to overthrow the government. Australians are being offered a unique opportunity to enjoy a foreign trip this summer, even with international travel being banned due to coronavirus restrictions. Qantas have teamed with Antarctica Flights and up to bring Australians an awe-inspiring experience flying over the continent, but unfortunately - travellers can't step foot on the ground. Keen travellers can book a seat on 'the world's most scenic flight' with Qantas, a 13-hour round-trip to Antarctica, flying over the area's vast and stunning landscape. Those unique flights will start this summer on November 15, leaving from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Foreign travel has been banned since March 20, but Qantas has found a unique way to take Australians overseas (pictured, passengers arriving in Sydney from Melbourne on August 5) The company's website explains that the flight takes approximately 12.5 hours depending on the city of origin (pictured, a flight with the company teaming up with Qantas) There are seven flights available in total. 'It really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit Antarctica in a day,' Bas Bosschieter, Antarctica Flights CEO, told 7news.com.au. 'I personally think it's the best answer to the question "What did you get up to on the weekend?" "Just popped down to Antarctica". 'Whilst it is very difficult for Australians to travel overseas at this time, our Antarctica Flights guests will be able to "visit" another continent in a day.' The company's website explains that the flight takes approximately 12.5 hours depending on the city of origin. Antarctica experts will also be onboard the flight to talk about the environment and its history, giving passengers an insightful experience into the unique continent. Within three hours of flying south of Australia, guests will start to see scatterings of ice following by mesmerising icebergs. The flight over the land mass goes for three to four hours, before turning back to head home to Australia. Australians have been stopped from travelling internationally since March 20 (pictured, passengers going into quarantine after arriving to Sydney from Melbourne on Saturday) Antarctica Flights and Qantas have teamed up to bring Australians an awe-inspiring experience. However, there is a catch - travellers cannot step foot on the ground (stock image) The cost of the flights start from $1,199 for economy while business class and deluxe seats will set travellers back an eye-watering $7,999. But flights will be a little different this year due to coronavirus restrictions. Passengers and crew will be required to complete a health and safety declaration form and have their temperature checked before boarding. Anyone with a temperate of 38C or above will be denied access to the flight and given a credit. There will be less movement on board and no check-in will be required at the airport, reducing contact with others. Prior to take-off everyone will be given a disposable mask, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitiser. Australians returning from abroad are required to quarantine (pictured, airline passengers off a flight from Melbourne wait in line to be checked off by NSW Police on Saturday) His comments came after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he expected borders to reopen on January 1, 2021 and the first people to be allowed back would be international students Qantas has also increased cleaning on the flights and provided additional head rests for when passengers switch seats. Australians have been stopped from travelling internationally since March 20, and anyone wishing to leave the country must be granted an exemption from the Department of Home Affairs. Anyone returning home to Australia must quarantine in a hotel for two weeks and have been required to do so since March 22 - with the government no longer footing the bill. Prime Minister Scott Morrison told A Current Affair on July 23 it was a challenging decision to make of when borders would reopen for international travel. 'Right now the opportunity for large-scale travel beyond our borders is not foreseeable,' he said. Prior to take-off to Antarctica everyone will be given a disposable mask, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitiser. Qantas has also increased cleaning on the flights and provided additional head rests for when passengers switch seats (stock image) However he expected that a travel bubble would open up with New Zealand by the end of the year - but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has indicated this may no longer go ahead due to the Victorian outbreak. His comments came after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he expected borders to reopen on January 1, 2021 and the first people to be allowed back would be international students. 'From January 1 to June 30, 2021, it is assumed that the travel ban is lifted, but that a two-week quarantine period is required of arrivals to Australia,' a statement said. 'This leads to the resumption of arrivals by temporary and permanent migrants, but at lower levels overall than normal.' Mr Frydenberg stressed at the time no policy decisions had been made. Actor Sanjay Dutt has been admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai after he complained of breathlessness. Hospital authorities said the actor has tested negative for Covid-19. As per ANI, Sanjay will be keep in the hospital for medical observation and he is perfectly fine. Tweeting about it, Sanjay wrote, Just wanted to assure everyone that Im doing well. Im currently under medical observation & my COVID-19 report is negative. With the help & care of the doctors, nurses & staff at Lilavati hospital, I should be home in a day or two. He was admitted to Lilavati Hospital around 4.30-5 pm for regular check-up as he was feeling a little breathless. They did a COVID-19 test and the result was negative, his sister Priya Dutt told PTI. She added that Sanjay might get discharged on Monday. We have kept him in the hospital so that he gets all of his tests done. He has gone for a full check-up. I think he will come home on Monday, Priya said. A hospital official said the actor is absolutely fine. His antigen test for COVID-19 is negative. He is absolutely fine and being treated for mild breathlessness, the official said. Sanjay recently celebrated his 61st birthday. His last three releases were 2019s Kalank--with an ensemble cast including Madhuri Dixit, Aditya Roy Kapur, Alia Bhatt, Sonakshi Sinha, Varun Dhawan and others--and Panipat with Arjun Kapoor and Kriti Sanon; and political drama Prasthaanam with Manisha Koirala and Ali Fazal. Also read: Rana Daggubati shares pic with father, uncle Venkatesh before wedding to Miheeka Bajaj, says hes ready Sanjay will now be seen in Sadak 2, Bhuj and Torbaaz. Sadak 2 marks filmmaker Mahesh Bhatts comeback as a director after 21 years. Apart from Pooja, the movie also features Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanjay Dutt, and Alia Bhatt in pivotal roles. He will also star in the second instalment of KGF and alongside Ranbir Kapoor in Shamshera. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Randy Romero, one of few people wearing a mask, says the pledge of allegiance at an Atwater City Council meeting in May. The city declared itself a "sanctuary city" in defiance of the state's stay-at-home orders. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) It was a boast heard around this Central Valley town of 30,000, courtesy of Mayor Paul Creighton. Atwater had not just flattened the COVID-19 case curve. "We've smashed the curve," he declared. With just 12 confirmed cases, the City Council in mid-May declared Atwater a "sanctuary city" for business, allowing all businesses to reopen in defiance of California's shutdown orders. How times have changed. Cases have surged past 800 in Atwater. Merced County is on the state's coronavirus watch list. And federal officials have declared the rural, agricultural Central Valley one of the nation's most worrisome hot spots for the spread of the virus. What has not changed is Atwater's defiance. City leaders refuse to rescind the sanctuary city resolution despite the state's withholding federal emergency coronavirus relief funds because of it. "They have tried to put a gun to our heads to make us fold," Creighton said at a recent City Council meeting. "They want our citizens to feel scared and vulnerable. Don't be. They want to increase political heat or we become the next victim in a long line of victims in today's cancel culture." Unless Atwater scraps its sanctuary city resolution, the state will withhold up to $387,428 for which the city is eligible because it is violating state public health rules, the Governor's Office of Emergency Services told city leaders late last month. The state has already withheld the Atwater's first allocation of $64,833, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the state emergency services agency. "Any municipality that takes actions that endanger the health and welfare of its citizens, the state is going to take a close look at,"Ferguson told The Times. The tussle comes as COVID-19 cases have exploded in Merced County. The county had 5,012 confirmed cases as of Friday. On June 6, it had just 343 cases. Atwater had 831 confirmed cases as of Friday. On June 6, it had confirmed 32 cases. Story continues Atwater has more coronavirus cases per capita than Merced county's two largest cities, Merced (population 83,000) and Los Banos (population 40,000), according to a Times analysis. Despite being home to 10.6% of the county's population, the city has about 16.6% of known infections in the county. While Californias second surge of coronavirus this summer is showing signs of stabilization, the increased spread in the Central Valley are a source of deep worry among physicians and public health officials. Although L.A. may be looking a bit better, theres significant movement of virus from Bakersfield all the way up the Central Valley into Stockton, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White Houses coronavirus response coordinator, said in a recording of a conference call obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. Gov. Gavin Newsom has identified the Central Valley as a region in great need of resources to slow the spread of the virus. He is sending "strike teams" of state, federal and local personnel there and asked state lawmakers to approve $52 million to improve testing, tracing and isolation protocols in eight counties: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare, and Kern. Newsom's decision to target the Central Valley coincides with his funding standoff with Atwater and Coalinga, a city of 16,000 in Fresno County. On July 23, Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, sent letters to the city managers of Atwater and Coalinga, which passed a resolution in May declaring all businesses to be essential. Coalinga's share of the federal funds, Ghilarducci wrote, would have been up to $212,358. The state has already blocked the first allocation of some $36,000. In order to be eligible for funding, assuming it meets the other prescribed criteria, the city would need to rescind this resolution, Ghilarducci wrote to both cities. The state says the cities are violating rules that govern the distribution of $1.8 billion allocated to California through the federal CARES Act. California's largest communities received money directly from the federal government a total of $5.8 billion to counties and cities with populations over 500,000 while the state budget includes a detailed plan to help less-populated areas. Neither Atwater nor Coalinga will budge. Coalinga City Manager Marissa Trejo said that, after receiving the letter, she invited state officials to participate in a special City Council meeting via Zoom to discuss rescinding the resolution. They declined. The City Council voted to reaffirm it. In emails that she shared with The Times, Trejo told Office of Emergency Services officials that Coalinga was "being held to a higher standard" than other cities in order to receive the funds. Other cities might not have resolutions, she wrote, but "they are not enforcing" state health orders. "To be honest," she wrote, "I am not aware of any businesses in Coalinga operating against the existing orders. There is nowhere in Coalinga that I can dine in. None of our restaurants are even offering outdoor dining. I have not seen a single hair salon, barbershop or nail salon open." In Atwater, the politically potent "sanctuary city" label won support from officials across the U.S. and quickly landed Creighton on "Fox & Friends," where he called state lockdown orders "draconian." But it also provoked anger among some residents who called it political grandstanding. Despite its defiance, the city last week posted on its Facebook page photos of municipal employees covering their faces and wearing matching T-shirts that said, "Mask Up Atwater." At a raucous City Council meeting last week, members of the Freedom Angels Foundation best known for their anti-vaccine activism rallied outside City Hall in support of the sanctuary city resolution. In a Facebook video beforehand, the group's co-founders said Creighton had reached out to them and asked them to show up and "wear red as a sign of solidarity." At the meeting, officials including the city manager, two council members and the police chief who were not publicly covering their faces around the time the resolution was passed, wore masks at times. Creighton took his off while he was on the dais. Resident Mary McWatters said she was baffled the financially strapped city was willing to lose emergency funds. "Mr. Creighton, you believe that your constituents and Donald Trump are on your side," she said. "Well, Donald Trump is not going to bail this city out." Resident Theron Sanders Sr., wearing a star-spangled bandanna around his neck, said he masked up in public to keep mom-and-pop businesses in compliance with safety rules and, therefore, open. He wanted the sanctuary city resolution left in place. "We need our economy to be able to continue to grow," he said. "We need to be able to stay open. ... I believe this 'plandemic' is entirely designed to not only bring down our economy but to destroy our president." The shutdowns walloped Atwater just as it was starting to claw back from the Great Recession. Last year, the state auditor ranked Atwater the second-most financially distressed city in the state, behind Compton. Creighton said the city has since balanced its budget and did not count on getting state or federal help anyway. Newsom, he told The Times, is "just downright bullying" his city. Creighton said he was only trying to help small businesses devastated by the shutdown orders, which allowed chain retailers such as Walmart and Target to stay open, with varied compliance with safety rules. Among the facilities in Merced County with an active COVID-19 outbreak is the Walmart Supercenter in Atwater, according to the county. "The only thing we did with the sanctuary city is allow businesses to open up," Creighton said. "We still socially distance. We still wear masks. We still do good hygiene. ... It seems like we're arbitrarily being picked on." Times staff writer Sean Greene contributed to this report. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 22:46:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council on Saturday submitted a bill to an ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, asking the NPC Standing Committee to make a decision for the sixth Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to continue operation. Entrusted by the State Council, Xia Baolong, head of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, explained the bill to lawmakers at the session. On July 28, HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam submitted a report to the central government on matters concerning the postponement of the 2020 LegCo election in response to the emergencies brought by the recent COVID-19 epidemic in Hong Kong. The HKSAR Chief Executive in Council has decided to postpone the election of the seventh-term LegCo, which was originally scheduled for Sept. 6, 2020, for one year, and has asked the central government in the report to request the NPC Standing Committee to make arrangements on the vacancy of the LegCo incurred due to the postponement. The decision made by the HKSAR Chief Executive in Council to postpone the LegCo election in accordance with Hong Kong's Emergency Regulations Ordinance has solid legal basis and is in line with the actual conditions of the epidemic development in Hong Kong, according to the State Council. The decision to postpone the LegCo election will help safeguard public security as well as the justice and fairness of the election. It serves the public interests and is necessary and appropriate, according to the State Council. The State Council sent an official letter to Chief Executive Carrie Lam on July 29, expressing the central government's support for the decision. Deciding in time on matters concerning the vacancy of the LegCo by the NPC Standing Committee in accordance with the law is very necessary for ensuring the governance of the HKSAR government and the normal operation of Hong Kong society, as well as for maintaining the prosperity and stability in Hong Kong, according to the State Council. Enditem On lockdown at her parents 500-year-old stone farmhouse in the Sarthe region of France, Victoria Schwab is, like many of us, stressed out. I landed here an hour after lockdown, and I feel safe, from a very privileged perspective. Its like Im in a medieval village, says the Nashville-raised author, who now calls Edinburgh, Scotland, home. I feel like the whole world is burning, and I cant do anything, says Schwab. Shes taken these feelings of helplessness and decided to focus on work. And Schwab, 33, is nothing if not a good worker. Now a frequent bestseller, Schwab, whos notably prolific, is known for successful fantasy series like the Darker Shade of Magic trilogy and the Villains duology. She has published 17 titles (plus comics and graphic novels) since making her YA debut with 2011s The Near Witch (Disney). A decade into her career and about to launch her next book, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (Oct. 6, Tor), the publishing process should be old hat for Schwab. But this one feels different. Im coming up on my 10-year anniversary of my first book, she says, but in some form Ive been working on Addie since then. Addie LaRue centers on a woman who makes a Faustian bargain to live forever, but soon realizes her deal with the devil comes with a curseshe can never be remembered. Its an ambitious historical fantasy that shimmers with shades of The Picture of Dorian Grey and Peter Pan, while covering 300 years and spanning from medieval Francenot far from where Schwab is nowto modern-day New York City. The idea for the novel first struck when Schwab was 24 and living in a literal Home Depot shed in an exprison wardens yard in Liverpool, England. Those were the three most formative months of my life, she says, shaking her head at the memory. It was February and freezing, she recounts, and her grandmother had dementia. While hiking in Englands Lake District one day, she recounts, she began thinking about immortality. I started thinking about the heinously sad ending of Peter Pan. Hes already forgetting all of it, the magic, the people. Given her grandmothers condition, I had very close-range experience, watching my mom being erased from my grandmothers mind. Forgetting is sad, but being forgotten is truly horrible. That really started the whole idea. An immortality tale, sort of an inverted Peter Paninstead of a boy who forgets, I wanted to write a girl who is forgotten. The idea simmered for a decade, Schwab says, because she knew she wasnt ready. I checked in with myself about it every few years, she explains. By the time I hit 30, I started thinking to myself, Im going to die without finishing it. It became like this huge white whale. I knew it was going to be a monstrous process and I knew there was going to be more fear than joy in it. Despite her fear about the difficulty of writing the novel, Schwab finally felt, at 30, ready to tackle it. Part of her readiness can be attributed to the empathy she began feeling for Addie. With years in publishing under her belt, Schwab felt like she, too, had made her own difficult bargains. Were all just trying to leave our mark, in some way or another, she says. Especially the artists and writers among us. It can be a really lonely, isolating business, especially when you only hear about the triumphs, never about the failures. At least that was how it was for me. Schwab started her career off with a bang, selling her 2011 debut, The Near Witch, to Disney before shed even graduated from Washington University, in St. Louis. Witch, which didnt make much of a showing commercially, was followed by the YA fantasy duology The Archived (Disney, 2013). The duology was also released to little fanfare. I earned out, but was told Id failed to meet some arbitrary expectations, Schwab says. It was really rough, and I felt really alone. I was 21 when I debuted, and I remember feeling like I was washed up at 24. Writing has always been my full-time job, she says. So I figured, just take it to the next step. If your career is going well, youre going to have to write another book. If your career is going poorly, youre going to have to write another book. The only proactive thing you can do in publishing is write another book. Broke and living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, she decided to move back to her parents home in Nashville. Her parents told her she could stay for three months; she wound up there for nine. Thats the only way I could make this career work, she says. I could always go home to them, and thats a huge privilege. She also decided to shift gears. I figured, if I cant control the mechanisms of publishing, if I cant control whether or not my books are successful, at least I can control what I want to write. She started working on Vicious, a very weird supervillain bromance. According to Schwab, Miriam Weinberg at Tor bought Vicious with an eye toward what I would write next. That next book, even then, was supposed to be Addie LaRue. Every so often, Miriam would ask, Hey, when are you going to get back to that project? Schwab says. But I wasnt ready yet, voicewise, timewise, agewise. While she was working on Vicious and its follow-up, Vengeful, Scholastic reached out with a work-for-hire middle grade series about guardian angels. The series, Schwab recalls, laughing, was like the least on-brand thing ever. Nonetheless, she took the job. I ended up pitching this really Dr. Who-esque adaptation of it and said, What if I do this? The Everyday Angel series became the darling of the [Scholastic] book club and fair scene and sold almost a million copies. Her next project was the Shades of Magic trilogy, centered on misfits, magic, and mayhem in four alternate versions of London. Looking back at these books, Schwab says, I think so much of my work has been about the fact that I didnt come out til I was 28, even to myself, Schwab says. For me, its like the throughline of all my books: This is a book about a person who doesnt feel at home in their skin and in their community. And then when I finally came out, I was like, Shit, thats what it is. While the Shades series made her a bestseller, it didnt make her rich. I got paid $15,000 for A Darker Shade of Magic, she says. Her smaller advance checks required her to juggle multiple projects; while working on A Darker Shade of Magic, for example, she was also writing the YA fantasy This Savage Song. Like a lot of writers, I was constantly working, and constantly underpaid, and always scrambling. Thats why she feels the constant need to remind writers that publishing is not a meritocracy. We assume that we are at fault for our own experiences, she says. We assume that if we are feeling sad or lonely or unheard, that its on us, not on the publisher or on our team. Its so difficult to feel like equals in this game. Its so important to find relationshipswith an agent, an editor, a teamthat make you feel like youre on equal footing. Were gaslit by this business every day, when it wouldnt function without us, the creators. Next up for Schwab is the recently announced five-issue Extraordinary graphic novel series with Titan, set in the world of her Villains titles. Then she makes a return to the Shades world, with the three-book Threads of Power series. Im terrified, she confesses. I mean, 33-year-old me is going to write a different book. Im gayer, Im louder, Im weirder, and I care about different things. I just hope my readership gives me the space. I think they will, because I try never to do the same thing twice. I unfortunately have this complex where I need to challenge myself every book. I have to, because I live with the story for so much longer than anybody else does. Thats certainly the case for Addie LaRue, whose time has come, for better or worse. Its crazy to have a book out this year, Schwab says. But what guarantee is there that the world will be better in 2021? Ive lived with this story in my head for a decade. Id rather people just read the damn book before the end of the world. She also thinks the book can serve as an escapewith a relevant message. Its about survival and defiant joy, and Im hoping whoever does get around to reading it in this flaming hellscape will at least enjoy that, she says. The irony of me starting to write something considered hope-punk, though, is hysterical. Looking at my canon, which is so dark, and its like, I guess I write hope now? But I have to. Because I cant compete with reality at the moment. A man with over 60 previous convictions who blamed stealing four cans of cider on the death of his grandmother was told by a judge last week: What about your 62 other (previous) offences, you only have two grandmothers? Stephen Maughan, 64 Grian Ard, Ardnacassa, Longford pleaded guilty to the theft of 10 worth of alcohol from Lidl, Dublin Road, Longford at last weeks sitting of Longford District Court. In defence, solicitor Brid Mimnagh said her client was very sorry and had been going through a bad time owing to the recent death of his grandmother. In reply, Judge Seamus Hughes took issue with those claims and questioned Mr Maughans previous criminal record which included 62 earlier convictions, 21 of which were for theft. What about your 62 other offences, you only have two grandmothers? Judge Hughes asked. He also put it to Mr Maughan as to why he decided not to purchase more expensive forms of alcohol on the day. Why did he not go for a decent wine or whiskey? Why go for cider? I find that type of excuse absolutely pure stupid. Mr Maughan, appearing somewhat taken aback by the judges outburst, agreed by mumbling softly: I was very stupid. Judge Hughes, however, said he simply did not believe Mr Maughan and took umbrage at his apparent lack of remorse. He said he would not allow Mr Maughan to waltz into his courtroom, settle the 10 that was owed on the cider and walk out again. Rather, he hit Mr Maughan with a 500 fine and gave him three months to pay. Thank you, your Honour, replied Mr Maughan while looking up at the bench. I am very, very sorry, thank you. The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has reacted to the endorsement of Osagie Ize-Iyamu, All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate by President Muhammadu Buhari. Obaseki said it was disappointing and a dilemma that Buhari could endorse Ize-Iyamu despite facing trial for corruption to the tune of N700m. Speaking through his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, Obaseki sympathised with Buhari over the endorsement. A statement by Osagie said Buhari only endorsed Ize-Iyamu in the interest of APC. The statement reads: President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday was confronted with a dilemma of no mean proportion, to raise the hand of Osagie Ize-Iyamu, candidate of the APC in the September 19 gubernatorial election taking place in Edo State. The President was constrained to carry out the action, which indeed was a dilemma. We sympathise with the President, who reluctantly handed the APC candidate, the partys flag and unveiled him behind closed doors. Buhari had endorsed Ize-Iyamu during a meeting some leaders of the APC at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. At the meeting, the president had appealed to the party leaders to work towards Ize-Iyamus victory during the elections. Obaseki and Ize-Iyamu are the leading contenders in the September 19 governorship election in the state. Michael Ryan is scanning his eyes over a complex schedule on his laptop inside the shell of a house on a muddy building site. The director of Marbuilt home builders spent hours on Friday figuring out how to run nine building sites while keeping below a "five workers on site" limit to comply with the state government's stage four restrictions. Michael Ryan, director of Marbuilt, is trying to work out how his sites will operate under stage four restrictions. Credit:Eddie Jim "So Monday, we've got two plasterers coming to site with two carpenters, but they can only come for one day," he said, showing off a colour-coded schedule to avoid overlaps. "And then the staircase is being installed so the plasterers have to move away from the site for two days so we can allow for two more tradies to come for two days. Then the plasters that were here Monday, they'll come back Thursday with the carpenter." Civil aviation expert Captain Mohan Ranganathan believes that the pilot of Air India Express Boeing 737 a coronavirus disease (Covid-19) evacuation flight from Dubai should have diverted to Coimbatore, as the conditions in Kozhikode International Airport (KIA), Kerala, were not conducive for a landing because of a downpour and had also warned the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) authorities in 2011 that the runaway is unsafe and needed to be reevaluated, especially in wet conditions. The visibility was fine, said Captain Ranganathan. However, it was not prudent to land at the KIA because of the downpour, he added. WATCH | The 2 other dangerous airfields in India: Capt Ranganathan on Kerala crash Captain Ranganthan, an aviation safety consultant and a former instructor pilot of the Boeing-737 specialising in wet runway operations, said he was surprised that the DGCA authorities gave permission to the flight to land at the KIA. The KIA runway is not safe, said Captain Ranganathan. Not much has changed since I was there last. Fortunately, a Boeing-737 was landing and not a wide-body aircraft, he said. Earlier, he had warned the DGCA authorities in 2011 that the KIA runway was unsafe for landing and needed to be reevaluated. It is a dangerous situation, especially in wet conditions. KIA runway 10 approaches should not be permitted in view of the lack of RESA (runway end safety areas) and the terrain beyond the end of the runway, Captain Ranganathan had said in his report. He had suggested that a 240-metre (m) RESA should immediately be introduced and the runway length should be reduced to make flight operations safe. There should 150 m on either side to avoid aviation disasters, Captain Ranganathan told HT. But there is not sufficient area there. It has always been dangerous, he added. He had cautioned DGCA authorities after Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai had crashed in Mangaluru on May 22, 2010, killing 158 people on board. The KIA has a tabletop runaway similar to that of Mangaluru International Airport (MIA). The flight with 190 passengers on board overshot the KIA tabletop runway and dropped about 35 feet into a gorge on Friday evening. Officials had said 18 people, including the pilot Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe and the co-pilot, have died in the accident and over 140 more are injured, some of them seriously. The images from the KIA showed the aircraft split into two pieces. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Africa, a continent of 1.2 billion people, has now recorded 1 million COVID-19 cases and 21,617 deaths. While the virus was initially slow to take off, the number of cases has risen steadily as lockdown measures and restrictions put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus have been lifted. Stacey Mearns, Senior Technical Adviser of Emergency Health at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said, The doubling of confirmed COVID cases in July across African countries is alarming, but we are worried that this could be the tip of the iceberg. For all the countries where we work in the region, testing rates fall far below WHO guidelines. Without testing, there are indeed no casesbut this does not mean the virus is not spreading unchecked. South Africa is by far the worst affected country, accounting for nearly half the infections, with more than 500,000 cases and more than 9,600 deaths. But Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization (WHO)s top health emergencies expert, warned that South Africa foreshadows what is likely to happen across the continent. Other severely affected countries include Egypt with 95,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths, Nigeria with 45,000 cases and 930 deaths, Algeria with 34,000 cases and 1,273 deaths, Sudan with 12,000 cases and 763 deaths, Morocco with 30,000 cases and 449 deaths, and Ghana with 40,000 cases and 206 deaths. These figures must be treated with caution since most of the continent lacks adequate testing facilities. While the WHO recommends at least one test per 1,000 people per week, some of the poorest countries, including Niger and South Sudan, have carried out fewer than one test per 1,000 since March, so the number of cases is vastly underestimated. The number of deaths is also only a rough estimate, as many countries do not have rigorous systems for registering either births or deaths. Even in South Africa, where statistics are broadly reliable, more than 28,000 excess deaths have been recorded since early May, indicating that the real number of COVID-related fatalities is three times higher than the 9,000 confirmed deaths. With numbers rising all over the continent, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said, We are concerned that ... we will see an increase in cases as we have seen in [other] countries where restrictions have been eased too soon. Between June and July, the number of cases grew by 500 percentmore than doubling in the month of July despite dire testing shortfalls and poor access to data in most African countries, suggesting that the actual incidence of the disease could be much wider than the official figures suggest. WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesuss warning at the beginning of the pandemic to plan for the worst and prepare today and his calls to African governments to wake up, fell on deaf ears. Most governments imposed strict lockdowns and curfews that led to severe hardship for millions of people living in overcrowded and insanitary conditions, and dependant for their livelihoods on finding work as day labourers or street traders. Africas health care systems are fragile, to say the least. While the WHO recommends a ratio of 83 nurses per 10,000 people, sub-Saharan Africa has fewer than 20 nurses for every 10,000. In Cote dIvoire there are just six nurses for every 10,000 people compared to 82 in the UK, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo there are 11 nurses per 10,000 compared to 132 in Germany. Rural areas fare worse: only 15 percent of health workers in Angola and 17 percent in South Africa serve rural areas, where roughly half the population lives. According to Bloomberg , Africa accounts for 3 percent of the worlds health care workers and 1 percent of its financial resources, leaving hospitals overflowing with coronavirus patients, and running short of oxygen and ventilators. African health systems, ill-equipped, underfunded and understaffed, have left health care workers exposed to the virus. Over 18,000 health care workers have contracted the coronavirus on the continentwhile at least 258 have already diedlargely due to the lack of personal protective equipment. According to the WHO, in Liberia, which lost 8 percent of its health care workers to Ebola, 184, or 16 percent, of its health care workers have already been infected. In the small west African nation of Guinea-Bissau, 176, or 9 percent of the countrys 2,000 health workers, have tested positive for COVID-19, while 16 percent in Niger and 15 percent in Sierra Leone have tested positivecompared to 3 percent in the US. The impact of the pandemic overwhelms and disrupts health care systems and services for HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, and malariaillnesses that also compound the effects of the coronavirusleading to an additional loss of life. East and Southern Africa have the highest rates of those living with HIV. According to Avert, despite containing only 6.2 percent of the worlds population, these regions account for 54 percent of the worlds 20.8 million people diagnosed with HIV. In 2018, South Africa added 240,000 new infections, while Mozambique (150,000), Tanzania (72,000), Uganda (53,000), Zambia (48,000), Kenya (46,000), Malawi (38,000), and Zimbabwe (38,000) accounted for 50 percent of all new infections. In 2018, a massive 1.1 million children aged between 0-14 years were living with HIV in East and Southern Africa. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that the Sub-Saharan African economy will contract by 3.2 percent this yearwhile the World Bank predicts the African economies will contract between 2.1 and 5.1 percent. The worst affected economies are expected to be in South Africa, Nigeria, and Angolaprimarily due to their reliance on the export of mineral and oil resources. In Nigeria, Africas most populous nation of 200 million, 70 percent of the population, in both rural and urban areas, have suffered a reduction in income since the pandemic began. Africas economy is heavily dependent upon agriculture, accounting for 23 percent of GDP and 60 percent of economic activity, and on food importsboth hard hit by restrictions and lockdowns. At least $47 billion worth of food was imported in 2018. Trade and value chain disruptions due to world transportation and lockdown restrictions mean these imports could decline by 25 percent, turning the health care crisis into a food security crisis. Before the outbreak, 670 million Africans were food insecurewith 270 million severely food insecure. The number had increased by 10 percent across 13 countries in southern Africa in the last year. According to Relief Web , 40 percent of the population in southern Africa will become food insecure as a result of the pandemic and climate shocks. In Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, 17 million are already food insecure due to drought. Even Zambia, considered Africas breadbasket, has witnessed acute food and water insecurity, high chronic malnutrition, livestock diseases, and crop destruction. As a result of the pandemic at least 2 million people will become severely food insecure. Excluding South Africa, 60 percent of the population in the region relies on small scale farming. Across the entire continent, at least eight in 10 workers are employed in the informal sector. Some 20 million are set to lose their jobs as a result of the pandemic. Just 17.8 percent of workers are covered by a social protection scheme, with only South Africa and Zimbabwe offering any social safety net. Even this is minimal, with South Africa excluding some of the most vulnerable workerssuch as its 4 million migrantsand failing to deliver much of the promised $2.2 billion support package to many workers. In Zimbabwe, the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) lost $22 million in a botched deal with a real estate developer. Between 8 million to 10 million Zimbabweans are expected to require social protection during the coming peak hunger season. The recently announced new National Education Policy (NEP) resounds with sound and substance, reminding us of the Pokhran moment. This EduPokhran is a potent intellectual weapon that can propel Indias march in the global eduscape. Visionary policies like these lay down education highways for high-speed growth. The key to a successful journey lies in the policy and implementation pathway that needs to be free of unnecessary roadblocks, speed breakers and toll booths. As articulated by PM Narendra Modi, the NEP has successfully managed to polish the rough contours of policymaking by dismissing the one size fits all model to accommodate emerging models of teaching and learning from KG to 12 to PhD with a MIDAS golden touch of Modularity, Interdisciplinarity, Diversity, Accessibility and Sustainability. This is through a gentle touch, different from the dreaded squeeze that the education ecosystem was hitherto confronted with. Here are some major relief and reform announcements spanning the entire education value chain along with certain suggestive prescriptions. New-age school education: The learning life cycle of school-going kids is poised for a transformational 5+3+3+4 punctuated by fun, arts, skills, mother-tongue exposure, modularity and academic curriculum, minus heavy school bags. The multilingual formula provides scope for various state-driven policies for mutual mobility of language teachers and students in the true spirit of language diversity and national unity. The assessment and vertical school level mobility is all set for a merry-go-round journey with ups and downs having different levels of joy and no sorrow. The gross deviance from rote rigour to fine vigour is certainly a boon for the future school-going generations. The triple balance between the body, mind and soul ensures the four-dimensional growth of the five senses to ensure a perfect six-pack learning outcome with prescriptive and interdisciplinary choices. There is also a need to assess and grade schools based on student learning outcomes to ensure that school development coexists with students. High-performing schools need to be incentivised and encouraged with more autonomy and support to propel them into uncharted territories as followed by the schooling system of advanced economies. Such a new-age school education policy provides the much-needed fertility for Indias intellectual produce. Acharya Devo Bhava: The collateral policy shift in teacher education ensures a good value chain linkage, which is essential considering the important role of teachers in school education. The phasing out of standalone teacher education institutions and the four-year integrated B.Ed. programmes will hopefully bring to an end the sorry saga of the existing antiquated and outdated teacher education policy vehicle. There is a need to integrate teacher education with attractive career incentive mechanisms and restore the glory of the noble profession of teaching. In fact, the author, while submitting his comments for the NEP, called for 100% I-T exemption for teachers who submit annual self-attested academic audits that cover the four dimensions of developmentself, syllabus, school and society, with wrongful submission leading to penalty and job loss. Still a worthy proposition to pursue in the spirit of Acharya Devo Bhava. HigherEd gets taller: Higher education, the catalytic engine with occasional cataclysmic potential, is up for complete revamp. The gradual integration of statutory bodies like the UGC, AICTE, NCTE, etc., into a Higher Educational Council of India (HECI) is a welcome wedding provided there are enough invitees to the muhurat stage. The HECI must have a broad representation not only from all Central and state agencies, but also from private institutions, industry and civil societies. The HECI must recognise that there are thinkers and doers outside the existing orbit of policymaking, which has its own exclusivity. The characterisation of higher educational institutions into three types with inbuilt interdisciplinarity and modularity through academic innovations and diversity through technology-enabled access is a boon that needs to be granted when asked for. Moving forward, higher education institutions shall emerge as differentiators and not just aggregators and for this transformational shift, the HECI must be fuelling change agents and not gruelling approval engines. The shift in higher education to taller heights of governance, standards, funding and accreditation needs a broader policy outlook, failing which the intended objectives may fall flat. Research excellence: The NEPs research encouragement through the NSF-type National Research Foundation is symptomatic of equal treatment to all institutions; one hopes that this symptom continues on the field. Recognising the fact there is good amount of research happening in private higher educational institutions, funding should flow outside the conventional portals of public institutions that have so far been receiving all the required encouragement to make the research funding diversity a big plus. The NEP also mentions tax incentives raising the hopes of the revival of the accelerated tax exemption given by the Ministry of Finance to corporate donors who provide the much-needed financial support for research institutions. I am reminded of Nani Palkhivala who once said, and I twist a littleFive-year governments in four-year action with three-year tenured bureaucrats having two-year targets and one-year reviews will rely on the common man to solve their day-to-day problems. Hope it doesnt happen for education, as the MIDAS touch of NEP has left its fingerprints in all educational spheres and dimensions. It is for the policymakers and implementing agencies to harvest this gold mine of opportunities. S Vaidhyasubramaniam Vice-Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University (vaidhya@sastra.edu) Vietnam confirmed five new cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Saturday morning, including three local infections traced to the outbreak epicenter in the central city of Da Nang and two imported cases. Of the three locally-transmitted cases, patent No. 785 is a 42-year-old man living in Duc Thuong Commune in Hanois Hoai Duc District. He and his family traveled to Da Nang City between July 16 and 20. He developed coughing on Monday and was taken to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Dong Anh District on Thursday, where he was tested for COVID-19. Results released on Friday showed that he was positive for the novel coronavirus. The National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control is expected to release details later Saturday about his travel history after he returned to Hanoi from Da Nang. Two other community-based cases are people from the central province of Quang Ngai, who came into close contact with COVID-19 patients. The two imported cases are citizens who were repatriated from Mexico on August 5 on the flight VJ7837, which landed at Cam Ranh International Airport in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa. They were quarantined upon arrival and sampled by the Khanh Hoa Center for Disease Control on Thursday. Results released by the Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang on Friday showed that both tested positive for the coronavirus. Currently, they are being treated at Khanh Hoa Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Vietnam has recorded 789 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic first hit in January, including 473 local infections and 316 cases imported from other countries. Up to 333 cases traced to Da Nang have been detected since local transmission re-emerged in the central city on July 25, which ended Vietnam's streak of 99 days with no community-based infections. Ten virus-related deaths have been documented in the Southeast Asian country while 395 COVID-19 patients have recovered. More than 166,000 people are quarantined nationwide at hospitals, accommodation facilities or at their homes. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Government has made savings of GHc1.5 billion in under declared taxes in the telecommunications since the implementation of the Common Platform (CP) in the telecommunications sector since 2017. The introduction of the CP has uncovered that, prior to the introduction of the policy, GHc 470 million in taxes was lost from potential under declarations between 2015 to the first quarter of 2017, the Minister of Communication, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has revealed. Answering questions on the floor of Parliament House today, the Minister said an estimated amount of GHS 300 million in taxes was also saved between the first quarter of 2017 to date as a result of the announcement of the implementation of the CP on March 8th, 2017. Mrs Owusu-Ekuful again revealed that through the deployment of the CP and sophisticated, up-to-date fraud management systems, the CP was able to record over 150,000 international calls into the country every month and thereby detecting fraudulent SIM automatically. This, she said, has saved the country of tax fraud of an additional GHc 327.3 million from the activities of SIM Card fraud since the inception of the CP in 2017. "Over the life of the contract, the CP is expected to deliver tax savings of approximately GHS 799.6 million" the Minister stated. On Mobile Money Monitoring, the Minister disclosed that the CP has reported monthly usage for July 2020 of GHS 63.6 Billion, 307.1 million transactions, with GHS 104.6 million generated by the Operators in transaction fees, with further breakdowns of transaction types for informed policy decision making. Giving further benefits that the implementation of the CP has accrued to the country, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful also mentioned that the policy has resulted in savings of $1.1 million monthly over the previous contracts, resulting in a total of $66 m savings over the 5-year contract period. Under the previous NDC administration, the NCA was paying $915,969 to Afriwave, while the GRA was paying $1,675,492 to Subah, bringing the total payments to $2,591,462 monthly. The NCA, she said, now pays $596,490 and the GRA $894,735, a total of $1,491,225 to service providers. Additionally, unlike the previous contracts, the CP offers real time monitoring of 2.5 billion transactions per day within the telecom sector such as calls, SMS, Mobile money transactions and other transactions. Under Section 14 of the Communications Services Tax Act 2008 (Act 754), as amended by Section 7 of the Communications Service Tax (Amendment) Act, 2013, Act 864 mandated the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Communications to establish a common platform as a mechanism for verifying the actual revenues that accrue to service providers for the purpose of computing taxes due to Government under Act 864 and revenues accruing from levies under Act 775 as amended by Act 786 of 2009. Pursuant to this, KelniGVG was contracted on 27th December, 2017 to build and operate a Common Monitoring Platform (CMP) which is an integrated single platform connecting to nodes in the networks of all Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and the Interconnect Clearinghouse (ICH) where traffic and revenues can be monitored. The National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) are the implementing agencies and beneficiaries of this project. The CP has four main components, that is fraud management, traffic Monitoring, revenue assurance & mobile money monitoring. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Islamabad/New Delhi, Aug 8 : Saudi Arabia has halted the provision of oil on loan for Pakistan after the Imran Khan government threatened to split the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) over Kashmir. Hit by a severe economic crisis, Pakistan had borrowed a $6.2 billion loan from Saudi Arabia in 2018. The loan package included a provision under which Saudi Arabia granted Pakistan $3.2 billion worth of oil, a year on deferred payments. Pakistani media on Saturday said that the provision meant for Islamabad expired two months ago and has not been renewed by Riyadh. Instead, Islamabad has prematurely returned $1 billion Saudi loan, four months ahead of repayment period, The Express Tribune said quoting sources and Sajid Qazi, the spokesperson of the Petroleum Division. Recently Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi during a talk show on a news channel had threatened that if the OIC headed by Saudi Arabia did not convene a foreign ministers' meeting on Kashmir, Prime Minister Imran Khan would hold it on his own with his allies among the Islamic countries. "If you cannot convene it, then I'll be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir...," he had threatened on Ary news channel. The OIC, the biggest bloc of Islamic countries in the world, has repeatedly declined Islamabad's several requests to hold a meeting on Indian Kashmir -- a region which Pakistan Army attempted to invade four times in the last seven decades and where it has been waging a proxy war against India for last three decades. Since August 2019 when India revoked special status of the Jammu and Kashmir state and brought it directly under the control of the Central government by bifurcating it into two Union Territories, the Imran Khan government has been seeking support of the 57-member OIC over the issue in Pakistan's favour. One of the major reasons for OIC's lack of support for Pakistan has been Riyadh's displeasure with Islamabad's proximity with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who nurtures the ambition of replacing Saudi Arabia as leader of all the Sunni Islamic countries. New Delhi, Aug 8 : The Delhi police nabbed the Thak Thak gang members involved in a robbery case of July 21. The CCTV video of the robbery went viral on social media platforms including Whatsapp and Facebook. In the CCTV video, the victim of the robbery was seen in a blue car as he was targeted by the 'Thak Thak' gang. A boy was seen lifting a bag from back seat of the car. Police said that the accused Pawan, a resident of Ambedkar Nagar in Delhi along with a juvenile robbed the man by distracting his attention. Sharing the gang's modus operandi, Atul Thakur, DCP South Delhi said, "They randomly targeted luxury cars particularly during peak hours. One of the accused punctured the tyre of the target car with a sharp pointed object mostly at traffic signals and when the driver or owner of the car came out to check or replace the punctured tyre, then one of the accused took away the valuables from the car." The viral CCTV footage was scrutinised by the police in their effort to identify and nab the accused. One of the accused was identified by the police team. On August 5, the police received information regarding movement of two suspected persons on BRT Road, near Jahanpanah park, Chirag Delhi. Two persons on a Scooty were intercepted. One of the riders was a juvenile while the other was identified as Pawan. The accused was asked to produce documents of the vehicle but they failed to do so. On search of the apprehended persons, four stolen mobile phones and Rs 45,000 cash stolen from Adarsh Nagar was recovered. On sustained interrogation, they disclosed that they had committed a theft of Rs 1 lakh along with their two other accomplices and the booty was distributed among them. The recovered money was a part of the booty stolen in that case. The Delhi government will transfer the compensation amount of Rs 10 lakhs to the bank account of the Paschim Vihar rape victims family most likely by the end of the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday. While speaking to ANI, Kejriwal said, Police have already arrested the accused. The victim is still battling for her life and is in critical condition. Rs 10 lakh compensation will be transferred into the bank account of the victims family most likely by today. Arvind Kejriwal had met the victim at AIIMS on Thursday and announced the compensation. The Chief Minister also expressed his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the Kerala plane crash and those who were injured in the incident. He added that the incident is sad and tragic. While talking about the Covid-19 situation in the national capital, the Chief Minister said that things are under control. He appealed to the people to follow necessary health precautions such as wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, and hand sanitisation. COVID-19 outbreaks in Canadas federal prisons have been declared over, and staff and visitors are preparing for a new normal that could be in place for years. In March, Correctional Service Canada implemented several physical distancing measures, including providing both staff and inmates with masks. Additional personal protective equipment, such as gloves, gowns and face shields were also provided. The prisons also banned visits from the public. Despite precautions, the coronavirus spread behind bars. Out of our 43 institutions, we had five outbreaks since the beginning of the pandemic, which have now all ended, said Marie Pier Lecuyer, a spokeswoman for Correctional Service Canada. However, we continue to monitor the situation and diligently apply our safety measures and health protocols. A total of 360 inmates in Canada tested positive for COVID-19, and two of them died. The hardest hit institution was at the Federal Training Centre Multi-level in Laval, Que., which reported 161 cases and one death. One inmate remains in hospital. The Mission Medium Institution in Mission, B.C., had 120 inmates test positive. One of them also died. Correctional Service Canadas website on Friday listed no active cases of inmates, but said results of five tests were pending. As of Aug. 5, Lecuyer said 142 employees at the institutions had tested positive for COVID-19, and 139 have recovered. About a third of inmates in Canada are housed in federal institutions with the remainder in provincial jails, where those on sentences of two years less a day mix with those awaiting trial. An official with the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers said things are slowly returning to normal in prisons, but it will be a lengthy process. Officers are wearing masks anytime we cant social distance. Inmates are given masks to wear whenever they cant social distance. We still have to start opening in some ways, right? You cant leave everything shut down forever, James Bloomfield told The Canadian Press. Correctional Service Canada began the process of gradually allowing visits to inmates across the country a month ago, with strict health measures. Before being allowed in, visitors must be screened and have their temperature checked. Theyre also required to wash their hands before entry, wear a mask and practice physical distancing. Visitor spaces are cleaned and disinfected before and after each visit. It really is what our new normal is, said Bloomfield. Its going to be restricted and very different. Previously, we never asked anybody if they had been out of province if they came in for a visit. Wed never taken anybodys temperature at the door, he added. Bloomfield said stopping public visits to the federal institutions was necessary but unpopular with the inmates. Visits are important because they allow inmates to maintain community and family contacts, he said. Having to restrict things like that is not taken lightly at all, Bloomfield said. Its not unlike the elderly in the seniors homes. ... Theyre locked away from people and nobody can visit. Calif. court issues temporary restraining order against church for holding indoor services Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A California judge has granted a temporary restraining order against Godspeak Calvary Chapel and its Pastor Rob McCoy for holding in-person services in violation of COVID-19 health orders. Ventura County Superior Court granted the order on Friday requiring McCoy and the church to adhere to statewide and county public health orders stipulating that church services be held outdoors with masks and social distancing or online, according to officials. On Wednesday, Ventura County officials sued McCoy and his church for holding in-person services of up to 200 people after the church decided to return to normal services. The church had adhered to all social distancing regulations since Palm Sunday but recently decided to lift its restrictions on parishioners. McCoy announced in a video message Friday that he will continue to hold indoor services. I wish it didnt have to come to this, I really do, but we will be violating the judges order. We will be open this Sunday. He told church members, Come to church, and if youre one of the first thousand, you win a prize. You will get a citation. It will be a misdemeanor. It will go on your record; be mindful of that. McCoy named Supervisor Linda Parks instigated the legal action against the church. "She's a remarkably resilient woman, but I don't understand why she would do this and target us," McCoy said. In an Instagram post on Wednesday in response to the county's actions, McCoy said: "Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 today to take action against Godspeak a day when 900 people were tested for Covid-19 and only three were positive." He added: "77 total deaths in a county of 846,000. That means roughly .009%. The death rate in the county of the total population is less than 1/10th of 1%. Positive cases are down, no one under 30 has died in our county; and yet, our schools are shuttered, our business have been decimated, and our houses of worship closed." "The governments cure is proving worse than the virus itself." Ventura County's suit argues that the churchs actions will cause and continue to cause great and irreparable injury to the general public ... including hospitalizations and deaths, which in turn is likely to result in continued and further restrictions on businesses and other operations and activities, according to the Los Angeles Times. It is only a matter of time if it has not already happened before there is a significant outbreak of COVID-19 cases among the attendees, wrote the plaintiff, public health officer Dr. Robert Levin, in the suit. Church members have been "singing, hugging" and not wearing masks, McCoy reportedly told the LA Times. A former councilman, the pastor said he's willing to go to jail and willing for [authorities] to take [his] building but he wont comply with the health orders to close the church, the suit says. We havent had one case of the coronavirus, he said. The Thousand Oaks Acorn reported in April that McCoy resigned from his position as a councilman hours before he held Palm Sunday communion with members to mark the beginning of Holy Week. All social distancing rules adhered to and communion was served in sealed individual containers. At the time, the church only allowed 10 people at a time to enter the church building to receive communion. Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday are critical, McCoy said in a video announcement to his congregation back in April. [We are] paralyzed and considered non-essential though we would have liquor stores considered essential, cannabis distribution considered essential. Across the country, abortions are considered essential, he added. Is the Church going to sit back and say, Well, we will be relegated to non-essential, though we feed people and that is essential physical food? California continues to see a surge in coronavirus cases. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently indefinitely closed churches and other businesses in more than 30 of the states 58 counties. Los Angeles County officials recently threatened Pastor John MacArthur and Grace Community Church with fines and possible arrest for reopening his church in defiance of lockdown orders during the pandemic. Still, MacArthur vowed to continue in-person services. We will obey God rather than men, MacArthur said in a video statement earlier this month. Were going to be faithful to the Lord and were going to leave the results to Him. Whatever happens is going to be what He allows to happen. But He will be on our side because we will be obedient and faithful to His word. Dhinesh Kallungal By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Though Kerala is the only state in the country which boasts of four international airports, the aircraft accident at the Kozhikode airport on Friday is the first major air mishap to occur in the state. Though the 2010 Mangalore air crash claimed the lives of 158 people Malayalis accounted for over a third of the casualties barring some stray incidents, involving foreign and domestic aircraft, the state was free of major air mishaps. Also read: Screams, blood soaked clothing, terrified kids at crash site Two Navy sailors were killed when one of the helicopter hangar doors of the Indian Naval Air Squadron 322 collapsed at INS Garuda, Kochi on December 27, 2018. But it was a freak accident. Other than two accidents at the Naval Base airport in Kochi, no casualty was reported in any of the aircraft accidents which had occurred in the state. Seven people were injured when a Gulf Air aircraft with 137 passengers and six crew members on board overshot the runway and came to rest in the slush at the Kochi airport in 2011. In another accident involving an Air India Express flight at the Kochi airport during a monsoon season in 2017, 108 passengers on board the Abu Dhabi-Kochi Boeing 737-800 flight had a close shave after the aircraft veered off the taxiway and came to a halt in the nearby drain at the airport. It forced an emergency evacuation of passengers on board. But the accident happened when the aircraft was hauling to the apron from the taxiway of the airport. Luckily there were no casualties. The 2011 accident involving a Gulf Air aircraft at Kochi airport had also occurred during a monsoon season. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 06:18:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DUBLIN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin announced on Friday that parts of the country will be put under restrictions again due to rising cases of COVID-19. The decision, which will take effect from midnight Friday and last for an initial period of two weeks, involves three counties in the country, namely Kildare, Offaly and Laois, all located in the central southern part of Ireland. Residents in these areas will not be permitted to travel outside of their own county except for some special reasons such as seeking medical treatment and caring for children, elderly or vulnerable people. Some of the public facilities and businesses in these regions, including cinemas, theatres, museums, galleries, gyms, casinos and restaurants, will be closed. Indoor and outdoor gatherings will be restricted to a maximum of 6 and 15 people respectively except for funerals which will allow the attendance of 25 people in maximum. The Irish Department of Health said that a total of 98 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country on Friday, of which 66 cases were from the above-mentioned three areas and most of the cases in these areas were related to clusters of infections. To date, 26,470 people have contracted COVID-19 in Ireland and 1,772 of them have died from the virus, according to the department. Ireland planned to move into phase four of reopening its economy and society on Aug. 10. However, due to the rising number of COVID-19 in the country, the plan has been pigeonholed by the government for at least three weeks. Official statistics showed that the total number of cases in the last two weeks in Ireland has been more than doubled compared with the previous fortnight. The country's Acting Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn said that the present reproduction rate, which refers to the average number of people infected by a virus carrier, in Ireland has risen to 1.8 from the past 0.5 or so. On Thursday, Ireland reported five COVID-19-related deaths, the first such deaths reported in the country in the past 11 days. Enditem But CPS, like many districts, emphasized live classes, she said, and consequently she sometimes had just one student participating out of a class of 30. "With the live classes, it's a lecture," she said. "You're forcing kids to sit there and listen to you, absorb this content. That's just not always going to work. When a kid is staring at a screen, it's not the same." Jesse Sharkey, head of the Chicago Teachers Union, said the sudden move to remote learning "was more chaotic than it should have been" and produced uneven results. Some students thrived, he said, while others struggled or were shut out altogether by insufficient technology or nonexistent home internet access. CPS has announced it aims to bring children back to school two days a week, with the rest of the time devoted to virtual education. The union is pressing for full-time remote instruction, saying it's still not safe enough to return, and has not ruled out striking over the issue. Sharkey said time devoted to preparing schools for in-person lessons would be better spent improving virtual classes. White House coronavirus taskforce member Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that a 75 percent effective COVID-19 vaccine will do as chances of scientists creating 98 percent effective vaccine are very slim. Dr. Fauci while speaking at the Brown University School of Public Health said that even vaccines with the effectiveness of more than 50 percent would be acceptable as there are very slim chances of scientists developing a vaccine with an effectiveness of more than 90 percent. Dr. Fauci said that one must never abandon the public health approach and should look at the vaccine as a tool that can bring the pandemic under control. Read: COVID-19 Pandemic Is 'going Away', Says Donald Trump Contradicting Anthony Fauci FDA on vaccine The United States Food And Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn had also said that the organisation will authorise the use of any vaccine that is at least 50 percent effective. Dr. Hahn on reportedly July 30 said that after a lot of discussion with experts that have decided to keep 50 percent as a benchmark, of course hoping to achieve an accuracy of more than that but more than 50 percent will also do. According to the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a 50 percent effective COVID-19 vaccine will be on par with influenza vaccines. Read: Chances Of Effective COVID Vaccine Not Great: Fauci Bats For Continued Preventive Measures The United States is currently the worst affected country in the world with over 4.9 million confirmed infections and at least 1,61,000 deaths to date. According to figures by Johns Hopkins University, the world has recorded more than 19 million cases as of August 7 and over 7,21,000 deaths. The United States is followed by Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa in terms of cases, while in deaths, the US is above Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and India. Read: Anthony Fauci Says Billion Coronavirus Vaccine Doses Could Be Available By End Of 2021 Read: US: Anthony Fauci Details Issues Underlining Virus Crisis China's chief diplomat slams US politicians' efforts to undermine China-US ties Global Times By Wang Qi Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/7 21:48:03 A signed article by Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, was published Friday, calling for stable ties and mutual respect. It also criticized US politicians who deliberately distort and attempt to undermine China-US relations. Yang's article followed Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's recent comments. In an interview with Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday, Wang urged avoiding a confrontation, keeping the channels open for dialogue, rejecting decoupling, and sharing the responsibilities. China's two top diplomats' attitude comes amid the Trump administration's multiple suppression on politics, economy, technology and other sectors. Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai told US media recently that China and the US are at a very critical moment in their relations, and that relations between the two countries were at the lowest point since 1971. In his article, Yang pointed out that from the outset of the normalization process, China-US relations have always been based on the understanding that both sides recognize and respect each other's different social system. Some US politicians portray China as having tried over these years to fool and deceive the US. Their allegations are fanfare for ideological confrontation and the Cold War mentality. Yang said the two countries need to view and handle their relationship in a proper manner, and seek a way to peacefully co-exist despite their differences. However, some US politicians continue to make false and groundless remarks against China, and viciously attack the CPC and China's political system. "We must never allow a handful of self-serving US politicians to push the relationship into serious jeopardy," Yang said. Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Friday that the extremely hawkish politicians in the Trump administration want to leave long-term damage to China-US relations as their legacy in the last few months of Trump's presidency. Yang's remarks show China's sincerity, and will do its utmost to save the bilateral relations. In the article, Yang traced the history of diplomatic ties and the win-win cooperation that followed, involving economic and trade cooperation, cultural and personnel exchanges, and communication and coordination on international hotspot issues. China-US relations are now faced with a new international and domestic environment. To safeguard and stabilize the relationship against this backdrop, the right attitude is to respect history, keep pace with the times, and build on past achievements, and not to distort and deny history, or turn back the wheels of history. Although Yang reiterated China's basic position of mutual respect and win-win cooperation in dealing with the bilateral relations, Wu said it does not mean that China will make concessions on its core interests if the US touches China's red line. Yang also urged the US to respect China's core interests and major concerns, such as issues related to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. "In response to US words and actions that undermine China's core and major interests, we have taken, and will continue to take, firm and necessary counter-measures. China's resolve to defend its sovereignty, security and development interests is unshakable," Yang said. Yang has met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Hawaii in mid-June. They elaborated on their respective stances and agreed to take action to implement the consensus reached by top leaders. They agreed to maintain contact and communication. On Thursday, Chinese National Defense Minister Wei Fenghe had a phone call with US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Thursday. Wei stated China's principled position on questions including the South China Sea and Taiwan. Esper said that amid tensions between the two countries, the two militaries should maintain dialogue and consultation to manage crises, avoid misjudgment and reduce risks. On August 15, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will review the implementation of the phase one trade deal, media reported. Observers believe it shows that China and the US still maintain communication channels in many fields and at multiple levels, and China's efforts in bilateral relations and world stability will not be in vain. We urge US decision-makers to redress mistakes and change course, and work with China to manage differences on the basis of mutual respect, expand cooperation on the basis of mutual benefit, and bring China-US relations back to the track of sound and steady development, Yang said. "China welcomes more American people to China to see and experience the country for what it really is," Yang said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Three Bangladeshi nationals were apprehended near the international border in West Bengal's Nadia district on Saturday, the BSF said. The three -- a woman and her two children -- were crossing over to India when they were caught by Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at Fitkrigate outpost, an official statement said. There were five persons in the group crossing over to India in the early hours. While two of them managed to escape in the cover of darkness, the three were caught by the border guards, it said. The woman is a resident of Khulna district in Bangladesh and confessed that she had paid money to two touts for coming over to India, the BSF said. Some cash in Bangladeshi currency and two mobile phones were found in her possession. A man in his 20s has drowned after getting 'into difficulty' in a water-filled quarry as temperatures soared today. The man's body was pulled from the water at Bawsey Pits near King's Lynn in Norfolk earlier this afternoon, police confirmed. Emergency services were called to the scene at about 11.30am on Saturday after the man was reported missing. Superintendent Malcolm Cooke, from Norfolk Constabulary, said: 'Colleagues from Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service and the East of England Ambulance Service assisted officers in the search. 'The body of the man, aged in his 20s, was recovered from the water and he was sadly pronounced dead at the scene. The man's body was pulled from the water at Bawsey Pits near King's Lynn in Norfolk, police confirmed. Pictured, sun-seekers watched on as officials carried out the search 'Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family at this time.' Four crews of firefighters used two rigid inflatable boats and a drone to search for any sign of the swimmer after he got into difficulty in the water. Norfolk Police confirmed they were called to 'reports of a missing male who got into difficulty in the water.' There have been frequent warnings about the dangers of swimming in the former quarry pits at Bawsey Country Park in recent years. The former sand workings feature underwater obstructions and steep sides, meaning there are sudden changes in depth. Emergency services were called to the scene at about 11.30am on Saturday after a man was reported missing. Pictured, a police car brings a rigid boat to the water-filled pit Signs are in place warning swimming is banned. A 16-year-old boy from east London drowned at the pits in July 2013. A local man Ryan Pettegell, 41, also drowned on the same day after he he swam out to look for the missing boy. A Norfolk Police police spokesperson said today; 'Colleagues from Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service have been assisting officers in the search and the incident is ongoing. Despite many warnings about going into the water in the hot weather, people have been ignoring the recommendations and the emergency services were forced to search for the missing swimmer 'No further details will be released at this stage and an update will be issued in due course.' It comes as temperatures reached 95F at Frittenden in Kent early this afternoon. Saturday started with an 'impressive' 68F difference between parts of Scotland and south-east England, the Met Office pointed out. Forecaster Marco Petagna earlier said a breeze along the North Sea coast would keep temperatures in the high teens there, while England and Wales would generally see the high 20Cs or low 30Cs - with cooler temperatures in Scotland and Northern Ireland. WASHINGTON - U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar said Friday he wants to learn about Taiwans incredibly effective response to the cornavirus even though the island did things that the U.S. has fumbled, such as having a unified strategy and citizens willing to wear masks. Azar leads a U.S. delegation departing this weekend for a three-day visit to Taiwan, where they will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen and health system leaders, and Azar will give a speech to public health graduates. The trip is a geopolitical chess move in the Trump administrations contentious relationship with China, which considers Taiwan part of its national territory and has already registered its displeasure. The message of this trip is about Taiwan, Azar said in an interview, deflecting a question about China. Its about public health, its about our partnership with Taiwan, but also the model that Taiwan offers to the world community of a transparent and open health care system. It is a model others can learn from. He called Taiwans coronavirus response incredibly effective and said hes willing to learn from them about their responses. Its not too late, says a leading expert on Taiwans health care system, Princeton Universitys Tsung-Mei Cheng. It will be good if our health chief can learn from Taiwan, how exactly they did it, said Cheng. Its really a treasure trove of very useful information as to how you could effectively control and contain the spread of the virus. Taiwan had direct experience with an earlier respiratory virus known as SARS, so it did not take the new coronavirus lightly. A government-run health care system broadly similar to what Sen. Bernie Sanders advocates allowed public health authorities to mobilize resources to track and contain cases. Citizens were willing to follow public health advice. As a result Taiwan has had fewer than 500 confirmed cases of COVID-19, despite its close proximity to China, where the virus originated. Florida, which has roughly the same number of residents as Taiwan, has had more than 500,000 cases and is struggling to contain this summers surge. Taiwan set the policy right and they had the infrastructure and the leadership, said Cheng. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of leadership. In the U.S., President Donald Trump minimized the potential impact of the coronavirus at the outset, and has continued to do so from time to time. The federal government deferred to the states on key issues such as testing, even as public health experts and Democrats in Congress have called for a national plan. Azar, while praising Taiwan, said the U.S. is dealing with very different circumstances. They are an island with 23 million people that also experienced SARS quite directly,he said. The U.S. is one of the worlds largest land mass countries, he added, with a federal system that gives states great leeway, and traditions of individual liberty. Like other administration officials, Azar says Trump acted quickly to try to contain the virus by imposing restrictions on travel from China, and he points to the governments drive to facilitate development and eventual distribution vaccines as direct evidence of the U.S. presidents commitment. Also on the agenda for the trip is trade as the U.S. tries to broaden its sources for medical products, many of which have been produced in China. American Cabinet-rank officials have travelled to Taiwan in previous administrations, but Azars trip is billed as the highest-level visit since Washington and Taipei broke formal diplomatic relations in 1979 as a consequence of U.S. rapprochement with China. The U.S. is represented in Taiwan by an institute that acts as an embassy in all but name. Members of the U.S. delegation will wear masks and observe social distancing precautions. Theyll be tested for the coronavirus before they depart, once they land in Taiwan, and before they return. This is a visit to reinforce the U.S.-Taiwan partnership in global health and health security, said Azar. Taiwan is a leader in global health and I believe it deserves to be recognized as such. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- It finally happened. After a month of threatening to do so, President Donald Trump issued executive orders that will ban the popular Chinese-owned social media apps TikTok and WeChat in the U.S. on national security concerns. There are still some unknowns around the language and implementation of the decrees, and theres a chance they get dialed back later during trade negotiations between the U.S. and China. Whatever happens, there will likely be lasting negative ramifications and not just for Chinese firms, but for American technology companies as well.Trumps orders, signed late Thursday, have a 45-day lag. They prohibit any person subject to U.S. jurisdiction from dealing with TikToks Beijing-based owner ByteDance Ltd. and Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. in transactions related to its WeChat app. The wording of the first order effectively puts Microsoft Corp. and ByteDance on the clock to finish their deal negotiations for TikToks U.S. operations by the already stipulated Sept. 15 target date. But the WeChat ban order may be a bigger threat as there doesnt seem to be an obvious way out before the deadline. The threat to the Chinese apps is clear. But the details cited inside the orders may cause future headaches for the biggest U.S. tech firms, too. For example, Trump noted how TikTok captures location data and user-activity information that could potentially be used for blackmail and corporate spying. This pertains to all U.S. social media apps, too. Further, the president cited how TikTok videos spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus as one of his reasons to ban the app. Similar conspiracy videos also sprout up often on Facebook Inc. and Googles YouTube platforms. The problem is, the use of such justification opens the door for other countries around the world to use similar rationale to ban U.S. apps within their borders. After all this time and nearly a year of investigation, where is the compelling evidence against these apps? It isnt in these orders.Big Techs leaders are worried about these implications. According to a BuzzFeed News report, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said a TikTok ban would be a really bad long-term precedent, adding it could very well have long-term consequences in other countries around the world. Earlier this week, Microsoft founder Bill Gates told Bloomberg News that businesses need to know the rule set for commerce when they make investments in the U.S. and wondered about the timing of the TikTok ban threats. If this is such a clear thing why wasn't it clear three months ago, six months ago?, he said. Story continues In addition to governmental risk, there may be a consumer backlash in foreign countries. By going after ByteDance and Tencent, two of the most respected Chinese internet success stories, Trumps actions may spark a nationalistic backlash against buying American products and services in the Asian country. Obviously, Apple Inc.s iPhone and App Store businesses in China are top of mind, along with Starbucks Corp. and Intel Corp. that have large operations in China.The restrictions, if implemented, will also impose mental and financial hardship on vast swath of Americans who rely on the apps to communicate and make their livelihoods. Many e-commerce entrepreneurs, aspiring musicians and influencers rely on TikTok as their most effective marketing channel amid this pandemic. And WeChat is a critical messaging tool for Chinese immigrants to communicate with their families overseas. The numbers are massive: TikTok says 100 million Americans use their app, while WeChat has 19 million daily active users in the U.S., according to Apptopia. For a White House that has repeatedly complained in recent months about the censorship of conservative voices, it seems pretty hypocritical to shutter the access of millions of Americans, many of them Trump supporters with large followings. That is not to say there arent legitimate national security issues with TikTok and WeChat. But there is a better way to hold China accountable for concerns over its intellectual property and data-privacy practices. The U.S. should pursue a multi-lateral partnership with its allies based on strong legal frameworks and build a clear compelling evidence-based case against China. Unfortunately, this administrations strategy is the opposite, using haphazard, seemingly arbitrary decision-making and preying on peoples fears and paranoia, and in the months leading up to an election. A policy that lashes out without a well-thought-out end game will not be as effective, leading to unintended consequences. The U.S. needs to do better. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Tae Kim is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Barron's, following an earlier career as an equity analyst. 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. The Indian smartphone market has been flooded with smartphones that look more or less the same. This prompted me to write an article featuring phone from the 2000s that had more innovative designs than the usual stuff we are used to today. As we all know, phones used to look radically different from each other more than a decade ago and some of them have also been the greatest phones of all time. Companies would differentiate themselves from one another with imaginative designs that were hard to copy and had some originality in them. Today, most smartphones look like a glass slab and the only thing that differentiates them from one another is the software experience and incremental hardware upgrades. We featured five phones in our previous article but there are certainly more than just five that captured our imaginations. So in order to invoke some nostalgia and pay homage to phones that paved the way for smartphones; here are five more phones from the 2000s that had incredible designs: 1. Nokia 7710 Wikipedia Commons Some people may call this phone whacky but in our opinion, the Nokia 7710 embodies the futuristic design Nokia took a risk way back in 2004. It was Nokias first touch-screen smartphone that came with physical buttons on the two edges of the phone. It was meant to be used in landscape mode rather than a traditional mobile phone. The phone had 90MB of internal memory and could be expanded to 128MB with an MMC card. The music player supported MP3, AAC, RealAudio 7 and 8, WAV, MIDI and AMR audio formats which was already ahead of its time. But this phone is most remembered for its iconic and bold design that went out of its way to look different than anything that was available in the market. The Nokia 7710 in our opinion is the precursor to modern smartphones we use today. 2. Sony Ericsson Xperia X5 Pureness Pinterest Just look at this phone, it is a technical marvel in its own right that didnt really take off well for Sony Ericsson in 2009. The phone had the traditional candy-bar design but came with its own twist i.e. the transparent digital screen. The phone looks sexy even for todays standards and just shows that Sony Ericsson was not afraid of taking risks that we dont see much of today. It is an innovative take on an existing design that weve never ever seen since then. 3. Motorola V70 Catawiki Apart from the RAZR, the Motorola V70 was one of the coolest looking phones ever made. The phone was instantly recognisable thanks to its metallic design and the swivelling circular monochrome panel. Just looking at this phone makes me sad that I have to settle for phones that are nowhere close to the V70s aesthetic. Whoever came up with the design of this phone was definitely inspired to create something iconic and memorable as we still havent forgotten about this phone. 4. Nokia 8800 Sirocco Youtube/Exclusive Mobiles Heres a little bit of history, the Nokia 8 Series was the companys dream phones lineup that the company wanted to make for people who adored their phones above everything else. The Sirocco phones from the company were by far the hottest creations by the company that embodied luxury, avant-garde designs and a style that cannot still be matched by phone special edition phones today. I owned this phone during my college years and I still have it today simply because of how the phone feels and looks. If you look at their modern renditions, it is more like a shell of what the original line used to be with not much to offer apart from the same usual smartphone design. 5. Nokia N95 Flickr/NRKBeta The Nokia N95 was the worlds most powerful smartphone at the time of its release and even had a unique design that set it apart from its rivals. The phone had a two-way sliding design where on one side it had all the music play controls and the other revealed the keypad for making calls/texting. The phone had GPS capabilities, a 5MP camera and a web browser to access the internet on the go. The Nokia N95 shows us that phones can be innovative when it comes to design and be powerful at the same time. So these are five more phones from the 2000s that pushed the envelope when it came to design and aesthetics. Of course, your list may look entirely different from ours so do let us know in the comments some of your favourite smartphone designs over the years. Last week, a new study published by the World Health Organization found that face masks provide some protection against covid-19 infection for mask wearers, not just those around them. While this is certainly good news and will hopefully provide more incentive for those still not regularly wearing masks, it is a different statement from the one weve been hearing from leading health resources for months: masks protect those around you, but not the wearer. And of course, both of these are different from the official guidance in March and early April to only wear a mask if you are sick. This is undeniably frustrating. Health agencies change their recommendations and policy makers make abrupt 180-degree turns regarding practices that might help us reduce viral spread. In fact, the main reaction in response to being asked to wear a mask or practice social distancing has been: why should I believe you now? The scientists and policymakers keep changing their minds how do I know theyre right this time? Its a valid question. If you look at the history of science, youd find that weve been wrong often before. There were times when, based on the information available, scientists believed the earth was the center of the universe with the sun moving around it, that atoms were indivisible (nuclear power, now responsible for around 10% of the worlds energy is based on the breakdown of the atom), and even that proteins rather than DNA contained the genetic information passed through generations. So why should we trust science, and more importantly, if it keeps changing, how can we know were right this time? In the early 1900s, an Austrian student named Karl Popper was faced with a similar dilemma to many of us surrounded by the whirlwind of covid-related news and stories. Living during a swarm of new theories in physics, psychology, and history including Einsteins theory of relativity, Marxist theory, psychoanalysis, and individual psychology, he felt he didnt know which way to turn or what to believe. In an attempt to sort out which studies he wished to believe, which he deemed truly scientific and properly tested, Popper proposed the issue was the problem of drawing a line that could separate science from non-science and therefore help him determine which theories to trust. For Popper, the decision came down to the idea of falsification: to be scientific and therefore trustworthy, Popper argued that an idea put forward by science had to be capable of being proven wrong. Importantly, any idea that can be proven wrong might be; Poppers criteria in no way guarantees that science will come up with a winning hypothesis every single time. Instead, he suggested a simple criterion to see if an idea has the potential to be shown to be true or false under proper testing conditions. For example, the popular pseudoscience of astrology which claims the position of the planets at ones time of birth have predictive outcomes of that persons physical and mental characteristics is easily disproved by twins who live very different lives despite being born at the exact same place and time. In contrast, my fortune cookie suggesting good luck will come my way soon is impossible to test empirically by any method Im aware of. What amount of luck would be sufficient, what will luck look like, and in what soon timespan will it occur? Of course, the fact that science is designed so that it can be refuted means it often is. As our technology improves, as we ask new and better questions, as our sample sizes increase, we often draw conclusions that directly contradict those of the past. In such situations, the conflicting conclusions must battle it out: do we have more reason to believe that one is more accurate than the other or do we see flaws in one we missed before? Almost always, the answer is yes, and one theory wins until future, and hopefully improved, experiments bring the victorious theory back into the ring for another round. It might seem a bit alarming that the ability to constantly refute science means that what we know, or think we know, will change. As a species, we dont like things we do not understand. The fear of the unknown is real. But think of the alternative. Until nearly the end of the 1800s, scientists, correctly recognizing that human waste and garbage could lead to illness proposed that the bad smell was itself the culprit. Some historians even hold that the famous ring a ring o roses; pocket full of posies rhyme refers to individuals placing flowers in their pockets as protection against the bubonic plague, which caused ring-like rashes. Earlier than that, Egyptians mistook the red-colored sweat of the hippopotamus for blood, leading to the idea that releasing copious amounts of blood from patients could somehow cure their ills. The idea of bleeding patients to cure them continued to be supported by scientific research into the 1900s. Of course, modern knowledge of the body tells us that extensive release of blood from the body is far more likely to do harm than good and the germ theory of disease suggests that viruses, bacteria, and other small parasites and organisms cause disease, not smells. It would be not only incredibly dangerous, but also foolish to try and treat someone with SARS-CoV-2 by putting sweet smelling flowers in their pockets or removing large amounts of their blood. As our knowledge of the world changes, so must our actions and policies. As a public, we are used to seeing the polished end-product of science. Before presenting new ideas, scientists might spend their entire lives trying to refute or support one idea. We are living in an unprecedented time: in a globalized world where information travels at the speed of light and scientific discoveries on SARS-CoV-2 and covid-19 are being forced out at breakneck speeds. With so much at stake and an entire world plunged into disarray, every new finding is a big deal and shared widely. We are seeing science in progress: data in its messiest, most raw form. Because we know so little about the new topic at hand, the chance that a given discovery will completely override what we knew before is high. As data suggested that asymptomatic carriers were more common than we previously believed (a recent study credited 50% of outbreaks to asymptomatic carriers) it became clear everyone should wear masks. Now, as people have begun wearing masks for long enough and in large enough numbers for studies to be conducted, were learning that they might provide protection for the wearer as well as surrounding people. The bottom line is that when scientific results change, it doesnt mean science is somehow broken or flawed. This is exactly what science is supposed to do: as we gain new information, learn new things, and figure out what questions we should ask next our conclusions and policies must change with the data. Just as it wouldnt make any sense or do anyone much good to insist on doing away with masks and preventing SARS-CoV-2 spread by placing flowers in our pockets to keep away bad smells, it doesnt make sense to avoid wearing a mask just because our improved understanding of covid-19 has led to more informed conclusions than we had at the start of the pandemic. Hannah Margolis is a postbaccalaureate researcher at the National Institutes of Health with a degree in biochemistry from Dartmouth College. She can be reached at hannah.k.margolis@gmail.com. Love 10 Funny 4 Wow 6 Sad 2 Angry 3 YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. Artsakhs military says Azerbaijani troops violated the ceasefire at the line of contact on more than 300 separate occasions, firing a total of approximately 2800 shots at Artsakh army positions over the last week. The Artsakhs military the Defense Army said in a news release that it is in control of the tactical-strategic situation and carries on confidently fulfilling its mission. Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan Representative Image (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) US President Donald Trump has been censored on Facebook and Twitter after saying children are "almost immune" from COVID-19. What do the facts say? We know for sure children are less likely to fall seriously ill from the coronavirus, and emerging evidence suggests they're less likely to be infected too. What's less clear is how much they spread the virus once infected. - Children rarely become seriously ill - Under-18s have accounted for just two percent of hospitalized COVID-19 cases and less than 0.1 percent of all deaths in the United States, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 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 A total of 45 children died from the coronavirus in the United States between February 1 and August 1 -- compared to 105 who died from seasonal flu -- out of a total of 13,000 children who died of all of causes over the period. When they do catch the virus, children are far less likely than adults to fall seriously ill. An informative study of 2,143 confirmed or suspected cases of coronavirus among children in China found 94 percent of cases were asymptomatic, mild or moderate. Those children who do fall ill often have underlying conditions. A study found all 10 pediatric patients who were hospitalized in Chicago in March and April with COVID-19 had either pre-existing conditions or co-infections. The bottom line here is that children get sick and die from COVID-19 far less often than adults do, though that does not mean they are immune. Some limited research indicates infants (under one) may be at slightly higher risk than older children. It's worth emphasizing that given that children are more prone to severe cases of flu, it wasn't obvious at the start of the pandemic that children would be less susceptible to COVID-19. There is also a highly rare, post-viral condition called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) which can develop about a month after SARS-CoV-2 infection and causes multiple organs to become painfully inflamed. As of July 15, the CDC had reported 342 cases and six deaths -- a death rate of under two percent. The average age was eight-years-old, and 70 percent of cases occurred among either Hispanic or black children. - They seem less likely to contract the virus - The next question is, are children major drivers of viral transmission? This breaks down into two parts: 1) How easily do they become infected? 2) How much do they spread the virus once they have it? There have now been several studies on the first part that do indeed seem to suggest children, especially younger children are infected less often. Icelandic researchers selected just over 13,000 people for viral screening, including some 850 children under 10. The overall prevalence of the coronavirus was 0.8 percent, but no children under 10 were infected. Similar surveys carried out in Spain, Italy and Switzerland all had similar results, finding children accounted for a far smaller proportion of infections compared to adults. That said, this remains an area of ongoing study. In the US, top infectious diseases official Anthony Fauci is leading a study into the question of infection and transmission rates among children and adults, with results expected by December. - We don't know yet how contagious children are - This is perhaps the most pressing question as authorities consider when and how to reopen schools. If children are major spreaders, then they could cause fresh outbreaks within their homes and communities -- and unfortunately the evidence right now on this point is mixed. A study out of Chicago that appeared last week found that children under the age of five carry between 10 to 100 times greater levels of viral nucleic acid in their noses compared to adults. Since this genetic material causes the virus to grow in labs, the authors suggested that children are probably important drivers of transmission. That hypothesis merits more study but is not yet proven. Another way of approaching the problem is through the lens of epidemiology -- that is, what happened in real life? On the one hand, spectacular clusters have erupted -- for example at a summer camp in the US state of Georgia where hundreds of unmasked children who slept together in large dorms were infected. Israel, too has been a cautionary tale, with outbreaks in multiple schools that infected hundreds of students, teachers and relatives. Conversely, a large study in South Korea showed that children under the age of 10 infect household contacts at much lower rates than those above 10 and adults. As for possible reasons as to why children seem to get infected less -- no one knows for sure, but there are ideas. Maybe the virus can't latch on as readily to the cell receptors of children. Another theory gaining more traction is that the four coronaviruses that cause the common cold are remembered by the body's T cells -- white blood cells that fight infections -- which then provide cross immunity. Since children often get colds, they may have more immunity than adults. The hypothesis remains to be tested through widespread screening. Some Massachusetts bars and breweries underwent a rebranding during the coronavirus pandemic, reopening as pretzel or popcorn eateries, serving booze on the side. They wont be open for long if the Baker administration has its way. Gov. Charlie Baker announced Friday it was ramping up enforcement of COVID-19 violations and updating its guidance on restaurants to close a loophole that allowed bars and breweries serving little more than snacks to reopen. Bars are closed in Massachusetts, and bars masquerading as restaurants also need to be closed, the Republican governor said during a news conference at the State House. The governors reopening plan allows restaurants to reopen. It defines restaurants as establishments that have food retail permits and provide seated food service. The latest guidance, which takes effect Tuesday, clarifies that potato chips, pretzels and other pre-packaged or manufactured foods dont count as food prepared on-site. The states COVID-19 compliance reporting line received hundreds of complaints of social distancing violations at restaurants in the first week, including dozens about taverns that left their bar counters open and bars reopening even though theyre not supposed to until Phase 4. When I walk by the window of this bar that doesnt even serve food, they are always packed, wrote one person who complained about a Western Massachusetts bar. No one is wearing a mask and they are sitting at the bar. Way to many people, its scary. Some bars and restaurants started serving chips, popcorn or other snacks or serving patrons booze if they brought in food from other restaurants. One Hampshire County establishment pushed back against the cease and desist order it received, arguing it should be allowed to stay open. The names of Brew Practitioners signature beers go by color. For example, the brewerys red beer is an American amber ale. Photo by Laura Newberry/MassLive. Staff-ShotStaff-Shot Brew Practitioners, a craft beer brewery in Florence, received the notice on July 17 after local health officials asked the state to step in. Tanzania Cannon-Eckerle, the majority owner, told MassLive she and co-owner Joe Eckerle closed their patio and indoor seating after receiving the letter. At the time, she expressed concern that her business was being held to a higher standard than what the states reopening plans dictate. I saw the parameters for Phase 2 reopening and low and behold, I have a retail food permit. Its sticking on my wall, Cannon-Eckerle said at the time. On July 17, Cannon-Eckerle asked for an administrative review of her cease and desist letter. In a memo to the state, she said Brew Practitioners has access prepared by with neighboring businesses. The brewery also serves popcorn made onsite and chips and salsa. Cannon-Eckerle, who said she will file a lawsuit if shes not allowed to reopen, made another case for reopening: beer is food. She said it was the local health department that determined that beer is food and as such they would be regulating Brew Practitioners operations, despite the companys objections, Cannon-Erckerle said. The company brews its own beer, she added, setting it apart from bars or nightclubs in that regard. Brew Practitioners takes a raw grain and heats it in an electric stainless-steel vessel and creates a food, she wrote. Sometimes that food is a beer. Sometimes that food is popped corn. Both are prepared onsite and can be served table side. The restaurant guidance updates was one of several changes announced Friday. Baker said outdoor gatherings would be limited to 50 people and the second step of Phase 3, which would have allowed indoor theater performances and arcades to resume, was put on hold indefinitely. Up until now, the state has left enforcement of COVID-19 compliance at businesses and in public spaces to local boards of health, often small agencies that are underfunded and overwhelmed. Baker said Friday that he would authorize state and local police to start enforcing the mask order and other restrictions, starting Tuesday. The notable decline in COVID in Massachusetts, especially in comparison to other states, has caused some residents to feel a bit too relaxed about the seriousness of this virus, Baker said. We cannot say this enough: COVID-19 is highly contagious and can be deadly for individuals who are older, who have pre-existing conditions or comorbidity and in many cases people of color. Baker also cited large parties, private boat charters and a 300-person wedding reported in Gardner as reasons for the increase of restrictions. Related Content: For the first few months of the pandemic, Veronica Trancoso of Pasadena managed to make ends meet, even without her regular income from cleaning houses, which plunged as clients sheltered at home. She began making enchiladas and selling them to passersby, as well as construction workers in her neighborhood. That brought in some money enough to pay for utilities and other small bills. But in recent weeks that business has faltered, too, as heavy rains across southeast Texas drove the construction workers inside. And now the 47-year-olds financial position is precarious enough that shes worried she and her children will end up on the streets. No hay trabajo, Trancoso said there is no work. One of her neighbors was already evicted, she added, after falling severely behind on rent. Another self-evicted, out of fear of a legal process that could expose her to immigration authorities. An alarming number of Americans are in a similar predicament, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic itself, the toll it has taken on the economy, and the relatively skimpy relief provided to struggling workers thus far as part of the response to both. The unemployment rate has soared, across the state and country. A federal evictions moratorium, prohibiting landlords whose properties are backed by the government from evicting tenants, expired last month. So did emergency unemployment insurance, also part of the CARES Act, which had supplemented lost wages with an extra $600 a week. Amid a congressional standoff over a new aid package, President Donald Trump on Saturday signed executive orders to extend the evictions moratorium and provide a lower amount, $400 a week, to the unemployed; Democrats have questioned the legality of the moves. It is a humongous problem, said Marcia Johnson, a professor of law at Texas Southern University, prior to Trumps announcement. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, she continued, there was an evictions crisis in Harris County, with a disproportionate impact on African-American women and children. COVID-19 has exacerbated that problem by creating new challenges for anyone experiencing housing insecurity. Its not a matter of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, said Johnson, who also serves on the Housing Stability Task Force established in June by Harris County and the city of Houston. At the task forces last meeting, she continued, they heard testimony from a man, the sole provider for his family, who had been unable to work since contracting the virus. I dont know if there was a dry eye in the house, because it was a Zoom, but there wasnt a dry eye here, she said. Dana Karni, an attorney with Lone Star Legal Aid who also serves on the task force, said that she considered July 25 the day the aforementioned provisions in the federal CARES Act expired a sort of doomsday. The evictions moratorium hadnt covered all renters, or been enforced particularly well. A new analysis led by South Texas College of Law-Houston professor Eric Kwartler finds that nearly 24 percent of the evictions filed in Harris County during the three-month period it covered were illegal. Still, it was some measure of protection for many renters in Harris County, who were already facing a scarcity of affordable housing as well as a statewide legal regime that is, from a tenants perspective, not especially friendly. Couple that with the fact that I think were scratching 100 degrees outside in Houston; rent is due; school is around the corner... Karni said. She added that shes particularly distressed for families facing the prospect of eviction while preparing for the school year, which is set to begin virtually: Theres a terrible social stigma to take your homework home, when there is no home to take your homework to. Although officials in other big cities and counties have extended some local protections for renters, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner declined to bring up a proposal that would have created a grace period at a City Council meeting this past week. The mayor explained, I am concerned that a moratorium does not remove the financial obligation and increases the hole people would have to dig themselves out from under. Instead, council passed a second rental relief program, for $20 million. The first round of funding, $15 million approved in May, was spoken for in less than 90 minutes. In San Antonio, leaders last spring set aside $50 million for rental and mortgage assistance and still had about $20 million left at the end of July. Theres a general consensus that the government needs to do more, lest the pandemic spiral into a disaster of even more epic proportions. Among advocates, theres a sense that the action needs to come from the local level. We're the only large city without a moratorium, or even something as weak as a grace period, said Josephine Lee, an organizer with El Pueblo Primero. She explained that shes particularly worried about low-wage and immigrant workers, many of whom are considered essential but lack the health care coverage that might go along with that; they may have to choose between homelessness or their health. When our neighbors are forced to make that choice, it will take a toll on the entire community. erica.grieder@chron.com Writing this week in the prestigious US-based journal Foreign Affairs, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warns that the danger of armed conflict between the United States and China is higher than at any time since the 1950s. His essay, titled Beware the Guns of Augustin Asia: How to keep US-Chinese tensions from sparking a war, recalls the extreme geo-political tensions in August 1914 as the world was plunged into a catastrophic war. Rudd, moreover, is not warning of a distant danger. After reviewing the intense political pressures on leaders in both Washington and Beijing, as well as the most dangerous flashpoints, he argues that the risks will be especially high over the next few critical months between now and the November US presidential election. The former prime minister, who is president of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York, is well connected in American political and strategic circles. Rudd explains that he is not alone in his fears about the dramatically worsening tensions between the two nuclear armed powers. Kevin Rudd (left) moderates a session at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 20, 2016 [Credit: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM/swiss-image.ch/Photo Jolanda Flubacher] The question now being asked, quietly but nervously, in capitals around the world is, where will this end? The once unthinkable outcomeactual armed conflict between the United States and Chinanow appears possible for the first time since the end of the Korean War. In other words, we are confronting the prospect of not just a new Cold War, but a hot one as well, he writes. As an unreserved supporter of the Australian-US military alliance, Rudd covers up the role of American imperialism in deliberately raising tensions with China over the past decade, even though he himself was a victim of the worsening relations. He was ousted as prime minister in 2010 in an inner-party coup involving protected sources of the US embassy in Canberra. He was removed for failing to line up completely with the Obama administrations aggressive pivot to Asia, aimed at the economic and strategic undermining of China. Rudd argues in his essay that Chinese President Xi has sought to exploit the historic decline of the US with a much more assertive strategy abroad, both regionally and globally, to which Washington has responded with increasing levels of aggression. In reality, Obamas aggressive pivot involved a massive military build-up in the Indo-Pacific and efforts to isolate China economically, prompting Beijing to take counter-measures. Underpinning the pivot was the recognition in Washington that, in its historic decline, the chief threat to US global dominance came from China. What began under Obama has been massively accelerated under Trump in his trade and economic warfare, his provocative naval operations in the South China Sea, increased arms sales to Taiwan and arms build-up in Asia. Confronting a worsening political crisis at home as a result of his criminal handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump in the last six months has abruptly turned on Beijing, blaming it for the China virus, accusing it of spying and intellectual property theft, as well as human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Rudd does note that the US has made plain that 35 years of strategic engagement are overin other words, that the rapprochement between the two countries that began with the visit of US President Richard Nixon to Beijing in 1972 is being replaced by an era of strategic competition. He also recognises that Trumps chaotic presidency has stripped the US-China relationship of the political, economic, and diplomatic insulation carefully nurtured over the last half century and reduced to its rawest form: an unconstrained struggle for bilateral, regional, and global dominance. Rudd points out that this aggressive anti-China campaign is bi-partisan, writing, Meanwhile, Trumps opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, is determined not to be outflanked by Trump on China, making for a uniquely combustible political environment. Rudd, who speaks Mandarin and regards himself as an astute observer of Chinese politics, also identifies the challenges facing Chinese President Xi. In China, an already slowing economy, the ongoing impact of the trade war, and now the COVID-19 crisis have placed Xis leadership under its greatest internal pressure yet, he notes. Xi has made high level enemies through his brutal anticorruption campaign, massive military reorganization and major personnel changes in the partys intelligence, security, and military hierarchies. While he concludes that Xi will deal with internal party enemies and rivals through a party rectification campaign launched in July, Rudd pays no attention to the acute social tensions in China produced by growing unemployment and the huge gulf between the rich and poor that have been compounded by the pandemic. Just as the Trump administration is attempting to turn internal tensions outward by making China the scapegoat for the crisis in the US, so the Chinese Communist Party regime has always resorted to nationalist demagogy to deflect from its domestic crises. Backed into a corner by Washington, Beijing will be forced to react. As Rudd writes: All this makes for a dangerous political and strategic cocktail: a weakened Trump, an uncompromising Biden, and an under-pressure Xi ready to pull the nationalist lever. While by no means the only potential triggers for armed conflict, he identifies three flashpoints as particularly dangerous: Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea. On Hong Kong, Rudd concludes that the current US confrontation with China over its imposition of a new national security law on the territory is unlikely to result in a full-blown crisis. His argument is weak. It is based on the fact that Britain, not the US, is the external treaty power, having returned Hong Kong to China in 1997, and that there would be no international legal basis for any form of US intervention. Trump, however, has time and again demonstrated his complete contempt for international law and institutions. On Taiwan, a core issue for China, Trump has increasingly called into question the One China policy whereby Washington recognised Beijing as the legitimate ruler of all China, including Taiwan. Rudd suggests that any crisis over Taiwan triggered by a Chinese military push would be more likely to come later in the 2020s, when Beijing thinks the military balance will have shifted even further in its favour. Rudd, however, does not rule out what is far more likely in the short term, namely a US provocation. In the current political environment, the Trump administration could choose to escalateby, say, allowing a U.S. naval visit to a Taiwanese port. The incendiary effect of such an action would be politically impossible for the Chinese leadership to ignore, he writes. Rudd regards the escalating military tensions in the South China Sea as the most dangerous potential flashpoint. The Trump administration has deliberately ratcheted up its aggressive naval deployments in the area, including deliberate intrusions by US warships into territorial waters claimed by China. Last month, in a deliberately provocative show of force, the US Navy staged high-end war games involving two aircraft carrier strike groups in the South China Sea near and adjacent to sensitive Chinese naval bases in southern China. Rudd writes: The South China Sea has thus become a tense, volatile, and potentially explosive theatre at a time when accumulated grievances have driven the underlying bilateral political relationship to its lowest point in half a century. The sheer quantity of naval and air force hardware deployed by both sides makes an unintended (or even intended) collision increasingly probable. In considering what would happen in the event of the downing of an aircraft or the sinking of a warship by either side, Rudd concludes that there is a real danger of an escalation into full-blown war. As he states: The prevailing domestic political circumstances in Beijing and Washington could all too easily drive both sides to escalate. Political advisers might argue that a localized military escalation could be contained within defined parameters. Nonetheless, given the highly charged public sentiment in both countries and the high political stakes in play for each countrys leader, there is little reason to be sanguine about the possibilities for restraint. The most telling aspect of Rudds essay is that, having outlined in some detail the dangers of war between two-nuclear armed powers that would necessarily engulf the world, not in the coming years, but in the next three months, his proposals for avoiding conflict are utterly banal. He enjoins US and Chinese leaders to study the lessons of history, when a relatively minor incidentthe assassination of an Austrian archduke in June 1914plunged the world into war just weeks later. He concludes with a pathetic appeal to leaders on both sides to navigate the next few months without stumbling into conflict. The lack of any coherent and compelling answer to the war drive within ruling circles is a sharp warning to the working class and to young people who will inevitably be compelled to bear all the burdens of war. Rudd obliquely hints at the only means to prevent war, suggesting that leaders remember that nationalistic jingoism tends to become more muted after the shooting starts. Or, to put it more directly, World War I engendered revolutionary opposition within the working class that rejected the nationalist chauvinist justifications for war and found its highest expression in the Russian Revolution of 1917. The same challenge confronts the international working class today, in the US, China and around the world. That is, to build a unified anti-war movement on the basis of a socialist perspective aimed at putting an end to global capitalism and its outmoded and bankrupt nation-state system, which is the root cause of war. Britain is facing an unacceptable" rise in the number of boats carrying migrants across the English Channel and would act to send illegal" entrants back to France, immigration compliance minister Chris Philp wrote in an article published on Saturday. Philp said he was going to Paris next week to raise concerns over the issue. The UK would urge France to stop migrants from getting into boats and would also return those who make it to our shores," Philp wrote in the Telegraph. A rise in the number of migrants attempting to cross the English Channel has led to ministers demanding tougher actions from the French government. The French must ensure that migrants who are caught attempting to reach the UK by boat cannot do so again," Philp wrote. France has said calm weather conditions were making the illegal crossings easier. Surveillance teams deployed along its northern coast were intercepting migrants daily and extra resources had been mobilised, an interior ministry spokesman said. The London-based Times newspaper reported that UK ministers were considering blocking migrant boats in the English Channel before they enter UK waters, a tactic used by Australia against migrants. Almost 4,000 people have crossed the English Channel this year in more than 300 small boats, according to a BBC report. France says five times as many migrant boats were caught between January and July compared with the same period in 2019. The English Channel is just 23 miles wide at its narrowest point between Dover and Calais. This is a joint problem which needs a joint operational response," the French interior ministry spokesman said. Most migrants originate from countries such as Yemen, Egypt, Sudan and Iraq in search of better jobs and living conditions. Brtitish finance minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday that people were right to be frustrated" over migrant crossings. Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor Amid the fallout from comments by former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden about a lack of diversity of thought and heritage within the African American community, some worry that a pattern of blunders could impact support within the Black community. Biden drew criticism on Thursday when he compared the diversity of African American and Latino communities at a pretaped virtual talk with the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. "What you all know, but most people don't know. Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things," Biden said. "You go to Florida you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do when you're in Arizona. So it's a very different, a very diverse community." MORE: Biden faces backlash for comparing diversity in African American, Latino communities Just hours after the taped remarks, during a live discussion with the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, Biden reiterated similar comments: "We can build a new administration that reflects the full diversity of our nation, the full diversity of Latino communities. And when I mean full diversity, unlike the African American community and many other communities, you're from everywhere. From Europe, from the tip of South America, all the way to our border and Mexico, and in the Caribbean." New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said it's important to acknowledge that Black Americans, including those with roots in the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America and the American South have cultures that should be celebrated. "To diminish those cultures and the richness of those cultures is such a wildly ignorant thing to do and insulting on so many levels," said Williams, who is the son of immigrants from Grenada. "But I wish I was surprised." Story continues PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden departs after speaking about his plans to combat racial inequality at a campaign event in Wilmington, Del., July 28, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters, FILE) After receiving backlash for his comments, Biden later took to Twitter to apologize for the comments. "In no way did I mean to suggest the African American community is a monolith -- not by identity, not on issues, not at all," Biden wrote. "Throughout my career I've witnessed the diversity of thought, background, and sentiment within the African American community. It's this diversity that makes our workplaces, communities, and country a better place." Biden took heat in May after comments he made during an interview with "The Breakfast Club" radio show, in which he joked that if African American voters support Trump over him in November, they "ain't Black." MORE: The Note: Bidens problems talking about race surface again Some argue that these comments could have an impact on turnout for voters who aren't enthusiastic about Biden's candidacy. "It's an erasure of Black immigrants, it's a conflation of the Black experience, it's ignorant," said Nadia Brown, a professor of political science at Purdue University and author of "Sisters in the Statehouse: Black Women and Legislative Decision Making." "Biden is not doing himself any favors and the people that are captive Democratic voters, who have no other option but to vote for the Democrat or stay home, aren't enthusiastic about him." Nneka Apachu, the founder of AfriPAC, a nonpartisan political group that aims to improve policies affecting African immigrants in the U.S., said the stakes are too high to care about Biden's gaffes, pointing to Trump's travel bans from some African countries and attempted repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. PHOTO: In this file photo taken on March 9, 2020, supporters line up to see Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speak at a campaign stop at Renaissance High School in Detroit. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images, File) "I can't imagine another four years of this, I can hear a million gaffes," said Apachu. "But the suffering that I'm seeing right now with my people, it's not worth [jeopardizing a Biden win]." There are 2.3 million eligible Black immigrant voters in the U.S., about 10% of immigrants eligible to vote, according to Pew Research. Black immigrants vote at roughly the same rates as U.S.-born Blacks. Black voters overall, both immigrants and U.S. born, overwhelmingly identify with the Democratic Party. Only 7% of Black voters report they are Republican or lean toward the Republican Party, in comparison to 87% who say they identify as or lean toward the Democratic Party, according to a 2016 Pew Research study. Among those criticizing Biden's language was Trump, who has focused on courting African American voters with his "Black Voices for Trump" initiative. The president said in a tweet that Biden was "no longer worthy of the Black Vote," though Trump has often been criticized for racist comments, including recently referring to a Black Lives Matter mural outside Trump Tower as a "symbol of hate." MORE: Biden on comment to Black radio host: 'I shouldn't have been such a wise guy' Williams, who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primary, but said he will vote for Biden in November, believes that Biden's comments illustrate an insensitivity to Black people. "It is just who he is. He obviously is better than Donald Trump," said Williams. "But we didn't have to settle for that." Still, he urges voters on the fence to turn out for Biden. "Those folks shouldn't stay home. Those folks should come out," he said. PHOTO: Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at the William 'Hicks' Anderson Community Center in Wilmington, Del., July 28, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/AP, FILE) There are several Black members of Congress, all Democrats, who are immigrants or are the children of immigrants. Most didn't respond to ABC News' requests for comment on Biden's statements. Staff for Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., whose father was from Bermuda, declined to comment on Biden's statements. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., whose mother is from Trinidad and Tobago, endorsed Biden's presidential bid in February. He believes Biden's comments were misconstrued. "Vice President Bidens comments were taken out of context, he was in no way suggesting that all African Americans are the same -- not by our identities or the issues we care the most about," Horsford said a written statement to ABC News. "A big reason why I was an early supporter of his campaign is his extensive work on these issues while in office, in which he championed diversity of thought, celebrated different backgrounds, and has always maintained a sincere relationship with the Black community." Biden campaign co-chair Rep. Cedric Richmond told ABC News that Biden apologized to ensure that people know he understands why people called his language "problematic." "He's the first to admit that he doesn't always articulate exactly what he's meaning in the way that he means it," said Richmond. "And so what real leadership is is you acknowledge when something comes out wrong, you correct it and I think that he did that immediately." After Joe Biden's comments on diversity in Black community, some worry blunders could impact support originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Dr Alex George has told how he is 'holding on by a thread' as he hit out a troll who criticised him for being on social media after the tragic death of his brother Llyr. The former Love Island star, 29, took to Instagram on Saturday where he shared a clip from an idyllic seaside setting. But he was left shocked when a follower took issue with him for being on social media so shortly after Llyr passed away last month, following a battle with mental health. Heartbreaking: Dr Alex George has told how he is 'holding on by a thread' as he hit out a troll who criticised him for being on social media following the death of his brother Llyr Alex took a screen grab of the exchange, in which the person responded to his seaside picture with the comment: 'your brother is dead get off social media.' Sharing his anguish at the response, Alex penned: 'Imagining being this person. I'm holding by a thread and you get people like this.' In his next Instagram story, the medic explained to his fans why he was on social media, as he thanked them for support during this tough time. Shocking: But he was left shocked when a follower took issue with him for being on social media so shortly after Llyr passed away last month following a battle with mental health Time away: The former Love Island star, 29, took to Instagram on Saturday where he shared a clip from an idyllic seaside setting He wrote: 'I am honest and open with you all. The good, the bad and the ugly. 'There is so much that isn't shared online of course. So many of you are so kind and message me each day with well wishes.' He concluded: 'I often post to let you know I am still going strong x.' Alex recently confirmed that his brother's funeral took place on Monday. Response: In his Instagram story, the medic explained to his fans why he was on social media, as he thanked them for support during this tough time While the following day, he paid a heartbreaking tribute to his younger brother. Sharing a photo of him with his arm around his sibling, standing in front of a scenic backdrop, Alex captioned the image: 'Yesterday I said goodbye to my little brother Llyr. It was the hardest day of my life. 'Except it wasnt goodbye. Llyr, your dream was to become a doctor, you will live that dream. Every patient I see, we will do it together, you and I 'Your favourite passion is cars, every time I am out driving, I know you will be there laughing and smiling with me. Distraught: Dr Alex announced to Instagram last month that he had lost his 'beautiful little brother to mental health' (posted on Instagram in 2018) Moving: In his emotional post, he said 'I was so proud of you starting medical school next month, you would have been the most incredible doctor' 'I love you so much Llyr, you are always with me, my boy ' Ahead of Monday's funeral, the A&E doctor wrote: 'Life throws us in at the deep end sometimes, however, with family and friends we overcome the most seemingly insurmountable challenges. Today is for you Llyr.' The previous evening, Dr Alex shared a post which read: 'Tomorrow will be the hardest day of my life. We will get through for Llyr and the rest of the family.' Llyr died just weeks before he was due to follow in his older brother's footsteps and start medical school. Sad: On Monday, the star appeared to confirm that his family had laid Llyr to rest that day as he took to the social media platform to share an update Tough: Ahead of Monday's funeral, the A&E doctor wrote: 'Life throws us in at the deep end sometimes, however, with family and friends we overcome the insurmountable challenges' Announcing the tragic news last month, Alex wrote: 'I can't believe I am actually writing this post. 'I have lost my beautiful little brother to mental health. I love you so much Llyr. The kindest and most caring soul. 'I was so proud of you starting medical school next month, you would have been the most incredible doctor. We are hurting so bad. No words can explain. 'As a family we are devastated. We love you and miss you so much. Please rest in peace x Our boy.' It is believed Dr Alex's brother would have been 19 at the time of his death. If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org Srinagar/New Delhi, Aug 8 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is carrying out searches at multiple locations in Jammu and Kashmir, including premises of carpet businessman Sahil Jaroo, to look for financial links with Pakistan-based terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen vis-a-vis the DSP Davinder Singh case. "Searches are going on at multiple locations in Srinagar and other places in J&K in connection with the Davinder Singh case," top NIA sources in Delhi told IANS on Saturday. The source said that the raided places included the premises of Jaroo in Srinagar, adding that the anti-terror probe agency is looking at the financial link in Davinder Singh and Hizbul Mujahideen terror conspiracy case. The development comes almost a month after the NIA filed a charge sheet against six persons, including suspended Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Superintendent of Police, in a special NIA court in Jammu. The NIA has named Naveed Mushtaq alias Naveed Babu, Irfan Shafi Mir, Rafi Rather, Tanveer Ahmad Wani, and Syed Irfan in its charge sheet, besides Davinder Singh. The suspended police officer is lodged in Kathua jail at Heeranagar in Jammu division. He was arrested by the police on January 11 on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway while transporting two HM terrorists -- Naveed Babu and Rafi Ahmad Rather -- and a law school dropout Irfan Shafi Mir to Jammu. Naveed's brother Irfan was arrested on January 23 for his 'role' in the conspiracy while Wani came under the scanner for allegedly giving money to Naveed, a former Special Police Officer of J&K who had joined the terrorist ranks. After the arrest of Singh, initial investigations were done by the J&K Police before the case was handed over to the NIA. Police had said that the two terrorists and the lawyer had planned to travel to Pakistan. The NIA had earlier claimed that its probe revealed that the accused were part of a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched by Hizbul and Pakistani state to commit violent acts and to wage war against India. "The investigation has revealed that Pakistan-based leadership of Hizbul, namely Syed Salahuddin, Amir Khan, Khursheed Alam, Nazar Mehmood, and others, along with the Pakistani establishment is extending support to the cadres and commanders of the terror outfit based in Jammu and Kashmir. "The probe also revealed that accused Irfan Shafi Mir aka Advocate not only met Hizbul leadership in Pakistan but also met Umar Cheema, Ahshan Chaudhary, Sohail Abbas, and others of the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan and was tasked to identify and activate the new 'hawala' channels for the transfer of money to sustain terror activities in the Kashmir Valley," a NIA spokesperson had earlier said. The NIA had also claimed that its investigation revealed that certain officials of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi were in constant touch with Mir alias Advocate, who was provided with funds to organise seminars in J&K to mobilise the masses against the government of India. Mir allegedly used to receive instructions and money from the Pakistan High Commission, and he facilitated the visa applications of a number of Kashmiris for their Pakistan visits. Even Davinder Singh was said to be in touch with certain High Commission officials through secure social media platforms. Investigation revealed that he was "being groomed by Pakistani officials for obtaining sensitive information". Singh was posted with the anti-hijacking wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police in Srinagar, and was part of the security staff that had received a group of foreign diplomats who visited Kashmir. On June 19, a Delhi court had granted bail to Davinder Singh in a terror case after the Delhi Police failed to file a charge sheet against him and co-accused within the stipulated time. At some point in 2023, worried parents with a sick child should be able to arrive at a state-of-the-art, fully-staffed and equipped, National Children's Hospital (NCH). There should be highly qualified doctors and nurses seeing their young patients in an airy new building with single rooms for each child. Parents should know their loved-ones will get the best care that more than 1.7bn in investment - of mostly public money - can buy. But massive doubt has arisen that the main NCH hospital at the St James's campus in Dublin will open on time, as well as how the project will be funded. The Irish Independent revealed this week the huge challenges facing the country's pandemic-gripped health service and the knock-on impact on non-Covid-19 services as detailed in a briefing for the new Health Minister Stephen Donnelly. The document outlined fears of spiralling waiting lists for non-Covid-19 care and the challenges for maintaining cancer services in the 'new normal'. Now further details from redacted sections show how health officials blame the main builders of the NCH for delays that arose even before the Covid-19 pandemic. And they outline contingency planning for the possibility that the Tallaght satellite centre of the NCH - due to open this year - will be delayed. Aside from that, Department of Health officials have warned of a 180m shortfall in the funding needed to meet the costs for the NCH in the coming years. And the briefing shows that capital funding expected to be spent on the hospital was diverted to Covid-19 projects instead. Both the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) and BAM, the main contractors, blame the other for delays that took place before the coronavirus emergency halted building work for three and a half months. It all adds up to the NCH project looking likely to become one of the biggest headaches for Mr Donnelly and the new Government. It's fair to say there has been no shortage of controversy over the more than a decade of planning for a new National Children's Hospital. There was a false start in 2012 when planning permission was refused for building it at the Mater Hospital, prompting a long debate over an alternative location. Planning for the St James's site was granted in 2016 and Leo Varadkar, then health minister, pledged that it would be built by 2020. A construction budget of 983m was signed off on in 2017 and work began. By the end of the following year it was revealed that construction costs had escalated to 1.4bn. A further 300m is to be spent on kitting it out and merging the three existing children's hospitals at Temple Street, Crumlin and Tallaght. Few people believe the overall budget will stay at 1.7bn. The new Blanchardstown Satellite Centre has already opened - and has been treating children throughout the pandemic. Tallaght is due to open this year and the main NCH should see construction finish in 2022 before it is commissioned and opened in 2023. There's an asterisk beside these lines in the briefing for Mr Donnelly saying the dates are "'pre-Covid' and any impact arising from that". Elsewhere in the briefing the officials criticise BAM for delays that occurred even before the pandemic. They claim: "Prior to the stopping of work related to Covid the main contractor was already behind schedule on the main site, had failed to provide a credible updated timeline on the programme of works, and was not taking appropriate steps to mitigate delays." A BAM spokesperson last night said: "BAM and its contractor partners are working hard and safely in good faith to progress work on the National Children's Hospital. "This is despite the challenges imposed by Covid-19 restrictions and a range of other factors which are not of BAM's making. "The NPHDB has issued proceedings about certain matters in the High Court so we are precluded from comment." The statement claimed that: "It is a matter of record that the client, the NPHDB, was required to provide BAM with a complete and fully coordinated design for the project at a key stage in the process." It added: "As is recognised by the PWC report commissioned by Government to investigate the issue of cost overruns/budget underestimation on the project, the design was not provided as required by the contract and at today's date is still not complete." "The matter of where the fault lies for the delays to date on the project is currently in dispute within the mechanisms prescribed in the contract," the spokesperson added. "These procedures are intended to be confidential and so, with due regard for those requirements, we would not wish to comment further. "We continue to work in good faith pending the outcome of the above mentioned matters," the statement added. Asked for a response to the BAM statement, a NPHDB spokesperson said: "As this matter is now subject to High Court proceedings, and so as not to prejudice those proceedings, the NPHDB will not be providing any further comment." In April the NPHDB took a High Court case against BAM Building Ltd. The NPHDB said at the time the instruction for the Phase B construction works was issued to BAM on January 8, 2019, and works "commenced at that time and have been ongoing since". The NPHDB said: "Despite this, the main contractor had made a claim disputing the validity of that instruction. The NPHDB rejects this claim." The agreed dispute management process was exhausted without agreement. NPHDB said at the time: "Given the importance of the works, the cost and the date for completion of this critically needed new children's hospital, it is essential this fundamental contractual issue is definitively resolved." Another dispute arose between the NPHDB and BAM when builders did not return to the main NCH site once coronavirus restrictions were lifted for construction work in May. The row over who would cover the costs of reopening the site and Covid-19 safety measures was revealed by the Irish Independent last month. BAM said it had been "anxious" to get back on site but claimed it was excluded from payments the State was making to builders on other public sites. On July 10 Taoiseach Micheal Martin expressed his anger at the situation. He said he was "fed-up of claim and counter-claim" and said: "I would say to people get back on site and start building the Children's Hospital." BAM announced that evening it intended to resume work the following Monday. Separately the briefing for Mr Donnelly says the impact of Covid-19 on the construction timelines for the Tallaght satellite unit are yet to be confirmed. There is a provision for funding for the part-year costs of hiring staff in 2020. The officials say it is "imperative" that recruitment starts later this year. On the main hospital site at St James's they say: "The timing of completion will have a significant impact in service terms, recognising the infrastructural deficits in the current Crumlin and Temple Street facilities." The Department of Health has not responded to queries of late on the timeline for opening the NCH and whether the target dates will be met. It has not answered questions on project costs and how the 180m shortfall in funding will be filled; whether it will mean cuts and delays to other projects or if extra exchequer funding will be sought. The NPHDB said this week there will be delays associated with Covid-19 but it's "too early to fully assess the impact of the pandemic". The briefing for Mr Donnelly shows the scale of the issues facing the troubled NCH project. Parents hope these difficulties can be overcome so children get the care they deserve. Publicans determined to put a brave face on an extremely difficult situation were left more grim this week after the government cancelled plans to reopen pubs on August 10. The Harp & Shamrock Bar in Kiskeam which is affectionately known locally as 'The Shamrock's' has been a landmark family business in the Village for generations. Proprietor Julia Murphy described the news of the continued lockdown for pubs as "a bombshell". "I had stock in, we were ready to go and now we are in no man's land again for the next several weeks," she said. Julia described the regulars at the Shamrock's as 'family'. "We miss the company. The last few months have been very hard and also for the punters who come in as much for the social aspect as well as for a pint" she said. Not too far away, TD's has been one of the most popular Bars in Newmarket town for many years. Proprietor TD Cronin said that everyone he met over the past week had been looking forward to the reopening of the pubs. "It's actually frightening to see how quiet Newmarket is on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights," he said. "The trade had already weakened considerably over the past few years, and I think this continued lockdown will be the final straw". However, he hopes there are brighter days ahead and is looking forward to welcoming his customers back soon. The Government has abandoned the 3,500 smaller pubs across Ireland following their decision to stop pubs from reopening next week, said the Licensed Vintners Association and the Vintners Federation of Ireland. The two representative bodies now believe the sector is facing a full blown crisis which will place "intolerable pressure" on publicans, staff, suppliers and all their families. (Natural News) A former assistant professor who was denied tenure at Vanderbilt University for sending threats to colleagues was busted running a years-long hoax in which she invented an online persona on Twitter claiming to be an oppressed bisexual, Native American geologist. (Article by Tyler Durden republished from ZeroHedge.com) BethAnn McLaughlin created the persona, @Sciencing_Bi, in 2016 while working as an assistant professor of neurology at Vanderbilt. After being denied tenure in 2017, McLaughlin left the university in July of 2018 going on to found MeTooSTEM, a nonprofit organization aimed at advising scientists who are the victims of sexual harassment. But McLaughlin was doing much more than harassing coworkers and failing to earn promotions. According to the New York Times: The anonymous account, @Sciencing_Bi, was an active participant in the corner of Science Twitter that frequently discusses issues of sexual misconduct in the sciences. It claimed on at least one occasion to have grown up in Alabama, to have fled the south because of their oppression of queer folk, and to have attended Catholic school. The account began to pointedly make reference to being Native American and, earlier this year, began to identify as Hopi. Then, McLaughlin decided to kill off @Sciencing_Bi, announcing in April that she had contracted coronavirus which she publicly blamed on Arizona State University, which she says made her teach in a lecture hall with 200 people. Last Friday, BethAnn McLaughlin announced that @Sciencing_Bi had died of the virus. Then it gets really weird (via HotAir.com) After her death BethAnn McLaughlin suggested that shed been in an intimate relationship with the woman known only as @Sciencing_Bi. Looking at her side of the bed and crying. Just a lot of crying. this is one of my big hangups. if SB was a real and autonomous human, she was allegedly interacting with MTS in a client/support capacity, and should not have been anywhere near BAs bed, much less had an established side. pic.twitter.com/LkqDEuC5hM Isabel Ott (@IsabelOtt) August 2, 2020 But pretty quickly McLaughlins story began to really fall apart as people noticed that details @Sciencing_Bi had claimed about Arizona State University were false, e.g. she didnt know the correct dates for the schools closing. Also, looking back over her tweets it seemed that she had only referenced her Native American ancestry fairly recently. Heres some more weirdness on the Indigenous ID claims, shared by a friend. Prior to 2020, their tone re: Native Americans indicated IDing as exterior to that group; first claims of Indigeneity seem to have arisen this spring/summer and seemfishy to me. pic.twitter.com/0H7kwMIpbC Isabel Ott (@IsabelOtt) August 2, 2020 Whats more, people caught McLaughlin using stock photos. SB tweeted this photo about arriving in Nashville to meet with BA. This photo is a generic pic from an airline's website. It couldn't have been taken by herhttps://t.co/SL6t1cbt1v pic.twitter.com/rYWHpw6YNi Fieldwork Initiative (@MeTooFieldwork) August 2, 2020 In the end, Twitter suspended McLaughlins personal account and her @Sciencing_Bi persona, while ASU told BuzzFeed that they had no record of any such person. As the questions swirled, the account settings were switched to private. Then late on Sunday, Twitter suspended both McLaughlins and the @Sciencing_Bi accounts. Were aware of this activity and have suspended these accounts for violating our spam and platform manipulation policies, a Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News by email. The company declined to comment on whether it had any forensic evidence linking the two accounts to the same device or person. A spokesperson from ASU told BuzzFeed News they had no record of any faculty matching @Sciencing_Bis description. And other parts of @Sciencing_Bis accounts did not match up: The university closed its campus in March, switching to online instruction, and did not implement salary cuts. We have been looking into this for the last 24 hours and cannot verify any connection with the university, ASU spokesperson Katie Paquet told BuzzFeed News by email on Sunday. We have been in touch with several deans and faculty members and no one can identify the account or who might be behind it. -BuzzFeed Finally, McLaughlin admitted to being behind the anonymous account. I take full responsibility for my involvement in creating the @sciencing_bi Twitter account. My actions are inexcusable. I apologize without reservation to all the people I hurt, she said in a statement to the New York Times, adding that shes aware she needs mental health treatment. As Ive reflected on my actions the last few days, its become clear to me that I need mental health treatment, which Im pursuing now. Read more at: ZeroHedge.com WILLEMSTAD/PHILIPSBURG:--- On August 7, 2020, Mr. R.A. (Richard) Doornbosch was sworn in as President of the Centrale Bank van Curacao en Sint Maarten (CBCS), as he took the oath of office before the Acting Governors of Sint Maarten and Curacao. The appointment of Mr. Doornbosch follows from the recommendation by the CBCS Board of Supervisory Directors to the Entitled Asset holders on March 11 this year, to nominate Mr. Doornbosch as president. Richard Doornbosch (1973) is an economist with more than 20 years of experience in the financial sector, international organizations, and public financial management. Up until last month, he served as Alternate Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C., where he conjointly lead the Dutch-Belgium constituency. For Mr. Doornbosch, supporting both governments in dealing with the COVID-19 economic impact, and mitigating the risks for financial stability, will have immediate priority. Intervention or restructuring measures should be applied with priority to problem institutions to guarantee an orderly resolution. Improvements should be made with regard to modernizing legislation and supervision of the financial sector, while the central bank itself is transforming, aiming to strengthen the internal governance and making the corporate culture proactive and more outward-looking. Doornbosch looks forward to giving further guidance to this process: The expertise of the CBCS-staff is indisputable, and the reliability of the central bank shall no longer be called into question, according to the new president. With Mr. Doornbosch being appointed, the Board of Directors of the CBCS is now complete. The Board of Supervisors looks forward to successful cooperation. New Delhi: Pakistan has told top UN officials that the world body has a "moral responsibility" to play its role in resolving the Kashmir issue and help in de-escalating tensions with its South Asian neighbor India. This remark came in reference to Pakistan blaming India for closing the doors on any bilateral engagement with it. Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi, during his day-long visit to the city, met UN Secretary General-designate Antonio Guterres, Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson and Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffery Feltman. According to press release issued yesterday from the Pakistan's mission to the UN, Fatemi told the top UN leaders that Indian forces had stepped up ceasefire violations on the Line of Control and the Working Boundary in order to divert international attention from the alleged human rights atrocities, particularly the targeting of civilians, in Kashmir. "India had also closed the doors on any bilateral engagement. In this situation, the UN had a moral responsibility to call for ending human rights violations" in Kashmir, "play its role in the resolution of this long festering dispute and help in immediately de-escalating tensions", he said, according to the release. Fatemi, accompanied by Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi, said, Islamabad expected the UN to play its role in ensuring peace and stability in the South Asian region, especially in the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. He said while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had reached out to India and made efforts to develop a mutually beneficial relationship, the efforts were not being reciprocated by New Delhi. Fatemi also briefed the UN officials about alleged human rights violations by Indian forces on the Kashmiri people, saying efforts to quash a popular and indigenous uprising in Kashmir had led to the killing of over a hundred people and injuries to thousands. The release said that the UN leadership called for the resumption of dialogue and de-escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan adding that Eliasson expressed concern at the regional situation and called for the lowering of tensions. On Afghanistan, Fatemi said Pakistan was ready to play its part for peace and stability in the country. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Political associates and rivals of the former senator, Buruji Kashamu, have mourned his death, describing it as a shock. The Ogun-born politician and a Peoples Democratic Partys chieftain died Saturday at the First Cardiology Consultants Hospital in Lagos. His friend and former colleague at the Senate, Ben Murray-Bruce, confirmed that he was being hospitalised at the facility after contracting the killer-disease, COVID-19. Mr Kashamu was the founder of Western Lotto Limited, one of Nigerias lottery operators. He served as the senator representing Ogun East in the eighth National Assembly and for years was wanted in the United States for alleged drug offenses. He always denied wrongdoing. According to his spokesperson, Austin Oniyokor, the remains of Mr Kashamu will be interred Sunday in his Ijebu-Igbo home, in accordance with Islamic rites. Political associates A former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, in a tweet, said his thoughts and prayers were with the family and friends of the deceased. May the Almighty Allah accept his soul, forgive his shortcomings and heal the loved ones he left behind, he wrote. Former Senate President Bukola Saraki described Mr Kashamu as a kind, compassionate and supportive man. I was devastated to receive the sad news of the passing away of my former colleague and friend, Senator Buruji Kashamu. He was a kind and compassionate man, always ready to make himself available in support of any of his colleagues. With this attitude, he won the hearts of many, he posted on social media. He commiserated with the Kashamu family, PDP members across the South West Zone, and the government of Ogun State over the loss. Also, Reuben Abati, the running mate of the deceased in the 2019 governorship election, said he was completely heartbroken by the death of Mr Kashamu. In a statement Saturday night, Mr Abati said he felt like an orphan having lost a political mentor in Mr Kashamu. I may have worked with the PDP government at the Federal level, but he was the man who brought me into direct, partisan politics. He was one of the most generous men that I have ever known. He was determined to groom me and he did. He taught me the ropes. He linked me with the grassroots. I learnt a lot from him. Senator Kashamu mentored me and others without any strings attached, he wrote. Speaking on Mr Kashamus political intentions before death, Mr Abati disclosed that the deceased no longer wanted to run for office in 2023, but made it clear he would support others. Death is a cruel fact of human reality. It puts an end to life and many things. But Senator Kashamu will never be forgotten by those who loved him and who were privileged to relate with him, he stated. Rivals Former and incumbent Ogun State governors, Gbenga Daniel and Dapo Abiodun, also paid tribute to Mr Kashamu in separate statements. Both Messrs Daniel and Abiodun have been one-time rivals of Mr Kashamu. Messrs Daniel and Kashamu were at loggerheads with each other over the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State. Also, Mr Kashamu contested against Mr Abiodun twice at the election. He won the senatorial contest in 2015 but lost at the governorship poll in 2019. In a condolence message, Mr Daniel described the death of the PDP chieftain as a rude shock. I picked a timeless lesson of how transient life can be from this sad occurrence. I am glad despite all our years of political disagreements, conflicts and turbulence, by the hands of providence my heart found a rare opportunity of forgiving and making up with him before his untimely death, he wrote. Mr Abiodun in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, said he will continue to reserve a place of respect, recognition and service for the late politician. Advertisements I personally wish for the late Senator, Allahs Al Jannah Firdaus, while on behalf of my family, the Government and People of Ogun State, I express our deepest condolences to his family on this devastating national loss, Mr Abiodun said. Data from Brazils space agency suggests fires in the Amazon are on track for a seven percent increase over last year. Fires in the Brazilian Amazon have surged far in August, government data on Friday showed, outstripping the same period of 2019 and renewing concerns about the destruction of the worlds largest rainforest, which is a critical bulwark against climate change. Brazilian space research agency INPE recorded 5,860 fires in the Amazon in the first six days of August, a seven percent increase from the same period of last year. The data set is small and daily variation can be considerable, but the trend suggests this month may be on par with a year ago the worst August in nine years. Witnesses driving on Thursday night along the BR-319 highway from Porto Velho, Rondonia, towards Humaita, in the state of Amazonas, spotted small fires crackling along the side of the road, with smoke hanging heavy over the asphalt. Smoke billowing over a deforested plot of the Amazon jungle in Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil [File: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters] Some of the areas burned last year were now being used for cattle raising. Fire is commonly used across the Amazon to clear land for pasture. The Brazilian Amazon lost 9,205sq km (3,554sq miles) of vegetation in the 12 months ending in July, according to data from the countrys space agency. That was largely due to a surge of fires in August and September last year. The overall loss was 34 percent greater than that of the prior 12-month period. The data was produced by Brazils DETER monitoring system, which provides daily deforestation alerts based on satellite images. Data from another system named PRODES, which relies on more detailed satellite images and records more of the deforestation, will be released by the end of the year. Both are administered by Brazils space institute, which tabulates annual deforestation starting with August, when the dry season starts and farmers and loggers traditionally start using fires to clear land. If the variation between DETER and PRODES figures remains at the historical average, we could have about 13,000 square kilometers of deforestation, the highest rate since 2006 and three times more than the National Climate Change Policy target for 2020, said the Climate Observatory, comprised of more than 30 non-governmental groups. This is not because of government incompetence in combating devastation; it has been happening because the Bolsonaro administrations agenda is to actively promote devastation, the statement added. This is not incompetence; its a design. Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro wearing a face mask during a press conference in the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil [File: Sergio Lima / AFP] Environmental advocates blame right-wing President Jair Bolsonaros vision of economic development in the Amazon for emboldening illegal loggers, miners and land speculators to destroy the forest. Bolsonaro says more mining and farming are needed in the region to lift people out of poverty. Bolsonaro came to office promising to open more of the Amazon to development, such as farming and mining. But international concern has led investors to try to distance themselves from the deforestation and to pressure the government to take more action against it. Following global pressure from foreign governments and investors, Bolsonaro has deployed the military to combat deforestation and in May he stationed troops in several states ahead of the so-called burning season. DETER data for July registered a decrease from the same month in 2019, when deforestation surged to the highest monthly level since at least mid-2015. Criminals often extract valuable wood from protected parts of the jungle before setting fire to the land, increasing its value for farming and ranching. Large natural fires are very rare in a healthy rainforest. Asymptomatic Victorians awaiting the results of their coronavirus tests claim they were told to go to work if they were not identified as a close contact of a positive case. One Melbourne worker who eventually tested positive received a letter advising that he could continue working if he had no symptoms. The man went for a precautionary COVID-19 test on July 13 after one of his acquaintances thought they might have contracted the virus. However the pair were not deemed close contacts and he was told to go back to work, The Australian reported. 'If you do not have symptoms you can continue normal activities, unless you are a close contact of a known case,' the letter from Monash Health said. Asymptomatic Victorians awaiting the results of their coronavirus tests claim they were told to go to work if they were not identified as a close contact of a positive case. Pictured: A woman walks near the Bourke Street tram stop in Melbourne 'If you have symptoms stay at home and isolate do not attend school, work, go shopping or engage in any other activities.' The acquaintance, a parent, returned a negative coronavirus test and the asymptomatic man continued working or a small Melbourne manufacturing firm after his test. He gave his employer the letter from Monash Health on Tuesday July 14 while waiting for his test result. He continued to work as he had no symptoms and was not identified as a close contact. The man's boss told The Australian they were surprised by the advice but thought they would be in the clear as the acquainted person tested negative. 'We thought OK, that sounds reasonable. The person he decided to have a test for is negative and it (the letter) says go back (to work) if you're asymptomatic. And two days later, he was declared positive.' The man was at work when he was phoned about his positive test result. The factory was closed for deep cleaning and all his co-workers were sent for a COVID-19 test. The claims from the asymptomatic worker are vastly different to advice given out by Premier Daniel Andrews. Pictured: Melburnians shop at Queen Victoria Market amid stage 4 lockdown 'Every person who gets tested is provided with very clear instructions about staying at home and waiting until those results come through,' he said two weeks ago. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) website says Victorians must go straight home after they go for a test. 'After your test go straight home. Stay at home and do not go to work while you wait for your results,' the website says. 'It usually takes between 1 and 3 days for your results to be returned to you.' Victoria reported an additional 450 coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the number of active cases to 7,637. Authorities are continuing to chase up hundreds of coronavirus-infected people who are not at home when they come knocking. A police car is seen parked out the front of famous Flinders Street Station in Melbourne's CBD Victoria has had to ramp up its isolation check-ins by police, defence and health personnel on positive cases after people were repeatedly found not obeying isolation orders. 'A thousand of those 1,150 people could be found where they were supposed to,' Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on Friday. Mr Andrews said police would now determine if those 150-odd people were doing the wrong thing, with some potentially in the running for the government's new $4,957 fine. The fine is for those who fail to self-isolate after testing positive or being identified as a close contact. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday slammed a potential new nine-figure contract between the state and the firm that built Floridas dysfunctional unemployment system. Deloitte Consulting was announced earlier this week as the states preferred vendor for a potential $135 million contract to beef up Floridas Medicaid data infrastructure. This happened despite an ongoing state investigation into how Florida paid the firm more than $40 million starting in 2011 to build what turned out to be a frequently non-functional CONNECT unemployment site. Itd be my preference that [Deloitte] not get anything, DeSantis said at a discussion about Floridas transportation industry in Orlando. At the same time, theres a process, unfortunately, that has to play out. DeSantis said he could not legally involve himself in the contract discussions, but that a protest had been filed related to the contract. Its unclear which other bidder filed the protest, or why. A spokesman for the governor did not respond to a request for comment. DeSantis said Deloitte undercut the other bidders for the Medicaid contract, which included multinational corporations such as IBM and Accenture. He suggested that Deloitte underbid the other companies to such a degree that the company forced agency officials to give Deloitte the highest score. I think what happened is, they dropped the price by so much that under the current law, or however they make those decisions, their hands were tied, DeSantis said. Its unclear what DeSantis was referring to, however. Under the terms the agency created for the contract, each companys cost was not a factor in how they were scored by the states selection team. Rather, the scores were based on a variety of other factors, including the companys approach to the project and their work history with Florida agencies specifically, a firms track record over the last five years. The Department of Economic Opportunity, which oversees the states unemployment system, gave the Agency for Health Care Administration a negative recommendation for Deloitte, DeSantis said. Story continues Despite that warning, however, the selection team of mostly Agency for Health Care Administration employees somehow gave Deloitte the highest score, with Accenture placing second. Both companies will likely move on to the next phase negotiating with the state. Only at the negotiation stage would the state review and consider the companys costs, according to the states procurement rule for the Medicaid contract. Under state law, agency officials have to make their final choice based on which company they believe offers the best value to the state. The governor is not supposed to intervene. I am not allowed to be involved in that in any way. Theres good reason for that. So I have not been involved, DeSantis said. Talking about the contract, he then added: I dont like it. A spokeswoman for Deloitte did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When reports of the Medicaid contract surfaced earlier this week, Democratic leaders roundly criticized the DeSantis administration. Earlier this year, millions of Floridians desperate for unemployment benefits struggled to navigate the broken CONNECT website. The state had to spend up to $110 million on additional call centers to handle the demand, and CONNECT is still taken offline routinely for maintenance. In what world do you reward a company that sold a product described by the governor himself as a jalopy designed to fail, with even more taxpayer dollars? asked Senate Democratic Leader Audrey Gibson in a statement Wednesday. The contract needs to be immediately rescinded. By Kingsley Chukwuka, Jos A non-governmental organization, the Global Centre for Media and Human Empowerment, has said with the perpetual killing of the people of southern Kaduna, the Governor of the State, Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai may exit power like the former German politician and leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler. Leader of the group, Charles Ejoh while addressing a world press conference on State of the Nation on Friday in Jos, said the NGO is pained with the insecurity in Kaduna State because of its peculiarity. According to him: what we are experiencing in Kaduna is a genocide. The systematic wiping of a people, we may give recourse to history on how Germany in the hands of Adolf Hitler systematically wiped out over 6 million Jews during the holocaust. With the pretentious approach of El-Rufai, we may wake up one day to discover that the entire Southern Kaduna has been wiped away using government machinery. The holocaust that wiped away over six million Jews started like this. First it was said that the anti- semitic Nazi Hitlers hatred for the Jews was a major reason. Hitler said Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community, just like what we are experiencing in southern Kaduna since the emergence of El-Rufai, he said. However ,indicting the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong as culprit, Ejoh alluded that Lalong who also doubled as Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum is insensitive to the plight of the Southern Kaduna people, thereby called on him to resign his position as Chairman of the region. Northern Governors Forum is a betrayal of the trust of the people which is sending a wrong signal to other regions of its inability to secure its people, Ejoh said. I learned the other day from The Post Real Estate section that there exists in Northeast Washington an Isherwood Street. That was my mothers maiden name, and its my middle name. I think some streets in D.C. are named after famous Americans. While it would be nice to find that an Isherwood was famous enough to warrant a named street, I sincerely doubt that is the case. So I wonder just how that street came to get that name. If it were real life, Collingwood and Melbourne would have played footy at the MCG yesterday afternoon. Instead of a handful of walkers and a man doing tricks on his bike, the 'G concourse for Round 21 would have been filled with colour, banter and the smells of expensive cheap things in fryers. A lone rollerskater at a mostly abandoned St Kilda beach on Saturday. Credit:Luis Ascui The familiar footy ingredients were still around, like the Coodabeen Champions on ABC radio for the morning ride in. The weather a homely 14 degrees with light showers and grey skies. Haydn Bunton was still in perpetual stride outside gate six and Don Bradman was raising his bat at gate five. But the familiar was so unfamiliar in Melbourne's first weekend of the most severe civic restrictions in its history, it was just, well, "bizarre," says 28-year-old James, out on his hour-long yard time and "drawn to the MCG". A Lebanese protester runs for cover from tear-gas fired by security forces during clashes in downtown Beirut following demonstrations over the explosion which ripped through the city - Patrick Baz /AFP Police in Beirut fired volleys of teargas and rubber bullets on Saturday night as furious demonstrations in the aftermath of the massive explosion in the city's port that killed more than 150 turned ugly. The Lebanese capital was teetering on the brink of fearsome violence, with some reports suggesting police had used live ammunition. The rallies claimed a human toll too, with one policeman falling to his death following an "assault" by "rioters", the police said. A group of around 200, including retired army officers, stormed the foreign ministry, proclaiming it to be the new headquarters of the revolution and calling on the government to resign. As a stampede of people sprinted away from the demonstration to regroup, one protester screamed: They are trying to kill us. Anti-government protesters clash with Lebanese riot police during a protest outside of the Lebanese Parliament in Beirut - WAEL HAMZEH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/Shutterstock The occupation of the foreign ministry was disbanded after less than three hours as protesters were driven out by army personnel firing rubber bullets and tear gas. Lebanese protesters stormed several ministries on Saturday in apparently planned raids. Separate groups of protesters also converged on the economy ministry, the Association of Banks in Lebanon and the energy ministry before being forced out by the army shortly afterwards. Around 130 people were injured in the clashes, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said he would request early parliamentary elections to defuse an escalating political crisis. "We cannot get out of this crisis without early parliamentary elections," he said, reading a statement. He added he was not to blame for the country's deep economic and political woes. He added he was not to blame for the country's deep economic and political woes. Protesters had built gallows and hung nooses around the necks of cardboard cutouts of Lebanons political elite ahead of Saturday's march on Martyrs' Square. Story continues And within minutes of the start of the demonstrations, police fired teargas at several thousand peaceful protesters as they marched towards the parliament building. Men, women and children marched through the destroyed streets of the city, brandishing sweeping brushes and a nooses as they called for the downfall of the Lebaense government. Resign or we hang, read one placard. Resident Rawan Hijazi said: Beirut has never been this angry. Lebanons leaders have been accused of gross negligence by failing to store safely around 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in Beituts port before it exploded on Tuesday, unleashing a massive shockwave that wrecked nearly half the city. According to one report, Lebanese authorities were warned 10 times over the course of six years that the stockpile was lethally dangerous, but they failed to take action. Before sprinting away from the sound of gunfire, Rawan Hijazi, a 27-year-old activist, said: I saw this spirit first on October 17 when the protests broke out, but it was hope. Now its complete anger. One protester said: I know the government wont do anything. We have a human need to help those affected. We have no trust whatsoever in the government - not even in the police, not in the army. Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut, the focal point of an anti-government movement which has lasted for nearly a year, was filled with thousands of Lebanese flags. Young women stood on the roofs of cars that were destroyed in the blast denouncing Lebanons former warlords, who are now senior politicians, as ambulances rushed to take last nights wounded to Lebanons already overwhelmed hospitals. It came after people from all over the country descended on Beirut to join a mass clean-up mission in the face of state inaction. . Even before the explosion brought Beirut to its knees, Lebanon was reeling from an economic crisis and widespread political corruption. The tragedy has prompted several prominent MPs to resign from the Lebanese parliament. Protestor Ghada Araji said: The government killed our people in that explosion and theyve killed our country over years. They still wont resign. Were going to make it change. The explosion was the last straw. PARIS (Reuters) - French health ministry chief Jerome Salomon warned on Friday against countries letting down their guard as there had been a clear uptick in coronavirus infections in France and Europe. "The virus continues to circulate very actively worldwide. There is a very clear upwards trend in France and Europe," Salomon told a news conference. "Even if the numbers are coming down in the Mayenne area, one must keep up the efforts," he said. Salomon was speaking at a news conference held in the Mayenne department, where the situation was improving thanks to massive testing and strict social distancing, he said. France's new COVID-19 infections rose by more than 1,600 over 24 hours for the second day running on Thursday, putting the country at levels not seen since late May, while the number of affected patients in intensive care units has also risen. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Our task would have been harder had the ill-fated aircraft caught fire: Hardeep Puri India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri said that 18 pilots including two pilots have lost their lives in the air crash that took place at the Kozhikode airport on Friday. Kerala plane crash: How it happened | Why plane overshot runway | Oneindia News 127 people are in hospital, while others have been released, Puri also said. Terming the incident as unfortunate, he said that the task would have been much more difficult had the plane caught fire. I will be going to Kozhikode, he also said. Kerala plane crash: Indian consulate in Dubai to remain open to share information Meanwhile, Kerala Governor, Arif Mohammad Khan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will visit Karipur today to assess the situation. 18 people were killed and scores injured when an Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 on board overshot the tabletop runway in Kozhikode airport in Kerala on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions, officials said. By Francesco Guarascio and Josephine Mason BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - The frenetic race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine has intensified safety concerns about an inoculation, prompting governments and drugmakers to raise awareness to ensure their efforts to beat the coronavirus aren't derailed by public distrust. There are more than 200 COVID-19 vaccine candidates in development globally, including more than 20 in human clinical trials. U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to have a shot ready before year's end, although they typically take 10 years or longer to develop and test for safety and effectiveness. In the drive to find a potential COVID-19 vaccine "fast is good for politicians," said Heidi Larson, who leads the Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP), a global surveillance programme on vaccine trust. "But from the public perspective, the general sentiment is: 'too fast can't be safe'", she told Reuters. Regulators around the world have repeatedly said speed will not compromise safety, as quicker results would stem from conducting in parallel trials that are usually done in sequence. However, these reassurances have failed to convince many, including in Western countries where scepticism about vaccinations was already growing before the pandemic. Preliminary results of a survey conducted over the last three months in 19 countries showed that only about 70% of British and U.S. respondents would take a COVID-19 vaccine if available, Scott Ratzan, co-leader of 'Business Partners to CONVINCE', told Reuters. Business Partners to CONVINCE, a U.S./UK initiative that is partly government funded, conducted the survey jointly with VCP and the results were broadly in line with a Reuters/Ipsos poll of the U.S. public in May. "We just see this distrust growing against science and government," said Ratzan. "We need to address legitimate concerns about the rapid pace of development, political over-promises and the risks of vaccination." Story continues The VCP/Business Partners' survey, expected to be published in a few weeks, will also show that Chinese participants were the most trusting of vaccines, while Russians were the least so, Ratzan said. Drugmakers and governments had hoped the scale of the COVID-19 crisis would allay concerns about vaccines, which they see as crucial to defeating the pandemic and enabling economies to fully recover from its impact. Vaccine hesitancy - or the reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated - is also known as "anti-vax", a term that is sometimes associated with conspiracy theories when often it simply reflects many people's concerns about side-effects or industry ethics. In January 2019 the World Health Organisation named vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 global health threats for that year. TAILORED MESSAGES In Europe, scepticism among the public was high before the pandemic due to a range of factors including negative coverage of pharmaceutical companies as well as false theories including suggested links between childhood immunisations and autism. Only 70% of French people considered vaccines safe in a 2018 survey commissioned by the European Union executive. The EU average was 82%, but trust fell to 68% for the shot against seasonal flu. The VCP project on vaccine trust, funded by the European Commission and pharmaceutical companies among others, aims to identify early signs and causes of public mistrust and tackle them with information campaigns before it is too late. Larson said headlines referring to Warp Speed - the name of the U.S. operation aimed at delivering a COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. population by next year - could increase vaccine hesitancy even more than perceptions that the disease could become less lethal. "One of the most frequent things that comes up in people's conversations is concerns about how quick it is. If I have to pick one theme that is more recurrent than others it is this one," Larson said. Data collected by VCP from social media show that by the end of June about 40% of Britons' posts concerning a COVID-19 vaccine, for example, were negative, with many distrusting any coronavirus vaccine and the medical establishment. Announcements about fast progress in COVID vaccines in Russia and China in particular could also contribute to rising scepticism. "We don't have transparency and don't know how accurate or valid their data are," Ratzan said, adding that errors there could boost scepticism elsewhere. Key for any information campaign to be successful is to tailor it to different audiences as there is no uniform profile of anti-vaxxers, said Kate Elder of Doctors Without Borders, a non-governmental organisation. "They go from the highly educated to those who don't believe in science," she said, urging politicians to be more careful in their messages on vaccines and to better explain the reasons behind potentially fast results against COVID-19. "We are exploring the idea of a chatbot that will speak in different languages," said Ratzan, adding it could be something similar to Smokey Bear, the U.S. Forest Service's campaign to educate about preventing wildfires. "Different parts of the world will require different strategies. We know we need to tailor it and to be specific," he said. Risks are high if hesitancy is not addressed quickly. During the 2009 swine flu pandemic, growing scepticism about the vaccine led to a failure of the vaccination campaign in France, where only 8% of the population got a shot against the virus which is estimated to have killed around 280,000 people across the world. A study published in May in the Lancet by a group of French scientists warned of similar risks now in the country where vaccine hesitancy went up from 18% in mid-March when a lockdown was imposed on the French to 26% by the end of that month. "Distrust is likely to become an issue when the vaccine will be made available," the scientists concluded. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio in Brussels and Josephine Mason in London; Editing by Susan Fenton) The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has reacted to the refusal of the State Security Service (SSS) to release three #RevolutionNow protesters arrested in Osun on Wednesday. PREMIUM TIMES reported the arrest of seven students by the Nigerias secret police in Osogbo during a protest against bad governance, lack of infrastructure, extra-judicial activities among others. On Thursday, the SSS released three of the seven persons to their parents. They are Olowolafe Dunsi, Martins Jesuloni and Gift Martins. Another person, Oguntola Samuel, was released on Friday while Olawale Bakare, Abiodun Sanusi, and Olatokun Oyedele remain in SSS custody. Mr Bakare is a co-defendant in the treason charge against the founder of the movement, Omoyele Sowore. The protesters lawyer, Alfred Adegoke, told PREMIUM TIMES that the SSS wants the parents of the protesters to appear before releasing them. Condemning the security agents action, NANS in a statement by its Southwest spokesperson, Kazeem Israel, said, the association will stage another protest if the SSS fails to release the detained persons on Monday. The rot in this country has gone beyond silence, it is expected of us all as patriotic persons to be rebellious considering the rate at which our leaders direct our affairs as a people. As a students body, we make bold to assert that the manner in which the affairs of the country is managed by those we reposed with the trust of making things right for us as a people is most heart-wrenching. The association, having studied the demands of the protesters, make bold to assert that they are legitimate We demand that the government unconditionally frees the detained protesters. We warn that the leadership of the Zone would be forced to mobilize students down to the barricades should the government fail to release the protesters at the latest Monday. This newspaper reported that similar protests were held in other states and the Federal Capital Territory. Those arrested during the protests in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja were released the same day they were arrested. A court had earlier ruled that the disruption of last years protest by the police was against the right to freedom expression and assembly of the arrested individuals. Kerala's Kumbalangi to be first synthetic pad-free village in India How Kerala Police CCSE under Cyberdome is fighting crimes against children Kerala rains: Red alert for 3 districts; 75 people missing as landslide hits Munnar India oi-Briti Roy Barman Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 08: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for heavy rainfall in Idukki, Malappuram and Wayanad districts of Kerala as heavy rain continues to wreak havoc in parts of the state that have triggered floods and landslides. The alert for 'extremely heavy rainfall' has been issued till August 11. Karnataka rains: CM announces Rs 10,000 relief to families affected According to the police, 5 persons lost their lives and 10 others were rescued after a landslide, occurred in a residential area in Rajamala of Kerala's Idukki district on Friday. Also, more than 75 people, who are mostly tea estate workers, are reported missing in Pettimudi, Rajamalai in Munnar after a landslide fell over 20 houses. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said an NDRF team has been deployed in the rescue efforts. Kerala plane crash: Locals aid rescue, donate blood, arrange food | Oneindia News "An NDRF team has been deployed to rescue the landslide victims in Rajamalai, Idukki. Police, Fire Force, Forest & Revenue officials have been instructed to join the rescue efforts. Another team of NDRF, based in Thrissur, will soon reach Idukki," the CM tweeted. Kerala Health Minister has informed that a mobile medical team and 15 ambulances sent to the incident site. Meanwhile, Peermade taluk recorded the highest rainfall of 26 cm for the past 24 hours in Idukki district. All other stations have also recorded high levels including Udumbanchola -12 cm, Idukki-22 cm, Thodupuzha -9 cm and Devikulam -22 cm. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 8, 2020, 12:14 [IST] Protesters besiege a court of the capital. Police arrested Anon Nampa and Panupong Jasnok for their role in recent anti-government demonstrations. Activists want democratic overtures and the reform of the monarchy. Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) Dozens of protesters gathered today in front of a court in the Thai capital to demand the release of two anti-government activists, urging fellow Thais to join in their protest. Recently, also due to the coronavirus pandemic, public pressure has increased against Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army, who came to power six years ago in a military coup. Prayuth has led a civilian government since last year, but his critics consider the elections that formally ended military rule to have been rigged. Last February, the Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the second opposition party, ensuring that the former general would obtain a larger parliamentary majority. Protesters want the release of human rights lawyer Anon Nampa and student leader Panupong Jasnok. Police arrested the two activists for their role in recent demonstrations in favour of democracy and against the coup-derived government. More specifically, Anon and Panupong are accused of sedition and violating an emergency decree imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Last Monday, during the protest, Anon also called for a reform of the monarchy. On 21 July, Prime Minister Prayuth had warned pro-democracy protesters against attacking the king, who is seen by most Thais as a sacred figure. The Week In Russia: Mercenaries, Media, And A Big Belarusian Election By Steve Gutterman August 07, 2020 You don't get to choose your neighbors, usually. Russian President Vladimir Putin certainly did not choose his Belarusian counterpart: When Alyaksandr Lukashenka was first elected in 1994, sweeping to power after promising law, order, and an end to corruption amid the upheaval that accompanied the Soviet collapse, Putin was the little-known head of external relations for the St. Petersburg mayor's office and had himself been the subject of a corruption investigation by a city council commission. Since Putin's own first election in 2000, after he was made prime minister and then acting president by Boris Yeltsin, giving him a big advantage in the vote, he and Lukashenka have performed a sometimes not-so-delicate dance around what amounts to a single question: How much power can Russia have over Belarus? At least theoretically, the scale starts at zero Belarus escapes Moscow's orbit and moves West, depriving Russia of what is arguably its closest or even its only ally, and goes to 10 -- Belarus, a landlocked nation with a population of about 9.5 million, is swallowed up by its far bigger neighbor to the east. The latter extreme was implied by Putin back in 2002, in an exchange that set the tone for many more in the ensuing years, when he issued a thinly veiled warning to Lukashenka that putting meat on the bones of the Union State that Lukashenka and Yeltsin had created in the 1990s could make Belarus into little more than a province of Russia and demote Lukashenka from president to governor. Merger Madness That seemed to put paid to any hopes that Lukashenka, a former state farm chief and a Soviet nostalgist, had of heading up a merged Belarus-Russia union. And he was certainly said to have had such designs for a decade or so during which some Russians yearning for stability saw him as the firm-handed head of a country that had preserved elements of a functioning command economy, even if that was possible largely by Russian subsidies, and was not plagued by separatist wars and terror attacks. More than a decade later it was Putin who seemed to be hoping to use a more close-knit Union State as a possible path to remaining in power after 2024, when he faced a constitutional bar on seeking reelection. But his repeated pushes for tighter integration had little apparent effect, and a flurry of seemingly fruitless talks toward the end of 2019 preceded what one analyst called Putin's "flamboyant change of heart" his decision to alter the Russian Constitution to give himself the option of running in 2024, and again in 2036, despite having repeatedly suggested that he would not do so and just as repeatedly emphasized that he was not the kind of guy who would cling to power too long. And now, the emergence of strong popular support for a candidate seeking to unseat Lukashenka in an August 9 presidential election is both a challenge and, possibly, an opportunity for Moscow. The potential opportunity lies in what may be the most likely outcome of the vote: a sixth term for Lukashenka, but one in which he is compromised from the start, with uncertainty about the future hanging over his head in unprecedented fashion. That could leave Lukashenka more vulnerable, handing Moscow more potential influence and, with a less confident leader formally ensconced for another five years, it could also give the Kremlin more time to adjust to the reality that emerges after the vote and formulate a strategy. "Russia wants a win for Lukashenka but one that weakens him and a win that is also marked by protests, crackdown, and deterioration of relations with the West," Belarusian political commentator Artyom Shraibman told RFE/RL ahead of the vote. Saw It On TV Despite what seems to have become nearly constant tension between Moscow and Minsk in the past few years, there are substantial signs that the Kremlin is banking on Lukashenka to hold onto power, at least for now. For one thing, there's the coverage on state-run and state-controlled Russian TV, where talk-show hosts have been downplaying the significance of the big crowds of people who have turned out for rallies held by opposition candidate Svatlyana Tsikhanouskaya and her allies the campaigns of other would-be candidates who were barred from the ballot in Belarus. Francis Scarr, a journalist at BBC Monitoring in Moscow, described a state TV talk-show exchange in which a political analyst argued that opposition protests were the "sincere" impulse of people wanting "honest elections." The host, Vladimir Solovyov, interrupted him, claiming that a "thin pro-Western elite" was trying to "seduce" Belarus. "In short," Scarr wrote, Lukashenka "is still being backed despite the [Vagner] scandal." That's a reference to an occurrence that, on the face of it, might seem sufficient to ruin bilateral relations for quite some time: the arrest, outside Minsk in late July, of 33 men the Belarusian authorities allege are mercenaries with the Kremlin-linked private military company Vagner who were dispatched to "destabilize the country" ahead of the election. In other words, the allegation echoed and amplified by Lukashenka was that the closest ally of Belarus was plotting a coup, or at least chaos, and sending armed men across the border to carry it out. But Lukashenka stopped short of directly blaming Putin or the Russian state itself, and as days passed he softened the accusations by implying that the United States was also out to sabotage the election and that the mercenaries who Russian officials contended had been on their way to a third country were only following orders. Moscow's response, meanwhile, seemed less fiery than might be expected. And eventually, Belarus and Russia appeared to find a scapegoat: Ukraine. Blaming Ukraine A so-called investigation by the Kremlin-friendly media outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda asserted that the mercenaries were tricked by Ukrainian intelligence https://t.me/krothrock/86 in order to sow divisions between Russia and Belarus. The claim was swiftly dismissed by analysts but was widely and prominently reported on Russian state TV channels, which Scarr described as going with the story "with all guns blazing." The notion that Ukraine was behind the arrests provided an off-ramp for Lukashenka and the Kremlin days before the election and seemed to reveal Russia's thinking. "A nonsense story, of course, but a pretty clear signal that the Kremlin doesn't want [Lukashenka's] current antics to cause serious RU-BEL trouble, and is willing to let him play the role of the upright defender against Moscow if it helps him win the elex," Mark Galeotti, an author and analyst on Russian affairs, wrote on Twitter. As the issue was being avidly discussed on social media, the Kremlin said that Putin had discussed it with Lukashenka by phone and voiced "certainty that the situationwill be resolved in the spirit of mutual understanding that characterizes the two countries' cooperation." If TV coverage and the developments surrounding the mercenaries seemed to show how Moscow is looking at the election in Belarus, they also appeared to underscore the limitations that Russia faces in dealing with Lukashenka and the unpredictable events in a country the Kremlin counts on as an ally. Regardless of how Putin and his government feel about Lukashenka, the unusual election next door presents a challenge to the Russian state because, even before the first ballot was cast in early voting this week, it has underscored the potential power of the people against a long-entrenched leader like Lukashenka or like Putin. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/the-week-in- russia-mercenaries-media-and-a-big- belarusian-election/30771863.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address New Delhi, Aug 8 : The coronavirus pandemic and the pandemic-induced lockdowns world-over have forced people to stay indoors - prompting a global socio-economic imbalance. This has led to adverse implications including unprecedented exodus, massive loss of lives and jobs, among others things. The implications act as fodder for negative thoughts to keep clouding the mind. Feelings of guilt, self-blame, labelling oneself with negative tags, feelings of remorse and plummeting interest in recreational activities or involvement with peers and family members, etc., are some of the behavioural changes that many are going through amid this pandemic. You might feel guilty because there are many people out there who are unemployed or struggling for daily meals, yet you still have a job to take care of yourself. This guilt can be because someone dear to you has been ill with Covid-19 whereas you are healthy. People also feel guilty if they cannot comfort their loved ones who have died battling the virus or any other ailment. The feeling of remorse can pop up at any time of the day and even amplify feelings of shamefulness about our basic actions. These emotions might come all of a sudden while you are watching TV or scrolling through social media in the comfort of your home or lounging on your cosy sofa. The drawback with guilt is that it can make you feel overwhelmed but unable to act on it at that very moment. While undergoing this state, we find it difficult to help ourselves, let alone others. We feel we are not able to provide others help to cope with their suffering. We ourselves to suffer from an emotion and take its toll on us. What does it mean to have the feeling of remorse? Given that everybody is facing the brunt of the pandemic and its effects like job losses, financial distress, more and more people are exhibiting mixed emotions driven by frustration, sadness, anxiety and stress to name a few. For some, fear of remorse may also be experienced. Although the world is slowly trying to adapt to the current challenges with various countries unlocking from the stringent lockdowns in a bid to restore economic activities in a phased manner, the notion of fear and feeling of remorse persists among scores of people globally given the traumatic events that they have faced in the recent months. What are the different kinds of remorse that may be overlapping? Guilt is an emotion that can be felt from a lot of things that we do normally daily. It is a very powerful and a normal human response. We feel guilty about something when we don't do something right, sometimes when our actions are out of moral and ethical values. Sometimes we feel guilty about current situations wherein we feel we are being unproductive. There are different kinds of guilt: Rational Guilt: sometimes if we behaved inappropriately or said an inappropriate thing we undergo Rational Guilt. We feel and in this case there is a need for change of behaviour. Irrational Guilt: here the situation is out of our hands, as a human we cannot control the situation - so we have guilty feelings about it and it saddens us. Survival Guilt: which is evident in the current situation. It is basically, an emotional response exhibited by people who have survived during the times of traumatic events whereas others have suffered or died. This was the type of guilt seen in people during a war and Holocaust where there was a traumatic event and others have died. Also, in the current situation of Covid-19, we have seen a lot of survival guilt, feeling bad about having their jobs and working comfortably from home, whereas many are poor and jobless; out of 10 only 3 are working. There are a few mothers and parents feel guilt for working from home and working round the clock and hence have not been able to take care of their kids. Another form of guilt can be seen in healthcare professionals who have to go to work during this pandemic; thereby putting the lives of their loved ones at risk. There is a guilt in healthcare workers that they are not able to save their patients. Caregivers too are experiencing guilt wherein their parents, or dear ones have been suffering from Covid-19 and they are not able to take care of them due to isolation. There are also cases where the patients have died of Covid-19 and the last rites and rituals could not be attended by their loved ones and family members, and the procedures are done by the hospitals. The guilt of not being available for the family when it is required; not being able to perform the duties is evidently seen during the times of this pandemic. Symptoms to track pandemic remorse? There are different emotions that this pandemic has made very clear. There are few symptoms which can be seen in cases of survival guilt. There has been an increase in negative feelings among people and patients seen on a regular and daily basis. To address, survival guilt one can track these symptoms: Difficulty to sleep Changes in appetite wherein it has increased or decreased tremendously The interest in recreational activities has gone down Difficulty in focus and lack of energy Feeling of being disconnected from people Feeling low Crying continuously Negativity all around Panic attacks 9 ways to overcome a feeling of remorse during Unlock 3.0? As countries undergo unlocking procedures, one needs to be physically and mentally prepared to put the traumatic and psychological effects of the pandemic behind them by addressing their survival guilt with due diligence. First, be very conscious about the fact that what we are experiencing is extremely different and the current generations of the human race have never dealt with such a situation. We need to be aware of our feelings and guilt feelings which are natural and normal to have. Secondly, one must accept the feeling. They need to know that they have a guilt feeling and need to acknowledge that feeling. We need to change this guilt into a positive feeling like gratitude. We need to be more thankful for the things that we have. We must be thankful that as a professional, I can work, be productive; be able to provide to my kids as a good parent even if I am working 24/7; as a child, one must think that they are taking safety precautions by keeping at bay from meeting their parents who otherwise might be highly prone to being exposed to the virus if they go to meet them constantly. One should be thankful that they have all the facilities and they should look into the ways they can help others and not putting themselves into the risk, but to be able to financially or emotionally help others while taking all the precautions. We need to stop criticising and need to address that we are being critical about ourselves and hence must stop labelling ourselves as a bad family member, or a bad employee, but must rather give ourselves more positive regards and tell ourselves that no matter what, I have tried my level best and that it is a new experience for every one and that it is not something we had planned to do, but it is something which has come up unfortunately to everyone. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, whether it is eating healthy food or exercising daily, or it is doing some meditation, is very important to overcome survival guilt. Keeping a journal, documenting our feelings is much needed. We also need to talk to ourselves as a friend rather than being a critical evaluator of our behaviour. Be a more understanding friend to yourself. Be more positive. Turning to our family will help for it is these people who understand and care for us the most. This can kickstart the healing process. It is crucial to share our current state of mind and guilt feelings with our loved ones and family members because they are instrumental in guiding us to reaffirm our potential to live a happy and pleasant life. Investing time in learning new skills, and pre-occupying our mind by engaging in activities triggers cognitive development. To overcome feelings of remorse, we must accept the fact that certain people, times, events and places trigger negative emotions and hence maintaining a safe distance from them will help. Lastly, we need to speak about our feelings with others so that we vent out our emotions; in some cases you may need the professional intervention by a mental health expert (Dr Payal Sharma Kamath, Eminent Psychiatrist from Mumbai) (IANSlife Features can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The US has imposed sanctions on senior Hong Kong officials, including chief executive Carrie Lam, for their part in restricting democratic freedoms. The sanctions come as part of Julys executive order signed by president Donald Trump to punish China for suppressing protests and political dissent in the territory. A statement from the US Treasury Department named Ms Lam as being directly responsible for implementing Beijings policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes. The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong and we will use our tools and authorities to target those undermining their autonomy, said Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin. Implementation of Beijings national security legislation allows mainland security services to operate with impunity setting the groundwork for censorship of any individuals or outlets that are deemed unfriendly to China. In addition to the chief executive, sanctions also target 10 other individuals, including police commissioner Chris Tang and his predecessor Stephen Lo, secretary of security John Lee Ka-chiu and justice secretary Teresa Cheng. The remainder are Erick Tsang, Xia Baolong, Zhang Xiaoming, Luo Huining, Zheng Yanxiong and Eric Chan. Any US assets of those sanctioned are now frozen, and Americans are barred from doing business with them. President Trump is keen to be seen as tough on China in the run-up to Novembers election and the tensions with Beijing are escalating day by day the most recent example being the action taken against the Chinese owners of TikTok and WeChat. The administration also blames Beijing for the spread of the coronavirus. Sanctions were reportedly discussed following the decision by Ms Lam to postpone elections planned for 6 September by a year, citing a rise in Covid-19 cases. The pro-democracy opposition had hoped to make big gains in the territorys legislature. The US condemned the decision. With reporting from Reuters WILTON Eversource is not looking too good right now in the eyes of power customers and local officials. First, there were many complaints about the power companys substantial delay in restoring power outages caused by Tropical Storm Isaias which swept through the state on Tuesday. Second, residents are also reeling from sticker shock from a sudden rate hike in their July electric bills. Both incidents have sparked public outrage, prompting Gov. Ned Lamont to call for two investigations into Eversource by the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). On Friday, three days after Storm Isaias, there were 396,289 Eversource customers still without power statewide. In Wilton, 5,517 customers were still in the dark, 73.25 percent of the town, about the same amount out during the storms peak. The numbers are similar and higher in neighboring towns. Eversource did not offer much reassurance on restoration times, saying in a statement, Full power restoration may go into next week, and it hopes to make significant progress by the end of the weekend. The company expects restoration to be substantially complete by Tuesday, Aug. 11, a week after the storm. First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice and other first selectmen complained about Eversources storm response in a conference call Thursday night with Gov. Lamont and the Eversource incident commander for the state. We expressed anger and frustration with Eversources non response to safety issues, their lack of communication and overall poor handling of the emergency, Vanderslice said in a message on the town website. I spoke about the number of Wilton landlocked roads, which historically were first priority, but now have largely been ignored by Eversource. Every first selectman voiced the same issue within their community. She said the meeting ended with a frustrated governor telling the beaten up Eversource incident commander that landlock roads and other public safety issues must be a first priority and Connecticut needs more Eversource personnel on the ground. Following the call, Lamont requested the Connecticut National Guard to help in the restoration efforts. He also called for PURA to conduct a thorough investigation of utility companies Eversource and United Illuminating, for the widespread outages that left hundreds of thousands of customers without power. He said the companies response to the storm has been wholly inadequate and wants to know what specific steps the companies took in the lead-up to the storm which had been forecast to impact Connecticut several days prior to making landfall and remained relatively on the track that meteorologists had predicted. Several years ago, Connecticut experienced large-scale outages that took days to recover from, and we were told that the utilities were improving their resources so that they can be prepared for the next time Mother Nature inevitably hits again, the governor said in a statement. And now here we are, with a wholly inadequate response to another storm. Hes asked PURA to investigate and determine whether the companies are meeting their legal obligations and whether any penalties need to be applied. For many, the response by Eversource to this latest storm is a case of too little, too late, repeating the same message it does before major storms. On Monday afternoon, 24 hours before Storm Isaias hit, Eversource issued a press release saying the energy companys line and tree crews are ready to respond to any damage or outages caused by this storm. Vanderslice said that clearly wasnt the case. She said Eversources incident commander said the number of power outages was overwhelming. She noted that most power crews in Wilton have been called in from outside Connecticut. As this [PURA] investigation is done, they need to look at the number of Connecticut crews Eversource has onsite during these incidents. How many of them can respond immediately, she said. She also complained that Eversources new e-alert system did not work for a period of time during the storm, so customers had trouble reporting outages. That needs to be fixed. They started out way behind because they were not getting information from their customers, she said. Rate hikes Lamont has also asked PURA to conduct an investigation into Eversource for rate hikes issued to customers in their July bills. For some households, their electric bills were hundreds of dollars more than the previous month. Eversource defended the hike in a statement on July 31, saying a state-mandated energy subsidy went into effect in July to support the Millstone Nuclear Power Plants continued operation. There was also another fee increase to support grid reliability and the safe operation of Eversources high-voltage transmission system, the company said. Another explanation for higher rates, Eversource said, was consumer energy consumption was higher in the summer due to air conditioning and even higher this year due to more people staying at home due to COVID-19. In response, PURA ordered Eversource to immediately suspend its recent rate increase and restore rates to where they stood on June 30 while it conducts its investigation. Wilton state legislators Sen. Will Haskell, a Democrat, and Rep. Tom ODea, a Republican are encouraging the public to weigh in as part of the investigation. Comments are now being accepted by PURA for a public hearing to be scheduled in August. Share your perspective on what you think about your most recent electric bill, ODea said. Email brief comments to pura.information@ct.gov and include Docket Number 20-01-01 in the subject line. Written comments may be submitted to to PURA at: Public Utilities Regulatory Authority 10 Franklin Square New Britain, CT 06051 Make sure to include Docket Number 20-01-01 in your letter. pgay@wiltonbulletin.com WASHINGTON Seventy-five years ago Sunday, three days after the first use of a nuclear weapon, the second occurred. There has not been a third in the subsequent 27,394 days. One of humanitys remarkable achievements is this absence of something. President Harry S. Truman, who ordered the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, did not learn about the existence of the Manhattan Project that developed the weapons until he became president upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945. The developers did not know until July 16, in the New Mexico desert, whether the weapons physics would work. Truman used the bombs to avoid invading Japan. His decision, following the bitter-end Japanese fanaticism on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, was a moral and successful wager on economizing violence. In the decisions immediate aftermath, however, little was known of the scale and nature of the violence, and for a while the U.S. government wanted to prevent knowledge. When reports said the Hiroshima bomb was equivalent to more than 20,000 tons of TNT, a young reporter stationed in Europe, named Walter Cronkite, assumed this was a typo, which he changed to 20 tons. It was just the same as getting a bigger gun than the other fellow had to win a war, said Truman, adding, Nothing else but an artillery weapon. Except this one melted eyes in their sockets. Radiation sickness the bombs lethality long after detonation: uncontrollable vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding gums, wounds that would not heal, disappearing white blood cells, fevers reaching 106 degrees had been denied, then minimized. Army Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, first dismissed Japanese reports of lethal radioactive effects as pure propaganda, then told a Senate committee that radiation poisoning is a very pleasant way to die. In May 1946, however, John Hersey arrived in Hiroshima. One of his earlier New Yorker stories had concerned the sinking of a PT boat commanded by a young sailor named John F. Kennedy. Two years later, another story began: At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in the plant office and was turning her head to speak to the girl at the next desk. What followed was, Lesley M.M. Blume says, one of the most important works of journalism ever created, 30,000 words that filled the entire Aug. 31 issue of the New Yorker and became the book Hiroshima, which has not since been out of print. Blumes new book about the making of Herseys essay, Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World, argues that by defeating Gen. Douglas MacArthurs censorship regime in Japan, Hersey compelled Washington to surmount its reticence, born of queasiness, about the bombings. Even Groves registered few, if any, objections to the essay. After the war had killed perhaps 60 million combatants and civilians, and after the Holocausts industrialized murder, people experienced what Blume calls atrocity exhaustion. Nevertheless, Herseys unsparing journalism, Blume argues, made impossible any further discussion of the bomb as a conventional weapon, and his understated, matter-of-fact presentation of horrific facts facilitated the implementation of deterrence, which has been successful. So far. Hersey could not, however, immunize his nation from some subsequent follies when nuclear weapons became entangled in interservice parochialism and rivalries. Fred Kaplans jaw-dropping 2020 book The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War reports that a Navy commander once minimized the military effectiveness of nuclear weapons the Air Force had custody of them by testifying that you could stand at one end of Washington National Airport, set off an atom bomb on the other end, and walk away without serious injury. The Air Force, exuberantly multiplying potential Soviet targets to match the expanding U.S. nuclear arsenal, assigned 17 nuclear weapons to a Soviet base inside the Arctic Circle, where Soviet planes would land after bombing U.S. sites. U.S. nuclear weapons were allocated not just to Soviet tanks but also to the factory that produced them, the steel mill that supplied the factory, the ore-processing facility that supplied the mill, and the ore mine. The human capacity for such lunacy suggests that people are too optimistic when they say that the vast majority of human beings who will ever live have not yet lived. If true, this will require an endless supply of the skill, leavened by luck, that has got humanity through its most recent 27,394 days. Wills email address is georgewill@washpost.com. THREE additional confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Limerick bringing the total to 619. Its the third day in a row in which three new cases of the disease have been reported locally and means there have been ten new confirmed cases in Limerick since the beginning of August. Nationally, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre has been notified of 174 new cases of the disease and one additional death. There has now been a total of 26,644 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland and 1,772 deaths in Ireland since the pandemic began. Statement from the National Public Health Emergency Team The Health Protection Surveillance Centre @hpscireland has today been informed that 1 patient diagnosed with #COVID19 in Ireland has died. Department of Health (@roinnslainte) August 8, 2020 Of the cases notified today 124 are men, 48 are woman with 69% under the age of 45. The Department of Health says 112 of the cases are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case. 110 of the cases are located in Kildare, 27 in Dublin, 7 in Cork, 7 in Offaly, 6 in Meath and 17 are spread across thirteen other counties including Limerick and Clare. Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health, says the latest numbers of confirmed cases are high but are not unexpected. As I said last night, we are expecting significant numbers of cases to be reported over the coming days. Throughout this week, we have been testing all workers in facilities where outbreaks of Covid-19 have been identified as well as close contacts of those people who have received positive results. Tonights figures are a reflection of these measures with 118 of these cases linked to the counties of Kildare, Laois and Offaly, he said. Our priority now and our reason for recommending the proactive measures announced last night, is to avoid these cases and clusters leading to widespread community transmission of the disease. 50 of tonights cases are located outside of these three counties and around the rest of the country. I once again ask everyone regardless of where you live in the country to take every precaution possible to help us control the spread of this disease and protect our most vulnerable, he added. In a statement, Professor Philip Nolan, chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said the 14-day incidence per 100,000 population in Kildare, Laois and Offaly is worryingly high hence the need for local restrictions. Should these cases result in widespread transmission, it could undo a lot of the good work that we have done as a country so far to control the spread of this virus. The measures introduced by NPHET last night represent a proactive and proportionate response to the current situation in these counties. For more Limerick news click here United Nations: Iran is urging the United Nations to hold the United States accountable for the interception of an Iranian passenger plane by two US fighter jets in the skies over Syria last month, which it called an unlawful and an adventuristic act. Iran's UN ambassador, Majid Takht Ravanchi, said in identical letters to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council circulated Friday that Iran expresses its strongest objections against this violation of international law and will pursue the issue through relevant international bodies. Ravanchi said a Mahan Airlines Airbus A310 en route from Tehran to Beirut on July 23 "was aggressively and unexpectedly intercepted" by two US F-15 fighter jets while travelling through internationally specified air corridors in Syria's airspace. "In reaction to the offensive and hazardous manoeuvrings of the United States fighter jets and in order to save the civil aircraft and passengers' lives, the airliner had to change altitude abruptly, causing injuries to the passengers onboard," the ambassador said. US Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a Central Command spokesman, told The Associated Press at the time of the incident that a US F-15 "conducted a standard visual inspection" of the Iranian plane at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) from the airliner. He said the inspection was meant to ensure the safety of US coalition troops in al-Tanf in Syria as the plane was flying over that area. He said once the aircraft was identified as a passenger plane, the F-15 safely opened distance from the aircraft. The Iranian ambassador said that in line with provisions of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Iran's civil aviation organization contacted Syrian authorities and called for a prompt and accurate investigation of the incident. He said Iranian authorities also launched an investigation after the plane returned from Beirut. The results of both investigations will be released after the revision and finalization of the collected data and information by both teams, Ravanchi said. "It is obvious that the act by the United States fighter jets is a flagrant violation of the aviation security and freedom of civil aviation reflected in the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and its relevant annexes as well as an infringement of the 1971 Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation," he said. Ravanchi said: "It is incumbent upon the United Nations to reject such an unlawful and yet adventuristic act and hold the United States accountable for this irresponsible behaviour." After six weeks of voting in print and online, the Kilkenny hurling publics final nominations for the team of the last sixty years are now known. Selecting a team for each decade, now all the nominations for the various positions are known. Voting is now open online at www.kilkennypeople.ie and you can also fill out the form in this week's Kilkenny People. The players nominated have their club crests showing, All-Irelands won and All Stars showing. Please note for this vote, Billy O'Dwyer is wearing the crest of where he went to school, St Patrick's de la Salle. This would have been where he played his first competitive hurling in the city, a native of the Kennyswell area. Billy played his club hurling with Faughs of Dublin. By filling out the form and entering you are in with a chance of attending the gala function at Gowran Park to honour the final fifteen who win the popular vote. This time we ask you to mark the box beside the player you choose in each position. Should a player be leading in two positions, its the position that he has gained the most votes in will be his winning one. Second place in the other position will be chosen. Closing date for the final votes is Friday, August 21. Entries to Team of the Decades, Kilkenny People, 34 High Street, Kilkenny. A Superior Court judge denied a motion on Friday to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former top-ranking officer for a police department in Hunterdon County. This motion, denied by Superior Court Judge Kevin Shanahan, was brought by one of the defendants, Clinton Township Mayor John Higgins, to dismiss three of the four counts of the lawsuit. The suit was filed Feb. 17 by Sebastian B. Ionno of Aiello, Harris, Marth, Tunnero, Pastor & Schiffman, P.C. in Pitman on behalf of Ryan Melsky. Melsky was hired by the Clinton Township Police Department in August 1994 and served as its officer-in-charge from February 2018 to July 2019. In the lawsuit, Melsky alleges he was a victim of retaliation in violation of the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act. He dually alleges that the defendants failed to properly display this whistleblower policy, and violated the Law Against Discrimination and the Civil Rights Act of 2004. In addition to Higgins, other defendants include Clinton Township, Township Administrator Jesse Landon, and Lt. Tom DeRosa, the current officer-in-charge for the Clinton Township Police Department. Higgins declined to comment on the ongoing litigation, citing township policy. Landon and DeRosa could not be reached for comment. In August 2019, Melsky filed a lengthy and comprehensive grievance detailing improper, unsafe, and illegal conduct within the Clinton Township police force, according to the lawsuit. During this period of time, he served as the officer-in-charge, which is the highest ranking title in the department. In detailing this conduct, the lawsuit draws upon the malice and wanton disregard with which Melsky was treated while in the police department and by the township. Multiple examples of Melskys worsening relationship with both Landon and DeRosa are cited, specifically alleging that they undermined him in issues related to township legislation, hiring others, department responsibilities and police procedures. According to the lawsuit, Landon informed Melsky in July 2019 that he would be removed as the officer-in-charge by January 2020 because the position is a one-year assignment, though by that point Melsky would have been serving in the role for two years. The lawsuit states that same month, Landon notified Melsky that he would become the school resource officer of North Hunterdon High School. The lawsuit adds this change in title meant a loss of $3,000 in Melskys base salary and reduced his pension prior to becoming eligible for retirement. Melsky was never notified of any formal or informal complaints against him while he served as officer-in-charge from February 2018 to July 2019, the lawsuit says. Melsky filed his grievance in the wake of his title change, within which he mostly sought simple remedies including clarification of his job responsibilities, his title and an explanation as to why he was abruptly removed as the officer-in-charge, the lawsuit states. He also allegedly demanded the state Attorney Generals Office investigate whether DeRosa violated the IA Guidelines through being personal friends with the Hunterdon County Prosecutors Chief of Detectives and Internal Affairs Supervisor. Within days, the lawsuit says Melsky was removed as even a Division Commander and replaced by officers out on workers compensation leaves. Melsky was also informed that he was being internally investigated, which he believed to be an act of retaliation against him. Roughly one month later, Higgins advised Melsky that he was being placed on administrative leave to attend a Fitness for Duty Evaluation, then required him to turn over his badge and gun, the lawsuit says. Following this action, Melsky allegedly met with the townships independent investigator, Ursula Leo, to review his grievance on Sept. 11. On Oct. 15, he received two letters from the township, the first allegedly stating the investigation had concluded and determined that no harassment or retaliation took place, and the second that his Fitness for Duty evaluator recommended he return to work. The township instructed Melsky to remain on administrative leave until its investigator could review the allegations brought against him, to which Melsky objected around late November and early December due to the fact that Leo is not a member of an Internal Affairs Unit and has not received the proper training as required by the Division of Criminal Justice, the lawsuit says. Melsky notified Clinton Township of his intention to sue on Jan. 2 of this year, and was forced to retire about four months later. When Melsky filed the suit in February of this year, Clinton Township had still not notified him of any specific acts or instances of serious wrongdoing, according to the lawsuit. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com. AstraZeneca PLC's (LON:AZN) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 67.7x might make it look like a strong sell right now compared to the market in the United Kingdom, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios below 15x and even P/E's below 9x are quite common. However, the P/E might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified. With earnings that are retreating more than the market's of late, AstraZeneca has been very sluggish. It might be that many expect the dismal earnings performance to recover substantially, which has kept the P/E from collapsing. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason. See our latest analysis for AstraZeneca pe Want the full picture on analyst estimates for the company? Then our free report on AstraZeneca will help you uncover what's on the horizon. What Are Growth Metrics Telling Us About The High P/E? The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as steep as AstraZeneca's is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the market decidedly. Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 4.3% decrease to the company's bottom line. This means it has also seen a slide in earnings over the longer-term as EPS is down 46% in total over the last three years. Accordingly, shareholders would have felt downbeat about the medium-term rates of earnings growth. Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 51% each year as estimated by the analysts watching the company. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 12% per year growth forecast for the broader market. In light of this, it's understandable that AstraZeneca's P/E sits above the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting this strong future growth and are willing to pay more for the stock. What We Can Learn From AstraZeneca's P/E? Story continues The price-to-earnings ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations. As we suspected, our examination of AstraZeneca's analyst forecasts revealed that its superior earnings outlook is contributing to its high P/E. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/E as they are quite confident future earnings aren't under threat. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price. It's always necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 3 warning signs with AstraZeneca (at least 1 which is concerning), and understanding them should be part of your investment process. You might be able to find a better investment than AstraZeneca. If you want a selection of possible candidates, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20x (but have proven they can grow earnings). 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. Not Rated| 1h 52min | Drama, Film-Noir | March 1948 (USA) The highly tumultuous Prohibition era of American history catapulted Chicago to new heights of violence. Under the terms of the 18th Amendment, Prohibition made the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States. Of course, many people found a way to get to alcohol anyway, even if it meant visiting one of the many speakeasies that dotted the Windy City. Prolific director Henry Hathaways noir drama Call Northside 777 takes place in 1932, an especially deadly year in Chicagos history. During that year alone, one person died for every single day of that year. One such person was Officer Bundy, a Chicago cop. Eager to blame someone for the crime, the police round up a couple of Polish men, Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte) and his good friend Tomek Zaleska (George Tyne). The two suspects are hauled in for some intense bouts of questioning. After detectives grill them for extended periods of time, the officers find some inconsistencies in their suspects stories that eventually lead to the two receiving 99-year sentences. Eleven years later, the editor of the Chicago Times, Brian Kelly (Lee J. Cobb), spies a peculiar advertisement in the back of his newspaper. It reads: $5,000 REWARD for killers of Officer Bundy on Dec. 9, 1932. Call Northside 777. Ask for Tillie Wiesek 12-7 p.m. Kelly brings the ad to the attention of one of his reporters, P.J. McNeal (James Stewart). McNeal is a hardened journalist with an ever-skeptical demeanor. He quickly scoffs at the ad, thinking it is some kind of scam. But from the outset, Kelly seems to think that there is something more to the ad that bears investigation. Lee J. Cobb (L) and James Stewart in Call Northside 777. (Twentieth Century Fox) McNeal calls Northside 777 and is directed to a location where Tillie is working. When he arrives there, he finds a woman scrubbing floors on her hands and knees in the darkened halls of a building. He learns that she is Tillie Wiecek (Kasia Orzazewski), Frank Wieceks mother. In a heart-wrenching scene, Tillie describes how shes been working as a cleaning lady for 11 years to save enough pennies from her meager wages to accumulate the $5,000 reward. She quickly asks if McNeal can help her so that she can get her son out of prison since she wholeheartedly believes he is innocent of the murder. As McNeal doesnt believe in Franks innocence, he turns down her offer. In the films most touching scene, P.J. McNeal (James Stewart) talks to Tillie Wiecek (Kasia Orzazewski) to find out why she put out a $5,000 reward to find a murderer. (Twentieth Century Fox) But McNeal, touched by Tillies motherly devotion to her sonand seeing a good story angledoes a write-up on Wieseks story titled Slaves to save $5,000offers it to clear her son, with a picture of Tillie down on her hands and knees scrubbing a floor. The sob story quickly becomes popular, and Kelly, still having a hunch that there is something more to the matter, tasks McNeal to follow up. The follow-up article creates even more public interest, and soon McNeal is off to the state prison to visit Frank. At first, McNeal doesnt believe in Franks side of the story: It doesnt have much to it, other than a few sparse details. But McNeals supportive wife, Laura (Helen Walker), begins to wear down his wall of cynicism by encouraging him to dig deeper. Like Kelly, she thinks that there is more to Frank and Tillie Wieseks story. Laura (Helen Walker) and P.J. McNeal (James Stewart) chat about the murder case he is investigating. (Twentieth Century Fox) Delving into the case, McNeal uncovers some curious details that either have been hidden from him by the local police or are otherwise hard to track down. Will he eventually come to believe in Franks innocence, or will his unusual investigative techniques get him into waters too deep and dangerous for him to handle? Films Heart in the Right Place What I like about this film is that it touches on many themes. Theres a cynical examination of what some institutions (both public and private) will do in order to protect their reputations. There are other things covered toosuch as the power of a mothers relentless love and support, and the importance of encouragement from a faithful friend or spouse. Call Northside 777 is a noir film with its heart in the right place and some seriously feel-good moments in its dramatic ending sequences. Its excellent acting performances and deft direction make it a gripping thriller that transcends many of the genres cliches. Call Northside 777 Director: Henry Hathaway Starring: James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb Not Rated Running time: 1 hour, 52 minutes Release Date: March 1948 (USA) Rated: 4 stars out of 5 Ian Kane is a filmmaker and author based out of Los Angeles. To learn more, visit DreamFlightEnt.com or contact him at Twitter.com/ImIanKane WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th August, 2020) The United Nations has not received any requests to investigate Tuesday's massive explosion in Beirut that killed more than 150 people and injured some 5,000 others, UN deputy spokesperson Furhan Haq told reporters. "We are certainly willing to help," Haq said on Friday after French President Emmanuel Macron called for an international inquiry into the explosion. However, the Lebanese government had made no such request so far, Haq also said. "We have not received a request from them at this point, but, of course, we would be willing to consider such a request should we receive one. ...Nothing like that has been received," Haq said. The deputy spokesperson noted that UN relief organizations have already started sending additional aid to Lebanon to help the victims of the blast, including the Food and Agricultural Organization, which has allocated 5,000 food packages and 8.5 metric tons of supplies were flown out from Italy on Thursday. The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for $15 million in additional medical supplies and aid, Haq said. US Army Wraps '100% Successful' Experiment of Heavy Robotic Combat Vehicles Sputnik News 21:45 GMT 07.08.2020(updated 21:53 GMT 07.08.2020) A US Army official claims the service has made significant progress regarding the possible implementation of heavy robotic combat vehicles into combat, following a monthlong series of experiments at Colorado's Fort Carson. "We're taking a lot of technology, we're experimenting and this experiment was 100% successful," Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman, director of the Army's Next Generation Combat Vehicles (NGCV) Cross Functional Team, expressed to reporters during a Thursday briefing, as reported by Defense News. "The whole purpose was to learn where the technology is now and how we think we want to fight with it in the future." However, Coffman noted, the success of the service's experiment does not necessarily translate to actual acquisition progress in the robotic combat vehicle (RCV) effort. "Some [technology] knocked our socks off, and some we've got a little bit of work to do," he admitted. "But that is why we do these things, so we can do it at small scales, so we can learn, save money and then make decisions of how we want to fight in the future." Nevertheless, the Army, with the help of unnamed companies, has been able to confront and sometimes overcome the technological hurdles of RCVs, such as the communication between robot and controller, according to Coffman. "We went after them with [electronic warfare], we saw they were self-correcting, so that if they're on one band, they can switch to another," he said, "so we have a really good idea of what is in the realm of the possible today." Coffman said that progress in using the current communication waveforms available to the RCV program could present an opportunity for the Army to be able to make battlefield decisions "faster and more effectively." "If you could extend the battlefield up to 2 kilometers with a robot, then that means that you can make decisions before your enemy came," he explained. The NGCV director went on to confess that the software connecting the robot and a Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle - the experiment's control vehicle - was "not perfect," but managed to perform above the service's expectations. According to Coffman, the software allowed the robot to move some 80 to 1,000 meters ahead of the vehicle, as well as identify enemy coordinates. "I didn't know how that was going to work," Coffman said. "There were some challenges that we had, like getting exact granularity at distance, but the ability that we could identify hot spots and enemy positions I thought was absolutely exceptional." The service also conducted a "side experiment," according to Defense News, which debuted a robotic version of the Stryker Dragoon infantry combat vehicle and included live fire. The vehicle, which comes equipped with a 30-millimeter cannon, utilized the same hardware and software as the control vehicles, Coffman said. The Army's reported achievements come alongside the Government Accountability Office's release of recommendations for NGCVs. However, when it came to RCVs, the agency emphasized that "no acquisition approach has been selected" for the program, as of the August 6 release. The GAO report detailed that ongoing demonstrations are being carried out with various prototypes so that the service can "fail fast" or succeed and pursue "a formal acquisition program with more mature concepts." Looking forward, the Army intends to hold a demonstration at Fort Hood, Texas, in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, Defense News reported. The experiment will serve as the follow-up operation to Coffman's Fort Carson tests and is slated to include four medium RCV prototypes and four light variants. In the meantime, defense contractors Textron Systems and Howe and Howe Technologies Inc. each have a team developing their own medium RCV prototypes for the service. The light variants are being developed by QinetiQ North America Inc. and Pratt & Miller Engineering. The four companies were each awarded Army contracts back in January. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Perhaps hes been following Boris Johnsons advice to get fit. Hugh Bonneville is a shadow of the well-padded Earl of Grantham who feasted nightly on Mrs Patmores delicious dinners in Downton Abbey. The 56-year-old revealed his dramatic weight loss on BBC1s The One Show on Thursday night, looking smart in a pink open-necked shirt with a drastically shorter haircut. Half the man he used to be: Bonneville on The One Show, right, and how he was: The actor in his more portly days, left Viewers expressed surprise at the dramatic new look. One Twitter user wrote: Wow, I didnt recognise Hugh Bonneville on The One Show to start with! What a transformation! Another said: Blimey, Hugh Bonneville is half the man he used to be. And a third wrote: Hugh Bonneville has lost a hell of a lot of weight! The actor engaged a personal trainer ten years ago after his wife Lulu Williams told him he was fat as a pig. But it seems he has boosted his workout regime in lockdown. The United States government has issued a warning to its citizens to exercise increased caution in New Zealand due to Covid-19, despite the fact New Zealand has been lauded globally for its response to the pandemic. The US has recorded almost five million coronavirus cases and more than 160,000 deaths from Covid-19. By contrast, New Zealand currently has only 23 cases, all of which are in managed isolation. On June 8, Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, declared the pandemic over as community transmission has been eliminated. The warning on the US government travel advice website does not mention this fact or that each active case involves a returned traveller who went directly into quarantine on arrival. Until Thursday, the warning also did not mention that anyone who is not a citizen or permanent resident of New Zealand cannot enter the country. The US government has four travel advisory levels for travel abroad: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions; Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution; Level 3: Reconsider Travel; and Level 4: Do Not Travel. It classified New Zealand as Level 2. New Zealands own government has urged residents to not travel overseas at all at present, and the official advice specifically warns against certain countries, including the United States. Eight days ago, Donald Trump, the US president, said Australia had tremendous problems with its response to Covid-19. They thought theyd really done great So when you think somebody is doing well, sometimes you have to hold your decision on that. You have to hold your statements, he said. At the time, 152,000 people in the US had died of coronavirus and the country had reported almost 4.5 million cases. As of Friday, Australia had 277 Covid-19 deaths from just over 20,200 cases. While New Zealand has been one of the most successful countries in the world in its response to Covid-19, at least one expert has warned that there is a very high chance that community transmission will happen again at some point. University of Otago Medical School epidemiologist Sir David Skegg told Newstalk ZB on Friday that there is a realistic prospect that people working in border services, such as airport and customs workers, hotel staff and bus drivers, could contract Covid-19 from people returning to the country. One of the 18 passengers, who died when an Express flightfrom Dubai crashed landed at the airport here, has tested positive for Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel told the mediathat samples ofthe passenger, Sudheer Varyath (45), were sent for testing and it hasreturned positive for the disease. Health Minister K K Shailaja has asked all the people who were engaged in the rescue operations should report to the health authorities and go on self quarantine as a precautionary measure and get themselves tested. The flight with 190 passengers and crew on board had overshot the runway here while landingon Friday night and fell into a valley about 35 feet below and broke into two portions. The condition of 16 passengers, admitted to various hospitals, is serious, Malappuram Collector K Gopalakrishnan said. (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. Robbie Henson, dean of the College of Nursing, received the Distinguished Teaching Award, presented by Dr. Susan DeWoody (left), provost, and OBU President Dr. Heath A. Thomas. Teri Walker (center), degree counselor, received OBUs Meritorious Service Award, presented by Mike Johnson (left), director of human resources, and OBU President Dr. Heath A. Thomas. Benjamin Baxter, chair of the Division of Communication Arts and assistant professor of animation and media production, received the Promising Teacher Award, presented by Dr. Susan DeWoody (left), provost, and OBU President Dr. Heath A. Thomas. OBU Honors Henson, Walker and Baxter with Highest Employee Awards August 7, 2020 OBU presented its annual faculty and staff awards Friday, Aug. 7, during the Universitys back-to-school employee meeting in Raley Chapels Potter Auditorium on the OBU campus in Shawnee. OBU President Dr. Heath A. Thomas presented the awards along with Dr. Susan DeWoody, provost, and Mike Johnson, director of human resources. The meeting was physically distanced, with all employees wearing face coverings while spread a minimum of six feet apart throughout the auditorium. Specially designed stickers marked which seats were available for use and which were not. A number of employees opted to join the meeting online via Zoom in lieu of attending in person. Each year, OBU presents its three most prestigious awards to recognize quality teaching and faithful service: the Distinguished Teaching Award, the Promising Teacher Award and the Meritorious Service Award. Nominations for the awards are made by alumni, current students, faculty, staff and administration. In addition to public recognition and a token of the universitys appreciation, the recipients receive cash awards provided by OBU graduates John and Janet Hudson of Edmond, Oklahoma. The University typically presents these three awards during Spring Commencement ceremonies in May. However, the presentation was moved to the employee meeting after the coronavirus pandemic shifted Spring Commencement to an outdoors location held Aug. 1. Dr. Robbie Henson, dean of the College of Nursing, received the Distinguished Teaching Award. This award is presented to a faculty member who has taught at OBU for five consecutive years or more and has displayed excellence in the classroom. Henson earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing from OBU, a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas-Arlington, and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. She has clinical experience in a wide range of specialties including adult medical-surgical, intensive care, home health, psychiatric-mental health and maternal-newborn nursing. She previously received both the Oklahoma Nurse Educator of the Year award and the Promising Teacher Award at OBU. Teri Walker, degree counselor, received the Meritorious Service Award. This award is presented annually to a faculty or staff member who has invested a substantial commitment of years and service, and who has been a loyal and faithful faculty or staff member. Walker began working for OBU 37 years ago. Before settling into her current position, she worked as the Howard Residence Center director and Geiger Center director. She is known for actively participating in various aspects of life on Bison Hill including attending sporting events, theatre productions and fine arts concerts, making a lasting impression on generations of Bison students and alumni. Benjamin Baxter, chair of the Division of Communication Arts and assistant professor of animation and media production, received the Promising Teacher Award. This award is presented to a junior faculty member who has taught at OBU less than six years and has demonstrated outstanding potential as a teacher. Baxter joined the OBU faculty in 2016. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Ouachita Baptist University and a Master of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has worked as a freelance photographer for more than 15 years and has experience in 3D modeling, lighting, texturing and rendering. Russian president Vladimir Putin on Saturday sent his condolences on the plane crash in Keralas Kozhikode that killed 18 people and injured over 100 others. In a message addressed to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Putin also wished speedy recovery to the injured. Please accept our deep condolences for the tragic consequences of the plane crash at the airport in Kozhikode. I ask you to convey my words of sympathy and support to the families and friends of the victims, as well as wishes of a speedy recovery to all those who suffered from this disaster, read a statement by the Russian president. An Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the tabletop runway at the airport in Kozhikode while landing amid heavy rainfall and fell into a gorge 35 feet below splitting into two parts on Friday evening. Civil aviation ministrys investigation agency, Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), has recovered digital flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the crashed plane and investigations into the cause of the crash are underway. Union aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri went to Kozhikode on Saturday and took stock of the situation and implementation of relief measures. The crash of an Air India Express flight while landing at the Kozhikode Airport on Friday evening was unlike anything that the state has seen. The news of the crash came even as Kerala was coming to terms with the landslide in Munnar, Idukki where some 80 people were swept away in the heavy rains. Indiatimes This along with the fact that there was heavy rain in the area could have made it a bigger disaster than it is already. But the difference-maker in Kozhikode was the people of the area. Within minutes of the crash, dozens of locals rushed to the spot and initially helped the fire force team to evacuate those who were on the ill-fated flight. twitter In fact, it was a team of locals that rescued some 30 injured, including the pilot and co-pilot, and rushed them to hospitals. While some were still helping in retrieving the injured others did their part by controlling traffic and making it easier for ambulances to enter and exit the airport with the victims. Some of the first batches of injured were rushed to the Kozhikode Medical College, which was a dedicated COVID-19 hospital. As more and more injured were being brought to the hospitals, many of them in critical condition there was an acute shortage of blood. TWITTER As the word spread, hundreds of people gathered at hospitals to donate blood. Even news channels and other media houses also amplified the calls for blood donations. TWITTER Several charity and voluntary groups also chipped in and in a matter of hours even rare blood groups were arranged for patients. The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 on board overshot the tabletop runway at Kozhikode airport on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two, killing at least 18 people. Former Saudi Intel Officer: Crown Prince Wants Me Dead By VOA News August 07, 2020 A former Saudi intelligence officer says the Saudi crown prince wants him dead and an assassination team dispatched to Canada to kill him was stopped by alert customs agents. Saad al Jabri said in a lawsuit filed Thursday in a U.S. federal court that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wanted to silence him because he possesses "damning information" about the crown prince. The veteran officer said in his uncorroborated suit that a hit squad was sent to Canada where the former intelligence officer lives, just weeks after writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi is believed to have been dismembered in the consulate in an operation likely ordered by Salman. The writer, who had been critical of Salman, had gone to the consulate to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage. Several of Jabri's family members have been detained in Saudi Arabia in an effort to get him to return. Jabri was on the staff of former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef where he was the intermediary for a number of Western spy agencies. Court documents say the team sent to kill him were carrying bags of forensic tools for crime scene clean-up when they were stopped by suspicious Canadian border agents. Observers say it is not clear if the court filing will move through the U.S. court system, but the filing has brought attention to Jabri's situation and the crown prince's targeting of him. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address (Newser) Little question: How exactly does one get a face added to Mount Rushmore? That was a White House aide's query to the office of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem last year, a Republican official tells the New York Times. The question wasn't newTrump had asked Noem about it when they first metbut the governor played to his interest when he arrived in Black Hills last month for an appearance before his chiseled predecessors. In greeting him, she presented four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore with a fifth face added: his own. Noem then joined him on Air Force One that evening after his speech, fueling rumors that she wanted to replace Mike Pence on the November ticket. story continues below So she visited the White House three weeks later to meet with Pence and assure him she'd help in any way possible during the 2020 electionan indirect way of squelching the rumors, an official tells the Times. All this harks back to Noem's first meeting with Trump at the Oval Office: "He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,'" Noem told the Arugus Leader in 2018. "I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?'" Noem considered it a joke: "I started laughing. He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious." Business Insider notes there's no stable rock left on Mount Rushmore for a fifth president. (Read more Mount Rushmore stories.) Lebanese police fired tear gas to try to disperse rock-throwing protesters blocking a road near parliament in Beirut on Sunday in a second day of anti-government demonstrations triggered by last week's devastating explosion. Fire broke out at an entrance to Parliament Square as demonstrators tried to break into a cordoned-off area, TV footage showed. Protesters also broke into the housing and transport ministry offices. Two government ministers resigned amid the political fallout of the blast and months of economic crisis, saying the government had failed to reform. Tuesday's explosion of more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate killed 158 people and injured more than 6,000, compounding months of political and economic collapse and prompting furious calls for the government to quit. Riot police wearing body armour and carrying batons clashed with demonstrators as thousands converged on Parliament Square and nearby Martyrs' Square, a Reuters correspondent said. "We gave these leaders so many chances to help us and they always failed. We want them all out, especially Hezbollah, because it's a militia and just intimidates people with its weapons," Walid Jamal, an unemployed demonstrator, said, referring to the country's most influential Iran-backed armed grouping that has ministers in the government. The country's top Christian Maronite cleric, Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, said the cabinet should resign as it cannot "change the way it governs". "The resignation of an MP or a minister is not enough ... the whole government should resign as it is unable to help the country recover," he said in his Sunday sermon. Lebanon's environment minister resigned on Sunday, saying the government had lost a number of opportunities to reform, a statement said. Damianos Kattar's departure follows the resignation of Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad earlier on Sunday in the wake of the explosion. Anger boiled over into violent scenes in central Beirut on Saturday. Those protests were the biggest since October when thousands of people took to the streets to demand an end to corruption, bad governance and mismanagement. About 10,000 people gathered at Martyrs' Square, which was transformed into a battle zone in the evening between police and protesters who tried to break down a barrier along a road leading to parliament. Some demonstrators stormed government ministries and the Association of Lebanese Banks. One policeman was killed and the Red Cross said more than 170 people were injured in clashes. 'CHANGE THE GOVERNMENT' "The police fired at me. But that won't stop us from demonstrating until we change the government from top to bottom," Younis Flayti, 55, a retired army officer, said on Sunday. Nearby, mechanic Sabir Jamali sat beside a noose attached to a wooden frame in Martyrs' Square, intended as a symbolic warning to Lebanese leaders to resign or face hanging. "Every leader who oppresses us should be hanged," he said, adding he will protest again. Lawyer Maya Habli surveyed the demolished port. "People should sleep in the streets and demonstrate against the government until it falls," she said. The prime minister and presidency have said 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which is used in making fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years without safety measures at the port warehouse. The government has said it will hold those responsible to account. An emergency donor conference in France raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief, the French presidency said. For many, the blast was a dreadful reminder of the 1975-1990 civil war that tore the nation apart and destroyed swathes of Beirut, much of which has since been rebuilt. "I worked in Kuwait for 15 years in sanitation to save money and build a gift shop in Lebanon and it was destroyed by the explosion," said Maroun Shehadi. "Nothing will change until our leaders just leave." Niagaras economy didnt get the dramatic upturn it craves, but there were positive signs in a monthly labour market survey released Friday. The regions unemployment rate dipped slightly and nearly 7,000 residents who were unemployed in June found work last month, according to the study released by Statistics Canada. Niagara still has a long way to go, though, to climb out of the massive economic hole it has been in since March due to the COVID-19 shutdown. We saw some improvement, all of the trends are going in the right direction, said Adam Durrant, operations and research manager for the Niagara Workforce Planning Board. Were seeing signs of recovery, but were far from being recovered right now. For perspective: in July 2019 Niagaras unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent. Last month, it was 12.3 per cent. In July 2019, there were 199,200 residents with jobs; last month, there were only 176,700. During March, April and May when the local economy was largely shut down due to COVID, more than 31,000 Niagara residents lost employment. It wasnt until June that the number of people with jobs began to rise again. Fridays StatsCan report, compiled from data collected the week of July 12-18 just as Niagara was preparing to shift into Stage 3 economic reopening, showed the regions unemployment rate at 12.3 per cent, down from 12.8 per cent in June. Any other year, that would be considered a dramatic improvement. Recovery is an ongoing process. Thats where we are right now, said Durrant. Theres reason to be hopeful and cautiously optimistic that August will continue that trend. Nationally, the unemployment rate dropped by 1.4 per cent to 10.9 per cent. Niagaras rate was in line with its regional neighbours while Hamiltons unemployment rate was 11.3 per cent, Kitcheners was 12.9 per cent and Torontos 14.7 per cent. In Niagara, unemployment among young adults has been bad and actually got slightly worse last month, rising to 31.3 per cent. By comparison, in July 2019 it was 11.9 per cent. Thats very challenging, said Durrant. Were effectively talking about almost 10,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24 who were looking for employment in June but couldnt find it. Often people in that age group are saving for post-secondary education. This year, without jobs they might have to defer studies or borrow to pay tuition. So this is going to have consequences for that age group in a very serious way, Durrant said. There is an effort being made by young people to find work. Theyre just not being successful. Of the roughly 6,900 people who did return to employment in July, 6,200 got full-time jobs. Nearly three-quarters of the jobs gained were in construction and manufacturing, traditionally among the higher-paying occupations. While that is a very positive indicator, Durrant said the benefits of our employment gains in July are not at all evenly distributed. Durrant said, whats challenging is when we break it down along gender lines, and all of the people who gained employment in July versus June, for every one woman who found employment in Niagara there were 4.3 men who found employment. Because most construction and manufacturing jobs are held by men, Niagaras trend runs counter to that of the rest of the province. Ontario-wide, for every man who found employment there were 3.9 women who were hired. Niagaras wholesale/retail sector where more women are employed saw only a slight gain in employment in July, by about 200 people. In July there were about 25,100 people employed in that field compared to 31,800 in July 2019. Its probably safe to say that sector is steady, but its another that for months was in freefall, said Durrant. Were seeing that make a slight upturn. Authorities in a city in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia issued a warning after a patient who had bubonic plague died of multiple organ failure, state media reported on Saturday. Cases of plague are not uncommon in China, although outbreaks have become increasingly rare. From 2009 to 2018, China reported 26 cases and 11 deaths. The patient was confirmed to have bubonic plague, the People's Daily reported, citing an announcement from the health committee of the Bayan Nur city. The bubonic plague, known as the "Black Death" in the Middle Ages, is a highly infectious and often fatal disease that is spread mostly by rodents. The committee issued a third-level alert, the second lowest in a four-level system, effective Friday to the end of 2020 to prevent the spread of the disease, the People's Daily reported. This marks the second death of a plague patient reported this month in the Inner Mongolia region. There is an easier way. Instead of escalating conflict with armed security guards, businesses can leverage insights from behavioral science to encourage customers to wear masks. To do that, we need to break down what were being asked to do in two buckets: first, knowing about the mask requirement before we enter the store, and second, actually doing so inside the store. The tried-and-true behavioral science advice for getting people to put the mask on in the first place is to appeal to our identity, or sense of self and duty to others, which is tricky for the reasons explained above. The good news is that businesses can appeal to our identities as loyal shoppers and advocates as a loyalist of a brand. Instead of You must wear a mask, its Trader Joes shoppers wear masks! Another proven tactic is to use humor to diffuse tension. Go on social media for any length of time and youll see signs from small businesses already using this gambit, such as the business that printed a notice allowing customers to enter without masks if they had their temperature checked, and wouldnt you know it, they were all out of oral thermometers! Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/8/2020 (529 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. It is, in no uncertain terms, a moment of reckoning. Revelations of pervasive and systemic racism at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights as outlined in a 72-page report by Winnipeg lawyer Laurelle Harris, which was released earlier this week have placed the institution in the humiliating position of appearing to be in complete contravention of the principles it purports to espouse. The CMHRs stated mission is, in part, "to enhance the publics understanding of human rights, to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue." The report, titled "Rebuilding the Foundation," offers evidence that many of its long-standing practices have resulted in something closer to the complete opposite. Ms. Harriss team interviewed 25 current and former employees of the museum. The four-week investigation revealed numerous instances in which the CMHRs upper management, comprised almost exclusively of white individuals, routinely dismissed or deflected complaints that lower-level, "front-facing" staff many of whom identified as Black, Indigenous or People of Colour (BIPOC) were subjected to racist and discriminatory behaviour. White people were hired or promoted regularly while BIPOC individuals were passed over. People of colour were paid less than white staffers. Front-facing staff were subjected to sexism, homophobia, transphobia and/or sexual harassment that "may not have been investigated or addressed adequately." The report also noted that the CMHRs former president and CEO, who resigned in June after numerous allegations of discriminatory and racist behaviour and attitudes were made public, failed to appreciate the seriousness of the concerns, would not acknowlege the validity of the complaints and accepted no personal responsibility for the environment at the museum. His departure from the museums top executive post was a necessary first step, but the process of rebuilding the CMHRs reputation will take time and require diligent, dedicated effort perhaps by a board and executive that looks much different from the current configuration. 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. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Its encouraging that the CMHRs acting president and CEO, Pauline Rafferty, has apologized for the museums failures and the board accepts the reports findings. Also of note in the report are the numerous descriptions of racism and discriminatory behaviour experienced by front-facing staff at the hands of museum patrons many reportedly members of VIP tours who were apparently unable to understand or accept the information presented in the CMHRs exhibits. That front-line staff would be subjected to varying levels of abuse by museum-goers should have surprised no one in CMHR management. This is not a facility at which patrons wander wistfully through galleries, admiring the artistic works of great painters and sculptors and craftspeople. Rather, its a facility whose mandated purpose is to present the hard truths of humanity in a manner intended to create transformative change in the people who visit. In many cases, CMHR exhibits will necessarily challenge the deeply-held beliefs of its visitors; front-facing museum staff should be fully trained and equipped to deal with the sometimes-antagonistic reactions its exhibits elicit. Instead, Ms. Harriss investigation revealed the CMHRs chronically underfunded human-resources department was unable to "to offer training in a meaningful, consistent and deliberate way." Its encouraging that the CMHRs acting president and CEO, Pauline Rafferty, has apologized for the museums failures and the board accepts the reports findings. But there are difficult paths to be followed if the museum hopes to find its way back toward credibility. Theres a conjunction hidden in the CMHRs name thats more significant than its meagre two letters might suggest. This is not a museum of human rights; its a museum for human rights. That distinction should be kept in sharp focus as the duly chastened CMHR forges ahead. SURREY, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2020 / Gungnir Resources Inc. (TSXV:GUG)(OTCPK:ASWRF) ("Gungnir" or the "Company") is pleased to report that on-going drilling at the Knaften project in northern Sweden has significantly expanded mineralization at the Knaften 300 Gold Zone ("Knaften 300"). Multiple zones of disseminated arsenopyrite, the key indicator of gold mineralization on the property, were encountered. Mineralization now extends down-dip for a distance of more than 400 metres and remains completely open in all directions. Assays are pending. Please see attached cross-section and select photos (Figure 1). Jari Paakki, Gungnir's CEO, "We are now seeing potentially four stacked zones of arsenopyrite at Knaften 300, all of which are interpreted to extend to the top of bedrock immediately below overburden. As such, we are considering an induced polarization (IP) geophysical test survey over the current drill area to evaluate its effectiveness to target further shallow mineralization along strike and elsewhere on the property more cost effectively." Gold mineralization at Knaften 300 is associated with disseminated arsenopyrite zones ranging from about 2 to 20 metres wide, typically 5 metres (core lengths). Drilling highlights from Gungnir and previous operators include: 14.07 g/t Au over 4.25 m (from 138.75 to 143.00 m) in hole KN19-06 5.39 g/t Au over 2.00 m (from 98.00 to 100.00 m) in hole KN19-09 3.45 g/t Au over 10.75 m (from 67.05 to 77.80 m) in hole 96009 3.20 g/t Au over 10.00 m (from 83.50 to 93.50 m) in hole 200707 2.92 g/t Au over 13.00 m (from 81.5 to 94.50 m) in re-sample 200707 3.11 g/t Au over 8.00 m (from 135.80 to 143.80 m) in hole 200714 2.13 g/t Au over 14.45 m (from 55.00 to 69.45 m) in hole KNA01001 2.01 g/t Au over 6.70 m (from 190.50 to 197.20 m) in hole 200710 2.89 g/t Au over 5.00 m (from 118.80 to 123.80 m) in hole 200715 The technical information in this news release has been prepared and approved by Jari Paakki, P.Geo., CEO and a director of the Company. Mr. Paakki is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Story continues About Gungnir Resources Gungnir Resources Inc. is a Canadian-based TSX-V listed mineral exploration company (GUG: TSX-V) with gold and base metal permits in northern Sweden. The Company's key project, Knaften, hosts high-grade gold, VMS (zinc-copper) and copper-nickel targets, and all are open for expansion and further discovery. The Company also holds two nickel-copper-cobalt deposits, Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget, located east of Knaften. Further information about the Company and its properties may be found at www.gungnirresources.com or at www.sedar.com. On behalf of the Board, Jari Paakki, CEO and Director For further information contact: Head Office/Investor Relations Phone: +1-604-683-0484 Jari Paakki, CEO Email: jpaakki@eastlink.ca Chris Robbins, CFO Email: robbinscr@shaw.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 herein may contain forward-looking statements or information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved", or the negative of these words or comparable terminology. By their very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual performance of the Company to be materially different from any anticipated performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements or information include, but are not limited to, statements or information with respect to Gungnir's plan for future exploration and development of its properties, Gungnir's plan for future disclosure relating to exploration and development of its properties within the timelines set out above or at all. Forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of estimates and assumptions and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements or information. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying estimates and assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements or information. For example, there is no certainty, that any economically viable mineral deposit will be located on the properties, that the Company will receive or be able to raise sufficient capital to complete all of its exploration programs as anticipated. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements or information. Gungnir does not expect to update forward-looking statements or information continually as conditions change, except as may be required by securities law. SOURCE: Gungnir Resources Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/600720/Gungnir-Expands-Mineralization-at-Knaften-300-Gold-Zone Delta senator, Peter Nwaoboshi, has described the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as a bunch of confused men without vision or direction. This is in reaction to allegations of diversion of funds paid for contracts allegedly linked to the lawmaker but not executed. The commission in a letter signed by the Director, Legal Services, Peter Okoro, demanded a refund of N2.5 billion from Mr Nwaoboshi, being the amount the agency said it paid for contracts to companies allegedly linked to him. Although the names of the companies were not mentioned, the NDDC said the contracts were in furtherance of its education sector mandate as a catalyst for the improvement of classroom and learning conditions in the region. READ ALSO: The lawmaker was given a two-week ultimatum to refund the said amount. But in a swift reaction, Mr Nwaoboshi said the matter is subjudice as it is already before two law courts of competent jurisdiction in Nigeria. He said he had sued NDDC, its spokesperson, Charles Odili, and some newspapers for defamation of character. He said he was yet to receive the letter in which NDDC demanded the refund from him but noted: nowhere in the contents of the purported letter was it stated that the contractor is directly linked to him. He said neither was it stated that the warehouse, where the plastic chairs were domiciled, belongs to him. The letter is, he said, fake as it was not conveyed through the official letter-headed paper of the NDDC apparently for fear of being sued for divulgence of fake information to the general public. He also challenged the commission to take legal action to back up its claims. We have always maintained that the IMC of NDDC are bunch of confused men without vision or direction. Initially, the alleged figure was pegged at N3.7 billion only for the confused IMC Team to now come up with a totally different figure of N2.5 billion. Nigerians and the entire world could see the charades clearly. Even through the eyes of Steve Wonder! However, if the IMC of NDDC feel they truly have a genuine case against Senator Peter Nwaoboshi as contained in the purported letter, we are challenging them to go to the law court or make use of every legal procedure available to them, part of the letter read. Mr Nwabaoshi has often denied benefitting from NDDC contracts. Officials of the NDDC had accused him of hijacking contracts and budgets of the commission. This allegation was made during the investigative hearing of the financial recklessness and misappropriation of funds in the NDDC, by a Senate ad-hoc committee. The acting deputy director, projects, NDDC, Cairo Ojougboh, alleged that budgets of the commission have always been hijacked by the leadership of the committee on NDDC from both chambers for their personal gain. Some contracts supplied to an NDDC warehouse along Benin-expressway. The warehouse belongs to Peter Nwabaoshi (a senator). About 2900 emergency projects were awarded and Mr Nwabaoshi collected 1000 of them, saying he will distribute them among senators and House of Representatives members. But when asked, lawmakers denied receipt. We are being accused because we are working for the region and because they want to take over the commission, Mr Ojougboh told the panel in July. Similarly, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, named the senator among other federal lawmakers who allegedly got contracts from the commission, an allegation that Mr Nwaoboshi has denied, even daring the minister to send the names to anti-graft agencies. Photo: The Canadian Press Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe talks to reporters after the province released its budget at Saskatchewan's Legislative Building in Regina, Monday, June 15, 2020. Saskatchewan's premier says he's concerned the United States could impose a tariff on Canadian steel after the country slapped a 10 per cent import tax on aluminum. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Taylor. Saskatchewan's premier says he's concerned the United States could impose a tariff on Canadian steel after the country slapped a 10 per cent import tax on aluminum. Scott Moe says the issue of tariffs has come up during regular calls with other premiers. U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday a 10 per cent tariff was being reimposed on raw aluminum coming from Canada. In response, Ottawa announced it would retaliate by levying $3.6-billion in import tariffs on American products made with aluminum. In 2018, the U.S. put a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian aluminum and a 25 per cent tariff on steel which weren't lifted until 2019. Regina is home to the Evraz steel mill where hundreds of people work. "From a Saskatchewan perspective, very concerned that it could extend to steel," Moe told The Canadian Press Friday. Moe's worry was echoed by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who chastised Trump for going after Canada, a close U.S. trading ally. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Germany Chapter has charged the Christian Council to call Kennedy Agyapong to order following his recent alleged death threats on Sammy Gyamfi National Communications Officer of the party. The Assin North Member of Parliament (MP) in an interview with Asempa FM last week reportedly issued death threats to the National Communications Officer of the main opposition party Sammy Gyamfi. The NDC Germany chapter has learned with shock and utter dismay the threat on the life of Mr Sammy Gyamfi, our National Communications Officer by Mr Kennedy Agyepong. What is more disturbing is his open declaration that he can silence Mr Sammy Gyamfi within three minutes, the Group has said in a press release. While condemning the utterances of Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, the NDC Germany Chapter has stressed that the Christian Council and other key institutions need to call the Assin North MP to order. Though Mr Kennedy Agyapong is unchallenged and supreme when it comes to verbal abuse to many Ghanaians and institutions, we are calling on the Christian Council, the Civil Society Organizations, the Catholic Bishops Conference, the security services: Police, and the Military to call him to order and condemn his actions. Lets not wait till what happened to the likes of Mr Ahmed Suale and Hon. J.B Daquah to repeat itself before we act, a portion of the release added. In addition, the group says Parliament must bring Kennedy Agyapong to order if indeed it is a revered house governed by standing orders regulating the behaviour of its members. The NDC Germany chapter says they will ensure that the country will be too small to contain him should anything untoward happen to Sammy Gyamfi. Read the full press release below: The NDC Germany chapter has learned with shock and utter dismay the threat on the life of Mr Sammy Gyamfi, our National Communications Officer by Mr Kennedy Agyepong. What is more disturbing is his open declaration that he can silence Mr. Sammy Gyamfi within three minutes. Fellow Ghanaians, on an ordinary day, such loose talks could have been ignored but coming from a sitting member of Ghanas internationally respected Parliament and on the heels of the mystery and brutal murder of Mr. Ahmed Suale through similar actions and the questionable murder of a sitting member of parliament, Hon. J.B Daquah in an unexplainable manner, NDC Germany has no choice but to condemn the unguarded threats declared on the life of Mr Sammy Gyamfi. Though Mr Kennedy Agyapong is unchallenged and supreme when it comes to verbal abuse to many Ghanaians and institutions, we are calling on the Christian Council, the Civil Society Organizations, the Catholic Bishops Conference, the security services: Police, and the Military to call him to order and condemn his actions. Lets not wait till what happened to the likes of Mr Ahmed Suale and Hon. J.B Daquah to repeat itself before we act. If Parliament is indeed a revered house governed by standing orders regulating the behaviour of its members, we call on the speaker of Parliament to bring Mr Kennedy Agyapong to order. Mr Sammy Gyamfi has not made any personal statement that warrants such threats on his life. Mr Kennedy Agyapong as Member of Parliament should know better and act appropriately should any statement made by Mr Sammy Gyamfi constituted a threat to public peace. From today onwards should anything untoward happen to Mr Sammy Gyamfi, Mr Kennedy Agyapong should be held accountable. We in the NDC shall ensure that the country will be too small to contain him. Long live NDC Germany Chapter Together we shall win. Desire Aliebakaa (Germany Chapter Secretary) The Belfast Telegraph's online readers have been split almost exactly down the middle on the subject of face masks. From Monday people will be required to wear face masks while entering shops and other enclosed public spaces. Read More In our Facebook poll 51% of respondents said they would no longer be heading out to shop when face coverings become mandatory, with 49% saying they would be happy to attend while wearing a mask. The poll received over 14,000 votes. Face masks will be mandatory in shops from Monday. Will you be heading into town for some retail therapy when you have to cover up? Posted by Belfast Telegraph on Friday, August 7, 2020 Voters were responding to the question "Face masks will be mandatory in shops from Monday. Will you be heading into town for some retail therapy when you have to cover up?" The Executive had initially only recommended the wearing of face coverings. The policy had been intended to be reviewed later this month but mandatory wearing was brought forward after low compliance. Read More Health Minister Robin Swann has been a longtime advocate for the mandatory wearing of masks, but met with resistance from the DUP. The party's Sammy Wilson has been outspoken on the issue. "If people feel more comfortable wearing a mask to the shops, nothing should stop them," the East Antrim MP said on Friday evening. "We will not conquer the consequences of this virus, however, by creating more obstacles for hard pressed retailers and sapping confidence from many who do not feel comfortable in a mask." Here's how Saturday unfolded: Nine judges chosen by presidential decree as part of a compromise intended to ease months-long political turmoil. Malis President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita appointed nine judges to the Constitutional Court by decree as part of a compromise intended to ease the countrys months-long political crisis. The Sahel nation is in the grip of a political impasse between Keita and an increasingly strident opposition intent on securing his resignation. Last month, 11 people died over three days of unrest following an anti-Keita protest in the worst political strife Mali has seen in years. Heads of government from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) stepped in, suggesting on July 27 the formation of a new unity government to include opposition members, while sticking by Keita. They also urged the appointment of new judges to the Constitutional Court to resolve a festering election dispute, among other measures. Much of Malis current tension was sparked in April, when the Constitutional Court tossed out 30 results from long-delayed parliamentary elections a move that benefitted Keitas party but triggered protests. Malis opposition June 5 Movement has repeatedly spurned the ECOWAS proposal and continues to demand the 75-year-old presidents resignation. Anti-Keita protests On Friday, according to a presidential decree seen by the AFP news agency, Keita nevertheless appointed nine new judges to the court. Officials from Malis presidency, who declined to be named, said the judges will be sworn in on Monday. Opposition figures appear unlikely to back down, however. The June 5 Movement earlier on Friday said it would stage nationwide anti-Keita demonstrations on Tuesday. The group has been channelling deep anger over Malis bloody eight-year armed uprising, a dire economy, and perceived government corruption. The government has struggled to contain the conflict that first emerged in the north in 2012, before spreading to central Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed. "We have to lead the world. We should be the ones doing what we did during the Ebola crisis, bringing the whole world together and saying, 'This is what we must do.' We have to have a common plan. All nations are affected the same way by this virus depending on exposure. And so this is we need world leadership. We need international leadership. We need someone who knows how to bring the world together and insist on fundamental change in the way in which we're approaching this." I once applied to be a peer. This was not because I wanted to be known as Baron Hitchens, but because I thought it might be possible to do some good in the House of Lords, where the brutal and rigid party machines do not bully members into line the way they do in the Commons. The Government of the day said it would appoint a small number of Peoples Peers, the sort of people who might not normally get in. I filled in a long form explaining my virtues. Silence fell, and many months later I read in the papers that Elspeth Howe, wife of the former Cabinet Minister Geoffrey Howe, had been chosen. Id actually assumed she was already a Baroness, since she was exactly the kind of great and good soppy liberal person who normally does get ennobled, or was in those days. So I laughed, and told myself not to be so silly in future. I invite those of you who still think Mr Johnson is a traditionalist patriotic conservative to ask yourself why he has put Ms Fox into Parliament Since then the Upper House has got worse and worse. There are quite a lot of people there now who are so dim and unqualified that it defies belief. And I have for some time thought the moment had come to abolish the whole thing. But then came the Prime Ministers latest list of new peers. There are some reasonable people on it, though if I were Mr Johnson Id have hesitated before elevating my own brother to the peerage. It just doesnt look good, from any direction. But the really strange appointment was that of Claire Fox. I invite those of you who still think Mr Johnson is a traditionalist patriotic conservative to ask yourself why he has put Ms Fox into Parliament. I have known Claire for years and actually quite like her. Ive watched in admiration as she has used her headship of a mysterious thing called The Institute of Ideas to create a major broadcasting career. She has some sound instincts, and as we shall see she can be ruthlessly honest. But no traditionalist conservative could conceivably give her a lifetime seat in Parliament. Claire was for many years a member of a strange cultish group called the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). This wasnt a youthful dalliance like mine in the International Socialists, which I left in 1975. She carried on belonging to the RCP for 20 years after leaving university. Its newspaper, The Next Step, said at the time of the 1993 Warrington bomb, which killed three-year-old Johnathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry: We defend the right of the Irish people to take whatever measures are necessary in their struggle for freedom' And there is every sign that she still hasnt really broken with it. The RCP itself has disappeared after a series of misfortunes, and how has a ghostly afterlife in web-based outfits such as Spiked. In this strange milieu, she must have met Munira Mirza, head of Mr Johnsons policy unit but weirdly far less famous than that other crazy Downing Street radical, Dominic Cummings. Ms Mirza, whose husband used to be famous for organising sex parties, is also linked with the RCP. And she has been close to Mr Johnson since his days as Mayor of London. So could Lady Foxs ennoblement have been her idea? Who can say? What startles me is how little fuss it has created. Baroness Fox, in her RCP days, defended the cruel, violent actions of the Provisional IRA. This was RCP policy. Its newspaper, The Next Step, said at the time of the 1993 Warrington bomb, which killed three-year-old Johnathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry: We defend the right of the Irish people to take whatever measures are necessary in their struggle for freedom. Long ago? Well, yes, but Lady Fox was challenged about this very recently when she stood as a Brexit Party candidate for the European Parliament in a constituency which includes Warrington. Did she say, I am deeply ashamed of these policies, which I now see as having been gravely mistaken? She did not. Last April, politely but firmly confronted by Tim Parrys father Colin, she said that she stuck by what she had believed back in 1993. My personal politics and views are well known and I have never sought to deny them, though on this issue they have remained unaired for many years. This statement (were her views well-known?) was carefully surrounded by various sentiments of sympathy at the loss suffered by the Parry and Ball families. But Colin Parry himself reckoned (as I do) that she had not actually changed her mind. He still thinks she hasnt, and when her peerage was announced, he tweeted: We all do and say things when young that we later regret. Claire Fox never apologised for defending the IRA bombing of Warrington which took the life of my son Tim and Johnathan Ball. Now she is offered a peerage. This offends me and many others deeply. I think he has a point, though of course nobody will now pay attention to his reasoned and civil protests. But ask yourselves why a supposedly Tory Government should give such an honour, and such a part in running the nation, to such a person. No doubt there is a case for having all kinds of people in Parliament. But how strange that this award should come from a party whose emblem is the Union Jack, which is given to singing Land Of Hope And Glory, and which excoriates Jeremy Corbyn for meeting terrorists. Have we been had? Repression by men in black uniforms is not a good look The great city of Melbourne in Australia is now under a severe six-week curfew from 8pm until 5am. Its businesses are crippled. Even the authorities admit it could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Muzzles are, of course, compulsory. Inhabitants can leave their homes only once a day for essential supplies and food, and once for one hour of exercise, within a three-mile radius. The local police chief, Shane Patton, fetchingly dressed in black shirt and black tie (does he know no history?) is pleased that non-muzzle-wearers are being shunned and says his officers had to smash into cars whose drivers did not co-operate with stop and search Police and soldiers are hammering on the doors of those who have tested positive for Covid (who are now forbidden to exercise), to check they are at home. Huge fines face those who dont comply. Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews says: We can no longer have people simply out and about for no good reason you will be stopped and you will be asked and need to demonstrate that you are lawfully out and you are not breaching that curfew. The local police chief, Shane Patton, fetchingly dressed in black shirt and black tie (does he know no history?) is pleased that non-muzzle-wearers are being shunned and says his officers had to smash into cars whose drivers did not co-operate with stop and search. Why this wild repression? Because of 15 deaths in a day, mostly among the very old, in a state of more than six million people. Once again, the words out of proportion spring to mind. I predict that a major British city will be subjected to something similar in the coming winter. Strikingly, it is in the formerly free English-speaking world, inheritors of Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights, that the most severe attack on freedom is happening. They seem confident we will not defend it. I gave blood- and got freedom I am pleased to report that I have now managed to donate the pint of blood I tried and failed to give to the English Blood Service last week. They refused to let me do so because I was not prepared to wear a muzzle. I gave my blood in Wales, and found the Welsh Blood Service staff every bit as delightful and helpful as their English counterparts. Better still, they do not have concrete-headed dogmatic bosses who treat donors as nuisances, and lack any flexibility at all. So no muzzle. Luckily for me, I have both the time and the money to travel 200 miles to give blood. But others, at present, must either submit to this dodgy diktat (many believe it is unsafe as well as needless) or stop giving freely of their own blood. In any case, my critics will now have a tough time calling me selfish for making a stand. My blood does just as much good in Wales as it would have done in England. If you want to comment on Peter Hitchens click here Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt has questioned the government's logic in the deployment of military personnel to guard some Regions in the country. The Military was deployed to protect the country's borders and also ensure persons who are not Ghanaians didn't steal themselves to participate in the voter registration exercise. It became necessary for the Military to given this task following reports that some persons were using unapproved routes to enter the country, particularly when the borders have been closed to avoid the spread of COVID-19. But the presence of the Military in the Volta Region and some parts of the country sparked controversies with members and leadership of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) alleging that the President has taken such move in order to intimidate residents in those Regions and prevent them from registering their names for a voter ID card. They further accused the government of using the Military to advance their agenda which they believe was to disenfranchise some Ghanaians. Addressing the issue, Kwesi Pratt blamed President Akufo-Addo and his government for the distrust in the Military's work. He asked why the President decided to assign the Military to guard the Regions and not the Ghana Police personnel. To him, it was rather the duty of the Ghana Police Service to maintain law and order and giving such assignment to the Military exposed them to public ridicule and antagonism. ''A lot of times if you force soldiers to do the work of the Police, it causes lots of trouble . . . It makes them lose focus and then you expose them to public ridicule and antagonism.'' ''What is the essence of deploying all these soldiers when we're just registering names? Are there no more Police personnel?'' he questioned on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo'. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Polish border guards have detained 34 people from the Middle East, including four women and four children, who were traveling in a trailer of the lorry that came from Turkey via Slovakia, authorities said on Saturday. Polish border guards have detained 34 people from the Middle East, including four women and four children, who were traveling in a trailer of the lorry that came from Turkey via Slovakia, authorities said on Saturday. They were detained on Friday night and are being held at the border guards station in Bielsko-Biala, a spokesman for the regional border guards service in southern Poland Szymon Moscicki said. He said the detainees were thought to be citizens of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Kurds from Turkey. It was not immediately clear where they ultimately aimed to travel. Even though migrant flows to Poland never reached the same scale as in neighboring Germany, immigration was a campaign topic ahead of the 2015 general election, helping the Law and Justice (PiS) party to take over power. The conservative-nationalist government has said it has restricted entry to refugees due to security concerns. Politicians often use the word "migrants" as a blanket term, rather than "refugees". Last month the UN Refugee Agency urged Poland to help people fleeing war and persecution after Europe's human rights court ruled Warsaw had broken an international convention by denying asylum procedures to refugees. Since 2016 the annual number of asylum applications has fallen to 4,000 a year from 8,000-14,000 before, according to one non-governmental organization in Poland. The indigenous peoples of the Amazon have already seen their homelands ravaged by illegal deforestation, industrial farming, mining, oil exploration and unlawful occupation of their ancestral territories. Now, the coronavirus pandemic has magnified their plight, just as the forest fires are raging once more. The Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest, is a vital resource in the race to curb climate change -- it spans over 7.4 million square kilometers (2.85 million square miles). It covers 40 percent of the surface area of South America, stretching across nine countries and territories: Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. Around three million indigenous people -- members of 400 tribes -- live there, according to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO). Around 60 of those tribes live in total isolation. The following is a look back over at how the novel coronavirus spread through the Amazon jungle, and how those communities are handling the crisis. - Isolated but not protected - In mid-March, panic struck Carauari, in western Brazil. Carauari is home to one of the most isolated communities in the world, and is only accessible by a week-long boat ride from Manaus, the nearest major city. At first, the virus was seen as a threat that was well removed from the multi-colored houses on stilts that overlook the Jurua river, a tributary of the Amazon. But the announcement of the first case in Manaus, the regional capital of Amazonas state, quickly sowed panic in the community. No one in Carauari had forgotten how diseases brought by European colonizers ripped through the native populations in the Americas, nearly eliminating them altogether due to their lack of immunity. "We're praying to God not to bring this epidemic here. We're doing everything we can -- washing our hands often, like they tell us on TV," said Jose Barbosa das Gracas, 52. Story continues The first confirmed case amongst Brazil's indigenous population was confirmed in early April: a 20-year-old health care worker from the Kokama tribe, who lived near the Colombian border. She had worked with a doctor who also tested positive. - Calls for help - Sensing the mounting threat, indigenous leaders and celebrities sounded the alarm, warning that Amazonian indigenous communities could face annihilation without help. "There are no doctors in our communities. There is no protective gear to aid prevention," Jose Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, the elected leader of the collective of Amazon indigenous organizations, said in late April. For Yohana Pantevis, a 34-year-old inhabitant of Leticia, in Colombia's Amazonas state, "falling ill here is always scary, but now we're more afraid than ever." Brazilian-born photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado, known for his work in the Amazon, warned of the "huge risk of a real catastrophe." "If the virus gets into the forest, we don't have a way to get help to them. The distances are so huge. The indigenous people will be abandoned," said the 76-year-old. "I call that genocide -- the elimination of an ethnic group and its culture," he said, accusing the government of Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro of anti-indigenous policies. In early June, iconic indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire accused Bolsonaro of wanting "to take advantage of this disease." "He's saying, 'Indians have to die, we have to finish them off'," he told AFP in an interview. - Running scared - In mid-June, the little indigenous village of Cruzeirinho in Brazil with its wooden huts was left practically deserted as most inhabitants -- fearing coronavirus infection -- fled into the jungle. They "preferred to take everything they had with them into the forest and avoid contact with others," said resident Bene Mayuruna, who was amongst the few who stayed. The Brazilian army deployed a team of health workers to Cruzeirinho to provide care for the remaining members of the local tribe. - Medicinal plants and barricades - A week's journey by boat from Cruzeirinho, the inhabitants of the Umariacu indigenous reserve adopted a different strategy: they blocked all outsiders from their villages. "Attention: indigenous land. Closed for 15 days," said a hand-painted sign next to a roadblock at the entrance to the reserve. The area covers 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) in northern Brazil near the Peruvian and Colombian borders, and is home to about 7,000 people. To avoid any dependence on the often maxed-out Brazilian public health system, indigenous people often turn to their ancestral traditions. In mid-May, members of the Satere Mawe ethnic group, wearing colorful feather and leaf headdresses, scoured the river in search of medicinal plants. "We've been treating our symptoms with our own traditional remedies, the way our ancestors taught us," said Andre Satere Mawe, a tribal leader who lives in a rural area on the outskirts of Manaus. The Satere Mawe remedies include teas made from the bark of the carapanauba tree, which has anti-inflammatory properties, or the saracuramira tree, an anti-malarial. - Virus takes hold - In Manaus, Maria Nunes Sinimbu saw five members of her family die of COVID-19 in less than a month, including three of her 12 children. "My daughter didn't believe this illness was so serious. She kept working and traveling normally, without taking any precautions," said the 76-year-old retired school teacher. In late July, the Pan-Amazonian Church Network said more than 27,500 indigenous people belonging to 190 tribes had been infected on the continent with over 1,100 deaths. Amongst the victims have been important tribal leaders such as Paulinho Paiakan and Aritana Yawalapiti in Brazil, and Peru's Santiago Manuin. - Indigenous culture under threat - For many indigenous people living deep in the rainforest, the health crisis has left them with a cruel choice: stay in their villages with limited medical resources or head into bigger towns where they might not be able to practice ancestral funeral rites. Brazilian Lucita Sanoma lost her two-month-old baby on May 25. The boy was buried, without her knowledge, 300 kilometers (185 miles) from her home village after dying in a hospital in Boa Vista. The burial followed government health guidelines but ran counter to the traditions of her Yanomami tribe, which dictate that the deceased must be left in the open air in the forest before their bones are collected and cremated. The ashes are kept in an urn for a long time before eventually being buried in a new ceremony. In Colombia, Ticuna chief Remberto Cahuamari spoke in early June of his concern that the loss of the older generation to COVID-19 would spell the end of the passing down of ancestral wisdom. "We'd be left with our young who in the future won't know anything about our cultures and our customs. That's what scares us," he told AFP. Added to that is the threat of isolation as riverside villages become cut off as authorities suspend boat traffic in a bid to curb the spread of the virus. - The scourge of wildcat miners - For the Yanomami people, illegal gold miners are the main problem on their territory, a vast swathe of territory on Brazil's border with Venezuela that is home to about 27,000. "Without that, we would be fine," said indigenous leader Mauricio Yekuana, whose white mask contrasts with his black face paint. According to NGOs, around 20,000 gold miners make regular incursions into indigenous land, encouraged by Bolsonaro, who wants to "integrate" those areas with "modernity." But Greenpeace Brazil warns that gold miners are "potential transmitters" of COVID-19. A study conducted by Minas Gerais University showed that as many as 40 percent of Yanomami living close to mining areas risked becoming infected with the virus if nothing is done. - Record deforestation - While the world's attention is laser-focused on the coronavirus, forest fires continue to ravage the Amazon, after an already challenging 2019. Land-grabbers in Brazil want to accelerate deforestation to make way for soybean plantations or pasture land for cattle -- two key exports. The resumption of fires is no accident. "What I saw in the places I went to was that the trees had already been cut down, they just hadn't yet been burnt," Erika Berenguer, a researcher at Oxford and Lancaster universities, said in June. She feared that "breathing problems caused by the fires" could make things worse for those who contract the coronavirus. Authorities have a limited ability to prevent deforestation -- and sometimes are found to be complicit in the operations. The latest figures make for some grim reading: Amazonian deforestation over the first half of the year was 25 percent higher than the same period in 2019, which was already a record, Brazil's national space agency INPE said. Experts fear August will be particularly devastating. bur-tup/jb/phs/bc/sst The reason was unclear: Some blamed a rumor of an outbreak in the high rises that scared off postal carriers, even though the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority said just three residents have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The U.S. Postal Service said in a statement to The Washington Post that it halted service there until it could be sure that proper social distancing measures were in place. Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Export volume fell 1.4 percent but increased by 10.9 percent in value over the same period last year. The department also said that in the first half of this year, the Philippines ranked first in Vietnam's rice export market with nearly 37 percent of total rice exports. Vietnam exported 1.4 million tonnes of rice to the Philippines, raking in 635 million USD, up 13.3 percent and 30.5 percent, respectively, over the same period last year. Other markets with strong growth in rice exports included Senegal (up 19.6 times), Indonesia (2.8 times) and China (nearly 90 percent). Vietnams average rice export price in the first six months hit 487.6 USD per tonne, 13 percent higher than the same period in 2019./. The Inspector-General of Police Mr. James Oppong-Boanuh has said the Police administration will soon begin new promotional criteria for Police officers who accept postings to the northern part of the country. He indicated that, under the new model, Police officers who accept postings to Northern Ghana will be promoted within three years of service whiles Police officers in other parts of the country will serve four years before promotion. At a ceremony in Tamale to commission the regional Police conference hall and also inaugurate the Northern regional Police band, the IGP said the new model is to motivate more personnel to the North to augment the limited numbers in that part of the country. He, however, indicated that the crime rate in the Northern region continue to reduce in the past months and attributed same to the good Police-public relations, enhanced operation calm-life patrols, and increased snap checkpoints within the region. The IGP said the presence of the Police band in Tamale will help in strengthening the relationship between the public and the Police and also support public education efforts on security. Mr, James Oppong-Boanuh added that the Northern regional Police band will also be used for national events held in the region and other adjoining regions and entertain the people with good music. The Northern Regional Police Commander COP Bonga Yoosa, giving a background of the conference hall said the project was first started in 2016 by his predecessor COP Isaac Ken Yeboah with personal contributions from Senior Police Officers under his command. He appealed for support from the public to enable the command complete its church project, which is a non-denominational church to enable Police officers within the region to build their spiritual faith. The Metropolitan Chief Executive for Tamale Iddrisu Musah Superior in an address commended Police officers in the region for working tirelessly to maintain peace in the region. He indicated that the just-ended EC registration exercise has been peaceful in the region largely due to the vigilance and presence of Police personnel at the various centres. He encourages them to continue with their yeomans service to mother Ghana. The Body Of Fugitive Judge Who Died In Romania Buried In Iran Radio Farda August 07, 2020 The spokesman for the Islamic Republic's judiciary announced on August 6, that Judge Gholamreza Mansouri who died in Romania in suspicious circumstances in June was buried in Mashhad. Only four days earlier, the former Judge's brother had announced that his family was able to identify the body. The spokesman, Gholam Hossein Esmaeili has not specified whether Mansouri's family and relatives identified the body in the past few days. Judge Gholamreza Mansouri wanted in a large corruption case in Iran had somehow fled the country last year. In June it was discovered he was in Europe; possibly Germany. Both the Iranian government and human rights organizations began pursuing his arrest. Iran wanted him extradited and human rights activists wanted him tried in Europe for violations he committed as a judge, specially by summarily convicting journalists. In mid- June he surfaced in Romania where police arrested him. As he was waiting for extradition hearings, he was found dead in a hotel and so far, it is not clear if he fell from an upper floor to his death by accident, suicide or murder. Without elaboration, the Judiciary spokesman, said, "A closer look at the incident still requires more information from Romania, such as images taken from the hotel's camera and documents belonging to him." Mansouri was one of the most trusted judges in the judiciary during Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani's term as the Islamic Republic's Chief Justice (2009-19). But many associates of Larijani were indicted under the new Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeesi, including judge Mansouri. He was accused of receiving 500,000 euros bribe from Akbar Tabari, a former deputy of Amoli Larijani. Immediately after Tabari was arrested and charged with millions of dollars of financial corruption, Judge Mansouri fled Iran, and months later surfaced in Bucharest, Romania. While expressing doubts about the body's identity, his brother said that the forensic officers took a sample of the DNA from all members of the Judge's family. No report on the results has been published so far. However, according to Hamshahri Online, Mansouri's niece has confirmed that her uncle has been buried in Mashhad, northeast Iran. Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/the-body -of-fugitive-judge-who-dies-in-romania -buried-in-iran/30771134.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address If non-personal data is made subject to mandatory sharing, data businesses will begin classifying such data as personal. Companies providing goods and services that differ from the competition through application of non-personal data stand to lose their comparative advantage if the data is treated as a public good. (Photo | Flickr - Kevin Zollman) In September 2019, the Indian Government formed a committee chaired by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan to look at the regulation for non-personal data. The committee recently came out with a governance framework, comments to which can be submitted by August 13. As far as I can tell, the committee is one of the first efforts in the world to exclusively look at non-personal data, which itself is a vast term. Non-personal data refers to the universe minus personal data. This can include a companys financials, information on a countrys infrastructure projects, traffic data and so on. Besides, unlike the mandate to regulate personal data, where the goal is to put more power in the hands of the users, the committee is tasked exclusively with unlocking the value of non-personal data. At this point, a law for the regulation for non-personal data seems far away, but the governance framework presented by the committee outlines the approach the Government may end up adopting. There is a lot to be debated around the report, such as the concept of raw data, the incentives of data trustees and so on. There have also been arguments to contest whether regulation in the space is even necessary when a market does not even exist in the first place. But I would contend that in its own way, making a market place is exactly what the governance framework intends to do. The question I want to look at is how well the framework does that, and whether there are things it does not take into account. The answers to both those questions lie in economics. Hal Varian (Chief Economist at Google) and Carl Shapiro (Professor of Business Strategy at University of California, Berkeley) write in Information Rules, Even though technology advances breathlessly, the economic principles we rely on are durable. For a quote that was written in 1999, it does remarkably well to apply to the framework. Let me explain. The underlying principle behind the frameworks approach to non-personal data is that it is to be treated like a public good. This is exhibited best in sections where the framework which talks about sharing of non-personal data. For instance, the framework advocates for raw/factual data collected by private organisations related to community data to be shared at no remuneration. It also enables start-ups to raise requests to data businesses to develop innovative products and services. A public good in theory is non-rivalrous and non-excludable, as often explained by Anupam Manur at Takshashila and in his chart attached below. Data is not rivalrous, since my consumption of it does not deplete the resource for others. The committees recommendation seems to work towards making it non-excludable as well. But treating data as a public good will have second-order effects that are not necessarily accounted for in the framework. For example, in case you are a company that provides goods and services that differ from the competition through your application of non-personal data, the comparative advantage is likely to be lost. In his article, India must avoid Nationalisation of Data, Nikhil Pahwa looks at this from the perspective of Indias investment space and the founders that inhabit it. The basic argument is that this is going to have downstream effects on how the investment space operates in tech, and those have not been addressed in the framework. People also make a case that such regulation will deter companies from collecting non-personal data. And the committees answer seems to be that with the rise of the Internet of things as well as the digital economy in general, data is going to be collected regardless of what incentives are in place. India is a big market and if companies want to continue to operate here, they will play by the Governments rules. However, if this is the plan, then the policy does not do justice to the amount of importance placed on incentives. If non-personal data is going to be subject to mandatory sharing, this will provide more data businesses with an incentive to classify more data as personal. Categories such as personal and non-personal data are not fixed. Often, the classification can be altered as a result of context and the purpose it might be used for. This provides bigger companies with incentives to not only maintain more mixed datasets, but also with a rationale to disclose that an increasing amount of the data held by them is personal in nature. Because disputes with regard to sharing of data will need to be resolved by the Non-Personal Data Authority (NPDA), this is going to be a fairly transaction-intensive process. At this point, it is hard to estimate how many disputes will land up with the Authority, but it is safe to say that the workload placed on the body from just this task is going to be immense and potentially crippling. None of that seems to be intended or anticipated as a consequence. Earlier in 2019, when the Personal Data Protection Bill addressed non-personal data in one of its sections, there was a huge outcry about how that should have been left to a different non-personal data protection legislation. Now that the time is here, the framework is the first step to unlocking the value of non-personal data. However, it cannot do that without being more mindful of the incentives it is putting in place for businesses. In a significant escalation of anti-Chinese aggression by the White House, President Donald Trump issued a pair of executive orders on Thursday banning the mobile apps TikTok and WeChat in the US pending a takeover of the two platforms by American companies within 45 days. Both social media apps are owned by companies based in China. TikTok, a short-form video sharing platform with 800 million worldwide and 80 million US daily active users, is owned by ByteDance with corporate headquarters in Beijing. WeChat, a multipurpose messaging app with 1 billion worldwide and 19 million US daily active users, is owned by TenCent with corporate headquarters in Shenzhen. In his Executive Order on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok, the President states that the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the Peoples Republic of China (China) continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. Relating the executive orders to presidential national emergency powers, Trump states that action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular, TikTok. Without providing any evidence or detailed proof, the executive order repeats the unsubstantiated assertions made by the President, other White House officials and Congressional leaders that TikTok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users, including Internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories. Exposing the unsubstantiated nature of the official reasons given for banning the use of the apps, the executive orders stop short of claimingas the President and his advisors have done repeatedly in public over the past three weeksthat the data is being gathered by the Chinese government. Instead, the document says that the data collection by TikTok threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans personal and proprietary information and potentially allows the Chinese government to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage. The document similarly states that TikTok reportedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive such as content concerning protests in Hong Kong and Chinas treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. One purpose of Trumps proclamations is to mobilize his right-wing and extreme nationalist supporters with unsubstantiated anti-Chinese talking points. The documents state that the banned apps may be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, such as when TikTok videos spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. The two executive orders are virtually identical in form and content with the exception of additional paragraph referring to the electronic funds transfer features of WeChat. Under the terms of the orders, if the apps are not taken over by an American firm within the 45 day limit, business transactions with the China-based companies will be prohibited. This means, for example, the American companies doing business with ByteDance and Tencentsuch as advertisers or Apple, Google and Amazon where TikTok and WeChat are downloaded by users from app storesmust end their relationship with the Chinese firms. Microsoft Corporation, operating under the direction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) headed by Secretary of the Treasury Stephen Mnuchin, has been in negotiations to acquire the assets of TikTok, initially those in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Now these talks are reported to include the forced divestiture of all assets of the company, including those in Asia and Europe, not including China. A potential deal between TikTok and Microsoft is now complicated both by the 45-day deadline and the challenges of divesting the firm from its Chinese owners. A report in the Financial Times on Thursday said, Any eventual deal may take a variety of forms a long list of obstacles stand in the way of a transaction, including price. Two people following the talks closely said that the timeframe would be difficult to meet, with one of them going so far as to say it could take between five and eight years to fully separate the software. Critics of the ban are pointing to the fact that TikTok and WeChat are just two of many China-based consumer products and apps used in the US. TenCent owns RiotGames, for example, the developer of the massively popular League of Legends video game and is also an investor in Epic Games, the developer of the popular Fortnite. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, said on Thursday of the orders, I just think its a really bad long-term precedent, and that it needs to be handled with the utmost care and gravity whatever the solution is. I am really worriedit could very well have long-term consequences in other countries around the world. Beyond the immediate political motivations of the Presidents reelection campaign, the aggressive moves by the Trump administration against TikTok and WeChat have significant bipartisan support and express the increasingly desperate and inexorable drive by US imperialism into economic and military conflict with China. By issuing the executive orders under the auspices of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (1977), the Trump administration is making it clear that these measures are of a preemptive character and in anticipation of a major escalation of a confrontation with China. The text of the executive orders expresses this logic, explaining that the Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, and the United States Armed Forces have already banned the use of TikTok on Federal Government phones. It is significant that just hours before Trump signed his executive orders, the US Senate voted unanimously for a bill expanding the banning of TikTok for all federal employees. Senator Josh Hawley (Republican of Missouri), who introduced the bill, said of the vote, Im encouraged by the bipartisan support we have seen in this body to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable and that includes, by the way, holding accountable those corporations who would just do Chinas bidding. And, if I have anything to say about it, we wont be stopping here. The bipartisan support for aggression against China was also expressed in the New York Times which published an article on Friday entitled Trumps Orders on WeChat and TikTok Are Uncertain. That May Be the Point, which extends friendly advice to the Trump administration. Calling for an extension of the TikTok and WeChat policy, Times trade and international economics reporter Ana Swanson writes, Other Chinese tech companies could find themselves as the next target of the Trump administration. U.S. officials viewed the executive orders on TikTok and WeChat as a template that could be applied to other Chinese companies, and some have discussed whether services like Alibabas Alipay pose a similar national security concern, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In an important development on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a small company with ties to the US military intelligence establishment embedded its software in hundreds of apps allowing it to track the movements of hundreds of millions of mobile phones world-wide. The report says, Anomaly Six LLC a Virginia-based company founded by two U.S. military veterans with a background in intelligence, said in marketing material it is able to draw location data from more than 500 mobile applications, in part through its own software development kit, or SDK, that is embedded directly in some of the apps. An SDK allows the company to obtain the phones location if consumers have allowed the app containing the software to access the phones GPS coordinates. Such relationships with intelligence gathering services completely exposes the fraud of US government statementsespecially those of Secretary of State Mike Pompeoabout the privacy and personal information rights of American citizens. The activities of Anomaly Six LLC and many others like it shows that the largest electronic surveillance operation in the world is the intelligence state of US imperialism. Chinese pastors ordered to praise Xi Jinping, slander US from pulpit or risk closure Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment China's state-approved churches that were forced to close due to COVID-19 are only permitted to reopen if they praise the Chinese Communist Party in sermons and extol President Xi Jinping, according to a new report. Religious liberty magazine Bitter Winter reports that the Religious Affairs Bureau of Zhengzhou, the capital of the province of Henan, released in mid-June a list of 42 prerequisites for churches that sought to reopen. Among the requirements, churches were ordered to intensify patriotic education and study Chinas religious policies, Bitter Winter reported. Additionally, churches were ordered to promote the four requirements, a nationwide campaign launched in 2018 to promote the sinicization of religion. The campaign involves requiring religious communities to ritually raise the national flag; promoting the Chinese Constitution and laws, core socialist values, and "Chinas excellent traditional culture. Instead of a normal sermon, the preacher talked about the patriotism of medical workers during the epidemic, and their sacrifice to the state, a member of a Three-Self church told Bitter Winter. These things are important, but political things were discussed for half of the time. Many believers complained afterward. Churches that refused to comply with the CCPs demands were not permitted to reopen. In Henan, one church was not allowed to reopen because officials didn't approve the pastors sermons. None of the 11 places of worship in our area was approved for reopening, a deacon in the church told Bitter Winter. We were busy preparing to meet the requirements for reopening, but the government made things difficult for us in every respect. Also in June, the government of Yucheng, a county in the prefecture-level city of Shangqiu in Henan, demanded the preachers of state-run churches praise President Xi for the right way to lead people in defeating the epidemic and praise China for its single-party rule. They were also ordered to slander the United States and other countries, the report adds. The government said that churches must preach about national affairs if they want to reopen, a church member in Henan told Bitter Winter. With Xi Jinpings speeches as the main content, its better for churches not to reopen. An elderly believer from Henan said that the Religious Affairs Bureau would ban anyone from preaching if they refuse to cooperate with the new requirements. Those preachers who agree to preach politics just want their churches to be reopened as soon as possible, the believer explained. But they are secularized instead. They have no way to retreat and become politicized. The CCPs efforts to sinicize Christianity, or bring it under its absolute control are well-documented. It was previously reported that Communist authorities converted a number of state-approved Three-Self churches into cultural centers promoting Xi's socialist values. Amid the coronavirus outbreak, poor Christian villagers in several provinces were ordered to renounce their faith and replace displays of Jesus with portraits of Chairman Mao and Xi or risk losing their welfare benefits. In recent years, hundreds of Christians have also faced arrests, detentions, imprisonments, and church attacks. In Yugan county, authorities shut down at least 48 Three-Self churches and meeting venues between April 18-30, according to Bitter Winter. The magazine reported that countless number of churches were also ordered to remove their crosses in Jiujiang, Fuzhou, Fengcheng, Shangrao, and a few other cities in the province in April. Scholars estimate that of China's 60 million or so Christians, about half attend unregistered house churches rather than their state-sanctioned counterparts. Persecution watchdog Open Doors ranks China 23rd on its list of 50 countries where it's most difficult to be a Christian. The organization notes that all churches are perceived as a threat if they become too large, too political, or invite foreign guests. Any appointment in the all-powerful Prime Ministers Office (PMO) is viewed with great interest. So, when P. Amudha, who is a 1994 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, was appointed to the PMO as joint secretary, on a lateral shift basis, for the remainder of her five-year central deputation period, observers are speculating about her talent that can meet the high standards of the PMO. Before this appointment, Amudha was serving as a professor at the Lal Bahadur Shashtri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. Interestingly, minutes after the news of her appointment emerged Tamil Nadu chief minister E. Palaniswami congratulated the IAS officer in a tweet and said that she had earned the goodwill of the state government as well as the affection of the people through her honesty and efficiency. Amudha has earned her reputation as an effective field officer and ability to take swift decisions. Her peers recall her work during the Chennai floods in 2015 when she was special officer for monsoon relief in the state. Its these qualities that may have impressed the PMO to reel her in for what could be the most rewarding and challenging assignments for an IAS officer. Who will be new RBI deputy governor? A search committee headed by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba will interview candidates for the post of deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India on August 7, according to sources. This was meant to be held on July 23 but was put off without any explanation. The post had fallen vacant after senior-most deputy governor N.S. Vishwanathan demitted office three months before the end of his tenure in March due to health reasons. Besides Gauba, the committee includes RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, financial services secretary Debasish Panda and two independent members. The selected name from the interview will be sent to the appointments committee of the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister for final approval. Sources say that the panel has shortlisted eight candidates for the posts. The RBI Act mandates that the central bank should have four deputy governors two from within the ranks, one commercial banker and another an economist to head the monetary policy department. At present, the RBI has three deputy governors B.P. Kanungo, M.K. Jain and Michael Debabrata Patra. Halt or go to J&K cadre change? The Centre stopped inducting new officers in the J&K cadre of the All India Services after the recategorisation of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union territories, J&K and Ladakh, in August last year. The process was recently reinitiated, but sources say, it has been put on hold again after receiving feedback from officers that it would lead to confusion. The J&K cadre of IAS, IPS and IoFS officers was to be merged into the AGMUT cadre. However, according to the regulations, officers already serving in the J&K cadre at the time would continue in the existing cadre. The cadre controlling authority for AGMUT is the ministry of home affairs while the other cadres are controlled by the department of personnel and training (DoPT). Apparently, some officers approached the Centre saying that two officers of the same batch would end up under different controlling authorities which would lead to confusion and create differences between the officers. Seeing the resistance from the babus, the Centre has decided, for now, not to proceed with the proposed cadre merger. Some officers believe that any key decision on the merger will likely happen only after August 15. Share a babu experience! Follow dilipthecherian@Twitter.com. Lets multiply the effect. Coronavirus: What you need to read Coronavirus maps: Cases and deaths in the U.S. | Cases and deaths worldwide Vaccines: Tracker by state | Booster shots | For kids 5 to 11 | Guidance for vaccinated people | How long does immunity last? | County-level vaccine data What you need to know: Omicron variant | Breakthrough infections | Symptoms guide | Masks FAQ | Delta variant | Other variants | Follow all of our coverage and sign up for our free newsletter Impact of the pandemic: Supply chain | Education | Housing Got a pandemic question? We answer one every day in our coronavirus newsletter Supermarket and retail giant Woolworths on Thursday ended its indefinite lockout of Wyong distribution centre workers in New South Wales after negotiating a sellout enterprise agreement (EA) with the United Workers Union (UWU). More than 550 workers were locked out after going on strike for 24 hours on July 24, following the breakdown of five month long negotiations for a new agreement. The UWU claims its deal with the company is inspiring all workers to not just have to accept whatever scraps are tossed their way and to fight for good wages and conditions, decent jobs and a more equal society. In reality, the agreement, which was hatched in closed-door negotiations and pushed through at a union meeting on Thursday, is a sell-out and follows managements previous declarations that it would not accept unsustainable pay demands and the removal of basic performance expectations. A media statement from Woolworths chief supply chain officer Paul Graham said the company was happy with the outcome, fraudulently claiming the offer was a reasonable compromise. In fact, the deal jettisons workers key demand for pay parity and maintains Woolworths low-pay regime and exploitative working conditions that together with similar conditions across its warehousing and supermarket outlets provide the giant corporation with massive profits. Woolworths full-year earnings for 2020 are expected to be up to $3.25 billion before interest and tax. The UWUs original demand was for an immediate 16 percent pay increase for level-one employees in the first year of a three-year agreement and 9 percent for those employed in higher positions, followed by up to 4 percent annually depending on their grade for the remainder of the agreement. Under the new agreement, workers will receive an average 11.2 percent increase over three years, or around 3.7 percent annually, far below the amount required to establish wage parity with the companys Sydney distribution centres. The company will also retain 20 percent of the Wyong workforce as casuals who do not receive holiday and sick leave and other entitlements provided to fulltime employees. The percentage of casuals can be increased during peak periods, such as Christmas and Easter. Workers outside the Wyong warehouse Woolworths will no doubt call for more casuals at Wyong and across its other warehousing operations to offset disruption to retail outlets caused by COVID-19 restrictions now in place in Victoria, where infections have dramatically increased. Woolworths also rejected any easing of the Wyong centre pick rate, the number of items workers are required to move every hour. One Wyong employee told the WSWS that the Wyong pick rate had increased to over 230 cartons an hour, up from 160 seven years earlier. This was further driven up during the pandemic to dangerous and unsafe levels that made social-distancing virtually impossible. When Woolworths management locked out the Wyong workers, it planned like other employers to use the pandemic to inflict a major blow on distribution workers, and establish new exploitative benchmarks to be imposed on the rest of its workforce. Woolworths launched its attack fully confident that it could rely on the UWU to isolate the dispute and block calls for industrial support from workers at its Sydney distribution centres to supply supermarkets in the Central Coast region and Sydneys north normally serviced by Wyong. While the company enacted its contingency plan to maintain supplies to supermarkets, the union diverted the Wyong workers into harmless protests outside the empty Wyong warehouses. The UWU used sporadic visits to the protest by officials from various unions and their hangers-on and photo-op appearances by Labor MPs to claim it was organising extensive support. Just days before pushing through its sell-out deal, the UWU organised a group of Wyong workers to travel to Sydney. The trip was not to visit their counterparts in other warehouses and appeal for support and industrial action, but to protest outside Woolworths headquarters and present a petition calling on Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci to support the workers demands. Appeals to Banducci, who has overseen years of savage attacks on jobs and conditions to drive up share values and fund lucrative executive remuneration packages, are worse than a waste of time. On top of his $2.6 million annual salary in 2019, Banducci was paid $5 million in vested long-term incentives for slashing wages and jobs. Banduccis package would have been significantly higher had he not agreed to forgo short-term bonuses in a damage-control exercise following revelations last October that Woolworths underpaid nearly 6,000 employees by $300 million over a 10-year period. Woolworths sudden decision last week to end the lockout and reopen negotiations with the UWU was not out of any concern of what the union might do. It reflected fears in ruling circles that a protracted dispute, under conditions of growing popular opposition to the criminally-inadequate government response to the pandemic and unprecedented unemployment, could spark widespread industrial action by other workers. On Monday, workers at Woolworths liquor distribution centre in Melbournes west took matters into their own hands and walked off the job after learning that one worker tested positive to COVID-19. The site remained open on Saturday even though management were informed of the positive result at least the day before. This walkout came amid similar actions in other industries, such as the recent refusal of meatworkers at the JBS abattoir in Brooklyn, Melbourne to begin work unless the company improved COVID-19 safety measures and provided personal protection equipment. There had been at least 86 coronavirus infections at the facility. Yesterday, more than 200 Melbourne Toll warehouse workers began unscheduled strike action over inadequate contact-tracing after infections were detected. The UWU sell-out of the Wyong dispute is in line with the response of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and all other unions to the pandemic. From the outset, the unions have collaborated with the federal and state governments and employers to maintain production and profits by reducing working conditions, slashing wage levels and imposing the cost of the pandemic on their members. This demonstrates that in order to fight for full-time jobs, along with decent pay and safe conditions, workers need to take matters into their own hands through the establishment of independent rank-and-file committees in every workplace and site and to unify all sections of the working class. Above all, these new organisations must be based on the fight for socialist policies and a workers government that would place the major retailers and other key corporations and the banks, under public ownership and democratic workers control. By Maha El Dahan and Ellen Francis DUBAI/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's government holds no strategic stockpile of grains and Tuesday's blast destroyed the privately held stocks at its only large grain silo, the economy minister, a U.N. official and a regional grain expert told Reuters. The destruction of the 120,000-tonne capacity structure and of the port, the main entry point for food imports, means buyers will have to rely on smaller private storage facilities for their wheat purchases with no government reserves to fall back on, exacerbating fears of food shortages. Lebanon, a nation of an estimated 6 million people, buys almost all of its wheat from abroad. But the state's food security plans did not include keeping a government-held reserve, a common practice in most countries heavily dependent on imports, for use in the event of emergencies. "In terms of grain silos, that was the only major one," Maurice Saade, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative in Lebanon, told Reuters. "The Beirut port silo main function is not meant to be for strategic grain reserves. Its main function is operational serving as temporary storage for imported grain until the grain is transported to the mills," he said. Dozens are still missing after Tuesday's explosion at the port that killed at least 154 people, injured 5,000 and left up to 250,000 homeless, in a country already hammered by an economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus cases. With banks in crisis and one of the world's biggest public debt burdens, Economy Minister Raoul Nehme has said Lebanon had "very limited" resources to deal with the disaster, which by some estimates may have cost the nation up to $15 billion. Still, Nehme has reassured the public that there would be no flour or bread crisis. When asked by Reuters on Thursday about government stocks, he said there were none. He also told Reuters his ministry had been planning to create a strategic reserve of around 40,000 tonnes but had not managed to do so yet. Story continues "I saw we didn't have a strategic stock, decided to buy one and got the approval of the council of ministers," he said, adding that they had been in the final stages of negotiations. "Luckily we did not - it would have been destroyed." HAND-TO-MOUTH The lack of state reserves is compounded by the lack of a dedicated grain terminal and silo in Tripoli port, where vessels are now being diverted, and illustrates a hand-to-mouth approach to food security. It mirrors how the state has resorted to emergency plans rather than long-term solutions in other key areas, such as its infamously flawed power sector and messy garbage collection, moving from one quick fix to another since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. "It is risky of course," Hesham Hassanein, a Cairo-based regional grain consultant said, explaining that the wheat held in the Beirut silo belonged to the private millers and not to the government. "This was the inventory in the country, not a government strategic reserve in that sense, and it was usually enough for two-and-a-half to three months of consumption." Nehme has said that only 15,000 tonnes were stored at the silo when the explosion hit and that Lebanon needed an inventory of around three months' supply at any time for food security purposes. With a consumption rate of around 35,000 to 40,000 tonnes a month, that translates into over 100,000 tonnes. Lebanon imports 90% to 95% of its wheat, mostly from the Black Sea region. The bulk of its local wheat production is durum, a type of wheat more suitable for pasta. The country's private millers, around eight in total, will now have to navigate new logistics fast for the supply chain to run smoothly, even after some of them suffered damage from the blast. This means trucking the grain to warehouses near Tripoli port at a time when most of the traffic meant for Beirut, not just wheat, will also be diverted there. Overnight rescue operations centred around the Beirut grain silo, which towers over the capital's skyline, into the early hours of Thursday. Rescuers are still digging under the piles of twisted metal and rubble of the silo in search of survivors. Tonnes of grain, wheat and corn, had spilled out. Even before the blast, a currency crash and soaring prices had already left many poor, raising fears of widespread hunger. "WFP is concerned that the explosion and the damage to the port will exacerbate an already grim food security situation that has worsened because of the country's profound financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic," a spokeswoman said on Thursday in notes prepared for a U.N. briefing in Geneva, adding it would be providing food parcels to thousands of families. NO FUNDING, NO SECOND SILO With damage at the Beirut port under assessment, most traffic is being diverted to Tripoli which already receives around 2 million tonnes of goods a year, its director Ahmed Tamer told Reuters. Its total capacity is 5 million tonnes. "For grain, we can receive a maximum capacity of around 200-250,000 tonnes. There should be a logistics plan ... successful supply chain management," Tamer said. The grain received at that port will have to be trucked around 2 km for storage at nearby mills, with no silo at the port. Logistics could have been simpler had plans for a silo at Lebanon's second largest port materialised a few years earlier. The plans for the construction of a grain silo of around 150,000-tonne capacity at Tripoli, part of a wider expansion project that was underway for the whole port, were shelved on a lack of funding, Tamer said. The plans from three years ago included a complete logistics area serving the silo. "We did all the maps necessary and prepared all the studies ... there was not enough funding," Tamer said, adding the transport ministry was now re-visiting the project. "If we can do this as a fast-track project it could be built as quickly as possible and give Lebanon strategic food security." (Reporting By Maha El Dahan in Dubai and Ellen Francis in Beirut; additional reporting by Michael Shields in Geneva, Editing by Veronica Brown and David Evans) Brant County Ontario Provincial Police are commending their own officers for saving a man from a smoke-filled apartment. The Thursday night incident started with an officer on patrol on Dumfries Street in Paris, Ont., after 11 p.m. The officer heard a fire alarm going off and stopped to investigate. When a second officer arrived, following a call for assistance, the two entered the residence and found a sleeping man. They rescued the 20-year-old from the smoky apartment, OPP said in a media release, saving the mans life. One of the officers went back into the apartment and put out items that were smouldering, the press release says. Brant county firefighters and EMS arrived, police say, as a precautionary measure, but neither the man or the OPP officers were injured in the incident. Advertisement A man who survived a plane crash in India has described the terrifying moment of impact which has left at least 18 people dead. Both pilots were among those killed after the Air India Express plane flying from Dubai to Calicut with 191 passengers onboard skidded on runway and crashed into a valley. The two pilots tried to land in heavy rain after already aborting their first attempt and circling over the airport at its destination for 20 minutes. The plane overshot the runway and skidded into a 30ft-deep valley at Calicut airport, in the Indian State of Kerala, at around 7.45pm (2.45pm GMT) yesterday. Images circulating on social media show an aircraft ruptured into two parts laying in a valley. Four passengers are thought to be trapped in the wreckage. There were 174 adult passengers, 10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew on board. Officials have since confirmed four children have been identified among the 18 passengers who died. In a telephone interview from his hospital bed, Renjith Panangad, a plumber who was returning home for the first time in three years after losing his job at a construction company in Dubai, said the plane swayed before the crash and everything went dark. He said he followed other passengers who crawled their way out of the fuselage through the emergency door. 'A lot of passengers were bleeding,' said Panangad, who escaped without major injuries. 'I still can't comprehend what happened. As I am trying to recall what happened, my body is shivering.' He said the pilot made a regular announcement before landing, and moments after the plane hit the runway, it nosedived. 'There was a big noise during the impact and people started screaming,' he said. Officials are on scene investigating after at least 18 people were killed when the Air India Express plane overshot the runway and crashed into a slope at the Calicut International Airport A security official inspects the wreckage of the plane which was carrying 191 people on board Dozens of people were seriously injured in the crash which happened at about 7.45pm The plane swayed violently as it approached a hilltop runway, in the Kerala region of India, drenched in monsoon rain, and moments later the special return flight for Indians stranded abroad by the pandemic skidded off, nosedived and cracked in two, leaving 18 dead and more than 120 injured. Amitabh Kant, who heads the government's planning commission, said the runway is on a hilltop with deep gorges on either side, making it difficult to land. 'The incident happened because of heavy rains and poor visibility. This is truly devastating,' he told NDTV. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep S. Puri said in a statement that the flight 'overshot the runway in rainy conditions and went down' the slope, breaking into two pieces upon impact. As the rain stopped Saturday morning, searchers recovered a flight data recorder as the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau started work on the wreckage. Air India Express said its teams also reached Calicut to support and assist families of the victims. Questions dogging investigators would include not only the aircraft, weather and pilots but also the runway itself. Its end safety area was expanded in 2018 to accommodate wide-body aircraft. The runway end safety area meets United Nations international civil aviation requirements, but the U.N. agency recommends a buffer that is 150 meters (492 feet) longer than that at Kozhikode airport, according to Harro Ranter, chief executive of the Aviation Safety Network online database. The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the country's aviation regulator had sought an explanation from the director of the Kozhikode airport in 2019 on finding 'various critical safety lapses,' which included cracks on the runway, water stagnation and excessive rubber deposits. Dubai-based aviation consultant Mark Martin said that while it was too early to determine the cause of the crash, annual monsoon conditions appeared to be a factor. 'Low visibility, wet runway, low cloud base, all leading to very poor braking action is what looks like led to where we are at the moment with this crash,' Martin said, calling for the European Aviation Safety Agency and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to assist with the Indian government's investigation. The two pilots tried to land in heavy rain after already aborting their first attempt and circling over Calicut airport, in the Indian State of Kerala, for 20 minutes. Pictured, rescuers head inside the plane Injured passengers have been rushed to the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, Kerala The Air India Express flight that skidded off a runway while landing at the airport in Kozhikode According to police reports, Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe (pictured), and at least 17 others were killed by the impact of the crash when the plane overshot the runway in bad weather Kerala state Health Minister KK Shailaja asked local residents who joined the rescue effort to go into quarantine as a precautionary measure. The survivors were being tested for the virus, officials said. The Air India Express flight was part of the Indian government's special repatriation mission to bring Indian citizens back to the country, officials said. All of the passengers were returning from the Gulf region, authorities said. Regular commercial flights have been halted in India because of the coronavirus outbreak. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was 'pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode,' and that he had spoken to Kerala's top elected official. Air India Express is a subsidiary of Air India. The worst air disaster in India was on Nov. 12, 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakhastan Airlines Flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 on board the two planes. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri last night told national broadcaster DD News that only an investigation would reveal the cause of the crash. Puri said authorities managed to rescue most of the passengers because the plane did not catch fire while descending the slope at the end of the runway. People gather to see the wreckage of the Air India Express jet at Calicut International Airport The wreckage of the Air India Express jet shows it was cut in two when it hit the ground An Air India Express plane flying from Dubai to Calicut, also known as Kozhikode, with 191 passengers onboard has crashed into a valley after overshooting the runway at its destination Crowds gathered at the site of the crash in Kerala as 15 ambulances sped towards the scene. Injured passengers have been rushed to a nearby hospital Images circulating on social media show an aircraft ruptured into two parts laying in a valley near Calicut airport, in the Indian state of Kerala Pictured: An aerial view shows fire engines racing to the scene of the crash today near to Calicut airport in India's Kerala A part of the Air India Express flight is seen through a broken wall after it skidded off a runway Teams conduct search and rescue operation at the site after the Air India Express plane crash Luggage was seen discarded by the crash site as injured passengers were pulled out of the wreckage and sent to hospitals Rescue workers look for survivors after a passenger plane crashed when it overshot the runway at the Calicut International Airport The plane was split in half by the impact of the 30ft fall into a valley after landing in heavy rain Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said in a tweet that he was 'distressed to learn about the tragic accident of Air India Express aircraft at Kozhikode.' It was a repatriation flight carrying Indian citizens back to the country, officials said. Regular commercial flights have been halted in India because of the coronavirus outbreak. Air India Express said in a statement that there was 'no fire reported at the time of landing.' It said there were 174 passengers, 10 infants, two pilots and five cabin crew on board the aircraft. Television pictures showed part of the fuselage of the Air India Express jet ripped apart, although there was no sign of any fire, at Kozhikode airport in the southern state of Kerala. First responders inspect the wreckage of an Air India Express jet, which was carrying more than 190 passengers and crew from Dubai The two halves of the plane can be seen clearly in this picture. The aircraft nose dived into a valley after skidding off the runway Part of the plant knocked a hole in a brick wall at the edge of the airport in Kerala on Friday An ambulance carrying injured passengers leaves for a hospital as onlookers watch on The wreckage of an Air India Express jet, which was carrying more than 190 passengers and crew from Dubai, is pictured after it crashed by overshooting the runway Health workers transfer an inured passenger on a stretcher to take her inside a hospital in Kozhikode, Kerela An injured passenger is surrounded by healthcare workers as they prepare to treat her Medical personnel in personal protective gear stand as people injured are attended to at the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode Medical personnel in personal protective wear stand next to bodies of victims after the Air India Express flight skidded off the runway One television channel reported there had been a problem with the jet's landing gear. There were ten infants onboard, according to reports. A photograph of a young girl who was allegedly on the plane and was found without a guardian has been circulating on social media. A post reads: 'This kid is found from spot where plane accident occurred. Nobody is with her and she is taken to Kondotty Hospital. Please share this.' It is not known if the tweet is genuine but a second post claims the child has since been reunited with her parents. Officials inspect the wreckage site of a plane crash at Calicut airport in Kozhikode, India Ambulances were called to the site of the wreckage. Officials helped to rescue survivors from the crashed plane One post claimed the plane was circling over the runway for 20 minutes before it made to land Rows of ambulances are seen outside the Calicut International Airport where a passenger plane crashed after it overshot the runway in Karipur One of the persons injured after an Air India Express flight skidded off a runway while landing at the Kozhikode airport is brought for treatment to the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode Reports suggested the plane 'skidded' off the runway after trying to land in heavy rain 'Dubai-Kozhikode Air India flight (IX-1344) skidded during landing at Karipur Airport at around 7.45 pm (2.45pm GMT) today,' Kondotty Police told news agency ANI yesterday. According to local media, 15 ambulances attended the crash and have rushed the injured passengers and crew to nearby hospitals. 'Second tragedy of the day in Kerala: Air India Express skids off the runway at Kozhikode, front portion splits, the pilot dies and lots of passengers injured,' wrote former Minister of State for Tourism KJ Alphons. 'All passengers evacuated. Very lucky the aircraft didn't catch fire.' Reports said dozens of passengers were taken to hospital and that there were at least 20 critically injured. An aerial shot of the airport shows the runway. Amitabh Kant, who heads the government's planning commission, said the runway is on a hilltop with deep gorges on either side, making it difficult to land A Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) statement confirmed the plane had landed in heavy rain before skidding into the valley Data suggested the plane had already aborted its first attempt at landing. A figure showing the plane's flight path shows it was forced to turn around and try again There were ten infants onboard, according to reports. A photograph of a young girl who was allegedly on the plane and was found without a guardian has been circulating on social media 'As per the initial reports, rescue operations are on and passengers are being taken to hospital for medical care,' it said. An emergency services official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP: 'Rescue operations are on but the rains are making it difficult.' Television pictures showed emergency services personnel working in the dark and spraying the wreckage with water. Kerala has been battered by heavy rains in recent days. Monsoon season, which lasts from June to September, wreaks havoc across South Asia every year. News18 reported that there was a problem with the aircraft's landing gear, citing unnamed sources. The last fatal plane crash in India was in 2010, when an Air India Express Boeing Co. plane overshot the runway and burst into flames, killing 158 people. That was the first fatal crash of a passenger aircraft in India in a decade. Miner and commodities trader giant Glencore (LON: GLEN) posted a $2.6 billion loss for the first half of the year and scrapped its dividend, as the coronavirus pandemic dented global demand and lowered prices and production at its mining division. Despite the virus impact, the Swiss firm managed to remain profitable on an operating basis. Glencore posted $1.5 billion in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, but booked $3.2 million in impairment charges. The company said it was putting balance sheet strength ahead of shareholder returns, as net debt climbed 12% to $19.7 billion at the end of June. The increase in borrowings came as Glencore tapped its credit lines to take advantage of falling oil prices in March and April it bought cheap crude and sold it on the futures market for a profit. As a result, its marketing business performed especially well, with full-year earnings expected to come in at the top end of its $2.2-$3.2 billion range, after hitting $2 billion in the first half. Chief executive Ivan Glasenberg said the board had concluded it would be inappropriate to make a distribution to shareholders in 2020. Instead, the firm will focus on debt reduction after pouring money into the oil trading business to cash in on volatile price swings. Related: The World Is Facing A Solar Panel Waste Problem Christopher LaFemina, an analyst at Jefferies, said the decision to cancel the dividend was disappointing in light of the strong performance from the companys trading arm. We believe Glencore has missed an opportunity to send a strong message to the market about its dividend policy being robust through the cycle, he said. BMOs Edward Sterck said the bank expected the trading divisions oil position profit to be booked largely in the second half of the year. It has clearly unwound some of the positions in H1 whilst still (looking at net debt combined with disclosures) retaining significant exposure, he wrote in a note to investors. The mining and metals expert added the move could lead to a beat in expectations for the second half of the year, but noted the market was not given enough disclosure to forecast with confidence. No change in succession plans Glasenberg, who has led Glencore since 2002, added that covid-19 had not changed the timing of succession plans, but declined to give further details. The executive, who is the companys second-biggest shareholder with a 9% stake, according to Refinitiv Eikon data, said in 2018 that he would step down in three to five years. At the time, he added the firm had begun training a small group of front runners to take over the post. As we said before covid once the old guard is changed then I will move on, Glasenberg said on Thursday, adding that the head of coal trading, Tor Peterson, was still due to leave. Long-time Glencore executive Daniel Mate, who led its zinc business, left last month. Glencore has been transitioning to a new generation of management over the past couple of years, appointing new division heads to cover marketing and assets for coal, ferroalloys, copper and oil. Uncertain outlook The Swiss giant mined 588,100 tonnes of copper in the first half of the year, 11% less than during the same period of 2019. The company said global mine supply would likely keep hurting because of COVID-19 and new projects will experience delays. Aging equipment and declining ore grades are also likely to crimp global supply, Glencore said. Related: Ocasio-Cortez Could Deal A Fatal Blow To U.S. Oil Pipelines A rebound in demand, led by Chinese factories, would likely continue, supported by significant economic stimulus measures being undertaken globally, it said. Glencore noted that the two key areas of cobalt demand, lithium-ion batteries for mobile phones and electric vehicles (EVs), looked promising. The growing momentum evident across the [EV] sector, together with a recovery in mobile-phone demand, points to higher future cobalt demand, Glencore said. On zinc, the company said it was still too early to tell what the metals supply balance would look like this year, with the scale of the pandemics effect on supply and demand still unknown. By Mining.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is teasing the possibility of executive action to require health insurance companies to cover preexisting medical conditions, something that he says has never been done before. Its been done before. People with such medical problems have health insurance protections because of President Barack Obamas health care law, which Trump is trying to dismantle. A look at Trumps claim during a news conference Friday evening in Bedminster, New Jersey: TRUMP: Over the next two weeks, Ill be pursuing a major executive order requiring health insurance companies to cover all preexisting conditions for all customers. Thats a big thing. Ive always been very strongly in favour. ... This has never been done before. THE FACTS: No executive order is needed to protect people with preexisting medical conditions because Obamacare already does that and its the law of the land. If Trump persuades the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional, its unclear what degree of protection an executive order would offer in place of the law. The Obama health law states that a group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage may not impose any preexisting condition exclusion with respect to such plan or coverage. Other sections of the law act to bar insurers from charging more to people because of past medical problems and from cancelling coverage, except in cases of fraud. In the past, there were horror stories of insurers cancelling coverage because a patient had a recurrence of cancer. Its dubious that any president could enact such protections through an executive order, or Obama would never have needed to go to Congress to get his health law passed. Likewise, President Bill Clinton could have simply used a presidential decree to enact his health plan, or major parts of it, after it failed to get through Congress. I cant imagine what authority the president could invoke to require insurers to cover preexisting conditions if the Supreme Court does throw the ACA out, said Larry Levitt, executive vice-president for health policy at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. There is no magic wand you can wave to just make it so, he said. Levitt said to make coverage of preexisting conditions a reality, insurers would need to be barred as they are under Obamacare from placing limits on lifetime and annual benefit payments, and allow for uniform premiums for the sick and healthy. Also, subsidies have to be offered to encourage healthy people to enrol in plans so premiums are kept down. Trump, who faces a tough reelection bid in November, did not provide details on his proposal. Hes argued that Obamas law is too costly and ineffective and has been pledging since his 2016 campaign to replace it with a better plan. Republicans were unable to muscle their replacement through Congress when they controlled the House and Senate in 2017 during Trumps first year. Various GOP bills would have offered a degree of protection for people with preexisting conditions, but the proposed safeguards were seen as less than what the law already provided. The general approach in the Republican legislation would have required people to maintain continuous coverage to avoid being turned down because of a preexisting condition. Trump has frequently claimed he will always protect preexisting conditions despite evidence to the contrary and has even asserted falsely that he was the one who saved such protections. One of Trumps alternatives to Obamas law short-term health insurance, already in place doesnt have to cover preexisting conditions. Another alternative: association health plans, which are oriented to small businesses and sole proprietors and do cover preexisting conditions. Neither of the two alternatives appears to have made much difference in the market. Democratic attacks on Republican efforts to repeal the health law and weaken preexisting condition protections proved successful in the 2018 midterms, when Democrats won back control of the House. ___ EDITORS NOTE A look at the veracity of claims by political figures. ___ Find AP Fact Checks at http://apnews.com/APFactCheck Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has urged the union government to draft schemes to protect existing jobs in sectors such as agriculture and handloom and also ensure avenues for employment by designing migrant worker centric plans that take into account specific sectors such as construction workers, street vendors and hospitality workers. The suggestions were made at an interaction between the functionaries of the BMS an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and eight union ministers who are part of the Group of Ministers (GOM) on employment and skill development chaired by union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot on August 6 and 7, people aware of the developments told Hindustan Times. Citing the impact of coronavirus disease outbreak on economies across the globe and employment, the Sangh functionaries underlined the need of reverse job cuts in sectors such as plantation, beedi industry, handloom and fishing and recognise community based professions. The labour wing of the RSS, the ideological fount of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has also called for identifying districts that offer mass employment with local resources and local potential so that the government can offer assistance to help them increase employment avenues. Development of village clusters in each district followed by integrated development of villages was also suggested said a person aware of the details. Job losses and economic slowdown have not happened only because of the pandemic. It is an ongoing problem. What we are suggesting is that the government should invest in sustainable policies that will deliver long term solutions, said Vrijesh Upadhyay, the general secretary of BMS. Panning the need of providing jobs through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the wake of the pandemic; the BMS has suggested tweaking of the criteria for providing jobs to registered workers. Family should not be the basis for providing work, instead Individual should be the basis, it has said, adding that a minimum of 100 working days under the scheme should be provided to individuals. The labour wing also wants suspension of the scheme for duration crop seeding and cutting so that work on farms is not affected because of labour shortage. MGNREGA at present offers not less than 100 days of unskilled manual work as a guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand. The BMS also wants a policy to restrict production of certain items which, tiny, micro and cottage industries can produce and big companies and multinational corporations are barred from producing. This suggestion, the BMS said, will be necessary to protect rural economy. Biswajit Dhar, professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University backed the suggestion to offer MGNREGA jobs to individuals, instead of households. When the demand for jobs particularly in the wake of migration on account of the pandemic is high, Dhar said the government should ensure those who are willing to work have jobs. We cannot have involuntary unemployment. Whoever is willing to work should be offered a job, Dhar said. The second suggestion that he supported was the policy of reserving production for smaller units. The government can identify a set of activities that will be reserved for the small, micro or cottage industries so that they can then give focused attention to them including long term loans, he said. The interaction was attended by BMSs all india organising secretary B. Surendra and zonal organising secretary Pawan Kumar, while the union ministers present included Thawar Chand Gehlot; Arjun Munda; Mahendra Nath Pandey; Santosh Gangawar; Prahlad Singh Patel; G Kishan Reddy; V Muralidharan and Pratap Sarangi. The new China-Pakistan Axis has a partnership to extend the CCP's influence on Afghanistan as well. Beijing is building its connections to create a bloc that will be a match for the U.S. own in the future. As the American government is struggling to keep the peace in Afghanistan, that will not be good for the United States in the long run, U.S News confirms. This partnership has been in the works, and it will help China take advantage of its investments in Afghanistan while it silences the Muslim Uighur minority that is under state oppression in China. Presently, the U.S. is moving out its forces in Afghanistan to leave after 20-years there. American intelligence speculates China will fill in the gap left by Washington, and Beijing will be influencing things discreetly. One common thought is how will the future be when the U.S. is gone, and the communists are there. Will America leave the country in shambles that will be easy picking for the agents of the CCP? This bothers many intelligence specialists how it will affect the whole geopolitical environment. China has given the Pakistanis access to a seat in the Chinese military, as the input is needed by the Chinese leaders on how to deal with certain elements. There's an inclusion of Pakistan in Sino affair for good faith that will be needed to upgrade the relationship of the two nations, cited the New York Times. A triumvirate composed of China, Pakistan and Taliban has promised not to allow the Uighurs safe haven in western China. This setup is more than any arrangement that the Afghan rebel network and how the Americans hunted down the al-Qaida presence. Also read: US Navy Sends Two Carrier Strike Groups as Show of Force Against PLA Naval Exercises The information has been gathered via the intel network that is for U.S. News. China gets chummy with Pakistan, India which is supported by the U.S. and the current China tiff is telling. When asked for their comments on the report, neither government gave any statement that mentions how the situation bodes for U.S relations. U.S. officials and government analysts stated to the paper, how Pakistan and China are going to adjust their relations. It falls to Beijing to build bridges and cooperate with nations, willing to work with them. According to Vikram Singh, a former top official at the Pentagon, the dual countries will work together in areas of concern to them like disputes and other issues of national interest for them. Also, the Pakistanis have chosen to side with China on the Uighur issue, despite getting deeply bothered Muslim repression in Xinjiang. Another development is China and Iranian cooperation, which is military and economic. Both will share intel on their common foe, the United States. At one time, Pakistan supported terrorist cells that did not go well with Americans. When the Pakistanis decided not to share intel, Washington decides to cut off military aid to Islamabad. The general situation in Afghanistan did not please China, with the constant war that left its natural resources unreachable too. CCPs clampdown on Uighurs was attacked by free nations, seeing them as impediments to absolute control. In regards to the new China-Pakistan Axis, Islamabad jut said there are already concessions. Related article: Indian Navy and US Warships Hold Joint Naval Drills in the Indian Ocean @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The ASEAN flag (Photo: thcasean.org) New York Vietnams Permanent Mission to the United Nations in its capacity as ASEAN Chair in New York hosted a virtual ceremony on August 7 to celebrate the 53rd founding anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (August 8). The ceremony was attended by President of the UN General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad Bande, UN Under-Secretary-General Atul Khare, UN Assistant Secretary-General Alexander Zuev and more than 4,000 delegates from UN member states. Bande applauded ASEANs key role in maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the region and expressed his wish to further enhance close cooperation between ASEAN and the UN in various fields such as peacekeeping, counterterrorism, natural disaster mitigation, climate change, protection of labourers, gender equality and childrens rights. He welcomed ASEANs efforts in promoting sustainable development and enhancing links between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Khare also expressed his desire to step up close cooperation between ASEAN and the UN, especially in peacekeeping and building peacekeeping capacity, and thanked ASEAN member nations for sending 5,000 servicepersons, including servicewomen, to UN peacekeeping missions. Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, he said, ASEAN may play an important role in dealing with the current challenges. He took this occasion to thank Vietnam for helping the UNs COVID-19 medical evacuation force to bring UN staff infected with the coronavirus to high-quality treatment facilities as well as providing technical training for nations sending servicepersons to peacekeeping missions within the ASEAN-UN cooperation framework. On behalf of the ASEAN member states, Head of Vietnams Permanent Mission to the UN Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy said ASEAN has been developing strongly since its inception 53 years ago, emerging from a war-torn region to a region of peace, stability, prosperity and dynamic development. These achievements are attributed to the efforts of ASEAN people and the close relations with partner and friend nations around the world as well as the UN, he stressed. The ambassador affirmed the commitment to join hands with other nations to further promote ASEAN-UN relations in the fields of politics, economy, culture and social affairs. The same day, the Vietnamese Embassy in South Africa hoisted the ASEAN flag to mark the blocs 53rd founding anniversary. Speaking at the ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Hoang Van Loi said as ASEAN Chair 2020, Vietnam has been trying its best to leading the bloc to seize opportunities and effectively respond to challenges in the Cohesive and Responsive spirit. As South Africa is planning to sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) this year, relations between South Africa and ASEAN in general and its member states in particular, including Vietnam, are expected to see new and strong development steps, especially in the fields of economy-trade and coordination at regional and international forums, Loi added. Fire at Phulin Resort in Karon, no injuries reported PHUKET: Firefighters have successfully contained a fire that broke out earlier this morning (Aug 8) at the Phulin Resort in Karon. By Eakkapop Thongtub Saturday 8 August 2020, 11:49AM The alarm was raised at approximately 8:55 am this morning when smoke was seen coming from a window on the first floor of the resort, located at Soi Patak 18, Patak Rd in Karon subdistrict. Firefighters rushed to the scene and managed to successfully contain the blaze before it spread and caused any further damage. It appeared the blaze started in a room being used to house bed equipment although it was not stated how exactly the fire broke out. There are no reports of any injured people. The hotel is currently closed due to the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus which explains why no tourists were present at the resort. The fire was successfully brought under control by firefighters at around 11am this morning, Lt Col Patiwat Yodkwan of the Karon Police told The Phuket News. We do not yet know how the fire started. I am waiting for further investigation at the scene by the forensic police in order to get a clearer understanding, he added. San Francisco: Facebook Inc recently removed a small network of accounts operating from Romania that had been promoting US President Donald Trump`s re-election campaign with stories about his support from conservatives, Black Americans, Christians and followers of the QAnon web of baseless conspiracy theories. Many of the 35 Facebook and 88 Instagram accounts posed as Americans and some managed Trump fan pages, but they ran afoul of the social network`s rules on what it calls coordinated inauthentic behaviour. In addition to misleading people about their location, some account holders ran multiple personas with similar names that posted identical content, Facebook said. The network had a small reach, with only 1,600 accounts following the Facebook pages and 7,200 tracking the accounts on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. Facebook security policy head Nathaniel Gleicher said the company was unable to tell whether the Romanian group was motivated by money, ideology or government directive. The nonprofit Atlantic Council`s Digital Forensics Research Lab said some pages only shared content from Trump`s page, while others promoted QAnon, which connects various theories around the idea that Trump is secretly waging a war against powerful Democrats who worship the devil and abuse children. The FBI warned in 2019 that QAnon would likely motivate extremists to commit violence. Atlantic Council Lab Director Graham Brookie said there were no clear connections to Trump associates or surrogates, and Gleicher said there were no obvious ties to established commercial players such as companies that sell "likes" and followers. Facebook in December 2019 removed much larger and better-connected networks that supported Trump, including one it said was connected to the Epoch Times which was founded by supporters of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and often criticizes the government of China. Epoch Times publisher Stephen Gregory denied it was connected to the network Facebook took down in December. Reuters cannot independently verify the evidence provided by either Facebook or the Epoch Times to support their claims. Facebook said on Thursday it had removed another network that reposted content from the Epoch Times and other Falun Gong media in a follow-up action. While smaller than the network in the December takedown, the new one had amassed more than 2 million followers by posting on topics including the Hong Kong protests, the coronavirus, and U.S. policy toward China, as well as posting animal pictures, Facebook said. Gregory said Epoch Times had no dealings with the network taken down this week. Reuters could not confirm this. Masking. In just a few months public masking has gone from banned to mandatory. As recently as April, Hong Kong reaffirmed its ban, deeming the mask a pro-democracy device too radical for the public realm. Not long before that, the world debated the right or obligation of Muslim women to face-cover in public. In both cases, the anonymity afforded by public masking was seen as a prioritisation of personal freedom over public safety. Who knew what might be going on behind or beneath that remade face? Street art in Moorabin depicting the iconic photo of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany's wearing a mask. Credit:Wayne Taylor Now, the moral pressure is reversed. Now, to be barefaced is considered dangerous and selfish. We go into public with eyes only. Even more intriguing than this about-face (no pun intended) is what such facial erasure, should it become habitual and universal, might mean for us and for our civic culture. Will we even have a civic culture? Or will Thatcherism finally have triumphed, atomising us into a billion nuclear households ruled by a handful of vast, invisible corporations Im thinking all this after a mornings mask-shopping. After weeks of making do with the disposable paper sort, I bowed to the virus longevity, decided that a cloth job is required, spent an hour or so online and came away bewildered. A woman takes a slow public service train to sell her chickens. People's Daily Online/Wan Shaoyu As the total mileage of China's high-speed rail exceeds 35,000 kilometers and accounts for over 2/3 of the world's total, the Chinese people are enjoying increasingly rapid and convenient transportation. However, there are still 81 pairs of slow public service trains running across the country, picking up passengers at every stop in the country's remote mountainous areas at minimum charges. Train No. 6063/6064 is one of the 81 pairs of slow public service trains running between Guangyuan, southwest China's Sichuan province and Baoji, northwest China's Shaanxi province. Helping poverty alleviation and carrying students to schools, the rail line, running for over 60 years, is a guarantee of and witness to the wish for a better life of the people along its route. Selling agricultural products from mountainous areas to the outside is an important approach for rural residents to shake off poverty. To facilitate the agricultural trade of them, the train has particularly offered an information board to match the supply and demand sides, where prices of crops are listed. Children do their homework on a slow public service train on their way home. People's Daily Online/Hei Xingyou A woman surnamed Li from Guangyuan always takes this train for restocking peaches in Yanzibian township, Hanzhong, Shaanxi province. "The purchase price is 2.6 yuan ($0.37) per kilogram, and I can sell the fruits at 4 yuan per kiligram back home. The small business gains me extra income and makes my life better," Li said. A man surnamed Wang is also a frequent passenger of the train. "It only costs me 4 yuan to go to Yanzibian from Guangyuan, so I can have more profit," Wang told People's Daily, adding that the service of this train is specifically maintained for poverty alleviation. To guarantee good education for children living in impoverished regions is also an important mission for poverty alleviation. Therefore, this train carries many students and their parents. Ren Bin, a crew member of the train introduced that there are 24 schools along the 11-station route, so the train is also a "school shuttle" for the children. Liu Sen, Wang Yibo and Ma Wenhao are three students who live in Baishuijiang township, Lueyang and go to a primary school in the seat of Lueyang. According to Ma's grandmother, the three children would always take the train together go to school and go back home. Whenever she's kept busy, she would ask the attendants on the train to helps her take care of her grandson. "When he boards on the train, I feel assured," she said. The train brings warm and leads the people along its route to embrace a better life. It is a witness to China's railway department's promise that the people's railway is for the people. Liu Lianrui, conductor of the train, has observed how the life of the people was improved over the years. According to Lin, villagers at first got rid of the worries of insufficient food and clothes. Then their houses were equipped with solar water heaters and connected to paved roads. Now, they are following up the world through smartphones and mobile communication and payment apps. "Everything is worthwhile as long as the people here live a happy life," said a crew member of the train. Enable Ginger Cannot connect to Ginger Check your internet connection or reload the browser Disable in this text field Edit Log in to edit with Ginger Log in to edit with Ginger VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Diversified Royalty Corp. (TSX: DIV and DIV.DB) (the Corporation or DIV) is pleased to announce its financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2020 (Q2 2020) and six months ended June 30, 2020. Highlights Revenue of $6.3 million and adjusted revenue of $7.5 million for Q2 2020. Completed closing of $9 million senior credit facility on April 27, 2020, which was used to partially refinance the acquisition of the trademarks and certain other intellectual property rights (the Oxford Rights) utilized by Oxford Learning Centres, Inc. (Oxford) in its franchised supplemental education service business. Second Quarter Results In Q2 2020, DIV generated $6.3 million of revenue compared to $7.5 million in the three months ended June 30, 2019 (Q2 2019). After taking into account the DIV royalty entitlement related to DIVs royalty arrangements with Nurse Next Door Homecare Professional Services Inc. (Nurse Next Door), DIVs adjusted revenue was $7.5 million in Q2 2020 compared to $7.5 million in Q2 2019. Adjusted revenue for Q2 2020 was flat compared to Q2 2019 due to a number of factors including: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which included negative same-store-sales-growth (SSSG) at Mr. Lube Canada Limited Partnership (Mr. Lube), lower royalty income from the AIR MILES licenses, as well as royalty and management fee waivers for Mr. Mikes Restaurants Corporation (Mr. Mikes) and Sutton Group Realty Services Ltd. (Sutton), offset by incremental revenues related to the Nurse Next Door royalty transaction in November 2019 and the acquisition of the Oxford Rights in February 2020. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, DIV generated $13.6 million of revenue compared to $14.0 million for the six months ended June 30, 2019. After taking into account the DIV royalty entitlement related to DIVs royalty arrangements with Nurse Next Door, DIVs adjusted revenue was $16.0 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and $14.0 million for the six months ended June 30, 2019. The increase in adjusted revenue was due to the incremental revenues related to the Nurse Next Door royalty transaction in November 2019, the acquisition of the Oxford Rights in February 2020 and the acquisition of the MRM Rights in May 2019. The increase was partially offset by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as noted above. Royalty Partner Business Updates Mr. Lube: SSSG for the Mr. Lube stores in the royalty pool was -12.5% in Q2 2020 and -10.0% for the six months ended June 30, 2019. Mr. Lubes SSSG was negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a slow-down in consumer activity across the country and recommendations from all levels of government for people to work from home and self-isolate. As certain provinces started easing the restrictions put in place to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and Canadians started driving more, Mr. Lubes business has stabilized with June 2020 SSSG for the Mr. Lube stores in the royalty pool up 0.4% (compared to SSSG of -27% in April 2020 and -11% in May 2020). In July 2020, SSSG for the 135 Mr. Lube flagship locations (122 of which are in the Mr. Lube Royalty Pool) was approximately 1.6% year-over-year. AIR MILES: According to Alliance Data Systems Inc.s (ADS) news release dated July 23, 2020, the number of AIR MILES reward miles issued decreased by 26% in Q2 2020 and 12% for the six months ended June 30, 2020, reflecting a decline in discretionary spending, including credit card spend and delays in promotions by sponsors. In addition, ADS announced that AIR MILES reward miles redeemed decreased by 42% in Q2 2020 and 25% for the six months ended June 30, 2020, reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel-related categories, partially offset by strength from merchandise redemptions. According to ADS, LoyaltyOne is supporting collectors and sponsors by pivoting the reward portfolio to reflect more non-travel options. ADS also noted that the AIR MILES business continues to renew with sponsors, including a multi-year national renewal with Shell Canada Products, as LoyaltyOne focuses on driving collector engagement in key categories such as gasoline, grocery and liquor, which are deemed essential services. Royalty income from the AIR MILES licenses were down 22.4% in the three months and 8.4% in the six months ended June 30, 2020 compared to the same prior periods. Nurse Next Door: Nurse Next Doors home health care services were considered an essential service across all its markets where such determinations were made by government authorities and all of Nurse Next Doors franchisees were open for business. Nurse Next Door management has noted that system sales in North America were relatively flat for the three months and six months ended June 30, 2020 compared to prior year. As previously disclosed, on February 14, 2020, St. Joseph Health Personal Care Services, LLC (St. Joseph) delivered notice of termination to Nurse Next Door, with the intent of terminating its master license agreement, which covers 42 Nurse Next Door franchise locations in California, effective August 14, 2020. Nurse Next Door has advised DIV that this termination will occur on August 14, 2020 as originally contemplated and will result in the payment of a termination fee of approximately US$1.1 million by St. Joseph to Nurse Next Door, which is expected to be paid in September. Nurse Next Door has advised DIV that Nurse Next Door expects to have other opportunities to grow in California as a result of this termination through to the sale of new franchises in the territories currently covered by the master licence agreement, following a 12-month restricted period post termination. These new franchises, once sold, are expected to be subject to Nurse Next Doors standard franchise fees and other charges, which are higher than the discounted rates paid by St. Joseph under the master licence agreement, and are expected by Nurse Next Door to achieve higher sales volumes than the St. Josephs franchises. In Q2 2020, Nurse Next Door did not add any new franchisees to its network, and received notices from 3 franchisees of their purported termination of their respective franchise agreements. In Q3 to date, Nurse Next Door entered into agreements with 4 new franchisees (2 of which are operational) with at least 8 in the pipeline and received notices from 15 franchisees of their purported termination of their respective franchise agreements. These 18 franchisees seeking termination have ceased paying franchise fees and have, in some cases, started competing businesses. DIV understands that Nurse Next Door has not accepted the purported terminations and is still determining its next steps. These 18 franchisees represented approximately 28% of Nurse Next Doors 2019 recurring franchise revenues (being Nurse Next Doors revenues excluding initial franchise fees and corporate store revenue). After adjusting for St. Josephs lost revenue, these 18 franchisees represented approximately 31% of 2019 residual recurring franchise revenues. As a result, DIV expects that the termination of the St. Josephs contract and the purported terminations by the 18 franchisees noted above, may cause Nurse Next Door to temporarily generate less than full royalty coverage in the short term. However, as at June 30, 2020 Nurse Next Door had $9.6 million of cash on its balance sheet, $8.6 million of positive working capital and no debt. In addition, Nurse Next Door will receive the termination payment of approximately US$1.1 million from St. Joseph in September 2020. According to Nurse Next Door, its plan is to corporately run 3 of these franchises immediately, which is expected by Nurse Next Door to generate significantly higher net margins to Nurse Next Door. Nurse Next Door has advised DIV that Nurse Next Door intends to re-sell the franchises of the other 15 franchisees to new or existing franchisees, generating incremental initial franchise fees in addition to replacing the lost recurring franchise revenues. The largest of these franchises (based on recurring franchise revenues) being re-sold are in premium markets that Nurse Next Door is confident will be operational before year-end. Furthermore, Nurse Next Door expects that the incremental revenues from the 4 new franchises and at least 8 in the pipeline will further enhance Nurse Next Doors profitability once operational. Accordingly, DIV currently expects Nurse Next Door to continue to make its royalty payments. Sutton: As disclosed in DIVs news release dated March 31, 2020, with the dramatic slow-down of residential real estate activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, DIV waived 75% of Suttons April and May royalty and management fee obligations (that were payable in May and June 2020, respectively). The June 2020 royalty payment and management fees were not subject to a waiver and were received in full. According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouvers news release dated July 3, 2020, home buyers and sellers have gradually become more active in each month of the COVID-19 pandemic, and home sales and listing activity in Metro Vancouver returned to more historically typical levels with June sales volumes up 18% (compared to -39% in April and -44% in May). According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, sales volumes were only down 1% in June (compared to -67% in April and -54% in May). Vancouver and Toronto comprise two of Suttons primary markets. DIV will continue to assess the impact of COVID-19 on Suttons business and liquidity to determine if any further royalty relief is necessary. Oxford: SSSG for Oxford locations in the royalty pool on a constant currency basis was -41% in Q2 2020 and -30% for the period from February 20, 2020 to June 30, 2020. SSSG was negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the temporary suspension of in-person tutoring services for all its locations. In mid-March, Oxford management pivoted its business to provide online tutoring with over 95% of its locations able to provide this service. Oxford sales are improving with June 2020 SSSG on a constant currency basis of -33% for the Oxford locations in the royalty pool (compared to SSSG of -47% in April 2020 and -44% in May 2020). In early July, in accordance with regional guidelines, certain Oxford locations have started transitioning back to in-centre services at a reduced capacity. Oxford is in the process of making the necessary changes in their locations to ensure that every parent, student and staff member will have the safest possible experience at their locations. Currently, approximately 50% of Oxfords 154 locations are open for in-centre services at a reduced capacity. Mr. Mikes: Currently, 43 of 45 Mr. Mikes restaurants have re-opened for in-restaurant or patio dining. Overall SSSG for Mr. Mikes restaurants in the royalty pool, including stores that were temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was -28% in June. SSSG for Mr. Mikes restaurants in the Mr. Mikes royalty pool that have re-opened for in-restaurant and patio dining was -19% in June 2020. Notwithstanding the partial re-opening of such Mr. Mikes restaurants, DIV continues to expect that Mr. Mikes will experience a slow recovery and constrained cash flows. Accordingly, DIV has waived Mr. Mikes fixed royalty and management fee payment for the period from February 24, 2020 to July 12, 2020. DIV anticipates that Mr. Mikes may require royalty relief for an extended period of time and is in discussions with its lenders and Mr. Mikes in this regard. Second Quarter Commentary Sean Morrison, President and Chief Executive Officer of DIV stated, The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the operations of our royalty partners. However, as certain provinces have started easing restrictions put in place to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, we are starting to see encouraging trends in the performance of our royalty partners. The management teams of our royalty partners continue to proactively support their franchisees by means of negotiating rent deferrals and concessions, arranging for improved payment terms with suppliers, or promoting government sponsored initiatives. Mr. Morrison continued, DIV will be working closely with Nurse Next Door management to deal with the recent franchisee departures. With its strong balance sheet, Nurse Next Door has financial flexibility to continue paying its royalty while working through this challenging time. We continue to be in regular discussions with our royalty partners and, in consultation with the Board, monitor developments with a focus on the long-term success of DIV and its royalty partners. Distributable Cash and Dividends Declared In Q2 2020, distributable cash was $4.9 million ($0.0405 per share), a decrease of $0.6 million (decrease of $0.010 per share) compared to Q2 2019. The decrease was primarily due to lower adjusted revenue on account of the reasons discussed above, higher interest expense and lower interest income. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, distributable cash was $10.4 million ($0.0889 per share), an increase of $0.1 million (decrease of $0.0063 per share) compared to the six months ended June 30, 2019. The increase in distributable cash was due to higher adjusted revenue, largely offset by higher interest expense, lower interest income and higher current tax expense. The decrease in distributable cash per share was primarily due to a higher weighted average number of common shares outstanding for the six months ended June 30, 2020. In Q2 2020, dividends declared exceeded distributable cash by $1.1 million, and the Corporations payout ratio was 123.4%. The shortfall in distributable cash was funded by a $3.8 million GST refund related to the acquisition of the Nurse Next Door trademarks. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, dividends declared exceeded distributable cash by $2.2 million, and the Corporations payout ratio was 121.5%. However, the Companys dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP) was open for participation during the three months ended March 31, 2020. As a portion of the dividends declared during the first quarter of 2020 were settled through a reinvestment in the Companys shares for participants in the DRIP, the payout ratio on a cash basis was 111.4%. The shortfall in distributable cash was funded by a $3.8 million GST refund related to the acquisition of the Nurse Next Door trademarks. As announced on March 31, 2020, given the economic uncertainty facing DIV and its royalty partners as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board of Directors of the Corporation approved changing the monthly dividend from $0.01958 per share per month ($0.2350 per share on an annualized basis) to $0.01667 per share per month ($0.20 per share on an annualized basis) effective with the dividend declared in the month of April 2020. The Board of Directors believes the reduction of the monthly dividend is a prudent measure to preserve capital and maintain liquidity in the current market environment. In addition, starting with the April 2020 monthly dividend, the Board approved the temporary suspension of the DRIP until further notice as the Board does not believe it is in the best interests of the Company or its shareholders to issue shares at current prices. Net Income (Loss) Net income for Q2 2020 was $2.9 million, compared to net income of $3.4 million in Q2 2019. Net income decreased due to lower income from operations and higher interest expense and finance costs, partially offset by the fair value adjustment on financial instruments. Net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2020 was $8.9 million, compared to net income of $5.9 million for the prior period. The net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2020 was primarily due to a non-cash impairment related to the MRM Rights. In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Mikes is experiencing constrained cash flows and has advised DIV that they will likely be unable to pay its fixed royalty payments to DIV. In light of these developments, the Corporation recorded a non-cash impairment of $19.8 million ($14.5 million net of tax) related to the Mr. Mikes trademarks, which is discussed in more detail in the notes to the Corporations consolidated financial statements for Q2 2020. The net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2020 was also due to lower revenues and higher interest expense, which were slightly offset by an increase in other finance income and a tax recovery. About Diversified Royalty Corp. DIV is a multi-royalty corporation, engaged in the business of acquiring top-line royalties from well-managed multi-location businesses and franchisors in North America. DIVs objective is to acquire predictable, growing royalty streams from a diverse group of multi-location businesses and franchisors. DIV currently owns the Mr. Lube, AIR MILES, Sutton, Mr. Mikes, Nurse Next Door and Oxford Learning Centres trademarks. Mr. Lube is the leading quick lube service business in Canada, with locations across Canada. AIR MILES is Canadas largest coalition loyalty program with approximately two-thirds of Canadian households actively participating in the AIR MILES Program. Sutton is among the leading residential real estate brokerage franchisor businesses in Canada. Mr. Mikes currently operates casual steakhouse restaurants primarily in western Canadian communities. Nurse Next Door is one of North Americas fastest growing home care providers with locations across Canada and the United States as well as in Australia. Oxford Learning Centres is one of Canadas leading franchised supplemental education services in Canada and the United States. DIV expects to increase cash flow per share by making accretive royalty purchases and through the growth of purchased royalties. DIV expects to pay a predictable and stable dividend to shareholders and increase the dividend as cash flow per share increases allow. Forward - Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. The use of any of the words anticipate, continue, estimate, expect, intend, may, will, project, should, believe, confident, plan and intends and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information, although not all forward-looking information contains these identifying words. Specifically, forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements made in relation to: LoyaltyOne is supporting collectors and sponsors by pivoting the reward portfolio to reflect more non-travel options; the AIR MILES business continues to renew with sponsors, including a multi-year national renewal with Shell Canada Products, as LoyaltyOne focuses on driving collector engagement in key categories such as gasoline, grocery and liquor; Oxford locations have started transitioning back to in-centre services at a reduced capacity; DIV will continue to assess the impact of COVID-19 on Suttons business and liquidity to determine if any further royalty relief is necessary; Oxford is in the process of making the necessary changes in their locations to ensure that every parent, student and staff member will have the safest possible experience at their locations; DIV anticipating that Mr. Mikes may require royalty relief for an extended period of time and continuing its discussions with its lenders and Mr. Mikes in this regard; the expectation that Mr. Mikes will experience a slow recovery and constrained cash flow; Mr. Mikes is experiencing constrained cash flow and has advised DIV that they will likely be unable to pay its fixed royalty payments to DIV; the termination of the master licence agreement by St. Joseph and the timing thereof and payment of the termination fee by St. Joseph to Nurse Next Door and the details thereof; Nurse Next Doors expectation that it will have other opportunities to grow in California as a result of the termination of the master licence agreement, including the opportunity to sell new franchises in the territories currently covered by the master licence agreement, following a 12-month restricted period post termination; Nurse Next Doors expectation that these new franchises, once sold, will be subject to Nurse Next Doors standard franchise fees and other charges, which are higher than the discounted rates paid by St. Joseph under the master licence agreement and will achieve higher sales volumes than the St. Josephs franchises; Nurse Next Door having at least 8 new franchise agreements in its pipeline; Nurse Next Door determining its next steps with respect to the 18 franchisees that have purported to terminate their respective franchise agreements; DIVs expectation that the termination of the St. Josephs contract and the purported terminations by the 18 franchisees noted above, may cause Nurse Next Door to temporarily generate less than full royalty coverage in the short term; Nurse Next Doors plan to corporately run 3 of these previously franchised locations immediately, which is expected by Nurse Next Door to generate significantly higher net margins to Nurse Next Door; Nurse Next Doors intention to re-sell the franchises of the other 15 franchisees to new or existing franchisees, generating incremental initial franchise fees in addition to replacing the lost recurring franchise revenues; Nurse Next Door being confident that the largest of these franchises (based on recurring franchise revenues), which are being re-sold are in premium markets, will be operational before year-end; Nurse Next Doors expectation that the incremental revenues from the 4 new franchises and at least 8 in its the pipeline will further enhance Nurse Next Doors profitability once operational; DIVs expectation that Nurse Next Door will continue to make its royalty payments; DIVs intention to work closely with Nurse Next Door management to deal with the recent franchisee departures; the management teams of DIVs royalty partners continue to proactively support their franchisees by means of negotiating rent deferrals and concessions, arranging for improved payment terms with suppliers, or promoting government sponsored initiatives; DIV continues to be in regular discussions with its royalty partners and, in consultation with the Board, monitor developments with a focus on the long-term success of DIV and its royalty partners; and DIVs intention to pay monthly dividends to shareholders; and DIVs corporate objectives. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events, performance, or achievements of DIV to differ materially from those anticipated or implied by such forward-looking information and financial outlook. DIV believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information and financial outlook included in this news release are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. In particular, risks and uncertainties include: Mr. Mikes may not make its fixed royalty payments to DIV, in whole or in part; LoyaltyOne may not be successful in continuing to renew sponsor contracts, and such contracts, if renewed, may be renewed on less advantageous terms than existing contracts; the rate of sales of new franchises by Nurse Next Door may be slow to recover, and new franchises in its pipeline may not complete; the impact of the termination by St. Joseph of the master licence agreement on Nurse Next Doors business could be greater than expected; Nurse Next Door may not be successful in selling new franchises in the territories currently covered by the St. Joseph master licence agreement or those territories covered by the franchisees that have recently purported to terminate their franchise agreements, or may be delayed in completing such sales or may not complete such sales on terms currently contemplated; Nurse Next Door may not realize the expected financial benefits of re-selling franchises in such locations or from operating any of such locations corporately; Nurse Next Door may not reach a satisfactory resolution in respect of the 18 franchisees that have purported to terminate their respective franchise agreements and may not recover any costs it incurs in pursuing legal action against the such franchisees, which may be significant; certain of such franchisees may operate competing businesses to the detriment of other Nurse Next Door locations and Nurse Next Door; as a result of the termination by St. Joseph of the master licence agreement and the termination of the franchise agreements by certain other franchisors, Nurse Next Door may experience constrained cash flows and could potentially request some form of royalty relief from DIV in the future, or fail to make all or a portion of its royalty payments and/or draw on its credit facilities in order to fund its royalty payments to DIV; the termination by St. Joseph of the master licence agreement and the termination of the franchise agreements by certain other franchisors may, in future periods, result in a reduction in the fair value of DIVs investment in NND LP recorded on DIVs consolidated statement of financial position, resulting in a non-cash loss in the period where any such reduction is recorded; DIVs royalty partners may request further royalty relief; COVID-19 may have a more significant negative impact on DIV and its royalty partners than currently expected and the businesses of DIVs royalty partners may not fully recover post COVID-19; current improvement trends being experienced by certain of DIVs royalty partners may not continue and may regress; recently re-opened royalty partner locations may be required to temporarily close in the future; royalty partner locations that are temporarily closed may not reopen; franchisee support provided by DIVs royalty partners to their respective franchisees may be reduced or terminated at any time, which may negatively impact the franchisees and the royalties payable to DIV; DIV may not be able to make monthly dividend payments to the holders of its common shares; dividends are not guaranteed and may be further reduced, suspended or terminated; or DIV may not achieve any of its corporate objectives. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned that forward-looking information and financial outlook included in this news release are not guarantees of future performance, and such forward-looking information and financial outlook should not be unduly relied upon. More information about the risks and uncertainties affecting DIVs business and the businesses of its royalty partners can be found in the Risk Factors section of its Annual Information Form dated March 18, 2020 and in DIVs most recently filed managements discussion and analysis, copies of which are available under DIVs profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. In formulating the forward-looking information contained herein, management has assumed that DIV will generate sufficient cash flows from its royalties to service its debt and pay dividends to shareholders; lenders will provide any necessary waivers required in order to allow DIV to continue to pay dividends; lenders will provide any necessary covenant waivers to DIV and its royalty partners; the impacts of COVID-19 on DIV and its royalty partners will be consistent with DIVs expectations and the expectations of management of each of its royalty partners, both in extent and duration; DIV and its royalty partners will be able to reasonably manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and related government regulations on their respective businesses; the impact of the termination by St. Joseph of its master licence agreement on Nurse Next Doors business will be consistent with DIVs current expectations; Nurse Next Door will be successful in selling new franchises in the territories covered by the St. Joseph master licence agreement and those territories covered by the franchisees that have purported to terminate their franchise agreements, which sales will be completed in accordance with Nurse Next Doors currently estimated timing, and such locations will achieve Nurse Next Doors financial targets and have a positive financial impact on Nurse Next Door; and Nurse Next Door will continue to make its royalty payments to DIV in full and will not request royalty relief in relation to such events. These assumptions, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect. All of the forward-looking information in this news release is qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that it will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, DIV. The forward-looking information in this news release is made as of the date of this news release and DIV assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by applicable law. DIV notes that the financial results reported in this news release for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 are consistent with the preliminary results for such period reported in DIVs news release dated July 23, 2020. Non-IFRS Financial Measures Management believes that disclosing certain non-IFRS financial measures provides readers with important information regarding the Corporations financial performance and its ability to pay dividends and the performance of DIVs royalty partners. By considering these measures in combination with the most closely comparable IFRS measure, management believes that investors are provided with additional and more useful information about the Corporation and its royalty partners than investors would have if they simply considered IFRS measures alone. The non-IFRS financial measures do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and therefore are unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Investors are cautioned that non-IFRS measures should not be construed as a substitute or an alternative to cash flows from operating activities as determined in accordance with IFRS. Adjusted revenue, DIV royalty entitlement, distributable cash, same store sales growth, and payout ratio are used as non-IFRS measures in this news release. For further details, see the Description of Non-IFRS and Additional IFRS Measures in the Corporations managements discussion and analysis for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, a copy of each of which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Third Party Information This news release includes information obtained from third party company filings and reports and other publicly available sources. Although DIV believes these sources to be generally reliable, such information cannot be verified with complete certainty. Accordingly, the accuracy and completeness of this information is not guaranteed. DIV has not independently verified any of the information from third party sources referred to in this news release nor ascertained the underlying assumptions relied upon by such sources. THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR THE ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. Additional Information The information in this news release should be read in conjunction with DIVs audited consolidated financial statements and managements discussion and analysis (MD&A) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Additional information relating to the Corporation and other public filings, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Contact: Sean Morrison, President and Chief Executive Officer Diversified Royalty Corp. (604) 235-3146 Greg Gutmanis, Chief Financial Officer and VP Acquisitions Diversified Royalty Corp. (604) 235-3146 The Ministry of Education says there are no immediate plans to reopen schools from next month for full academic activities. Consequently, it has called on the public to ignore reports to that effect. The ministry will like to state categorically that aside from final-year students who are in school, the public should disregard reports going round that all other students would go to school in September, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Mr Benjamin K. Gyasi, said in Accra yesterday. Position Speaking at the National Inspectorate Board (NIB) School Establishment and Inspection Policy (SEaIP) Validation Workshop, Mr Gyasi said that the report was a rumour and not the position of the ministry, adding, When we get to the bridge we will cross it but we are not there yet. Once we get there, there will be a presidential directive after which the ministry will make the arrangements. But it is not true that we are going to school in September 2020. Schools in the country were closed on March 16, this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, final-year senior high and junior high school students were asked to go back to school to prepare for this years West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Second-year Gold Track students were also sent back to school to complete their first semester academic work. Validation workshop The validation workshop was attended by managers of educational establishments in the country. It, among other things, aimed at getting their inputs into the policy which is in its final stage of development. Mr Gyasi noted that the workshop was a follow-up to the series of workshops the NIB had started which would lead to the finalisation of the school establishment and inspection policy. The event was to provide an opportunity for the participants to look at the draft policy that had been developed to that effect. The NIBs mandate, he said, was contained in two main documents: the Education Act of 2008 (Act 778) and the Revised Handbook for the Inspection of Public and Private Pre-tertiary Schools in Ghana (2018 and 2019), and that it was those documents that had guided the operations of the NIB to date. But where we are getting to now, we need further legislative mandate and support for NIB to ensure the effective discharge of its mandate. For this reason, since March 2020, we have identified some key policies to be developed to ensure effective and efficient discharge of the mandate of NIB, still based on Education Act of 2008 (Act778) and the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill which has gone full cycle through the parliamentary process and awaiting presidential assent, he said. Policy The MoE chief director said the school establishment and inspection policy about which the workshop was held sought to outline the legal requirements that schools needed to satisfy before they could establish themselves as educational facilities in the country. In addition, the policy will set out NIB processes and procedures in undertaking school inspection and serve as a guide for schools self-evaluation towards improving learning outcomes, Mr Gyasi stated. This draft policy has gone through a series of technical reviews and consultative workshops where the NIBs major stakeholders have perused the document to ensure that it is consistent with NIBs operations and that of the stakeholders that the NIB works with, he stated. He encouraged the participants to feel free and critique the document and make inputs so that at the end of the day, you can own the document yourself. Prioritise foundation education The Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mrs Elizabeth Sackey, said there was the need to prioritise education for children to develop themselves physically, mentally and socially. She said it was for such reasons that the government was investing so much in education so that every child of school age would have access to it, irrespective of the social standing of their parents. You would agree with me that for the education system to work well, we need a functional school establishment inspectorate to ensure compliance with rules and regulations, she said. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The traditional owners of the land where two 46,000-year-old Aboriginal rock shelters were destroyed for the expansion of an iron ore mine have revealed the anguish they feel after learning about the dysfunctional process that led to the blast. At a parliamentary inquiry on Friday, Rio Tinto disclosed it had three other expansion options at its Brockman 4 mine that would have preserved the Juukan Gorge sites, but proceeded with the blast in order to access $135 million worth of high-grade iron ore. The site at Juukan Gorge that was reduced to rubble to extend one of Rio Tinto's iron ore mines. Credit:PKKP Aboriginal Corporation The decision was made despite reports circulating within the company, not seen at an executive level, that suggested the rock shelters were some of the most significant Aboriginal heritage sites in the country. In a statement released on Saturday, Burchell Hayes, a spokesman for Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation, the traditional owners of the site, said Rio Tintos submissions had only deepened their anguish and led them to question the foundations of their relationship. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:27:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close THE HAGUE, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The wife of Dutch ambassador to Lebanon has died from injuries sustained in Tuesday's massive explosion in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, the Dutch government said Saturday. "We are deeply saddened by the untimely death of our colleague Hedwig Waltmans-Molier as a result of the huge explosion in Beirut," Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag said in a joint statement. "Our thoughts are with her husband, their children and other family members. Our sympathy goes out to them and we wish them every strength to cope with this great loss." Hedwig Waltmans-Molier, 55, worked as HR partner within the HR department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both from The Hague and from Beirut, where her husband Jan Waltmans is the Dutch ambassador. The couple recently returned from holidays to Lebanon. Hedwig Waltmans-Molier was standing next to her husband in their living room when she was hit by the blast, according to the statement. Enditem 08.08.2020 LISTEN Final year students of Bright Senior High School in Akyem Kukurantumi in the Abuakwa north municipality who were allegedly assaulted and intimidated by invigilators leading to a scuffle have finally spoken to the issue. According to the tormented candidates, the actions and inactions of invigilators fueled the clash between some of the students. Some invigilators were injured, while some students were also intimidated and abused due to the misunderstanding between some students and invigilators on Thursday, 6th August 2020 at the school's examination centre. But in an exclusive interview with some of the student (victims), they expressed shock at the attitude and conduct of the invigilators as they were emotionally traumatised. A male student explaining his experience Nsemgh said, he was physically assaulted by a private security guard deployed to the centre after asking permission to visit the washroom. Bruises were found on his nose and had a doctor's form to prove his allegations. Another young lady also narrated a male invigilator looked on her nakedness as she was changing her menstrual sanitary pad. "I went to the washroom to change my sanitary pad and to my surprise, a male invigilator pounced into the place while I was naked. Can you imagine he looked on as I change myself to dress?" she complained bitterly. "In fact, I was a bit frightened of the paper. So immediately the question paper was placed on my table, I had my menstruation and therefore asked for permission to go out and change. However, the security man prevented me from entering the hall and therefore I could not write the paper" another female candidate shared her ordeal. Meanwhile, students have indicated they are emotionally and psychologically fit to write the rest of the papers at Ofori Panin Senior High School (OPASS), despite the relocation of the examination centre. "We are ready to write the exams and we are confident of passing well to encourage and also boost the morale of our Principal and hardworking teachers" they added. However, the students have rendered an unqualified apology to President Akufo-Addo, ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, the media and the general public for their misconduct, pledging not to repeat it again. ---Nsemgh.com If Sri Lanka intends to recover from the current unfortunate situation it has fallen into, it must honestly and retrospectively look at the way things have happened from independence to the present. by Victor Ivan After the election, it is likely that the political system of Sri Lanka in its entirety including the President, the Prime Minister, the ruling party and the opposition will end up in a severe deadlock. If the government fails to achieve a favorable result conducive to enhancing the trust of the people at the parliamentary election, it might lead to weaken the dominance the government has established at ideological level. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa after the polls Although the government has a big dream to abolish the 19th Amendment and restore the powers of the president, it is unlikely that it will be able to secure an adequate power to realize it. Even if it gains the required majority to amend the constitution, it might not be easy to reach a consensus between the two brothers, the President the younger brother and the Prime Minister, the elder brother. In the constitutional sense and in terms of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the power of the President, the younger brother will automatically diminish making the Prime Minister, the elder brother, the real power after the parliamentary election. In the circumstances, either the President, the younger brother must admit the powers of the Prime Minister, his elder brother and take a step backward or the Prime Minister, the elder brother must be prepared to relinquish some of his powers allowing his brother to maintain the extent of power that he had been wielding up to now. Failure to do so may result in disagreements between the two brothers. The pitch darkness of the economy Whatever the strength of the result of the parliamentary election secured by the government, it would be unavoidable that not only the affairs of the government, but also the standard of living of the people will fall into a major crisis because of the enormous financial difficulties the government will be compelled to face in maintaining its activities amidst the yawning gap between the income and expenditure of the government. Despite certain aspects of income of public servants like overtime pay has been clipped, still the government is compelled to pay the salaries of public servants from loan overdrafts obtained from state banks through the Central Bank. This system cannot last long. If it persists, a situation might arise in which even the state banks might collapse before long. The collapse of the economy is unlikely to be rectified and restored soon. The impact that the Covid 19 pandemic has made on the world economy tends to have its depressing repercussions on the economy of Sri Lanka as well. The job opportunities of migrant workers, especially those employed in the Middle East, which has been the main source of foreign exchange earnings of Sri Lanka, is at a severe risk. It is estimated that around 500,000 jobs might be lost resulting in a steep decline in the transition income Sri Lanka used to receive from migrant workers, which is unavoidable. The tourism industry, another major source of foreign exchange earnings, is also in a state of total collapse. The garment industry is also in a similar situation. A large number of jobs in the garment sector have already been lost. The risk of losing more jobs persists. In addition to all this, the government will be compelled to impose more and more taxes to meet its needs and to cover the expenses which in turn will oppress the people who have already been hit hard by the economic downturn. . Exacerbation of the Problem Inevitably the nature of the crisis will become more complex and oppressive when all the problems that are bound to arise are converged in a welter of multiple issues. According to World Bank projections, the growth rate of the Sri Lankan economy will fall down to -3%. The number of jobs lost will rise to 10 million. The lives of those living on interest earned on savings will become miserable. The cuts in wages, overtime and the other allowances will result in making the lives of those who are employed also equally miserable. The socio-economic atmosphere will lead to conflicts, labor disputes and public unrest. Theft, robbery and crime will increase in the country. Failure to manage properly the crisis of balance of payments amidst the potential scenario outlined above will have serious repercussions. Especially if the country fails to pay at least one installment due on commercial borrowings obtained from international capital markets on commercial terms, Sri Lanka is likely to be declared a bankrupt country. If that happens Sri Lanka will fall into an abyss from which it cannot recover easily. Such an eventuality could be avoided only by pursuing a policy of selling valuable resources of the country to foreign powers. The political establishment of Sri Lanka has no knowledge whatsoever of the practical alternatives that can be used to resolve the crisis the country is facing. Therefore, it is most likely that they will choose and be more willing to choose a policy that promotes the sale of valuable resources of the country to foreign powers. Roots of failure If Sri Lanka intends to recover from the current unfortunate situation it has fallen into, it must honestly and retrospectively look at the way things have happened from independence to the present. Sri Lanka cannot be described as a democratic country merely because it conducts elections regularly. Its a fact that Sri Lankan society had turned somewhat modern by the time the country gained independence; yet, the society in general and the political leaders in particular had not become mature enough to maintain a democratic system of governance, successfully. The independence gained without having to make a discernible struggle can be considered the main reason for this backwardness. We did not have mature leaders; mature leaders should have emerged through a freedom struggle. All the Heads of State from the time of the first Prime Minister to the present day can be considered as unconscientious leaders who have violated the Constitution of the country. The Sri Lankan society does not appear to have considered that it was a serious offense to violate the Constitution of the country. Even the judiciary, the supposed protector of the Constitution tends to be encouraging its violation by the politician. This reflects the level of degeneration and the extent of unconscientious and uncivilized character of political and bureaucratic structures of Sri Lanka. The failure to build a modern nation disregarding the recognition accorded to ethnic, religious and caste differences can be considered as the main reason for the failure of Sri Lanka. The compensation the country has paid for the violent conflicts that arose as a result thereof was enormous. The damage caused by violent conflicts has been estimated as US $ 200 billion. One can imagine the extent to which we have ruined the progress of the country. The next reason for the failure of Sri Lanka can be attributed to the rapacious policy of large-scale plundering of public property pursued since 1978, by peoples representatives elected by public vote, when they were under their temporary custody. The State of Sri Lanka can be considered not as a democratic State but a State of pirates and bandits. The opportunism and impotence shown by the judiciary of Sri Lanka can be considered as another important factor affecting the failure of Sri Lanka.If Sri Lanka seeks to recover from its present miserable situation it must find a way to overcome these three basic problems. (Natural News) A new poll from Morning Consult and Politico claims that a majority of Americans support forced muzzling under the penalty of fines or jail time in order to placate their own fears about catching the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Supposedly 72 percent of those asked indicated that they either strongly or somewhat support allowing the government to implement mandatory face mask edicts that are punishable by fines or prison time for those who violate them. Based on what you know about the COVID-19 pandemic (coronavirus), would you support or oppose your state instituting a face mask mandate in public spaces, where not wearing a mask could be punishable by fine or jail time? the questionnaire asked. Interestingly, the group that indicated the strongest support in response to this question was Baby Boomers, which generally lean conservative and claim to support minimal government intervention into peoples personal lives. A whopping 78 percent of them indicated that they support mask mandates based on these terms. Next in line were millennials at 68 percent, followed by Generation Z at 63 percent. In other words, the younger the person, the more likely that he or she opposes mandating that people cover their noses and mouths with cloth or plastic. As you might expect, nearly all of the Democrats polled 86 percent, to be precise expressed support for mandatory masks, while only 58 percent of Republicans support mandatory masks, demonstrating the partisan aspects of mask-wearing. Why wear masks when theres already a coronavirus cure? Since this is a Politico poll, it is important to take it with a grain of salt. There were maybe a few hundred people who were asked this question about masks, which is hardly representative of the population at large. At the same time, some suggest that masks might be a hot-button political issue this November, with an alleged majority supporting measures to keep them on peoples faces indefinitely. Still others, including Dr. Stella Immanuel, a medical doctor in Houston, contends that masks are unnecessary, and that all people need to do if they are worried is to support their immune systems, including with the use of hydroxychloroquine. Be sure to watch Dr. Immanuel speak below (around the 5:25 mark): What more people in this country need to hear and watch are videos like the one above, which offer a fresh perspective on the plandemic that goes beyond the rote fear-mongering about social distancing and masks. We need your help, Dr. Immanuel petitioned a day after the Americas Frontline Doctors press conference video was banned from the Big Tech gamut of platforms. We are being attacked, ridiculed, and discredited. We need our patients to speak up. If you have been cured by this drug (hydroxychloroquine), share your story online using this hashtag. #HCQWorks, she added. One Twitter user responded to Dr. Immanuels video tweet with additional information about how hydroxychloroquine supposedly also helps against HIV, fungal infections, rheumatological and cardiovascular conditions, kidney disease, diabetes, thromboembolic events, lipid problems, cancer, insulin issues, and graft-v-host disease following bone marrow transplants, along with much more. Now they know how easily led are the American people, wrote one Big League Politics commenter concerning the face mask poll. Are we going to wear these for the rest of our lives or just until the next election that Dems want to win? This shows me that the majority of Americans are brain dead and will just follow orders of convenience, wrote another, adding that the next step will be for the sheeple to line up and get vaccinated. They deserve the FEMA camps coming their way. More associated news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is available at Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: BigLeaguePolitics.com NaturalNews.com Twitter.com " " Isaac Newton: Genius. See more brain pictures. Public domain images In 1905, Albert Einstein developed the theory of special relativity. He also proved that atoms exist and figured out that light behaves as both a particle and a wave. To top it all off, he developed his famous equation E = mc, which describes the relationship between matter and energy, the same year. He was only 26 years old. Without a doubt, Einstein was a genius. So was Isaac Newton -- as any fan of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" can tell you, he invented physics. He also played a big role in the development of calculus, which some people have trouble comprehending even after extensive classroom study. Another genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, started composing music when he was 5 years old. Mozart wrote hundreds of pieces before his death in 1760 at age 35. Advertisement According to conventional wisdom, geniuses are different from everyone else. They can think faster and better than other people. In addition, many people think that all that extra brainpower leads to eccentric or quirky behavior. And although geniuses are fairly easy to spot, defining exactly what makes one person a genius is a little trickier. Figuring out how that person became a genius is harder still. There are two big things that make it difficult to study genius: The genius label is subjective. Some people insist that anyone with an intelligence quotient (IQ) higher than a certain value is a genius. Others feel that IQ tests measure only a limited part of a person's total intelligence. Some believe high test scores have little to do with real genius. Genius is a big-picture concept. Most scientific and medical inquiries, on the other hand, examine details. A concept as subjective as genius isn't easy to quantify, analyze or study. So, when exploring how geniuses work, it's a good idea to start by defining precisely what a genius is. For the purpose of this article, a genius isn't simply someone with an exceptionally high IQ. Instead, a genius is an extraordinarily intelligent person who breaks new ground with discoveries, inventions or works of art. Usually, a genius's work changes the way people view the world or the field in which the work took place. In other words, a genius must be both intelligent and able to use that intelligence in a productive or impressive way. But what makes a person able to do all that? Is it a different, more agile brain? Is it exceptional intelligence? It is it an aptitude for noticing information that other people might consider irrelevant? We'll begin looking for answers to these questions at the logical starting place for looking at genius -- the human brain. With the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeming firm on holding the assembly elections in Bihar on time despite the surge in Covid cases, the Congress has embarked on the contentious seat-sharing deal with its principal ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Prompted by former congress president Rahul Gandhis reminder during his virtual meeting with party leaders on Thursday, AICC in-charge for Bihar, Shaktisinh Gohil, arrived in Patna on a two-day visit supposedly to begin the seat-sharing negotiation with RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and leaders of other allies. During his virtual meeting with senior Bihar leaders on July 4, Gandhi had told Gohil to wind up the seat-sharing deal with allies by the month-end, so that the party could focus on selected seats to bolster its electoral prospects. Talking to HT, Gohil had also said that the seat adjustments among the coalition partners would not be stretched. Immediately after his arrival from Delhi, Gohil went straight to meet senior party and CLP leader Sadanand Singh and former governor Nikhil Kumar to solicit their views before launching the crucial seat-sharing talks. The in-charge has arrived and hopefully the deal would be finalized soon, as leaders of all parties want to settle it, said Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) chief Madan Mohan Jha. Also Read: Bihar is going to change disha and dasha of India: Rahul Gandhi During the July 4 meeting with Gandhi, former BPCC chief Anil Sharma had floated a formula for seat-sharing, suggesting 101 seats contested by the JD(U) under Grand Alliance (GA) in 2015 could be split between the RJD and the Congress in 60/40 ratio for an honourable agreement. In the last assembly polls, the Congress had contested 41 seats and won 27, while the RJD had fielded 101 candidates and won 80 seats. In case of distribution of seats, the RJD and the Congress should leave seats in ratio of 60:40 from their quota, Sharma had pointed out. Party insiders, however, said that expecting a reasonable and respectable allocation of seats with the RJDs bid to project Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as the alliances CM candidate, may be wishful thinking. The RJD wants to contest 150 seats out of total 243, leaving little scope for adjustments for allies. Seat-sharing deal in the Lok Sabha polls was also not encouraging for the Congress. Also Read: Govt gone missing: Rahul targets Centre as India crosses 2 mn Covid-19 cases The RJD does not appear keen to resolve the seat adjustment issue without finalizing the leadership issue. RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari said, Seat allocation and other issues would be resolved on time. Citing previous electoral results since 2005 in Bihar, Sharma pointed out that the RJD has been a big loser when not contesting in alliance with the Congress. Good sense will prevail on the RJD to be considerate in seat-sharing exercise, realising the importance of Congress on the basis of past elections, Sharma said, while asking to urgently set up a coordination committee for GA issues. The Tennessee Wildlife Federation honored Cleveland State Community College Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries program director Robert Brewer as the Conservation Educator of the Year at the 55th Annual Conservation Achievement Awards. Winning this award means the world to me, said Mr. Brewer. It tells me my work is recognized by my colleagues and that it is making a difference in the conservation community, the lives of my students, and the community in general. Community partners like Greg Vital, Daryl Ratajczak, the TWRA, the U.S. Forestry Service, Tennessee Division of Forestry, and the Tennessee State Parks really make what I do so much easier and a pleasure to be a part of. Mr. Brewer is also an associate professor and coordinator of the Greg A. Vital Center for Natural Resources and Conservation at Cleveland State. Also among the honorees at this years virtual ceremony were television host Bill Dance. Mr. Brewer created a now award-winning conservation education non-profit called Student Wildlands Adventure Program (SWAP). SWAP provides life-changing experiences to underprivileged youth by taking them on week-long adventures where they learn about wildlife conservation. At Cleveland State, Mr. Brewer also developed the first two-year forestry, wildlife, and fisheries program in the state. His passion to help his students excel has led many to achieve successful careers in the wildlife and natural resource fields. Beyond the academic environment, Mr. Brewer is active in his community events and conservation initiatives. The Community Colleges of Appalachia recognized Mr. Brewer earlier in 2020 by selecting his Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries Program at Cleveland State Community College in Cleveland to be the winner of the 2020 Community Colleges of Appalachia Instructional Program Award. The plot to impeach Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State allegedly by the All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers has thrown the state into political turmoil. Apparently, indigenes of the state have issued a strong warning to the perpetrators of the illegal evil plot that impeachment of Governor Obaseki is not feasible under the current political situation in the state. A stakeholder in the state, Bar. Kingsley Idahosa, had pointed out that the Edo State House of Assembly was proclaimed by Governor Godwin Obaseki on the 14th of June 2019. He said that after the proclamation of the Assembly by the governor, the House held its first session on the 17th of June, 2019 wherein Rt. Hon. Frank Abumere Okiye was elected the Speaker of the House by members present as provided for by the Constitution. The legal practitioner noted: Whether there was legality or not in the proclamation of the House and her first sitting vis-a-vis the election of its Speaker and other key officials of the House had long been rested by the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in Suit No. FHC/PH/CS/159/19; RE: HON. YEKINI O. IDIAYE & ANOR VS. THE CLERK OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY in its judgment delivered on the 12th of September, 2019. Idahosa maintained that as at today, the Edo State House of Assembly (EDHA) comprises just 10 legitimate members of which three are APC while 5 are PDP. He declared: the former 14 members-elect known as Edo Abuja 14 or run-away members were never at any time members of the Edo State House of Assembly having not submitted themselves to be administered Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Membership of the House in line with the provision of Section 94 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) to warrant according them such status and relevancy in the scheme of things or addition to the numbers of legitimate members of the House. The status of the 14 members were further compounded following the declaration of their seats vacant by the Leadership of the House in a Resolution passed on the 14th of December, 2019 in view of their continuous absence from the House and the need to secure a representation for their constituencies via a bye-election. The legal practitioner stated that the 14 members are currently at the Federal High Court, Abuja in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1582/2019; RE: RT. HON. VICTOR SABOR EDOROR & 13 ORS VS. HON. FRANK OKIYE (THE SPEAKER, EDO HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY) & ANOR, where they are challenging the constitutionality or otherwise of the declaration of their seats vacant which suit is still pending. He added that PDPs application for joinder as an interested party is equally pending in the suit, noting that thus, the suit is not one of family affairs in which they can decide what to do with it overnight and it is done. PDP must be heard. Thus, the 14 members, the celebrate, had since crashed and lost out of the equation. They are no longer members-elect; their seats having been legally and validly declared vacant by the authority saddled with such powers and the court they ran to is yet to invalidate the Resolution of the House declaring their seats vacant. In other words, the declaration of their seats vacant stands. So, not until all the contending issues are resolved one way or the other, the 14 individuals as they should be known and called are no members-elect of the House and they cannot be reckon with as far as the sitting and affairs of the Edo State House of Assembly is concern, the stakeholder declared. He expressed reservations over the taking over of the Edo State House of Assembly by some uniformed security operatives vis-a-vis the rumour of a purported plot to impeach Governor Godwin Obaseki by the APC in the state, using its members in the House. According to Idahosa, there are six steps required by law to be taken by the House of Assembly of any state to remove a sitting governor from office as provided for in section 181 (1) of the Constitution; these, he said, are as follows: I. There must be a notice of allegation which must be in writing and has to be signed by not less than one-third of the members of the House, noting that this, the APC dont have to start with. II. Moreover, the speaker must notify members of the House about the proposal to impeach the governor after which also the lawmakers must be informed about his reply concerning the move to remove him from office. III. Within two weeks of the notice, the House shall resolve whether to begin investigation through a motion adopted by not less than two-thirds of its members. IV. In the event that the motion is adopted, the speaker shall within one week request the Chief Judge to set up a panel to investigate the allegations. V. The panel shall report back to the House within three months of inauguration. If the panel exonerates the governor, the matter must be dropped. Should the panels report implicate the governor, the House shall within 14 days of the receipt of the signed allegation consider the claim and if it is adopted by two-third of the House the governor shall be removed from office. The legal practitioner asserted that the above conditions make it a herculean task for the APC in Edo State to impeach Obaseki, not minding the lawless ways with which they operated previously in Edo State. Idahosa declared: in a nutshell, given the political equation in Edo State today, Governor Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki cannot be impeached under the current situation no matter the madness. Edos can go to sleep on the matter. Each year, about four new mystery cases are added to the unsolved missing persons list after bodies stay unidentified for more than three months. Four more families without answers. Detective Senior Sergeant Combridge calls it ambiguous grief; a wretched torment that hits a family when a loved one vanishes without a trace. While staff at VIFM deals with the science behind a new discovery, detectives deal with the clues and the families at the other end, desperately waiting for answers. "You look at some of the families we deal with and it's sometimes a real triumph of the human spirit the way theyre able to keep going through that," he said. There's always that flicker of hope that exists within that grief." CASE ONE In December 2017, a snorkeller at Shallow Inlet near Sandy Point in South Gippsland discovered a human skull on the seabed, metres from the shoreline. The skull found at Sandy Point Credit:Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine Police recovered the skull before stumbling upon a matching, well-preserved skeleton buried under 20 centimetres of sand nearby. "No other items such as clothing or personal effects were found," Coroner Olle said. Loading "Because these skeletal remains were unidentified, the cause of death was reported to the coroner and a team of forensic experts examined the remains to try and identify this individual." Senior forensic anthropologist Soren Blau said testing found the skeleton belonged to an adult male; aged between 20 and 40; between 166 to 173 centimetres tall. Skull measurements suggested his ancestral origins were European. But despite the detailed profile obtained, the bones have never been identified. "What was interesting about this person was that he had some very interesting and unique dental work. He had a gold filling in one of his front teeth and our dentist noted the style of dentistry was not typically seen in Australia, Dr Blau said. Molecular biologist and head of DNA at VIFM Dadna Hartman said searches against the national criminal database and Victoria's missing persons database also proved fruitless. "The other thing were now looking to do for this case is checking genealogy," she said. "Were hoping to upload DNA information and search [it] against public genealogy databases where families have uploaded their own DNA profiles for the purposes of family tree investigations. Dr Dadna Hartman and Dr Soren Blau. Credit:Justin McManus "This is only just new [but] its been quite successful in the US. In the last three to six months, were now looking at this as a potential avenue." CASE TWO Davids* mother didnt want to believe her son was dead the day the coroners office called. His body had been taken to Melbourne's Southbank mortuary after it was discovered in bushland near the city. Staff at the interconnected VIFM laboratories spent weeks meticulously studying the remains. No one had reported the man missing. And no distinguishing dental features were found the things forensic anthropologists say "make a person unique". Loading Police released an artist's sketch of the mans face after molecular biologists pieced together what his eye and hair colour might have been, but still no one came forward. "Once the family members were actually located [on the other side of the world], this facial composite was shown to them. They were of the opinion the deceased was not their relative," Detective Senior Sergeant Combridge said. At the Southbank lab, within the confines of VIFM, molecular biologists were attempting to retrieve DNA. Fifteen months had elapsed from the body being discovered to the scientists finding a match. "We were able to go back to the family and say through DNA comparisons we have actually identified this individual as being your relative," Dr Hartman said. Ms Leditschke added: "Ringing a family to let them know weve finally identified their loved one can be quite a powerful time. "Because of the period of time that may have passed, there is often disbelief at how this has happened." Coroner John Olle. Credit:Coroner's Court of Victoria Since 2010, the Victorian missing persons register has been assisting families in uploading their DNA profiles in the hope of finding a match with their missing loved ones. Anyone with information on a missing person or an unsolved case is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Charity helps Egyptian Christians launch businesses amid COVID-19 unemployment struggles Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A United States-based Christian charity has provided microloans to help Christian families in Egypt launch businesses or bolster their already existing ones as the combination of religious persecution and COVID-19 has reportedly led to an 80% unemployment rate among Christians in Upper Egypt. International Christian Concern, a non-profit that runs several initiatives to assist persecuted Christians worldwide, developed the microloan program that is benefiting the lives of 52 Christians in Egypt through 13 different loans as part of its Hope House Program. Traditionally, the Hope House Program has focused on providing educational tutoring and child welfare to Christian children in Egypt, where Christians contend they are essentially treated as "third-class citizens." But with the economic impact of COVID-19 ravaging Christian communities, the program is also focused on providing financial support to the parents of the children it helps. Though the microloans are encouraged to be paid back, return payment is not required, according to ICC. The loans last for a year and are offered to anyone who has lost a job or has been discriminated against, Claire Evans, ICC regional manager for the Middle East, told The Christian Post. Even during COVID, theyve been able to maintain business which shows how important it is to have some sense of control of their livelihood. Under the conditions of COVID-19, ICC reports that many employers in Egypt have blamed Christians for the pandemic and isolated them from what few job opportunities exist. The average Christian income is $115 a month, as opposed to the national average of $313, according to ICC research. The government in Egypt does not actively work to stop the persecution of Christians and has rules that have made employment very difficult for them, according to ICC. The Hope House Program has provided long-term solutions and hope, Evans said. Egypt tries to restrict work and hide Christians in the background, Evans said. We want to make sure the help they ask for is helpful for their future. The business loans have been so successful, they end up as a contribution to the broader society. Microloans have led to tremendous success among those receiving them and the communities at large, Evans reports. According to her, one woman began a small rug business and has grown the business so much that she has since employed other persecuted Egyptians. Another citizen of Egypt facing financial hardship and persecution is a 54-year-old father of four named Bassam. He used the loan provided by the Hope House Program to improve the small grocery shop that hes owned for 13 years. This loan helped me to bring new products to my grocery shop, Bassam said a statement. Before getting the loan, I was not affording to buy three packages of soda. Now I can afford to buy 10 packages and sell them to the client in a short time. Also, now I can sell chilled meats at my shop. While business-related help is a bit of a new focus for the Hope House Program, the programs vision of aiding childrens education, health and freedom persists. This year, child labor has risen in Egypt by 20%, according to Evans. While business loans may directly help Egyptian adults, there is a trickle-down effect on children. If children have to work to keep their families alive, they are unable to be in school or to receive an education. We want kids to stay in school and dream big about what is possible as an adult, Evans explained. Theres no technology for remote education. These kids havent been to school since March and Egypt has no real strategy to fix it. The Hope House Program is known for its tutoring services in Egypt. Typically, children come to a Hope House facility to receive help with their studies as a group. With the ongoing COVID crisis, though, group tutoring has become impossible. Fortunately, Hope House staff can go from home to home to assist children and families. Evans mentioned a disheartening discovery amid the new protocol and circumstances of the Christian population in Egypt. Weve seen a lot of depression thats led to suicide, even in the kids, she said. Thats not normal in this culture. Theyre just facing persecution in one hand and a pandemic in the other. Its like theyre standing on the edge of a cliff. And Im glad we can go in to just hold their hands and walk them back from the edge. According to the ICC, 38% of the children in Egypt showed symptoms of anxiety and depression. Hope House doctors, as well as support staff, work with children and entire families to teach general safety, hygiene and personal boundaries. Officials in Denver are offering a $14,000 reward for information on a suspected arson fire that killed five members of a family, including an infant and 3-year-old girl. Denver Police Division Chief Joe Montoya said Friday that investigators still do not have a motive and are asking for tips from the community as the homicide investigation gets underway. The fire appeared to be deliberately set by unknown persons who fled the area, according to a Metro Denver Crime Stoppers bulletin. The Denver Fire Department responded to the fatal fire around 2:40 a.m. on Wednesday and discovered five victims on the first floor. PHOTO: Multiple people were found dead in a house fire that authorities suspect was intentionally set, early Aug. 5, 2020. (Denver Fire Dept via AP) Djibril Diol, Adja Diol, their 3-year-old daughter Kadidia Diol, Hassan Diol and her infant daughter Hawa Beye -- all of a Senegalese-American Muslim family -- were identified as the victims by police. The case has rocked the Senegalese community and activists have called for officials to look into whether this was a hate crime. MORE: 2 kids among 5 dead in Denver house fire, arson suspected "Law enforcement authorities must take this suspected murder and arson seriously. Muslims in Colorado may have been threatened by hate-motivated arson before and hate crimes in the state are on the rise," a statement from the national civil rights organization Muslim Advocates read. "We call on law enforcement to immediately investigate whether the deadly fire in Green Valley Ranch was motivated by hate." The Colorado chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations similarly urged authorities to investigate whether or not the crime was motivated by bias because "the family members who perished in this tragedy are members of minority and immigrant communities." PHOTO: Men from West Africa sit near the site where five people were found dead after a house fire in suburban Denver, Aug. 5, 2020. (Thomas Peipert/AP) Senegalese President Macky Sall tweeted about the tragedy, saying he offered his deepest condolences to the families of the victims. Sall also said that he is closely following the matter. Senegal Consul General Elhadji Ndao flew into Denver on Thursday and addressed the community and media on the case. Ndao said he is confident in the legal system in America and Denver. Story continues Speaking about the Senegalese community in Denver, Ndao said there is a "sizeable" community in Denver filled with people who "care for only one thing: to provide for their families and make better for themselves." PHOTO: The Denver Police Department released this poster seeking help finding a suspected arsonist of a house fire in which five people were found dead in Denver on Aug. 5, 2020. (Denver Police Dept-handout via AP) "They are models wherever they are," Ndao said. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock offered his condolences to the family, adding that he wanted to assure their neighbors and loved ones "that we will move swiftly to determine what caused this tragedy." Fire and police officials who responded to the fire later said that they were not able to enter the home because of the intense heat and flames. A spokesperson for the fire department would not say what evidence leads them to believe this is a case of arson. Three people escaped the fire by jumping from the second story of the suburban home, according to a Denver Fire Department spokesperson. They are not believed to be significantly injured. Their identities have not been made public. Anyone with information on the fire is urged to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at (720) 913-7867 or submit a tip online. $14K reward offered in suspected arson case that killed 5 members of a family originally appeared on abcnews.go.com HOLYOKE The citys School Committee voted unanimously Friday night to recommend that the school year start with remote learning but the final decision is up to Dr. Alberto Vazquez Matos, the state-appointed receiver of the school system, who has proposed a hybrid learning model. I applaud all of you for bringing your concerns to this discussion, Vazquez Matos said following the vote. He added: Stay tuned. The final decision is expected next week, as school districts face an Aug. 14 to submit reopening plans to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Holyoke will fight, our families will fight for whats right and safe for our community, said Mildred Lefebvre, the committees vice chairperson and Ward 1 representative, shortly before the nonbinding vote was taken. Over several hours of discussion, members asked Vazquez Matos pointed questions about the plan to have students attend some in-person classes in the fall, in classrooms of 11 to 14 students at desks spaced six feet apart. In public comments, parents and educators voiced no faith in the idea staff and children could return to in-person learning safely. Vazquez Matos said no decision has been made and that the plan is a living document. Community input remains critical in formulating a plan, he said. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education required school districts to draft three return models: in-person, a hybrid model mixing in-person and remote instruction, and remote / online classes only. The receivers proposal said the district would adhere to strict health and safety protocols such as face coverings, social distancing, enhanced cleaning, contact tracing, reliable ventilation, staff training and testing availability. Staff and families must make a daily commitment to screening to keep our community safe, reads the plan, which calls on monitoring for symptoms of the virus. A preliminary survey showed 33% of respondents favored in-person learning, while 35% called for remote classes. Another 35% were unsure about how to proceed for the start of the school year. A majority of staff and teachers felt uncomfortable returning to the classrooms, according to the districtwide survey. This a challenging time for everyone, Vazquez Matos said, adding that the path forward is not perfect for students. The hybrid model would allow 50% of students to return to classrooms on any given day. Parents could opt out for a remote learning academy. Vazquez Matos provided the School Committee a sample in-person schedule, which considers mask and handwashing breaks. At-large School Committee Member Erin Brunelle said she spent the day going around and around on the hybrid model. She related a comment made by Gov. Charlie Baker earlier in the day about the importance of local governments deciding what is best for communities. Under receivership, though, the School Committee lacks such power. Brunelle asked Vazquez Matos not to reopen the schools in the fall especially when municipal, school department, and state buildings remain closed due to COVID-19. Peter McAndrew, the Holyoke Teachers Association president, said the organizations members strongly disapprove of students and teachers returning to classes. He has met with teachers and paraprofessionals the past month who want whats best for the children of Holyoke, he said. McAndrew said the anxiety is palpable with union members over clear health and safety benchmarks being me before schools reopen classrooms. I dont think were ready yet, he said. Ward 3 School Committee Member Rebecca Birks said teachers are justly afraid about returning to the classroom. Im beyond concerned with the plan that was presented, she said. Birks said the district must also consider working parents who struggle to find child care services. We need more planning, she added. During public comment, a Maurice A. Donahue Elementary School teacher favored 100% remote learning for staff and students until the COVID-19 pandemic recedes. A parent of an incoming freshman had hoped for in-person instruction but worried about antiquated ventilation systems, windows that dont open, and the potential of students spreading the virus into the community. Remote learning is the only safe way to proceed, or until stricter protocols are in place, the parent added. Lefebvre later echoed that concern, saying that the committee was watching out not just for the safety of staff and students, but for the safety of our community in its entirety. Lynn Lajoie, the vice principal of Morgan School, said returning children to school would be unconscionable. Many of the commenters followed a standard template that focused on the safety and lives of teachers and children. Some parents, though, questioned how remote learning would work for special needs children or students with Individual Education Plans. Another parent said they believed remote learning hurt families financially and harmed childrens education especially students with limited or no internet access. Police use tear gas and live fire to break up crowds amid rising anger over port explosion that killed scores of people. Beirut, Lebanon Angry protesters have stormed government buildings in Beirut as tens of thousands of people rallied against Lebanons ruling class amid growing anger about a deadly explosion at the capitals port. Clashes erupted with Internal Security Forces (ISF) almost immediately after protesters, on Saturday, attempted to reach Lebanons parliament building, a site they have repeatedly targeted throughout an anti-establishment protest movement that began in October last year. Thousands participated in riots, settling fires in buildings already destroyed by Tuesdays explosion and repeatedly charging police, who fought back with a thick fog of tear gas and rubber bullets, as well as a sporadic use of live ammunition fired into the air. Theyve taken everything from me my money, my youth and now they killed my people, 26-year-old protester Sandra Khoury told Al Jazeera, holding a stick in one hand and a piece of onion which protesters sniff to alleviate the effects of tear gas in the other. In a sign of solidarity with the protesters, Beiruts fire brigade which lost at least 10 members in the first response to the explosion refused to leave their bases to douse protesters with water. Beirut Governor Marwan Aboud formalised the matter by putting out an order saying they should only respond to fires. One officer died during the clashes, according to the ISF, which said he was attacked by protesters and fell from a hotel in central Beirut. The Lebanese Red Cross, meanwhile, said they took 63 people to hospitals and treated some 175 on the scene. Later on Saturday, the army and protesters clashed by Beiruts main ring road near the city centre. Soldiers, empowered by a state of emergency that has been declared in the capital, used sticks to beat civilians, a small number of whom responded by throwing rocks. Weve lost everything, this man kept shouting at soldiers, after they attacked protesters. pic.twitter.com/swZoTYqtco Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) August 8, 2020 Take off the suit and come stand with us, then you can wear it again with honour, a protester said as a number of them confronted a line of soldiers. Tell us what you get from being with them? a demonstrator shouted in a hoarse voice. We really dont understand it, why are you doing this to us? They want politicians hanged, they want politicians executed, Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr said [Tamara Saade/Al Jazeera] Earlier, demonstrators in Martyrs Square erected gallows and hung up cardboard cutouts of Lebanons political class, which they blame for the enormous explosion that ripped through Beirut on Tuesday, killing more than 150 people, wounding 6,000 and leaving some 250,000 people without homes. As they symbolically fitted nooses around the frames of leaders, a rumbling cheer went up from the crowd, a large number of whom wore bandages from wounds sustained in the explosion. Theyve drowned us in poverty and debt, and we were silent. Our currency is worth nothing, and we did nothing, Farah, an 18-year-old student, told Al Jazeera. But for them to kill us with a blast in Beirut, were definitely going to do something. In unison, the protesters chanted curse-filled slogans against President Michel Aoun and Hezbollah, among others. Protestors have taken over the #Lebanon economy ministry, throwing down a rain of documents and a picture of President Michel Aoun. A man next to me shouts focus on the bills man, tear up my bills. pic.twitter.com/RAHtyOyk6K Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) August 8, 2020 By sunset, protesters had taken over the foreign and energy ministries and raided the economy and environment ministries, as well as the headquarters of the Association of Banks in Lebanon. From the sixth floor of the economy ministry, located in central Beirut, they threw out documents and a picture of Aoun, and set fires which burned into the night. As the documents rained down, many in the crowd began picking them up and sifting through, looking for signs of systemic corruption by the political elite. Focus on my bills, tear up the bills, one protester shouted, jokingly. At the foreign ministry, protesters hung up a banner reading, Beirut, capital of the revolution. Dozens of protesters have been wounded at the site of the protests, according to the Lebanese Red Cross [Tamara Saade/Al Jazeera] We have overtaken the headquarters of the foreign ministry and consider it the base of the October 17 revolution on the basis that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the face of Lebanon to the outside world, said former General Sami Rammal, referring to an anti-establishment protest movement that erupted in the country last year. Tonight, we will sleep here. They can take us out with bullets, but we will not leave out of our own free will. Later on Saturday, the army stormed the ministry and kicked the protesters out. Absolutely staggering numbers toay in #Beirut. Square split between peaceful on one side and rioting on the other. Were hearing live fire every now and then. Over 100 injured so far. #LebanonProtests pic.twitter.com/C4cpYhyJIQ Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) August 8, 2020 In a televised address on Saturday evening, Prime Minister Hassan Diab, whose cabinet won a vote of confidence in Parliament in February after former Prime Minister Saad Hariris government was forced to resign in the face of the mass anti-establishment protests, said he would introduce a draft bill on Monday to hold an early election. It remained unclear when the vote would be held, if the bill was passed, though Diab said he would stay at his post for two more months. Riot police used excessive amounts of tear gas in a bid to disperse protesters trying to break through a barrier leading to the parliament building [Tamara Saade/Al Jazeera] Officials have linked Tuesdays blast to 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at the port for more than six years a fact seen by many Lebanese as an indictment of the countrys ruling class. The protests come about 10 months after Lebanese from across the countrys religious and political divides began staging mass demonstrations demanding the ruling class be held accountable for years of mismanagement and corruption. At the peak of those protests, some would spend the night in central Beirut, but most would return to their homes. Following the explosion, however, many of these protesters do not have homes to return to. If you dont fight corruption, this is what would happen let that be a message to all democracies in the world, a protester told Al Jazeera. The protest on Saturday drew large crowds [Tamara Saade/Al Jazeera] Last Thursday morning, two babies opened their eyes for the first time out of the womb to paramedics from the Cypress Creek Emergency Medical Services completely donned in full N95 masks, goggles, and gloves. While it might not have been the celebratory confines of a hospital room with excited relatives, it was the safest possible situation for all involved. And thats only part of how the medical world has changed for first responders who must answer an increasing volume of calls in a virus-laden pandemic that is so easily spread. EMS personnel are already subject to life-changing calls like the birth of a child, but also witness some of the most horrific scenes. Add the aggressive spread of the coronavirus and their job becomes even more taxing physically and mentally. Christina Dubois, mobile integrated health coordinator; Dr. Chris Hewitt, D. O., assistant medical director; and Norm Uhl, public information officer gave some insight to how the CCEMS is responding to the pandemic and how theyre protecting the public and themselves from the rapid spread of the virus. Q&A: Lone Star College-University Park professor offers tips for online learning Has there been any kind of protocol or policy changes with the staff because of the coronavirus? More Information CCEMS CALL VOLUME 2020 2019 Call Volume in 2020 Compared to 2019 Notes Feb 3655 3228 Feb of 2020 we were up 427 calls from Feb 2019 Mar 3957 3707 Mar of 2020 we were up 250 calls from Mar 2020 Apr 3304 3567 April of 2020 we were DOWN 263 calls from April 2021 May 3727 3748 May of 2020 we were DOWN 21 calls from May 2022 Jun 3843 3608 June of 2020 we were up 235 calls from June 2019 Jul 4472 3773 July of 2020 we were up 699 calls from July 2024 See More Collapse Hewitt: The direction is that masks are worn at all times. At this point, we have to protect the employees, the staff, the patients and family members who might be around. We dont know who has it or doesnt have it even if those questions asked by 9-1-1 tell us that theres a higher risk. We have to assume that there is a risk. We know its out in the community. We have to protect everyone including our staff so we can keep doing what were doing and minimize the risk. 9-1-1 calls dont stop. Whether its in the field or in the office, everyone is required to wear a mask. Any risk of COVID aerosolizing or any chance of body fluids require gowns. Dubois: Weve always worn eye protection but now we wear goggles too. On HoustonChronicle.com: First trial of a coronavirus vaccine under way in Houston With the summer heat, this has to make it even more difficult on your paramedics in the field. Dubois: Yes. Theyre not fond of it but they understand the need for it. Weve purchased some new gowns that allow some breathing and theyre happy for that. Hewitt: The ambulances are left running all the time and so is the air conditioning. Do you monitor your own personnel? Dubois: They are supposed to self-monitor every day and submit their results. Based on their results we follow-up with them. If they have any signs or symptoms, we get them tested. Do you require them to change into their clothes at work and shed them the same way before they leave? Hewitt: That would be a difficult policy to make. Everybody has their own routine. They all take their own precautions. There are a lot of people who dont wear their clothes home or strip down in the garage. The facilities are available for them to shower here if they want to keep themselves and their family safe. Are your facilities completely closed to the public now? Uhl: Our education facility and admin center which are normally open to the public are closed now. What kind of protocols are in place to make sure the ambulances are clean from COVID-19? Dubois: Every shift when they come on will clean the ambulance from top to bottom with a solution that will clean all germs. Between calls they clean the stretchers, and the ambulance points of touching. Uhl: In addition to that, we have contracted a firm called Enviro-Master Services of Houston to spray all ambulances and facilities every seven days with a hospital-grade germicide which is EPA-registered to kill coronaviruses as well as bacteria. The product is harmless to humans, is food safe, and lasts for up to 10 days. Do you also use ultra-violet light in the bay of the ambulances when theyre out of service? Uhl: We were donated Code 3 white disinfecting lights by Jon Forbes of Lone Star Products and Equipment for all our ambulances. The lighting powered by Vital Vio provides continuous disinfection on objects and surfaces while providing safe illumination. They can be used all the time while U/V light is unsafe for human beings. What about the mental health of your paramedics? Dubois: I ask our staff how theyre doing physically and mentally to see if they have any needs or have someone they can talk to. They can call our Employee Assistance Program and be assigned to a counselor that day. They can talk to them about anything that they need. We also have a peer group and call reviews and debriefing. During that time, they can talk about any issues. Have you seen people more reticent about calling for assistance for fear of the coronavirus? Uhl: I think weve had some of that just looking at the numbers. When the pandemic hit, a lot of car accidents went down. I think there was some fear and waiting too long to call. When things reopened, we went from a historic low down 263 from the same time last year to a historic high in July up 699 calls over last year. If you have chest pain, thats not something to wait on. Can patients feel safe in your care? Hewitt: They should feel safe. All the ambulance cleaning has always existed. Weve just stepped it up to make sure that were providing extra protection for people. Everything that they use is rated to kill viruses, germs and bacteria. The ambulances get wiped down so many times a day its crazy. People should feel safe and call 9-1-1 and know that they will be checked out safely, transported safely, and wont be put at risk going to an ER. Realistically, what they have going on will be worse than the virus. What about when the patient load at the hospital is on drive-by? Uhl: We initiated this during the hurricanes, and its called Paramedic Initiated Referral (PIR). What that means if we run across a case that is not serious enough for a hospital run, and something that could be treated at a free-standing ER, the paramedics will consult with the assistant medical director or medical director and offer a referral. Theyll take them to the free-standing ER that is associated with the hospital and that takes the load off of them. Are you finding any difficulty in finding PPE? Uhl: In the beginning it was tough. We were re-wearing N95 masks about five times and storing them in a paper bag between uses. I ended up doing something that wasnt in my purview or job description, but I just jumped in and started calling people to beg, borrow or buy within reason N95 masks that were in short supply. We were able to find some who were willing to donate and others who sold to us at their cost which was constantly going up because of demand. Were finally to the point to where manufacturing has finally caught up. Were in good shape now. Tell us about Cypress Creek EMS. How big is the department? Uhl: We run 19 full-time ambulances and just added three in the last four months. We also have two peak time ambulances that run from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. We have a little more than 200 employees including our Communications Center. They dispatch for Cypress Creek and 16 additional agencies, mostly fire departments, some as far as Pearland and Stafford. 9-1-1 goes to Harris County and once they figure out the need, it gets transferred quickly to us. What is your coverage area? Uhl: We cover 177 square miles running from just outside Tomball to outside of Humble from east to west. From north to south it runs from the county line to approximately Beltway 8. Thats about 560,000 residents. Population-wise thats larger than the city of Atlanta, Georgia. dtaylor@hcnonline.com Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AIIB) will conduct a formal enquiry into the Air India Express plane mishap. Puri also expressed his anguish and distress at the incident that claimed the lives of 18 people on board, including two pilots of the ill-fated flight. The minister tweeted, "All efforts are being made to help passengers. A formal enquiry will be conducted into this incident by AIIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau)." Two investigation teams of professionals from @airindiain @AAI_Official & AAIB will leave for Kozhikode at 02.00 hrs & 05.00 hrs. Everyone has now been rescued from the aircraft. Rescue operations are now complete. Injured being treated at various city hospitals. Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) August 7, 2020 Before Puri's announcement on the investigation into the mishap, the Civil Aviation Ministry said, "Air India Express flight IX 344 operated by B737 aircraft from Dubai to Calicut overshot runway at Kozhikode at 1941 hrs tonight. No fire reported at the time of landing." The flight was coming from Dubai and was part of the Vande Bharat Mission, which started repatriating stranded Indian citizens from foreign countries. The Boeing 737 aircraft overshot Runway no 10 at Kozhikode airport and fell into a 35-feet deep valley before splitting up into two pieces on Friday evening. Meanwhile, the Union Minister is also expected to reach Kozhikode at 12pm today via a special flight. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also spoken to Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan about the mishap. PM Modi said he had directed authorities on the spot to provide the required assistance to the people affected by the incident. The Prime Minister tweeted, "Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest." Also read: Air India plane crash: Aircraft overshot runway in rainy conditions, split into two, says Hardeep Singh Puri Two brothers have been jailed for a "brutal, merciless and remorseless" attack, which left the victim with life-changing injuries, including the loss of sight in one eye Two brothers have been jailed for a "brutal, merciless and remorseless" attack, which left the victim with life-changing injuries, including the loss of sight in one eye. Coupled with this and a record of 175 convictions including many high-violence matters, the elder brother was given an extended prison sentence at Dungannon Crown court, having been categorised a serious risk to the public. Ryan Gerard McGlinchey (37) and James McGlinchey (19), both of Mill Street, Fintona caused grievous bodily harm to one male, Emmet Tunney, and assaulted a second during an incident on July 19, 2019. Both men were on bail for relevant offending at the time of the attack, in which they chased the victims armed with weapons, subjecting Mr Tunney to a savage attack. The victims were making their way home from a night out drinking, when they stopped at the McGlinchey's home. The older brother claimed he was woken by his heavily pregnant partner in a distressed state, having heard the victims singing republican songs and threatening her and the unborn child. These were, "particularly offensive to Ryan McGlinchey, who saw red", and armed with a hatchet and accompanied by his brother, in turn armed with a bar, stormed from the house and chased the victims down. One victim managed to get away but recalled hearing Mr Tunney screaming in pain. CCTV captured the attack, with James McGlinchey striking about 25 times, while his older brother struck around five times and kicked the victim on the ground. Ryan McGlinchey's partner was seen running to the scene, and the attack halted. Both defendants were arrested and remanded in custody for a time, but the younger brother was later granted bail. They initially pleaded not guilty but accepted all when re-arraigned earlier this year. Judge Paul Ramsey QC noted Mr Tunney's right eyeball was ruptured and subsequently all vision lost. He also sustained a fractured eye-socket and nose and requires reconstructive surgery. Mr Tunney is unable to work, is fearful of reprisals and remains deeply traumatised. He is struggling to accept the loss of sight in one eye, having remained hopeful it would return. In respect of Ryan McGlinchey, Judge Ramsay pointed to 175 previous convictions including serious assaults, kidnapping, offensive weapons possession and threats to kill. While the prosecution accepted the incident may have been started by the victims stopping at the McGlinchey home, there was no suggestion the brothers were under threat at any stage. The judge held James McGlinchey was influenced by his older brother and the relationship is now broken down irrevocably. He found one feature of the case, "unsettling and indeed troubling. While I accept Ryan McGlinchey reacted impulsively, he embarked on a sustained, savage assault having pursued his victim. He only seems to have stopped when his girlfriend arrived at the scene." Judge Ramsey said: "This a brutal, remorseless, merciless attack... the behaviour of the McGlincheys was utterly indefensible." Ryan McGlinchey was handed an extended seven-year prison term, with two years on licence. James McGlinchey was jailed for five years followed by two years on licence, with the judge making the distinction, "because of his youth and acting under the influence of his brother. "But I can't overlook the savage nature of this attack." - Korina Sanchez recently dedicated a post to her house helpers, Gerlan and Jesselyn on her social media account - In her online post, Korina revealed that she held a "joint birthday lockdown" celebration with her house helpers - Furthermore, the news reporter also added that she had to 'treat' them as she scolds them often - Her online post garnered various reactions and comments from netizens who praised her for treating her house helpers kindly PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Korina Sanchez recently posted about her house helpers, Gerlan and Jesselyn on her social media account. In her online post, KAMI learned that the news reporter shared that her house helpers recently had a "joint birthday lockdown" celebration with her. "CELEBRATION. It is the joint birthday of my lockdown residence househelp Gerlan and Jesselyn," Korina wrote. Korina Sanchez (Photo from Wikimedia Commons) Source: UGC PAY ATTENTION: Shop with KAMI! The best offers and discounts on the market, product reviews and feedback The news reporter then jokingly said that she had to treat them as she scolds them often, "Kasi madalas ko sila masermunan, bawi ako." For her house helpers' special day, Korina shopped for them in Uniqlo before treating them at Din Tai Fung, "Went out in full battle gear (took off face shield and mask for the photo lang poh) to Uniqlo to shop a bit for them. "Saya nila. And then... lunch is Din Tai Fun takeout! Salted egg shrimp, truffle yang chow fried rice, spicy crab xiaolongbao and Hot Prawn Salad , crispy beef strips... and many more hahaha! Din Tai Fung also delivers!" Korina also shared that she had a discussion with her house helpers about their love life, "And then we tripped on Bruno Mars (Just The Way You Are, Marry You) and Cinderella songs (Ang Boyfriend Kong Baduy, TL Ako Sayo) and true revelations about their love life. "Ahahahahay! CENSORED. Having good help in the house is the #BestLife. We owe it to them to celebrate their lives." Read her statement below: Korina's post elicited various reactions and comments from netizens on social media after its posting. "Baka po pwede mag apply sa inyo mam." "Big thank you Ms @korina. Am touched by your kind gesture." "So true! Hard to have good ones! We are blessed by them!" "Gusto ko pong mag-apply na yaya ninyo." PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Korina Sanchez is a prominent news reporter and magazine show host in the Philippines. She is married to former Senator and Presidential aspirant Mar Roxas. Just recently, the celebrity mom sizzled the online community with her daring swimsuit photos which she shared on her social media account. She also clapped back at bashers who left comments on her post about the noise barrage protest of ABS-CBN workers and artists online. POPULAR: Read more news about Korina Sanchez 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 Actor Angad Bedi calls out naysayers, who are hell-bent on boycotting his upcoming film, Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl because it stars a star kid (Janhvi Kapoor) in the lead role. In conversation with a media agency, Angad Bedi spoke about the current boycott culture, and said it's unfair to the entire cast and crew of the film, because if netizens are boycotting a film, they're robbing off their livelihood. "We all are trying to put bread on the table for our family. Yes, this is a celebrated profession, but it is like just any other profession also. If you talk about boycotting, you're talking about robbing off our livelihood. I don't think that's fair. We get paid to act," Bedi told PTI. Angad also doesn't understand why a film like Gunjan Saxena, which sets a great example for the youth of our nation is being boycotted by the netizens. "If a film like this is going to be in a position where it can be a great example to the youth, why would you boycott that?" asked Bedi. For the unversed, all the backlash towards the star kids began when actor Sushant Singh Rajput died suddenly on June 14. While some called it suicide, others asserted that it's a murder. Amid all the conspiracy theories, netizens vented out their anger on the star kids, who are privileged in the industry, while outsiders like Sushant and other actors have to struggle every single day to earn bread and butter for themselves. Just Like Alia Bhatt's Sadak 2, Netizens Boycott Janhvi Kapoor's Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl Too Angad also spoke about Sushant's death and said, "We have lost such a gem of an actor. To have this backlash is wrong because tomorrow when we put ourselves in the same position, this is not how we are going to respond or react. It's important to be sensitive to each other." Coming back to Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, the film is directed by Sharan Sharma and it also stars Pankaj Tripathi, Manav Vij and Vineet Kumar Singh in key roles. The film is all set to stream on Netflix from August 12. Worried about your mental well-being or of someone you know? Help is just a call away. Reach out to the nearest mental health specialist at COOJ Mental Health Foundation (COOJ)- 0832-2252525, Parivarthan- +91 7676 602 602, Connecting Trust- +91 992 200 1122/+91-992 200 4305 or Sahai- 080-25497777/ SAHAIHELPLINE@GMAIL.COM More than 120 other people were injured, 15 of them critically, when the plane cracked into two pieces while landing in Kerala in heavy rain. The dead included both pilots of the Air India Express flight, the airline said in a statement, adding that the four cabin crew members were safe. The two-year-old Boeing 737-800 flew from Dubai to Kozhikode, also called Calicut, in Kerala, Indias southernmost state, the airline said. A similar tragedy was narrowly avoided at the same airport a year ago, when an Air India Express flight suffered a tail strike upon landing. None of the 180 passengers of that flight were injured. Kozhikodes 2,850-metre runway is on a flat hilltop with deep gorges on either side ending in a 34-metre drop. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep S Puri said in a statement that the flight overshot the runway in rainy conditions and went down the slope, breaking into two pieces upon impact. Advertisement An inquiry will be conducted by the ministrys Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, he said. Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Kerala CM @vijayanpinarayi Ji regarding the situation. Authorities are at the spot, providing all assistance to the affected. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 7, 2020 The airports runway end safety area was expanded in 2018 to accommodate wide-body aircraft. The runway end safety area meets United Nations international civil aviation requirements, but the UN agency recommends a buffer that is 150 metres longer than that which exists at Kozhikode airport, according to Harro Ranter, chief executive of the Aviation Safety Network online database. Dubai-based aviation consultant Mark Martin said that while it was too early to determine the cause of the crash, annual monsoon conditions appeared to be a factor. Low visibility, wet runway, low cloud base, all leading to very poor braking action is what looks like led to where we are at the moment with this crash, Mr Martin said, calling for the European Aviation Safety Agency and the US Federal Aviation Administration to assist with the Indian governments investigation. The Air India Express flight was part of the Indian governments repatriation mission to bring Indian citizens back to the country, officials said. All of the passengers were returning from the Gulf region, authorities said. Regular commercial flights have been halted in India because of the coronavirus outbreak. There were 174 adult passengers, 10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew on board the aircraft. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode, and that he had spoken to Keralas top elected official. The worst air disaster in India was on November 12 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakhastan Airlines Flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 on board the two planes. Most of us have names known only to family, friends and acquaintances; names not amplified because of the fame of great accomplishments, the notoriety of misdeeds or the recognition of something done to us. Most of us, if were fortunate, have names that wont be raised as rallying cries, written on protest signs or scrawled on car windows. Those names usually belong to people victimized by tragedy, injustice or both. Vanessa Guillens name shouldnt be a cause or the title of congressional legislation, but it is. The 20-year-old Army specialist, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, went missing at Fort Hood on April 22, and her remains were found on June 30. Shed been killed on base. The suspect was also a specialist who, Guillen had told other soldiers and her family, was sexually harassing her. Within two weeks of her disappearance, the Houston native had become a tragic reminder of the sexual harassment endured by women, especially those serving in the military. Its an issue this newspaper investigated in its award-winning 2013 Twice Betrayed series, which revealed how the military often failed to punish those accused of sexual assault and harassment but would punish victims. After Guillens family began speaking out and expressing their disappointment with how Fort Hood officials were handling the case, a private Facebook group called I Am Vanessa Guillen was created. More than 12,000 women in the military wrote about the harassment and assaults theyd suffered. Across the nation, marchers took to the streets in support of Guillen and her family. Her death has renewed inquiries and demands for reforming how the military handles accusations of sexual harassment and assaults and the culture in which it festers. Army officials say that Guillen never made an official report but thats the point. Guillen told her mother she feared her supervisors wouldnt take her seriously. She had good reason. From 2013 to 2016, Fort Hood led all U.S. Army installations in sexual assaults. An independent review of Fort Hoods command culture has been ordered by the secretary of Army. Fear of retaliation, or not being believed, is why so many people have been reluctant to report sexual harassment and assault. On ExpressNews.com: Vanessa Guillens family meets with Trump, who assures them: You have our support In testimony at a congressional hearing on Guillens death, the Armys inspector general reported more than one-third of women at Fort Hood had been sexually harassed. Other Defense Department reports and surveys suggested that fewer than half of service members whod been sexually assaulted reported those assaults. U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., has championed the #IAmVanessaGuillen bill, which would create an independent agency so active-duty service members could report sexual harassment and sexual assault. Its crucial these reports are filed outside the chain of command. The bill also calls for a complete review of the militarys prevention and response programs, and how it goes about responding to missing service members. Its the kind of bill demanded by Guillens family, who have emerged as advocates for all female military members trapped in such nightmares. Theyve met with members of Congress, as well as President Donald Trump in a White House meeting in which he pledged support and offered to pay for her funeral. On ExpressNews.com: Vanessa Guillen remembered at Fort Hood memorial; family lawyer demands congressional inquiry Since the age of 10, half of her life, Guillen aspired to join the Army. But when faced with sexual harassment, she didnt believe her voice was strong enough to convince her supervisors. In death, Guillen has become a movement, her name spoken in sorrow and resolve, her cause taken up by tens of thousands of people, their voices demanding justice and change. The military in which she lost her life, and the nation for which she served, must hear and respond to these voices. They must listen to what this young woman couldnt say. Hear her name. Say her name. Vanessa Guillen. By ANI CHOMU: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajasthan president Satish Punia on Saturday said that he is aware that 12 BJP MLAs were going for an excursion and accused the Congress of spreading rumours about party MLAs. "I am very much aware of 12 BJP MLAs going for an excursion. Whenever BJP Legislature party meets, they all will be there as Rajasthan BJP is intact and united. Congress is spreading rumours about our MLAs with CM playing low-level politics," Punia told ANI. "We trust our MLAs and it remains intact. It is Congress which does not trust its own MLAs," he added. Punia accused the Rajasthan Police of working as an agent of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. "Rajasthan police is working as an agent of Ashok Gehlot and they were targetting our MLAs. Hence we have sent our MLAs on an excursion," he said Meanwhile, Chomu MLA and BJP spokesperson Ramlal Sharma alleged that the Rajasthan government under Gehlot is misusing the power and threatening party MLAs to join Congress. "Rajasthan government is misusing the power. They are violating the privacy of MLAs by tapping their phones. They have misused the power of the Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG). They are bringing old cases of our MLAs and threatening them to take action if they refuse to join the Congress," Sharma said while speaking to the media. Sharma said that though Gehlot has enough number of MLAs supporting his government, "he has lost credibility and trust of the people." Rajasthan Assembly session is scheduled to begin on August 14. The Congress MLAs were lodged at Jaipur's Fairmont Hotel after differences between Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot came out in open triggering a political crisis in the state. Pilot was miffed after the SOG sent him a notice to record his statement in a case of alleged poaching of Congress MLAs in the state. The Congress has accused the BJP of indulging in horse-trading to bring down the Gehlot government. However, the BJP has rejected the allegations. Oil-Dri Corporation of America (NYSE:ODC) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in four days. Investors can purchase shares before the 13th of August in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 28th of August. Oil-Dri Corporation of America's next dividend payment will be US$0.26 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$1.04 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Oil-Dri Corporation of America has a trailing yield of approximately 2.9% on its current stock price of $35.25. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! So we need to investigate whether Oil-Dri Corporation of America can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow. See our latest analysis for Oil-Dri Corporation of America Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. Fortunately Oil-Dri Corporation of America's payout ratio is modest, at just 45% of profit. Yet cash flows are even more important than profits for assessing a dividend, so we need to see if the company generated enough cash to pay its distribution. Thankfully its dividend payments took up just 39% of the free cash flow it generated, which is a comfortable payout ratio. It's positive to see that Oil-Dri Corporation of America's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut. Click here to see how much of its profit Oil-Dri Corporation of America paid out over the last 12 months. Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing? Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. Fortunately for readers, Oil-Dri Corporation of America's earnings per share have been growing at 14% a year for the past five years. Earnings per share have been growing rapidly and the company is retaining a majority of its earnings within the business. Fast-growing businesses that are reinvesting heavily are enticing from a dividend perspective, especially since they can often increase the payout ratio later. Story continues The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. In the past 10 years, Oil-Dri Corporation of America has increased its dividend at approximately 5.7% a year on average. Earnings per share have been growing much quicker than dividends, potentially because Oil-Dri Corporation of America is keeping back more of its profits to grow the business. To Sum It Up Is Oil-Dri Corporation of America an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? Oil-Dri Corporation of America has been growing earnings at a rapid rate, and has a conservatively low payout ratio, implying that it is reinvesting heavily in its business; a sterling combination. Overall we think this is an attractive combination and worthy of further research. Want to learn more about Oil-Dri Corporation of America's dividend performance? Check out this visualisation of its historical revenue and earnings growth. We wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see, though. Here's a list of interesting dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend. 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. By Trend Reopening of cafes and restaurants in outdoor areas in Azerbaijan next week is being discussed, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of the Department of Economic Issues and Innovative Development Policy of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Shahmar Movsumov said. Movsumov made the remark in Baku during the briefing of the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, Trend reports on August 8. According to the assistant to president, the issue of resumption of the movement between the districts at subsequent stages is also under consideration. He noted that decisions on this issue have not yet been made, but this is one of the steps that the Operational Headquarters will take further. "If we succeed in maintaining epidemiological control, we will be able to agree to these quarantine softenings. The possibility of taking all these steps depends on us ourselves," Movsumov said. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz The Indian Consulate in Dubai will remain open on Saturday to help those who need assistance to travel to Kerala and provide information about the crash of the Air India Express flight that skidded off a hilltop runway and split in two while landing in heavy rain at an airport in Kozhikode, killing at least 17 people. According to the Civil Aviation Ministry, the Boeing 737 aircraft on a flight from Dubai to Kozhikode overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport at 7.41 PM on Friday. There were 184 passengers including 10 infants, 2 pilots and 4 cabin crew on board the aircraft, the ministry added. Captain Deepak Sathe, the pilot-in-command, and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were among those who died, police and airline officials said on Friday. Sathe was a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and had served at the force's flight testing establishment. "We are with all the families of injured and deceased and will do our best to assist them," the consulate tweeted on Friday evening. It said the consulate will remain open on Saturday to share any information related to the crash. India's newly appointed Consul General to Dubai Dr Aman Puri said that there were all kinds of Indians on-board the IX 1344 flight, which took off from Dubai and fell into a valley 35 feet below before broking into two portions. "Some were visa cancellation and expiry cases, some were travelling to meet their family members, some having lost their jobs, and some were travelling on medical emergencies," Puri told the local media. The Indian consulates in Dubai and Sharjah have activated five helpline numbers to provide information to the family members of the deceased and the injured passengers. We pray for the wellbeing of passengers and crew and will keep you updated as and when we receive further updates. Our helplines +97156 5463903, +971543090572, +971543090571, +971543090575, Puri told PTI on Friday. The helpline number to call in Sharjah for updates is +97165970303, the Gulf News reported. Air India Express has also established a helpline number in Sharjah at +971 6 5970303. The Air India Express is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India and it has only B737 aircraft in its fleet. TV footage from the accident site showed the aircraft split into two pieces and the debris lay scattered on the ground. President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were among several leaders who expressed shock at the accident. Modi also spoke to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. "Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest," the prime minister tweeted. The mishap brought back memories of the crash of Air India Express flight IX 812 on May 22, 2010 at Mangaluru International Airport. The flight from Dubai had overshot the runway and plunged down the cliff into a wooded valley, killing 158 people. Also read: Air India Express flight crash: Who manufactured the aircraft that crashed? It started at the beginning of the lockdown. A friend posted an article that stated that, because of the loss of revenue to New York schools, teacher firings would be forthcoming. I tried to post that article and got shut down by folks who wanted to cover their ears and go lalalalala real loudly. We should have known what was coming next. Tennessee and Florida announced they would reopen schools in September. The White House stated: The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school, a statement from the group reads. [Sound of brakes and tape rewinding.] Okay. The AAP included the word safely in a further statement, but still. We all agree that the country has to get back on track eventually. We cant sustain a lockdown forever. But, many attempts to reopen have led to closures. Weve learned they must be done safely, with everybodys health in mind. The Mayor announced that New York schools would reopen with maximum capacity by September. Governor Cuomo said Not so fast! and reminded the Mayor that the Governor makes that decision and not the Mayor. Mercedes Schneider offered a well-reasoned rebuttal in her blog on education. The article said in part that if one child contracts the virus, and that child is in contact with kids in their classroom, their lunchroom, their gym, their bus, as well as teaching staff, all of those people would have to be quarantined, basically shutting down the school. Harley Litzelman posted a petition online with an article that said in part: The legend of the self-sacrificing teacher is a fantasy that lets you pretend we were summoned by some higher calling to lives of poverty, endless toil or martyrdom. Politicians then use the youll do it for the kids line to blackmail teachers into sacrificing themselves yet again for their students. Except, in this case, that sacrifice will cost some teachers their lives. Three months ago, teachers were heroes for figuring out how to teach remotely and come up with new and interesting ways to engage their students. But, parents are tired of teaching their kids two hours a day and need to go back to work. Kids are tired of being shuttered up in their homes with their parents and siblings and yearn to run through a schoolyard, pushing over unlikeable classmates. And politicians and businessmen (same group) are tired of paying out money so that Americans can stay safe. They expect these same Americans to vote for them in November. And, because Ive experienced this type of ageism first hand, it occurred to me that the pandemic would be a perfect excuse to let go of older teachers. A buy out might be nice, but where is the money going to come from? Most school districts are now broke, due to the pandemic. As I wrote at the beginning of this epidemic, school has always been seen as a babysitting service for parents who have to work just to keep solvent, and that is almost every single parent I know. The death of the education system came about when both parents had to work to support the household. But, what are teachers to do? Look at it this way: Youre a young teacher, maybe two years in. This is your livelihood. If you dont teach, you dont get paid. In some states, such as Texas, there are no unions to protect you. So, you have to do what youre told. Now, flip the script: Youre an elder teacher, with a house, a family, kids in college and a mortgage. Youre faced with termination if you dont return in September, but you know that if you do and you contract the virus, you might die. Anybody who thinks either of these two people has any choice in their decision is a fool and an embarrassment to whatever educational system you graduated from. Teachers Choice money this year will be used for PPEs. But what happens when that money runs out? Dont believe for a moment that teachers will not eventually be responsible for buying and maintaining all PPE equipment and swabbing down their classroom in between classes. Woe to the itinerant teacher! The choice is simple: teachers must stand together and refuse to return until everybody in the building is safe. And they need allies. The link to Harley Litzelmans column and petition is here: https://medium.com/@harley.litzelman/teachers-refuse-to-return-to-campus-b9afa039ef2e You all told us that you loved us. You said we were unique and indispensable. You told us nobody could do our job as well as we do it. Prove it! Sign the petition! Hold those grey heads high! Comments on this and all columns may be submitted to Talk To The Old Guy on Facebook. Like and follow the page. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 23:10:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Volunteers help to clean the streets in Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich) by Dana Halawi BEIRUT, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- During the past two days after massive explosions rocked Lebanon's capital Beirut, young volunteers in the country gathered together to remove shattered glass from streets, while being in mourning over the death of more than 150 people. Standing in the Gemmayze, a neighborhood that was once bustling with nightlife lovers and tourists from around the world, Wassim Kerbage, a 17-year-old volunteer, was coordinating the cleaning work. "We are carrying our brooms to help the people affected by the explosions. We will go to their houses to clean up the rubble and broken glass," Kerbage from the Chouf district in Mount Lebanon told Xinhua. Any crisis in any part of Lebanon affects the whole country, he noted. Two huge blasts rocked Port of Beirut on Tuesday at around 6:10 p.m. local time (1510 GMT), killing 154 and injuring 5,000 others with dozens still missing under the rubble. The devastating explosions shook buildings all over the Lebanese capital, some of which are now condemned as unsafe to use while others were partially destroyed and in need of rehabilitation. Rima Abou Khzam, a member of the Union of Progressive Women, said her association is also working in tandem with Beirut's municipality to assess the damage to houses and buildings in Gemmayze, one of the most affected neighborhoods by the explosions because of its proximity to the Port of Beirut. "When we finish statistics, we submit them to the municipality which would secure support for the people whose houses were partially or totally destroyed," Abou Khzam told Xinhua. Benitto Moubarak, an 18-year-old student, came with his teachers and schoolmates to help clean Colleage Sacre-Coeur in Beirut and the surrounding streets. "We have to help each other as much as possible during these tough times," Moubarak noted. Zakaria Baba, project manager at the Development for People and Nature Association, told Xinhua that his association is working with the Lebanese National Bloc to survey people in the districts of Ashrafieh, Gemmayze and Karantina about their needs after the explosions to secure a rapid assessment of the losses and ensuing compensation. Marwan Abboud, governor of Beirut, announced earlier that the explosions cost the city between 3 billion U.S. dollars to 5 billion dollars in material losses. In addition, around 300,000 are estimated to have lost their houses in the explosions, according to Beirut's municipality. Lebanese President Michel Aoun promised on Friday to start the reconstruction work as soon as possible. Enditem Envoys from the US, Australia and Japan said they are deeply saddened to hear about the Air India Express accident in Kerala's Kozhikode and conveyed their thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. An Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 passengers on board overshot the tabletop runway at Kozhikode airport on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two, killing at least 18 people. Also Read: Air India Express Flight Crash LIVE Updates US envoy Ken Juster said the US mission is deeply saddened to hear the news of the accident. "On behalf of the US Mission, we are deeply saddened by the news of the Air India accident in Kozhikode. The victims and their loved ones are in our thoughts and prayers," he tweeted. Satoshi Suzuki, Japan's ambassador to India, hoped that search and rescue would conclude as quickly as possible. "My heart bleeds for the air accident of #AirIndiaExpress in Kozhikode and landslide in #Idukki. My thoughts are with those who lost their beloved ones and are injured. I hope search & rescue will conclude as quickly as possible," he said. My heart bleeds for the air accident of #AirIndiaExpress in Kozhikode and landslide in #Idukki. My thoughts are with those who lost their beloved ones and are injured. I hope search & rescue will conclude as quickly as possible. Satoshi Suzuki (@EOJinIndia) August 8, 2020 Australian envoy Barry O'Farrell said his thoughts and prayers are with families of the victims. Deeply saddened by the news of the Air India Express Plane accident in #Kozhikode. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims. @airindiain #KozhikodePlaneCrash Barry OFarrell AO (@AusHCIndia) August 8, 2020 "Deeply saddened by the news of the Air India Express Plane accident in #Kozhikode. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims. @airindiain #KozhikodePlaneCrash," O'Farrell said in a tweet. The remains of a missing Australian grandmother have been found on a multi-million-dollar construction site in Malaysia. Annapuranee 'Anna' Jenkins, 65, from Adelaide, was visiting George Town, on Penang Island, to spend time with her sick 101-year-old mother in December 2017 when she disappeared. She was on her way back from a dentist's appointment in an Uber, when she suddenly fled the car without explanation. The driver of the car said she left the car in a hurry. She has not been seen or heard from since. However two months ago a local tipped-off the family after stumbling on partially buried human remains and a number of items that belonged to the tragic granny. Adelaide grandmother Annapuranee 'Anna' Jenkins, 65,(pictured) has been missing since December 13, 2017 A local stumbled across human remains on a building site and tipped off Mrs Jenkins' family Royal Malaysian Police confirmed that the bones, found 500m from where Mrs Jenkins went missing, belonged to her after her son completed a DNA test. Her family are preparing to bring the granny's remains back to Australia so she can be buried and have urged the police to properly investigate the circumstances surrounding her mysterious death. Mrs Jenkins' son, who does not want to be named due to his job, said he collapsed and burst into tears after the DNA test proved the bones were those of his mother. 'We're all completely and utterly heartbroken. We all planned for this to happen but no one planned for it to come true,' the son told the Sunday Mail. Her son said even though he travelled to Malaysia to complete a DNA test he didn't want the results because he still hoped his mum would come home. 'Our entire family has prepared for the past two-and-a-half years that mum is not coming back and now we get told you're never going to hug your mum and you're never going to see her again,' he said. 'I'm not a Christian but mum and dad are Catholics so I wanted to go to the site to say a quick prayer for mum to absorb the gravity of the situation.' Some of Mrs Jenkins' belongings were found on the building site including a keycard for Hotel Jen where she was staying (left) and a mix of Malaysian and Australian coins (right) Mrs Jenkins with her husband, Frank, the day before she disappeared The discovery of Mrs Jenkins' remains came after a Good Samaritan sent through an anonymous tip-off which led investigators to the construction site. The concerned local sent the family the images on June 14 after tracking down their contact details from a missing persons poster. The photographs showed human remains and personal belongings which were dug up from the site. This included a blue top the grandmother was wearing before she disappeared, as well as a keycard for Hotel Jen, where Mrs Jenkins was staying. Photos also showed a dental appointment card, Clare Country Club pen, rosary beads, a glasses case, an asthma inhaler and a mix of Malaysian and Australian coins, which were all found on the worksite. While both Malaysian and Australian authorities have provided assistance, the family has felt it hasn't been enough and they hired private investigators. Her family distributed missing person posters in the hopes someone would come forward with information (pictured) (Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @avayuen_hk) Global Freedoms Threatened by China's Massive Surveillance System: China Might Have Copied US Military's Technology (Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @SamPavin) Global Freedoms Threatened by China's Massive Surveillance System: China Might Have Copied US Military's Technology China's high-level mass surveillance system is currently spreading and might threaten global freedoms, authorities claim. According to Fox News' latest report, the Beijing Public Safety Bureau stated that state-of-the-art surveillance cameras are monitoring every "millimeter" of China's capital. People's activities, even near their house's front door, are also seen by facial recognition algorithms match with images. These photos are stored in a secret database. Private chats discussing politics can also be accessed, which could lead to a person's job termination. Also Read: Wonder Why #SaveTheChildren Was Blocked on Facebook? Check out This Altered Photo of Tom Hanks The report stated that it is just the tip of the iceberg. Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership said that it could prevent the crime from happening, privacy and freedom of expression can also be threatened. Also Read: China TikTok Ban: ByteDance Challenges U.S. Government After Issued E.O-- 'We'll be Taking it in Court' "The Chinese Communist Party is committed to the production and use of technology that controls and surveils its population," said Vice Chairman Carolyn Bartholomew and Chairman Robin Cleveland of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. "The decision to use these tools of repression is politically motivated to sustain the Party," they added. One of the booming business of China is surveillance or spying. Different tech start-up companies are developing new surveillance technologies to meet the market demand with the government's consent. However, human rights activists said that these innovations could suppress and abuse people's freedom, especially the minority group. What is IJOP? China's surveillance uses a system called Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), which allows the countries surveillance system to monitor an entire population. The technology can mark the people, whose names are classified as "suspicious," for possible detention based on their mobile applications installed, travel patterns abroad, critical phrases used in private messages and bulletins. They can also be detained just for asking the location where they can peacefully pray. It was also explained that IJOP, which was developed by a state-owned military contractor China Electronics Technology Corporation, was based on the United States Military's technology used in Afghanistan and Iraq. Suppose an individual is stopped at a checkpoint. In that case, IJOP can identify that person by filtering through billions of data points, learning everything about him/her from home addresses and photos, to education, official identification numbers, family connections, and the internet browsing history. For more news update about China's new technologies, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Also Read: Israeli Hackers' New Apps May Help Prevent Domestic Violence by Alerting Women For Potential Signs of Future Violence This article is owned by TechTimes, Written by: Giuliano de Leon. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Writing in Al-Ahram Weekly a few weeks ago, Aziza Sami welcomed the appearance in English translation of the Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table (Kanz al-fawaid fi tanwi al-mawaid), a mediaeval Egyptian cookbook. But rather like London buses that always seem to come by in twos or threes no matter how long one might have been waiting, it appears that the relaunch of mediaeval Arab cooking has become something of a trend, with another compilation of recipes recently becoming available in a new English translation from New York Universitys Arabic Library of classical Arabic texts in translation. This recipe book, translated by US Arabist Charles Perry as Scents and Flavours from an Arabic manuscript entitled Kitab al-Wuslah ila l-Habib fi Wasf al-Tayyibat wal-Tib, is the first translation into any language. It was originally compiled in Syria, probably Aleppo, in the early 13th century, in other words during the Ayyubid sultanate that once ruled over Egypt and much of the Levant. It is an important record of the kind of dishes that households of the time would have feasted on, Perry says, and perhaps it also contains recipes that adventurous cooks might like to try out in their probably somewhat smaller kitchens today. Among the recipes collected in Scents and Flavours are ones for starters, main courses, desserts and sweets, though the organisation of an Ayyubid meal was somewhat different from the pattern familiar to us today. There would have been more extensive preparations for one thing, particularly if a banquet was what the mediaeval chefs had in mind. Much activity would have focused on the production of the scents and perfumes that were essential parts of any well-organised soiree. Then there would have been the main courses, and here the compiler of the mediaeval cookbook focuses particularly on meat dishes based on chicken and lamb. Many of the recipes are likely to be familiar even centuries later, with dishes resembling todays shish tawook and lamb kebabs probably featuring at many Ayyubid banquets. The chefs would have been expected to develop variations on such perennial themes, and the cookbook typically presents both a recipe for a dish in its basic form along with a series of more complicated variations. Section five on chicken dishes offer themes and variations on roasted, fried, stuffed and other forms of chicken, for example, often using fruit, nuts or yoghurt to taste. Section six, the longest, is on lamb dishes and includes recipes for kebabs and roast meat as well as stews and broths of various kinds. Vegetables are used to bulk up meat dishes, especially stews, and here the Ayyubid chefs show themselves to have been open to a range of regional influences. The perfumed rice that still today is a mainstay of Persian cooking often cooked with saffron, dried fruit or almonds thus receives much attention, as do meat dishes with chickpeas, cauliflower and leeks. There are also more elaborate meat and vegetable dishes, including some well-known in Egypt today, including stuffed vegetables and lamb stews with molokhiyya (Jews mallow). Lastly, there are sweets and desserts, and here too the cookbook contains many almost-familiar recipes. There are recipes for cakes drenched in sugar syrup and stuffed with nuts, for example, much like today, as well as more elaborate sugar-based confections that must have taken great skill to produce in the probably rather smoky atmosphere of Ayyubid kitchens. Among the missing elements familiar in Middle Eastern cooking today are potatoes, brought back from the New World too late to make it into mediaeval kitchens, along with tomatoes, a staple of popular dishes like Egyptian koshari, a mixture of pasta and rice drenched in spicy tomato sauce. There is also little or no fish, explained, Perry says, by the original audience for this cookbook living well inland. While some of the recipes in Scents and Flavours could be worth trying out today, it might be difficult to be entirely sure one had got them right. The compiler of this cookbook apparently intended it to function more as a set of broad guidelines or rules of thumb than as instructions for novice chefs. As a result, there are few if any details on amounts and cooking times, and in any case Ayyubid ovens were unlikely to have been as adjustable as modern ones. However, it is striking that, as Perry says, few other cultures seem to have invested so much time and effort in compiling cookbooks, todays Western culture excepted, of course. There is only one surviving ancient Roman cookbook, and this does not seem to have been aimed at practising chefs. Can the relative abundance of mediaeval Arab cookery books be explained by a greater interest in good food? As Perry notes, the mediaeval Arabs had a highly developed food culture because of their inheritance of the culinary traditions of several civilisations, including those of the ancient Mediterranean, the Turkic peoples and the ancient Persian Empire. Writing in her foreword to Scents and Flavours, UK food writer Claudia Roden, herself born in Cairo, draws attention to some of the continuities between mediaeval and modern Arab cuisine. The codifying of recipes in the Arab middle ages would have started in the huge court kitchens, for example in Baghdad, where cooking had to be recorded so that it could be easily passed on and instructions read out to illiterate cooks, she says. The recipes included much that may be familiar to us today, including lamb with apricots or sour cherries, stuffed eggplants with spiced minced meat, pastries stuffed with chopped almonds and rose water, or milk pudding with ground rice garnished with pistachios and pomegranate seeds. Roden also notes that there has been growing interest in mediaeval Arab food writing since French orientalist Maxime Rodinson blazed the trail in a pioneering conspectus published in 1949. Rodinson was among the first to take a serious interest in mediaeval Arab food culture, rightly seeing it as a necessary pendant to the surviving literary writing of the time. Some of this literary writing at least could perhaps have originated in mediaeval dinner parties of which one can catch a glimpse in recipe books of this kind. Scents and Flavours: A Syrian Cookbook, translated by Charles Perry, New York: New York University Press (Library of Arabic Literature), 2020, pp194. Some mediaeval recipes Scents and Flavours contains recipes for starters, main courses and desserts, arranged according to the pattern of a mediaeval Arab meal. Egyptian kebabs: Cut the meat into thin kebabs and smoke them. Once smoked, moisten with water. Put sesame oil in a brass pan and fry the meat, repeatedly spraying with rose water and salt. When done and browned, sprinkle with coriander seeds, and they are ready to eat. Serve on dishes, either as a garnish or by itself. A variation: Cut filet and loin into thick kebabs and put them on a skewer. Rub with sesame oil, olive oil, pounded coriander seeds and garlic. Roast on the skewer over a low fire. A delicious variation, the best there is: Cut filet into pieces, and cut tail fat into similar pieces. String on a skewer, alternating two pieces of meat with one piece of fat, and roast over a charcoal fire. Whenever the fat is about to drip, lift the end of the skewer so that the fat falls back on the meat, and rub it with rose water and sesame oil. Repeat until the meat is done. Sprinkle with coriander seeds, and its ready to eat. Sanbusak [a kind of sweet]: Take a sheet of sanbusak dough, trim the edges, spray with rose water, and sprinkle with finely pounded sugar. Fold the corners to the centre and sprinkle with sugar, and crimp together in that way to make it the size of a large flat cake. Then take sesame oil, heat it in the pan, and lay the cake in it, corners and upper surface protruding, until it firms up in frying. Then turn over and repeat until it has browned like a sanbusak. Put it in a dish, pour on thick syrup, and sprinkle with crushed toasted pistachios. The key is careful folding. *A version of this article appears in print in the 6 August, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: TikTok, owned by ByteDance, said: "We have made it clear that TikTok has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request." Stock photo Beijing reacted angrily yesterday after US President Donald Trump opened a new front in the Sino-American Cold War when he banned Chinese-owned social media giants TikTok and WeChat. The US president's move gives Americans 45 days to stop doing business with the platforms, citing national security concerns for the incendiary move. The apps could be banned from Apple and Google app stores, thereby removing them from US distribution. His twin executive orders mark the latest in a series of rows. The contentious issues include human rights abuses in Hong Kong, the global influence of Huawei, and the genesis and spread of coronavirus. But the fallout between the superpowers threatens to directly affect the lives of millions of Chinese citizens in China and around the world. It could also affect American firms in China. Mr Trump had previously threatened a deadline of September 15 to "close down" TikTok unless another company bought it. The order effectively signals a 45-day deadline for Microsoft, already in talks to acquire TikTok. TikTok said it was "shocked" and threatened legal action. It said the order "risks undermining global business trust in the United States' commitment to the rule of law". Mr Trump accused both firms of aiming to "capture vast swathes of information from its users". He said they allowed the Communist Party to obtain private data on Americans, check up on Chinese citizens abroad, and mount disinformation campaigns. Mr Trump said: "The spread in the US of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People's Republic of China continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States." Wang Wenbin, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said: "The US frequently abuses its national power and unjustifiably suppresses non-US companies. At the expense of the rights and interest of US users and companies, the US is carrying out arbitrary political manipulation and suppression." But he failed to mention that China blocks many US platforms. WeChat users, even abroad, have been blocked from opening links to western media stories sent through the platform. TikTok, owned by ByteDance, said: "We have made it clear that TikTok has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request." ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Towards the end of last month, Monash University welcomed new arts students in a Zoom meeting. In the clip of the orientation session, published for a period on SBS, the staff moderator invites questions from participants. Universities have been caught in an escalating culture war. Credit:Louise Kennerley I recently heard that like almost 300 staff members at Monash were sacked as well as a bunch of courses being cut, says one student, who goes on to flag the downsides of online learning. The moderator assures her that the staff are doing their best. The student persists. The moderator cuts her off. The student persists on the written chat forum. The moderator disables the forum. Fellow students take up the fight; booting the student out was atrocious". The ruins of Hiroshima, Japan, weeks after the United States' atomic bombing during World War II in August 1945. (Associated Press) To the editor: To argue we didn't need to start the nuclear age by dropping the bombs on Japan 75 years ago, as historians Gar Alperovitz and Martin J. Sherwin do in their op-ed article, is overly simplistic. We didn't start the nuclear age by dropping the bomb; we started it by inventing the bomb. And once we had, it was inevitable that the Soviet Union would feel the need to build their own, leading to the arms race. Also, we didn't invent the bomb primarily to defeat Japan; we did it to counter Nazi Germany's effort to build it first. The decision to use the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the World War II is far more nuanced than the article suggests. President Harry S Truman "knew" it was unnecessary, or he "knew" it was necessary, depending which facts one cherry picks. The terms of surrender, the role of Russia and strong opposition to unconditional surrender within the Japanese military were all considerations that Truman was balancing when deciding to force a Japanese surrender. We should avoid condemning historical decisions based on hindsight. Paul Stull, Carpinteria .. To the editor: When I was a history student at Harvard in the 1950s, it was thought the U.S. had to drop atomic bombs on Japan to end the war. Distinguished Harvard professor Samuel Eliot Morison argued the necessity of dropping the bombs in the 15th volume of his "History of United States Naval Operations in World War II." Alperovitz and Sherwin are right that Truman and U.S. military leaders knew Japan would surrender when Russia declared war on it because the country could not fight a war on two fronts. While it is important to face this truth about the unnecessary use of the atomic bombs against defenseless civilians, we should also acknowledge the dropping of a second bomb on Nagasaki was inexcusable after the horrible destruction wrought by the first bomb at Hiroshima. But even more important than owning up to having started the nuclear age is the need to continue negotiations with Russia on New START, the treaty that caps U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads. The Trump administration's insistence that China join in the treaty may derail this safeguard to further nuclear arms development. Story continues Fred Fenton, Seal Beach .. To the editor: As a college student in 1962, I had the privilege of meeting with Truman for 20 minutes in Independence, Mo. We discussed the Cuban Missile Crisis and the atomic bomb. What Alperovitz and Sherwin omit about the decision to use the bomb was that Truman was justifiably afraid that if the Russians unilaterally invaded Japan without an equally bloody American participation, the Communists would have occupied much of post-war Japan. As the authors note, the Japanese may have feared the Russians as much as they did the bomb; however, Truman acted strategically to both save American lives and to forestall a long-term Russian occupation of Japan. Truman acted decisively in using the bomb to end the war and to protect the postwar strategic interests of both America and Japan. His action also saved an estimated 500,000 American lives, possibly including that of my father. Gary Wartik, Camarillo .. To the editor: To me it's just sickening what a ridiculous amount of money we've spent on the arms race all these years that could've been used to eliminate poverty. I lived in Japan for seven years and went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park three times, and it left a lasting impression. Our military could have dropped that bomb over the ocean, and Japan would have surrendered after seeing such devastating horror. I hope and pray that this will never be repeated in any country. Lynn Thompson, Redondo Beach Houston Chronicle Two Texas women pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges in an elder fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. Pamela Sue Jennings, 68, of Houston, and Pamela Sue Hannan, 67, of Sherman, pleaded guilty to conspiring with foreign co-conspirators to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business on Thursday in federal court. From zero percent in April, the auto industry was able to reach 90-95 percent sales in July compared to the same month last year. Vehicle makers are pushing their suppliers to produce as much as possible. However, majority of the people who made up the labour force at the component making plants had moved back to the villages amid the lockdown. We take a look at this issue in todays automotive wrap of the week. But first here is the complete brief of all the major events in the automotive space this week. Mahindra looks for partnerships in EV Homegrown auto major Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) is looking for strategic partners for its electric vehicles business in order to further scale it up, a top company official said on August 7. The auto major, which reported a 94 per cent decline in consolidated profit at Rs 54.64 crore for the June quarter, also said there is no impact of COVID-19 on its EV launch plans. Kia unveils Sonet After tonnes of spy pics and teasers, Kia has finally unveiled the Sonet compact SUV. First showcased at the 2020 Auto Expo, the Kia Sonet is the second car to be premiered first in India. Mahindra cancels bid to make vans for US Mahindra & Mahindra has bailed out from the bid to manufacture small delivery trucks for the United States Postal Service that is worth $6.3 billion. The company has written off the investment it had made towards this project, a top official of the company said. Spinny buys Truebil Spinny and Truebil, two of Indias biggest start-ups in the online used-vehicle space, have joined hands to tap the burgeoning second-hand car market. Gurugram-based Spinny will acquire 100 percent of Mumbai-based Truebil for an undisclosed sum, top officials of both the companies confirmed to Moneycontrol. Toyota releases teaser of new SUV The second car to come out of the Suzuki-Toyota partnership will be the Toyota Urban Cruiser, the teaser for which has dropped on the companys twitter handle. The new SUV will be based on the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza and a launch is expected to be sometime during the festival season between late August and early September. Tata Motors seeks approval to pay MD Tata Motors is seeking shareholders approval to ratify the payment of minimum salary to its MD and CEO Guenter Butschek, a German national, for FY20 -- and a hike for FY21. According to the company, Butscheks total remuneration for FY20 was Rs 19.27 crore. The Companies Act 2013 prescribes a certain limit for executive payment if a company has inadequate profits. Increasing vehicle demand amid manpower shortage Three months after scenes of reverse migration emerged from almost every city the auto component industry continues to remain impacted by the shortage of manpower keeping vehicle makers on the edge. Scores of auto parts suppliers are operating with less than half of their full labour strength though there is a need to increase production rapidly. The intense lockdown seen in April had driven out the migrant workforce back to their villages resulting in the shortages. With 30 operational plants in India, Minda Corporation is one of the largest suppliers of auto parts to the vehicle manufacturers. Though the company has seen a gradual uptick in number of workforce in the past month there is still a shortfall. Ashok Minda, chairman of Minda Corporation said, We do have to face issues like lack of manpower and we are working on how to get them back. So many workers have gone back to their villages and to bring them back is a real challenge. We cannot readily hire new people since they have no training. Because it is a highly skilled job the productivity goes down. Other bigger suppliers report that contract labourers are facing family pressure against rejoining their previous employers for fear of contracting COVID-19. Though irregular but transport options have been thrown open by the government in a limited manner. Our entire permanent workforce is still with us. If we have a labour issue then it is with the temporary workers. The families of people who have gone back also need to be convinced of rejoining work and that is not easy. It may be difficult for them to find jobs in their native places but they wont readily come back, said a top official of a tyre manufacturing firm. Skilled jobs involving working on a production line and vehicle testing to name a few, cannot be delegated to a temporary worker even after providing training. The permanent workers have the required educational qualification that temporary workers lack. Vehicle manufacturers are thus not directly impacted by the reverse migration of workers. Our production lines are impacted because of the need for social distancing and other similar measures and not because of lack of workers. But temporary workers are in short supply and more so at our vendor partners and because of this there is a sense of anxiety, said a top official of a Mumbai-based automaker. The automotive supply chain has to work flawlessly to get production back on track. If the supply of even a single component is impacted then the entire supply network gets disrupted. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Four Ohio bars -- including one Akron and two in East Cleveland -- were cited Friday by the Ohio Investigative Unit for blatant violations of state health orders and coronavirus safety protocols, the unit said. The Ohio Investigative Unit is made up of plainclothes peace officers responsible for enforcing Ohios alcohol, tobacco, and food stamp fraud laws. The state began citing bars for hour limitations after the Ohio Liquor Control Commission on July 31 ended alcohol sales at the states bars and restaurants at 10 p.m. nightly, to stop the spread of COVID-19. Highland Tavern in Akron this week received two citations for serving alcohol after the state limit of 10 p.m. and one citation for improper conduct disorderly activity, according to the Ohio Investigative Unit. The Akron Police Department issued a warning on Aug. 2, for serving after-hours. On Aug. 6, OIU Agents issued a violation notice for serving after-hours, according to the Ohio Investigative Unit. Establishment staff indicated to agents, they would not comply and would continue to operate as normal, the unit said in a news release. After a citizen complaint, investigators arrived about midnight at Highland Tavern to see a lack of social distancing, employees not wearing masks, patrons congregating in large groups while standing and drinking, the unit said. Agents saw two bartenders continuing to serve alcohol to customers. Positive Vibes Social Club in East Cleveland, received an administrative citation for improper conduct disorderly activity. Agents worked with the East Cleveland Police Department, and observed egregious violations of ODH orders, including a complete lack of social distancing efforts, physical barriers and patrons congregated at the bar, the unit said. Sportmans Lounge in East Cleveland received an administrative citation for improper conduct disorderly activity and limitation on hours for on-premises consumption. Agents worked with the Easat Cleveland police and between 11:45 p.m. and 12:15 a.m., agents saw a large groups congregating in the parking lot, with pop-up tent with tables, chairs and music. According to the unit, the bar was selling drinks -- including six at one time -- and people drank in the makeshift patio in the parking lot. Town House Bar in Marietta received an administrative citation for limitation on hours for on-premises consumption and insanitary conditions. The local health department and citizens complained that the bar had no social distancing, employees and patrons were not wearing masks, concerts with large crowds were hosted, and employees violated the hours limitations, according to the unit. At approximately 1:35 a.m. Saturday, agents saw patrons drinking on the outdoor patio and inside around the bar. These cases will go before the Ohio Liquor Control Commission for potential penalties, including fines and/or the suspension or revocation of liquor permits. Last Friday, four Northeast Ohio bars were cited. Agents also also gave warnings to a number of bars, the news release said. The majority of establishments we visit are doing everything they can to provide a safe environment for their patrons, said OIU Enforcement Commander Eric Wolf. It is no surprise to see so many following the precautions put in place to make their establishments safe and compliant with the directives. Agents will continue to conduct compliance checks and take enforcement action when egregious violations are observed. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be invited to lay the foundation stone for various public facilities at a mosque to be built in Ayodhya's Dhannipur village by a trust formed by the state Sunni Central Waqf Board, one of its officebearers said on Saturday. "On the five-acre land in Dhannipur village, which has been given for the construction of a mosque on the Supreme Court's directive, a hospital, a library, a community kitchen and a research centre will also be built. These will be for the public and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be invited to lay the foundation stone for these projects," secretary and spokesperson of the trust Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) Athar Hussain told PTI. He said the chief minister will not only participate in the programme, but will also assist in the construction of these public facilities. To a question on whether Adityanath will lay the foundation stone for the construction of the mosque, Hussain said according to the four schools of thought in Islam Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi and Maliki there is no provision for laying the foundation stone for a mosque. Asked whether the mosque will be named as "Babri Masjid", Hussain said, "There is no such thinking. The name is yet to be finalised." "Barring the Masjid-e-Nabwi (Madina in Saudi Arabia) and a few other mosques, the names of other mosques do not matter. In the eyes of Allah, the 'sajda' done at the mosques is important, everything else is meaningless," he added. The trust constituted by the Uttar Pradesh State Sunni Central Waqf Board to construct the mosque is in the process of setting up an office in the state capital, which will be functional in 10-12 days. "The trust has been formed. In accordance with rules, we have applied for a PAN card in its name and awaiting its delivery, after which we will meet online and pass a resolution for opening a bank account. We met online last month. As of now, we have identified an office space and renovation work is going on there. It will take 10-12 days for the work to be completed, after which the office will be functional," Hussain said. The state government has allotted a five-acre land in Dhannipur for the construction of the mosque. The IICF will oversee the construction of the mosque, the Indo-Islamic research centre, the library and the hospital on the land. A member of the trust said, "Ayodhya District Magistrate Anuj Kumar Jha has formally handed over the possession of the land for the mosque to the trust members. We have got a certified copy of the revenue record." The Supreme Court had, in November last year, paved the way for the construction of a Ram temple by a Trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and directed the Centre to allot an alternative five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a "prominent" place in the holy town in Uttar Pradesh. The trust will have 15 members, of whom the names of nine have been declared and the rest will be finalised soon. "We will co-opt the remaining six trustees. The secretary of the trust will also be its official spokesperson," a member of the trust said. Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party (SP) sought an apology from Adityanath on Friday over his remark that he would not attend the inauguration of the mosque to be built in Ayodhya, replacing the demolished Babri Masjid. After the "bhoomi pujan" for the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the chief minister had said on television that "as a yogi and as a Hindu", he could not go for the inauguration of a mosque. "If you ask me as a chief minister, I have no problem with any belief, religion or community. If you ask me as a yogi, I will definitely not go because as a Hindu, I have the right to follow my way of worship and act accordingly," he had said. "I am neither 'vaadi' nor 'prativadi' (neither petitioner nor respondent). That is why neither will I be invited, nor will I go. I know that I will not be getting any such invitation," Adityanath had said. "The day they invite me, the secularism of many will be in danger. That is why I want that their secularism should not be in danger and I continue to silently work to ensure that everyone benefits from government schemes without any discrimination," he had said. SP spokesperson Pawan Pandey criticised Adityanath over his remarks, saying he had violated the oath he took while assuming charge as the chief minister. "He is the chief minister of the entire state and not only of the Hindu community. Whatever the population of Hindus and Muslims in the state, he is the chief minister of all. This language of the chief minister lacks dignity. He should seek an apology from people for this," he said. MILOVICE, Czech Republic (AP) Wild horses, bison and other big-hoofed animals once roamed freely in much of Europe. Now they are transforming a former military base outside the Czech capital in an ambitious project to improve biodiversity. Where occupying Soviet troops once held exercises, massive bovines called tauros and other heavy beasts now munch on the invasive plants that took over the base years ago. The animals are turning the former Milovice military base 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of Prague into a miniature version of the steppe that once rolled across the European continent. With some species wiped out in the wild, the animals now have the chance to live together again in relative freedom. Conservationists deployed them at Milovice five years ago. Now they hope to enlarge the sanctuary by one third to 360 hectares (890 acres) this year. The animals' task is to improve biodiversity among local plants by eating invasive ones while saving endangered species, said Dalibor Dostal, the director of European Wildlife, an organization behind the project. Its a miraculous change, Dostal said. Nobody expected that the whole process would go ahead so fast and the area would change so much in just a few years. He said the large animals are as key to preserving the ecosystem "as trees are for forests. David Storch, an environment professor at Pragues Charles University who was not involved in the project, agreed. He said the project is absolutely unique because it shows that nature can be preserved not only by protecting it from human activities but also by actively shaping it with big-hoofed animals. The selection of the animals was based on the experiences of conservationists in various countries. Domestic animals such as sheep were ruled out because they would feed on endangered plants as well. Mechanical cutting of the invasive plants was deemed too costly. While invasive grasses are a delicacy for wild horses, European bisons and tauros prefer bushes, creating an ideal partnership. Story continues The invasive plants began to grow after Soviet troops, who stayed on after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of then-Czechoslovakia, finally withdrew from the base in 1991. Former military bases are considered places with great biodiversity, the conservationists said, because soldiers activities simulated the impacts of hoofed animals. The Czech project includes tauros that were transferred from the Netherlands, where a cross-breeding program aimed at coming close to the original species, the aurochs, started in 2008. That wild ancestor of todays cattle became extinct in the 17th century. Wild horses were transported from Britains Exmoor National Park, while European bisons came from several reserves in Poland. The project now has herds of 27 European bisons, 25 tauros and some 70 wild horses. The animals move freely on the pastures on the former military base year-round. With water sources available, they are able to care for themselves, even in winter. The landscape quickly saw signs of transformation. Flowers started to dot the area as early as the second year of the project as the large herbivores reduced the tall, dense invasive grasses. Today, the whole area changes colors over the course of the year, depending on what flowers are in bloom. The most precious is the star gentian, also known as a cross gentian. The blue flower is now flourishing at Milovice more than anywhere else in the country. The former base also has become abundant in other animals and insects. The Adonis blue, a butterfly, has been spotted there for the first time since 1967. If we give nature a chance, if we give it time and space, it can take care of many things, said Miloslav Jirku, a biologist with the Czech Academy of Sciences who has been involved in the project from the start. At the very beginning, I thought that lots of species that used to be here in the 1990s would have to be returned artificially. Today, a number of them are already here without us doing anything about it, he said. ___ This version corrects in the summary and the story that the massive beasts are not aurochs, which are extinct. ___ Follow all AP coverage of climate change and green issues at https://apnews.com/Climate. Police have come under attack as they facilitated contractors removing a pyre in West Belfast (Niall Carson/PA) An attack on police at an internment bonfire site in West Belfast which left at least 26 officers injured has been slammed as disgraceful. Police came under attack at Distillery Street with petrol bombs and other missiles as they facilitated the removal of a bonfire pyre. First Minister Arlene Foster slammed the disgraceful scenes and called for prosecutions. Our thoughts are with the injured officers. Disgraceful scenes. Important to see prosecutions in due course. A message must be sent that this is not acceptable. https://t.co/njWE1pudED Arlene Foster #ProudofNI. (@ArleneFosterUK) August 8, 2020 Our thoughts are with the injured officers. Disgraceful scenes. Important to see prosecutions in due course. A message must be sent that this is not acceptable, Mrs Foster tweeted. Superintendent Melanie Jones said officers tasked to Distillery Street came under sustained attack by a large crowd of youths. Expand Close Superintendent Melanie Jones said the violence was completely unacceptable (Rebecca Black/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Superintendent Melanie Jones said the violence was completely unacceptable (Rebecca Black/PA) She said: At this point we can confirm that at least 26 officers have sustained injuries and are currently receiving treatment. Footage from evidence-gathering cameras will be reviewed and all efforts will be made to identify those involved in the completely unacceptable violence we have seen here today. We will continue to work with the local community, representatives and other partners to address this issue, but it is disappointing that some young people and their guardians are not listening to our repeated warnings. 26 police officers injured in Belfast disorder https://t.co/W5isFVFv1p Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) August 8, 2020 People who choose to engage in criminal and anti-social behaviour must understand it is unacceptable and must stop. People have a right to live in peace and to feel safe in their communities. Ms Jones urged parents and guardians to keep young people safe by knowing where they are going and who they are with. Young people must understand the dangers of getting involved in behaviour which could result in them injuring themselves or others, or ultimately, ending up with a criminal record, she added. Justice Minister Naomi Long and the Police Federation have criticised the attacks on officers. It is disgraceful that officers going about their work and serving communities should be targeted like this. 26 officers were injured in sustained petrol bomb & masonry attacks - a terrible tally. Our thoughts are with them and other colleagues. @PoliceServiceNI @ChiefConPSNI https://t.co/XZin5Pi5Cr Police Federation for Northern Ireland (@PoliceFedforNI) August 8, 2020 The Police Federation tweeted: It is disgraceful that officers going about their work and serving communities should be targeted like this. 26 officers were injured in sustained petrol bomb & masonry attacks a terrible tally. Our thoughts are with them and other colleagues. Ms Long responded: Absolutely disgraceful conduct. Officers should not face this kind of violence as they try to keep people safe. Residents are sick of this nonsense every year they want peace and quiet I hope that no-one was seriously injured and that they all make a full and speedy recovery. Previous years have seen bonfires lit in Belfast to mark the anniversary of internment without trial on August 9, 1971. This controversial policy saw thousands of mostly nationalists detained. Expand Close Crowds watch in 2019 as a bonfire is lit in the New Lodge area of Belfast to mark the anniversary (PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Crowds watch in 2019 as a bonfire is lit in the New Lodge area of Belfast to mark the anniversary (PA) Last year a standoff developed between young people and police in the New Lodge area of North Belfast This weekend, police moved into a number of areas of Belfast to facilitate workers removing wood gathered for bonfires, while community talks prevented other pyres being built. A PSNI spokeswoman said officers are assisting other agencies. As a police service we have been clear in our position that we will always support other agencies to carry out their statutory functions and this includes the lawful removal of bonfire materials, she said. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Kisan Congress Vice President Surendra Solanki on Saturday wrote a letter to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar demanding the extension of loans to farmers from August this year to March 2021 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Solanki said in a letter to Tomar that in July, it was said that the farmers who are not be able to pay this loan amount on the date of payment for the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme will have to pay 3 per cent more interest. Solanki pointed out that the farmers, who have taken loan through KCC, if they return the amount by August 31, they will only have to pay 4 per cent interest. "And after this date, the loan repaying farmers will have to pay 7 per cent interest. But the situation has become more serious today, the epidemic is spreading and the farmers have not made much profit, nor there is any hope of improving the situation in the coming times," he said. He also highlighted that in many areas of the country, farmers are also facing the problem of floods and thus they will not be in a position to repay the loan. "The Kisan Congress demands that you consider the farmers sympathetically and demand that the loan of the farmers be forgiven. The date of repayment of this loan should be immediately extended to March 31, 2021 as farmers across the country are struggling more due to the outbreak of the epidemic," Solanki added. Solanki also threatened that if the demands are not met, then the Kisan Congress will hit the streets after August 16. Increased attendance and the occurrence of conversations in multiple languages have been positive developments in the queer world. However, it has been observed that though spaces have shifted online, they continue to remain trans-exclusionary. If it seems like everyone around us is reaching out for a shoulder to lean on in this time of the pandemic, then that need is urgent, desperate and acutely experienced when it comes to those marginalised by mainstream society. In speaking to members from the LGBTQ+ communities, it becomes evident that differences are further magnified within these communities. Factors like caste, class, creed and corporeal compositions which are already hurdles to accessing benefits in the mainstream become more crippling. And much like other support institutions battling to provide care and assistance, these LGBTQ+ safe spaces have been forced to go online as well. While there have been some fundamental changes engendered by this shift, there are other issues that have only become clearer. And addressing them will be the demanding hard work needed to ensure an equitable future for these groups, as well as our societies at large. For Good As You, the longest, continuously running LGBTQ support group, which has been around for more than 25 years, it was a no-brainer to move their physical weekly meetings to an online platform. And it was immediately interesting to see who began coming for the meetings, according to the openly gay Srinivas Muktha, a software engineer who volunteers with the group and has been actively attending its activities since 2005. In the past, people would come for the meetings either through the route of counselling or accompanied by friends. With the newer members on these online meetings, there has been no such pattern. In fact, for a lot of them, it was their first time socially interacting with the community and not just for hook-ups as before. These new members are logging on from towns in coastal Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and we have a few people attending from the North as well, he points out. In the before times, distance and commitment would be the common reasons behind the floating population at the weekly meetings, but presently, location and distance arent factors at all, he adds. Another significant change that Srinivas has noticed has been the multiple languages being spoken on these online meetings. There has always been an effort to translate any member who wants to speak in a language they are comfortable with at the meetings. In reality, English has become the default language. But with these online platforms, being able to simultaneously translate people through text in the chat window has changed this aspect, he tells us. And people arent bothered at all because were so used to reading subtitles, he quips. This has allowed people to speak up at these meetings even if it is their first time attending it. And language isnt the barrier any longer, he adds. This increase in attendance and need for conversation with others from the LGBTQ+ communities is also something witnessed by Rohini Malur, a communications manager, who is a founding member of All Sorts of Queer, a support group and safe space for all queer people who arent cis-men, which started in 2016. We would do Wednesday Drinks as a weekly meetup before, but hardly anyone would show up. In these times, with an increasing sense of loneliness and helplessness, our weekly online meetings are very well attended, she says. For many of our members, who are women, non-binary and trans, it has been a difficult situation. Emotionally for sure, but even physically in some instances with being forced to move back with their birth families for different reasons. Either theyre out but live with a disapproving family or theyre not out and have had to suppress their desires and its expressions, she explains. Or it is harder because theyre living alone, weve had instances of members of the group moving in with each other to battle these feelings during the lockdowns, she added. For the heterosexual community and cis-queer men by and large the home has always been the safe space. Therefore returning, rediscovering and refurbishing it has been their present preoccupation in this period of social distancing. This hasnt been the case at all for members of the trans community, says Kanaga, a Chennai-based trans woman who has been volunteering for several years with a number of organisations working for transgender rights in Tamil Nadu, besides working as an IT consultant. While Kanaga notes the transition of safe spaces into online forums as a positive move, she does want to point out an oversight. The problem within our larger community has always been one of access, she stresses. Who gets to use the terms mental health, stress, self-care? Who gets to access these new online avenues when these safe spaces have always been trans-exclusionary? Who among us gets to have a home? she asks. Theres a subset of the community who still need these physical safe spaces. The trouble is for a majority of the trans community, the safe space cannot be converted into the digital forum. Among my own circle of friends and acquaintances in the community, I saw the way that they missed this years Pride March though it happened online. For them, they miss dressing up for cultural events and going wild during the March. Theyve had to keep it all together for an entire year and at these community gatherings, they just let it go. So for us, from the trans community, these drop-in centres, physical safe spaces and houses of our friends are very necessary still, she explains. While in her own experience, Kanaga did seek out online spaces over a decade ago in a bid to be seen as she wanted to be seen, called by the names and pronouns she preferred, through working with her community she has also come to see the slippages that happen in this seemingly easy move to the online space. In a community where personal space isnt a given, it is already hard to access basic needs, and if one does access these digital forums, the ingrained trans-exclusionary nature of these spaces has made sure that the gatekeeping is done thoroughly so that only a few of us can even squeeze through, she remarks. And in the instances where funds have been gathered to support these basic needs of the trans community, one trips over another hurdle. An organisation I was volunteering with had received aid and had even transferred the money to each trans person's bank account. While most of them could go to a nearby ATM and withdraw the funds, some of them couldnt. One of them was this disabled trans woman who couldnt get any transport to gain access to the money because of the lockdowns. We managed to help her in this instance, but theres always a little bit extra that can be done with regards to easing the lives of the marginalised communities, even the subset within a larger one, she adds. This need for private space, paraphernalia and poshness to reach out to online safe spaces for community and camaraderie has also been pointed out by another subset of the LGBTQ+ community the trans men community. Gee Imaan Semmalar, a trans man, currently a PhD candidate at the University of Kent, is a member of the working group of Sampoorna, a dedicated group of trans and intersex Indians. "Sampoorna began in the mid-90s and was founded by three trans men and a trans woman who helped each other with medical and legal information. In 2004, the listserv was set up to enable sharing of information within an expanding circle of trans and intersex people. It still exists as a goldmine of the history of early conversations between trans men regarding medical transitions as well as the mundane, he quickly adds. While Gee echoed Kanagas observations with regards to the issues of safe spaces and accessibility faced by the trans male and intersex communities, he was able to point out one of the ways theyve overcome the literacy problem. Ive noticed a boom in WhatsApp groups populated with trans men, and Ive even been added to a couple of them. The voice message feature has really allowed us to connect, care and crowd-source help for one another inspite of the distances. These groups communicate in different languages, allowing for ease in communication. Im part of one with over a hundred trans men from Kerala, he attests, pleasantly surprised. Gee points out that even with the shifts and new avatars that safe spaces are taking to tackle crises in the time of the pandemic, these might just be stop-gap solutions. There needs to be a more rigorous approach to this idea of safety itself. The violence of the natal family still continues, one hears in the stories of the trans men stuck at home with their families that the violence has heightened, with them being forced to dress the way they dont want to or constantly being nagged about marriage, and in these times they cant even run away to someones house because theres an understandable fear of exposure to the virus, he says. He also notes that certain support systems had long stopped before the emergence of this global situation. Shelter homes for the LGBTQ+ community have long been shut down, and theres a marked decrease in neutral spaces that would have acted as half-way homes for those who need it, he adds. And there might be a serious need to even redefine the very idea of safe space after all this time. Even the home has proven to be otherwise, as seen with the brutal murder of trans-activist Maria at her own home in Kollam district, Kerala, he argues. Kanaga underscores this concern when she says, It isnt safety if it isnt guaranteed for all of us and is in the service of just some of us. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 01:32:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close OTTAWA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Canada is to levy 3.6 billion Canadian dollars (about 2.7 billion U.S. dollars) on U.S. products as countermeasures against U.S. President Donald Trump re-imposing a 10-percent tariff on Canadian aluminum, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Friday. Freeland told a news conference that the countermeasure tariffs will take effect in 30 days after the Canadian government consults Canadians on precisely which U.S. products to target. "Canada will respond swiftly and strongly." On Thursday afternoon, Trump announced his decision to impose the new tariff on Canadian raw aluminum from Canada as of Aug. 16, citing national security concerns as the basis for slapping Canada with the tariff. Freeland said that Canadian aluminum is a threat to American national security "is a ludicrous notion." She said the United States chose to spark a new trade conflict by slapping tariffs on Canadian aluminum. "It will only hurt an economic recovery on both sides of the border." Freeland added that the Trump government is "the most protectionist administration in U.S. history." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed Thursday night to take countermeasures after Trump announced his decision to re-impose tariff on Canadian aluminum imports. "We will always stand up for our aluminum workers. We did so in 2018 and we will stand up for them again now." Trump had imposed a 10-percent tariff on Canadian aluminum in March 2018, and then Canada retaliated with billions of dollars in tariffs on U.S. products. The United States later removed it for the renewed North American free trade agreement. Enditem WASHINGTON The Postal Service on Friday announced a substantial reorganization meant to increase efficiency as Democratic lawmakers demanded an inquiry into whether changes by President Donald Trumps appointees could threaten the effective use of mail-in ballots for the November election. Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general and a major donor to Trumps campaigns, was named to oversee the service in May. On Friday, he shifted top personnel, including some decadeslong veterans of the Postal Service, and made changes to its organizational structure. The new organization will align functions based on core business operations and will provide more clarity and focus on what the Postal Service does best; collect, process, move and deliver mail and packages, the Postal Service said in a statement. The changes come at a time of heightened scrutiny for DeJoy, as critics charge that changes to overtime policies and other previous actions threaten to slow delivery of ballots when millions of people are expected to vote by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic. There are anecdotal reports around the country of slow mail delivery, and in New York City, thousands of ballots in a Democratic primary were invalidated in part because the post office had not delivered some of them in time. In comments Friday to the Postal Services board of governors, DeJoy said the changes he had made including limitations on overtime would not delay the timely delivery of ballots. Despite any assertions to the contrary, we are not slowing down election mail or any other mail, DeJoy told the board members. Instead, we continue to employ a robust and proven process to ensure proper handling of all election mail. That has not satisfied Trumps Democratic adversaries on Capitol Hill, who have been critical of the changes at the Postal Service and frustrated by Republicans refusal to provide billions of dollars in additional funding for the agency. Seven Democratic members of Congress urged the inspector general for the Postal Service to audit the new policies imposed by the postmaster general, saying they were concerned the changes pose a potential threat to mail-in ballots and the 2020 general election. In a letter to the inspector general, Tammy L. Whitcomb, the lawmakers referred to reports that DeJoy had limited overtime pay and made other changes that critics say have slowed mail delivery and made it less reliable. The lawmakers urged Whitcomb to investigate the effect of the changes on the delivery of critical mail, including medication, paychecks and bills. These delays also pose a threat to the November election, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic when millions of Americans are expected to choose to vote by mail rather than wait in long lines on Election Day, the lawmakers wrote. The Democratic lawmakers who signed the letter were Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Gary Peters of Michigan and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware and Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, Stephen F. Lynch of Massachusetts, Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia and Brenda Lawrence of Michigan. Democrats, including those who signed the letter, have charged that DeJoy is doing the bidding of the president, who has long attacked the Postal Service on Twitter. In his remarks Friday, DeJoy rejected that accusation. While I certainly have a good relationship with the president of the United States, the notion that I would ever make decisions concerning the Postal Service at the direction of the president, or anyone else in the administration, is wholly off-base, he said. I serve at the pleasure of the governors of the Postal Service, a group that is bipartisan by statute and that will evaluate my performance in a nonpartisan fashion. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Mr. Sparks was an editorial assistant; Ms. Walker-Hartshorn was the assistant to the editor in chief. Whats interesting is, we were at this lower level, but then we were often asked to help do a gut-check of things like newsletters communicating how Bon Appetit was responding to the criticism over race, Mr. Sparks said. I was being put into the role of a cultural consultant. Mr. Sparks said he had accepted an offer to be an editor at Eater, a Vox Media food site. Jesse and Ryan were valued members of the team and we worked with them to address their concerns about former leadership at the brand, a Conde Nast spokeswoman said in a statement. We very much wanted them to be part of the new team under a new editor in chief and offered them enhanced terms to stay through the transition. We respect their decision and wish them the very best. The company separately issued an internal note on Friday on the results of a pay equity study that examined the Bon Appetit video team. The note, which Conde Nast shared with The New York Times, concluded that race had played no part in how team members were compensated. The three journalists who stopped working on the magazines videos had worked in the Bon Appetit test kitchen, helping to create online content that can rack up millions of views. Two of them said they had been paid unfairly for their work. NEW DELHI: All issues such as excessive rubber deposits, water stagnation and cracks that were red-flagged by aviation regulator DGCA in the past were "addressed and rectified" by the Kozhikode airport operator, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Saturday. In a series of tweets, he said that raising such concerns is the normal work of DGCA. DGCA strictly ensures that these are complied with and rectified under all circumstances and this was done by the airport operator. The Union Minister also urged people to wait for the outcome of the statutory enquiry and then visit the issue with facts. Puris tweets came after various news reports stated that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had issued a show cause notice to the director of the Kozhikode airport on July 11 last year after it found "various critical safety lapses" in different places, including the runway and the apron. "It is indeed a fact that several issues were routinely red-flagged by DGCA, and were addressed by the (Kozhikode) airport operator. These pertain to excessive rubber deposits, water stagnation, cracks and other routine issues," Puri said in a series of tweets a day after the plane crash in Kozhikode that claimed at least 18 lives. The point is that raising such concerns is the normal work of the DGCA, he noted. "The DGCA also strictly ensures that these are complied with and rectified under all circumstances. This was done by the airport operator," the minister added. Puri said an enquiry has been ordered under the Aircraft Act in case of the Kozhikode accident and findings of the investigation will be made public. "I will encourage all to exercise patience and refrain from making speculative observations bordering on the irresponsible. Again to emphasize, all the issues were addressed and rectified," the Minister said. The Minister tweeted that AAI strengthened the runway and thereafter necessary permissions were issued in 2018 to operate wide body aircraft. Consequently, certain carriers started operating some flights with wide body aircraft to Kozhikode Airport. Puri further informed that Kozhikode Airport has a total footfall of 3.2 million passengers per annum with 70-80 aircraft movement per day. The total wide body operations are only 4% of the total. The Civil Aviation Minister reiterated that as in case of Kozhikode accident, an enquiry has been ordered under Aircraft Act, black boxes of flight IX-1344 have been recovered. Findings of this investigation will be made public. The Union Minister is continuously taking stock of the situation arising due to the accident in Kozhikode and holding meetings with senior officials including Secretary, MoCA, Chairman, AAI, DG, DGCA and AAIB among others. Puri reached Kozhikode on Saturday afternoon to take stock of the relief measures. He went to the accident site at the airport, before visiting the Kozhikode Medical College, where senior doctors briefed him and Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan about the condition of the injured people admitted for treatment. The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the runway at the Kozhikode airport in Kerala at 7.40 PM on Friday in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two, killing at least 18 people. Simply by deciding to run for Texas House District 121 in 2018, Celina Montoya achieved a milestone. For the first time in 18 years, a Democrat dared to even compete in a general election for this reliably Republican seat, which includes northeast San Antonio, Alamo Heights, Terrell Hills and Olmos Park. This was the base from which former House Speaker Joe Straus served for 14 years. Democrats stayed out of District 121 not only because they valued having Straus, a San Antonian with a willingness to work in a bipartisan fashion, in the speakers office, but also because there was no realistic hope of flipping the seat. Montoya lost her 2018 race to local attorney Steve Allison, but she lost in a most encouraging fashion. With no prior experience as a candidate and no real campaign infrastructure, she got within 8.4 percentage points of Allison. But the most startling development was that Beto ORourke, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, actually carried the district (albeit by a thin margin) over incumbent Republican Ted Cruz. Clearly, something was happening here, even if we didnt know what it was. Thats why Montoya decided to give it a second shot against Allison. District 121 is one of nine GOP-controlled seats that were decided by single-digit margins in 2018 and carried by ORourke. If Democrats flip all nine of those seats, and maintain the ones they currently hold, they will take control of the Texas House for the first time in nearly two decades. Montoya has cause for optimism. For one thing, she has worked her way out of the implausibility zone that hampered her efforts to raise money and build support two years ago. This time, its an established fact that a Montoya victory is within the realm of plausibility. She already has proved that. That might explain why she is doing surprisingly well on the fundraising front. Over the first half of 2018, Montoya raised less than $40,000. This year, she raised $101,000, with contributions from 765 donors. During this same period, Allison raised $73,000 on only 61 donations. Two years ago, Montoya entered July with only $14,343 in campaign cash. This time around, she had $61,233. Last Monday, Montoya received an endorsement from former President Barack Obama, making her the only Bexar County legislative candidate he included in this round of endorsements. The Montoya campaign also is taking encouragement from the results of a poll conducted from July 28-Aug. 1 by EMC Research, a California-based polling firm. It was part of an effort by a consortium, led by the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee, to get a grip on where this states swing districts stand. The poll of 406 registered District 121 voters showed Montoya with 49 percent support, compared with 42 percent for Allison. The poll also suggested the potential for considerable movement in the final three months of the race because neither the incumbent nor the challenger is particularly well-known by voters of the district. According to the poll, 59 percent of District 121 voters have never heard of Allison and 67 percent have never heard of Montoya. (By comparison, only 1 percent said they had never heard of the Black Lives Matter movement.) These voters are still persuadable, and, in the absence of much knowledge about the two candidates, the coattails of the two major party presidential candidates will loom large. Along those lines, the EMC poll showed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leading Republican President Donald Trump by 12 percentage points in the district. While its easy to discount any poll, particularly one with results as surprising as this one, these numbers, in conjunction with ORourkes success in the district in 2018 and the remarkably close race brewing in the 21st Congressional District another Republican stronghold whose Bexar County portion lines up well with Texas House District 121 tell a story. The latest polling in the 21st District shows Democratic nominee Wendy Davis within one point of Republican incumbent Chip Roy. Traditional Republicans in these sections of Bexar County, who voted without hesitation for Straus or Lamar Smith, have become fed up with the partisan bomb-throwing of many party leaders. Thats most unfortunate for Allison, who, like Straus, is a pragmatist with little patience for diversionary wedge-issue politics. Like Straus, he also is committed to a well-funded public education system. Dont look for Montoya to go ultranegative on Allison, partly because his record is not nearly as polarizing as someone like Roy and partly because negativity is not really her style. She will emphasize her personal story and the way that a Democratic-led House could help this state climb out of the economic hole and public health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic. If District 121 can be flipped, then all our old preconceptions about Bexar County politics must be thrown out. Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Gilbert, become a subscriber. ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470 During the COVID-19 pandemic, most Nebraskans have been fairly lucky. Having had relatively low case counts, rural Nebraska has been able to progress through the reopening process more easily, allowing Nebraskans in many parts of our state to safely return to work, worship and, soon, school. But the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic arent only measured in the unemployment rate or lives lost; theyre also measured in the changes we all have experienced in our daily lives. The pandemic hasnt put everyday health issues on pause. We still need access to medicines we depend on to treat personal health conditions. When regions across the country began to see rising case counts and increased community transmission, many rural Nebraskans feared wed be low in priority, unable to access high-demand health care products. Fortunately, Americas health care supply chain has kept supported rural communities during this pandemic, and its kept rural Nebraskans safe. It is so critical that Americas rural communities shouldnt have to lobby for access to medicines; as our countrys health care distributors calculate how to deliver critical medicines to communities in need, were already part of the plan. Today, medications are still arriving to small towns in western Nebraska, despite the crisis at hand. Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, has surpassed the richest man in Europe, Bernard Arnault to become the fourth wealthiest person in the world. As per Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ambani presently has a net worth of $80.6 billion, after adding $22 billion over the past year. Above him on the list now are the three members of 'centibillionaire club' - Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Slump in oil demand due to COVID-19 lockdowns has taken a toll on Reliance Industries' petrochemical business. However, investments from the likes of Facebook, Google and Intel into its digital arm have propelled the conglomerate's shares to twice their value from a low in March. In July, Reliance Industries became the first Indian company to reach Rs 13 lakh crore market cap. ALSO READ: Reliance Industries ranked second biggest brand globally after Apple Ambani has already surpassed several other billionaires in the recent week, including Elon Musk, Alphabet Inc co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and investor and business tycoon Warren Buffet. Reliance Industries' Jio Platforms has received several big-ticket investments amounting to Rs 1.52 lakh crore. The latest in the list was Google's Rs 33,737 crore investment for 7.73 per cent stake in the digital platform. Meanwhile, reports suggest that Amazon.com Inc is in talks to buy 9.9 per cent stake in Reliance Retail. On the other hand, Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, posted the biggest decline in personal wealth among world's 500 richest people. His net value declined $25.1 billion to $80.2 billi 2020-08-08 ALSO READ: RIL share hits all-time high; market cap nears Rs 14 lakh crore mark By Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Khalil Ashawi and Joseph Nasr AMMAN/IDLIB/BERLIN (Reuters) - Some families say it is better to know and mourn. Others say finally learning what happened is worse than dying themselves By Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Khalil Ashawi and Joseph Nasr AMMAN/IDLIB/BERLIN (Reuters) - Some families say it is better to know and mourn. Others say finally learning what happened is worse than dying themselves. Hundreds of victims of Syria's torture chambers are only now being discovered, thanks to a new effort to identify bodies from tens of thousands of photos smuggled out of Damascus seven years ago. For their families, an image of a broken body with a number tag is all that lies at the end of the quest. "They died starved and naked," said Um Munzer Yaseen, 58, who, after sifting through countless photos of emaciated corpses, finally found her son, Jamil, last month. A computer engineer, Jamil had been missing since one night in June, 2011, when he was taken by secret police from the family flat in Damascus. In the picture his mother found of his body, his eyes had been gouged out and his legs were broken. "If they had shot my son it would have been better to die with a bullet than go through this hell," she said in Amman, where she and her husband have found sanctuary since fleeing Syria in 2013. Her husband, a doctor, said: "They killed us twice: when they arrested him and took him, and the second time when we saw the pictures." He asked: "Are we not human?" Jamil's image was among 53,275 photos smuggled on discs and thumb drives out of Syria by a former Syrian army photographer, codenamed Caesar, who fled in August 2013. It was his job to record the deaths in military prisons. Caesar in hiding in an undisclosed country out of fear of reprisals against him and his family, some friends said. Reuters could not immediately reach him for comment. Now, years after Caesar's photos first came to public attention, they are back in the spotlight. The toughest U.S. sanctions yet came into force in June for alleged war crimes against the civilian population, under a law named after Caesar. President Bashar al-Assad has not commented directly on the Caesar photographs since a 2015 interview, when he dismissed them as "allegations without evidence". The Syrian information ministry and the Syrian U.N. mission did not respond to Reuters emailed requests for comment about the Caesar photographs and evidence of systematic torture. Human rights groups believe Caesar's photos contain images of 6,785 detainees, most tortured to death by the Syrian authorities in the early months of the uprising that evolved into Syria's civil war, now in its ninth year. The state of the tortured, mutilated and starved bodies makes it hard to identify them, said Fadel Abdel Ghani, the Doha-based chairman of a group, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which says it has identified 900 victims so far. With the renewed attention, campaigners have launched a new push to identify the dead. The images first came to light in 2014, the year after Caesar defected, but after the sanctions were imposed they have been re-released on activists social media platforms, giving families a fresh chance to find missing loved ones. WE MOURNED HIM AGAIN For Syrian artist and teacher Fida Al Waer, whose 19-year-old brother Mohammad Mukhtar was taken at a checkpoint in Homs in 2012, finding his photo ended hope the family had of seeing him alive. "I would see him in my dreams alive and that he would return," said the young artist, who now lives in a flat in the Lebanese capital. "We mourned him again when the photo was found. We always had hope he would be released." She recalls how the family had implored the young man not to go to an area of the city where demonstrators were protesting against Assad's rule, in the early days of the uprising when security forces were arresting youths at random at checkpoints. "For them, he is just a number. A number is on his forehead. He was just a number." After nine years of war that killed more than half a million people and made more than half the population homeless, Assad's government, backed in recent years by Russia and Iran, has recaptured most territory once held by rebel fighters. Assad and his allies argue that the war has largely been won, and it is time for the world to allow Syria to rebuild. The new U.S. sanctions, which apply to any countries doing business with Damascus, make that difficult if not impossible. Sara Kayyali, a lawyer and Syria expert at U.S-based Human Rights Watch who has researched the photos, says they make it impossible to deny the systematic use of torture in the Syrian security prison system. "They have shown us irrefutable proof the Syrian government had truly detained and tortured thousands who disappeared -- and denied they exist -- and that it has tortured them to death," Kayyali said in Amman. For Mariam Alhallak, identifying the photo of her son, Ayham, 25, a postgraduate dentistry student abducted on the campus of Damascus University in November 2012, ended years of doubt. She had spent more than 17 months knocking at the doors of every government bureau looking for a certificate of death. "Thank God he died early and did not get ... starved until he became a skeleton," said Mariam from her flat in Berlin. A faculty colleague detained with her son and later released told her Ayham was tortured for at least two hours before losing consciousness after being hit on the head with a metal bar, after which the torture stopped. He died five days after his arrest, in his colleague's arms. In Caesar's photograph of his corpse there was a sticker on his forehead that read: "corpse 320 belonging to detention facility 215". In a camp for displaced people in opposition-held Idlib, 74-year-old Jouriya Ali finally found an image of her son Jumaa, who was taken off a public bus near Qutaifa on the edge of Damascus on his way to work in the capital. "I wish I had died and not seen this picture. There is no one who was more caring than him," the mother said. Every day since he disappeared eight years ago she would glance at the door in fleeting hope he would one day show up. "God deprive them of their youth, as they have deprived my son of his youth." (Additional reporting by Imad Creidi in Beirut; Editing by Peter Graff) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Red balloons are released to honor the victims of COVID-19 in a demonstration organized by Rio de Paz, on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020, as the country heads to a milestone of 100,000 new coronavirus related deaths. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) Brazil was leaping toward a grim milestone of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, and five months after the first reported case the country has not shown signs of crushing the disease. The nation of 210 million people has been reporting an average of more than 1,000 daily deaths from the pandemic since late May and had reported 99,572 as of Friday night. The Health Ministry said there had been a total of 2,962,442 confirmed infections with the new coronavirusdeath and infection tolls second only to the United States. And as in many nations, experts believe that both numbers are severe undercounts due to insufficient testing. In a tribute to COVID-19 victims, the non-governmental group Rio de Paz placed crosses on the sand on the famed Copacabana beach Saturday and released 1,000 red balloons into the sky. "It's very sad. Those 100,000 represent various families, friends, parents, children", said Marcio do Nascimento Silva, a 56-year-old taxi driver who lost his children in the pandemic and joined the tribute. "We reach that mark (100,000) and many people seem to not see it, both among the government and our people. They are not just numbers but people. Death became normal ", Silva said. President Jair Bolsonarowho himself reported being infectedhas been a consistent skeptic about the impact of the disease and an advocate of lifting restrictions on the economy that had been imposed by state governors trying to combat it. He has frequently mingled in crowds, sometimes without a mask. Marcio Antonio do Nascimento, left, holding a photo of his 25-year-old son Hugo do Nascimento who died from COVID-19, argues with a person who said the deaths related to COVID-19 are fake news, during a demonstration to honor the victims of COVID-19, on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020, as the country heads to a milestone of 100,000 new coronavirus related deaths. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) "I regret all the deaths, it's already reaching the number 100,000, but we are going to find a way out of that", Bolsonaro said in a Thursday night Facebook transmission. Experts have complained of a lack of national coordination under Bolsonaro and scattershot responses by city and state governments, with some reopening earlier than health experts recommended. "Administrative incompetence ruined our chance to have a good response to COVID", said Miguel Lago, executive director of Brazil's Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health officials. Brazil is facing the pandemic with an interim health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, an army general who made his career in logistics. Two earlier health ministers, both physicians, resigned over differences with Bolsonaro about social distance measures and the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug promoted by the president but which most studies have found to be inteffective against COVID-19, or even dangerous. A framed photo shows Esther Melo da Silva with her grandson, in Manaus, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. The 67-year-old grandmother reported having a cold, and a few days later started having problems breathing. She died from COVID-19 on April 9, after five days in a public hospital. (AP Photo/Helton Belo) Bolsonaro, who has called COVID-19 a "little flu," says he recovered from his own infection thanks to that drug. Many of Brazil's 27 states have begun to reopen shops and restaurants, though responses have differed, as has the strain on the health system. While Brasilia, the capital, has recorded almost 80% occupancy of its ICU beds, Rio de Janeiro's occupation rate is now down to less than 30%. In Rio, shopping malls and restaurants have already opened and people have returned to the beaches. "The situation is very comfortable and we don't understand why it is happening. Perhaps the infection rate was much higher than what was reported at the beginning of the pandemic and many of those on the street are immune," speculated Graccho Alvim, director of the state's association of hospitals Viviane Melo da Silva, 47, lost her mother, Esther Melo da Silva, in the Amazonas state capital of Manaus on April 9. The mother reported having a cold, and a few days later started having problems breathing. She died after five days in a public hospital. Sisters Valeria Melo da Silva, left, and Viviane, her husband Luigi do Nascimento visit the grave of their mother who died of COVID-19, at a cemetery in Manaus, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. Their 67-year-old mother reported having a cold, and a few days later started having problems breathing. She died after five days in a public hospital. "I still don't accept her death, not yet," said Viviane, crying, and expressing regret the family had been unable to hold a wake for her mother. (AP Photo/Helton Belo) Nazare Rosa de Paula, 67, poses for a photo holding the guitar belonging to her husband Geraldo de Paula who died from the new coronavirus, in their home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. Geraldo de Paula, 70, originally from Minas Gerais, moved with his wife more than 40 years ago to Rio where their two children were born. He loved to play the guitar and to make jokes. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) Nazare Rosa de Paula, 67, wife of Geraldo de Paula who died of Covid-19, holds a photo of him embracing two cousins, in their home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. Geraldo de Paula, 70, originally from Minas Gerais, moved with his wife more than 40 years ago to Rio where their two children were born. He loved to play the guitar and to make jokes. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) Marcio Antonio do Nascimento, the father of 25-year-old son Hugo do Nascimento who died from the new coronavirus, watches Hugo's sons, his grandchildren, play in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020. Brazil was leaping toward a grim milestone, 100,000 deaths from COVID-19, on Saturday, Aug. 8, and five months after the first reported case, the country had not shown signs of crushing the disease. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Marcio Antonio do Nascimento shows a photo of himself with his 25-year-old son Hugo do Nascimento who died from the new coronavirus, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020. Brazil was leaping toward a grim milestone, 100,000 deaths from COVID-19, on Saturday, Aug. 8, and five months after the first reported case, the country had not shown signs of crushing the disease. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Crosses and red balloons are placed in the sand on Copacabana beach in a demonstration organized by Rio de Paz to honor the victims of COVID-19, as the country heads to a milestone of 100,000 new coronavirus related deaths, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Mario Lobao) "I still don't accept her death, not yet," said da Silva, crying, and expressing regret the family had been unable to hold a wake for her mother. "The government was saying that it was a 'little flu.' it did not care. It was not worried with that and that's what happened: Innocent people died because of the negligence and the lack of preparation from the government," she added. Nazare Rosa de Paula, 67, said many people remain indifferent to the virus despite so many deaths. She said her husband Geraldo, a 70-year-old retired bus driver, would wear a mask to go to the supermarket in Rio de Janeiro, but never believed he would be infected. In April he got what seemed to be just a flu. AFter his health worsened for eight days, he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and died on April 28. "It was fast. There was not time to do anything and it surprised a lot of people," de Paula said. They had been together for 43 years. "Only the feeling of missing him is left. People said that with time (it will get better), but for me, it will not end, it won't." Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Restaurants and bars in Italy have started reopening historic 'wine windows' as a creative measure to make sure customers socially distance. There are almost 300 of the little windows throughout the northern Italy region of Tuscany, with 150 of them being found within the old city walls of Florence. Traditionally the 'wine windows', known as buchette del vino, were used in the 1630s during when the plague was rife. Traditionally the 'wine windows', known as buchette del vino, were used in the 1630s during when the plague was rife The windows allowed merchants to pass their wine to customers without coming into contact with them. Now though, with another pandemic forcing people to socially distance, some small businesses in Tuscany have revived their wine windows. On their website, the Wine Window Association's said: 'Everyone is confined to home for two months and then the government permits a gradual reopening. There are almost 300 of the little windows throughout the northern Italy region of Tuscany, with 150 of them being found within the old city walls of Florence 'During this time, some enterprising Florentine Wine Window owners have turned back the clock.' The Osteria Delle Brache and Babae establishments, both in Florence, are two of the businesses that have put the historical windows back into service. Although traditionally only wine was passed through the windows, cafes and restaurants are now serving Aperol Spritzes, ice cream and coffee through them as well. Some of the wine windows were destroyed during the floods of 1966 and the association wants to place plaques next to all of the surviving windows. Five people have been killed after a landslide triggered by heavy rain hit a southern town, local officials said Saturday. The landslide buried five homes at a village in Gokseong, about 400 kilometers south of Seoul, at 8:29 p.m. Friday. A man in his 50s and two women in their 60s and 70s were rescued one hour later but declared dead at a hospital. Two neighbors were trapped in the debris, and one of them in her 70s was pulled out at 8:15 a.m. Saturday but died at a hospital, county officials said. The last victim in his 70s was found dead at 1:43 p.m. The two people were discovered after the search resumed early in the morning. Rescue work had been stopped just before midnight due to the danger of further landslides as torrential rain continued. About 30 residents have been evacuated to a nearby elementary school. Police are investigating the cause of the incident as some residents claimed that soil piled up on the village hill for road expansion work flowed down. The landslide occurred as torrential rains have wrecked havoc across the country since last Saturday amid the prolonged monsoon season. The government expanded its highest-level landslide warning across the country except for the southern island of Jeju on Saturday. The Korea Forest Service on Friday night issued the "serious" warning, the highest on its four-tier scale, for 12 of the nation's 17 metropolises and provinces. The agency raised the alert level for an additional four areas -- Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi Province and Gangwon Province -- to "serious" effective as of noon Saturday. Only Jeju remained under the second-highest warning. (Yonhap) While trainer Carmen Auciello sends out eight horses on Saturday night at Woodbine Mohawk Park, the pupil he'll be most eager to watch this weekend will likely be the one racing stateside in the first leg of pacing's Triple Crown. Auciello recently took over the training duties of sophomore pacing colt Moneyman Hill, one of eight three-year-olds set to head postward in the 2020 Cane Pace during the Hambletonian Day stakes-packed card of harness racing at the Meadowlands Racetrack. Trained as a two-year-old by Brian Brown and then conditioned earlier this year by Chris Ryder, Moneyman Hill's former connections placed the horse for sale online where a group of owners --Percy Elkins of Milton, Aaron Waxman of Carlisle, Ont. and Fox Racing Inc. of New York, N.Y. -- paid $86,000 to secure the stakes-winning son of Somebeachsomewhere and Beyonce Blue Chip. We bought him on OnGait -- my client Aaron Waxman was the first to spot him, he liked him but he really only liked him for up to a price of $75,000, Auciello told Trot Insider. He was trying to find some partners to go in on him and then out of the blue one of my other clients -- Percy Elkins -- called me because he had also seen the horse for sale and asked me to get a group together to purchase the horse. Percy was willing to go up to $150,000 on him but I didnt think he would sell for that much so it all kind of worked out perfectly. We also had some interest from Larry Fox as well and we all came to the conclusion that $100,000 for the horse seemed about right. Auciello is more than thrilled to obtain a stakes-sustained three-year-old with this amount of upside, and is quite enthusiastic about the colts future. Moneyman Hill, winning at The Red Mile in 2019 Moneyman Hill, winning at The Red Mile in 2019 Its not every day that you get an opportunity to buy a horse like that -- especially for me, said Auciello. If he shows that he is competitive in the Cane Pace, then well bring him up to Canada for the North America Cup. The Messenger at Yonkers is also on my radar because hes such a handy horse and has very good gate speed. We are also looking at the Little Brown Jug for him as well. Although Moneyman Hill will enter the Cane Pace at morning line odds of 12-1, his connections are fronting a positive attitude with a cant-win-it-if-youre-not-in-it outlook. Its a little bit of a pipedream, noted Auciello. Im sure that some people who saw him entered in the Cane Pace this week were probably surprised but if you dont give them a chance to overachieve then they never will. Even if he cant make money in the big races, I still think he is a really nice colt and has a very bright future. We dont want to get his heart ripped out either but at the same time we want to give him a bit of a chance to show us what he can do and have a bit of fun with him. With Papi Rob Hanover having to be shut down and a few of the other good ones ineligible for the race we figured that the race would basically set up with Tall Dark Stranger as the favourite and then everyone else. With only eight horses in the race and getting 1% of the purse, there really wasnt a lot of risk in entering him. Auciello also recognized that the current climate of racing in North America with the coronavirus pandemic creating a contracted stakes schedule may have played a role in a horse like Moneyman Hill being available. With this season being a bit more condensed with everything surrounding COVID-19, you have a little bit more opportunity to pick and choose which races to enter and you can somewhat gauge where all the other horses are going. Typically the North America Cup would never really conflict with any other stake races but this year it conflicts with the Messenger eliminations because so many stake races had to be condensed. We did in fact shell out a lot of money for him but he has so many opportunities. We know hes not a home run but if you finish fifth in the Messenger which goes for half a million dollars, that's around $40,000 and that's half your purchase price. Hes not going to go out and win the N.A. Cup but you cant win it if youre not in it and thats the way we looked at it. Moneyman Hills connections were also pleased with his first start under new management. The gelding finished fifth in an overnight race at The Meadowlands on August 1, pacing his own mile in 1:50.1. When we bought him, we purchased him on a Friday and by the time the wire payments and everything went through, we didnt pick him up until Monday afternoon and we didnt want to bring him home and train him a hard mile so he may have been a step short in his last race but Dexter really liked him. He is an aggressive horse, he doesnt like to settle when hes in a hole so were going to make a couple of changes on him to try and get him to relax a little more and respect the bit a little more because we dont want him on the front every week. I wouldnt say hes green but I think his last few starts where he was sent down the road just had him wound up too much, noted Auciello. As much as Auciello would have loved to be in attendance on Hambletonian Day, he will have to cheer Moneyman Hill from north of the 49th parallel for the time being. It would have been nice to get to go down and watch him race but the quarantining rules and restrictions put a damper on that. If he does go to the Little Brown Jug...thats a race that I dont think I would ever want to miss so I think I would find a way to make that happen. $273,125 Cane Pace PP-Horse-Driver-Trainer-ML 1. Moneyman Hall - Dexter Dunn - Carmen Auciello - 12/1 2. Put To Right - David Miller - Tony Alagna - 15/1 3. Roll With JR - Corey Callahan - Jeff Cullipher - 12/1 4. Manticore - Jordan Stratton - Bruce Saunders - 8/1 5. Captain Kirk - Joe Bongiorno - Tony Alagna - 4/1 6. Tall Dark Stranger - Yannick Gingras - Nancy Takter - 6/5 7. Capt Midnight - Andy McCarthy - Tony Alagna - 6/1 8. Chief Mate - Scott Zeron - Tony Alagna - 5/1 In addition to the $1,000,000 Hambletonian and $273,125 Cane Pace, the Saturday card also features the $600,000 Hambletonian Oaks, $284,200 John Cashman, $90,525 Shady Daisy, $229,660 Sam McKee, $177,100 Lady Liberty, $166,550 John Steele, $339,000 Peter Haughton and $350,300 Jim Doherty. To view program pages for Saturday's card, click the following link: 2020 Hambletonian Day Program Pages. ALLEGAN COUNTY, MI -- A man already serving life in prison for a Virginia murder is now scheduled for hearings in Allegan County on charges for allegedly killing his teen daughter in 1989. Dennis Bowman, 71, was arraigned Aug. 5 in Allegan County District Court on charges of felony murder, first-degree child abuse and disinterment and mutilation of a dead body. Prosecutors in May issued the charges as Bowman was being held in Virginia for the 1980 killing of a 25-year-old woman. He pleaded guilty in the Virginia case and was sentenced to life in prison. Bowman for some time had been a person-of-interest in the death of his daughter, 14-year-old Aundria Bowman. Police in February developed new leads that led them to a shallow grave on Bowmans property, in the 3200 block of 136th Avenue in Monterey Township. There, they found skeletal remains later identified as that of Aundria. Bowman now has an Aug. 13 probable cause conference scheduled in Allegan County District Court. Related stories: West Michigan man tied to two killings, including daughter, pleads in Virginia case Allegan County neighbors describe 1980 homicide suspect as weird, say he kept to himself A 56-year-old woman is in a critical condition after she was allegedly bashed with a vacuum cleaner tube and a knife by a teenager. Emergency services were called to a unit block in Abbotsford, in Sydney's inner-west, at 10am on Saturday. Police found a 56-year-old woman who had allegedly been attacked with a vacuum cleaner tube and a kitchen knife. Police found a 56-year-old woman who had allegedly been attacked with a vacuum cleaner tube and a kitchen knife (stock image) A 76-year-old man was in the apartment at the time, and had also been injured in the alleged attack. The pair were taken Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for treated. A 42-year-old neighbour of the pair who heard the alleged assault was also injured when checking in on the man and woman. A 19-year-old was arrested and taken to Burwood Police Station, where he was charged with wounding/grievous bodily harm to person with intent to murder. He was also charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault. Police will allege they are all known to each other. The 19-year-old was refused bail in order to appear at Parramatta Bail Court. Four deaths linked to hand sanitizer: Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can help stop the coronavirus from spreading, but drinking the products turned out to be deadly for four people in two states. Health officials reported this week that 15 adults were poisoned in Arizona and New Mexico in May and June after drinking hand sanitizer. Besides the four who died, three had ongoing vision problems, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. All had consumed sanitizers containing methanol, or wood alcohol. Thane: A mobile phone handset, allegedly used by four persons recently arrested by NIA for their suspected involvement in five blast cases in court premises of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka since April, has been recovered from an autorickshaw driver in Thane, police said. The handset, vital for probe into the blasts, was traced by Thane police Crime Branch to Kalyan township with an autorickshaw driver, who had put his SIM card in it and been using it, they said. Swooping down on various locations, NIA with the help of Tamil Nadu and Telangana Police, had last month apprehended four youths suspected to be part of a group sympathising with al Qaeda and involved in the blasts at court complexes. Those arrested were -- Abbas Ali (27), a resident of Madurai, Suleiman (23), a resident of Chennai, and Samsum Karim Raja and Mohammed Ayub Ali (25) of Madurai. Ali was a public liaison officer for a hearing aid company. They allegedly used the handset and later dumped it. The Thane police probe team secured the IMEI number of the handset and was searching for it since several months. About two weeks ago, the police team received information that the phone has been activated. Thane police commissioner Param Bir Singh told reporters on Tuesday that they were contacted by their Telangana counterparts for the recovery of the handset, which was vital for their investigation. A crime branch official, who was part of the search team, said the tower indicated the mobile phone location area around Mumbra, Diva and Kalyan and after a close watch on the movements of the user, he was picked up last week. The autorickshaw driver, residing in Mumbra township near Kalyan, was questioned by multiple teams from Telangana, officers of the ATS and the city Crime Branch sleuths. According to police, they have verified that the auto driver does not have links to any terror group. They said the driver informed them he had found that handset discarded near Kalyan station. After finding it in good condition, he activated it using his old SIM card. The cases relate to blasts inside a vehicle at a parking place at district court complex in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, on April 7; in a parking area of CJM Court Complex at Kollam in Kerala on June 15; inside court complex at Mysuru on August 1, in Nellore of Andhra Pradesh on September 12 and inside a toilet complex of judicial court, Malappuram in Kerala on November 1. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Two counties on opposite ends of Alabama have seen swift declines in new coronavirus cases over the past week, helping fuel the states falling case numbers. Baldwin County, on the coast, and Madison County, home of Huntsville in north Alabama, each saw their 7-day rolling averages for new coronavirus cases plummet this week, according to data from the Alabama Department of Public Health. The state as a whole has seen a substantial cooling off in new cases. The statewide average fell by nearly 200 daily cases week over week, and has been falling for longer than that. The rolling average peaked at over 1,850 daily cases on July 19. The 7-day average fell below 1,400 for the first time in nearly a month on Friday. It now stands at 1,364. [Cant see the chart? Click here.] Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statewide mask order on July 15, and the decline in new cases came shortly after. Its impossible to say whether the mask ordinance is part of the reason for the decline in cases, but Dr. Karen Landers at ADPH thinks its possible. Our statewide mask order does appear to be having an impact, she said on Friday. Lets take this small amount of improvement as good news and lets continue to follow these measures in order to reduce the further spread of this disease in the state of Alabama. For Baldwin and Madison counties, this weeks numbers represent the continuation of a trend - both counties saw their averages peak at well over 100 daily cases at some point in July, and both have fallen rapidly since. Madisons peak so far came on July 15, which the 7-day average reached 183 cases per day. The average there has fallen by more than 100 daily cases since then. Baldwin Countys average peaked at more than 120 daily cases on July 23. Its now less than half that. [Cant see the chart? Click here.] ADPH confirmed 9,549 new virus cases between Aug. 1 and Aug. 7, the lowest weekly total in nearly a month, and the first time in as long the state hasnt added 10,000 cases in a week. This was the second consecutive week of declining cases, following a peak of 12,254 cases for the week ending July 24. There was a moment earlier in the week when it looked like Alabamas numbers were falling even faster - the state recorded fewer than 1,000 cases on Tuesday and Wednesday, the first time since early July that Alabama had seen two consecutive days with fewer than 1,000 cases. [Cant see the chart? Click here.] That midweek lull in case numbers, though, was accompanied by lower-than usual testing numbers. But at the end of the week, as cases ticked up, tests ticked up faster, resulting in Alabamas lowest positivity rate since the middle of July. Over the last seven days, 16.2 percent of tests reported by ADPH have come back positive. That number rose past 20 percent earlier this month. At this point, I am somewhat encouraged that over the last couple of weeks, our percent positivity for tests statewide has declined, Landers said. Thats still very high and its still above the number we would like. We would like to get less than 10 percent and I think that can happen if we continue to be vigilant. But even as case numbers have cooled slightly, reported deaths due to the coronavirus have not. The state reported 143 new virus deaths in Alabama this week - slightly more than the 136 reported the week before, and the fourth consecutive week Alabama has reported more than 100 virus deaths in a week. Before that stretch, the state had only reported more than 100 deaths in a week once, in the week ending April 24. [Cant see the chart? Click here.] Deaths are typically a lagging indicator, and can trail new cases by several weeks. But because of they way theyre reported, there is also a significant lag between when someone dies and when their death is officially recorded as a coronavirus death. Because of that, its difficult to determine whether the current rise in reported deaths is related to the spike in cases the state experienced in July. Which other counties are cooling off? Forty-nine of Alabamas 67 counties saw their 7-day averages for new cases fall from July 31 to Aug. 7. Outside of Baldwin and Madison, Calhoun County, home to Anniston, had the biggest decline in cases. The 7-day average there fell by more than 20 daily cases, down to 42. Those three were the only counties to see declines of more than 20 cases per day. Houston, Tuscaloosa, Etowah, Shelby and Colbert counties all saw their 7-day averages fall by more than 10 cases per day. You can see their averages, along with those for every other county in the state, in the table below. [Cant see the table? Click here.] Some other counties with smaller populations also saw substantial declines. Perry County, a Black Belt county with one of the states smallest populations, saw its 7-day average fall by more than 60 percent. But not all counties saw declines. Mobile County, just across the bay from Baldwin, has had a long, up and down battle with the virus. It saw its 7-day average jump by more than 40 cases this week - by far the biggest jump in the state. Mobile County is now averaging more than 200 new virus cases per day. As of Friday, that was just less than Jefferson County, the most populous county in the state and home to Birmingham. Though Mobile spent much of the week leading the state in that statistic. Jefferson was averaging 221 new cases per day as of Friday, the most in the state. [Cant see the chart? Click here.] Jackson County, just east of Madison, had the third highest increase in 7-day average week over week behind Mobile and Jefferson. Its average increased by 10 daily cases, up to 28. Those three counties were the only ones to see increases of at least 10 daily cases to their averages. Jefferson County added 1,549 total new cases this week, the most of any county in the state. Mobile was just behind, with 1,481 new cases this week. They were the only two counties with more than 1,000 total cases, and no other county was even close. Madison was third with just 530 cases this week. Jefferson and Mobile counties also led the state in new reported virus deaths. Each reported 19 new deaths this week. Jefferson now has 242 reported virus deaths since the start of the pandemic, the most in the state. Mobile is second with 206. Montgomerys 148 is third. No other county has more than 100. AL.com reporter Paul Gattis contributed to this report. 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. Mayank Singh By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The long-due discussion on the Depsang Bulge standoff in eastern Ladakh is finally taking place with the Division Commanders of the Indian and Chinese Armies holding a meeting on Saturday. A senior Army officer said, Major Generals of both sides are holding a meeting starting 11am in Daulat Beg Oldi. Depsang is included in the itinerary. The officers will also discuss other areas where disengagement is stuck. This meeting holds importance as the Depsang area had remained out of discussions so far. The Chinese Army has moved in to a point called the Y-Junction in Depsang bulge which is a narrow outlet. The Chinese are in a position to prevent Indian soldiers from reaching five patrolling points, each of which cover an area of 10-15 sq km. As reported earlier, the Indian Army will not be able to go to the Patrolling Points 10, 11, 11A, 12 and 13. Also, the Chinese side did not honour the agreement between the Corps Commanders for disengagement from all the standoff points. While the Chinese Army moved back from Galwan Valley, it has continued with its presence at Gogra (PP 17A) and from the ridge of Finger 4 on the northern side of Pangong Tso. Seeing the ambiguous behavior of the Peoples Liberation Army on the ground, the Indian Army has begun preparations for the long haul with winter stocking of troops in full swing. Both the sides have by now committed around 40,000 troops including armoured vehicles, artillery and missile launchers apart from major infantry troops on the ground along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army also has made precautionary deployments on other portions of the LAC. Rating Action: Moody's assigns Ba2 rating to Standard Industries' senior unsecured notes Global Credit Research - 07 Aug 2020 New York, August 07, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) assigned a Ba2 rating to Standard Industries Inc.'s (Standard) proposed issuance of senior unsecured notes due 2031. Standard's Ba2 Corporate Family Rating (CFR), Ba2-PD Probability of Default Rating and the existing Ba2 rating on the company's senior unsecured notes are not impacted by the proposed transaction. The outlook remains stable. Moody's views the proposed transaction as credit positive since proceeds from proposed notes issuance will be used to redeem a similar amount of the company's senior unsecured notes due 2025. This transaction will reduce the refunding risk in late 2025. Moody's expectation is that cash on hand will be used to pay the call premium, accrued interest and related fees and expenses in a leverage neutral transaction. Interest savings from the proposed refinancing will be nominal relative to Standard's total future cash interest payments, which Moody's estimates will be nearly $200 million per year. "Standard Industries is showing a great willingness to refinance debt significantly before upcoming maturity dates," according to Peter Doyle, a Moody's VP-Senior Analyst. The following ratings/assessments are affected by today's action: Assignments: ..Issuer: Standard Industries Inc. ....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture, Assigned Ba2 (LGD4) RATINGS RATIONALE Standard Industries' Ba2 CFR reflects the company's very good liquidity, including Moody's expectation of robust free cash flow (prior to dividends) as the company reduces costs, works though inventory and reduces capital expenditures. Free cash flow, significant cash on hand and full availability under the company's $650 million revolving credit facility is more than sufficient to contend with ongoing economic uncertainty. Moody's current forecast includes Standard's leverage at year end will be around 5.0x at year end, slightly better than the leverage of 5.2x at Q2 2020. Standard has a debt structure (long-term notes) that does not lend itself to deleveraging through debt repayment. The company's high leverage is Standard's greatest credit challenge. Story continues Moody's expectation is that Standard will benefit from an economic recovery beginning in late 2020 or early 2021, even though revenue and earnings will be at lower levels than the previous year. Moody's believes that roofing repair products experience less demand volatility than other building products due to their nondiscretionary nature. The upfront costs for roof repair or replacement are worth the investment compared to the potential costs of repairing long-term damage from water and resulting property damage. Also, many other home repair and remodeling decisions can be postponed with little risk of marginal cost. Economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak led to a reduction of construction activity including the demand for replacement of residential and commercial roofs. Moody's regards the coronavirus outbreak as a social risk under its ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public health and safety. Governance risks Moody's considers in Standard's credit profile include an aggressive financial policy evidenced by its high leverage, dividends and potential for debt financed acquisitions. Standard has no independent directors on its Board of Directors. The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation that Standard will benefit from the economic recovery in its global end markets and improve its credit metrics while maintaining its very good liquidity profile. FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATING Factors that could lead to an upgrade: (All ratios incorporate Moody's standard adjustments): Debt-to-LTM EBITDA maintained below 3.0x A very good liquidity profile is preserved Ongoing trends in end markets sustain organic growth Factors that could lead to a downgrade: (All ratios incorporate Moody's standard adjustments): Debt-to-LTM EBITDA sustained above 4.25x EBITA margin trending towards 10% The company's liquidity profile deteriorates Standard Industries Inc., headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, is a leading manufacturer and marketer of roofing products and accessories with operations primarily in North America and Europe. The company manufactures and sells residential and commercial roofing and waterproofing products, insulation products, aggregates, specialty construction and other products. Standard Industries is privately owned and does not disclose financial information publicly. The principal methodology used in this rating was Manufacturing Methodology published in March 2020 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1206079. 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. 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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. 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 Doyle Vice President - Senior Analyst Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. 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"Car insurance is mandatory for any driver in the US. However, the minimum liability coverage is not enough in some situations, and the at-fault drivers will have to pay with their own money for the damage they've done," said Russell Rabichev. Many drivers are wondering if the minimum car insurance is enough to protect them. The majority of them prefer to buy only the minimum required liability coverage. However, in some cases, the liability coverage will not be enough to pay for the costs to repair the damaged property or to treat the injuries of the victims of an at-fault accident. In these types of cases, a driver that caused an at-fault accident can get sued in order to pay from their pockets the costs that are not covered by minimum car insurance. Before buying car insurance. drivers should consider the following: In case of an accident. Drivers should purchase between $50,000 to $100,000 per person for bodily injury and the same amount for property damage liability, in order to avoid getting into a delicate situation. There are many drivers that don't carry any form of insurance, or their coverage is not enough to pay the costs of a severe accident, so adding uninsured/underinsured coverage should be considered. Drivers should talk with their insurers to find out what will happen to them in the case they will be the victims of an accident and the other party doesn't have enough coverage to pay for the repair costs and medical bills. Protect the assets. Policyholders that are involved in at-fault car accidents and have policies that won't cover all the costs for the damage they've done, can get sued by the victims. If they don't have enough money to pay for the additional expenses of their victims, then their assets will be seized. To avoid having their houses or cars taken away from them, drivers should purchase additional liability coverage that can protect the value of their assets combined. 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 name insurance companies, etc. For more information, please visit http://compare-autoinsurance.org Aviation workers have staged a demonstration at Belfast International Airport calling for Westminster and Stormont to step in to save jobs. The Keep Northern Ireland Connected Save Our Airports protest was part of a national effort demanding action to protect the sector which has been devastated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Three months of lockdown and ongoing restrictions over travel in efforts to stem the spread of Covid-19 have left the industry in what Unite the Union has termed an unprecedented crisis. Expand Close An aviation worker holds a banner challenging Chancellor Rishi Sunak to intervene to protect jobs. (Rebecca Black/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp An aviation worker holds a banner challenging Chancellor Rishi Sunak to intervene to protect jobs. (Rebecca Black/PA) Three MPs Paul Girvan (South Antrim) and Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) of the DUP as well as Stephen Farry (North Down) of the Alliance Party were among those who attended. Unite regional officer George Brash said workers are hugely frustrated and called on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to fulfil his promise in March of a bespoke package for aviation. Aviation in Northern Ireland is facing a tsunami of redundancies, he told the PA news agency. In March, Rishi Sunak promised a package to save aviation and he has not fulfilled that promise so this is a national demonstration but for Northern Ireland in particular, this is massive to safeguard jobs and it is massive to save regional connectivity to Northern Ireland. He added that the demonstration is only the start of the unions campaign for Stormont to take action to safeguard airports, and protect regional connectivity and workers jobs. There has been dithering and delay from Stormont, and there has been dithering and delay from Westminster, he said. What we are asking for local politicians to do is put pressure on Rishi Sunak to fulfil the promises he made. In July, he made a comment that there would be inevitable job losses, deadweight. Workers are not deadweight, they have the right to work. We are here to support them, support our airports and connectivity for Northern Ireland. Expand Close South Antrim MP Paul Girvan, East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson talk with George Brash (right) of Unite the Union. (Rebecca Black/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp South Antrim MP Paul Girvan, East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson talk with George Brash (right) of Unite the Union. (Rebecca Black/PA) Mr Girvan insisted the DUP has been using whatever influence it has at Westminster to highlight the plight of the aviation industry. The MP, who represents South Antrim where Belfast International Airport is located, said he does not feel that the hub has been treated fairly. The international airport plays a key role in the overall Northern Ireland economy and the growth of our economy is dependent on having connectivity with the rest of the outside world, he said. A small pocket of funding was given to the Northern Ireland Executive, and Belfast City Airport and the City of Derry Airport received some of that money but the international airport to date has received nothing. It is vital that we do have a fund which is going to support and sustain what we have here, which is a jewel in the crown of Northern Ireland. The Tauranga Hospital childrens ward is $2500 closer to purchasing a lifesaving piece of equipment for sick babies, thanks to a joint donation from two Bay of Plenty organisations. New Zealand Motor Caravan Association Central Bay of Plenty Area chairman Frank Parry handed over the cheque on Tuesday, August 5 to paediatric ward clinical nurse manager Lynnece Dowle-Back. Most of the money was raised at the NZMCA Christmas rally last year and the rest was donated by the Vehicle Testing New Zealand centre on Maleme Street. The contribution will go towards a giraffe warmer, which helps provide a life-sustaining environment by directing heat to an infant. Lynnece was over the moon with the "absolutely wonderful" donation, saying the giraffe warmer saves lives. They are like a big incubator in a lot of ways. You have everything in there you need to keep the baby safe and warm. They are also what you call a resuscitaire so if the baby gets into strife there is a resuscitator on it. The sickest, sickest babies go on these." She says the items are worth around $30,000. Frank says the group has been donating to local causes for the past 10-15 years. Last year they donated around $2000 to the TECT Rescue Helicopter. "We try to choose something that we know needs the funds and a lot of us are grandparents," Frank says. "We have a very strong following, we have more than 4000 members just in our area which is why we can donate this amount." Lynnece says the hospital already has several giraffe warmer's, however they are in need of another. Currently, there is one in the paediatric ward and more in the Specialist Baby Care Unit. "An extra one will always be helpful. As you know, money is really scarce. Donations are just wonderful - they just enable things to happen more quickly. "It's all about our tamariki we have to have the best equipment for them." President Donald Trump looks on before signing a plaque as he participates in a ceremony commemorating the 200th mile of border wall at the international border with Mexico in San Luis, Ariz., on June 23, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) House Democrats Can Sue Trump Over Pentagon Funds for Border Wall, Court Rules A federal appeals court has ruled that House Democrats can sue the Trump administration for diverting $2.5 billion in Pentagon funds to build a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico. In the newest salvo in a legal battle over the border wall, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that congressional lawmakers can proceed with a lawsuit that would seek to assert Congresss authority to appropriate funds. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has demanded that Congress fund construction of a wall on the southern borderhis landmark campaign promise. After a congressional spending bill allocated around $1.3 billion for border security, falling short of the nearly $5 billion Trump requested for the wall, he declared a national emergency and by its authority reallocated $2.5 billion in defense and military project funding appropriated by Congress, sparking several lawsuits. President Donald Trump visits a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Otay Mesa, Calif., on Sept. 18, 2019. (Tom Brenner/Reuters) In June, a federal appeals court in California ruled against the Trump administration in the $2.5 billion transfer, ruling it sidestepped Congress illegally. The court ruled that the administration violated the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution, which states that No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law. Despite the California courts ruling of the administrations financing maneuvers as unconstitutional, the Supreme Court has allowed the $2.5 billion to be spent while the appeals process winds its way through the courts. A separate legal process adjudicated before federal courts in Washington culminated in Fridays 7-2 decision. Judges Thomas B. Griffith and Karen LeCraft Henderson were the two dissenting voices, arguing that courts should not take sides in political disputes, according to the Washington Post. A mix of Normandy vehicle barrier and taller border fence by the San Pedro River on the U.S.-Mexico border near Sierra Vista, Ariz., on May 8, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) This court ruling confirms what we already knew, Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) said in a tweet commenting on Fridays decision. The Trump Administrations diversion of Pentagon funds for the construction of his #BorderWall was an illegal encroachment on Congress power of the purse. Meanwhile, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden said in an interview during a virtual conference for the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists that, if elected, he would put an end to building the wall. There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration, Biden said, adding that he would instead have border protection based on high-tech capacity to deal with it and at the ports of entry, thats where all the bad stuff is happening. A large group of illegal aliens boards a bus bound for the Border Patrol processing facility after being apprehended by Border Patrol near McAllen, Texas, on April 18, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Trumps emergency declaration was made at a time when the United States saw a surge of illegal immigrants entering the country across the southern border, overwhelming the immigration system and facilities. Drug smugglers and cartels were also taking advantage of the porous border to smuggle vast amounts of narcotics into the country. In ruling that the House Judiciary Committee can proceed with its lawsuit, the DC court has effectively sent the case back to a lower court. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the administration would continue to seek dismissal of the case, saying, we intend to vigorously press those arguments before the panels hearing those cases. The administration could eventually appeal the outcomes all the way to the Supreme Court. Victoria Beckham celebrated her family being reunited at long last after months of being apart during lockdown. The former Spice Girl, 46, took to Instagram on Saturday to share a sweet snap of husband David, 45, and her three sons, Brooklyn, 21, Romeo, 17, and Cruz, 15, in Miami. Victoria announced her 'boys are finally back together' following a roller-coaster couple of months which included the engagement of her eldest son, Brooklyn. Reunited! Victoria took to Instagram on Saturday to share a sweet snap of husband David, 45, and her three sons, Brooklyn, 21, Romeo, 17, and Cruz, 15, (L-R) in Miami The Beckham brood posed in a dimly lit courtyard in Miami and looked like the spitting image of one another. Victoria captioned the family snap: 'My boys are back together,' with two heart emojis. Brooklyn and Romeo took fashion inspiration from David as they both donned white T-shirts, while Cruz rocked a yellow patterned shirt and Nikes. Family: Victoria announced her 'boys are finally back together' following a roller-coaster couple of months which included the engagement of her eldest son, Brooklyn Cool kid: Later in the day, Romeo posted a funky edited snap of him jumping in the air, superimposed in front of a gas station wearing his acid wash shorts and a 'Drew' graphic tee Brooklyn had spent the majority of lockdown in America with his fiancee Nicola Peltz but recently returned to the U.K, however Romeo headed off for a romantic countryside adventure with his girlfriend Mia Regan. The heartfelt snap received universal praise as fans related to the importance of spending time with family during the current pandemic. The family have strong ties in Miami as David is president and a listed owner of Inter Miami FC. Love: Brooklyn had spent the majority of lockdown in America with his fiancee Nicola Peltz but recently returned to the U.K after their surprise engagement The couple's youngest child, Harper, 9, was nowhere to be seen, but on Friday Victoria posted an adorable snap of her daughter wearing a 'blessed' bracelet. It has been an eventful few months for the family after the eldest son, Brooklyn, proposed to actress, 25-year-old American actress Nicola following a whirlwind romance. Meanwhile, Victoria and David recently came under fire for their plans to build a huge lake on their 6 million Cotswold estate. In an email sent to West Oxfordshire District Council, the frustrated local accused the famous couple of 'trying to bring suburbia to the countryside'. Over the past few months the couple have applied for permission for a lake and wine cellar as well as reportedly planning to add a sauna. Like mother like daughter: Harper, 9, could not be seen in the snap of the Beckham boys, but on Friday, Victoria posted an adorable snap of her daughter wearing a 'blessed bracelet Other projects planned by the Beckhams, which they have permission for, include a secret tunnel, a security gatehouse and a 'super garage' for their car collection. Now neighbour Michael Douglas has sent an email to the council to express his frustration and asked them to put a stop to any developments, reports The Sun. Mr Douglas wrote: What they appear to want is to bring suburbia into the countryside, if they had wanted all they have applied for why not find an estate which was big enough to accommodate all of this. He also questioned how any changes to the land would change the appearance of the entire area, which is mainly farmland. Home sweet home: The family have a 6 million mansion in the Cotswold's and recently won a construction battle to build a huge lake on their property (pictured at New Year's) In another striking paragraph Mr Douglas questioned why the Beckhams had moved to the Cotswolds if they planned on making changes. He wrote: If they don't want to live in the countryside in an open area of green fields why buy the properties in the first instance after all they have properties in Los Angeles, Florida, New York and London. To conclude his letter, Mr Douglas said: 'I believe the planning department need to draw a line and refuse this new planning application.' In the planning documents, the Beckhams are said to have bought barns near to Soho Farmhouse. This caused Mr Douglas to question their want for privacy as the buildings are close to a public lane. MailOnline has contacted a representative for the Beckhams for a comment. Even before the pandemic we knew it took a certain sense of humor to understand the business of the Thoroughbred industry. Attempting to read the tea leaves in 2020 outside in the real business world isnt easy. As corporations have released their second-quarter earnings reports over the last few weeks, there have been some alarming figures. Energy giant ExxonMobil, with a precipitous drop in the price of oil and decreased demand, recently reported a loss of $1.1 billion for its quarter. And that figure was half of what was expected. With that in mind, we guess the $118.8 million loss reported by Churchill Downs Inc. July 29 for its second quarter has to be taken in stride. A sizable loss of racing dates (along with on-track patrons), casino/gaming facility closures, and a delayed Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) were obviously the culprits for the red ink, but that wasnt really the news of the day. While investing in KentuckyChurchill Downs Inc. last year purchased Turfway Park, demolished the plant, and is constructing a new facilitythe corporation apparently doesnt feel the same way about Arlington International Racecourse in the Chicago suburbs. Bill Carstanjen didnt directly put a fork in the racing there but did say that land will have a higher and better purpose for something else at some point, but we want to work constructively with all of the constituencies in the market to see if theres an opportunity to move the license or otherwise change the circumstances so that racing can continue in Illinois. It took a lot of back and forth, but Churchill and Illinois horsemen inked a two-year deal this summer and racing at Arlington finally got underway June 23 and will run through the end of September sans a stakes schedule. The future of the sport in the nations third largest city has many chapters yet to be written and will keep our Illinois correspondent Bob Kieckhefer in the chips for quite awhile. The big play in the short-term for Churchill Downs is the Sept. 5 Derby. Usually a month out from the Run for the Roses, the talk is all about who will make the field. Thats still a good part of it, and we have revived the Derby Dozen for a special COVID-19 fall edition this week. Louisville native and sharp handicapper Byron King takes the reins at deciphering the nations most bedeviling race between now and Labor Day weekend. Beyond who is making the starting field, a bigger question is who will be let in to watch. Carstanjen was also peppered with questions regarding attendance at the Derby during the conference call. We are not selling any GA (general admission) tickets right now, Carstanjen said. We had sold a bunch. But we have stopped selling GA. We are well under the capacity we had discussed with the governor, but weve stopped anywaybecause we want to ensure that customers feel safe. The Derby is the sports and CDIs main attraction. High-priced tickets for well-appointed seats, concessions, food, and hospitality, all make the event a key component to annual revenue. General admission tickets also keep the company in the black, but just how many will be allowed entry remains a mystery despite the big race being just a month out. Amid the pandemic, CDI has been working closely with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and his team regarding being able to allow patrons under the Twin Spires for this years race. All we can speculate on this date is that this years running will be the least-attended Derby in our lifetime. The announcement of delaying the Derby came March 16that was a long time ago, right?when Labor Day weekend seemed a long way off. A continued rise in COVID-19 positives in Kentucky and around the country, and travel restrictions for global participants are bigger threats to the First Saturday in September than anything else. At present, house parties of more than 10 are discouraged in Kentucky by the governors office, so events such as the Derby and the upcoming September and October yearling sales, while having exemptions, figure to be kind of iffy. In speaking with those on the governors team, the term in flux is the phrase most often used to describe the near-term future. That can be said for most any event these days. Were not doubting there will be a Derby; were just not sure were ready to set an over/under on what the capacity will be. Alabama schools are re-opening without the financial and logistical capacity for universal COVID-19 testing of students, and experts are divided on the risk that presents. There would be a lot of obstacles to reach a point where we could achieve that goal (of universal testing), said Professor of Pediatrics at USA Health Childrens and Womens Hospital, Dr. David Gremse. Schools began reopening across Alabama this week, but many experts believe testing Alabamas students on a regular basis is not financially or logistically feasible, given staffing limitations and the delay in getting results from testing labs. The CDC does not require schools to test students in order to re-open, and Dr. Brian Gannon, professor of pediatrics at the University of Alabama, thinks widespread testing could even backfire. (Universal testing) gives you false sense of security that these people are safe to come to school, he said, noting that someone could get a test, go to the grocery store, and pick up COVID-19 later that day. But Dr. Ashish Jha, professor of global public health at Harvard University, sees broad testing as essential to opening schools. Going without (universal testing) in a place like Alabama, strikes me as extremely high risk, he said, adding that he would not send his own child to school in Alabama given the rate of COVID-19 spread, and certainly not without universal testing. Were building in layers of safety, and if you want to build in a strong layer of safety with testing, you want to be testing everybody twice a week. Tests too pricey The states school reopening plan includes no statewide K-12 testing initiative, which some state Senators and members of the Alabama School Nursing Association had called for. Instead the plan distributes funds to K-12 districts to spend at their discretion. At the university level, Operation GuideSafe is requiring students to get tested for the beginning of the year before they arrive on campus. Dr. Michael Saag, infectious disease professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says the aim is to get a snapshot of COVID-19 among the student population. Its simply a way of saying, were starting with a known entity and were going to follow what happens over time. Saag says Alabama is prioritizing testing college students over younger children because they tend to cohabitate in dorms, increasing the likelihood of spread. He believes universal testing in all schools would be impossibly expensive for Alabama at $50 a test. Hundreds of thousands of tests would be needed. You start doing the math and it becomes pretty overwhelming in terms of the lift that has to be made, he said, adding that right now, there is a shortage of tests for patients in clinical settings which needs to be the priority. A new approach to testing Meanwhile, nationwide, the conversation about COVID-19 testing is moving in a new direction. Jha and other researchers are calling for a shift towards less expensive, less accurate tests, called antigen tests. The tests could be so cheap to produce, they argue, that every American could test themselves once a day, dramatically improving the rate of testing nationwide. You overcome the sensitivity issues by testing more frequently, said Saag, at UAB, who is hopeful about antigen testing but not convinced it can be done as cheaply as some experts propose. Seven states, including Louisiana, are banding together to pursue the development of antigen testing capacity to use in schools and other settings, and Arkansas is investing in hundreds of antigen testing machines as it reopens schools. Yet a move toward cheaper tests is not taking off in Alabama so far. Dr. Gremse, for one, is concerned about using a less accurate test. There is not enough testing data available yet to verify whether antigen testing is accurate for screening purposes, he said. For Dr. Saag, sentinel testing, taking a random sampling of a population to track the diseases spread, is the best solution, on balance. He says districts should be prepared that COVID-19 will sooner or later spread through schools. To me its inevitable, he said. The question is to what degree theyll see this, and the timing of when theyll see it. In a widely-shared Friday Twitter thread, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Associate Professor Trevor Bedford speculated that a significantly higher degree of population immunity may be helping Texas, Florida and Arizona all states which saw increases in coronavirus cases, test positivity and hospitalizations in June and July control the pandemic. "I (and others) have argued that the main thing curbing these epidemics have been societal responses, but I believe there is also a role for population immunity in controlling these epidemics," he wrote. "If we take the simplest model of population immunity, we expect Rt will equal R0 fraction of the population susceptible. This is where the usual 'herd immunity threshold' comes in. If we assume R0 of 2.5 then we need 60% of the population immune to bring R0 down to 1." R0 is the base reproduction number of the virus, or the number of cases that will occur in a completely susceptible population as a result of one infected individual. Rt is the effective reproduction number, which is a real-time estimate that will change as population immunity increases. Using Florida as an example, Bedford cites data scientist Youyang Gu's COVID model, which projects that 21% of Floridians have been infected with COVID-19 at some point. Gu's model, featured in The New York Times and FiveThirtyEight's model surveys, has been one of the more accurate models as it relates to death projections. "Assuming a large majority of infections leave enough immunity to be protected (which I believe to be the case, though correlates of protection are still being worked out), population immunity of 20% will have real impact if societal behavior has already reduced Rt to ~1.2," Bedford wrote, citing new social controls such as mask mandates and bar closures in hot spot states that have reduced the base reduction number. "I've been thinking of this as: to get to R0 of 1.0 with no immunity we need avoid 60% of transmission events," he continued. "However, if 20% of the population is immune, then we need to avoid 50% of transmission events. Or, with 20% population immunity, we can behave as though Rt is 1.25 and still get an epidemic that no longer propagates." California has not had as severe an outbreak as Florida, Texas and Arizona when comparing per capita numbers, and Gu's model projects that 12.1% of Californians have had the virus at some point, with an upper range estimate of 18.5% and a lower range estimate of 7.3%. If 12.3% of Californians have already been infected, that means the state has been underreporting cases by a factor of approximately 8.5, which is somewhat inline with a CDC estimate that cases nationally were underreported by a factor of 10 from March through May. As testing becomes more widespread, the factor of underreporting will decrease. For reference, the Gu model projects that 21.7% of Arizonans and 17.6% of Texans have had the virus. Bedford was later met with skepticism as to whether the percentage of actual infections in Florida is as high as 20%, to which he wrote, "My use of 20% total infected in Florida is not the point I was trying to make. I think it could easily be 10% of Florida infected at present. The point being even 10% population immunity starts to make a difference when behavioral Rt is ~1.2." Of course, the obvious downside to increasing population immunity means more death especially if vulnerable groups are not sufficiently protected and Arizona, Florida, Texas and California have all recorded sharp increases in the number of deaths per day over the past two months. In total, upwards of 16,000 people have died in those four states alone since the start of July. "The costs for this immunity have been substantial and are continuing to accrue," Bedford wrote. "We need a vaccine to achieve population immunity in a fashion that doesn't kill people." Eric Ting is an SFGATE reporter. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com | Twitter:@_ericting After Nairobi actor Alba Flores, fans have found an India connect for Rio as well. Miguel Herran, who plays Rio on the popular Netflix show Money Heist, starred in a desi commercial almost five years ago and his fans are only just noticing it. Miguel starred in the short romantic film for a song-streaming app. He was paired opposite Pia Bajpayee and even had to mouth some Hindi dialogues for the ad. As a Spanish actor, the Hindi lip-sync doesnt work too well. Miguels fans were excited to see him in a Hindi ad. I saw him in Money Heist as Rio but before that I knew him as Ayaan. Came back here to bring those memories back, wrote one fan. Does professor look for SBI for next season, Rio is on intelligence gathering in India for professor, joked another fan. Watch the video here: Earlier, a video of Nairobi actor Alba Flores speaking Telugu in the Spanish film Vicente Ferrer (2013), had gone viral. Alba played a Telugu woman in the film. The clip showed Alba as a woman from Anthapuram in Andhra Pradesh, wearing a sari and a bindi. The film was about a Jesuit missionary who arrives in India to spread the word of God. Also read: Rhea Chakraborty appears before ED after it rejected her request to defer questioning in Sushant Singh Rajput death case Money Heist is among Netflixs most popular shows. It follows the story of a professor who ropes in a bunch of men and women to rob a mint. In an interview to YouTube channel BehindwoodsTV, Money Heist director Alex Rodrigo acknowledged the shows fandom in India and even picked a cast a Bollywood remake. Rodrigo said that it wasnt easy to pick one, but that Ayushmann Khurrana would probably make for a good Indian version of the professor. Rodrigo also picked Vijay as the professor, Mahesh Babu as Tamayo, Ajith Kumar as Bogota and Shah Rukh as Berlin. He also picked Ranveer Singh as Denver, and Suriya as Suarez. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Police have arrested a 22-year-old man accused of driving through a pedestrian-only zone in downtown Montreal on Saturday, leaving two women with injuries. Montreal police say a vehicle travelling along Ste-Catherine Street drove into an area near the corner of Crescent Street just before 3 p.m. that had been closed off to traffic. Local police say the man was arrested by provincial police, and could face charges that include dangerous driving and failing to remain at the scene of a crash. The women who were on Ste-Catherine Street suffered lower-body injuries, but no one else was reported injured. A temporary terrace at the corner of Crescent and Ste-Catherine Streets in front of a bar was completely destroyed. A spokesman for Urgences-Sante, the local ambulance service, said debris caused the injuries. We transported two women, one 33 years old and the other 25 years old with minor injuries, lower body injuries, said Jean-Francois Coornaert. They were not hit by the car but by the debris from the tables and chairs, so they were very lucky. A bar employee said their terrace was destroyed, but luckily there was no patrons sitting on it at the time. You can see the destruction is almost a full city block in length, the tables that were at the corner of Ste-Catherine and Crescent are now down at de la Montagne and Crescent, said the employee, who asked that his name not be used. Bergeron said the investigation is ongoing and police are looking at surveillance video and speaking to witnesses to get a better description of the vehicle. "I would have done worse if I were in the shoes of Hawa Koomson," Director of Communications for Ghana Gas Company Limited, Ernest Owusu Bempah has said. The Awutu Senya East Constituency MP, Mavis Hawa Koomson courted controversy when she fired a warning shot at a voters' registration centre in Kasoa. The Special Development Initiatives Minister said she only fired the gunshots because her life was threatened by some thugs alleged to be affiliated to the opposition NDC. Reacting to this, Ernest Owusu Bempah in an interaction on Neat FM's 'Me Man Nti' programme said he would not have only fired a warning shot, but gunned them down like ants. " . . what was the root cause of what happened in Kasoa . . . that the woman had pulled a gun? if it was me, I would have sprayed them like ants," he said. Ernest Owusu Bempah recalled a time he was ambushed by the NDC and he fired a warning shot to defend himself. " . . they shouldn't try me . . . what Hawa Koomson did if it was me, I would have done worse. . . I'm protecting myself; self-defence is everywhere," he added. 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. Featured Video If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here WILLEMSTAD:--- The Coast Guard officer training, Basis Opleiding Kustwacht (BOK) was reinitiated on August 3, 2020. Last March the training was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. As a precaution, all students from Aruba and St. Maarten returned to their homes and families. The students flew back to Curacao in June 2020 and last Monday the training was reinitiated. The students from Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten started with great enthusiasm and energy on their first assignment, a tough hike in the drie gebroeders area. The drie gebroeders are three hills in the rugged landscape of Curacao. The youngsters got up very early last Monday and challenged the heat and the rugged terrain of the three hills until noon. In the coming weeks, the 18 students will receive the follow-up modules from the BOK. The entire week was a refreshment course of the first training weeks, these were the modules they followed in January and February 2020. During the training weeks, the students were challenged both physically and mentally. Under the guidance of Coast Guard instructors, the youngsters camped in various rough terrains, marched for miles, swam kilometers, cooked, kayaked, built rafts, participated in classroom programs as well as completed amphibious exercises. After the training weeks, they followed the nautical education, where the modules of basic rescue training, firefighting, manual VHF, and first aid course were included. After this refreshment week, the youngsters will continue the BOK program as planned, with next on the planning the weapons and shooting program. Quarantine ends at Danang hospital The lockdown imposed on Danang Hospital C in the central city of Danang which is battling the Covid-19 outbreak has been lifted. At around midnight on Friday, the isolation was officially removed after the 14-day period. The lockdown imposed on Danang Hospital C removed Dr Dang Van Tri from hospital said that all of staff from hosital had lived through an unforgettable moment in their lives. They expressed their deep thanks to the community for sharing difficulties in the fight against Covid-19. After the quarantine was lifted, most of the hospital staff chose to stay to continue their battle against the pandemic. Despite great challenges, we are always willing to support other local hospitals in care and treatment, Tri added. By Saturday morning, Vietnam recorded a total of 789 Covid-19 patients, including 316 from abroad. Since July 25, the pandemic has spread to 13 cities and provinces in Vietnam with up to 333 community infections, all linked to Danang. People wear face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus as they ride the subway in Taipei, Taiwan. (AP) Washington: US Health Secretary Alex Azar has said he wants to learn about Taiwan's incredibly effective response to the coronavirus even though the island did things that the US has fumbled, such as having a unified strategy and citizens willing to wear masks. Azar leads a U.S. delegation departing this weekend for a three-day visit to Taiwan, where they will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen and health system leaders, and Azar will give a speech to public health graduates. The trip is a geopolitical chess move in the Trump administration's contentious relationship with China, which considers Taiwan part of its national territory and has already registered its displeasure. The message of this trip is about Taiwan, Azar said in an interview on Friday, deflecting a question about China. It's about public health, it's about our partnership with Taiwan, but also the model that Taiwan offers to the world community of a transparent and open health care system. It is a model others can learn from. He called Taiwan's coronavirus response incredibly effective and said he's willing to learn from them about their responses. It's not too late, says a leading expert on Taiwan's health care system, Princeton University's Tsung-Mei Cheng. It will be good if our health chief can learn from Taiwan, how exactly they did it, said Cheng. It's really a treasure trove of very useful information as to how you could effectively control and contain the spread of the virus. Taiwan had direct experience with an earlier respiratory virus known as SARS, so it did not take the new coronavirus lightly. A government-run health care system broadly similar to what Sen. Bernie Sanders advocates allowed public health authorities to mobilise resources to track and contain cases. Citizens were willing to follow public health advice. As a result Taiwan has had fewer than 500 confirmed cases of COVID-19, despite its close proximity to China, where the virus originated. Florida, which has roughly the same number of residents as Taiwan, has had more than 500,000 cases and is struggling to contain this summer's surge. Taiwan set the policy right and they had the infrastructure and the leadership, said Cheng. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of leadership. In the U.S., President Donald Trump minimised the potential impact of the coronavirus at the outset and has continued to do so from time to time. The federal government deferred to the states on key issues such as testing, even as public health experts and Democrats in Congress have called for a national plan. Azar, while praising Taiwan, said the U.S. is dealing with very different circumstances. They are an island with 23 million people that also experienced SARS quite directly, he said. The U.S. is one of the world's largest land mass countries, he added, with a federal system that gives states great leeway, and traditions of individual liberty. Like other administration officials, Azar says Trump acted quickly to try to contain the virus by imposing restrictions on travel from China, and he points to the government's drive to facilitate development and eventual distribution vaccines as direct evidence of the U.S. president's commitment. Also on the agenda for the trip is trade as the U.S. tries to broaden its sources for medical products, many of which have been produced in China. American Cabinet-rank officials have travelled to Taiwan in previous administrations, but Azar's trip is billed as the highest-level visit since Washington and Taipei broke formal diplomatic relations in 1979 as a consequence of U.S. rapprochement with China. The U.S. is represented in Taiwan by an institute that acts as an embassy in all but name. Members of the U.S. delegation will wear masks and observe social distancing precautions. They'll be tested for the coronavirus before they depart, once they land in Taiwan, and before they return. This is a visit to reinforce the U.S.-Taiwan partnership in global health and health security, said Azar. Taiwan is a leader in global health and I believe it deserves to be recognised as such. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Bihar Police on Friday informed the Supreme Court accusing its Mumbai counterpart of siding with actor Rhea Chakraborty and obstructing its probe into the Sushant Singh Rajputs death by suicide and other related angles. The Union Government, meanwhile, filed an impleadment application seeking to be made a party in the ongoing case filed by Rhea seeking transfer of probe from Bihar to Mumbai. In an affidavit, the Bihar government said that the Mumbai Police did not share crucial evidence of the case, obstructed its probe and forcibly quarantined Superintendent of Police, Patna-Central, Vinay Tiwari when he reached the city. The affidavit came in response to a petition filed Rhea who sought transfer of the case filed by Sushants father KK Singh from Patna to Mumbai. The non-cooperation by the Mumbai Police with the Patna Police is clear from the fact that the former has not supplied any documents such as inquest, post-mortem and FSL reports, CCTV footage etc to the latter, despite several requests, the affidavit stated. ALSO READ | Defer statement recording till SC hears plea, says Rhea Chakraborty to ED So far, the Bihar Police has recorded statements of 10 people related to the Rajput death case. The statements of Rhea or her family members, named in the FIR, have not been recorded yet. Bihar Police denied that it lacked jurisdiction to probe the FIR lodged by Rajputs father, citing Section 179 of the CrPC which states that when an act is an offence by reason of anything which has been done and of a consequence which has ensued, the offence may be inquired into or tried by a court within whose local jurisdiction such thing has been done or such consequence has ensued. Since Sushants father is a resident of Patna, the state police and courts have the jurisdiction to try the offence, the Bihar police asserted. Rhea Chakrabortys petition is without jurisdiction, premature, misconceived and not maintainable, Bihar Polices affidavit said. Sliding economy View(s): The numbers have come in, exclaimed Arthika, my nonsensical economist friend better known as good-for-nothing Somey, on Friday morning. He woke me up with his call after I had spent a long night listening to the parliamentary election results in which the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) swept the polls, while the once-dominant United National Party (UNP) was virtually wiped out , coming in a poor fourth in the race. For the first time at a poll, UNP leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe ended up without winning a seat in the preferential count. Hihi, what numbers are you talking of? I asked, rubbing my bleary eyes. Why, the gross domestic figures (GDP or economic growth) have come in for the first quarter of 2020 and they are not at all positive. Growth is minus for this period and shows a GDP contraction of 1.6 per cent according to the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS), he said, reading from Thursdays newspaper. The DCS has said that the growth estimates in the first quarter reflect the continuing negative effects of the Easter attack in April 2019, compounded by the deep impacts of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection to compute these figures was difficult this time, the DCS said. While normally the first quarter data are released on June 19, this time the DCS faced many difficulties and challenges in gathering data and information during May and June from government, semi-government and private sector institutions in the country. In addition, the data availability of many institutions and the quality of the data, were not at satisfactory levels due to the operational impediments at ground level due to the restrictions imposed by the government and the regulations provided by the Ministry of Health regarding the spread of COVID-19 such as limiting the number of staff for normal work, it said in a statement. With the exception of the service sector which continued to expand by 3.1 per cent, the remaining three sectors agriculture, industry and taxes, less subsidies on products, which contracted contributed to an overall economic downturn. Impact of the pandemic was felt severely in this quarter, as the economy which operates at the maximum capacity before the dawn of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, failed to function at peak level due to the lockdown conditions which commenced at the end of the first quarter, it said. This means that this year we are most likely to report negative growth as the next three quarters will be heavily affected by the pandemic and its after-effects, I said, continuing the conversation with Arthika. Yes its going to be a tough time and even tourism is unlikely to pick up this year, he said, adding: Many challenges for the new government. For the record, Sri Lankas economic growth has been sliding since it grew by 5 per cent in 2015. Growth was slower in the following years with the economy growing by 4.5 per cent in 2016, 3.6 per cent in 2017, 3.3 per cent in 2018 and 2.3 per cent in 2019. While the Central Bank expects the economy in 2020 to grow by 1.5 per cent after contracting in the first three quarters, economists and rating agencies believe the country will end up with negative growth in 2020. The double whammy on the economy the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic is seen worsening in the second and third quarters with tourism responding slowly to the recovery and as the country prepares for a possible second wave of infections, which cannot be totally ruled out, once the airport reopens for normal tourist traffic. As I wound up my conversation with Arthika, I turned to the discussion under the margosa tree. Janadhipathi Gotabaya Rajapaksage pakshaya udinma dinala (President Gotabaya Rajapaksas party has won an astounding victory), said Kussi Amma Sera, sipping tea from her mug. Ape gamwala okkoma kattiya eh paksheta chande dala thiyenne (Most of the people in the villages have voted for his party), noted Serapina. Eka hethuwak me jayaggrahanayata, aanduwa vairasaya paalanaya karapu vidiha (I think one of the reasons for this victory was how the government handled the COVID-19 situation), added Mabel Rasthiyadu. Viruddha paksha walath prashna godak thibuna-ne (There were also many problems in the opposition parties), countered Kussi Amma Sera. While victory at the polls is sweet music to the Pohottuwa, the new government nevertheless has daunting challenges to put the economy on track in the midst of a global recession and rising job losses at home. With negative growth predictions, no budget for the entire 2020 (with revenue figures from taxes also in reverse gear), another hurdle amidst mounting tax problems is the 2021 budget which is expected to be presented in November 2020 by the new government. The only consolation is that Parliament resumes on August 20 according to a presidential decree and would provide some breathing space in finding sources of expenditure and formalising the three Vote on Accounts presented this year. So far, at least 500,000 workers directly and indirectly have lost their jobs largely in tourism and garment-industry related sectors. According to recent data, Sri Lankas apparel exports in the first half of this year reduced to US$1,834.88 million compared to $2,620.40 million in the first half of the previous year, a drop in earnings of $785.52 million or 40.28 per cent. Apparel exports for the whole of 2020 are likely to be $2 billion lower than last year, a 40 per cent drop in a worst-case scenario, according to some reports. Industry officials have said that the toughest period would be from September to December, while exporters expect orders to pick up from January 2021 onwards. The situation is worse in the case of tourism, a sector that is the first to get hit in a natural or man-made disaster but the fastest to recover too. Plagued by the Easter Sunday attacks which immediately led to a sharp drop in arrivals, earnings from tourism dropped by 18 per cent to $3,592 million in 2019 from $4,381 million the previous year. The industry had seen a gradual improvement by early 2020 until COVID-19 crippled all these early-recover efforts and a possible turnaround. Even if Sri Lanka is to reopen its borders by end August or early September, tourist arrival numbers would be much lower since many of the countrys source markets in Europe and Asia are still closed for regular outbound traffic. As I completed the column, sipping with relief my second mug of tea after a long night, my reflections were on the path that lies ahead where tax revenue will shrink and expenditure (largely due to non-productive spending like subsidies and compensation and relief payments for job losses) will rise: A formidable task for any incoming governing party. How Lashkar operatives planned on burning down the Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express Why NIA arrested former Congress MLAs daughter-in-law in an Islamic State case NIA files chargesheet in narco-smugglers case involving Pakistanis India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed charges in connection with the seizure of narcotic at Salaya, Gujarat. Charges were filed against 8 persons. The case relates to the seizure of 4.949 kilograms of heroin worth Rs 15 crore from the possession of arrested accused Aziz Abdul Bhagdad. The aforesaid arrested accused had brought a total of 500 Kg of heroin in three trips between March 2018 to May 2018, through sea route in his own ship and gave it to accused Rafik Adham Sumra. ISI charges Rs 10 lakh per kilogram of narcotics that a Khalistan terrorist sells Investigation conducted by NIA revealed that the afore-mentioned arrested accused and wanted accused persons, including Pakistani Nationals, hatched a criminal conspiracy to deliver narcotic drug Heroin in Gujarat from Pakistan. Kerala plane crash: Locals aid rescue, donate blood, arrange food | Oneindia News In furtherance of the said conspiracy, the arrested accused persons and wanted accused persons, who are part of an International Narco-Terror gang operating from Pakistan, Dubai and India, managed to smuggle and deliver a total of 500 kg of narcotic drugs (Heroin). All the 3 consignments were transported to Punjab. STF/Amritsar, Punjab Police seized 188 Kg of the drugs. The case has revealed a link between the narco-smugglers of Pakistan, Gujarat and Punjab. NASA and SpaceX mission managers met Thursday night and are proceeding, weather permitting, with the return to Earth of two astronauts. Meanwhile, space research to improve life for humans on and off the planet kept the Expedition 63 crew busy today. NASA astronauts (from left) Bob Behnken, Chris Cassidy and Doug Hurley talk to journalists on Earth. The trio answered media questions before Behnken and Hurley return to Earth. Flight Engineers Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are packing up to end a two-month mission aboard the International Space Station. They are scheduled to board the Crew Dragon spacecraft and undock on Saturday evening from the Harmony module's international docking adapter. The duo would splashdown on Sunday wrapping up NASA's first crewed mission since 2011. NASA TV will provide continuous coverage of the departure and Earth return activities. The veteran astronauts also completed their science assignments today that saw studies into unique fluids, biomedicine, autonomous robotics and more. However, Commander Chris Cassidy, who is staying in space until October, was busy all-day researching water droplets, observing extreme temperatures and sequencing microbial DNA. Hurley serviced science freezers that preserve biological samples for later analysis. He finally powered down the Astrobee free-flying robots that will soon see students competing to create the best algorithms to control the devices. Behnken finalized his work observing microgravity's effects on water droplets to improve conservation and pressure techniques. The orbiting lab's two cosmonauts from Roscosmos, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, continued their schedule of science and maintenance today. Ivanishin worked on a variety of communications gear during the morning before activating Russian radiation detectors in the afternoon. Vagner once again photographed Earth landmarks today then sampled the station's air and surfaces to analyze and identify microbes. On-Orbit Status Report Payloads BioMole: The crew performed BioMole part 3 of the science session, which consists of preparation of the previously amplified DNA (DeoxyriboNucleic Acid), followed by sequencing using the MinION. The BioMole Facility non-culture based samples are capable of providing microbial identification on-orbit within days of sampling. The goal of this tech demonstration is to conduct comparative analysis for possible replacement of current microbial monitoring systems. Droplet Formation Study (DFS): The crew performed the setup and initiation of recording for additional runs of the DFS investigation. Data will be archived by an alternate method which will actually result in a quicker delivery time to the experiment team. Droplet Formation Studies in Microgravity (Droplet Formation Study, or more simply DFS) evaluates water droplet formation and water flow of Delta Faucet's H2Okinetic shower head technology. To conserve water, flow rates in shower devices have been reduced, but this lower flow rate also reduces the effectiveness of these devices and often causes consumers to take longer showers, undermining the goal of using less water. Gravity's full effects on formation of water droplet size are unknown, and research in microgravity could help improve the technology, creating better performance and improved user experience while conserving water and energy. Radi-N2 deploy: Following initialization and handover from the Russian crew, all eight bubble detectors were deployed in the US Lab Panel 1S4 location. They will remain in this location for a week to collect data on the neutron radiation environment in that location. The objective of this Canadian Space Agency investigation is to better characterize the ISS neutron environment, define the risk posed to the crew members' health, and provide the data necessary to develop advanced protective measures for future spaceflight. It's been recognized that neutrons make up a significant fraction (10-30%) of the biologically effective radiation exposure in low-Earth orbit. The bubble detectors used in the investigation are designed detect neutrons and ignore all other radiation. Systems On-Board Training (OBT) Crew Dragon Depart Review: In preparation for their departure from ISS, the crew completed this proficiency training covering the departure profile, crew procedures, interfaces, nominal and off-nominal actions. SpaceX Demo-2 is currently planned for undock on Saturday, August 1 at 6:34 pm CT with splashdown on Sunday, August 2 at 2:42 pm CT. Cabin Fan Assembly 1 (CFA1) R&R Closeout Operations: Today the crew completed the final closeout activities after successfully installing the new cabin fan in the CO1D1 rack yesterday. As part of closeout, the crew installed the vacuum and vent hose, the high speed camera and the Electromagnetic Levitation (EML) sample chamber back into the experiment module. The R&R activity required approximately a half hour to perform but equipment had to be removed to allow rack tilting to access the fan. The suite of activities was subdivided across three consecutive days. Crew Dragon Prepack Transfer: The crew continued to perform Dragon cargo transfer operations. Ground teams estimate approximately 1 hour remains to complete available cargo ops. The remaining time will be performed per dedicated activities on undock day. Completed Task List Activities: Crew Dragon Tablet Sync Today's Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. C2V2 Checkout Ground Support for JEM RMS Ops LAB S6 CCAA TCCV Troubleshooting Look Ahead Plan Saturday, 8/1 (GMT 214) Payloads: BioMole Stow GLACIER Transfer Systems: Emergency Equipment Transfer Dragon Cargo Ops/Closeout Dragon IDA Egress Dragon Undock Sunday, 8/2 (GMT 215) Payloads: No Utilization Activities Systems: Crew Off Duty Monday, 8/3 (GMT 216) Payloads: MELFI Icebrick insert Plant Hab-02 Systems: EHS Benzene CMS Operations IFM N1 Filter R&R Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Droplet Formation Study Water Charging Test Operations . Check - #07 Thermostat Temperature and Keep Out Zones in front of - Inlets and Outlets SCENARIO. Observation and Photography of Catastrophic Events and Their Impact Environmental Health System (EHS) Biomole Maintenance Work Area Prep 2 Crew Departure Preparations for Return to Earth MELFI 2&3 Ice Brick Insert 3 Transfer Crew Dragon Forward Prepack ISS Crew and (RSA Flight Control Team) weekly conference On-Board Training (OBT) Crew Dragon Depart Review Charging D4 Battery for return Video Server Setup and Test ASEPTIC. Surface Sample Collection and Start of Air Samples Collection. Post-Installation Video Server Test Elektron-V post-deactivation purge DUBRAVA. Observation and Photography using [BCC] Equipment Radiation Dosimetry Inside ISS-Neutrons & Handover MATRESHKA-R. BUBBLE Dosimeters Setup, Activation, Deployment and Handover to USOS Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) - Node 2 Countermeasures System (CMS) Don Orthostatic Intolerance Garment (OIG) & Doff Connecting Hose EDR LUDP Polar Cygnus Uninstall, Transfer, And EXPRESS Rack Install Crew Dragon Seat Actuator Checkout Crew Dragon Hand Held Gas Detector Battery Swap & Stow Vacuum Cleaning of the FGB and [-7] Screen on 4 behind Panel 108 in the FGB Installation of EML Sample Chamber & High Speed Camera BioMole MELFI Retrieve BIOMOLE PART 3 URAGAN. SOVA Equipment and Photo Equipment Setup/Activation (with closeout/teardown) Gather D4 Battery for visiting vehicle return Astrobee Off OBT debrief conference for after DM-2 OBT events related to departure Dragon Departure Conference Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. FILE PHOTO: The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Hamburg By Pushkala Aripaka (Reuters) - Britain's Hikma Pharmaceuticals said on Friday it has started manufacturing Gilead's antiviral drug remdesivir under contract in Portugal, as the U.S. company outsources to increase availability of the COVID-19 treatment. Remdesivir is one of only two medicines to have shown to help hospitalised COVID-19 patients in clinical trials, making it a front-runner treatment for the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Hikma's Chief Executive Siggi Olafsson said the company will start supplying batches of the drug "soon," and Gilead is expected to distribute it. "The terms of the deal are confidential, we are simply a contract manufacturer for Gilead - they order products from us as they expect the sales to be," Olafsson told Reuters in a telephone interview. Remdesivir, which is administered intravenously, has been conditionally approved or supported in many regions to treat COVID-19, which has killed more than 800,000 people globally. A pledge by Gilead to send nearly all of its supplies to the United States between July and September stirred concerns about availability elsewhere. This week, a bipartisan group of U.S. state attorney generals urged Washington to allow other companies to make the treatment to increase availability and lower the price. On Friday, Pfizer said it had signed a multi-year deal with Gilead to manufacture and supply remdesivir. Gilead said on Thursday that its manufacturing network for the drug had grown to more than 40 companies in North America, Europe and Asia. The company had said in June that it was aiming to supply enough of the drug by the end of the year to treat more than 2 million COVID-19 patients, more than double its prior target of 1 million. Gilead has signed several pacts with generic medicine makers in Egypt, India and Pakistan to distribute remdesivir in 127 countries. The deals include those with Cipla Jubilant and privately held Hetero. Story continues Hikma's announcement of the deal with Gilead helped its shares jump more than 10% on Friday as it also reported a jump in first-half operating profit and lifted its sales outlook. Analysts said the deal highlights Hikma's "growing importance as a trusted source of essential medicines." (Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur/Josephine Mason/Susan Fenton) Campervans all booked up, too expensive or too unwieldy? Then why not try this summers DIY roadtrip alternative: campercars. Who needs to drive around in a pricey, thirsty converted van when its quite possible to sleep in your normal car using the latest accessories and digital apps? Its a chance for many of us to relive pre-health-and-safety childhood memories of sleeping in the boot of the family hatchback on holiday trips. Park and go: Simon Heptinstall and his dog, Nellie, try a spot of car camping Now were grown-up, of course, theres a limit to whats possible. Todays family of six might struggle to enjoy a holiday while crammed like sardines in a Mini Cooper, for example. But a couple could easily have an adventurous escape in an average car, and a bigger family could use an estate, SUV or people-carrier as their road-trip holiday hub. Cars offer a perfect portable bubble to explore less crowded seaside and countryside spots. You have more flexibility around moving sites, and if it rains or turns chilly, youll be grateful youre not in a tent. Turning a humble hatchback into a holiday home does take a bit of planning, however especially if you want to be comfortable. You may want to consider buying such campercar essentials as inflatable car beds and pillows, electric blankets and low-voltage lighting run from your cars cigarette lighter. Simon asks: 'Who needs to drive around in a pricey, thirsty converted van when its quite possible to sleep in your normal car using the latest accessories and digital apps?' And theres an increasingly wide selection of roof and tailgate tents, plus awnings and tarpaulin sheets to temporarily expand your living space. Cheap car sunblinds, meanwhile, provide night-time privacy or you can simply peg towels over the windows. The most important tip is to ignore neighbours weird looks and try lying down in your car at home before you set off. Experiment with reclining and sliding seats, removing headrests or taking out seats altogether. Try using airbeds, mattress toppers or duvets to smooth bumps. Smaller children can sleep across a back seat with special sideways mattresses that cost only a few pounds. For couples, full car mattresses are about 20 online. True campercar champions first make flat areas using plastic storage boxes (for spare clothes, shoes and food), then put mattresses on top. And heres a tip: when I experimented in my old banger I started off in my reclined drivers seat however, after a lot of awkward fidgeting I discovered its far better to sleep the other way round, with pillows on folded back seats and feet in the boot. Cars offer a perfect portable bubble to explore less crowded seaside and countryside spots, writes Simon Simon's most important tip for first-timers? Take your trousers off outside the car Rear wheel-arches are the cars narrowest part and, unless youre a very weird shape, your legs are your narrowest part, too. Next you need to work out where you can park for a spot of safe, legal and uninterrupted sleep. There are dozens of smartphone apps that flag up potential locations. Try Park4night, a free app with user reviews of sites, or motorhomestopover.co.uk, where a 15 annual subscription allows you access to details of hundreds of pubs offering overnight parking if you buy a nightcap or two at the bar. Wherever you go, try simply asking politely. A farm shop, pub or cafe may allow you to stay if you eat there or pay a small fee. And, unless youre after a truly wild experience, most campers need cafes, toilets and washing facilities, so its usually worth it. I wake at sunrise in an airless, steamed-up car and make a mental note to leave the windows open a crack the next night. But for the sake of noise, fumes, fuel and your battery, you shouldnt run the engine, heater or electrical accessories while sleeping. After suffering a series of contortions worthy of an Olympic gymnast, my most important tip to first-timers is: take your trousers off outside the car. Frontline/PBS Ramona Diazs latest documentary, A Thousand Cuts, stars former CNN correspondent and Rappler co-founder Maria Ressa, a formidable Filipino reporter who was born in the country yet spent much of her youth, as well as her college years, in the U.S. Ressa became famous herself when she began being targeted by the violent populist government of President Rodrigo Duterte and its online followers. The attacks have intensified to the level of political retaliation, and the government has levied multiple charges, from cyber-libel to tax fraud, against Ressa and Rappler, a news website. On June 15, Ressa was convicted of the first cyber-libel charge against her. A Thousand Cuts follows Ressa as well as a handful of her colleagues/employees at Rappler, from police beat reporter Rambo Talabong to investigative reporter Patricia Evangelista, who have spent years on the ground covering the graphic, out-in-the-open government-mandated murders of poor Filipinos who are deemedrightly or wronglydrug addicts and drug pushers. The film also follows two of Dutertes most fervent and influential supporters, social media personality and former dancer Mocha Uson and former Police General Bato dela Rosa. Despite its panoptical view, A Thousand Cuts focuses on Ressa and the extreme nature of her predicament. The world over, journalists are targeted, jailed, disappeared, and even murdered (as was the Saudi exile Jamal Khashoggi) for doing their work. Ressa, who chose to live in the Philippines instead of the U.S. after the people-powered revolution that ousted the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, has repeatedly returned to the Philippines rather than try to escape the trouble that has awaited her for years. The Daily Beast spoke to Ressa about what the most important takeaways are during a global descent into authoritarianism. It's a very sensitive moment for you, Maria, where this film is being made while you're in the midst of various complicated processes involving the politically motivated retaliation against you. Story continues My need was, realizing that we were in quicksand, this is a unique moment and we knew that in 2016, that we were under attack. So we grappled with: how do you report on yourself? And then I wanted it documented, but I couldnt use Rapplers resources for the longer term because were very small. Our organizations a hundred people total and we only have 25 editorial people. Even in our video group, we work like crazy. So I felt bad even thinking of having someone document us. And then if its someone who knows you well documenting you if its an internal thing, then its clouded with lots of things. There were several people who asked, who were following me for periods of time. So, that was the stage that Ramona came into. That was my context. I wanted it documented and I wasnt going to pay for it. Immigration Nation Filmmakers Reveal How Team Trump Tried to Block and Censor Their ICE Documentary The Kingmaker: A Scathing Portrait of the Female Donald Trump How do you build trust? Of course, I knew Ramonas work because in 2004, she turned me down for an interview for [her documentary] Imelda. And at that point I was at CNN. I knew she had a different framework, which is the fly on the wall kind of cinema verite. But my thing [is] at a certain point, a journalist makes a decision because if youre doing a daily story, you make a decision immediately in terms of framework, in terms of the story. And inevitably, there are only eight themes globally. Every story falls into that. And so you make a judgment about the person youre talking about. You dont tell it to people, but for instance, if someone is lying to you, you know theyre lying to you and you put context to it. So thats what she had to hurdle because I wasnt completely convinced about her framework. I felt that the film really followed closely along to what at least seemed to me to be your personality, Maria, which is this ability to take grave moments or chaos, and to constantly reframe and recontextualize, to tell the people around you (or the audience) that this is how we need to look at it. And that's a very journalistic trait, but the fact that youre able to do that in your real life in real time is impressive. Everyones different when theyre being documented in any way, but were you thinking about this comportment as the film was rolling? No. At a certain point I really did forget they were there because they became part of Rappler in a weird way, you know? And yet really the things we were dealing with were off the wall. And this is something I learned from CNN when youre in a conflict zone. I became a reporter for CNN in 1987, and in 1987, live shots were $10,000 for every 10 minutes. So you didnt do a lot of live shots from the Philippines. The thing about live shots is you have max two minutes, maybe a minute and a half. And if you dont have your thoughts organized, if youre not on in that minute and a half, you lose your window. So thats perfect, wonderful training because I learned to take a complex world and boil it to three points, because thats all you can get in a minute. Ive learned a ton just even in the last four years, but its been four years of these attacks [from Duterte and his administration]. Thats the big difference. Im used to being a journalist and being in a war zone for two weeks. Three weeks, and youre going stir crazy if youre still in a conflict area. Three weeks, it frays your edges; it changes the way you look at the world. Ive had colleaguessome of whom are not are no longer herewho get addicted to it because theres a certain adrenaline of conflict and war zone coverage that isnt constructive to you. That makes you lose your ties, the ties that really matter to your family and friends. So I got out of conflict reporting at just the right time, I think. And I wanted to build something. Thats why Im in the Philippines. Lets hope I didnt make the wrong choice Theres comparisons made to the U.S. in the film and whats going on here with Trump and his administration. The ways that populist dictator-types like Duterte and Trump function is that they try to manipulate the law. When the very premise of democracy, the very premise of fairness is being broken down, is it sufficient to react with the same tools you would have used in a fair and just society? I think thats a great question. And I think that is playing out right now. We were talking about David Kayehe was the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression[because] his last day was last night. And the question I asked him, and this is connected to yours, is, If facts are debatable, because the biggest problem right now is that the worlds largest distributor of news is social media, and these platforms actually make sure lies laced with anger and hate spread faster than facts. But [the question I asked was], If facts are debatablewhich is the biggest problem, this is the enabler of the rise of digital authoritarians, like a Trump and Duterte or Bolsonaro or Orban in Hungaryand we know that large groups of people are being manipulated by geopolitical forces, can we even have democracy? Do we have integrity of elections if we dont have facts? So if you think about it, thats why journalists are under attack globally. Every report from Reporters Without Borders to CPJ will tell you that in the last decade, the attacks against journalists have just gone off the scale. Again, David Kaye, the U.N. special rapporteur, last night came out with a report that said that COVID-19 is closing the digital spaces. Law is the next phase, because facts are where everything begins, right? The facts are where two opposing sideswhether a journalist or someone else are at the water-coolercan have a discussion. But if they have different facts, you have a big problem. And what is law? Law is still talking about the facts. It is to try to put order in society. So there is accountability, but if your facts are debatable, you cannot have laws. So that's also something Ive learned in the last four years, working with like the people like Amal Clooney and Caoilfhionn Gallagher, the Covington lawyers who are [handling my case], Im realizing that as journalists are fighting for facts and for truth, lawyersboth in the Philippines and the U.S., in international law, and, God forbid, international human rights lawall of this is quicksand right now, and they are trying to define it because the facts are debatable. So this is all connected in our world. I dont think theres any other time that epitomizes creative destruction as now. And Ive lived through so many of these in Indonesia, in the Philippines before. I mean, today, really, truly everything that we thought we knew has been crushed and destroyed because facts are debatable. All the old systems we put in place cant work when facts are debatable, when people are being manipulated. We have had courts and tribunals throughout history, but they havent always actually operated on the same set of facts as say, certain marginalized members of the population. You could take the Guatemalan genocide, for instance, and the impossibility of having indigenous voices fully heard by the system. But now these issues are coming up in a very disconcerting way. How do you reckon with the reality that there are all of these people in the Philippines who have legitimately felt marginalized by previous governments, even democratic governments, and so now theyve turned to populism. Its like COVID coming onto the world: the old problems are there, and they have not been solved. And then you come in with this added layer of technology thats literally transforming all of us. I talk about social media as a behavioral modification system. And now its gone from governments to individuals. So, thats happened. And then you add this layer of the pandemic. Thats what I mean, that everything is rubble. And again, I know this really well because I have been the target of these disinformation campaigns. Russian military doctrine includes these kinds of influence operations, as it does the U.S., which people forget. Influence operations are meant to change the way people think. So it changes the way they act. You dont get justice by creating another wrong. You dont. In our case, in the Philippines, its actually one of our reporters who said, What does Duterte want and how does he get the crowd? Because he promises them revenge, right? Again, the 1 percent versus the 99 percent, the inequality of the world has been there, but you dont fix it with more injustice. And then I actually really think, because I had been the target of these misogynistic attacks, the kinds of exponential attacks that are meant to dehumanize me so that others will hatethis is inciting to hate. And the last time a German friend of mine actually saidbecause Ive started showing some of the really nasty stuff that I wake up tohe said, You know, this is exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews, because when youre dehumanized, then it opens the door to violence. And theres absolutely no sense of fairness in that. I think this is one of those moments in history where it isnt just one nation, local is global and global is local because Silicon Valley has made these decisions about how facts are distributed to all of us around the world. And its just wrong. The decisions theyve made, they have caused genocide in Myanmar, deaths in the Philippines and the drug war, I could go to jail. I love the question because it does expand it to justice, which is in the end why I became a journalist! Now, for Filipinos, our institutions are weak at best, corruption is endemic, law and order is sometimes an illusion, regardless of whos in power. But for decades, from 1986 to 2016, if you look at all of the surveys, Filipinos would go to news organizations for a sense of justice. It is always a search for justice, right? Thats always what motivates us. Thats why we have civilized society. because we know that there should be rule of law, but the paradigm, the paradigm is busted. If you dont have factseven if some facts are debatable, at least lets agree on the shared facts. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. The strong recovery in the stock market and a surge in the value of Apples stock, in particular drove a rebound in profits for Warren E. Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway in the second quarter. Berkshire on Saturday said it earned $26.4 billion in the second quarter, a turnaround from a $49.7 billion loss in the first quarter, when a plunge in the stock market, prompted by the coronavirus outbreak, caused huge paper losses in Mr. Buffetts giant stock portfolio. In the second quarter of last year, Berkshire earned $14.2 billion. The weak economy, caused by the pandemic and business interruptions, weighed on many of the companies that the conglomerate owns. Berkshire warned that the pandemic could lead to changes in the economy that could hurt its operations. We cannot reliably predict when business activities at our numerous and diverse operations will normalize. Nor can we predict how these events will alter the future consumption patterns of consumers and businesses we serve, it said in its second-quarter filing. Aside from its stock holdings in companies like Apple and Bank of America, Berkshire owns outright a wide array of large businesses in the insurance, railway, energy, retail and manufacturing sectors that provide a snapshot of the health of the American economy. SANAA, Yemen - Airstrikes in northern Yemen killed as many as nine children, a United Nations official said Friday, making it the third such attack with significant child deaths in that rebel-controlled region this month. Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen, said in a statement that a group of mostly women and children were hit while they were travelling by road Thursday. She said it was shocking and completely, totally unacceptable. The statement said at least seven more children and two women were injured, but added that the casualty figures were only preliminary and still under investigation. The health ministry for the Houthi rebels, who control the area where the incident happened, had said Thursday that the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemens government conducted six airstrikes in the mountainous northern Yemeni province of Jawf. It said a rough early count indicated more than 20 dead, mostly women and children. Limited access to Houthi-controlled areas for aid workers and journalists often makes details of attacks difficult to confirm. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Turki al-Maliki, told the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat paper Friday that the coalition was seriously looking into the recent allegations of civilian casualties. The coalition, which has been at war with the Houthi rebels for years, has drawn international criticism for errant airstrikes that have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, killing thousands of civilians. On July 14, the U.N. reported that an airstrike in Hajjah province killed seven children, some as young as 2 years old. The next day, the Houthi rebels and aid workers reported an airstrike by the coalition hit a celebration in Jawf for a newborn boys circumcision, killing at least 10 civilians, including six children and two women. Yemens conflict erupted late in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels swept across much of the north and seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile. The following year, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states formed a coalition to fight the Houthis in what they said was an effort to stop Irans growing sway in Yemen. The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and created the worlds worst humanitarian disaster, with more than 3 million people internally displaced and two-thirds of the population relying on food aid for survival. Read more about: New South Wales has reported nine mystery cases of COVID-19 over the week as community transmission fears grow. NSW Health warned the unexplained cases were an indication that the virus was moving around the state. 'While most cases in the past week have been associated with local clusters and close contacts with known cases, nine have not been linked to known cases, indicating that COVID-19 is circulating in the community,' the department said. 'It's extremely important we all play our part in prevention all the time.' New South Wales has reported nine mystery cases of COVID-19 over the week as community transmission fears grow (pictured, Sydney residents walking the city streets) NSW Health warned the unexplained cases were an indication that the virus was moving around the state (pictured, nurses test a resident for COVID-19 at Rushcutters Bay) A student also tested positive at Tangara School for Girls at Cherrybrook, in Sydney's north-west (pictured), forcing the closure of the premises The state recorded on Friday nine new cases with two from returned travellers, three from known sources and another three that are still being investigated. A student also tested positive at Tangara School for Girls at Cherrybrook, in Sydney's north-west, forcing the closure of the premises. The new cases bring the state figure of COVID-19 cases to 3,362 with 52 deaths. There are currently nine COVID-19 patients in intensive care units in the state with six connected to ventilators. All New South Wales residents have been barred from entering Queensland after the Sunshine State closed the border with its neighbour on Saturday. The closure extends to Australian Capital Territory and Victorian residents. Though that hasn't stopped many from trying to enter Queensland with more than 100 people already turned away since the early morning. Queensland Police Services Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said 142 people - including 18 Queenslanders - had already been refused entry. 'The 18 Queenslanders no doubt were extremely disappointed because there's going to be considerable cost for them,' he told reporters in Coolangatta on Saturday. 'It's unfortunate but this is all about stopping COVID-19 coming into Queensland.' From Saturday, Queensland residents trying to come home from the three areas must arrive by air and pay at least $2800 for their two-week stay in hotel quarantine. Those who fail to comply with the border rules could face an on-the-spot fine of $1334, a court-imposed penalty of up to $13,345 or six months' imprisonment. The state recorded on Friday nine new cases with two from returned travellers, three from known sources and another three that are still being investigated (pictured, a masked staff member at Broadway Shopping Centre in Sydney) All New South Wales residents have been barred from entering Queensland after the Sunshine State closed the border with its neighbour on Saturday (pictured, cleaners at Broadway Shopping Centre in Sydney) Scientists have identified a structure in host cells which the novel coronavirus likely uses to synthesise components that will be assembled into fully infectious viruses, an advance which may lead to the development of new drugs against COVID-19. The study, published in the journal Science Advances, uncovers a coronavirus-specific structure in cells, which may act as a target for much-needed antiviral strategies against this family of viruses. According to the scientists, including those from the Leibnitz Institute of Experimental Virology in Germany, coronaviruses replicate their large genomes in the host cell's cytosol -- the jelly-like material in which the components of the cell are suspended. They said the viruses replicate by transforming host cell membranes into peculiar double-membrane vesicle (DMV) structures. In the current study, they noted that the newly made viral genetic material, its RNA molecule, needs to be exported from these DMVs to the cytoplasm to be packaged into complete, infectious forms of the virus. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show To date, however, they said no openings to the cytosol have been detected in the DMV replication compartments. Seeking to understand how viral RNA is exported from sealed DMVs, the scientists, Georg Wolff and his colleagues, used a powerful microscopy technique called electron tomography to visualise the middle stage of infection of a cell by mouse hepatitis coronavirus. They said this virus was used instead of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 due to biosafety constraints for such electron microscopy studies. The scientists identified a coronavirus-specific crown-shaped structure -- a molecular pore spanning the two DMV membranes -- that likely plays a role during RNA release from the compartment. Then using pre-fixed samples of SARS-CoV-2-infected cells, they showed that the structure is also present in SARS-CoV-2-induced DMVs. According to the researchers, this structure may be a generic complex with a pivotal role in the coronavirus replication cycle, facilitating the export of newly synthesised viral RNA from the DMVs to the cytosol. "Although the exact mode of function of this molecular pore remains to be elucidated, it may offer a general coronavirus-specific drug target," the scientists noted. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here One pretty good forecasting rule for the coronavirus era has been to take whatever Trump administration officials are saying and assume that the opposite will happen. When President Donald Trump declared in February that the number of cases would soon go close to zero, you knew that a huge pandemic was coming. When Vice President Mike Pence insisted in mid-June that there isnt a coronavirus second wave, a giant surge in new cases and deaths was clearly imminent. And when Larry Kudlow, the administrations chief economist, declared just last week that a V-shaped recovery was still on track, it was predictable that the economy would stall. CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH On Friday, well get an official employment report for July. But a variety of private indicators, like the monthly report from the data-processing firm ADP, already suggest that the rapid employment gains of May and June were a dead-cat bounce and that job growth has at best slowed to a crawl. ADPs number was at least positive some other indicators suggest that employment is actually falling. But even if the small reported job gains were right, at this rate we wont be back to precoronavirus employment until ... 2027. Also, both ADP and the forthcoming official report will be old news basically snapshots of the economy in the second week of July. Since then much of the country has either paused or reversed economic reopening, and there are indications that many workers rehired during the abortive recovery of May and June have been laid off again. But things could get much worse. In fact, they probably will get much worse unless Republicans get serious about another economic relief package and do it very soon. For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here Im not sure how many people realize just how much deeper the coronavirus recession of 2020 could have been. Obviously it was terrible: Employment plunged, and real GDP fell by around 10%. Almost all of that, however, reflected the direct effects of the pandemic, which forced much of the economy into lockdown. What didnt happen was a major second round of job losses driven by plunging consumer demand. Millions of workers lost their regular incomes; without federal aid, they would have been forced to slash spending, causing millions more to lose their jobs. Luckily Congress stepped up to the plate with special aid to the unemployed, which sustained consumer spending and kept the nonquarantined parts of the economy afloat. Now that aid has expired. Democrats offered a plan months ago to maintain benefits, but Republicans cant even agree among themselves on a counteroffer. Even if an agreement is hammered out and theres no sign that this is imminent it will be weeks before the money is flowing again. The suffering among cut-off families will be immense, but there will also be broad damage to the economy as a whole. How big will this damage be? Ive been doing the math, and its terrifying. Follow: Coronavirus Worldometer | 15 countries with the highest number of cases, deaths due to the Covid-19 pandemic Unlike affluent Americans, the mostly low-wage workers whose benefits have just been terminated cant blunt the impact by drawing on savings or borrowing against assets. So their spending will fall by a lot. Evidence on the initial effects of emergency aid suggests that the end of benefits will push overall consumer spending the main driver of the economy down by more than 4%. Furthermore, evidence from austerity policies a decade ago suggests a substantial multiplier effect, as spending cuts lead to falling incomes, leading to further spending cuts. Put it all together and the expiration of emergency aid could produce a 4-5% fall in GDP. But wait, theres more. States and cities are in dire straits and are already planning harsh spending cuts; but Republicans refuse to provide aid, with Trump insisting, falsely, that local fiscal crises have nothing to do with Covid-19. Bear in mind that the coronavirus itself a shock that came out of the blue, although the United States mishandled it terribly reduced GDP by only around 10%. What were looking at now may be another shock, a sort of economic second wave, almost as severe in monetary terms as the first. And unlike the pandemic, this shock will be entirely self-generated, brought on by the fecklessness of Trump and lets give credit where its due Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. The question is, how can this be happening? The 2008 financial crisis and the sluggish recovery that followed werent that long ago, and they taught us valuable lessons directly relevant to our current plight. Above all, experience in that slump demonstrated both that economic depressions are no time to obsess over debt and that slashing spending in the face of mass unemployment is a terrible mistake. But nobody in the White House or on the GOP side of Capitol Hill seems to have learned anything from that experience. In fact, not having learned anything from the last crisis almost seems to be a requirement for Republican economic advisers. So at the moment we seem to be headed for a Greater Recession a worse slump than 2007-2009, overlaid on the coronavirus slump. MAGA! Microsoft arrived in China in 1992 and now employs around 6,200 in the region Microsoft, which is in talks to buy part of Chinese video app TikTok, is one of the few US tech titans that have managed to succeed in China. The software giant has kept its business alive in the country by complying with strict local laws, despite the communist nation's wide-reaching censorship. Here are some key points about the technology and gaming group's operations in the world's second biggest economy. A pioneer Microsoft arrived in China in 1992 and opened its largest research and development centre outside the United States. It now employs around 6,200 people in China. The ubiquitous Windows operating system is used in the vast majority of computers in Chinadespite Beijing promising in recent years to develop its own operating system. The company's success has a downside, however, as its software is widely pirated. The important Chinese market, which is very restrictive for foreign firms, represents a drop in the ocean of Microsoft's business, accounting for barely 1.8 percent of its turnover, president Brad Smith said at the beginning of the year. Microsoft's Bing is one of the few foreign search engines operating in Chinaalthough it is far behind its local competitors Baidu and Sogou, which dominate the market. Microsoft founder Bill Gates is pictured with China's President Xi Jinping during a conference on the southern Chinese resort island of Hainan on April 8, 2013 Bill Gates Microsoft founder Bill Gates has long embodied a model of success in the eyes of many Chinese people and his books are bestsellers in the country. President Xi Jinping visited the company's headquarters on a state visit to the US in 2015, where he met with Gates and his wife. Today, as the head of his humanitarian Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the 64-year-old has the prestige of a head of state in Beijing. In February Xi wrote Gates a letter thanking him for his support during the coronavirus epidemic. Censorship and control China censors all subjects considered politically sensitive in the name of stability, and internet giants are urged to block unwanted content online. Refusing to comply with Beijing's strict demands, American giants Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, as well as Wikipedia and several other foreign media, are blocked by China's "great firewall". Microsoft, however, operates its professional LinkedIn network in the country by complying with the draconian censorship rules through a local joint venture. After Beijing lifted its ban on console sales, Microsoft was the first foreign firm to break into the video games market in China with its Xbox One console in 2014 Skype and Teams, its other two big platforms, are also available in China. It's not all smooth sailing though, with Bing temporarily taken offline last year, prompting speculation the search engine had been blocked by censors. Smith told Fox Business News at the World Economic Forum in Davos that "there are times when there are difficult negotiations with the Chinese government." The Greatfire.org website, which tracks online censorship in China, accused Bing a few years ago of redacting results containing sensitive information. Video games In 2000 Beijing halted the sale of all consoles because of their alleged negative effects on the "mental health" of young users, although they remained available illegally. After the ban was lifted, Microsoft in 2014 was the first foreign firm to break into the video games market in China with its Xbox One console. Also in 2014, the Chinese competition authorities opened an anti-monopoly investigation against Microsoft and its Windows software. Around 100 inspectors raided the group's offices in four Chinese cities, confiscating files and questioning employees. 2020 AFP A group of Melbourne police officers are in self-isolation after arresting a coronavirus-infected teenager allegedly on a wild crime spree through the city's southeast. Victoria Police confirmed the boy had tested positive for coronavirus prompting an undisclosed number of their officers into quarantine. He was one of two boys arrested at a Berwick shopping centre after they broke into a home, threatened a family with a knife, stole their car and crashed it into an unmarked police car on Thursday morning. A group of Melbourne police officers is in self-isolation after arresting a coronavirus-infected teenager allegedly on a wild crime spree through the city's southeast. Officers are seen in Melbourne on Thursday Meanwhile, about 500 coronavirus-infected people not at home when authorities came knocking have been referred to Victoria Police. Victoria has had to ramp up its isolation check-ins by police, defence and health personnel on positive cases after people were repeatedly found not obeying isolation orders. The doorknocking teams of ADF and health department staff have done 5000 visits since the program started on July 22. Thursday was the biggest single-day of checks, with 1150 homes visited. 'A thousand of those 1150 people could be found where they were supposed to,' Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on Friday. 'The 150 who could not, they have been referred to Victoria Police and I can confirm that there are around 500 people who were not where they should be - this is cumulatively - and they've all been sent to Victoria Police.' Mr Andrews said police would now determine if those people were doing the wrong thing. On Tuesday, the state government announced a new offence with a $4957 fine for those who fail to self-isolate after testing positive to coronavirus or being identified as a close contact. The fine can be issued to someone found to breach the requirement to be self-isolating for a second or subsequent time. It is the highest on-the-spot infringement Victoria Police can issue. Police dished out 196 fines in the 24 hours to Friday morning for public health coronavirus order breaches. Among them was a man claiming he was out feeding his uncle's horses at 3.40am and a man and woman who went to pick up a pizza because the store wouldn't deliver outside curfew hours. Two homes were also searched by officers who seized mobile phones and a computer over a planned anti-lockdown protest in the CBD on Sunday. Two 41-year-old men were arrested on Thursday night over the rally. A Mooroolbark man was charged with incitement - encouraging another person to commit a crime - and was bailed to face court in January. A Chirnside Park man was released but is expected to be charged with the same offence on Friday. Police have labelled Sunday's planned protest a 'blatant breach' of coronavirus restrictions and say they won't hesitate to hand out $1652 fines or arrest attendees. Officers checked up on more than 17,600 people at vehicle checkpoints in the 24 hours to Friday morning and did spot checks at more than 4400 homes, businesses and public spaces. They issued 51 fines for people not wearing face coverings when leaving home for approved reasons, and 43 for curfew breaches. National leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has sent a powerful message to Governor Godwin Obaseki, berating and... National leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has sent a powerful message to Governor Godwin Obaseki, berating and accusing him of gravely assaulting democracy and making a mockery of the Nigerian constitution. He said Obasekis governance of Edo has been a throwback to the worst excesses of Nigerias military past and represents a direct threat to the democratic order. Tinubu described Obaseki as an errant, ill disciplined governor and a dictator, who has been contemptuous of the people of Edo state. In a statement he personally signed, Tinubu said Obaseki adopted the strong arm tactics of dictators, by first of all, blocking the inauguration of two-thirds of the assembly and then importing thugs, to deface and destroy parts of the assembly. Then, he imports sand and gravels to prevent access to the assembly complex. In effect, the man has spent state funds to thwart the very apparatus of the state government he was sworn to uphold. He has squandered public money to defeat the very will of the public. This is tragic beyond words, Tinubu said. As a pretext for his refusal to allow the Edo House of Assembly to function, Governor Obasekis actions are perverse. This is a cowardly act and a move to thwart representative democracy in Edo. No renovation has been planned for the state house building. No appropriation was made in the states budget. The only reason any renovation could be deemed necessary is the destruction wrought by his own goons. Tinubu then offered some quick tutorial to Obaseki on the meaning of representative government and the importance of the legislature. Read the full statement entitled In Defence of Constitutional Democracy: The recent actions of the Governor of Edo State represent the gravest possible assault on constitutional democracy and the rule of law and escalation of violence and tension in the state he purports to govern. Not satisfied with making a mockery of our constitution by blocking the timely inauguration of two-thirds of the elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly, Governor Obaseki has now resorted to the strong-arm tactics of dictators. First, he sponsors hoodlums to deface, indeed destroy, parts of the House of Assembly Building in Benin, feigning the building is undergoing renovation. Then, he imports sand and gravels to prevent access to the assembly complex. In effect, the man has spent state funds to thwart the very apparatus of the state government he was sworn to uphold. He has squandered public money to defeat the very will of the public. This is tragic beyond words. As a pretext for his refusal to allow the Edo House of Assembly to function, Governor Obasekis actions are perverse. This is a cowardly act and a move to thwart representative democracy in Edo. No renovation has been planned for the state house building. No appropriation was made in the states budget. The only reason any renovation could be deemed necessary is the destruction wrought by his own goons. Governor Obasekis governance of Edo State recalls the worst excesses of our military past and represents a direct threat to the democratic order. By his refusal to permit duly elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly to perform their constitutional duties, Governor Obaseki betrayed contempt for the people of his state and, unfortunately, his ignorance of Nigerias constitutional order. As a Governor he ought to know better than to obstruct the functioning of his own legislature, but perhaps he is in need of a quick lesson. The legislative function is, perhaps, the most foundational obligation of any government. In the UK, the Parliament was famously said to be that supreme and absolute power, which gives life and motion to the English government. In most democratic systems, the legislature is the arm of government containing within itself the peoples representatives in government. As such, the legislative arm is critical. It is an important symbol of democratic governance. The voice, will and desires of the people are reposed in their elected representatives sent to the legislature to express and distil their amorphous will into the laws and codes by which the society has agreed to live. In the context of a constitutional democracy such as ours, the legislatures authority stems, in effect, from the recognition that it is the authentic mouthpiece of the people, entrusted with the responsibility of representing their collective will and the power to interpret and mould it into the laws of the land. It is, in short, not to be toyed with as a plaything of an errant and ill-disciplined governor. Undermine the legislature and you imperil democracy and allow governance to descend into anarchy. In placing himself above the legislature, deciding who gets in and who is shut out, Governor Obaseki not only places himself above the our nations constitutional order, he places himself above the people of Edo State whose representatives he so brazenly tramples upon. One can only wonder, given the desperation with which he has acted and his belligerent refusal to honour the free choice of the people of his own state, what mortal offence the majority members he has shut out have committed to warrant such treatment. Indeed, it is no coincidence that of the three arms of government, the powers of the legislature are enumerated first, in our Constitution. The legislature is the authority imbued with the power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the federation and states. Indeed, the Constitution makes clear that a Governors role primarily extends to the maintenance and implementation of the laws set down for him by his states legislature. In placing himself above the legislature, deciding who gets in and who is shut out, Governor Obaseki not only places himself above the our nations constitutional order, he places himself above the people of Edo State whose representatives he so brazenly tramples upon. One can only wonder, given the desperation with which he has acted and his belligerent refusal to honour the free choice of the people of his own state, what mortal offence the majority members he has shut out have committed to warrant such treatment. Although Governor Obasekis conduct in the past year is undoubtedly impeachable, these legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them. What, then, is their offence? By all appearances, the Governor is punishing these legislators for their loyalty to a party that is no longer his own. If every governor behaves as he, obstructing the performance of any legislator who does not pledge to him their undying fealty, the entire edifice of democratic governance in Nigeria would grind to a complete halt. In his campaign for re-election, Governor Obaseki promises to represent and defend the interests of all the people of his state. Yet, so blinded is he by his personal ambition, he sees no irony in the fact that his actions have denied two-thirds of the people of his state their right to representation in the states only legislative chamber. Although Governor Obasekis conduct in the past year is undoubtedly impeachable, these legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them. What, then, is their offence? By all appearances, the Governor is punishing these legislators for their loyalty to a party that is no longer his own. If every governor behaves as he, obstructing the performance of any legislator who does not pledge to him their undying fealty, the entire edifice of democratic governance in Nigeria would grind to a complete halt Governor Obaseki must think the people of his state to be as foolhardy and ignorant as he, for even as he courts their votes, he continues to make a mockery of the institution of democracy in his own House of Assembly. If Governor Obaseki believes the people are not aware of this inherent irony, he will undoubtedly learn the cost of this grave miscalculation in the fullness of time. The rule of law and preservation of democracy is too important to sacrifice at the altar of any one mans ambition. Governor Obasekis woeful leadership of Edo State will hopefully be brought to an end soon by the very people whose rights he has so carelessly trampled upon. One can only hope that the damage he is doing to the most important of the states democratic institutions can just as easily be repaired. SIGNED ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU Applied Materials AMAT shares have surged 60% since the markets March lows, as investors pile into semiconductor stocks and tech for their ability to expand during the coronavirus economic downturn. With this in mind, lets dive into one of the last big S&P 500 tech names left to report its quarterly earnings results, which are due out on Thursday, August 13. The Quick Story Applied Materials is a leading semiconductor equipment company and boasts that its materials engineering solutions are used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world. The firm is part of a strong and vital space within the chip industry, alongside peers like Lam Research LRCX, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company TSM, and others. AMAT executives expect to benefit from the continued expansion of the big data, AI, and more. Applied Materials is also focused on figuring out whats next as classic Moore's law scaling slows. This is why the firm has focused on what it calls the new playbook for semiconductor design and manufacturing, which includes five main elements: New architectures, new devices and 3D structures, new materials, new ways to shrink the feature geometries, and new ways to connect chips together. AMAT fell short of our second quarter earnings and revenue estimates. Nonetheless, its adjusted earnings jumped 27% last quarter, on 12% higher revenue. Like many firms, Applied Materials executives didnt provide guidance at the time, yet they remained upbeat. CEO Gary Dickerson said in prepared remarks that based on the visibility we have today, our supply chain is recovering, and underlying demand for our semiconductor equipment and services remains robust. As we mentioned at the top, AMAT stock is up roughly 60% since March 23 to match the tech sector. Despite the run, the stock rests just below its 52-week highs. This could potentially give it some room to run as many other tech firms have soared to new highs in recent weeks. Story continues Meanwhile, AMAT trades at a discount against techas it has for much of the past three yearsat 3.4X forward 12-month sales vs. 4.2X right now. And if we jump back over the past five years, AMAT shares have soared 260%, compared to techs 100%with much of that expansion coming between 2015 and 2018. Bottom Line Peeking ahead, our Zacks estimates call for AMATs adjusted third quarter earnings to jump 28% to $0.95 per share, on 18% stronger sales that would see it reach $4.20 billion. AMAT currently rocks B grades for both Value and Growth and an A for Momentum in our Style Scores system. The companys 1.38% dividend yield is a nice bonus and crushes the 10-year U.S. Treasurys 0.56% and falls not too far behind the S&P 500s average. Interested investors should note that its next quarterly dividend is payable on September 10 to shareholders of record as of August 20. Just Released: Zacks 7 Best Stocks for Today Experts extracted 7 stocks from the list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys that has beaten the market more than 2X over with a stunning average gain of +24.3% per year. These 7 were selected because of their superior potential for immediate breakout. See these time-sensitive tickers now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Lam Research Corporation (LRCX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Honor will be joining LG, TCL, Huawei and Realme at IFA in Berlin which will be a physical event. Honor is the latest company to confirm its presence for the IFA. Honor has scheduled an event for September 4 teasing the launch of a new phone, tablet, fitness band, laptop and smartwatch. The IFA will take place in Berlin this year between September 3 and 5. It will be a physical event unlike other tech events which have been either cancelled or held virtually. Honors IFA event is called Expand your smart life and its media invite was shared by GSMArena. Other than teasing the new products it didnt delve into the details yet. At last years IFA, Honor launched its lineup of Internet of Things (IoT) products. These included a range of smart home products. Honor Band 5 was also launched at IFA 2019. The Huawei sub-brand also launched its first smart screen called Honor Vision. More products unveiled at IFA 2019 include in-house Honghu 818 chipset, AI camera NPU chipset and a Wi-Fi chipset. Joining Honor at IFA will be LG, TCL and its parent company Huawei as well. One major company that has backed out from IFA 2020 is Samsung. It has already held its Unpacked event where it unveiled five new devices including the Galaxy Note 20 series. Realme has also confirmed its IFA attendance and has been teasing the launch of X3 Pro. The smartphone has been spotted on the TUV Rheinland with 65W fast charging speed, 4,400mAh battery and Snapdragon 865+ chipset. Realme X3 Pro will be the latest smartphone in the series which already has X3 and X3 SuperZoom. Air India Express flight plane crash Air India Express on Saturday said it is adequately insured and would pay the compensation in accordance with applicable law at appropriate time after its Dubai-Kozhikode flight crashed at Kozhikode airport a day ago. The airline also announced immediate financial relief to the families of those who died in the accident and to those who were injured. As many as 18 people, including two pilots were killed and several injured in the accident. "The airline is adequately insured and will pay compensation in accordance with applicable law at the appropriate juncture," Air India Express said in a statement. "To provide immediate relief, as an interim compensation Air India Express will give: Rs 10,00,000/-to the next kin of the deceased passenger 12 years and above; Rs 500,000/ to the passengers below the age of 12 years; Rs 200,000/- to critically injured passenger and Rs 50,000/- to the passenger who are injured in the incident," the airline said. Air India Express has established a passenger information centre and a toll free number has been made available for family or friends of those who may have been on board of the ill-fated flight IX-1344. The toll free number is 1800222271. For those calling from abroad, international country code has to be added. The Emergency Response Team Members and other teams of Air India with Air India Express team have already been sent to the accident scene. All will render necessary help to assist the emergency services and local authorities to aid the passengers, the airline said. Advertisement New photos have been released of a two headed tortoise that could be the oldest of its kind as it turns 23 next month. The Greek tortoise, called Janus, was born in the Museum of Natural History in Geneva, Switzerland on September 3rd 1997. It has become one of the main attractions to the museum because Janus is also the museum's mascot. Animals that are born with two heads normally die at a young age. The stunning photos show the two headed tortoise getting a bath and eating. The Greek tortoise, called Janus, was born in the Museum of Natural History in Geneva, Switzerland on September 3rd 1997. Janus is seen bathing in the shallow water The tortoise has become one of the main attractions to the museum because Janus is also the museum's mascot. Janus is seen going under the tap The two headed tortoise could be the oldest of its kind as it turns 23 next month. Janus is seen being picked up Some Ghanaian students taking the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have rioted over the strict invigilation during the tests. According to news agency report, some agitated WASSCE candidates at the Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School (SHS) in south Ghanas Ashanti Region vandalized schools on the basis that invigilators were being too strict during the exams on Monday. Similarly, students at the Bright SHS in the Eastern Region and Ndewura Jakpa Senior High Technical School in the Savannah Region on Thursday demonstrated against teachers over alleged intimidation by external invigilators during their social studies exam. As a result, the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) has called on for the provision of security for teachers serving as invigilators in the ongoing National President for CHASS Alhaji Yacoub Abubakar told local media that the lives of teachers were in danger following a series of attacks by WASSCE candidates on invigilators and supervisors across the country. Wheresoever there is a school with this type of challenge, it will be good for a number of police personnel to be allowed to stay within the vicinity to ensure that there is peace and calm, the president said. Once the students see that there are a few policemen around, it will control their behaviour to ensure the smooth process at examination centres across the country. The 2020 WASSCE commenced on July 20 with 313,837 candidates from Ghana. The writing of exam theory papers started on Monday and will end on Sept. 5. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Stepping up his attack on Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh over the hooch tragedy in Tarn Taran, Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts, Congress Rajya Sabha member Partap Singh Bajwa on Friday said Amarinder ventured out of his house after five months only when they raised an outcry over the issue. Due to our efforts to raise the issue before the governor, Amarinder Singh woke up from a deep slumber to meet the victims families, he said while interacting with the mediapersons. While the CM met the families at Tarn Taran, Bajwa went to Batala to meet the victims kin. His attacks on the Congress government have prompted Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Sunil Jakhar and cabinet ministers to demand his expulsion from the party. Questioning Jakhars performance as the partys state unit chief, Bajwa said, He has failed to unite the Congress in Punjab. I invite him to come with me to meet the party national president. We will see who is expelled from the party. I would like to remind him that he had to walk out of the CMs residence in Chandigarh after a low-rank security official asked him to deposit his phone. What can a person who has no guts to stand against such disrespect do? He started his political career from Rajasthan, from where he reached Gurdaspur. Will he go to Narowal (Pakistan) after being rejected by voters of Gurdaspur? he questioned. Congress MLA from Sri Hargobind Pur Balwinder Singh Ladi also accompanied him during his visit. I accompanied him to meet the aggrieved families. Besides, my constituency witnessed some deaths, said Ladi. On Bajwas remarks, the MLA said, Everyone is demanding an impartial inquiry into the tragedy. I cannot comment on anything else said by him. Prabhas has time and again extended his helping hand to the needy and especially during this perilous period of the lockdown, Prabhas has been actively donating and doing his bit in saving the society from the threat of the Coronavirus. Taking inspiration from their favourite superstar, fans of the actor recently donated PPE kits to older people. As the lockdown has been eased a little, it has opened opportunities for many to resume work, but unfortunately, the older people who cannot really work are having difficulty in maintaining their health and have their daily meals too. Prabhas' ardent fans who have always taken inspiration from the Baahubali actor for all his good deeds and down to earth nature, have followed his example and donated PPE Kits to the people in need. Theywore t-shirts with Prabhas' picture printed on it while doing so. These fans are from Srikakulam, a city in Andhra Pradesh. They shared this kind deed on their social media and said,"#PRABHAS Fan'S From SRIKAKULAM Donated Medicals Kit'S To Aged People Who Are In Need . Medical Kit Contain's - B.Complex MultiVitamin Syrup - Vitamin C - Paracetamol 650 - Mask's - Sanitizer #AndhraPrabhasFC | #RadheShyam." Prabhas had recently participated in the go green campaign and planted saplings, which once again proves how the actor is actively taking part in various activities and doing his bit to save the environment. During this ongoing pandemic, Prabhas had donated a huge sum of Rs 4 crore to help the country fight the unseen virus. Prabhas always inspires his fans to donate and do their bit in helping others in whatever way they can! Also Read : Prabhas Spotted At Hyderabad's Road And Transport Authority Office, Pictures Go Viral! Also Read : Bhagyashree On Prabhas: Had A Certain Image About Him; He Turned Out To Be A Soft-Spoken Gentleman Bengaluru, Aug 8 : Even as the Karnataka government issued revised guidelines for returnees, Health and Family Welfare Department Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akhtar said on Saturday that travellers from abroad would have to maintain a physical distance of two metres while deboarding in the state. Akhtar said the revised guidelines had been issued due to the evolving coronavirus situation. He asked such returnees to submit self-declaration forms on 'Yatri Karnataka' online portal at least 72 hours before their travel dates. He said business and short-term travellers with negative RT-PCR test reports shall be exempted from quarantine. "Such passengers shall also submit declarations with respect to the authenticity of their test reports and will be liable for criminal prosecution if these are found otherwise," Akhtar said. The negative test report must be submitted upon arrival at the point of entry, which can be an airport or a seaport in Karnataka. Likewise, only asymptomatic travellers will be allowed to board flights after passing through thermal screening. "All passengers shall download Aarogya Setu, Quarantine Watch and Apthamitra apps on their mobile devices," he said. Giving another option to those who cannot submit self-declaration forms on the 'Yatri Karnataka' portal, he said such passengers can fill in duplicate forms aboard the flights or ships and submit the same to health or immigration officials present at the seaports or airports. "Alternatively, such travellers may submit self-declaration forms on the online portal on arrival," he said. All arriving passengers will be screened at the health counters for symptoms such as fever, cough, cold, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, weakness, body ache, diarrhoea, and breathing difficulty. At the point of entry, passengers will be checked for self-reporting form verification, thermal scanning, pulse oximeter reading, and verifying if they have downloaded the required apps. All passengers will be categorised as symptomatic or asymptomatic on arrival for further action as per the health protocols. Asymptomatic passengers will be sent in home quarantine for a fortnight while symptomatic cases will be home-quarantined or shifted to hospitals. "Passengers who have landed in other states but will travel to Karnataka shall undergo rapid antigen testing after reaching their respective districts," the health official said. Similarly, international travellers hailing from other states but landing in Karnataka will be allowed to travel to their home states if found asymptomatic. "Students writing exams in Karnataka shall be exempted from home quarantine if tested negative in rapid antigen testing (RAT) or carrying negative RT-PCR test reports, which should have been done within 96 hours prior to undertaking of the journey," Akhtar added. Likewise, passengers would be charged Rs 700 per RAT test and Rs 2,000 per RT-PCR test. On Friday, Karnataka had registered 6,670 new coronavirus cases, raising the state's tally to 1.64 lakh. The Mekong River Commission asked countries along the waterbody to share data of falling water levels in the river, especially in light of the record dry conditions witnessed in the Tonle Sap Lake. The river commission released a press release on Friday urging the six countries along the Mekong River to address record low water levels in the Mekong basin, the second straight year of falling water levels. In Cambodia, the commission said the Tonle Sap Lake, which relies on reverse flows from the Mekong River during the wet season, has recorded lowest flows since 1997. The lake is critical as a source of fish, both for sustenance and livelihood, for the millions of Cambodians dependent on the lake. We call on the six Mekong countries to increase data and information sharing on their dam and water infrastructure operations in a transparent and speedy manner with the MRC. It is time to walk the talk and to act in the common interest of the entire Mekong River Basin and the affected communities, said Dr. An Pich Hatda, the MRC secretariats chief executive officer. The Mekong River runs through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The Cambodian government in mid-July released data to show low water levels in the Mekong, attributing the drop to climate change. But other experts, especially the U.S.-based Stimson Center, contend that Chinese hydropower dams have not released water despite good precipitation in the upper Mekong River. Kol Vathana, deputy secretary-general of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee, said the main reason for decreasing Mekong water levels was climate change, and that the construction of upstream dams was only a minor factor. The dam has contributed recent low water levels, but it is not the only [factor], he told VOA Khmer. He said Cambodian authorities were now collecting data to send to the Mekong River Commission, adding that the commission members had asked China for similar data, but they hadnt shared all the data. There is no law to press China to give [data]. We get only what they gave us, he said. The U.S.-based Stimson Center, which tracks development along the river, published in April new data showing that while the lower Mekong Basin was facing a severe drought, the upper basin had high rainfall and snowmelt, with Chinas dams restricting nearly all of this record flow. However, Chinas Foreign Ministry dismissed the findings, saying it was unreasonable that Chinese dam construction along the river was causing droughts downstream. Om Savath, the executive director of Fisheries Action Coalition Team, said the growing number of hydropower dams on the Mekong River can be the cause of the low water levels in the basin and can result in abnormal water flow to Tonle Sap Lake. Since there are several large hydropower dams on the Mekong River in China and so on, we see the water cycle has changed, he said. Chhuon Lan, a 45-year-old villager living along the Tonle Sap in Siem Reap provinces Kampong Phluk, echoed the concerns of falling water levels, which had affected fish numbers in the area. Now there is now water, she said, adding that normally water levels used to rise in June, but levels were still low as of Friday. Distance learning could be considered a roadblock in modern teaching, but school districts are finding ways to navigate it. The Rookie actor Dennis Quaid is widely recognized for his on-screen roles throughout the years. Quaid now also puts his talents to use hosting the educational show Viewpoint". The TV program showcases a broad array of subjects to shed light on events that take place around the world today. Coming to the show is an episode featuring distance learning. Educational professionals will discuss the resources school districts are using to implement learning from a distance. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conventional way of working, shopping, and socializing has changed. Many employers have sent employees to work from home, grocery stores are figuring out new capacity and social distancing guidelines, and restaurants are modifying the way patrons dine. Schools are switching things around, too, by implementing online distance learning. Experts are uncertain how long social distancing and safety measures will need to continue, so school districts might need to plan to continue this new educational platform for some time. School districts are implementing a myriad of online resources so that teachers can educate digitally through video chats, text, and other various virtual tools. Some schools have distributed laptops, and Wi-Fi enabled phones, too, to ensure learning so that the lack of physical tools would not keep students from getting an education. Distance learning could be considered a roadblock in modern teaching, but school districts are finding ways to navigate it. More information will be in the forthcoming episode. Viewpoint" with Dennis Quaid is carefully inspected before broadcast. The team behind the educational show has accepted multiple awards. The Quit India movement was the direct result of Britain's mounting difficulties in the World War II and the failure of the Cripp's Mission to convince Indian leadership at the time to agree for a partial self-rule Quit India Movement which is also known as India August Movement or Bharat Chhodo Andolan is often considered to be a turning point in India's struggles for freedom from the British Raj. The movement saw people across India come together under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi to uproot the Britishers. The movement marks the moment when the idea of complete freedom from the British Raj gained momentum as opposed to several discounted power structures being discussed in the past. The idea of purna swarajya or complete freedom was introduced by Congress leader Hasrat Mohani in 1921 in an All-India Congress Forum; a resolution on the same was passed on 19 December 1929. But it was after the Quit India Movement that the masses sprung into action. The Quit India movement was the direct result of Britain's mounting difficulties in the World War II and the failure of the Cripp's mission to convince Indian leadership at the time to agree for a partial self-rule under which India would still remain a British dominion. How it began? As per British Open Univerity's archive, by the middle of 1942, Japanese troops were approaching the borders of India and world powers were mounting pressure on the British to solve the issue of India's future before the end of World War II. Thus, in March 1942, the British dispatched a committe lead by Stafford Cripps, a member of the War Cabinet, to India to discuss the British Government's Draft Declaration. The draft granted India Dominion status after the war but otherwise conceded few changes to the status quo. Another aspect of this was that the British Governor-General of India at the time, Lord Linlithgow, wanted to send Indian soldiers to fight for the UK in the war. The Cripp's Mission was a way for the British to negotiate that much needed support from the Indian leaders. However, the conditions of self-rule underlined in the draft declaration was unacceptable to the Congress Working Committee as it did not give immediate and total self rule. Subsequently, Mahatma Gandhi called for Quit India Movement. What is Quit India movement? On 8 August, 1942 at the Bombay session of All India Congress Committee, Mahatma Gandhi introduced the resolution to start a Quit India Movement. The historic resolution was passed at the meeting. Subsequently, Gandhi gave a fiery speech at Mumbai's Gowalia Tank Maidan also known as August Kranti Maidan, marking the beginning of the Quit India Movement. The place now houses a monument as tribute to the historical event. Gandhi said, "There is a mantra, a short one that I give you. You imprint it in your heart and let every breath of yours give an expression to it. The mantra is do or die. We shall either be free or die in the attempt." Following the Quit India resolution being passed on 8 August, Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the tricolour on the Gowalia Tank ground and on the night of 9 August, and all senior leaders of the Congress including Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad and Mahatma Gandhi were arrested on charges of sedition. The British not only arrested the entire INC leadership, they remained incarcerated till the end of the Second World War in 1945 without trial. The Indian National Congress was declared an unlawful association and its offices were raided across the country, while all its funds were frozen. Nonetheless, activists like Jai Prakash Narayan, Aruna Asaf Ali, SM Joshi, Ram Manohar Lohia and others continued to fuel the momenytum of the movement throughout the period of the war. But with the entire leadership of Congress incarcerated, the British managed to suppress most citizen-lead initiatives and demonstrations by 1944. What did not disappear was the idea of non-negotiable, complete freedom invoked in the Mahatma's speech at the August Kranti grounds. By the end of World War II, Britain's position in the world had changed dramatically and the demand for Independence could no longer be ignored. This is why the Quit India Movement remains an important milestone in India's freedom struggle. A letter by Ram Manohar Lohia to Viceroy Linlithgow documents the strength of the movement at its peak and also gives a glimpse into the British actions to suppress the movement. Lohia had written that the British government had killed 50,000 people and injured several more during the movement. According to Lohia, while the Russian Revolution saw barely one per cent of the country's population participating, in India no less than 20 percent people took part. He said that the real strength of the Quit India Movement lay in the masses who had participated in it. Indian celebrate 78th anniversary of Quit India movement Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu tweeted on the occassion of the 78th anniversary of the Quit India Movement. He said that the Quit India Movement set in a motion of a series of events forcing the British to leave India in 1947. "The powerful exhortation, do or die given by Mahatma Gandhi reverberated throughout the country, infusing new vitality and energy into Indias independence movement," the Vice President wrote. In another tweet, the Vice President said that the nation will forever be grateful to the brave sons and daughters of India. I salute the bravery of all the patriots who participated in the Quit India movement & the countless sacrifices made by all the freedom fighters. The nation will forever be grateful to these brave sons and daughters of India. #QuitIndiaMoment pic.twitter.com/q9qWKiT7TN Vice President of India (@VPSecretariat) August 8, 2020 Union Minister Prakash Javadekar also payed tributes to the sacrifies made my freedom fighters to free India from the clutches of the British rule. On the historic #QuitIndiaMovement Day, I join the nation in paying tributes to the sacrifices made by freedom fighters to free India from the clutches of the British rule. pic.twitter.com/WPdMCNfQY7 Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) August 8, 2020 Chief Minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot also saluted the freedom fighters whose sacrifices got the country free from the British rule. Remembering the historic moment, when exactly on this day, 78 years ago, #MahatmaGandhi ji gave the clarion call of Do or Die to launch the #QuitIndiaMovement. Salutes to all freedom fighters, whose sacrifices got us freedom.. Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) August 8, 2020 The Musuem of British Colonialism shared a tweet on the Quit India Campaign, writing, "Gandhi called on Indians to 'free India or die in the attempt; we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery.'" #OTD in 1942 The Indian National Congress launched the Quit India Campaign, calling for non-violent protest against British rule. Gandhi called on Indians to 'free India or die in the attempt; we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery.' #colonialresistance pic.twitter.com/wv9SL6cbhC Museum of British Colonialism (@museumofbc) August 8, 2020 The Twitter handle of IndianHistoryPics shared an image of the movement highlighting women participation. Lebanese protesters stormed the foreign ministry in Beirut on Saturday as anger exploded over a deadly blast that made hundreds of thousands homeless and shocked the world. Thousands of demonstrators, some of them brandishing nooses, had descended on the city centre to vent their fury at politicians they blame for Tuesday's explosion, which levelled Beirut port and killed 158 people. As security forces fired tear gas to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said he would seek early elections, saying it was the only way to "exit the country's structural crisis". Demonstrators marched through streets ravaged by the blast, gathering in the central Martyrs' Square, where a truck was on fire. The police said an officer had fallen to his death after an "assault" by "a number of murderous rioters" during the protests. "A member of the Internal Security Forces died while.... helping people trapped inside the Le Gray hotel" in downtown Beirut, the police force said on Twitter, without providing additional details. That came after a group led by retired Lebanese army officers stormed the foreign ministry and declared it the "headquarters of the revolution". "We are taking over the foreign ministry as a seat of the revolution," Sami Rammah, a retired officer, announced by loudspeaker from the ministry's front steps. "We call on all the anguished Lebanese people to take to the streets to demand the prosecution of all the corrupt," he said, appealing to the international community to boycott the government. In an apparently coordinated strategy, others stormed the headquarters of the country's banking association, a focal point of anger during recent mass protests over corruption and Lebanon's collapsing economy. They were later chased out by security forces who entered via a back door and doused the fire. A group also briefly entered the economy ministry, scattering piles of documents in the street. The Lebanese Red Cross said it had taken 63 people from the protest to nearby hospitals and treated another 175 at the scene, without specifying who they were. As rescuers made last-ditch attempts to find survivors amid the rubble, efforts were afoot to drum up international support for the disaster-hit country ahead of a virtual aid conference on Sunday. A fire at the port on Tuesday ignited a stock of ammonium nitrate, triggering an explosion that was felt as far away as Cyprus, and destroyed entire neighbourhoods and wounded at least 6,000. It was widely perceived as a direct consequence of corruption and incompetence, perhaps the most egregious case of callousness on the part of Lebanon's long-reviled elite. - 'Criminals' - "You were corrupt, now you are criminals," read one banner at the demonstration, while protesters chanted: "Revenge, until this regime reaches an end." Rita, whose home was gutted by the blast, said: "They have robbed us of everything. We have nothing left: no dreams, no future... no dignity, no money, and now, no houses." "We should not be forced to live this way," added the 33-year-old protester. The health ministry said 158 people were confirmed to have died in the disaster, while 21 were still missing. The Netherlands announced that its ambassador's wife was among the dead. The blast has prompted an impressive aid response from both inside and outside Lebanon, but demonstrators' chants and the mock gallows they set up in the street made it clear that people want heads to roll. But some of Lebanon's leaders seemed to consider the outpouring of international solidarity as an opportunity to break the government's diplomatic isolation. - Foreign support - Lebanon defaulted on its debt for the first time ever this year and the current leadership has so far failed to address the economic emergency and agree on the reforms needed to negotiate an international rescue package, despite intense Western pressure. Speaking on Friday evening, Aoun said "the explosion has led to the lifting of the isolation". Hassan Nasrallah, the chief of powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, said the disaster had created "an opportunity" to get the world to work with Lebanon again. Three senior diplomats were in Beirut Saturday in a show of solidarity with the disaster-hit city, where 300,000 people were made temporarily homeless by the port explosion. Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit met top officials ahead of expected visits by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. - High-stakes probe - So far 21 people have been detained over the blast, including Badri Daher, director-general of Lebanon's customs authority. But Aoun has rejected calls backed by Macron for an international, independent investigation into the blast. Five lawmakers have quit since the blast. Few Lebanese seemed to have any trust that the leadership would incriminate its own in an investigation chaired by senior officials. Analyst Nasser Yassin of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, said Lebanon's reviled leaders were clearly seeking to take advantage of the situation. "The fear is that the authorities will benefit from this great disaster and from the international and Arab attention they are getting," he said. Search Keywords: Short link: Russian Su-35 Jets Intercept US Strategic Bomber Over Sea of Okhotsk Sputnik News 18:04 GMT 07.08.2020(updated 18:05 GMT 07.08.2020) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Three Russian fighter jets Su-35 were scrambled to intercept and escort a US strategic bomber over the Sea of Okhotsk, the Russian Defence Ministry's National Defence Control Center (NDCC) said on Friday. "To intercept the target, three Su-35s fighters from the air defence forces of the Eastern Military District were scrambled, which classified and subsequently escorted the US Air Force B-1B strategic bomber over the Sea of Okhotsk," the statement says. A target approaching the Russian state border was detected over the neutral waters of the Pacific Ocean, it added. The flight of Russian planes took place strictly in accordance with international rules, the statement said. "The US Air Force B-1B strategic bomber was not allowed to violate the state border," the NDCC said. After completing the mission, the Russian fighters returned to the home airfield. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mindy Kaling has never shied away from sharing her opinions, even as her career grew. She got her start writing for and starring in The Office. She played Kelly Kapoor, Dunder Mifflin Scrantons customer service representative who loves gossip and Netflix rom-coms. In a 2012 interview, Office producer and writer Michael Schur spoke about working with Kaling and how it came out that she had, at the time, more conservative views than a lot of her peers. Mindy Kaling | Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic Michael Schur said Mindy Kaling was always talking about wanting to buy a gun Schur and Kaling spent a lot of time together working on The Office. When Schur was interviewed by Vulture in 2012, he mentioned learning about Kalings politics. It sort of snuck out that she was planning on I dont know if she did or not but she was at least thinking about voting for Bush. The writer/producer/actor added that Kaling, at the time, was very pro-gun, which is very odd. RELATED: The Office: Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak Share Their Favorite Michael Scott Moments Shes always talking about wanting to buy a gun, and Im always like, If you buy a gun you will kill yourself accidentally or you will harm another person. Theres no way you could own a gun successfully and responsibly for more than a week without harming someone, he said. Schur also made a point to tell the publication what a big fan of Kalings he is. The umbrella thing that I would like to get across to you is that I think shes a wonderful human being and I hope she and I are friends forever. I just want to make that perfectly clear. And when I say shes a disaster and a complete wreck of a human being, thats coming from a place of love, he said. Mindy Kalings parents Vulture reported that both of Kalings parents were Republicans. They met in Nigeria where her father, Avi Chokalingham, was the architect designing the wing of the hospital her mother, Swati, was working in. Swati passed away in 2012. She was Kalings best friend. She didnt plan it, it just happened, Kaling told the publication. She moved to Nigeria to be a doctor and was just living there and my dad met her and he pursued her. And as my grandmother always said, the best relationships are the ones where the guy likes the girl a little bit more than the girl likes the guy. It was Kalings relationship with her mother that made her realize she really wanted to have kids. She currently has a two-year-old little girl. RELATED: The Office: Mindy Kaling Admits It Was Challenging to Work With BJ Novak on the Show After They Broke Up My relationship with my mom is really the single-most profound relationship that Ive ever had in my life. And when people talk about soul mates, they largely mean romantic soul mates, but my soul mate was really my mother. And I think that the relationship that I had with her when she died, thats when I was like, I really want to have kids. I mean I always knew I wanted kids, but when my mom passed away I was like, I want a bunch of kids. I want three kids or four kids, and I want to have that relationship again. I cant bring my mom back, but I can have children, she said. Undoubtedly, Kalings parents played a role in her early politics. Since then, Kalings politics may have changed a bit. Shes always active about the issues shes passionate about on social media, like LGBTQ rights and Black Lives Matter. In 2016, she supported Hillary Clinton, tweeting YAS KWEEN when she became the Democratic Partys nominee. RELATED: Mindy Kaling Has Never Cared If She Intimidates MenIts Total Crap The black box of the ill-fated Air India Express flight that could throw light on how it overshot the runway here and crashed has been recovered while the toll in the mishap rose to 18 on Saturday with a passenger succumbing to injuries, officials said. Hours after the AIE flight with 190 people on board overshot the tabletop runway at the airport here while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions on Friday night, investigations into the cause of the mishap are underway with top officials of the airlines and aviation regulator DGCA ... With every passing day, Indians are slowly growing more passionate about making Local Ko Vocal a roaring success. We are finally ready to turn our attention towards the Make In India initiative and turn India into a reliable, global brand that is sought after in international markets. While several brands have come to the forefront over the last decade to capture the Indian consumers interests, there have also been several others which, although equally successful, havent been able to publicly flaunt their Made In India tag, unlike the others. Here are 10 such popular brands and companies which you may not have realised are actually Indian: 1. Tetley Twitter/tetleyuk How often have we seen, drunk and witnessed women swear by this stuff? Touted to be the largest tea company in the United Kingdom and Canada, turns out that Tetley is actually owned by Tata Global Beverages. 2. Havells Havells India This is a pretty well-known and reliable electrical equipment company in the country. These guys deal in a range of products from home and kitchen appliances, to lighting, wires, cables and much more. But did you know that Havells was founded by Qimat Rai Gupta in 1958? 3. Ssangyong Motors Wikipedia Said to be the fourth largest automobile manufacturer based in South Korea, Ssangyong Motors has been owned by Mahindra & Mahindra Limited since 2011. Tivoli and Rexton, or more popularly Mahindra Alturas G4, are currently two of their leading products. 4. Jaguar YouTube Hailed as one of the most sought-after luxury car brands, Jaguar is a product of Jaguar Land Rover headquartered in Whitley, Coventry England, and Jaguar Land Rover is owned by Tata Motors since 2008. 5. Red Chief Twitter/Red_Chieftians One of the most reliable names in the Indian market when it comes to leather shoes, we bet you didnt know Red Chief was founded by Manoj Gyanchandani way back in 1997. Today, it is one of the most successful, homegrown footwear brands around. 6. Exide Twitter/ExideCare Known to be the largest manufacturer of lead-acid batteries in India and fourth largest in the world, did you know Exide Industries Limited is headquartered in Kolkata and owned by the Rajan Raheja Group? 7. Land Rover TOI Manufactured by Jaguar Land Rover, this sought-after British brand four-wheeled beasts parent company has been Ratan Tatas Tata Motors since 2008. 8. MRF Twitter MRFWorldwide MRF aka Madras Rubber Factory is India's No.1 tyre manufacturing company and we bet you didnt know that it was started by KM Mammen Mappillai before our Independence in 1946. 9. Pininfarina Twitter/PininfarinaSpA A big name in the auto manufacturing industry, Pininfarina has been involved with designing for firms such as Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Fiat, GM, Lancia and even Maserati. But did you know that Anand Mahindra acquired this company in 2015, and launched the world's fastest electric car, Batista, in 2019? 10. McDowells Twitter/No1_Yaari We all know McDowell's No.1 but did you know that it is manufactured by an Indian alcoholic beverage company named United Spirits Limited? Hah! Thought so. Think you have more names we can add to the list? Feel free to let us know in the comments section. A report commissioned by Transport for London (TfL) into COVID-19 deaths among London bus drivers has produced a political whitewash. TfL announced the review on May 21, appointing University College Londons (UCL) Institute of Health Equity to investigate the operational response of TfL to the pandemic. As chief regulator for bus and passenger transport servicesreporting to Labour Mayor of London Sadiq KhanTfL presided over a catastrophic loss of life in the opening months of the pandemic. They failed to implement basic safety measures and deliberately downplayed the dangers to transport workers and passengers during the pandemics opening months. At least 44 TfL-regulated transport workers lost their lives to COVID-19 between March and May, including 29 bus drivers. UCLs report covers the period of March-May and focuses on the deaths of 27 drivers who worked in London from February, when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the UK. A London bus driver wears a mask to try and protect him from the coronavirus as he drives on his route in London [Credit: AP Photo/Frank Augstein] TfL and Khan launched the review to stem mounting anger among drivers and their families. Khan told the media, TfL is seeking independent advice from UCL Institute of Health Equity to make sure we better understand the impact of coronavirus on our bus workers and to ensure we are taking every possible measure to protect our heroic staff. But there was nothing independent about UCLs review. TfL did everything they could to control the reviews outcome, dictating terms of reference, deciding what documents UCLs researchers would have access to, and allocating a budget of 165,000. An internal TfL specification for phase one of the review, dated May 12, shows the extent of TfLs control. The 20-page document is effectively a skeleton version of the report later produced by UCL. Under the heading Requirements, TfL wrote that all background information on TfLs response to the pandemic will be provided by TfL, working with the relevant bus operators. Under the heading, Scope, TfL states, The commissioner (TfL) will be responsible for providing the necessary internal data, including data on bus workers, and access to workers and bus companies as appropriate. This was like putting an accused serial killer in charge of their own trial, letting them pick the judge and select all evidence and witnesses for the prosecution. The outcome is a 39-page report that omits critical information, and which protects powerful forces, including the bus companies, the Mayors office, TfL executives, and the trade unions which collaborated with them. The national lockdown and TfL The report reveals that most bus drivers who died from COVID-19 became infected before the belated introduction of a national lockdown on March 23, Among drivers who died, most ceased work between mid-March and early April, i.e., in the ten days either side of the lockdown on 23 March. This suggests that they became ill before the lockdown. Fourteen of the drivers who later died went off sick in March. Twelve drivers who caught COVID-19 stopped work in April, and one in May. Findings from UCLs report Had [the] lockdown come earlier it is likely that many fewer bus drivers would have died, authors Professor Peter Goldblatt and Dr Joana Morrison concluded. The Johnson governments profit-driven herd immunity strategy and its refusal to introduce lockdown measures sooner had deadly consequences for London bus drivers and for the working class as a whole. The study reinforces the point that lockdown is the most effective measure for reducing mortality among bus drivers; it significantly reduced passenger use of buses and hence reduced risk of infection for bus drivers as well as passengers, the authors wrote. But TfL and Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan were not passive bystanders. They ignored warnings from the World Health Organisation and used the Johnson governments complacent and misleading public health advice to justify their own inaction. And they concealed the growing incidence of infections and illness from COVID-19 among bus and transport workers. Despite WHOs declaration of an international health emergency on January 30, Khan and TfL claimedthroughout February, March, and Aprilthat the risk of transmission among transport workers and passengers was low. They rejected WHOs call for social distancing and for test, trace, and quarantine measures, insisting that handwashing was the best protection. 14 safety actions UCLs report examines the timing of 14 safety actions by bus companies from March to early June. This timescale airbrushes TfLs actions during January and Februarycritical months when pandemic response measures should have been activated. Extraordinarily, TfLs own safety actions are not reviewed at all, a staggering accomplishment for a review that was supposed to examine TfLs operational response to the pandemic! The bus companies safety actions are named as follows: those related to vehicles (daily antiviral cleaning, enhanced cleaning, holes on assault screens, restricted access to front seats and middle door boarding), to drivers (communications, HR policies and advice, hand sanitiser, wipes and masks) and to premises (access to toilets, enhanced cleaning, adapted premises/social distancing, health and safety/union reps stood down [from other duties] and cleaning inspections). UCL found, On average, bus companies had completed 13.3 out of the 14 actions by early June. But the review provides zero independent assessment or verification of these actions. UCL simply takes the bus companies and TfL at their word. As every driver knows, hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes were regularly unavailable; enhanced cleaning was contradicted by filthy toilets, break facilities, and drivers cabins. Use of facemasks was actively opposed by bus operators, TfL and Unite. As late as April 24, TfL issued posters instructing drivers, target numbers to limit customers on Londons buses cannot be justified. Transport for London poster, April 24 TfLs failure to introduce sick pay for Londons 20,000 bus drivers until April 11 is not even mentioned. This was a death sentence for many drivers. The report shows that five infected drivers died within one week of stopping work, while eight died within two weeks. Anne Nyack, the mother of Holloway bus driver Emeka Nyack Ihenacho, who died from COVID-19 on April 4, told the press, I only discovered after talking to my daughter that she begged him not to go to work and his words to her were: If I dont go in they are going to cut my pay. It was drivers themselves who initiated the most important safety measures. When they realised their colleagues were dying, they began sealing cabin safety screens, taping off seats around the driver and implementing middle-door bus entry, defying threats of disciplinary action from the bus companies for doing so. The bus companies safety actions were too little too late. As UCLs study concludes, the majority of [safety] actions were probably initiated after most of the drivers who died had become infected. Risk factors Bus drivers high exposure to the public is cited as a likely contributor to their increased risk of death from COVID-19. The authors cite findings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that bus drivers are at elevated risk in part due to their arms-length proximity to passengersthey score 75 on a scale ranging from 0100 (nurses have a proximity score of 90). But the report finds that occupational exposure is just one of many risk factors for drivers. These include, age, living in areas characterised by deprivation, having a high proportion of members of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups; and the presence of underlying health conditions. Most of these risks are out of the control of bus operators, the authors declare. But the ruthless exploitation of drivers by global transport companies such as ComfortDelGro and Tower Transit has fuelled these dangers, leaving drivers vulnerable to infection and death. Underlying health conditions (UHCs) are a case in point. The authors explain these have long been associated with bus driving as a sedentary occupation and likely contributed to the severity of their COVID-19 infection. High rates of coronary heart disease and hypertension (high blood pressure) were discovered among London bus drivers during the 1950s and 1960s, the authors recount. But half a century later, drivers are working longer shifts, with shorter break times and no conductors. In 2019, Loughborough Universitys bus driver fatigue study found 36 percent of London bus drivers had a close call due to exhaustion in the previous 12 months. These conditions are not just stressful, they are deadly. They help create problems such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, known risk factors (co-morbidities) for COVID-19. Seventeen London bus drivers who died from COVID-19 had one or more UHC, the report finds. In 7 out of 13 death certificates examined by UCL, high blood pressure was identified by a certifying doctor as a factor contributing to death. The issue is class, not race At TfLs request, in line with state efforts to promote racial politics, much of the report focuses on the high rate of infection among BAME drivers. This is being cynically used by TfL and Khan as a means of dividing bus drivers, suppressing a united class response, and deflecting attention from their own criminal actions. The reports findings in fact point to the primary role of social, economic and class factors in the deaths of BAME drivers. Among the London drivers who died, 73 percent were from BAME backgrounds. This reflects the multiracial and multi-ethnic character of the workforce52 percent of London bus drivers are BAME. The report found 41 percent of drivers who died were black, 33 percent were Asian, and 22 percent were white. In raw numbers, 6 white drivers died, 9 Asian drivers died, and 11 black drivers died. (An ethnic category for the remaining driver was not available). Drilling down further, the report provides detailed ethnicity categories for drivers who died, but this serves to highlight the arbitrary and absurd character of such racial classifications. A chart shows that five Asian other unknown drivers died, and that two White British and two Black Caribbean bus drivers died. It shows that four White other unknown drivers died, double the combined number of Asian Indian and Asian Pakistani deaths. What are workers supposed to make of any of this? Drivers did not die because of their skin colour, they died because they are part of the working class. Like so many other key workersincluding NHS and social care staff, warehouse and delivery workerstheir lives are expendable under capitalism. The report explains Black African drivers suffered the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in London. This correlates with high COVID-19 mortality rates for black men across England and Wales. But these deaths are not a product of racial, but of social characteristics, with a high proportion of BAME workers living in socially deprived areas. A massive 74 percent of London bus drivers who died from COVID-19 lived in neighbourhoods with above-average social deprivation, and 48 percent came from Local Authority areas with the highest rates of infection in London. Across England and Wales, the authors reported deprivation inequality was the single most important factor in COVID-19 deaths, finding that poor outcomes remain after adjusting for ethnicity. This class divide was felt within ethnic groups. For example, black males in the poorest areas died from the virus at more than double the rate of black males in the wealthiest areas. Did London bus drivers catch COVID-19 at work? For months, the bus companies, TfL, and Unite have actively concealed the presence of COVID-19 infections and deaths at London bus garages. The report confirms the number of deaths from COVID-19 at each of Londons bus companies. Metroline, GoAhead and Tower Transit accounted for the majority of deaths19 out of the 27 (see Table 2.3). Metroline and Tower Transit also recorded a higher percentage of positive tests for COVID-19 than other large bus companies. But no figures are supplied for the total number of tests, so this information is largely meaningless. UCL report, positive test rate and deaths from COVID-19, by company UCLs report does not reveal the number of infections and deaths from COVID-19 at each garage. Without this information, including the likely date of infection, it is impossible to establish whether drivers became infected at their place of work. Information pieced together by bus safety campaigner Tom Kearney and by WSWS, shows that four bus workers died at Westbourne Park garage, two from Holloway garage, two from Greenford garage, and two from Lea Valley Interchange. UCLs report is silent on these workplace clusters. On May 22, former TfL board member Michael Liebreich wrote to UCLs Professor Sir Michael Marmot (reportedly heading the review) saying it was almost a given the drivers had been infected at their place of work. Liebreichs view carries weight. He served on TfLs board between 2012 and 2018 in safety-related roles, later describing Londons passenger transport system as institutionally unsafe. Freedom of Information denied Throughout April, as bereaved family members raised the alarm over the growing death toll, the World Socialist Web Site intervened to expose the cover-up. On April 21, WSWS submitted four questions to the Mayors office and TfL, asking for: 1) The number of bus drivers and TfL staff who have died from COVID-19? 2) The number of bus drivers and TfL staff who have been hospitalised with COVID-19? 3) The number of bus drivers and TfL staff off sick at home with symptoms consistent with COVID-19? and 4) The name of all bus garages where confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported and the number of cases at each garage. Two days later, TfL Commissioner Mike Brown issued a statement revealing there had been 29 deaths at TfLs contracted bus, rail, and underground services. But TfL refused to provide any further details, and the Mayors office was silent. On April 23, WSWS reported, This suppression of information has life and death consequences. In the absence of data about the location of confirmed COVID-19 casesand the denial of testing for all drivers reporting illit is impossible for contact tracing to take place to identify workers and members of the public at risk or to enact preventive measures to protect lives. The cover-up continued. On May 12, Kearney submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to TfL, asking for a detailed list of all incidents of London Transport Worker Fatalities from Covid-19 among bus, rail, underground and light rail staff. He asked for the date of each reported death and the work location; the name of the TfL division, contractor or agency employing each victim; and the TfL executive title responsible for the service. His FOI request was refused, with TfLs General Counsel claiming it would be too expensive to process. On July 23, Khan refused to say how many TfL workers were hospitalised, or on sick-leave due to COVID-19, Neither Transport for London nor its partner organisations hold information on the number of transport workers who have been hospitalised due to coronavirus related illness. One day after UCLs independent review into bus driver deaths was announced, Kearney submitted an FOI request to TfL for the reviews terms of reference, key milestones and associated correspondence and minutes. His FOI request was refused. Unites collusion on bus driver deaths UCLs report conceals the dangerous workplace environment being policed at London bus garages by Unite. On April 10, WSWS reported the views of bus drivers across London. Every driver is angry, one driver said. Every one of them, but we cant do anything because the union has signed off on this and done nothing whatsoever. Another driver said, The union is not making any noise about whats going on. People are worried because four of the workers who are dead are from my company, Metroline. That same day, drivers received letters jointly signed by Unite, TfL, and the bus companies, pledging industrial harmony, giving excuses for the lack of hand sanitiser, and instructing workers that facemasks were not recommended. Unite was being exposed as an embedded union, colluding with the bus companies and the Labour Mayor. Joint letter to bus drivers from Unite TfL and Metroline On April 21, a Unite spokesperson told WSWS they were not collecting information or keeping an actual tally of deaths, hospitalisations, or the location of illnesses from COVID-19, saying it was not our responsibility. Unite health and safety reps told drivers this information could not be revealed because of data protection. In fact, the Information Commissioners Office provided clear grounds for employers to disclose information about workplace infections. Its guidance stated, You should keep staff informed about potential or confirmed COVID-19 cases amongst their colleagues. On June 19, Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal-Democrat in the London Assembly, posed the following question to Khan during Mayors question time: Please provide me with the exact dates and locations of scheduled inspections, unannounced spot checks and audits that TfL has undertaken since March 2020 of (a) bus depots to ensure that bus companies were policing social distancing between drivers and routes (b) toilet facilities to ensure they really were cleaned, and that soap and hand sanitiser were freely available and (c) buses and depots to ensure that enhanced cleaning of vehicles and rest/meal rooms was actually carried out. Khans reply is a searing indictment of Unite: Any significant issues concerning safety, toilet provision and cleaning have been raised at network conference calls, which the operators and TfL senior bus officers dial into, and at regular calls with Unite representatives. This has enabled the issues to be worked through on a day-to-day basis. During a public health crisis, this is a more agile way to highlight and resolve problems as and when they occur. In other words, inspections werent needed as Unite could be relied on to rubber-stamp all company actions! Responding to UCLs report on July 27, TfL also emphasised the importance of its close working relationship with Unite: The frequency of the tripartite meetings between TfL, bus operators and Unite the Union were also increased to weekly to ensure a collaborative approach to issues. These meetings were in addition to those held at an Operator level between the company and their local Unite representatives and Full Time Officers. TfL explained that all its measures were introduced, following regular dialogue with Unite the Union full time officials at a tripartite level, as well as within each organisation with the Unite local representatives and Officers. Unites corporatist partnership with TfL and the bus companies facilitated 33 bus worker deaths. For rank-and-file safety committees Stage one of UCLs review ends with meaningless recommendations for early interventions on ill-health prevention and strategies to empower BAME staff to raise concerns about occupational and risk safety. Stage two will reportedly make further recommendations on workplace safety, at the end of 2020. The entire review is an exercise in box ticking, political coverup, and complacency. The authors conclude, There is scope for TfL to develop clear guidance on rapid and simultaneous implementation of measures in the event of spikes of infection in London or increased infection rates among staff [emphasis added]. Bus and transport workers cannot wait for another spike in infections. The Johnson governments premature lifting of lockdown restrictions, necessitating public transport use, is already producing a growth in infections. Even as the last funerals were being held in May for bus drivers killed by COVID-19, Unite was issuing press statements supporting the return to front-door passenger entry and promoting claims that drivers would be protected by new cabin safety screens. Safe passenger limits have been lifted and there is little-to-no enforcement of face masks. The union actively denigrates their use by drivers, falsely claiming there is little evidence to show they offer protection. The unions corporatist alliance with TfL, Mayor Khan, and the bus companies, which places operational efficiency, i.e., profits, above the lives of workers and passengers, must be rejected. Action must be taken now to prevent illness and loss of life. Rank-and-file safety committees must be elected at every workplace, ensuring that drivers health, safety, and lives take precedence over profit. The Socialist Equality Party advances the following demands: Regular COVID-19 tests at every garage, with contact tracing and quarantine overseen by qualified NHS staff, not private contractors like SERCO. Immediate mandatory reporting of all COVID-19 infections, including date and garage location. TfL and bus company executives have no right to keep this information secret! Vulnerable workers to be shielded on full pay. All those with underlying health conditions or at risk due to age, must be protected! Temperature testing at all garages before sign-on. Drivers must reject TfLs claims that temperature tests are not scientific they are only trying to save money. PPE, wipes, and hand sanitiser to be given to every worker at the start of their shift, with enough to last the day. Management harassment of sick employees must end! Workers with symptoms or taking care of sick relatives should receive full pay until they have recovered. End the practice of long shifts and the normalisation of driver fatigue! Shift times must be reduced during the pandemic to no more than 8 hours a day, with no loss of pay. Drivers immune systems must be protected from the debilitating effects of exhaustion. If management says this is impossible, then rank-and-file committees must take over rostering at each garage. The profits of Metroline, GoAhead, and Arriva are more than enough to pay for this necessary safety measure. Thousands of extra staff must be employed to enforce social distancing and safe passenger limits on buses. Additional cleaning staff must treat touch points with anti-viral chemicals at the end of each rounder. All cleaning staff to be fully protected with PPE and hazardous waste equipment. Rank-and-file committees must call on epidemiologists and other scientific experts, to review airflow patterns and other risk factors on buses. Safety recommendations must be based on scientific knowledge not tailored to the profit interests of the companies. This information must be shared with scientists, bus drivers, and passengers internationally to help combat the pandemic. We urge all bus and transport workers who see the necessity for these measures to contact us today. A Niagara Regional Police investigation into the sale of fentanyl in St. Catharines that began in July yielded three more arrests Friday. Detectives with the street crime unit and members of the emergency task unit executed a search warrant and seized fentanyl, crystal methamphetamine, cash and property allegedly obtained by proceeds of crime. Fridays haul included 21.2 grams of fentanyl with an estimated street value of $1,800, eight grams of crystal methamphetamine, $3,530 worth of property obtained by crime, and $5,620 of Canadian currency in addition to working digital scales and indicators of trafficking. Police made three initial arrests Thursday, bringing the total to six, as part of an investigation into the sale of fentanyl from a residence in the McDonald Street and Rebecca Street area of St. Catharines near Thorold. On Friday, police charged Donald Blake, 24, St. Catharines with possession for the purpose of trafficking a Schedule I Substance (fentanyl), possession of proceeds of property obtained by crime over $5,000, possession for the purpose of trafficking a schedule 1 substance (crystal methamphetamine), failure to comply with probation. Jessica A. Fackrell, 30, of St. Catharines was arrested and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking a schedule I substance (fentanyl), possession of proceeds of property obtained by crime over $5,000 and possession for the purpose of trafficking a schedule 1 substance (crystal methamphetamine). Eric R. Benson, 34, of St. Catharines was arrested and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking a schedule I substance (fentanyl), possession of proceeds of property obtained by crime over $5,000. All three were released on an undertaking with a court date of Oct. 15 at Robert S.K Welch Courthouse in St. Catharines. Taking a strong note of rising gangster culture in the tricity, the Punjab and Haryana high court observed that once known for academic achievements, the area is now being rapidly turned into a hostile city. ..this court is perturbed over the manner in which such goons trotting with firearms pervade the tricity and gangsters have come to settle here, and such steep number of such incidents in the area is a strong circumstance for this court to take a strong view of the incident, the bench of justice Fatehdeep Singh said, while rejecting anticipatory bail plea of an accused in a firing incident reported outside Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, in January this year. The HC bench further added that the FIRs content was strongly suggestive that the accused as well as the complainant side are young boys who have formed gangs and are trying to create an atmosphere of threat to society to lay their claim of supremacy and bravado. THE CASE Ludhiana resident Jagtar Singh, aka Jaggi, 23, had told police that on January 10, he and a friend, Samar Bhat, had come to GMCH to meet another friend, Lovepreet Singh of Model Town, Kharar, who was admitted there. The two were standing near the emergency when four to five men reportedly attacked them and fled after firing gunshots. A passerby was shot in the arm in this melee. The incident was allegedly the result of Bhats standoff with the accused youths over a TikTok video. Police arrested Kamalpreet Singh Sidhu, 24, of Sunny Enclave, Kharar, on June 28,while Dilpreet Singh, alias Billa, 24, who had opened fire, was nabbed from Ropar in July. Three co-accused, including one Nishan Singh Khera, are yet to be arrested. The HC order came on the plea of Khera, who allegedly owned the car used to flee from the spot. He had told court that neither he has been identified nor named in the FIR and nothing was to be recovered from him. He had also produced a compromise deed document effected by both parties in this case. However, Chandigarh Police told court the two groups had a previous history of enmity and a number of skirmishes had taken place between them. Thus, rejecting the bail plea, the court said it has to invoke its extraordinary powers sparingly and the compromise effected in this case was to stifle the investigations. A LOOK AT RECENT CASES July 24: Gangster Navdeep Singh Navi of Moga injured and four aides arrested by Punjab Police after shootout in a Kharar locality where they had been putting up June 2:10 bullets fired injuring four people at a liquor shop in Sector 9 by two shooters associated with Lawrence Bishnoi gang May 31: Shooters open fire outside a businessmans house in Sector 33 on Bishnois orders April 26: Police nab four men associated with Bhupi Rana gang after a fierce gunfight at a house where they were staying at Billa village in Chandimandir, Panchkula March 3: A former Punjab cops son, Harry Bajwa, arrested for allegedly harbouring three gangsters for over two months at a rented accommodation in Sector 40, Chandigarh SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Its inevitable that COVID-19 infections would be much more deadly inside nursing homes than just about anywhere you can imagine, because the residents are the very definition of a vulnerable population: elderly, overwhelmingly, if not entirely, suffering from chronic diseases, and generally frail. And in fact, nursing home residents accounted for 27% of the COVID-19 deaths in South Carolina through the end of July, even though they make up less than 0.5% of the states population. Whats not inevitable is that COVID-19 would make its way into nursing homes and keep making its way into nursing homes after they were sealed off to visitors in mid-March. That lockdown should have made those facilities the safest places for the frail elderly. Instead, just the opposite happened: More than 10% of S.C. nursing home residents had tested positive as of July 28 a quarter of them in July. Thats five times the portion of the general population thats tested positive. And it might be even worse, because, as The Post and Couriers Joseph Cranney reports, South Carolina doesnt require nursing homes to test residents or employees, even after theyve come into contact with infected people. We have no idea how many do, because three and a half months after DHEC finally agreed to name nursing homes where residents and employees tested positive or died from COVID-19, its still awful dark inside those facilities. Every day, DHEC reports the number of South Carolinians who were tested for COVID-19 along with the number who tested positive, and from those numbers derives the positive test rate. But DHECs twice-weekly reports on nursing home infections and deaths dont give us the total number of tests only the number of positives. That means we dont have a clue whether nursing homes are testing employees and residents who need to be tested. For all we know, some facilities with outbreaks have just stopped testing, and the infections continued to mount unreported. The data darkness is compounded by Gov. Henry McMasters continued lockout of family and friends. The nursing home quarantine made good sense in March when we thought the first wave would last a few weeks, maybe a month or two. But clearly it hasnt kept the virus out. What it has done is isolate the elderly at a time they need the support of loved ones the most. And it has shielded nursing homes from scrutiny. So we have no idea specifically why the virus has been able to invade so many nursing homes. Are they not testing employees routinely? Not following safety protocols? What? While there are some excellent nursing homes, in South Carolina and across the country, there are also some that are far short of excellent, and locking out friends and family makes it much easier for them to hide all manner of carelessness and infection, along with abuse and neglect. Well never be able to make all nursing homes entirely safe because theyre run by human beings. But we can do more to keep COVID-19 from infiltrating them. That starts with information: DHEC should report not just the number of positive tests but the number of total tests, and the dates of those tests, just like it does with the general population. The state should consider requiring routine testing of employees and mandating isolation and testing after one of them tests positive. And Mr. McMaster needs to find a way to join the 35 other states that have allowed some visitors back in on a limited basis, with careful precautions, as Texas and Washington did on Thursday. Yes, that would increase the risk of infection. But given the devastating consequences of abuse and neglect in nursing homes, and how ineffective the lockdown has been, allowing them to continue to operate without outside scrutiny is also dangerous. And how much more dangerous and cruel is it to keep our most fragile members of society in a virtual prison, living out their lives cut off from their loved ones? Olabisi According to SaharaReporters, another Nigerian lady in Lebanon, Olabisi, has cried out for help following threats to her life. Olabisi, who has been in Lebanon since October 2019, lamented that she had been working as a caregiver but had not received any salary from her masters. She said both the agent in Lebanon and Nigeria have been receiving her funds. Speaking with SaharaReporters, she narrated the events that led to her receiving threats. She said, My madams children came back from an outing and I went to open the door for them to come in but one of them hit me very hard in my stomach. I reported the issue to my madam but instead of her to caution her children, she was blaming me and said I should not beat them again. The father almost beat me up and I spoke in annoyance. This made them angry, they called my agent and they sent me out of the house. My agent then called me on the phone that he would send me to jail. Olabisi said her agent was forcing her to work to fully return the money he sent to Nigeria to bring her to the country. She expressed frustration while speaking with SaharaReporters, stating that though she wishes to return to Nigeria, her agent had seized her passport and will not be able to collect it from him. My agent said he sent $2,000 to his contact in Nigeria for me to come, which means I am stuck here and I cant go to Nigeria until I complete the $2,000. The person that brought me from Nigeria collected N280,000, which is equivalent to my four months salary. Since October 2019 that I got to Lebanon and have been working, I have not collected any salary for myself, she added. Olabisi appealed to the Nigerian Government to help return her to the country. If I had known, I would not have come. I want to go back home but my agent is holding me here. I am calling on the Nigerian Government and all the powerful people to come to my aid. Many of us are suffering in Lebanon and want to return home, she pleaded. Actor Rhea Chakrabortys lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, has said that she is cooperating with the authorities in the investigation into Sushant Singh Rajputs death case. Rhea, along with several members of her family, have been accused by Sushants father of abetting the actors suicide, siphoning off his funds, among other things. Rhea was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday. The lawyer told Pinkvilla, She has been examined and her statement along with her father and brother have been recorded. They had all documents in their possession including IT Returns. Shes always cooperated with investigations with police and ED. Shes nothing to hide. In the event shes called again, she will appear at the appointed time. Also read: Kriti Sanon posts cryptic message as Rhea Chakraborty is questioned about Sushant Singh Rajput: Sun will shine again The assurance comes after Rheas brother, Showik, was reportedly sent back midway through the questioning to bring certain documents. Sushants family lawyer Vikas Singh said that she could be arrested if she tries to evade the EDs questions. Speaking to Times Now, he said, Now that she has decided to finally come forward in the interrogation, if she answers questions properly then probably she may be allowed to go. If she evades answers today, then she can also be arrested. Rheas business manager, Shruti Modi, who also worked for Rajput, also appeared before the agency soon in response to the EDs summons. The statements of Rhea, Shruti and Showik were recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), officials said. Sushants friend and roommate Siddharth Pithani has also been called by the ED to appear on Saturday in connection with this money laundering case that stems from a complaint filed by the actors father with the Bihar Police in connection with his death, they said. Pithani is stated to be out of Mumbai at present and he has said in various news channel interviews that he was present in the Bandra flat on June 14 when the 34-year-old actor died by suicide. (With PTI inputs) Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Three men are missing while one was rescued after the car they were travelling in plunged into the Upper Ganga Canal (UGC) at Masuri in Uttar Pradeshs Ghaziabad late on Friday night, police said. Officials said that National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams were at the site to help trace the missing men who were travelling in a Swift Dzire car from Bareilly to Chandigarh. The car was being driven by one Paramvir Singh. We received information around 12.15am on Saturday and our teams noticed one of the four men. He was rescued while three others are still missing. NDRF teams were also called in and the car was also fished out. They all are in age group 25-36 years and working as contractors with a Central government agency. They had planned to make a night stay in Ghaziabad but then the mishap took place, said Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, superintendent of police (rural). The officials said that while the men were travelling on NH-9, they did not take the Masuri-Dasna flyover. Instead they took the surface service road near to the canal and met with the accident. It is still not clear whether the car was being driven at high speed or the driver lost control due to some other reason. The area where the car plunged into the canal has a parapet. So, the car went straight in. We have alerted the police stations along the canal and they are also helping to find the three missing men. All of the four are from Bareilly district, Jadaun added. The cops said that the families of the four men have been informed. In an earlier incident on February 1, a group of six friends travelling from Dehradun to Mathura met with a similar accident after their SUV plunged into the canal. Two of the six were rescued while bodies of four others were recovered a week later. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON FLINT, MI - The Crim Fitness Foundation is partnering with Yoga Path, a studio in Burton, to provide free yoga in the park every Saturday for the month of August. It will take place at 11 a.m. in Sanctuary Art Park, located at 2302 Brookside Dr., Flint, Michigan 48503. The first community yoga event is Saturday, Aug. 8. Participants will sign-in and answer COVID-19 screening questions before each class. Mats must be placed at least six-feet apart. No pre-registration is required. Questions about the event can go to Maria at 810-919-9642. Read More on MLive Registration for Virtual Crim exceeds expectations, open through Aug. 13 Thousands register to run in Virtual Crim following cancellation of Flints 44th annual race Flints major summer events are canceled and businesses are feeling the heat A popular tourist resort just seven miles from Benidorm is on the verge of a coronavirus lockdown after positive cases trebled in a week. The mayor of favourite beach destination Vila Joiosa says he will not hesitate to take tough action if residents, particularly young people, fail to heed warnings about social distancing and wearing masks. Benidorm has come under the same warning from Valencia health leaders who say the young population is now vulnerable and must act 'with prudence'. A tourist resort near Benidorm is on the verge of lockdown as positive cases trebled in a week - from seven to 21 Vila Joiosa's mayor Andreu Verdu feels youngsters are to blame for the spread of the virus as they are not taking the pandemic seriously enough. Health chiefs say many of the new positives are asymptomatic so they have no idea they are giving coronavirus to other people. In the last week of July, Vila Joiosa had just seven cases of the virus but this has now trebled to 21. The reported cases are mainly linked to the field of leisure and occur among young people. The local council has asked residents to be responsible to avoid a total lockdown and has stepped up disinfecting of parks and common areas. The local police are also to step up patrols and will be warning young people about the need to wear masks, as well as controlling social distancing and crowds on local terraces. The mayor of Vila Joiosa says young people are to blame for the rise in cases as they are not taking the pandemic seriously enough Benidorm has seen a low level of coronavirus outbreaks but the latest confirmed cases are believed to be linked to nightlife. Tourists wear face masks while walking along a promenade in Benidorm The mayor said: 'We are calling for caution and prudence and, especially among young population, responsibility as this sector of the population is the one that has become the main transmitter of new cases.' He stressed that the town's coronavirus regulations were mandatory, warning: 'If the increase in infections continues, more drastic measures will have to be taken, confining the town if necessary in order to preserve public health.' Public health officials say they are 'very concerned' about the increase in cases, with regional director Teresa Revilla confirming: 'There has been a relaxation of social distancing and prevention measures and most of these infections are framed in the field of social and family gatherings.' Numerous contacts of those infected are currently being traced and tested and told to go into isolation for 14 days, regardless of the result. The coastal town of Vila Joiosa is just seven miles from Benidorm and it is feared young people might travel into the main resort and unknowingly spread the virus. Benidorm has seen a low level of coronavirus outbreaks but the latest, with three positives confirmed on Friday, are believed to be linked to nightlife. British tourists wait to check in for a flight to London at the airport in Palma de Mallorca on July 27, days after the UK Government introduced new quarantine rules for Spain In mid-July, four members of the same family tested positive in Benidorm. Both Vila Joiosa and Benidorm fall within Valencia and health minister, Ana Barcelo says the highest number of cases belong to outbreaks in the age group between 15 and 34 years (54.4%). Most have not shown any symptoms or only been slightly unwell but there have been some hospital admissions. 'I want to appeal to caution and prudence, especially in the segment of the young population, since it is precisely that sector of the population that has become the main transmitter of new cases,' she warned. Anyone planning an event with more than 150 people now has to get written permission from the regional government and prove that all security measures are in place. Turkey and Pakistan have grouped together to take on India through their Kashmir campaign as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was one of the first leaders to back Pakistan's position on abrogation of Article 370. Turkey also raised the Kashmir issue in the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019. Raising the Kashmir issue in collaboration is mutually beneficial for both the countries as it would help Pakistan to strengthen its position on Kashmir at the global fora and benefit the desperation of Erdogan to become the undisputed Caliph of the Muslim Ummah. The Turkish support to Pakistans global campaign against India on Kashmir and Hindutva shall also elevate and enhance Erdogan's position amongst the South Asian Muslims the population on which he is banking to claim the leadership of the Islamic world. Besides the issuing statements by the President, parliamentarians, and other leaders, the Turkish institutions have played a super active role in creating the anti-India narrative on Kashmir. Amongst institutional entities, Turkish educational institutions have been leading the Turkish efforts to further anti-India agenda, which have become places of convergence of anti-India elements. According to Indian security agencies due to Turkey-Pakistan bonhomie, anti-India events are being organized in Turkish Universities to give the campaign legitimacy for the past one year. These events are organized in collaboration of the Pakistani mission in Turkey, Pakistan sponsored NGOs and Pakistani proxies. More than 30 big and small conferences and seminars on Kashmir have been organised in Turkish Universities since August 5, 2019. The ISI proxy and Secretary-General of World Kashmir Forum Ghulam Nabi Fai attended around half a dozen events. Whereas, Pakistani Ambassador to Turkey Syrus Sajjad Qazi was seen attending several such events. In fact, Pakistani Embassy and Pakistani Consulates themselves organised multiple events on Kashmir, including Jammu and Kashmir under the pressure of far-right nationalism in Istanbul Aydin University as well as The Question of Kashmir and From 05 August 2019, till today: endless martial law in Istanbul University - to mark the completion of one year of abrogation of Article 370, besides others. The Indian origin students are the targeted audience invited in these events and disgruntled students from the Kashmir valley and anti-India academicians are invited as speakers at these events. President of POJK Sardar Masood Khan has also attended and spoken at several such events. Pakistan sponsored organisations like Kashmir Civitas and Kashmir Working Group also organised back to back events educational institutions of Turkey, propagating the pro-Pak narrative. The HoD of Urdu Department in Istanbul University Prof Halil Toker has also organised and spoken at several conferences on Kashmir in the Istanbul University. He is a known Pak proxy who happens to be the recipient of Sitara-e-Imtiyaz 2017 Award by the Pakistani Government. The Turkey-Pakistan has also roped in organisation floated by it for anti-India propaganda and subversion of Indian minds. The list of organisations that have organised anti-India events on Kashmir issue includes the South Asia Strategic Research Centre (GASAM), Turkey Youth Foundations Regional Expert's Training Programme (TUGVA's BUYP), YTB, and many others. The two major bodies tasked to build Erdogans image in the world by carrying out Turkish propaganda - Religious Affairs Directorates Turkiye Diyanet Foundation (TDV) and Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) - were also roped in to organise such events in Turkish educational institutions. The fact that YTB and TUGVA work under the directions of President Erdogans son Bilal Erdogan connotes the direct role being played by the Erdogan government in anti-India activities. Similarly, the presence of leaders like Yalci Topcu, Head Advisor to the Turkish President and MPs Metin Gundogdu and A Sahin in these events and them sharing the stage with the Pakistani Ambassador to Turkey highlight the Pak-Turkey nexus against India. Pakistani ISI is working to utilize all the political factions in Turkish politics to capitalize on the Kashmir issue. It is using government-sponsored organisations like Turkiye Diyanet Foundation, GASAM, SETA etc to further its agenda on Kashmir. At the same time, it is also utilizing its connections with the opposition party Islamist Saadet, by engaging Anadolu Youth Association (AGD), Asma Kopru, SDE, etc. Besides organizing anti-India events in Turkey, it is also weaponising education by subversion of Indian students. Its programmes are designed to achieve long term connection with Indian students and achieving long term goals. The Diyanet Foundation, under the Directorate of Religious Affairs and Presidency of Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), selectively target the middle class Muslims in India by providing them scholarships and stipends. The YTB has already expressed its desire to take more Indian students in Turkey and alleged that Indian agencies are obstructing the granting of scholarships to such students. The Rectors in Universities are appointed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to achieve the party's political goals. Once students join Universities, they come under the influence of Turkey's Federation of International Students Associations (UDEF). While studying in Turkey, most of them come in contact with the Indian Student's Circle (ISC), which is controlled by the YTB and provides funding for organizing anti-India events. On passing out, the Turkish International Association of Graduates Uluslararasi Mezunlar Dernegi or TUMED maintains connections with students. The admission-scholarship-university-alumni channel is maintained by Turkish Embassies, Consulates Turkeys Maarif Foundation (TMV), Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), Yunus Emre Institute (YEE), Red Crescent, Turkish Airlines, and TDF. The long-list of educational hotspots for anti-India activities include Istanbul University, Istanbul Sbahattin Zaim University, Ibn Haldun University, Anakar Yildirim Beyazit University, Erzurum Diplomasi Akademisi, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakif University, many more. The subversion activities of TDV/Diyanet and IHH in India are noteworthy. Besides the scholarship programme for higher education, the Diyanet is also running scholarship programme for Islamic theology and has provided scholarships to a number of Indian students from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala to study in Turkey to become Imams. The Diyanet is also working to promote Islamic extremism in India. Similarly, the IHH is expanding its base in the Muslim dominated regions of India under the guise of welfare and humanitarian work. International experts have already warned India about the two organisations spreading their legs in India and radicalizing the Muslim populations to wage war against the Indian government. Organisations under the direct control of Turkey Government Union of NGOs of Islamic World (UNIW) and TUGVA have also made inroads amongst Muslim communities in India. UNIW is an alliance of 354 NGOs from 66 countries. Numerous Indian Islamic outfits/NGOs have joined the alliance and are working in India on its behest. Further, Bilal Erdogans TUGVA has made strong inroads within India by establishing connections with Islamic outfits in India, including Jamaat-e-Islamic Organisation's student wing Student Islamic Organisation (SIO). There is an entire nexus of Turkey government, Pakistani ISI NGOs, and Indian students all coming together in educational institutions to carry out their anti-India agenda. Though India has succeeded in checking the direct interference of organisations like YTB, TUGVA, Diyanet, and IHH in India, still these organisations continue to carry out the Turkish propaganda and making the proxies to work for them, they have been somewhat successful in taking Indian students to Turkey and send them back brainwashed. The need of the hour is to ensure the gatekeeping of India students from the proxies of Turkey, operating in India. A bottle and pills of hydroxychloroquine sit on a counter at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, on May 20, 2020. (George Frey/AFP via Getty Images) New York Councilman Says Hydroxychloroquine Helped Save His Life Hydroxychloroquine helped a New York City councilman recover from a severe case of COVID-19, according to the Democrat lawmaker. I couldnt breathe, very weak, couldnt get out of bed. My doctor prescribed it. My pharmacy had it. Took it that day and within two to three days I was able to breathe, Councilman Paul Vallone told the New York Post. Within a week I was back on my feet. COVID-19 is a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial that some researchers say has been successful against the disease but others warn could bring side effects to some patients. Vallone said he took the drug in combination with azithromycin, an antibiotic also known as Z-Pak. Vallone has sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that affects multiple organs, primarily the lungs. People with underlying conditions are most at risk from COVID-19. We were in panic mode when I went down because I didnt have a lot of immune response, he told the paper. I needed something to stay alive, he said, adding that hydroxychloroquine worked for me. Other lawmakers have also taken hydroxychloroquine, also known as HCQ or HQ, to combat COVID-19. Michigan Rep. Karen Whitsett, a Democrat, credited the drug with saving her life earlier this year, along with GOP President Donald Trump, who touted the drug as a possible treatment for the disease. Had you not brought this to the forefront ofthe HQof being able to put this out here, I wouldnt be here today to even have this conversation with you and to be able to talk about the needs of Detroit and talk about the people who really need this, she told Trump at the White House on April 14. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said last week he was planning on taking the drug to combat COVID-19 after testing positive. Others have taken hydroxychloroquine as a prophylaxisa way to try to prevent becoming infectedincluding El Salvadors president and Trump. Researchers in India found the drug is effective as a prophylaxis. Peter Vallone, a former New York City councilman and brother to Councilman Paul Vallone, has promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine. I guess all those doctors who are prescribing it are right. This drug is already on the market and the patent is up so its cheap. A new drug wont be. So big money does not want this drug to be used. Always follow the money, the former councilman wrote in a Facebook post in May, according to the Post. Paul Vallone remarked on the post, writing that hydroxychloroquine saved my life. Many times, Id driven by the one-story gray building and wondered: Whats the deal with this place? Its on Andrew Jackson Way, near a Dollar General and beloved local restaurant the Po-Boy Factory, in Huntsvilles Five Points area. For a while now, the gray buildings signage had indicated it was a thrift store called Shirleys Treasures. And certainly this looked a space that would house a thrift store - simple, solid and basic. Then early this year, colorful flags promoting Best BBQ Ribs were installed out front. Tables and chairs appeared in a fenced in front patio. Did this mean this thrift store was now also selling barbecue? Because if true, a barbecue-selling thrift store would be one of the most Alabama things to ever exist. Turns out, both ribs and secondhand clothing can be obtained from inside this gray building at 1108 Andrew Jackson Way. Just from separate entities. Who are ... also related? Ill explain. Related, in that the proprietors of Shirleys Treasures and WW Brookins Smoken On The Go are family. Shirleys owner Tonia Caudle is the cousin of Smoken On The Gos Walisa Brookins-McCarter and niece of Susie Brookins, Walisas mom. Shirley's Treasures Thrift Store shares a Five Points building with WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner in Huntsville, Ala. The two business owners are cousins. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com) Weve been knowing each other all our lives, Tonia says, recalling times she and Walisa played together as young girls. Susie used to pick me up and keep me off the streets growing up and take me to church programs. Walisa adds, Her mom and my parents were very close. While the Shirley's Treasures Thrift Store sign and "best BBQ" flags out front are more noticeable to drivers-by, thus seeding images of a rib-hawking clothier, a closer look reveals a less prominent sign for WW Brookins Smoken On The Go too. Shirley's Treasures Thrift Store shares a Five Points building with WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner in Huntsville, Ala. The two business owners are cousins. Shirley's Treasures owner Tonia Caudle is pictured. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com) Caudle opened Shirley's Treasures here about three years ago. The store is named for her deceased mother, who, back when Tonia was growing up, would shop for clothes for her daughter at thrift stores, bring those clothes home, wash and iron them to make them look sharp. "My mom always kept me dressed nice," Caudle says. "People would think we had money because I always had a lot of different clothes. I didn't understand why I had to get clothes from a thrift store and I would be mad and embarrassed and just wait in the car. But that's what we had to do." Shirley's Treasures sells new and used clothing for women, as well as shoes, purses and jewelry. Polka dots, tassels, paisleys, stripes and faux fur adorn various wares there. "The people who come in here, I get a kick out of seeing them dress very nice," says Caudle who previously worked jobs in home health care and nursing homes. A couple years or so back, Caudle asked Brookins to cater an event at the thrift store. "It was a big success," Caudle says. "Not only for her but also for me. People started asking for her. 'Where's that lady with the good barbecue at? When's she coming back?'" Inside 1108 Andrew Jackson, the entrance for Shirleys Treasures is to the immediate left. Upon first entering the building, Smoken On The Gos cashier/hostess stand is the first thing you see, and the restaurants dining room is to the right, down a hallway decorated with jewelry for sale and the small framed image of a cartoon pig. The Brookins family behind WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner in Huntsville, Ala. From left, Walter Brookins, Susie Brookins and Wa'Lisa Brookins-McCarter. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com) The Brookins family has been catering barbecue for about 10 years. It all started with Walter Brookins, Susie's husband and Wa'lisa's dad. A retired Army sergeant, Walter "loved cooking outside," Susie recalls. "He'd let me cook inside during the wintertime, but when the springtime comes, that was his." Walter designed a smokehouse that he had built outside the family's Northwest Huntsville residence. It's actually a two-building layout: One building, a prep house for storage and food-prep; the second, the actual smokehouse with a smoker big enough to hold 12 whole turkeys, ribs, etc. WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner owner Susie Brookins, right, and her late husband Walter Brookins. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com) Walter and Susie's "how we first met" story is a good one. She was an Alabama A&M student from Huntsville, and he was a young Army recruit from Sarasota, Fla. They met entirely by chance at the Greyhound bus station in Nashville. Susie had taken a bus to visit her sister, who'd just had a baby. After finishing basic training, Walter was supposed to take a bus to Fort Campbell in Kentucky, but mistakenly got on another bus headed to Fort Knox. When he realized the gaffe and returned to the bus station to catch the correct bus, that's when they met. They married around six months after meeting. The Brookins couple went on to be married 42 years, up until Walter died in September 2016. Having been at Walters side the many times he worked through the night on his smokey labor of love, Susie knew how to smoke the meats and everything else that went into the business. After teaching school for 30 years, starting off with kindergarten at Whitesburg Elementary, Susie knows a thing or two about learning. On a recent afternoon inside their low-key white-walled Andrew Jackson space, Walisa says, We were going to open a place like this but he became too ill. Still, the decision to keep WW Brookins Smoken On The Go going was easy, Susie says. Thats the only way I could live without him, Susie says, is to carry on his business and his dream. The patio at WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com With Walter gone, Susie stepped up as the smokehouse's pit boss. In case you're wondering the "WW" in WW Brookins Smoken On The Go refers to Walter and Wa'lisa. "When we did our sign only had room for the two Ws," Wa'lisa explains." Early on, after getting licensing and other paperwork, Susie says their catering got started with church groups, weddings and repasts, the dinners sometimes held after funerals. Since the Brookinses smoke turkeys, Thanksgiving has been a big thing for their business, to this day. They use hickory wood to smoke all their smoked items. Spare ribs from WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com After their catered for Shirleys Treasures went well, Caudle asked Susie back to cater another event at the store. The neighbors started asking if I was going to stay this time, Susie says. We already had the smokehouse and licensing so I just started looking. Started with one room, two rooms. Then once I started frying fish and my line was back out the door I said, OK, Lord, what are you trying to tell me? So then I just went and did the whole thing. Barbecue sauce from WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner, as Susie calls the Andrew Jackson location, has been open since January. Just a couple months later, coronavirus threw a Saturn V rocket-sized nail in the road for restaurants worldwide. "We've just been blessed by the neighborhood to still be working, still be here," Wa'lisa says. A banner outside WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com) Most of Smoken On The Go's orders are take-out, understandable given the pandemic. But Wa'lisa says the patio also sees some action. Inside the building, there's also a cozy dining room that seats around 15 or so. A large portrait of Walter Brookins lights up the room. As in his handsome image actually seems to illuminate the place a little more. Wa'Lisa Brookins-McCarter - of WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner in Huntsville, Ala. - holds a portrait of her late father, Walter Brookins. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com) At the diner, ribs and chicken-wings are the best-sellers, Susie says. They recently added weekend breakfast items, including a smoked sausage sandwich. A couple weeks ago, curious to know more about what goes on inside 1107 Andrew Jackson, I called in take-out order: A pulled pork dinner ($9 with smoked mac & cheese and potato salad, plus a "regular" size banana pudding ($3). Arriving there about five minutes later, a friendly and pandemic-masked employee was up front, waiting with my order loaded into a repurposed cardboard box. Pulled pork dinner with smoked mac & cheese and potato salad and barbecue sauce, and banana pudding from WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com Back out in my car, lifted up the clamshell to check out the goods. It looked and smelled like real-deal un-corporate Alabama barbecue, and a few minutes later back at my house it ate like it too. The pork and mac both benefiting from smooth, enticing smoke notes. The pot salad, family cookout fresh. Two sauces - the one drizzled atop the pork, sweet/sticky, the other, on the side, tangy/peppery. Banana pudding from WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner in Huntsville, Ala. (Matt Wake/mwake@al.com) The banana pudding was creamy-fruity-cookie bliss. Liked my entire order enough a week later called back in for a half-rack of ribs. I dont eat much meat these days so this was a decadent/barbaric eat. The ribs gave my incisors their biggest workout in a while - and were the right balance of tender, char and marble. A couple visits in, this place feels like nice hyper-local addition to Five Points eats. During a phone conversation with Susie, I ask her what Walter would think of his smokehouse dreams finally manifested into a little diner. "He would be grinning from ear to ear," she says. " That is what he worked so hard on and to see it complete and functioning, he would be so excited." Shirleys Treasures is open 12:30 - 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Saturday. More info at facebook.com/tonia1013. WW Brookins Smoken On The Go and Little Diner is open 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday. More info at facebook.com/goodhickorysmokedmeat. MORE ON CULTURE X-Men legend talks Wolverine, superhero movies, more 25 recent songs by Alabama musicians to know Alabama producer talks work with J. Cole, Whitney, Tarantino A wish list of unreleased recordings by rock legends This new French bakery/cafe in Huntsville looks amazing Nearing the end of their legislative session and the beginning of wildfire season, state lawmakers are pushing through an industry-backed homeowners insurance bill despite fierce opposition from consumer groups and California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. The complex bill essentially would let insurance companies request higher rates than currently allowed for homeowners and renters policies in selected wildfire-prone areas in exchange for promising to sell a certain number of policies in all those areas combined. Backers say it would encourage mainstream, state-regulated companies to write and renew more policies in higher-risk areas, so consumers arent forced into the Fair Plan, the states insurer of last resort. Fair Plan policies, which are backed by state-regulated insurers, generally provide less coverage at higher prices than standard, comprehensive homeowners policies. Some insurers stung by losses from the states devastating wildfires have pulled back in risky areas, forcing more homeowners to buy policies from the Fair Plan or from surplus lines carriers such as Lloyds of London that are not state-regulated. Lucy Smallsreed and her husband were forced into the Fair Plan in 2019 after Allstate refused to renew a policy on a home they own in Inverness, in West Marin. The Fair Plan policy cost $2,235 a year, but it basically only covers the house for fire. It doesnt cover water damage; contents unless its from fire, smoke or internal explosion; no personal liability; living expenses; debris removal; no fence or other structures or building code upgrade, Smallsreed said. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle The Allstate policy cost $1,995 and covered those things. We are now getting way less for more money, she said. Opponents of AB2167 say it will set up a pricing mechanism outside of Proposition 103, the 1988 law that has kept homeowners insurance rates in California below the national average, and wont guarantee that all homeowners in a targeted area will be offered a policy. What it lacks is a requirement to provide insurance coverage in ZIP codes where homeowners are struggling to get that coverage, said Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael. He voted against the bill when it passed the Assembly 61-3 on June 8. On Tuesday, it passed the Senate Insurance Committee 12-0 following a hearing, and has moved to the Senate Appropriations committee. Under the bill, a company could propose an insurance market action plan, or IMAP, for one or more eligible counties of their choosing. These are counties where Fair Plan policies account for a certain percentage ranging from at least 0.15% in the largest counties to 1% in the smallest of all homeowners policies in that county. The insurance department says 21 of the states 58 counties would qualify today. The industry says 28 would, including Los Angeles and San Diego but no Bay Area counties. A proposed amendment would add Sonoma, Napa and other counties that have had declared wildfire disasters in the past five years. Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle For better or worse, the plan would not apply to homeowners like Smallsreed, who live in fire-prone areas in non-eligible counties, such as the Oakland hills and parts of Marin. For each county where it files an IMAP, the insurance company would define areas within the county where it proposes to sell policies covered by the plan. In these areas, the insurance company could include two things in its rates that are not allowed under insurance department regulations. One is its net cost of reinsurance, which is insurance that insurance companies buy that pays some of their claims after a big disaster. It could also factor in expected losses based on catastrophic-risk models, which are computer programs designed to predict losses from hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires and other catastrophes. The bill says these rates shall not be excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory, and shall be actuarially sound. This alternative rate-setting mechanism would result in premiums that are higher than what companies can charge now, but below Fair Plan prices, said industry spokesman Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California. Frazier said some companies simply wont sell at the allowed rates and this new plan would pull them in. The goal is to have a plan that depopulates the Fair Plan, he said. Companies can choose which areas, they want in the plan, but the bill says they should avoid overconcentration in any one particular area. In exchange for higher rates, the company must commit to selling enough policies so that their market share in all areas where they are getting IMAP rates is equal to at least 85% of their statewide market share. The 85% requirement does not apply to each county or portion of a county individually; it applies to all of their IMAP regions combined. So theres no guarantee a homeowner in an area included in the IMAP could get insurance. Companies could cherry-pick places they think are the safest risk, said Bryant Henley, special counsel to the insurance commissioner. Harvey Rosenfield, the founder of Consumer Watchdog who wrote voter-approved Prop. 103, said the bill allows insurance companies to maneuver all around Prop. 103 controls around price gouging. Robert Hunter, an actuary and director of insurance with the Consumer Federation of America, said in a letter that allowing reinsurance in rates could raise them by 40%. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes The industry argues that all IMAPs would require insurance department approval before they could take effect, giving the commissioner the power to prevent price gouging and cherry-picking. The bills co-author, Assembly Insurance Committee Chairman Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, said during Tuesdays hearing that, The bill does not in any way change or limit the authority of the insurance commissioner under Proposition 103. He added, The committee has suggested amendments ... to make that point absolutely clear. If an insurer submits an IMAP that is not approved within 120 days, the bill says the insurer may continue with its previously approved rate and the insurers 85% market share commitment would be suspended until the commissioner and insurer reach agreement on the filing. Critics say this means if an insurer gets an IMAP approved, then filed a subsequent plan that was not approved, it could continue charging its previous IMAP rates without having to meet the commitment. At last weeks hearing, Lara argued that insurers can already request higher rates to compensate for wildfire risk, and if the insurance company can clearly demonstrate that the filed rate under Prop. 103 is not excessive, not inadequate and not unfairly discriminatory, it will be approved. The department says it approved 92% of rate filings last year. If the bill is passed by the Senate, and again by the Assembly with amendments, by Aug. 31, and signed by the governor by Sept. 30, it would take effect immediately. A linked bill in the Senate, SB292, would also have to pass. But it probably would take at least six months before IMAPs could be submitted, approved and sold. A competing bill backed by Lara and consumer groups went nowhere this year. It would have set statewide standards for fire-hardened homes and communities and required insurers to sell policies on homes that have met them. The industry-backed bill says an IMAP filing shall set forth community and parcel-level mitigation standards, and procedures for verifying mitigation activities, but its unclear what this means. This bill has support from groups outside the industry, including from the Rural County Representatives of California. Homeowners in rural areas have been especially hard hit by nonrenewals, and now farms and farmlands are getting non-renewed, said Staci Heaton, a lobbyist for the association. The insurance industry is suffering a lot of losses. Theres not a lot of sympathy for that, but we dont want them to pull out of California, she said. Most residents in high fire risk areas understand that they may have to pay higher rates, but theyd rather do that than go on the Fair Plan. More Information Who's for, against AB2167 legislation In favor American Property Casualty Insurance Association, Cal Fire Local 2881, California Fair Plan, California Fire Safe Council, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, Pacific Association of Domestic Insurance Companies, Personal Insurance Federation of California, California Building Industry Association, California State Association of Counties, Rural County Representatives of California, California State Fire Safe Council Opposed California Department of Insurance, cities of Carpinteria and Rancho Palos Verdes, Consumer Attorneys of California, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Federation of California, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, Consumer Watchdog, Public Advocates, San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, United Policyholders See More Collapse The bill isnt perfect, but its a good jumping-off point, Heaton added. We have to start somewhere (and its) better than what we have now. The commissioner and insurance industry ones on the moon and ones on Jupiter. Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender Four cabin crew members of the Air India Express flight that crash landed at the Karipur airport here are safe, the national transporter said on Saturday. "The four cabin crew members are confirmed safe," Air India Express said in a bulletin. Air India Express Employees Union said cabin crew suffered some injuries and are under treatment at the Kozhikode hospital. Eighteen people including two pilots were killed and scores injured when an AIE flight from Dubai with 190 on board overshot the tabletop runway in Kozhikode airport on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions. Also read: Kerala plane crash: Full list of passengers on board Air India Express flight Also read: Air India crash: Pilot of ill-fated flight earlier flew MiG-21s in Indian Air Force Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Cloudy early with partial sunshine expected late. Much colder. High 17F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph.. Tonight Bitterly cold. Mostly clear skies. Low -4F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. The two British scientists at the forefront of the hunt for a coronavirus vaccine have clashed over a controversial plan to deliberately infect people with the virus. Professor Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, is in the advanced stages of setting up a human trial for one of the most promising drugs. As part of it, he wants to give the vaccine to young, healthy volunteers before exposing them to the virus that causes Covid-19. Professor Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, is in the advanced stages of setting up a human trial for one of the most promising drugs Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the institute, disagrees with his plan because of the potential risk to volunteers However, The Mail on Sunday understands that Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the institute, disagrees with his plan because of the potential risk to volunteers. Indeed, after Prof Hill announced his intentions, she told BBC Radio 4: Its not something thats going to happen in the short-term. According to a source, the two scientists are not particularly happy with each other at the moment. Sean: Its a risk Im willing to take Sean McPartlin is volunteering to take part in the Oxford vaccine trial The enemy may be invisible but for Sean McPartlin, volunteering to take part in the Oxford vaccine trial is like going to war. Despite the potential risks, the 22-year-old Oriel College student, pictured, said: When soldiers, often no older than boys, go to war, they accept death from the moment their boots touch foreign soil. They accept it because they know what they are doing is just and because it has to be done for the safety of their loved ones back at home. But while many wars are often unjust and fought for the wrong reasons, the same cannot be said for Covid. The world over, people are suffering, people are dying, and something has to be done. Challenge trials are a war on Covid. I cant think of a more just war to fight. The philosophy masters student, who is from Co. Meath, Ireland, resolved to sign up as soon as the trial was announced. When I told my father what I wanted to do, he was aghast, Mr McPartlin said. I explained to him the risk to my life was minimal, but that didnt matter to him. Why does it have to be you? he said. Nobody wants their loved ones to make a sacrifice or take a risk, but I could not be talked out of it. In times of crisis, we often wonder, What can I give? Well, Im not a doctor so I cant give my knowledge, but what I can give is my body and my time. That is how I can help rid the world of Covid. Advertisement Their dilemma is whether to expose volunteers to the virus, which could slash the time it takes to make a vaccine widely available, or wait until any potential long-term effects are better understood. News of the conflict comes as other scientists have told this newspaper that a vaccine is likely to be only partially effective and comes with the risk of strong side-effects. Downing Street has been advised that while there is a 50 per cent chance that an effective vaccine will be administered in the UK next year, it is unlikely to give complete protection against the virus. Instead, the Oxford University team expect the jab to mitigate its worst effects by lessening the severity of the symptoms. Sources say trials of the vaccine codenamed ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 found two-thirds of recipients developed headaches and a fifth became feverish. The potential limitations are likely to concern No 10. A survey found almost a third of Britons might refuse a vaccine and that so-called herd immunity will be hard to achieve if less than two-thirds of the population take up the offer. A source said: It is important to manage expectations about the vaccine. 'Its not ready yet and when it is, it will not be a complete magic bullet or be without mild, but irritating side effects which could put some people off. But it looks as if it will mitigate the worst effects for the most vulnerable and is a vital part of the jigsaw to combat this. Prof Hill and Sir John Bell, the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, were among scientists who last month announced that initial trials on 1,077 British adults showed the Oxford vaccine induced strong antibody and T-cell responses, potentially offering a double defence against the virus. Antibodies can disable the coronavirus, while T-cells, a type of white blood cell, help to co-ordinate the immune system by targeting infected cells. During the trials, 90 per cent were shown to have developed neutralising antibodies after one dose of the vaccine, prompting Ministers to order 190 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, of which 100 million are the Oxford version. Scientists now need to establish if the vaccine made from a genetically engineered version of a virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees prevents those who come into contact with the virus from becoming ill or lessens their symptoms. This would be most quickly done with a human challenge trial, where patients are deliberately infected with the virus, using people under 30 who are less likely to fall seriously ill from Covid-19. The Jenner Institute began work on the vaccine in January. Last month, Prof Hill said he had been working with a US campaign group called 1 Day Sooner to secure medical-grade doses of Sars-CoV2, the virus that causes Covid-19, which would be required for the human challenge trials. Prof Hill and Prof Gilbert declined to comment, but both will have to reach agreement before the trial proposal is put before an NHS ethics committee. In a statement, the Jenner Institute said: We are not planning to test the Oxford vaccine in challenge models at the present time. While senior officials including the DGCA and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are expected to meet in New Delhi today, special relief flights from Delhi and Mumbai have also reached the crash site. Further, Kerala CM, Governor, and MoS External Affairs are expected to visit the crash site and meet aggrieved relatives of those injured and deceased in the shocking plane crash mishap in Kozhikode on Friday. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DG), Civil Aviation Ministry senior officials, Airports Authority of India, and Air Navigation Service members will meet in Delhi today over the crash-landing of an Air India Express flight in Kozhikode on Friday. The meeting is scheduled to take place at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan. We have started our investigation, Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) team has reached the crash site, said DGCA. Two special relief flights from Delhi and one from Mumbai for rendering humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and aggrieved family members also reached Kozhikode. Also read: As death toll rises to 19, condolences pour in. PM, President mourn loss of lives Also read: Kozhikode plane crash: Helpline numbers issued, relief operations underway It is also reported that Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will visit the crash site at Karipur Airport today. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the phone and informed him about the arrangements made for rescue and medical support. The Prime Minister has promised the assistance of the Union Government, Chief Ministers Office (CMO) Kerala said in a tweet on Friday. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan spoke to @PMOIndia Shri. @narendramodi ji over phone. CM informed the hon'ble Prime Minister about the arrangements made for rescue and medical support. The Prime Minister has promised the assistance of the Union Government. CMO Kerala (@CMOKerala) August 7, 2020 Kerala Raj Bhavan informed that Governor Khan has already talked to Chief Minister and Kerala Police chief about rescue and relief operations at Karipur airport. Earlier on Friday, both the Chief Minister and the Governor expressed condolences to the families of the deceased and wished a speedy recovery to all the people injured in the mishap. Meanwhile, Minister of State (Mos) for External Affairs V Muraleedharan reached Kozhikode. He is likely to meet those injured in the crash and their family members. At least 18 people including two pilots have lost their lives in the incident. However, the four-cabin crew members are safe, said the Air India Express in a statement. The injured are admitted to hospitals in Malappuram and Kozhikode, as per the state government officials. An Air India Express plane carrying 190 passengers including 10 infants skidded while landing at Karipur Airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening. Also read: Air India plane crash probe: Two investigation teams leave for Kozhikode Panaji, Aug 8 : Hours after an Air India Express flight crashed in Kerala, an opposition MLA in Goa on Saturday expressed concern over a July decision to reduce the length of a runway at the upcoming Mopa greenfield airport in the coastal state. Former Deputy Chief Minister and Goa Forward party MLA Vijai Sardesai questioned the Cabinet decision to reduce the length of the runway from 3,750 to 3,500 metres. "Last night, we saw reports of a devastating crash at the Kozhikode airport wherein the aircraft overshot the runway. Shockingly, the Goa government in July resolved to reduce the length of the runway at the proposed Mopa Airport! Goemkars can decide what is going on under the present government!" Sardesai tweeted. The Goa government had taken the decision to comply with the statutory operational standards as per the parameters of the International Civil Aviation Organisation. In its first phase, the airport is expected to cater to 4.5 million passengers. By the end of the fourth phase, its passenger handling capacity is expected to be 13 million. The first phase of Mopa airport was scheduled to be operational in September this year, but litigation in the courts has caused considerable delay. A total of 18 persons were killed when an Air India Express flight carrying 190 passengers crashed after landing at the Kozhikode airport runway in bad weather. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has condoled the deaths. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text P rotesters stormed the foreign ministry and clashed with police in Beirut over a massive explosion that devastated large parts of of the city and killed more than 150 people. Thousands of people poured into the Lebanese capitals main square on Saturday, where they set up symbolic nooses to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for Tuesdays explosion at the Port of Beirut. The huge blast was caused by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate improperly stored at the port for more than six years, apparently set off by a fire. It was the biggest in Lebanons history and caused an estimated 7.6 billion to 11.5 billion worth of damage, according to Beiruts governor. It also left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Lebanese protesters carry a wounded demonstrators away from clashes / AFP via Getty Images .A group of protesters including retired army officers stormed the foreign ministry, saying it would be the headquarters for a revolution and called on the current government to resign. Retired army officer Sami Ramah read a statement on the buildings steps after dozens of protesters pushed their way into the building. This authority must step down, he said. Others fanned out to enter the economy and energy ministries, and some walked away with documents claiming they will reveal the extent of corruption that permeates the government. Dozens of protesters broke into the banking association headquarters. The protesters later set fire to a lorry that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament. The gathering at Martyrs Square and outside the parliament building and government headquarters came amid popular anger against Lebanons political leadership. A demonstrator holds a shield during a protest / REUTERS The countrys ruling class, made up mostly of former civil war-era leaders, is blamed for widespread corruption, incompetence and mismanagement that contributed to Tuesdays explosion. The army issued a statement reminding the protesters to act peacefully and abstain from closing roads or attacking public or private property Police also issued a statement after the protests began urging people to act in a civilised way far away from violence. The protest came as senior officials from the Middle East and Europe arrived in Lebanon in a show of solidarity with the tiny country that is still in shock suffered after the blast. Lebanon is mired in its worst economic and financial crisis in decades making it difficult for many people who had their properties damaged to fix them. A demonstrator is pictured amid smoke rising from tear gas during a protest near parliament in Beirut / REUTERS In a show of anger, the president of the Christian opposition Kataeb party said its three legislators have decided to resign from parliament over this weeks disaster. Sami Gemayel called on every honourable member of parliament to resign and work for the birth of a new Lebanon. A senior Kataeb party official was killed in the blast, which claimed at least 154 lives, wounded more than 5,000 people and laid waste to the countrys largest port and nearby areas. The Dutch foreign ministry said Saturday that Hedwig Waltmans-Molier, the wife of the Netherlands ambassador to Lebanon, had also died of injuries sustained in the blast. Documents that surfaced after the blast showed that for years officials had been repeatedly warned that the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port posed a grave danger, but no one acted to remove it. Demonstrators stand near a fire that was set during a protest near parliament on Friday / REUTERS Officials have been blaming one another since the explosion and 19 people have been detained including the ports chief, head of Lebanons customs department and his predecessor. We will support Lebanon through all available means, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League told reporters after meeting President Michel Aoun on Saturday. International aid has been flowing to Lebanon for days and several field hospitals have been set up around Beirut to help treat the wounded. The ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilisers and explosives, originated from a cargo ship called MV Rhosus that had been travelling from Georgia to Mozambique in 2013. It made an unscheduled detour to Beirut as the Russian shipowner was struggling with debts and hoped to earn some extra cash in Lebanon. Unable to pay port fees and reportedly leaking, the ship was impounded. In 2014, the material was moved from the ship and placed in a warehouse at the port where it stayed until the explosion. COZAD As the traditional school start time approaches, school districts are refining their reopening plans amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Cozad Community Schools released their Return to School plan at the end of July. According to Cozad Community Schools website, the first day of school for the 100th Meridian community will be Wednesday, Aug. 19. The plan stipulates that a mask or face covering will be optional for students and staff, but may become mandatory. Students are recommended to bring a face covering to school to use as needed or directed by school personnel. Temperature checks of students will be taken upon entry into the building and during lunch time, staff will also undergo the same test. Hand sanitizing will be required upon entry into a school, at lunch and as people enter classrooms. As far as instruction, students and staff will be attending in person, while teachers can instruct face-to-face, online or a hybrid model as needed. Students seated in classrooms will be socially distanced as best as possible, according to the plan. Worcester police detectives are investigating after a woman was shot Friday night. At about 9:45 p.m., an officer on patrol in the area of May and Mason Streets was flagged down by a group of people reporting a woman was shot. The officer called for backup and attempted to make his way to the female, but was initially blocked by several hostile members of the crowd, Worcester police said. The gunshot victim, identified as a 38-year-old woman, was transported to a nearby hospital with injuries believed to be non-life threatening. This investigation is ongoing. If you have information about this incident, please send an anonymous text to 274637 TIPWPD + your message or send an anonymous web based message at worcesterma.gov/police. Calls can also be made to the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at (508) 799-8651. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 13:18:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said on Saturday that the so-called U.S. sanctions on him is futile, as he has no assets abroad. Luo made the remarks in response to the so-called sanctions imposed on him by the U.S. Department of Treasury. "Being listed by the United States on the sanctions list just shows that I have done what I should do for my country and Hong Kong. I don't have a penny of assets abroad. Isn't it a waste of effort to impose 'sanctions'? " Luo said. Enditem Adding a layer of nanoparticles to LED designs could help them produce more light for the same energy, and also increase their lifetime. This is according to a team from Imperial College London and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati who have found a new way to boost the amount of light LEDs produce. They report their innovation in the journal Light Science & Applications. Making light-emitting diode (LED) light sources more efficient and longer-lasting will mean they use less energy, reducing the environmental impact of their electricity use. LEDs are used in a wide range of applications, from traffic lights and backlighting for electronic displays, smartphones, large outdoor screens, and general decorative lighting, to sensing, water purification, and decontamination of infected surfaces. The team modelled the impact of placing a two-dimensional (single layer) of nanoparticles between the LED chip, which produces the light, and the transparent casing that protects the chip. Although the casing is necessary, it can cause unwanted reflections of the light emitted from the LED chip, meaning not all the light escapes. They found that adding a layer of finely tuned nanoparticles could reduce these reflections, allowing up to 20 percent more light to be emitted. The reflections also increase the heat inside the device, degrading the LED chip faster, so reducing the reflections could also reduce the heat and increase the lifetime of LED chips. Co-author Dr Debabrata Sikdar from IIT Guwahati, formerly a European Commission Marie Curie-Sklodowska Fellow at Imperial, commented: "While improvements to the casing have been suggested previously, most make the LED bulkier or more difficult to manufacture, diminishing the economic effect of the improvement. "We think that our innovation, based on fundamental theory and the detailed, balanced optimization analysis we performed, could be introduced into existing manufacturing processes with little disruption or added bulk." Co-author Professor Sir John Pendry, from the Department of Physics at Imperial, said: "The simplicity of the proposed scheme and the clear physics underpinning it should make it robust and, hopefully, easily adaptable to the existing LED manufacturing process. "It is obvious that with larger light extraction efficiency, LEDs will provide greater energy savings as well as longer lifetime of the devices. This will definitely have a global impact on the versatile LED-based applications and their multi-billion-dollar market worldwide." Co-author Professor Alexei Kornyshev, from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, commented: "The predicted effect is a result of development of a systematic theory of various photonic effects related to nanoparticle arrays at interfaces, applied and experimentally tested in the context of earlier reported switchable mirror-windows, tuneable-colour mirrors, and optical filters." The next stage for the research will be manufacturing a prototype LED device with a nanoparticle layer, testing the best configurations predicted by the theory -- including the size, shape, material and spacing of the nanoparticles, and how far the layer should be from the LED chip. The authors believe that the principles used can work along with other existing schemes implemented for enhancing light extraction efficiency of LEDs. The same scheme could also apply to other optical devices where the transmission of light across interfaces is crucial, such as in solar cells. These five areas are also where the most insecure work is. It is minimum wage workers, often migrants, and often in contingent or casual jobs who are suffering unduly from the disease. They are repeatedly told to follow government rules but can also be under pressure from their economic circumstances and their employers to risk their own health as well as that of their families and those they work with. 'Churning through workplaces' The seeds of COVID-19 in Melbourne might have been sown first among skiers and international travellers, but since the hotel quarantine system infected poorly-paid and sessional security guards, its Melbournes working-class west and north-west where the pandemic has taken root. It spread from security guards to their families in suburbs where often young migrant families juggle multiple jobs to pay off home loans and other bills. It got into the close-quarters workstations of meatworks, which are mostly located in the same areas and staffed by a similar demographic of workers. Several abattoirs have had serious outbreaks. And its infiltrated aged care, where casual, low-paid personal care assistants are likely to have brought it in and then worked across numerous homes to try to earn a full income. There it has infected thousands, killed 125 and pushed the whole city under a severe lockdown and curfew. The pandemic has exposed fault lines in Melbourne that cut across geographic, class and ethnic disparities. The citys outer north and west, Whittlesea, Brimbank, Hume, and Melton all rank in the top five areas for active COVID-19 cases, and they are also four of the five most disadvantaged municipalities in Melbourne, according to a Bureau of Statistics index. That index measures disadvantage based on a range of Census data including income, education, overcrowded housing and health. Major meatworks including JBS in Brooklyn have been linked to COVID-19 clusters. Credit:Joe Armao Census data shows people in these areas are much more likely than other Victorians to be born overseas and to work in trades, road transport, or as labourers jobs that cannot be done at home. They are far less likely to work as managers or in professions. An analysis for The Sunday Age by respected researchers SGS Economics & Planning found that the distribution of casual workers across Melbourne also broadly maps the pattern of socio-economic disadvantage. Casual workers or those in other types of temporary work dont have paid sick leave. If they cant work they dont get paid, and if they cant make a shift for whatever reason, they may not be offered another one. For many workers, casualisation will mean churning through multiple workplaces and sectors in compiling their required income quota for the week, says SGS partner, Dr Marcus Spiller. This, in turn, is likely to mean more face-to-face contact with employers, customers and clients per hour worked compared to the average employee. On the face of it, this ... will render these workers at greater COVID risk. "This appears to be borne out by the pattern of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Melbourne. Loading A trend towards flexibility Since the early 1990s recession, Australias long boom has benefited many. But the effect of deregulation, de-unionisation and shifting economic patterns is written on the city. The Australian Industry Groups Innes Willox says its a myth that insecure work is rising, adding that many people are happy to work in casual or part-time jobs as the flexibility suits them. And its true that by some measures of insecure work it is relatively stable, though the extent of that remains hotly disputed by unions and employer groups. But it has stabilised at a much higher level than in the past. In 1984, casual work made up about 15 per cent of the workforce in Australia. Now there are 650,000 Victorians who work without paid leave, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a slightly lower proportion of the workforce than Australia as a whole, where 24.3 per cent are without paid leave. Australia has among the highest levels of non-full time work in the OECD. ACTU secretary Sally McManus: People who are less secure are more likely to go to work if they've got symptoms. Credit:Julian Smith In the coronavirus-ravaged northern and western suburbs, the rate of casual employment is between 25 and 35 per cent, the SGS analysis shows, with a particular peak in the hard-hit outer west. ACTU secretary Sally McManus tells The Sunday Age and The Sun-Herald the virus found a weakness there. It was the contracting out model in the quarantine area, and its spread in areas where theres a higher level of insecurity, she says. Ms McManus notes a similar pattern overseas. The United States provides a graphic example of where poorer people, in particular minorities, are much more likely to die. People who are less secure are more likely to go to work if they've got symptoms. Theyre facing different choices to other people in the pandemic. They're not all equal choices. The Health Services Union has studied three major COVID-19 outbreaks in aged care centres in Victoria, Tasmania and NSW, including St Basils in Melbournes north-west. In every state and in every major outbreak in residential aged care the same workplace issues have been at play, said the unions national secretary Lloyd Williams. People work across multiple sites and make the decision to go to work sometimes with minor symptoms because theyre trying to subsidise what is not a living wage. St Basil's aged care home in Fawkner Credit:Justin McManus One of the keys to understanding poor pay and conditions in aged care is gender. Upwards of 90 per cent of aged care workers in both residential and home care are women and, according to RMIT Universitys Professor Sara Charlesworth, their wages are demeaning. We undervalue this work because it looks like the kind of work women have traditionally done for free, she says. Professor Charlesworth says the pandemic, has laid bare major failings in a sector that should be, but isnt, prepared for major health crises. We need staffing for the regular irregularities of aged care. The HSU has warned that disability services are another COVID-19 ticking time bomb with union members reporting about 19 of approximately 1000 group homes affected to date. A shift in mood? After decades of union campaigning on insecure work with only limited effect, Ms McManus senses a shift in mood since the huge wave of hospitality and casual lay-offs in March. What has changed in the pandemic is the absolute experience of, and the absolute brutality of insecure work. All the jobs that were let go [when the pandemic began] were casual jobs, because they could be. There's been a shift in consciousness in the public. Is this actually what we want? At certain times in history, people say this can't happen again. That's possibly the start of the thinking now. However, the ACTU leader says change would only come from a national consensus on the issue. Loading In the face of the coronavirus storm, the Morrison government has itself proved flexible its acceptance of public debt to pay for the giant JobKeeper scheme is one example. But it has been reluctant so far to move on the matter of insecure work. It took until last week for the government to offer to pay $1500 a fortnight in pandemic leave, nearly two months after the Victorian government introduced its own scheme. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, meanwhile, has pointed to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan to argue that a key component of the economic recovery will be further workplace deregulation. The Australian Industry Groups Mr Willox says increased workplace flexibility is essential to allow the economy to grow after the crisis, including simpler awards and less regulation around bargaining. Talks are currently under way between government, unions and employers. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg wants to see changes to industrial relations laws Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Unions argue, though, that flexibility is part of the problem, as code for more casual or temporary work, less security of tenure. At Spotless, the workers, worried about their health, took matters into their own hands and refused to start their shift. Spotless position was equally clear: they did not want work to stop. They took the union to the Fair Work Commission, the companys spokeswoman said, in order that industrial action taken by the United Workers Union stop. If Spotless had won, then stopping work for safety reasons during the pandemic would have been ruled unlawful. But the decision for Fair Work was made for them: the Department of Health and Human Services shut the whole facility for two weeks. Four workers at Spotless, including a labour hire employee, now have the virus, though it is not thought the virus spread from soiled sheets. Loading Asked about the $50 vouchers handed out to encourage people to complete their shift, a Spotless spokeswoman said management offered the vouchers to workers in recognition of their commitment during a challenging time, and to reward their demonstration of companys values such as zero harm (safety), delivery, relationships, thought leadership. She did not respond to claims by workers that they were threatened with consequences if they did not work. The Spotless worker said: We made it clear that we do not want to transport the virus to our families. There is a group of 25 foreign ambassadors in Egypt that I consider to be the ambassadors of queen Cleopatra. Members of the group meet once or twice a month, and they choose, on the basis of rotation, one of their number to be president and one to be vice president. The success of the group has been wonderful, and even as ambassadors come and go the Cleopatra Group continues to live. The idea of the group came about when Dragan Bisenic, the ambassador of Serbia to Egypt, came to my office in 2015 as he had some of my books that he had wanted me to sign. We became good friends and used to have dinner together almost every week, sometimes inviting other ambassadors to join us. We used to invite Kathleen Martinez from the Dominican Republic, who started to work with me at the Temple of Taposiris Magna west of Alexandria in the search for the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. She had a theory that Cleopatra and Mark Antony were buried inside this temple dedicated to Isis and Osiris 45km west of Alexandria near Borg Al-Arab. The religious and political significance of the temple, along with its location, would have made it a logical burial place for Cleopatra since during her reign she associated herself with Isis and Mark Antony with Osiris. However, the ancient Roman historian Plutarch states that Cleopatra and Mark Antony were buried together in Alexandria, and for years archaeologists believed Plutarchs conclusion. The historical evidence suggests that Cleopatra built a tomb for herself near the royal palace in the city, and so most scholars reasoned that her tomb had sunk beneath the ocean floor where it has been lost with the rest of ancient Alexandria. The Temple of Taposiris Magna was also described by Plutarch as being resplendent with Osirian mystery. The historian Strabo recorded that Alexander the Great stopped at this temple on his journey to the Siwa Oasis when he was in Egypt, making it an important place for Cleopatra in life and perhaps also in death. I was not convinced that Martinezs theory was correct, even though I agreed to start the excavation of the site because no one had ever attempted to search for the tomb of the queen before and because I thought the excavation could generate important publicity for Egypt. There were some interesting discoveries, the most important being a large cemetery extending to the east and west of the temple. All the tombs were oriented towards the temple, indicating that the cemetery was likely constructed around it. Inside the tombs, we found mummies covered with gold and coins bearing the face and name of Cleopatra. One coin depicted Alexander the Great, and a mask was found that had a cleft in the chin. Kathleen Martinez asked me if the mask could have belonged to Mark Antony. I laughed and said no, it belongs to the British actor Richard Burton. Another significant discovery was a hole in the northwest corner of the temple containing three small stelae saying that it had been constructed during the reign of the Pharaoh Ptolemy IV between 221 and 205 BCE. Another important find made before the end of 2015 was a stela dated to the reign of Ptolemy V. Written in two languages, it was a decree dedicating land to the priests of Isis at the Temple of Taposiris Magna and made two years before the Rosetta Stone. By following the sunset and observing the way the sun sat on the horizon of the temple pylon, we knew that the temple and the cemetery had to be linked to one another. Some believe that the cemetery came about because the ancient Egyptians wanted to be buried near Isis, but the cemetery may also have been constructed for people who wanted their final resting place to be near an important person, such as a king or a queen. After I left my job as minister of antiquities, I ended my cooperation with this excavation and started my own dig in the Valley of the Kings at Luxor to search for the tomb of another queen, Nefertiti. SEARCH FOR CLEOPATRA: More recently, an article published in a UK newspaper has predicted that the tomb of Cleopatra will soon be found. In my opinion, the tomb will never be discovered as there is no evidence whatsoever that indicates the existence of a tomb.Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) in Egypt, answered the claims of this newspaper last week, saying that there was no evidence that the tomb would be found and adding that a theory could not stand in for a discovery. I believe that Cleopatra was buried in a tomb built next to her palace in Alexandria that is now under water.The young princess Cleopatra VII, known today as simply Cleopatra, became queen of Egypt in 51 BCE. Thrust onto the world stage by her father, Ptolemy XII, she ruled a country in tumult and one on the verge of crumbling in the face of the mighty Roman Empire.Only 17 years old when she took the throne, she quickly became one of the most powerful rulers Egypt had ever known. She bonded personally and politically with two of ancient Romes most powerful leaders, Julius Cesar and Mark Antony. Then, barely two decades after coming to power, she took her own life in a climatic act of defiance against the Romans who were still hungry for her kingdom.While we know these facts of Cleopatras life and times, much remains to be discovered. Who was she really? What and whom did she hold dear? Was she the exotic beauty depicted by modern artists and filmmakers, or did she lure her famous lovers with her intelligence and power?From the underwater ruins of once-vibrant ancient Alexandria to the Temple of Taposiris Magna where she may have gone to begin her journey into the afterlife, archaeologists today seek further evidence about the life, death, and world of ancient Egypts last queen. Yet, Cleopatra has remained shrouded in the layers of history, revealing just enough to captivate the worlds imagination, including my own.Instability pervaded Egypt when Cleopatra was born. Her father had come to power after the king and queen before him had been murdered. Commonly known as Auletes, or the flutist, Ptolemy XII depended on the goodwill of Rome and spent Egyptian money to bribe it, so infuriating the people of Alexandria that they revolted against him in 58 BCE. Ptolemy XII fled to Rome, where he ingratiated himself with powerful leaders who eventually helped him to return to Egypt and his throne.Resuming power, Ptolemy XII punished those who had rebelled against him. He had his daughter, Berenice IV, Cleopatras older sister, put to death because she had ascended the throne in his absence. Yet, he also wanted to guarantee that his children would be his successors, and so in 51 BCE he wrote a will granting the throne to the 17-year-old Cleopatra and mandating that she share power with her younger brother Ptolemy XIII, around 11 years old at the time.The older ruler kept the original will in Alexandria and sent a copy to Rome, asking his Roman friends to enforce it if need be. Thus, upon his death, Cleopatra VII, 13th in the line of the Ptolemies, became the P.haraoh of Egypt, the last of her line to do so. Since then this influential queen has taken the world by storm.I will never forget the late journalist Kamal Al-Mallakh, the discoverer of the Pharaoh Khufus solar boat at Giza, inviting the actress Elizabeth Taylor to visit Egypt. She had played Cleopatra in the 1963 epic film of the same name opposite Richard Burton as her lover Mark Antony and Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar. These three were immortalised together in this film. Al-Mallakh brought Taylor to Giza to see the Pyramids for herself, and here he introduced her to me. She also arrived dressed as Cleopatra.Dragan Bisenic used to ask me about Cleopatra, and when we had more ambassadors attend our dinners I suggested that we should create a new group called the Cleopatra Group. He would be its president, and I would be its invisible co-president. We also agreed that during every meeting of the group we would ask an ambassador to be the speaker. For example, when we had a dinner at the residence of the Argentinian ambassador Eduardo Antonio Varela, we heard a lecture by the Argentinian team working on the West Bank of the Nile at Luxor.In response to Bisenics questions about Cleopatra and her achievements, I told him that this queen had been very devious and that she would betray anyone, or even kill anyone, to get what she desired. Her younger brother and co-ruler, as well as her sister, were executed on her orders, for example. I also believe that Cleopatra was selfish and that she wanted to rule the world. In order to achieve her goal, she had to capture the hearts of the most powerful men in the world at the time, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. She seduced the much older Caesar and even had a son by him whom she called Caesarion. When Caesar died, she set her sights on Mark Antony, with whom she had three children. After the next Roman leader Octavian defeated Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, a message reached Mark Antony that she had died, because of which he tried to kill himself. Wounded, he was brought to her mausoleum to die with her. Though Cleopatra then attempted to seduce Octavian, she found that her tricks would not work with him. In order to avoid being paraded through Rome in chains, she committed suicide. My personal opinion is that Cleopatra was very ambitious and wanted to rule the world from Egypt. Moreover, I have discovered that some women I have met today believe in reincarnation and even believe that they were Cleopatra in the past. Funnily enough, most of them have the same character as the ancient Cleopatra. CLEOPATRAS AFTERLIFE: During the excavation at the Temple of Taposiris Magna, some strange accidents happened to me.The first was when I was cleaning a statue next to the temple wall about two metres higher than my head on top of which there was a large stone. Suddenly, this large stone fell on my head. I felt dizzy and took a car to Cairo. My assistant Nashwa Gaber made me an appointment with an eye doctor, who told me that I had a macular hole that needed surgery. I went to the Pasken Palomar clinic where Dr Semedy operated on me. Even so, it took two surgeries and having to look down for two weeks even when sleeping for the treatment to be a success. I later had to take a train to Philadelphia for the opening of the Tutankhamun exhibition when I was in the United States because I could not fly.The second accident took place when there was a shaft at the temple that I wanted to enter, so the excavation team arranged for me to be put inside a basket connected to a machine. I went down for about 15 metres and then asked the team to pull me up. However, the machine broke down, and they could not pull me out. I stayed inside the shaft for hours, looking down at the water below and above me people screaming. Later, they were able to fix the machine, and I was rescued from the shaft.At that time, there was a group of Latin American ambassadors in Cairo visiting the temple. I received a telephone call from Farouk Hosni, the then minister of culture. I told him the story, and he told former president Hosni Mubarak. On my way to Cairo, I received a call from Mubaraks office, informing me that he would call me himself at 7pm. The president then asked me about the story of the shaft, and he inquired about the tomb of the magical queen.While we have to admit that Cleopatra is not buried in the temple, the Cleopatra Group has continued, with Khaled El-Enany, the minister of tourism and antiquities, becoming a member. Dragan then had to leave Egypt, as he had filled his position for more than six years, during which he had practically became Egyptianised and was loved by all Egyptians.We chose Michael-Christos Diamessis, the ambassador of Greece, as the next president. He was wonderful president for the Group, and we call his time in office its golden age. He had a lovely sense of humour, and we all miss him. The vice president at the time was Ruy Amaril, the ambassador of Brazil, somebody we all miss also. But the time came when we had to say goodbye to these two excellent ambassadors who really elevated the Cleopatra Group. We had many dinners and lectures during their time in office as well as trips to archaeological sites with El-Enany.The next president of the Cleopatra Group was a lady, Sibille de Cartier dYves, the Belgian ambassador in Cairo. The vice president was Jose Octavio Tripp, the ambassador of Mexico. DYves did her best to continue the success of the Cleopatra Group. I always say that though we have had many ambassadors in Cairo who have come and gone without leaving any impact, we have also had many others that will never be forgotten because they loved Egypt and the Egyptians loved them.I went to a Ramadan dinner at the house of my friend Amr Badr earlier this year, for example, to which he had invited Stephane Romatet, the French ambassador, as the only foreign person there. Romatet left the dinner early, and when he did so everyone present said that while we had had many French ambassadors in Egypt, Romatet was really the best of all. He had been proud to say that the recent exhibition of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun had been seen by over 1,300,000 people during its recent visit to France as an ambassador of Egypt.The names of the ambassadors of the Cleopatra Group will be engraved in golden hieroglyphic letters because of their love for this country. Every ambassador in the Cleopatra Group deserves to be named, but I want to say to all of them that we are proud to have you in Egypt, and we hope that you will be able to start new chapters of the group in the countries you will serve in next. If I discover the tomb of Nefertiti in the Valley of the Kings during my excavations, we will have to change the name of the group to the Nefertiti Group, putting the ancient and modern Cleopatra behind us.The sad news is that our beloved DYves left Egypt in July for another post, and we will miss her as much as we missed Diamessis and Amaril. While we wanted to have a Cleopatra Group meeting to wish her farewell, the coronavirus restrictions stopped us. We are all using WhatsApp instead to wish her success in her new post.According to the rules, the groups committee has met and chosen Jose Octavio Tripp, the Mexican ambassador, formerly vice president, as its next president. Jan Thesleff will be the new vice president. It is to be hoped that the coronavirus restrictions will soon be lifted, so that we may all gather joyously once more. *A version of this article appears in print in the 6 August, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: A man has drowned while swimming at thermal pools at a popular tourist spot. Northern Territory Police responded to a report that a man, 23, was pulled unconscious out of the Mataranka Thermal Pool just before 8.00pm on Friday. Police performed CPR on the man until he was transported by helicopter to the Royal Darwin Hospital, where he later died. Northern Territory Police responded to a report that a man, 23, was pulled unconscious out of the Mataranka Thermal Pool (pictured) just before 8.00pm on Friday A Northern Investigation Section Team will travel to Mataranka to assist local police with their inquiries in relation to the circumstances surrounding the mans death. Anyone who may have witnessed the incident and could assist with the police's investigation is urged to contact NT Police. Mataranka is located about 420 kilometres south of Darwin. The thermal pool is one of the town's main attractions and draws hundred's of tourists each year. To reach the pool, tourists much follow a wooden path and complete a 500m botanic walk through densely populated trees which takes about 20 minutes. Once completed, they will reach the hot springs which are a series of natural pools, crystal clear blue in colour. Bangladesh's ties with India and China should not be compared as they stand on different perspectives, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said on Saturday, describing Dhaka's relationship with New Delhi as "historic" and "rock-solid" which cannot be hindered by anything. Momen's remarks came after he visited a memorial complex at western Meherpur bordering India to pay tributes to the 1971 Liberation War martyrs. We must not compare the relationships from an identical standpoint," he told newsmen. Our ties with India are historic...rock-solid; it is a blood relation while economic issues mainly shaped our relations with China, Momen said. Our victory is India's victory. Our development is India's development...nothing can hinder this (Bangladesh-India) relation. The minister's comments came in response to questions about Dhaka's ties with New Delhi and Beijing against the backdrop of border tensions between Bangladesh's two giant neighbours. Momen called the current Dhaka-New Delhi relations tremendously good and said the two countries were set to celebrate jointly next year Bangladesh's 50th anniversary of Independence. He said Bangladesh and India resolved major bilateral matters like land and maritime boundaries and security issues amicably while attaining progress on water sharing. "There are, however, some pending issues....we will resolve them (as well)," Momen said. He declined to comment on the ongoing New Delhi-Beijing tensions, saying this is their headache, nothing to do with us. Momen said Bangladesh preferred to focus on its own development maintaining ties with both the countries. They are big trading partners of ours, he said adding Bangladesh wants to reap benefits of trade ties with both India and China. Asked for comments about the fate of the proposed trial of Chinese vaccines in Bangladesh, Momen said many countries in the world were working in collaboration to get access to a COVID-19 vaccine. "India and Pakistan also went for collaboration with others (regarding vaccine trials). We (Bangladesh) are yet to go for collaboration. (But) We should go for it (vaccine collaboration) as well," he said. He said Dhaka already contributed to a European Union fund so that Bangladesh can get a possible COVID-19 vaccine smoothly. Momen visited Meherpur, where the oath of office of the first Bangladeshi government was administered on April 17, 1971, when Nazrul Islam was appointed as the acting president and Tajuddin Ahmed as the prime minister. Bangladesh's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was declared president in the swearing-in ceremony in absentia as he was in Pakistan's captivity after its troops' clampdown on unarmed Bengalis on March 25, 1971. These past few months have just been really, really illuminating and given me a better view of what I want out of life. A really life-changing moment happened when I participated in some protests in Austin, the first weekend a lot of the major protests were happening around the country. That weekend, while trying to assist someone that was injured and in need of medical care, I was shot at by the police. Thankfully it wasnt with real bullets, but it was still less lethal bullets that created significant amounts of damage for some of the people around me. At that point, I think I had made the choice though I shouldnt have had to make the choice that I was willing to give my life if it meant that more people like me would have a better life experience. Thats also when it like really cemented in my mind that the rest of my life will be dedicated to doing things for people like me and forcing my way into these different spaces and really agitating the norm everywhere I go. Welcome to the News Release Wire Selection Control Panel. Instant News Wire DUBLIN, Aug. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "China Medical Robot Industry Report, 2020-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The report highlights the following: Development environment for China medical robot industry (global market, economic environment and policy climate); medical robot industry (global market, economic environment and policy climate); Development of China medical robot industry (status quo, market size, market structure, competitive landscape, market segments and development trends); medical robot industry (status quo, market size, market structure, competitive landscape, market segments and development trends); Global and Chinese companies (operation and medical robot business). Medical robot is the most promising segment of service robot market. By one estimate, globally 7,200 units of medical robots were sold and valued at $2.58 billion in 2019, compared with 5,100 units (up by 50% YoY) in 2018. Medical robot grows fastest in the US. As of March 31, 2020, Intuitive Surgical has installed 5,669 units of Da Vinci surgical system in all worldwide, including 3,581 units in the US, or 63.2% of the total. China's intelligent medical robot industry started later than its foreign peers. In current stage, the whole industry is in a transitional phase from research and development and clinical trials to commercialization and mass production. In 2019, China's medical robot market was worth $620 million. Rehabilitation robot has been the largest segment in China's medical robot market thanks to a combination of positive factors such as broad application and favorable policies, sweeping 42.9% of the market in 2019. Surgical robot makes slow progress in promotion and holds a small share due to high application cost, albeit an upsurge at the early stage. Of the nearly 100 medical robot companies in China, most are still in infancy. The rosy prospect of medical robot fuels investment enthusiasm. From the financing cases in recent years, it can be seen that companies with clear timetable of product launch or certified by the CFDA, are favored by capital. Players such as Remebot, HOZ Medical, Scream Intelligent Technology, Taimi Robotics Technology, Borns Medical Robotics, Ankon Technologies and Tinavi Medical Technologies even raised more than RMB100 million in their funding rounds. In the Chinese medical robot market, the ever deeper university-industry-research cooperation stimulates the industry. Companies of industrial robots and medical devices branch out to the intelligent medical robot field progressively with many years of technical expertise, and has collaborations with domestic research institutes at multiple levels; research institutes otherwise market their research results by incubating companies. Furthermore, COVID-19 pandemic props up demand for medical robots. During the time, hospitals as the battlefront used intelligent medical robots for guide, disinfection and sterilization. In future, population aging and other factors will animate China's medical robot market which will be worth $2.49 billion in 2026. Key Topics Covered 1. Medical Robotics 1.1 Definition 1.1.1 Robotics 1.1.2 Medical Robot 1.2 Industry Chain 2. Operation Environment of Medical Robot in China 2.1 Global Market 2.1.1 Status Quo 2.1.2 Competition Pattern 2.2 Economic Environment 2.3 Policies 3. Medical Robot in China 3.1 Overview 3.2 Market Size 3.3 Market Structure 3.4 Competition Pattern 3.5 Market Segments 3.5.1 Rehabilitation Medical Robot 3.5.2 Surgical Robotics 3.5.3 Orthopedic Surgery Robotics 3.5.4 Pharmacy Robotics 3.6 Development Trends 3.6.1 Industry-University-Research Collaboration Brings Life to Development 3.6.2 The Demand for Medical Robot Soars amid COVID-19 Pandemic 3.6.3 VC Investments Facilitates the Medical Robot Industry 3.6.4 Medical Robot Finds Ever More Clinical Application 3.6.5 Novel Robotics Springs up like Single Port Access Surgery Robot, Nanostructure Target Robot, and Flexible Robot 3.6.6 Regulation on Products Gets Tightened 4. Major Medical Robot Companies Worldwide 4.1 Intuitive Surgical, Inc. 4.1.1 Profile 4.1.2 Operation 4.1.3 Revenue Structure 4.1.4 Gross Margin 4.1.5 R&D Cost 4.1.6 Development in China 4.2 Stryker Corporation 4.3 Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. 4.4 ReWalk Robotics Ltd. 4.5 Rex Bionics PLC 4.6 Mazor Robotics Ltd. 4.7 Johnson & Johnson 4.8 Avatera Medical 4.9 CMR Surgical 4.10 MedRobotics Corp. 4.11 Medtronic 4.12 Meerecompany 4.13 Titan Medical 4.14 TransEnterix 5. Major Medical Robot Enterprises in China 5.1 Shenyang SIASUN Robot & Automation Co. Ltd. 5.1.1 Profile 5.1.2 Operation 5.1.3 Revenue Structure 5.1.4 Gross Margin 5.1.5 Medical Robot Business 5.1.6 Development Prospect & Forecast 5.2 Guangdong Jinming Machinery Co. Ltd. 5.3 Midea Group Co. Ltd. 5.4 Truking Technology Limited 5.5 Chongqing Dima Industry Co. Ltd. 5.6 Jinho Robot (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. 5.7 Shenzhen Mai Kangxin Medical Co. Ltd. 5.8 Henan Huibo Shenfang Intelligent Rehabilitation Equipment Co. Ltd. 5.9 TINAVI Medical Technologies Co. Ltd. 5.10 Harbin Boshi Automation Co. Ltd. 5.11 Remebot 5.12 Smart Robot Technology Group Co. Ltd. 5.13 Jinshan Science & Technology (Group) Co. Ltd 5.14 Taimi Robotics Technology Co. Ltd. 5.15 ANKON Technologies Co. Ltd. 5.16 Shenzhen Weibond Technology Co. Ltd. 5.17 Shenzhen Sanggu Medical Robot Co. Ltd. 5.18 Wuxi Anzhizhuo Medical Robot Co. Ltd. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/1jzbkv Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Continue to help with demand in China's optoelectronic market SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CIOE is also known as the gateway to China's optoelectronic market. It is an annual popular sourcing event among buyers from major optoelectronics technologies application industries including ICT, consumers, advanced manufacturing, semiconductor processing, defense and security, sensing and measurement, display, energy and biophotonics to search for optoelectronic products and projects in China. Under the current global influence of COVID-19 starting from the early 2020, it is difficult for foreign buyers to visit China in September. So CIOE organizing committee has launching the Overseas Buyer Supplementary Program to help with the sourcing needs towards Chinese products. This program is free to join. Spend 2 minutes to fill out sourcing needs and CIOE will recommend some suitable buyers below. CIOE sincerely welcome and urge every overseas buyer who has demands on optoelectronic products to let them know their needs so they could help them with connection between Chinese suppliers. CIOE Overseas Buyer Supplementary Program: https://informamarkets.wjx.cn/jq/87191873.aspx CIOE also prepare some useful links before submitting your needs: 1) CIOE 2020 Visitor Guide. CIOE visitor guides are popular among buyers from data center, smartphones and consumers, advanced manufacturing, intelligent driving, defense and security and medical. 2) CIOE 2020 Exhibitor List. All exhibitors will be categorized as ICT expo, optics expo, lasers expo, sensing expo and photonics innovation. It also supports product and application search. Hot sellers in optoelectronic category such as optical fibers, optical transceivers, optical imaging camera and module, optical processing equipment, laser equipment, infrared imaging and detection devices, 3D imaging and sensing module, machine vision system, LiDAR and AR/VR could be displaying at CIOE 2020. CIOE is known at the world's largest one-stop optoelectronic product sourcing exhibition in the World. It will be held as scheduled from September 9-11, 2020 at its new venue at Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center. Event though sending over the China-based colleague to source at CIOE will be the first choice but CIOE hopes the CIOE Overseas Buyer Supplementary Program could still help visitors in a different way. Do let CIOE know about the needs in optoelectronics. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1225425/CIOE.jpg Major General-level talks are underway in Ladakh to defuse tensions between India and China at the strategic Depsang Plains which is located on the Line of Actual Control. This is the first time that talks are being held specifically for Depsang Plains where Chinese soldiers have been squatting in Indian territory, blocking Indian soldiers from carrying out their traditional patrolling in the region. The talks for Depsang Plains are taking place despite disengagement talks hitting a roadblock for other contentious points along the LAC, with China refusing to move back from its present military position north of the Pangong Tso. China instead asked the Indian Army to move back from Pangong Tso during the disengagement process along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. India and China have held several rounds of diplomatic and military talks aimed at disengagement of troops from friction points in eastern Ladakh. On August 2, the two armies held the fifth round of Corps commander-level talks in an effort to expedite the disengagement process. At the talks, the Indian side insisted on complete disengagement of Chinese troops at the earliest, and immediate restoration of status quo ante in all areas of eastern Ladakh prior to May 5 when the standoff began following a clash between the two armies in Pangong Tso. The Chinese PLA has pulled back from Galwan Valley and certain other friction points but the withdrawal of troops has not moved forward from the Finger areas in Pangong Tso since mid-July. India has been insisting that China must withdraw its forces from areas between Finger Four and Eight. The mountain spurs in the area are referred to as Fingers. The formal process of disengagement of troops began on July 6, a day after a nearly two-hour telephonic conversation between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on ways to bring down tensions in the area. In the first round of the Corp commander-level talks on June 6, both sides finalised an agreement to disengage gradually from all the standoff points beginning with Galwan Valley. However, the situation deteriorated following the Galwan Valley clashes on June 15 in which 20 Indian army personnel were killed. China has not released information on casualties on its side but according to an American intelligence report it was 35. The second round of talks took place on June 22. In the third round of military talks on June 30, both sides agreed on an "expeditious, phased and step wise" de-escalation as a "priority" to end the standoff. After the Galwan Valley incident, the government has given the armed forces "full freedom" to give a "befitting" response to any Chinese misadventure along the LAC. The Army has sent thousands of additional troops to forward locations along the border following the deadly clashes. The IAF has also moved air defence systems as well as a sizable number of its frontline combat jets and attack helicopters to several key air bases. More than 60 people have still been missing almost four days after the explosion at the port of Beirut that claimed at least 100 lives, wounded 4000, and left thousands homeless, a health ministry official confirmed, according to a news agency report. Workers continue a frantic search and rescue operation at the site as the nation declared the two weeks of emergency. The total fatalities count in the blast have surged to 154, of which, 25 remain identified, the official added. At least 120 of the 5,000 people injured are in critical condition, he said. According to reports, the wife of the Dutch ambassador to Lebanon succumbed to the injuries in the blast. Hedwig Waltmans-Molier, 55, and her husband ambassador Jan Waltmans witnessed the blast that impacted their resident in Beirut, the ministry confirmed. As many as three MPs announced their resignation from the parliament angry with the Lebanon governments handling of the massive explosion, that wrecked over 250,000 homes. #Lebanon's ambassador to Jordan, Tracy Chamoun, has resigned, saying she can no longer represent this state. "The least that those in power can do today, after what happened, is to resign." Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) August 6, 2020 Among the casualties reported, were the 43 Syrian nationals. The Syrian embassy in Lebanon offered condolences to the demise of its citizens on Twitter. Anger erupted amongst the citizens as they took to streets, demonstrating against the government, accusing it of knowing the risks that lurked with the Ammonium Nitrates stockpile in the warehouse at the port. People reportedly demanded answers. [People walk by damaged buildings at a neighborhood near the scene of Tuesday's explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. Credit: AP] Read: 'The World Exploded': Beirut Blast Takes A Husband, Father Read: Italian Firefighters Take Samples Near Beirut Port To help those affected by Tuesdays catastrophic explosion in #Beirut, UNHCR is participating in the humanitarian response, especially with shelter and health contributions. https://t.co/VxNu4ORYEY Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) August 7, 2020 Chief of customs department arrested Meanwhile, chief of the customs department was detained in relation to the tragic accident. He is being questioned by an investigative Judge Ghassan Khoury regarding the deadly explosion for over 5 hours on August 7. The judge then ordered that he, along with sixteen other port officials and staffers must remain under custody. Earlier today, NASA's Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team, in collaboration with the Earth Observatory, Singapore in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech released the satellite imagery of the scale of destruction caused by the massive explosion. In the images released, one could see the infrastructure in ruins, some billions of dollars' worth of damage around the port of Beirut. [People remove debris from a house damaged by Tuesday's explosion in the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon. Credit: AP] [Relatives of Lebanese army lieutenant Ayman Noureddine, who was killed by Tuesday's explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut. Credit: AP] [A dog of the French rescue team searches for survivors at the scene of this week's massive explosion in the port of Beirut. Credit: AP] [Riot police advance to push back anti-government protesters in Beirut, Lebanon, on August 7, 2020 Hassan Ammar/ AP] Read: Beirut Blast: Macron Says Aid Will Be Given 'directly To People', Not To 'corrupt Hands' Read: Elderly Woman Plays Piano Amid Destruction Caused By Beirut Blast, Watch Advertisement Dramatic pictures have emerged of two swimmers being rescued by a lifeguard after they found themselves in difficulty far from the shore, caught in a rip and battling large waves. The rescue took place on Saturday morning at Tamarama Beach, as weekend beachgoers flocked to the picturesque coastline in Sydney's eastern suburbs. The pictures show the two swimmers, one in a pink cap, wetsuit, and swimming goggles and the other dressed in a wetsuit, clinging to the lifeguard's board. A council lifeguard (pictured, back) paddles out to rescue two swimmers having difficulty at Tamarama Beach in Sydney on Saturday Despite being repeatedly pummeled by large waves, which caused the brave lifeguard to gasp for breath several times, the trio eventually made it safely to shore Large waves off Tamarama made the rescue difficult but the three (pictured) safely made it to the relief of the crowd Despite being repeatedly pummeled by large waves, which caused Waverley Council lifeguard to gasp for breath several times, the trio eventually made it safely to shore to the relief of other beachgoers. While the weather was not ideal for beach Saturday in Sydney - being overcast with the occasional patch of sunshine - that did not stop locals keen to get out for some fresh air and enjoy the surf. The city is set for more of the same on Sunday with cloudy weather forecast and the showers likely. The temperature is set to be a minimum of 10C with morning fog, warming up to 17C in the afternoon. Further south, wild winds whipped up the waves along southern NSW prompting a warning from Surf Lifesaving CEO Steven Pearce. 'Surf conditions from Eden up to Illawarra may become extreme. We are urging members of the public not to engage in coastal activities that might put them at risk,' Mr Pearce tweeted on Saturday afternoon. While the weather was not ideal for beach Saturday in Sydney - being overcast with the occasional patch of sunshine - but that did not stop locals keen to get out for some fresh air and enjoy the surf Friends of one of the rescued swimmers (pictured) rushed out to help the weary woman up the sand In March this year beaches across the Sydney area were temporarily closed to reduce crowds and combat the spread of COVID-19, with police patrolling the sand in large numbers. Earlier that month pictures had emerged of hundreds of beachgoers crowding popular locations such as Bondi despite repeated warnings from health authorities to adhere to social distancing. Beaches were reopened shortly after but crowds are limited based on public gathering caps and sunseekers are required to maintain the 1.5 metres distance. Professional lifeguards, who wear light blue unforms and work 365 days each year, are employed by Waverley Council to patrol Bondi, Bronte and Tamarama beaches and protect visitors. Tamarama Beach is also one of 129 surf clubs that belong to Surf Life Saving New South Wales located along the entire stretch of the NSW coastline. According to Surf Lifesaving Australia Lifesavers and Lifeguards are estimated to perform 30 rescues each day in Australia on average in the beach season. While the professional lifeguards are employed by local government, they are sometimes assisted such as on weekends and holidays by volunteer lifesavers who wear red and yellow uniforms and are members of Surf Lifesaving NSW. This organisation helps run surf clubs and through corporate partners and fundraising provides training for volunteer lifesavers and nippers. Large waves off Tamarama Beach on Saturday (pictured) provided excellent conditions for surfers with many paddling out to catch a wave to kick off the weekend One of the largest events since the beginning of the pandemic has begun in South Dakota: More than 250,000 people are expected at the iconic Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. That's scaled down from previous years, where about half-a-million people have descended on the city of about 7,000 for an event that has developed a reputation as an anything-goes festival. While the 80-year tradition isn't as raucous as it once was, festivalgoers will be largely free of social distancing restrictions common elsewhere in the country during this year's 10-day festival. Bikers flocking to the small town from around the country won't face quarantining requirements if they are from a coronavirus hot spot. And masks? They're encouraged not required. So far, few people are heeding that encouragement, according to an Associated Press reporter at the event. Many who rode their bikes into Sturgis on Friday expressed defiance at the rules and restrictions that have marked life in much of the world during the pandemic. Screw COVID, read the design on one T-shirt being hawked. I went to Sturgis. Local officials have made efforts to scale down the event, but some expect restriction-weary bikers to flock to Sturgis in large numbers. Its the biggest single event thats going on in the United States that didnt get canceled, said Rod Woodruff, who operates the largest campground and concert venue that lies outside the bounds of the city. A lot of people think its going to be bigger than ever. In addition to normal concerns about crime, many locals are worried the huge crowds and lack of social distancing rules will lead to an unmanageable outbreak of COVID-19. What is Sturgis? The rally may be known for rowdy, drunken and naked shenanigans, but in recent years longtime attendees complain it has lost its edge. First-time visitors might be excused for thinking the rally isnt much more than an excuse to create one of the worlds largest open-air shopping malls. There's usually corporate sponsorships, licensed T-shirt vendors, insurance companies and lawyers. Story continues Most attendees in recent years are professionals with too much to lose if they get arrested. The top three professions at Sturgis are doctors, lawyers and accountants, city officials have said in previous years. That's translated to big money for the local economy. Last year, the rally brought in about $1.3 million in tax revenue for South Dakota, according to the state Department of Revenue. Is the event risky during a pandemic? While outdoor events are widely believed to be lower risk than indoor ones, the unprecedented size of the gathering is prompting serious concerns. "You're just adding fuel to a fire," epidemiologist Dr. John Brownstein, told ABC News. "South Dakota is already experiencing increases in transmission. COVID is not under control in South Dakota; it's just not." Among Brownstein's worries: That attendees could become infected at the event and spread it across the nation as they return home and that the rural health care system doesn't have the ability to handle a possible local surge in cases. Many locals seem to share in the concern. When asked earlier this year whether the iconic motorcycle rally should be held, their answer was an overwhelming "no." More than half of the community expressed their feelings in a survey. A sizable majority of 62% asked city officials to postpone the rally. Several steps have been taken to reduce risk, local media reports: The Community Center will not be hosting vendors inside as in the past, according to NewsCenter 1. And Sturgis High School will not offer shower services nor host the annual pancake breakfast as in the past. Mayor Mark Carstensen on Thursday told CNN the city is setting up sanitation stations and giving out masks, although they aren't mandated. Why are local leaders allowing the event to go on? Businesses pressured the City Council to proceed and Sturgis officials say the rally would happen whether they wanted it or not. So they opted to try to scale it back, canceling city-hosted events and slashing advertising for the rally. Daniel Ainslie, Sturgis city manager, said the city received a letter sent by attorneys for an outside business containing threats of litigation unless the rally moved forward. It suggested the city did not have the right to cancel the rally because previous court rulings found that the rally is not produced by a single organizer. For his part, Woodruff said he felt he had little choice but to proceed with the rally. He employs hundreds of people in August and a smaller full-time staff. We spend money for 355 days of the year without any return on it, hoping people show up for nine days, he said. Were a nine-day business. What are the rules in South Dakota about masks, social distancing? Gov. Kristi Noem has taken a relaxed approach to the pandemic. Even as Republican governors in states like Texas have moved to require people to wear masks, Noem didnt require physical distancing or masks at the July 3 celebration at Mount Rushmore, which President Donald Trump attended. She supported holding the Sturgis rally, tweeting Thursday: "I trusted my people, they trusted me, and South Dakota is in a good spot in our fight against COVID-19. The #Sturgis motorcycle rally starts this weekend, and we're excited for visitors to see what our great state has to offer!" Prince Harry has accused social media giants of stoking a crisis of hate and called on advertisers to use their spending power to transform the industry. Writing for US-based business magazine Fast Company, he outlined his and his wife Meghan Markles efforts to help the Stop Hate for Profit campaign. He revealed they had personally been calling on heads of major corporations, asking them to suspend their advertising revenue from social media sites that fail to tackle hate speech. Harry said their message to them was to reconsider supporting platforms that have contributed to, stoked and created the conditions for a crisis of hate, a crisis of health and a crisis of truth. The Stop Hate for Profit campaign, which was spearheaded by a number of NGOs, saw companies withhold a total of $7bn in advertising revenue from internet sites over the month of July. Harry said that social media had turned its users into its product. Every time you click, they learn more about you. Our information, private data and unknown habits are traded on for advertising space and dollars, he wrote. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Dominic Lipinski/PA) He called on tech companies to remodel the architecture of our online community to ensure it is defined by compassion, truth and inclusiveness rather than hate and fearmongering. The duke compared the damaging influence of social media on children with the discovery in the 1970s that lead accumulation impaired their mental development. We knew (lead) was harmful to the health of our children, so we made the necessary changes to keep them safe, healthy and well, he said. He added: When we do the right thing, when we create safe spaces both online and off, everyone wins. Even the platforms themselves. He finished with the words: The world will feel it, and we will all benefit from it. Harry and Meghan have been outspoken on the subject of online bullying and harassment by the media. Meghan is currently embroiled in a bruising High Court battle with the publishers of the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline over an article which reproduced parts of a private and confidential handwritten letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018. Announcing the action in October last year, Harry said in a statement: My wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences. He said: Put simply, it is bullying, which scares and silences people. We all know this isnt acceptable, at any level. We wont and cant believe in a world where there is no accountability for this. The chairman of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce says Tehran has virtually no banking transactions with Russia and China. If someone with an Islamic Republic passport applies for banking services in these countries, he will be rejected. Speaking to the state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA) on August 1, Majid Reza Hariri reiterated, "No bank is willing to cooperate with us, because we are suspected of money laundering. Therefore, along with U.S. sanctions, this has doubled the pressure on us." Hariri admitted that in addition to U.S. banking sanctions imposed on Iran, the Islamic Republic is also struggling with restrictions set by the international watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Since the Islamic Republic has not fully adopted FATF recommendations, Hariri argued, the international body combating money laundering has in recent weeks "repeatedly" issued a circular to the world's banking system, warning about the risk of dealing with Tehran, and reminding that Iran's financial transactions should be severely controlled. FATF announced on February 21, 2020, that it had put Iran back on its blacklist. The decision came after more than three years of warnings from the Paris-based FATF urging Tehran to enact terrorist financing conventions. Foreign businesses have repeatedly stressed that Iran's compliance with FATF rules is vital if Tehran wants to attract investors, especially since the United States reimposed sanctions in 2018 after withdrawing from Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal world powers. Nevertheless, forces close to the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have prevented Tehran from joining the FATF. Iran and North Korea are the only countries still on the FATF blacklist. To meet FATF's demands, President Hassan Rouhani presented four bills, (collectively known as the "Palermo Bills" in Iran) to the parliament in November 2017. Nonetheless, Rouhani has so far failed to pass the bills into law. Supporters of accepting FATF's conditions, including Rouhani's government, say joining the FATF and other international agreements on financial transparency and combating money laundering and terrorism-financing would reduce international pressure on Iran's already deteriorating economy. Commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Friday Prayer Leaders across Iran, and other figures appointed by Khamenei have repeatedly opposed the passage of UN-sponsored conventions. Local lockdowns, new travel restrictions and outbreaks across the country; in France, almost 2,000 new cases in 24 hours; in northern Spain, coronavirus hospitalisations double in ten days. So whats next here are we in the clear, or heading for disaster? We asked the experts for answers... Cases of Covid-19 are rising across Britain but death rates continue to fall. Whats going on? Cases are on the rise on Thursday, 950 new cases were reported, compared to 846 on the same day the week before. Its the highest number since June 26 but its important to put this into perspective. At the peak of the pandemic in April, the UK recorded 6,200 new cases daily, and the rises in the number of cases were far steeper. Experts say the amount of virus in circulation is now very low, making the risk of transmission highly unlikely for the average person. The daily reported figures published by the Government are based on positive tests in hospitals and the wider community. The Duchess of Cambridge, pictured, has been setting an example to people by wearing a face covering while out in public Positive cases in hospitals are still declining its the community cases that are increasing. There have been outbreaks in places such as Leicester, Manchester, Aberdeen and Preston. Officials have been keeping a close eye on these spikes and ramping up test, track and trace in Leicester they even tested non-symptomatic people. So its no surprise, according to Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, that this picks up extra cases particularly mild ones that may otherwise have gone undetected. He says: Reported cases are definitely going up day-on-day, but what proportion of that is a real increase and what proportion is a result of increased testing is difficult to say. For most parts of the country I think we are seeing a day-on-day decline, but not as rapidly as we were seeing. So why arent people dying, if the infection is rife? Is the virus getting weaker? There's no good evidence that the virus is weakening. But data shows deaths from Covid-19 are still falling 16 deaths were reported on Saturday, down from 1,200 daily deaths at the peak of the pandemic. Deaths in care homes are also dropping and the number admitted to hospitals in England has been below 100 every day since July 22 down from more than 3,000 at the end of March. This may be because we are seeing more of an increase in cases in younger individuals who are much less likely to be hospitalised or die, says epidemiologist Prof John Edmunds, at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Wearing masks is believed to help counter the spread of Covid-19 - but only if they cover the mouth and nose and are not worn under the chin Its only when infections in younger people start getting passed on to older people that you start seeing more fatalities. Experts think this could take a while, or not happen at all, as older Britons are having far less close contact with family and friends. However, some fear that the mis-match in trends cases rising, as hospital admissions fall may be the result of the time lag between infection, hospitalisation and death. Hospital admissions lag behind cases by another week or more, Prof Edmunds explains. Deaths lag by two or three weeks at least, or even longer. For now, experts say theres no need to panic. But if the rise in cases begins to affect the number of hospitalisations, and deaths, we may be in trouble. Is the hot weather protecting us? Will winter bring on another bout of infections? Not necessarily. Officials are concerned that infection rates may climb in winter, at a time when other viruses peak, potentially overwhelming the NHS. Its been suggested this is because the hot weather has been suppressing the ferocity of the virus. Studies have shown that warmer climates have lower rates than colder ones, and research into flu shows the heat can kill viral cells. But the most recent Oxford University analysis concludes that there isnt enough evidence to prove that the weather itself worsens the spread. It is impossible to unpick the multiple reasons why the difference between hot and cold countries might have occurred, says public health expert Professor Sally Bloomfield from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Limited lockdowns in areas such as Leicester have been used to prevent a second wave Its more likely that the fact we stay indoors in winter will have an impact, than any biological effect on the virus itself. While coronaviruses theoretically survive less well in the heat, we dont yet know that this has limited the spread of Covid-19. And Covid-19 is surviving and spreading well in extremely hot climates across the US, Brazil, India and Africa. Is Spain in the middle of a second wave of infection? If so, surely it will hit us soon? Despite the popularity of the phrase second wave, experts believe this isnt likely to happen. It is far more accurate, they say, to refer to the small bouts of increased cases in the UK and elsewhere as continued ripples of the first wave. In other European countries, there are more ripples than in the UK and theyre spreading more rapidly. Travel restrictions and quarantines have been introduced to stop the virus from being reintroduced from abroad Last week, both France and Space reported new daily cases of almost 2,000 the highest in two months. But what sets Spain apart from the UK is the number of hospital deaths. Over the past few days, the number of fatalities has risen from ten to above 20. Prof Hunter says its too early to say why its happened or what this means but it could be due to the fact that the number of infections was allowed to rise to such a high level. Because the UK outbreaks have so far been well traced, local authorities have quickly squashed them, stemming the spread. Health officials have suggested closing all pubs are they really that dangerous? It depends on the type of pub, and what you do in it. The Chief Medical Officer suggested closing all pubs in exchange for opening schools last week, suggesting they posed a particular risk. This is because clusters of cases have been linked to pubs and bars in Aberdeen and Staffordshire, for example. But theres nothing particularly risky about pubs in themselves. Dr Jeremy Rossman, honorary senior lecturer in virology at the University of Kent, said there was a risk of transmission of the virus in any indoor setting where people are in close proximity and not wearing masks. Testing people and tracking down their recent contacts if they are positive is an effective way of preventing community transmission If the pub has outdoor seating, the risk is much more minimal, he says. And if the pub is in a community in which few people have the virus, and its not spreading quickly, then its very low risk. Providing visitors dont have too many drinks and forget the social distancing rules, then the risk to the individual is very low, according to Prof Hunter. Most countries have had a similar pattern of infection. Cases peaked, fell, then picked up again even in places that didnt enforce a lockdown. Did we lock down for no reason? Much attention has been drawn to Sweden, for its controversial decision not to enforce a lockdown. At its peak, the country recorded only around 100 daily deaths, and as of July, this number had fallen into single figures, suggesting the virus is under control. But UK scientists say this approach may not have proved so successful in the UK. Firstly, half of Swedish households are single-person, compared to just 15 per cent of the UK. If you go to work and catch Covid-19, and you live with a partner, youve got someone to infect, says Prof Neal. In 50 per cent of Swedish households that wasnt a possibility and household transmission is the key risk, we now know. Sweden, per head of population, is a much wealthier country than the UK, and deprivation has been a leading driver for serious Covid illness here. Still, Sweden has not escaped unscathed. It has so far recorded more than 5,700 Covid-19 deaths one of the highest rates in Europe, taking into account the size of the population. Some businesses are checking temperatures before people are allowed onto their premises Its neighbours Norway and Finland, which did introduce lockdowns, have had more than 250 and 300 deaths respectively. Prof Hunter says its also a myth that Sweden did not lockdown at all. Mass gatherings were banned, people were encouraged to work from home and older secondary students and university students were taught remotely. Much of the school system did remain open but mounting evidence suggests school closures had at best a minimal impact on reducing infection rates, including in Britain, as children are less likely to catch or spread the virus. Some countries have committed to becoming zero-Covid. How do we make that happen? Eliminating the virus completely would involve restricting all our freedoms for many more months, potentially destroying the economy and limiting access to vital health resources, according to Prof Hunter. Realistically, its a goal that will never be achieved, he says. The risks of what wed have to do to get there would massively outweigh the benefits. But living with the virus may not be as terrifying a prospect as you think. Other coronaviruses that behave similarly to Covid-19 have existed for centuries, says Prof Hunter. They all settle down after about a year. Healthy people become infected, develop immunity, and wont become seriously ill if they get it when theyre older. As immunity increases, the rate of transmission decreases. This happened with flu. I expect a similar process. Some people are refusing to wear a mask in shops. Am I right to be terrified about this? The effectiveness of masks and cloth face coverings has been debated since early on in the pandemic. At present theres scant evidence to prove they protect the wearer from virus-containing droplet particles seeping in hence why official guidance from Public Health England advises people dont to confuse the masks theyre being asked to wear in everyday life with personal protection equipment, or PPE. However, some research does show that wearing one could stop the wearer transmitting it to others particularly if they dont know they have it. And thats why were asked to wear them in situations where distancing isnt possible. In May, a review of the available evidence by Professor Trish Greenhalgh, Professor of Primary Care Health Services at Oxford University, offered a convincing conclusion: wearing face masks could prevent up to 60 per cent of total transmissions. Using data from experiments performed in a laboratory and studies involving other coronaviruses Prof Greenhalgh suggested that if 60 per cent of the population wore a mask, it would keep infections down and avoid a further lockdown. So, no, a few people forgetting or refusing to wear them probably wont have a huge impact, as long as most of us do. And we do: three quarters of Britons have worn a mask in the past three weeks, according to a poll, and a study found that 81 per cent of Britons agree that face masks stop the spread of Covid-19. Face coverings trap cells of the virus expelled when someone coughs, splutters or breathes out, stopping them from reaching others. Some evidence suggests masks dont really block virus particles which may hang, suspended in the air rather than falling to the floor or landing on surfaces like droplets. There is also some evidence that touching the face coverings increases infection risk, although again studies are small and were carried out in medical settings where more viral particles are around. But Prof Greenhalgh warned against overthinking mask use something is better than nothing. Think of it like a hankie, but one thats attached to your face, she said. Your mother probably taught you how to use one of those at some point during childhood. Its not any more complicated than that. Prof Paul Hunter says: The problem is the evidence [on masks] from the studies is mixed. Even so, theres certainly enough data to suggest, if worn correctly, and if enough of us wear them, they can help keep levels of transmission down. A mask should cover the mouth and nose, and two layers of fabric is ideal, although the World Health Organisation says three. They should be comfortable, so you dont remove them, and sit snugly against the sides of your face. Cloth coverings can be washed with normal laundry, or just rinsed by hand with soapy water. And if you need to pull it down to scratch your nose, is there any point in putting it back on? Yes. Wearing it for 20 minutes on the train, for instance, will offer twice the protection to others than wearing it for just ten minutes. At the start of the pandemic, we were told it was older people and those with pre-existing medical problems that were most at risk of getting seriously ill or dying from the virus. Has anything changed? Yes, and no. At the beginning, experts relied on a study of 44,000 Chinese patients to determine which groups were most vulnerable. Primarily, those with any underlying illness and elderly were the patients who were most severely ill, or died. What happened to that frightening illness in children? There was a frightening Covid syndrome illness in children is it still around? In May, a surge in cases of the mysterious Kawasaki-like illness was detected in children, triggered by Covid-19. Symptoms included fever, stomach pain and diarrhoea, and it caused heart problems. Fewer than 200 cases have been reported in England, and most have already recovered. The latest research from Imperial College London indicates that the condition is exceptionally rare, and numbers are not rising. Fewer than 200 children developed Kawasaki-like disease and most have recovered Although serious, in the vast majority of cases, symptoms are mild, but paediatrician Dr Elizabeth Whittaker advise parents: Follow your usual instincts and seek medical help if you think its needed. According to Government statistics, just 0.01 per cent of deaths from Covid-19 have been in people under 15, and one per cent in those aged 15 to 44. Under 18s make up only around two per cent of total cases worldwide. Its thought that either the way childrens body chemistry differs from adults or their stronger immune systems are the reason. Advertisement Now that we have a raft of extra research involving millions of patients across the world our understanding has changed. For instance, patients with some types of cancer, and those receiving drug treatment that suppresses the immune system have been shown to be at no increased risk of dying. High blood pressure, on its own, also is no longer thought to make a person more at risk from Covid-19. Pregnant women were also given mixed messages, with early research showing they were at no increased risk of infection, or serious illness. But recent studies suggest mothers-to-be who catch the illness are more likely to miscarry. Dr David Strain, a senior lecturer in diabetes and vascular health at the University of Exeter said: The virus can trigger small blood clots and this has been linked to miscarriage. Being obese triples the risk of dying from Covid-19 something that wasnt known at the start. Initially, it wasnt clear whether weight alone was the reason, or just that overweight people often also suffered other conditions like heart disease, but now a clearer picture has emerged. Experts think excess fat surrounding the lungs can further strain the respiratory system, worsening breathlessness and restricting the supply of oxygen. Chronic illness, however, remains one of the biggest predictors of hospitalisation, and death. Office For National Statistics data shows that 90 per cent of Covid-19 deaths have been in those with long-term health conditions including type 2 diabetes, HIV, and heart, kidney and respiratory disease. And the most predominant risk factor remains unchanged: age. According to Sir David Spiegelhalter, professor at the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge University, the risk associated with being over the age of 50 is the biggest over and above other known risk factors, including underlying illness. Your risk of dying from coronavirus once youve caught it increases 12 to 13 per cent for every year youre alive, says Prof Spiegelhalter. An 80-year-old is at 1,000 times the risk of dying from Covid-19, compared to a 20-year-old. By now, its clear people over the age of 50 are at most risk of complications. Men, as was first observed back in February, are also twice as likely to get ill. Experts believe this is due to sex differences in immunity. What about black and Asian people? Black men have triple the risk of dying from Covid-19, compared to white men the same age. And people of South Asian heritage are roughly twice as likely to die, compared to their white counterparts, according to the most recent figures. In June, a Public Health England report revealed that a staggering 90 per cent of doctors who have died from the virus came from black, Asian and other minority backgrounds. It was suggested that genetic factors may be to blame, but the recent Public Health England report into the racial disparities between Covid-19 victims found that social and environmental factors are the more likely explanation. Adrian Martineau, professor of respiratory infection at Queen Mary University London, who is leading a major piece of research into risk factors, said: Exposure to the virus is the biggest risk factor across the board, according to our data of 10,000 participants. Black and Asian groups are overrepresented in jobs that automatically put them at higher risk such as in the public sector working as health workers, carers, bus drivers or cleaners. These groups are also more likely to live in densely populated towns and cities, and in homes with multiple generations, increasing potential exposure to the virus. Summary Airway Stents (General Surgery) - Global Market Analysis and Forecast Model (COVID-19 market impact) is built to visualize quantitative market trends within General Surgery therapeutic area. New York, Aug. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Airway Stents (General Surgery) - Global Market Analysis and Forecast Model (COVID-19 market impact)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05948814/?utm_source=GNW The model discusses in detail the impact of COVID-19 on Airway stents market for the year 2020 and beyond. The airway stents market is driven by a wide variety of factors, including growth of aging populations, increasing incidence of lung cancer, respiratory disorders such as benign tracheoesophageal fistula and airway stenosis, infections, and tuberculosis. Airway stents are largely used in patients with chronic conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).COPD blocks airflow and causes breathing-related problems such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. The global population with COPD continues to rise due to smoking and poor air quality.Airway stents are mainly used to relieve airway obstruction. A wide variety of airway stents exist in the medical device market. Each of the covered 39 countrys color-coded and fully-sourced market models are equipped with epidemiology based indications with procedure volumes.To increase the data transparency, the interactive excel deliverable covers installed base, new sales volumes, product usage, average selling prices, market size and company share/rank analysis (wherever available). Moreover, analyst comments with qualitative insight offer context for quantitative data. Key Inclusions of the market model are - Currently marketed Airway stents and evolving competitive landscape - - Insightful review of the key industry trends. - Annualized total Airway stents market revenue by segment and market outlooks from 2015-2030. - Granular data on total procedures, units, average selling prices and market values by segment. Global, Regional and Country level market specific insights - - Qualitative market specific information is available with global trends further broken down into regional trends. In addition analysts provide unique country specific insights on the market. - SWOT analysis for Airway stents market. - Competitive dynamics insights and trends provided for Airway stents market. Drive the understanding of the market by getting the veritable big picture including an overview of the healthcare system. In addition the Market Access segment allows you to delve deeper into market dynamics with information on reimbursement policies and the regulatory landscape. - Country specific overview of the healthcare system. - Country specific reimbursement policies. - Country specific medtech regulatory landscape. Robust methodologies and sources enable the model to provide extensive and accurate overview of the market.Demand and supply-side primary sources are integrated within the syndicated models, including Key Opinion Leaders. In addition, real world data sources are leveraged to determine market trends; these include government procedure databases, hospital purchasing databases, and proprietary online databases. Companies covered: Bess Group, Boston Scientific Corp, Cook Group Inc, E. Benson Hood Laboratories, Inc., Getinge AB, Merit Medical Systems Inc, Micro-Tech Nanjing Co Ltd, Other , Countries covered: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, China, India, Russia, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Israel, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Taiwan, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Argentina and Chile. Scope This Market Model gives important, expert insight you wont find in any other source. The model illustrates qualitative and quantitative trends within the specified market. This model is required reading for - - CMO executives who must have deep understanding of the Airway stents marketplace to make strategic planning and investment decisions. - Sourcing and procurement executives who must understand crucial components of the supply base in order to make decisions about supplier selection and management. - Private equity investors that need a deeper understanding of the market to identify and value potential investment targets. Reasons to Buy The model will enable you to - - Understand the impact of COVID-19 on Airway stents market. - Develop and design your in-licensing and out-licensing strategies through a review of pipeline products and technologies, and by identifying the companies with the most robust pipeline. - Develop business strategies by understanding the trends shaping and driving Airway stents market. - Drive revenues by understanding the key trends, innovative products and technologies, market segments, and companies likely to impact the Airway stents market in the future. - Formulate effective sales and marketing strategies by understanding the competitive landscape and by analyzing the company share of market leaders. - Identify emerging players with potentially strong product portfolios and create effective counter-strategies to gain a competitive advantage. - Track device sales in the global and country-specific Airway stents market from 2015-2030. - Organize your sales and marketing efforts by identifying the market categories and segments that present maximum opportunities for consolidations, investments and strategic partnerships. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05948814/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Twenty state attorneys general, including Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, have called on Facebook to better prevent messages of hate, bias and disinformation from spreading, and said the company needed to provide more help to users facing online abuse. In a letter to the social media giant, the officials said they regularly encountered people facing online intimidation and harassment on Facebook. They outlined seven steps the company should take, including allowing third-party audits of hate content and offering real-time assistance to users. We hope to work with you to ensure that fewer individuals suffer online harassment and discrimination, and that it is quickly and effectively addressed when they do, said the letter, which was addressed to Facebooks chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, and its chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg. The officials who signed the letter, all of them Democrats, represent states including New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California, as well as the District of Columbia. The letter adds to the rising pressure facing Zuckerberg and his company to stop disinformation and harassment on Facebook. Civil rights leaders, advertisers and some of the companys own employees have criticized Facebook for failing to curtail the spread of noxious content. Extremists and conspiracists have turned to social media most often Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to circulate falsehoods about the coronavirus pandemic, the coming presidential election and Black Lives Matter protests. Facebook and other social media companies have made some changes to dismantle misinformation and hate on their services. Last month, Twitter announced that it would remove thousands of accounts associated with the fringe conspiracy movement QAnon, saying their messages could lead to harm and violated Twitter policy. In June, Facebook took down a network of accounts tied to the boogaloo anti-government movement in the United States that encourages violence. That same month, YouTube banned six channels for violating its policies, including those of two prominent white supremacists, David Duke and Richard Spencer. But according to the attorneys general, Facebook in particular has not done enough. The officials pointed to Facebooks recent Civil Rights Audit which found that advertisers could still run ads that painted a religious group as a threat to the American way of life as evidence that the social network had fallen short. Facebook has a hate speech, discrimination, disinformation problem, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, of New Jersey, who led the letter, said in an interview. The way I view it, as an attorney general, is that it directly affects public safety in my state, that the groups that are allowed to find community online, on Facebook, allow hate to be normalized. Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Cloudy. 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. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 13F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Not even the governor could get clear answers from JCP&L about power outages for his own home. The general answer was you will be back in service by Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday at his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. The power at Murphys Middletown home was restored around 9:30 p.m. Thursday night. But if the governor cant get an answer, what about the rest of us? Murphy said that while many of the 1.4 million people who lost power from Tropical Storm Isaias are back online, some 310,000 customers are still in the dark and two-thirds of those customers belong to JCP&L. He said communication is part of the problem and that residents need to know a realistic clear sense of what it looks like. Storm after storm, for well over a decade, JCP&L has come under fire for a lack of communication with customers about power restoration. Its no different for this storm. Mayors are fuming. Officials in Hunterdon County are seething. And the utility admits it could do better. Were always looking for ways to improve, JCP&L spokesman Cliff Cole said. Right now the information is there for people (on the JCP&L website), but we could possibly look into drilling it down and making it more consistent with specific towns and counties. Thats one thing we could look at doing. Complaints about the states utility companies and specifically, JCP&L are nothing new. During Hurricane Sandy, 2.7 million utility customers lost power at the peak of the storm and it took more than two weeks to fully restore power. That followed Hurricane Irene, during which almost 930,000 homes and businesses lost power, some for more than a week in August 2011. In 2014, PSE&G, the states largest utility, got approval from the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) for a $1.2 billion infrastructure upgrade while JCP&L said it would invest more than $250 million to prevent outages. Still, in March 2018, after back-to-back noreasters, hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses went without power for as long as 11 days, Murphy called for a state investigation. The state Board of Public Utilities report, released in May 2018, said JCP&L needed to improve its communications with customers and its storm response. Customers had complained in public hearings that out-of-state customer service representatives didnt understand how devastating the storms were and they couldnt track where crews had been deployed. Cole, the JCP&L spokesman, said all of the companys customer call centers are now located in New Jersey. But complaints about communication persist. NO COMMUNICATION, NO ANSWERS Its the height of frustration for people with refrigerators full of spoiled food, no air conditioning and limited internet while more people than ever are trying to work from home. For some, the stakes are higher. Karin Abromaitis of Quakertown said Friday she has been without power since Tuesday. She said she has an adult daughter with ALS who is dependent on several electrically-powered technology and machines. Weve cobbled together an interesting way to deal. Kind of a cross between Swiss Family Robinson and Little House on the Prairie, Abromaitis said. Katlyn Myrick of Belmar said shes also been without power since Tuesday. As a diabetic, she has medication that needs to be refrigerated. She said she started with ice in the sink, but that didnt last for long. I have been sleeping from house to house and in hotels moving my medicine around, Myrick said. I have family who live out in Mercer County who are letting me stay at their home tonight but I am fed up. I am absolutely exhausted and stressed. Christian Colabelli, who said he lost several hundred dollars worth of food when the power went out, said the outages make it difficult to work from home. I actually went to my uncles in Freehold to work as he still had power on Tuesday, Colabelli said. However, he received a message shortly after I left at 7:30 p.m. saying that he would lose power again from JCP&L. There was no explanation. He still has yet to receive power. Sandy should have been a blatant reminder to figure out a path to an efficient power restoration, he added. Kimberly Sautner of Keansburg is no stranger to storms wreaking havoc and knocking out power to her home. Tuesdays storm once again knocked out power to her home and her husband immediately reported the issue to JCP&L, she said. But talk after talk has left Sautner at a loss. Kim Sautner in front of her house in Keansburg. She's been without power, and without any idea how long it will take to be restored, since Tuesday's storm. She's been depending on a generator. She spoke to several supervisors to try to learn when power might return, but no one had answers. She basically said I dont know anything, Sautner said of the supervisor she spoke to Friday. Shes supposed to be the supervisor of the supervisor. The family has been relying on a portable generator at a cost of $50 to $60 in gas every day, Sautner said. WHY DOES IT KEEP HAPPENING? The power-restoration game is a hard one in New Jersey because of overhead power lines and more than 912 million trees. Critics have said that JCP&L is at a disadvantage because its based Ohio, but the company says thats not an issue. JCP&Ls president, Jim Fakult, said in a press conference Friday afternoon the company had more than 8,000 utility personnel from JCP&L, other First Energy companies, and partner utilities working around the clock to restore power to about 221,000 JCP&L customers. He said service has been restored to approximately 566,000 JCP&L customers more than 72% of the 788,000 customers affected by the storm. Company spokesman Cole said JCP&L improved communications post-Sandy, both with customers and elected officials. He said customers can get information about outages on its website, on social media and through text messages customers can sign up for. It may not be the information they want because restoration can take a couple of days, he said. About the blanket message that customers will get their power back by Tuesday night at the latest, Cole said as the restoration continues, JCP&L is able to give customers more specific information. We said (Thursday) that 85% of the 1.1 million customers would be restored by 11:30 Friday night, Cole said. The remaining 15% will be no later than Tuesday at 11:30 p.m. He also said when customers see crews outside waiting in trucks but seemingly not working, they need to know that clearing trees or putting wires back up is not the end of the process. The people who are sitting and waiting for their orders are waiting to safely re-energize. If we sent them somewhere else, they would have to come back again, Cole said. BPU spokesman Peter Petetzman said some of the outages, especially in areas serviced by JCP&L, are extremely difficult to address given the location of these customers. Much of JCP&Ls territory is heavily wooded and in rural areas. In particular many downed trees falling on power lines and knocking down poles presents a significant obstacle to restoring power. The BPU said it wont have a count of complaints about the states utilities responses to the outage until early next week. Critics say there isnt much incentive for a utility to be better prepared to face a storms aftermath. In 2012, then-Gov. Chris Christie proposed harsher penalties if utilities fail their customers in storms like Irene. He wanted to raise the fine for failing to adequately respond to outages from $100 a day to $25,000 a day. That never happened. When asked if providers should be assessed daily fines when service is not restored, Murphy said he wasnt sure, and noted theres a flash flood warning through Friday night which could inhibit some repairs. We continue to push our utilities hard, Murphy said, and he agreed that JCP&L sticks out when it comes to powerless customers. Come on, folks. We have to get people back up and get their power on, the governor said. The BPU said it put in new protocols after Sandy and the 2018 winter storms. For example, JCP&L was required to improve its damage assessment post-storm, the efficiency of its storm management, vegetation management and customer service and communication, among other recommendations, Peretzman said. The Board is also continually reviewing the storm response of all utilities to determine where the protocols need to be improved. Earlier this week, state Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union, called for a special legislative session to address the issue. There has been much discussion about investment in our power grid infrastructure, said Bramnick, a possible Republican candidate for governor next year. It is time to move forward. Murphy said Friday there would be a post-mortem on the power companies performance. NJ Advance Media staff writers Brent Johnson and Ted Sherman contributed to this report. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com. By PTI MUMBAI: Captain Deepak Sathe, pilot of the Air India Express flight who died along with 17 others after the plane crashed at Kerala's Kozhikode airport, had survived an air crash in the early 1990s when he was in the Air Force and was hospitalised for six months, his cousin said. Sathe had suffered multiple injuries on his skull in that incident, but due to his strong will power and passion he cleared the test and started flying again, he said. The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 on board overshot the tabletop runway in Kozhikode airport in Kerala on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions. Captain Sathe, who was the pilot-in-command and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were among those who died in the incident. Sathe was a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and had served at the force's flight testing establishment. ALSO READ | Kerala plane crash: Aviation Minister announces Rs 10 lakh interim relief for kin of victims His cousin, Nilesh Sathe, who is Advisor Finance at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said in a Facebook post, "It's hard to believe that Deepak Sathe, my friend more than my cousin, is no more. He was pilot of Air India Express carrying passengers from Dubai in 'Vande Bharat Mission', which skidded off the runway at Kozhikode International Airport yesterday night." "Deepak was an experienced aerial operator with 36 years of flying experience. A passout of NDA, topper in the 58th course and an awardee of 'Sword of Honour', Deepak served Indian Air Force for 21 years before joining as a Commercial Pilot with Air India in 2005. He called me just a week before and was jovial, as always." V Muraleedharan, MoS for External Affairs, MP MK Raghavan and Kerala #BJP President K Surendran are at the #keralaplanecrash site, taking stock of the situation and speaking to officials. #AirIndiaExpress #AirIndiaCrash @xpresskerala pic.twitter.com/8Kp1U0iFgS The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) August 8, 2020 "When I asked him about the 'Vande Bharat' Mission, he was proud of bringing back our countrymen from Arab countries. I asked him, 'Deepak, do you carry empty Aircraft since those countries are not allowing entry of passengers?' He had replied, 'Oh, No. We carry fruits, vegetables, medicines etc to these countries and never the aircraft flies to these countries empty.' That was my last conversation with him. ALSO READ | Kozhikode airport mishap: Deceased Keralite expat donated money for poor before leaving Dubai "He survived in air crash in early nineties when he was in the Air Force. He was hospitalised for 6 months for multiple skull injuries and nobody thought that he would fly again. But his strong will power and love for flying made him clear the test again. It was a miracle," Sathe said. According to him, Captain Sathe is survived by his wife and two sons, both passouts of IIT Bombay. Captain Sathe was a son of Brigadier Vasant Sathe who stays in Nagpur along with his wife. His brother, Captain Vikas, was also an Armyman, who laid his life while serving in Jammu region, his cousin said. Meanwhile, a neighbour of Capt Sathe remembered him as a jovial and friendly man. Sathe lived in Nahar Amrit Shakti housing complex in Chandivali in Mumbai with his wife Sushma for nearly 15 years. ALSO READ | Black box retrieved, probe into Kerala plane crash on, says Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri "Everyone in the housing society knew Sathe sir and his wife. When he wasn't flying, the couple would go on morning and evening walks," said neighbour Pankaj Nagpal. Sathe sir had a jovial, friendly personality and he exuded positivity, he said. "Sathe sir had one or two flights every week. When we heard about the plane crash, we knew it was him," Nagpal said. Sathe's wife and their elder son, who lives in Bengaluru, have already reached Kerala, Nagpal said, adding that the mortal remains of the deceased pilot may be brought back to the city for the last rites. Meanwhile, Air India sources said the airline was making arrangements to bring Sathe's younger son, who is based in the US, back to the country. By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety employees reported facing "strong" external pressure from industry and raised alarms the agency does not always prioritize air safety, according to an independent survey seen by Reuters on Friday. The survey report gives ammunition to critics who argue in the aftermath of two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes that the U.S. aviation safety regulator has not done enough to insulate employees from industry pressure. The survey quoted one anonymous employee as saying that the message was, "Don't rock the boat with Boeing." The report found employees believe aviation safety leaders "painted 'too rosy of a picture'" after the 737 MAX crashes "and did not acknowledge the needed changes to FAA safety-related policies and processes." The survey, turned over to Congress on Friday, found that many aviation safety employees believe that "senior leaders are overly concerned with achieving the business-oriented outcomes of industry stakeholders and are not held accountable for safety-related decisions." "It is completely unacceptable that there are employees who lack confidence that their safety concerns are taken seriously," FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, who took over in August 2019, said in a letter to Congress on Friday, adding the agency is moving to create a Voluntary Safety Reporting Program - a confidential "non-punitive environment that encourages open reporting of aviation safety issues and concerns." The FAA commissioned the survey after it announced plans in April 2019 to improve safety culture following the second fatal Boeing crash. The agency noted the survey was "designed specifically to encourage candid feedback." The safety culture survey, conducted in late 2019 and in focus groups in early 2020, said employees and managers reported "external pressure from industry is strong and is impacting" the safety culture. "They shared that there is an unwritten code to be more 'liberal-minded' (versus conservative) when assessing safety risks, and there is pressure to find win-win solutions that benefit industry," the survey found. Story continues "Many reported that industry will escalate issues to senior leadership and/or Congress if FAA employees are perceived as 'getting in their way, which directly leads to decisions that are friendlier to industry (i.e., to help meet timelines and manage costs of industry applicants and operators)," the survey added. Nearly half of survey respondents disagreed that the FAA makes data-driven decisions on safety regardless of external pressure. Agency employees said they can be "over-powered in meetings with industry," with one unnamed employee saying: "It feels like we are showing up to a knife fight with Nerf weapons. It is a challenge to be an equal match with Boeing in the meetings/conversations." The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents FAA aviation safety workers, said it appreciated the FAA taking the report's findings seriously. It noted the union is working with FAA "to develop a more robust voluntary safety reporting program." The MAX has been grounded since March 2019 after two crashes in five months, in Indonesia and Ethiopia, killed 346 people. Several reports have raised concerns about Boeing Co employees performing FAA certification tasks facing undue pressure. The survey said FAA employees' perception was that "no one at FAA has taken responsibility or been held accountable for" the 737 MAX. Boeing declined comment on Friday on the findings, but said earlier it created a new organization to centralize investigations of undue pressure allegations. The FAA on Wednesday proposed fining Boeing $1.25 million after the agency alleged Boeing exerted undue pressure on workers who handle FAA safety oversight work. U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio, who chairs the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, in December said an FAA whistleblower reported "Boeing applied undue pressure on FAA managers to overrule those managers own safety engineers and experts on safety-critical matters." Dickson has noted the United States has an "unprecedented" aviation safety record; the United States has reported just one fatality in a U.S. passenger airline accident since 2009. In June, the Transportation Department's inspector general said Boeing failed to submit certification documents to the FAA detailing changes to a key flight control system tied to both crashes. The Justice Department has an ongoing criminal investigation into the MAX. (Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis) Pence tells pro-lifers: A Biden presidency would trample on your rights Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Vice President Mike Pence warned pro-life activists that if presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden becomes president, he will trample on their rights. Pence spoke at Starkey Road Baptist Church of Seminole, Florida, Wednesday at an event sponsored by the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List. While there, Pence also toured a pregnancy center in Pinellas Park called A Womans Place Medical Clinic, becoming the first sitting vice president to tour a pro-life pregnancy center. During his remarks, the vice president outlined various pro-life agenda items that President Donald Trump has accomplished since taking office. It would be just after we were in office a few days that the president reinstituted the Mexico City Policy, making sure no taxpayer dollars would ever go to promote or provide abortion around the world, and then he expanded it a year later, Pence said. Trump became the first president in American history to address the March for Life in person on the National Mall. In our first year in office, the president took executive action to end the assault on the conscience rights of a group of nuns, known as the Little Sisters of the Poor. The vice president then warned that if Biden were elected president, he would take America in the opposite direction and would curb the liberties of pro-life activists. Make no mistake about it: Joe Biden would appoint activist judges to our courts who would legislate from the bench and trample, trample on our most cherished liberties, Pence continued. Now more than ever, pro-life Americans need to let our voice be heard and stand for life. This is no time to be silent. And make no mistake about it, the radical left wants to silence pro-life Americans. As an example, Pence cited a recent incident in which members of Students for Life of America were arrested in Washington, D.C., for writing Black Preborn Lives Matter in chalk outside a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. I mean, the radical left celebrates those who defend abortion, but they would prosecute those who stand for life, he said. The choice could not be more clear. I want to make you a promise: this president, this vice president, and this administration will always stand up for the freedom of speech of every American, and we will always stand for life. Pences speech was part of a campaign by SBA List called Life Wins, which is aimed at informing voters about the differences between Trump and Biden on the abortion issue. SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement last week that she was honored to have Pence supporting their efforts, calling him a lifelong champion of the unborn. In contrast to the Trump administrations pro-life leadership, Joe Biden and extremist Democrats advocate abortion on demand through birth, paid for by taxpayers, stated Dannenfelser. Their agenda is radically out of step with the majority of Americans who support common ground limits on abortion, including millions of rank-and-file Democrats and Independent voters. China's rare-earth exports drop by 44% in July amid pandemic Global Times By Tu Lei Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/7 11:40:25 Last Updated: 2020/8/7 19:12:18 China witnessed a steep decline in rare-earth exports in July as the global epidemic resulted in weak demand. China exported 1,620.30 tons of rare earths in July, down from 2,893 tons in June, or a 44 percent drop, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs on Friday. In the first seven months of the year, China's rare-earth exports were 22,735.80 tons, a 20.2 percent slide from the same period last year, official data showed. Market watchers said the decline was caused by the shrinking demand due to the pandemic, as most countries still cannot resume production, resulting in weak demand and delayed imports. Storage in other countries in the past years has also piled up, which weakened current demand, Chen Zhanheng, deputy secretary-general of the Association of China Rare Earth Industry, told the Global Times on Friday, adding that the peak season for China was in 2018. However, experts warned that the decline may also be a result of geopolitical conflicts, as China has tightened exports of rare earths amid tensions with the US. In July, China said it will impose sanctions on US-based arms producer Lockheed Martin, the main contractor of the recertification of the US' Patriot Advanced Capability-3 air defense missiles on the island of Taiwan, and the sanctions will likely feature the cut-off of material supply, including rare earths, which are crucial to advanced weapons production, Chinese industry experts said. Wu Chenhui, an independent rare earths analyst, told the Global Times on Friday that the firms with export licenses may also curb sales amid geopolitical pressure. The drop in July may also reflect purchasers' concerns on rare earths due to geopolitical conflicts, as they might be shifting suppliers from China to neighboring countries such as Indonesia and other countries with rare earths separation capability, Chen said. However, Chen said the US is still a big rare-earth importer of China, although exports in the first half of the year declined. In the first half of 2020, rare-earths exports to the US were 5,184 tons, a year-on-year drop of 35.15 percent, worth $26.59 million, a year-on-year decline of 33.85 percent, data from the association showed. The Trump administration's ineffective control of the epidemic might have affected the macro economy of the US and led to a decline in demand, Chen said. Yuan Chenghui, a rare-earths analyst of cnfeol.com, told the Global Times that rare earths exports are expected to be even less in the next two months, as many overseas factories have not resumed normal operations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address "You must reside in Ward 3, and have been a resident in Ward 3 for at least a year," said borough Manager Christine Hart. BEIRUT - The latest on the explosion in Beirut (all times local): 9:40 p.m. Dozens of Lebanese protesters have stormed the buildings of a number of government ministries and the headquarters of the countrys banking association channeling their rage against state and financial institutions after the huge blast that killed over 160. Earlier on Saturday, protesters entered the empty buildings of the Foreign Ministry and declared it the headquarters of their protest movement. Others fanned out to enter the Economy and Energy ministries, and some walked away with documents claiming they will reveal the extent of corruption that permeates the government. Some also entered the Environment Ministry. Meanwhile, dozens of protesters broke into the banking association headquarters. Saturdays rally was in response to the devastating explosion at the Port of Beirut on Tuesday that killed nearly 160 people and wounded 6,000, defacing the capitals coastline. Protesters demanded justice for the victims and wanted to hold the government accountable, complaining that years of corruption and mismanagement have brought about the disaster. Public anger had already been rising in Lebanon before the blast because of an unprecedented financial crisis in which the national currency lost 80% of its value. Banks imposed informal capital controls in a controversial effort to control the collapse of the pound and foreign currency flight. The dire conditions were deepened with rising power cuts and concerns that hospitals were facing severe shortages and financial troubles. ___ 8:20 p.m. French President Emmanuel Macrons office says an international conference on Sunday is aimed at bringing donors together to provide emergency aid and equipment to the Lebanese population. Co-hosted by Macron and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the video conference will see the participation of U.S. President Donald Trump, Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Jordan King Abdullah II, Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and other leaders from Russia, China and the European Union. The money collected will be used to send emergency medical aid, equipment to help clear streets and rebuild schools and hospitals as well as to provide food for the civilian population, Macrons office said. Macron, who was the first foreign leader to visit Beirut in the wake of the devastating explosion, promised the aid would not go into corrupt hands but to non-governmental organizatoins and the civilian population. France is Lebanons former colonial power. ___ 7:15 p.m. A group of Lebanese protesters including retired army officers have stormed the Foreign Ministry building in the capital Beirut as part of protests following the massive explosion this week. The protesters said Saturday the Foreign Ministry would be the headquarters for a revolution and called on the current government to resign. Retired army officer Sami Ramah read a statement on the buildings steps after dozens of protesters pushed their way into the building. This authority must step down, he said. Protesters raised flags with the image of a fist that has come to symbolize nationwide anti-government protests. Some of the nearly 200 protesters entered the building and burned a few documents and pictures of the Lebanese President. It was not clear what the documents were. Rage against the government spiked after the Beirut port explosion Tuesday that killed nearly 160 people and injured 6,000 while leaving much of the coastline mangled. Protesters gathered in central Beirut clashed with security forces. ___ 1:55 p.m. Syrias state TV says 43 Syrian citizens were killed in this weeks blast in Beirut. The TV quotes the Syrian embassy in Lebanon as saying that the number is not final as search operations for dozens of missing are still ongoing. Lebanon is home to more than a million Syrians many of them refugees who fled civil war in their country. A Lebanese health ministry official said on Saturday that the blast killed 154 people, including 21 bodies who have not been identified. He added that 45 people are still missing. ___ 1:50 p.m. The president of a Christian party in Lebanon says the groups three legislators in parliament will resign in protest against the government over this weeks deadly blast. Samy Gemayel made his comments on Saturday during the funeral of a senior official with the Kataeb Party who was killed in Tuesdays blast that destroyed Beiruts port and damaged the capital. The Kataeb party is part of the opposition and is known for its harsh criticism of the government that is backed by the militant Hezbollah group and its allies. Lebanons parliament has 128-members and some legislators have said they will resign in protest over widespread corruption. Legislator Marwan Hamadeh resigned earlier this week in protest after the blast occurred. ___ 1:15 p.m. Turkeys Vice-President Fuat Oktay says Ankara is ready to help Lebanon rebuild Beiruts port and send ambulance planes to evacuate some of the wounded for treatment in Turkish hospitals. Oktay spoke on Saturday to reporters after meeting Lebanese President Michel Aoun. He added that a Turkish search team is working at the port that was destroyed in a massive explosion on Tuesday. Oktay said Turkey has already sent two field hospitals, 400 tons of wheat and food products. He added that his government is ready to use the Turkish port of Mersin to receive products that can be later sent to Lebanon in smaller ships. Oktay arrived earlier in the day with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. ___ 12:40 p.m. The Dutch foreign ministry says that the wife of the Netherlands ambassador to Lebanon has died of injuries she sustained in the massive blast that hit Beirut earlier this week. Hedwig Waltmans-Molier died Saturday morning at age 55. She worked for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs alongside her husband, Jan Waltmans. The couple had two adult children. The ministry says that Waltmans-Molier, who worked in the human resources department of the embassy, was standing in the living room next to Jan and by sheer bad luck was hit by the explosion. The family had recently returned to Beirut after a holiday. Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag expressed their condolences to the family and paid tribute to Waltmans-Molier in a joint statement. ___ 12:05 p.m. French President Emmanuel Macrons office has confirmed that an international aid conference will be organized on Sunday to support Lebanon after the deadly Beirut blast. The videoconference, scheduled on Sunday at 12:00 GMT, will be co-hosted by France and the United Nations, Macrons office said. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said that he would participate in the conference that will also include other international leaders. Macron, who walked through the destroyed streets of Beirut during a visit to Lebanon on Thursday, promised that aid would not go into corrupt hands but to NGOs and the civilian population. The French president was the first foreign leader to visit in the wake of the devastating explosion. France is the former colonial power in Lebanon. ___ 11:45 a.m. Senior officials from the Middle East and Europe have started arriving in Lebanon in a show of solidarity with the tiny country that suffered a deadly blast this week which caused large-scale damage to the capital Beirut. The first to arrive Saturday was Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the chief of the 22-member Arab League as well as Turkeys vice-president and foreign minister. The visits come as the country braced for large anti-government protests amid popular anger against Lebanons political elite. The countrys ruling class, made up mostly of former civil war-era leaders, is blamed for widespread corruption, incompetence and mismanagement that contributed to Tuesdays explosion, in which 154 people were killed, more than 5,000 wounded and the countrys largest port and nearby areas were destroyed. he devastating blast was triggered by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the port which was apparently set off by a fire. SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. Just before 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sophia Schiepek pulled her car, loaded down with some of the stuff needed to survive a year in a dorm room, into a parking lot driveway on the campus of Lake Superior State University. A little more than an hour later, all that stuff had made it up into her room, even if it was just stacked here and there instead of tucked away in the back seat or trunk. That's nothing new. Students have been coming to Lake State Michigan's smallest public university since the 1940s. While the styles of cars dropping off the students have evolved over the years, much of the process remains unchanged. Until this year. As universities across the U.S. welcome students back to campus during a pandemic, they are shaking up how they handle move-in and the hoops students have to jump through to get on campus. Out: crowds of people all trying to squeeze through the same dorm door while balancing suitcases and posters. In: carefully orchestrated periods of time when just one student has access to the entranceway. And don't forget to get a swab up your nose for a COVID-19 test before you do any unloading. Lake State started moving in first-year students in late July. This week, returning students are moving onto the campus in Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, overlooking the St. Mary's River and the Soo Locks. Classes start Monday. The move-in and start were moved up as part of the university's reaction to the COVID pandemic. The early start puts Lake Superior State students among the earliest non-athlete students to arrive on a college campus in the nation and the first public university in Michigan to begin the fall semester. Start early, finish early Lake Superior State made the choice in mid-June to return this fall to face-to-face instruction, while moving up dates. Other than a one-day break, school will be in session from Monday into November, keeping students on campus. The university is touting it as a get-here-stay-here philosophy, Provost Lynn Gillette said. Story continues "We had very strong interest from our students for face-to-face instruction," he said, standing in the parking lot as move-in started. "We are prepping all the classrooms so we get social distancing. We're requiring everyone to wear masks we're going to be pretty heavy on that." About 10% of the university's classes are normally offered online. This semester is up a little bit to 13%. In order to keep classes face-to-face, the school is converting every possible space into classrooms and spreading out chairs. The chairs not being used are being stacked in the back of classrooms to give visual clues about the differences this year. Lake Superior State University freshman Taylor Owrutsky, left, talks with junior Katherine Davis about theater club as students and family walk around campus during a move-in day for students at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie. "I'm just cautious so I have a bunch of masks. I'll wear the masks but if we ever get free from COVID I'll definitely be a bit more scot-free," Owrutsky said. The low number of coronavirus cases in the rural area surrounding the college is helping the efforts to get back to face-to-face instruction. Lake State is located about an hour north of the Mackinac Bridge and several hours away from various hot spots in Michigan. As of Thursday evening, 37 cases had been reported in Chippewa County, where the university is located, according to the county website. School officials said they factored the number of cases into their decision. Also factoring into the decision to bring back students was that a majority are first-generation college enrollees and a large proportion are low-income. Students would likely lack access to high-speed internet, making online classes even more challenging. How the day went As Schiepek, a 19-year-old sophomore studying environmental sciences, pulled into the parking lot, she was greeted by a college staffer, who checked her name off against a list of students scheduled to check-in. On Wednesday, waves of students were set to arrive at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The university moved in 311 students last week and hundreds more were scheduled to move in this week. About 2,000 students are enrolled at the school. After getting cleared, Schiepek drove down the length of a long parking lot and looped around a sign with a student sitting next to it, joining one of three lanes. At the end of the lot were three large tents. Half of each tent was taken up by long tables with computers, forms and COVID-19 tests stacked on them. The other half of each tent was for vehicles to drive into. Party killers: Colleges hope new rules will slow COVID-19 spread, students aren't convinced Schiepek pulled in, putting a mask over her face as she rolled down her window. A masked staffer approached the car and began asking a series of questions about Schiepek's health, wanting to know whether she was experiencing any COVID-related symptoms or had been around anyone with the illness. As the staffer walked back over to the tables to get a COVID test, another masked staffer walked about with the normal move-in information a map of campus, a temporary parking permit for Schiepek and an extra one for her mom who was helping her move. There were also the keys to Schiepek's room and some unusual move-in paraphernalia a selection of Lake State branded masks. Schiepek got to pick out two. Sophia Schiepek, 19, takes part Wednesday in a voluntary COVID-19 test during a move-in day for students at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Then she was ready for the test, which is voluntary for students. She inserted a long swab into her nostril and then took it out. As she did, her eyes watered and she rubbed her nose. The staffer assured her that was normal and said some students have been sneezing after taking the tests, which provide quick results. As of Wednesday morning, none of the tests had come back positive, school officials said. The tests done, Schiepek drove across the street to parking lot O, where she waited a couple of minutes for the student in front of her to finish unloading. Then she drove up to the door and was joined by her mom, who was driving a small SUV full of supplies. Up and down the stairs they went, carrying in clothes, plants, a mini-refrigerator, a trombone and everything else needed to live at school. Schiepek is living in a suite of rooms with seven other people. There's a big common area, with couches and chair, a table and other furniture. There's a large shared bathroom off that room toward the front of the suite. In the back are four rooms, each designed to have two people in it. Beds in those rooms can be bunked or separated. 'The virus beat us': Colleges are increasingly going online for fall 2020 semester as COVID-19 cases rise "It's going to be interesting," Schiepek said of the coming year. "I'm interested to see what everything looks like is it just going to look like a Plexiglas prison?" Schiepek said she didn't want to do an online semester, especially after having to go online last spring while on campus. "My roommate left like right away when we went online, so I was just alone in my room," she said. "I had taken some online classes in high school, so I knew it didn't work for me." She's not too worried about being around other students. "We're old enough to be conscious of what needs to be done," she said. "I'm excited to see my friends. I haven't seen them in person in months." Lake Superior State University junior Rebecca Weipert carries her items with the help of her father William Weipert and mother Heidi Weipert at Osborn Hall during a move-in day for students at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie. While Lake State had deep cleaned residence halls, that didn't stop people from doing their own wiping down when they arrived. Junior Rebecca Weipert and her parents did just that when they got to campus Wednesday. "It's stressful to send them into something you don't know if it's truly safe or not. We know it's not 100% safe," William Weipert said. "We're excited for her to get to her halfway point, but we're equally as nervous about her having to do it this way." This year Weipert brought extra masks and supplies for her own room. She has one of her five classes online because of the class size. "A lot of students are saying they think that it's going to go back online because people aren't going to follow the rules," she said. "I really hope it doesn't happen. It's hard to learn online especially with certain classes. That's why we're here, to learn and get the full potential of every class to get that kind of education." This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: COVID-19: Michigan college among 1st in U.S. to test campus living NIGERIA: pharmacist slumped and died while having sex with a sex worker in a hotel in Igando, Lagos. The lifeless body of the pharmacist, Bassey Asuquo, was discovered in one of the rooms of a brothel along Akesan road, Egan area of Igando, Lagos, Friday, July 31. It was gathered that Bassey, believed to be in his 40s, took a room in the brothel at about 10pm the previous night, after a drink at the bar. Policemen from Igando division who were alerted by the management of the brothel, stormed the scene, where a crowd had gathered to have a glimpse of Basseys lifeless body. A packet of cigarette, an inhaler and a stained boxer were reportedly found in the room while the commercial sex worker had escaped. Report had it that the fleeing commercial sex worker had contacted the hotel manager on phone, explaining how late Bassey was gasping for breath and attempted to reach out for his inhaler when he gave up the ghost. Attempt to lure her back to explain further, failed as she reportedly told the manager on the phone that she was about crossing the nations border, in her bid to evade arrest. Two staff of the brothel were arrested by the police, while the corpse was evacuated. Source: LIB 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 Photo shows a Hong Kong citizen welcoming the seven nucleic acid testing professionals from the Chinese mainland. (Photo/CCTV News) Many sectors and citizens in Hong Kong believe that the support from the Chinese mainland will beyond doubt address the pressing needs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) regarding the COVID-19 epidemic. In mid to late July, the COVID-19 situation in Hong Kong, which had once been easing, suddenly became serious. While calling on citizens to make concerted efforts to combat the epidemic, the HKSAR government rolled out a series of epidemic prevention and control measures. At the request of the HKSAR government, Chinas National Health Commission (NHC) promptly organized two medical supportive teams one aimed at boosting local testing capacity, and another to help Hong Kong build Fangcang or cabin makeshift hospitals to deal with mild cases, under the command of the central government. On August 2, seven members of the testing team arrived in Hong Kong. The central government dispatched people to help build makeshift hospitals in Hong Kong and assist the city in conducting nucleic acid tests, which has quickly increased the number of hospital beds and would play an important role in the epidemic prevention and control in Hong Kong, said Henry Fan Hung-ling, chairman of Hong Kongs Hospital Authority (HA). The spread of COVID-19 in Hong Kong is beyond the capacity of local medical resources, said Pan Pey-chyou, chairman of Hong Kong Medical and Health Care Staff General Union, noting that the assistance from the Chinese mainland came just in time and would certainly help Hong Kong pull through the difficult time. Its a blessing for Hong Kong citizens that the Chinese mainland has sent medical workers to the special administrative region for its fight against the epidemic this time, remarked Bill Tang Ka-piu, head of the Kowloon East Office of Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions. Many Hong Kong netizens expressed their gratitude to the central government online. Every time when Hong Kong encounters difficulties, our motherland is there for us, a comment read. In fact, various national departments of China have been providing support for Hong Kong in its fight against COVID-19 since the outbreak of the epidemic. From adjusting railway operation arrangements to reducing the number of flights to Hong Kong and suspending travel permits to the city, relevant departments have tried their best to cooperate with the HKSAR government and support the implementation of its various anti-epidemic measures. When about 2,500 Hong Kong residents were stranded by the COVID-19 outbreak in Central Chinas Hubei Province, the Liaison Office of the Central Peoples Government in the HKSAR sent five batches of medicines and supplies to Hubei for them in coordination with the HKSAR government. In February, Chinese diplomats communicated with relevant parties and coordinated efforts to help HKSAR government bring several hundred Hong Kong passengers stranded on the novel coronavirus-inflicted Diamond Princess cruise ship back from Japan with chartered flights. At the onset of the epidemic, the central government responded promptly to Hong Kongs needs and immediately made efforts to ensure the supply of the materials for Hong Kong, including deploying 17 million face masks to the SAR. Meanwhile, various mainland bases providing supplies for Hong Kong had operated at full capacity to ensure that food materials like vegetables, dairy products, eggs, grain, and cooking oil could be supplied to Hong Kong continuously. In addition, Chinese mainland-funded companies in Hong Kong made all-out efforts to support and participate in the SARs fight against COVID-19. Besides making large amounts of donations, trading companies increased purchases of protective equipment, and energy companies worked to ensure uninterrupted petrol supply, no price rise and unimpeded services. All these efforts had played significant roles in stabilizing the Hong Kong market. On July 24, when Hong Kong was faced with soaring confirmed COVID-19 cases and a shortage of beds in public hospitals, the SAR government started using a community isolation facility newly built by a mainland company at Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village to receive asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 patients in a relatively stable condition. The isolation facility, which has been regarded as the Hong Kong version of the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, was built by China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), who established an elite working team that worked around the clock to ensure rapid construction. At present, mainland virus testing agencies are also providing services for Hong Kong citizens. Sunrise Diagnostic Centre established in Hong Kong by Chinese biotech company BGI Genomics can test about 5000 specimens a day. Guangzhou KingMed Diagnostics Group Co., Ltd. headquartered in Guangzhou, capital of South Chinas Guangdong Province, is mobilizing resources to support Hong Kong, upgrading and increasing the capacity of its lab in Hong Kong, which is also a testing agency accredited by the SAR government. Another testing agency recognized by the Hong Kong government, Hong Kong Molecular Pathology Diagnostic Centre, a subsidiary of Guangdong Hybribio Biotech Co.,Ltd. in Chaozhou, Guangdong, has also joined the virus testing force for Hong Kong quickly. The team sent to Hong Kong to boost local testing capacity consists of about 60 professionals selected and dispatched by the Health Commission of Guangdong Province from more than 20 public hospitals in Guangdong. Yu Dewen, who had worked as the commander in chief of Guangdongs medical assistance team to Wuhan, was appointed as the head of the testing team to Hong Kong. The team to help Hong Kong build Fangcang hospitals consists of six medical experts from Wuhan. Headed by Wan Jun, vice president of the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and president of the Fangcang temporary hospital in Wuchang district of Wuhan, the team has rich experiences in fighting the virus in Wuhans Fangcang hospitals. The experts on the team will provide technical support for Hong Kong to transform the SARs AsiaWorld-Expo into a makeshift hospital. We will bring Wuhans experience in fighting the epidemic in Fangcang hospitals to Hong Kong, Wan said. Cooperation between the mainland assistance teams and the three virus testing agencies of mainland companies in Hong Kong will significantly improve the COVID-19 testing capacity of Hong Kong in a short time, said Yu. Medical workers in Hong Kong also believe that the arrival of professionals from Chinese mainland has boosted the morale and confidence of Hong Kong in its fight against the disease. Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission promptly responded to the request of the HA and raised massive medical supplies and shipped them to Hong Kong in batches. Its believed that the Chinese mainland and the HKSAR will certainly defeat the COVID-19 resurgence through concerted efforts and show the world a great story about fighting the COVID-19 with solidarity. AMN Healthcare Services, Inc.'s (NYSE:AMN) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 32x might make it look like a strong sell right now compared to the market in the United States, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios below 18x and even P/E's below 10x are quite common. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so lofty. Recent times haven't been advantageous for AMN Healthcare Services as its earnings have been falling quicker than most other companies. One possibility is that the P/E is high because investors think the company will turn things around completely and accelerate past most others in the market. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason. View our latest analysis for AMN Healthcare Services pe If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on AMN Healthcare Services. How Is AMN Healthcare Services' Growth Trending? AMN Healthcare Services' P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very strong growth, and importantly, perform much better than the market. Taking a look back first, the company's earnings per share growth last year wasn't something to get excited about as it posted a disappointing decline of 32%. As a result, earnings from three years ago have also fallen 25% overall. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing earnings over that time. Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 25% each year as estimated by the eight analysts watching the company. With the market only predicted to deliver 12% per year, the company is positioned for a stronger earnings result. In light of this, it's understandable that AMN Healthcare Services' P/E sits above the majority of other companies. It seems most investors are expecting this strong future growth and are willing to pay more for the stock. Story continues The Bottom Line On AMN Healthcare Services' P/E Generally, our preference is to limit the use of the price-to-earnings ratio to establishing what the market thinks about the overall health of a company. We've established that AMN Healthcare Services maintains its high P/E on the strength of its forecast growth being higher than the wider market, as expected. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/E as they are quite confident future earnings aren't under threat. Unless these conditions change, they will continue to provide strong support to the share price. Plus, you should also learn about these 4 warning signs we've spotted with AMN Healthcare Services. It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20x). 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. Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal admits the possibility of supplying water from the mainland of Ukraine to the annexed Crimea in case of a humanitarian catastrophe on the peninsula. "If it is necessary to provide people with water, in case of a humanitarian catastrophe, Ukraine, of course, will provide Ukrainians in Crimea or somewhere else with water and everything they need: medicine, food, and so on," Shmyhal said in an interview with Radio Liberty. He noted that Ukraine would not supply water to the occupiers, the occupying forces, for the needs of military bases. "It's impossible," Shmyhal stressed. Currently, it is technically impossible to supply the Dnieper River water to Crimea, the Prime Minister noted. "The [North] Crimean Canal is blocked. Journalists have already conducted many investigations and found out that it is impossible to supply water to Crimea via the existing infrastructure. It is necessary to invest money, repair this infrastructure," Shmyhal said. At a press conference in Kyiv on June 11, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the issue of resuming supplies of the Dnieper water to Crimea was not on the Ukrainian agenda. ol CARACAS, Aug 8 (Reuters) - A Venezuelan court sentenced two former U.S. soldiers to 20 years in prison for their role in a failed incursion aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro in early May, chief prosecutor Tarek Saab said late on Friday. Former Green Berets Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, admitted to participating in the May 4 operation, Saab wrote on his Twitter account. "Said gentlemen ADMITTED to having committed the crimes," he wrote, adding that the trials were ongoing for dozens of others captured. Denman and Berry were charged with conspiracy, terrorism and illicit weapons trafficking, Saab wrote. Alfonso Medina, a lawyer for the two, said their legal team was not allowed into the courtroom. The two men were not available for comment. The sea incursion launched from Colombia, known as Operation Gideon, left at least eight dead. Maduro's government said it arrested a group of conspirators that included Denman and Berry near the isolated coastal town of Chuao. U.S. special forces veteran Jordan Goudreau, who ran Silvercorp USA, a private Florida-based security firm, has claimed responsibility for the raid. Denman appeared in a video on Venezuelan state TV days after their capture, saying they had been contracted by Silvercorp USA to train 50 to 60 Venezuelans in Colombia, seize control of Caracas' airport and bring in a plane to fly Maduro to the United States. Opposition leader Juan Guaido's office said Guaido had known about the operation since October, but did not finance or order it. Maduro, who describes Guaido as a Washington puppet, has said that President Donald Trump's government backed the operation. The Trump administration has denied any direct involvement. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the U.S. government would use "every tool" to secure the U.S. citizens' return. (Reporting by Sarah Kinosian; Editing by Nick Macfie) New Delhi: While family, fans and well-wishers might be rejoicing over CBI taking over the sensational death case of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh states that all must wait for the Supreme Court judgement on it. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh reiterated his stand of CBI inquiry not necessary for Sushant Singh Rajput's death case. He said in Nagpur: "The Sushant case has not gone to the CBI yet, the case is in the Supreme Court and the judgment will come on the 11th (August). The Mumbai Police is investigating properly. No reason to file a case to CBI." The CBI, on the other hand, has taken over the investigation into the actor's death from the Bihar Police after re-registering an FIR of alleged criminal conspiracy and abetment to suicide against his rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty. The case will be probed by a special investigation team (SIT) under Superintendent of Police Nupur Prasad and will be supervised by DIG Gagandeep Gambhir and Joint Director Manoj Shashidhar, both senior IPS officers from the Gujarat cadre, as per PTI. Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his Bandra residence on June 14, 2020. His family, fans and a few colleagues have been pressing for a CBI probe suspecting foul play. CROMWELL When public school students begin the 2020-21 academic year at the end of August, they will be following a hybrid model, something districts across Connecticut are considering adopting amid the coronavirus pandemic. The hope is to resume in-person learning at the end of September or early October, depending upon health data, according to Superintendent of Schools Enza Macri. If children were to fully return, the density of population spread across the four schools would not allow for social distancing, she said. It sounds doable when youre on the ground, except for when youre at your schools, and youre looking at available space. It changes, she said. Gov. Ned Lamont reversed his original recommendation in late June that students can return to the classroom, when he allowed municipalities the leeway to choose their own plan for reentry after each were required to submit three options for returning: fully in-person, fully remote or a mix of in-person and distance learning. In all, 40 individuals worked on the reopening plan, including parents, teachers, students, the health coordinator, mayor, union leadership and staff members, Macri said. They also considered responses from a parent survey. Some of those, especially parents of young ones and those at the middle-school level, said they would choose to homeschool. In all, 15 have elected that option, she said. There are no winners in the situation, Macri said. Priority one is the health and safety of students and staff, especially considering there are 2,000 children spread across town. They both present challenges. The hybrid model will be difficult for families in terms of child care, the superintendent said. Under the hybrid model, for the first month, the plan is for half the students to attend in person Mondays and Thursdays, with the other half to attend in person Tuesdays and Fridays; no students would attend in person on Wednesday. Dr. Macri was open to the idea that no one plan was going to satisfy everybody. A lot of people were pushing for us to go back to school full-time because that was what the governor was saying up until two weeks ago when he changed course, Board of Education Chairman Jeff Matrullo said. Administrators want to prevent possible spread of the coronavirus during those first few weeks. To have everyone here at the same time, we cant adjust on the dime, the superintendent said. When you rush something, youre making decisions on the fly and that isnt good for anyone, Macri said. Balance is key during the pandemic, Matrullo said. Going full-time might be a little too much too soon, so lets ease it back in, and take stock of how things go. It will allow us to take account of what works and doesnt work, and make adjustments more on the fly than we would be able to if students were back full-time, he said. The superintendent of Regional School District 17, Haddam and Killingworth, announced Friday a hybrid model will be in force. Details are forthcoming. We believe reducing our overall population (density) in each school on a daily basis through a hybrid approach, as a starting point for the first month of school, is a prudent course of action, Superintendent of Schools Holly Hageman said in an email. The cost to implement safety measures and purchase more technology and furniture, as well as personal protective equipment, has been a small fortune, in Cromwell, said Macri, who is hopeful some of those expenditures will be reimbursed through the CARES Act. The district had $148,000 in its budget to spend on these measures. Already, it has cost $800,000. And that doesnt take us very far. Weve spent close to $100,000 on PPE, and that will only get us to the end of November, Macri said. One of the large bills was for air-conditioning and circulation systems. [Classrooms] get so hot. Theres no way you can expect teachers to teach and students to learn anything. Its difficult as it is with a mask, Macri said. At times, the classroom temperatures have been as high as 90 degrees. Students will be given assignments to complete on the days they are attending school in person and complete independently at home, according to the plan. Live support will not be provided on the days the students arent in school, because teachers will be instructing the other half of students. Isolation rooms will be created for students who go to the nurse with any symptoms that could be related to COVID even if its a headache. There also will be morning health checks. Students have their typical complaints: Theyre tired, theyve been up doing their homework. Teenagers stay up [late]. Headaches are common. When students are coming with these common ailments, if the nurse is feeling uncomfortable if the child has a sore throat, they will move to the isolation room with a CNA, Macri said. Students will only be allowed to be picked up and dropped off at their homes. No changing of bus routes will be allowed. Matrullo asks parents to be patient. The administration is making every effort to be sure reentry is accomplished with as little upheaval as possible, he said. I hope people recognize this is an unprecedented situation in just about everybodys lifetimes. To view the reentry plan, visit bit.ly/2C6bUW7. A fight that included an exchange of gunfire left two 16-year-olds in critical condition Friday afternoon at a Northeast Side shopping center. The incident occurred at about 4:30 p.m. when two people ambushed at least one person as they were leaving a business at Windcrest Square, 6060 Montgomery Drive, San Antonio police said. Sgt. Michelle Ramos, an SAPD spokeswoman, said a physical fight ensued and then one person began shooting. Another person then returned fire, witnesses told police. Ramos said the two teens were hit during the exchange of gunfire. A witness who came across the wounded teens initially thought they had succumbed to heat stroke but then noticed they were bleeding. The witness said he assisted one teen while two women treated the other teen before EMS arrived. The teens were taken to San Antonio Military Medical Center in critical condition and were in surgery Friday night. Ramos said one of the teens was shot once, while the other was was shot multiple times in the upper torso. No weapons were recovered at the scene, but police said two handguns were used in shooting. Police are searching for at least one suspect who fled in a dark-colored vehicle. Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Jacob, become a subscriber. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA By Erik Larson, Bloomberg News (TNS) New York President Donald Trump cant stall a defamation lawsuit filed by a New York advice columnist who claims he raped her two decades ago, a judge ruled, allowing the two sides to start digging for evidence. E. Jean Carroll, who went public with her claims last year and sued Trump after he called her a liar, will now seek to depose the president as well as get a DNA test from him to compare with a sample on a dress the author said she wore at the time of the alleged attack. We are now eager to move forward with discovery so that we can prove that Donald Trump defamed E. Jean Carroll when he lied about her in connection with her brave decision to tell the truth about the fact that Donald Trump had sexually assaulted her, her lawyer Roberta Kaplan said in a statement. Trumps lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, didnt immediately return a call seeking comment, made after regular business hours. Carroll had argued that Trumps attempt to stay the case should be denied in light of the Supreme Courts ruling last month that a sitting president isnt immune from state court actions a ruling that cleared the way for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance to demand Trumps taxes and other financial documents. Trump said Carrolls case should be treated differently because its not a criminal matter, but Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Verna Saunders didnt buy the argument. In a ruling made public Thursday, she said the Supreme Courts landmark decision makes no such distinction. This court construes the holding in Vance applicable to all state court proceedings in which a sitting president is involved, including those involving his or her unofficial/personal conduct, the judge wrote. The application for a stay is denied. Trump sought to put Carrolls suit on hold until an appeals court rules in an earlier case brought by former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, accusing him of sexual assault. In both cases Trump claims hes protected by presidential immunity from lawsuits in state court. The appeals court in the Zervos case must still rule on the extent of his immunity. Trump has denied Carrolls allegation that he raped her in a department store dressing room. MEXICO CITY Hopes that the recent arrest of a Mexican gang leader could calm the countrys most violent state appeared dashed Saturday as the bullet-ridden bodies of seven men were found in a field and a rival drug cartel announced it was moving in. The central state of Guanajuato has been the scene of over 9,000 killings since the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the rival Jalisco cartel started a turf war for control of the industrial state around 2017. There were hopes the violence might subside after the Aug. 2 arrest of Santa Rosa gang leader Jos Antonio Ypez Ortiz, better known by his nickname El Marro, which means The Sledgehammer. But on Saturday, Guanajuato officials confirmed that the bodies of seven men with multiple gunshot wounds were found dumped on the side of a road near the Jercuaro, near the states border with Michoacan. Authorities said they found spent shell casings from assault rifles and pistols at the scene, suggesting the men had been killed there. Also Saturday, a video was posted on social media showing about two dozen men dressed in military-style fatigues and armed with assault rifles, .50-caliber sniper rifles and at least two belt-fed machine guns. The men claim in the video to be members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the rival of the Santa Rosa gang that has sought to move into Guanajuato. We know that there are still people from this gang of killers of innocents, a cartel spokesman says in the video, a reference to remaining Santa Rosa gang members. They will also fall. The best thing they can do is run. The video promises that once the Santa Rosa gang is gone, peace will return to Guanajuato under Jalisco New Generation, which is Mexicos most violent and fastest growing cartel. Today, the Cartel Jalisco New Generation makes the promise to you, the people of Guanajuato, and to the authorities, that it will keep the state in peace and tranquility, the spokesman said. It is a promise the Jalisco cartel has made in the past in other parts of Mexico, and always broken. Authorities could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the video, but the cartel has posted similar videos in the past. The last one, posted in July, was confirmed by the Defense Department to show members of an elite hit squad of Jalisco gunmen who may have had some military training. Officials said the video was apparently filmed near the border of Jalisco and Guanajuato states and showed a column of about 75 gunmen dressed in military-style fatigues with a dozen homemade armored pickup trucks, an anti-aircraft gun, nine belt-fed machine guns, 10 sniper rifles, six grenade launchers and 54 assault rifles. The Santa Rosa gang grew up in a farming hamlet of the same name by stealing fuel from government pipelines and refineries and robbing freight from trains. But after authorities stepped up security around trains and pipelines over the last two years, the gang turned to extortion and kidnapping. It would move sector to sector, systematically demanding extortion payments from businesses like tortilla shops or car dealerships. However, the gangs reign never affected the major companies that have built dozens of plants in Guanajuato, attracted by investor-friendly policies and excellent rail and highway links. Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor Washington, Aug 8 : A top US intelligence official has warned that China, Russia and Iran were trying to influence the upcoming American presidential election scheduled to be held on November 3, according to an official statement. Foreign countries are trying to sway voter preferences, change US policies, "increase discord" in the country "and undermine the American people's confidence in our democratic process", the BBC quoted William Evanina, head of the National Counter-intelligence and Security Center (NCSC), as saying in the statement released on Friday. The counter-intelligence chief however added that it would be "difficult for our adversaries to interfere with or manipulate voting results at scale". Many countries "have a preference for who wins the election", he said, adding they were however "primarily concerned" about China, Russia and Iran: According to Evanina, China "prefers that President (Donald) Trump, whom Beijing sees as unpredictable, does not win re-election", and has been "expanding its influence efforts" ahead of the vote Regarding Russia, the intelligence official said in the statement that Moscow was seeking to "denigrate" presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's candidacy and other members of a perceived "anti-Russia 'establishment'". Evanina added that some other actors linked to Russia "are also seeking to boost President Trump's candidacy on social media and Russian television" Meanwhile, Iran is trying to "undermine US democratic institutions",Trump, and "divide the country" ahead of the vote by spreading disinformation and "anti-US content" online. The development comes amid claims by Trump about the dangers of mail-in or postal ballots. He has suggested that the vote be delayed to prevent "the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history", prompting a backlash even among members of his own Republican Party, reports the BBC. It also follows complaints by Democratic lawmakers that US intelligence agencies are not releasing information to the public about foreign interference in this year's vote. Jacinda Ardern has become one of the most loved leaders in the world. Be it the way she handled the terrorist attack that took place in a mosque in New Zealand last year or the way she led the country during the pandemic, Ardern has set an example for leaders around the world. While in India some ministers refused to visit a holy place of a religion not their own, the following video of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visiting a temple, reportedly in Auckland, is going viral. Reports say it was the Shri Radha Krishna temple. Twitter In the video one can see her getting out of a car and coming inside the temple. She then takes her shoes off because Hindus usually do that when entering a place of worship. She greets people in the temple with a respectful namaste and proceeds. Also Read: PM Jacinda Ardern Admits She 'Did A Little Dance' After New Zealand Became COVID-19 Free A loud conch plays when Jacinda enters the temple where a priest carries out some ritual while chanting mantras in Sanskrit. She stands with her hands folded, in grace, poise and patience as the priest goes on with rituals. He decks her with a holy cloth which she humbly bows down to accept. Throughout her time in the temple, Ardern does not seem out of place. She smiles at everyone once the priest seems to be done with the mantras. The video has gone viral and people are sharing it with love and respect calling Jacinda Ardern the leader who respects all religions. It is not that she visited a temple that is remarkable. Her ability to merge into the ambience, as she had done when she visited the Mosque days after the tragedy, is what marks her out. She grows in my esteem the more I know her. Respect. Neshama (@DebiprasaMishra) August 8, 2020 With showing her acceptance of all religions, among other things that matter to people, Jacinda is winning hearts all over the world. Also Read: According To A Poll, Jacinda Ardern Is New Zealand's Most Popular PM In A Century (Newser) Hillary Clinton has a little advice for celebrated New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd: ditch the pot brownies. The former presidential candidate and secretary of state fired off a sharp tweet Saturday after the op-ed writer apparently forgot about Clinton's run for office in 2016, Mediaite reports. "It's hard to fathom, but it has been 36 years since a man and a woman ran together on a Democratic Party ticket," Dowd wrote in her latest column, which harked back to Walter Mondale's 1984 run with Geraldine Ferraro. Little problem: Clinton's 2016 running mate was Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine. "Either @TimKaine and I had a very vivid shared hallucination four years ago or Maureen had too much pot brownie before writing her column again," tweeted Clinton. story continues below The Times quickly corrected the error but fumbled yet again, stating that it had been 36 years "since a man chose a woman to run as his vice president." That, of course, erased Sen. John McCain's 2008 run with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. A subsequent Times tweet corrected that error and presumably put the matter to bedexcept for Clinton fans who have long raged over the Times' coverage of her, whether it was the 2016 email scandal or Dowd's cutting op-eds. "Maureen Dowd's deranged hatred of Hillary knows no bounds," tweets one reader. The New York Post recalls that the Times just fired an op-ed editor and replaced him with interim editor Kathleen Kingsbury, who is already wading into "embarrassing controversies." (Read more Hillary Clinton stories.) Photos: No-Name Firm Wins Contract to Develop US Hypersonic Air Force One Jet Sputnik News 19:13 GMT 07.08.2020 A relatively unknown US aerospace company just won a contract to develop a Mach 5-capable passenger plane to serve as Air Force One, the official aircraft of the US presidency. On Thursday, the US Air Force and the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate signed a contract to partner with Hermeus Corporation, a company attempting to develop hypersonic commercial aircraft, for the firm to build a prototype hypersonic Air Force One. An image included in Hermeus' news release about the contract shows a plane of the same design as the "business class" jet featured on the company's website, but painted in the livery of the US presidential air fleet. The development follows Hermeus' successful test in February of a Mach 5 engine prototype, which the company built in just nine months. An aircraft flying at such speeds could make the journey from New York to London in just 90 minutes, instead of the typical seven to eight hours on a subsonic airliner. A hypersonic cruise missile or glide body is difficult enough an undertaking - US efforts have lagged behind China and Russia for years - but to develop an aircraft capable of such speed, especially one that would ferry passengers, is a completely different kind of challenge. The company has time, though. Rob Weiss, a former director of Lockheed Martin's advanced design bureau Skunk Works who now sits on Hermeus' board of advisers, said in May 2019 that the company planned to launch a commercial hypersonic jet eight to 10 years in the future, and other company figures have said they plan to have a test aircraft flying in five years. Plus, the Air Force won't even receive its last order of new Air Force One jets, which are modified Boeing 747-8s, until next year. "The materials, the propulsion systems, those are well understood. The challenge is integrating those technologies," Weiss said of hypersonic technology, Aerospace America reported. According to Hermeus' news release, its hypersonic engine is an advanced combined cycle engine. Such a device combines a traditional turbojet engine with a ramjet, which relies on the vehicle's high speed to compress the air coming into its intake duct instead of an accelerating fan, giving it both enormous power and efficiency. Having both types of engine in a single apparatus ensures the aircraft can fly safely at both low and high speeds. "Using our pre-cooler technology, we've taken an off-the-shelf gas turbine engine and operated it at flight speed conditions faster than the famed SR-71" Blackbird spy plane, Glenn Case, Hermeus' CTO, said in the Hermeus release. "In addition, we've pushed the ramjet mode to Mach 4-5 conditions, demonstrating full-range hypersonic air-breathing propulsion capability." "Leaps in capability are vital as we work to complicate the calculus of our adversaries," Air Force Program Executive Officer for Presidential & Executive Airlift Brig. Gen. Ryan Britton said in the news release. "By leveraging commercial investment to drive new technologies into the Air Force, we are able to maximize our payback on Department of Defense investments. The Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate is proud to support Hermeus in making this game-changing capability a reality as we look to recapitalize the fleet in the future." Business Insider noted that Hermeus' co-founders come from other aerospace companies developing similar technologies, such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Generation Orbit. No time limit for delivery of the proposed hypersonic plane was stated in the release. Earlier this week, Virgin Galactic's The Spaceship Company unveiled its own plans for a Mach 3-capable airliner, although as Sputnik reported, the passenger jet would only carry a few dozen people at a time. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hill, a former congressional representative from California, has written her political manifesto as a battle plan. In this impassioned introduction to the gender inequities of 21st-century America, women are warriors, the battlefield is our lives and the mission is a policy agenda somewhat myopically aligned with bills Hill supported during her months in Congress. Early in She Will Rise, Hill grapples with the possibility that her resignation in response to the publication of intimate photos of her with a campaign staffer will discourage other young women from entering politics. (Hill maintains that her estranged husband leaked the photos; he claims he was hacked.) Despite the strides made against de jure sexism in the past century, Hill argues, womens lives remain hemmed in by policies and, in some cases, a lack thereof devised by men. Her solution is simple: We should vote for women *gasp* BECAUSE THEY ARE WOMEN. Her whirlwind recap of past feminist movements can be reductive, and her liberal use of the first-person plural when we are assaulted our minds are already warped to the point that we are afraid its our fault if a man hurts us suggests a commonality of experience at odds with contemporary feminist thought. But if Hills intended audience is politically disaffected young women who could be nudged into action by a dismal cascade of data points, She Will Rise makes a decent primer. Hill heads off familiar lines of skepticism with frank explanations for why some women need abortions later in pregnancy, why rape survivors dont always file police reports and why women often stay with perpetrators of domestic abuse. The last is a struggle Hill knows well; her personal revelations ground that chapters statistics in the urgency of real life. Yet her self-reflection doesnt extend to the scandal that prompted her book. Hill brushes off her relationship with the staffer as a gray area that cant be explained in the zero-tolerance terms of the #MeToo movement, and insists that her husband constrained her social circles so completely that her campaign was her only outlet for intimacy. Her unwillingness to call her relationship with the staffer what it was an unambiguous ethical violation is all the more glaring in light of the books premise: that women in office conduct themselves better than the men who outnumber them. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7) More people from young age groups are getting infected with COVID-19, the World Health Organization warned on Friday. "We are clearly seeing a very significant increase of proportion of infections in the younger age groups so in the age groups under five, up to 15, and indeed up to 29 years," WHO country representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe told CNN Philippines' The Final Word. He reminded that young people are not immune to the coronavirus disease nor to its fatal effects. In a CNN report, the WHO said cases among teens and young adults have gone up six-fold while infections rose seven-fold for very young children and babies. Abeyasinghe also cautioned the public not to depend on a vaccine since it's still "on the pipeline," and instead urged to prioritize following health safety measures such as physical distancing, cough etiquette and hand hygiene. "[W]e should not put too much hope on the vaccine because we know that by doing the current practices that we advocate, we can suppress transmission," he cautioned. "For the moment, that is more important." He added that some 165 candidate vaccines are still undergoing trials with four being tested on thousands of people. President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier assured that life will return to normal in the country once a vaccine is available. He said China has already committed to sharing a vaccine while Russia also expressed interest in sending some over. It was way back in January that Nadia Bartel, the prominent media and fashion personality and one-time AFL WAG, first had an inkling that matching activewear tops and bottoms in earthy shades were going to be a sleeper hit. Under the Henne brand she co-owns with her sister and a friend, Bartel planned to launch leggings, crops, sweats and puffers in colours that read like they're straight from a landscape architect's notebook: khaki, slate and clay. Nadia Bartel says she had the idea of matched tracksuits well before coronavirus. Credit:Ivana Martyn-Zyznikow Then coronavirus hit, and it seemed all at once, the nation wanted to slide into trackies and hide under the proverbial doona. Instead of being first to market, the range was held up in transit and only launched in late July. But with Melbourne now in harsh stage four restrictions and other states on a knife edge, Bartel says the delay may have been a blessing as people grew tired with their initial iso-purchases. Most of the styles, which cost between $79 and $250, sold out in the first 24 hours. There are no new cases of COVID-19 to report in New Zealand today. Kiwis around the country are being encouraged to go get tested for the virus today in Christchurch, South Auckland, Taranaki and Palmerston North whether they have COVID-19 symptoms or not, at the pop-up testing centres. It has been 99 days since the last case of COVID-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source. There are no new recovered cases to report, so there continue to be 23 active cases, all in managed isolation facilities. None of those people are receiving hospital-level care. The number of confirmed NZ cases remains at 1,219. Yesterday NZ laboratories processed 3,289 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 490,232. There were 720 swabs taken in managed isolation and quarantine facilities yesterday. Again, a big thanks to everyone who has come forward to be tested, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson. Please continue to seek advice on getting a test if you have cold or flu-like symptoms. Pop-up centres Pop-up testing centres continue to play an important part in helping rule out the potential for COVID-19 in our communities. In South Auckland today, residents are again being encouraged to get out and get tested. The metro Auckland district health boards are providing free COVID-19 swabbing at a pop-up surveillance testing site in Manurewa. There have been good numbers through already despite some challenging weather, with approximately ten cars waiting for the 9am opening and more than 75 people tested so far, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson. This drive-thru/walk-thru testing centre is set up at the Southmall car park, entrance via Weymouth Road, Manurewa, and will be open today until 4pm. The pop-up is not open on Sunday, but Aucklanders can be tested for free after hours at any of the citys 19 Urgent Care Clinics. In Christchurch, there were also queues ahead of start time for Canterbury people without symptoms wanting to be tested. By midday, an estimated 75 people had gone through the process, with very cold conditions failing to deter hardy Cantabrians from their support for the team of five million. The Christchurch clinic is open until 4pm at 170 Orchard Road near Christchurch Airport at a venue kindly provided by Christchurch International Airport. There's drive-through and walk-up capacity and for people without their own transport, the nearest bus-stop is on Harewood Road, route 125. Yesterday, Taranaki and Mid Central DHBs also held well-supported pop-ups. Mid Central hosted two sites, with a great turnout despite some wet weather. There were 576 tests across the two pop-ups, with more than 700 tests district-wide. There has also been good news from the Southern round of testing, with all 35 tests taken at Milford returning negative results, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson. "Testing is an essential part of our overall elimination strategy and again, many thanks to everyone around the country who has participated by coming along for a test," says Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. "We also want to thank those whove organised the pop-ups, along with the businesses and organisations whove made the venues available." Details of additional pop-up clinics will be available early next week. The temporary testing facilities have capacity for drive-through with testing through car windows, or walk-ins. After testing, results will be sent via text message but it may take up to 72 hours to receive the result. For those who have a GP, results will be available to them as well. If you have COVID-19 symptoms - any acute respiratory infection with at least one of the following symptoms: new or worsening cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, stuffy or runny nose, lost sense of smell - with or without a fever - you should contact your General Practice team or call Healthline on 0800 358 5453. Most GP teams are offering testing if you have these symptoms. If you are unwell and need to see a doctor you should call your usual GP team for advice 24/7. For general health information visit healthinfo.org.nz Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. A detailed analysis report of the Global Portland Cement Market has been covered in the report coupled with a thorough description of each company profile with information on the H.Q, future capabilities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial outline, partnerships and new product launches and developments. The comprehensive value chain analysis of the market will assist in attaining better product differentiation, along with detailed understanding of the core competency of each activity involved. The market attractiveness analysis provided in the report aptly measures the potential value of the market providing business strategists with the latest growth opportunities. The report classifies the market into different segments based on application. These segments are studied in detail incorporating the market estimates and forecasts at regional and country level. The segment analysis is useful in understanding the growth areas and probable opportunities of the market. Leading Segment in this market: By Application Residential By Geography Asia Pacific (APAC) Final Report will cover the impact of COVID-19 on this industry. Browse the complete Global Portland Cement Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/9665-portland-cement-market-report The report also covers the complete competitive landscape of the global Portland Cement market with company profiles of key players such as: Buzzi Unicem SpA CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. Holcim, Ltd. Italcementi SPA. UltraTech Cement Limited Anhui Conch Cement Co. Ltd. China National Building Material (CNBM) Eurocement Group ZAO Heidelberg Cement AG Lafarge SA A detailed description of each has been included, with information in terms of H.Q, future capacities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial overview, partnerships, collaborations, new product launches, new product developments and other latest industrial developments. SEGMENTATIONS IN THE REPORT: By Applications: Residential Commercial Infrastructure Others (Including Cement Bricks, Farm Construction, Etc.) By Geography: North America (NA) Europe (EU) Asia Pacific (APAC) Rest of the World (RoW) Download Free Sample Report of Global Portland Cement Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-9665 The Global Portland Cement Market has been exhibited in detail in the following chapters Chapter 1 Portland Cement Market Preface Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Portland Cement Industry Analysis Chapter 4 Portland Cement Market Value Chain Analysis Chapter 5 Portland Cement Market Analysis By Applications Chapter 6 Portland Cement Market Analysis By Geography Chapter 7 Competitive Landscape Of Portland Cement Companies Chapter 8 Company Profiles Of Portland Cement Industry Purchase the complete Global Portland Cement Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-9665 Other Reports by DecisionDatabases.com: Global Fiber Cement Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 Global Calcium Aluminate Cement Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 Global White Cement Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 About-Us: DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains. Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed. For more details: DecisionDatabases.com E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.com Phone: +91 9028057900 Web: https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ Our father first came down with a cough and a fever, and then, on April 8, he was taken to the hospital after collapsing. The citys health care system was already overwhelmed, so he was sent back home. The next day, he received a diagnosis of Covid-19. Ten days after our father became ill, he was admitted to Mount Sinai West in Manhattan, a short walk from where two of my siblings and I live. And yet, he may as well have been in another state. Suddenly we had become one of the many families for whom Zoom and caring strangers became a link for loved ones. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/8/2020 (528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion U.S. President Donald Trump isnt the only one who frequently favours fiction over facts. In Canada, experts warn baseless COVID-19 conspiracy theories for example, that the virus is being spread to cover up the effects of 5G wireless technology are creating "a public health crisis." NASA An Apollo 17 lunar module pilot uses a sampling scoop to retrieve lunar samples. The conspiracy theory that the moon landings were faked is easily debunked, but it continues to persist with hardcore doubters. A study published in May at Carleton University indicated 46 per cent of Canadians believed at least one of four unfounded COVID-19 theories: the virus was engineered in a Chinese lab; the bogus 5G claim; drugs such as hydroxychloroquine can cure COVID-19 patients; or rinsing your nose with a saline solution can protect you from infection. Alison Meek, a history professor at Western University, told The Canadian Press public uncertainty around the scientific process, combined with mounting frustrations with lockdown measures and a struggling economy has created a perfect storm in which conspiracy theories can flourish. "All of those things are coming together right now to make these conspiracy theories a real public health crisis thats getting more and more difficult to deal with," Meek said. "People are dying because of these conspiracy theories and weve got to stop them. Weve got to somehow figure out how to challenge them." Its far from the first time bogus information has trumped facts, as we see from todays totally true list of Five of the Worlds Most Famous Conspiracy Theories: 5) The conspiracy theory: Area 51 and the alien invasion Fact vs. Fiction: It would be impossible to discuss conspiracy theories without mentioning Area 51, a highly classified United States Air Force facility located at Groom Lake in southern Nevada, about 134 kilometres from Las Vegas. The U.S. governments official name for Area 51 the moniker derives from its map designation is the Nevada Test and Training Range, which is a unit of the Nellis Air Force Base. It was created during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union as a testing and development facility for aircraft, including the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance planes. Although official information is sparse, it is believed that the U.S. military continues to use the 2.9 million acres of land to develop cutting-edge aircraft. But try telling that to conspiracy theorists, who famously insist that the remains of crashed UFO spacecrafts (and alien bodies) are stored at Area 51. Every year, fuelled by the intense secrecy surrounding the base, thousands of tourists flock to the area in hopes of catching a glimpse of the mysterious facility and the otherworldly craft they believe are housed there. Arguably the most popular UFO conspiracy is that in 1947 in Roswell, N.M., remains from a flying saucer that supposedly crashed were brought to Area 51 for reverse engineering experiments in order to replicate the extraterrestrial spacecraft. On Sept. 8, 1994, the U.S. Air Force issued a report stating the wreckage recovered in Roswell in July 1947, often referred to as the "Roswell Incident," consisted of a smashed part of the balloons, sensors and radar reflectors from a classified government project called Project Mogul. "Others claim to have seen UFOs above or near the site, while some say they have been abducted by aliens, and even experimented on, before being returned to Earth," the BBC reported. Members of the public are kept away by warning signs, electronic surveillance and armed guards and it is also illegal to fly over Area 51. The truth is out there. 4) The conspiracy theory: The 9/11 attacks were an inside job Fact vs. Fiction: Assuming you were alive, its impossible to forget where you were on Sept. 11, 2001. On that fateful day, four passenger planes were hijacked by radical Islamist terrorists almost 3,000 people were killed as the aircraft were flown into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. Within hours of the attacks, a wave of far-fetched conspiracy theories swept North America. The most outrageous of these theories proposed by so-called "truthers" was that the attacks were an "inside job," and that the U.S. government had a secret plan to line the twin towers of the World Trade Center with explosives to destroy the buildings and then blame it on Islamic terrorists. "There is NO WAY the impact of the jet caused such widespread damage 80 stories below," one "truther" posted online at the time. "It is OBVIOUS and irrefutable that OTHER EXPLOSIVES (... such as concussion bombs) HAD ALREADY BEEN DETONATED in the lower levels of tower one at the same time as the plane crash." Youd have to be a lunatic to believe that, right? Well, the opinion polls might surprise you. In 2006, a Scripps Howard poll found 10 per cent of Americans felt it was "somewhat likely" the collapse of the towers was secretly aided by explosives. In reality, subsequent investigations made it crystal clear that the towers were weakened by the inferno from the planes and felled by the weight of collapsing floors. Engineers cited "pancaking" for the collapse. "Once each tower began to collapse, the weight of all the floors above the collapsed zone bore down with pulverizing force on the highest intact floor. Unable to absorb the massive energy, that floor would fail, transmitting the forces to the floor below, allowing the collapse to progress downward through the building in a chain reaction," Popular Mechanics magazine noted. The "truthers" still dont buy it. 3) The conspiracy theory: The JFK Assassination 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. Fact vs. Fiction: When U.S. President John F. Kennedy was shot dead on Nov. 22, 1963, this columnist was parked in the front row of his Grade 1 classroom in West Vancouver listening to the horrible news crackle out of a tiny speaker suspended above the blackboard. Considering he was seven years old at the time, he (yes, Im talking about myself) insists he wasnt involved. But its unlikely conspiracy theorists would buy that excuse. Conspiracy theories have bloomed like wildflowers since the day JFK was felled by two bullets one in the head, one in the neck while riding in an open-topped limo through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination of the president, and, two days later, Oswald was killed on live television. A presidential commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren found that Oswald acted alone, but that didnt come close to satisfying conspiracy buffs, whose ranks seem to include a large chunk of the population, fanatics who gather at special symposiums to discuss their obsession. A 2003 ABC News poll found that 70 per cent of Americans believe Kennedys death was the result of a broader plot. Notes Time magazine: "Was Kennedy killed by CIA agents acting either out of anger over the Bay of Pigs or at the behest of Vice-President Lyndon Johnson? By KGB operatives? Mobsters mad at Kennedys brother for initiating the prosecution of organized crime rings? Speculation over one of historys most famous political assassinations is such a popular parlor game that most people have taken the rumors to heart: just 32 per cent of those polled by ABC believe Oswald carried out the killing on his own." In a 2018 study published in the journal Helios, Nicholas Nalli, senior research scientist at IMSG, Inc., created a model of the mechanics of the gunshot wound that proved the official record is correct and rejected notions JFK was shot from the "grassy knoll" in front of him. "The Zapruder film shows President Kennedy being shot from behind and not from the infamous grassy knoll, in corroboration of the official autopsy findings," Nalli said. "Thats the only smoking gun in the film." 2) The conspiracy theory: QAnon (the "Deep State") Fact vs. Fiction: The crazier the theory, the more tightly some people will cling to it. How else to explain the proliferation in recent years of QAnon, a wide-ranging, unfounded conspiracy theory that claims Donald Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping pedophiles in government, business and the media? "QAnon believers have speculated that this fight will lead to a day of reckoning where prominent people such as Hillary Clinton will be arrested and executed," the BBC reported last month. "Thats the basic story, but there are so many offshoots, detours and internal debates that the total list of QAnon claims is enormous and often contradictory." It all began in October 2017, when an anonymous user put a series of posts on the message board 4chan. The user signed off as "Q" and claimed to have a level of security approval known as "Q clearance." Its ludicrous, but its popularity seems to be growing. "Judging by social media, there are hundreds of thousands of people who believe in at least some of the bizarre theories offered up by QAnon," the BBC notes. "And its popularity hasnt been diminished by events which would seem to debunk the whole thing." Its main conspiracy theories claim dozens of politicians and A-list celebrities work in tandem with governments around the globe to engage in child sex abuse, and followers also believe there is a "deep state" effort to subvert Trump. Among the most absurd and patently false claims were that celebrities and VIPS such as Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, the Gateses and the Clintons, among others, were under house arrest for child-sex trafficking. QAnon spread a baseless suggestion in 2016 that a pizza parlour in D.C. was a front for a child sex ring, which led to a violent incident. In 2016, a deluded 28-year-old man opened fire inside the pizzeria claiming he believed he was rescuing child sex slaves. Notes CNN: "Theres no evidence that any of what QAnon claims is factual. Followers make unfounded claims and then amplify them with doctored or out-of-context evidence posted on social media to support the allegations." It would be laughable if it werent so potentially dangerous. 1) The conspiracy theory: The Moon Landings Were Faked Fact vs. Fiction: On July 20, 1969, the world looked on in awe as Apollo 11 astronauts took their first steps on the moon. It was a historic achievement or was it? While most of us were thrilled, a few hardcore doubters insist the "giant leap for mankind" was a "giant lie." Even though this conspiracy theory is easily debunked for instance, they brought back moon rocks that have been verified by science it continues to persist. Conspiracy fans allege the U.S. government, desperate to beat the Russians in the space race, faked the lunar landings, with Armstrong and Aldrin acting out their mission on a secret film set, located either in Hollywood or inside Area 51. "Far-fetched as the hoax theory may seem, a 1999 Gallup poll showed that its comparatively durable: six per cent of Americans said they thought the lunar landings were fake, and five per cent said they were undecided," notes time.com. Rick Feinberg, press officer for the American Astronomical Society, told history.com it would have involved deception on a grand scale. "About 400,000 scientists, engineers, technologists, machinists, electricians, worked on the Apollo program," Fienberg noted. "If in fact the main motivation for believing in the moon hoax is you dont trust the government, you dont trust our leaders, you dont trust authority, how can you feel that 400,000 people would keep their mouths shut for 50 years? Its just implausible." Doubters frequently note the U.S. flag Aldrin planted appears to ripple in the wind, when theres no wind on the moon. In fact, the flag dangled from a special rod and "the Apollo 11 astronauts had trouble extending the rod all the way, and in still pictures, this creates a ripple effect that makes the flag look like its waving in the wind," notes history.com. Also, their footprints on the moon and their landing site have been verified by other nations. In 2002, conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel badgered Aldrin and called him "a coward, and a liar, and a thief" to his face. Aldrin punched the guy in the nose. Now that was a great landing! doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca (Micah Fluellen / Los Angeles Times) In April, my mom passed away from uterine cancer at age 70. Like so many other deaths, it was shaped by a pandemic. My three brothers and I were not allowed to visit her in the hospital the month before she died. We could not comfort her as her cancer was rapidly spreading throughout her body and her kidneys were failing. Months later, like so many other families whove lost loved ones in the time of COVID-19, we were still struggling with how to grieve her death. How could we mourn when we couldn't gather? I didn't want a Zoom funeral. I wanted to honor her at a lovely celebration of life with all her favorite people on a sunny SoCal patio. I wanted stories, hugs and margaritas. I wanted to play her beloved Eagles and James Taylor songs and display photos of her big and full life. I imagined a table loaded with her favorite foods: Ruffles potato chips with onion dip, carne asada burritos, shrimp cocktail and rolls made from frozen Bridgford dough that we loved at every holiday. We had hoped to schedule such a celebration later this summer to coincide with our canceled family reunion in Ireland, yet as California backtracks on reopening, it appears such large gatherings won't be advisable any time soon. We were in the Land of Waiting. And frankly, no one knew what to do. Should we hold a small socially distanced service? Do we keep texting Lets circle back in a few weeks to relatives who asked if they should buy plane tickets? At the same time, other relatives were still posting daily photos of their quarantine cooking. We are meant to mourn with others. As the pandemic stretched on, I feared something would be lost if we kept postponing her party. Would it become less meaningful over time? Would delaying interrupt the grief process? And if we did resort to Zoom in the meantime, would people still come to the real celebration? A few days after her death, a neighbor recommended that I join Los Angeles grief expert David Kesslers online support group created in March on Facebook because people could no longer meet in traditional grief groups. So I reached out to see if he had any advice on how to navigate this new cultural terrain. Story continues Dont wait, he said. Delaying goes against our human nature to acknowledge such an important loss. Death needs to be marked in real time, when the moment is most intense. Theres something important about the fact that their life ended, said Kessler, author of Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. Clearly, we dont know what the future looks like and whether we have a second [COVID-19] wave, and you dont want to not mark it. Kessler suggested doing something small now, such as a family dinner, and something bigger later. Zooming counts, but he added that people should establish guidelines to set a reverent tone. You want to avoid this scenario: The Zoom service in which one participant showed up in a sloppy tank top and another signed on while stapling papers at work. I was also curious if there was special advice for people whose parent died of cancer during a pandemic and called Bronwen Jones, an interfaith chaplain at Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute. She said visitor and traveling restrictions had robbed many families of the chance to say goodbye. This is a disconcerting shift were witnessing, she said. I know that my family was extremely lucky. Unlike the heart-wrenching stories of families uttering last words via FaceTime, we were able to bring my mom home from the hospital with the help of hospice and spend her final three days stroking her head and holding her hands. But we lost the chance to talk to her about death, even when we were hoping she had enough life left to try a new treatment. Jones says those final weeks of a patients life are an important time when family members get the courage to have intimate hard conversations. You cant have those when you cant visit, she said. She advised me to set a celebration of life date in the hopes we could one day gather as a group. What was critical was to get one on the books, even for next spring, for example, to mark the first anniversary of her death. People will feel better because its no longer uncertain, she said. In the meantime, she recommended carving out some private grieving time to process her death and said this is especially important when the death is unexpected. Theres a lot of room for creativity with these soothing rituals too. You can light a candle during significant moments, play a loved ones favorite music, call people and share memories or find surprise meaning in nature my mom visiting me in the form of a monarch butterfly, for example. You just want to find a way to bring her into your heart so you dont feel alone, she suggested. Then she echoed what I had been suspecting all along: Having that gift of time was an unexpected blessing. There is grace in these quiet solemn days. Unlike my grandmothers death, after which we were overwhelmed with a crush of obligations, including shopping for her casket outfit the day before her funeral, Ive loved not feeling in a rush. Theres something good about taking your time. Let it sit, said Jones. Youre not waiting to mourn. Youre already mourning. Her celebration of life is now set for April. And yet it feels so far away. A few weeks ago, I sent out an email asking about 20 family members to join my brothers and me via Zoom. The hourlong service had all the awkwardness of our new virtual reality: Participants were periodically frozen. My uncle never figured out the mute button. Zoom randomly logged me off in the middle of my eulogy at the most poignant moment, and it felt strange not to be able to see or hear other peoples reactions during my brothers beautiful slide show. But it brought surprising comfort. I needed to see the gallery view of relatives from across the country who had set aside time to collectively say: We loved Jennifer Richards, and we are so very sad that she is gone. It was enough. For now. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Pakistan court orders 14-y-o Christian girl to return to Muslim man who kidnapped her Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A 14-year-old Christian girl was in tears after a judge ordered her to return to the Muslim man who abducted her at gunpoint during the COVID-19 lockdown and forcibly married and converted her to Islam. Catholic teenager Maira Shahbaz, who was abducted in April, had recently been allowed by a lower court to leave her captors home and stay at a womens shelter until her case was heard by the Lahore High Court. However, Judge Raja Muhammad Shahid Abbasi ruled this week that she must return to the home of the married man who kidnapped her, and who the judge referred to as her "husband," on the basis that she had converted to Islam, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern. Witnesses said they saw Maira in tears in the court after the verdict on Tuesday, according to the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. With this ruling, no Christian girl in Pakistan is safe, a family friend and advocate, Lala Robin Daniel, was quoted as saying. The order is unprecedented and will likely mean Maria will never return to her family, Shazia George, a Pakistani human rights activist, told ICC. The decision to make a child bride stay with her abductor will add more misery to the case. Courts must ensure that the victims of forced conversion and child marriage are able to have their statements recorded without any duress or threat so perpetrators are brought to justice. The Christian girl was abducted at gunpoint by Mohamad Nakash and two accomplices while she was walking home in the Madina Town area in Faisalabad District. According to witnesses, the abductors forced Shahbaz into a car and fired gunshots into the air as they fled the scene, ICC reported earlier. Nakash, a married man, was recently accused of presenting a false marriage certificate to the lower court that said Maira was 19 years old and they had wed in October 2019. The document not only failed to provide proof of consent from Nakashs first wife, with whom he has two children, but the Muslim cleric whose name is listed on the certificate had denied involvement in the sham marriage. After Marias mother presented her daughters birth certificate to the lower court as proof that she was underage, Faisalabad District and Sessions Judge Rana Masood ordered that Maira be allowed to leave Nakashs home and be placed in a womens refuge, known as Dar ul Aman, until the Lahore High Court heard her case. Mairas family lawyer Lala Daniel, earlier said that had Maira been ordered to stay in Nakashs home, she might have been forced to become a sex worker. A 2014 study by The Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan estimated that about 1,000 women and girls from Pakistans Hindu and Christian community were abducted, forcibly married to their captor, and forcibly converted to Islam every year. The issue of religion is also often injected into cases of sexual assault to place religious minority victims at a disadvantage, ICC said. Playing upon religious biases, perpetrators know they can cover up and justify their crimes by introducing an element of religion. The U.S. State Department has designated Pakistan as a country of particular concern for engaging in or tolerating egregious and systemic abuses of religious freedom. Pakistan has also been ranked as the fifth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List. BUCHAREST -- When she was growing up in a small town in southern Romania, Laura Voicila was stigmatized by her fathers past. In 1949, as the communists tightened their grip on the Eastern European country, Nicolaie Voicila, 17, was arrested and later sentenced to four years of hard labor for plotting against the social order. His crime was joining a literary club at which members discussed the relatively new communist regime led by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and hoped it would disappear. The high school student was one of the thousands the communists incarcerated in prisons and labor camps after World War II, often simply because they had fallen afoul of the communist regime. There are no universally accepted figures, but a 2006 presidential commission established to study the communist dictatorship said more than 600,000 Romanians were sentenced for political crimes between 1945 and 1989. Thousands died from beatings, illness, exhaustion, cold, or lack of food or medicine. Early Days Of Communism Andrei Muraru, a historian and adviser to Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, told RFE/RL that in the early 1950s some 100,000 prisoners were sentenced to hard labor on a project called the Black Sea Canal, a 70-kilometer waterway connecting the Danube to the Black Sea. It was also known as the "Canal of Death." Voicila toiled there, transporting heavy loads of rock before he was sent to work restoring a casino, an architectural monument to art nouveau in the nearby port of Constanta that had been bombed by the Germans during the war. He didnt talk much about those experiences after his release -- actually being forbidden from talking about his imprisonment -- and his fear of discussing those hard times lingered even after communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was ousted and executed during the 1989 Romanian Revolution. But he did tell family members that political prisoners had scribbled notes and buried them in the walls of the casino. When I was growing up, Dad told us: When they renovate the casino, go there and find the documents, Laura Voicila told RFE/RL. "Under communism, we discussed things very quietly and never in public," she said. "Dad listened to Radio Free Europe and I would say 'Dad, what are they saying in Germany (RFE was based in Munich from 1950-1995)? I even remember the jingle [that went with the news]." Secret Note At school in the town of Gorgota, Laura had top grades, but her fathers past meant she suffered discrimination. My teacher told me: You should be the class leader, but we cant make you one, she said. "[My father] told me to study and to leave the country if I wanted a chance [in life]." Laura kept the story about the hidden notes in the back of her mind, until one day in May this year. Her mother called saying she had seen on the news that restorers had unearthed a scrap of paper hidden in a wall of the casino that was signed by political prisoners. When my mom heard a note had been found, she said You have to go and see it. She was moved to tears. It was a moment of moral reparation for her [after nearly 70 years]. People saw [the note] was there and it was real, she told RFE/RL. In mid-May, after Romania lifted a state of emergency imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Laura went with Apollon Cristodulo -- the son of Ion Cristodulo, an architect and political prisoner in charge of restoring the casino -- to Constanta to see the note firsthand. The note -- a scrap of paper torn from a cement sack with the names of 17 political prisoners written in charcoal and dated December 31, 1951 -- is not much in itself, were it not for the dire circumstances that it was created under and its historical importance. "It was found rolled up in a ball by a stained-glass window restorer. He was looking for some old shards of glass in the wall and he came across the paper. He felt there was something [special] about it," Apollon Cristodulo said on July 23. It was miraculous that this note was found, he said. I wrote about the [hidden note at the] casino many years ago, but nobody believed it; they thought it was just a story, a legend. But now everything Ive written has come true. Cristodulo's father died in 1991 aged 66, his health damaged by the harsh years of detention. His heart, liver, and lungs were all shot. He died after his fourth heart attack," Cristodulo told RFE/RL. Romania's Political Prisons Muraru, the former director of the governmental Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes, secured the first ever prosecutions of former prison commanders in Romania. Alexandru Visinescu, who was in charge of the notorious Ramnicu Sarat prison, was sentenced in 2016 to 20 years in jail for the deaths of 12 prisoners at the institution. One year later, Ioan Ficior received the same term for crimes against humanity for his role in the deaths of 103 prisoners at the Periprava labor camp. Both have since died serving their sentences. Muraru said the fact that the detainees managed to write the note was remarkable. This is a rare piece of testimony because prisoners didnt have access to paper or pencils, butthere was less supervision and the presence of ordinary workers and more humane figures who could provide them with something to write with, and that made it possible for this scrap of paper to be secreted away and put [in the wall]," he told RFE/RL. It took decades for the traumatic memory of communism to finally settle, he added. Alexandra Toader, the current director of the institute said: After 70 years, we have material confirmation of what happened [at the casino]. She said the Securitate communist secret police conducted excavations at the casino in 1986 and may have found other documents which were archived, something Cristodulo also thinks is likely. We have 26 kilometers of Securitate archives, a sea of documents; but Im not sure whether they are digitized or documented, Toader told RFE/RL. The institute will hold an exhibition at the casino dedicated exclusively to this episode, she said. Hopefully we can obtain objects they used, letters they wrote to their families, their tools. Researchers are investigating the estimated 100 prisoners who worked on the casino, tracking down biographical information to try to find out what happened to them. Most prisoners were there for the flimsiest of reasons and they were there for years on end regardless of their age, Toader said. "It was a pretext to get rid of the so-called 'enemies of the people.'" Cristodulo told RFE/RL that the documents about the Black Sea Canal are still classified by the secret service. There were 100,000 people who carried out forced laborthe documents need to be declassified, he said. Harsh Conditions Nicolaie Voicila, who died in 1999 at the age of 66, dreamed of becoming an architect but the communists wouldnt let him complete his education. He managed to qualify as a sub-engineer and became the manager of a cement site, forever inspired by the work he had done with the architects on the casino. But he was traumatized his entire life by his past as a prisoner. "He wasnt allowed to speak or write down what happened and he thought theyd come and get him, so he had a lack of trust," Laura Voicila said. "He didnt trust people. He thought maybe a neighbor would find out about his past and hed be in trouble." He did tell us that when he worked on the canal, prisoners were beaten and others [were forced] to eat feces, she said. Prisoners had to transport rocks and theyd walk along a 30-40 centimeter piece of wood over the canal with a wheelbarrow full of rubble. And if a prisoner fell off, nobody bothered to rescue him, Laura Voicila said. There are many human bones buried in that canal, she said. Muraru added that it is known as the Romanian Siberia. Disappointment The collapse of communism failed to bring the changes that Nicolaie Voicila and many others had hoped for. He realized the old communists had come to power and he lost hope hed ever see real democracy, the 42-year-old Laura Voicila, who runs a family fruit and vegetable supply business, said. "He saw miners attacking anti-government protesters in 1990 and he said: 'You see? People are being beaten and killed. Its still the same old people.'" Its a sentiment shared by Paul Andreescu, the head of the Association of Former Political Prisoners in Constanta. Andreescu was a political prisoner for five years because he joined a youth organization that wanted to free Romania from the Russians and their demands, such as making Russian a mandatory language at school and learning the history of the Soviet Union, he told RFE/RL. We are free, but far from what we dreamed of and what we had hoped for in 1989. As head of the Constanta branch, Andreescu said: "Its very important we have this proof [of the note from the casino], even if there are just a few names. They show the ugly past of the Romanian people, when people had to perform forced labor under all kinds of conditions." He added: They are witnesses, even if they are buried in a wall. A Warning Toader says its important that Romania knows its past. This subject is still largely unknown in schools and books, and detainees didnt speak of their detention; even their memoirs are truncated out of fear or an attempt to forget, she said. This is very relevant for the young generation, as some are nostalgic about communism, she said in an interview at her Bucharest office. Extremes cant be allowed, neither left nor right. The rule of law must prevail. In 2018, Mount Pleasant resident Bruce Berg sued the government of the Netherlands in an effort to recover 144 paintings that once were part of the inventory of an important art gallery, Firma D. Katz, located in the Dutch city of Dieren and operated by his grandfather and great-uncle. Benjamin and Nathan Katz were important German art dealers in the 1930s and 40s who focused on the Dutch masters and who sold most of their paintings to the Nazis in an effort to save the lives of 25 relatives. The Dutch government argued that the art was sold fairly and that it now is part of the countrys national treasure trove and of terrific value to the Dutch people. Berg, in his suit, argued that fairness did not exist in Nazi Germany, that any transaction with Nazis, no matter its appearance on paper, must have been made under duress, and that the art rightfully belongs to his family. Last week, it was announced that the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina Charleston Division, was dismissed on legal technicalities, granting a victory to the Dutch. U.S. District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks agreed in March to dismiss the case, Berg v. The Kingdom of the Netherlands, because the federal court in South Carolina lacked subject matter and personal jurisdiction, meaning it could not rightly rule on an international matter involving a sovereign foreign state and disputed artwork that did not reside in South Carolina. The court determined the Netherlands and its state-run institutions are "entitled to sovereign immunity." On March 30, Berg and his Texas-based attorneys, Rebecca Gibson and Joel Androphy, asked the court to alter or amend its judgment issued earlier that month, but the motion was denied in mid-June. This is one of the most interesting cases Ive worked on, and Im glad we were able to get a good result for our client, said Jim Myrick, an attorney with the Womble Bond Dickinson firm, one of three representing the Netherlands and its institutions. We were pleased with the thoroughness of the courts analysis. Berg said he planned to pursue his claim. Gibson and Androphy said they will appeal the case to the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va., in September. They expect a response from the appellate court during the winter. Were all passionate, and thats why were still pursuing it, Androphy said. And thats why well pursue it to the Supreme Court if we have to. ... You wouldnt think that a family whose art was stolen during World War II would have this much of a battle. He said that in similar cases involving Nazi loot, the courts have tended to side with autonomous countries with a claim to the art in their possession. You get a sense that what should be propriety personal issues are political issues, he said. In this case, defendants include the Netherlands government, state institutions and private museums. Jury trials involving the Netherlands are not allowed, the attorneys said. But they are not ruling out a bifurcated case, in which a jury could hear arguments involving private institutions, leaving state-related issues to a judge. Berg has said his great-uncle and grandfather were able to strike a deal with the Nazis in 1942. In exchange for Rembrandts Portrait of a Man the Germans would permit 25 members of the Katz family to leave the country (65 others were left behind to perish in the concentration camps). Another work of art was traded for the life of the Katz brothers mother, who had been confined in a deportation camp. None of this bargaining would have occurred absent a Nazi threat, Berg and his lawyers said. Portrait of a Man eventually was returned to the family after a legal battle and donated to the Los Angeles County Museum. French authorities have opened a murder investigation after a 30-year-old corpse was found in a basement during renovations of a Parisian mansion. Families of the deceased pilots of the Express plane that crashed have been escorted to Kozhikode, the airline said on Saturday. It said the number of fatalities in the plane crash at the Kozhikode airport in Kerala on Friday evening stands at 18. The family of deceased pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe has been duly escorted from Mumbai to Kozhikode, Kerala, it said in a statement. The family was escorted to the hospital where Sathe's mortal remains were kept for post-mortem, it added. The airline said the family of deceased co-pilot Captain Akhilesh Kumar had already been escorted from Delhi to Kozhikode by its officials and the 'Angels of Air India', which is a special assistance team. Pilot-in-command Sathe was an experienced Boeing 737-800 aircraft pilot and had earlier also flown Airbus A310 aircraft, the airline said. "He had also won the Sword of Honour at the Air Force Academy in Hyderabad and was an accomplished fighter pilot before becoming a commercial pilot," it noted. At 7.40 pm on Friday, the Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport in Kerala in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two, killing at least 18 people. (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.) Syria's state TV says 43 Syrian citizens were killed in this week's blast in Beirut. The TV quotes the Syrian embassy in Lebanon as saying that the number is not final as search operations for dozens of missing are still ongoing. Lebanon is home to more than a million Syrians many of them refugees who fled civil war in their country. A Lebanese health ministry official said on Saturday that the blast killed 154 people, including 21 bodies who have not been identified. He added that 45 people are still missing. Search Keywords: Short link: In a major speech last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo all but declared China to be an enemy of the United States. America, he said, needed a new strategy for dealing with China that protects our way of life and that the free world must triumph over this new tyranny. A sober analysis, however, confirms that we are not under any such threat, and in fact remain in a dominant positionso long as we enact logical and responsible policies. As I've argued in a recently released report for Defense Priorities, "Responsibly competing with China," Sino-American relations may demand competition, but conflict canand shouldbe avoided. Thats not to suggest China is benign or impotent. They have undergone a multi-decade economic and military modernization that has seen them rise to become the worlds second largest economy and a potent regional military power. No one should be surprised they are using that increased leverage to pursue their interests more assertively in Asia and beyond. China has also taken increasingly controversial and in some cases provocative actions that have justly raised some alarm. Over the past few years they have militarized artificial islands in South China Sea, have imposed a restrictive new National Security Law in Hong Kong, and continue threatening force to reunify with Taiwan. Many analysts argue that these developments translate into global military threats that must be counteredand to them, that means tempering China by the threat of American military power. But while Chinas economic and diplomatic evolution has a global reach, its military development has been of a decidedly local and regional nature. Chinas armed forces are primarily focused on two related objectives: 1) building the capacity to make good on their long-standing threat to reunify Taiwan by force, and 2) on deterring the U.S. from intervening militarily on behalf of Taiwan. They are building assault ships, beach landing craft, and missile forces to make an invasion of Taiwan possible, and have engaged in constructing considerable anti-access, area-denial (A2/AD) defensive belts to prevent American attacks against the Chinese homeland. What they havent done up to this point, however, is create the physical ability to project sufficient power abroad for territorial conquest. This makes sense, because unlike the United States that is blessed by being bordering two vast oceans and two friendly countries, China is in a far more vulnerable position. China shares a land border with 14 countries and littoral seas with several more. These include nuclear powers such as Russia, India, North Korea, and Pakistan, and potent regional powers like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Beijing is far more concerned with regional security than in launching into territorial conquest elsewhere. Conquest and occupation are difficult and expensive, even in relatively weak states, as the U.S. learned to its harm in Iraq and continues to suffer in Afghanistan. The Chinese Communist Party leadership more than has its hands full trying to maintain local and regional security and remains far more interested in developing its economy than in any consideration of threatening to attack other countries around the world, much less the United States. American policymakers should predicate all their economic and military objectives on the basis of doing what maximizes our strengths, takes advantage of our adversaries weaknesses, and ensures American prosperity and security at a prudent cost. Especially regarding China, that means recognizing our interests sometimes align, sometimes diverge, and sometimes dont intersectU.S. policy should reflect that reality. The U.S. should find ways to compete where necessary while preserving the ability to cooperate in areas of mutual concern. What doesnt help achieve our objectives, however, is taking the unnecessarily confrontational approach laid out last month by Pompeo. Taken with increasing U.S. Navy patrols in contested waters near China, sanctioning Chinese leaders, and issuing public demands to a nuclear power about how they must behave, we can expect more obstinate and retaliatory behavior from China, not less confrontational and benign. The U.S. should be pressing China on the diplomatic and economic fronts to redress intellectual property rights issues, rely on our existing powerful military deterrent, and encourage our regional partners to bolster their own defenses via the same anti-access, area denial (A2/AD) strategies adopted by China. Continued U.S. preeminence in world affairs depends on wise policy and the conservation of U.S. power, rather than expending it in an excessive and ultimately counterproductive competition with China. By needlessly confronting China everywhere, the U.S. will exhaust itselfdiverting enormous sums attempting to contain Beijing in its own backyard and increase the risk of direct conflict with a nuclear-armed state. Daniel L. Davis is a Senior Fellow for Defense Priorities and a former Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army who retired in 2015 after 21 years, including four combat deployments. He is the author of Responsibly competing with China, a new report on U.S.-China relations. Follow him @DanielLDavis1. The views expressed are the author's own. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Cloudy skies. Morning high of 31F with temps falling to near 20. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph.. Tonight Considerable clouds early. Some decrease in clouds late. Low 8F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph. London Some 4,000 British Airways workers are learning Friday whether they will be fired as the airline slashes jobs amid the drop in demand and travel restrictions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. The trade union Unite accused the airline of forcing workers out due to "naked company greed." British Airways employees who keep their jobs face pay cuts. "This is a very bleak day for the incredible BA workforce and will go down in the history of the airline as the day that it put the interests of the boardroom ahead of its passengers and workforce," Unite Assistant Secretary General Howard Beckett said. "These workers have given years of dedicated service to this company, some as many as 40 years, and indeed to our country, as many were involved in the repatriation of British citizens at the outset of this pandemic. "Today they will be dismissed by email by an employer whose spiteful mistreatment of them is nothing other than despicable," he said. Unions argue that while pilots were able to negotiate a deal that avoided massive job losses, others such as engineers, cabin crew members and airport workers were not given the same offer. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. British Airways said Unite and another union, GMB, failed to attend consultation meetings during the past three months. British Airways said in a statement: "We are having to make difficult decisions and take every possible action now to protect as many jobs as possible." It's been some roller coast ride for the new government's first month in office and we can all take a break now to draw breath as the Dail closes for a month. To the fore in many eye catching statements has been Fianna Fail TD for Sligo/Leitrim, Marc MacSharry. He has enjoyed a fairly large presence in the national media over the past few weeks with his statements on various topics be it the cost of hosting the Dail at the National Convention Centre to his views on governance in the FAI to his latest on the performance or rather lack of it of certain public servants during the Covid-19 crisis. Speaking on Friday as the storm blew up over his latest comments, Deputy MacSharry, overlooked by party leader Micheal Martin for a cabinet seat, was fairly stoic about it all. "I know my comments were very strong and I won't be popular for doing it but if I wanted to be popular I'd have have been an independent a long time ago or else I'd have joined Sinn Fein," he told The Sligo Champion. "I feel it just needed to be said," he stresses as he muses over what he called what a lot of paraphrasing on social media over what he has said. Lazy civil servants lying on the couch at home watching boxsets instead of their job was the basic cohort of the message most people took from his words in the Dail. "It certainly doesn't apply to everyone but it needed to be said. Sure, it was evocative and it provoked quite a reaction but I have had no problem with people in the public service as they have done over the past couple of days contacting me about it to clarify what I said," he said. He reiterated his view that while acknowledging the hard work of many civil servants who have gone beyond the call of duty during the Covid-19 crisis that there were others who were "swinging the lead" and were using the pandemic as significant cover for that. This was also the case in the private sector, he added. Deputy MacSharry said he had no problem with the public service working from home remotely across a range of State agencies and Departments but he could cite several examples where basic responses weren't even forthcoming. He also questioned the sheer number of Department closures which he said went beyond the health advice. Thousands had returned to work in other sectors and he didn't see why personal contact in the various Departments and State agencies could not return too. And, he stressed he won't be taking a six week holiday even though the Dail has adjourned for that period. His remarks that some in the public sector were "using this situation as cover to lie on the couch and watch box sets, returning an odd call here and there and doing the maximum of the minimum to tick over during this period" were certainly stinging and drew much national coverage. He also stated that he had recent dealings "where no-one will be back in that office until the end of August," he said. Interestingly, the Department of Public Expenditure issued a circular on Thursday informing all public servants that they must return to their place of work in order to 'provide the most effective and efficient services to the public.' In a defence posted on Facebook, Deputy MacSharry said his remarks were approximately 12 minutes in length and related to a number of different points. "The relevant piece arose in offering praise for the extraordinary efforts of some in the public service in particular those working on the social protection side. (It was a social welfare bill). "It gives me no pleasure to say it but there are some others even many others who are choosing to coast along during the covid crisis. "I can provide examples of this from my personal dealings and indeed calls to our own office where public service performance has dropped off and not been what people expect. "My remarks clearly do not apply to those working very hard of which there are many it applies exclusively to those who are not. "In addition the level of restrictions being implemented, office closures and so on that are being applied here in the Oireachtas, Government Departments, State agencies and within some parts of local authorities are in some instances away beyond the public health advice and frankly in my experience and that of quite a number of citizens who have been in contact over the last number of months this is being used as cover for coasting along. "I have no doubt and am grateful for the inordinate efforts of many who are working extremely hard without remuneration or even appreciation commensurate with their efforts and so no doubt the remarks do not apply to those. "The 'box sets' remark was and is a figure of speech. Evocative language for sure. "In making the remarks I knew it would be met with disappointment and anger from those hard working within our public services but it needed to be said and I very much hope it brings appropriate focus on those who are not pulling their weight." He added that he was sorry offence had been caused to some and was more than happy to discuss further if anyone wished. The criticism of his remarks was swift and angry. Secretary of the Sligo/Leitrim Council of Trade Unions, Ciaran Campbell said the comments were both distasteful and unnecessary, "and as some of our highest-paid public servants, politicians should not use the safe and secure confines of the Dail to launch the most reprehensible attacks on workers who have no lee-way to respond and thus defend themselves against such scurrilous comments". "Deputy MacSharry's unfortunate and unforgivable Dail performance failed to deliver any evidence of what he was alleging other than some sort of personal anecdote, and he had the gall to suggest that one set of workers productivity was not only different to others but further boasted of his and his fellow politician's productivity levels." Pat Fallon, Chairperson of the Sligo-Leitrim Council of Trade Unions added, "politicians must understand that this pandemic should not be used as justification to berate workers, no matter what sector they are operating in. "In the past number of months, workers from both the public and private sectors have kept this country functioning, and such attacks should not be used as an attempt to cause division amongst workers in different sectors. "This pandemic has affected us all in so many different ways, and there's no doubt will continue to negatively impact for some considerable time. "It remains a fact that those workers, who are in the main low paid, are on precarious and very insecure contracts and poor terms and conditions, are the very workers that have kept this country afloat and operating. "In the early days of this pandemic, we saw politicians applaud frontline workers, in both the public and private sectors. Was this simply publicity-seeking? "We believe politicians should lead by example and show respect for all workers, with clear actions by increasing the minimum wage rate to the living wage, improve access to representation and create a space for real industrial relations mechanisms to protect workers from all sectors." SIPTU Deputy General Secretary for the Public Service, John King, said: "Deputy MacSharry's comments clearly demonstrate a fundamental lack of appreciation and understanding of the efforts made by hundreds of thousands of public servants who have worked around the clock to stop the spread of the coronavirus from day one of the outbreak. "SIPTU members in the public service are not only on the frontline of our hospitals and emergency services but have kept essential community services going throughout the crisis, are playing a pivotal role in contact tracing and testing, are volunteering to deliver essential goods to our most vulnerable and are processing record numbers of social protection payments. He added: "Our members are demanding Deputy MacSharry listens to the advice of his parliamentary colleagues in Fianna Fail and other parties, withdraws his comments, apologises and puts an end to this kind of misleading rhetoric that only serves to divide public and private sector workers at a time when the economic recovery of the country requires unity and solidarity." Sligo MEP Chris MacManus said to accuse hard working people of laziness as the Dail commenced a six week break after just one month's work was incredulous and unhelpful. "That Deputy MacSharry then subsequently described his own comments as 'evocative' and as 'a figure of speech' added insult to injury. I have been contacted by numerous public servants who rightfully feel aggrieved at the remarks". "As public representatives we have a respon sibility to avoid making sweeping hurtful judgements based on anecdotal evidence. If Deputy MacSharry's comments were indeed made on tangible evidence then he should clarify his remarks and bring the evidence he has to the superiors of those he is accusing of watching box-sets." Deputy Martin Kenny also joined in the criticism. Sushant Singh Rajput (File image: PTI) The Bihar Police's investigation into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput had progressed well until it got stymied on August 2, said IPS officer Vinay Tiwari who visited Mumbai on that date to lead the probe but ended up being quarantined by municipal authorities. Upon his return to Patna late Friday night, Tiwari, who is posted as the SP City (East), however, declined to spill the beans on the findings of the investigation carried out by his team asserting that doing so would be "inappropriate". "I had duly informed my counterparts in Mumbai about my official tour. I had sought accommodation and requisitioned a vehicle. Since my visit and its purpose were well known, people from the media approached me with their questions at the airport itself to which I replied," Tiwari told reporters upon his arrival at the airport. The IPS officer, who was released from quarantine on Friday, remarked with disappointment that despite intimation about his tour "nobody came to the airport to receive me". "Nonetheless, I checked into a guest house and then went out to meet members of my team, who had been in the city since July 27, and take stock of the investigation. At around 10 pm, I received a call from BMC authorities who spoke about the need to quarantine me. As a law abiding person, I returned to the guest house and extended my cooperation," Tiwari said. "It is for all to see that a few visitors to Mumbai, where so many people reach every day, are quarantined in this fashion. Even my four subordinates were not placed in quarantine. Now, try to make sense of that," he remarked wryly. The four junior rank officials had returned from Mumbai on Thursday. Tiwari, however, hastened to add that he did not wish to take personal affront for being quarantined and pointed out that "it was our constitutional right and obligation to carry out an investigation into the FIR lodged in Patna. Things moved fine till August 2 after which everything got derailed". To prying queries whether his investigation sensed any connivance of the Mumbai Police with actress Rhea Chakraborty, accused by Rajput's father of abetting his son's suicide, Tiwari said, "I would not say anything on that. It would be inappropriate to do so." "But I must add, our investigation had progressed at great speed in 10 days and had moved in the right direction," he concluded. The case filed by the deceased actor's father K K Singh at Rajiv Nagar police station has now been taken over by the CBI, upon a recommendation of the state government which acted on a request to the effect by the complainant to DGP Gupteshwar Pandey. Pandey, who had fumed at the forced quarantine of the young IPS officer, terming it a "house arrest", was among those who were at the airport at the unearthly hour to receive Tiwari. No confirmed cases exist anywhere in the world of school pupils passing on Covid to their teachers, an expert has said. All the available evidence points to children being poor spreaders of the virus, said Professor Mark Woolhouse, who cast doubt on the theory that reopening schools will trigger a deadly second wave. Last week, a modelling forecast published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health warned that opening schools across the UK in September could lead to a tsunami of new cases, more than twice the size of the first wave. But Prof Woolhouse said a second study published in the medical journal the same day, which found infected children in Australian schools had passed the virus on to hardly anyone, had been largely ignored. During the first wave, 15 schools and ten nurseries in the state of New South Wales reported 27 cases where children or staff had attended while infectious with Covid-19. Fifteen of these index cases were staff and 12 were children. The unions will have felt emboldened to speak out by last weeks modelling study, by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and University College London (UCL) These 12 children were in close contact with 103 staff, found contact tracers. Only one of them was discovered to have passed the virus on to a member of staff in a single instance, although this is understood to have occurred in a nursery. Nor did infected children pass the virus on to their classmates to any great degree, with that happening in only two of 649 close contacts a virus attack rate of just 0.3 per cent. By contrast, the 15 infected staff members passed it on to 4.4 per cent of colleagues who were close contacts (to seven out of 160). Prof Woolhouse, head of infectious disease epidemiology at Edinburgh University, said: Science progresses by people publishing research. So what we do as carefully as we possibly can is scan whats been published in the literature to see if there are any reported cases, in this case of a child transmitting to a teacher in the classroom. The fact that there arent any that we can find, and there still arent, doesnt mean that its not possible in principle and doesnt mean that it wont happen on occasion. 'But it does suggest that out of all the ways that we see and have found this virus to transmit and remember, there are thousands and thousands of transmission events that have been inferred [from contact tracing] out of all those thousands, still we cant find a single one involving a child transmitting to a teacher in a classroom. He added: Even if this virus doesnt spread easily among the children, it certainly will spread among staff if it gets the opportunity. 'The evidence so far is that the most dangerous room in the school is not the classroom, its the staff room. So schools need to pay attention to that, and not take their eye off the right ball. Prof Woolhouse, head of infectious disease epidemiology at Edinburgh University, said: Science progresses by people publishing research' Prof Woolhouse advises the Government on coronavirus as a member of the Scientific Pandemic Group on Modelling (SPI-M), although he stressed he was speaking in a personal capacity. His comments come amid renewed calls for caution by teaching unions, with the National Education Union urging schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and to refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe. The unions will have felt emboldened to speak out by last weeks modelling study, by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and University College London (UCL). Academics concluded reopening schools without improving contact tracing could trigger a second wave up to 2.3 times the size of the first, leading to 250,000 more deaths. Prof Woolhouse said that apocalyptic outcome was highly unlikely given the current evidence. He added: Im slightly worried that, just through an accident of timing, schools will get blamed for pushing the R number over 1. But all activity can contribute to R rising, not just schools. Boris Johnson says reopening schools next month is a 'moral duty' and a 'national priority' as he takes on the teaching unions By Glen Owen, Political Editor For The Mail on Sunday Boris Johnson today throws down the gauntlet to union leaders blocking the return of pupils to classrooms by insisting the country has a moral duty to reopen schools next month. In an exclusive article for The Mail on Sunday, the Prime Minister declares that a resumption of normal teaching is now his national priority. The rallying cry will further crank up the political pressure over the issue, which is fast becoming a totemic test of the Governments ability to reboot the economy and move the country safely out of lockdown. Mr Johnson writes: Now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so. The rallying cry will further crank up the political pressure over the issue, which is fast becoming a totemic test of the Governments ability to reboot the economy and move the country safely out of lockdown Pupils were sent home at the start of lockdown in March, and only the children of key workers have been able to enjoy a measure of normal classroom teaching since then. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has come under intense pressure as critics warned that the lay-off was widening the educational divide between rich and poor, and preventing many parents from returning to the workplace. Mr Johnsons words come after Dr Mary Bousted, head of the National Education Union, urged schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has come under intense pressure as critics warned that the lay-off was widening the educational divide between rich and poor, and preventing many parents from returning to the workplace Many parents have been angered after schools told them they will educate their children only until lunchtime on at least one day of the week, on the grounds that they need time to implement extra safety requirements such as deep cleaning and staggered break times. In other developments: This newspaper has established that there has not been single case of a pupil infecting a teacher with the virus anywhere in the world; New research laid bare the damaging educational impact on pupils who have missed schooling during the lockdown; The coronavirus death toll rose by 55 yesterday, to 46,556, compared to a rise of 74 last Saturday, while 758 new infections were reported, 13 fewer than a week ago; Scientific advisers warned that the UK-wide reproduction rate, R, is between 0.8 and 1.0, the point at which the virus starts spreading exponentially again; Oxford University researchers developing a vaccine were embroiled in an ethics row about whether to deliberately infect human volunteers and warned that although there was a 50 per cent chance of a jab being available next year, it was likely to be only partially effective and carry side-effects; A survey found that barely half of the adult population is committed to being immunised against Covid-19; France is on the brink of joining the list of countries from where British travellers will have to go into quarantine upon their return; Young people in Preston were being urged dont kill Granny as the city was subjected to new lockdown measures following a spike in infections; Up to 16 children and staff were forced to isolate at home after a coronavirus outbreak at a nursery in Bury, which has also been put into local lockdown. The Prime Minister stressed the importance of getting all children back in school in September during a series of No 10 meetings last week, emphasising his expectation that education should be the absolutely last sector to be asked to close in local lockdowns with businesses such as shops, pubs and restaurants forced to close first. In his article, Mr Johnson argues that it is crucial for their welfare, their health and for their future that children should return to the classrooms full-time. He writes: We can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it. He spoke of the uplifting sight as millions of parents rose to the challenge of educating their children amid the added pressures of lockdown, but said that had to end. Highlighting the damage to children from poorer families in particular, Mr Johnson says: Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. 'The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health. Sport England report one in three children has done less physical activity in lockdown, with many suffering from poorer mental health, including through reduced access to vital support. Most painfully of all, the costs of school closure have fallen disproportionately on the most disadvantaged, the very children who need school the most. Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible. Mr Johnsons words come after Dr Mary Bousted, head of the National Education Union, urged schools to ignore threatening noises from the Government and refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe Last night, Mr Williamson said: Schools are the best place for childrens education and wellbeing and that is why their return to the classroom next month is our priority. 'Every decision we have taken leading up to this point has been informed by the best scientific and medical advice. I believe the vast majority of teachers, parents and children would agree that now is not the time to bring the sacrifices of the last four months to a standstill. The right measures are in place for all children to return to school in September. Let us come together to make sure that happens. Missing out on school is disaster that lasts forever - as the huge damage inflicted on youngsters by a long break from the classroom is laid bare by several new studies By Julie Henry for The Mail On Sunday The huge damage inflicted on youngsters by a long break from school has been laid bare by several new studies. Interrupted schooling has deep and long-lasting effects on children, according to Oxford University researchers who used data from school closures in a disaster zone. They said the study has relevance for other disasters, including the Covid-19 pandemic. The study found that childrens test scores in areas of Pakistan hit by a 2005 earthquake were between one- and-a-half and two years behind their peers in untouched areas. Those affected face losing 15 per cent of their earnings every year for the rest of their lives. In another study, US researchers looked at the effects of the summer slide when children forget over the long holidays what they have previously learned to estimate the impact of school closures caused by the coronavirus. It said students are likely to return to the classroom with less than 50 per cent of the knowledge and skills they had in maths. Meanwhile, a major UK study into the long-term consequences of the Covid crisis on the younger generation is being undertaken by Exeter University. In another study, US researchers looked at the effects of the summer slide when children forget over the long holidays what they have previously learned to estimate the impact of school closures caused by the coronavirus (file photo) Dr Lee Elliot Major, the universitys professor of social mobility, said: What is already clear is that the drastic losses in learning will have profound impacts on the lives of many children and young people. Every extra week away from face-to-face teaching adds to the cumulative damage over a lifetime. We need to assess the short-term risks of containing the virus against the longer-term, but in many ways more profound, risks of damaging the prospects for a whole generation. Natalie Perera, executive director of the independent Education Policy Institute (EPI), said: Pupils across the country have suffered huge learning loss since the lockdown began, with the most disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils hit the hardest by school closures. The period of disruption faced by schools is likely to have increased the achievement gap between the poorest pupils and the rest, which is already 18 months of learning by the end of compulsory education. The Government must offer maximum support to schools so that they are able to continue with pupils education in a safe and secure environment. Maura Regan, chief executive officer of Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust, which runs 18 academies in the North-East, told The Mail on Sunday that schools owe it to society to have staff back working so that childrens education can get back on track and parents can return to work. Interrupted schooling has deep and long-lasting effects on children, according to Oxford University researchers (file photo) In essence we need to get children in school in September. Id like to see us back full time and back permanently full time, she said. There is a balance to be struck between the risk and the priority of getting children back and the economy going. But the detrimental impact on children, especially the most vulnerable who might not have the drive or the parental support, is huge. Other research shows that the least well-off children have suffered the most from being out of school. An Institute for Fiscal Studies report found children from better-off households are spending 30 per cent more time each day on educational activities than children from the poorest fifth of homes. BORIS JOHNSON: Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than is absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible The education of our children is crucial for their welfare, their health and for their future. That is why it is a national priority to get all pupils back into school in September. The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it. Back in March, we had no option but to close schools to all but vulnerable children and those of critical workers, as part of our wider effort to protect the NHS and save lives. One of the most uplifting sights as our country came together during the lockdown was the transformation of living rooms and kitchens into classrooms, as millions of parents rose to the challenge of educating their children. 'The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it and we will do it. Social justice demands it' Pictured: Prime Minister Boris Johnson visiting the Discovery School in West Malling, Kent, in July this year For many, this was achieved while juggling the pressures of work and childcare, compounded by the mounting toll of the restrictions necessarily imposed by our fight against coronavirus swings and slides locked up, playdates banned, grandparents unable to help. It was and for many families continues to be a truly Herculean effort of which I will always be in awe. It was also supported by many brilliant teachers providing remote learning for their pupils, the thousands of laptops and tablets we bought and shipped to the children who needed them to access online resources, and the stunning creation of Oak National Academy, which developed an entire online curriculum in just a matter of weeks. But we are in a different situation now to the one we faced earlier this year. Thanks to the enormous sacrifices made by the British people, we have made very significant progress in our fight against the virus. The number of infections has been forced down from an estimated 157,000 in early May to around 28,000 at the start of this month. Scientists have learned more about how the virus spreads and how we can control it. Crucially, studies have shown that children face a much lower risk than adults. This pandemic isnt over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do is become complacent. But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so. Because there is ultimately no substitute for a child learning at school to give them the knowledge, skills and wherewithal to succeed in life. Its why weve had compulsory schooling in this country for 140 years, and the evidence is incontrovertible. Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health. Sport England reports one in three children has done less physical activity in lockdown, with many suffering from poorer mental health, including through reduced access to vital support. 'Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health' Most painfully of all, the costs of school closure have fallen disproportionately on the most disadvantaged, the very children who need school the most. Surveys estimate that while the majority of pupils have been learning at home, as many as a quarter of pupils were doing less than two hours of school work a day. Children in the richest families spent over 75 minutes more per day on home-schooling than those in the poorest, and one study predicted that the attainment gap between children from economically deprived households and their peers could widen by more than a third. The Childrens Commissioner has reported increased risk of exposure to domestic violence, exploitation and addiction, both at home and on the streets. The longer this continues, the more likely it is that some will tumble out of education, employment or training altogether, never to return. On top of all this, there are the spiralling economic costs of parents and carers unable to work without the school or wraparound childcare they depend on; and the devastating long-term cost looming from the stunting of our childrens future productivity. This damage is taking place all over the world, with the United Nations Secretary General last week warning of a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress and exacerbate entrenched inequalities. We simply cannot allow this to continue. Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible. I have always believed that talent is uniformly distributed but opportunity is not, and the first step to changing that is by helping those who have fallen behind to catch up. So we are investing 1 billion in catch-up support, including a new 350 million National Tutoring Programme. We have announced 14 billion extra for schools and a new ten-year school building programme, as part of the Governments mission to build back better. But first of all we must open the school gates to all pupils once again. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has advised that the risk to children themselves of becoming severely ill from coronavirus is low. Our test and trace system is up and running already, it has identified almost 200,000 people who might otherwise inadvertently spread the virus, and advised them to self-isolate and we have worked closely with teaching unions and school leaders on measures to ensure that our schools are Covid secure. Grouping children into bubbles, staggered drop-off times, regular handwashing and providing schools and colleges with a number of home-testing kits for those who would be unable to access a testing centre. It is a detailed plan for getting all of our children back to school in a way that is safe. In June, we began the phased return of Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 and, after some initial apprehension, many parents reported how much happier their children were and what a relief it was to be back. Now we must all work together to bring this best practice to the task of reopening schools to all pupils in September. Nothing will have a greater effect on the life chances of our children and nothing is more important for the future of our country. A local businessman, quoting his coast guard friend, said China's President Xi Jinping visited the resort on July 19, but he's not really sure, nor are the others dressed head-to-toe along the beach to protect Beijing skin from tanning in the coastal sun. The whispers are indicative of Beidaihe's growing secrecy, said Lu De, the son of Lu Dingyi the former Chinese Communist Party propaganda chief and Minister for Culture. Lu, a princeling of China's grand state apparatus, said while there were always beaches for the central government, one for the central military commission and another for the masses, the atmosphere used to be more relaxed. Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping swims at Beidaihe in 1987 Credit:AP "I often met top state leaders like Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou Enlai, and Marshal Zhu De on the beach," he said. "They swam, sunbathed, chatted, and played cards there and sometimes I walked close to them to see how they were playing the cards. It is totally different today. Now, no kids are allowed to get close to the leaders." The changes in Beidaihe are symptomatic of a fundamental economic shift across China. When Mao and former leader Deng Xiaoping waded into the waters in the 1970s, a tiny fraction of China's 900 million people could have contemplated a family holiday to the beach. Most blue-collar workers would have never seen the sea. A trip to Beidaihe was exclusive by nature. Now, with a large and growing middle-class, the town home to its own mini version of the Arc de Triomphe is a bit old-hat. In the space of four decades, economic growth has taken much of China's fashionable set beyond Beidaihe to Paris itself. What is left is a mishmash of party members wedded to tradition, average citizens getting a taste for China's unique brand of beach culture and couples taking wedding snaps. Over time, more fences have gone up between the party and the proletariat. A beach reserved for government officials bans tourists from entering. Credit:Sanghee Liu Lu said the new beachside regime for China's top tier is known as "the four nos". "Namely no going out, no dropping around, no receiving visitors, no meetings," he said. "Under Xi, the control is very tight and even the leaders are not allowed to go out. Visiting each other and meetings are not allowed." Last week Xi presided over a Politburo meeting in Beijing that would have made for good fodder over a glass of baijiu. China's political leaders decided they would set goals for China to achieve by 2035 to complete its transformation into a modern superpower by 2049 - the 100th anniversary of the People's Republic. Technological self-sufficiency, completing its goal of doubling gross domestic product, reunification with Taiwan were all on the to-do list. In a more tolerant era, Beidaihe would have seen living former leaders including Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao offer guidance or even criticism to Xi as China faces multiple global disputes over Hong Kong, the South China Sea and Chinese technology giants TikTok, WeChat and Huawei. Loading Now, with "Xi Jinping thought" cemented in the constitution, few observers believe the president for life needs or wants their advice. "No country or person can stop the historical march of the Chinese nations great rejuvenation," Xi said last week. The country where the coronavirus was first reported has emerged in better economic shape than any other major economy. While the United States struggles to get deaths below 1000 a day, China recorded only 37 new cases nationwide on Thursday. It's little comfort to the store owners stacked side-by-side along the largely empty beaches. Despite the falling infection rates, there are serious doubts the Communist Party conclave can go ahead this year. The last time the beach party was officially cancelled was 2003 during the SARS crisis. Optics, even in a one-party state are important. Tourism is always the last sector to reboot after a pandemic. Zhang Meng waits for customers at her seafood shop in Beidaihe. Credit:Sanghee Liu Zhang Meng, 34, runs the Ningmeng Seafood in a farmer's market in Beidaihe. Three quarters of her 15 square metre home is taken up by fish tanks with turbots and flatfish between a bed, an electric fan, and a gas stove. She rises at 3am to get fresh fish from the pier and mans the shop until 10pm. The 20-hour days have done little to help her avoid her falling behind in rent. The locals can't afford the seafood and the cadres have yet to turn up. "The seafood dies quick if they are not sold on time so I can't stock them up," she said. "The pandemic also greatly shortened the sale season this year. Now, I have two more weeks left." Nearby Wang Dongliang, 39, is in a similar predicament but on a different scale. After developing a penchant for travelling and eating out he decided to combine his hobby with his career by opening a 68-room hotel in Beidaihe, putting $80,000 into toilet renovations in the process. Wang Dongliang cooks for his guests at his hotel in Beidaihe Credit:Sanghee Liu Locked into a 5-year contract and with rent already paid for 2020 Wang says he will have to wear the 60 per cent drop in customers this year. "It will be impossible to earn back rent," he said. "Investment means risk," he said. "But the scale and impact of COVID-19 are beyond expectations". A woman who was filmed naked and unconscious by a man she did not know in a London hotel room won a five-year legal battle on Friday after he pleaded guilty under new rules on voyeurism. Emily Hunt woke up next to a man she did not recognise in a hotel room in May 2015 and feared she had been drugged but was told by prosecutors that there was no realistic prospect of convicting the man on any form of assault on the evidence. But when Hunt realised a year later that the man had filmed her as she slept, she embarked on a public campaign for justice, and a landmark court ruling on voyeurism this year led to an arrest. Christopher Killick, 40, pleaded guilty to voyeurism on Friday at the Thames Magistrates' Court in east London and will be sentenced on Sept. 4, the Crown Prosecution Service said, with the charge carrying a maximum jail term of 26 weeks. "It has been an incredible long and difficult five year journey to get here, but I could not be happier that justice has finally been served," Hunt, 41, a mother-of-one, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Hunt has previously spoken about how she suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after that day, with any recovery derailed when she learnt about the video footage a year later. Hunt, who was originally from New York but a long-term UK resident, gained cross-party political support in her campaign for justice. Although voyeurism is a crime under the 2003 Sexual Offences Act, until this year the Crown Prosecution Service had stated filming someone naked in a private room did not constitute an offence if they had consented to being looked at naked. But after a court of appeal in January clarified non-consensual intimate filming as illegal, prosecutors reviewed Hunt's case and arrested Killick in May. Hunt's hearing comes amid growing scrutiny on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which has recently come under fire for low rates of rape prosecutions and the treatment of sexual assault victims. "We recognise the delays in bringing this case to court have had a lasting impact on the victim," a CPS spokeswoman said in emailed comments to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "This is a complex area of law, which was clarified for the first time in the Court of Appeal this year. In light of that significant ruling, the CPS reviewed all the evidence in this case and authorised a charge of voyeurism." Voyeurism is viewed as part of a growing trend of digital sex abuse - including cyber-flashing, sextortion, cyberstalking and upskirting - spreading with the proliferation of smartphones and greater internet access. Experts warn the law often does not move fast enough to keep up with online behaviour and unclear legal positions can leave women hesitant to pursue cases. Kate Ellis, a solicitor at the Centre for Women's Justice who brought Hunt's case to court, said she hoped the case would pave the way for other women to come forward. "Voyeurism is a form of abuse," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "I hope that today's conviction will embolden other victims to come forward." Since 31 July, France has divided the authorised quantity of tobacco its residents can bring with them from abroad by four. Limits on tobacco Since 31 July, a French decree limits the quantity of tobacco French citizens can bring back with them from abroad, no matter where they buy it. Here are the new limits: 200 cigarettes (previously 800) (previously 800) 100 cigarillos (previously 400) (previously 400) 50 cigars (previously 200) (previously 200) 250 g of smoking tobacco (previously 1 kg) These caps apply to both individual and collective transport. Residents of France may buy higher quantities domestically, however, a document must prove the products' origin. French residents continue to buy tobacco in Luxembourg Limits on alcohol Similar to tobacco, there are a number of limitations in place which regulate the amount of alcohol EU citizens can buy in other EU member states for personal use. A person (18 or older) is allowed to bring back 10 litres of spirits (liquors like vodka, whisky, rum), 20 litres of liqueur wine (Martini, Port wine), 90 litres of wine (with a maximum of 60 in the case of sparkling wines), and 110 litres of beer. Limits on fuel In addition to the amount in their vehicle's tank, a person is allowed to transport a maximum of 10 litres of fuel in a portable container. This rule applies to any type of motorised vehicle. Limits on coffee, tea, perfume... For all other types of merchandises, including perfume, coffee, or tea, a person can carry goods for a maximum value of 300 per person, or 430 per person in the case of travel by air or sea. In some EU member states a lower limit of 150 applies for individuals younger than 15. New Delhi: Actor Sanjay Dutt was admitted to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital on Saturday evening after he complained of breathlessness. He was also tested for coronavirus through rapid antigen test, which is negative. A swab has been taken for RT PCR. The 61-year-old actor was admitted with fluctuating oxygen saturation level and chest discomfort. He is currently under observation in a non-COVID ICU ward. "Sanjay Dutt admitted to Lilavati hospital in Mumbai after he complained of breathlessness. His COVID-19 report is negative but he is still there for some time just for medical observation. He is perfectly fine," Lilavati Hospital said in a statement, news agency ANI reported. Sanjay Dutt's family - wife Maanayata and children Shahraan and Iqra - are in Dubai as of now. They have been Dubai since the lockdown began. Meanwhile, his eldest daughter Trishala (with first wife Richa Sharma) stays in the US with her grandparents. Meanwhile, on the work front, Sanjay Dutt has several movies in the pipeline, including 'Torbaaz', 'KGF: Chapter 2', 'Sadak 2', 'Bhuj: The Pride Of India' and 'Shamshera'. The World Health Organisation (WHO), Nigeria, has supported the screening of 2,306 persons for COVID-19 and 2,506 persons for Tuberculosis (TB), using Chest X-Ray, and GeneXpert machine through mobile testing in Kaduna State communities. WHO Nigeria stated this in a statement posted on the website of WHO Regional Office for Africa located in Brazzaville, Congo. According to the organisation, 265 COVID-19 cases and 105 presumptive with eight TB cases were diagnosed in six weeks (June and July 2020). It stated that presently, Kaduna State is witnessing over 50 per cent reduction in hospital attendance and access to services due to disruption of routine essential services and programmes resulting from prioritisation of COVID-19 response. In renewed efforts to tackle COVID-19 alongside TB in Nigeria, a disease that claims about 18 deaths per hour and over 157,000 lives annually, WHO Nigeria is collaborating with Kaduna State Government and other partners. WHO Nigeria in collaboration with the Kaduna State Government and KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, co-facilitated implementation of an integrated community testing for the two disease conditions using a mobile itinerant TB diagnostic facility called Wellness On Wheels Truck (WOW Truck). At the launch of the intervention recently, the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, reiterated commitment to curtail the spread of both diseases. He said, we are thankful to USAID and WHO for collaborating with us in our efforts to eliminate TB and COVID-19 scourge in Kaduna. In 2019 alone, Nigeria was notified of 120,266 TB patients and therefore, to optimise outputs from the initiative in Kaduna, WHO co-facilitated training of laboratory personnel on the use of SARS CoV-2 cartridges to provide integrated TB testing in the state. Moses Onoh, the WHO National Professional Officer for TB in the Northwest, said this is a big leap toward achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The integrated diagnostic services for COVID-19, along with TB, Malaria, HIV and hepatitis ensured routine surveillance and management, and minimised the disruptive effect of the coronavirus pandemic on these essential services and the suffering of the public. He added that high risk border communities for COVID-19 in Kaduna, which include Kawo in Kaduna North Local Government Area and Kakuri in Kaduna South Local Government Area, Zaria and Maikarfi all benefitted from the community testing intervention. These areas are remotely located and lack access to essential health services. They were able to access screening, testing and treatment services for COVID-19, TB, Malaria, HIV and Hepatitis at their doorsteps than previously done. Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai They now have a sense of belonging and feeling of wellbeing as exclaimed by several community leaders encountered in the course of the intervention. Aishatu Abdulahi, a 58-year-old mother of five in Markarfi community was elated to have benefitted from the programme. She said we thank God and the government for sending this moving hospital to come to our village to help us with the tests and medicines. I have not gone to the hospital in a long time and this gave me and my family the opportunity to see a doctor. We hope that government will make it a regular intervention. The mobile diagnostic facility, which was launched in mid-June 2020, has drastically increased access of community members to not only TB testing, but also COVID-19 and other deadly diseases with timely linkage to management/treatment. It has significantly reduced the turnaround time for test results, given the high volume of samples collected for processing. WHO has continued to support the provision of quality TB services, as well as expansion of diagnosis and treatment for TB, including effective implementation of the Global Fund and USAID grants for TB control. It is also strengthening the health system to sustain TB and COVID-19 control efforts in Nigeria. (NAN) The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, in a memo sent to Nigerias Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has called for police protection for 17 pro-Oshiomhole members of the Edo State House of Assembly. The memo, dated August 5, 2020, is believed to be in response to the petition from the lawmakers lawyers, hinging their request on the brewing political crisis in the state ahead of its September 19 governorship election. The contest, between the PDP incumbent governor, Godwin Obaseki and Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), took a new dimension on Monday as four lawmakers joined existing 14 others who had declared their support for Mr Ize-Iyamu, leaving the incumbent with only seven lawmakers. This was followed by the impeachment of the Deputy Speaker, Yekini Idiaye, who was among the four lawmakers who just switched allegiance, by the seven pro-Obaseki lawmakers, headed by the Assemblys Speaker, Frank Okiye. In reaction, the 17 pro-Ize-Iyamu/Oshiomhole lawmakers met at an undisclosed location on Thursday where they impeached Mr Okiye and inaugurated the 14 members of the camp whose seats were declared vacant in 2019 by Mr Obaseki. Since then, the political tussle in the state has continued to draw attention from different angles, both within and outside the state. Police protection Mr Malami, in his letter quoted by PUNCH newspaper, requested police protection for the 17 lawmakers based on their lawyers petition. My office is in receipt of a letter dated 3rd August, 2020 from Messers West Idahosa & Co. requesting for the intervention of my office on behalf of its clients who are memberselect of the Edo State House of Assembly, but who were excluded or prevented from being inaugurated till date since the House was inaugurated on 17th June 2019. A copy of the letter is attached for ease of reference. The law firm has requested that the affected members-elect, who were willing to discharge their constitutional roles, should be inaugurated or sworn in by the Clerk of the House, PUNCH reported Mr Malami, saying the request is in line with the provisions of Sections 90, 91, 101 and 104 of the 1999 Constitution (as altered). Hinging his reason on thus, he therefore requested the office of the IGP to provide adequate security measures for the purpose of the inauguration of the concerned members and subsequent sittings of the Edo State House of Assembly. Meanwhile, Nigerias electoral body, INEC, has also threatened to cancel the Edo State governorship election if the parties and their proxies continue to encourage unrest in the state. North China's Tianjin municipality held an online business matchmaking event on Thursday to support local commercial circulation firms in building connections with financial institutions. The video conference was held at the Tianjin branch of the Bank of China. There were parallel meeting places in 16 districts of the city attracting a total of more than 450 participants. Vice Mayor Jin Xiangjun attended the event. It was part of Tianjin's efforts to implement the decisions and arrangements made by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee to ensure stability on six fronts and security in six key areas. Tianjin has planned to organize 20 business matchmaking activities in August and September to stabilize businesses and unleash their market potential for sustainable development. According to the conference organizers, government departments, financial institutions and enterprises should play their due roles well and work closely together to promote high-quality economic development in Tianjin. To be specific, government departments need to protect market entities, stimulate the drive for innovation and improve the business environment; financial institutions need to introduce innovative products and expand the channels through which enterprises can seek financing; enterprises need to promote entrepreneurship and strive for innovation-driven development. At the conference, the Tianjin branch of the People's Bank of China explained related financial policies. Five commercial banks and the Tianjin Credit Guarantee Centre for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises introduced their financial products customized for local commercial circulation firms. The Tianjin Commission of Commerce and the Tianjin Commission of Finance offered support services. The result of the event was that credit agreements were signed with 18 enterprises, worth 466 million yuan. In the past month, the Tianjin Commission of Commerce has assisted 60 commercial circulation firms in getting loans totaling 2.4 billion yuan from financial institutions. Rajesh Asnani By Express News Service JAIPUR: In a horrific incident, a Muslim auto driver was brutally beaten by two persons and forced to chant Jai Shri Ram and Modi Zindabad in Rajasthans Sikar district on Thursday. The culprits allegedly pulled the drivers beard, punched him, knocked out his teeth, and asked him to go to Pakistan. The 52-year old Gaffar Ahmed was left with a swollen eye and bruises on his cheeks after the assault. According to the victim, the shocking incident happened early in the morning when he was returning after dropping off some passengers at the railway station. Two men stopped him and forced him to chant Jai Shree Ram and brutally thrashed him. On the basis of the FIR registered by the victim, the Police have arrested two duo. In the FIR, Gaffar Ahmed said that the men assaulted him when he refused to comply with their diktat. "I was coming back to Sikar after dropping off some passengers on the Friday afternoon. On the way near Jagmalpura, some men in a Bolero stopped me and asked for tobacco. When I gave it to them they said no and asked me to say a 'Modi zindabad'. When I refused, I was slapped and asked to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'. I just took my auto from there but they stopped me again and beat me up brutally. I lost 2-3 of my teeth. I sustained serious injuries on my left eye, cheek, and head as they assaulted me with a stick. After beating me up, they said they will rest only after sending me to Pakistan. I fell unconscious and came home after regaining consciousness," Gaffar Ahmed stated in the FIR. Gaffar has also accused the two men of stealing Rs 700 from him along with his wristwatch. According to the police, the two accused have been arrested on Friday under sections 323, 341, 295A, 504, 506, 327, 382, and 34 of the IPC. After the FIR was lodged, we arrested Shambhudayal Jat, 35, and Rajendra Jat, 30. These men had parked their vehicle and were consuming alcohol when they stopped Gaffar, " said Pushpendra Singh, station house officer, Sadar police station, Sikar. "Both the culprits are drivers and also do farming. They also have criminal records - 7 cases are registered against Shambhu Dayal and 2 cases are registered against Rajendra, added Pushpendra Singh. "The Sadar police station arrested two accused for assault on the auto driver. No person should post provocative posts on social media, otherwise, legal action will be taken against them. Sikar police are always committed to protecting your interests", tweeted Sikar police. JCP&L late Saturday afternoon was reporting 114 customers without power in Warren County and 1,789 without service in Hunterdon County. Moments later, the count on its outage center was down to 103 in Warren and 1,408 in Hunterdon. For those still out, the FirstEnergy company was estimating electricity would be restored by 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, one week after Tropical Storm Isaias destructive path through the region. Around 35,000 customers in the two counties lost power the day of the storm, JCP&L had reported on its website. Crews have been working 24/7, JCP&L said in social media updates Saturday afternoon, and have replaced hundreds of poles and cross-arms and more than 140,000 feet of wire. Our crews are working 24/7 to get all customers back up and running while adhering to CDC guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic. For your safety and theirs, please do not approach our crews and steer clear of work zones. Thank you for your patience + support of our crews! pic.twitter.com/RMQ60j2NFt JCP&L (@JCP_L) August 8, 2020 Crews have replaced 140,000+ ft of wire & 100s of poles and crossarms + worked through 400+ road closures. Crews will be addressing many localized issues and restoring individual customers. This is the most time-consuming, labor intensive and complex part of service restoration. pic.twitter.com/vzdUOwaRpj JCP&L (@JCP_L) August 8, 2020 In the Lehigh Valley, FirstEnergys Met-Ed on Saturday afternoon reported 168 customers out in Lehigh County, with service expected to be restored by 8 p.m. Saturday. The company reported no outages in Northampton, Monroe or Bucks counties. Visit our map for updates: https://t.co/1pNIfkqFpq. You can also text STAT to 544487 or call 888-544-4877 for an update for your residence. When crews are assigned each order, the restoration time will be updated to reflect when repairs at that location will be completed. 2/3 pic.twitter.com/XC3O7xGZr0 Met-Ed (@Met_Ed) August 6, 2020 PPL Electric Utilities on Saturday reported no widespread outages. Tropical Storm Isaias has swept through our area, leaving outages in its wake. Our crews are working around the clock to restore all customers as safely and quickly as possible. Check the status of your outage at https://t.co/Izukxhv7ua pic.twitter.com/BKBk0XQhG5 PPL Electric (@PPLElectric) August 4, 2020 Isaias left a 44-year-old woman dead in Lehigh County after her vehicle was swept away in high waters, and a 5-year-old girl was found dead Wednesday after going missing during the storm near her home in Montgomery County. The storm spawned two tornadoes in southeastern Pennsylvania, including a particularly destructive one in Bucks County where four children were hurt when the roof of their day care was partially torn off. Emergency crews responded to countless water rescues and calls to pump out water from homes, and the American Red Cross on Thursday distributed clean-up kits to assist residents throughout the Lehigh Valley area. Some road closures in the area continued into the weekend. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. The flight was arranged by Vietnamese authorities, the Embassy of Vietnam in the UK, representative agencies in some European nations and the national flag carrier, together with competent agencies of the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Czech Republic. The passengers included children under 18, students who finished their studies with expired visa or without accommodations, pregnant women, the elderly, the ill, stranded tourists and workers. The Vietnamese representative agencies in the countries had helped citizens travel to the airports in London and Frankfurt while the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK and the General Consulate in Germany also sent staff to the airports to assist them with boarding procedures. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, disease prevention measures were carried out during the flight. Upon landing at Van Don Airport in the northeastern province of Quang Ninh, the flight crew and all passengers were given heath examinations and quarantined in line with regulations. Vietnamese authorities and overseas missions plan to arrange more flights to bring more Vietnamese citizens home, depending on their need and quarantine capacity at home. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a special project on Saturday that is close to his heart -- the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra, which is an interactive experience centre on Swachh Bharat Mission. He watched a short video on 'Swachh Bharat Mission' as well as saw a display where the journey of India's fight with cleanliness from the time of Mahatma Gandhi to PM Modi. The centre has different wings that celebrate roles of women, cleanliness warriors among others in India's fight to make cleanliness an acceptable issue in our regular discourse. To make it interesting, there is a selfie zone as well as games available that revolve around cleanliness. Jal Shakti Minister Gajndra Singh Shekhawat was also present. Prisoners look out of their jail window at the federal detention center in Downtown Miami, Fla., on June 12, 2020. (Chandan KhannaH/AFP via Getty Images) Colorado Prison Escapee Caught After Nearly 50 Years on Run DENVERA man who escaped from a Colorado prison in 1974 was found living under an alias in a small town in northern New Mexico after the Denver police officer he shot decades ago helped track him down, authorities said. Luis Archuleta, 77, also known as Larry Pusateri, was arrested Wednesday in Espanola, New Mexico, where he had been living under the name Ramon Montoya for about 40 years, the FBI said in a statement. Archuleta was accused in 1971 of shooting Denver police officer Daril Cinquanta, who had pulled over Archuleta to check his ID, KMGH-TV reported. When Cinquanta tried to check for weapons, the two fought and Cinquanta was shot in the stomach, KMGH-TV said. A jury in 1973 convicted Archuleta of assault with a deadly weapon. Cinquanta, who since retired and started his own private investigation company, never stopped making phone calls and knocking on doors in hopes of tracking down Archuleta, KUSA-TV reported. His search paid off when a tipster called. I get a phone call from an individual and this person says, Ive thought about it, and Im gonna tell you where the guy is who shot you, and of course I was skeptical, Cinquanta said. Forty-six years later, and out of the clear blue I get a phone call. Well, this person gives me his address and his alias and other facts that meant nothing at the time. A federal court in Colorado issued a new arrest warrant involving the prison escape and Archuleta was arrested in the small town about 20 miles north of Santa Fe. He is being represented by the Office of the Federal Public Defender, which did not immediately respond Friday to a phone message seeking comment on Archuletas behalf Michael Schneider, the FBI Special Agent in Denver, said the arrest should send a clear signal to violent offenders everywhere: The FBI will find you, no matter how long it takes or how far you run, and we will bring you to justice. Cinquanta hopes to visit Archuleta when he is back in custody in Colorado. I would love to sit down and talk to him, Cinquanta said. He may or may not talk to me. Who knows? The Kazakhstani military medical team have left for Lebanon in the wake of the devastating explosion in Beirut, Kazinform cites the press service of the Defense Ministry of Kazakhstan, Trend reports. The decision to send the military medical personnel to Lebanon came as a result of the meeting of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and the Defense Ministry of the country. In the morning of August 8, the team made up of 29 doctors and 4 interpreters of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan set off to Beirut to aid Lebanese authorities in the aftermath of the explosion. It is said that the team included best-trained surgeons, trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, anesthesiologists and resuscitation experts as well as paramedical personnel. Slate's Who Counts? series is made possible by the support of Slate Plus members and readers like you. Coronavirus Diaries is a series of dispatches exploring how the coronavirus is affecting peoples lives. For the latest public health information, please refer to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions website. For Slates coronavirus coverage, click here. On Tuesday, I worked the polls at a local precinct in Michigans primary election. The election was unprecedented, both because of the record voter turnout in my precinct and because of the coronavirus pandemic. We were underprepared for the latter. When I arrived at 6 a.m., the election inspector team started to unpack ballots, pens, I Voted stickers, and protective equipment. We had masks, face shields, a couple of stickers for the floor that read 6 Feet Apart, some gloves, and one bottle of disinfectant. We were instructed to tape off a mark every six feet, but we werent provided with measuring tape. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was told No, honey, were not asking people to wear masks today. Our instructions said the pens we provided voters werent to be reused, but there wasnt anything about what to do if we ran out. Same with the manilla folders we were using instead of the traditional privacy envelopes. All of this felt shaky but understandable to methis is new for everyone, and coordinating an election is a feat even without a pandemic. When one volunteer wondered aloud to our group what to do if someone came to vote without a mask, one of the other inspectors quickly replied, You cant say anythingif you do its a violation of their health rights. The person replied Oh, that makes sense. (This was false propaganda about a mask requirement being a violation of HIPAA protections that has circulated in Michigan for some time.) I pointed out that while it was true that the governor had said masks wouldnt be required at polling places, that didnt mean we couldnt ask people without masks if theyd mind wearing one. I was told, No, honey, were not asking people to wear masks today. Advertisement Advertisement As a new inspector, it was unclear to me how far to push this. It was 6:15 a.m., and that isnt my peak functioning time. I figured Id just strategically place myself near the front of the line and suggest masks anyway. Not long after, we found that we had been provided with a thermometerbut no batteries. The same inspector said were not taking anyones temperature; thats their private business, and put the thermometer back in the box. Advertisement I thought back to my training. None of this was covered. To be an election inspector, you simply sign up and take a short training, then show up on Election Day. Its that easy. I had joined a group of people who had mostly worked the polls together before and had a clear point of view on how seriously we were taking the coronavirus. I raised concerns to a leader, but I was told there was simply too much to do to set up for voters to argue. I got to taping the floor with markers 6 feet apart. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The voters lined up to start voting a little before 7 a.m., when the polls opened. There were about 10 people outside at first. They werent very far apart. When one of them noticed the x on the floor, others seemed to follow suit and move, with the exception of a few. As the day went on, most voters seemed tentative but extra cautious about following the guidelines we did have in place. I was heartened to see that most people wore masks. I pointed out the masks we had to the people who werent wearing them (my fellow inspector looked pained, but life comes at you fast sometimes), and to my surprise, one of them put one on. Several others did not. A few people asked me if the carbon dioxide I was inhaling in my mask was hurting me. I said no. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The saying of the day seemed to be that were living in crazy times. One unmasked voter remarked that God made us pretty incredible creatures, able to absorb a lot. Another unmasked man in a novelty shirt asked me if he looked like Republican or Democrat, then yelled but maybe I should keep my mouth shut! But the unmasked voters stand out in my memory only because most of the voters were masked, polite, and in and out without incident. A few first-time voters came through, and I was probably embarrassingly excited for them. We took a lot of care to make sure they understood the process and knew they could ask us any questions. Other workers in my precinct were very concerned about voter fraud. Multiple calls went out to local officials throughout the day about potential fraud issues. One voter was almost sent to City Hall because they did not have a photo ID, but I was able to step in and prevent that from happeningI pointed out the affidavit that a voter could sign if they didnt have a photo ID. That person ultimately voted. Advertisement Advertisement Throughout the day, there were a large number of absentee and mail-in ballots processed, which lowered our risk of encountering someone carrying the virus. (In Michigan, all voters have the right vote by mail.) Even so, there were several instances of people who came to the polls to vote in person because their absentee ballots were either not delivered, stuck at the post office, or the voter had made a mistake while filling it out at home. I asked the chairperson what happens to ballots that dont make it to the city clerks office in time, or are filled out incorrectly. Her answer made me feel a little sick: They just dont count. Advertisement As the day went on, several people thanked me for my service, which seemed silly. But after a while, I realized that if I hadnt been there, the precautions that we did manage to take might not have happened. The voter without an ID might not have been able to vote. The whole day illustrated to me that the system is fragile, and right now, we dont have the resources necessary to make sure its fair and safe. I was able to help with that in a small way. Filling out a form and completing a short training is all it took to become an official election inspector. Im worried about November. Now that I know how the polling precincts are run, I hope more people will sign up to inspect their local polls on Election Day. If its not clear: Youre needed. Tracking positive global cues, the Indian market crossed crucial resistance levels. But, the rise in COVID infection capped the upside, but hopes of a rate cut from the Reserve Bank of India helped the sentiment. Most stocks are from the small & midcap space. The smart money seems to be moving in the broader market space largely on account of underperformance as well as high liquidity which is chasing growth, suggest experts. Undervaluation and flush of money are prominent reasons why we are seeing a rally in the broader markets. Mid and smallcaps are catching up with large caps and investors are looking for stocks which have underperformed as they are reluctant to chase stocks at such steep valuations, Sacchitanand Uttekar DVP Technical (Equity), Tradebulls Securities told Moneycontrol. Also, the recent upward revisions in the circuit filter changes seems to have added that extra pedigree for most of the quality midcaps. We are yet to see any recovery in the economy after going through this pandemic so clearly investors are not eyeing any growth when buying small and mid-cap stocks. Its just rising tide backed by liquidity that is lifting all boats in this scenario, he said. Where is Nifty50 headed? The Nifty50 closed with gains of over 1 percent above 11.200 levels. Broader markets outperformed on expected lines as Nifty Mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively, for the week. The weekly price action of Nifty resulted in a Bull candle with a lower high-low, indicating a breather after 19 percent rally in the preceding seven weeks. Experts feel that any dip from here should be used to buy. On the higher side, the next crucial target for Nifty50 is placed at 11,400 while 10850 will act as a support. We reiterate our stance of outperformance in mid-cap and small-cap space while Nifty undergoes a healthy consolidation in the broad range of 10900-11400. Such consolidation will make a larger price structure more robust as indices will re-establish a higher base which will act as a launchpad for next major up move, Dharmesh Shah, Head Technical, ICICI direct told Moneycontrol. We believe ongoing temporary breather after past seven weeks 19% (9544-11340) rally will help weekly stochastic to cool off from overbought trajectory which will count as added positive in technical terms, he said. Shah further added that any dip from hereon should not be construed as negative, instead should be capitalised as an incremental buying opportunity in quality stocks with a focus on midcap and small caps to benefit from their outperformance. Disclaimer: 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. Germany, a sweat on a high summer weekend with temperatures up to 38 degrees. The German weather service (DWD) forecast for Saturday lots of sunshine. Only in the North-East wind, therefore, in the afternoon Cumulus clouds. The temperatures reach in the Alpine foothills of 26 to 30 degrees, otherwise, the values climb from 31 to 38 degrees. On the coasts it's not supposed to be in the case of a cooling Wind quite so hot. There have not advised on Saturday afternoon, many health resorts and spas in urgent of further Arrivals. Just on the Baltic sea, many beaches were already at their maximum capacity reached, shared the tourism - and with kurdirekt ions. In lubeck it was a Bay, especially a full. Scharbeutz' mayor Bettina Schafer (independent) advised strongly against travelling, the Kurdirektion at the Timmendorfer strand also recommended to refrain from a trip in the lubeck Bay. The beach traffic on the Website strandticker.de stand at noon for the beaches of Haffkrug, Sierksdorf, Pelzerhaken and Rettin on the red. On Friday, it was around 36 degrees in North Rhine Westphalia in the hot, midday on Saturday, were measured in Koln and Dusseldorf is already 34 degrees. The maximum value is measured according to the DWD, 36.2 degrees in Tonisvorst. For Saturday, the biggest heat up to 38 degree's in the West again Mr. From a temperature record in Germany, the high summer heat is far from even a few degrees in July of last year, the 42-degree was cracked brand. forest band danger in the East, especially the high - The drought in many Parts of Germany means a high risk of forest fires. Almost nationwide, the second highest danger level 4, in Parts of Eastern Germany even the highest warning level 5 applies according to DWD data. Only in the foothills of the Alps, the Situation see, due to the recent rainfall, with the warning level 2 relaxed. Updated Date: 08 August 2020, 10:19 Chief Minister on Saturday visited Gol Market area in his New Delhi Assembly constituency and directed officials to fix the problems being faced by the locals including a smelly compost plant. Kejriwal directed the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) officials to solve the problem of stench emanating from the plant within 10 days or shut it down, said a Delhi government statement. The chief minister visited the plant at sector 4 of the Gol Market area and the residents complained that there was a menace of flies and mosquitoes due to it. "The chief minister has given a deadline of 10 days to the officials to ensure cleanliness in the area and said that if the problem is not addressed by August 20, the plant will be shut down," said the statement. Kejriwal also planted a medicinal sapling in a park and met members of the resident welfare association in the area. He directed officials to expedite work to solve problems of drinking water, power cuts, and non-pruning of trees as listed by the locals, said the statement. (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.) 08.08.2020 LISTEN Dynamic Ghanaian gospel musician, Eric Jeshrun, has released a sizzling single dubbed You Reign featuring Joe Mettle. The duo, combine their fine talents to give music lovers an open heaven experience, with this wonderful song. The song produced by Billy Sellasie of Legacy Studioss is available on Apple Music, aftown and all other music stores in the world. The video which is also available on Eric Jeshruns YouTube channel was shot by Take 2 Films. The song is aimed at comforting Christians and reminding them that God reigns over everything they are going through. It also encourages them not to give up in life because there is victory at the end. The release of You Reign is a sequel to Eric Jeshruns maiden Healing Stream album. After an apt and timely rebranding journey, from Jeshrun Okyere to Eric Jeshrun, the gospel music dynamo seeks to inject some zest and ingenuity into the music industry. Though music was never part of his plan, at a very young age, he stepped in one day for the worship leader in the Church of Pentecost and he has never looked back. The Catholic Church, too, has challenged the official line on public health. Several bishops had opened clinics for covid-19 patients, only to have the government shut them down. The attack on the Sangre de Cristo chapel came only days after the Managua archdiocese announced that it would withdraw its support from the annual August celebrations for Santo Domingo de Guzman, the capitals patron saint. In normal times, it is a major public event, with tens of thousands celebrating in the streets. But the church said it could not go on this year because of the pandemic. The Vatican has called for a transparent investigation of the fire, which Pope Francis, in his most recent Sunday homily, called an attack. Ex-Lawmaker Raises Rare Criticism Of Iran's Silence About China's Abuse Of Uyghurs, Other Muslims By Golnaz Esfandiari August 07, 2020 A former Iranian lawmaker has started a big controversy by raising rare criticism of China's treatment of its Muslim minority population. Ali Motahari said a Foreign Ministry official had admitted that Tehran is turning a blind eye to the repression of Muslims in China due to its "economic" interests. Iran's clerical establishment -- which poses as the defender of Muslims around the world -- has remained largely silent about China's reported repression of its Muslim population while championing the Palestinian cause and being vocal about the plight of Yemeni civilians caught in the conflict between Saudi forces and Iranian-backed, Huthi rebels that has created a humanitarian disaster. In several recent tweets, as well as in an interview with a popular news site, the outspoken Motahari said Tehran's silence over China's persecution of Muslims in its western Xinjiang region where serious human rights violations are being reported was a "failure" for the clerical establishment and hard-liners, whom he accused of "double standards." Motahari noted that while Tehran has avoided confronting Beijing, Washington has highlighted the crackdown. "It is a failure for the Islamic republic that the United States protests against China's treatment and torture of Muslims from the Xinjiang region to eradicate the Islamic culture from that region, but Iran has remained silent because of its economic needs," Motahari said on Twitter on August 1. "Chinese Muslims are no different from Yemeni or Palestinian Muslims," added Motahari, who was prevented by a hard-line watchdog from running in Iran's February parliamentary elections. Beijing is accused of forcing more than 1 million Uyghurs and members of other mostly Muslim ethnic groups -- such as Kazakhs and Kyrgz -- into camps and prisons where reports suggest they have been physically abused and forced to denounce their religion and language. Some have been reportedly also pushed into forced labor. China says the camps are "vocational training centers" needed to combat separatist terrorism and extremism and give people new skills. In an August 5 interview with Asriran.com, Motahari said he had raised the issue a while ago with an unnamed Foreign Ministry official whom he quoted as having responded: "We have to be silent due to economic needs." Enmity with the West should not make us dependent on the East and then we dare not protest against China." "I said: 'Why do you have to bring relations with other parts of the world to the point of falling into China's lap'," Motahari said he told the ministry official. China remains Tehran's main trading partner and Beijing continues to buy some Iranian oil despite U.S. sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy and denied the country its main source of revenue. China has also spoken out against Washington's 2018 exit from the 2015 nuclear deal and the reimposition of harsh economic sanctions on Iran. Beijing has also signaled that it will reject a U.S. resolution aimed at extending a United Nations arms embargo against Iran. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the United States would call for a Security Council vote next week on a U.S.-drafted resolution to extend the embargo, which is due to expire in October. Iran and China have in past weeks discussed signing a 25-year agreement that would greatly expand trade relations and cooperation between the two countries. Motahari suggested on Twitter in July that, before signing the pact, Tehran should raise the fate of Chinese Muslims with Beijing. The former lawmaker has come under fire from hard-liners for criticizing China, with a current lawmaker, Mahmud Ahmadi Bighash, calling on the judiciary to take action against Motahari because of his remarks, which he said are against Iran's national security. In a speech to parliament earlier this week, Bighash described Motahari as a "useless politician" while suggesting that the reports about China's persecution of its Muslim minority are baseless. "Tens of millions of Chinese Muslims have no problem with the government and the government with Muslims, and comparing them with Palestinian Muslims is pro-Western sedition," Bighash was quoted as saying. Motahari fired back, saying that people like Bighash believe that "since America is Iran's enemy and according to the famous phrase, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend,' China is Iran's friend and it shouldn't be criticized." "Enmity with the West should not make us dependent on the East and then we dare not protest against China," Motahari said in his interview with Asriran.com. Earlier this year, a Health Ministry spokesman came under attack by hard-liners for publicly expressing doubts over China's official coronavirus numbers, calling them "a bitter joke." Kianush Jahanpur was later replaced amid speculation that his criticism of China had contributed to the decision to sack him. Despite Iran's increased reach out to Beijing, many Iranians remain distrustful of China. Anti-Chinese sentiment and distrust in Iran appear to have increased due to the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in China late last year. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ex-lawmaker-raises-rare -criticism-of-iran-s-silence-about-china-s-abuse-of -uyghurs-other-muslims/30771986.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A pall of gloom descended on the Powai suburb in north-east Mumbai following the death of Capt Deepak V. Sathe, the pilot of the Air India Express flight that skidded off the runaway at the "table top" Kozhikode airport on Friday evening, leaving at least 18 dead. The Air India Express flight was returning from Dubai under the Vande Bharat mission. Capt Sathe, 58, was a resident of Jalvayu Building in Powai. According to local residents, he is survived by two sons, one of whom lives in Bengaluru while the other is in the US. They are expected to reach Kerala soon. A former award winning Indian Air Force officer, Capt. Sathe had a 30-year long and accident free flying record, including around 18 years with Air India. New Zealand has gone 100 days without recording a single case of community transmission of coronavirus, something that seems hard to imagine compared to the battle Australia is facing. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern plunged her nation into one of the harshest lockdowns in the world in March and has reaped the rewards since, with the last case of community transmission on May 1. That was just 63 days after the island nation of five million reported its first infection on February 28. New Zealand has recorded 1,219 infections and 22 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The numbers are a drop in the ocean when compared to other countries still battling thousands of cases and deaths. Australia had reported 20,272 coronavirus cases as of Friday August 7. The national death tally scaled to 278 after Victoria recored 466 infections and 12 new cases on Saturday. The state is grappling with a deadly second wave of infections following alleged safety breaches within their hotel quarantine program. There are more than 19.2 million coronavirus cases across the world and at least 719,800 people have died. New Zealand has gone 100 days without community transmission of coronavirus. Pictured: The nation's infections since between March and August Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured) has been praised for her handling of the global pandemic by swiftly introducing strict measures to eliminate the deadly virus Pictured: Passengers wear protective masks and gloves at Auckland International Airport in April New Zealand entered strict lockdown at the end of March to stop the spread of coronavirus. Pictured: A view of empty Lambton Quay in Wellington during lockdown in April THREE MEASURES FOR NEW ZEALAND'S SUCCESS Shutting the border to everyone except to citizens, permanent residents and their families to stop coronavirus from entering Strict lockdown to stop COVID-19 from spreading within the community Ongoing control: Testing, contact tracing and quarantine Advertisement Ms Ardern has been praised for her handling of the global pandemic by swiftly introducing strict measures to eliminate the deadly virus. Three measures have been hailed as the drivers behind New Zealand's success, including: border controls, lockdown and case-based controls. Australia adopted a similar method of suppression but has since seen a second deadly wave of infections ravage Victoria - with cases creeping into New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. Ms Ardern announced the 'toughest border restrictions of any country in the world' in mid-March when she enforced mandatory self-isolation for all international arrivals. The country had just six coronavirus cases at the time of the announcement. Less than a week later on March 20, Ms Ardern closed the country's borders for the first time in New Zealand's history. The number of COVID-19 infections had scaled past 20. New Zealand's borders remain shut to this day and only Kiwi citizens, permanent residents and their family members can enter the country. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks during a Mihi Whakatau, formal speech of welcome, during a visit to Cardrona Alpine Resort on June 26 as Queenstown's ski season opens Pictured: Seagulls take over Queen Street in Auckland's CBD on March 26 during lockdown Residents in Wellington wear face masks on March 24 as they leave a supermarket after buying supplies one day before the country goes into lockdown CORONAVIRUS IN NEW ZEALAND: A TIMELINE FEBRUARY 3: New Zealand bans travellers from China amid coronavirus outbreak. FEBRUARY 28: New Zealand records its first COVID-19 infection after a person in their 60s returned from Iran. MARCH 16: All return travellers must self-isolate for 14 days. MARCH 20: Borders close to everyone except citizens, permanent residents and their families. MARCH 26: Alert Level 4 'Eliminate' begins. Residents are required to stay at home. APRIL 28: New Zealand drops to Alert Level 3. MAY 14: Alert Level 2 begins. JUNE 9: New Zealand drops down to Alert Level 1. Residents encouraged to take precautions. AUGUST 9: 100 days without community transmission of coronavirus. Advertisement Ms Ardern continued to move quickly, declaring a State of National Emergency to fight COVID-19 and putting all residents into Alert Level 4 - 'eliminate' - from 11.59pm on March 25. All non-essential businesses and educational facilities were forced to close and Kiwis were required to stay home for four weeks. Speaking halfway through the strict lockdown, Ms Ardern said lives had been saved by following the 'huge' changes. 'Modelling provided to my office by economist Rodney Jones on the eve of the lockdown suggested New Zealand was on a similar trajectory to potentially Italy and Spain and that our 205 cases on the 25th of March could have grown to over 10,000 by now without the actions we have taken together,' she said on April 9. 'And new modelling due to be released later today by Te Punaha Matatini suggests that the current controls at Alert Level 4 have already had a significant impact on new case numbers and we are on track to meet their most optimistic scenario. 'We are turning a corner, and your commitment means our plan is working.' Pictured: Police stop vehicles heading north on state highway at Warkworth in Auckland on April 9 New Zealand's 'elimination' strategy The Government's overall public health strategy in respect of the COVID-19 pandemic affecting New Zealand is elimination. That is, to apply a range of control measures in order to stop the transmission of COVID-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand. Elimination does not mean eradicating the virus permanently from New Zealand; rather it is being confident we have eliminated chains of transmission in our community. It is accepted that this approach will be needed in the long term ie, for many months or longer, depending on the emerging epidemiology and evidence around the disease and its management and progress with developing safe and effective treatments and/or vaccines. SOURCE: New Zealand Government Advertisement Pictured: Auckland motorways are seen empty of traffic as the COVID-19 lockdown takes effect At the end of April, New Zealand moved to Alert Level 3 and then to Alert Level 2 on in May as coronavirus infections continued to decline. Mr Ardern said elimination doesn't mean zero cases. 'It means zero tolerance for cases. It means when a case emerges, and it will, we test, we contact trace, we isolate, and we do that every single time with the ambition that when we see COVID-19, we eliminate it,' she said. 'That is how we will keep our transmission rate under 1, and it is how we will keep succeeding.' The continuous tracking of cases allowed New Zealand to stop coronavirus from spreading through the community. Pictured: A closed restaurant is seen in Christchurch, New Zealand, on April 16 Ms Ardern arrives for the All of Government COVID-19 update and media conference with Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield at Parliament on May 7 How Australia and New Zealand are leading the way in testing Figures as of Friday August 7. Australia Population: 25.7million Cases: 20,272 New Zealand Population: 5.0million Cases: 1,219 United States Population: 329.5million Cases: 4,895,868 United Kingdom Population: 66.4million Cases: 309,005 Advertisement New Zealand entered Alert Level 1 at 11.59pm on Monday June 8. There were no active coronavirus cases in the country and it had been 40 days since community transmission. Last month, Ms Ardern said the second outbreak in Victoria is a 'cautionary tale' to learn from. 'It appears their current outbreak is linked to a managed isolation facility similar to the ones we run here,' she said. 'That goes to show how quickly the virus can spread and it can move from being under control to out of control, and that even the best plans still carry risk in a pandemic.' New Zealand has continued to report COVID-19 cases in returned travellers but the infections have not travelled into the community. There were 23 active coronavirus infections as of August 7. Otago Medical School epidemiologist Sir David Skegg said the likelihood of the return of community transmission is 'very high'. He told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking it was likely New Zealand would return to Alert Level 2. 'But not next week or next month, I hope. This virus is going to be around for a long time,' he said. 'It's only a few months ago everyone was saying it's going to be a short, sharp shock. But, we're talking probably years here. 'Unfortunately, the world is a different place and it's almost inevitable with the possibilities of human error, that sooner or later, we will have incursions of the virus into New Zealand.' Sir Skegg said New Zealand must detect cases quickly to avoid a 'Melbourne-type situation'. Victoria reported 466 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, marking its 34rd consecutive day of a triple-digit increase. Premier Daniel Andrews said there are now 7,808 active infections across the state and 988 of them are healthcare workers - an increase of 140 from Friday. There are 636 coronavirus patients in hospital, with 44 in intensive care and 29 of them are fighting for their lives on ventilators. The latest figures come after the state reported 450 infections on Friday, a dramatic decrease from its record of 750 cases on Wednesday. Victoria reported 466 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, marking its 34rd consecutive day of a triple-digit increase On July 1, Premier Daniel Andrews said genomic sequencing had traced a big proportion of coronavirus cases to breaches in the hotel quarantine program At least a significant number of Victoria's current second wave cases could be linked to the hotel quarantine program, which is now being investigated by a former top judge. Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he first learned of problems with hotel quarantine from media reports, but only realised it was responsible for a 'significant proportion' of the second wave's cases when genomic reporting was released. It might never be clear if hotel quarantine is entirely to blame, with Prof Sutton declaring it's impossible to tell if the state had completely eliminated community transmission before the problems were discovered. 'We've got genomics for many cases in Victoria at the moment,' he said. 'There's no evidence of original virus in the genomic report, but we haven't tested everyone.' Not everyone can grow the virus, and a genetic fingerprint is not always available even where the virus can be grown, meaning evidence can't be examined, he says. 'But where we do, there is evidence of virus that goes back to February, March, April,' Prof Sutton said. The $3 million hotel quarantine inquiry, led by former Family Court judge Jennifer Coate, is now due to begin on August 17. Mr Andrews is not answering questions about the inquiry, saying he wants the government to be at arm's length to avoid 'self-assessment'. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a national dashboard of data, used to examine outbreaks nationally, had been updated with information from all states. On whether that modelling should be released publicly, he said chief health officers were already being transparent, providing a wealth of information each day. On July 1, Mr Andrews said genomic sequencing had traced a big proportion of coronavirus cases to breaches in the hotel quarantine program. A motorway sign on the State Highway One reads 'Essential Travel Only' New Zealand has four different alert levels amid the coronavirus pandemic Sebastian Vettel has hinted that his decision about what to do in 2021 has already been made. Although there are rumours Sergio Perez's sponsors are willing to pay more, it is believed the Mexican will be replaced by Ferrari refugee Vettel after Racing Point becomes Aston Martin next year. La Gazzetta dello Sport believes a three-year contract has been signed, with the EUR 15 million per year salary including a brand ambassadorial role. Quadruple world champion Vettel, however, denied that big money is his motivation. "The number on the pay cheque is not so important," he told RTL at Silverstone. "The motivation is to achieve something." However, the 33-year-old German says an announcement is not imminent. It is believed it was delayed a week ago because of Perez's coronavirus infection. "It will go on for a few more weeks. Nothing will change this morning," Vettel said at Silverstone. "I don't see why I am under pressure. In a way, I've made my decision, now we will see whether something sensible comes together or not. "If the right package comes around the corner, I am of the opinion that I still have a lot to give," he said. "If not, I am definitely not interested in continuing just to be here." Wild rumours continue to insist that Vettel is holding out for a Mercedes seat, with Lewis Hamilton saying he does not want to negotiate a new deal amid the pandemic. However, there are rumours the six-time world champion is actually refusing to take a pay-cut. "That is a very direct question, which I don't want to comment on," team boss Toto Wolff said. "I think if you look at the impact he has on Formula 1, not only with his exceptional driving, he was always worth the expectations in terms of salary. "Now, the world has changed a lot," Wolff added. "We face difficult times, Lewis completely understands that and we will discuss what that means." So when asked about the Mercedes option, Vettel said at Silverstone: "I don't think Mercedes is an option because I think Lewis wants to continue. "I haven't talked to him about it, but I would be surprised if he didn't continue." Another wild theory is that with both Hamilton and Wolff contractually free at the end of the year, they might both set off to a new project. "We are thinking of going to Mars for a new challenge," Wolff joked, according to La Repubblica newspaper. "Joking aside, we are happy where we are." As for Hamilton, the six-time world champion thinks Aston Martin would be a good next move for Vettel, who is currently struggling at Ferrari. "Sebastian is going through a difficult time. A driver needs the support of his team," said Hamilton. "I hope he can go to Aston Martin," he added. "The team has potential and a plan and he would be the leader there." (GMM) When researcher Monica Gandhi began digging deeper into outbreaks of the novel coronavirus, she was struck by the extraordinarily high number of infected people who had no symptoms. A Boston homeless shelter had 147 infected residents, but 88% had no symptoms even though they shared their living space. A Tyson Foods poultry plant in Springdale, Ark., had 481 infections, and 95% were asymptomatic. Prisons in Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia counted 3,277 infected people, but 96% were asymptomatic. COVID-19 UPDATES: Texas sees fourth-highest day for new deaths During its seven-month global rampage, the coronavirus has claimed more than 700,000 lives. But Gandhi began to think the bigger mystery might be why it has left so many more practically unscathed. What was it about these asymptomatic people, who lived or worked so closely to others who fell severely ill, she wondered, that protected them? Did the "dose" of their viral exposure make a difference? Was it genetics? Or might some people already have partial resistance to the virus, contrary to our initial understanding? Efforts to understand the diversity in the illness are finally beginning to yield results, raising hope that the knowledge will help accelerate development of vaccines and therapies - or possibly even create new pathways toward herd immunity in which enough of the population develops a mild version of the virus that they block further spread and the pandemic ends On HoustonChronicle.com: Texas said nursing homes can allow limited visits. Then came the questions. "A high rate of asymptomatic infection is a good thing," said Gandhi, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California at San Francisco. "It's a good thing for the individual and a good thing for society." The coronavirus has left numerous clues - the uneven transmission in different parts of the world, the mostly mild impact on children. Perhaps most tantalizing is the unusually large proportion of infected people with mild symptoms or none at all. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month estimated that rate at about 40%. Those clues have sent scientists off in different directions: Some are looking into the role of the receptor cells, which the virus uses to infiltrate the body, to better understand the role that age and genetics might play. Others are delving into masks and whether they may filter just enough of the virus so those wearing them had mild cases or no symptoms at all. The theory that has generated the most excitement in recent weeks is that some people walking among us might already have partial immunity. MORNING REPORT: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox When SARS-CoV-2, the technical name of the coronavirus that causes the disease covid-19, was first identified on Dec. 31, 2019, public health officials deemed it a "novel" virus because it was the first time it had been seen in humans who presumably had no immunity from it whatsoever. There's now some very early, tentative evidence suggesting that assumption might have been wrong. One mind-blowing hypothesis - bolstered by a flurry of recent studies - is that a segment of the world's population may have partial protection thanks to "memory" T cells, the part of our immune system trained to recognize specific invaders. This could originate from cross-protection derived from standard childhood vaccinations. Or, as a paper published Tuesday in Science suggested, it could trace back to previous encounters with other coronaviruses, such as those that cause the common cold. "This might potentially explain why some people seem to fend off the virus and may be less susceptible to becoming severely ill," National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins remarked in a blog post this past week. On a population level, such findings, if validated, could be far-reaching. Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, and others have suggested that public immunity to the coronavirus could be significantly higher than what has been suggested by studies. In communities in Barcelona, Boston, Wuhan and other major cities, the proportion of people estimated to have antibodies and therefore presumably be immune has mostly been in the single digits. But if others had partial protection from T cells, that would raise a community's immunity level much higher. This, Ljunggren said, would be "very good news from a public health perspective." Some experts have gone so far as to speculate about whether some surprising recent trends in the epidemiology of the coronavirus - the drop in infection rates in Sweden where there have been no widespread lockdowns or mask requirements, or the high rates of infection in Mumbai's poor areas but little serious disease - might be due to preexisting immunity. Others say it's far too early to draw such conclusions. Anthony Fauci, the United States' top infectious-disease expert, said in an interview that while these ideas are being intensely studied, such theories are premature. He said at least some partial preexisting immunity in some individuals seems a possibility. And he said the amount of virus someone is exposed to - called the inoculum - "is almost certainly an important and likely factor" based on what we know about other viruses. But Fauci cautioned that there are multiple likely reasons - including youth and general health - that determine whether a particular individual shrugs off the disease or dies of it. That reinforces the need, in his view, for continued vigilance in social distancing, masking and other precautions. "There are so many other unknown factors that maybe determine why someone gets an asymptomatic infection," Fauci said. "It's a very difficult problem to pinpoint one thing." - - - News headlines have touted the idea based on blood tests that 20% of some New York communities might be immune, 7.3% in Stockholm, 7.1% in Barcelona. Those numbers come from looking at antibodies in people's blood that typically develop after they are exposed to a virus. But scientists believe another part of our immune system - T cells, a type of white blood cell that orchestrates the entire immune system - could be even more important in fighting against the coronavirus. Recent studies have suggested that antibodies from the coronavirus seem to stick around for two to three months in some people. While work on T cells and the coronavirus is only getting started - testing T cells is much more laborious than antibody testing - previous research has shown that, in general, T cells tend to last years longer. One of the first peer-reviewed studies on the coronavirus and T cells was published in mid-May in the journal Cell by Alessandro Sette, Shane Crotty and others at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology near San Diego. The group was researching blood from people who were recovering from coronavirus infections and wanted to compare that to samples from uninfected controls who were donors to a blood bank from 2015 to 2018. The researchers were floored to find that in 40% to 60% of the old samples, the T cells seemed to recognize SARS-CoV-2. "The virus didn't even exist back then, so to have this immune response was remarkable," Sette said. Research teams from five other locations reported similar findings. In a study from the Netherlands, T cells reacted to the virus in 20% of the samples. In Germany, 34%. In Singapore, 50%. The different teams hypothesized this could be due to previous exposure to similar pathogens. Perhaps fortuitously, SARS-CoV-2 is part of a large family of viruses. Two of them - SARS and MERS - are deadly and led to relatively brief and contained outbreaks. Four other coronavirus variants, which cause the common cold, circulate widely each year but typically result in only mild symptoms. Sette calls them the "less-evil cousins of SARS-CoV-2." This week, Sette and others from the team reported new research in Science providing evidence the T cell responses may derive in part from memory of "common cold" coronaviruses. "The immune system is basically a memory machine," he said. "It remembers and fights back stronger." The researchers noted in their paper that the strongest reaction they saw was against the spike proteins that the virus uses to gain access to cells - suggesting that fewer viral copies get past these defenses. "The current model assumes you are either protected or you are not - that it's a yes or no thing," Sette added. "But if some people have some level of preexisting immunity, that may suggest it's not a switch but more continuous." - - - More than 2,300 miles away, at the Mayo Clinic in Cleveland, Andrew Badley was zeroing in the possible protective effects of vaccines. Teaming up with data experts from Nference, a company that manages their clinical data, he and other scientists looked at records from 137,037 patients treated at the health system to look for relationships between vaccinations and coronavirus infection. They knew that the vaccine for smallpox, for example, had been shown to protect against measles and whooping cough. Today, a number of existing vaccines are being studied to see whether any might offer cross-protection against SARS-CoV-2. The results were intriguing: Seven types of vaccines given one, two or five years in the past were associated with having a lower rate of infection with the new coronavirus. Two vaccines in particular seemed to show stronger links: People who got a pneumonia vaccine in the recent past appeared to have a 28% reduction in coronavirus risk. Those who got polio vaccines had a 43% reduction in risk. Venky Soundararajan, chief scientific officer of Nference, remembers when he first saw how large the reduction appeared to be, he immediately picked up his phone and called Badley: "I said, 'Is this even possible?'" The team looked at dozens of other possible explanations for the difference. It adjusted for geographic incidence of the coronavirus, demographics, comorbidities, even whether people had had mammograms or colonoscopies, under the assumption that people who got preventive care might be more apt to social distance. But the risk reduction still remained large. "This surprised us completely," Soundararajan recalled. "Going in we didn't expect anything or maybe one or two vaccines showing modest levels of protection." The study is only observational and cannot show a causal link by design, but Mayo researchers are looking at a way to quantify the activity of these vaccines on the coronavirus to serve as a benchmark to the new vaccines being created by companies such as Moderna. If existing vaccines appear as protective as new ones under development, he said, they could change the world's whole vaccine strategy. - - - Meanwhile, at NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Md., Alkis Togias has been laser-focused on one group of the mildly affected: children. He wondered whether it might have something to do with the receptor known as ACE2, through which the virus hitchhikes into the body. In healthy people, the ACE2 receptors perform the important function of keeping blood pressure stable. The novel coronavirus latches itself to ACE2, where it replicates. Pharmaceutical companies are trying to figure out how to minimize the receptors or to trick the virus into attaching itself to a drug so it does not replicate and travel throughout the body. Was it possible, Togias asked, that children naturally expressed the receptor in a way that makes them less vulnerable to infection? He said recent papers have produced counterintuitive findings about one subgroup of children - those with a lot of allergies and asthma. The ACE2 receptors in those children were diminished, and when they were exposed to an allergen such as cat hair, the receptors were further reduced. Those findings, combined with data from hospitals showing that asthma did not seem to be a risk factor for the respiratory virus, as expected, have intrigued researchers. "We are thinking allergic reactions may protect you by down-regulating the receptor," he said. "It's only a theory of course." Togias, who is in charge of airway biology for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is looking at how those receptors seem to be expressed differently as people age, as part of a study of 2,000 U.S. families. By comparing those differences and immune responses within families, they hope to be able to better understand the receptors' role. Separately, a number of genetic studies show variations in genes associated with ACE2 with people from certain geographic areas, such as Italy and parts of Asia, having distinct mutations. No one knows what significance, if any, these differences have on infection, but it's an active area of discussion in the scientific community. - - - Before the pandemic, Gandhi, the University of California researcher, specialized in HIV. But like other infectious-disease experts these days, she has spent many of her waking hours thinking about the coronavirus. And in scrutinizing the data on outbreaks one day, she noticed what might be a pattern: People were wearing masks in the settings with the highest percentage of asymptomatic cases. The numbers on two cruise ships were especially striking. In the Diamond Princess, where masks weren't used and the virus was likely to have roamed free, 47% of those tested were asymptomatic. But in the Antarctic-bound Argentine cruise ship, where an outbreak hit in mid-March and surgical masks were given to all passengers and N95 masks to the crew, 81% were asymptomatic. Similarly high rates of asymptomatic infection were documented at a pediatric dialysis unit in Indiana, a seafood plant in Oregon and a hair salon in Missouri, all of which used masks. Gandhi was also intrigued by countries such as Singapore, Vietnam and the Czech Republic that had population-level masking. "They got cases," she noted, "but fewer deaths." The scientific literature on viral dose goes back to around 1938 when scientists began to find evidence that being exposed to one copy of a virus is more easily overcome than being exposed to a billion copies. Researchers refer to the infectious dose as ID50 - or the dose at which 50% of the population would become infected. While scientists do not know what that level might be for the coronavirus (it would be unethical to expose humans in this way), previous work on other nonlethal viruses showed that people tend to get less sick with lower doses and more sick with higher doses. A study published in late May involving hamsters, masks and SARS-CoV-2 found that those given coverings had milder cases than those who did not get them. In an article published this month in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Gandhi noted that in some outbreaks early in the pandemic in which most people did not wear masks, 15% of the infected were asymptomatic. But later on, when people began wearing masks, the rate of asymptomatic people was 40% to 45%. She said the evidence points to masks not just protecting others - as U.S. health officials emphasize - but protecting the wearer as well. Gandhi makes the controversial argument that while people mostly have talked about asymptomatic infections as terrifying due to how people can spread the virus unwittingly, it could end up being a good thing. "It is an intriguing hypothesis that asymptomatic infection triggering immunity may lead us to get more population-level immunity," Gandhi said. "That itself will limit spread." A TV news anchor from North Carolina chronicled her family's battle with COVID-19 after they all contracted the virus just days after she gave birth. Molly Grantham, who works with the Charlotte CBS affiliate WBTV, shared the harsh reality faced by families infected with coronavirus last week. 'This is not a made-up, fictitious illness,' Grantham wrote in a now-viral Facebook post on Sunday. 'Its real. I watched my 10-day-old get a nasal swab from a nurse practitioner covered head-to-toe in a protective suit, while his 9-year-old sister tried to calm him without being allowed to touch him. 'This, while I was in another car reviewing X-rays with a doctor, looking at nodules on my lungs.' Molly Grantham (pictured), a TV news anchor for WBTV, was diagnosed with COVID-19 just days after she gave birth to her newborn son, Michael Hobie Grantham's newborn baby is reportedly the 'the youngest person tested in Mecklenburg County' and 'youngest presumptive positive case'. The frightening ordeal began when Grantham went to a Charlotte-area hospital on July 14 to give birth to her youngest son, Hobie Michael. When Grantham and Hobie first arrived home from the hospital, the family smothered the baby with hugs and kisses to welcome the newest member. But unbeknownst to them, the couple's nine-year-old daughter had contracted the virus while Grantham was in the hospital. The young girl, named Parker, was initially asymptomatic before she began complaining of a sore throat and her ears popping when she swallowed less than 18-hours after they reunited. Grantham initially brushed off the symptoms as allergies, but the coronavirus was fresh on her mind after spending hours inside a medical center. According to Grantham's Facebook post, nine-year-old Parker felt COVID-19 symptoms first before they soon spread to the rest of the family. Pictured (left to right): Hutch, Molly, Hobie Michael and Parker Out of precaution, Grantham took Parker and her oldest son, five-year-old Hutch, to get tested at the families' pediatrician but didn't believe they could be infected. 'I half-thought I was being helicopter-parent crazy, but whatever. Nothing lost if the test was negative,' she wrote. The pediatrician instructed the family-of-five to cancel any planned visits and quarantine together until the children's results came back. Grantham spent that night comforting her daughter, who was nauseated, sweaty, feverish and restless. '[Parker] came to me crying, feeling nauseous, with her hair matted back from her forehead, wet and sticky. She slept on the floor, with soaked skin and one arm wrapped around a bowl,' wrote Grantham. 'She felt like absolute hell. Wes (her husband) and I were up more with her that night than with 4-day-old Hobie.' The Facebook post shared by Grantham about her family's experience with COVID-19 has gone viral with more than 64,000 shares 'Here is the truth: I was petrified,' she wrote. 'Every horrific headline Ive read and reported on, reappeared in my mind. 'Watching Parker toss and sweat, combined with having a newborn with zero immune system nearby, combined with middle-of-night-hazy-unclear-thoughts it added up to awful.' The family was optimistic when Parker awoke the next day feeling 'better,' but the ordeal took another turn when Wes admitted he couldn't taste, smell and felt exhausted. He, too, got tested. 'Even if Parkers was a stomach bug, the one symptom that defines coronavirus is no taste; no smell. We had to assume Wes was positive,' she wrote. Grantham felt body aches and was exhausted as well, but she blamed those feelings on postpartum-like symptoms. Later, a pediatrician confirmed that Parker contracted COVID-19 but Hutch's results came back negative. The family was told to assume it was a false negative or a bad swab, and to consider Hutch 'presumptively positive.' Over video call, the pediatrician recommended Parker, Hutch and Wes quarantine in one part of the house while Grantham stayed with the baby in another. Grantham: 'I watched my 10-day-old get a nasal swab from a nurse practitioner covered head-to-toe in a protective suit, while his 9-year-old sister tried to calm him without being allowed to touch him' Pictured: Parker (center) and Hobie Michael (right) 'Keep Hutch away from Hobie in the same house? I thought she was kidding,' wrote Grantham. But quarantining and wearing masks inside the home proved too much for the family. Grantham admitted it wasn't 'realistic' trying to 'parent P and H through walls.' After one day, the family began normal interactions again despite Grantham's body aches getting worse and a newly developed 'pounding headache that wouldnt go away.' Then, Wes' COVID-19 test results came back positive and Hutch was hit with a 100.7F fever. 'Assume he has it,' a pediatrician told Grantham about Hutch. 'His symptoms are just a week late. Mollyyou need to get tested.' Grantham pushed back at first - she didn't have a fever and hadn't experience symptoms like her family. 'Needing to have a fever is a misconception with coronavirus,' the pediatrician told Grantham. Grantham on the WBTV set in Charlotte, North Carolina, during her pregnancy 'Youre high risk with a newborn and three of your family members are now for sure positive. Go get tested.' Grantham visited a drive-thru clinic to undergo a rapid test and was told by a nurse she would need a chest X-ray after a sever cough interrupted their discussion. The nurse also suggested 10-day-old Hobie get tested, too. Grantham was diagnosed with COVID-19 and pneumonia. Hobie's test came back negative. Like Hutch, the family was told to assume Hobie was positive when they returned home. 'More than 10 days later, Hobie has not shown one symptom. I have watched him like a hawk. Over-studied every breath while watching his tiny rib cage rise and fall,' wrote Grantham. Since then, Grantham has been treating her pneumonia and COVID-19 symptoms while on maternity leave. In a final note, Grantham revealed that the entire family is gradually recovering. 'Relief is an underrated sensation. It covers me right now as I watch the kids argue and Hobie sleepily smile and Wes feel okay,' she wrote. 'And yes I am getting my energy back. Not there 100% but it is a beautiful feeling to know well be okay.' Finally, she urged people to be cognizant of COVID-19 symptoms and to beware of misinformation. 'Be careful. Share the lessons. Symptoms range from almost anything mild to anything notable. Just, please, be smart and only spread factual information,' she wrote. The United States continued to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic as the country records more than 4.8million cases and 160,000 deaths. North Carolina has managed to avoid becoming a COVID-19 hot spot during the last six months, but still recorded a number of cases and deaths. As of Friday morning, North Carolina health officials counted 132,000 confirmed infections and a death toll of 2,159. Mecklenburg County, which was mentioned in Grantham's Facebook post, has amassed 21,876 infections and 225 deaths. Eight Detectives Alex Pavesi Michael Joseph 14.99 A mathematician devises a series of fiendishly inventive murder mysteries. Thirty years later a young editor comes to visit the author with a view to republishing them. Reading the stories aloud, she starts to notice sinister discrepancies. Could they be clues to a real-life murder mystery? This is both a wonderfully tricksy debut and a loving tribute to crime fictions golden age. John Williams Summerwater Sarah Moss Picador 14.99 With foreign getaways out of the question for many this year, Mosss chronicle of holidaymakers at a log cabin park in the Scottish Highlands feels topical. Among those trying to make the best of a sodden midsummers day are a retired doctor, a mother who lives to run, and a teen plotting his escape. Tragedy looms but Moss buoys the reader along with wit and compassion as she flits between viewpoints. Endlessly interesting. Hephzibah Anderson The Returnees Elizabeth Okoh Hodder & Stoughton 17.99 Bruised from a breakup, fashionista Osayuki leaves London for the city her parents abandoned. Lagos is exhilarating yet tough a 24-hour hustle where chauffeured cars glide past slums. Along with two other British-Nigerians she meets, Osayuki must confront uncomfortable truths as she struggles to adapt to her new life in this evocative tale of identity, friendship and unexpected love. Madeleine Feeny The Glass Hotel Emily St. John Mandel Picador 14.99 Mandels new book centres on the uncovering of a Ponzi scheme clearly based on Bernie Madoffs. It begins when graffiti appears on the window of a hotel owned by the man behind the scheme. Other members of its cast include a trophy-wife-turned-cook and an ex-junkie studying finance. This intriguing read also offers sly links to the authors previous acclaimed novel, Station Eleven, and its timely flu pandemic. Jeffrey Burke If you seek comfort, you dont explore the world. I wrote this sentence down in my diary a few years ago. Im not sure where it came from. It wasnt Proust or Joyce, it may have been Ben Fogle. Nonetheless, it was the mantra I adopted when I moved to New York for work, and many other times when I have felt anxious about change. This year has brought all kinds of change, but not much of it in terms of our geographic location. Back in my hometown of North Berwick, the nearest I can get to exploring the world is when I don my wetsuit and trek down to the local beach, and my hand brushes seaweed or jellyfish. That alone is enough to make me be glad to come home and get a cup of tea. If we cant explore, how can we escape? The concept of escapism has taken on a whole new meaning after months of lockdown. I now listen to a ridiculous number of podcasts, and Im onto season four of The Real Housewives of New York City (eight more seasons to go), but none of those can drag me that far away from the horror show of this year. For me, reading has been the only true escape. Ive read 28 books this year. Im not bragging; it was a New Years resolution to read a book a week and its the only one, incidentally, that Ive ever kept. Thats saying something for a person who is so into making resolutions that I recently discovered a list of not only mine but of all my school friends and their partners from a New Years dinner three years ago. Its no surprise then, that I like activities which mark the passing of time. And in the huge expanse of time that is this year, a handful of books is one way of delineating March from April and July from August. And I dont think Im the only one a survey released in April from The Reading Agency found one in three of us were reading more during lockdown. For hardcore New Years resolution makers, reading doesnt sound like much of an achievement. Its hardly aiming to be the next Steve Jobs, or to cure cancer. Yet it has been surprisingly hard work. With a mountain of content to consume, work to do or dishes to wash, a book is not the natural priority. When my brain is fried from staring at a screen and my concentration span has sunk in on itself and feels like a shrivelled grape inside my skull, the only thing I often feel able to read are the subtitles on a YouTube clip. During those times, it feels like a gargantuan task to sit down and pick up a book. Ive come to think of reading as a muscle that needs flexing regularly, just as I would with exercise, maths of any other kind of skill. As a teenager I used to whizz through anything by Jane Austen or the Brontes without a second thought, now I need to force myself to do it. The reward is worth the effort. I couldnt go outdoors much in March, April and May, but I could read the wonderful descriptions of the Slad valley in Laurie Lees Cider with Rosie, or of the Yorkshire dales in Winifred Holtbys Anderby Wold. I couldnt go to Cannes, but I can read Francoise Sagans account of chic, golden skin and blue waters in Bonjour Tristesse. My time machine has taken me all over the place, too: into the lives of 19th-century women who were killed by Jack the Ripper in Whitechapel, as documented in Hallie Rubenholds incredible book, The Five, or over the snowy mountains bordering Poland alongside Second World War spy Christine Granville, as told by Claire Mulley in The Spy Who Loved. Even the New York housewives with their cosmetic procedures and fall-outs cant distract me to the same extent God love em. As we ease out of lockdown and enter some kind of normal life, reading a book a week is one new habit I hope never to give up. Pilot of ill-fated Kerala plane had planned surprise visit on mother's birthday India pti-Deepika S Nagpur, Aug 08: Captain Deepak Sathe, pilot of the ill-fated Air India Express flight who died along with 17 others after the plane crashed at Kerala's Kozhikode airport, had planned to pay a surprise visit to Nagpur on his mother's birthday on Saturday, his relative said. However, even before his mother could celebrate her 84th birthday, Capt Sathe, 58, died in the air crash. "Today is the birthday of Capt Sathe's mother. He had last met his parents in March and was constantly in touch with them over phone since then. They had last spoken a day before yesterday," his nephew Dr Yashodhan Sathe told PTI on Saturday. Kerala plane crash: 14 passengers critical; probe under way to determine exact cause "Captain had told some of the relatives that if flights are available, he would pay a surprise visit to his mother on her birthday," he said. Captain Sathe lived with his wife in Mumbai. His mother, Neela Sathe, who lives with her husband Vasant Sathe, a retired colonel in Nagpur, said that after the coronavirus outbreak, he had told her not to step out of the house. "He used to tell me not to go out due to the pandemic. He would tell me that if something happens to me, he would feel bad. And suddenly this tragedy struck...what can we do before the will of the God...," she said with tears in her eyes. Captain Sathe, who was the pilot-in-command and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were among those who died in the incident. Mr Sathe was a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and had served at the force's flight testing establishment. He was from 58th course of National Defence Academy (NDA), Pune. Dr Yashodhan Sathe said that the body of Captain Sathe is yet to be handed over to the family. "His wife and brother-in-law are in Kozhikode, but the decision about where the last rites will be held is yet to be taken. Due to the coronavirus restrictions, we will not be able to go there," he said. Ninety-eight new single-detached homes will spring up in a southeast Welland neighbourhood in the next few years now that city council has given the go-ahead for the subdivision. Phase 3 of Centennial Homes Waterway Commons development will see the homes built in behind Diamond Trail Public School on Southworth Street and north of Sauer Avenue. William Heikoop, a planner with Upper Canada Consultants, said there is a range of homes planned for the site that abuts the Evelyn Ditch and former CP Rail corridor. During a virtual public meeting in late July, residents in the area voiced concerns around grading and drainage and connecting Bradley Avenue to Morwood Avenue to the north. Heikoop said Centennial Homes was giving up 10 metres of land to maintain the Evelyn Ditch and was ready to start building homes as soon as it could. Bradley Avenue will be extended north of Sauer Street to the property line during construction, with the city paying for its share of storm sewer, roadway and lighting services. During Tuesdays meeting, councillors Bonnie Fokkens, Ward 6, and Graham Speck, Ward 5, raised concerns about Bradley extending any further north and linking it with Morwood Avenue. Morwood runs south off Ontario Road. Numerous residents were opposed to any extension, saying it would increase traffic in the area. Fokkens said there are already major issues with ATVs cutting through the area. She wanted one of the 26 conditions on the draft plan for the subdivision removed. It calls for the developer to contribute to a future link between the two streets. Travers Fitzpatrick, the citys general manager of infrastructure and development, recommended against removing that condition. He said if the street was extended in the future, the developer should contribute. A long-term connection makes sense, said Fitzpatrick. But with CP Rail owning land where the link would go, it would require a decision of council whether it would try to purchase land, provided the company was willing to sell. Fokkens asked that the condition be changed and for the developer to issue a letter of credit for a possible future connection if council decided to buy the rail lands. During Tuesdays meeting, council approved another Centennial Homes project Phase 2 of Waterway Commons in the same area, passing zoning bylaw amendments. Craig Rohe, a senior planner with Upper Canada Consultants, said zoning changes were needed as Centennial Homes discovered some of the building materials would lead to the widening of some units. It would be in noncompliance with the zoning, he said of four units that will require a 0.9-metre side yard setback instead of one metre. The amendment will also see driveways allowed as a required parking space at the homes as garages will be slightly smaller than the standard. Rohe told Speck, who questioned the change, some residents may not feel comfortable trying to open car doors in a smaller garage. He said the developer felt there would be enough room in the driveways to accommodate two vehicles. The new homes will be on the east and west sides of Louise Street between McCabe Avenue and Sauer Street, with two lots on the east side of Iva Street. Rohe said there were no comments on the proposed build, which will see 64 homes constructed, following a public meeting. If this is approved, Centennial will be seeking building permits, he said. Rajesh Asnani By Express News Service PORBANDAR: After the rebellion by Sachin Pilot divided the Rajasthan Congress into two warring camps, divisions are erupting in the state BJP unit. The BJP has shifted about two dozen of its MLAs into a resort in Gujarat which reflects the growing turmoil within its ranks. Problems have compounded for the BJPs central leadership just when they are expecting the fall of the Gehlot Government as their own clan is not united in Rajasthan. This has prompted the BJP to park its MLAs in Gujarat fearing poaching and a scenario similar to Congress when Sachin Pilot brought the internal divisions to the fore. Four MLAs of Udaipur district have been sent to Gujarat and mobiles of all MLAs are now switched off. The BJP reportedly planned the move clandestinely on Friday and sent four of the six BJP MLAs of Udaipur to Gujarat, including Udaipur Rural MLA Phool Singh Meena, Mavali MLA Dharmanarayan Joshi, Salumbar MLA Amritlal Meena and Gogunda MLA Pratap Gameti. On Saturday, several others were flown out of Jaipur. Gulab Chand Kataria, the Leader of the Opposition also spoke to the media on Saturday and said, "If there is a historic decision of the High Court on 6 BSP MLAs, then at that time our 75 votes will be very important. It is necessary for us to be alert. We will decide the future strategy only after the court's decision on the 11th." The court has issued a notice to the six BSP MLAs who joined Congress and sought a reply by August 11. For weeks, BJP leaders had been attacking the Gehlot camp for herding its MLAs in hotels in Jaipur and later in Jaisalmer. Now the BJP is also resorting to similar tactics but the party is calling it as a recreational trip by MLAs on their own initiative. Sources say that all MLAs of the party may not be sent out of Rajasthan and some 15-20 MLAs may be sent to Madhya Pradesh. Kataria said, we need to be careful about every vote in the Assembly and all MLAs are in touch with us and we know who is in which district. We are only being together and united but we dont need to herd our MLAs which, if needed, would have been done a month ago. ALSO READ | Vasundhara Raje meets Rajnath Singh amid Rajasthan political crisis While the rift in the Congress is out in the open, the BJP too has many factions. Firstly, there is the RSS faction with state Chief Satish Poonia and Leader of Opposition Kataria as its prominent leaders. Then comes the faction loyal to PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah which is led by Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The third faction is of Vasundhara Raje loyalists. Each faction is keen that their chosen leader should be the next CM in case there is a change of government in Rajasthan. According to sources, the 2 MLAs loyal to former CM Vasundhara Raje, have written a letter to state BJP chief that if their leader is sidelined, the party will suffer huge losses. The BJP has asked all its district Presidents to stay in touch with MLAs of their area. Meanwhile, as the Assembly session of 14 August draws closer, there is hectic political activity even in the BJP High Command in Delhi. Party Chief, JP Nadda met two prominent leaders of the state, namely Vasundhara Raje and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat separately on Friday. While Raje has been largely silent during the Rajasthan political crisis, Shekhawat has been accused of playing an active role in horse-trading to topple the Gehlot Government. That the relations between Raje and Shekhawat are tense is a known fact in Rajasthan for years. Sources say that during her meeting with Nadda, Vasundhara expressed her disappointment over a range of issues. She is reportedly upset at the comments of Hanuman Beniwal, RLP MP from Nagaur, who recently claimed that Raje was trying to help the Gehlot Government survive. Raje believes that such comments could not have been made without the encouragement of leaders from her own party. She also raised questions on the working of the state BJP unit. Nadda is said to have advised Raje to show patience at a time when the state is going through a major political crisis. But she is supposed to have responded that while she supports the partys ideology and programmes, there can be no compromise with self-respect. During her last tenure as CM, Raje had opposed Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as state party chief despite Amit Shahs pressure to accept him in that position. After BJP lost power in Rajasthan, Raje has been sidelined and now political circles are closely watching whether Raje will stage a comeback in the current crisis or whether the part high command continues to ignore her demands. Lebanese-Canadian business leaders in Toronto say they plan to raise $2.5 million to support relief efforts in Beirut after a deadly explosion devastated Lebanon's capital on Tuesday. On Saturday, the Canadian government announced it would match every donation made by Canadians to its new Lebanon Matching Fund up to a maximum of $2 million. The business leaders in Toronto had called on the government to match their funds as bodies continue to be pulled from the rubble. The powerful blast that has killed more than 150 people and wounded thousands. The business owners include Mohamad Fakih, founder and CEO of the Paramount Fine Foods restaurant chain, and Rola Dagher, president of Cisco Systems Canada. At a news conference Friday, Fakih and Dagher also announced that they will form an organization called the Lebanese Canadian Coalition. Canada announced this week that up to $5 million in humanitarian aid will be sent to Lebanon. Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images Blast came from stockpile of ammonium nitrate The strength of the explosion left buildings decimated or uninhabitable in the nearly 10-kilometre radius of the blast. Days after the tragedy, the streets of Beirut remain filled with rubble and debris, with dozens of people still missing. Around 300,000 people, 12 per cent of the city's population, are unable to return to their homes. Planet Labs Inc./Associated Press While the cause of the blast is believed to be due to thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate that caught fire while stored at Beirut's port, Lebanese officials are asking France to provide satellite imagery to rule out any kind of third-party intervention. WATCH | A Canadian describes surviving the Beirut explosion: Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Friday that the previous government knew about the danger of the ammonium nitrate stockpile, which had been at the port since 2013 when it was confiscated from an impounded ship. Aoun has been in his position since 2016. The Lebanese government has launched an investigation, but many citizens are blaming the disaster on internal corruption. New Delhi, Aug 8 : Foodtech unicorn Zomato on Saturday announced that all its women (including transgender people) employees can avail up to 10 days of period leaves in a year. According to the company, women employees can take one period leave for each menstrual cycle. "Why 10? Most women have 14 menstrual cycles in a year. Adjusting for the probability of you having your periods on a weekend, you can now rightfully avail 10 extra leaves compared to men," the company said in a blog post. The foodtech unicorn said that the company understands that men and women are born with different biological realities. There shouldn't be any shame or stigma attached to applying for a period leave. "I know that menstrual cramps are very painful for a lot of women - and we have to support them through it if we want to build a truly collaborative culture at Zomato," Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said. The employees should feel free to tell people on internal groups or emails if they need period leaves, said the company. However, the company also stressed not to abuse these leaves or use them as a crutch to take time out for other pending tasks. The has expressed its inability to take an independent decision on the appointment of a neutral expert or a Court of Arbitration for the settlement of a long-pending water dispute between India and Pakistan, saying the two countries will have to bilaterally choose one option, a media report here said on Saturday. India and Pakistan signed the treaty in 1960 after nine years of negotiations, with the Washington-based being a signatory. The treaty sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two countries regarding their use of the rivers. However, there have been disagreements and differences between India and Pakistan over the treaty. "Both India and Pakistan should come together as to which option to take forward, Patchamuthu Illangovan, the World Bank's former Country Director of Pakistan, was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper on completion of his five-year term in Islamabad. Pakistan had made a request for the appointment of a Court of Arbitration (COA) while India had sought a neutral expert to resolve the dispute on two hydroelectric projects, he said. Due to the two conflicting positions under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, the bank was facilitating the two governments to find ways in resolving their differences and move forward, Illangovan said. Asked if the bank was shying away from its role even though it was part of the treaty and had been sitting on Pakistan's request for a COA for almost four years now, he said: There is no provision in the treaty for the to take an independent decision. When asked about bank's reluctance to fund the Diamer-Basha Dam, Illangovan said that while the bank was supporting other projects on the Indus river like Dasu-1 and Dasu-II, India had raised objections over the Diamer-Basha's location in a disputed area (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) and that it was not the bank's policy to finance disputed projects. Pakistan had called for the resolution of disputes over the 330MW Kishanganga project on the Neelum river and 850MW Ratle Hydropower project on the Chenab river. In December 2016, the bank paused the process for either appointing a COA or a neutral expert, and started mediation between the two countries on how to advance and develop consensus in the light of the treaty on the mechanism for the resolution of faulty designs of the two projects. The last round of bank-facilitated and secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan were held in Washington in September 2015 which ended in the disappointment for Islamabad. Pakistan raised a number of objections over the design of the two projects at the level of Permanent Indus Waters Commission almost a decade ago, followed by secretary-level talks and then requests for arbitration through the bank. Under the treaty, in case the parties fail to resolve disputes through bilateral means, the aggrieved party has the option to invoke the jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration or the neutral expert under the auspices of bank. (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.) Rajesh Asnani By Express News Service JAIPUR: Call it a softening of CM Ashok Gehlots stance or legal tactic vis-a-vis Sachin Pilot-led Congress rebels; there is much to read into dropping of sedition charges by the Special Operations Group (SOG) over horse-trading of MLAs. The sedition charges were contained in three FIRs that SOG had filed which involved the alleged toppling of the Gehlot government. ALSO READ | Congress 'upbeat', claims majority ahead of Rajasthan Assembly session Reacting to the SOG move, state BJP chief Satish Poonia said: The CMs intention has now been exposed as it is clear that they hatched a conspiracy against their own MLAs to intimidate the Independents and small party MLAs, in the name of SOG and ACB. The state polices SOG had originally slapped sedition charges against two rebel Congress MLAs Bhanwarlal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh and later against Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat after three audio tapes were leaked in mid-July. The dropping of the charge, reportedly on legal advice, is being seen as a move to pacify the Pilot camp. Bhanwarlal Sharma, who was named in the FIR, had filed a petition before the Rajasthan High Court to either quash the FIR or transfer it to the NIA. Had the NIA got the case, it would have meant the Gehlot government having little control over the probe. Experts believe the Gehlot government was worried about the outcome of Sharmas petition. The possibility of NIA getting hold of the probe weighed heavy on the state government. Sharmas petition could become infructuous if the sedition charges are dropped. Courtesy of Bob March Bob March, who rose to fame during the early years of television broadcasting in the Bay Area as "Captain Satellite" has died at home near Sacramento. He was 93, according to Louise Ann Pennella-March, his daughter-in-law. March died Thursday morning, Pennell-March said Friday. He had been living with his wife, Alice, in the Sacramento area in recent years. In 1958, March starred in the title role of "Captain Satellite" on KTVU in Oakland. Almost immediately, he became easily identifiable to a generation of kids growing up in the Bay Area and northern California throughout the late 1950s and the 1960s, all of whom watched his afternoon kiddie show every afternoon after school. Before Captain Kirk, Luke Skywalker, Buck Rogers even the Robinson family and their Robot from "Lost in Space" there was Captain Satellite, who, courtesy of KTVU, flew in from outer space each weekday afternoon and into the living rooms of Bay Area children for more than a decade. It is a wedding that will never happen as the plane crash at Kozhikode snuffed out the life of the prospective young bridegroom. Muhammed Riyas, 24, had taken the flight on Friday evening along with his brother after his parents fixed the marriage. His friends and local people at his native Mollur village are in a state of shock afer news emerged that Riyas, who was working with his brother Nizamuddin in Dubai, had died in the A villager said Riyas' family had fixed his engagement later this month after he completed the mandatory COVID-19 quarantine period. "Unfortunately, we lost him in the tragedy.We are in a state of shock," one of his friends told reporters. The friend recalled that Riyas was very active during his days in the village. "He had a lot of friends. We grew up together playing all sorts of games in the village playground.It's a big loss for me," he said, trying to control his emotions. Nizamuddin has been admitted to a hospital in Kozhikode with serious injuries. It was to be Riyas first visit to his village since he left for Dubai for work one-and-a-half years ago, but the crash claimed his life. His body was buried this afternoon at the Mollur Juma Masjid Khabarstan adhering to COVID-19 protocol, police said. (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.) All the 16 Regional Communications Officers of the opposition National Democratic Congress are calling on Media houses in the country to desist from inviting Hon. Kennedy Agyapong to their platforms and shows. In a press release on August 7, the 16 Regional Communications Officers of the NDC call for swift investigations into alleged death threats issued on the life of the National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi by Kennedy Agyapong who they described as irresponsible and a reckless legislator. The Communicators are of the view that Kennedy Agyapong's threat to Sammy Gyamfi could be executed just as in the case of the slain journalist, Ahmed Suale. The Communicators however indicated that the 'shameless' Kennedy Agyapong's threat can never stop any of them from executing their sacrosanct task of exposing what they call the ills and corrupt administration of President Akufo Addo. Below is the full press release; --- Jammu, Aug 8 : A 65-year-old man injured in Pakistan shelling on the Line of Control (LoC) on Friday in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, succumbed overnight, taking the toll of civilians killed in the flare up to two, officials said on Saturday. Officials said 65-year-old Mohammad Sadiq of Tain Mankote in Poonch district succumbed to critical injuries sustained in Pakistan shelling. Two civilians have been killed and six injured in Friday's flare up on the LoC. One civilian was killed and six others injured when Pakistan resorted to unprovoked, indiscriminate targeting of defence and civilian facilities in Tangdhar sector of the LoC in Kupwara district on Friday. Pakistan carried out a series of ceasefire violations on the LoC on Friday. Pakistan started violations in Mendhar and Balakote sectors early morning on Friday. In the evening, ceasefire violation was carried out again in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district. In Kashmir division, Pakistan violated ceasefire and resorted to indiscriminate shelling on the LoC in Machhal, Naugam and Tangdhar sectors of Kupwara district. Pakistan also violated ceasefire in Uri sector of Baramulla district on Friday. Indian Army retaliated effectively at all these places and defence sources said damage was caused to Pakistan army positions in Indian retaliatory action. Sources, however, said while retaliating to Pakistan violations, Indian army ensured that no civilian facility was targeted while responding to Pakistan firing and shelling. The day-long shelling on the LoC by Pakistan has resulted in panic among hundreds of border villagers whose lives have become miserable due to cross border hostilities in J&K. Reports said some families living close to the LoC have started moving away from the line of enemy fire by taking refuge in places away from the LoC. Since the beginning of this year, Pakistan has made over 2,720 ceasefire violations in which 23 civilians have been killed and over 100 others injured. TikTok was preparing advertisers for a possible ban of its app in the United States, ad buyers said, offering refunds for campaigns that were unable to run. The short-form video app's advertising business is still nascent. TikTok's anticipated $1 billion (766 million pounds) in 2020 revenue is a small fraction of its Chinese owner ByteDance's overall sales. But TikTok has become a popular place for brands that aim to reach the app's young tastemakers, who flock to it for lip-syncing, dancing and comedy sketch videos. TikTok said it will continue to honor planned ad ... STEPANAKERT. From August 2 to August 8, the adversary violated the ceasefire more than 300 times at the zone of contact between the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)-Azerbaijani opposing forces. During that time Azerbaijan fired around 2,800 shots at the Artsakh military positions, and from various-caliber firearms, the Artsakh Ministry of Defense (MOD) press service informed. But the Artsakh Defense Army vanguard units adhere to the ceasefire, and continue to take the necessary steps to reliably maintain their combat positions. Nicole Kidman has been given the green light to film her $100million series Nine Perfect Strangers in Australia, bringing hundreds of jobs to the local industry. And the actress told fans on Saturday that she 'can't wait' to introduce viewers to the production, based on the 2018 novel by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty. The 53-year-old shared a photo of the pair enjoying a socially-distant embrace to Instagram. Latest project: Nicole Kidman (left) told fans on Saturday that she 'can't wait' to introduce viewers to her new $100M series Nine Perfect Strangers, sharing a photo with author Liane Moriarty (right) to Instagram 'We can't wait to introduce you to #NinePerfectStrangers #LianeMoriarty,' Nicole wrote in the post's caption. In the photo, the pair were seated at a table and bumped elbows - the new 'socially-distant' hug. The limited series is being produced by Nicole's production company Blossom Films, alongside collaborators Bruna Papandrea (Big Little Lies, Gone Girl) and David E. Kelley. Alongside Nicole, the series will feature an A-list Hollywood cast including Melissa McCarthy, Luke Evans and Manny Jacinto. Movie adaptation: Based on Liane's 2018 novel, the series will tell the story of nine stressed-out urbanites who escape to a wellness retreat run by Nicole's character The series will tell the story of nine stressed-out urbanites who escape to a wellness retreat run by Nicole's character. Filming will begin on August 10 and will run for 19 weeks. According to The Daily Telegraph last month, strict COVID-19 restrictions will be placed upon the production, which is set to take place at an 'isolated production hub' at Nicole and Keith Urban's sprawling property in the NSW Southern Highlands. All-star cast: The series will feature an A-list Hollywood cast including Melissa McCarthy (pictured), Luke Evans and Manny Jacinto Cast and crew members flying from overseas or interstate will be made to quarantine in a hotel for 14-days upon arrival into NSW. Nicole and her fellow producers will also be responsible for paying all medical and security costs, The Daily Telegraph reports. The Academy Award-winner told the publication that she's 'thrilled' to be able to bring hundreds of jobs to the local industry. Pakistan has not received the oil on deferred payments from Saudi Arabia since May as a deal signed between the two sides for provision of USD 3.2 billion worth of the fuel under the arrangement expired two months ago and Islamabad is still waiting for a response from Riyadh over its request to extend the facility. The $3.2 billion Saudi oil facility was part of the $6.2-billion Saudi Arabian package announced in November 2018 to ease Pakistans external sector woes, the Express Tribune reported on Friday. Petroleum Division spokesperson Sajid Qazi said the agreement expired in May and efforts are being made by the Finance Division to renew the facility. Also read: India wont be hit as Aramco races to restore oil supply after drone strikes He said Pakistan is awaiting response from the Saudi government over its request to further extend the facility. The budget estimates suggested that the government was hoping to receive minimum $1 billion worth of oil in fiscal year 2020-21, which started from July. Pakistan has already prematurely returned $1 billion Saudi loan -- four months ahead of its repayment period, the report said. Citing sources, it said Pakistan could also return the remaining $2 billion cash loan, subject to availability of a similar facility from China. The agreement over $3 billion cash support and $3.2 billion oil facility per annum had the provision of renewal for two more years. Saudi had rolled over its $3 billion loan from between November 2019 and January 2020. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has termed the rollovers of Saudi Arabian, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Chinese assistance critical for Pakistans debt sustainability. Pakistans repayment of $1 billion Saudi Arabian loan after borrowing from China and expiry of the oil facility underscores challenging relations between two Islamic nations, the report noted. The Saudi oil facility that had been secured after hectic backdoor lobbying with the royal family remained underutilised in the last fiscal year. The USD 769 million deferred payment facility on supply of oil was availed from Saudi government, according to the spokesman of the Petroleum Division. The Saudi facility faced roadblocks since the beginning. Initially, both the countries had a plan to make the facility operational from January 2019. But it actually became operational from July last year. The UAE had also announced a $6.2 billion package for Pakistan in December 2018, including a $3.2 billion oil facility. But later on, the UAE reduced its financial assistance to $2 billion and also shelved the plan to give a USD 3.2 billion oil facility on deferred payments. The UAE and Saudi Arabian oil credit facilities were part of the USD 14.5 billion package agreed with three friendly countries, including China. After coming into power, Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government faced an immediate challenge of filling a USD 12 billion hole, which the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had left behind due to a widening current account deficit, the report said. Pakistan faces a challenging situation at a time when its IMF programme also remains technically suspended for the last five months. Returning of Saudi loans and expiry of the oil facility could strain the official reserves of the central bank, which are built purely by taking loans, the report noted. Advertisement Chaotic scenes returned to Beirut last night as violent clashes between anti-government protestors demanding regime change and security forces saw buildings damaged by Tuesday's huge explosion set on fire. The groups exchanged tear gas and molotov cocktails as night fell, with the army being drafted in to take control of Martyrs' Square in the city centre. It is believed one police officer fell to his death following an 'assault' by protestors, and dozens of demonstrators are injured. The blast of the Port of Beirut that ripped through the city - killing 150 people - has been seen as a direct consequence of the incompetence and corruption that have come to define Lebanon's ruling class. Around 5,000 people had earlier gathered in the central square to vent their fury at the government. A large deployment of police tried to contain them as they chanted 'the people want the fall of the regime', and advanced towards parliament before riot police were deployed. Cardboard cut outs of militant group Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah and Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri among others were hung in mock gallows. 'There is hatred and there is blood between us and our authorities,' said Najib Farah, a 35-year-old protester in central Beirut. 'The people want revenge.' On a street leading to parliament, young men lobbed stones at security forces who replied with tear gas, a familiar sight in Lebanon since last October when the country was crippled by economic crisis. A few hundred metres down the road, a group of retired Lebanese army officers stormed the foreign ministry in central Beirut and declared it the 'headquarters of the revolution'. The takeover, which was aired live on local TV, lasted for three hours before the Lebanese army was brought in to drive the protestors. Footage shows the soldiers violently pushing back the protestors. The economy and energy ministries and the Association of Banks in Lebanon were also targeted, with protestors storming the economic departments and throwing piles of paperwork out of the windows. Chaotic scenes returned to Beirut last night as violent clashes between anti-government protestors demanding regime change and security forces saw buildings set on fire and tear gas fired into crowds The blast of the Port of Beirut that ripped through the city - killing 150 people - has been seen as a direct consequence of the incompetence and corruption that have come to define Lebanon's ruling class Police are seen using riot shields to protect themselves from missiles including molotov cocktails as they attempt to reclaim streets from 5,000 protestors who raided government buildings earlier Large army reinforcements using rubber bullets and tear gas drove out the roughly 200 protesters, who only had time to chant celebratory slogans against the government and burn a portrait of President Michel Aoun. The already devastated streets of Lebanon's capital have been set ablaze by in fights between protesters and security forces attempting to retain control of the capital. Pictured: A protestor run past a burning building during a protest in Beirut A Lebanese protester confronts a soldiers at the devastated headquarters of the Lebanese association of banks in downtown Beirut as a fire burns on the floor of the empty building The takeover, which was aired live on local TV, happened as most of the security forces' attention was focused on a tense demonstration against the ruling elite a few hundred metres down the road Cardboard cut outs of militant group Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah and Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri among others were hung in mock gallows Thousands of young men and women earlier revived the main camp of a months-long protest movement, some of them carrying portraits of blast victims and a banner bearing the names of the dead. They pinned the blame for Tuesday's mega-blast at Beirut port on leaders they say deserve nothing less than the fate of the 158 people who died as a result. 'My government murdered my people,' read one sign. 'You were corrupt, now you are criminals,' read another. The explosion that disfigured the city and shocked the world is widely perceived as a direct consequence of the incompetence and corruption that have come to define Lebanon's ruling class. After a morning of funerals, protesters marched through the wreckage caused by the monster explosion that killed over 150 people, wounded 6,000 and left an estimated 300,000 temporarily homeless. The crowds that converged on Martyrs Square breathed new life into a protest movement that started in October but was snuffed out a few months later by the coronavirus pandemic and a crippling economic crisis. 'There is now an opportunity for real change, it's not like the other demonstrations since October,' said Farah. Around 5,000 people had earlier gathered in the central square to vent their fury at the government. A large deployment of police tried to contain them as they chanted 'the people want the fall of the regime' Amidst the violent protests it is believed that one police officer has been killed and dozens of protestors and officers injured At least 238 people were hurt in the clashes, and 63 of them needed to be taken to the hospital, according to the Red Cross Several protesters were carried away with blood running down their faces. At one point, gunfire could be heard, but its source was not immediately clear Just down the road, a group of protesters led by retired Lebanese army officers stormed the foreign ministry in central Beirut Saturday and declared it the 'headquarters of the revolution' After a three-hour occupation, the Lebanese army were sent into the retake the building. Pictured: Protesters enter the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beirut The explosion that disfigured the city and shocked the world is widely perceived as a direct consequence of the incompetence and corruption that have come to define Lebanon's ruling class Demonstrators walked over shards of glass from gutted windows, chanting: 'Revenge, revenge, until this regime reaches an end.' Carrying a broom with a noose attached to it, Jad, a 25 year-old advertising professional, complained that the state was nowhere to be seen in the huge and ongoing cleanup effort across the city. 'Everything is trashed, we have had to repair the streets for three days, while there is no government presence at all,' he said. 'We are walking on the rubble of our city.' This compounded the boiling anger many ordinary Lebanese have felt towards authorities since the blast. 'We are still under shock, but we know one thing for sure: we are going to wipe the floor with them,' he told AFP. For a Lebanese public already crumbling under financial woes and beset by economic disillusionment, Tuesday's blast was the straw that broke the camel's back. Lebanon's worse political crisis in decades has plunged nearly half of the country's population into poverty, up from a third before the crisis. The crowds that converged on Martyrs Square breathed new life into a protest movement that started in October but was snuffed out a few months later by the coronavirus pandemic and a crippling economic crisis. Thousands of young men and women earlier revived the main camp of a months-long protest movement, some of them carrying portraits of blast victims and a banner bearing the names of the dead A large deployment of security forces tried to contain some groups who chanted 'the people want the fall of the regime' which advanced towards parliament before riot police used tear gas against them A coronavirus outbreak further shuttered an economy that must now contend with more than $3 billion in damages from the blast. One protester raised a poster bearing portraits of top politicians and the phrase 'Execute them'. 'The people want to topple the regime,' protesters confronting security forces yelled, eyes reddened by the tear gas. Medea Azoury, a 46-year-old demonstrator, said the fault lines have been drawn. 'We can't take it anymore: we're being held hostage, we can't leave the country, we can't withdraw money from the banks, and people are dying of hunger,' she said. On top of all that, 'there are now 300,000 people who are homeless and Beirut has been completely destroyed,' he added. 'This is the great return of the revolution and it's either them or us.' The protesters later set on fire a truck that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament in the first significant demonstration since Tuesday's blast - the biggest explosion in Beirut's history. The country's ruling class, made up mostly of former civil war-era leaders, is blamed for widespread corruption, incompetence and mismanagement that contributed to Tuesday's explosion. This week's blast killed 158 people and wounded 6,000, the health ministry media office said on Saturday. Although the government has promised to hold those responsible to account, some residents complain the government they see as corrupt has let them down again. A Lebanese demonstrator speaks with a member of the security forces during clashes in Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people People take part in a protest on a city street. The August 4 explosion resulted in a shockwave devastating multiple nearby neighborhoods, with more than 140 citizens killed, another 300,000 citizens displaced, and about 5,000 injured A Lebanese demonstrator breaks a shop window during clashes with security forces in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people People clash with police during a protest against the political elites and the government after this week's deadly explosion at Beirut port which devastated large parts of the capital and killed more than 150 people, in Beirut, Lebanon Lebanese security forces take cover during clashes with protesters in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people A vehicle burns as demonstrators gather near the parliament building during a protest following Tuesday's blast, in Beirut People clash with police during a protest against the political elites and the government after this week's deadly explosion at Beirut port which devastated large parts of the capital and killed more than 150 people, in Beirut, Lebanon Lebanese security forces advance during clashes with protesters in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people Video taken by a woman living near the warehouse showed sparks shooting into the air as plumes of smoke rose over the port 'France will never let Lebanon go': Emmanuel Macron is accused of trying to reconquer Lebanon rather than help it in the wake of the devastating explosion at its capital which has killed 150 as country is set to refuse aid from Israel French president Emmanuel Macron has been accused of trying to reconquer Lebanon rather than help it in the wake of the devastating explosion at its capital which killed 150 people. It comes as the country is expected to refuse humanitarian aid from Israel because the two neighbours are technically still at war. Visiting explosion-ravaged Beirut this week, France's leader comforted distraught crowds, promised to rebuild the city and claimed that the blast pierced France's own heart. 'France will never let Lebanon go,' Macron said. 'The heart of the French people still beats to the pulse of Beirut.' His critics have denounced his sentiments as a neocolonialist foray seeking to restore sway over a troubled Middle Eastern land. And critics online have dubbed him Macron Bonaparte, a 21st century Emperor Napoleon. But Macron's defenders - including desperate Beirut residents who called him 'our only hope' - praised him for visiting gutted neighbourhoods where Lebanese leaders are scared to go, and for trying to hold Lebanon's politicians accountable for the corruption and mismanagement blamed for Tuesday's deadly blast. Advertisement 'We have no trust in our government,' said university student Celine Dibo as she scrubbed blood off the walls of her shattered apartment building. 'I wish the United Nations would take over Lebanon.' Several people said they were not surprised that French President Emmanuel Macron had visited their gutted neighbourhoods this week while Lebanese leaders had not. 'We are living in ground zero. I hope another country would just take us over. Our leaders are a bunch of corrupt people,' said psychologist Maryse Hayek, 48, whose parents' house was destroyed in the explosion. Lebanon's Kataeb Party, a Christian group that opposes the government backed by the Iran-aligned Hezbollah, announced on Saturday the resignation of its three lawmakers from parliament. 'I invite all honourable (lawmakers) to resign so that the people can decide who will govern them, without anybody imposing anything to them,' said party chief Samy Gemayel, announcing the move during the funeral of a leading member of the group who died in the explosion. Macron, who visited Beirut on Thursday, promised angry crowds that aid to rebuild the city would not fall into 'corrupt hands'. He will host a donor conference for Lebanon via video-link on Sunday, his office said. U.S. President Donald Trump said that he will join. The prime minister and presidency have said 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which is used in making fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years without safety measures at the port warehouse. President Michel Aoun said on Friday an investigation would examine whether it was caused by a bomb or other external interference. Aoun said the investigation would also weigh if the blast was due to negligence or an accident. Twenty people had been detained so far, he added. Some residents wondered how they would ever rebuild their lives. Tearing up, Bilal Hassan used his bare hands to try to remove debris from his home. He has been sleeping on a dusty couch besides pieces of splintered glass. When his three wounded teenage children ran for their lives they left blood stains on the staircase and walls. 'There is really nothing we can do. We can't afford to rebuild and no one is helping us,' he said, standing beside a large teddy bear that was blown across his home, and a damaged photograph of him and his wife. Bulldozers ploughed through the wreckage of mangled homes and long rows of flattened cars as soldiers stood by. Volunteers with shovels streamed through streets. Danielle Chemaly said her charity organisation, whose headquarters was destroyed, had provided assistance to 70 families who were left homeless. 'We have given people initial help but we don't know what we can do for families in the future. It requires major projects,' she said. Lebanese security forces advance during clashes with protesters in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people Anti-government protesters try to remove concrete wall that installed by security forces to prevent protesters reaching the Parliament square, during a protest against the political elites and the government after this week's deadly explosion Lebanese army soldiers arrive to downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, during a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people Lebanese security forces advance during clashes with protesters in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people A Lebanese protester hurls a rock towards security forces during clashes in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people Demonstrators are seen during a protest near the parliament building following Tuesday's blast, in Beirut, Lebanon Lebanese protesters walk between tear-gas canisters during clashes with security forces in Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people Police deploy during a protest against the political elites and the government after this week's deadly explosion at Beirut port which devastated large parts of the capital and killed more than 150 people Bags of fireworks WERE stored alongside highly explosive ammonium nitrate at Beirut's port, worker claims, as furious Lebanese plan major protest against 'incompetent' government Bags of fireworks were stored alongside highly explosive ammonium nitrate at Beirut's port, a former worker has claimed. Yusuf Shehadi said dozens of fireworks were stored in the same hangar as thousands of tonnes of the powerful chemical compound in the port of Beirut, Lebanon. Meanwhile, people were out hurling stones at riot police outside Lebanese parliament ahead of a major protest planned in downtown Martyrs' Square on Saturday. Critics call for an end to the country's political system after Tuesday's blast killed 137 people and wounded more than 5,000. Mr Shehadi, who emigrated to Canada in March this year, told The Guardian he was instructed by the military to store 2,750 tonnes of the chemical in Warehouse 12. Yusuf Shehadi said dozens of fireworks were stored in the same hangar as thousands of tonnes of the powerful chemical compound ammonium nitrate (pictured) in Beirut, Lebanon Advertisement Officials have said the blast could have caused losses amounting to $15 billion. That is a bill that Lebanon cannot pay after already defaulting on a mountain of debt - exceeding 150% of economic output - and with talks stalled on a lifeline from the International Monetary Fund. France and other countries have rushed emergency aid to Lebanon, including doctors, and tons of health equipment and food. The blast destroyed Lebanon's only major grain silo and UN agencies are helping provide emergency food and medical aid. Arab League Chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said after a meeting with Aoun on Saturday he would seek to mobilise Arab efforts to provide support to Lebanon. Also speaking after meeting Aoun, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said his country was ready to help rebuild the port. For ordinary Lebanese, the scale of destruction is overwhelming. 'It felt like a mini atomic bomb,' said George Rohana, sitting beside a supermarket that was demolished. Marita Abou Jawda was handing out bread and cheese to victims of the blast. 'Macron offered to help and our government has not done anything. It has always been like that,' she said. 'After Macron visited I played the French national anthem all day in my car.' The huge blast was caused by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate improperly stored at the port for more than six years, apparently set off by a fire. It was the biggest in Lebanon's history and caused an estimated $10-15 billion worth of damage, according to Beirut's governor. It also left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. The protest Saturday was the first significant demonstration since the explosion and organizers planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead. As the protest got underway however, small groups of young men began throwing stones at security forces. Near parliament, riot police fired tear gas at protesters who hurled stones and tried to jump over barriers that close the road leading to the legislature. The protesters later set on fire a truck that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament. The gathering at Martyrs Square and outside the parliament building and government headquarters came amid popular anger against Lebanon's political leadership. The country's ruling class, made up mostly of former civil war-era leaders, is blamed for widespread corruption, incompetence and mismanagement that contributed to Tuesday's explosion. The army issued a statement reminding the protesters to act peacefully and abstain from closing roads or attacking public or private property. Police also issued a statement after the protests began urging people to act 'in a civilized way far away from violence.' The protest came as senior officials from the Middle East and Europe arrived in Lebanon in a show of solidarity with the tiny country that is still in shock suffered after Tuesday's blast. Lebanese demonstrators throw tear-gas canisters back at security forces during clashes in Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people Demonstrators hurl stones during a protest near the parliament building following Tuesday's blast, in Beirut, Lebanon A Lebanese protester waves the national flag during clashes in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people A Lebanese protester throws flaming banners over walls erected around parliament during clashes in downtown Beirut today A demonstrator stands near a fire in the protest as demonstrators gathered at Martyrs Square and outside the parliament building and government headquarters came amid popular anger against Lebanon's political leadership Lebanese protester hurls a rock towards security forces during clashes in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, following a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people People clash with police during a protest against the political elites and the government after this week's deadly explosion at Beirut port which devastated large parts of the capital and killed more than 150 people A demonstrator throws stones at riot police today during a protest following Tuesday's blast in Beirut, Lebanon, in which 158 people died Demonstrators take part in a protest after Tuesday's blast after the government promised to hold those responsible to account but some residents complain the government they see as corrupt has let them down again Demonstrators collect stones during the protest, which was the first significant demonstration since the explosion and its organizers planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead Lebanese president suggests cataclysmic blast may have been caused by a rocket or bomb' after demonstrators angry at 'corrupt elite' they blame for the explosion clashed with police in night of violence The Beirut disaster could have been caused by a 'rocket or bomb', Lebanon's president said today after protests erupted at the elite corruption and incompetence which is widely blamed for the disaster. President Michel Aoun said that 'the cause has not been determined yet' three days after the disaster which has killed at least 154 people and devastated large swathes of the city. While authorities are investigating claims of negligence and have arrested 16 port officials, the president said there was also a 'possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act'. Aoun also said that Lebanon's 'paralysed' political system should be reconsidered in the nod to the protests which blame Tuesday's explosion on years of mismanagement and corruption. He pledged 'swift justice' but rejected widespread calls for an international probe, telling a reporter he saw it as an attempt to 'dilute the truth.' Early reports said fireworks stored near the warehouse or welders being used to repair a broken gate might to be blame, while the United States has not ruled out the possibility of an attack. The son of an assassinated former Lebanese PM has pointed the finger at terrorist group Hezbollah, saying that nothing goes through the port without them knowing. Separately, claims emerged today that the cargo of ammonium nitrate which exploded in Warehouse 12 might have been diverted to Beirut on purpose despite officially being destined for Mozambique. Advertisement Lebanon is mired in its worst economic and financial crisis in decades making it difficult for many people who had their properties damaged to fix them. In a show of anger, the president of the Christian opposition Kataeb party said its three legislators have decided to resign from Parliament over this week's 'disaster.' Sami Gemayel called on every 'honorable' member of parliament to resign and work for the 'birth of a new Lebanon.' A senior Kataeb party official was killed in the blast, which claimed at least 154 lives, wounded more than 5,000 people and laid waste to the country's largest port and nearby areas. Also killed were 43 Syrians, the country's embassy in Beirut said. Lebanon is home to some 1 million Syrian refugees. The Dutch foreign ministry said Saturday that Hedwig Waltmans-Molier, the wife of the Netherlands' ambassador to Lebanon, had also died of injuries sustained in Tuesday's blast. Documents that surfaced after the blast showed that for years officials had been repeatedly warned that the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port posed a grave danger, but no one acted to remove it. Officials have been blaming one another since the explosion and 19 people have been detained including the port's chief, head of Lebanon's customs department and his predecessor. 'We will support Lebanon through all available means,' Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League told reporters after meeting President Michel Aoun on Saturday morning. Aboul Gheit said he would take part in a donors conference for Lebanon in France on Sunday and convey Lebanon's demands to the international community. Later on Saturday the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, arrived in Beirut for a brief visit. Turkey's vice president and the country's foreign minister arrived Saturday morning and met Aoun, saying that Ankara was ready to help rebuild Beirut's port and evacuate some of the wounded from Lebanon to Turkey for treatment. At the site of the blast in Beirut's port, workers were still searching for dozens of people who have been missing since Tuesday. Bulldozers were also seen removing debris near the giant grain silos that are still partly standing. International aid has been flowing to Lebanon for days and several field hospitals have been set up around Beirut to help treat the wounded. President Donald Trump said Friday that he had spoken by telephone with Aoun and French President Emmanuel Macron, who paid a brief visit to Lebanon on Thursday. Trump did not mention the investigation, but noted that medical supplies, food and water were being sent from the United States, along with emergency responders, technicians, doctors and nurses. The ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and explosives, originated from a cargo ship called MV Rhosus that had been traveling from the country of Georgia to Mozambique in 2013. It made an unscheduled detour to Beirut as the Russian shipowner was struggling with debts and hoped to earn some extra cash in Lebanon. Unable to pay port fees and reportedly leaking, the ship was impounded. In 2014, the material was moved from the ship and placed in a warehouse at the port where it stayed until the explosion. Lebanon's Hezbollah 'categorically denies' storing arms at Beirut blast site and president suggests explosion may have been caused by a 'rocket or bomb' amid claims explosives may have been deliberately diverted there on a 'scrap ship' The ammonium nitrate was officially destined for Mozambique when it sailed on the cargo ship Rhosus But it made an unscheduled stop in Beirut where the chemicals which exploded this week were impounded Russian news outlet claims that the Rhosus was a piece of 'scrap' which would never have got to Mozambique Hezbollah leader strongly denied any connection to explosion or having arms stored in the Port of Beirut New pictures emerged of bags of chemicals piled high at the port of Beirut just days before the explosion At least 154 people have died and 300,000 people have been left homeless since Tuesday's disaster By Will Stewart and Tim Stickings for MailOnline The leader of Hezbollah has strongly denied that his militant political group had stored arms at Beirut's port, describing the cataclysmic explosion there as 'a major tragedy'. 'We have nothing in the port: not an arms depot, nor a missile depot nor missiles nor rifles nor bombs nor bullets nor (ammonium) nitrate,' Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech three days after the blast in the Lebanese capital that killed more than 150 people. He called the explosion a 'major tragedy and humanitarian catastrophe,' saying it required a kind of response that would match its 'exceptional' scale. His retort comes amid claims that the 2,750 tonnes of explosive ammonium nitrate which caused the disaster may have been diverted to Lebanon on purpose, having been officially destined for Mozambique. The horrific blast on Tuesday injured at least 5,000 people and devastated entire districts of the capital, leaving some 300,000 people temporarily homeless. An investigation by authorities has so far led to 21 arrests, as well as travel bans and asset freezes. Authorities had said a fire at the port had ignited tonnes of ammonium nitrate which had been stored there for years, but President Michel Aoun said today it could have been caused by an attack. Aoun rejected calls for an international probe while Nasrallah urged 'the army to investigate and announce its findings'. He said the Lebanese military is in a prime position to do so because it is seen as a 'trusted' institution by people and politicians across the spectrum. The Hezbollah leader warned against delays in the probe, saying: 'If the Lebanese state and the political class... do not reach a conclusion in the investigations this means... there is no hope to build a state.' But questions have been raised President Aoun and others as to reason why tonnes of dangerous chemicals ended up being kept in the port for six years without proper safeguards in place. Ammonium nitrate parcels stored in Beirut's ill-fated Warehouse 12 just day before the accident which has killed at least 154 people and sparked fury at the corruption and incompetence of Lebanon's elite Pictures shared by Lebanese journalist Dima Sadek show the 'death bags' containing high-density ammonium nitrate piled up in Beirut's ill-fated Warehouse 12 shortly before the explosion The shipment of ammonium nitrate was officially destined for Mozambique when it sailed on the cargo ship Rhosus in 2013, but the vessel made an unscheduled stop in Beirut where the chemicals were impounded The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has strongly denied that his militant political group had stored arms at Beirut's port, describing the cataclysmic explosion there as 'a major tragedy' Wreckage lies in front of destroyed grain silos in the port of Beirut today, three days after the devastating explosion in the Lebanese capital Russian emergency personnel walk on the site of the explosion in the port of Beirut, where rescuers are continuing their recovery efforts three days after the blast Explosion sparks panic over food shortages The annihilation of the port in Tuesday's explosion has further strained food access for a population that relies on imports for 85 per cent of what it eats. Some 15,000 tonnes of wheat, corn and barley were blasted out of the towering 55-year-old silos and a nearby mill was destroyed. At least one ship unloading wheat during the explosion was damaged, its stocks inedible. The day after the blast, hundreds of customers flocked to the Al-Kaboushieh Bakery in Beirut's Hamra district to stock up on bread. 'Were completely sold out. Everyone was buying five bags instead of one in case there'd be no more,' said employee Hayder Mussawi. Lebanese bread makers and consumers fear the loss of the 120,000-tonne capacity silos will compound months of wheat worries, making bread harder to produce and ultimately more expensive for a population that has already seen its purchasing power slashed. 'When we saw the silos, we panicked,' said Ghassan Bou Habib, CEO of Lebanon's Wooden Bakery pastry franchise. A liquidity crisis since the autumn saw banks halt dollar transfers abroad, which hampered imports. Container activity had already declined by 45 per cent in the first half of 2020 compared to last year, according to Blominvest Bank, while the staggering devaluation of the Lebanese pound led to major price hikes. 'We were already struggling with the (little) wheat and flour that were available. The mills weren't getting enough or they didn't have fuel to run,' Bou Habib said. Advertisement The shipment of ammonium nitrate was destined for Mozambique when it sailed on the cargo ship Rhosus in 2013, but the vessel made an unscheduled stop in Beirut where the chemicals were impounded after the ship's owner declared himself bankrupt. A Russian news outlet in Cyprus claims that the Rhosus was a piece of 'scrap' which would never have made it to Mozambique and that the businessman behind the voyage had no history as a ship owner. Meanwhile the captain of the Rhosus claims he was told to stop in Beirut to pick up extra cargo - while Mozambique has denied all knowledge of the shipment. The deepening mystery comes as worrying new pictures emerged of bags of chemicals piled high at the port of Beirut just days before the warehouse blast. Pictures shared by Lebanese journalist Dima Sadek show the 'death bags' containing high-density ammonium nitrate piled up in Beirut's ill-fated Warehouse 12 shortly before the explosion. Rescuers combed through the rubble of Beirut today in a search for survivors, with 154 people confirmed dead and protests erupting at the elite corruption and incompetence which are blamed for the disaster. Lebanon's president Michel Aoun says the cause has not yet been determined but says there is a 'possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act' in addition to claims of negligence. Early reports said fireworks stored near the warehouse or welders being used to repair a broken gate might to be blame, while the United States has not ruled out the possibility of an attack. The son of an assassinated former Lebanese PM has separately pointed the finger at terrorist group Hezbollah, saying that nothing goes through the port without them knowing. Cypriot police say they have questioned Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin over his alleged links to the ship and its cargo of ammonium nitrate. A police spokesman said Grechushkin was not arrested, but asked specific questions relating to the ship's cargo as requested via Interpol Lebanon. He has also made contact with Russian diplomats via his lawyers since the Beirut explosion, it is understood, but has not made any public comment on the tragedy. A Russian news outlet in Cyprus has claimed that Grechushkin had no history as a ship owner, and that this was the only known voyage he had arranged. He bought the Rhosus for 300,000 in Cyprus, which was 50,000 less than its scrap value at the time, it was claimed. 'Its technical state was exactly that, scrap,' said the report on Cyprus24 site. 'That ship would have definitely not have made it to Mozambique where the official buyer of the cargo is based. The report claimed 'it was a single-use ship for a single journey', suggesting this was from Batumi in Georgia to Lebanon - and no further. The report in Cyprus asked: 'Perhaps that cargo had a single purpose of being 'arrested' in Beirut and not to go any further.' When it arrived in Beirut, the ship temporarily docked at the port but was later seized by authorities due to a lawsuit filed by a Lebanese company. Emergency workers sent by Russia continue their search and rescue efforts in the ruins of a grain silo destroyed by the explosion in Beirut on Tuesday A man wears a protective mask as he stands on rubble today at the site of the Beirut blast which has killed nearly 150 people An aerial view of ruined structures at the port, damaged by an explosion which has devastated huge swathes of Beirut Port authorities unloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it in the run-down warehouse, while the ship sank sometime later because of damage, it is believed. Mozambique port authorities yesterday denied any knowledge of the ship, which was officially bound for the African country's city of Beira. 'The port operator was not aware that the vessel MV Rhosus would dock at the port of Beira,' the city's port authority said in a statement. It said typically the arrival of any ship at the port 'is announced by the ship's agent to the port operator seven to 15 days in advance'. One official said the final destination of the cargo was not Mozambique but Zimbabwe or Zambia, because ammonium nitrate is used to manufacture explosive materials used in the mining industry. The Mozambique company which was due to receive the order, Fabrica de Explosivos, has not commented on the explosion. At least 154 people have so far been confirmed dead, with some 5,000 wounded, 300,000 homeless, and widespread damage which is estimated to total more than $5billion Lebanese electricity workers fix power cables, next to the site of this week's massive explosion in the port of Beirut Capsized and destroyed ships at the scene of Tuesday's explosion, which has devastated huge parts of Beirut Israel shoots down drone coming from Lebanon The Israeli army shot down a drone coming from Lebanon last night with the border on heightened alert. Israeli troops took out a drone which entered their airspace in the Mount Hermon area, the army said. 'The drone was monitored and downed,' it said, adding Israeli troops were conducting searches in the area. Mount Hermon is a strategic and fortified outpost at the crossroads between Israel, Lebanon and Syria. An Israeli military official said that the drone had arrived from Lebanon. The army's statement said that troops were on 'elevated preparedness in the north and will not tolerate any violation of Israeli sovereignty'. It did not disclose the type of drone, its size or who it suspected of dispatching it. Israel's army has reinforced its northern frontiers with Lebanon and Syria in recent weeks, so as to ready itself for 'diverse' potential enemy actions. The Jewish state late last month said it had repelled an attempt by Hezbollah fighters to penetrate the border, but the Shiite Lebanese group denied any involvement in the incident. That border clash came a week after an alleged Israeli missile attack hit positions of Syrian regime forces and their allies south of Damascus, killing five. Advertisement Initial Lebanese investigations into what happened have pointed to inaction and negligence in the handling of the potentially dangerous chemical. Lebanon's cabinet has resolved to place all Beirut port officials who have overseen storage and security since 2014 under house arrest. The 16 port officials arrested include Beirut Port General Manager Hassan Koraytem, according to a judicial source, while the central bank said his accounts had been frozen. Shock has turned to anger in Lebanon since Tuesday's colossal explosion killed at least 154 people, with security forces firing tear gas at demonstrators who gathered near parliament late Thursday. In addition to the dozens of deaths, the blast has injured more than 5,000 people, left 300,000 others homeless and sparked panic over wheat shortages after 15,000 tonnes of grains were blasted out of the silos. At least one ship unloading wheat during the explosion was damaged, its stocks inedible. The day after the blast, hundreds of customers flocked to the Al-Kaboushieh Bakery in Beirut's Hamra district to stock up on bread. 'Were completely sold out. Everyone was buying five bags instead of one in case there'd be no more,' said employee Hayder Mussawi. Lebanese bread makers and consumers fear the loss of the 120,000-tonne capacity silos will compound months of wheat worries, making bread harder to produce and ultimately more expensive for a population that has already seen its purchasing power slashed. 'When we saw the silos, we panicked,' said Ghassan Bou Habib, CEO of Lebanon's Wooden Bakery pastry franchise. Many Lebanese put the blame squarely on the political elite and the corruption and mismanagement that even before the disaster had pushed the country to the brink of economic collapse. Lebanon is already seeking $20billion in funding from the IMF and now faces billions more in disaster costs, with losses from the explosion estimated to be between $10billion and $15billion. Lebanese security forces faced off with dozens of anti-government demonstrators last night, angered by the devastating explosion widely seen as the most shocking expression yet of the government's incompetence Tear gas was fired to disperse scuffles that broke out in ravaged streets in central Beirut leading to parliament, the wreckage from Tuesday's explosion still littering the entire area UNITED STATES: People take part in a candlelight vigil for victims of the Beirut disaster in Los Angeles on Thursday night BRAZIL: The Christ the Redeemer statue is lit up with an image depicting the Lebanon national flag in Rio de Janeiro last night President rejects international probe Lebanon's president today said a missile or bomb could have caused the catastrophic port blast, while rejecting calls for an international probe into the disaster. President Michel Aoun said that 'the cause has not been determined yet' three days after the disaster which has killed at least 154 people. While authorities are investigating claims of negligence and have arrested 16 port officials, the president said there was also a 'possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act'. Aoun admitted that the 'paralysed' political system needed to be 'reconsidered' amid fury at the elite and its perceived corruption and incompetence. 'We are facing changes and reconsidering our system, which is built on consensus, after it was seen to be paralysed and incapable of swiftly executing decisions,' Aoun told reporters. He pledged 'swift justice' but rejected widespread calls for an international probe, telling a reporter he saw it as an attempt to 'dilute the truth.' 'There are two possible scenarios for what happened: it was either negligence or foreign interference through a missile or bomb,' he said, the first time a top Lebanese official raised the possibility that the port had been attacked. Advertisement What ignited the 2,750 tonnes of fertiliser is still unclear. Officials have said work had recently begun on repairs to the warehouse, while fireworks were stored nearby. Beirut has received a stream of international assistance since the blast, while French president Emmanuel Macron visited yesterday to demand deep reform of the country. Mr Macron, who was mobbed by angry Lebanese during the first visit by a foreign leader since the explosion, promised to mobilise aid to the former French protectorate. However, he warned there would be no blank cheque for leaders without serious reform, and at a press conference he called for an international inquiry into the explosion. 'If reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink,' Macron said after being met at the airport by Lebanese President Michel Aoun. 'What is also needed here is political change. This explosion should be the start of a new era.' He also promised that French aid would be given out with transparency and 'will not go into the hands of corruption.' Lebanon's leadership was already deeply unpopular, with a wave of mass protests that erupted in October last year only abating in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. World leaders have joined the chorus of voices in Lebanon and the diaspora demanding an international inquiry into the cause of the devastation. The UN children's agency UNICEF has said nearly 80,000 children are among the 300,000 people left homeless, including many who have been separated from their families. The cost of the widespread damage is estimated at up to $15billion - including a 390ft cruise ship which capsized as a result of the blast. The Orient Queen, which had capacity for up to 300 passengers, was not carrying any passengers on board at the time after summer cruising operations had been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. A view of shipping containers at the damaged site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area today Yesterday a crowd mobbed visiting French President Emmanuel Macron, demanding his help in overthrowing Lebanon's reviled leaders, with many chanting for 'revolution' and to 'bring down the regime' One of the ship's crew was killed with another still missing. Several other members of the crew remain in hospitals across the city, according to the ship's operator Abou Merhi Cruises. 'It's a sad, sad day for all of us,' said the cruise operator on social media. 'Abou Merhi Cruises has lost a precious soul in the tragedy that took place at the port of Beirut. Heilemariam Reta (Hailey) from Ethiopia. 'Our prayers and thoughts are with the family of Mustafa Airout from Syria who was at the port and is still missing'. Hospitals have also been badly damaged by the explosion, and medical centres were overwhelmed with cases other than Covid-19 for the first time in months with some having to turn away the wounded. Near the disembowelled silos at the port of Beirut, Russian rescuers were ankle-deep in corn as excavators removed mangled shipping containers. Civil defence teams anxiously watched a sniffer dog as he paced around a gap under a fallen crane. French rescuers said they had recovered four bodies, but had found nobody alive so far. Relatives of the missing have been flocking to the port for days hoping to know the fate of their loved ones. Lebanon's hospitals, already strained by a wave of coronavirus cases and a severe economic crisis, have been unable to cope with the number of casualties. Relief flights from Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were set to land in Lebanon on Friday, following others from France, Kuwait, Qatar and Russia. Two days after the blast, Lebanese were flocking to a Russian field hospital newly established in the capital's largest sport stadium. Medics were still erected nearly 20 medical tents when the first wave of patients started to arrive. They included a 93-year-old man suffering back and chest pains after Tuesday's blast and a Syrian three-year-old whose scalp was scarred by a shard of glass. Second grader Maria Diaz is taught by teacher Katie Toler at Coperni 3 public K-7 charter school in Colorado Springs on Thursday. Coperni 3 opened its doors to students this week and is offering two options for the new school year, online at-home learning or in-person classes at school with social distancing. 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. Pulpkey, a technology-backed creative influencer marketing platform believes that true friends stand with us in the toughest of our times. Given the current pandemic, we have all been confined to our homes with no social gathering with our loved ones, especially over friends. Keeping in mind how important a friend is, Pulpkey collaborated with Oven Story and created an innovative campaign to celebrate Friendship Week by enjoying tasty meals at home. Oven Story from the house of Rebel Foods is the largest homegrown delivery-focused pizza brand in India with presence across more than 30 cities. Oven Story is well-known for its premium pizzas available in 4 innovative cheese flavors of tandoori, peri-peri, chipotle & el-classicocheese. During the campaign, Pulpkey, with the help of influencers, took a creative approach and created content over a video call to show that distance can never keep friends apart even during a pandemic. The idea was to convey that no barrier to move can kill the spirit of celebrating Friendship day. Keeping in mind the spirit of being with ones friends. On this happy occasion, Oven story collaborated with Pulpkey to promote their newly launched "Semizza"'s in the campaign called #PartnersInCheese. A semizza is in the shape of half pizza and can be ordered for the whole gang. Semizzas are pocket friendly; making them a perfect lip-smacking food to celebrate distant Friendship Week. With this unique idea around content creation, Pulpkey with the help of Oven Story encouraged people to connect with their friends over video call, treat and surprise them, and try something new and innovative to add positivity during this dreary time. Amit Mondal, Founder, Pulpkey said, We understand that everyone is going through a tough time. If we can bring a smile on someone's face, then weve accomplished what we had set out to do. We are continuing our campaign for the entire week so people can celebrate friendship for all seven days. Speaking about the campaign, Indrajit Ghosh, Global Marketing Communication & Design Head, Rebel Foods said, Pulpkey's live Instagram dashboard and strong network of local content creators made them the right partner for launching Semizzas through social media. OvenStory has always stood for next level experiences. For friendship day our goal was to bring people closer during these times. With the launch of our innovative product range of Semizzas and the well contextualized campaign crafted by Amit and team, we were able to drive a great message to our core audience, the millennials. Adding to the same, Simran Jain, Senior Account Executive, Pulpkey said Coming up with something new and creative that the audience likes is an enormous task. Brainstorming with the brand team, we created an idea which influencers loved. They had a good time with their friends during the video call. Pulpkey activated the campaign with the influencers Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune and Chandigarh, targeting 1 Million screenagers, by tapping onto 40 micro-influencers across lifestyle, food and travel with a total follower base of 2+ Million. Guinea's governing party nominated President Alpha Conde to stand for a third term, taking advantage of a new constitution to circumvent a two-term limit on presidential mandates. Conde, 82, stopped short of formally accepting the nomination in a speech on Thursday. Talk of his running again has sparked widespread protests that have killed at least 30 people over the past year. "Today you have all spoken, allies, parties and others - I take note," Conde told party members. He did not say when he would formally respond to the nomination. Conde, a longtime opposition leader, came to power in a 2010 vote that raised hopes for democratic progress in Guinea after decades of authoritarian rule. He was re-elected in 2015. But his efforts to stay in power have raised concerns that Guinea will go the way of other African countries whose rulers have refused to step down long after their mandates expired. Conde's supporters say the constitutional change, approved in a referendum in March that was boycotted by the opposition, acts as a reset button on the two-term limit. Guinea is Africa's largest producer of the main aluminium ore, bauxite. It also has significant reserves of iron ore, including the giant Simandou reserve, the largest known deposit of its kind with more than two billion tonnes of high-grade ore. Source: Aljazeera 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 Sharafu Pilassery (35), working in Dubai in a private firm, had arranged flight tickets for many and fed people stranded without job in the United Arab Emirates. He told his relatives and friends back home that he and his family will be coming back to the country. They never imagined that will be his last journey. A social worker among the expatriate community in Dubai, he insisted that he will go back once the rush subsided, his friends recalled. Four hours before the accident, he posted a photo with his family in protective shields and masks. Back to Home, he wrote on his Facebook. Several passengers part of the flight from Dubai to Kozhikode had cited loss of jobs as the reason to travel back home, according to their repatriation flight list reviewed by HT. A large number of workers based in the Gulf have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Parammal Afsal, 27, who works at a hotel in Dubai, has a different story. When he arrived at the airport to board the Kozhikode-bound flight on Friday, he realised that his visa period had expired by a few hours. Airport authorities asked him to produce his employment details and other formalities. He immediately rushed to procure them from his room, but by the time he was returned, the boarding process was over. But that proved a blessing for Afsal. He was planning to return for his wedding, which was fixed last year. Now, he is planning to take next flight to Kannur. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A Springfield man faces up to 10 years in federal prison after he entered a guilty plea Thursday to a charge of failing to register as a sex offender when he lived in Rhode Island. Prosecutors at the U.S. District Court in Springfield said this would make Ruben Pagans third conviction on the same charge. Pagan, 50, is now serving a six-year state prison sentence for rape and abuse of a child, his second conviction on child sex charges. In October 2017 Pagan moved from Springfield to Providence and lived there for about six months. During that time he did no register with Rhode Island authorities as a sex offender after his 2002 conviction on child abuse charges. That prompted the federal charge. According to federal charging statures, Pagan faces a potential sentence of 10 years in prison, with a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Judge Mark Mastroianni set sentencing for January 5, 2021. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 13:50:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HAVANA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- In the current political climate impacted by a global pandemic, it is irresponsible of the United States to stir up the so-called new Cold War, Cuban analyst Eduardo Regalado told Xinhua. "In these times, what is being demanded is a model of cooperation and understanding, but the U.S. government does not seem to be listening to the international community and continues to be determined to create a bipolar challenge that is very risky," said Regalado, an Asian expert at the Cuban Center for International Policy Research. The analyst said that confrontation between the United States and China hurts everyone, as they are the two great engines of the global economy and countries with significant responsibility in global issues. In a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China is not the former Soviet Union and has no intention to become another United States. Unlike the former Soviet Union, China will not put any conflict with the United States at the center of its policy, Regalado said, adding that China is not looking to establish its own hegemony, but rather to promote cooperation and development. "China is not a giant with feet of clay," but "has very solid plans to boost internal development and create a new type of cooperation," Regalado said. Regalado saw U.S. hostility towards China as a "smokescreen" that seeks to divert attention from the current U.S. administration 's inability to solve the country's serious internal problems. Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California, stating that the policy of engagement with China, which has been applied by successive administrations since that of President Richard Nixon, has been a failure. Regalado views this statement as a continuation of the White House's strategy to undermine China's image in the world. "The claim is a sign of weakness and fear in the United States due to global acceptance of China in issues such as scientific exchange in confronting COVID-19," Regalado said. According to the Cuban researcher, the negative measures taken by the United States against China are part of a strategy to distract attention from the U.S. government's weaknesses so as to seek re-election for Trump in November. "Everything is a big media show to confuse the American electorate, but in reality, in the conflict with Beijing, those who benefit the least are low-income American citizens, whose access to quality products and services is from China." Enditem Ve-Golokuati (V/R), Aug. 08, GNA Mr. Michael Owusu Amoh, Afadzato South Electoral Officer, has said the just ended voter registration exercise held in the District were incident free. He said the exercise was conducted in a conducive environment from its first phase to the sixth phase, adding that I will score the registration officials 95 per cent. Mr. Amoh in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Ve-Golokuati disclosed that a total of 35,240 registrants were captured by the Electoral Commission (EC) at 84 registration centres throughout the District. He said 24,347 registrants representing 69.1 per cent used the ECOWAS identity card (Ghana card), 217 representing 0.6 per cent registered with passport and 10, 676 representing 30.3 per cent used guarantors. The Officer said out of 45 challenged cases recorded on grounds of underage, non-citizenship and non-residence, 33 were disqualified while 12 of them were cleared by the District Review Committee (DRC). Mr. Amoh said the Commission had registered 829 registrants comprising 242 disabled and 587 traumatised under its special registration carried out at the Commissions office. He said 1,999 registrants were registered as first-time voters in the District throughout the exercise. Those who turned 18 years and got registered were 1,082 made up of 588 males and 494, while those who turned 19 years were 917 comprising 499 males and 418 females, he added. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Oregon lawmakers plan to return to the Capitol Monday for the second special session of the year, this time to tackle a more than $1 billion shortfall in the state budget caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Once again, most lawmakers will be wearing masks and following protocols to minimize the potential spread of coronavirus. The public will not be allowed in the Capitol and will instead have to watch the proceedings online. Less than two months ago, the Legislature convened to pass six laws on police accountability and tactics, amid protests over law enforcement brutality against people of color including the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Lawmakers also pushed through a hodgepodge of other legislation to address the states COVID-19 needs and enact policies that died in the failed regular session, such as a new cell phone fee to pay for rural broadband. Now lawmakers are turning to the task top Democratic budget writers have described as overdue: closing the state budget gap through maneuvers including making roughly $400 million in cuts and taking $400 million from the state education reserve fund. Earlier this summer, Gov. Kate Brown said she wanted to delay those decisions in hopes that Congress would approve money to patch state budgets, something that appears unlikely as federal lawmakers have yet to agree on even an extension of increased jobless benefits. Legislators on the state budget-writing Ways and Means Committee set out to limit cuts primarily to vacant jobs at state agencies and new programs that have yet to launch. But they also propose some layoffs and plan to close a small prison on the southern coast. Lawmakers also plan to sweep money from two funds they created to incentivize public employers to contribute additional money to the underfunded public pension fund and make a number of reductions in spending on human services, despite increased demand amid the pandemic. Not on the long list of budget trims: a pay freeze or pay cut for state employees including the highest paid executives. The state workforce is in the middle of a two-year cycle of cost-of-living and step increase raises, which the state expects will average as much as 15%. Particularly in the state Senate, both Democratic and Republican leaders have insisted the Legislature must focus the session on fixing the state budget and not open the door to myriad policy bills. That could mean a shorter special session than the three-day affair in June, possibly just a single day. House Republican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby agreed with Senate leaders that lawmakers should focus on the budget. Drazan said she had hoped the Legislature would vote on a proposal to shield businesses, school districts and some other local governments from coronavirus related lawsuits, but she said Friday the bill is not ready. For me, I am anxious to get in there and rebalance the budget, Drazan said. In a newsletter sent out to constituents late Friday, House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, did not rule out that lawmakers might vote on additional police reform bills next week. She also did not make any promises, writing, the work is far from finished and we need to continue to build on the energy of this historic movement. Kotek said in a statement Friday night that lawmakers should not close the door to policy bills, such as a couple of proposals to tweak unemployment. For example, one concept could make it easier for the state to process claims from furloughed school employees other than teachers. Another proposal would raise to $300 a week the amount of money workers can earn without reducing their jobless benefits, although Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle told OPB this week she was unsure the Employment Departments aged computer system could handle that change. As Congress continues to have difficulty passing another coronavirus relief bill, this session is an important opportunity to do more for unemployed and underemployed Oregonians, Kotek said. As of Friday night, no bills for the special session had yet been posted online. The co-chairs of the legislative committee working on the police bills, Rep. Janelle Bynum of Clackamas and Sen. James Manning of Eugene, both Democrats, declined or did not respond to interview requests this week. One of the bills they have been developing would ban police and corrections officers from using chokeholds under any circumstances, an expansion from the chokehold prohibition lawmakers passed in June that left the option to use them in situations in which officers can legally use deadly force. Another proposal would add restrictions to when police officers can use physical force, for example adding language to state law saying force is only defensible only when it is objectively reasonable, under the totality of circumstances known to the peace officer Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a Democrat from Eugene, said that when the governor called last week for the Aug. 10 special session, it left a short window for lawmakers to fine-tune policing proposals. I wish we wouldve put a little more time into the work session mode so we would be able to clean them up, Prozanski said. Whether we can get those to the point of being ready I think a couple of them can be. Its unclear whether lawmakers will consider reversing hundreds of millions of dollars in new state tax breaks Oregon automatically adopted, by copying federal tax cuts in the CARES Act passed by Congress earlier this year. Unless it acts to do otherwise, Oregon automatically mirrors federal tax law, so the Legislature and governor must pass laws to decouple from any provisions they do not like. That is what they would have to do to avoid roughly $200 million in new tax breaks tucked in to the federal coronavirus bill that Oregon opponents including liberal policy groups say would largely benefit high-income earners. At a July 23 public hearing on proposed human services cuts, John Calhoun with the groups Tax Fairness Oregon and Oregon Coalition of Christian Voices urged lawmakers to eliminate the state tax breaks and use the revenue that would be preserved to fund critical human services programs. The subcommittee is considering budget cuts of $180 million amid the worst economic and health crisis in our lifetime when it should be increasing spending to take care of so many vulnerable people, Calhoun said. What makes this proposal so infuriating is that theres a very easy solution that could easily balance this budget. Decoupling from two of the new federal tax breaks could replace the proposed cuts, Calhoun said. Why would the Legislature order the Department of Revenue to cut checks to the wealthiest, forcing us to reduce funds for aging and people with disabilities and to reduce spending on mental health when the number of Oregonians suffering from stress and depression is skyrocketing? Its an immoral choice. In the same hearing, Medford mom Emily Wylde Turner urged lawmakers not to eliminate a family support network to save nearly $600,000 in the remaining year of the biennium. Wylde Turner said the program provided crucial support to her recently when she was responding to her sons autism and obsessive compulsive disorder. If you have ever been in a world-altering situation or place in your life, what you need is someone who has been in that situation, Wylde Turner said. This is when I needed the Family Network. She ultimately connected with another parent whose child had an obsessive compulsive disorder and that support was an example of the enormous impact for a relatively small investment, Wylde Turner said. Reporter Molly Harbarger contributed to this story. -- Hillary Borrud; hborrud@oregonian.com; @hborrud Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Macarthur Minerals Limited (TSX-V: MMS) (ASX: MIO) (the Company or Macarthur) announces that Northland Securities, Inc. (Northland) who act as the OTCQB Sponsor and Advisor to the Company confirmed Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Form 211 which was submitted pursuant to FINRA Rule 6432 and Rule 15c2-11 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("SEA") in connection with its application to reinstate trading on the OTCQB, has been considered by FINRA. This is the final regulatory hurdle that needs to be cleared to enable Northland to initiate a price quotation on OTCQB under the ticker code MMSDF. Macarthur will provide a further announcement to the market confirming the date for commencement of trading on OTCQB. Cameron McCall, President and Executive Chairman of Macarthur Minerals commented: This has been an important quarter for the Company with many major milestones achieved. I would like to thank the Board, Management and employees for their valuable contributions to the material progress that has been made for the Company and its shareholders during the course of the year. Macarthurs many successes in 2020 have been amplified by the fact they have been achieved in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. With our focus now on the many more successes which need to follow, we are more committed than ever to the successful delivery of the Lake Giles Iron Project. Pursuant to the Companys Share Compensation Plans, the Company has also granted a total of 3,000,000 bonus shares (Bonus Shares) to directors, employees and consultants of the Company, with a deemed price on grant of A$0.27 per share. The issue of the Bonus Shares, following grant, shall be subject to 6 months voluntary escrow from the date of issue and may be subject to shareholder approval, if required. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Mr Cameron McCall, Executive Chairman Story continues Joe Phillips CEO & Director +61 7 3221 1796 communications@macarthurminerals.com Investor Relations Australia Advisir Sarah Lenard, Partner sarah.lenard@advisir.com.au Investor Relations - Canada Investor Cubed Neil Simon, CEO +1 647 258 3310 info@investor3.ca About Northland Capital Markets Northland Capital Markets is the trade name for certain capital markets and investment banking services of Northland Securities, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. Northland Securities is registered with SEC and MSRB, and is a diversified financial services firm, including investment banking and full-service broker-dealer divisions, offering investment and finance services for government entities, financial institutions, non-profit organizations, and individual investors. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Northland Securities has branch offices in Iowa, California, Colorado, Missouri, New York, and Wisconsin. Company profile Macarthur is an iron ore development, gold and lithium exploration company that is focused on bringing to production its Western Australia iron ore projects. The Lake Giles Iron Project mineral resources include the Ularring hematite resource (approved for development) comprising Indicated resources of 54.5 million tonnes at 47.2% Fe and Inferred resources of 26 million tonnes at 45.4% Fe; and the Moonshine magnetite resource of 710 million tonnes (Inferred). Macarthur has prominent (~721 square kilometer tenement area) gold, lithium and copper exploration interests in Pilbara region of Western Australia. In addition, Macarthur has lithium brine Claims in the emerging Railroad Valley region in Nevada, USA. This news release is not for distribution to united states services or for dissemination in the United States Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statements Certain of the statements made and information contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements herein, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including but not limited to statements regarding expected completion of the Feasibility Study; granting of mineral tenure to facilitate infrastructure proposed; the ability to enter into a commercial rail access agreement or the eventual mining of the Project, are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release reflect the current expectations, assumptions or beliefs of the Company based upon information currently available to the Company. 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 no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct as actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: unforeseen technology changes that results in a reduction in iron or magnetite demand or substitution by other metals or materials; the discovery of new large low cost deposits of iron magnetite; the general level of global economic activity; future changes in rail network capacity and demand; failure to complete the FS; failure to receive mineral tenure for infrastructure; and failure to obtain mining approvals under the Mining Act; inability to negotiate access to tenure at the Port of Esperance. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof. Such statements relate to future events and expectations and, as such, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and except as may otherwise be required pursuant to applicable laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Midland history enthusiasts can expect a new book that will highlight personal experiences and social histories of the region. Robert Mitchell, 90, of Brookline, Massachusetts, recently published his latest work, "Marketing the Frontier in the Northwest Territory: Land Sales, Soils and the Settling of the Great Lakes Region in the 19th Century." The book draws not only from Mitchell's research of Midland County's history, but his own background in the area. As it happens, Mitchell's family history is rich in land management and farming. His maternal grandparents, Duncan and Maude Wayne, were pioneer farmers in Homer Township in Midland County. The 300-acre farm along the Pine River was home to pigs, turkeys, chickens and cows and the family also grew corn and alfalfa. Mitchell's mother grew up on the farm and his uncle, Perley Wayne eventually inherited the property. Although the Great Depression put neighboring farms in financial jeopardy, the Wayne farm remained functional. Perley would use the farm's resources to the best advantage. Mitchell explained how his uncle took a team of horses to dig up gravel along the river and help lay the foundations for a gas station with the first built-in refrigerator. "A lot of the local farmers couldn't cut it, but Perley was an entrepreneur also," Mitchell said. During the 1930s and 1940s, Mitchell would spend summers at his uncle's farm, tending to livestock. "My job was to get the cattle out of the barn to the area across the way and then back into the barn to be milked," Mitchell said. Mitchell remembers how the farm had two horses, one of which was called Prince and was blind in one eye. When autumn arrived, volunteers would come to help bring in the harvest while family members would set up tables and benches and provide meals for the teams. Mitchell continued his education at the University of Michigan, majoring in Asian studies. He then earned a master's from Harvard University and then a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University. "Marketing the Frontier in the Northwest Territory" is the latest in a long line of academic publications Mitchell has written. "I write a lot. My credo is 'Scribo ergo sum' (I write, therefore I am)," Mitchell said. Rather than focusing on specific families in the area, Mitchell looked at the broader picture, using Midland as a case study. His newest book focuses on how the physical environment of the county influenced how the area was settled. In Midland's example, he discovered that poor drainage led to soil problems. "My intention was to show how Midland's pre-Civil War basic physical geography influenced the human geography on top of it. That approach is different from traditional story-telling histories," Mitchell said. "I, of course, also reference how some residents influenced the county's pre-Civil War history." The book is a compilation of several years' worth of articles and countless hours of research. Mitchell's references included sources from the Bureau of Land Management in Virginia, archives in Lansing, Midland and Central Michigan University. "It was a lot of library work," Mitchell said. "It's a new field of academia focusing on human and physical geographies." "Marketing the Frontier in the Northwest Territory" is available for purchase on Amazon. A lion cub called Simba subjected to horrific cruelty in Russia is to be flown to Africa to start a new life. The tortured animal's legs were deliberately broken to stop it running away while being exploited on beaches as a photo prop for tourists. Holidaymakers paid to have their pictures taken with the cute little lion. But the predator was 'tortured and beaten' by its minders and suffered a debilitating spinal injury. Simba the lion cub is set to begin a new life in Tanzania after he was rescued from a life of cruelty where his legs were broken to make him sit still for tourists to take photos The crippled cub could hardly move and was on the point of death when it was rescued, but thanks to the work of animal surgeon Karen Dallakyan Simba can now walk and play again The crippled cub could hardly move and was on the point of death when it was rescued. Vladimir Putin was so shocked that he personally ordered a criminal probe into the cruelty faced by Simba. Groundbreaking surgery means the cub can now walk and play - as seen in a new video - but Simba will remain deformed for life. Now though, Russians behind the beast's rescue have arranged for the cub to fly 6,500 miles from the Ural Mountains to a big cats rehabilitation centre in Tanzania. The animal surgeon who saved Simba's life, Karen Dallakyan, from Chelyabinsk, said: 'The return to their spiritual homeland of wild animals of Africa rescued in Russia is taking place for the first time in our country's history.' Karen Dallakyan (in blue, second from left) saved Simba's life and along wiht his team (also pictured) plans to send the lion cub to a new home Yulia Agaeva, who headed the operation to save Simba, said there had been 30 offers to take and care for the lion, but she was convinced Tanzania was the right place The cub had suffered 'an ocean of pain from humans', and his recovery was a 'miracle'. He said: 'Evil photographers break bones like this so that wild predators cannot escape and behave calmly for pictures (with tourists).' The barbarity faced by the lion triggered a heartwarming outpouring when the beast's story was originally highlighted around the world in June. Yulia Agaeva, who headed the operation to save Simba, said there had been 30 offers to take and care for the lion, but she was convinced Tanzania was the right place. 'The rehabilitation centre we selected employs highly trained, kind, animal-loving doctors who will take care of Simba 24/7,' she said. 'It is located in a beautiful area where elephants, zebras, caracals, servals and other fauna live near Mount Kilimanjaro.' The lion will have a huge unfenced space in which to roam although because of his injuries is unlikely to be properly released to the wild. Simba will go to Africa with a rescued leopard, said Yulia, who heads So. Travel company. The Tanzanian embassy is assisting with the operation to take the big cats to Africa, and the trip is expected next month. Simba was just a few weeks old when taken from his mother and made to pose for pictures with tourists. After exploiting the lion last summer, the performing lion's legs were broken as it got older so that the animal could not run away. It became ill and was 'tortured and beaten' by its minders, badly injuring his spine, and on the point of death, say reports. The animal was dumped, hardly able to move, tethered in a dirty, cold barn in the Russian region of Dagestan. 'He was practically not fed, and for some reason in the frost, water was constantly poured over him,' said Yulia. 'This was a real hell.' After being exploited last summer, the performing lion's legs were broken as it got older so that the animal could not run away There was a certain symmetry in the news this week with Australias most respected voice on the coronavirus Dr Norman Swan once again front and centre on the whys and wherefores of the Victorian coronavirus lockdown, even as . . . Even as his son, Jonathan Swan, the former Sydney Morning Herald journalist, was eschewing the breathless pandering of propagandism that abounds these days and instead engaging in real journalism asking President Donald Trump the questions that need to be asked on chaotic countering of corona. The no-holds barred interview made headlines around the world. The success of the father is because of his ability to cut through all the white noise with a tone of concise and unimpeachable authority. The success of the son-also-rises has been in publicly challenging the very much impeached authority of the President of the United States. In Jonathans gobsmacked expressions as Trump spoke we saw ourselves wondering how such a man as this could hold such an office at such a time, and give such answers but Swan the Younger was doing it in the White House. Did Trump take offence at being so challenged? He did not. Rather like Prince Andrew being sure his interview with Emily Maitlis went brilliantly despite it being a train-wreck, Trump was so pleased he asked him to run the interview at full length in order, Jonathan tells me, to let the sentences flow. Swan and his producer couldnt agree quickly enough and headed for the exits. CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE) will announce the SSLC Class 10 exam results on Tuesday (August 10). The TN SSLC Result 2020 would be announced at 9.30 am. The Tamil Nadu government had earlier cancelled the pending exam papers due to COVID-19 coronavrius pandemic. The TNDGE said that the board would award the marks based on half-yearly and quaterly exam marks of students. More than 9 lakh students appeared in the Tamil Nadu Class 10 SSLC exams which were held from March 27 to April 13 this year. Once the results are declared, students can check their scorecrad on the official website of the board, dge.tn.gov.in, dge1.tn.nic.in, tnresults.nic.in. The results will also be displayed on alternative websites like - dge2.tn.nic.in, manabadi.co.in, schools9.com. Here's how you can check your Tamil Nadu SSLC Class 10 results 2020 online: 1. Visit the official website- tnresults.nic.in 2. Click on the link of 'SSLC Exam - March 2020 Results' 3. Enter the registration number and date-of-birth 4. The result will appear on the screen. Check for any discrepancy 5. Save and download the result 6. Take a print copy of the same and secure it for future The Tamil Nadu SSLC Result 2020 will also be accessed via an app. In order to access the results via the app the students will have to download the TN SSLC Result app on their smartphone. To check their scorecard, visit the Results link in the app and enter credentials like Date of Birth and registration number and submit details. The Tamil Nadu class 10th SSLC Results 2020 will appear on the screen. The Tamil Nadu's DGE has decided that 80% weightage will be given to marks in quarterly and half-yearly assessment tests, 20% weightage will be given to attendance. It may be recalled that Tamil Nadu Board Class 12 Results 2020 was announced on July 16. Tamil Nadu SSLC Result are usually released in late April or early May. In 2019, SSLC Result was announced on April 29, 2019. This year the results were delayed due to coronavirus pandemic. The pending examinations have also been cancelled by the government. Its been a wild and bumpy ride for OPEC+ this year. The consortium, consisting of the traditional members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus oil and gas superpower Russia, was largely responsible for the huge collapse in oil prices toward the end of April. After a huge drop in oil demand corresponding with the devastating spread of the novel coronavirus around the world, an OPEC+ strategy meeting turned into a spat between Russia and Saudi Arabia which then turned into an all-out oil price war and massive global oil glut. The oil storage shortage created by this glut would go on to push the West Texas Intermediate crude benchmark into previously-unthinkable negative territory, closing out the day on April 30th at nearly $40 below zero per barrel. OPEC+ has since reconciled and once again banded together to address the oil market crisis, making myriad pledges and severe production cuts to bolster crude oil prices. But many of the countries that made those pledges have fallen far short of their promises. OPEC reached a historic deal to cut output by 9.7 million barrels per day in April, but a number of countries fell significantly short in meeting their production targets, reports Markets Insider. But, just this week Iraq, OPECs second-biggest member just made a huge commitment to cut its oil production in the coming months. After a Thursday night conversation between Iraqi and Saudi leadership, Baghdad made a commitment to cut oil production by 400,000 barrels per day in August and September, a massive uptick from the nations relatively paltry July production cut of 11,000 barrels per day. But while the oil market is now recovering and countries like Iraq are starting to fall in line, this may not indicate smooth sailing for the international oil consortium. Rebounding oil prices have the potential to show the cracks that already exist in the delicate cooperation between the powerful oil-producing nations, the Wall Street Journal reported this week in an article entitled How a Tenuous Saudi-Russia Oil Alliance Could Melt Down. Related: COVID Fears Cause Oil To Fall Back After A Brief Rally The article recounts OPECs rough, tough year(s), remarking that Saudi Arabia, the dominant force of OPEC, might as well have been herding cats in recent years trying to bring order to the unruly cartel. At first, the addition of Russia to bring the + to OPEC+ was a godsend for the group and a boon to oil markets, but now Riyadh and Moscows extremely different ambitions could spell doom for the cartel. In light of the fact that many OPEC+ members have been complying with production cuts and that these cuts seem to be working, in mid-July, the cartel actually agreed to let OPEC members overall production to increase by a considerable 1.6 million barrels a day. The latest adjustment was a reflection of a demand picture that seems to be improving, reports the Wall Street Journal. Yet that very development could hobble cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Russia going forward. As history has taught us over and over, alliances more often than not require a common enemy--in this case a floundering oil market. Under $40 [a barrel], they were able to come together. The higher the price, the harder it will be to get Russia to go along with continued production cutsespecially once you get to $50 a barrel for Brent Crude, Gary Ross, Chief Executive Officer of Black Gold Investors told the Wall Street Journal. And now, theres not enough to keep Saudi Arabia and Russias diverging visions from, well, diverging. The two nations at the helm of OPEC+ publicly claim vastly different break-even prices and the recent easing of austere production measures could be the harbinger of doom for the already delicately-balanced cartel. And a dramatic failure for OPEC and its consortium of precarious oil autocracies could spell serious geopolitical turmoil for the Middle East, and by extension, for all of us in this global village. By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The greater Jacksonville area is in the heart of Lincoln country and has a longstanding reputation for progressive thinking and behavior. Yet many of its place names reflect a Southern influence. Similarly, the relationships of Abraham Lincoln and other regional leaders to Southerners further blurs the lines of history and how we interpret it. In American lore, North and South famously were divided by the Mason-Dixon line, which, in reality, did not exist. The real Mason-Dixon line was nothing but a surveying mark. And the feelings of North and South were not defined by borders, real or imaginary. Though Jacksonville is known for New Englanders like the Yale Band who founded Illinois College and heavily influenced local culture, many other settlers in the area had Southern roots. Much of central and southern Illinois was settled by former residents of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas, and they often brought their Southern pride with them. Cass Countys seat, Virginia, takes its name from the adopted home state of its founder, Dr. Henry Hall. Down the road, Ashland is named for the estate of Henry Clay, the Kentucky political powerhouse who served three stints as U.S. Speaker of the House and was Secretary of State from 1825 to 1829. Clay was a revered figure in early 19th century American politics and was an idol of Abraham Lincoln. But Clay also was an antagonistic rival of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, for whom many believe Jacksonville is named. Others disagree and attribute the name to an unlikely and ironic source. For decades, the Jacksonville name generally has been ascribed to Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans and one of the most popular men of his era. Jacksonville was founded in 1825, a year after Jackson lost a bitter campaign for president. Infuriated, Jackson held Clay partly responsible for the defeat. A Tennessean, Jackson is blasted today for his harsh treatment of American Indians and his slave holding. Others believe Jacksonville takes its name from A.W. Jackson, a former slave who later became a popular area preacher. According to that story, Jackson came to the region as an enslaved youth, ordered to obtain seed corn from residents in Diamond Grove. However, he became lost in the tall prairie grass and wandered around until finding some men driving stakes near the present-day location of the Dunlap Hotel. Jackson asked for directions to Diamond Grove and the men pointed him in the right direction. They also asked for his name and, upon hearing it, promised to name the town after him, since he was the first African-American in the area. Some, though, believe this may have been a joke, based on the similarity of the boys name to Andrew Jackson. The younger Jackson later became a pastor and Jacksonvilles first black alderman. Indeed, the contrast is striking. One possible source of the citys name is a man who is ripped for his views toward non-whites. The other possibility is an African-American. Illinois has long been championed for its progressiveness on many key issues, particularly in the 19th century. The state was the first to ratify the 13th Amendment, banning slavery, in 1865 and the first to vote on ratification of the 19th Amendment, providing women the right to vote, in 1919. The state also was among the first to ratify both the 14th Amendment, calling for African-American citizenship, and the 15th Amendment, for African-American voting rights. By comparison, California, long recognized as the bastion of liberal thinking, did not ratify the 14th Amendment until 1959 and the 15th Amendment until 1962. Many attribute Illinois progressiveness to the lingering Lincoln legacy, which Jacksonville also claims. Similarly, in its earlier days, Jacksonville was dubbed the Athens of the West for its impact on education and culture. In a 2004 article, Lorelei Steuer, the wife of now-retired Illinois College President Axel Steuer, wrote that the school became a center and symbol of the antislavery movement in Illinois, and generally supported the actions of abolitionists and the Underground Railroad. However, she added, the school was by no means reflective of Jacksonville, the surrounding counties, or even of all the parents of its students. Steuer was correct. The city was an active stop on the Underground Railroad. However, the namesake of Jacksonvilles home county, Daniel Morgan, likely would have disapproved; Morgan was a slave owner. Morgan is indicative of the debate on the interpretation of history that has seized some Americans today. One of George Washingtons most trusted generals, Morgan was a tenacious fighter for the American cause but, like many of his contemporaries, held slaves. Illinois is one of three Northern states with counties named for Morgan, whose name also was given to multiple towns, a street in New Jersey and a middle school in Virginia. If one accepts Andrew Jackson as the true namesake of Jacksonville, that means both the city and its home county were named for slave owners. Yet Jacksonvilles reputation for progressive thinking as seen in the Yale Band cannot be questioned. Likewise, the citys place as a home for higher education, cultural advancement and health care is indisputable. Morgan County is one of at least 22 counties statewide named for Revolutionary War figures. The Jacksonville area, and Illinois on the whole, are hardly alone in that; many other states have plenty of names linked to the Revolutionary War. Many of those leaders were Southern, often from Virginia, the early political power base of the nation and home to four of the first five American presidents. In Greene County, Carrollton is named for Charles Carroll of Maryland, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, whom one source calls the largest slave owner of the Revolutionary War period, with an estimated 400 to 500 slaves. Even the beloved Benjamin Franklin, the great patriot, scientist and namesake of a Morgan County town east of Jacksonville, owned as many as seven slaves during his life. But, like some other slaveholders, Franklin came to abhor slavery and recognized its evils. In his last years, Franklin supported a petition to Congress urging liberty for those in perpetual bondage and penned several essays calling for the end of slavery and social integration for African-Americans. Recent Census statistics reveal that more places in the U.S. are named for Washington and Franklin than anyone else, with Lincoln in third. Other popular place names include Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson all men of the South. Jacksonville is remembered as friendly to Lincoln, who finishes first in most scholarly rankings of American presidents and is remembered as the Great Emancipator. His Emancipation Proclamation came at immense political risk and his fervent support of the 13th Amendment set a course for reunification after the Civil War. However, many in the area in his day had little regard for Lincoln, who frequently was reviled by opposing newspapers. He lost Morgan County by 107 of 4,731 votes cast in his first run for president in 1860. Four years later, he fell by 62 of 4,646 tallies cast. Though Morgan Countys support for Lincoln was nearly equally divided, he actually fared better in Morgan than in surrounding counties. He lost decisively in Cass, Scott, Pike, Brown, Schuyler and Macoupin counties in both 1860 and 1864. In Greene County, Lincoln collected less than 32 percent of the vote in either election. Lincoln even found the going rough in his home county of Sangamon, which he failed to carry in either of his presidential elections. In 1864, he managed to carry his hometown of Springfield by a mere 10 votes 1,324 for and 1,314 against. In the field, many Union soldiers from Illinois and elsewhere did not back Lincoln on emancipation, believing the ideology of the war was changing from preservation of the Union to Black freedom. Desertions spiked across the ranks and letters home were filled with disparaging comments. It was reflective of the times, because many Illinoisans supported the Union but did not necessarily despise slavery. Even in Lincolns backyard, abolitionists often were viewed as extremists. A native Kentuckian, Lincoln had plenty of pro-Southern associates, as did many other prominent Americans. They included his wife, Mary, herself a Kentucky product who consistently supported her husbands political policies. Another was Albert Bledsoe, a fellow Springfield lawyer who lived down the hall from Lincoln and Mary at the Globe Tavern in the capital city for several months in 1842 and 1843. In September 1842, Lincoln passed through Jacksonville on his way to a proposed duel with Illinois politician James Shields, who had accused Lincoln of disparaging remarks in Springfield newspapers. In the custom of 19th century dueling, participants usually were accompanied by an entourage. In Lincolns case, that group included Albert Bledsoe, who joined the future president in Jacksonville, where he was procuring broadswords for the exchange. Bledsoe was a Kentucky-born former clergyman and professor and his wife later assisted Mary Lincoln after the birth of her first son, Robert Todd. However, Bledsoe left Springfield in 1847 and returned to academia, teaching at the universities of Mississippi and Virginia. In 1856, he authored Liberty and Slavery, which has been called the most extensive philosophical treatment of slavery ever produced by a Southern academic. Bledsoe later would serve as assistant secretary of war for the Confederacy. While Bledsoe stood by the institution of slavery, Clay opposed it, although he owned a large number of slaves. Clay called for gradual emancipation and supported the establishment of colonies of freed slaves in Africa. In 2010, National Public Radio referred to Clay as a slave-holding abolitionist. Certainly, the lines of North and South often were blurred. When the village of Scottville, in northwestern Macoupin County, was laid out in 1835, one of the proprietors who sold lots for the town was Jefferson Weatherford, a Tennessee native who fought in the Black Hawk War. In 1846, Weatherford relocated to Texas, where he served in the state Senate from 1853 to 1857. Weatherford was one of the strongest advocates for secession in North Texas, particularly after Lincoln won the presidency in 1860. Weatherford was elected to the Texas senate again in both 1861 and 1863. The city of Weatherford, Texas is named in his honor. Pop culture tends to view itself as progressive and there is a link between current pop culture and Schuyler County, named for Alexander Hamiltons father-in-law, Philip Schuyler, a Revolutionary War general who served parts of two terms as a U.S. senator from New York. He was defeated in a 1791 re-election bid for the Senate by Aaron Burr, who later killed Hamilton in a celebrated duel in 1804. Two towns in New York and three American counties are named for Schuyler, who owned slaves. That servitude has been a source of recent contention in Schuylers home state of New York. Hamilton is seen by many today as a champion of the right, though his actions speak otherwise. Whatever his dislike of slavery, he apparently saw no issue with marrying into a slave-holding family. And, as Harvard professor and acclaimed African-American historian Annette Gordon-Reed recently said, Hamilton bought and sold slaves for his in-laws. Still, Hamilton has been immortalized for better or worse in the Broadway musical sensation of the same name; the musical depicts Schuyler as a minor character. Despite its sweeping popularity, the musical has been panned by scholars for its historical inaccuracies. One New York historian labeled the musical Hamilton great theater and bad history. After whispers of protest following the debut of Hamilton in 2015, the controversy has blossomed in recent weeks, though an Associated Press article called the critics often solitary voices amid a wall of fawning attention. But there has been enough backlash that a social media movement, Cancel Hamilton, is gaining traction. The controversy has presented a dilemma for some millennials, who comprise a significant part of the Hamilton fan base and have been some of the loudest voices in the movements for change this summer. However, the July 3 streaming launch of Hamilton by The Disney Co. was highly successful, indicating that fans were, as a recent Washington Post article said of the real-life Hamilton on the slavery issue, willing to overlook it. Indeed, history is not simple, and neither is its interpretation. Today, Illinois is rightfully proud of its Lincoln heritage, calling itself the Land of Lincoln. But, in Lincolns own time, based on the clear Southern influence on the area, that claim is highly debatable. Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8 2020 The presentation of colorful ready-to-wear items and accessories marked the opening of Kate Spade New Yorks flagship store in South Jakartas Senayan City. Coming from the Summer 2020 collection, the ready-to-wear line comprises items such as a poppy field-print dress with romantic flutter sleeves and gingham voile dress that transports the imagination to a chic picnic in the park. Meanwhile, among accessories shown were a see-through tote bag in bright colors that is mood-lifting and easy to clean, and playful cross-body bags in the shape of an apple or pineapple. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin testifies with Jovita Carranza, Administrator U.S. Small Business Administration during the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Hearings to examine implementation of Title I of the CARES Act on Capitol Hill on June 10, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump administration officials have urged the president to delist Chinese companies that trade on U.S. exchanges and fail to meet U.S. auditing requirements by January 2022, Securities and Exchange Commission and Treasury officials said on Thursday. The remarks came after President Donald Trump tasked a group of key advisers, including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, with drafting a report with recommendations to protect U.S. investors from Chinese companies whose audit documents have long been kept from U.S. regulators. It also comes amid growing pressure from Congress to crack down on Chinese companies that avail themselves of U.S. capital markets but do not comply with U.S. rules faced by American rivals. "We are simply leveling the playing field, holding Chinese firms listed in the U.S. to the same standards as everyone else," a Treasury official told reporters in a briefing call about the report. The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation in May that could prevent some Chinese companies from listing their shares on U.S. exchanges unless they follow standards for U.S. audits and regulations. New Jersey will likely pull in another $14.8 million this year as part of a long-running lawsuit against polluters statewide, which has now earned more than $369 million overall to help pay cleanup costs. Two new settlements were announced Monday by the states environmental protection department, including one against a Woodbridge gas station accused of contaminating local water. Officials have flagged more than 6,000 places in the state where a chemical called Methyl tert-butyl ether, or MTBE, could be found in the water. While adding MTBE to gasoline can reduce a cars emissions, leaks from underground tanks have led some states to restrict or ban it altogether, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2007, New Jersey sued almost 50 companies for alleged MTBE pollution, including groups making, moving and storing the chemical. Seventeen have paid out at least once, according to the state attorney generals office, including BP and Shell. One of Mondays settlements targeted the gas station HP Delta, Inc. at 439 Lake Avenue in Woodbridge Township. Owner Robert Melecci and the station will chip in $1 million while the Deptford-based Dhandi Transport, Inc. will pay $350,000, although none of them admitted doing anything wrong. Those payments will also get them off the hook for what was essentially a $2 million fine issued in 2016, according to a draft of the agreement. Its important that this MTBE issue be resolved, said Stuart Lieberman, a lawyer for HP Delta and two people who had complaints against them dropped. I just wish they didnt have to beat up small operators like the people that ran this gas station. His clients were relieved the process was finally over, he said. Its really had a terrible toll on their life. In the other settlement, New York-based Getty Properties Corp. agreed to pay $13.5 million. They also did not admit wrongdoing. The public has 60 days to weigh in before a court can formally approve the agreements. (In the chart above, Melecci and Dhandi appear jointly on the last row as Getty Third Party Defendants.) Messages left with three lawyers who represent Getty, Melecci, Dhandi and others were not immediately returned, nor were messages left directly with a Getty vice president and a number listed for Dhandi. Earlier in the summer, New Jersey also reached a $1.5 million settlement with Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA, according to state records. Cases against ExxonMobil and Gulf/Cumberland Farms are ongoing, according to an attorney general spokesman. Read more of NJ.coms coverage of New Jersey water issues here. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Blake Nelson can be reached at bnelson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BCunninghamN. Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. A 26-year-old Quincy man was the victim of a shooting Thursday morning in Mattapan, Boston police said in a release. Authorities identified the man as Lovenson Peirre, who was found dead Thursday at about 9:30 a.m. near the intersection of Hazelton Street and Blue Hill Avenue. He had been shot at least once and died at the scene. Police are investigating the incident and ask that anyone with information contact the Boston Police Homicide Detective Unit at 617-343-4470, or anonymously contribute tips by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 800-494-TIPS or texting the word tip to CRIME (27463). The Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe Abronye, has called for the arrest of the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia. According to him, the close to 2,000 people, who were being bused to registration centres in the Banda Constituency, are not Ghanaians but Ivorians. In a press statement issued and signed by Abronye DC on Friday, August 7, called for the arrest of the NDC scribe on the back of media reports that showed Mr. Nketia transporting truckloads of people to registration centres at Banda. "The video aired by UTV also clearly confirms the fact that the persons who were seen in a Kia Rhino Truck led by Aseidu Nketia are NOT Ghanaians but all blooded Ivorians and that alone vindicates the military and exposes the ill motive of Aseidu Nketia to register Ivorians." "I am therefore calling on the Ghana Police Service to immediately arrest, investigate and prosecute Aseidu Nketia for aiding and abetting illegitimate persons to gain a Ghanaian voters ID illegally." Read below full details of press release: NDCS ASIEDU NKETIA MUST BE ARRESTED IMMEDIATELY A few minutes ago, UTV news broadcasted a news item which has since gone viral on social media indicating that 66 persons believed to be Ivorians have been arrested at the Banda Constituency in the Bono Region for illegally acquiring a Ghanaian Voters Identification Card For the purpose of records, I wish to state as follows: The arrested persons are individuals who are not Ghanaians neither are they persons residents in Ghana. The arrested persons are individuals who were led into the country from Ivory Coast by NDCs General Secretary Aseidu Nketia. It would be recalled that a few days ago Aseidu Nketia was seen in an audiovisual clip claiming that the military personnel deployed to Banda are preventing Ewes from registering. In that same video, he was seen leading Kia Rhino trucks containing over 2000 persons believed to be Ivorians to a registration center. It must be noted that on that very day 2nd August 2020 when the military prevented Aseidu Nketia from going to register those illegal persons, Aseidu Nketia subsequently housed those people at his personal residence located at Seikwa where he fed them and subsequently led them to register at the Banda constituency in bits in order to deceive the military. It must be posited that, out of the 66 persons who were arrested, 3 of them are direct relatives of Aseidu Nketia but are residents and hail from Ivory Coast. i.e they are not Ghanaians. One such persons is by name Kouame Yao Dongo who was captured in UTVs video. That gentleman is known to be Aseidu Nketias Uncles brother who was in Ghana in 2014 when Aseidu Nketias mother passed away. Another lady (name withheld) is also known to be relative of Aseidu Nketias late mother by name Madam Afra, who was popularly known as Kwaafora whose father was from Gyaase royal Family Of which their lineage may be traced outside the borders of Ghana. For the timely intervention of the military, Aseidu Nketia could not register all the 2000 persons he bused from Ivory Coast but was able to sneak in a couple of them of which 66 of them have been arrested today. After I had notified the media and security agencies with regards to the intel I had received about the malicious intent of Aseidu Nketia leading illegitimate people to acquire a Ghanaian voters ID he then decided to launch an attack on my personality by calling my good self and the mother of the parliamentary candidate for Banda Constituency non Ghanaians in order to divert the subject matter. Per my facts and investigations so far gathered, checks reveal that Aseidu Nketia paid and hired the truck which was transporting the illegal registrants to Ivory Coast. It is of no doubt that, all Ewes living at Akayakrom which is known to be an Ewe community at the Banda Constituency registered without stress and any form of intimidation. The video aired by UTV also clearly confirms the fact that the persons who were seen in a Kia Rhino Truck led by Aseidu Nketia are NOT Ghanaians but all blooded Ivorians and that alone vindicates the military and exposes the ill motive of Aseidu Nketia to register Ivorians. I am therefore calling on the Ghana Police Service to immediately arrest, investigate and prosecute Aseidu Nketia for aiding and abetting illegitimate persons to gain a Ghanaian voters ID illegally. Thanks Kwame Baffoe Abronye Signed!!! Bono Regional Chairman Source: peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Chelsee Healey celebrated her 32nd birthday in style as she headed for a night out in Manchester on Friday. The Hollyoaks' actress turned heads as she arrived for her second day of celebrations at the Australasia Sunset restaurant. Chelsee caught the eye in thigh-high Versace lace stockings and a plunging blazer dress which teased a glimpse of her lace bra. Lace heaven: Chelsee Healey chose a striking and revealing look for her second night of birthday celebrations at the Australasia Sunset restaurant in Manchester on Friday The actress, who plays Goldie McQueen in the Channel 4 soap, mastered the art of sophisticated footwear and flashed her red-bottom Louboutin heels as she sauntered to the restaurant. Despite the roasting UK temperatures, she wore a buttoned black blazer that featured a deep V neckline and highlighted her slender waist. Chelsee mixed lingerie with evening wear, wearing the 60 Versace stockings that paired perfectly with the lace slip she was wearing. All smiles: The Hollyoaks actress, 32, made a statement with her ensemble of designer items and black blazer dress as she strolled into the restaurant Thigh high: Chelsee stepped it up a notch with a pair of black lace Versace stockings that complimented her lace undergarment perfectly Her luxury stockings and shoes weren't the only designer item that Chelsee wore as she sported a champagne glitter Givenchy bag. The birthday girl rocked some signature hoop earrings which are a staple in many of her final looks, especially for an evening out on the town. Likewise, Chelsee is no stranger to a daring outfit choice and on Thursday night she cut a chic figure while out celebrating her at The Ivy. The Hollyoaks star stunned in a strapless, cream ruffled top as she posed up a storm with pal and co-star Jennifer Metcalfe outside the swanky eatery. All smiles: Chelsee channelled Kim Kardashian vibes with her tight braided ponytail and flawless contour that highlighted her olive complexion Side to side: Her long raven tresses swayed from side to side as she made an effort to hide her modesty from the flash of cameras during her restaurant entrance Glitter is gold: The actress splurged on a champagne glittery Givenchy tote bag that she was seen carrying into the Manchester restaurant Their outing comes as Hollyoaks resumed filming last month after it was forced to suspend production for four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bosses confirmed stars have returned to the soap's Liverpool set, with temperature checks and social distancing measures in place. Meanwhile, Hollyoaks has temporarily come off-air from until September, when it will air four episodes a week. Work buddies: During the first day of her birthday celebrations, the actress was joined by her former Hollyoaks co-star and dear friend Jennifer Metcalfe Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:03:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- China will accelerate the establishment of a "dual circulation" development pattern that takes the domestic market as the mainstay while domestic and foreign markets can boost each other. Since May this year, the top leadership of the country has reaffirmed the dual-circulation development pattern on various occasions, indicating the strategic priority of China's economic development is accelerating the shift from an export-led to a domestic demand-driven growth model. ACTIVE CHOICE It is not a hasty decision, but an active choice mulled for years. China has actively participated in the global value chain since its reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, achieving rapid economic development through its low costs and export-oriented strategy. However, deficiencies have gradually emerged, such as excessive dependence on foreign trade, risks in economic security, restrictions in key technologies and pressure on industrial upgrading. In fact, since the Asian financial crisis of 1998, China has shifted the foothold of its economic development to expanding domestic demand. In recent years, China has become increasingly reliant on the domestic market rather than exports. From the perspective of the domestic situation, China is pushing for high-quality development and accelerating the transformation of its economic growth model. In the current global landscape, the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. COVID-19 is wreaking havoc across the world, trade protectionism is on the rise in some countries and the global industrial and supply chains may experience remarkable changes. It is in this milieu that the new development pattern has been reaffirmed, based on China's long-term development strategy and changes in the global situation. The new development pattern mulled by the top leadership is an active strategic choice for China's economy to nurture new opportunities and secure new advantages in global competition, said Huang Qunhui, director of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. DEEPEN OPENING-UP While the potential of domestic circulation is being emphasized, it does not mean China will seek seclusion. Instead, it will utilize domestic and international resources more efficiently, ensuring robust and sustainable development. "Economic activities never existed in isolation. They are dynamic and cyclic. Since China has deeply integrated itself into globalization, it cannot expand domestic demand without the smooth operation of the global industrial and supply chains," said Wei Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges. "The strategy to take domestic circulation as the mainstay and expand domestic demand as the strategic foundation does not mean closing doors to the outside world or active decoupling. On the contrary, it means further opening up to the outside world at a high level," said Guan Tao, an economist with BOC International. A review of its major reforms this year reveals clues to the country's endeavors in boosting opening-up. In late June, China shortened the negative list for foreign investment again, slashing the number of sectors that are off-limits for foreign investors. In early June, China released the master plan on building the southern island province of Hainan into a globally influential free trade port. Two guidelines were unveiled in April and May - one on the market-based allocation of resources, and the other on improving the socialist market economy. Both plans centered on protecting the market's role in the economy to nurture the growth of domestic and foreign-funded companies alike. China needs to continue its pivot toward domestic demand-driven growth. The country is improving its domestic demand system in an open environment, so dual circulation - domestic and international - should not be severed. China's development cannot be segregated from the world, while global development also needs China. In the future, China will only open its doors wider to share its development opportunities with the world. Enditem Delhi will soon have its own start-up policy, aimed at supporting entrepreneurs and generating employment, spokespersons from chief minister Arvind Kejriwals office said on Saturday. To kick-start the consultation process to draft the policy and discuss ideas to develop Delhi as a leading choice for start-ups, Kejriwal on Saturday convened a meeting with industry leaders and young entrepreneurs, who joined hands with the government to advance its plans in the sector. Among those who attended the Saturday meeting include Ajai Chowdhry (co-founder, HCL), Padmaja Ruparel (co-founder, Indian Angel Network) and young leaders like Sriharsha Majety (co-founder and CEO, Swiggy), Farid Ahsan (co-founder, ShareChat), Suchita Salwan (founder and CEO, Little Black Book), Riyaaz Amlani, CEO and MD, Impresario Handmade Restaurants. The national capital is a hub of students, industries, and several prestigious institutions, and over the last few years, the start-up ecosystem here has amassed a plethora of opportunities for budding entrepreneurs. At the launch of the policy consultation process, Kejriwal said, Since my IIT days, I have seen some of the most brilliant minds from India go abroad looking for better opportunities. I believe Indians are the smartest entrepreneurs in the world and all they need are the right opportunity and the right conditions to help them thrive. With this start-up policy, we aim to make Delhi one of the top five global destinations for start-ups. Kejriwal is a student of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. According to a September 2019 report by TiE, sections of which Kejriwal quoted on Saturday, Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) house over 7,000 start-ups. As per the report, the region has the highest number of active start-ups in the country as well, and has a 23% share of all start-ups in the country. The report states that Delhi-NCR is set to become one of the top five global start-up hubs by 2025 with 12,000 start-ups, 30 unicorns, and a cumulative valuation of about $150 billion. A unicorn is a start-up firm with a valuation above $1 billion. The objective of the draft policy is to support entrepreneurs and build a robust economic and policy infrastructure that will create new jobs and bring new competitive dynamics into the current economic system, Kejriwal said. The government in a statement said policy consultations will be held over two stages. Firstly, in the spirit of the Delhi model of teamwork, the Delhi government on Saturday invited industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and policy experts from various sectors to provide inputs in drafting the new start-up policy. Following this, the Delhi government will soon release a draft start-up policy and launch an online forum to seek inputs from the general public on the start-up policy, the government said. Industry stakeholders, meanwhile, welcomed the initiative. Rajan Anandan, managing director, Sequoia Capital, said, NCR is already the largest start-up region in India and within NCR, Delhi has the most start-ups. We were honoured to be invited by the chief minister of Delhi to provide suggestions on how to make Delhi one of the worlds top five start-up destinations. The discussion was very good with many ideas on what it will take Delhis startup ecosystem to the next level. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari was forced to endorse Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the September 19 Edo State governorship election. KanyiDaily recalls that President Buhari had earlier endorsed Pastor Ize-Iyamu and presented the APC flag to him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday. Reacting in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, Obaseki sympathised with Buhari over the endorsement. Obaseki said it was disappointing and a dilemma that Buhari could endorse Ize-Iyamu despite facing trial for corruption to the tune of N700m. President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday was confronted with a dilemma of no mean proportion, to raise the hand of Osagie Ize-Iyamu, candidate of the APC in the September 19 gubernatorial election taking place in Edo State. The President was constrained to carry out the action, which indeed was a dilemma. We sympathise with the President, who reluctantly handed the APC candidate the partys flag and unveiled him behind closed doors. The event was disgraceful, to say the least, but the President had to carry out the unpleasant assignment for the sake of his party. KanyiDaily had reported that Pastor Ize-Iyamu is facing trial before a Federal High Court in Benin City for allegedly laundering the sum of N700 million. India Launches Nationwide Raids in Swiss Pilatus Jet Deal Scam Sputnik News 09:35 GMT 07.08.2020 New Delhi (Sputnik): India's top probe agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) suspects that Swiss company Pilatus may have paid off officials in the defense ministry and air force via intermediary Sanjay Bhandari in order to secure a key contract back in 2009. India's economic intelligence agency on Friday raided several premises across the country in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged corruption in purchasing 75 Pilatus basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2009. The Indian Air Force signed a $437 million deal with Switzerland to purchase 75 basic trainers. Officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the economic intelligence agency, said on Friday that a raid is being conducted at 14 premises across the country. "The agency had filed a money laundering case to probe the deal and is carrying out the action to collect evidence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)," the agency revealed in an official statement. During the investigation, ED officials found that some officers of the Indian Air Force and the Defence Ministry were involved in the case. Last year, the Indian government terminated business dealings with Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. for one year following allegations of irregularities. A statement from India's Ministry of Defence in 2019 mentioned that "business dealings with Pilatus will remain suspended for one year or until further orders for violation of the integrity pact". It was alleged that Pilatus paid hefty kickbacks to some senior officials of the Indian Air Force and the Defense Ministry through an arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, who managed to hoodwink authorities by fleeing to London. According to the Indian government, Pilatus was asked by the Defence Ministry to explain payments it allegedly made but the Swiss company did not provide a satisfactory reply. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taiwan Deploys F-16s With Live Anti-Ship Missiles Amid China's Rumored Island Invasion Drills Sputnik News 22:18 GMT 07.08.2020(updated 22:31 GMT 07.08.2020) Taiwan's Republic of China Air Force launched two multirole F-16 fighters fitted with anti-ship missiles from Hualien Air Force Base this week following reports that forces from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) would be holding drills simulating the capture of the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands, which Beijing calls the Dongsha Islands. The Dongsha Islands are located in the northern part of the South China Sea, a body of water which contains many contested islands and reefs claimed by several nations, including China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia, Brunei and the Philippines. The South China Sea is believed to contain large amounts of oil and natural gas deposits beneath its seafloor. Aviation reporter Roy Choo shared photos online Thursday of the aircraft from the base's 5th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) deploying. "The 5th TFW F-16s at Hualien are usually tasked with anti-shipping missions with the Harpoons while the F-16s from the 4th TFW at Chiayi Air Force Base are usually seen employing AGM-65 Maverick missiles for anti-surface roles," Choo said, The Drive reported. The AGM-65 Maverick is an air-to-ground missile that is effective against many types of targets. The aircraft are believed to have been launched over fears that the PLA would soon be conducting military exercises simulating a takeover of the Dongsha Islands, according to Taiwan's Liberty Times. Reports first surfaced in May that the PLA would hold the military drills in August. According to a report by Taiwan News at the time, the PLA's beach landing exercise would involve "large numbers of marines, landing ships, hovercrafts and helicopters. However, it's worth noting that reports of the planned island drills by China's forces have recently been disputed after Chinese military expert Li Daguang revealed that a paper of his was misconstrued when it was cited in several news articles reporting on the supposed exercises. Li told the Global Times on Monday that the mention of drills in his paper is "absolutely not a confirmation" of the exercises. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mauritius has declared a 'state of environmental emergency' after nearly 4,000 tons of oil were spilt into the Indian Ocean when a ship ran aground. A government statement said the Panama-flagged bulk carrier initially ran aground on July 25 but the National Coast Guard did not receive a distress call. Online ship trackers showed that the MV Wakashio had been travelling from China to Brazil when it ran aground on a coral reef and its crew was evacuated. Mauritius has declared a 'state of emergency' after nearly 4,000 tons of oil were spilt into the Indian Ocean when the MV Wakashio ran aground The bulk carrier ran aground on a coral reef on July 25 and the crew were evacuated but the national coast guard were not contacted Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth said that the oil spill presents a danger and he has had to ask France for assistance because the island nation of 1.3million people doesn't have the expertise to re-float stranded ships. A salvage team was sent to work on the ship but was evacuated from the area after cracks were found in the vessel's hull. Despite being registered in Panama, the MV Wakashio is owned by a Japanese company. The island nation, which relies on its waters for fishing and tourism has deployed around 400 sea booms, physical barriers made of metal or plastic, to slow the spread of the oil. The vessel currently rests on Pointe d'Esny and a salvage team had been sent to work on it but were evacuated when cracks were found on the ship's hull Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth has appealed to France for help as the island nation does not have the skills or expertise to re-float the vessel In a statement, Greenpeace Africa's climate and energy manager, Happy Khambule, said: "Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe d'Esny and Mahebourg are at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius' economy, food security and health.' Mauritius outlined a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan nearly a decade ago but it has proved inadequate and provided only enough equipment for a spill of 'less than 10 metric tonnes'. The environment ministry has blamed rough seas and bad weather for their failed attempts to stabilise the ship and prevent the spread of the oil. The Mauritius government has said that police are now investigating the spill. Divers in the oil-covered waters off the south-east coast of Mauritius try to contain the oil using a boom - a physical barrier or either metal or plastic The NDC Germany chapter has learned with shock and utter dismay the threat on the life of Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, our National Communications Officer by Mr. Kennedy Agyepong. What is more disturbing is his open declaration that he can silence Mr. Sammy Gyamfi within three minutes. Fellow Ghanaians, on an ordinary day, such loose talks could have been ignored but coming from a sitting member of Ghanas internationally respected Parliament and on the heels of the mystery and brutal murder of Mr. Ahmed Suale through similar actions and the questionable murder of a sitting member of parliament, Hon. J.B Daquah in an unexplainable manner, NDC Germany has no choice but to condemn the unguarded threats declared on the life of Mr Sammy Gyamfi. Though Mr. Kennedy Agyapong is unchallenged and supreme when it comes to verbal abuse to many Ghanaians and institutions, we are calling on the Christian Council, the Civil Society Organizations, the Catholic Bishops Conference, the security services: Police, and the Military to call him to order and condemn his actions. Lets not wait till what happened to the likes of Mr. Ahmed Suale and Hon. J.B Daquah to repeat itself before we act. If Parliament is indeed a revered house governed by standing orders regulating the behavior of its members, we call on the speaker of Parliament to bring Mr. Kennedy Agyapong to order. Mr. Sammy Gyamfi has not made any personal statement that warrants such threats on his life. Mr. Kennedy Agyapong as Member of Parliament should know better and act appropriately should any statement made by Mr. Sammy Gyamfi constituted a threat to public peace. From today onwards should anything untoward happen to Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, Mr. Kennedy Agyapong should be held accountable. We in the NDC shall ensure that the country will be too small to contain him. Long live NDC Germany Chapter Together we shall win. Desire Aliebakaa (Germany Chapter Secretary) By PTI NEW DELHI: Opposing a CBI probe in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, the Mumbai police told the Supreme Court on Saturday that it was carrying out an impartial investigation in the matter and alleged that that the registration of an FIR by Bihar Police was "politically motivated" and violated the principle of federalism. The 34-year-old Bollywood actor was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14. In an affidavit filed before the top court, in response to a petition by Rhea Chakraborty seeking transfer of an FIR lodged against her by the Bihar police to Mumbai, the Mumbai police said the CBI should have waited for the apex court decision in the matter before registering the case. The affidavit filed by police inspector posted at Bandra Police Station said that Bihar Police did not have the jurisdiction to investigate the FIR or examine witnesses and said the question of cooperation by the Mumbai Police into the simultaneous inquiry by the Bihar Police did not arise. It alleged that that the registration of FIR in Patna by Bihar Police was "politically motivated and violated the principles of federalism enshrined in the Constitution". The Mumbai police said that the Bihar police could only have registered a 'Zero FIR (crime not falling in its jurisdiction) and sent it to Mumbai and did not have the legal authority to transfer it to the CBI. "Pending the present proceedings the CBI ought not have gone ahead and registered the case with it as also constituted a team for conducting the investigation therein. "It ought to have awaited the final decision of the present proceedings at the hands of the Supreme Court," the Mumbai police said. It said that the "indecent haste with which the CBI has proceeded in this regard speaks for itself, regarding the bonafides of all involved in this exercise." "Neither the judicial jurisdiction lay in the state of Bihar nor the investigative jurisdiction lay with the Bihar Police, in so far as the unfortunate death in issue is concerned. Neither any cause nor any consequence, relating to the said unfortunate death, as spelt out by law, has even remotely occurred in the state of Bihar, much less at the place where the said FIR is registered," it said. The police also denied that quarantining of IPS officer Vinay Tiwary was aimed at obstructing the investigation by the Bihar Police. "The protocols for passengers arriving at Mumbai airport issued by the Government of Maharashtra require that domestic passengers who arrive at Mumbai airport, are required to undergo 14 days home quarantine, the only exception being that domestic passengers who intend to exit Mumbai within seven days of arrival, provided they are able to produce confirmed ticket for onward/return journey," it said. The police said that an investigation by two different state police into the same incident, which has occurred within one state, will lead to a chaotic situation as the investigation of one state police may interfere with the investigation of another state police. Rajput's father told the Supreme Court on Saturday that actress Rhea Chakraborty's plea for transfer of the FIR, in which she has been accused of abetting his son's suicide, from Patna to Mumbai is now "infructuous" after the CBI took over the case. ALSO READ | Ankita Lokhande posts pic of Sushant Singh Rajput's mother: Believe you both are together In his elaborate 27-page response affidavit, Rajput's father Krishna Kishore Singh opposed Rhea's plea and noted that the actress had once tweeted urging Union Home Minister Amit Shah to order a CBI probe in the case. Rhea has sought transfer of the FIR, filed on a complaint by Rajput's father accusing her of abetting his suicide, from Patna to Mumbai on the grounds of jurisdiction. The top court had on August 5 sought responses from Bihar, Maharashtra and the father of the late actor, on her plea. "The investigation in the FIR has already been transferred to the CBI and thus the present prayer (of Rhea) now stands infructuous and secondly, the prayer is also not maintainable since there is not a case said to be pending which could be transferred under S. 406 CrPC," said the affidavit filed through senior advocate Vikas Singh. He also accused the Mumbai police of negligence. Rajput's father said Mumbai Police has not filed any case after the death of his son and did not allow the Patna Police to investigate by quarantining their senior officers. "The Respondent No.2 (Rajput's father) on February 19 and 25, informed the Mumbai police about his apprehension regarding the threat to the life of his son, however, no action was taken by the Police, which resulted in the death of his son," it said. Rhea had requested the Home Minister for a CBI inquiry and "now since the Bihar government has entrusted the aforesaid FIR to the CBI and Union of India has accepted the said request , the Petitioner (Rhea) should not have any grievance in this regard," said the affidavit also filed through lawyer Nitin Saluja. Singh also came down heavily on the Maharashtra government for attacking him by alleging that the present case was a "political attempt to thwart their powers and undermine the federal structure of the Constitution". "It is rather unfortunate that the Respondent No.3 (state) has undermined the feelings of a father who lives in Patna and who has sufficient proof and belief that it is due to the petitioners (Rhea and others) continued criminal actions for over a period of one year that has caused the death of his only son," it said. ALSO READ | Rhea Chakraborty reveals 'only property of Sushant that I possess' Singh cited the legal arguments used by the Bihar government, represented by lawyer Keshav Mohan, and said that he was a class-I heir of Rajput, living in Patna, and hence Bihar police rightly registered the FIR. Moreover, the Mumbai police has not registered any FIR so far in the matter. "It is noteworthy that no case has been registered by Respondent No.3 (Maharashtra) and they did not allow the Patna Police to investigate the present case by quarantining their senior officers." "It is pertinent to mention that as per the Guidelines of Quarantine in Mumbai dated May 25, a person who arrives in Mumbai for a contribution of work to the office can be exempted from undergoing Quarantine by the municipal body," it said. Earlier, the Centre on Friday had moved the Supreme Court seeking to be made a party to actress Rhea Chakraborty's plea for transferring the FIR from Patna to Mumbai. On July 25, Rajput's father had lodged the complaint at Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna against Chakraborty and six others, including her family members, accusing them of abetting the actor's suicide. The FIR has been registered against her and others at Patna for alleged offences under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 306 (abetment of suicide), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 380 (theft in dwelling house), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property). In her plea filed in the apex court, Chakraborty has alleged that Rajput's father has used his "influence" in roping her in the FIR. Local Labour TD Ged Nash has expressed disappointment that there are no plans for the IDA to build advance faciltities in Drogheda. Tanaiste Leo Varadkar confirmed the news to Deputy Nash, who says 'this is a case of 'meet the new government - same as the old government'. 'Drogheda will never realise its full potential as a location for the quality foreign direct investment jobs we know we can attract unless government takes the bull by the horns and invests in the property solutions we need,' said Deputy Nash.'Leaving it to the private sector to develop advance units is a nonsense. Now that the business park on the Donore Road will be at capacity with the Amazon development, Drogheda will have no designated IDA owned space to accommodate investment.' Amazon Data intends to set up a state-of -the-art data storage facility at the IDA Business and Technology Park, Donore Road, creating up to 50 jobs in the process as well as 400 during the set up process. The development will stretch to over 19 hectares and depending on the planning application, the target date for commencement of construction of the first building is in the second quarter of this year, with full operation expected by mid 2023. The last major investment in the town before that was Silicon Valley giants Yapstone, who announced an additional 200 jobs in 2017 to their plant which they established in Drogheda five years before. Mobile Technologies Inc. (MTI) was to have employed 150 people in the offices they opened in Magalene Street in 2017, but that failed to get off the ground. In 2018, the Mill Enterprise Centre was chosen to house the launch of the national 'Project Ireland 2040 Investing in Business, Enterprise and Innovation 2018 - 2027 report', and it had been hoped it was the ideal opportunity to outline how Drogheda would benefit in financial terms. However, Heather Humphreys TD didn't have a figure for how much investment Drogheda might receive in the National Development Plan, whether the toll into Drogheda could be removed or what IDA investment is planned for the region. 'The designation of Drogheda as a 'development centre' under the new Ireland 2040 development plan is utterly meaningless if it is not followed by State-led investment and jobs,' added the Labour representative.'I have contacted the IDA to seek a meeting with its property director to again make the case for the development of Agency-owned office space and a new business park for Drogheda.' A four-year-old boy has been rushed to hospital after a motorcycle crashed through a barrier at a Sydney race meeting, injuring him and three others. Paramedics were called to Sydney Motorsport Park at Eastern Creek around 10am on Saturday, where they treated the boy for head injuries before taking him to hospital in a stable condition. His mother, father and five-year-old brother also suffered minor injuries. Ambulance officers also took the five-year-old boy and his mother to hospital. The Alaska Division of Forestry is in the process of using state-of-the-art Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to update geographic data of the region. GIS involves the use of computers to overlay datasets and images of an area to better understand its composition. For the Division of Forestry, the composition of a forest influences the types of activities that can occur there, such as timber harvest and road construction. Last year, the division contracted with the Alaska Division of Geographical and Geophysical Surveys to collect detailed topographic information to create a 3-D model of an area between Mosquito Lake and town, bounded by the Takhin and Takshanuk ridges. The project involved use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, which uses lasers to measure distances. The area was selected because it includes forest lands with proposed management activities in the current Haines State Forest five-year management plan, forester Greg Palmieri said. This year, the Division of Forestry has contracted Quantum Spatial, a company that collects and analyzes geospatial data for use in resource management, to take high-resolution, low-altitude images of the same area. In recent weeks, an employee of DOWL, the company hired by Quantum Spatial to collect the aerial images, has been reaching out to residents in the area to place ground control points, markers to improve the accuracy of the final data by serving as reference points when the images are stitched together. The high-resolution images will allow the division to get to know the ground within a foot of accuracy, Palmieri said. And they are multispectral, meaning they capture a broader range of light than is visible to the naked eye. The Division of Forestry can use the near-infrared light captured to distinguish between live and dead trees. The LiDAR data and aerial images can be analyzed separately or in conjunction using GIS. We put those two things togethervery detailed images and 3-D modelingto do different types of resource analysis from steepness of slope to hydrology analysis, Palmieri said. This data has become the standard for resource management work. Together, the LiDAR 3-D modeling and the multispectral images will allow division employees to understand the composition of large areas of forest to a degree of precision that was previously only possible on a small scale, after hours of field data collection. I could determine a particular tree height if I wanted to, Palmieri said. It allows one individual to do pertinent analysis on their own to develop things that would have taken eight to twelve people before. New applications for GIS in relation to resource management are still being discovered, Palmieri said, but at present, it hasnt replaced fieldwork. Some people are arguing that it will, but were not there yet, he said. Before GIS, aerial photos were the prevailing technology for large-scale forest analysis. The most recent division of forestry images of the area were taken in 1998 using analog cameras. Palmieri said the division didnt have funding available to image the entire forest this time, so they selected the smaller area running between Mosquito Lake and town. In total, the multispectral imagery taken this year will cost the state roughly $136,000. The funding comes from capital project dollars set aside for this purpose some time ago, according to Palmieri. He said he expects the project will be completed by the end of September. Irked over no water supply for over 45 days, residents of Rajiv Gandhi colony in ward number 23 staged a protest against the municipal corporation (MC) and area councilor Sandeep Kumari on Saturday. Residents said the tubewell installed in their area developed a snag, but the MC has failed to repair/reinstall the same. Two of the protesters, Rajesh Kumar and Sohan Lal, said, The area has had no water supply for the last 45 days and we are getting water from tanks. Despite complaints submitted with the councillor and MC officials, our problem has not been addressed. We are struggling to make ends meet in the scorching heat, but authorities are not paying heed to the issue. Residents said the required number of water tanks are also not supplied in the area and they have to carry water in buckets to their houses with difficulty. While MC superintending engineer Rajinder Singh said the civic body is working on the tendering process for a new tubewell, area councillor Sandeep Kumari said, I, along with residents of the area, will take up the matter in front of mayor Balkar Sandhu. "We hope Kanye West gets the help he needs on a personal level," said Sean Tenner, one of the objectors from Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. "But insulting and lying about Harriet Tubman, one of America's greatest abolitionists who frequently risked her life so others could be free, is simply unacceptable from a presidential candidate. We've had enough divisive rhetoric like that in the past four years." The joint objection was filed by Reverend Mitchell Johnson of South Holland, Sean Tenner of Chicago's Uptown Neighborhood, Denise Bradley of the Englewood neighborhood, Charles Morris of the South Shore neighborhood and Steve Spagnolo of the Albany Park neighborhood. All have been active in causes and organizations related to education about civil rights and the history of slavery. Johnson and Tenner host a program on WVON, Chicago's most popular African-American radio station. With his failure to get on the ballot in Illinois, it is now mathematically impossible for West to be elected President even if he won every single state where he could still get on the ballot. The ballot access deadline has passed in 21 states and DC which together hold 246 electoral votes. With his withdrawal from New Jersey (14) and eventual removal from Illinois (20) there is no path to the required 270 electoral votes. "We need more education about Harriet Tubman's legacy in this country not mistruths about her," said Reverend Johnson. "We were saddened that West disrespected her legacy and then disrespected the laws of our state in a doomed effort to get on the ballot." The Objectors were represented by attorney Ed Mullen. "West fell far short of the legal requirements to appear on the ballot in Illinois," Mullen noted. "A federal court reduced the standard signature requirement from 25,000 to 2,500 because of the COVID pandemic, and West was unable to even surpass this dramatically lower threshold. West's lack of valid petition signatures is a sign of a disorganized and not ready for prime-time campaign." For more information contact: Sean Tenner (312) 576-8822 [email protected] SOURCE Mullen Law Firm A 23-year-old former Miss India contestant who recently shot to fame after her success in the 2019 Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam has filed a complaint with the Colaba police station in the city after it emerged that there were 20 fake Instagram accounts in her name. The photo-sharing platform had several accounts sharing her pictures without her consent. The woman, who had won several beauty pageants in the past, has never created any account on Instagram, say police. Aishwarya Sheoran has been living with her father in the Army Officers Colony in Colaba since 2017. Colonel Ajaykumar Sheoran, her father, has been posted in Karimnagar, Telangana. Sheoran secured 93rd rank in the UPSC exams in 2019 and was also finalist for Femina Miss India 2016. Its not a serious issue as of now, but could be misused in future, Sheoran told HT. Sheoran, in her complaint to the police, said that on August 5 while she was speaking to a newspaper for an interview, the journalist asked her which one is her official account on the popular app as there are too many of them in her name. She told the journalist that she has no account on Instagram. Later, she asked her brother to check if there are such accounts in her name. They were shocked to discover 20 fake accounts in her name. Many accounts claimed to be her official account. One of the Instagram accounts has over 27,000 followers. We dont know how the accused may misuse these 20 fake accounts. He may misuse my sisters name and photos for illegal monetary gain, hence we decided to report the matter to the police, said Aman, Sheorans brother. The FIR was registered on Thursday. The accused person has created Instagram accounts using her photos without her permission. We have registered a case of identity theft and have begun investigation. These fake accounts would be pulled down with the assistance from the service provider and we would trace the person who had created these accounts, said Shivaji Fadtare, senior inspector of Colaba police station. The police have registered a complaint under section 66C (identify theft) of the Information Technology Act. The accused might have misused the complainants photo as she is a popular face and has an inspiring success story. The accused may have done this in order to attract more followers on Instagram, added another police officer. Jack said Friday that he sent the email to the city as a private citizen, not in his capacity as chairman of the Tulsa County Republican Party. And he acknowledged that the request was somewhat rhetorical. The longtime builder said he is well aware of the citys regulations regarding painting signs on the street. You dont paint graffiti on public spaces, he said. There is a graffiti law in the city of Tulsa. He said the only proper way to resolve the controversy is to remove the Black Lives Matter sign. Its got to go away, and it needs to be put on private property Jack said. We cant go down the road of allowing this to happen in the city of Tulsa, otherwise; just like the attorney said, If we do it for one, we have got to do it for all, and that is just going to get out of control. Thats a can of worms I dont think we want to open under not circumstances. Jack said there remains an interest among some people hes spoken with to find a place for a Back the Blue sign. Kerala plane crash: State govt announces Rs 10 lakh compensation to kin of crash victims India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P Kozhikode, Aug 08: The Kerala government on Saturday announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to the families of those who died when an ill-fated Air India Express flight veered off the runway while attempting to land at the Karipur international airport. Kerala plane crash: All helpline numbers | Contact for information | Oneindia News At least 19 people have lost their lives and 149 are under treatment at various hospitals of Malappuram and Kozhikode districts, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the media after a high-level meeting held at the district in which state Governor Arif Mohammed Khan also participated. Kerala plane crash: DGCA says it had issued notice to Kozhikode airport over safety lapses "The state government has decided to provide a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of those who have lost their lives. The medical expenses of those under treatment will be taken over by the state government," Vijayan told the reporters. The CM also said out of the 19 who died, 15 are adults and four are children. "Out of the 15 adults, seven are male and others female. Currently, 149 people are in various hospitals of Malappuram and Kozhikode, out of which 23 are in critical condition. Earlier, 23 were discharged after being provided initial medical assistance," Vijayan said. Kerala plane crash: AI Express says three relief flights arranged to assist passengers, families Meanwhile, Families of the deceased pilots of the Air India Express plane that crashed have been escorted to Kozhikode, the airline said on Saturday. The family of deceased pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe has been duly escorted from Mumbai to Kozhikode, Kerala, it said in a statement. The family was escorted to the hospital where Sathe's mortal remains were kept for post-mortem, it added. The airline said the family of deceased co-pilot Captain Akhilesh Kumar had already been escorted from Delhi to Kozhikode by its officials and the 'Angels of Air India', which is a special assistance team. At 7:40 pm on Friday, the Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport in Kerala in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two, killing at least 18 people. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 8, 2020, 15:08 [IST] After posting images of jammed and overcrowded school hallways with students not wearing face masks, at least two students from North Paulding High School are now currently facing suspension. The school's principal has also warned other students against the same act. The school located in Dallas, Ga, which is only an hour away from Atlanta. Last week, the school gained popularity after pictures and videos of the crowded hallways as the school re-opened became viral on social media. The images were of a sea of high schoolers walking to and fro a hallway without any facial coverings. It then raised concerns online, as netizens voiced out and called out the way the reopening of schools is being handled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, Brian Ottot, Schools Superintendent of Paulding County, sent letters to the parents that while the images did not look good, they lacked the context of what is really happening inside the school with a 2000-student population. He also added that masks were a "personal choice" and not mandatory. In a report by BuzzFeed News, 15-year-old Hannah Watters who captured the scenario inside the school received a five-day suspension after reportedly violating the students' code of conduct of the district. Based on the code of conduct, students are not allowed to use recording devices without permission from an administrator or use social media during the day. Read also: 17 Dead, Dozens Injured as Plane Carrying COVID-19 Repatriates Crashes in Southern India In an interview with the outlet, Watters said that the schools opened while it is not safe. She also called out the county not following guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by not making precautionary measures mandatory. Moreover, Watters said that while she understands that she has violated the code of conduct, she thinks the punishment given to her was overly harsh. Aside from Watters, another student, who wanted to remain anonymous said that he was also given disciplinary action for doing the same thing. Last Wednesday, in an audio that was obtained by CBS 46, the school's principal Gabe Carmona issued a warning to students not to follow Watters and the other students or they will be facing consequences. Meanwhile, in the mailed letter that the superintendent sent out to the parents, it was specified that the district will be providing cloth masks and face shields to its staff. It was also added that action will be taken in order to reduce the crowding in hallways. He also added that wearing masks and social distancing is highly encouraged in the school. However, he also indicated that there could be challenges to enforce this, especially in classrooms and school buses. In addition, he also stated that they will be reviewing the discipline matters that have happened this week after the photos went viral. He also emphasized that he wanted to ensure the community that the issues that have sparked in the past week will be addressed accordingly, The Washington Post reported. Meanwhile, the school's principal is yet to give his comments on the matters. Related article:Asymptomatic COVID-19 Patients Just as Virulent as Those Exhibiting Symptoms, Study Suggests @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Kerala faced one of the biggest tragedies on Friday night after an Air India Express plane split into two after sliding off the runaway. The plane crash has resulted in the death of 19 passengers, including both the pilots. The incident has brought grief to several celebs, including the Mollywood stars. Offering their condolences and prayers, the actors have expressed their sorrow over the unfortunate occurrence. Mammootty's son, actor Dulquer Salmaan tweeted, "Praying for the safety of everyone who was on #AirIndiaExpress! Really frightening news all around." Praying for the safety of everyone who was on #AirIndiaExpress ! Really frightening news all around. dulquer salmaan (@dulQuer) August 7, 2020 Actor Prithviraj Sukumaran shared special prayers for the Air India pilot who lost his life in the accident. Sharing a picture of him, the actor wrote, "Rest in peace Wing Cdr (Retd) Sathe. Had the privilege of knowing him personally. Will cherish our conversation sir." Rest in peace Wing Cdr (Retd) Sathe. Had the privilege of knowing him personally. Will cherish our conversation sir. pic.twitter.com/JhUkxvzseQ Prithviraj Sukumaran (@PrithviOfficial) August 7, 2020 Expressing his shock and disbelief over the incident, actor Neeraj Madhav shared, "These are unlikely times, Munnar landslide yesterday & today karipur plane crash. Remembering everyone who lost their lives in the recent tragedies. We as a community need to stand together forgetting all the dirty politics and polarisations that are happening around us. Lets try to stay hopeful, lets be there for each other. This too shall pass." Actress Aishwarya Lekshmi shared the helpline number, writing, "My heart goes out to everyone who was on board that flight and all the relatives who were waiting for their return. I pray to God that we all have the much needed mental strength to get through these terrible times. Lets not forget to be there for each other, now more than ever." Here are some more tweets: Several other members of the film fraternity shared helpline numbers on their social media pages. By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN (Reuters) - Northern Ireland on Friday launched the United Kingdom's first COVID-19 tracing app, and the first one that can also trace users in another country, Ireland, who have been in contact with someone suffering from the disease. The developer NearForm, which hopes the app will become a blueprint eventually synching up all of Europe, launched a similar app in Ireland on July 8, and cases can now be traced across the island's open border by two separate health services. NearForm's technical director Colm Harte said the technical approach it used in developing StopCovid NI would work with apps across the rest of the UK and that it could apply across Europe if countries agree how to share and store data. Scotland's devolved government announced on Friday that its tracing app is in development using the same software as Ireland's and is also being built by NearForm. It is due to be available in the autumn. "It's definitely doable, it's technically very doable because more and more countries are switching across to the Apple and Google API's (application programming interface)," Harte told Reuters in a telephone interview. "I think it will happen. I don't know when but countries across Europe are aware that there's more people starting to travel now, this is a problem that's going to have to be solved." DOZENS OF USERS ALERTED Britain moved to the same Apple and Google model last month when it ditched a homegrown model initially due in May. NearForm, based in the seaside town of Tramore in southern Ireland, is building Pennsylvania's contact tracing app and is in discussions with other states and governments after the successful Irish launch, Harte said. Almost 1.5 million people, or 37% of the Irish Republic's population over the age of 15, have downloaded the Irish app since July 8 and 137 users have been alerted via the app that they have been in close contact with a confirmed case. Story continues Ireland has had one of the lowest infection rates in Europe in recent weeks with an average of around 20 per day until a spike on Thursday. Northern Ireland has a similarly low rate with no related deaths reported since July 12. NearForm's Harte said that if either app can break even a handful of transmission chains, it will be a success. "You can get into conversations about how many it needs to break before it's considered really successful, but its goal is to break transmission chains. As soon as it's doing that, it's having an impact," he said. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Gareth Jones and Andrew Cawthorne) Stockholm, Aug 8 : Gun violence has been on the rise in Sweden in recent years, according to researchers. According to Swedish police statistics, 42 people were killed and 120 wounded in 334 reported shootings in 2019, Xinhua news agency reported. In the first half of this year, 20 people have been killed and 56 wounded in 163 shootings. "We see an increase in murders and attempted murders in criminal environment in Stockholm," Joakim Sturup, researcher and analyst with Stockholm Police, said on Friday. Sturup has investigated murders and attempted murders in Stockholm during the period from 2011 to 2018, when cases where automatic weapons were used had increased by 50 per cent. "During the same period, we also see an increase in empty cartridge cases left at the crime scene. On average, there were six in 2011 and up to twelve in 2018, so it is doubled," said Sturup. Damage from the violence has also increased. "We also see an escalation in the severity of the violence. In 2011, there were four injuries per victim. In 2018 it rose to eleven gunshot wounds. "We are now analyzing the figures for 2019 and 2020 so far, and the preliminary figures show that the trend with automatic weapons continues," said Sturup. In addition to increased violence, more people have been dragged in as collateral damage. On Sunday, a 12-year-old girl was killed after being hit by a stray bullet in a gang shooting at a petrol station car park in Norsborg, south of Stockholm. "The risk naturally increases for the public when automatic weapons are involved... There are more and more showdowns in public places," said Sturup. Criminologist Mikael Rying at the National Operations Department of the Police said that that at least 10 people have died by accident in shootings in the last decade. Despite police tightening surveillance and toughening sentences for drugs- and weapons-related crimes recently, bombings, shootings and gang-related crimes in Sweden have not decreased. Russia boasts that its about to become the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, with mass vaccinations planned as early as October using shots that are yet to complete clinical trials -- and scientists worldwide are sounding the alarm that the headlong rush could backfire. Moscow sees a Sputnik-like propaganda victory, recalling the Soviet Unions launch of the worlds first satellite in 1957. But the experimental COVID-19 shots began first-in-human testing on a few dozen people less than two months ago, and theres no published scientific evidence yet backing Russias late entry to the global vaccine race, much less explaining why it should be considered a front-runner. Im worried that Russia is cutting corners so that the vaccine that will come out may be not just ineffective, but also unsafe, said Lawrence Gostin, a global public health law expert at Georgetown University. It doesnt work that way. ... Trials come first. Thats really important. According to Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russias Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the effort, a vaccine developed by the Gamaleya research institute in Moscow may be approved in days, before scientists complete whats called a Phase 3 study. That final-stage study, usually involving tens of thousands of people, is the only way to prove if an experimental vaccine is safe and really works. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said members of risk groups, such as medical workers, may be offered the vaccine this month. He didn't clarify whether they would be part of the Phase 3 study that is said to be completed after the vaccine receives conditional approval. 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 Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova promised to start industrial production in September, and Murashko said mass vaccination may begin as early as October. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease specialist, questioned the fast-track approach last week. I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing a vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone, because claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you do testing I think is problematic at best," he said. Questions about this vaccine candidate come after the U.S., Britain and Canada last month accused Russia of using hackers to steal vaccine research from Western labs. Delivering a vaccine first is a matter of national prestige for the Kremlin as it tries to assert the image of Russia as a global power capable of competing with the US and China. The notion of being the first in the world dominated state news coverage of the effort, with government officials praising reports of the first-step testing. In April, President Vladimir Putin ordered state officials to shorten the time of clinical trials for a variety of drugs, including potential coronavirus vaccines. According to Russias Association of Clinical Trials Organizations, the order set an unattainable bar for scientists who, as a result, "joined in on the mad race, hoping to please those at power. The association first raised concern in late May, when professor Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya institute, said he and other researchers tried the vaccine on themselves. The move was a crude violation of the very foundations of clinical research, Russian law and universally accepted international regulations" the group said in an open letter to the government, urging scientists and health officials to adhere to clinical research standards. But a month later, the Health Ministry authorized clinical trials of the Gamaleya product, with what appeared to be another ethical issue. Human studies started June 17 among 76 volunteers. Half were injected with a vaccine in liquid form and the other half with a vaccine that came as soluble powder. Some in the first half were recruited from the military, which raised concerns that servicemen may have been pressured to participate. Some experts said their desire to perform well would affect the findings. Its no coincidence media reports we see about the trials among the military said no one had any side effects, while the (other group) reported some," said Vasily Vlassov, a public health expert with Moscows Higher School of Economics. As the trials were declared completed and looming regulatory approval was announced last week, questions arose about the vaccine's safety and effectiveness. Government assurances the drug produced the desired immune response and caused no significant side effects were hardly convincing without published scientific data describing the findings. The World Health Organization said all vaccine candidates should go through full stages of testing before being rolled out. There are established practices and there are guidelines out, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said Tuesday. Between finding or having a clue of maybe having a vaccine that works, and having gone through all the stages, is a big difference. Offering an unsafe compound to medical workers on the front lines of the outbreak could make things worse, Georgetown's Gostin said, adding: What if the vaccine started killing them or making them very ill? Vaccines that are not properly tested can cause harm in many ways from a negative impact on health to creating a false sense of security or undermining trust in vaccinations, said Thomas Bollyky, director of the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations. It takes several years to develop any drug, said Svetlana Zavidova, executive director of Russias Association of Clinical Trials Organizations. Selling something the Gamaleya (institute) tested on 76 volunteers during Phase 1-2 trials as a finished product is just not serious. Russia has not yet published any scientific data from its first clinical trials. The WHOs list of vaccine candidates in human testing still lists the Gamaleya product as in Phase 1 trials. It uses a different virus -- the common cold-causing adenovirus -- thats been modified to carry genes for the spike protein that coats the coronavirus, as a way to prime the body to recognize if a real COVID-19 infection comes along. Thats similar to vaccines being developed by Chinas CanSino Biologics and Britains Oxford University and AstraZeneca. It's not the first controversial vaccine Russia developed. Putin mentioned earlier this year that Russian scientists delivered an Ebola vaccine that proved to be the most effective in the world and made a real contribution to fighting the Ebola fever in Africa. Russias Health Ministry authorized two Ebola vaccines for domestic use -- one in 2015 and another one in 2018 -- but there is little evidence either was widely used in Africa. In 2019, the WHO considered the 2015 vaccine along with several others for use in Congo, but didnt pick it. It pointed out that it had been approved for emergency use after Phase 1 and 2 trials, but not Phase 3. According to ClinicalTrials.Gov, a website maintained by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, a study among 2,000 people in Guinea and Russia was still ongoing last month. The 2018 Ebola vaccine, according to the WHO, was tested on 300 volunteers in Russia and completed all three phases. The Associated Press couldn't find any records of the studies in the Health Ministry's registry of approved clinical trials. As of 2019, both Ebola vaccines were listed by the WHO as candidate vaccines. Russias Health Ministry did not respond to numerous requests for comment, and the Gamaleya institute referred an interview request to the ministry. It remains unclear whether Phase 3 trials, said to be carried out after the COVID-19 vaccine receives conditional approval, will wrap up by October, when health officials plan to start mass vaccinations, and how trustworthy the results will be. The study will supposedly involve 1,600 participants 800 for each of the two forms of the vaccine; in comparison, a similar Phase 3 trial in the U.S. includes 30,000 people. According to Dmitriev, countries including Brazil and India have expressed interest in the vaccine. For Lawrence Gostin, this is another cause for concern. There may be many people in the world who dont care about the ethics and just want the vaccine, he said. They look like any other healthy mother and son enjoying a sunny day in the park. But Alexe Deane and three-year-old Khari have overcome extraordinary odds to be here today. Both have survived life-saving organ transplants a heart for the mother and liver for the boy while Miss Deane has also battled against lymphoma cancer and endured multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. They look like any other healthy mother and son enjoying a sunny day in the park. But Alexe Deane and three-year-old Khari have overcome extraordinary odds to be here today Now the miracle pair are a picture of health and living life to the full. Miss Deane, 25, said: The chances of us both needing a transplant, then me developing this extremely rare cancer... the odds were impossible. Its a miracle that we got through everything. Subconsciously, I have tried to block it out. But when I look through pictures or videos I do have to sit and think, how did we go through all of that? Their ordeal began soon after Miss Deane then a student nurse needed an emergency caesarean section to deliver Khari in 2017. She woke up in a cardiac ward to be told she had an undiagnosed heart defect and urgently needed a transplant. Four months on, a donor was luckily found and she had a successful operation. But the following year Khari, who was born with jaundice, fell sick and had to have his gall bladder removed before it was discovered he needed a liver transplant. The mother was also hit with another blow when she found a lump in her neck, which turned out to be a rare aggressive form of lymphoma associated with transplant patients. I was in total shock, she said. Id gone through a hard birth, a heart transplant, my sons operation and learning he needed a transplant, and now I was facing eight rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Their ordeal began soon after Miss Deane then a student nurse needed an emergency caesarean section to deliver Khari in 2017. She woke up in a cardiac ward to be told she had an undiagnosed heart defect and urgently needed a transplant It was heart-breaking. But I knew I had to carry on. She started chemotherapy in March 2018 and in August Khari, then one, had a liver transplant at Londons Kings College Hospital. Miss Deane, from Brixton, south London, said she is eternally grateful to the donors who gave her and partner Keelan Blackwood, 27, the chance to see their son grow up. Im so thankful, you cant put a price on being able to see your child grow up. Its priceless and theyve given me that chance to do that, she said. It makes me so happy to see him healthy. Thats all Ive wanted since the day he was born. Hes great, just amazing, smart, caring and loving everything I could ask for in a little boy. Miss Deane has now enrolled on a public health course and is campaigning for Cancer Research UK after the charitys setbacks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Plainview Rotarians got together for their weekly Zoom meeting this past Tuesday. The program was presented by Sgt. Johnny Bures with the Texas Department of Public Safety office in Lubbock. Sgt. Bures gave a brief history of the Department and then pointed out that it does more than just patrol the States highways. Bures explained that the seeds for the department were laid with the formation of Texas Rangers in the 1820s. Then a century later the licensing and weight inspections department was developed to help protect the States deteriorating roads. Finally, in the mid-1930s the Texas Senate proposed creating the Department of Public Safety. Bures went on to explain that within that organization is the drivers license department, communications department (complete with mobile units that can set up to help with natural disasters), a crime lab and motor vehicle inspections. Members of the DPS can be found patrolling in the familiar black and whites, working on motorcycle, horseback, in boats and from helicopters. They have spent time patrolling and protecting the border and currently are working in Austin to protect the State Capitol and in San Antonio to protect the Alamo. Bures said that while much of the departments time is spent in police work, there is an emphasis on working in the communities of Texas, particularly through the Reading with a Trooper, program. Through that, he said, troopers are able to work with children and help them understand that law enforcement personnel are there to help, not just arrest. Following the program, the club dismissed and looked to the community for ways to show Service Above Self. A South Hadley man fired a shot at police as he barricaded himself in his Upper River Road home Friday afternoon. Stephen Dudzik was taken into custody at his Upper River Road home after about two hours. South Hadley Police Chief Jennifer Gundersen said in a release that 54-year-old Dudzik was found inside his home at about 5:35 p.m. Friday when police responded to a call reporting an armed and barricaded man. With the aid of Chicopee police and Massachusetts State Police troopers, officers surrounded the house and opened communications with the suspect. At one point Dudzik fired a rifle through a window in the direction of South Hadley officers but no one was injured. Police did not return fire. After approximately two hours of negotiations, Dudzik agreed to surrender and was taken into custody. He faces charges of assault with the intent to murder with a firearm, assault by means of a deadly weapon - a firearm, unlawful discharge of a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, unlicensed possession of a firearm and ammunition. Dudzik is being held without the right to bail pending arraignment in Eastern Hampshire District Court Monday. Some youth on Saturday protested what they called the unabated killings in the southern part of Kaduna State, a development they described as very unfortunate considering the presence of security personnel in the area. Nasiru Jagaba, the National Youth Leader, Middle Belt Forum, who led the protest along NNPC Junction, Kachia road, Kaduna, alleged a conspiracy in the ongoing killings. Mr Jagaba, the immediate past Youth Leader, Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the people were being killed even with the presence of security personnel deployed to maintain peace in the area. He said, We are here today to bring to public knowledge the ongoing killings in the southern part of Kaduna State. We want the public and the internal community to know the systematic attacks on southern Kaduna communities in spite of the curfew imposed in the area by the state government. There were (a) series of attacks in recent times with a huge number of deaths being recorded, but up to now there has not been any arrest. Only the victims are being arrested instead of the attackers, who find their way into the area and carry out their barbaric acts unchallenged. Mr Jagaba advised the government to take decisive steps to stop the killings to prevent a situation that could lead to total breakdown of law and order. READ ALSO: He dismissed reports making the rounds about the killings being reprisal, alleging that the attackers were mercenaries hired to cause trouble in the area. The government had imposed curfew in the areas under attack, thereby preventing people from going to their farms and keeping them in their houses only for the attackers to return and continue killing people freely unchallenged. Youth in Southern Kaduna protesting the killings Currently our farms have become empty while we were locked in our houses in the name of curfew. Where is the justice?, he said. NAN reports that the protest barely began when security personnel, led by the Divisional Police Officer, Sabon Tasha, Paul Timbushi swarmed the area to prevent the protesting youths from proceeding with the demonstration as planned. The heavily armed security personnel, who arrived in no fewer than 15 vehicles, stormed the area and began to confiscate placards from the protesters in a bid to stop the protest. A NAN correspondent, who was at the scene of the protest, reports that three of the protesting youths were arrested, but were later released on the agreement that the protest would be discontinued once they were released. Youth in Southern Kaduna protesting the killings It took several hours before the protesters were dispersed while the security officials remained on ground to ensure that the youth did not reconvene. NAN attempted to get a response from the police, but a senior personnel, who did not want to be mentioned, said the security personnel were at the scene of the protest to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order. (NAN) Photo: Contributed Cherry and apple farms are desperate for workers in the Okanagan and Creston, so much so that farmers have no choice but to abandon crops. Worker shortages are the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on international travel and travel options within Canada. The BC Ministry of Agriculture along with the tree fruit industry are now asking local workers for help in harvesting, to reduce food waste. In an effort to connect local workers and farms, a new web portal called the 'Farm, Fish and Food Job Connector' has been launched by the Ministry of Agriculture. This portal has proven successful in the Fraser Valley. We want to ensure that Okanagan workers and farmers are making use of the Farm Fish and Food Job Locator, says Agriculture Minister Lana Popham. Local food is so important to food security and increased use of the portal will help growers get the crop harvested in this year of COVID-19 challenges. Cherry producers have reported that as a result of the labour shortages, they are running out of time to harvest a variety of cherries. For example, the harvest of one type of cherry will stop when the next variety begins to ripen, despite the first variety crop remaining unharvested in the first place. By August, late season cherry types are harvested in the Okanagan, Similkamee and Creston Valleys. Sunrise apple varieties start harvest next week in the South Okanagan and later in August in the North Okanagan. Late season apples including Gala, Ambrosia, McIntosh and Spartan are harvested between September and November. Tree fruit harvest is paid by piece-rate such as per bin or per pound. Minimum rates are established to give workers with good hand-eye coordination and physical capabilities the ability to achieve an income significantly higher than minimum wage. The harvest work is physical and rewarding, says Pinder Dhaliwal, president of the BCFGA. Practically, the work requires the ability to go up and down ladders and to lift weights of up to 30 pounds. Harvest work often starts early in the day to avoid the intense heat of the day." And new this year, COVID-19 safety training is required. A first step in retaining local workers is that the workers recognize before starting, the physical nature of the work, says Glen Lucas, general manager of the BC Fruit Growers Association. BCFGA staff can provide on-farm orientation to fruit harvesters before the work starts - this is proven to increase worker retention. Our BCFGA staff also provide information to ensure workers are aware of and following COVID-19 safety protocols. Those interested can contact the BCFGA labour manager Rob Forrest at 778-363-3620 to find jobs. At the end of the day, its a flag like any other well, thats one argument. But in the racialized post Black Lives Matter moment in which we exist, symbols matter. And the stars and bars Confederate flag a cultural signpost for racism and slavery since the American Civil War has become a divisive lightning rod even in bucolic, picturesque Cambridge, Ontario. Its a very visible symbol of hate, insists Marjorie Knight, community activist and former provincial NDP candidate. In this climate for somebody to fly that flag, its a pretty big statement. People feel harassed and intimidated, she says, because it glorifies the good old days when good old boys were in charge. It denies Black people our rights and our dignity. What it stands for is an idea that we dont matter, that were less than human. The challenge when writing about these events as a journalist is that you invariably end up dealing with two parties who, justly or not, feel equally wronged. The Cambridge homeowner also fears intimidation and harassment and insists that flying multiple Confederate flags on her property has nothing to do with slavery or racism, but her proud heritage as a Virginia native. Her ancestors died fighting for the American South, she says, defending their way of life. Hate crimes? White supremacy? Dont even bring them up. This is about a property dispute, she insists, with neighbours who are out to get them. It gets more complicated from here, with repeated police visits, a request to take down a flag she says had been flying without incident since 2005, brief compliance, inquiries to a lawyer and the sudden re-emergence of not one but five Confederate flags because, she insists, it turns out its not illegal and she doesnt like being bullied. It started out with one flag and now were at five, so (it) escalates, notes Cambridge city councillor Donna Reid, who was approached by concerned residents. The neighbourhood is starting to react to it. Its not technically a hate crime, concedes Knight. But its an assault. Its almost like violence to look upon it. You cant fly a symbol of hate and hurt people that way. To be clear, this is not a story with two equal sides, a trap journalists can fall into when reporting on contentious issues that pit one polarized group against another. Neo-Nazis dont need a public platform to espouse their socially malignant views about Jewish people. White supremacists dont need a platform to defend the practice of slavery or marginalization of racialized minorities. The antimask protesters holding a rally this weekend can promote hugs over masks to their hearts content, but when their cause flies in the face of what health experts deem the common good, theyre not entitled to equal time in the press. People can debate all they want about the value of history and legitimacy of differing perspectives, but at the end of the day we live in a society where social mores are respected, and the arc of progress, as has oft been said, bends toward justice. What really matters on issues where both sides are entrenched? Finding a way to move forward. We can shame him and name him and give his address, notes Knight, who supports none of those measures. But what does that achieve? Some people have no shame. It will make him dig in. The best way to deal with this is through council, to make it an enforceable situation a bylaw, legislation, something that says in our region you cant fly a symbol of hate and hurt people that way. It takes away the emotion of it all. Councillor Reid, who plans to bring up the issue at the regional and city level, says if Collingwood councillors can unanimously vote to ban symbols of hate and racial intolerance, it can happen here as well. I would like to have a complete ban on it within our region, she notes. If thats possible. If thats the big question. Given two public anti-racism town halls where regional chair Karen Redman insisted we are committed to action, you would think this would be a no-brainer. But then, of course, she also pointed out this is the beginning of a really long journey and will take time. When you ask for change and then say its gonna be a long process, well, some things dont need to be a long process, insists Knight, who spoke at the town hall of her own trauma as a Black person in the community. Heres where Waterloo Region has a chance to make a change. It doesnt have to be years down the road. It can be now. Reid agrees. If we dont have the power, lets find out how to get it. We know what this flag was designed for. Its a time in history we should take advantage of and say We do not want to have this in our region! Rajasthan is experiencing a jobs bonanza amid the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and the political uncertainty surrounding the ruling Congress government in the desert state, as Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has approved 7,624 government jobs in three departments in the last few days. The CM has also directed the officials to create posts for village development officer (VDO) and block development officer (BDO) for the 1,456 and 57 new gram panchayats and panchayat samitis, respectively. Sacked deputy CM Sachin Pilot, who is engaged in a bitter power tussle with CM Gehlot and enjoys the backing of 18 rebel Congress lawmakers, was handling the rural development ministry. Gehlot has approved 6,310 new hires in the health department and 988 and 326 in animal husbandry and police, respectively. The CM has cleared the proposal for the recruitment of 6,310 community health officers (CHOs) on a contractual basis at districts and block levels. Under the Ayushman Bharat Abhiyan, all health care institutions up to the level of sub-centre in the state will be made operational as health and wellness centres by 2022. Gehlot approved the creation of 400 new posts, including 200 each for livestock assistants and Jaldhari, at the new veterinary sub-centres to be opened in 2020-21. A livestock assistant and Jaldhari will be posted at each veterinary sub-centre. The CM also approved the additional budget provision of Rs 20.72 crore for strengthening of 294 sub-division offices in the state by creating 588 additional posts. The new posts of information assistant and junior assistant will be deputed at each sub-division office. The CM gave financial and administrative approval to the proposal to fill 326 vacant posts of Class IV employees in the police department through direct recruitment. The posts are approved for Rajasthan Armed Constabulary (RAC) battalions, newly constituted Mewad Bhil core Banswara, Maharana Pratap RAC India Reserve Battalion, 14th battalion of RAC and district police Bhiwadi. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition in the state, has taken credit for CM Gehlots announcement for new job openings across government departments. BJP spokesperson Mukesh Pareek said his party has been raising the recruitment issue for long. These posts should have been approved a year ago. But the state government is doing it, when its own fate hangs in balance. Employment could have been provided on time, he alleged. Political analyst Narayan Bareth said the Gehlot government is working towards a plan. Initially, it was working on the right to healthcare and followed by Covid-19 management. Now, it is looking to provide employment, as part of its poll manifesto that it is trying to fulfil, he said. Bihar Cops Claim Non-Cooperation By Mumbai Police, We Gave Them An Open Challenge To Trace Us REGINA - Saskatchewans premier says hes concerned the United States could impose a tariff on Canadian steel after the country slapped a 10 per cent import tax on aluminum. Scott Moe says the issue of tariffs has come up during regular calls with other premiers. U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday a 10 per cent tariff was being reimposed on raw aluminum coming from Canada. In response, Ottawa announced it would retaliate by levying $3.6-billion in import tariffs on American products made with aluminum. In 2018, the U.S. put a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian aluminum and a 25 per cent tariff on steel which werent lifted until 2019. Regina is home to the Evraz steel mill where hundreds of people work. From a Saskatchewan perspective, very concerned that it could extend to steel, Moe told The Canadian Press Friday. Moes worry was echoed by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who chastised Trump for going after Canada, a close U.S. trading ally. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 7, 2020. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is denying congressional subpoenas for four key witnesses in a months-long investigation into his role in the firing of State Department Inspector General Steven Linick. The department instructed subpoenaed officials not to appear before Congress until "a mutually acceptable accommodation can be reached," according to a letter sent late Friday to the Hill and obtained by NBC News. "Let me express how outrageous it is for you to suggest that the Department is 'stonewalling' any investigation into the President's replacing of Steve Linick," Pompeo wrote to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel. "For the past three months, you have refused every offer and attempt by the Department to reach a mutually agreeable accommodation to provide you with information you purport to seek." According to the letter, the State Department offered for the witnesses to appear as soon as Aug. 13th for a classified, on the record hearing before the committees despite Under Secretary for Management Brian Bulatao being the only official with knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Linick's ousting. "The Administration continues to cover up the real reasons for Mr. Linick's firing by stonewalling the Committees' investigation and refusing to engage in good faith," Engel said in a statement Tuesday. "That stonewalling has made today's subpoenas necessary, and the Committees will continue to pursue this investigation to uncover the truth that the American people deserve." Linick's replacement, Stephen Akard, director of the Office of Foreign Missions and longtime associate of Vice President Pence, stepped down earlier this week. He was the third person to hold the position in three months. Within hours of Pompeo's letter, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Woody Johnson was also requested to appear before the committees as part of the probe. Johnson is accused of making racist and sexist comments to embassy staff and misusing his diplomatic post to advance the personal and financial interests of President Donald Trump. The Office of the Inspector General had completed its investigation into Johnson when he was ousted in late May, but the report has yet to be publicly released. The State Department has backed the ambassador without directly addressing the allegations. "Ambassador Johnson is a valued member of the team who has led Mission UK honorably and professionally. We stand by Ambassador Johnson and look forward to him continuing to ensure our special relationship with the UK is strong," the department said in a statement. Earlier Friday, nominee for U.S. ambassador to Peru and Pompeo's executive secretary Lisa Kenna, another key witness, appeared voluntarily before the congressional committees in a closed door deposition. In her position as executive secretary, Kenna sees nearly all of the memos and paperwork set before Pompeo and is aware of the majority of his calls. Kenna has denied involvement or awareness of the circumstances surrounding Linick's removal. Among the four facing congressional subpoenas is Bulatao, a senior adviser and longtime Pompeo friend, who was accused of bullying the IG during the course of his investigations into an $8 billion emergency arms sale as well as a review of Pompeo and wife Susan's potential misuse of Department resources. Bulatao was slated to testify July 2, but the committees delayed the appearance at the request of the State Department, which wanted to review the completed IG report into the emergency arms sale. That report, similarly, has not yet been published. Two key witnesses to the arms sale, acting State Department legal adviser Marik String and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Michael Miller were also among those subpoenaed by the committee, as well as senior adviser Toni Porter, who is central to the investigation into the potential abuse of State Department resources. Pompeo has maintained he was unaware of the inspector general's ongoing investigations save one and played no role in his recommendation to the president that Linick be removed from the office. "It's not remotely the reason," Pomeo told Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez in testimony last month. "You said that the IG was not performing in the way he should have, because he wasn't following an essence what you wanted to." Menedez said in response. "Inspector generals aren't supposed to follow what the department head wants to, they're supposed to be independent in pursuit of their mission." MARYLAND Days after Hurricane Isaias brought up to 6 inches of rain and flash floods in parts of Maryland, weather experts issued an updated forecast that isn't good news. Forecasters said the remainder of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season will be "extremely active" with the potential to be one for the record books. "The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season has been off to a rapid pace with a record-setting nine named storms so far and has the potential to be one of the busiest on record," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday in releasing the agency's revised seasonal outlook. An average season produces 12 named storms, including six hurricanes, of which three become major Category 3 storms or above with top winds of at least 111 mph. The updated NOAA outlook calls for 19-25 named storms with winds of at least 39 mph, of which 7-11 will become hurricanes, including three to six major hurricanes. See related: "This year, we expect more, stronger, and longer-lived storms than average," observed lead seasonal hurricane forecaster Gerry Bell at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Colorado State University forecasters released a separate updated forecast outlook that calls for 24 named storms in 2020, including this year's Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo, Hanna and most recently Isaias. The Colorado forecast calls for 12 storms to become hurricanes, including Hanna and Isaias, and five to reach major hurricane strength "Tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures averaged over the past month are at their fourth-highest levels since 1982, trailing only the very active Atlantic hurricane seasons of 2005, 2010 and 2017," Colorado researchers said. Story continues "Warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures provide more fuel for tropical cyclone formation and intensification," Colorado researchers explained. "They are also associated with a more unstable atmosphere as well as moister air, both of which favor organized thunderstorm activity that is necessary for hurricane development." The coronavirus outbreak is figuring prominently into this year's hurricane planning with the added need to maintain social distancing at emergency shelters and possibly even to provide testing for evacuees if necessary. Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Weather Service has tips to prepare your home ahead of a storm. Put Together an Emergency Kit: Put together a basic emergency. Check emergency equipment, such as flashlights, generators and storm shutters. Gather Supplies Create or restock your emergency kit. Being prepared means having your own food, water, and other supplies to last for at least 72 hours. A disaster supplies kit is a collection of basic items your household may need in the event of an emergency. Include the following items in your emergency kit: First Aid Kit and medications. Canned food and can opener. At least three gallons of water per person. Protective clothing, bedding, or sleeping bags. Battery-powered radio, flashlight, and extra batteries. Pet food and supplies. Special items for infants, elderly, or disabled family members. Written instructions for how to turn off electricity, gas, and water if authorities advise (a professional should turn them back on). Write or review your Family Emergency Plan: Before an emergency happens, sit down with your family or close friends and decide how you will get in contact with each other, where you will go, and what you will do in an emergency. Keep a copy of this plan in your emergency supplies kit or another safe place where you can access it in the event of a disaster. Start at the Ready.Gov emergency plan webpage. Review Your Insurance Policies: Review your insurance policies to ensure that you have adequate coverage for your home and personal property. Preparation tips for your home from the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes Preparation Tips for those with Chronic Illnesses Original story by Paul Scicchitano, Patch staff This article originally appeared on the Annapolis Patch The U.S. Postal Service has been financially besieged for years, and unless Congress acts, the independent agency could run out of money by 2021. Now, there are calls on social media to save, or at least support, the USPS by shopping its surprisingly wide variety of goods on its online store. While all the usual accouterments of a postal service are present, so is a mix of unexpected merchandise. The site has everything from screen-printed Marvin Gaye posters to Santa-as-mailman ornaments to 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda muscle toy cars. The runaway hit by far, however, has been a long-sleeve crop top showing a stack of five envelopes in a pleasing rainbow of colors. Buying Aesthetic crop tops to help save the postal service was not on my or anyones Apocalypse Bingo, but Ill take it, one tweet said. The crop top is sold out, to the chagrin of many finding these tweets late. One person who did get the shirt before it sold out was Kayla Miller of Pittsburgh. Miller, 28, saw a tweet about the USPS store, and after taking a look, ended up buying the crop top and some stamps. She said she usually doesnt purchase mass-produced clothes because of the environmental cost. But in this instance, she felt she was doing something tangible for the Postal Service and also acquiring a shirt that would regularly remind her and others about the services crisis. This is the kind of thing I feel like its so easy to just let someone else worry about or forget about, and I dont want to forget, Miller said. Plus, I get a cute new shirt! Most items are connected to stamps in some way, but all of the merchandise has some link to the Postal Service, according to Sara Martin, a senior public relations representative for the organization. This could range from small toy vehicles, to puzzles and apparel, she said. Some items are restocked if the demand is there. Some are meant for shorter periods or seasonality. We are always offering new merchandise and will be featuring a Bugs Bunny boxed set as well as hip-hop T-shirts, both featuring artwork from current stamps. Martin said she didnt know if the crop top would be restocked, but pointed out that there are other shirts, like the sweatshirt commemorating the 100th-anniversary of airmail and a shirt showing Mr. Zip, a character created by the Postal Service in 1963 when ZIP codes were introduced. This isnt the only effort going on to help the service. Earlier this year, there was a similar online campaign to encourage people to buy stamps. There is a petition to save the service on Change.org, and the Postal Service itself is creating memes it hopes will promote letter writing. The service has also become a political lightning rod of late because of the crucial role it may play in the presidential election in November. David Hogg, an activist, tweeted to his million followers to shop at the Postal Service store, calling it a way to help the Postal Service financially and make sure everyone can vote this election! And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has tweeted that the services financial problems have been caused in part by Republicans, posted on her Instagram about discovering Postal Service Mail Carrier Dog Costumes and Magic Kits. She encouraged her followers to check out what else the store has. But its going to take more than selling tote bags to save the service. Groups like the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), which represents more than 200,000 postal workers and retirees, would like to expand what services the post office can offer as a way to help plug the financial gap and help support local communities. Those ideas include check cashing, selling hunting licenses, providing Wi-Fi and becoming electric car charging stations. There are so many things that the post office could be and should be, said Mark Dimondstein, the president of APWU. Dimondstein didnt have any ideas for new merchandise but is not surprised at the spontaneous support. A recent Pew Research poll found that 91% of Americans had a favorable view of the agency, and another survey that found the U.S. Postal Service the most essential business during the pandemic. People, Dimondstein said, want to support a service that they like and need. The post office is an iconic part of the country, he said. We all use it differently, but we all use it. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. To Sea in a Sieve was due back at Shetland Library in July 1983 (Picture: Shetland Library) A library book has finally been returned after 37 years but it was dropped off at the wrong place. To Sea in a Sieve by Peter Bull was due back at Shetland Library in July 1983. It was eventually was dropped off 750 miles away in Suffolk on Friday. A woman handed it into Bungay Community Library after her late husband borrowed it nearly four decades ago. Luckily for her Shetland Library said it did not give fines for late returns. It tweeted: So one of our Library books has shown up 37 years late, 750 miles away in the wrong place! Well repeat- you can return your library books to any of OUR branches-Within Shetland! Within Scotland! Its a good job we dont have overdue fines. Read more: Moment boy, 4, walks for the first time since losing both legs to sepsis So one of our Library books has shown up 37 years late, 750 miles away in the wrong place! Well repeat- you can return your library books to any of OUR branches-Within Shetland! Within Scotland! Its a good job we dont have overdue fines. #overduebook #lovelibraries https://t.co/oU9SxAxF5Z Shetland Library (@ShetlandLibrary) August 7, 2020 Read more: Boy, 13, injures his spine after 'tombstoning' off 20-metre waterfall Amanda King, who manages Bungay Community Library, told the BBC: "We guess they must have been there because it was loaned out, it wasn't a withdrawn copy he had purchased. "Periodically we do have really old books brought back and it always gives us a bit of a giggle to think these have been on the shelves for so long. "We're currently thinking we need some sort of team-building trip to Scotland, we're thinking it would be really nice if we could take it back in person." To Sea in a Sieve details Peter Bull's life during World War Two when he commanded a Tank Landing Craft. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations specialised agency for aviation, expressed grief over the tragic plane crash that occurred in Keralas Kozhikode on Friday. ICAO is saddened by reports of the tragic loss of life on Air Indias Express flight IX 1344. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by this terrible tragedy, the agency tweeted. At least 19 people have been reported dead, including the pilot and the co-pilot of the plane - as Air India Express flight IX 1344, with 190 people on board, overshot the runway at the Kozhikode airport and fell 50 metres off the end, breaking into two. ICAO is saddened by reports of the tragic loss of life on Air India Express flight IX 1344. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by this terrible tragedy. ICAO (@icao) August 7, 2020 The accident happened around at around 7:41 pm on Friday when the Air India flight from Dubai was making a descent and preparing for landing. The Boeing 737 jet, on a Vande Bharat mission as flight AIX 1344 from Dubai, was bringing in Indians who were stranded abroad due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Also read: Aircraft shot past runway in rainy conditions and fell into a gorge - How it happened It was a Dubai to Kozhikode Air India Express flight. It made an over-speeding landing, overshot the runway, and fell into a valley. The aircraft has broken into two parts but it is being reported that it has not caught fire, which increases chances of rescue. Rescue teams are on spot and we are yet to get final figures on casualties, said Arun Kumar, chief of directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA). President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and several other leaders, politicians and eminent personalities offered their condolences over the accident. The Union civil aviation ministry and the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will hold an urgent meeting Air India officials over the incident. Tyeb Mehta. Tyeb Mehta is considered a rock star of Indian art and the high-powered, highly competitive global art auction world. The late artist, one of the stalwarts of Indias Progressive Art Group (PAG), has consistently drawn top dollars in the auction market. In 2018, his work, Kalia dramatic painting with the goddess in blue colour with a red mouth set a world record of $4 million in a physical, on-ground auction. And now another of Mehtas painting, Falling Figure created a new benchmark in post-lockdown online auctions by realising $975,000, achieving the highest price for a South Asian Modern + Contemporary work since lockdown in Christies New Yorks sale, which was part of the Asian Art Week online. Paintings by other iconic Indian artists that realised very good auction sales included Maqbool Fida Husains Untitled (Woman at Work), which sold for $300,000, and Francis Newton Souzas Frightened Head, which realised $250,000. A painting by Maqbool Fida Husain. Mehtas Untitled painting from the Falling Figure series, among his seminal explorations, has come into the auction market for the first time, though others from the series have done well before. The 59x49in oil on canvas was painted in 1965. Interestingly, the human figure remained the central focus for six decades of Mehtas art practice. The Falling Figurea subject the artist began to explore during his stay in England from 1959 to 1964was born out of a traumatic childhood memory of witnessing the violent death of a man during the bloody Partition riots in 1947. This monumental painting is possibly Mehtas earliest exploration of the Falling Figure in his work, an iconic representation of fear and anxiety in the face of a violent and unavoidable cataclysm in society. The Falling Figure series, many experts believe, convey a duality of emotions: While the fragmented figure, falling into an unknown abyss, represents a sense of unease and disorientation, it also conveys a feeling of unfettered freedom in its gravity-defying drop. ...In the simple act of falling, Tyeb takes us on into a metaphysical riddle. The falling is vertiginous, and metaphorically expresses mans freedom in the very act of infinite questing," wrote poet Dilip Chitre about the series in Ideas Images Exchanges, a monograph on Tyeb Mehta published by the Delhi-based Vadehra Art Gallery. A painting by Tyeb Mehta. Mehta, who was a recluse and barely painted 400-500 paintings in his six-decade-long career, has been discovered and rediscovered by collectors the world over, because of the rarity of his art. Collectors hold on to his art with zeal and rare paintings from his not-too-large repertoire make their way into the auction market. It has been a decade of Tyeb Mehta, Indian auction house, Saffronarts CEO Dinesh Vazirani has said, whose auction house has done well with the artists works. The Artery Indian Art Auction Report, way back in 2017, had predicted the rise and rise of Tyeb Mehta in the global auction market. In 2016, 11 works by the modernist artist had come into the market. Since then, it has seen a slew of his works, most selling far above their market valuation. Interestingly, even while India flaunts some really big names in contemporary art, it is the modernists, the artists of Bombays mid-20th century Progressive Art Group (PAG) that continue to rock the global auction market. This conglomerate of artists are brands in themselves and never face a downturn, not even in the worst economic crisis, or seemingly, even when a pandemic rips through the world. At Christies New York Asia Art Week online auctions, the Progressives accounted for all but one of the 13 highest prices achieved. Every auction house, from Sothebys to India-grown Saffronart and AstaGuru have reported brisk sales of the Progressives down the years. A fitting tribute to a group that was set up in 1947, in the aftermath of Partition, when six young artists in Bombay Krishnaji Howlaji Ara, Sadanand Krishnaji Bakre, Hari Ambadas Gade, Maqbool Fida Husain, Francis Newton Souza and Sayed Haider Raza united to form the Progressive Artists Group (PAG). Frightened Head by Francis Newton Souza. They openly boasted of leftist leanings and a desire to forge a new art language, free of imperialist influences or kitsch Indian art, but inspired by the likes of Picasso, Kandinsky and Klee, and Indian high art and folk traditions. By the early 1950s, they had been joined by Krishen Khanna, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta and Mohan Samant, while Ram Kumar and Akbar Padamsee became closely affiliated with the group. Souza laid down their principles in a 1948 manifesto: Today we paint with absolute freedom for content and technique, almost anarchic They were patronised by the Indian elite, and then by European collectors, besides being supported by the likes of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Air India, as well as by influential European artists living in India such as Rudolf von Leyden. Driven by the scarcity of their works and their undeniable status in Indias art history, over the years PAG artists have achieved world-record prices at auctions: S.H. Razas abstracted landscape Tapovan (1972) achieved $3.5m in 2018 in New York, while Tyeb Mehtas powerful Kali (1989) sold for $4 million, among several other notable sales. Deepali Nandwani is a journalist who keeps a close watch on the world of luxury. 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. Car users from the world's least affluent cities are exposed to a disproportionate amount of in-car air pollution because they rely heavily on opening their windows for ventilation, finds a first of its kind study from the University of Surrey. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year and nine out of 10 people breathe air with high levels of pollutants. In a study published by the Science of the Total Environmentjournal, a global team of researchers led by Surrey's Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) investigated air pollution exposure levels for commuters in 10 different global cities -- Dhaka (Bangladesh), Chennai (India), Guangzhou (China), Medellin (Colombia), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Cairo (Egypt), Sulaymaniyah (Iraq), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Blantyre (Malawi), and Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania). The research team investigated PM 2.5 and PM 10 exposure levels inside vehicles during peak hours in the morning and evening, as well as off-peak hours in the middle of the day. The scientists measured how exposure levels changed when drivers used recirculation systems, fans and simply opened the windows. The study discovered that drivers in some of the world's poorest cities experienced higher levels of in-car pollution. Irrespective of the city and car model used, a windows-open setting showed the highest exposure, followed by fan-on and recirculation. Pollutionexposure for windows-open during off-peak hours was 91 percent and 40 percent less than morning and evening peak hours, respectively. The study also found that the windows-open setting exposed car passengers to hotspots of air pollution for up to a third of the total travel length. advertisement The study found that commuters who turn on the recirculation are exposed to around 80 percent less harmful particles than those who open their car windows. Car cabin filters were more effective in removing pollution than fine particles, suggesting that if new cars had more efficient filters, it could reduce the overall exposure of car commuters. Professor Prashant Kumar, Director of GCARE at the University of Surrey, said: "To be blunt, we need as many cars as possible off the road, or more green vehicles to reduce air pollution exposure. This is yet a distant dream in many ODA countries. Air-conditioned cars are unattainable for many poor and vulnerable commuters across the world, but our data is clear and coherent for all 10 participating cities. "We must now work with our global partners to make sure they have the information needed to put in place programmes, policies and strategies to protect the most vulnerable in our communities and find realistic solutions to these serious problems." Professor Abdus Salam from the University of Dhaka said: "The study has drawn important conclusions that can help commuters make decisions in their day-to-day lives to protect their health. Simple choices, like travelling during off-peak hours, can go a long way in reducing their exposure to air pollution." Professor Adamson S. Muula from the University of Malawi said: "Working with the GCARE team and global collaborators on this study has been an insightful experience. We were given access to affordable technology to collect novel datasets that haven't been available for cities in this part of the world. We also got to see where our cities stand in comparison to other global cities in developing countries. This has allowed for the sharing of much needed knowledge and best practices." Professor David Sampson, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Surrey, said: "I commend Professor Kumar and his GCARE team for their continued global leadership in air quality challenges around the world. The collaborative research of the GCARE team represents best in class, taking evidence from quality science and turning it into leading-edge policy for the betterment of all." The study was part of the Clean Air Engineering for Cities (CArE-Cities) project. CArE-Cities is a seed funding project, awarded by the University of Surrey under the Research England's Global Challenge Research Funds. CArE-Cities involves 11 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) listed countries and aspires to bring cleaner air to cities by building a knowledge exchange platform. Its activities include joint workshops, researchers exchange and pilot studies to address urban development and health impact assessment agendas in ODA countries. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said all those who had been on board the Air India Express flight which skidded off the runway at the Kozhikode international airport killing 18 people on Friday evening, would be tested for the Covid-19 infection. So far, only one of the victims has tested positive for the viral disease. The chief minister also announced a compensation of 10 lakh each to the next of kin of the passengers who died in the air crash that took place at the Karipur International Airport last evening, a statement from the Kerala chief ministers office (CMO) said. Besides the compensation for the victims, the Kerala government would bear the medical expenses of all those injured in the plane crash irrespective of the hospitals they are in, Vijayan said. The chief minister has given directions to the administration and health authorities to provide proper medical aid to all survivors. ALSO READ | Kerala plane crash: Flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder recovered Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday also lauded the fast response of the local people in being the first to reach the aircraft crash site to rescue passengers, braving inclement weather and Covid-19 fears. The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the tabletop runway at the airport in Kozhikode while landing amid heavy rainfall and fell into a gorge 35 feet below splitting into two parts on Friday night. Vijayan, who has rushed to Kozhikode, said in a tweet that the fast response of the local people and the officials made all the difference. Yesterday, the fast response of local people and officials made all the difference. They braved bad weather and Covid-19 fears to rescue their fellow beings, the CM said in a tweet. The long queues of people who had volunteered to donate blood were just another example of locals coming forward to help, Vijayan said. Beth Warren, a middle school history teacher in Lookout Mountain, Ga., had been looking forward to a much-anticipated trip this summer to Egypt, a country she vowed to show her husband and friends after her first visit several years ago. She was deep into organizing the trip with High End Journeys when the pandemic struck and has since shifted the visit to summer 2022, in part to make sure the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza is open. 2022 sounds really far away, she said. But once I saw Egypt, I couldnt get enough of it. People have always planned big trips months or even a year ahead of time, but now many are extending that timeline even further. In the travel stasis induced by the pandemic, future travellers have taken to tackling their bucket lists with big trips that are more distant and longer than usual and planned further in advance. Optimists are targeting 2021. For others, their next big trip will be in 2022. Before the pandemic, according to the American Society of Travel Advisors, most travellers booked trips six months ahead or more, on average, and longer for elaborate honeymoons or very special events like the solar eclipse passing over South America in December. Some travel companies say longer-term bookings have recently rebounded. For instance, Red Savannah, a British luxury travel agency that organizes custom trips, says it is up 160 per cent over bookings this time last year. These days, even spontaneous types have more time to think about where they want to go and put a plan in place. Im trying to go big with my trips, said Rayme Gorniak of Chicago, who is currently laid off from his work managing fitness studio franchises. Anything short and normally easy to plan might bring disappointment as the pandemic continues, he reasoned, but a far-horizon destination hes considering Jordan for June 2021 offers hope. The trip also represents a personal conquest for Gorniak, who is gay and worried about the persecution of LGBT people in some Muslim countries. Jordans been on my radar because of the rich history, and off it because of the potential risk I would have, he said. But Ive been doing research on Amman and seeing, as strict religious standards go, its a little bit more lax on tradition, he said. For Lori Goldenthal of Wellesley, Mass., changing plans meant changing the destination. She had originally planned a trip in and around Vietnam for her husbands upcoming 60th birthday. But after the pandemic hit, she worked with the agency Extraordinary Journeys to book a two-week trip to Namibia for 2021. Namibia was on my bucket list and it seemed like a better idea than going to all these big cities in Asia, she said. I believe we will go, but who knows, she added, noting generous cancellation policies that made her more comfortable booking the trip. Having something to look forward to is fantastic. Other forward-looking travellers are simply picking up a year later. After months of reading about the climate and culture of Greenland, Jill Hrubecky, a structural engineer based in Brooklyn, was excited for a cruise she had planned there in August with her mother and an aunt and uncle. Working with their agency, Huckleberry Travel, they rebooked the cruise for summer 2021 only after learning that the cancellation policy is flexible. I will not make any non-refundable, permanent plans for the next couple of years, she said. But Im an optimist. Half the fun of travelling is planning and getting excited. There are psychological benefits to planning activities, especially travel, according to Shevaun Neupert, a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. Future-oriented thinking is equated with proactive coping, a means of reducing stress through detailed planning, such as learning which flights to book to avoid layovers, and gathering the resources including time and money to make it happen. Being able to think about and imagine something positive in the future has benefits in the present, she said. The pandemic, too, may have shown travellers that what they thought they could always do namely, see the world isnt such a certainty. Maybe they thought it would always be available, which was previously true. Now weve experienced restrictions and realize, oh, I need to make this happen, she added. Advance planning is also a practical way to turn vague desires into concrete plans. The travel adviser network Virtuoso offers a program called Virtuoso Wanderlist, an online survey that friends or family seeking to travel together take individually. (Since the pandemic, Virtuoso has made the online planning tool free.) The program asks where they want to go, their interests and the kinds of activities they prefer. It then compares the results to identify mutual preferences and priorities that a travel adviser will analyze and, in consultation with the clients, use to come up with a five-year plan for tackling the bucket list. Jim Bendt, the managing director of Virtuoso Wanderlist, equates travel planning with financial planning in the sense that both seek to maximize precious resources. In the case of travel, the currency is time. It takes away the stress, said Karen Walkowski, a health-care manager in Eden Prairie, Minn., who took the Wanderlist survey with her husband. It turns a bucket list into a plan. Theirs started with Vietnam and Cambodia last year. This fall, it was to be a small ship cruise in Greece, which has been postponed a year because of the virus. The pandemic, she said, reshuffled their priorities, pushing Tanzania originally planned for 2021 farther out, pending a coronavirus vaccine, and moving Alaska up in its place. Having a plan takes it from dreaming and conjecturing to actually having things committed on paper, always with adjustments, she said. Weve moved the chess pieces around. In addition to compounding their wanderlust, many travellers and planners say the pandemic has revealed travels environmental impact and are planning more mindfully. Our current situation has made me even more committed to focusing exclusively on sustainability going forward, Rose OConnor, a travel adviser in Granite Bay, Calif., wrote in an email. On one hand, we have seen how tourism can be vital to conservation efforts in certain destinations, she wrote, noting the uptick in poaching in Africa in the absence of tourism revenue. On the other hand, she added, travelling from a hot spot like the United States particularly to remote or developing countries is an ethical issue. Jeremy Bassetti, a professor of humanities at Valencia College in Orlando, Fla., has a sabbatical coming up in fall 2021 and plans to use miles to get to China and then travel overland to Tibet, Nepal and India for several months. While big trips often accompany sabbaticals, Bassetti has rethought his to travel longer, farther and more slowly in 2021, he said. Why wouldnt we want to travel more to connect more when assumptions about being free to travel are disappearing before our eyes? he added. If you want to experience new cultures, you cant do it very quickly. For others, 2022 presents the possibility of travelling in a time when the virus may be contained and spontaneity can resume. High school freshmen Scout Dingman, of Miami, and Sophie Brandimarte, of Glen Head, N.Y., had been collaborating on a 2021 trip to Europe, making plans for their families to join. They have marked up maps and are keeping a Google Doc of destinations where they might branch out to from Hamburg, Germany, where they plan to visit a friend, although they are keeping their plans loose. Because of the uncertainty of the virus, and the possibility of having to cancel and risk deposits, they are delaying the trip to summer 2022 while maintaining their optimism. We thought if we pushed it back, then we wouldnt be disappointed, Dingman said. We have to think of safety measures now, Brandimarte added. But in terms of the actual trip, we really want to keep on the bright side and not have to worry about that, too. SL firms successfully grow in alien lands By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s): By taking products or services international, a Sri Lankan business is replicating its model for another set of circumstances, a different locale and culture, with a different market, demands, needs and expectations. At least nine companies and banks from Sri Lanka have manoeuvred unchartered waters like this, quite successfully. The LOLC Group has by far been the most triumphant at imprinting its mark on foreign soil and flying the Sri Lankan flag. They bought into PRASAC, the Cambodian micro finance firm in 2007 with an 18 per cent stake at the invitation of FMO the Nederland Governments Development Finance Company Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries and Dragon Capital. In less than a decade the company raised the holding by 52 per cent. Then in a US$ 603 million deal last April, LOLC sold 70 per cent of PRASAC to Kookmin Bank. The groups other microfinance company in Cambodia, LOLC Cambodia holds in excess of US $ 1 billion in total assets, a US $ 832 million portfolio and a deposit base of US $ 485 million. LOLC already has similar operations in Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines and Pakistan. It plans to expand into Africa, Brazil and India. LOLC related firm, Browns acquired 66.67 per cent stake of Sunbird Bioenergy (SL) Ltd which holds not only this plant with the perennial true grasses in the region of Makeni, in Northern Sierra Leone but with it also came a 32 Mega Watt (MW) Biomass renewable energy power plant. LOLC is now expanding its global presence further in Cambodia with the latest approval received to set up micro insurance under the company, Serendib Micro Insurance PLC. LOLC has also received preliminary approval to set up a representative office in Myanmar, to implement its Micro Insurance business. Sometimes the home country has a very limited market (due to small size of the country itself, for example) so the only way to grow is to go abroad and sell in other countries as shown by John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH), one of the first companies to venture out. In 1996 Velidhu Resort Hotel, an 80 roomed island resort in the Maldives was acquired making it JKHs first major overseas investment. JKH went onto lease three more island resorts in the Maldives. Firms aiming to go abroad make acquisitions that maximise expected value, even at the expense of lowering near-term earnings, one analyst noted. Entering foreign markets is always full of challenges for any type and size of business, however, potential opportunities for success at foreign markets are also huge, he added. Another Sri Lankan conglomerate, the Aitken Spence entered the Maldivian hotel sector in 1993 with its investment in Bathala Island Resort. Aitken Spence is also the largest foreign resort operator in the Maldives with eight resorts and is among the five largest resort operators in the country. Aitken Spence also currently owns one hotel and manages five hotels in Oman. It opened Turyaa Chennai on 1 October 2015 and is located in the IT Corridor of Chennai and just a short drive away from the heart of the city, securing a hotel in India. Commercial Bank (ComBank) started its operations in Bangladesh by acquiring the banking business of Credit Agricole Indosuez in November 2003 with two branches and two booths. Since commencement, ComBank has established its position well above the other regional banks operating in the country expanding the branch network to 11 branches with eight in Dhaka, one each in Chittagong, two specialised Off-shore Banking Units in Dhaka and six SME centres in Dhaka. ComBank opened its representative office in Yangon in June 2015, becoming the first Sri Lankan Bank to be granted a license by the the Central Bank of Myanmar. It entered into a joint venture with Tree Top Investments Maldives, inaugurated its banking operations in the Maldives in 2016, with the opening of its head office and the first branch in the Maldives capital Male. Multinational and diversified conglomerate, Hayleys has manufacturing facilities in Indonesia and Thailand and marketing operations in Australia, India, Bangladesh, Italy, Japan, and Netherlands, UK and the US and its products are sold in 80 countries. MAS Holdings, which has extensive operations in the South Asian region, became the first Sri Lankan apparel group to commence manufacturing in the US by acquiring the business operations of Acme McCrary Corporation, established in North Carolina, in 2017. Apparel manufacturer, Brandix Apparel has branches in India, Bangladesh, and the US. Since the population number is limited, the size of demand would be also limited, thus businesses are force to look out for more people to which they can sell more. Hemas is one of the Sri Lankan firms that have tapped markets in South Asia. Hemas Holdings PLC, a conglomerate in FMCG, healthcare, leisure, transportation and new ventures, has continued to develop solutions and products for the consumer in Sri Lanka while also moving into the Asian region from Bangladesh to Thailand. In the meantime, start-ups and companies in Sri Lankas IT sector have also opened offices and operations in other countries. An alleged Pakistani intruder was shot dead by the personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) along the India-Pakistan international border in Rajasthans Barmer district late on Friday, a senior police official said on Saturday. The 23-year-old man had crossed the international border from near the border pillar number 919 Baamno Ki Dhani area under Bakhasar police station area in Barmer. BSF officials said the man, who is yet to be identified, first crossed the international border and later crossed another fencing installed around 150 meters inside the Indian territory. They said when he was about to cross the fencing on Indian land, BSF personnel saw him and warned him but he ignored them. After which the personnel opened fire at him. Officials said a bullet hit him when he was crossing the fencing but he jumped down on the Indian side and kept moving. In the meantime, some more bullets hit him and he died on the spot, said BSF officials. Anand Sharma, Barmers superintendent of police, said the incident took place late on Friday night and BSF officials informed them on Saturday morning, after which police teams were sent to the location. Sharma said the body of the alleged Pakistani intruder was lying on the spot where he shot and further information is awaited. No information regarding any recovery from the alleged intruder was shared by officials. BSF officials familiar with the development said the incident seemed like a planned attempt of intrusion. They said that at the time of the incident some people with torches were also spotted across the international border on the Pakistani side. They added that their voices could also be clearly heard. It seems that people across the border with torches in their hands were helping the man in the intrusion. However, when the intruder was shot dead by BSF the people across the border fled, one of the officials cited above said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Taiwans military has dispatched more Marine Corps to Dongsha Islands which are claimed by China in the South China Sea. According to reports, Beijing is planning to carry out a simulated invasion in the atolls. Earlier on August 3, Japans Kyodo News, citing National Defense University professor Li Daguang said that the PLA Navy will stage a landing exercise on Chinas Hainan Island to simulate an invasion of Dongsha Islands. Taiwan prepares a plan for border protection However, reports suggest that Li rejected this. He claimed that he was talking about an article published by Kyodo news earlier that day. As a response to the recent development, Taiwans defence ministry has been on alert ever since May when the reports emerged. This is in order to prevent them from the invasion that PLA is planning with Chinese-state run Global Times. Reports suggest that Taiwans defense ministry is asserting that it could become a real invasion. Read: 'Flights To Nowhere': Taiwan Airlines Offer Sight-seeing Flights For Children Amid COVID On July 30, Democratic Progressive Party legislator Wang Ting-yu said that the Marine Corps has sent additional companies of troops to protect the Dongsha Islands and the military is prepared for the worst. Issuing a warning to China, Wang further added that if enemy forces captured the Dongsha Islands, the military has prepared a Border Protection Battle Plan. The airborne special operation forces will collaborate with the Marines to launch a counterattack by sea and air from Taiping Island in Taiwan, as a part of this border protection battle plan. Read: China Slams US Sanctions Against Hong Kong Officials, Calls Them 'barbarous And Rude' According to reports, the plan is to use Taiping as a staging area for staging a counterattack on the enemy forces on Dongsha Islands. Reportedly, the Taiwan defence ministry said that armed forces are keeping a close watch on the activities of Chinese military through joint intelligence surveillance. This is being done to ensure e national sovereignty and territorial security. Read: China Lodges Solemn Representations To United States Over Official's Visit To Taiwan Also Read: US Announces 'highest Level' Visit To Taiwan Since 1979 Amid Rising Tensions With China (Image Credits: ANI) Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:16:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close -- Facing the epidemic, companies and the government in Yiwu, known as the "World's Supermarket," are striving to find new business paths and opportunities in the crisis. -- Yiwu's total import and export increased to 136.25 billion yuan (about 19.58 billion U.S. dollars) in H1, up 1.6 percent over the same period last year, despite uncertainties and instabilities in the global economy. -- The small commodity market in Yiwu is an important chain in the global daily consumer goods trade. Its prosperity is of great significance for stabilizing foreign trade and boosting domestic demand. by Xinhua writers Yin Xiaosheng, Qu Lingyan and Cui Enhui HANGZHOU, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- With a lamp, a laptop and a mobile phone in a shared livestreaming room set up in the Yiwu International Trade Market, the world's leading small commodities market, a female anchor tried on various kinds of jewelry and clothes while interacting with potential buyers online. The anchor had sold out 2,000 items of black knitwear before the webcast was over. Such scenes are now common in the city of Yiwu in east China's Zhejiang Province, which is home to over 2 million micro, small and medium-sized firms, and sells commodities to about 200 countries and regions every year. A merchant promotes products via livestreaming at Yiwu international trade city in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 8, 2020. (Photo by Lyu Bin/Xinhua) "Livestreaming sales is 'win-win' cooperation," said Zhu Sufang, who is among the first batch of merchants in the market to join hands with network anchors. The partnership brought considerable profits to Zhu's jewelry business, with half of its orders from livestreaming. Despite the impact of COVID-19, her business witnessed a 20-percent growth year on year in the first half of this year (H1). Zhu is not alone. Facing the epidemic, companies and the government in Yiwu, known as the "World's Supermarket," are striving to find new business paths and opportunities in the crisis. According to data from Yiwu customs, its total import and export value increased to 136.25 billion yuan (about 19.58 billion U.S. dollars) in H1, up 1.6 percent over the same period last year, despite uncertainties and instabilities in the global economy. NEW SALES CHANNELS "Not long ago, our merchants who were used to offline wholesale business refused to cooperate with anchors," said Tao Xiaoyan, an administrator with the China Commodities City in Yiwu. Tao said the epidemic prompted the offline sellers to change their minds, and now more than half of them have benefitted from livestreaming sales. An applicant takes part in a qualification test for selling products via livestreaming in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 8, 2020. (Photo by Lyu Bin/Xinhua) The small commodities market in Yiwu showed great innovation and vitality during the epidemic, with more than 2.1 million kinds of products including ornaments, general merchandise and medical supplies delivered to consumers through new channels such as group buying, e-commerce and livestreaming sales. "I saw a video of an outdoor product from Yiwu that has been viewed by tens of millions on TikTok," said Wang Mingqiang, general manager of AliExpress. "For overseas buyers, videos have an advantage in commodity display." Wang also said with the increasing demand for contactless service in the global market during the pandemic, cross-border e-commerce has entered a stage of rapid development. Customers from Cote d'lvoire purchase products at Yiwu small commodity market in Yiwu, where businesses restarted from Feb. 18 with preventive measures in place after the COVID-19 outbreak, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 19, 2020. (Photo by Lyu Bin/Xinhua) In response to the COVID-19 resurgence overseas, local sellers in Yiwu have sped up their efforts to expand their businesses globally by collaborating with cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba.com and Amazon. Currently, the number of Alibaba.com members from Yiwu has climbed to 6,600, an increase of more than 60 percent since the beginning of the year. On June 18, the Yiwu-based Zhejiang China Commodity City Group Co. Ltd. and Alibaba Group established a joint venture of the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) to help more small and medium-sized companies go global digitally. The local government also plays a vital role in helping enterprises make full use of markets and resources both at home and abroad. The Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province signed a cooperation memorandum with Amazon Global Selling on July 1. The two sides will jointly promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional foreign trade enterprises in 10 cities of Zhejiang, and help them develop export, cross-border and e-commerce businesses through Amazon's overseas sites. NEW GROWTH POINTS "The small commodity market in Yiwu is an important chain in the global daily consumer goods trade. Its prosperity is of great significance for stabilizing foreign trade and boosting domestic demand," said Wang Dong, general manager of the Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Co. Ltd. The local government and import and export enterprises in Yiwu have taken a slew of measures to stabilize the supply chains amid uncertainties. After the outbreak of COVID-19, the overseas orders of Zhejiang Meizhiyuan Cosmetics Co. Ltd., a Yiwu-based company that used to export perfumes, dropped sharply due to the drastically reduced demand of social activities worldwide, according to Chen Zhenzhen, the company's foreign trade manager. However, the company began to turn to disinfectant production in early February as part of efforts to meet the market demand amid the pandemic. Staff load epidemic prevention materials for Cambodia onto a plane at the Yiwu International Airport in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, March 27, 2020. (Photo by Li Jinliang/Xinhua) "Our company's exports of disinfectants, which covered the loss of perfumes, rose slightly in the second quarter of this year," Chen said. More and more firms in fields like cosmetics and textiles in Yiwu have created new growth points for their development to adapt to the "new normal" of living with the virus. The export of products related to the stay-at-home economy, including baking tools and fitness equipment, has achieved rapid growth. In August, the city will also hold an international fair for anti-epidemic materials. Since the market resumed operation, Yiwu has also dispatched 20 working teams to 27 provinces and cities to attract domestic buyers, and contacted more than 10,000 overseas buyers through foreign trade enterprises, associations and other channels. A China-Europe freight train carrying medical supplies bound for Madrid of Spain departs from the city of Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 5, 2020. (Photo by Lyu Bin/Xinhua) Statistics show that a total of 350 China-Europe freight trains departed from Yiwu in H1 after further optimizing the operation mechanism, with the cargo volume increasing by 157.1 percent year on year, ensuring the stability of the Asia-Europe supply chain. (Video reporters: Wang Yiwen and Li Tao; Video editor: Peng Ying) The total number of cases now stands at 503,084, and the death toll at 17,367 -- both highest in the country. The Health Department said that of the total cases, 147,048 are active. Mumbai: With a new high of 12,822 cases, Maharashtra's Covid-19 tally on Saturday shot past the half-million mark, while the state saw 275 more deaths, health officials said. According to Saturday's figures, there was one death roughly every 5 minutes and a staggering 534 new cases every hour. However, the state recovery rate rose to 67.26 per cent, while the current mortality rate stood at 3.45 per cent. On Saturday, 11,081 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 338,262. Of Saturday's fatalities, Pune again notched the highest deaths, at 67, followed by Mumbai's 58, and Thane's 48 deaths. Mumbai's deaths -- again in the 50-plus range -- took its toll to 6,751, while the number of cases increased by 1,304 to 122,316. There were also 17 deaths in Raigad, 14 in Palghar, nine in Kolhapur, eight each in Nashik, Dhule, and Sangli, seven in Solapur, six each in Jalna and Nagpur, four in Ratnagiri, three in Beed, two each in Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Aurangabad, and Yavatmal, and one each in Satara, Latur, Osmanabad, and Akola. The MMR (Thane division) saw its toll shooting up sharply by 137 to 10,629, while 3,744 new cases took its tally to 263,619. Pune district's total cases have now reached 109,988, with the death toll increasing to 2,633, while Thane district had 103,642 cases with 2,961 fatalities, as on Saturday. With 75 more fatalities, the Pune division's death toll has reached 3,367 and the case tally zoomed up with 3,409 new cases to 126,715. Nashik division has recorded 1,400 fatalities and 47,076 cases, followed by Aurangabad division with 668 deaths and 20,077 cases, Kolhapur division with 405 fatalities and 15,297 cases, Latur division with 327 fatalities and 9,822 cases, Akola division with 312 fatalities and 9,734 cases, and Nagpur division with 205 deaths and 10,243 cases. Of the eight divisions, only Latur and Akola remain in the sub-10,000 cases bracket, though the numbers of new infectees continue to mount steadily. Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine now stands at 989,612, while those in institutional quarantine total 35,625. Feed The Poor Team launched its Free Last Ride Services in Rachakonda during the Coronavirus outbreak, following the distress of transferring a departed patient body from the Hospital to the crematorium, supported by in Hyderabad City. During the Covid Pandemic, after going through the pain of transporting a Covid deceased patient body from Hospital to cremation ground, Feed The Needy Team launched its Free Last Ride Services in Rachakonda, followed by in Hyderabad City. With no. of request growing from Rachakonda Commissionerate limits, Commissioner of Police Rachakonda, Sri Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat IPS, sought the extension of Last Ride Services in the Rachakonda Limits. The vehicle is flagged off by the Commissioner today on Saturday 8th August at 11:00 AM at Rachakonda CP office NEREDMET. The Last Ride Services will be free of cost and will cater to carry dead bodies of Covid or Non-Covid, belonging to any caste or creed. The service will be available from Morning 8 AM Evening 6 PM and we will also take care of cremation of any deceased body where any near or dear ones are not available to take care of last rights of their loved ones. Any citizens can avail the service by calling on 7995404040 or 9490617234 to avail the services. About Feed The Needy is a team of 10 IT professionals, who has always in forefront in serving the society for many years. During the Covid pandemic this team has been on ground from Day 1 helping to feed migrant & daily wage labourers, also helped to arrange transport to their natives. From 22nd March 2020 to 31st May 2020 provided food & Dry Ration to the needy & migrant people. We have provided 50,000 food packets & 35,000 Dry Ration/Grocery kits all over Hyderabad, & in some other cities within the country during the lockdown. CP Rachakonda appreciated the initiative of the Feed the Needy Organization and more so when such a service was the need of the hour during the Covid pandemic. He stated that the group of 10 youngsters behind the initiative have also been working actively with SCSC as Volunteers with Traffic Forum and also fed many during the lockdown. CP also thanked VI Tech Systems Asia Pvt Ltd which sponsored the body bags. He thanked Krishna Yedula Secretary SCSC for extending the service to Rachakonda and also hinted at more such services being launched through RKSC. Krishna Yedula Secretary SCSC speaking to the media thanked Ramanjeet Singh, Prashant M, Srinivas, Saiteja, Vinay, Surendra, Vidyasagar, Ankit raj, Pradeep, Anumod Thomas, the Volunteers of Traffic Forum SCSC for coming up with such a noble initiative. Sri Satish, Secretary RKSC, Joy from Genpact and officers of Rachakonda were present. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf concluded a weeks-long standoff with the state Legislature by caving. Despite repeated veto threats, he allowed a transparency bill passed unanimously to become law, but without his signature. Wolfs opposition to the benign transparency legislation, sponsored by Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), was a head-scratcher for many. How could a man who entered office saying, Its time to restore the publics trust in our government by pushing for reforms and initiatives that increase openness and transparency, now oppose the same principles? Simply put, the bill exposed Wolfs above-the-law approach to governing that extends far beyond the issue of transparency. Though lawmakers achieved a significant victory, they have much more to do to keep the governor in check. The transparency battle started when Wolfs administration ignored Pennsylvanias open records law soon after declaring COVID-19 a disaster emergency. Records requests from citizens, lawmakers, and journalists were put on ice for months during one of the biggest crises in state history. Wolf refused to provide details on his controversial waiver process that determined which businesses could stay open and which must remain closed under his shutdown order. Small business owners and lawmakers questioned why some businesses were forced to remain closed while competitors and big box stores were given a waiver to reopen. For months, Wolf provided no information about who received waivers, or the process by which companies were chosen. Nor would Wolf comply with a Senate subpoena for this information. This secrecy undermined Pennsylvanians trust that the Wolf administration was playing fair. Even after Wolf belatedly released a list of waivers, he provided scant detail. His administration even revoked certain waivers the day before releasing the list, hiding select recipients from public scrutiny. Open records laws were an inconvenience, so Wolf did everything he could to skirt them. Unfortunately, flouting the law has become the new normal for Wolf during the pandemic he even has trouble following his own rules. After denouncing protests pushing for a faster reopening of the states economy, Wolf violated his own rules prohibiting large gatherings and marched in a Harrisburg rally. Wolf admitted attending the rally was inconsistent and the public agreed. According to polling conducted in June, 57 percent of Pennsylvania voters disapproved of Wolf behaving like he is above the law. In July, Wolf ignored the law again in a clash with Lebanon County. After county commissioners voted to go green earlier than he wanted, Wolf denounced the Republican commissioners at a taxpayer-funded news conference and called for voters to kick them out of office. In making political statements using public resources, Wolf violated Pennsylvanias ethics law and should be fined, as any other government employee would be for breaking this rule. Worse, to drive his political point home, Wolf withheld nearly $13 million in federal CARES Act funds from Lebanon County, starving 140,000 county residents of critical support. This contradicts both federal and state law. Act 24 of 2020, which passed unanimously and which Wolf signed, contains a formula that governs how federal CARES Act funds will be distributed across the state. The bill does not give the governor authority to arbitrarily withhold funding. In doing so, Wolf is violating the separation of powers and circumventing the Legislature. Wolf is also defying Congress, which appropriated CARES Act funding to Pennsylvania, not to the governor. Members of Congress including U.S. Rep Dan Meuser and Sen. Pat Toomey have called on Wolf to release the funds to Lebanon County. Congress intended this money to soften the impact of the economic crisis, not to be leveraged for political ends. Wolfs pattern of lawlessness must be stopped-and lawmakers transparency victory could be the turning point that reins him in. Lawmakers proved Wolf can be forced to do the right thing, and they should continue to build bipartisan support for fair and accountable government. That means passing a recently introduced Senate bill to release federal funds to Lebanon County. Political retaliation is unbecoming a governor especially when it breaks the law and especially when it exacerbates suffering during a pandemic. Wolf has made it clear he thinks certain laws dont apply to him. With the state Supreme Court siding with the governor when his actions are challenged, Pennsylvanians are counting on the Legislature to uphold the rule of law. Nathan Benefield is vice president and COO for the Commonwealth Foundation (CommonwealthFoundation.org), Pennsylvanias free market think tank. According to news published by the Russian Press Agency TASS on August 7, 2020, Russian shipyard Zelenodolsk laid down the hulls of the Project 21980 Grachonok-class eleventh and twelfth serial-produced anti-saboteur boats. According to news published by the Russian Press Agency TASS on August 7, 2020, Russian shipyard Zelenodolsk laid down the hulls of the Project 21980 Grachonok-class eleventh and twelfth serial-produced anti-saboteur boats. Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link Russian Project 21980 Grachonok class Counter-Sabotage ship. (Picture source Vitaly Kuzmin) The Grachonok class, Russian designation Project 21980 Grachonok, is a class of anti-saboteur and large guard boats being built for the Russian Navy. The construction of the Project 21980 Grachonok-class started in 2008 and the first vessels were delivered to the Russian Navy in 2009. The Russian Navy has commissioned a total of 19 Project 21980 class counter-sabotage vessels as of November and three new ships will join the Russian Navy in the next few years. The Grachonok class is designed to protect naval bases, ports, and aquatic areas of the Russian Federation. It can be also used to counter terrorist and sabotage operations in the sea. In October 2017, four additional ships were ordered by the National Guard of Russia. These ships are intended for the protection of the Crimean Bridge. The Grachonok class Project 21980 is powered by two MTU or MWM Deutz TBD620V12, Wartsila (other European or local ZE Zvezda, Kolomna) diesel engines. She can reach a maximum speed of 23 kt with a cruising range of 200 mi. She can operate on the sea for five days. Project 21980 has a length of 31 m and a width of 7.4 m respectively and the draught is 1.85 m. With a displacement of 138 t, the vessel can carry up to eight crew members. The Project 21980 is armed with one MTPU 14.5mm marine machine-gun, one DP-64 anti-sabotage grenade launchers, one DP-65 remotely-controlled rocket grenade launcher system, and one Igla-1 Man-portable air-defense system launcher with four missiles. Ravindra Rao COMEX gold December contract trade 0.5 percent high near USD 2,080/oz after a 1 percent gain in the previous session. Spot gold has hit a fresh record high near USD 2,075/oz and is currently trading near USD 2,067/oz. In the domestic market, MCX gold October contract hit a high of Rs 56,079/10 gram on August 7, the highest price ever for a first month contract. Gold has continued to set new highs supported by persistent weakness in the US dollar, lower bond yields, strong investor interest and safe-haven buying amid rising virus cases, geopolitical tensions and increased US-China tensions. The US dollar index trades near 2-year low weighed by lower bond yields, mixed economic data, rising virus and political wrangling over additional stimulus measures. US weekly jobless claims data released yesterday was better than market expectations but contrasts with disappointing ADP jobs report released a day earlier. US policymakers have increased efforts to reach a deal ahead of a self-imposed weekend deadline but still lack consensus over terms of the deal. Gold holdings with SPDR ETF were unchanged on August 7 at 1267.96 tonnes, the highest level since February 2013, after sharp inflows in last few days. Global virus cases have continued to rise forcing countries to reimpose restrictions hampering economic activity and hopes of a quick recovery. BOE, at its monetary policy meeting yesterday, highlighted that it does not expect the UK economy to exceed its pre-coronavirus levels until the end of 2021. The US and China have been bickering over various issues and this has kept market players nervous about the trade deal. Gold has surged over 35 percent since start of the year however a large share of the rally has come in last few sessions. While there are spates of positive factors for gold, the concurrent rally in equity market, commodities, bonds and gold is a rare combination and highlights that the rally is more because of fund inflow in financial markets which is chasing all asset classes. Golds rally also remains unfazed by concerns about consumer demand due to record high prices. Golds momentum remains unfazed and it continues to be on path to the next benchmark of USD 2100/oz however some caution is warranted as we move close to weekend and key US non-farm payrolls data. COMEX Silver trades up by over 2.5 percent near USD 29/oz and hit a session high of USD 29.915/oz, the highest level since February 2013. MCX Silver September contract hit a high of Rs 76360/kg yesterday, the highest level ever for a first month contract. Silver trades higher supported by firmness in gold, recovery in industrial sector and strong investor inflows. Gold has surged to record high level shifting some buying interest in silver which has a strong positive correlation with gold and is much cheaper. Manufacturing activity across the globe is showing improvement which improves outlook for silvers industrial demand. Silver holdings with iShares ETF rose by 57.93 tonnes yesterday to a fresh record high level of 17866.67 tonnes. The spot gold silver ratio is near 72 levels, the lowest since 2017, highlighting silvers outperformance. Silver has risen almost over 60 percent so far this year however almost all of it has come in last three weeks. While positive factors persist they do not justify the sharp gains seen in such short span of time. So while the momentum is still positive, the rally is unlikely to sustain for long and market players need to be cautious. NYMEX crude trades moderately higher near USD 42/bbl after a 0.6 percent decline yesterday. Crude oil has turned choppy after testing the highest level since March earlier this week amid mixed cues. Crude remains supported by persistent weakness in US dollar and strength in US equity market and upbeat manufacturing data from major economies. US equity market rose for the fifth consecutive day supported by better than expected jobless claims data and efforts by policymakers to reach consensus on additional stimulus plan. The US dollar index trades near 2-year lows weighed down by lower bond yields and increasing concerns about health of US economy. However, weighing on crude price are demand concerns amid rising virus cases globally which has forced countries to take restrictive measures threatening the economic recovery. Increased US-China tensions has also kept worries high about the US-China trade under which China has committed to buy more US energy goods. Also weighing on crude price is mixed inventory report. US EIA report noted a sharp decline in US crude oil stocks but also an increase in gasoline and distillate stocks while crude stocks at Cushing, the delivery terminal for NYMEX crude futures, rose for the fifth consecutive week highlighting increasing glut in the region. OPEC supply is also expected to improve as producer group reduces its production cut starting August. Iraq however committed to make an additional cut in its oil production of about 400,000 barrels per day in August to compensate for its overproduction over the past period under the OPEC supply reduction pact, as reported by Reuters. Highlighting indecisiveness in the market, Saudi Aramco cut its September official selling prices to Asia by 30 cents a barrel from August and left its prices to the US unchanged from the previous month (Reuters). Crude may witness choppy trade amid mixed factors however we expect selling pressure to emerge at higher levels amid persisting demand worries and prospect of higher supply from US and OPEC. The author is VP- Head Commodity Research at Kotak Securities : The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Legal experts have raised concern about reports of a personal relationship between Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith and his defamation lawyer, saying it could constitute conduct that is unprofessional. News Corp newspapers on Saturday published photos of Mr Roberts-Smith holding hands with his lawyer Monica Allen, who has reportedly been visiting him in his new apartment in Brisbane. Ben Roberts-Smith. Credit:Cole Bennetts Ms Allen is part of the Sydney-based legal team from Mark O'Brien Legal, which is handling his defamation case against The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald over a series of articles reporting that he allegedly committed murder on an overseas deployment. Mr Roberts-Smith denies the allegations and says the reports are defamatory because they portray him as a war criminal. The newspapers are defending the claims and allege in court documents that Mr Roberts-Smith was involved in seven unlawful killings as an Australian soldier in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. Dhanush opens up on the trials and tribulations he has faced 1 day ago CLEVELAND, Ohio -- For three weeks after a Cleveland police officer shot pepper spray into her face while she was peacefully protesting, Misty Golinar essentially went into hiding. The 35-year-old service industry worker, who lost her job in March due to the coronavirus, moved out of her apartment in downtown Cleveland and into a relatives home in another county. She shaved the long blond hair off her head, deleted most of her social media accounts and started speaking with a friend who is a licensed counselor about the trauma she endured. 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 Associated Press SANTA FE State Public Education Secretary Ryan Stewart has returned to New Mexico and is self-quarantining as a precaution against coronavirus transmission after working remotely for several months from a home in Philadelphia, a state spokeswoman said Friday. Stewarts extended stay with family outside the state has prompted questions about the boundaries of remote work as much of the states workforce is urged to work from home to slow the spread of COVID-19. Judy Robinson, a spokeswoman for the Governors Office, said Stewart continues to use remote technology to conduct meetings with staff and meet other responsibilities while in isolation. New Mexico currently requires travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days when entering or returning to the state. In an advisory opinion Friday, the New Mexico State Ethics Commission said there is no residency requirement for Cabinet officials and that the Governmental Conduct Act only prohibits a remote-work arrangement that either inhibits the performance of statutorily defined duties or otherwise obstructs the advancement of the public interest. The commission as a whole said it didnt have enough information to judge whether Stewart met that standard while working from Philadelphia with sporadic visits to New Mexico. One commissioner, Frances Williams, said she feels strongly that the secretary of education specifically should live and work in New Mexico given the weight of responsibilities. A long-standing residency requirement for public employees was eliminated from state statute in 1979 because it prevented agencies from employing qualified people who live in nearby communities such as El Paso, Texas, and limited out-of-state recruiting efforts, the commission found in its research. Ethics Commissioner and former Gov. Garrey Carruthers said it may be time for state agencies and the Legislature to revisit the issue in light of the pandemic and new technologies. This working virtually is going to be more and more popular going forward, he said. Beijings top office in Hong Kong has slammed the United States for imposing ridiculous sanctions on senior Chinese and Hong Kong officials, dismissing the measures as clowning actions that would not frighten or intimidate Chinese people. The criticism on Saturday came hours after Washington announced sanctions on Luo Huining, the head of Chinas Liaison Office, as well as Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and other current and former officials that the US accuses of curtailing political freedoms in Hong Kong. The move ratchets up already strained tensions between the US and China, more than a month after Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation on semi-autonomous Hong Kong. The unscrupulous intentions of the US politicians to support the anti-China chaos in Hong Kong have been revealed, and their clowning actions are really ridiculous, the Liaison Office said in a statement. Intimidation and threats cannot frighten the Chinese people. Luo, the most senior mainland political official in the Chinese-controlled territory, said US sanctions on him indicated he was doing what he should be doing for my country and Hong Kong. Luo Huining said he welcomed being blacklisted by the US [File: Navesh Chitrakar/ Reuters] I dont have a dimes worth in foreign assets, he added. As well as Luo and Lam, the sanctions target Hong Kong police commissioner Chris Tang and his predecessor Stephen Lo; John Lee, Hong Kongs secretary of security, and Teresa Cheng, the justice secretary. Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing, was also on the list. The sanctions freeze any US assets of the officials and generally bar US citizens and groups from doing business with them. They were authorised by an executive order that US President Donald Trump signed recently to levy penalties against China for its efforts to curtail anti-government protesters in Hong Kong. Unreasonable and barbarous Hong Kong has long enjoyed civil liberties not seen in mainland China because it is governed under a one country, two systems framework in place since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. But the US Treasury Department said: The recent imposition of draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong has not only undermined Hong Kongs autonomy, it has also infringed on the rights of people in Hong Kong. The security legislation targets what China broadly defines as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison. Beijing imposed the law directly on Hong Kong just before midnight on June 30, circumventing the citys legislature, and the citys officials were not aware of the details of the law until it was implemented. Critics fear the legislation will crush Hong Kongs wide-ranging freedoms, while supporters of the law say it will bring stability after a year of sometimes violent anti-government protests that plunged the city into its biggest crisis in decades. Tang, the police chief, told local media on Saturday that maintaining the security of the country and Hong Kong was his responsibility and foreign sanctions were meaningless to him. Hong Kong Commerce Secretary Edward Yau called the sanctions unreasonable and barbarous and said they would harm US interests in the city, an Asian financial and shipping hub. Al Jazeeras Sarah Clarke, reporting from Hong Kong, said the tone of response from Hong Kong indicates theres potential for this city to reciprocate. We do believe it could target US individuals in the city, and potentially US companies operating here, she said. The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, which represents some 1,300 US companies, had expressed fears about the introduction of these national security laws in Hong Kong and forecasted that a number of companies may leave as a result. She added: Now, these sanctions introduced by the US mark a dramatic escalation in tensions not just between China and the US, but also Hong Kong and the US as well. The US measures come three months ahead of the November election in which Trump, who is behind his rival Joe Biden, is campaigning hard on an increasingly strident anti-Beijing message. On Thursday, Trump made good on previous threats against WeChat and TikTok two Chinese-owned apps with major audiences that US officials say pose a national security threat. In an executive order, he issued a sweeping but unspecified ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of the two apps. TikTok, a company owned by Beijing-headquartered ByteDance Ltd that has 100 million users in the US and hundreds of millions worldwide, said it does not store US user data in China, has not given information to Beijing or censored content at the Chinese governments request. WeChat declined to comment. Six more workers at Maple Leaf Foods' pork processing plant in Brandon were announced to have tested positive on Friday as the number of cases in the region continues to climb. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/8/2020 (528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Six more workers at Maple Leaf Foods' pork processing plant in Brandon were announced to have tested positive on Friday as the number of cases in the region continues to climb. News of new cases came from posts made to the websites of both Maple Leaf and United Food and Commercial Workers local 832, the union that represents workers at the plant. That brings the total number of COVID-19 cases among workers at the plant to ten. In a media briefing held Thursday afternoon, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin also announced 17 new cases in Manitoba, 10 of which in the Prairie Mountain Health region. Roussin said the cluster he first mentioned on Thursday has now grown to 34 people. It is unknown if all the cases at Maple Leaf are accounted for in that figure. Six other cases in the Brandon region have not been linked to the cluster, Roussin said. There are currently 44 active cases in Prairie Mountain Health, indicating 10 cases not related to the cluster, so it's unclear what Roussin meant when he cited these six cases. Roussin said it is still not believed that cases in the Brandon cluster were workplace-transmitted. Further, he said that it's not believed any Maple Leaf worker contracted the virus at work. "We're seeing some evidence of community transmission in Western Manitoba, most notably Brandon," Roussin said. "This is what we expect when we start seeing increasing numbers. So again, I'm advising people, especially in Western Manitoba, to ensure you're following public health advice to reduce risk." Roussin advised Manitobans to consider more frequent mask use. Jeff Traeger, the president of the union, again called for a temporary shutdown of operations at the plant after the new cases were announced. Both Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew and Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont had agreed with the union's calls for a temporary work stoppage on Thursday. However, Roussin said that the results of a joint inspection by Manitoba Public Health, Manitoba Workplace Safety & Health and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Thursday show that Maple Leaf have gone beyond the health requirements set out for them and that a shutdown is not warranted. Another issue raised by the union is whether workers are allowed to refuse to go to work by exercising their legal right to do so as written in Manitoba's labour laws. "This is not a simple answer. The Government of Manitoba has deemed food production workers as essential, and Public Health monitors the protocols that Maple Leaf has put into place," a post on UFCW's website reads. "If they are following these rules to lower the risk, then your workplace is ruled as safe by the Manitoba government, and also as 'low-risk' by Public Health." In a phone interview Friday, Traeger said this is the single-biggest issue the union is currently dealing with. "Our members do not want to go to work," he said. "Obviously, they need to go to work they need to get paid. They need to pay their bills and feed their family and all that stuff. But they absolutely are scared to go to work. They think they're facing an unusual risk that they shouldn't have to face." Traeger said 80 to 90 workers have been tested so far as a result of them coming into contact with other workers who have tested positive. As of Friday morning, there were approximately 80 workers self-isolating due to possible exposure at work or in the community. Some workers were self-isolating after interactions with "a small grocery store on 10th," he added. While he did not specifically name the business, the province announced last week that exposure to COVID-19 may have come from Asian Spices of Brandon at 437 10th St. Maple Leaf CEO Michael McCain asserted in a statement posted to the company's website late Friday afternoon that they continue to believe the Brandon plant is safe for workers. "Because the cases experienced by our team members are linked to community gatherings and interactions, and not to our plant, and because our Team Members all undergo extensive daily health and temperature screenings, wear personal protective equipment including face coverings, undergo constant sanitation and practice social distance within our plant, we are confident that our workplace is safe and we will continue operating. Public Health officials have said they support our decision." There are now 132 active cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba, with nine people hospitalized and three in intensive care. The five-day test positivity rate is currently at 1.1 per cent, up from 0.46 per cent on Tuesday. In recent weeks, the province has only released numbers of new cases on weekends without providing any further specifics. Roussin said that the province is ramping up its information distribution on weekends in response to demand from the public and this weekend's updates would be more "fulsome." cslark@brandonsun.com Twitter: @ColinSlark Lebanon President Michel Aoun said that the investigation into the Beirut explosion would examine whether it was triggered by a bomb or other external inference. Aoun told local media that the cause of the blast has not yet been determined, suggesting a possibility of external inference through a rocket or bomb or other act. The explosion rocked Lebanons capital and brought the city to a standstill for a moment, severely damaging buildings and establishments. According to the latest report, the incident has claimed at least 154 lives and injured more than 5,000 people. The Lebanese President said that the probe would also examine whether it happened to negligence or it was an accident. Beiruts governor Marwan Abboud had said that the damage due to the explosion in the citys portside warehouse extended over half of Lebanons capital and up to 300,000 have been left homeless. Abboud added that the cost of damage from the blast is over $3 billion, as it has severely damaged buildings and establishments in the city. Read: Beirut Blast: Pope Francis Sends Nearly $300,000 To Lebanon Church As 'initial Aid' Read: Beirut Explosion: UN Calls For Independent Investigation As Death Toll Continues To Rise UN allocates $15 million Meanwhile, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the agency has allocated $15 million to Lebanon after the massive explosion devastated the capital city. UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock released $6 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help the response to the Beirut port blast, bringing the total to $15 million after UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon released $9 million from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund. The funding will address primary health needs other urgent support to hospitals and provide shelter and food assistance to those most vulnerable affected by the explosion, and logistical support. Mark Lowcock, the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said in a statement that the blast ripped through a country already facing civil unrest, economic hardship, the coronavirus outbreak, and a heavy burden from the Syrian refugee crisis. Despite everything, the people of Lebanon have remained generous hosts to millions of Syrian refugees and a beacon of humanity for us all, said Lowcock. Read: Beirut Blast: UN Allocates $15 Million In Humanitarian Aid To Support Lebanon Read: Beirut Blast: UN Spokesperson Says No Formal Request For Investigation Made By Lebanon 08.08.2020 LISTEN President Nana Akufo-Addo has dismissed two local government chief executives and replaced them with new appointees, a statement from the sector minister, Hajia Alima Mahama has announced. They are the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the Amansie South District in the Ashanti Region, William Asante Bediako and Akwapim North Municipal Chief Executive, Dennis Aboagye. They have been replaced by Barima Awuah Sarpong Asiedu-Larbi for and Akwapim North Municipal Assembly and Clement Opoku Gyamfi for the Amansie South District Assembly. Abdul Mumin-Issah has been appointed to fill the position of the Metropolitan Chief Executive of Secondi-Takoradi in the Western Region, Anthony Kobina Kurentsir Sam, who passed away not long ago. In view of the above, the Hon. Regional Ministers for Western, Eastern and Ashanti regions are requested to liaise with the Regional Electoral Commission to conduct the confirmation process of the nominated Chief Executives, the statement signed by Hajia Mahama indicated. It is not clear what has triggered the dismissals, however, in the case of William Asante Bediako, he grabbed headlines recently for defending persons engaged in illegal mining activities in the Amansie South District. Mr Bediako was captured in a viral video stating his disagreement with the state-sponsored clampdown on illegal mining. Why would I not support galamsey? Had it not been for galamsey, we would not have had a storey building at Manso; had it not been galamsey and hardworking nature of the people of Manso, a young person from Manso would not have been able to purchase a car worth one billion Cedis, he is heard saying on the tape. According to reports, the video was shot at a ceremony to commission a toilet facility at Manso Tontokrom, a town within the district. President Akufo-Addo launched the Operation Vanguard to quell illegal mining activities have wreaked havoc to Ghana's freshwater bodies and vegetation across the country. Advertisement Thousands more maskless bikers have descended on a small town in South Dakota and crowded into bars ignoring social distancing rules. Bikers began arriving in Sturgis, South Dakota, Friday and continued to drive into the city on Saturday for one of the biggest motorcycle rallies in the world. The city of 7,000 usually sees an influx of around half a million bikers for the 10-day event although this year 250,000 are expected amid the pandemic. Mark Carstensen, mayor of Sturgis, South Dakota, said he was determined to encourage 'personal responsibility'. He said his team had set up sanitation stations and given out masks - although face coverings were not required. 'We cannot stop people from coming,' he told CNN on Thursday, ahead of the annual event which has run for 80 years. Health officials are still warning against even small gatherings, and states with relatively low spread - such as South Dakota - are ordering visitors from hot spots to self-quarantine. No restrictions are in place for the start of the 10-day jamboree, however. Sturgis, South Dakota, is set to welcome 250,000 people this weekend for a motorbike rally Covered in temporary tattoos, Josiah Sandoval, 7, stands for a portrait on Main Street in Sturgis on Saturday Bikers cruised down Main Street in Sturgis, South Dakota, on Saturday night as part of the annual festival Motorbike enthusiasts have flocked to South Dakota for the event, despite the concerns of some locals about COVID-19 Bars and restaurants in Deadwood (pictured) and neighboring Sturgis were packed with people on Saturday afternoon Motorcyclists ride on Main Street during the 80th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, in South Dakota, on Saturday The small town of Sturgis draws huge crowds every year for the annual motorbike festival and rally Motorbike riders are pictured flocking to Sturgis, South Dakota, on Saturday for a rally The annual event, now in its 80th year, draws 250,000 people to the town of Sturgis The motorcyclist event is estimated to bring in $1.3 million to the annual economy An estimated 250,000 people gather in South Dakota before heading out to explore the region Worried residents say officials should have canceled the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Kristi Noem, the Republican governor, resisted stay-at-home orders and mask rules, and last month welcomed another mass event, President Donald Trump's Fourth of July weekend speech at the foot of Mount Rushmore. A city survey found that more than 60 per cent of Sturgis residents wanted the event postponed, the Associated Press reported. 'This is a huge, foolish mistake to make to host the rally this year,' said Linda Chaplin, a Sturgis resident, in a message to city counselors earlier this summer. 'The government of Sturgis needs to care most for its citizens.' 'My grandma is absolutely terrified because she has diabetes and is in her 80s and has lupus,' another resident told CNN. 'If she gets it, it's a death sentence.' The event, in South Dakota's Black Hills, is hugely important to the local economy, bringing in $1.3 million in city and state tax revenue last year, according to the Argus Leader. A mayor's letter overviewing Sturgis describes how the city 'comes alive' with half a million visitors during a typical August rally, suddenly transformed into 'the largest community in the state' with concerts and races. On June 15, city council members voted 8 to 1 to continue with the motorbike rally - albeit without the usual seating in a plaza. Speaking Thursday to CNN, Carstensen said that keeping the rally has been 'a difficult decision.' He noted that the city will be expanding a program to deliver supplies to the homes of those worried about the virus. But there are no quarantine recommendations for bikers from hot spot states, the mayor said, and leaders are just 'hoping people make the right choices.' Visitors have already been flocking to the Black Hills amid the pandemic, he said. 'We hope people come,' Noem said of the motorcycle rally. 'Our economy benefits when people come and visit us.' A man prepares to set off on his motorbike in South Dakota on Saturday A woman readies to ride her Harley Davidson in Sturgis, South Dakota, on Saturday A dog rides on a motorcycle through downtown Deadwood, South Dakota, on Saturday A motorbike rider is pictured on Main Street, Sturgis, on Saturday ahead of the rally Trump supporters proudly displayed their allegiance at the rally in South Dakota on Saturday Up to 250,000 people are expected at the South Dakota rally, pictured on Saturday Bikers from across the United States have descended on South Dakota for the annual rally Up to 250,000 people are expected in South Dakota for the annual jamboree in Sturgis Noem denounced 'herd mentality' and said coronavirus restrictions were not right for her rural state. 'South Dakota is not New York City,' she said. A South Dakota pork-processing plant soon became one of the country's biggest coronavirus clusters in the spring - but cases eventually dipped and the sparsely populated state did not shatter daily records this summer like many Southern and Western states. Average new daily cases reported in South Dakota have risen in recent weeks but remain under 100, and the state records an average of one or two covid-19 deaths a day. The state health department on Saturday reported 106 new cases. There have been 9,300 cases and 146 deaths in the state, which has a population of 885,000 people. Benjamin Aaker, the president of the South Dakota State Medical Association, told CNN on Thursday that he is worried - but insisted the rally can be held safely if people follow recommendations such as social distancing, hand-washing and wearing masks. 'It's already here,' he said of the coronavirus. 'But is it going to get worse with an event such as this? 'If we don't take those proper precautions, it will.' Crowds of 250,000 people attended the 10-day motorcycling festival in Sturgis, South Dakota The sunset on Saturday evening lights up storm clouds over the Sturgis Harley-Davidson dealership Bikers from all around the country had travelled to South Dakota for the eagerly-awaited annual event (Natural News) On July 31, The Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivan wrote a scathing critique of the recent Americas Frontline Doctors (AFD) White Coat Summit event, calling it a grouping of fringe doctors spouting dangerous falsehoods about hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 wonder cure. But are these doctors truly wrong as the mainstream media continues to claim? While the Post and others have continued to cite a single study conducted on U.S. Veterans Affairs patients who supposedly died from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) after taking HCQ, this study was inherently flawed in that it had an extremely small sample size, and involved giving the drug only to the sickest patients who were already dying due to old age and preexisting conditions. This study was very quickly debunked, it is important to note, though the mainstream media has continued to cite it as evidence that HCQ is ineffective and dangerous. Further, states like Ohio have actually tried to ban the use of HCQ altogether based on this debunked study, falsely claiming that HCQ might kill patients who try to use it. It had been posted on a non-peer-reviewed medical archive that specifically warns that studies posted on its website should not be reported in the media as established information, writes Steven Hatfill for Real Clear Politics. Yet, the Post and countless other news outlets did just the opposite, making repeated claims that hydroxychloroquine was ineffective and caused serious cardiac problems. Why isnt the Post talking about how coronavirus damages the heart? What the mainstream media is also failing to tell people is that one of the symptoms associated with Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) infection is heart damage, including irregular heartbeat and sometimes fatal heart rhythms. In other words, a symptom of the disease itself is being blamed on a drug that is sometimes being used to treat it. In some instances where the mainstream media did not cite this flawed and debunked VA study blaming heart deaths on HCQ, they instead cited another flawed study out of Brazil that was stopped because HCQ supposedly killed 11 patients. The truth, though, is that these 11 patients were given lethal cumulative doses of HCQ that would have killed anyone had they been given such unnaturally high doses of this or any other pharmaceutical. Even Fox News has been on a crusade against HCQ, with host Neil Cavuto infamously claiming after President Donald Trump announced that he was taking HCQ himself that This will kill you! The President of the United States just acknowledged that he is taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug that [was] meant really to treat malaria and lupus, Cavuto went on to explain. When this, too, failed, the mainstream media then moved on to the infamous Lancet study, which like the other two studies was debunked after it was learned that the authors were paid consultant hacks, meaning the study was fraudulent from the get-go. Even so, the damage from the repeated media fear-mongering about these three debunked studies has already been done. Millions of Trump-hating leftists refuse to believe that HCQ holds any potential to help Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) patients, and still millions of others are simply too afraid to use it, or simply do not care one way or another. Patients were afraid to take the drug, doctors became afraid to prescribe it, pharmacies refused to fill prescriptions, and in a rush of incompetent analysis and non-existent senior leadership, the FDA revoked its Emergency Use Authorization for the drug, Hatfill adds, offering a more in-depth analysis of the history of HCQ that you can read at this link. More of the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is available at Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: RealClearPolitics.com NaturalNews.com Highway from Cancun to Tulum to be expanded for train Riviera Maya, Q.R. The highway from Cancun to Tulum will be expanded to create room for the upcoming Maya Train project. The announcement came from Raul Bermudez Arreola of Fonatur Quintana Roo, who explained that the section to Tulum is part of an unsolicited proposal that has already been submitted to the federal government. In this unsolicited proposal, they propose to start the expansion of the highway from Cancun to Playa del Carmen to three lanes due to the need for that road, which is now a boulevard and with the Maya Train project, the modification to include the railway lines fit perfectly, he said. New proposal shows highway expansion from Cancun to Tulum According to Fonatur, the decision of who will tender the project will be made August 24th. The expanded highway would begin just after the Cancun International Airport and run all the way to Tulum, which the agency notes, would provide safety for drivers as well as greater fluidity. Roger Leonard Murphy, Jr., age 80 from Newburg, Maryland died August 4, 2020 in California, Maryland. He was born on February 29, 1940 (a leap year baby) in La Plata, Maryland to Roger Leonard and Myrtle Valerie Murphy. In addition to his parents, he was also predeceased by two of his sisters, Leonardine V. Norris and Katherine M. Boarman. He is survived by his siblings, Joseph R. Murphy (Cathy) and Benjamin T. Murphy (Peppi) of Newburg, Maryland, Mary L. Estevez (Don) of Lexington Park, Maryland, and David F. Murphy (Sarah) of Las Vegas, Nevada; and numerous family, friends, and classmates. Roger graduated from Archbishop Neale High School in 1958. During his school years, he developed an aptitude for photography and was always seen with his 'brownie' camera A this grew to be an avocation in his adult life where he took photos for hundreds of weddings, birthdays, church functions, anniversaries, and other special events in and around Southern Maryland and the DC area. In his travels, after taking so many pictures, if you ran into him out and about his favorite saying was, "I bet I've flashed you." He began his career with Blue Cross Blue Shield in DC until he joined the U.S. Army in December 1959 with friends under the "buddy system." He received his basic training in Ft. Jackson, South Carolina and was then transferred to Schweinfurt, Germany where he remained until the end of his tour. While in Germany, he traveled extensively and remained in touch with many he met over the years. In 1962 he returned to the States and resumed his career at Blue Cross. In 1974, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Rosslyn, Virginia employed him where he remained until his retirement in 2001. Roger's early years were spent with his family on Mt. Victoria Road and after graduation he lived in the DC area until he returned to Charles County in 1990. He continued to travel during his lifetime and enjoyed taking family members on trips all over the U.S. His travels included Alaska, Central Europe, and New Zealand A always traveling with family and friends. He was always interested in family genealogy and hosted a number of family reunions at the family farms over the years. He could not go without meeting up with a fellow cousin around the county. He was equally welcoming to all who knew him and always had friends and family visiting and spending time with him. For many years, he hosted the reunion of his ANS High School class. He was particularly fond of his nieces and nephews whom he mentored and/or assisted whenever he could. Roger was an active member of Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Issue and a member of the American Legion. Visitation on Thursday, August 20, 2020 from 9:30AM until Mass of Christian Burial at 11AM at Holy Ghost Issue Catholic Church, 15848 Rock Point Road, Newburg, Maryland 20664. Interment to follow at 12:45PM at St. Mary's Newport Catholic Church Cemetery, 11555 St. Mary's Church Road, Charlotte Hall, Maryland 20622. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Charles County (2505 Davis Road, Waldorf, Maryland 20603) or Hospice of St. Mary's (PO Box 625, Leonardtown, Maryland 20650. A factory worker died while his friend suffered severe injuries after a speeding truck hit their motorcycle on Chandigarh road near Fortis Hospital on Saturday. The victim was identified as Sumit Verma, 30, of Moga Colony, Mundian. He was the nephew of a local Congress leader Susheel Kumar Sheela. The injured man was identified as Deepak Kumar, 28. Sumit and Deepak worked in a factory and were returning after finishing up for the day. Police said as the duo reached near Fortis Hospital, a speeding truck hit their motorcycle. In the mishap, Sumit died on the spot. Deepaks legs were crushed and he was rushed to a nearby hospital, from where the doctors referred him to PGIMER, Chandigarh. Inspector Mohammad Jamil, SHO at Focal Point police station, said that a case of rash driving and causing death due to negligence was registered against the truck driver and a hunt was on to nab him. Sumit is survived by a wife and two children. Sushant Singh Rajput's father KK Singh has filed a counter affidavit in the Supreme Court against Rhea Chakraborty's plea to transfer the actor's death case from Patna to Mumbai. KK Singh had lodged an FIR in Patna against Rhea on July 25. Singh accused Rhea of abetting his son's suicide, among other allegations. Rhea has sought transfer of the FIR on the ground of jurisdiction. Singh, 74, stated in the affidavit that since the investigation into the FIR has already been transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Rhea's plea seeking transfer of probe to Mumbai stands "infructuous." In the affidavit, he also alleged that Rhea has taken a "U-turn," saying that when she herself asked the Home Minister for a CBI inquiry then she cannot have grievances anymore. #SushantSinghRajput's father, KK Singh (in file pic), files counter affidavit before Supreme Court stating the investigation in the FIR has already been transferred to CBI and thus Rhea Chakraborty's plea seeking transfer of probe to Mumbai stands infructuous. pic.twitter.com/7SogFJkH3C ANI (@ANI) August 8, 2020 The actress, in her interim pleas filed with the pending transfer petition, said, it is becoming increasingly evident through the widespread media reports that the captioned FIR (at Patna) was successfully filed in Patna only due to intervention of the Chief Minister of Bihar and other local politicians." The Supreme Court will hear Rhea Chakraborty's plea in connection to the FIR filed by Sushant's father on August 11, Tuesday. The Supreme Court Wednesday said the truth behind the death of "gifted and talented artist" Sushant Singh Rajput should come out, even as the Centre informed that it accepted the recommendation of the Bihar government to initiate a CBI inquiry in the matter. The apex court also asked Mumbai Police to place before it the status report of the probe conducted so far in Sushant's death case. SATURDAY PUZZLE Today we almost have a double debut its Sid Sivakumars second effort (after an excellent Monday grid), and we havent seen Brooke Husic in The New York Times before, although she constructs elsewhere, including USA Today and independent venues (including Mr. Sivakumars, if you want to go full circle). This puzzle is full of debuts and personality, and it has an assertive feel to it that I absolutely love, definitely a challenge that is more than the sum of its amusing, corny, profound and confounding parts. Puzzling Things to Do While Youre at Home Lollapuzzoola 13 will happen on Saturday, Aug. 15. Its a virtual tournament this year, and its roster of constructors includes both of todays names, as well as Rachel Fabi, joon pahk, Stella Zawistowski and Robyn Weintraub (who would certainly implore all of you to register now!). This promises to be a lively scene that you should join, especially since you dont have to worry about not knowing anyone while youre at home, right? The tournament runs from 1 to 7 p.m., and you can also buy the puzzles to solve on your own time. Also, a late-breaking event: In partnership with the Lamplighter Brewing Co., Ross Trudeau is sharing some of his vast and chaotic construction knowledge in a virtual crossword-creation workshop on Sunday, Aug. 9, at 7:30 p.m. Proceeds benefit BAGLY, the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth, and you should sign up for this one as soon as possible. (Now? Why not now?) Thats two weekends sorted by September you will be constructing your own puzzles and solving them at lightning speed. Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex officially stepped down as senior royals in March and have been residing in California ever since. Now, a new book is putting the spotlight back on what their lives were like in the royal family as well as their relationships with everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to Prince William to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. The relationship, or lack thereof, between Harrys wife and Williams wife interest a lot of fans since it appears that the two women never really bonded. Heres more on why that is and if the first gift Meghan gave her Kate was appropriate. Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle | UK Press Pool/UK Press via Getty Images RELATED: Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle Are Banned From Wearing These Colors Around Queen Elizabeth What Meghan Markle gave Kate Middleton for her birthday? Prince Harry introduced his then-girlfriend to Kate at her and Williams Kensington Palace apartment in January 2017, a few months after Meghan met Harrys brother. The future-Duke and Duchess of Sussex described getting together with the Cambridges during their post-engagement interview. William was longing to meet her and so was Catherine, so you know being our neighbors we managed to get that in a couple of well, quite a few times now, Harry said. Meghan then injected and described Kate as wonderful. Amazing, as has William as well, you know, fantastic support, Harry added. But behind the scenes, all may not have been well between the princes. According to multiple reports, William voiced concerns about Harry moving too quickly in his relationship with Meghan. When Williams wife met Meghan biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand write in the book Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, that the Suits star gave Kate a leather-bound dream journal. Was that gift inappropriate? Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton | Chris Jackson WPA Pool/Getty Images Meghan decided to give Kate a present since they met right around her 35th birthday. A number of royal watchers deemed the gift inappropriate to give the future queen consort. Vanity Fair writers Josh Duboff and Julie Miller opined on their In the Limelight podcast, that the gift was questionable and seemed more like something Meghan would purchase for herself since she enjoys writing and ran a blog. The hosts called the present bohemian. The Daily Mirrors Polly Hudson also disagreed with Meghan giving Kate such a gift because of how much work logging a dream journal can be. Dreams are just the worst, Hudson said. The only way (the gift) could be more dull is if she had to document other peoples dreams, because theres nothing on earth more boring than them. She added that Meghans present which is intended to give one a better understanding your waking life emotions, stresses, victories, and mental well-being, was passive-aggressive. Why the duchesses never bonded? Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle | Michael Steele/Getty Images Whether or not Kate ever used the gift isnt known but its clear to most that the duchesses never really bonded. Finding Freedom confirms that and claims that Meghan was disappointed she and sister-in-law didnt connect over their unique experience of marrying into the royal family. Their relationship hadnt progressed much since she was Harrys girlfriend. Meghan envisioned Kate would reach out and help her understand everything an outsider to the Firm needed to know, Scobie and Durand wrote as noted in an excerpt published by The Times. That didnt happen. Meghan was disappointed that she and Kate hadnt bonded over the position they shared, but she wasnt losing sleep over it. Some royal fans have concluded that since the Sussexes are friendly with Scobie and Durand that a majority of the information in the book comes directly from the couple and that it will read like their tell-all. However, a spokesperson for the pair denied that they had any involvement. Finding Freedom is slated to be released on Aug. 11. Dubai-based Ijaz Ummar and his seven-month-pregnant wife Jasleena are left stunned at their narrow escape, for she was slated to be on the Air India Express flight that crashed at Kozhikode on Friday evening, leaving at least 18 passengers and crew members dead. Ummar said he was in office when Jasleena called him to say that she needed a fitness certificate to board the flight. "There was a delay in getting that since it was a Friday (weekend in the UAE) and despite making all efforts, it could not be obtained," he said. Consequently, Jasleena's trip was postponed and the couple did not think any more about it till they began receiving frantic calls from their relatives in hometown Kozhikode in the evening. "All were asking if she was on the flight. We had failed to inform relatives that her trip was postponed," Ummar said. Jasleena said both of them are still in shock after watching the news of the crash on TV. "Feel sad seeing all the visuals. While we are thanking God, we are also praying for all those who are suffering. Do not know what to say and how to express our feelings," she said. The couple feel Jasleena's trip got postponed because of the 'lucky' expected new addition to their family, which comes after a five-year-long wait. Jasleena has now got a new booking and is to reach Kozhikode on Sunday night. President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday reminded the military of their sacred duty to protect Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic or religious backgrounds. Mr Buhari spoke at the Passing Out Parade of 114 medics of the Nigerian Air Force Short Service Course 29, in Kaduna. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 114 cadets included medical doctors, pharmacists, nurses, veterinary doctors, dentists, and radiologists, among others, who underwent six months training at the Military Training Centre (MTC) Kaduna. Let me remind you that we are in a democratic government where you are subjected to both military and civil laws. Hence, you must subordinate yourself to civil authority and protect our growing democracy. You should be vigilant, guard your utterances, and conduct at all times. You must also not allow yourself to be used by some elements in the society to compromise national security or act in ways capable of denting the image of the Armed Forces. Your duty is to protect all Nigerians irrespective of their ethnic background or religious inclination. Your loyalty must therefore never be in doubt at any point in time as an officer, the Commander-in-Chief stressed. President Buhari, who was the reviewing officer at the passing out parade, charged the officers to be ready to consolidate the recent and rapid expansion of medical facilities put in place by the current leadership of the NAF. You have every reason to feel proud and fulfilled for what you have achieved. It is important to remind you that this is the beginning of yet another challenging but rewarding career as young officers in the Nigerian Air Force. He added: I expect that you will do your best to further enhance NAFs efforts towards boosting qualitative healthcare for personnel, their dependants and among residents of NAF host communities including sustaining medical outreaches for civilians and victims of insurgency and banditry. I am confident that you will be able to cope with the demanding tasks ahead, given the quality of training that you have received. This pragmatic approach to promote civil-military relations will go a long way in winning the hearts and minds of the communities, thus assisting in timely containment of insurgency, banditry and other security challenges. I understand that all the cadets graduating today are well-trained medical consultants, nurses and support staff diligently selected for the six months basic military training, which is culminating into you being commissioned into the Nigerian Air Force. The military profession requires absolute discipline, loyalty and hard work among other virtues. The president, who was represented by Chief of Defence Staff, Abayomi Olonisakin, stressed that as medical professionals, their services would be required to save lives as the military battle insurgency and other security challenges. Immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Abayomi Olonisakin [PHOTO CREDIT: defencehq.mil.ng/gallery] Such noble service demands exceptional courage, commitment and patriotism and Nigeria will continue to demand such qualities from you. Mr Buhari assured Nigerians that the government was doing so much to confront the security challenges bedevilling the country by taking necessary measures to safeguard lives and properties and to drastically cut off all forms of criminalities. I gladly inform you and indeed all Nigerians that the Nigerian Air Force is consistently supporting these government efforts. READ ALSO: He, therefore, urged them to positively deploy the training that has been inculcated in them to defend Nigerias territorial integrity and interest. The president commended the Chief of the Air Staff for his robust capacity initiatives responsible for a disciplined, highly professional, and timely deployable air force. Mr Buhari also congratulated the graduating cadets for withstanding the rigours of the training. Advertisements I celebrate with you and your families, friends and loved ones on this day, the president said. NAN reports that awards were given to cadets who distinguished themselves during the course. After the passing out parade, the cadets were formally commissioned to their various ranks by the reviewing officer. (NAN) IDF Troops Say Downed Drone in Northern Israel on Border With Lebanon Sputnik News 14:47 GMT 07.08.2020(updated 14:48 GMT 07.08.2020) TEL AVIV (Sputnik) Earlier in the day, warning signals about a possible rocket attack sounded in the country's north. The IDF then said that it was a false alarm over a suspected drone infiltration. The Israeli forces shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle in the country's north on the border with Lebanon in the early hours of Friday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said. The army continues to maintain the operational status on its northern border to prevent any possible attack, the IDF added in a statement. The so-called Blue Line is a border that has been established between the two countries by the United Nations back in 2000 and named after the color of helmets of peacekeepers stationed on it. Over the past few weeks, tensions between Israel and Lebanon escalated due to the murder of one of the Hezbollah movement's members in an Israeli airstrike in the south of Syria's Damascus. In response, Hezbollah issued an official warning of retaliation. The Israeli army has since boosted its military presence along the border with Lebanon and Syria. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A day after the Enforcement Directorate interrogated actor Rhea Chakraborty in connection with money laundering allegations levelled against her by Sushant Sing Rajputs father, the actor said in a statement that the only thing she had in her possession were a note of gratitude and a water bottle - both belonging to the late actor. I am grateful for my life, I am grateful for Lillu in my life. I am grateful for Bebu in my life. I am grateful for sir in my life. I am grateful for maam in my life. I am grateful for Fudge in my life. I am grateful for all the love in my life, read the note released by Chakraborty. Explaining the names in the Sushants note, Chakraborty left a message, saying, And this is his handwriting Lillu is Showik, Bebu is me, sir is my dad, maam is my mom, Fudge is his dog. However, it wasnt clear when the note was written or how she found it. The only property of Sushant that I possess, said Chakraborty posting the image of a water bottle which she claims is of the late actor. The ED questioned actor Rhea Chakraborty for over eight hours on Friday. The agency, which investigates money laundering and foreign exchange violations, questioned Chakrabortys brother, Showik, and her business manager, Shruti Modi, who also worked for Rajput. Their statements were recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Requesting anonymity, ED officials privy to the details said the agency was looking into Chakrabortys income tax returns and investments. The officials said Chakraborty responded to most of the questions. ED is expected to focus on Chakrabortys income, business deals and professional deals. The ED filed a case on July 31 on the basis of a first information report (FIR) by the Bihar Police. The FIR was registered following a complaint by Rajputs father KK Singh who accused Chakraborty and her family of abetting the Bollywood actors suicide and siphoning of his money. He also alleged that his sons credit cards were with Chakraborty. In addition to the ED, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), too, has launched a probe on the request of Bihar and has named Chakraborty, her brother and four other family members apart from unknown persons as accused. Chakraborty initially refused to appear before the agency, citing her appeal pending before the Supreme Court. She has requested that the FIR filed in Patna be transferred to Mumbai, arguing that Bihar Police have no jurisdiction. Bihar rejected the claim. The Ukrainian company Naftogaz thanked the US senators for the threats against the Fahrhafen Sassnitz GmbH company, which operates the port of Mukran in the German city of Sassnitz. "We thank the senators for their consistent and principled position," the message posted on the Naftogaz official page in Facebook reads. Recall that earlier three American senators sent a letter to the German port, threatening with possible sanctions in connection with the company's participation in supporting the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. A 600 km-long highway will be constructed along the border touching all picturesque tourist spots in the Kashmir Valley, each of which will be "another Gulmarg", Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam has said. The Rs 8,000 crore road project will connect Gulmarg with Kargil and Drass in Ladakh. "We are planning to construct a 600 km road which will touch tourist attractions like Keran, Gurej and Machhal. The road will connect all unexplored tourist spots and picturesque valleys and help open them for the tourists," Subrahmanyam told a group of visiting journalists. The chief secretary said there will be 12-13 major tunnels along the road and it will also facilitate connectivity to the forward locations. "Each of these tourist locations will be another Gulmarg," he said. While picturesque Keran and Machhal are located along the Line of Control in Kupwara district, Gurez is a valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains in Bandipora district. Kargil and Drass now fall under the Union Territory of Ladakh. Gulmarg, located about 50 km from Srinagar, is one of the best tourist attractions in the country with its snow-clad mountains, magnificent beauty and winter game facilities. The chief secretary said the Jammu and Kashmir administration has also intensified construction of rural roads. "Earlier, on an average 1,300 km rural road was built in a year but now we are planning to build 5,000 km rural road in a year," he said. Referring to the efforts being made for creation of employment opportunities, Subrahmanyam said the administration has plans to create 4-5 lakh jobs in the coming years in sectors like the services and Information Technology (IT). "We have many good doctors, engineers and a huge pool of English knowing people. The potential in Jammu and Kashmir is huge. We will have to just leverage them," he said. The chief secretary also said the Jammu and Kashmir administration is constructing two huge IT towers with 5 lakh sq feet area in Srinagar and Jammu each. After the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, a total of 2,273 infrastructure projects worth Rs 5,979 crore, which had been pending for over five to ten years, were sanctioned and 506 of them completed. Some of the works done so far include strengthening of the panchayat structure, completion of phase 1 of Jhelum flood mitigation project, creation of 10,000 jobs and opening up of 50 new degree colleges. Subrahmanyam said the coronavirus pandemic could not hit the agricultural and horticulture sectors much. Nearly 15 lakh families (total 75 lakh people) and about four lakh government employees (total 16 lakh dependents) are dependent on these sectors. However, the sectors badly hit by COVID-19 were tourism, transportation and other business establishments. "People of Jammu and Kashmir are more resilient when it comes to lockdowns, having witnessed many separatist-induced shutdowns in long years. I can say confidently that COVID-19's impact on Jammu and Kashmir economy will be the least among all states and UTs," he said. On the now delayed proposed Global Investment Summit, Subrahmanyam said the event may be held in the next financial year in view of COVID-19 situation. ? Also Read: Will adopt wait and watch strategy in 'dream job', says Nokia's new CEO Pekka Lundmark Also Read: Air India Express crash: Deceased passenger tests COVID-19 positive The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the management of Turkish Air, Air Peace and Bristow Helicopters to reinstate all the sacked workers within two weeks. NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said this in a statement on Friday in Abuja, while condemning the recent sack of 75 Pilots by Air Peace and 100 pilots/engineers by Bristow Helicopters. Wabba said NLC also rejected sack of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) executives working with the Turkish Air. We call on the management of Turkish Air, Air Peace and Bristow Helicopters to reinstate all the sacked workers within two weeks. As agreed between labour and employers association, social dialogue should be used to resolve industrial concerns instead of the current resort to unilateralism. We will not hesitate to mobilise the weight of the entire Nigerian workforce to the premises of Turkish Air, Air Peace and Bristow Helicopters if our demands are not met, he said. The NLC President said that the sack was traumatic for workers who were still reeling from psychological and socio-economic difficulties imposed by the recent lockdown measures. He said that the sack of Air Turkish, Air Peace and Bristow Helicopters workers was highly insensitive, callous, and unjust. Waba said that the unilateral sack of executive members of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) working with Turkish Airline was particularly distressing. These workers were sacked for fighting for the rights of Nigerian workers in Turkish Air. This is very reprehensible. We wish to remind Turkish Air that unionised workers cannot be punished or sacked for participating in trade union activities. This action is aimed at frustrating unionisation in Turkish Air and to enslave Nigerians working with Turkish Air, he said. Former President John Dramani Mahama, Flagbearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has indicated that his administration in 2021 after winning the 2020 general election will implement the Free Senior High School in a better way. According to the NDC Flagbearer, the Free SHS Policy which was introduced by his main opponent President Nana Akufo-Addo has come to stay, making it impossible for any government including his next government to put a stop to it. Free SHS Education has come to stay. If anybody tells you that I John Dramani Mahama, son of E.A Mahama will abolish Free SHS when I come, tell the person he is s bloody liar, he assured. During his courtesy call on the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Abukari II, former President John Mahama clarified that inasmuch as the Free Senior High School is a good policy, it is being implemented by the Akufo-Addo government in a wrong way as it is creating a great inconvenience for parents, students and teachers. What I am against is the poor implementation of the Free SHS, which is creating a great inconvenience for the parents, for the students and for the teachers. The point I have made is that we can implement it better, he mentioned. The Free SHS, introduced in September 2017, meant that the fees of every child in Ghana, who gained admission to a public Senior High School, will be absorbed by the government. It also meant free tuition, admission, textbooks, library fees, science centre fees, fees for ICT, examination fees, utility fees, boarding, and meals. This, the government believed, will remove any cost barrier that prevents students from achieving their educational goals. The policy, however, has not been spared from challenges. The increased rate of admissions cased a shortage of infrastructure in some schools with students allegedly forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor. Subsequently, government introduced a double-track system to alleviate the living challenges. Students were divided into two tracks, gold and green, and took turns going to school. The development, which saw the gold track in school and green at home and vice versa periodically, was widely criticized by many Ghanaians and civil society groups. In view of the challenged associated with the implementation of the Free SHS Policy, former President John Mahama said the challenge would not have existed in the first place if the Akufo-Addo government had completed the 200 senior high school building projects he started. If this government had followed our plan of continuing with the 200 new Senior Secondary Schools we were building, we wont have current situation that we have in our Free SHS Plan, 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. Featured Video According to various reports coming out of the country, North Korea is increasingly doubling down on its efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. As The Diplomat writes, although officially Pyongyang has yet to confirm a single case, and the infection rate remains unknown, sources inside the country paint a grim picture of the true impact the pandemic is having on the population. How bad is the spread of the virus really and what has Pyongyang been doing about it? First Suspected Infection On July 26, North Korean state media finally announced its first suspected case of COVID-19 within the country. The announcement came after months of reporting zero cases of the virus inside its borders. But this wasnt an ordinary citizen who happened to catch the virus inside the country. According to leader Kim Jong Un, the person in question was actually a defector who fled South Korea back into North Korea in mid-July. According to state media reports, the man was arrested after spending a few days in the border city of Kaesong and was showing signs of a potential COVID-19 infection. Authorities were subsequently ordered to seal off the entire city and dispatch health officials to the area. The South Korean government did admit to the re-defection. But despite the Norths dramatic announcement, the South made clear that the man in question was unlikely to be infected with COVID-19. On Wednesday, the World Health Organizations representative for North Korea told Reuters that the person in question had been tested for COVID-19, but test results were inconclusive. All of this raises various questions. Why did Pyongyang choose to use this defector as its first potential COVID-19 case and announce it to the world in such a dramatic way? To shift the blame, perhaps? If the country is indeed dealing with other outbreaks of the virus, it would help the government save face by simply blaming the situation on a defector from the South. This might also provide Pyongyang with an excuse to request much-needed international medical aid to help ease the governments burden in dealing with possible outbreaks. Information on the Ground North Korean residents are, however, not convinced by the governments story of the defector being the countrys first possible COVID-19 case. Various ordinary North Koreans are skeptical of this narrative, since numerous suspected infections have already been identified in towns bordering both China and Russia. More recently, investigations conducted with local North Koreans by ASIAPRESS have revealed that the virus may have spread to at least three of North Koreas nine provinces. According to local sources, COVID-19 infections have been reported in Pyongsong, South Pyongan province; Sariwon, North Hwanghae province; and parts of South Hwanghae province. The same report also noted that travel between provinces is almost impossible and contact with people from other regions is not allowed. Even through movement restrictions were slightly eased in June, strict measures are back in place and people are being ordered to be more careful than ever. Quarantine measures are also being strictly enforced. Anyone suspected of having contracted the virus is ordered to stay home and wait to be diagnosed by health officials. Any family members of the suspected patient are put in special quarantine facilities designated by the government to prevent a possible spread of the virus. Moreover, according to sources in North Hamgyong province, authorities are not reporting details about the number of infections in order not to frighten residents. People living in the area are resorting to eating kimchi, red pepper paste, and garlic to try and prevent infection. Given the country-wide shortage of medicine due to the prolonged border blockade with China, there isnt much else ordinary North Koreans can do besides trying home remedies and washing hands frequently. Increased Crackdowns at Borders North Korean authorities have also stepped up their efforts in policing the countrys border areas. Given that China is still recording new virus infections, North Korean border guards have been ordered to remain on high alert. According to a local Ryanggang province military source, the central government this week went as far as deploying 1,500 elite special forces soldiers to the provinces border area with China. The increased presence of soldiers is reportedly aimed at preventing people in the border region from defecting to China as well as preventing illicit smuggling activities near the border. A crackdown on smuggling has been especially noticeable recently given the ongoing border blockade and lack of many essential goods at local North Korean markets. Despite the dangers, some people have nevertheless defied government orders and tried to smuggle in goods from across the border to make a living. In other cases, incidents of smuggling among high-level officials has also been reported recently. North Korean authorities have also been ordered to strengthen border security near the city of Hyesan to prevent the spread of the virus. Extra wire fencing has been installed to try and prevent smuggling from taking place. Here, too, smuggling activities have continued despite the governments best efforts. However, locals in the city say the fencing will have little impact on smuggling given its low quality and inability to block every area of the Sino-North Korea border. In another recent example, authorities also ordered the lockdown of a major port after coronavirus-infected goods were detected among (illegal) imports that arrived in mid-July. The government has banned any other goods from entering the port and dispatched disease control officials from the central government to the site. An All-People Campaign Aimed at Beating the Virus Throughout the spread of the pandemic, the North Korean government has continuously promoted various behaviors to the public through its various propaganda channels to try and prevent the spread of the virus. Washing hands and wearing masks were some of the most basic things people were told to do. More recently, state-run media outlet DPRK Today posted an article on Monday detailing the governments anti-epidemic work. According to the piece, the anti-epidemic work is being carried out as an all-people campaign involving the entire society. People must wear a face mask out of duty and control and encourage each other to do the same. The article also mentioned that a thoroughgoing medical examination is being conducted across the country to find out those with fever and abnormal symptoms, while anti-epidemic posts installed in key spots across the country are rigidly conducting disinfection and medical examination of personnel, goods and vehicles. Coronavirus Isnt the Only Health Concern According to a recent Yonhap News report, the death rate of North Koreans suffering from chronic illness is expected to rise this year. Due to the shortage of medicine in the country, people suffering from chronic illnesses are at increased risk during these difficult times. As per the report, 80 percent of all deaths in North Korea are caused by chronic diseases. This means that the danger posed by a lack of medicine, a byproduct of the closed border with China, may be much greater than the risk posed by the coronavirus. Besides illnesses, major food shortages are yet another concern plaguing the minds of many North Korean citizens these days. Although the countrys food situation is generally not good, things are much worse this year. The situation has gotten so bad that the central government reportedly allowed some provincial governments to release food reserves meant for war time. Food rations per person have dwindled over the months and food insecurity is once again one of the top problems throughout the country. An Unpredictable Future With COVID-19 cases continuing to surge around the world, it is impossible to predict when this pandemic will finally come to an end. It is also difficult to estimate when North Korea will deem it safe enough to reopen its borders with China and allow its desperate citizens to resume trading activities. Seven months after the border closure first came into place, North Koreas economic and health situation seems to be reaching dangerously new low points. Facing troubles from every possible direction, Pyongyangs decisions over the next few weeks will be crucial in deciding how best to get the country out of this dark hole it is currently in. Clostridium Vaccine Market Research Report by Animal Type (Bovine, Ovine, Poultry, and Swine), by Distribution Channel (Hospitals, Veterinary Clinics, and Veterinary Research Institute) - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 New York, Aug. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Clostridium Vaccine Market Research Report by Animal Type, by Distribution Channel - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913851/?utm_source=GNW The Global Clostridium Vaccine Market is expected to grow from USD 416.46 Million in 2019 to USD 591.30 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.01%. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Clostridium Vaccine to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Animal Type, the Clostridium Vaccine Market studied across Bovine, Ovine, Poultry, and Swine. Based on Distribution Channel, the Clostridium Vaccine Market studied across Hospitals, Veterinary Clinics, and Veterinary Research Institute. Based on Geography, the Clostridium Vaccine Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed 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 Clostridium Vaccine Market including ARKO laboratories, Bayer AG, Bimeda, Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim, Ceva logistics, Colorado Serum Company, Merck & Co. Inc., Nuovo Biologics, LLC, Virbac, and Zoetis Services LLC. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Clostridium Vaccine 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 the market 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 Clostridium Vaccine Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Clostridium Vaccine Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Clostridium Vaccine Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Clostridium Vaccine Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Clostridium Vaccine Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Clostridium Vaccine Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913851/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 When a 93-year-old Georgia resident was conned into mailing his lifes savings to a scammer in California, a deputy pulled out all the stops to retrieve the parcel from FedEx mid-transit. The deputys sterling efforts saved the elderly victim thousands of dollars. The Coweta County Sheriffs Office told The Epoch Times that the World War II veteran, who remains anonymous, called them on July 8 to ask for help after the strange encounter. The veteran was duped into mailing $14,000 in bills to an unfamiliar address 2,400 miles away. The scammer instructed the veteran to hide the money in bills between the pages of a book and mail it via FedEx. When Deputy Colby Tyus went to the scam victims home in Sharpsburg, the officer learned that the saga had started with an email. The nonagenarian veteran had received an email claiming that his Microsoft Defender subscription had been auto-renewed at a cost of $199.99. The email then instructed customers to call a phone number in the event that the auto-renewalwhich did not exist and was a facet of the elaborate scamhad been made in error. The 93-year-old called the number and was instructed to provide his own computer and bank account information. Next came the ruinous conclusion. The veteran was successfully persuaded by the scammer, who adopted the pseudonym Allen Parker and advised him to withdraw $14,000 in cash from his bank and send it to Glendale, California. The elderly man followed the advice and placed $500 in $100 bills between every four pages of a book until the cash was hidden. The book he chose, indicative of his military past, was The Battle of Leyte Gulf by Thomas J. Cutler. When Deputy Tyus was alerted of the exploitation incident, he called FedEx immediately, instructing them to stop the shipment in the nick of time; the package was already halfway to California. The sheriffs office said that the deputy was able to track the package with its FedEx tracking number and informed the local shipping store manager about the scam; the manager stated he would hold the package when it arrived. The deputys efforts made it possible that the full $14,000, untouched and intact, was returned to its original owner, along with the book it had been hidden in. As of Aug. 6, the scam case is still active, the sheriffs office stated. Tyus received a letter of commendation from Coweta County Sheriff Lenn Wood for his actions and for saving an elderly man from financial ruin. For him to take the initiative to follow up and try to get the money back before it got to the destination, and to get the money back for this person, it just means so much to everybody involved, Sheriff Wood told Fox 13. According to FBI, seniors make attractive targets for scammers, racking up more than $3 billion in financial losses annually. Seniors tend to trust people and interact willingly and politely; they usually have cash savings, own a home, and have good credit. Criminals will gain their targets trust and may communicate with them directly via computer, phone, and the mail; or indirectly through the TV and radio. Once successful, scammers are likely to keep a scheme going because of the prospect of significant financial gain, the FBI website noted. Every year, the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is commemorated on June 15 to raise awareness of the abuse of elders and to bring together the aging population and their caregivers. As millions more elderly adults become victims every year, it is increasingly imperative to educate seniors and their loved ones to be vigilant so that the scammers, and not their targets, are the ones who lose out in the end. We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc On Wednesday, The Post reported that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is moving ahead with an investigation into presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Bidens family using documents provided to the senator by the son of a former KGB officer. Johnsons actions are of such concern to the CIA, according to news reports, that the agency has refused to brief him. Think of it: Congress may become a forum for debunked conspiracy theories peddled by Kremlin proxies. At least 17 people, including the pilots, lost their lives when an Air India Express Dubai-Calicut (Kozhikode) flight crashed at the Calicut International Airport in Kerala (India) this evening. The flight, as part of the Vande Bharat repatriation operations, skidded off the tabletop runway and fell into a 30-feet valley, breaking into two pieces while landing at the airport. There were 191 people on flight AXB-1344 flight, including 184 passengers, 5 cabin crew and 2 pilots. About 120 passengers have been injured and rushed to a medical facility nearby. All passengers have been accounted for, officials said. Both the pilots Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe and Captain Akhilesh Kumar perished in the crash, Air India Express has confirmed. Top officials of various aviation authorities in India left Delhi by a special flight to Calicut where they are expected to reach after 3am on Saturday. Kerala State Health Minister K K Shailaja said those injured have been rushed to Kozhikode Medical College and other nearby hospitals. Many of those admitted are having serious injuries. All flights to Kozhikode have been diverted to Kannur airport. In a statement issued, India's Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the aircraft skidded off the runway, crashed into a wall and then fell into a valley, splitting into two. The airline said the Air India Express flight IX 1344 was a B-737 aircraft. There were 174 passengers, 10 infants, two pilots, and five cabin crew on board. There was no fire reported at the time of landing. BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese national flags will be flying in more places in the country including compounds of Party and state organs, schools and public cultural facilities, according to a draft law amendment. Chinese lawmakers Saturday started deliberating two draft amendments to the National Flag Law and the National Emblem Law at an ongoing session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee. The updates, the first in about 10 years, were proposed to foster a social atmosphere of respecting and cherishing the national symbols and reinforce patriotism, said an explanatory document presented to lawmakers. According to the draft amendment to the National Flag Law, in addition to governments, legislatures, courts, procuratorates and other organs that were already covered by the law, committees of the Communist Party of China, Party disciplinary organs and supervisory commissions at all levels shall display the national flag daily or on working days. Non-Communist parties and people's organizations shall display the national flag on working days, said the draft. The draft encourages public cultural facilities including libraries, museums and art galleries to display the national flag on opening days. On important commemoration days, such as National Day, National Constitution Day and Martyrs' Day, residential compounds, residential buildings, public squares, parks and other premises for public activities shall display the national flag when conditions permit, according to the draft. In regulating the use of the national flag, the draft prohibits displaying the national flag upside down or in other ways that diminish the dignity of the flag. Discarding the national flag is also banned. Education on the national flag will be incorporated into the patriotism education of full-time schools, while media outlets are required to publicize national flag knowledge. Photo taken on July 25 shows a busy scene in a famous night fair at the south gate of Hainan University, Haikou, south Chinas Hainan province. (Photo by Zhou Xiujian/ Peoples Daily Online) The new development pattern proposed by China has become a buzzword of the international community in reading the Chinese economy, and the world is generally optimistic about the vitality of Chinese economy carried by the new development pattern. In response to markedly mounting instabilities and uncertainties, China brought to the table the new development pattern whereby domestic and foreign markets can boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay. It is believed that Chinas new development pattern has combined its own reality and the trend of economic globalization and heralds new hopes and benefits for enterprises. Gathering pace in creating such a new development pattern, China will generate strong endogenous driving forces for its high-quality economic development, bring more opportunities for the development of other countries, and give fresh impetus to world economic recovery. As a Chinese saying goes, a wise man changes as time and event change. As the world economy encounters a deep recession; global trade and investment shrink sharply; international financial market is thrown into turmoil; international exchanges are restricted; economic globalization runs into countercurrents; protectionism and unilateralism prevail in some countries; and geopolitical risks rise, China has to seek development in a more unstable and uncertain world. It has become quite clear to the world that China has always been determined to accurately recognize changes, respond to changes in a science-based manner and actively seek changes. No matter faced with what difficulties or obstacles, it has been able to pool national strength and manage its own affairs well, effectively dealing with external uncertainties with its own certainties. After promptly containing the COVID-19 epidemic at home, China has been promoting the resumption of work, production, business and market comprehensively, leading the way in both epidemic response and economic recovery. Chinas economy grew by 3.2 percent year-on-year in the second quarter. Its manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) rose to 51.1 in July, expanding for the fifth consecutive month (a reading above 50 indicates expansion). Facts have shown that China has seized the initiative in development and the Chinese economy boasts strong resilience. Chinas new development pattern has demonstrated once again the countrys determination to open up to the world. One of the advantages of Chinese economy is a huge domestic market. China has the largest industrial system in the world with the most complete categories, strong production capabilities, complete supporting sectors, over 100 million market entities and a talent pool of more than 170 million people, as well as a super-large domestic market of 1.4 billion people, including over 400 million middle-income earners. Therefore, the country is fully capable of adding momentum to the Chinese economy by stimulating the huge domestic market. Taking the domestic market as the mainstay is absolutely not an operation behind closed doors. China will release the potential of its domestic demand, better connect the domestic and international markets, and make better use of the two resources, to realize robust sustainable development. The practice of Chinas reform and opening-up over the past 40 some years has shown that openness brings progress while seclusion leads to backwardness. Chinas economic growth over the past 40 years was achieved with a commitment to opening-up. In the same vein, high-quality development of Chinas economy in the future can only be guaranteed with greater openness. Chinas door will never be closed; it will only open still wider. The truth is China has managed to speed up opening-up even amid the COVID-19 epidemic. It has taken a series of measures, such as hosting the 2020 China Import and Export Fair online, releasing the Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port and shortening the 2020 negative list for foreign investment, showing the world the huge potential of China for continuously sharing its opportunities and driving world economic recovery through its own development. Chinas new development pattern will surely provide more opportunities for cooperation and create more development dividends. China has made great achievements in advancing reforms to delegate power, streamline administration and optimize government services as well as in improving the business environment, according to a report on Chinas success in doing business issued recently by the World Bank. As the Chinese economy thrives, more and more foreign companies have expanded their business to China. According to a recent survey conducted by the Ministry of Commerce, 99.1 percent of foreign-funded companies will continue to invest and operate in China. The U.S.-China Business Councils latest survey of some 150 companies also shows that Chinas measures to further open up and optimize its business environment in the past few years have created convenience for foreign companies production and operation in China, and the US companies are still upbeat on the Chinese market. Companies from the European Union (EU) remain confident in their development in China and hope to become part of Chinas development story, said Joerg Wuttke, President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China. China is preparing the 3rd China International Import Expo (CIIE) to be held this November, where the average exhibition area for the Fortune Global 500 companies and industry leaders will increase by 14 percent from last year. Foreign investment in China has been rising steadily since January and global investors are more optimistic about China than ever before, as pointed out by Fortune magazine. The fact that foreign companies are willing to invest in China fully shows their confidence in Chinas economic development. Economic globalization is what the world will definitely go through, while it is a long-term trend for countries to work in cooperation with division of labor for mutual benefits. China will stand on the correct side of history and gather pace in forming the new development pattern, sticking to deepening reforms and opening up as well as advancing the development of an open world economy. It demonstrates Chinas confidence and capabilities in dealing with risks and challenges as well as its wisdom and responsibility in promoting world economic growth. Do you find searching for accommodation an exhausting task? Help is at hand because we reveal the pros and cons of all the best options, from Airbnb to youth hostels... AIRBNB When it comes to booking accommodation, there are options galore, from Airbnb to hotels Invented in San Francisco in 2007, when two friends charged to let people use airbeds on their living room floor, 13 years on, Airbnb has seven million places to stay in more than 100,000 cities. Pros: If you cant find something you like on Airbnb, then youre probably being too picky. Mansions, farms and simple rooms can be yours in every destination you could think of. Often in residential parts of town, this is ideal if youre looking for the local experience. Cons: The sheer variety can make choosing somewhere a daunting task and everything is booked online. Residents of many cities (especially Barcelona) are becoming rabidly anti-Airbnb as landlords buy up properties and only let them out to Airbnb users, making renting ever harder for locals. HOME SWAP Sites such as lovehomeswap.com, homelink.org.uk and homeexchange.com work by building a profile, then selecting what type of holiday youre looking for and providing details of your house. Pros: The idea of swapping homes is becoming hugely popular. Site lovehomeswap.com, claims theres been a 34 per cent increase in bookings between April and June. It can be an affordable way to get a lot more space than any hotel suite plus a host of homespun creature comforts. Cons: None of the main homeswap sites organises personal visits to vet properties. Its wise to ask your homeswap partners to send date-verified pictures. B&Bs The personal touch and local knowledge are among the pros of staying in a B&B They took off after World War II when owners of large Victorian and Georgian properties needed to find extra forms of income to keep their homes running. Since then, the cliche of the hatchet-faced landladies in Blackpool being stingy with the bacon at breakfast has vanished, to be replaced by a huge range of higher -quality lodgings. Pros: The personal touch and local knowledge. The best B&Bs are almost indistinguishable from boutique hotels, with designs and quality service that puts many hotel groups to shame. Cons: Privacy may be questionable and B&Bs are rarely in the centre of towns or cities. That ten minutes from the station boast on the website often means a half-hour slog through an industrial estate. APARTHOTELS Fully serviced apartments are a middle ground between hotels and self-catering. Staycity.com, sacoapartments.com and nativeplaces.com all list contemporary design flats across UK cities. Pros: The service of a hotel (most aparthotels have 24-hour manned reception desks) without the unnecessary frills. All the mod cons you could need during your stay, such as dishwashers. Cons: Aparthotels can sometimes look and feel rather corporate. Their locations are often in business districts, too. This means that, on weekends, the area can feel deserted. HOSTELS Hostels are an easy way to meet people. Their locations are often central to the city Britains first hostel opened in North Wales in 1930, offering bunk-bed accommodation in dorms for one shilling a night. There are more than 150 in England and Wales, with most now having private rooms as well as dorms. Pros: Cheap. Theyre an easy way to meet people and the locations are often central to the city. Cons: Shared dormitories can be rowdy. Although the average age of users has risen, the main market is still twentysomethings. WOLSEY LODGES Named after Henry VIIIs Lord Chancellor, Wolsey Lodges describe themselves as an association of family-run B&Bs around the UK and Ireland. They tend to be a step-up in price and quality from the typical B&B. Pros: The huge range of accommodation types, from farm-stays to villas to cottages. All come with owners who take on the role of hosts and hostesses. Cons: Being a part of the household wont work if youre looking for a romantic a deux situation. And if high-speed broadband and quick access to a bar are your priorities, then look elsewhere. HOTELS Hotels have been around since time began (almost). The best hotels wear their history with aplomb Theyve been around since time began (almost) and the range in quality (and price) is dizzying. The best will rejuvenate; the worst will nauseate. Some people cant do without them. Judy Garland once lived in The Savoy and Margaret Thatcher ended her days in The Ritz. Pros: Ah, the timeless indulgence of calling room service for a late-night club sandwich or martini. Its this kind of glorious gratification that youre paying for. The best hotels wear their history with aplomb, too. Cons: Your credit card will have scorch marks if you take advantage of the spa and room service. If you think youll be out on the town for most of the time, you should question whether a hotel is really worth the expense. A Laois town is to get new council houses after a 20 year wait, for the second time. Construction is set to start this month on six new council homes in Rathdowney. Builders will start work on a site on Moore Street where a filling station was knocked. The homes will be two and three bedroom townhouses. 25-30 Moore Street are expected to be ready to hand over to council tenants by the end of next year. Contractor indicates start on site in early August. Expected delivery date Q4 2021, the housing department reported to the July council meeting. We expect the contractor on site by the end of August after the builders holidays, Director of Services Joe Delaney said. Rathdowney Fine Gael Cllr John King told the Leinster Express that the site was lying idle for a long time. This is very welcome and badly needed for housing. This will enhance the street as well, he said. They are grand little houses, Ive seen the plans, they will suit small families or couples, he said. Laois County Council bought the site in 2015 from a local builder when it was hoped that they would be ready by the end of 2017. It is the second 20 year gap to get new council houses in Rathdowney. Erkina Court was opened in 2001, and before that Quigley Park was opened in 1982, Cllr King said. There won't be quite as long to wait for the next batch. Seven more houses in Rathdowney are planned in Mooreville to be built by mid 2022. Both schemes are part of the Rebuilding Ireland construction programme. It is funding 55 more homes in Laois to be built by 2021, and another 82 by 2022. In the coming weeks, schools across Southeast Nebraska will reopen with similar plans in regards to social distancing, increased sanitization and screening for COVID-19. One aspect districts may approach differently, however, is whether or not to require students to wear masks. Beatrice, Diller-Odell, Fairbury, Freeman, Lewiston, Norris, Southern and Tri County all have a phased approach to their back to school plan. The majority have adopted four phases assigned by color: green, yellow, orange and red. Beatrice Public Schools has these phases listed as tiers one through four. Lewiston Consolidated Schools has a three-phase approach, assigned green, yellow and red. Fairbury Public Schools Superintendent Stephen Grizzle said the district is currently planning to start school in the green phase, wherein masks will be recommended but not required. He said in the yellow phase masks will be required, but that parents can sign an opt-out form for their student. A little earlier in the summer, we sent a survey out to families to kind of get a gauge on what their feelings are on masks. We used that information to help come up with our process, Grizzle said. BPS announced last week that it will also have an opt-out form. Beatrice plans to start school in tier two, and enforce masks for all grades except preschool. Lewiston is planning to start school in the yellow phase, with face coverings to be worn by students and staff. The return to school plan on the Lewiston website states individuals will not be required to wear a face covering if they have a respiratory disease. Norris Public Schools Superintendent John Schwartz said that district plans to require masks in the yellow phase without an opt-out form, but with mask breaks throughout the day. Weve had a team here at Norris thats worked very hard to develop a plan for the safe reopening of our schools. It has involved stakeholder input of teachers, parents, administrators, Schwartz said. We sought feedback from students, and we really dedicated ourselves to try to develop a comprehensive plan that will cause us to be nimble and adapt to changing circumstances. Diller-Odell, Freeman, Southern and Tri County are all recommending, but not requiring, wearing masks while in the yellow tier. Southern Public Schools Superintendent Christopher Prososki specified that mask wearing will be required for second through 12th grade students during passing periods and other instances where social distancing cannot be maintained. He said preschool and first graders, as well as any student in an Individual Education Program or with a Section 504 disability will not be required to wear masks in the yellow phase. If the risk dial goes up and we have additional cases, multiple cases within the building, yes, we would go to requiring masks, Tri County Public Schools Superintendent Randy Schlueter said. Each districts return to school plan states something similar about requiring masks when moving to a higher tier. Were confident that well get off to a good start, Diller-Odell Public Schools Superintendent Mike Meyerle said. I think its the unknown that makes everybody a little bit uneasy. Some things we just dont know, but were preparing. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 8) President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed confidence that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will bounce back stronger after the COVID-19 pandemic. Recovering from the coronavirus crisis appears to be a daunting task, Duterte said in his message on Saturday, the 53rd founding anniversary of the 10-member regional bloc. But if pursued with friends, the burden is shared and transformed into an opportunity to create a more resilient Southeast Asian region, Duterte said. We are confident that the ASEAN way of partnership and mutual aid will help us overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and move forward with our community-building endeavors, the President added. He also stressed that the Philippines, along with the rest of the ASEAN member states, will continue to strengthen partnerships within and outside the region. The Philippines now has the most number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia after surpassing Indonesia this week. The country has recorded more than 122,000 infections with over 66,000 recoveries and 2,168 deaths. During the virtual summit last June, the ASEAN leaders discussed the possibility of reopening the region to business travelers amid eased restrictions but no update has been made public since then. Brussels, Aug 8 : The European Commission has called on the European Union (EU) member states to ease travel restrictions that have prevented unmarried couples from reuniting, a spokesman for the bloc said. Addressing the media on Friday, the EU spokesman, Adalbert Jahnz said that a letter had been sent to all member states and the UK setting out principles to serve as guidelines for any further decisions on restrictions to free movement linked to the pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency. He said the letter emphasized the importance of avoiding a second wave of uncoordinated actions at the EU's internal borders. The EU has been criticized for the way member states have tackled the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest call comes in the wake of the UK's decision to close it's borders to arrivals from Spain and a number of complaints from unmarried couples about the difficulties for reuniting because of border restrictions, according to media reports. The matters were discussed between national border authorities. The last meeting, held on Thursday, specifically discussed the exclusion of unmarried partners of European citizens and residents from the travel restriction into the EU, said Jahnz. "Under the current legal situation, member states can allow unmarried partners with duly attested relationships to enter the EU if they choose to do so. "We repeatedly encourage member states to use this possibility but only a minority of member states do so," Jahnz told reporters. The spokesman said the commission will continue to call on all member states to allow the entry of people in duly attested relationships with European citizens and residents without delay. The German presidency of the Council of the EU has distributed among member states a questionnaire on their approach to this issue, he added. Sajith not interested in UNP; Ranil says No to National List View(s): United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday ruled out any possibility of appointing himself as the sole National List MP from his party, saying it, however, did not mean he was quitting public life altogether. He told the Sunday Times that the party seniors were still discussing whom to appoint as the partys National List MP and admitted the party suffered a major setback at Wednesdays general election. In a statement issued on Friday, the UNP said the party is prepared to accept the responsibility for failures and shortcomings, both the result of its own actions and the actions of others. The Sunday Times learns that the UNPs legal secretary Nissanka Nanayakkara is being considered as the partys National List nominee. Mr Wickremesinghe, who lost his own seat in Parliament, also ruled out immediate negotiations with the breakaway UNPers of the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) which won 54 seats and caused the whitewash of the UNP at the polls. He said the SJB was a separate political party and the courts had confirmed this. SJB spokesman Eran Wickramaratne told a media conference on Friday that the SJB had created history by becoming the main opposition party in the shortest period since its formation. SJB leader Sajith Premadasa yesterday declared that he would not join the UNP even if he was offered the party leadership and he had no plans to capture the UNP headquarters SiriKotha. Addressing a news conference, he pointed out that SJB had become the only political alternative of the country following the election results. He said his party would not mind if any other group wished to join the SJB if they agree on the policies of the party. Mr Premadasa claimed he never said that the SJB would capture the UNP headquarters Siri Kotha but added that the SJB would be take the responsibility of being the alternative political party of Sri Lanka. He said he was content with the achievement the party made after a short period of time. However, he assumed he would have been more satisfied if the SJB was able to form a government. A man has been charged with shoplifting after he allegedly stole a sophisticated assortment of designer handbags and luxury goods worth tens of thousands of dollars from stores throughout Sydney and Melbourne. Police arrested the Trung Bao Le, 25, after reports a male had stolen three designer handbags worth $11,000 from the David Jones department store on Castlereagh Street in Sydney's central business district on July 31. A man has been charged after police seized more than $50,000 worth of designer items allegedly stolen from retail stores across Sydney and Melbourne. Credit:NSW Police Officers from the proactive crime team launched an investigation. They also searched a home on Cooper Street in Surry Hills, where they seized several more designer bags and other luxury goods, on Friday. Photos of more than a dozen items show the haul included leather handbags, belts, wallets and clutch purses from pricey European labels, including Christian Dior, Mulberry, Danse Lente, Chloe and Louis Vuitton. Amid the political crisis in Rajasthan, former chief minister and BJP leader met senior party leader and Defence Minister on Saturday and is believed to have discussed the political situation in the state. Raje, who is in the capital for the last few days, met BJP president J P Nadda on Friday. She had also met the party's general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh. However, there was no official word on what transpired in these meetings. Raje's interactions with the party's top brass assume significance as she has largely maintained silence and kept away from BJP meetings in Jaipur since the crisis within the Congress government in the state erupted last month. Sachin Pilot was sacked as deputy chief minister and the president of the state unit of the Congress after he and some MLAs loyal to him rebelled against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Many believe that Gehlot still has an edge in the numbers game and is confident of having a majority. The state assembly is meeting from August 14 and Gehlot may call for a trust vote. While a section of the BJP has been keen to topple the Gehlot government with support of the Congress rebels, sources claim that Raje has not been very enthusiastic about it. (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.) The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Dayi constituency in the Volta Region of Ghana, George Loh has denied storming Banda with heavily built men to face officials reportedly intimidating members of the NDC. Seth Asare Bediako, NPP Bono Regional communication Director had accused him of coming to Banda with machomen and 'Azorka Boys' scaring away NPP agents. However, George Loh has denied this. "I didnt go there with machomen," he explained in an interview on Neat FM's 'Me Man Nti' programme. The Volta Regional Chairman of the NDC has however sworn to protect members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who are being intimidated at Banda. "If Joe Danquah and his group dont stop their intimidation, we will also make sure we protect our people; we are not afraid of anyone," he said. 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. Featured Video Unmarried couples who have been kept apart for months by the Covid epidemic say they feel abandoned by the French government and have urged the Paris authorities to honour a promise to reunite them. Jeantricia Lyly last saw her boyfriend Harrel in February, when she left France to return to Turkey. Her plans to join him in Lyon for the summer were scuttled when international borders closed as the coronavirus pandemic spread worldwide. "Today was meant to be our anniversary," she says by phone from Istanbul. The couple first met in Gabon in August, 2019. "I was planning to prepare a small dinner, something sweet and simple." Instead, the 24-year-old political science student has been left counting the days until they can be together again. "It's been 173 days so far. I was expecting that by the end of July, everything would be okay and that at least I could be with him maybe on 3 August," she told RFI. False hope Her hopes were raised this week when the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne announced that a "dedicated solution" would be found for thousands of couples separated by coronavirus-related travel restrictions in the coming days. Couples say they are still waiting. Thousands of them have turned to social media to petition their governments for understanding as the pandemic passes the half-year mark worldwide. Their message is often delivered under the hashtag: "love is essential" or "love is not tourism". Many binational couples are unmarried and have partners without formal residency, who often visit as tourists. While Lyly has been barred from entering France due to the Covid-19 restrictions, her French partner Harrel, of Gabonese origin like her, is still able to travel freely to Turkey. "He can come to Turkey because Turkey has no restrictions towards any European country," she says, but admits this is not a solution either. Story continues Sweetheart visas "I live on a campus for girls, when he comes here to Turkey, it's a little bit difficult for us to find a place to stay," she says of the Muslim-majority country, where unmarried couples are frowned upon. The European Commission, the bloc's executive branch, on Friday threw its weight behind the cause, urging all EU countries to allow the entry of unmarried partners of European citizens and residents into the EU without delay. A few European countries including Austria, Norway and Denmark, have heeded the call, introducing "sweetheart visas" that exempt couples from the travel ban. Germany on Friday became the latest member state to announce that it would enable couples separated by Covid restrictions to be reunited from next week. Lyly and many other separated couples in France are waiting for similar clarity from the French government. "We were expecting some news at least this week, that they would say okay next week we're going to come up with the documents stating what you people need to do, but there's been nothing and now we just feel abandoned." Fighting for love Stuck in limbo, Lyly and her partner have tried to gather documents to prove the veracity of their relationship. "Right now, I'm just trying to collect all our souvenirs: receipts, flight tickets, pictures and messages because I'm trying to prove that I'm in a relationship," she insists. Her only comfort is knowing that she is not alone in her fight for love and that thousands of couples around the world are also trying to conquer the divide. "Every single day you check your phone, Twitter, Facebook, expecting some news," she says, admitting that the worry has taken a toll on her health. "Today, I woke up and I felt so depressed because I've been stressed the whole time." Time apart however has made Lyly realise how lucky she is to be with her Harrel, even if they won't get to celebrate their anniversary together. "I wrote him an email telling him a few reasons why I'm really happy and that I'm sorry I couldn't make a better surprise but I hope we will meet soon," she said. NICK WAGNER, FILE / TNS Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in an opinion Friday that local governments do not have the power to prohibit, delay or restrict evictions during a disaster, as some have attempted to do during the COVID-19 pandemic. Paxtons opinion, which is nonbinding but could carry legal weight in a lawsuit, came several weeks after state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, asked the attorney general to weigh in on the validity of recently adopted local rent relief programs. Standing on a hill above Calais, with Dovers White Cliffs sparkling in the sun 21 miles away was the moment it finally dawned on me that Britain was losing control of its borders. In the French ferry port below, 1,100 migrants were waiting to cross the Channel to the UK. Mingling among them were shadowy trafficking gangsters, many from British cities, eagerly taking their cash in return for a journey to a new life. That was nearly two decades ago, and I was in the French port to show how easy it was to slip undercover by truck into this country. The same evening, a driver from my home county of Lancashire agreed to put me in the back of his lorry. We passed unquestioned through customs and security checks on to a ferry and four hours later reached Dover. The only startling moment came when I emerged on to English soil and heard a desperate banging from back inside the lorry. Standing on a hill above Calais, with Dovers White Cliffs sparkling in the sun 21 miles away was the moment it finally dawned on me that Britain was losing control of its borders Unbeknown to the driver, Adel, from Iraq, was already secretly stowed inside the vehicle when I climbed in. Hed crept in as the driver was parked up having a tea break in Calais and had lain flat on top of a pallet of lawn mowers high above me. Now, the vehicle had stopped and he wanted to get out. When the driver opened the back doors, Adel told me his name and where he was from. His English was poor but he did say politely I am so sorry to us before disappearing into the darkness. In those days, only a few dozen migrants were getting through to the UK each week as lorry stowaways. A crackdown by the then Home Secretary David Blunkett he had recently closed a Red Cross refuge centre giving food, clothing and a bed to migrants near the port had certainly had the desired effect. Numbers arriving from faraway countries, dreaming of reaching the El Dorado of England, fell sharply along with the people smugglers who suddenly had fewer customers. In the French ferry port below, 1,100 migrants were waiting to cross the Channel to the UK. Mingling among them were shadowy trafficking gangsters, many from British cities, eagerly taking their cash in return for a journey to a new life Today, the smugglers are still in business, transporting migrants with near impunity across the Channel for a fee of 4,000 a head on a daily basis. Indeed, since my undercover lorry journey, Ive crossed from France without passport or security checks on arrival in the UK many times to demonstrate how dangerously porous our borders are. Ive come in by hired private plane, under a blanket in a private car, and, in September 2016, across the Channel in a small rigid inflatable boat with an outboard motor. On Thursday this week, 235 migrants made it to the Kent coast, the highest daily total of boat arrivals to date. Thousands more will come by sea this year as ministers struggle to address a problem that has been ignored since Blunketts intervention. The truth is that successive governments have allowed traffickers to gain the upper hand. Today they operate in the knowledge that little vessels, once pushed out to sea from a Calais beach, have a near 100 per cent chance of reaching the UK. Of course the French are only too happy to see them go. Recent TV clips have revealed the French Navy escorting boats to the middle of the Channel where the British Border Force and even our RNLI lifeboat services take over the job. They take migrants on board and bring them into Dover. Such a farce leaves the traffickers rubbing their hands with glee. Today, the smugglers are still in business, transporting migrants with near impunity across the Channel for a fee of 4,000 a head on a daily basis. Pictured: Four men, some using shovels as paddles, use a small dinghy to cross the English Channel They have networks reaching back to south of the Equator. Their agents go to the tea houses, to the little villages of impoverished families in Iraq, Iran, Africa, Pakistan, even the still troubled Balkan states, drumming up business with the sales pitch: Your son deserves a better life in England. Let us help him on his journey. Falling for their promises of a better life, loving family members beggar themselves raising the money for the fee or agree to pay it off later. They know that if the debt is not repaid they can expect a knock on the door one dark night from a local trafficking agent with links to a greedy British gang. Ultimately these are treacherous criminals who are peddling false hopes of British largesse, huge benefits, a house, free education, medical care... All over Britain today, there are thousands of their victims in pitiful accommodation, receiving a Home Office stipend of only a few pounds a day as pocket money. Many speak no English and have few skills for a decent job. They grow disappointed and angry when they cant join British society. And so they turn to immigration lawyers to fight their endless asylum claims lasting years and financed by legal aid. Even those refused sanctuary rarely leave the country, but evaporate into the black market of sweat shops, human slavery, or worse. It may sound harsh, but the bitter truth is that to bring this to an end we must convince these young men, as most of them are, to stop journeying across the world for a pointless life with no hope or work in one of our troubled inner cities. Thousands more will come by sea this year as ministers struggle to address a problem that has been ignored since Blunketts intervention. Pictured: A swimmer crosses the English Channel as, in the background, a dinghy carrying migrants is escorted by French border police We must launch our own propaganda drive faraway, particularly among village elders, community leaders, in places of worship, that Britain has nothing to offer. As one Iranian migrant in the Midlands told me recently: I have been welcomed in to hell. Meanwhile theres nothing to alleviate the lingering fear that among this summer migration there could be those who want to harm us: returning IS fighters, spies from hostile nations hoping to embed themselves here, would-be terrorists and criminals escaping justice abroad. Looking at Thursdays images of the traffickers latest cohort including small children and a pregnant woman I hope the penny will drop in high places as it did for me so many years ago. By yesterday evening another 17 boats carrying 150 migrants reached Britain from France. By the time you read this, there may be even more still. North Carolina Continues to Pause in Safer At Home Phase 2 COVID-19 Updates: Staying Informed & Prepared North Carolina Continues Distributing Personal Protective Equipment Free Community Testing Events Around NC Governor Cooper visits Bertie and Brunswick Counties After Hurricane Isaias Complete the 2020 Census Get All of the Latest Information in Spanish Tweet of the Week Getting testing done quickly is key to slowing the spread of COVID-19. Gov. Cooper has joined a bipartisan group of governors to increase the amount of rapid testing done so we can continue protecting North Carolinians from this virus.https://t.co/3idNBTPxJT Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) August 5, 2020 This week Governor Cooper announced that North Carolina will remain paused in Phase 2 Safer at Home for five more weeks. While some of North Carolina's COVID-19 trends are stabilizing they do remain elevated. As schools go back into session, now is the time to double down on prevention measures like wearing a mask and social distancing.said Governor Cooper.Governor Cooper noted the need for caution to avoid a resurgence of the virus and ensure the state not only continues to be stable, but starts to see a downward trend.This week, Governor Cooper joined a bipartisan interstate compact with six other governors to increase availability of rapid testing. The compact demonstrates the need for a larger, national testing strategy and creates a way to collaborate on purchasing supplies.Read the Executive Order and the Press Release It's important to rely on trusted sources of information about COVID-19. Keep up with the latest information on Coronavirus in North Carolina HERE Texttoto receive general information and updates about COVID-19 and North Carolina's response. Dial 2-1-1 provides free, confidential information and is available 24 hours a day to help you find resources within your community. They can connect you with people and groups that can help with questions about access to food, shelter, health care, employment and child care.Families who need food assistance for their children can texttoto find free meal sites in their communities.Make sure to prioritize your overall wellness and don't hesitate to seek additional help. Optum has a toll-free 24-hour Emotional Support Help Line atfor people who may be experiencing anxiety or stress due to Coronavirus.You can track the disease in real time through the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' COVID-19 NC Dashboard . It includes detailed information about the state's COVID-19 confirmed cases, hospital capacity and more.The NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) and the NC Department of Public Safety's Division of Emergency Management (NCEM) have distributed approximately 3.5 million cloth face coverings, 4.5 million procedure masks, and significant amounts of additional personal protective equipment (PPE) to targeted settings across the state. The ongoing PPE shipments support operations including schools, nursing homes, first responders, agricultural facilities, child care facilities and courthouses.NCDHHS and NCEM distribute PPE across many of the state's targeted COVID-19 response initiatives. In total, the state has already distributed more than 7 million pairs of gloves, 650,000 face shields, 600,000 shoe covers, and 100,000 units of hand sanitizer in addition to 3.5 million cloth face coverings and 4.5 million procedure masks.The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) has announced community free testing events in Edgecombe, Halifax, Hertford, Johnston, Northampton, Sampson and Wake counties. For an up-to-date list of events, visit the Community Testing Events page. People who may not currently have symptoms but may have been exposed to COVID-19 should get tested, especially people from historically marginalized communities.If someone tests positive for COVID-19, the COVID-19 Community Team will reach out to connect them with needed resources. People should answer when the Community Team reaches out, via phone, text from 45394, or email from NC-ARIAS-NoReply@dhhs.nc.gov with further instructions.Find a nearby testing site Find My Testing Place For more information visit the NCDHHS FAQs about Testing and FAQs about Contact Tracing Governor Cooper travelled to Windsor, one of the most heavily damaged communities in Hurricane Isaias' path this week. The governor visited the community where two people died tragically and survivors have started the clean up and recovery process He also thanked the rescue teams and first responders who worked overnight to assist people and help get them to medical care.said Governor Cooper.On Thursday, Governor Cooper visited Brunswick County which was hit hard by storm surge, damaging winds and resulting fires.Governor Cooper's federal emergency declaration was approved, which will help local communities as they recover from this storm.Read about Disaster Clean-Up in North CarolinaDonate to NC Hurricane Recovery Completing the census will help us count the number of people in our state, which is how the federal government divides tax dollars to states and communities. As of July, more than 40% of North Carolinians, over 4 million people, had not been counted, which could mean a loss of $7.4 billion dollars per year for North Carolina for health care, education, highways, and community and economic development is at risk.An incomplete count puts representation in Congress and and federal funding our state needs in jeopardy.The count is lagging behind in Eastern North Carolina where many of our military families live and where so many have been hit hard by recent storms. Encourage your friends, family, and neighbors to participate in the count. Census workers will begin knocking on doors on August 11th to ensure we all are counted.You can complete the 2020 Census safely at home online at my2020census.gov and by phone (8443302020 in English, 8444682020 in Spanish), or submit by mail.During this time it is imperative that everyone is informed about what is going on in our state. Governor Cooper's administration has been working to get information and resources translated for the Spanish speaking population in our state. Many of the Governor's press conferences press releases , and executive orders are available in Spanish. Resources are also available in Spanish on the DHHS website. What Went Down On The Night Of Disha Salians Death, Reveals Her Close Friend About 25 people participated in a lantern ceremony Thursday night at the T-wharf on Little Lake to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The ceremony was organized by Gianne Broughton of the Peterborough Peace Council. On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 70,000 people instantly and eventually leading to the deaths of an estimated 200,000 people. Three days later a second nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Similar ceremonies were held across Canada, with participants urging Canada to halt plans to spend $19 billion to replace its aging jet fighters, end military arms exports and demilitarize police forces. Business Roundup Irrawaddy Business Roundup -- Myanmars economy turned towards recovery efforts this week amid the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and preparations for the coming November general election. On Wednesday, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi instructed the Union Election Commission to ensure that citizens do not lose their right to vote as reports of mistakes in voter registration lists came in from across the country. The State Counselor also instructed the Election Commission to implement COVID-19 preventative measures at polling stations in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus. This week, Shwe Taung Real Estate Company announced they will build the countrys biggest mall in cooperation with Japans AEON Mall Co. Ltd following approval by the Myanmar Investment Commission. Parliament approved a move to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) for the Indo-Pacific, put forward by the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations (MIFER). Myanmar also approved more than US$400 million and 73.2 billion kyats (US$54 million) in investments. Japans AEON to open largest mall in Myanmar AEON Co. Ltd, one of Japans biggest commercial developers, will open Myanmars largest shopping mall in Yangon in cooperation with Myanmar real estate developer Shwe Taung Real Estate, according to a press release from Shwe Taung on Tuesday. An US$180 million investment in the joint venture between the two companies was approved by the Myanmar Investment Commission on July 31, according to MIFER. Shwe Taung will hold a 30 percent stake in the joint venture and AEON will hold 70 percent, according to Tuesdays press release. The shopping mall will be built on a 7.1 ha plot in Yangons Dagon Seikan Township. The five-story mall will have 111,480 square meters of floor space and parking for 2,300 cars. The mall is expected to be opened in 2023 and to create job opportunities for 2,300 people, the Myanmar Investment Commission said. Myanmar to participate in Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership On Wednesday, Myanmars Parliament approved a request from MIFER for the country to become a signatory member of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement in the Indo-Pacific region between the 10 ASEAN member states. According to the RCEP agreement, member countries will enjoy a 65 percent tax exemption on customs duties within the pact. Myanmar needs a master plan in making partnerships with countries that have stronger economies, economic expert U Hla Maung told The Irrawaddy Thursday. By participating in the RCEP, Myanmars economywhich has slowed during the pandemicwill improve beyond the pandemic. U Bharat Singh, deputy head of MIFER, said at Parliament that Myanmar will sign the RCEP agreement at the upcoming 37th ASEAN Summit in November. In participating in the RCEP agreement, Myanmar would get a bigger market and high-standard investments would flow into the country said the deputy minister. More than US$400 million in investments approved This week, the Myanmar Investment Commission approved US$462.7 million and 73.2 billion kyats (US$54 million) in investments, including for the expansion of seven existing investments and seven new investments. The investments are focused on the industrial, housing, hotel and tourism and service sectors, according to an announcement from MIFER on July 31. The approved investments included US$230.6 million from Singapores Sembcorp CSSD Myanmar Co. Ltd for the operation of the Hlegu Industrial Park in Yangons Hlegu Township. The investments also included US$180 million for the joint venture between Japans AEON Co. Ltd and Myanmars Shwe Taung Real Estate that will open the countrys largest shopping mall. The Myanmar Investment Commission said it expects that the investments will create jobs opportunities for more than 3,600 local people. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Opens Major Investment Summit in Naypyitaw Chinese tech giant Huawei is running out of processor chips to make smartphones due to U.S. sanctions and will be forced to stop production of its own most advanced chips, a company executive says, in a sign of growing damage to Huawei's business from American pressure. Huawei Technologies Ltd., one of the biggest producers of smartphones and network equipment, is at the center of U.S.-Chinese tension over technology and security. The feud has spread to include the popular Chinese-owned video app TikTok and China-based messaging service WeChat. Washington cut off Huawei's access to U.S. components and technology including Google's music and other smartphone services last year. Those penalties were tightened in May when the White House barred vendors worldwide from using U.S. technology to produce components for Huawei. Production of Kirin chips designed by Huawei's own engineers will stop Sept. 15 because they are made by contractors that need U.S. manufacturing technology, said Richard Yu, president of the company's consumer unit. He said Huawei lacks the ability to make its own chips. "This is a very big loss for us," Yu said Friday at an industry conference, China Info 100, according to a video recording of his comments posted on multiple websites. "Unfortunately, in the second round of U.S. sanctions, our chip producers only accepted orders until May 15. Production will close on Sept. 15," Yu said. "This year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips." More broadly, Huawei's smartphone production has "no chips and no supply," Yu said. Yu said this year's smartphone sales probably will be lower than 2019's level of 240 million handsets but gave no details. The company didn't immediately respond to questions Saturday. Huawei, founded in 1987 by a former military engineer, denies accusations it might facilitate Chinese spying. Chinese officials accuse Washington of using national security as an excuse to stop a competitor to U.S. tech industries. Huawei is a leader among emerging Chinese competitors in telecoms, electric cars, renewable energy and other fields in which the ruling Communist Party hopes China can become a global leader. Huawei has 180,000 employees and one of the world's biggest research and development budgets at more than $15 billion a year. But, like most global tech brands, it relies on contractors to manufacture its products. Earlier, Huawei announced its global sales rose 13.1% over a year ago to 454 billion yuan ($65 billion) in the first half of 2020. Yu said that was due to strong sales of high-end products but gave no details. Huawei became the world's top-selling smartphone brand in the three months ending in June, passing rival Samsung for the first time due to strong demand in China, according to Canalys. Sales abroad fell 27% from a year earlier. Washington also is lobbying European and other allies to exclude Huawei from planned next-generation networks as a security risk. In other U.S.-Chinese clashes, TikTok's owner, ByteDance Ltd., is under White House pressure to sell the video app. That is due to fears its access to personal information about millions of American users might be a security risk. On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a ban on unspecified transactions with TikTok and the Chinese owner of WeChat, a popular messaging service. Also Read: Will adopt wait and watch strategy in 'dream job', says Nokia's new CEO Pekka Lundmark Also Read: Air India Express crash: Deceased passenger tests COVID-19 positive Democrats and Republicans couldnt strike a deal Friday as the deadline for them to agree on another stimulus package came and went. So, what now? Will Americans get the cash infusion that so many need while dealing the coronavirus pandemic? Or, is that it? Is any hope of seeing a stimulus infusion gone? Cnet.com reports there are still options in play. But before the options, its important to know what is holding up the deal. All sides agree a second-round is needed, but what is holding them up is just how much should be given out. Chief among all that are disagreements over enhanced unemployment benefits, extending a moratorium on evictions and the amount of relief aid offered to states and local governments, the website reports. And the differences are big. The Republican-led HEALS Act is a $1 trillion package. The Democrats pitched the Heroes Act in May and that called for $3 trillion in aid. And, the first stimulus round, the CARES Act, was a $2.2 trillion deal. Can they figure it out? While, cnet.com reports the first scenario is that they, indeed, do, and they come to an agreement next week. And, it said, talks go through the weekend or pickup Monday, they could have a vote as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday. And the bill could become law within three days after that vote. That would, likely, be the way youd see cash in your account, soonest, provided you qualify for benefits. Theres also a chance they just dont reach a deal, and President Donald Trump signs an executive order, the website reported. It said he has advisors encouraging him to do so, and an order could potentially include the eviction moratorium, extended enhanced federal unemployment benefits, student loan relief, and, potentially, a payroll tax cut. The site said Trump could sign something like that by the end of the week. And, then, cnet.com said, there is a third option. And that option is no deal, no executive order and Americans get nothing. So, buckle up, and pay attention. If you need cash to help cover the bills during the coronavirus pandemic, the next week could be crucial. Chinese state-affiliated publication Global Times has hinted that despite all the talks of boycotting Chinese products, India may be importing more. The publication's hypothesis could simply fall flat, despite Chinese customs data showing that exports from that country to India increased to $5.6 billion in July, up from $4.78 billion in June. Here is the reason. First of all, there is no official boycott of Chinese products. Swadeshi groups who have called for a boycott are focussing on products for which there is an alternative, or are non-essential in nature. Electronic goods is one such product sector, toys will be another. Mere increase in exports only indicate that the unlock phase of Indian economy is at work, and demand for raw materials from China and elsewhere is beginning to rise. Unless more segregated product specific data is available for a longer period, such suggestions carry no value. ALSO READ: Boycott China manifests! Chinese exports to India crash 25% in 2020; trade down 19% Secondly, trends in the official export data of China is not matching with the official import data of India. The Chinese data shows that exports to India has been steadily increasing since April 2020. It was $3.22 billion in April, $3.25 billion in May, $4.78 billion in June and $5.6 billion in July. India's commerce ministry is yet to publish the monthly trade data for July, but the other figures for the other three months are not showing a similar upward trend. India's merchandise imports from China in April is shown as $3.03 billion, $4.66 billion for May and $3.32 billion in June. One can very well argue by looking at the May and June numbers that Chinese boycott is working in India. One of the major reasons why the Chinese numbers and the Indian numbers differ is the difference in the value registered for the product at the Chinese customs and the landed cost that is registered in India's customs data base. It is also possible that the product shipped in one particular month from China does not reach Indian shores the same month, or even next month. Hence the data are not strictly comparable. But the difference in trends at least question the claim made by the Global Times. ALSO READ: Solar equipment makers in SEZs demand level playing field to counter imports from China The fact is that the impact of India's attempts to improve its self reliance in key products with heavy dependence will take time to reflect in the trade numbers. India's dependence from China will not and cannot reduce in a month or a couple of months. That is precisely the reason why the decline in imports from China to India dipped only 22.2 per cent in May as against an overall drop of 52.44 per cent in the value of India's total imports. Global Times numbers can be ignored for now. The impact of India's boycott of Chinese goods, if any will reflect six months or one year from now, not before that. ALSO READ: COVID-19 impact: China's exports register fastest growth in 7 months; imports fall Advertisement Senior Conservative MPs have slammed the government for their 'unfair' lack of clarity over quarantine plans, amid fears that France could be added to the list after a spike in infections. Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, and former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith have called for a 'proper testing regime for air travellers' to be implemented as quickly as possible, and for regional air corridors to be considered. It comes as Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned holidaymakers of the risk of travelling abroad during the coronavirus crisis amid concerns France may be the next nation to be added to the quarantine list. He said on Friday that ministers will 'not hesitate' in ordering travellers coming back from countries with high Covid-19 rates to isolate for 14 days, as Belgium, Andorra and The Bahamas lost their exempted status. Travellers returning to the UK from those three nations from Saturday must enter quarantine, and there are fears those coming back from France could be next with cases there increasing. France recorded over 2,200 confirmed coronavirus infections yesterday, a new daily record since the lockdown was lifted in June. A woman walks, wearing a face mask to protect against coronavirus, near the beach, in Saint Jean de Luz, southwestern France Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned holidaymakers of the risk of travelling abroad during the coronavirus crisis Sir Graham told The Telegraph leaving the public in the dark on the matter is 'grossly unfair'. 'We should move to a proper testing regime for air travellers as quickly as possible, but in the meantime it is essential that the Government is as transparent as possible about the criteria which are being used judging which countries require quarantine and which do not. 'Leaving the travelling public in the dark is grossly unfair and is causing further damage to the holiday and leisure sector,' he said. Sir Iain added that holidaymakers needed more information and for it to be clearer so they could make better informed decisions about whether to travel abroad. He also called on the Government to reconsider regional travel corridors and testing to replace the 'blunt' approach of quarantine. 'People are travelling to countries at the moment and they have no idea whether they will or will not have quarantine reimposed,' he told the paper. 'My only question is can the Government not look at regional quarantine so that people could travel to low-risk areas like Majorca but not Barcelona?' The comments come as Eurostar said it recorded an increase in passengers travelling on its trains from Brussels to London on Friday, beating the deadline. Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned holidaymakers of the risk of travelling abroad during the coronavirus crisis Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, and former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith have called for a 'proper testing regime for air travellers' France's coronavirus rate has increased steadily in the past month to 13.2 new infections per 100,000 people Mr Sunak told Sky News: 'It's a tricky situation. What I can say to people is we're in the midst of a global pandemic and that means there is always the risk of disruption to travel plans and people need to bear that in mind. Britons could be able to holiday in Portugal by the end of the summer - but a million could be hit by France quarantine British tourists could enjoy a quarantine free break to Portugal by the end of the summer, with ministers happy that cases are at a safe level. However, the quarantine removal could be delayed by two weeks amid a spike in virus cases in Europe. A Whitehall source told the Sun: 'Portugal has made a lot of progress but the process of for dropping quarantine is far more gradual, where we monitor progress in weeks rather than days.' However, it is likely to be a lot longer before Spain is deemed safe. And France could also soon be quarantined. France's coronavirus rate has increased steadily in the past month to 13.2 new infections per 100,000 people, suggesting the spread is worse than in the UK, which has a rate of 8.4. Advertisement 'It's the right thing for us to do to keep everything under review on a constant basis talking with our scientists, our medical advisers, and if we need to take action as you've seen overnight we will of course not hesitate to do that and we're doing that to protect people's health.' France's coronavirus rate has increased steadily in the past month to 13.2 new infections per 100,000 people, suggesting the spread is worse than in the UK, which has a rate of 8.4. However, France still appears to be faring better than Belgium, which has seen its rate soar to 27.8. It also has a rate lower than Spain's when it was added to the restriction list at around 27.4. On Thursday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said rising Covid-19 infection levels in Belgium, Andorra and The Bahamas meant they would be added to the quarantine list. The measures come into force in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland from 4am on Saturday after they were introduced in Wales from Friday. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office also updated its travel advice to warn against all but essential trips to the three countries. The Department for Transport clarified that people driving to the UK from Germany or the Netherlands via Belgium will need to self-isolate for 14 days unless, while in Belgium, all passengers remain in their car and no-one joins them. Anyone who travels on a train which passengers get on or off in Belgium will also need to quarantine. This means Eurostar passengers travelling from Amsterdam to London will need to self-isolate, as the journey involves changing trains in Brussels. Elsewhere, Brunei and Malaysia have been added to the Government's travel corridor list, following a decrease in confirmed cases of coronavirus, meaning arrivals from these countries no longer need to quarantine. In Andorra, new cases per week have increased five-fold since mid-July, while in The Bahamas the weekly case rate peaked at 78.6 last week, up from 3.1 in the middle of last month. Holidaymakers pleaded for ministers to make a decision on the France quarantine, after the country confirmed 2,288 new cases and 12 deaths today. Lockdown-weary sunseekers angling for a summer break in France have begged for clarity after claims the country is 'highly likely' to be added to the 14-day quarantine list following a dramatic rise in infections. Some said a potential quarantine would risk children not starting school in September. Others said they were 'praying' that the Foreign Office's travel advice does not change and that the country's border remains upon for British travellers. Jane Stone said her family of six, including two grandparents, their daughter and three grandchildren booked to go to a holiday park in France in August, as they do each year. Their holiday from August 21 was booked last October, long before any mention of coronavirus. Jane Stone said her family of six, including two grandparents, their daughter and three grandchildren booked to go to a holiday park in France in August, as they do each year. Pictured: Jane Stone sent in this picture of her family Mother-of-two Becca Pountney said she is 'ready for a break and now it's looking increasingly unlikely we will make it' Ms Stone told MailOnline today: 'We cannot cancel, without losing our money, and find ourselves stuck waiting for a Government decision. 'Our son is already in the Dordogne, and as far as I am aware, oblivious to the current situation.' Mother-of-two Becca Pountney, of Bedfordshire-based Engage Weddings, said her parents have an apartment in the South of France and she was due to drive to the country for the end of the summer holidays. She decided to go there because it was much cheaper for her than trying to holiday in the UK 'where the prices are high and there are so many people'. Ms Pountney added: 'I own my own business as a wedding blogger and consultant to the wedding industry, so I have spent the last four months supporting couples and business owners who have had their whole year in business destroyed or had their wedding days cancelled. 'I'm just ready for a break and now it's looking increasingly unlikely we will make it. I have two children who haven't been to school since March and I don't want the quarantine to impact their return to school. 'I understand it's risky trying to holiday in a pandemic - but we just need the government to make a decision soon so we can work out what happens next.' Matt Richards wrote on Twitter today: 'Yes, a potential quarantine for me and my wife is not the end of the world. But 14 days quarantine would mean my children would miss the first week back at school and they've been off since March.' Families demand clarity on the rules before thousands of them go on holiday and risk children not starting school in September On a visit to Glasgow today, Rishi Sunak delivered a stark warning to Britons amid fears France could be the next holiday destination to face coronavirus curbs. Pictured: The chancellor departs on a private jet after visiting Scotland Cases of coronavirus measures per million of population have been running higher in France than in the UK recently Rachel Arnold, of Cheshire, said: 'We want to go to France next week, Charente area, low Covid. Staying at a secluded house, no one else there. Thinking now not to go as 'threat' of quarantine looming. Ironically can't afford to do a ten-day holiday here.' And Sarah Eaves, from North London, tweeted: 'Please make a decision on France in the next 24 hours before thousands of us with families go on holiday and risk children not starting school. Quarantine means we can cancel and get back.' Another worried holidaymaker, Emma Lewis, tweeted: 'We're due to drive through France to get to Italy in early September. Praying the French border stays open and FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) advice for France doesn't change.' But Michael Porter, of Halifax, West Yorkshire, said he had cancelled a trip on Tuesday to go to France this Saturday for his wife's 60th birthday. And Twitter user Jamie, from London, said: 'As father of the bride I have a wedding to attend in France on the 17th, so yes I'll be going but need to work on my return or go bankrupt. So pay the fine or hire a pedalo.' Meanwhile Matt Groombridge, from Deal, Kent, said: 'Two-week quarantine imminent travelling to/from France... holiday was timed well, and it means I'll get some peace and quiet on the ferry again.' The number of daily coronavirus cases in the country has risen in recent days, with 1,695 new infections being recorded just yesterday, as it battles to avoid a second wave of Covid-19. The seven-day rolling average of confirmed cases has doubled from under 10 per million of population on Jul 21 to 19.33 yesterday. By contrast the UK's is around 12 cases per million people. WASHINGTON U.S. Sen. John Cornyn signaled Friday that hes willing to extend coronavirus relief checks to over 600,000 Texans citizens and green card holders who were edged out in the first round of payments because they are members of so-called mixed status households. March stimulus payments did not go to citizens and permanent residents who file their taxes jointly with others in their households who are immigrants, including those who came to the country illegally. Cornyn is calling for the next round of checks to go to any taxpayer with a Social Security Number, regardless of whether he or she lives with unauthorized immigrants. This pandemic has hit all Texans hard, and we shouldnt make it harder by withholding recovery resources based on the status of a U.S. citizens spouse, Cornyn said in a statement. The intent of these recovery checks is to provide a lifeline to as many U.S. citizens in dire need of support as we could, and this bill will allow us to help more Texans while we continue to fight the coronavirus. LEFT OUT: Up to 2.4M Texas immigrants cut off from coronavirus stimulus payments Its the latest example of Cornyn, who faces what many expect will be his most difficult reelection run yet, charting a more moderate course on immigration even as other Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz, have voiced firm opposition to proposals that offer a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants, or coronavirus aid to households that include them. Under the CARES Act, U.S. citizens who file taxes jointly with a non-citizen were deemed ineligible for stimulus checks. Those denied the federal payments of $1,200 for adults and $500 for children included some 940,000 Texans who are U.S. citizens or green card holders who would have otherwise been eligible, according to estimates by the Migration Policy Institute. The proposal Cornyn is supporting would send checks to households where at least one adult filed taxes with a Social Security Number, including U.S. citizens and permanent residents. They would receive a check of up to $1,200 for the U.S. citizen taxpayer and an additional $500 for each citizen child. The Migration Policy Institute estimates the legislation would send checks to 609,000 of the 940,000 Texans who were left out the first time around. Cornyns office stressed that the bill would only send checks to the citizens in those households, not to unauthorized immigrants. The Migration Policy Institute estimated it would exclude about 330,000 children in Texas who are U.S. citizens, because neither of their parents filed taxes with a Social Security Number. Former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar, the Democrat challenging Cornyn, said supporting the bill is the least he can do. Senator Cornyn should be attempting to fix many of his failures when it comes to helping all Texans recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, said Jake Lewis, a spokesman for Hegar. Unfortunately, at the same time he is finally supporting this bill, Senator Cornyn has let needed relief for the millions of Texans who are out of work through no fault of their own expire. LATINOS WILL DETERMINE RACES ACROSS TEXAS: Latino voters much more motivated to vote in 2020, poll finds Its unclear whether the proposal led by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican will go anywhere in the Senate, where it was not included in the GOPs coronavirus relief proposal last month. Cornyn is one of six GOP senators backing it as congressional leaders and members of the Trump administration negotiate the next relief package. House Democrats included a similar but further reaching measure in a $3 trillion coronavirus relief package they passed in May. It would have sent stimulus checks to anyone who pays taxes, including unauthorized immigrants who use an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number to pay federal taxes. The Democrats plan would send $1,200 checks to everyone eligible, including children, up to $6,000 per household. The Texas Republican Party at the time called it outrageous and said Democrats are jumping at every opportunity to push through a ludicrous list of far-left ideas. President Donald Trump threatened to veto that bill, in part because it would send payments to illegal aliens and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted it in a speech on the Senate floor at the time, saying Another round of checks for illegal immigrants. Can you believe it? Cornyn has often staked out more moderate positions on immigration issues, including calling for Congress to pass legislation offering a pathway to citizenship for those protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program after the Supreme Court blocked Trumps bid to end it in June. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Those positions have at times put Cornyn at odds with other Republicans, including Cruz, who blocked a July attempt by Senate Democrats to pass such legislation, calling it an attempt at offering amnesty to those who entered the country illegally. The two Texas senators were also divided over how far the Trump administration should go in restricting immigration amid the coronavirus outbreak. Cornyn joined a group of senators urging Trump against additional restrictions, arguing that guest workers are needed to boost American business, not take American jobs. But Cruz joined a group of conservatives calling for the suspension of all new guest worker visas for 60 days and calling on the president to halt some categories for at least a year, or until employment has returned to normal levels. Cornyn, however, has faced criticism for not always following through on immigration issues and has been accused of inserting poison pill amendments into bipartisan reform efforts. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat who has pushed to send the stimulus checks to those left out in the last round said Cornyn is clearly feeling the political pressure of a competitive election. If he would have defended Texas families earlier, perhaps we could have avoided this unnecessary hardship in the first place, Castro said. Lets be clear: the Republican bill still leaves out millions of U.S. citizen children nationwide from receiving much-needed assistance just because of their parents immigration status. Every taxpayer in America deserves economic impact payments to help afford their bills and stimulate our economic recovery. ben.wermund@chron.com Miss a day, miss a lot. Let's catch up on the week: District 230 Teachers Protest In-Person Instruction This Fall Teachers from D230 formed a vehicle caravan in opposition to heading back to classrooms this fall. 'Lou Can Do' Presta Indicted In Red-Light Camera Bribery Probe Federal charges allege that the Crestwood mayor lied to feds about accepting $5,000 bribe from SafeSpeed rep and misreported tax income. Suburban Cook County Coronavirus Hospitalizations Surpass Chicago The daily average number of people admitted to the hospital in the Cook County suburbs has risen by nearly 47 percent in the past week. 'Christmas House' Could Be Yours For $995K Hawes Mansion is on the market for nearly one million dollars. 2 Held In Attempted Blue Island Carjacking, Shooting Cops Former Oak Lawn man left seriously wounded in attempted carjacking in Blue Island, cops say. Palos Hills Veteran Who Survived COVID-19 Chosen For Honor Flight Chuck McCloud, 70, was chosen to fly to Washington D.C. with other Vietnam era veterans on Honor Flight Chicago in 2021. Marie Newman Gets Nod In Obama's First Round Of Endorsements IL-03 Democratic candidate Marie Newman is among 17 congressional candidates endorsed by former President Barack Obama. Woman Creates Petition Calling On Facebook To 'Remove Pedophilia' The petition claims that groups who share this content have been reported, but called the responses received from the site "disappointing." OMGPD Like our Crime page on Facebook Story continues Pandemic School Reopening Plans READING LIST WORTH A LOOK Man Leaves A Note Looking For Tennis Partners, Community Responds Deli Provides Food To Pub So It Can Remain Open In Pandemic Woman Creates Petition Calling On Facebook To 'Remove Pedophilia' GoFundMe Set Up For OLCHS Grad Wounded In Attempted Carjacking McAuley Seniors Receive Record $58 Million in Scholarships Sisters Of Mercy Awards $26K Grant To SXU For Scholarships Census Takers Out In Chicago Heights Neighborhoods Christ Medical Center Nurses Honor Friend's Memory With Kindness Lemont Area Coronavirus Cases Increased By 14 Over Past Week New Lenox Area Coronavirus Cases Increased By 29 Over 6 Days MYSO Orchestra Announces New Director & 2020-21 Season Auditions Frankfort Area Coronavirus Cases Increased By 43 Over 8 Days Smooth Ink Sports Closing In Frankfort 6 COVID Cases Confirmed At The Orland Park Mosque, 3 Hospitalized Orland Trustees Spar Over Concerts, Events Orland Park Boy Hosts Third Annual Cups 4 Cancer Lemonade Stand Fire Leads To Considerable Damage To Orland Park Fast Food Staple ALSO ON PATCH This article originally appeared on the Orland Park Patch (Natural News) Get ready America to be microchipped with electronic transmitters that communicate with drones, military police and the medical industrial complex. Have you been vetted by a drone at your front door yet? Why arent you answering your door, are you a terrorist or some patriot rebel-rouser? You are now under surveillance due to your continued use of hate speech on social media, and its time for your state-mandated, CDC-sequestered vaccination, including GPS-tracking chip. Dont worry though, its just for your own safety and well-being. We need to know everywhere you go, always, forever more. Thats all. Nothing to see here. Move on. Yes, top-secret electronic transmitters communicate with drones, telling drones to attack the chip inside the vaccinated pathrai (human tracer or just terrorist bait) as used by Barrack Hussein Obama and the CIA, embedded in the Taliban higher-ups, in order to track and kill al-Qaida leaders, plus their cohort terrorists. It was a catch and release program the same thing Bill Gates and George Soros will have done to every schmuck in America that gets the Covid-19 vaccine, and beyond. Did you vote for Trump, again? You are a dissident, in need of re-education at a FEMA camp (where they have millions of coffins already purchased and stacked, ready for the masses). If you fail to show up, the vaccine chip can be homed in on by drones and killing machines, because youve all been tagged, like cattle. Remember, they laughed at George Orwell when he wrote 1984 and the whole damn movie pretty much came true and is happening right now. We DO live in a police state that records our every move, word, email, text, post. We DO live in a police state world thats erasing history and rewriting it to fit a Marxist, nightmarish agenda. We DO live in a police state where child protective services steals children who arent vaccinated, or who didnt get enough chemotherapy, and sells them into the slave trade. Its called medical kidnapping and it happens here all the time. You may feel like these vaccine scenarios are a bit far-fetched, but what you dont know is most of them are being designed in labs right now, and will be fast-tracked through CDC and FDA approval. People really are being micro-chipped right now. Check and see. The vaccine microchip is coming, its just a matter of how soon. Is this really the NEAR FUTURE of vaccines? Soon, after everyone is micro-chipped with tracker technology thats synced with your political party voting habits, thats linked to your medical information, your gun ownership information, your vaccine history, after all of that, there WILL BE more lock-downs, more starvation, more desolation, more death, more riots, more unemployment, more deadly novel diseases, and it wont stop. Smaller government cells (think Democrat Mayors and Governors) will have a local activation control mother board for vaccine chip death switches, so if, say 500 people are protesting against the tyranny, they can activate all 500 people to die. Maybe broadcast the mass murder of dissidents on pay per view, to raise money for the next election, and to keep the dictatorship in place forever. Everyone who bucks the socialist system will be labeled Systemic Racist and put on house arrest indefinitely using Vaccine-GPS Chip-to-Drone technology Did you post All Lives Matter that one time, way back? Youre now wanted by the FBI for White Supremacist Collusion. Do you own a gun thats not registered with the DNC? Youre an armed terrorist right-wing nut whos wanted for treason and hate crimes (on line pro-Trump posts). Did you not vote for Biden? Youre a Systemic Racist. Dont you know the color white is illegal? Trying to run away now, from the madness? You wont get far. The FBI just merged info and data hubs and you are wanted for pharma experimentation, which is just like jury duty mandatory. Your smart devices are all jammed up and causing the vaccine chip to release too much mercury at once. You are now suffering Mad Hatter Syndrome. Report at once for your medication. You are not allowed to travel in your car, which has been shut off by Tesla (he owns all cars now). This has been a public service announcement about the dangers of the future of vaccines and microchips. Tune your internet dial to Vaccines.news for updates on depopulation vaccines that contain deadly chemicals and microchips. Sources for this article include: Vaccines.news TheGuardian.com NaturalNews.com HistoryofVaccines.org Allure.com GlobalPossibilites.org WebMD.com The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, started its 21st session Saturday to review multiple draft laws and law revisions. Bills on the agenda include draft laws on urban maintenance and construction tax and deed tax, and draft revisions to the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency and the Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention. During the four-day session, lawmakers will also deliberate draft amendments to the Copyright Law, the Organic Law of the NPC, the Rules of Procedure for the NPC, the National Flag Law and the National Emblem Law, among others. PATNA: Late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's father KK Singh on Saturday (August 8) moved the Supreme Court filing a counter-affidavit against the plea of Rhea Chakraborty, in which the actress urged the top court to transfer the case from Patna to Mumbai. Singh, 74, stated in the affidavit that since the investigation into the FIR has already been transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Rhea's plea seeking transfer of probe to Mumbai stands 'infructuous'. Meanwhile, the apex court will on August 11 hear the petition filed by Rhea seeking to transfer the FIR in Sushant Singh Rajput death case from Patna to Mumbai. The petition to move the case to Mumbai was filed by the actress after Sushant's father KK Singh lodged an FIR against her under various sections, including abetment to suicide, at Patna police station. On August 7, Rhea along with her brother Showik and former manager Shruti Modi was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths at their Mumbai office for almost 8 hours in connection with a money laundering case linked to Sushant death case. On the other hand, Bihar IPS officer Vinay Tiwari, wh had arrived in Mumbai to oversee the probe by Patna Police in Sushant death case, said on Friday that the investigation in the case was affected as he was placed under quarantine. The Patna Central City SP said that along with him, the investigation was also quarantined. Tiwari reached Mumbai on August 2 to oversee the probe into the FIR filed against Rhea in Sushant's death case. On his arrival in Mumbai, he was asked to remain in quarantine until August 15 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and was stamped as quarantined by the BMC. However, the civic body on Friday said he has been exempted from quarantine protocols and allowed to return to his home state. Sushant was found dead in his rented apartment in Mumbai's Bandra Palli Hill under the mysterious condition on June 14. The death of the actor has sparked a debate on the mental health issue, nepotism, money laundering allegations against Rhea and her family members, siphoning crores of rupees from Sushant's bank accounts and mysterious death of his former manager Disha Salian. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: A migrant from Telangana, Mulkala Sathyam, working in Oman was illegally trafficked to UAE and has been stuck in Dubai for four years now. His wife Mulkala Jyothi appealed to Jagtial district administration to arrange for a temporary emergency passport for him, so that he can return. In a letter to the Collector, Jyothi wrote, My husband Mulkala Sathyam, went to Muscat, Oman, in 2016. He was sent from Mumbai to Muscat on a job visa in Al-Turki Company as a construction laborer by a recruiting agent. He was transferred by an agent from Muscat to Dubai, UAE, by crossing the border illegally in August 2016. He has been living and working in Dubai for the last four years as an irregular immigrant worker, Jyothi said. She said that in view of the pandemic, she would like her husband to come back. However, he does not have a passport. He needs an Emergency Certificate (one-way travel document called OUT PASS / White Passport) which has to be issued by both the Consulate Generals of India, Dubai, she requested. Family, friends and emergency responders gathered to pay last respects to UAB Police Sgt. Parnell Guyton today at a graveside service in Birminghams Elmwood Cemetery. Birmingham fire fighters hoisted a large American flag over the cemetery as a final farewell to Sgt. Guyton whose battle with COVID-19 stretched over several months before he died of the illness in late July. A final farewell to UAB Police Sgt. Parnell Guyton. pic.twitter.com/1jwA8YRcC5 Birmingham Fire (@bham_fire) August 8, 2020 Guyton, 47, was a UAB police officer for 16 years, and one of UABs first COVID-19 patients after he was diagnosed in March. Guyton was in the intensive care unit for 59 days after that, 45 of those on a ventilator. He spent a month after that at UABs Spain Rehabilitation Center before going home on June 30. Guytons recovery was described as miraculous when he left the hospital, but he fell sick again in July and was readmitted. He died on July 31. After Guytons death, UAB President Ray Watts and Police Chief Anthony Purcell issued a statement expressing their heartbreak. If you knew Sergeant Guyton, you are fortunate and better for it, they said. He was an exemplary officer and dear friend. Most importantly, he was a beloved husband and father, and our thoughts, prayers and support are with his family in this difficult time. Guyton is survived by his wife Fekisha Vaughan Guyton and their 7-year-old son. Kozhikode: The pilot in command of the crashed Air India Express flight Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, who was among those killed in the accident, was one of the most experienced commanders with more than 10,000 flying hours and had landed the aircraft at the Karipur airport runway at least 27 times in the past, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Saturday (August 8, 2020). "The aircraft was captained and operated by one of our most distinguished, experienced commanders, Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe. In fact, the Captain had more than 10,000 hours of flying experience. He has landed on this very air piece, I think as many as 27 times including this year", Puri said. The Union Minister said thi while speaking to mediapersons after arriving here to take stock of the crash of the Dubai-Kozhikode AIE flight with 190 people on board on Friday night that left 18 people dead and scores injured and the relief measures. The Minister appreciated the local airport authority officials, all other agencies and local people who participated in the rescue operations soon after the accident which also killed co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar. Puri said they all acted in an exemplary manner. Puri, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and several Kerala cabinet ministers had earlier arrived at the Karipur International Airport on Saturday where the Air India Express flight crashed on Friday night. Soon after visiting the accident site, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan visited the injured who have been admitted to hospitals in Malappuram and Kozhikode. Talking to reporters, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan said that 18 people have died in the crash which includes 14 adults and 4 children. He further informed that 149 injured are undergoing treatment in hospital and 23 people have been discharged. Meanwhile, the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder of the ill-fated aircraft was recovered from the site of the crash, a top Directorate General of Civil Aviation official said. Both "black boxes" have been found, the official said. This information will help the investigation team to find out how the plane crashed, the DGCA official said. The Air India Express plane, which was repatriating Indians stranded from Dubai due to the COVID-19 pandemic, overshot the runway of the Calicut International Airport in heavy rain near the southern city of Kozhikode on Friday. The Boeing 737 aircraft overshot the tabletop runway at the airport here while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions, killing at least 18 people. An accused of the Kanpur ambush during which eight policemen were killed by henchmen of slain gangster Vikas Dubey surrendered before the Chaubepur police on Saturday in a dramatic manner, wearing a confession placard and seeking forgiveness for the crime. According to a senior officer, Umakant, alias Guddan, was accompanied by his wife, daughter and other family members at the time of his surrender. He came to the police station wearing a confession placard and sought forgiveness from police, the officer said, adding that members of his family pleaded with them to save his life. He was taken into custody and will be produced before a court, he said. The UP Special Task Force (STF) and the Kanpur police had been on the lookout for Umakant since the ambush at Kanpur's Bikru village on July 3. They had raided several of his possible hideouts. The Kanpur police in a press release on Saturday claimed that his surrender was the result of their alertness and frequent raids that built pressure on him. Police said Umakant was carrying a cash reward of Rs 50,000 and confessed to the crime. During questioning, he confessed that he resorted to indiscriminate firing at the police party along with Vikas Dubey and his associates Amar Dubey, Atul Dubey, Prem Kumar, Prabhat Mishra, who were gunned down in separate police encounters, the release said. Umakant said he felt he was guilty for the brutal killing of policemen and decided to surrender after facing tremendous pressure and frequent raids at every possible hideout, the press release said. Umakant is one of the nine accused who have either been arrested or surrendered till now. A hunt is on for the other six remaining named accused. Earlier, several aides of Vikas Dubey, including Daya Shankar Agnihotri, Shyamu Bajpai, Jahan Yadav, Shashikant, Monu and Shivam Dubey were arrested either by the UP STF or the Kanpur Police, while Gopal Saini surrendered before a special court in Kanpur Dehat about 10 days ago. Those who are still at large are Chotu Shukla, Shiv Tewari, Vishnu Pal Yadav, Ramu Bajpai, Hiru Dubey and Bal Govind. As many as six prime accused Vikas Dubey, Prabhat Mishra, Amar Dubey, Bauan Dubey, Prem Kumar Pandey and Atul Dubey have been gunned down in separate encounters since July 3. SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kalytera Therapeutics, Inc. (TSX VENTURE: KLY and OTC: KALTF) (the "Company" or "Kalytera") today provided the following updates regarding recent and ongoing activities. Private Placement As previously announced on July 24, 2020, the Company closed in escrow its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the Private Placement) of units comprised of common shares (Shares) and one half common share purchase warrants (Warrants) in the capital of the Company. The Company confirms that it received final acceptance for the Private Placement on July 24, 2020, and has completed escrow closing and post-closing matters, culminating in a final raised amount of gross proceeds of CDN $309,430.50 from the issuance of 20,628,700 shares and 10,314,350 warrants. The Company wishes to thank all involved parties in assisting with the closing and post-closing matters in light of the Covid-19 slow down. Each unit had a purchase price of $0.015 per unit. Each full common share purchase warrant will have an exercise price of CDN $0.05, and a term of 24 months. At any time on or after the date that is 4 months from the closing date, if the daily volume weighted average trading price of the common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange (the TSXV) equals or exceeds $0.10 CAD for a period of at least 10 consecutive trading days, the Company shall be entitled to accelerate the expiration date of the Warrants to the date that is 30 days from the date that notice of such acceleration is given. From and after the new accelerated expiration date, no Warrant may be exercised, and all unexercised Warrants shall be void. The securities offered have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended or any U.S. state securities laws, and any securities issued to US Persons are restricted securities subject to an indefinite hold period unless traded in compliance with applicable exemptions. Story continues The company paid a cash commission of 8% of the gross proceeds raised and closed in respect of the offering to Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. (Echelon) with respect of the funds raised by it, and brokers warrants to this finder, exercisable within 30 months following the relevant closing date, to acquire in aggregate that number of common shares which is equal to 8% of the number of units sold under the offering with respect of the funds raised by it, which warrants expiry 30 months from issuance (closing date of July 22, 2020) and are exercisable at $0.05 per warrant. Accordingly, Echelon received a cash finder fee of $20,000.04 and 1,333,336 broker warrants. Except for the mentioned commission and warrants to Echelon, no bonus, finders fee, commission, agents option, or similar compensation, whether in cash or securities, has been paid or is payable in connection with the Private Placement. The proceeds from the placement will be used to pay auditor and accounting fees, director & officer insurance premiums and other accounts payable. Trading Halt On June 22, 2020, the British Columbia Securities Commission (the BCSC) issued a Failure-to-File Cease Trade Order against the Company (the "FFCTO") due to the Company's failure to file by the prescribed filing deadlines its annual financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2019, and the accompanying Managements Discussion and Analysis and certifications, (the Filings). Please refer to the Companys press release of June 30, 2020 for more details. The Company had been granted the Order to commence the Private Placement as an exception to the FFCTO. The Company is working to complete the Filings. Upon filing of the Filings, the Company will apply to have the FFCTO fully revoked. The Company expects that the FFCTO would be removed prior to the expiration of the customary hold period for private placement offerings that affect all issuers, in which case investors would not be subject to any hold periods beyond what is expected for all private placements. Appointment of Director Effective July 16, 2020 the board of directors of the Company appointed Robin Hutchison to fill a vacancy on the Company's board of directors. Mr. Hutchison was previously a director of the Company and the Company welcomes his return to the board. Salzman Group Acquisition The Company previously announced that it has entered into a binding Letter of Intent to acquire Salzman Group. Transaction Highlights Kalytera announced on July 16, 2020 that it has entered into a License Agreement (the License Agreement ), under which Salzman Group has granted to Kalytera an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize R-107, for the treatment of coronavirus and COVID-19 infection. The License Agreement is the first step in a larger transaction in which Kalytera will acquire Salzman Group (the Acquisition ). The Acquisition is expected to close later this year, subject to customary conditions including TSXV and shareholder approvals. Salzman Group is the owner of R-107, a proprietary drug with issued and pending composition of matter and method of use patents in approximately 40 countries, including the U.S., Australia, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea. R-107 is a liquid prodrug of nitric oxide. Based on the fact that nitric oxide is an approved treatment for acute respiratory failure in newborns, and the clinical evidence of nitric oxides antiviral activity against strains of coronavirus, Salzman Group is developing R-107 for treatment of coronavirus and COVID-19 infection. Salzman Group is also developing R-107 for chlorine inhalation lung injury (CILI). This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In connection with the acquisition of Salzman Group, the Company anticipates that it will announce the following matters shortly after the Company's shares resume trading after it has been granted full revocation of the FFCTO: Initiation of an equity or debt financing to provide 6-months working capital, which is a TSXV requirement for close of Salzman Group acquisition, as previously disclosed Scheduling of a special meeting of shareholders to approve the acquisition of Salzman Group, as previously disclosed Status of Debt Owed to Former Shareholders of Talent Biotechs, Ltd. In 2017, Kalyteras wholly owned subsidiary, Kalytera Therapeutics Israel, Ltd. (Kalytera Israel) acquired Talent Biotechs Ltd. (Talent) from the former shareholders of Talent (the Former Shareholders, under the terms of a share purchase agreement (the "SPA") between Kalytera, Kalytera Israel, Talent and the Former Shareholders. Under the terms of the SPA, Kalytera Israel is obligated to make certain milestone payments (the Milestone Payments) to the Former Shareholders. Kalytera Israel failed to pay certain Milestone Payments when they became due under the SPA, and issued a promissory note (the Note) in favor of the Former Shareholders evidencing such debt. Kalytera Israel is obligated to pay USD $3 million to the Former Shareholders under the terms of the Note. Kalytera Israel is in default under the terms of the SPA and the Note, and has received a formal notice of default from the representative of the Former Shareholders. The obligations of Kalytera Israel under the Note are guaranteed by Talent, and both Kalytera Israel and Talent are parties to a Security Agreement, under which they have secured their obligations under the Note by pledging certain assets to the Former Shareholders as security for the Note (the Pledged Assets). The Pledged Assets are the assets of the Companys product development program under which the Company was evaluating cannabidiol (CBD) in the prevention and treatment of graft versus host disease (GVHD). The Pledged Assets are both tangible and intangible assets, consisting primarily of tangible assets, such as patient blood samples, and intangible assets, such as contract rights, clinical and preclinical data, know how, and intellectual property rights that are held under a license agreement between MOR Research Applications, Ltd. and Talent. The Pledged Assets also include all shares of the Companys two subsidiaries, Kalytera Israel and Talent. The Company and the representative of the Former Shareholders are in discussions regarding a contemplated agreement (the Agreement) under which Kalytera Israel will transfer ownership of all Pledged Assets, other than the shares of Kalytera Israel, to the Former Shareholders in consideration for the release and discharge by the Former Shareholders of all obligations the Company and its subsidiaries may have to such Former Shareholders, including all obligations under the Note and SPA. The Company and the representative of the Former Shareholders expect to complete discussions regarding the contemplated Agreement, and will enter into the Agreement subject to approval by the Company's shareholders and the TSXV as applicable. The Company will schedule a meeting of shareholders at which it will seek such approval. The Company confirms that no securities of the Company are to be traded with respect of the contemplated Agreement and the Companys securities remain subject to the FFCTO. The Company confirms that there is no other material information concerning the affairs of the Company that has not been previously generally disclosed. About Kalytera Therapeutics Kalytera Therapeutics, Inc. ("Kalytera") is committed to developing new treatments for a variety of diseases and disorders, by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. Kalytera focuses on areas of unmet medical need, and leverages its expertise to find solutions that will improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives. Cautionary 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 press release may contain certain forward-looking information and statements ("forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, that are not based on historical fact, including without limitation in respect of its product candidate pipeline, planned clinical trials, regulatory approval prospects, intellectual property objectives and other statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "plans", "intends", "will", "should", "expects", "continue", "estimate", "forecasts" and other similar expressions. In particular, this press release contains such forward-looking information regarding the acquisition of Salzman Group, related or proposed research and development activities of Kalytera, the Private Placement, the discussions and the results of such discussions with Talent with respect of the Note, SPA, the Pledged Assets, and other matters related to the same (which may or may not transpire as currently contemplated), the possibility of getting a full revocation of the FFCTO or its timing to avoid any effects on the hold period of securities issued to any investors of the Private Placement, and each of the foregoings possible effects on the business and operations of Kalytera. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risk that: future clinical studies may not proceed as expected or may produce unfavorable; acquisition of Salzman Group might not be completed (including the Company not receiving final acceptance for its completion) or completed on terms currently disclosed; and any funds raised may be insufficient to carry out the activities for which they are intended for or any other activity; and the proposed activities for which they are intended for and any other activity of the Company might not be completed as currently planned due to economic, business and other factors, some of which are beyond the control of the Company . Kalytera undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third parties, its securities, or financial or operating results (as applicable). Although Kalytera believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking information in this press release are reasonable, such forward-looking information has been based on expectations, factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond Kalytera's control. With respect of Kalyteras press releases , readers should read the disclaimers and other cautionary information in such news releases. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and is made as of the date hereof. Kalytera disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contact Information Robert Farrell President, CEO (888) 861-2008 info@kalytera.co The Ralph Bunche Alumni Association is praising what its president, Claudette Jordon, describes as a phenomenal and monumental endeavor to preserve the schools legacy of racial and educational equality. Rep. Rob Wittman, R1st District, recently entered remarks into the U.S. Congressional Record about the history of Ralph Bunche High School in King George County. Wittman had attended a Founders Day event in King George last fall, to kick off what was supposed to be a year-long celebration of the countys 300th anniversary. Many events had to be canceled because of COVID-19. But as Wittman talked with Jordon about Ralph Bunche, he learned that her family, and relatives of other Black residents, had sued the King George School Board in 1946 for the right to have a facility of their own. The result was the all-Black Ralph Bunche High School, which opened in 1949. The King George lawsuit was viewed as a test case nationally in the desegregation movement. When Wittman learned about that, Jordon said he wanted to get it into the Congressional Record so the rest of the world would know it, too. No one has ever done that for Ralph Bunche before, she said. Several youths and women in Edo State on Friday took to the streets of the state capital, Benin City, to challenge the acts of impunity and lawlessness by the Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC). The youths and women cautioned APC against anti-democratic acts and threat to peace in the state. National Daily gathered that the youths and women were joined by supporters of the People Democratic Party (PDP) in their protest at the Edo State House of Assembly which was taken over by the Police of Thursday as the state was thrown into political turmoil. The Police and other security operatives were said to be at the Assembly to protect the facility. The protesting Edo youths and women expressed their solidarity and support for Governor Godwin Obaseki. They were said to have prayed for the restoration of peace in the state. The protesting youths and women also declared their support for the Speaker of the Edo House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Frank Okiye. They affirmed their recognition of Okiye as the Presiding Officer of the State House of Assembly in Edo. The angry youths expressed their opposition to the illegal Speaker of the House, Victor Edoror, who was said to be sworn in by 17 APC lawmakers on Thursday, 14 of whom were identified not to be official members of the Edo State House of Assembly. The protesters, accordingly, rejected the inauguration of the 14 lawmakers-elect in Edo at a private residence in Benin City. The protesters argued that the inauguration of the legislators violated the law, insisting that the lawmakers have lost their seats after they failed to participate in legislative proceedings for a period prescribed by the law upon which their seats were declared vacant. The U.S. efforts to clamp down on popular short video-sharing app TikTok is part of a broader attempt to curb China's technological sector, a Turkish expert has said. "This move can be considered as the latest card used by the United States in its fight against China and its technological rise. This is a battle for technological dominance," Altay Atli, a scholar at Istanbul's Bogazici University, told Xinhua. "This is a new front of the battle," said Atli. U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order banning any U.S. transactions with the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, owner of TikTok, starting in 45 days. Atli, an Asia-Pacific expert, said that the Trump administration wants to push back against China's rise as a tech competitor. "We have to see this within the context of a strategic and multilateral fight for dominance. Tomorrow, Washington can pick up another company related to China," he noted, adding the U.S. move is discriminatory. TikTok has been downloaded over 175 million times in the United States and over 1 billion times globally, according to the executive order, which claims that the app automatically captures "vast swaths of information" from its users, posing risks to U.S. national security. A similar executive order has also been issued for WeChat, a messaging and social media app owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent. Atli said this latest move is part of the Trump administration's sanction-imposing ploy, which began with Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Trump also encouraged allies to put the Chinese company on a blacklist. The expert said Trump is trying to use the strategic battle with China as an electoral card to seek reelection in November's presidential elections. Trump's push came amid escalating rhetoric against Beijing over trade and the COVID-19 pandemic, Atli said. "The U.S. sees the rise of China as a threat, and the perception of this threat is being instrumentalized by President Trump." "Huawei is a much bigger piece to swallow and is not a daily concern of American voters while TikTok is in their daily lives and may have a different impact on voter choices," Atli noted. "If you want to marry into royalty, you must pay a royal price. These chilling words spoken by an older sister-in-law to the young lead character in Bulbbul just after she is unspeakably brutalised define the horror of Indian patriarchal society more than its pet storytelling motif of the chudail (witch) ever could. In the new horror drama Bulbbul on Netflix, director Anvita Dutt takes on this folklore of the female demon but gives a feminist twist. After a long career as dialogue writer, screenplay writer, storywriter and lyricist in peppy mainstream Bollywood romances, Anvitas directorial debut goes headlong into dark subjects child marriage, rape, domestic violence and sex slavery. As a commissioned writer, you write to the directors brief and try to deliver to their vision. But when I decided to direct my own film, I worked on a genre of my own choice on the kind of story that I wanted to tell basically a fantastical tale talking about real pain, she explains. Starring Tripti Dimri, Rahul Bose and Paoli Dam, Anvita says she had always planned the film for an OTT release. Having a producer and platform that allowed complete freedom to just do justice to the film was an advantage, she admits. Netflix freed me in the sense that they completely supported my vision, says Anvita, who is inspired by filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Kurosawa and Bong Joon-ho, and lists Abhimaan, Minority Report and Pulp Fiction among her favourite films. Brought up in various parts of India as an Indian Air Force officers daughter, the 48-year-old is a voracious reader. Books dont just hold the engaging, seductive power of stories. They teach you how stories work. And they teach you to have an imagination, she says, adding that she admires authors like Ursula K. Le Guin, Neil Gaiman, Agatha Christie and Stephen King, among many others. Anvita Dutt One of most fascinating details about her film is its backdrop of 19th century Bengal. I felt that Bengal of that period had a certain mythical quality and had an aesthetic appeal that would add to the fable-like quality of the film, explains Anvita, adding, All of India is rich in myths and folklore. There is, in fact, a treasure trove of material just waiting for someone like me to play with. This time I chose Bengal. The films protagonist, played by Tripti Dimri, looks stunningly beautiful in the film, and yet this beauty is definitely one seen through the female gaze, not hyper-sexualised but rather endowed with innate power. She is a very beautiful girl in any case not just physically but also as a human being, affirms Anvita. And it is her innate authenticity coupled with her performance and her living and breathing and becoming Bulbbul that takes her beauty to the sublime. She completely surrendered to the character. And this is true for all great actors. They own up the role. As far as the female gaze goes, she adds, Look at what Bimal Roy did in Bandini. Though Anvita says she wanted to give the derogatory word chudail a new meaning through the film, she explains why she chose its traditional identifiers from Indian folklore the feet turned backwards, loose open hair, a hint of promiscuity: You have to show people what is familiar before you can change its meaning. There is an existing idea. You have to first make people remember that idea, that myth, before subverting it. Theres also the disturbing aspect of violence in the film, which has been criticised by some, but which serves the purpose in creating a sense of horror rather than voyeurism. It also justifies the subtle anti-men tenor of the plot and the protagonists anger, though Anvita hopes men and women will be equally moved by it. The idea was to bring to light the everyday horror that unfolds even today. And I think if you are sensitive to that and are emotionally moved by it, your gender doesnt matter, she says. Anvita Dutt, Bulbbul Tripti Dimri and Rahul Bose The idea of presenting women characters in shades of grey is something that has been catching on in the film industry and that is how Anvita has perceived her two women leads in the film as well Binodini and Bulbbul are both heroines and anti-heroines in their own way. This is a democracy. All that I can do is be true to myself and hopefully that will bring enough dissonance, says Anvita, who says she was surprised how audiences picked up every nuance and responded to it emotionally and viscerally. It has sparked conversations and it has moved them to poetry or art. I am so grateful for that. Syracuse, N.Y. -- One family is temporarily displaced tonight after a fire started on the first floor of their North Side home, according to a deputy fire chief. The family was not home when the fire at 128 Steuben St. was reported, Deputy Chief James Farewell said. The Red Cross is assisting them with housing needs, he said. The fire was reported at 6:11 p.m. Firefighters arrived and found it burning in the back part of the house, he said. They were able to extinguish it within about five minutes, Farewell said. No one was injured, Farewell said. The fires cause is under investigation. Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274. KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia on Friday charged former finance minister and senior opposition leader Lim Guan Eng with corruption for seeking a bribe on a $1.5 billion infrastructure project. Lim said the charge was "politically motivated". The charge against Lim, who was minister in the Mahathir Mohamad-led coalition that collapsed in February, comes amid speculation that elections could be imminent due to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's slim majority in parliament. Lim was charged at a Kuala Lumpur sessions court for seeking a bribe in 2011 to appoint a company to manage an undersea tunnel project in Penang state, which he led as chief minister from 2008 until his appointment as finance minister in 2018. Lim, who was arrested on Thursday night, pleaded not guilty to the charge. If found guilty, Lim faces a jail term of up to 20 years and heavy fines. Anti-graft officials have said Lim will face two more charges next week. "This is a baseless allegation and is politically motivated," Lim told reporters after being released on bail, adding that he will prove his innocence in court. Other opposition leaders also called the charge political persecution. Charles Santiago, an opposition lawmaker, said the charges were a "dirty ploy" to destroy the opposition bloc. The prime minister's office did not respond to a request for comment. Lim leads an ethnic Chinese-dominated party, which had drawn some backlash in the Mahathir coalition - including from prime minister Muhyiddin and his allies - due to concerns that the alliance was not doing enough to protect interests of the country's majority Malays. Lim's appointment as finance minister in 2018 was the first time in 44 years that the ministry was headed by a member of the ethnic Chinese community and was met with some resistance. Muhyiddin was in Mahathir's coalition before he switched alliances to form a government with parties that were voted out in the 2018 election. (Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Michael Perry) Dozens of local residents rushed to the airport in Keralas Kozhikode on Friday as they heard a terrible thud after the Air India Express plane overshot the tabletop runway at the airport and fell into a valley 35 feet below. Eighteen people were killed and more than hundred injured when the flight, which was coming in from Dubai with 190 people on board, overshot the tabletop runway while landing in heavy rains, fell into the valley and broke into two. Captain Deepak Sathe, the pilot-in-command, and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were among those who died. The 59-year-old Sathe was a former wing commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and had served at the forces flight testing establishment. People living nearby brought shocked passengers out of the Boeing 737 aircraft even before first responders could reach the airport. Small kids were trapped under the seats and it was such a distressing sight. When we reached there some were deplaned, a local resident was quoted as saying by PTI. Many of them were seriously injured. Legs were broken... My hands and shirt were soaked in the blood of the injured persons, he added. Television footage from the accident site showed the aircraft split into two pieces and the debris lay scattered on the ground. Another man in the rescue operations told a television news channel that the injured pilot of the aircraft was taken out from the cockpit after breaking it. By the time ambulances started reaching the spot, the locals had already started shifting injured passengers in cars to various hospitals in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, he said, according to PTI. Other residents said trapped people with blood-soaked clothes were screaming in pain as terrified children cried. They said things from shoes to baggage were strewn around as they looked for survivors amid heavy rain. Rescue personnel, including the local civil police, then rushed in to pull out the injured from the aircraft as children, some as young as four or five years old, clung on to them. The scene was similar in hospitals where the injured were rushed as health workers tried to help them. K Gopalakrishnan, Malappurams district collector, said earlier that more than 100 people were admitted to seven hospitals in Kozhikode. Remaining are under treatment and their condition are at different stages. Among the 80 people admitted to Malappuram hospitals, we have received information about six deaths there. Some of the patients are critical, Gopalakrishnan said according to PTI. The official also said two passengers, who got trapped at the tail portion of the aircraft, were rescued with great difficulty. The condition of a mother and child injured in the accident was very serious, Keralas health minister KK Shailaja said. There were 184 passengers, including 10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew onboard the aircraft. (With agency inputs) Advertisement Before implementing a service based on artificial intelligence (AI) into routine clinical practice, it is necessary to test it for technical readiness, as well as to verify whether it meets the stated characteristics. It is called analytical validation of the algorithm. The services that have passed it are allowed to be integrated into medical systems, including city healthcare.Integration is a complex and expensive process, so it becomes a barrier for many teams that cannot guarantee the required accuracy and speed of the algorithm processing data of the system into which they are integrated.Currently analytical validation is performed manually. Manual validation allows accidental or deliberate deviations from the approved test program, as well as manipulation of datasets, and also can potentially put different test participants in unequal conditions.To solve these problems and automate the verification process, ensuring trust of users, specialists of the Center for Diagnostic and Telemedicine have developed a platform that allows developers of AI-based services to independently conduct preliminary tests (analytical validation) of their algorithms.A prototype of the platform has been hosted on the GitHub, and the first version of the service for exchanging datasets and data analysis results has already been uploaded.The platform provides an opportunity for the unlimited number of accesses to single samples of data instances from the test set in order to fine-tune algorithms. It has uniform rules of use, and it is possible to test several services simultaneously.At the same time, the platform records the time that the software spends on data processing (time-study), and the developers receive an automatic report on the results of testing, - explains Sergey Morozov, CEO of the Center for Diagnostic and Telemedicine.By automating the entire process on the self-testing platform, the human factor is minimized, which makes data manipulation (to improve results) impossible. In addition, the comparison of the service's verification results with the reference data is absolutely transparent - the developer can see what metrics were used, and how the final result reflected in the report was calculated.Anyone can take part in improving the platform and add necessary metrics to it, which will be used to evaluate the algorithm's performance for certain medical purposes (for example, for analyzing radiographs or mammograms).The addition of the platform will be monitored - the only metrics that have scientific justification will be included in the platform operating on the basis of the Center, - notes Nikolai Pavlov, the developer of the platform, Head of Dataset Labeling Conveyor of the Medical Informatics, Radiomics and Radiogenomics Sector, Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine.The creators of the platform invite developers of AI algorithms, programmers and researchers to take part in updating and improving the platform in order to develop a uniform, universal, and user-friendly tool for self-testing of artificial intelligence algorithms intended for medical purposes in the international community.At the moment, there is no such tool aimed specifically at the clinical implementation of services based on AI technologies.Source: Eurekalert A 32-year-old Ghanaian man identified as Brown has been interviewed by TV3 for complications surrounding his sexual organs he was born with two sex organs; both vagina and penis. He said that growing up, his parents used to dress him as a female and even gave him the name Akua. His childhood was a very embarrassing one as when he goes to school, his mates used to mock him because they can see that he has both the penis and vajay. Brown, however, said that while growing up, he went for a medical examination that revealed that his male sex organ was stronger than his female one. So he changed his name to Brown and started dressing like a man. He said due to his condition, hes not being able to live a normal life and hasnt even been in any relationship because of fear of stigmatization. Brown told TV3 Ghana that he learned tailoring along the line on which he depends for his survival. He revealed also that he once met a doctor who promised him that he can be able to perform surgery to do away with the female sex organ. But sadly after 4 attempts, all efforts proved futile causing him to now live in crucial pain making life harder for him. I dont him that if he can not be able to fix my problem, he shouldnt touch it but he assured me that he can be able to do it, Brown sadly said. So after 4 failed surgeries, he went to the Madanfo Specialist hospital in the Western region and the doctors have promised to correct the earlier surgeries. The whole process would cost GHS30,000 an amount he cannot afford so hes calling on the general public to come to his aid. Watch the touching video below: ---MyNewsGh The Thailand Genomics Sequencing Center is a key part of the Thai government's 4.5 billion baht five-year plan Thailand, already famed for its world class hospitals and success combating coronavirus, aims to enhance its role as a global medical hub by establishing a Thailand Genomics Sequencing Center in the country's high-tech Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), Thailand is developing genomics medicine through cooperation between the Eastern Economic Corridor Office, the Health Systems Research Institute, the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation. The Thailand Genomics Sequencing Center is a key part of the Thai government's 4.5 billion baht (about US$150 million) five-year plan known as Genomics Thailand which was approved last year. Soon after, the committee that runs the EEC and the Health Systems Research Institute Thailand gave the go-ahead for a human whole genome sequencing center to be established within the EEC. The EEC is a coastal strip southeast of Bangkok that is at the heart of Thailand 4.0 -- a strategy to transform Southeast Asia's second largest economy into a fully developed nation and the region's innovation hub. We are very fortunate in Ireland to have a rich landscape when it comes to womenswear boutiques. Diverse in their offerings, the allure of these neighbourhood and destination boutiques is their point of difference, and that's undoubtedly down to the fashion eye of the owners and buyers. They are the modern-day torchbearers of the traditions of the old Irish draper's shop; only nowadays, after a friendly hello, you might be offered a coffee - even a glass of bubbly - as the shopping experience becomes more intimate and personal. That aspect is even more amplified with Covid-19 concerns. My criteria in compiling this list were based around value systems. I looked at core fashion stock and any extension of lifestyle offer, the look and feel of the shopping experience, and the customer service. In the ever-changing, challenging retail landscape we now find ourselves, boutique owners are inspired to stay in business because they feel they have something to say. As cliched as it may sound, in my nationwide tour of boutiques, the one thing that was crystal clear is that they really do have a passion for fashion. Expand Close Sarah Gill of Seagreen in Monkstown. Photo: Steve Humphreys. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sarah Gill of Seagreen in Monkstown. Photo: Steve Humphreys. 1 Seagreen, Monkstown, Co Dublin seagreen.ie (main photo above) @seagreen Sarah Gill's bright blue shop can be seen a long way away. "It's Turkish teal. I wasn't sure if my neighbours would like it but, luckily, everyone does," says Sarah, who opened her first boutique in 2006 after returning from working abroad in telecoms. It's the kind of coastal neighbourhood store that locals love popping into but, for the rest of us, it's a destination store. Seagreen has a solid reputation for the free denim consultations it does with customers, wrapped around in-house labels like Paige, AG and J Brand. Watch out for Agolde, a sister brand to Citizens of Humanity but at a lower price point. It was the sheer sense of space and light in the store that I really appreciated on my visit there last month. Now more than ever, the layout of stores and sense of space impacts on how we shop going forward. Sarah's trademark dramatic wallpaper (and, before you ask, it's by Manuel Canovas) is offset by minimalistic merchandising. On my loop around, I spotted big-brand stars like Vince, Anine Bing, Rails, Rag & Bone, Second Female and ba&sh, all merchandised in an uncluttered way - another major plus in my book. Sometimes you go to Seagreen for a piece of contemporary Irish jewellery like the Mary K brand, or you want to gift a fashion book, Cire Trudon candle or a fragrance from Vilhelm Parfumerie. Introducing lovely candles and exclusive scents is almost becoming the norm in upmarket boutiques and I, for one, am not complaining. They are also stocked in the sister boutique in Ranelagh, which opened in 2012. Sarah is a good judge of upcoming talent so I tap her for insider intel. The store is introducing Cocoa Cashmere in the autumn and Sarah is tipping Veronica Beard as a name to watch. "It is one of my absolute favourite brands and is designed by sisters-in-law Veronica Swanson Beard and Veronica Miele Beard! It is a luxury womenswear label with thoughtful design and refined tailoring." 2 Havana, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 havanaboutique.ie @havanaboutique Nikki Creedon's discreet store is the automatic go-to for those chasing uniqueness. Tucked away in a quiet enclave in Donnybrook, the fabulously styled windows never fail to stop you in your tracks with their colour, great silhouettes and stunningly different accessories. Havana is the exclusive Irish stockist of Simone Rocha in Ireland, and Nikki is a lifelong friend of the Rocha family. Her buy always taps into the heart of Simone's style and her new collection is simply exquisite. This year, the shop is closed for the first half of August but it will reopen on August 16 with lots of newness, such as Blst rainwear from Norway. This premier, colourful brand puts an emphasis on fashion to keep you dry. Irish brands include Castanea cashmere by Paula Marron and really fabulous earrings from local designer Melissa Curry. If jewellery is your thing, there's an exciting new label from Lea Hoyer, whose jewellery is created by moulding sterling silver in water, resulting in unique-shaped pieces. If you are fed up with people copying your scent, try Timothy Han and his She Came to Stay fragrance at Havana - heavenly. 3 Costume, Castle Market, Dublin 2 costumedublin.ie @costumedublin This luxury, multi-brand, city-centre boutique has at its helm the dynamic Tucker sisters, Anne and Tracy. Their titian-haired mum, Billie, was one of the best sales assistants in the business, and they have the knack of encouraging you to think outside the box and try something new. Nowadays, the store has a bevy of seriously covetable exclusive labels, from Helen Steele's graphic silk prints to Isabel Marant pieces, Saloni, Jerome Dreyfuss and Markus Lupfer. I can't wait to see the new hand-painted Nach jewellery, and AW would not be the same without their deliveries of the Yves Salomon 'Montaigne' coats. Take a look at the Chimi sunglasses too. At 99, they are prefect for self-gifting. 4 Ellen B, Clontarf, Dublin 3 ellenb.ie @ellenbboutique If you love a clean, neutral palette, you will adore the buy at this northside boutique where architectural shapes in clean tones are a favoured silhouette, and I'm up for that. Popular labels include Peserico, Transit, Annette Gortz, Max Mara Leisure, Eva Kayan, Hale Bob and HIGH. Neutrals aside, the store also does print well, from brands like Primrose Park. After building a loyal clientele with her shoe boutique in Howth and then Malahide, the obvious next step for Carmel Brennan was to step into the eclectic world of fashion - and at Ellen B, beside St Anne's Park, she sells the two under one roof. Take a look at the Pons Quintana and Luca Grossi shoes as well as the woven Jeannot brand. 5 Khan, Blackrock, Co Dublin khan.ie @khan_blackrock Deryn Mackey's shop is an altar to the flattering, streamlining powers of black, grey, cream and white. Paul Smith, Dorothee Schumacher and Joseph tick the boxes for all her professional ladies from the legal world who love a tailored suit. And for evening, Deryn thinks her edgy new label, Hache, will work beautifully - it arrives in store in August. "I am so happy that we managed to get Lainey Keogh's cashmere knits back in the store," says Deryn. "Lainey has agreed to work with us, and my clients are thrilled. The beautiful bright knits in pink, lilac, apple green and white fill up our windows with wonderful colours. It is so good to see and what's even better is that in the autumn, we will be introducing a home interiors section with amazing cashmere throws." For those interested, Lainey's whisper-soft cashmeres sell for between 700 and 2,000. 6 Fran & Jane, Blackrock, co dublin franandjane.com @franandjane I rarely go into Fran & Jane without finding something I want to bring home, whether it's a straw hat, layering separates or a dress that categorically meets with my new rule - it has to work with trainers. The store's big picture windows onto Main Street act like a magnet so you can be sure whatever Fran Nolan or Jane Baker select for the window, it will fly. For touchy feeling pieces, they have organic cotton separates from Yerse, Absolute Cashmere and striking Dea Kudibal silk shirts. If you are buying for summer, check out Sundress, a cool label from the South of France, and the Ossie Clarke collaboration with Primrose Park which has a truly lovely retro vive. Levate is a new Danish label. They have Lily and Lionel, a London label with timeless prints and MK leather jackets are coming for autumn. Word to the wise, leather jackets are going to be huge next season. 7 Om Diva, Drury Street, Dublin 2 omdivaboutique.com @omdivaboutique It is impossible not to be impressed by Ruth Ni Loinsigh's enthusiasm and her achievement at taking what was a market-stall business and turning it into a respected boutique that mentors and supports up-and-coming designers. Ruth's incubation unit for talent is called Atelier 27 and 10 years in, she has 52 designers on her books, some with small collections. New this season are father-and-daughter duo Leko & Leko, who make bog oak jewellery. The hugely talented David O'Malley has been exploring homewares while studying in Belgium and his hand-poured soy candles are quite special. He will be back in Dublin in August with his latest fashion offer, and meanwhile Orla Langan has launched a bespoke menswear line. 8 Gallery 9 Concept Store, Naas, Co Kildare Expand Close Niamh McCoy in Gallery 9 in Naas Co Kildare. Photo: Frank McGrath / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Niamh McCoy in Gallery 9 in Naas Co Kildare. Photo: Frank McGrath gallery9.ie @Gallery_9_concept_store Niamh McCoys store right in the centre of Naas has a truly lovely creative vibe and, when I enquired, I wasnt a bit surprised to discover that Niamh had been in interior architecture before she opened the boutique in 2013. That interiors influence infuses the structured aesthetic of both the store and the pieces she buys. Theres a curious mix of high-end, feminine charm combined with attitude. Going along the rails, I spotted exclusive labels that were new to me, like Gia Couture X Pernille Teisbaek, a collab between a Danish stylist and the street-style star Pernille Teisbaek. Ive always had a soft spot for Ally Capellino bags after seeing them at London Fashion Week, and the eagle-eyed Niamh hopped on them and brought them over to Ireland. Niamh loves VVB the more affordable range from Victoria Beckham and she wore one of the dresses for our photo (right). You will also find Sportmax customers eagerly shopping for the first drop of coats in August. Excitement is building, too, over the imminent arrival of the uber-feminine label Edeline Lee, which she introduced for SS20. 9 Beautiful South, Rathmines, Dublin 6 beautifulsouth.ie @beautiful.south Grainne Wynne moved from the food industry to fashion and hasn't looked back. Her well-appointed store on Castlewood Avenue brightens up the day of commuters crossing from Rathmines to Ranelagh, as her windows are filled with colourful Masscob pieces. You might catch a glimpse of the chic Eames chair sitting in the dark charcoal space with its gleaming polished concrete. Grainne's aim was to create a curated, contemporary clothing store. While she isn't doing Aussie brand Rachel Comey anymore, she is doing VVB. Lifestyle treats include Clean Slate candles. 10 Milan & Co Boutique, Bray, Co Wicklow @milancoboutique Award-winning Irish textile designer Aoife Mullane's love of fashion clearly runs in the family. Her mother, Susan Mullane, runs a really great boutique on Bray's Florence Road. In addition to Aoife's accessories, Susan stocks an array of European brands including Essentiel Antwerp, which she buys for key pieces and for colour; Fracomina, a contemporary label from Italy, and Access, which comes from Greece and is worth checking out. Susan does steady business in day-after-the-wedding looks and loves nothing more than having a customer come in and asking to be styled. Susan is the real deal. Take up her offer! 11 Juju boutique, Greystones, Co Wicklow juju.ie @juju_greystones Juliet Ledwidge has incredible taste, and shopping in her boutique in this chic seaside town is like stepping into an Aladdin's cave of understated, luxury labels. Many are not cheap but then buying better really should be our focus going forward. New additions to her very carefully edited family of brands include Ame, a Belgian brand strong on separates, and Pomandere, who do lovely linens and Jack Gomme handbags. Regulars to the boutique on La Touche Place will be familiar with the Italian brand Hache, and other good investment labels include Dorothee Schumacher and Pedro Garcia shoes. Now is a perfectly good time to tell Santa about the deliciously delicate Gigi Clozeau jewellery from France. 12 Divine Boutique, Maynooth, Co Kildare divine.ie @divineboutiquex Mary Greene's store hums with her personality and her take on making dressing up effortless. Students in the university town come for her jeans, Australian Quay sunglasses and trainers. Mary has assembled a lovely mix of covetable labels including Danish brands Sofie Schnoor and Rue de Femme. There's Yerse from Barcelona and a sprinkling of Italian labels like Silvian Heach and Fly Girl. For women in a hurry, it's hard to beat the instant glamour of pulling on a Dancing Leopard dress, and Mary has a nice selection. I'm always up for some guilt-free self-gifting, and the super-light Aria-V drop earrings ticked the box at 55. 13 Emporium Kalu, Naas, Co Kildare emporiumkalu.ie @emporium_kalu Emporium Kalu, regularly shortened to an affectionate "Kalu", has long been something of a fashion pilgrimage. Kate O'Dwyer and Louise Flanagan have a strong take on uncompromising femininity and a love of luxury, and their store is filled with the most mesmerising array of dramatic colour and textures - from the label Mantu, which combines traditional Italian craftsmanship with art and architecture, to Sara Battaglia gowns, to Teri Jon, whose blistered-gold, long shirt-waister made me want to instantly find somewhere glamorous to head off to in 2021. There was a poignant moment on my nosey-around when I spotted a special glass case with stunning Theia gowns from Don O'Neill's final collection for that label. The gowns take on an extra-special relevance now and are indeed highly collectible. Get going. 14 Rapport, Dundalk, Co Louth @rapport_boutique Gwen Malocca's independent luxury boutique is filled with directional designer labels. She stocks a comprehensive buy of clothing, bags and shoes from Italian labels such as Pinko and Elisabetta Franchi. The latter was new to me and I can see she is a designer who believes in the value of femininity, and celebrates it cleverly. The LA premium jean brand Black Orchid caught my eye too. Gwen has been running the Park Street boutique for the last 14 years and she reports a definite embracing of the "smart casual" vibe from mums shopping for the rescheduled season of Confirmations and First Holy Communions. 15 Ruby Rouge, Gorey, Co Wexford rubyrouge.ie @rubyrougegorey Tenacious Niamh Byrne has turned Ruby Rouge into quite the fashion destination. Clearly, the Smurfit Business School graduate impressed the Dubs who have been coming to her in Co Wexford during their summer holidays in the sunny southeast. However, long after the kids had gone back to school, the mums were still dropping back down to Gorey see Niamh's new-season drops. The growth of her online sales has saved a lot of car miles but it is still a lovely day out, and Niamh currently has quite an array of flattering and very colourful Onjenu dresses that look terrific with trainers. I'm delighted to see the label do so well all over the country as it was started by Mena Ryan, one of the Ryan sisters from Co Limerick. 16 Place, Gorey, Co Wexford place.ie @placeevolution Juliana Doyle is the fashion dynamo behind Place, which she opened 11 years ago. She has a background in fashion design, styling and contemporary art, and her store on Esmonde Street reflects all of these. It was her sustainable offer which, quite frankly, knocked my socks off - brands like Conditions Apply, which is artisan made with a remix of traditional skills and contempoary technology. Another label, Delicate Love, uses recycled plastic bottles while the Womsh footwear is made from apple skins. Julianna stocks vegan leather handbags in interesting shapes from the Inyati brand and the KV range of handmade brass jewellery with gold plating is quite lovely. 17 Ribbon Rouge, Navan, Co Meath ribbonrouge.ie @ribbonrouge.ie Joanne Mallon's boutique is like a pot of honey, and fashion fans swarm up to the royal county to see her buys each season. She has a reputation for assembling eclectic collections - and, of course, that ability to mix labels from top Irish and international designers comes from years of experience and talking to her customers. Joanne stocks a lovely Greek label called Estel as well as Mos Mosh, the ultra-comfortable jeans and leisurewear brand which have become so popular in recent months; the name cropped up in so many boutiques I visited. Regulars travel to her to buy Exquise, Fabienne Chapot and the Irish brand Fee G. She also has a second branch in the Merrion Centre in Dublin. 18 Jennys, Ashbourne, Co Meath jennys.ie @jennysboutiques A 45-year legacy makes this boutique very special. Jennys was started in 1975 by Dolores Walsh, who named her store after her daughter. Jenny joined her mum in the business and now her two daughters, Louise and Grace, are part of the extended Jennys chain of six fashion and shoe shops. In this destination boutique, they have Marella, Boss by Hugo Boss, Marc Aurel and Marc Cain. At their Dunshaughlin store, they have a dedicated floor to mothers of the bride/groom and in addition to all the usual top names, they have Linea Raffaelli. Once you meet Jenny, you will feel you already know her, probably because of all the videos she posted on Instagram during lockdown. 19 Olivia Danielle, Athlone, Co Westmeath Oliviadanielle.com @oliviadanielleathlone_ This gem of a boutique on Church Street has been problem-solving since 1979 and has got more people out of fashion fixes, from the mother of the bride/groom to the wedding guest and the professional woman who wants both suiting for work and relaxed weekend looks. Run by the super-efficient Jos, the spacious store is home to brands like Heidi Higgins, Elisa Cavaletti, Beaumont jackets, Nissa and Lucky Lou. 20 Fabiani, Longford, Co Longford fabiani.ie @fabianiboutique This award-winning boutique is a gorgeous surprise when you drive into Longford town and discover so much activity under one roof. Fair play to Louise Brennan. There is fashion, a brow bar, the Mudshot cafe and now there's yoga in the mix, too. There is an exceedingly strong offer of Anine Bing clothing and footwear from the LA brand along with Isabel Marant and Maria Black jewellery. Soon there will be a resident milliner, with Wendy Louise Knight available in store. The shoe offer is especially strong with customers coming specifically for Ash. Don't leave without checking out their Laboratory Perfumes. 21 Erre/esse, Portlaoise, Co Laois erreesse.ie @erre_esse_ Ann Marie Morrissey is the brains behind this boutique on Church Street which also has a sister branch in Carlow town. She opened in 2004 with the aim of helping people find and develop their own style. "I saw the name in Italy and it means His and Hers. He is supposed to come in to buy for her, and it does happen sometimes," says Ann Marie who stocks By Malene Birger, Essential Antwerp, Inwear, Casting Collection, Fee G , Suncoo and Mos Mash. 22 A Touch of Class, Carlow, co Carlow atouchofclass.ie @atouchofclass_carlow Helen Mullins has been at the helm of this boutique for 33 years. Her dressy labels in the shop located on Kennedy Avenue include Luis Civit and also Linea Raffaelli, a luxury occasion-wear collection with an emphasis on originality and comfort. Helen sells two interesting Greek fashion labels, Badoo and Camelot, while Just White and Marble are great for smart casual. If knitwear is your thing, check out Maria Bellantani. 23 Serendipity, Kilkenny, Co Kilkenny serendipityboutique.ie serendipityboutiquekilkenny Maebh Cantwell's boutique on Kieran Street has a selection of both Irish and international labels and is popular with the racing gals. Maebh supports home design by stocking Niamh O'Neill, Fee G, Libra, Personal Choice and Kate Cooper. The line-up includes Diva, Lolly's laundry, Alba Conde, and for occasionwear, she has Gina Bacconi and Ronald Joyce. 24 Folkster, Kilkenny folkster.com @shopfolkster Stylist, designer and boutique owner Blanaid Hennessy has dressed lots of celebs, from Amy Huberman to dine at Windsor Castle to a plethora of red-carpet stars wanting to wow in her feminine aesthetic. She has a stylish emporium on Patrick Street, a firm favourite in the medieval town. Downstairs in the store, she stocks her own designs covering both eveningwear and daywear and she also has a couple of bought-in LA brands. A good place for a mooch. Upstairs is her bridal shop, where it is by appointment only. Munster 25 Catherine McCormack Boutique, Adare, Co Limerick catherinemccormack.com @catherinemccormackadare A well-kept secret amongst Munster ladies, savvy Catherine McCormack was the first retailer to bring Emilia Wickstead to Ireland. She currently has 15 different styles and here's some exclusive news we can share: Emilia is doing a capsule collection specifically for the Adare shop, working on a selection of tailored wool and silk crepe separates and dresses. It is a project similar to ones the royal favourite designer has done with Mytheresa and MatchesFashion. The cruise/resort pieces should be landing at the end of the year. This autumn, Catherine will be stocking Parisian designer Edward Achour, and Italian designer Alessandra Rich, whose silk polka dots Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton loves. 26 Isobel, Adare, Co Limerick Isobel.ie @isobelboutique Kay Hourigan's boutique sits near the entrance to Adare Manor, in a postcard-perfect terrace. Kay modelled with the Celia Holman Lee agency as a teenager and falling in love with the Diane von Furstenburg label in New York inspired her to set up her own shop. Kay has dressed visiting celebrities to the area like Catherine Zeta Jones. She stocks DVF, Tara Jarmon, Paolo Petrone, Gabriela Sanchez, Fely Campo and Irish designer Niamh O'Neill. (Niamh is doing face-coverings in the same fabric as her AW20 designs. Available from her website, niamhoneill.com.) 27 Ela Maria, Newcastle West, Co Limerick Elamaria.ie @elamaria.ie A three-generation business, Mary Hayes set up quite some fashion dynasty. Her daughters, Elaine and Maria, see themselves as 'sisters in style' with a boutique department store filled with designer labels and occasionwear. It's certainly big and at 6,000sq ft, they stock 70 brands over three floors, everything from flirty IRO to classics like Escada and Escada Sport. Check out Riana, a sleek German brand making inroads into the 'new normal' of smaller weddings. Mary's granddaughter, Lauren, is now part of the team. Ela Maria has a sister store in Ennis. 28 Kimono, Newcastle West, Co Limerick Kimono.ie @kimonoboutique Ailish Mullane opened Kimono boutique in 2003 with a philosophy that people should enjoy the pursuit of fashion. She now has a faithful following for brands such as Goat, Fabiani Filippi, Beatrice B, Sportsmax Code and iBlues. The decor in the boutique is French boudoir and Ailish says the shop is aimed at the fashion-conscious working woman looking for something classical but edgy, and a little bit quirky. Lifestyle elements include Candella candles and a wide selection of jewellery brands. 29 Willow, Ennis, Co Clare willow.ie @willow.ie Expand Close Jean McCabe of Willow, Ennis, Co Clare. Photograph by Eamon Ward / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jean McCabe of Willow, Ennis, Co Clare. Photograph by Eamon Ward Jean McCabe was probably one of the countrys youngest boutique owners ever, opening Willow at the age of 21. She has been successful at curating a collection of luxurious and offbeat labels that customers can piece together to create their personal style story. Her current label family includes Exquise, Numph, Sister Jane, Soaked in Luxury, Guess, Essentiel Antwerp and the Irish-designed label Darling. Pampering elements at the OConnell Street location include a prosecco bar to allow customers to relax while shopping. What particularly impressed me about Willow was Jeans philosophy of after-purchase after-care. She has introduced a service where you can bring a purchase back into the store to be steamed if you are going somewhere special, and thats not just a once-off offer either. Todays retail environment is about customer care, not just customer service, says Jean, who has a second branch of Willow on Mainguard Street in Galway. 30 Macbees, Killarney, Co Kerry macbees.ie @macbeeskillarney When Mary McBride was entrusted with the keys to a retail space in Killarney in 1984, on the promise that she would open a pharmacy, she had something entirely different in mind. She opened a fashion store and 36 years later, her daughter, Aoife, along with manager Dorane Hickey are driving Mary's vision at the New Street store. They have been buying together for the last 15 years and this season have over 60 labels. I was seriously impressed by their new label this season and it's definitely one for your Little Black Book. It's called Lala Berlin from designer Leyla Piedayesh and they are reintroducing Custommade which is quirky, girly and OTT. For relaxed casual, check out Dante6 and the clean lines of the Spanish brand, Loreak. They also have Sportmax, Stine Goya and Luisa Cerano and their Irish brands includes Caroline Kilkenny, Fee G, Aideen Bodkin and Roisin Linnane. 31 County Boutique, Ennis, Co Clare countyboutique.com @thecountyboutique A respected fashion destination for over 50 years, the Culligan sisters, Gwen and Maeve, run the boutique their parents, Frank and Merty founded in 1966. One of the undoubted stars in their stock line-up is Matilde Cano. Seriously feminine and playful , it has ornate accents. The Culligans also support local Irish brands like Sisters by Caroline Kilkenny and The Line by Aideen Bodkin. The County Boutique have a second branch in Nenagh. 32 Samui, Cork City Samuifashions.com @samuicork Clodagh Shorten's store is like a little haven packed with a bewildering selection of directional labels. If only all our wardrobes could be filled with Dries Van Noten, Moncler jackets, Rick Owens' leather pieces, Sacai and Golden Goose. Clodagh's excellent taste runs from beautiful niche brands to international favourites and new additions this season include Cecile Bahnsen whose gauzy, voluminous pieces have won our hearts over. Samui is strong on Joseph, An Londree and Allude Cashmere. When it comes to lifestyle, they have some beautiful Fornesetti gifts and Aesop beauty products. Self-gifting comes easy in a store like this. 33 Miss Daisy Blue, Cork City missdaisyblue.com @missdaisybue This vintage emporium should not be missed on a visit to the city by the Lee. The store has relocated from its spot at the entrance to the English Market to a new premises on St Patrick's Quay and it will re-open next month. It is owned by qently-spoken curator Breda Casey, who has a selection of decades which runs from the 1930s-1990s. Word to the wise - if cashmere is what you like, her vintage ones are fab . 34 Olori, Cork City olori.ie @oloriboutique Sisters Sarah Jane Corbett and Lisa Judge have achieved something special with Olori, named after their mum, Dolores. They set out to achieve a minimalist aesthetic and to sell timeless and sustainable pieces. Labels include Filippa K, a star on the Scandanavian firmament, and Cathrine Hammel, a seriously covetable Oslo-based brand. Don't visit without trying their Alchimista Parfum. Their Oliver Plunkett shop is across from Lisa's other business, Market Lane restaurant, so you know where to go for a coffee. 35 Granny's Bottom Drawer, Kinsale, Co Cork Grannysbottomdrawer.com @grannysbottomdrawerkinsale I first discovered this store in Kinsale 25 years ago and I never fail to visit the gourmet town without dropping in to have a little nosey around this lifestyle store run by the charming Clodagh Murray. Because of the current tourist situation and the fewer visitors around this summer, there is a heavier leaning towards interiors at the moment but I included it in a fashion round-up because I adore top quality cashmere and Clodagh stocks the fabulous Ekotree Cashmere Knitwear from Diarmuid Neilan in Doolin, Co Clare. I've long admired Edmund McNulty knits from Drogheda and she has those, too, along with Arans from Inis Meain. 36 MuSE, Waterford City @museings Clodagh Roche has been in business for the last 14 years and is respected in the industry for taking risks. "I don't follow a brand and if it's getting too popular, I let it go. I like to have brands that are not everywhere," says Clodagh. Walk into her store on The Quay and you will instantly fall in love with her house fragrance which is Amber from Laboratory Perfumes. Her current family of fashion brands include Copenhagen designer Birgitte Herskind who has a winning flair combining classic with cool, and raw with feminine. Clodagh spotted the Stine Goya label early on after opening Muse and she stocks it along with Shoreditch label Emin & Paul, which is just great for unusual, oversized tailored macs. Her chunky knits from the French knitwear brand American Vintage, are popular all year round and incoming AW20 stock includes leathers and faux furs from Stand Studio. 37 Satina Boutique, Tramore, Co Waterford satinaboutique.ie @satina_boutique The reputation of this boutique for designer and casual outfits and especially the mother of the bride/groom is legendary on the Irish retail scene. Its destination status is down to the eye of owner Martina Collins who has three floors of fashion in her Queen Street store. 38 Corcra boutique, Clonmel, Co Tipperary @corcraboutiqueclonmel Eleanor Prior's boutique on Market Street offers a mix of casual and dressy. You will find the Spanish occasionwear label Moskada along with Summum and Pennyblack and she stocks the excellent Irish brands Fee G and Caroline Kilkenny. As for the unusual name, it means purple in Irish. 39 Ryan Design Boutique, Clonmel, Co Tipperary ryandesignboutique.ie @ryandesignboutique This town is special to me because my late dad's family had a draper's shop in Clonmel years ago. You can really see the influence of Elaine Ryan's years studying at the Limerick School of Art & Design in her colourful buy. She stocks the striking arty label Dolcezza, which features prints of original works by artists around the world. She stocks Anonyme, handy for the Communions/Confirmations. Sandwich is a big hit with her customers and Elaine herself loves the layers of Irish brand Naya. Connacht 40 Les Jumelles, Galway City lesjumelles.ie @lesjumellesgalway Expand Close Margaret Gallagher and Mary McSweeney of Les Jumelles / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Margaret Gallagher and Mary McSweeney of Les Jumelles The name means twins in French and Margaret Gallagher and Mary McSweeney (pictured), originally from Cork, have become style institutions in the City of the Tribes after opening their chic boutique there more than 20 years ago. Les Jumelles have hardcore fans who collect ACNE Studios, No.21 and 3.1 Philip Lim solidly every season. At this stage, Rick Owens leather jackets are morphed into investment pieces and while the prices can be eye-watering, the signature look with the knit sleeve panels has longevity. The sisters relocated their store a few years ago to Church Lane, which is tucked off the busy Shop Street. For dressy options, check out Paskal, a sleek contemporary brand which draws inspiration from the designers background in architecture. They also have Paule Ka, Goat, Schumacher and the super useful Moncler padded Parkas, jackets and cardigans. Arriving in for this season are Yves Solomon outerwear, Golden Goose footwear and clothing. You will also find the sisters in Co Mayo because they have opened a Les Jumelles pop-up on Bridge Street in Westport. 41 Fusion Fashion Boutique, Moycullen, Co Galway fusionfashion.ie fusionfashionmoycullen Fiona Faherty works in human resources and when she couldn't park her passion for fashion, she opened a boutique seven years ago in Moycullen, the gateway to Connemara. "The Sisters collection from Caroline Kilkenny works for my shop because it is quirky, different, wearable and affordable," said Fiona. "The Georgy Collection is synonymous with Ladies' Day competitions in Australia so it's great to now offer it to the Irish market." 42 Millars Connemara, Clifden, Co Galway millarsconnemara.ie @millarsconnemara A true gem on the Wild Atlantic Way, Princess Grace shopped here twice on her way to the Kelly homestead in Co Mayo and she signed the visitor's book. Their key brands include Crea, Oska, Elemente Clement and XD Xenia and Annette Gortz. There's rainwear from the fabulous French label Pret Pour Partir coats, and proof of their popularity is that you won't find them on the sales rail. Triona Sweeney commissioned Millars' own range of luxury cashmeres and for those of you looking for it, Design Platform which was up the town, is now a store within a store. 43 Marians of Boyle, Co Roscommon Marians.ie @mariansboyle This is no flash in the pan. It has a tradition of excellence and for the past 65 years this store has been dressing stylish ladies for weddings, anniversaries and special occasions, alongside daywear - Perpetua McGee is all about diversity and stocks size 6-30. Labels include Sonia Pena, Carla Ruiz, Basler, Onjenu, Taifun, Gerry Weber, Carmen Melero and Joseph Ribkoff whose glam jumpsuits are always a big draw. 44 Josephine's, Castlerea, Co Roscommon @josephinescastlerea Josephine Finan has been on Main Street in Castlerea for 45 years but the landmark celebrations had to be parked during lockdown. The store stocks a wide cross-section of brands, from the occasionwear that mothers of the bride and guests like, such as Condici, John Charles, Luis Civit and Roland Joyce, to cool knitwear from the French brand, Leo & Udo. If you are a walker or outdoors type, make a beeline for their Beaumont and the Creenstone jackets. 45 Zulu, Sligo @zulusligo Ingrid Morgan buys one of each size so that means her stock is constantly changing. All the better for fans of her Wine Street store which she opened 18 years ago opposite the town hall. While Ingrid stocks sizes 8-18, she assesses every piece based on its block and fit and relabels them on a nought-to-five sizing mechanism - so O is a size 8/10 while 5 is a size 16/18. "The whole purpose is that it is consumer-friendly as opposed to trying to figure out what size you take in a particular brand." Ingrid's family of brands include Sarah Pacini from Italy, Elsewhere from Holland, Danish label My Soul and her most popular Irish label is Naya. 46 The Dressing Room, Westport, Co Mayo @thedressingroomwestport Jackie Moran's boutique on Bridge Street has won Best Fashion Shop in Co Mayo for the last three years and it's easy to see why. She has fab stock including Exquise, Closet and the Italian occasionwear brand Rinascimento. Ulster 47 Vanilla, Cavan @vanillacavan Orla Hand left a job in finance in Dublin 17 years ago to set up Vanilla with her mum, the late Eileen Fay. In her boutique on Church Street, Orla stocks the chic French brand Tara Jarmon which oozes feminine elegance. She also stocks the German brand Laurel, Luisa Cerano, iBlues, Luis Civit and its sister brand, Claudia C. There's Aldo Martins knitwear from Barcelona, Armani and Wolford tights. 48 Dirty Fabulous, Monaghan Town Expand Close Sisters Kathy Sherry and Caroline Quinn of Dirty Fabulous Photo: Taine King / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sisters Kathy Sherry and Caroline Quinn of Dirty Fabulous Photo: Taine King dirtyfabulous.com @dirtyfabulousvintage Sisters Kathy Sherry and Caroline Quinn have moved their vintage emporium back to their native Monaghan, into the heart of Patrick Kavanagh country, where they opened their new store on Glaslough Street last month. The Dirty Fabulous mission is to showcase how the unique, classic and dramatic qualities of the past can work for the contemporary woman. Apart from their expert knowledge, Kathy and Caroline probably have the biggest collection of vintage pieces in the country. Appointments are free and there is no pressure to buy from the girls, who do their homework before you arrive. They request details of what you are looking for, a photo (or moodboard if you are a bride) of what you have in mind, plus your dress size so they have a rail ready for you. There are vintage bridal and occasion dresses from the 1920s to 1970s and the rollcall of designers include Mike Benet, Ceil Chapman, Fred Perlberg, Elizabeth Arden, Saks Fifth Avenue, Victor Costa, Lillie Rubin, Emma Domb and Yves Saint Laurent. If the thought of owning an original Schiaparelli piece fills you with giddy excitement, get your skates on, theres one of her Chrysanthemum hats for sale. Ive nursed it in my hand, and, yes, its wow! 49 McElhinney's of Ballybofey, Co Donegal mcelhinneys.com @mcelhinneys I know, this is not a boutique but a 90,000sq ft department store. However, it is a true fashion destination that people like to travel to from all over the country, so I could not possibly leave it out! John McElhinney started out in business almost 50 years ago, selling out of a van. Nowadays shoppers head to the town of Ballybofey to experience 'McElhinney magic'. And if you love a bit of bling, you're in the right place. Fair play to John, he has moved premises, expanded, traded after two floods and a fire bomb attack and his son, Martin, is now general manager. On the womenswear floor alone (they also have menswear, bridal, childrens and homewares) they have an estimated 120 brands. Irish designer Caroline Kilkenny is a big seller. You will find Masai, Sandwich, Olsen and Joseph Ribkoff. 50 Blush Boutique, Carndonagh, Co Donegal blushclothing.ie @blushclothing.ie Kate McLaughlin worked for the Arcadia brand, then as a buyer for a chain of boutiques before she opened her own store on Bridge Street. When you step into it with its navy interiors and dark wood, you will be struck by the colours she's bought and her fab selection of dresses. A great woman for a good midi dress, and for jewellery, too. Kate says, "I really like accessories and how they can change an outift." Labels include the very cool Sister Jane plus Closet. Advertisement Police in Portland said on Friday night that they were attacked with rocks and chunks of concrete, after the 72nd-straight night of protest descended in to violence once again. Officers said that some of the protesters were attempting to blind officers by shining lights in to their eyes. Amidst the chaos, the police tweeted their apologies to the local residents for the disruption and noise, with officers using a sound truck to blast warning to protesters to leave the scene, which they declared an unlawful assembly at 9.45pm. 'Officers are having rocks and chunks of concrete thrown at them,' the police tweeted. 'Individuals in the crowd are shining lasers trying to blind officers. 'The sound truck is issuing warnings and directions to those participating in the unlawful assembly to disperse. Protesters in Portland took to the streets with makeshift shields on Friday night The group, wearing black, marched from Laurelhurst Park to the Penumbra Kelly Building Portland police tweeted on Friday night that they were having rocks and concrete thrown 'We apologize to the neighbors who are disturbed by the loudspeaker on the sound truck. We know its late. 'We have to keep our distance to avoid the items being used as weapons against us.' The unrest came hours after Donald Trump told supporters at a New Jersey fundraiser that the city of Portland had been taken over by a 'mob' of 'anarchists'. Trump said that Democrats would allow all U.S. cities follow Portland's example, if Joe Biden wins the election in November. On Friday evening, more than 100 protesters collected by 8.30pm at Laurelhurst Park in Southeast Portland, according to Oregon Live. A flyer on social media promoting the event told people to wear black and many were dressed in black from head to toe. People handed out handmade plywood shields in preparation for a potential clash with police. A group of about a dozen protesters practiced formations with shields, the site reported, and one protester led the group and helped them place their shields into an effective wall. The march set out around 9.20pm, and after about 25 minutes arrived at the Penumbra Kelly Building, shared by city and county law enforcement - scene of frequent clashes between the protesters and police. Protesters in Portland were taught on Friday evening to use their plywood shields in formation Protest leaders instructed those carrying shields on how to behave and position themselves The group, in Laurelhurst Park, lined up to claim their 'armor' for Friday night's protest As night fell the group set out for the Penumbra Kelly Building in Portland - scene of clashes The police's calls for the protesters to disperse were met with boos. The face off continued past 10.45pm - one hour after police labeled the gathering unlawful. Around 10.50pm, one person walked beyond the protester line and approached the building. Police quickly detained the person. This week's clashes have ratcheted up tensions after an agreement last week between state and federal officials seemed to offer a brief reprieve. The deal brokered by Democratic Gov. Kate Brown called for agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pull back from their defense of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse starting July 30. But after a brief weekend reprieve, protest activity has continued nightly in other parts of the city, with Portland police, local sheriff's deputies and, in some cases, Oregon State Police troopers on the frontlines as demonstrators demand an end to police funding. Protests have gone on unabated in Portland since May 25 following the death of Floyd who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him by the neck for more than nine minutes. In Portland, the civil disobedience prompted Trump to send federal agents to guard the federal courthouse, which was increasingly targeted in demonstrations that often turned violent. It was a move intended to quell the unrest but the presence of federal agents instead reinvigorated demonstrators and created a focal point for the protests each night amid concerns that Trump was overstepping the limits of federal police powers. Xiaomi has released MIUI 12 for the Redmi Note 7 Pro outside of India. The company started upgrading Indian handsets to its latest OS last month, albeit only those that enrolled on the Mi Pilot program. V12.0.2.0.QFHCNXM is being rolled out to Chinese devices, which is the same version of MIUI 12 that the Redmi Note 7 Pro received in India. The update is a 2.2 GB download, although the OTA will likely have a smaller file size. You can download the update from Xiaomi's servers should you wish to install it manually. There is no good news for the Pocophone F1, though. The device was apparently set to receive MIUI 12 at the beginning of August, but clearly that did not transpire. Now, the update has been postponed until next week at the earliest. However, there is a chance that it could be delayed again. Additionally, the initial MIUI 12 update for the Pocophone F1 will only be available to download on devices that have been selected for the Mi Pilot program. Eli Brown was recently announced to be one of the lead cast members on HBO Max's reboot of the almost-cult favorite Gossip Girl. Given that he was part of another popular show's spinoff, the "Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists," he can be hailed as the king of spinoffs. Speaking with Hollywood Life on an exclusive interview, he shared some teasers on his role in the "Gossip Girl" reboot, which is highly anticipated. According to him, "My character comes from a very wealthy family, but he uses his wealth for good as a humanitarian, and from what I've read so far he seems like a genuine, decent good guy." he added, "I don't know anything else!" Whatever his role will be doing, however, Eli Brown is making sure he's prepared for it. He revealed that he used his quarantine time in a productive manner by binging on the original CW stories. He spent the lockdown in Oregon and watched the first season. However, returning to LA meant losing his internet and television, so he now how to stop watching. Hee also has a sister who is a huge fan of the show, so it was not as if he was completely unaware of the show. His sister watches it a lot as well as Pretty Litle Liars, so he was abreast of the two shows in passing. He also talked about his experience doing the PLL spinoff. According to the actor, nothing on the set irked him or made it a lousy experience. Instead, the people he got to work with, from the cast and most notably, the crew. Brown gushes that everyone was great, so much as that they formed a bond unbreakable even though shooting already ended. He still sees most of them regularly, he added. He even explained how he did not get a big head when he was given the juicy role on the PLL spinoff. According to Eli, since they were shooting a few hours away from his hometown, Oregon, he would drive home every weekend just to see his friends and family, who kept him grounded. The back and forth driving did not make him tired, instead, he revealed that he was all the more energized. I would constantly go back and forth, it was great. And Portland is really cool, I loved living up there," the now Los Angeles-based actor said. Eli Brown is presently on Netflix's "F**k It List." On this show, he portrays a character that he said he does not really relate with. Given how good he was in the show, him not having any connection or resemblance with the character implies that he is a great actor. He plays an overachieving student who passed almost all the Ivy Leagues. A prank he was involved in has gone wrong, and the school where he chose to go was blown up. it went viral on social media, and everything starts here - he suddenly became popular for all the wrong reasons, and suddenly he found himself becoming an accidental superhero character for Gen Z. READ MORE: Jacob Elordi Sill Triggered By Joey King? Actor Lied About Not Watching 'The Kissing Booth 2' Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:20:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Students attend school on the first day of the new school year at the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, on Aug. 8, 2020. Palestinian students from the blockaded Gaza Strip on Saturday began the new school year, after five-month suspension due to the novel coronavirus. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) Sandra Galassi didnt have much, but what the Niagara Falls woman did have she was more than eager to share with others if that meant helping people in need. Now Galassis family, the four children she was raising as a single mom, desperately needs the help of others. Anthony Galassi, the oldest of Sandras kids at age 18, said his 51-year-old mom went to Greater Niagara General Hospital on Tuesday last week with what he at first thought might be COVID-19 because she was so weak. The next day I got a call from the hospital; they said they found tumours in her head but they werent sure if they were cancerous, Anthony said. The next morning, they called me and said she has terminal cancer and is going to die. He said doctors discovered at least 16 tumours in his mom: in her brain, in her lungs, above her kidneys, in bone. It completely crushed me, said the former Saint Paul Catholic High School student, who started at Queens University last year after winning a Schulich Scholarship, Canadas largest scholarship. Anthony said at first he kept the grim news from his siblings, Michaella, age 10, Matteo, 11, and Kaylina, 16, but finally had to sit them down. I finally had to break the news to them, he said. That was the hardest thing in my life: telling my siblings that our mom is going to die. Sandras family has set up a GoFundMe page with a goal to raise $100,000. Anthony faces financial costs for his moms funeral arrangements, his siblings post-secondary educations and to carry out repairs at the house. The home was a fixer upper that already needed some work, but Anthony said its fallen into further disrepair in the last year because Sandra had slid further into depression that he now understands was probably linked to brain tumours. He hopes Niagara skilled tradespeople and contractors will consider donating time and materials to make one of her biggest dreams come true while there is still time. Thats a dream of my mom: to come home and for us to be a big, happy family again, he said. To fix it up and make it beautiful for her to come home is my dream. My mom always said if you think something into being, it will happen, he said. Im hoping to God that shell come home and shell see her dream completed, and shell know Ill have my siblings taken care of. Anthony, who said hell likely scale back his studies this year to care for his siblings, goes out of his way to tutor and mentor other young people. He said his mom instilled in her children the importance of helping others. Sandra would dip into her modest financial resources to help kids from poor families with gifts at Christmas and Easter, and built a tree house in the familys backyard on Maple Street so other neighbourhood kids have a place to play, he said. Anthony said his mom dreams of eventually being buried at Fairview Cemetery, just down the street from the family home, but the cost of a plot may be prohibitive. Hes hoping the community will rally for his family in their time of need. I know with the pandemic people are struggling. I dont want to ask for too much, he said. But my siblings and I hope to make moms house her home, a place for her to spend her remaining days. Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati, who donated to the GoFundMe page, asked residents in a tweet to help the family if they have the means. People wishing to send cash, cheques or gift cards can deliver them to St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church at 4673 Victoria Ave. Anthony can be reached at Instagram at @anthony.galassi or via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/anthony.galassi.1. The GoFundMe page is at https://www.gofundme.com/f/sandra-galassi-final-wishes. Greece-Egypt Maritime Deal Aimed at Stemming Turkish Designs in Eastern Mediterranean By Anthee Carassava August 07, 2020 The Greek government is hailing a deal reached with Egypt on Thursday establishing an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas rights as a major success, claiming it counters growing Turkish influence in the region as Ankara prepares to issue new oil exploration licenses that have been sharply criticized by Greece, the European Union and Washington. In a surprise move, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias secretly jetted off to Egypt to seal the deal, finalizing a strategic alliance with Cairo, which diplomats in Athens said required 13 rounds of negotiations and 15 years to ultimately conclude. With the European Union and Washington increasingly concerned about Turkey's growing influence in the eastern Mediterranean, Greek and Egyptian negotiators now moved fast. The agreement effectively expands and consolidates both countries' rights to drill and explore untapped reserves in the hundreds of miles of sea that divides them. More important, Greece said the deal trumps a contentious maritime deal that Turkey recently signed with the Libyan government in Tripoli, allowing Turkey to drill for gas and oil in the same region, including within Greek waters, off the coast of Greek islands such as Crete. Dendias explains This deal, he said, is the exact opposite of what he calls the invalid and illegal understanding between Ankara and Tripoli. It confirms and safeguards the rights of Greece's islands, Dendias said, and it attests to the decisiveness of both Greek and Egypt to block Turkey's influence in the region. With this agreement, Dendias said, Turkey's deal with Tripoli goes in the trash, where he said it should. While both NATO allies, Greece and Turkey have been at odds for years over sea, air and land rights. Tensions have flared in recent months, with Greece warning it would wage war if Turkey moved to act on its energy designs, drilling or even exploring in waters in Greece claims. Turkey insists it is well within its rights to explore untapped energy fields in the eastern Mediterranean and it has submitted its maritime deal with Libya to the United Nations for ratification. With tensions running high between the two nations, EU member states and the U.S. State Department have urged Turkey to back off from its ambitious energy designs, at least for now. They are also pushing Greece and Turkey to return to the negotiating table in hope of trying to sort out age-old differences. It has been four years since the two countries have held regular diplomatic meetings. Constantinos Filis, director of the Athens-based Institute of International Relations, said Greece would have little chance of major success at those talks without the agreement it now has with Egypt. Without this agreement, Filis said, Greece would have been at a serious disadvantage. Now, it can come to the negotiating table and claim a legal difference, pushing Turkey to seek recourse with the International Court at The Hague to resolve these matters delineation of the continental shelf and who has rights over what area. Whether Greece will do so remains unclear. And even if it does, there is no guarantee it will win. Turkey argues that Greek islands should not be included in calculating maritime zones of economic interest. It says it is well within its rights to explore reserves, even off the coast of certain Greek islands. No exact date for the so-called exploratory talks has been set, but officials in Athens told VOA they expected that the sessions would begin in coming weeks, well before EU leaders meet again in September to review their collective stance on Turkey, including potential sanctions. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Two of the passengers who were on board the Air India Express flight from Dubai that crash-landed at the Karipur airport near Kozhikode have tested positive for coronavirus, sources in the CISF told News18. Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel told the media that one of the two was 45-year-old Sudheer Varyath, who died in the accident. His sample was sent for testing and it has returned positive for the disease, he said. Malappuram Collector K Gopalakrishnan said all passengers have been admitted to various hospitals, and they are also being tested for COVID-19, and added that autopsy of the bodies would be carried out according to the COVID-19 protocol. Health Minister K K Shailaja has asked all the people who were engaged in the rescue operations should report to the health authorities and go on self-quarantine as a precautionary measure and get themselves tested. Sources in the CISF said that 50 personnel who were involved in the rescue operations have been sent into quarantine. They said that an attempt is being made to match the positive cases with personnel who rescued them. This will take time. Meanwhile, the entire lot is in temporary isolation, an official said. The flight with 190 passengers and crew on board had overshot the runway here while landingon Friday night and fell into a valley about 35 feet below and broke into two portions. The condition of 16 passengers, admitted to various hospitals, is serious, K Gopalakrishnan said. The Air India Express plane was repatriating Indians stranded in Dubai due to the coronavirus pandemic as part of the Vande Bharat Mission. The aircraft overshot the runway of the Calicut International Airport in heavy rain near Kozhikode on Friday. This was India's worst passenger aircraft accident since 2010. Family, friends and relatives of Captain Deepak V. Sathe, the pilot who was killed in Friday's Air India Express aircraft crash at Kozhikode International Airport, find it hard to believe their loss. "Its hard to believe that Deepak Sathe, my friend more than my cousin, is no more..." said a stunned relative Nilesh Sathe on his community's social media post. Nilesh described his cousin as an "experienced aerial operator with 36 years' flying experience", who passed the National Defence Academy, Pune, with flying colours by topping the 58th Course and was awarded the 'Sword of Honour'. His ex-colleagues said Capt. Sathe also topped the Air Force Academy, Hyderabad, and was conferred the President's Gold Medal and later served in the Indian Air Force for 21 years before joining as a commercial pilot with Air India in 2005. Nilesh recalled how he spoke with Capt. Sathe last week and found him "jovial as always". "When I asked him about the 'Vande Bharat Mission', he felt so proud of bringing back our countrymen from Arab countries," said Nilesh. When Nilesh queried whether Capt. Sathe flew empty aircraft since those countries are not allowing entry of passengers, Sathe had replied: "Oh, no. We carry fruits, vegetables, medicines, etc. to these countries and never the aircraft flies empty... That was my last conversation with him." A friend from Capt. Sathe's days at the private school, Cambrian Hall, Dehradun, Pradeep Singh Bisht, said since he hailed from an army family background, "Deepak was a 'good fighter' from his early days". "He always stood up for right causes, supported the truth and was never scared of calling a spade a spade... Academically, he was brilliant and harboured a deep passion for flying from his school days. His father, Brig. Vasant Sathe was posted at the IMA Dehradun for at least five years when Deepak and I became close friends," Bisht told IANS from Dehradun. Later, Bisht travelled the world as a merchant navy officer, while Capt. Sathe joined the NDA and achieved his childhood dream of becoming an Indian Air Force pilot, and post-retirement, with Air India. "10 days back, when we last spoke, as always, he was very caring and concerned about everybody, spoke with my son at length, enquired about our old schoolmates, teachers, their well-being," said Bisht. Mumbai realtor Nitin Sunderji Shah who chatted with Capt. Sathe last week, said he sounded very concerned about "my family's wellbeing in the Covid-19 crisis" and called the pandemic a big challenge before humanity. "He died as he lived - for others... He gave his life to save the lives of the migrants arriving by that flight on Friday evening. I hope the government officially acknowledges Capt. Sathe's unparalleled act of bravery and the supreme sacrifice for his country," said an emotional Shah, his voice choking with emotion. Nilesh Sathe recollected how Capt. Sathe had survived a crash in the early-90s when he was with the IAF, and was hospitalized for six months for multiple skull injuries, "and nobody thought that he will fly again". "But his strong willpower and love for flying made him clear the test again. It was a miracle," he added. Capt. Sathe is survived by his wife Sushma, two sons - both IIT Bombay graduates, including elder son Shantanu - who got married on March 8, a fortnight before the national lockdown started and currently is in the USA, while younger son Dhananjay works for a firm in Bengaluru, and daughter Anjali, living in Mumbai. The other son of Brig. Vasant Sathe, who lives in Nagpur, Capt. Sathe's brother, Capt. Vikas Sathe was an Indian Army officer who sacrificed his life while serving in the Jammu region a few years ago. The family lives in the posh Powai suburb of Andheri east where a pall of gloom descended in the area after the tragic news broke out late on Friday of the air tragedy which has claimed 18 lives so far. KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that it was a matter of Ukraine's national security to stay out of U.S. internal politics, particularly its election. "#Ukraine did not and will not allow itself to interfere in the elections and thus harm our trusting and sincere partnership with the #USA," he wrote on Twitter late on Saturday. Zelenskiy, 42, was a comic actor when he won a landslide election last year. But the first year of his presidency was overshadowed by Ukraine's unwitting involvement in events that led to the impeachment of Republican U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump had unsuccessfully pressed Ukraine to launch an investigation into his Democratic rival in the 2020 presidential race, former Vice President Joe Biden. "Never, under any circumstances, it's acceptable to meddle in another country's sovereign elections," Zelenskiy wrote. Zelenskiy appealed to Ukrainian politicians to avoid any actions that could be linked to U.S. elections, nor allow themselves to try to solve any of their personal, political or business problems that way. "Ukraine's reputation is worth much more than the reputation of any of our politicians," the president said. Earlier this week, Zelenskiy told Reuters that he hoped U.S. support for Ukraine would remain strong regardless of who wins the American election. (Reporting by Natalia Zinets; editing by Jonathan Oatis) K Krishnachand By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The first ever air crash reported in Kerala when an Air India Express flight from Dubai landed in heavy rain at Kozhikode came as a shock. However, a major threat to Thiruvananthapuram International Airport is allegedly being ignored by authorities. The increasing population of birds in the flight landing path near the airport at Kumarichantha region has posed a threat to pilots and flights for a long time. The disposal of waste in the vicinity of the airport and meat shops near the landing region are found to be the major reason for bird-hit cases. There were instances at the airport when the ground staff found dead birds on the runway. ALSO READ: Kerala plane crash: All first responders asked to go into quarantine after dead passenger tests COVID positive Earlier, the state and central security agencies had highlighted the increased bird-hit risk at the international airport here as an imminent danger to civil aviation safety. Dozens of flights suffered bird hits over the airport in the last two years according to intelligence officials privy to Airports Authority Of India (AAI) data. According to the guidelines of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), less than five bird hits should be expected during every 10,000 plane landings and take-offs. As per the statistics available from the airport, as many as 44 suspected bird-hits were reported at Thiruvananthapuram airport from January 2019 to December 2019. Of these, 28 cases were confirmed to be bird hits by the authorities. In the first three months of this year, 14 suspected bird-hit cases were reported till March 2020 when the lockdown was imposed. The Director General of Civil Aviation had pointed out that this figure was very high, compared to other airports in the country. Many pilots had complained that landing at the airport is unsafe due to bird hits. Though the airport had deployed ten 'bird chasers' to keep the feathered population at bay, there is no dip in the bird population. Among other things, crackers were used to scare the birds off. Garbage dumps attract black kites, crows, cattle egrets and, after dark, owls, according to WWF-India which also has discussed the 'winged problem' faced by the airport. Last year, the AAI approached the research centre under the forest department to study the issue. The team found that it is due to the dumping of poultry waste near the runway outside the airport. Sources said that the danger at this airport is being averted due to the expertise of pilots. "Many pilots had to face the threat of birds while landing. However, accidents are being evaded only due to the expertise of pilots. But many pilots also fly to the airport for the first time. They may have to land only after overcoming this imminent danger. Neither AAI nor the corporation has taken any steps," a source said. According to the corporation, the presence of markets in the immediate neighbourhood of the airport and indiscriminate dumping of fish and meat waste attract scavenger birds, especially black kites and crows, in large numbers, posing a very real threat to the approaching aircraft. Even after the corporation took action against dumping waste, anti-social elements dumped waste again at the same spot. The squads deployed by the corporation to keep a tab on dumping near the airport are not operating since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Meanwhile, CV Ravindran, Airport Director, told The New Indian Express that the airport authorities would ensure that every flight landing on the runway is safe and free from bird hits. "Right now, there are hardly any instances of bird hits. It is because of our containment measures. We are using crackers and bird chasers to keep the birds away from the airport during the time of landing. The research team who had conducted the study also made various suggestions to keep the birds at bay. So the airport is safe now and we are using all safety measures," he said. What just happened? Facebook has been trying to get its Facebook Gaming app approved in Apple's App Store since February, only to see it rejected five times. Then this week it finally got the approval, but only after removing a feature that offered access to mini-games. This comes as Apple has been receiving a barrage of criticism for its App Store policies and fees. Microsoft has all but given up on bringing its xCloud game streaming service to iPhone and iPad users, and officially ended its beta testing program this week. In an ideal world, the Redmond giant would be able to blend xCloud with the extensive game library available to people who purchase Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. However, Apple told Business Insider that cloud services like xCloud simply can't get into the App Store because of the company's strict review guidelines. In their current form, game streaming services offer access to games that Apple can't individually review to ensure they align with the same set of performance, security, and privacy standards as the rest of apps that have been allowed in the App Store. Naturally, Microsoft isn't happy about the matter, so it will only launch xCloud on Android next month. The company is still looking into ways to bring the service to iOS users, but judging by Apple's statement there is only one way -- "submitting games individually for review, and appearing in charts and search." Facebook is feeling Microsoft's frustration with today's release of its Facebook Gaming app. Facebook Gaming is mostly designed as an alternative to Twitch and YouTube where people can watch streamers play video games, but the social giant also wanted to include a series of mini games that people could play to pass the time. Apple repeatedly rejected the app, even after Facebook shared some telemetry that showed Android users of the app spend around 95 percent of the time in the streaming section. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said that after removing the mini games feature, Apple was more than happy to allow Facebook Gaming in the App Store. Sandberg believes it's not fair that iOS users are only allowed an "inferior experience" to those on Android. She added that "were staying focused on building communities for the more than 380 million people who play games on Facebook every month whether Apple allows it in a standalone app or not." Apple has come under fire as of late for App Store policies and high commissions, as many developers feel they're being coerced into playing by the Cupertino giant's rules with no alternative way to target iOS users. For instance, Valve got the Steam Link app approved for iOS and tvOS only after removing the ability to buy Steam games from within the app. Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook was questioned by Congress members on these issues, but only offered the typical explanation we've heard many times before -- that Apple is holding all apps to high standards and won't allow anything that doesn't meet its guidelines in order to have a safe App Store for iOS users. In the EU, the company is subject to an antitrust probe into these practices that could end up with a multi-billion dollar fine. Chevron has been ordered to inspect its massive Gorgon liquefied natural gas plant off the West Australian coast amid safety concerns. Workers at the $76 billion project last month identified large cracks in pressurised propane kettles on one of three LNG trains. The train has since been inspected by WA's Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety. Chevron has been ordered to inspect its massive Gorgon liquefied natural gas plant off the West Australian coast amid safety concerns DMIRS on Friday issued Chevron with a remediation notice, ordering the company to check the propane heat exchangers on the other two trains for similar cracks no later than August 21. 'DMIRS continues to take the matter seriously and is in close contact with Chevron,' dangerous goods director Steve Emery said. The short-term measures Chevron had taken to mitigate potential gas leaks appeared to be sufficient until the inspections were carried out, Mr Emery added. It's not immediately clear whether the inspection will force a halt to production at the plant. The company is understood to be looking at a range of options. Industry sources told AAP if there were cracks on the shell of the exchangers, the low pressure meant a large explosion was unlikely if the shell failed. In a statement, Chevron said it was working closely with regulators in planning and implementing repair work at Gorgon. 'Chevron is first and foremost committed to the safety of our workforce,' a spokesperson said. The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union had said cracks of up to one metre long and 33mm deep were found on between eight and 11 kettles on train two. State secretary Steve McCartney on Friday applauded DMIRS for taking decisive action and said the union's concerns had been vindicated. The plant on Barrow Island, 60km off the Pilbara coast, supplies gas locally and across Asia. Chevron last month said investigations were ongoing in regards to the propane kettles and regulatory authorities had been informed. DMIRS WorkSafe director Sally North said Chevron had been issued improvement notices for each of the eight propane kettles on train two. She said the vessels had been manufactured differently to the registered design, contravening WorkSafe's rules. The company had until 28 August to make them compliant, she said. A further 24 improvement notices were issued relating to plant registration, weld repairs and the requirement to inspect and potentially repair vessels on Train 3. Marijuana advocates and at least one member of the state's Cannabis Control Commission have been urging the agency to allot more funding for efforts to increase diversity in the industry. Meanwhile, state data shows that the commission has annually handed millions of dollars of unused funding back into state coffers every year since it was founded. Last year, the CCC returned 20% of its budget back to the state. While it's not unusual for an agency to return some unused money back to the state at the end of the fiscal year, in fiscal 2018 and 2019, the commission gave back a higher percentage of its budget than any other state agency, according to a Boston Business Journal analysis of the state's comptroller data. During a commission hearing on Thursday, following questions about budget expenditures from the Business Journal, Executive Director Shawn Collins acknowledged that large chunks of the commission's budget hasn't been spent every year, but said that's because the commission is new. "We're getting a better sense of what it truly costs to operate and run this agency," Collins said. State agencies are required to revert unused money back to the general fund under state finance law. They can, however, reallocate funding within the same fiscal year to other programs. But that hasnt been done for the commissions equity program, despite numerous calls from advocates and a former employee as well as several efforts under way on Beacon Hill to redirect more resources to the commission for its equity mission. A call for more funding According to state data, in fiscal 2018, the CCC used only a third of its $7 million budget, reverting $2.3 million back to the state and reallocating another $2.5 million in unspent money to a future budget. In fiscal 2019, the commission used about two-thirds of its $13.5 million budget, reverting $2.7 million back to the state, and reallocating $500,000 to a future budget. For fiscal 2020, which ended June 30, the commission is currently projected to give back $1.7 million of its $14.2 million budget to the state, which would mean the commission is projecting to use 90% of its budget. Vendors have until mid-August to turn in invoices, and that number may change. Shekia Scott, the former head of the commissions equity programs, recently told the Business Journal that she repeatedly had asked for more resources to support the commissions equity mission during her two years at the CCC. She contends that beyond the social-equity program, which provides technical assistance and training to disenfranchised applicants, she needed additional resources to develop other new programs and conduct meaningful outreach into communities harmed by the war on drugs. I raised this several times over the two years I was there, that I needed more assistance and a team, Scott said. Advocates have also pressed for more funding to go to both the social-equity program and broader cannabis-equity initiatives. During a discussion last month about whether or not to allocate cannabis money to police reform initiatives, Shanel Lindsay, CEO of Ardent Cannabis and co-founder of advocacy group Equal Opportunities Now (EON), said the commission needed to increase funding to its social equity program to promote more diverse participation in the industry. "The Legislature has not yet funded even the most modest programming pursuant to (the restorative justice goals of the law legalizing recreational marijuana)," Lindsay said. "The Cannabis Control Commission has had to level fund their equity work at just $300,00 a year for the last three years. This translates into absolutely no meaningful support or funding and you see that reflected in the just abysmal statistics of who gets allowed in and who is excluded from the industry." Slow progress The industry has exhibited slow growth in diversity to date. As of Aug. 6, just 27 of the 570 approved licenses self-identified as minority-owned. Of the 9,164 people licensed to work in the cannabis industry, 74% self-identified as white. Just 5.4% identified as Black. On Monday, several advocates came out to a public hearing about the commission's new regulations to decry the progress of the commission's social equity program. "I'm just disappointed in what I see as a lack of urgency and empathy for the areas that you deemed disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs," said Jordan Clark, a participant in the social equity program. Hillary King, director of wholesale at Northeast Alternatives, said the social equity program was "underfunded," and said the commission had to do more to promote social justice. Commissioner Shaleen Title has also pressed repeatedly in recent weeks for Legislative changes that would allocate money to the CCC by directing fines to its equity programs, and pressed again Thursday for the commission to have a conversation about what resources the program may need going forward. While Title does not believe the equity programs have been underfunded to date, she said more resources will be needed to further the programs growth. Other commissioners have forcefully pushed back against assertions that resources currently allocated to the commissions equity mission are not enough. At Thursdays meeting, Hoffman pointed out the success of the commissions social equity program, and said other spending had been dedicated to progressing the commissions equity work, such as salaries of people in the commission conducting outreach or teaching at the social equity program. It has somehow become conventional wisdom that the social-equity program is underfunded. ... I find this deeply troubling on many levels, Hoffman said. When I look at this, I do not see a broken or underperforming program. This article originally appeared on the Boston Business Journals website. ExxonMobil on Saturday announced the appointment of Richard Laing as Chairman and Managing Director of its three affiliates in Nigeria. The Manager, Media and Communications, ExxonMobil, Ogechukwu Udeagha, confirmed this in a statement in Eket. The three affiliates are Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited and Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East). Mr Udeagha said that the appointment takes effect from August 1. He said that Mr Laing replaced Paul McGrath, who has been appointed Vice President, Global Projects for ExxonMobil in Houston after more than three years in Nigeria. Prior to his appointment, Laing was executive director of oil and gas production and related support groups for all of the ExxonMobil affiliates in Nigeria. Laing joined ExxonMobil in 1989 and has held variety of engineering, planning, safety and managerial positions in upstream and downstream operations while working in the U.K, Qatar, U.S. and Nigeria, he said. READ ALSO: Mr Udeagha said that Mr Laing holds a bachelors degree in Mining and Petroleum Engineering from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and Masters in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Responding, Mr Liang said; It is a privilege to lead the ExxonMobil team in Nigeria and build on the work that Paul McGrath had done over the last three years. I look forward to the work that lies ahead and continuing the companys outstanding relationships, Mr Liang said. (NAN) Saudi Arabia seeking to partition Yemen since 2011: Secret documents Iran Press TV Friday, 07 August 2020 7:45 AM Leaked Saudi secret documents have revealed that the kingdom has been pursuing a policy to partition Yemen through supporting various tribal leaders. According to the Qatari Arabic-language al-Jazeera television news network, which leaked the documents, they indicate that several plots adopted by the Riyadh regime have plunged Yemen into its current situation. Some of the 162 pages of documents disclosed that the Saudi regime has been constantly trying to consolidate the authority of tribes by providing material support to some sheikhs in exchange for assurances that they would advance Riyadh's agendas and policies. The amount of support for the tribal leaders is definite, given the importance of each tribe and the extent of its sheikhs' commitment to implement the directives and instructions received away from the sovereignty and authority of the Yemeni state. The documents included a letter classified as "top secret" and dated February 14, 2010, in which then King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz instructed Saudi officials to provide 50 million riyals (about $13 million) to support and arm Yemeni tribes loyal to the kingdom and living in areas adjacent to the Saudi border. The documents revealed that Saudi Arabia was dealing with the separation of southern Yemen as one of the main options for resolving what it describes as the "southern issue." A document dated from September 2012 showed that some southern entities received significant Saudi support after 2011. Meanwhile, the kingdom had employed spies to report on meetings between southern leaders, which were held under international sponsorship. The kingdom's initiative towards southern powers took place without the knowledge of the Yemeni government, according to the document. Other documents showed Saudi Arabia hindered German and Qatari reconstruction efforts in the northern Yemeni city of Sa'ada, after a ceasefire had ended six years of conflicts between Houthi fighters and forces loyal to then president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in 2010. In March 2015, Saudi Arabia launched a devastating war on Yemen with the declared aim of putting Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power, and eliminating the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement. Riyadh has not been alone in the bloody campaign, enjoying arms supplies from its Western backers and support from its regional allies, chief among them, the United Arab Emirates. Over 100,000 people have been killed in the Saudi war on Yemen, according to some semi-official figures. The Saudi regime has failed to fulfill the objective of its deadly campaign. The war has also destroyed and shut down Yemen's infrastructure. The Yemeni population has been subjected to large-scale hunger and diseases aggravated by the naval blockade imposed on the country by Saudi Arabia and its allies. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address We are walking on the edge of a precipice. We have to aid, support and encourage the Lebanese people, but at the same time not give the impression that we want to establish a new protectorate, which would be completely stupid, said Jack Lang, a former French government minister who now heads the Arab World Institute in Paris. We must find new, intelligent solutions to aid the Lebanese. WATERLOO REGION A nearly provincewide network outage left thousands of Bell and Telus customers without access to the internet for a little under an hour on Thursday. The network disruption was felt in Waterloo Region, Guelph and London, all the way to Ottawa, and Montreal. Starting at around 12:10 p.m., many lost their connection to both cellular service and home internet from a variety of service providers. For many, the outage was a minor inconvenience and had little impact on peoples day. Some working from home were dropped from their online meetings, while others faced a surprise intermission while streaming a movie or show. In some parts of the province, those relying solely on their mobile service were left in the dark for nearly an hour. In Renfrew County, residents were asked to use landline phones to make 911 calls during the outage. While some lost cellular service in Waterloo Region, police said the outage didnt seem to have an impact on local communications with emergency services. As of Friday afternoon, neither Telus nor Bell had announced what caused the outage. Both telecom companies said they were still investigating. The outage began around noon and lasted for approximately 45 minutes, affecting wireless, internet and TV services to varying degrees in parts of eastern Ontario and Quebec, wrote Nathan Gibson, a Bell spokesperson. Our engineers are still investigating the cause of the network failure and to what extent services were disrupted in different locations. Telus also said it was still looking into how the network failure occurred. We are working with our network partner to determine the cause of the issue, said Telus spokesperson Liz Sauve. RELATED STORIES Waterloo Region Internet outage impacts thousands across the province When connectivity was restored, many took to social media to report they were impacted by the network outage. While most people who lost connection identified as Telus or Bell customers, a few Rogers customers say they too temporarily lost some connection. Reached Friday, a spokesperson said the Rogers network was not impacted by the massive service interruption on Thursday. There is a wireless network sharing agreement between Bell and Telus and both communicated over social media about the service disruption, the spokesperson said. Any customers experiencing an issue should contact the tech support team to troubleshoot. Read more about: - Pauline Njoroge, a communications expert had claimed Nairobi National Park had a glamorous title with nothing much of value to offer - Balala stated the integrity of Nairobi National Park was very important and as such his ministry could not risk having someone who did not value it - Netizens expressed mixed reactions to the CS' quick action with many noting Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) were very powerful in influencing his decision Kenyans have trooped to social media to express their opinions after Tourism CS Najib Balala revoked the appointment of Pauline Njoroge as a board member of the Tourism Regulatory Authority over a past social media post. The CS regretted the ministry had not conducted a background check on Njoroge after she claimed the Nairobi National Park was economically redundant in a tweet a few years ago. READ ALSO: At least 16 confirmed dead as plane skids off runway, breaks into 2 pieces in India Tourism CS Najib Balala at a past event. Photo: Najib Balala. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Mutahi Kagwe hints CS Matiang'i is poised to replace Uhuru In a statement on Saturday, August 8, Balala stated the integrity of Nairobi National Park was very important and as such his department could not risk having someone who did not value it. "I am revoking Pauline Njoroge's appointment as a board member of Tourism Regulatory Authority because we have just seen what she tweeted in the past that Nairobi National Park was useless. We do not want to be associated with such people and such thinking," said Balala in a statement. Njoroge was immediately replaced by Standard Group journalist Najma Ismail. Netizens expressed mixed reactions to Balala's quick action with many noting Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) were very powerful in influencing his decision. Pauline Njoroge is a vocal supporter of President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Jubilee administration. Photo: Pauline Njoroge. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Tangawizi mbichi, limau na asali sio tiba ya COVID -19, Wizara ya Afya yasema Here were some of the comments under the #PaulineNjoroge. Lekuta: "After God fear KOT DCI . Pauline Njoroge's appointment revoked because of what she posted on Twitter sometimes back." Biwott: Appointment of Pauline Njoroge revoked by CS Balala. These are the sober leaders we need in this country." Almamy Moha: "The shortest serving member of tourism board on earth." Njoroge had been appointed to serve alongside former vice president Kalonzo Musyoka's son Kevin Muasya in new state appointments by President Uhuru Kenyatta. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. I was rejected by my father three times- Tony Cruize | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Robotics now has an innovative application in farming, and tiny robot swarms are on the way to eliminating the need for pesticides. This could lead to a future without the need to use harmful pesticidal chemicals. With this new technology, crops can grow without having to deal with weeds. At the same time, beneficial insects and pollinators such as bees can live freely among them without having to die from pesticides and other agrochemicals. READ: Glaciers in the Patagonia Mountains Show Dramatic Changes of Global Warming for a Century Clint Bauer and Greenfield Robotics The farm of Clint Brauer outside Cheney in Kansas has a swarm of robots that help in making this future a reality. Brauer is one of Greenfield Robotics' co-founders. He grew up on a farm, and his knowledge of digital technology eventually benefited his family farm, which is now involved in chemical-free farming. Brauer went back to his roots in farming with a new mission: to get harmful chemicals away from our foods. He instituted a new farming system that leverages and harnesses nature. This system improves soil productivity and reduces greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. He took on the challenge of carbon farming without needing agrochemicals on a significant scale. His farm has unique processes that help accomplish this goal. Robots that Kill Weeds Brauer now also uses robots to his advantage and fulfill his mission. The weed-killing robots weigh 140 pounds, which he named them Wilma, Tom, Dick, and Harry. They have their individual but interdependent functions. At the beginning of the process, the robot Tom is involved in rolling through the field to map it. After Tom's information is gathered, Wilma uploads it and transfers it to Dick, the group's "weed zapper." Dick has a similar function as weed zapper equipment, but with the use of robotics. Small Robot Company's CMO Sarra Mander initially constructed these robots. Brauer makes Dick zap electricity on emerging young weeds between the crops, which effectively removes them while keeping local insects safe, unlike what pesticides do. READ: 219 Plant Viruses in Brazil Compiled in a Database for Researchers, Growers, and Policymakers More Efficient than Other Solutions These robots are also more efficient and effective than mechanical equipment such as tractors that pull plows or rototillers, disturbing the soil's delicate microbial flora, lowering yields, decreasing species diversity, and causing many other negative environmental consequences. The robotics was designed to focus on the weeds because they are the most significant farm problem. Weeds are the hardest problem to fight, according to Brauer. He says that half or more of a farmer's time and a significant part of their resources are dedicated to controlling weeds. An Expensive but Worthy Investment This considerable investment may make the robots viable, even if they seem expensive at first compared to directly spraying chemicals. Brauer says most farmers do not like chemicals, so the technology has great potential to be readily accepted. The robots can maintain biodiversity and reduce chemical use. Exposure to the latter is harmful to children and other people, and these side effects may justify using robotics in farming. It may eventually replace many of Monsanto's dangerous pesticides. READ NEXT: Kerala Massive Landslide: 5 Dead, Many Feared Trapped Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8, 2020 15:07 528 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c7ed08 1 Politics Berkarya-Party,Hutomo-Mandala-Putra,Tommy-Soeharto,Muchdi-BIN Free One of Indonesias newest political parties has emerged from an internal leadership struggle with a clear victor: a supporter of President Joko Jokowi Widodo. The realignment is the latest in a series political switches in support of the government. Hutomo Tommy Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former president Soeharto, has lost control of the Berkarya Party, the political party that he established in 2016. His challenger, Muchdi Purwoprandjono, a former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy chief and a former commander of the Armys Special Forces (Kopassus), has secured the governments support for his leadership. The Law and Human Rights Ministry, which has the authority to authorize leaders of the countrys political parties, granted Muchdi control of the Berkarya Party following an internal power struggle with Tommy over their different stances toward President Jokowis leadership. Unlike Tommy, who has been an outspoken critic of many of Jokowis policies, Muchdi has been a Jokowi supporter since his first term. Muchdis victory in the internal struggle has brought additional support to Jokowis government. Infighting within the countrys political parties has traditionally led to the formation of new parties by disgruntled or outcast politicians. Some parties in the House of Representatives, such as the Gerindra Party and the NasDem Party, were the result of such power struggles within the Golkar Party. The recent establishment of the Gelora Party fits this pattern. The party was founded by former members of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) who were excluded from positions of authority by the current leadership. The exodus included Fahri Hamzah who was a staunch critic of Jokowis government in his role as House deputy speaker from 2014 to 2019. Although the recently established Gelora Party has yet to solidify its political stance, political scientists believe the party is unlikely to join the opposition camp. Leaders of the party met Jokowi at the Presidential Palace soon after they obtained official authorization for the partys establishment. Indonesias political system is not generally supportive of a strong opposition, experts have noted. Even if Tommy creates a new party in his defeat, it would be unlikely to develop into a genuine check on the government or represent public interests. The Jokowi administration has mustered more extensive support for his leadership, reducing critics of the government within the legislature. But there may be reasons for this coalition that are beyond the president himself. Political scientists have noted that the countrys political climate requires parties to be part of the ruling coalition for survival. A lack of financial resources has driven parties in the House to submit to the ruling parties instead of criticizing the government on behalf of the public. To be part of the government is like obtaining an ATM card for the partys survival, analyst Firman Noor from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) told The Jakarta Post recently. Securing financial resources is crucial because of the high cost of politics in Indonesia. Firman said a lack of independent financial resources had caused many political parties to become instruments of the ruling power. The political climate, he said, also nurtured infighting within parties because control over parties led to access to resources held by a small number of oligarchs. In a separate interview, National University (Unas) lecturer, Andi Achdian, referred to the trend of financier-centered management within almost all political parties in Indonesia as a result of the lack of genuine aspiration for social change in a post-Soeharto Indonesia. This is because political parties mostly get established by a top-down processes instead of being inspired by bottom-up movements, Achdian said. In the past, for example, we had a political party that brought together workers who fought for their rights. Achdian did not specify which party that was. The now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) had a strong following among workers and rural populations. Achdian said the absence of aspiration for social change in political parties contributed to the lack of distinctive party ideologies and allowed politicians to shift membership easily from one party to another. Political parties are merely a vehicle to fulfil personal interests, he said. The need to maintain access to resources has preserved the current political system by making it difficult for new parties to enter the legislature, and the system allows those in power to check the rise of new entrants. The parties in the House of Representatives have proposed a higher threshold of national votes for eligibility for representation in the legislature. Lawmakers are considering increasing the threshold for House representation to between 5 and 7 percent of the vote ahead of the 2024 elections. In the 2019 elections, the political parties in the House mostly supporters of Jokowis ruling coalition agreed to increase the threshold to 4 percent which resulted in one of the coalitions members, the Hanura Party, getting expelled from the House after the election. The high electoral threshold also prevented the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), a new party championed by many young urban middle-class voters, from being awarded seats in the House because the party garnered only 2 percent of the national vote. The PSI has been known as a staunch supporter of Jokowi administration. There are currently nine parties with seats in the House. The majority of them are members of the ruling coalition. These include the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party, the Gerindra Party, the NasDem Party and two Islam-based parties: the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP). The remaining three parties the Democratic Party, PKS and the National Mandate Party (PAN) are, on paper, in opposition to Jokowis government. However, in practice some of them have shown considerable flexibility. Although PAN is officially outside the ruling coalition, the current leadership, under the control of chairman Zulkifli Hasan, supports the Jokowis administration. Universities Round the World Fail to Stand up to China: Report 2020-08-07 -- Universities and colleges around the world are "unprepared" to deal with threats to freedom of speech on campus and academic freedom among their scholars as a result of political pressure from Beijing, a New York-based rights group said on Friday. "Institutions of higher learning around the world should resist the Chinese government's efforts to undermine academic freedom abroad," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. "Few have moved to protect academic freedom against longstanding problems, such as visa bans on scholars working on China or surveillance and self-censorship on their campuses," it said. "Many colleges and universities around the world with ties to the Chinese government, or with large student populations from China, are unprepared to address threats to academic freedom in a systematic way," the group warned. A survey of more than 100 interviews with academics, graduates, students, and administrators linked to China at top universities in Australia, Canada, France, the U.K., and the United States found "various threats" to academic freedom as a result of Chinese influence. "Chinese authorities have long monitored and conducted surveillance on students and academics from China and those studying China on campuses around the world," HRW said. "Chinese diplomats have also complained to university officials about hosting speakers such as the Dalai Lama whom the Chinese government considers 'sensitive'." Chinese students studying overseas have been subjected to threats via their families back home in China, while others have stayed silent in class for fear of being reported to the Chinese authorities by informants in their student cohort, HRW found. It said many interviewees had also admitted to modifying their remarks inside and outside classrooms for fear of being denied access to China or to funding sources, of causing problems for students or scholars from China or their family members, or of causing anger among colleagues or students from China. Confucius Institutes closed The group said Confucius Institutes, a network of embedded Chinese language-teaching and cultural centers on universities around the world, were a matter of concern to many, as their presence had a chilling effect on academic freedom and freedom of speech on the campuses where they were present. The University of Chicago, North Carolina State University, and the University of Massachusetts Boston have all closed or announced they will close the Confucius Institutes on their campuses because of concerns about academic freedom, among other reasons, HRW said. "Universities can't continue to rely solely on honor codes or other statements of principle designed to address issues like cheating, plagiarism, or tenure to address pressure from the Chinese government on academic freedom abroad," HRW China director Sophie Richardson said. "Those don't envision let alone set out remedies for the kinds of threats to academic freedom now widely reported." HRW's warning comes after the University of New South Wales in Australia apologized for removing a tweet criticizing the Chinese government for its suppression of human rights in Hong Kong. However, the University apologized both to its staff and to China, after the tweet quoting part-time law lecturer Elaine Pearson was removed. Pearson heads HRW's Australia division. Australia-based student and rights activist Feng Chongyi said that while there is an emerging recognition of the dangers of Chinese influence in Australia, the fact that many universities are run like corporations has skewed the environment where large amounts of revenue are dependent on China. "University leaders want to cooperate with China as a source of foreign students and funding for some scientific research projects," Feng said. "So they have been trying not to offend China for a long time now." He said "commercial interests" had led some universities to turn a blind eye to the authoritarian nature of the Chinese government and rampant human rights abuses under the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Platform for propaganda Hu Yuming, a former city councilor, said many universities have sold out to Beijing and are now providing a platform for CCP propaganda on Australian soil. "Some people don't see what is happening, and are driven by vested interests," Hu said. "But there have been a lot of reports in the mainstream media, and they have been exposed to public opinion now." He said Shaoquett Moselmane, the MP for New South Wales, had been investigated by police and security services after openly praising CCP general secretary Xi Jinping. "Actually we are talking about a small miniority of people who maybe once worked for the Chinese consulate, and speak up for the CCP whenever they can," Hu said. "They're the rotten apples who turn everything else bad." Exile political cartoonist Badiucao, said the integrity of Western universities has been compromised by Chinese influence. "The University of New South Wales completely succumbed to such attacks and threats, and abandoned its responsibility to provide a breeding-ground for free ideas," he said. "This has brought shame on Australia." HRW said it has published a set of measures for universities concerned about the threat of CCP influence to implement. Reported by Ng Yik-tung and Sing Man for RFA's Cantonese 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 August 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address This pandemic has thrown a harsh light on truths we all pretend to accept but seldom act upon that the future is unknown, that nothing lasts forever, Worsham wrote. Lets try to salvage some good from this. Lets take better care of each other, of our planet, of ourselves. We only get this one go-around, friends. It was a hoot while it lasted. We hope to see you down the road. Paris High, "Detlef" heats up this weekend, Central Europe in some places with temperatures of over 40 degrees. On Saturday, the heat put in some places, life is lame. Some residents of the Capital were also adapted very well to the situation. A large wave of heat rolled on Saturday over France. In nine departments including the capital, Paris was the highest alert level, the meteorological service Meteo France. This means that people have to be extremely careful. On Friday, according to Meteo France reached a peak temperature of 41.9 degrees in the southwest of the country. On Saturday it should be in the North and North West to-peak values on the order of 40 degrees. The nights are tropical hot and only a little cooling. In the early Saturday morning were measured at the top of the Eiffel tower 29 degrees. The metropolis of Paris was empty in France, holidays in August, many residents remained due to the heat at home. Others sought in the early hours of the morning, a little cool in the Parks. The authorities advised to avoid physical efforts and to stay with loved ones in contact. Because of high ozone pollution of the car traffic has been restricted in the capital Region. Across the country, the holiday wave rolled meanwhile. Cars jammed on a length of aggregated 820 kilometers, as media reported. London Also in Parts of the UK, it was unusually hot. In England, it was recorded on Friday, the warmest August day since 17 years of age, with a maximum temperature of 36 degrees Celsius in London-Heathrow. The people moved in droves to the coast to cool off. Some of the crowded beaches in the southern English County of Dorset were dismissed visitors. Lifeguards warned of treacherous currents and other dangers that lurk on the British coasts. The British swimming in local waters are hardly used. However, a lot of spend in this Corona of the year, your holiday at home. Rom just Because the holiday time is, and the Romans to the climate in August will know, the majority of the holiday out of town. The folks back home stay on the weekend during the day in their air-conditioned homes or go to the beach of Ostia. In front of the sights tourists sweated so on Saturday, almost, but in times of Corona is significantly less than normally. Around the Colosseum sold to itinerant traders of frozen water in plastic bottles. The Restaurants have tried it with large fans and cooling water to make steam for the guests tolerable. The Romans themselves settled only towards the 21 clock in the Restaurants and piazzas if it is dark and pleasant. Vienna The year heat record by the end of July, with about 37 degrees, the Thermometer is not reached on Saturday, while at up to 32 degrees not only the carriage-horses was still in front of the Hofburg warm. Updated Date: 08 August 2020, 13:19 While friends and family members of Sushant Singh Rajput have been making demands for a just investigation into the actor's death, his fans overseas have also joined the cause. Sister Shweta Singh Kirti shared the photo of a digital billboard in California which said '# Justice For Sushant Singh Rajput 1986-2020'. Sharing the picture of the board above a busy parking lot in the US state, Shweta wrote, "Bhais Billboard in California... It's up on 880 north, right after the great mall parkway exit. It's a world wide movement. #warriors4ssr #justiceforsushantsinghrajput #worldforsushant." Shweta shared another video with a song from Sushant's film Chhichhore playing in the background. She wrote, "You are beating in our hearts #warriors4ssr #justiceforsushantsinghrajput #godiswithus #ssrinourhearts." Shweta also joined the #warriors4ssr trend on social media and posted a black and white picture of herself, writing, "We will get justice... we will find the truth!! #warriors4ssr #justiceforsushantsinghrajput #godiswithus." As investigation into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput continues, friends, family members and fans of the late actor have been using the hashtag #Warriors4SSR to post their demands for justice. Actress Ankita Lokhande too shared a post on Instagram with the trending hashtag. In the photo, she is seein posing with a framed picture of Sushant's late mother. In the caption, she wrote, "Believe you both are together #warriors4ssr." As rotating ASEAN Chair 2020, Vietnam has made great efforts to ensure the blocs cooperation activities take place in a timely manner amid the COVID-19 pandemic, affirmed Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Ibnu Hadi. Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Ibnu Hadi (R) (Photo: VNA) Granting an interview to the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of the 53rd founding anniversary of ASEAN (August 8, 1967-2020), Ambassador Ibnu Hadi stressed that since its establishment, ASEAN has grown tremendously and significantly in terms of positive significant development. During its cause of development, a lot of progresses have been achieved in terms of political and security with its Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC). This is like a tool created by ASEAN to contribute to the peace and stability of the world and our region, he noted. Emphasising the importance of TAC, which was signed on February 24, 1976 by ASEAN member countries, he said the treaty is now joined by 40 countries, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. In terms of economic and trade, the ambassador said ASEAN already created the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1992 and it has been fully implemented, including for the CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam). We are aiming to have the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Hopefully, that can be signed during the Vietnams ASEAN chairmanship by the end of this year. And if that is the case, that will give the strong boost for more economic development for our region, he added. In terms of socio-cultural development, the ASEAN Community has already been adopted as a single community, he said, adding that the grouping should encourage more people-to-people contact in order that ASEAN is not only government to government but also people to people. Interactions between people, not only tourism, but also culture, education must be further enhanced. Regarding the contributions made by Vietnam as rotating ASEAN Chair 2020, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging, Ibnu Hadi said Vietnam has shown not only to the ASEAN countries but also to the rest of the world that its a good example of how to tackle the COVID-19. Acknowledging Vietnams initiatives to help ASEAN combat the pandemic, he said the country issued the ASEANs chairmanship statement on COVID-19 and also organized the online ASEAN 3 Summit (with China, Japan and the Republic of Korea) in April. It is ASEANs special summit on COVID-19 during which we discussed and came up with some solutions and agreements. During the last ASEAN Summit at the end of June, we issued the ASEAN Leaders Vision Statement on a Cohesive and Responsive ASEAN. I believe that among others, we are all committed to tackling the new emerging issues by the COVID-19, he said. So a lot have been contributed by Vietnam to ASEAN, he stated, expressing his belief that under Vietnams chairmanship which lasts until December, ASEAN will have another summit in November and hopefully, the RCEP will be signed. He also hoped ASEAN will have some progress on the Code of Conduct that is the continuation of the Declaration of the Conducts on the South China Sea (East Sea). The Indonesian diplomat highlighted Vietnams efforts and initiatives in maintaining the cooperation process of ASEAN in the context of COVID-19. Unfortunately, there is a COVID-19 outbreak since March. So since then, most of the process of the ASEAN is conducted online. But thanks to Vietnam, all of these processes can be conducted on time, he noted. Regarding challenges and opportunities to the ASEAN Community after 2025, Ibnu Hadi stressed that the challenge number one post-2025 is to maintain the peace and stability of this region. When we talk about peace and stability, we have to talk about the peace process and peace conditions of our region, not only on land but also in the sea. In the sea we must discuss the East Sea, or South China Sea, he said. He held that beyond 2025, not only the completion of the Code of Conduct but how to implement it on the ground are very crucial. The Indonesian ambassador expected that in the future, ASEAN will consider how to make cooperation agreements with other countries to become a production hub in the Asian region./.VNA Riot police detain people after they cleared protesters taking part in a rally against a new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. (Dale De La Rey/AFP via Getty Images) UK Lawmakers Urge Sanctions Over Rights Abuses by Hong Kong Police A group of British lawmakers have urged the UK government to impose sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other senior officials for permitting the police to use excessive violence on pro-democracy protesters. In a report (pdf) on the treatment of aid workers during the protests, the lawmakers said the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) had breached international humanitarian law and principles, international human rights, and the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The UK should urgently impose Magnitsky-style sanctions on those responsible for permitting the excessive police violence at high level in the administration, including but not limited to Chief Executive Carrie Lam and the Commissioner of Police, said the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong. An injured man is being taken care of by first aid rescuers during a protest outside North Point metro station in Hong Kong on Sept. 15, 2019. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images) During the protests, which began last year in response to the Hong Kong governments bid to introduce an extradition law with the mainland, humanitarian aid workers were subjected to intimidation, harassment, threats, physical violence, and arrests, said the report. First aid workers appear to have been the main group subjected to such treatment, said the report, adding that even doctors and nurses received treatment that fell short of international human rights law. The UK should explore whether the targeted humanitarian aid workers fall within the purview of the Refugee Convention and consider how they could be best assisted, the lawmakers urged. A woman gets first aid near Mong Kok police station in Hong Kong on Sept. 7, 2019. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters) The British government imposed its first sanctions under its new Magnitsky Act last month on 25 Russians and 20 Saudis. But UK lawmakers have urged the government to target those who are responsible for the crackdown in Hong Kong. The HKPFs treatment of humanitarian aid workers and their interference within hospitals have resulted in injured protesters not receiving the required medical care in time or at all, they said. These actions may also have affected the medical care of the population in general, as a result of the hospitals independence and confidentiality being diminished by the ever-growing interference from the HKPF, according to the report. The inquiry, which lasted 5 months, found no evidence to suggest that humanitarian aid workers were involved in hostilities that would justify the police stripping them of the protections otherwise available to aid workers. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong is an informal cross-party group of 12 parliamentarians from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It was first set up in November 2019 in response to the escalating political and social crisis in Hong Kong, which had been triggered by the extradition law. Lily Zhou contributed to this report. 'Everyone Should Update Their Understanding of China': Taiwanese Diplomat 2020-08-07 -- Taiwan's newly appointed representative to its trade and economic office in the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, has said she will go to bat for the democratic island as a "battle cat" to counter China's aggressive, "wolf warrior" style of diplomacy. Hsiao, who started her career as an intern in the same office three decades ago, told journalists shortly after her appointment that she wants to promote ever-closer ties between Washington and Taipei. A former member of Taiwan's parliament for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Hsiao told RFA she hopes her approach will serve as a counterweight to China's aggressive form of "wolf warrior diplomacy" in Washington. "China has been using its philosophy of 'wolf warrior diplomacy' against Taiwan for decades," Hsiao said. "They have excluded Taiwan from every area and limited Taiwan's international presence." "They have been very cruel and unfair to the people of Taiwan, and now they are using the same methods in countries all over the world," Hsiao said. "Everyone should update their understanding of the nature of this regime." But she said Taiwan's strong democracy and track record of governance would show that the island has far more resilience and flexibility than an authoritarian regime. "Cats are more likeable than wolves," Hsiao said. "And warrior cats are flexible." Promoting trade One of Hsiao's goals is to work towards the Taiwan-U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), or the Taiwan-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), as well as working towards a U.S. visit for President Tsai Ing-wen. "This is a common expectation for many Taiwanese people," she said. "Whether or not it can be met depends on whether the strategic environment is right." "We will be looking for opportunities in all of the upheaval," she added. Hsiao stepped down from the Legislative Yuan upon the end of her term in 2020, and was named an adviser to the National Security Council in March 2020. She was appointed Taiwan's representative to the United States in June, the first woman to hold the position. She was sworn into office on July 20. Like President Tsai, Hsiao is a cat-lover who is relocating four felines to live with her during her tour of duty in Washington. Tsai once adopted a cat found by Hsiao in a field after Typhoon Saola, naming it Think Think. Reported by Zheng Chongsheng and Chen Nanxi for RFA's 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 August 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Its been a strange and challenging time for all of us over the past few months, particularly the younger ones. Schools shut their doors, parents are working from home and the kids are idle. So, with that in mind, we may have bought you 20 minutes of relative peace. Youve heard it before and youll hear it again - Ireland is a grand country, if only we could throw a roof on it. Not that we needed reminding, but the summer months have so far been fairly hit and miss on the weather front. As if it wasnt hard enough to keep the kids occupied at the best of times, how are you supposed to keep them out from under your feet - and away from the Playstation/Xbox - when its raining out? Heres some ideas. Printable colouring sheets and activities Got a printer at home? Sorted. A quick Google search will unravel any amount of free to download colouring pages of their favourite animals, cartoons, sports, or whatever else you can think of. Just make sure theres ink in the printer first! Origami Along the same vein as the colouring sheets, but will require a bit more parental assistance than simply throwing them a few sheets of paper. Again, Google is your friend here but theres also plenty of free apps available for iOS and Android phones/tablets with easy to follow step-by-step instructions. Watch out for pesky paper cuts! Build a fort Regardless of what age you are, or feel, everyone loves building a fort. Traditionally made with furniture and some bed sheets, why not put a spin on it and use those empty boxes lying around from all your online shopping of late. Its a more crafty angle than the bed sheets, and you avoid the usual tears when its time to dismantle it and put the sitting room back together. Indoor Scavenger Hunt Make a list of items that can be found throughout your home, then set the children off to find/photograph each item on the list. The longer the list, the more peace youll have Tidy the Playroom Ok, hear us out before you completely dismiss the idea. While this might sound like a chore that will lead to arguments and temper tantrums, it can actually be a win-win for child and parent alike. The kids stumble across toys theyve misplaced or forgotten about and he room ends up tidy - even if you do end up finishing it yourself due to the sudden love-affair with the long-forgotten teddy bear. Board Games The tried and tested rainy day classic. Weve all got that cupboard stuffed with Monopoly, Mousetrap or the somewhat child-proof Snakes and Ladders. Dust them down and away you go. It can be tempting to stick with the easier games with less rules, but we all had to learn them at some stage and no better time than the present. Baking For the more culinary inclined, this is one youve probably knocked a few hours out of already during the lockdown. Banana bread anyone? Part of the beauty of baking is theres a near-endless supply of creations to tick off and the kids learn a life lesson along the way. Plus, its an easy sell with the promise of something sweet but be warned, the clean up afterwards is a much harder sell... The government is considering the proposal for a physical Parliament Monsoon session despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariates have given some suggestions to the government for the physical session following which the Centre will soon take the final decision regarding it. Sources told ANI that the government is considering the proposal for the physical session of both houses of Parliament. It is also being considered that the Parliament session should be held from the Central Hall in two sessions daily -- the first session dedicated to Lok Sabha for ... Afghan Council to Meet on Final Stumbling Block to Peace Talks By VOA News August 07, 2020 Afghanistan is holding a loya jirga, an assembly of elders, Friday to determine what to do about the final stumbling block before peace negotiations can begin the release of 400 Taliban prisoners. The U.S. and Taliban negotiators agreed earlier this year that peace talks could move forward on the conditions that Kabul released 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the Taliban release 1,000 government personnel that the militants were holding captive. The government has released 4,600 prisoners, while the Taliban has released all its prisoners. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says the remaining Taliban prisoners' crimes were too serious and needed a ruling from the traditional council which consists of elders from various tribes, ethnic groups and factions. "We acknowledge that the release of these prisoners is unpopular," U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo said in a statement Thursday. "But this difficult action will lead to an important result long sought by Afghans and Afghanistan's friends: reduction of violence and direct talks resulting in a peace agreement and an end to the war." The council is meeting in Kabul, despite a recent surge in COVID-19 cases that has seen about half the city's residents infected. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) jawans who have recovered from Covid-19 (coronavirus) have stepped in to donate plasma in the city. Six SRPF jawans, on Friday, donated blood to retrieve plasma which is effective as a treatment for Covid-19, especially for critical patients. While ten jawans have committed to do the same during an ongoing plasma donation drive from August 7 to 9, at Sassoon General Hospital. A total of at least 200 jawans tested positive for the Sars-Cov-2 virus in various SRPF groups in Pune and Daund who are now being approached for plasma donation. After consultation by the Sassoon hospital staff, these 16 jawans agreed for the same. Dr Shankar Mugawe, chief coordinator, Medical Social Services Superintendent, who has arranged this drive said, At least 200 Covid-19 patients from SRPF, and hundred more from Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have recovered from the virus infection. If they all come forward it will be a good response. Six jawans donated blood for plasma and they will, in turn, go to their colleagues and encourage others who have recovered to do the same, he said. While the jawans have come forward the hospital administration has been struggling to convince civilians to donate blood for plasma therapy. Dr Nalini Kadgi, associate professor, pathology department and incharge of Sassoons blood bank, said, We will reintroduce the red blood cells after the antibodies are recovered. We conducted two lectures and attended to all their doubts and queries after they were satisfied they agreed to come forward to donate. However, we are not getting a positive response from residents overall. We have contacted close to 1,500 people who have recovered from Covid-19 in the city. We got positive responses from only 60 people, out of which 15 were not eligible and the remaining, including these six jawans have donated blood for plasma, he said. The most number of people who recovered in the initial months are from Bhawani peth and Tadiwala road, if any political party or corporators invites us and gathers people we can counsel them and encourage more people to donate their blood for plasma, he said. One of the jawans who donated blood said, Initially even I had doubts, but they were cleared by the doctors. They collected samples when they came for counselling and those who were eligible were called. The room where blood is taken is completely isolated and properly maintained so there is no question of getting infected again. I did not experience any kind of weakness or any physical problems. It took one hour for the process to complete and one hour before that for testing. My family was also supportive of this, he said. Who can donate plasma The donor must be 18-60 years of age. The donor will be thoroughly checked before the plasma is retrieved from the blood The entire process takes about 2-3 hours and the person does not experience any weakness. As of July 15, at least 6,500 people were discharged in PMC jurisdiction after being declared of the virus. All those, who have no comorbidity and have not reported any symptoms in the past month within the age group of 18-60 are eligible to donate plasma Plasma therapy has proven to be a successful treatment method for critical patients. PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- International World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) got underway on August 1 and concludes on August 7 until next year the Collective Prevention Services (CPS) said on Friday. The benefit of breastfeeding is that it delivers health, nutritional and emotional benefits to both children and mothers, and it also helps to foster a sustainable food system. Breastfeeding is a natural process. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), being a parent is the most important job in the world, and it is important to give parents all the support they need to give their child the best start in life. #Breastfeeding is one of them. Support mums to breastfeed anytime, anywhere! The WHO along with the United Nations (UN) Childrens Fund (UNICEF) is calling on communities everywhere to support breastfeeding for a healthier planet. CPS fully understands that mothers need support to get started and to sustain breastfeeding. CPS along with its sister agency Section Youth Health Care, are available to provide information. Youth Health Care counseling can help build confidence and providing information about care practices such as the provisioning of liquids, foods, and breastmilk substitutes for babies. Interested persons can call or email: 721-542-3003; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. According to the WHO, exclusive breastfeeding could save the lives of 820,000 children every year globally. CPS is an executing department of the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour. According to a joint message from the WHO and UNICEF directors, Together, through commitment, concerted action and collaboration, we can ensure that every mother has access to skilled breastfeeding counselling, empowering her to give her baby the best possible start in life. We can all help make society breast feeding friendly. Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff whose illegal immigration tactics nearly landed him a six-month jail sentence before he was pardoned by President Donald Trump has lost his second attempt to win back the position. The 88-year-old former law enforcement officer and politician lost his second failed bid to win back the post he held at the Maricopa County sheriffs office for 24 years to Jerry Sheridan, his 38-year-old former aide. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt of court, a rare charge for a sheriff to face while serving in office, after he repeatedly refused to comply with court orders demanding he provide information on immigration enforcement or to stop making immigration arrests entirely. The sheriff was known across the country for his controversial immigration agenda, which included enforcing federal immigration law for nine years that ended with a judge ruling his deputies were racially profiling Latinos during traffic stops. His legal battles weighed down his campaign for re-election in 2016, when he lost while fighting a lawsuit filed by a Mexican man with a valid tourists visa who was wrongfully held in detention for nine hours. That case eventually expanded into a class action lawsuit against Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office. Before he could face sentencing, Mr Trump stepped in and granted Arpaio a pardon, with the White House praising the former sheriffs career in a statement at the time. Throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio continued his lifes work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration, the statement read. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now 85 years old, and after more than 50 years of admirable service to our nation, he is (a) worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon. With his latest failure to win back the seat, his former aide, Mr Sheridan, will advance into the general election against Democratic incumbent Paul Penzone. Mr Penzone sailed to victory in the 2016 election against Mr Arpaio, who then launched a failed bid for the US Senate in 2018. Mr Sheridan has promised to implement a hardline approach to immigration if elected, similar to that of his former boss and predecessor. Meanwhile, Mr Arpaio has suggested he would no longer run for office, telling The New York Times: Im still the longest-serving sheriff in the history of Maricopa County. Nobody is going to beat that one. Aug. 4 was a special day for a local eatery. For 22 years they have occupied the corner space in the strip center at 8475-M Hwy. 6 North in the Copperfield area, but the journey hasnt always been easy. The coronavirus pandemic almost nixed their anniversary celebration. Its by the grace of God that Im still here, said Tea For Two owner Linda Becker. Housing market perseveres: Bridgeland continues to lead with home sales through mid-year The popular restaurant was shuttered briefly but has managed to survive despite harsh conditions imposed on them because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. We have an amazing online following, and awesome customers who have kept us going through this COVID thing. Its been challenging, Becker said. She started the restaurant in 1998 when her children were young, and she had gone to a Brownie troop meeting at a tearoom. The girls and their moms were dressed to the nines and had a great time while the troop members earned their manners badge. It was something that never left Beckers mind. On HoustonChronicle.com: How the backyard BBQ became an American tradition I loved to cook, and I had a very supportive husband and it took us a year, but we put up everything we owned for collateral to get a loan, she said. They were all in. Her friends warned her that most restaurants failed within the first year, but she was determined. There was a lot of prayer and spiritual searching and after a year, we opened on Aug. 4, 1998, the owner said. One of her friends suggested she name the restaurant after the Doris Day movie, Tea For Two and it stuck. Her first hire, Susan Glass, has become one of her closest friends. My son was taking karate classes in the same strip center and I saw the sign tea room coming. I told my girlfriend that was with me Im going to work there and 22 years later Im still here, she laughed. The two were in the same social circles but had never met personally until the restaurant opened. Laverne and Shirley, Lucy and Ethel, we balance each other out so well, Glass said. Linda doesnt have the time nor the interest in social media but thats what I love to do. When the restaurant first opened, they began to compile an email list of their customers and still have that connection today. It was good foresight on our part to have that. I took over social media four years ago and its a primary part of my job now, she said. The way they started then, and the result of the restaurant now, are quite different but the early success of the business allowed them to open a second location in Lakewood Forest. We operated that one for 13 years. We closed it four years ago, not by choice, but because the landlord had other plans for the building, she said. Becker said she accepted it as part of Gods plan for her life too and moved on. A lot of her employees have been with her for 18-20 years, most of the life of the restaurant. They were all moms like me when we first started and wanted something to do while our kids were in school, she said. To make it more challenging, they are only open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday24 hours per week to make a go of it. How does she do it? Very carefully. I do a lot of stuff myself, she said. Then the bottom fell out when executive orders came down on March 17 and they were forced to close. Since COVID, she does all the shopping and baking and she can always be found running the back of the house. She had to modify how she ran the restaurant when many of her employees stayed home originally when the coronavirus pandemic was new and there was a lot of fear of the unknown. Im back to doing a lot of the work myself with a smaller crew and always trying to find ways to save money so that we can make ends meet, she said. The recipes are Beckers accumulated over the years. Originally the business targeted women as a traditional tearoom but has evolved to include a broader spectrum of menu items. A traditional tearoom would have scones and tea sandwiches, but thats not the case here. She says she only uses high quality, fresh food. One little thing could change the taste of the dish and Im not sacrificing that, she said. With the closure of the dining room area, she had to figure out how to keep the doors open. We were forced to try curbside, she said. She was left with three employees, including a cook, and herself to handle the business. For two months they worked curbside until the orders were lifted on May 1 for 25 percent capacity. When we started the restaurant, most of us were in our 30s and now were in our 50s and 60s and a lot of them (employees) were scared to work, she said. But by the middle of May, most of them had returned, but it still hasnt been easy. The 50 percent helped but I think people still arent ready to get out, she said. The anniversary celebration was more than just a remembrance. It was the biggest day weve had in months, she said. They offered discounts with 22 cent tea for the day and several other promotions to encourage loyal and new customers to come in and give them a try. After 22 years, many of her original customers have grown up and share their experiences with their own children. They came for their dress up parties back then, and some of them when they turned 16 came to work here, go off to college and now theyve grown up with their own families and still come to the restaurant, she said. Some of the popular features at the restaurant has been the dress up tea parties, pizza cooking classes, Gifts for Christmas class and cooking classes offered by Glass. The cooking classes were also forced online and have been a boon for the restaurant. Ive been doing those for more than a decade now and they have been very popular, she said. Glass, who started cooking at the age of 12 as a way to earn an allowance from her parents, has auditioned for most of the television cooking shows, just falling short of making the broadcasts as a finalist. One of the most popular cooking classes is her Gifts From The Kitchen. The restaurant is decked out in Christmas decorations and groups of six women at six tables have wine and eat hors doeuvre and at each table they teach them how to make gifts from the kitchen. We ring the little bell and they switch tables and learn how to make a different gift from the kitchen at the next table, she said. With the Christmas music accompanying the fun in the background, its one of the most popular activities. Becker continues to depend on their loyal customers and social media following to keep the doors open and hopes to resume full-time operations when the pandemic has dissipated. To find out more about the Tea For Two restaurant, visit their website at www.teafortwotearoom.net. dtaylor@hcnonline.com Victoria has reported 466 new coronavirus cases and 12 new deaths, including one man in his 30s, as Melbourne is warned of medicine and alcohol shortages amid stage four lockdown. On Saturday Premier Daniel Andrews announced that the state's COVID-19 death toll climbed to 193, with the national tally rising to 278. The new fatalities include a man in his 30s, two men in their 70s, two men and three women in their 80s and four women in their 90s. Six deaths are linked to aged care. Mr Andrews said there are now 7,808 active infections across the state and 988 of them are healthcare workers - an increase of 140 from Friday. There are 636 coronavirus patients in hospital, with 44 in intensive care and 29 of them are fighting for their lives on ventilators. The latest figures come after the state reported 450 infections on Friday, a dramatic decrease from its record of 750 cases on Wednesday. Victoria reported 466 new coronavirus cases and 12 new deaths on Saturday. Pictured: Victoria's second wave of coronavirus infections A Protective Services Officer speaks to a man at the Southern Cross Station in Melbourne on Friday VICTORIA'S COVID-19 NUMBERS FOR AUGUST 8 * 466 new cases, the 34rd consecutive day of a triple-digit increase * 12 new deaths, bringing the state's toll to 193 and the national figure to 278 * Latest deaths include one man in his 30s, two men in their 70s, two men and three women in their 80s, four women in their 90s * Six of the latest deaths are linked to aged care * 14,283 total confirmed Victorian cases, 7808 active cases * 636 people in hospital, with 44 in intensive care * 1,667 positive cases among healthcare workers, an increase of about 140, with 998 of them active * 2584 cases have an unknown source which is an increase of about 130 * Nearly 1,759,969 tests in Victoria, with about 29,783 tests done in the past 24 hours POLICE FINES * 197 in the 24 hours to Saturday morning, including 39 for failing to wear a face mask and 62 for curfew breaches. Advertisement Mr Andrews warned Victoria is not likely to see a steep decline in coronavirus infections for 'a little while' amid strict stage four lockdown. Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the state was seeing a 'stabilisation' of cases with daily number around the 400 and 500 mark each day. 'That is not good enough but it's a positive that we have averted an exponential increase through the last couple of weeks,' he said. Professor Sutton said the introduction of stage three restrictions in early July had prevented about 20,000 cases developing. 'But we can't have 500 cases every single day and the associated morbidity, hospitalisation, intensive care requirements and debts associated with that number every day,' he said. 'Stage four restrictions will make a difference but we won't see them for another week or more.' The tough stay-at-home restrictions, which include an 8pm-5am curfew for metropolitan Melbourne, have been in place for almost a week. The fresh infections come amid fears Victorians could be left without medicine, alcohol and school supplies after major businesses were closed by the state's stage four lockdown. Australia Post were told that it could keep open 200 outlets facing closure but the business is struggling to operate with just two thirds of its staff. A woman in a face mask crosses the road near the tram stop on Bourke Street in Melbourne Signage for stage four lockdown restrictions, implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease, is seen in Melbourne Chief executive Christine Holgate said there could be long delays as demand for deliveries soars amid Melbourne's strict Stage 4 lockdown. She said that demand in coronavirus-stricken suburbs was already up 200 per cent and orders from Chemist Warehouse, Dan Murphy's and Office Works were under pressure. Ms Holgate said Australia Post was responsible for deliveries for 200,000 online businesses and had a team of 21,000 people in Victoria. 'All the major medical distribution centres are based in Victoria. API, Sigma - they supply pharmacies right across the country,' Ms Holgate told the Australian Financial Review. 'So this isn't just about keeping Victorian businesses running and Victorians safe, we have to keep the whole country safe. We run the risk of being late getting important medicines out to those pharmacies.' On Saturday, Mr Andrews was questioned over reports healthcare workers had complained about a shortage of personal protective equipment. The premier said there are adequate supplies of the PPE, with 68 million gloves, 19 million surgical masks and two million face shields. Mr Andrews could not provide further details on the death of a man in his 30s, other than his age range and gender. The man was not a healthcare worker. The premier said authorities would speak to the man's family to see if any further information could be revealed. Premier Daniel Andrews warned Victoria is not likely to see a steep decline in coronavirus infections for 'a little while' amid strict stage four lockdown ADF personnel and protective service officers are seen on patrol at the Tan running track on Thursday Almost 200 Victorians have been fined for breaching the state's coronavirus restrictions, including a man caught breaking curfew to buy cigarettes and lollies. Victoria Police did 3554 spot checks on homes, businesses and public places in the 24 hours to Saturday morning, fining 197 people for breaching the chief health officer's directions. Sixty-two were fined $1,652 for breaching Melbourne's 8pm-5am curfew, while a further 36 were penalised $200 for failing to wear a face mask. One man was slapped with both fines after he was caught at a service station just before 1am buying cigarettes and lollies. He wasn't wearing a mask. Another was found riding a city-bound train between Lalor and Thomastown, outside the five-kilometre radius from his home. He told police he was out to 'get some fresh air'. A man was intercepted by officers in Hastings - about 130km from his Bacchus Marsh home - visiting friends. Mr Andrews told reporters on Saturday that all fines could be 'avoided' as long as Victorians make better decisions. 'Every one of these fines can be avoided. 100 per cent they can be avoided,' he said. 'Don't make those selfish choices, don't think that somehow you are entitled to do things that no one else is allowed to do. It is a very simple thing.' Protective services officers speak to a woman at the Southern Cross Station in Melbourne on Friday New South Wales reported nine new coronavirus infections on Saturday. Of the new cases, two are international travellers in hotel quarantine, four were locally acquired and three have no known source. There are fears NSW is preparing for a second outbreak of infections with nine cases identified over the past week not linked to known clusters. NSW Health said in a statement: 'While most cases in the past week have been associated with local clusters and close contacts with known cases, nine have not been linked to known cases, indicating that COVID-19 is circulating in the community. 'It's extremely important we all play our part in prevention all the time.' There are at least 107 active cases in NSW and nine patients are receiving treatment in intensive care. Pictured: A lone tradesman is seen walking along Swanston Street in Melbourne on Thursday Victorian Education Minister James Merlino announced on Friday all Victorian students studying for their VCE will be individually assessed for any adverse impacts from COVID-19 - which will then be reflected in their ATAR score. 'This is quite an extraordinary change. So every single student will be individually assessed,' he said. 'We'll look at things such as school closures, we'll look at things such as long absences. 'We'll look at things, for example, such as significant increase in family responsibilities as a result of COVID-19 and we'll of course consider the mental health and wellbeing of students during this period.' Premier Andrews said health officials in the state were door-knocking every single confirmed COVID-19 case. He said 1,000 of the 1,150 cases visited on Thursday were isolating within the rules, while the 150 who were not have been referred to Victoria Police. A worker wearing a face mask and protective clothing attends to members of the public at a pop-up COVID-19 testing clinic Two men were arrested in relation to the so-called 'freedom rally' which is planned to take place on the steps of Parliament on Sunday. The scheduled protest for Sunday would be in breach of the Chief Health Officer's directions which bans gatherings of more than two people in public places. The arrests of the men, both aged 41, came after police searched two homes in Mooroolbark and Chirnside Park on Thursday. A 41-year-old male from Mooroolbark was charged with incitement. He was bailed and is due to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court in January next year. A 41-year-old male from Chirnside Park was also arrested but was released with intent to summons. He is expected to be charged on Friday with the same offences. More than 400 people have expressed interest in attending the protest but police have warned they will be dishing out $1652 fines and making arrests. 'This selfish behaviour will absolutely not be tolerated,' Victoria Police said. 'Be assured Victoria Police will be responding and will take appropriate action. A planned vigil organised by the pressure group, Economic Fighters League (EFL) cannot hold today, August 8 as Police refused to grant them permission. The vigil was planned to honour the memory of the late 90-year-old Ekua Denteh who was accused of witchcraft and lynched in broad daylight at Kafaba in the Savannah Region. According to the pressure group, they have served notice to the Police authorities on July 28 via Ghana Post and the letters were delivered to them on August 1. However, the leadership of the EFL was only invited yesterday, August 7 at about 4:30 pm to sit with the Accra Police Command to discuss the planned vigil. The outcome of the meeting did not favour the group as they were denied the right to hold the vigil. In a letter from the Police authorities and signed by Greater Accra Deputy Regional Commander, E.A Sakyi, the vigil could not behold because it is against measures put in place to counter the spread of COVID-19. Check the letter below; --- A medical call in East Rutherford Wednesday led to the discovery of a fake pill mill using raw fentanyl, the arrest of eight people and the seizure of over a million dollars worth of drugs, cash proceeds and luxury items, authorities said. The Bergen County Prosecutors Office said police discovered the incredibly strong opioid fentanyl, cutting agents and a pill press they believe was being used to create counterfeit Oxycodone and Percocet pills, less potent opioids. Prosecutor Mark Musella said counterfeit pills like the ones discovered have contributed to a surge of overdoses in the tri-state area in recent months. The investigation ultimately led to the seizure in drugs and illicit items with a street value of approximately $1 million, the prosecutors office said. Police ended up at the unit in the Monarch Apartments on Schindler Court Wednesday after a medical call revealed three people who appeared to be under the influence of narcotics, the office said. While inside the apartment providing medical attention to the occupants, officers observed that the items within the apartment were all coated with an unknown powder, the prosecutors office said in a release. Hazardous material units did a field analysis of the powder, determined to be fentanyl, and police obtained a search warrant to search the apartment, the office said. In addition to the fentanyl and pill press items, police found thousands of counterfeit pills, drug paraphernalia and approximately $12,000 in cash, the office said. Raymond Ulloa, 30, of Belleville, Frank Smith III, 37, of Mahwah, Sandy Leonardomateo, 24, of Elizabeth and the apartments lessee, Donald Wallace, 25, of Newark were all arrested on charges of running a drug production facility and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. A few hours later, police surveilling Smiths Mahwah home caught his wife, Joie Smith, 34, loading bags into two vehicles with the help of Yaritza Ochart, 39, of Manhattan, and Michele Castillo, 43, of San Rafael, California, the prosecutors office said. Police stopped and searched the vehicles, discovering they were moving approximately $325,000 in likely drug proceeds, the office said. The three women were all charged with money laundering, and Joie Smith was also charged possession with intent to distribute drugs. Another search warrant for Smiths home on Crocker Mansion Drive in Mahwah revealed several thousand counterfeit pills, suspected raw fentanyl, suspected raw heroin and about $10,000 in cash, the office said. Authorities also seized suspected drug proceeds, including Smiths 40-foot yacht, five vehicles, designer jewelry and luxury watches, according to the press release. Frank Smith, Ulloa, Wallace and Leonardomateo were jailed pending detention hearings while Joie Smith, Ochart and Castillo were released on their own recognizance. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 18:51:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ROME, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Another scorching summer is combining with the impacts of the global coronavirus outbreak to form a one-two blow that is expected to set back the Italian economy for years. As of the end of July, temperatures have been higher than average in 16 of Italy's 20 regions, according to data from the Italian Meteorological Society, known as IFMS. That is not new. Average temperatures in Italy have steadily risen over the last two decades, and statistics show that eight of the ten hottest years ever recorded in Italy have taken place in the last 11 years. This summer, high temperatures have regularly topped 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) all across Italy, except for in the mountainous regions in the northern part of the country. Temperatures have even risen above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) with regularity, a level that until recent years had been infrequent in most parts of the country. Economists said the hot weather could act as a drag on the country's fragile economic recovery, as it seeks to restart commerce and production after weeks of a national lockdown in response to the coronavirus. Italy was the first European country hit hard by the pandemic. According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics, or ISTAT, Italy's economy shrunk by 17.3 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2019, though most analysts expect the economy to strengthen in the third quarter, finishing the year with an annualized contraction of around 10 percent. "When temperatures rise to a certain point, it means people are less likely to leave their homes to shop or go to a restaurant or travel to another city," Javier Noriega, an economist with investment bankers Hildebrandt and Ferrar, told Xinhua. "More importantly, it has a major impact on agricultural production, which affects everything from the production of cheese and wine to vegetables and animal feed." Italy's agricultural sector is getting hit from multiple fronts, according to Lorenzo Bazzana, head of the economics section for Coldiretti, Italy's main agricultural association. "At one point, the lockdown meant Italian farmers had to make do with 200,000 fewer workers than in a normal year, due to coronavirus travel restrictions," Bazzana said in an interview, noting that the situation has improved since then, though the agricultural workforce is still "probably tens of thousands of workers" smaller than normal. "That means some crops were left in the field, uncollected," Bazzana said. "Now, with the hot weather, it's added a new set of serious problems we have to address with less time and fewer workers to do it." Bazzana said that all told, 2020 is likely to go down as "the worst year on record for Italian agriculture." He said some Italian farmers risk going out of business, adding to unemployment rolls and impacting exports and the reliable availability of certain products in Italian supermarkets. Enditem Etaoin OReilly at work and some of her creations. The doors of An Tain Arts Centre were still closed when ceramic artist Etaoin O'Reilly took up the post of summer artist in residence at the start of July. Now she is looking forward to meeting with members of the public as she runs pottery workshops for adults and children at the weekend as part of SEEK 2020 contemporary urban arts festival. A Dublin native she is looking forward to making Dundalk her home, as her boyfriend, fellow NCAD graduate Colin O'Riordan is from the town. Etaoin, who graduated from NCAD in 2014, is delighted to be back in the studio after lockdown. 'It's really great to be back working after lockdown and I have hit the ground running,' she says. 'I can't believe that the first month of the residency is over.' She spent some time travelling after graduation, working with a number of artists aboard, and on her return to Ireland was offered a place on the the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland's Ceramics Skills and Design Course, working in their Kilkenny studios. During that time, she learned how to make porcline pottery and has since developed what she calls a attractive range of functional pottery as well as sculptural pieces featuring beautiful handcrafted flowers. Etaoin has also done residencies in NCAD and in Limerick School of Art and Design, as well as a stint in the National Sculpture Factory in Cork. Two years ago she was one of a number of Irish artists who were invited by the Michaelango Foundation to exhibit in Venice. 'The idea was to promote awareness of traditional crafts such as pottery which are dying out,' she recalls. 'Ireland had a great representation at the exhibition and the idea was that we would go an tell our story.' She was delighted to be able to demonstrate the traditional method of throwing pottery, something which not many do nowadays. Having previously conducted classes at Creative Spark, she is looking forward to getting involved in the local arts scene. For her residency in An Tain, Etaoin hopes to explore the fading industry and skills of bone china factory workers. 'I am making these traditional style pots which have flowers bursting out of them,' she explains. She is giving workshops in conjunction with the SEEK contemporary urban arts festival on Friday and Saturday and also for Culture Night in September. 'I am looking forward to getting people involved in making pottery and knowing the process of ceramics,' she explains. She hopes that people will pop into The Basement Gallery to see her at work at the potter's wheel. 'People can come down and see my work and ask me questions about how I work and what I make.' She relocated to Bologna, Italy, with her family in January 2019. And on Saturday, Australian radio personality Kate Langbroek gushed over her clan as she shared a sweet picture of them all on Instagram. The 54-year-old shared an image of herself with her husband and their children in a sunflower field in the Italian countryside, ahead of a special birthday dinner. 'My family': Kate Langbroek gushed over her family on Saturday ahead of a special birthday dinner in Italy. She shared a picture of herself with her husband and children standing in a flower field on Instagram 'The Italians call sunflowers ''girasole''... the ''tour of the sun''... Such a beautiful name for a beautiful, strange and bountiful flower,' Kate's caption read. 'Anyway, here we are before our combined birthday dinner (me and Lewis) - celebrating feeedom (sic) (however and wherever it may be found) and our own tour of the sun.' She added hashtags including 'the sun always rises' and 'my family.' A new life abroad! She relocated to Bologna, Italy, with her family in January 2019. Kate and husband Peter Lewis share four children together, Lewis, 17, Sunday, 14, Artie, 12, and Jan, nine Kate and husband Peter Lewis share four children together, Lewis, 17, Sunday, 14, Artie, 12, and Jan, nine. They were heading out to dinner to celebrate the birthdays of Kate and son Lewis. On Friday, Kate reflected on her son's good fortune and recovery on his 17th birthday, after she almost lost him after he was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2009. In a touching Instagram post, the 54-year-old wrote: 'Today is an important day. It is my eldest son's birthday; 17, which seems like a miracle because in 2009, when he was 6, Lewis Lewis nearly died.' She continued: 'He had leukemia, and it was a grueling, terrible, frightening and painful three and a half years before he returned to health.' 'Today is an important day': On Friday, Kate reflected on her son's good fortune and recovery on his 17th birthday, after she almost lost him after he was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2009 Kate said that her son has come along way since then, and is now 'tall and strong and healthy'. The star thanked the doctors and nurses who helped in Lewis' recovery, and also paid tribute to children who had died from the disease. 'And yes, we think of those little ones who have fallen, for whom medical breakthroughs did not happen soon enough,' she wrote. Kate then thanked the Children's Cancer Foundation for supporting her throughout Lewis' treatment, before asking her fans to donate to the foundation. 'Research is the reason my son has lived. You can help others live, too.' Health battle: Diagnosed at the age of six, Lewis battled leukaemia for three and a half years before reaching full recovery in 2013 Diagnosed at the age of six, Lewis battled leukaemia for three and a half years before reaching full recovery in 2013. During his ordeal, his sight deteriorated in one eye and he was told by doctors that he would potentially lose his battle to cancer. Kate did not reveal her son's illness to her radio listeners until after he had been given the all-clear in 2014, four years after his initial diagnosis. Last year, Kate revealed that Lewis' recovery was one of the main reasons why she and her family had decided to move to Italy. Kate, her husband, Peter Lewis, and their children have been living in Bologna since January 2019. Twitter has approached TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to express interest in acquiring the U.S. operations of the video-sharing app. Experts raised doubts over Twitter's ability to put together financing for such a large acquisition, after word of the talks was first reported Saturday by the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter. It is far from certain that Twitter would be able to outbid Microsoft and complete such a transformative deal in the 45 days that President Donald Trump has given ByteDance to agree to a sale, the sources said on Saturday. Twitter has a market capitalization of close to $30 billion, almost as much as the valuation of TikTok's assets to be divested, and would need to raise additional capital to fund the deal, according to sources. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is seen in a file photo. Twitter has approached TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to express interest in acquiring the U.S. operations of the video-sharing app It is far from certain that Twitter would be able to outbid Microsoft and complete such a deal in the 45 days that President Donald Trump has given ByteDance to agree to a sale 'Twitter will have a hard time putting together enough financing to acquire even the U.S. operations of TikTok. It doesn't have enough borrowing capacity', said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan. 'If it (Twitter) tries to put together an investor group, the terms will be tough. Twitter's own shareholders might prefer that management focus on its existing business', he added. One of Twitter's shareholders, private equity firm Silver Lake, is interested in helping fund a potential deal, one of the sources added. Twitter has also privately made a case that its bid would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsoft's, and will not face any pressure from China given that it is not active in that country, the sources said. TikTok, ByteDance and Twitter declined to comment. TikTok has come under fire from U.S. lawmakers over national security concerns surrounding data collection. Earlier this week, Trump unveiled bans on U.S. transactions with the China-based owners of messaging app WeChat and TikTok, escalating tensions between the two countries. Trump said this week he would support Microsoft's efforts to buy TikTok's U.S. operations if the U.S. government got a 'substantial portion' of the proceeds. He nevertheless said he will ban the popular app on September 15. Microsoft said on Sunday it was aiming to conclude negotiations for a deal by mid-September. Meanwhile, TikTok is reportedly planning to sue the Trump administration over the president's executive order banning the Chinese app from the US. The video-sharing service is prepared to file a federal lawsuit as early as Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of California, NPR reported Saturday, citing an unnamed source who was directly involved in the forthcoming litigation. The outlet said TikTok will argue the order Donald Trump signed on Thursday is unconstitutional because it did not give the company an opportunity to respond, and that the national security justification given for the ban is baseless. 'It's based on pure speculation and conjecture,' the source said. 'The order has no findings of fact, just reiterates rhetoric about China that has been kicking around.' The White House declined to comment on the expected legal battle when approached for comment by NPR. However, spokesman Judd Deere did defend Trump's order, saying: 'The Administration is committed to protecting the American people from all cyber related threats to critical infrastructure, public health and safety, and our economic and national security.' TikTok is reportedly planning to sue the Trump administration over the president's executive order banning the Chinese app from the US (file photo) Trump on Thursday night issued his executive order banning TikTok in the US and giving its parent company ByteDance 45 days to sell the app. The order claims that TikTok 'may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party,' and specifically cites TikTok videos that 'spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus'. It also states that the company 'reportedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive, such as content concerning protests in Hong Kong and China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities'. 'The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security,' it adds. Along with the executive order, Trump sent a letter to the House speaker and Senate president explaining the move. The letter states that TikTok 'automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users'. 'This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information - potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage,' it continued. TikTok is expected to argue that President Donald Trump's executive order banning the app in the US is unconstitutional because the company was not given an opportunity to respond Beijing slammed Trump's order as 'arbitrary political manipulation and suppression' and said it would come at the expense of American users and companies. Chinese President Xi Jinping is pictured on July 31 In a statement TikTok vowed to 'pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure... our company and our users are treated fairly - if not by the Administration, then by the US courts'. Amid growing security and privacy concerns about the TikTok's Chinese ownership, Microsoft has reportedly been in talks to acquire TikTok in a firesale, and Trump's order only increases pressure on ByteDance to get the deal done quickly. Any company still doing business with ByteDance in 45 days will be subject to sanctions, Trump said. If a sale does not go through before the September 20 deadline, the order would effectively bar the use of TikTok throughout the US. WHAT DOES MICROSOFT STAND TO GAIN FROM BUYING THE US ARM OF TIKTOK? TikTok's catchy videos and ease of use has made it popular, and it says it has tens of millions of users in the U.S. and hundreds of millions globally. Its parent company, ByteDance acquired Shanghai-based video app Musical.ly in a $1 billion deal in 2017 and relaunched it as TikTok the following year. In its statement, $1.5 trillion company Microsoft said it may invite other American investors to participate on a minority basis in the purchase of TikTok. Financial terms were undisclosed. ByteDance was valued at as much as $140 billion earlier this year. Any deal with Microsoft to buy TikTok could be worth billions of dollars. It could also expose the company, which already owns Xbox, LinkedIn and Skype, to tech savvy teens. Advertisement In a separate executive order, Trump issued a similar ban on the Chinese-owned messaging service WeChat, accusing the app of funneling personal information to the Chinese Communist Party. Coming days after the US ordered China to vacate its consulate in Houston, the executive orders threatened to trigger retaliatory action by Beijing, stoking fears that a 'Silicon Curtain' is descending between the two superpowers. Beijing slammed the orders as 'arbitrary political manipulation and suppression' and said it would come at the expense of American users and companies. ByteDance has denied that it shares data with the Chinese government, and Chinese state media blasted the US response to TikTok as 'madness'. Under a Chinese law introduced in 2017, companies there have an obligation to support and cooperate with the country's national intelligence work. On Thursday, the US Senate unanimously voted to approve a bill banning federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices. 'I'm encouraged by the bipartisan support we have seen in this body to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable and that includes... holding accountable those corporations who would just do China's bidding,' Senator Josh Hawley, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement. 'And, if I have anything to say about it, we won't be stopping here,' the Republican senator added. Last month, the House of Representatives voted to bar federal employees from downloading the app on government-issued devices as part of a proposal offered by Representative Ken Buck. A finalized version of the bill, combining the House and Senate versions, would need Trump's approval to become law. Meanwhile, Microsoft has expanded its talks on TikTok to a potential deal that would include buying the global operations of the fast-growing video-sharing app, the Financial Times reported Thursday. Microsoft declined to comment on the report, after previously disclosing it was considering a deal for TikTok operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. According to the report, Microsoft has shifted its view because of the complexities of splitting the app and making it operable globally. TikTok operates in 150 countries. Even by the crazy standards of 70s TV, Monkey was special. A Chinese myth re-told by a Japanese production company and dubbed into English with comical voices (including Miriam Margolyes and Andrew Sachs), its heroes were a monkey god who could fly on clouds, a lusty pig god, a female dressed as a monk and a cheeky water god who used to be a cannibal. They were making their way from China to India to find some holy scriptures, fighting baddies along the way with some gloriously unrealistic kung-fu fighting with panto special effects. But the show became a huge global hit. Monkey in the new series, played by Australian actor Chai Hansen. The New Legends Of Monkey is out on Netflix now, but features less of the DIY special effects this time around Growing up in New Zealand, TV producer Rachel Gardner was entranced. 'I was obsessed,' she recalls. 'Me and my brother would do the fights by poking mops at each other. There was something about this badly dubbed show that has stayed with me.' So much so that she was inspired to re-create the series for a new generation. The New Legends Of Monkey was made for New Zealand and Australian TV, but it too became a global hit thanks to Netflix. Now a second series is out. While it keeps the zany energy, it's been updated. Australian actor Chai Hansen, who has Chinese and Thai heritage, plays the monkey god Monkey. The original god Monkey, played by popular Japanese actor Masaaki Sakai, now 73, (pictured in 1978) 'The show is very silly and quirky,' he says. 'There's nothing else like it.' This Monkey has diminished powers after being imprisoned in a mountain for 500 years. He was released by a young girl (Luciane Buchanan) who's pretending to be a monk called Tripitaka. The real Tripitaka was tasked with finding Monkey, before demons killed him in front of the girl, who is now the only one who knows how to defeat them by finding more sacred scrolls. They find one in series one, and in series two the search continues. Fighting alongside them are Pigsy the pig god, played by Kiwi comic Josh Thomson, and Sandy, the inept water god, played by Emilie Cocquerel. Most of the cast do their own stunts, but things can go wrong. 'I managed to give myself a black eye,' admits Chai. 'I got cocky in a fight scene and I fell and bashed myself in the face with a staff. If you look closely in episode four you might notice a huge lump on my face covered by make-up. Sandy, the inept water god, is played by Emilie Cocquerel in the new series. She is known for her role in the film LION in 2016 The New Legends Of Monkey is out on Netflix now. Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, the pilot of ill-fated Air India Express flight (AXB1344, B737) was a trained aviator who earlier flew MiG 21s in the Indian Air Force (IAF). Sathe died along with co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar and 18 others in the crash on Friday night. Captain Sathe was a former IAF MiG 21 test pilot with 17 Squadron (Golden Arrows) in Ambala who served the country for 22 years before retiring in 2003 after which he moved to commercial flying. The former test pilot also served as an instructor at the Air Force Training Academy. He took premature retirement from the IAF, moved to commercial flying, and joined Air India. Also Read: Air India crash: Hardeep Singh Puri orders formal inquiry; relief teams sent from Delhi, Mumbai The experienced aerial operator had flown the Airbus 310 for the national carrier before moving to Air India Express to fly a Boeing 737. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune, Captain Sathe was awarded President Gold Medal in the 58th Course of Pune NDA from Juliet Squadron. He passed out from Air Force Academy (AFA) with the 'Sword of Honour' in 1981. Besides being an ace test pilot, Captain Sathe was also an exceptional squash player. His body, along with that of his co-pilot Kumar, is being kept at the MIMS hospital in Kozhikode. Also Read: Air India Express flight was at full speed while landing at Kozhikode airport, says DGCA According to unconfirmed reports coming in, he shut down the engine right before the crash, saving the lives of passengers and cabin crew onboard the flight. Initial inputs suggest that the fuselage broke into two after the Air India Express plane overshot the runway during its second attempt to land at the Kozhikode International airport in Kerala, also known as Karipur 'tabletop' airport. The flight was returning to the airport from Dubai as part of the government's 'Vande Bharat' repatriation initiative. The Africans United for Taiwan (AUT) is shocked and saddened as the numbers of wounded and dead people among the victims of the explosions that rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut, on 4th August 2020 climbs in every passing hour. This grief is compounded by the images of the devastation and destruction of Beirut and the stories of survivors mourning for loved ones they lost and for others they still hope to be rescued out of the rubble. The Africans United for Taiwan (AUT) joins the international community in expressing its deepest sympathy to the Government and People of Lebanon in the face of the tragic loss of life, widespread destruction and continuing trauma and suffering wrought by the devastating explosion in Beirut. This explosion is a disaster in every sense of the word and all the more unfortunate as it comes at a time where the Lebanese people are struggling to respond to the COVID-19 disaster, and the challenges of the countrys economic doldrums. This destruction and devastating event provides the international community with the knowledge that disaster should not be treated in isolation. Its impacts are felt in all aspects of human life, as it affects the most vulnerable in society. It takes the Africans United for Taiwan (AUT) courage to share this news. It is a hard shock for all of us who had visited the once beautiful city, and particularly those of us who have friends or relatives working in Lebanon. The Africans United for Taiwan (AUT) conveys its heartfelt condolences, thoughts and prayers to all those who have lost family members and friends, and to the families of the missing. The AUT also sympathises with those displaced by the damage caused by the explosion and hopes that the resilient People of Lebanon will recover and rebuild their capital in the shortest time. The AUT supports announcement by the Interior Minister of Lebanon, Hon. Mohammed Fahmi that those responsible for the disaster in Beirut will be held accountable whomever and wherever he is. The AUT applauds all governments, organizations and individuals who have come to the aid of Lebanon, to help and continue to search for those who might be still alive. May God Almighty be with the people of Lebanon in this hour of sorrows and grief, and strengthen them as they face the consequences of this unprecedented disaster. Sender: James Baimba Fofanah Interim Executive Director The Africans United for Taiwan AUT A cry for conservation through her pictures View(s): Celebrated photographer Ami Vitale will talk on Conservation photography: Taking pictures to save the Planet in the Wildlife & Nature Protection Societys Public Lecture today, August 9 at 7.30 p.m. on Zoom. Conservation photographers take pictures that not only have technical excellence and perfect composition, but also give a message, sometimes stark and shocking, of the current reality in the jungles and forests and oceans, away from the tourist posters and the public eye. There is none better in portraying this message than Ami Vitale, the American photojournalist and documentary film maker, currently based in Montana, USA, who has visited Sri Lanka on assignment. A Nikon Ambassador and National Geographic magazine photographer, she has travelled to more than 100 countries, bearing witness not only to violence and conflict, but also to surreal beauty and the enduring power of the human spirit. Throughout the years, she has lived in mud huts and war zones, contracted malaria, and donned a panda suit keeping true to her belief in the importance of living the story. She was recently named by Instyle Magazine as one of 50 women changing the world, along with Jane Goodall and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, among others She is a founding member of Ripple Effect Images, a collective of scientists, writers, photographers, and filmmakers with a mission of creating powerful stories that illustrate how women in developing countries are affected by climate change Please register online https://forms.gle/6u8XWYPsEscfyGqE9 Nine News Melbourne is claiming victory in the news battle for 2020, having won 23 of the 40 ratings weeks so far. Its the 9th year in a row for the Peter Hitchener-led bulletin, and follows Nine News Sydney recently boasting its 10th year. Our average audience for 6:00pm Monday-Friday, across the hour is 350,000, compared to 7 News 324,000. Year on year, our M-F audience is up 25%, Melbourne news director Hugh Nailon said in a note to staff. Our weekend numbers are also strong: Saturday 9News 334,000 7News 254,000 (up 35%) Sunday 9News 387,000 7News 343,000 (up 21%) In the keenly contested 16:00 battleground, Nines Afternoon News has edged in front of Channel 7 for the first time! 9 Afternoon News 66,000 7 News at 4pm 65,000 (up 41%) These numbers are an extraordinary achievement in extraordinary times. Obviously Covid-19 is driving interest in Free to air News, but pleasingly the majority are turning to us. Thats a credit to your professionalism and commitment to producing high quality news bulletins under the most trying of circumstances. Thank You. The global pandemic and bushfires have driven local news audiences on social media too. Engagement (likes, comments or shares) on Nines Facebook is up to 11 million vs 5.7 million in 2019 with an additional 146,000 followers since Jan 1, and video views on Facebook hit 207 million, up 64% year on year. Twitter engagements are also up 18%. Overall this is an outstanding result for our newsroom, and richly deserved reward for your hard work. On top of the relentless news cycle, weve also successfully embraced the delivery of radio news content to 3AW, and increasingly were working alongside our colleagues at The Age on breaking news stories. I cant stress how important these partnerships are in building a News machine that will enable us to continue delivering Melbournes best News. As always, there is still plenty of work to do. The biggest yarn of our lifetimes is with us for some time yet, lets keep powering through. As Lt. Col. Kilgore says in Apocalypse Now, Some day this wars gonna end and when it does well be having one hell of a party. Four states are set for a tug-of-war over the legacy of Labor's longest serving prime minister Bob Hawke as Australia's election umpire prepares to name a federal electorate in his honour. Mr Hawke, who died in May last year, was born in South Australia, raised and educated in Perth, elected as a Victorian MP and lived the last 30 years of his life in Sydney. Former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke in 2016. Credit:Nic Walker Victoria's ALP state branch will argue a new federal seat in suburban Melbourne for the next election should be named after Hawke but Labor identities in South Australia, Western Australia and NSW are fighting to claim the former prime minister as their own. SA frontbencher Penny Wong said Hawke, who was born in Bordertown in 1929, was a "truly national figure". If your idea of the purr-fect day is spending it curled up with convalescent rescue cats and a coffee, then one cafe in Vietnam has you covered. Ngao's Home Cafe in Hanoi is a loving home for 15 felines, many of whom were abandoned or found injured after being bitten by dogs or suffering serious accidents. "I try to help cats with difficult backgrounds, to heal their physical and mental wounds," said 24-year-old cafe owner Nguyen Thanh Binh ahead of International Cat Day on Saturday. The cafe has clawed its way up the favourite list of many cat lovers since it opened last month, offering coffee and cuddles but also the chance to give the animals medicine and even engage with them on a deeper level. "When I come to this cafe, apart from playing with the cats, I can hear their stories and empathise with them," 20-year-old student and customer Le Hoang Yen told AFP. Many cats in Vietnam are cherished pets but others are sold for their meat, which is considered a delicacy in parts of the country. Thieves have been known to steal cats which can then be sold on for consumption. Owner Binh was inspired to start the coffee house, which runs as a non-profit, after spotting cats in cages, and others who had been injured by thieves. "Once me and my friends have the cats, we first bring those who with injuries or medical problems to a vet. Then when they get better, I take them here to the cafe for even better care," he said as he stroked a fluffy white feline, blind in one eye. He also hopes one or two customers might be tempted to take home more than a coffee. "I will help them find new owners-- ones who really love them." lqb/tmh/aph/mtp Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. The Centers for Disease Control continues to encourage Americans to practice social distancing by keeping 6 feet away from others in public. A convenient way to do that at your front door is to use a smart speaker and a video doorbell. These two devices let you answer your door without ever going near it or reaching for your phone. If you prefer Google products, you can do just that with a Google Nest Hello video doorbell and a Google Nest smart display (essentially a smart speaker with a screen), such as the Google Nest Hub Max. A number of different smart speakers use the Google Assistantthose with a display cost $80 to $230but only the Nest Hello video doorbell allows you to see and answer your door when you use it with a Google smart display. Full disclosure: The experience isn't completely hands-free, as you'll need to tap a "Talk" button on the smart display to begin speaking with visitors. But you can pull up live video feeds from the video doorbell with just a voice command. Below well show you how to connect a Google Nest smart speaker and video doorbell so you can start answering your door with them. To see other options, check out our video doorbell ratings and smart speaker ratings. Step 1: Pair Your Google Nest Video Doorbell and Smart Speaker Open the Google Home app on your smartphone and connect your doorbell by tapping the + button at the top left of the screen, then Set up device, then Have something already set up? and use the search button at the top right of the screen to search for Nest. Once you find it, tap it and follow the prompts to log into your Nest app account and link your doorbell to your smart display. Step 2: Adjust Doorbell Settings in the Nest and Google Home Apps To use your smart speaker as a doorbell chime for your Nest Hello, enable visitor announcements by opening the Nest app and tapping on your doorbell in the apps devices list, followed by Settings and Visitor Announcements. Then, follow the apps prompts to finish enabling the chime. (Note: The Google Assistant doesnt support other chime sounds like Amazon Alexa. The only exception is around the holidays, when you can get temporary holiday-themed tunes.) Once the chime is enabled, youll also be able to speak to visitors at your door. Story continues To enable the automatic live view feature, open the Google Home app, tap on your smart display from the list of devices, tap the Settings button in the top-right corner, and scroll down to the More section of the settings. In this section, enable Personal results and Home screen & notifications. to receive alerts when your doorbell is pressed and see whos at your door. Step 3: Answer Your Door Using Your Google Assistant Smart Speaker To pull up a live feed of whats outside your front door, say, Hey Google, show the [doorbell name]. To speak to the person at your door, tap the Talk button on the touchscreen to turn on the microphone. A Perfect Pair Here's a quick look at how the Google Nest Hub Max and Google Nest Hello Video Doorbell perform in our tests. If you're a CR member, click on each model name to see detailed ratings and reviews. More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright 2020, Consumer Reports, Inc. One member of the team has said they have been banned from entering Belarus for 10 years. Three Current Time journalists deported from Belarus ahead of the country's August 9 presidential election have arrived safely in Odesa, Ukraine. One member of the team has said they have been banned from entering Belarus for 10 years. The reason for their August 7 detention remains unclear, Current Time TV reported. The journalists Evening news anchor Iryna Romaliiska and correspondents Yury Baranyuk and Ivan Grebenyuk had been covering Belarus' presidential campaign for the Russian-language television-digital network led by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in association with the Voice of America. Read alsoUkrainian journalists reportedly detained in Minsk, their phones turned off media Police detained the journalists on August 7 in the Belarusian capital's Hotel Minsk. Current Time has sent a request for information about these detentions to Belarus' Interior Ministry. Based on preliminary information, the detention appears to be connected to the journalists' accreditation status. "Our Current Time journalists were detained in the course of professionally carrying out their work covering the Belarusian presidential election," commented RFE/RL Acting President and Editor-in-Chief Daisy Sindelar. "Current Time requested accreditation for its journalists well in advance of the election. The failure by Belarusian authorities to grant credentials is yet another example of their contempt for the rights of a free press and the right of Belarusians to uncensored Information. We are outraged by their detention and demand respect for the internationally recognized rights of journalists to do their work." Romaliiska and Grebenyuk are Ukrainian citizens, based in Current Time's headquarters in the Czech capital, Prague; Baranyuk is a Russian citizen based in St. Petersburg, Russia. 'Am I going to take my money with me when I die tomorrow?' 'It's better to spend your money for a good cause when you are alive!' 'It's better that your money brings smile and happiness on people's faces.' IMAGE: A businessman from Surat, Kader Shaikh has turned his office space into a COVID-19 hospital with 85 beds. Kadar Shaikh has taken the initiative to help others after he recovered from cronavirus. He has decided to provide free treatment to the poor in Surat. Photograph: ANI Photo Kadar Shaikh, 59, is like any other ordinary resident from Gujarat's textiles city Surat. No, he is not a healthcare worker, working at the frontline treating patients suffering from the dreaded disease and yet he is fighting the pandemic. After overcoming his personal suffering -- his brother, mother and he himself were COVID-19 positive once -- the Surat businessman who deals in real estate spent his own money to convert his huge office space in the city into an 85-bed COVID-19 isolation centre that is equipped with oxygen equipment as well as ventilators for those needing it. Though he has reportedly spent more than Rs one crore to convert his office into a COVID-19 facility and yet another 60-bed COVID-19 isolation centre at one of the unoccupied halls belonging to the Surat Municipal Corporation, he turns reticent when asked about the money he has spent till now, he asks, "Am I going to take my money with me when I die tomorrow?" He says he is not doing it for fame or publicity. He even refused to share his pictures saying he would rather remain faceless and do his bit for the needy. "I am happy with whatever I am doing; I would rather wish that all the patients who come here get well soon and go back happy to their families," he tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com. Why did you convert a part of your office into an isolation centre for COVID-19 patients? IMAGE: This is the 85-bed COVID-19 isolation centre equipped with oxygen supply and ventilators set up above Kadar Shaikh's office in Surat. Photographs: Kind courtesy Kadar Shaikh What happened was my brother, my mother, a cancer patient, who is 82, and I suffered from COVID-19 some time ago. My mother suffered a lot during her treatment and she recovered only after 45 days. We spent Rs 12 lakh (Rs 1.2 million) at a private hospital for my brother's treatment and even then they could not cure him completely. By God's grace, we have money to spend and we did that for my brother's treatment. But there are so many people in India, in Surat, who can't afford the exorbitant charges that private hospitals take for covid treatment. They kept my brother in ICU for so many days and we were not even allowed to meet him, see him how he was doing. That made me realise how difficult life could be for all those going through the trauma of suffering from COVID-19. I had some extra space above my office which I thought could be converted into a COVID isolation centre. I am repaying some debt to the city and the society that gave me all that I have today. To tell you the truth, many doctors in Surat fleece people. They fleece people so much that people are driven to begging to take care of their treatment. Trust me when I say that relatives of patients collect Rs 2,000, Rs 5,000 from people they know and pay for their treatment. Despite bearing such ignominy their tragedies are unbearable when they see their dear ones die. I have seen brothers, mothers, sisters and fathers cry bitterly when they can't collect the money to buy expensive injections for their patients. These are really heart-rending scenes and make you wonder if you can help these people. I couldn't bear this pain of the people and decided to do whatever I could for them. When we tied up with the Surat Municipal Corporation we told them we don't need a single penny for our office space. My only request was they too should do it for free for the people. The SMC should take care of the patients' food, water and treatment. With the cooperation of the SMC, we have also helped start another 60-bed hospital at one of SMC's halls at Bhari Mata Road that was unoccupied. IMAGE: A 60-bed COVID-19 isolation centre that Kadar Shaikh financed to help quarantine patients who cannot afford it at home or at hospitals where charges are sometimes exorbitant. We have set up 30 beds there with oxygen equipment and 30 beds for those who do not need oxygen for treatment. That facility too has started serving people and it feels good to see at least some people relieved of their misery. Getting quarantined is not possible for those who live in small accommodations. There is bit of effort and bit of patience required to set up these facilities. I am happy with whatever I am doing; I would rather wish that all the patients who come here get well soon and go back happy to their families. How much money did you spend to get these two COVID isolation facilities up and running? Am I going to take my money with me when I die tomorrow? I believe that if you teach your children to fish then you don't have to leave money for them when you die. And you don't have to leave money for your children when you know they will not multiply it or squander it away on vices. It's better to spend your money for good cause when you are alive! It's better that your money brings smile and happiness on people's faces. Everybody must work for the betterment of people around us. At such times you have to spend your money with both hands. How did you make this happen? In my life I have learnt that that the power of doing good to others is within us and when you have that you can do good for others even if you don't have the money. Money is not the only essential thing that motivates you to help others. Money doesn't matter; your will and willingness to help others is more important. This is just a small way to contribute towards society. It is the duty of every human to help fellow humans if one can. I am happy with what God has given me and happier because whatever little I have I am able to use part of it for the betterment of my city's people in this pandemic. I must thank Surat's Member of Parliament C R Patil (now also the Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party president) who lent his support to us when we told him that we were planning to convert a part of our office space into an isolation centre. One of my journalist friends, Manojbhai Gandhi, took us to Patilsaheb's office. When we told him about our intention and our inability to run it because we are not doctors, he worked hard to convince the SMC to run the centre by providing doctors and other medical staff while we took care of all the beds, the oxygen machines and ventilators. We told him that within 15 days we will hand over to the SMC an 85-bed, fully-functional COVID isolation centre and that's how it became a reality. We gave them the keys to the facility on July 31 and the SMC has started admitting and treating COVID-19 patients there. You were also COVID positive. How did you come out of it? Yes, I got cured a month ago. How much money did you spend for your treatment? When my brother was in a private hospital the experience made me realise that the hospital kept extending my brother's discharge under one pretext or the other to extract as much out of us as they could. They kept him in the hospital for 23 days during which they did not even allow us to meet him. I realised the futility of it all when I got hit by COVID; I decided I would rather quarantine myself at my home and get medicine from the Civil Hospital in Surat. I got cured at home using the medicine I got from the Civil Hospital and some homeopathic medicines. I was COVID-19 positive, but never ran high temperature. Understand one thing that while medicines helped me overcome the disease it was also God's will that helped me survive. I am 59 today; I am a heart patient and I also have diabetes. Despite these co-morbidities I survived thanks to the medicines and God's will. My brother Ghulam Haider, who is 57, is also a heart patient. While I had more co-morbidities than my brother and so had a higher risk, I was more scared of how hospitals treat some COVID patients. I had seen it myself when my brother was in the hospital. He was in the ICU and nobody was allowed to meet him, which in a way is how it should be with COVID patients. I did not want to be away from my family, confined to the ICU, so I quarantined myself at home with doctors regularly monitoring my vital health parameters and maintained strict quarantine. Tell us about the COVID isolation facility that you helped set up at your office... Out of the 85 beds that are available at my office, 74 beds are equipped with oxygen supply and the rest are ICU beds which have ventilator facility. While I have made arrangements for oxygen supply, the SMC will get the ventilators at this facility. Only the beds, the space for the facility, and oxygen equipment are provided by us, while the SMC has taken care of ventilators and the medical staff that is required to run such facilities. Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. New Delhi: After forcefully sending the Bihar IPS officer Vinay Tiwari in quarantine, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is now gearing up to put another road blocker in the way of CBI as well in relation to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Mumbai Mayor, Kishori Pednekar said: "The CBI officers who come to Mumbai will have to seek the necessary permissions from Mumbai Police, amid the deadly novel coronavirus pandemic. Otherwise, they too will face mandatory isolation." The BMC has made 14-day quarantine mandatory for people coming from other states to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh reiterated his stand of CBI inquiry not necessary for Sushant Singh Rajput's death case. On the sidelines of an event in Nagpur today, he said: "The Sushant case has not gone to the CBI yet, the case is in the Supreme Court and the judgment will come on the 11th (August). The Mumbai Police is investigating properly. No reason to file a case to CBI." The CBI, on the other hand, has taken over the investigation into the actor's death from the Bihar Police after re-registering an FIR of alleged criminal conspiracy and abetment to suicide against his rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty. The case will be probed by a special investigation team (SIT) under Superintendent of Police Nupur Prasad and will be supervised by DIG Gagandeep Gambhir and Joint Director Manoj Shashidhar, both senior IPS officers from the Gujarat cadre, as per PTI. In the heat of the civil rights struggle, the Ku Klux Klan tried to intimidate Shirley Ann Grau, a white Southerner who had written about interracial marriage, by burning a cross on her front lawn. But they forgot to bring a proper shovel. Unable to plant the cross upright in the hard ground, they laid it down instead, and the flames soon sputtered out. As it happened, Ms. Grau (rhymes with prow) wasnt even home. And on hearing of the incident, she was more amused than distraught. It scorched a few feet of grass and it scared the neighbors, she told The Associated Press in 2003. It all had kind of a Groucho Marx ending to it. A Co Antrim barber has shared the tragic story behind new mirrors he built using part of the gates of a children's home that his younger brother died running away from 30 years ago. The large mirrors in the newly-opened Jay's Barber Club in north Belfast have metal frames so heavy that it took three men to carry each one inside. Owner Jason Millar (38) salvaged the frames from the gates of the now demolished Carnview Children's Home in Newtownabbey. Jason and his younger brother Wayne had lived there after the death of their mother Sandra left them orphaned in 1990. Expand Close The site of the former Carnview Childrens Home in Newtownabbey / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The site of the former Carnview Childrens Home in Newtownabbey Wayne had tagged along one day when Jason and friends ran away to catch the train to Carrickfergus, but was knocked down and killed while running across the North Road. "These are the gates that we ran out of the night my brother was knocked down and killed in front of me," Jason said.. "Whenever I look at them it actually reminds me of a nice time. Our time in Carnview was happy, very mischievous. We were always running about on our BMX bikes and skateboards. "Obviously it was bad my brother died but he's with me all the time. I actually feel blessed I've got them, when I tell people the story their jaw drops. "I didn't know what to do with them at first but when this shop came about me and my uncle spent a long, long time refurbishing them." After his brother's death, Jason went to live with his uncle before a stint in the Army when he was 17, but struggled at times with his loss over the years by turning to drink and drugs. He now has two sons with his partner Orla, Jason and Wayne, who are around the same age as their father and uncle had been at Carnview. Expand Close Jason (left) with Wayne as boys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jason (left) with Wayne as boys Jason is planning to meet his primary care worker from the children's home for the first time in 30 years. He said joining a new church in recent months has given him a new strength, and feels positive about building his business back up after losing months of trade to the Covid-19 pandemic. "I'm 38 and it's only now that I really feel my life is on track," he said. "I've struggled with depression, drug abuse, drinking and everything else. It was about being around the wrong people and the wrong circles. "I do feel I'm away from all that now and that my brother has helped me. He's very much with us in spirit and I'm very grateful to have my shop now after working with some very talented barbers. "I have a list of people in my pocket that I pray for every day. They hear what I've been through and ask me for advice. "It is very hard, at the end of the day there's so much uncertainty out there. I think the people that do well during the pandemic are the ones that can adapt to it." Mattia Binotto hopes Mercedes stays in Formula 1 beyond the end of the year. The Ferrari boss's statement comes after his Mercedes counterpart, Toto Wolff, said at Silverstone that the reigning champions are not ready to sign the 2021 Concorde Agreement. Recently in Hungary, Wolff slammed teams like Ferrari for their "ridiculous commentaries" about being ready to sign the document whilst others are not. Now, the Austrian confirms that Mercedes is not happy with the terms being offered by Liberty Media. "I would say we are the biggest victim in terms of prize fund loss in all of that," he said. Wolff explained that, in contrast, Ferrari has negotiated an "advantageous position", while Red Bull benefits financially by having two teams. "So it's us that are hurt the most. We feel that we weren't treated in those negotiations in the way we should have been," he added. Binotto says he hopes Mercedes eventually decides to sign. "I don't know what will be Mercedes' position - that's up to them to decide," he said. "I hope they will sign. I think it will be great to have Mercedes with us next year and the following years." However, McLaren supremo Zak Brown is not worried that Mercedes will quit Formula 1 over the argument. "I believe that all ten teams that compete in Formula 1 today will be on the grid in 2021, so I'm not too worried about it," he said. "But McLaren is committed to Formula 1 and I'm sure everyone else will come along, whether they all sign at the same time or it's staggered. I'm confident you will see all these ten teams on the grid next year." (GMM) The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, Most Rev. Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo has advised the running mate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 2020 elections, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang not to depart from her Christian principles as she enters another phase of her political life. You are coming in at a time when our politics is bedeviled with all sorts of negative things but as a Christian, dont go that way, he cautioned her. Most. Rev. Boafo gave the advice during a sermon at a thanksgiving service for Prof. Opoku-Agyemang at the Asbury Dunwell Chapel at the Methodist Church Headquarters to give thanks to God after her unveiling. A statement signed by the Spokesperson and Head of Communications of the office of the running mate, Mrs Mawuena Trebarh, said the running mate was joined in the service by some family and party members. Servant Most Rev. Dr Boafo told the NDC running mate that the mandate she was seeking from Ghanaians should be one to lead and be a servant who will care for the poor, the helpless and the marginalised and even those who did not count in society. The Presiding Bishop advised her to constantly carry the value of peace along in her political journey. Carry peace, walk with peace, talk about the need for peace and let people know you stand with the God of peace, he said. Truth Most Rev. Boafo acknowledged that Christians must get into politics to operate with truth and integrity as against the politics of insults and violence. He spoke against the lynching of an old helpless woman to death after being branded as a witch. Gratitude In her remarks, Prof. Opoku- Agyemang expressed gratitude to God for how far he had brought her and said she viewed her new position as an important step God had placed in her path. I do not intend to take this step all by myself; I am trusting God as I take this step and asking everyone to come on this journey with me, she said Prayers Prayers were said for Prof. Opoku- Agyemang and a Bible presented to her to symbolise her acceptance to follow Gods guiding principles in her new position.- #GhanaVotes2020# Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Festival season By D. C. Ranatunga View(s): View(s): This is the festival season. Unfortunately due to the present conditions, this years festivals have taken a very low key. The biggest festival is the Kandy Esala Perahera held annually during this period. Then comes the Kataragama festival. Large crowds gather at these festivals. The Kandy festival dates back to the 4th century and is connected with Lord Buddhas Tooth Relic being paraded around the city of Anuradhapura from where King Sirimeghawanna (Kith Sirimevan) 301 28 AD ruled. The later rulers followed the tradition. Old records indicate that the procession had to be stopped due to local wars. Known as the Festival of the Tooth throughout the world, large crowds from different parts of the world, gather in Kandy to see the festival. It is much more than a mere procession but includes the display of traditional customs. Although the majority of people who gather to witness the pageant is from the Buddhist and Hindu religious communities, the festival provides an opportunity for the others to witness much more than a mere procession. That is why it is referred to as the pageant. The festival lights up the Kandy town for ten days. The pageant begins with the Kap Situveema when a blessed young jackfruit tree is rooted and re-planted in the vicinity of each of the four Devales dedicated to the four guardian gods Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama and the goddess Pattini. In the olden days, it was meant to shower blessings on the King and the people of Sri Lanka. The first procession of the Sacred Tooth Relic begins with the Kumbal Perahera, believed to drive away evil spells and ill thoughts. The procession parades the streets for five days. It is, in a way, a semi procession, and the nilames do not take part. The drummers and tuskers take part without any ceremonial costumes. The march is repeated for five days in several streets in the Kandy city. The procession in the next five days is known as the Randoli Perahera when the Sacred Tooth Relic is also paraded. In the olden days of the Kandyan Kingdom, the chief queen of the king had taken part in the procession. The queens of the kingdoms were not permitted to have any role in the procession of the Sacred Tooth Relic. However, as a sign of honour and respect to the queens, a palanquin is paraded. It is usually the last item of the procession. After five more nights of the Randoli Perahera, the parade ends with Diya Kepeema. It is a water cutting ceremony at the Mahaweli River at Getambe a few miles from Kandy. A day perahera is held across the city to mark the celebration. The Perahera held now, dates back to the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinghe (1747 82 AD). However, at the time, the Tooth Relic was considered to be privately owned by the King. Although the public had not been allowed to worship the Relic, King Rajasinghe had wanted the relic to be taken in procession for the people to see and revere. After the colonial British Empire defeated the Kandyan Kingdom in 1815, the custody of the relic was given over to the Buddhist clergy. The clergy had appointed a layman and called him the Diyawadana Nilame to safe keep and handle routine administrative matters of the Tooth Relic. By PTI DHAKA: Bangladesh's ties with India and China should not be compared as they stand on different perspectives, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said on Saturday, describing Dhaka's relationship with New Delhi as "historic" and "rock-solid" which cannot be hindered by anything. Momen's remarks came after he visited a memorial complex at western Meherpur bordering India to pay tributes to the 1971 Liberation War martyrs. "We must not compare the relationships from an identical standpoint," he told newsmen. "Our ties with India are historic. Rock-solid; it is a blood relation while economic issues mainly shaped our relations with China," Momen said. "Our victory is India's victory. Our development is India's development. Nothing can hinder this (Bangladesh-India) relation." The minister's comments came in response to questions about Dhaka's ties with New Delhi and Beijing against the backdrop of border tensions between Bangladesh's two giant neighbours. Momen called the current Dhaka-New Delhi relations "tremendously good" and said the two countries were set to celebrate jointly next year Bangladesh's 50th anniversary of Independence. He said Bangladesh and India resolved major bilateral matters like land and maritime boundaries and security issues amicably while attaining progress on water sharing. "There are, however, some pending issues. We will resolve them (as well)," Momen said. He declined to comment on the ongoing New Delhi-Beijing tensions, saying "this is their headache, nothing to do with us". Momen said Bangladesh preferred to focus on its own development maintaining ties with both the countries. "They are big trading partners of ours," he said adding Bangladesh wants to reap benefits of trade ties with both India and China. Asked for comments about the fate of the proposed trial of Chinese vaccines in Bangladesh, Momen said many countries in the world were working in collaboration to get access to a COVID-19 vaccine. "India and Pakistan also went for collaboration with others (regarding vaccine trials). We (Bangladesh) are yet to go for collaboration. (But) We should go for it (vaccine collaboration) as well," he said. He said Dhaka already contributed to a European Union fund so that Bangladesh can get a possible COVID-19 vaccine smoothly. Momen visited Meherpur, where the oath of office of the first Bangladeshi government was administered on April 17, 1971, when Nazrul Islam was appointed as the acting president and Tajuddin Ahmed as the prime minister. Bangladesh's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was declared president in the swearing-in ceremony in absentia as he was in Pakistan's captivity after its troops' clampdown on unarmed Bengalis on March 25, 1971. Sergio Perez says rumours about his coronavirus infection are "irresponsible". Germany's RTL claims the Mexican is not only still infected, but that the concentration of the virus is actually now higher in the Racing Point driver's body than a week ago. That means Nico Hulkenberg is still in his pink car at Silverstone. But questions remain about how Perez contracted the virus. He says he visited his ill mother in Mexico between the Hungarian and British GPs. But there are suggestions he also met with his Mexican sponsors, amid suggestions he is about to lose his Aston Martin seat for 2021 to Sebastian Vettel. "It may have been bad luck that Perez was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told Osterreich newspaper last week. "On the other hand, I have heard that Checo took a lot of selfies and apparently got together with quite a number of people." Indeed, Mexican politician Daniel Ludlow Kuri lashed out at Perez on Twitter, saying it was "very irresponsible" for him to leave his "bubble". "Don't cry when they cut you off from the team," Kuri added. Perez responded in Spanish: "It's more irresponsible to express an opinion without knowing. "I followed all the directions of the FIA and my team. It's not my fault that I got it (the virus) - tomorrow it could be you." As for the politician's claim that Perez may "cry" at his team's next move, Perez said: "From what I see on your profile, you don't know what decent work is." (GMM) The St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre has been welcoming a steady stream of visitors since it opened its doors to history and shipping buffs last week for the first time since March. While the numbers arent like they were pre-COVID-19 when tour buses would pull in and capacity limits were higher, curator Kathleen Powell said its been going great so far. We had people booked from nine oclock (the first day), she said. It was awesome to see people were self-confident in coming to the museum and felt it could be a safe place to be. The facility has new limited capacity of only 50 people due to COVID-19 precautions, and has introduced timed entries four times a day. Visitors can phone ahead to 905-984-8880 to book one of the entry times, which are 90 minutes each. Visitors are allowed access to exhibits and the outdoor viewing platform on the Welland Canal. While people can take their chance and show up, they will have to wait if the facility is already at capacity. Powell said it hasnt reached the limit yet, but it has been close. The museum closes for a half-hour in between the time slots so it can be re-cleaned. Staff also sanitize touch points, like door handles, through the opening hours. Other changes due to COVID-19 include taped-off spaces on the viewing platforms so individuals or groups can be separated and indoor social distancing signs. We have a lot of markers and directional arrows and signage to keep people distanced and remind people to be distanced, Powell said. We just want to be safe and make sure that everyone is safe when they come here, because who wants to be worried about that when they are visiting a facility in the community? Since the building was closed March 13, museum staff have offered virtual programming online and Powell said that will continue for people who arent ready to come to a public facility yet. Weve been doing tons of programming for people while theyve been at home and thats been keeping us incredibly busy, but were also really happy to be open again and to welcome visitors back in the facility, she said. Those who visit the museum can check out the Outbreak exhibit marking the 100th anniversary of the Spanish influenza epidemic, which proved more timely than expected when COVID-19 hit. There is also a new photo exhibit, Coming Home, commemorating local soldiers and women in the armed forces who returned after the Second World War. That exhibit was supposed to open the day we closed, Powell said. It actually wasnt seen by anyone in the public. Admission is by donation and Powell is encouraging people to consider the value they get from the museum in person or through its social media programming during the lockdown. If its provided them any, we really encourage people to make donation to the museum, because were in the same boat as everybody else. Our revenues are down substantially and we appreciate all of the support we get from everyone who comes, she said. And you dont have to come here to make a donation. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have spent the past month contacting the leaders of major corporations, lobbying them to withdraw advertising spending from "lawless" social media companies such as Facebook. Prince Harry revealed that he and his wife, Meghan Markle, had set their sights on "remodelling the architecture" of social media, warning that sweeping change was needed to protect users' mental health and stop the spread of misinformation. In a 1,400-word column for 'Fast Company', a US business magazine, he said the cost of using social media was "very high", with personal data traded for profit in a "relatively lawless space". He questioned what susceptibility to "the coercive forces in digital spaces" would mean for the next generation, adding: "As a father, this is especially concerning to me." The issue will become one of the main focuses of the couple's work through Archewell, their non-profit organisation. The article, is considered an indication of the couple's future direction as they establish their own life in Los Angeles. The decision to focus on online behaviour was inspired in part by the work both have undertaken in recent years on mental health and more recently, by the civil and racial justice campaigns following the death of George Floyd. Harry warned in his article that online communities should be "defined more by compassion than hate; by truth instead of misinformation; by equity and inclusiveness instead of injustice and fearmongering; by free, rather than weaponised, speech". He wrote: "A little over four weeks ago, my wife and I started calling business leaders, heads of major corporations, and chief marketing officers at brands and organisations we all use in our daily lives. Our message was clear: The digital landscape is unwell and companies like yours have the chance to reconsider your role in funding and supporting online platforms that have contributed to, stoked, and created the conditions for a crisis of hate, a crisis of health, and a crisis of truth." He called for meaningful digital reform, adding: "We've spoken with leaders across the racial justice movement, experts in humane tech, and advocates of mental health. "And the collective opinion is abundantly clear: We do not have the luxury of time." Their intervention coincided with the launch of the US-based Stop Hate for Profit campaign, which is putting pressure on Facebook to tackle hate speech. In recent weeks, more than 1,000 companies, including Adidas, Ford and Unilever, have withdrawn their advertising spend as a result. He said that although social media was a free resource, the "price we're all paying is much higher than it appears". A pair of Sterling Heights brothers received one-year probation from a Macomb County judge for keeping more than 50 dogs at their home. Erik, 48, and Kristopher Crawley, 44, each received the sentence Wednesday from Macomb County Circuit Court Judge James Maceroni after pleading guilty in February to animals-abandoning/cruelty, 10 or more animals, punishable by up to four years in prison, according to court records. When they pleaded, the judge agreed to no further jail time and a probationary term of up to five years. The two served one day behind bars. They had been ordered to pay $5,800 in restitution Sterling Heights Animal Control, but the judge ordered restitution held in abeyance for 30 days. The also cannot own an animals while on probation and will have to undergo a mental evaluation. The dogs were discovered when a neighbor called police about a possible dead animal in the trash as the brothers were being evicted from a house near Metropolitan Parkway and Schoenherr Road on Feb. 13, 2019. They had left the home in a U-Haul truck occupied by 54 loose dogs. Police ordered them to drive to the police station. Police said the puppies and adult dogs found in the truck were restrained by an overturned table and were trying to exit the truck; one dog had to be euthanized after it was hurt as it attempted to escape. The dogs were covered in feces, with long yellow nails and their rib cages showing due to a lack of nutrition, police reported. The case drew a great deal of interest from the public, which donated food, blankets, cleaning materials, money and other items to assist in caring for the dogs. The dogs were given to animal rescue organizations. Macomb Daily staff By Trend Flights to Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic have been resumed, and the number of resumed flights is gradually increasing, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of the Department of Economic Issues and Innovative Development Policy of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Shahmar Movsumov said. Movsumov made the remark in Baku during the briefing of the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers held on August 8, Trend reports. According to the assistant to president, these days, citizens want to buy tickets for flights to Antalya, Bodrum and other destinations in advance. However, its inexpedient to reopen international flights until the resumption of domestic movement between Azerbaijani districts. Therefore, international flights will be resumed after the resumption of domestic traffic, he noted. Movsumov reminded that at the moment, the borders with any country have not yet been opened, and the state makes all efforts to return its citizens to the country. In a short time, most of the citizens have already returned to Azerbaijan from abroad, he noted. "Those citizens who have a problem in connection with the return should contact our embassies. However, no country has such a problem at the moment." Movsumov added. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday cautioned the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, against using the federal might at the behest of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to encourage and promote lawlessness and illegalities in Edo State in the build up to the September 19 governorship election. The PDP warned that the position of the AGF and Justice Minster should not be misinterpreted as a federal portfolio to be deployed to emasculate a formidable political party rather than the promotion of national interest. PDP in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, sent to National Daily, therefore, protested that the directive of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, to the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to provide security for the 14 un-inaugurated members-elect of the Edo State House of Assembly whose seats have been declared vacant by the House leadership after missing legislative sittings for over 180 days, is a thoughtless unconstitutionality, adding that to that effect, it is null and void. The PDP National Publicity Secretary pointed out that nothing in sections 90, 91, 101 and 104 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) cited by the Attorney General, empowers him to go to the streets of any part of our nation to assemble some clowns and declare them members-elect of any House of Assembly, without any electoral mandate. The PDP emphasized that the Attorney General should be aware that the controversial individuals have been absent from legislative duties for 180 days during which they abandoned their mandate and for which their seats were declared vacant in line with the rules of the legislature and the laws of the federation. The party remarked: It is trite in law that with their seats declared vacant by the House, they have consequently lost their memberships and respective mandates. PDP further noted that the Attorney General ought to have availed himself of the facts that the Edo State House of Assembly, as constitutionally constituted, had written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) asking it to conduct fresh elections into the vacant seats in line with the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act. The party also argued that if the AGF had bothered to get his facts correctly before issuing the unconstitutional warrant for the gestapo operation to the IGP, he would have known that the matter of the declaration of the seats of the errant individuals and the request for the conduct of fresh elections to fill the vacant seats are pending in competent Court in Edo State at the instance of his clients and, therefore, it is sub-justice for him to speak on it or cause an action to be taken. The PDP accordingly decried: Yet, Malami is painfully our nations federal law officer. The PDP further berated Malami for exercising ultra vires powers, which the party noted is beyond the jurisdiction of his office. According to the PDP: However, we may have to remind the AGF, to go back to the Constitution and recheck if any sections warrant him to take any action whatsoever which compromise, derogate or infringe the powers donated to any Court in Nigeria apart from the powers of nolle prosequi of his office. Our party holds that there is no part of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which enabled him to do so, the National Publicity Secretary declared. The PDP maintained that Malami and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) do not possess the powers of a competent court and as such, cannot, by any stroke of imagination, make any judicial declaration whatsoever on a matter that is before a court of competent jurisdiction. Furthermore, our party insists that there is no provision in section 90, 91, 101 and 104 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) or any other provision of the constitution for that matter, empowers him to do so. What Nigerians expected of the AGF was for him to advise his clients to wait for the ruling of the court and, perhaps, prepare for their bye-elections, if they still wish to be in the Edo State House of Assembly. The PDP, and indeed, all well-meaning Nigerians, particularly the people of Edo state, completely reject this thoughtless and partisan directive of the AGF which is directly responsible for Thursdays attempt to topple democratic order and the Edo State House of Assembly, PDP declared. The PDP further postulated that it is rather unfortunate for the AGF to direct the IGP to provide security for impostors; adding: that directive, in itself, is reckless. The PDP, thus, alerted that Nigerians can now see those who provided the arsenal for the failed coup against democratic order in Edo State as well as those engineering a breakdown of law and order in the state. The PDP, accordingly, urged Nigerians to hold the Attorney General, Malami, responsible should there be any violence before, during and after the Edo State governorship election arising from the contents of his ill-advised letter. Our party, therefore, charges the Inspector General of Police to disregard this misguided partisan directive by the Attorney General as well as ensure that the Police is not entangled in such a partisan agenda against the people of Edo State, the statement read in part. Resuming back to school after three months at home was a dream come true for SS3 students in Ogun State but the first week was marred by the controversial COVID-19 test levy and private schools chasing students for outstanding fees. The state, where the index case of COVID-19 in Nigeria was discovered, announced that SS3 students should resume on Tuesday. This was in compliance with the federal governments decision to reopen schools for the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) scheduled to commence on August 17. However, to observe the level of compliance with the safety protocols and the response of students, PREMIUM TIMES visited some of the secondary schools during school hours last week. Scanty Due to the urgency of the terminal examination, it was expected that students would resume fully in all schools but that was not the case. When our reporter visited Victorroti Private School on Wednesday, only a few of the SS3 students had resumed. The teacher who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES, Sulaimon Olabulo, said none of the boarding students have resumed because of the controversy surrounding the mandatory COVID-19 test. Victorroti Private school student sent out over schools fees PHOTO CREDITS: Premium Times Alfred Olufemi Recall that the test, which was eventually reversed as one of the conditions for resumption, stirred controversies amongst private school parents who were told to pay the sum of N25, 000 per child at the testing centres. The governor reversed the condition on Monday evening considering the lack of capacity to test 5,840 boarding students in the state. He also ordered that parents who have paid should get a refund. This, according to Mr Olabulo, posed a challenge for some of the parents, particularly those staying outside the state. READ ALSO: Some of the parents didnt get the information until Tuesday morning. They were calling us to know the situation of things. Thats one of the factors for the late resumption. Also, Omotayo Jaiyesimi, the Principal of Golden Heart College and David Oyeniyi of Lisabi College shared similar experiences. Speaking with our reporter on Friday, Mr Jaiyesimi stated that although the measures for resumption were put in place before Tuesday, the majority of the SS3 students in the schools have not resumed. Many of the students will resume next week, he told our reporter. More so, some of the private schools visited denied defaulters of tuition fees access to class while some were sent back home. Many of them stated that they had warned students who are yet to pay the tuition of the third term from resuming. In fact, Redeemers High school, Mowe, in its message to parents, noted that all outstanding fees must be cleared before resumption as defaulters would not be allowed into the school premises. Schools shut Nevertheless, some secondary schools are yet to reopen because their resumption is yet to be approved. The gates of Firm foundation and Omoyele Academy, two schools situated in Sagamu, were shut when our reporter visited. The entrance of Omoyele Academy in Sagamu PHOTO CREDITS: Premium Times Alfred Olufemi When contacted, the proprietress of Omoyele Academy, Mary Omoyele, informed PREMIUM TIMES that the ministry of education is yet to approve the resumption of its SS3 students but refused to disclose the reason. Speaking with this paper, the Special Assistant to the Governor on public communication, Remmy Hazzan, explained those yet to be approved have not met the basic requirements of water provision or other necessary facilities for safety protocols. Firm Foundation, Sagamu closed PHOTO CREDITS: Premium Times Alfred Olufemi We cannot risk the lives of the pupils. Some of those schools have not met the criteria. The availability of water for hand washing and other necessary things. By next week they should resume, Mr Hazzan said. Compliance Many of the schools visited complied with the COVID-19 safety protocols such as social distancing, mandatory use of face masks, provisions for hand washing. Advertisements The entrance of Abeokuta Grammar school PHOTO CREDITS: Premium Times Alfred Olufemi At Lantoro High school, Abeokuta; Lisabi College, Sagamu high school, Victorroti Private school, Abeokuta Grammar School, students were made to sit in twos on the benches. Sagamu high school student putting water inside basin PHOTO CREDITS: Premium Times Alfred Olufemi All the schools had basins placed at different locations to enable washing of hands. It was also observed that students in public schools donned the uniformed face masks distributed by the school authorities. During break periods, the students are restricted from playing around within the school premises, our reporter observed. Meanwhile, of all schools visited, only Makun High school provided an infrared thermometer at the entrance to carry out temperature checks on visitors and students. Makun high school entrance PHOTO CREDITS: Premium Times None of the public school principals granted an interview when approached by our reporter quizzing them on the unavailability of the infrared thermometers. Reacting to this, the governments spokesperson expressed shock, noting that the public schools had been provided with necessary apparatuses. Worry Despite the fair rate of compliance, some parents and guardians who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES expressed worry over the safety of students and their success in the forthcoming examination. A retired nurse, Khadijat Aliyu, said she hopes the resumption does not degenerate into a crisis, citing the rising cases of the pandemic in Nigeria. As of the time of filing this report, Nigeria had recorded over 45,000 infections. I have no problem with the resumption, but can our schools really comply with the guidelines? Because I am afraid. We cannot judge with the observation of the first week. The lives of our children is at risk. Lantoro high school PHOTO CREDITS: Premium Times Alfred Olufemi Another parent, Olusola Gbenga, said he was not in support of the resumption because it was ill-conceived and may affect the students performance in the examination. In his words,the students will be rushed to write the exams after staying at home for more than three months. Even some people who attended classes during our own time struggled to get credits in the five required subjects. For Adisa Adedeji, a taxi driver in Abeokuta metropolis, the teachers and government have a role to play because the students cannot be treated like adults. The teachers have to be with them at all times. You know children cannot stop being childish. They get carried away easily. The government should also go around to monitor if the teachers are doing what is right, Mr Adedeji told PREMIUM TIMES. Reacting to this, the President of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools in the state, Lawrence Holumidey, said the teachers have been trained and that parents should allay all fears. All School teachers have been trained before the school resumed. And it is not a case that all students have resumed. It is just a class. They can make use of other vacant classrooms and facilities if need be. In preparation for the terminal examination, Mr Holumidey, refused to comment on the likely impact on the results. He, however, noted that school owners are ensuring that adequate preparations are made in spite of the limited time. We cannot pre-empt their performance. No one has ever witnessed this kind of situation before now. We can only do our best within the short time frame and expect success. Yukon announces new case of COVID-19, first in territory in months Yukon has its first locally-acquired case of COVID-19, said Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Brendan Hanley on Friday. The case involves a Whitehorse resident who travelled to Dawson City, and visited tourist sites, with family members within the last two weeks, Hanley said at a news conference Friday afternoon. The person had not travelled out of territory, he said, and was in Whitehorse during the infectious period. Last Friday, Hanley warned that Yukoners may have been exposed to COVID-19 after two visitors to the territory subsequently tested positive for the disease. The visitors had been to Dawson City and Whitehorse. "Today marks another pivotal moment in the still young history of COVID-19 in Yukon," Hanley said Friday. He said they suspect there is a chain of transmission between the visitors and the new patient. He said it is possible the person acquired the infection either in Whitehorse or in Dawson. Contacts in Dawson have been identified and officials are following up with them. Dawson residents who exhibit even mild symptoms of COVID-19 are asked to get tested at the Dawson City Community Hospital or the local health centre, the government said. As long as we stay in this containment mode and stay ahead of community spread, that is our goal. - Dr. Brendan Hanley As well, Whitehorse residents who have travelled to Dawson City since July 20 and are experiencing symptoms should call Yukon Communicable Disease Control directly and arrange to get tested. Anyone who was in Dawson between July 20 and Aug. 7 should monitor for symptoms, he said. People who may have been at Superstore in Whitehorse between 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Aug. 1, or who attended the Sunday service at Sacred Heart Cathedral at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 2, should also monitor themselves for symptoms. The patient is "feeling better" and recovering at home, Hanley said. He didn't specify where in Dawson City the person visited. 'We expected to see cases' Story continues Hanley said he is not considering mandatory face masks at this time. "I think really nothing has changed," he said. The case still lends itself to containment and contact tracing, he said, and is "just as confident as I was three days ago." "We expected to see cases," said Hanley. "As long as we stay in this containment mode and stay ahead of community spread, that is our goal." Hanley said last week that another jurisdiction notified Yukon Communicable Disease Control about the two visitors who subsequently tested positive. At the time, he said risk to Yukoners was low. As a result of the public health warning last week, there was a backlog in testing. Hanley said the advisory led to a flurry of testing last weekend and early this week. This is Yukon's 15th confirmed case of COVID-19. It has been months since Yukon or the N.W.T. has had an active case; Nunavut is still the only jurisdiction in Canada to not have any positve cases of COVID-19. Miss the news conference? Watch it here: Mr Kyei Kwadwo Yamoah, the Programmes Manager, Friends of the Nation (FoN) has called for a gradual phasing out of subsidies in the fisheries sector including premix fuel for fishermen activities. He said government interventions in the sector through the provision of inputs and gears, with the latest being the distribution of outboard motors to fishers, were not yielding the desired results of improving the productivity of fishers for, which the support scheme had been introduced. Mr Yamoah was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of a two-day capacity building workshop on Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) of land, fisheries, and forests and, Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) in the contexts of national food security and poverty eradication for journalists in Accra. The FoN Programmes Manager said in years past, fishers were recording bumper harvests any time they went to sea but that had ceased, making 'no sense' of government's huge expenditure in the industry. He said efforts should rather be made to enforce laws to protect the fishery resource from extinction. July-August used to be the time for bumper harvest but it's no longer so due to the depletion of the fish stock caused by Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing practices. Statistics show that we lose about $50 million through IUU fishing, and then we spend GH 300 million to import about 60 percent of the fish we consume from the Ivory Coast and other countries, thus, building those economies. There's no need subsidising premix when there's no fish. The government should gradually phase out these subsidies to adequately resource the Fishing Enforcement Unit (FEU) to enforce the fisheries laws and punish perpetrators to ensure compliance to save the industry from collapse to protect millions of people whose livelihoods depend on it, Mr Yamoah said. The workshop organised by FoN in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) saw presentations on some topics including an overview of VVGT issues in the fisheries sector, key opportunities, and advantages of mainstreaming VGGT and securing fish landing sites. Dr Wordsworth Odame Larbi, Land Tenure Officer, FAO Sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa, Ethiopia said responsible governance of tenure with the overall goal of ensuring access to land or environment for use by all persons/communities, ought to be the collective responsibility of all, especially the state because it had far-reaching implications on the lives of the most vulnerable in society. ---GNA BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 8 By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend: The representatives of Turkmenistan and Germany held a telephone conversation on August 7, 2020, Trend reports with reference to Turkmenistans Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the conversation, the sides confirmed the intention to develop partnership in various areas. In particular, the need to consolidate efforts to continue cooperation on international platforms was noted. The parties highlighted the positive dynamics of the development of the bilateral relations in the political, diplomatic, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres. In particular, they highlighted the importance of regular meetings of representatives of the public and private sectors of Turkmenistan and Germany, which create opportunities for expanding cooperation. In addition, the participants exchanged views on the COVID-19 pandemic situation and considered ways to increase cooperation to counter the spread of the coronavirus. Earlier, a source in German Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Trend that there is potential for further investment by German firms in Turkmenistan in the diversification of the Turkmen economy and in modernization projects. Germany may also invest in Turkmen sectors dealing with climate change, environment and water management, the representative added. "There are about 50 German companies active in Turkmenistan," said the ministry. German companies such as Siemens, Daimler, Rohde & Schwarz, Dresser-Rand, MAN, Bosch and others make a significant contribution to the implementation of long-term projects in Turkmenistan, the source noted. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva US Sanctions Hong Kong Leaders By VOA News August 07, 2020 The United States has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong's pro-China government leader and other Hong Kong officials for allegedly suppressing freedom in the former British colony. The Treasury Department announced the sanctions against Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other government leaders on Friday, the latest in a series of moves the Trump administration has taken against China amid rising tensions over the coronavirus and trade disputes. The sanctions are aimed at penalizing Beijing for curtailing anti-government demonstrators in Hong Kong. There was no immediate response from Hong Kong or Beijing. Hong Kong citizens have enjoyed civil liberties that don't exist in mainland China since Britain relinquished control of the territory to China in 1997. Earlier this year, however, China imposed a new national security law that undermined Hong Kong's autonomy, drawing criticism from pro-democracy activists and Western countries. "The recent imposition of draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong has not only undermined Hong Kong's autonomy, it has also infringed on the rights of people living in Hong Kong," the Treasury Department said in a statement. In addition to Lam, the sanctions target Hong Kong's current and former police chiefs and eight other officials for orchestrating a campaign to curtail political liberties in the territory. The penalties also freeze any U.S. assets the Hong Kong officials hold and generally prohibits Americans from conducting business with them. Because of a surge in coronavirus cases, Lam recently announced a one-year delay to a legislative election in which pro-democracy activists hoped to win a majority of the seats. The U.S. denounced the postponement, declaring it was another move by China to undermine democracy in Hong Kong. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A pair of rallies took place blocks apart Saturday in downtown Cleveland, offering starkly different views of police amid a national reckoning over law enforcement brutality. One Back the Blue rally brought a police-supportive crowd to Fort Huntington Park, across the street from the Justice Center. The With Peace We Protest event drew people working to defund and reform police departments marching through the streets from the Free Stamp to Public Square and back. The dual events remained peaceful, and kept their distance. But the two represent opposing viewpoints of a movement that has resulted in protests in Cleveland and scores of other U.S. cities following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. In Cleveland, protests included a May 30 demonstration that turned violent outside the Justice Center, with police officers firing less-than-lethal munitions. Some in the crowd that day set fire to police cruisers before vandalizing and looting businesses. Protests in Northeast Ohio have remained peaceful since then. Sarah Sacha, a 22-year-old from Lakewood who organized the 150-person Back the Blue event, said she believes police departments can improve some aspects, including training. But she said she disagrees with the anti-law enforcement sentiment held by protesters across the U.S. A lot of people dont agree with whats going on, and dont want to be silenced, said Sacha, who has a boyfriend and brother-in-law working in law enforcement. Several blocks away, Shaker Heights resident Brenda Adrine, 69, said she has been protesting since she was an 11-year-old in Virginia. She was inspired to attend Saturday in memory of U.S. Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights leader who died last month. Adrine, who is Black, said she feels its important to keep protesting because many of the same issues of systemic racism that existed when she started protesting nearly 60 years ago still exist today. All these years, Ive seen the same stuff happen over and over again, Adrine said. Local organization With Peace We Protest drew roughly 100 people who marched from the Free Stamp to Public Square before returning to the area near the Justice Center. Along the way they called out demands to defund and reform police departments, and to hold officers accountable when theyre involved in fatal shootings. The groups demands included justice for Desmond Franklin, a 23-year-old shot and killed by an off-duty Cleveland police officer on April 9. Activists said they want to see Jose Garcia, the officer who fatally shot Franklin, charged in connection with his death. Although the events remained separate, With Peace We Protest organized the event as an explicit response to the pro-law enforcement gathering, the organizations legal director Chris Piazza said. When [officers] go home, they can take off their uniform and get treated like anyone else, said Piazza, a 37-year-old from Cleveland. Black people dont have that option. Those who spoke at the Back the Blue rally said police officers are being unfairly maligned. They included Rob Weber, a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Ohios 9th District in the November election, and former Mahoning County Commissioner Frank Lordi, who wrote a book claiming he is innocent of his 1999 convictions for theft in office and three other crimes. We live in a world thats upside down, Weber said during the event. Where criminals are praised, and law enforcement is vilified. Adrine said shes heartened by the young people, including her own grandchildren, who have attended protests against police brutality. I look at them and I am so proud they are not sitting back and saying, Let somebody else do something, she said. Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the office Weber is running for. He is a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Ohios 9th District. General Elections 2020 and the case of Sunil Handunetti View(s): The successful conclusion of the 2020 parliamentary elections has brought to the forefront the issue of how individual candidates are assessed by the voter prior to casting his preference. Political commentators will undoubtedly mull on the reasons for Sri Lanka Podujana Peramunas margin of victory and the poor showing at the polls of the two oldest political parties, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) the parties widely identified as the countrys main political parties. There is however a third matter that must trouble concerned citizens. That is the question as to how much importance the Sri Lankan voter attaches to the integrity and contribution of individual candidates in deciding on their representatives for Parliament and other government institutions. This question assumes an added significance at this Elections with the defeat of the Jathika Jana Balawegayas (JJB) Sunil Handunetti in the Matara district thus depriving him of a seat in Parliament. Handunetti was one of the parliamentarians who adorned the last Parliament with distinction. His role as Chairman of the Parliamentry Committee on Public Enterprises, popularly known as COPE, made him a stand out as a parliamentarian who earned the respect of those inside and outside Parliament. His work in COPE with regard to the Central Bank Bond Scam issue, and his relentless efforts to ensure the effectiveness of the Legislatures role in monitoring the countrys finances was invaluable. Like his colleagues in the JJB, he took the work of Parliament seriously and contributed immensely to the legislative process. His efforts received appreciative publicity in the media and was therefore well known to the public. Yet the voters of Matara rejected him thus depriving the country of his services in the days to come. The fact that the people of Matara were not supportive of the JJB at Wednesdays general election undoubtedly contributed to his personal defeat. Yet the question arises as to why did a sufficient number of educated voters not reach out beyond party lines to ensure that a tested parliamentarian, with not a trace of impropriety in his political career, be sent to the Legislature. Was their allegiance to any particular political party more important than the role that an individual like Sunil Handunetti could play in Parliament? The other question that arises is the inability of the present system of proportionate representation to accommodate independent individuals of exceptional ability to stand for election and obtain the endorsement of the electorate to enter Parliament. The first past-the-post system of elections enabled individuals to stand for elections independent of any party and enter the Parliament with the approval of the electorate. This provision does not exist under the present system of proportionate elections although there is a national list which was meant to facilitate those who did not want to face the process of going through the hustings. However a national List parliamentarian depends largely on the leadership of a political party to enter Parliament and his ability to act independently is therefore greatly limited. The case of Sunil Handunetti is also interesting from another aspect. He first entered Parliament from the Colombo district in 2004 and then was elected to Parliament once again from Colombo in 2010. In 2015 however when he moved to his home district of Matara, the Deniyaya born politician was defeated and had to be accommodated from the national list to Parliament. Once again this time too Mr Handunetti has been rejected by the voters of Matara despite his sterling performance in the last Parliament. Another election result that defies understanding is the case of Premalal Jayasekera from the Ratnapura district. Although he was convicted of murder just two days before the election, the voters of Ratnapura cast 142,037 ballots in his favour. Clearly the court judgement did not in any way influence the voters who continued to repose confidence in him. Such a phenomenon is not unusual for a parliamentary election in Ratnapura. At a previous election, two individuals who were accused of causing the death of SLFP Parliamentarian Nalanda Ellawala by shooting, obtained the highest number of preferential votes in the UNP list for the Ratnapura district and entered Parliament. Mr Jayasekera may function as a Member of Parliament pending the determination of his appeal against the conviction, but taking into consideration the pace at which the wheels of justice move in the country, it is safe to assume that he may complete most, if not his entire term as a parliamentarian, before the appeal is finally concluded. Meanwhile the importance that people place on the integrity of their representatives will remain a question mark. Former President Maitripala Sirisena who has returned as a parliamentarian representing the Polonnaruwa district will also face an awkward situation. He will have to rub shoulders with an individual who has been convicted of causing the death of a person who worked to make him the President. There are several similar questions that arise in ones mind when one looks at the results of the 2020 general elections. One is the case of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan. Mr Chandrakanthan, who is better known as Pillayan which was his nom de guerre while in the LTTE, is currently in remand for the alleged murder of former parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham during Christmas Mass at a church in Batticaloa in 2005. He was elected to Parliament at Wednesdays polls with 54,198 preferential votes. Clearly there is much to be desired with the present system of election that needs to be reformed. Dulles Alahapperuma who returned from the Matara district made a strong plea for change just after the results were announced. He urged the Government to bring about electoral reforms urgently and claimed doing so would be as meritorious as defeating the LTTE. Incidentally Mr Alahapperumas colleague Mr Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene was another casualty from the Matara district, after he failed to gain sufficient preferential votes to enter Parliament. Mr Lakshman Yapa and Mr Alahapperuma, two of the more decent politicians around, were the first to introduce the concept of campaigning on a common platform when they contested from opposite camps at the 1989 general election. Mr Lakshman Yapa was in the UNP, while Mr Alahapperuma was a nominee of the SLFP. (javidyusuf@gmail.com) With 40 active cases, Brandon is now the largest COVID-19 hotspot Manitoba has experienced thus far in the novel coronavirus pandemic. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/8/2020 (529 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. With 40 active cases, Brandon is now the largest COVID-19 hotspot Manitoba has experienced thus far in the novel coronavirus pandemic. "This is likely the biggest one we've had," chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said Friday at the second impromptu news conference called this week to address a spike in COVID-19 cases. On Thursday, he reported 30 new cases the largest increase since April 2. On Friday, there were 17 more. In the Brandon cluster, 10 of those who've tested positive work at the local Maple Leaf Foods Inc. meat processing plant, company president and chief executive officer Michael McCain said in a statement Friday afternoon. Shifting line on COVID-19 statistics Click to Expand RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Local - Brent Roussin Presser Manitoba's Chief Provincial Health Officer, Dr, Brent Roussin, holds press conference at the Legislative Building Friday. Aug 7th, 2020 Posted: 7:00 PM Aug. 7, 2020 Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe provided residents of his province with the kind of detailed coronavirus pandemic information rarely seen in neighbouring Manitoba. Concerned by the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan Hutterite colonies, Moe served up some cold facts July 29: of the 322 active cases in the province that day, 244 were from colonies. In an update the following day, Saskatchewan officials backed away from specifically mentioning Hutterite colonies, instead citing infection totals for "multiple communal living settings." Read Full Story The employees caught the virus in the community, not on the job, Roussin said earlier, when just eight Maple Leaf workers were known to have tested in positive. "There's no evidence of workplace transmission at this time." Of the 17 new cases in the province, five are in Winnipeg, 10 in the Prairie Mountain Health region (which includes Brandon), and two in Southern Health. There are now 132 active cases, with nine people in hospital and three in intensive care. The province's five-day test positivity rate is 1.1 per cent.

Some of the Brandon cluster are "connected to a business," said Roussin, refusing to identify Maple Leaf by name, saying there's no health benefit in sharing the location with the public. "There's not a single case acquired there, from our investigation." Roussin said the site was inspected by provincial and federal agencies Thursday, and no remedial orders were issued. He said there had been a recent "deep clean" of the facility, any workers who unknowingly had the virus would've worn personal protective equipment at work during the infectious period, and workers have been cohorted to reduce the risk. Going public? Manitoba provincial health officials issue an advisory about possible exposure at a Walmart in Winnipeg. A Brandon Walmart employee later tests positive and the province doesn't say boo. A Tim Hortons restaurant in Brandon closes when a worker tests positive, and chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin mentions it a media briefing. He says nothing about a daycare in St. Francois Xavier that closes temporarily after a child tests positive. A Maple Leaf Foods Inc. pork processing plant in Brandon that employs 2,300 people has 10 workers test positive for COVID-19, but is not publicly identified by health authorities. What gives? click to read more Manitoba provincial health officials issue an advisory about possible exposure at a Walmart in Winnipeg. A Brandon Walmart employee later tests positive and the province doesn't say boo. A Tim Hortons restaurant in Brandon closes when a worker tests positive, and chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin mentions it a media briefing. He says nothing about a daycare in St. Francois Xavier that closes temporarily after a child tests positive. A Maple Leaf Foods Inc. pork processing plant in Brandon that employs 2,300 people has 10 workers test positive for COVID-19, but is not publicly identified by health authorities. What gives? Roussin says he won't make public health information unless it benefits the public. If officials can identify an infected person's contacts, there is no need to notify the public. In Winnipeg, public health couldn't identify those who came and went from the Walmart store earlier in the pandemic, so the public was notified. That wasn't the case recently at the Walmart in Brandon, Roussin said Friday. "Public health will make announcements based on our investigation, and our investigation is there was no risk to the public there," he said. On Friday, Tim Hortons said its Brandon restaurant just off the Trans-Canada Highway was closed after an employee tested positive for COVID-19. Those who worked closely with the infected employee are self-isolating for 14 days and will be paid through a corporate and restaurant owner COVID-19 compensation fund to make up for any lost wages. The site is to remain closed until it can be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized and a separate crew of team members can be brought in, the company told the Free Press in an email. Close The Ontario-headquartered company is calling for Brandon Mayor Rick Chrest to urge residents to wear face masks and follow social-distancing guidelines. "We must work together as one to prevent the community spread of COVID-19," McCain said in his statement. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832, which represents close to 2,000 of the plant's 2,300 workers, has called for a temporary shutdown, saying employees are scared. Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister said he shares their fear, but workers can have faith in public health officials. "I'm scared for every Manitoban; I'm scared enough for everybody," Pallister said Friday morning. "The fact is, the company there has taken every step it's been asked to and more... We are following the best health advice that we can get here in Manitoba, and we're going to continue to." The province is currently carrying its highest number of active cases since April. Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "We've been here before and we know what to do," said Roussin. Manitobans can once again flatten the curve of COVID-19 with good hand hygiene, staying home when they're sick, keeping social distance, and not shaming or stigmatizing those infected, he said. "Stigma can adversely affect our public health investigations," Roussin said. "It can make people and businesses less likely to co-operate with public health. "This co-operation is vital to the success of public health and managing this outbreak." carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca In light of the ongoing COVID-19 challenge, Sligo County Council is actively engaging with local business owners to facilitate the placing of tables and chairs outside premises such as cafes, restaurants and bars. A license is required for the placing of any street furniture on public property, and to facilitate this initiative, no license fees will be sought for any such application (normally 125 per table). Prospective applicants are advised to contact the planning section of Sligo County Council for advice on the process prior to applying. It is important to ensure that any such apparatus does not interfere with the movements of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, particularly in light of current physical distancing requirements. This is one of several initiatives which the council is taking and is to the forefront in delivering as the country gets to grips with the Covid-19 pandemic which so far has seen 149 cases in the county since March. Sligo County Council is responding to the challenge presented by Covid by coordinating a range of positive measures to boost commercial activity and renew the shopping experience in Sligo. With the opening of a transformed O'Connell Street, the roll out of re-start grants for local businesses, the implementation of a waiver scheme for rate payers, a coordinated effort is being made to assist local enterprise with a range of important supports in the critical months ahead. The main design ethos of the new look O'Connell Street was to create an improved pedestrian zone by enhancing the quality and attractiveness of the urban environment, creating an interconnected metropolitan space that will facilitate commercial and residential opportunities for the undeveloped and underutilised sites in the O'Connell Street area. The Sligo Local Enterprise Office (LEO) is the first-stop-shop for those entrepreneurs starting a small business or expanding an existing one. It provides an integrated support service focusing on the needs of small businesses from the Council's offices in City Hall. Covid-19 has changed radically the way in which the services of the LEO are now delivered, from face to face interaction with clients to online delivery. The type of services being delivered were also extended to assist businesses deal with the new challenges posed by Covid-19. Online training on safely reopening food, hair/beauty and retail businesses, delivering professional services online, managing remote working and other topics aimed at assisting compliance with Covid-19 guidelines were introduced. The process of applying for and being approved grant aid, aimed primarily at businesses in the manufacturing and internationally traded sectors, moved fully online. Despite the huge hit to businesses, the Office has continued to receive (and approve) applications for grant aid, many of them adding jobs. John Reilly, Head of Enterprise reflected on the huge progress that was in train in Sligo pre-Covid, from significant infrastructure projects, many involving Sligo County Council, to job announcements, funding announcements, flagship projects such as the National Mountain Biking Centre, the new Surfing Centre of Excellence in Strandhill, the many fine walkways completed in recent times and others planned. "Progress such as I have outlined and the many projects I have mentioned may have slowed down but most of it can be resumed. "The infrastructure and other groundwork is continuing to be laid to further enhance Sligo's growing reputation as a positive, visitor friendly and technologically advancing destination." The Heritage Council recently awarded 200,000 to a heritage-led regeneration initiative in the town. The Heritage Office of Sligo County Council in partnership with Sligo BID, the property owners and the local community were awarded 200,000 under the Historic Towns Initiative 2020. The award is being further supported with 50,000 in funding from Sligo County Council as well as private investment from property owners. The Restart Grant provides direct grant aid to micro and small businesses with the costs associated with reopening and re employing workers following COVID-19 closures. Eligible businesses who have stayed open throughout the crisis, as well as those who re-opened under Phase 1 (from 18 May) and Phase 2 (8 June) of the Government's Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business were eligible to apply for the Restart Grant. A Temporary COVID-19 Mobility Plan for Sligo town centre will improve physical distancing for pedestrians on the busier town core centre streets during the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan was prepared by Sligo County Council having consulted with Sligo BID Business Members and other various stakeholders, including consideration of representations made on behalf of vulnerable road users and cyclists. The plan is a 'living document' and will be subject to review over the coming weeks and months ahead, as Government and HSE advice on social distancing is updated. Sligo Tourism's 'Digital Marketing' initiative aims to grow the number of overseas visitors to the region, as well as the amount of money tourists spend in the county. Key elements of the campaign include the development of visitor experiences and packages which will focus on the off-season and shoulder months of the tourism calendar, which traditionally stretch from October to March. Sligo Tourism will collaborate with a number local tourism networks while running the campaign, including Adventure Sligo, Sligo Food Trail, Sligo Walks, and South and West Sligo Tourism. This is just a snapshot of the many initiatives instigated or supported by Sligo County Council and its partner agencies as Sligo 'gets back to business.' R ed alerts have been declared on UK beaches after "unsafe" crowds gathered to enjoy 30C weather. A red alert occurs when authorities believe that social distancing is impossible. Much of Bournemouth beach was put on red alert despite pleas from local authorities for tourists to stay away, Somerset Live reports. While some stretches of the beach are on orange alert, members of the public are being told to avoid it entirely. Parts of the UK could see record-breaking overnight temperatures this weekend as the mini heatwave continues / PA Pictures show huge crowds of sunbathers and swimmers. The Sandbanks beach in Poole, as well as the stretches of Bournemouth beach at Alum Chine and Durley Chine were also put on red alert. It come as Britons enjoy a scorching Saturday as temperatures surged once again. The Met Office said temperatures had already reached 34.5C at Frittenden in Kent early on Saturday afternoon, with a chance the mercury could rise as high as 36C in the South East later in the day. London and the South East have endured sweltering heat over the past few days, with no let-up expected until the middle of next week. Cars queue up as they head down towards the sea front at Bournemouth beach / PA The record for the hottest August day is 38.5C, set at Faversham on August 10 2003. The current record maximum temperature for the UK is 38.7C, reached in Cambridge Botanic Garden on July 25 last year. Friday saw crowds of people heading for the coast, with images of packed beaches, traffic jams and full car parks shared widely on social media. By Friday afternoon, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Councils beach check app showed 19 of its 24 beaches under red alert, warning people to avoid the areas because safe social distancing was not possible. Several issues like excessive rubber deposits, water stagnation, and cracks at the Kozhikode airport that were routinely red flagged by aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), were addressed by the airport operator Airports Authority of India (AAI), civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Saturday evening, a day after an Air India Express flight from Dubai carrying 190 people skidded off a wet runway killing at least 17 people. In a series of tweets, minister Puri said that raising such safety concerns is the normal work of DGCA. "DGCA strictly ensures that these are complied with and rectified under all circumstances and this was done by the airport operator," the ministry of civil aviation said in a statement quoting the minister. A little over a year ago, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had served a notice to the airport, operated by the government-run Airports Authority of India (AAI), after an audit revealed safety concerns over excessive rubber depositsan occurrence that poses even higher risks in times of rains. The Kozikode table top airport in Kerala, the site of the accident involving Air India Express IX344, is not among the easiest to operate flights, The repatriation flight operated by Air India Express, flight number IX344, was being operated by former Indian air force pilot Captain Deepak Vasanth Sathe and first officer Akhilesh Kumar, both of whom were killed in the accident. Puri on Saturday tweeted that AAI strengthened the runway and thereafter necessary permissions were issued in 2018 to operate wide body aircraft. Consequently, certain carriers started operating some flights with wide body aircraft to Kozhikode Airport. The minister said that Kozhikode Airport has a total footfall of 3.2 million passengers per annum with 70-80 aircraft movement per day. He added that in case of the Kozhikode accident, an enquiry has been ordered under Aircraft Act, while black boxes of flight IX-1344 have been recovered. Findings of the investigations will be made public, he added. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 8 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 35 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. Armenian armed forces were using large-caliber machine guns. 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. Anu Kuruvilla By Express News Service KOCHI: As incessant rain continues to lash the district, people living on the banks of major rivers in the district are moving to safer areas.The Periyar and Muvattupuzha rivers have breached their banks, flooding houses in the low-lying areas.Revenue officials said the low-lying areas at Chengamanad, Nedumbassery, Choornikkara, Keezhmad and North Paravoor have been inundated. People in low-lying areas have been urged to move to safety, said an official. However, it seems the residents dont need any prodding this time.Vaishak K N, a resident, said, The Aluva Siva temple has been inundated and water has entered many houses. However, the water has not risen as much as it did in 2018. Preparations for setting up camps are over and if the situation warrants it, relocation of people will be done promptly, he said.But, some of the residents of highrises like Joseph K M have decided to stay on. The water came up to just the first two levels. We will just move to the top floors and stay there, he said. Thomas Abraham, a resident of Chengamanad, said people have begun preparing for the worst. They are moving household items from the ground floor to prevent floodwater from damaging them , he said. They dont want to lose their belongings yet again to flood. The water level is yet to rise, but with heavy rain in the high ranges and the threat of landslides, people are worried, he said, adding, the water level might rise at night and people are bracing for that. An earthmover clearing obstacles to ease the flow of floodwater at MG Road on Friday. Many parts of the city were flooded, albeit less severly, in the heavy rain on Friday | A Sanesh The Muvattupuzha river too has started breaching its banks. If the rain continues to lash Idukki, water in the river will rise alarmingly, said the Muvattupuzha tahsildar.He said 40 houses in Illahiya colony have been inundated and the residents shifted to relief camps. Manoj K V, a social activist, said only places situated in the vicinity of the river have been affected so far.Other areas, including the Kuttampuzha tribal region too have been hit. An entire ward has been cut off completely, said Sandhya Lalu, president, Kuttampuzha gramapanchayat. As of now, water has not risen, she said. But the situation might change if landslides occur in the high ranges, she said. She said the chappath or bridge connecting Manikandan Chal, ward 7 of Kuttampuzha panchayat, has been submerged cutting off the region from the mainland. Around 13 families, including tribal families, live in this ward. To help them out, the panchayat has pressed a country boat into service. We are taking essential items and people across the river to Manikandan Chal. But since the river is swollen, the endeavour is pretty dangerous, Sandhya said, adding that as of now, no camps have been opened in the panchayat. This will be done if needed, she said. Rural police form response team Kochi: The Ernakulam Rural Police on Friday formed Emergency Response Team to coordinate rescue operations if there is a flood. It will function round the clock and will address peoples concerns and send messages to avoid confusion. The Rural police officials said they have started shifting people from low-lying areas to safety. If possible, people living in vulnerable places should go to their relatives places or shift to relief camps. All are urged to follow Covid protocol and use masks in camps too, said District Police Chief (Rural) K Karthick. He said anyone found spreading fake news about the flood will face action. Torres trucks, canoes, boas and other have been kept ready for emergencies. The Rural police are also updating their Facebook page with information about water levels in rivers and dams. 740 people shifted to 22 relief camps Kochi: The district administration evacuated 740 people, including those from 304 families, to nearly 22 relief camps opened in five taluks after low-lying areas in the district were inundated on Friday. The relief camps were opened in Aluva, Kochi, Kothamangalam, Muvattupuzha and Paravoor taluks. As many as 324 people, including 25 children, were shifted to eight camps opened in Paravoor, while 178 people were shifted to the six camps in Kothamangalam. Three camps each were opened in Aluva and Muvattupuzha. Two camps were opened under Kochi taluk at Chellanam after the sea level rose sharply. With the shutters of Malankara dam to be raised in the coming days, District Collector S Suhas said the situation will worsen. We are monitoring the water level after all the shutters of Bhoothathankettu dam were raised on Friday. We are also monitoring the water level of dams in Idukki and have made all arrangements to shift people in case of any untoward situation.Those in low-lying areas should move to safer places, said Suhas. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 13:50:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ACCRA, Aug.7 (Xinhua)-- The Ghana Education Service (GES) on Friday dismissed 14 final-year students and interdicted three teachers over various acts of indiscipline in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). A statement signed by Kwasi Opoku Amanakwah, director-general of the GES, said the dismissed students were also banned from the current examination, while the teachers were referred to security agencies for further investigation. Opoku Amankwah also said that the GES condemned all the unruly behaviors and that the students who had damaged property in schools would be surcharged. These measures are necessary to ensure that students recognize the significance of good conduct and discipline in their actions, according to the statement. Final-year students writing the ongoing WASSCE in some senior high schools across the country staged protests against social distancing protocols issued by authorities and what they described as strict supervision. The GES directed that all acts of vandalism and other criminal acts carried out during student protests should be reported to security agencies for further investigation. The actions of the students have received widespread criticism from various sectors including teacher unions and civil society. Enditem Mummy Needs Help by Susan Edmunds Renee is struggling to get to grips with having a totally dependent new-born. Luckily for her there is a Facebook group of new mums who welcome her with open arms and assurances that she might sleep again ... one day. Whilst Renee finds a safe space for questions and confessions, all hubby Nick can see is how easily she seems to be adapting to parenthood: a world in which he still feels adrift. Work is beginning to be the place he feels most at home.As her daughter reaches the age where she can finally have a solo shower, Renee realises its been months since shes had a baby-free discussion with Nick, let alone a date night. The question remains: will their marriage survive the storm? Exclusion Zone by J.M. Hewitt and read by Antonia Whillans On April 26 1986, reactor four exploded at the factory in Pripyat, Chernobyl. At the same time teenager Afia Bello vanished from her home without a trace. The damage from the nuclear fallout is examined over the following weeks, months and years by Afias younger sister Sissy, as she unwittingly uncovers clues relating to her sisters disappearance and the secret life that Afia kept hidden from her family. In the summer of 2015, Private Detective Alex Harvey is hired to investigate the disappearances that have been occurring within the exclusion zone. He can think of only one person to bring along with him to help: Ukrainian national, Elian Gould. The remaining citizens of Chernobyl are hiding their own secrets, and with a darker force at work, the missing persons case suddenly turns into something much more serious The Survival List by Courtney Sheinmel and read by Sarah Mollo-Christensen Sloane Weber is devastated when her older sister dies by suicide. Talley was a bright light who made everyone want to step closer. Why had she made that unthinkable choice? The only clue Talley left behind for Sloane is a puzzlea list of random places and names, along with the phone number of a boy named Adam, who lives in California and claims he didnt know Talley. Sloane heads west, enlists Adams help, and together they search for answers. But while Sloane is drawn to Adam, she cant shake the feeling that hes hiding something... Cursed by Jen Calonita The evil Rumplestiltskin is planning to cast a curse that will erase Enchantasia as the world knows it, and a fairy prophecy declares that Gilly Cobbler will play a key role. Never one to shy away from adventure, Gilly and her friends embark on an epic, swashbuckling journey to stop Stiltskin from getting the ingredients he needs before it's too late. How to be Formula One Champion by Richard Porter How to be F1 Champion provides you with the complete guide to hitting the big time in top-flight motorsport, starting with the basics, including the correct look, how to manage your social media account, the art of champagne spraying and how to wear a massive watch. Then you'll be ready to learn more advanced skills such as inserting 'for sure' at the start of every sentence, talking about key sponsors while sounding like the force is draining from your body, and psychologically crushing your teammate without him noticing. Helpful illustrations accompany the text throughout. See you on the podium! The writing competition that helped launch the careers of a galaxy of authors including Anne Enright, Sebastian Barry and Joseph O'Connor is being revived by the Irish Independent. New Irish Writing began life under Cork-born editor David Marcus in 1968 as a page in the Irish Press for short stories and poems by new and emerging literary talent. Before it was suspended in the spring, it had brought about 3,000 writers to a national audience. More than 100 of them have gone on to publish books. Ciaran Carty, who has edited the page in its various homes since 1988, said: "Over half a century ago, David Marcus had a big idea, an idea as dazzling in its simplicity as it was brilliant in its realisation. Rather than start another literary journal while many were failing, he created one in the Irish Press where it could reach a national readership merely for the price of the newspaper. The page became a platform for generations of new and emerging writers who helped shape contemporary Irish literature today." These authors include Colum McCann, John Boyne, Sara Baume, Deirdre Madden, Patrick McCabe, Mike McCormack, Claire Keegan, Neil Jordan, Frank McGuinness, Paula Meehan, Bernard MacLaverty, Mary O'Donnell, Hugo Hamilton, John O'Donnell, Mary Costello, Anne Griffin, Eoin McNamee and Mary O'Malley. New Irish Writing was carried in the Sunday Tribune from 1988 to 2011 and the Irish Independent from 2011 to 2015. Its most recent publisher was the Irish Times but the page was suspended indefinitely as the coronavirus pandemic hit Ireland. Its annual prizes were known as the Hennessy literary awards after the drinks company that ended its association with the competition last year. "We welcome the Irish Independent's decision to again provide a home for the page and secure the future of its iconic contribution to Irish culture," Carty said. Expand Close Niamh Boyce / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Niamh Boyce Carty has been advised over the past 30 years by Dermot Bolger, the poet, playwright and novelist. They have been joined since December last year by Niamh Donnelly, whose first story was published by New Irish Writing in 2018. Bolger said: "This platform was a miracle under David Marcus's editorship. Its survival under Ciaran Carty's steadfast guidance was a greater miracle. But the greatest miracle is that this vital stepping stone for successive generations of writers has found a welcoming home in the Irish Independent: a beacon of hope in these fraught times." John Boyne, the author of 19 books including The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, said: "Being published on the New Irish Writing page in 1992 not only kickstarted my writing career but gave me a much-needed boost of confidence Each step in a writing career leads to the next, to finding readers, to building an audience and a body of work, but my first step was on this very page. How wonderful to see it returning to publish a new generation of writers." Niamh Boyce, whose novels include The Herbalist and Her Kind, said: "I still remember the moment I opened Ciaran Carty's email accepting my work for New Irish Writing in 2009. The publication of that early short story gave me the courage to think of myself a writer, to keep making work, and to take it seriously. New Irish Writing turned out to be pivotal in my career as a writer, winning New Irish Writer of the Year was life-changing. Expand Close Mike McCormack / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mike McCormack "I'm delighted to hear that New Irish Writing lives on; it has long been a vital showcase for exciting new work, and a lifeline for Irish writers." Mike McCormack, whose novel Solar Bones won the International Dublin Literary Award in 2018, said: "It's almost 30 years ago now but I remember clearly having my first piece published in the New Irish Writing Page of the Sunday Tribune. I sat in the car on Sunday morning and flittered through the paper to find the story - and there it was in the culture section with a brilliant illustration. I look back now and I remember that publication as the beginning of my adventure in fiction writing." Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither, A Line Made by Walking and Handiwork, said: "When I first started learning to write I would hungrily study the stories published each month in New Irish Writing; it was so important for me then to understand what my peers were writing, and what kind of stories were rising to the top. To be published in a national paper had a special kind of significance. My neighbours read it! And provided some colourful feedback." Cormac Bourke, editor of the Irish Independent and independent.ie, said: "We are delighted to welcome back New Irish Writing and to maintain a distinguished tradition dating back more than half a century. This underlines the Irish Independent's commitment to celebrating and fostering up-and-coming Irish writers. This platform has given some of our country's best-loved authors their big break and we look forward to helping the literary stars of tomorrow find their audience." New Irish Writing is for short stories and poetry from Irish writers and writers in Ireland, with one story and at least one poem to be published each month. It returns to the Irish Independent on September 26 and will appear in the Review supplement on the last Saturday of every month, with an accompanying podcast. It will reopen to entries from September 1 via newirishwriting@independent.ie. Short stories should be no more than 2,000 words, and up to five poems can be submitted. Jon Smith, Review Editor The Elvis statue wears a mask at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. (Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino) Feeling all shook up since the pandemic hit? We all are. The world also felt all shook up 43 years ago when Elvis Presley died at age 42. As the Aug. 16 anniversary of his death approaches, Elvis' spirit endures even amid the current health crisis. Here are five ways to connect with the King that could bring much-needed love, grace and gratitude to your stay-at-home summer. 1. Burning love Elvis Going to the chapel in person or virtually with Elvis. (Graceland Chapel) Remember when you got overruled on having an Elvis wedding? Maybe it's time to put that right. The Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas is open for on-site weddings with Elvis officiating. For those stuck at home, Elvis will conduct virtual vow renewals and commitment ceremonies (not legal weddings) anywhere you like. "Elvis continues to resonate with people from all over the world, and we are excited that we can offer this fun and lively virtual Elvis-themed ceremony as an escape from the worldwide crisis," chapel co-owner Dee Dee Duffy said in a statement. As many as 100 friends and family members on Zoom can watch while Elvis sings "Can't Help Falling in Love," "Love Me Tender" and "Viva Las Vegas." There, feel better now? The package costs $279. Info: gracelandchapel.com, (702) 382-0091 2. Masked Elvis What would the King of Rock do? The answer might be at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, where visitors are required to wear face coverings at all times. Its full-size statue of Elvis has been fitted with a face mask. Masked Elvis is an Insta hit at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. (Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino) "Elvis has been helping with the reminder, and guests love taking photos with the masked Elvis," spokeswoman Michelle Massaro said in an email. "We even switch his mask out to a themed Raiders mask and Vegas Golden Knight mask [from] time to time." Social distance markers at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. (Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino) The casino also uses social distancing floor markers with a silhouette of Elvis that says "Stay 6 blue suede shoes apart." Aww, there's another Insta moment right there. Info: Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino Story continues 3. Graceland Elvis Fans of the late Elvis Presley gather each year for a candlelight vigil at Graceland, the performer's home in Memphis, Tenn. (Nikki Boertman / Associated Press) It's almost time for Elvis Week at Graceland and, for the first time, there's a parallel Virtual Elvis Week planned too. Both events run from Saturday to Aug. 16. Fans turn out every year to share their love of all things Elvis. For the virtual celebration, you pay $39 to join a closed Facebook group to watch past concerts, fresh interviews with bandmates, content from the archives, and a live stream of the annual candlelight vigil. Those who go in person pay $50 a day for events that include a tour of the mansion, screenings at a pop-up drive-in theater and a VIP spot at the vigil. Info: graceland.com/elvis-week 4. Offline Elvis The King can't be here to entertain us during the pandemic, but Chris Maddox can. On Facebook, you can watch the Elvis impersonator in the Southern California fan band Graceband, who has stepped out of his white jumpsuit to re-cast himself as the "Crisis Crooner." Chris Maddox, 47, practices one of his parody songs in the closet of his Carlsbad home. The longtime Elvis Presley tribute artist is now writing parody songs about living in quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Courtesy photo) Maddox turned to recording original pandemic parodies on his Facebook page, the San Diego-Union Tribune reports, that go something like this: "Hand Spray," set to Frank Sinatras "My Way"; "It Seems I Clean," set to "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical "Les Miserables"; and "I Walked the Dog (5 Times Today)," to Bon Jovis "You Give Love a Bad Name." Chris Maddox, in his spirit-of-Elvis mode. Maddox is taking a break from the King during the pandemic. (David Laurell/Burbank Leader) Graceband last played a gig in early February in Solana Beach before bars and restaurants closed. In this case, Elvis has left the building only temporarily. Info: Chris Maddox on Facebook 5. Dr. Elvis This Elvis can heal what ails you with music. Dr. Elvis Francois, an orthopedic-surgery resident at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has made some soulful songs during the crisis. Early in the pandemic he recorded John Lennon's "Imagine" while a colleague, Dr. William Robinson, played the piano. The video went viral. Dr. Elvis, as he's called, and Robinson in April released a four-song album, "Music Is Medicine," with their versions of "Imagine" and Bill Withers' "Lean on Me," to raise funds for COVID-19 relief. Rolling Stone magazine reports it was the "16th-biggest seller via digital album sales, according to Alpha Data." This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Its great that all this money is there, but it all has to get where it needs to get to save people before the moratorium ends, said Mark Swartz , LCBH executive director. Its a race. Are we going to be able to get the funding out to people, so we can redress the issue before people start to avail themselves of eviction court again? Thats the big issue. "As our guests begin to make decisions on when flying feels right to them, we're looking for new and creative ways to show that our care is always there," said Sangita Woerner, Alaska Airlines' senior vice president of marketing and guest experience. "With this BOGO sale and blocked middle seats through October, guests can get an entire row to themselves, which we hope brings even greater peace of mind. There's nothing better than helping people reconnect with family and friends, get outdoors or relax and recharge safely, for a great deal." Alaska is adding even more layers of safety to keep guests and employees safe when they are ready to fly, from the time they arrive at the airport to their destinations and beyond. As part of nearly 100 Next-Level Care safety measures, Alaska is: Extending physical distancing on board for fall travel with blocked middle seats on all mainline flights and reduced capacity on regional flights through Oct. 31 . for fall travel with blocked middle seats on all mainline flights and reduced capacity on regional flights through . Strengthening face mask policies, including: Requiring all guests over the age of two to wear a mask or face covering, with no exceptions. If a traveler does not wear a mask, they will not be allowed to fly. This policy applies to anywhere Alaska conducts business at ticket counters, gate areas and inflight. conducts business at ticket counters, gate areas and inflight. In late June, Alaska empowered its flight attendants to issue a final notice to any guest in the form of a yellow card handed to them who repeatedly disregards or disobeys the requirement to wear a mask or face covering. If a guest still does not comply after that warning, their travel with Alaska will be suspended immediately instead of undergoing a review process. empowered its flight attendants to issue a final notice to any guest in the form of a yellow card handed to them who repeatedly disregards or disobeys the requirement to wear a mask or face covering. If a guest still does not comply after that warning, their travel with will be suspended immediately instead of undergoing a review process. Continuing enhanced cabin cleaning procedures that exceed CDC guidelines, including cleaning between flights, using electrostatic disinfectant sprayers for a next-level clean. that exceed CDC guidelines, including cleaning between flights, using electrostatic disinfectant sprayers for a next-level clean. Extending flexible travel policies, with Peace of Mind waivers that allow for no change or cancellation fees for flights booked by Sept. 8 , if travelers' plans should change. Read More: Unpacking Alaska Airlines Next-Level Care For the BOGO sale, tickets must be purchased by 11:59 PM (PT) on Aug. 9, 2020, for travel between Aug. 7 and Oct. 31, 2020. To get the row, select seats when purchasing. Day of week and other restrictions apply. View complete terms and conditions at alaskaair.com/GETTHEROW. About Alaska Airlines Alaska Airlines and its regional partners serve more than 115 destinations across the United States and North America, providing essential air service for our guests along with moving crucial cargo shipments, such as food, medicine, mail and e-commerce deliveries. With hubs in Seattle; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; and Anchorage, Alaska, the airline is known for low fares, award-winning customer service and sustainability efforts. With Alaska and its Global Partners, guests can earn and redeem miles on flights to more than 800 destinations worldwide. Learn more about Alaska at newsroom.alaskaair.com and blog.alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK). SOURCE Alaska Airlines Related Links http://www.alaskaair.com Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe provided residents of his province with the kind of detailed coronavirus pandemic information rarely seen in neighbouring Manitoba. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/8/2020 (529 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe provided residents of his province with the kind of detailed coronavirus pandemic information rarely seen in neighbouring Manitoba. Concerned by the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan Hutterite colonies, Moe served up some cold facts July 29: of the 322 active cases in the province that day, 244 were from colonies. In an update the following day, Saskatchewan officials backed away from specifically mentioning Hutterite colonies, instead citing infection totals for "multiple communal living settings." Manitoba has also seen a recent spike in Hutterite case counts, but its residents have received scant information from their provincial government. For a time, the province did refer to certain cases as being linked to Hutterite colonies, but quickly stopped when it received blowback from the communities for being singled out. The public can now only guess the actual numbers based on regional health authority counts. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Manitoba has been miserly with information about specific cases, dispensing it on a need-to-know basis, citing privacy concerns. On Friday, Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, still would not refer to the Maple Leaf Foods Inc. meat processing plant by name when discussing employees at that location who had become infected. Instead, he referred to it only as "a business in Brandon." This is despite the fact a public debate has arisen as to whether the plant should be shut down temporarily as a precaution. (Roussin says there's no evidence the virus has been transmitted within the plant itself.) Asked Friday about whether Manitoba should be providing more information to the public about novel coronavirus cases, Premier Brian Pallister said he supports releasing more detailed geographic locations of cases. He said it's an area in which he and Roussin have disagreed. "Dr. Roussin and I have, I think, developed a growing relationship of trust that doesnt mean we agree on everything Sometimes we disagree," just as family members sometimes do, Pallister said. "In this case, we've had some good discussion about advancing additional detail to the public because I think that is important. For example, saying there is a problem in a health region when our health regions in rural Manitoba are so big, it creates a fear across the whole region that I dont want to see happen," the premier said. "Imagine the fear when you hear there are a dozen cases in one health region? "I'd like to see greater detail released," Pallister said. "There are discussions underway on how that might be able to be done, always respecting, of course, the rights to privacy of an individuals health." Toronto Public Health started collecting information on Indigenous identity, racial group, income and household size for COVID-19 cases May 20. Data is collected from infected people on a voluntary basis. The City of Toronto says while there are limitations to this type of information gathering, it still provides considerable insight into how the illness is impacting the community. The first batch of information, collected May 20-July 16, revealed 83 per cent of people infected by the coronavirus in Canada's largest city identified with a racialized group. Fifty-one per cent of reported cases were living in households that could be considered lower-income; 27 per cent of COVID-19 cases were among individuals who live in households with five or more people. Manitoba began collecting information about cases involving First Nation and Inuit persons, in collaboration with those communities, April 3. The collection of racial and ethnic identifiers became a mandatory part of case investigation in the province May 3. Manitoba says it does not typically collect data on income and household size. The province is not yet publishing any statistics that break down COVID-19 cases by race or ethnicity, although it says it might do so in the future. The public has only had limited access to First Nations data the First Nations themselves have released. "Work is ongoing to develop a process for the engagement and participation of diverse communities into the analysis, response planning and communications of separating out COVID-19 surveillance information," a spokeswoman said in a statement to the Free Press this week. "A plan is being developed to release and disaggregated data available that respects all relevant health and information privacy standards and includes all partners." The province has been forthcoming with some types of information concerning Manitobans who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Cases have long been broken down by age group, sex and health authority. The government is now issuing COVID-19 surveillance reports that reveal the impact of underlying health conditions on hospitalization rates for the virus. The government is also tracking and reporting on the frequency of specific symptoms among infected persons. There were 54 persons identified as being infected with COVID-19 in Manitoba during the week of July 19-25. Of those who were hospitalized, more than 90 per cent had some form of chronic underlying health condition. Close to half of infected persons who did not require hospitalization also suffered from some form of chronic condition. The province also tracks and publishes how frequently COVID-19 patients suffer from certain specific health conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and others. However, cumulative information (since the beginning of the pandemic) is so far unavailable. Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. According to provincial data, cough, fever and headache have been the three most common symptoms reported by those testing positive in Manitoba for COVID-19. About two-thirds of infected persons have had a cough, while 45 per cent suffered from fever and the same percentage complained of a headache. Slightly more than 40 per cent suffered muscle pain, close to 40 per cent had chills and one-third suffered from sore throat. About a quarter of persons testing positive suffered from shortness of breath. with files from Carol Sanders larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca More than 500 migrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK in just three days. Dozens more migrants braved the dangerous crossing to Britain on Saturday, prompting an hours-long search and rescue operation. Individuals wearing blankets and lifejackets were seen arriving in Dover aboard a Border Force boat on Saturday afternoon, while others were reported to have landed on Kent beaches. A total of 151 migrants reached the UK via small boats on Saturday, the Home Office confirmed. It comes as Home Secretary Priti Patel appointed a former Royal Marine to the role of clandestine Channel threat commander. Her Home Office has been accused of having lost control after a new single-day record for migrant crossings was set on Thursday. Border Force has been dealing with an unprecedented surge in crossings in the latter part of this week. At least 532 migrants some as young as babies successfully reached the UK between Thursday and Saturday, figures show. They were seen being brought ashore in Dover, just a few hundred metres away from where beachgoers basked in the roasting 33C sunshine. With a record number of people illegally crossing this year, all options need to be on the table. But whether its the Navy or whoever, dinghies should be returned to France, and the French need to stop boats leaving French shores in the first place.https://t.co/qMBRs2qUk2 Natalie Elphicke MP (@NatalieElphicke) August 8, 2020 The Home Office has now made a formal request for support from the Royal Navy to deal with migrants attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats. In a statement, the MoD said: We are assessing the requirement using the formal Military Aid to the Civilian Authorities process and are working hard to identify how we can most effectively assist. Story continues As ever the MoD will do all it can to support HMG requirements. A Border Force officer escorts a young family thought to be migrants (Gareth Fuller/PA) Earlier today, it was announced that the Home Secretary has tasked former Royal Marine Dan OMahoney with delivering her ambition of making the English Channel unviable for migrants in small boats. Ms Patel said: The number of illegal small boat crossings is appalling. We are working to make this route unviable and arresting the criminals facilitating these crossings and making sure they are brought to justice. Dans appointment is vital to cutting this route by bringing together all operational partners in the UK and in France. A suspected migrant in a wheelchair is brought ashore by Border Force officers in Dover (Michael Drummond/PA) Dover MP Natalie Elphicke has been calling for migrants to be returned to France irrespective of whether they are picked up in British or French waters. She said on Twitter: With a record number of people illegally crossing this year, all options need to be on the table. But whether its the Navy or whoever, dinghies should be returned to France, and the French need to stop boats leaving French shores in the first place. (Natural News) Mayor Ted Wheeler slammed the Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters in Portland on Thursday for trying to burn down the Portland Police Bureaus (PPB) East Precinct building, despite consistently showing support for the supposedly peaceful elements of the movement, and even speaking at several engagements organized by BLM. The incident in question occurred on Wednesday evening, August 5. During that night, the PPB declared the gathering at the East Precinct to be a riot, arrested eight people only two of whom were confirmed to be Portland residents and used tear gas after the aggressive mob tried to destroy the precinct. Much of the building was spray-painted and its glass doors shattered and barricade before rioters eventually tried to set it on fire while officers were still inside. Wheeler came out strongly against these rioters even though he once stood in solidarity with them just two weeks prior; even subjecting himself to getting teargassed to virtue signal his supposed support for police accountability. When you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occupied by people who you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating, you are attempting to commit murder, said Wheeler during a virtual news conference Thursday. I believe that city staff could have died last night, he continued. I cannot and will not tolerate that. This is not a peaceful protest. This is not advocacy to advance reform. Wheeler, who as mayor also acts as the citys police commissioner, said that the PPB expects similar attacks to occur on other city properties in the nights to come. He has instructed the bureau to hold accountable any rioter caught in the act of trying to burn down or otherwise damage public property. PPB Chief Chuck Lovell also denounced Wednesday nights violence. We have people who are intentionally planning to go out and attack precincts, said Lovell. These senseless attempts to injure officers and destroy police facilities are reprehensible and need to stop. I feel that lives hang in the balance. (Related: Portland Mayor and Portland Chief of Police should be arrested for being complicit in mob violence and terrorism against citizens.) A successful arson attack on the East Precinct would have cost innocent lives According to Capt. Tony Passadore, incident commander at the East Precinct on Wednesday night, there were 20 sworn PPB officers inside the building, along with a handful of other civilian employees. This means that had the rioters been able to set fire to the building, no fewer than 20 people could have died. I dont want people to get confused to think that this was something related to Black Lives Matter, Passadore said. The captain, who has been an incident commander for 24 nights of the over 70 nights of rioting in Portland, wants people to know that there is a large difference between the peaceful protests and the riot that just occurred outside the East Precinct. The siege of the East Precinct was organized by a group known as the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front (PNW-YLF), who used their social media accounts to advertise the riot and announced that there would be a round two the following evening. Their message ended with the slogan No cops. No prisons. Total abolition. Their advertisement also came with suggestions for rioters to wear black, stay hydrated and be water and stick together. The phrase be water is a strategy that came from protesters in Hong Kong rising up against the encroaching communist Chinese state. The phrase characterizes the tactics these demonstrators should adopt. By flowing like water, protesters are called to remain spontaneous, flexible and evasive. The PNW-YLF describes itself as a decentralized network of autonomous youth collectives that are using direct action to fight against the U.S. government to achieve total liberation. Several media outlets have reached out to them for comment, but they have not replied. The siege of the East Precinct is at least the third time that organized groups of rioters have specifically targeted police precincts by barricading the doors and trying to set fire to the building. Other police buildings that were targeted are the North Precinct, which is situated in a historically Black neighborhood, and the PPBs headquarters in downtown Portland. The headquarters of the citys police union, which was located in a residential part of the city, was also the target of an arson attack. Despite Wheeler calling them out, the Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters returned to the East Precinct building the next evening. During this gathering, which the PPB declared to be another riot, the demonstrators threw bottles and rocks and launched fireworks, injuring at least one police officer and causing significant damage to several police vehicles. The rioters, however, were again unsuccessful in their attempts to burn down the precinct. In a press release published the next morning, the PPB said that the injured officer was severely hurt after a still-unidentified rioter threw a very large rock that hit the officer in the shoulder. The rioting in Portland is escalating thanks to the withdrawal of federal law enforcement officers and the fact that local public officials are complicit in the criminal activity there. Learn about the latest events in this and other Antifa-infested cities across the country at Rioting.news. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk KGW.com KATU.com CBSNews.com InkStoneNews.com FoxNews.com Turkey bombed multiple possible Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in Iraq this week. The airstrikes took place in the Kurdistan Regions Sulaimaniyah province, which is a relatively less common location for Turkey-PKK conflict in the country. Turkey launched airstrikes near the town of Mawat today. Nobody died, but farmland caught on fire as a result, the Kurdish news outlet in Iraq Rudaw reported. Turkey hit the same area Tuesday, Rudaw said. Turkeys state-run Anadolu Agency reported today that Turkey conducted successful airstrikes against the PKK in the Asos region, which is close to Mawat. Turkish armed and intelligence forces detected their presence via surveillance, according to the outlet Mawat is located about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of the city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan Region. It is close to the Iranian border. Several Iranian Kurdish groups operate in the Kurdistan Region near the border, including the PKKs Iranian affiliate. Turkey frequently strikes apparent PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region and other parts of Iraq, but began an expanded air and ground offensive against the group in June. Turkeys airstrikes and other operations more often take place in Dahuk province of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) near the Turkish border. They target mountainous areas populated by Kurds and Assyrian Christians where the PKK operates. The PKK also attacks Turkish forces there. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is the dominant political power in Dahuk, and its leaders have an oil-based relationship with Turkey. These ties allow Turkey greater rein to pursue the PKK in the region, though the KDP-led KRG did call on Turkey to stop its attacks following the start of the June operation. Sulaimaniyah is controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is historically closer to the PKK and Iran and does not have the same economic relationship with Ankara as the KDP does. Turkey previously conducted airstrikes in Sulaimaniyah province this year. Turkey bombed the Asos area north of Sulaimaniyah targeting the PKK in May. The PKK fights for greater political and cultural rights for Turkeys Kurds. The Turkey-PKK conflict has left tens of thousands dead since 1978. Turkey and the United States consider the PKK a terrorist organization. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 14:23:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Saturday firmly opposed and strongly condemned the so-called U.S. sanctions against heads of Chinese government agencies responsible for Hong Kong affairs and officials of the HKSAR. "We will never be afraid of any bullying," a spokesperson for the office said, adding that if the United States thinks that the so-called sanctions can make Chinese people compromise and concede, it is in vain and what it did is an anachronism and miscalculation. Enditem Cocoa-beans Market Research Report by Product (Beauty Products, Cocoa Beverages, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Paste, and Cocoa Powder), by End User (Chocolate Confectionery Industry, Cosmetics Industry, and Food and Beverage Industry) - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 New York, Aug. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Cocoa-beans Market Research Report by Product, by End User - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913874/?utm_source=GNW The Global Cocoa-beans Market is expected to grow from USD 9,693.10 Million in 2019 to USD 14,819.37 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.33%. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Cocoa-beans to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Product, the Cocoa-beans Market studied across Beauty Products, Cocoa Beverages, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Paste, and Cocoa Powder. Based on End User, the Cocoa-beans Market studied across Chocolate Confectionery Industry, Cosmetics Industry, and Food and Beverage Industry. Based on Geography, the Cocoa-beans Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed 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 Cocoa-beans Market including Belcolade NV, Blommer Chocolate Company, Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate, Dutch Cocoa B.V, Ferrero S.P.A, Guan Chong Cocoa Manufacturer Sdn. Bhd., Kraft Foods Inc, Organic Commodity Products Inc.,, Petra Foods Limited, and Wilbur Chocolate Company Inc. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Cocoa-beans 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 the market 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 Cocoa-beans Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Cocoa-beans Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Cocoa-beans Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Cocoa-beans Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Cocoa-beans Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Cocoa-beans Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913874/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Alessandra Ambrosio showed off her chiseled midriff in a skimpy crop top as she stepped out in Los Angeles on Friday. The 39-year-old former Victoria's Secret Angel wore skintight workout gear that emphasized her supermodel figure, including a pair of NYLORA Dylan leggings. She made sure to keep her tie-dye face mask on as she emerged from lockdown to pick up some takeaway amid the coronavirus pandemic. Off she goes: Alessandra Ambrosio showed off her chiseled midriff in a skimpy crop top as she stepped out in Los Angeles on Friday Accessorizing with sunglasses, the Brazilian bombshell added a touch of dazzle to her ensemble with a sleek necklace. She slung a sweatshirt over one shoulder in case it ever got chilly, letting her luxurious dark hair tumble free. Alessandra, who hails from the Brazilian town of Erechim, has gone into lockdown with her beau Nicolo Oddi and her children. Looking fab: The 39-year-old former Victoria's Secret Angel wore skintight workout gear that emphasized her supermodel figure, including a pair of NYLORA Dylan leggings. She shares her two children, 11-year-old Anja and eight-year-old Noah, with her ex-fiance Jamie Mazur who co-founded RE/DONE. In 2018, Alessandra broke her decade-long engagement to Jamie, and she has since taken up with Nicolo, who founded the fashion brand Alanui with his sister Carlotta. Anja, Noah and Nicolo were all with Alessandra when she rang in her 39th birthday at home in self-isolation this April. Careful: She made sure to keep her tie-dye face mask on as she emerged from lockdown to pick up some takeaway amid the coronavirus pandemic Alessandra rose to international fame as a Victoria's Secret Angel, announcing that she was giving up the title at the end of 2017. She has collaborated with Aline and a pal called Gisele Coria to launch a new swimwear line called Gal Floripa, which debuted last March. The brand takes its title from a nickname for Florianopolis, the Brazilian city where Alessandra gave birth to both of her children. A Georgetown County government employee was suspended in mid-July after it was confirmed that a noose was hanging from the rearview mirror of his county Parks and Recreation vehicle. Jackie Broach, the countys public information officer, confirmed the unpaid suspension, although could not confirm the length of the time the employee had spent away from his position. The person in question is still employed by the county as of Friday evening, according to Broach. Broach said that the county was notified by a concerned citizen late on July 14 of the noose, with an internal investigation launching that same night. Appropriate personnel action was taken the following morning. The issue is now considered closed, Broach said. In a letter obtained by the Post and Courier, Marvin Neal of the NAACP Branch No. 5520 addressed County Administrator Angela Christian on July 20 about the incident, asking for action to be taken against the employee. I received an enormous amount of phone calls from Georgetown County employees and citizens alike, voicing their concerns about the faith of (the county employee) whom allegedly is the employee in question as it relates to the hang rope (noose) being displayed on the rearview mirror in a vehicle that is assigned to Park and Recreation Department. Some of the phone calls that I received over the weekend, it stated that the hang rope display was in that vehicle from three to four weeks. The public is aware of this situation and the outcries is getting louder, Neals note read. Broach said that the length of time that the noose was displayed is unclear. The note also points to a Georgetown County firefighter recently being fired for racially insensitive posts that he made on Facebook. Broach explained that Christian indicated that the two incidents were different in nature, therefore had contrasting penalties. The county had no further comment about the variance in punishment with the two cases. In his letter to Christian, Neal also pointed to recent measures taken by the county to focus on addressing racial equality. During the month of June, Georgetown County Government passed resolution No. 20-15 on June 23, 2020 addressing racial equality, which stated that 'County Council fully commits to promote a culture of trust among county government, county law enforcement, county advocacy and special interest group, and the citizens of Georgetown County and adamantly condemns any and all acts of racism and discrimination,' Neal wrote. 'Georgetown County Council commits itself not only to address the system of institutional racism, but also to proactively identify and address biases, practices, policies, and institutional barriers that perpetuate injustice and inequality in our community.' Neal indicated that the NAACP feels that this incident falls under the countys new resolution. This incident follows resolution No. 20-15, and this individual have disregarded the policy. That noose on the rearview mirror was a prime example of why protests are continuing across this nation. That noose was not a mistake but an act of hate. It allegedly was there during the time that the resolution was being presented and a disregard to county policies. Neal announced late Friday that the NAACP would be having a press conference at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Howard Center in Georgetown. This incident is not by mistake, but demonstrates that (the employee) is a clear and present danger to the employees and citizens of Georgetown County, Neal wrote. A petition on change.org is calling for the termination of the county employee. It currently has 333 signatures. AMHERST The UMass College Democrats have disinvited Holyoke Mayor and congressional candidate Alex B. Morse from future events, alleging he had inappropriate sexual relations with college students even while running for Congress, according to the Daily Collegian. According to the student-run newspaper, Morse, 31, who teaches political science at UMass, matched with students as young as 18 on dating apps like Tinder and Grindr. In a written statement, Morse apologized saying he needs to be more mindful of his own position of power. The young men included members of the College Democrats of Massachusetts, UMass Amherst Democrats and other groups in the state, according to the Daily Collegian. The UMass group also said Morse used College Democrats events to meet college students and add them on Instagram to his Close Friends story, which is a less general means of communicating, and then direct messaging them. UMass Amherst Democrats said the messages from Morse made the students feel uncomfortable. Morses campaign issued a written statement to The Republican saying: Growing up gay and closeted in a small city like Holyoke, I struggled with accepting my sexuality, and in high school, I had a hard time finding other openly gay students. As Ive become more comfortable with myself and my sexuality, like any young, single, openly gay man, I have had consensual adult relationships, including some with college students. I want to be clear every relationship Ive had has been consensual, However, I also recognize that I have to be cognizant of my position of power. Navigating life as both a young gay man and an elected official can be difficult, but that doesnt excuse poor judgment. Thats why I want to sincerely apologize to anyone I have made feel uncomfortable. I am committed to meeting with any person or group, including the College Dems, to answer any questions and address any concerns. Im sure that my opponent will be eager to twist this into something its not to score political points, but I would caution him against indulging in old negative stereotypes about gay men. I will not apologize for living life out of the closet, for going on dates, and having consensual conversations. Morse has made political hay out of being the young, gay, progressive mayor of his rustbelt hometown. Hes running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, in the Sept. 1 primary. The United States Congress has generously put forward a tremendous supplemental appropriationto deal with COVIDin the Middle East region, said Michael Harvey, USAID Assistant Administrator for the Middle East in a recent interview. Between USAID and the State Department, the United States has contributed over 205 million dollars to the COVD-19 response in the Middle East -- part of the more than $1.5 billion the U.S. has committed to date to fight the pandemic world-wide. These funds are specifically aimed to help governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations improve public health education, protect healthcare facilities; and increase laboratory, disease-surveillance, and rapid-response capacity. Assistant Administrator Harvey said that in the Middle East, the funds to fight COVID-19 have reached pretty much every country across the region. Mr. Harvey emphasized that while countries in the region are under tremendous stress because of conflicts in Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Syria,their own health systems actually performed very, very well in response to the pandemic: And we are extremely proud of that because we have invested so heavily in building the capacity of those health care systems and they have done well. The political leadership also managed it with a seriousness that we have seen in few other regions. The economic cost of the shutdown is now what we are really worrying about. How do we get the recovery to rapidly get economic growth back up? Assistant Administrator Harvey noted that one country in the Middle East refused the U.S. offer to help when the novel corona virus started its deadly spread: Iran declinedIt is tragic and heartbreaking how hard the Iranian people were hit by COVIDThis is a country with a lot of multigenerational households. And what were learning around the world is that multigenerational households are particularly hard hit. So we will continue to watch, and we will continue to stand ready to help. The U.S. Government has allocated $20.5 billion to benefit the global COVID-19 response and is determined to remain a leader in the worldwide effort against the disease. The United States, said Assistant Administrator Harvey, has always helped when people are in need. A 17-year-old girl and a 19-year-old boy, said to be in a relationship, were on Saturday stabbed to death, allegedly by the girls family members who then tried to dispose of the bodies by putting them on the same pyre in Bihars Aurangabad district. On a tip-off, the police pulled the bodies out of the burning pyre. While the girls body was completely burnt, the boys half-burnt body was sent for autopsy. The incident took place in a village under Muffasil police station area on Saturday. The police have registered a case against 15 people, most of whom are absconding. Police said villagers had earlier tried to broker peace between the two parties, but the girls family refused to agree to it. Around 9 am on Saturday, the girl reportedly reached the boys house to meet him and then refused to go back. Meanwhile, her brother got there along with others and allegedly stabbed her till she died. They then broke into the room where the boy was hiding and stabbed him to death too. At the time of incident, the boys parents were reportedly not at home. Eye-witnesses said they took the bodies to a funeral pyre prepared outside the village. On getting information, a police team led by Muffasil police station SHO Sujit Kumar reached the spot and pulled out the bodies from the funeral pyre that had been lit, allegedly by members of both the girls and the boys families. We have registered a case against 15 people wherein the members from families of both the girl and the boy have been named as accused, said Rakesh Rathi, inspector general of Magadh region. He said the police suspect that the two bodies were taken to the river side with the help of boys relatives. The crime was also committed in the boys house so they have detained some of his relatives suspecting collusion with the girls family. Raids were on to nab members of the girls family. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Avinash Kumar Avinash, a senior correspondent, reports on crime, railways, defence and social sector, with specialisation in police, home department and other investigation agencies. ...view detail Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt is admitted to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital, tweeted news agency ANI. Dutt has been admitted after he complained of breathlessness. He is currently under medical supervision. The actors COVID-19 report has come out to be negative but he has still been admitted for medical observation.His COVID-19 report is negative but he is still there for some time just for medical observation. He is perfectly fine, the hospital said in a statement. Glass half empty: Italy, France seek premium wine output cut as virus hits sales FILE PHOTO: Brunello di Montalcino's red wine bottles are displayed in a wine shop of Tuscan town of Montalcino By Silvia Ognibene and Dominique Vidalon FLORENCE/PARIS (Reuters) - Leading producers Italy and France are looking to slash premium wine output from the upcoming harvest to shore up prices after the coronavirus pandemic hammered sales and led to a glut of stock. In Italy domestic demand for wine is expected to fall by almost a third after lockdown forced the closure of hotels, restaurants and wine bars for months, and with tourists still all but absent. Exports have also fallen and wine makers fear a loss of around 1 billion euros this year, or 9% of total sales. Rome, aiming for a production cut of around 5% compared to last year, has earmarked 100 million euros ($119 million) to compensate vintners who throw away between 15% and 50% of their grapes, but wine makers' associations say take-up is likely to exceed the available funds. For bottles classified as higher quality, such as Chianti Classico and Prosecco, growers can get 1,100 euros per hectare of land on which the grape harvest is partly destroyed. Some high-end consortia, like that producing Brunello di Montalcino, which sells for up to 200 euros a bottle, have set their own production quotas. Brunello growers have agreed to a 12.5% reduction in output for the upcoming harvest, with an industry source saying they had only sold half of their 2020 target. Applications for compensation must be made by August 10. "The 100 million euros earmarked by the government will certainly not be enough," Luca Pollini, chairman of the Avito association of high-end Tuscan wine makers, told Reuters. Tuscany also this week put on the table 6 million euros to help wine makers build extra storage space, but Pollini said a lot of vintners would rather throw away their grapes. The region alone already had excess stock equivalent to around 2 million bottles of wine from the previous harvest, he said. LESS FIZZ Overall, France expects wine output to rise by 6-8% this year but the harvest of champagne grapes which starts this month is set to be smaller than last year - though champagne houses and growers have yet to agree by how much. Champagne producers' group CIVC estimates that as many as 100 million bottles will go unsold this year, with turnover down by more than 1.7 billion euros. Story continues Its data shows that more than one billion bottles are piled up in champagne cellars, representing several years of potential sales. The Union des Maisons de Champagne (UMC), which promotes the interests of major Champagne houses including LVMH's Moet & Chandon and Dom Perignon, wants the maximum yield for the 2020 harvest to drop by up to 40% compared to last year. However, growers - who will not be compensated for destroying their grapes - do not want to cut their yield by more than 17%, according to local media reports. UMC Chairman Jean-Marie Bailliere declined to comment on the negotiations but told Reuters he was confident a deal would be struck at a meeting scheduled for Aug. 18. Rome and Paris have also set money aside for producers who distil surplus wine into alcohol for use in hand sanitisers and perfumes, and France this week topped up financial support for growers to 250 million euros, saying cash needs were "pressing". The country's wine industry was already hurting as U.S. tariffs, part of a wider trade dispute between Washington and the European Union, curbed exports. Italian wines have not been subject to the tariffs but officials said fears that could change had boosted exports to the United States earlier this year, inflating stocks and depressing prices. "The weather has been favourable this year so the harvest should be good but the question for growers is whether they can sell their bottles at the right price," said Ottavio Cagiano de Azevedo, director general of the Federvini wine association. (Additional reporting and writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) The sanctions are the latest in a string of actions the Trump administration has taken targeting China as tensions between the two nations rise over trade, COVID-19 and other issues. President Donald Trumps offensive against China comes as he assigns full blame to Beijing for the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., deflecting criticism of his own handling of the pandemic that threatens his re-election. New Delhi: Tata Sons on Tuesday night refuted charges of breakdown of governance levelled by Cyrus P Mistry, saying it was the ousted chairman who has been violating such guidelines. The same Corporate Governance Guidelines, Mr. Mistrys office is referring to, prescribes that a Tata employee must step down from the Boards of Tata companies, after he ceases to be a Tata employee. After being replaced as Chairman of Tata Sons, Mr Mistry ceases to be a Tata employee. It is he who is violating the Guidelines that he himself propounded, and not Tata, a Tata Sons spokesperson said. The response was to Mistrys office issuing a statement saying the ousted chairman was fighting to protect the conglomerate from capricious decision-making by Interim Chairman Ratan Tata. Refuting remarks that he was trying to take over control over all Tata Group activities, Mistrys office alleged that those individuals were seeking to procure unpublished price sensitive information from listed group companies, breaking down governance. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Law enforcement units continue to investigate after a Kenosha Police officer was shot during an early Saturday morning incident by a suspect who fled and is still at large. Kenosha Police responded around 4:30 a.m. to the area of the 4600 block of Sheridan Road to investigate an entry to vehicle complaint. At that time, the responding officer located a subject matching the description of the suspect which was provided by the complainant. As the officer attempted to investigate, the suspect produced a firearm and shot the Kenosha Police officer, who has not been identified. The Kenosha officer returned fire. It is unknown if the suspect was injured. The suspect fled and has not been located. The officer was transported to a hospital with a gunshot wound. The injury is not believed to be life threatening. The officer is 30 years old with two years of service with the Kenosha Police Department. Kenosha Police requested the assistance from the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation (D.C.I.). The investigation has been turned over to them. Wisconsin State Patrol is providing assistance to D.C.I. D.C.I. units were in Kenosha Saturday checking out vehicles suspected of being part of the case. A disappointed Sen. Van. Wanggaard, R-Racine, called for the community to rally around the Kenosha Police Department and support the wounded officer. I stand with all law enforcement in praying that the officer shot in Kenosha fully recovers. Unfortunately, the anti-law enforcement rhetoric of the last two-plus months made this mornings events all too predictable, he said. In no civilized society should this behavior ever be considered acceptable. I call on the community to rally around the officer shot and the entire Kenosha Police Department. I hope the community helps identify the shooter and refuse to help him, to avoid further violence across our state. To the men and women in law enforcement, stay safe. Were with you, he said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 1 Flash China has provided the United States with over 26.5 billion face masks and other medical supplies, and hopes that the United States can overcome the COVID-19 epidemic at an early date, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday. An epidemic, knowing no boundaries or races, is the common enemy of humanity. Solidarity and cooperation can be the most powerful weapons against the virus, and the most urgent task is to save lives, according to Wang. With sympathy and empathy, China has offered substantial assistance to the epidemic-stricken United States in terms of anti-virus supplies, and has supported and facilitated U.S. procurement of medical supplies in China, Wang said at a press briefing in response to comments made by U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad on Thursday. During his trip to Shanghai, Branstad reportedly said that China's medical supplies to the United States had saved many lives. He also expressed the hope for further exchanges and cooperation with China to jointly overcome the impact of the epidemic. According to Wang, as of Aug. 2, China had provided the United States with over 26.5 billion face masks, 330 million protective gowns, 31 million goggles, 610 million pairs of surgical gloves, and 11,500 ventilators. "We hope that the U.S. can overcome the COVID-19 epidemic at an early date." Meanwhile, a small number of U.S. politicians should stop politicizing and stigmatizing the COVID-19 issues, stop shifting the blame to China, and work with the international community to overcome the impact of the epidemic, Wang said. One way to help children become lifelong readers is to instill in them an appreciation for older titlesclassics that speak to generations of fans, volumes that have left the new books table for the crowded paperback shelves. Childrens publishers know the value of the backlist, and over the coming months several presses are putting promotional muscle behind already published titles. Cover re-reveal When it comes to promoting an established book, publishers have a design choice to make. Do they commit to the original cover and aesthetics, in a bet on its recognizability? Or do they give it a refreshed look in an effort to give it new life? This season sees case studies in each method. Scholastic is orchestrating a backlist campaign around the bestselling middle grade graphic novels of Raina Telgemeier, four of which have won Eisner awards. To promote the titles during an off year for the author, the publisher will offer gift-with-purchase buttons that reference the books covers; other promotional plans include social media initiatives and a new book trailer. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is pursuing a different design strategy with its 10th anniversary reissue of Laini Taylors Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, about an art student in Prague and her dealings with the supernatural. The paperback boxed set features three redesigned covers, a new authors note, and excerpts from Taylors sketchbooks. Alvina Ling, v-p and editor-in-chief at LBYR, says the books original covers are pretty iconic, but they were feeling a little dated to us. With redesigns, she says, the question is always, Do we want to fit into the aesthetics of whats selling right now or do we want to feel different? Art director Karina Granda says the Smoke and Bone repackaging strikes a compromise. Over the past few years the YA market has become very illustration-heavy, so we wanted to pursue covers that met the expectations of potential new readers of this series, she says. At the same time, Granda found that many books in this space are very dark or monochromatic, so she commissioned artist Jelena Kevic Djurdjevic, whose art is neon and vibrant and emotional. The idea, Granda says, is to appeal to the teens of a new decade. This speaks to the goal of backlist promotion more generally: to give a book another shot at the front. Early empowerment Ahead of the September publication of Three Keys by Kelly Yang (Scholastic Press, ages 812), which PWs starred review called the complex yet accessible sequel to her 2018 debut, Front Desk, Scholastic is promoting the first book on social media and will feature Yang on its online childrens platform Home Base. The books follow Mia Tang, a tween who works at a motel with her Chinese American immigrant family. Front Desk, which won the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Childrens Literature, has sold 97,000 print copies since its release, and sales of the 2019 trade paperback have been on the upswing in recent weeks. PWs starred review of Front Desk called Mias story one of indefatigable hope and of triumph over injustice. Similarly, the Quarto group hopes to give a second lift to recent backlist childrens titles that are up-to-the-minute in their focus on diversity and identity. 2019s The Power Book (Ivy Kids, ages 711), which features an international roster of authors and illustrators and includes a foreword by Roxane Gay, discusses such cultural heroes as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., and draws attention to power imbalances throughout society. Angela Corpus, senior marketing manager at Quarto, says she plans to offer this and other childrens titles to educators as curricular supplements this fall. Were trying to find ways that we can support teachers with our books, she says, whether that help comes in the form of videos from the books authors or activities that teachers can incorporate into lessons plans. Corpus has similar aims for Step into Your Power (ages 912) by Jamia Wilson, executive director and publisher at Feminist Press. The book, illustrated by Andrea Pippens, was published by Quarto imprint Wide Eyed Editions in 2019 and aims to help young readers reckon with their identity by offering inspiration and laying out strategies for overcoming obstacles. Quarto is promoting Step into Your Power in conjunction with other middle grade books by Wilson: the recently released Big Ideas for Young Thinkers and 2018s Young, Gifted, and Black. Together, Corpus says, the titles help young readers ask big questions and find answers. Return to the main feature. A woman who bit the hand of a doctor who was treating her in the Emergency Department of Sligo University Hospital has been given a 2twomonth prison sentence. In sentencing Nicole Chambers (24) with an address in Collooney at Thursday's sitting of Sligo District Court, Judge Kevin Kilrane said the seriousness of the charge of biting a doctor during the course of treatment would normally attract nine months' imprisonment. Chambers admitted a charge of assault causing harm to Dr Richard Herridge who had been treating her in Sligo University Hospital's Emergency Department on Saturday, April 11th. She further admitted to committing criminal damage and engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour at the hospital. Judge Kilrane asked the 24-year-old how she is doing in prison where she was on remand on the charges and she replied that she was doing a lot better. The judge enquired if she is having more difficulties in prison than she was having outside and she responded that she missed her family. She said however that she had been off drugs and that it had been better for her. Judge Kilrane asked the defendant if she has been taking part in a treatment programme and she said she was. Chambers then indicated she can't do it for much longer as something 'popped up medically'. Judge Kilrane asked how beneficial the programme was and Chambers said she was doing very well, eating properly etc. She then asked the judge if she could tell him what the medical matter that had arisen was and he replied that she could, if it didn't embarrass her. She asked if it was okay to write it on a piece of paper which was then handed into Judge Kilrane. After reading what was on the note, he asked Chambers if she required medical intervention and she said no. She continued that she now had reason to take steps that she needed to take for the future. Defending solicitor Mr Tom MacSharry told the judge that his client was showing a level of maturity now. He added that she had something to look forward to and was taking positive steps. The defendant then apologised in court for what she did. "I would like to take the opportunity to apologise to Dr Herridge and all the frontline services, the gardai, ambulance personnel, the Coast Guard, my family and friends," she added. Judge Kilrane described the defendant as being someone who persistently misbehaved over the course of a number of years. He said that in respect of the existing charges, the defendant had persistently misbehaved over a period of two years, with several Public Order, assault on two personnel in the hospital and criminal damage. He said these charges were very serious in nature, especially when it comes to medical personnel. He said the seriousness of the charges needed a prison sentence. The judge said that he didn't need a Probation Report for sentencing. For the assault on Dr Herridge at the Emergency Department of Sligo University Hospital on April 11th 2020, he convicted Chambers and sentenced her to two months in prison. On the threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour charge, he convicted her and took it into consideration. He convicted and sentenced her to two months in prison concurrent for criminal damage. On a Public Order charge relating to September 26th 2019 he convicted the defendant and took the charge into consideration. Also on the same date for an assault charge, he convicted Chambers and imposed two months in prison. For a further assault charge on May 29th 2019 at the Emergency Department of Sligo University Hospital he convicted and imposed a two months term to run concurrently. Mr MacSharry asked the judge if it was possible to back date the sentence to when the defendant was taken into custody. The judge replied that he would not due to the seriousness of the charge. He said that biting a doctor during the course of treatment would normally attract a nine month term of imprisonment. 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. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 08, 2020 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 08, 2020 | 10:21 AM | PADUCAH A Paducah man is facing murder and other charges after an early morning fatal crash. About 2:30 am Saturday, a McCracken County Sheriff's Deputy reportedly clocked a vehicle driving 92 mph in a 35 mph zone on Old Mayfield Road near Schneidman Road. The deputy began following in an attempt to catch the vehicle, and found it crashed between Sills Lane and Elmdale Road. The vehicle was upside down and in flames. The deputy found an unconscious man trapped inside, and after several attempts, was able to remove him from the car and resuscitate him. He was identified as 34-year-old Ancinio Demarr Friar of Paducah, and was taken to Mercy Lourdes Hospital for treatment of his injuries. Deputies also found a woman that had apparently been thrown from the vehicle during the crash. After attempts to resuscitate her by deputies and EMS workers, 29-year-old Ronneka S. Hampton of Paducah was declared dead at a local hospital. Investigation determined the vehicle had left the road, hit a tree and rolled over before catching fire. After his release from the hospital, Friar was arrested on a murder charge, along with DUI, fleeing or evading police, speeding (more than 25 mph over the limit), and on an outstanding McCracken County warrant for failure to pay child support. Old Mayfield Road was closed for several hours for investigation and cleanup of the scene. A fire hydrant was also damaged and had to be repaired. The Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Bossman Eric Asare has expressed satisfaction of the voter registration exercise as the compilation of new voters register has captured 16.6 million voters. According to him, the new register with 16.6 million voters so far is a fair count as over 19.8 million voters would have been recorded if an entirely new register was not prepared for the 2020 general election. Dr. Bossman Asare who is responsible for Corporate Services at the ECs Let the Citizen Know media encounter indicated that the mass registration captured a significant portion of the countrys voting population. He explained that a limited registration exercise would have taken place in all electoral areas and registration centers across the country were estimated to conservatively add about two million Ghanaians onto the existing register. Potentially, without the compilation of a new voters register, the Commission was on track to have almost 19 million people registered and another 800,000 denied the right to vote. With the compilation of this register, those on the duplicates and exceptions lists from 2012 have had the opportunity to register, Dr. Asare noted. The 2019 register had a total of 16,845,420 voters, according to the commission. But provisional figures from the commission show 16,663,699 persons were captured during the mass voter registration exercise. The EC also has 797,493 people quarantined on multiple registrations and exceptions list. The Commission has put in place an Adjudication Committee to manually determine cases of duplicated voter registrations. Estimates from the Ghana Statistical Service indicate Ghanaians who are at least 18 years are 17,624,686, which is 56.9% of the estimated population of almost 31 million. The EC, however, says it will in the next few days announced to the general public the total number of registered voters when the entire process to certify the register is completed. As a Commission, we are pleased with what we have been able to do so far, and we are looking forward to the cooperation of all stakeholders for the success of our 2020 activities, Dr. Asare added. Registration statistics Since the ECs last briefing, the four top regions in voter share remain the Greater Accra Region, Ashanti Region, Eastern Region, and Central Region. The commission noted that the Greater Accra Region lost some grounds in percentage terms from 21.34 % to 20.8 percent of the total registered. The Ashanti Region also reduced marginally by 0.1% to its current 17.9 percent, the commission added at the briefing on Friday morning. But both the Eastern and the Central regions have maintained their previous 9.6 percent and 9.3 percent respectively. For the remaining regions, the Western, Western North, Upper West, Northern, and Upper East regions increased their share of voters on the electoral roll. The Ahafo, Bono, Bono East, Oti, North East, and Savanna regions maintained their percentages. The commission added that only the Volta Region reduced in percentage terms in this group. 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. Featured Video (Global Times) Twitter once again shows political bias against China and its cooperation with the US government as it has labeled a number of Chinese public figures and media organizations on its platform as "government accounts" or "state-affiliated media," while ignoring propagandist US accounts preaching antagonism against China, experts say. Twitter announced on Thursday that the accounts of key government figures, including foreign ministers, institutional entities, ambassadors and official spokespersons will feature additional labels with their titles. "State-affiliated media outlets" as well as their chief editors and senior staff members are also among the targets. Although Twitter currently only labels state-affiliated accounts of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - China, US, Russia, UK and France - they said it will be expanded to include more countries in the future. Analysts believe that the move is clearly aimed at China and Russia, as VOA, the US propaganda machine funded by the US Congress, has not been labeled. Canada's state-run CBC has not been labeled as well. Twitter said it will no longer amplify "state-affiliated media outlets" accounts or their Tweets "through our recommendation systems including on the home timeline, notifications, and search." So far, most of China's national media outlets have been labeled in the 24 hours since the announcement, including Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily, China Central Television, China Daily, CGTN, as well as Global Times and its editor-in-chief Hu Xijin. All of these above-mentioned media had been designated as "foreign missions" by the US government, despite that the US ironically boasts about itself as a supporter of "press freedom." The move was regarded as a brutal suppression of the normal coverage and legitimate rights of Chinese media and journalists. From the suppression of Huawei to the robbery of TikTok, the aggression shown by the US has spread even to individual Twitter accounts; however, posts on Twitter would not be regarded as a threat to the US' hegemony if the Trump administration is confident, observers said. Twitter's move shows they are actively cooperating with the Trump administration to suppress voices from China, experts say. It is not a commercial practice, but rather a pure political move that damages the free online atmosphere, Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Friday. The move will halt people in the US and around the world from objectively understanding China, said Li, noting that technology should not be used in conjunction with politics. Li believes that as a world-leading social media platform, Twitter's move will backfire, as it has not removed the political bias caused by anti-China accounts in the US. In mid-June, Twitter said they removed 23,750 China-backed accounts, which allegedly spread geopolitical narratives favorable to the incumbent government. Some Chinese internet users were disappointed about the decision and wondered if Twitter had decided to kick out any and every piece of content that supported China, using freedom of speech as its shield and under pressure from the Trump administration. In the light of Twitter's latest move, some Twitter users said it is right-wing and pro-Trump media outlets like Fox News and Breitbart that antagonize China and spread lies, and such accounts should have labels to warn Twitter users instead. "This is what a dictator does. Trump's message to Twitter [is] to curb what we see and hear. This is not good at all. Trump only wants us to hear his propaganda!" said a Twitter user. Scott Heins/Getty On Wednesday, about 12 hours before New Yorks eviction moratorium was set to expire, protesters piled into the fluorescent lobby of a Brooklyn office building. But they werent visiting elected officials who could extend the moratorium or even landlords they might shame. Instead, the group was targeting lawyers who help process the citys mountain of impending eviction notices. No landlords, no cops, all evictions gotta stop, protesters chanted at one of two law offices they visited that day. America is on the cusp of an evictions crisis, with an estimated 23 million people at risk of losing their homes. A federal eviction moratoriumwhich barred evictions on government-backed residences to protect the millions of Americans who lost income due to COVID-19expired in late July, with a $600 per week COVID-19 unemployment benefit expiring several days later. Although some states have their own eviction moratoriums on a wider array of homes, those are often also slated to expire soon too. In a last-ditch effort to fight lockouts, and after a summer of rage targeted at cops and other symbols of law and order in America, activists arent content to go after politicians. Instead, they want to shut down the machinery of the eviction system: the nations housing courts and the people who make it run. Wednesdays action in Brooklyn, which also made stops at Brooklyn Borough Hall and a Brooklyn housing court, saw demonstrators march through two law offices that they said did just that. Keep trying to evict tenants, and well keep showing up and shutting down your office every day, the group Housing Justice for All tweeted alongside video of one of the protests. Other lawyers working for landlords: watch out, were coming for you next. Calls for better tenant protection may be having an impact: New Yorkers appeared to receive a one-month extension on Wednesday, though the details were still being hashed out in court, and tenant groups said thousands of people whose evictions predated the pandemic could still be cast out. Story continues The group continued the protests Thursday, storming the lobby of another real-estate law firm whose website domain name is nyevictionlawyer. Walmart Workers Are Terrified of Enforcing Mask Rules Neither of the law offices targeted Wednesday returned The Daily Beasts request for comment. A partner at the third office, Balsamo, Rosenblatt & Hall, said he sympathized with the protesters claims, but that they shouldnt have focused on him. I stop evictions. Half of my clients are tenants, Robert Rosenblatt told The Daily Beast. Im not just a landlords attorney like they think. They targeted the wrong party today, because I prevent homelessness. He said that he would still continue to represent landlords in eviction proceedings. I have a family, I have to support my family. I have been out of work for 100 days. Rosenblatt also claimed protesters stole his notary stamps and wrote on surfaces with markers. Thats not peaceful, thats not how you get a message across, he said. Thats violence. Thats looting. Thats illegal. Thats a misdemeanor. The Crown Heights Tenant Union was among the groups protesting on both days. Although the organization declined to comment on Rosenblatts allegations, Jess Dunn, who organizes with CHTU, said an employee tried pushing her and other protesters out of the office. (Rosenblatt, who was not present at the time, accused the protesters of trespassing, and of rushing an employee who tried to keep them out.) Dunn said the coronavirus pandemic had turned a long-simmering crisis of gentrification and evictions in Brooklyns Crown Heights to a boiling point. COVID has really exacerbated it, Dunn told The Daily Beast. This is a working-class neighborhood. A lot of folks have lost their jobs, gotten ill, had to take care of family members, and theyre at a point where they cant afford to pay their rent. Getting lawyers to stop filing eviction papers might be a tall order. Some landlords have reportedly proceeded with lockouts even while prohibited by eviction moratoriums. Even though New Yorkers can technically appeal their evictions based on COVID-19 economic hardship after the moratorium expires, NYC landlords already obtained approximately 14,000 eviction warrants before it took effect, and may be able to start acting on them as soon as this week. Indeed, a discussion forum for landlords at the real-estate investing site BiggerPockets.com suggested many of them were licking their chops at the chance to clear out tenants nationwide. One poster suggested skirting what few protections there are for renters by offering cash for keys to any of your non-paying tenants. I am doing that with one tomorrow and hope the tenant takes me up on it, the Los Angeles landlord wrote. The eviction moratorium may have expired but courts are going to be backed up for months dealing with a flood of evictions which could cost a landlord far more money than simply paying the tenants off and moving on... not to mention evictions cost money. Others, like a landlord in Washington, urged colleagues to be more discriminating in their tenants, and to avoid blue collar workers who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID crisis. One thing that I think is an important lesson here is not to rent to blue collar workers, he wrote. Still others expressed limited sympathy for some out-of-work tenants, stating that they should be enjoying a windfall of unemployment benefits. They should be making mad unemployment money, one landlord advised another, who asked about how to deal with newly out-of-work tenants. Id consider offering them cash for keys to move out in 2 weeks or I would start the eviction process. (The $600 weekly bonus has now expired and, even when active, was notoriously difficult for some people to obtain. The original landlord explained that one of the tenants was ineligible for unemployment because they were on a work visa.) But rather than just talking about how evil landlords are, the protesters who stormed the Brooklyn law offices said part of their goal was to reveal the anatomy of an eviction. The purpose is to show folks how many moving pieces are part of the system and how many people you really can hold accountable, Dunn said. Art Against Displacement, another group that participated in the protests, represents renters in Manhattans Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods. AAD member Vanessa Thill said she hoped the protest would help put faces to the eviction processboth in the eyes of the evicted and the people filing the orders. We were there to show them that this is not going to be just pushing through paperwork, she told The Daily Beast. The demonstrations were just the latest in a set of nationwide actions targeting the inner workings of the eviction machine. In New Orleans last week, activists chained themselves together outside a court to block landlords from filing eviction paperwork. They were partially successful, even if just for the day. Footage from the scene showed multiple people approaching the court, confronting the wall of protesters, and turning around without entering. Court officials contended that the protesters hurt their cause, however, because they blocked other peopleincluding tenant attorneysfrom entering. Activists in Kansas City took a similar approach last week, actually entering the courthouse to disrupt eviction proceedings. Two people were reportedly arrested. And in Brooklyn on Thursday, activists waged their own protest outside a housing court. Ultimately, Brooklyns protesters want a full cancellation of rentrather than a temporary reprieve that leaves renters in debt later. That cant come from landlords or real-estate attorneys, but from elected officials who, as of Thursday, did not seem close to providing it. For now, activists were content to make sure that everyone who had a hand in a system they loathed was a bit nervous. When looking at this issue, its easy to see there are a lot of parties not doing the right thing. Our legislators are not making choices that would protect folks. Our landlords are not extending human compassion in the middle of a pandemic, Dunn said. The purpose of todays action was to bring [lawyers] into the light and to show that they are as complicit as landlords in evictions and helping the cycle of displacement to be so destructive. Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Metropolitan Lighthouse Charter School, NY Global Credit Research - 07 Aug 2020 New York, August 07, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Metropolitan Lighthouse Charter School, NY 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 Ba1 rating reflects favorable liquidity and historical coverage levels of fixed obligations supported by growing enrollment of this single site charter school. The rating incorporates the school's expansion into 12th grade as of fiscal 2021, and its expanded charter authorization to fully incorporate the high school expansion. Liquidity and debt service coverage have improved over the last several years, with the school's reported unrestricted cash position of $6.3 million as of audited 2019 financials equating to a very healthy 220 days' cash on hand. Reported enrollment has grown to 682 as the high school has expended into 12th grade. Story continues We regard the coronavirus outbreak as a social risk under our ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public health and safety. We have incorporated our current understanding of these risks into our credit analysis for Metropolitan Lighthouse Charter School, and do not believe there is a material impact to the school's overall credit profile at this time. Nevertheless, the situation surrounding coronavirus is rapidly evolving and any longer term impact on Metropolitan Lighthouse Charter School will depend on both the severity and duration of the crisis. If our view of the credit quality of the school changes, we will update the rating and/or outlook at that time. 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 US Charter Schools published in September 2016. 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. 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After two years of being engaged, Becca Kufrin and Garrett Yrigoyen have called off their engagement. There have been speculations for weeks that the pair had called it quits. But, it seems that things have been made official despite the fact that neither Yrigoyen nor Kufrin has opened up about their split. But, even though wedding bells are no longer ringing for the former couple, Kufrin will still be able to keep her engagement ring. Garrett Yrigoyen and Becca Kufrin | Roy Rochlin/Getty Images Becca Kufrin first got engaged on The Bachelor The pair met on Kufrins season of The Bachelorette. Prior to her season, the Minnesota native went through a very public split with her former fiance, Arie Luyendyk Jr. on The Bachelor. Though Luyendyk selected Kufrin as his ultimate winner, he couldnt shake his feelings for his runner up, and now-wife, Lauren Luyendyk nee Burnham. Kufrin was obviously heartbroken, but landing the lead role of The Bachelorette gave her the opportunity to fall in love once more. Garrett Yrigoyen has a history of problematic posts Kufrins season of The Bachelorette led to her engagement to Yrigoyen, but many people didnt support the couple. During her season, some of Yrigoyens social media activity resurfaced where he liked transphobic, homophobic, xenophobic, and racists posts. He also liked a post that made a mockery of the Parkland shooting. Despite all this, Kufrin made the choice to stay engaged to him and maintained that hed grown and changed. RELATED: The Bachelorette: What Will JoJo Fletcher Do With Her Original Ring? But, Yrigoyens pro-police Instagram post amidst a time of where people were speaking out against police brutality seems to be the straw that broke the camels back. The couple has called it quits after celebrating two years of engagement in May 2019. But, two years is just enough time for Kufrin to keep the Neil Lane engagement ring that Yrigoyen proposed with. Why Kufrin can keep her ring despite calling off her engagement Many Bachelor fans know that the rings given out on Bachelor in Paradise, The Bachelor, and The Bachelorette are technically given on loan. If a couple decides to break up after a short amount of time, the rings must be returned and they cannot be sold. But, after two years the ring belongs to Kufrin free and clear. If you make it to the end of The Bachelor and decide to get married within the two years following the show, the producers own the exclusive rights to your wedding, Amy Kaufman, author of Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of Americas Favorite Guilty Pleasure explained in her book. As for the ring given to you by Neil Lane? You dont own it and therefore cant sell it for two years, Kaufman explained. By this logic, Kufrin should have no problem keeping her engagement ring. Instagram users have noticed the Minnesota native isnt wearing her ring anymore If she chooses to sell it, Kufrins ring could be worth a pretty penny. Kufrins engagement ring features an 18-carat gold band and boasts 84 diamonds that add up to about 4 carats. This is a departure from the rings that Lane normally brings to The Bachelor because he typically works with platinum. But, the jeweler was inspired to create something more glamorous and elegant, so he went with gold. Though Kufrin likely thought shed wear her engagement ring forever, at least she doesnt have to give it back. She might never want to wear it again, but at least she has the option to sell it and make some serious money. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 22:13:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iran's security forces have arrested a person linked to recent explosion of a sound bomb in the Iranian Zahedan city in the southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, the regional headquarters of Iran's Islamic revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced on Saturday. Further measures are underway to arrest other elements behind the "terrorist" explosion, a statement by the IRGC's regional headquarters was cited as reading by Tasnim news agency. On Wednesday, the sound bomb blast next to a police car patrolling Zahedan's Zibashahr neighborhood injured four policemen. In the meantime, official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday that the Iranian security forces have arrested members of a "terrorist" group in the Sistan and Baluchestan province. The "terrorist" team had caused fear and panic among people in the province, the report said. Enditem BBC 1Xtra presenter Sideman has quit today after the broadcaster defended its decision to air footage of a white person using the N-word. The presenter said he 'can't look the other way' after BBC social affairs correspondent Fiona Lamdin repeated the word in a report on a racially motivated hit-and-run attack. The presenter, whose real name is David Whitely, said he could not continue to work with the BBC after it allowed a white person to use the word on air. More than 18,000 people have complained about the report last month, which first aired on Points West before being repeated on the main BBC News channel. BBC 1Xtra presenter Sideman has quit after the broadcaster defended its decision to air footage of a white person using the N-word Fiona Lamdin, left, used a racially offensive slur during a July 29 news broadcast on a racially motivated hit-and-run attack The report was first broadcast on Wednesday, July 29, and described an attack on a 21-year-old NHS worker and musician known as K or K-Dogg. Sideman, who aires a weekly show on 1Extra, announced his decision to quit the BBC on an Instagram post. He said: 'On this occasion I just don't think I can look the other way. 'We live in a world that needs to change, systems that need to change, organisations that need to change. 'As a person who believes that change can happen and wanting change to happen, I understand transition. I understand it's not something that's going to happen overnight. Sideman, who aires a weekly show on 1Extra, announced his decision to quit the BBC on an Instagram post 'There will need to be a lot of learning and unlearning and tearing down of certain building blocks of society that took a long time to build up. 'I'm OK with process, I'm OK with waiting within reason for certain things to change. 'This is an error in judgment where I can't just smile with you through the process and act like everything is OK. 'I'm happy working with organisations until we all get it right. But this feels like more than getting it wrong. 'That's why effective immediately I'm leaving my job as a radio broadcaster for BBC 1Xtra. With no apology, I just don't feel comfortable being aligned with the organisation. Social affairs correspondent Fiona Lamdin used the offensive language when covering a collision between a Honda Accord and a 21-year-old man (pictured) in Bristol 'Money and opportunity doesn't outweigh the dissatisfaction that I feel with this situation. 'This is wild to me, especially in the current social climate, and I can't make any sense of it no matter how much I think about it. So I think that's it's time that I left.' A 1Xtra Spokesperson said: 'Sideman is an incredibly talented DJ. Obviously we are disappointed that he has taken this decision. 'We absolutely wish him well for the future. The door is always open for future projects.' A BBC Spokesperson said: 'The BBC set out the context of the news report about the shocking attack on an NHS worker in Bristol. 'As we have said, the word is highly offensive and we completely accept and understand why people have been upset by its use. 'The decision to use the word was not taken lightly and without considerable detailed thought: we were aware that it would cause offence. 'But, in this specific context we felt the need to explain, and report, not just the injuries but, given their alleged extreme nature, the words alleged to have been used - a position which, as we have said, was supported by the family and the victim.' Fellow radio presenters have applauded Sideman's decision to quit the broadcaster and speak out on social media. DJ Charlie Sloth said: 'I admire and respect you David! Well done for standing up for what you believe is right! You're a King!! This world needs people like you!' Lamdin shocked viewers during the 10.30am clip for BBC Points West - which was replayed on the BBC News Channel on Thursday - when she said: 'Just to warn you, you're about to hear highly offensive language' Lamdin shocked viewers during the 10.30am clip for BBC Points West - which was replayed on the BBC News Channel on Thursday - when she said: 'Just to warn you, you're about to hear highly offensive language.' She added: 'Because as the men ran away, they hurled racial abuse, calling him a n*****.' BBC guidance says strong language should not be used before the 9pm watershed, but 'n****r' is usually seen as too rude to ever air. Watchdog Ofcom said in 2016 the word was 'highly unacceptable at all times' but could be used when 'strong contextualisation [is] required'. The victim, who is an NHS worker, had been leaving work at Southmead Hospital when he was attacked Social media users blasted Lamdin and the BBC for using the word uncensored and so early in the day. LBC producer Ava Santina posted: 'BBC News have just used N***** without bleeping, non-censored on daytime television. Read by a journalist. Terrible editorial decision.' Freelance multimedia journalist Zab Mustefa put: 'I'm just wondering why you thought it's acceptable to drop the n-word in your report on BBC News? 'Didn't you get the memo? Non-Black people can never say that word, even when describing a racist incident.' Another person posted: 'Actually can't believe they just repeated the n-word on my local BBC news during a report about a racist attack. 'Even with a warning, is there any need to say it? It's pretty easy to hint at what was said without using the word.' If Joe Biden offers the vice presidential slot to Sen. Kamala Harris, my advice to her would be to politely decline. Harris is a tested and proven campaigner who will work her backside off to get Biden elected. That said, the vice presidency is not the job she should go for asking to be considered as attorney general in a Biden administration would be more like it. Being picked for the vice presidency is obviously a huge honor, and if Biden wins, Harris would make history by being the first woman to hold the job. But the glory would be short-lived, and historically, the vice presidency has often ended up being a dead end. For every George H.W. Bush, who ascended from the job to the presidency, theres an Al Gore, who never got there. True, the vice president does have an advantage the next time the party needs a new nominee, which in Bidens case could be four years from now. But in the meantime, the vice president has no real power and little chance to accomplish anything independent of the president. Basically, no one takes the vice president seriously after election day. Just ask Mike Pence. Plus, if Biden wins, the Democrats will be moving into the White House in the middle of a pandemic and economic recession. The next few years promise to be a very bumpy ride. Barack Obama and the Democrats saved the nation from economic collapse when he took office, and their reward was a blowout loss in the 2010 midterm elections. On the other hand, the attorney general has legitimate power. From atop the Justice Department, the boss can make a real mark on everything from police reform to racial justice to prosecuting corporate misdeeds. And the attorney general gets to name every U.S. attorney in the country. Thats power. Plus, given the departments current disarray under William Barr, just showing up and being halfway sane will make the new AG a hero. Best of all, being attorney general would give Harris enough distance from the White House to still be a viable candidate for the top slot in 2024 or 2028, no matter what the state of the nation. Wits end: President Donald Trump or DT, as I now call him is scared out of his wits that hes on his way to losing the election. The pandemic has people frightened not just for their finances but for their very health. Thats a fear that reaches down to the core its not something Trump can dispel with wild warnings about antifa mobs in the streets and firm stands for keeping treasonous Confederate generals names on military bases. Trump, after all, was the one in the White House when it all went down. As a famous man once said, it is what it is. No wonder hes mused about delaying the election and is already raising questions about its validity. His immediate target is mail voting. Somehow he thinks that having the U.S. Postal Service take the place of your polling place will lead to voter fraud. It seems the post office can be trusted to deliver your tax returns and refund checks, but not your ballot. Voting by mail promises to boost turnout to record numbers. And that is what scares Trump the most. On the outs: This is not a good year to be an incumbent, in either party. Voters are mad, and theyre looking for someone to blame. 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. At least half a dozen Republican senators could lose their jobs in November. And for the Democrats, the latest casualty is Missouri Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., a 20-year House veteran who just lost a primary to progressive activist and Bernie Sanders supporter Cori Bush. Clays father, Bill Clay Sr., held the same seat for 32 years. So ends a 52-year dynasty, with more sure to follow. Out and about: Dining out now truly means dining out. Johns Grill on Ellis Street has converted an entire traffic lane into an outside dining room, complete with tablecloths. It serves a standard menu, not one designed just for street eating. Coqueta at the Embarcaderos Pier 5 is like dining on the beach, but with heaters everywhere. Barcha on Fremont Street has set up its dining room along a walkway. The way its looking, it will be 2022 before we get back to fine in-house and grossly expensive dining. Want to sound off? Email: wbrown@sfchronicle.com Loading The Cherrybrook school was closed for cleaning on Friday after the first case was identified. Its junior school will also be closed to most students for the next fortnight. Year 12 students will start remote learning from Tuesday, and will be contacted on Monday regarding arrangements for their HSC trial exams. The rest of the secondary students will start remote learning from Wednesday. "From the moment we were notified of a confirmed case ... we have been working very closely with NSW Health, the Department of Education and the Association of Independent Schools NSW to ensure that all steps are taken to maintain the safety of the Tangara and wider communities," Ms Sakr said. "The safety and wellbeing of our staff, students and families is of paramount importance to us at all times." The student who tested positive on Friday was one of a handful of cases of concern for NSW Health authorities, with no clear link to a known case. Our Lady of Mercy College will be closed on Monday while cleaning and contact tracing is undertaken. NSW Health confirmed on Sunday the student was one of the two cases with no known source. A healthcare worker in the emergency department at Hornsby Hospital has tested positive for COVID-19. Credit:Adam Hollingworth The healthcare member worked one shift in the emergency department of Hornsby Hospital while infectious on August 6, from 11am to midnight, a spokeswoman for the health department said. The worker is a household contact of another person who was also a confirmed case on Saturday. "The staff member became unwell after their shift and immediately self-isolated and got tested for COVID-19," she said. The worker was wearing a mask while in contact with patients, and NSW Health is in the process of identifying members of the public who had contact with the person, the spokeswoman said. Other hospital staff who had contact with the person have been identified and instructed to self-isolate for 14 days. "There is no impact on the services being provided by the Emergency Department," the spokeswoman said. NSW Health is also advising people who attended a service at St Agathas Catholic Church in Pennant Hills on Wednesday and Thursday to be alert for symptoms of COVID-19. One of the cases reported in Sunday's figures attended early masses from 6.30am to 7am on both of these days, prior to the onset of their symptoms. People who were at the church at these times are urged to watch out for any symptoms of COVID-19 and, if they occur, to self-isolate and seek testing. The church has been closed for cleaning. On Sunday night, NSW Health issued a public health alert for visitors to a pharmacy in Sydney's Hills district after an employee tested positive to COVID-19. Anyone who was at PharmaSave Cherrybrook Pharmacy on Thursday August 6 between 4pm and 7pm should be alert and self-isolate and get tested if COVID-19 symptoms develop. The employee was wearing a mask for the duration of their shift, but the store has been closed for precautionary cleaning. Anyone who visited a Bunnings store in Campbelltown last week is also being told to monitor for symptoms after an employee tested positive for the virus. The Bunnings employee worked at the store from 11am to 7pm on August 4, from 8am to 4pm on August 5 and from 1pm to 3pm on August 6. Anyone who visited a Bunnings store in western Sydney this week is being told to monitor for COVID-19 symptoms after an employee tested positive for the virus. Credit:Pat Scala NSW Health said the employee was wearing a mask and practising social distancing during the shifts but customers who visited during these times are urged to monitor for symptoms. Other staff members have been identified as close contacts of the employee and are self-isolating. Bunnings chief operating officer Debbie Poole said the store "has undergone two deep cleans using disinfectants since the team member last worked in addition to the routine cleaning that occurs each day". Sushant Singh Rajput Death Anniversary: A Timeline of the of events that have transpired so far At least 6 members of Sushant Singh Rajputs family killed in road accident in Bihar 'Only property of Sushant I possess': Rhea Chakraborty shares two photos India pti-Deepika S Mumbai, Aug 08: A day after she was grilled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged money laundering in Sushant Singh Rajput case, his girlfriend and actress Rhea Chakraborty on Saturday shared a picture of a note which she claims was written by the late actor expressing his gratitude for certain things in his life. Chakraborty (28) also shared through her advocate Satish Maneshinde a photograph of a water sipper, which is a piece of movie merchandise from Rajput''s 2019 film "Chhichhore". Rhea Chakraborty, family told to appear before probe agency on Monday "The only property of Sushant that I possess," she said in a message sent along with the photo to the media. The other picture shows a page of a notebook titled "Gratitude List" with seven serial numbers. "I am grateful for my life. I am grateful for Lillu in my life. I am grateful for Bebu in my life. I am grateful for Sir in my life. I am grateful for Ma''am in my life. I am grateful for Fudge in my life. I am grateful for all the love in my life," reads the note which Maneshinde said was written by the late actor in Chakraborty''s notebook. In her message shared by Maneshinde, Chakraborty stated, "And this is his (Rajput''s) handwriting...Lillu is Showik (Chakraborty''s brother), Bebu is me, Sir is my dad, Ma''m is my mom and Fudge is his dog". Maneshinde, however, did not say when the note was written or if it was handed over to the Mumbai police which had registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) after Rajput''s death in June this year. The actor (34) was found hanging at his residence in suburban Bandra on June 14. His father K K Singh on July 25 lodged a complaint with the Bihar police against Chakraborty, her parents Indrajit and Sandhya Chakraborty, her brother Showik, her former manager Shruti Modi and one Samuel Miranda, who Chakraborty had employed as the manager in Rajput''s house. Based on the complaint, the Bihar police registered an FIR against the accused persons and booked them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including abetment to suicide, criminal conspiracy, cheating and wrongful confinement. K K Singh had also alleged financial irregularities in Rajput''s bank accounts and properties, and claimed that Rs 15 crore was siphoned away from his accounts. The ED had on July 31 registered a case of money laundering against the Chakrabortys and others. The agency on Friday questioned Rhea Chakraborty, Showik, Indrajit Chakraborty and Shruti Modi for several hours at their south Mumbai office. Chakraborty had moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the FIR registered against her from Patna to Mumbai. The Bihar government had earlier this week recommended the probe in the Rajput death case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Global leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump will participate in an international aid conference on Sunday to support Lebanon, as the country, crippled by corruption, a banking crisis and growing popular defiance against the authorities, is seeking massive relief after blasts in Beirut. The video-conference will be co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and the United Nations. Macron said he would make sure any aid goes directly to the Lebanese people and not into corrupt hands, during a visit to Beirut on Thursday. Several allies of Lebanon have offered support since Tuesdays explosions in the port of Beirut that left over 150 people dead, many missing, more than 5,000 injured and close to 300,000 people homeless as the blast partially destroyed the city. Authorities said the biggest explosions in Beiruts history caused an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion worth of damage. Gulf states, European nations and the U.S. have sent mobile clinics, food and medicine to the country. European Council President Charles Michel was in Beirut on Saturday and promised support. The chief of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, pledged to mobilize regional efforts to provide support. Turkey said it is ready to help rebuild the port, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay during a visit to Lebanon on Saturday. The country, which is almost entirely reliant on imports of fuel, food and material, may use Turkeys Port of Mersin, on the Mediterranean, until the Port of Beirut is rebuilt and Ankara is ready to also help reconstruct the buildings nearby and send medical assistance and food aid, the agency said on Twitter. Promises of relief come as the leader of Lebanons Hezbollah rejected rumours that the militant group had stashed weapons at Beiruts port before this weeks devastating explosions. Officials have blamed the accident on a vast store of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, unloaded from a ship in 2014 and kept at the port despite repeated safety warnings. We dont have anything at the port, not weapons, missiles or ammunition or nitrate or anything else at all. Not now, not in the past or the future, Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech. Lebanons president Michel Aoun said on Friday an investigation would examine whether it was caused by a bomb or other external interference. The cause has not been determined yet. There is a possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act, Aoun said. To protest the current government supported by Hezbollah, the Kataeb party a Christian group that opposes the ruling majority announced the resignation of its members from the parliament on Saturday, Lebanon-based MTV channel said on Twitter. The general secretary of the party, Nizar Najarian, was killed in the explosion. He was chairing a meeting for the party at its headquarters near the site of the blast. Marwan Hamade, from the party of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, and independent lawmaker Paula Yacoubian also announced their resignations. Lebanon has arrested 20 people, including port and customs officials, and placed everyone who had an official role at the port since 2014 under house arrest. A team of French explosive experts arrived in Beirut Thursday to help with the investigation thats being led by the Lebanese army and police intelligence. The explosion came as Lebanon is reeling under its worst financial meltdown in decades and the governments inability to implement reforms and tackle corruption as demanded by the international community. The administration is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a $10 billion loan program, but those negotiations had stalled over internal disputes. CARACAS, Venezuela - A Venezuelan court has sentenced two former U.S. special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a blunder-filled beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolas Maduro. Lawyers for the former Green Berets, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, said they were barred from the secretive jailhouse proceedings Friday night in what they consider a violation of their constitutional rights to a defence. Maduros chief prosecutor announced the surprise decision late Friday night. THEY ADMITTED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FACTS, Tarek William Saab announced on Twitter, adding that proceedings will continue against dozens of other defendants accused of assisting in the May 3 raid. He did not offer details. Operation Gideon was launched from makeshift training camps in neighbouring Colombia and left at least eight rebel soldiers dead while more than 60 more were jailed. Ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, who operated a Florida-based security firm called Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility for the failed attack and had hired his two former army buddies to prepare a small cadre of deserting Venezuelan soldiers living at the makeshift camps. Venezuelan prosecutors have ordered his arrest. Goudreau is believed to be in the U.S., where he also is under investigation f or possibly violating arms trafficking laws in connection to the botched incursion. Denman and Berry, both decorated former U.S. service members, were found guilty of conspiracy, trafficking in illegal arms and terrorism, Saab said. But lawyers for the men said the hearing was marred by irregularities. Alonso Medina Roa said he was hired a month ago by the families of the two Americans but has so far been barred from meeting or speaking with his clients. In violation of their constitutional rights to a defence, he said, Judge Maximo Marquez never informed him of Friday nights proceedings at the headquarters of the SEBIN police, where the men are being held. They were represented instead by a public defender. The two Americans arrested in a coastal fishing community have ever since been paraded by officials on Venezuelan state TV as proof of their long-held claims that the United States is set on violently overthrowing Maduros socialist government. The incident also prompted claims that U.S. backed opposition leader Juan Guaido had authorized Goudreau through a signed agreement to carry out the attack, executed by two of Guaidos former political advisors in the U.S. U.S. officials have denied any role in the attack but have not said what knowledge they had about the clandestine camps in Colombia, details of which were made public by an AP investigation two days prior to the raid. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would use all possible means to win the freedom of Denman and Berry. Mark Denman, brother of Luke Denman, said in a statement that the families were very disappointed that the men were not represented by their private legal counsel. With the trial behind us, we are now focused on assuring that during their detainment their rights are adhered to. This includes humane treatment, access to adequate medical care, communication with their families and attorneys, he said. U.S. officials also have demanded freedom for six jailed American oil executives from Houston-based Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuelas state-owned oil monopoly, who had been lured to Caracas for a meeting and then arrested on corruption charges, which all deny. A day before the two ex-Green Berets were sentenced, the corruption trial began for the so-called Citgo 6. The case had lingered since their arrest two years and eight months ago until former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson met in July with Maduro in Caracas to urge they be released and returned home to the United States. Richardson on Saturday said he would also work to free the convicted veterans, who are both natives of Texas. Luke Denman and Airan Berry are American citizens and military veterans who deserve our support, he said. We will continue our dialogue with the Venezuelans to try to find a way to bring them back home to their families. Both cases play out amid hostility between Washington and Caracas. The Trump administration last year threw its support behind opposition leader Guaido, who has been recognized as Venezuelas legitimate president by 60 nations pledging to oust Maduro. Guaido blames Maduro for the once wealthy nations economic and social collapse, while the socialist leader, who is wanted in the U.S. on narcoterrorism charges, says Washington is using Guaido to steal the nations vast oil wealth. Medina Roa said that while Maduro may be looking to negotiate a political deal with the U.S. for the Green Berets release, authorities dont need to trample further on Venezuelas constitution to achieve their goals. Its a perversion of justice to violate their constitutional rights for future political gain, said Medina Roa. - Goodman reported from Miami Read more about: The special operations group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested five overground workers of the banned proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba in Jammu as the probe into a terror financing module busted last month continued, inspector general of police of Jammu region, Mukesh Singh said Saturday. Singh did not say when the five men were arrested but it came in the run up to Independence Day celebrations. The arrested men have been identified as Tauqeer Ahmad Batt, Asif Batt, Khalid Latief Batt, Ghazi Iqbal and Tariq Hussain Mir. All of them hail from Doda. On July 19, a team of the SOG Jammu had apprehended one Mubashir Farooq Batt with consignment of 1.5 lakh of Indian rupees meant for hawala transaction. The money was concealed in a tiffin box. During investigation of the case, SOG Jammu apprehended five more suspects involved in the module. They have admitted their involvement in the case, said Singh. The IGP also said that all the six accused were in contact with their handler in Pakistan identified as Mohammad Amin Batt who also uses aliases of Haroon Khubaib. Amin is the son of Dawood Batt of Kathawa, Thathri in Doda. He remained a district commander of the LeT in Doda and exfiltrated to Pakistan in 2007, said the officer. All of them were tasked to identify naive and gullible youth for recruitment in terror ranks, providing logistics and strengthening LeT cadre in the region, sharing information about presence of security forces and their important locations to Pakistani handlers, transportation of arms and ammunition from one location to another and distributing money among the families of active and deceased terrorists, he added. During questioning of all the six overground workers police found that they received an amount of 12,19,704 through different means on different occasions as part of this module. During interrogation of a suspect identified as Mohammad Irfan Khan of Bijarni in Doda, it came to fore in early July that he along with two of his associates Ghazi Iqbal and Amir Batt had hoisted the Pakistani flag at Lal Draman in Doda. They were tasked by their Pak handler Haroon to do so. It has been further corroborated by Ghazi Iqbal, who admitted that he had received a call from Haroon for hoisting the Pakistani flag and subsequently he purchased cloth from a local shop at Doda town and stitched that flag by himself, said the officer. On August 5, on the disclosure of Tariq Hussain Mir, SOG Jammu recovered three more tiffin boxes from his house which contained 40,700, which he had received as consignment on different occasions from Pakistani handlers as part of this module, said the IGP. The involvement of four accused from Kashmir has also surfaced. Moreover, it has come to notice that the module has its links in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab as well, he said. Further investigation into the case is underway to unearth terror financing channels and overground workers network used for providing financial support and motivating youth to join terror outfits in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said. Kadirgamars blunt advice to UN: Stick to malaria and mosquitoes By Thalif Deen View(s): View(s): UNITED NATIONS When the late Lakshman Kadirgamar made his annual pilgrimage to the United Nations General Assembly sessions in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, he used the world body as a platform to continue his intense diplomatic campaign to have the Tigers banned particularly in the US, the UK and other European countries. And it was also during his tenure as Sri Lankas Foreign Minister that the United Nations gave its collective blessings to his proposal to declare an annual International Day of Observance for Vesak. Still, Kadirgamar, whose 15th death anniversary falls on August 12, remained sceptical about the UN even though it was his primary battleground, as he shunted in and out of closed-door meetings, while holding court in the diplomatic lounge, the UNs watering hole, with an endless parade of foreign ministers. When I interviewed him at the UN Plaza Hotel back in September 1999, he lambasted the UN for its humanitarian intervention in the domestic affairs of member statesand particularly in Sri Lanka. Since the primary mandate of most UN agencies is socio-economic including poverty and hunger alleviation, reproductive health, the environment, and healthcare the foreign minister said the UN would be best advised to stick to malaria and mosquitoes and leave us to resolve our own political problems. That was a stunningly contemptuous rebuke by someone who once held a senior UN position as head of the Asia Pacific Bureau of the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). As he pitched into UN officials for shooting their mouths off in public, he dismissed a former UN official, who was based in Colombo, as a pompous ass who was told in no uncertain terms where his authority began and ended. At a more official level, the former President of the prestigious Oxford Union routinely dispensed with the traditional gesture of meeting with the UN Secretary-General for photo-ops an annual ritual in New York every September. Speaking before the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) back in 1999, he said the UN really has no mediating role or for that matter any role at all in resolving the civil strife in Sri Lanka. His comments, which received wide publicity worldwide, were an affirmation of the strong sentiments expressed at that time by China, India, Algeria and the 54-member Organization of African Unity (OAU,) on the issue of UN intervention. Sri Lankas foreign policy at that time was perhaps dictated to, and formulated by, three Trinitians an old boys network of Trinity College, Kandy led by Kadirgamar and comprising Jayantha Dhanapala and Nihal Rodrigo a trio jokingly dubbed as the unholy Trinity. Dhanapala (1956) and Kadirgamar (1949) were Ryde Gold medalists, the highest accolade bestowed on best all-round students at Trinity. When the Asian Group had unanimously approved our candidature as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for a two-year period, there was widespread speculation that Sri Lanka was planning to concede the potential seat to South Korea in return for increased investments, development aid and employment for Sri Lankan expatriates. Asked for a confirmation of the virtual barter agreement, Kadirgamar pondered for a while and asked me: What did Nihal tell you? The Trinity mafia was at work. While the UN has made positive and lasting contributions, including on climate change, refugees and pandemics not forgetting malaria and mosquitoes it has occasionally remained deadlocked while responding to humanitarian emergencies in several strife-torn countries, including Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Nicaragua, Syria and Afghanistan. This is largely because of the infighting among the five veto-wielding big powers the US, Russia, China, France and the UK which are politically and militarily supporting their proxies in most of the military conflicts worldwide. Perhaps the most positive and significant UN contributions have been confined to its humanitarian work. Last month, the UN humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock released $100 million from the UNs Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to urgently boost humanitarian response in 10 under-funded emergencies in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Americas. The funds were also aimed at helping front-line aid groups to deliver life-saving assistance to extremely vulnerable people, as well as support programmes that address greater needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The largest single allocation of $35 million was granted to Yemen, facing the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, while the rest of the funds are to be distributed among relief organizations in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Colombia, Haiti, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan and Uganda. The UN has also been reaching out to resolve the spreading economic crisis in Syria which has deepened poverty pushing more people into humanitarian need. And at least 4.6 million people are receiving monthly food assistance; more than 8.9 million medical procedures have been conducted; and over 1.6 million children have received help with their education, according to official figures. In Pakistan alone, there have been more than 280,000 COVID-19 cases and nearly 6,000 deaths. Last week, more than $3 million in cash was distributed to people affected by drought in Balochistan and Sindh provinces, while food aid was provided to 12,000 households affected by a snow emergency in Kashmir. The UN says it is also remains concerned about a possible humanitarian disaster in Libya should the current escalation and mobilisation around Sirte lead to military operations. The lives of more than 125,000 people in and around Sirte are at great risk. COVID-19 cases continue to increase across Libya, with 3,837 cases reported and 83 deaths to date, most of them in the western and southern parts of the country. The UN and humanitarian partners are at the forefront in supporting the national authorities with its COVID-19 response, particularly in the provision of health supplies and personal protection equipment. Meanwhile, speaking of political intervention, Indias then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said, in a bygone era, it would be an error to assume that the days of state sovereignty were over. The United Nations was not conceived as a super State, it will not ever become so, principally, because there is no viable substitute to the sovereign state, he declared. Speaking on behalf of the OAU, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a former president of the General Assembly, said he did not deny the right of Western states to denounce breaches of human rights violations. Nor did he deny the UNs right and duty to help suffering humanity. But we remain extremely sensitive to any undermining of our sovereignty not only because sovereignty is our final defence against the rule of an unequal world, but also because we are not taking part in the decision-making process by the Security Council nor in the monitoring of their implementation, he added. A teenager has died and two others are in critical condition after the car they were in swerved and crashed into a power pole. The driver, a 19-year-old P-plater, lost control of his Nissan 200SW before colliding with a pole on the King Georges Road, Hurstville in southern Sydney at about 2.15am on Saturday. Neighbours attempted to revive the 19-year-old passenger but he tragically died at the scene after paramedics arrived. The driver, a 19-year-old Plater, collided with a pole on the King Georges Road, Hurstville in southern Sydney at about 2.15am on Saturday The driver was treated for pelvic injuries and was transported to hospital in a serious condition. The backseat passenger, also 19, suffered knee and foot injuries but is in a stable condition in hospital. Neighbours have described the street as a 'hoon strip' where drivers have complete disregard for the limit and speed down the road. 'We've had a number of crashes along this road. We've had a few this year,' Daniel Shaw who lives where the accident occurred, told Daily Telegraph. He suggested a speed camera to be installed to deter hoons from risking their lives. Vandana Bareja said it was a common occurrence seeing car accidents on that particular road. She said the speed limit should be dropped from 60km/h to 50km/h. 'If they get a green light on the Forest Road lights, some drivers just speed down the hill,' she said. Police are investigating whether the driver was speeding which then led to the horrific crash. With the governments plan for return to school in September, it is clear that restaurants, grocery stores and gyms will have more safety restrictions in place than elementary schools. It is also painfully clear that neither Premier Ford nor Education Minister Stephen Lecce have any sense of what a day in a classroom looks like in Ontario. If they did, they would know that with a packed classroom of 24, or in some cases more than 30 students, it is impossible to ensure physical distancing. The premier is also oblivious to the realities of a kindergarten classroom. There may be two educators in the room but there are still upwards to 30 children in a confined space. Thats concerning. These students dont sit in rows; they are engaged in learning through play. They are more active and have less self-regulation than older students. Its not uncommon that COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred involving young children. In Jaffa, Israel, 33 elementary students and five staff were infected, as were nine of 11 classmates in a Trois-Rivieres elementary school. Outbreaks at two child care centres in Toronto and Montreal forced temporary closures in late spring. The Ford government is being disingenuous when it says its plan is based on recommendations from the Sick Kids Hospital Report on Return to School. The reports authors specifically called for smaller class sizes so that physical distancing can be maintained. Two-metre physical distancing and mask wearing have been required for indoor activities across the province. Why not in the classroom? We know that COVID-19 does not distinguish between a grocery store and a classroom, between a coffee shop and school hallways. The fact that students in kindergarten to Grade 3 are not being required to wear masks is also troubling, since the scientific evidence regarding young children and transmission is still evolving. Even the Sick Kids Hospital Report authors could not come to consensus on the mask issue for children younger than 10 years old. Given that school boards have a duty to take every reasonable measure to protect the safety of students and staff, why would we not practice caution? All students should be required to wear masks to protect their safety and the safety of the entire school community. That is why the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has sent a letter to those municipalities with bylaws mandating the use of masks within indoor spaces requesting that schools be included. The Ontario government needs to stop, rethink its severely flawed plan and put the necessary funding in place to ensure the safety and health of students, educators and staff. That includes sufficient funding for smaller classes, improved building ventilation to comply with recommended standards, rental of additional classroom space if needed and the hiring of more educators to provide instruction to both smaller classes and to those students whose parents have elected to have them participate in distance learning. Ontarians dont need a government that gambles on the safety of students, staff, parents and their communities. The Ford government needs to listen to parents and educators and stop trying to cut costs on a safe return to school. We need a government that will safeguard the health of children and educators as they return to school this fall. Sam Hammond is the president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. MASON, MI The memorial service for Caleb Starr, a Michigan State Police trooper recently killed after a July head-on crash in Ionia County, will be private, and limited in size because of the coronavirus pandemic. But family, friends and residents who cannot attend but wish to watch and pay tribute to the fallen trooper can watch a live video of the service for Caleb Starr, which begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 8. The funeral home has offered a live-streamed video of the service online. Starr, 33, died at Spectrum Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids on July 31 as a result of injuries sustained during a head-on crash in Ionia County on July 10. The other driver was also seriously injured in the crash, police said. In the interest of mitigating the spread of the coronavirus, the visitation, memorial service and graveside service will all be private events with limited attendance, a release from the Michigan State Police said. While the MSP desires nothing more than to lay Trooper Starr to rest with the traditional formality of a full public law enforcement funeral that honors both him and his family, in the interest of health and safety to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the visitation, memorial service and graveside service will be private events with limited attendance, the state police said in the release. Despite that challenge, fellow law enforcement officers resolved to pay tribute to Starr by lining the funeral procession through Mason with marked police cruisers on Saturday. Police are expected to line the route starting at 10 a.m., during Saturday mornings service, and honor the fallen trooper as his body passes by. Officers were asked to remain in their vehicles during the tribute. Law enforcement agencies were also offered a chance to send a video message for a compilation tribute video for Starrs family. In the weeks since the crash, police have arrested the other driver, who faces multiple charges, including second-degree murder, in connection with Starrs death. Thomasina Shani Jones, 28, of Montezuma Creek, Utah, was arrested Monday Aug. 3, at a home in Ionia. Jones was charged with second-degree murder, operating with a high blood-alcohol content with a prior conviction, operating while license is suspended, revoked or denied, causing death, and operating while intoxicated. Jones is being held without bond, awaiting her next court hearing. Starr joined the state police force in September 2018 as a member of the 135th Trooper Recruit School. He was assigned to the Michigan State Police Lakeview post. Starr lived in Mason with his wife, Rachael, and their daughters, ages 5 and 2. Rather than attending the private visitation or memorial services, Michigan State Police is asking those who wish to pay their respects to the Starr family to do so virtually by leaving a message on the Dignity Memorial Funeral Homes website. A GoFundMe page was established in support of his family. Donations are also being accepted by the Michigan State Troopers Assistance Fund, which is managed by the Michigan State Police Troopers Association. Donations can be mailed to MSPTA or made online. The state police are asking those who wish to donate to indicate the donation is intended for Starrs family. Also on MLive: Woman charged with murder in crash that killed Michigan State Police trooper State police trooper dies 3 weeks after head-on Ionia County crash Police believe Utah woman was drinking before crash that seriously injured state trooper Dhaka, Aug 8 : Bangladesh is the most suitable place for investment for global enterprises as it has a large population and huge market potential, said Xu Xiaochu, Chairman of Chinas Yabang Investment Holding Group Company Limited. The firm is one of the top 500 Chinese companies, has already inked a land lease agreement with Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) for 100 acres land to set up textile and other chemical industries in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar (BSMSN) at Mirsarai, Sitakundu and Sonagazi upazillas under Chattogram and Feni districts. "It is the most suitable place for investment for global enterprises, especially for traditional industries. Now it is offering a historic opportunity for transferring the traditional industries from the world factory, (China)," Xu said at a recent function. He said the investment by Yabang Corporation in Bangladesh is a necessary choice as per the laws of global economic development. Ten years ago, the top executives of Yabang Group visited different countries and regions, including Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa and North Korea, to choose investment and development bases for the second entrepreneurship of the enterprise. Five years ago, the company set its goal in Bangladesh and permanent staffs were sent to set up an office, said Xu. He said Bangladesh has a large population and huge market potential which is politically democratic and has good-neighbourly friendship. "Its economy is developing rapidly. People aspire to live and work in peace and contentment. The country enjoys various economic policies' support from the UN and countries with developed economies. The government and its people are united in their efforts and wish for development. "However, the supporting production capacities of weaving, printing and dyeing are seriously insufficient. "In particular, there is almost no dye production. The investment by Jiangsu Yabang Dyestuff Corporation Limited, a concern of the Yabang Investment Holdings Group Co Limited, in Bangladesh, has a great competitive advantage and advantage for development, both in providing the support for domestic needs in Bangladesh, promoting better and greater development of Bangladesh's garment industry and in creating foreign exchange via export and increasing people's employment," Xu added. Belgrade, 8 August 2020 (SPS) - Algerias ambassador to Serbia Abdelhamid Chebchoub reaffirmed that the appellation of Western Sahara is enshrined in all the resolutions of the international organizations, dubbing deceptive the term Moroccan Sahara used by Rabat. In a clarification, published by the Serbian newspaper Politika, Chebchoub denounced the misleading statements of Moroccos ambassador to Belgrade who strayed from the diplomatic practices that his position requires, to participate in an interview to the same paper, published on 24 July, in a propaganda campaign against Algeria, using lies and untruths to mislead the Serbian public opinion. In his reply to these fallacious statements, notably the issue of Western Sahara, Chebchoub underlined that by using a deceptive term of Moroccan Sahara contrary to the enshrined appellation of Western Sahara, stipulated in all the United Nations resolutions, the Moroccan ambassador to Belgrade tries to lead the reader to a wrong track. Western Sahara is the appellation enshrined in all the resolutions of the international organizations, including the resolution 2468, underlined the Algerian diplomat. The right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination that the ambassador avoids citing is enshrined in the resolution 2468. It constitutes an inalienable right of the peoples under colonial domination and the basis for the search of a solution to this conflict, he added. (SPS) 062/SPS/700 Irreverent, provocative, opinionated... Shobhaa De has been challenging status quo for four decades... and is at her best when she punctures inflated egoes. Readers can send feedback to www.shobhaade.blogspot.com This week, all the loose ends were supposed to be tied up neatly by Mumbai police, but wait, Bihar police dramatically arrived in Mumbai Mumbai: Bihar IPS officer Vinay Tiwari leaves the SRPF camp, after BMC exempted him from quarantine protocols and allowed to return to his home state. PTI Photo The tragic SSR suicide saga was raging away, with two state governments (Bihar and Maharashtra) battling each other aggressively and publicly, to control investigations and dominate the case. Till -- trumpets and bugles, please -- a monster was introduced. Enter the Dragon: the CBI! Meanwhile, the main protagonist, 34-year-old actor Sushant Singh Rajput, has been reduced to three letters of the alphabet. And we remain as clueless about his untimely death today as we were when the controversy broke. This week, all the loose ends were supposed to be tied up neatly by the Mumbai police, but wait! The Bihar police dramatically arrived in Mumbai to rain on their parade. The focus shifted to the Cops vs Cops confrontation, and totally idiotic voices started taking sides while pointing fingers at just about anybody remotely connected to the tragedy. Overnight, the spotlight was turned on Bihar. I was vastly amused by the dramatic arrival of an IPS officer from the state, Patna SP Vinay Tiwari, who made his Mumbai debut in style! There he was, a slim and trim young man with so much swag! I loved his attitude. And above all, I loved that he kept his sunnies on while addressing the media, even though it was 8.30 pm. He came with bhaari backing from his bosses back home and didnt mince words as he criticised the sloth/ineptness of his Mumbai counterparts. He all but accused them of messing up a sensitive case, and everybody cheered. Everybody, that is, who is not politically aligned. By now, the case had ceased to be an open and shut suicide investigation. Murder! They said. There were wild rumours and wilder names flying around. All eyes were on the son (Aaditya Thackeray) of a top politician (Uddhav Thackeray), known for his self-declared close connections to Bollywood. Bandra folks talked about late night parties and fights, leading up to the tragedy and a whole new can of worms got opened. What was already a shocking death by hanging, suddenly became a much grislier story -- involving money, fisticuffs, booze, drugs, girls, assaults, gangsters, coverups and more. A masala script, with a terrible ending. Why cant our Mumbai cops be smarter? And develop a spine? The thing is -- left to themselves, they are smart, competent AND bloody good at what they do. But the political interference they have to endure completely stymies their best efforts. Left to their own devices, and permitted to do their job, our police force is second to none. Unfortunately, the political environment being toxic and corrupt, they are forced to compromise, and in so doing, they end up looking like clowns. Mumbais legendary top cop Julio Ribeiro has written often and forcefully about unseemly political involvement, especially when it comes to transfers and appointments in the police force. He has mentioned an urgent need for police reforms, combined with more autonomy granted to the cops. Does anyone listen or care? In this case, it is obvious how hard political foes of the current lot controlling Mantralaya are working to discredit the government in power and topple it. Back in Bihar, the stakes are equally high, with elections around the corner. What better than a juicy, high-profile case like this one, to fling mud, make allegations and divert attention from the real issues that both Maharashtra and Bihar are facing? Surprisingly, the glamourous wife of a former CM of Maharashtra, Amruta Fadnavis, pitched in with her own personal dig aimed at the present CM and his minister son, taking the battle directly into the opponents camp. Meanwhile, the lady at the centre of the controversy -- SSRs girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty -- has turned invisible! Easily and smoothly. Initially, the Mumbai police confessed they were unable to locate her or her family members -- all of them in the eye of the storm, after being accused by SSRs father of being responsible for his sons death. Some said Rhea had left for Canada on a private jet, while others scoffed, joking that she was hiding under a charpoy in the suburbs. At the time of writing, she, her kin and two associates have been booked by the CBI and an FIR filed. And she is being questioned by the ED. Tiwari, the dashing, straight-talking SP from Patna, ignominiously packed off to quarantine himself at the SRPF Guest House in the suburbs by Mumbais cops, must have chewed his nails in frustration till he was allowed to leave on Friday. The other four cops had slyly managed to give everybody the slip and were already back in Patna. Phew! All this drama just to fix Uddhav Thackeray, get the CBI to handle the SSR case, and have the BJP back in the saddle in Maharashtra! Had Mumbais police commissioner been a tougher person, with no political patronage involved (as is alleged), this investigation would not have taken such a strange turn. The real tragedy is that SSRs death is being used by so many agencies to further their own agendas. He has become incidental! What started off as a much-needed debate on showbiz nepotism and how Bollywood can destroy the dreams of people who are not considered a part of the power structure, soon disintegrated into a sleazy crime thriller, with wild conjecture and crazy theories floating around. The chances are, a week from now, this too will become one more high-profile death with nothing further to push the narrative to the next level. Unless, of course, there is a fresh development involving Aaditya Thackeray -- will he be summoned? People are taking bets on this. Nobody is actually interested in solving the mystery of either SSRs money, or his horrific death. Meanwhile, there is a lot of irresponsible talk about his fragile mental health, with publicity-seeking psychotherapists showing up on television shows and disclosing confidential client information. This is shockingly intrusive and unprofessional. Prominent television anchors too have made utter idiots of themselves commenting on whether or not SSR had looked depressed. Like depression is a look. Nearly everything about this awful incident has been trivialised and bowlderised in the most vulgar manner. Surely, Sushant Singh Rajput deserves better. Agra, Aug 8 : After the common man in the mohallas and besties in the inner city, the Covid-19 virus has spread to posh colonies, bungalows of 'sahabs', besides the rural blocks. After the Divisional Commissioner Anil Kumar, his mother, five of his staff tested positive, his father has also been infected. Two officials of the PWD have also been quarantined after they reported positive. The SN Medical College principal and two dozen doctors are already under treatment. Senior officials, family members of the local MP and a BJP legislator, son of a state minister, are in hospitals. Policemen on duty have not been spared either. After an inspector was found positive, the entire police chowki of Bichpuri has been quarantined. Nine inmates of the temporary jail at Queen Victoria Inter College, have been isolated after their reports were found positive. A number of social workers and activists are under treatment in isolation centres. "It is clear that government officials and medical staff are vulnerable as they daily come into contact with the public," a doctor explained. After the Unlock3.0, chances of infection spread have increased as a large number of people are seen without masks and violating guidelines in the marketplaces. In the past 24 hours, Agra reported 30 fresh cases, taking the total number to 2,031. The number of active cases now are 299. The number of containment zones has gone up to 121. Of this 51 are in the rural areas. The weekend lockdown for 55 hours began late Friday evening. The Agra Municipal Corporation has taken up sanitation work on a large scale during the mini lockdown. Mathura reported 30 new cases, while Firozabad 26, Mainpuri 22, Kasganj 15. In Etah two policemen are among five who reported positive. The district administration in Mathura has sealed the borders to ensure no pilgrims entered the temple towns of Vrindavan or Govardhan for the Sri Krishna Janamashtami celebrations. All temples in the district continue to remain closed. United States Defense Secretary Mark Esper recently expressed concerns about Chinas destabilizing activity near Taiwan and the South China Sea. The Defense Department says Esper made the comments in a telephone call with Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe. Reuters news agency says the call was believed to have been the first between the two since March. It came as ties between the two sides have worsened over several issues. They include Chinas reaction to the coronavirus, ties to technology equipment maker Huawei, territorial claims in the South China Sea and new laws in Hong Kong. Chinas official Xinhua news agency reported that Wei urged the U.S. to stop erroneous words and control maritime risks, among other requests. On Thursday, China criticized a planned visit to Taiwan by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. He would be the highest-level U.S. official to visit island in 40 years. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and does not recognize the island as an independent nation. Separately, Australia has been taking a more aggressive position toward China. Some observers believe this will help political and military actions among U.S.-allied nations that want to limit Chinas expansion. The Australian government ended its neutral position toward China in recent weeks. While the two countries have strong trade relations, Australia openly supported the U.S. position on the issue of the South China Sea. In a letter to the United Nations, Australia called Chinas territorial claims to the waterway illegal. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggested in a speech that his country would work more closely with India, Japan, and the United States. Those four countries belong to a group known as the Quad. It was set up in 2007 to discuss security issues in Asia, including Chinas activities. It appears at least from the Australian end that Australia is sort of trying to take a significant directive role rather than a follower role, said Stuart Orr. He is a professor of management at Deakin University in Australia. 'Concrete action' The United States and Australia have cooperated for many years to resist foreign governments that U.S. officials dislike. Now the U.S. is involved in a trade war with China. Both U.S. and Australian officials suspect China of technology-related crimes. They also want China to launch an investigation into the cause of the coronavirus. Two months ago, Morrison said his country had been the target of a state-based cyber-attack. China denied the accusation. I think Washington and Canberra have a much stronger sense of unity about confronting China in a smart way, said Stephen Nagy of the International Christian University in Tokyo. None of the Quad countries claim the South China Sea, but none of them want China to claim it either. Fish, energy, shipping lanes China claims parts of the South China Sea with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. All five competing claimants are much weaker than China, but all value the sea for its fishing, energy, and shipping. Chinese officials say the waterway is Chinas historically, and they claim nearly 90 percent of it. Australias leadership role in the Quad could mean more joint naval exercises that anger China, experts believe. Japanese and Australian forces joined the USS Ronald Reagan last month for joint exercises southeast of China. U.S.-Australia military exercises will gain speed, especially if they involve Japan, India, and traditional U.S. European allies such as France and Britain, notes Carl Thayer. He is an expert on Southeast Asia who formerly taught at the University of New South Wales. Im Susan Shand. VOAs Ralph Jennings and the Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story destabilize v. to make insecure erroneous adj. incorrect maritime adj. at sea, or sea-related significant adj. important, noticeable role n. one's position confront v. to force a meeting or to force someone out of hiding A district judge has ordered a Houston-area clinic to stop providing COVID-19-related testing and medical care and to secure a nearby dumpster where test results were allegedly being improperly disposed. Clinica Hispana La Porte, at 9606 Spencer Highway, was administering antibody tests that were advertised to patients as COVID-19 infection tests, a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleges. The suit further accuses the company of throwing away test results in an unsecured dumpster behind the clinic, which is a violation of Texas identity theft laws. I will not allow anyone or any business to fraudulently represent COVID testing in our communities," Paxton said in a news release. "Patients must be assured that the tests they take and results they receive are accurate and their personal information will be protected." Chron.com made multiple calls to the clinic in a request for comment, all of which went unanswered. On Friday afternoon, the clinic had a "closed" sign on the front doors and the parking lot was empty, although LED lights surrounding the building's front windows were turned on. MIXED MESSAGES: Houston's Hispanics are bearing the brunt of the pandemic. Language barriers are a large reason why. A large sign strewn across a black Infiniti SUV that read "COVID-19 TEST RESULTS IN 15 MINUTES!" has drawn large crowds to the clinic for the last several weeks, according to the lawsuit. The Infiniti SUV is registered to Luis Alberto, also known as Luis Alberto Cuan Lio, who is listed as a defendant and "who has gone to great lengths to cover his involvement with the Clinica Hispania La Porte," according to the suit. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton The clinic and Cuan are not authorized to perform the antibody tests and do not have proper lab certification, according to the lawsuit. The clinic has no assumed name records or corporate filings with Harris County or the Texas Secretary of State and Cuan is not listed among licensed physicians in Texas, the lawsuit added. Cuan previously owned and operated Clinica Hispana Wallisville, located at 14570 Wallisville Road, from 2016 to 2019. After one of Cuans patients ended up in an emergency room after receiving an antibiotic injection from him for a severe cold, the Texas Medical Board ordered a cease and desist order prohibiting him from practicing medicine in Texas. In mid-June, the La Porte clinic started advertising the tests on Google and Facebook with photos of a test and the words Covid-19 Test Ahorasolo toma 10 min no dude en contactamos, no cita previa Llama ya!" which translated into English reads, Covid-19 test Now... only takes 10 min do not hesitate to contact us, no appointment Call now!" according to the lawsuit. By Friday afternoon, a Facebook page for the clinic shows all posts were taken down. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton La Porte resident Julie Lawson, 54, said she and her son went to the clinic about a month or two ago in search of a COVID-19 test after struggling to get tested at Harris County Public Health's San Jacinto College site. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: COVID is hitting Houston Hispanics hard and it's getting worse Lawson and her son, who has a rare lung condition and is at high-risk for contracting the virus, paid $160 for blood tests that came back negative. A family member later informed her the blood tests are used to detect COVID-19 antibodies and do not signal whether a person currently has COVID-19. When Lawson called the clinic to demand a refund, she said staff told her she would be given her money back if she promised not to tell anyone. "I was so upset because I know all these people, most of them were there for the same reason we were there," Lawson said. "I see all these people in this waiting room and I am wanting to tell these people, 'if you are here wanting to know if you have the virus right now you are in the wrong place.'" Lawson said she lives down the street from the clinic and over the last several weeks she has seen the parking lot "packed" with patients, mostly who are Hispanic. Hispanics are being disproportionately affected by the pandemic, with a majority of Houston's recent COVID-19 hospitalized patients being of Hispanic ethnicity. "To see that parking lot so full would literally make me sick to my stomach," Lawson said. "Taking advantage of these people and taking their money ... it's really sad. They were being so misled." Judge Rabeea Sultan Collier on Wednesday signed a temporary restraining order against the clinic. A hearing for a temporary injunction hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Aug. 24. Another Texas clinic this week was accused of misleading the public and ordered to halt COVID-19 testing, the Austin-America Statesman reported. New Braunfels-based Living Health Holistic Healthcare has been temporarily blocked from advertising, offering and performing COVID-19 testing, after federal prosecutors said the clinic used direct emails to sell $85 COVID-19 antibody tests that were not authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. rebecca.hennes@chron.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 05:46:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CHICAGO, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural futures dropped across the board on Friday, led by soybean. The most active corn contract for December delivery slipped 3 cents, or 0.93 percent, to close at 3.2075 U.S. dollars per bushel. September wheat slumped 5.75 cents, or 1.15 percent, to settle at 4.955 dollars per bushel. November soybean plummeted 10.5 cents, or 1.2 percent, to close at 8.675 dollars per bushel. CBOT traders estimate that funds have sold 6,000 contracts of wheat, 7,400 contracts of corn and 4,700 contracts of soybeans. Corn, soybean and wheat futures went down amid looming large U.S. and world harvests. As world demand has slowed due to COVID-19, the function of the market is to seek prices that build demand, Chicago-based consulting company AgResource noted. USDA reported that China has purchased 456,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans for delivery for 2020/21. China may have booked as much as 20 cargoes of Brazilian soybeans for April. Brazilian sources estimate that farmers have sold a record 50 percent of their 2021 harvest or as much as 60-64 million metric tons. Of the total, exporters estimate that Brazil has sold 35-40 million metric tons to China. Wheat yields in Russia keep rising and are above last year. USDA is expected to raise 2020/2021 Russian wheat export estimates to 37-38 million metric tons in its August World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) report. It will be wetter across Iowa with better rain chances in the next 5 days. Moderate rain over the next 10 days would be ideal, while the warmth will help advance crop maturity. Stable corn, soybean condition ratings are expected. August WASDE is expected to report higher yield and slower demand. End stocks for U.S. corn, soybean are expected to rise in both crop years. World wheat prices are going down due to abundant supplies. Seasonal lows are not expected until September, AgResource predicted. Enditem The Haines man arrested last week for intent to distribute methamphetamine and heroin has been charged with two additional drug crimes. Police also identified a former resident as the person who mailed the packages containing drugs from Arizona to Haines. Alaska State Troopers Southeast Cities Against Drugs officers and Haines Police arrested the man last week after tracking suspicious packages the man had received in the mail. ...the parcel was suspicious because the shippers name was known to the (Postal) Inspection Service as someone who was a previous Haines resident who was involved in the drug milieu, the parcel originated from Arizona, a source state for narcotics coming to Alaska, according to a search warrant. The man told police he mailed about $3,200 in cash for two parcels to a return address and claimed he was unaware of who he was paying. He said he sent money to a return address written on a handwritten note from the first parcel. The man was indicted by a grand jury last week and the two additional charges include misconduct in the third and fourth degree for the possession and intent to distribute amphetamine and alprazolam. Alprazolam is an antianxiety medication and amphetamine is a stimulant prescribed to treat ADHD, obesity and other health disorders. The mans case has been transferred to Superior Court. His arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 10. Five of the men are Venezuelan-Americans with deep roots in Texas and Louisiana, and one is a permanent US resident. A Venezuela court has launched the trial of six American oil executives jailed well over two years after being lured to the South American nation and arrested on corruption charges, an attorney confirmed on Friday. The lingering case appears to have taken a new sense of urgency, which defence attorney Jesus Loreto credited to former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardsons recent meeting with President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas. We remain very hopeful that things will improve quickly, Loreto said following the trials opening day Thursday. Yesterday demonstrated a very clear interest in moving the process forward, and rapidly. Six executives of Citgo were arrested in Caracas for embezzlement in November 2017 [File: AP Photo/Eric Gay] Loreto said a positive sign was his ability to meet with his client, Tomeu Vadell, for the first time in six months. Each of the accused men said they had been treated with dignity and decorum, despite having their constitutional rights violated by being held for two years without a trial, Loreto said. Their ordeal began just before Thanksgiving 2017, when the six executives of Houston-based Citgo got a call from the head of state-run Venezuelan oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela or PDVSA, Citgos parent company, summoning them to Caracas for a last-minute budget meeting. Once they arrived, armed and masked security agents burst into a conference room and arrested them on embezzlement charges stemming from a never-executed proposal to refinance some $4bn in Citgo bonds by offering a 50 percent stake in the company as collateral. Maduro at the time accused them of treason. The men are Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano and Jose Pereira. Five of them are Venezuelan-Americans with deep roots in Texas and Louisiana, and one is a permanent United States resident. They have been held much of the time at the Helicoide Central Penitentiary a feared Caracas prison operated by Venezuelas intelligence police. The United States has recognised Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the countrys president, not Maduro [File: Manaure Quintero/Reuters] The trial of the six men plays out amid hostility between Washington and Caracas. The administration of US President Donald Trump last year threw its support behind opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared he was Venezuelas legitimate president, vowing to oust Maduro. Guaido blames Maduro for the once-wealthy nations economic and social collapse, while the socialist leader says Washington is manipulating Guaido to steal the nations vast oil wealth. For his part, Richardson in mid-July made a humanitarian visit to Venezuela to urge Maduro to release the men. He left without winning their freedom, but officials later put two of them Cardenas and Toledo on house arrest in Caracas, while the other four remained in jail. Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations during the administration of US President Bill Clinton, has opened diplomatic back channels to several hostile governments, including Iran, Cuba and North Korea, to win the release of some 40 Americans. Two other US citizens jailed in Venezuela Luke Denman and Airan Berry are former Green Berets who were arrested in May while participating in a botched raid organised in neighbouring Colombia to oust Maduro. Defence attorney Loreto maintains that his client, Vadell, is innocent of the charges and should be freed to return home to his family in the US. Theres no proof, not one bit of proof that they have against Tomeu Vadell, Loreto said. Not direct or indirect. The opposition-led National Assembly tweeted Thursday that an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the Helicoide prison has sickened other inmates it regards as political prisoners. It demanded that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights be allowed to inspect the lockup. Its urgent that a commission be allowed entry to evaluate the situation of political prisoners, the National Assembly tweeted. In addition to being innocent and suffering torture, their health is being ignored in the midst of a pandemic. Manitoba Hydro is asking for the public's help in locating power line equipment that was scattered by a tornado that touched down southeast of Virden on Friday evening. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/8/2020 (528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Manitoba Hydro is asking for the public's help in locating power line equipment that was scattered by a tornado that touched down southeast of Virden on Friday evening. Kurtis Fafard who witnessed the tornado form at approximately 8 p.m. near Scarth, 16 kilometres south of Virden last night, told the Sun that he saw power poles had been torn out of the ground. As of 10 p.m. Friday night, Manitoba Hydro said there were more than 100 customers without power in the Virden area. Power was expected to be restored early this morning. A tornado is seen touching down near Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation on Friday evening. (Photo submitted by Sharmaine Brown) Spokesman Bruce Owen told the Sun this morning that the tornado system scattered poles, wire, transformers and other hardware in the area. "If customers see anything from our power lines, they can let our crews know or call us 1-888-624-9376 and we'll pick it up," Owen said. The Brandon Sun has a team on the ground near Scarth this morning. We will post an update on this story later today. The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] On Thursday, Aug. 6, the United States President Donald Trump signs Executive Order giving banned status on the Chinese app, TikTok. The signed document accused the app of getting users' info to sell out to the Communist Party of China (CCP). A day after this, an exclusive report was released saying over 130 employees of ByteDance were members of the CCP. TikTok employees were CCP members? The TikTok ban issue has not yet ended. In fact, it has gotten worse. The company behind it, called ByteDance, only has 45 day-deadline in order to make amends with its partners in the United States before it gets thrown out. "This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information - potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage," the order said. Tech Times reported that the Chinese company is now forced to take legal action against America to stop the said ban. However, an exclusive report from The Epoch Times may pause the trial. Allegedly, the report told us that TikTok was a China-controlled media. It turns out, exactly at least 138 TikTok employees were alleged members of the Communist Party of China (CCP). As reported by The Epoch Times, there's a leaked set of documents from the company, showing names of the ByteDance employees that were also members of the governing political party of the People's Republic of China. At least 60 from the list are currently holding high-rank positions in the company. The document shows the names, positions, ID numbers, and the date they were enlisted to become members of the governing party, according to The Epoch Times. As of now, ByteDance has not yet commented over the leaked documents. However, James Carafano, vice president of The Heritage Foundation's Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, warned that the app was after all a Chinese-owned medium. He explains that the CCP membership of employees in a Chinese company is a normal business move. "It's a Chinese-owned company," he said. "You have no confidence in the software. You have no confidence in their handling of data. And you have no confidence that they're independent of Chinese direction." CIA says 'no evidence' so far on China-infiltration on ByteDance On the other hand, the country's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) states otherwise. According to the New York Times, the CIA clearly states that 'no evidence' is discovered that proves that TikTok nor ByteDance has obtained data from its users. Here's a clarification, though. The statement of the CIA saying that TikTok does not steal data from its users is not a basis to say that the app is safe to use, according to the report. This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Jamie Pancho 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Chinese defense minister holds phone talk with US counterpart PLA Daily Source: China Military Online Editor; Wang Xinjuan 2020-08-07 08:34:02 BEIJING, Aug. 7 -- Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe held a phone talk with the US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Thursday. The two sides exchanged views on the relations between two countries and two militaries, as well as the military exchanges in the next stage. Wei expressed China's position on issues including the South China Sea issue, the Taiwan question and the stigmatization of China by the US, etc., urging the US side to stop wrong words and deeds, enhance maritime risk control and prevent dangerous actions that may further tense the situation, so as to maintain regional peace and stability. Esper said that amid the tense China-US relations, the two militaries should keep the mechanism of dialogue and consultation, manage and control crises, avoid misjudgment and lower risks. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday issued four helpline numbers for aggrieved families after an Air India Express flight carrying 190 passengers from Dubai under the Vande Bharat Mission met with an accident in Kozhikode's Karipur Airport killing 19 people including both the pilots. PM Modi has also promised all his support to CM Pinarayi Vijayan in relief assistance. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has issued four helpline numbers for the families of those who travelled in Air India Express flight number IX-1344 which met with an accident at Kozhikode in Kerala on Friday. The MEA expressed grief over the tragedy and said that full details of the injured and casualties are awaited. We are deeply saddened by the tragedy of Air India Express Flight No IX 1344 at Kozhikode. MEA helplines are open 247: 1800 118 797, +91 11 23012113, +91 11 23014104, + 91 11 23017905. Fax: +91 11 23018158, Anurag Srivastava, official spokesperson of the MEA said in a tweet on Friday. We are deeply saddened by the tragedy of Air India Express Flight No IX 1344 at Kozhikode. MEA helplines are open 247: 1800 118 797 +91 11 23012113 +91 11 23014104 +91 11 23017905 Fax: +91 11 23018158 Email: covid19@mea.gov.in Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) August 7, 2020 Air India Express has also established helpline number in Sharjah at 00971 6 5970303. People can call them as well for updates. Full details of injured and casualties are awaited, another tweet read. Also read: Air India plane crash probe: Two investigation teams leave for Kozhikode Also read: AI Express plane tried to land twice before crashing, says official Meanwhile, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi called to inquire about the Khozikode plane crash and sought information on casualties. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji called to inquire about the Khozikode Air Crash. Expressed his deepest condolences on the loss of lives. He inquired about the details of the incident and sought information on casualties. Planning to visit Kozhikode tomorrow to be with the aggrieved, Muraleedharan tweeted. PM @narendramodi ji called to inquire about the #KhozikodeAirCrash. Expressed his deepest condolences on the loss of lives. He inquired about the details of the incident and sought information on casualties. Planning to visit Kozhikode tomorrow to be with the aggrieved. V. Muraleedharan (@MOS_MEA) August 7, 2020 At least 16 people have died when a plane with 190 people on board coming from Dubai met with an accident at Karipur airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening, as per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Death toll in the Air India Express flight crash landing incident at Kozhikode rises to 16, the DGCA said in a statement. Air India Express Dubai- Kozhikode IX-1344 flight, carrying 190 people on board from Dubai under the Vande Bharat Mission, skidded off the runway at Karipur Airport in Kozhikode at 7:41 pm on Friday. Also read: 19 people including both Pilots dead in Kozhikode plane crash Smoke rises from a burned area in the Xingu Indigenous Park, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, in the Amazon basin, on August 6, 2020 Brazil on Friday hailed figures showing a reduction in July of deforestation that has spooked international investors, though environmentalists warned it was too early to proclaim success. Official data showed a swath of Brazil's Amazon rainforest about the size of Londonmore than 1,600 square kilometers (620 square miles)was cleared in July, down from the 2,250 km2 lost in July 2019. That shows government efforts have achieved an "inversion of the trend," said Vice President Hamilton Mourao, who heads Brazil's National Amazon Council. An analysis of longer-term figures for the world's largest rainforest is more worrying, however. The 4,730 km2 of deforestation in the Amazon from January 1 to July 31 was slightly above the 4,700 km2 from the same period in 2019, the country's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said. The difference is much greater when examining 12-month figures: The 9,200 km2 lost from August 2019 to July 2020 was sharply higher than the 6,800 km2 cleared in the previous 12 months. The administration of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is under pressure to stop Amazon deforestation and forest fires, after international investment funds that collectively administer close to $4 trillion in assets wrote an open letter to the leader in June, urging the end of projects that accelerate the area's destruction. Bolsonaro's policies have opened up protected and indigenous areas to mining and farming, but the investors' call has been taken seriously by a government that needs capital to reignite an economy ravaged by the coronavirus. Mourao last month committed to cutting deforestation and forest fires "to an acceptable minimum." Environmentalists, however, were not optimistic about the latest numbers. "We cannot celebrate that we haven't surpassed the 2019 record. That's positive, but it's important to understand that 1,600 km2 is a lot," Ane Alencar, science director at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, told AFP. "The fires usually start in June, accelerate in August and peak in September." The NGO Climate Observatory blamed policies under Bolsonaro, a climate change skeptic. "This isn't ineptitude, it's planned," the group said. Fires on the rise Alencar warned that clearing so much land will inevitably lead to another alarming season of forest fires. Last year, the number of fires in the Amazon put Bolsonaro's government at loggerheads with the international community, which demanded enhanced protection for the rainforest. Satellite data show the number of forest fires in the Amazon were up last month by 28 percent on July last year. "Whoever cuts down trees wants to get a return on their investment, and so they burn the cut-down vegetation to clear the land... so stopping fires is the exact way to start in controlling deforestation," Alencar said. Explore further More than 1,600 square kilometers of Brazilian Amazon deforested in July 2020 AFP The UK's Border Force have issued just nine Fixed Penalty Notices to people breaching foreign arrival quarantine rules so far. Home Office figures revealed that fewer than ten people have been hit with the notices in relation to their completion of the passenger locator form. The form allows arrivals from countries deemed high-risk - such as Spain, the US and Mexico - to tell authorities where they will be quarantining and provide contact details. Those who breach the government's rules can be met with fines of between 100 and 1,000. The UK's Border Force have issued just nine Fixed Penalty Notices to people breaching foreign arrival quarantine rules so far. Pictured: Passengers arriving into Heathrow Airport on July 30 It is not clear where those who were issued fines arrived from. The first two border force fixed penalty notices were issued on Sunday 28 June at Coquelles to British nationals. The individuals were referred to the police and were found to be complying with quarantine measures. These figures do not include the one person who has been fined by police. A home office spokesperson said: 'The quarantine system is informed by science, backed by the public and designed to keep us all safe. 'We are seeing a high level of compliance and we expect this to continue as everyone plays their part to help stop the spread of this disease.' The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) released the figure on July 27, and will subsequently release the data every fortnight. On Friday, Rishi Sunak refused to quell speculation France could be the next destination added to the list of countries where arrivals must quarantine from. Figures released by the Home Office revealed that fewer than ten people have been hit with the notices in relation to their completion of the passenger locator form. Pictured: Passengers arriving into Heathrow Airport on July 30 Amid rising cases across much of the continent, the Chancellor warned that travellers needed to be aware that the situation was under 'constant review' and there was the 'risk' of disruption. He said the government 'will not hesitate' to take action by imposing restrictions on flows from countries if necessary. But lockdown-weary sunseekers angling for a summer break in France have begged for clarity after claims the country is 'highly likely' to be added to the 14-day quarantine list following a dramatic rise in infections. Some said a potential quarantine would risk children not starting school in September. Others said they were 'praying' that the Foreign Office's travel advice does not change and that the country's border remains upon for British travellers. Jane Stone said her family of six, including two grandparents, their daughter and three grandchildren booked to go to a holiday park in France in August, as they do each year. Their holiday from August 21 was booked last October, long before any mention of coronavirus. Jane Stone said her family of six, including two grandparents, their daughter and three grandchildren booked to go to a holiday park in France in August, as they do each year. Pictured: Jane Stone sent in this picture of her family Mother-of-two Becca Pountney said she is 'ready for a break and now it's looking increasingly unlikely we will make it' Ms Stone told MailOnline yesterday: 'We cannot cancel, without losing our money, and find ourselves stuck waiting for a Government decision. 'Our son is already in the Dordogne, and as far as I am aware, oblivious to the current situation.' Mother-of-two Becca Pountney, of Bedfordshire-based Engage Weddings, said her parents have an apartment in the South of France and she was due to drive to the country for the end of the summer holidays. She decided to go there because it was much cheaper for her than trying to holiday in the UK 'where the prices are high and there are so many people'. Ms Pountney added: 'I own my own business as a wedding blogger and consultant to the wedding industry, so I have spent the last four months supporting couples and business owners who have had their whole year in business destroyed or had their wedding days cancelled. 'I'm just ready for a break and now it's looking increasingly unlikely we will make it. I have two children who haven't been to school since March and I don't want the quarantine to impact their return to school. 'I understand it's risky trying to holiday in a pandemic - but we just need the government to make a decision soon so we can work out what happens next.' Matt Richards wrote on Twitter: 'Yes, a potential quarantine for me and my wife is not the end of the world. But 14 days quarantine would mean my children would miss the first week back at school and they've been off since March.' Families demand clarity on the rules before thousands of them go on holiday and risk children not starting school in September Rachel Arnold, of Cheshire, said: 'We want to go to France next week, Charente area, low Covid. Staying at a secluded house, no one else there. Thinking now not to go as 'threat' of quarantine looming. Ironically can't afford to do a ten-day holiday here.' And Sarah Eaves, from North London, tweeted: 'Please make a decision on France in the next 24 hours before thousands of us with families go on holiday and risk children not starting school. Quarantine means we can cancel and get back.' Another worried holidaymaker, Emma Lewis, tweeted: 'We're due to drive through France to get to Italy in early September. Praying the French border stays open and FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) advice for France doesn't change.' But Michael Porter, of Halifax, West Yorkshire, said he had cancelled a trip on Tuesday to go to France this Saturday for his wife's 60th birthday. On a visit to Glasgow yesterday, Rishi Sunak delivered a stark warning to Britons amid fears France could be the next holiday destination to face coronavirus curbs And Twitter user Jamie, from London, said: 'As father of the bride I have a wedding to attend in France on the 17th, so yes I'll be going but need to work on my return or go bankrupt. So pay the fine or hire a pedalo.' Meanwhile Matt Groombridge, from Deal, Kent, said: 'Two-week quarantine imminent travelling to/from France... holiday was timed well, and it means I'll get some peace and quiet on the ferry again.' The number of daily coronavirus cases in the country has risen in recent days, with 1,695 new infections being recorded just yesterday, as it battles to avoid a second wave of Covid-19. The seven-day rolling average of confirmed cases has doubled from under 10 per million of population on Jul 21 to 19.33 yesterday. By contrast the UK's is around 12 cases per million people. It is thought that if the decision is made to add France to the list, thousands of British holidaymakers may cancel their trips in order to avoid the two-week quarantine. Pictured: Beach-goers in Saint Jean de Luz, southwestern France, yesterday Cases of coronavirus measures per million of population have been running higher in France than in the UK recently Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced on Thursday that the Bahamas, Andorra and Belgium are being taken off the UK's quarantine-exemption list with little more than 24 hours' notice. In a round of interviews on a visit to Scotland yesterday, Mr Sunak said: 'It's a tricky situation. What I can say to people is we are in the midst of a global pandemic, and that means there is always the risk of disruption to travel plans. People need to bear that in mind. 'It is the right thing for us to do to keep everything under review on a constant basis to be talking with our scientists, our medical advisers. 'If we need to take action, as you have seen overnight, we will not hesitate to do that. But in the meantime people should just continue to look at the guidance and take everything into account.' Two months of strict lockdown seemed to put the country on track in its fight against the pandemic - but it is now once again recording around 1,219 new cases a day (graphic showing growing number of daily coronavirus cases in France) There are still a number of destinations on the government's quarantine-free list - but ministers have warned that the situation can change quickly The developments in France come after its scientific committee stated earlier this week that the situation was 'under control, but precarious. We could at any moment tip into a scenario that is less under control.' It added: 'The short term future of the pandemic mainly lies in the hands of the population. It is highly likely that we will experience a second epidemic wave this autumn or winter.' The statement said the virus 'has recently been circulating more actively, with an increased loss of distancing and barrier measures' since France emerged from its strict two-month lockdown in May. 'The balance is fragile and we can change course at any time to a less controlled scenario like in Spain for example,' it said. A Tauranga doctor has described general practice waiting rooms as breeding grounds for viruses pre-COVID. But coronavirus has changed the way doctors waiting rooms operate, and strict hygiene measures have helped prevent the spread of infectious illness, he says. Measures include operating separate clinics for patients with respiratory illness, triaging patients over the phone before appointments and having consultations via video call when possible. Fifth Avenue Family Practice doctor and Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation co-chairman Dr Luke Bradford says, in the past, clinics havent separated non-infectious patients from people with respiratory illness in waiting rooms. We were too comfortable in the past having infectious disease sitting in the same space as non-infectious patients and often vulnerable patients. Waiting rooms were breeding grounds for viruses. We never really thought about it because people didnt really die of the viruses and we vaccinated our elderly against the flu there was just sort of an acceptance that in winter you would get a couple of colds and maybe the flu. People came in and coughed and sneezed everywhere and a lot of people would sit separate but we didnt enforce it unless people were ill. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided them with an opportunity to evaluate how general practitioners attend to patients, he says. Luke says the Fifth Avenue Family Practice's separate clinic for respiratory patients will continue until COVID-19 is under control. However, he hopes infectious patients will continue to be kept separate at GPs offices long term. "Respiratory clinics will stay for the foreseeable future. Long term, as health organisations and practices look at their modelling, they will look to see how they manage cold and flu season differently. There is going to be a lot more acceptance going forward that we will be trying to separate respiratory patients in waiting rooms. At the clinic they also currently have seats spaced out, no magazines and they prioritise phone consultation when possible, Luke says. Patients need to be able to access us in a more convenient way, and COVID-19 accelerated that. There are illnesses we can manage through video consult or phone consult. It means less people have to be physically in the building, which means there is less disease is spread amongst people. Medical director of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners Dr Bryan Betty says general practices around the country are using a variety of strategies to keep respiratory patients separate. We have 1000 general practices around the country. Most surgeries are still screening patients at reception to establish if they have respiratory complaints. A variety of strategies can be put in place such as streaming respiratory patients into specific respiratory clinics, separating patients by at least one meter in the waiting room, using masks with patients who have a respiratory complaint, or offering a tele-consult. Bryan says GP's and nurses are also often wearing masks or visors if seeing respiratory patients. Guidelines issued to general practices by RNZCGP at Alert Level 1 state that patients with respiratory symptoms need to be separated from other patients within the practice, provided with a surgical mask and must maintain a two-metre distance from others in waiting rooms. The wife of the Dutch ambassador to Lebanon died on Saturday after being seriously injured in the massive explosion that tore through Beirut's port on Tuesday, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said. Hedwig Waltmans-Molier, 55, was injured by the explosion as she stood next to her husband, ambassador Jan Waltmans, in the living room of their house in Beirut, the ministry said. Tuesday's blast caused extensive damage to the Dutch embassy, injuring four other people connected to it. Search Keywords: Short link: Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:21:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Students in a remote prefecture of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region are being screened for congenital heart diseases by doctors sent from a city outside the region in a medical assistance program, the Chinese Red Cross Foundation said Friday. The seven-day program, organized by the foundation and the 7th People's Hospital of Zhengzhou in central China's Henan Province, provides the screening for students in at least three counties in Ngari Prefecture. On Thursday alone, 632 children were screened and 12 were diagnosed with congenital heart diseases. It is the fifth such medical trip the Chinese Red Cross Foundation has organized to Tibet. Enditem Jaipur, Aug 8 : It is not only the Congress that fears poaching of its MLAs by the BJP in Rajasthan, but also the latter which wishes to keep its flock intact. Close on the heels of the Congress sending its MLAs to plush hotels, the desert state's opposition party is busy packing off 18-20 MLAs to BJP-ruled Gujarat. Around a dozen MLAs from Jalore, Sirohi and Udaipur divisions were shifted on Friday night to a resort in Ahmedabad whereas another group of six MLAs were at the Jaipur airport at the time of filing of this report. They were about to leave for Porbandar by a chartered flight. Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia dubbed the sojourn of the party MLAs as an "excursion trip", while admitting that they were being lured by the Congress and senior officials of the state. Hence, they are being sent on a tour, he added. Speaking to IANS, Poonia said that the ruling Congress is "misusing" government machinery in Rajasthan for "selfish ends". "Many officials have visited our MLAs in the tribal belt and tried to influence them through immoral ways. Our MLAs were depressed and tense and hence we planned an excursion trip for them." The BJP leader said they would be back by August 12, though the final date needs to be decided. They will offer prayers at the Somnath temple on Monday, he added. However, Poonia refused to use the word 'camping' for the BJP MLAs and said that this word has been coined by the Congress and its MLAs in Jaisalmer are literally being monitored by security teams. Meanwhile, former PCC Vice-President Archana Sharma told IANS that "they (BJP) are blaming the Congress, but there is a dispute within the party. Hence, they are taking their MLAs to Gujarat." A senior politician, who wanted anonymity, said that the state BJP is feeling threatened after former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's meeting with the party leadership in Delhi and her readiness to regain her foothold in Rajasthan politics. Youd be hard pressed to find an industry that hasnt been negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. But when it comes to news publishing, the virus has accelerated some difficult trends, especially for small community publishers. And now yet another blow to small newspapers in California is about to be dealt, unless the state Legislature acts soon. A new report warns that the current health crisis may accelerate the closing of community newspapers across the nation. These outlets are critical to our democracy. When they can no longer afford to continue reporting, communities lose a vital watchdog and government business is hidden from public view. Right now, many communities throughout California are suffering the loss of their watchdogs. More than a dozen newspapers have suspended operations in the last five months, with more planning to close in the coming months. Your continued access to local news depends on legislative action California's new labor law, known as AB 5, inadvertently threatens the very existence of community newspapers. The legislature must act now to save local news, the editorial board says. Last year, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 5 for how businesses classify workers as contractors or employees. In recognition of the inapplicability of the legislation to the news industry and the economic headwinds facing community newspapers, the Legislature gave news publishers a one-year exemption, but when the extension ends in December 2020, publishers will be forced to classify newspaper carriers as employees. This significant change to a business practice that has been in place for more than 100 years will have the effect of increasing the cost of newspaper delivery by as much as 85%, a burden that is unsustainable for small publishers that have also recently been hit with advertising revenue declines of 30% to 50% as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Local publishers have sounded the alarm with California lawmakers, but so far, they have not taken any steps to address the devastating impact this will have on both publishers and readers. Small community and ethnic newspapers are especially vulnerable to economic fluctuations and catastrophic consequences, like closure. These small publishers are scrambling to stay afloat by cutting coverage, furloughing reporters and eliminating print publication on certain days of the week. They are expediting their transition to digital-first publishing and exploring new methods for providing information to their communities as more readers turn to these methods during the crisis. However, cutting print days disenfranchises specific demographic groups, such as senior citizens and other residents who dont have internet access (6%) or dont have a reliable internet connection (up to 25% of rural communities). Through losing their local newspaper, these groups are losing their main source of information and their connection to the community. Keeping news publishers strong is in the interest not only of the press, but of our greater democracy. When they lack a steady flow of information, communities suffer a slew of ailments, from declining citizen engagement to increased corruption and declining government performance. Fewer people run for office and fewer people vote. Thomas D. Elias: Your local columnist, endangered by AB 5 A new state law intended to protect gig economy workers is a direct threat to your local newspaper, and the First Amendment itself, columnist Tom Elias says. At a time when Californias unemployment rate is alarming, lack of legislative action to extend the exemption for newspaper carriers will cause even more job losses. If publishers are forced to limit circulation areas for financial reasons, they will have to reconfigure carrier routes, reduce home deliveries and cease daily publication, which means thousands of carrier routes will be eliminated. To save California newspapers, at a minimum, the Legislature must extend the exemption to AB 5, which will provide newspapers with more time to get past COVID-related advertising declines and to adjust their operations to meet changing consumption patterns. In addition, to further aid ethnic and community news publishers, the Legislature should prioritize these outlets for public outreach ads. Not only will this help provide residents with access to key local resources and public health information, it will help these community outlets bridge the financial gap without any additional state funding. If Californias lawmakers dont act soon to help community news publishers, they risk losing a vital local voice for their constituents and themselves. Watch Now: Explaining Californias new gig worker labor law David Chavern is president and CEO of News Media Alliance, the news industrys largest trade organization, david@newsmediaalliance.org. He wrote this for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias Capitol works and why it matters. Air Serbia and Turkish Airlines have signed a wide-ranging codeshare agreement. Through the enhanced partnership, the two carriers will be able to reciprocally put their own desginator codes and flight numbers onto each others service between Istanbul and Belgrade starting August 15. Within the scope of the mutual agreement, in the near future, cooperation will be strengthened with Turkish Airlines to codeshare on Air Serbias flights from Belgrade to Banja Luka and Tivat, while Air Serbia will place its codes onto Turkish Airlines services from Istanbul to Ankara, Kayseri, Izmir, Konya, Adana, Trabzon, Antalya, Gazipasa, Dalaman, Bodrum and Gaziantep. Taking into account the complementary structure of timetables of both carriers and the agreement designed to work reciprocally, it will allow both airlines customers to enjoy seamless connectivity in their respective hubs, the two said in a joint statement. Air Serbias General Manager for Commercial and Strategy, Jiri Marek, noted, We are glad to have developed our cooperation with Turkish Airlines through this codeshare partnership, which will provide passengers of both companies more choice and flexibility in organising their travels. We are sure this exciting and strategically very important partnership will improve economic relations of our countries. We are delighted to have the opportunity to host Turkish Airlines passengers on our flights to Belgrade as well as to other Air Serbias destinations. The Serbian government hinted as early as October last year that a codeshare agreement was in the making between the two national carriers. Bloomberg photo by Rebecca Smeyne. Hennes & Mauritz suspended several employees after a new hat for the Swedish retailer's chain & Other Stories was given an internal product name that contained a racist slur. "We take the use of racially offensive language extremely seriously," company spokesperson Ulrika Isaksson said in a statement Thursday. "While internal and external investigations are taking place, we have suspended the team and managers responsible for this area of the business." Technavio has been monitoring the specialty gases market and it is poised to grow by USD 4.28 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 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/20200807005350/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Specialty Gases 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 Frequently Asked Questions- At what CAGR is the market projected to grow during the forecast period 2020-2024? Growing at a CAGR of almost 7%, the market growth will accelerate during the forecast period of 2020-2024. What is the key factor driving the market? Boom in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors is one of the key factors driving market growth. Who are the top players in the market? Advanced Specialty Gases Inc., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Iwatani Corp., L Air Liquide SA, Linde AG, Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Praxair Inc., SHOWA DENKO K.K., Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp., and Weldstar. are some of the major market participants. Which region is expected to hold the highest market share in the market? North America What is the major trend of the market? High dependency on high-purity gases in LED manufacturing sector is a major growth factor for the market. What is the year-over-year growth rate of the global market? The year-over year growth rate for 2020 is estimated at 6.26%. The market is concentrated, and the degree of concentration will accelerate during the forecast period. Advanced Specialty Gases Inc., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Iwatani Corp., L Air Liquide SA, Linde AG, Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Praxair Inc., SHOWA DENKO K.K., Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp., and Weldstar are some of the major market participants. The boom in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors will offer immense growth opportunities. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in fast-growing segments, while maintaining their position in the slow-growing segments. Specialty Gases Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Specialty Gases Market is segmented as below: Type Carbon-based Gases Noble Gases Halogen-based Gases Atmospheric Gases Others Geography North America APAC Europe MEA South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR43831 Specialty Gases 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 specialty gases market report covers the following areas: Specialty Gases Market size Specialty Gases Market trends Specialty Gases Market analysis This study identifies high dependency on high-purity gases in LED manufacturing sector as one of the prime reasons driving the specialty gases market growth during the next few years. Specialty Gases Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the specialty gases market, including some of the vendors such as Advanced Specialty Gases Inc., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Iwatani Corp., L Air Liquide SA, Linde AG, Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Praxair Inc., SHOWA DENKO K.K., Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp., and Weldstar. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the specialty gases 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 Specialty Gases Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist specialty gases market growth during the next five years Estimation of the specialty gases market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the specialty gases market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of specialty gases 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 Type Market segments Comparison by Type Carbon-based gases Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Noble gases Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Halogen-based gases Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Atmospheric gases Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by Type Customer landscape Geographic Landscape Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024 MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity by geography Volume driver- Demand led growth Market challenges Market trends Vendor Landscape Vendor landscape Landscape disruption Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors Advanced Specialty Gases Inc. Air Products and Chemicals Inc. Iwatani Corp. L Air Liquide SA Linde AG Mitsui Chemicals Inc. Praxair Inc. SHOWA DENKO K.K. Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp. Weldstar 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 focuses 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/20200807005350/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/ WILLIAMSPORT- Three people living in the New York City area have admitted to being part of a scheme to defraud Sprint that involved using the stolen identities of individuals with high credit scores to purchase over $1 million worth of iPhones The trio would order the phones to addresses they were not associated with, track the delivery times, and then be there to pick them up when delivered either by showing the driver a fake ID or by removing them from the porch, Assistant U.S. Attorney George J. Rocktashel said Thursday. The phones, which retail for $749 each, would then be taken to New York City and sent overseas where they were sold, Rocktashel said in outlining the governments evidence against the three in U.S. Middle District Court. In all, 1,630 cell phones valued at $1,338,247 were ordered using fake accounts, but only 888 were lost because the others were not shipped, Rocktashel said. To date, 390 individuals in 14 states are known to have had their identities stolen, according to Rocktashel, including residents of Centre, Mifflin, Montour and Northumberland counties. Centre County was a hotbed of the illegal activity in January 2019, and that is where one of the three people charged, 33-year-old Andrew Craig Herdsman, was arrested. The other two, Horace Henry, 42, and George Ernest Bobb, 36, were arrested in July 2019 in Delaware. Herdsman and Henry admitted to using fake IDs to pick up phones in Centre County while Bobb said he did the same in Delaware. All pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud with Henry and Bobb also pleading to aggravated identity theft. The three, none of whom is a U.S. citizen, have agreed not to contest deportation. Henry and Herdsman are citizens of Jamaica and Bobb of Guyana. This is how the scheme worked, Rocktashel said: * Personal identification information was obtained and used to create false Sprint accounts, open service contracts, and obtain counterfeit drivers licenses and college student IDs. * Pre-paid gift cards were used to pay an associated down payment or sales taxes required to activate the accounts. * Phones were shipped to residences, many of which were for sale. * Tracking numbers were used to determine when the phones would be delivered and Henry, Herdsman and others traveled from the New York area to pick them up using counterfeit identification documents. * The phones were taken back to New York City and sold to an individual who shipped them overseas to be sold. Henry presented a fake New York drivers license both when stopped on Jan. 4, 2019, going 105 miles an hour on Interstate 80 eastbound in Union County and to rent a hotel room in State College that Jan. 17-18, Rocktashel said. Two Apple iPads recovered during the investigation contained the People Finder website the government believes was used to obtain identities. Most of the indictment in the case remains under seal because Rocktashel said not everyone has been apprehended. Paris: French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has been appointed as the new prime minister on Tuesday after Manuel Valls resigned to seek the Socialist nomination in next years presidential election. Cazeneuve, who has overseen the security forces reaction to a string of jihadist attacks that have killed more than 230 people in France over the past two years, will take control of the Socialist government until the election in May. The widely-respected former lawyer was named to the post after President Francois Hollande accepted Vallss resignation early Tuesday. Cazeneuve, 53, has served in various government roles, including budget minister and minister in charge of European affairs, before becoming interior minister in April 2014. Bruno Le Roux, leader of the Socialists in the lower house of parliament, will take over the interior portfolio. The mini-reshuffle comes after Valls, who has been prime minister for the past two-and-a-half years, said yesterday he would step down to contest a leftwing primary in January. The 54-year-old quit the government to devote himself to the presidential race, in which polls currently show him trailing in fifth place overall. Announcing his candidacy yesterday, he vowed to take on the conservative Republicans and the far-right National Front led by Marine Le Pen. His announcement came four days after Hollande said he would bow out after a single term, paving the way for his divisive premier to try to become the lefts new standard bearer. My candidacy is one of reconciliation, Valls said in a speech from his political base in the gritty Paris suburb of Evry. The far right, which was beaten in Austrias presidential election at the weekend, was at the gates of power in France with a nationalist programme that would ruin the poor, he warned. Polls show Le Pen and conservative candidate Francois Fillon far out in front in the opening round of the election on April 23, with Fillon expected to beat Le Pen in Mays second round. Valls would crash out with 10 percent if he won the nomination - behind Fillon, Le Pen, centrist former economy minister Emmanuel Macron and the Communist-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon, an Ifop-Fiducial poll showed today. Yesterday, Valls attacked Fillon, a self-declared Thatcherite, accusing him of rehashing the old recipes of the 1980s. Were told that Francois Fillon is the next president of the Republic. Nothing is set in stone, he said defiantly. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Garner were photographed at the beach together in Malibu, earlier this week. While the longtime pals initially sparked romantic speculation on Tuesday, the pair's relationship is reportedly just platonic. '[Cooper and Garner] are friends and have been forever,' and that there is 'no truth to anything else,' a source told Page Six of the former Alias co-stars. Bradley Cooper returned to Malibu wearing a David Bowie t-shirt and jeans on Thursday, just two days after his fun in the sun with Jennifer Garner And just two days after hitting the sand together, the 45-year-old Oscar nominee returned to the same beach city wearing a David Bowie t-shirt and jeans. Most of his famous face was covered in a white reusable face mask, amid the coronavirus pandemic, and a pair of black sunglasses. His outing marks the first time he was photographed in public, after enjoying time with the newly-single actress and his three-year-old daughter Lea De Seine. The A Star Is Born director shares his little pride and joy with his ex-girlfriend Irina Shayk, a supermodel who hails from Russia. Frolicking: Garner looked like she was having the time of her life the day after their hangout, as she returned to the beach with friends; seen on Wednesday Moving on: Jennifer and her longtime boyfriend, John Miller, recently spilt after a two-year romance Both Bradley and the 48-year-old Peppermint star- who played best friends and sometimes lovers Will Tippin and Sydney Bristow on the ABC spy show - were all smiles as they built sandcastles with his little girl. Jennifer herself shares her children Violet, 14, Seraphina, 11, and Samuel, eight, with her ex-husband Ben Affleck, with whom she has a close co-parenting relationship. Bradley and Jennifer are old friends, having co-starred on Alias from 2001 to 2006. Meanwhile, an In Touch Weekly source claimed this week that Jennifer and her beau, John Miller, 'are no longer together' after a two-year romance. Just friends: Bradley and Jennifer are old friends, having co-starred on Alias from 2001 to 2006 as characters who are at times romantically involved. The insider said they 'split up before L.A. went into lockdown,' adding that they 'remain on friendly terms so there's a possibility that they could rekindle their relationship in the future, but right now it's over.' John and Jennifer had not been seen together for over a year, before this week, when it emerged that they have allegedly broken up. He and his ex-wife, Caroline, married in 2005 and filed in 2014 for a divorce that was ultimately finalized in 2018, after he started dating Jennifer. Jen married Ben in 2005, separated in 2015 and finalized their divorce in 2018. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. knew how to flatter an old friend. He had been sitting in the Oval Office in May 2014, in his telling, convening privately with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Barack Obama when another commitment demanded his attention: Christopher J. Dodd, the former Connecticut senator turned movie industry lobbyist, was expecting Mr. Biden imminently at a trade conference nearby. The vice president said he bid the chancellor farewell. Angela Merkel looked at me like, What in the hell is he talking about? he recounted a short while later perhaps with characteristic exaggeration talking up Mr. Dodds clout before his colleagues at the Motion Picture Association of America. The vice president noted the rumors, dating to their time as legislative peers, that Mr. Dodd controlled him despite Mr. Bidens Senate seniority. Ive given new life to those rumors, he joked. Six years later, Mr. Biden would appear to be doing so again. With the biggest decision of his long campaign life looming choosing a running mate before accepting the Democratic presidential nomination in less than two weeks he has tasked Mr. Dodd with helping to lead the selection process. Flash New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday that all school districts across the state have been authorized to reopen for the fall semester. "By our infection rates, all school districts can open" with tight precautions, Cuomo said Friday on a conference call with reporters. Cuomo cleared the way for schools to offer at least some days of in-person classes, alongside remote learning this fall. Students will be required to wear masks throughout the school days, he noted. "It is just great news," Cuomo said. "We are probably in the best situation in the country right now." He added that they will continue to monitor the infection rate leading up to the first day of school. "Everywhere in the state, every region is below the threshold that we established," Cuomo said. Last month he said that school districts would be allowed to reopen in September if the positive test rate for their region stayed below 5 percent -- a threshold every state region has met as of Friday. Of the nearly 750 school districts, more than 120 districts have not submitted plans and 50 have plans that are either incomplete or deficient, Cuomo said. He said how schools are going to test students and teachers is particularly a "high level of concern." Cuomo said the state's Department of Health will continue to go through plans over the weekend. Zoos across the world say their animals are becoming 'lonely' without visitors as a result of the coronavirus lockdown. Zoo keepers have shared their wide-ranging methods to keep animals active and engaged as even those that have since reopened struggle to pull in the usual number of visitors to their sites. Since the coronavirus pandemic began keeping visitors at home, the jaguars and chimpanzees at the Oakland Zoo have enjoyed the quiet, venturing out to areas of their exhibits they usually avoid. The bears and petting pigs miss the children, though, and are seeking more attention from zookeepers. Dublin Zoo said animals were 'wondering what's happened to everyone' after closing to the public earlier this year. Director Leo Oosterweghel said the animals look at him in surprise when he attends to them, as they are 'used to visitors'. Keepers say animals in London Zoo enclosures are missing human company. They include the critically endangered Western Lowland gorilla as well as Holly, Brambles, Widget, Porticus, Ellie, Hick and Bumpkin - London Zoo's adorable pygmy goats. It's clear that many of the animals in Regent's Park's famous zoo enclosures are missing human company - like the critically endangered Western Lowland gorilla 'Our Asiatic lions and our Sumatran tiger like to watch what's going on from high vantage points in their homes, keeping an eye on their territories,' says senior keeper Tara Humphrey Gorilla Keeper Dan said: 'We started to see a few wild ducks visiting the zoo instead of people, so our gorillas Alika and Gernot have been having fun chasing them - they never catch them, of course. 'We used the time thinking up creative extra activities for the primates - just like parents around the country, whose children are off school. 'We've made 'snowballs' for the gorillas - balls of nuts and seeds that we throw into Gorilla Kingdom for the troop to play with and then eat.' Tara Humphrey, Senior Keeper, ZSL London Zoo said keepers remained focused on looking after the animals despite the downturn in visitors. She said: 'While we missed having visitors - as we love sharing our work and educating people about our animals - we were lucky to have so many unique residents to take our mind off the situation for a while. 'They all need feeding, cleaning up after and entertaining every single day, so it was nice to have a routine to keep to. Looking after our animals kept us grounded. 'As a team, we spent extra time with all our animals, including the dwarf mongoose, for example. 'Mongoose are very intelligent animals and really enjoy one to one training - they're very responsive to target training, which is where we hold out a target - such as a ball on a stick - and encourage the animals to come over and touch it in order to receive a treat. Normally, excited visitors would suddenly appear, all vying to pat the pint-sized herd of pygmy goats. But today, like every day since the zoo closed its doors on March 21, no one arrives 'It's important for us to be able to call the animals over to us so we can weigh them and perform regular health checks, so we do training like this with the animals we look after every day. 'We increased the amount of enrichment for animals such as the mongooses - entertaining activities that encourage them to use their natural skills - they particularly like scented enrichment, where they follow strong scents such as natural spices to find their food. 'We also like to provide them with rotting logs that they can break down and forage for insects in. 'Our mongoose also had a new litter of pups that kept them busy during lockdown but we still made sure to provide them other exciting stimulants like these.' The zoo has since reopened its doors with social distancing measures in place but, as visitors numbers struggle to reach their usual peak the charity behind the zoo is appealing for donations to help keep their doors open. 12,000 miles away, At Orana Wildlife Park in Christchurch, New Zealand, rhinos and giraffes were still turning up for their 'meet the public' appearances after the site shut. Spokesperson Nathan Hawke said zookeepers had observed that many of their rare and endangered animals were missing the attention of humans, forcing staff to find ways of keeping them entertained and stimulated. Tricks include spraying cologne and perfume in hiding places to intrigue the lions and offering puzzle feeders or playing unusual sounds to keep the keas on their toes. One of the chimps watches the screen in their enclosure in Krasnoyarsk, where zookeepers say the animals have been miserable since visitors stopped coming An empty corridor in the Royev Ruchey zoo, which was closed to visitors due to the pandemic Chimpanzees at a Russian wildlife park watched cartoons to stave off depression while visitors stay away during the lockdown. Zookeepers said chimp twins Tikhon and Anfisa became miserable after people suddenly stopped coming to the park. The sociable primates missed the regular visitors to the Royev Ruchey Nature Park in Krasnoyarsk, who were banned by order of Siberian health officials. 'After seeing them getting sad we decided to put up a TV set on a wall, and started showing cartoons,' said park director Andrey Gorban. The pair have been watching The Lion King, among other animations. 'Their favourite is a Russian cartoon about an exhausted mother monkey who lives in a zoo,' park director Gorban said. 'They are ready to watch it non-stop.' Tikhon, the male chimpanzee, has been lying on a sofa and snacking on raw vegetables as he enjoys the cartoons. Keepers at Sumida Aquarium in Japan asked people to make video calls to its eels so the sensitive creatures remembered that humans exist and do not pose a threat. A new Southern White Rhino calf exploring the enclosure at Monarto Safari Park in South Australia, Australia The Sumida Aquarium, housed in the landmark Tokyo Skytree tower, said its animals have become used to a largely human-free environment during the coronavirus calm. Meanwhile, a gray cockatoo at the Cape May County Zoo, in New Jersey, US, became so distressed at his newfound solitude that he began self-harming, plucking his chest feathers until he gnawed a hole in his skin that had to be covered with a vest. Phoenix Zoo in Arizona, US, also reported a change in behaviour in their animals. Linda Hardwick, communications director told the BBC: 'We noticed that some of our more 'social' animals are not a fan of the stay at home and social distancing orders. 'Primates especially have noticed our guests are gone and go looking for them. 'Our Tropical Flights Aviary is home to a very special, and social bird; Dynah the Bali myna, who is missing the attention of guests. Bird keepers are visiting her frequently to curb her loneliness.' The teams have been working to provide extra enrichment for some of their animals which included giving tiger Indah a barrel in a pool of water, making a fun and engaging toy. Lions at Sydney Zoo have been playing with each other to keep skills sharp with staring contest Staff members are trying to fill the void. At Australias Adelaide Zoo, employees noticed their meerkats were less active than normal. Their solution was to occupy the meerkats using a shiny red remote-controlled car. Meanwhile, their colleagues welcomed a newborn Southern calf born at Monarto Safari Park who enjoyed exploring the enclosure without the pressure of hundreds of visitors and lions at Sydney Zoo, which is open, have been interacting with each other to keep their skills sharp. . Britons living in EU countries could be granted freedom of movement rights after the 11-month Brexit transition period ends. British nationals living in countries - including France, Spain and Germany - could be allowed to move to another EU country if they choose to under plans being considered by the European commission. They may be subject to certain conditions, including proving that they have lived in the EU for five years, but would be granted the similar movement freedoms to other citizens in the bloc, reports suggest. Britons living in EU countries could be granted freedom of movement rights after the 11-month Brexit transition period ends under plans being concidered by the European Commission. Pictured: European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen The EUUK joint specialised committee on citizens rights discussed the proposals, Politico reports. Co-chairman of the British in Europe campaign Fiona Godfrey said: 'We received good news on combining our Withdrawal Agreement status with other EU immigration statuses, which should provide some UK citizens in the EU with some further mobility rights. 'We now need clarity on how those rights will be evidenced.' At least one million Britons live in the EU and, under the withdrawal agreement terms, they are only able to live in the country they currently reside in - rather than any EU nation they choose. A Foreign Office spokesman told The Daily Telegraph: 'Citizens' rights has been an absolute priority and the Withdrawal Agreement protects the rights of UK nationals living in the EU by the end of the transition period on December 31 2020, ensuring that they can continue to live their lives in the EU broadly as they did before.' It comes just days after Germany turned up the heat on Boris Johnson over Brexit trade talks demanding he is more 'realistic and pragmatic'. Berlin's Europe minister Michael Roth said he was 'disappointed' with the UK's tough stance amid rising fears that the negotiations could fail. von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and European Parliament president David-Maria Sassoli greet each-other With the clock running down to the end of the transition period in December, the two sides still appear to be deadlocked over calls for Britain to fall into line with EU rules and access to fishing waters. The government insists it is ready to walk away this Autumn if there is no hope of a breakthrough. Another round of discussions between the EU's Michel Barnier and British counterpart David Frost is due to take place in Brussels this month. But the Bank of England has raised questions about how much the outcome matters amid the much bigger impact of coronavirus. Governor Andrew Bailey said the pandemic 'dwarfed' the issue of trade terms, and might already have 'taken over' much of the damage from a failure to get a deal. Berlin's Europe minister Michael Roth (right) said he was 'disappointed' with the tough stance taken by Boris Johnson (left) amid rising fears that the negotiations could fail In an interview with Sky News after the Bank predicted the economy will shrink by 9.5 per cent this year, Mr Bailey said: 'Both Covid and Brexit could potentially negatively affect trade... Covid is the bigger shock now... 'Moreover of course Covid has already had an effect on trade. 'You then get to the extremely complicated question - which I don't think we're in a position to give very much frankly useful guidance on at the moment - which is to say if you think about the less good outcomes on Brexit... how much of that effect on trade has already been taken over by what's happened with Covid?' Asked whether that meant the risk from Covid dwarfed that from a failure to strike Brexit trade terms, Mr Bailey said: 'I think at the moment it does dwarf it.' Ministers have told drugs companies to restart stockpiling medicines amid fears that trade terms will not be settled in time. Department of Health officials sent a letter to medical suppliers urging them to 'replenish' their drug stock. They have even warned companies to be prepared to reroute shipping to avoid the Channel. The government has also revealed plans to fine lorry drivers destined for the Channel ports 300 if they drive into Kent after December 31 without necessary export paperwork. Ministers fear that, in the absence of a trade deal, the EU will impose strict import checks on all goods entering the bloc, potentially causing gridlock. Governor Andrew Bailey said the pandemic 'dwarfed' the issue of trade terms, and might already have 'taken over' much of the damage from a failure to get a deal Another round of discussions between the EU's Michel Barnier and British counterpart David Frost (pictured left and right respectively in London last month) is due to take place in Brussels In an interview with the AFP news agency, Mr Roth said he was 'disappointed that London is shifting further and further away from the political declaration agreed between us as a reliable basis for negotiations'. 'I would like those responsible in London to be more realistic and pragmatic. The Brits are known for the latter,' he said. Brussels has been engaging in sabre-rattling as the discussions near the critical moment. French minister for Europe Clement Beaune recently swiped that no deal is better than a bad deal, insisting Paris will not be 'intimidated'. He said France would be 'intransigent' on fishing, and will not be 'intimidated' by Britain in the negotiation 'game'. 'Let's not kid ourselves, if there is no deal, it will be a difficult issue,' he added. 'We'll have to organise a response for sectors like fisheries. Support our fishermen financially. We're not there yet.' After a protest of almost two months against the formation of the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board, a priest from Kedarnath has now threatened to take bhoomi samadhi (bury himself alive). Santosh Trivedi, the priest protesting since June 12 sits outside the temple bare chested and meditates as a sign of dissent, demanding the dissolution of the Board. The priests community in the state has been demanding the dissolution of Devasthanam Board and withdrawal of the Kedarnath master plan. Brijesh Sati, spokesperson for Devbhoomi Tirtha Purohit Haqhakudhari Mahapanchayat, a priests body in the state said that Trivedi has informed all other priests that he will find an auspicious time for bhoomi Samadhi at Kedarnath. Upset with the state governments response towards his protests, with no call for an amicable conversation Acharya Trivedi has decided to take bhoomi samadhi near Shankaracharyas Samadhi at Kedarnath shrine. He will consult with priests of all the four shrines and find an auspicious time before the bhoomi samadhi, said Sati. Vinod Shukla, president of Kedarnath Tirtha Purohit Mahasabha, said, First the government constituted the Devasthanam Board without the consent of the priests and after that, under the Master Plan, efforts are being made to take over the property of Kedarnaths priests under its control. We will continue to strongly oppose this move. Officials from the Char Dham Devasthanam Board, could not be reached for a comment. On July 21, the Uttarakhand high court dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy against the state governments takeover of the Char Dhams and 51 other shrines through the formation of the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board. The court ruled that the ownership of the temple properties would vest in Char Dham shrines and power of the Board would be confined only to the administration and management of the properties. Last December, the Uttarakhand assembly had passed the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board Bill. In January, Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya gave her assent for the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act, 2019. Aggrieved priests had threatened that they would move the HC against the Act, as they claimed to have been kept in the dark about the new law. They had alleged that the government took the step to ensure its control over shrine-related issues, bypassing the powerful priest community. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has justified the bussing of people to registration centers to partake in the EC registration exercise. The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia was seen in a viral video days ago challenging some Military personnel at Banda. Mr. Asiedu Nketia accused the Military of intimidating and preventing some people, who he claimed were Ghanaians and were bused to a registration centre in the area, from participating in the registration exercise. Some members of the NPP have also defended the Military saying they are stationed in the Regions to protect the borders and also ensure that non-Ghanaians didn't participate in the exercise. Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Kwesi Pratt wondered why it should become an issue to see people being bused to participate in the voter registration exercise stressing there's nothing wrong with it. According to him, there are some villages in the country where transport buses go there once a week and so it is only normal to find the residents board a vehicle together to a registration centre. "There is a village in Ghana where if a vehicle will go there, it's once a week. So, it is very normal for the residents to board one car to go to the registration centre. It's not strange for that to happen, given the geography of Ghana, given the development of infrastructure and so on; it's normal . . . So, if the residents in this village want to go to register their names and so pick one car or the MP or Municipal Assembly there decides to help them by arranging a car for them, what's wrong about that?'' Listen to Kwesi Pratt in the video below Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video >>> Avoiding passivity in the fight against COVID-19 The cabinet leader chaired a teleconference on August 7 between the Government and the relevant ministries, agencies and localities to discuss measures in dealing with COVID-19. Speaking at the event, PM Phuc emphasised Vietnam is at the beginning of a peak of the second wave of COVID-19 in the country, with the number of infected, deaths, and localities with infection cases increasing. However, the senior leader urged calm and adherence to the guidance from the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control in order to make better and more timely solutions, while mobilising and efficiently using all resources in the fight against COVID-19, especially in the hotbeds of Da Nang City and Quang Nam Province. Urging great determination and vigilance from the relevant localities and agencies, PM Phuc also stressed the need to seek better devices and means to popularise information on COVID-19 fight to the people, helping the public be alert and strictly implement preventive measures, in addition to applying technology to achieve higher efficiency. The PM also requested ensuring the safety and best organisation of the upcoming national high school graduation exams, avoiding the infection of candidates, their family members and teachers. He said that experiences from Da Nang and other localities showed that immediate tracing, testing and isolating is effective in firmly stamping out the epidemic, preventing it from spreading to a larger scale. The leader asked for proper management and quarantine of returnees from Da Nang, as well as strict medical control and medical declarations in hospitals and industrial parks, and making face mask wearing mandatory in public places, big cities and epidemic-hit areas. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chairing the online meeting between the Government and the relevant ministries, agencies and localities on COVID-19 fight. (Photo: NDO/Tran Hai) He also requested the increase in production of ventilators and medical masks to offer to key provinces and cities, while preparing to set up field hospitals in localities such as Da Nang, Quang Nam and populous cities at risk of infection spreading. In order to quickly trace suspected infections and prevent the epidemic from spreading, PM Phuc suggested every Vietnamese person with a smartphone install Bluezone a Vietnamese-developed mobile app capable of alerting users if they had close contact with people who have COVID-19. He also asked for strengthened communication to raise public awareness on disease prevention. The media was urged to broadcast more preventive measures in various forms. An effective and sustainable COVID-19 strategy must be based on the continual maintenance of economic activity with close attention paid to epidemic prevention, PM Phuc affirmed, adding that social distancing should be implemented in a serious and timely manner in pandemic-hit areas but should not be carried out simultaneously in localities and regions that have not detected new infections so as to not disrupt the economy. Stressing that the whole country is ready and abundant reserves exist to serve the people during any social distancing, PM Phuc also asked Da Nang, Quang Nam, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong and other key localities to consider keeping reserves and guarding the supply of food in case the epidemic lasts longer than expected. The chairpersons of the People's Committees of provinces and cities, based on epidemic developments, were asked to decide the level of risk and apply appropriate anti-epidemic measures in their locales to resolutely minimise negative impacts on business and production activities, as well as people's lives. In mid-2020 Turkey introduced another M-60T upgrade called M-60TM. The main new feature of TM is the addition of the PULAT APS (Active Protection System). The Turks have been using the M-60Ts since 2010 and have been quite satisfied with them. This T version of the M-60 is based on the Israeli M-60 Sabra, which was a much-enhanced M-60 that the Turks implemented as the M-60T. In March 2002 Turkey signed a $668 million deal to have an Israeli firm upgrade 170 American made M-60A1 tanks to the M-60T standard. This involved replacing the existing 105mm gun with a 120mm one. The fire-control system was upgraded as was the frontal armor with the addition of both active ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor) and passive (composite) armor. Electronics in general were upgraded, external sensors were added and engines were overhauled. The M-60T deal followed four years of talks, during which Israel originally offered to sell them Merkava tanks but Turkey decided to upgrade its existing M-60s instead. Israel had already upgraded many of their M-60s to the Sabra standard and the Turks were impressed with the results. The new Turkish Pulat APS is the result of an early 2018 deal that enabled a Turkish firm to manufacture a Turkish version of the Ukrainian Zaslon-L APS. The Ukrainian APS was somewhat unique in that it was designed to protect structures as well as vehicles from guided missiles. Zaslon-L consists of three different modules. There is a radar module, a guidance system module and multiple CMMs (countermeasures modules). The CMMs are basically a special type of ERA (explosive reactive armor) designed for one-time use and able quickly (a fraction of a second) throw out a cloud of fragments that will destroy any incoming missiles. The downside of Zaslon is that cloud of high-speed fragments can kill or injure nearby troops or civilians. Moreover, each CMM, while reloadable, is only good for two shots. Nevertheless, Zaslon has proved it works and that is what counts. That plus the speed with which the Ukrainians agreed to and implemented deals like this. The Turkish deal was hastily arranged in response to numerous (over a dozen) Turkish tank losses from ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) and RPGs during operations in northwest Syria 2016-2018. Turkey arranged for a Turkish firm to obtain a manufacturing license to build the Zaslon-L APS for at least a hundred (and many more if successful) of its Leopard 2 and M60 tanks. Zaslon is more modular that most APS systems, which tend to consist of a radar to detect incoming missiles and small rockets to rush out and disable the incoming threat. Zaslon is different and can be quickly adapted, because of its modular design, to be installed on different tanks and armored vehicles. Thus, a Zaslon APS weighs between 500 and 1,000 kg (depending on the type of vehicle it is installed on). Zaslon has been available since 2010 and has worked in combat with Russian forces in eastern Ukraine. It was that combat experience that convinced the Turks to go with Zaslon. That and the fact that Ukraine, since its independence was restored in 1991, has depended on developing and selling (to just about anyone) modern and usually quite effective military technology. The Turkish firm that is to manufacture Zazlon had been working on its own APS but had not gotten it to work yet. The Turks were unable to obtain APS from the other two major manufacturers (Israel and Russia) because there are diplomatic problems with those two. Another potential problem is that such technology transfers to Turkish manufacturers sometimes run into problems. Recent victims of this have been Israel, which has ceased doing business with the Turks, and South Korea, which considers the problems an expensive form of education. These is still a lot of corruption in Turkey and for military manufacturers this often means promising more than you can deliver. This is not unique, India has similar problems and so do, to a certain extent, all defense manufacturers. The Turks knew they needed an APS in early 2016 when one of their M-60T tanks was hit by a Russian made Kornet ATGM, and badly damaged but not destroyed. ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) took credit for this attack. The Turks described the damage to the M069T as slight and repairable The Kornet E is a Russian laser guided missile with a range of 5,000 meters. The launcher has a thermal sight for use at night or in fog. The missile's warhead can penetrate enough modern tank armor to render the side armor of the Israeli Merkava or U.S. M1 tanks vulnerable. The missile weighs 8.2 kg (18 pounds) and the launcher 19 kg (42 pounds). The system was introduced in 1994 and has been sold to Syria, who apparently passed them on to Hezbollah and Hamas. ISIL captured some Kornets in Syria. Kornet has had some success against less well protected models of the M1 tank. In 2014, when Iraqi forces fell apart, several American made M1 tanks were lost, some to Kornet missiles. The Iraqi troops using the M1s did not, as they were taught, use their M1s in conjunction with infantry. This allowed ISIL fighters to get close enough to M1s during combat to place explosives and disable or destroy some of these M1s. A few were destroyed by Kornet missiles. In 2003 four M1s were disabled, but not destroyed, by Iraqi Kornets. In 2006 several Israeli Merkavas were destroyed by Hezbollah Kornet. By 2014 Israel had adopted anti-ATGM systems for their Merkavas which defeated over a dozen Kornet attacks. Before 2014 no M1s had been destroyed by enemy action, but that was in large part because they were used by well-trained crews and commanders. Moreover, nearly all the American M1s that had been in combat had better armor than the ones sold to Iraq. There are several items that American M1s have the Iraqi M1 tanks did not get. The Iraqi M1A1s had no depleted uranium armor, no ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor), and no additional protection against anti-tank missiles. Worst of all, the Iraqi M1s did not have disciplined, experienced and determined crews. Turkey has well trained crews for their Leopards and M-60s, meaning an APS made these tanks more effective. That was already the case with the new features of the M-60T/TM. Adapting a combat proven APS as their Pulat was a wise move. Developing an effective APS has proved to be very difficult and the Ukrainians were one of the few nations to do it, thanks in part to Ukraine fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014. The last scene in the second of the two videos released shows a nurse standing at the window to the cell and looking in at Neville. In a faint voice, the nurse appears to suggest that Neville wasnt breathing. The guards reenter the cell and the nurse checks on Neville, who lets out an groan. The nurse applies her stethoscope, then tells the guards I cant hear a heart rate and says Neville has to be rolled on his back to be treated. She requests an defibrillator and performs CPR on him. Once students and viewers of independent films understand the importance of performance, it becomes easier to see how other details, such as lighting design, costuming and editing work together with the performance to highlight character over plot and reflection rather than suspense. In the old days, it was said there was film acting and theater acting, Baron said. But no, there are multiple styles of performance in theater and film. Another important part of the book reflects on some of the beginnings of independent cinema. The 1980s is often considered the start of independent films, and that was true, but Baron pointed out that some films during the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s set the precedent for what happened in the 80s and beyond. There were films that reflected a vision of independent cinema with complex links between independent production companies and major studios, she said. Films such as Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson were examples of how independent production companies encouraged collaboration between actors and directors, and led to the actors affecting the themes in the eras films. They also encouraged genre experimentation, and fostered a new realism that depended on new stars and new approaches to performance." A lot of experimentation came from the work of performance artists on both coasts and women filmmakers, she said. Independent films also are important because its one of the few places where you have an opportunity for filmmakers and actors of color to be in feature films, and I think that is really wonderful. The book also addresses some of the additional changes in the industry that led to specialty film divisions created by the Hollywood studios, new independent distributors eager to locate and financially exploit commercially promising independent films, indiewood films and beyond indiewood. The book, intended as an academic textbook, was published by Palgrove MacMillan. Peter Kramer, author of The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars, called the book an important contribution to scholarship on American independent cinema, adding this book will, I think, soon come to be regarded as a milestone. Iranian Officials, Media Say Hook's Resignation Won't Bring Change To US Policy Behrouz Turani August 07, 2020 Iranian officials and media have reacted with glee to the resignation of Brian Hook as the United States' Special representative for Iran and have angrily greeted the arrival of his successor Elliot Abrams. The special envoy's departure was also widely discussed in the Iranian media and social media, with some commenting that while Trump's anti-Iran team was losing some of its fiercest members, everyone in Iran had stayed put. The reference was also about the earlier departure of John Bolton. The spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry who usually speaks for the regime rather than the Foreign Ministry, said in a tweet that as far as the Islamic Republic is concerned, there is "no difference between John Bolton, Brian Hook, or Elliot Abrams when it comes to the United States' Iran policy." Mousavi added in the harshly worded tweet: "American officials have been bitten off more than they could chew. Same applies to Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump and their successors." At the end of the tweet, Mousavi added the hashtag "bankrupt US policy." Ali Shamkhani the Secretary of Iran's Supreme national Security Council wrote in a tweet that "the objective of the "maximum pressure" strategy has changed from regime change to preventing Iran from becoming rich! Brian [Hook] left the White House with frustration like John [Bolton]. Perhaps Mike [Pompeo] will also need to pack up his suitcase before Donald [Trump] leaves." Alireza Mir Yousefi, Iran's envoy to the United Nations organization had said earlier, "Hook's resignation has nothing to do with us. It is not a determining development. The U.S. maximum pressure policy has been defeated. At the same time, this policy and those who launched it can never bring Iran to its knees." Meanwhile, the Iranian official news agency IRNA which is close to President Hassan Rouhani's administration, presented a detailed profile of Brian Hook in a long commentary headlined "Brian Hook, the defeated player of the United States' anti-Iranian policies". A biography would have been perfect if it was published when Hook took office as U.S. special representative for Iran in 2018 and not when he resigned. IRNA reminded that Pompeo's critics in the United States had criticized the establishment of the Iran Task Force at the Department of State at the time, calling it "a wrong move" meant to "weaken Iran to the point that it would become subordinate to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, and to force it to withdraw from its regional positions." The IRNA commentary characterized Hook as a hardline advocate of Trump's sanctions against Iran. It said that Hook introduced the three branches of the United States' policy regarding Iran as economic pressures, diplomatic isolation and military deterrence. IRNA also cited the New York Times writing about resignation: "Hook's exit from m the Department of State will erase the Trump Administration's last hopes for negotiating with Iran before the US Presidential Election in November." In another development, IRGC-linked news agency Tasnim carried an interview with hardline academic Fuad Izadi about the development. Izadi said in the interview that it was still not clear whether Hook has resigned or has been dismissed. Nevertheless, he claimed that the U.S. government would have not dismissed Brian Hook if its maximum pressure policy against Iran was successful. Speaking about Hook's successor Elliot Abrams, Izadi claimed that Abram's has not been successful in his job as the U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela during the past year or so. "He was not successful in overthrowing the government of Venezuela whose stability is nothing to be compared with that of the Islamic Republic, and yet he wants to implement the maximum pressure policy against Tehran." He said Hook's dismissal or resignation is "yet another proof for the chaos and confusion in the U.S. administration." Asked if the development is a sign that the United States' policy regarding Iran is changing, Izadi said: "Pompeo is still the United States Secretary of State. Therefore, Hook's removal cannot signal any change in U.S. policy toward Iran." Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iranian- officials-media-say-hook-s-resignation-won-t-bring- change-to-us-policy/30771736.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address BUFFALO GROVE, IL Like every other municipality in Illinois, the Village of Buffalo Grove has been dealing with its own unique data points regarding the coronavirus. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, 514 people have contracted COVID-19 in Buffalo Grove since the outbreak began. That is an increase of 18 cases since July 31. For further comparison, there was an increase of 16 cases between 24-31. The Lake County Health Department reports there have been 12,484 confirmed cases in Lake County. That's an increase of 716 cases since July 31. For further comparison, there was an increase of 605 cases between July 24-31. In addition, there have been 427 deaths with no additional deaths since our last report on July 31. For further comparison, there was an increase of one death between July 24-31. Here is a breakdown of Lake County cases by age: Less than 20 (1,575 cases for an increase of 169 since July 31) 20-29 (2,388 cases for an increase of 160) 30-39 (1,840 for an increase of 138) 40-49 (1,991 for an increase of 96) 50-59 (1,833 for an increase of 67) 60-69 (1,171 for an increase of 36) 70-79 (610 for an increase of 18) 80-89 (449 for an increase of 10) 90 and older (281 for an increase of 3) The Lake County recovery rate from the coronavirus is currently 95.4 percent. Recovered cases are defined as persons with initial positive specimen collection date greater than 42 days who have not expired. The Recovery rate is calculated as the recovered cases divided by the sum of recovered cases and total deceased cases. The Illinois Department of Public Health reports 10,537 people have been tested across Buffalo Grove (zip codes 60069, 60089) as of Friday. That's an increase of 993 people tested since July 31. For further comparison, there was an increase of 845 tests between July 24-31. According to the Cook County Medical Examiner, 19 people have died due to COVID-19 in the Cook County portion of Buffalo Grove since April 6. The last death was on July 1. Story continues Here is a breakdown of COVID-19 related deaths by date in Buffalo Grove: April 6 1 April 10 1 April 14 1 April 16 1 April 19 2 May 4 1 May 5 1 May 10 1 May 17 1 May 23 2 June 5 1 June 6 1 June 11 1 June 12 1 June 13 1 June 28 1 July 1 1 According to the medical examiner, the age breakdown for the 19 deaths are: 80+ (11), 70-79 (6) and 60-69 (2). In addition, 16 of the deceased were females and six were male. As of Friday, there have been 151 coronavirus-related cases in the Cook County portion of Buffalo Grove, according to the Cook County Department of Public Health. The Illinois Department of Public Health reports there have been 2016 confirmed coronavirus cases in long-term care facilities in Lake County. There have been 307 deaths in these facilities. Here is a breakdown of cases and deaths at some of these facilities in Buffalo Grove: Belmont Village of Buffalo Grove 66 cases, 19 deaths Symphony Buffalo Grove 56 cases, 8 deaths These numbers include both residents and employees of the long-term care facilities. For the first time since May 24, Illinois has exceeded 2,000 new cases of the coronavirus. As the pandemic continues a resurgance across the state, health officials on Friday announced 2,084 new cases of the virus and 21 additional deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory illness it causes. The statewide total now stands at 190,508 confirmed infections and 7,613 known deaths. Another 1,300 probable cases and 209 probable deaths are not included in the official totals. The latest deaths include: Clark County: 1 male 60s Cook County: 1 male 30s, 1 male 40s, 2 males 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 2 females 90s, Ford County: 1 male 80s Iroquois County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s Lake County: 1 female 80s LaSalle County: 1 female 90s, 2 males 90s Madison County: 1 male 90s St. Clair County: 1 male 80s Winnebago County: 1 female 90s As of Thursday night, 1,486 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state. Of those, 333 were in intensive care and 125 were on ventilators, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The statewide positive-test rate rose by a tenth of a percentage point from Thursday. It now stands at 4.1 percent, up from a low of 2.4 percent last month. In the past 24 hours, labs in Illinois have processed 46,869 coronavirus tests, for a total of more than 2.9 million since the pandemic began. According to Johns Hopkins University, a positivity rate of less than 5 percent is a good measure of whether enough tests are being conducted, and state officials have said a rate higher than 8 percent will trigger new restrictions in a given region. State officials said Friday that 13 Illinois counties are currently at a "warning level" for a surge of cases, including Cass, Coles, Grundy, Iroquois, Jackson, Monroe, Perry, Saline, St. Clair, Tazewell, Union, Williamson and Winnebago. "These counties saw cases or outbreaks associated with businesses, long-term care facilities, large social gatherings, and out of state travel," officials said. "There have been several instances of multiple cases among family members in the same, large household. Students returning to universities and colleges are also driving the recent increase in cases in several communities. Many students are not wearing face coverings or social distancing and are gathering in large groups and at bars." Several of the counties listed are taking steps to slow the spread of the virus, including working with county health boards to expand contact tracing and cancelling events and festivals, officials said. On Friday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced new emergency rules that would make it a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,500 for a business to flout masking and social distancing requirements. The rules do not apply to individuals, however the governor said Monday that fining individuals who refuse to wear masks may also be worth considering. "People who refuse to wear a mask, people who are entering public premises if they're absolutely refusing in public, they're putting other people at risk, so it's worthy of considering a fine at a local level," Pritzker said Monday, unveiling a new $5 million media campaign to encourage mask wearing. The governor noted that in countries with a high rate of mask compliance, coronavirus cases have dropped to "near zero." The United States now has more than 4.8 million confirmed coronavirus infections, and at least 160,115 Americans have died from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University. Based on the latest predictions by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 175,000 to 190,000 Americans could be dead from the disease by Aug. 29. Globally, more than 19.1 million people have been infected and 715,681 are known to have died. Ryne Danielson, Patch Staff, contributed to this article Illinois Coronavirus Helpline: Illinois officials say a state helpline has been set up to provide emotional support and quick answers to questions about the coronavirus pandemic. Illinoisans can test "TALK" to 55-2020 (or "HABLAR" for Spanish), and within 24 hours they will receive a call from a counselor. Residents can also text keywords such as "UNEMPLOYMENT," "FOOD" or "SHELTER," to the same number to receive additional information about those topics. Here's what's happening with the coronavirus in Illinois: Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued emergency rules making it a misdemeanor for a business to flout face covering requirements. Should a school district be allowed to tell your kid what to wear when they're at home? Some parents don't think so. Lake and McHenry County health departments have field more than 300 complaints regarding mask, social distancing violations since May 29. District criticizes union in mass email and indicates drawbacks for families who choose entirely remote learning. Gov. J.B. Pritzker should be thrown in Clay County jail if he refuses to rescind his coronavirus executive orders, Rep. Darren Bailey said. While Illinois ranks high when compared to other states, the economic situation is still bad, and signs point to a slowing recovery. The Taylorsville Republican becomes the first member of Congress from Illinois to contract the COVID-19 virus. Find out which of Niles Township High School District 219's nine feeder districts plan to offer families the option in-person instruction. The District 115 board unanimously approved a hybrid learning plan Tuesday that would see some students back on campus next month. "Based on the information we have received, we do not believe these cases are related," the school said. The Northbrook-based company was among several major auto insurance companies listed in class action complaints. On Thursday, Gov. Pritzker said one Illinois county is going in the "wrong direction" and could soon have restrictions put back in place. Starting Friday, visitors from the U.S. territory will join those from Missouri, Wisconsin and 20 other states under travel restrictions. Teachers from D230 formed a vehicle caravan in opposition to heading back to classrooms this fall. Coronavirus by the numbers: Illinois: Total number of coronavirus cases: 190,508 Deaths: 7,613 People tested: 2,984,618 Recovered: Illinois does not provide exact numbers of recovered cases, but says the recovery rate is 95 percent. Nationwide: Total number of coronavirus cases: 4,884,985 Deaths: 160,115 People tested: 59,652,675 Recovered: 1,598,624 Global: Total number of coronavirus cases: 19,135,088 Deaths: 715,681 People tested: No data available Recovered: 11,595,480 Sources: Johns Hopkins University and IDPH While the best way to prevent illness is to avoid virus exposure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention generally recommends taking these actions to prevent the spread of viruses: Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Stay home when you are sick. Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipes. Wash your 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. What to do if you're sick: Call head if you're planning to visit your doctor: If you have a medical appointment, call the health care provider and tell them that you have or may have COVID-19. This will help the health care provider's office take steps to keep other people from getting infected or exposed. Stay home unless you must see a doctor: Stay home: People who are mildly ill with COVID-19 are able to isolate at home during their illness. You should restrict activities outside your home, except for getting medical care. Avoid public areas: Do not go to work, school, or public areas. Avoid public transportation: Avoid using public transportation, ride-sharing or taxis. Separate yourself from other people and animals in your home: Stay away from others: As much as possible, you should stay in a specific room and away from other people in your home. Also, you should use a separate bathroom, if available. Limit contact with pets and animals: You should restrict contact with pets and other animals while you are sick with COVID-19, just as you would around other people. Although there have not been reports of pets or other animals becoming sick with COVID-19, it is still recommended that people sick with COVID-19 limit contact with animals until more information is known about the virus. When possible, have another member of your household care for your animals while you are sick. If you are sick with COVID-19, avoid contact with your pet, including petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked and sharing food. If you must care for your pet or be around animals while you are sick, wash your hands before and after you interact with pets and wear a face mask. See COVID-19 and Animals for more information. Avoid sharing personal household items: Do not share: You should not share dishes, drinking glasses, cups, eating utensils, towels, or bedding with other people or pets in your home. Wash thoroughly after use: After using these items, they should be washed thoroughly with soap and water. Masks: CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission. CDC also advises the use of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others. Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure. Cloth face coverings should not be placed on young children under age 2, anyone who has trouble breathing, or is unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance. The cloth face coverings recommended are not surgical masks or N-95 respirators. Those are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for healthcare workers and other medical first responders, as recommended by current CDC guidance. Face mask instructions sew- and no-sew masks To donate personal protective equipment (PPE), email PPE.donations@illinois.gov. For health questions about COVID-19, call the state coronavirus hotline at 800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov. This article originally appeared on the Buffalo Grove Patch By Express News Service MALAPPURAM: Many people took to social media to pay tribute to the victims of the airplane accident at Kozhikode airport last night. Shafi Parakkulam, an expatriate Keralite, could not believe the death of his friend, 35-year-old Sharafudheen, a native of Pilassery (Kozhikode) who was on board the ill-fated flight with 184 other passengers. Parakkulam said that Sharafudheen visited him at his hotel in Dubai before leaving for Kerala. Sharafudheen also handed over some money to Parakkulam to provide food to the poor people. "He visited me at my hotel before leaving for Kerala. He also handed over an amount to me and asked me to provide food to the poor people," Parakkulam wrote on his Facebook. He says Sharafudheen was worried about something during the time of the visit. "He said to me during the visit that he felt more tension than the usual days. Now, I feel like his intuitions might have told him about something unfortunate in the near future," Parakkulam added. He also promised that he will spend the money of Sharafudheen as wished by him. Tributes also poured in from all quarters for the deceased pilots Deepak Vasant Sathe and First Officer Akhilesh Kumar who flew for Air India Express. "I pay my homage to Ace Pilot, Ex NDA Wing Commander (retd), Sir D V Sathe, Sword of Honor, resident of Chandivali. The warrior in him has given the ultimate sacrifice of his life in his attempt to save many others," tweeted Mathew Antony. ALMOST 3 million has been allocated to fund Housing Adaptation Grants for older people and people with a disability who are living in private accommodation in Limerick, writes David Hurley. Limerick City and County Council is to receive 2,708,100 from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage while it will allocate a further 677,025 from its own resources. The scheme will enable older people and people with disabilities to remain living independently in their own homes for longer should they wish and will also facilitate early return from hospital. Grants of up to 30,000 are available to assist people with a disability in carrying out necessary works to make a house more suitable for their needs, while up to 8,000 can be made available to assist older people living in poor housing conditions to have necessary repairs or improvements carried out. Under the scheme, up to 6,000 can be allocated for mobility aids to address mobility problems for a member of the household. These grants have had a huge impact on the quality of life of the many beneficiaries and play a vitally important role in helping people with a disability and people who are reaching an age in life when they are less mobile, to continue to live independently in their own homes, said Minister Darragh OBrien. Fine Gael TD Kieran O'Donnell has welcomed the increase in funding under the scheme. "These grants are so important as they also create employment opportunities for builders and businesses in Limerick and help reduce the dependency on our health services by supporting independent living for as long as possible," he said. A total of 73 million has been allocated nationally. In route news, Alaska Air launched a BOGO sale worth a look; United Airlines has restarted service from San Francisco International to Tahiti, the U.K. and Mexico; British Airways expects to come back to San Jose this fall; revived SFO routes are coming from Lufthansa, Swiss and Fiji Airways; Hawaiis Sept. 1 date for reopening the islands to visitors now seems uncertain; Alaska and JetBlue are the latest to bar all exceptions to their in-flight mask policies; American brings hot food back to Admirals Clubs and Apple TV to in-flight entertainment; and Virgin Australias restructuring eliminates wide-bodies from its fleet and long-haul service from its schedule. United Airlines this week resumed some international service out of San Francisco International, including three weekly flights to Papeete, Tahiti in French Polynesia. But can Americans go there? Per local government regulations, all passengers will need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of departure, a United spokesperson told us. The airline has also restarted SFO-London Heathrow service with five flights a week, as well as routes to four Mexican destinations: Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, and Cancun. Deal: Alaska Airlines kicked off a valuable buy-one-get-one fare sale for flights through Oct. 31. When you buy one ticket, you get the second one on the same flight for just taxes and fees. Book by midnight on Monday, August 10. More info here. A schedule update filed by British Airways this week for the winter season, which starts Oct. 20, shows non-stop service between San Jose and London Heathrow back on the books, with three weekly 787 flights. It also shows one daily flight between SFO and LHR instead of the previously scheduled two flights with a 777-300ER replacing a 747-400, which the airline recently grounded. Other California cities on BAs freshly trimmed winter schedule include Los Angeles (down from 21 flights a week to 11) and San Diego (now five flights a week instead of seven). Other international carriers are also putting SFO back into their networks in the months ahead, according to schedule filings this week. Lufthansas newest schedule shows a revival of San Francisco-Frankfurt service on Sept. 2 with three weekly A340-300 flights, supplementing its ongoing SFO-Munich service. Lufthansa affiliate Swiss Internationals latest update has a Sept. 2 effective date for SFO-Zurich service, with three weekly 777-300ER roundtrips. And Fiji Airways September-October plans include a resumption of service from Nadi to SFO and LAX on Oct. 1, but without specifying frequencies. (Keep in mind, of course, that all these schedules are subject to further revision, and that the availability of airline service to a foreign destination doesnt mean that Americans are allowed in there without restrictions.) Did you book a flight to Hawaii in August only to cancel it after the states government pushed back its plan to reopen to visitors to Sept. 1? Well, maybe you should wait before you try to go there in September. According to local media in Honolulu, Hawaii Governor David Ige suggested this week that the reopening might have to be pushed back again. He said he and the states mayors are closely watching COVID-19 case numbers, and they have been showing an ominous increase in recent days. If that keeps up, Hawaii might decide to keep tourists away even longer. (The states reopening plan would replace the current mandatory 14-day quarantine for visitors with a new policy that would require incoming travelers to receive a negative result on a COVID test 72 hours before departure from home.) The mask wars rage on: Alaska Airlines and JetBlue this week joined other major carriers in deciding they will no longer allow any exceptions, medical or otherwise, to their requirement that all passenger wear face coverings in flight. Effective immediately, Alaska said, that applies to all passengers over the age of 2. If a guest is unwilling or unable to wear a mask for any reason while at the airport, they will not be permitted to travel. If a guest refuses to wear a mask after boarding their flight, they will be suspended from future travel, the airline said. Virgin Australia The same policy kicks in at JetBlue on Aug. 10, and that face mask has to be a good one, properly worn. If a crewmember identifies a face covering or mask that does not appear sufficient based on its features or potential lack of protection, they will provide a mask for the customer to use instead, the airline said. Customers who do not agree to wear a face covering will not be allowed to board any aircraft, and customers who do not follow crewmember requests to wear a face covering while in flight will be reviewed for future travel on JetBlue. In other news, JetBlue this week also extended through Oct. 15 its promise to block out middle seats except in rows where customers are all traveling together, as well as its waiver of change and cancellation fees for newly booked tickets. Don't miss a shred of important travel news! Sign up for our FREE weekly email alerts. Meanwhile, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said during an interview this week with the Washington Post that so far, his airline has put 130 customers onto a no-fly list for their refusal to wear a mask. Were going to make certain that we enforce it even if the federal government doesnt give us the back-up to put a regulation in place, he said and so far, the government has shown no inclination to do so. In one small sign of things starting to return to normal, American Airlines said this week that it will resume service of some hot food items at its airport Admirals Clubs on Aug. 12 and will bring back food-for-sale service at the clubs beginning Aug. 19. Menu selections will vary by location. The airlines Admirals Clubs have been offering full-service bars and prepackaged snack items since they started to reopen in June. In another passenger service development, American is now offering free streaming of Apple TV+ programming to passengers who bring a Wi-Fi-equipped device on flights with Internet access. Its available via the American app or at aainflight.com. Now that bankrupt Virgin Australia has agreed to be purchased by the U.S.-based private equity firm Bain Capital, plans are in the works for a major operational restructuring. And those plans dont include a resumption of long-haul international service (like its suspended Los Angeles route) any time soon, even after government-imposed coronavirus restrictions are lifted. Virgin Australia executives said this week they expect the new airline will shrink its workforce from 9,000 to 6,000 employees and will get rid of its widebodies Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A330s relying instead on an all-737 fleet for domestic and some regional international flights. Officials suggested that Virgin Australia might resume long-haul flights eventually, but only after international markets have fully recovered. And prognosticators at the International Air Transport Assn. have said that might not be until 2024. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE weekly email updates! SFGATE participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Nagpur, Aug 8 : Though the Maharashtra government opposes a CBI probe in the Sushant Singh Rajput case, it will abide by the Supreme Court's decision in the matter, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Saturday. In a significant statement, Deshmukh told media persons that the state will follow the ruling of the apex court vis-a-vis the probe into the case, but opposes a CBI investigation on grounds of jurisdiction. "The Mumbai Police are probing the case very thoroughly and professionally. However, we shall go by what the Supreme Court says at the hearing on August 11," he said. In the past week, Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh briefed Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, while investigating team members met officials of the Law and Judiciary Department. The latest stand is different from the Maharashtra government's earlier stated position that there was no need to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as the Mumbai Police are doing a competent job and probing it from all possible angles. The CBI has registered an FIR based on the case lodged by Patna police on the complaint of Sushant's father, K.K. Singh. Last week, the Mumbai Police had cold-shouldered the Patna police team which was camping in Mumbai for several days for probing the Sushant case. On Friday, irate over his 6-day long quarantine ordered by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as he reached Mumbai to help the state police team, Patna's SP, City, Vinay Tiwari hit out at the Maharashtra government after he was released. "I was not quarantined, but the Sushant probe was quarantined," he said, before flying back to Bihar as per Covid-19 protocols as directed by the BMC. Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery Maharashtra on Saturday reported the highest single-day jump of 12,822 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, with the states tally of infections surpassing the 500,000 mark, according to official data. While the total Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra rose to 503,084, 275 deaths took the death toll in the state to 17,367. A record 11,082 patients were also discharged from hospitals, taking the number of those who have recuperated from the infectious disease so far to 338,362. The state breached the 500,000 mark 10 days after its tally crossed 400,000 on July 29. The 100,000 before that grim milestone were reported in 11 days. With the fresh cases, Maharashtra, if it were a country, would be the sixth biggest hot spot of the pathogen, crossing Mexicos 469,407 Covid-19 cases, as per data available at worldometers.info. In the state capital Mumbai, 1,304 new cases and 58 deaths were reported. The total number of Covid-19 cases in the city rose to 122,316 and the death toll jumped to 6,751. The surge in small cities and rural areas is a cause of concern for the state, given the limited capacity of health care infrastructure in these regions. It is concerning that the cases are increasing in rural and small cities because they dont have adequate infrastructure to cope with the load on the health care system. Even our major cities were not in a position to deal with such a health crisis. The state government is now augmenting health infrastructure in each and every district along with the cities, a state health department official said on condition of anonymity. Pune city reported the highest new cases on Saturday at 1,457, along with 39 deaths. The total number of cases in Pune city was 69,500 and death toll was 1,744, the official said. So far 2,647,020 tests have been carried out in the state. Of the 275 deaths reported in Maharashtra on Saturday, 222 deaths took place in the last 48 hours, while 28 deaths took place over the last one week. The remaining 25 deaths occurred more than a week ago, according to officials. Dr Om Shrivastava, infectious diseases specialist and member of the 11-member task force appointed by the state government for clinically ill patients, said there may be many reasons behind the high number of deaths. One part is to do with the basics of infection control properly. It is also to do with large part of immunity of Indians and there may be other genetic factors and all of that may be coming in to play. I dont think we know enough about the virus at this time. For all of us it is also a learning experience, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Rating Action: Moody's confirms TransDigm Inc.'s B1 CFR; outlook changed to negative Global Credit Research - 07 Aug 2020 New York, August 07, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") confirmed its ratings for TransDigm Inc. ("TransDigm"), including the company's B1 corporate family rating (CFR) and B1-PD probability of default rating. Concurrently, Moody's confirmed the Ba3 ratings for the senior secured bank credit facilities and senior secured notes and also confirmed the B3 ratings for the senior subordinated notes. The company's SGL-1 speculative grade liquidity rating remains unchanged. The ratings outlook is negative. Today's actions conclude the review for downgrade that was initiated on April 1st, 2020. RATINGS RATIONALE The B1 corporate family rating balances TransDigm's aggressive financial policy defined by its sustained high funded debt and financial leverage and recurring substantial distributions to shareholders, against its strong business profile. TransDigm garners very strong margins from its sole source provider position across a majority of its products as well as its proprietary designs reflected in its significant patent portfolio. The ratings anticipate that the company will temper the amount of distributions to shareholders, particularly in the near-term, while the coronavirus continues to weigh on demand from the company's commercial aerospace customers. In the aftermath of the coronavirus, Moody's anticipates a pronounced downturn in commercial aerospace markets that is likely to be measured in years. Revenue pressures are expected to be particularly weighted towards commercial aerospace aftermarkets, which have historically been a key driver of TransDigm's earnings. This will result in an across-the-board weakening of credit metrics with diminished free cash flow, albeit still comfortably positive, and Moody's adjusted debt-to-EBITDA anticipated to be at or above 10x over the next 18 to 24 months. Story continues Moody's recognizes TransDigm's robust business model as evidenced by industry leading margins that are anticipated to remain near or above 40% through a combination of cost cutting measures, and a strong operating strategy involving price increases and the development of profitable new products. Moody's also considers that the propriety and sole source nature of the majority of the company's products will support the continued growth of TransDigm over the intermediate term. Furthermore, notwithstanding considerable earnings headwinds, Moody's expects TransDigm to maintain very good liquidity and sufficient financial flexibility, with significant cash balances, continued free cash generation and near full availability under the revolving credit facility. The coronavirus pandemic, the weakened global economy, lower oil prices, and asset price declines are sustaining a severe and extensive credit shock across many sectors, regions and markets. The combined credit effects of these developments are unprecedented. Moody's regards the coronavirus pandemic as a social risk under its ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public health and safety. Notwithstanding some early signs that the adverse impact of the coronavirus on TransDigm and the deterioration in credit quality that it triggered may be relatively short-lived and subsiding, the company remains vulnerable to shifts in market demand and changing sentiment in these unprecedented operating conditions. The negative outlook reflects the potential for the impacts of the coronavirus on Transdigm's aerospace customer base to further constrain demand for its products, which would lead to sustained pressure on revenues, earnings and cash flow generation with a corresponding weakening of credit metrics and increasing financial leverage. FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS Factors that could lead to a downgrade include a deterioration of TransDigm's liquidity, such as a decline in cash balances over the near-term, expectations of negative free cash flow, or a greater reliance on the revolving credit facility. Any dividend distributions made to shareholders in the near-term or made prior to a more stable operating environment in commercial aerospace markets could also lead to a downgrade. A meaningful diminishment of interest coverage metrics or expectations of EBITDA margins sustained towards 35% could also result in downward ratings pressure. An inability to continue to make regular price increases, expectations of pricing or a weakening of demand in military end markets could also result in a downgrade. Factors that could lead to an upgrade include debt-to-EBITDA sustained below 5x on a Moody's-adjusted basis, coupled with maintenance of the company's industry leading margins and continuation of a strong liquidity profile. The principal methodology used in these ratings was Aerospace and Defense Methodology published in July 2020 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1224306. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology. The following is a summary of Moody's ratings and today's rating actions: Issuer: TransDigm Inc. Corporate Family Rating, confirmed at B1 Probability of Default Rating, confirmed at B1-PD Senior Secured Bank Credit Facility, confirmed Ba3 (LGD3) Senior Secured Regular Bond/Debenture, confirmed Ba3 (LGD3) Senior Subordinated Regular Bond/Debenture, confirmed B3 (LGD5) Outlook, Changed to Negative from Rating Under Review Issuer: TransDigm Holdings UK plc Senior Subordinated Regular Bond/Debenture, confirmed B3 (LGD5) Outlook, Changed to Negative from Rating Under Review TransDigm Inc., headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is a manufacturer of engineered aerospace components for commercial airlines, aircraft maintenance facilities, original equipment manufacturers and various agencies of the US Government. TransDigm Inc. is the wholly-owned subsidiary of TransDigm Group Incorporated (TDG). Revenues for the twelve-month period ended June 30, 2020 were $5.5 billion. 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. 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Sudan said Saturday it "regrets" the tone of the latest US State Department advisory against travel to the country, saying it does not take into account changes of the post-Bashir era. "The ministry calls on its counterpart to show caution when warning its citizens to reconsider travel to Sudan," the foreign ministry said in a statement. It stressed "the great change brought about by the glorious revolution of December 2018" that led to longtime leader Omar al-Bashir's ouster, saying Khartoum "regrets" the wording of Thursday's advisory. The country was now one of "political stability, free demonstrations, and protection of human life and the rights of Sudanese citizens, with peace negotiations underway with armed struggle movements". In a standard advisory, the State Department called on US citizens to "reconsider travel to Sudan due to COVID-19... crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping and armed conflict". "Members of known terrorist groups continue to be in Sudan and could pose a threat," it said. "Demonstrations can occur with no warning," although recent protests had been "peaceful with no police response". In contrast, Sudan's government this week welcomed remarks from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he would like to delist Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism. Pompeo has repeatedly indicated Washington hopes to remove the designation, which dents investment in Sudan, but disputes have arisen on compensation over the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa. Bashir had welcomed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Sudan was accused of aiding jihadists who blew up the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people. Sudan's new government has agreed to a compensation package but a dispute has arisen over higher payments to Americans than to Africans. Search Keywords: Short link: Actor Sushant Singh Rajputs sister Shweta Singh Kirti on Friday posted a cryptic quote on her social media platforms saying people should think about the consequences before messing up with someone. Sushant was found dead at his Bandra residence on June 14. Read: Rhea Chakraborty appears before ED in Sushant Singh Rajput's death case The post featured an image of Lord Shiva and read, Someone said be careful who you mess with because you dont know who protects them in the spiritual world. She captioned the picture with #justiceforsushant. Shweta shared the post hours before the late actor's girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty appeared in front of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the money laundering case lodged by it. Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput's death case: Bihar IPS officer released from quarantine in Mumbai Sushants untimely demise was followed by a high-profile investigation by Mumbai Police during which many big names from Bollywood, including filmmakers Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Aditya Chopra, recorded their statements. While the Mumbai Police had registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) into the death of Sushant, the Patna police had last month registered a case on a complaint from the actors father K K Singh against Rhea, her parents Indrajit Chakraborty and Sandhya Chakraborty, brother Showik Chakraborty, and common friends Samuel Miranda and Shruti Modi. Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput death case: CBI files FIR against Rhea Chakraborty, five others The Patna police had filed the FIR under the IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy, abetment to suicide, wrongful confinement, criminal breach of trust, theft and criminal intimidation which was forwarded to the Centre for a CBI probe on Thursday. Rhea had initially refused to appear in front of the ED, citing her appeal pending before the Supreme Court. 'In practice, this would mean that, when Church leaders consider a new initiative, they would discuss whether it would be possible to develop it in partnership with other Churches.' (stock photo) In my last article, two weeks ago, I wrote about the series in Belvoir parish called Letters to a Post-Lockdown Church. I was again impressed by the most recent letter, written and delivered by Susan Bennett. In her thought-provoking contribution, Susan made the point that we, as a society, are very keen to get back to "normal" and then she added, "but I fear that, just like we did following the 2008 financial crash, we are heading back out there trying to grab hold of those old patterns of behaviour that no longer work - for us, or for our world." In her letter, Susan suggested we consider rethinking many areas of our society, such as retail, schools and environmental issues, as well as Church and worship. Susan's comments got me thinking (or maybe rethinking) different areas of life. Indeed, in this article, I would like to float the idea that this newspaper might develop a column in which different contributors would share their ideas on rethinking our world. With that in mind, I would like to surmise how we might do Church differently. One of the most significant ways, in my opinion, of rethinking Church is by awareness and acceptance of a little-known, but significant, principle called "the Lund Principle". The word "Lund" is the name of the city in Sweden where, in 1952, the Faith and Order Conference of the World Council of Churches met and developed the aforementioned principle. The principle comes from a question which was raised at the conference: after "earnestly request (ing) our Churches to consider whether they are doing all they ought to do to manifest the oneness of the people of God", this question, which led to the development of the Lund principle, was tabled: "Should not our Churches ask themselves whether they are showing sufficient eagerness to enter into conversation with other Churches and whether they should not act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately?" In short, this would mean that, instead of the Churches doing ecumenical things, Christians and Churches should try to do things ecumenically. In practice, this would mean that, when Church leaders consider a new initiative, they would discuss whether it would be possible to develop it in partnership with other Churches. So, based on the words of Susan Bennett's letter, I would suggest we incorporate the Lund principle into our Churches. In order to support this, I believe we would need a new vehicle, or structure, to assist Churches in this project. I would envision such a body co-ordinating and disseminating information about all the ecumenical activity that goes on. This same body would be there to support Churches who follow the Lund principle. If we were to do this, then we would not "be grab(bing) hold of those old patterns of behaviour that no longer work - for us, or for our world". So, in terms of rethinking, following the Lund principle would mean that Churches would need to be prepared to move away from the mentality of "we do our own thing". I have argued in previous columns in this paper, based on the words of Jesus - indeed, some of his final words before his death on the cross - of the importance of the unity of his followers for the sake of mission: "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:21) Fr Martin Magill is parish priest of St John's, Belfast Apt Bible readings Some Scripture readings for the week ahead: Monday: John 17:21 Tuesday: 1 Corinthians 1:10 Wednesday: John 13:35 Thursday: Romans 14:19 Friday: Psalm 133:1 New Delhi, Aug 8 : Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has said that he shouldn't have bowled a beamer to Indian wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni during the 2006 Faisalabad Test. Akhtar said that it was the first time he had done so on purpose and he apologised to the former Indian captain after that. "I think I had bowled a 8-9 over spell in Faisalabad. It was a quick spell and Dhoni scored a hundred. I purposely bowled a beamer to Dhoni and then apologised to him," Akhtar told Aakash Chopra at the later's YouTube channel 'AakashVani'. "It was the first time in my life I had bowled a beamer purposely. I shouldn't have done it. I regretted it a lot. He was playing so well and the wickets were so slow. However fast I was bowling, he kept on hitting. I think I got frustrated." Dhoni had scored his first-ever Test century in what was a run feast of a match that ended in a draw. He scored 148 off 153 balls to help India overhaul Pakistan's first innings total of 588 with India scoring 603. Pakistan however came back strongly and scored 490 and after India spent a short amount of time on the crease in their second innings, the two teams shook hands. Vietnam documented 26 patients of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Saturday, including three imported cases quarantined upon arrival, bringing the national tally to 810, with half in treatment. Twenty cases traced to the outbreak epicenter in central Da Nang City and one case imported from the U.S. were recorded on Saturday night, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control announced. The 20 local infections include 15 in Da Nang, two in Quang Nam Province, two in Bac Giang Province and one in Khanh Hoa Province. The imported patient is a 17-year-old man with a permanent address in Ho Chi Minh City who arrived in Hanoi from the U.S. on August 6 and was quarantined immediately after arrival at Noi Bai International Airport in the capital. He is being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Dong Anh District, Hanoi. On Saturday morning, Vietnam documented five cases including three traced to the Da Nang outbreak and two imported cases from Mexico. As of 6:00 pm Saturday, the Southeast Asian country has logged a total of 810 COVID-19 cases, including 317 imported patients. The number of local infections traced to Da Nang has amounted to 353 since July 25, when the central city documented Vietnam's first community-based case after 99 days. A total of 405 COVID-19 patients in Vietnam are in treatment, including 40 having tested negative for the coronavirus at least once. Meanwhile, 395 cases have been cleared of the virus and ten COVID-19 patients, all with severe underlying conditions, have died in the country since the pandemic first hit in January. Saturday marked the first time the number of active COVID-19 cases has overtaken the number of recoveries in Vietnam in four months. Recoveries have consistently accounted for more than half of COVID-19 cases in the Southeast Asian country since April 8. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! COVID-19 deaths, hospitalisations and lockdowns could be over this year, says WHO Coronavirus: CM Yogi Adityanath inaugurates 400-bed COVID-19 hospital in Noida India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P Noida, Aug 08: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday inaugurated 400-bed COVID-19 hospital in Noida, sector 39. Noida District Magistrate Suhas LY was also present at the event. Meanwhile, Section 144 was imposed in Noida due to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths visit in the district. On Friday, the Noida police said that Section 144 has been imposed in Noida, ahead of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths visit on Saturday. The police also said that people are not allowed to fly drones. How 'Vande Bharat' mission is beating tough flight restrictions in COVID-19 era Earlier, CM Yogi Adityanath had held a meeting with public representatives in Gautam Budh Nagar over the COVID-19 situation in the district. He had asked officials to send teams of experts from the Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences and King George's Medical University to camp in Kanpur Nagar to guide and supplement the existing health infrastructure. Kerala plane crash: Locals aid rescue, donate blood, arrange food | Oneindia News On Friday, the coronavirus tally in Gautam Buddh Nagar surged to 5,806 including 906 active cases, 4,857 recovered and 43 deaths, according to the states health department. The total number of COVID -19 cases in the state now stands at 1,13,378, including 44563 active cases, 66,834 recoveries and 1,918 deaths as per the Ministry of Health data on Saturday. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 8, 2020, 13:40 [IST] James Durney of the Kildare Decade of Commemorations committee looks back at a summer of chaos 100 years ago On July 27, 1920 the first British recruits arrived in Ireland to join the Royal Irish Constabularys newly formed Auxiliary Division. Their role, along with the Black and Tans, was to help the RIC maintain control of the countryside and conduct counter-insurgency operations against the Irish Republican Army. The two paramilitary groups are often confused with each other, as both the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries shared similar types of uniforms, a mix of RIC dark bottle green and British Army khaki. However, the Auxiliaries were distinguished by their distinctive tam-o-shanter caps. At a pay rate of 1 a day (twice what a constable received), plus cost-of-living expenses, the Auxiliary Cadets were the highest paid policemen in the world. (Black and Tans were paid 3 10 shillings a week, with allowances.) About 2,100 were recruited, all of them ex-officers with war experience. At least 182 Auxiliary Cadets were Irishmen with the majority coming from Ulster, 73, and Leinster, 71. They were barracked first at the Curragh Camp where they received a six-week training course and later at Beggars Bush Barracks, Dublin. In military terms, they were regarded as an elite force and were much more feared than the Black and Tans. The Auxies, as they became known, were divided into Companies stationed in Dublin, and mainly in southern Ireland where the IRA was most active. The arrival of the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries escalated the violence, and the year 1920 was marked by further repressive measures and by killings and atrocities which caused widespread public outrage and revulsion against the British government. On July 11, 1920, the first Black and Tan to be killed in the War of Independence, Alexander Will, from Forfar, Scotland, died from wounds inflicted from a grenade blast during an IRA attack on Rathmore Barracks in Kerry. Earlier, on June 19, Lieutenant-Colonel Gerard Bryce Ferguson Smyth, Divisional Commander for Munster, a one-armed veteran of the Great War, had delivered a controversial speech to 14 constables who lined up in front of him in the day-room of Listowel police barracks: Sinn Fein has had all the sport up to the present and we are going to have the sport now I am promised as many troops from England as I require, thousands are coming daily. I am getting 7,000 police from England Police and military will patrol the country at least five nights a week. They are not to confine themselves to the main roads but take across the country, lie in ambush, and when civilians are seen approaching shout Hands up. Should the order not be immediately obeyed, shoot, and shoot with effect. If persons approaching carry their hands in their pockets and are in any way suspicious looking, shoot them down We want your assistance in carrying out this scheme and wiping out Sinn Fein. Constable Jeremiah Mee spoke for the men and replied: By your accent, I take it you are an Englishman and in your ignorance you forget you are addressing Irishman. In a gesture of contempt, Mee took off his cap, belt and sidearm, and laying them on a table said: These too, are English. Take them! The men stormed out and Smyth and his entourage left. One of the Listowel mutineers was a Kildare native, Constable Joseph Downey. A little later, there was a similar scene in Killarney RIC barracks. Commissioner Smyth informed the constables there of a new freedom. Hitherto, facilities had been given for an inquiry when the RIC killed a man, he said. Henceforward, no such facilities would be provided and no such policemen would be held up to public odium by being pilloried before a Coroners jury. Further, when a police patrol saw coming along a road a Sinn Feiner whom they suspected of intent to attack them, they were to get in the first shot and there would be no further questions asked. Smyths words caused great controversy and there were awkward questions for the Chief Secretary, Sir Hamar Greenwood, in the House of Commons. Greenwood denied that Commissioner Smyth had ever used such words. What he had said had been twisted entirely out of its true meaning. The Munster IRA were sure of what Smyth had said, and made plans to assassinate him. On the night of Saturday, July 17, 1920, at least six IRA volunteers entered Cork citys exclusive County Club, where on the first-floor smoke room Commissioner Smyth was drinking with County Inspector George Craig, a Naas man. Three volunteers guarded the entrance, while three others went upstairs. The volunteers were not masked and one, walking over to Smyth, asked: Were not your orders to shoot at sight? Well, you are in sight now, so prepare. As Smyth jumped up and reached for his gun, two bullets struck him in the head killing him instantly. He was also hit in the body. Several more bullets missed, one hitting Inspector Craig in the leg, though not seriously. The police and military were quickly on the scene, but the volunteers had escaped. George Craig survived, was pensioned off in 1922 and died in 1956. Later that night, soldiers and Black and Tans raced through the streets of Cork, firing in all directions as they went. An IRA volunteer, James Bourke, who was an ex-British soldier, was shot dead, and over 20 other local citizens were injured. Eighteen jurors were called to Smyths inquest the next day, but only nine appeared. After several hours delay and unable to swear in a jury the inquest was abandoned by the Coroner. Smyths remains were brought by train to Dublin and then on to Belfast and conveyed to the residence of a relative at Banbridge, Co. Down. His funeral on July 21, 1920, was of a most impressive character, with the Union Jack draped coffin conveyed on a gun carriage, preceded by a military firing party. A detachment of 100 men of the Norfolk Regiment, with their band, and over 100 police, with their band, took part. Later that evening loyalists attacked a nationalist owned premise and proceeded to the local linen factories where they demanded the expulsion of Catholic workers, stating that they would not work with them. Rioting also erupted in Belfast which resulted in the deaths of seven civilians with nearly 100 wounded. In retaliation the Dail introduced a boycott on Belfast businesses and manufacturers. A subsequent meeting of Naas traders called for in connection with the Belfast Boycott fell through because only two traders attended. Twitter: @cilldara2016 Facebook: Kildare Decade of Commemorations YouTube: Kildare Decade of Commemorations Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 10:48:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Aerial photo taken on Aug. 7, 2020 shows representatives of medical personnel who have assisted Hubei during the epidemic visiting Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) WUHAN, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 400 A-level scenic spots in central China's Hubei Province open to visitors from across the country for free starting from Aug. 8 till the end of the year. The tourist sites will cap the number of visitors at 50 percent of their maximum daily capacity, and visitors from low-risk areas can enjoy free entry by making reservations online. Visitors are required to undergo temperature screening before entering the scenic spots. The province will also invite medical personnel who have assisted Hubei during the epidemic, as well as local community workers and volunteers, to visit its tourist attractions. Representatives of medical personnel who have assisted Hubei during the epidemic visit Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Aug. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) Lei Zhanling(R), once member of the medical assistance team from Qinghai, poses for a selfie as she visits Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Aug. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) Aerial photo taken on Aug. 7, 2020 shows the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) Aerial photo taken on Aug. 7, 2020 shows tourists visiting the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) Lilly Wachowski, the co-director of Keanu Reeves-starrer The Matrix trilogy, says it was her and sister Lana's "original intention" that the films be viewed as transgender allegory. During a Netflix video interview, Lilly discussed the theory often propagated by LGBTQ activists that the films embodied the experience of a closeted trans person finally realising their true self. "Im glad that it has gotten out that that was the original intention. But the world wasnt quite ready for it -- the corporate world wasnt ready for it," Lilly said. "I love how meaningful those films are to trans people and the way they come up to me and say, 'These movies saved my life'," she added. For years, fans of THE MATRIX have discussed the film through a trans lens. If youve heard the theory before or just learned about it, heres a thread breaking down the trans allegory of the film, from trans writers and critics. Welcome to the desert of the real. (thread) pic.twitter.com/XlgY8hAcNI NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020 Also read: Matrix director Lilly Wachowski slams Elon Musk, Ivanka Trump for referencing movie for their agenda: F**k both of you Lilly and Lana, who both are trans women, had started the franchise with 1999's The Matrix. The movie spawned two sequels -- The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, which released in 2003. The filmmaker further said that the very idea of the Matrix, a simulated reality constructed by machines as distraction for humans, was all about "the desire for transformation, but it was all coming from a closeted point of view". She also revealed that the original plan for Switch -- played by Belinda McClory -- was to have the character be "a woman inside the Matrix, but a man in the real world". "I dont know how present my transness was in the background of my brain as we were writing it... We were always living in a world of imagination. Thats why I gravitated toward sci-fi and fantasy and played Dungeons and Dragons. It was all about creating worlds. It freed us up as filmmakers because we were able to imagine stuff at that time that you didnt necessarily see onscreen," Lilly said. Lilly's sister Lana is currently working on the much-awaited threequel in the franchise, with both Reeves and actor Carrie-Anne Moss returning as Neo and Trinity, respectively. Jada Pinkett Smith and Lambert Wilson are also reprising their roles from previous films in the new installment. They are joined by newcomers Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Jonathan Groff. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A man found in possession of a walking stick by gardai after allegedly being assaulted with a slash hook in Longford town has escaped conviction after revealing how he has since managed to turn his life around. Shane McDonnell, of no fixed abode, was stopped by gardai shortly after 2am on November 8 2019 in the College Park area of town. Sgt Paddy McGirl said Mr McDonnell was approached by officers who observed Mr McDonnell armed with the implement along with another man who is currently before the courts on knife possession. When asked by gardai why he was carrying the stick, Mr McDonnell allegedly told gardai it was to support his leg, Sgt McGirl stated. Mr McDonnell, who was wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt, indicated his motive for using a stick was predicated on medical grounds. I have two scars on my head and a twisted ankle, he said, claiming his injuries had resulted from a rap of a slash hook sometime earlier. I didnt know there was a pointed edge on it, continued Mr McDonnell, in reference to the walking stick he was allegedly found in possession of. His solicitor John Quinn said Mr McDonnell was not residing in Longford anymore and was now based in Dublin where he had since managed to not just secure, but hold down fruitful employment. Its gainful employment, sheltered employment and hes very much looking after the interests of his family, he said. Asked by Judge Hughes what the terms of those endeavours involved, Mr McDonnell said the recent coronavirus outbreak had proved especially beneficial to him. Its hoovering floors, polishing floors, sanitising walls, he told the court, adding his new job was likely to last for at least a year with a take home pay of up to 1,000 a week. Mr Quinn also handed in a letter of reference from approved housing body Respond and told of how Mr McDonnell was also recovering from a long standing neck complaint. Hes got through it well and is looking after his family and wife who had post natal depression, said Mr Quinn. Mr McDonnell agreed, saying the past few months had been the most positive he had encountered in quite some time. Its (job) the best thing that ever happened to me, he said. Im off all drugs and drink. Appearing suitably impressed by both Ms McDonnells demeanour and efforts to get his life back on track, Judge Hughes opted to strike out the case and spared the 23-year-old a criminal conviction. The nation's primary schools are not getting the same resources as schools in the post-primary sector, says local teacher Lynsey O'Neill, who is so angered by the situation that she has emailed the Minister for Education Norma Foley TD asking why no additional staffing arrangements have been made for primary schools. Lynsey says that while over 1,000 additional teacher have been allocated to the post-primary sector, there has been no provision for extra staff for primary schools. 'I am really happy that the schools are opening up but the idea seems to be that it's going to be left up to the common sense of the school,' she continues. 'A simple 'decluttering' will not make socially distancing within the classroom possible. General purpose areas are not an option in many cases.' She explains that most of the larger primary schools would have over 30 pupils in a class, while in rural schools, different classes share classrooms. 'There could be two or three classes with one teacher in one classroom so it will be very difficult to maintain social distancing between the pods in those classrooms and for the teachers to work closely with each pod as the physical space isn't there to allow social distancing between the pods.' She points out that schools who are losing teachers due to reduced pupil numbers are not being allowed to retain teachers, making the situation even more difficult . 'Surely reducing class sizes and teacher pupil ratios to aid with returning back to school safely is a no brainer? Post losses should not happen,' she says, pointing out that extra posts were allocated to all schools to support the new Special Education framework. Lynsey also argues that giving teachers a fixed term contract rather than simply a place on the panel for supply teachers would encourage those who have emigrated to return to Ireland. 'If people knew they were guaranteed work rather than just being put on the panel they would be more willing to come home.' She also says that while there is an allowance for minor works to be carried out, it wouldn't make existing classrooms bigger. 'The Minister did say that schools could use General Purpose rooms as classrooms but a lot of small rural schools don't have suitable Ggeneral purpose rooms or multiple purpose rooms.' Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Defense ministry of the government of national accord (GNA) Saturday condemned calls by some selfish individuals for internal division to destabilize the presidency of the Presidential Council" Theres no way to know who was on the other end. But in a situation with the potential to make waves via social media, it seems a good idea to give the boss a heads-up. Speaking of which, would Coopers executive order and by extension, Davidson County policy apply to county employees, in particular first responders and EMTs? Shes a citizen of N.C. so yes, Smith wrote. And is there any chance of official admonishment for what, at minimum, is a bad look for someone trained to save lives? You would think that any self-respecting local government interested in economic development may want to avoid a reputation as being a place whose emergency workers dont give a rip whether they pass along a disease that may well kill your 85-year-old nana. I did not get any report from (the) Department Head that the employee was within 6 ft. of any citizen, Smith wrote. Wear the mask, OK? Brockenbrough, as mentioned, was already stressed by moving her kid. A schoolyard retort about something as simple as wearing a face covering only added to it. Mary Erickson arrived at Salem Hospital on the morning of June 3 to be examined for a simple nosebleed. Although she was 96 and had been experiencing symptoms of dementia, she appeared healthy. No one knew she was sick. No one knew she had contracted COVID-19. Twelve hours after she was checked in, the woman her family called Grammie was dead, her family said. Erickson moved to Salem with her husband, John Thomas Erickson, in 1982. She was a member of Salem First Christian Church, where she volunteered until her early 90s. No matter where she lived, she always put faith first, her son Dennis Erickson said. She was a strong, sturdy matriarch who felt happiest when she had a house full of people. She loved to cook and always asked her family to visit more often. She was a force to be reckoned with, said her granddaughter-in-law Jennifer Erickson. Nobody would go against her and nobody would dare try. Mary Erickson and her husband John Thomas Erickson, or "Johnnie" at the beach. She is now buried next to him in Willamette National Cemetery. Mary Erickson loved to read, mainly fiction, romance and Christian books. She loved to tell people she got to try one of the early forms of Pringles when she worked in the quality control lab for Simplot in Idaho. She loved to crochet and craft with her church ladies. She collected Shirley Temple and John Wayne movies on VHS. She also collected teddy bears. After she died, every grandchild got one of her teddy bears. She always dressed well, wore a lot of jewelry and had her nails done, Jennifer Erickson said. They were kind of a frosty pink, usually light, she remembered. Never dark colors. Mary Erickson was born Feb. 22, 1924, in Houlton, Maine. She met her husband at a Woolworths Department store in Maine when she was a college student. They married in 1943 and had their first child, John, one year later. Their second child, Dennis, was born in 1949, after they had moved to Burley, Idaho. Mary and John were married for 58 years until his death in 2001. Mary and her husband, John, at their 50th anniversary party. She spent her last year at a memory care assisted living facility in Salem, where her son Dennis visited once a month and John visited at least once a week. She suffered from symptoms of dementia and struggled to remember family members. When Dennis would visit, he would take the time to point at the family photos on her walls and tell who her family members were and how they were doing. She once mistook her son John for her husband, Dennis said. Erickson is survived by her two sons, six grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and three great-great-granddaughters as well as her brother Alton Dwyer of Florida, and her sister Virginia Hempstead of Ohio. The day Erickson died Jennifer Erickson wrote a Facebook post. Grammie was a force. She raised two sons, worked at least part time through her 70s and earned the role of Matriarch she wore well. One story has it she was in on the first testing and creation of Pringles! the post read. She loved her 6 grandchildren and adored her 7 great grandchildren. She held her head (and chest) high, she gently held her once shattered elbow slightly bent, and half Jesus in her heart. No one was able to attend Mary Ericksons burial and there hasnt been a funeral service because of COVID-19. She was buried next to her husband in Willamette National Cemetery. Madison Smalstig l msmalstig@oregonian.com l @madi_smals l Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories Crowds of people descended on a London police station to support rapper Wretch 32 - whose father was Tasered by police - and to protest 'police racism, police violence and police impunity'. The crowd gathered peacefully in scorching temperatures to hear speeches and demonstrate outside Tottenham Police Station. Activists spoke to crowds near signs reading 'defund the police, invest in our lives' and '1,750 deaths in police custody or following contact with police in England and Wales since 1990'. Musician Wretch 32, whose real name is Jermaine Scott, posted a video on Twitter of his father Millard Scott, 62, falling downstairs after being Tasered by officers in north London in April. Wretch 32 could be seen mingling in the crowd on Saturday, as protesters spoke of their own treatment at the hands of police. He told the crowd: 'I am saddened that we have to be standing here today. I feel that as a community, as a people, that we are over-policed and under-protected. 'We don't feel protected. My dad did not feel protected. The police are supposed to protect and serve. When they came into the house, what exactly were they serving with that Taser?' Crowds of people descended on a London police station to support rapper Wretch 32 (pictured) - whose father was Tasered by police - and to protest 'police racism, police violence and police impunity' Wretch 32 (left) could be seen addressing the crowd alongside his father Millard Scott, 62, on Saturday, as protesters spoke of their own treatment at the hands of police He said people have 'no trust in the system' and it is a struggle with the police which the community faced since he was a child. Then, putting an arm around his father, he said: 'My dad stands here today. In my eyes he is lucky to be alive.' The crowd called for officers to stop what they called the over-policing of black communities, along with the use of excessive force, Tasers, stop-and-search and the disproportionate use of handcuffing during arrest. A list was pinned to a barrier outside the police station featuring the names of people - both black and white - who have died after coming into contact with police, dating back to the 1980s. Crowds of people descended on a London police station to protest 'police racism, police violence and police impunity' nine years after Mark Duggan was killed Wretch 32, whose real name is Jermaine Scott, posted a video on Twitter of his father Millard Scott, 62, (pictured together today) falling downstairs after being Tasered by officers in north London in April The crowd (some participants pictured) called for officers to stop what they called the over-policing of black communities, along with the use of excessive force, Tasers, stop-and-search and the disproportionate use of handcuffing during arrest Crowds descended on Tottenham Police Station for a demonstration in north London today Banners called for 'justice' for Cynthia Jarrett, Joy Gardner, Mark Duggan, Smiley Culture, Roger Sylvester, Ian Tomlinson and Jean Charles de Menezes. The protest came nine years after Mr Duggan, 29, was shot dead in Tottenham after armed officers intercepted a minicab he was travelling in on the basis of intelligence that he was carrying a gun. A pistol was later found around seven metres away from the minicab. Mr Duggan's shooting in August 2011, by an officer known only as V53, sparked riots in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and other English cities for nearly a week. Messages which read 'The Met Police must cease and desist' and 'Defund the police, invest in our lives' were pinned to a door at the police station today. Mark Duggan, 29, (pictured) was shot dead in Tottenham after armed officers intercepted a minicab he was travelling in on the basis of intelligence that he was carrying a gun Mina Agyepong, 42, told the crowd her 12-year-old son Kai 'is traumatised and he is angry' after armed police raided her north London home late at night in July to arrest him. He had been playing with a toy gun. Suspicions had been raised by a passer-by who said they saw a black male holding a firearm on the sofa. She said: 'I worry now what his relationship is going to be with the police - that sense of distrust. Stop criminalising our children.' The 1985 Tottenham riots began when Broadwater Farm resident Ms Jarrett died of heart failure after four policemen burst into her home during a raid on October 5. Her son fought back tears as he told the crowd: 'I get emotional when I think about my mother because I love her. 'We have all got to stick together and keep on marching. We have got to keep on protesting because this is for all of our kids and our future. They can tear down your family from top to bottom.' Winston Silcott was one of the Tottenham Three, alongside Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite, convicted in 1987 of PC Keith Blakelock's murder during the riots. Their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991, after questions were raised about the way police interviews were carried out. Mr Silcott helped steward Saturday's demonstration. Scotland Yard said officers had gone to the address of Wretch 32's father in Tottenham on April 21 as part of an operation to tackle a drugs supply linked to serious violence in Haringey. The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), has said it will not investigate the incident and the matter should be dealt with within the Met Police. Winston Silcott (pictured) was one of the Tottenham Three, alongside Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite, convicted in 1987 of PC Keith Blakelock's murder during the riots Protesters gathered outside Tottenham Police Station today to protest 'police racism, police violence and police impunity' One demonstrator clutched a sign reading 'no justice no peace, defund the police' Activists spoke to crowds while standing in front of signs reading 'defund the police, invest in our lives' and '1,750 deaths in police custody or following contact with police in England and Wales since 1990' Tottenham Rights, The Monitoring Group, Black Lives Matter UK and Stopwatch also co-organised the demonstration (attendees pictured) and all participants were urged to obey social distancing rules An activist spoke to crowds outside Tottenham Police Station. Signs were seen stuck to a door A woman wears a mask with a fist, a symbol synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement Deputy Police Commissioner Sir Stephen House told a London Assembly Police and Crime Committee in July that the IOPC had decided 'this matter should be returned to you, the Metropolitan Police, to be dealt with in a reasonable and proportionate matter'. The Metropolitan Police had reviewed the incident at the time and said it had found no misconduct, but the IOPC called the matter in to make its own assessment. The police said no further action is being taken as there is no public complaint and no indication of misconduct. It added that should a public complaint be made or information provided about injuries, it would refer the matter again to the IOPC. Treena Fleming, the Metropolitan Police commander of the North Area Command Unit, said: 'I can understand why any use of Taser can look alarming, and why it did look alarming in this case. 'We never underestimate the impact such an incident can have on a family and the wider community.' She said officers 'are highly trained to engage, explain and try to resolve situations, using force only when absolutely necessary'. Temi Mwale - the director of London-based 4Front project - wrote on Instagram ahead of today's event: 'It has been nine years since the Metropolitan Police killed Mark Duggan in Tottenham, sparking uprisings across the country. 'The police continue to violate, brutalise and kill black people with impunity. On the 9th anniversary of the uprisings we will demand justice. 'We are empowering young black people most impacted by police violence to fight for their rights and get their voices heard. No justice. No peace.' The group support people with experiences of violence and the criminal justice system and empowers them to 'fight for justice, peace and freedom'. Tottenham Rights, The Monitoring Group, Black Lives Matter UK and Stopwatch also co-organised the demonstration and all participants were urged to obey social distancing rules. A protestor holds a sign reading 'Black lives matter. UK police murder too' at the demonstration today A woman stands by a painted sign reading 'no justice no peace' and 'Black lives matter' in Tottenham Demonstrators take part in a Black Lives Matter protest outside Tottenham police station A flag soaked in fake blood was flown. It read: 'The UK is not innocent. Our blood your hands' Signs were plastered to the entrance to Tottenham Police Station as demonstrators addressed the crowds today Temi Mwale - the director of London-based 4Front project - shared a poster (pictured) and wrote on Instagram: 'It has been nine years since the Metropolitan Police killed Mark Duggan in Tottenham, sparking uprisings across the country' The protests this weekend were in stark contrast to the demonstrators who took to the streets dressed in paramilitary-style clothing last Saturday for an Afrikan Emancipation Day march through London. The event was slammed as 'divisive' by Nigel Farage. Hundreds of demonstrators brought Brixton to a halt as they marched through London. Farage said: 'Terrifying scenes in Brixton today. A paramilitary-style force marching in the streets. 'This is what the BLM movement wanted from the start and it will divide our society like never before.' The protests this weekend follow last Saturday's Afrikan Emancipation Day march through London (pictured) Family Forever members resembled the Black Panther revolutionary activists of 1960s America A promotional video made by the group (pictured at the march) said they are 'united in the battle against racism, inequality and injustice' However, co-leader of the Green Party Jonathan Bartley responded to Mr Farage's intervention. He tweeted: 'You are just trying to create division. But these people in Brixton today know that love and justice will conquer the fear and hate that you peddle. Hope is what people need right now and they are showing the pathway toward it.' The Metropolitan Police said three people were arrested during last weekend's demonstration. The new face of race hate: Marching through London they claimed to be fighting bigotry - but as this expose by GUY ADAMS lays bare, their leader revels in anti-Semitic abuse... with chilling echoes of 1930s fascism By Guy Adams for the Daily Mail A group of protesters dressed in black military-style uniforms march in tight formation through the streets of London. They are led by strapping men who bellow orders such as 'Atten-hut!' and 'Right face!' and look like a highly trained group of soldiers out on parade. Some have dark berets, gloves and knee-high leather boots. A few carry walkie-talkies. At least one is wearing an IRA- style balaclava. In some ways the scene appears to echo the 1930s, when Oswald Mosley's 'Blackshirts' took their ugly brand of fascism to working-class neighbourhoods of our capital city. But this was Brixton, last Saturday. A group of protesters dressed in black military-style uniforms march in tight formation through the streets of London. They are led by strapping men who bellow orders such as 'Atten-hut!' and 'Right face!' and look like a highly trained group of soldiers out on parade The occasion was a march for African Emancipation Day, held on the first day of August each year to mark both the anniversary of the date in 1834 when the Abolition of Slavery Act came into force, and to campaign for Britain to pay reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. The protesters in their stab vests and paramilitary-style fatigues belonged to a strange new organisation that calls itself the Forever Family Force. Formed last month, to pursue what its social media feed has described as 'the battle against racism, inequality and injustice', it seems to have been conceived as a sort of British version of the Black Panthers, the radical far-Left protest group which wore similar garb as it campaigned against police brutality in 1960s America. In keeping with this tradition, Forever Family has already sparked controversy. To critics, the group appears to be importing an inflammatory brand of American-style identity politics given oxygen by the Black Lives Matter movement in which people of colour are encouraged to believe that society is so intrinsically racist, their only hope is to mount an organised resistance against the ruling class. Those who see them as divisive and intimidating include Nigel Farage, who circulated images of last Saturday's protest on Twitter, saying: 'Terrifying scenes in Brixton today. A paramilitary-style force marching in the streets. This is what the BLM movement wanted from the start and it will divide our society like never before.' Supporters, for their part, point out that the Brixton event was largely peaceful, with just three arrests, and argue that Forever Family is a harmless, if somewhat eccentric, group of well-meaning activists who enjoy dressing up. In some ways the scene appears to echo the 1930s, when Oswald Mosley's 'Blackshirts' took their ugly brand of fascism to working-class neighbourhoods of our capital city. But this was Brixton, last Saturday This camp includes Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, who responded to Farage by declaring: 'You are just trying to create division. But these people in Brixton today know that love and justice will conquer the fear and hate you peddle. Hope is what people need right now and they are showing the pathway towards it.' So, what is the truth? Well, here is where it starts to get interesting. Despite Mr Bartley's remark about 'love and justice', I can reveal that Forever Family is led by a highly controversial musician who has recently used social media to voice vile slurs against other minority groups. Among other things, he has shared deeply anti-transgender 'memes', circulated bizarre anti-vaccination conspiracy theories and suggested that Bill Gates has killed tens of thousands of children in Third World countries and is somehow responsible for the coronavirus pandemic. Forever Family's leader has also made a series of anti-Semitic remarks blaming Jews for slavery. In a series of Instagram posts this month, he described the Jewish community's alleged role in the slave trade as 'the original holocaust', criticised 'devils' who campaigned against Left-wing anti-Semitism on social media, and advanced a further selection of conspiracy theories claiming that Jews 'own' the banking system via what he calls the 'Rothschild bloodline'. It is a wholly revolting world-view for anyone to hold, especially the leader of a group that purports to campaign against racism. Indeed, some might argue that the real agenda of this militaristic protest group is not so far removed from that of the Black Panthers, the leaders of whose unofficial successors have denied the Holocaust and called Jews 'hook-nosed' impostors and 'bloodsuckers of the poor' who profiteer from the black community. Perhaps that explains why, despite Forever Family's highprofile protests, its founder appears to have taken extensive steps to keep his identity secret. On paper, the organisation is opaque. Its website consists of an image of a clenched fist, along with links to Twitter and Instagram accounts that have been set to 'private', so they can be read only by approved users. A Facebook page, which can also be accessed from the website, allows viewers to watch two short videos which claim the organisation exists to 'mobilise, organise and centralise community initiatives to empower and support organisations with similar objectives' and say it is 'united in building a self-sufficient and stable community'. What these vague mission statements mean, and how the group proposes to actually achieve its aims, are unclear. Neither its social media accounts nor its website contain any information about who is behind it. The only supporter who has made his identity publicly known is a musician called Mega not the leader of the group referred to above who performs with the hip-hop collective So Solid Crew. He used Twitter to declare that he took part in last Saturday's protest, boasting: 'We locked down Brixton today.' Ironically, given this secretive modus operandi, the films circulated by Forever Family also claim that its values are 'integrity, transparency and accountability'. One thing Forever Family is keen to get its hands on, though, is money. And that is what allows us to trace its founder: several of its social media pages carry links to a PayPal site where supporters can donate to the cause. Contributions are then, according to PayPal, passed to a company called Forever Family Limited, which was incorporated on June 20 and operates out of a service address in Hoxton, East London. Companies House records show the firm's secretary is a 27-year-old woman from Wandsworth, South London, called Rachelle Emanuel. The only director and the group's leader and founder is a 28-year-old resident of Ilford, East London, called Khari McKenzie. Neither has responded to a request for comment. Little is known about Ms Emanuel. However, McKenzie, who is listed as having 'significant control' over Forever Family, is a rap artist who performs under the stage name Raspect. He appears to have become politically active in 2011 after the police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old gang member whose death sparked the riots in London and elsewhere that year. In more recent years, McKenzie has been active in a community group called 'GANG', whose supporters arrive at incidents of gang violence wearing stab vests and using loudhailers to encourage locals onto the streets to 'reclaim the space'. In early 2018, McKenzie made a series of appearances on Victoria Derbyshire's BBC chat show to discuss race relations following the death of Edson Da Costa, a 25-year-old from East London who died after swallowing plastic bags of heroin and crack cocaine when his car was stopped by the police. In one bizarre interview with Derbyshire that year, he urged viewers not to call the police to incidents of crime, saying: 'Don't call 999, call the g-line,' an apparent reference to GANG's contact number. At around the same time, he was photographed shaking hands with London mayor Sadiq Khan at City Hall. The only director and the group's leader and founder is a 28-year-old resident of Ilford, East London, called Khari McKenzie More recently, McKenzie filmed himself being, as he put it, 'rudely interrupted, harassed and threatened' by police officers, who asked why he appeared to be breaking lockdown rules to socialise with a group of acquaintances in a park at the height of the Covid epidemic. And in early June, soon after the killing of George Floyd in the U.S., he began taking photographs of himself in military clothes at Black Lives Matter protests in London. In more recent times, McKenzie's public statements particularly since Forever Family came into being have become more volatile, not to mention offensive. Last year, for example, he used Instagram to share a transphobic joke suggesting that people who identify as female but are born male are likely to be sex offenders. 'A man followed a young girl into Asda toilets in London, saying he identifies as a woman,' it read. 'The man's teeth were knocked out by the girl's father, who said he identifies as the tooth fairy.' In spring this year, he uploaded several posts to Instagram making various claims about Bill Gates, suggesting that the Microsoft founder is somehow exploiting the Covid crisis to try to force mandatory vaccinations on the world. This odd conspiracy theory doing the rounds in corners of the internet popular with the anti-vaccination movement reflects the senseless belief that Mr Gates has established that vaccines will kill people who take them, and is therefore endorsing them as part of a plot to reduce the global population. 'The same guy who says we need to depopulate suddenly wants to save everyone with his vaccines,' read one such post by McKenzie. Another claimed, wrongly, that 48,000 children in India had been 'paralysed by Bill Gates's polio vaccine'. A third post called him a 'documented thief' who 'owns vaccine companies' and 'visited [Jeffrey] Epstein's pedo [sic] island countless times'. In fact, there is no evidence that Mr Gates is a criminal, nor that he ever visited Mr Epstein's private island (although he did meet him and once travelled on his private jet). McKenzie isn't just posting paranoid content on Instagram, however. He also uploads blatantly anti-Semitic content. In June, he began using the network to attack the Jewish community, sharing a false conspiracy theory that the restraining technique of kneeling on the neck, as used by the police officer who killed George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, had been learnt during secret seminars with Israeli security forces. 'Research who funded the transatlantic slave trade biggest holocaust and crime against humanity, with no reparations,' he declared in one Instagram post, illustrated with images of the Israeli Defence Force. 'Look who is behind training police in the USA and the UK to put there [sic] legs on our necks.' Similar sentiments were voiced, at around the same time, by the Corbynite actress Maxine Peake, leading to the sacking of Shadow Cabinet minister Rebecca Long-Bailey, who described her as 'a diamond'. Peake later apologised. Last week, McKenzie continued in this questionable vein by using Instagram to share a video of himself giving a rambling speech about Zionism. 'Every Zionist is an Islamophobe,' he said. 'It don't make me anti-Semitic if I don't agree with the oppression in Palestine. That's foolishness, yeah. So when we're talking about Zionists, and even talking about if I don't agree with the people that run the banks, yeah, and by them running the banks the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, if I don't agree with that, that don't make me anti-no one. I'm just anti-oppression. 'If I look in my history book and see there were people with Zionist blood that were heavily involved in the transatlantic slave trade, me pointing that out doesn't make me anti-Semitic...' The next day, McKenzie attacked the 'devils' who had successfully persuaded Instagram, YouTube and Twitter to close the accounts of a rap artist called Wiley, who had made a series of highly anti-Semitic attacks on the Jewish community. As well as circulating a petition calling for Wiley's reinstatement, his posts attacking the move carried a series of anti-Semitic hashtags, including #Rothschildbloodline and #whoownsthebanks, advancing the Nazi-era slur that Jews are in control of all international finance. In response to those posts, a spokesman for the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism tells me: 'There is no justification for using anti-Semitic tropes to commemorate the horrors of slavery or protest [against] ongoing racism in society today. 'Forever Family should appreciate that, for ordinary decent people, and the Jewish community in particular, seeing a paramilitary [group] wearing black shirts and marching through the streets of London led by a man who rails against 'Zionist bloodlines' is frighteningly reminiscent of humanity's darkest hour and does nothing to further the noble cause of fighting racism. Prejudice cannot be beaten by more prejudice.' To put things more bluntly, the group that dressed up in uniform to 'reclaim' the streets of Brixton a week ago and was so publicly endorsed by the co-leader of the Green Party has rather too much in common with those fascist blackshirts who paraded through London in similar garb more than 80 years ago. The State Department confirmed on Friday that it was sending text messages to Russians and Iranians, offering a multi-million-dollar bounty for information on foreign efforts to meddle in the U.S. elections. A State Department spokesperson said in an email that the messages were intended to promote international awareness of the issue and the reward. "The U.S. Department of State's Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program is advertising a reward offer through SMS messages and a variety of other communications tools and techniques. Our SMS messages refer back to the verified official Rewards for Justice social media accounts, which are available in multiple languages," the spokesperson was quoted in a report. The spokesperson added that the United States is ready to respond to foreign threats with consequences to defend the upcoming elections. The department first announced on Thursday that it would give a $10 million reward to anyone with knowledge on foreign governments' efforts to cause and interference on the upcoming elections through cyber operations. The department is asking people who have information to come forward, saying that hacking operations to interfere with elections violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In the departments notice, it said that the ability of persons or foreign efforts to undermine the national elections in the U.S. causes a threat to the national security and foreign policy of the country. U.S. Election Interference The director of U.S. counterintelligence said in a BBC report that foreign states are using "covert and overt influence measures" to change the vote of the public. It added that those foreign nations have a choice on who wins the election. U.S. intelligence officials said Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help President Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Russia denied these allegations. Trump was asked what he would do about the report on U.S. election interference. He said that his administration would look closely into it. The claims on interference on the election came about when Trump announced the risks of mail-in ballots. He suggested to delay the election to avoid fraud and inaccurate account. Trump was criticized for this, even among the members of his own party. Democratic lawmakers also complained that U.S. intelligence agencies are not releasing information about foreign interference in this year's election. William Evanina, head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center released a statement on Friday, saying that foreign states trying to meddle with the elections' results will find it difficult to "manipulate voting results at scale." Foreign Countries Preference Evanina said many countries have their own choice for who wins the election. He said they were more "primarily concerned" about China, Russia, and Iran. Evanina said Russia is aiming to decry Joe Biden's candidacy. Some actors connected to Russia are also aiming to boost Trump's candidacy through social media and Russian television. The counterintelligence department also said that Iran is trying to divide the country and spread disinformation and anti-U.S. content online. The department also said China does not want Trump to win the election and has been expanding its influence efforts. Check these out: Mail-In Voting and Complications You Could Encounter Latino Vote 2020 Matters: Hispanic Groups Fight Voter Suppression As Election Nears Are Biden's Allegations About Trump Postponing the 2020 Elections "Made-Up Propaganda"? A number of books and films have told and made familiar the story of the invasion on April 9, 1940 and occupation of the country of Norway until May 8, 1945 by Nazi Germany during World War II. Germany quickly gained control of major coastal towns, but King Haakon VII and his government refused to surrender and went into exile in Britain. The country was controlled by an occupation force of 300,000 under the military commander General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, and Adolf Hitler appointed the former gauleiter Josef Terboven as head of the civilian occupation regime. Later, a puppet government headed by the pro-Nazi Vidkun Quisling was created. The SS and Gestapo functioned independently, using their normal methods of torture, murders, and secret burial grounds. The division of authority meant inefficiencies and confusion over policies and their implementation. But the real power was determined by Hitler, who had his own vision and agenda for Norway. That vision is discussed and new light is thrown on the German occupation by a brilliant, unusual and fascinating new book, Hitlers Northern Utopia: Building the New Order in Occupied Norway, (Princeton University Press) by Despina Stratigakos, architectural historian, professor and vice-provost at the University of Buffalo. The book stemmed from her interest in learning of the secret plans of Adolf Hitler to build a city in occupied Norway. Exhibiting voluminous painstaking research and illuminated by copious photographs and drawings, the book clarifies that Hitler was interested in Norway not only for military reasons but also as a future member of a Nordic Empire, the northern part of the Greater German Reich, that would exhibit a national socialist landscape. Norway, a neutral county at the onset of World War II, was strategically important for a number of reasons. It was crucial for secure routes for the shipment of iron ore from Swedish mines via Narvik. It was a vital asset in the Battle of the Atlantic as control of ice-free ports in Norway supported use of German submarines, warships, and reconnaissance aircraft over the North Atlantic. The battleship Tirpitz, centerpiece of the Baltic Fleet, was stationed in Norway for most of the war. In addition, Norway was important during the war because it contained a heavy water plant in the village of Rjukan which could be used for production of nuclear weapons. After several attempts, the plant was sabotaged by Norwegian commandos and finally destroyed in February 1943. Professor Stratigakos illustrates that Norway began to be seen by the Nazi occupiers as the testing ground for a new racial empire based on the collaboration of Nordic peoples and the power of Nordic blood. This would fulfill Hitlers call for a Germanic empire that would unite Europe under control of the superior Germanic race. Hitlers plan for Norway was a fantasy, a mixture of fact and illusion. German colonialization was intended to create a New Order of peacekeepers, a model Aryan society beyond the Arctic circle, but it was also supposed to be a process of bringing the two countries together. One interesting example of this fantasy was the use made of Norways great artist, Edvard Munch, whose work The Scream is one of the most iconic images of world art. His work had been included in the 1937 Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich and was removed from German museums, but the Nazi occupation forces lauded him as the great Nordic painter, and hosted his funeral in 1944. Another was Hitlers proposal for a polar railway and the creation of small supply ships to help substitute for Norways insufficient shipping in the northern area. Hitlers plans were ambitious, detailed, and ideological as well as racist in nature. Ideologically, Norway, a racially superior state, was to be indoctrinated into the National Socialist system. Practically, the country was to be transformed into a vast construction zone, with the building not only of military defenses and installations, part of the 5,000-kilometer Atlantic Wall, but also of a large infrastructure, new highways and superhighways, railways, bridges, tunnels, docks, power stations, and a whole network of public works. Hitler expanded his fantasy of the power of cars to integrate peoples, ordering the creation of a superhighway from Trondheim through Oslo to the Swedish border. The building of an elaborate German-style autobahn reflected the special status of Norway as a Nordic, racially pure country. Two factors here are surprising. One is the amount of time Hitler spent working on the exact location and the nature of these projects, a distraction from his wartime strategy. The other factor is that the projects were costly. Norway was the only occupied country in Europe where Germany invested more resources than it took. Stratigakos account examines in detail German involvement in and plans in a number of activities: the building of a scenic highway from Trondheim to Berlin; the birth of Aryan babies to replenish Germanys genetic stock; the Soldatenheime, cultural and recreational centers for Nazi soldiers in remote areas; the rebuilding of 23 towns damaged in the invasion; Hitlers insistence on building a major city outside Trondheim. For Hitler, Trondheim appeared to have a special status as the northern cultural capital of the Reich. By contrast, the Nazis were critical of Oslo, whose melting pot was not genuinely Norwegian, too full of women, and had no interest in the far north of the country Hitler ordered Trondheim be made a first-class base appropriate for handling very large ships, and to become a major shipyard. But he also insisted that a new beautiful German city be built on the fjord near the shipyard. Housing 300,000 it would be the largest city in Norway. With a fine art gallery, the new city would be the northernmost cultural center of the Greater German Reich. It would become one of the architectural and cultural jewels of the Third Reich. Hitler pressed for the building of Soldatenheime, soldiers homes, cultural and recreational centers for some of the 300,000-man occupation force. He ordered 100 houses to be built, although only 20 were erected. There were economic problems and lack of raw materials and transport, especially after the German invasion of the USSR. They were to be built according to principles of German architecture. Edgar Haller of the Labor Front was designated as head of the project, but there was lack of clarity and order, and friction between the Labor Front, government departments, the military, and business contractors concerning construction, expenditure, and ownership. There were differences over the nature and size of the homes, which were intended to house 1,200 soldiers for rest and recreation. The soldiers homes were intended to be a piece of Germany on foreign soil, designed to illustrate a new form of architecture defining German identity. Models of different types were developed. Hitler reviewed them and approved the final decision. The emphasis was on interiority, inward focus turning away from the outside world., expressing domesticity, as well as supposedly illustrating the German soul. German technical experts developed new building techniques, but there is no evidence that the soldiers homes brought Germans and Norwegians together. In fact, natives were excluded from the homes of the occupiers. In sexual relations between soldiers and native women, Norway was no different from other occupied countries. The Lebensborn program begun by Heinrich Himmler in 1935 to increase the number of births of Aryan babies and increase the racial stock, was applied to Norway by SS and Gestapo leader Wilhelm Redies. It functioned as maternity homes, nurseries, and orphanages, with a staff of both Germans and Norwegians. Many children, an estimate is of between 10,000 and 12,000, fathered by Nazis, were born in the Lebensborn maternity facilities. More than 500 children were living in Lebensborn homes in Norway at the end of the war. Stratigakoss book is a valuable commentary on the reality of Hitlers fantasy for building a New Order in an occupied country. It was not a model of gemeinschaft, a community supposedly of social inclusion and equality, but rather an occupation of terror, and loss of freedom. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Sanofi is seen at the company's research and production centre in Vitry-sur-Seine, By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's executive on Friday wrapped up preliminary talks with French drugmaker Sanofi aimed at securing its COVID-19 vaccine for the 27-country EU bloc, the latest deal with vaccine producers. Armed with an emergency fund of more than 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion), the European Commission wants to strike deals with up to six drugmakers for their vaccines for their 450 million citizens against the coronavirus that has killed 674,000 people worldwide. The Commission said the aim of the talks with Sanofi was to clinch an advance purchase deal. "The envisaged contract with Sanofi would provide for an option for all EU Member States to purchase the vaccine," the Commission said in a statement. "It is envisaged that, once a vaccine has proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19, the Commission would have a contractual framework in place for the purchase of 300 million doses, on behalf of all EU member states." A Commission spokesman said he could not comment on when a deal would be announced and the possible price for the vaccine, calling it a quite promising step towards an eventual agreement. Sanofi, which is working on two vaccine projects including one in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline , was not immediately available for comment. The British drugmaker declined to comment. Earlier this week, EU talks with Sanofi, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson hit an impasse over price, payment method and potential liability costs, EU officials told Reuters. Other pharmaceutical companies talking to the EU include France's Valneva , Moderna and biotech firms BioNTech and Germany's CureVac. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Jane Merriman) Through the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center, or TFTC, the United States and its Gulf partners collaborate to combat the financing of terrorist organizations in the Middle East and around the world. The seven members - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and the United States - share financial intelligence to target activities that pose a threat to the national security of its members. Since its inception in 2017, the TFTC has issued five rounds of joint designations against over 60 terrorist individuals and entities spanning the globe. These designations targeted a wide range of terrorist organizations, including ISIS and its affiliates, al-Qaida, Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Lebanese Hizballah, and the Taliban. Most recently, the TFTC announced the designation of six individuals and entities affiliated with ISIS as part of its efforts to disrupt ISISs ability to finance its global operations. These sanctions impact three Syria-based money services businesses - al Haram Exchange, Tawasul Company, and al-Khalidi Exchange - along with a senior ISIS financial facilitator Abd-al-Rahman Ali Husayn al-Ahmad al-Rawi, and Afghanistan-based Nejaat Social Welfare Organization and its director Sayed Habib Ahmad Khan. These individuals and entities were previously designated by the United States pursuant to Executive Order 13224. All property and interests in property of these targets that are or come within the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. OFACs regulations generally prohibit all dealings by U.S. persons or within the United States (including transactions transiting the United States) that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin highlighted the TFTCs efforts to maximize the disruption of terrorist financing around the world. The TFTC has brought the U.S. and its Gulf partners closer together to confront shared regional threats and build the lasting capacity to target terrorist financial networks wherever they operate. The TFTC designations, said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement, serve as a further warning to individuals and businesses who provided financial support or material assistance to terrorist organizations. Authorities in Mauritius, on Friday, said they were battling with a huge oil spill from a Japanese vessel, off the coast of the popular tourist island. Photographs from the air showed the oil slick spreading through the turquoise waters of the island. Other images in LExpress newspaper showed blackened beaches and dead marine life. The Executive Director of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation working with the government to address the disaster, Deborah de Chazal, told dpa that the boat was carrying 4,000 tons of oil when it ran aground on July 25. Booms have been installed to collect the oil near the wreck and others to protect some key sites, including Blue Bay Marine Park, she said. Help and equipment is being brought in from abroad as Mauritius has limited equipment in the country to address the oil spill. I understand there are discussions to see if the remaining oil can be pumped from the wreck. The crew of the Panamanian-flagged ship the Wakashio, which ran aground, are in quarantine on the island, which is located off the east African coast, local media reported. The Environment Ministry is working with local NGOs to try containing the damage, LExpress reported. There are mangrove forests along this coast, which could be badly impacted, and then all the marine life Fish, corals and seabirds, de Chazal said. (dpa/NAN) >> Tabitha Online Support Groups Tabitha will hold a Growing Through Grief Loss of Spouse online support group every Thursday from 10 - 11:30 a.m. Tabitha will hold a Growing Through Grief Loss of Parent online support group every Thursday from 12 - 1:30 p.m. Tabitha will hold a Caregiver online support group every Thursday from 2-3 p.m. The group will provide education and support for those caring for a loved one. Tabitha will hold a new Growing Through Grief All Types of Loss online support group every Thursday from 6 - 7:30. Anyone who is grieving can participate. Your loved one did not have to be with Tabitha. You must register to receive participation information by calling Abby at 402.486.8546 or register at Tabitha.org/Hospice/Bereavement. There is no charge. FRIDAY 8/14 >> Alcoholics Anonymous - Fresh Start Group meets Friday at 12 noon at First Presbyterian Church located at 414 Delaware Ave. in York. SATURDAY 8/15 New South Wales will be battered by a massive weather system half the size of the state with flooding and wild thunderstorms on the way. Emergency services have already been preparing communities for evacuation across the south-east of the state. The area is expected to receive the heaviest rainfall with the threat of severe flooding that could isolate communities and badly damage homes. 'We have additional flood resources prepared and ready to go, to the south coast in particular, and we've also been looking at having other out of area support from our partner emergency services,' NSW State Emergency Service assistant commissioner Greg Lynch told the NCA Newswire. New South Wales will be battered by a weather system half the size of the state with flooding and wild thunderstorms on the way while Perth is expected to get a month's worth of rain in four days (pictured, rain map for Sunday's forecast) A woman wearing a face mask walks through a soaked Circular Quay in Sydney Helicopters have been called into the Bega Valley and Moruya areas to assist with any flood rescue missions. Berry in NSW's south coast experienced major flash floods on Saturday following extreme weather conditions. Footage shows cars struggling to make their way through roads that were completely submerged in brown water. One couple were seen holding hands as they trudged through the flooding just to cross the road. Berry in NSW's south coast experienced major flash floods on Saturday. Footage shows cars struggling to make their way through roads that were completely submerged in brown water in Berry on NSW's South Coast on Saturday One couple were seen holding hands as they trudged through the water just to cross the road as the town was battered by intense rainfall in Berry on Saturday BOM incident manager Agata Imielska warned yesterday the Bega area is expected to record between 200 and 300 millimetres of rain and that a flood watch had been put in place. Fire-ravaged parts of the state are also on high alert with the previous destruction to the landscape and added threat of heavy rainfall making it the perfect pairing for disaster. 'When fires go through, we can see less vegetation (in the area), and that means soil is more likely to be eroded when heavy rainfall comes through,' Ms Imielska said. A telegraph pole is seen with water rushing past it in Berry as the South Coast town suffers horrific rainfall Ovals and drains were also submerged in water from the extreme weather conditions in Berry on Saturday A road is unrecognisable in Berry on Saturday as heavy rainfall leads to flash flooding 'This can produce more flash flooding, as the rain doesn't really soak into the landscape, it just runs off.' Moderate to heavy rain is also forecast to fall across southwestern Queensland with some areas receiving their monthly August average in one day. Perth is also set to receive a month's worth of rain in just four days with a monster cold front bringing in the first of the rains from Sunday. Parts of the state could record as much as 45mm on the day, with 35mm forecast for Monday and 10mm for Tuesday and Wednesday. The wild weather in New South Wales follows from a cold streak that has braced other parts of the country with Tasmania recording its coldest ever day on record. The state recorded -14.2C yesterday, marginally beating its 1983 record of -14C. Heavy flooding was seen in Berry on Saturday after extreme weather The wild weather in New South Wales follows from a cold streak that has braced other parts of the country with Tasmania recording its coldest ever day on record (pictured, Skytrek Willow Springs Station) Skytrek Willow Springs Station (pictured) took these photos of the snow in Flinders Ranges National Park on Friday It was so cold it was warmer at the Australian Antarctic research station in Casey on Thursday, meteorologist Simon Louis told the ABC. 'I don't think that would happen very often at all,' he said. Snow fell over the Flinders Ranges in South Australia on Friday which meteorologists called 'highly unusual' for the region. The Ikara Safari Camp posted a photo of the snow on Mt Ohlsen Bagge at Wilpena Pound captioned: 'We don't see this very often. Snuggle up campers.' Meteorologist Jonathan How said there could also be records broken for lowest maximums around Adelaide with the mercury predicted to reach 10C, the record for the capital is 9.3C. >>> Accelerating testing for early detection of COVID-19 infections >>> Health ministry seeks convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19 patients >>> Local authorities to be held responsible for COVID-19 transmission in hospitals The citys senior leader chaired an online meeting on August 6 to discuss measures to cope with COVID-19 spread in the capital city. At the meeting, Director of the Hanoi Department of Health Nguyen Khac Hien announced that as of August 6, the capital city recorded 96,479 people who have returned from Da Nang the current hotspot for COVID-19 in Vietnam from July 8 to present. The city conducted RT-PCR tests for 586 cases, of which 582 were negative, as well as offering rapid tests for more than 72,000 cases. all positive tests among them showed negative results when re-tested using the RT-PCR technique. Hue, who is also a Politburo member, demanded the local authorities to do better the work of tracing those who have returned from COVID-19-hit areas and carrying out PCR testing on a large scale, with priority given to the close contacts of COVID-19 patients. He also asked to absolutely safely organise the upcoming national high school graduation exams and the Party congresses at all levels, in addition to well prepare all resources to meet the highest level of epidemic prevention and control requirements and to be ready to support COVID-19-hit localities of Da Nang City and Quang Nam. The Hanoi senior leader also asked the city to maintain production and trading as well as circulation of essential goods to fully meet the requirements of serving local residents in all situations. * On the same day, Binh Dinh Province sent 25 doctors, medical technicians, nurses and midwives to support Da Nang in the epidemic prevention and control. Binh Dinh health workers before their departure for Da Nang to support the city in COVID-19 fight. (Photo: NDO/Cat Hung) * Da Nang on August 6 coordinated with the Military Region 5 to continue disinfecting some local areas to prevent COVID-19 from spreading on a large scale. * On the same day, Quang Ngai Province established a field hospital to treat COVID-19 patients at the second facility of the Binh Son District Medical Centre, with 100 inpatient beds. Quang Ngai has tightened measures to combat cross-contamination at local health facilities and accelerated the tracing of cases related to the Da Nang outbreak. * Also on August 6, more donation was made to support Da Nang in the fight against COVID-19. The donation included over VND10 billion in cash and medical supplies from relevant banks, agencies and companies. * Recently, Deputy Defence Minister, Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, on behalf of the Party, State and people of Vietnam, received a batch of medicine from Cuba to help Vietnam in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The medicine, interferon Alfa 2B produced by Cuba, is of special importance in treating the severe cases of COVID-19. The whole batch was immediately transferred to Da Nang and Quang Nam. August 08 : Abhishek Bachchan, who was battling COVID-19 for a little less than a month, has been tested negative this afternoon, giving a relief to his family and fans, who were praying for his speedy recovery. Abhishek had tested COVID-19 positive along with his father Amitabh Bachchan on July 11. Since then, the Manmarizyan actor has been undergoing treatment in Nanavati hospital in Mumbai. However, the Sr Bachchan had tested negative and was discharged a few days back. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and daughter Aaradhya, who were also admitted in the hospital after they tested Covid-19 positive, were also discharged after they tested negative. Taking to his Instagram handle, an elated Abhishek shared his chart board and discharge plan and wrote, I TOLD YOU!!! Discharge plan: YES!! This afternoon I tested Covid-19 NEGATIVE. Jr Bachchan thanked his fans for their prayers and wishes, and wrote, Im so happy to be able to go home. He also thanked the doctors and nursing staff of Nanavati Hospital for taking care of him and his family. Earlier in the morning, Amitabh Bachchan wrote in his blog that he was concerned and anxious about Abhishek, who underwent swab test for COVID-19 this morning and awaiting its report. He prayed for his son and hoped that Abhishek will return home after testing negative. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. The borough of Coaldale will receive a grant to assist with the construction of a new entrance to St. Luke's Miners Campus. The $423,442 grant was secured by the borough with assistance from the Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance, on behalf of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). Funds will go toward the Coaldale Rural Hospital Pedestrian Facilities and Kline's Hill Road Project. The project will reconstruct a local access road to add additional transportation amenities for pedestrians and transit access. It calls for narrowing the roadway to reduce speeds, constructing a pedestrian walking route and building a transit bus shelter. The project will strengthen links between transportation networks and community development by assisting the hospital network accommodate more than 100 new jobs on-site. The NEPA Alliance helped prepare the grant and recommended the project to DCED and ARC for approval. "We are growing and are excited to work with Coaldale Borough, NEPA and ARC to improve access to our small rural hospital. This project is so important as more people are coming from all over northeastern Pennsylvania for St. Luke's Miners Campus' nationally recognized care and highly engaged clinical teams," said Wendy Lazo, campus president. "Coaldale Borough supports the expansion of jobs at St. Luke's, and this access road will help grow more employment and services in our community," said Coaldale Borough Council Vice President Claire Remington. "We are glad the ARC and Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance are partnering with us to make this access road project happen." Construction will begin in 2021. Attendees talk to a company representative in the Eastman Kodak booth at an International Consumer Electronics Show. A deal that would have seen Eastman Kodak get funding to produce drug ingredients that could have helped fight the coronavirus has been put on hold. In a tweet Friday evening, the U.S International Development Finance Corporation said it was holding up the deal as regulators reportedly look into trading activity that sent Kodak's shares surging on news of the initial agreement. Shares of the company shed roughly 45% in premarket trading on Monday. "We will not proceed any further unless these allegations are cleared," the DFC said. DFC tweet A probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission is focused on how Kodak, once known for producing camera film, disclosed the deal with the government, according to a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday. The Journal reported earlier this week that the investigation is in the early stages and may not produce allegations of wrongdoing. As the news broke, Kodak, which had been trading at $2.62 a share on July 27, the day of the announcement, hit $60 within two days. The stock closed at $14.88 Friday after losing 7.6% during the session. Kodak released the news to local reporters in Rochester, New York, where it is headquartered, on July 27 then asked several outlets that had picked up the story to delete it, which they did. Questions have been raised by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and others about the possibility of insider trading involving the announcement. White House economic advisor Peter Navarro on Friday praised the DFC for its move, saying he was "very disappointed" about the allegations. Navarro tweet CNBC has reached out to Kodak for comment. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday discussed working together with other countries to send immediate aid to Lebanon, the White House said. The two leaders spoke by phone and 'expressed their deep sadness over the loss of life and devastation in Beirut,' , White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday discussed working together with other countries to send immediate aid to Lebanon, the White House said. The two leaders spoke by phone and "expressed their deep sadness over the loss of life and devastation in Beirut," , White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. Tuesday's massive explosion in Beirut's port killed 154 people, injured 5,000 and smashed a swathe of the city. France and other countries around the world have rushed emergency aid to Lebanon, including doctors, and tons of health equipment and food. The United States has not provided any aid thus far. Trump said this week Washington stood ready to help, but no details of any U.S. aid package have been released. On Thursday, Macron visited Beirut and assured angry crowds that aid to rebuild the city would not go to "corrupt hands". The cause of the blast remains under investigation. Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Friday said the probe would examine whether it was caused by a bomb, a prospect first raised publicly by Trump on Tuesday, hours after the blast. Asked about the issue again on Wednesday, Trump said nobody could say for certain whether the explosion could have been caused by an attack. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert, Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Chris Reese and Frances Kerry) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 05:48:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General James C McConville (L, front), and Romanian Chief of the Defense Staff, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu (R. front), attend a press briefing at Romanian Defence Ministry in Bucharest, Romania, on Aug. 7, 2020. Romanian and U.S. military officials on Friday discussed the number of American troops to be additionally deployed to the eastern European country, said the Romanian Defense Ministry in a statement. (Photo by Cristian Cristel/Xinhua) BUCHAREST, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Romanian and U.S. military officials on Friday discussed the number of American troops to be additionally deployed to the eastern European country, said the Romanian Defense Ministry in a statement. Romanian Defense Minister Nicolae Ciuca and the Chief of the Defense Staff, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu, met at the Defense Ministry headquarters with visiting U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General James C McConville, and Commander of U.S. Army Europe Lt. Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli. The meeting focused on the number of American troops to be deployed additionally to Romania and the places where they will be stationed. "We intend to deploy more forces in the Black Sea region, particularly in Romania," said McConville at the meeting, adding that "this demonstrates our continued commitment to a strong Europe." For his part, Petrescu welcomed the U.S. intention to supplement the effort to support security at the Black Sea through a continuous rotating presence. The U.S. commitment to the region is "a key factor in support of the strengthening of security on the southern segment of the Alliance's Eastern Flank. We must continue to implement a series of deterrence and defense measures in the Black Sea region, similar to the measures planned and implemented in the Baltic Sea region," said Petrescu. The two sides also announced that next year, through a complex exercise, the initial operational capacity of the NATO Southeast Multinational Corps Headquarters will be declared. Soon after the Pentagon announced at the end of July that 11,900 U.S. troops in Germany would be redeployed to reinforce NATO's southeastern flank, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said that his country would gladly host more American forces. Romania already hosts an American military airbase by the Black Sea as well as a land-based SM-3 interceptor ballistic missile defense system in the southern part of Romania. Enditem A recently graduated New York University (NYU) dental student in the schools College of Dentistry is having their degree withheld in a dispute over unpaid tuition. The student is an international student of Libyan nationality and has been an NYU student since 2012. They received other degrees from NYU before beginning the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree that the university is now withholding. Due to the outbreak of civil war in Libya and the pandemic, they have been unable to pay $167,306 in outstanding tuition and fees. Acting more like a corporation rather than a center of learning, on this basis NYU is refusing to bestow an earned degree on the student. They are currently unable to receive funds or contact their family due to the civil war, which has left their hometown without telephone or internet. The students ability to pay NYU is further complicated by their immigration status. Due to their Libyan citizenship, They are unable to find private loans or apply for financial aid. Without the degree the student cannot even begin the work that would allow their to pay off the amount owed to the university. The student had secured a postgraduate dental residency, but without the conferral of the degree they are unable to begin work. This further jeopardizes their residency rights in the US and leaves them facing deportation to a war-torn country. The response of the GSOC-UAW 2110, which they have been a member as a graduate student, is most criminal. The unions only action has been to sponsor a GoFundMe for the student. Its reply combines equal parts of inaction and complicity in the universitys continued predation on its students finances. The unions cynical demand that its members, fellow graduate student workers who live on poverty level wages, find nearly $170,000, despite the well-documented financial hardship of graduate students in the midst of a pandemic, was justified by quoting the following extract from its constitution, that, it shall be the duty of each member to render aid and assistance to brother or sister members in cases of illness, death or distress. This is disingenuous and empty phrase-mongering. In reality, far from allowing members to meaningfully support each other, the union caters to the demands of the university, which expects to receive the full $167,306. Furthermore, the union fails to even question the legitimacy of exorbitant fees, threats to immigrant students, or the refusal to bestow an earned degree on the basis of financial difficulties. The unions inaction follows its efforts to contain student anger with a phony three-day sick-out at the end of the Spring semester. Local 2110s inaction is only the latest incident in decades of working class betrayals by the UAW, which has culminated in a multimillion dollar corruption scandal in recent months. This incident comes in the context of widening attacks on students and educators by universities and the ruling class as a whole. This includes an increasing criminalization of poverty amongst students, in a process where elite universities have become the reserve of the multimillionaires and billionaires of the financial aristocracy. In line with colleges internationally, NYUs fees continue to skyrocket after years of increases. For the four-year DDS program undertaken by the student in question, those who began the course in 2019 annually funnel $95,968 to the university. This breaks down into $82,008 for tuition, $3,348 for fees, $6,180 for equipment costs, and $4,432 for health insurance. Above these expenses, students must secure housing and food, which in one of the worlds most expensive cities often amounts to further tens of thousands of dollars per year. Despite its $4.2 billion endowment, the university evicted thousands of students from residence halls with just 36-hours notice in March in the midst of the pandemic. This left many students, particularly the most financially vulnerable, facing homelessness or a return to overcrowded family homes. Last week, the Columbia University college newspaper reported that graduate students who were unable to pay rent in college housing during the pandemic are being barred from registering for classes this semester. Missing registration is potentially ruinous for graduate students, who risk losing their health care coverage and, if they are not US citizens, their legal immigration status. Across the US there is now over $1.6 trillion in student debt. While fees across higher education have been rising exponentially in recent years, homelessness and food insecurity amongst students have also increased. As the incidents at NYU and Columbia have shown, the pandemic is only intensifying these issues across college campuses. While repression is being carried out against all students, the Trump administration, with the complicity of the Democrats, is waging an ongoing assault on the rights of over one million international students in the country, many of whom endure poverty conditions for the opportunity to study in the US. As part of the growing bipartisan anti-China campaign, Chinese graduate students have been targeted. Following an ICE ruling that left international students facing deportation, NYU was one of the universities to back a university-led lawsuit that disputed the ruling. The lawsuit failed to defend students rights, instead focusing on the administrative aspects of the Trump administrations ruling. The criminal nature of the universities limited defense of international students is exemplified by NYU, which prides itself on being home to the highest number of international students in the United States, consciously placing a recent graduate at risk of deportation to a warzone. In reality, NYUs loyalty is first to the very same forces in American society that have brought death, destruction and poverty to the Libyan people. The university boasts deep ties to US imperialism, particularly to the military and state agencies. With this in mind, its treatment of this Libyan student is wholly in line with the universitys orientation to the interests of the financial elite and US imperialism. The case of this student, undoubtedly one of scores of similar such incidences across the country, underlines the futility of any defense of students rights outside of an assault on the capitalist system. Acting increasingly like corporations, universities only care for the well-being of students as it correlates to the size of their wallets. The interests of the ruling class run contrary not only to the right to high-quality education but also the lives of students and their families. Ultimately, it is Wall Street, which is demanding the return to the extraction of value from the working class, that is driving colleges and schools around the country to deadly reopenings. Without the mobilization of the power of graduate student workers, in conjunction with the wider working class, across the country and internationally, thousands of students will be robbed of their degrees, livelihoods and their lives. The UAWs neglect of workers and student workers shows that in this struggle students and educators must form rank-and-file committees at universities and workplaces independently of these corrupt unions. Communications team member of the NDC, Peter Akwasi Mensah has disclosed that about 17 residents in Oti Region have been arrested by the Military because of French language. According to him, the 17 persons who were in a queue to register their names for a voter ID card were apprehended by the Military officers because they responded to a bonjour greeting from the personnel. So now under President Akufo Addo, the Military is now French teachers identifying all the French students in the Oti Region. The Military joined the queue and greeting citizens bonjour, bonjour, the moment you respond bonjour; then they arrest you. Since when did bilingual become a crime under Akufo-Addos government? What the NPP is doing is divisiveness, hypocrisy, and dishonesty against the people of Oti, he said on UTV late news. Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Centre mandates Air Suvidha portal for ease of travel: All you need to know Aviation experts 2011 warning about unsafe KIA runway fell on DGCAs deaf ears India pti-Deepika S Mumbai, Aug 08: Flights landing on runway 10 in tailwind conditions in rain at the Kozhikode airport endanger the lives of people onboard those flights, a civil aviation expert had warned in 2011. Kerala plane crash: Locals aid rescue, donate blood, arrange food | Oneindia News Captain Mohan Ranganathan had flagged concerns about the runway in a communication to then Civil Aviation Secretary Nasim Zaidi in June 2011. Ranganathan was then a member of the operations group of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee (CASAC). Kerala plane crash: 14 passengers critical; probe under way to determine exact cause The communication assumes significance against the backdrop of the Air India Express plane crash at the airport on Friday that killed at least 18 people, including two pilots. The Boeing 737-800 plane, coming from Dubai, had overshot the runway while landing in heavy rains and broke into two pieces. "... in spite of the danger if the crew accept a landing in wet and tailwind conditions, their concept of ALAR (Approach and Landing Accident Reduction) is very poor," he had said in the communication. The communication came against the backdrop of an Air India Express aircraft crash at Mangalore airport in 2010. As many as 158 people had died in the crash. "... all the flights that land on Runway 10 in the tailwind conditions in rain, are endangering the lives of all on board," Ranganathan had said. With tailwind conditions, the descent of an aircraft at the time of landing might be affected. Kozhikode airport in Kerala comes under the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The airport has a tabletop runway. Details about action taken by authorities concerned following the communication could not be ascertained. Ronald Reagan famously observed nearly sixty years ago: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same[.]" The man could say so much with so few words. (1) Freedom is an idea; (2) it belongs to anyone wise enough to recognize its value irrespective of race, color, or creed; and (3) it will be endlessly threatened at all times by those opposed to liberty. Three generations later, and Reagan's warning is uncomfortably prescient. Before the Chinese coronavirus turned into a weapon for destroying freedom, we were already under attack. For years, hate speech laws have been used to censor points of view and silence critics. Public schools have replaced education with "politically correct" Marxist narratives, while Christianity is banned from public life and public squares. Socialists attack words as violence so they may use violence against our words. Wherever we look, the left has been nibbling away at liberty and pushing us toward gilded cages under their control. Now the Democrats' push to "fundamentally change America" is in overdrive. A combination of their awareness that they have lost ground since President Trump's election and a growing sense of urgency to speed up their revolution before his looming re-election has led them to throw all caution to the wind. What could have been seen as a moment for national unity just as WWII was for that generation of Americans, the present pandemic unleashed by China, has become nothing more than an opportunity for Democrats at every level of government to steal freedom in the name of security. Joe Biden talks openly of a "physical revolution" ahead. Barack Obama no longer pretends to be a moderate and instead openly trashes police officers as racists and murderers, chooses the side of Antifa anarchists destroying federal buildings and harming American civilians, and turns funeral memorials into political rallies demanding that new socialist legislation be pushed through Congress despite the will of the people. Mayor de Blasio has installed checkpoints to restrict free assembly and arbitrarily and capriciously shut down businesses and church services with fines exceeding ten thousand dollars, while openly encouraging Antifa and Black Lives Matter shock troops to run roughshod over New York City. Mayor Garcetti has empowered himself with the authority in Los Angeles to deprive individual homes of power and water should he find their owners in violation of any new rules he unilaterally creates. The Democratic Party is furiously scrambling to use the pretext of public health to force "cheat by mail" voting schemes upon swing states within their control just in time to steal a presidential election in November. And Google and Facebook and Twitter have turned a health emergency into one more excuse for censoring free speech and depriving conservatives of having any voice in what is indisputably our modern town square. China released a virus upon the world, and Republicans and conservatives rolled up their sleeves and said, "Let's get to work." Democrats and the socialists running their show grinned and said, "This is the perfect time to fleece Americans for everything they've got." If it feels as though we're surrounded, that's because we are. For freedom-minded Americans, this is an unnerving time. But that's exactly the way it's always been. As inspiring as Reagan's words are, they leave out the chilling context that Lord Acton's provide: "At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities[.]" If the task of defending freedom seems daunting, if the odds of success seem narrow, if socialism's darkness seems ever near, take strength that this has always been the price for freedom. We are all of us at all times cut-off paratroopers far behind enemy lines. Defenders of freedom will always be surrounded. No battle will be final, no victory permanent, no peace respected by freedom's enemies. We will be forced to fight tooth and nail for freedom, or there will be none at all. I am convinced that the battle between good and evil is, at its heart, a fight between truth and deception. Not falsehood, but deception. Evil always comes in the form of an ideology that allows man to justify unspeakable acts and unconscionable harms. Auschwitz greeted each prisoner with the lie that "work sets you free." Buchenwald added to the insult by insisting that "everyone gets what he deserves." Now Joe Biden's Democrats spread fascism while calling themselves "antifascist." Democrat race-baiters and race-hustlers insist that "black lives matter" while doing everything in their power to kill black babies before birth and to deprive black Americans of their God-given freedom in return for cradle-to-grave government control and subsistence. Democrat operatives unleash armies of domestic terrorists upon American cities, and then Democrat congressmen ignore all the mayhem, carnage, and murder they have caused by disregarding the visible destruction as nothing but "myth." Lies and arrogance have a tendency to topple empires. Leaders mistake their offices for temples to be adorned and their orders as commandments to be obeyed. Faith in institutions dries up while nobody is looking. History is forgotten, and stupidity rises to rule the day. There is an antidote: freedom. Its power to confront evil is immense. Its protection of life is unmatched. And it exposes socialism's lies by drenching darkness with light. But at all times, the cost of freedom will be borne entirely by its few, true defenders. A line in the sand is small compared to the beach, but when enough of us come together, a line in the sand is all we need. So take heart that you are not alone. Find strength in those around you. No matter what, hold that line. Hat tip to TimothyGKC. Image: Ninian Reid via Flickr. The Democrats are a miserable bunch, a party in crisis, and nowhere is that more evident than in the lineup of speakers for their upcoming party convention to nominate Joe Biden for president, on Aug. 19. Easy ones first. According to The Hill, they've lined up: Where's Pete Buttigieg? Where's New Jersey's Gov. Phil Murphy? Where's New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo? Anyone on this lineup is either an extreme radical or else a creature from Jurassic Park. Presumably, this bunch featured is the most powerful and definitive picture of who the Democratic establishment is: a group of mostly seventy-somethings who've moved left, along with Bernie Sanders whippersnappers who are driving the party left, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. When Republicans say she's the face of the Democratic Party, who's to argue with them with a lineup like this? They don't even like her President Obama withheld his endorsement of her likely based on her "primarying" the Democratic Party's stalwarts with her rabidly leftist "justice" Democrats on the slate, often knocking out their ward heeler and actually winning. It has to be her star power, her appeal to youth as a social media queen, and the Democrats' desire to rope in the unenthusiastic youth vote, a bid to prove they are not all dinosaurs; some are just crazies. By the way, where's Old Bernie, who put up a good primary fight and almost got the nomination? You'd think he'd have earned a spot, and for that reason would be good for bringing home the Bernie vote, at least some of which is going to Trump. He may still show up, but two weeks out from the convention, not a sign of him. Maybe he's busy with his fifth house, or whatever it is these days. Instead, there's tired old Hillary Clinton, droning platitudes only a Democrat can love, and House speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking the surreal. Yes, Kamala Harris is sort of in the middle zone as Democrats go, but she's just one. Michelle Obama? She'll be a star, yes, but she's obviously not signed on just yet. With this bunch, why should she? What we see here is a sign of a party in crisis. When all you've got are very young extremists with star power and very old jurassics, don't count on creating a winning platform the mainstream can actually vote for. There's no middle there yet, no Bill Clinton or Tony Blair to help with cleanup after a period of swinging too far left, just Ocasio-Cortez taking a trip to Jurassic Park. Image from Voice of America via Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Processed with FotoSketcher. (Natural News) The Pinal County Sheriffs Office has announced that it is forming a civilian posse to help deputies with law enforcement duties, particularly during emergencies. The move comes as protests against police continue throughout Arizona and the country at large, prompting greater scrutiny of police actions. Speaking to the Arizona Republic, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb said that he had two groups in mind when he came up with a civilian policy: people who are looking to improve policing and residents who are frustrated with protests against law enforcement. He said that right now, agencies are looking for ways they can improve their relationships with the community, especially given all the current talk of defunding the police. So far, Pinal County has not seen any non-peaceful protests. There have only been a handful of Black Lives Matter protests in the county, and none have resulted in any arrests or rioting. Nevertheless, he believes the posse is needed to help everyone feel more comfortable and be prepared in the case of a bad situation arising. He also cited the countys sprawling size as a reason for the posse as it would enable law enforcement to be available sooner in times of emergency or widespread unrest. The county covers almost 5,400 square miles and is roughly the size of Connecticut. Lamb said that posse members will have to undergo a four-hour training session that teaches topics such as constitutional law, use of deadly force, home safety, search and seizure, and other police tactics. Participants will also be given the opportunity to practice scenarios in a virtual range with one of their instructors. They will also have to pass a background check and sign a waiver. Successful applicants will be given a certificate and ID. The sheriffs office said that the program is open to all residents, not just those who live in Pinal County. Having a trained population makes cities safer Sheriff Lamb said he has the authority to deputize civilians to help law enforcement. While he hopes that this sort of action wont be necessary, he does want to ensure that the people who are willing to step in and help will be trained and ready. He said he believes cities across the country have been completely overrun, and he feels that its his job to suppress insurrections and riots to avoid a situation like what is being seen in Portland. There, residents have been protesting for nearly two months and calling for police reform after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. He said: We have a lot of people chime in on things they dont have any clue about. I see so many people talking about police work, and they dont have the slightest clue about what its like to go out and do the job, yet theyre out there running their mouth about it. He added: If you dont like how police are, then come be a cop and help us change it. So far, the sheriffs office says that more than 1,500 people have signed up for the posse. Its not clear if they will be on call for emergency situations or will have jurisdiction over particular areas of the county. In any case, it could one day prove incredibly useful to have so many trained citizens there. Lamb said: Should you ever need to protect your family, home or community, youll have some of the skills and knowledge you need. Thats some sound advice that everyone should follow. Even if you live in an area that has not been hit by violent protests, it is always a good idea to know how to protect yourself and your loved ones from harm. Sources for this article include: DCClothesline.com AZCentral.com By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 35 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. Armenian armed forces were using large-caliber machine guns. 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. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz (CNN) Mark Zuckerberg has joined the world's most exclusive club of the ultra rich. The Facebook CEO on Thursday became a centibillionaire: someone who is worth at least $100 billion. He crossed the milestone after shares in the social network surged. Only two other men, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Microsoft's Bill Gates, have bigger personal fortunes. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook from his Harvard dorm room in 2004, and his biggest asset is still his 13% stake in the company, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index, which tracks the world's wealthiest people. The 36-year-old is also Facebook's chairman and controlling shareholder. Zuckerberg's wealth got its latest bump as Facebook's stock climbed 6.5% Thursday, a day after the company launched its TikTok clone, Reels, on Instagram. The release of the short video feature came just as US President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned app that has exploded in popularity over the last year. Trump made good on that threat Thursday, issuing an executive order that would block TikTok from operating in the United States if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, doesn't sell the business to a US firm within 45 days. ByteDance has been in negotiations with Microsoft about a potential sale, though the chief of the Chinese company has expressed reservations about the White House's forceful approach. TikTok has also recently taken direct aim at Facebook, with CEO Kevin Mayer slamming Reels as "another copycat product." "To those who wish to launch competitive products, we say bring it on," he wrote in a blog post last week. The introduction of Reels also came a week after Facebook reported strong earnings. Last Thursday, the company said it had reached a new record of 3 billion users across its platforms, including WhatsApp and Instagram. The company also noted that it had benefited as more people around the world stayed home because of the pandemic, pushing up its engagement numbers over the quarter that ended in June. Facebook shares are up almost 30% so far this year, adding $22 billion to Zuckerberg's wealth. In 2010, the chief executive signed the Giving Pledge, an initiative started by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage the world's richest to donate the bulk of their fortunes to charity. And in 2015, Zuckerberg went a step further, announcing he would give away what he makes from 99% of his Facebook stake. This story was first published on CNN.com Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now worth $100 billion A lucky Australian has found a coin more than one hundred years old which can be sold to collectors for upwards of $1,000. A woman shared two pictures of the 1901 Gold Sovereign coin resting in her hand to an Australian treasure hunting Facebook group. 'Can anyone tell me what I've just found?' she wrote alongside the photos. The coin pictures the profile of Queen Victoria on one side, who ruled as the monarch of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901. A woman shared two pictures of the 1901 Gold Sovereign coin resting in her hand to an Australian treasure hunting Facebook group The coin pictures the profile of Queen Victoria on one side, who ruled as the monarch of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901 The other side showed the legend of Saint George and the Dragon. There are a few 1901 Gold Sovereigns listed on eBay, with sellers asking for anywhere between $1,000 and $1,500. Facebook users were quick to congratulate the woman for her lucky find. 'You just found what we have all dreamed of finding! Congratulations,' one read. 'Well done, nice Goldie,' another said. A third wrote: 'Well that is one less chance of me finding one. Bloody well done.' Other commenters said the find was a 'bucket lister' and questioned when they would be fortunate enough to stumble across the coin. In 1901, the Gold Sovereigns were issued by the The Royal Mint in London and mints in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Autoworkers from assembly and parts plants in Michigan and Indiana spoke to the World Socialist Web Site in recent days and denounced the criminal campaign to reopen schools being waged by the Trump administration and the Democrats at the federal, state and local level. Workers pointed to the underlying criminality of both the back-to-work and back-to-school campaigns and voiced their support for the formation of a network of rank-and-file safety committees to organize communication across the country and across industries. Autoworkers at Ford Dearborn Truck [Credit: Ford Media] What the American government is saying is they dont give a damn about your children, nor the parents, declared a Fiat Chrysler worker in Indiana. Trump is pushing the limits. Shame on them for putting innocent kids at risk. No one knows how [school re-openings] will affect kids. We are constantly learning new things about this virus. I would be scared to death as a teacher. What happens in a single-parent home when the parent contracts COVID-19? We are seeing people hospitalized for well beyond a two-week period. Who will care for your child? Workers living paycheck to paycheck, if they are working at all, will find it increasingly difficult to provide safety equipment for their children as both families and schools are starved for funds. How are the parents able to afford and continue to find the daily PPE required for children while in school? he asked. Are the schools not funding those supplies? At the Ford Dearborn Truck Plant outside Detroit, a worker questioned the entire back-to-work and back-to-school policy. They want to pretend like its safe to get the kids back in school, he said. He said he had watched the videos posted by Georgia high school students of the flagrant violations of safety precautions in the crowded hallways of their school. The school administration first suspended the students and then reversed the suspension in response to the outpouring of support from teachers, parents and other students who saw the video. Ive been watching the conditions in Florida and Georgia. There was a high school that was jam-packed with students and they didnt even have face masks. Social distancing is impossible in that school. The virus is going to be in the air, he continued. The masks they have are not designed to filter virus particles from the air. The school is supposed to be a safe place for kids. What is the point of school if we are not going to protect the kids? Many workers are painfully aware of the savage budget cuts inflicted on school districts everywhere since the early 1980s. The class sizes have increased so much over the years, they dont even have enough seats for the students, the Ford Dearborn worker added. How can that be safe? Anything you touch could give you the virus. It is irresponsible. Its just heartless. Its going to spread through the whole school and then the children will take it home. The ICUs are filling up, and thats when there will be a much higher death rate because people are not getting the care that they need. We definitely need to join forces in a general strike. The teachers have the best interest of the students at heart. But from the superintendents on up they do not share those sentiments. They are really hostile to the teachers. What about the threats to cut school funding? he continued. That highlights the attempt to force people to do things which are unsafe. Just like theyre forcing people back to work by cutting their $600 per week supplemental unemployment benefit. They are cutting off the money from what people really need. I heard that there are 1,600 nursing home workers going on strike in Detroit. They are risking everything. This is just the beginning stage. We need to support each other and all struggles will come together. A worker from Fiat Chrysler Sterling Heights Assembly in Michigan said, I think it is foul that students are being brought back. Any stories of it not being transmitted by kids are totally false. You can refer to that camp in Georgia. It was only open for five days and more than 70 percent of the people tested positive. I think this is horrible, said a worker from the Faurecia plant in Saline, Michigan, who was formerly a substitute teacher. This is ridiculous. It is a terrible thing because children dont know whats going on. When theyre getting off the bus theyre going to be all hugged up because they are all best friends. In the classrooms its a problem because the desks are so close together. They cannot social distance. The teacher has to wear a mask and the kids have to wear masks. The children will not know what this procedure is all about. It is a recipe for disaster. Its just crazy. You can thank the president for that. These people are mindless, careless. A worker from the Faurecia plant in Columbus, Indiana, reported, If the children contract COVID-19, theyre going to give it to their families. They are jamming COVID-19 down our throats. The government doesnt seem to care. We need to unify. We need to join with the autoworkers that are forming rank-and-file committees in Michigan and Ohio. Everybody that I talk to seems to be receptive. We cant use the union because the union is in bed with a company. The support for teachers and the opposition to reopening schools extends broadly throughout the working class. The teachers are now standing up. We all need to stand together, a flight attendant at Delta Airlines told the WSWS. When these children are starting to die, we do not have any choice. People are going to fight. Denouncing the attempts of the Democratic Party to divide workers via racialist and identity politics, she continued, We dont need identity politics. It is not a matter of race, gender or religion. It is the working people, period. Look at the George Floyd protests. It was not just black people that were protesting. Black, white, green or red, the working class struggle has no color. She voiced her support for the Socialist Equality Partys call for the development of network of rank-and-file committees and the preparation of a general strike. For the capitalists, all they can see is go back to work, go back to school, she said. They dont care who dies. Any parent would be livid. We are in the middle of a pandemic, and they keep pushing people to go back to work. This is a ticking time bomb here. The factory workers are already screaming. Now they want to pull the children back into a Petri dish. They are really working on the last nerve of the working people to protect their families. This is the very reason why we need rank-and-file committees. The unions dont care. The businesses dont care. The working class needs an organization of its own. An organization that protects working people. VIRDEN, MAN. A tornado that killed two teens when it threw their vehicle into a Manitoba field surprised even those in the area who are accustomed to violent weather, as well as a stormchaser, with its destructive strength. A lot of people just cant comprehend how wind can pick up a piece of machinery in a yard that weighs thousands of pounds and throw it half a mile across the highway onto another piece of property, said Murray Wright, mayor of Virden, after visiting the farm where the twister touched down south of the community on Friday night. Its a terrible thing. Police said they arrived at the farm near Highway 83 south of Virden shortly after 8 p.m., local time. They said the property was extensively damaged and two vehicles had been thrown into a nearby field. A search of the first vehicle, found closer to the highway, located a 54-year-old man from the Sioux Valley Dakota First Nation, who was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. Officers located the second vehicle over a kilometre away, and they along with other first responders found a man and a woman, who were both 18 and from Melita, Man. Police believed the pair were ejected from their vehicle, and they were pronounced dead at the scene. Officers along with EMS continued to search the area for other possible victims but none were located. Misheyla Iwasiuk, a local storm chaser, said it was the biggest storm shes seen in her life. It was a pretty bad scene ... This storm was large, very violent and it wasnt anticipated, she said. We were assisting a gentleman whose vehicle unfortunately was flipped over and he was trapped inside of it. She said multiple people stopped to help before emergency crews arrived and extracted the man from the car, which landed on top of downed power lines. Iwasiuk said farm buildings in the area took extensive damage after taking a direct hit from the storm. She also said emergency responders were assisting people in the fields who were hit by the storm while in farm equipment. The Wallace District Fire Department noted in a Facebook post that there were no injuries to anyone in the farmyard. Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Alysa Pederson described the twister as very large in size, and said preliminary findings from their investigation indicate wind speeds reached 190 kilometres per hour. Pederson said a storm warning was issued at 6:30 p.m. local time Friday, and later at 7:43 p.m., a severe thunderstorm warning for the area was issued. At 7:49 p.m., a tornado warning was sent. The government agency said a damage survey will be completed Saturday with the help of a team from the University of Manitoba. Theres still people in the field and theyre still doing an assessment, Pederson said, noting that anyone with video or information about damage from the storm should reach out to Environment Canada. In 2018, a 77-year-old man was killed when a powerful tornado touched down in Alonsa, west of Lake Manitoba, lifting several homes off their foundations and sweeping one vehicle into the lake. The RCMP said the man was found dead outside what remained of his wrecked home. That tornado was estimated to have had wind speeds up to 280 km/h. Trailers in a campground disappeared, presumably into nearby Lake Manitoba. Wright, meanwhile, said dozens of people came out to help clean up the area near Virden on Saturday, using machinery to move broken trees and grain bins scattered across the ground. Those who couldnt help with the physical labour were providing food to the workers. With a farming community everybody helps out in a time of tragedy. This is whats going on today, he said. The majority of people also have their power back on after Manitoba Hydro crews worked around the clock, the mayor said. The debris will be cleaned in the coming days. Read more about: In an illustration photo, a doctor performs an ultrasound on a pregnant woman during her visit to a gynecologist. (Jennifer Jacobs/AFP/Getty Images) Appeals Court Lifts Block on Arkansas Abortion Restrictions A federal appeals court reversed a ruling that had blocked several Arkansas laws that created barriers for women seeking abortions in the state. Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Aug. 7 (pdf) overturned a lower courts preliminary injunction, effectively allowing the state to enforce some of its abortion restrictions. The three-judge panel said their decision stemmed from Chief Justice Robertss separate opinion in June Medical and another prior court case from the Supreme Court. In that opinion issued in June, cited as June Medical Services LLC v. Russo (pdf), the court rejected a law that puts restrictions on abortion providers in Louisiana. While Roberts, in that case, voted with the liberal judges in the 54 ruling, he issued his own concurring opinion agreeing with the judgment but not the reasoning of the majority opinion. Roberts said his decision was guided by the principle that the court should treat similar cases alike, also known as the legal doctrine of stare decisis. The legal doctrine of stare decisis requires us, absent special circumstances, to treat like cases alike. The Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the Texas law, for the same reasons. Therefore Louisianas law cannot stand under our precedents, Roberts wrote. The 8th Circuit panel noted that Roberts discussed at length the courts role in deciding cases about abortion regulation, saying that state and federal legislatures have wide discretion to pass legislation in areas where there is medical and scientific uncertainty. The chief justice said the top courts appropriate inquiry, according to a prior court case, is to decide whether the law poses a substantial obstacle or substantial burden, not whether benefits outweighed burdens. The panel said that when the district court ruled on the Arkansas case, they did so without the guidance of Robertss separate opinion in June Medical. The judges, therefore, vacated the district courts order and remanded it back to that court for reconsideration in light of Robertss ruling. The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of Dr. Frederick Hopkins, a Little Rock abortion provider. Attorneys from ACLU expressed disappointment with the decision, saying that they are evaluating their next steps in order to continue to fight the laws. These onerous restrictions were designed with the singular intent to take away the right to abortion and punish people for seeking care, Holly Dickson, ACLU of Arkansas legal director and interim executive director, said in a statement. This ruling is a reminder that the fight against these extreme abortion restrictions is far from won. We are evaluating our next steps and will continue to fight to ensure these harmful and unconstitutional laws do not take effect. Hillary Schneller, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said they will exhaust their legal options to ensure the laws wont take effect. The restrictions remain blocked until after Aug. 28, when the appeals court decision takes effect. There is no question that these laws would make it harder to access abortion in Arkansas. The Supreme Court just weeks ago reaffirmed that a state cannot pass laws that unduly burden a persons access to abortion, and that is exactly what these laws do, Schneller said. Meanwhile, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge applauded the decision, saying that as the chief legal officer in the state, she will continue to defend the states legal right to protect unborn children. No defenseless baby should ever face the unimaginable and horrifying fate of death by dismemberment, Rutledge said in a statement. The laws in question were passed in 2017 and include the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act; the Sex Discrimination by Abortion Prohibition Act; an amendment regarding the disposal of fetal remains; and an amendment addressing the maintenance of fetal remains samples. S Kumaresan By Express News Service CHENNAI: DMKs youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalins growing grasp on the DMK has become the subject of debate among its cadres and second-rung leaders. At a time when the DMK is aggressively looking to gain power in the State, two well-known personalities in the party have made their displeasure clear over Udhayanidhis hold and its consequences to their own rise within the party. DMKs former deputy general secretary VP Duraisamy, who recently joined BJP, lamented that he had to plead with Udhayanidhi for a Rajya Sabha ticket although he was several years Udhayanidhis senior. Then the recent rebel MLA Ku Ka Selvam, who represents the Thousand Light assembly constituency from where DMK president MK Stalin was elected for four times, said that Udhayanidhi hampered his chances of becoming a district secretary of the Chennai West district unit. He also said that the party was now under Udhayanidhis control. No snakes, only ladders The rise of Udhayanidhi within the party was an open secret in the last two years. But even before that he was the managing director of Murasoli, the party's newspaper. After being made the head of the party's youth wing, a post held by his father MK Stalin for long, his influence in the party has become very visible. A common lament has been that even Stalin, who toiled through the ranks to become the party's president, never enjoyed such privileges during his younger days. One of the district functionaries of the DMK Northern district, who frequents Anna Arivalayam and the residence of MK Stalin, told Express, There is no doubt, major decisions over the party affairs are taken in consultation with Udhayanidhi Stalin and he indirectly controls the entire party. For example, to accommodate his close associate Mahesh Poyyamozhi in the line of district secretaries, Trichy district party units were divided into three units from two units and he was made in-charge of one district unit. Other major appointments that had the mark of Udhayanidhi were the Namakkal district unit in-charge Rajesh and recently Chitrarasu to the post left vacant by demise of J Anbalagan. Chitrarasu's appointment as the Chennai west district unit secretary was a stark display of Udhayanidhi's influence. "In our party, functionaries from the youth wing were never directly given such a post in the parent body. They have to serve in the party's parent body for a few years at least. But Chitrarasu was made a district unit in charge directly from the youth wing," said an old-timer in the party. illustration: tapas ranjan A new coterie in party As the influence of Udhayanidhi is becoming more and more apparent, sycophancy also becomes louder. Even when he was not an MLA, DMK MLAs had showered praises on Udhayanidhi in the State's assembly. A first-time MLA of the party told Express, Recently, Qatar unit of DMK released an anthem to congratulate Udhaynidhi Stalin for his successful one year term of heading DMKs youth wing. The news was published in Murasoli. To my knowledge, such a song was not scripted even for CN Annadurai, founder of DMK. Will the Murasoli publish the same kind of news for women wing leader Kanimozhi or student wing leader Ezhilarasan if any party cadres released songs on them? Udhayanidhi is enjoying the privileges of being the son of the party president and even MK Stalin had not enjoyed such a kind of privilege during his early days, he added. A former headquarters orator of the party had this to say: One month ago, Hasan Mohamed Jinnah, deputy secretary of DMK youth wing, wrote an article under the title 'Iyakkaththai Thangum Ilaiya vizhuthu' (the youngest who shoulders the party) and the two parts of the article were published on two days in the Murasoli. The article was in praise of Udhayanidhis hard work for the betterment of the party. DMK sources who spoke to Express on the condition of anonymity said that Udhayanidhi has been in control of the party mouthpiece Murasoli, considered a gazette for the partymen, for several years as MD of publication. Since then, substantial space has been allocated in Murasoli for news items which may be in favour of him or his associates. For example, two weeks ago DMK womens wing secretary Kanimozhi conducted a video-conference interview for selecting the right candidates for the women wing of Trichy South district unit. Two days later, Murasoli carried a photo in which DMK south district unit in-charge Mahesh Poyyamozhi, a close confidant of Udhayanidhi, was seen watching the video-conference interview. If the intention was to publish the news itself, it should have been the photo of Kanimozhi, who conducted the interview, that was published, said sources. Experience doesnt matter Usually, none of the youth wing functionaries are directly posted as district secretary and district in-charge for the parent body. Mostly, they would be given parent body postings either as union secretary or town secretary. But, after Udhayanidhis influence increased in the partys key decisions, Rajesh, Mahesh Poyyamozhi and N Chitrarasu were made district-in charges for the parent body. Even J Anbazhagan rose from T Nagar area youth wing organizer, secretary for the T Nagar area DMK and was only posted as district secretary after proving his organizing skills and calibre to control the party. In another example, M Anbazhagan has been serving as a Tiruchy town secretary for more than 18 years. Earlier he had served as a youth wing organizer for Tiruchy town for ten years. Even after 28 years of party service, he wasnt given district in-charge post but in the same district, Mahesh Poyyamozhi was made district in-charge without the required experience of organising any public meeting and any state-level conference of the party, said sources. Express tried to reach Mahesh Poyyamozhi and Hasan Mohamed Jinnah, both very close to Udhayanidhi Stalin, they didnt pick the call despite several attempts to reach them. Responding to the charges, RS Bharathi, organising secretary of the party, It is only due to jealousy. The same kind of charges were hurled against our president MK Stalin when he launched the youth wing of the party. There is nothing to charge against the party leadership hence they use Udhayanidhi Stalins name only for gaining political mileage. He is working only for the youth wing, nothing more than that. Before making charges against him they should realise their capacity. Currently under observation, Dutt has been admitted in the non-covid ICU ward while doctors have ordered further tests for the star. Confirming the same, hospitals chief operating officer Dr V Ravishankar stated, "He is stable." His hospital authorities further informed a leading news agency saying, "His Covid-19 report is negative but he's still there for some time, just for medical observation. He is perfectly fine." Meanwhile, on the professional front, Sanjay Dutt will be next seen in the Mahesh Bhatt directorial Sadak 2 alongside Aditya Roy Kapur and Alia Bhatt. Slated to release on Disney Plus Hotstar on August 28, the film is a sequel to 1991 release Sadak, which feat. Dutt in the lead role. He will also be seen in KGF: Chapter 2, in which he will be essaying the role of an antagonist. Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was rushed to Mumbai's Lilavati hospital this evening after suffering from chest discomfort. The actor was admitted with fluctuating oxygen saturation level and was soon tested for Covid-19 through rapid antigen test, which turned out to be negative. BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 8 By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend: President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov held a videoconference with Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Gebreyesus, Trend reports with refernce to Turkmenistan's State News Agency. During the talks, Turkmen president said that the country is ready to contribute to the study of possible treatment of coronavirus. The head of state also stressed the country's readiness to work together in this and other areas with the World Health Organization and other interested parties. In particular, Berdimuhamedov noted that the issue of mutation of the new coronavirus remains and highlighted the importance of holding scientific research to study the etymology of the virus. It was noted that all necessary measures are being taken in the country to diagnose infectious diseases, treat them and prevent them. These are quarantine measures in the country, redesigned individual medical facilities for the treatment of people with similar signs of acute infectious disease, as well as the purchase of medical equipment and medicines. Last month, WHO/Europe experts worked in Turkmenistan at the request of the government, to support Turkmenistan in the aspects of preparedness and response to COVID-19. Turkmenistan presented its program to fight infectious diseases to experts of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe). The country follows the WHO recommendations and is currently implementing a program to ensure preparedness for countering and responding to infectious diseases, said the report. In addition, Turkmenistan is currently working with UN agencies to develop a third national plan that covers the humanitarian component of the country's measures to combat COVID-19. To the date, Turkmenistan has reported no coronavirus cases. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva Xiaomi is turning 10 next week a major milestone that the company will be celebrating on August 11 with the release of commemorative editions of the Redmi K30 Pro and the Mi 10 Pro. We are still a little short on details, regarding the Redmi, but the Mi 10 Pro variant has been popping-up online, along with specs and different names Extreme Commemorative Edition, Supreme Edition, Pro Plus or simply Ultra. Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra At least a couple of these names could end-up in actual use. Some for the Chinese, while others for the global market. It is possible to see a special naming distinction for the transparent back edition, as well. A fresh new leak offers detailed banner images, indeed showing what looks like a transparent-back phone, alongside a white one. We arent quite sure whether the back is truly transparent and includes some extra decals and specialized writing on the internals, showing through, or if it is a sticker, underneath a glass surface, mimicking the effect. In any case, this is our best look at the special Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro to date. Plus, the banners are also accompanied by a live photo of a retail box. It also features the same pair of renders on the top, corroborating the story. Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra These new detailed images also clearly show that Xiaomi has, indeed, swapped the standard tele camera on the Mi 10 Pro with a special periscope one, which will be marketed as a whopping 120x zoom. Interesting move and one we didnt really anticipate, now that Samsung officially decided to backtrack on its Space Zoom marketing for the new Note20 Ultra, downgrading from 100x to a more-sensible 50x. Oficial cases for Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra Looking at the banner in further detail, apparently Xiaomi has deemed the quad-camera setup on the special edition Mi 10 Pro capable of shots anywhere from 12mm to 120mm. Just in case you are wondering what that ASPH writing denotes it is simply an umbrella term for aspherical lens elements. These tend to be more advanced, smaller and more efficient than simple lenses at combating different types of aberrations and delivering superior sharpness with fewer optical elements, in a smaller volume. Improved vapor chamber cooling, HiRes audio with custom algorithm, next-gen FP reader Camera setup aside, we do also have a fair bit of other info on the Mi 10 Ultra or special edition, acquired through a combination of leaks and teasers. The phone is expected to rock a Snapdragon 865+ chipset, with a customizable GPU, an improved vapor chamber cooling design, UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5 RAM. Alleged memory tiers include 8/256 GB and 12/256 GB for the simpler white ceramic back variant and 12/256 GB and 16/512 GB for the transparent one. Also on the specs list - 120Hz 1080p+ AMOLED display, a 4,500 mAh battery with 100 or 120 W fast wired charging and 55 W wireless charging. Plus, HiRes audio with a custom algorithm and a next-gen, in-display fingerprint reader. 55 W wireless charger and cases for the Mi 10 Ultra No word on pricing yet, but apparently Xiaomi does intent to make and ship a substantial number of these devices. Company CEO already assure fans that there should be plenty of units available. Source 1 | Source 2 Huawei does not have the capacity to manufacture the chipsets used in its high-end smartphones Chinese telecom giant Huawei said production of its most advanced smartphone chips would stop in September due to US sanctions, causing a "huge loss". Huawei -- the world's biggest producer of telecoms networking equipment -- has become a pivotal issue in the geopolitical standoff between Beijing and Washington, which claims the firm poses a significant cybersecurity threat. Huawei CEO Yu Chengdong told a tech industry forum on Friday that production of the company's high-end Kirin 9000 chipset would stop from September 15, due to US sanctions. Washington cut off Huawei's access to US components and technology including Google's music and other smartphone services last year. Those restrictions were tightened in May when the White House barred vendors worldwide from using US technology to produce components for Huawei. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) which has been making Kirin 9000 chips using US equipment has stopped taking orders from Huawei since May, fearing possible repercussions. Huawei does not have the capacity to manufacture the chips, which were used in its high-end smartphones. "Huawei's mobile phones have no chip supply, which makes our shipment volume this year a little less than 240 million units (shipped last year)," Yu said. "This is a huge loss for us." Washington has also waged a diplomatic campaign to isolate the Chinese company, which has emerged as a front-runner in the global race to roll out 5G telecom infrastructure. The British government bowed to growing US pressure and pledged earlier this month to remove Huawei from its 5G network by 2027, despite warnings of retaliation from Beijing. Australia and Japan have also taken steps to block or restrict the Chinese company's participation in their 5G rollouts, while European telecoms operators including Norway's Telenor and Sweden's Telia have passed over Huawei as a supplier. prw/mtp John Hume could be a tricky customer: his boundless confidence often appeared as a kind of egomania; his insistence on being heard could grate; his worries about his health, sadly ultimately borne out, were legendary. All these qualities were accentuated as his dialogue with Gerry Adams gathered pace. In a sense there were two Humes: the breezy Europhile revelling in the political and social attractions that Strasbourg offered, and the brooding obsessive figure who increasingly emerged as the Hume-Adams talks progressed. To understand his role in the eventual settlement that was the Good Friday Agreement, you have to consider the toll the contacts that led up to the deal exacted on him. Read More The dialogue with Adams was conducted in secrecy, but that didn't protect the SDLP leader from criticism that was as egregious as it was dishonest. Attacks on his initiative from unionist politicians he could shrug off, but decades of positive and sometimes fawning coverage in the southern media had left him ill-prepared for the vitriolic commentary from papers that campaigned against the nascent peace process because it involved talking to Sinn Fein. This bewildered him and fed a streak of paranoia that was rarely far from the surface. Politically too, the contacts with Adams caused immense strain. In 1993, Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and Tanaiste Dick Spring were pursuing their own strategy; they were aware of Hume's initiative but hoped it could stay under wraps until its fruition. That strategy was shattered when Adams was spotted entering Hume's house in April, prompting the two leaders to acknowledge what was up. It is hard to overstate the turmoil that caused in Dublin, and particularly in London where Downing Street had to disavow anything that had Sinn Fein's fingerprints on it. That led, I think, to the darkest days of the entire peace process for Hume. He managed to withstand the barrage of criticism with some difficulty, buoyed up at one stage by President Mary Robinson's handshake with Adams, seen as a tacit endorsement by one element in Dublin of the dialogue, despite the government's efforts to dissuade her. It all came to a head in September 1993 when Hume - worried by prime minister John Major's failure to respond to the joint initiative - delivered his memorable soundbite to the late Jim Dougal of the BBC. All the pent-up frustration and anger of the year burst out in Downing Street when he defiantly told reporters that he "didn't care two balls of roasted snow" for the criticism of his talks, which he insisted would reach a successful conclusion. The following week, he was as good as his word, issuing a joint statement with Adams saying that they had made considerable progress and would be forwarding a report to Dublin. Hume then disappeared on an industrial promotion trip to the US, leaving huge confusion in his wake. His relationship with Dublin was never the same again. As the RTE man in Belfast, I was left the unenviable task of making sense of all this; I knew things were bad when I got a call not from the regular Iveagh House press officer but from the legendary Sean O hUiginn, the 'Prince of Darkness' who headed the Anglo-Irish unit, and who was not in the habit of picking up the phone to journalists. It rapidly became clear he wasn't imparting information but simply wanted to know how much I knew. I learnt later that he had instructed an Irish diplomat in Boston to head to the airport, pick up Hume and take him to a secure phone in the consulate, but not to talk to him on the car journey so that Dublin could be the first to interrogate the SDLP leader. At the same time there were loyalist threats against Hume and other SDLP figures, some of whom were issued with personal protection weapons. It was a dark time and a chain-smoking Hume was clearly under enormous pressure. He felt the exclusion from Dublin in particular very keenly, and on one occasion presented himself unannounced at Iveagh House at the weekend with a handwritten letter for the Irish government. The nadir came with the final rejection of the Hume-Adams proposals by Major's government, his cabinet secretary flying secretly to Baldonnell to break the news to Reynolds and Spring. A week later, a shocking act of violence galvanised the entire situation. The Shankill bomb claimed the lives of nine men, women and children shopping on a sunny Saturday in the loyalist heartland, and killed one of the bombers too. It had been aimed at the UDA leadership but detonated prematurely with appalling consequences. Huge wave of sympathy One rescuer said later: "As the rubble was being removed, and it will stay with me till I die, I saw a young girl's foot. I knew it was a young girl because it was about size 3 or 4. It poked through the rubble and I wanted to stop digging because I knew I was going to see a horrendous sight, and I did." A week later came the predictable UDA retaliation with the attack on the Rising Sun bar in the mainly Catholic village of Greysteel, not far from Derry. Eight men and women enjoying a Hallowe'en drink were slaughtered. The media criticism of Hume intensified. He collapsed and was admitted to hospital. This prompted a huge wave of sympathy that suggested that certain commentators and the two governments were out of touch. Hume received more than 1,000 letters of support and get-well cards while in Altnagelvin. At the Fianna Fail ard fheis the following weekend, delegates greeted any mention of Hume's name with resounding ovations. Ministers were told in no uncertain terms they should be supporting him and not hanging him out to dry. A source told Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick in their study of the peace process that in the aftermath of the ard fheis "Albert's gone wild for the peace. He's catching a mood in the South. Hume has great credibility." Reynolds threw himself into the sometimes bad-tempered negotiations that led to the Downing Street Declaration as Hume was eased back into the picture in an operation involving much political sleight of hand. The British continued to insist that they had never seen the so-called Hume-Adams text, so could not know if any of it formed part of the elements of the declaration. As 1994 dawned, the declaration paved the way for intense internal debate within the republican movement. There were false dawns and setbacks but by summer it was clear that an IRA ceasefire was on the way. Hume's confidence that a cessation was within sight was not shared by his colleagues in the SDLP, who had long been exasperated at their leader's failure to keep them informed of his many initiatives and contacts. Bizarrely, it all came to a head just a fortnight before the ceasefire when, in a misjudgement as monumental as it was rare, Seamus Mallon threw down the gauntlet, declaring that it was clear there would not be any cessation and that republicans should be ejected from the process. Political priorities In an emotional party meeting, Hume was charged with risking the future of the SDLP but rounded on his critics, asking whether they wanted to keep the party alive or people alive, a pithy summation of his political priorities. People often conflate the IRA ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement, but of course they were separated by four years of tortuous argument. By the time the parties convened in Stormont, Hume was virtually burnt-out, and no wonder. He took an active part in the Strand One negotiations, anxious to ensure that a workable and representative assembly and executive emerged, but took little interest in the other elements. His relationship with the UUP leader David Trimble was brittle, and he was more comfortable with veterans such as Ken Maginnis and John Taylor. There was a strong sense that he had spent himself in the struggle to end the violence and that the power-sharing assembly and executive were just coping stones on his life's work. In another sense, Hume knew that he excelled in one-to-one contacts, and that he didn't shine in negotiations that were complex and multifaceted. His vision was one of peace rather than politics and political structures, although he knew better than most that political activity was a necessary means to an end. It was telling that he handed the mantle of deputy first minister to Seamus Mallon with alacrity as the executive was established. There was something Homeric about his final sad years, a mighty warrior whose greatest victory came at a huge personal price. He began to fail soon after 1998, to the dismay of all that knew him. The air has been thick the past week with comparisons with O'Connell and Parnell; indeed, a couple of weeks after the Good Friday deal I heard two elderly farmers in a Clare pub debating in terms of some erudition which of the three was the greatest Irish patriot. To my mind, the parallels with O'Connell hold up firmly; like the Liberator, John Hume changed the way Irish people think about ourselves. He also changed the everyday conditions for the ordinary person in Northern Ireland in a way that seemed inconceivable when he set about weaning republicans away from violence four decades ago. Officials have found the remains of the seven marines and one sailor who went missing after their tank sunk during a routine training exercise off the coast of San Clemente Island. The group had been participating in the July 30 exercise off the Californian coast when their amphibious assault vehicle bagan to take in water and sunk. Of the 16 service member onboard, eight Marines were rescued. One has since died and another is in critical condition, the U.S. Marine Corp said in a press release. Authorities work to retrieve the bodies of the seven Marines and one U.S. Navy sailor who sunk with the amphibious assault vehicle on July 30 In a Saturday Facebook post, the Marines shared that the remains were recovered on Friday. 'Our hearts and thoughts of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit are with the families of our recovered Marines and Sailor,' Col. Christopher Bronzi, Commanding officer, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. 'We hope the successful recovery of our fallen warriors brings some measure of comfort.' The Marines had been stationed at Camp Pendleton, and were all a part of the unit. Officials identified the deceased personnel as: Pfc. Bryan J. Baltierra, 19, of Corona, California, a rifleman; Lance Cpl. Marco A. Barranco, 21, of Montebello, California, a rifleman; Pfc. Evan A. Bath, 19, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a rifleman; Pfc. Jack Ryan Ostrovsky, 21, of Bend, Oregon, a rifleman; Cpl. Wesley A. Rodd, 23, of Harris, Texas, a rifleman; Lance Cpl. Chase D. Sweetwood, 19, of Portland, Oregon, a rifleman; Cpl. Cesar A. Villanueva, 21, of Riverside, California, a rifleman; and U.S. Navy Hospitalman Christopher Gnem, 22, of Stockton, California, a hospital corpsman. Authorities identified the eight service members who was retrieved on Friday U.S. Navy Hospitalman Christopher Gnem, 22, of Stockton, California, a hospital corpsman The recovered Marines and the U.S. Navy Sailor will all be transferred to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. There, they will be prepared by mortuary affairs teams for burial. They will them be flown to Dover AFB in a solemn transfer, the post reads. Their remains will then be released to their families. The bodies were located by the U.S. Navy's Undersea Rescue Command, who used underwater remotely operated video systems from the merchant vessel HOS Dominator. The ship specializes in undersea search and rescues. The Navy dispatched submarine search and rescue ship HOS Dominator to assist in the recovery on Friday In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, Undersea Rescue Command deploys the Sibitzky Remotely Operated Vehicle to assist in the search Lance Cpl. Guillermo S. Perez, 20, of New Braunfels, Texas, was pronounced dead at the scene on July 30 On Thursday, specialized equipment on diving and salvage ship arrived on Thursday to assist in the retrieval. The AAV sub sunk to approximately 385ft off the coast of San Clemente Island, with initial reports estimating that the vessel had gone to approximately 600ft. It has since been recovered. Lance Cpl. Guillermo S. Perez, 20, of New Braunfels, Texas, was pronounced dead at the scene. The rifleman was transported to Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego, with his remains getting transferred Wednesday to Dover AFB. Throughout the entirety of the at-sea search - which was a joint effort by Marine Corps, Navy and the Coast Guard - more than 1,000sq nautical miles were searched by helicopters, ships and personnel. The commandant of the Marine Corps has suspended all waterborne operations of its more than 800 amphibious assault vehicles until the cause of the accident is determined. COLBORNE Three people were arrested after Ontario Provincial Police raids Thursday on a marijuana grow op at two adjoining properties in Cramahe Township, near Colborne, about 65 kilometres southeast of Peterborough. Officers seized marijuana and other property valued at $3.9 million after search warrants were used at the two locations, police said. Officers seized 3,444 marijuana plants along with 41 pounds of processed marijuana, 31 pounds of marijuana oil, a Kubota 40hp farm tractor and a Samsung cellular device. Ronald Forget, 51, and Faith Forget, 54, both of Cramahe Township, along with Ken Hung Yap, 55, of Scarborough were each charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of distribution, possession of marijuana, cultivating more than four marijuana plants and cultivating at a place other than own residence. They were released from custody and are to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Cobourg on Oct. 14. Northumberland/Peterborough OPP community street crime unit officers were joined by OPP organized crime enforcement bureau, OPP community street crime unit, OPP emergency response team, OPP canine unit officers in the raids, along with community street crime unit officers from the City of Kawartha Lakes, Orillia, Bracebridge and Nottawasaga. The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) has rescheduled its national congress to August 22, 2020. The party was scheduled to hold its congress on August 15, 2020 to elect national officers and its flagbearer for the 2020 presidential election, but the chairman of the Interim Oversight Committee (IOC) of the CPP, Mr R. O. Frimpong-Manso, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the IOCs attention had been drawn to the fact that there would be Homowo celebrations in the Greater Accra Region on August 15, 2020. Decision He said the decision to postpone the congress to August 22 was taken late Wednesday evening after consultations with key stakeholders of the party. Mr Frimpong-Manso explained that although the festival was a regional affair, the party did not want to disrupt the activities of the celebration in the region. He said the one-week postponement would also give the opportunity for the candidates to undertake some campaigning as well. Candidates At the close of nominations on August 3, 2020, 19 stalwarts of the CPP had filed their nominations to contest various positions. Out of the number, three filed to contest the flagbearer position, four for the national chairman position, three for the three vice chairperson positions, three for the position of general secretary, two for the national organiser, and two each for the positions of women organiser and youth organiser. The congress shall elect the national chairperson, national vice chairpersons, the general secretary, the national treasurer, the national organiser, the national womens organiser and the national youth organiser. At the close of the nomination, no one had filed for the position of national treasurer. Background The CPP was originally scheduled to hold its national delegates congress from March 27 to March 28 in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. The party opened nominations from February 6, 2020, to February 28, 2020. However, on February 27, 2020, the eve of the last day for the filing of nominations, the party was served with a suit, compelling the leadership to postpone the filing of the nominations and date of the congress. The suit centred on an alleged bank account opened by some national executive members on behalf of the party and the manner in which regional elections were held in the Central, Oti, Volta and Western regions. On July 2, 2020, the High Court accepted the terms of a consent judgement, including the setting up of a five-member IOC to superintend the holding of the national congress. IOC The Council of Elders of the CPP, on July 3, 2020, inaugurated a five-member IOC under the chairmanship of Mr R.O. Frimpong-Manso to oversee the activities of the party towards the national delegates congress. The council appointed Dr Adolf Lutterodt and Prof. Nii Noi Dowuona as the chairmen for the Extended Congress Planning Committee and Vetting Committee respectively. This was in line with the terms of the consent judgement adopted and granted by Mrs Justice Mariama Sammo of the Accra Commercial High Court.- #GhanaVotes2020# Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Brian Austin Green looked dashing as ever when he was glimpsed out and about in Los Angeles this Friday. The 47-year-old Hollywood heartthrob showed off his toned arms in a simple grey T-shirt as he headed off to Whole Foods. Wearing a pair of fashionably torn jeans, he made sure to take the precaution of wearing a mask amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Stepping out: Brian Austin Green looked dashing as ever when he was glimpsed out and about in Los Angeles this Friday He recently got trolled on social media after gently ribbing his estranged wife Megan Fox and her new boyfriend Machine Gun Kelly. Megan posted a smoldering mirror selfie with the slender rapper on Wednesday and captioned: 'Achingly Beautiful Boy... My heart is yours.' Brian then shared a post of his and Megan's three sons and captioned: 'Achingly beautiful boys..... my heart is yours.' 'Now we know why she broke up with you. Your children must be more mature than you. Move on,' wrote one commenter. Out and about: The 47-year-old Hollywood heartthrob showed off his toned arms in a simple grey T-shirt as he headed off to Whole Foods 'Someone mad,' wrote another commenter with a crying laughing emoji, adding: 'Kells would whoop that a** old man.' Megan and Machine Gun Kelly are currently in Puerto Rico where they recently resumed filming on their movie Midnight In The Switchgrass. They met while shooting the movie earlier this year before production was temporarily suspended because of the coronavirus lockdowns. New man: Megan posted this sexy mirror snap of herself with Machine Gun Kelly just hours before with the caption: 'Achingly Beautiful Boy... My heart is yours' On May 18 amid rumors of her fling with Machine Gun Kelly, Brian emotionally revealed on an his podcast ...With Brian Austin Green that Megan had left him. Since the split went public Brian has been glimpsed out on dates with Maxim model Tina Louise and former 'child bride' Courtney Stodden. He recently appeared on Hollywood Raw with Dax Holt and Adam Glyn and said 'I found out in my own way' about Megan and Machine Gun Kelly. And that's as much detail as I'll give you on that one. I didn't read about it or anything like that,' said the Beverly Hills 90210 hunk. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Next week the U.S. will try to get the U.N. Security Council to do something it has been trying to get its allies to support for the last year: Extend the U.N.s conventional arms embargo against Iran, which is slated to expire in October. The resolution will almost certainly fail, but that doesnt mean Americas Iran policy has to be a failure. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. would introduce the resolution on Wednesday, a day before he announced that his senior envoy on Iran policy, Brian Hook, would be leaving. The U.N. Security Council would make an absolute mockery of its mission to maintain international peace and security, Pompeo said, if it allowed the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell weapons freely. Pompeo is not wrong. One of the many flaws of the 2015 Iran deal is that it allowed for the arms embargo to expire in the first place. That concession was in part at the behest of China and Russia, which were part of the negotiations, and the two nations are likely to use their veto at the Security Council to scuttle the resolution. Thus the U.S. strategy to extend the embargo is destined to fail. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft has acknowledged as much. Russia and China are going to be who they are, she told me in an interview this week at the Aspen Security Forum. Im not going to be able to change their minds. However, what we can do is change the way other countries look to them and look at them, and thats whats important. In other words, Pompeos strategy in the short term is to shame two great-power rivals at the U.N. But Pompeo has another card to play. If and when the U.S. loses the U.N. vote to extend the arms embargo, it could still theoretically impose it snap back is the diplomatic term through a provision of the 2015 nuclear deal that President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. As Pompeo told reporters Wednesday, that is an option thats available to the United States, and were going to do everything within Americas power to ensure that that arms embargo is extended. Story continues On the surface, its a strange maneuver. The snap-back provision of the U.N. Security Council resolution that codified the Iran nuclear deal was designed as a tool for states that were a party to that agreement. As Anthony Blinken, a former deputy secretary of state and adviser to Joe Bidens presidential campaign, said this week at the Aspen Security Forum: Snap back needs to be invoked by a participant in the deal. Others disagree. Richard Goldberg, who managed the maximum pressure campaign against Iran at the U.S. National Security Council, told me the U.N. resolution that codified the nuclear deal was drafted precisely to defend the U.S. right to snap back, in any scenario, at any time. If Iran is in breach of its commitments, he said, the U.S. has the right to snap back previous resolutions that were lifted as a result of the nuclear deal regardless of whether the U.S. remains a party to that agreement. Regardless of the legalities of the current or future conventional arms embargo against Iran, there is a very good chance that Russia and China will move to arm the Iranians anyway. International law has not stood in the way of these countries before. China has already begun discussions for closer security partnership with Iran. For now, Pompeos play at the U.N. is mainly symbolic. As Craft told me, the rest of the world will see that China and Russia have blood on their hands. But anyone whos paid attention for the last 75 years probably knew that already. The most realistic strategy for the U.S. moving forward under either Trump or Biden will have to be unilateral. Its foolish to expect the U.N. to promote security and peace in the Middle East when two of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council do not have the same interests as the U.S. and its allies in the region. A better approach is for the U.S. to use its Navy, its allies and its vast intelligence capabilities to interdict arms shipments to Iran. The U.S. has used this strategy before, under President George W. Bush against North Korea. It should consider it again when it comes to Iran. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI. 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. If the ban does go ahead and Apple doesnt have a workaround, Chinese consumers who have the money to buy an iPhone will likely turn to the countrys home-grown, high-end smartphone maker: Huawei. President Donald Trumps order banning US companies from doing business with Chinese messaging app WeChat could damage iPhone sales in one of Apples most important markets. The order would block all transactions involving WeChat, which would prohibit Apple from distributing WeChat to mobile devices through its App Store. WeChat is central to digital life in China. Its the go-to app for a billion people for shopping, payments, email, web browsing and all forms of business and personal communications. Many Chinese dont use phone numbers or emails. Visitors to the country have to download the app and load it with money or risk not being able to pay for even small purchases. Without access to WeChat, consumers would likely balk at buying an iPhone in China and other parts of Asia. An online forum popular with stock investors asked users if they would give up their iPhones or WeChat if Apple eliminated the app from its store: They voted to ditch their phones by a margin of 20 to one. China accounts for about 20% of Apples iPhone sales, so pulling WeChat off the App Store would be a serious hindrance, said Anand Srinivasan, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. Apples shares fell 2.5% to close at $444.45 on Friday in New York, part of a broad decline in technology stocks. While Googles app store is banned in China, there are alternative ways of installing apps on Android software that powers the rest of the worlds smartphones. A spokesperson for Apple did not return a request for comment. Trumps order could also prompt China to retaliate, damaging Apple even further. Much of the Cupertino, California-based companys manufacturing is done in China, and if the country targets Apples exports that would impact its business globally, Srinivasan said. China could also restrict the supply of materials, such as rare earth metals, that are key ingredients of iPhones. This is a war with battles on multiple fronts and the battle has now escalated into software, he said. Trumps executive order goes into effect in 45 days, but there are many outstanding questions and plenty could happen between now and then. The president has been known to walk back or introduce exceptions to his proclamations after the fact. Apple could also open its operating system to let users download apps without going through the App Store, but that would be a major change for a company that has always carefully guarded access to its ecosystem and takes a 30% fee from many apps. If the ban does go ahead and Apple doesnt have a workaround, Chinese consumers who have the money to buy an iPhone will likely turn to the countrys home-grown, high-end smartphone maker: Huawei. In that way, the order could end up benefiting a company that Trump has sought to squeeze out for years. The University of Mary Washington plans to start classes with remote learning for the first three weeks of the fall semester, commencing Aug. 24. Students who will be on campus from Sept. 10 through Nov. 20 and commuting students who signed up for a fall dining plan will be eligible for refunds. Students who signed up for housing and dining plans will save about 35%, according to the school. Colleges and universities across the state are adjusting their schedules in order to cope with the uncertainty of COVID-19. At Virginia Commonwealth University, where classes are to begin Aug. 17, nearly 100 professors this week formally asked the school to switch to a fully virtual fall semester. As of Tuesday, fewer than half of VCU classes were to be taught solely face-to-face, according to data from the university. Mary Washington President Troy Paino said in a message to the campus community this week that in June when the school released its initial plan for returning to in-person classes in August, health trends in Virginia looked positive, but "that no longer appears to be the case." 3 1 of 3 HBO Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Images Press/Getty Images Show More Show Less 3 of 3 On September 1, a new documentary about beloved Bay Area actor Robin Williams will be released to VOD. Directed by Tylor Norwood ("The United States of Detroit"), "Robin's Wish" aims to unpack the media speculation regarding the decline in his final years. A trailer released today shows family and colleagues reflecting on his final days, speaking in detail about the effects of the brain disease Lewy Body Dementia which played a factor in his suicide on August 11, 2014. Based on a quote from his wife featured in the trailer, it appears that Williams was unaware of the disease which was attacking "nearly every region of his brain." The Delhi government on Saturday kickstarted the consultation process for drafting a policy to make the national capital one of the top five start-up destinations in the world. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who interacted with a panel of industry leaders and young entrepreneurs, said an online forum will be launched to get inputs from the general public. "With the new policy, we aim to make Delhi one of the top five global destinations for start-ups. The policy will aim to accelerate the growth of start-ups and transform the city to the most friendly place in India for start ups," he said. The objective of the draft policy is to support entrepreneurs and build a robust economic and policy infrastructure that will create new jobs and bring new competitive dynamics into the current economic system, the Delhi government said in a statement. The industry leaders who joined the interaction included Ajai Chowdhry, co-founder of HCL; Rajan Anandan, MD Sequoia Capital; Padmaja Ruparel, co-founder, Indian Angel Network; and young entreprenuers like Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and CEO of Swiggy; Farid Ahsan, co-founder, ShareChat; Suchita Salwan among others. "Right since my IIT days, I have seen some of the most brilliant minds from India go abroad for better opportunities. I believe Indians are the smartest entrepreneurs in the world and all they need is the right opportunity and right conditions to help them thrive," Kejriwal said. The Delhi government will soon release the draft start-up policy and launch an online forum to seek inputs from the general public on it, the statement said. Referring to a 2019 report from TiE, Kejriwal highlighted that with over 7,000 start-ups, Delhi has the highest number of active start-ups in the country. He said the valuation of the city's start-ups is about $50 billion, the statement said. "The report states that Delhi-NCR is set to become one of the top five global start-up hubs with 12,000 start-ups, 30 unicorns, and a cumulative valuation of about $150 billion by 2025," it said. Delhi, being the national capital, is a hub of education, industries and many prestigious institutions. In the last few years, the start-up ecosystem here has amassed a plethora of opportunities for budding entrepreneurs, the statement added. Welcoming the initiative, Rajan Anandan, MD Sequoia Capital said, "The National Capital Region (NCR) is already the largest start-up region in India and within NCR, Delhi has the most number of start-ups. The discussion was very good with many points raised on what will take Delhi's start-up ecosystem to the next level. By Express News Service VELLORE: Saying that every death caused by coronavirus infection is being completely audited, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan on Saturday informed that the government has been focusing on bringing down the fatality. Talking to reporters in Vellore after chairing a review meeting, he said, The death rate in Tamil Nadu currently stands at 1.64 per cent. Every death is being subjected to auditing. We are focusing on how to reduce the fatality. The fatality is higher among elderly Covid patients because of comorbid conditions, he noted. Radhakrishnan claimed that the State stands second in recovery rate next to Delhi. Eighty per cent of Covid patients are discharged in the State. The combined treatment protocol including allopathy, siddha and ayurveda systems have paid the dividends in successfully treating positive patients, he stated. He also said new cases are gradually decreasing as the rate has dropped below 10 per cent. Every day about 68,000 tests are being done. Of them, below 6,000 turn positive. The rate is below 10 per cent, he said. Radhakrishnan said the strategy of aggressive testing as advised by the Chief Minister is yielding the desired results. The Chief Minister has advised to test ten times the number of positive cases. So far, 30,88,000 tests were done, he stated. Vellore district Collector A Shanmuga Sundaram, SP Pravesh Kumar and Deputy Director of Health Services T Manivannan were also present at the meeting. The Health Secretary inspected Govt Vellore Medical College Hospital (GVMCH) and Christian Medical College (CMC) Hospital and discussed the treatment protocol with the doctors. Later, he visited Ranipet and held a review meeting with district collector S Divyadharshini and other top officials. WESTPORT When Joe Canicatti arrived at his business on Friday he was hopeful power had finally been restored after being knocked out by Tropical Storm Isaias. But Canicatti, owner of Joes Pizza, soon found that for the second-day straight he would be unable to open his business. Its really hard besides having the COVID situation going on we were closed and then opened with a certain capacity. That was already hard. But we got used to that, Canicatti said. Now this is something else on top of that. When the storm struck Tuesday afternoon all of the power was knocked out. The day marked when his business typically stocked their refrigerator for the week. But on Thursday, Canicatti said he and his staff were forced to throw out a lot of food that had since spoiled. It was almost $5,000 worth of inventory, he said. It smelled so bad in there. But we cleaned, we disinfected and we got the place ready to go. Its almost like were reopening again. But without power he couldnt prepare food to begin the reopening process or provide takeout and delivery. Canicatti joins many other business owners and residents facing the challenge of knowing when power may return. Eversource reported 10,362 customers without power in town as of 6:15 p.m. Friday. According to the company website, this represented 82.02 percent of the 12,633 Eversource customers in town. Canicatti, who has owned the business since 2006, said hes never experienced a power outage like this after previous storms. We would lose power from time to time, but never for this long, he said. Not enough for there to be food spoilage. ... Between the business loss and the inventory were talking almost $20,000 worth of loss. He said he was also concerned for his employees, who would be unable to work for the time being. Canicatti also expressed disappointment in Eversources response. I feel like theyre just dragging their foot on this, he said. They should have been better prepared. How does Eversource after (Superstorm) Sandy not prepare for this? I just dont understand how. Canicattis sentiments were echoed by Gov. Ned Lamont and several elected officials who held a news conference at Town Hall on Friday. The officials later surveyed some of the damage wrought by Isaias in town. One of the things we did in dealing with COVID is hope for the best but plan for the worst, Lamont said. Thats not what our utilities have done. Thats not what Eversource has done. Lamont was joined by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, First Selectman Jim Marpe, state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, state Rep. Gail Lavielle, state Sen. Tony Hwang, Selectwoman Melissa Kane and others at the news conference. He said the state was doing everything it could to ensure Eversource restored power quickly. Im going to hold their feet to the fire every day until this is done, Lamont said. Marpe also expressed disappointment with Eversources response. He said the town has faced communication problems with the company in trying to receive updates on restoration efforts. I have no notion of what they are providing us, he said. I cant tell if you theres 10 trucks here in town, two trucks, or 200. On top of that I have no estimated time on power restoration. Lamont said as hes traveled across the state talking to communities, hes seen this is more than just a utility that provides electricity, and warranted a more pressing response. This is life giving, Lamont said. We need not a utility response, we need an emergency response. But for residents and business owners like Canicatti, a response is needed sooner than later. Its really affecting our life. Its affecting our livelihood for us and my employees, Canicatti said. I just dont understand why its taking so long for Eversource ... nobody can give you a response. dj.simmons@hearstmediact.com GENEVA (Reuters) - The deadly warehouse blast in Beirut this week devastated Lebanon's already faltering healthcare system and U.N. agencies are scrambling to support hundreds of thousands of people, officials said on Friday. Tuesday's explosion fully or partially damaged five hospitals and removed 500 beds of capacity, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman told a United Nations briefing GENEVA (Reuters) - The deadly warehouse blast in Beirut this week devastated Lebanon's already faltering healthcare system and U.N. agencies are scrambling to support hundreds of thousands of people, officials said on Friday. Tuesday's explosion fully or partially damaged five hospitals and removed 500 beds of capacity, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman told a United Nations briefing. Tonnes of personal protection equipment (PPE) used to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have also been destroyed just as infections in the country surge. "The already weak health system in Lebanon due to the refugee crisis, to COVID, the economic and political crisis and the lack of personal protective equipment for health workers is a huge issue," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said. The WHO has flown supplies from Dubai to treat people burned and wounded by flying glass and other debris. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and aid chief Mark Lowcock will hold a virtual briefing next week to discuss the humanitarian situation following the explosion and U.N. efforts to support the response as well as "highlight gaps for urgently needed support," according to an invitation sent to member states. The explosion killed 154 people and injured 5,000. "Hospitals are overwhelmed with injured patients," Lindmeier said, adding the blast also destroyed 17 containers of WHO medical supplies and completely burned PPE items. The World Food Programme plans to import wheat flour and grains for bakeries and mills to help stave off food shortages. The agency said it is concerned the explosion and the damage to the port will worsen what it called "an already grim food security situation" in Lebanon, which was already dealing with a deep economic crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people had their homes damaged. "The need for shelter is massive," said Charlie Yaxley, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. The agency is making available stocks of shelter kits, plastic sheets, blankets and mattresses, he said. Several refugees may be among the dead, according to initial but unconfirmed reports, Yaxley said. Children's aid agency UNICEF said up to 100,000 children were among the displaced. The blast also damaged schools educating 55,000 children and destroyed a critical care facility for newborns. Ten containers of PPE, including hundreds of thousands of gowns, gloves and masks just procured by the health ministry for its COVID-19 response, were destroyed, UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said. "The areas around the blast are those with some of the most active clusters and community transmission," she said. "It is impossible for those affected to practice safe distancing and there is a massive need for masks, but for most people right now COVID is not top of mind." (Reporting by John Revill and Michael Shields, additional reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Frances Kerry and Paul Simao) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan who arrived here with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and a few of his cabinet colleagues on Saturday, expressed deep sadness at the tragedy after visiting the injured at the Medical College hospital. "In the past 48 hours, Kerala has seen two tragedies and this has affected the state very badly. I got a call from the President who has conveyed his deep condolences," said Khan. It was on Thursday night that a landslide near Munnar in Idukki district left 23 people dead. Around 50 people residing in four tea estate lines are missing after a portion of a huge hill came down on them. And on Friday night an Air India Express flight from Dubai skidded off the runway at Kozhikode airport and fell into a 35 feet deep gorge, leaving 18 dead and several others injured. Vijayan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him soon after learning about the accident. "The flight had 190 people on board and included six crew. Eighteen people including the two pilots and a crew member have died. Among the dead are 14 senior citizens (seven men and 7 women) and four children. 149 of the injured passengers are in various hospitals, 23 of them have been discharged, while the condition of 21 is serious," said Vijayan. One passenger of the ill-fated flight has tested Covid positive and the results of all the others are awaited. "The pilot and co-pilot and a crew member have lost their lives and Air India will take possession of their bodies. From 3 p.m. onwards the bodies of the victims will be handed over to the relatives. We have announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh to the families of the deceased, while the cost of the entire treatment of all the injured will be borne by the State. If need be, the State will again come to the help of all if there is a need," said Vijayan. "I will take this opportunity to thank each one who came to the rescue of the passengers the moment the accident occurred and it includes locals, airport officials and also the health professionals," added Vijayan. Both Khan and Vijayan also inspected the accident site. Westerly, RI (02891) Today Mostly cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. High 47F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies and rain later during the night. Snow may mix in late. Low 32F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 15:36:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MINSK, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Belarusian Central Election Commission (CEC) said Saturday 32.24 percent of eligible voters have cast their ballots after four days of early voting in the presidential elections. The turnout in the Brest region stood at 30.11 percent, 30.86 percent in the Vitebsk region, 42.72 percent in the Gomel region, 30.02 percent in the Grodno region, 29.09 percent in the Minsk region, 37.88 percent in the Mogilev region and 26.45 percent in the city of Minsk, the CEC said. Early voting in the presidential elections is taking place from Aug. 4 to Aug. 8. A total of 5,767 polling places have been set up for the 2020 presidential election, including 44 abroad. The main voting day is Aug. 9. Enditem The Public Health Agency of Canada says there are now 239 confirmed cases of illness in the country linked to a recall of U.S.-grown onions over Salmonella contamination. The agency says 29 people have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says Thomson International Inc. of Bakersfield, Calif., is expanding its recall of red, yellow, white and sweet yellow varieties. The onions have been distributed in every province and territory except Prince Edward Island and Nunavut. Federal officials say people should not eat, use, sell or serve any onions from this company and if people arent sure where an onion was grown they should not eat it. The Public Health Agency says there is no evidence to suggest that onions grown in Canada are associated with this outbreak. The outbreak investigation is ongoing as illnesses continue to be reported to the Public Health Agency of Canada, reads a Friday update on the agencys website. Since August 2, there have been 119 additional illnesses reported in the ongoing Canadian investigation. There are now 239 confirmed cases in Canada. Symptoms of a Salmonella infection typically start six to 72 hours after exposure to the bacteria from an infected animal, person or contaminated product. Symptoms can include fever, chills, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache, nausea and vomiting. RELATED STORIES Canada Salmonella cases in Western and Central Canada linked to U.S.-grown red onions The agency says anyone can become sick with Salmonella, but children aged five years and under, older adults, pregnant women or people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of contracting serious illness. Earlier this week, Keith Warriner, a food science professor at University of Guelph, said Salmonella outbreaks linked to onions are uncommon and that improperly composted manure or bacteria in irrigation water may be the cause of contamination. Warriner said the watchword in food safety is if in doubt, throw it out. In a major development, the Indian government has allowed Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders from the US, UK, Germany, and France, to visit the country. Making the announcement on Friday evening, the Home Ministry said that the OCI cardholders from the aforementioned countries are allowed to visit as India has signed 'air bubble' arrangements with them. Other foreigners from these countries have been allowed to avail of the Indian visa facility for business, medical and employment purposes. According to a home ministry notification, Indian citizens have also been allowed to travel to these countries on any type of visa. "Ministry of Home Affairs has permitted to enter India OCI card holders who belong to countries with which 'air bubble' arrangements have been finalised by Ministry of Civil Aviation," a home ministry spokesperson said. India so far has bilateral air travel arrangements or 'air bubbles' with the US, UK, Germany and France during the coronavirus pandemic-related international travel restrictions. Other countries may be included under this scheme in the future, the notification said. The home ministry said it has further considered the need for visa relaxation and travel restrictions for more categories of foreign nationals who want to travel to India and Indian nationals intending to visit other countries in the context of the 'air bubble' scheme. Any Indian national holding any type of valid visa of such countries may be permitted to travel to the country concerned provided there is no travel restriction for entry of Indian nationals in that country. It will be for the airlines concerned to ensure that there is no travel restriction for Indian nationals to enter the country concerned with the particular visa category before issue of tickets and boarding pass to the Indian passenger, the home ministry added. READ | Kozhikode Air India Crash LIVE Updates READ | Nepal Resumes Airing All Indian News Channels After Ban For 'hurting Country's Sentiments' Restrictions on incoming passengers It has also been decided that the existing restrictions on incoming passenger traffic into India through the immigration check posts will not apply to such travellers. The existing restrictions on incoming passenger traffic into India will not be applicable on movement of cargo or goods and supplies in any vehicle, aircraft, ship, train etc. along with their crew, sailor, driver, helper, cleaner etc. However, quarantine and all other health and COVID-19 related matters, guidelines of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare shall be adhered to, the home ministry said. READ | Air India plane crash: US Ambassador Ken Juster extends condolences to victims' families READ | Latest News: Kozhikode plane crash; IPS officer reaches Patna; US sanctions Carrie Lam Disha Salians father has requested the media not to infringe upon the familys right to privacy. Disha was the former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Satish Salian told India Today that the rumours being spread about his daughter and her death were false. As media has freedom of speech, we also have right of privacy, do not interfere in our life please. I request you all please. Police have explained me. They showed whole case evidences, post mortem report. My daughter was never pregnant, she never got pregnant. Rape never happened, organs are clear, he said. Dishas mother added that she has faith in the Mumbai Police, who she believes are doing their job properly. According to police, Salian, 28, allegedly killed herself by jumping off a high-rise in Mumbais Malad area on June 8. Rajput, 34, was found hanging at his apartment on suburban Bandra on June 14. Mumbai Police earlier this week, appealed to people to submit to them any information or evidence pertaining to Dishas death for a thorough investigation in the case. In a letter sent to assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Malvani, on Wednesday, Satish Salian alleged that media persons were harassing his family by repeatedly questioning their faith in Mumbai Police and their way of inquiry into her death, the official said. In his letter he alleged that news about her (Dishas) involvement with any politician or attending parties with big names of the film fraternity, rape and murder are all stories cooked up by media people just to sell it to channels and these stories hold no truth. He also requested the police to take action against the journalists, influencers, politicians and media concerned for their insensitive act towards his family, the official said. Also read: Mark Ruffalo relives his greatest Marvel goof-up, says If I havent been kicked out by now, no one will BJP MP Narayan Rane on Tuesday claimed Salian was killed, and indicated the murder may have been preceded by her rape. He claimed the post mortem report mentioned injuries to her private parts. Follow @htshowbiz on Twitter SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Despite the COVID-19 epidemic, new headquarters, factories and industrial projects of various international giants as well as local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), have been mushrooming across China. The world's second-largest economy is unswervingly improving its business environment, nurturing fertile ground for the growth of various companies and injecting vitality into the domestic and global economy. Wider opening-up commitment U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill on Wednesday announced the opening of the Asia Pacific headquarters of its agricultural supply chain in Shanghai, further demonstrating the company's continued commitment to China's market. "We are grateful for the strong support from the Shanghai municipal government with this strategic location," said Robert Aspell, president of Asia Pacific for Cargill. He added that Shanghai would play a crucial role in the company's efforts to better serve customers in both China and other parts of the Asia Pacific region. "We will unswervingly welcome international enterprises and investors to invest and run business in Shanghai. We will create a world-class business environment and expand development space for all enterprises," said Gong Zheng, mayor of Shanghai, during a video call with Cargill. Despite the COVID-19 epidemic, foreign investors have increased their investment in Shanghai in a bid to cash in on the business opportunities in China. The city received 10.28 billion U.S. dollars in foreign investment in the first half of 2020, up 5.4 percent year on year. While foreign businesses beef up presence in the Chinese market, domestic firms have accelerated business resumption as the epidemic waned. Tianjin Golden Wheel Bicycle Group Co., Ltd saw its exports in the first half of 2020 recover to the level in the same period last year. "China continues to create an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment, offering more opportunities to the world, thus helping stabilize the unsettled global economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a key factor for global companies to find the Chinese market attractive," said Quan Heng, secretary of the leading Party members' group at Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations. Comprehensive and targeted reforms According to the World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report, China made significant progress in the 2005-2020 period, compared to any other large economy in terms of facilitating the ease of doing business. "We were happy to see measures including trimming the negative list, optimizing business environment and strengthening intellectual property protection," said Ker Gibbs, president of the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai. Since 2018, Shanghai has taken 286 targeted measures to improve the business environment, unveiling more than 70 reform policies and launching over 20 new public service systems, according to the municipal government. Reforms have also been adopted in other parts of the country. "Since Tianjin implemented the 'shipside delivery' reform to reduce customs clearance time, a container of imported goods can be picked up within three hours, saving some 300 yuan (about 43 U.S. dollars) per day," said You Tingguang, manager with a Tianjin-based trading company. Local authorities have also taken a slew of measures to help businesses tide over the uncertainties caused by the epidemic. According to the Tianjin Golden Wheel Bicycle Group Co., Ltd, as 10 customs authorities have piloted cross-border B2B e-commerce exports nationwide, the company received approval for doing business within a day, thereby buying it more time to seize business opportunities during the epidemic. "We have also received subsidies for water, electricity consumption and employment stabilization, as well as low-interest loans to help ease operation costs," said the group's general manager Yang Yufeng. Technology driver According to the World Bank report, the proliferation of e-government services is one of the key factors driving China's success in improving the business environment. Wang Qingyuan, 30, who owns a hair parlor, found it far more convenient than before when she recently applied to cancel the license of her shop's old address. Upon reaching the government service center at Beijing's Daxing District, she logged into a mobile app through Alipay. The app ran facial recognition using her cellphone camera, enabling the staff to check all her information instantly. Corporate information and certificates can now be checked online as they are digitally stored. Besides, with the application of blockchain technology, one cannot tamper with the data, thus assuring authenticity. In Beijing, some 140 e-government service centers have adopted blockchain technology, which can reduce paper use by an average of 40 percent. Shanghai officially launched a comprehensive portal for administrative services in October 2018, which applied technologies such as blockchain, AI and big data. Since its launch, the service has registered more than 29 million individual users and 2 million legal person users. The portal has handled over 60 million cases. "China leads the world in the application of blockchain technology," said Huang Zhen, a professor with the Central University of Finance and Economics. "The technology is widely used not only in the financial sector but also in government services, which has become a key driving force for improving the business environment." Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 00:29:13|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Friday urged the U.S. consulate general in Hong Kong to stop smearing the national security law in Hong Kong. A spokesperson of the commissioner's office expressed strong opposition to a statement of the U.S. consulate general. The United States should respect the legitimate right of Chinese people including Hong Kong compatriots to safeguard national security and stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs, which are China's internal affairs, on the pretext of freedom of speech, the spokesperson said. National security legislation is an international legal practice and the national security law in Hong Kong will ensure the enduring success of "one country, two systems" based on the rule of law and preserve long-term stability of Hong Kong, the spokesperson said. The United States has a sophisticated system of national security laws applied to even its overseas territories and frequently abuses national security to infringe upon other countries' lawful rights and interests, the spokesperson said, noting that the United States' accusing of the national security law in Hong Kong is nothing short of double standards, ideological bias and hegemonic thinking. Since the law taking effect, black violence with a "burn with us" mentality has been on the decline and various sectors in Hong Kong have shifted focus to fighting the epidemic and reviving the economy, the spokesperson said. However, the U.S. side, through the statement, exposed its real intention of backing anti-China troublemakers and messing up Hong Kong. Fully respecting the differences between the "two systems" while adhering to the "one country" principle, the law has incorporated a number of innovative arrangements to ensure the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong and has therefore reinforced and improved "one country, two systems," the spokesperson said. By contrast, the United States has revoked Hong Kong's special status while claiming to support for Hong Kong's uniqueness and high degree of autonomy, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson noted that Hong Kong's success is underpinned by the strong support from the Chinese mainland and the united efforts by Hong Kong people and any external threat or coercion is futile and doomed to fail. The spokesperson emphasized that China has always provided necessary assistance to and support for foreign consular institutions in Hong Kong in performing their duties pursuant to law. At the same time, foreign consular institutions should also respect and abide by Hong Kong laws, including the national security law, and international law and basic norms governing international relations, and refrain from any behavior or activity of meddling with Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs as a whole, jeopardizing China's national security, or undermining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, the spokesperson said. Enditem Bill Hagerty, President Donald Trump's former ambassador to Japan, won the contentious Tennessee primary Thursday, securing the party's nomination in the safe red state. Hagerty had 52 percent of the vote, compared to 38 percent for physician Manny Sethi, when The Associated Press called the race. Hagerty, a former private-equity executive who became President Donald Trumps ambassador to Japan, had been the clear favorite in the primary after earning Trumps early support. But Sethi ran an insurgent bid that caught fire over the summer and turned a sleepy race into a competitive one. The primary was one of the last and biggest tests of Trumps sway over Republican voters this year. The president went all in to boost Hagerty from the very beginning of his campaign he endorsed Hagerty before he had even left Japan to enter the race, and stayed in touch as the race developed. Trump hosted two telephone calls with Hagerty supporters in the closing weeks of the race to encourage his base to turn out. Hes a Trump conservative. Hes a friend of mine. Hes a great guy, Trump said Wednesday night, on the eve of the primary. The candidates are running to replace Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who is retiring. Meanwhile, while Hagerty cruised to victory, the Democratic primary featured a massive upset. Marquita Bradshaw, an environmentalist and activist from Memphis, defeated James Mackler, an Army veteran endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Democrats do not expect to seriously contest Tennessee in the fall, and the DSCC was not actively involved in the primary after endorsing him in January. Mackler's defeat represents the first primary defeat for a DSCC-backed candidate in a decade. He raised $2.1 million for his bid through mid-July and spent $1.5 million. Bradshaw does not appear to have filed an FEC report since April, when she reported that she had raised $13,000 for the election to that point, and had spent $8,900. Story continues Hagerty fully embraced Trump and made that support central to his campaign. But Sethi ran provocative TV ads attacking liberals over Black Lives Matter and the lockdowns during the coronavirus surge earlier this year, aiming to appeal to the right-wing voters that make up Trumps base. He often included his support for Trump in his campaign ads, even as the president endorsed against him. Those ads helped boost his campaign, which continued to host large events into the summer despite the pandemic, and gave him a shot of adrenaline to make the race closer than initially expected. The back-and-forth got increasingly nasty in the closing stretch. Hagerty ran TV ads bashing Sethi over a small donation to a Democratic candidate more than a decade ago. He also consistently mispronounced Sethis name on the campaign trail and in ads. Sethi, meanwhile, repeatedly attacked Hagerty over his association with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a former Hagerty business associate. Sethi has implied that Romney endorsed Hagerty, though the Utah senator has not weighed in on the race. Hagerty repeatedly denounced Romney, the partys 2012 presidential nominee, on the campaign trail. The New York Times reported that Romneys PAC contributed to Hagerty, whose campaign cashed the check but then returned it in full and did not include it on FEC reports. The race drew in and divided national Republicans, in particular many who have potential 2024 presidential ambitions. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley endorsed Hagerty, along with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence; Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) endorsed Sethi. Republicans will be heavily favored to retain the seat in November: No Democrat has won a Senate election in Tennessee since Al Gore in 1990. Meanwhile, in East Tennessee, GOP voters chose pharmacist Diana Harshbarger to replace retiring Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), whose district is solidly Republican. Harshbarger defeated 15 other Republicans for the nomination. , We're sorry, this article is not currently available WASHINGTON - Postmaster General Louis DeJoy unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the nation's mail service, displacing the two top executives overseeing day-to-day operations, according to a reorganization memo released Friday. The shake-up came as congressional Democrats called for an investigation of DeJoy and the cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery and ensnared ballots in recent primary elections Twenty-three postal executives were reassigned or displaced, the new organizational chart shows. Analysts say the structure centralizes power around DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major ally of President Donald Trump, and de-emphasizes decades' worth of institutional postal knowledge. All told, 33 staffers included in the old postal hierarchy either kept their jobs or were reassigned in the restructuring, with five more staffers joining the leadership from other roles. The reshuffling threatens to heighten tensions between postal officials and lawmakers, who are troubled by delivery delays - the Postal Service banned employees from working overtime and making extra trips to deliver mail - and wary of the Trump administration's influence on the Postal Service as the coronavirus pandemic rages and November's election draws near. It also adds another layer to DeJoy's disputes with Democratic leaders, who have pushed him to rescind the cost-cutting directives that have caused days-long backlogs and steady the Postal Service in the run-up to the election. DeJoy clashed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., in a meeting on the issue earlier this week. Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., chair of the House subcommittee responsible for postal oversight, called the reorganization "a deliberate sabotage" to the nation's mail service and a "Trojan Horse." David Williams, formerly chief operating officer and executive vice president, will take the role of chief logistics and processing operations officer, a step down for a trusted adviser to former postmaster general Megan Brennan and members of the agency's governing board. Kevin McAdams, the vice president of delivery and retail operations and a 40-year USPS veteran, was not listed on the chart. It's not clear what the impact of all the changes will be. Dejoy wrote in an internal memo to employees obtained by The Washington Post that the new structure would create "clear lines of authority and accountability," but others are more skeptical. "One of the things that's led to a lot of head scratching is how some of these folks have been reassigned. We're not sure he put the right players in the right spots, but maybe he sees something we don't," said one person with deep knowledge of the leadership team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to give a candid assessment. "We're all going to wait and see and hope he's done the right things, but who knows? It looks as if most of the people we've all worked with for years and years are still there, just moved around." The Postal Service will implement a hiring freeze, according to the reorganization announcement, and will ask for voluntary early retirements. It also will realign into three "operating units" - retail and delivery, logistics and processing, and commerce and business solutions - and scale down from seven regions to four. The structure displaces postal executives with decades of experience, moving some to new positions and others out of leadership roles entirely, including McAdams, Williams and chief commerce and business solutions officer Jacqueline Krage Strako, who previously held the title of executive vice president and chief customer and marketing officer. "As I said in the video remarks released on my first day, 'I am decisive, and . . . when I see problems, I work to solve them.' Early on, I concluded that our organizational structure was just such a problem to solve," DeJoy wrote in his memo to employees. "I have decided we need to realign the organization to provide greater focus on the core aspects of our business and to give us a better chance for future success." But the changes worried postal analysts, who say the tone of DeJoy's first eight weeks and his restructuring have recast the nation's mail service as a for-profit arm of the government, rather than an essential service. "He keeps referring to the USPS as 'our business.' But he's been appointed postmaster general. You don't run a business," said Philip Rubio, a professor of history at North Carolina A&T State University and a former postal worker. "He's not accountable to shareholders. He's accountable to the American people and Congress." Earlier Friday, congressional Democrats demanded an investigation of DeJoy's cost-cutting initiatives, which postal workers blame for delivery slowdowns. A letter signed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and seven other Democrats, including Connolly, urged Postal Service Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb to examine how DeJoy, came to implement policies that prohibit postal workers from taking overtime or making extra trips to deliver mail on time, and how such delays specifically affect election mail. "Given the ongoing concerns about the adverse impacts of Trump Administration policies on the quality and efficiency of the Postal Service, we ask that you conduct an audit of all operational changes put in place by Mr. DeJoy and other Trump Administration officials in 2020," the letter states. It also asks Whitcomb to review the finances of DeJoy and his wife Aldona Wos, the ambassador-nominee to Canada. The couple's holdings include between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in assets in USPS competitors or contractors, according to a financial disclosure Wos filed with the Office of Government Ethics when she was nominated for the ambassadorship. Postal Service mail processing contractor XPO Logistics - which acquired DeJoy's company New Breed Logistics in 2014 - represents the vast majority of those holdings. Their combined stake in competitors UPS and trucking company J.B. Hunt is roughly $265,000. DeJoy had 30 days from taking over the agency to disclose any assets that present a conflict of interest, according to the Postal Service. DeJoy in a statement said he had "done what is necessary to ensure that I am and will remain in compliance with those obligations." "We would welcome the Inspector General to look into the steps we are taking to make the Postal Service more efficient," Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer said. "She will find that much of what we are doing is designed to address recommendations that her office has made in recent years." Agapi Doulaveris, a spokesperson for the Office of Inspector General, said the department had received the letter, but could not comment on ongoing work. "I would absolutely hope the inspector general would look into why the mail is being slowed, because that's outrageous," said Philip Rubio, a professor of history at North Carolina A&T State University and a former postal worker. "Especially during the pandemic and with America about to vote, this is the worst time to be changing policies." DeJoy met Wednesday with Pelosi, Schumer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to discuss the new mail-handling procedures and the Postal Service's tenuous financial position. The agency is projected to run out of money between March and October 2021, though it just accessed a $10 billion Treasury loan authorized last week in an early coronavirus relief package. During the USPS's quarterly board of governors meeting Friday, DeJoy said he negotiated the loan terms with Mnuchin. Upon accessing the loan, the Postal Service, subject to confidentiality restrictions, will hand over proprietary contracts for its 10 largest service agreements with private sector shippers. Those businesses use the mail service for "last mile" package delivery from distribution centers to consumers' homes or businesses. Mnuchin had sought sweeping operational control of the Postal Service in previous loan terms, including provisions that would allow the Trump administration to approve senior postal personnel decisions, service contracts with third-party shippers, collective bargaining negotiation strategies and high package prices. In April shortly after Congress authorized the loan, Trump called the Postal Service "a joke" and said he would not approve any emergency funding unless the USPS quadrupled package delivery prices, a move analysts say would quickly bankrupt the agency by chasing away customers to private-sector competitors. DeJoy, at the governors meeting Friday, said that though he has a "good relationship" with Trump - he's donated more than $2 million to the Trump campaign or Republican causes since 2016, and chaired the finance committee for the 2020 GOP convention - he does not take direction from Trump on postal issues. "While I certainly have a good relationship with the President of the United States, the notion that I would ever make decisions concerning the Postal Service at the direction of the President, or anyone else in the administration, is wholly off-base," he said. "I serve at the pleasure of the governors of the Postal Service, a group that is bipartisan by statute and that will evaluate my performance in a nonpartisan fashion." Coronavirus funding for the Postal Service - and Schumer and Pelosi's demand that DeJoy roll back the cost-cutting policies - emerged as a sticking point between Democrats and the White House in negotiations on a "Phase IV" relief package. The House passed a package with $25 billion for the Postal Service that does not need to be repaid to replace the Treasury loan. The Trump administration has objected to any direct aid to the Postal Service. Vallejo officials said Friday they will seek a change of venue and a court order silencing the attorneys and any affiliated parties connected to the police killing of Sean Monterrosa, whose family filed a wrongful death suit on Thursday. The Vallejo city attorneys office issued a statement calling for the change of venue as well as a gag order in the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Sacramento. Vallejo city officials did not immediately clarify who they meant in referring to affiliated parties. The City will seek a fair trial with an uncompromised jury, and that may not be possible in the Bay Area or the Sacramento area, given the extensive negative media coverage on this case. After the City is served with the official complaint, we intend to seek a change of venue outside of the Bay Area (and Sacramento), the statement read. The jury pool in the local and surrounding areas has been debased by inflammatory and sensationalized media statements given by the plaintiff's attorneys in this case. On Thursday, Monterrosas family, represented by civil rights attorney John Burris, filed a lawsuit alleging that the officer who fatally shot Monterrosa was panicked and did not warn Monterrosa that he would use lethal force before opening fire from the back seat of a pickup. The Vallejo Police Officers Association was granted a temporary restraining order to withhold the officers identity, but the lawsuit identifies the officer as Jarrett Tonn. During a news conference Thursday, Burris called the officer a trigger-happy officer and potentially a homicidal officer. Burris also alleged that the Vallejo Police Officers Association tried to cover up the officers misconduct by claiming Monterrosa was crouching in a tactical shooting position, and grabbed an object in his waistband that appeared to be the butt of a handgun. Police Chief Shawny Williams initially said Monterrosa was on his knees and raising his arms, revealing what appeared to be the butt of a handgun when he was shot, but later amended the description of events leading up to the shooting that matches the police unions, saying that he was clarifying the previous narrative. Burris told The Chronicle on Friday that the announcement by the city attorneys office was ridiculous. He said city officials cannot arbitrarily seek to silence attorneys and take away their First Amendment rights just because you dont like the message that they are giving. I can understand them wanting to cut off the messenger. They want to destroy the message itself now, but this is the wrong thing to do, Burris said. Come to court, and bring your best evidence, and well bring ours, and well fight it out from there. Burris said he does not know who city officials are referring to when they said they intend to include affiliated parties in a protective order. He also said he expects it will not be easy to change the venue. They will have to put forth evidence to show why they think that the Eastern District (of California), which is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles, doesnt have jurors who could be fair and partial despite the publicity, Burris 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. Monterrosa, a 22-year-old San Francisco resident, was shot to death on June 2 on a night when demonstrations over racial injustice and police brutality against Black people took place across the Bay Area. Monterrosa was outside a Walgreens, where police had responded to reports of people stealing merchandise. The officer fired five rounds from a rifle through the windshield of an unmarked police pickup, one of which struck Monterrosa, who was on his knees or crouching at the time. Police said the officer mistook a hammer in Monterrosas sweatshirt as a firearm. Vallejo police could not be reached for comment on Friday. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced in late July that the state Department of Justice will investigate the Police Departments subsequent replacement and destruction of the windshield. Lauren Hernandez and Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com and mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByLHernandez @ctuan A general view of apartment complexes in Seoul, Aug. 7, 2020. Reuters When she was young, Jo Eun-bit loved to lose herself in the forests and mountains around her home on the outskirts of Seoul. She would seek comfort in the company of trees, which she would talk to as though they were neighbors or close friends. But over the years, Jo, an ecological farmer and teacher, has watched as her rural neighborhood of Daeyami in the city of Gunpo has become, bit by bit, more like the Seoul metropolis, 27 kilometers to the north. Dirt roads have been made into paved highways. Apartment complexes have risen skyward. And a tunnel was bored through a nearby mountain. Now Jo and other residents are fighting to stop a development project that aims to build 5,000 public housing units on more than 600,000 square meters of land, the vast majority of which, or 88.2 percent, are development-restricted areas in the country's greenbelt. The residents fear the potential negative effects of the project, scheduled for completion in 2023, on local agriculture and ecosystems, as well as on endangered species like the narrow-mouthed frog, or "maengkkongi" in Korean. "The role of the greenbelt is to preserve the environment," Jo said. "If we remember what the role of the greenbelt is, then we can't get rid of it." The conflict between residents and developers in Daeyami is indicative of the problems environmentalists see with the government's current greenbelt policy, which they view as too quick to accommodate development rather than protect natural areas. The issue came to the fore earlier this summer as real estate prices, high to begin with, skyrocketed in the capital, damaging the approval ratings of President Moon Jae-in and the ruling party. Eager to cool the overheated market, the government floated the possibility of releasing greenbelt land for the construction of new homes in order to increase supply. The proposal proved divisive, even among the ruling bloc, with the Seoul Metropolitan Government objecting to any change to its longtime policy of preserving what it sees as valuable green space. Moon, responding quickly to the growing controversy, publicly rejected the easing of greenbelt restrictions in Seoul, July 20, the same day that Realmeter released a poll showing that about 60 percent of all Koreans disapproved of the plan. But while the President's decision settled the matter for the time being, the fate of the greenbelt remains uncertain over the long term, with experts saying the government's policy is liable to change should the political winds shift in response to growing development pressures or economic crises. A day after Moon's announcement, activists representing 29 environmental and civic groups, including Green Korea and Lawyers for a Democratic Society, held a demonstration in front of Cheong Wa Dae to call on the government to develop a greenbelt policy that prioritizes the sustainability of the country's land and cities. They held up a banner demanding that the administration "not use the pretext of supply expansion to damage even a single pyeong of the greenbelt," using a Korean unit equal to about 3.3 square meters. The environmentalists' uncompromising demand put them at odds with some urban planners, who advocate a more flexible approach to greenbelt management. Jun Myung-jin, a professor of urban planning at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, said he supports the retention of the capital's greenbelt because of the scarcity of such natural areas and the value they bring to the city. But he framed this as having the inevitable downside of limiting the amount of land available for development in a city packed with almost 10 million people, as the greenbelt takes up about 25 percent of Seoul's total area. "I think even though the greenbelt has lots of amenities, like a natural environment and mitigating air pollution and the heat island effect, we are enjoying that kind of benefit at the cost of higher housing prices," Jun said. "There is a tradeoff between those issues." One possible solution, in Jun's view, would be to ease restrictions on some protected land in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, which contains around three-quarters of the greenbelt in the Seoul metropolitan area. Though much of it is mountainous and not developable, the greenbelt also includes agricultural land, some of it covered with greenhouses, that Jun argued could be developed without causing significant environmental harm. The goal, he said, should not just be to build more homes but to address the large mismatch between housing and jobs, as central Seoul is home to about 39 percent of the capital area's total population but around 47 percent of all jobs. The situation is in part a consequence of the greenbelt's layout, which is shaped like a 10-km wide donut surrounding Seoul. The design, established in the early 1970s by the authoritarian government of President Park Chung-hee, aimed at limiting the expansion of Seoul at a time when the city was undergoing rapid population growth. Instead, as the inner city became denser, new developments also sprang up in surrounding areas beyond the greenbelt, a phenomenon known as "leapfrog" development that has contributed to urban sprawl, according to experts. With businesses seeking to remain in Seoul to enjoy the economic benefits of proximity to other firms, workers, priced out of the city's real estate market, have had to relocate to such cheaper housing in the suburbs. This dislocation contributes to increased commuting costs totaling hundreds of millions of dollars per year or more when including the value of travel time, according to estimates by Jun and other scholars. The professor suggested that using greenbelt areas to build new planned developments such as Pangyo, a high-tech industrial complex in Seongnam, south of Seoul, could contribute to the "suburbanization" of jobs and help alter the current dynamic driving high land and housing prices. "We have to think about this kind of opportunity cost to keeping this area intact, and on the other side, it's developing this kind of area for the younger generation and low income people, with public housing," he said. Any relaxation of greenbelt areas would continue a process that began when liberal President Kim Dae-jung took power in 1998. At that time, Kim, who was supported by greenbelt landowners frustrated at their inability to develop land in the restricted areas, embarked on reform of the system, which had been strictly maintained for nearly 30 years. The reforms led to the release of 1,507 square kilometers of greenbelt nationwide by 2011, a 28 percent decrease in the total area, with 144 square kilometers released in the Seoul metropolitan area. Further relaxation has taken place under subsequent administrations, albeit at a slower pace. Gyeonggi Province lost 6 square kilometers of greenbelt from 2017-2019 after Moon took office, government statistics show. Despite the slowdown, the importance of setting aside land in heavily urbanized South Korea has only increased in light of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, according to Youn Yeo-chang, a professor of forestry at Seoul National University. Some experts posit that urbanization has contributed to the global spread of such diseases. He noted also that protected areas account for only 12 percent of all land in the country, a number far short of the United Nations' target of 30 percent under its Sustainable Development Goals. Echoing environmentalist groups, Youn suggested that the responsibility for its management should be transferred from the Ministry of Land and Transportation to the Ministry of Environment. "Relying on political leaders' decisions is not very secure," he said. "I think we have to make a more fundamental backup plan to increase the public's awareness about an ecosystem services' function, and also a new structure of government that's controlling the greenbelt, not as a means of urban planning but as a means of safeguarding urban society." In Daeyami, what Jo characterized as widespread opposition to the proposed construction has not been enough to stop the local government and the Korea Land and Housing Corp. from pushing ahead with development. Residents remain in the dark about the project's future, with little voice in the process, according to Jo. She said that an environmental effects assessment released last year failed to provide adequate countermeasures to address residents' concerns. "When we think about a post-coronavirus pandemic world, then we need to recognize what the most important things are, what is most important to our lives," she said. The loud croaking of narrow-necked frogs punctuated her remarks, evidence that, at least for now, something of Daeyami's rural character remains. (Yonhap) Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. speaks before a convocation at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., on Nov. 28, 2018. (Steve Helber/AP Photo) Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. Placed on Indefinite Leave The executive committee of Liberty Universitys board of trustees voted to place Jerry Falwell Jr., the colleges president, on indefinite leave after a photograph of him with a woman was posted online. The committee, acting on behalf of the full board, met today and requested that Jerry Falwell Jr. take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University, to which he has agreed, effective immediately, Liberty University said in a statement. Falwell Jr. agreed to take the leave of absence. Liberty University is a private Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. Falwell Jr. became president in 2007, succeeding his late father, Rev. Jerry Falwell. Falwell Jr. recently posted a picture on Instagram showing him with a woman who was not his wife. Both he and the woman had their midriffs exposed and their pants unbuttoned. More vacation shots, Falwell Jr. wrote in the caption. Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. The university president later deleted the photograph. Ive apologized to everybody, and Ive promised my kids Im going to try to be a good boy from here on out, Falwell told WLNI, a radio station. The woman, who is pregnant, is his wifes assistant, he added, describing the picture as in good fun. Shes a sweetheart and I should never have put it up and embarrassed her, he said. Falwell received harsh criticism from some quarters over the picture. If youre running the largest Christian university in America maybe dont put photos of yourself on social media with your pants undone on a yacht with random women in bad wigs. So gross, so hypocritical, Meghan McCain, the daughter of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and host on The View, wrote on Twitter. Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) called Falwell Jr.s behavior appalling. Walker, who is an advisory board member and former Liberty instructor, called for Falwell to step down. After Liberty announced the leave of absence, Walker said he was praying for the Falwells. Liberty is such an important institution to our nation, our next generation of leaders & faith. The Liberty family impacts the world every day for things that are good and righteous, he said in a social media statement, adding: I pray for Jerry Jr. and the Falwells, and I take solace in the Christian principle that forgiveness and redemption is available to all. A police dog has proven his prowess on his very first day on the force by locating a missing mother and her 1-year-old child on the edge of a ravine on the mountainside. The pair had spent two days lost in the vast countryside of rural Wales in the United Kingdom. Police Constable Peter Lloyd and Dyfed Powys Police dog Max found the mom and her baby safe, but cold. The search team was tipped off as to the womans whereabouts when her car was found on a mountain road in Powys, Wales, according to a press release. Police Constable Peter Lloyd pictured with his K-9, PD Max (Dyfed-Powys Police) Lloyd and PD Max, a 2-year-old German shepherd cross, were assisted by the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team and a police helicopter. The dog and his handler successfully located the mother and her infant on Aug. 1 a few hours after a missing person report was made. The womans cell phone was not receiving calls, and she had not been seen or spoken to in two days, arousing concern. Response officers, neighborhood policing teams, and specialist search officers visited the womans home and attempted to retrace her steps. Fortunately, they found her car and advanced their search into a vast area of the Powys countryside, including a small reservoir and woodland. The vast rural landscape of Powys in Wales, United Kingdom (Screenshot/Google Maps) This is where PD Maxs tracking skills really came into play, Inspector Jonathan Rees-Jones explained. Despite only recently becoming licensed, he immediately commenced an open area search. After 90 minutes in the countryside, the pair spotted the mother waving for help on the edge of a steep ravine. Both she and her baby were helped down by mountain rescue and checked by the Mountain Rescue doctor after overcoming an overnight ordeal. The isolated mountain roads of rural Powys in Wales, United Kingdom (Screenshot/Google Maps) [The mom and baby] were safe, but cold, said Rees-Jones, and appeared to have been in the area for a significant amount of time. This was a fantastic coordinated and determined team effort from everyone involved. The inspector then gave a special shout-out to Lloyd and Max, who both excelled on what was their very first operational day since completing training together. Notably, Lloyd only joined the police departments dog section in February this year. Newly licensed Heddlu Dyfed Powys Police dog Max (Dyfed-Powys Police) Heddlu Dyfed Powys Police then took to Facebook to share Lloyd and Maxs triumphant first day, with a snap of the handler and his K-9 alongside the caption, Well done Max. Comments from netizens offered hearty congratulations, including, Fantastic job done, and, Perfect workmanship. According to the press release by the police department, Max is actually a general purpose police dog who has been trained to track and locate people inside buildings and outdoors, track and detain suspects, and trace discarded property. I was really pleased that during our first deployment as a dog team, myself and Max were able to safely locate the missing mother and baby, Lloyd shared. Max remained focused throughout the long search and he proved invaluable. We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc BBC Northern Ireland has issued an apology for broadcasting a clip of a member of the public calling coronavirus a "conspiracy". Shown on Thursday's BBC Newsline, the comment was made during a report on an outbreak of the virus in Newcastle, Co Down. After a formal complaint was made to the BBC, the clip has been removed, with an apology issued for not challenging the controversial view in the report. PUP councillor John Kyle, who has a background as a GP, said airing such views could be misleading and hurtful to those who have lost loved ones to coronavirus. "People who believe in conspiracy theories will jump to the conclusion that this is a conspiracy," he told the Belfast Telegraph. "But I think there is overwhelming evidence that this is a serious and life-threatening infection for some people, even though others will only have minor symptoms. "I think to pretend otherwise is to deceive yourself and put you and others at serious risk." Asked about the clip being broadcast on prime time, he said: "I think it is upsetting to people who have lost family members from Covid-19 infection. "Views like that have the potential to be dangerously misleading but I do commend the BBC for acting so promptly to remove the clip." A BBC spokesperson said: "The inclusion of this clip was an error of judgment and it was removed from later bulletins and from the BBC Newsline Facebook page. "The BBC is a platform for engagement and debate, but ideas which fall outside the scientific mainstream should be scrutinised and challenged, which did not happen in this instance." A letter of apology was also issued by BBC Northern Ireland's head of news, Adam Smyth, in response to the complaint. In the letter, Mr Smyth said the BBC's editorial guidelines in this area have been "reinforced with news teams". Newcastle was the scene of a major Covid-19 cluster in recent days. Three businesses in the town reported outbreaks of the virus among staff this week. One of the businesses Kent Amusements, located on the Central Promenade, announced on social media it was closing until further notice. A Covid-19 testing unit has been opened at St Mary's Primary School in Newcastle. Local Sinn Fein MP Chris Hazzard welcomed the move. He said: "I am encouraging anyone in the Newcastle area who has developed COVID-19 symptoms to avoid contact with others and to urgently get tested for the virus." (Newser) It's been a bad week for Mexican tourism promotion, and it got worse Friday when the English-language version of the countrys tourism website appeared with hilarious mis-translations, per the AP. The Caribbean resort of Tulum somehow became Jumpsuit" on VisitMexico.com. The central Mexican town of Aculco became I Blame, and the northern Gulf coast city of Ciudad Madero became Log. Entire states like Hidalgo and Guerrero got translated into Noble and Warrior. The lagoon of Bacalar, on the Caribbean coast, was switched to the Gulf coast state of Tabasco. The snafus came one day after the US State Department cited the high number of COVID-19 cases in Mexico for issuing a do not travel advisory for the country, its highest level of warning. story continues below Hours earlier, the resort of Acapulco was forced to pull anything goes tourism ads that showed people partying without masks and the words there are no rules. The problems at VisitMexico.com, meanwhile, drew howls of hilarityand anger. Some name changes were just inexplicable and appeared to have as much to do with invention as simple translation. Stop making Mexico look ridiculous! former President Felipe Calderon wrote in his Twitter account. Mexico's Tourism Department issued a statement apologizing for the apparently out-sourced errors and said a criminal complaint would be filed, though it did not elaborate on the criminal allegations. Local media reported the dispute might involve a web services supplier angry about not being paid. (Read more Mexico stories.) Beijing, Aug 8 : At least 31 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the Chinese mainland in the last 24 hours, taking the total caseload in the country to 84,596, health authorities said on Saturday. Of the 31 new cases, 25 were locally-transmitted and all reported in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xinhua news agency quoted the National Health Commission as saying. On Friday, six new imported cases were also reported -- two in Shanghai and one each in the provinces of Zhejiang, Shandong, Hubei and Guangdong. So far, a total of 2,126 imported cases have been reported on the mainland. According to the commission, 14 new asymptomatic cases, including six from outside the mainland, were reported, and no asymptomatic cases were re-categorized as confirmed ones. The country's death toll stood at 4,634. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) One person died in a plane crash during a major Portuguese-Spanish joint fire-fighting operation in the Peneda-Geres National Park, northern Portugal, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa, Trend reports citing Xinhua. The deceased was identified as a 65-year-old Portuguese air pilot. Another occupant of the "Canadair CL215" amphibious tanker was seriously injured after the fall in the northern region of Lindoso. The injured, the second pilot, is a 39-year-old man of Spanish nationality. He was attended on the spot and then transported to a local hospital, said Lusa. Portugal's National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) said in a press release that the plane suffered an accident near the Alto do Lindoso Dam during a "scooping operation," which is the refueling of the water tank. According to ANEPC, the fire-fighting operation has mobilized more than 100 people, 28 vehicles, and ten Portuguese and Spanish fire planes. The fire alert reportedly came from the Portuguese side shortly after 5:00 a.m. local time on Saturday. When Stanford University notified graduate student Tyler Benster in May that hed have a new roommate Aug. 24, his first question was whether the person would be tested for the coronavirus prior to moving in. Over the summer, Benster traded emails with housing coordinators asking them to place him in a unit by himself to minimize his risk of contracting COVID-19. The university said his concerns were valid, but Benster still doesnt know if he will have a new roommate. We have not been able to get information, which is just completely inappropriate and honestly unethical, he said. Benster said hes really disappointed because he feels that graduate students are being neglected in Stanfords COVID-19 response when it comes to housing. Benster is not alone in questioning whether the university one of the richest and most prestigious in the country is properly addressing coronavirus concerns among graduate students. So far, more than 300 graduate students have signed an open letter to the university president and other top officials calling for periodic testing throughout the semester and isolation options for students awaiting test results. Josie Lepe / Special to the Chronicle Fall semester starts Sept. 14, when about half of Stanfords undergraduates will start returning to campus in phases. Each quarter will include different sets of undergraduate students. A phased plan is not in place for graduate students. Undergraduates will be tested twice during their first week of campus, and those who test positive will be isolated in housing that limits exposure to other community members. In the fall quarter last year, nearly 7,000 undergraduate students and nearly 8,000 graduate students were enrolled at the university. While the university has a specific testing and quarantining plan for when undergraduates return to campus, graduate students say there is no uniformity in plans for them. The graduate students fears arise as universities throughout the world prepare for a new school year during unprecedented times. There is no playbook on how to resume classes during a global health crisis. Health experts say universities are making up a plan as they go and that it wont be perfect. The university has not confronted this problem before, said John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley. Its a great experiment because we dont have any precedent for this. All of the efforts are directed towards mitigation because youre not going to be perfect in terms of preventing students from getting infected. The focus for universities preparing for a new school year is on how to mitigate the virus, Swartzberg said. A mitigation plan includes testing students several times within the first week of arrival, which Stanford said its requiring. But Swartzberg said quarantining students separately is also key in containing widespread outbreaks. Students should be quarantined for 14 days or seven days if they also take a test. That doesnt appear to be happening at Stanford for graduate students. Youre not quarantining if youre mixing people who are in quarantine with people who are not, Swartzberg said. Quarantine implies that youre removed from other people. After The Chronicle inquired about a plan for graduate students, the university sent out testing guidelines Thursday. Stanford shared the guidelines with The Chronicle but did not respond to follow-up questions. Arriving graduate students are required to be tested twice the first week if they are coming from outside Northern California. Current graduate students on campus will not have to be tested. Once arriving students are tested, graduate students with shared apartments are asked to practice physical distancing and staggered use of essential spaces. The university also recommended face coverings in common spaces within an apartment. Students say the guidelines dont address their concerns about having to share a bathroom and other common areas as they await test results. In their open letter, the students said, the guidelines still fail to address our central concerns: isolation of new students in separate housing while awaiting testing results; repeated testing for all graduate students during the semester; and a campus compact only promised at a later date even as students continue to arrive on campus. They also said, And it is out of step with other institutions, including Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Cornell University, and the University of Illinois, that are isolating newly arrived students during this period. The students concerns come as Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County health officer, said this week that the virus has not slowed down. The county has 11,336 positive cases and 196 deaths, with a 34% week-over-week increase in cases. Its very much a threat and its circulating widely in our community, Cody said at a news conference on Wednesday. Each of us needs to do everything we can to bring it under control. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The same day as Codys news conference, Santa Clara University, nearly 20 miles away from Stanford, suspended on-campus housing with some exceptions and moved undergraduates to a fully remote fall semester, citing a recent surge in coronavirus cases throughout the Bay Area. Harvard University announced last month that undergraduate and graduate students living on campus will be tested every three days. At Cornell University, students will be tested upon arrival and moved into a residence hall or hotel to wait for their results. Students, faculty and staff will have to participate in surveillance testing throughout the fall semester. Photos by Josie Lepe / Special to the Chronicle Stanfords graduate students say the universitys latest announcement is too late, as graduate students have begun moving onto campus, and it doesnt address all of their worries. Gitanjali Bhattacharjee, a Ph.D. candidate at Stanfords civil and environmental engineering department, currently lives in an apartment with two bathrooms, allowing her to safely distance from her roommate. But on Sept. 1, she and her roommate will be forced to move into a smaller apartment with one bathroom, making safe distancing impossible. I find it incredibly stressful, Ive been debating whether to move back in with my parents, she said. I dont really know what the benefit is to be on campus at this point given all the risks and lack of strategy to handle them. While the California Department of Public Health released guidance Friday on resuming in-person college classes, they are broad when it comes to housing, saying that institutions should prioritize single-room occupancy housing. The plans also call for colleges to create a campus-specific COVID-19 prevention plan, and place seating and desks at least 6 feet apart. Alex Sherman, a graduate student studying English, lives in a small two-bedroom apartment with no living room, one bathroom, a kitchen and hallways that are about 3 feet wide. One bedroom is empty. Sherman doesnt know whether he will have a new roommate. If he does, he is concerned it will be impossible to physically distance from another person in the apartment as they wait for test results. If a future roommate tests positive, Sherman said, I would get (the virus), too. Its extremely stressful, he said of the universitys current plans. Its just a flagrant disregard for my health. It feels incredibly reckless for the whole community. Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani Harrowing audio of the Triple Zero call that saved surfing legend Andrew 'Andy Mac' McKinnon's life when he suffered a heart attack has been released. His distraught wife Megan is heard on a call to paramedics on July 15, after she noticed her husband was sweating profusely and getting shooting chest pains. The pair had been enjoying a cup of tea in their Gold Coast, Queensland, home when McKinnon began to experience a pain in his chest he described as 'an elephant sitting on my chest'. Ms McKinnon begged her husband to stay alive, tearfully pleading 'no, you're not going, you're not dying'. Harrowing audio of the Triple Zero call that saved surfing legend Andrew 'Andy Mac' McKinnon's (pictured with wife Megan) life when he suffered a heart attack has been released 'He has gone pale, he is sweating and his chest has gone tight. He is finding it hard to breath,' Mrs McKinnon is heard telling the operator. Her voice broke when she gave her name to the Tripe Zero worker, who asked her to stay calm for the sake of her husband, and told her help was on the way. 'Andrew, there is an ambulance on its way. Stay with me, Andrew, stay with me darling. The ambulance is coming,' Mrs McKinnon could be heard telling her husband. 'Stay with me. No, you're not going. You're not dying. Stay with me. 'Don't do this to me, I need you.' McKinnon's muffled voice could be heard telling his wife that he loved her. 'I love you too. Stay with me, oh please stay with me. The ambulance is coming,' Mrs McKinnon could be heard pleading with her husband. McKinnon (pictured) a local surfing legend had been enjoying a cup of tea at home with his wife when his chest began to feel tight Paramedics then arrived at the home of the former longboard champion and determined he was having a heart attack. McKinnon was rushed to Gold Coast University Hospital while he received a stent to open up the vessels in his heart after quick-thinking paramedics alerted doctors on their way in. The surfing legend was later told his case was 'textbook' and he was lucky to be alive following the heart attack. He has spent the last four weeks recovering at home but wanted to thank those involved in saving his life. McKinnon (pictured, right) and Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles (left) commended those involved in the life-saving operation Steven Miles, Deputy Premier and Minister for Health and Ambulance Services, said there was a seamless transition from the ambulance to the hospital for the cardiac care needed. 'Andy's story highlights and celebrates the achievements the QAS and Queensland Health staff have made together to enable the best possible outcome for patients suffering a heart attack,' Deputy Premier Miles said. 'Eight of our public hospitals in Queensland offer this service to their community which has gradually increased since the inception of the pre-hospital reperfusion program for Advanced Care Paramedics in 2016.' Chris Draper, QAS Acting Assistant Commissioner Gold Coast Local Ambulance Service Network, said the paramedics did an excellent job by pre-warning the hospital of McKinnon's condition. 'The recognition and quick treatment of heart attack patients by paramedics is something we are proud of and continually working to improve,' Mr Draper said. 'It is great to see Andy under better circumstances and to recognise the lifesaving work of our crews.' You are here: Arts A total of 1,233 online meetings for film and TV companies at home and abroad were held to boost cooperation during the recent Shanghai film and TV festivals. The online activity, dubbed "cloud market," was part of the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival, which closed on Aug. 2, and the 26th Shanghai TV Festival, which closed on Friday. The cloud market was aimed at facilitating communication and transactions among film and TV companies amid the COVID-19 epidemic. The activity attracted about 240,000 registered visits, its organizer said on Thursday. Many foreign companies, such as Japanese movie studio and production company Shochiku, signed agreements through online meetings, while several Chinese companies made arrangements with foreign exhibitors regarding the export of their film and TV programs. Online exhibitions were also held to present the latest films and TV programs. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-09 00:53:58|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Protesters try to storm the parliament building in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 8, 2020. A Lebanese police officer was killed and 142 people were injured on Saturday in clashes during protests against the ruling class in downtown Beirut, days after massive explosions rocked the Lebanese capital that killed at least 158 and injured 6,000 others, LBCI TV channel reported. (Photo by Bilal Jawich/Xinhua) BEIRUT, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- A Lebanese police officer was killed and 142 people were injured on Saturday in clashes during protests against the ruling class in downtown Beirut, days after massive explosions rocked the Lebanese capital that killed at least 158 and injured 6,000 others, LBCI TV channel reported. Demanding an overhaul of the Lebanese political system, the protesters were trying to break into the parliament, prompting security forces to use tear gas to disperse them. The protesters threw stones at security forces and tried to remove barbed wires in an attempt to get closer to the parliament. Protesters succeeded in breaking into the offices of the Foreign Ministry and the Economy Ministry. Two huge explosions rocked Port of Beirut on Tuesday at around 6:10 p.m. local time (1510 GMT), shaking buildings all over the capital city. Primary information reveals that ammonium nitrate that has been stored in the warehouse at Port of Beirut since 2014 may have caused the deadly explosions. WASHINGTON Sounding the alarm from behind a curtain of classification, lawmakers briefed on U.S. intelligence have been practically begging the Trump administration to make public information about ongoing 2020 election meddling, even before the U.S. intelligence communitys startling new assessment. Now that the administration has taken a step in that direction, some of those same lawmakers are insisting theyve viewed far more intelligence that must be declassified and soon, so voters can protect themselves ahead of an election just three months away. We believe more of the information that was made available in these briefings can, and at the appropriate time should, be shared with the voting public, Sens. Marco Rubio and Mark Warner, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senates intelligence panel, said in a joint statement. They urged the administration to share with the voting public as much information about foreign threats to our elections as possible. The public assessment late Friday from U.S. counterintelligence chief William Evanina framed foreign election meddling as a threat to both presidential candidates, emphasizing that China and Iran want President Donald Trump to lose re-election. But it was the assessment that Russia is working to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden that spoke directly to what members of Congress had been trying to get into the public domain especially when it comes to Andriy Derkach, the pro-Russian member of Ukrainian parliament who Evanina said is spreading claims about corruption to taint Joe Biden and Democrats. Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trumps candidacy on social media and Russian television, the assessment added. All 535 members of the House and Senate have access to some sensitive information, including U.S. intelligence, not available to the general public. The Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers and their top members on the intelligence committees, known collectively as the Gang of Eight, are privy to even more highly classified information that can only be viewed in a special secure facility. Story continues Disclosing classified information without authorization, even if someone believes its in the national interest, is a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. While Congress is often blamed for national security leaks, lawmakers are generally careful not to cross over into classified territory when they speak publicly. Senator Mark Warner speaks to the media at the Capitol on July 16, 2018. (Leah Millis / Reuters file) So when threats emerge that lawmakers feel the public needs to know about, often the best they can do is sound the alarm in vague and general terms in hopes it triggers enough public pressure and media attention to force the government to go public. Such was the case last year when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., went public with the fact that the Trump administration was withholding a whistleblower complaint, without disclosing what the underlying complaint was about. It turned out to center on Trumps notorious call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In this case, Democratic lawmakers have been warning for weeks with growing urgency about what they allege is a foreign plot to launder disinformation through Congress to influence the election. In public hearings and TV interviews and written statements, the lawmakers have alluded strongly to a Russian plot and pleaded with Trumps Cabinet members to make more information public, while pointedly noting they themselves couldnt say more. I know other colleagues have made reference to it, but over the past few days we have received classified briefings about the continuing, absolutely shocking and startling threats from malign foreign interference in our elections that is potentially ongoing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. It's absolutely chilling, based on the facts we received in a classified setting. Last month, the four Democrats on the Gang of Eight wrote the FBI director asking for a defensive briefing for all lawmakers. Although the public portion of their letter didnt go into detail, they included a classified addendum that several congressional aides said made reference to an ongoing investigation by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis. Johnson, a Trump ally, has been leading one of two GOP Senate investigations involving Biden and his son, Hunter, that Democrats allege are attempts to smear the former vice president ahead of the election. Derkach, the Ukrainian lawmaker, has been circulating questionable materials he says implicate Bidens son in corruption in Ukraine, an unproven claim the Bidens have long denied. Derkach, who studied at a Russian spy academy and has worked on anti-Biden efforts with Rudy Giuliani, has said publicly that hes sent packets of information to Johnson and other Republican offices on Capitol Hill. Johnson, for his part, insists hes not spreading Russian disinformation and that he carefully vets his sources. But Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week, brought up secret audio recordings of Biden and a former Ukrainian president that Derkach somehow obtained and publicized. When Murphy asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the hearing whether Derkach should be viewed as a credible source of information, Pompeo demurred, even when Murphy implored him not to withhold information about malign election influence. If, when it's appropriate, I will, Pompeo said. When there's still work ongoing, and there's still unsettled intelligence around these things, I'm going to try to be just a little bit more careful, senator. One week later, the public assessment from Evanina, who directs the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center, indicated the intelligence was no longer unsettled. Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics For example, pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption including through publicizing leaked phone calls to undermine former Vice President Bidens candidacy and the Democratic Party, Evanina said in his latest update to the public about 2020 meddling attempts. Yet lawmakers briefed in a classified setting on meddling efforts are insisting even the new public assessment keeps American voters largely in the dark in the campaigns final months. Schiff and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the public needs specific information that would allow voters to appraise for themselves the respective threats posed by these foreign actors, and distinguish these actors different and unequal aims, current actions, and capabilities. We hope and expect that the Intelligence Community will be even more forthcoming with the public moving forward, the Democratic lawmakers said. LANSING, MI Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden recently met with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Whitmer traveled to Delaware last weekend to meet with Biden in his first known in-person session with a potential vice presidential running mate, according to the Associated Press. Whitmer visited Biden Sunday, Aug. 2, according to two high-ranking Michigan Democrats who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Whitmer has been on Bidens short list of possible running mates. Flight records show a chartered plane left Lansings Capital Region International Airport for Delaware Coastal Airport at 5:33 p.m. and returned at 11:16 p.m., the AP reports. Both Bidens and Whitmers people declined to comment, the AP reports. Biden has said he will choose a woman as his running mate. If Biden selects Whitmer and Biden then wins the presidency, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II would become Michigans governor, and also the countrys only Black governor. Biden and Whitmer formed a bond after he campaigned for her in the 2018 gubernatorial election. She is a co-chair of his presidential campaign. Read more: Whitmer order creates council to tackle Michigans food insecurity problem Whitmer extends coronavirus state of emergency through Friday, Sept. 4 Whitmer and Trump have different ideas about if and how to reopen schools. But in Michigan, plans are ultimately local. Colin Murphy's potted version of Hamlet, running at 46 minutes, covers a lot of dramatic ground. Most of the action is there, just sped up substantially. Set in an alternative contemporary Derry, the show combines Murphy's docudrama instinct, honed on his factual plays, with the fantastic aspects of contemporary speculative dystopian fiction. Murphy wades bravely into Shakespeare's poetic idiom with some Lin-Manuel Miranda style rhyming of his own: pairing "accuse" with "fake news"; "Derry" with "make merry"; and off-rhyming "mirror up to nature" with "trolls and haters". A reminder that Tom Stoppard, too, developed his craft with cod-Shakespeare. The funky updating serves to underline how peculiarly modern Shakespeare's writing can often sound. Hamlet tweets: "That one may smile and smile and be a villain." Shakespeare would have been a boss on Twitter. The adaptation was written specifically for Stage Beyond, a Derry theatre company for adults with learning difficulties. The original Shakespearean language, alongside the Murphy pastiche, suits the actors' formal performance style well. Originally conceived and rehearsed as a live theatre show, the production migrated to RTE Radio 1 when the May stage run was Covid-cancelled. Kudos to RTE Radio Drama for picking it up. Conall Morrison directs what must have felt like a daunting task with a slick, technological touch. The production's alternative reality sci-fi feel is neatly buffed with plenty of audio effects, familiar to our ears from contemporary gaming. Si Schroeder's beguiling original electronic score adds particular charm. Oisin Kelly holds the play together as a troubled, millennial Hamlet, posting his soliloquys on his vlog, leading to public speculation about his mental health. The familiar voice of UTV presenter Paul Clark broadcasts on 'Derry News 24', filling in on plot updates. Patrick O'Kane's haunting tones as the ghost of Hamlet's father shimmer on the air. Alan Doherty's Guildenstern, with his electronic-enhanced voice, reminds us that technology is all around. For people who know their Shakespeare well, this adaptation is very funny, listening to how a thoroughly 2020 sensibility chops its way around the original 1600 material: the computer cloud is here referred to as a "congregation of vapours". For the tech literate, the play feels like a videogame with stylish archaic lingo. This is top-class work with an intellectual theatrical energy that is clever, original and totally infectious. The Happy Prince Irish Georgian Society Until Aug 15 To kick off their post lockdown return, Bewley's Cafe Theatre has revived this popular lunchtime show: a virtuoso performance of the Oscar Wilde children's story. Video of the Day Michael James Ford's innate stage presence is that of urbane authority; it feels like he may have been born in a tuxedo costume. But he then cuts against his own type with a charming and skittish embodiment of the heroic little swallow who defers his trip south to Egypt for the winter. The swallow flies about the city, helping the golden statue of the prince to distribute jewels and gold leaf from his ornate person to the poor. One of the poor is a playwright, which seems apt. Bairbre Ni Chaoimh directs this hugely appealing story with command and confidence. Violinist Denice Doyle performs a new accompaniment arranged by Philip Dodd, adding occasional musical sound effects. She also fills out crowd scenes; her winning presence adds theatrical heft and grace. The temporary venue of the Octagonal Exhibition Room at the Irish Georgian Society, with its curious collection of architectural details on the walls, provides an element of found design to the sweet fairy tale. This is a delightful 35 minutes, a moral story and a paean to goodness and charity. Presented with impeccable social distancing, it is a tonic for the times. Caroline Flack was 'being harassed by an ex-partner' which added to her stress during the court ordeal that led to her suicide, inquest documents have revealed. The former Love Island host, 40, had a stalker in the days running up to the court case following an assault on her boyfriend Lewis Burton. Flack was found dead at her flat in Stoke Newington, London, next to a note that read 'please let this court case be dropped', the day after she heard her trial would be going ahead. The harassment was adding to her stress and anxiety, according to a psychiatrist who assessed the star. The Crown Prosecution Service heard about Flack's worsening mental health in a medical report two months before she died on February 15. Caroline Flack , 40, had a stalker in the days running up to the court case following her assault on boyfriend Lewis Burton. Pictured leaving Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on December 23, 2019 Lawyers used the information to try to get her assault case thrown out but prosecutors said the harassment was a separate crime. Yesterday a Metropolitan Police spokesman said there was no record of a harassment allegation made by the star. Coroner Mary Hassell recorded a verdict of suicide and banned reporting the name of the perpetrator during the two-day inquest. She added that the harasser was not Burton, 28, during the hearing at Poplar's Coroner's Court in east London. The individual responsible was not called forward as a witness. After the hearing, which ended on Thursday, Caroline Flack's mother said police and prosecutors 'had it in for' the Love Island host. Flack was found dead at her flat in Stoke Newington, London, next to a note that read 'please let this court case be dropped', the day after she heard her trial would be going ahead. Pictured, Flack and her former boyfriend Lewis Burton in October 2019 She said officials pursued the court case that triggered her suicide because of her 'celebrity status'. Yesterday, Scotland Yard defended appealing the Crown Prosecution Service's original decision to caution her, a move that saw her then charged with assault. It went on to insist it had not had any contact with her since her first magistrates court appearance in December 23 last year. A spokesperson for the force told MailOnline: 'Given the nature of the alleged offence, a domestic abuse case, the police were required to send it to the CPS for a charging decision.' Flack was arrested in December after striking her boyfriend while he slept because she suspected he had cheated on her. Burton did not support the assault charge and did not co-operate with the prosecution. The former Love Island host (pictured in May 2019) was arrested in December after striking her boyfriend while he slept because she suspected he had cheated on her The CPS had originally decided to issue her with a caution, but the police officer in charge of the case Detective Inspector Lauren Bateman applied for a formal charge, which was then approved. In emotional exchanges during this week's inquest Flack's mother Christine blasted the senior Met Police officer. She pointed out officers found her at the crime scene with an injury caused by self-harm. Accusing DI Bateman of treating her more harshly due to her celebrity status, Mrs Flack told the inquest: 'She cut her arm. You were putting an appeal in to get her prosecuted, you never bothered to see her. 'If it had been... an ordinary person, you wouldn't have prosecuted. 'I see domestic abuse and I just think you should be disgusted with yourself so there is nothing we can do to bring Caroline back. I hope in hindsight you do regret this. This girl killed herself because you put an appeal through.' Earlier in the hearing DI Batemen had insisted she had not treated the presenter any differently because she was famous and would not change her decisions. Eric Metaxas responds to Bible burning: Freedom is impossible without values we got from the Bible Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Too many Americans have forgotten that freedom in the U.S. is "utterly impossible" without the values that come from the Bible, said Eric Metaxas in response to the rise in attacks on churches and Christian symbols. In an interview with Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson on Thursday, Metaxas stressed that he wasn't suggesting everyone living in the U.S. must identify as Christian. Instead, his point was that the Bible is more than a sacred book; it's "what led ... to freedom and self-government" that most Americans cherish. Weve forgotten that freedom is utterly impossible on the American model without the values we got from the Bible, said Metaxas, a bestselling author and radio host, in response to images of rioters burning stacks of Bibles in Portland last Friday night. All of the Founders understood that the Bible wasnt just a sacred book for some people. It was what gave us the West and what led to the idea of freedom and self-government, Metaxas said, asserting that those who are attacking the Bible and Christianity are attacking foundational ideas that built the nation. In Carlson's segment on the topic of Christianity seemingly being under attack, he and Metaxas discussed the shutting down of churches and indifference toward the rise in vandalism and torching of churches and Catholic statues. Carlson began the segment by noting that the U.S. has long been a beacon for those seeking religious freedom. Since the day it was founded, the United States has been a refuge for people from around the world to worship their gods as they choose, Carlson said. Thats precisely why so many of our first European settlers came here. When they wrote our Constitution, in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights, they explicitly protected religious freedom. Carlson then compared the state of religious freedom in the U.S. today to religious persecution in China. America is becoming much more like what we say we hate. Many states have canceled in-person church services under the pretext of protecting the rest of us from the Wuhan coronavirus, he said, singling out Democrat-run states of California and New Jersey that designated churches as non-essential unlike abortion clinics or liquor stores that have been deemed essential. Back in April, Carlson confronted Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J., over his decision to impose restrictions on church services as part of the state's response to the novel coronavirus. When Carlson asked Murphy what authority he used to nullify the Bill of Rights in issuing this order, Murphy responded that he wasnt thinking about the Bill of Rights when he did this. Nearly four months after that exchange, Carlson shared his theory as to why some Democratic politicians have decided to continue to impose bans or restrictions on religious services while allowing secular businesses to operate without such restrictions. The restrictions are about punishing people they dont think vote for them, he asserted. Democratic leaders in Congress despise traditional Christians because they dont vote for them. During the segment, Carlson also aired a clip of House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., saying in an earlier Fox News interview that he wasn't aware that rioters in Portland had burned Bibles last weekend. Nor was he aware that riots have been ongoing in the city and outside the Mark Hatfield Federal Courthouse for over 70 days. According to Metaxas, people being unaware of what's going on Portland and other cities where churches are being vandalized and burned is the reason why many Americans fail to stand up for Christianity. Christianity, among other things, limits the excesses of the state, Carlson remarked. This is why all authoritarian governments hate it because when your population worships an actual God, that suggests that you are not God and there are some things you cant do. So without it, theres nothing they cant do. Isnt that the whole point? he asked. That is precisely the point, Metaxas responded. In China, which was repeatedly mentioned throughout the segment, communist authorities have demolished churches, beat Christians, and ordered believers to renounce their faith and worship communist leaders instead of God. Last year, authorities forced churches to replace traditional Christian hymns with songs praising the Chinese Communist Party. More recently, pastors have been ordered to extol President Xi Jinping and slander the U.S. in their sermons. Metaxas warned that Americans' failure to stand up and push back against the idea that we can be a secular nation will basically lead to the U.S. becoming China. He also slammed those who are burning Bibles and the American flag. These are the two things that have created more human flourishing, that have lifted human dignity on a level weve never seen in the history of the world, he said. The Paramount Chief of Gukpegu Traditional Area, Gukpenaa Alhassan has expressed worry over what he described as an overburdened, challenged, and under-resourced Police service in the Northern region. He revealed that the region has less than 2,000 personnel which translates to one Police officer to about 1,200 civilians as compared to the United Nations standard of one Police officer to a maximum of 500 civilians. Speaking at an event in Tamale, attended by James Oppong-Boanuh, the IGP, Gukpenaa Alhassan lamented that, challenges confronting the Police in the region were enormous and these have kept the Police in a dire situation. Looking at the barracks from afar, you will know that the barracks are overcrowded as personal belongings of officers, which should have been in their rooms are kept on the verandahs at the mercy of the weather." He indicated that it will be difficult to maintain security, law, and order without basic resources. He appeales to the IGP and the government to immediately resource the security in the region to enable them effectively conduct their activities in the region ahead of the December 7 general elections. The Gukpenaa Alhassan said he is aware of interference in the work of the Police from some traditional leaders, politicians, and some opinion leaders and urged the Police to always quickly arraign suspects before the courts to avoid receiving orders from persons above. He also indicated that the Gukpegu traditional council has reserved lands in various communities for the construction of Police stations to help fight crime. Responding to the concerns of the Gukpenaa, the IGP James Oppong-Boanuh assured that a special team will be sent to the region to initiate processes towards the acquisition of the lands for police purposes. The IGP also urged his police men and women in the region to be highly professional and impartial in the discharge of their duties during the December polls. We have to follow laid down procedures to police the ballots and protect lives and property. We must act on every complaint and we must do so speedily to clear the doubts of critics, IGP emphasised. Lebanon's president said on Friday its investigation into the biggest blast in Beirut's history would examine whether it was caused by a bomb or other external interference, as residents sought to rebuild shattered homes and lives. Rescuers sifted rubble in a race to find anyone still alive after Tuesday's port explosion that killed 154 people, injured 5,000, destroyed a swathe of the Mediterranean city and sent seismic shockwaves around the region. "The cause has not been determined yet. There is a possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act," President Michel Aoun told local media. Aoun, who had previously said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port, said the investigation would also weigh if the blast was due to negligence or an accident. Twenty people had been detained so far, he added. One source said an initial probe blamed negligence. While the United States has said it did not rule out an attack, Israel, which has fought several wars with Lebanon, has denied any role. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the cause was unclear, but compared the blast to a 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's powerful Shi'ite group Hezbollah, denied what he said were "preconceived" comments both domestically and abroad that the Iran-backed group had arms stored at the port. He called for a fair investigation and strict accountability for anyone responsible without any political cover. "Even if a plane struck, or if it was an intentional act, if it turns out this nitrate had been at the port for years in this way, it means part of the case is absolutely negligence and corruption," he said. The customs director and a predecessor were arrested later on Friday. At Beirut's Mohammad Al-Amin mosque, next to Hariri's grave, chief cleric Amin Al Kurdi told worshippers in a Friday sermon that Lebanese leaders bore responsibility. "Who is the criminal, who is the killer behind the Beirut explosion?" he said. "Only God can protect, not the corrupt ... The army only protects the leaders." Security forces fired tear gas at a crowd in Beirut on Thursday, as anger boiled over at the ruling elite, who have presided over an economic collapse. The small crowd, some hurling stones, marked a return to the kind of protests that had become a feature of life as Lebanese watched their savings evaporate and currency disintegrate, while government decision-making floundered. 'WHERE IS THE STATE?' "There is no way we can rebuild this house. Where is the state?" said Tony Abdou, an unemployed 60-year-old. His family home is in Gemmayze, a district a few hundred metres from the warehouses where 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored for years near a densely populated area. A security source and local media previously said the fire that caused the blast was ignited by welding work. Volunteers swept up debris from the streets of Beirut, which still bears scars from a 1975-1990 civil war. "Do we actually have a government here?" said taxi driver Nassim Abiaad, 66, whose cab was crushed by wreckage as he was about to get in. "There is no way to make money anymore." For many, the explosion was symptomatic of years of neglect and corruption. "The problem is this government and all governments before it," said Dr. Mohammed Kalifa, 31. Officials have said the blast, whose impact was recorded hundreds of miles (kms) away, might have caused losses amounting to $15 billion. That is a bill Lebanon cannot pay after already defaulting on a mountain of debt - exceeding 150% of economic output - and with talks stalled on a lifeline from the International Monetary Fund. Hospitals, many heavily damaged as shockwaves ripped out windows and ceilings, have been overwhelmed. "I lived through part of the civil war. I saw people being shot in front of me. But never has there been such a horror," said Dr. Assem Al Hajj at Beiruts Clemenceau hospital, which he said had treated 400 victims. HUNTING THE MISSING As exhausted rescuers combed wreckage to find any survivors, grieving families camped outside the port where their loved ones were last seen. Some victims were hurled into the sea because of the explosive force. "We would like to go inside the port to look for my son but we can't get permission," said Elias Marouni, describing his son George, a 30-year-old army officer. One weeping mother called a prime-time TV programme to plead with authorities to find her son, Joe. He was found hours later: dead. Dozens are still unaccounted for. In Beiruts Karantina district, a Polish rescue team took a break near a once three-storey building that was completely flattened. One woman and her two teenage daughters were killed, a neighbour said. Charbel Abreeni, who trained port employees, showed Reuters pictures on his phone of killed colleagues. He was sitting in a church where the head of a Virgin Mary statue was blown off. "I know 30 port employees who died, two of them are my close friends and a third is missing," said the 62-year-old, whose home was wrecked and his shin wrapped in a bandage. "I have nowhere to go except my wife's family," he said. "How can you survive here? The economy is zero." After the blast destroyed Lebanon's only major grain silo, U.N. agencies helped provide emergency food and medical aid. Aid offers have also poured in from Arab states, Western nations, the Vatican and beyond. But none, so far, addresses the bigger challenges facing a bankrupt nation. GABORONE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Botswana's rough diamond exports plunged 68% percent in the second quarter of the year, data published by the central bank showed on Friday, as the Coronavirus pandemic hit demand while global travel restrictions hurt trading. In a bid to curb the spread of the virus, Botswana closed its borders in March, locking out international buyers from centres such as Mumbai, Antwerp and China who traditionally travel to Gaborone ten times a year to view and buy diamonds. Exports of diamonds from Debswana, a joint venture between Botswana and diamond mining giant De Beers, a unit of Anglo American, stood at $293 million in the second quarter of 2020, from $916 million in the preceding period. No exports were recorded in May, while only $20 million worth of diamonds were exported in June, the Bank of Botswana's data showed. De Beers, which gets about 70% of its supply from Botswana registered a net loss of $214 million in the first half of the year, as rough sales plunged by more than half to $1 billion, the company said in its results last week. The fall in diamond exports is expected to hurt Botswana's balance of payments deficit, as diamonds constitute 70 percent of the country's exports. Through the partnership with De Beers, Botswana also gets about 30% of its fiscal revenues from diamonds. It has so far recorded just 800 COVID-19 cases and only two deaths, but its economy has been severely hit. ($1 = 11.7925 pulas) (Reporting by Brian Benza Editing by Tim Cocks and Louise Heavens) Samsung recently launched its flagship Galaxy Note 20 series this week. We also got confirmation that the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G will be arriving in India soon, with consumers already being able to pre-order the two phones. The Galaxy Note 20 is priced at Rs 77,999 in India, while the Note 20 Ultra costs Rs 1,04,999. With a difference of over Rs 25,000, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is significantly more expensive than the standard Note 20. So, weve decided to compare the two devices and check if the massive difference in price is worth it. For comparison, the difference in price between the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plus was Rs 10,000. Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G Galaxy Note 20 Processor Exynos 990 5G Exynos 990 Display 6.9-inch QHD+ AMOLED; 120Hz; (1440*3088 pixels) 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED; 120Hz; (1080*2400 pixels) RAM 12GB LPDDR5 8GB LPDDR5 Storage 256GB UFS 3.1 128GB UFS 3.0 Rear Camera 108MP, f/1.8, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS + 12MP, f/2.2 Ultrawide + 12MP, f/3.0 Telephoto 5x Optical zoom 12MP, f/1.8, PDAF, OIS + 12MP, f/2.2 Ultrawide + 64MP, f/2.0 Telephoto 3x Optical zoom Front Camera 10MP, f/2.2 10MP, f/2.2 Software OneUI 2.5 based on Android 10 OneUI 2.5 based on Android 10 Battery 4,500mAh, 25W Wired Fast Charging, 15W Wireless Charging 4,300mAh, 25W Wired Fast Charging, 15W Wireless Charging Price Rs 77,999 Rs 1,04,999 First off, both phones are pretty similarly designed with quite a few noteworthy differences on the spec sheet. The only noticeable change on the standard Galaxy Note 20 is the lack of the autofocus module and a lack of screen curvature. Lastly, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra also uses the latest Gorilla Glass Victus as opposed to Gorilla Glass 5 on the standard Note 20. On the inside, both Note 20 phones feature the same chipset, although the Note 20 Ultra supports 5G, which means Samsung has opted to use a 5G modem on the phone. The screen on the vanilla Galaxy Note 20 is a pretty standard AMOLED display with a Full HD+ resolution and 60Hz refresh rate as opposed to a top-end QHD+ AMOLED panel on the Note 20 Ultra 5G, not to mention the 120Hz refresh rate. While the S Pen stylus has been upgraded for both phones, the Note 20 Ultra 5G gets an improved low latency to achieve of 9ms. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra also has a slightly larger battery than the standard Note 20. The biggest and probably the most important difference between the two phones lies in the camera setup. While both phones opt for a triple camera setup, the Note 20 Ultra gets the 108 MP primary sensor as opposed to a 12 MP primary sensor on the Note 20. The Note 20 Ultra 5G also gets a 5x optical zoom periscope camera compared to the regular telephoto shooter on the Note 20. Camera-wise, Samsung has used the same strategy of the Galaxy S20 models. If you consider all the improvements on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G, the extra 27K seems worth it. However, the main thing to consider here is 5G. Yes, 5G is not available in India and may still be over a year out. But the Note 20 Ultra is being touted as a 5G ready device, which means the phone will be relevant for longer. So, yes, if you have the budget, you should definitely go for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G. UNDER FIRE: Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO of the National Rifle Association (NRA), speaks at the NRA annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 26, 2019. Lucas Jackson/Reuters A leading Spanish matador has been gored in a bullfight after the animal he stabbed rammed its horns into his buttocks, sending him flying. When Enrique Ponce, 48, went in for the kill at the El Puerto de Santa Maria stadium, the bull flipped him over, causing him to lie on his front shielding his head. Despite the scare, the Valencian bullfighter was not seriously injured, with Spanish media reporting only torn knee ligaments and bruising. The bull was eventually killed, and Mr Ponce went on to slay a second. The fight saw thousands gather at the historic stadium in Cadiz, Andalusia on the bullrings 140th anniversary. It is not the first time Mr Ponce, who is one of the countrys top matadors, has had to deal with a bull fighting back. Last year, a more severe goring left him requiring knee surgery and a 10cm (4 inch) injury to his buttock. In 2014, while opening the Las Fallas festival in Valencia, a bull broke his collarbone and several of his ribs. The pandemic appears to have hit the controversial traditions popularity, as the first, sparsely attended fight in July after lockdown saw increasing calls for the bloodsport to be banned. Have we not already had an overdose of death and pain in these past months? Carmen Ibarlucea of animal rights group La Tortura No Es Cultura (Torture Is Not Culture) said at the time. They return to the bullrings and they mercilessly and tearlessly demand more public money to torture and see a peaceful herbivore dying. Meanwhile we, a social majority, are now calling for a true culture of peace and solidarity. A May survey by Electromania showed nearly half of respondents (47 per cent) support a ban, while 18 per cent opposed it and a third were neutral. Medical staff disinfect an alley in Son Tra District in Da Nang, August 3, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong. Twenty new Covid-19 cases linked to epicenter Da Nang, plus an infected repatriate, raised Vietnam's active infections to 405, the Health Ministry said Saturday evening. Of the 20 cases linked to the central city, 15 are in Da Nang, two in neighboring Quang Nam, two in Bac Giang and one in Khanh Hoa. "Patient 790" is a 17-year-old boy from the southern province of Binh Duong. On August 6, he landed at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on a Vietnam Airlines repatriation flight from the U.S. and was quarantined on arrival. He is currently being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in the capital. "Patient 791" is a 45-year-old man from Cam Ranh Town in central Khanh Hoa Province who had come in contact with a person who later became "Patient 751". "Patient 792" and "Patient 796" hail from central Quang Nam Province. The former had previously visited the Da Nang General Hospital, now a Covid-19 hotspot, while the latter had been a patient at the hospital. They are being treated at Quang Nam's General Hospital. "Patient 793" and "Patient 794" live in northern Bac Giang Province. Both were among a group of tourists to Da Nang, some of whom were later diagnosed as Covid-19 patients. They are currently receiving treatment at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. "Patient 795" and those numbered 797 to 810 are all based in Da Nang, including one medic. The additions raised Vietnams Covid-19 score to 810, including 405 active cases. Ten patients have succumbed to the disease. Since July 25 when locally transmitted infections returned to Vietnam after more than three months, 353 cases have been recorded in 13 cities and provinces, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. All are linked to Da Nang. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told a meeting Friday the risk of the disease spreading through Vietnam will remain "very high" for at least the next two weeks. Provincial and municipal leaders are permitted to decide on specific measures in order to promptly and effectively minimize infection rates while medical facilities must stay vigilant to prevent new outbreaks, the PM said. The global Covid-19 death toll has climbed to over 772,700. A pregnant woman is in a stable condition in hospital after a serious assault in north Belfast on Thursday. A 46-year-old man has been charged with number of offences including attempted murder, possession of an offensive weapon and grievous bodily harm with intent. It follows an assault at Ainsworth Drive in which a man was reported to have seriously assaulted a pregnant woman. The 46-year-old man is due to appear at Belfast Magistrates Court on Saturday. As is normal procedure all charges are reviewed by the PPS. Chinese experts arrive at a train station in Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam, August 6, 2020. Photo by Giao Thong newspaper. A train has delivered nearly 80 Chinese experts from the China-Vietnam border to a central industrial zone. The special service traveled from Dong Dang train station in Lang Son Province bordering China to Dung Quat Industrial Zone in Quang Ngai Province on Thursday. After entering Vietnam via Huu Nghi border gate, the Chinese group were transferred to Dong Dang station by bus. Their three-carriage train traveled 1,000 km (over 620 miles) straight to Quang Ngai without stopping along the way, affirmed Phung Thi Ly Ha, deputy general director of service operator Hanoi Railway Transport Joint Stock Company. As per Covid-19 prevention protocol, each carriage remained locked the entire trip, except for receiving food, the two onboard staff kitted out in protective suits. Arriving at Quang Ngai station, all Chinese passengers were required to put on protective clothing before traveling by bus to a centralized camp where they will spend 14 days in quarantine. All staff involved in the operation will also undergo the mandatory quarantine. Vehicles used to transport the Chinese nationals were disinfected under surveillance of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Quang Ngai. As many as 1,000 Chinese workers and experts have been approved to travel to Dung Quat Industrial Zone by train from Lang Son. The first batch arrived on June 12, including 137 Chinese. Data from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs shows there are 33,770 licensed Chinese workers in Vietnam. Of these, 15,000 are currently employed. A little over half these workers returned to China for the Lunar New Year holiday in January, where they remain stuck due to the pandemic. Vietnam has banned entry for foreign nationals since March 22 and suspended international flights from March 25. In a government meeting on June 6, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked authorities to enable experts, investors, business managers, and highly skilled workers to enter Vietnam to resume work following mandatory quarantine. Vietnam was hit by a new wave of community Covid-19 infections on July 25 after 99 days spent clean. Since, 298 locally transmitted cases have been reported and 10 have died. An Afghan national army officer and five militants were killed during clashes in Afghanistan's western province of Badghis, the country's Ministry of Defense confirmed on Saturday. "On Friday evening, the Taliban insurgents tried to attack Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) position in Bala Murghab district, Badghis province. The ANDSF thwarted the vicious plan, killing five militants and injuring 12 others," the ministry said in a statement. In the meantime, Captain Walid Zarif Samangani, head of the operational planning of the army in the western region, was also killed in the Bala Murghab clashes, Mir Houssain Rezai from the army' 207 Zafar Corps told Xinhua. The remote district has been the scene of heavy clashes for many years as Taliban militants have been trying to gain the control of the strategic district in the region, 555 km northwest of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. The Taliban militant group has not responded to the report so far. Two branches of the Hunterdon County Library system are extending their hours to accommodate county residents who may be experiencing continued power outages in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaias. The Main and North County branches will be open from 9 a.m. 5 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Moreover, the Main branch, located in Flemington, will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. These branches are regularly open on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and closed on Sundays. Capacity in the branches will remain limited to 25% and face coverings are still required in accordance with Gov. Phil Murphys executive order. Freeholder Zach Rich, the freeholder boards liaison for the Library Commission, said hours were being expanded in freeholders recognition that many residents are expecting to be without power at a time of high temperatures. Extended hours at both libraries will allow residents across the county an opportunity to access the internet and charge electronic devices to stay in touch and to obtain necessary information throughout the power outage, Rich said. This action comes on the heels of Hunterdon County freeholders condemnation of Jersey Central Power & Light for its slow restoration of power outages across the state. As of 4:45 p.m. Friday, more than 154,000 New Jersey customers were still without power, close to 6,000 of them in Hunterdon County. According to James Keehbler, the Hunterdon County library director, time limits will be imposed at both facilities in order to ensure all members of the public have a chance at relief from the heat and access to the internet and power. We ask residents to only come to the libraries today through Sunday if you are out of power, Keehbler said. Ruthi Cass, public information officer for the Hunterdon Board of Chosen Freeholders, confirmed that imposed time limits will depend upon how many people visit the library. Normal operating hours for the countys Main and North Branch libraries will resume on Tuesday, and operate as follows: Monday, Friday and Saturday hours are from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday hours are from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The South County Branch in East Amwell remains closed but is offering no-contact curbside pickup and book returns. The Main County library is located at 314 State Route 12, Bldg. #3 in Flemington. The North County library is located at 65 Halstead St. in Clinton. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com. A coffee shop in Sligo University Hospital is celebrating today after learning it sold a winning lotto ticket worth 195k to one lucky punter. The National Lottery said the Sligo player matched five numbers and one lucky star number, meaning that they were one lucky star number (from 1-12) short of winning the massive 64 million EuroMillions jackpot It is the second time this week that a player in Ireland has come as close to winning the EuroMillions jackpot after another player in Kingscourt, Co Cavan, won the secondary prize of 265,150 in Tuesday nights draw Tracy ONeill, manager of the shop, said that excitement is running through the hospital this morning. "Im absolutely speechless this morning thinking that somebody in Sligo hospital is nearly 200,000 richer because they bought a lottery ticket from our coffee dock yesterday," she said. " As everybody knows, it is a challenging time for anybody working in a hospital environment and we are no different. "Due to Covid-19, visiting restrictions remain in place at the hospital so there is a big possibility that this lucky winner is a member of staff. Knowing how hard each and every person in the hospital is working, I can assure you that whoever the winner is, it is richly deserved. We are absolutely thrilled for them. The winning EuroMillions Plus numbers are: 05, 20, 21, 36, 41 and the Lucky Stars were 06 and 11. There was no winner of Tuesdays 64 million EuroMillions jackpot which means that Tuesdays jackpot is now heading for a massive 75 million. Traveller, the first major screen credit of The Crying Games Neil Jordan, Canadian Denis Cotes debut feature Drifting States and Arturo Ripsteins The Place Without Limits, a 1977 Mexican LGBTQ movie, are three titles featured in the inaugural lineup of the Locarno Film Festivals Heritage Online section. Another, 1954 Egyptian transgender comedy Miss Hanafi, underscores the wealth of discoveries offered by Heritage Online, a digital database and screening room collating details of classic film catalogs from all over the world, facilitating the work of buyers, especially VOD platforms in search of rights holders to heritage titles. More from Variety Heritage Online fully launches on Saturday with the distribution to its subscribers of a newsletter in which companies detail their offer on the website, plus a panel on heritage film distribution. Aimed at establishing a loop between the heritage industry and streaming platforms by clarifying rights ownership, the site launches with film-by-film details of about 20 classic film catalogs and a screening room with around 45 titles, says Markus Duffner, Heritage Online program manager and co-founder of VOD platform spamflix.com. The site will remain open to subscribers year-round. Directed by Joe Cornerford, and a special mention winner at 1982s Locarno Festival, Traveller, an offbeat thriller with political undertones, tracks a young Irish Traveller couple whose smuggling trip from Limerick to Strabane spirals into robbery and murder. The movie is showcased on Heritage Online by the British Film Institute. The film that launched Cotes career as an international filmmaker, winning the Golden Leopard in Locarnos 2005 video section (I was a nobody in 2005, Cote says) Drifting States has been restored by Elephant, the Quebec-state-backed fund focused on the rediscovery, preservation and restoration of French Canadian film history. Story continues The film was released on various VOD platforms in Canada on Aug. 6, with Heritage Online hosting the restorations international premiere. Hopefully some online platforms could be interested. Im just very happy that this very low budget film, made in MiniDV back in the days is now upgraded to HD new look, new DCP, new facelift, Cote told Variety. The past is not such a foreign country. Decades ago, isolated filmmakers were already exploring sexual diversity, for example. Some of their films look to have withstood the test of time. Presented by Mexicos Imcine, Ripsteins The Place Without Limits, about a homosexual brothel madame terrorized and infatuated by a macho truck driver, is one of the greatest jewels of Mexican cinema I think everybody would agree on that a film that challenged [conservative] morality of that time, says Imcines Fernanda Rio. Written and produced by Galil al-Bendari, directed by Fatin Abdel Wahab, and presented at Locarno by the Arab Cinema Center, 1954 Egyptian comedy Miss Hanafi turns on a man who is subjected to an urgent sex-change operation, becoming Miss Hanafi. His two former male friends now compete for Hanafis love and hand in marriage. The first Heritage Online lineup runs a vast gamut. Some titles are established classics: James Ivorys Academy Award nominated The Bostonians, part of the Cohen Media Groups Merchant Ivory Productions library; Terence Davies BFI-handled Distant Voices, Still Lives; Swiss auteur Alain Tanners 1983 In the White City; and new restorations in the Cohen Film Collection, made by the Cineteca di Bologna, of Buster Keatons College and Go West. Further HO titles take in lesser-known or still little-seen movies from high-profile auteurs, such as The Terrorizers, the third feature from Edward Yang, a cryptic four-story tale of urban unease, crime and final violence from one of the leading lights of the modern Taiwanese cinema. True Colours/Glorious Films is showcasing from Italys Nanni Moretti the 1984 mystery-comedy Bianca, which first teamed the director-actor with Laura Morante before their 2001 Cannes Palme dOr collaboration, The Sons Room. Other titles made a splash in their time, such as Ivorian Coast director Roger Gnoan MBalas Au Nom de Christ, a satire of African religious cults co-produced by Switzerlands Amka Films that won best film at the 1993 Fespaco Film Festival. A new tool for the classic film industry, Heritage Online also suggests that the classic film business is still growing. Much of that expansion is now taking place outside its established centers of the U.S. and France, in such territories as Latin America, the Arab world and Eastern Europe. Miss Hanafi is sourced from the Arab Radio and Television (ART) library presented at Locarno by the Arab Cinema Center, whose partner, Mad Solutions, has struck recent big catalog deals with both ART and pan-Arab multinational Rotana. Highlights of the latter include 1971s Chitchat on the Nile, based on the novel by Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz. Mexican film institute Imcine is also ramping up its digitization and restoration program, its 27-title Locarno lineup featuring six Arturo Ripstein titles including another gem, The Castle of Purity, 1983s Bajo la Metralleta, from Felipe Casals, a director admired by Alfonso Cuaron; and The Passion of Berenice, a chilling drama thriller now being digitized from Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, who died on Jan. 13. Knowing the international demand for titles serves as a thermometer to know what to restore, says Imcines Jannike Curuchet. The large question, to be debated at a round-table moderated by Varietys Nick Vivarelli, is whether the advent of a swathe of new VOD platforms can also represent any kind of substantial returns for classic film rights holders. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. An ER nurse with a career spanning more than 35 years was on the way to her daughters wedding when she made an impromptu stop after witnessing a two-vehicle crash. Clad in a beautiful floor-length gown, she set to work, and after saving a life, she arrived at the wedding venue just in time to walk her daughter down the aisle. Jodi Damrow, a veteran trauma nurse at Phelps Memorial Health Center in Holdrege, Nebraska, told the Omaha World-Herald that it didnt seem like anything special to make the stop. Although she was late to the June 27 ceremony, she knew she had to administer the emergency medical care that meant the difference between life and death for one victim of the crash. Hailey Krull with her mother, Jodi Damrow. (Courtesy of Sandhills Blue Photography) Bride-to-be Hailey Krull was unflustered by the news. When her mother and sister, Sadie Johnson, eventually arrived at the Harlan County Lake with their explanation for being tardy, it all just made sense to Hailey. Its just so my mom, she reflected. She just always does stuff like this. A few years ago, she rescued a drowning victim. People pass out at church and she rescues them. ER nurse Jodi Damrow with her three daughters: (LR) Riley Consbruck, Hailey Krull, and Sadie Johnson. (Courtesy of Sandhills Blue Photography) Jodi and Sadie, who happened to be the first people to stop at the scene of the accident, called for paramedics and a transport helicopter. The two-car collision had occurred roughly a mile away from Jodis home near the Nebraska-Kansas border, according to CBS 7. Jodi cleared the airway of one of the victims, saving her life, and oversaw her vitals until backup arrived. Meanwhile, Sadie, a physicians assistant, sprang into action to help the others in the other vehicle. While Jodi and Sadie were missing for the family picture-taking session, they made it to the wedding with their gowns and smiles intact and minutes to spare before the special wedding ceremony began. The loving mother of three then took the honor to walk her daughter down the aisle, as Haileys father, Marty, died of cancer in 2011. Jodi walks her daughter Hailey down the aisle. (Courtesy of Sandhills Blue Photography) We threw together a last-minute reception at the lake, Hailey, who married Mitchell Krull, explained to the Omaha World-Herald. The outdoor wedding took place on family-owned pastureland, and arrangements underwent multiple revisions amid the pandemic. I hadnt slept in weeks and dont think my mom did either, Hailey admitted. Hailey and Mitchell relocated their honeymoon from Hawaii to Yellowstone National Park, and the blushing bride claimed that her wedding celebration turned out to be the perfect night, despite the many unforeseen circumstances. Hailey with her husband, Mitch Krull, taking their wedding vows. (Courtesy of Sandhills Blue Photography) For Jodi, giving her daughter away was a big emotional wrench. Ive done a lot of traumas over the years. It was nerve-wracking to let her go, she said. Shes my last one to get married. While leaving the family home to make lives of their own, Jodis three daughters have emulated their mother in their choices of career. Hailey is a physical therapist, Sadie is a physicians assistant, and their sister Riley is a registered nurse. Newlyweds Hailey and Mitch. (Courtesy of Sandhills Blue Photography) Four days after her beautiful wedding, newlywed Hailey shared her version of the days extraordinary apex with the public Facebook group Nebraska through the lens. My mom was on her way to my wedding when she witnessed a terrible accident, Hayley explained. Being an ER nurse of 35+ years, she sprang into action and helped save a life. Mother and daughter united after an eventful afternoon. (Courtesy of Sandhills Blue Photography) Another driver pulled over to help in the wake of the crash, Hayley continued, and described her mother as absolutely impressive. Jodi was directing the officers, first responders, and everybody who stopped to lend a hand. People were talking about the lady wearing gloves and a pretty dress who was saving lives, Hayley wrote. Mom said she was just really careful not to get blood on her dress as she knew she had to walk me down the aisle later. So proud to be her daughter. Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired Newsletter here: TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter London: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have spent the past month contacting the leaders of major corporations, lobbying them to withdraw advertising spending from "lawless" social media companies such as Facebook. Prince Harry revealed that he and his wife had set their sights on "remodelling the architecture" of social media, warning that sweeping change was needed to protect users' mental health and stop the spread of misinformation. Britain's Prince Harry: fed up with the effects of social media. Credit:AP In a 1400-word column for Fast Company, a US business magazine, he said the cost of using social media was "very high", with personal data traded for profit in a "relatively lawless space". He questioned what susceptibility to "the coercive forces in digital spaces" would mean for the next generation, adding: "As a father, this is especially concerning to me." The issue will become one of the main focuses of the couple's longer-term work through Archewell, their non-profit organisation. CONNECTICUT The state continues to keep a low positive test rate and a stable hospitalization rate amidst concerning news about neighboring Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Connecticut reported 75 new cases Friday out of 7,532 test results, for a positive rate of about 1 percent. Hospitalizations dropped by one patient down to 65 patients. Four more deaths were reported, which brought the state total to 4,441. Rhode Island is on Connecticut's quarantine list due to a growing number of cases in the state. See related: Connecticut Again Expands Travel Quarantine List Rhode Island reported 127 new cases on Friday. Massachusetts recently postponed their next reopening phase and rolled back some limits on social gathering sizes. Massachusetts also reported 320 new cases and 18 deaths on Friday. Connecticut's total number of coronavirus cases is now at 50,320 and more than 862,000 tests have been administered since the pandemic began in March. Click here to load this Caspio Cloud Database Cloud Database by Caspio This article originally appeared on the Across Connecticut Patch Srinagar, Aug 8 : Militants in Jammu and Kashmir have been facing a shortage of weapons despite Pakistan's attempts to provide arms to various terrorist organisations active in the valley, Director General of Police (Jammu and Kashmir) Dilbag Singh said on completion of one year of the abrogation of Article 370 in the former state. The situation is that if Pakistan manages to recruit militants, it is not able to provide them with weapons, Singh told IANS here. The DGP said that Pakistan has failed to facilitate weapons for the militants despite adopting various methods like the use of drones and infiltration of militants, with each carrying more than three firearms. Citing incidents between January to July this year, the officer said the security forces foiled several Pakistani attempts when it tried to sneak weapons into Jammu and Kashmir through drones in various districts bordering the Line of Control (LoC) and via Punjab by seizing caches of arms. "There is a weapons shortage in Jammu and Kashmir. If new recruits are made by terrorist groups they cannot provide them weapons. The J&K Police recently seized one of the dumps in a narco terrorism case. We seized around 25-30 weapons that were sent to Kupwara. These weapons were seized along with a big haul of narcotics." Pakistan tried to send weapons through drones but those were also seized, he said, adding that firearms were smuggled here by Pakistan through Punjab in two or three cases. In this year's Nagrota encounter, Singh said, three militants infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir carrying nine weapons. "Pakistan's tactics to send weapons through this method was also foiled by us. Pakistan's every attempt to sneak in weapons has been foiled so far." The DGP said Pakistan's attempt to send weapons into Indian territory by using drones is a matter of serious concern. "We will have to work on that aspect". Singh said Pakistan tried to send weapons through drones in Samba and Hira Nagar in Kathua district as well as Jammu's Khour sector. "They also tried to send weapons to Rajouri and Poonch districts but they could not succeed." "They (Pakistan-based handlers) are trying to send weapons from different places but they could not succeed in their attempts." Despite these attempts by Pakistan, our overall plan is to keep our operations neat and clean and we want that the public should not face any kind of problem, the DGP added. This behaviour of the police force in Jammu and Kashmir has "changed the minds of the people here. If it had not happened, you would have seen stones everywhere yesterday (August 5 anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370)," Singh said. Since the July 2016 killing of militant leader Burhan Wani, there have been around 2,600 law and order incidents, he added. Burhan Wani, 22, was killed in an anti-insurgency operation in Jammu and Kashmir on July 8, 2016, leading to violence in the Valley which claimed many lives and led to an over one month long curfew. Post abrogation, the DGP said, there have been around 1,100 law and order incidents that include 550 incidents of pasting of posters and many linked to fixing of flags. Of the total 1,100 incidents, there were only 196 violent incidents this year and none of them were serious in nature. "No civilian was killed by bullets post abrogation of Article 370." Claiming success in the anti-militancy operations in the last two years, the DGP said it has happened as the security forces have targeted the terrorist support structure -- the Jamaat-e-Islami (JK), Hurriyat and their members and the Over Ground Workers (OGWs). (Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@ians.in) An explosion triggered by fire took place in a cracker factory at Ibban Kalan village in the Amritsar district on Saturday morning. Three-four labourers present in the factory at the time of the incident escaped unhurt. The blast that took place around 9am was so powerful that it ripped apart some walls of the factory. The fire broke out in the unit due to short circuit, police said. It took nearly two hours for four fire tenders to douse the flames. Police officials said their preliminary investigation suggested that the factory was legal as its owner Tarwinder Singh has the licence to run it. Four of our fire tenders reached the spot within 15 minutes of getting information. The fire was doused by 11am, said fire officer Lovepreet Singh. Chatiwind police station in-charge Kashmir Singh said, As per the statements of the labourers, the fire broke out due to a short circuit that took place while switching on a tubewell motor. Though factory owner Tarwinder Singh of East Mohan Nagar in Amritsar has produced the licence , we are registering a case of negligence against him. Sub-divisional magistrate (Amritsar-2 SDM) Shiv Raj Singh Ball said, We will investigate the records of the factory. It will also be probed whether the factory owner was following proper guidelines while running the unit. According to the FBI, Iranian hackers are actively attempting to exploit an unauthenticated RCE flaw, tracked as CVE-2020-5902, in F5 Big-IP ADC devices. The FBI is warning of Iranian hackers actively attempting to exploit an unauthenticated remote code execution flaw (CVE-2020-5902) affecting F5 Big-IP application delivery controller (ADC) devices. Early June, researchers at F5 Networks addressed the CVE-2020-5902 vulnerability, it resides in undisclosed pages of Traffic Management User Interface (TMUI) of the BIG-IP product. The BIG-IP product is an application delivery controller (ADC), it is used by government agencies and major business, including banks, services providers and IT giants like Facebook, Microsoft and Oracle. F5 Networks says the BIG-IP devices are used on the networks of 48 companies included in the Fortune 50 list. Immediately after the disclosure of the issue, the US Cyber Command posted a message on Twitter urging organizations using the F5 product to immediately patch their installs. The vulnerability could be exploited by attackers to gain access to the TMUI component to execute arbitrary system commands, disable services, execute arbitrary Java code, and create or delete files, and potentially take over the BIG-IP device The CVE-2020-5902 vulnerability received a CVSS score of 10, this means that is quite easy to exploit. The issue could be exploited by sending a specifically crafted HTTP request to the server hosting the Traffic Management User Interface (TMUI) utility for BIG-IP configuration. Immediately after the public disclosure of the flaw, that several proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits have been released, some of them are very easy to use. A few days after the disclosure of the vulnerability in the F5 Networks BIG-IP product threat actors started exploiting it in attacks in the wild. Threat actors exploited the CVE-2020-5902 flaw to obtain passwords, create web shells, and infect systems with various malware. US CISA launched an investigation in potential compromise in multiple sectors with the support of several entities and confirmed two compromises. As early as July 6, 2020, CISA has seen broad scanning activity for the presence of this vulnerability across federal departments and agenciesthis activity is currently occurring as of the publication of this Alert. continues the alert. This week, the FBI issued a Private Industry Notification (PIN) to warn that the Iran-linked threat actors are attempting to exploit the flaw since early July 2020. The PIN also includes indicators of compromise (IOCs) and Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) associated with the attackers. According to the FBI, Iranian nation-state hackers could exploit the flaw in F5 Big-IP ADC devices to gain access to the target networks, exfiltrate sensitive information, steal credentials, and drop several types of malware, including ransomware The FBI PIN is based on the analysis of the groups previous TTPs, which suggests the hackers will attempt to exploit the CVE-2020-5902 vulnerability to compromise unpatched F5 Big-IP ADC devices used by organizations in many industries. The same threat actors were behind multiple attacks targeting unpatched VPN devices since August 2019, such as Pulse Secure VPN servers and Citrix ADC/Gateway. The FBI is also warning private industry organizations, that Iranian hackers also use web shells to establish permanent access to the compromised networks and to regain access even after the systems have been patched following a cyber attack. Experts also observed that the threat actors leverage post-exploitation tools such as Mimikatz and network reconnaissance tools. Administrators are recommended to use F5s CVE-2020-5902 IoC Detection Tool to detect potential compromise within their infrastructure. Below the list of recommendations for the organizations to mitigate the exposure to attacks exploiting the CVE-2020-5902 vulnerability: Quarantine or take offline potentially affected systems Collect and review artifacts such as running processes/services, unusual authentications, and recent network connections Deploy a CISA-created Snort signature to detect malicious activity (available in the alert under Detection Methods) In case organizations find evidence of CVE-2020-5902 exploitation, they are urged to implement the following recovery measures for the compromised systems: Reimaging compromised hosts Provisioning new account credentials Limiting access to the management interface to the fullest extent possible Implementing network segmentation CISA expects to see continued attacks exploiting unpatched F5 BIG-IP devices and strongly urges users and administrators to upgrade their software to the fixed versions, the agency concludes. CISA also advises that administrators deploy the signature included in this Alert to help them determine whether their systems have been compromised. Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs hacking, F5 BIG-IP) Share this... Linkedin Share this: Twitter Print LinkedIn Facebook More Tumblr Pocket Share On Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images New York Attorney General Letitia James may be able to do what no politician before her has been able to accomplish take down the National Rifle Association. Her lawsuit alleging self-dealing and misconduct could, if successful, dissolve the entire organization. While the suit is civil in nature, it reads like an old-fashioned corruption indictment. It alleges that the not-for profit organization violated New York state laws governing charities by diverting tens of millions of dollars away from the organizations mission for the personal benefit of its leaders, with Wayne LaPierre, the NRAs Executive Vice President for the past 29 years, and three other officers named as defendants along with the organization itself. According to the complaint, LaPierre used NRA funds for eight private plane flights to the Bahamas, where they enjoyed life on the 107-foot yacht of an NRA vendor, as well as for safaris in Africa and elsewhere. The complaint also claims that LaPierre allotted millions of dollars for private security for himself without sufficient oversight (and cited security concerns to explain why he didnt disclose those trips to the NRAs board), that he spent $1.2 million of the groups funds on gifts from Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman for favored friends and vendors, and that he negotiated a post-employment contract for himself valued at $17 million without board approval. Fraught With Fraud and Abuse: NY Attorney General Sues to Dissolve the National Rifle Association New York, like most states, requires non-profit organizations to file annual financial reports as a condition of its non-profit status, which confers tax benefits for the organization and its donors. The law requires funds to be used to serve the organizations members and advance its charitable mission. The complaint alleges that the NRAs leaders blatantly ignored those rules by failing to ensure proper internal controls, ignoring whistleblowers and concealing problems from auditors. Story continues Like other cases of corruption, this easily could have been framed as a criminal case. Filing false registration and disclosure documents as part of a scheme to defraud can serve as the basis for federal mail or wire fraud, and often does in public corruption cases. When I served as a federal prosecutor, my former office brought public corruption cases on such theories in similar cases in which officials misused funds for personal benefit. Why then, is it left to James, whose offices oversight over charities is civil in nature, to bring this action? The silence of the U.S. Department of Justice here is deafening. But the effect of the state attorney generals civil case might be even more devastating than a criminal case because one of the remedies of her action is dissolution of the NRA itself. She used the same tactics to dissolve the Trump Foundation in November. There, she reached a settlement with President Donald Trump and family members to pay $2 million to resolve allegations of misuse of charitable funds to influence the 2016 presidential primary election and to further his own personal interests. Among the improper use of funds was doling out $500,000 to potential voters at a 2016 campaign rally in Iowa. As part of that settlement, James required Trump to personally admit to misusing the Foundations funds. Sometimes, parties to settlements are permitted to publicly state that a resolution is not an admission of wrongdoing. James would not let them off so easily. Her success in the Trump Foundation case puts teeth into her legal quest to dissolve the NRA as well. Trump to NRA Bigwigs: Get Better Lawyers Since 1871, the NRA has been the nations largest gun advocacy group. Founded to improve marksmanship following the Civil War, the organization has lately become a powerful lobbying organization and campaign funder that can make or break candidates for political office depending on their stance on firearms regulations. As its website boasts, the NRA is widely recognized today as a major political force. Following mass shootings in America, Democratic candidates for office have blamed the NRA for the inability to pass gun reform legislation, and have demanded campaign finance reform to expose and limit the organizations influence on elections. No doubt, there will be Second Amendment advocates who claim that the New York lawsuit is politically motivated effort to strike a blow against gun ownership. Indeed, if the allegations are true that the NRA engaged in cartoonishly corrupt self-dealing and misconduct, then the dissolution of the NRA would end its 139-year run as the nations strongest advocate for gun rights. The law may be the only weapon that can take down the NRA. And if James can prove her case, then the demise of the NRA will be a self-inflicted wound. Lawsuit: The NRAs School Safety Initiative Was a Front to Increase Fundraising Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Momen expressed shock over the Air India plane crash and extended condolences to the families of deceases. The Air India Express flight crash-landed at Karipur Airport on August 7, carrying 184 passengers from Dubai. At least 18 people, including the pilot and the co-pilot, onboard the flight lost their lives in the tragic incident. "Deeply shocked about the tragic accident of Air India Express flight in Kozhikode, that took precious lives and injured many. I convey our deepest condolence. Our thoughts, prayers are with bereaved families," Momen told his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri visited the airport to take stock of the situation on August 8. Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), DGCA & Flight Safety Department officials have also reached the incident site to investigate the crash. Relief flights arranged Three special relief flights, two from Delhi and Mumbai, have been arranged for Kozhikode for providing humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and the family members affected by the crash. Meanwhile, Kerala CM has announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakhs to the next of kin of each passenger who died, while the Air India has matched the sum in interim monetary relief. Read: Kozhikode Air India Crash LIVE Updates: DGCA Recovers Black Box, Death Toll Rises To 18 Read: Air India Express Arranges 3 Relief Flights For Those Affected By Kozhikode Plane Crash Air India's Vande Bharat repatriation flight from Dubai failed to land on the table-top runway in Kozhikode's Karipur airport amid very heavy rainfall in the area. The fatalities include two pilots and 16 passengers - with the youngest fatality being a one-year-old boy who succumbed to his injuries. The Air India Express Employees Union extended heartfelt condolences and prayers to Capt. DV Sathe and First Officer Capt. Akhilesh Kumar of flight IX-1344. The union said that their loss has deeply saddened crew fraternity and that they shall really be missed. We extend our deepest sympathies to pax who lost lives on Air India Express flight IX-1344 returning from Dubai. This is to inform you that the cabin crew received some injuries and are under treatment in Kozhikode hospital, the statement read. Read: Air India Plane Crash: US Ambassador Ken Juster Extends Condolences To Victims' Families Read: Kozhikode Plane Crash: 'Approach Radar System Not Used For Landing', Claim ATC Sources When Frank Davis went to the mailbox one day in May, he got a letter from the unemployment compensation office. It was strange hes never filed for unemployment. And hes been retired since 1986. Then he got another. And another and another. Theyre all addressed to my address, but theyre usually different names, Davis, who lives at the Messiah Village Retirement Community in Upper Allen Township, said. He wonders if its an error in the unemployment compensation system of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, possibly attributed to an old computer system and contributing to reports of unpaid claims? Or is it a scam? Thats what the Department of Labor and Industry thinks may be the case. And there has been a rise in such incidents since the country saw record-breaking unemployment with the coronavirus pandemic. The (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) program has been the target of a widespread national fraud ring in which scammers use previously stolen identities to apply for these benefits in multiple states across the country, said Penny Ickes, communications director for the state Department of Labor & Industry. The scammers are using Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information belonging to identity theft victims to commit the COVID-19-related unemployment compensation fraud. None of the departments systems have been compromised, she added, but the state is continuing to receive reports of fraud attempts and is working with local law enforcement to investigate. She said Davis may have been the target of a previous identity theft, accounting for why he is receiving the letters. Davis, however, said his identity has never been stolen, and he has seen nothing unusual in his personal finances recently. And the letters keep coming. I have no idea whats happening, Davis said, an array of letters sprawled out before him. Its a mystery. Between May and Thursday, Davis received about 40 letters. Some appear to be letters related to the initial unemployment claims, with a return address for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, Office of Unemployment Compensation, Claimant Services. Others are from PA Treasury UC/SWIF Materials from Indianapolis, and felt like they may contain debit cards often used for benefit payments. The letters look official, he said. When the first couple came through, Davis thought they may have been intended for someone else in the village, but when he brought them to the front desk, he found there were no residents by those names. And the departments explanation of it being a fraud does not make sense to him, he said. Who would benefit from sending him unemployment-compensation letters and debit cards? It would almost seem as though someone in that system was doing it rather than someone from the outside, Davis said. He worried that it could slow down the receipt of benefits for those who need them. But Ickes said this is not an error in the system, and its the sort of fraud that has been seen before. His situation is consistent with other, similar fraud-related instances occurring in Pennsylvania and across the nation involving the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, she said. This sophisticated identity theft fraud ring uses personally-identifiable information stolen previously outside of L&I or other commonwealth agencies. The scammers then use some or all of that stolen information to apply for PUA benefits in an attempt to fraudulently obtain those funds. She said the department is urging Pennsylvanians to report unemployment benefits fraud and highlighting the state and federal partnership that has prevented scammers from stealing $44 million from the program. Our goal is to prevent scammers from working toward any new methods as we further enhance safeguards to protect our programs, Ickes said. We continue to encourage this gentleman, and all Pennsylvanians, to remain vigilant, recognize the scam warning signs, and know what to do if they become a victim. She said she could not provide any additional information or specific details about the ongoing criminal investigation. Potentially fraudulent activities related to unemployment compensation benefits include: Receiving a check or direct deposit from the Pennsylvania Treasury Department or a ReliaCard debit card issued by US Bank when you did not apply for unemployment compensation, Receiving correspondence from L&I or the Treasury about receiving unemployment assistance for which you did not apply, Someone comes to your home that you do not know and tells you that their unemployment assistance check or debit card was mailed to you by mistake, Someone asks you to use your bank account to deposit their unemployment assistance, Someone, in person or electronically, tells you that you are entitled to unemployment assistance and requests your personal identifying information, Someone offers to help you file for unemployment benefits for a fee, Someone claims to be from L&I or another government agency or office and asks for a fee or personal information to complete your application for PUA or other benefits. Anyone who suspects fraud in unemployment compensation should call their local police, call the PA Fraud Hotline, 800-692-7469, or visit the Department of Labor & Industrys website. 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 view of damaged site is seen as search and rescue operations continue after a fire at a warehouse with explosives at the Port of Beirut led to massive blasts. But many Lebanese say the rot permeates the political system and extends to the country's top leadership. So far, at least 16 port employees have been detained and others questioned. On Friday, investigators questioned and then ordered the detention of the head of the port, Hassan Koraytem, the country's customs chief, Badri Daher, and Daher's predecessor. Investigators probing the blast have focused on personnel at the Port of Beirut, Lebanon's main port, so well known for corruption that its common nickname is Ali Baba's Cave. The documents surfacing in social media since the blast underscore the corruption, negligence and incompetence of Lebanon's long-ruling political oligarchy, and its failure to provide its people with basic needs, including security. "Do you know how many problems have been accumulating?" Aoun replied when a reporter pressed whether he should have followed up on his order. President Michel Aoun, in office since 2016, said Friday that he was first told of the dangerous stockpile nearly three weeks ago and immediately ordered military and security agencies to do "what was needed." But he suggested his responsibility ended there, saying he had no authority over the port and that previous governments had been told of its presence. Yet in a circle of negligence, nothing was done and on Tuesday, the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up, obliterating the city's main commercial hub and spreading death and wreckage for miles around. At least 10 times over the past six years, authorities from Lebanon's customs, military, security agencies and judiciary raised alarm that a massive stockpile of explosive chemicals was being kept with almost no safeguard at the port in the heart of Beirut, newly surfaced documents show. The explosion of the ammonium nitrate, after apparently being set off by a fire, was the biggest in Lebanon's history. The known death toll reached 154, including bodies recovered from the rubble Friday, and more than 5,000 people were wounded. Billions of dollars in damage was caused across the city, where many are too impoverished by Lebanon's financial crisis to rebuild. Aoun's comments were the most senior confirmation that top politicians had been aware of the stockpile. "The material had been there for seven years, since 2013. It has been there, and they said it is dangerous and I am not responsible. I don't know where it was placed. I don't even know the level of danger. I have no authority to deal directly with the port," he told a news conference. He said that when he was told of the stockpile on July 20, he immediately ordered military and security officials "to do what is needed." "There are ranks that should know their duties, and they were all informed. ... When you refer a document and say, 'Do what is needed,' isn't that an order?" he added. He said the explosion may have been caused by negligence, but the investigation would also look at the possibility that it could have been caused by a bomb or other "external intervention." He said he had asked France, which has close ties to its former colony, for satellite images from the time of the blast to see if they showed any planes or missiles. President Donald Trump said Friday that he had spoken by telephone with Aoun and French President Emmanuel Macron. He did not mention the investigation, but noted that medical supplies, food and water were being sent from the U.S., along with emergency responders, technicians, doctors and nurses. The ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and explosives, originated from a cargo ship called MV Rhosus that had been traveling from the country of Georgia to Mozambique in 2013. It made an unscheduled detour to Beirut as the Russian shipowner was struggling with debts and hoped to earn some extra cash in Lebanon. Unable to pay port fees and reportedly leaking, the ship was impounded. The first known document about it came on Feb. 21, 2014, three months after the ship's arrival. Col. Joseph Skaff, a senior customs official, wrote to the customs authority's anti-smuggling department warning that the material still on board the ship docked at port was "extremely dangerous and endangers public safety." Col. Skaff died in March 2017 in unclear circumstances. He was found near his house in Beirut after allegedly falling from a big height. Medical reports at the time gave different explanations, one saying it was an accident, the other saying there was unusual bruising on his face. On June 27, 2014, Jad Maalouf, a judge for urgent matters, wrote to the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, warning that the ship was carrying dangerous material and could sink. He said the ministry should deal with the ship, remove the ammonium nitrate and "place it in a suitable place that it (the ministry) chooses, and it (the material) should be under its protection." Soon after that, the shipment was moved into Warehouse 12 at the port, where it remained until it exploded. It is unclear if it was officially under the ministry's control. Lebanon's LBC TV station reported that in October 2015, the army intervened after learning of delays in dealing with the shipment. Military intelligence sent an expert who tested the material and found that the nitrogen levels were 34.7%, considered a highly explosive level, LBC said. The army reported to the customs department that the material should be quickly removed, suggesting it be exported. Customs referred the report back to the judge of urgent matters, LBC said. Three military and security officials did not respond to calls and messages from The Associated Press to comment or confirm the report on LBC. Daher, the customs department head, told the AP before his detention that between 2014 and 2017, he and his predecessor sent six letters to the judge warning that the stockpile was dangerous and seeking a ruling on a way to remove or sell it. Daher said it was his duty to alert authorities of the danger but that was the most he could do. He said he never got a reply. Earlier this year, State Security, after investigating the stockpile, issued a five-page report saying the material must be gotten rid of. It said the ammonium nitrate could explode and warned terrorists could steal it, saying one wall of the warehouse had a hole in it and a gate was open. Throughout this period, Lebanon had four prime ministers, including the current one Hassan Diab, who came to office earlier this year as well as multiple government reshuffles. In 2013, when the ship docked, Michel Suleiman was president, followed by two years without a president as political factions wrangled, before finally electing Aoun in October 2016. For decades, Lebanon has been dominated by the same political elites, many of them former warlords and militia commanders from the civil war. The ruling factions use public institutions to accumulate wealth and distribute patronage to supporters. A blind eye is often turned to corruption, and little development is put into institutions. As a result, power outages are frequent, trash is often uncollected and tap water is largely undrinkable. The leader of the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group, whose allies dominate the government, said in a speech Friday that "negligence, corruption, nepotism" had a role in the explosion and must be dealt with. Hassan Nasrallah warned that if no one was held accountable, "we are basically saying to the people there is no state." He also said Hezbollah's domestic opponents were trying to use the blast to stir public opinion against it but would fail. He denied any role by Hezbollah in the disaster. Both Nasrallah and Aoun rejected calls for an international investigation. Since last October, the Lebanese people have held mass protests denouncing the country's entire ruling elite, including Nasrallah. The demonstrations achieved only a rearranging of the names in the government, and largely faded amid the coronavirus pandemic and Lebanon's financial collapse. In a sign of how the public has largely come to expect government inaction, thousands of volunteers have cleaned up streets in the neighborhoods worst hit by the blast. They swept broken glass and reopened roads, helped restaurants and shops clear debris, and salvaged merchandise. They separated rubble into piles of broken glass and mangled metal. Others volunteered to go into destroyed homes to look for medicine, valuables and essential documents for the residents who fled in panic. French and Russian rescue teams with dogs searched the port area on Friday, pulling more bodies from the rubble. Women cried nearby as they waited for news about missing relatives. France has sent a team of 22 investigators to help investigate the cause of the blast. Based on information from Lebanon so far, France's No. 2 forensic police official, Dominique Abbenanti, said Friday the explosion "appears to be an accident" but that it's too early to say for sure. In an interview with the AP, he predicted that the death toll would grow. A JUDGE has commended staff at the Newcastle West branch of Bank of Ireland for their diligence in detecting a fraudulant transaction involving more than 80,000. Judge Tom ODonell made his comments during the sentencing hearing of a single mother who has pleaded guilty to a money laundering offence. Tracey OBrien, 30, of Ash Crescent in the town has admitted concealing the nature and source of a 81,000 lodgment and being reckless as to whether or not the cash was the proceeds of criminal conduct. Detective Garda Elaine OKeefe said the defendant presented at the bank on September 29, 2017 and asked to withdraw 80,000 in cash which had been lodged in her account two days earlier. Because of the amount of money being requested, the matter was referred to a supervisor who established Ms OBriens account had been overdrawn by 14.30 prior to the 81,000 being transferred from a bank account in Germany. Detective Garda OKeefe told Lily Buckley BL, instructed by state solicitor Aidan Judge, that further suspicions arose as bank staff were aware the defendant was unemployed. When asked about the cash, Ms OBrien said it had come from an aunt in Germany and she asked if she could withdraw 20,000 instead to buy a car. No money was released and further inquiries were carried out in relation to the transaction. It was subsequently established the money was obtained fraudulently from a doctor in Germany before being transferred into Ms OBriens account. The defendant later told bank officials she had was to be paid 200 to facilitate the lodging of 80,000 into her account. However, when questioned by gardai in November 2018, she gave a new version of events indicating she had been approached by a Turkish person she met on holidays. Detective Garda OKeefe said gardai believe the original fraud is linked to a West Limerick village but that they have been unable to identify those behind the transfer. She was used but she knows a lot more than she is telling us, she told Ms Buckley. Lorcan Connolly BL said his client has very little money and was duped and used by others. It was folly, it was not intentional criminality, he said asking the court to note her previous good record and her cooperation. Imposing sentence, Judge ODonnell said he was concerned that nobody believes the version of events put forward by Ms OBrien. She was a willing participant in this enterprise, he commented adding that the bank staff were to be congratulated on their vigilance. He imposed an 18 month prison sentence which he suspended in full. For more Limerick news click here Well, looks like were finally getting our first pandemic wedding as popular actor Rana Daggubati is all set to get hitched to his lady love Miheeka Bajaj today. Keeping the circumstances in mind, the bride and grooms families decided to keep the ceremonies an intimate affair with the guest list not going past a total of 30 people. While the wait for wedding pictures to be shared by the bride and groom continues, our cameras caught guests like Samantha Akkineni and Allu Arjun, who were snapped on their way to the ceremony.Samantha was clicked in a dark green saree and Allu Arjun looked sharp in a white shirt and stylish shades. Take a look at the pictures below. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 22:28:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LISBON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- One person died in a plane crash during a major Portuguese-Spanish joint fire-fighting operation in the Peneda-Geres National Park, northern Portugal, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa. The deceased was identified as a 65-year-old Portuguese air pilot. Another occupant of the "Canadair CL215" amphibious tanker was seriously injured after the fall in the northern region of Lindoso. The injured, the second pilot, is a 39-year-old man of Spanish nationality. He was attended on the spot and then transported to a local hospital, said Lusa. Portugal's National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) said in a press release that the plane suffered an accident near the Alto do Lindoso Dam during a "scooping operation," which is the refueling of the water tank. According to ANEPC, the fire-fighting operation has mobilized more than 100 people, 28 vehicles, and ten Portuguese and Spanish fire planes. The fire alert reportedly came from the Portuguese side shortly after 5:00 a.m. local time on Saturday. Enditem Bengaluru, Aug 9 : A youth was killed and three others injured as a pillar of an old temple on the outskirts of Bengaluru fell on them as they and five others dug under it in search of treasure, police said on Saturday. "One treasure hunter got crushed under a pillar, three suffered injuries and have been hospitalised while five are on the run," a police official told IANS. The incident occurred at a centuries-old Anjaneya temple in Hindiganala village near Hoskote, around 50 km away from the city, on Thursday night. Suresh, 23, got crushed to death while Manjunath, 23, Srinivas, 22, and Sebastian Raja Rathna, 22, were injured. Following the unexpected accident, the injured treasure hunters called a 108 ambulance, leading to the entire incident coming to light. The ambulance staff helped the youth stuck under the temple pillars and took them to hospital. Police have registered a case under various sections of the Ancient Monuments Act, the Karnataka Treasure Trove Act, and the Indian Penal Code. According to the official, local youth the village as well as a nearby village were involved in the hunt. Police are on the lookout for the five treasure hunters on the run. However, the police official told IANS that it was an old ruined temple and there was nothing there. BY SARAH RANKIN RICHMOND, Va. Jerry Falwell Jr. agreed Friday to take an indefinite leave of absence as the leader of Liberty University, one of the nations top evangelical Christian colleges, days after apologizing for a social media post that caused an uproar even among fellow conservatives. The private university in Lynchburg, Virginia, gave no reason for Falwell's departure in a one-sentence announcement late Friday afternoon. But it came after Falwell's apology earlier this week for a since-deleted photo he posted online that showed him with his pants unzipped, stomach exposed and his arm around a young woman in a similar pose. The statement said the Executive Committee of Libertys board of trustees, acting on behalf of the full board, met Friday and requested that Falwell take leave as president and chancellor, to which he has agreed, effective immediately. An early and high-profile supporter of President Donald Trump, Falwell has served since 2007 as president of the university founded by his evangelist father, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. He did not immediately return a call seeking comment. University spokesman Scott Lamb said he had no further comment. In an interview this week with Lynchburg radio station WLNI, Falwell said the woman in the photo was his wifes assistant and that the picture had been taken during a costume party while on vacation. Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht, the caption of the photo said, in part. I promise thats just black water in my glass. It was a prop only. He said the woman who also had her midriff exposed was pregnant, couldnt get her pants zipped and he imitated her, saying it was all in good fun. Ive apologized to everybody, and Ive promised my kids ... Im going to try to be a good boy from here on out, he said in the interview. On Thursday, Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina, a pastor who has previously taught at Liberty, called Falwells behavior appalling and said he should resign. In addition to Walker, some pastors who graduated from Liberty spoke out earlier this week calling for a change in leadership at the school. Mark Davis, a Texas-based pastor, tweeted that the name of Christ and the reputation of Liberty will continue to be dishonored without action against Falwell by the board. Colby Garman, a pastor who has served on the executive board of the Southern Baptist Convention of Virginia, tweeted on Monday that it was bewildering to see Falwell maintain the board of trustees support. He responded to Fridays news with appreciation. How is this Jerry Falwell Jr. photo even real? tweeted conservative TV personality Meghan McCain, daughter of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain. Also if youre running the largest Christian university in America maybe dont put photos of yourself on social media with your pants undone on a yacht with random women in bad wigs. So gross, so hypocritical. The late Falwell founded Liberty in 1971 with just 154 students. Under the leadership of Falwell Jr., who is an attorney and not a minister, Liberty has grown into a leading evangelical university, with an immaculate campus and a significant endowment. Students must follow a strict code of conduct that includes modest dress and a ban on alcohol consumption. In recent years, Liberty has served as a regular speaking spot for ambitious Republicans looking to court the young evangelical vote. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz kicked off a presidential campaign there in 2015. Falwell was among the earliest Christian conservatives to endorse Trumps previous election campaign. In late 2016 he told The Associated Press that Trump had offered him the job of education secretary but that he turned it down for personal reasons. The vacation photo was the most recent in a string of controversies Falwell has faced in recent years, in both his role at Liberty and his personal life. Last year, he settled a federal lawsuit in Florida over a real estate venture that involved a young Miami pool attendant, a case that drew national attention. He more recently sparred with Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and local officials in Lynchburg over his handling of coronavirus restrictions. He also faced stinging criticism from a group of Black alumni who said he should step down after he mocked Virginias mask-wearing requirement in a tweet by invoking a blackface scandal that engulfed Northam last year. He later apologized. ___ Associated Press writers Alan Suderman and Elana Schor contributed to this report. Robert P. George criticizes Liberty University for dissolving philosophy department Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Notable Catholic political philosopher Robert P. George is pleading with the prominent Virginia evangelical institution Liberty University to reconsider plans to dissolve its philosophy department. In a blog post submitted to the site Mirror of Justice on Saturday, the 64-year-old Princeton University law professor and author called Liberty's decision a mistake and asked the schools leadership to reverse course. You cannot have a true liberal arts college or university that does not have a vibrant philosophy department or some equivalent institutional way of teaching students what is taught in departments of philosophy, George wrote. Philosophy gives us the tools and motivation and rational justification for asking and seeking by proper methods honestly to answer all the questions that we categorize in other disciplines, from history and economics to chemistry and astronomy. Last week, the Lynchburg-based university announced that it will collapse it's bachelors program in philosophy amid a declining trend in enrollment and declining trends in degree-seeking philosophy students across the United States. Due to the lack of interest, over several years, in a B.A. in Philosophy, we began in the fall of 2019 to collapse the program and to stop accepting new students as we had less than [20] students enrolled and five faculty to service them, a statement from Liberty University reads. A team of some of Libertys best theologians, apologists and philosophers convened to ensure that Liberty continued to integrate and expound upon its curriculum with a deeper focus on theology, apologetics and philosophy. George said that his plea to Liberty comes from a friend who believes in your mission. George added that he had positive experiences when he visited the campus last year and spoke with Liberty students and staff. I know that some people do not regard philosophy as practical (though in truth it is the most practical of all academic disciplines). And I am aware that the need to cut costs often tempts people to cut things that seem impractical, George continued. But far from abolishing philosophy as a course of study at Liberty, you should be strengthening the department (which was already a good one) and encouraging more students to enroll in its courses and even major in the field. Professors impacted by the programs collapse have been offered generous severance packages, according to the university. The school states that the impacted professors are immediately eligible for rehire in any area that they are qualified for at the university. One professor impacted by the decision is Mark Foreman, a professor of philosophy and religion who has taught at the school for over 30 years. In a since-deleted Facebook post, Foreman reportedly wrote that no advanced warning was given to department faculty and that there is no retirement program. In a follow-up post, Foreman assured that he holds no ill-feelings or grudges against Liberty. My 30 years on the faculty have been rewarding and satisfying, Foreman wrote. I have loved my students and colleagues and have been treated well by the administration. I only wish for continued success for the school. Nobody should read anything negative about the university or its administration from my comments. Liberty dissolved its masters program in philosophy in 2015 due to waning enrollment. At the time, Liberty began the process of evaluating its bachelors program and worked toward trying to increase enrollment numbers. In 2012, the bachelors program in philosophy was moved from the School of Divinity to the College of Arts & Sciences. Last June, Liberty cut faculty from its Rawlings School of Divinity due to decreased student enrollment in the department programs. Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. explained to Inside Higher Ed last year that the cuts were a purely business decision that should have been done earlier. Its a cultural shift from full-time ministry workers to Christians in all professions working to make a difference, Falwell explained at the time. According to U.S. News & World Report, Liberty University, one of the largest Christian colleges in the country, has over 79,000 total students enrolled. The decline in the divinity school's enrollment comes as similar trends have impacted other divinity schools around the country. The former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said the death of Buruji Kashamu, a former senator and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), should be seen as a lesson for all mortals. Mr Obasanjo stated this in a condolence message to the Ogun State Government, saying Mr Kashamus passing was sad. The former lawmaker, a controversial politician who for years was wanted by the United States government for alleged drug offences but managed to beat repeated extradition attempts, died in Lagos Saturday from coronavirus complications. Mr Obasanjo prayed to God to forgive Mr Kashamus sins and grant his family and friends fortitude to bear the loss. Senator Esho Jinadu (Buruji Kashmu) in his lifetime used the maneuver of law and politics to escape from facing justice on alleged criminal offence in Nigeria and outside Nigeria, the former president said. But no legal, political, cultural, social or even medical maneuver could stop the cold hands of death when the Creator of all of us decides that the time is up. May Allah forgive his sin and accept his soul into Aljanah, and may God grant his family and friends fortitude to bear the irreparable loss, he wrote. A copy of the condolence letter was made available to journalists by Mr Obasanjos special assistant on media, Kehinde Akinyemi. Governor Abiodun mourns Meanwhile, the Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, has expressed shock over Mr Kashamus death. Both men at different times competed against each other in senatorial and governorship elections. While Mr Kashamu won the Senate race, Mr Abiodun was later elected governor. The governor in a statement on Saturday by his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, described Mr Kashamus passing as one death too many and a devastating blow to the nations political family generally. I received the sad news of the passing of Senator Buruji Kashamu today, 8 August, 2020, with a deep pain and grief that words cannot capture. On behalf of my family, the Government and good people of Ogun State, I convey our deepest condolences. His demise further diminishes the tribe of my close political associates. He was a large-hearted politician and courageous fighter for whatever cause he believed in, he said. He was not just a loving personality, a generous giver and someone who lived for others, he was to many a beacon of hope of a better tomorrow. This painful exit is much more than the end of an individual. Distinguished Senator Kashamu was a phenomenon, he was faithful to his principles and convictions and even his critics would attest to his tenacity of purpose. Our brother and friend was a consummate politician and patriot who will be sorely missed within and outside Ogun State for his larger than life disposition. Posterity will accord him his due recognition for his legacies of service and forthrightness. He was a worthy Ambassador of Ogun State. 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With advice and counsel from our doctor and teacher, we administered a behavior medicine, Concerta. Before taking the medicine, we went over the side effects and considered the risks. Yet when we asked the child to take the medicine, they balked. They had just finished DARE, and *Wasnt that the same as taking drugs? *Werent the side effects worse than being unable to focus in class? That child was nine, and totally right. Our obedient child went ahead with the medicine, but before I gave it, I took a pill myself to see what they were up against. It was wrong of me - yada yada - that conversation's for another day. I just felt like a hypocrite asking my 9-year-old to expose themself to potential harm without being willing to try it myself. Today I found out that Midland Public Schools isnt hosting traditional Curriculum Night wherein parents walk their childrens schedules, visit classrooms, meet teachers, see lockers, see the cafeteria, use the bathrooms, etc. This important event will now be held virtually. I can only guess that this change is for safety concerns. Whose safety? If parents arent willing to enter the schools, sit together in rooms, sanitize the plexiglass, travel hallways, ask questions about the curriculum, etc., how can we ask our kids to do it? Everyone wants students to return to a state of normalcy, get their brains engaged again, but does it feel right to expose them to so many unknowns? Parents, I think you need to actually see the school for a minute before you send your kids, remembering fully that this will be their experience for seven or eight hours each day. You have this advantage: the classrooms will never be cleaner than they are right now. If you wait until November to check things out, Im sure the bloom will be off the rose and your risk may be higher. You also need to walk your childs schedule to share a piece of the emotional experience they will feel sitting in classes all day. Classmates will be sneezing, some will get bloody noses, some will have a cough. Some will bring a water bottle, and it will spill. The same educational stress and social drama that has always been present will still exist in their lives, but the fear of germ transmission will be an added burden. I expect to see an increased need for counselors. We dont have enough. I also expect an increase in disciplinary issues. Since the mass shooting at Columbine High in 1999, schools have been vigilant about creating a safe environment free from outside threat. We have spent millions on teacher training, installed secure entryways and doors, brought in law enforcement officers to be present in the halls. We practice many lock-downs drills.The threat of an active shooter still exists, and the kids know it, but now we will be in classes with the doors and windows open. The pandemic is a far greater threat than an active shooter, but these opposing forces are still present. We should also consider the local ramifications that might stem from an outbreak at any school. When our oldest was in kindergarten, we received a note before holiday break saying theyd been exposed to chicken pox. For Christmas that year, about 14 classmates had chickenpox. In our own house, the virus infected each sibling and we were sick for a full month. I worry about the potential human cost of a school outbreak as well as the monetary cost of the legal follow-up. We need to have a clear plan for the what ifs that may ensue. The school board is still meeting virtually, and the teachers are still having virtual meetings. We havent even allowed the adults to test the water before asking the kids to dive in. If we require schools to open, we had better make sure theyre safe. At the very least, we should ask the parents to visit schools in person for Curriculum Night. They can meet teachers and talk mask-to-mask about the plan for online instruction should it be required. We will all know more about what to expect when we learn by doing. I encourage parents to see for themselves what school will be like for their kids next year. We all know they learn better in classrooms than by sitting at a computer. But we need to do this right, so we dont make it worse. Coreen (Cory) Thompson is a retired Midland Public Schools teacher and former SVL teacher of the year. New Delhi, Aug 8 : The Union Health Ministry on Saturday directed 13 districts including Delhi, which reported 14 per cent of the COVID-19 death toll, to advance the preparedness for critical clinical infrastructure in their hospitals. These districts, which also account for nine per cent of the total active cases, were asked to ensure availability of ICU beds, oxygen supply etc. after assessment of the current caseload and the estimated growth rate. The directions came in a meeting held between top officials of the health ministry and district officers of the thirteen districts. The districts which have been given the directions to ramp up the ICU beds, oxygen supply etc. are Kamrup Metro in Assam; Patna in Bihar; Ranchi in Jharkhand; Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala; Ganjam in Odisha; Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh; 24 Paraganas North, Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata and Maldah in West Bengal; and Delhi. As per the ministry officials, these districts also reported low tests per million and high confirmation percentage, especially Lucknow, Kamrup Metro, Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha. A surge has been observed in the daily new cases in these four districts, the officials added. Several issues critical to reducing case fatality rate were discussed during the meeting in view of incidents reported from a few districts where patients died within 48 hours of admission to the hospitals. "They were advised to ensure timely referral and hospitalization while ensuring the availability of ambulances with zero tolerance for refusal," the statement by the health ministry read. The states were advised to address several issues leading to a high rate of mortality and active COVID-19 cases. The issues of low lab utilisation, i.e. less than 100 tests per day for RT-PCR and 10 for others; low tests per million population; decrease in absolute tests from last week; delay in test results; and high confirmation percentage among the health care workers were also addressed, the officials added. The health ministry officials also emphasized the need to ensure monitoring asymptomatic cases under home isolation with particular focus on physical visits/phone consultation daily. Besides, the ministry reiterated to state authorities to attend the virtual sessions by AIIMS, New Delhi, which happen twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays where a specialist team of doctors guides about effective clinical management of COVID-19 patients in the ICUs through tele/video consultation. "It will help to reduce the case fatality rate," the direction read. The State authorities were advised to ensure that State Centers of Excellence and other hospitals participate in these virtual sessions regularly to improve clinical practices. Clinical Workflow Solution Market Research Report by Type (Care Collaboration Solutions, Data Integration Solutions, Enterprise Reporting & Analytics Solutions, Other Care Collaboration Solutions, and Real-Time Communication Solutions), by End User (Ambulatory Care Centers, Home care settings, and Hospitals) - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 New York, Aug. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Clinical Workflow Solution Market Research Report by Type, by End User - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913849/?utm_source=GNW The Global Clinical Workflow Solution Market is expected to grow from USD 6,089.52 Million in 2019 to USD 11,381.98 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.98%. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Clinical Workflow Solution to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Type, the Clinical Workflow Solution Market studied across Care Collaboration Solutions, Data Integration Solutions, Enterprise Reporting & Analytics Solutions, Other Care Collaboration Solutions, Real-Time Communication Solutions, and Workflow Automation Solutions. The Care Collaboration Solutions further studied across Medication Administration Solutions, Perinatal Care Management Solutions, and Rounding Solutions. The Data Integration Solutions further studied across EMR Integration Solutions and Medical Image Integration Solutions. The Real-Time Communication Solutions further studied across Nurse Call Alert Systems and Unified Communication Solutions. The Workflow Automation Solutions further studied across Nursing & Staff Scheduling Solutions and Patient Flow Management Solutions. Based on End User, the Clinical Workflow Solution Market studied across Ambulatory Care Centers, Home care settings, and Hospitals. Based on Geography, the Clinical Workflow Solution Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed 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 Clinical Workflow Solution Market including Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc., American Well, Ascom Holding AG, Cerner Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., GE Healthcare, Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc., Infor, Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., Mckesson Corporation, Novarad, Physicians Computer Company, Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., and Voalte. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Clinical Workflow Solution 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 the market 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 Clinical Workflow Solution Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Clinical Workflow Solution Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Clinical Workflow Solution Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Clinical Workflow Solution Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Clinical Workflow Solution Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Clinical Workflow Solution Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913849/?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. __________________________ Story continues CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 There were 17 new cases of COVID-19 discovered in Manitoba on Friday, including 10 in Prairie Mountain Health. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/8/2020 (529 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us There were 17 new cases of COVID-19 discovered in Manitoba on Friday, including 10 in Prairie Mountain Health. Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said that the cases in the Brandon cluster are still not believed to be workplace-transmitted, despite four more employees at the Maple Leaf Foods pork processing plant testing positive for the virus. There are now eight Maple Leaf employees who have tested positive for the virus. The total number of cases connected to the Brandon cluster is 34, six higher than Thursday's count. There are now 132 active cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba, with nine people hospitalized and three in intensive care. The five-day test positivity rate is currently at 1.1 per cent, up from 0.46 per cent on Tuesday. While Roussin has yet to specifically name Maple Leaf, he did bring up the positive case detected in a Tim Hortons employee in Brandon first reported by the Sun on Thursday. He said that possible exposure to the virus may have occurred at the restaurant on Aug. 1, although the risk of transmission from that case is considered to be low. Asked by the Sun if there is any risk from a positive case in an employee at the Brandon Walmart first announced yesterday, Roussin said an investigation determined that the employee was not working while contagious. The employee last worked at the Walmart on July 26, according to an email from Walmart's corporate media relations team to the Sun sent on Thursday. The Brandon Sun Despite a steady fall in coronavirus infection rates, it is too early to discount the possibility of a second surge in cases For the first time in four months, Egypts daily toll of coronavirus cases dropped below 200 this week. In a cabinet meeting on 29 June, Health Minister Hala Zayed highlighted a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which stated that Egypt has the lowest infection rate in the Middle East. Between 28 June and 3 July, 2,158 coronavirus cases were detected nationwide, compared to 4,080 cases between 21 and 27 June. On Monday, the Health Ministry announced 157 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number to 94,640 since the first case in Egypt was registered on 14 February. Islam Anan, an epidemics specialist and a pharmaeconomics lecturer at Misr International University, warned on his Facebook page on Monday that announcing the headline fall in the number of infections without releasing the figures of each governorate, or providing information on the number of swabs taken each day, could foster a false sense of security among the public and lead to a reduction in the wearing of masks. Following Eid Al-Fitr holiday two months ago coronavirus infection rates noticeably increased despite stricter preventive measures, including a night-time curfew. At the time, officials said the hike in infections could be attributed to reckless behaviour and a disregard for the protective measures in place. This week, a month after Egypt gradually began lifting its coronavirus restrictions, Eid Al-Adha was celebrated. It is a feast usually marked by gatherings. On 27 June Egypt began lifting many of the restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus, including cancelling the curfew and allowing cafes, cinemas, restaurants and gyms to reopen. A combination of the coronavirus outbreak, hot weather, summer vacation, and Eid Al-Adha five-day holiday left Cairos streets emptier than usual. Unlike Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha was not accompanied by a suspension of transport or travel ban between governorates, and many people took the opportunity to head to the coast for the holiday. Hisham Al-Shaer, a member of the board of the Chamber of Tourism Establishments, said in a telephone interview with state-owned Channel One on Saturday that there was a surge in demand for hotels and tourist resorts during the vacation along Egypts north and Red Sea coasts. Egyptian hotels that have hygiene safety certificates were allowed to increase their occupancy rates to 50 per cent as of 1 July, double the 25 per cent cap that applied during Eid Al-Fitr. There are more than 600 certified hotels and resorts nationwide. Several holiday-makers who travelled to the North Coast told Al-Ahram Weekly that though the pandemic should have cast a shadow over their holiday, they did not feel any difference to their vacation at the same time last year. Tourist villages and hotel beaches were open, sea activities available, and many cafes and restaurants operated beyond the official closing time of 12am, with a few even serving banned shishas. Ahmed Sami, a 35-year-old father of two, told the Weekly that life is going on as usual in Sahel, except for the wearing of masks in supermarkets. North Coast beaches are nearly full, many cafes and restaurants failed to adhere to the 50 per cent maximum occupancy rate, and almost all of them were operating beyond the limited hours, said Sami. From 26 July, restaurants and cafes were allowed to remain open till midnight rather than 10 pm, and permitted occupancy rates were increased from 25 per cent to 50. Yasmin Zahi travelled to Sahel with her family during the feast. After three months of lockdown, we could not take it any longer, she said. The number of infections is decreasing by the day, thank God, and this reassured us. Like much of the public, Hossam Hosni, head of the Health Ministrys Scientific Committee to Combat Coronavirus, believes Egypt has managed to control the pandemic. I dont say we have defeated the virus, but we have controlled it, Hosni said on TV. He added that he was expecting zero cases by mid-September, provided the public continue to adhere to preventative measures. Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli last week attributed the resurgence in some countries of Covid-19 to the lack of awareness and non-compliance with the preventative measures. Madbouli called on Egyptians to continue to adhere to all precautions, including social distancing and wearing face masks in crowded places, to help the country keep the daily infection tally low and prevent a possible resurgence. If coronavirus cases resurge, the government will be forced to restore stricter measures, he said. The Health Ministry began the process of shutting down makeshift isolation facilities at youth hostels on 8 June, and on 28 July the last patients isolated in youth hostels were discharged. The ministry has also wound down several isolation hospitals. Any sudden increase in numbers, however, will see a shift in track. Dr Jihan Al-Assal, vice president of the Health Ministrys Scientific Committee, said last week that Egypt is ready to deal with any possible second wave of coronavirus. There are comprehensive preparations for any second wave, Al-Assal said in telephone interview with state TV. Like Madbouli, Al-Assal warned the public they should continue to socially distance and wear masks. Do not feel safe until a vaccine arrives, she said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom said during a virtual news briefing on Monday that a number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials and we all hope to have effective vaccines that can help prevent infections, however, theres no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be. Among the WHO list of candidate vaccines in global pre-clinical evaluation are four local products that Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar announced last month. The four vaccines, which have not yet been approved for human clinical trials, include DNA plasmid, inactivated-whole virus, influenza A H1N1 vector, and protein subunit vaccines. *A version of this article appears in print in the 6 August, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under headline: The numbers game Search Keywords: Short link: Ontario Premier Doug Ford makes an announcement regarding the governments plan for a safe reopening of schools in the fall at Father Leo J. Austin Catholic Secondary School in Whitby, Ont., on July 30, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette) No Plan to Reduce Class Sizes in Ontarios Back-to-School Strategy, Ford Says Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce touted the merits of the provinces back-to-school plan on Friday, while Ford defended the decision not to reduce class sizes when students return to school in September. Despite concerns raised by unions as well as some teachers and parents about elementary class sizes, Ford argued against mandating smaller classes across the province, noting the case load is different in different regions. One size doesnt fit all, he said at a news conference at Queens Park on Aug 7. We have the lowest number of kids in the classroom in the country. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce walk along a hallway at Father Leo J. Austin Catholic Secondary School before making an announcement on the governments plan for a safe reopening of schools in the fall, in Whitby, Ont., on July 30, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette) Instead, Lecce stressed some of the safety measures that will be implemented after schools are reopened, such as a mandatory mask policy for Grades 4 to 12, limiting the interactions among students during the school day, and hiring additional custodians and public health nurses. Weve put the investments in place, we lead the nation in the context of that investment. Were also open and willing and stand ready to listen to our medical leaders to do more to further de-risk the circumstances and keep these kids safe, which is our obligation, Lecce said. Released last week, Ontarios school reopening plan for the provinces 2 million students does not mandate a reduction in class sizes for students from kindergarten to Grade 8, but says these students should be prevented from interacting with peers in other classes. High school class sizes in all but two dozen school boards are to remain the same as well. In those 24 boards, including the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), high school students will attend class only half the time in cohorts of 15. The rest of the time, theyll do school work remotely. Parents can also choose to keep their kids out of school and have them learn at home. Of the $309 million earmarked for the reopening plan, $30 million will go toward hiring more staff. The provinces four major teachers unions agree that students should be in class full time, but want reduced class sizes. Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, told CBC News on July 31 that the reopening plan will fail because smaller classes are the priority strategy for a safe return to school. Its going to leave parents and students and educators in a continued state of anxiety, he said. Toronto Public Health Expresses Concerns In a letter to the TDSB, associate medical officer of health Dr. Vinita Dubey said Toronto Public Health is worried about the risk of COVID-19 spreading if class sizes remain the same. In elementary classes (junior kindergarten to Grade 3) where masks are not required, smaller class sizes will particularly be important to ensure students can be spaced out to reduce transmission, Dubey wrote. She said teachers will be able to better control classes and prevent crowding in hallways if class sizes are reduced, noting that smaller classes will also make physical distancing easier. Scientifically, it has been shown that keeping a distance of two metres from others works well to prevent the spread of respiratory droplets from one person to another, she wrote, adding that desks should be spaced out accordingly. New Funding for Child Care Ford also announced on Aug 7 that $234.6 million would start flowing to licensed daycare providers, First Nations Child and Family Programs, and other child-care operators in the coming weeks. The money comes as part of the Safe Restart Agreement, a $19 billion deal between Ottawa and the provinces and territories, of which Ontario will receive $7 billion. This is about giving parents certainty, Ford said, This is about giving their employers certainty. And above all its about protecting our kids and the staff who care for them. Ford said the money will be used to allow the province to provide face coverings for staff in child-care settings, hire new employees if needed, and otherwise bolster cleaning and public health protocols. Lecce, who oversees the provinces child-care portfolio, said the money could also be used to retrofit school-based daycare locations to make them safer, as well as offset revenue losses from the months when child-care centres were closed or operating at a limited capacity. He said the money would flow in short order, but did not provide a specific date. Ontarios child-care centres, shuttered during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been gradually ramping up operations since June, when the province began moving regions into Stage 2 of its pandemic recovery plan. Child-care providers have previously said they were not receiving promised funding on time, leaving staff either unable to open their facilities or to safely care for as many children as they wished. The government has said that daycares have the green light to operate at 100 percent capacity once again as of Sept. 1. With files from The Canadian Press. A pandemic-fuelled thirst for beer and soft drinks has left beverage manufacturers across Canada with a hard-to-swallow shortage of aluminum containers. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/8/2020 (529 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A pandemic-fuelled thirst for beer and soft drinks has left beverage manufacturers across Canada with a hard-to-swallow shortage of aluminum containers. And industry experts are predicting that what began because of COVID-19 in March will continue because of cross-border retaliatory tariffs. The only way we made ends meet then was by pivoting to making hand sanitizers instead of beer, said Oxus Brewing Company owner, Sean Shoyoqubov. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press) "We began the difficult conversations when around half our business wiped out once restaurants and bars shuttered," said Steve Beauchesne, CEO of Beaus Brewing, which delivers kegs and cans from coast to coast out of Ontario. Then, he says, "people turned to cans and deliveries, which began an internal scramble to meet the demand." Like Beaus, several independent brewers say the unprecedented shortage has meant orders placed during the early days of the pandemic have yet to be delivered. "Manufacturers told us they just dont have stock anymore," said Sean Shoyoqubov of Winnipeg's Oxus Brewing. "The only way we made ends meet then was by pivoting to making hand sanitizers instead of beer." Even Canadas oldest independent brewer said it continues to face pressure. "Due to supplier production limitations, as well as increased demand from consumers... we are seeing pressure on our can supply adding to existing supply-chain challenges resulting from COVID-19," New Brunswick-based Moosehead Breweries told the Free Press via email. And to make matters worse, aluminum manufacturers have recently begun to play favourites creating more problems for their customers, Beauchesne said, explaining that in the past, Beau's was able to order cans directly. "But now weve started working with brokers who do the talking and lobby for us on our behalf," he said. "The whole thing hit us in waves and it hit us hard, maybe though because so much of our beer went straight to tap rooms and bars." Even multinational beverage giants are facing shortage issues. At Molson Coors, spokesperson Marty Maloney said its been a concern over the past several months, owing to a worldwide shortage of aluminum affecting "anyone who makes anything sold in cans from beer to pop to sparkling water and beyond." While our members are implementing contingency plans to mitigate these challenges, some products will be temporarily unavailable." Canadian Beverage Association president Jim Goetz The Canadian Beverage Association, which represents dozens of companies that make pop, juice, sparkling water, energy drinks and coffee said all 120 of its members' plants have been affected. "While our members are implementing contingency plans to mitigate these challenges, some products will be temporarily unavailable," said association president Jim Goetz. Cornell University business management professor Vishal Gaur said the shortage will take "a long time to level out." Gaur said his MBA class plays a game using beer to stimulate what economists refer to as the "bullwhip effect." "It mimics a supply chain for beer which faces a sudden surge in demand, leading to shockwaves that percolate upstream, causing stockouts, inventory pileups and cost," he said. For Molson Coors, Maloney said a recent change in industry-standard sizes for beverages that reduced can capacity from 473 to 355 millilitres, has mitigated some of the damage. "While we cant speak for our competitors, the good news is that because of the actions our supply chain and procurement teams have taken from the outset, the 355-ml industry-standard can situation is improving for our business," he said. Those changes have helped elsewhere, but only incrementally. 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. "Brewers might want to start looking elsewhere," said Lindsay Gillanders from Manitoba-based Capital K Distillery, which faced plastic bottle shortages instead of can-related issues from April to June. "We used to get things shipped in from China," she said. "Now, weve found other local suppliers and thats made things easier although it still hasnt normalized completely." Almost all of Canadas aluminum cans are shipped from the U.S., and now a cross-border battle looms, following President Donald Trumps announcement Thursday that he intends to reimpose 10 per cent tariffs on aluminum imported from Canada. Canadian officials indicated Friday the country plans to retaliate by imposing taxes of up to $16.6 billion on steel, aluminum and hundreds of other products coming into the country from the United States. temur.durrani@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @temurdur Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-09 04:57:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A woman wearing a face mask walks in the street of Algiers, Algeria, Aug. 9, 2020. The Algerian government announced the adjustment of the partial lockdowns in 29 provinces starting Sunday, according to a statement of the prime minister's office. (Xinhua) ALGIERS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Algerian government announced the adjustment of the partial lockdowns in 29 provinces starting Sunday, according to a statement of the prime minister's office. The curfew will be adjusted from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. until Aug. 31 in the 29 provinces, said Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad said in the statement. Governors of each province could take all the measures required to combat the COVID-19, he added. The government has also lifted the ban on road traffic for passenger vehicles from and to the 29 provinces, according to the statement. Algeria on Saturday reported 538 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number in the North African country to 33,693 including 1,293 deaths. By Express News Service CHENNAI: In a significant dip, the number of streets with active COVID-19 cases in Chennai have come down from 8,402 on July 5 to 513 on August 7, while the containment zones in the city are just 23 now, across the 15 Corporation zones. Among the zones, Ambattur has the highest number of streets - 67 - with active cases of 1419, which is 21 per cent in the zone. The zone remains to be worst affected, followed by Kodambakkam, which has 63 streets with a total active cases of 1347. Anna Nagar has 48 streets with active cases, while Tondiarpet has 42 and Royapuram has 38. While Chennai has active cases of 11 percent, the zones Tondiarpet, Royapuram and Teynampet are below ten percent, while at Manali, it is just four percent. Nine Corporation zones are free of containment zones, while three more zones - Thiruvika Nagar, Teynampet and Valsaravakkam - which has only one containment zone, are likely to be removed from the list too. Officials credit the micro level containment like door to door screening and fever camps for more streets coming out of the Covid-19 positive list. While majority corporation zones are out of risk now, officials seem to be battling hard to contain the spread at Ambattur and Anna Nagar, where cases are seeing a rise. Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said the civic body has intensified containment work in the zones Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Kodambakkam and Valsaravakkam. The doubling time of Covid-19 cases in Chennai is 72.2 days, while in some north Chennai zones, the trend is 150 days. We are looking forward to bringing out the same results in the central and south zones too, Prakash said. An average of 12,000 RTPCR tests are done in the city every day with a positivity rate of eight percent and a total recovery of 87 per cent. Except for Ambattur, which has a recovery percentage of 77, rest of the other zones have a recovery rate of more than 80 percent, while four zones - Manali, Tondiarpet, Royapuram and Teynampet - have more than 90 percent. With the city heading close to 8 lakh RTPCR tests, the cumulative positivity rate stands at 13 percent now. By the end of August, we will try to bring down the positivity rate to 6 percent and the curve will flatten gradually, Prakash said. He added that the containment activities, including high number of RT PCR tests, will continue for the next four months in the city. A Chinese citizen has been arrested by the police for spreading online rumours claiming that poor quality of army vehicles and internal corruption caused the death of Chinese soldiers during the clash with Indian border troops. A brief write-up on the Peoples Liberation Armys (PLA) English website said the suspect, identified as Zhou Liying, circulated rumours earlier this month claiming that the company Dongfeng Off-road Vehicle Co supplied poor-quality vehicles, causing the deaths of Chinese soldiers. The write-up did not specify the date or place of the clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers. Recently, a netizen surnamed Zhou was arrested by the police in accordance with the law, because he spread the rumours online by saying that the poor quality of military vehicles supplied by the Dongfeng Off-road Vehicle Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as Dongfeng) has caused the death of Chinese soldiers during the China-India border clash, the write-up published in eng.chinamil.com.cn said. Indian and Chinese soldiers were involved in a brutal brawl at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on June 15. The Indian army lost 20 soldiers during the hand-to-hand clash but China is yet to reveal the number of casualties it suffered in the fight. On August 3, after learning via the Internet that online-user Zhou had posted rumours on his WeChat moments by claiming that internal corruption of the Dongfeng Company had led to the poor quality of the its military vehicles, which resulted in the casualties of Chinese soldiers on the China-India border, the Dongfeng Company immediately reported to the local police and established a special working group to investigate and verify the case, the website reported. At about 1800 on August 4, Zhou was arrested by local police. He confessed to his crime of rumour-mongering, showed remorse, and wrote a sincere apology letter. The website also published the confession letter written by Zhou in Chinese along with the story. In the confession letter, Zhou wrote that he fabricated the story on the evening of August 2 after drinking. Zhou wrote that he made up that poor quality of vehicles caused the death of Chinese soldiers and 500 vehicles of the Dongfeng company had to be recalled. The social media update was then forwarded by friends and family, he wrote. Zhou then deeply apologised to netizens and the Dongfeng company and said in the letter that he was willing to accept the treatment from relevant departments. I hope that the majority of netizens can learn from me, (and) do not make rumours, do not believe rumours, do not spread rumours, he wrote. The Dongfeng company has been engaged in the R&D and manufacturing of high-mobility off-road vehicles for military operations for a long time, being considered as Chinas top military vehicles manufacturer, the write-up said. The website eng.chinamil.com.cn is the only official English language military news website of PLA. Authorised by the Central Military Commission of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and sponsored by the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) News Media Center, China Military Online is the only official English-language military news website of the Chinese Armed Forces and an important platform for building up the online international communication capacity of the Chinese military, the website says. To boost 'self-reliant India' endeavour, Union minister on Saturday urged the industry to identify the sectors heavily reliant on imports, particularly from China, and look for substitutes towards indigenous production to make India a super power. Asserting that a case study is in the offing based on three years of imports and exports, Gadkari said China's 70 per cent of pertained to ten sectors that included electrical machinery and equipment accounting for 26.09 per cent of its worth USD 671 billion and machinery including computers grabbing 10.70 per cent of its worth USD 417 billion. Road Transport, Highways and MSME Minister Gadkari while addressing a CII event "India@75 Summit - Mission 2022" urged the industry to look beyond metropolises and developed cities to lay a network of industries and ventures in rural, far-flung and tribal areas which never grabbed attention. "It pains me that 90 per cent of the focus of industry bodies is on major industries in big cities and metropolises. There is seldom any focus on rural, tribal and remote areas. There is a need to change it... Advance sector wise planning is the need of the hour to make India a super power," Gadkari said. "China's 70 per cent of exports are from 10 sectors," Gadkari said and urged CII to identify what was imported in India and how can that be replaced with indigenous production for 'self-reliance' while assuring all government support in this initiative. He said of the China's exports, apart from machinery and equipment, furniture and related things accounted for exports worth USD 100 billion, plastics products (USD 84 billion), vehicles (74.40 billion) and clothings (USD 66.80 billion). "CII should identify sectors to boost exports and reduce imports. In some areas we will have to increase import duty to encourage Indian manufacturers," he said. Assuring all possible help to the industry for making rural and tribal areas their hub, the minister said a wide network of highways, railways and waterways was bound to bring down logistics cost. He also said that a host of initiatives including redefining the definition of MSMEs will yield rich dividends. The minister informed that the government is working on a scheme for inclusion of smallest units under the MSME ambit and providing for their micro-financial requirements. He also stressed the need for upgradation of technology by industry players and urged them to explore joint ventures to bring in foreign low cost capital. In addition, he urged the industry to come up with the list of obsolete legislations hindering their growth so that steps could be taken to facilitate new ventures besides. "There is an urgent need to create employment, and focussing on rural, agriculture, tribal and village areas including 115 aspirational districts could be beneficial. The target is to shift about 7-8 per cent of population from overcrowded cities to upcoming smart cities and villages," the minister said. He exhorted the industry to explore investment opportunities on the sides of proposed 22 new expressways. He also asked the industry body CII to draft a proposal for insurance of highway stretches, saying this will do away the requirement of bank guarantees. "This will speed up financial closure of road projects and finance raising, facilitating faster project completions," he said. The minister also said that he was in discussion with Uttarakhand government for developing Auli, a famous tourist destination, into a world-class place so that it becomes a venue for events like the World Economic Forum that takes place in Davos, Switzerland. (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.) The first sign of trouble was the unusually high number of new Twitter notifications that had pinged overnight on my mobile phone, writes Gillian Philip, who is pictured above The first sign of trouble was the unusually high number of new Twitter notifications that had pinged overnight on my mobile phone. As a successful author with an established social media profile, Im used to a steady stream of messages, but this ran to hundreds. And the tone of them was different horribly so. Instead of chat from book-lovers, there was an onslaught of abusive tweets anonymous, of course that contained among them threats of death and sexual violence. In case that was too subtle, several contributors decorated their messages with images of guns. Im going to punch u in the throat declared one of those that are printable. It was far from a pleasant start to my day but, if Im honest, I had been expecting at least some negative reaction. The reason? I had dared to offer support on Twitter for J.K. Rowlings stand against allowing transgender people to self-identify as male or female. What did surprise and devastate me was the cataclysmic fallout over the next 24 hours of posting the simple hashtag #IStandWithJKRowling. I couldnt have dared to imagine the damage that it was possible for a faceless mob of trolls to inflict. But much more of a shock was the spineless way that my publishers capitulated in the face of this foam-flecked online protest. They summarily sacked me and, in doing so, destroyed my livelihood without making any attempt to hear my side of the story. My writing career began in the early 2000s when my twins, now aged 19, started at school. I initially wrote young adult books under my own name and was then invited to work for what is called a book packaging company. These are the middlemen of childrens literature who come up with an idea for a series of books, gather a team of authors to write under one pseudonym and then present the finished product to a publisher. After a few years I was hired by London-based Working Partners and joined a team writing animal fantasy novels for children aged between eight and 12 under the name Erin Hunter. What did surprise and devastate me was the cataclysmic fallout over the next 24 hours of posting the simple hashtag #IStandWithJKRowling. I couldnt have dared to imagine the damage that it was possible for a faceless mob of trolls to inflict. J.K. Rowling is pictured above I loved the work and before long it came to represent 80 to 90 per cent of my income. I am mindful of the age of my readers and it was important to me that younger people were able to experience different lives and put themselves into other peoples heads through my books. I carried out eight promotional tours of the US for Erin Hunters publisher HarperCollins. The brand is huge in America and I would travel from California to Kentucky meeting young fans in schools and bookshops and sharing with them my love of writing. I already had a professional Twitter account and was soon being followed by many Erin Hunter fans. However, a few years ago, and before the J.K. Rowling controversy, I tweeted my opinion on the self-identification issue something that my agent advised against. Im not remotely transphobic, but the idea that a man can simply declare himself to be a woman, fully intact, without surgery or hormones, and be allowed into womens prisons or hospital wards is a crazy situation that I sometimes want to shout about. So I set up an anonymous account and used that to express those opinions, leaving my professional account for promoting my books. Then, late last year, a friend of mine, the poet Rachel Rooney, was accused of transphobia. She had written a really sweet picture book called My Body Is Me about body positivity and how no ones body is wrong. Her crime was that she wrote the book to counteract what she described as an explosion of titles promoting the idea that children who felt confused about their gender may be trapped in the wrong body . She received such a vicious backlash not only from activists, but also other authors that she actually gave up childrens writing. I was angry about that and told my followers as much, but also directed them to my anonymous account should they wish to hear my views for adults. At that point, the managing editor of Working Partners, James Noble (more of him later), who was already a follower of my professional account, simply followed my personal account as well. Then the J.K. Rowling controversy exploded in June. As people will recall, she retweeted an article referring to people who menstruate and questioned why it avoided using the word women. It was greeted by an avalanche of criticism from the trans lobby, along with some of the actors who had enjoyed so much success as a result of the Harry Potter films, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. After she wrote an essay in response, revealing that she was a survivor of domestic abuse and arguing that allowing trans women access to single-sex spaces was a danger to women, I felt morally unable to stay silent, so added #IStandWithJKRowling to my Twitter handle. I know a lot of writers who disagree with the hardest line of trans ideology that anyone has the right to legally self-identify as whichever gender they please yet are far too scared to speak out. But I wanted to be able to look at myself in the mirror in the morning. However, no level of furious response that I could ever have anticipated matched the venom I received. I tried blocking the abusers, but they switched to other accounts and kept pursuing me in greater and greater numbers. Some people would have ignored it but I felt that I could not. I was getting riled and retweeted some of the comments, adding my own comebacks such as, Not very original. Yes, I was snarky and snippy but no worse than that because a lot of my followers are minors (although there was no way of telling if my tormentors were children or 30-year-old men living in their mums basements). Soon emails began to arrive on my website and Facebook page. I took a screenshot of one abusive email and tweeted it. To my regret, I forgot to blank out the senders address, sparking a fresh wave of vitriol from people claiming that Id doxed [published private identifying information of] a minor. In fact, as I later learned, it was a fake email address. That night, I crawled exhausted into bed at 5am and woke a few hours later to find several missed calls from my agent. When I called her back, she said that Chris Snowdon, the managing director of Working Partners, wanted to speak to me. He was quite sympathetic, but explained that he didnt know how HarperCollins would react and we would have to wait until 9am New York time (2pm in London) for their response. I was concerned, but not unduly, since the people at HarperCollins had always praised my writing and Id twice completed US book tours for them despite family medical emergencies back home. Moreover, Id never been particularly struck by signs of wokeness at the company. They are, after all, part of Rupert Murdochs empire and will later this year publish Piers Morgans new book Wake Up, billed as an attack on the very cancel culture of which I was about to become a victim. However, the news from New York was devastating. HarperCollins say youre out, Chris told me. They dont want you involved in any of the books and dont want your name on any of the books. I was technically dismissed by Working Partners rather than HarperCollins, as my contract was with them, not the US-based publisher. But although HarperCollins insist that they played no role in the decision, I believe they were calling the shots. Initially I was told the reason for my dismissal was because of the tone Id taken with those who had abused me on Twitter. Some might argue that responding with comments such as Bring it on, homophobes and lesbian haters kicked the hornets nest. I can only ask them to imagine how they would feel coming under relentless, hate-filled attack for hours on end. My agent told me that HarperCollins would be issuing a public statement. Instead, it was James Noble at Working Partners who sent an email to those who had complained. As soon as I saw it, it was clear it was my views, rather than my behaviour, that had led to my dismissal. The worlds created by Erin Hunter are meant to be inclusive for all readers and we want to let you know that Gillian Philip will no longer be writing any Erin Hunter novels, he wrote. Confusingly, I was given an entirely different reason by Working Partners, via my agent, a few days later. This time, they claimed I had sworn at a fan during the Twitter row. I have no memory of this and do not believe that it happened. By then, Id deleted my accounts, but asked for evidence to support their assertion. Working Partners replied that doing so wouldnt be helpful. If, in a moment of rage, I did swear (and I dont believe that I did), it seems likely to me that one or more of the trolls would have gleefully taken a screenshot to plaster across the internet and Ive never seen it. When The Mail on Sunday published a story about my sacking, HarperCollins provided a comment to the newspaper that made me sound like a distant relative, rather than someone who had written many of their successful books. I tried blocking the abusers, but they switched to other accounts and kept pursuing me in greater and greater numbers. Some people would have ignored it but I felt that I could not. I was getting riled and retweeted some of the comments, adding my own comebacks such as, Not very original [File photo] HarperCollins UK does not have a contract with this author, we have no direct relationship with her and we have not sacked her, it stated. This jars with a letter I have subsequently received from Working Partners stating they were informed by the primary publisher [HarperCollins] that they were no longer able to proceed with books 8 and 9 of Erin Hunters Bravelands series with me as the author. Both HarperCollins and Working Partners declined to comment to The Mail on Sunday about my case last night. Now, as I contemplate writing again as myself rather than Erin Hunter, Im left asking if cancellation has become the default corporate response to mob pressure. Despite a record of good work and dedication, I wasnt consulted by HarperCollins before the axe fell. Instead, they chose to listen only to an anonymous band of trolls. Surely we should be teaching children how to think and how to engage in reasoned argument so that they listen as well as shout? Instead, the message is, Join a Twitter pile-on and get a grown-up cancelled within 24 hours. Instant gratification for young keyboard warriors, but what a dismal lesson for life. Andi Peters has praised ITV for 'getting more black faces on television' days before his debut on Lorraine. The TV presenter, 50, is set to take the helm on of the talk show for two weeks from Monday, after being picked for the role by Lorraine Kelly, 60, in July alongside Christine Lampard to front the show during her seasonal break. Speaking to The Mirror on Saturday, Andi said of being given the role: 'Its great they have asked me to do it. Im chuffed. Delighted: Andi Peters praised ITV for 'getting more black faces on television' on Saturday, as he prepares to take the helm of Lorraine Kelly's talk show next week 'Its a real break from tradition and it's a great statement from the channel about getting more black faces on television in lead roles as opposed to support roles, which is really important and we mustnt shy away from that fact. 'I love Lorraine, Ive known her for ten years, Im on her show every day and its great to be part of that family. So, sitting in for her is an honour, Lorraine is an institution.' Following Lorraine's announcement last month, Andi, who has long presented competition slots on the show, said: 'Im looking forward to chatting to people and having a whole hour to actually relax into it. Im a bit of a chatterbox. 'Ill enjoy having guests on, who want to have a bit of a chinwag and also to be able to do some serious stuff. I am happy and jolly, and that will always be there, but obviously I do have an opinion... Im genuinely really excited.' Diversity: Meanwhile, amid calls for This Morning to hire permanent non-white stars to present the show, Rochelle Humes (pictured), Ore Oduba and Alison Hammond are now on the rosta High praise: Andi takes over Lorraine from Monday, and said: 'Its a real break from tradition and it's a great statement from the channel about getting more black faces on television' Meanwhile, amid calls for This Morning to hire permanent non-white stars to present the show, Rochelle Humes joins Ore Oduba and Alison Hammond on the presenting rosta, while hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield take their summer break. The new guest presenter lineup comes after The Mail on Sunday revealed that the programme's editor is seeking to change the line-up to include a permanent black presenter. In a video conference call with staff last month, the programme's editor Martin Frizell said: 'There is not a black presenter on any of the programmes today. 'We plan to change that, we [This Morning] are looking into it.' This Morning has never had a main black presenter since it launched 32 years ago. Presenters: Andi was picked for the role by Lorraine Kelly in July alongside Christine Lampard to front the show during her seasonal break (pictured: Andi and Christine last month) Hosts with the most: Rochelle has been co-hosting Friday's This Morning in Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield's place, and was joined by Ore for several shows Frizell admitted that finding a black candidate 'won't be easy' and while there is no suggestion that either Holly or Phillip are leaving, there will inevitably be speculation that the move could bring an end to their 11-year partnership on This Morning. An ITV source said: 'It's a tough one for Martin. He appeared to really mean what he said so it will be difficult to simply give the presenter the once-a-week Friday slot because he would leave himself open to claims of tokenism.' Another show insider said: 'Kudos to Frizell for being the first ITV boss to pledge to make this happen. What we are all wondering now is, 'Will anyone go and, if so, who?' ' Last October, The Mail on Sunday revealed that the channel had failed to feature a single non-white main host on its entire daytime schedule, although some supporting presenters were from ethnic minorities. Great line-up: Fashion correspondent Rochelle and This Morning regular Alison (pictured last month) will also co-host episodes during the summer months Comeback: Ore previously stood in for Phil in November 2016 and March 2017 (pictured) In July the Good Morning Britain star interrupted his segment on the show to make an emotional plea to viewers about Black Lives Matter. The show stalwart took a break from announcing a competition in his home garage to urge fans to continue discussing the movement and insisted he needed to make the plea as 'one of the only black people on the show'. He said: 'I just want to say something as I can, as one of the only black people on this show, it is so important that we all keep talking. It really is. People meet me in the street and ask me how I feel about it. 'We've all started this conversation and one of the best things about Good Morning Britain is that we talk about it - we're not brushing it under the rug, we're not tip-toeing around, we are talking about it. Back again: Rochelle has regularly stood in for Holly in the past, presenting with the likes of Mark Wright and Davina McCall over the years (Rochelle and Davina pictured in August 2019) Reaching out: In July Andi interrupted his segment on the show to make an emotional plea to viewers about Black Lives Matter 'Every day on this programme we are talking about it and it's really important that we do. Every black kid watching right now - you could do this job. 'Anyway, let me tell you about this prize Sorry, I felt that I needed to say it. I shouldn't apologise, I mustn't apologise - I just wanted to say it.' Black Lives Matter protests erupted around the world last month after George Floyd was killed in police custody in May. Ex-police officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after a video surfaced of him crushing 46-year-old Floyd's neck with his knee in Minneapolis, Minnesota. UK Immigration Minister Chris Philp will meet French counterparts next week in a push to eventually shut down the Calais-to-Britain route, and will call for migrants caught trying to cross the Channel to be fingerprinted and face real consequences. These include being deported or being taken into custody for breaking the law. Mr Philps comments come after dozens more migrants arrived on UK shores on Friday with one council revealing it had taken 400 unaccompanied migrant children into its care already this year. The UK Home Office also said it is possible that the Royal Navy could be brought in to patrol the Channels migrant traffic a move branded completely potty by one Ministry of Defence source. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Philp said he would work with French authorities to stop these illegal migrants from getting in the water in the first place, a move he said would be in Frances best interests as well as Britains. Advertisement Shutting down this route completely will mean illegal migrants no longer have any reason to flock to northern France meaning no more camps near Calais and no criminal gangs operating with impunity on French soil. He said France should also ensure that migrants caught trying to reach the UK by boat cannot do so again, saying they should be removed from Calais and given options to either seek protection in France or return to their home country. And illegal migrants need to be fingerprinted so they know that, once detected, they face real consequences if they try to cross again. Mr Philp also said boats intercepted by French authorities should be returned to France rather than shepherded across the Channel, citing cases in which vessels just 250 yards from the French coast had not been hauled back. We need to intercept those who manage to leave France and return those who make it to our shores, he said. Thats why I will continue to push my French counterparts to look hard at interceptions at sea. Mr Philp said Britain would renew its offer to facilitate joint exercises to show French officials how boats can be intercepted and returned safely. Flights are also planned in the coming days to return people to France, and Britain will be seeking to ramp up this activity. Advertisement Meanwhile, Kent County Council leader Roger Gough said the 400 migrant children the authority has taken into its care this year include 60 in the first week of August, with 23 arriving on Friday alone. Speaking on BBCs Newsnight programme, Mr Gough said enormous pressure is being put on Kent County Council amid rising numbers of unaccompanied young migrants arriving in the UK. Weve had so far some 400 of these young people come into our care this year and in recent weeks and months it has been particularly rapid, he said. So 65 in May, 85 in June, 70 in July and so far about 60 in August, including the 23 that you mentioned today. On Thursday, at least 235 migrants made the dangerous journey in 17 boats, setting a new single-day record. And amid continued fine weather and calm waters on Friday, more than 130 migrants made it to the UK in 13 boats, the Home Office said. Earlier on Friday, Home Secretary Priti Patels spokesman confirmed that Navy support is one of the potential options being considered, alongside discussions on bolstering Border Force resources in the Channel. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is waiting for advice from officials and taking stock of the situation before taking the matter further, his spokesman said. The MoD has an ongoing arrangement to offer military aid to civil authorities (known as MACA), he said, but this has previously been in the form of technical support and advice rather than putting big boats in the Channel. The idea of using the Navy was branded a completely potty idea by an MoD source, who said such action would be inappropriate and unnecessary and that military resources should not be used to address political failings. We dont resort to deploying armed force to deal with political failings. Its beyond absurd to think that we should be deploying multimillion-pound ships and elite soldiers to deal with desperate people barely staying afloat on rubber dinghies in the Channel. It could potentially put peoples lives at even greater risk. Border Force is effectively the Home Offices own navy fleet, so it begs the question: What are they doing? The Times reported that ministers are considering blocking migrant boats in the Channel before they enter British waters, modelled on Australian tactics used against migrants arriving by boats from neighbouring Indonesia. Dawn of a new era or Back to the future? View(s): Vox Populi the Voice of the People, have spoken loud and clear. The message reverberates throughout the country. The Rajapaksa Brothers convincingly cantered home at Wednesdays Parliamentary elections. The country not just endorsed their Presidential victory back in November last year, but the performance was improved upon to garner 59% of the total vote up from 52%. The good, the bad and the rascals are all back in the long awaited Parliament now. That this vote was minus a mandate from the north is however worrisome. The north continues to be outside their reach, which is not a good sign. The voters braved the Covid-19 pandemic eventually coming out in their numbers to vote despite a display of complete disinterest in the election leading up to voting day. There was a drop in the total poll, and the 4.5% rejected votes taken together must mean something. Comparatively, only 1% votes were rejected at the Presidential. But the 75% turnout (71% valid votes) is still impressive. Kudos to the Elections Commission and its support staff, and the public servants of the country who have always put their hand up in performing this monumental feat to support the democratic way of life in Sri Lanka. The ultimate results seem to have surprised everyone, even the victors. Not that the winner was not a foregone conclusion given the disarray in the Opposition camps, yet, the margin of victory has been astounding. Nobody expected a two-third majority for the caretaker Government in a proportional representation system (PR). In fact, the PR system is to prevent such runaway majorities by one side. In 2010, the winner came close with 144 seats of the 225, six short of a two-thirds. This time they are home and dry. Large majorities however, can be dangerous for the country and the winners. Landslides can make the victors arrogant in power and lose focus in a make-believe world that the mandate of the people is permanent. In 1956 and 1970 the winners won 2/3rds and lost the next election. In 1977, the 5/6th winners were afraid of the next election in 1982 and held a referendum instead. Covid-19 that caught the world unawares has impacted this countrys economy, as it has all countries. The future is bleak. The President and Prime Minister have already asked every conceivable quarter for debt moratoriums, swaps, repos and what not. Negotiations are in progress with the IMF. Tightening of belts is going to be more severe as the countrys chief external revenue streams dry up. The global economy is in recession and Sri Lankas leaders will have to ensure there is no disastrous free fall of the economy in the process. In this bleak environment those with influence and the ear of the leaders will try and cash their IOUs to exploit the situation to make a fast buck. If the President and Prime Minister have learnt from the past when they were defeated in 2014, they will surely know it was a combo of factors that brought about their downfall from the height of popularity they commanded in the aftermath of the defeat of the LTTE in 2009. These ranged from crony capitalism to corruption allegations; from vanity projects to the general conduct of the ruling elite. It was such that even the very office of the Executive Presidency, and its continuation became a contentious public issue. The ruling coalition hammered home the point that a Cohabitation Government as this country had from 2015 was a disaster to the country. They said when competing parties try to run a Government together, they pull in different directions and the country goes nowhere. The complete breakdown of the National Government of 2015-2018 was the worst possible advertisement for cohabitation between a President and Parliament, both elected by the people. Arguably, the only Cohabitation Government that worked was in 1994 when President D.B. Wijetunge meekly surrendered to the mandate that was given to the opposing party after seemingly miscalculating the holding of a Parliamentary election before a Presidential one. The 2001-2004 Cohabitation Government was also a disaster. The country now has two brothers in those two exalted positions. The people might be expecting a repeat of the success they jointly had in defeating the LTTE that earned for them deservedly great credit especially in the southern provinces of the country. But the voters took away that credit in 2014 and for good reason. Today, the assignment before the brothers is different, and significantly more difficult than their earlier task. There will be those who will try and trip them up for the sake of tripping up The Firm. They will also be legitimately opposed by others on an issue-based basis. This would come from a Parliamentary opposition, the independent judiciary, press and civil society that ought to have no agenda than the interests of the nation. There is the possibility of the duo tripping up each other. Public perception is divided. Some feel President Rajapaksa, the non-politician is keen to prove he is his own man. Long under the shadow of his more flamboyant elder brother, he has seen where things have gone astray under his brothers leadership and the fallout that led them from heroes in 2010 to zeroes in 2014. On the other hand, Premier Rajapaksa is already his own man. Ever the populist, he is a magnet to rural folk in particular. However, being in the muddied waters of politics for so long, he carries the inevitable baggage, the political lexicon for having so many supporters to please. It is this support that gives them the backing, but also the headaches in governance. When President Rajapaksa said he did not want his photograph on the campaign posters of his party candidates, he was sending a message that was loud and clear. It underscored the sharp differences the two have about at least some of the winners who have entered Parliament last Wednesday. The irony that a murder convict came second on the list of winners in one district and an anti-corruption crusader lost in another speaks for itself of the complex country that the brothers have to govern. It is good that the victor has a comfortable working majority of the House even though a two-thirds majority can lead to authoritarianism. As its spokesman has said, they have no excuses now. For now, the new Government is entitled to enjoy the fruits of their remarkable victory. They have won the confidence of the majority of the country and they have to fulfil this trust. The task before them is onerous. Yet with hope comes expectation, and sometimes more often than not, disappointment from a demanding and unforgiving electorate. The two chief incumbents in office know that only too well. Flash Air India Express confirmed on Saturday morning that 17 were killed in a plane crash-landing in India's southern state of Kerala, including two pilots. As of now there are 17 confirmed deceased including the two pilots, the company said in a statement, adding that the four cabin crew members are confirmed safe. A special relief flight has been arranged from Mumbai and Delhi for rendering humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and the family members, it said. According to Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India, there were 174 adult passengers, 10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew on board the aircraft which skidded off a runway at Kozhikode Airport in Kerala and broke into two pieces. The company said the flight IX 1344 operated by a Boeing 737 aircraft from Dubai to Kozhikode overshot runway at Kozhikode Airport at 19:41 p.m. local time on Friday evening. No fire was reported at the time of landing. New Delhi, Aug 8 : The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a wake-up call for our entire healthcare system, feels Dr Huzaifa Khorakiwala, CEO of Wockhardt Foundation. "Besides increasing healthcare infrastructure and improving the doctor-patient ratio, it is imperative that the public and private sectors need to focus on providing not only good quality but also affordable healthcare in both urban and rural areas. The pandemic and the resultant social distancing norms have also unwittingly brought to the forefront the importance of adopting digital/technological advancements into the health system. Start-ups looking to enter the healthcare space should be encouraged. "While things may not change immediately, a sustained approach will definitely help in achieving the long term goal of bridging the existing healthcare gaps," Dr Khorakiwala told IANSlife in an email. On the Covid front, the Foundation has also come together with Biogetica to conduct multidisciplinary research into remedies and strategies to effectively combat the virus. The CEO of Wockhardt Foundation, a not-for-profit organization which runs several programmes in health, education, water and sanitation across the country, also found it heartening to see humanitarian efforts across the country, during this time. "It is heartening to see that people from all walks of life have come together to help others in whatever capacity that they can. However, the pandemic and the lockdowns have had an adverse impact on people's health, finances, education etc. and it is therefore important that people continue to receive the necessary support that they require to start rebuilding their lives," he shared. The Foundation itself, has been active in aiding the needy, as the country continues to battle the unprecedented pandemic. Their Anaaj+ programme was started with the aim of providing these people with groceries and toiletries for a month. In partnership with various corporate and individual corona warriors, they distributed 4680 grocery kits in the slums in Mumbai -- a highly affected city -- benefitting over 22,000 people. As part of their flagship programme, Mobile 1000, mobile medical vans continue to provide free primary healthcare to villagers in rural India. Patients who come to these vans, and display Covid-19 symptoms are referred to the nearest testing clinic. The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns has led to a loss of livelihoods, with many being unable to afford the essentials that are required to run their homes, notes the Yale University MBA. In a much-needed gesture, the Foundation also fed animals during the lockdown. Asked about the motivations behind it, Dr Khorakiwala shared: "During the pandemic, a lot of misinformation was being circulated that the virus could be transmitted from pets/local community animals leading to a fear among people and the possibility of these pets being abandoned. This fear also led to community animals like stray dogs and cats being deprived of food. With this in mind, we started a campaign to help these animals that were also indirectly affected by the pandemic and the following lockdowns." (Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Advertisement Thousands of NHS workers are taking to the streets of the UK to protest against their exclusion from a recent public sector pay rise announcement. Anger is mounting as NHS workers were overlooked in the latest round of public sector pay rises despite more than 500 NHS and social care staff dying from Covid-19. Unite, which has a 100,000 members in the health service, is supporting its members wishing to attend the socially-distanced protests, so that the government can see the depth of discontent and frustration of NHS staff, they say, who continue to be in the frontline in the battle against Covid-19. A flagship march is taking place in London, which began at St James's Park before protesters made their way along Whitehall towards Downing Street. The march is expected to finish in Parliament Square. A blue banner reading 'End NHS pay inequality, together we win' led the march. Many were carrying placards, including one which said: 'Boris remember my neighbour Lewis, what about his pay rise? 'He saved your life now reward us.' Last month Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a 3.1% pay rise for 900,000 public sector workers, including senior doctors, teachers and police officers. Nurses were not included because they negotiated a separate three-year-deal in 2018. Junior doctors were also excluded because they agreed a new four year deal last year. NHS workers gathered in St James' Park, London, to protest against their exclusion from the most recent public sector pay rise announcement. Thousands are expected to attend the socially distanced protest which forms part of a national demo Unite the union backed the protest and say they are calling for a pay rise for its members and have reps at the demo today The march is expected to move from St James' Park to Parliament Square as part of a national protest over NHS workers pay Last month, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a 3.1% pay rise for 900,000 public sector workers, including senior doctors, teachers and police officers but nurses were excluded because they agreed a new four year deal last year NHS workers have said the exclusion from the most recent public sector pay rises flies in the face of the Clap for Carers gesture which saw thousands of Britons head to their doorsteps and show appreciation for NHS workers with applause Unite has said that it is seeking a substantial pay increase for its members. A key demonstration got underway in London, starting at 11.00 am at St. James Park, with protesters then marching along Whitehall to Downing Street and ending with a rally at Parliament Square. Pictures show hundreds of protesters in masks marching with banners through the capital. NHS nurse who worked on the coronavirus frontline is forced to sell her house and move in with her mother after landing in debt An NHS nurse who contracted coronavirus while fighting the pandemic was forced to sell her house and move in with her mother after landing in debt over pay problems. Vikki Gardiner - a community staff nurse and single mother to a six-year-old son - worked 30-hour weeks and took on extra shifts just to make ends meet. The 33-year-old has even been forced to miss meals in a desperate bid to save up her funds. She was admitted to hospital in April with Covid-19 after she was left unable to breathe properly. Ms Gardiner told The Mirror: 'If I didn't love my job so much I would have signed up to stack shelves long ago. I had to sell my three-bed house in February because even while working 30 hours a week and taking extra shifts to make ends meet, I was getting more in debt and couldnt do it anymore. She added: 'Now I live with my mum and am buying a much smaller property, but even with that Im so anxious because I dont know if Ill have to go back to robbing Peter to pay Paul.' Ms Gardiner will join the march in Cambridge. Advertisement Unite national officer for health Jackie Williams said: 'Nursing staff and other allied health professionals have reacted with anger to being overlooked when pay rises were given to many in the public sector last month and the government not hearing the health trade unions' call to bring their pay rise forward from April 2021. 'Last week, health workers marched to Downing Street to vent their anger that all their efforts during the pandemic, which has claimed so many of their colleagues' lives, have appeared to be ignored when it comes to recognition in their pay packets. 'In a decade of Tory austerity, NHS staff has seen their pay cut by 20 per cent in real terms and no amount of Thursday evening clapping and warm ministerial words can compensate for this dramatic loss in income. 'Poor rates of pay have contributed to the estimated 100,000 vacancies in the NHS and ensuing 'recruitment and retention' crisis. 'Unite is supporting our members wishing to turn out on Saturday. There will be a broad-based rolling campaign for NHS pay justice that will continue for the rest of the year. 'The public expects and ministers should deliver a substantial pay increase for NHS staff that reflects their real worth to the NHS and society more generally. NHS workers shouldn't have to wait till April 2021.' Last month, the Government announced nearly 900,000 workers will benefit from a pay rise to reflect their 'vital contribution' during the coronavirus pandemic. Teachers and doctors will see the largest rise at 3.1% and 2.8% respectively 'recognising their efforts on the frontline during the battle against COVID-19' the Government said. The Government said more than one million NHS workers not included in the latest pay rises will continue to benefit from the three-year Agenda for Change pay deal made in 2018. The next pay rise will be due in April 2021, but unions say the government should bring it forward to this year to thank NHS staff for their sacrifices during the pandemic. Demonstrations are also set to take place in towns and cities around the UK including in Basildon, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and Ipswich. A statement from Nurses United, an organisation that helped set up the demonstrations, said: 'NHS workers care for our patients and place public safety as an utmost priority, which is why we are taking action to improve the pay of all NHS staff. Protestors appear to mostly be adhering to social distancing measures and wearing masks as they march through the streets A protestor wearing a face mask attends a demonstration of NHS staff, unions and campaigners protesting the government's handling of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis, in London, and how some NHS workers were excluded from pay rises Despite the public and many high profile government figures showing support by clapping for the NHS on Thursdays earlier this year, NHS workers say they deserve a substantial pay increase that reflects their worth to society during the pandemic A two minute silence takes place in St James's Park, London, as anger is mounting as NHS workers were overlooked in the latest round of public sector pay rises despite more than 500 NHS and social care staff dying from Covid-19 The demonstrations across the country were organised by Nurses United with the largest protest taking place in London Hundreds of masked workers attended the protest today armed with signs and banners appealing for government support NHS workers feel last year's pay deal does not go far enough to reflect their worth to the public during the pandemic NHS workers observe a two minutes silence for colleagues who died from Covid-19 as part of a national protest over pay 'With the average Band 5 NHS worker losing 20% of their pay since 2010 it is no surprise that this has caused over 100,000 vacancies within our NHS. 'A 15% pay rise is about addressing the conditions which put ourselves and our patients at risk long before COVID-19. NHS workers are understandably angry when their lives are put at risk and the response from this Government is that their work and their lives are not valued. 'As a group who has been supporting people to independently organise protests to highlight these issues, it is important for demonstration organisers and attendees to keep themselves informed of risks, the latest public health guidance and the latest regulations. These may change rapidly and may differ across the UK.' The Met has plans in place ahead of this weekend, and people can expect to see officers visible across London. A spokesman said: 'We are aware that a number of people may wish to demonstrate this weekend; we would always ask them to engage with us. 'We want to remind anyone who is taking part in a demonstration in a public place or at a public meeting, not to wear a uniform which is associated with a political purpose, as to do so may be committing an offence under Section 1 of the Public Order Act, 1936.' Protests against the lack of pay rise for NHS workers are taking place across the UK, including in Cardiff, Wales (pictured) NHS workers demonstrate in Glasgow Green, Glasgow, as part of a UK wide protest over pay Hundreds of protesters take to the streets of Glasgow to join the UK-wide protest against the lack pay rise for NHS workers NHS workers feel last year's pay deal does not go far enough to reflect their worth to the public during the pandemic Who received a Covid-19 pay rise from the government in July? Department and Agreed Award School Teachers - 3.1% Doctors & Dentists - 2.8% Police Officers - 2.5% Armed Forces - 2% National Crime Agency - 2.5% Prison Officers - 2.5% Judiciary - 2% Senior Civil Servants - 2% Senior Military - 2% Advertisement Staff are hoping they can count on support from the public who regularly turned out to clap for the NHS during lockdown. Unison said a survey showed 69% of the public think all NHS staff should get an early pay rise before the end of this year, in light of coronavirus. The findings also highlight how two thirds (66%) of the public believe a wage increase for employees including healthcare assistants, nurses, hospital porters, midwives, paramedics and cleaners should be significant in light of the Covid-19 pan Commenting on the findings, UNISON head of health Sara Gorton said: '[The pay rise announcement] was the perfect opportunity for the government to show it's in tune with public opinion and commit to an early pay rise for NHS staff. 'It's clear the public backs an early increase and to ignore them would be at the government's own peril. Any attempt to deny staff a significant wage increase could rebound badly. 'A wage increase needs sorting right away so the NHS is fit to face the winter ahead and all that may bring. It would help boost the economy too, as health workers spend the extra money in their pockets locally. 'Health unions have made a clear and reasonable case it's down to the government to act and prove how much it values the NHS and its staff. Enough of hands together people want to see hands in pockets, and now.' Meanwhile, an online petition calling for all frontline NHS workers to have an "adequate pay rise" has so far been signed more than 116,000 times. The march is expected to move from St James' Park to Parliament Square as part of a national protest over NHS workers pay Nurses and other frontline NHS workers stage a protest Glasgow Green after being left out of a public sector pay rise NHS workers demonstrate in Glasgow Green, Glasgow, as part of a UK wide protest over pay Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic concerns over the adequacy of personal protective equipment (PPE) were also consistently raised while members of the public clapped for NHS workers every Thursday on doorsteps across the UK Nurses and other frontline NHS workers stage a protest at No 10 Downing Street after being left out of a public sector pay rise It follows the Clap for Carers movement which saw thousands of Britons head to their door-step on Thursday nights to applaud NHS workers. Clap for Our Carers, also known as Clap for the NHS was a recurring not-for-profit movement created as a gesture of appreciation for the NHS workers during the global pandemic of Coronavirus disease. It was supported by many high-profile government figures, prompting critics to accuse the Government of hypocrisy when nurses and NHS workers were excluded from the pay rise wave last month. Abbey Quay as it is now (top), and how it will work once the flood defence works are completed The proposed Enniscorthy Flood Relief scheme has gone to the public consultation stage again as part of the process to move the plan forward. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform issued the public consultation notice last week and the public will now have until Thursday, August 27, to make submissions in relation to the plan. The public consultation comes under the Arterial Drainage Acts, 1945 and 1995, and the Statutory Instrument No 472 of the 2019 European Union (Environmental Assessment) (Arterial Drainage) Regulations 2019, and the Birds and Natural Habitat Regulations 2011 (SI No 477 of 2011). The initial, preliminary design for the scheme was developed and exhibited for public consultation in 2009. In response to submissions from the public the design was amended and went on public display again in 2012, and again in 2018. The updated scheme went on public display in Enniscorthy library from May 17, to June 18, 2019. In March, this year, the Commissioners for Public Works, submitted the plan, the River Slaney (Enniscorthy) Drainage Scheme, to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for confirmation. An environmental impact report was prepared by Mott MacDonald on behalf of the Commissioners for Public Works and a Natura Impact Statement (NIS) was also prepared to assess if the scheme would significantly impact on any site designated for conservation. The reason the scheme is now back before the Minister is that before it can be confirmed the minister must determine if the project is likely to have a significant impact on the environment or have an impact on the integrity of a Natura 2000 site. The public will now be able to voice their opinion again with regard to the likely affects the scheme will have on the environment and its likely impact from a Natura 2000 site perspective. Submissions can me made by email to enniscorthyschemeconsultation@per.gov.ie or by post to: OPW Vote Section (Room -1.07), Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Government Buildings, Upper Merrion St, Dublin 2, D02 R583. All submissions should include the person's name, contact address, contact details (including telephone number and e-mail address) and details of any organisation being represented. While councillors in Enniscorthy expressed disappointment that the scheme has to again go before the Government for approval the development was welcomed by Deputy Paul Kehoe TD, who said: 'These projects all must go through a process and I am delighted to see this vital 40m plus investment in Enniscorthy moving forward.' 'It is one more part of the jigsaw that is now coming together for Enniscorthy after years of planning,' he said. 'There has been hugely positive progress in Enniscorthy in the last week alone, with the announcement of the tourism plan, the sale of the building site in the Tech Park, and the development of a primary health centre.' The proposed work on the flood scheme will include removing Seamus Rafter bridge and replacing it with a new bridge further downstream along with the construction of flood defence walls including glass viewing panels. A new pedestrian bridge over the Slaney is also proposed within the scheme along with restoration of North Island back channel and foundation rehabilitation works to Enniscorthy old bridge and railway bridge. Senior Executive Engineers with Wexford County Council, Larry McHale, said recently that he doesn't expect approval for the scheme to happen until early next year as the process usually takes six to 12 months. However, he also said that a lot of work is taking place while ministerial approval is awaited. The project, which will take three years to complete, was expected to begin this year and when the members of Enniscorthy Municipal District Council were informed in May that the start date will more likely be 2021 and they expressed disappointment and concern. Cllr Kathleen Codd-Nolan commented at the time: 'That means it will be right through the winter again when there could be more flooding anyway.' 'That is really disappointing,' she added. She wasn't alone in expressing disappointment with Cllr Jackser Owens also expressing concern over the matter. 'I am disappointed that it has to go to the minister still to sign off on it,' said Cllr Owens. 'This is big news for our town and people,' he added. 'To wait for the minister to sign off on something that was talked about in 2011,is very disappointing.' Cllr Aidan Browne, who is in his 30s, also expressed disappointment when it was revealed the project would be delayed and commented: 'This has been going on since I was a child.' Cllr Cathal Byrne said it was important for the local authority members to highlight to the minister how vital is it that the project gets 'over the line'. Cllr Barbara-Anne Murphy said the project was very complex but vital for Enniscorthy. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 05:09:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks during a press conference on the Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on May 14, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua) Democrat leaders said they would continue negotiating with the Trump Administration, but "will not go along with the meager legislative proposals that fail to address the gravity of the health and economic situation our country faces." WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The White House had rejected Democrats' offer for a roughly 2-trillion-U.S.-dollar COVID-19 relief package, U.S. media reported Friday. As part of a closed-door meeting with White House officials Thursday, Democrats offered to cut their 3.4-trillion-dollar relief proposal by 1 trillion dollars if Republicans would agree to increase their roughly 1-trillion-dollar package by the same amount, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday at a joint press conference with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, The Hill reported. "'We'll take down a trillion, if you add a trillion in.' They said absolutely not," Pelosi told reporters, adding she would make the offer once again as part of negotiations with White House officials on Friday. That strategy, effectively trying to split the difference between the two sides, would result in legislation costing between 2 trillion dollars and 2.4 trillion dollars, the report said. Pelosi and Schumer are expected to meet with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Friday afternoon to continue negotiations over the next COVID-19 relief package. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks at a press conference during the Senate impeachment trial on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on Jan. 25, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua) "We remain committed to continue negotiating and reaching a fair agreement with the Administration, but we will not go along with the meager legislative proposals that fail to address the gravity of the health and economic situation our country faces," Pelosi and Schumer said earlier Friday in a joint statement following the release of the July's job report. "We call upon the White House's negotiators to join us once again at the negotiating table today to secure a bipartisan agreement to put children, families and workers first," they said. U.S. employers added 1.8 million jobs in July, and the unemployment rate dropped to 10.2 percent amid reopening efforts, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. "The latest jobs report shows that the economic recovery spurred by the investments Congress has passed is losing steam and more investments are still urgently needed to protect the lives and livelihoods of the American people. Millions of Americans are still hurting," Pelosi and Schumer said. The extra 600-dollar weekly unemployment benefit for every unemployed, which benefited nearly 30 million Americans, expired last week, as Republican and Democratic lawmakers failed to reach a deal over the next COVID-19 relief bill. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, has recently warned that the U.S. economy is at serious risk of sliding back into recession unless Congress and the Trump administration come up with another fiscal rescue package before Congress goes on its August recess. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 8) An alleged New Peoples Army commander was killed in an encounter with combined Armed Forces and police troops in Kalayaan, Laguna, authorities reported on Saturday. Lt. Col. Jesus Diocton, commanding officer of the first Infantry Battalion, identified the alleged NPA leader who was killed in encounter Friday as Mario Caraig alias Jethro. Diocton said that this was the second encounter in the area in three days. The Armed Forces stated in a statement that Caraig was the secretary of NPAs Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committees SRMA 4C. According to military reports, the AFP-PNP forces encountered the rebels at around 11:10 p.m. on Friday in Sitio Boho of Barangay San Antonio, and recovered one Cal .45 pistol, and two hand grenades. Concerned citizens tipped us about the presence of the armed group who were coercing the people to feed and hide them as they try to avoid the governments security forces who were closing in on them," said Diocton. Brigadier General Alex Rillera, commander of 202nd Infantry Brigade, confirmed that there is no casualty on the part of their troops. The fall of Jethro is a welcome development to the ranks of the IPs because it meant one less terrorist whose primary role is to torment and exploit their fundamental rights, said Rillera. Joint AFP and PNP checkpoints have now been established in the area for ongoing pursuit operations against the remaining NPA troops, and all available military assets have been placed on high alert. Meanwhile, one NPA squad leader and three more rebels reportedly surrendered to the militarys 102nd Infantry Brigade units in Zamboanga del Norte on Friday. They were identified as alias Marky, Aiai, Jury, and Jerwin. One hundred and ten new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in County Kildare today, out of a national total of 174. The county, along with Laois and Offaly, has been under lockdown since midnight last night to try combat the spike in coronavirus. Clusters of the virus have been found in meat processing plants in Naas, Kildare town and Timahoe, along with the Eyre Powell direct provision centre in Newbridge. Of today's 174 new cases, 124 are men/48 are women; 69% are under 45 years of age; 112 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case; 5 cases have been identified as community transmission; 110 cases are located in Kildare, 27 in Dublin, 7 in Cork, 7 in Offaly, 6 in Meath and 17 are spread across 13 other counties (Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Donegal, Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, Tipperary, Wexford and Wicklow). There is now a total of 26,644 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been informed that one patient diagnosed with Covid-19 in Ireland has died. There has now been a total of 1,772 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; While todays numbers of confirmed cases are high, they are not unexpected. As I said last night, we are expecting significant numbers of cases to be reported over the coming days. Throughout this week, we have been testing all workers in facilities where outbreaks of Covid-19 have been identified as well as close contacts of those people who have received Covidpositive results. Tonights figures are a reflection of these measures with 118 of these cases linked to the counties of Kildare, Laois and Offaly. Our priority now and our reason for recommending the proactive measures announced last night, is to avoid these cases and clusters leading to widespread community transmission of the disease. 50 of tonights cases are located outside of these three counties and around the rest of the country. I once again ask everyone regardless of where you live in the country to take every precaution possible to help us control the spread of this disease and protect our most vulnerable. This means continuing to wash our hands, keeping two metres apart from one another, avoiding crowds, wearing face coverings where appropriate, covering our coughs and sneezes and downloading the Covid Tracker app. Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said; As outlined by the Acting Chief Medical Officer at the press conference last night, the 14-day incidence per 100,000 population in Kildare, Laois and Offaly is worryingly high. While the national incidence stands at 16.3 per 100,000, in Kildare it stands at 130.3, in Laois it is 69.7 and in Offaly it is 89.8. Should these cases result in widespread transmission, it could undo a lot of the good work that we have done as a country so far to control the spread of this virus. The measures introduced by NPHET last night represent a proactive and proportionate response to the current situation in these counties. By PTI NEW DELHI: Envoys from the US, Australia and Japan said they are deeply saddened to hear about the Air India Express accident in Kerala's Kozhikode and conveyed their thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. An Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 passengers on board overshot the tabletop runway at Kozhikode airport on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two, killing at least 18 people. US envoy Ken Juster said the US mission is deeply saddened to hear the news of the accident. "On behalf of the U.S. Mission, we are deeply saddened by the news of the Air India accident in Kozhikode. The victims and their loved ones are in our thoughts and prayers," he tweeted. Satoshi Suzuki, Japan's ambassador to India, hoped that search and rescue would conclude as quickly as possible. "My heart bleeds for the air accident of #AirIndiaExpress in Kozhikode and landslide in #Idukki. My thoughts are with those who lost their beloved ones and are injured. I hope search & rescue will conclude as quickly as possible," he said. Australian envoy Barry O'Farrell said his thoughts and prayers are with families of the victims. "Deeply saddened by the news of the Air India Express Plane accident in #Kozhikode. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims. @airindiain #KozhikodePlaneCrash," O'Farrell said in a tweet. A rescue team surveys the site of this week's massive explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon on Aug. 7, 2020. (Thibault Camus/AP Photo) Officials Long Warned of Explosive Chemicals at Beirut Port BEIRUTAt least 10 times over the past six years, authorities from Lebanons customs, military, security agencies and judiciary raised alarm that a massive stockpile of explosive chemicals was being kept with almost no safeguard at the port in the heart of Beirut, newly surfaced documents show. Yet in a circle of negligence, nothing was doneand on Tuesday, the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up, obliterating the citys main commercial hub and spreading death and wreckage for miles around. President Michel Aoun, in office since 2016, said Friday that he was first told of the dangerous stockpile nearly three weeks ago and immediately ordered military and security agencies to do what was needed. But he suggested his responsibility ended there, saying he had no authority over the port and that previous governments had been told of its presence. Do you know how many problems have been accumulating? Aoun replied when a reporter pressed whether he should have followed up on his order. The documents surfacing in social media since the blast underscore the corruption, negligence and incompetence of Lebanons long-ruling political oligarchy, and its failure to provide its people with basic needs, including security. Investigators probing the blast have focused on personnel at the Port of Beirut, Lebanons main port, so well known for corruption that its common nickname is Ali Babas Cave. So far, at least 16 port employees have been detained and others questioned. On Friday, investigators questioned and then ordered the detention of the head of the port, Hassan Koraytem, the countrys customs chief, Badri Daher, and Dahers predecessor. But many Lebanese say the rot permeates the political system and extends to the countrys top leadership. A rescue team surveys the scene of this weeks massive explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon on Aug. 7, 2020. (Thibault Camus/AP Photo) The explosion of the ammonium nitrate, after apparently being set off by a fire, was the biggest in Lebanons history. The known death toll reached 154, including bodies recovered from the rubble Friday, and more than 5,000 people were wounded. Billions of dollars in damage was caused across the city, where many are too impoverished by Lebanons financial crisis to rebuild. Aouns comments were the most senior confirmation that top politicians had been aware of the stockpile. The material had been there for seven years, since 2013. It has been there, and they said it is dangerous and I am not responsible. I dont know where it was placed. I dont even know the level of danger. I have no authority to deal directly with the port, he told a news conference. He said that when he was told of the stockpile on July 20, he immediately ordered military and security officials to do what is needed. There are ranks that should know their duties, and they were all informed. When you refer a document and say, Do what is needed, isnt that an order? he added. He said the explosion may have been caused by negligence, but the investigation would also look at the possibility that it could have been caused by a bomb or other external intervention. He said he had asked France, which has close ties to its former colony, for satellite images from the time of the blast to see if they showed any planes or missiles. An aerial view of ruined structures at the port, damaged by an explosion a day earlier, on Aug. 5, 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon. (Haytham Al Achkar/Getty Images) Smoke rises after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 4, 2020, in this picture obtained from a social media video. (Karim Sokhn/Instagram/Ksokhn + Thebikekitchenbeirut/via Reuters) President Donald Trump said Friday that he had spoken by telephone with Aoun and French President Emmanuel Macron. He did not mention the investigation, but noted that medical supplies, food and water were being sent from the U.S., along with emergency responders, technicians, doctors and nurses. The ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and explosives, originated from a cargo ship called MV Rhosus that had been traveling from the country of Georgia to Mozambique in 2013. It made an unscheduled detour to Beirut as the Russian shipowner was struggling with debts and hoped to earn some extra cash in Lebanon. Unable to pay port fees and reportedly leaking, the ship was impounded. The first known document about it came on Feb. 21, 2014, three months after the ships arrival. Col. Joseph Skaff, a senior customs official, wrote to the customs authoritys anti-smuggling department warning that the material still on board the ship docked at port was extremely dangerous and endangers public safety. Col. Skaff died in March 2017 in unclear circumstances. He was found near his house in Beirut after allegedly falling from a big height. Medical reports at the time gave different explanations, one saying it was an accident, the other saying there was unusual bruising on his face. On June 27, 2014, Jad Maalouf, a judge for urgent matters, wrote to the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, warning that the ship was carrying dangerous material and could sink. He said the ministry should deal with the ship, remove the ammonium nitrate and place it in a suitable place that it (the ministry) chooses, and it (the material) should be under its protection. Soon after that, the shipment was moved into Warehouse 12 at the port, where it remained until it exploded. It is unclear if it was officially under the ministrys control. A general view shows the port warehouses destroyed by Tuesdays explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon on Aug. 7, 2020. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo) Lebanons LBC TV station reported that in October 2015, the army intervened after learning of delays in dealing with the shipment. Military intelligence sent an expert who tested the material and found that the nitrogen levels were 34.7 percent, considered a highly explosive level, LBC said. The army reported to the customs department that the material should be quickly removed, suggesting it be exported. Customs referred the report back to the judge of urgent matters, LBC said. Three military and security officials did not respond to calls and messages from The Associated Press to comment or confirm the report on LBC. Daher, the customs department head, told the AP before his detention that between 2014 and 2017, he and his predecessor sent six letters to the judge warning that the stockpile was dangerous and seeking a ruling on a way to remove or sell it. Daher said it was his duty to alert authorities of the danger but that was the most he could do. He said he never got a reply. People stand next to a car damaged by Tuesdays explosion in the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon on Aug. 7, 2020. (Felipe Dana/AP Photo) Earlier this year, State Security, after investigating the stockpile, issued a five-page report saying the material must be gotten rid of. It said the ammonium nitrate could explode and warned terrorists could steal it, saying one wall of the warehouse had a hole in it and a gate was open. Throughout this period, Lebanon had four prime ministers, including the current oneHassan Diab, who came to office earlier this yearas well as multiple government reshuffles. In 2013, when the ship docked, Michel Suleiman was president, followed by two years without a president as political factions wrangled, before finally electing Aoun in October 2016. For decades, Lebanon has been dominated by the same political elites, many of them former warlords and militia commanders from the civil war. The ruling factions use public institutions to accumulate wealth and distribute patronage to supporters. A blind eye is often turned to corruption, and little development is put into institutions. As a result, power outages are frequent, trash is often uncollected and tap water is largely undrinkable. The leader of the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group, whose allies dominate the government, said in a speech Friday that negligence, corruption, nepotism had a role in the explosion and must be dealt with. Hassan Nasrallah warned that if no one was held accountable, we are basically saying to the people there is no state. He also said Hezbollahs domestic opponents were trying to use the blast to stir public opinion against it but would fail. He denied any role by Hezbollah in the disaster. Both Nasrallah and Aoun rejected calls for an international investigation. People remove debris from a house damaged by Tuesdays explosion in the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon on Aug. 7, 2020. (Felipe Dana/AP Photo) Since last October, the Lebanese people have held mass protests denouncing the countrys entire ruling elite, including Nasrallah. The demonstrations achieved only a rearranging of the names in the government, and largely faded amid the coronavirus pandemic and Lebanons financial collapse. In a sign of how the public has largely come to expect government inaction, thousands of volunteers have cleaned up streets in the neighborhoods worst hit by the blast. They swept broken glass and reopened roads, helped restaurants and shops clear debris, and salvaged merchandise. They separated rubble into piles of broken glass and mangled metal. Others volunteered to go into destroyed homes to look for medicine, valuables and essential documents for the residents who fled in panic. French and Russian rescue teams with dogs searched the port area on Friday, pulling more bodies from the rubble. Women cried nearby as they waited for news about missing relatives. France has sent a team of 22 investigators to help investigate the cause of the blast. Based on information from Lebanon so far, Frances No. 2 forensic police official, Dominique Abbenanti, said Friday the explosion appears to be an accident but that its too early to say for sure. In an interview with the AP, he predicted that the death toll would grow. By Bassem Mroue The Fremont Family Coalition has received $15,000 in Hy-Vee gift cards from Nebraska Impact to help with COVID-19 relief efforts. First Lady Susanne Shore, president of Nebraska Impact, and Hy-Vee representatives presented the organization with the donation in front of the store Friday morning. We knew Fremont was having some struggles, just trying to help some of the citizens get those emergency supplies and food and medication, Shore said. So we contacted them, and this is going to hopefully help so many families get through this hard time. The event was also attended by Fremont Area Community Foundation Executive Director Melissa Diers and Fremont Area United Way Executive Director Christy Fiala, who is a board member for the Fremont Family Coalition. The Fremont Family Coalition, founded in 2013, works to create community partnerships to provide resources to families. It is one of the statewide community collaboratives supported by the Nebraska Children and Families Foundations program Bring Up Nebraska. With COVID, weve seen a huge increase in the rent and utility assistance, said Meggie Studt, leadership member of the Fremont Family Coalition. And so in lieu of those funds, this will help to fund school supplies and other necessities for families that are in need. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Studt said much of the Fremont Family Coalitions work had to be moved online. But we still want to be able to supply and provide the services that we did before, she said. So these funds will be a huge help to a lot of different families that we serve and were excited to get this today. Originally established in 2015 to plan Nebraskas sesquicentennial in 2017, Nebraska Impact began as Celebrating Nebraska Statehood Inc. When that was over, we still saw a need out there, Shore said. We wanted to keep promoting Nebraska and helping it get even better, help it grow. The nonprofit soon shifted its priorities and rebranded to build connections between communities. It provided assistance during the 2019 flooding and launched the COVID-19 Relief Fund with the Governors Office and Nebraska Children and Families Foundation in April. With Nebraska Impact, we just watched throughout 2020 the need that families are having when it comes to food security, Shore said. So we just watched so much need, and we contacted Hy-Vee for support, and they stepped up instantly and said, What can we do to help? Hy-Vee District Store Director Darin Kriech said the store always tries to give back to the communities it serves whenever it can. One of the main concerns during the COVID crisis here is just food security and if everybodys going to be able to handle the needs that they have, he said. Were in that industry, so it just makes sense to take care of the people that are in need. Kriech said along with the Nebraska Impact donation, Hy-Vee has done fundraising as a company, donating more than $1 million to local food banks. I know a couple of those in Lincoln and the area really benefited from that, so thats been just a nice way to be able to give back, he said. Ultimately, Kriech said whenever the community needs support, those who can give should. Theres people in need that are doing everything they can to take care of the essential needs they have, and it just doesnt work for everybody, he said. So if were able to give back and have that opportunity, we can support and keep our community strong and just do what we can. With the donation, Shore said she hopes it will help Fremonters get through times of emergency. It really is an emergency fund that weve just handed over, she said. And the goal is just to help them get through until they can get to a place of stability, until everybody can get back to their jobs, they can get back to some semblance of life as normal. Shore said Nebraska Impact just wants to see Nebraskans succeed and get better despite being hit with challenges. Weve seen corporations like Hy-Vee step up, and foundations and other citizens, she said. So as horrible as this is, the silver lining is that you just see how many people are willing to step up and help each other. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 11:36:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KIGALI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Rwandans on Friday marked the annual harvest day locally known as "Umuganura" in their homes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival, celebrated every first Friday of the month of August, is a cultural event at the beginning of every harvest to celebrate crop harvest. Unlike previous ones, no mass gatherings were organized to celebrate the festival this year, but a week of various discussions about Rwanda's traditional culture were held through different media platforms. The current festival is no longer only focused on crop harvest alone but also achievements in various aspects such as agriculture, health, education, and industry, Rwandan Minister of Youth and Culture Rosemary Mbabazi said in a talk show on the national broadcaster Rwanda Television. Umuganura should be celebrated through sharing of achievements and committing to safeguard them, she said. The minister also urged parents to teach children the local language Kinyarwanda as part of the family culture. She also urged economically well-off families to share with their poor neighbors and work toward national unity. Enditem President Muhammadu Buhari has lashed PDP over its call that he should dissociate from Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, questioning the partys moral ground to make the call. In a statement by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, President Buhari asked the PDP to clear moral cobwebs in its camp first before questioning the integrity of the APC candidate in the Edo election. The statement referred to some PDP governors, facing corruption trials before their election and who nevertheless were elected. Read the full statement: The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which has been struggling to clear its name from alleged deals with the underworld in Dubai and the United States has, to our surprise, found the voice to attack the anti-corruption war of the Muhammadu Buhari administration following the Presidents endorsement of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the All Progressives Congress, APCs dashing candidate for the governorship election in Edo State. Forgetting its own history and antecedents, the PDP said in a garrulous statement that the President ought to have been aware that the Candidate is standing trial for corruption, and then went on rant against the governments war against corruption, alleging its failure. Let PDP first withdraw the governorship nominations it gave to Ahmadu Fintiri and Bala Mohammed of Adamawa and Bauchi States respectively, before it opens its mouth and talk on the efforts of this administration in fighting corruption. Or else, it should shut its mouth forever and leave us to do what it dares not attempt. Both PDP governors were actually on bail from criminal trial on several counts of fraud and embezzlement. Justice A. R. Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, July 1, 2016 granted bail to the former acting governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri. He was charged on June 30, 2016 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, alongside his company, Mayim Construction and Properties Limited on a five-count charge of money laundering to the tune of N2.9 billion. In the case of Bala Mohammed, the PDP Governor of Bauchi State, the EFCC, on Wednesday, May 10, 2017, arraigned the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, before Justice A. M. Talba of the Federal Capital Territory, High Court sitting in Gudu, Abuja, on a six-count charge bordering on abuse of office, false declaration of assets and fraud to the tune of N864 million. Bala, while in office as minister, allegedly received N550 million as bribe from Aso Savings and Loans Limited with respect to some properties in the Asokoro area of Abuja. He is said to have corruptly abused his position as Board Chairman of Aso Savings by allocating four numbers fully detached duplexes and 11 numbers semi-detached duplexes valued at N314 million through the Presidential Taskforce on Sale of Government Houses, to himself. The former minister is also accused of making false declaration of his assets. Pastor Ize-Iyamu is being prosecuted by the EFCC alongside Lucky Imasuen, former deputy governor of Edo State, Chief Dan Orbih, PDP Chairman in Edo State and other leaders of the party in the state, Tony Aziegbemi and Efe Erimuoghae. Under the countrys laws, only the courts can convict. A suspect remains a suspect until conviction. But, if in the view of the PDP, a suspect is guilty as charged, then they must show examples by withdrawing the nomination of their governors and the partys numerous Senators and other legislators standing trial in various courts of the country. A party which 16 years in office destroyed the countrys economy and infrastructure has no moral authority to criticize the accelerated infrastructure development drive, largely drawing its energy from the Buhari anti-corruption campaign. A government that sees corruption in the past administration and sees corruption in its own administration, and fights it with equal gusto, cannot be placed on the same scale with those who, by their words and deeds said corruption is a way of life and Nigerians should learn to live with it. This clean-up drive by the President Buhari administration will only speed up with the ongoing investigations and trials. The current administrations cleansing exercise of the government, politics and economy in line with the zero tolerance for corruption, will not be distracted. Related The city of Niagara Falls is hosting a virtual public meeting in order to gather input on a drainage study relating to flooding issues on Valley Way. The virtual public information centre will be available until Aug. 21 at www.niagarafalls.ca. A community meeting on the environmental assessment study was held at the Victoria Avenue library in April. The meeting detailed work completed to date and potential servicing alternatives. The second phase is being held online in order to comply with health recommendations in light of COVID-19. Its the most effective way that we can get input from the public under the circumstances were living with right now, said Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati. As part of the citys Master Drainage Plan Update Study, Master Servicing Plan and Pollution Prevention Control Plan, local flooding concerns in the Valley Way area have been identified as high priority. The study will evaluate sewer servicing in the area and develop a preferred solution to address risks to downstream infrastructure and be mindful of system resiliency for basement and surface flooding. Valley Way runs along what once known as Muddy Run Creek. It was originally a tributary, a water course, and for years and years, it was a terrible area for flooding, Diodati said. Participants can also mail in comments to: City of Niagara Falls, 4310 Queen St., Niagara Falls, Ont., L2E 6X5. A form is available to download on the citys website. A woman who was denied tracker rates on her existing home loan for a decade has received 40,000 in compensation as part of a trove of newly published rulings from the financial services ombudsman, Ger Deering. In that case, which is one of 22 judgments detailed within the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman's fourth report, the woman took out a 330,000 mortgage in 2007. Crucially, her contract required the bank to provide the borrower the option of a tracker loan three years later. But when she requested this switch in 2010, the bank informed her that trackers no longer were available. In correspondence stretching through 2017, the bank said that, had it provided her a tracker rate in 2010, that product somehow would have cost more than its prevailing rates on fixed and variable loans. It offered her 1,615 compensation. The ombudsman rejected that as "totally inadequate". It dismissed the bank's arguments and ordered it to deduct 12pc from the woman's mortgage at its 2010 level of 314,500 - the equivalent of nearly 38,000. It also ordered the bank to refund the difference in interest paid versus what would have accrued on the discounted 2010 amount. While the judgment didn't specify the exact total, it is approximately 40,000. This was one of seven tracker mortgage decisions spelled out in the ombudsman's report detailing rulings from the first five months of 2020. Mr Deering said his office's recent tracker-related judgments on individual test cases had forced banks to pay compensation to around 7,000 customers. Most of those cases are believed to concern AIB, which has set aside 70m for an expected Central Bank fine. But the ombudsman's office still has a backlog of more than 1,200 tracker mortgage complaints to sort through. Many of these, Mr Deering said, are unlikely to be successful in part because the banks' written communications never specified trackers as a future option. "It is evident that we have received a considerable number of complaints from people who would like to have received tracker mortgages - but who have no contractual or other entitlement to a tracker mortgage," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 17:46:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese national flags will be flying in more places in the country including compounds of Party and state organs, schools and public cultural facilities, according to a draft law amendment. Chinese lawmakers Saturday started deliberating two draft amendments to the National Flag Law and the National Emblem Law at an ongoing session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee. The updates, the first in about 10 years, were proposed to foster a social atmosphere of respecting and cherishing the national symbols and reinforce patriotism, said an explanatory document presented to lawmakers. According to the draft amendment to the National Flag Law, in addition to governments, legislatures, courts, procuratorates and other organs that were already covered by the law, committees of the Communist Party of China, Party disciplinary organs and supervisory commissions at all levels shall display the national flag daily or on working days. Non-Communist parties and people's organizations shall display the national flag on working days, said the draft. The draft encourages public cultural facilities including libraries, museums and art galleries to display the national flag on opening days. Enditem Senator Alexei Pushkov criticized the statement on Nord Stream 2 and relations between Russia and Germany made by the chairman of Stratfor, the private intelligence publishing and consulting firm. He called George Friedmans words a profanation. Earlier, Friedman said that Moscow and Berlin have been "flirting" with each other and have been trying to combine "Russian gas and German technology" since 1871, but one side allegedly betrays the other every single time. In addition, he added that the construction of Nord Stream 2 contradicts NATO's goals. Whatever you thought of Walter Mondale, his 1984 running-mate selection of Geraldine Ferraro was a big deal. By choosing an American woman to run for our nations second-highest office, you send a powerful signal to all Americans, Ferraro said in her speech at the Democrats nominating convention that July. Mondale lost in 49 states. Lately Ive been slipping into an alternate-history fantasy in which Mondale won. It would mean that wed already sent this powerful signal, opened this door, accomplished this stupidly basic task, and sent a woman to the White House. Wed be carrying a lot less unnecessary baggage into these veepstakes. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has said since March that his vice presidential pick will be a woman. Hes given something close to a promise that hell announce his choice next week. The preview of what we can now expect this to look like has already been migraine-inducing. Members of Bidens own vetting committee recently fretted that Sen. Kamala D. Harris, D-Calif., often seen as a front-runner, might be too ambitious, focused on her own presidential hopes rather than Bidens administration. (Biden served as Barack Obamas No. 2 after his own presidential run petered out in 2008; presumably his team does not think that he was too ambitious for a secondary role.) After the vice presidential announcement didnt come last week, when many prognosticators thought it would, some allies started to worry that the process was starting to look messier than it should be, as if Biden couldnt make up his mind. Maybe, though, hed already made the decision, and the decision was to protect his running mate for as long as possible from the sexist nonsense that awaits her. She was smiling on TV, something that she doesnt do all that readily, former Democratic Party chair Ed Rendell recently told The Washington Post, attempting to praise former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice by instead invoking the directive Smile! loathed by women everywhere. One would think wed have gotten better at discussing female candidates over the years. Nobody has outright asked any of the Biden contenders whether foreign powers will be able to take them seriously, a question Ferraro was forced to smile through. But part of the problem is that its taken America so long to close the deal that were in a 250-Year-Old Virgin situation: awkwardness compounded by ineptitude wrapped in bizarre expectations. If only we were not freaking out over the first but yawning at the 15th. If George Washingtons vice president had been not John but Abigail Adams; if Sarah Palin had been given the chance to see the Russian Embassy from her house at the Naval Observatory. We could just accept that well have good female vice presidents and bad ones, charming ones and dour ones, ambitious ones and Theyll always be ambitious. Any human running for high office is ambitious. Just bite the bullet. Book Steve Carell for the chest wax. Get it done. Whoever ends up as his running mate doesnt get to be a candidate; she has to be a complement. Because Biden is often defensive, shell have to be calm; because hes older, shell have to be exciting; because hed be president, she cant be too exciting lest she outshine him. In other words, shell be expected to perform the tedious emotional support that women have spent the last five to 50 years raising awareness of, responsible for not only her own work, but also the work of making this older white man look good. Its wonderful that Biden has decided to nominate a woman, but by vaguely publicizing gender as his main qualifier, hes preemptively set his candidate up for pushback. Any time she falters, there will be murmurings of, well, Biden really wanted a woman. As if there was a better gender-blind (male) candidate out there who wouldnt have faltered at all. Choosing a female running mate is no longer historic. Its just high-stakes. Its a simple, obvious thing to do that has become fraught because of how many ways America has found to make it difficult and mysterious. The Geraldine Ferraro fantasy is about wishing wed figured it out before, so we could see how easy it could be to get it right now. Its about embracing traits such as ambition and confidence in women as well as men. Mostly, its about not having to have this conversation, again and again, for 36 more years. Hesse is a columnist for the Washington Posts Style section, who frequently writes about gender and its impact on society. It is 7 a.m. on a Monday morning, Miss Rebecca Dede Amankwa, a final year Senior High student is on her way to the exams centre but the usual gait of the bubbly young girl writing her exit examination is gone. Her steps are slower as she heads to the centre. The 20-year old wears a face mask vher new armour against the virulent disease, which has infected at least 178 of her peers. Reports of COVID-19 in at least 13 senior high schools (SHSs), have increased her fear of a possible outbreak in her school, Ngleshie Amanfro SHS in the Ga South Municipality. Miss Amankwa is one of the 375,737 candidates from 976 public and private SHSs writing the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). To protect herself she says, "I keep my mouth and nose mask on religiously, use hand sanitizer or wash my hands regularly and avoid mates who fail to wear masks". In her school, two hand washing stations (Veronica buckets) are at the entrance for washing of hands, and temperatures are checked before entry into the exams hall. Veronica buckets have been placed at vantage points in the school where students are required to wash their hands on a regular basis. Yet, the regular hand washing is voluntary and not enforced by any school authority. Even though the government indicated that class starts at 9a.m. and ends at 1p.m, the situation differs in most schools. At Amankwas school, classes start at 9a.m. and end at 3p.m. with 25 students in each class sitting two meters apart. But during recess or in between lessons, this physical distancing is totally ignored as students chat in groups, usually without their masks on. After school, most students remove the nose mask right outside the school gates probably tired of wearing it for hours and walk close to each other. Amankwas grandmother, Christiana Ninson, felt helpless when the government ordered the reopening of schools. She was extremely worried that Amankwa would be exposed to unnecessary risks but she did not also want her grandchild's future jeopardised. "We do not have a choice. We can only pray that all goes well", she said. Parents panic On July 5, 2020, scores of parents were thrown into a panic when six students at the Accra Girls tested positive for COVID-19. The situation worsened when the schools authorities refused parents access to their children, claiming the situation was under control. Prior to the reopening of schools, parents were told they would not be allowed to visit their children. Two weeks later, a total of 55 people out of 314 tested at the school, including a teacher and his wife, contracted the virus. Angry parents picketed at the school demanding to take their children home but their requests were refused. The first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ghana were recorded on March 12, 2020. There were 37,812 cases with 34,313 recoveries and 191 deaths as of August 4, 2020. Persons who test positive are taken to isolation centres and managed. A parent, Irene Oppong, said the decision by the school authorities to deny parents access to their children was in breach of their rights. "Why are they preventing us from seeing our children? No parent has been informed of the status of their children. We are unable to sleep or eat. This is an indirect torture," she said. The National Council of Parents Teacher Association expressing its concern, called for the closure of schools. The association wants all students tested before they are made to return home if negative or isolated if positive. The Executive Director of Child Rights International, Mr Bright Appiah, said closure of schools should be based on scientific evidence. Before the reopening of the schools, the Parent-Teacher Associations and School Management Committees said in various statements that the lives of teachers, students and other school workers would be at risk due to the difficulty in maintaining social distance at schools. A headteacher who spoke on condition of anonymity said schools were facing major budgetary challenges to meet the social distancing requirements demanded in the directives issued by the government. Government's position A Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, says cases recorded in schools were either with no symptoms or in mild state. He argues that there is absolutely no reason to close down schools because of recorded COVID-19 cases. Yet, he says: A confirmed case anywhere, including SHSs, is a reminder that the virus is around us, hence, the need to take the protocols seriously. The GES Spokesperson, Ms Cassandra Twum Ampofo, also said, it would not be safe to send students home now as it will be easy to test, trace and treat them while in school. Reopening strategies from South Africa to Finland to Israel show it is not just about the adjustments a school makes but also about how much virus is circulating in the community. As the drama and the debate over the decisions, actions and inactions continue, Miss Amankwah has just one wish: all I want is for all this to be over soon." This report was supported by the Africa Women Journalism Project (AWJP) in partnership with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Confirming deputy secretary of energy: Voting 79-16, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed Mark W. Menezes as deputy secretary of energy. His duties will include overseeing the $35 billion Department of Energy budget and helping manage the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Menezes had served as an undersecretary of energy since 2017, and before that he was chief counsel on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and worked for the American Electric Power Company and Berkshire Hathaway Energy. A yes vote was to confirm the nominee. Barring TikTok from government devices: On a non-record vote, the Senate on Thursday passed a bill (S 3455) that would require federal agencies to remove the Chinese social messaging app TikTok from government-issued smartphones and computers, as the Department of Defense already has done. TikTok, which is used to make music videos, resides on more than 80 million devices in America, including some operated by federal workers. Critics say TikTok collects voluminous personal data on users for potential or actual sharing with the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party. The company is exploring the possible sale of its operations in the United States and certain other countries to Microsoft. The bill is now before the House. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 07:41:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Customers visit the newly-built open-air suites in South Coast Plaza, in Orange County of California, the United States, Aug. 7, 2020. South Coast Plaza, a large shopping center on the West Coast of the United States, unveiled a new customer experience for guests who prefer to shop in person on Friday. The newly-built open-air suites in South Coast Plaza provide customers with a private in-person shopping experience while accommodating restrictions to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua) On August 7, British Columbia issued invitations to Skilled Worker and International Graduate candidates. B.C. invites 437 immigration candidates in new PNP draw On August 7, British Columbia issued invitations to Skilled Worker and International Graduate candidates. B.C. invites 437 immigration candidates in new PNP draw On August 7, British Columbia issued invitations to Skilled Worker and International Graduate candidates. B.C. invites 437 immigration candidates in new PNP draw On August 7, British Columbia issued invitations to Skilled Worker and International Graduate candidates. Alexandra Miekus Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A British Columbia issued invitations to apply for a provincial nomination for permanent residence to Skills Immigration and Express Entry BC candidates on August 7. A total of 437 invitations were issued in the Skilled Worker, International Graduate, and Entry Level and Semi-Skilled Worker categories of the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP). The minimum scores for this draw varied depending on the subcategory and ranged between 76 and 98 points. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs The two subcategories included in the draw under the Express Entry BC stream and their respective scores were: Skilled Worker, which required a provincial score of 97. International Graduate, which required a provincial score of 98. Express Entry BC categories are open to immigration candidates with a profile in the federal Express Entry system, which manages the pool of candidates for Canadas three federal skilled immigration programsthe Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Skilled Trades Program and Canadian Experience Class. Express Entry candidates who apply for and receive a provincial nomination for permanent residence receive an additional 600 points toward their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score and are effectively guaranteed to receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for Canadian permanent residence in a federal Express Entry draw. The three subcategories included under the Skills Immigration stream and their respective scores were: Skilled Worker, which required a provincial score of 97; International Graduate, which required a provincial score of 98; and Entry-Level and Semi-skilled, which required a provincial score of 76. Candidates in the Skilled Worker, Entry Level and Semi-Skilled, and International Graduate categories are required to register with the BC PNP Skills Immigration Registration System (SIRS) after completing a profile with the BC PNPs online system. SIRS is a points-based system used by the BC PNP to evaluate candidates based on factors such as education, work experience and proficiency in English and French. All invited Skills Immigration and Express Entry candidates must have an indeterminate, full-time job offer with an employer in B.C. Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved By Seun Sanni and Nneka Chile LAGOS (Reuters) - In a crowded district of Lagos Island, 44-year-old Isiaka Babatunde weaves through a throng of people and stops at a shop piled high with hats. By Seun Sanni and Nneka Chile LAGOS (Reuters) - In a crowded district of Lagos Island, 44-year-old Isiaka Babatunde weaves through a throng of people and stops at a shop piled high with hats. Wearing a green face mask and a crisply pressed traditional white suit, he carefully selects a matching white kufi cap on his way to join fellow Muslims at a mosque for the first time in four months in Nigeria's commercial capital. "I am very happy today," Babatunde told Reuters. "We have been praying at home all this while due to the pandemic. There was nothing we could do about it." Lagos state is allowing in-person religious services from Friday for the first time since it implemented a lockdown in March to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Services can be no more than 50% full, and only held once per week. Lagos is the epicentre of the outbreak in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. The state, which is home to the 20-million-strong megacity of the same name, currently has 15,627 confirmed cases and 192 deaths. Religious services have been linked to mass outbreaks elsewhere in the world, including France and the United States. But religion plays a large role in the lives of most Nigerians, who are broadly split between Christianity and Islam. Many are keen to return to the services and communities they left at the start of the outbreak. In the streets surrounding the mosque, where worshippers prayed at a distance, there was little space between the vendors and shoppers. So some felt the mosque, with its restrictions, was safe. "I was scared of coming today," said female entrepreneur Rafiat Ajoke-Thomas. "But when I learnt that ... it is going to be like a hundred people, I felt like coming." (Reporting by Seun Sanni and Nneka Chile; Writing by Libby George; Editing by Alison Williams) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Pompeo Warned Moscow in July Call Against Alleged Bounties on US Soldiers - Report Sputnik News 21:50 GMT 07.08.2020 Unnamed US officials told the New York Times on Friday that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a vague warning to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last month that Russia should refrain from offering bounties to Taliban fighters to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan, as the Times has claimed was happening. According to the New York Times, Pompeo "did not explicitly point to the covert bounties scheme," but "made it clear to Mr. Lavrov in language about payouts and red lines that the United States was strongly opposed to the program." The comment reportedly happened on a July 13 phone call between the two diplomats about potentially convening the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, which includes the US and Russia, but also the UK, France and China. In late June, the Times reported that interrogations of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan had yielded information about a Russian intelligence operation that ostensibly offered cash payments to Taliban fighters for killing US soldiers stationed in the country. The report offered no concrete evidence and has been contested by the Pentagon and intelligence community, as well as the Russian government and the Taliban itself, which said the rumors were an attempt to sabotage the peace deal with Washington that will soon see US troops exit the country for good. Pompeo's comment is notable because it stands in sharp contrast to those by US President Donald Trump, who has called the story a "hoax." However, Trump has also vowed to punish Russia if a Pentagon probe vindicates the report. The US president said he did not discuss the issue in a recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The stress of the COVID-19 pandemic is taking its toll on children, with schools noticing increasing anxiety, misbehaviour and conflict with friends as students struggle to make sense of the masks, stress and disruption around them. Teachers, principals and support staff say many primary pupils have been restless and unsettled since remote learning ended, with reports of more frustration, outbursts and difficulties with peer interactions. Students are being impacted by the shock to society. Credit:Michele Mossop Many kids have been resilient, but others have developed renewed separation anxiety and their ability to cope with challenges has gone backwards. Negative behaviour is also rising more quickly, say school staff canvassed by The Sun-Herald. "It is exacerbating whatever the child is struggling with," one primary teacher said. "Socially maligned kids have become more withdrawn; kids that struggle to sit in class are rolling on the floor and calling out. I feel the kids have all regressed a bit." (Newser) Security forces fired tear gas and clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators Saturday in Beirut, and a group of protesters stormed the foreign ministry amid mounting fury over this week's explosion that devastated much of the city and killed nearly 160 people, the AP reports. Dozens were still missing and nearly 6,000 people injured. Activists who called for the protest set up symbolic nooses at Beirut's Martyrs' Square to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for Tuesday's blast. The explosion was fueled by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored at the city's port for more than six years. story continues below "Resignation or hang," read a banner held by protesters, who also planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead. Some nooses were also set up along the bridges outside the Port. In a televised speech Saturday evening, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the only solution was to hold early elections, which he planned to propose in a draft bill. The offer is unlikely to soothe the escalating fury on the street. In central Beirut, some protesters threw stones at security forces who responded with heavy tear gas. Near parliament, protesters tried to jump over barriers that closed the road leading to the legislature. The protesters later set on fire a truck that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament. At least 142 people were said to be hurt in the clashes, and 32 were hospitalized. (See why residents blame "a failed state" for the blast.) There are many conspiracy theories floating around on the death of the late Sushant Singh Rajput's former manager, Disha Salian. BJP MP and former Chief Minister Narayan Rane, had come out and alleged that Disha had been raped and murdered. However, Disha's family has consistently maintained that they do not suspect any foul play in her death. Her father Satish Salian told India Today that they received the complete evidence and post mortem report from the police. He dismissed claims that Disha was pregnant and that she was raped. "As media has freedom of speech, we also have right of privacy, do not interfere in our life please. I request you all please. Police have explained me. They showed whole case evidences, post mortem report. My daughter was never pregnant, she never got pregnant. Rape never happened, organs are clear," said Salian. Disha allegedly died of suicide by jumping off the 14th floor of a residential building in Mumbai. According to a recent India Today report, her friends' Whatsapp chats detailed what happened in the hours before her death. The chats claimed that Disha suddenly got depressed while partying with her friends and fiance. She locked herself up in a room. When they broke open the door, they found that Disha had fallen off the balcony. ALSO READ: Disha Salian's Friends' Whatsapp Texts Reveal What Happened Before Her Death Satish Salian had recently written to Dilip Yadav, Additional Commissioner of Police, Malwani District, Malad, complaining of harassment by the media. He wrote that they were being repeatedly questioned about their faith in Mumbai Police and their investigation of their daughter's death. He asserted that they have already given their statement to the police saying that they do not suspect foul play. ALSO READ: Disha Salian's Father Writes To Mumbai Police Complaining Of Harassment By Media Worried about your mental well-being or of someone you know? Help is just a call away. Reach out to the nearest mental health specialist at COOJ Mental Health Foundation (COOJ)- 0832-2252525, Parivarthan- +91 7676 602 602, Connecting Trust- +91 992 200 1122/+91-992 200 4305 or Sahai- 080-25497777/ SAHAIHELPLINE@GMAIL.COM Were not just talking species here, were talking identifying the exact same robin that it saw on that bush last week.Researchers have created an artificial intelligence system that could render ankle monitors for birds obsolete. Trained on thousands of images of birds, the AI searches for unique characteristics in the birds feathers that allow it to differentiate one from the other. It can successfully pick out an individual bird from multiple different photos.When used in a trial in the wild, the system was found to have an accuracy rate of over 90 percent. Because it is completely non-invasive, this system could eliminate the need for attaching physical trackers to wild birds, which would be highly beneficial to both wildlife biologists and the animals themselves. According to an article released by the AAGTH1 blog on August 4, 2020, Royal Thai Navy would like to upgrade two Chao Phraya-class frigates, which are based on the Chinese-made Type 053H2 frigate. According to an article released by the AAGTH1 blog on August 4, 2020, Royal Thai Navy would like to upgrade two Chao Phraya-class frigates, which are based on the Chinese-made Type 053H2 frigate. Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link Royal Thai Navy HTMS Chao Phraya 455 frigate. (Picture source FlickR Middleburgh) Currently Royal Thai Navy operates Type 053H2 Jianghu class frigate including the HTMS Chao Phraya 455, HTMS Bangpakong 456, HTMS Kraburi 457, and the HTMS Saiburi 458. The Type 053H2, NATO codename Jianghu-III, is an improved version of Type 053H1 class frigates. Hudong Shipyard built seven hulls for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) (three ships) and the Thai Navy (four ships) between 1985 and 1992. The Type 053H2 frigate weapon system includes eight short-range YJ-8 and/or medium-range YJ-81 anti-ship missiles, anti-submarine rockets launchers, two twin-barrel 100mm gun and four 37mm anti-aircraft guns. The propulsion system consists of two diesel engines developing 16,000-hp and two shafts. The Royal Thai Navy received four new Type 053Ts (based on the then-latest Type 053H2) in the early-1990s. Each cost 2 billion. Two were modified with rear helicopter decks. The sonar on these ships is SJD-5A, a further development of Echo Type 5 sonars on the same class of ships sold to Egyptian and Bangladesh navies, with VLSIC replacing LSIC. The interior wiring was exposed and had to be rewired. The damage control system, notably the fire-suppression system and water-tight locks, was also poor; it was expected a hull breach would lead to rapid flooding and the loss of the ship. The Thai Navy spent considerable time and effort to correct some of the issues. Despite its 30 years of service, these frigates continue to be important for the Thai but need to be upgraded. Thailand would like to modernize two of these frigates including HMTS Chao Phraya and HMTS Bang Pakong to reach operational capabilities like a modern OPV (Offshore Patrol Vessel). The Offshore Patrol Vessel is a highly versatile ship, designed to perform Economic Exclusion Zone management roles, including the provision of maritime security to coastal areas and effective disaster relief. The Royal Thai Navy plans to modernize the two frigates and replace the main gun from 100 mm to a more advanced 76/62 automatic gun, replacing all four 37 mm guns with a 30 mm gun with a higher speed rate of fire and more accuracy. The improved frigates will be also fitted with new combat management systems and surveillance systems that are better able to find and prove ground and water targets. Gandhinagar, Aug 8 : The death toll in Gujarat due to the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) has risen to 2,606 as 22 more patients succumbed to the dreaded virus, officials said. The state on Friday saw 1,074 positive cases being detected from 26,591 tests. This has taken the total number of infections to 68,885. On Friday, 1,370 patients were discharged. So far, 51,692 have been discharged in the state. Officials said that in the first seven days of August, 7,452 positive cases have been registered in Gujarat. On Friday, the new hotspot for the Coronavirus in Gujarat - Surat - registered 231 cases while Ahmedabad saw 153 new cases. Vadodara, for the second day, saw its daily spike shooting past the hundred mark with 110 fresh infections. Vadodara was followed by Rajkot -- 90, Jamnagar 52, Junagadh 46, Mahesana 43, Bhavnagar and Gandhinagar, 27 each, Kutch 24, Gir-Somnath 23, Amreli and Dahod with 21 each. The death toll due to Covid-19 in Ahmedabad has reached 1,630. A total of 486 people have died in Surat, 95 in Vadodara, 45 in Gandhinagar, 40 deaths in Rajkot, 30 deaths in Patan, 26 deaths in Bhavnagar, 24 in Aravalli, 22 in Mahesana, 17 deaths in Panchmahals, 16 deaths in Banaskantha, 15 in Kheda, 14 deaths in Anand and 11 have died in Bharuch. The death toll rate of Ahmedabad which used to be around 81 per cent of the total toll during the peak in June gradually got lower. On Friday, it came down to 62.54 per cent. Gujarat's mortality rate has come down under 4 to 3.78 per cent, but is still one of the highest in the country. Till now, the health authorities have conducted over 9 lakh tests, 9,30,373 RT-PCR tests in Gujarat. Of the total RT-PCR tests conducted, 8,61,488, have been found negative. There are 14,587 active cases, out of which the condition of 14,5016 is stable, whereas 86 critical patients are still on ventilator. Currently, over 4.8 lakh people quarantined in the state. Ho Chi Minh City residents who recently returned from the central city of Da Nang, Vietnams current COVID-19 outbreak epicenter, can get back to work after finishing the required 14-day quarantine regardless of their COVID-19 testing status, the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Diseases Control (HCDC) has said. Those who have finished the government-mandated quarantine period and exhibit no disease symptoms are eligible to return to their offices, even if they have not been sampled for COVID-19 testing or have been sampled with results still pending, according to an HCDC announcement. However, these people must strictly take preventive measures, including wearing a face mask when leaving their house or at work, not going to crowded places, not staying in close contact with other people, washing their hands regularly, and self-monitoring their health condition. In addition, they must keep a detailed record of their whereabouts from the date of leaving Da Nang until their test results are available. As of Friday afternoon, as many as 13,000 people in Ho Chi Minh City who had returned from Da Nang from July 1 have yet to be sampled for COVID-19 testing, while 3,000 samples have not been tested, HCDC reported. The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has requested competent district-level agencies to finish sampling all the remaining returnees from Da Nang by Sunday, August 9, and release test results by August 11. Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 13 institutions, including eight hospitals, authorized by the Ministry of Health to perform the COVID-19 confirmation test. Eight more hospitals are capable of conducting conclusive COVID-19 testing and pending health ministry authorization. The southern metropolis has reported eight COVID-19 cases since July 25, when Vietnams first locally-transmitted infection after 99 days was detected in Da Nang. The central city has since logged 235 infections and seven fatalities. Nationwide, Vietnam has logged a total of 789 COVID-19 cases, of which 395 have made a full recovery and ten, with underlying conditions, have died. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The number of flood-affected districts in Uttar Pradesh rose to 18 on Saturday with Sharda, Rapti and Saryu-Ghagra rivers continuing to flow above the danger mark in different places. Deoria was hit by the deluge on Saturday taking the number of affected districts to 18. So far, 672 villages have been inundated, according to a statement issued by Relief Commissioner Sanjay Goyal. The statement said that 460 villages in these districts are marooned. According to the irrigation department, the Sharda river in Lakhimpur Kheri's Palia Kalan, Rapti river in Gorakhpur's Bird Ghat, Sarya-Ghagra in Ayodhya's Elgin Bridge and Ballia's Turti Paar were flowing above the red mark, it said. On Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's directives, Minister for Backward Class Welfare Anil Rajbhar and Minister of State for Water Resources Baldev Aulakh visited flood-affected Bahraich, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur and Barabanki districts for on-the-spot review of the situation there and held meetings with senior officials. In Gonda and Balrampur there have been reports of damage to Sakraur-Bhikharipur embankment and Balrampur-Bhadariya embankments respectively. Steps were being taken to mend the damage. All other embankments are safe, the statement said. Twenty-two NDRF, SDRF and Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary(PAC) teams have been deployed for search and rescue works. Adityanath has directed officials to ensure the safety of people from snake bite which is common in deluge-hit areas and to see to it that flood shelters are not set up in places where overflowing rivers are causing land erosion. He has also directed officials to make sure that electric poles in the affected areas were safe, the statement added. Congress slams government The Uttar Pradesh Congress alleged that the government is turning a blind eye towards the devastation in the state. It also demanded compensation for farmers. In a statement issued on Saturday, UPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lallu said he has been taking stock of the flood situation in the state for about a week. "From Bahraich to Balia, the situation is quite alarming. At many places, the condition of the embankments is very pathetic, which clearly shows the negligence on the part of the government," he said. "The condition of embankments worsens every year in many districts. Bhikharipur embankment was damaged in 2018 as well. This year Rs 70 crore was released for its repair work. Rivers like Ghagra, Saryu, Rapti, Kuano and Sharda have caused havoc in the state. Many people have lost their lives in different parts of the state including Lakhimpur and Ayodhya due to rain, floods and overflowing rivers. "For many years farmers of the state have been victims of natural calamities and anti-farmer policies of the government. The government must declare floods as a calamity and compensate the farmers for their loss of properties and crops, he added. (With inputs from PTI) Some meat plants have seen high numbers of infections There have been no known deaths among meat workers due to Covid-19 but the hold the virus has taken on the industry has raised fears of a second lockdown countrywide. The number of staff from the big processing plants of the midlands that are currently hospitalised is believed to be "in double digits". More cases were revealed last night following a spike in positive tests among staff at factories in Kildare and Offaly. "I'm waiting for a test result," said a worker at Kildare Chilling last night, who did not want to be named. "A good few of the boys in the beef end are positive and it seems to be going through the whole place. Parties "No one has shown symptoms, apart from one man who found it hard to breathe and is in hospital. There were barriers put up between us, but some people were lackadaisical and went to house parties." Another six staff out of 42 tested positive at the family business O'Brien Fine Foods, which produces Brady's Ham. The new cases were revealed after almost a third of the workforce tested positive on Thursday, triggering the shutdown of the processing plant. From the start of this pandemic, Covid 19 has become a scourge in meat plants. The industry accounts for almost 4bn in food exports to the UK, EU and world markets and employs 16,000 people. The first case at a plant was recorded on St Patrick's Day and there have been a number of clusters since. Trade union Siptu forecast in June that if there is a second wave during the pandemic it will originate in a meat plant. Cormac Healy, of Meat Industry Ireland, told a Dail committee that he disagreed with the union last month. Other industry representatives assured politicians they had "reached a point of perfection" with no active cases. The meat processing bosses insist they have taken drastic measures to prevent outbreaks. At O'Brien Fine Foods in Timahoe, daily temperature tests have been taking place since April. Like other employers, they list a litany of measures taken to tackle the virus. These include the installation of Perspex screens between workers who bone meat in big halls, information bulletins in a variety of languages, mandatory PPE and deep-cleaning routines. Solution But unions claim some working conditions have helped create the perfect storm for the spread of the virus. They say that key among these is the fact that 95pc of workers - who earn little more than the 10.10-an-hour minimum wage - do not have sick pay schemes. Siptu divisional organiser Greg Ennis sees one main solution - repeated, blanket and mandatory swab tests. At O'Brien Fine Foods, management brought in a private firm to get the testing done quickly because of a lack of HSE resources. Siptu officials claim they have highlighted the vulnerability of the meat trade since Michael Creed was Minister for Agriculture but got a "negative response". GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Hundreds of thousands of students in the isolated Gaza Strip returned to schools after five months of closure, despite the ongoing pandemic that has seen school years postponed elsewhere across the globe. The rare scene of normalcy in the Palestinian enclave came as the territory has so far been spared a serious outbreak of the coronavirus. There have been no known cases of community transmission among the 2 million residents of Gaza, which has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the militant Hamas group took power in 2007. For Gazas limited health care system, Hamas authorities have sought strict precautions to prevent an outbreak, largely shutting Gazas border with Israel and Egypt where infections have spiked and imposing mandatory quarantine at designated facilities for all arrivals. Seventy-eight people have tested positive for Covid-19 and a woman with underlying health issues died, all at the isolation centers. From the outset, the blockade has restricted movement in and out of Gaza mostly to its residents with humanitarian causes and workers of international aid groups. With the virus at bay, 285,000 students at U.N.-run schools and some 277,000 pupils at public schools were headed back to school this week. They were not required to wear masks or keep distancing, but teachers at U.N. Relief and Works Agency schools poured sanitizers on students hands. The UNRWA did everything possible to secure smooth beginning of this school year by several measures to prepare, clean, disinfect schools and training workers on daily disinfection, said Farid Abu Athra, director of the agencys education program. For August, students will resume classes they missed from the past year, with class sessions curtailed to four per day, recess canceled, and school canteens closed. Authorities are studying a full-fledged back-to-school start in September. Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 8 By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend: The main Turkmen sectors of interest to the United Kingdom investors are oil, gas and chemicals, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UK told Trend. The representative pointed out that the sides have a number of ongoing projects in particular in agricultural technology and the energy sectors. "The UK's Ambassador to Turkmenistan continues to have a range of meetings with Turkmen ministers to explore new areas of cooperation that would be beneficial for both our countries," the ministry said. As it was reported earlier, Turkmenistan and the UK have signed a memorandum on sustainable economic cooperation during a meeting between Minister of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan Ezizgeldi Annamuhammedov and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Turkmenistan Hugh Philpott on June 30, 2020. During the meeting, the parties discussed the development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. In particular, the sides considered the development of partnership in priority areas, including financing and investment. Generally, British companies hold significant positions in the Turkmen market. In particular, British Petrofac company implemented a service project for the development of the Galkynysh gas field in the Mary region in 2013. Gaffney, Cline & Associates conduct an independent audit of Turkmenistan's gas fields. The joint business forums are attended by such companies as British Expertise International, Aggreko, Arempa International Ltd (FZE), Buried Hill, De La Rue, Global ATS Ltd, Industrial Power Group, JTA, Rapiscan Systems Ltd, Tensar, TheCityUK. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian has traveled to Armenias northeastern province of Tavush and visited the border town of Chinari, which is one of the regions villages to have come under cross-border attacks by Azerbaijan as recently as mid-July. Sarkissian was accompanied by Governor of Tavush Hayk Chobanyan and the Primate of the Diocese of Tavush of the Armenian Church Bishop Bagrat Galstyanyan, the Presidents Office said in a news release. The president visited the village school, which was heavily damaged by Azerbaijani artillery strikes. Sarkissians sons, Hayk and Vardan Sarkissian, have donated new equipment to the school. Hayk and Vardan Sarkissian have launched a campaign of donating computers to schools to connect the students with peers from the Diaspora around the world. Sarkissian reiterated his support to the children as president, as an individual and as the Sarkissian family. In a way I have become the friend of this school and this village, he told the children. Consider that this is my school as well, in case of any issues tell me. I am speaking about the entire village. He said his office will resolve the school buildings heating problem. He thanked the residents of Chinari for standing by the countrys men and women in uniform and keeping the borders safe. The President noted the unique nature of the village, saying: This is paradise. People here live in paradise, while many of our countrymen dont even know that paradise is right next to them. We will win if we are all united, in a united Armenia, Artsakh and Diaspora, he said. I am very optimistic and confident that we will overcome all difficulties through unity. All the greats have spoken about this. We are learning poems about our national unity at schools. But I believe that aside from knowing these poems, reciting, analyzing and realizing them, we should also simply feel them, feel that the Armenian next to you is your brother or sister. In this case no one can defeat you in life. As part of his visit to the province, the President also met with the troops and awarded gifts to several distinguished servicemen. He praised the troops as heroes, noting that the people of Armenia are proud of the military. The president noted that our servicemen are the ones who truly shape our history and everyone owes them for the peace and security. Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan New Delhi, Aug 9 : A 30-year-old man received bullet injury during a scuffle over a monetary issue in West Delhi's Janakpuri area, police said on Saturday. The injured has been identified as Brahmjeet, a farmer and resident of Jhajjar district in Haryana. The incident took place at around 8.30 p.m. on Friday night. Police said that Brahmjeet owed Rs 10 lakh to one Paramveer of Rohtak in Haryana. He was visiting his elder brother Kamaljeet, who lives in Uttam Nagar. "On the day of the incident, Kamaljeet was at A-Block, Janakpuri to meet his relative Ashish when Paramveer, along with his relatives Navin, Manjeet, and an unidentified person, came there and asked him to return the money," said DCP West Deepak Purohit . A heated argument soon led to a scuffle and soon Brahmjeet reached the spot and attacked Navin who fired two to three shots one of which hit him in the stomach. While the four men including Paramveer fled from the spot, Brahmjeet was rushed to Chanandevi Hospital. Polic said "both parties are known to each other". A case of attempt to murder has been registered at Janakpuri police station and several teams have been formed to apprehend the accused, several teams have been formed for the same, an officer said. Former President John Dramani Mahama has attributed the unruly behaviour of some current West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) candidates to the decision by government to buy past questions for them. He said the WASSCE candidates believed that the past questions bought for them by the government would come during the exams hence their disappointment and the kind of behaviour they put up. Mr Mahama made this point when he called on the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Mahama Abukari (II) at his palace at Yendi on Friday. Mr Mahama said during his tenure and under his Minister of Education, Professor Jane Nana Opoku-Agyemang, who is his running mate for the elections, Ghana saw the best WASSCE results. Ghana saw the best BECE results in our history. He explained that All of us pass O'Level and A'Level. We used to go to West Africa Examinations Council to buy past questions ourselves. Government never gave it to us. "And we bought it because you can look at the past questions and they can help you to rehearse towards the exams but when the government goes and buys it and gives it to them, it gives them the idea that these are the questions that are going to come. "And they go and sit in the exams hall and those questions they studied for are not in the paper, then this is the kind of thing you will see happening. He said We will come back to government. We will make sure that our children are well prepared and well-taught so that they will go into that exams hall with confidence and not feel that the only way they can pass is to cheat in the examinations. He assured Ya-Na that his next government would work for the progress and development of Dagbon. ---GNA A very rare Red Coral Kukri snake which was spotted in Uttarakhands Nainital district and rescued by forest department on Friday, officials said Saturday. The snake was rescued from Bindukhatta area of Nainital from a local residents house where it was hiding. According to forest officials, the rare snake was first spotted in Lakhimpur Kheri area of Uttar Pradesh in 1936 from where it got its scientific name Oligodon kheriensis. The suffix kukri in its name comes from the kukri or curved knife of Gorkhas as its teeth are curved like the blade of the kukri. Nitish Mani Tripathi, divisional forest officer (DFO) Terai East said, Goula forest range team got a call for rescue of a snake on Friday morning from Kavindra Koranga, a resident of Kurriya Khatta village in Bindukhatta area of Nainital district. When we went there to rescue the snake, villagers had caught the snake and kept it a plastic sack he said. Tripathi said after rescuing the snake from the spot, the team was surprised. It was the rare of rarest snakes - Red Cora Kukri snake. The team rescued it and released it in the forest. Vipul Mourya, wildlife expert from Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) said Red Coral Kukri is a very rare snake and has been spotted only twice so far in Uttarakhand. It was reported in 2015 in the Surai forest range of Terai East forest division. Earlier in 2014, this snake was reported in Surai forest range near Uttar Pradesh border but then it was found dead, he said. Red Coral Kukri snake is listed in schedule 4 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. It is found in red and bright orange colours. This non-venomous snake is nocturnal and feeds on earthworms, insects and larvae. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In Beirut, protesters occupied the Lebanese Foreign Ministry building. According to local media, at the moment, there are police officers near the building, who are negotiating with the protesters. It is noted that the protesters burned the portrait of President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, and declared the Foreign Ministry building their headquarters. Almost the entire city center has become a battlfield for riot control units fighting protest activists. According to the Lebanese Red Cross Society, more than 120 people have already been injured in the Lebanese capital, TASS reports. Recall, on August 4, a powerful explosion took place at the warehouse in the port of Beirut. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, 158 people were wounded, another 6 thousand were injured. The blast wave destroyed and damaged dozens of houses, more than 300 thousand people, including 100 thousand children, were left homeless. Gov. Mike DeWine made the right call Aug. 4 when he issued a health order requiring masks for children returning to in-person classes this fall to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. DeWine is pleading with concerned parents and educators across the state to abide by the states health orders as K-12 schools begin to open. Cases of COVID-19 are spreading across Ohio and the health order makes sense. During his briefing, DeWine said the mask order for students gives us the best shot to keep Ohios kids and educators safe and physically in school. Parents really need to listen to the health experts on this issue because they say face coverings are helping to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus. Students wearing face coverings will protect teachers and other staff members. Some students will not wear face coverings because of health issues, and thats understandable. This nasty virus has killed more than 3,600 Ohioans, and thats not acceptable. What Ohio doesnt need is another crippling blow to the economy with a lockdown. Shutting down the state again could lead to a blow to consumer confidence. More and more businesses would suffer, and some could permanently close. DeWine is employing everything in his arsenal to prevent another lockdown, but Ohioans must once again help. If only people would just follow the best public health practices, DeWine wouldnt have to keep issuing orders to keep people safe. Obviously, people must continue to wash their hands, social distance themselves from others, and when possible, wear face coverings. Constantly, were reading about or watching parties on the nightly news, and now even schools that already have started, where people are not practicing social distancing and very few people are wearing face coverings. What will it take to convince people not heeding the advice of health officials that this virus is deadly and it could hurt a family member? In Ohio, new COVID-19 cases remain high. On Aug. 4, the state reported 1,143 new cases, up from over 900 the day before, marking a 21-day daily case average of 1,291. DeWine is trying to get a handle on this, but people must do their part and students wearing masks in school should help. He said its unclear what the next three weeks will bring let alone for the next three months or six months or nine months of school. DeWine believes there needs to be a localized approach to the reopening of schools, as each district faces a new reality. Health officials believe community spread in individual school districts will dictate the outbreaks their schools will face. To help stop the spread, the state plans to deliver two million masks given by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to regional education service centers, which will distribute to schools across the state. Overall, Ohioans are increasingly adopting the use of masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, so mandating coverings in schools should not pose an inconvenience. The coverings are required in retail centers, restaurants, places of worship and just about any other place where people gather. So, schools should be no different. DeWine said there is a growing body of evidence that cloth face coverings provide source control that is, they help prevent the person wearing the mask from spreading COVID-19 to others. But, the main protection individuals gain from masking occurs when others in their communities also wear face coverings. In an editorial published July 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed the latest science and affirms that cloth face coverings are a critical tool in the fight against COVID-19 that could reduce the spread of the disease, particularly when used universally within communities. The editorial said there is increasing evidence that cloth face coverings help prevent people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others. Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the CDC, said people are not defenseless against COVID-19. Redfield said cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons folks have to slow and stop the spread of the virus particularly when used universally within a community setting. All Americans, he said, have a responsibility to protect themselves, their families and their communities. And hes right. However, those opposed to wearing masks believe the government is infringing on peoples rights by ordering them to wear face coverings. Some look at the public health guidelines as direct threats to their freedoms. We dont see it that way. Face coverings and masks are protections against spreading an awful disease thats not going to just magically disappear. DeWines order for Ohio students to wear masks while in class will help save lives. Airstrikes in northern Yemen killed as many as nine children, a United Nations official said Friday, making it the third such attack with significant child deaths in that rebel-controlled region this month. Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said in a statement that a group of mostly women and children were hit while they were travelling by road Thursday. She said it was "shocking and completely, totally unacceptable." The statement said at least seven more children and two women were injured, but added that the casualty figures were only preliminary and still under investigation. The health ministry for the Houthi rebels, who control the area where the incident happened, had said Thursday that the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen's government conducted six airstrikes in the mountainous northern Yemeni province of Jawf. It said a rough early count indicated more than 20 dead, mostly women and children. READ: More than 100 killed in Yemen missile, drone attack Limited access to Houthi-controlled areas for aid workers and journalists often makes details of attacks difficult to confirm. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Turki al-Maliki, told the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat paper Friday that the coalition was seriously looking into the recent allegations of civilian casualties. The coalition, which has been at war with the Houthi rebels for years, has drawn international criticism for errant airstrikes that have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, killing thousands of civilians. On July 14, the UN reported that an airstrike in Hajjah province killed seven children, some as young as 2 years old. The next day, the Houthi rebels and aid workers reported an airstrike by the coalition hit a celebration in Jawf for a newborn boy's circumcision, killing at least 10 civilians, including six children and two women. Yemen's conflict erupted late in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels swept across much of the north and seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognised government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile. The following year, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states formed a coalition to fight the Houthis in what they said was an effort to stop Iran's growing sway in Yemen. The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and created the world's worst humanitarian disaster, with more than three million people internally displaced and two-thirds of the population relying on food aid for survival. The Proprietor of Bright Senior High School at Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region is in the grips of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) Officials of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) supervising the ongoing WASSCE examination were attacked by students of the school over strict invigilation. A journalist working with the Daily Graphic was also beaten by the students during the melee; his phone and bag collected. According to reports the headmaster, Mr Bright Amponsah instigated the students; a claim he has denied. Subsequently, Mr Amponsah called a press conference on Friday to tell his side of the story when he was arrested according to a report filed by Peace FM's Eastern Regional correspondent, George Padmore aka Borborbor. Listen to 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. Featured Video As many as nine children were killed following airstrikes in northern Yemens Jawf province Thursday, the United Nations said. The attack occurred as the victims were traveling by road, the UNs Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement. Field reports indicate the strikes, which occurred in the Houthi-held Haraad area in Jawf, killed as many as nine children and injured seven. Like all senseless acts of violence against civilians, this is shocking and completely, totally unacceptable, Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said in a statement. We extend our deep condolences to the bereaved and wish all of the injured a full and fast recovery. The Iran-backed Houthis blamed the Saudi-led military coalition for the strike, which came a day after the coalition said it intercepted a bomb-laden drone launched by the rebels that was headed toward Saudi Arabia. The UN reports the Thursday strikes were the third such incident to cause civilian casualties in less than a month. In mid-July, an airstrike killed a woman and seven children in Hajjah province in northeast Yemen. Days later, another attack in Jawf killed at least 11 civilians, including several children. Years of conflict in the regions poorest country have created what the UN calls the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Nearly 80% of the population requires some form of humanitarian assistance. Last month, the UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, warned the Security Council that UN-brokered peace negotiations between the Houthis and the Yemeni government had a limited window of opportunity to produce an agreement. I do not want today to sugarcoat things, Griffiths said, adding that without a peace deal, Yemen will enter a new phase of prolonged escalation, of the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19, and of severe and threatening economic decline. By Express News Service BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against nine foreign members of Tablighi Jamaat, but declined to quash similar proceedings against seven of their Indian counterparts, in cases registered against them by the Tumakuru police. They were booked for participating in a religious congregation, and in case of foreigners, on e-tourist Visas and spreading Covid-19. In an order passed on Wednesday, Justice Krishna S Dixit directed the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) to issue exit permits to the foreign Tablighi members if they are not required for any other case, and after they pay the fine and give an undertaking that they will not visit India within the next 10 years. The foreigners include four from South Africa, three from Gambia and one each from Indonesia and the USA. Judge Dixit made it clear that quashing the proceedings against the accused foreigners should not be construed as extending their Visas, or as dilution of the case against other petitioners who are accused for offences punishable under the Foreigners Act, 1946, IPC, Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act and other enactments. The judge also observed that e-tourist Visas are granted only for specific purposes, and not for missionary activities such as propagation of religion and participating in religious congregations. Dismissing the petitions of seven Indians for being devoid of merits, the judge ordered the jurisdictional police to file charge-sheet within six months. Thank you, soldiers! This is the heartfelt sentiment of Vietnamese citizens returning home from overseas and quarantined at facilities in south-central Khanh Hoa provinces military units towards those who have cared for them in recent days. Centre for Defence and Security Education at the Nha Trang University expected to be used as a quarantine facility (Source: VNA) Vo Van Thao, born in 1972 in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, went to Taiwan (China) to work in 2018. When COVID-19 broke out around the world, his company adopted a policy of assisting staff to get back home. Only at the end of July, however, did he get that chance. Suffering from a heart disease, Thao was concerned that if he was infected by the coronavirus then the treatment costs in his adopted country could be huge. Now back to the homeland, he feels safe and sound. The soldiers serve us nutritious meals every day and teach us physical exercise, while medical staff give us check-ups, he said. Of a similar mind, Pham Thanh Long, who came home on July 28 and is in quarantine in another facility in Khanh Hoa, said he was stranded overseas by COVID-19. After entering quarantine, the first thing he and many others noticed was the warm care from the soldiers. From their reception at the airport to the accommodation, the soldiers prepared everything with all of their heart. We understand that the situation is very dangerous, Long said. Quarantine is a safety measure for us and society as a whole. In addition to the gratitude we feel towards the Motherland, we also donate money through the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee. We also would like to express our sincere thanks to the soldiers at the quarantine facility. Khanh Hoa province is currently quarantining 525 Vietnamese who were previously working, studying, or accessing medical treatment abroad, including 146 pregnant women, at four military units. To care for the pregnant women, female military physicians have coordinated with doctors, obstetricians, and midwives at the Khanh Hoa provincial Department of Health when providing health check-ups. Its not that easy for the male soldiers, who are only in their 20s, to care for the pregnant women. They are learning on the job about cooking meals how the pregnant women want them. And they have done it really well. Deputy Chief of Staff of the Khanh Hoa Border Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Lam Nam, who is also in charge of a quarantine facility, said their task is to guarantee absolute safety and create the most comfortable conditions for those under quarantine. As the facility is short of clean water, the soldiers must pump it every morning from 2am to 5am, Nam added. The soldiers on duty at the quarantine facility of Regiment 803, Division 305, Military Region 5 suffer greater hardship. Every time they welcome Vietnamese citizens home, they have to stay up all night for the work and offer the best infrastructure to the guests, while they themselves move to makeshift camps a few kilometres away. Soldiers install a bed to serve people under quarantine (Source: VNA) According to the provincial Health Department, the four quarantine facilities managed by the army are now overloaded. The provincial Peoples Committee has therefore decided to use other quarantine facilities at the Centre for Defence and Security Education at the Nha Trang University as well as the universitys dormitory, to offer an additional 700 places. The two facilities have been cleaned up and are fully equipped to welcome people who must undergo quarantine. Sergeant Nguyen Hoang Thanh Thien said that when the soldiers first went there, the buildings were empty and covered in dust. After just four days of cleaning, however, all were spic-and-span and had electricity and water supply and the necessary equipment. We do this so the returnees understand that bringing them back to Vietnam involves a major effort by the Government amid economic difficulties, Thien said. Hopefully everyone feels secure when theyre in quarantine. With a spirit of fighting the pandemic like fighting the enemy, the army is more than willing to pioneer disease prevention and control measures. Every soldier on the front line of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic knows that this is their duty and they are willing to weather all the hardships to fulfil all the tasks assigned on them./.VNA As investigators combed through the site on Saturday where an Air India Express plane carrying 190 people on-board crashed in Keralas Kozhikode, a special team is also in the city doing its job quietly. Air India Express said Angels of Air India, the special assistance team, were flown into Kozhikode from Mumbai to coordinate relief and counsel the passengers, who have been injured, and their family members. They will also look after the relatives of the dead passengers. The Go Teams and Angels of Air India have reached Calicut for being with the injured passengers as well as with the family members of the injured as well as dead passengers, Air India Express said in a statement. The Air India Express flight from Dubai overshot the tabletop runway at Kozhikode airport on Friday night while landing in heavy rains, fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 100. Air India Express also said that two special relief flights have been arranged from Delhi and one from Mumbai for humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and their family members. The Chairman and Managing Director of Air India, Chief Executive Officer of Air India Express, Chief of Operations as well as the Chief of Flight Safety of Air India have already reached Calicut, the airline said. One of those planes also carried investigating officers Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) from Delhi to Kozhikode. The Emergency Response Director is coordinating with all the agencies in Calicut, Mumbai as well as Delhi, Dubai for effective emergency response. The AAIB, DGCA & Flight Safety Departments have reached for investigating the accident, Air India Express said. DGCA has said the aircrafts Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR), also known as the black box, has been recovered from the aircraft and that the planes floorboard is being cut to retrieve the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). The pilots of the Boeing 737, one of them a former ace Indian Air Force (IAF) officer, attempted two landings before the final one at the tabletop runway but aborted due to tailwind. According to weather radar, the approach was for runway 28 but as pilots found difficulties they went around twice and came from the opposite side on runway 10 and the plane crash-landed at Keralas Kozhikode airport, a senior investigator from DGCA told news agency ANI. The Air India Express flight IX-1344 from Dubai to Calicut was operating under the governments Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indians stranded abroad because of coronavirus pandemic. There were 184 passengers on the plane, including 10 babies, the two pilots and four cabin crew members. Mumbai, Aug 8 : The family and relatives of Captain Deepak V. Sathe, the pilot who was killed in Friday evening's Air India Express aircraft crash at Kozhikode International Airport, grieved for their "unbelievable" loss, here on Friday. "Its hard to believe that Deepak Sathe, my friend more than my cousin, is no more.." said a stunned relative Nilesh Sathe on his social media post. Nilesh described his cousin as an "experienced aerial operator with 36 years of flying experience", who passed the National Defence Academy, Pune, by topping the 58th Course and was awarded the 'Sword of Honour'. He later served Indian Air Force for 21 years before joining as a commercial pilot with Air India in 2005. Nilesh recalled how he spoke with Capt. Sathe last week and he was "jovial as always". "When I asked him about the 'Vande Bharat Mission', he was proud of bringing back our countrymen from Arab countries," said Nilesh. When he asked whether Capt. Sathe carried empty aircraft since those countries are not allowing entry of passengers, he replied: "Oh, no. We carry fruits, vegetables, medicines, etc. to these countries and never the aircraft flies empty.. That was my last conversation with him." Nilesh recollected how Capt. Sathe had survived a crash in the early-90s when he was with the IAF, and was hospitalized for six months for multiple skull injuries, "and nobody thought that he will fly again." "But his strong willpower and love for flying made him clear the test again. It was a miracle," he added. Capt. Sathe is survived by his wife Sushma, two sons -- both IIT Bombay graduates, including elder son Shantanu -- who got married on March 8, a fortnight before the national lockdown started and currently is in the US, while younger son Dhananjay works for a firm in Bengaluru. The son of Brig. Vasant Sathe, who lives in Nagpur, Capt. Sathe's brother, Capt. Vikas Sathe was an Indian Army officer who sacrificed his life while serving in the Jammu region. The family lives in the Jalvayu posh Powai suburb of Andheri east and a pall of gloom descended in the area after the tragic news broke out late on Friday of the air tragedy which claimed 18 lives so far. Latest updates on Kerala Air India Plane Crash -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text A mother of four who is an Irish citizen, is college-educated and has been living in Wexford for more than 10 years said she wants to raise an issue that is 'breaking my heart every minute of every day'. Following separation and an acriminous divorce from her husband, her two oldest children were exposed to alienating behaviour which led to their 'total and unjustified' rejection of her, in a process which began slowly at first and presented itself as abusive behaviour which was encouraged by her husband. A victim of domestic violence and coercive control for many years, she made the decision to leave her family home and seek shelter in Wexford Women's Refuge to save her two younger children from exposure to anger, hatred and emotional and psychological abuse. 'What happened next was a total rejection of me as a mother with no way for me to break through the vicious wall raised by the vindictiveness of an adult person. 'I have not seen or spoken to my two older children for over 18 months now. There have been a couple of incidental meetings which always ended in either them pretending they didn't know me or them being abusive towards me,' she said. 'It took many months for me to finally stand up on my own two feet, rise from a deep depression and get to understand what had happened to my beloved children and the family.' The woman said she educated herself on the subject and discovered that 'this country and this world are full of parents, both mothers and fathers who suffer the same hurt as I do'. 'The phenomenon is commonly known as Parental Alienation and happens when one of the parents feels the need to "win" at all costs and will use whatever means necessary to make sure the child is on his/her side. 'This parent consciously or unconsciously alienates the child from the other parent and as a result, the child unjustly rejects the targeted parent with whom he or she had previously had a healthy relationship. 'The alienating parent - usually the one with whom the child spends the most time - may very openly, subtly or quite covertly, influence the child's mind with negative thoughts about the other parent and wider family. 'Sometimes it is even done subconsciously through destructive body language, words or actions. The child observes and feels the alienating parent's hatred and hostility towards the other parent and anything to do with them or their family and aligns himself/herself with the hostility of the alienating parent. 'The end result is a strong mistaken belief by the child that the alienated parent is evil, nasty etc, even if the alienated parent is a kind and loving person and is guilty of only wanting to support and spend meaningful, regular and ongoing time with their child like any other normal parent.' She said parental alienation causes serious harm and endangers children or young adults along with the targeted parent and extended family. She stressed that it is not a gender issue as it is estimated that in Ireland 80% of victims are fathers and 20% are mothers while sons and daughters are abused equally by parental alienation. In the UK where more thorough research has been carried out, the percentages are more equal with 56% being fathers and 44% mothers. 'The effects of parental alienation can last a lifetime with the parent and children often never becoming reconciled. This can result in emotional and psychological damage such as depression, anger, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, eating disorders, self harming behaviours and almost certainly makes forming other relationships harder for the child and for both parents. Children who are alienated are much more likely to become alienated again when they become parents themselves,' she said. She is now a member of a group called Alienated Children First which is currently reorganising after Covid-19 and provides support voluntarily to alienated parents around the country. 'Many of the victims of Parental Alienation would feel that legislation has let them down especially in the family court process, making them and their children innocent victims of abuse. 'The lack of education, understanding and recognition of parental alienation is not only costing the Irish state an unacceptable amount of expenditure which could be better spent elsewhere but is also contributing to a multiple of social and mental health problems for life, especially for the children who have and are experiencing this type of abuse. 'Since the alienation started for me, I have personally received very little help from the state institutions and its system. Tusla was not fast enough to prevent and then stop the alienation that was clearly developing with tremendous speed.' 'My children were not interviewed after the incident of domestic violence which they witnessed. Nothing was done to help my family. The family social worker got involved only after the situation escalated to unbearable measures, following my intervention. 'Regardless of his best intentions and support, my children's lives became an emotional torture and the only solution I saw was to simply leave the house and become homeless. I was fortunate enough to have friends to help me out but as soon as I found accommodation for myself and my two younger children, Tusla decided to close the case, refusing to acknowledge the problem and the ongoing damage to my sons, me and my whole family. 'This approach is wrong and should be changed as soon as possible,' she said. 'The gardai, although very helpful at times, were confused and lost when I was begging them for help. They are not trained to deal with the issue. The gardai used to send me to my solicitor and the courts. The solicitor reverted the direction. 'The case has been dragging through the courts and the legal system is inadequate to resolve the situation fast enough to avoid further harm and hurt. The big problem is the lack of Family Courts and judges who could specialise in family law and make the process more efficient and professional. 'There are no working state measures to step in when situations like mine arise, and intervene early. My eldest child will have reached adulthood by the time the court proceedings bring some closure. There is no legislation to address the problem. The 'in camera' rule puts the alienated parents in fear and shuts all the wrongdoing behind closed doors. The voice of the child rule, so rightfully implemented in Irish law in other cases, does not work and simply cannot be applied in situations of parental alientation. 'How can a 13-year-old child understand where their hatred comes from if they are manipulated into believing the lies? How can the judge assume the best interest of the child is to reject a loving and caring parent? 'Are they lost for good to the targeted parent because of this loophole in the law? 'The problem with parental alienation is that nobody wants to admit such cruel behaviours can be real and unjustified until it happens to them. And believe me it can happen to anybody,' she said. Continuing with his efforts to strengthen the bilateral ties, the top Indian diplomat in the US has discussed trade and investment cooperation with the Governor of Pennsylvania, the American state with which India shares a vibrant and a century-old relationship. The total trade between India and Pennsylvania in 2019 was $3.21 billion. Over 18 Indian companies, with investments of $540 million, are supporting 3,000 jobs in Pennsylvania. India's Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu during his virtual conference with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Friday discussed the ever-increasing trade and investment complementarities in the India-US relationship and cooperation in the fields of education and healthcare. "Wonderful conversation with Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania on our strong economic partnership & the important contributions of the Indian diaspora & Indian companies. Discussed the potential for collaboration in higher education; STEM areas; life sciences and health," Sandhu said in a tweet. Wonderful conversation with @GovernorTomWolf of Pennsylvania on our strong economic partnership & the important contributions of the Indian diaspora & Indian companies. Discussed the potential for collaboration in higher education; STEM areas; life sciences and health. Taranjit Singh Sandhu (@SandhuTaranjitS) August 7, 2020 Sandhu shared with Wolf the latest developments in the Indian healthcare and education sectors, including recent reform initiatives taken by India, according to a readout of the call issued by the embassy here. Both noted the important contributions, especially in economy, of over 2,00,000 members of the Indian diaspora in Pennsylvania, including those of nearly 10,000 Indian students in Pennsylvania's higher education institutions. The ambassador highlighted the new opportunities available for investments in India's higher education sector under the New Education Policy recently announced in India. Indian entrepreneurs and professionals have a significant presence in Pennsylvania in the IT and telecommunications, life sciences and manufacturing sectors. Indian high skilled talent adds to the competitive edge of the US economy. Many Pennsylvania-based US companies spread across food processing, agriculture, IT, and Chemicals sectors are present in India. Some notable investments include Hershey's, Kraft Heinz, Unisys, Air Products & Chemicals, FMC among others. Mumbai: A 24-year-old woman physiotherapistwas found murdered at her house in suburban Vile Parle earlythis morning, with the autopsy report indicating she wassexually assaulted before the killing, police said. The woman was found dead around 3 AM with burn injurieson her face and a pair of jeans wrapped around her neck, theysaid. "Based on the autopsy report, we are filing a case ofrape and murder," said a senior police official late thisevening. The woman lived with her parents at a one-plus tenementin a chawl. She occupied the top room which served as herstudy room. A neighbour of theirs said they saw smoke coming out ofher room and alerted her parents. As her parents and otherswent upstairs and doused the fire in the room, they found herlying dead on the floor, the police official said. Another neighbour said she was last seen with two of herfemale friends who were at her place till 11 pm. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The two women were born in the forest more than 70 years ago, when it covered much of Kenyas highlands. Over the years, successive waves of people with their axes and plows came, from British colonists to other Kenyans in search of fertile land, and the expanse of green shrank to just a few small patches of untouched woodland: the Mau Forest. Now tens of millions rely on the water that flows from its springs and live in houses built out of its wood. The womens people, the Ogiek, claim to be the indigenous inhabitants of the Mau, and with the felling of the trees came the felling of much of their way of life: hunting tree hyraxes and antelope for meat and fur, and harvesting honey and medicinal herbs. A landmark 2017 ruling by the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights affirmed the Ogieks right to live in the forest. Kenyas government, which owns the forest, has barely acknowledged the ruling. In late June, it began evicting hundreds of Ogiek families from the Mau in the name of conservation. Ogiek leaders say the government has promised to allow them back into the Mau when non-indigenous settlers in the forest have been cleared out. But powerful Kenyan officials have said in interviews that they have no intention of permitting the Ogiek to return. Recommended No tourism means wildlife conservation in Kenya is jeopardised By evicting us, we hope that our land will become ours again, says Raeli Nalotwesha, one of the two women. She and Agnes Tapkili were rendered homeless last month, in the middle of the cold and rainy season and as a pandemic that seems to target the elderly spreads. They were sheltering in a shuttered school. It was the fourth time in their lives theyve been evicted. Kenyan governments have been trying to kick the Ogiek and other settlers out of the Mau for more than 40 years, ostensibly to conserve its resources, even as they have allowed countless thousands to encroach on the forest and convert it into farming and grazing land. In many parts of the Mau, the Kenya Forest Service has transformed the land into a commercial timber operation. Since 2018, over 50,000 people mostly non-Ogiek settlers have been evicted, often violently, from the Mau, Human Rights Watch says. Amid cries from rights groups that the Ogiek are being abused, the communitys leaders and many of its 30,000 to 50,000 members are putting faith in a long-shot plan they believe the government is enacting. Agnes Tapkili (left) and Raeli Nalotwesha try to warm themselves near a small fire (The Washington Post) Over 300 families have been evicted, even from deep into the forest since June, says Daniel Kobei, an Ogiek activist and the tribes most prominent public figure. In most cases, we are complying voluntarily. We want the evictions completed and, after, we want implementation of court rulings. The gambit relies on the Kenyan governments respect for the 2017 ruling by the Tanzania-based court, which doesnt have enforceable jurisdiction in Kenya. Its an even riskier strategy considering the government has evicted thousands of poor people from their homes during the coronavirus pandemic despite a self-imposed moratorium on doing so. Although Kobei says he has regular and constructive discussions with government officials that lead him to believe in their intention to respect the ruling, officials painted a different picture in interviews with The Washington Post. You tell me that people can survive on honey and herbs. What a nonsense story. Nobody dwells inside a forest, says George Natembeya, an Interior Ministry official in charge of security for a large part of Kenya that includes the Mau. There is no such thing as a forest-dwelling person these are misnomers. The forest should not have people residing there. With the evictions, what we are stopping is destruction, by Ogieks, and by other Kenyans, and we make no distinction. We want this land to be how nature created it, with services that allow us to live. We need to start from scratch again Meanwhile, some Ogiek families have razed their houses in hopes they will be resettled in the forest. Daniel and Lilian Tuimising now sleep in a cramped shack with their seven children after Daniel took a hammer and posthole digger to his house and shop, reducing it to rubble. Even if we suffer now, it is good for the Mau, he says. We want to show that we agree with forest protection so they will allow us back. His optimism is echoed by others who yearn for non-Ogiek settlers to be banished from the Mau and were willing to pay what they hope is the temporary price of their homes for it. We support it 100 per cent. We have no choice but to trust, says Dominic Letuya, 23. But the Kenya Forest Service doesnt see the Ogiek as the forests protectors. Officials see that as their own role, and one they can carry out only if the forest is void of people. Ogiek hunter Joseph Lesingo inspects a piece of honeycomb (The Washington Post) Its an issue of people understanding that they are in the wrong place and upgrading themselves, moving to another, safer place so they do not have to spend my time fighting with the owner of the forest, says George Njenga, the services top official in the Mau. The Ogiek and the Kenya Forest Service say they are both trying to return the Mau to its natural state, but to many Ogiek, that includes their living there again, using the forests bounty responsibly. We want this land to be how nature created it, with services that allow us to live, says Joseph Kipkemoi Lesingo, 55, adept in hunting, foraging and beekeeping. We need to start from scratch again. Recently, Lesingo went into the forest with his two hunting dogs to survey beehives hed made out of hollow logs from trees of the Dombeya genus. Hes fastened the hives into the canopies of the same trees, which he says yield the sweetest honey. Lilian Tuimising (left) and her daughters observe what remains of their home (The Washington Post) He vigorously rubs two specially carved pieces of wood together without any flint to create an ember, which he places into a ball of moist moss, creating a smoker. He places it in a satchel made of hyrax hide, warding away the bees while he gathers golden hunks of honeycomb so flavourful they leave a burn in the throat like whiskey. That stuff you get in the city its all mixed with sugar, he says. If a newly pregnant woman eats a full honeycomb in April, it is potent enough to give her twins, according to Ogiek legend. This is the strong stuff. After holding on to his culture despite the government appropriating the forest for its own purposes and encroaching farmers and herders using it for theirs, Lesingo is happy to coexist with the newcomers as long as they leave the Ogiek to restore not just their homes but their traditions and the forest itself as they believe is their right. If and it is all about if, says Lesingo. If they listen to us. Rael Ombuor contributed to this report. The Washington Post An AirAsia flight was forced to abort operations after it suffered a bird hit during the take -off exercise at the Ranchi airport this morning, said the airline. This incident comes a day after a tragic plane crash in Kerala killed 18, including the two pilots. The plane, AirAsia flight (i5-632), was scheduled to fly from Ranchi to Mumbai. AirAsia India aircraft VT-HKG operating from Ranchi to Mumbai as flight i5-632 encountered a bird hit during scheduled departure at 11:50 hrs, today, 8th August 2020, stated an airline spokesperson. The aircraft is currently being inspected. The flight is scheduled to depart once the aircraft is cleared for operations. AirAsia India prioritises the safety of our guests and crew and regrets the inconvenience caused on account of this delay, said the spokesperson. The airline said an alternative aircraft is being made available to ferry guests from Ranchi to Mumbai. All guests are being attended to and provided with refreshments by our guest services staff, the spokesperson added. New York mayor Bill de Blasio. Photo: John Lamparski/Getty Images By the end of June, New York City had experienced 227 murders in 2020, 51 more than the same period last year and consistent with an upward national trend. Like most of the experts investigating the causes, Mayor Bill de Blasio doesnt know why this is happening. But that hasnt stopped him from using the murders to demagogue, blaming them on alleged leniencies in the criminal-legal system and other policies that he opposes. Its the latest stop on his descent into ignominy. As far back as March, the mayor was attributing the crime-rate spikes to changes in New Yorks bail laws. Statewide reforms implemented in January had narrowed the range of bail-eligible offenses, requiring that people charged with certain misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies be released. The rationale was that bail punishes poverty. If paying money is the difference between months spent behind bars and awaiting case updates at home, the inevitable outcome is jails being packed with poor people while those with means walk free. Predictably, the police opposed these changes. Criminal-justice reforms serve as a significant reason New York City has seen this uptick in crime, the NYPD said in a statement. The departments evidence for this claim was dubious; a causal relationship was never proven, and legal-advocacy groups accused officials of inflating the statistics for political reasons, citing a drop in the number of cases being arraigned. The polices control over the release of crime stats paired with similar trends affecting cities and states with markedly different bail laws muddied the conclusions further. But de Blasio parroted their claims. Theres a direct correlation to a change in the law, and we need to address it, the mayor said. Both entities had a powerful ally in Governor Andrew Cuomo. The states next budget reflected their accord, re-expanding the list of charges for which people could be held on bail. These were the early days of the pandemics tightening chokehold on the United States. Jails and prisons were becoming hot spots, as was New York City. A burgeoning crisis at Rikers Island was making it clear that, without releasing prisoners in large numbers, the jail complex risked becoming a death cage, where the impossibility of social distancing invited mass infection. De Blasio bragged about some belated releases the fewest detainees weve had in our jails since 1949, he tweeted. But as crime rates persisted, he started to blame the courts, claiming they werent locking up enough people or doing it fast enough. His latest scapegoat is the alleged deceleration of cases being processed. [It] affects the ability to ensure that someone who should not be on the street, isnt, he told the New York Times this week. But the citys own analysts tell a different story. A recent inquiry by officials found that the number of unresolved gun cases in July was roughly the same as in December, if not lower. Gun and murder arraignments from April to June were comparable to those between October and December 2019. Prosecutors in multiple boroughs insisted the pandemic hadnt slowed things down but simply moved them online. Were open, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance told the Times. This disconnect is common. The notion that prosecutorial relief begets chaos is widely accepted as gospel, but as the mayors unsupported allegations show, its broad acceptance belies its lack of underlying evidence. The unusual circumstances around the recent rise in murders are a prime example of how calls for harsher punishment are more reflexive than rigorous. A global pandemic, a maimed economy, mass unemployment, a national uprising against police violence all make it especially hard to pinpoint the elements causing this upward trend, let alone isolate them. Experts openly admit this: We dont know nearly enough to know whats going on at the given moment, Jennifer Doleac, director of the Justice Tech Lab, told Voxs German Lopez. The current moment is so unusual for so many different reasons that its really hard to speculate about broad phenomena that are driving these trends when were not even sure if theres a trend yet. It wouldnt be the first time. Theres still no consensus around what caused the decades-long decline in U.S. crime rates that started in the 1990s. Confounding matters further is that most other violent-crime rates have gone down in recent months, though they usually move in the same direction as homicide trends, Lopez writes. Officials blaming leniency like de Blasio and NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea are performing a degree of certainty they do not possess. This kind of demagoguery is also the standard. Decades of political campaigns and advertising by criminal-justice officials and others both aspiring and incumbent have so codified the idea that crime is best addressed by throwing the book at lawbreakers that its rarely questioned. It has launched and sustained many a career; historically, few political contenders lose elections by promising vicious treatment of alleged criminals. (Though there are signs that this sentiment is shifting.) There was a time when de Blasio seemed a poor fit for this type of politics. He ran for mayor as a reformer, harnessing backlash against former mayor Michael Bloombergs stop and frisk policies into a campaign targeting racial and income inequality. De Blasios actions rarely lived up to his rhetoric, but that didnt stop the NYPD from treating him as if they did. He was scorned widely by police and shown open disrespect by their rank and file and union officials alike. They turned their backs on him at officers funerals. Union heads openly threatened him. Mayor De Blasio, the members of the NYPD are declaring war on you! read the Sergeants Benevolent Association Twitter account in February, after the mayor expressed condolences when several officers were shot in one weekend. We do not respect you, DO NOT visit us in hospitals. Despite this antipathy, the mayor has continued to actively court their goodwill. When protests erupted this spring after the killing of George Floyd, NYPD officers rioted on nonviolent demonstrators. At least one drove their vehicle into a crowd. I do believe the NYPD has acted appropriately, the mayor said in response to this behavior. When his constituents revolted and he struck a more critical tone toward police, the SBA responded by doxing his daughter. This back-and-forth has characterized the mayors rocky relationship with city law enforcement vacillating wildly between rhetorical condemnation and sanction of their indefensible conduct, all while officers and union officials show him the utmost contempt. Its especially incongruous given the bloated policing budgets and expanded gang databases that have marked his tenure and granted police broader surveillance powers and discretion to criminalize noncriminal behavior. All evidence indicates he is far from the law-enforcement antagonist that he performed early on or that the NYPD seems to think he is. The result is a queasy combination of reformist rhetoric and sporadic entreaties with tough on crime posturing. The mayor is now stoking fears of rising crime due to a laxness in the courts that does not exist, and he has attached causal blame for crime to more equitable bail laws with no proof. The stakes of throwing the weight of the most powerful office in Americas biggest city behind a harsher criminal-justice system are not a matter of conjecture. They are evidenced in the decades of devastation this approach has wrought for everyday New Yorkers. Todays experts have readily acknowledged that the current trends defy easy explanations or answers. De Blasios refusal to do the same will spell disaster for the same vulnerable people he has claimed to champion. The Great American Relay is set to make stops in Lockney, Plainview and Olton on Oct. 9. The relay race is set to begin on Sept. 15 in Boston and will make 379 stops before wrapping up at the Santa Monica Pier in California on Oct. 21. Fifteen states will be passed through during the vent. Presidente del Consejo de Ministros, Walter Martos, junto a la titular de @EsSaludPeru, recorre los ambientes de la segunda sala de observacion del Centro de Atencion y Aislamiento COVID-19 Villa Panamericana, que hoy se pone en funcionamiento con 100 camas totalmente equipadas. pic.twitter.com/zuAYK6CGve President Alexander Lukashenko has been accused of stealing previous elections. Three Russian opposition activists have been detained as they travelled to Belarus to observe a tense presidential election. President Alexander Lukashenko is facing the strongest opposition yet to his leadership. He is expected to declare victory after Sundays elections, his sixth in 25 years. But the opposition says it will fight the election results in court. Al Jazeeras Step Vaessen reports from Minsk. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, August 10, 2020 09:02 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c82c10 2 Business AgricultureProductivity,economic-growth,COVID-19,agriculture,harvest-season,indef Free Indonesian agriculture has emerged as a buttress against the pandemics impact on the economy this year, supported by the resilience of farmers and the accounting effects of an incidental shift in the harvest season. The sector, the second-largest contributor to Indonesias economy, managed to grow 2.19 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the second quarter, albeit more slowly than the sectors yoy growth in the same period last year: 5.3 percent. Most other sectors, such as transportation and warehousing, suffered steep declines as a result of pandemic-related restrictions. Bustanul Arifin, an economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), said that while the growth could be partially attributed to the resilience of farmers to the crisis, it was also aided by a delay in the rice harvest following last years drought. In 2019, when the planting season was delayed to November, we were all scared about the decreasing production. Apparently were reaping the benefits now, as the harvest season was in April 2020, in the second quarter, he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. Rice production jumped 57 percent month-on-month (mom) in April of this year from 6.27 million tons in March to 9.85 million tons in April according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data. Rice production in March was 31.6 percent lower than in March 2019, at 9.17 million tons. Indonesias economy suffered its sharpest downturn since the 1998 Asian financial crisis in the second quarter of this year, as the unfolding global health crisis halted business activities and caused millions to lose their jobs. The countrys gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 5.32 percent in the second quarter, the largest decline since the first quarter of 1999, BPS announced on Wednesday. The figure was worse than the government's initial estimate of a 4.3 percent contraction. Galuh Octania, a researcher at the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS), said that the exemption of agricultural logistics from large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) helped the sectors supply chain survive the coronavirus pandemic, which put much of the rest of the economy on hold. She acknowledged the contribution of Agriculture Ministry programs, such as the microcredit program (KUR) for farmers, to the sectors growth. The government has earmarked Rp 34 trillion (US$2.3 billion) for loan interest subsidies and loan repayment relaxations for farmers and fishermen through the KUR, as well as the UMi and Mekaar programs, among others. Farmers terms of trade rebounded to 100.09 in July from 99.6 in June. A figure of 100 means that farmers expenses match their income, and a figure over 100 means their income exceeds their expenses, signalling an improvement in welfare. Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) researcher Dwi Andreas Santosa expected agriculture to continue growing in the third quarter, alongside the information and communications sector, which also grew in the second quarter. It will still grow because there will be a second harvest season, he said, noting that the sector was dominated by rice production. The government has brought rice-planting forward to May and June this year to ensure a sufficient supply during the pandemic. It expects the harvest to occur in August and September. Indonesian farmers usually plant and harvest their rice later in the year, when rainfall increases, after the first planting season in March. The government noted on Thursday that despite employing the majority of the Indonesias workforce, agriculture still made a minimal contribution to the countrys tax revenue. The agricultural sector contributes relatively very little to tax revenue, said Febrio Kacaribu, the head of the Finance Ministrys Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF), in a virtual press conference. We want a proportionality. A large sector that generates large added value must be able to contribute proportionally to tax revenue. The Finance Ministry recently issued a regulation that offered the option of imposing a 1 percent value-added tax (VAT), based on the sale price, on select agricultural products. The government normally levies a 10 percent VAT. The VAT targets agricultural businesses that have at least Rp 4.8 billion in annual revenue. The government has said the measure is meant to give legal certainty regarding taxation in agricultural sector. As of May, the nations total tax revenue had fallen 10.8 percent year-on-year to Rp 444.6 trillion as almost every economic sector contracted. The government expects the state budget deficit to reach 6.34 percent of GDP this year. The United States Imposes Sanctions on Central African Republic Militia Leader Press Statement Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State August 7, 2020 Today, the United States took action against the notorious leader of a murderous group that has committed numerous human rights abuses and displaced thousands of people in the Central African Republic (CAR) since 2015. The United States acted pursuant to Executive Order 13667 and alongside the UN in designating Bi Sidi Souleymane, also known as Sidiki Abbas, who leads the Central African Republic based militia group Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation (3R). On September 27, 2016, 3R raided the village of De Gaulle, killing at least 17 villagers, and raping women and girls. During and immediately after 3R's raid on De Gaulle, 3R members and Souleymane himself tortured villagers. On May 21, 2019, 3R killed at least 34 unarmed civilians in three villages in northwest CAR's Ouham-Pende province, summarily executing adult males. Souleymane was designated for being responsible for the targeting of women, children, or civilians through the commission of acts of violence, abduction, forced displacement, or attacks on civilian, religious, or locations where civilians are seeking refuge, or through conduct that would constitute a serious abuse or violation of human rights or a violation of international humanitarian law. Moreover, Souleymane himself has directly perpetrated torture in CAR. The United States supports the February 2019 Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic. This Agreement holds the best hope for a future free of violence and instability for Central Africans. This Agreement states that any violation is likely to expose the perpetrators to international sanctions. In June 2020, 3R announced the suspension of its participation in the Agreement's implementation. Today's action signals that the United States will not tolerate those who commit human rights abuses and will prevent such actors from benefiting from the U.S. financial system. Additionally, the corresponding UN sanctions obligate all UN Member States to impose an asset freeze and travel ban on Souleymane. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NEW DELHI : The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with Gavi-The Vaccine Alliance, will provide at-risk funding of $150 million to Serum Institute of India to support the production of two promising vaccines by University of Oxford and Novavax on the condition that the Pune-based firm prices the two vaccines at a maximum of $3 per dose. Under the pact, Serum Institute will receive funding from the Gates Foundation through Gavi-The Vaccine Alliance, and also become part of the Gavi Covax Advance Market Commitment mechanism for equitable access to vaccines for India and other low and middle-income nations. With a vaccine needed urgently, vaccine makers globally are taking a risk by investing in capacity for candidates despite them still being in clinical trials stage. To aid this effort, governments and Gavia global organization founded by the Gates Foundation to improve access to new vaccines in poor countriesare providing funding to reduce the risk for manufacturers while, in return, securing supplies if approval is granted. The collaboration using the foundations Strategic Investment Fund will provide upfront capital to Serum Institute, the worlds largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, to help it boost capacity so that once a vaccine gets regulatory nod and EHOs prequalification, up to 100 million doses can be produced at scale for distribution in India and other countries as early as the first half of 2021. ...to ensure maximum immunization coverage and contain the pandemic, it is important to make sure that the most remote and poorest countries have access to affordable cure and preventive measures. Through this association, we seek to ramp up our constant efforts to save the lives of millions from this dreadful disease," Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla said in a note. Serum Institute will start clinical trials for the Oxford vaccine in the coming week after having received approval from the Drug Controller General of India, V.G. Somani, earlier this week. The second and third phase trials of about 1,600 patients will be conducted across 17 sites in India. Serum Institute had in June signed a pact to provide a billion doses of the vaccine, and on Thursday signed a pact with Novovax to produce a minimum of 1 billion doses of its candidate NVXCoV2373 for India and other low-income countries. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics Surya and family including father Sivakumar, brother Karthi and wife Jyotika are known for their philanthropic activities. Be it for the COVID-19 relief funds or for advocating educational rights for the underprivileged children, the family has always stood by the people extending a helping hand for the needy. Well now, huge support and love is being showered on Jyotika on social media for her recent gesture. The Ponmagal Vandhal actress has apparently donated Rs 25 lakh to Thanjavur Government Hospital for buying medical equipment and to improve the healthcare facility. It is said that Jyotika has handed over the fund to the Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar. The actress has garnered huge appreciation for her donation, especially during this time of COVID-19 pandemic. It is to be noted that earlier, Jyotika was slammed by a group of netizens who dragged her into a controversy after her speech on temple donations went viral. Apparently, the actress had said that during the shoot of her film Raatchasi in Thanjavur, she was asked to visit the famous Brihadeeswara temple. She also added that she didn't visit the temple after seeing one of the hospitals of the district, which was maintained badly. Further, her request of donating money to schools and hospitals instead of temples evidently irked a few netizens, who eventually slammed her on social media. Later, Surya came out in support of his wife with an open letter that stated that he firmly stands by the statement of Jyotika and gave a befitting reply to the naysayers. He said, "Jyotika has said schools and hospitals too should be held with high regard like the temples. The same opinion has been earlier expressed by several spiritual gurus including Vivekananda. Helping others is equal to god's offerings. This has been an idea since Saint Thirumoolar's time, which might not be understandable to those who dislike the idea of good thinking." On the work front, Jyotika was last seen in courtroom drama Ponmagal Vandhal directed by JJ Fredrick. The movie is now available on Amazon Prime Video. Did Vanitha Vijaykumar Take An Indirect Dig At Meera Mitun's Degrading Remarks On Popular Actors? Suriya To Team Up With Hitmaker Trivikram Srinivas For His Next? The Bhutan Foreign Ministry on Friday extended deepest condolences to the victims of the Air India Express crash in Kozhikode, Kerala. Bhutan's Foreign Minister Dr Tandi Dorji expressed his grief over the unfortunate incident and conveyed his sympathies to the passengers and crew who lost their lives and wished a speedy recovery to those injured. Deepest condoloences for the Air India Express crash in Kozhikode, Kerala. We are deeply pained to hear the news and my prayers goes out for those passengers and crew who lost their lives and speedy recovery to those who are injured. ForeignMinisterBhutan (@FMBhutan) August 7, 2020 READ | Air India plane crash: DGCA flagged maintenance issues at Calicut airport in 2019 Kozhikode Air India plane crash As per a statement from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, an Air India Express flight arriving in Kozhikode skid off the runway, and had a crash landing. The runway which is of the tabletop pattern was reportedly waterlogged. The incident took place amid very heavy rainfall in the area around 7:40 PM on Friday, August 7. There were 191 persons on board including two pilots and 5 cabin crew. At least 18 persons including two pilots have lost their lives in the incident and the injured are admitted to hospitals in Malappuram & Kozhikode. Kerala govt has confirmed that a one-year-old boy injured in the crash has succumbed to his wounds at the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital and is reported to be the youngest casualty in the plane crash. Following the crash landing of the plane, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan instructed the Police and Fire Force to take urgent action. After the incident, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has also announced that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau would conduct a formal inquiry. READ | Air India plane crash: Indian Consulate in Dubai to remain open on Saturday DGCA flagged maintenance issues at airport in 2019 Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had served notice to the Kozhikode International Airport over safety concerns last year in July. The notice was served after an Air India Express flight coming from Dammam had a tail strike while landing at the airport on July 2, 2019. The Airport was issued a show-cause notice following an audit from July 2 to July 5 over unsafe airport maintenance and was given 15 days to respond to the notice. The notice pointed out the excessive deposit of rubber and stagnating water on the runway. However, reportedly, the DGCA gave a go-ahead to the operation after lapses were repaired. READ | Air India plane crash: Pilot aborted two landing attempts before the mishap, says official READ | Air India plane crash: DGCA flagged maintenance issues at Calicut airport in 2019 The committee of Charleville Men's Shed have decorated the bow shaped window at the northern end of the local Market House where they now have their local base, having moved from their initial home, which was in an outhouse formerly used to store paint at the rear of what was Paul O'Shea's Hardware Shop further up the street. When they gained access to their present 'home' they discovered that it was in a derelict state as the building had lain idle for many years. Undaunted, the shedders got working on it and in the space of three months they have completely transformed their section of the ground floor into a very comfortable meeting place, using the range of skills available from within their group to complete the renovations. The refurbishment included stripping the plaster off the walls back to the original stone work and pointing it where necessary and replacing the rotting floor. Their skills in carpentry and cabinet making, in electrical work and plumbing and painting were put to good use. All the skills and labour were supplied by a core group of ten members, while the remainder offered support, encouragement and advice. The end result is a comfortable base for the activities of the local Men's Shed's 20-strong membership. "We now need to furnish the recreational area and we are awaiting the arrival of chairs and other bits of furniture," said a spokesman for the group. A clock made by another member bearing the logo of the Irish Men's Sheds Association adorns the wall and immediately catches the eye of the visitor on entering the room. They will also be decorating one of the bow shaped windows at the northern end of the building. The latest addition of the decorative window further enhances the building with its centre-piece photograph of the actual lime-stone faced facade and the Men's Shed logo. There is also a reference to the other purposes which the building was used for down the years such as the local library, the towns' ancient coat of arms, a castle, and the scales of justice depicting it use as the local courthouse up to the early nineties. There is also a diagram of Charleville's Main Street and an arrow indicating the location of the Market House as a point from where distance was measured in years gone by. It is fantastic to see the cut stone building which was built in 1769 and is a focal point in the town's Main Street, coming back to life again after so many years lying dark and idle. Originally built as a market house for the sale of farm produce, the top storey was used by the Court Service for many years until the early nineties when it was abandoned due to the building falling into disrepair. The Men's Shed is now in that section of the building that was used for a library by Cork County Council for many years until the opening of the new library in the former St. James' Church of Ireland on the western side of Main Street at the Town Plaza. The upper storey, now vacant, is where it is hoped that the Charleville Heritage Society may be in a position to house a museum for the town if the on-going negotiations with Cork County Council come to fruition. The members are awaiting the outcome of their representations which have been conveyed to the authority by Cllr. Ian Doyle, and they hope to have progress on their proposal in the not too distant future, as they have applied to have the project included in the forthcoming Cork County Development Plan. If successful this will enable them to gain entry to the building and to start to implement their plans for a town museum. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) did practice assault drills against hypothetical U.S. vessels with its Z-10 attack copters, as other options arise for other forms of deployment. China conducted a series of exercises that involved sea crossing attack exercises which targets sea vessels. They utilized both army helicopters and Navy warships which takes advantage of the helicopter's versatility, and will be crucial in the invasion of Taiwan. According to military analysts last Wednesday, operations like this are crucial for success in overrunning the Taiwanese defenses, as mentioned in Global Times. One factor to consider is the Taiwanese acquisition of missile systems that pose a threat to ships and aerial assets. Another consideration is when American war vessels came to the assistance of Taiwan. The cumulative effect of using attack copters and navy gives any hypothetical invasion of Taiwan a boost. The group which conducted these combined naval and army exercises is the aviation brigade connected to the 73rd Group Army, with a Navy squadron with emphasis on dual operations that would be part of offensive maneuvers. Initial stages would be the deployment from land bases of Z-10, Z-9, and Mi-171 that will be landing on specialized naval carriers for amphibious operations. Overall, the operation will be coordinated by both branches to ensure success, according to China Mil. The procedure during the naval assault exercises would start by having the helicopters leave the bases to head to the base of operations. This would be the Type 071 light carrier where the rotorcraft would land on, and they will disembark from the deck based on the report. Also read: Chinese Air Force Sends Bold Warning to US Navy, Declares They Are Not Afraid Part of the operational exercise is the boarding of the attack and transport copters that meant flying under the cover of attack copters. The transport helis would go in low to avoid air-to-air missiles, and the troopers would rappel down when the group has reached the objective. Next would be the takeover of the enemy ship and taking command of the control tower. One important part of the mission is that helicopters can land vertical and use low-flying techniques at high-speed to avoid detection. The copter can attack in types of weather that the aircraft will not be comfortable with. The PLA is looking for alternative means to win against a more superior enemy. During the simulated attack exercises, one Z-10 was included in the drills. The variant used was the one with upward type exhaust openings, which lessens the heat signature to give targeting sensors more problems. Why the PLA needs to orient in asymmetrical combat According to the Global Times, practicing with amphibious operations and vertical landing will integrate these capabilities with the Navy Aviation Force and Marines in combined operations. This was stated by an unknown military source. The NAF has none of the attack helicopters, like Z-10 that has good suppressive fire that will be best in pinning down ground forces and enemy armor when air superiority has been achieved. Key to China's naval strategy will be the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, which has a bigger deck that the Type 071 for more copters on the flat top. From 2019, two of the 75s have been launched by the PLAN. According to Zhang Keqiang, a flight commander of the Army aviation brigade, drills will be added to the competence in such operations. Related article: US Air Force Sends Spy Drones as Eyes Over South China Sea @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. 2020 is the year when nothing is the same and yet life goes on, for cybercriminals and APT(Advanced Persistent Threats) groups alike. The COVID-19 pandemic is actively used as bait for many campaigns, large and small. Kaspersky researchers have seen the continued development of APT arsenals on different fronts from targeting new platforms and active vulnerability exploitation to shifting to new tools entirely. These and other APT trends from across the world are covered in Kasperskys latest quarterly threat intelligence summary. A three-month APT trends summary for the last quarter is based on Kasperskys private threat intelligence research, as well as other sources that cover the major developments the companys researchers believe the corporate sector should be aware of. In Q2 2020, Kaspersky researchers observed multiple developments in the TTPs (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) of APT groups across the world. The most significant changes were implemented by the following groups: The Lazarus group , which has been a major threat actor for several years, now is investing even further in attacks for financial gain. Alongside goals like cyber-espionage and cyber-sabotage, this threat actor has targeted banks and other financial companies around the globe. This quarter, Kaspersky researchers were also able to identify that Lazarus started operating ransomware an atypical activity for an APT group using a multi-platform framework called MATA to distribute the malware. Previously, Lazarus has been associated with the infamous WannaCry attack. , which has been a major threat actor for several years, now is investing even further in attacks for financial gain. Alongside goals like cyber-espionage and cyber-sabotage, this threat actor has targeted banks and other financial companies around the globe. This quarter, Kaspersky researchers were also able to identify that Lazarus started operating ransomware an atypical activity for an APT group using a multi-platform framework called MATA to distribute the malware. Previously, Lazarus has been associated with the infamous WannaCry attack. CactusPete , a Chinese-speaking threat actor, now commonly uses ShadowPad a complex, modular attack platform that features plugins and modules for diverse functionalities. ShadowPad has been previously deployed in a number of major cyber-attacks, with a different subset of plugins used in different attack cases. , a Chinese-speaking threat actor, now commonly uses ShadowPad a complex, modular attack platform that features plugins and modules for diverse functionalities. ShadowPad has been previously deployed in a number of major cyber-attacks, with a different subset of plugins used in different attack cases. The MuddyWater APT was discovered in 2017 and has been active in the Middle East ever since. In 2019, Kaspersky researchers reported activity against telecommunication companies and governmental organizations in the Middle East. Kaspersky recently discovered MuddyWater using a new C++ toolchain in a new wave of attacks in which the actor leveraged an open-source utility called Secure Socket Funneling for lateral movement. was discovered in 2017 and has been active in the Middle East ever since. In 2019, Kaspersky researchers reported activity against telecommunication companies and governmental organizations in the Middle East. Kaspersky recently discovered MuddyWater using a new C++ toolchain in a new wave of attacks in which the actor leveraged an open-source utility called Secure Socket Funneling for lateral movement. The HoneyMyte APT carried out a watering hole attack on the website of a Southeast Asian government. This watering hole, set up in March, seemed to leverage whitelisting and social engineering techniques to infect its targets. The final payload was a simple ZIP archive containing a readme file inciting the victim to execute a Cobalt Strike implant. The mechanism used to execute Cobalt Strike was DLL side-loading, which decrypted and executed a Cobalt Strike stager shellcode. carried out a watering hole attack on the website of a Southeast Asian government. This watering hole, set up in March, seemed to leverage whitelisting and social engineering techniques to infect its targets. The final payload was a simple ZIP archive containing a readme file inciting the victim to execute a Cobalt Strike implant. The mechanism used to execute Cobalt Strike was DLL side-loading, which decrypted and executed a Cobalt Strike stager shellcode. OceanLotus, the threat actor behind the advanced PhantomLance mobile campaign, has been using new variants of its multi-stage loader since the second half of 2019. The new variants use target-specific information (username, hostname, etc.) of the targeted host that they obtained beforehand in order to ensure their final implant is deployed on the right victim. The group continues to deploy its backdoor implant, as well as Cobalt Strike Beacon, configuring them with an updated infrastructure. The threat landscape isnt always full of groundbreaking events, yet cybercriminal activity definitely has not been put on hold over the past few months. We see that the actors continue to invest in improvements to their toolsets, diversify attack vectors and even shift to new types of targets. For instance, the use of mobile implants is no longer a novelty. Another trend we see is the move towards financial gain by some APT groups, such as BlueNoroff and Lazarus. Yet, geopolitics remain an important motive for many threat actors too, comments Vicente Diaz, security researcher, Global Research and Analysis Team, Kaspersky. All these developments only highlight the importance of investing in threat landscape intelligence. Cybercriminals do not stop at what they have achieved already but continually develop new TTPs and so should those who want to protect themselves and their organizations from attack, adds Diaz. The Q2 APT trends report summarizes the findings of Kasperskys subscriber-only threat intelligence reports, which also include Indicators of Compromise (IoC) data and YARA rules to assist in forensics and malware hunting. In order to avoid falling victim to a targeted attack by a known or unknown threat actor, Kaspersky researchers recommend implementing the following measures: Turkey's Erdogan denounces Greece-Egypt maritime deal as 'worthless' Iran Press TV Friday, 07 August 2020 6:12 PM Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced a maritime deal between Greece and Egypt in the eastern Mediterranean as "worthless," saying his country will resume its controversial oil and gas exploration in the area. Speaking after Friday prayers in the recently-reconverted Hagia Sophia Mosque, Erdogan said the deal was a supposed response to Turkey's maritime agreement with Libya's internationally-recognized government that had been reached last year. The maritime deal angered Greece at the time, which slammed it as an "infringement on its sovereignty" that could complicate Athens' decades-old disputes with Ankara over Cyprus and maritime rights in the Aegean Sea. Erdogan said Turkey had paused research in waters disputed with Greece after a request from German Chancellor Angela Merkel but had now restarted research activities. "I told (Merkel) we'll pause drilling for three to four weeks if you trust Greece and the others but I don't trust them and you will see," the Turkish president said. "We have immediately resumed exploration activities." He said the Turkish research vessel Barbaros Hayreddin, which is sailing off the western coast of Cyprus, would continue working in the area. On Thursday, Egypt and Greece signed a bilateral agreement that sets the sea boundary between the two countries and demarcates an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas drilling rights. The Turkish Foreign Ministry described the deal as "null and void" in a statement late Thursday, stressing that Greece and Egypt had no mutual sea border. The ministry also said the deal attempted to usurp Libya's maritime rights. Turkey and Greece are locked in a dispute over offshore rights in the eastern Mediterranean. European Union (EU) member Cyprus and Turkey have also argued for years regarding the ownership of fossil fuels in the eastern Mediterranean, where Ankara says Turkish Cypriots are entitled to a share of the resources. Turkey rejects the agreements that the internationally-recognized Cypriot government has reached with other Mediterranean states on maritime economic zones. Cyprus was divided in 1974 after a Turkish invasion triggered by a brief, Greek-inspired coup. Several peacemaking efforts have failed, and the discovery of offshore resources in the eastern Mediterranean has complicated the matter. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Every name on the BrandBucket marketplace is exclusively listed with BrandBucket. That means that all of our sellers are very responsive, making for quick domain transfers. A dedicated BrandBucket agent will manage your domain transfer from beginning to end, ensuring a secure and easy transaction. They will manage the receipt of the domain into one of BrandBuckets secure registrar accounts and then complete the transfer to you. 1. Verification and registrar choice After we receive the payment and verify it, we will reach out via email to confirm which registrar you want the domain transferred to. We also provide a link to our tracking system, where you can communicate with us, check on the status of your transfer, view your invoice, and download your logo files. In most cases, if a domain is moved between accounts at a single registrar, the transfer is quick and usually completes within 48 hours. If a domain changes registrars (in other words, you would like to move it away from where it is currently registered), the transfer is slower. The total transfer time can then be anywhere from 48 hours to 7 days. BrandBucket has vetted and supports the following registrars: GoDaddy Namesilo Uniregistry NameCheap Google Domains Network Solutions Name.com Dynadot Amazon Route 53 123 Reg Gandi 2. We request the name from the seller. Once we know where you would like the domain transferred, BrandBucket will request the domain from the seller. All of our sellers are very responsive, making for a quick process. 3. Transfer the name into your account As soon as we receive the name from the seller, we start the transfer into your account and guide you through the whole process. 4. Verify with the buyer that the transfer is complete Once we confirm that you have received the name, we consider the escrow process to be complete. Only then do we release payment to the domain seller. Pamelas lover could help save the British. He was Averell Harriman, a tough-minded American millionaire businessman chosen by president Franklin D. Roosevelt as special envoy to Britain. His liaison with Pamela brought him into Winstons close circle, exactly what the PM and Britain needed. It seems astonishing behaviour in a father. But Winston had important matters on his mind. If the powerful US didnt soon enter the war, he was convinced Germany would win. There were already plans to shift the royal family north and then to Canada. The crown jewels were buried below Windsor Castle, with the most precious secreted in a biscuit tin. The British prime minister not only didnt warn his son, according to author Christopher Ogden in his biography of Pamela, Life of the Party, he asked Randolph to look after Pamelas new lover when the lover visited Egypt in June. He was also keeping a secret from his son. Randolph Churchill was serving as an intelligence officer in the Middle East. Back in London, Randolphs 21-year-old wife Pamela Digby Churchill was having an affair. If Winston Churchill didnt know for sure, though others close to him certainly did, he definitely knew his daughter-in-law, the mother of his baby grandson, was spending a lot of time with another man. So was Winston. In the first half of 1941, British prime minister Winston Churchill was keeping more than his leaders share of secrets. He was up to his ears in military planning as Europe fell to Hitlers Third Reich and Britains cities faced bombing thunderstorms. He was desperate to get the United States into the war and he still had his critics. Then it was revealed he was nursing a bloody great secret himself. He had become physically dependent on the anti-anxiety drug Clonazepam. Peterson has many enemies because of his conservative stance on issues like identity politics. Several delighted online in the revelation. I couldnt see much reason for joy. YouTube videos and articles about Peterson, whose book has sold more than two million copies, have headings like, Jordan Petersons Secret to Overcome Chaos Within Yourself. Thats not a bad exclamation in a story about secrets. In his international self-help bestseller, 12 Rules for Life, Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson put as Rule 8: Tell the truth or, at least, dont lie. He wrote of the nirvana we might achieve: Truth reduces the terrible complexity of a man to the simplicity of his word. But he was still a son, the only son. The other secret about Randolph, now well known, is that his mother, Clementine, disliked him. Dear God. Randolph was no prize husband, nor a faithful one. He drank too much, spent too much and gambled what was left. It had never been a good marriage and ended in divorce in December 1945. Histories and memoirs about the period, and Pamelas affair one of several she had with Americans tend to dispatch Randolph and his feelings in a few sentences. We know what happened next. The Japanese bombed Americas Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour in December 1941, Churchill danced in glee around his Chequers dining-room, and Roosevelt, already influenced by Harriman and key pro-British Americans, could finally overrule his countrys isolationists and go to war. But what about Randolph and Pamela? I was also watching the BBC dramatisation of the 1963 Profumo-Keeler political imbroglio that involved the then British secretary of state for war, two pretty young women and a Russian spy. While I was researching this story, the secrets of Labor Party powerbrokers and alleged branch-stacking efforts in Victoria erupted. The Australian ran what it claimed were private texts from federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne that said he wanted a mans head cut off after which he would piss on his corpse, and hoped Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews would die politically. Without ever articulating it, society has made a judgment call. If your secret hurts no one but yourself and, of course, the people who care about you and dont want to see you suffer we will, unless weve had a compassion bypass, be more likely to commiserate than jeer. But if your secrets benefit you at a cost to others, or give you power over people, or allow you to trick, humiliate or abuse them, we will feel very differently. But did anyone feel sorry for movie mogul Harvey Weinstein when his secret finally leaked that he was a serial sexual harasser and rapist? He had got away with it for years, kept aloft on a tsunami of Hollywood success and seeming riches. He could make peoples careers and unbreak them, as actor Ashley Judd attested. A New York judge sentenced him to 23 years in jail and he faces more charges in California. If your secret hurts no one but yourself we will, unless weve had a compassion bypass, be more likely to commiserate than jeer. In May this year, former AFL player and coach Dean Laidley was publicly humiliated after an arrest for stalking . Police officers shared photos that leaked into the social media maw showing the sportsman dressed in a wig and womens clothing. Laidleys case will be heard later this year, but I dont know anyone who wasnt dismayed by the online photographs and sympathetic to him. As The New Republic commented, A drug problem is neither a dragon to be slain nor a sin to be ashamed of. Its a mundane health problem to be treated scientifically Michael Slepian is a psychologist and associate professor at Columbia Business School who has specialised in the study of secrets for the past 10 years. He stumbled into this area as a researcher in his early 20s, struck by a metaphor people used when they referred to their secrets as a burden. It should be reassuring for the average person to know that no matter what their secrets, somewhere in the world there will probably be a politician with far worse. In one truly horrible scene, John Profumo (played by Ben Miles) stands stalwart before the House of Commons and tells his fellows, and watching wife in her pearls and sapphires, that he had not committed any impropriety with the then 19-year-old Christine Keeler. Sometimes we cop someone elses secret. Julia Robson, a Melbourne private investigator, will present a dossier to a partner, husband or wife that reveals yes, their other half has, in spite of all denials, been secretly cheating. It can lead to separation or confrontation but, says Robson, more often than youd think, they decide to do nothing. Its enough for them just to no longer feel crazy. They can trust themselves again. The most often shared secret is that weve told a lie; the least shared is that weve had thoughts about having a relationship with someone other than our partner. Slepian has built a website ( keepingsecrets.org ) where people can take a test on their own secrets and see how they compare with others. The results will help Slepians own research into secrecy. Secrets are often self-protective. Weve done something that doesnt match our standards for ourselves and/or those set by our society or community. We keep it secret so we dont lose the regard of others. One interviewee confesses to Slepian, A secret is basically something you dont want to admit to other people, and sometimes not to yourself. As for what we keep secret, its the entire range of human behaviour. Use your imagination. But however much most of us dont like having them, secrets seem as natural a part of the human condition as breathing. Ninety-seven per cent of us will have at least one big secret at any given time, Slepian discovered, and the average person has 13 secrets. Five will have never been divulged to anyone. Women confide their secrets more than men, Slepian says, and I think what that reflects is essentially just mens discomfort with opening up ... Its not considered masculine. The field is new and huge, but studies conducted so far by Slepian and his colleagues around the world indicate what we must instinctively suspect: secrets can hurt our health, relationships and sense of wellbeing and produce depression and anxiety. A secret is basically something you dont want to admit to other people, and sometimes not to yourself. Why do people speak this way? he wondered. He and colleagues put together tests exploring peoples motivation to engage in physical activity. Astonishingly, those who were preoccupied with an important secret did estimate a hill was steeper or a target further away. Their secrets did make them feel weighed down. Slepian knew he wanted to go further. Loading Surprisingly, its not the hiding of our secrets that takes the toll on us. Slepian says, People often dont ask [us], so its not the rare moment we have to hide a secret that matters, but the many moments it comes to our own mind Theres no end to how much you might have to think about it if youre not getting help with it. Nor is the heaviness of a secret determined by its size; its how often our mind wanders to it, and whether it makes us feel guilty or ashamed. These two emotions seem like synonyms, Slepian says, but guilt is, I did something wrong. Shame is, Im a bad person. Thats very different and really hard. Guilt is the right emotion. We can make amends. Shame makes us feel helpless and powerless and is very much related to how often you think of your secrets. Katie Greenaway, a senior lecturer in social psychology at the University of Melbourne who collaborates with Slepian, suggests when a secret causes guilt, you can apologise or come clean. For secrets where things cant be changed, Other strategies might be needed, like acceptance or reappraising the situation. Some secrets hardly matter except to their keeper. Some grow with time. When my attractive mother met my equally attractive father, she was more than 2500 kilometres from home, and thus from anyone who knew the basic details of her life. She was free to concoct a little. Guilelessly, flirtatiously, she nevertheless chose to change the one thing that would ride on her back all her life, her age. Instead of being a few years older than my father, she became one year younger. Her sisters, safely away in another city, still had to be roped into the deception. Did she ever imagine when she first falsely stated her age what that secret would cost her and those around her? I cant say because I didnt find out until after she died. By then, even as I agonised for my mother for those years of pretence, I knew what it had done to our own occasionally fraught relationship. In my late 20s, for instance, my then husband and I moved to London, where we worked for seven years. Every time we travelled, whether it was to Amsterdam, Rome or the French coast, Id find views, hotels or places I knew my parents, especially my mother, would love. Id ask them to visit but they never did. It seemed incomprehensible, given they had the money and the time. Even now I can remember the hurt line that ran straight to my heart. Power and secrecy are highly interrelated but, in the end, the secrets control you. After my mothers death, I found out why. It was to do with the date on her birth certificate and the complications of applying for a passport. She had instructed my sister to tell me only after she had gone. A caution: dont keep secrets until the end. It leaves behind too many what-ifs. The husband of a good friend kept his lung cancer a secret until three weeks before he died. A doctor, he had decided to protect her and enjoy their time together. But she didnt get a say. Slepian says, Romantic partners expect to have access to that knowledge. When someone decides to hide something that affects people close to them, what theyre also saying however understandable their reasons is that preserving the secret is somehow more important than the person in front of them. One reformed secret-keeper tells me, Power and secrecy are highly interrelated but, in the end, the secrets control you. Theyre like pearls, they just layer and layer. The website postsecret.com asks people to submit secrets on a postcard which it then posts. All humanitys aches are there. One confides: My dad was in prison for six years and I never sent him a letter. He sent me 214. Another: One of the only times Ive ever seen my dad cry was when I caught him cheating on my mom. But some people seem to thrive on keeping others in the dark. American aviation hero Charles Lindbergh had three families apart from his legal one and seven secret children, all in Europe. Revered New Yorker editor William Shawn not only had a long-time hidden partner, the writer Lillian Ross, Ross had an adopted son. The trio would eat dinner together; then Shawn would go home to his wife. American architect Louis Kahn, creator of some of the most beautiful buildings ever imagined, had children with his wife and two different lovers. Loading In an unsettling 2013 research paper, The Cheaters High: The Unexpected Affective Benefits of Unethical Behaviour, psychologists identify a sub-group who get off on deceiving people or doing things that are normally prohibited, especially when they tell themselves there are no real victims. Apart from any tangible gains, cheating makes them feel good, in control. Confidence trickster Frank Abagnale, on whose life the 2002 Leonardo DiCaprio film Catch Me If You Can is based, described it as being heady with happiness. Winston Churchill suspected his sons wife was having an affair but didnt warn him. President Trump is the self-deceiver-in-chief, according to British psychologist Celia Moore. New York socialite Ann Woodward took her own life when her secret was about to be exposed. Credit:Getty Images SO WHY ARE YOU IN HERE TRYING TO THROW IT ALL AWAY OVER THIS BULLSHIT? The Assistant, RELEASED 2019 In October, 1975, wealthy New York socialite Ann Woodward took her own life days before a piece of roman-a-clef fiction by Truman Capote appeared in Esquire magazine. It was thought she had seen an advance copy. La Cote Basque, 1965, an excerpt from the novel Capote was writing, picked through the true life secrets of Manhattans social princesses which he had absorbed over gossipy lunches with them. Woodward is thinly disguised as Ann Hopkins, a social-climbing, unfaithful ex-showgirl whod entrapped the son of an old-money, blue-blood family. She had then shot him at their Long Island estate because he wanted to end their marriage. She had got away, Capote wrote, with pretending shed thought he was a prowler because his parents preferred that to scandal. Capotes story also revealed that the elegant socialite Slim Keith had been discarded by her British baron husband, and exposed a humiliating fling between CBS head Bill Paley, the husband of Capotes beautiful friend, Babe Paley, and the New York governors porcine wife who looked as if she wore tweed brassieres. As soon as it was published, Capotes princesses exiled him. Capote protested: What did they expect? Im a writer! But he went downhill fast, into a mire of drink and drugs. He wouldnt be the first person to expose the secrets of the powerful and pay. Perhaps what Capote found so confounding was that everyone he knew also knew these stories and now hed put them in his work in progress. So what? It was a fatal misreading. Films, television dramas and novels thrive on the hero or heroine who tackles a flawed or corrupt person, organisation or government and, like Liam Neeson in Taken or Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained, kicks ass relentlessly and wins. In reality, messing with the secrets of the rich and influential is terrifying. The more powerful the person or institution, the more dangerous it is, the more enablers there are. Its what allows a Harvey Weinstein or a sex offender like Jeffrey Epstein to thrive, and for institutional sex abuse and corporate misdoing to be shamefully widespread. In sickening cases, we still look away. We enable, even collaborate. We pretend we dont know whats going on while victims have shocking secrets forced upon them and are disbelieved, rubbished and/or punished. The Assistant, written and directed by Australian Kitty Green, is an unnerving, day-in-the-life movie about a Harvey Weinstein-style office. Its star Julia Garner, who plays Jane, the assistant, described its dynamics, telling British online newspaper The Independent, This girl is fairly new in the business. She probably just got out of school and shes struggling with whats right and whats wrong, but she still wants to keep her job. For people who maybe have worked in an abusive environment and they are like, I said something! Im like, No, you didnt. You wanted to keep your job. Its about that. Its not about Weinstein. Loading Director Green didnt focus on what happened inside the powerful mans office once the pretty actor was taken there. It was about, she told interviewers, What do people know who are leading women into that room? So its more about the machinery or system surrounding that predator. Wharton Business School professor Maurice E. Schweitzer, an author on the Cheaters high paper, tells me that secrets inside offices or cliques also create power groups. People like being in an exclusive group. Secrets separate people into groups. Not everybody can join in. Such secrets can also reflect acceptable norms. Or whats acceptable to that group. Randolph Churchill arrived back in London on leave in 1942 and quickly discovered his wifes affair with Harriman. He was convinced his parents had known and, as Lynne Olson records in Citizens of London, about Americans in wartime Britain, Pamela believed so, too. It created a rift that never healed, said one family friend. Some think the PM, who loved his son dearly, knew and didnt know; that in his aristocratic circles no one asked what happened in private. It turns out our brains can be smart indeed at letting us do what we want. WELL, IT WAS A FALSE REPORT I WAS THERE FOR A TINY, LITTLE SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. AND IT WAS MUCH MORE FOR AN INSPECTION US President Donald Trump explains away his rush to the White House bunker during the George Floyd protests. Celia Moore was sitting in a London bus a few years ago when she started mulling over paying her nanny tax. Its a sizeable whack, so many Britons rort the system. Moore, a professor of organisational behaviour at Londons Imperial College Business School, was fascinated to observe her cognitive processes as they invented ways she could morally justify not paying the tax in full. If she fudged on hours, she could give more money to the nanny; her nanny was Brazilian so would be back home before she could benefit from taxes paid by her employer Moore, a lively, dark-haired woman who has been teaching MBA students about ethics, leadership and moral agency for 15 years, was riveted by her mental gymnastics. There are certain human motivations that seem quite universal and one of them is for self-enhancement, she says. We want everyone to believe we are fantastic. That applies especially to ourselves. We want other people to think that, but we really do need to believe it ourselves. She did, of course, keep paying the tax, but its an area that fascinates her: our in-built capacity for self-deception. The secrets we hold tightest are the ones we keep from ourselves. We will fight as fiercely as a Clint Eastwood vigilante to keep that knowledge hidden so far away from us that the only people who can see it are well, almost everybody around us. As CNNs Chris Cillizza commented on Trumps reframing of events in the Floyd protests, This is a man who has been telling himself a story of his life one in which he is always the toughest, the smartest and the winner-est for well, his entire adult life. Moore says, Trump is the self-deceiver-in-chief right now, and doing it in front of the globe. Cognitive psychologists have pondered the question of how people can not know something when, simultaneously, they do: Moore terms it motivated forgetting That we just conveniently dont think about the ways in which our actions dont fit with the version of ourselves that we like to have in our heads. You can see how fear plays into the need to lie, the need to keep secrets, the need to self-deceive. Moore knows someone who tried online dating for the first time and met her husband. Now that woman tells everyone, including guests at the wedding, that they met randomly in the Starbucks queue, even though neither of them drink coffee and wasnt that serendipitous! But, says a mystified Moore, I saw her on the morning of her date and she told me where she was going. Moores somewhat depressing research reveals three ways we self-deceive. The first she calls motivated attention: we direct our attention towards evidence that justifies our choices and ignores the rest. We will concentrate on the one thing that tells us, health-wise, love-wise, morality-wise, what we want to hear. A second, motivated construal, lets us view actions through a different framework. We know what weve done or are doing in secret is wrong but we minimise our responsibility and exploit any ambiguities that will let us off the hook. The third trick is motivated recall, which allows us to rewrite history in our heads altogether, like the Starbucks romantic. (I asked Moore what the groom did during her wedding speech; he stayed quiet.) Moore says a lot of her work focuses on moral disengagement: how people make their actions acceptable. People will use words as a smokescreen. US president Bill Clinton told the news cameras in January 1998: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. Moore says, He very specifically chose words that could be consistent with the truth but that presented a version of himself publicly and to himself that could be more easily integrated into his self-conception. Profumo did the same thing. Fear, says Moore, is the most dysfunctional motivator of our behaviour. You can see how fear plays into the need to lie, the need to keep secrets, the need to self-deceive. Were afraid of whats going to happen if they get revealed either to others or to ourselves. We fear the reduction of positive regard. It takes a lot of maturity to be able to acknowledge our imperfections and our true weaknesses or areas that we should focus on for growth, and to live in a way that does not require self-deception. The people most susceptible [to self-deception] are those with fragile self-esteem. What we keep secret changes. Over dinner, a friend, some years older than me, told me something that had once haunted her. The next day, she had to tell me again. I realised why I had forgotten; her secret was now so unexceptional. She had become pregnant when abortions were illegal in New Zealand, but had procured a termination. Weeks later, she was sitting in court as a reporter, and the female doctor who had treated her appeared in the dock. There are pluses for confiding in at least one other person. It can give us perspective, let us feel supported. I can still remember her, swathed in blue cashmere. I quickly left in case she recognised me. It was only at a lunch with friends, 10 years afterwards, that the heaviness lifted. Every woman at the table had been through a similar experience. There are pluses for confiding in at least one other person. It can give us perspective, let us feel supported and less alone to ruminate. One man who kept two huge secrets for years his alcoholism; an affair tells me: Its really hard work, a huge drain on your energy and emotion. Your secrets become the centre of your life. In one paper, Slepian and co-author Brock Bastian argue that when we keep misdeeds secret, we can retreat to self-punishment to appease our own sense of justice. It might involve denying ourselves pleasure or seeking out painful experiences. Confessing a secret misdeed, they write, may bring an end to the feeling one still deserves punishment. Slepian also warns that theres a distinction between secrecy and being secretive: If your solution to problems is to just keep secrets, we know that is a very maladaptive coping strategy. Confiding, Slepian says, can improve our wellbeing, though he and Greenaway stress people can have good reasons for keeping a secret, and many are benign. Greenaway says, Its more if you were to reveal your secrets, what would be the best conditions. Our confidants are usually family or close friends but we have an endearing tendency to share secrets with strangers. We may seek out therapists and doctors but we also talk to people on planes, in waiting rooms. In her new book, Friendship: The Evolution, Biology and Extraordinary Power of Lifes Fundamental Bond, Lydia Denworth quotes Harvard University sociologist Mario Luis Small, who says simply, Peoples true pool of confidants is everyone they run into. When Small analysed a survey of 2000 adults, he found more than half the time, people often confided even deeply personal things to people they werent that close to. The randomness doesnt bother him: The people who are really in trouble are the people who are literally not running into anybody on a regular basis. But we must choose carefully. However corrosive secret-keeping can be, it is far worse, Slepian warns, to confide in the wrong person. Secrets can be a huge drain on your energy. They can become the centre of your life. Credit:Getty Images THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE MADE ME FEEL THE WORST WERE ALWAYS MY BEST FRIENDS." Law & Order: SVU, SERIES 5, EPISODE 17 In 2009, Michael Cox, then British boss of UK Wines of Chile, took it into his head to commission a survey of how long women can keep a secret. To female outrage, the study of 3000 women purported to show it was for less than two days: 47 hours and 15 minutes. Forty per cent of the women aged between 18 and 65 confessed they couldnt keep any secret to themselves, no matter how personal or confidential. (The slender link with Chilean wines was that women were reportedly more loose-lipped after drinking.) It was hardly a solid study but there have been other similar, commercially funded surveys capitalising on the image of women as unreliable gossips. Greenaway speculates its more about base-rate: women share more, hence may have more opportunities for lapses. Nevertheless, the stakes are high. Slepian and colleagues write: Confiding is not only a type of disclosure. It is also a request for help and confidentiality. Do men make safer confidants? Slepian doesnt know; the research hasnt been done, although hes keen to explore. Meanwhile, I have to observe that while every woman I know has benefited hugely from sharing secrets with a close female friend, each also knows the brutalising shock of betrayal or having their secrets used for another womans advantage. Few men will say the same of their sex. Base-rate or not, something needs scrutiny. Men, often maligned for their perceived emotional limitations, can make excellent listeners, Ive found. It goes in; it stays there. They can also see things in a way we women, so close to the emotional action, often dont or cant. When I finally told a man, a close confidant for decades, about a shatteringly tasteless phone call Id received from a woman Id trusted as an intimate, I was instantly cheered to hear his cut-through assessment of what shed done and why. But he added bemusedly, I dont know why women say these things to each other. Well, I dont know why, either, but author Deborah Tannen can provide clues. Tannen, a linguistics professor at Washingtons Georgetown University, has written several bestselling books about men and women, beginning with You Just Dont Understand in 1990. Her 2017 book, Youre The Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Womens Friendships, is acute on the subject of secrets. For it, Tannen interviewed 80 women from different world cultures. She says, For many women and girls, talk is the glue that holds a relationship together. For boys and men, your best friend is the one you do everything with; for girls and women, your best friend is the one you tell everything to One interviewee told Tannen, When I tell a friend something personal, its like saying, Heres a little piece of me. This means I like you. Tannen comments, But what will she do with that piece of you? The wonderful thing is a feeling that youre not alone in the world . but that does give them some power over you. Over the phone, Tannen tells me she hadnt wanted that books title. It idealises womens friendship, she says. I wanted to call it Why Didnt You Tell Me? But I think the publishers wanted to appeal to women buying a gift for friends. In it, Tannen notes: Several women said they prefer men as friends because guys wont repeat their secrets. I dont think this is because men are inherently more trustworthy, but because secrets dont have the currency in boys and mens friendships that they have in girls and womens: men have nothing to gain by repeating secrets. She says, For girls, and later women, being close to a popular girl or a mutual friend confers status. And closeness can be demonstrated to others by showing you know someones secrets. There are intriguing studies in this trip-wire territory. In 2011, Canadian psychology professor Tracy Vaillancourt published a paper that received international coverage. She and a colleague had conducted tests that revealed, they determined, that women had an innate instinct to behave with hostility towards women they regarded as sexier than themselves. It resonated with women everywhere, she tells me from the University of Ottawa, where she is the Canada Research Chair in School-Based Mental Health and Violence Prevention. The study had recorded women in a laboratory reacting to the same young woman dressed in two different outfits. When she entered in mousy clothing, the women didnt notice her, but when she wore more revealing clothes, with her long hair loose, they became mean girls, rolling their eyes and mocking her afterwards. Vaillancourt published a 2013 analysis that argued women use this indirect aggression as a highly effective tactic in what she calls intrasexual competition strategy: the aggressor can also make it appear as if there was no intention to hurt at all. Vaillancourt, whose research is ongoing, says now, The competitiveness is pervasive. Women across the world speak about this. This is where confidences suffer. The trading of secrets and betrayal of confidants are core examples of indirect aggression, Vaillancourt says. Her study attracted criticism. One Forbes writer was indignant: I know that women are often competitive, rude and aggressive to other women, wrote Meghan Casserly, but to me, adding credibility to these stereotypes gives artillery to our detractors The feminist website Jezebel cited experts questioning the findings. Vaillancourt was amused: How do we change something if we wont acknowledge it? When they attack me, they tend to use the same indirect aggression Im writing about. You can attack the science but you dont have to be mean about it. What Im left wondering is: how do we choose a good confidant? Schweitzer says his research with colleagues produced a simple equation: certain people are more prone to feeling guilt. And these people will be more trustworthy, Schweitzer tells me. They worry about letting people down, so they work harder to avoid anything that will make them feel guilty. They dont like missing deadlines, making mistakes, spilling red wine on the hosts white carpet. They go out of their way to avoid being put in those situations. They will choose white wine, he says with a laugh. In one Wharton podcast, Schweitzer explains that while trustworthiness is hard to judge were taken in by a baby face or charisma its far easier to assess if someone is guilt-prone. And those people tend to be really conscientious in ways that then fulfil peoples trust. Something odd happened as I wrote this story: I became addicted to Friends. Id hardly watched it but now my subconscious pushed me towards Monica, Chandler, Joey, Phoebe, Ross and Rachel. Friends deals with almost all the situations addressed above, but with humour. The characters secrets and self-deceptions are outed. Transgressors they all transgress are shamed. Fragility, fickleness and folly are mined for laughs. Then the characters try to do better. For me, wading in the murk of human secrecy, it was light relief. But maybe the very existence of secrets proves that most of us, like the characters in Friends, do know we should and can behave better. Celia Moore quotes American social psychologist Anthony Greenwald, that humans have a deep-seated need to see themselves in a positive light, to be the hero of our own narratives when we have been anything but. She says as a psychologist (rather than as an anthropologist), she doesnt know why, except it is so and we agree its a very good thing. Society benefits when people are moral, she says. But she adds the kicker, Individuals benefit when they arent. Which, unfortunately, is the fastest way to understand why humans invented secrecy in the first place. Lifeline: 13 11 14 To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times. The worst economic news lately was not an official announcement that the American economy shrank at an annualized rate of 32.9% in 2020s second quarter a grim quantification of the pain caused by the coronavirus pandemic. No, the really bad news was the lack of action on Capitol Hill. Congress needs to extend the emergency aid programs that were created in March to help Americans endure a broad suspension of economic activity. Instead, even as the pandemic rages on, Congress is allowing those aid programs to expire. People who lost jobs during the pandemic have received $600 a week from the federal government on top of standard unemployment benefits. For many, the money is all that has kept them from going hungry and has allowed them to stay in their homes. It has prevented a significant increase in the share of Americans living in poverty. But those payments ended July 26 for some states, July 27 for others, even as unemployment remains at a level last experienced during the Great Depression. The federal government also is ending a moratorium on evictions, as well as a program that provides aid to small businesses. Among those pleading for aid that hasnt come: state and local governments starved of tax revenue. School districts that need money for safety equipment. Hospitals caring for the victims of the pandemic. Elections officials bracing for November. The abject failure to act is not the fault of Congress in a collective sense. House Democrats passed a serviceable aid bill more than two months ago. Responsibility for the current debacle rests specifically and squarely on the shoulders of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and the other 52 Senate Republicans. From the moment Congress passed the last big coronavirus aid bill in March, it has been a matter of public record that the aid was going to end in August. For a time, there was reason to hope that the worst of the pandemic could be over by now, too. But it has been clear for weeks that the U.S. has failed to control the pandemic and that many Americans still would need economic aid beyond July. Yet McConnell and his caucus chose to spend the summer confirming federal judges rather than confronting the crisis. Only in recent days have Republicans belatedly begun a frantic effort to devise a coherent response to the crisis. Like students who wait until the night before an assignment is due, they have pleaded for more time and asked if they could submit a part of the work. The nation will suffer the consequences. McConnell put forward a proposal last week that included billions of dollars for new F-35 jet fighters, but not one penny in aid for state and local governments. In any event, it quickly became clear that many Senate Republicans were not exactly on board. Even with the infusion of trillions of dollars in federal aid since March, many Americans are struggling to ride out the crisis. Almost 40 million people do not expect to be able to make their next rent or mortgage payment. Almost 30 million Americans said they did not have enough to eat during the week ending July 21. Last week, for the 19th straight week, more than one million people filed fresh claims for unemployment benefits. Grim as those numbers are, the U.S. is on the verge of an even deeper crisis. Senate Republicans proposed an inadequate stopgap a narrow extension of supplemental unemployment benefits. Democrats refused to accept the proposal, and Republicans refused to do anything more. The result is more than 20 million unemployed Americans just lost $600 a week. They need the money. They cant find jobs. And the Senate is leaving for vacation. President Donald Trump is not helping. The administration fought for the inclusion of a payroll tax cut a proposal so patently misguided that it forced Senate Republicans into the rare position of actually opposing a tax cut. It asked Republicans to include funding for a new FBI headquarters. It backed the inclusion of billions of dollars in new military spending, partly to replace money Trump diverted for construction of his border wall. One thing Trump has not fought for is aid for Americans in need. But Trump is not a member of the Senate. He does not have the power to prevent Senate Republicans from doing their jobs. That responsibility is theirs alone. 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MELBOURNE, Australia - The Australian state of Victoria recorded 466 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 deaths, including another man in his 30s. The figures were released as the city of Melbourne remained in lockdown and under an overnight curfew. Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said that six of the deaths were connected to outbreaks at aged care facilities. On Friday, when the state reported 450 new cases and 11 deaths, the chief health officer said the coronavirus infection rate in the hard-hit state had been relatively flat in the past week. That was down from a record 725 infections reported a week earlier The deaths announced Saturday took the states toll to 193 and the figure for COVID-19 deaths in Australia to 278. Meanwhile, Queensland states border with New South Wales has officially closed with road access blocked to everyone except essential workers and locals living along the interstate boundary. Police reported that nearly 150 people had been turned away in the early hours of the shutdown. Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young declared New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, which contains the national capital Canberra, coronavirus hot spots on Saturday as the southern border closed for the second time since the coronavirus crisis began. The Queensland government will review the border closure at the end of August. It has had few new COVID-19 cases in the past month. In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region: India has recorded 933 COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours as fresh infections surged by another 61,537 cases to reach nearly 2.1 million. The Health Ministry says the total deaths touched 42,518, including more than 20,000 in the past 30 days. An average of around 50,000 new cases are reported each day since mid-June. The ministry asked state authorities to test grocery shop workers and street vendors, saying that if undetected they can potentially spread infection to a large number of people. India has the third-highest caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil. It has the fifth-most deaths but its fatality rate of about 2% is far lower than the top two hardest-hit countries. Even as India has maintained comparatively low mortality rates, the disease has spread widely across the country. China has reported 31 new cases of COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour period, mainly in the far west Xinjiang region where an outbreak has infected about 750 people. The National Health Commission said Saturday that 25 new cases had been confirmed in Xinjiang. The other six were people who had arrived from outside mainland China. China largely stopped the domestic spread of the disease in March, but it has had several local outbreaks since then. The current one in Xinjiang, centred on the city of Urumqi, is the largest to date. The latest confirmed cases brought Chinas cumulative total to 84,596 since the pandemic began. Of those, 4,634 have died. Chinas case count does not include people who test positive but show no symptoms. ___ Follow APs pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the water level at Mullaperiyar reaching 136 feet, Kerala has urged Tamil Nadu to release water from the reservoir in a phased manner. Kerala Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta wrote to his TN counterpart TK Shanmughan requesting that necessary directives be issued to officials to release water through the tunnel to Vaigai Dam and further outside. Kerala should be informed at least 24 hours prior to opening shutters, he said. The Chief Secretary pointed out that the state has been witnessing heavy rains, especially in Idukki district. Following this, the water level at the catchment area of Mullaperiyar reservoir has been steadily increasing. The water level, which was 116.2 feet on August 3, touched 131.25 feet on August 7 by 2 pm. With the IMD predicting a red alert in the district for the next two days, it's expected that there will be heavy rainfall in the region. Currently the inflow to the dam is 13,257 cusecs of water and 1650 cusecs is the outflow through the tunnel. In the last 24 hours, 198.4 mm and 157.2 mm of rainfall were recorded at Mullaperiyar Dam and Thekkady respectively. The water level went up by seven feet during this period and is likely to go up further. As per information provided by the Executive Engineer MI Division Kattapana, the surplus shutters of TN-controlled Periyar Dam are capable of releasing 1,22,000 cusecs of water. The Chief Secretary also pointed out the extent of damage when 23000 cusecs of water were released in 2018. Hence urgent action should be taken to release water in a phased manner, he said. The Chief Secretary further added that the shutters of Peringalkuth reservoir have been opened after water rose in the Chalakkudy basin. Therefore when reservoirs under the PAP system are opened, TN should get in touch with the Kerala engineers and provide information regarding intensity of flooding and water flow, he requested in his letter. (Photo : Pixabay) UCLA Royce Hall (Photo : Unsplash) Influenza Vaccine The University of California stated in a press release on Friday, August 7, that students, employees, and staff need to update their 'seasonal influenza' immunization vaccine before October 1, 2020, as part of the institution's initiative to prevent the spread of the Novel coronavirus. The University of California hopes that students comply with this directive because their main concern is the welfare of every student who will attend their institution in the coming fall of 2020. The University of California requires its students and staff to present specific documentation and certifications of the administered vaccines, as part of the institution's requirement. They strongly advise students to update their immunity on infectious diseases like Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR), Varicella, Pertussis, and Meningitis. Daily Bruin adds that UC also asks students to receive immunization for tetanus and chickenpox. This requirement applies for the academic year of 2020-2021, as advised by the university. Carrie Byington, UC Health Vice President, said that the influenza vaccinations effectively reduce flu-related sickness and hospitalization. Student vaccination brings insurance against developing flu-like symptoms that are closely related to the current global crisis, the COVID-19. "We strongly believe that the health of the individual can affect the health of the entire community," she said. "This proactive measure on influenza immunizations will help further protect the UC community as well as the public at large." ALSO READ: Oxford University 80% Confident their Breakthrough COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be Ready By September UC's Immunization Plan The University of California, across its nine branches, upholds a requirement for its student, faculty, and staff to have immunization plans prior to entering the university. This pandemic time sees the hardship of acquiring vaccines as people are asked to stay at home and discouraged from going to public places. "While social distancing and other measures to prevent infection are of the utmost importance during the COVID-19 emergency, it's equally important to stay healthy and protect yourself against other communicable diseases." UC said. "At this time there is no change to the UCLA Immunization Requirement and newly-admitted incoming UCLA students must meet the requirements by the October 1st deadline." The University of California is also coordinating with medical experts regarding a mass vaccination program to ensure immunization for every student. "The Ashe Center's annual UCLA Immunization Requirement Fair is currently under review due to restrictions on campus gatherings related to COVID-19." UC's Immunization Requirement Fair is subject to approval, and the University asks its students to stand-by a directive regarding this. Certain protocols are being implemented in the fight against COVID-19, and public mass gatherings are still prohibited. Vaccination Requirements UC requires and recommends new students to receive the following vaccines to maintain a healthy learning environment. Check out the list below. Required Vaccinations: Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) Varicella (chickenpox) Tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) Meningococcal conjugate-- (Serogroups A, C, Y, and W-135) Screening for tuberculosis UC strongly recommends the following vaccinations: Human papillomavirus vaccine for women and men through age 26 years Hepatitis B vaccine for all students regardless of age Meningococcal conjugate for students up to age 23 Meningococcal B for students ages 16-23 who elect vaccination after discussion with their healthcare provider Other Recommended Vaccines: Influenza vaccine (annual)* Hepatitis A vaccine Pneumococcal vaccine for students with certain medical conditions, e.g., severe asthma, diabetes, chronic liver or kidney disease Poliovirus vaccine (if series not completed as a child) Vaccines for international travel, based on destination *The annual recommendation of the 'Influenza vaccine' is changed from recommended to being a requirement. ALSO READ: BIll Gates Warns the Next Crisis Could Be Five Times as Deadly as COVID-19 Pandemic This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isaiah Alonzo 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Fianna Fail Senator Erin McGreehan says the Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin TD should work in tandem with her counterpart in the North to promote destinations on both sides of the border region to encourage tourism. Speaking in the Seanad, Senator McGreehan has called for increased promotion of destinations both sides of the border, an initiative to promote local history in an area, and a biodiversity tourism plan. She commented, 'The global pandemic almost overnight closed the tourism and hospitality sector in Ireland. Rightly, people have been holidaying at home this year and I believe more promotion of the border region is required. Tourism Ireland do tremendous work to market Ireland on an all island basis, but I would urge the new Minister for Tourism to work with her counterpart in Northern Ireland in this regard. 'I believe her Department should consider a 'getting to know your own history' - a nationwide project to encourage us all to embrace what our localities have, a history that is untapped and unappreciated in many instances. That can be developed and mapped where we can have a database, a proper roadmap of our history and culture which is accessible for those holidaying in Ireland. For instance, the Knights of Templar set up in the Cooley Peninsula with Templetown named after them providing safe passage for pilgrims coming from Ulster and leaving Killwirra in Templetown to complete the Camino to Spain. You can get your Camino passport stamped in one of the oldest churches in the Arch diocese of Armagh St James in Grange, Co. Louth. This is only one small example of the thousands of local historical facts our towns and villages hold. 'As the pandemic changes our tourism industry it is time to consider wider changes and provide new options for tourists. We have the most beautiful biodiversity in this country, we should be examining the possibility of biodiversity tourism. I think of the humble and magical hawthorn tree which supports about 200 different insect species or the unique heathers we have on the Cooley Mountains. This is all untapped opportunities for healthy positive sustainable tourism,' concluded Senator McGreehan. President Trump's verbal gaffe - in which he mispronounced Yosemite as 'Yo-semites' - is reminding people that famed cartoon character Yosemite Sam is actually a Jew. Since his first appearance in a Looney Tunes cartoon in 1945, the hot-headed, gun-slingin', pint-sized character, who hates rabbits, has taught generations of children how to pronounce 'Yosemite' - as in the famed national park. On Tuesday, while signing the Great American Outdoors Act, Trump was caught flubbing the pronunciation of Yosemite as 'Yo-semites' during his speech, prompting Twitter users to burst out with jokes about what happened. Looney Tunes character Yosemite Sam (pictured) has been teaching generations of children how to pronounce 'Yosemite' since his first appearance in 1945 During a Tuesday speech about the Great American Outdoors Act on Tuesday, Trump flubbed the pronunciation of Yosemite, saying 'Yo-semites' instead After tweeting that Trump's pronunciation is 'Me, greeting a crowded room at my synagogue,' historian and The Atlantic editor Yoni Applebaum - among others - took a moment to remind social media denizens of Yosemite Sam's Jewish origins. 'It being a strange world, Yosemite Sam is actually Jewish,' Applebaum tweeted. 'He bore more than a passing resemblance to his creator, Isadore Freleng, and his full name is given in one episode as Samuel Rosenbaum.' Applebaum added: 'But until today, it never occurred to me to pronounce his first name like that.' Yosemite Sam's full name was first revealed in an episode of Looney Tunes that aired in 2013, nearly 70 years after being created by Jewish animator and cartoonist legend, 'Friz' Freleng, who was also a Warner Bros. director and the man behind Bugs Bunny. Although it doesn't appear that Freleng ever specifically stated that Yosemite Sam - the self-described 'roughest, toughest, he-man stuffest hombre whos ever crossed the Rio Grande' - is Jewish, he was reported as having admitted to having modeled the character after himself. 'I have the same temperament,' Freleng told The Associated Press, according to his 1995 New York Times obituary. 'I'm small, and I used to have a red mustache.' Yosemite Sam was created by legendary animator and cartoonist, Isadore Freleng (left in 1981), who was Jewish. Freleng also created Bugs Bunny (pictured at right with Yosemite Sam) Freleng is pictured with Warner Bros. characters while being honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Freleng's daughter said that her father purposely hired Jewish voice actor Mel Blanc (pictured left in 1947 and right in the 1960s) to do Yosemite Sam's growling voice Social media users were quick to point out Yosemite Sam's Jewish origins after Trump's flub In the wake of Trump's verbal Yosemite slip up, Freleng's daughter, Hope Freleng Shaw, confirmed the visual relationship between Freleng and his famous cowboy character. Although she says that Freleng never saw the resemblance, 'everybody else thought that Yosemite Sam was absolutely my father. He had red hair when he was a kid. And he was very tiny only 5-foot-4,' she told MEL magazine. She also told the magazine that while she couldn't positively confirm whether her dad intended for Yosemite Sam to be Jewish, she 'used to tell my friends, "All these characters that my father created are Jewish. Because were Jewish!"' Shaw also said that her father purposely hired Jewish voice actor Mel Blanc to do Yosemite Sam's growling voice. ''There werent too many Jewish people in the industry at the time,' Shaw told the magazine. 'And [my father] gave Mel Blanc his job because he was a kid from Seattle and he was Jewish and he kept wanting to get a job and nobody would hire him.' The website Jew or Not Jew pointed out in 2016 that while 'A name like Rosenbaum doesn't have to be Jewish' and 'could be goyishe German!' Still, the site ultimately, and apparently reluctantly, decreed Yosemite Sam as a 'Borderline Jew' because 'Sam's looks were modeled after Warner Bros animator and director Friz Freleng, real name: Isadore Freleng. Jew.' Trump's 'Yo-semites' mispronunciation also has another Jewish connection. The National Museum of American Jewish History noted that it received a substantial bump in merchandise sales of its park-themed 'Yo Semite' t-shirts - on sale since 2011 - after Trump's speech. Within 30 hours, the museum said that it made $30,000 in sales - the equivalent of what it had sold for the entire month of June, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. The museum said that they typically only sell 100 of the t-shirts a year, but that within three days this week after Trump's speech, they sold about 1,500 of the t-shirts. Gov. Greg Abbott extended Texas disaster declaration for COVID-19 Saturday, on the same day the state opened Houstons largest testing center yet at Minute Maid Park. As many as 2,000 people per day can walk or drive to the ballpark for a free COVID-19 saliva tests. The Texas Department of Emergency Management and Houston Astros teamed up to launch the site, which is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Residents do not need to prove they have a healthcare provider or citizenship, Mayor Sylvester Turner said after touring the site Saturday. They also do not need an appointment. Were trying to make it where you dont have any excuse not to get tested, Turner said. The opening comes as the virus continues to spread rampantly through Houston and the greater region. Houston officials gathered Saturday for the funeral of firefighter Jerry Pacheco, the second Houston firefighter to die with the virus. The mayor said the positivity rate the ratio of people whose tests return positive remains dangerously high. As of Monday, it was 17.6 percent. The city has set a goal of driving that down below 5 percent by the end of August. It has launched a Better Together campaign and sent canvassers into hard-hit neighborhoods to give residents in those areas direct information about the virus. One such team went to Southwest Houston and the Sharpstown area Saturday, where positivity rates have spiked, especially among Hispanic communities. The Health Department said canvassers contacted residents in 981 units. Turner announced the city had 746 newly confirmed cases of the virus Saturday, along with six more deaths, including five Hispanic residents and one Black man in his 30s, who had no underlying health conditions. That brings the citys running toll to 54,050 cases and 549 deaths. The governors declaration extension gives the state and counties more flexibility to combat the virus by allowing them to skirt laws or regulations that would hinder their response. Abbott initially declared a disaster in March and has extended it every month since then. I urge Texans to remain vigilant in our fight against this virus, Abbott said. Everyone must do their part to slow the spread of COVID-19 by wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and washing your hands frequently and thoroughly. We will overcome this challenge by working together." The capacity at Minute Maid can accommodate twice as many people as Houstons two mega testing sites at Butler and Delmar stadiums, which Turner has warned have showed lower demand. Those sites, which provide nasal swabs, can accommodate 1,000 people per day, but their attendance this week dropped to below 200 people in recent weeks. On one day in late July, just 86 people were tested at Butler Stadium. Better to know than not to know, Turner said. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, who accompanied the mayor at the site Saturday, said Minute Maids capacity could prove especially helpful to essentials workers downtown. We don't take this lightly and were still in the hot spot, she said. 08.08.2020 LISTEN OLAM Ghana Cashew has presented cashew seedlings to farmers in the West Gonja Municipality of Savannah Region to boost cashew production. The raw cashew procurement firm, FortuneAid (FAL) received and distributed 2,000 cashew seedlings procured from OLAM Ghana to some 50 cashew farmers at a short ceremony held at Damongo. Mr. Sumani Iddrisu popularly known as Don Diego De Azambuja, the CEO of FortuneAid who doubles as the President of the Cashew Farmers Association of Damongo expressed gratitude to OLAM Ghana for supporting them with the seedlings. He disclosed that FortuneAid Limited aside OLAM Ghana is collaborating with Tree Aid, Arocha Ghana, and MOFA to improve the lots of Cashew farmers in West Gonja Municipality and beyond. According to him, the livelihood intervention by OLAM Ghana is to support farmers with high yielding cashew seedlings to increase production and in turn provide a ready market to the cashew farmers through FortuneAid. "FortuneAid is in collaboration with OLAM Ghana Limited to procure raw cashew nuts from farmers. As a result, the collaboration has led to the purchasing of cashew in the Municipality. and after purchasing the cashew, OLAM Ghana has a livelihood intervention to supply farmers with high yielding cashew seedlings for expansion of their farms and we basically intervene with the Agronomical practices-distribution of the seedlings, transplanting and proper management of the farms," he said. With his over ten years of experience in the cashew value chain, Mr. Azambuja identified the marketing aspect, low production, and fluctuating prices as the main challenges in the value chain. COVID-19, he noted, has affected the marketing aspect of cashew since buyers from India among others who offer better prices are scared away compelling farmers to abandon their cashew nuts in the farms. Mr.Ambrose Haruna, the Damongo Branch Vision Fund Manager and a Board Member of FortuneAid Limited disclosed that each farmer is entitled to 40 seedlings which is sufficient to cover an acre of land. He said the intervention by OLAM Ghana will contribute to poverty eradication by boosting the capacity of farmers to go into commercial production of cashew. Whilst commending OLAM Ghana for the intervention, he assured the NGO of fruitful returns, adding that,it was their hope to expand such interventions to cover cashew farmers in the entire Savannah Region. The Management Information Systems(MIS) officer for the Department of Agriculture, Mr. Ezekiel Gariba Kwesi, lauded the intervention by FortuneAid together with its partners. He revealed that it is a way of complementing government effort in the area of Planting for Export and Rural Development. According to him, the lack of database to give a vivid picture of the total number of cashew farmers in the Municipality remains a challenge his office is trying to address. He noted that most of the farmers aside lack basic management skills to properly keep their farms, also concentrate so much on the annual crops than cash crops because the tree crops do not bring immediate benefit. Hopeful Ezekiel however said there is hope in sight with such interventions from OLAM Ghana and encouraged farmers to see cashew production as a long term income source so that when the annual crops fail, they can rely on the cash crops. Some of the farmers who spoke to PAD FM's Ananpansah B Abraham expressed gratitude to OLAM Ghana and FortuneAid for the intervention and pledged to put the seedlings into good use. They were hopeful the intervention would go a long way to boost cashew production in the Municipality. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 13:21:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KABUL, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan national army officer and five militants were killed during clashes in Afghanistan's western province of Badghis, the country's Ministry of Defense confirmed on Saturday. "On Friday evening, the Taliban insurgents tried to attack Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) position in Bala Murghab district, Badghis province. The ANDSF thwarted the vicious plan, killing five militants and injuring 12 others," the ministry said in a statement. In the meantime, Captain Walid Zarif Samangani, head of the operational planning of the army in the western region, was also killed in the Bala Murghab clashes, Mir Houssain Rezai from the army' 207 Zafar Corps told Xinhua. The remote district has been the scene of heavy clashes for many years as Taliban militants have been trying to gain the control of the strategic district in the region, 555 km northwest of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. The Taliban militant group has not responded to the report so far. Enditem Chennai, Aug 8 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Saturday said small places of worship where the annual earnings are less than Rs 10,000 in the city and other municipal corporation areas can be opened for public worship from August 10. In a statement issued here, Palaniswami said permission to open the places of worship (temples, mosques, churches and darghas) should be obtained from respective District Collectors and in the case of Chennai it should be from the Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner. He said standard operating procedures laid down by the government should be followed. The government had earlier allowed opening of small places of worship outside Chennai. HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - MAY 07: (L-R) Amal Clooney and George Clooney attends the premiere of Hulu's In the wake of the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, George and Amal Clooney have donated to three Lebanese charities to aid in relief efforts. "We're both deeply concerned for the people of Beirut and the devastation they've faced in the last few days," George and Amal told People in a joint statement on Thursday. "Three charitable organizations we've found are providing essential relief on the ground: the Lebanese Red Cross, Impact Lebanon, and Baytna Baytak. We will be donating $100,000 to these charities and hope that others will help in any way they can." The tragedy hits close to home for Amal, who is a human rights lawyer, as she was born in Beirut. Her family moved from Lebanon to England during the Lebanese Civil War when she was just 2 years old. The Beirut explosion killed hundreds and injured thousands of people on Aug. 4. In the aftermath of the blast, over 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes and Lebanese hospitals are in need of blood donations and resources. Read more about all the ways you can help provide disaster relief for victims here. By PTI NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said taxpayers are nation-builders and the government would come out with a charter of rights for them. The minister also said the government has taken several measures towards simplification, improving transparency and moderation in rates as part of efforts to bring in ease for honest taxpayers. "So I'm so happy that we are part of a government being led by a Prime Minister who honestly thinks the Indian taxpayer needs to be served better. And one of the announcements, which of course I made and I shall not elaborate on it now, is to give the Indian taxpayer a charter of its rights," she said. The minister was addressing a centenary celebration programme of eminent jurist Nani Palkhivala, organised by Sastra University. There are only a few countries in the world, like Australia, the UK and US, where there is a Charter of Rights for the taxpayer, she said. "It clearly states this obligation towards the nation as much as clearly pronouncing the rights. We are attempting that. I had announced it as a part of the Atmanirbhar campaign. We are very keen to provide to taxpayers Charter of Rights. We shall be coming with that," Sitharaman said. The Budget had announced a taxpayers' charter, which is expected to have statutory status and it will empower citizens by ensuring time-bound services by the Income Tax Department. Sitharaman emphasised that Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses taxpayers as 'nation-builders' and an honest taxpayer helps build this country. They help government after government to carry forward social welfare programmes which are absolutely critical for the livelihoods of the poorest of the poor, she said. The Prime Minister has made it very clear that this country has to make tax simple and easy for compliance for taxpayers, she said. To fulfil this objective, the government has introduced faceless assessment, reduction in scrutiny and pre-filled tax form, among others. "In September 2019, we took a major step to bring down the corporate tax, and even then and now too India stands as one of those countries where we have the lowest of rates and also the corporate tax methodology itself has been so simplified, that there are no exemptions, there are no benefits," she said. Speaking during the virtual session, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said India's judicial system has a huge capacity issue. "As per the National Judicial Data Grid, somewhere around 3 crore cases are pending in one court or another. If you take high courts and Supreme Court, we have over 45 lakh cases that are pending. "Typically case takes 4-5 years for resolution and normally 40 per cent of the total disputed settlement is already spent during this period but if you take into account the time value of money, almost 100 per cent is gone. "From a corporate sector point of view, the estimated number is around Rs 45,000 crore per annum. So I think it's a huge overhead, huge spend, huge inefficiency which needs to be addressed. At this time, a subject like alternative dispute resolution or ADR is something that can make an enormous difference," he said. Modalities and systems are required to give confidence to both the disagreeing parties that a settlement or judgement can happen with little or no litigation, Chandrasekaran added. To fasten the corporate dispute resolution process, Sitharaman said the government is making an effort to make India an international arbitration hub which will be able to deal with all those Indian corporate disputes which are going to Singapore or London for resolution. To achieve the goal, Parliament last year passed the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill 2019. "So if India's arbitrations skills, if lawyers who are trained for arbitration, if Indian legal system is adequately funded and resourced, we will be one of the good arbitration hubs," she said. The law is part of the government's efforts to encourage institutional arbitration for settlement of disputes and make India a centre of robust alternative dispute resolution mechanism. A large number of arbitration cases are conducted in countries such as Singapore, the UK and France. Commercial disputes have increased manifold due to globalisation, industrialisation and liberalisation. Canadian pastor jailed in Myanmar for holding church service amid lockdown Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A court in Myanmar has sentenced a Canadian pastor to three months in jail after he held in-person church services in defiance of a government-mandated ban on mass gatherings. Pastor David Lah, 43, and his colleague, Myanmar national Wai Tun, were charged in April with violating Myanmars Natural Disaster and Management Law by holding services in the city of Yangon, the AFP reports. Though based in Toronto, Lah was born in Myanmar and often returns to his motherland to preach. On Thursday, both men were convicted of breaking administrative rules and given a three-month hard labor sentence, Maung Soe, a judge at Yangon's Mayangone Township court, told reporters. "The judge also took into consideration the time he's already spent in detention, so he could very well be released in the next few days or weeks even," Al Jazeera's Florence Looi said in her report from Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur. Myanmar imposed a ban on mass gatherings in mid-March in response to the novel coronavirus. However, footage emerged in early April of Lah holding a service in Yangon. "If people hold the Bible and Jesus in their hearts, the disease will not come in," he said, according to video footage of the event. "The only person who can cure and give peace in this pandemic is Jesus." Weeks later, about 20 people connected to his gatherings tested positive for the novel coronavirus, including Pastor Lah. However, it's possible that attendees contracted the virus elsewhere. The preacher was arrested after recovering from the illness in May and faced up to three years in jail. On Thursday, a waiting crowd of the preacher's followers erupted into cheers and celebrations at the news of his reduced sentence, according to the AFP. About 6% of Buddhist-majority Myanmar's population identifies as one of the various Christian denominations in the country. Religious persecution watchdog International Christian Concern previously reported that because of Lahs actions, many Christians in Myanmar face criticism and have sensed hostilities toward them in the Buddhist majority country. Christian leaders have appealed to citizens to work together to fight COVID-19 in unity and love as anti-Christian sentiment surges on social media, ICC said. They also urged people not to post and share fake news, photos and videos on Facebook that may be offensive to religion. Open Doors ranks Myanmar at No. 19 on its 2020 World Watch List of the countries where it's most difficult to be a Christian. Government restrictions on places of worship in the wake of COVID-19 have sparked controversy in recent months, with some pastors accusing civil leaders of usurping a role that they don't have. Megachurch Pastor Ed Young previously told The Christian Post that while the issue is "complex," the spiritual ramifications of refusing to meet outweigh the hype of the coronavirus pandemic. Look at our culture. There is so much going on right now spiritually, especially among young people facing depression, anxiety, and attempting suicide, the Texas-based pastor said. I have counted the cost of not opening our church versus opening, and I believe that risk and faith go hand in hand. Its critical to reopen churches. The pastor cited Hebrews 10:25 which says, And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near, to encourage congregations to meet physically. I just don't want us to lose our boldness and I don't want the church to mail it in," he said. "Throughout church history, the church has not mailed it in. We've stood in pandemics, we've stood during wars, and in all sorts of chaos and mayhem. Today, technology has allowed us to take the easy way out. Just 12% of Americans said they attended a house of worship from mid-June to mid-July, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Among Evangelical Protestants, a 62% majority says houses of worship should be held to the same standards as other businesses and organizations. Kriti Sanon on Friday shared a cryptic post on Instagram. The actress, who is regularly sharing motivational quotes on social media to lift her fans' spirits high, emphasised on the importance of patience in her new post. "It's cloudy, It's Foggy, It's all so unclear. But they say truth is like the sun, it is always there. So don't speculate, just patiently wait. For it's gonna windy for a while and it's gonna rain. But remember my friend, sometimes a storm is just making way for the sun to shine again," read Kriti's post, which she captioned as "patience." The post came after fans of her late co-star Sushant Singh Rajput made #Warriors4SSR trend across multiple social media platforms. For the unversed, Kriti and Sushant worked together in Dinesh Vijan's 'Raabta'. The duo shared a good bond. Kriti also attended Sushant's funeral in Mumbai and later met his father at his Bandra residence. Soon after Kriti's post, her followers speculated that it was for Sushant. One user wrote, "So well written, yes truth will be out soon my dear. You are right! #wewantjusticeforssr." Another said, "Thanks Kriti for this wonderful poem for SSR justice. Nothing can hide the truth. An approved coronavirus vaccine could end up being effective only 50-60% of the time, meaning public health measures will still be needed to keep the pandemic under control, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, said on Friday. "We don't know yet what the efficacy might be. We don't know if it will be 50% or 60%. I'd like it to be 75% or more," Fauci said in a webinar hosted by Brown University. "But the chances of it being 98% effective is not great, which means you must never abandon the public health approach." The novel coronavirus has infected nearly 5 million people in the United States and killed more than 160,000. Lockdown measures imposed to keep the virus from spreading have devastated the economy, which suffered its biggest blow since the Great Depression in the second quarter, with gross domestic product dropping at its steepest pace in at least 73 years. As infections have spiked around the country after states started to open up, public health experts, including Fauci, have stressed the importance of steps that each American can take, including social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks. Fauci said on Friday that studies of Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine could produce definitive data in November or December of this year. He told Reuters earlier this week that he expects tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to be available by early 2021, and a billion doses by the end of that year. U.S. President Donald Trump has put forward a more optimistic forecast, saying on Thursday the country could have a coronavirus vaccine before the Nov. 3 election. Also read: COVID-19 pandemic: Hong Kong to offer free testing for all residents Members of House Democrats called on congressional leaders on Friday to ensure that the next coronavirus relief bill would include stimulus checks for taxpaying undocumented immigrants. Millions of them were excluded from the first round of COVID-19 economic relief package. The 34 House members said it was "unfortunate" that the $2 trillion stimulus plan signed into law in March excluded Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers from receiving the $1, 200 stimulus checks released on the first round. ITNs are mainly used by undocumented immigrants who file taxes and said that it is unconscionable to exclude them of aid, especially since many of them are essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic. "Making these funds available to those with ITIN numbers is long overdue, and I urge congressional leaders to do everything possible to ensure that immigrants, many of whom have been essential workers during the coronavirus outbreak, are not excluded again," Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), who spearheaded the letter, was quoted in a report. Meng said that they too have been hit hard by the crisis, adding that they also deserve the relief package just like millions of citizens who received it. The representative said that we must not turn our backs on them. Other New York representatives who signed the letter calling for the inclusion of undocumented immigrants are Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nydia Velazquez, Jerry Nadler, Jose Serrano and Yvette Clarke. The letter was addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) A second round of $1,200 stimulus check is included in the few provisions that the parties have agreed to include in the aid package. Pelosi and Schumer have been pushing the ITIN demand in the talks, but Republicans are not fond of the idea, as they were strongly opposed to the proposition the last time around, according to a report. Around 200k NY Taxpayers Was Not Included New York Daily News in April said that around 197,000 New Yorkers who use ITIN were not included in the first round of stimulus checks due to a legislation made by the Republicans. The economic stimulus bill worth $2.2 trillion was signed into law containing GOP-made language that made people who use ITINs disqualified for the $1,200 stimulus checks that the Treasury Department issued, ITINs are mostly undocumented immigrants who cannot get Social Security number but still pay taxes. Michael Zona, a spokesman for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), said that the ITN restriction was made after the rules for cash assistance done in the 2008 financial crisis stimulus package. "[The restriction] prevents illegal immigrants from qualifying for a U.S. taxpayer-funded program and helps reduce fraud and abuse," Zona was quoted in a report. Aside from undocumented immigrants, ITINS are also used by some U.S. visa holders, including family members of permanent residents, and foreign nationals who generate their income in the U.S. ITIN users in New York were not able to work during Gov. Andrew Cuomo's stay-at home order. Check these out: Second Stimulus Check: When's the Earliest it Could be Sent? Are You in the First Line of Receiving the Second Stimulus Check? IRS to Resolve Stimulus Check Errors for Qualified Recipients Humanity was displayed at its exemplary best on Friday night, when local residents of Karipur, Kerala, threw caution to the wind and rushed to help the survivors from the crashed Air India Express aircraft in Calicut. The Boeing 737 jet, which was on a Vande Bharat mission as flight AIX 1344, was flying in Indians who were stranded in Dubai due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Karipur locals swing into rescue almost immediately after the crash Call for max number of blood donors addressed on time by regional blood forums Kerala #KozhikodeAirCrash #Kozhikode pic.twitter.com/AnnWgY3Qa7 Gomathi Sivam (@GomatiSivam) August 8, 2020 The crash site was engulfed in smoke and screams, and the locals ignored every warning, including that of the deadly Coronavirus and jumped in to retrieve the passengers from the wreckage. See, the scene of relief and rescue work after the plane crash in Kozhikode. #AirIndia pic.twitter.com/kICFFLiSBZ mohammed anwar khan (@mohamme89742570) August 7, 2020 Among the first the reach the scene was 32-year-old businessman Fazal Puthiyakath and his neighbours, who rushed out after hearing "a blast-like" roar. Speaking about the night he told AFP: "All that we could hear were screams all around. People were soaked in blood everywhere, some had fractures, some were unconscious". Reuters The Air India Express aircraft crashed over the runway down a 10-metre bank and snapped in half during heavy rains on Friday evening, following which around 18 people were killed, including the pilots, and over 120 were injured. Talking about what was going on in the mind when he was rescuing the injured passengers, Mr Puthiyakath added: You realise that no matter how prepared you are, its completely different on the ground when you actually have blood and death around. Save as many lives as possible. We didn't bother about who had COVID or not. All that we had in mind was to save as many lives as possible. Reuters Several other locals were involved in the rescue mission, and it is because of the selflesslessness and alacrity that so many lives could be saves, or else the death toll would have been astronomical. Locals in Kerala queued up outside blood banks of the hospitals treating the severely injured passengers of the #AirIndiaPlaneCrash, in order to donate blood and help the injured. Best work Great job brothers #AirIndia pic.twitter.com/c7mZlLu26Z Aquil khan (@aquilk2) August 8, 2020 The brave locals ferried unconscious and injured passengers to the nearest hospitals in taxis and makeshift ambulances, which, according, to doctors, is one of the main reasons so many lives were saved, reports Mint. Naturally, people online were taken aback by the unselfish and noble attitude of the Kerala locals and flooded Twitter with praises and messages of gratitude: This is Malappuram & the Kerala spirit, with people always united regardless of any religious, caste, class/political distinction plunge themselves into rescue efforts & relief through the heavy rain despite the threat of pandemic to save our fellow beings.https://t.co/UjhitfXZvb Amal Chandra (@ens_socialis) August 8, 2020 The rescuing efforts of Locals are commendable considering the weather at that time. When it comes to Show unity during calamities nobody can match Kerala citizens. Mohammed Sajjid (@sajjid_mohammed) August 8, 2020 So heartening to see and hear of local communities working through the rains to help rescue people. Salute the spirit of Kerala in tough times.. prayers with everyone who were on board. God bless you. Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) August 7, 2020 Kerala kocals swing into action: What sets Malayalis apart is our spirit &unity, during floods, the pandemic &now the aircrash. When a mishap occurs, people throw themselves into the situation regardless of religion/caste/class. Thats my#KeralaModel! https://t.co/Wz5GlgwJP1 Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 8, 2020 Meanwhile, all those who were involved in the rescue efforts have been requested to go into self-quarantine by Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja, who assured that The state government will conduct COVID-19 tests on all of them. BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.8 Trend: The "truth" about the April 2016 battles, brought to the attention of the Armenian public by the third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan after a long silence, is a lie and slander, and just another unsuccessful attempt to restore his deeply tarnished reputation, Head of the press office of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli said. Dargahli made the remark while commenting on the recent statements by Sargsyan, Trend reports. He may succeed in convincing his comrades-in-arms in Armenia of what he says, but, in fact, the truth of the April battles is well known, the ministry representative said. After the April fiasco, Inquiry Commission of the Armenian Parliament, investigating the results of the battles, announced that only in manpower, Armenia had lost 560 soldiers, Dargahli reminded. The destruction of 33 Armenian tanks and 15 guns in these battles is also beyond doubt, the head of the press office stressed. In his words, by concealing the losses of the Armenian armed forces and deliberately understating the size of the territories liberated by the Azerbaijani army, Sargsyan wants to achieve his foul intentions and justify his incompetence. "He hypocritically denies the real facts and shamelessly declares that Armenians allegedly won the April battles, Dargahli added. He went on to ask: "The question arises: if, as he claims, they won these battles, then why, shortly after those events, his close friend and colleague, the then Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan and the entire top leadership of the armed forces of Armenia were dismissed?! Were the revolt of the Armenian society, mass protests of Armenian mothers, the spontaneous armed uprising of the Sasna Tsrer group against the authorities and, finally, the end of Sargsyan's political rule due to the heavy losses of the Armenian side, not an echo of the April triumph of the Azerbaijani army?" Only a hypocrite like Sargsyan, knowing that 2016 April battles took place in front of eyes' of world community, can deny the truth and talk about some kind of victory, Dargahli noted. Sargsyan is trying, in every possible way, to find an excuse for the defeat suffered by the Armenian armed forces in the April battles, and he is not ashamed to talk about some 'victory' at the time when the advanced units of the Azerbaijani Army, using only a small part of the available weapons and military equipment, liberated 2,000 hectares of their land in a short time Dargahli emphasized. "As for the fact that during the battles, Serzh Sargsyan allegedly did not insist that the Armenian army return this territory, since he preferred to save the lives of soldiers, this once again indicates that he understood perfectly well that in the case of an attempt, Armenia would suffer huge casualties both in manpower and military equipment, and in the occupied territories," the defense ministry's representative said. It can be certainly said that the April battles, and the losses suffered by the Armenian armed forces during these battles, became a real lesson not only for the then military-political leadership of Armenia, but also for the current regime, which perfectly realizes that the next clashes with Azerbaijani army will lead to irreversible losses, including the loss of power, as happened with the Sargsyan regime, he added. In particular, I want to note that Sargsyan who is trying to fool the Armenian public once again with his statement, pretending to be a hero, clings to a rotten straw to save his own skin," Dargahli concluded. Lebanese security forces fired tear gas at protesters on Saturday who threw stones in Beirut over a massive explosion that devastated the city earlier this week, injuring roughly 6,000 people and leaving nearly 160 dead, AP reports. Why it matters: Activists say political corruption and negligence are to blame for Tuesday's blast, caused by a store of ammonium nitrate left unsecured near the city's port for more than six years. What they're saying: Prime Minister Hassan Diab said in a televised speech Saturday he intends to propose early elections in a draft bill and said he would give all political parties two months to work on structural reforms. Beiruts governor said the explosion, by far the biggest blast in Lebanese history, caused an estimated $10 billion-$15 billion in damages, per AP. It also destroyed over 6,000 buildings and left hundreds of thousands of people without homes. The state of play: Clashes between demonstrators and security forces erupted near Lebanons Parliament mid-afternoon Saturday, according to the New York Times. Demonstrators pulled down concrete barriers and threw rocks at security forces, who retaliated with volleys of tear gas to push protesters from the area. "Anger at the countrys top politicians was tangible at the protests in the square, where protesters erected gallows and conducted ceremonial hangings of cardboard cutouts of Mr. Aoun, Nabih Berri, the speaker of Parliament, and Mr. Nasrallah of Hezbollah," the Times writes. Lebanese Red Cross officials said more than 110 people were wounded during the demonstrations and 32 people were taken to hospital, according to Reuters. Before the explosion, Lebanon was already struggling with a crippling financial crisis, the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic and a massive influx of refugees fleeing conflicts in Syria. Go deeper: Pentagon chief says "most believe" Beirut blast was an accident On August 7, NASA's Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team, in collaboration with the Earth Observatory, Singapore in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech released the satellite imagery of the scale of destruction caused by the massive explosion in Beirut on August 4. In a press release, NASA said that it used satellite-derived synthetic aperture radar data from the space to capture the before and after the ground surface change. In the images released, NASA said what looked like an earthquake, one can see the infrastructure in ruins around the port of Beirut. Marking the areas destroyed on the map with red pixels, NASA signified more extensive damage, whereas, the yellow and red pixels represented moderate and slight damage. Each pixel approximately covered an area of 33 yards. Maps like this one can help identify badly damaged areas where people may need assistance. The explosion occurred near the city's port. It claimed more than 150 lives and is estimated to have caused billions of dollars' worth of damage, NASA said in the release. According to the space agency, the map was created with modified data supplied by the Copernicus Sentinel data processed by ESA (European Space Agency) and analyzed by ARIA team scientists at NASA JPL. [NASA's ARIA team, in collaboration with the Earth Observatory of Singapore, used satellite data to map the extent of likely damage following a massive explosion in Beirut. Credit: NASA] Read: Lebanon Customs Chief Arrested In Beirut Blast Read: Warnings Flashed For Years Of Explosives At Heart Of Beirut South of port sustained most severe damage More than 100 lives were claimed, and over 4,000 wounded and up to 300,000 people were rendered homeless after gigantic explosions rocked through the port area in Beirut. The destruction occurred while the country was struggling financially amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis and its economy was in shackles, as per reports. NASAs imagery depicts nearly every building collapsed and there was widescale damage caused in the unforeseen tragedy. A large, water-filled crater was seen in place of the ground where two port buildings stood, while the south of the port sustained the most severe damage. [South of the port of Beirut that sustained maximum damage. Credit: A Flourish chart/AP] [Port of Beirut and the area around it where the massive explosions occurred at a warehouse.Credit: A Flourish chart/AP] [Before and after moments of twin explosions that rocked Lebanon's capital. Credit: A Flourish chart/AP] [General view of the scene of an explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. Credit: AP] [A soldier stands at the devastated site of the explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon. Credit: AP] [Graphic shows areas of interest in aftermath of Beirut blast. Credit: AP] [French and Lebanese firemen search in the rubble of a building after the Tuesday explosion at the seaport of Beirut. Credit: AP] Read: Beirut Explosion: President Says 'missile Or Bomb' May Have Caused The Blast Read: Beirut Blast: Lebanon To Investigate Possible 'external Interference' One of Northern Irelands leading law firms is under investigation. The Law Society has launched a probe into Robert G Sinclair & Cos practice in Bedford Street, Belfast. Another law firm has been appointed to act on behalf of Robert G Sinclair & Cos clients. The Law Society confirmed it had launched an investigation. It said: The Law Society of Northern Ireland has intervened, pursuant to its statutory powers, in the practice of Robert G Sinclair & Co Ltd. The practice is the subject of an ongoing investigation and the society has taken control of the practice. Those clients of Robert G Sinclair & Co Ltd who have any concerns should email regulation@lawsoc-ni.org. The society will not be making any comment until it is legally permissible to do so. The firm was founded in 1983 by Robert Sinclair. His younger brother Edmund later joined the business, becoming a partner and company director before resigning on June 1 this year, according to Companies House records. According to those same records, Robert Sinclair (64) remains a director and company secretary of the limited company. One of the law firms biggest clients for over a decade was the Spanish-owned bank Santander. The WHO has dismissed his accusations. European governments have also criticized the WHO but do not go as far as the United States in their criticism, and the decision by Paris and Berlin to leave the talks follows tensions over what they say are Washington's attempts to dominate the negotiations. "Nobody wants to be dragged into a reform process and getting an outline for it from a country which itself just left the WHO," a senior European official involved in the talks said. The move is a setback for President Donald Trump as Washington, which holds the rotating chair of the G7, had hoped to issue a common road map for a sweeping overhaul of the WHO in September, two months before the U.S. presidential election. The United States gave the WHO a year's notice in July that it is leaving the UN agency -- which was created to improve health globally -- after Trump accused it of being too close to China and having mishandled the coronavirus pandemic. France and Germany have quit talks on reforming the World Health Organization in frustration at attempts by the United States to lead the negotiations, despite its decision to leave the WHO, three officials told Reuters. The German and French health ministries confirmed to Reuters that the two countries were opposed to the United States leading the talks after announcing its intention to leave the organization. A spokesman for the Italian health ministry said that work on the reform document was still under way, adding that Italy's position was in line with those of Paris and Berlin. Asked about the position of France and Germany, a senior Trump administration official said, "All members of the G7 explicitly supported the substance of the WHO reform ideas." "Notwithstanding, it is regrettable that Germany and France ultimately chose not to join the group in endorsing the road map," he said. A spokesman for the British government declined to comment on the latest developments but added that Britain supported the WHO and urged a reform of the body "to ensure it remains flexible and responsive." The talks on WHO reform began about four months ago. There have been nearly 20 teleconferences between health ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations, and dozens of meetings of diplomats and other officials. A deal by the G7, which also includes Japan and Canada, would facilitate talks at the G20 and United Nations, where any changes would have to be agreed upon with China, Russia and other major governments not in the G7. It is unclear whether a G7 summit in the United States, at which Trump hopes leaders will endorse the road map, will now go ahead in September as planned. U.S. officials have not said what reforms Washington has sought. But an initial reform road map proposed by Washington was seen by many of its allies as too critical, with one European official involved in the negotiations describing it as "rude." Despite changes to the original text, Washington's push remained unacceptable, mainly to Germany, sources familiar with the negotiations said. Funding and 'Politicized Management' In the weeks before the collapse of the talks, negotiators had told Reuters positions were getting closer as Washington softened its approach and European negotiators started to see the reform process as a means to make the WHO more independent from political pressure. European governments had also begun to make skeptical remarks about the WHO in public, with Germany's health minister urging the WHO to hasten a review of its handling of COVID-19. In private, some Europeans have supported a tougher line, with some criticizing WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and what they see as politicized management of the pandemic. "Everybody has been critical of Tedros," a negotiator from a European G7 country told Reuters. A German government source said, "It must... be ensured in future that the WHO can react neutrally and on the basis of facts to global health events." But European governments want to make the WHO stronger, better funded and more independent, whereas the U.S. withdrawal of funds is likely to weaken it -- Washington is the largest contributor, providing 15 percent of the budget. Some Europeans see Trump's criticism of the WHO as an attempt in the run-up to the U.S. election to distract attention from his handling of COVID-19, and Berlin's ties with Washington have been strained by his decision in July to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Germany. Plans to reform the WHO are unlikely to be definitively shelved, especially if Trump is defeated in the November election. European governments want Washington to remain a WHO member and a financial supporter, and they have shown an interest in boosting their own funding to the body. I need to go to the bathroom and I press the help button, to be freed from the leads taped to my chest, but nobody comes. At the nurses station just outside my room, one nurse is seated eating potato chips. Another is holding up her phone to show two others a photo on her screen. My nurse is not there. I press and press the button, until finally unable to wait any longer, I slip my finger out of the pulse oximeter that measures the oxygen level in my blood and pull off the heart monitor leads, setting off loud alarms. None of the nurses so much as looks at me as I, bladder emptied, return to my room where the alarms are still blaring and beeping. The sound seeps into my head, a jarring pressure. Still nobody comes. U.S. Representatives Elissa Slotkin (MI-08) and Haley Stevens (MI-11) are set to host two separate town halls on preparing for the return to school this fall, they announced in press releases on Friday. Slotkin will hold a telephone town hall at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, August 12, and Stevens will host a virtual town hall at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, August 10 on Facebook Live. Slotkin said in her release she hopes to help answer parents questions on preparing for the return to school in the fall and supporting their children through in-person or virtual learning. She will be joined by several local professionals at the event, including: Dr. Robert Shaner, superintendent of Rochester Community Schools and member of Governor Gretchen Whitmers Return to Learning Advisory Council Dr. Phillis Meadows, senior fellow of the Kresge Foundation and member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicines committee on reopening schools Shenandoah Chefalo, faculty at the Center for Trauma Resilient Communities Stevens said in her release that she hopes to discuss education and how to provide a safe and effective learning environment for the upcoming school year. She will be also be joined by a panel of experts, including: Dr. Randy Liepa, superintendent of the Intermediate School District for Wayne County Chandra Madafferi, vice president of the Michigan Education Association Dr. Susan Canizares, Chief Academic Officer of the Learning Care Group Mark Bierley, CEO of Learning Care Group To participate in both town halls, see slotkin.house.gove/live for Slotkins town hall and Stevens Facebook for her town hall. Teachers, parents joining forces across district lines to protest in-person classes this fall Royal Oak school district overturns plan for students to return to school Rochester, Walled Lake, Berkley schools to start with online-only; Farmington may follow suit Gretchen Whitmer creates Food Security Council with executive order \\Gretchen Whitmer signs executive order, directive to create council, address racism Debbie Stabenow to announce expansion of community behavioral health services The Oakland Press week in review, Aug. 2-8 When I was a boy, kids walked to schools and rode their bikes around town. Schools and churches were safe havens for learning and praying. As I grew up, I found that not all children were safe and well-fed. As I was studying for the ministry, my eyes were opened to the lack of equity, equality and justice in America. While teaching religion courses, I spoke about these issues. Now, I am shocked by the problems we face as a country. I will continue to express my concerns, but I will remain hopeful that we shall overcome. I believe that good people will continue to make changes. Even as COVID-19 continues to ravish the health and lives of too many, I have heard about professionals from small and large labs working every day to find better testing methods, therapeutics and vaccines. We will in time bend the curve for better health and a better way to live with freedom and justice for all. Changes will come, but we must remain vigilant. To safeguard what we value, it is important to acknowledge problems and plan for solutions. We have had many wake-up calls, but we still have hunger, homeless people, inequality and racial injustice. Something is dangerously wrong. New Delhi: An Air India Express plane with 190 people onboard skidded off the runway of the Kozhikode airport in Kerala on Friday (August 7) evening killing at least 17 people including both the pilots. To understand what could have caused the crash, there could be the following three possibilities. Firstly, pilots have to undergo training atleast twice a year and after that they are evaluated as 'fit' to fly an airplane. But this year due to COVID-19 the training which is conducted with the help of simulators was cancelled till September 30, which means that those who were 'not fit' to fly could end by also end up piloting the airplanes. Another purported reason could be mental stress for the pilots. It was recently declared that all pilots will undergo a salary cut of 60 per cent. The suggested salary reduction would be enforced from April 1. The announcement was made on Thursday. This could have put the pilots under immense mental stress. Thirdly, the Karipur airport runway at which this accident happened is called the 'table top runway', it has lights in the middle which is called 'center light' to give a better estimate of the runway while landing. But there was no such light on this runway. This is called the 'Black Hole Approach'. The runway is dangerous and large aircraft do not land at this airport. Due to incessant rains in the region, maybe the plane experienced tailwind and with the problem of 'black hole' a proper estimate of the runway could not be made. Also, low visibility adding to the trouble could have been a reason causing the plane to skid off. Meanwhille, all possible help is being extended by both the state and Central authorities to conduct rescue operations at Karipur Airport. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed pain over the accident and spoke to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on phone. Union Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri said, "Deeply anguished and distressed at the air accident in Kozhikode... We are in touch with local authorities... Relief teams from Air India & AAI are being immediately dispatched from Delhi & Mumbai. All efforts being made to help passengers. A formal enquiry will be conducted by AAIB." A total of 190 people -- 184 passengers, two pilots, and four cabin crew were onboard the aircraft. The plane skidded off the runway and fell around 35 feet down, it broke into two parts apparently the front half took the damage but people in the rear half have survived. The flight was a part of Centre's Vande Bharat Mission. JetBlue and Southwest offer no medical exemptions to their face-covering rules. But passengers can still briefly remove their masks to eat, drink or take medication. (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press) Devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, some U.S. airlines are hoping to put potential passengers at ease by imposing tougher rules for mask wearing, including threats of banning fliers who refuse to cover their faces. All of the nation's largest carriers require that passengers wear masks or other face coverings during the flight and while boarding and exiting the planes, with an exemption for small children and allowances for briefly removing the masks to eat, drink or take medication. "Our tougher policy shows how important this issue is to us and our guests," Max Tidwell, Alaska Airlines vice president of safety and security, said in a statement Wednesday. If you dont wear a mask, you wont be flying with us. Airlines can't fine passengers for refusing to wear masks because the federal government does not require it. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has refused to support a nationwide mandate, saying she'll leave it up to airlines. But some airlines have taken it upon themselves to add the threat of banning passengers from future flights if they refuse to wear a mask. Delta Air Lines has gone so far as to turn a flight around and return to the gate because two passengers refused to wear masks. The tougher policies come as U.S. airlines struggle with passenger demand that has dropped to less than 30% of the demand before the pandemic struck. Delta recently reported that the carrier is losing $27 million a day. At American, 41,000 employees recently agreed to take early retirement. Which airlines require that I wear a mask during my flight? Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and United Airlines, among others, require that passengers wear face coverings during the boarding, the flight and while exiting the plane. They allow passengers to remove their masks briefly to eat, drink or take medication. What happens if I refuse to keep my mask on during the flight? Story continues Alaska, American, Delta, Spirit and United say passengers who remove their masks or refuse to wear one in the first place would be banned from future flights. American Airlines said its ban would last as long as it requires masks on flights. Alaska and United said the duration of their bans would be determined by an investigation into the incident. Delta representatives declined to say how long their airline's ban would last. Spirit did not respond to emails asking about the duration of its ban. Other carriers, such as Hawaiian, JetBlue and Southwest, have not posted on their website the consequences of flouting the face-covering policy. On all airlines, flight attendants have been instructed to remind passengers of the policy but not to escalate the matter in a way that results in a confrontation during a flight. What if I have a medical reason for not wearing a mask? Southwest and JetBlue offer no medical exemptions to the rule: No mask, no flying. (Southwest's policy took effect July 27; JetBlue's policy starts Monday.) "Our policy is meant to offer the strongest level of protection for everyone given all that we currently know about how COVID-19 is transmitted," JetBlue spokesman Philip Stewart said. Delta requires passengers who claim to have a medical reason for not wearing a mask to go through a consultation process that can take up to an hour. The process involves a phone call with a medical consultation service backed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Anyone who falsely claims a disability or a medical condition to keep from wearing a mask may be barred from Delta flights during the entire period that masks are required by the airline. What if I don't have a face mask? Most of the major airlines will provide passengers with a mask if needed. Can I wear a mask with a valve? United, Delta and JetBlue have banned passengers from wearing masks that include a breathing valve, which filters air coming in but allows air to escape when the wearer exhales. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said such masks may protect the wearer but do not prevent the spread of the coronavirus to others. Which airlines are leaving middle seats empty to lower the risk of virus transmission on the flight? Delta, JetBlue and Southwest have all committed to keeping the middle seat vacant at least for the near future unless a family requests to sit together. Alaska representatives said their carrier will reassign seating during the boarding process to create space between passengers whenever possible. American and United adopted policies of keeping the middle seats vacant last spring but rescinded that policy over the last couple of months as demand for air travel has gradually increased. In May, low-cost Frontier Airlines announced it would charge passengers a fee, starting at $39, to ensure the middle seat next to them would remain empty. But several lawmakers criticized the carrier before the fee took effect, and Frontier backpedaled. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Julie Dimperio Holowach. (Facebook) Two weeks ago Maine recorded its first fatal great white shark attack. Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, of New York City, was splashing with her daughter approximately 20 yards off the coast of Bailey Island when a large shark, likely mistaking Holowach for a seal, struck her with such force that she was launched out of the water, witnesses said. She died at the scene. The incident is not an anomaly. Beaches across the Northeast have closed repeatedly in recent days after great white sharks were spotted swimming close to shore, a worrying trend that has led some people to suggest that states thin the population of seals, the sharks primary source of food. Local business owners and some Cape Cod, Mass., politicians have long called for culling the seal population there. Many worry that more shark sightings and beach closures could lead to a downturn in tourism, which is vital to the local economy. All marine mammals are protected in the United States by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Seal populations have multiplied exponentially in the years since the act, and marine scientists say levels are now so high that they are making a discernible difference in coastline shark activity since seals are among their favorite prey. Subsequent federal legislation also led to greater protections for sharks, experts say, leading to a far larger number of great whites. Still, not everyone thinks culling seals is the answer. Greg Skomal, an internationally known shark expert and the program manager and senior scientist for Massachusettss Division of Marine Fisheries, began experimenting last month with sonar detection technology that he believes could become a useful early warning system for coastal swimmers. The area where Julie Dimperio Holowach was killed by a shark in Harpswell, Maine. (Jessica Rinaldi/the Boston Globe via Getty Images) Massachusetts, where Jaws was filmed, has grown weary of sharks after a series of attacks in recent years. Public horror at the Northeasts shark resurgence crested after 26-year-old Arthur Medici was killed while bodysurfing in Wellfleet, Mass., in 2018 as throngs of beachgoers looked on. Boston Magazine dubbed the incident the Shark Attack that Changed Cape Cod Forever. Medici, a college student, died in the water before lifeguards could try to revive him. Story continues Skomal said that with significantly more sharks, seals and people sharing the coastline, such attacks are bound to continue, making early detection vital. Sharks eat seals, and with a resurgent seal population drawing sharks closer to shore, more humans are encountering and being attacked by sharks. While excited about the sonar technology his team is beta testing, Skomal worries it will give swimmers a false sense of security since a minority of the total shark population has been tagged with transmitters. Theres no silver bullet, no one solution thats going to be 100 percent effective, Skomal said in an interview with Yahoo News. The only thing thats going to be 100 percent effective is people dont go in the water. Related: Experts talk about deadly shark attack in Maine The Washington state-based sonar technology company Innovasea has leased six receivers for detecting high-pitched audio emitted by tagged sharks across Cape Cod. So far, Skomal has deployed two of these receivers in Wellfleet, where they have led to near daily beach closings. The technology is detecting a lot of sharks outfitted with acoustic transmitters swimming close to shore even though Skomal has tagged only 200 sharks, an unknown percentage of the shark population in the area. The shark audio detection equipment is expensive, so after a state-sponsored trial run, individual towns will have to decide whether they want to buy it, he said. Skomal noted that California State University, Long Beach has a few of the detection systems placed along the West Coast, where great white shark populations are also rebounding. Skomal said the estimated 250,000 seals now swimming in the Northeastern U.S. are a 25-fold increase from a low in the 1980s, when seal populations were estimated at just 10,000 animals. But he said killing seals off, as some have suggested, is not a viable solution to the uptick in shark attacks. There werent sharks hunting close to shore [until recently] because the seals werent there, not in large numbers, so if you want to go back to that stage in time, think of the number of animals youd have to remove, Skomal said. Youd be killing animals for the sake of killing them. Where would the bodies go? Who would do the killing? Skomal said seals have repopulated throughout the Northeast and are now on beaches across the East End of Long Island, N.Y.; Rhode Island; Cape Cod and the Gulf of Maine where the shark population has also grown. A shark warning and beach advisory. (John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images) James Sulikowski, professor at Arizona State Universitys School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, said the degree to which seals have rebounded has been controversial. Many would say the population is recovered and that steps need to be taken to give relief to the ecosystem, much like Canada does with their culls, Sulikowski said. You can go to Canada and buy seal boots. But while Sulikowski has tracked an increase in great white sharks in recent years, he said it would be a mistake to kill the seals they are drawn to hunt. As human beings we have to understand that we dont belong in the water, Sulikowski said. We go there to enjoy it. So, if we start thinking of removing and changing ecosystems so that it fits our pleasure zones, then we really have some issues as a race. In Nassau County on Long Island, beach restrictions were in place last week due to multiple shark sightings close to shore. County Executive Laura Curran said Long Island has never experienced so many beach issues due to shark sightings. Helicopters have been deployed to scan the shallow coastal waters, and swimmers have been limited to going only waist- or, in some cases, ankle-deep. Theyve been getting quite close, Curran said. People are sort of laughing and saying, Hey, just another day in 2020. Of course, there are more sharks than usual. Sean Hayes, director of the Protected Species Branch of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said that studies show a 10 to 15 percent annual population growth in the gray seal population throughout the Northeast region, including the East End of Long Island. Researchers at NOAA are now studying how the larger marine ecosystem will be affected by the return of seals to coastal waters in the Northeast, Hayes said. When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, he said, scientists were surprised to discover that the surrounding forest ecosystem improved. Professor James Sulikowski, center, at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, in 2015. (Carl D. Walsh/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images) Hayes said that even if seals were gone, there would still be more sharks in our waters the shark population has also dramatically rebounded thanks to federal conservation efforts. The reality is the sharks have been recovering on their own with or without seals for quite some time, so there are also just a lot more sharks, he said. Hayes added that the waters off Cape Cod have long been the sharks domain. In the 1850s, Henry David Thoreau wrote often about the sharks and seals he saw off the Massachusetts coast. Hayes said historical accounts he has read suggest people used to swim in the water less because they feared shark attacks. We were able to build sailboats 200 years ago to sail around the planet, so we probably could have built a surfboard back then, Hayes said. But maybe we didnt because it wasnt a safe thing to do. Brian Carlstrom, the superintendent of Cape Cod National Seashore, agreed with that musing. Cape Cod beaches issue dire warnings about shark attacks, a decision Carlstrom said was made as incidents began increasing after an initial encounter in 2012, when a shark took a large bite out of a kayak. Carlstrom urged those who lament the sudden omnipresence of the predators to think historically. We had recreation patterns develop with people in the water, surfing, recreating, splashing, swimming, in the absence of seals and sharks, he said. Now theyre back. Theyve returned to the ecosystem. ... Cape Cod has white sharks. Its part of the natural environment. Its their home. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 23:00:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The logo of TikTok is displayed on the screen of a smartphone on a computer screen background in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, Aug. 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Saying that reckless political manipulation and suppression of certain non-American firms by the United States is doomed to "boomerang," China on Friday urged Washington to rectify its mistake and refrain from politicizing economic issues. The remarks were made by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin in response to U.S. executive orders issued Thursday, which ban transactions carried out by American companies or individuals with parent companies of WeChat and TikTok apps. The companies, in line with market principles and international rules, have conducted commercial activities in the United States while following local laws and regulations, Wang told a daily press briefing. "The U.S. has frequently abused state power to wantonly suppress non-American firms under the pretext of national security. This is blatant bullying behavior, which China firmly opposes," the spokesperson said, noting relevant U.S. moves have drawn criticism and doubts from many people within the United States and the international community. As "a just cause enjoys abundant support while an unjust one finds scant backing," Wang said the U.S. side has put its self-interests above market principles and international rules at the cost of undermining the rights and interests of American users and companies, and resorted to reckless political manipulation and suppression. "These will only lead to its moral decline, damage to its national image and international trust deficit, and are doomed to boomerang," Wang said. "We urge the U.S. side to heed rational voices from within and from the international community, correct its wrongdoing, refrain from politicizing economic issues and stop suppressing relevant enterprises, to create a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for companies worldwide to have normal business operations and investments," Wang added. The mid-Cork born star of the hit comedy series, Derry Girls, has hit out at the failure tof Irish broadcasters to invest in and nurture local talent. Siobhan McSweeney, who plays the role of the iconic Sister Michael in the series, which was again shortlisted for a BAFTA award last weekend, was answering questions posed on Twitter about the fact that the most popular comedies produced in the UK involve Irish talent in front and behind the cameras. "Well taste is subjective - I'd never put my taste over someone else's," said the actress from Aherla. "It's more Irish broadcasters don't invest, nurture or programme enough Irish programmes. "It's a disgrace that so many of us have to leave to make work. "This has been the case for a long, long time," she said. Derry Girls is a Channel 4 production but featured Irish talent. while The Young Offenders may be set in Cork but it is a BBC financed show whose third series is currently on RTE television. As Siobhan pointed out, this is not something new. Father Ted, the comedy set in a parochial house on 'Craggy Island' was written by Irish writers and starred Irish actors - but was a Channel 4 production. It's still being repeated on our screens at present. The hit of the summer this year, Normal People, was also a production involving Irish talent but would not have been made except it was funded by the BBC and Hulu. Victorians could be left without medicine, alcohol and school supplies after major businesses were closed by the state's draconian COVID-19 lockdown. Australia Post were told that it could keep open 200 outlets facing closure but the business is struggling to operate with just two thirds of its staff. Chief executive Christine Holgate said there could be long delays as demand for deliveries soars amid Melbourne's strict Stage 4 lockdown. She said that demand in coronavirus-stricken suburbs was already up 200 per cent and orders from Chemist Warehouse, Dan Murphy's and Office Works were under pressure. Victorians could be left without medicine, alcohol and school supplies after major businesses were shut down by the state's draconian COVID-19 lockdown (pictured woman buys alcohol in Melbourne this week) Australia Post were told that it could keep open 200 outlets facing closure but the business is struggling to operate with just two thirds of its staff (pictured Australia Post worker in Melbourne) Ms Holgate said Australia Post was responsible for deliveries for 200,000 online businesses and had a team of 21,000 people in Victoria. 'All the major medical distribution centres are based in Victoria. API, Sigma - they supply pharmacies right across the country,' Ms Holgate told the Australian Financial Review. 'So this isn't just about keeping Victorian businesses running and Victorians safe, we have to keep the whole country safe. We run the risk of being late getting important medicines out to those pharmacies.' This week alone parcel deliveries grew by 20 per cent as Melburnians are required to stay at home under strict public health orders and most of the retail sector was shut down. 'We've had every major customer calling saying 'you are going to give us capacity aren't you?'' Ms Holgate said. From midnight on Friday, distribution centres in Metropolitan Melbourne will need to comply to a string of new rules. They mean all staff will be required to wear face masks and employees will have to carry out regular deep cleans. The centres will also be required to have a High Risk COVIDSafe Plan. As of Sunday, these warehouses will need to cut staff dramatically with Australia Post losing a third of team members. Australia Post was responsible for deliveries for 200,000 online businesses and had a team of 21,000 people in Victoria (pictured Melburnians pick up parcels) Victorians may be unable to have alcohol delivered as part of regulations imposed on businesses (pictured queue outside liquor store in Melbourne) Employees will also be unable to carpool to and from work, and will be required to tell management if they live with anyone working at a high-risk workplace. Premier Daniel Andrews said he discussions would continue with Australia Post and other distribution businesses. 'We have made provision for distribution centres of medical products, and we're in constant conversation with each of those sectors and industries,' Mr Andrews said on Friday. 'The evidence is we've effectively done a carve-out for the supply chain around medicine and other important products that are directly linked to the care of people.' Victoria recorded 450 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths on Friday. Other claims about the NSW situation are repeated by the commentariat despite sketchy evidence. The assertion NSW is two weeks behind Victoria in terms of a second wave hasn't come to fruition, but is still routinely heard, including on last week's Q&A. Meanwhile, the federal deputy chief medical officers have consistently said the caseload in NSW is "under control". However, that does not necessarily mean the community feels things are under control, especially when Queensland has declared the entire state a hotspot and other states (plus neighbouring New Zealand) have vanquished the virus. Gladys Berejiklian herself says NSW is "on a knife edge". This is a vexed question for policymakers and health experts. NSW came close to elimination, or what Australian authorities are now calling the goal of "zero community transmission". Melbourne entering its six-week, stage-four lockdown shifts the equation: should elimination now become the nationwide goal? "If you ask the average Victorian why are they going to suffer like this for the next six weeks or even longer, it's that they are going to get down to zero spread," said the ABC's coronavirus expert Norman Swan on Thursday. "That's what they want." Many health experts say that should have been the goal all along. Bill Bowtell, who advised the Hawke government on the HIV/AIDS crisis, argues NSW, Victoria and federal authorities continue to make a grave mistake by officially pursuing a suppression strategy. Professor Peter Collignon and Adjunct Professor Bill Bowtell at a Senate select committee hearing on the coronavirus in Canberra last month. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "The best way to live with COVID-19 is to live without it," Bowtell says. "That's not pious hope. If you don't go for elimination and you come out with this idea there's a stable rate of transmission that can be obtained in a society - which is wrong - then you run the real risk of mistakes being made again and heading into Lockdown 3.0." In order to achieve that goal, Bowtell says another lockdown "has to be looked at very carefully" - but it's not the only option. He says the more important steps are making masks mandatory, paid pandemic leave so people don't go to work when they're sick and better communications about behavioural change. Phelps shares that view. "I don't want to see any more restrictions than we really have to. But we do have to identify potential problem areas," she says. "It only takes one unexpected outbreak, particularly if they're not able to track the source, and we're going to be Victoria all over. We want to get ahead of community transmission - masks are the simple way of doing that." While the NSW government was late to the party on masks - and has still not gone as far as those experts would like - it has moved ahead of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and the Infection Control Expert Group, which have been reluctant to urge people to wear masks outside Melbourne in a serious way. In late July, the ICEG chair Lyn Gilbert, a clinical professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of Sydney, told the ABC: "There's really no evidence, I don't think, that wearing masks in the [NSW] community at this stage would make any difference." Those comments were widely noted by other medical experts. They were also referenced in a letter to federal Health Minister Greg Hunt from 23 frontline health workers last week, expressing no confidence in the ICEG and calling for Hunt to intervene. "This message is irresponsible given that Victoria is in crisis and NSW is on a knife edge," they wrote. "Everything that can be done to flatten the curve should be strongly advocated by public experts such as the chair of the ICEG." NSW has now gone as far as it can in urging people to wear masks without making it compulsory. Collignon, the Australian National University expert who was alarmed by the crowded Potts Point restaurants, thinks that's the correct call given the low caseload in Sydney. Nail technicians at Broadway Shopping Centre. Mirvac Retail has mandated masks be worn by all their staff in shopping centres as part of their health and safety precautions in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Credit:Getty Images "There's still not a lot of community transmission. Masks are mostly of benefit when there's a lot of community transmission," he says. He is also concerned that making masks mandatory would lead people to forget about other preventative measures such as physical distancing. Rather, Collignon says the government should consider tighter limits on venue capacity, perhaps lowering the booking limit from the current 10 to four or six. Particularly if alcohol is involved, "it may be that those rules for 'what's a crowd' have to change". That's not a lockdown, but neither is it the open society NSW has championed and which some other states currently enjoy. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 19:18:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- As many as 43 Syrians were killed in the mega blast that shook the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Tuesday, state news agency SANA reported on Saturday. Citing a statement by the Syrian embassy in Lebanon, the report said the death toll is not final as search for missing people and casualties is ongoing. Facilitations have been provided for returning some of the bodies to Syria and bury others in Lebanon, said the embassy, adding that coordination will continue with the Lebanese authorities to search for the missing people. At least 154 people were killed in the massive explosion and more than 6,000 others injured, but numbers are expected to rise as the search for the missing people continues. Enditem The group says the conditions in the small rooms at the hotel are making people unwell, and that they need space to walk around for their physical and social wellbeing. For several months the Refugee Solidarity Collective has been using a series of protests to raise awareness of 120 male refugees being held at a hotel just off Main Street in Kangaroo Point. Protesters sit in silence for seven minutes last month to mark seven years of offshore detention for some of the refugees being kept in the Kangaroo Point hotel. Credit:Stuart Layt "That is what the organisers have told us. There is no planned action today," police said. Activists want the men to be allowed to leave their hotels during the day. Journalists have been sent emails describing men being taken to Brisbane hospitals, as well as uncorroborated allegations of self-harm. All week police and health authorities said the weekend protest was poorly timed because Queensland is in the middle of an infection assessment period after several people lied about travelling to COVID-19-ravaged Victoria before returning to Queensland with the virus. Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young on Friday asked organisers to reconsider the protest, telling them it was "not the time" to make their point. "To see the number of people who have come forward since that group returned from Melbourne to be tested, and to cope with all those delays at the fever clinics we saw, to cope with waiting for those results and the anxiety that that causes, to do all that and potentially have it undone because people breach those requirements this weekend would be an awful thing to see," she said. As the world entered the eighth month of the year, horrific blasts pushed everyone in shock. With aeroplane crashes, explosions, and heatwaves, netizens are now reckoning that every day in 2020 is a disaster'. In contrasts, there are many who have rushed to help those in trouble, from people lining up to donate blood in Kerela to those reuniting families in Beirut, there are many who are now proving true that kindness is an inbuilt mechanism. Not only are their contributions winning hearts of those affected but also inspiring a lot of people on the internet. With people trying to find gloom in the doom, the search for good news has also surged in the past days. Therefore, here is a compilation of five heartwarming stories that would propel you to become happier and instantly lift up your spirits. Taiwan Airlines Offer Sight-seeing Flights Airlines in Taiwan are now offering sightseeing flights to residents, satisfying their itch to travel. In addendum, the new venture also supports the business which has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic since long now. These Flights to nowhere not only aim to satisfy the airlines customers but also have a mock drill for children. The first batch of the course saw overwhelming participation from over 50 children. All children, decked in proper uniforms, served the passenger in mock cabins. Meanwhile, another group of children took a two-hour-long flights over the island and the soaring mountain range that runs down its spine. Read: 'Flights To Nowhere': Taiwan Airlines Offer Sight-seeing Flights For Children Amid COVID Artist Creates Bindi Irwin's Wedding Photo Bindi Irwin, the legendary wildlife expert Steve Irwins daughter, shared picture of a stunning painting gifted to her by an artist. The portrait, which got Bindi emotional, shows her father in the family photo clicked during the wedding. While Steve was not there at the wedding, the artist thoughtfully fit him into his painting to create a beautiful gift for the bride. Sharing a photo of the painting on Instagram, Bindi said To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." Further she thanked the artist for "creating this spectacular piece. Read: Artist Creates Bindi Irwin's Wedding Photo With Steve, See Her Emotional Post Sudarsan Pattnaik encouraging people to donate plasma Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik on August 7 took to Twitter to share a picture of his latest art where he urged people to donate plasma in the fight against coronavirus pandemic. The renowned artist shared the picture of his beautiful art on Twitter, where one can see a man and a woman wearing face masks with a plasma pouch in between them on which a text is visible that reads, "Donate Plasma Save Life, fight against COVID-19". Sudarsan captioned his post with the title, "My SandArt at Puri beach in Odisha with message Please #DonatePlasmaSaveLife #FightAgainstCOVID19". Sudarsan had previously shared similar plasma donation message through his sand art. My SandArt at Puri beach in Odisha with message #Please Donate #Plasma Save Life . #FightAgainstCOVID19 pic.twitter.com/KXDYoQbzuy Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) July 24, 2020 Read: Nigerian Boy Gets Scholarship From Dance School After Barefoot Ballet Video Goes Viral Nigerian boy's ballot wins internet A heartwarming video of a boy performing ballet barefoot in a rainy street has gone viral on social media. The video has been shared on the Instagram page called leapofdanceacademy.The page has 68.5K followers and is known for posting pictures of ballet dancers. In the video that they posted recently, the boy is seen illustrating beautiful ballet skills, leaving the netizens stunned. According to reports, the boy has received a scholarship from a dance school in New York. Read: Good News: Beirut Charity Workers Reunite Lost Pets With Owners After Blast Pets reunite with owners in Beirut Charity workers at an animal welfare organization in Lebanon have been reuniting the lost pets with their owners as teams of 40 workers continue to scourge the city that was shaken by two massive blasts that claimed at least 135 lives, injured more than 5,000 and rendered almost 300,000 homeless. In heart-warming footage shared on YouTube the animal welfare charity, Animals Lebanon, was seen uniting the separated pets to the owner after treating them. In the footage, several dogs, that escaped their now destroyed homes or had gone missing during the explosion were seen hugging their owners in an emotional video. DUP leader Arlene Foster has said she is disappointed to hear the Taoiseach's office is preparing for Britain to "lose interest" in Northern Ireland. The Shared Island Unit was set up in Micheal Martin's office earlier this year to "work towards a consensus on a shared island". Mr Martin said it is preparing for the possibility that Britain may get "turned off" the North. He acknowledged there are "two distinct political jurisdictions" on the island, adding: "We have to acknowledge the reality of that." Impact However, he went on to speculate on the potential impact of English nationalism, Brexit and the possibility of Scotland leaving the United Kingdom on the North's membership of the union. Expand Close Arlene Foster / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Arlene Foster "What happens if England gets turned off Northern Ireland? We've got to be thinking all this through," Mr Martin told the Irish Independent. "They may just say, 'We're not as committed to it as we were in the past'. "That may not happen for quite some time yet, but we have to be prepared for all sorts of eventualities." However, Mr Martin ruled out the possibility of a border poll, describing it as "too divisive". Mrs Foster expressed her disappointment over the comments, coming only a week after what she described as a positive meeting of the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC). "A good neighbourly N/S relationship requires consistency," she tweeted. "The Taoiseach's comments are disappointing. "The principle of consent determines NI's place in the UK. NI will keep moving forward by respecting our diverse identities, not dubious theories." Accordingly, thanks to the efforts of Vietnamese authorities, the Customs Department of Nepal has granted permission for the release of black pepper containers of Vietnamese enterprises to re-export to Vietnam.The MoIT said that as the current price of black pepper is high after these consignments of black pepper arrive in Vietnam, they can continue to be exported to many other markets to make up for the losses of enterprises.Earlier, some Vietnamese black pepper exporters called for help as around 58 containers of black pepper exported to Nepal could not be cleared as importing partners in Nepal had not applied for import permits and refused to receive the shipments. To send these containers back to Vietnam, the Customs Department of Nepal requested the opinion of the Nepal Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Supplies, as well as ordered enterprises to complete the re-export documents following the regulations. By Phuc Van Translated by Thuy Doan Workers at General Motors Spring Hill Manufacturing plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, recently spoke to the World Socialist Web Site on the impact of COVID-19 and the conditions under which workers are forced to operate. Spring Hill sits on the Williamson and Maury county line and is considered part of the Nashville metropolitan area. Nashville, located in Davidson County, has the second highest case count and death toll in Tennessee, after Shelby County (Memphis), with 20,001 cases and 211 deaths. Williamson County, for its part, has 3,405 cases and 25 deaths, while Maury County has nearly 1,200 cases and 7 deaths. On August 6, Tennessee recorded its highest single-day death total, at 42. Statewide, as of this writing, there are over 116,000 cases and almost 1,200 deaths. In response to the overall economic crisis due to the pandemic, which has led to a collapse in auto sales, General Motors announced on June 24 that it planned to lay off 680 workers and eliminate the third shift at its Spring Hill facility. The United Auto Workers (UAW), while heartbroken, in the words of outgoing Local 1853 Chairman Mike Herron, made no effort to oppose the layoffs, accepting them as part of doing business. The UAW is in the midst of a vast corruption scandal. New details have emerged in the form of a court filing by GM alleging that Fiat Chrysler provided tens of millions of dollars in bribes to UAW officials. General Motors began reopening its Spring Hill plant in late May. Its second shift returned to work on June 1, and just over a week later workers were reporting an end to any efforts to make social distancing possible and an abandonment by the company of its sanitation protocols. When workers were ordered back to work, they were told that sanitation would occur multiple times throughout the day, but by June 10 it was down to once per shift and once after a shift. Since then, conditions at the plant have only worsened. The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter has received comments from a number of workers at the plant. One worker wrote, Crazy here. Now they [management and the union] arent even telling us [about potential outbreaks]. People have been posting themselves so as not to infect others. While unsure of the total number of cases at the plant, she wrote, I think there have been 14 cases that we know of, adding, Sanitizing is a joke. Echoing these comments, another worker said, Yeah, people have been seen throwing up and no cleaning was done. Not being told numbers of cases. People constantly being sent out on quarantine. Ive been in my new area since July 28, and I have not seen any cleaning happening except for the bathrooms. Whole teams are being sent out of the plant and were not told anything. I had to get tested because of a sore throat, upset stomach and low fever. My test came back negative, but people are complaining of sore throats and stomach issues and throwing up, yet no cleaning is being seen. While the company has mandated masks for its workers, the heat and lack of proper ventilation in the plant have made wearing them unbearable. Your mask is soaked wet with sweat so bad by the first hour you feel like you just got out of a shower, the worker reported. When asked about the campaign to reopen the economy, she wrote, I understand people need to work and businesses need to be open to survive. However, its spreading like crazy at work, at schools and in the public. Had the government not rushed to reopen so quickly it would have stopped. Had they just been patient for say 3045 more days with a quarantine, we wouldnt be forced into working and cases popping up all around us. I think they are putting lives in jeopardy. Every human being is just a number and if there are more casualties, then its just okay to them. So do people feel safe at this plant? Id say no! Yeah, we have temp checked and use hand sanitizer, but why are people still getting sick and throwing up, and having sore throats, diarrhea, etc.? Describing the response of the UAW to the conditions at the plant, she stated, Their response fails!!!!! UAW says they are fighting for our safety, but actually in the plant and on the floor different ballgame. By Pei Li HONG KONG (Reuters) - As Tencent <0700.HK> assesses how its business might be impacted by a U.S. decision to ban its messenger app WeChat in the country, American companies in China may become unintended casualties due to their heavy reliance on the app, experts said. U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled sweeping bans on U.S. transactions with owners of WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok, which his administration has called "significant threats." It's not clear to what extent the executive orders, which go into effect in 45 days, would impact WeChat's business and whether Tencent's large fleet of investments in the U.S. and other parts of the world would come as collateral. But if the ban covers U.S. companies doing businesses on WeChat, it would do more harm to U.S. firms such as Walmart and Starbucks than to Tencent, said Chengdong Li, a Beijing-based tech analyst. The stocks were trading flat as of midday Friday. According to Nicole Lamb-Hale, Duff & Phelps Institute Fellow, Former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing and Services in the Obama administration, the banning would be a multi-pronged approach, getting American companies to stop using the services and getting Americans to literally delete the app from their own phones. Lamb-Hale told Yahoo Finance that she hoped there would be more clarity so companies could plan. I was a little surprised by the open-ended nature of the WeChat order in particular," she said. WeChat is an all-in-one mobile app that combines services similar to Facebook , WhatsApp, Instagram and Venmo. The so-called super app is almost essential for daily life in China and boasts more than 1 billion users. American brands, big and small, from Nike to KFC , Starbucks and Amazon use WeChat's embedded 'mini-app' programs to facilitate transactions and engage consumers in China. Story continues Users of the mini-app programs do not need to download such retail apps separately as they can access those apps stored in WeChat's cloud. "The revenue Tencent got from these mini-apps for Walmart and Starbucks is minuscule in comparison to Tencents video games revenue domestically," Li said. "The ban would hurt Walmart and Starbucks more significantly as they rely on Tencent to get traffic." While Walmart's "Scan-and-Go" payment service is offered via its own app in the United States, the retail giant embedded the service into WeChat in China. Walmart said last year the service, which enables customers to pay with their smartphones by scanning the bar code on items and skip queuing up at the cash register, made more than 30% of its transactions in China. It aligned itself with Tencent so much that in 2018 it dropped Alibaba-linked Alipay in all its stores in the western region of China. While it's unclear whether and how much U.S. companies will be impacted, Raymond Wang, managing partner at Beijing law firm Anli Partners, said American businesses on WeChat might be able to survive the ban "as long as their entities linked to WeChat are registered outside U.S." If the ban only covers WeChat businesses in the United States, it would inflict limited impact on both Tencent and U.S. companies relying on the app in China, as it is not heavily used by non-Chinese individuals in the United States. "While we are not in a position to judge the future evolvement of this issue, we believe the current EO (executive order) seems to be targeting only WeChat, and if we are correct, the impact to Tencent's financials would be limited," Citi analysts wrote in a note Friday. Yet Trump's order sent shares of Tencent, Asia's second-most valuable company with a $686-billion market capitalisation, tumbling as much as 10% on Friday. (Reporting by Pei Li; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Nick Zieminski) NOTE: This article was lightly edited by Yahoo Finance. CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) A Venezuelan court has sentenced two former U.S. Special Forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a failed beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolas Maduro, prosecutors announced. The former Green Berets, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, admitted to taking part in the May 4 operation orchestrated by a third former U.S. soldier who remains in the United States, Venezuelas chief prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, announced on Twitter on Friday. THEY ADMITTED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FACTS, Mr. Saab wrote, adding that the case will continue for dozens of other defendants. He did not offer details. The operation called Operation Gideon was launched from makeshift training camps in neighboring Colombia and left at least eight rebel soldiers dead while a total of 66 were jailed. A former Green Beret named Jordan Goudreau, who operated a private, Florida-based security firm called Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility for the failed attack. Dozens of angry protesters entered premises of Lebanese foreign ministry, chanted against the government and political establishment Lebanese riot police fired tear gas at demonstrators trying to break through a barrier to get to the parliament building in Beirut on Saturday and shots were heard as protests over this week's devastating explosion grow. Dozens of protesters broke into the foreign ministry where they burnt a framed portrait of President Michel Aoun, representative for many of a political class that has ruled Lebanon for decades and which they say is to blame for its deep political and economic crises. "We are staying here. We call on the Lebanese people to occupy all the ministries," a demonstrator said by megaphone. Thousands gathered in Martyrs' Square in the city centre, some throwing stones. Police fired tear gas when some protesters tried to break through the barrier blocking a street leading to parliament, a Reuters journalist said. Police confirmed shots had been fired. It was not immediately clear by or at whom. The protesters chanted "the people want the fall of the regime", a popular chant during the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, and "Revolution, Revolution". They held posters saying "Leave, you are all killers". Soldiers in vehicles mounted with machine guns patrolled the area amid the clashes. "Really the army is here? Are you here to shoot us? Join us and we can fight the government together," a woman yelled. Tuesday's blast, the biggest in Beirut's history, killed 158 people and wounded 6,000, the health ministry said. Twenty-one people were still reported as missing. The government has promised to hold those responsible to account. But few Lebanese are convinced. Some set up nooses on wooden frames as a warning to Lebanese leaders. "Resign or hang," said a placard. Riot police fired dozens of tear gas canisters at protesters who set a fire and hurled stones. Some residents, struggling to clean up shattered homes, complained that the government they see as corrupt - there had been months of protests against its handling of a deep economic crisis before this week's disaster - had let them down again. "I wish the United Nations would take over Lebanon," said university student Celine Dibo as she scrubbed blood off the walls of her shattered apartment building. Several people said they were not surprised that French President Emmanuel Macron had visited this week while Lebanese leaders had not. "We are living in ground zero. I hope another country would just take us over," said psychologist Maryse Hayek, 48, whose parents' house was destroyed in the explosion. Kareem, an aid worker, said protesting was the only thing for the people to do. "We helped people, we cleaned houses, we mourned and we cried a lot, a lot, a lot," he said. "But today its the time to show them again that were here. This is why Im here today." Lebanon's Kataeb Party, a Christian group that opposes the government backed by the Iran-aligned Hezbollah, announced on Saturday the resignation of its three lawmakers from parliament. "I invite all honourable (lawmakers) to resign so that the people can decide who will govern them, without anybody imposing anything to them," said party chief Samy Gemayel. Macron promised angry crowds that aid to rebuild Beirut would not fall into "corrupt hands". He will host a donor conference for Lebanon via video-link on Sunday. Macron told U.S. President Donald Trump that U.S. sanctions targeting Hezbollah are playing into the hands of those they are meant to weaken, an Elysee official said. The United States should "reinvest" in Lebanon to help rebuild it instead. The Lebanese prime minister and presidency have said 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which is used in making fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years without safety measures at the port warehouse. President Aoun said on Friday an investigation would examine whether the blast was caused by a bomb or other external interference, negligence or an accident. Twenty people had been detained so far, he added. 'We Can't Afford To Rebuild' Some residents wondered how they would ever rebuild their lives. Tearing up, Bilal Hassan used his bare hands to try to remove debris from his home. When his three wounded teenage children ran for their lives they left blood stains on the staircase and walls. "We can't afford to rebuild and no one is helping us," he said, standing beside a large teddy bear that was blown across his home, and a damaged photograph of him and his wife. Bulldozers ploughed through the wreckage of mangled homes and long rows of flattened cars as soldiers stood by. Volunteers with shovels streamed through streets. Officials have said the blast could have caused losses amounting to $15 billion. That is a bill that Lebanon cannot pay after already defaulting on a mountain of debt - exceeding 150% of economic output - and with talks stalled on a lifeline from the International Monetary Fund. 'Mini atom bomb' France and other countries have rushed emergency aid to Lebanon, including doctors, and tons of health equipment and food. The blast destroyed Lebanon's only major grain silo and U.N. agencies are helping provide food and medical aid. For ordinary Lebanese, the scale of destruction is overwhelming. "It felt like a mini atomic bomb," said George Rohana, sitting beside a supermarket that was demolished. Marita Abou Jawda was handing out bread and cheese to victims of the blast. "Macron offered to help and our government has not done anything. It has always been like that," she said. "After Macron visited I played the French national anthem all day in my car." Search Keywords: Short link: Paducah, KY (42003) Today Occasional rain with some snow mixing in 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 80%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.. Tonight Snow in the evening will give way to some clearing overnight. Low 16F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Snow accumulations less than one inch. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Gaborone, Botswana Sat, August 8, 2020 13:08 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c7d793 2 Environment elephant,animals,conservation,Botswana Free Botswana on Friday said initial tests to ascertain the cause of the deaths of hundreds of elephants in the famed Okavango Delta have been inconclusive but did not eliminate poisoning. The landlocked southern African country has the world's largest elephant population, estimated to be about 130,000. Around 300 of them have been found dead since March. The environmental resources ministry said the tests showed no presence of pesticides that would ordinarily be involved in poisoning. "Results received so far do not eliminate poisoning, therefore environmental factors, including naturally occurring toxins, are still being investigated," the ministry said. Authorities have so far ruled out poaching, as the tusks were found intact. Read also: Natural toxins likely killed hundreds of Botswana elephants: Govt The government has so far established that 281 elephants died, although independent conservationists say more than 350 perished. The deaths were first flagged by a wildlife conservation charity, Elephants Without Borders (EWB), whose confidential report referring to the 356 dead elephants was leaked to the media early in July. Several live elephants appeared weak, lethargic and emaciated, with some showing signs of disorientation, difficulty in walking or limping, EWB said. Tests were being conducted at specialist labs in South Africa, Canada, Zimbabwe and the US. Topics : elephant animals conservation Botswana Washington: U.S. intelligence officials believe that Russia is using a variety of measures to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of the November election and that individuals linked to the Kremlin are boosting President Donald Trumps reelection bid, the countrys counterintelligence chief said in the most specific warning to date about the threat of foreign interference. U.S. officials also believe China does not want Trump to win a second term and has accelerated its criticism of the White House, expanding its efforts to shape public policy in America and to pressure political figures seen as opposed to Beijings interests. The statement Friday from William Evanina is believed to be the most pointed declaration by the U.S. intelligence community linking the Kremlin to efforts to get Trump reelected a sensitive subject for a president who has rejected intelligence agency assessments that Russia tried to help him in 2016. It also connects Moscows disapproval of Biden to his role as vice president in shaping Obama administration policies supporting Ukraine, an important U.S. ally, and opposing Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Asked about the intelligence assessment Friday evening in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump appeared to dispute the idea that Russia was disparaging Biden. I think the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump because nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have ever, he said. But the president seemed to agree with the intelligence indicating China didnt want him reelected. If Joe Biden was president, China would own our country, he said. Evaninas statement, three months before the election, comes amid criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats that the intelligence community has been withholding from the public specific intelligence information about the threat of foreign interference in American politics. The facts are chilling, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wrote in an op-ed published Friday evening in The Washington Post. I believe the American public needs and deserves to know them. The information should be declassified immediately. The latest intelligence assessment reflects concerns not only about Russia but China and Iran as well, warning that hostile foreign actors may seek to compromise election infrastructure, interfere with the voting process or call into question voting results. Despite those efforts, officials see it as unlikely that anyone could manipulate voting results in any sweeping way, Evanina said. Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer, said Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center. We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia and Iran. Concerns about election interference are especially acute following a wide-ranging effort by Russia to meddle in the 2016 election on Trumps behalf through both the hacking of Democratic emails and a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord among U.S. voters. Trump has routinely resisted the idea that the Kremlin favored him in 2016, but the intelligence assessment released Friday indicates that unnamed Kremlin-linked actors are again working to boost his candidacy on social media and Russian television. The White House reacted to Fridays news with a statement saying the United States will not tolerate foreign interference in our electoral processes and will respond to malicious foreign threats that target our democratic institutions. Tony Blinken, a senior adviser to Bidens campaign, responded that Trump has publicly and repeatedly invited, emboldened, and even tried to coerce foreign interference in American elections. ... Joe Biden, on the other hand, has led the fight against foreign interference for years. Democrats in Congress who have participated in recent classified briefings on election interference have expressed alarm at what they have heard. They have urged the U.S. intelligence community to make public some of their concerns in part to avoid a repeat of 2016, when Obama administration officials were seen as slow and overly deliberate in their public discussion of active Russian measures in that years election. Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, both California Democrats, said Friday that they were pleased that Mr. Evanina heeded our call to make additional details public about Russias malign interference campaign. But they also criticized him for naming Iran and China as equal threats to our democratic elections. When it comes to Russia, U.S. officials assess that it is working to denigrate Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia establishment among his supporters, Evanina said. U.S. officials believe that tracks Moscows criticism of Biden when he was vice president for his role in Ukraine policies and his support of opposition to Putin inside Russia. The U.S. statement called out by name Andrii Derkach, a pro-Russia Ukrainian lawmaker who has been active in levelling unsubstantiated corruption allegations against Biden and his son Hunter, who used to sit on the board of Burisma, an Ukrainian natural gas company. That effort has included publicizing leaked phone calls. Democrats, including members of the Senate intelligence panel, have voiced concerns that an ongoing Republican probe into Hunter Biden and his work in Ukraine would parallel Russian efforts and amplify Russian disinformation. That investigation is being led by Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the chairman of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee. He has denied any wrongdoing. Though U.S. officials allege that China has its own preference, Fridays statement did not directly accuse Beijing of election interference or taking action to prop up Biden. Instead, the statement said, China views Trump as unpredictable and does not want to see him win reelection. China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of the November election in an effort to shape U.S. policy and pressure political figures it sees as against Beijing. The Trump administrations relationship with Beijing has taken a starkly more adversarial tone in recent weeks, including the closure of Chinas consulate in Houston and an executive order Thursday that banned dealings with the Chinese owners of consumer apps TikTok and WeChat, Although China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, its public rhetoric over the past few months has grown increasingly critical of the current Administrations COVID-19 response, closure of Chinas Houston Consulate, and actions on other issues, the statement said. The top foreign policy adviser of Chinas ruling Communist Party, Yang Jiechi, said Friday that China has no interest in meddling in US domestic politics. On Iran, the assessment said Tehran seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions as well as Trump and divide America before the election. Irans efforts along these lines probably will focus on online influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content, Evanina wrote. Tehrans motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trumps re-election would result in a continuation of U.S. pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change. During a panel discussion later Friday at the DEF CON hacker convention, federal cybersecurity officials were asked which foreign threat they considered most serious. I dont think I would say one is scarier than the other, per se. Certainly some of these adversaries are at little bit more experienced, said the National Security Agencys election lead, David Imbordino. I couldnt agree more, said Cynthia Kaiser, the FBIs deputy chief of analysis for national cyber threats. If if you ask me what the biggest threat is, its the kind of constant drumbeat or influence campaigns that are going to make people feel like they are less confident in our (elections) system. The Department of Women and Child Development (WCD), Govt. of Karnataka, Bengaluru Rural District, has called for online applications from eligible and interested candidates (women only) for filling 63 Anganwadi Jobs in capacity as Anganwadi Workers and Anganwadi Helpers through direct selection on a fulltime basis to be posted in Bengaluru Rural district in Karnataka, India. The online application-cum-registration process towards the same started on August 5, 2020 and closes on September 5, 2020 by 5:30 pm. CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Anganwadi Workers and Anganwadi Helpers Organisation Department of Women and Child Development (WCD), Karnataka Educational Qualification Class 4/Class 9; SSLC/Class 10 or equivalent Experience Freshers can apply Job Responsibilities null Skills Required Desirable Job Location Bengaluru Rural Salary Scale As per the Govt. of K'taka norms Industry Women and Child Development Application Start Date August 5, 2020 Application End Date September 5, 2020 WCD Bengaluru Recruitment: Age Criteria And Fees Candidates interested in applying for Anganwadi Worker and Helper posts through WCD Bengaluru Recruitment must have completed 18 years of age and not be more than 35 years, with relaxation (upper age limit) for OBC (2A/2B/3A/3B) and SC/ST/PWD candidates are per the Govt. of Karnataka reservation policy. For details regarding application fee for Anganwadi Jobs under WCD Bengaluru Recruitment, refer to the official advertisement given at the end of the article. AIIMS Recruitment For 3,803 Nursing Officer NORCET 2020, Apply Online Before August 18. See Details WCD Bengaluru Recruitment: Anganwadi Jobs Details Post Name No. Of Vacancies Aanganwadi Helper 50 Aanganwadi Worker 13 Total 63 WCD Bengaluru Recruitment: Educational Eligibility Desirous candidates applying for Anganwadi Worker and Helper posts through WCD WCD Bengaluru Recruitment must have passed Class 4 (minimum) to Class 9 (for Anganwadi Helper post); SSLC/Class 10/Matriculation or equivalent (for Anganwadi Worker post) from a recognised Board/School as specified in the advertisment. WCD Bengaluru Recruitment: Selection And Pay The selection of candidates as Anganwadi Workers and Helpers through WCD Bengaluru Recruitment will be done through Shortlisting and Written Test/Interview. Candidates selected as Anganwadi Workers and Helpers through WCD Bengaluru Recruitment will be paid emolument as per the Govt. of K'taka norms. BECIL Recruitment For Consulting Editors, Language Editors, Designers. Apply Online Before August 25 WCD Bengaluru Recruitment: How To Apply Candidates applying for Anganwadi Worker and Helper posts through WCD Bengaluru Recruitment must submit their applications through online mode only on the official Karnataka DWCD website at https://anganwadirecruit.kar.nic.in/ on or before September 5, 2020 by 05:30 pm. Read the detailed notification about WCD Bengaluru Recruitment for Anganwadi Workers and Helpers post here https://anganwadirecruit.kar.nic.in/docs/4146948996.pdf PITTSFIELD, Mass. The School Committee on Thursday voted to appoint Deputy Superintendent Joseph Curtis as interim superintendent and to hold outgoing Superintendent Jason McCandless to his 90-day notice. Last week it was announced that McCandless was chosen as the new superintendent of the Mount Greylock Regional School District. McCandless, who joined the district in 2013, flirted with the idea of leaving the district last year and was in the running for the Silver Lake Regional School District post. https://www.iberkshires.com/story/62748/Mount-Greylock-Offers-Superintendent-Post-to-Pittsfield-s-McCandless.html During the first half of a six-hour meeting Thursday, the committee discussed its upcoming superintendent search but agreed they did not want to immediately release McCandless of his duties. "It is never a good time to lose a superintendent. I think this is probably the worst of times for it to happen," School Committee member Daniel Elias said. "I do think we owe something to our community and children to protect ourselves ... the 90 days is there for a reason." The School Committee first voted to accept with regret McCandless' letter of resignation. They then voted to appoint Curtis as the interim superintendent. He will take up the position once McCandless leaves. This was the next question: should the district release McCandless early, easing his transition into his new position, or hold him for the entire 90-day timeline in his contract? McCandless said he would like to leave some time around Labor Day allowing him time to ease Curtis' transition while freeing him up for the beginning of the school year. He said either way he will be available to the School Committee. "That would give Mr. Curtis time to work with you on some decisions around an interim deputy superintendent and it would allow me to get started relatively close to the beginning of the school year with Mount Greylock," he said. "It gives us ample time to have the deep transition conversations that we need to have." Mayor Linda Tyer said she would prefer McCandless to stick around at least sometime into the school year, and maybe an early October exit date. The majority of the School Committee felt more time was needed and wanted to utilize the full 90 days. The district is formulating plans for how to educate its children during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Member Dennis Powell thought the administrative team would be stretched too thin during such an uncertain time without McCandless. "We don't know what is going to happen and why would we not want to protect our community?" he asked. "With that 90 days ... we would have that time frame ... I really think we owe it to our community, staff, and district to really make sure we have that real secure support because we don't know what we are going into when we open school." This wasn't without some leeway and the School Committee members agreed that they would allow McCandless to spend some time in the Mount Greylock Regional School District so he could acclimate. McCandless said he did have vacation time available that he could use for this purpose and was amenable to the agreement. "If you want me here for 90 more days you will certainly have 90 more days ... I am not one of the of those people who are going to walk away," he said. "I know the timing of this stinks ... and I will do whether you want me to do or need me to do." This arrangement would have to be worked out between the two school committees. The motion passed 5-2 with Tyer and Katherine Yon voting in the negative. There was a motion earlier setting an end date of Oct. 2 that failed 3-4, only gaining support from Tyer, Yon, and William Cameron. Cameron thought the 90 days were in the contract to allow for an interim search and that with Curtis already appointed and ready, the transition would be seamless. The School Committee first heard from Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, who outlined the committee's options in regard to hiring a new superintendent. "I have been through the Blizzard of 78, I've been through the implementation of Proposition 2 1/2, I have been through desegregation, I have been through recessions all through my service on the school committee," he said. "They are a walk in the park compared to the fact that we are facing a very difficult stretch without knowing what the future will hold." He recommended starting with an interim superintendent, allowing time to conduct a thorough search, or promote from within. Tyer asked if there was a benefit to hiring a consulting firm and Koocher said MASC offers free support allowing districts to conduct searches internally. "We provide very extensive technical assistance services to districts that want to conduct their own searches," he said. "It doesn't cost them anything and we do it for a lot of people. We just did it for Mount Greylock probably the wrong thing to say to this group." Tyer said she would prefer to conduct a full search. "I would prefer to have a full comprehensive inclusive search," she said. "I strongly believe that we need to conduct a robust search process." BOSTON - An emergency room doctor in Boston is assembling thousands of voter registration kits for distribution at hospitals and doctors offices. Later this month, students at Harvard and Yales medical schools are planning a contest to see which of the Ivy League rivals can register the most voters. And a Rhode Island physician has launched an effort to get emergency ballots into the hands of patients who find themselves unexpectedly in the hospital around Election Day. Amid the dual public health crises of COVID-19 and racism, some in the medical community are prescribing a somewhat nontraditional remedy: voting. Hospitals, doctors and healthcare institutions across the country this month are committing to efforts to engage Americans in the election process as part of Civic Health Month, a nationwide campaign that kicked off Aug. 1. Hospital networks in Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin and elsewhere are among more than 60 institutions participating, along with thousands of individual physicians. Benjamin Ruxin, a Stanford University graduate student who heads the campaign, said the coronavirus pandemic underscores the importance of ensuring everyone can vote and help shape healthcare policy for the challenging times ahead. Voter registration rates are down almost 70% in some states this election cycle because the traditional ways of registering voters have been curtailed by the pandemic, including DMVs and in-person registration drives, he said. Alister Martin, an emergency room doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said he founded VotER to provide medical professionals voter registration resources after years of seeing patients struggling from the health consequences of poverty, drug addiction, homelessness and other social ills. Weve been trained to solve these really complex health problems, but not everything we see can be treated with a prescription, he said. The healthcare system does not work for vulnerable people full stop. We have to help them get involved in the political process if we hope to change any of this. The sheer number of organizations and the range of efforts being proposed during the monthlong campaign shows that the medical community is increasingly shedding its reticence at civic engagement, said Kelly Wong, an emergency medicine resident at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Where prior generations may have seen the voter registration and other nonpartisan election work as outside their purview or too overtly political, newer medical professionals see civic engagement as a crucial part of treating the whole patient, she said. Wong founded Patient Voting to get doctors and other hospital staff to commit to helping patients request, cast and submit emergency ballots when the time comes. The nearly three-year-old organizations website is also a repository of verified information about every states emergency ballot process. Another effort, called Med Out the Vote, is focused on getting medical students registered to vote and encouraging them to organize voter registration efforts on campus where possible. Jonathan Kusner, a Harvard Medical School student who co-chairs the effort, said students at dozens of institutions have expressed interest, with a number looking to host head-to-head voter registration competitions against rival schools. Medical students at the University of North Carolina recently bested their counterparts at Duke in a three-day contest that resulted in more than 500 total new voter registrations and requests for mail ballots, he said. Harvard and Yale students are planning a similar competition, as are those at Penn State and Ohio State. Martin, meanwhile, said VotER is struggling to keep up with more than 15,000 orders for its Healthy Democracy Kits, which include a badge and lanyard that doctors and other hospital staff can wear while on the job. The badges have a QR code that, when scanned by a persons smartphone, will take them to TurboVote, an online tool that can guide them through the voter registration process and send them reminders about election deadlines. A helpline is also available to field any questions, he said. Were underwater and trying to get out these kits as fast as we can, Martin said. Its a good problem to have, but at the same time, I wish this wasnt something that had to be done. Being able to vote should be automatic for all citizens. __ This story has been corrected to show that Kelly Wong is an emergency medical resident at Brown University, not a medical school student. At issue in the case is Epsteins 2008 deal with the U.S. attorneys office in Miami, which was then led by Alex Acosta, who would go on to serve as labor secretary under President Trump before resigning after Epstein was charged anew last year. Though he was facing dozens of molestation allegations at the time, Epstein was allowed to plead guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution not more serious federal crimes and spend just over a year in jail. He had the ability to leave for work daily. The Justice Departments Office of Professional Responsibility is reviewing the handling of the case. Eighty-seven Nigerians stranded in Sudan arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Air Sudan on Saturday. Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) in their official Twitter handle @nidcom_gov, stated that the evacuees arrived in the morning of August 8. READ ALSO: It said that All Evacuees will proceed on a 14 days self-isolation as mandated by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control @NCDCgov, the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria, @Fmohnigeria and the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on #COVID-19, it stated. (NAN) DELAVAN For Molly and Austin Dunker, their 10-month-old pet Babs is a beloved member of the family whos been with them since she was a baby. She has a bin full of toys, an affectionate disposition and a backyard they fenced in just for her. But Babs is a potbellied pig, and not everyone agrees that she belongs in the Dunkers home. City leaders recently voted against new rules that would allow residents to keep smaller pigs like Babs as pets, leaving the Dunkers struggling with what to do next. We have put so much effort into making sure Babs has a good life in town and with my husband being laid off right now, it is not realistic that we move, said Molly Dunker. But we are not giving her up. Not a chance. Shes family. Potbellied pigs like Babs have grown in popularity as pets in recent decades, and they're different than farm pigs, which can weigh as much as 900 pounds or more. By comparison, all potbellied pigs are miniature but they can still weigh anywhere from 80 to 200 pounds, according to the North American Pet Pig Association. The Dunkers fit into a national trend of owners who have fought local governments for the right to keep pet pigs. Two Central Illinois families moved out of their communities in recent years after their city councils refused to change rules to allow them to keep their animals. Other communities, such as Joliet in northern Illinois, have acknowledged the growing trend and crafted regulations designed to allow the pets without permitting larger pigs and other livestock. In Delavan, population 1,689, council members last week voted 3-2 against changing the rules. Some expressed sympathy for the Dunkers but said they didnt want to open the door for what could come next. We dont want to set a precedence where people start asking for chickens or hens or other animals, said Bob Hall, who represents the ward where the Dunkers live on Locust Street. Ive also heard, in talking with constituents, that they dont want this either. More than a thousand people have signed a petition the Dunkers created after the vote that asked the city to reconsider. Molly Dunker said some council members also voted with incorrect information, noting that Hall had referred to Babs as a 1-year-old male pig that had not been neutered. She is a 10-month old female who was spayed in July; she weighs 116 pounds. Even if the ordinance had been approved, it wouldnt have helped the Dunkers, because it only allowed for residents to keep pet pigs up to 4 months old. Ultimately the majority of the aldermen had strong feelings about it, Mayor Liz Skinner said, adding that the Dunkers certainly had a right to pursue a petition. Mixed views The Dunkers adopted Babs in October last year after Molly Dunker learned through social media about baby potbellied pigs who were up for adoption. She was ecstatic. Her husband, who knew she had always wanted a pet pig, immediately agreed, and soon they brought home 2-week-old Babs. Over the past 10 months, the couple spent roughly $3,000 to fence their backyard. One wall is made from wood and welded wire, and the rest of the fence is made of solid wood. Austin Dunker also built a ramp that leads from their backdoor to the yard where Babs spends a small portion of the day to get fresh air and use the bathroom. Inside the house, she has her own toy bin, a bed made from blankets, pillows and a plush pink pig. Her food dish is secured to the wall so she cant flip it over and create a mess, Austin Dunker said. Theyve also created a large litter box in case there is severe weather and she cant go outside. Were just doing what we can with the materials we can find and afford, Austin Dunker said. Shes worth it. There were no problems until June 25, when an officer came to the Dunkers home. Austin Dunker was sleeping and Molly Dunker was at work, so the officer then went to Molly Dunkers mothers house two blocks away. He told her that the Dunkers were violating city code, and the police were involved because a neighbor had complained about seeing a pig on the property. That was when I called our alderman and the mayor and asked what to do, Molly Dunker said. She quickly gathered Babs vaccination paperwork and put together a packet of information about potbellied pigs that she emailed to the council members. Hall said he looked at the packet but did not want pigs or any livestock in the city. He said that he would always remember the smell of manure from when he grew up on a farm with chickens and pigs, and he didnt want that in Delavan. I am the biggest softie there is. When we had to put down our family dog, I cried like a baby, Hall said. So I feel for them. But pigs can dig up the yard and cause other problems. Josh Lusher, a neighbor who also lives on Locust Street about a block away from the Dunkers, said Hall asked him about his thoughts on allowing pet pigs in town. He said he was not thrilled with the idea. Lusher said he had never seen Babs and did not know she lived on his street. He only had an idea there was a pet pig in town through conversation among other residents. But he told Hall that he thought allowing one person to keep such a pet would lead to an ongoing problem. Thats why I just think if we stop it here, we can avoid a future problem, Lusher said. Ryan Sanders, director of Tazewell Animal Control, said they receive about two to three pigs a year and struggle trying to find people to adopt them. We have an adoption process where we look into the zoning of wherever the person who is looking to adopt them lives so that we dont keep running into the problem of the pigs not being allowed in the city or town they wind up at, Sanders said. Ongoing trend The Dunkers situation isnt uncommon. Pet pig owners across the country, including several in Central Illinois, have faced similar issues in recent years. Most start the same way, with a neighbors complaint. They are almost carbon copies of one another, said Marc Ayers, Illinois Director of the Humane Society of the United States. Someone has a couple pigs and everything is fine for years and years until at some point, a neighbor complains to the city or county about how they saw some pigs and, lo and behold, there is no ordinance or they are banned. It is unclear how many pet pig owners there are in the U.S. or Illinois, Ayers said. There is no state or federal law requiring pet pigs to be registered or owners to be licensed. Ayers, who works on animal policies statewide, recalled being part of situations involving pet pig owners about three times in the past five years. He noted that owners who find themselves in the center of controversy are almost always taking proper care of the pigs by maintaining clean living areas, securing their yards with fences, keeping the animals up to date with vaccinations and having them neutered or spayed. He said city councils should all consider the ordinance adopted by Joliet in December 2016. It introduced rules that were specific to pet pigs but banned other livestock. The argument that this will open up the floodgates is invalid, Ayers said. Regulating a city is up to the city council, and it is going to be up to them to allow or not allow a particular animal within city limits, just because they are allowing mini or hybrid potbellied pigs in this case. Ayers played a role in helping Tara and Brian Payne, a couple who left Effingham in 2018 after the city council refused to budge on letting them keep their two pigs, Betsy and Minnie. The town of Watson, just 10 minutes south of Effingham, changed its ordinance around the same time to make relocation easier on the family, Ayers said. Ultimately, the Paynes moved to Bonnie in southern Illinois, an area where municipalities generally have larger areas of agricultural zoning that allows for livestock and pet pigs. Tara Payne, who now works as a psych nurse, said theyre happy to have a fresh start in a new place. Betsy and Minnie share a room in the house that has French doors which open up to a deck and the backyard. What started as a nightmare turned out to be a blessing, she said. Effingham Mayor Mike Schutzbach, who was elected after the Paynes battle with council, did not return requests for comment. The citys current ordinance still does not allow for pigs within the corporate limits, and also bans a long list of other animals including chickens and ducks. Violators could receive a Class C misdemeanor and could be fined $50 to $500 for every day the violation continues. She encouraged other pig owners who might find themselves in a similar situation not to give up. You have to be open to change in order to grow in life, she said. Kim Carter, a former Mattoon resident who experienced a similar situation, advises potential pig owners to research their local laws and ordinances. Always check those ordinances and if theyre not allowed, thats when I would start the petitioning process, Carter said. Attempt to make that change before adopting. There are towns that, when we were going through this, made tremendous strides in getting those ordinances changed. The North American Pet Pig Association and American Mini Pig Association both offer websites full of information; the latter even has a step-by-step guide on how to ask council members to change a city ordinance. Carter and her husband researched pet pig care before adopting Punky, a Vietnamese potbellied pig whose family could no longer care for her. Punky was just a few months old at the time, and the Carters had just moved to Mattoon after losing their home in a fire. Punky, who weighs about 100 pounds, loves to sunbathe outside after chowing down on grass. Much like a cat, Punky gets cranky when she doesnt get her daily naptime. Mud and dirt are out of the question Punky hates getting dirty. Shes a bit of a princess, Carter said. Shes very spoiled, she loves attention, she loves being petted, but shes OK if shes left alone. Overall, shes really a daddys girl; she loves my husband to death. Punky lived with the family in Matton for a year and a half without incident. She was house trained, going in and out of the house as she pleased and not making much more noise than a dog would, Kim Carter said. But then a neighbor filed a complaint with the city. Kim Carter said the neighbor initially accused them of harboring and breeding farm animals, and the family was given a summons. They had 90 days to evict Punky or face a citation and possible arrest. Carter contacted the city administrator and mayor to discuss the ordinance, but was told she would need to present a petition with 25,000 signatures more than Mattoons population of roughly 18,000. She then filed a petition on change.org, which failed despite receiving support and 1,500 signatures. Carter said she tried to take the issue to the council through public comment but was unsuccessful in getting the topic put onto its agenda for discussion. I was truly disappointed in the city council, said Carter. You have more and more people who are adopting unconventional animals that are not dogs and cats. I could understand if it was something dangerous, but it was a potbellied pig. Carter received a second citation about six months after the first, which ultimately led the family to move away from the area in 2019. If Punky continued to live at their house in Mattoon, Carter would have to pay a $250 fine for every citation she received. Already looking to move into a smaller community, Carter and her husband decided to leave Mattoon. We just werent willing to part with an animal wed had for so long, she said. Today, Punky enjoys her new home with her family in Gays without issue. In fact, Punky is a bit of a celebrity in the area, and many neighbors drive past the Carters home just to take pictures or pet her. Mattoon City Administrator Kyle Gill said pet pigs and livestock are still not allowed and the issue has not been brought up since Carters situation. We are trying to keep the separation of country life and livestock outside of city limits, said Gill. Some people would probably like to have pigs as pets, and we just see that as once we open up that, well see people wanting other things, and the laws that we have are to try to help protest the neighborhood and citizens rights. Molly and Austin Dunker said they intend to do anything they can to keep Babs. Theyre asking council members to reconsider and allow potbellied and miniature pigs to be recognized as pets, rather than livestock, and live in the city limits. Babs is no harm to anyone and we are absolutely devastated by the outcome thus far, Molly Dunker wrote in a letter to council on Friday, adding that she grew up in town. I work here. My family lives in Delavan. This is my town. Reporter Sierra Henry contributed to this story. BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL PIG RULES Bloomington-Normal officials say pet pigs are prohibited in both cities. Neither plans to rework its ordinance. Nora Dukowitz, a spokesperson for the city of Bloomington, said she was not aware of any residents asking the council to change the ordinance. The issue has not come up in Normal either, according to Merci Davidson, Normals town planner. The town does not permit any type of swine within city limits and we have no history of people asking to have pet pigs, Davidson said. Simpler times: Vintage back-to-school ads Contact Analisa Trofimuk at (217) 421-7985. Follow her on Twitter: @AnalisaTro Love 0 Funny 4 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. KOZHIKODE: An Air India Express flight with 190 onboard overshot and fell 35 metres off the end of the runway at the Kozhikode airport in treacherous conditions on Friday (August 7), breaking into three parts and killing several people. As per the latest updates, 18 people, including both the pilot and the co-pilot, have been killed while 127 have been injured in the deadly aviation disaster. At least 14 people among the injured are said to be in a critical state. The search and rescue operations at the accident site have been completed and all the injured have been sent to various hospitals in Mallapuram and Kozhikode. The Emergency Command Centre was immediately activated after the news of the accident. The Emergency Response Team members and GO Teams were sent to the accident scene to render necessary help to assist the emergency services and local authorities. The Air India Express said in a statement on Saturday that two special relief flights have been arranged from Delhi and one from Mumbai for rendering humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and the family members. "Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Flight Safety departments have reached the crash site to investigate the incident," it said. While one plane from Mumbai to Kozhikode will bring officials who will coordinate and liaise with various agencies and provide support and assist families of those affected in the accident, a different plane will be flying in from Delhi with the Air India CEO and other senior officials, according to Air India Express. The Boeing 737 jet, on a Vande Bharat mission as flight AIX 1344 from Dubai, was bringing in Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic. The crash occurred around 7.40 pm on Friday when the Dubai-Calicut Air India Express flight skidded off the tabletop runway in the aftermath of heavy rains and fell into a 50-foot deep valley, breaking into three parts, at the airport in Kozhikode. Initial reports suggested that the pilots attempted two landings before the final landing at the tabletop runway at Kozhikode. By PTI NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday passed a slew of directions relating to online Open Book Examination (OBE), which will be conducted by the Delhi University for final year undergraduate courses from August 10, to ensure fair opportunity for students keeping in view the technical problems. The court said it is mindful that enormous preparations have been undertaken by students for giving the online OBE and now it is concerned about the manner in which the process can be further streamlined. Justice Prathiba M Singh said it has not gone into the legal arguments raised by petitioner students as to how the online OBE is arbitrary and discriminatory in nature owing to the directions passed by the division bench permitting DU to proceed with the online OBE. The court passed the verdict on a plea by Anupam and others challenging the university's decision to hold online OBE, as per the UGC guidelines, for final year undergraduate courses which will be in long form exams. DU is scheduled to hold the exams from August 10-31 and the students who will be left out of online OBE will be given an opportunity to appear in physical examinations, to be held sometime in September. The court passed various directions to streamline the process, noting that there are various technological challenges and the evaluation is of 70-100 marks for each paper. It directed that the question papers shall be made accessible for students on the university website and be sent on their email IDs. It said regular students and those under the persons with disability (PWD) category be given three hours and five hours respectively to answer the question papers and one additional hour for scanning the answer sheets and uploading or emailing them. The university was directed to send an auto-generated email informing the students that their answer sheets have been received. "The central email id for uploading of answer sheets, that is, obescript@exam.du.ac. in, shall be publicised adequately," Justice Singh said in the 45-page judgment. Common Service Centres (CSC) Academy, which runs the CSCs set up to provide services to students who do not have infrastructure to give OBE, shall notify all its centres the schedule of the exams by the end of the day so that they can provide assistance to students to the best extent possible, it said. The court said students can send their grievances at grievanceexam2020@gmail.com and grievance@exam.du.ac. in, and the emails will be addressed and resolved by DU's grievance officers within 48 hours. It also reconstituted the five-member grievance redressal committee under the aegis of retired Justice Prathiba Rani for dealing with all the grievances of students and said that the panel will function till OBE continues and the students' complaints need to be addressed within five days. At the end of the OBE, a comprehensive report on the conduct of examinations shall be submitted by DU within four weeks, the court said and also asked the committee to place on record its report after conclusion of exams. "The uploaded answer sheets of students shall also be simultaneously sent for evaluation to the respective teachers to ensure that declaration of results is not delayed in any manner," the court said. The single-judge bench noted that in the last over one month, several lacunae have been pointed out in the online OBE process and various orders have been passed by it and the division bench on improvements. However, repeatedly, DU has taken the stand that it is fully prepared to conduct the examinations. "The challenges for students in the last six months have been of an extreme nature. Several students have been confronted with personal tragedies, including suffering from COVID-19 or their family members suffering from it. Several students had obtained jobs where they were to join after graduating," the court noted. "A large number of media reports have also appeared wherein it is reported that students who had pre-placement offers have been unable to join due to non-conduct of the examinations," it said. It noted some of the students who have come before this court had obtained admissions in foreign universities for the academic year 2020-21 but have been forced to forfeit their admissions or miss their deadlines and seek extensions. The court said it's a fact that due to the lockdown imposed in March, very few classes were held during the entire semester and students had no access to hard copies of reading material and some have been able to avail the online material. "It is under these extreme and extraordinary circumstances that the final semester students are giving their online OBE," it said. DU relies on a Supreme Court judgment on AICTE which deals with the scope of interference by courts in education matters to argue that no interference is called for in the OBE examinations. The case dealt with dilution of eligibility conditions for pursuing engineering courses. The court rejected the contention saying the question of eligibility and the challenge to the online OBE as raised herein are completely different issues and here it is wrestling with circumstances which are unprecedented. "The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the non-availability of guidance of teachers for the students, lack of any exchange of views amongst peers due to absence from campuses, absence of classroom teaching in the entire semester, non-availability of hard copies of study material etc. are situations which were not contemplated in AICTE (supra)," it said. Wont be able to take exams without scribes, assistive devices: Differently abled DU students With the Delhi High Court's verdict, students said their anxiety levels have gone up with some differently abled students worried that they won't be able to take exams in the absence of scribes and assistive devices. Students said the varsity should come out with clear guidelines on the conduct of the exams. A final year student of Gargi College, who didnt wish to be identified, said it's now the onus of the varsity to resolve the issues that have risen during the mock tests and also give clarity on the rules. "The court has said that students will be given an extra hour to upload answer sheets. We were already being two hours and an extra hour for uploading answers. Will we be given three hours or four hours now?" she asked. Rajesh Jha, Executive Council member of the varsity said the students had to approach the judiciary when the university administration "became autocratic and despotic". The teachers and students have been opposing the online open book exams (OBE) and the judgement has vindicated their grievances to a large extent, he said. "Now there is an urgent need to take a relook at online OBE in the light of disastrous mock tests. Academic Council and Executive Council must be convened immediately," he said. Some specially abled students said the move means they might not be able to take exams in the absence of scribes and assistive devices. Deepak Gupta, a visually impaired student from Rohtas in Bihar, said he won't be able to appear for the exams since he does not have clarity on whether the nearest Computer Service Centre is ready to facilitate them. With no access to the internet, Gupta said the high court's decision has led to an increase in anxiety levels among students like him. "Many of my friends won't be able to take exams and we do not have clarity on facility of scribes and even access to study material. In this scenario, how will we appear for the exams?" Another visually impaired student, Mohit Kumar Pandey, said the varsity has not made available a facility for scribes and there is no access to study material. Pandey, a student of St Stephen's College, said he could not take the mock tests since he didn't have a scribe and expressed inability to appear for the open book exams. He also raised concerns about the coronavirus situation and said it does not seem likely that the varsity will be able to hold offline exams even in September. Alok Yadav, a differently abled final year student of Ramjas College, said the varsity is being biased and is only looking at those students who have access to internet and technology. "I am in a small village in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh. For attending a phone call, I have to go the terrace since there is no network. How will I take the exam in such a situation?" he asked. "When I left Delhi during the time of lockdown in a hurry, my assistive devices and study material were left behind. I do not have a scribe or the assistive devices for studying. We also have to prepare for entrance exams and our admission for Masters. It seems unlikely that our issues will be resolved in the next two days." The Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) said any form of online/blended exam is "discriminatory, unjust and lacks sanctity". "Students without means and deprived of online teaching and study materials will be penalized. Students who are honest and do not resort to immoral practices will be penalized too. An examination, after all, ranks students," it said in a statement. An option for offline exam at a later date does not alter the "discriminatory, unjust and immoral character" of the OBE, it added. "It is beyond our comprehension that why a more credible and uniform system of evaluation could not be adopted at a time when students and their families are battling health and livelihood issues. We wish to tell our students that teachers will stand with them," the statement said. DUTA also said an offline examination appears to be infeasible in the near future. "It threatens safety of students, who are spread across the country, and discriminates against those who could not access online academic interactions." "The zealous manner in which the Government and the UGC are insisting on an examination knowing well that the offline mode is infeasible any time soon is a clear indication that as a precursor to the NEP 2020, they want to showcase an online examination," it added. The remains of hundreds of historical sites buried in the sands of Iraq still arouse the interest of international exploration missions, which long suspended their activities amid the country's armed conflicts and poor security situation. But today, such works are being resumed with an eye on solving many of the mysteries buried in about 12,000 sites dating back to different eras. After a 30-year hiatus, the French archaeological mission resumed its excavation July 23 in Larsa, the capital of the Kingdom of Larsa, the first country to be established in the beginning of the second millennium B.C. The mission previously uncovered a network of large water channels, a bridge, a port, housing units and a large temple, as well as clay tablets dating to the ancient Babylonian era. In 2019, an American archaeological excavation mission from the University of Chicago worked in the city of Nippur (2500 B.C.). The Antiquities Authority in Diwaniyah where the historical relics are located in Iraq's south told Al-Monitor that it had "conducted a comprehensive survey of the city in preparation for a comprehensive excavation. Also last year, German archaeologists discovered a 3,400-year-old palace dating to the Mitanni empire, and an Italian team began excavation in Tulul Al-Bqarat, which dates to the Babylonian era, in Wasit province. In January, a team of Italian and Iraqi Kurdish archaeologists uncovered 10 rock carvings dating to the Assyrian era in Dahuk. The city of Larsa is of exceptional importance, according to Junaid Amer Hameed, an archaeologist at the State Board for Antiquities and Heritage. He told Al-Monitor, The return of a French mission after 30 years of absence heralds a new era of excavations. This is the fruit of cooperation between the Ministry of Culture represented by the State Board for Antiquities and Heritage, the French Institute of the Near East, and the concerned authorities. Hameed said a first, brief excavation of the city took place in 1933; more thorough archaeological excavations followed in the 1970s and exploration of Larsa continued until 1989. He added, The French-Iraqi mission conducted several geomagnetic surveys, to prepare maps. It succeeded in identifying the E-Babbar (Shining House), temple of Shamash (sun), the city god. It houses a ziggurat that can be spotted from a distance. The mission discovered palaces of an area of about 500 square meters and many Cuneiform tablets. Al-Monitor also spoke to the director of the Dhi Qar Museum, Amer Abdul-Razzaq, who said excavations have helped been sources of the museum's antiquities. Any objects discovered within the provinces lands, including Larsa, are not received by the provinces museum, but are rather sent to the National Museum in Baghdad, which takes the appropriate measures and decides where the pieces shall be preserved. Abdul Razzak said some important archaeological pieces that excavators have found at Larsa and elsewhere are kept at the Nasiriyah Museum, which was founded in 1969 and is the second largest museum in Iraq after the National Museum. These pieces include a 6,500-year-old skeleton and a bronze statue of King Ur-Nammu, as well as one of the oldest wheels in Mesopotamia, an important collection of cuneiform on clay cylinders, statues of princes, leaders and Sumerian priests. The head of the parliamentary committee for culture, tourism and antiquities, Samia al-Ghallab, told Al-Monitor that getting Larsa named a UNESCO World Heritage site is the most important goal. This will only be achieved by promoting excavation activities that would unearth the treasures hidden in this land that witnessed the emergence of the first kingdoms and states in history, she said. Ghallab called on the Culture Ministry and the provincial government to pay serious attention to the city of Larsa, as it documents the history of humanity and not just of Iraqis. This requires the concerned international institutions, including UNESCO, to support in excavating the relics of the city buried thousands of years ago in the sands of the desert. She plans to encourage UNESCO to include Larsa on its World Heritage List. Hussein Jassim Al-Shammari, media adviser to the Iraqi parliament committee of culture, tourism and antiquities, told Al-Monitor, Iraq hopes the return of the French mission will lead to more discoveries in the city after its 30-year hiatus. The team is headed by Regis Vallet of the French National Center for Scientific Research. The mission unveiled a huge city map designed in an advanced engineering way, proving that there are many archaeological treasures still buried under the soil, he said. These must be excavated before they are looted by smugglers, and this will only be done with the use of exploration missions scientific programs. He said the parliamentary committee for culture, tourism and antiquities seeks to remove all obstacles hindering excavation works, to encourage archeological missions to come to Iraq and to support the excavation plans drawn up by experts. This falls within the competence of the Antiquities Authority. Our mission is to provide parliamentary support by addressing all governmental bodies. Meanwhile, the director of cultural relations at the Iraqi Culture Ministry, Falah al-Ani, said that while excavations have borne the brunt of wars, the foreign archaeological missions are full of spirit. They have a great desire to discover the buried civilizations of Iraq, he told Al-Monitor. They often disregard the security warnings of their country's embassies about the dangers of working in Iraq. Ani said, The Iraqi authorities must provide an appropriate environment to encourage archeological experts to come to the country and save our numerous treasures buried deep in the ground for thousands of years. Sitting cross-legged outside makeshift shelters, the men pore excitedly over tide charts, trying to plot the most favourable time to cross the English Channel. The new Jungle camp in Calais, a scrubby field near the main hospital, is a kind of tented waiting room. So few made it to Britain from the infamous old encampment, which closed in 2016, that it became synonymous with despair. But this shanty town resonates with hope and anticipation. It is possible to get across, newcomers are told. More than possible. Large numbers make it every day: all you have to do is wait and eventually you will be called. These days passage to England is going comparatively cheaply as little as 350 in some cases. A toddler (pictured) was carried to safety by the Border Force as officials work around the clock amid a sharp rise in the number of people making the treacherous journey A group of migrants attempting to cross the channel in a dinghy were picked up by the National Gendarmerie and taken back to Calais The new Jungle camp in Calais, a scrubby field near the main hospital, is a kind of tented waiting room By far the toughest journey the migrants make is the one to Calais, and every day brings new arrivals, from Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Egypt. How different to a few years ago when it was the final leg that seemed so hopelessly beyond reach. UK ministers plead with France to get tough on Channel migrants amid warning that 7,500 could cross by Christmas UK ministers have pleaded with France to get tough on migrants crossing the Channel to Britain after figures suggest that 7,500 migrants could cross by Christmas. Almost 4,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year, according to analysis of Border Force figures. This is thought to be more than double the total for the whole of 2019 where fewer than 2,000 are believed to have arrived in the country. On current trends, around 7,500 migrants will cross the Channel by the end of the year, according to an analysis of official figures by Migrationwatch. This would be nearly four times the 1,892 that entered the UK via the crossing in the whole of 2019, the campaign group projected. Advertisement Back then, I watched migrants try, night after night, to jump on to moving trains, a perilous enterprise with a pitifully low success rate. Now, however, even if a migrant fails the first time and his boat is intercepted, he has only to keep trying until he gets it right. Though it is far from risk-free, in most cases he or she will do so. Best of all, explains Sajid Ali Khan, 21, from Lahore, Pakistan, you pay only one fee. Khan was a mechanic in Germany for two years but when his work permit was not renewed, he came to Calais to make his way to Britain where he has friends. There were 13 of us, from all different countries, including four women with children, he tells me. Barely had the boat travelled a mile across the Channel when the French coastguard appeared. After being returned to France, the migrants were released without arrest. Normally, when migrants are intercepted they are detained for at least 24 hours and fingerprinted to see which European country they have come from so they can be deported back to that country under the Dublin Agreement. But Khan says: They just let us go and so I will try again. We paid 2,000 euros [1,800] to the Iranians who say they will put me on a boat as many times as it is needed to get across to England. They are telling the truth because I know others have got across this way. A concrete path from the Calais hospital roundabout takes you to the new Jungle, its entrance guarded by a Police Nationale van. Everywhere there are charred circles from bonfires, many left by those who are now in England. Trees with mangled branches torn for firewood dot the camp and yesterday I heard loud singing in Arabic and Farsi, a stark contrast to the subdued tension of the 2016 camp. Local charities estimate that around 1,500 migrants live in Calais, all of whom are set on making their way to Britain. Others, mainly from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Chad, occupy a disused industrial park on Rue des Garennes, two miles away. Back at the new Jungle, Khan laughs at plans to use the Royal Navy to stop migrants. If they make it harder in one way, we will find another way, he says, sipping coffee and munching on bread supplied by a local charity which provides three meals per day. Next to him stands Abebe Haile, 34, an Ethiopian from the capital Addis Ababa, who claims to have fled death threats issued because he was an opposition politician. Large numbers of refugees try and make the crossing every day. These days passage to England is going comparatively cheaply as little as 350 in some cases Four men, some using shovels as paddles, use a small dinghy to cross the English Channel on August 7 The British Government should welcome us, not refuse us, he says. Ask her [Home Secretary Priti Patel] when she wears clothes, where does the cotton come from? When she drinks coffee, where that comes from? Immigration still too high poll More than half of Britons think immigration is still too high despite years of Tory promises to bring it down, a study said yesterday. It warned Boris Johnson that if his points-based immigration system allows a wave of mass immigration, then voters will turn against him. The study from the Migration Watch UK think-tank said most recent polling found that 54 per cent think immigration has been too high over the past decade. Only 5 per cent think it has been too low. And more than six in ten said they believe the Government has been mishandling immigration policies. The analysis found that fears over the effects of large-scale immigration became a major concern after Tony Blair opened the doors to millions from both inside and outside the European Union. Worries declined after David Cameron came to power in 2010 promising to cut immigration back to 1990s levels and subsided further after the 2016 Brexit referendum. The report said: 'Most continue to have strong views about a perceived lack of effective immigration control.' Advertisement 'Its from Africa. They should respect us. We will keep trying no matter what. His determination is typical of other at the camp. According to official figures, more than 3,500 migrants have reached the UK this year from Calais, including a record of 235 in 17 boats last Thursday. On Friday, 130 arrived aboard 13 boats and more than 2,000 entered the country using this route in June alone more than four times the known total of 500 for the whole of 2018. Back in the new Jungle, migrants use trees as clothes lines, draping jeans, T-shirts and even Islamic prayer mats across the branches to dry. The ground below is littered with food and carrier bags full of rubbish. Poppy Cleary, a British volunteer working for charity LAuberge des Migrants, rejects the charge that organisations like hers encourage migrants to converge on Calais. They are leaving their homes because their countries are being bombed. They are refugees. What is wrong with providing some food, shelter and water to drink on such a hot day? she says. As we walk across the uneven ground, a group of Syrians rise from beneath their tarpaulin and surround me. Abu Amir, 31, says he is from the war-torn city of Aleppo and has been in Calais for ten months. He was a pharmacist in Syria and believes he will be able to resume that career if he can get to Britain. The agents can put you on a boat for 350 euros. I have already done it once, but I was caught. I will try again, he says. He is dismissive when told that it is difficult to become a legal resident in the UK and fulfilling his dream of becoming a pharmacist may prove impossible. There is nothing here in France, he says. I know there is security and work in Britain. For the second time in a decade, a US woman has a new face. Carmen Blandin Tarleton, whose face was disfigured in an attack by her ex-husband, became the first American and only the second person globally to undergo the procedure after her first transplant began to fail six years after the operation. The transplant from an anonymous donor took place at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital last month. The former nurse (52) from New Hampshire is expected to resume her normal routine, which all but ended when the first transplant failed a year ago. "I'm elated," Ms Tarleton said. She is still healing from the operation so photos are not being made available of her new face. "The pain I had is gone," she said. "It's a new chapter in my life. I've been waiting for almost a year. I'm really happy. It's what I needed. I got a great match." More than 40 patients worldwide have received face transplants, including 16 in the US. None of the American patients had lost their donor faces until Ms Tarleton. But in 2018, a French man whose immune system rejected his donor face eight years after his first transplant underwent a second. The doctor who did that transplant, Dr Laurent Lantieri of the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, said that patient was "doing very well." Dr Bohdan Pomahac, who did Ms Tarleton's first face transplant, was hesitant to do another and favoured reconstruction surgery instead. But his team became convinced of the merits of a second transplant after Ms Tarleton described how much the first one improved her life. "She really wanted to try one more time," said Mr Pomahac, who led the 20-hour surgery. A team of around 45 clinicians removed the failing transplant and then prepared sensory nerves and blood vessels in the neck for the surgical connection. The face was then transplanted and Ms Tarleton will gain sensory and motor function in the coming months. Unlike her first transplant, the donor this time was considered a better tissue match. Dubai Design District (d3) has launched the inaugural d3 Architecture Festival in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects Gulf Chapter, Riba Gulf Chapter, thus establishing the emirates first platform to showcase regional architecture, urbanism and sustainable development. As a home to more than 50 leading local and international architecture practices such as Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Benoy, d3s business partners have designed some of the UAEs most impressive projects to date. At d3, the heart of creativity in the Middle East, architecture and interior design studios make up a significant component of the communitys 385 business partners and 9,000 people. The debut edition is set to run from November 11 to 13 on the sidelines of Dubai Design Week, held under the patronage of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. Curated with Juan Roldan, Associate Professor in the College of Architecture, Art & Design, at the American University of Sharjah under the theme "Identity, Context and Placemaking in the Gulf", the festival will celebrate the achievements of architecture companies in d3, Dubai and the wider GCC region. It will host a series of talks to steer the Middle East towards a more sustainable future, and invite designers, architects and the general public to participate in daily charrettes. On the new festival, Khadija Al Bastaki, Executive Director of d3, said: "Dubai has long been known as an architectural playground and the emirates limitless ambition has found expression in its ever-evolving skyline. As we carry on the process of rebuilding in the post-Covid-19 world, our relationship with the built and natural world has never been more important." "While offering a platform for critical reflection on social, cultural and economic issues, it will also provide opportunities for new talent and bring the design community together to champion Dubai and the UAE as a hub for knowledge, creativity and innovation," he stated. Riba Gulf Chapter Chair and AMA Managing Partner Andy Shaw said: "The past six months have shown us all how important the cities and buildings we build for ourselves are, and how we must come together and move forward." "Architects have the skills to craft beautiful spaces that can be sustainable and innovative as Gulf countries look forward to how the future could be," he noted. "The exhibition will feature models, drawings and projects from the most exciting architects working in the Gulf, such as Binchy and Binchy and Anarchitect who are founded by Riba members," added Shaw. According to him, the festival will showcase this diverse and complex constellation of a new architectural landscape in the region, analysing the stakeholders and conditions that have supported its emergence. Firstly, there is a mature generation of local and international designers with a deeper understanding of the nuances of the historical and cultural context. "Secondly, there is an increasing number of governmental, private institutions, and clients with a growing awareness of a distinctive and contemporary approach to architecture as a way of delivering social, cultural, and economic added value. And thirdly, architectural education as the transversal element that articulates critical thinking in the future architecture in the region," he added.-TradeArabia News Service France has announced a ban on heated terraces for cafes and bars, infuriating some Parisans in the process. The ban comes amid a broad range of measures designed to protect the environment, with Frances Ecology Minister Barbara Pompili calling outdoor heating an ecological aberration. The ban is set to come into force after winter, to give Frances hospitality sector time to adapt. From then onwards, All heated or air-conditioned buildings open to the public will also have to keep their doors closed to avoid wasting energy, the BBC reports. France bans outdoor heaters on terraces https://t.co/4oiUxve0Qn Christian Robert (@fidus) July 28, 2020 Some French cities had already banned outdoor heaters. In Paris, however, where more than 75% of restaurants and cafes have a heated terrace, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had previously refused to make the change, saying it would hurt business. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Patrick Colpron (@patrickcolpron) on Jul 14, 2020 at 12:54am PDT While the English speakers of Twitter have broadly applauded the ban, numerous Parisians have criticised it. One Parisienne Urbaine Raconteuse said the ban shows a government disconnected from the reality of the French people. Un gouvernement deconnecte de la realite des Francais ! Entre une @barbarapompili qui veut interdire le chauffage exterieur sur les terrasses des bars et une @CoDubost qui se bat pour la #PMA, ces 2 femmes nont aucun sens des priorites pour la vie des Francais !#Incompetence pic.twitter.com/9sIbCE8pN3 Juliette (@JulietteEtVous) July 28, 2020 Another wrote, another gadget of the ecologists who want to kill the Parisian economy. Encore des gadgets decologistes qui vont tuer leconomie parisienne ! Yves Pozzo di Borgo (@YvesPDB) July 27, 2020 Others pointed out the impracticalities of the other methods of keeping warm, particularly in a time of crisis (youd share a blanket in a time of coronavirus?) Se partager un plaid en periode de corona virus ? pic.twitter.com/KJXMxnAmws Telperien (@Embleons) July 28, 2020 and asked if its necessary to destroy everything the French economy rests upon. Another protested the simple curtailing of freedom: The upcoming ban on outdoor heating of terraces is both a serious and grotesque mistake It is forbidden to forbid. On the other side of the coin, many backed the ban, urging smokers and cafe patrons to put on a jumper. mettez un pull Ginut50 (@ginut50) July 27, 2020 Its not the first norm change of 2020, and as many other capital cities around the world reconsider how they want their city centers to look post-COVID, it probably wont be the last. Read Next New Delhi, Aug 8 : Precious lives have been lost in the Air India Express runway mishap on Friday evening, but the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had been alerted about the dangers associated with the runway of the Kozhikode airport as far back as in 2011. The civil aviation authorities were alerted about the dangers associated with the Kozhikode runway by Captain Ranganathan, Member Ops-CASAC (Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council, a government-appointed air safety panel) in a letter dated June 17, 2011. The letter was addressed jointly to Naseem Zaidi, Civil Aviation Secretary and Chairman, CASAC, and Bharat Bhushan of the DGCA. "It is a dangerous situation, especially in wet conditions. The Runway No. 10 should not be permitted in view of the lack of Runway End Safety Areas (RESA) and the terrain beyond the end of the runway," Ranganathan had forwarned in what appears to be both a warning and a premonition. "All the flights which land on Runway 10 in tailwind conditions are endangering the lives of all on board," Ranganathan had written. "I understand that Runway 10 ILS is being used on a trial basis at Calicut. Some of the crew members are even accepting VOR approaches on Runway 10. The reason is the lower minimia than Runway 28," he had said in the letter. In the letter, he referred to an inspection report by Arun Rao which was submitted to the civil aviation authorities. In the letter, he blamed the AAI. "There has been no effort on the part of the AAI to rectify the safety infringements that Arun Rao pointed out in 2010," Ranganathan wrote. The airlines have maintained that all their pilots have completed the Approach and Landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) training and the Flight Standards Directorate (FSD) appears to be satisfied with the response. "In spite of the dangers, if the crew accepts a landing in wet and tailwind conditions, their concept of ALAR is poor," he wrote in the letter. "Calicut runway does not have the minimum RESA on one end and no RESA on the other. The runway strip is just half the minimum width laid down in ICAO Annex 4. This fact was known to the DGCA team that has been conducting inspections and safety assessments during the past several years. Have they considered the dangers involved? Has the DGCA or the airlines laid down any operational restrictions or special procedures," Ranganathan had asked. He even alluded to the Mangalore incident. "The Air India Express incident in Mangalore should have alerted the AAI to make the runway conditions safe. We have brought up the issue of the RESA during the initial CASAC sub-group meetings. We had specifically mentioned that declared distances for both runways have to be reduced in order to comply with the ICAO requirement," he had warned. Latest updates on Kerala Air India Plane Crash -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text U.S Government Advises Citizens Against Travelling To Nigeria The United States government has warned its citizens against travelling to Nigeria for security reasons. In the advisory published on the website of its Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, Americans were warned against travelling to Borno, Yobe and the Northern part of Adamawa State due to terrorism. Americans were also advised against travelling to Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano and Yobe states due to kidnappings. The consulate listed coastal areas of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Delta, and Rivers states with the exception of Port Harcourt as areas prone to maritime crimes, civil unrest, kidnapping and other crimes. The consulate further said that Nigeria is known for violent crimes such as armed robbery, assault, carjacking, kidnapping and rape. It read; Exercise extreme caution throughout the country due to the threat of indiscriminate violence. Terrorists continue plotting and carrying out attacks in Nigeria, especially in the Northeast. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting shopping centers, malls, markets, hotels, places of worship, restaurants, bars, schools, government installations, transportation hubs, and other places where crowds gather. Sporadic violence occurs between communities of farmers and herders in rural areas. -Nigeria's Kwara state First Lady, Olufolake Abdulrasaq, promised that she would help the popular blue-eyed family - Olufolake said she would possibly reunite the blue-eyed sisters with their father who had earlier abandoned them - Reuniting them did not sit well with many Nigerians who advised her against it, saying that the man was not there when the children needed him The wife of Nigeria's Kwara state governor, Olufolake Abdulrasaq, has come to the rescue of a girl named Kaosara, her sister and mom Risikat, who all have blue eyes. Following the viral news about the family who was abandoned by their father because of the eyes' colour, the First Lady of the state said she had contacted them through her NGO called Ajike People Support Centre. READ ALSO: Akothee tells fans not to tolerate jealous siblings, says older sisters are like second mums The First lady promised to help the blue-eyed girl with her mom. Photos: ThisDay Source: UGC READ ALSO: 9 captivating photos of Vera Sidika's stylish baby brother David Olufolake did not only stop at offering to help them, but also added that she would also work on reuniting the woman with her husband. "The First Lady of Kwara State has been in touch with the family through the Ajike_Centre. We're also doing everything to support Mrs Risikat and her children and possibly unite the wife and the children with her husband." she tweeted. Netizens reacted to her offer for help in different ways as many wondered why she wanted to reunite them with the man that abandoned them. Luqman Akanni said: "If his actions were fueled by ignorance or even fear of the unknown, I see nothing wrong in trying to unite them after proper counseling. You dont know the whole story so you cant conclude the guy hates the family." READ ALSO: Serge Aurier: Brother of Spurs star Christopher shot dead in France READ ALSO: Mwanamke Mkenya afariki dunia baada ya kugonjwa na lori Marekani Jay_Monix: "If this man will agree to reunite with them, it's mainly because of the benefit he will gain through the support. She has the eye before he married her, gave birth to the first and second child..." Toluwanimi said: "God bless you my sis..mental slavery na our problem..one Alfa, pastor or babalawo might have told the idiot that d wife/kids eyes are his predicaments..ode man" Olumide O said: "He will extort the little she has got and still abandon them. It's time for her to move on and be secured financially. Of course, she can decide on Her own to go back to the man which would be a foolish decision. But don't use your position to reconcile them at all. Pls." TUKO.co.ke had earlier reported how Nigerians called for donation for the girls after learning they were rejected by their father because of their blue eyes. In an interview, the girls' mother Risikat said her husband complained that Kaosra and her sister both have blue eyes, after which he sent her packing. Speaking in an interview, Risikat said the girls' brother passed away due to lack of care. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. I married a man every woman wanted - Pastor Joan Chege | Tuko Talks | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Riot Police and contractors remove wood for a bonfire in the Distillery Street area of west Belfast on August 8th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) First Minister Arlene Foster has condemned the "disgraceful scenes" at a bonfire removal in west Belfast on Saturday afternoon. Police came under attack in the Distillery Street area from large groups of youths throwing petrol bombs, masonry and other missiles. They were in attendance to support contractors who had been tasked by the landowner to remove the bonfire material. Read More At least 26 police officers suffered injuries during the incident and were receiving treatment as of Saturday evening. Expand Close Riot Police and contractors remove wood for a bonfire in the Distillery Street area of west Belfast on August 8th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Riot Police and contractors remove wood for a bonfire in the Distillery Street area of west Belfast on August 8th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Pictures from the scene showed officers in full riot gear engaging with local young people. "Our thoughts are with the injured officers," the DUP leader said. Mrs Foster said it was "important to see prosecutions in due course" and that "a message must be sent that this is not acceptable". PSNI Superintendent Melanie Jones said footage from evidence gathering cameras would be reviewed to identify those involved. She called the violent scenes "completely unacceptable". We will continue to work with the local community, representatives and other partners to address this issue, but it is disappointing that some young people and their guardians are not listening to our repeated warnings," Superintendent Jones said. People who choose to engage in criminal and anti-social behaviour must understand it is unacceptable and must stop. People have a right to live in peace and to feel safe in their communities." Expand Close Riot Police and contractors remove wood for a bonfire in the Distillery Street area of west Belfast on August 8th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Riot Police and contractors remove wood for a bonfire in the Distillery Street area of west Belfast on August 8th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Superintendent Jones urged parents to take responsibility for their children. Parents and guardians have an important obligation to keep young people safe by knowing where they are going and who they are with," she said. "Young people must understand the dangers of getting involved in behaviour which could result in them injuring themselves or others, or ultimately, ending up with a criminal record. Justice Minister Naomi Long said the incident was "absolutely disgraceful conduct". "Officers should not face this kind of violence as they try to keep people safe. Residents are sick of this nonsense every year - they want peace and quiet I hope that no-one was seriously injured and that they all make a full and speedy recovery," the Alliance leader said. Expand Close Riot Police and contractors remove wood for a bonfire in the Distillery Street area of west Belfast on August 8th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Riot Police and contractors remove wood for a bonfire in the Distillery Street area of west Belfast on August 8th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne said his "thoughts are with our injured colleagues who faced shocking violence just trying to do their job". NI Secretary Brandon Lewis said "officers should never have to face this kind of violence". "They work every day to keep us all safe. I wish all the officers speedy recoveries," he said. "Huge thanks for their efforts to keep communities safe and peaceful." Police Federation Chair Mark Lindsay said police officers were "sick of being a punchbag for the failures of society". Once again, police officers have been drawn into the middle of a row over what should or shouldnt take place," he said. What happened posed real risks to the lives of officers. Petrol bombing is a clear attempt to murder or maim officers who were there to uphold the law." The operation was the second incident at a bonfire removal in as many days after police were targeted with missiles in the Lower Falls area on Friday. However no officers suffered injuries during that operation. Bonfires are being gathered across Northern Ireland to mark the anniversary of internment later this month. Expand Close Riot Police and contractors remove wood for a bonfire in the Distillery Street area of west Belfast on August 8th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Riot Police and contractors remove wood for a bonfire in the Distillery Street area of west Belfast on August 8th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Last year a standoff developed between young people and police in the New Lodge area of North Belfast A PSNI spokeswoman said officers are assisting other agencies. "As a police service we have been clear in our position that we will always support other agencies to carry out their statutory functions and this includes the lawful removal of bonfire materials," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:45:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LONDON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of vulnerable children across swathes of London, including children at risk of harm in their home or community, were not visited by children's services teams during coronavirus lockdown, a special Evening Standard investigation has found. Face-to-face visits by children's services in the three months of lockdown to June 30 plummeted by up to 75 percent in some boroughs compared with the same period last year, causing huge concern among childcare professionals. Data obtained from local authorities revealed for the first time the extent to which councils struggled to see vulnerable children in person during lockdown, the London-based newspaper said. Camden recorded a precipitous 75 percent fall in face-to-face visits, from 4,762 to just 1,198, with Lewisham reporting a decline of 70 percent. In total, six boroughs in the British capital responded to the survey with full data sets, reporting an aggregate fall in face-to-face visits of 10,210, a decline of 48 percent. If this was extrapolated across London's 33 local authorities, it would indicate that 56,155 face-to-face visits did not happen because of lockdown, the newspaper said. British childcare professionals have expressed fears that in some of the boroughs that failed to respond to the survey -- claiming they did not collect the data or did not have time to supply it -- the true extent of the drop-off in visits over lockdown could be even worse. Councils insisted the most at-risk children had been prioritised. Pinaki Ghoshal, executive director for children and young people in Lewisham, said: "With COVID-19, it was not possible to continue all face-to-face meetings so we risk-assessed and prioritised families where we had concerns about the child's safety. Face-to-face meetings continued with children considered of highest concern." Enditem In the last five months, the country has seen and experienced the unprecedented effect of Covid-19 damaging and paralyzing the economy as well as the health and welfare of 109 million Filipinos. Cleanfuel, the leading independent oil company in the country, believes in the resiliency of the Filipino people that would bring and sustain solid economic recovery amid health crisis. Their recently opened retail station at Dona Soledad in Paranaque City shows a testament that the company remains upbeat in expanding their network footprints in Southern portion of Metro Manila. While 2020 is a challenging year, Cleanfuel has remained optimistic riding in the resiliency of Filipinos towards economic recovery. This is the reason why Cleanfuel Group of Companies continues to invest and opened more stations as a testament and commitment to its people to provide top-notch fuel to every motorist, said Atty Bong Suntay, President of Cleanfuel. The opening of the new station in Dona Soledad is in line with Cleanfuels goal to expand its reach and strengthen its customer base in the Southern part of Metro Manila, Suntay said. Situated at the busy thoroughfare of Dona Soledad Avenue Extension at Barangay Don Bosco in Paranaque City, the new station offers a top-notch fuel and lubricants including Clean91 (Unleaded), Premium 95 gasoline, and Euro-4 diesel. It provides access to both public and private motorists from Better Living going to Moonwalk, connecting in the bustling intersection of eastern Paranaque. In addition, the second district of Don Bosco is the primary residential Barangay of Ninoy Aquino International Airport and one of the 16 Barangays in Paranaque City. Key factors of the city's progress include banks, shopping malls, restaurants, residential properties, and commercial manufacturing. Motorists heading towards the busy streets of Dona Soledad Avenue Extension from east-west and northern side of Paranaque can gas up to experience Cleanfuels brand mantra: Quality fuel for Less! Further, Cleanfuel Dona Soledad station will become a key driver of growth to more than 60,000 population of Barangay Don Bosco. As the city relies on shopping centers as part of major contributors, the company sees that the opening of Cleanfuel Dona Soledad will further strengthen and boost economic confidence. Were grateful and honor to inaugurate Cleanfuel Dona Soledad as our first station to open in these unprecedented times. The economy in the City of Paranaque has been growing consistently with massive projects in property and commercial manufacturing, the companys chief executive said. Suntay adds that in the next coming months Cleanfuel is adding more stations not only in NCR but also in provinces to provide quality fuel for business and opportunities for others. We intend to leverage our business aggressively and expand our retail network across the country, focusing on Mega Manila and Northern Luzon," concludes Suntay. Cleanfuel is expected to open more stations in coming weeks in Ortigas Avenue Extension in Pasig and mega branch in Mabalacat Pampanga as part of the long-term business expansion plan. Aside from expansion, the company has extended its support by providing fuel subsidy for the Department of Transportation's (DOTrs) Free Bus Ride for Health Workers Program and drive relief donations to northern provinces, which include Pangasinan (Villasis, Binalonan, Pozorrubio) and San Fernando (La Union) and other cities in Metro Manila. People often ask me, if a military clash breaks out between China and the US, which side will be the winner? In terms of overall military strength, who is more powerful, China or the US? It must be the US. However, when it comes to China's coastal waters, China's maritime strength plus onshore combat power vs the maritime strength of the US, it is difficult to say which side is more powerful. If you haven't tried it, there will be uncertainty. If it comes to China's core interests, Taiwan, for example, crosses the line under the US encouragement and leads to a military showdown, then at that time there will be a contest of wills as well as a contest of strength. Who's at the upper hand in that situation? It's a combination of military strength plus morality plus the will to fight. Who do you think would be stronger in a war off China's coast? So the US should be reminded to distance itself from China's core interests. Don't play with fire off China's coast, don't really stir up conflict over Taiwan question, and don't overdo it in the South China Sea. If the Trump administration just wants to create China-US tensions to help his re-election campaign, and is not really ready for a military showdown, then be careful for the next few months, and don't go too far. China certainly doesn't want a war. My suggestion is that under no circumstances should the Chinese military fire the first shot. But I am confident that China will be well prepared to fire a second shot as a response to the first shot. On core interests, China will not back off. China's stance is clear to all. The best way is for China and relevant parties to respect each other's core interests. If the core interests of both sides overlap, the dispute should be carefully managed, not allowed to ferment and get out of control. Having experienced several wars and upheavals, I know that peace is really the most precious thing and defending peace is not easy. At a time when relations between China and the US are deteriorating rapidly and some forces are poised to take advantage of changes in the big picture, China's will, wisdom, and ability to master the situation will be tested over time. The author is editor-in-chief of the Global Times. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn A former Los Angeles Angels employee has been criminally charged for allegedly providing pitcher Tyler Skaggs with the drugs that killed him last year, according to officials. Eric Prescott Kay, the former director of communications for Angels, has been charged with illegal possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance according to a complaint brought against him by the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Mr Skaggs ingested a mixture of opioids and alcohol before choking to death on his own vomit. He was found to have had ethanol, fentanyl and oxycodone by Tarrant County deputy chief medical examiner Dr Marc Krouse. More follows BY SARAH RANKIN, The Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) Jerry Falwell Jr. took an indefinite leave of absence Friday as the leader of Liberty University, one of the nation's top evangelical Christian colleges, days after apologizing for a social media post that caused an uproar even among fellow conservatives. The private university in Lynchburg, Virginia, gave no reason for Falwell's departure in a one-sentence announcement Friday afternoon. But it came after Falwell's apology earlier this week for a since-deleted photo he posted online showing him with his pants unzipped, stomach exposed and his arm around a young woman in a similar pose. The statement said the executive committee of Liberty's board of trustees, acting on behalf of the full board, met Friday and requested Falwell take leave as president and chancellor, "to which he has agreed, effective immediately." A high-profile supporter of President Donald Trump, Falwell has served since 2007 as president of the university founded by his evangelist father, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. He did not immediately return a call seeking comment. University spokesman Scott Lamb said he had no further comment. In an interview this week with Lynchburg radio station WLNI, Falwell said the woman in the photo was his wife's assistant and that the picture was taken during a "costume party" while on vacation. "Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht," the caption of the photo said, in part. "I promise that's just black water in my glass. It was a prop only." He said the woman who also had her midriff exposed was pregnant, couldn't get her pants zipped and he imitated her, saying it was all in "good fun." "I've apologized to everybody, and I've promised my kids ... I'm going to try to be a good boy from here on out," he told the interviewer. On Thursday, Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina, a pastor who previously taught at Liberty, called Falwell's behavior "appalling" and said he should resign. Besides Walker, some pastors who graduated from Liberty spoke out this week calling for a change in leadership at the school. Mark Davis, a Texas-based pastor, tweeted that "the name of Christ and the reputation of Liberty will continue to be dishonored" without action against Falwell by the board. Colby Garman, a pastor who has served on the executive board of the Southern Baptist Convention of Virginia, tweeted Monday that it was "bewildering" to see Falwell maintain the board's support. He responded to Friday's news with appreciation. "How is this Jerry Falwell Jr. photo even real?" tweeted conservative TV personality Meghan McCain, daughter of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain. "Also if you're running the largest Christian university in America maybe don't put photos of yourself on social media with your pants undone on a yacht with random women in bad wigs. So gross, so hypocritical." The late Falwell founded Liberty in 1971 with just 154 students. Under the leadership of Falwell Jr., who is an attorney and not a minister, Liberty has grown into a leading evangelical university, with an immaculate campus and a significant endowment. Students must follow a strict code of conduct that includes modest dress and a ban on alcohol consumption. In recent years, Liberty has served as a regular speaking spot for ambitious Republicans courting the young evangelical vote. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz kicked off a presidential campaign there in 2015. Falwell was among the earliest Christian conservatives to endorse Trump's previous election campaign. In late 2016 he told The Associated Press that Trump had offered him the job of education secretary but that he turned it down for personal reasons. The vacation photo was the most recent in a string of controversies dogging Falwell in recent years, in both his role at Liberty and his personal life. Last year, he settled a federal lawsuit in Florida over a real estate venture that involved a young Miami pool attendant, a case that drew national attention. He more recently sparred with Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and local officials in Lynchburg over his handling of coronavirus restrictions. He also faced stinging criticism from a group of Black alumni who said in a letter that he should step down after he mocked Virginias mask-wearing requirement in a tweet by invoking a blackface scandal that engulfed Northam last year. Several Black Liberty staff members resigned following the tweet, and several high-profile Black student-athletes announced transfer plans. On Friday, Pastors Chris Williamson, Eric Carroll, and Maina Mwaura, who organized the June letter, issued a statement applauding the board's decision. "Liberty University deeply impacted us as students and we hope that its leadership can return to a focus of training 'young champions for Christ' with Biblical conviction for the Gospel and justice," the statement said. Associated Press writers Alan Suderman and Elana Schor contributed to this report. A Togolese civil society coalition on Wednesday accused the government of spying on the public after it was reported that six critics of President Faure Gnassingbe, including Catholic leaders, had been victims of a hacking campaign. According to an investigation published on Monday by the French daily Le Monde and Britain's Guardian newspaper, individuals in Togo were alerted by WhatsApp last year that their mobile phones had been targeted in a spyware attack. "We are in a police state that uses and abuses espionage against its own citizens," David Dosseh, spokesman for the FCTD, an umbrella organisation of civil society groups, told AFP. Quoting from a lawsuit filed by WhatsApp against the Israeli firm NSO Group, the newspapers said 1,400 users around the world had been targeted by a sophisticated eavesdropping tool called Pegasus. According to details in the lawsuit, the technology would have potentially given access to emails, texts and images, and could also have been used for recording by remotely operating a phone's camera and microphone. In Togo, the software was reportedly used against opponents, civil society activists and Catholic clerics, including the president of the Togolese Bishops' Conference, Benoit Alowonou, who is known for his activism. Elliott Ohin, a former government minister who is in the opposition party, and Raymond Houndjo, a close associate of a leading opposition politician were also named in the report. The investigation "confirms and provides material evidence of a situation that many suspected," said Dosseh. Togo / AFP "Many Togolese are afraid of being followed, especially spied on, when they are members of civil society or opponents," he said. Gnassingbe, who was re-elected this year for a fourth term, 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. The government, contacted by AFP, did not comment on the international investigation, which also found targets of the attacks included journalists in India and Morocco, political activists from Rwanda and Catalan separatist politicians in Spain. "Faure Gnassingbe's regime exceeds all the limits of political decency," Nathaniel Olympio, president of the opposition Togolese People's Party, told AFP. "Weapons intended to fight terrorism have been turned against opponents, clerics and human rights defenders," he said. LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2020 / The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Airbus SE ("Airbus" or "the Company") (OTC PINK:EADSY, EADSF) for violations of the securities laws. The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. The Media reported on January 31, 2020, that Airbus had reached a deal with U.S., UK, and French prosecutors to settle charges of bribery and export-control violations. The Settlement including the Company paying approximately $4 billion. The Company also agreed to appoint an external compliance officer for two years to monitor its oversight of defense sales and disclosures. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 1880 Century Park East, Suite 404, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 424-303-1964, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at brian@schallfirm.com. The class in this case has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics. CONTACT: The Schall Law Firm Brian Schall, Esq., www.schallfirm.com Office: 310-301-3335 Cell: 424-303-1964 info@schallfirm.com SOURCE: The Schall Law Firm View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/600801/SHAREHOLDER-ACTION-NOTICE-The-Schall-Law-Firm-Announces-it-is-Investigating-Claims-Against-Airbus-SE-and-Encourages-Investors-with-Losses-to-Contact-the-Firm Vijay Chandok The current COVID-19 induced situation facing the global economy is a black swan event with dislocation across the globe at a scale never seen before. In times of crisis, the human bodys natural response is to protect itself by increasing its own capabilities. It is true for mankind as well. Big bang reforms in the history of mankind have been in reaction to a major crisis. For instance, the American civil war resulted in the end of slavery, World War II resulted in the creation of peacekeeping institutions like the United Nations, the global financial crisis has led to tighter banking regulations etc. Closer home, too, each time there is a major crisis, there has been a compelling response from the system. Food shortage during the early decades of independence led to the green revolution, improving farm productivity. The 1992 stock market scam gave birth to electronic trading. The balance of payment crisis in 1991 led to liberalization of the Indian economy. These big bang moves short-circuited years of meandering and incremental change. The current Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign launched by the government is similar to the body attempting to strengthen itself to face the current and future challenges in a more resilient manner. Measures like support to MSMEs, permitting commercial mining, Agri reforms, etc. all lead to a larger goal of self-strengthening, self-reliance, and sustenance. In line with this objective, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has come out with a slew of policy measures to strengthen the capital market, a critical component of the Indian economy. SEBI A Proactive Regulator As soon as the realities of the new normal set in early March this year, there was a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the capital markets. Many capital raising and M&A options being assessed suddenly seemed unviable. The swiftness with which this happened, did not give enough time to anybody to figure out the best course of action. The response of SEBI to this uncertainty has been remarkable. The number of COVID-19 related measures that were and are still getting rolled out are not only prompt but sure to have a far-reaching impact on the capital market and more importantly for Indian Inc. The early measures taken by SEBI include the extension of SEBI cards validity period for IPO candidates. This means that the time lost by the issuers to launch a transaction during the pandemic will be discounted, bringing relief to issuers who have incurred cost and time in coming to this stage. The other concurrent relaxation is the flexibility to change the primary issue size by 50% (from earlier 20%) so issuers can adjust the issue size commensurate to a possibly attenuated demand and yet go on with the fund raise. It has become tough for companies to find capital to sustain and fuel their growth. To alleviate this, it is imperative for freely priced products to be available for the issuer to use. Rights Issuances are very well suited to such circumstances as they provide an equal opportunity and option for all shareholders to take part and avoid dilution of stake. SEBI has relaxed the eligibility conditions for issuers to take a fast track route for the rights issue. This has even made newly listed companies (18 months track record required as opposed to earlier 36 months) eligible. There are other relaxations in certain disclosure requirements but one of the most important changes is the relaxation of the minimum subscription threshold for the success of an issue to 75% from the earlier 90%. This is a very pragmatic move considering that there could be a potentially subdued demand yet the issuer can close the issue and use the funds. Relaxations have also been given to listed entities in their continuous listing obligations. For example, the extension of timelines for publication of accounts will help corporates to cope with the issues of limited workforce and data collation and allow them time to get a good assessment of the impact on businesses. SEBIs advisory on the disclosure of the material impact of COVID-19 pandemic is a sound template to ensure that relevant and sufficient information is flowing from listed entities. SEBI has also allowed companies to raise funds through Qualified Institutions Placement without having a six-month gap between two such events. Issuer receiving good investor reception can raise funds in tranches with a two-week gap. Another important step towards the private placement through the preferential issue is the reduction of the time frame of historical prices that need to be considered to calculate the minimum issuance price. Amendments have been introduced to relax the conditions of companies wanting to come out with further public offerings under the fast track route. It could prove vital not only for the corporates in need of capital but also the revival of the FPO which have been scarce in recent times. On the consolidation side as well, SEBI has stepped up to support the fund infusion in companies by the promoters. The increase in the creeping acquisition limit through a preferential allotment to the promoter is going to ensure that a meaningful amount of capital can be made available to ailing businesses. Another change in the takeover regulations is the allowance to do a voluntary takeover by a holder holding over 25% stake, even if they have acquired shares in the last year. Earlier any acquisition of shares of the target in the past year was a disqualifier to make a voluntary open offer. This will give an opportunity for potential M&A which, in such circumstances, could be critical for the survival of certain companies. SEBI has taken proactive and numerous laudable measures to tame market volatility and ease the compliance burden on various registered intermediaries like a revision of market-wide position limit, increase in margins, extension in the penal provision, and extension of timelines for various regulatory filings. These measures unburden SEBI regulated intermediaries with appropriate controls and at the same time ensure the protection of investors and foster an orderly development of the market. Shoots of Resurgence in the Capital Markets With the bulwark of cogent and relevant countermeasure from SEBI, the Indian Capital markets are well placed to weather storms. The market witnessed a few large capital market transactions which are important to instil faith back in the investor community. While currently, the ability to raise capital has been much better for blue-chip names given the preference of investors to back less riskier names, a few of the corporates are trying to estimate the extent of impact before getting into capital raise mode. As the capital raising scenario evolves along with the COVID-19 situation, there would emerge various other rationales for raising capital such as confidence capital and acquisition capital across equity and even some debt for those who might not have thought of leveraging. Amongst primary market products, as stated above, Rights Issues have been the dominant choice for capital raising in such uncertain times given the ability to freely price the equity as well as protect dilution of existing shareholders while ensuring adequate capital is raised further bolstering the balance sheet of the Company. In addition, the ability to tailor various instruments such as a partly paid-up share or a compulsorily convertible debenture or an issue of NCD + warrants allows staggered fundraising, easing out investor liquidity issues as well as securing financing. The provision of fast track, as well as reduced disclosure norms for eligible companies, have also cut the time to market for such issues. There is enough and more appetite for high-quality names at the right price and as the market infrastructure opens up, which should happen in the coming months, the activities in Indian Capital markets is bound to shore up. Going Forward: Going forward, SEBI may consider encouraging the NRI remittance to further strengthen our economy. This is a source of patriot money which can help tremendously governments Atmanirbhar ambition. NRI remittances are categorized as Natural and Induced. Millions of Indians working abroad and sending money home to their families constitute natural remittance and this source is under some pressure now due to lower economic activities globally. However, there is a large untapped Induced remittance, which is business investments by the rich NRIs. This is potentially a very large pool, given the number of affluent Indians abroad, and is solely dependent on how well we frame policies on ease of doing business and welcoming such capital. SEBI may consider some below measures to encourage this all-season capital. Many NRIs desirous of investing in the Indian capital markets are constrained by some of the pre-COVID era requirements of documentation and procedures, which many find cumbersome. SEBIs recent guidelines on seamless and paperless customer on-boarding procedure has played a big role in record retail participation in the capital market. Similar investor-friendly policy interventions could also be replicated for the NRIs. While NRIs can participate with other categories of investors, the regulator could consider earmarking a portion of the public issue for them. This could encourage the flow of a new pool of capital. SEBI may consider forming a task force to identify the pain points faced by the NRIs and recommend suitable resolution measures. In addition, the activity in capital markets can be supported further with certain other steps such as increasing the maximum permissible discount to the SEBI floor price (currently 5%) in case of qualified institutions placements. For rights issues, companies listed through the scheme of arrangement/change in control can have reduced disclosure v/s full disclosure offer document which could significantly reduce their launch time. Another critical issue is that while the extension has been granted to the IPO card validity, the information in the filed DRHPs is quite dated. SEBI may consider giving a relaxation allowing an addendum to the DRHP for critical updates on the business, industry, financial, etc. This will immensely help the issuers to not only demonstrate the COVID impact on their businesses but also help them market their issues with updated information allowing investors to make a well-informed investment decision. (The author is MD & CEO of ICICI Securities) : 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. In some ways, she is freer now. There is no re-election to worry about. No party leaders to offend. She can see whom she wants, date whom she wants, and the Covid-era mask has the nice perk of allowing her to blend in. My marriage lasted twice as long as the Confederacy, and Ive already taken down all the monuments, she recently tweeted. Another: Yes we all know about the naked pictures of me. Hence the joke. I grew up with cop humor and E.R. nurse humor, Ms. Hill said, recounting how her mother, days after her resignation, joked: So when are you going to start your hairbrush line? Its dark, you know? And yet guilt, she said, still lingers. Guilt for the young woman she said she loved, and to whom she has apologized so many times. She doesnt want to hear from me now, and I get that, Ms. Hill said. Guilt for what she has put her family through, and her former staff, some of whom lost their jobs. Ms. Hill feels the most guilt, she said, for her district, which flipped Republican again in the special election to replace her. With her therapist, she said, she has been working on self-compassion and that Brene Brown theory where you might have done something bad, but youre not a bad person. Anxious working parents now have another option when school starts remotely for most students in the Lake Houston area this month. The YMCA of Greater Houston is launching the Y Learning Center at the Lake Houston YMCA, a new safe and structured environment that will allow students to attend virtual classes, benefit from peer interaction and participate in engaging enrichment activities, while parents return to work. The Y Learning Center hours are 8 a.m. - 3 p.m., similar to normal school hours with aftercare available until 6 p.m. Back to school: Crosby ISD offers free WiFi at 7 campuses We understand these are uncertain times and many families are worried how they are going to balance work and follow the vital school curriculum at home, said Stephen Ives, president & CEO, YMCA of Greater Houston. We have been helping parents since the start of the pandemic by providing childcare for essential workers so they could return to work. As a helping hand and community partner, we want to continue assisting families in their virtual learning to help keep students on track for the school year and provide some relief to parents. We believe it is important for all children to have access to necessary resources and aid during this time. Students will participate in a structured schedule with a certified teacher to ensure students can focus while engaging in virtual learning. We will have our traditional certified childcare educators who have six months of experience as a counselor and at least 60 hours of onsite training in health and safety per childcare licensing, said Larry Taylor, senior director of youth development for the Houston YMCA. With this specific program we will also have a certified teacher onsite at each location for every 18 kids to assist with those questions that they might have that our traditional staff members wouldnt be able to, he said. More Information LEARNING CENTER ENROLLMENT Parents will have the option of selecting a half-day academic session, a half-day enrichment session or an all-day program, based on the family's needs. Each three-hour session will be separated by a lunch break. Lunch and afternoon snack will be provided by the Houston Food Bank, or kids may bring their own lunch with snacks. Aftercare will also be available for an additional cost until 6 p.m. Participants can register for as many or as few days as needed. Registration is now open. See More Collapse Taylor said resources will be available to students that would be similar to a traditional school day. Staff will be trained to work with students on learning platforms by individual school districts such as Schoology, Teams, SeeSaw, Canvas, Google Classrooms and more. Students are encouraged to bring their own technology since computers at the Y would be limited. They would also need their own headset for listening purposes so as not to disturb students in the classroom, he said. The Y will provide snacks, but they encourage parents to pack a lunch for their student(s) as well as a water bottle so that theyre not sharing with other students. Well have disposable ones available too, he said. The setting will be similar to most schools as both will follow CDC guidelines for classrooms. Each classroom will be restricted to 10 people, including the teacher. On HoustonChronicle.com: Alief ISD becomes first district to begin school year As far as safety measures, we will be screening for fever for each student as they come in, and students are expected to mask up. There will be scheduled hand washing and access to hand sanitizer with increased cleaning and disinfecting processes throughout the day. The Learning Centers are an expansion of a summer camp program that provided childcare for essential workers, which the Y debuted during spring break. The students in the program needed the opportunity and space to do their schoolwork to finish out the school year. When taking the opportunity to reimagine what our programming could look like to meet the needs of the community, we realized that there was a need for families going through the school year to continue that type of service, so they expanded on the idea and turned the space into a place where families could leave their kids and got to work and have a safe place for virtual learning. Cost for the program if a parent enrolls the child for the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. all day class would be $60 per day or as much as $300 per week and could get pricey for more than one child. We definitely understand that and one of the things that the Y is big on is making sure we provide care to anyone regardless of financial circumstances, which is why we offer financial assistance to all of our families, he said. At our licensed facilities, they also have the opportunity to take advantage of Workforce Solutions which is where they have funding to help subsidize their traditional childcare payment, Taylor said. Since the announcement of the Learning Centers, theres been an uptick in registrations particularly now that schools have announced their virtual learning plans instead of in-person. We noticed that next day that enrollment began to pick up, he said. Breaking News: Get email alerts from Chron.com sent directly to your inbox Each learning center pod can take up to 30 - 40 students including the teacher and more depending on the facility and available space. At the Lake Houston YMCA, space has been reserved for up to 40 students and enrollment continues there. Taylor said for now the classes at the Lake Houston location are for elementary and middle school level students. Well look for space to expand if we need to. We can use gym or office space as necessary, he said. When students are allowed to return to in-person classes he realizes the need for the Learning Centers might not be needed. Taylor said they would continue the classes as needed for students and parents who are not ready to send their children back to the public school platform. Well definitely continue to offer it. We dont want the price to discourage parents from trying out the service and we encourage them to reach out to us, he said. For more information about Y Learning Center, visit https://www.ymcahouston.org/ymca-learning-center or follow the organization on Facebook @YMCAHouston and Instagram @YMCAHouston or call the 281-360-2500. dtaylor@hcnonline.com By Azernews Akbar Mammadov Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov held discussions with the Head of the EU Delegation Kestutis Jankauskas on Azerbaijan-EU partnership and the recent Armenian provocation in the state border, the ministry said on August 6. During the meeting, Bayramov said that Azerbaijan highly commends the mutually beneficial partnership with the European Union and noted with satisfaction the EU's firm position in support of Azerbaijan's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Furthermore, the minister informed the EU representative about the military provocation committed by Armenian armed forces in the direction of Tovuz region of the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on July 12, and the goals that Armenia failed to achieve, as well as the aggressive policy of Armenia, which stands as a basis for the tensions in the region. It was also emphasized that Azerbaijan is committed to the settlement of the conflict through negotiations, but negotiations have to be real and substantive, not imitation. Bayramov noted that taking the same approach to the aggressor state Armenia and Azerbaijan, as a victim of the aggression, is unacceptable. He stressed the necessity of withdrawal of the occupying forces from all the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the return of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons to their homes as demanded by the UN Security Councils resolutions. Referring to a statement made by the Spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS), Jankauskas noted that the EU called to refrain from actions that provoke tension in the region. He also emphasized that the EU Special Representative is also closely monitoring the situation and the Union is interested in ensuring peace and security in the region. Moreover, the sides exchanged views on a number of issues on the EU-Azerbaijan cooperation agenda, including strategic energy partnership, transport projects, solidarity and cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, the continuation of negotiations on a new comprehensive agreement that will form the legal basis of bilateral relations, and other issues. Days ahead of the Rajasthan Assembly session, the BJP shifted six of its MLAs from Jaipur to Gujarat's Porbandar on Saturday amid fears of poaching. The Assembly session is to be held on August 14. The saffron party has so far sent 23 of its MLAs to Gujarat out of which 18 are in Porbandar. According to sources, around 40 MLAs will be shifted to Gujarat amid reports of the Congress party led by Ashok Gehlot trying to influence them. More BJP legislators from Rajasthan will arrive in Gujarat, one of the legislators said after landing here by a chartered plane. Talking to reporters after arrival here, BJP MLA Nirmal Kumawat alleged that the Congress government in Rajasthan was "harassing" opposition MLAs, and said they were here on a pilgrimage to Somnath to seek mental peace. "There have been political developments in Rajasthan for the last one month due to factionalism in the Congress.Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot lacks majority. He is harassing and putting mental pressure on BJP MLAs using SOG (Special Operations Group) and departmental raids," Kumawat alleged. "In view of this, we decided to reduce our mental pain by paying a visit to Lord Somnath. We are here to save ourselves from the Congress government which is putting pressure on us to vote for it," the BJP MLA added. Some more MLAs were also arriving in Gujarat as per the decision of the top BJP leadership, he said. Another MLA in the group of six said they were likely to stay in Gujarat for two days. Congress MLAs are currently holed up in a Jaisalmer hotel as the party has accused the BJP of horse-trading following the revolt by Congress leader Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs loyal to him. The BJP legislators who boarded the flight from the Jaipur airport on Saturday were Nirmal Kumawat, Gopichand Meena, Jabbar Singh Sankhla, Dharmendra Kumar Mochi, Gopal LalSharma and Gurudeep Singh Shahpini, the party sources said. With PTI inputs We often overlook and take for granted the importance of the river to our past development and more importantly to our future development and quality of life. A 90-minute Covid-19 test purchased by the government to provide rapid results has not yet been approved by regulators. The government backed Oxford Nanopore Technologies, who said their test provides rapid results. The Department of Health and Social Care wanted the two rival tests rolled out in hospitals, care homes and laboratories as soon as possible. The government has purchased millions of Covid-19 tests which offer results in 90 minutes Health secretary Matt Hancock believes the two tests will enable the country to return to work as people with Covid-19 can be rapidly told to isolate and reduce the chance of onward infection However, according to The Guardian, the Oxford test has not received a CE mark, to prove it was accurate. The second test, DnaNudge - was granted an emergency exemption by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. On August 3, Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the government were buying 'millions' of both tests. In a statement, he claimed: 'We're using the most innovative technologies available to tackle coronavirus. Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will provide on the spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly. 'I am hugely grateful for the excellent work done by DnaNudge and Oxford Nanopore to push forward these life-saving innovations in coronavirus testing.' However, professor Jon Deeks, of Birmingham University's biostatistics department told The Guardian: 'It looks like a decision that was raced through. They are making decisions before anybody knows the results as to how well they work. They are not making clear comparisons with the alternatives, which means that British people might not get the best tests.' Both tests were also expected to be made available commercially at a cost of between 20-40. The government has faced criticism over the roll out of its existing testing system Meanwhile, angry Tory backbenchers have criticised the lack of clarity concerning further quarantine restrictions. Chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs Sir Graham Brady and former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith have called for a 'proper testing regime for air travellers' to be implemented as quickly as possible, and for regional air corridors to be considered. It comes as Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned holidaymakers of the risk of travelling abroad during the coronavirus crisis amid concerns France may be the next nation to be added to the quarantine list. He said on Friday that ministers will 'not hesitate' in ordering travellers coming back from countries with high Covid-19 rates to isolate for 14 days, as Belgium, Andorra and The Bahamas lose their exempted status. Travellers returning to the UK from those three nations from Saturday must enter quarantine, and there are fears those coming back from France could be next with cases there increasing. Sir Graham told The Telegraph leaving the public in the dark on the matter is 'grossly unfair'. 'We should move to a proper testing regime for air travellers as quickly as possible, but in the meantime it is essential that the Government is as transparent as possible about the criteria which are being used judging which countries require quarantine and which do not. 'Leaving the travelling public in the dark is grossly unfair and is causing further damage to the holiday and leisure sector,' he said. Sir Iain added that holidaymakers needed more information and for it to be clearer so they could make better informed decisions about whether to travel abroad. He also called on the Government to reconsider regional travel corridors and testing to replace the 'blunt' approach of quarantine. 'People are travelling to countries at the moment and they have no idea whether they will or will not have quarantine reimposed,' he told the paper. 'My only question is can the Government not look at regional quarantine so that people could travel to low-risk areas like Majorca but not Barcelona?' New Delhi: Railway police seized old currency notes worth Rs 35 lakh and liquor bottle from an abandoned bag in Jan Shatabdi Express train in Gaya on Wednesday. The seized currency was in old Rs 500 notes that were scrapped in the demonetisation exercise announced on November 8. During a routine check, we found Rs 35 lakh in old 500 notes and 14 alcohol bottles from 3 unclaimed bags. We have started a probe into the matter, ANI quoted inspector Sushil Kumar as saying. This is the second major currency haul in a day. On Tuesday, police arrested BJP leader Manish Sharma from West Bengal with Rs 33 lakh cash. He was arrested from Ranigunj in Burdwan district with 33 lakh rupees in new 2000-denomination notes. (With inputs from agencies) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Yamunanagar districts BJP president Mahender Khatri, 65, breathed his last on Friday night at a hospital in Chennai where he was undergoing treatment for a lung disease. Khatri is survived by his wife and three children. MLA Ghanshyam Das Arora said, I got to know about his sad demise early morning. Khatris son left for Chennai in the afternoon to bring back his body. After the procedures are completed, the body will reach Yamunanagar on Sunday and the funeral could take place on Monday. Khatri was unwell from quite some time. Even then, he was involved in party activities with dedication and discipline. He helped party workers in every possible way without any bias, Arora said. His younger son Prateek said his father was unwell since November last year and had to undergo transplant. My father had some problem in the heart and lungs for which we had planned a transplant in April but it was delayed due to the lockdown and he was admitted at the hospital on July 17 for the same. The transplant was pending but in the meantime he suddenly had a cardiac arrest and died late on Friday, he said. Khatri was elected as BJPs Yamunanagar district chief for the second time in 2016. Earlier, he had served as the district chief from 2006-2008. Education minister Kanwar Pal has also expressed sorrow on his demise. Mahender Khatri and his family have remained connected with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since long. Khatri has held various positions in the party and has served as district general secretary, district deputy president, Pal said. A court in southern Vietnam on Friday handed a Singaporean man the death sentence for trafficking nearly ten kilograms of methamphetamine from Cambodia to Vietnam. The Peoples Court of Tay Ninh Province in southern Vietnam on Friday handed down the sentence to Cher Wei Hon, 40, on the charge of illegal drug trafficking. In July last year, border guards inspected a ride-hail car that was carrying the foreign man on a National Highway 22 section near Moc Bai, an international border gate between Vietnam and Cambodia located in Tay Ninh Province. As they scrutinized the mans luggage, officers found ten plastic bags containing a white crystal, according to the indictment. Cher confessed to the law enforcement officers that the bags contain methamphetamine, a white crystalline recreational drug that is illegal in Vietnam. The man said he had known a Vietnamese woman, identified as Quynh, in the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh from whom he borrowed VND200 million (US$8,600) but was unable to pay back the debt. Consequently, Quynh demanded the man carry mobile phones, iPads and drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam to write off his debt on a gradual basis. With each successful shipment, she would slash the debt by US$500-1,000. The man admitted he had trafficked drugs between the two countries around five times by the time of his arrest. Late last month, the same court sentenced a 27-year-old Cambodian woman to death for trafficking around five kilograms of methamphetamine over the border from Cambodia. If the shipment had been successful, she would have received $100. Vietnam adopts a harsh stance against drug violators. Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine could face capital punishment. Manufacturing or selling from 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is also punishable by death. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Boris Johnson is planning a patriotic staycation in Scotland enduring the midges and monsoon-like weather to demonstrate his commitment to both the Union and the British holiday industry. The Prime Minister who chose the Caribbean for his last pre-Covid holiday, at Christmas will head north of the border with fiancee Carrie Symonds and baby son Wilfred later this month, The Mail on Sunday understands. It comes after Mr Johnson told the nation recently that the UK had fantastic destinations, the best in the world, adding: All my happiest holiday memories are of holiday vacations here in the UK, bucket-and-spade jobs or whatever. The Prime Minister will head north of the border with fiancee Carrie Symonds and baby son Wilfred later this month The trip will coincide with the Queens own staycation at Balmoral, but Mr Johnson is not expected to see Her Majesty as part of the traditional Prime Ministerial end-of-summer visit because the 94-year-old Monarch is staying in a bubble with the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, and a group of 22 trusted staff members to limit the risk of Covid infection. The Queen has been holding her audiences with the Prime Minister over Zoom since the virus outbreak. Downing Street is not disclosing details of the PMs holiday for security reasons, but Mr Johnson is expected to remain in full charge of the country while he is away. Mr Johnsons recollection of happy childhood holidays was questioned last week by his sister, journalist Rachel, who wrote about her own rain-sodden holiday to Scotland. I racked my brains to think which holidays he meant, she said. The time it rained in Ireland or on Mull? Or one of the childhood summers in West Somerset, one of the wettest places in the kingdom? I had tried to do my bit by staying on British soil. After the sacrifices so many have made for us in this pandemic, I made a promise I would not complain if the weather in Scotland was Scottish. The Queen is staying in a bubble with the Duke of Edinburgh and a group of 22 trusted staff members to limit the risk of Covid infection at Balmoral For once, I was doing what the PM ordered. It was so cold that fires were lit at breakfast, I kept my coat on at all times, even in bed if anyone suggests another patriotic staycation next year, they can take a hike. The holiday comes as Scottish nationalists have accused Mr Johnson of being in panic mode about signs of increased support for independence, with two recent surveys finding that 54 per cent of respondents want to see Scotland split from the UK. VANCOUVERBack in March, as elected officials around the world were accusing the Chinese government of covering up the early spread of the coronavirus, at least one politician in small-town British Columbia was praising Beijings handling of the pandemic instead. China was ultimately, I think, successful in containing the virus, Al Richmond, former chair of the Cariboo Regional District in B.C.s Interior, told the Xinhua news agency. In a short video, he explained why Ottawa had a lot to learn from Beijing: The folks I know in China, my friends, are more accepting of (the) governments recommendation to stay home, he said. It seems a small endorsement the kind of thing that would not make headlines in this country. Many might have agreed with his sentiment. But Chinas premier state-run news outlet extensively promoted Richmonds remarks on its international social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter platforms that are banned inside China. This wasnt the first time Chinese state media had quoted Richmond. Last June, amid tensions over the arrest of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou and Chinas detention of two Canadian citizens in apparent retaliation, Xinhua ran the headline: Canadian small Internet suppliers like to use Huawei technology: local official. The article related that Richmond supported a deal for Huawei Canada to fund a trial project to install equipment to bring high-speed internet to the small, remote town of Lac La Hache in the Cariboo region. He told Xinhua, Anything we can do to move forward, to safely move forward with high speed broadband access to rural Canada will be good for the economy and good helping (sic) for the people. In a conversation with the Star, Richmond expressed surprise that Xinhua shared his comments on COVID-19 so widely and portrayed him as someone prominent in Canada. He said the news agency sought him out during his visit to Vancouver. He also said his comments on Huawei last year were about basic internet access, and that he does not have a position on whether the use of Huawei technology in 5G networks would pose a cybersecurity risk. Richmond confirmed, however, that he has worked to establish closer ties with the Chinese government in recent years, with the goal of facilitating trade, tourism and business connections for constituents in his mostly rural community. In the eyes of some, wittingly or not, Richmond had been pulled into the international public relations and influence machine that is Chinas state-controlled press. His media appearances are the kind of thing that is increasingly prompting experts to issue warnings to Canadian politicians and public figures at all levels. Beijing, they say, is looking for ways big and small to change the global narrative about the regime and to exert its influence. Municipal politicians are often the prime target, said Stephanie Carvin, a professor at Carleton University and former national security analyst for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. They can often make decisions over land use and educational issues, so for foreign governments, in some cases, its much easier to try to influence at the municipal level. Richmond is just one local politician among thousands across Canada, and theres no indication of any improper actions on his part. But Richmonds experiences underscore the issues at play for untold others across this country. First elected to the Cariboo Regional District leadership in 1993, Richmond served nine years as chair of the rugged, mountainous area of 80,000 square kilometres that includes the municipalities of Williams Lake, Quesnel, 100 Mile House and Wells. While the sprawling district has a population of only 62,000, according to the 2016 census, it is rich in resources; key industries include mining, forestry and fishing. It doesnt have a sizable ethnic Chinese population, but forestry and mining are both industries that depend heavily on the Chinese market. Richmond has been an influential figure in B.C. politics. He was president of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) from 2015 to 2016. He currently serves as the vice-chair of the Municipal Finance Authority, which has provided billions of dollars in financing to communities and public institutions in the province. His name has popped up over the years in various functions with connections to China. As vice-president of the UBCM in 2012, Richmond endorsed the inauguration of what would become a controversial yearly tradition of having the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver host a cocktail party for municipal politicians at their yearly provincial convention. Beijing was the only foreign government that sponsored the gathering, paying approximately $6,000 each year to host the cocktail receptions, where consulate officials would hobnob with politicians and make speeches. Mayor Brad West of Port Coquitlam spoke out last autumn against the reception, pointing out that Beijing was currently holding Canadians hostage and arguing the UBCM could not in good conscience accept sponsorship from that same government. Later that year, the UBCM voted to adopt a policy that it would no longer allow sponsorship of events by foreign governments. Richmond told the Star that he still doesnt see anything wrong with the Chinese Consulates sponsored reception. He said he felt that the event was a useful networking opportunity for past attendees. He said the cancellation denies an opportunity for politicians and businesses from more remote areas of B.C. to seek out foreign investment in tourism and other areas at the UBCM convention. This has been challenging for the Cariboo, which is more than a six-hour drive from Vancouver International Airport, he said. Our work has been in trying to promote Barkerville as our tourism anchor for our region it has a rich history as the place many Chinese migrants came during the Cariboo Gold Rush, he said. In the last four years, weve had many large delegations come up from the Lower Mainland and were trying to attract more tourists to come from China. In a 2016 speech, Chinese Consul General Liu Fei singled out Richmond for thanks in supporting cultural exchanges as an example of contributions to the friendly interaction and win-win co-operation between China and Canada. In 2017, Richmond organized a large trade delegation of B.C. mayors to China. It was funded in part by businessman James Wu of the Canada China City and Town Friendship Association one of numerous similar organizations around the world that promote closer ties with Beijing and collaborate with government-affiliated associations in China. The two-week trip that May involved meetings and receptions in areas across the prosperous Chinese province of Guangdong, as well as the cities of Suzhou, Wuhan and Shanghai. Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay told the Tri-City News that most meals and activities in China are being sponsored by local governments and trade offices. Walt Cobb, the mayor of Williams Lake, told the Williams Lake Tribune the trip for him and his chief administrative officer would cost the city only about $4,400 for flights and some meals. Our accommodation is being covered and we will be attending several banquets which we wont have to pay for, he said. Richmond told local media outlets at the time that he had also been working closely with Chinese government officials to arrange the delegation. The intent of the people we were working with is to build relationships, he told the Star. We live in a global economy and need to understand how other people work and play and do business. One online Chinese article shows Richmond giving a speech in Vancouver at a February 2017 symposium where controversial political issues such as Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea were endorsed by other attendees, according to the event summary. The veteran municipal-level politician said many of the economic, cultural and educational exchanges hes supported in the past have stalled as relations have deteriorated. A lot has shifted in the (Canada-China relationship) in the last two years, which senior levels of government are working on, so its beyond my ability to comment, Richmond said. However, he argued that both sides seem to have more negative perceptions of the other country than is perhaps necessary. When I was over (in China) touring, I never felt pressure from a Chinese government official at all, he said. On the plight of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who have spent more than 18 months in Chinese prisons and now face espionage charges, which are widely seen as retribution for Canadas detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, Richmond said: I think Canadians are safe in China If youre in the wrong place at the wrong time, that does happen. But generally, its safe. When it comes to human rights abuses in China and abuse of the rule of law which can affect Canadians, Richmond reiterated that it was all out of his purview. I dont have the ability to change, amend or do anything about (bilateral relations). How one sees the efforts of someone like Richmond either as an envoy striving to build connections, or as a Canadian politician pronouncing favourably upon China and its government very much depends on who is watching. That, say experts, is part of the problem. Carvin said politicians at all levels should be briefed when they take office about speaking with foreign media organizations or attending events hosted by foreign governments. Its part of what she said should be wider training on clandestine foreign influence and espionage activities, which can include targeting individual politicians as well as the spread of misinformation online to manipulate public opinion in Canada. Carvin said that while in this country Richmond, for instance, may see himself and be seen as a local politician focused on helping his own community, in China, municipal leaders often rise to positions of national power. In the best-case scenario, your comments are going to be used in propaganda. That doesnt violate any laws, because there is free speech in Canada, but if, say, you give an interview to an Iranian TV station, for example, that could bolster the regime in the eyes of many viewers, she said. A Vancouver city councillor told the Star he had to learn this the hard way. Ive attended events organized by Chinese government officials and see how they later manipulate the messaging to go hard on a nationalistic framing of the people attending their event and implying things that werent perhaps expressed by the attendees, said Pete Fry, who has served as a councillor since 2018. Complicating matters, said Fry, is that it is part of municipal politicians jobs to attend cultural and quasi-diplomatic events particularly in a city such as Vancouver, which hosts more than 80 foreign consulates. Stewart Prest, a political science lecturer at Simon Fraser University, said theres a long-standing assumption among municipal-level politicians that doesnt suit the complexity of modern times. They see their role in relation to foreign countries as purely economic, where they can leave political concerns to more senior levels of government, Prest told the Star. Theres typically nothing illegal going on; its more naivete on the part of Canadian politicians and not understanding the stakes involved in terms of broad-spectrum diplomatic efforts to extend influence in every area, Prest said. At a time of high diplomatic tensions, Prest said politicians cant afford to assume any level of government is below notice. All have to be aware that this is a time where we have multiple powers around the world vying for their interests, and the Chinese state is at the forefront of manoeuvring to advance their political agendas abroad, he said. Then there are those who worry that Beijing is doing more than PR work that it is trying to influence and interfere with other countries. A comprehensive report published in June by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a think tank founded by the Australian government and partly funded by the countrys Defence Department, mapped out the structures, methods and effects of what it calls Chinas global foreign interference system and the activities of the Chinese Communist Partys United Front Work Department. Diplomats might see United Front work as public diplomacy or propaganda but fail to appreciate the extent of related covert activities, according to the report. Security officials may be alert to criminal activity or espionage while underestimating the significance of open activities that facilitate it. Analysts risk overlooking the interrelated facets of (Chinese Communist Party) influence that combine to make it effective. By using techniques such as political donations, offering paid trips to China and showering them with flattery, the United Front can seek to co-opt international politicians, too. Canada should carry out detailed studies of United Front work across the country as well as in specific sectors, and communicate findings to the public to promote general understanding, the reports author, Alex Joske, told the Star. When the Star asked Richmond whether he was aware of details of Beijings foreign influence strategies, he said he found it difficult to make sense of the facts amid a highly charged political atmosphere. I certainly dont have all the insights and historical context, and it would be nice to be better informed about it, he said. In 2016, when Richmond was chair of the Cariboo district, he attended a ceremony in Barkerville, a town at the centre of the 19th-century Cariboo Gold Rush, where he accepted donations totalling $100,000 from the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations (CACA) for the repair of a cemetery containing remains of people of Chinese descent. CACA is a group of more than 100 organizations committed to strengthening Chinese-Canadian ties. As a Star investigation found in 2018, the alliance appears to have very close ties with the Chinese government. The CACA website states that its leading representatives have met multiple times in the last decade with senior staff of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, a Chinese government body, according to activity reports translated by the Star. Joint meetings between the alliance and members of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office are still listed as part of the alliances charter on its website. Richmond told the Star he did not know about the groups connections with the Chinese Communist Party. In February 2017, he was among several Canadian politicians who attended a Lunar New Year celebration and symposium involving CACA, other Canada-China friendship associations and senior members of the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver. Some of the other politicians present, according to event photographs and an event summary on the CACA website, included Burnaby city councillor James Wang and John Yap, a member of the B.C. legislature. Richmond was pictured giving a speech with the help of an English-Chinese translator. He told the Star he attended the event to promote tourism to the Cariboo region, and wasnt aware of any political discussions at the gathering, which was mostly conducted in Chinese. The summary of the event by CACA, which included Richmonds photograph, included a statement supporting Beijings controversial territorial claims to disputed islands in the South China Sea. It also said the joint conference was meant to initiate a series of activities to support and encourage the participation of Chinese in politics and elections during federal elections and provincial and municipal elections; and to support and encourage outstanding talents in the joint committee to become active candidates in Canadian elections. A year later, during the run-up to B.C. municipal elections of November 2018, the RCMP opened an investigation into allegations of vote-buying in support of candidates of Chinese descent by the city of Richmond, B.C.-based Wenzhou Friendship Society, which is a member of CACA. The RCMP later said it had found no evidence that merited a criminal charge and urged anyone who felt they had been a victim to come forward. John Townsend, the head of media relations for Canadas domestic spy agency, CSIS, told the Star that not only politicians but all Canadian residents should be vigilant and educate themselves about what foreign influence looks like. The scope of such activities can be broad, including state-sponsored media, hacking and traditional espionage, with the aim of interfering with the Canadian public and democratic institutions and processes, according to CSIS public reports. Foreign powers have attempted to engage in foreign influence and espionage activities in order to fulfil their own strategic and economic objectives This is not new, Townsend said. CSIS routinely engages with a variety of stakeholders including other levels of government, the private sector and post-secondary institutions to discuss potential threats to the security and interests of Canada, he added. While they are still unlikely to break laws, Carvin said politicians must be vigilant about separate incidents adding up to a situation where there could be a negative public perception whether valid or not that theyve come under the influence of a foreign state. So you have a trade trip to Beijing, meetings with Chinese officials, and now youre speaking with pro-China propaganda outlets. Each itself is not a problem, but in aggregate, there might be national security issues to worry about. However, she stressed that politicians like all Canadians enjoy a high level of freedom of speech and freedom of association, and she would much rather see more public discourse and education rather than the introduction of new laws and punitive measures. I think theres a realization now that we have to have these conversations. And we can do it in a way that is not jumping to immediately ban Xinhua or imposing many new rules about what politicians can do, she said. Some countries, such as the U.S. and Australia, have foreign actor registries where media outlets and organizations have to disclose their links with foreign governments. Canada does not have a foreign actor registry. In a statement to the Star, a spokesperson for Public Safety Canada said the government instead has a range of tools at its disposal to address the threat of foreign interference. Improving Organizational Readiness was one of the four pillars of the 2019 Plan to Protect Canadas Democracy As part of this pillar, the government of Canada offered technical advice, including online security measures and internal security practices, to Canadian political parties and election administrators to help them better protect their own cyber systems; sensitized decision-makers to the nature of foreign interference; and provided classified threat briefings to key political party leadership, the statement said. Federal authorities did not provide such briefings to each and every elected official in Canada. A spokesperson for the B.C. government said security briefings are currently conducted on an assessed case by case basis, and are not mandatory for elected officials. The briefings have not previously included municipalities, but would be extended to them on request, he said. Both Carvin and Prest argue that local-level politicians must not be overlooked. Without better awareness, Carvin added that she is concerned about knee-jerk racism and xenophobia, too, since it would be wrong to think that every China-focused association has links with the Beijing government and that politicians should therefore steer clear of all of them. There is an educational element that needs to be put out there, and the federal government needs to be sharing information with provincial and municipal-level leaders. One of the things I did in the past as an intelligence analyst was that I was flown out to different provinces to brief staff about terror threats. I dont see why this shouldnt happen for foreign influence issues, Carvin said. For his part, Richmond wholeheartedly agrees. He said he hopes that not all Chinese Canadian groups will become tarnished as politicians become more vigilant about potential foreign influence. Some of the people we were working with are Canadians who have been here for decades, he said. I dont see anything untoward in their helping with projects to promote and preserve Chinese culture in Canada. 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 Read more about: BEIRUT - A close twin sister, now separated forever. An attentive and doting husband who sacrificed for his family and promised his wife the moon. A student financing his education by working double shifts at Beiruts busy port. Tuesdays enormous explosion that killed scores of people, injured thousands and caused widespread destruction across Lebanons capital touched off widespread mourning for the victims. Although the city was mired for years in civil war and other regional violence, its beauty and cosmopolitan nature attracted fashion designers, architects and business leaders eager to make their names, as well as migrants seeking to earn money to send back home. In an instant, thousands of lives were affected by the blast that appeared to have been caused when highly explosive ammonium nitrate being stored at the citys port ignited. Among those who were lost: - A TWIN SISTER, SEPARATED FOREVER Jessy Kahwaji Daoud and her twin sister Joyce were seemingly together for all of their 31 years. They went to the same schools, took the same classes and saw each other often as adults. They each were raising a young daughter. Immediately after Tuesdays explosion, Joyce called Jessy, knowing that she was working on the ninth-floor geriatric ward of Saint George Hospital University Medical Center. The hospital is near the port, where the blast occurred. A man answered the phone instead and said he found it ringing next to the body of a bleeding woman. I knew immediately that this was my sister, Joyce said. By the time they could get her to another hospital, Jessy was dead. Joyce described her sister as someone who loves life and always had a smile on her face. She wasnt supposed to die young, Joyce added. We were born together. I wish wed died together. The last time they saw each other was Sunday, two days before the explosion. Now, shes gone. Shes gone, Joyce said. Joyce, who has a 5-year-old daughter, said she plans to raise her sisters 2-year-old daughter, who keeps asking for her mommy. Joyce said her sister loved her daughter fiercely and showered her with attention. She left me her daughter at least. Thats what we have left of Jessy, said Joyce. ___ A DOTING HUSBAND AND FATHER Soha Saade and her husband, Jihad Saade, were at Saint George Hospital, caring for their 6-year-old daughter, Gemma, who was being treated for Hodgkin lymphoma. The daughter had one more day of treatments left at the hospital before they were scheduled to leave. They saw smoke billowing outside and Soha went with nurses to see if there was any reason for worry. Then, the world exploded, she said. She returned to her husband of more than 10 years to find him bleeding from his head. At that moment, she had a choice: Carry out her sick and terrified daughter, who was still connected to IV lines, or focus on helping her bleeding husband. She decided to focus on her husband, struggling to carry him as she walked barefoot over broken pieces of glass down nine flights of stairs. Strangers helped her until her brother arrived. Jihad, 44, already was taking his last breaths. He didnt even open his eyes. I saw his soul (leave his body), Soha said. Jihad was a deeply attentive husband and father to Gemma and their son, Karl, always making sacrifices for his family, Soha said. He was carrying a big load. Everyone was counting on him, she said. He worked as a hotel manager in Lagos, Nigeria, where he was raised. Although they lived apart, he would visit Lebanon every two months, using the money he earned to also help his parents and sister. He would tell me every day, Dont worry, my love, Soha recalled. If I wanted the moon, he would bring it to me. He would never make me angry. On Sunday, he gave his wife one final present a new set of pyjamas and brought Gemma a plate of her favourite tabbouleh salad. Her chemotherapy treatments over, Gemma is now staying with relatives while Soha recovers from the shock. The hospital itself was knocked out of service by the blast, and Soha still cannot get over the circumstances of her husbands death. You are not supposed to die in a hospital, she said. This is what is killing me. ___ THE PORT WORKER Once a month, Joe Akiki worked a double shift at huge grain silos at Beiruts port. He was on that shift when an initial, smaller explosion shook the port right next to the silos on Tuesday. The 23-year-old took out his phone, shot some video and sent it to a friend. Then the bigger blast occurred. He never answered his phone again. He sent the video of the fire and then disappeared, said Wassim Mhanna, the mayor of Akikis hometown of Kfardebian, which is a famous ski resort north of Beirut. We realized something was wrong, but we had hope. His mother, Nohad, was interviewed earlier this week by a local TV station and said, My heart tells me he is under the rubble, but I am still waiting. While she waited, Nohad prayed that somehow he had survived. Akikis body was finally recovered Thursday night. An electrical engineering student, Akiki worked at the silos for three years to finance his studies. He drove to Beirut and back most days while he also took afternoon classes. He had a dream to improve his parents and own life. They went through real hardships raising them, Mhanna said. His mother, who had lost another child aged 5, discouraged him from emigrating. She would tell him, No, dont leave. Who would leave the land of cedar trees? Mhanna said, referring to Lebanons famous symbol. Now we are worried about the (parents). Akiki has a younger sister, 16. - Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. New Delhi: In the mysterious death case of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned actress Rhea Chakraborty for around 9 hours on Friday. She was probed in the presence of father Indrajeet Chakraborty, brother Showik and manager Shruti Modi respectively. As per sources, Sushant's friend and flatmate Siddharth Pithani is likely to be probed by the financial agency today. He was summoned to be in Mumbai for questioning a day back. The ED will probe Rhea's father Indrajeet Chakraborty, brother Showik Chakraborty on Monday (August 10, 2020). Along with Rhea, her brother was also the director of two of Sushant's companies. The Enforcement Directorate had registered a money laundering case against Rhea under Personal Money Laundering Act (PMLA) involving the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, a team of the financial probe agency reached the residence of Chartered Accountant Sandeep Sridhar and quizzed him a few days back. Rhea's associate Samuel Miranda and her CA Ritesh Shah were also probed in relation to the death of the actor. The ED came into action after the case was registered by the ED against Rhea and her family members. It was over Rs 15 crore amount which was allegedly spent by Rhea. The sum was withdrawn from Sushant's account, reportedly. It was after Sushant's father KK Singh had filed an FIR against Rhea in Patna. The ED has named Rhea and her family members in the case on the basis of the Bihar Police FIR. Meanwhile, the Mumbai police is also likely to submit a status report along with an affidavit in the Supreme Court today. A dossier has been prepared with details pertaining to the investigation related to Sushant's case so far. The apex court on Wednesday had asked the Mumbai police to submit its report within three days. The Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction has denied the motion to arrest Yerevan ex-mayor Robert Nazaryan, his lawyer Gagik Khachikyan told Armenian News - NEWS.am. "I have not yet got acquainted with the content of the decision," he added. The Special Investigation Service (SIS) of Armenia has earlier provided details as to why Robert Nazaryan, former mayor of Yerevan and ex-chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) of Armenia, was detained. Accordingly, Robert Nazaryan, who chaired the PSRC from 2003-2018, was detained on suspicion of committing a crime as part of a criminal investigation being conducted by the SIS, which found evidence that in 2011, Nazaryan had abused his official power in the interests of establishing privileges for a particular company. In particular, Nazaryan, had received the government's decision under the pretext of encouraging the development of hydropower in Armenia, but actually to establish privileges for a company owned by people affiliated with former President Serzh Sargsyan's son-in-law and Armenias former ambassador to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan, and set a draft decision on the maximum capacity of up to 30 MW for small hydropower plants built on water pipelines, instead of the previously installed capacity of 10 MW. Then, Nazaryan had participated in the adoption of the above-mentioned decision at the sitting of the PSRC. According to the information obtained during the investigation, due to the above-mentioned actions of Robert Nazaryan and other members of the PSRC, the said company received an additional 7,052,065,099 drams from individuals and legal entities consuming electricity in Armenia. Seoul, Aug 8 : Samsung has finally activated the ECG (electrocardiogram) functionality on Galaxy Watch Active2 in South Korea. The company was supposed to make ECG and fall detection features available in the first quarter of this year but the plan was delayed. In May this year, Samsung received clearance from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) for the ECG feature, reports SamMobile. Users need to download and install the Samsung Health Monitor app on the watch and the paired smartphone to use ECG. The ECG feature uses advanced sensor technology on the Galaxy Watch Active2, and will enable users to measure and analyze their heart rhythm for irregularities indicating Atrial Fibrillation (AFib). To measure the ECG, a user just needs to open the app and place his smartwatch arm on a flat surface, and then place his fingertip of the other hand on the top button of the smartwatch for about 30 seconds. Users in the US may also get the feature soon, as Samsung received certification from FDA to release ECG function on Galaxy Watch3 and Galaxy Watch Active2. Taking on Apple Watch that is currently the best health wearable in the market, the newly-launched Samsung Galaxy Watch3 offers blood oxygen (SpO2) and fall detection tools, and would include blood pressure (BP) monitoring and ECG readings in markets where these features have been authorised. The blood oxygen feature would measure and track oxygen saturation over time, for fitness and wellness purposes. Galaxy Watch3 will be home to the new Samsung Health Monitor app once launched, said the company. Galaxy Watch3 comes with a new feature that detects falls, which identifies a potential fall and can send an SOS notification to your chosen contacts, it added. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text We realize its an inconvenience but this is the best way to one flatten out the virus, and most importantly is to keep businesses open, Judge Whitley said. You know we very well may have to do this into the fall, we are taking this one step at a time. Mayor Price said especially heading into the school year, masks are essential. Theyre all going to have to wear their masks, their teachers will have to wear them, theyll have to teach the kids to remember to wash their hands and sanitize real often and just social distance, Mayor Price said. They all agreed, its a hard time for essential employees, but they say if we all come together, we can turn things around. If wearing the mask gets us to better days ahead lets beat this virus, Mayor Williams said. Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform. This year has in many regards been a difficult year for many of us, a pandemic running amok around the world is never going to be good news for anyone - however, dare I say it - 2020 has been somewhat of a disaster for royalty of every description. Putting to one side former King Juan Carloss mysterious disappearance in the wake of alleged corruption charges, we have the British Royal House of Windsor seemingly lurching from one crisis to another as various branches of that noble family fall foul of every imaginable scandal from serious sexual allegations, Prince Andrew, to walking away from their duties in a huff - as per the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Happily for Spain it has an incumbent monarch who commands respect and who with his family is busily rebuilding the reputation of his office. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall lay ready and waiting for the time that they will be eventually called upon to do their duty after a sticky period after the death of the Princess of Wales - but, all is not plain sailing. However, in this essay today Id like to run-the-rule over monarchy in general and consider if royalty in a modern world is still relevant. Pressure groups rumblings I like to think that I am a sort of average British citizen when it comes to royalty and the constitutional monarchy that presides over our nation. You see, I have this fear that without monarchy our President would be a failed, geriatric politician, who would take Buggins Turn for the job with other .well, youve probably guessed it! Nevertheless, in the 21st century you would be surely hard pressed to make a convincing or logical case for a constitutional monarchy based upon nothing more than birth and bloodline. Indeed, there are those who argue that a monarchy in our modern world is a complete anachronism and should be replaced by a democratically elected head of state. Others, it has to be said, find that thought both abhorrent and against all of our nations natural instincts in this matter. For many years there has been a discreet rumblings from pressure groups and high profile individuals about the necessity of having a royal family at all. Indeed, when Queen Elizabeth passes after the longest reign in history, many people at all levels of society believe that there should be a complete rethink of the way that the monarchy should be serving its people. Not forgetting of course, that thanks to our present queen should not only rules over Great Britain & Northern Ireland, but vast countries on almost every continent across the world i.e. The Commonwealth. The slimming down process Most observers judge that the critical moment for The House of Windsor will be when Her Majesty the Queen is no longer on the throne. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are hugely respected - and so it is as if this whole debate has been suspended until a new monarch is crowned. It would be interesting to see ahead to 2030 to be able to consider what changes, if any - have been introduced to that of the royal court and the duties it performs. It is said that The Prince of Wales has already been in talks with The Duke of Cambridge and senior officials regarding the oft stated sliming down of the royal family and appears to have caused a certain amount of consternation within the various elements of that household. Who knows - it could be that Prince William and Kate are set the challenge to make the British monarchy sellable to their subjects over the next few, crucial years. From watching the television news and reading British newspapers there is no doubt that Wills & Kate are front and centre on every single royal story and who could blame the palaces PR team for making that happen? What to do with the Sussex's? What to do with the Sussexs? I for one think that in the overall scheme of things to come, their disavowal of royal duties doesnt change anything at all - save to keep those tiresome royal watchers busy in the tabloids and the middle-market press. For if there is one thing that royalty of every description knows and that is - if you start flirting with show business you are finished. Similarly, the world of commerce is usually fraught with dangers for royals - and I hope I dont have to draw a picture for you; because royalty of all nations and descriptions is presently littered with examples of how not to become involved in fringe (i.e. dodgy) commercial activity! If you think about it, nobody nowadays would actually invent a system such as a constitutional monarchy - but, now could be the right time to re-set the present creaking model, to at least try to reflect the modern world we live in, rather than a pale imitation of something that was introduced by Queen Victorias consort Prince Albert, over 150 years ago. Planning ahead In time, we British subjects might have to realign some of our expectations regarding the royal family and our new King. For instance, is it absolutely necessary that every new factory in Oldham has to have a minor member of the royal family cut a ribbon for the benefit of the managing director, his wife - and several local news outlets? Would a newly slimmed down royal family still have Queen Elizabeths commitment to the Commonwealth? Many hope so, because it is a huge institution - not without its faults, but the envy of many more powerful nations that our own - where countries seek to join it, even if they have no previous historical link to the United Kingdom. Politically, dont assume that the left will be against a reformed royal household and the right will seek to keep it as it is. At the moment its a waiting game for obvious reasons; but a royal change is coming and happily the two men next in line to the British throne accept that fact and are planning ahead. Im confident that they will do the right thing. Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. James Oppong-Boanuh has urged police officers not to be influenced by their political connections in the performance of their duties in the lead up to this years elections. He said they should only show their political colours at the polling booths. He emphasized that The Presidential and Parliamentary elections will soon be held and I urge all police officers to be very circumspect, highly professional and impartial in the discharge of our duties. The only place where you show your political colour is when you enter the polling booth. He said You have to follow laid down procedures, our standard operating procedures to police the ballots and protect lives and property. You must act on every complaint that you receive and you must do so speedily to clear the doubts of critics. Mr Oppong-Boanuh said this in Tamale on Friday when he opened a conference hall and inaugurated a Police Band for the Northern Regional Police Command. Construction of the about 250 seating capacity auditorium started in 2016, and it was funded through contributions by individual police officers in the region. The IGP also spoke about motivation and logistics for police officers in the region, saying the Police Administration had instituted a special promotion for police officers posted to the northern part of the country, which he explained involved promoting them in three years ahead of their colleagues in other parts of the country, who would be promoted in four years. He advised the youth especially those in the north not to allow themselves to be used by anybody to destabilise the state, adding When you do, the law will catch up with you. Gukpe-Naa Alhaji Alhassan Abdulai, Paramount Chief of Gulkpegu Traditional Area (Tamale) assured the IGP of the support of the chiefs in ensuring peace in the region, saying chiefs in the region did not support instant attacks on police officers. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Pro-China supporters displays a picture of Donald Trump during a protest against the sanctions outside the US Consulate in Hong Kong - AP Beijing's top representative office in Hong Kong said on Saturday that sanctions imposed by Washington on senior Hong Kong and Chinese officials were "clowning actions" that would not frighten or intimidate Chinese people. The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Luo Huining, the head of China's Liaison Office, as well as Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and other current and former officials that Washington accuses of curtailing political freedoms in the global financial hub. The move ratchets up already strained tensions between the United States and China, more than a month after Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation on Hong Kong that drew condemnation from Western governments and rights groups. "The unscrupulous intentions of the US politicians to support the anti-China chaos in Hong Kong have been revealed, and their clowning actions are really ridiculous," the Liaison Office said in a statement. "Intimidation and threats cannot frighten the Chinese people." Mr Luo, the most senior mainland political official based in the Chinese-controlled territory, said US sanctions on him indicated he was doing what he "should be doing for my country and Hong Kong", according to the statement. As well as Mr Luo and Ms Lam, the sanctions target Hong Kong police commissioner Chris Tang and his predecessor Stephen Lo; John Lee, Hong Kong's secretary of security, and Teresa Cheng, the justice secretary. Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing, was also on the list. The sanctions freeze any US assets of the officials and generally bar Americans from doing business with them. The Treasury Department said Beijing's imposition of "draconian" national security legislation had undermined Hong Kong's autonomy and set "the groundwork for censorship of any individuals or outlets that are deemed unfriendly to China." Story continues Beijing imposed the law directly on Hong Kong just before midnight on June 30, circumventing the city's legislature, and the city's officials were not aware of the details of the law until it was implemented. Police chief Tang told local media on Saturday that maintaining the security of the country and Hong Kong was his responsibility and foreign sanctions were meaningless to him. The security legislation targets what Beijing broadly defines as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison. Some political analysts say the national security law coming directly from Beijing and bypassing Hong Kong's legislature signals the start of a more authoritarian rule in the semi-autonomous city and a march toward mainland control. Critics fear the legislation will crush wide-ranging freedoms in Hong Kong denied to people in mainland China that are seen as key to its success as a global financial centre. Supporters of the law say it will bring stability after a year of sometimes violent anti-government protests that plunged the city into its biggest crisis in decades. Almost half of the central funds meant for rural employment guarantee scheme and subsidised ration the two central schemes that have helped to deal with the economic distress due to Covid-19 - have already been spent in the first four months of financial year 2020-21, government data shows. While the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) enabled 90 million households to get work between April and July 2020, subsidised ration under National Food Security Act (NFSA), also called public distribution system (PDS), was provided to an average 720 million people every month during this period. According to the central government data, till July 2020, around 45% of Rs 1,01,500 crore for NREGA and 44% of 1,15,569 NFSA funds for the current financial year has already been allocated to the states. The data also pointed out that the demand in these two schemes came down in the month of July after peaking in June, indicating that who had left for villages may be migrating back to cities or moving elsewhere looking for work, as industrial activity has started in and around urban centres. Under MGNREGA, 24.2 million households were provided work in July as compared to 38.9 million in June (highest ever under the scheme for a month) and 33.1 million in May. The employment in July was less because migrant workers returned to cities and labourers got engaged in sowing work that started in July after a good spell of rains, said Nikhil Dey, former member of NREGAs Central Advisory Council, and an activist working in rural areas of Rajasthan. This year, employment provided under the scheme, which guarantees 100 days of work in a year, is almost 50% more than in 2019 and 2018, he said. Also, the number of people provided 100 days of employment during the period is almost three times of the number in 2019. Himanshu, associate professor in department of labour studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University, who uses only his first name, said NREGA has provided social security to rural poor, for which, it was envisaged, and this is amply clear from the data. Covid-19 has shown that wages under NREGA has to be realistic as they are very low as compared to minimum wages notified by the state governments, he said. Similarly, the disbursement of subsidised ration peaked in the month of June with 94% of the 800 million identified beneficiaries under NFSA getting food grains. In July, the disbursement came down to 91%, which was about seven percentage points less than the number in June and July of 2019. In terms of food grain disbursed, 28 lakh tonnes of rice and 21 million tonnes of wheat was given to the needy in June, which went down to 24.41 lakh tonnes of rice and 19.91 lakh tonnes of wheat in July. Still, this is about 20% more food grains given to the beneficiaries as compared to June and July 2019, the official data showed. However, employment generated under NREGA and ration disbursed under NFSA in July was still higher than the pre-lockdown that started on March 24, 2020. The officials expect the off-take to remain high in these two schemes and other rural development programmes till the end of this year. Financial crunch The NREGA funds are given to states to pay wages to workers and buy raw material for asset creation. The money, in the form of food subsidy, is given to the Food Corporation of India for supplying grains from its stocks to different states for PDS. We are left with very less money under NREGA for the current financial year, said a rural development ministry official, while briefing the Parliamentary standing committee on labour on Friday. At this pace, the official said, the NREGA funds would be exhausted by early December. He, however, added that as NREGA is a demand driven scheme, the Central government has to pay to the states and the finance ministry has assured that there would be no shortage of funds. For many years, it has been abundantly clear to Emily Hunt how some people working in the criminal justice system viewed her. I was just another woman who had got drunk and found herself in bed with a man and who then woke up afterwards regretting it, she says. And it is certainly true that, when the then 36-year-old strategy consultant had groggily woken up naked in a five-star London hotel bedroom next to a stranger, she had no memory at all of how she had got there. For many years, it has been abundantly clear to Emily Hunt (pictured) how some people working in the criminal justice system viewed her The then 36-year-old strategy consultant groggily woke up naked in a five-star London hotel bedroom (stock photo of a hotel room pictured) next to a stranger, she had no memory at all of how she had got there Her last recollection had been of enjoying a convivial lunch with her father five hours earlier. But then she had found herself, her head thumping, lying next to a man she didnt know who was fully clothed and casually flicking through the television channels with a remote control as he leaned against the headboard next to her. Chillingly, she could hear him laughing. Yet while she couldnt remember anything about the previous few hours, Emily instinctively knew one thing: something had happened to her that she had not consented to. It has taken her five exhausting years to prove this in court a brave battle for justice that saw every area of her life (her career, relationships and mental health) crumble. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and at one point tried to take her own life. But so determined was she to get justice and hold that man to account that she began a crowdfunding campaign, raising 27,000 in an ultimately futile attempt to bring a private prosecution after the Crown Prosecution Service did not take up the case. And despite the fact that exactly how she ended up in that hotel room is still shrouded in mystery, last week her battle finally ended in a landmark victory, when, on Friday, the man she found herself in bed with who can now be named for the first time as Christopher Killick, 40 pleaded guilty to voyeurism at Thames magistrates court. The man she found herself in bed with who can now be named for the first time as Christopher Killick (pictured), 40 pleaded guilty to voyeurism at Thames magistrates court Killick, from Brent, North-West London, admitted filming an unconscious Emily lying naked in the hotel bed, making a 62-second video for the purposes of sexual gratification without her consent. He will be sentenced in September. It is complete vindication for Ms Hunt, who has courageously waived her right to anonymity in order to highlight how she believes women victims of sexual assault are not treated seriously enough by the criminal justice system. Only recently has the law on voyeurism been made tougher. Meanwhile, there is still widespread concern about the low rate of rape prosecutions. This is an important victory, she told The Mail on Sunday in an exclusive interview. Weve shown that the CPS needs to prosecute cases like this and it is possible. Its an amazing moment. This is much bigger than being just about me. Weve proved that everyone ought to be protected from this kind of invasion of privacy. However, it has been a very arduous and painful process, with Emilys case triggering a heated debate about the mistreatment of women victims of sex attacks. Originally from New York, Emily had a senior position as a management consultant, having moved to London 12 years ago. On that fateful day in May 2015, she had left her then five-year-old daughter with her ex-husband while she met her father who was visiting from Ireland. They had lunch at a favourite restaurant in Bethnal Green, East London, near her home. After a difficult couple of years, she recalls feeling hopeful and happy. I had just finalised my divorce. I was interviewing for a big job and I had a date the next night with a lawyer. At the time, I wanted to find the right partner, get a big job and maybe have some more kids. That was how I saw the next five to ten years of my life to be. Yet what unfolded over the next few hours a gap that shes still unable to fully account for shattered her confidence and devastated her life. Around 10pm, five hours after she had parted company with her father, Emily found herself in bed waking up next to Killick in a 300-a-night hotel with no idea how she had got there. I was naked, curled up and cold. I was still out of it, she recalls. Its like Id been picked up and dropped next to this guy on the bed. I had never seen him before in my life. I was very cold and felt weird, kind of fuzzy, but I definitely wasnt suffering a hangover. Although she had enjoyed a few drinks with her father including wine and the Italian liqueur grappa it was not enough to get her intoxicated. Convinced she must have been drugged and raped, a terrified and confused Emily stumbled to the hotel bathroom and texted a friend, who called the police. I began to get more and more freaked out so I gathered up my clothes and quickly got dressed, she said. As I was coming out, the man tried to convince me not to leave. But it was really scary because this was someone I didnt know. She asked his name and phone number so as not to alert his suspicion and fled downstairs. There, I fell into the arms of a police officer and started having a hyperventilating panic attack. In the end, the police called an ambulance because they thought I was having a heart attack. It was terrifying. Killick, who was stone-cold sober, was duly arrested. For her part, Emily, who ever since has relentlessly pursued the Metropolitan Police for information, later learned that his rucksack contained condoms, Viagra and what was thought to be the hallucinogenic drug LSD. Police also found used condoms in the room. Killick is understood to have told police that he met her in a bar and they went to the hotel and had consensual sex. Yet, astonishingly, despite taking urine samples, the police refused to carry out an internal examination on her until five days later as they said she was too intoxicated to consent to it. And when the toxicology results did come back, they showed Emily had definitively not been drugged with the date-rape drug GHB although two years on, re-run results came back as inconclusive. Later, Emily found out that CCTV footage showed her leaving a bar with Killick less than a mile from the restaurant and the hotel. It shows me swaying with my arms all over him, she says. At various points Im not able to hold myself up. Im falling over onto a bench. A test later showed that the amount of alcohol in her system was only twice that of the drink-drive limit under the level at which someone is said to be unable to consent to sex. In a strange parallel, her father had blurred memories of that day, too with a hazy recollection of getting to the airport or taking his flight back to Ireland. None of this seemed to be taken into account, and the CPS did not charge Killick with any offence on the basis that there wasnt enough evidence. It was at this point that Emilys mental health hit an all-time low. I went back to the hotel where it all happened and I tried to kill myself, she says. I felt discounted. I felt like the CPS did not care about me. Fortunately, she had messaged a friend about taking her own life and the police tracked her phone back to the hotel. They traced me there and saved my life, Emily says. It was then that she was diagnosed with PTSD. It helped everything make a lot more sense, she says. I had previously thought I was losing my mind. Yet worse was to come. A year after the hotel bedroom incident, police informed Emily that the man had filmed her while she was naked and unconscious. They told me hed admitted to taking a video, she says. He told the police that he had planned to use it to satisfy himself later on and that he knew he didnt have my permission. This was a whole new layer of violation. Im incredibly private and have never allowed anyone to take and have a video of me naked. Determined that Killick answer for what he did, Emily (pictured) then filed a separate police report in the hope he would be arrested for voyeurism defined by law as observing or recording an individual doing a private act for sexual gratification without gaining their consent Although she has never watched the video, a friend who saw it on her behalf described the footage as really creepy. Determined that Killick answer for what he did, Emily then filed a separate police report in the hope he would be arrested for voyeurism defined by law as observing or recording an individual doing a private act for sexual gratification without gaining their consent. Again, the CPS did not charge Killick a decision upheld after Emily appealed. Although voyeurism is a crime under the 2003 Sexual Offences Act, the CPS stated that filming someone naked in a private room did not constitute an offence if they had consented to being looked at naked. Emily was astounded. I couldnt understand how could somebody not see this as a serious crime, she says. Undeterred, and backed by the Centre for Womens Justice the same legal team that helped the victims of the serial black cab rapist John Worboys Emily fought for a judicial review of the case. Her arguments were heard alongside a similar case and led to a landmark ruling that non-consensual intimate filming was illegal. As a result, prosecutors reviewed Emilys case and arrested Killick in May. Finally, on Friday, Killick, who is out of work, lives with his mother and who cut a shambling figure in court, pleaded guilty at Thames magistrates court to taking the clandestine video. He now faces a sentence of 26 weeks in prison. His lawyer told the court he had no previous convictions and had been unaware that making the video was illegal. Killick was also given a restraining order preventing him from using social media to comment on the case, after the court heard he had set up a Twitter account to message Emily two weeks ago. For Emily, who went to the court hearing but sat in a side room so as not to have to see Killick, it is a closure of sorts. Now I feel as though I can get a job and a boyfriend and restart my life again, she says. Yet questions still remain over why it has taken her five years to get justice and also what has happened to the video footage. Im not 100 per cent certain whether the video still exists or has been downloaded anywhere. That is just terrifying, says Emily. He had some weird software on his phone that could have been used for messaging. Its something that plays on my mind a lot. Emilys ordeal comes amid growing scrutiny on the CPS, which has been accused of not bringing enough rape cases to court and criticised for unsympathetic treatment of sexual assault victims. Last year, the introduction of a new Voyeurism Offences Act was designed to deal with the increase of digital sex abuse, including upskirting, whereby someone photographs from below a womans skirt without her knowledge. These issues are one reason why Emily is writing a book about what she has been through a process she describes as cathartic. She wants to highlight what she sees as societys failure to confront sexual violence. Its vitally important for people to know that what happened to me could happen to any woman, she says. Meanwhile, she has tried to shield her daughter from her ordeal but realises that one day she will need to explain what happened. She is aged ten and were starting to get to a point where those little ears are starting to hear things and put things together, she says. But she already knows that her mummy is trying to put more criminals in jail and shes really proud of me. Low visibility, wet runway, low cloud base, all leading to very poor braking action is what looks like led to where we are at the moment with this crash, Martin said, calling for the European Aviation Safety Agency and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to assist with the Indian governments investigation. As many as 30 CISF personnel who rescued passengers from the Air India Express flight that crashed in Kozhikode on Friday evening have been quarantined after at least two passengers onboard tested positive for Covid-19. The officials were quarantined on Saturday for the next 14 days. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) was the first responder to the crash site at Karipur airport where the Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the table-top runway, fell into a 35-feet deep valley and broke into two killing eighteen passengers, including the two pilots of the Boeing 737 aircraft. Senior officers from the CISF said on Saturday it was discovered that one of the passengers who had died in the crashes turned out to be infected with coronavirus. There were reports of another survivor being Covid-19 positive, however, it is yet to be ascertained. As a precautionary measure we have quarantined out personnel who were involved in rescuing these passengers, the officer said requesting anonymity. Also read| Saw the aircraft plunge towards us: CISF officer Confirming the development, CISF Special Director General (Airports) M A Ganapathy said through contact tracing so far they have identified 30 CISF personnel who needed to be quarantined. 13 of them who live with their families will remain under home quarantine while the other 17 have been quarantined in a college close to the airport in accordance with the state administration, Ganapathy said. Apart from these 30, the force will also conduct Covid-19 tests for those who were exposed, another officer said. He said some officials from the airport have also been asked to go into self-quarantine. The state government has now urged the residents who helped in the rescue work to go into quarantine. The state will always remember their work but we have to take precautions, state health minister K K Shailaja said. Dr. Cairo Ojougboh PM News reports that the Acting Executive Director, Projects of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, said the agency will soon reveal more shocking details about its contracts and the contractors. As for the list of contractors we published, that was for 2018 alone. By the time we publish that of 2019, a lot of things will come out to the open. Some person claim they did not benefit from NDDC but we have documents linking them to those contracts. The forensic audit is unearthing a lot of things, 2016, 2017 and 2019 list are ready. But we have decided we would not be distracted again, Ojougboh said. In the list published, big political names such as James Ibori, Emmanuel Uduaghan, Senator Orji Kalu were mentioned as contractors. Read what is in the news today. Politics A flag hoisting ceremony was held in Hanoi on Friday morning to mark the 53rd founding anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (August 3, 1967) and 25 years of Vietnams ASEAN membership (July 28, 1995). Society Vietnam confirmed five new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday morning, including three community-bases infections traced to the outbreak epicenter in the central city of Da Nang and two imported cases. The Ministry of Health is tracking down passengers on two flights, VN7282 from Da Nang to Hanoi on July 26 and VJ733 from Hai Phong City to Khanh Hoa Province on July 27, due to connection to COVID-19-patients. Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup on Friday afternoon donated 1,700 ventilators and chemical sufficient for 56,000 COVID-19 tests to the Ministry of Health. A traffic accident between a truck and a motorbike on a section of National Highway 51 passing through Phuoc Tan Ward in Bien Hoa City of the southern province of Dong Nai on Friday afternoon killed a 19-year-old man at the scene, causing heavy congestion. A woman from the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long on Friday gave birth to rare triplets, with two of them born with the caul, at Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. More than 530 Vietnamese citizens stranded in Singapore and Taiwan due to COVID-19 were flown home on Friday and quarantined upon arrival. A man from Singapore was sentenced to death for drug trafficking by the Peoples Court in the southern province of Tay Ninh on Friday, the Vietnam News Agency reported. Business The Asia Pacific regions leading rewards and discovery platform ShopBack officially launched its website and mobile app in Vietnam on Friday. Education More than 850,000 students across Vietnam, except Da Nang City and some localities in Quang Nam Province and Buon Ma Thuot City in Dak Lak Province, are expected to be present at examination venues on Saturday afternoon to complete procedures for the national high school exam, which will officially take place on Sunday and Monday. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Japan famously has one of the highest life expectancies in the world but its birth rate is also at an all time low, leaving the future of the country uncertain. Washington-based journalist Yumi Araki returns to the country of her birth to explore how Japan is planning to cope with the consequences of its fast-greying population. She discovers the unexpected impacts of an ageing nation: from dying towns to the popularity of coffin experiences. And meets the people working to find solutions: from an engineer working to give us superhuman strength to a granny who is using hiphop to keep loneliness at bay. - CNA Porterville, CA (93257) Today Evening clouds will give way to clearing overnight. Low 42F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Evening clouds will give way to clearing overnight. Low 42F. Winds light and variable. A Venezuelan court on Friday sentenced two ex-U.S. special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a failed operation to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, AP reports. Why it matters: The case comes amid heightened tensions between Washington, D.C., and Caracas after the Trump administration last year publicly supported opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has vowed to oust Maduro through a military uprising. Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both decorated former Green Berets, were found guilty of conspiracy, trafficking in illegal arms and terrorism. Their lawyers said they were barred from judicial proceedings Friday night, adding the court violated their constitutional right to a defense. What happened: Operation Gideon launched from Colombia in early May and left at least eight rebel soldiers dead while another 60 were jailed, per AP. Another former Green Beret, Jordan Goudreau, took responsibility for the failed attack and said he hired Denman and Berry to prepare for the attack. Venezuelan prosecutors have ordered Goudreau's arrest, though he is believed to be in the U.S. American officials have denied a role in the raid, and have not said what knowledge they have about camps in Colombia that the group used to organize the operation. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 11:04:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in the United States on Friday expressed condolences on the passing of Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft, a two-time U.S. national security advisor and important contributor to China-U.S. relations. "General Scowcroft was an accomplished statesman and diplomat and an old friend of the Chinese people. He made important contributions to the China-U.S. relationship, and supported and promoted its growth throughout his career," said the embassy in a statement. "Maintaining and developing a healthy and stable China-U.S. relationship is in the interests of both the two countries and peoples and the international community," it said. "With the joint efforts of the two sides, we hope to take the relationship back to the right track despite current disturbances and difficulties. This is the best way to honor General Scowcroft," it said. Scowcroft, 95, who had served as U.S. national security adviser under former Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George Bush, died on Thursday of natural causes at his home in Falls Church, Virginia. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 00:51:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities have started a two-month campaign to address prominent problems of online education platforms for minors and protect students' lawful rights and interests, said the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Friday. Jointly launched by the administration and the Ministry of Education, the campaign aims to rectify problems regarding online games, dating sites, and pornographic, violent and fraudulent information advertised on the learning platforms. In light of the fact that the majority of students have turned to online courses during the epidemic, such content risks having a negative impact on society, endangering students' physical and mental health. Under the campaign, all platforms setting up online classes for minors are asked to assume the main responsibility of content management on the pages, strictly examine the courses, and ban pop-up advertisements and information that are unsuitable for minors. The administration vowed to harshly crack down on illegal platforms and institutions involved in such issues in accordance with the law, and create a healthy learning environment for minors. In a separate campaign, launched in early July, against harmful online content for minors, a number of online learning platforms and apps were investigated and punished, according to the CAC. Those platforms and apps featuring content that was harmful to minors, such as vulgar pop-up advertisements and violent animations, were ordered to rectify the situation. Enditem Clash at Jaffna counting centre; Row over votes for Sumanthiran and Sasikala View(s): Around 1.30 am on Friday, the Jaffna Central College counting centre was chaotic as Special Task Force (STF) personnel on duty made a baton charge, when a group of people tried to enter the counting room. In the ensuing chaos, two people were injured, one of them being a local councillor. The group, consisting of supporters of TNA candidate Sasikala Raviraj and those who gathered alleged foul play in the preferential vote counting process as she was leading initially but was later pushed to fourth place losing the race once the counting was finalised. TNA front-liner M.A. Sumanthiran, who was far behind the list earlier, advanced to second place with 27, 834 votes while Ms Raviraj won 23, 098 votes. When Mr Sumanthiran visited the counting centre passed midnight, those who gathered shouted against him alleging he had stolen votes cast for Ms Raviraj. Visibly tired and disappointed Ms Raviraj left the scene, as some of her supporters were crying while others were broadcasting the scene live through their social media accounts. Mr Sumanthiran who met reporters the next day rejected those allegations asking how she could level such allegations when the difference between the preferential votes between them was more than 4000. I do not want to comment on the conduct of Ms Raviraj during this election campaign. She was our partys female candidate. She was also a first time contestant. It is regrettable that she has lost. he said. Shock over loss of seat for COPE champion Sunil Handunetti Shocking many voters was the failure of JVP front-liner Sunil Handunetti to secure a seat from the Matara district at Wednesdays election. Mr Handunetti, who won country-wide admiration for the role he played as Chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), was widely expected to win a seat this time. Initial results indicated that Mr Handunetti had secured a seat, leading to wide celebrations across social media. Hopes were dashed not long after however, when more results coming in showed that he would miss out by a few thousand votes. Social media users were furious. You had one job Matara, said one outraged tweet, indicating that it was the districts duty to elect Mr Handunetti. Many took out their frustrations on voters in Matara, attacking them for not casting their ballots for a man seen as one of the few upright and honest politicians who had represented Parliament in recent times. Some shared Facebook memes noting that the country did not deserve an MP of his calibre. Others contrasted Mr Handunettis defeat with the election of candidates with dubious track records, complaining that the countrys voters had little or no idea of the value of voting intelligently. Monitors express concern over record number of 744, 373 invalid votes Unlike any other previous election, Wednesdays parliamentary polls saw some 744, 373 votes recorded as rejected 4.8 percent of the total polls. Election monitors said that compared to active civil participation with the highest turnout in previous national elections, they were worried about the number of invalid votes. Some of them indicated that this unusual electoral behavior could be due to a significant number of UNP supporters being confused, since the party is in disarray and there were intra-conflicts. Rambutan in exchange for a vote While there were no major incidents of violence on election day, there were many reports of minor violations. The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), which had monitors deployed throughout the island, had a running update on Twitter about violations of election laws. One such report was of an SLPP supporter distributing a chit bearing numbers of the partys Gampaha district candidates at the Ganhinigama North Community Hall polling centre in Dompe. The chits were not the only thing the supporter was allegedly distributing. The CMEV had received reports that each chit came with a rambutan. One wonders if the supporter believed that a persons vote has cheapened to such an extent. Global Tamil Forum calls on Tamil political parties to step up Expressing concerns that the Tamil National Alliances (TNA) power eroded in North and East in the recently concluded polls, Global Tamil Forum (GTF), an influential body consist of Tamil diaspora organisations, called upon Tamil parties to articulate a long term vision and action plan that should comprehensively address Tamil peoples political, economic, educational and cultural aspirations in a principled and pragmatic manner. Not properly heeding to this powerful message the election has eloquently conveyed could lead to decay and decimation of Tamil nationalistic politics in Sri Lanka, GTF warned, while noting that Tamil political landscape is changing even though the TNA unquestionably remains the predominant political party that represents Tamil national interests throughout the Northern and Eastern provinces. Historic win for SLFP in Jaffna Angajan Ramanathan became the first ever candidate elected from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) from the Jaffna electoral district at the 2020 parliamentary election. Up until Wednesdays election, the SLFP had never been able to secure a seat from the North at any Previous Parliamentary poll. Before Mr Ramanathan, the only candidate to have contested on the SLFP ticket in the North was C. Kumarasuriar, who contested the 1977 parliamentary election from the Kilinochchi electorate, but failed to get elected. Kumarasuriar contested at a time when Tamil nationalist parties held a strong presence in the North. Mr Ramananthans achievement is remarkable in that it happened in similar circumstances in the post-war North. He however, polled the highest number of preferential votes (36, 365) in the district, pushing candidates from the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) into second place. Mr Ramanathan, who was educated abroad, returned to the country in 2010 and was appointed as the SLFP Organiser in Jaffna. In the 2015 parliamentary polls he failed to secure a seat but was appointed under the SLFP national list. Sri Lankas elections signal a sea change never witnessed before: Lord Naseby The result of the 2020 parliamentary elections signals a sea change never before witnessed in Sri Lanka, British Conservative peer Lord Naseby said. Congratulating Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his parliamentary colleagues on their election victory, Lord Naseby, President of the UKs All Party British Sri Lanka parliamentary group, said the old order of the UNP and SLFP have been consigned to history and replaced by the SLPP and the SJB. This is a new dawn for Sri Lanka, a fresh era creating the opportunity for the country to come together and finally put to bed the idea of any Tamil Eelam independence movement, he said. Lord Naseby said it is now the time for the West to understand the new mood in Sri Lanka; the desire on all sides for reconciliation to become realistic without any interference from the West or the UN Human Rights Council. This is a sea change never before witnessed in Sri Lanka. I for one recognise it. So should the UK Government and the factions of the Tamil diaspora in the UK and elsewhere, he said. Lankans returning from UAE to arrive at Mattala airport today By Meleeza Rathnayake A group of 420 Sri Lankans in Dubai who have been unable to return to the country due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions will arrive at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport today (Sunday) on an Emirates flight. The group will arrive at 4.30 p.m., according to the Chairman of Airport & Aviation Services Ltd., (Retd.) Major-General G.A. Chandrasiri. While Emirates used the Mattala airport on just one occasion, in the past, for refuelling purposes, this is the first time it would be touching down with passengers disembarking at the airport. The Sri Lankan Embassy in the UAE has requested the flight to land at Mattala instead of the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) at Katunayake, where most of the repatriation flights have so far landed. While the two airports are closed to normal traffic, the authorities have been operating repatriation flights to ferry thousands of Sri Lankans particularly in West Asia many of whom have lost their jobs back to their homes. Janhvi Kapoor Says Gunjan Saxena Makers Saw Potential In Her Which She Now Needs To Justify San Mateo County Health Officer Scott Morrow said this week that the state made the "wrong diagnosis" in adding the county to the COVID-19 watchlist as the its monitoring framework is flawed. "Our numbers indicate we are in a relatively stable state in regards to the spread of the virus. For those who want to drive the spread to zero, this is simply not possible," Morrow said Thursday. "Over the last few weeks, our hospitalizations are stable and/or decreasing. Recently, our deaths have been low," he said. San Mateo County was added to the state's COVID-19 watch list on July 29 for having a case rate above the state's threshold of 100 per 100,000 people. As of Friday, Aug. 7, that number stands at 114.8 according to the California Department of Public Health's county data chart. However, the state froze the county monitoring list on July 31 to ensure that hospital data was accurate. Then the state health department announced Tuesday that there were technical issues and delays with the state's reporting system, leading to an underreporting of cases. Even with this data glitch, Morrow said Thursday that he remains of the same opinion and described the framework as "arbitrary" and "constantly changing", citing data quality and consistency issues and changing numbers that do not reflect reality. He said the framework does not take into account what's going on locally and that San Mateo County's risk reduction strategies seem to be working. Because of this, he said, "I feel the state has made the wrong 'diagnosis' and therefore is prescribing the wrong 'treatment' for San Mateo County." As of Aug. 2, after three consecutive days on the watch list, additional business in San Mateo County such as salons, barbershops and fitness centers were required to close unless they can provide outdoor or curbside service. "I wish to apologize to all the businesses that were closed this week," Morrow said. "I am not supportive of these actions and, for San Mateo County, I believe they are misdirected and will cause more harm than good." He said that barbershops, nail salons and other businesses required to close are not the main cause of spread. In a statement on July 20, Morrow noted that "seemingly innocuous get-togethers" are driving spread as many infections are related to small gatherings of family and friends. "Our collective best course of action: No gatherings outside of immediate households, use facial coverings extensively, and social distancing," Morrow said. As of Friday, San Mateo County remains on the state monitoring list. Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency Dr. Mark Ghaly gave an update Friday about the COVID-19 data reporting issue. He said the state would be working over the next 48 hours to address a backlog of up to 300,000 records. The CalREDIE (California Reportable Disease Information Exchange) system handles records for all diseases, including COVID-19 test results. The state will have to separate COVID-19 records, remove duplicates, distinguish between negative and positive test results, then calculate positivity rates from there. Despite the backlog, Ghaly said that no changes to their response policies were based on incomplete data, and trends discussed earlier this week remain the same. On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said that there was a slight drop in the number of positive cases. 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. Not having a voting councilman "creates a feeling that we don't have anybody going to bat for us," says Hugo Garcia, who heads the El Sereno Organizing Committee. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Hours after Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar was arrested and charged in a corruption probe, he was swiftly suspended by the rest of the council. His paychecks were soon cut off and his name disappeared from the District 14 newsletter. In Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock and El Sereno, his name was even papered over on signs for his field offices. Huizar, the message is clear, is no longer in charge. But weeks later, many Angelenos remain puzzled about who is actually running the council office that represents neighborhoods stretching from downtown to Eagle Rock. "We're all asking the same question about what's going to happen now," said Marco Antonio Navarro, a Boyle Heights resident who sits on a neighborhood council. "We're just in a state of limbo." Although residents voted in March to elect former state Senate leader Kevin de Leon to the Eastside seat, he is not slated to be sworn in until December. Former Huizar employees still staff the office, but district spokeswoman Laura McKinney, when asked about a recent decision at City Hall, sent along a statement not from Huizar but from "Council District 14." When Huizar was suspended, "a traditional caretaker was not designated for CD 14," McKinney said in another statement. "This gave the public perception that CD 14 was not in a position to carry out the delivery of essential city services." McKinney said that despite that perception, district staffers are currently working under the direction of Eduardo Soriano-Hewitt, Huizar's chief of staff, to respond to residents' concerns and ensure that city services are delivered during the pandemic. Navarro said that for day-to-day concerns about issues like street sweeping, "everything seems to be running as usual." But others complain that, without a council member to cast votes or introduce motions at City Hall, they are no longer represented like other Angelenos. Even before he was suspended, Huizar had stopped going to council meetings and voting. The last time he introduced any motions was in mid-May, according to city records. Story continues "The staff may be there, but what is the staff empowered to do at this moment?" asked Rolando Cruz, a Boyle Heights resident who heads the tenants rights group Inquilinos Unidos. "Who is casting votes on behalf of the constituents?" Other council members can still introduce motions for the district once represented by Huizar. For instance, Council President Nury Martinez recently introduced a motion to help a school in the downtown district get a permit to prepare for a campus expansion project, at the request of Huizar staffers. Such motions are first vetted by city analysts. McKinney said that Martinez's office "has set up informal procedures for our office to address issues on an ad hoc basis," since "there are no formal procedures laid out in the charter for suspended council members." Martinez has been determining whether to introduce motions from the downtown district, focusing on "high-priority" matters, McKinney said. If local residents have legislative concerns, McKinney added, "there's nothing that precludes CD 14 from advocating on behalf of its residents or connecting residents with voting members of the City Council." Suspended Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, center, arrives at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday for a conference to set his trial date. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) But Estela Lopez, executive director of the Downtown Industrial Business Improvement District, said she was troubled during a recent debate on resuming comprehensive cleanups of homeless encampments that there was no one on the council representing skid row, located in Huizar's district. Nor was there anyone representing the district during debates over the police budget. "We don't have a voice right now at the City Council," said Lopez, who lives just outside the district and whose group advocates for downtown business and property owners. "How can the second-largest downtown in the country not have representation at a pivotal if not historic moment in our country's history?" El Sereno resident Hugo Garcia said that not having a voting councilman "creates a feeling that we don't have anybody going to bat for us." Garcia, who heads the El Sereno Organizing Committee, said he has been concerned about how the city will address the needs of a homeless encampment on the Huntington Drive median, including sufficient toilets, more trash collection, housing referrals and supportive services to address mental health, substance abuse and other needs. He wants there to be a community task force to address those issues, but thinks it will be harder to initiate without an active councilman. And when Cyndi Otteson, an Eagle Rock resident who recently ran for the council seat, wanted to support calls for an investigation into police tactics used against Black Lives Matter protesters in the Fairfax district, she ended up not sending an email because "I didn't have a council person to put pressure on." In another instance, when she wanted to urge the council to defund the Police Department and redirect money to other services, she emailed the council president. "But I'm not sure how much traction that is getting," Otteson said. De Leon has also expressed concerns about the lack of representation: At one point, he stepped in to oppose a move to reallocate funding from the downtown streetcar project, arguing that doing so would be "taking advantage" of the absence of a voting representative. The council shunted the proposal back to a committee. Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Atty. Mike Feuer, said that suspending an official means that his or her office is temporarily vacant. So far, however, no one else has been appointed to the seat. Even though Otteson ran against De Leon for the seat, she said she would like to see him appointed as soon as possible so that residents have representation. De Leon told the Boyle Heights Beat in a July interview that he was ready to take over, but "I want to make sure that there is legal clarity." At the time, De Leon said his understanding was that "unless theres a conviction or a voluntary resignation, which there has been neither, that seat currently is occupied" by Huizar. As of Friday, however, De Leon said his "understanding has shifted" on when and how an appointment could be made and that his team was working with other city officials to make sure the district has a voting representative as soon as possible. For the record: 8:54 AM, Aug. 08, 2020: In an earlier version of this article, a comment by City Council District 14 spokeswoman Laura McKinney theres nothing that precludes CD 14 from advocating on behalf of its residents or connecting residents with voting members of the City Council was misattributed to Council President Nury Martinez. No comment from Taiwan on potential sale of advanced drones ROC Central News Agency 08/07/2020 06:50 PM Taipei, Aug. 7 (CNA) Taiwan had no response Friday to a Reuters report that the United States is in negotiations to sell at least four advanced aerial drones to Taiwan, which would be the first sale of such drones to Taipei. The report, published Thursday, said the sale of four SeaGuardian surveillance drones to Taiwan, including expenses for ground stations, spares, training and support systems, could be worth about US$600 million. The drones could help Taiwan keep watch over wide swathes of sea and land because of its 6,000-nautical-mile range, far beyond the 160-nautical mile range of Taiwan's current fleet of drones, the report said. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense spokesman Shih Shun-wen () declined to comment on the report. But Chieh Chung (), a research fellow at the National Policy Foundation, told CNA that the critical part of the drone sale hinges on whether the U.S. will provide a comprehensive satellite system as a back-up to the drones. If they are forced to operate without the satellite back-up, the drones would have trouble carrying out long-distance missions because ground control systems can be affected by the curvature of the earth and the atmospheric environment, Chieh said. With the satellite system, which would have a military-grade global positioning system (GPS) and sophisticated communications and surveillance systems, the drones would be ideal for long-distance ocean surveillance and patrols because they can stay in the air for nearly 40 hours, Chieh said. According to Aerospace Testing International magazine, the long endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) SeaGuardian is a variant of the MQ-9 Reaper drone, featuring lightning protection, composite materials, and sense and avoid technology. The SeaGuardian, which has a 79-foot wingspan, can fly for up to 40 hours at up to 50,000 feet, the magazine said. Su Tzu-yun (), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the SeaGuardian has stronger security functions than the MQ-9 Reaper drone and therefore would serve as a more appropriate aircraft to work in the crowded air space over the Taiwan Strait. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin () said Friday that China adamantly opposed the deal for Washington to sell the advanced surveillance drones to Taipei. Wang urged the U.S. to follow the "one China principle," and argued that the sale would violate the Three Joint Communiques signed by the U.S. and China between 1972 and 1982, which have played a crucial role in the development of relations between Washington and Beijing. Wang cited the third and final joint communique signed on Aug. 18, 1982 as saying Washington should gradually scale back arms sales to Taipei. (By Yen Ssu-chi, Yu Kai-hisang and Frances Huang) Enditem/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sits outside its headquarters in Vienna DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq said on Friday it would cut its oil production by another 400,000 barrels per day in both August and September to compensate for its overproduction in the past three months. Iraq oil minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said in a joint statement with his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman that Iraq's output cut was in addition to the 850,000 bpd it had committed to cut in August and September under an OPEC+ supply pact. The total reduction to Iraq's production in August and September will amount to 1.25 million bpd for each month. "The reduction could be adjusted when the six secondary sources publish their production figures," the joint statement said, referring to oil industry data providers such as the International Energy Agency. The two ministers stressed their full commitment to an OPEC+ deal curbing oil production. Abdul Jabbar confirmed Iraq's firm commitment to the OPEC+ agreement, adding that Iraq would reach 100% conformity by the beginning of August. The two ministers discussed in a phone call the latest developments in the oil markets, continued recovery in global demand and progress made towards implementing the OPEC+ agreement. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, began a record supply cut in May to bolster oil prices hammered by the coronavirus crisis. OPEC and allies led by Russia, known as OPEC+, agreed to cut output by 9.7 million bpd, or around 10% of global output, from May 1, and to taper off the cuts to 7.7 million bpd from August. In July, OPEC delivered 5.743 million bpd of its share of the cuts, equal to 94% compliance, a Reuters survey found. Iraq agreed to cut output by 1.06 million bpd under the deal. The Saudi and Iraqi energy ministers said efforts made by OPEC+ member states would enhance the stability of global oil markets, accelerate its balancing and send positive signals to the markets, the statement said. OPEC oil output rose by more than 1 million bpd in July as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf members ended their voluntary extra curbs on top of the OPEC-led deal, and other members made limited progress on compliance. (Reporting by Samar Hassan; Writing by Rania El Gamal Editing by Tom Hogue/ Michael Perry/Jane Merriman) With COVID-19 taking a tighter grasp on peoples lives in India, researchers are full-speed ahead in giving us a vaccine or a treatment/medication to take down the novel coronavirus. Among the few vaccine makers that are currently ahead in the race -- including Moderna, and the Russian vaccine, the COVID-19 vaccine trialled by Oxford University is one that people are looking forward to with utmost promise. Getty Images ALSO READ: Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Is Months Ahead Of Others, May Arrive By Sept-Oct 2020 The ChAdOx1 nCoV vaccine is currently in its final stages of COVID-19 human trials and the world is gearing up for getting vaccinated and bringing our lives back to normal from the COVID-19 pandemic. A few weeks ago we heard from Adar Poonawala, CEO of Serum Institute of India -- worlds largest vaccine manufacturer -- who will be mass-producing the vaccine in India by the name of Covishield and is expected to sell at a price of Rs 1,000. However, now, a recent report reveals that the Oxford vaccine will be sold for an even lower price point. Oxford vaccine for COVID-19 Reported first by ET, after completion of its safety clearance, the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be rolled out at a tag of just $3 (which is approximately Rs 225) per dose in Low And Middle-Income Countries. That price point would make it extremely reasonable for governments as well as people from a lower-economic background to get access to the life-saving vaccine. In case you were wondering how theyre able to afford this, its actually the Gates Foundation that is providing at-risk funding of approximately $150 million to GAVI -- the Vaccine Alliance who would be providing it to Serum Institute to fund and reduce their overall manufacturing cost. This news comes a day after Serum Institute announced that it will also be manufacturing 100 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by US-based Novavax for India as well as 91 other LMI countries. DON'T MISS: Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Lead Sarah Gilbert Is Testing It On Her Own Three Kids AP Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India said in a statement, "The rampant spread of the virus has rendered the entire world in an unimaginable halt of uncertainty. And to ensure maximum immunization coverage and contain the pandemic, it is important to make sure that the most remote and poorest countries of the world have access to affordable cure and preventive measures. Through this association, we seek to ramp up our constant efforts to save the lives of millions of people from this dreadful disease. The Oxford University vaccine candidate has received permission to start phase 2 and 3 trials in India last week. It is awaiting clearance for starting trials for Novaxin vaccine in India. Back-to-school plan is an insult Children and youth have had a hard time during these last months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The plans of the Ontario government for reopening schools have been much anticipated as not only a return to education but to all the other things that schools offer: friends, food programs, caring adults, and other supports. The plan announced on Thursday July 30 is an insult to an internationally high class education system. It offers $309 million in new funding, which is too little. The Toronto District School Board had identified that it alone would need $248 million to provide safe distancing and supports for its elementary students. It ignores some of the advice from the Sick Childrens Report that was produced to guide the province in re-opening education. It is silent on increasing ventilation and space required to allow for social distancing, or the need for more staff for cleaning, teaching and support. Incongruously, if the schoolchildren also attend a school child care program, the program must meet more stringent health and safety requirements than the school. The report is silent on many operational details and about additional resources to support students lost learning. A sufficiently resourced plan is required that allows children to return to school safely, and to provide quality programming. Our children require nothing less. Judith Bishop, Hamilton Shocked over school board racism allegations On the CH evening news I caught part of an interview with a well spoken young woman describing racism at a school trustee event. I was busy doing something else at the time and thought Oh, this must be an American clip. This mornings Spec headline was all about that very same interview, but it turns out I was mistaken. Shockingly, its all about Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. I cant believe it. I thought we were better than that. Now I understand why BLM painted the streets. Whats it going to take? Eleanor Blackborow, Flamborough Dont blame Ford for LTC problems So much for honest political discourse. Blaming Premier Ford for the crisis in long term care homes is totally disingenuous. He has been in power for less than two years. Everyone has known for years where the problems are in the for-profit model. Provincial studies have been conducted and recommendations made long before our most recent election. COVID merely exposed what was already apparent. The provincial Liberals ruled from 2003 until 2018. They had every opportunity to make meaningful change and chose not to. Clearly, special interest groups have far too much influence on all parties. To blame Mr. Ford for a problem that has been festering for years ignores this sad reality. On this file there is plenty of blame to go around. David Borsellino, Hamilton Ford is not acting democratically The Spec is absolutely right in castigating premier Doug Ford for his expulsion of Belinda Karahalios. Her crime? She voted with her conscience against the highly questionable Bill 195, legislation which gives the premier sweeping powers. Are we living in Russia or China? Is all the power of our provincial political system to be concentrated in the office the premier? Do we understand that our democracy is eroded by Fords vindictive action? It is clear from this that according to Doug Ford, Its my way or the highway. This is not democratic. We should tolerate this from our premier. Stephen Jenvey, Dundas Once again, basic math missing Media skewing COVID facts (Aug. 5) Here we go again. Basic math or the lack thereof. One million cases of COVID-19, as a number itself, is a large number, regardless of your frame of reference. As a percentage of Indias population (1.38 billion), however, it is not 0.017. It is 0.072. Small difference you say? No. The difference is a factor of just over four, and therein lies the problem. That is a notable difference and a significant problem in the lack of basic math abilities that seems to be not an insignificant problem in our modern, technological society. One would think that it is a relatively simple case to search out the current population of India on the internet and then simply plug the numbers into a calculator. FYI: 0.017 per cent of Indias population is ONLY about 234,000, and that would still be an unacceptable number of cases in any society. Seem that the real fear is not the media, but the continuing lack of basic math abilities ever present in our modern world. David Eyles, Hamilton Police accountability lacking In June, Peel police are called to a situation. A 62-year-old man may harm himself with a pocket knife. But hes not the one to do himself harm. Its one of the officers who shoots Ejaz Ahmed Choudry dead. The Special Investigations Unit cannot require the officer to be interviewed or even obtain his notes, and he remains on full pay at public expense. Thanks to changes made by the Ford government to the Police Services Act, the SIU are hamstrung. Meanwhile in Hamilton, peaceful protesters concerned about policing hold up traffic and paint a defund message on the street. Within hours Hamilton police have launched a criminal investigation. One councillor, a former chair of the police board, calls the protesters hooligans. The message seems to be: Police killing, no accountability. Peaceful protest, criminal. Is anyone still wondering about the need for changes in the legislation and policing? This afternoon Tiz the Law will attempt to become the first favorite to win the Travers since Alpha (2-1) dead-heated with 33-1 Golden Ticket in 2012. There have been genuine upsets during this period, Keen Ice running down Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in 2015 being the most notable. A case could be made, though, that he last four Travers Stakes were won by horses who, while not the post-time favorites Arrogate (11-1), West Coast (6-1) Catholic Boy (7-1) and Code of Honor (4-1) were still the best horses in the race. The stars appear to be aligned this year. Not only will Tiz the Law likely go off as the odds-on choice, but few would argue that he isnt the best horse in the field. The NY-bred son of Constitution is a three-time G1 winner; collectively, his seven rivals have won a total of three graded races, all G3s. The Barclay Tagg trainee has been working well at Saratoga and has shown no sign of losing the edge that carried him to victory in the Florida Derby and Belmont Stakes. Nevertheless, they still have to run the race. And the field Tiz the Law faces today includes a couple of lightly raced 3-year-olds with demonstrated ability and whose potential at this point is unclear. One of those horses is Bob Bafferts Uncle Chuck, who is making just his third career start in the Travers, following a maiden win on June 12 and a convincing win in the Los Alamitos Derby on July 4. Uncle Chuck was flattered when Thousand Words, the runner-up in that race also conditioned by Baffert bested Honor A. P. last weekend in the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar. At the rate Baffert has been winning major races of late, any horse he sends out is ignored at ones peril. Max Player has only raced twice this year, but he acquitted himself well in both. The Linda Rice trainee was a 31/4-length winner of the Withers back on Feb 1 and then closed well to get up for third in the Belmont. The other graded winner in the field is the Chad Brown-conditioned Country Grammer, a neck winner over fellow Travers entrant Caracaro in the Peter Pan. The remainder of the field consists of Florida Derby runner-up Shivaree, multiple G3-placed South Bend and maiden winner First Line. Test Stakes (G1) Only five sophomore fillies could be coaxed into signing on to face Gamine (3-5 on the morning line) in todays Test Stakes. After the Into Mischief fillys other-worldly performance in the Acorn, however an 18 3/4-length margin of victory in stakes-record time it may be surprising the race has drawn as many entrants as it has. Venetian Harbor is given the best chance to upset at 8-5. The Munnings filly cuts back to seven furlongs after racing around two turns in her first three 2020 starts: a win in the Las Virgenes and seconds in the Fantasy and Ashland. Perfect Alibi and Wicked Whisper were G1 winners as 2-year-olds but both are listed at 20-1 in this spot. Ballerina Stakes (G1) The three morning-line favorites are all coming off losing efforts in what appears to be a highly competitive edition of the Ballerina. Six-year-old Come Dancing (3-1), last years Ballerina winner, was upset at 4-5 by longshot Victim of Love (27-1) in the Vagrancy (G3) on June 27. In her most recent start, Bellafina (9-5) was upset at 1-2 in the Great Lady M at Los Alamitos after starting off the year with a win in the six-furlong Desert Stormer. Serengeti Empress (5-2) was runner-up in the 2019 Test, her only start at less than a mile over the past two years. The daughter of Alternation has won one of four starts in 2020; most recently, she was fourth in the Fleur de Lis. Senior BJP leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje met defence minister Rajnath Singh amid the political crisis in the state triggered by the rebellion of Congress leader and former deputy chief minister of the state, Sachin Pilot and his 18 followers. This is Rajes second meeting with a senior BJP functionary after she met party President JP Nadda yesterday following murmurs that she had been tacitly helping the Ashok Gehlot government survive the crisis in the state and was not in favour of any potential move to induct Sachin Pilot into the BJP. Raje has not addressed the allegations specifically but stated that she remained committed to party ideals as a loyal member while some people were trying to misinform without any factual basis. She is believed to have discussed the political situation in the state with Nadda with only a few days to go before the crucial assembly session beginning on August 14, which may end up deciding the fate of Gehlot government, surviving on a wafer thin support. Rajes meeting with Nadda yesterday and Rajnath today will be watched keenly since she has largely maintained silence on the political machinations unfolding in the state in the aftermath of Pilots rebellion last month. She has also kept away from most BJP meetings in Jaipur since the crisis broke out. People familiar with the developments have suggested that Raje discussed the partys options in Rajasthan in her meeting with Nadda and apprised him of her views. The fate of the Rajasthan Congress is also hinged on Rajasthan High Courts verdict on the validity of last years announced merger of six BSP MLAs with the Congress party. Earlier today, Rajasthan speaker CP Joshi sought transfer of petitions challenging the merger from the Rajasthan High court to the Supreme Court. The single judge bench of the HC was expected to deliver the verdict in the case on August 11, three days before the assembly session begins. Another key battle within the political war for power in Rajasthan could be influenced by the outcome of the Sachin Pilots legal challenge to disqualification petition served on him and other 18 Congress MLAs in his support. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court. A sign of political activities in the state heating up for a final showdown was also seen in the BJPs bid to herd its MLAs, especially those from tribal areas, fearing they may be poached by the Congress ahead of the assembly session which may see a floor test to determine the power sweepstake in the state. Some BJP MLAs have been sent to Gujarat. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the Assembly, 19 of them are in Haryana with party rebel Sachin Pilot and are unlikely to vote for the Gehlot government. Assembly Speaker CP Joshi and a bed-ridden MLA are among the remaining 88 MLAs including 75 MLAs from opposition parties, the BJP and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party. Eighty-six Congress legislators, 10 Independents, 2 from BTP, one CPM and one RLD MLAs are supporting Ashok Gehlot government and are camping in two hotels in Jaisalmer. The 107 include six BSP MLAs. 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... FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - It was supposed to be an easy job not one that would shut down an entire city. But a series of major goofs and errors turned an underground drilling project into a nightmarish tale where the water pipes ran dry, leaving 250,000 people and businesses without water in Fort Lauderdale and several nearby cities. The details of what happened that day in July 2019 and how an unlicensed worker came to be operating the powerful drilling rig for a Florida Power & Light job are laid bare in court documents. A three-man crew started work around 11 a.m. on July 17, digging a trench for an underground pipe near the runways at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. Sometime after 3 p.m., their drill hit Fort Lauderdales main water supply line, a 42-inch concrete pipe that carries water from the citys wellfields to its Fiveash Water Treatment Plant. Their first clue that something was awry: Water came surging up from the ground. Their first call went to their boss. Hey, we broke something here, they told Geovanis Rivera, the Homestead man who runs his Geo & Yus company out of his home. WHAT DID I HIT? The drill punched a 6-inch-wide hole through 7 inches of concrete. His guys, who were drilling 7 feet down, werent sure if theyd hit a water or a sewer main, Rivera said in a deposition. Hours later, a tree stump was used to plug the hole. Rivera didnt realize how big a deal the breach was until he saw the news that night. With the pipes running dry, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis declared a state of emergency. Hundreds of hotels, restaurants and other businesses from Fort Lauderdale to Tamarac were forced to close. The next morning, thousands of people woke up to a boil-water order that lasted four days for some and six days for others. Neither Rivera nor his workers had a clue there was a massive water pipe right where they were digging. But they should have, according to a lawsuit filed by five businesses forced to close that day: The Las Olas Company (owner of the Riverside Hotel), Press & Grind Cafe, Roccos Tacos & Tequila Bar, Di Pietro Partners and HHR Lauderdale Beach Limited Partnership. With no running water, fire sprinklers wouldnt work and toilets wouldnt flush. Several hotels, including the Riverside, were forced to evacuate guests and cancel reservations. Harbour Beach Marriott estimates it lost $300,000 from the whole ordeal. It was like a hurricane, said Bill Scherer, an attorney representing the plaintiffs along with Adam Moskowitz. Everybody went home and bunkered down for a day. Scherer estimates businesses throughout Broward County lost up to $300 million in revenues. They just screwed up at every turn, Scherer said of the contractors. With directional drilling, you dont know where youre going because its underground. Water started coming out and then it was just a geyser. Like a fire hydrant on steroids times 1,000. The suit, filed last year, is expected to go to trial Jan. 11. An upcoming hearing on Sept. 18 will determine whether the case will be granted class-action status to cover all businesses impacted by the water main break. CITY SUING TOO A second lawsuit, filed by Fort Lauderdale on July 13, seeks to recoup $800,000 in repair costs. Both lawsuits name FPL and three subcontractors as defendants. FPL hired Infratech Corp. to replace buried electrical cables. Infratech subcontracted the work to Florida Communication Concepts, or FCC. That company then hired an even cheaper subcontractor, Geo & Yus Corp. Rivera spoke briefly to the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Thursday (July 30). He at first agreed to an interview, apologizing for not being entirely fluent in English. After the first question, he politely ended the interview. I think you should call my attorney, he said. Rivera, a Cuba native, moved to Miami in 2016 and opened his business the following year. A high school graduate, he spent four years studying to be a technician in civil construction but worked in tourism instead, he said in a deposition. Attorneys for FPL and all three subcontractors could not be reached for comment despite calls to their law firms Thursday morning. According to the lawsuit: FPL crews never bothered to visit the job site before the work began. And officials with Infratech and FCC, the company that hired Geo & Yus, did not show up that day to supervise the job. Jose Carlos Torres was the man operating the drill that day for Geo & Yus, Rivera said in his deposition. In his deposition, Rivera said he did not know whether Torres had any formal training to operate that kind of drill. Torres and the other two men on the crew are not licensed by the state to do the work they were doing, Moskowitz said. The crew did not use ground penetrating radar. If they had, they would have found the pipe. Another huge error was made when FCC put out an alert about the underground work but gave the wrong address, the lawsuit says. Relying on a service called Sunshine 811, FCC sent out an alert to companies that might have lines in the area so they could come out and mark them before the work started. Fort Lauderdale gave the all-clear because it had no lines at the address submitted by FCC: 2525 NW 55th Court. But the drill crew was working at 2417 NW 55th Court, a full 200 feet away. MORE MISTAKES FCC made another mistake when it claimed there would be no directional boring, the lawsuit says. Timothy Hicks, who launched FCC in April 2019, defended his company during his deposition, laying the blame squarely on Fort Lauderdale for not coming out to mark the pipe. In his deposition, Hicks said city workers initially claimed the water pipe didnt even belong to Fort Lauderdale. Hicks said his foreman rushed to the job site as soon as he got a call from Rivera about the pipe spewing water. The foreman told Hicks two men who work for Fort Lauderdale showed up, but left after deciding the pipe wasnt theirs. Oakland Park showed up, said for sure its not theirs, Hicks said in his deposition. They left. And (the foreman) was calling the city of Fort Lauderdale to come back because they had already been there and had left, saying it wasnt theirs also. Then about an hour or so after that, two hours later the city of Fort Lauderdale came back to the property and said, Hold on, wait a minute, maybe this is ours. Then they set about trying to find the control valves to shut off the water, Hicks said. FPL knew the location of the water pipe but never warned contractors to look for it, the lawsuit alleges. In the meantime, FPL has filed cross claims against the subcontractors, arguing it was not responsible for mistakes they might have made. Our response is FPL was negligent because they never went to the site, Moskowitz said. And because directional drilling is an inherently dangerous activity, FPL is liable for all of their subcontractors. Behold a treat for the eyes! Tens of thousands of pink flamingos have amassed in the wetlands of southern France along with their offspring still lacking flamboyant plumage. The long-legged birds resembling ballerinas in tutus have long drawn tourists to the marshes in the Camargue region that has served as Frances salt mine since Roman times. But the numbers of pink flamingos this year may be the highest since experts began keeping records 45 years ago, said Thierry Marmol, the guardian of the vast ecosystem. Frances two months of strict confinement to contain the coronavirus may well be the reason. Experts relying on aerial photos estimated that 25,000 flamingo couples, or 50,000 adult birds, settled in the area this year, Marmol said. About 12,000 babies were counted. Thats historic, he said, stressing that little ones are hard to count. The numbers of pink flamingos may be the highest since experts began keeping records 45 years ago, said Thierry Marmol, guardian of the lands. (AP) Maybe the confinement helped to make a good year, Marmol said. Its obvious that with confinement there were no disturbances. There were no airplanes, no noise at all. Its still too soon to confirm that the anti-virus lockdown was a factor in what he said is one of the best four years of all time for pink flamingos in the Salins. Marmol has watched over 8,000 hectares (19,700 acres) around the commune of Aigues-Mortes for the past 35 years, living on the land like a trapper in America. He is a keen observer of the birds, fauna and flora that draw ornithologists and other experts for field work. This years bumper crop of pink flamingos is a treat even for him. The Salins, with its especially salty water, also supplies France with tons of salt. Aigues-Mortes is about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) from Arles, the closest large town. Flamingo experts spent some three hours Wednesday fitting 320 baby birds with two bands - one plastic, one metal - so scientists can track their migration. When autumn arrives, many will be migrating to warmer weather in Spain, Italy, Turkey or North Africa. The bands are like a license plate, Marmol said. The plastic band allows ornithologists to spot them with binoculars or a telescope. The information is relayed to scientists tracking the birds in centers around the world. Each country uses a designated color for the bands. Luckily for pink flamingo aficionados, about half will choose to stay behind. Who knows why? Babies must wait for their plumes to grow. Adults and others ready to take off may decide the coming winter wont be cold so they take their chance and stay, Marmol said. He recalled Frances very cold winter of 2003, when thousands of pink flamingos were found dead. They made a bad choice that year, Marmol said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Cookie Preferences Cookie List Cookie List A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website when visited by a user asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes: Strictly Necessary Cookies We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. 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"The incident took place near Swaroop Rani Hospital here. A video went viral on social media of a private security guard, Sanjay Mishra, beating up an elderly woman. As soon as the video came to the notice of the police, the security guard was arrested," SSP Dixit told ANI. "The woman has been admitted to the hospital for treatment," he further informed. The governors propose to jointly purchase antigen screening tests that can be done rapidly while the patient waits. Such screening can be valuable to check a large number of people, in places like workplaces and schools, on a regular basis. This is in contrast to the diagnostic tests using genetic material, which take longer to process, and are more useful to confirm illness. The antigen tests, which look for a protein on the surface of the virus, are less precise and can lead to false negatives between 15 and 20 percent of the time. But rapid tests can be useful for response to outbreaks. Two companies are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for antigen tests now, but the point of the governors banding together is to create a market incentive for more. No doubt, financing may be difficult, but the Rockefeller Foundation has offered to help. Nearing the end of their legislative session and the beginning of wildfire season, state lawmakers are pushing through an industry-backed homeowners insurance bill despite fierce opposition from consumer groups and California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. The complex bill essentially would let insurance companies request higher rates than currently allowed for homeowners and renters policies in selected wildfire-prone areas in exchange for promising to sell a certain number of policies in all those areas combined. Backers say it would encourage mainstream, state-regulated companies to write and renew more policies in higher-risk areas, so consumers arent forced into the Fair Plan, the states insurer of last resort. Fair Plan policies, which are backed by state-regulated insurers, generally provide less coverage at higher prices than standard, comprehensive homeowners policies. Some insurers stung by losses from the states devastating wildfires have pulled back in risky areas, forcing more homeowners to buy policies from the Fair Plan or from surplus lines carriers such as Lloyds of London that are not state-regulated. Lucy Smallsreed and her husband were forced into the Fair Plan in 2019 after Allstate refused to renew a policy on a home they own in Inverness, in West Marin. The Fair Plan policy cost $2,235 a year, but it basically only covers the house for fire. It doesnt cover water damage; contents unless its from fire, smoke or internal explosion; no personal liability; living expenses; debris removal; no fence or other structures or building code upgrade, Smallsreed said. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle The Allstate policy cost $1,995 and covered those things. We are now getting way less for more money, she said. Opponents of AB2167 say it will set up a pricing mechanism outside of Proposition 103, the 1988 law that has kept homeowners insurance rates in California below the national average, and wont guarantee that all homeowners in a targeted area will be offered a policy. What it lacks is a requirement to provide insurance coverage in ZIP codes where homeowners are struggling to get that coverage, said Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael. He voted against the bill when it passed the Assembly 61-3 on June 8. On Tuesday, it passed the Senate Insurance Committee 12-0 following a hearing, and has moved to the Senate Appropriations committee. Under the bill, a company could propose an insurance market action plan, or IMAP, for one or more eligible counties of their choosing. These are counties where Fair Plan policies account for a certain percentage ranging from at least 0.15% in the largest counties to 1% in the smallest of all homeowners policies in that county. The insurance department says 21 of the states 58 counties would qualify today. The industry says 28 would, including Los Angeles and San Diego but no Bay Area counties. A proposed amendment would add Sonoma, Napa and other counties that have had declared wildfire disasters in the past five years. Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle For better or worse, the plan would not apply to homeowners like Smallsreed, who live in fire-prone areas in non-eligible counties, such as the Oakland hills and parts of Marin. For each county where it files an IMAP, the insurance company would define areas within the county where it proposes to sell policies covered by the plan. In these areas, the insurance company could include two things in its rates that are not allowed under insurance department regulations. One is its net cost of reinsurance, which is insurance that insurance companies buy that pays some of their claims after a big disaster. It could also factor in expected losses based on catastrophic-risk models, which are computer programs designed to predict losses from hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires and other catastrophes. The bill says these rates shall not be excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory, and shall be actuarially sound. This alternative rate-setting mechanism would result in premiums that are higher than what companies can charge now, but below Fair Plan prices, said industry spokesman Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California. Frazier said some companies simply wont sell at the allowed rates and this new plan would pull them in. The goal is to have a plan that depopulates the Fair Plan, he said. Companies can choose which areas, they want in the plan, but the bill says they should avoid overconcentration in any one particular area. In exchange for higher rates, the company must commit to selling enough policies so that their market share in all areas where they are getting IMAP rates is equal to at least 85% of their statewide market share. The 85% requirement does not apply to each county or portion of a county individually; it applies to all of their IMAP regions combined. So theres no guarantee a homeowner in an area included in the IMAP could get insurance. Companies could cherry-pick places they think are the safest risk, said Bryant Henley, special counsel to the insurance commissioner. Harvey Rosenfield, the founder of Consumer Watchdog who wrote voter-approved Prop. 103, said the bill allows insurance companies to maneuver all around Prop. 103 controls around price gouging. Robert Hunter, an actuary and director of insurance with the Consumer Federation of America, said in a letter that allowing reinsurance in rates could raise them by 40%. The industry argues that all IMAPs would require insurance department approval before they could take effect, giving the commissioner the power to prevent price gouging and cherry-picking. The bills co-author, Assembly Insurance Committee Chairman Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, said during Tuesdays hearing that, The bill does not in any way change or limit the authority of the insurance commissioner under Proposition 103. He added, The committee has suggested amendments ... to make that point absolutely clear. If an insurer submits an IMAP that is not approved within 120 days, the bill says the insurer may continue with its previously approved rate and the insurers 85% market share commitment would be suspended until the commissioner and insurer reach agreement on the filing. Critics say this means if an insurer gets an IMAP approved, then filed a subsequent plan that was not approved, it could continue charging its previous IMAP rates without having to meet the commitment. At last weeks hearing, Lara argued that insurers can already request higher rates to compensate for wildfire risk, and if the insurance company can clearly demonstrate that the filed rate under Prop. 103 is not excessive, not inadequate and not unfairly discriminatory, it will be approved. The department says it approved 92% of rate filings last year. If the bill is passed by the Senate, and again by the Assembly with amendments, by Aug. 31, and signed by the governor by Sept. 30, it would take effect immediately. A linked bill in the Senate, SB292, would also have to pass. But it probably would take at least six months before IMAPs could be submitted, approved and sold. More Information Who's for, against AB2167 legislation In favor American Property Casualty Insurance Association, Cal Fire Local 2881, California Fair Plan, California Fire Safe Council, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, Pacific Association of Domestic Insurance Companies, Personal Insurance Federation of California, California Building Industry Association, California State Association of Counties, Rural County Representatives of California, California State Fire Safe Council Opposed California Department of Insurance, cities of Carpinteria and Rancho Palos Verdes, Consumer Attorneys of California, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Federation of California, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, Consumer Watchdog, Public Advocates, San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, United Policyholders See More Collapse A competing bill backed by Lara and consumer groups went nowhere this year. It would have set statewide standards for fire-hardened homes and communities and required insurers to sell policies on homes that have met them. The industry-backed bill says an IMAP filing shall set forth community and parcel-level mitigation standards, and procedures for verifying mitigation activities, but its unclear what this means. This bill has support from groups outside the industry, including from the Rural County Representatives of California. Homeowners in rural areas have been especially hard hit by nonrenewals, and now farms and farmlands are getting non-renewed, said Staci Heaton, a lobbyist for the association. The insurance industry is suffering a lot of losses. Theres not a lot of sympathy for that, but we dont want them to pull out of California, she said. Most residents in high fire risk areas understand that they may have to pay higher rates, but theyd rather do that than go on the Fair Plan. The bill isnt perfect, but its a good jumping-off point, Heaton added. We have to start somewhere (and its) better than what we have now. The commissioner and insurance industry ones on the moon and ones on Jupiter. Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- For the past seven years, the Community Partnership on Aging has been holding a chili cook-off in November, during which local fire departments compete to win the honor of best fire station chili from a panel of judges. A peoples choice award is also garnered from the public, which gathers to sample firefighters efforts. Like so many things, COVID-19 has interfered with that tradition and the chili cook-off will not be held this year as planned in Richmond Heights. CPA Program Coordinator Terese Grida said the organization knew another kind of fundraiser was needed to replace the chili cook-off, but it couldnt be just anything. We needed to do something and we wanted to be a little bit creative with what were doing, Grida said. We didnt really want to do a walk -- it seems like a lot of (organizations) do walks. So I came up with the idea of a scavenger hunt type of event. Its basically a task-oriented scavenger hunt, Grida said of what has been dubbed Random Acts of Fun. We designed all kinds of tasks that people can do alone or with a small group -- safely, of course. CPA is a nonprofit, based at the South Euclid Community Center, that provides services and support for seniors in South Euclid, Lyndhurst, Highland Heights, Mayfield Heights, Mayfield Village and -- its newest member community -- Richmond Heights. All the mayors are going to participate in the sense that theyre going to be a part of a task, Grida said. The one I worked out with (Lyndhurst) Mayor (Patrick) Ward was find Mayor Ward and (Lyndhurst Fire) Chief (Michael) Carroll at the Lyndhurst fire station at a certain time, take a picture with them -- safely -- and upload it to our (CPA) Facebook page. All of the scavenger hunt tasks will have points assigned to them and youll earn points, and the more points you earn, were going to give some silly prizes out. Grida said that participants must register to take part, and that registrants will get a coupon card. The coupon will be good for special promotions at local restaurants participating in Random Acts of Fun. I wanted to support the restaurants that have supported us, Grida said. Instead of asking them for donations (as has been done in the past for chili cook-offs) I just asked them to give us some kind of a discount. The restaurants are, in fact, being made part of the scavenger hunt. (Participants) will be able to take this coupon card to all the restaurants and then, because theyre part of the scavenger hunt, part two of this is youll be asked to (as an example), Go to Mama Ds (Diner, 5416 Mayfield Road in Lyndhurst), get 20 percent off your meal, take a picture of the menu, and upload it to our Facebook page. This way, Mama Ds also benefits from the social media. Making the restaurants part of the scavenger hunt also ensures that the coupons will be used. Registration for Random Acts of Fun is now open to all. Participants will have from Sept. 1-18 to complete their tasks. Its something people can do at their leisure. Were going to have five different categories of tasks, and wee going to have some online tasks you can only do online, so you dont have to leave the comfort of your home if you dont really want to, Grida said. And, if you dont want to go out to eat, you can pick up your order. The idea is that, hopefully, older adults will participate in this, she said. Its open to the public, but the thought was, because there is a level of tech savvy needed, perhaps they can get their kids or grandkids to participate with them. Grida said plans call for the chili cook-off to return next year, but that Random Acts of Fun will remain as an annual fundraiser as well.. The cost to register for Random Acts of Fun is $25 per person. All who register will receive a packet of instructions, a list of possible tasks to complete, a coupon card good for discounts at local restaurants and businesses, an event T-shirt, a pedometer and a continental brunch at the Random Acts of Fun Day on Sept. 27. Those who register before Aug. 25, Grida said, will get an extra goody. Awards will be given for fundraising levels and points earned. To register for Random Acts of Fun, visit here. Read more from the Sun Messenger. McClinton was convicted of rape in 1994 and 2007 and awaiting trial for a 2018 alleged attack A sex offender whose bail on rape charges was paid by the Massachusetts Bail Fund is accused of kidnapping and raping a woman, three weeks after he was released. Shawn McClinton, 39, was convicted of rape in 1994 and 2007 and sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison. He also has a pending rape case in Suffolk Superior Court, in which he is accused of forcing a woman at knife-point to perform oral sex on him in a McDonald's in 2018. Released from jail in mid July, he allegedly attacked again on Tuesday, after meeting a woman in Quincy, a suburb of Boston. Shawn McClinton, 39, is accused of attacking a woman three weeks after he was bailed on another rape The woman went home with him to the neighboring suburb of Dorchester. When she tried to leave, she told police, he accused her of being an undercover police officer. He became enraged and started beating her. He allegedly strangled her and forced her at knife-point to perform oral sex. According to the police report, obtained by the Boston Globe, he threatened her and said: 'Do you know what I could do to you?' She lost consciousness. After she woke up, she fled and wandered the streets, where a bystander found her 40 minutes later. She had significant cuts and scrapes and bruising around her neck, Michael Glennon, assistant district attorney, told the judge. McClinton was arrested and is charged with aggravated rape, kidnapping, strangulation, and assault with a dangerous weapon. Massachusetts Bail Fund has not commented on their payment of his $15,000 bail. But William Gross, Boston police commissioner, said he was 'absolutely appalled' that someone with McClinton's history would be freed. 'We're getting to a point in society where we're giving more credence to criminals than victims,' he said. 'We're talking about violent offenders. Why would you bail someone who committed rapes?' Judge Lisa Grant of Dorchester District Court ordered on Thursday that McClinton be held without bail, describing him as a danger to the community. 'I find probable cause that Mr McClinton committed a new violent offense, while on release for a violent offense,' the judge said. 'I find there are no conditions that would ensure the safety of the community, particularly females.' Gross said McClinton should never have been eligible for bail and was angered by his release The bail fund, whose slogan is 'Free Them All,' argues that requiring cash bail for defendants to get out of jail before trial is unfair to the poor, and ineffective at preventing crime. The paper reported that the COVID-19 pandemic and the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota have spurred a massive infusion of donations to bail funds nationally. As recently as January, it was posting bails of up to only $500, but in recent weeks the group has paid as much as $85,000 to free a defendant who was accused of shooting someone in broad daylight. This week, it bailed out 30 defendants in Boston, a court official told the paper. Rachael Rollins, Suffolk County District Attorney, who has argued for freeing many prisoners, said releasing McClinton was going too far. The Bail Fund, she said, often posts bail for low level offenders, who remain behind bars unfairly mainly because they're poor. 'However, aggravated rape, kidnapping for the purpose of sexual assault, strangulation and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon are not low-level misdemeanors. They are violent felonies,' Rollins said. 'And the person they bailed out is a sexual predator that hurts and rapes women and children. 'The Bail Fund posted $15,000 and set McClinton loose on our community. 'They have no responsibility to or compassion for the victims and survivors of his crimes, or the families that he has destroyed. I do. ' McClinton's attorney, Byron Knight, argued that the $15,000 bail should be restored. 'It wasn't a forcible rape, and he denies some of these allegations,' he said, adding that McClinton doesn't have a 'significant number' of court defaults on his record. The judge ordered him held without bail for 60 days, and then on $500,000 cash bail. If he makes that bail, she said, she would order him to wear a GPS ankle monitor. Commissioner Gross said the McClinton case shows the risk of bailing out people who face serious charges. He said Bail Fund supporters should think more about the victims of crime. 'You talk about a violation of constitutional rights? Women aren't free to walk around because of this predator, and the Bail Fund wants to bail someone like that?' Gross said. 'The Bail Fund folks are not from the inner city. I don't know who they think they're helping. 'They've proved they are a detriment to the community.' In early July, the Bail Fund put up $85,000 to free Karmau Cotton-Landers, 25, who was accused of shooting someone in broad daylight on Boston Common in early April. Other defendants recently freed by the Bail Fund include Walker Browning, accused of robbing five women, two at knife-point; David Privette, facing charges of holding up a gas station at gunpoint; and Otis Walker, who had been held since late 2018 on three counts of child rape. These three were being held on bails ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. Ed. Note: This is the first in a two-part series. OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- The Mary C. OKeefe Cultural Arts Center in Ocean Springs carries an insured value of nearly $3.8 million dollars. But to the people of Ocean Springs, and others, the Mary C., as its almost universally called, is priceless -- a community icon treasured for its history, its architecture and its utility as the citys only cultural arts center. Recently, however, it has become mired in a controversy involving the City of Ocean Springs, which owns the building and property, the Friends of the Mary C. who have managed the facility for all of its 18 years, and community groups who utilize the facility. In examining the history of the Mary C., however, from a historic, financial and management standpoint, the question is raised: Is it an asset or an albatross? The quick answer is both. Certainly, the Mary C. is an asset to the community, with its oak-shaded grounds, 383-seat theater, classrooms, city museum and more, along with the many programs offered and functions held there. But it has also been something of a financial albatross to the City. To date, more than $3.1 million in taxpayer dollars have been spent on the building, both in maintenance and operational costs. Thats an average of more than $174,000 a year for a City that typically operates on a total budget of $12-$13 million. A disagreement on use of the facility between the Friends of the Mary C. board of directors and some who use the facility resulted in the board of aldermen, in mid July, voting to take operational control away from the Friends group. The move has been met with heavy criticism from the Friends group and others, although there are those who believe the move may be in the best long-term interest of the Mary C. But to understand how the situation arrived at this point, its necessary to examine the history of the Mary C. A history worth saving What is now the Mary C. was built in 1927 as Ocean Springs only public school building, housing all grades. As Ocean Springs grew and additional school buildings were constructed, the building at 1600 Government St. continued to operate as a school, until 1978 when the then-Ocean Springs Junior High (now the upper elementary) opened. But the school administration offices, which had moved into the building in 1965, continued to occupy the building, using it for both office space and hosting school board meetings there. Over the years, however, many areas of the facility not in use by the school district administration fell into disrepair, including the theater. So, when the school district announced in the late 1990s its plan to construct a new $2.2 million administration building at the corner of Government and Holcomb Boulevard, the question became What to do with the old building? A group of citizens, led by the late Betty Magee, who understood the buildings history and future potential, formed and began discussions with school and city officials over the best move. The idea of a cultural arts center was hatched and after the school district deeded the building and property over to the City for $1, aldermen voted in 1998 to pursue development of the building as a cultural arts center and agreed to name the building in honor of former Ocean Springs superintendent Mary C. OKeefe -- the first female superintendent in Mississippi. Starting in January 1999, the Friends group went about the business of raising money for what would ultimately be a $2.6 million restoration and renovation. The City took out a $250,000 loan to support the effort, with additional funds coming from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson County and myriad contributions from the community and across the state. In August 2002, a groundbreaking ceremony was held and Fletcher Construction began work. An agreement Just hours after the groundbreaking, aldermen began to address the next question: How best to manage the Mary C. once complete. If I heard correctly, theyre planning to be open and hold their first function there in April 2003, then-alderman Matt McDonnell said, according to a story published in the now-defunct Ocean Springs Record newspaper. Thats going to be here before you know it. Weve invested a lot of tax dollars in this facility and Im proud we did, McDonnell continued, but we have to get a handle on what the operational costs of this facility are going to be. Another alderman at the time, Jerry Dalgo, agreed, voicing surprise an operational plan wasnt already in place. McDonnell noted the City had set up a special department to oversee operation of the Ocean Springs Civic Center and suggested a similar department be set up to run the Mary C. Contacted by The Mississippi Press this week, McDonnell -- now Executive Director of the Mississippi Coast Coliseum -- recalled a conversation with the late Larry Cosper, an original member of the Friends group. The night we voted to move forward with the project, Larry and I went out to grab a bite to eat after the meeting, McDonnell said. He indicated to me that we had just signed on to pick up the operational expenses of the building for a long, long time. But we were committed to it, to making it work. Ultimately, the City would enter into what McDonnell described as a loosely defined agreement with the Friends of the Mary C., which would grant the Friends control over the day-to-day use of the building, including all programming, functions and fundraising efforts. In return, the City agreed to give $20,000 to the Friends to help with operational expenses, to pay all utilities and pest control, to provide weekly custodial services and routine maintenance, and to maintain insurance on the building. The Friends were tasked with insuring any of their own property brought into the building and to pay for their own operational costs above the $20,000 from the City, including the salary of the director and any other paid employees. At some point, the initial agreement was put in into a formal contract, which still includes most of the elements of the original agreement. Tip of the iceberg But the initial $250,000 for the project and the $20,000 a year for the Friends operational costs was just the beginning of the Citys financial investment in the Mary C. A second loan, for $500,000, was taken out by the City to fund repair and renovation of the theater -- a loan the City is still repaying and will continue to until 2023. In 2017, another $250,000 loan was taken out for roof repair at the Mary C. That loan is scheduled to be paid off this year. By the time all three loans are paid off, with interest factored in, the City will have spent $1.2 million. But again, thats only a partial picture. Through a public records request, financial figures detailing all monies spend by the City on the Mary C. were provided by the City Clerks office. Over the 18 years of the Mary C.s existence, the City has pumped nearly $1.4 million into the facilitys operational costs. In 2004, the first full year of Mary C. operations, the City spent $45,082. It was never that low again -- rising to as high as $136,842 by fiscal 2011. In three other years, the figure was well in excess of $100,000. In fiscal 2019, $97,949 was spent on operational costs, with $49,698 spent through the first half of this year. All told, the City has spent an average of nearly $76,000 a year on operational costs. That doesnt include another $549,534 spent on insuring the facility over the past 18 years. As mentioned earlier in this story, the grand total cost to taxpayers for the Mary C. has to date been $3.135 million. Another $860,000 in funding for the Mary C. has been acquired by the City through grants. McDonnell, who continued to serve as an aldermen after the Mary C.s inception until 2017, was told of the $3.1 million total expense to the City. That certainly galvanizes the belief Larry Cosper had, that once we signed on to accept that responsibility it was going to be an open checkbook, he said. He also recalled frequently asking for an audit from the Friends group, describing his attempts to get an audit as being met with stonewalling. I never seemed to be able to get an audit of (the Friends) operations and it troubled me because they were using City funds toward their operations, I believe some County funds and some other entities as well that were putting funds in there. There always seemed to be resistance and I never understood why. Indeed, The Mississippi Press filed another public request with the City Clerks office asking for any and all audits on file from the Friends of the Mary C. Only one -- for 2019 -- could be found. I never suspected any corruption or anything like that, its just that its good business practice, particularly when boards are tasked with public funds to operate facilities like that and especially when its a public-private partnership, McDonnell said. (Ed. Note: Two days after this story published on Gulflive.com, former Ocean Springs mayor Connie Moran, who had served as the Friends of the Mary C. treasurer from 2018 until recently, contacted The Mississippi Press and said an audit of Friends finances from 2015 to 2018 had been done and presented to the board of aldermen.) A brewing storm Over the years, many different groups have made use of the Mary C. facilities, among them the Walter Anderson Players (now rebranded as the Walter Anderson Theater Project). Founded in 1971, the Players have long been Ocean Springs only Little Theater group. The Players had used the old theater as a rehearsal spot long before the building and theater were restored, but due to its condition were unable to perform shows there. When funds were being raised to convert the old school building into a cultural arts center, the Players sold property the group owned on Joseph Street and donated the proceeds to Magee and the Friends group to help with the restoration of the theater. In return, the Players group and the Friends reached an agreement that the Walter Anderson Players would become, in essence, the house theater group and the Mary C. would be their home. In the years since, a member of the Walter Anderson Players has always served on the Friends of the Mary C. board. The current board roster on the Mary C. website shows Becky Young as the Players representative to the Friends board. In the nearly two decades since, however, the two groups have not always seen eye-to-eye. McDonnell said, although unsure of the details, he thought there had been a dust-up between the two groups in the early years before Magee brokered a deal between the groups and the City. I cant swear to it, but I think theyve had issues before, he said. Current Friends president Elizabeth Feder-Hosey said she, too, knew of previous disputes between the two groups. Disagreements with them have been building over the years, she said. I was able to look back into 2014 and the relationship with them was a problem then and its kind of continued. It got a little better in 2017 and 2018, when they did some shows and raised some money, but its been a constant battle with them. Although its been modified over the years, the contact between the Friends and the Players has allowed the Players to use the theater at no charge for rehearsals, but to pay a rental fee for each night of the performance. The Friends also get a percentage of the gate. The Friends keep all proceeds from concessions, including liquor sales. The final straw The issues between the two groups came to a head earlier this year. Unsurprisingly, the two sides see it differently. Feder-Hosey says the dispute largely centers around the Anderson Players wanting to put on a show in November. They wanted to have a show this November and wanted to begin setting up, she said. Were in the midst of a pandemic. We tried to sit down and have conversations with them as to how to proceed with the most caution and the realities of one week you can only have 50 people inside, the next you can only have 10 are we actually going to be able to put on a show in a 383-seat theater that people could actually come to it and be successful. But Susan Agnelly, a longtime WAP member and its current president, said theres far more to it than that -- at least as far as the Players are concerned. Agnelly says the dispute centers around the insistence of the Friends and new director Sara Guice that the Players sign a new contract, despite a new contract having been signed in 2018. At the time, Agnelly says the Players were already in the process of putting two shows together, A Streetcar Named Desire, set for November, and Guys & Dolls scheduled for April 2021. Both shows had been slated for earlier dates, but moved back due to the COVID-19 outbreak. They came to one of our meetings and were pushing this contract, Agnelly said, but there were several things in the contract we didnt like and couldnt agree to. But we were informed by them if we didnt sign the contract, that night, they would cancel our shows. We were panicking. We were already into these shows for a lot of money. You have to pay for the rights to these shows before you even hold auditions. If you do (hold auditions without the rights), you can get sued. The Players board acquiesced and signed the contract under duress, as Agnelly put it, adding that some of the Players board members expressed their displeasure and questioned if the contract was legal. Elizabeth got wind of that and it evidently made her angry, Agnelly said, because she cancelled our contract and told us to get our stuff out of the Mary C. Problem is none of us have a place big enough to store whats in the Mary C. We have sets, props, costumes, etc. It upset us because its a City-owned building. We tried to reason with her, but there was no reasoning with her. Feder-Hosey, however, maintains that the Players were never asked to leave the Mary C. The letter we sent them does not ask them to leave at all, she said. It does not ask them to find a new venue. They are completely making up this idea theyre going to be homeless. Feder-Hosey provided a copy of the letter sent from her to the Players board of directors. Dated June 24, it informs the Anderson Players their contract is being cancelled, but does not specifically instruct the Players to find another venue. The letter reads, in part: Any WATP production related to the voided contract and any previous contracts is hereby terminated unless and until further arrangements are made with the Executive Director. Any arrangements to do so will be handled on a one-off basis between WATP and the Executive Director of The Mary C directly. WATP may continue to store its costumes, props, or any other production-related materials already housed at The Mary C. We would like to renegotiate a new partnership agreement after WATP resolves its internal conflict and develops an organizational structure that makes lines of communication and procedures clear. Shortly thereafter, Agnelly and other Players members met with City officials and outlined the dispute, as they saw it. Right or wrong, they believed they were being kicked out of their theater home. We asked the City if the Friends could throw us out, Agnelly said. They told us absolutely not. The City subsequently sent the Friends board a cease and desist letter, instructing they could not ban the Players from using the theater. But that apparently ticked them off more, because they upped the ante and told us to come get our stuff, Agnelly said. Other issues There appear, however, to have been other concerns expressed by other parties which led to the aldermens vote of July 21. One longtime Mary C. member, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said there has been a drastic scale down inside the Mary C. for the past two years. Theyve lost a lot of staff and right now there are only three staff members -- the director, a finance person and someone for marketing, plus an unpaid intern and a couple of volunteers. The director is full-time, while the finance and marketing employees are part-time, according to the source. The receptionist is gone, the technical director is gone, the registrar is gone, they discontinued the gift shop, plus the security/setup person, the source said. All of those personnel losses predated the COVID-19 shutdown, save for the security/setup person. There have also been other complaints about the Mary C.s operation from other citizens and groups who use the facility, according to City officials. Many of the Friends board members have made frequent comments in recent days about bringing $400,000 into the Mary C. each year. While the 2019 audit review (smaller in scope than a full audit) does show operating revenues of $404,650, a closer look reveals that only $65,381 came from contributions, $26,340 from membership dues and $23,690 from fundraisers. The bulk of the money comes from programs and fees paid by those participating in them -- $289,239. However, the cost of putting on those programs in 2019 was $373,596. The audit shows that in 2019 the Friends of the Mary C. -- with all revenues and expenses factored in -- lost $19,247. Feder-Hosey, however, said Our programming pays for itself. Just in the last couple of years, the kitchen has become profitable. When I came on board, the kitchen was losing money, but Kimmie Hargrove came on and took it and ran with it. When I came on board, there hadnt been a finance meeting in a year, Feder-Hosey said. The board was just kind of pittering along. We had a lot of work to do to get the place back in shape, financially. It was a lot of work. Our membership numbers have swelled. Part 2 of this story is scheduled to be published on Gulflive on Monday, Aug. 10. FILE PHOTO: Logo of Toshiba Corp is seen as Window cleaners work on the company's headquarters in Tokyo By Takashi Umekawa and Makiko Yamazaki TOKYO (Reuters) - Activist fund Effissimo Capital Management, the biggest investor in Toshiba Corp <6502.T>, was kept in limbo by Japan's government over a key shareholder vote until the day before the industrial conglomerate's annual meeting, two government sources said. The delayed approval to hold the vote on appointing outside directors to Toshiba's board illustrates how Japan's tighter rules on foreign ownership, introduced in June and designed to protect industries critical to national security, may also potentially be used to keep activist shareholders in check. Some investors have said the changes could deter foreign capital from coming to Japan. Effissimo, which owns around 10% of Toshiba, in May nominated its own co-founder, Yoichiro Imai, and two other candidates as outside directors for election to the board at the conglomerate's July 31 annual general meeting. But under the new foreign ownership rules, Effissimo needed approval from the Japanese government to vote at the AGM for its co-founder to join the board of Toshiba, which is involved in nuclear power and defence equipment. The government gave Effissimo a green light to vote on July 30, just a day before the meeting, the two government sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information is not public. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) delayed its approval, one of the government sources told Reuters. "Because METI wasn't able to forecast how much support (Effissimo's) proposal would get, some officials insisted it was better to delay the decision as much as possible," said this source. "Approval was granted at the very last minute," the second government source said. "Was that best practice? I can't say it was." Effissimo did not get enough support at the AGM for its proposal to put Imai and two others on Toshiba's board but still gained substantial backing with 43% of the vote, according to results released by Toshiba this week. Story continues Effissimo and Toshiba declined to comment. A METI official said: "Our reviews are made only from the viewpoints listed in the law: whether inward direct investment would cause national security to be impaired, the maintenance of public order to be disturbed, or the protection of public safety to be hindered." He declined to comment on the timing of approval, length of review or how the case could impact foreign investor appetite for Japanese companies. 'BAD MESSAGE' The tighter rules require foreign investors to report holdings in Japanese companies of 1% or more, compared with an original 10% threshold. This was introduced to monitor more effectively Chinese investment in Japan, government officials previously told Reuters. But there are concerns the revised law could also be used to hobble overseas investors, particularly activist investors looking to shake up big companies. "Factors other than genuine national security seem to be affecting the timing and substance of METI's decision," said Tokyo-based lawyer Stephen Givens. "To the extent that the process has been politicised in the case of Toshiba it sends a bad message to the foreign investment community." Under the law, the government in principle has up to 30 days to review a foreign investor's plans, although it can be longer. The first government source said Tokyo spent "well over 30 days" in Effissimo's case. Singapore-based Effissimo was founded in 2006 by Imai and another former colleague of Yoshiaki Murakami, Japan's most prominent activist investor. Effissimo, which previously held 15% of Toshiba, has invested in a number of other Japanese companies. Toshiba had opposed Effissimo's board nominees, including Imai, saying their skills were matched or exceeded by the existing board and their appointment would bring disruption. Effissimo has said it wants to improve governance at Toshiba, which it says has not made progress since a 2015 accounting scandal. The government has told overseas investors the revised law is not meant to dampen shareholder activism. Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies, Japan has moved toward improving governance and boosting shareholder returns. But Tokyo's handling of Effissimo's vote left the impression that the law was being used to deter activists, the second government source said. "Japan is competing with other markets for capital and for the interest of investors," said Nicholas Benes, a corporate governance expert. "The more arbitrary and unclear their rules appear to be, the more people say, well, the Japanese market is just not as modern and sophisticated as we thought it was." (Reporting by Takashi Umekawa and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by David Dolan and Jane Merriman) Sharafu Pilassery, 35, was on his way back with his wife and child from Dubai to Kerala on Friday aboard the Air India Express plane that overshot the runway in heavy rain near Kozhikode. Pilassery is among the 18 who have already lost their lives in the crash. According to a report by The News Minute, Pilassery is a native of Kunnamangalam in Kerala and had been staying in Dubai with his wife Ameena Sherin and daughter Isa Fathima where he used to work. He had finally managed to get his hands on tickets for the Vande Bharat repatriation flights between Dubai and India and had boarded the flight hoping he would be home soon. He was flying back to his hometown due to a medical emergency. Social media posts show that Pilassery, hopeful about getting back home, had posted the update on Facebook. He had written "back to home" just hours before the plane was to crash. While condolences poured in for the family, Pilassery's friend, Shafi Parakkulam, posted an anecdote on Facebook about the deceased's activities before he boarded the plane. According to Parakkulam's post, Pilassery had donated money to the poor before boarding the flight. Parakkulam wrote that his friend had given him some money and asked him to give it to those who need it or those who have lost their jobs during the pandemic. As many as 172 people have been hospitalised after the accident, with officials involved in the rescue operations saying that 16 of them are in a critical condition. Civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri said the accident appears to have been caused by a slippery runway as the pilot attempted to land on the table top runway amid heavy rains. The government has sent two special relief flights from Delhi and from Mumbai for rendering humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and the family members. The Congress has sought to downplay the party feud in Punjab where Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is at loggerheads with two Rajya Sabha MPs in connection with the recent spurious liquor tragedy in the state. "Some of our MPs have asked questions and I don't know why people are misreading or reading too much into it. It's a simple exchange of words within the party. In our case it happens transparently, while in some parties it's not allowed," said Congress leader Pawan Khera, while rejecting the assumption that Punjab could see a rebellion like the ones seen in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The entire Punjab Cabinet on Thursday pitched in for the expulsion of party MPs Pratap Singh Bajwa and Shamsher Singh Dullo for alleged "anti-party and anti-government activities", which they termed as "gross indiscipline". The ministers, in a joint statement, called for cracking the whip on the two MPs without any delay. Indiscipline cannot be tolerated at any time, least of all when Assembly elections are less than two years away, the ministers said, pointing to the MPs' repeated attacks on the state government, including on Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. The two MPs had attacked their own government over the hooch tragedy and had approached the Governor to demand a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Department (ED) into the liquor deaths. The hooch tragedy has claimed 111 lives -- 83 in Tarn Taran, 15 in Amritsar and 13 in Batala. Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar has also sought strict action against the two MPs. Pratap Singh Bajwa and Chief Minister Amrinder Singh do not share a cordial relation as Bajwa was removed from the state President's post ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls and Amrinder Singh was appointed as the state chief. The fact that the president and his supporters want us to tolerate hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths from the pandemic reveals their true nature. by Sonali Kolhatkar When President Donald Trump was challenged by Axios national political correspondent Jonathan Swan to respond to the fact that, a thousand Americans are dying a day due to COVID-19, the president responded as though the grim tally was perfectly acceptable, saying, They are dying, thats true. And it is what it is. While observers were aghast at the callousness of his statement, it should not have surprised us. Trump had warned that the death toll would be high, and he had asked us months ago to get used to the idea. In late March, the White House Coronavirus Task Force had projected that 100,000 to 240,000 Americans would die from the virus. Rather than unveil an aggressive plan to tackle the spread and prevent the projected mortality figures, the president had said, I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. Getting ready to go home? The New York Times saw this warning as a contradiction to Trumps stance in February and early March when he had said that we have it totally under control and its going to be just fine. The paper seemed to heave a sigh of relief that a few weeks later, the president appeared to understand the severity of the potentially grave threat to the country. But the reports authors failed to grasp that Trump is willing to accept anythingincluding mass deathsin service of his political career. In fact, mass death appears to be part of Trumps reelection strategy as per a July 30 Vanity Fair report on the administrations strategy to contain the pandemic. The investigative piece explained that Trumps adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner was part of a group of White House staffers that corresponded frequently to discuss the rapidly spreading virus. According to a public health expert who was described as being in frequent contact with the White Houses official coronavirus task force, one of the members of Kushners team had concluded that, because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. The unnamed expert told Vanity Fair, The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy. If it is true that Kushner embraced the idea of COVID-19 deaths as part of a political strategy for Trumps reelection, there can be no clearer evidence that the Trump presidency fits the definition of a death cult. But Trumps team is also deeply inept, and its macabre tactics appear to have backfired. If Kushner expected a highly contagious virus to follow his political rules and relegate itself to Democratic-run states, he was proven very wrong, very quickly with Republican-run states like Florida, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Arizona being among the hardest hit. For years, the Republican Party has cast itself as a self-righteous force for morality, embraced the pro-life movement, and claimed to align with Christian values. But just as Trumparguably the most criminal of all U.S. presidentshas adopted a mantle of law and order with no hint of irony, the GOP as a whole has also shown time and again that its embrace of morality and law is a purely political tool. Now, as the nation grapples with mass deaths from a disease that a Republican president spectacularly and willfully failed to contain, conservative politicians appear willing to simply accept it. Their silence is deafening compared to the angry denunciations many Republican lawmakers hurled at President Barack Obama over his response to the Ebola epidemica crisis that resulted in a nationwide total of 11 infections and two deaths. Ultimately it may be Trumps own base that suffers as it internalizes the presidents mixed and confused messaging on ignoring social distancing guidelines, eschewing protective masks, swallowing hydroxychloroquine preventatively, and even accepting the inevitability of their own death (because it is what it is according to Trump). Even after more than 150,000 Americans have died from the virus, a majority of Republicans trust Trumps coronavirus comments. When Trump loyalist and former presidential candidate Herman Cain died of COVID-19, testing positive 11 days after attending Trumps Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally without a mask on, his death did not change minds. The 74-year-old was reportedly on a ventilator during his last days, but conservatives are vehemently opposed to politicizing Cains death. Right-wing commentator and talk show host Ben Shapiro slammed those who made a connection between Cains refusal to take the virus seriously and his own infection and death. Shapiro said, The kind of dunking on people after they die of COVID is pretty gross. Certainly, Cain did not deserve to be vilified for his own sad fate. But his death offers a cautionary tale about the dangers of the Trump death culta point Shapiro of course refused to acknowledge. We should hardly be surprised at this acceptance of death as inevitable. For years, conservatives have responded to gun violence with angry renunciations of any links to gun proliferation or lax gun control laws, offering instead thoughts and prayers. The one exception where Republicans express outrage is over the death of fetal cells inside womens bodiesindicating that the fight is less about murder, as the anti-abortionists like to call it, than it is about controlling womens bodies. By and large, the nations right-wing factions have for years wanted us to accept mass deaths and preventable mortality as a price for our freedom. They expect the same during a pandemic. But we do not have to all be members of the death cult. According to a new study, states where people live the longest also have the strictest environmental laws, stronger gun control and stronger protections for minorities. These are also states that tend to be run by Democrats. California, for example, which has among the most stringent protections for minorities and the environment, also has one of the highest average life expectancy rates in the United States. COVID-19 infections and deaths are hardly inevitable, and Americans are starting to see it. A Texas woman named Stacey Nagy penned an obituary for her late husband David that has garnered widespread attention. She wrote in her local paper that, Family members believe Davids death was needless. They blame his death and the deaths of all the other innocent people, on Trump, [Gov. Greg] Abbott and all the politicians who did not take this pandemic seriously and were more concerned with their popularity and votes than lives. Nagy also blamed the many ignorant, self centered and selfish people who refused to follow the advice of the medical professionals, believing their right not to wear a mask was more important than killing innocent people. Perhaps the only way out of Trumps death cult is to speak out as Nagy has done. The Washington Post, which interviewed Nagy, explained, Feeling helpless, Stacey approached her husbands obituary as a chance to speak out about how she felt her country had failed her family. While Trumps most loyal supporters might choose death in his service, the rest of us need not be bound by their blind, cultish and suicidal ideology. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of Rising Up With Sonali, a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 23:43:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, presides over the first plenary meeting of the 21st session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, started its 21st session Saturday to review multiple draft laws and revisions. Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the first plenary meeting of the session. A total of 164 members of the NPC Standing Committee attended the meeting. Lawmakers heard the deliberation reports of draft laws on urban maintenance and construction tax and on deed tax. The NPC Constitution and Law Committee suggested the two drafts be reviewed and passed at the session. Lawmakers also heard explanations on a draft revision to the law on the prevention of juvenile delinquency. Also on the lawmakers' table was a draft revision to the animal epidemic prevention law, which further tightens regulations on markets trading live poultry and livestock. The draft amendment to the copyright law also returned to the legislature for the second reading. The draft further improves the definition and genre of copyright works as mentioned in this law. Lawmakers also deliberated the draft amendments to the NPC organic law and the NPC procedural rules, as well as the draft amendments to the national flag law and the national emblem law. The State Council submitted a bill to the session, asking the NPC Standing Committee to make a decision for the sixth Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to continue operation. Lawmakers heard explanations of the bill. A draft decision on authorizing the State Council to start a pilot program in the nine mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area was submitted to the session. The program will enable Hong Kong legal practitioners and Macao practicing lawyers to acquire mainland's legal practice qualifications and go into practice in the cities. Other documents presented to the lawmakers included a report on the implementation of the national economic and social development plan, and a report on the implementation of this year's budget. Enditem Medical workers conduct quick tests for people returning from COVID-19-hit regions (Photo: VNA) Hanoi Vietnam reported five new COVID-19 caseson August 8 morning, including three community cases relating to Da Nang city and two imported. Of the three community cases, patent 785 is a 42-year-old man living in Duc Thuong commune, Hoai Duc district, Hanoi. He and his family travelled to Da Nang city between July 16 and 20. On August 3, he started to develop a cough and was taken to the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases branch 2 in Dong Anh district on August 6. He was tested and results released on August 7 showed that he was positive for the SARS-CoV-2. Two other community cases in the central province of Quang Ngai are people who came into close contact with the other patients carrying the virus. The two important cases are citizens who were repatriated from Mexico transiting through Japan on August 5. They are both being treated at Khanh Hoa Tropical Diseases Hospital. There has now been 789 people testing positive for COVID-19 since the first case was detected in January. Of those, 316 returned to Vietnam from other countries and territories. Since July 25 when community infections resurged in Da Nang, 333 people connected to the central city have tested positive. There are currently 166,521 people quarantined nationwide, including 6,939 at hospitals, 24,446 at other concentrated quarantine facilities and 135,146 at their homes. Out of the total number of people who have contracted the virus, 395 or 50.1 percent have made full recovery, and to date, there have been 10 fatalities. Venezuelan authorities identified these as the I.D. cards of former U.S. special forces citizen Airan Berry, right, and Luke Denman, left, in Caracas, Venezuela. The two former Green Berets were arrested in May 2020 while participating in a botched raid organized from neighboring Colombia to oust Maduro. Read more CARACAS, Venezuela A Venezuelan court has sentenced two former U.S. special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a blunder-filled beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolas Maduro. Lawyers for the former Green Berets, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, said they were barred from the secretive jailhouse proceedings Friday night in what they consider a violation of their constitutional rights to a defense. Maduro's chief prosecutor announced the surprise decision late Friday night. THEY ADMITTED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FACTS, Tarek William Saab announced on Twitter, adding that proceedings will continue against dozens of other defendants accused of assisting in the May 3 raid. He did not offer details. Operation Gideon was launched from makeshift training camps in neighboring Colombia and left at least eight rebel soldiers dead while more than 60 more were jailed. Ex Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, who operated a Florida-based security firm called Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility for the failed attack and had hired his two former army buddies to prepare a small cadre of deserting Venezuelan soldiers living at the makeshift camps. Venezuelan prosecutors have ordered his arrest. Goudreau is believed to be in the U.S., where he also is under investigation f or possibly violating arms trafficking laws in connection to the botched incursion. Denman and Berry, both decorated former U.S. service members, were found guilty of conspiracy, trafficking in illegal arms and terrorism, Saab said. But lawyers for the men said the hearing was marred by irregularities. Alonso Medina Roa said he was hired a month ago by the families of the two Americans but has so far been barred from meeting or speaking with his clients. In violation of their constitutional rights to a defense, he said, Judge Maximo Marquez never informed him of Friday nights proceedings at the headquarters of the SEBIN police, where the men are being held. They were represented instead by a public defender. Its unknown if a translator was present. The two Americans arrested in a coastal fishing community have ever since been paraded by officials on Venezuelan state TV as proof of their long-held claims that the United States is set on violently overthrowing Maduro's socialist government. The incident also prompted claims that U.S. backed opposition leader Juan Guaido had authorized Goudreau through a signed agreement to carry out the attack, executed by two of Guaido's former political advisors in the U.S. U.S. officials have denied any role in the attack but have not said what knowledge they had about the clandestine camps in Colombia, details of which were made public by an AP investigation two days prior to the raid. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would use all possible means to win the freedom of Denman and Berry. U.S. officials also have demanded freedom for six jailed American oil executives from Houston-based Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil monopoly, who had been lured to Caracas for a meeting and then arrested on corruption charges, which all deny. A day before the two ex-Green Berets were sentenced, the corruption trial began for the so-called Citgo 6. The case had lingered since their arrest two years and eight months ago until former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson met in July with Maduro in Caracas to urge they be released and returned home to the United States. Richardson on Saturday said he would also work to free the convicted veterans, who are both natives of Texas. Luke Denman and Airan Berry are American citizens and military veterans who deserve our support, he said. We will continue our dialogue with the Venezuelans to try to find a way to bring them back home to their families. Both cases play out amid hostility between Washington and Caracas. The Trump administration last year threw its support behind opposition leader Guaido, who has been recognized as Venezuelas legitimate president by 60 nations pledging to oust Maduro. Guaido blames Maduro for the once wealthy nations economic and social collapse, while the socialist leader, who is wanted in the U.S. on narcoterrorism charges, says Washington is using Guaido to steal the nations vast oil wealth. Medina Roa said that while Maduro may be looking to negotiate a political deal with the U.S. for the Green Berets' release, authorities don't need to trample further on Venezuela's constitution to achieve their goals. Its a perversion of justice to violate their constitutional rights for future political gain, said Medina Roa. - Goodman reported from Miami. Family members of Quinnyon Wimberly said late Friday that authorities have assured them his remains will be removed at last from the wreckage of the partially collapsed Hard Rock hotel in downtown New Orleans on Saturday. Wimberly, 36, was one of three construction workers who were killed in the Oct. 12 collapse. His remains and those of another worker have been trapped since then in the concrete-and-steel carcass of the failed 18-story hotel above Canal and North Rampart streets. LATEST: Nearly 10 months after New Orleans Hard Rock collapse, remains of construction worker recovered His older brother, Frank Wimberly, said near the demolition site that city officials told them New Orleans Fire Department personnel would ascend by crane for the physical removal of Wimberlys remains, which had been shielded behind a series of tarps. A remote-controlled jackhammer attached to a generator sat on a platform hanging from a crane on Friday, chipping away at dangling concrete near the spot on the 11th floor where his remains were. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The area was all but cleared for the removal, Frank Wimberly said, but crews wanted to be fresh for an extraction expected to take hours. Crews have not yet reached the area where they expect to find the remains of 63-year-old Jose Ponce Arreola, on the 8th floor toward Canal Street. The body of the third worker killed in the catastrophic collapse, Anthony Magrette, was recovered on the 7th floor a day after the collapse. The exposure of Wimberlys legs above the street in January, after a tarp that was covering it had blown off, ignited citywide outrage and criticism over delays in taking down the failed structure. A few weeks ago, weather and equipment issues had again delayed the planned extraction of the workers' remains. Irene Wimberly, 68, said she's looking forward to bringing her son home at last. His remains will go to the Orleans Parish Coroners Office before being released to the family. She said their plan is to cremate them. Aggressive discussions about the unfair practices prevalent in the Hindi film industry seems to have become the new normal, with terms like nepotism, insiders vs outsiders, level playing field being used everywhere from social media to prime-time debates on news channels. Actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra acknowledges the anger that many are feeling towards the film industry, and she respects the various opinions on the matter. I just feel that a lot has happened in this time, theres a lot of pent up anger within people. And I feel the only place to vent it out is social media. Most of them are faceless, those who have the face and strength have spoken. I just feel that to each to his own. Im not somebody who sits and judges a person who has an opinion, says the actor, adding that a persons opinion may or may not be someone elses reality. While talking about her Bollywood journey which started with Baazigar in 1992, Kundra says she has no complaints. Despite the ups and downs and being a true blue outsider, she says she achieved a lot. Ive really relied on fate. I came from a non-film background and I worked very hard in my life. If someone says that nepotism is bigger than fate, Id disagree. It cant be. We all come with our destiny. If you have the strength and will power to fight and put in that amount and work, no one can stop you from achieving success, the 45-year-old asserts. The actor goes on to share that theres something that she has followed, which has kept her going all these year and not become hopeless. You need to realise that it may take time and not most people have that much strength or patience. Im a Sai baba bhakt and I always say that Shraddha aur Saburi is whats most important. One has to have faith as well as patience. Theres nothing in the world can be unachievable, she says, before adding, Now thats my point of view, not everybody has to agree with it. Follow @htshowbiz for more Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has cleared a proposal for the appointment of 6,310 community health officers under the National Health Mission, a statement said on Friday. The recruitment on the post of community health officer will be done in all blocks of the state, it said. The chief minister also cleared several other proposals including direct appointment of fourth grade employees on 326 posts in police department, according to the statement. Russia has militarized Crimea, increased its military presence, keeping six submarines in the Black Sea, and wants to turn the Sea of Azov into its own lake. "Today, Russia wants to turn the Sea of Azov into its own lake. As far as we know, Russia now has six submarines in the Black Sea. Crimea has become Russias military base. All countries located around this base should be aware of Russia's aggressive policy towards control over the region," First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar said in an interview with the Demiroren Turkish news agency. In this context, Ukraine initiated the establishment of the Crimean platform, the official noted. "I think that Turkey is one of the five countries most eager to join this platform. We plan to hold the Crimean Summit in Kyiv every year, where the leaders of the countries will be able to meet. The occupation of Crimea is not an internal issue. It concerns the countries of the Black Sea region and the Sea of Azov. Russia's military strategy is aimed at the Middle East and North Africa. Russia views Crimea as a military base on this path," the diplomat said. First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar also reminded of successful projects of bilateral Ukraine-Turkey military cooperation, in particular, supply of communications equipment of the Aselsan Turkish company to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, modernization of Turkish armored vehicles with the help of Ukrainian active and reactive defense systems. ol As Rachel Rakunas contemplates her daughter Peytons return to school this fall, she worries about masks. Peyton, whos deaf and starting the first grade, understands what her teachers are saying by reading lips, which arent visible behind a face covering. My issue is not so much the threat of COVID although thats scary, of course but its the masks, Rakunas said. Imagine a hearing-impaired person who relies on reading lips she can have a whole conversation with me when she has no implants on and no sound because shes so good at reading lips because she depends on that every day. Back to school: Northwest Houston nonprofits providing school supplies to families in need The Cy-Fair mom is among many parents in northwest Harris County carrying special concerns for their special needs children as local school districts make plans to start school again. Area school districts are starting the school year at different times this fall, but all either will be online only or offering parents a choice if its safe enough to send students back to school. Rakunas has decided to keep Peyton home for the beginning of the school year, which starts Sept. 8 at her Cy-Fair ISD campus. In Spring ISD, school starts Monday, Aug. 17, but will be online for at least a month. Misty Stevens-Runyon, mother of three students in Spring ISD and a college student, said she chose to keep her students at home because she and her youngest son having compromised immune systems. Shes worried about how her children with special needs will adapt to online learning and how she and her husband will manage the process. Stevens-Runyon, who said neither she nor her husband can work from home, hopes that her other children at home can help their brother focus while she watches him through a camera at work. On HoustonChronicle.com: Illinois school district bans students from wearing pajamas while online learning Im hoping his sisters, since theyll be home, Im hoping that theyre going to be able to help him as much as possible, but I dont know how much, she said. Rakunas said that while she owns her own business and can build part of her schedule around helping her daughter, she knows this is not always possible for other parents of children with disabilities who may have chosen to send them to school. Rakunas has setup a workspace for her daughter within her home in the meantime. She said she has yet to have questions answered about how exactly virtual education will work for her daughters disability. Hopefully theyll be able to work fairly independently, thats my understanding, she said. I have the ability to keep her home, too, so there are kids that have to send their kid back and just hope for the best and I feel for them. Cy-Fair ISD parents can opt to switch their student to either in-person learning or virtual learning every grading period, but Rakunas said she is not sure whether she will choose to send her daughter to school until she gets more information. Angela Bickford, a former special education teacher for Cy-Fair ISD and current freelance writer, said she is sending her two special needs students to school for the sake of their education. Bickford said she and her mother have been advocating for safer precautions and more care taken for special education students, who she said have less success learning virtually. Bickford began crafting a workspace for both of her children before COVID-19 came to the Houston area, preparing for the multiple times they would already be learning from home, sometimes for weeks during a semester, due to how easily they get sick. She said her daughter, who is in the L.I.F.E. Skills program at CFISD, did not understand that school was stopped due to COVID-19 in the spring, nor does she understand working from home. Even with her own dedicated area and space, it is still difficult to get her into the headspace. She also has to wear a face shield instead of a mask due to sensory issues. To her, we were still on spring break and she hasnt been able to realize that this is home and we have school here now, Bickford said. Its not just helping them a little bit extra with their work or modifying it to make it a little easier. When you have a child in L.I.F.E. Skills its a completely different ballgame. Bickford commended Woodard Elementary for reaching out to her to assure that more information is coming. We have a great relationship with our school and I used to teach in the district so I know, depending on where you are, it can be different, she said. We talked to our doctor about what we could do to keep them as healthy as possible to make it as safe as possible for them to be there but the one question they never answered for me ... it doesnt really tell you how (special needs) support is going to look. Bickford said she also feels privileged to be able to help her children while she works from home, though she knows she, and other parents, cannot be a full-time teacher for both of her children. Bickford said the virtual learning program being better connected to the in-person program, compared to the spring, brings some relief. I may have been a special education teacher, but that does not mean I can teach my daughter, she said. As Rakunas, Stevens-Runyon and Bickford prepare their students with both certain, and uncertain, situations, schools continue to disseminate information. The three agree on one thing: they want more information for their special needs children, even if their non special needs students are informed. These kids especially, most of them have sensory issues which is what the mask is going to cause problems for, Bickford said. My daughter doesnt understand that she has to keep the mask on. Also, with her seizures, she shouldnt wear a mask because youre supposed to be able to see her mouth because that part of her mouth is involved in her seizures. More than anything, Rakunas said she wants more information so she can help her child ahead of time rather than on time. I think all parents are confused right now but when you add in some special need its very overwhelming and its very confusing, she said. I have the ability to keep her home too so there are kids that have to send their kid back and just hope for the best and I feel for them. chevall.pryce@chron.com The Queen has decided not to attend church as usual in Scotland tomorrow as a 'sensible precaution' against coronavirus. As Head of the Church of England and someone with a strong personal faith, the monarch normally worships at Crathie Kirk, the nearest church to her Balmoral Estate on Royal Deeside, when she is in residence. Crowds always gather to catch a glimpse of the sovereign as she drives in. Queen Elizabeth, pictured leaving Crathie Kirk near her Balmoral estate on October 6, 2019 will not be attending this Sunday's service due to the threat of Covid-19 Groups of people often wait out to see the Queen as she attends the weekly service But royal sources confirmed last night that that the 94-year-old royal, who flew for her annual summer stay to the castle with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, earlier this week, would 'sensibly' stay away tomorrow and for the foreseeable future. 'It is simply a sensible precaution in the circumstances,' said an aide. When the Queen and Prince Philip landed at Aberdeen Airport they were met by a driver and whisked off to Balmoral Castle, which is roughly an hour away. Their staff in Scotland have been quarantined for two weeks to minimise the Covid risk. The Queen and Prince Phillip will 'sensibly' stay away from Crathie Kirk tomorrow and for the foreseeable future Crathie Kirk, where royals have worshipped for 150 years, has been closed during the pandemic. But its Church of Scotland minister, the Rev Kenneth Mackenzie, has confirmed he will re-open for Sunday morning services. Under current guidance all worshippers must fill in a form giving contact details for possible Covid-tracing, wear face masks and avoid singing. In addition social distancing at the church means there will be only 18 to 20 pews available - one for each household - giving a maximum capacity of between 30 and 40. Mr Mackenzie also thought it 'very unlikely' crowds would be allowed to gather outside like normal to watch the Royal Family arrive and depart for church. The Church of Scotland advice to parishes allowed places of worship to reopen for communal services from July 15. Their staff in Scotland were quarantined for two weeks to minimise the Covid risk, and the couple are expected to stay there until early October (file image of Balmoral Castle) The Queen and Prince Philip landed at Aberdeen Airport before being whisked off to Balmoral, which is roughly an hour away Buckingham Palace said any alternative plans for the Queen's Sunday worship would be private. The small church memorably became a focus of the Scottish independence debate days before the 2014 poll when the Queen told people outside a Sunday service to 'think very carefully about the future' before casting their vote. She plans to stay up at Balmoral until early October, with various family members visiting over the summer. Lockdown measures have been reintroduced in Aberdeen following the outbreak of a coronavirus cluster in the city, with face coverings to be made mandatory in more indoor places across Scotland following the spike in cases. The Aberdeen lockdown came just six days after parts of the North West of England were also put back under restrictions, with 4.5million people in Manchester facing 100 fines if they breach the rules. The measures in Aberdeen, which apply to the city area, will be backed by government regulations, the First Minister said, and will be enforced if the rules are not followed. The Scottish Government later announced that visits to hospital and care homes from a named family member or friend will be stopped, with only essential visits being allowed. The number of COVID-19 cases in rose to 1,222 after 99 fresh infections were registered in the last 24 hours in the archipelago, officials said on Saturday. Seventy patients also recovered from the disease during the period. The union territory now has 778 active cases, while 425 have been cured of infection so far and 19 died. Meanwhile, entered Nicobar district, comprising 22 islands including 12 uninhabited ones, as seven government employees were infected with it, they said. These seven people, who recently returned from Port Blair, were admitted to a hospital in Car Nicobar, the administrative headquarters of Nicobar islands. Till now, Nicobar district was coronavirus-free and heads of local tribal villages said they would not allow outsiders to its islands from now on. The union territory has three districts - South Andaman, North and Middle Andaman and Nicobar. (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.) He came from a spirit of frustration among a sizable segment of the electorate that, in time, became something like a spirit of nihilism. It will be a long time repairing that, and no one is sure how to. And here, in that perfect storm, was Mr. Trumps simple, momentary genius. He declared for president as a branding exercise and went out and said applause lines, and when the crowd cheered, he decided This is my program, and when it didnt cheer, he thought, Huh, that is not my program. Some of it was from his gut, but most of it was that casual. After the election a former high official told me he observed it all from the side of the stage. This week the official said that after a rally, on the plane home, all Mr. Trump and Jared Kushner would talk about was the reaction. Did you see how they responded to that? The base, with its cheers, said they werent for cutting entitlement benefits. They were still suffering from the effects of 2008, and other things. They werent for open borders or for more foreign fighting. They were for the guy who said he hated the elites as much as they did. Vietnamese citizens quarantined after their repatriations flight back home have only three words to say: Thank you soldiers. Soldiers from Military Command of Khanh Hoa Province clean up a facility of Nha Trang University which has been turned into a quarantine camp. VNA/VNS Phan Sau Quarantine camps may not be the ideal place to spend two weeks after touching down on home soil, but thanks to the military staff at one such centre in the south central province of Khanh Hoa, the required stay is made all the more easy. Every day, soldiers provide us with nutritionally balanced meals, said Vo Van Thao, 48, from Soc Trang Province. They also instruct us on physical training and check our health. The dedication of military personnel responsible for the running of the facility has warmed the heart of the people being quarantined. Thao went to Taiwan (China) to work as a labourer in 2018. He was very happy upon hearing the news that his company had a policy to facilitate Thao and his colleagues repatriation as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. However, it was not until the end of July that he returned to the homeland. Thao said he felt secure after coming back home because he was worried getting infected abroad would end up costing him a lot of money, especially as he has had heart problems in the past. Sharing his experience, Pham Thanh Long, who was also in Taiwan and is quarantined in a camp in the province, believes being quarantined is essential for the safety of the country. The first impression that we got as soon as we arrive at the camp is that soldiers here are very careful, said Long, 39, from Hanoi. Everything from receiving us at the airport to living conditions at the quarantined areas are well-prepared. We understand the current pandemic situation is very dangerous. Quarantine is a safety measure for us and society. Besides expressing our gratefulness to the Fatherland, we also voluntarily donate money through the Vietnam Fatherland Front. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to soldiers in green shirts who are serving at the quarantine facility here. Currently there are 525 people in quarantine in Khanh Hoa Province. Of these, 146 are pregnant women. To provide best care for these women, medical workers coordinate with doctors and nurses from the provincial health department to regularly examine their health. Challenges Looking after pregnant women at quarantine camps was not easy for male soldiers because most of them aged between 18 and 20 and just joined the army. However, they have overcome all difficulties. Through reading information on the mass media, the soldiers have managed to cook the meals that are suitable to the taste of pregnant women and changed the menu constantly. Now they are confident that they are doing it very well. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Lam Nam from Khanh Hoa Border Guard, who is in charge of one of a number of quarantine centres in the province, said they were assigned to ensure the safety and create the most favourable conditions for the people during the 14-day period. Its hard to imagine how much hardship and difficulty soldiers face in serving the people. However, they overcome their own limitations to carry out their duties. Due to water shortages, officers and soldiers had to stay up late to pump water, assuring there is enough for everyone. For those who are on duty in a quarantine camp of Regiment 803, the work might be harder. Whenever receiving the batch of Vietnamese people returning from abroad, the soldiers often work around the clock. To accommodate people who have to be quarantined, soldiers at the schools have given up their shelters. According to the provincial health department, because the four military-run quarantine camps have been overloaded, the provincial authority has decided to use two facilities of Nha Trang University as quarantine centres. Nguyen Hoang Thanh Thien from Military Command of Khanh Hoa Province, said the preparation for the two centres was finished after the military spent four days to clean the environment and install equipment to meet peoples demand. He said: When we came here, the buildings were empty and covered with dust. But things have been changed after several days. The buildings are clean, electricity and water and other necessary equipment have also been installed. We do this job with expectation that Vietnamese people returning home from overseas understand that its a great effort of the Government to bringing people back to the country in the context of economic difficulty. Thien said he hoped that people could feel secure in the 14-day isolation, contributing to the success of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Hung, Head of Logistic of Military Command of Khanh Hoa Province said by upholding the spirit fighting the pandemic like fighting against the enemy, the military force in the province always try their best to fulfil the mission. "Before welcoming Vietnamese citizens back to the country to be isolated, we all have detailed scenarios to ensure the readiness for each reception and the people always feel safe and secure during isolation at quarantine camps," Hung said. For soldiers who are working at quarantine camps they are subjected to long working hours, under emotionally and physically stressful conditions. To do their jobs, they frequently come in very close contact with people who might be infected with the deadly virus. Yet they are still there, supporting people with everything they have. VNS Soldiers rise to challenge of caring for people in quarantine Soldiers deployed for the fight against the ongoing novel coronavirus epidemic have been working hard these days to assist people who are undergoing a compulsory 14-day quarantine period at military camps. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: The junior doctors working at the State COVID-19 hospital staged a protest here on Friday demanding 45 per cent hike in stipend. "The junior doctors in Andhra Pradesh are the least paid compared to all the neighbouring States. On an average, a junior doctor in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, and West Bengal gets Rs 50,000. Here we are paid only Rs 34,000. Our stipend hike has been pending since January this year," said Siddhartha Medical College Junior Doctors Association president Karthik Gouda. They also demanded life insurance for those who have been working during the pandemic and have lost their lives. "A health cover of Rs 1 crore and immediate release of insurance amount should be given to all doctors," he said. Further, Karthik Gouda said that States like Odisha and Maharashtra are providing incentives to the junior doctors who are posted on coronavirus duties. "Odisha is paying Rs 1,000 per day to each junior doctor who is on COVID-19 duty. Even we are working round-theclock but we are not paid a single penny extra," he lamented. Responding to them, Director of Medical Education A Venkatesh said, "The government had already released an order mentioning 15 per cent hike every two years. But the junior doctors are demanding higher than that. Our secretary is discussing the issue with the government to decide how much hike could be given." The association also complained about the poor quality of PPE kits and N95 masks provided to the junior doctors at all COVID-19 hospitals across the State. "The junior doctors had complained about the quality of PPEs. We bought new PPEs for junior doctors, but still they are not satisfied with the quality. We will buy the next lot as per their demands," clarified State COVID hospital superintendent Nancharaiah. The junior doctors of SMC have announced boycott of duties from August 8, if their demands were not met. Intruder from Pakistan shot dead by BSF India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: A suspected Pakistani intruder was shot dead by the Border Security Force while trying to sneak across the International Border close to Gujarat and Rajasthan. The BSF's night patrol party spotted a man who first crossed over the IB and then climbed over the fence on the intervening night of August 7 and 8. The intruder was challenged and then fired upon after he crossed the border fence. Arms laden drone from Pakistan shot down by BSF BSF officials said that it was dark and the forces fired in self defence. The intruder who hid himself in a bush after running away was later found dead on the Indian side when the BSF personnel searched the area. "At the same moment, BSF troops also noticed movement on Pakistani side. Earlier, similar attempts made by Pakistan during day time were foiled by BSF. However, this is the first time that infiltration attempt has been made during night time in this area," an official release from the BSF said. Kerala plane crash: Locals aid rescue, donate blood, arrange food | Oneindia News The BSF has been on very high alert ahead of the Independence Day on August 15, the BSF release also added. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 8, 2020, 16:27 [IST] But the protesters said they dont want their politicians to agree on early elections under a decades-old system they blame for the dysfunction that allowed a vast stockpile of explosive material to sit unattended at their port for more than six years, only to explode on Tuesday with such power that it was felt more than 120 miles away in Cyprus. Unfortunately, with this success and the burdens of leading a large and growing organization comes substantial pressure, Mr. Prevo said. He added that the decision for Mr. Falwell to take a leave of absence was not made lightly. The decision was made by the executive committee on behalf of the full board, but not all members of the board were contacted in advance of the decision, according to one board member who declined to speak publicly. In the photograph, both Mr. Falwell and the woman have their pants unzipped. His hand is close to her chest. More vacation shots, the post said. Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. I promise thats just black water in my glass. Mr. Falwell responded to criticism of the photo earlier this week in an interview with WLNI, a local Lynchburg radio station. Yeah, it was weird. Shes pregnant. She couldnt get her pants zipped and I was like trying to like I had on a pair of jeans I havent worn in a long time and couldnt get zipped either. So, I just put my belly out like hers. Shes my wifes assistant, shes a sweetheart. I should have never put it up and embarrassed her. Ive apologized to everybody. I promised my kids I will try to be a good boy from here on out. A now-deleted video of a party on the yacht, titled Trailer Park Boys, showed Falwell family members and friends in costumes in an apparent reference to the Canadian mockumentary series. Students from Liberty expressed outrage about the photo on social media. Several pointed out that it was in direct violation of the schools code of conduct. On Thursday, Representative Mark Walker, Republican of North Carolina and a former instructor at Liberty, wrote on Twitter that Mr. Falwells ongoing behavior is appalling. The boy, 13, jumped from the cliff at the Sgwd Gwladys waterfall (Picture: Getty) A teenager has injured his spine after jumping off a 20-metre waterfall in the Brecon Beacons in South Wales. The 13-year-old hit the river bed after tombstoning into Sgwd Gwladys waterfall, near Pontneddfechan in Powys, shortly after 3.30pm on Friday. The youngster was airlifted to hospital following a large rescue operation. He suffered injuries to his spine and pelvis as a result of the impact. Visitors had flocked to the waterfall on Friday after temperatures hit a sweltering 36 degrees in some places. Read more: Hottest August day for 15 years as temperatures hit 36 degrees Sgwd Gwladys waterfall in the Brecon Beacons (Picture: Getty) Read more: 'Stay away from the beach', Brits warned as UK sizzles in 37C heatwave A Western Beacons Mountain Rescue Team spokesman told Wales Online: The team responded with four vehicles and 15 team members to Sgwd Gwladys (Lady Falls) where the casualty was treated by the team. The casualty had jumped off the waterfall 'tombstoning' and had hit the bed of the river when he entered the water. He added: The casualty was placed in a vacuum mattress to immobilise his spine and loaded onto a stretcher. Team leader Neil Butcher said they were forced to use a winch and helicopter in windy conditions to prevent the teen from suffering further pain. At the meeting (Photo: qdnd.vn) Hanoi The 4th meeting of the Vietnam-Japan Joint Committee on Cooperation in Industry, Trade and Energy was held in Hanoi on August 7 in the form of video conferencing. The meeting was co-chaired by Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Kajiyama Hiroshi. The ministers rejoiced at cooperation outcomes between the two sides since the 3rd meeting, especially collaboration within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as well as cooperation in energy, automobile and chemical industries and industrial workforce training. They reiterated the significance of the joint committee in removing difficulties for businesses and promoting cooperation between the two countries, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. They shared the view that Vietnam-Japan cooperation in trade, industry and energy should go with targets set in the ASEAN-Japan Economic Ministers Joint Statement on Initiatives on Economic Resilience in Response to the Coronavirus Disease, and the ASEAN-Japan Economic Resilience Action Plan. Hiroshi lauded the leadership of Vietnam as ASEAN Chair 2020, and committed to further coordination with the country. The two ministers highlighted persity, transparency, and sustainability in building a firm supply chain in the industrial sector. Anh said the Vietnamese Government pledges to perfect the investment environment in the time ahead to facilitate the operation of foreign investors in general and those from Japan in particular. He appreciated Japans technical assistance in personnel development in the industrial sector over the past years. The minister expressed his delight at projects in Vietnam included in Japans initiative on personnel development in the sphere of auto control software in ASEAN, to be rolled out for the first time this year. He suggested applying Japans KOSEN model in personnel development in training facilities of the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade in order to improve capacity and create more added values for a number of key industries in Vietnam like chemicals, garment-textile, auto and supporting industries. Both ministers pledged to make efforts for a free, fair, transparent, stable and foreseeable trade and investment environment in Asia-Pacific. They reiterated commitments to promoting economic integration in Asia-Pacific, and agreed to support each other and closely coordinate at multilateral economic and trade cooperation frameworks of which the two countries are members. They also discussed other issues like digital transformation, the fourth Industrial Revolution and the free flow of data with trust. In the field of energy, they said the Nghi Son oil refinery is significant to both sides, and suggested the Vietnamese and Japanese governments facilitate the implementation of the project. It is necessary to persify energy resources, step up oil and gas cooperation and promote energy-related policies to meet the increasing demand for energy, they said. The two countries will also foster collaboration in addressing global challenges like climate change, while mobilising financial resources, including private investment, for energy infrastructure projects and projects on free and competitive energy market development in Indo-Pacific through multilateral frameworks. Bus rapid transit will start Sunday in East Oakland, a striking development at a time when COVID-19 has all but decimated public transportation in the Bay Area. AC Transits new Tempo line promises ease and convenience for flatland residents with bus-only lanes to speed travel, stations and platforms to allow quick level boarding and zippy silver, black, purple and blue buses the silver and black originally meant to honor the Raiders before they moved to Las Vegas. Tempo will run along a roughly 10-mile route with 46 stations between the San Leandro transit center at San Leandro BART, and 20th Street and Broadway in uptown Oakland. It will be one of the Bay Areas first bus rapid transit lines commonly known as BRT with one in the South Bay already carrying passengers, but two in San Francisco still under construction. BRT lines are designed to operate like rail systems with such features as dedicated lanes, stations to get on and off the buses, and electronic gadgetry that allows buses to sail through most traffic signals. Hence the term rapid. Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle Like many Bay Area transit projects, the Tempo line has been delayed for many years and planned and promised for many more. But after 20 years of stops and starts, the $232 million project is ready to roll out. Joel Ramos, an early supporter of bus rapid transit who in the 1990s lived next to BARTs Fruitvale Station, in the middle of the planned route, said its fitting that Tempo arrives in the middle of a pandemic with no fanfare. Alameda County coronavirus health orders barring big gatherings mean big celebrations will have to wait. It had so many ups and downs for so long that it was never going to be a wonderful grand opening with a ribbon, he said. Robert Lyles, an AC Transit spokesman, said the lack of a celebration is the biggest downside of starting service now. Tempo is a seminal moment for AC Transit and for the East Bay, he said. Theres never been a bus system like this in the East Bay and wed like to celebrate with the communities after three years of construction. Celebration or not, riders should get a kick out of the new service. Riders who rely on AC Transits busy Line 1, which is being taken over by Tempo, shouldnt have to wait as long to catch a bus. The plan is for buses to run every 10 minutes, said Lyles, but that may take some time as drivers along the route get used to the fact they can no longer drive, stop or park in lanes that are now set aside for buses only. In order for us to achieve optimal performance, he said, the lanes have be clear of cars. Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle Unlike in San Francisco, the transit-only lanes wont be painted red, Lyles said, but will be emblazoned with the words Buses only. At the time AC Transit was building the line, red paint was not allowed on state highways, like International Boulevard, Lyles said. Sheriffs deputies will also be issuing tickets to drivers, including delivery trucks, who block the lanes. Like other Bay Area transit operators, AC Transit has seen a huge decline in ridership since shelter-in-place orders went into effect in March. So its unclear just how many people will take advantage of the new service, but ridership is bound to be a bit thin at first. That will enable AC to not only get drivers used to staying out of the transit lanes but to put finishing touches on the new line. Tempo will not only bring speedier transit service to East Oakland but also a flashier look, especially along International Boulevard where drab bus stops have been replaced with colorful stations in the medians, featuring artwork that represents communities the buses are passing through. Its really visually compelling, Lyles said. The stations are eye-popping. On Friday, along International Boulevard, Tempo was already drawing attention. Two women were laughing and taking selfies at the still-empty platform near 35th Avenue, on a street bustling with fruit vendors and pedestrians. David Martinez stood on the sidewalk nearby, leaning against his bicycle. He plans to ride the BRT regularly to his restaurant job on 65th Avenue. Ill use it every day, Martinez said. Though many merchants on International Boulevard raised objections to the project, complaining that the protracted construction had eaten up parking spaces and chased out customers, some seemed optimistic now that the end was in sight. Ramos wondered whether the pandemic had forced restaurateurs and store owners to reimagine their roadways, repurposing parking spaces for outdoor seating or curbside pickup which is now essential for businesses to survive. 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. Badr Ali, owner of the Loco 8 toy and apparel shop on International, said he hoped the new bus line would bring foot traffic and vivify the street.We need to know life is continuing, he said. Still, others were skeptical. Its been very disruptive, said Sebastian Irigoyen, who was sitting on a bench in the Fruitvale Transit Village plaza, a cluster of small restaurants and markets outside the BART station. They should have just improved the 1 R instead of creating an entire new system. Rebecca Saltzman, a BART board director and transit advocate, joined the fight for bus rapid transit in 2008, when she was a bus rider living on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. At that time the project faced staunch opposition in Berkeley, where residents fought to preserve parking and traffic lanes. It would later meet similar resistance in San Leandro where neighborhood groups lopped off the south end of the route, so it terminated at San Leandro BART Station, instead of Bay Fair. So many cities across the country and the world are so far ahead of us on bus infrastructure, but the Bay Area for some reason has been pretty opposed to it, Saltzman said. Shes hoping that Tempo will change public sentiment. Michael Cabanatuan and Rachel Swan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com and rswa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan, @rachelswan The bullion metal lost Rs 2,562, or 4.68 percent, for the week on MCX as investors booked profit (Image courtesy: Reuters) Debajit Saha The Indian gold market witnessed its weakest first half in decades, with the gross gold demand contracting by a staggering 64 percent YoY, primarily due to the economic lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also acerbated by the record gold price in local currency terms. Gold imports slumped to its lowest point due to the pandemic induced lockdown, which forced economic activities to halt completely. India imported only 99 tonnes of gold in H1 this year, a drop of 77 percent YoY compared to the 436 tonnes recorded last year for the same period. Of that figure, 287 tonnes remained available for domestic consumption, compared to just 47 tonnes this year. If we look at the refiners performance, fine gold recovered from imported dore in the first six months of the year slumped by 70 percent on a YoY basis, while the April-June quarter saw a 96 percent drop in volumes. Some Indian refiners have established strong relationships with Dubai refiners over the years, and as a result, Indian refiners were able to reroute their shipments to Dubai at mutually agreed terms and conditions. Given the volume of shipments was markedly lower than normal times, this gold was easily consumed within the UAE and neighboring countries. 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 Indian gold jewellery consumption stood at just 109 tonnes in the first half of 2020, 62 percent lower than the level seen in 2019 for the same period. Following a 40 percent year-on-year fall in Q1 jewellery fabrication plummeted 94 percent in the second quarter as the country bunkered down in a bid to control the spread of the virus, putting enormous pressure on the survival of the sector. While large fabrication houses in the organized sector have seen a modest uptick in production (while working at a markedly reduced capacity), manufacturing activities in the unorganized segment have come to a near standstill. The average gold price in local terms remained 16 percent higher than the corresponding period last year. The largest demand segment for gold jewellery is for marriage. Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the majority of the marriages were deferred for at least a few months and as a result, demand from this segment evaporated. In normal conditions, jewellers get some floating customers who purchase little bits of jewellery for daily wear, or in-house rituals other than marriages, etc. However, this year these customers failed to turn up because of fear of infection and purchases took place only in pockets and at a very low volume. On the investment side, investment in physical gold was hit hard. Demand was the worst ever as investors could not get to a store to buy bars or coins. Demand decreased by 70 percent year-on-year in H1 to an estimated 24 tonnes. Of course, the majority of this investment took place in Q1 to the tune of 22 tonnes. However, physical investment was shifted to investment in paper products. As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, investors purchased 6.7 tonnes of gold using sovereign gold bonds in the second quarter. On the other hand, strong inflows have also been witnessed in gold ETFs. Like a sovereign gold bond, gold ETFs attracted 4 tonnes of investment in the second quarter alone, making it another investment option when the physical investment was not possible. On final analysis, we are expecting that the broader economy will start recovering from September onwards as COVID cases in and surrounding the major financial hubs are on the decline. Refinitiv India gold is quoting at Rs.52803/10gm, a record high, and this price will certainly curb demand in Q3, especially as people are waiting for prices to settle at a certain level. While our market sources have informed us that demand has increased in July, this is being compared to the low base observed in Q2. We need to see if sustained buying takes place for at least two months (which we believe is unlikely) before we jump to any conclusions that the market might be returning to normal. TikTok responded to Trump's executive order banning transactions with its parent company and China's Tencent as well. US President Donald issued executive orders banning US transactions with TikToks parent company ByteDance and WeChat owner Tencent. TikTok, WeChat and other Chinese are also facing a ban in the country. Following Trumps order TikTok responded saying it would take up legal action. TikTok is currently embroiled in the faceoff between the US and Chinese governments. President Trump threatened to ban TikTok citing security concerns. Trump said that TikTok could be used to spy on the US, collect data which can be used by the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly denied the speculations. The app is already banned in India due to security reasons as well. TikTok in a blog post said that its shocked by the new order and the latest action shows how there still continues to be, no due process or adherence to the law. TikTok reiterated that the platform has never shared any user data with the Chinese government. We will pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and our users are treated fairly if not by the Administration, then by the US courts, TikTok said in the blog post.it The latest ban order comes shortly after TikTok was given an option to continue its operations in the US through an acquisition by an American company. Microsoft confirmed that it is in talks with TikTok and a deal is expected to be finalised by September. After India, TikToks biggest market is the US where it also has its biggest creators. 08.08.2020 LISTEN Former President John Dramani Mahama has said his administration ended the power crisis aka Dumsor and not the Akufo-Addo administration as purported. He challenged the Akufo-Addo administration to provide evidence of the measures they introduced to end the 'dumsor' if indeed the New Patriotic Party (NPP) actually solved the problem. Speaking to a group of Ghanaians in Bole after obtaining his voter's ID card, Mr. Mahama noted that since the NPP won the 2016 elections, not a single power plant has been added to what he brought into the country. To that end, he said, he must be appreciated for resolving the power crisis. We were faced with the 'dumsor' crisis and I had gone to parliament and pledged that I was going to solve it. Today I am credited with ending 'dumsor'. Our colleagues (NPP) think that Ghanaians have a short memory. In 2016 there was no load shedding. How can you end a power crisis without adding one single megawatt of power to our national generation? It is not possible, Mr. Mahama said. He continued, How can you say you ended dumsor and yet you have not built one single power plant, how could you have ended it? But the work that was done to end the 'dumsor', the foot soldiers who did the leg work was John Jinapor. I am very proud of him." STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The number of Staten Islanders still without power after Tropical Storm Isaias wreaked havoc on the borough is down to 3,025 as of Saturday morning, according to the Con Edison outages map. The estimate restoration time is 11 p.m. Sunday, after the company on Saturday stated a vast majority of customers would have their power back by Sunday. Con Ed tweeted Saturday that 1,230 mutual aid and contractor workers join with more than 1,700 Con Edison field workers across their coverage area to continue restoration efforts. This morning, 1,230 mutual aid and contractor workers join with more than 1,700 Con Edison field workers to continue the restoration efforts that have been on-going for more than 84 straight hours since tropical storm #Isaias hit the region. https://t.co/opxr1TXkRP pic.twitter.com/9AW33MPkha Con Edison (@ConEdison) August 8, 2020 Tens of thousands of Staten Islanders were at one point without power after Tropical Storm Isaias damaged more than 1,000 trees and ripped through power lines Tuesday. Experts said the speed and power of the storms wind gusts were comparable to those of Hurricane Sandy. Consolidated Edison President Tim Cawley said 1,000 additional crews were set to arrive in the area Saturday, after employees already working initially were instructed to focus on easier jobs that would restore a large number of customers. The numbers will come down significantly, and it really depends on precisely what the damage is at each location, Cawley said Saturday. I would expect a number of customers to certainly go into Monday. The numbers will decrease significantly, but these will be smaller jobs involving lots of labor. The company meanwhile has faced questions from local and federal politicians in regard to the rate at which power has been restored and the transparency with which the company has operated. In Washington, the issue caught the attention of Sen. Charles Schumer, who made a personal call Friday to John McAvoy, president and chief executive officer of Con Edison. Schumer reportedly demanded answers on what is being done to address the outages. Staten Islanders are rightfully frustrated with what is going on right now with these lasting outages, and quite frankly, so I am I, said Sen. Charles Schumer. Though crews on the ground are working hard, many Island customers are getting inaccurate, little, or no information at all about the ongoing situation and that needs to change. This article was first published by The Lowy Institute and is reprinted here with permission. The Philippine House of Representatives opened the second regular session of congress last month, with some legislators looking to kick-start the controversial process of amending the constitution. Charter change or cha-cha, as locals put it has been part of President Rodrigo Dutertes thrust since he came into power. The current constitution, ratified in 1987, was produced after the tumultuous and draconian Marcos dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s. Its provisions specifically created the single six-year presidential term, along with other safeguards to unchallenged leadership. It is a key document to mark the countrys shift away from open autocracy. So any attempt to revise it can be easily portrayed as a political power grab. Duterte seems more intent than his predecessors in pursuit of charter change. While all four presidents before him have, in one way or another, proposed cha-cha, Duterte has been its most vocal and frequent endorser. He and his political allies have made five attempts already all met with public backlash and eventually retracted. One proposal is to extend terms for elected officials, prompting fears around accountability and process. Yet are such concerns warranted? This month, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) unveiled a petition by more than 1400 mayors clamouring to lift the term limits for city leaders. While this does not apply to their national counterparts, it signals an open call for splicing the charter. The DILG, however, has tried to allay such fears by denyingthat the term-extension proposal would extend to the president. However, Congressman Rufus Rodriguez also said this month he plans to call for a meeting of the constitutional amendments committee of the House to discuss how best to proceed. If a motion to include term extensions is approved, it effectively cancels the upcoming 2022 elections. After that, all bets are off. More importantly, once the constituent assembly (congressional and senate representatives collectively responsible for deliberating on amendments) is convened, any and all pronouncements on maintaining checks and balances can be left aside. In other words, no legislator is officially bound to keep their promises. If a motion to include term extensions is approved, it effectively cancels the upcoming 2022 elections. After that, all bets are off. What makes it different this time and more likely to succeed? The pandemic. Covid-19 has made the bad worse and made our nightmares a real possibility. Since the virus and lockdowns hit, the Duterte administration has managed to push through a number of schemes previously held back by public outrage. They have rid jeepney drivers of their livelihoods, in favour of newer transport vehicles. They have given Duterte emergency powers, passed the controversial anti-terrorism law, outlawed major protests, shut down a major broadcasting station critical of political leaders, and effectively turned the country into a police state all under the guise of dealing with a public health crisis. The pandemic is the best thing to ever happen to their political aspirations. Lifting term extensions could well be the next one in their sights. The timing could not be worse for Filipinos desperately looking for adequate responses from the state in curbing the crisis. The country continues to grapple with the pandemic, with Covid-19 cases now at more than 113,000. Officially, the Philippines now has more patients than China, with just 7.6% of the population. Yet even at this critical juncture, Duterte and his allies seem more concerned with self-preservation and political consolidation than with public health and social assistance. In the past few months, clamour for the ouster of Duterte has reached a fever pitch. The noise online and on the street grows, as the hashtag #OustDuterte remains a daily trend on social media, various unaligned and neutral members of society are speaking up, and despite quarantine bans on mass gatherings and police threats on demonstrations crowds have turned up to denounce the government. In light of all this, gertting rid of elections would be the surest way to maintain the current crop of officials for the foreseeable future. There is some hesitation, however, from Dutertes allies. House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano professed that tackling cha-cha might best be reserved for January, when the spread of the virus has perhaps been curbed. Duterte himself has made no endorsement of the proposal in any of his speeches. At his State of the Nation Address at the opening of the House, he preferred to praise China and champion the possibility they might produce a coronavirus vaccine. Pandering to Beijing has been another distinct feature of this presidency. The administrations cha-cha proposals align with that approach, as part of the much-touted economic provisions include opening up the countrys assets to greater foreign ownership and control. China is already the countrys leading trade partner, and cha-cha would only bolster that partnership. Dutertes dictatorship, or the rise towards it, has been well documented, as have the plans for cha-cha. Will they wait until January, or will opposition mount a fight to thwart the move yet again? What is certain is that what feels like an ill-timed move for the population is an opportune moment for the administration to strike at cementing the status quo. WASHINGTON On the cusp of Joe Biden teaming up with a woman, I am casting back to my time covering the first woman who was a serious contender for veep. The feminist fairy tale which began with women crying and popping champagne on the convention floor in San Francisco in 1984 had a sad ending. Cinderella with ashes in her mouth. Its hard to fathom, but it took another 36 years for a man to choose to put a woman on the Democratic ticket with him. To use Geraldine Ferraros favorite expression, Gimme a break! After Walter Mondale picked Ferraro, a Queens congresswoman, the first man and woman to share a ticket had to consider all sorts of things: Could he kiss her on the cheek? (No.) Could he call her dear or honey? (No.) Could they hug? (No.) Could they tell jokes, as Johnny Carson did, about how angry Joan Mondale would be when her husband kept coming home late and saying he had been in private sessions with the vice president? (No.) The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday shifted six of its MLAs to Gujarat's Porbandar ahead of the Rajasthan assembly session beginning August 14, according to party sources. IMAGE: Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia meeting Governor Kalraj Mishra along with other MLAs at Raj Bhawan. Photograph: Courtesy @BJP4Rajasthan/Twitter They left on a chartered flight for BJP-ruled Gujarat from the Jaipur airport. The legislators will be staying at a luxury resort there and likely to visit the Somnath temple, the sources said. According to them, 12 party MLAs on Friday had left Rajasthan for Gujarat's Ahmedabad where they camping at a resort. However, state BJP chief Satish Poonia rejected suggestions that his party has started herding their MLAs to a place like the Congress did ahead of the crucial assembly session. Congress MLAs are holed up in a Jaisalmer hotel as the party has accused the BJP of horse-trading following the revolt of its leader Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs loyal to him against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. All legislators are 'united and there is no distrust', Poonia said, adding that people in the Congress government are trying to 'spread rumours and confusion' about BJP MLAs on social media and other forums. Poonia said soon a meeting of the BJP legislature party will be held, which will be attended by all MLAs. Meanwhile, BJP MLA Ashok Lahoti, who accompanied the six legislators to the Jaipur airport, said they were being 'harassed' and voluntarily went on a pilgrimage. "Some BJP legislators are being harassed through police and the administration. Those legislators who are being harassed have gone on a pilgrimage voluntarily," Lahoti told reporters after coming out of the airport. Deputy Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore said, "If some BJP MLAs went on an educational tour or roam around collectively then it cannot be termed 'badabandi' (fortification)." He said the BJP stays away from such a culture. The BJP legislators who boarded the flight from the Jaipur airport on Saturday are Nirmal Kumawat, Gopichand Meena, Jabbar Singh Sankhla, Dharamveer Mochi, Gopal Lal Sharma and Gurudeep Singh Shahpini. The airport authorities too confirmed that six passengers were on the flight to Porbandar. As Asia battles the COVID-19 pandemic, USAID continues to provide essential health and other types of assistance in the region, including interventions to help curb the spread of COVID-19 disease within the region. Over the last half century, the United States has been the biggest contributor of global health security, said USAIDs Assistant Administrator for Asia Gloria Steele.We have built the foundation upon which the global health system is based, contributing to more than 140 billion in global health assistance in the 21st century. Todays world of increasing interconnectivity and mobility accelerates the shared global risk to our health. An infectious disease, like COVID-19, can be transported from an isolated village to major cities on all continents in less than 36 hours. Public health emergencies can have devastating effects on local, regional, and global economies. They disrupt markets, destabilize political structures, threaten business operations, and endanger workers health. This is why the United States invests in global health security. Since the start of the pandemic, USAID and the State Department have committed more than one billion dollars globally. And in Asia alone, that hasamounted to one hundred eighty two million dollars to about 30 countries in the region. Long-term investment in the healthcare systems of these countries has allowed for rapid mobilization of response to COVID-19: We have generally been investing in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, investing in the improvement of maternal health and child health, and, of course, investing in global health security. COVID-19 assistance has built upon the years of assistance the United States has provided the world over to combat infectious diseases. In Indonesia, for example, in just a few weeks we were able to mobilize and train pharmacists, over 70,000 of them, to be able to provide clients advice as well as referrals for hospitals when necessary, said Assistant Administrator Steele: The same thing has happened in India, where we used our maternal and child health platform to advise mothers about prevention of COVID-19 among their children and then share good health practices in maternal and child health. We invest significantly in health and education. This allows the greatest number of people to participate in the growth process, said Assistant Administrator Steele.When the health systems are not protected, they affect everything else, not just the human ability to participate, but the growth of the economy in the process. And so that is our strategy in the region. It wasn't just dogs and cats. Shirley shared profiles on horses, opossums, turtles and chicks. She was a regular at the Blessing of the Animals at Moline's Trinity Lutheran Church. "Shirley had a heart of gold; no one loved animals more than she did,'' said Todd Mizener, Director of Marketing and communications for the Dispatch-Argus-Quad-City Times, who also was an associate editor for The Dispatch-Argus. "Creature Feature wasn't ever supposed to be "Shirley's column," but she made it her own,'' Mizener added. "Other people submitted stories but no one submitted more than she did. It was her little corner of the world. She brought a lot of smiles to people's faces over their morning coffee with "interviews" with local pets. She reminded me a little of Dr. Doolittle. Every week she would write her column about a cute dog, or maybe even a thoughtful looking turtle which caught her eye. When it came time to send it in to the newsroom she would go to the library, type it up, and mail it to us. Shirley was the definition of old school. She had a sweet Southern accent and time on her hands to chat on the phone.'' Mizener says he once felt the Shirley's wrath in the only way she could be tough on someone. Over the past few years, there have been so many changes among the royal family members. We celebrated the arrival of several babies, saw a few people get married, and even experienced the shock of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex stepping down from their royal duties. One of the things that have constantly been making headlines is the supposed rift between Princes William and Prince Harry. It has been going on for quite some time, and fans are disappointed, to say the least. It seems like only yesterday that the royal brothers were as close and can be and now, they are living thousands of miles apart and their relationship is completely different from what it once was. For months now, people everywhere have been wishing that Prince Harry and Prince William could find a way to repair their broken bond and get back to the way things once were. After all, they have always been such an important part of each others lives, and it is heartbreaking to see what is happening. Lets talk about how Queen Elizabeth reportedly wanted to use Princess Beatrices wedding to patch things up between Prince William and Prince Harry. The rift between William and Harry Prince Harry and Prince William | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images RELATED: Prince Harry and Meghan Markles Alarming Vice Shocked and Disappointed Royals Like William, Kate and Queen Elizabeth For their entire lives, Prince William and Prince Harry had a closeness that words just couldnt describe. They were best friends, to say the least, and that friendship carried on well into adulthood. Even after Prince William married Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry became known as the worlds most famous third wheel, since the three of them were known to make appearances together all the time. However, after the younger prince met American actress Meghan, the relationship between the brothers quickly took a downturn. What happened? According to Cosmopolitan, it all began a few years ago. Prince William, who famously waited seven years before proposing to Kate, expressed his concern about Meghan and Prince Harrys whirlwind relationship. Prince Harry got quite upset with his brother, and there has been tension ever since. Queen Elizabeth reportedly wanted to use Princess Beatrices wedding to patch things up between William and Harry With the brothers living on different continents, there probably arent many chances for them to get together in person, and even Queen Elizabeth knows that. Her majesty was actually hoping that when Princess Beatrice got married, Prince William and Prince Harry would be able to sit down and talk at the wedding, and hopefully find a way to put their differences aside. A source told US Weekly the monarch is firmly of the opinion that this nonsense cannot and must not continue any longer and she wants the boys to sit and resolve their differences like grown adults. US Weekly reports that the queen was going to use Princess Beatrices nuptials as a way for her grandsons to resolve their differences, hoping that the family could finally get back to normal. She, just like everyone else, knows that this royal rift has been going on for far too long, and felt that the wedding would have been the perfect place for Prince Harry and Prince William to sit down in person and fix things between them. The pandemic didnt allow things to happen as planned The current COVID-19 pandemic has been throwing everyone for a loop regarding just about everything, and Beatrices wedding was no different. According to Insider, the princess was all set to marry Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi back in May, however, the government mandated that all gatherings be socially distanced. Chances are, it would have been a pretty big wedding, which would have made it next to impossible for everyone to follow the guidelines, and because of this, the wedding was postponed. The couple finally able to tie the knot in a small, surprise ceremony earlier in the summer, which took place in Windsor. The queen and a few other family members were in attendance, but unfortunately, due to the circumstances, Prince Harry wasnt able to be there, so the reconciliation wasnt able to happen. Hopefully, Prince Harry and Prince William will find a way to get together in the near future, and they will work things out between them once and for all. This page requires Javascript. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Political colossus, tetchy colleague, or a nationalist who simply didn't 'get' unionists... three Telegraph writers consider the late SDLP leader's legacy. Richard ORawe At 3.45pm on December 8, 1973, Catholic greengrocer James Gibson was shot dead outside his shop on the Stranmillis Road in Belfast by two UDA/UFF gunmen. The renowned poet Michael Longley wrote a poem about Mr Gibson: He ran a good shop, and he died Serving even the death-dealers Who found him busy as usual Behind the counter, organised, With holly wreaths for Christmas, Fir trees on the pavement outside. Astrologers, The Three Wise Men, Who shortly may be setting out For a small house up the Shankill Or the Falls, will pause on their way At Jim Gibson's shop to buy gifts Dates, and chestnuts and tangerines. Jim Gibson was the 975th person to die as a result of "the Troubles". A day after Jim's death, the Sunningdale Agreement was signed by the British Prime Minister, Ted Heath, Taoiseach Liam Cosgrove and representatives of the Ulster Unionist, SDLP, and Alliance parties. For the republican movement, committed to nothing short of a united Ireland, and to extreme loyalists, whose ethos was "Not an Inch", Sunningdale was a sell-out, a compromise too far. Yet, for the first time since the foundation of Northern Ireland, the Six Counties, the north, et al, both communities would have an input into the running of their everyday affairs. A pivotal figure to that agreement was John Hume, who had been the intellectual giant behind a SDLP policy paper drawn up in January 1972, which advocated, among other things, a power-sharing Executive and a Council of Ireland. Hume took up the portfolio of Minister of Commerce in the new Executive. At 12.15am on April 7, 1998, Trevor Deeney was shot dead outside his home after returning from work in a car parts factory in the village of Campsie in Co Derry. He was shot dead by the INLA, who claimed that he was a leading member of the LVF, a claim which Trevor's family strongly denied. Trevor was the 3,588th person to die as a result of the Troubles. Three days after Trevor's death, the Good Friday Agreement was signed by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and representatives from the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP, Sinn Fein, Alliance Party, Women's Coalition, PUP (representing the UVF) and UDP (representing the UDA). Central to the Good Friday Agreement was a power-sharing Executive and an Irish dimension under the title of the North/South Ministerial Council. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? People can eulogise about John Hume until the ice-caps melt, which won't be that long, but he was, at heart, a political rottweiler. Ever since the outset of the conflict, he and the SDLP asserted that the strategy of armed struggle was flawed and was doomed to failure. In the terrible days of internment and Bloody Sunday, when the value of life in nationalist areas dropped into negative equity, when people's backs were to the wall, Hume's and the SDLP's message of compromise was one that many nationalists and republicans found obnoxious. Things got darker. Hume's persuasiveness became a real problem for activists on both sides of the political spectrum, with some contemplating his assassination. I suspect that Hume knew this but, if he did, it didn't matter: a rottweiler never lets go. The soaring death-count, war-weariness, the realisation that outright victory was unachievable and the prospect of republicans becoming involved in the political process led to secret talks between the leadership of the republican movement and the Irish and British governments in the mid-1980s. Hume joined this process with the rolling-out of the Hume-Adams talks in the early 1990s. When those talks were exposed in the Press, Hume was fiercely unapologetic, saying that he didn't give "two balls of roasted snow" what his detractors thought of him; come what may, he would continue to talk to Adams in order to achieve peace. Was Hume aware that Adams had already reached the conclusion that further armed struggle was futile and that he was looking for an escape route out of the dungeon of war? Of course, he was. But it didn't matter to the Derryman. Eventually, he was able to convince Adams that there was an alternative to armed struggle. We all owe John Hume, big time. He had been the predominant figure in both the Sunningdale and the Good Friday agreements. Both had been his brainchildren vis-a-vis the January 1972 SDLP paper, which became the skeleton of the two agreements. And, lest we forget, in between the slayings of Jim Gibson, on December 8, 1973, and Trevor Deeney, on April 7, 1998, another 2,613 people died in our Troubles. I don't think any more needs to be said; the figures and the dead speak for themselves. Richard O'Rawe's debut novel, Northern Heist, is published by Merrion Press, priced 12.99 Alex Kane John Hume's primary strength was beginning his political career as a genuine next-generation nationalist. He had no time for the political and ideological laziness of Eddie McAteer and the Nationalist Party, twiddling its thumbs on Stormont's backbenches (he defeated McAteer in the 1969 Stormont election in the old Foyle seat). He had no time for a unionism which still seemed determined to treat Catholics as second-class citizens. And he had no time for the IRA, or any other terrorist group. His weapons of choice were his voice and a message (wrapped in the treasured single transferable speech), which never changed. While he never hid his desire for a united Ireland - indeed, he wasn't even prepared to put the issue on the back-burner while other political/societal problems were resolved - he was ferocious in his condemnation of the IRA's campaign and those who sought to justify it. His own campaign consisted of bending some of the most influential political, governmental and media ears in London, Dublin, Brussels and Washington, DC. And he did it at a time when unionism, convinced its majority was secure, didn't set any store by glad-handing and propaganda. What unionism didn't realise, until it was much too late, was the sheer scale of Hume's influence. His fingerprints are all over the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985), Downing Street Declaration (1993) and, of course, the Good Friday Agreement (1998). Key elements of his single transferable speech (co-operation, agreed, new, together, peace and learning the lessons from the past were repeated and amplified in the speeches of presidents, prime ministers and taoisigh. Humes narrative and direction steered and shaped the policies of successive British and Irish governments, usually with key nods of approval from the White House. I remember former UUP leader Jim Molyneaux telling me that Hume never got, never understood and probably had no great interest in unionism. I think thats a fair assessment. When he succeeded Gerry Fitt as SDLP leader in 1979, there was a noticeable greening in the partys outlook. It might have had something to do with the destruction of Sunningdale by the United Ulster Unionist Council in 1974 and the failure to reboot serious new talks. It might have been the close relationship between Molyneaux and Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Or it might have been the UUPs disinterest in devolution (Molyneaux and his mentor, Enoch Powell, favoured an ersatz form of integration). Whatever the specific reason may have been, it was fairly clear that Hume wasnt all that interested in investing either time or energy in building a relationship with unionism. Instead, he channelled his formidable energy and intellect into bridge-building and ear-bending elsewhere, mostly outside Northern Ireland. I think that explains the anger directed at him after the publication of the Anglo-Irish Agreement; a very palpable belief across unionism that he had brought London and Dublin together to undermine the Union. That anger exploded again a few years later, when it emerged that Hume had engaged in talks with Gerry Adams, one of the objectives being to persuade Sinn Fein of British neutrality since the Anglo-Irish Agreement. While Hume claimed not to care two balls of roasted snow about the criticism of his talks with Adams, it certainly fuelled unionist concerns that he was more interested in a deal that prioritised pan-nationalist interests rather than cross-community co-operation. My own sense is that Hume believed successive British governments had long accepted that a military defeat of the IRA was less important than a political deal which gave Sinn Fein and the IRA a reasonably easy route into a talks process and maybe even into a devolved administration. But my other sense is that Hume was played by Adams. Played so skilfully and so ruthlessly that it was the SDLP which took massive electoral damage and paved the way for a DUP/Sinn Fein deal in 2007, which undermined the hope and optimism of the original 1998 agreement. The last time I met him was at an event in 2004/5. I had written an article a few days earlier in which Id argued that the sidelining of the UUP/SDLP by the British and Irish governments after the 2003 Assembly election (in which they were finally eclipsed by the DUP/Sinn Fein) would probably result in renewed polarity at the centre of politics. At the end of the event, he came over, tapped me on the shoulder and said: I read your piece. I hope youre wrong. Maybe they will learn from what weve left them. That Hume made a huge difference most of it for the better is undeniable. That he never wavered in his opposition to violence is undeniable. That a peace agreement was always his focus is undeniable. He was a good man. Because of his illness, we never knew what he made of the DUP/Sinn Fein spats and ourselves separately approach to the Executive. Somehow, though, I cant imagine that what we have now is what he had in mind when he delivered the first version of the single transferable speech. Alex Kane is a writer and commentator Tom Kelly John Hume, Paddy OHanlon and Seamus Mallon were revered political names in our household. But John Humes name was familiar to me for other reasons. While still at the Abbey, I joined a junior board of my local credit union. Johns name was synonymous with the credit union. Like him, I marvelled at the potential of this organisation to lift people from poverty and give them dignity in their financial affairs. Newry Credit Union was founded in 1963 after some locals went to hear John Hume speak in Armagh. They never tired of repeating the importance of Humes role in establishing the credit union across Northern Ireland. Hume was an evangelist for the movement. Through my involvement, I met Hume in Dublin, along with two of the founders of the Irish credit union movement, the late Seamus McEoin and Sean Forde. The two older men were clearly in awe of their former president. I was equally star-struck, as Hume was our MEP. Unknown to me, a passion for the credit union was not the only interest I would share with John Hume. In 1982, I left to study for the priesthood. Leaving my unpolished halo in Cork, I ended up at Jordanstown. On November 4, 1983, an IRA bomb at the campus killed three young policemen. The event shook me to the core. As a student, I wrote to this paper. When the letter was printed, I had naively allowed my address to be included. I got responses from everywhere some threatening, but mostly supportive. One letter came from the-then SDLP general secretary, Eamon Hanna, who supplied copies of speeches by John Hume. He also invited me to attend a forthcoming SDLP conference. The conference was underwhelming, but in the evening Hume and Mallon held court with their respective devotees. I was hooked. Hume led a sing-song the first of many I would endure. He didnt look like a political grandee and his appearance was unkempt; more university don than political dynamo. But, boy, could he talk. A few years later, I came across Hume staring into the bonnet of his car in Belfast. I ran to a telephone kiosk and phoned for a mechanic. The battery was kaput. I cant remember if John had no wallet, or only francs, but the mechanic was in no mood to give credit, or work out exchange rates even for the legendary John Hume. So, I bought a replacement battery. Weeks later, I got card and a refund from Pat Hume thanking me for being a Good Samaritan. (Ironically, the Good Samaritan was the gospel chosen for Johns Requiem Mass). It struck me then just how little Hume was interested in materialistic, or even mundane, matters. He was 24/7 always 100% consumed with the bigger picture. Working for Seamus Mallon, I got to see more of John Hume, especially at Westminster. In those days, parliamentary debates went on throughout the night. I was amazed at the capability of Hume to nip in and out of House of Commons to speak and still be up to catch a red-eye to Brussels, or Washington DC. He epitomised burning the candle at both ends. It seems surreal now, but with John and Seamus, you could find yourself dining in the legendary Langans brasserie, among Londons glitterati, one night and the next grabbing a fish supper before going back to the less-than-glamorous Irish Club, or Tara Hotel. Was there tension at times? Naturally. But people often forget that the civil rights leadership of Hume, Mallon, Austin Currie, OHanlon and others were among the most talented, not just of their generation, but also in generations. Any one of them could have led the SDLP in their own right. But only Hume had the vision and the self-belief to seize it. Working with the Democratic Party, I realised just how much influence John Hume had in the USA. He convinced the entire American political establishment to back his blueprint for peace. John could be tetchy and didnt like being challenged even by colleagues. Frustratingly, he was not as good at internal communication as he was externally. But his civil rights record bought him street credibility. His genius granted him political gravitas. I was sceptical over the nature of the conduct of the Hume-Adams process, but I never once doubted Humes sincerity, or commitment to taking the gun out of Irish politics. He told me and others: If, by talking, even a single life was saved, then it was worth trying. He was right. John Hume had flaws, but he also had an unparalleled greatness. He had a destiny which he fulfilled. Much of the credit for Johns political success belongs to his wife, Pat, a truly remarkable lady. As the priest said at the funeral, when history is written, Pat Humes name should stand alongside that of her husband. Next week is my birthday, but I still see John Hume through the eyes of the optimistic 17-year-old me, who once met a man in Dublin who literally changed Ireland for the better. Tom Kelly is a political commentator and writer The Tencent Holdings Ltd. WeChat and ByteDance Ltd. TikTok app icons are displayed on a smartphone in an arranged photograph taken in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. TikTok is planning to sue the Trump administration as soon as Tuesday, according to an NPR report citing a person involved with the lawsuit. The news follows President Donald Trump's executive order to ban U.S. transactions with its parent company, ByteDance. The company has previously threatened to take legal action against the White House. Trump's executive order accuses the company of gathering users' data, which "threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information." Microsoft previously confirmed it's considering buying TikTok. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok declined to comment beyond their Friday statement, which said the company will "pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and our users are treated fairly if not by the Administration, then by the US courts." Read more about TikTok's forthcoming lawsuit in the NPR report. Executive Director of the TreasureHunt Education, Mr Joseph Appah has described as an unfortunate the misbehaviour of some groups of Senior High School students during the WASSCE 2020 period. According to him, It is ill-fated situation to see students feel aggrieved, vandalise school properties and say unprintable words against the President of the Republic just because they felt the examination did not meet their expectations. Most of these students who engaged in these unruly behaviours have just turned eighteen (18) and are expected to act responsibly after their three (3) years of senior high education, the Executive Director rebuked in a statement copied to Peacefmonline.com. TreasureHunt Education joins other bodies and individuals to condemn these acts of vandalism and insubordination displayed by the students. Inasmuch as confidence in expressing ones opinion is an excellent virtue to cultivate, it must be exercised with decency, he added. He therefore made a clarion call on the Ministry of Education to take advantage of the unfortunate situation to reflect on the countrys educational system, devoid of its current state of over-reliance on examinations. In the wake of this situation, it is important to rethink our educational system and make it devoid of its current state of over-reliance on examinations. The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service need to do more work to inject an education of ethics and decency into the curriculum, he suggested. Mr Joseph Appah is of the view that the sector ministry, service and other affiliate bodies can devise some other creative ways of assessing students to get the best out of them; charging all the stakeholders in the education sector to work to improve the status quo. Our students must be guided to understand that education is intended to bring out their talents and potentials. Education is to make them find who they truly are. In using the tools of education to achieve these purposes, it is critical to note that as the melodious chirp of the morning bird is not taught, so are the talents of humans that flow. It is, therefore, worthy of note that our in-born potentials may be realised anyway. However, education refines the potentials, talents and who we become. This purpose of education should settle our view of it, the statement read. He however urged parents and guardians to ensure that their learners cultivate the necessary decency through socialisation at home. He again implored the religious bodies to focus on giving some ethical education to the children. The nation can benefit from improved education we give our children now and posterity. To the misbehaviour of students, we say never again, he stressed. 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. Featured Video Maharashtra crossed the grim 500,000 Covid-19 cases milestone on Saturday, 153 days after reporting the first case in Pune, and health department officials said the worst is not over yet, as the state has not reached the peak of infections. The officials said Maharashtra is also witnessing early signs of community transmission, but it is not a cause for concern as the spread would remain local. Health experts and state officials said Maharashtra could continue to witness a rise in the number of daily Covid cases till next month, but the growth rate of transmission will remain low. September is crucial A senior health department official said while the state will continue to see higher number of cases as testing, too, has increased, the downward curve of Covid-19 infections will begin by September-end. Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said although the absolute number of cases is increasing, the growth rate is not high. There are indicators that suggest the outbreak is under control. It also suggests transmission is not happening rapidly. The doubling rate has improved. The overall growth rate is 3%, and in some cities, its fewer than 2%. The positivity rate, too, is much lower now despite the increase in daily testing. On Friday, we tested 81,655 samples and the positivity rate was around 12%, Awate said. In the past seven days, the state has averaged 9,735 cases daily. From August 1 to August 7, the state added 68,144 cases to its tally. We have not reached the peak yet; we are still getting there. The absolute cases are expected to increase for some more weeks. We could see the decline in cases by September-end or early October, said Awate. But the virus will not vanish. There will be scattered cases coming in from areas as we had seen in the case of H1N1 (swine flu). When H1N1 outbreak happened in 2009, we thought it would go away the next year, but even today cases are reported every alternate year. Warning signs? Kerala was the first state in India to announce that two coastal towns had reached community transmission stage. Community transmission is when the index case from where a person contracted the virus is not traced. State health minister Rajesh Tope had recently denied that the state has entered the transmission stage. However, Awate said the state is showing early signs of having reached the stage. A senior health department official, who did not wish to be named, said, The ICMR has a parameter for community transmission stage when 20% of cases cannot be traced back to the source. Therefore, it is a contentious issue because no local body or district administration has followed the process to trace the index cases. For instance, if a city like Pune is reporting 1,500 cases daily, it does not have the manpower to do the tracing. Whether or not Maharashtra has reached the stage can only be announced after a go-ahead from ICMR. Awate, who is also an epidemiologist, said, We are seeing signs of community transmission. There have been cases where source of the infection has not been traced. Deaths a concern The case fatality rate (CFR) of the state stands at 3.49%, second only to Gujarats 3.82%, as of Friday. The national CFR is 2.04%. The absolute number of Covid-19 deaths, too, is a worry for the state government. Between July 7 and August 7, 8,066 fatalities were reported in the state. These constitute 47.19% of the total deaths in the state due to coronavirus. The Central government has also expressed concern over the high number of Covid-19 deaths in Maharashtra and has listed 10 districts that need to do more to tackle the crisis. These districts are Pune, Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Sangli and Nagpur. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday directed the district and municipal officials to work on lowering fatalities on priority. A state health department official said, Districts have been asked to ramp up tracing and testing. Densely populated areas are being looked at. Death rate is a concern and we have been modifying our standard operating procedure. Drugs like hydroxychloroquine, dexamethasone, etc, are being used extensively, Awate said. Unlocking the state The state has been cautious in announcing the lifting of lockdown restrictions. Several civic bodies have been announcing their own versions of lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus. Earlier this month, the government announced opening of malls and market complexes, but food courts, cinema halls and gymnasiums have been kept shut. Initially, industries, factories, shops were allowed. Now, further relaxations were provided to start the cycle of economic activities. We wanted to give these relaxations in July, but in view of the rising cases in the MMR, the state did not go ahead. Cases in Mumbai have now stabilised. The government will gradually see how things are going and ease restrictions further, said a bureaucrat. Dr Lancelot Pinto, Mumbai-based pulmonologist and epidemiologist, said the number of cases going up is a price to be paid for opening up. Looking at the situation from the point of view of cases rising wouldnt necessarily give a complete picture. One has to check the severe cases, ICU beds occupied, etc. Mumbai has certainly improved in terms of availability of beds. Testing has been made easier, therefore, we are picking up cases that we did not earlier. All centres need to learn from what Mumbai learnt after initial days. Everywhere the cases will start and peak; all the cities will go through this cycle, said Pinto. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON SRINAGAR: The father of Army jawan Shakir Manzoor abducted by suspected militants in Jammu and Kashmirs southern Kulgam district last week on Friday asked his captors to send him his dead-body if they have killed him. In a purported audio message uploaded on social media, Manzoor Ahmed, father of the Territorial Army soldier, said, If my son is not with you, tell mebut if you have killed him send me his body. Shakir was reportedly abducted by gunmen after they intercepted his car while he was travelling through Damhal Hanjipora, a militancy-infected area of Kulgam, on Sunday evening. Before taking him along forcibly, the suspected militants reportedly torched his Maruti Brezza, the police sources had said. Next day, his parents while appealing for his release said that they needed him the most to stay alive. The J-K police and the Army had said that a massive search operation was soon launched in the area to secure the release of the soldier, who is a resident of Harmain village of neighbouring Shopian district. The Army had also said that he was on leave and was heading home for Eid when his car was intercepted by gunmen. One of his sisters had said, We appeal to the abductors to please let him go. We dont need anything, we have everything. Just let our brother go and return to us. He is needed by his aged parents and us. We dont need this job. We just need our brother. She had added, If he has committed some wrong, please forgive him and let him come back to us unharmed. Earlier during the day on Friday, the security forces launched a search operation in Shopians Imam Sahab area after locals found some clothes reportedly belonging to the abducted soldier lying in an apple orchard outside Landoora village. The official sources said that a joint team of J-K police and the Army rushed to the spot where they were shown a t-shirt and other clothes and stuff believed to be of Shakir by the villagers. The security forces quickly used sniffer dogs in an effort to trace the soldier and his captors but in vain, a report said. Britain has recorded 758 new coronavirus infections today, down 13 cases from last Saturday and the locked-down North West has seen no hospital deaths in the past 24 hours. And Britain's coronavirus hospital death toll has reached 34,027 after 16 more deaths were announced. Another 15 deaths were recorded in England's hospitals today while Wales reported one more death. Scotland did not report any new deaths and Northern Ireland no longer releases updated figures on weekends. The region with the highest number of deaths was the North East & Yorkshire with eight. There were no deaths reported in the North West, where local lockdown measures in place in Greater Manchester and parts of east Lancashire were extended on Friday to include Preston. The number of patients testing positive daily is still much higher than the four-month low figure of 546 on July 8. Cases have steadily risen since over the past month, fuelling fears of a second wave. The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which tracks the size of the outbreak through swab tests of thousands of people, now believes there are 3,700 people in England catching Covid-19 each day. Its estimate of 4,200 daily cases last week prompted Boris Johnson to declare he was 'squeezing the brake pedal' on easing the coronavirus lockdown. Government scientific advisers today warned the coronavirus reproduction rate could now be as high as one right across the UK. SAGE estimates the R value - the average number of people each Covid-19 patient infects - is now between 0.8 and 1.0, up from last week's prediction that it was hovering around 0.8 and 0.9. Experts say the R needs to stay below one or Governments risk losing control of the epidemic and the virus could spiral back out of control. In other coronavirus developments in Britain today: 'Bold' young Brits were urged to continue following social distancing rules as fears grow they are catching the virus without knowing it and passing it on; Thousands NHS nurses and healthcare staff marched through UK streets in protest at being excluded in pay rise for public sector employees who worked during pandemic; Hundreds of NHS Scotland staff fell silent to remember colleagues lost during the coronavirus pandemic at a protest over pay in Glasgow city centre; It was revealed that UK Border Force has issued just nine fines to people who breached quarantine rules after returning from abroad - including to two Britons who were later found to be complying with the rules; Lockdown is estimated to have 'killed two people for every three that died of coronavirus' - 16,000 people in the UK died in five weeks as hospitals shut down to deal with COVID while 25,000 died from the virus; More than 100,000 people could have died from coronavirus in Britain if the government didn't tell people to stay at home, according to research. Britain has recorded 758 new coronavirus infections today, down 13 cases from last Saturday and the locked-down North West has seen no hospital deaths in the past 24 hours The UK coronavirus hospital death toll has reached 34,027 after 16 more deaths were announced. Another 15 deaths were recorded in England's hospitals today while Wales reported one more death The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which tracks the size of the outbreak by swabbing thousands of people, now believes there are 3,700 people in England getting infected with Covid-19 each day. It is 12 per cent down on the 4,200 made in the government-run agency's estimate last week, when they warned there was 'enough evidence' to prove cases were spiralling Professor Carl Heneghan, director of Oxford University's Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, this week claimed Covid-19 cases aren't actually rising despite government figures showing an upwards trend. CASES ARE ON THE UP... AND THE R RATE MAY BE ABOVE ONE Coronavirus cases in England are now at the highest levels since May and government scientists are 'no longer confident' the crucial R rate is below the dreaded level of one. Government statisticians yesterday admitted there is 'now enough evidence' to prove Covid-19 infections are on the up, calculating that 4,200 people are now catching the virus each day in England alone. The estimate by the Office for National Statistics, which tracks the size of the outbreak by swabbing thousands of people, has doubled since the end of June and is 68 per cent up on the 2,500 figure given a fortnight ago. One in 1,500 people currently have the coronavirus - 0.07 per cent of the population. But experts believe the rate is twice as high in London and still rising. The figure does not include care homes and hospitals. Number 10's scientific advisers also upped the R rate in the UK, saying they now believe it stands between 0.8 and 0.9. It had been as low as 0.7 since May. SAGE also revealed the growth rate - the average number of people each Covid-19 patient infects - may have jumped to above one in the South West, home to the stay-cation hotspots of Devon, Cornwall and Dorset. And they said it was likely to be equally high in the North West. Matt Hancock last night announced tough new lockdown measures in Greater Manchester and parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Advertisement He said the rising infection rates are down to more people being tested, pointing to data showing the number of pillar two tests carried out each day rose by 80 per cent over the course of July to around 80,000. The deaths 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. And the figure does not always match updates provided by the home nations. Department of Health officials work off a different time cut-off, meaning daily updates from Scotland and Northern Ireland are out of sync. The count announced by NHS England every afternoon, which only takes into account deaths in hospitals, does not match up with the DH figures because they work off a different recording system. For instance, some deaths announced by NHS England bosses will have already been counted by the Department of Health, which records fatalities 'as soon as they are available'. This Saturday's figures come amid a plea for 'bold' young people to continue following social distancing rules as fears grow that they are catching the virus without knowing and passing it on to other members of their household. Preston's director of public health warned mixing in pubs was to blame for the area being put back into lockdown, with almost half of the area's new cases reported were among people aged 30 and younger. The city council's chief executive Adrian Phillips pleaded with young people to continue following the guidance and not risk infecting others. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I know our director of public health has said 'don't kill granny' to young people to try and focus the message. 'Young people are inevitably among the brave and the bold, they want to be adventurous and out and about but we know that they have the virus, are more likely to at the moment, they often have less symptoms but they do take it back to their household and the community spread we are seeing we believe in many cases are young people taking it home and catching the virus. 'We're going to have to repeat it and whether Radio 4 is the correct channel for that I'm not quite sure but we're using multiple channels and we're working with community groups who are doing peer to peer comms around. 'It's just trying so many different ways to get the message to all communities, to all areas of our city that the virus is still something to be really wary of.' Another 15 deaths were recorded in England's hospitals today while Wales reported one more death. Pictured are sunseekers on Brighton beach this morning Bournemouth beach was once again packed even by mid-morning as sun-seekers arrived in their droves to soak up the sun Crowds flocked to the seafront despite pleas from local authorities to stay away, after an immensely busy day yesterday Bournemouth beach in Dorset was already busy by mid-morning as sun-seekers once again flocked to the coast today The stark warnings did not appear to be heeded today as crowds of lockdown-weary sunseekers flocked to Britain's beauty spots in their droves - with little signs of social distancing. Revellers gathered on the beach this morning, with some even spending the night in tents, in anticipation of another sizzling day on Britain's beaches - despite councils begging tourists to steer clear following yesterday's 'bedlam'. Record numbers packed the seafront on Friday, despite Government warnings on what was the UK's hottest August day since 2003. Staycationers in Bournemouth were this morning seen emerging from tents they'd set up overnight to try and secure the best spots, while Sussex Police turned away cars from a full Camber Sands beach as early as 10am. Crowds of visitors carrying bags make their way down to the seafront in Bournemouth ahead what is likely to be another busy day Sussex Police turned away cars from a full Camber Sands beach as early as 10am this morning, with 95F temperatures set to hit later on In North Wales, described as being a scene of 'bedlam' yesterday, a councillor's plea for visitors to avoid towns appeared to be ignored as the local police force reported a 'considerable build up' of traffic in Abersoch as drivers made their way to the beach. Similarly, drivers reported 40-minute queues for car parks in Sandbanks, which have also filled up throughout the morning. Yesterday saw 19 of 24 beaches along a stretch of the Dorset coast full up by midday, at which time there had already been 70 coastguard callouts across the UK. With the mercury set to rise to 95F today, and the RAC expecting the busiest weekend of the year, local authorities are urging people to stay away and avoid a repeat of yesterday's crowds, where many appeared unbothered by fears of coronavirus as groups mixed without masks - despite rising cases in the UK driving fears of a second wave. Meanwhile, the Local Government Association is calling for councils to be given more powers to shut down rule-breaking pubs nationwide, with revellers expected to pack into venues up and down the country once again later today. It comes after shocking new government figures revealed that lockdown has killed two people for every three that died of coronavirus. It is thought that as many as 16,000 people died because they didn't get medical care between March 23 and May 1. In the same period, 25,000 Britons died of the virus. The new figures were presented to the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) in the middle of July. They were calculated by the Department of Health, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Government Actuary's Department and the Home Office. The 16,000 people who died included 6,000 who didn't go to A&E during lockdown because they feared catching the virus. Another 10,000 people are thought to have died in care homes after early discharge from hospital and a lack of access to care. A further 26,000 people could die by next month because of the restrictions, while in total 81,500 people could lose their lives in the next 50 years because of the virus. This would be through waiting longer for non-urgent care and due to the impact of the recession caused by the pandemic. It comes after a district nurse warned that people suffering from treatable cancers will end up dying because of Government 'scaremongering' and an over-cautious reduction of NHS services. In more bad news, the next five years could see 1,400 people die because they were diagnosed with cancer too late. An earlier report by the same team suggested deaths caused by delayed care amid the virus they could be as high as 185,000. The Government's report, published in April but largely overlooked until now, found the great majority of the deaths would be attributed to an extended wait for treatment in the longer term. But up to 25,000 deaths would have come in the first six months because of healthcare delays, according to experts at the Department of Health and Social Care, Office for National Statistics, Government Actuary's Department and the Home Office. The figures equate to nearly one million years of life lost unnecessarily, in the worst-case scenario outlined in the report. And the University of Oxford discovered just weeks ago that 5,000 fewer heart attack patients had attended hospital between March and May. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-09 00:11:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature will decide on arrangements handling the vacancy of the Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) incurred due to the postponement of the 2020 LegCo election amid the COVID-19 epidemic. As Hong Kong is still facing a severe COVID-19 situation, the decision to be made by the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee will provide a solid legal basis for the sixth LegCo to continue operation, and serve as a firm guarantee for the HKSAR government and all sectors in Hong Kong to make all-out efforts in fighting the epidemic. This fully embodies the central authorities' care and support for Hong Kong in triumphing over the epidemic, restoring the economy and improving people's livelihood. If the latest wave of COVID-19 outbreak can not be brought under control swiftly, further damage to Hong Kong's economy and people's well-being is very likely, posing a more immediate threat to the health of Hong Kong residents. Should the LegCo election proceed as due on Sept. 6 this year, more than 3 million Hong Kong residents are expected to go to the polls. Such large-scale gatherings are likely to bring great risks of virus transmission, thus causing unpredictable difficulties and pressures on the current epidemic containment. Life comes first. It is now Hong Kong's top priority and most pressing task to go all-out in fighting the epidemic and ensuring the health and safety of Hong Kong residents. Under such circumstances, the HKSAR Chief Executive in Council's earlier decision to postpone the LegCo election for a year is not only necessary and appropriate, but a manifestation of a sense of responsibility to protect the health of Hong Kong residents. The HKSAR LegCo exercises the powers and functions of enacting, amending or repealing laws in accordance with the law, as well as approving taxation and public expenditure, among others. After the election postponement, the vacancy of the LegCo, if not handled properly, will have an adverse impact on the governance of the HKSAR government and the normal operation of the Hong Kong society as a whole. As the permanent organ of the highest organ of state power, the NPC Standing Committee has the power and responsibility to deal with matters concerning the vacancy of the HKSAR LegCo, which is a manifestation of the NPC Standing Committee's performance of its duties in accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR when the HKSAR has constitutional issues that can not be resolved by itself. A law-based, timely decision on the HKSAR LegCo vacancy by the NPC Standing Committee after taking into full consideration the current epidemic situation in Hong Kong and the operation situation of the LegCo is necessary and urgent. In making such a decision, the central authorities have been acting strictly in accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR. Such a decision, once adopted by lawmakers, will have legal effect that can not be challenged and will be crucial to maintain Hong Kong's prosperity and stability. With the solid support from the central authorities and assistance of the mainland, and under the strong leadership of the HKSAR government, the epidemic in Hong Kong will be effectively contained and the health of the people and social stability will be effectively protected. Enditem Last COVID-19 cluster on the wane By Kumudini Hettiarachchi, Ruqyyaha Deane & Meleeza Rathnayake Few positive cases now from Kandakadu cluster and some among returnees View(s): View(s): The Kandakadu cluster is abating and now COVID-19 confirmed cases are from among those who are returning from abroad, many health sources said. Consultant Physician Dr. Eranga Narangoda who treated a large number of positive patients at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) and has now moved to the Homagama Base Hospital said fewer positive cases were being diagnosed from the Kandakadu cluster, a fact confirmed by many sources at ground level. When looking at the eight-day timeline, from Friday, July 31 to Friday, August 7, the 25 COVID-19 cases reported by the Epidemiology Unit were mainly returnees from abroad and to a lesser extent from the Kandakadu cluster, the sources said, while the Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) Union added that there was no fear of the new coronavirus spreading after the parliamentary election as the public adhered to the preventive measures. We had much public cooperation, said the unions Secretary M. Balasooriya, explaining that 2,850 PHIs were on duty at the 225 polling stations on August 5 and 200 were present on Thursday and Friday at the counting centres to ensure the health guidelines were followed. From the time the first imported case (the Chinese woman tourist) was detected on January 27, there have been 2,839 confirmed cases of COVID-19 up to now, with 11 deaths. The number of people who have recovered is 2,564. Currently, there are 264 confirmed patients and another 38 suspected cases in hospital. The Sunday Times looked at how the Lankapura, Rajanganaya, Gampaha and Kahathuduwa sub-clusters of the Kandakadu cluster were panning out. Lankapura cluster The two COVID-19 positive patients found in the Lankapura area are receiving treatment at the NIID, a source at ground level said, explaining that there is no problem now as all their contacts who underwent RT-PCR testing twice are negative. The first was an employee of the Lankapura Divisional Secretariat who had visited Kandakadu and tested positive while in quarantine. When tests were done on other employees of the secretariat, another minor employee tested positive. As the Divisional Secretariat staff works closely with the nearby Pradeshiya Sabha, 180 employees of both institutions sent into quarantine will report back to work on Thursday (August 13), the source said. When asked about speculation that a school was shut down due to a new case, the source said it was not true, adding that anyway all schools were closed when this incident happened. Rajanganaya cluster Seven of the 20 who tested positive in Rajanganaya after one person had contact with the Kandakadu cluster have been discharged from hospital, the Sunday Times learns. The first patient of this cluster was detected on July 10. All contacts of the 20 patients, around 60 people, were sent in to home quarantine and the RT-PCR tests done so far have been negative. The tests are to be repeated next Wednesday (August 12), a source said. Gampaha cluster The 150 contacts of the four-member Gampaha cluster have tested negative and a majority of them have completed their quarantine period, said the areas Medical Officer of Health (MOH), Dr. Subasha Subasinghe. The four patients, who have all been discharged from hospital, were a driver (male), an instructor (male) from the Kandakadu Treatment & Rehabilitation Centre, a teacher (male) and a female relative of the driver. Kahathuduwa cluster A visiting lecturer at the Kandakadu centre from Kahathuduwa who tested positive on July 17, followed by his wife and two children (aged 6 and 11 years) who also tested positive have recovered and left the NIID for home, it is learnt. The lecturers mother-in-law who tested negative has completed her quarantine period. Repatriation flights resume Two flights arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Katunayake, yesterday (August 8), said Airport and Aviation Services Limited (AASL) Vice Chairman, Rajeewasiri Sooriyaarachchi.They were an Emirates flight from the United Arab Emirates with more than 300 passengers and a SriLankan Airlines flight from China with 108 military officials and 14 civilians. There was a 25-day suspension of both repatriation and cargo flights in view of the Kandakadu cluster cropping up and in the run-up to the elections. He said that repatriation flights, a majority from SriLankan Airlines, which were cancelled will be rescheduled now, with clearance from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). A limited number of departures and transits are taking place from the BIA. Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) The MRIA, the only other airport other than the BIA to receive flights, has been opened partially, said its Chief Airport Manager Upul Kalansuriya, explaining that in the early stages of COVID-19, the MRIA was closed on March 18 for three weeks. The repatriation flights were also suspended for a few days due to the elections recently, but two charter flights arrived yesterday both were SriLankan Airlines flights with 178 passengers from the Maldives and 165 passengers from Visakhapatnam, India, respectively. Earlier, the flights which landed at the MRIA were passenger, charter and cargo flights and some which came in for re-fuelling. Regular flights which went through were those of the Ukranian cargo airline, Antonov Airlines. He said that in June and July, there were around 50 flights comprising charters and private jets which brought around 2,300 passengers, mostly seafarers and returnees. There were around 10-15 returnee flights from the Maldives, India and Dubai. The Sunday Times learns that as soon as a flight lands, there is a disinfectant protocol for the passengers and their baggage. Thereafter, samples for RT-PCR testing are collected from the passengers by private hospital (Durdans, Asiri, Nawaloka and Lanka) personnel after which the samples are transported to their laboratories in Colombo. While the passengers are sent into quarantine at designated hotels, the results of the tests are sent to the flight operators. More than 2,000 tests have been done but no one has tested positive so far. The passengers are informed in advance that they would have to pay Rs. 6,000-7,000 each for the test, added Mr. Kalansuriya. Mother and triplets doing fine in Oman A Sri Lankan expecting triplets in Oman delivered her two baby boys and baby girl through a Caesarian operation on July 17 and mother and babies are fine, Sri Lankas Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, O.L. Ameer Ajwad told the Sunday Times.He said that Ruwanthika Dilini working for Galfar Engineering & Contracting SAOG, who lives with her husband in Oman was due to get back to Sri Lanka on a repatriation flight on June 28 on a priority basis along with 16 other expectant women. However, she opted to stay behind in Oman as she was in the final trimester and flying could be risky. The closure of airports had prevented her returning to Sri Lanka earlier. We made arrangements for Ruwanthika to consult a Senior Obstetrician of the Al Khoula Government Hospital in Muscat, Dr. Tahira Kazmi, with help from the Health Ministry here. Financial support for her surgery was arranged through the Dar Al Atta Charitable Association, said Mr. Ajwad. He added that around 1,700 people have registered with the embassy to return home and priority is being accorded to a few more expectant mothers. Like almost everywhere else, the ability of assets to earn returns in industries ranging from airlines, hotels and commercial real estate from large firms to their small vendors has been impaired. However, in India, truth is currently as scarce as capital. Its in nobodys interest to discover the extent of the money shortfall because the hole wont be filled. The government doesnt have the appetite for large-scale socialization of private losses, lest the opposition accuse Modi of cronyism. Very few large Indian business groups have dry powder, and those that do such as billionaire Mukesh Ambanis Reliance Industries Ltd. would rather preserve it for now. On Friday, the Democrats' last-ditch effort to agree on releasing crucial coronavirus relief aid collapsed. The disappointment will most likely result in millions of Americans suffering to get by financially amid the global crisis. Failed negotiations United States President Donald Trump said he is inclined to issue more limited executive orders relating to the coronavirus if he is unable to agree with Congress, as reported by AP News. Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer summarized the negotiations at Capitol Hills as a disappointing event. He added White House officials denied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's proposal of curbing the demands of Democrats by about $1 trillion. Schumer prompted authorities to find a middle ground and not have their way or no other way. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it was unfortunate that they were unable to agree on the day of the meeting. Republican politicians said Pelosi was counting on budget maneuvers to reduce costs and fear she has overplayed her strategies. While previous events where an impasse in Washington caused little to no effect to the public, the coronavirus relief aid would now cause major recurring consequences that would affect nearly all Americans. One such factor is the expiration of the weekly $600 unemployment benefit that had supported the jobless in keeping their homes and falling to poverty. The deadlock also denies the distribution of over $100 billion support to assist schools in reopening this fall. Additionally, it denies more funding to increase the rate of virus testing in the country. Also Read: Fauci Praises Trump's Coronavirus Policies That Saves People's Lives The possibility of a coronavirus relief package continues to be uncertain. Both White House officials and Senate members have left Washington and officials are instructed to prepare to come back another time to vote on an agreement. Mnuchin said that because of the failed talks to pass a new relief package, they would recommend President Trump to move forward with some executive orders they hope would relieve some of the challenges that Americans are facing, as reported by USA Today. Continued discussions The official said he and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows would discuss with the president over the weekend about the orders. The move is something that Trump had previously explained in detail in a news conference in Bedminster. The US president said he was getting ready to unilaterally act on four different programs including several that supported citizens in keeping them financially stable amid the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Trump said his administration is still hoping to come to an agreement with Democrats on a coronavirus relief package and leaving a door open for that possibility if or when talks resume. Trump previously blamed Democrats for continuing to hold the relief package back and stated he would use his powers and authorities as president to deliver the relief that Americans need to survive the global crisis. According to BBC, Trump is looking to defer the payroll tax, unemployment benefits, and suspend student loan interest until the end of the year. The US president said he is also considering to extend the eviction moratorium to ensure Americans are not forced out into the streets. Related Article: Fact Check: Will Trump's Order Drop the Prices of Insulin to "Pennies a Day?" @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Would you like to try your hand at sewing while helping tackle plastic pollution? Boomerang Bags Tauranga is having a sewing bee at Our Place Tauranga today and would love some extra help. If you cant sew, that doesnt matter as there are plenty of other jobs to do. Volunteers are also needed to help with cutting materials, pinning, ironing and stamping. Boomerang Bags Tauranga is a community driven initiative tackling plastic pollution at the grassroots level. Volunteers get together to make re-usable bags using recycled materials as a means to provide a sustainable alternative to plastic bags. The event today runs from 10.30am to 2pm and all ages are welcome. No experience is required. Those with their own sewing machines or overlockers and have sewing skills are encouraged to bring them, as well as those who can bring a sewing machine but dont know how to sew. Those with sewing skills and no machine are also invited to participate, along with all those happy to help with cutting, pinning, ironing and stamping. All help is extremely valuable, says a Boomerang Bags Tauranga spokesperson. We look forward to doing some crafts and helping out our environment. Any questions contact Charlotte at boomerangbagstauranga@gmail.com. The blaze off St Margaret's Road is now under control with fire services said to working to with the ESB and Gas Network at the scene. Dublin Fire Brigade said three cars were found burning there this afternoon and three fire engines from Finglas and Phibsborough were sent to tend to the incident. 3 fire engines from Finglas & Phibsborough fire stations are dealing with cars alight in an underground car park off St Margaret's Road. The fire is under control and we're working with @ESBNetworks @GasNetIrl on scene #Dublin #fire pic.twitter.com/gfBkWYZadg Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) August 8, 2020 Click here to join the case LOS ANGELES, Aug. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Portnoy Law Firm advises investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Airbus SE ("Airbus" or "the Company") (OTC: EADSF) investors that acquired securities between February 24, 2016 and July 30, 2020. Investors are encouraged to contact attorney Lesley F. Portnoy, to determine eligibility to participate in this action, by phone 310-692-8883 or email , or click here to join the case. In August 2012, the United Kingdom ("U.K.") Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") announced that it had opened a formal criminal investigation into one of Airbus's subsidiaries, GPT Special Project Management Ltd. ("GPT"), which Airbus acquired in 2007. The allegations called into question a service contract entered into by GPT prior to its acquisition by Airbus, relating to activities conducted by GPT in Saudi Arabia. Unbeknownst to investors and the public, however, Airbus was at an increased and foreseeable risk of facing significant potential liabilities for other alleged illegal activities that would later be investigated by governmental authorities around the world. These activities, combined with the investigation into GPT, implicated all three of Airbus's divisions, calling into question the sustainability of the Company's reported earnings during the Class Period. The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational, and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (i) that Airbus's policies and protocols were insufficient to ensure the Company's compliance with relevant anti-corruption laws and regulations; (ii) that, consequently, Airbus engaged in bribery, corruption, and fraud in order to enhance its business with respect to its commercial aircraft, helicopter, and defense deals; (iii) that, as a result, Airbus's earnings were derived in part from unlawful conduct and therefore unsustainable; (iv) the full scope and severity of Airbus's misconduct; (v) that resolution of government investigations of Airbus would foreseeably cost Airbus billions of dollars in settlements and legal fees and subject the Company to significant continuing government investigation and oversight; and (vi) that, as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. Story continues On August 8, 2016, Reuters reported that the U.K. had opened a corruption probe into Airbus. Specifically, the SFO announced that it had "opened a criminal investigation into allegations of fraud, bribery, and corruption in the civil aviation business of Airbus," which "relate to irregularities concerning third party consultants." The investigation followed Airbus's flagging of "misstatements and omissions" involving outside contractors in certain export financing applications to U.K. regulators and the European Export Credit Agencies earlier in the year, which the Company had found through an internal probe. On this news, Airbus ADRs fell $0.21 per share, or 1.49%, to close at $13.86 per share on August 8, 2016, and Airbus foreign ordinaries fell $0.82 per share, or 1.45%, to close at $55.58 per share on August 8, 2016. France and the U.S. later opened their investigations into the subject of the SFO's allegations in 2017 and 2018, respectively. On January 31, 2020, media outlets reported that Airbus had agreed to a deal with U.S., U.K., and French prosecutors to settle bribery and export-control violations against the Company for 3.6 billion ($4 billion). Pursuant to the settlement, Airbus also agreed to appoint an external compliance officer for at least two years to monitor the Company's handling of its defense-related sales and disclosures. On this news, Airbus ADRs fell $0.72 per share, or 1.93%, to close at $36.68 per share on January 31, 2020, and Airbus foreign ordinaries fell $2.21 per share, or 1.48%, to close at $147.00 per share on January 31, 2020. Then, on March 15, 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that Airbus executives had previously raised red flags about fees paid to a number of middlemen working with its helicopter division, led at the time by the Company's current Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), Defendant Guillaume M.J.D. Faury ("Faury"), that may have violated global bribery and corruption rules, according to internal documents related to Airbus's $4 billion bribery settlement, which were not previously made public and/or reported. On this news, Airbus ADRs fell $3.44 per share, or 15.71%, to close at $18.46 per share on March 16, 2020, and Airbus foreign ordinaries fell $7.97 per share, or 9.3%, to close at $77.75 per share on March 16, 2020. Finally, on July 30, 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that the SFO had charged GPT and three individuals with corruption in connection with a defense contract the U.K. had arranged with Saudi Arabia. These charges were the culmination of the investigations initiated by the SFO back in August 2012. On this news, Airbus ADRs fell $0.67 per share, or 3.56%, to close at $18.13 per share on July 31, 2020, and Airbus foreign ordinaries fell $2.85 per share, or 3.8%, to close at $72.10 per share on July 31, 2020. Please visit our website to review more information and submit your transaction information. The Portnoy Law Firm represents investors in pursuing claims arising from corporate wrongdoing. The Firms founding partner has recovered over $5.5 billion for aggrieved investors. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Lesley F. Portnoy, Esq. Admitted CA and NY Bar lesley@portnoylaw.com 310-692-8883 www.portnoylaw.com Attorney Advertising Paris Match: Falling In (Love) With The French John von Sothen Profile Books 12.99 Rating: When he was nine, John von Sothen visited France for the first time. Like a million other American kids on family holidays, he was bored by the cafes, the bateaux-mouches, the sights. Until, that is, they came to a seaside town near Marseille. Beside the beachs public changing rooms, he watched an adult brunette walking past wearing sunglasses, a headscarf, bikini bottoms and no top. Hardly had he registered that he was just yards from two naked breasts than his parents dragged him off. In the sea he noticed that the entire beach was filled with topless women. In this clear-eyed and charming book, John von Sothen offers a guide to French love, slang, food, conversation, schools, teenagers, TV, politics, holidays and much more At that moment, he writes, The purpose of France hit me: you could actually live like this. It was legal. Scroll forward a generation and von Sothens living in Paris, married to the French Anais, with two children, Otto and Bibi, and has a job writing for Esquire and Vanity Fair. In this clear-eyed and charming book, he offers a guide to French love, slang, food, conversation, schools, teenagers, TV, politics, holidays and much more. You learn, for instance, that Parisians never marry in Paris. They blag a glamorous manor or ancient farmhouse from an uncle or cousin, spend the bulk of the wedding budget on champagne and if theyre really showing off cook a pig in an earth pit. You discover that the French enjoy stacks of holiday time. They get two weeks off in February (to support the ski season), two more around Halloween, lots of three-day weekends... You need to be wary, though, of agreeing to take vacances with a group of fellow school parents. IT'S A FACT The world champion of French Scrabble, Nigel Richards, doesn't speak a word of French. He simply memorised the dictionary. Advertisement Von Sothen discovers how dictatorial the French can be, with their six-hour food-shopping trips, communal breakfasts, early-morning volleyball and the requirement that everyone must contribute a workshop on painting, drama, philosophy... A hilarious chapter on speaking French reveals that a tiny word can cause problems. When an estate agent comes to sell their home, von Sothen calls it a former entrepot depices (spice warehouse); by saying a duh rather than a day, it comes out as entrepot de pisse. His confusion also lands him in trouble when, invited to join a salon called Futurbulence, hes convinced he is being asked to an echangiste, or swingers club. Its not all jolly cultural misunderstandings. Von Sothens diverse neighbourhood is rocked by terrorist shootings at Le Carillon, their local bar, and the Bataclan music venue. Syrian refugees arrive, because of its proximity to the Gare du Nord, and a French version of Occupy Wall Street appears, demanding Death to Bankers. Then a supervised heroin shoot centre opened, creating wandering zombies, high or desperate, rummaging through garbage cans while they waited for the centre to open. The authors dream of living in the cute French movie Amelie comes to an abrupt halt. But this wake-up call only makes his bit of Paris seem more real to him. This thoroughly entertaining book ends movingly as von Sothen has his parents belongings shipped from Washington to the Normandy countryside, uniting his childhood and his newly settled family life in a shimmering vision of chez moi home. Coming Undone Terri White Canongate 14.99 Rating: Many of us harbour a fear of exposure. Am I really the person I present to the outside world? Or is that merely, in the words of Terri White, a fragile outline obscuring the darkness and doubts contained within? For White, the dissonance between her interior and exterior worlds grows to an unbearable extreme when she moves from the UK to glitzy, bustling New York to pursue a high-powered journalism career. Yet a constant weight of sadness accompanies her on the plane, a rock lassoed with rope and tied to the bottom of my rib cage. The present-tense narrative of her adult unravelling is punctuated by a past-tense retelling of a brutal childhood. The present-tense narrative of Terri White's (above) adult unravelling is punctuated by a past-tense retelling of a brutal childhood And so, the origins of this burden of pain and fury are deftly and heartbreakingly revealed. Abuse and violence, at the hands of a series of terrible men who libidinously drift towards her mother, are so ever-present that songs from the era, such as The Jams Town Called Malice, can only ever be associated with a sticky, sweaty erasure of hope. The radio and TV, the latter powered by a coin-operated meter filled with hard-won 50p pieces and then greedily emptied by the landlord, spew out apocalyptic warnings of Aids and nuclear war. No wonder, then, that a young Terri seeks temporary protection and escape in the warm, beautiful, bouncing buzz of alcohol. In this raw memoir, almost nobody has a name. The man, a friend, an ex and the Suicide Preventer are viewed through a lens of disconnection. Even temporary allies, such as the live-in landlady, cant be trusted for long. It seems absurd to use words like poetic and beautiful to describe a book that depicts two such harrowing parts of a life and makes woozy connections between them. But they feel entirely apt. Although the book ends ambiguously as she returns to London, Whites life since has become more settled. She is now editor-in-chief at a film magazine and in a long-term relationship. Rosie Wilby By Express News Service KOZHIKODE: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of those who died in the Air India Express crash on Friday evening. The compensation will be given to the next of kin of each passenger who died in the mishap at the Karipur International Airport. Of the 190 people on board the ill-fated plane, there were 184 passengers and six crew members. Of the 18 dead so far, 14 are adults (seven males and females each) and four are children. Both the pilot and co-pilot are among those dead. At present, 149 passengers are hospitalised including 23 with serious injuries. Till now, 23 passengers have been discharged. There are a few passengers from Tamil Nadu and Telangana also. ALSO READ: Captain Deepak Sathe returned to flying after surviving air crash in 1990s Offering his condolences during his visit in Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, the Chief Minister said in a media briefing, Apart from the solatium for the victims, the state government would bear the treatment expenses of all those injured in this unfortunate plane crash irrespective of the hospitals they are in. The Civil Aviation Ministry and other central government agencies are expected to announce compensation for the air passengers. If any further assistance is required, the state government will take an appropriate decision at that time to support them to get back to a normal life. However, the immediate task now is to ensure the best possible treatment for the survivors of the accident. The district authority is coordinating the treatment of those rescued who are now in 16 hospitals across Kozhikode and Malappuram districts. All the dead have been identified -- eight are from Kozhikode district, six from Malappuram district and two from Palakkad district, apart from the pilot and co-pilot. The postmortem process has been expedited to finish before evening. All the accident victims will be tested for COVID-19 including those who died in the crash. So far, only one victim has tested positive. The Chief Minister also appreciated the instant response by the local public living in the vicinity of the airport. Even though 18 precious lives have been lost due to the impact of the crash, the rescue operations were a miraculous work. The general public and the officials played a big role in spearheading the rescue operations. Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, who was present along with the CM, expressed his sympathies to the families of the accident victims and his best wishes for the speedy recovery of those injured. The Chief Minister was accompanied by the Niyamasabha Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, Minister for Industry EP Jayarajan, Minister for Health & Social Justice K K Shailaja, Minister for Agriculture VS Sunilkumar, Minister for Ports Ramachandran kadannappalli, Minister for Transport AK Saseendran, Minister for Excise TP Ramakrishnan, Chief Secretary, Dr Vishwas Mehta and State Police Chief Loknath Behra, DGP. Brantford police are investigating a double fatal crash Friday involving a city bus. Officers were called to the crash at Shellard Lane and Conklin Road at about 5:30 p.m. The driver of a car had slammed into the back of the bus. Two people in the car were pronounced dead at the scene. A media release posted by Brantford police says the investigation is in the very early stages. Police did not indicate if there were passengers on the bus or if anyone else was injured. Anyone with information about the collision is asked to contact police at 519-756-7050. At a homeless shelter in Scarborough, an eight-year-old boy scurries through the halls with his friends until late at night sometimes 10 or 11 p.m., much later than the 8 p.m. bedtime his mother wants. With more than 100 kids in the building, its tough to fight the lure of other voices outside their room. Enforcing a routine in the shelter system is difficult, 35-year-old Nana Hornila says. Shes lived in the facility for more than a year, with her son and one-year-old daughter. Its a far cry from their old home in Cameroon, where she could wake, feed and put her son to bed on a consistent schedule. Its very, very hard, she said. She wanted to give her kids a better life in Canada. But she struggled to find housing after they arrived, without immediate access to documents like paystubs or family to help. So, she and her kids wound up in the shelter system, searching for a way out on their own while juggling the restrictions of a global pandemic. They arent alone. Through a summer of COVID-19, more than 1,000 children were staying in Torontos homeless shelters 1,020, as of July 1. Nearly 70 per cent are 10 years old or younger. Official numbers dont include kids living in provincial shelters for abused women, nor children whose parents have found a place for them to stay outside of the shelter network. Child homelessness has persisted in Toronto for years, but its an issue thats grown increasingly complicated during the pandemic, which has particularly threatened congregate settings like shelters. There were 1,291 kids in shelters at the peak of the crisis in late April. And the problem is markedly worse than it was just a few years ago. At the start of 2016, Torontos shelters housed 483 children. Though the overall number of shelter residents has increased in that time, growing from 4,156 to 6,070 as of July 1, the percentage that are children has also gotten bigger. In recent weeks, the Star has spent time with numerous families in the system to understand the realities of child and family homelessness as the city grapples with a health crisis. Listen to Victoria Gibson discuss child homelessness on the Stars podcast Even in usual times, the effects of child homelessness can carry into adulthood, as illustrated by a street needs survey conducted by the city in 2018: a third of respondents said their first experience with homelessness was in childhood. And homeless children are at greater risk of the situation repeating later in life, the city says. Still, as child homelessness has risen in Toronto, some advocates say the issue hasnt gotten enough attention. Its under the rug, said Cathy Crowe, a street nurse who was involved in a 2010 documentary project that chronicled the lives of homeless children in four Canadian cities. She fears that the economic shakeup caused by the pandemic may lead to a new wave of families falling into the shelter system. Its time that the city develop a specific approach, fund and act. When Hornila and her family first arrived at the shelter as refugees, she said her son started resisting any rules she tried to impose. As she spoke, the eight-year-old rounded the corner and wrapped his arms around his mother. He said hed been shy, and lonely, when theyd first arrived. But as hes adjusted making friends, learning English, and picking up an affinity for drawing the world has shifted, in ways that some kids in the shelter havent quite grasped. They just want to play together. They dont understand COVID-19, Hornila said. The shelters kitchen is outside their room, so she had to bring her kids out with her and around their friends when preparing meals. The pandemic has presented new hurdles for families in shelters among them, the challenge of navigating online learning in rooms that arent connected to the internet. While Ontario families will be given the option of continuing online learning this fall, Hornila said she didnt know how she would manage if her son didnt return to school in-person every day. Getting back to work full-time is her familys way out: saving up enough money to rent a place of their own. As of late July, the shelter where Hornila and her kids live in Scarborough was home to 112 kids and 35 were elementary-school aged. To make sure her son could keep up with school this spring, Hornila said she bought a limited internet connection. But at a different shelter downtown, another family said the task was just too hard. We didnt even do classes online, said Stanarah, 9, whos been living in the facility with her mom, Alisha, sister Ayesha, 17, and brother Eligh, 8, for more than a year. They struggled, like Hornila, to connect to the internet from their room and faced a choice whether to venture out into common areas during the height of the pandemic. The kids schools were aware of their living situation, Alisha said, and had been supportive of them. Ayeshas guidance counsellor spoke to each of her teachers after learning about their situation meaning the 17-year-old had a bit of extra time to hand in her work. But Ayesha said her own goals after high school felt less important than figuring out where they would live next. To be honest, Im stressed. Because I dont know what I want to do after high school, she said. I have to worry about other things. Toronto shelter services worker Sunita Persaud, who works at Birkdale Residence and Downsview Dells, said staff try to provide whatever support they can to kids in the shelter system, but the frequent disruptions that housing instability can cause in childrens education and the supportive figures around them can still have lasting impacts. Most parents do everything they can to support their kids while living in the shelter system, she said. But some face their own language barriers or literacy challenges. Some children enter the system already struggling academically for reasons ranging from their environments to undiagnosed learning disabilities. A good relationship between a shelter and the local schools can help with enrolment or expediting special needs placements, she said. Any challenges theyd faced with the education system wasnt from a lack of support by the schools, but a lack of resources. Large class sizes with fewer teachers per student, for example, can lead to homeless kids who may struggle with transitions falling through the cracks, Persaud said. The children will display many emotional stress factors in the classroom and learning becomes secondary as they struggle with their own underlying issues, she observed. For some, they may be feeling unsettled, isolated and trying desperately to fit into their new environment. Toronto District School Board spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz said there was no easy answer to how to support kids living in shelters, because each case comes with its own complicating factors. For example, in cases where the childs safety might be a concern, a school they were transferred into might not receive that childs Ontario Student Record when they arrived, she said. For homeless kids, school offered a routine they could rely on, Persaud said. It offered them a sense of normalcy, and an escape from close quarters, packed in with their parents or siblings in a single bedroom. Then came COVID-19. As you can imagine, residing in a one-bedroom space with multiple siblings can become overwhelming and frustrating at times for the average person, she said. Imagine children who are homeless in lockdown during a nation-wide pandemic in limited space. Thats the reality for Alisha, Stanarah, Ayesha and Eligh, who live in a single room with a pair of double beds. Their shelter was among facilities that experienced at least one COVID-19 outbreak. But even before the pandemic, the familys living arrangement caused friction, particularly over the messes that resulted from so many people living in one room. We fight a lot, Stanarah, the nine-year-old, said. While Eligh, the youngest, said he liked the shelter and being able to play with his friends, Ayesha said that the situation began to wear on her after a while. Social service workers who spoke to the Star in recent weeks reported a range of impacts on kids living in the shelter system. Some become embarrassed about their living situations. Others attempt to stay at their old schools, but become disconnected an issue worsened by the fact they cant invite new friends over to play. Their whole life is destabilized, said Angie Peters, president of Torontos Yonge Street Mission. Kids lose their neighbourhoods, their friends, their schools anything that had been an anchor for them. Some may be acutely aware that their clothes or lunches look different from their peers. And back at the shelter, they may be exposed to other families challenges, including anger, arguments or erratic behaviour. This is not the shelters fault. This is what happens, Peters said. Trudy Scotts daughters had been timid since they arrived at the Scarborough shelter. They stuck close to their mom, telling her they were scared to go downstairs with the other kids. The three of them only arrived in July, after leaving a subsidized housing unit in Alberta. Scott hoped moving to Ontario would give her more opportunities to work and go back to school, after she dropped out while pregnant in Grade 11. An aunt could potentially watch the girls while she studied, but didnt have space for all three to move in. So they ended up in the shelter, which Scott hopes is the best place to help her family find an affordable place of their own. I dont have nowhere to go. Im here to get help, so I can get a home. And I need my kids to have a roof over their head, she said. As more children have fallen into similar circumstances, advocates have sounded alarms. Between 2005 and 2016, family shelter occupancy went up 27 per cent across the country with a particular spike on the heels of the 2008 financial crisis. And monthly shelter data for Torontos system, showing occupancy from 2016 to 2020, shows that numbers have worsened again. Before the pandemic hit, the number of children living in homeless shelters across the city hovered around 1,500. The number of kids in the system climbed as high as 2,039 one month in mid-2018, while the city grappled with a sudden influx of refugees and asylum-seeking families: at that point, children represented 28 per cent of Torontos overall shelter population. Child homelessness has come down since the height of that crisis, but Torontos problem with kids in shelters is still markedly worse than it was four and a half years ago. Children have made up between 17 and 20 per cent of the citys overall homeless population in monthly counts during 2020. Back in early 2016, kids represented just 12 per cent of the overall shelter population in Toronto. You will always hear about how many refugees are in the shelter system, but very rarely will you hear that so many are children. They are often being defined by their immigration status as opposed to their identity as children, said Steve Meagher, who manages a shelter for refugee families in the west end. I think if we saw these children as children first, as we should be seeing them, we would be compelled to do more to support families in moving forward out of homelessness. In a way, the pandemic has eased the pressure: very few new migrant families have entered Torontos shelters since the coronavirus hit, and Ottawa imposed restrictions at the Canadian border. But core issues, like a lack of affordable housing options in Toronto, still present obstacles for families looking to get out. Alisha, whos been on the waitlist for Toronto Community Housing for roughly eight years, said she had struggled to find homes in the private market due to credit issues, her low-income status and their family size. Being here a whole year and not finding housing is very hard and very frustrating, she said. We see families come and go, and I feel like there should be more they can do because a lot of the bigger families, weve been here a long time, and nothing is happening for us. Im trying to get out, she added, but its hard to get out. Torontos Shelter, Support and Housing Administration says that the only solution to the citys concerning rise in homeless families is to provide permanent housing. But it also acknowledges the complexity of the problem, and that diverting families from entering the system in the first place would mean a multi-pronged approach that looks at issues from evictions to child welfare and education. The city touts its HousingTO Action Plan as a way to focus more on prevention and diversion while increasing supportive and affordable housing stock, and also claims that with the exception of poverty reduction strategies that targeted low-income families specifically, family homelessness hasnt been at the forefront of federal and provincial policies. The citys action plan pledges to develop interventions for groups with specific needs, such as youth, seniors, refugees and newcomers. In the same shelter as Alisha, 32-year-old Pollyana is also hitting hurdles. While living there, she has daycare for her one-year-old twins Giulia and Pedro; her six-year-old, Rafael, will attend first grade this year. But Pollyana fears losing that daycare spot when she moves out. Having that support for even six months after they leave could allow her to get back to work, she said, and save money. But shelter workers had told her it wasnt their decision. It feels like they give help, but when (we) leave, they take it away, she said, noting that the problem wasnt isolated to their shelter. We feel very supported here, but when we get out for the next step, all the support is gone. She stressed that she didnt enter the shelter system because she didnt want to work. She and Rafael moved from Brazil several years ago, and she hoped to give her son a better life. The plan was to get her qualifications to practise physiotherapy in Canada, as she had in Brazil. But then she found herself pregnant with twins, in a country where she had no family around to help. I came down again, she said. Shes trying to stay optimistic, pointing out that the shelter had given her time to figure out next steps. Rafael loved the shelter, she said he called it their house, and when new families arrived, he would show them around and point out the playground. I know hes safe, Pollyana said. Hornila, the mom in Scarborough, said the shelter offered their family a sense of community in a new country. But 17-year-old Ayesha said she wished the city paid more attention to kids living in shelters, and getting their families out. When youre seeing 1,000, 2,000 kids in the shelter? Thats not good, she said. Thats the worst. And they should work on us, and help us to get a place. United Auto Workers Region 2-B Director Richard Rankin was forced to resign his position Tuesday amid an investigation into accusations of sexual harassment brought against him by two female union officers, according to the Detroit Free Press. In an official statement on its website, the UAW has portrayed Rankins departure from the union as a personal decision. Rankin was suspended from membership by the UAW International Executive Board on March 30 and faced a union trial under Article 30 of the UAW Constitution before he resigned. He was the only member of the board not to sign off on the charges brought against him by the International. His resignation effectively preempts any possibility of a union trial. The International UAW brought its charges in March following an investigation into the allegations against Rankin. This was after the UAW had fired another Region 2-B member of its staff, former international representative Jason Barlow, for allegedly using his position to secure a job for his wife in the union. Region 2-B encompasses the UAWs membership in Indiana and Ohio. It rakes in dues money from thousands of workers at General Motors assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) workers at its transmission plant complex in Kokomo and Tipton, Indiana, and its Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, and workers in several other lower-wage occupations including health care, food service, and clerical. Rankin was elevated to the regional director post in June 2017 after two decades of climbing the ladder of the UAW bureaucracy, starting at Local 1112 at General Motors now shuttered Lordstown Assembly Plant in Ohio in 1997. As Region 2-B director, Rankin played a key role in shutting the plant, which forced the remaining 1,400 workers either to apply for transfer to plants in other states or face unemployment. The investigation into the harassment claims against Rankin began earlier this year and were first conducted solely by the UAW itself until it brought in the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Bredhoff & Kaiser. The investigation alleged that two nurses employed as UAW staff members of Local 2213 in Toledo, Ohio, had been repeatedly verbally sexually harassed by Rankin and that one instance escalated to a physical threat. Rankin denied the claims in a statement issued by the law firm which represented him, Kalniz, Iorio & Reardon, stating that I adamantly deny the baseless allegations of workplace harassment. I cooperated fully with the internal investigation conducted by the legal counsel hired the UAW. I have always supported the rights of workers to be free from workplace harassment. Whatever the truth of the allegations against Rankin, rank-and-file workers in the factories that he presided over would laugh at the assertion that any UAW official always supported the rights of workers to be free from workplace harassment. A 2015 lawsuit brought by female workers at Fords Chicago Assembly and Chicago Stamping plants alleged sexual harassment by Ford managers and UAW officials in the plants, although it was denied class action status in 2019. The lawsuit named UAW officials, including current UAW Local 551 Chairman Alan Coby Millender, as either directly taking part in or refusing to protect workers from sexual harassment. In 2017 Ford had to settle separate claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by female Chicago-area Ford workers who said they faced sexual and racial harassment from company supervisors and UAW officials. Federal Judge Robert Dow, who denied class action status of the Ford workers lawsuit, said he based his ruling on the bogus grounds that individual workers experienced different forms of harassment and that they could sue as individuals. The decision effectively let Ford and the UAW off the hook. For its part, the UAW never expressed any interest in investigating these claims, in contrast to the allegations leveled against Rankin. Currently, workers at auto plants across North America are being forced to continue working under unsafe conditions as the COVID-19 pandemic surges. The UAW has played a key role in enforcing the deadly return to work by suppressing opposition. The result has been hundreds of autoworkers becoming infected with COVID-19 while the UAW and the auto companies cover up the real situation in the plants. Rankins resignation takes place against a backdrop of deep turmoil inside the UAW, as devastating allegations of corruption were outlined in a lawsuit brought by General Motors against Fiat Chrysler earlier this week. The lawsuit alleges that FCA executives funneled tens of millions of dollars through offshore bank accounts to top UAW officials as bribes, and that the UAW acted as direct agents of FCA management in a scheme to force a merger with GM. Following the jailing of top UAW leaders for taking bribes and kickbacks, the latest exposures by GM reveal the UAW as a criminal syndicate utterly hostile to the working class. It is significant that Rankins resignation has received greater attention in the local and national media than the explosive allegations of massive corruption contained in the GM documents. This likely reflects fear of the devastating impact of the GM exposures on the already tattered credibility of the UAW, further undermining its ability to suppress workers opposition. Whatever the motives of the UAW in moving against Rankin, the case is another exposure of criminal conduct by the union bureaucracy. The World Socialist Web Site has consistently warned that the UAW is a pro-corporate organization, fundamentally opposed to the interests of the working class. Following endless concessions contracts and continuing revelations of its criminality, workers are drawing the conclusion that they must wage a struggle independently and against the UAW. Workers at auto plants across the Midwestern US have taken matters into their own hands by forming rank-and-file safety committees to fight for the right to a safe workplace. Workers interested in learning more should contact the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter. Meanwhile, medical researchers warned that the U.S. death toll could climb to nearly 300,000 by December about double the current tally in what represented one of the most dire appeals to date for people to wear masks while in public. If 95 percent of the population were to do so, according to officials with the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation researchers, approximately 66,000 American lives could be saved. China Threatens Retaliation for US Denial of Journalist Visas By Joyce Huang August 07, 2020 China has threatened to retaliate after the United States did not renew visas for some 40 Chinese journalists, whose 90-day permit to work in the U.S. expired Thursday. No retaliatory move, however, was immediately announced Friday, after Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of state tabloid Global Times previously warned that the "Chinese side will retaliate, including targeting U.S. journalists based in Hong Kong." Instead, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin Friday denounced the U.S. action as "a unilateral provocation" during a routine media briefing, urging the U.S. "to correct its mistakes and cease its oppression of Chinese media workers." Tell right from wrong? Prior to that, the ministry's office in the former British colony also released a written statement, urging Hong Kong-based foreign journalists "to understand the consequences and tell right from wrong." The ministry reiterated that "if the U.S. persists with escalating its actions against Chinese media, China will take a necessary and legitimate response." China Threatens Countermeasures over US Visa Rule for Chinese Journalists Citing China's treatment of the reporters, the US Homeland Security Department issued new regulations limiting visas for Chinese journalists to a maximum 90-day stay, with the possibility to request an extension The official statement came as a response to an open letter issued one day earlier by the city's Foreign Correspondents' Club, which called on both the U.S. and Chinese governments to stop "using journalists' visas as a weapon in international disputes andtaking action against journalists for the decisions made by their home countries." "This downward spiral of retaliatory actions aimed at journalists helps no one, not least of all the public that needs accurate, professionally produced information now more than ever," said the letter. Unusual delays in issuance of visas The club added that several media outlets in Hong Kong have experienced unusual delays in getting new or renewed visas for journalists working in the city. The latest journalist visa drama will surely escalate U.S.-China tensions and invite retaliation from China, which will pose a new threat to American journalists working in China, two analysts told VOA. Since early this year, the two countries have clashed over media exchanges. In mid-February, the U.S. State Department listed five U.S.-based Chinese media outlets as foreign embassies since they work for the Communist government's propaganda efforts and in March ordered them to reduce the number of Chinese journalists on staff from 160 to 100. China later retaliated by expelling Beijing-based U.S. journalists working at three American newspapers -- The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Journalistic tit-for-tat In May, the U.S. hit back by shortening the validity period of visas for Chinese journalists to a maximum of 90 days. According to Global Times, one of its U.S.-based reporters has filed to extend the 90-day limit after her visa expired on Thursday. Her application is neither rejected nor approved. The journalist said she is allowed to stay in the U.S. for another 90 days until early November, but not allowed to work unless her visa is renewed, the report added. Ross Feingold, a Taipei-based political analyst, described the media tit-for-tat as just one facet of escalating Sino-U.S. tensions. "Like everything else in the bilateral relationship, it's one among many different issues whether it's trade, or human rights in China or Taiwan, South China sea, technology industries, being one that's in the news in recent days as well," Feingold said. Change is required "So, it's on the agenda that the United States identifies as something that requires a change," he added. Feingold said the U.S. actions are based on years of frustration over unequal restrictions China has placed on American diplomats and journalists working in China while China's government-funded media propagandists face no such restrictions in the U.S. There is, however, little sign that the Communist government in Beijing is interested in taking in criticism or changing its journalistic practice, said Cedric Alviani, head of Reporters Without Borders's (RSF) East Asia bureau in Taipei. While denouncing U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated attacks on journalists, Alviani added that any government's move to limit the influence of state propaganda and disinformation which the Chinese state media are openly engaged in isn't an erosion of press freedom. Media as collateral? But an anticipated media war, in which the U.S. and Chinese governments simply use journalists as a collateral to fight each other, should not be encouraged, he said. "It's normal that the U.S. democracy would try and limit the influence of the propaganda media within its borders. But by using the impression that it is some kind of war using the media as a collateral, somehow, it's posing a new threat to foreign journalists based in China," Alviani told VOA. The level of hostility between the Chinese and Americans over recent media exchange policies is also rising. Most Chinese netizens on Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging site, expressed negative views toward the U.S. actions against Chinese media. For example, one netizen wrote, "What's there to be afraid of. Let's take the opportunity to kick all American journalists in Hong Kong out since they are very mean" in response to a news report on Thursday. In a Twitter post, famed U.S. author Gordon Chang, author of "The Coming Collapse of China," Tuesday responded to Hu's threat of China's retaliation by saying, "Retaliate all you wantYour China can't get along without us. We, however, can get along without you. In fact, we would be far better off without you. So leave." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Andreas Gebert/Reuters Facebook has tried hard not to fact-check the political content on its platform but a multimillion dollar pro-Trump political action committees troubles with the truth were so egregious, the social media company temporarily suspended their account on Thursday. The company took action against the account for the Committee to Defend the President, a political action committee which began in 2013 as an anti-Hillary Clinton group but which has since changed its focus to pro-Trump activism. As a result of the Committee to Defend the President's repeated sharing of content determined by third-party fact-checkers to be false, they will not be permitted to advertise for a period of time," Facebook said in a statement. The committee has spent roughly $325,000 on ads supporting President Trump and conservative causes between May 2018 and August 2020, according to Facebooks ad database. Its founders have spent nearly $10 million in support of President Trump and his reelection in 2020 according to campaign finance records. Facebook has long struggled to avoid taking responsibility for moderating the content posted on its platform by public officials and politicians as it did on Thursday. I dont think that Facebook or internet platforms in general should be arbiters of truth, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview on CNBC back in May. Political speech is one of the most sensitive parts in a democracy, and people should be able to see what politicians say, he said, in a riff on comments given during a Fox News interview the day before. But that laissez-faire approach appears to be buckling under the combined weight of an impending election, a lethal coronavirus pandemic, and increasingly flagrant violations of Facebooks policies. Facebooks suspension of the Committee to Defend the President marks the second time in the past week that the social media company has had to walk back its hands-off approach to political content that is either demonstrably false or in violation of Facebooks terms of service. Story continues On Wednesday, Facebook removed one of President Trumps Facebook posts which featured a clip of him on Fox News telling viewers that children are almost immune to the coronavirus and should go back to school in the fall. Facebook issued a statement which said that the video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19, which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation. The Committee to Defend the Presidents ads have attracted scorn by independent fact-checkers, who have called out a number of them for making provably false claims. One recent ad run by the Committee and removed by Facebook accused former Vice President Biden of being a racist for repeat[ing] the n-word twice on camera. Independent fact-checking groups like FactCheck.org and PolitiFact declared the ads claims false and noted that the quote in question came not from Biden directly but from a memo he quoted. During a 1985 hearing, then Senator Biden quoted a racist memo authored by a Louisiana official who sought to oppose a redistricting plan in order to criticize the nomination of a Reagan administration official who had failed to object to it. Another of the groups recent ads featured the voice of former President Barack Obama decrying plantation politics, portrayed as an attack on Biden. The ad prompted a cease and desist letter from Obamas representatives, who called the ad despicable and disinformation. The group has also recently run highly inflammatory ads on its platform, including one spot that appealed to Latino voters with backhanded shots at African-Americans. Latino Americans love our country. But thats not good enough for Joe Biden, declares the ad, which features images of prominent Democrats including Sen. Bob Menendez and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Biden has promised his party a Black vice president, not a Latino, the ad, which ran in English and Spanish, continues, even though Latinos make up one sixth of the United States population and contribute twice as much to the economy as Black Americans. Does Joe Biden have dementia? another recent CDP ad said. In a world losing its mind, we dont need a president whos already lost his. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. New Canaan, like most of Connecticut, remained in the dark Friday as officials blasted communication breakdowns in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaias. According to Eversource, 75 percent of homes and businesses in New Canaan remained without power as of 11 a.m. Friday. The utility, which provides electricity to most of Connecticut, said Thursday night that it expected the vast majority of its 480,000 customers without power to be restored by midnight Tuesday, with many customers being restored sooner. The number of New Canaan customers without power was down to 58 percent by 5 p.m. Friday. Eversource crews in town have made real progress working with our Public Works crews to reduce the number of blocked roads to 13 from 30 earlier today, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said at 5 p.m. Because of the loss of power, Optimum phone and Internet service remained out. It has also been reported that AT&T mobile service is out in the northern part of town because the AT&T antenna at the Country Club tower on Smith Ridge Road has no generator, Moynihan said The communication most lacking, Moynihan said Friday, is direct from Eversource to local officials to allow a coordinated response. During recent storms, the utility had been sending a supervisor to work in New Canaans Emergency Operations Center, where power restoration was a coordinated effort involving Eversource, which restores lines, and the town Department of Public Works, which clears roads and removes trees and debris. We paired crews, worked around the clock. We paired crews, cleared then would do restoration, Director of Public Works Tiger Mann recalled. They said we cant do that any more because we were the only town that actually had that. New Canaan officials said they waited for Eversource crews to deal with downed wires until Friday morning, when they were instructed to go find the crew in town. Its amazingly so different from what they did in the past, Moynihan said. Eversource is needed for a cut and clear crew when trees are intertwined with wires blocking a road, Mann said. The electric company must shut off power so Public Works can safely cut and clear the tree, then power can be turned back on, at least temporarily. New Canaan sent its DPW crews at home at 6 p.m. Thursday because they could do no more without power being cut. Anything with a wire involved we cant touch, Mann said. State Rep. Lucy Dathan said the state Department of Transportation was putting pressure on Eversource to get state roads cleared. Route 123, just south of the Merritt Parkway in Norwalk, was closed for some 30 hours by a massive tree down across wires. Moynihan said other leaders in other towns are also not getting clear, if any, communication from Eversource. Theyre paying people to give us gibberish, Moynihan said. Air India Express Flight IX-1344 carrying over 190 passengers crashed near Kerala's Kozhikode airport late Friday night. Till now 19 deaths, including both pilots, have been confirmed, while over 120 injured passengers are still in hospitals receiving treatment. The black box, also called flight data recorder, was recovered on Saturday, August 8. The box is critical for understanding what went down on flight IX-1344 before it crashed. Meanwhile, it has been sent to Delhi for further investigation. "Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved. AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) is conducting investigations," Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted. What is a Black Box? The black box constitutes a Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). It is used to record hundreds of data-points. These include crucial information about the aircraft such as its system status, speed, altitude, etc. The black box also records all conversations that take place inside the cockpit of the aircraft, particularly between the pilots of the plane. By analysing the black box air crash, investigators can determine what the pilots were discussing before the crash. If they have enough data they can determine the cause of the crash. However, this is a long process that could take many weeks. What is already known about the crash? According to FlightRadar24, a Swedish flight tracker website that displays real-time flight movements, the Air India Express flight made two attempts to land at Kozhikode Airport before crashing. DCGA investigators have confirmed that the pilots were facing some difficulty in landing, though details are not known at the moment. The black box analysis will help fill in the gaps. In another attempt to land from the opposite side of the airport, the aircraft skidded, overshot, and ultimately crash-landed in a nearby area. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh has asked the public not to speculate on the reasons behind the crash. He said, "Let's not speculate on the cause(s), contributing factors of the crash, and wait for the result of the investigation". The flight was operating under the Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indians stranded abroad because of the coronavirus lockdown. Many of the passengers were returning home from Dubai after losing their jobs due to the pandemic. Also Read: Air India plane crash: Hardeep Singh Puri reaches Kozhikode, takes stock of relief measures Also Read: Air India Express crash: Deceased passenger tests COVID-19 positive A Canadian man who contracted COVID-19 while in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities has died, leaving his family shaken and looking for answers from governments on both sides of the border. James Hill, 72, died at a Virginia hospital on Wednesday, four weeks after being transferred there from a nearby detention facility run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Hill, a former Louisiana doctor, had been in ICE custody for three months after serving more than 13 years in prison for health-care fraud and distributing a controlled substance. A statement from ICE says a judge ordered his deportation in May. His daughter says Hill was due to fly home to Toronto in early July, but ICE says he began to experience respiratory issues and was rushed to a local hospital on July 10. He tested positive for COVID-19 the next day. When reached by The Canadian Press on Friday, Global Affairs Canada expressed its condolences to Hills family but declined to discuss details of the matter. Hills daughter, Verity Hill, said her father described the Farmville Detention Centre as the worst place he had ever been and was becoming increasingly concerned he would catch the virus. She said initially, her father was put in solitary confinement to protect his health, but was removed for reasons that were not made clear to her family. I just cant believe they didnt isolate the sick people, Hill said of ICE, accusing the agency of dragging its feet in the process of bringing her father home. I think they just think some people deserve to die.... Thats what crossed my mind. According to ICE statistics, there have been 339 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Farmville detention centre, with an estimated 350 to 400 detainees at the centre in total. Spokeswoman Kaitlyn Pote said the agency is following all government directions on COVID-19 and providing detainees with regular access to testing and medical treatment. ICE is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody and is undertaking a comprehensive, agency-wide review of this incident, as it does in all such cases, Pote said in a statement. But Claudia Cubas of the Washington, D.C.-based immigrant justice organization CAIR Coalition, said Hills death highlights the unwillingness of American authorities to protect the health and safety of detainees. RELATED STORIES Canada Canada agrees not to deport Toronto ICU nurse in the middle of the coronavirus crisis I know Mr. Hill had a criminal history, but he was a person, Cubas said. You cannot bring his life back. We cannot help him reunify with his family. His life is forever gone. Cubas argued the inability for immigration detainees to physically distance, and the constant integration of new detainees into a centres population, make the spread of COVID-19 in detention centres like Farmville incredibly easy. She also pointed to a recent ruling by the Canadian Federal Court against the Safe Third Country Agreement which prevented asylum seekers in the U.S. from seeking refuge in Canada as further evidence that the U.S. is treating detainees lives as disposable. Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, a Toronto Liberal MP whose office was contacted by Hills family on July 15, said he is not sure whether anyone else in the Canadian government was aware of Hills situation. He added he was regretfully not able to help Hills family, as the man had already contracted COVID-19 by the time they reached out to his office. Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who is also the committee's head, presided over the function to implement preventive measures in the changing circumstances. Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that his ministry is exerting every effort to deal with the outbreak in the central city of Da Nang. Patients and their family members as well as medical staff are in the highest-risk group, he said, adding that those returning from Da Nang since July 1 need to remain vigilant. Some localities, in fact, lowered their guard and relaxed preventive measures, Long pointed out, adding that health facilities and hospitals nationwide must seriously implement preventive and containment measures such as wearing face masks and following social distancing measures. The ministry is also intensifying testing capacity to quickly detect any new infections. Members of the committee spoke highly of the active engagement and close coordination of the public security, military, and health forces in the fight against COVID-19 right from the beginning of the outbreak. The committee urged Da Nang and certain districts and towns in neighbouring Quang Nam province to implement strict social distancing measures. According to the Ministry of Health, as of 3 pm this afternoon, Vietnam had recorded 717 COVID-19 cases, including 381 recoveries and 10 deaths. More than 320 of all infections nationwide were imported. " " Did Evgeny Podkletnov manage to shield an object from the effects of gravity with this 1992 design? Two decades have passed and, so far, only Podkletnov himself has reported success. (Scientists have, however, enjoyed success with superconductors though.) 2010 HowStuffWorks.com From the hoverboards of "Back to the Future" to the gravity guns of "Half-Life 2," science fiction is peppered with antigravity technology. In the real world of peer-reviewed studies, corporate-funded labs and general relativity, however, "antigravity" is a dirty word. Gravity, you undoubtedly remember, is the attractive force between objects. It holds you to the planet and keeps the planet orbiting around the sun. As you might imagine, the idea of reducing, canceling or protecting against this effect of gravity is highly appealing. Advertisement Antigravity technology would revolutionize space exploration and energy production. It would slash the energy demands of travel and transportation. First, however, we'd just have to drastically alter our understanding of physics and figure out how to counter this powerful force. As such, antigravity technology remains both the Holy Grail and a red flag. There's been no shortage of hoaxes, conspiracy theories and credibility-straining reports regarding its research. For example, in 1992, Russian physicist Evgeny Podkletnov claimed to have successfully tested a device that shields an object from gravity. The experiment involved levitating a superconducting disc above a magnet. No one -- including NASA researchers -- has been able to replicate this experiment in the nearly two decades since that time. In 2002, noted aviation journalist Nick Cook's research into supposed Nazi antigravity research failed to win over critics. You might be starting to see why "antigravity" is a taboo subject. Or why NASA has chosen previously to research antigravity through projects with names like Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project (1996-2002). NASA even published a booklet titled "Responding to Mechanical Antigravity" to help amateur and professional researchers, most of whom submitted ideas (as many as 100 per year) involving machines that falsely appeared to create an antigravity effect. And just in case you're wondering, NASA's zero-gravity flights aboard modified C-9 aircraft are not examples of antigravity. Neither is the levitation effect achieved in 2007 by countering Casimir force, a quantum force that essentially causes objects to stick to one another -- a type of nanofriction [source: ScienceDaily]. Antigravity, on the other hand, involves lessening the effects of gravitational pull on an object, and the science just isn't there yet. Many scientists strongly believe that antigravity isn't possible, given what we know about the universe and the laws that govern it. So for now, all those amazing antigravity gizmos are going to have to remain within the realm of science fiction. Explore the links on the next page to learn even more about gravity. If there is anything we have learned about COVID-19, it is that one act of wanton disregard can imperil an entire community. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/8/2020 (528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion If there is anything we have learned about COVID-19, it is that one act of wanton disregard can imperil an entire community. This week, public health officials determined that a single person travelling back to Manitoba from Eastern Canada was responsible for a cluster of 18 cases of COVID-19 in Brandon. Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitobas chief public health officer, said the individual did not follow 14-day quarantine guidelines "perfectly." He said little else, other than to suggest vaguely the person may have stayed home but did not isolate from others he or she lives with. This is a cautionary tale for Manitoba, an indication of just how vulnerable we are to COVID-19, particularly when it only takes a single person to ignore public health requirements. Lamentably, this single person is not alone. Recently, staff at the Fort Gibraltar historic site in St. Boniface were forced to turn away a couple from Quebec after it was determined they had not quarantined for 14 days after arriving in Manitoba. Staff claimed the couple were "very surprised" and "angry" to find out they were not eligible to tour the site. The couple also said they had learned their lesson and would lie next time someone asks if they had isolated for the required period. Weve also had tales of brazen disregard being demonstrated by some Winnipeg restaurant and bar owners, who have allowed their patios to fill up despite clear guidelines requiring them to enforce social distancing. After photos of his teeming patio were published on social media, Shea Ritchie, the owner of Chaise Corydon, claimed his patio tables were two metres apart, but that groups of patrons who were seated together began to mingle with other groups. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, Ritchie claimed it was not his responsibility to "police" patrons who were not social distancing. The failure by the single traveller who visited Eastern Canada, the couple from Quebec and Ritchies short-sighted rationalizations are proof that far too many people, including many political leaders, continue to misjudge our predicament. Far too many of us consider widespread and aggressive testing, non-medical masks and social distancing as unbearable impositions. And we celebrate the lifting of these measures as some type of victory in the war against the virus. Nothing could be further from the truth. COVID-19 is still active in Manitoba and until there is a vaccine, or at the very least better treatments, we can only hold the virus in check. That means all those things we can do to avoid a complete lockdown increases in the quantity, accessibility and pace of testing, the use of non-medical masks, occupancy limits to allow for social distancing are actually the tools of our liberation. The more we adhere to social distancing, the more businesses and attractions can reopen, albeit in limited fashion. The more we wear non-medical masks, the more places can stay open and more people can be allowed into them. The more diligence we demonstrate in self-isolating following travel, the more likely it is that well be able to travel. As has been shown in the United States, the consequences of raging against the rules of the new normal are quite clear: spikes in infections and the strong likelihood that a total social and economic lockdown will need to be revived. And with the fall coming, there is a whole new range of scenarios that could derail our pandemic response. Consider the provinces decision to allow children to return to in-class education. The province did not deliver a single, comprehensive public health plan for the return to school; instead, it provided a range of options that individual divisions and schools can pick from. The province could have taken a more draconian approach, required everyone to be masked and set limits on the number of children in any one building, not just in any one classroom. But it didnt, largely because the Tory government is politically and philosophically committed to "reopening" and resuming normal life. But one child, who comes from a family where someone flouted quarantine rules after travelling or who spent an evening on a packed bar patio, or lies about having come into contact with a known case of COVID-19, can derail our reopening plans and plunge us back into severe restrictions. Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. As we learn more about the pervasive and insidious nature of COVID-19, it makes you wonder why we arent less focused on getting back to pre-pandemic normal, and working hard to establish a new, post-pandemic normal. There are very few people travelling by air to and from Manitoba these days. Would it be so ridiculous to require every arriving passenger to get a COVID-19 test and provide details on where they are isolating? Is it outside the realm of possibility to have contact tracers keep in touch with all travellers to remind them of their isolation responsibilities? Given that so many of our most recent cases are related to travel, its at least worth considering. It may seem extreme to some, especially those living under the misconception that somehow, through sheer will and optimism, were going to claw our way back to pre-pandemic normal. Pre-pandemic normal is gone for the time being. Maybe for good. Better to start embracing the normal we have now. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca WYOMING, MI -- The repair of a water transmission line will mean a sprinkling ban beginning Tuesday for 13 communities stretching from the lakeshore to the Grand Rapids area. Wyoming officials announced the ban Friday and described the situation as a level three water emergency that could mean issuing municipal infractions, a least for residents within Wyoming City. The ban takes effect at 6 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11 and will last until further notice. The communities served by the Wyoming system include the Ottawa County communities of Zeeland Township, Park Township, Olive Township, Blendon Township, Holland Township, Georgetown Township, Jamestown Township and Hudsonville City, and the Kent County communities of Byron Township, Gaines Township, City of Grandville, a portion of the City of Kentwood and the City of Wyoming. Officials said the repair will mean shutting down one of two water transmission mains. Currently, the City of Wyoming water facilities are pumping at maximum rates to meet peak summer demand. With only one water transmission line active, the water system cannot maintain the high water demand caused by summer irrigation, Wyoming Water Treatment Plant officials said in a statement. One transmission line can meet the demand for indoor water use in the 13 communities, however. If residents served by the system fail to abide by the ban, low pressure and low volumes of water are a possibility, officials said. Low pressure also could lead to water quality issues, they said. More from MLive 19 vehicles stolen from auto dealer, largest theft of its kind in Grand Rapids Police identify man struck, killed by motorcycle while pushing wife in wheelchair Calls have been made for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to finalise outstanding TB Forum issues before introducing changes to the TB programme. Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Assocation (ICSA) Animal Health and Welfare chair Hugh Farrell has said Minister Dara Calleary must insist that no new measures or decisions on the TB programme should be announced without agreement on outstanding issues from the TB Forum. 'The latest move by the Department is the introduction of a new coding system that would categorise herds based on their TB history, and is simply the continuation of a strategy to change the TB regime in line with their own wishes while ignoring all of the requests put forward by farmer representatives,' Mr Farrell said. 'ICSA has always been adamant that farmers who have recovered from a past TB breakdown should not be further penalised by finding themselves at a disadvantage when selling stock. The concern is that farmers who had even a single reactor in previous years but who now were clear of TB could potentially find themselves unable to sell stock or else be forced to take a hugely discounted price. 'The message that this gives is that the current controls do not work. Why should a farmer undergo the pressure of two clear herd tests if the message is now that this farmer's cattle are not to be trusted? Either the two clear tests is a worthwhile measure of eliminating TB from a herd or it is not. And if it is not, why are we doing two tests?' He said 'farmers already lack confidence in the testing programme as none of the tests have proven 100 per cent accurate, and many farmers have been left frustrated with delays in having sample lesions cultured.' The farmers' representative body has called for a focus on badger testing and culling and action to control the spread of TB by diseased wild deer. 'Unless these issues are dealt with, it is unacceptable to drive on implementing the bits of the TB Forum that the Department likes while ignoring the real issues brought to the table by farmer representatives,' said Mr Farrell. 'I am calling on Minister Calleary to face up in a fair and balanced way to all of the issues around the TB programme. The only way to deliver real results is with a programme that has the buy-in of all farmers.' The results of the TB Forum were released by the Department of Agriculture last month. Actor Ankita Lokhande has shared a picture of late actor Sushant Singh Rajputs mother, and has written that she believes they are together now. Sushant and Ankita were in a relationship for six years before they broke up in 2016. Sushant died by suicide on June 14. Sharing a picture of herself holding a framed photograph of Sushants mom, the Manikranika actor wrote in her caption, Believe you both are together #WarriorsForSSR, and added a heart emoji. Sushants sister Shweta Singh Kirti and niece Mallika Singh were among the first to comment. Shweta wrote, Yes they are... Luv u baby... stay strong.... we hav to fight till we find justice. Sushants niece Mallika Singh also commented, He always missed nani ji so much. I believe so too. Actor Karanvir Bohra wrote, Om Namah Shivay. Sushant is said to have been very close to his mother. After losing her at an early age, he often remembered her through his social media posts. Sushants last Instagram post, just days ahead of his death, was also about his mother. Blurred past evaporating from teardrops Unending dreams carving an arc of smile And a fleeting life, negotiating between the two #maa, he had written alongside a collage of their pictures. Sushants case was recently transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after a growing demand for CBI probe was backed by Sushants family as well as the Bihar government. Also read: Kriti Sanon posts cryptic message as Rhea Chakraborty is questioned about Sushant Singh Rajput: Sun will shine again Sushants girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik were questioned by the Enforcement Dicrectorate on Friday. They have been accused of abetting Sushants suicide, among other allegations, by Sushants family. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe has an extensive name and an extensive family. He has 'an army of sisters', he admits (eight with his half-sisters and step-sisters) and ten nieces and nephews. He gets the irony. 'I pride myself on environmental work and sustainability, yet my family seems to have been a great contributor to over-population,' he says. As a child he longed for a brother, but now he's incredibly grateful for all those sisters. 'When I was a little boy I got annoyed with my stepmother. She kept banging out more girls when all I wanted was a brother. 'But actually, in hindsight, I'm very lucky to have that support. We're all incredibly close and we have an amazing family set-up. 'That level of female involvement in my upbringing has probably very much shaped who I am and what I do. That emotional intelligence you learn from having so many women around you is a great asset.' Cressida Bonas and brother Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, June 2019 The Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpes' society connections have kept the family in the gossip columns for years. Old Harrovian Jacobi, 37, went to prep school with Prince William and spent a lot of his twenties falling out of nightclubs with Prince Harry. He came close to being related to the royals by marriage. One of his sisters, actress Cressida Bonas (they share the same mother, former 60s IT Girl Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon), is most well-known for having dated Harry for two years. She recently tied the knot with her old university sweetheart Harry Wentworth-Stanley, the son of the Marchioness of Milford Haven, in a small ceremony at Cowdray Park in West Sussex. Jacobi posted an image on Instagram of them riding into the sunset on horseback. Another of his sisters, Isabella, is married to Sam Branson, Richard's son. Jacobi's own life sounds, on paper, a bit Great Gatsby. He left Harrow with a place at university, but decided not to take it up, determined even then that he would be an entrepreneur. Cressida Bonas and Prince Harry attend We Day UK, a charity event to bring young people together at Wembley Arena on March 7, 2014 He worked in private equity and property development, and at the height of his partying he set up a nightclub venture. Now he has moved on to the more grown-up world of sound technology and is the driving force behind an 'audio advance' called IRIS. What is an audio advance? Well, in the most basic terms, it's a system that enhances sound quality, claiming to bring to the humble phone the closest replication yet of a live music experience. The project is supported not by real royals, but rock royals. Queen musicians Roger Taylor and Brian May are investors, with Roger first on board. 'To get his backing was quite something,' Jacobi admits. 'People are sceptical of the technology. People like that have been around the block and think it's nothing exciting. But we approached Queen's audio engineer Josh Macrae, who agreed to listen. Prince Harry's ex Cressida Bonas and her husband Harry Wentworth-Stanley Then Roger came into the recording studio and we ran through every Queen song ever made, then stuff from the Rolling Stones, and at the end he wanted to invest.' These days he is mostly based in the States. He seems to live alone, and Tatler called him 'thrillingly single', which he can laugh about. 'I'm really married to what I'm trying to build here. I spend a lot of time on planes. I love all my nieces and nephews and that's definitely something I want in the future, but I'm not around enough for that now. 'I work long hours and this is my moment to build my business. I hope that later in life... well, I know I'm not getting any younger, and there is probably an element of me making excuses here. I do want it but the priority now is my work.' He takes questions about his social standing in good humour. Obviously we get onto the subject of Cressida, and the fact that at one point it seemed she would be walking down the aisle with Prince Harry. Prince Harry's ex Cressida Bonas shares fun snap in a fancy dress veil in front of an 'auto-wed' machine to mark Harry Wentworth-Stanley's birthday in May before their secret wedding Is he glad she didn't marry him? His answer is carefully considered, but seems to hint at a yes. 'I think she has the most wonderful husband, a man I respect and admire so much. 'I'm incredibly fond of Harry [he means Prince Harry] and that whole family. They are wonderful, but I definitely am happy to see her with this amazing man. She's very happy.' He did, in the past, express concern that Cressida would struggle to cope with the attention of being a royal bride. No backtracking on that today. 'I will always believe she's a very private and sensitive human being. 'I always worried about her with that level of attention. It takes a certain kind of person to be strong enough to handle it. 'It is overwhelming. I will always be protective of her. She's my younger sister. She's a very special person, a very wise little thing.' What of that long-standing friendship with Prince Harry? Since he's now living in LA, presumably the two have linked up? Clearly not. 'If he's happy, I'm happy for him. 'I haven't really spoken to him for a while, so I can't really comment. It's challenging. He's had a lot of difficult things to deal with in his life. It's a wonderful position of privilege but there are also challenges that only he can understand.' How sad that an old friendship seems to have died though. He says this is just life. 'I think as we grow up we all go off and build our own lives. 'One of the sad things about getting older is we lose a bit of contact and we get caught up in our own worlds.' We keep coming back to the subject of his army of sisters. He admits they can be 'quite intimidating, but they're nice people. They have been my support network, my constant. Everything, really.' The IRIS Flow Headphones will retail at $399/379 and are available to purchase in two colours, black and white. For details visit https://irislistenwell.com/headphones/ TNA admits setback in North East, promises bigger role for party youth By S. Rubatheesan Sumanthiran accuses Jaffna based Tamil newspaper proprietor of working against the party, though contesting on its ticket - Angajan Ramanathan creates history by winning first seat for the SLFP in the North View(s): View(s): Apparently fed up with rhetorical nationalist party politics and failure to address the urgent needs of the former war torn regions, North and East voters have sent a clear message to their main party the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the August 5 general elections. The TNA, officially known as the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), suffered a big set back by winning only ten seats, including one on the national list. The TNA had won 16 seats in the former Parliament. In the Jaffna district the TNAs seats were reduced from five to three, and in the Vanni district its number was reduced from four to three. In the Batticaloa district the TNA won only two seats compared to three at the 2015 elections. In Trincomalee district, the TNAs leader R. Sampanthan secured his seat, but in Ampara district the party did not win any seats, while it won one in 2015. We acknowledge we suffered a setback, and we are concerned about the way people voted, TNA Spokesperson M.A. Sumanthiran told reporters at a post- polls news conference. He said a significant portion of the traditional TNA vote bank tilted towards the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP). The other two Tamil parties namely the Ahila Ilankai Tamil Congress (AITC) led by Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam won 67,766 votes, while the Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani (TMTK) led by C.V. Wigneswaran won 51,301 votes. They won one seat each. Mr Ponnabalam is the grandson of veteran politician G.G. Ponnabalam while Mr Wigneswaran is a former judge at the Supreme Court, and former Chief Minister of the Northern Province. Both parties converted their strong criticism against the TNA into votes and took a hardline stance on the Tamil national cause. ITAK Leader Mavai Senathirajah, lost his seat in the Jaffna district while the partys, General Secretary K. Thurairetnasingam lost his seat in the Batticaloa district. TNA Spokesperson Mr Sumanthiran said intra-party conflicts and pressure brought from outside played a role in the reduction of its traditional votebase. He also referred to the aggressive hate campaign against his fellow candidate S. Shritharan online, particularly on Facebook. While acknowledging the setback Mr Sumanthiran added, Our people have given us a clear mandate by defeating those who worked against both of us. We realised our flaws and will address them immediately. One among them is strengthening the youth participation in politics. The TNA Spokesman also accused another fellow candidate E. Saravanabavan of working against them and party interests, using his Jaffna based Tamil daily newspaper. There was a chaotic scene when Mr Sumanthiran visited the main counting centre at Jaffna Central College on Thursday around midnight, as reports started to emerge on social media sites that he might lose the race. By 1.30 am, it was clear that he was among the winning candidates. When a group tried to enter the counting centre Police Special Task Force personnel baton charged them, and at least two people including a local councillor were injured. Sasikala Raviraj, wife of former TNA Parliamentarian N. Raviraj was leading among the top three initially but was later pushed to fourth place when the counting ended. Later, Ms Raviraj claimed there were inaccuracies in the counting process and asked for a recount. She said she would complain about the counting process to the Jaffna Districts Returning Officer, the Chairman of the Election Commission and the TNA leader. Referring to the controversy over alleged irregularities in the counting process, Mr Sumanthiran said, I did not go in to the counting centre. Soon after I was informed by our party polling agent that I was among the winning candidates, I visited the centre to hear the announcement by the Returning Officer. Since it was getting delayed, I left. In the Batticaloa District, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam former fighter and Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP) Leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, better known as Pillayan, won a seat with 54, 198 votes, the highest number of preferential votes. During the last five years, Pillayan has been in remand custody over the assasination of ex-TNA Parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham. TNA officials said former LTTE Commander turned politician Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman split the votes by contesting under a new political party. For SLFPs Angajan Ramanathan, his victory is historic since he is the SLFP politician ever to win a seat in the North. He won 36, 365 preferential votes. As I bow to the peoples verdict, my top priority will be developing the region while ensuring the rights of our people. The Northern people are also entitled to all the rights and benefits other communities enjoy, Mr Ramanathan told the Sunday Times. He claimed among those who voted for him in large numbers were the young people who were seeking jobs and urgent development in the region. Not only unemployment, but issues relating to housing, land and livelihood are some vital issues that need to be addressed immediately, he said. Mr Ramanathan alleged that decades long Tamil nationalistic rhetoric failed to address the needs of the Northern people even after the war was brought to an end a decade ago. All these Tamil nationalistic parties assure development but how are they going to achieve that while sitting in the Opposition? he asked. George Cave, designbycave.co.uk Whether its a spaceship, a cash register or a car instrument cluster, Lego interface panels play a relatively small role in the grand scheme of most builds. They offer finer details for a vehicles interior, for example, but typically theyre just one or two blocks amongst a set of hundreds or thousands or pieces. UK designer George Cave takes a detailed look at the aesthetic of these bricks and offers some thoughts on what they can teach us about effective UX layouts and interface organization. Elizabeth Culliford and Gabriella Borter, Reuters Since the start of the global pandemic, Facebook has removed millions of posts that contained false or misleading COVID-19 claims or information. That was a tall task, but there were concrete details to rely on, with new info coming from scientists and other researchers at a rapid pace. When it comes to COVID-19 vaccine development and trials, the ability to check claims becomes a herculean task. Reuters explains why its so difficult. Nathaniel Popper, Kate Conger and Kellen Browning, The New York Times The New York Times takes a biographical look at the 17-year-old who is the alleged mastermind behind the massive Twitter hack that took place last month. BOSTON New estimates on the coronavirus pandemic's impact on Massachusetts predict over 10,000 deaths by Dec. 1. The projections come as the state pumps the brakes on its reopening plans and adds new restrictions to slow the increase of coronavirus cases. New projections by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) released Thursday estimate the state's death toll from the virus will reach 10,314 by Dec. 1 an increase of 1,826 deaths. As of Friday, Massachusetts has 111,853 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and a total of 8,488 deaths. The IHME analysis, which is funded partly by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, took note of whether and when they issued stay-at-home orders, closed schools, closed other non-essential services and imposed travel bans. The model also found that if universal masking was used in Massachusetts, 921 lives would be saved by December. Stricter regulations and enforcement are already coming down the pipe in Massachusetts. Governor Charlie Baker announced on Friday the state would slow it's phased reopening plan and implement enforcement protocol. The next part of phase three of the state's reopening was indefinitely postponed, limits on outdoor gatherings will be cut in half, police are authorized to enforce public health orders and restaurants can only sell alcohol along with food. The model showed that the number of daily, estimated infections could differ by the thousands based on whether universal masking procedures are followed. By Dec. 1 the number of estimated infections each day is projected to hit 7,869 in Massachusetts that number drops to 1,269 with universal masking. The coronavirus has killed more than 160,000 Americans as of Friday. Researchers say they expect 140,000 more to die from the coronavirus through Dec. 1. But there are ways to prevent some of the infections and deaths, IHME says in its summary, and one of the biggest factors that can start now, is mask wearing. Story continues In Baker's Friday announcement, he gave State and local police authority to enforce municipal orders, which were previously enforced by local health officials. Towns that have official mask orders can now call on police to enforce them. IHME researchers' updated predictions indicate America's COVID-19 death toll is expected to reach nearly 300,000 by Dec. 1. But if 95 percent of the county's population practiced consistent mask-wearing, about 70,000 lives could be saved, according to the institute's data. You can view the IHME's full analysis here. This article originally appeared on the Boston Patch Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday defended his government's record fighting the coronavirus and ruled out a change in strategy after the official death toll surged past 50,000. The Latin American nation recently overtook Britain to become the third hardest-hit country in terms of total virus deaths, after Brazil and the United States. On Thursday the Mexican health ministry reported a total of 50,517 deaths and 462,690 infections in the nation of more than 128 million. But Lopez Obrador said that in terms of deaths relative to population size, "we have not been so hard hit." He said that while the situation is painful, on that basis Mexico ranks fifth in the Americas, behind the United States, Brazil, Chile and Peru. "And if we compare ourselves with Europe, there are more deaths in Spain, France and England than in Mexico," he told a news conference in the northwestern state of Baja California Sur. Critics say the Mexican authorities have not done enough testing to establish the true extent of infections and deaths. But Lopez Obrador defended his team in charge of fighting the pandemic, including his coronavirus czar Hugo Lopez-Gatell. "There is no change" in strategy, said the leftist leader when asked about demands from his opponents for a shift in tactics and the resignation of Lopez-Gatell. Lopez Obrador added that his government had increased the number of intensive care beds to 12,000, from 2,800 at the start of the crisis. "No one has been left unattended," he said, while offering condolences to families of the victims. "Every loss of human life is a tragedy. It is a family, they are not numbers, they are not data," he said. jla-dr/jh China, Russia, Iran trying to influence vote China, Russia and Iran are among countries seeking to influence the US presidential election this year, a top US intelligence chief has warned. A statement issued by the director of US counterintelligence said foreign states were using "covert and overt influence measures" to sway the vote. It said China did not want President Donald Trump's re-election while Russia wanted to hurt Democrat Joe Biden. Intelligence chiefs accuse Russia of interfering in the 2016 election. They say Russia wanted to help boost Mr Trump's campaign, including by spreading disinformation online. Russia has denied the allegations. Asked at a press conference on Friday what he planned to do about the report on election interference, President Trump said his administration would look "very closely" into it. The announcement comes amid claims by Mr Trump about the dangers of mail-in or postal ballots. He has suggested that the vote be delayed to prevent "the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history", prompting a backlash even among members of his own party. It also follows complaints by Democratic lawmakers that US intelligence agencies are not releasing information to the public about foreign interference in this year's vote. The Republican president Mr Trump is seeking to win a second term in office. His challenger is Democratic candidate and former vice president Joe Biden. William Evanina, head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), released the statement on Friday. Foreign countries are trying to sway voter preferences, change US policies, "increase discord" in the country "and undermine the American people's confidence in our democratic process", Mr Evanina said. The counterintelligence chief however added that it would be "difficult for our adversaries to interfere with or manipulate voting results at scale." At Friday's press conference, Mr Trump said Russia "could be" meddling in this year's election, but dismissed the idea the country might be trying to help him win a second term. "I think the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump," he said, saying that "nobody's been tougher on Russia than I have, ever." He also said China would "love" if he lost the election, alleging that "they would own our country" if Joe Biden won. The release of the statement comes after members of the Democratic party voiced concern about attempts by foreign nations to influence the vote. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday said the intelligence about current efforts to sway the vote "should be available to the American people". In his statement, Mr Evanina said his agency "has and will continue to provide classified election threat briefings" to candidates and politicians. "The steps we have taken thus far to inform the public and other stakeholders on election threats are unprecedented for the IC [Intelligence community]." A number of US intelligence agencies and officials have concluded that Russia helped influence the 2016 presidential election. Former FBI director Robert Mueller - appointed as a special counsel to investigate that vote - did not establish that Mr Trump colluded with that effort, but said the president was not exonerated by his report. A number of people on Mr Trump's campaign have been jailed due to a variety of charges linked to Mr Mueller's investigation. Charges against ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn - convicted of lying about contacts with Russian government officials - were dropped in July. An appeals court will rehear arguments later this month. And Roger Stone, a long-time ally of Mr Trump, had his jail sentence for witness tampering and lying to Congress commuted the president in July. India, Pakistan Engage in Heavy Mortar Firefight Along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara - Video Sputnik News 10:06 GMT 07.08.2020 New Delhi (Sputnik): India and Pakistan continue to violate ceasefire along the Line of Control in their ongoing Kashmir conflict. In June, New Delhi accused Islamabad of violating the ceasefire over 2,000 times this year, while the latter blamed India for engaging in cross-border firefights 957 times during the same period. Three civilians have sustained injuries in heavy mortar shelling between Indian and Pakistani forces along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara, a town in Jammu and Kashmir, on Friday morning. According to India, Pakistan resorted to an unprovoked ceasefire violation on Thursday along the LoC in Mendhar and Balakote sectors. The Indian Army said that it retaliated as it saw fit. India and Pakistan keep accusing each other of violating the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir. This year, several civilians and army personnel have lost their lives in cross-border exchanges of fire between the two countries. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 4AXIS Finding cash in art By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s): One of the hottest start-ups isnt located in Silicon Valleyits in Colombo Kollupitiya, to be exact. It started with four friends all between 22 and 23 years banding together as they all thought that nothing beats working for yourself. Even when you love your job and think that its rewarding, the satisfaction you get when you are your own boss is a completely different feeling. The four men Dumindu Kanankage, Minsara Madhawa, Kapilan Karunananthan and Anuruddha De Alwis were batch mates at the University of Moratuwa. In the third year of university 2012 they started the company, aptly named, 4Axis. The Business Times managed to chat with two of them as others were out of town. I always dreamt to create a company of my own, Mr. Kanankage said settling down to a discussion with the Business Times on the sidelines of the opening of their brand new office early this month. While it may seem appealing venturing into a new market, especially if you are a start-up, it can be tricky, and lets face it, pretty risky tooyou are putting in more hours than at a 9-5 job elsewhere, and there will be moments where you may be sacrificing a lot more than just your time. Even then, it is absolutely worth it, noted Mr. Madhawa, joining in. We tried different products such as a location-based service etc which really didnt take off, Mr. Kanankage added. He said that they underpaid themselves for one year and hired one person. Their initial office was a small house. The company also did a few mobile applications for different clients and managed to hire another person. And this was the time smart phones were in their initial stages and the Apple phones and Apple App Store was getting momentum. For the four musketeers, this was an opportunity. Being passionate about developing creative applications, the company in 2013 January published something called the Drawing Desk Application in the Apple pasture. It is really a simple app which does drawing, doodling and painting for children, teenagers and adults. On the first day itself, the application experienced 3000 downloads mostly from the US. That is a big number, Mr. Madhawa said. Apparently it still is. Now mostly they are being downloaded in the US and other European countries. After the initial spark of interest from their US customers, the four friends stopped everything else they were doing and concentrated on this application. Now on their seventh year, the company has so far released several versions. We are still perfecting it, Mr. Madhawa said. The competition in this market is high, he noted and there is a lot of potential for this app. The app is now also on Google play and has over 2 million downloads. 4Axis now has the revenue running over US $ 1 million. Currently with 24 staff members, they aim to recruit a few more members during this month. They advise that this sector in drawing applications is a really good sector for Sri Lankan start-ups. The friends know the potential of Drawing Desk and now they aim to create their own platform for this app. With this we aim to bring in domain specific solutions and go deep into the technologies, Mr. Kanankage said. They also noticed that the past few months during the COVID-19 pandemic, the usage of their app has risen to 25,000 downloads per day. Interestingly wall art is amply displayed in their state-of-the-art office. I guess deep down I always knew creative sphere is my dream that I wanted to get into, Mr. Madhawa smiled. As we take their leave, the staff is gathering around the living area playing games. We used to always do this even in our initial days. We used to play a simple game every week and everyone loved it, Mr. Madhawa said. Curtis Pritchard was pictured kissing blonde dancer Amber Pierson in London on Friday, after insisting they were 'just friends'. The Love Island star, 24, previously hit back at claims he had cheated on his ex-girlfriend Maura Higgins, 29, with Amber, 21, who also called the speculation a 'complete lie'. However it appears the pair have got close in recent months as they were spotted kissing as they walked through a park in images obtained by The Sun. Love: Curtis Pritchard was pictured kissing dancer Amber Pierson on Friday, after insisting they were 'friends' when he was hit by claims he cheated on Maura Higgins (pictured 2019) Curtis packed on the PDA as he wrapped his arm around Amber and leaned in for a kiss. Amber is also a professional dancer and a model based in London. An insider told the publication: 'It's game over for Curtis and Amber pretending they are just pals. Their 'friends' line fooled no one.' Curtis is said to have taken Amber out on a double date on Tuesday, where they enjoyed dinner with his brother AJ, 25, and his girlfriend Abbie Quinnen. Busted: The reality TV star was seen leaning in for a kiss and draped his arm around the beauty (pictured) as they enjoyed a stroll around the park in London Amber was also spotted out on a trip to Cornwall with the group last week. Scrupulous fans spotted her next to Curtis in a series of snaps shared to Instagram. The revelation will likely come as a blow to Curtis' Love Island ex, Maura, whom he split from in March. MailOnline has contacted Maura's representatives for comment, a spokseperson for Curtis was unavailable for comment. Denied: Amber (pictured centre right) and Curtis (pictured centre) branded claims of their alleged affair as 'complete lies' despite their recent park rendezvous Rumbled: The dancing couple have been spotted out together on multiple occasions including a romantic double date with Curtis' brother AJ, 25, and his girlfriend Abbie Quinnen Their relationship was rumoured to be on the rocks after speculation surfaced that Curtis was getting overly friendly with the blonde beauty. His Irish ex had reportedly confronted him after she noticed him getting to close to comfort with his dancer 'friend.' The red flags went up for Maura when she was alerted to an anonymous tweet, saying that Curtis was spotted 'hugging and kissing' the blonde. Wandering eye? Curtis and Maura's relationship was rumoured to be on the rocks after speculation surfaced that Curtis was getting overly friendly with the blonde beauty Following the speculation, Amber dismissed claims she'd had a fling with Curtis behind Maura's back calling them 'complete lies,' but branded the Love Island hunk 'a lovely and talented guy'. Taking to Instagram, she wrote: 'I didn't want to speak out about this, but I feel I have to as I have been receiving a few abusive messages recently regarding what's been in the papers. 'To be very clear, Curtis and I have never been together. We are simply friends and dancer partners! There are 13 dancers going on tour, and I am one of them. 'The "cheating" allegations this week are out of the blue and complete lies. Setting the record straight! Back in March, Amber dismissed claims she'd had a fling with the Love Island hunk behind his ex Maura's back as 'complete lies' 'I wanted no part in this but what I will say is Curtis is genuinely a lovely and talented guy, who doesn't deserve any of this. Hope that's set the record straight and we can move on. Amber x.' Curtis and Maura found love towards the end of the 2019 ITV series and continued to date for eight months after their exit before their relationship came to end in 2020. It was claimed at the time the couple rowed over her friendship with her Dancing On Ice partner Alexander Demetriou. The Sun reported that Alex's friendly relationship with Maura caused arguments with his Dancing On Ice skater wife Carlotta Edwards. Carlotta and Alex have since announced the break down of their marriage, but Maura has always insisted she is just friends with the professional skater. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:04:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOGADISHU, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people have been killed and 14 others injured following a suicide bombing in the Somali capital here on Saturday, a medical charity has confirmed. Abdikadir Abdirrahman, director of Aamin Ambulance, said the injured have been rushed to the hospital after a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into a military base in Mogadishu's Wardhigley district. Police spokesperson Dhame Sadik Adan confirmed that the terrorists had targeted a military base, resulting in unknown casualties. "There was a huge blast in Wardhigley district and there are casualties which I have not established now. We will provide more information later," Adan told Xinhua. The number of casualties is expected to rise as counting continues. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, though the al-Qaida allied terrorist group al-Shabab, which has been fighting to overthrow the Western-backed government, has staged such attacks in the past. Government forces have in recent days intensified operations in the southern regions against al-Shabab extremists, who have been hiding in rural areas and conducting ambushes and planting landmines. The Somali military, backed by the African Union Mission in Somalia, forced al-Shabab extremists out of the capital Mogadishu in August 2011. However, the militants still hold swathes of rural areas in southern and central Somalia, staging attacks in the city and elsewhere. Enditem When Galway had to suspend its European Capital of Culture programme due to Covid-19, even critics felt some sympathy for its organising team. Coming on the back of several years of controversy and an opening ceremony that was blown out by Storm Ciara back in early February, it seemed as though Galway 2020 had no chance of turning its luck around. A string of staff departures and several high-profile board resignations had already shaken confidence in the project, and the ambitious 46m budget which helped secure the bid in the first place had been trimmed when sponsors failed to show. So when the pandemic hit, Galway 2020's board had to act quickly, severing its contract with its creative lead British company Artichoke, and making 17 staff redundant, including three of its four creative producers. There was every chance of a sympathetic hearing when Galway 2020 chairman Arthur Lappin and two of its remaining "core" staff of 11 appeared before Galway City Council last month - until it was confirmed that some 18m of an existing budget of just over 19m had been spent. It had begun well, with Galway 2020 head of programme Marilyn Reddan screening a breathtaking digital depiction of Finnish artist Kari Kola's Joyce Country illumination and recalling the success of initial events such as Music for Galway's sell-out Midwinter Festival in January. Reddan outlined how a "re-imagined programme" of 28 events from September - much of it now online until the end of March - would include Druid Theatre Company outdoor plays, and Small Towns, Big Ideas community projects. She spoke passionately about Galway International Arts Festival's "mirror pavilion" by artist John Gerrard, due in the Claddagh in September, and projects such as Monument in the Galway City Museum, which focuses on the "visual language" of 12 small islands across Europe. However, the atmosphere in Leisureland, Salthill - venue for socially-distanced local authority meetings - changed somewhat after Galway 2020 chief executive Patricia Philbin ran through a set of quarterly accounts. The cancelled opening ceremony in February had cost 2.3m, and the insurance claim for this was still being worked on. Fight The good news was just over 5m - the balance of 15m promised for the project by the Government - would be paid by new Arts Minister Catherine Martin. Mr Lappin revealed the project had to "fight hard" to ensure the Government did not cancel this final tranche, but felt it was worth pursuing for the benefit of local artists. A promised 2.2m in private sponsorship - much reduced from an initial target of 7m - was "uncertain" and some 400,000 cash had been received so far. Pressed to give a figure for an overall budget, Ms Philbin said that this was not yet available. The city councillors were unhappy, querying figures for sums spent on hotels, travel and professional fees in the accounts before them, along with almost 650,000 on tourism promotion earlier this year. Deputy mayor Colette Connolly proposed Galway 2020 monies should be reallocated to local artists who were still awaiting annual city council arts grants held back by Covid-19. But Galway city chief executive Brendan McGrath forecast the "phoenix would rise from the ashes". Afterwards, Brendan Savage of Galway's Art in Mind project, which promotes wellbeing and mental health through creative practice, was among those artists stunned by the figures. "18 million?? Where the hell did that go? We have nothing exactly NOTHING to show for it," Mr Savage posted on social media. "The pandemic is not the excuse..." He explained that he had wanted 2020 to be a success but could no longer remain silent. "Galway 2020's reported spend on hotels and accommodation for the first three months this year would have employed three artists full time, would have given workspace to 20 artists, and would have funded outreach projects," Mr Savage told the Irish Independent. "This sort of expenditure - most of it on management, rather than on artists - feeds into the perception that money gets squandered when invested in the arts, and will have repercussions for years." Cllr Alan Cheevers, a member of the city council Fianna Fail group, says his group intends to seek an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General. "Local artists felt disenfranchised by this project in the beginning, so there is an opportunity for them to be involved now, but we want to ensure there is accountability at a time when the city council is facing a large deficit," Mr Cheevers said. "Businesses had to pay a 3pc levy towards 2020." Green Party senator Pauline O'Reilly has also been concerned about a lack of access to full audited accounts, and about the long delay in releasing annual local authority arts grants. Galway 2020 says that the 18m has been spent over the "entire lifespan" of the project since the bid for the title began in 2014. Asked for a breakdown, it said that details of its income and expenditure for 2017 and 2018 were on its website, and details of 2019 accounts would be "published in due course". "These accounts are filed with the local authority and it is not our responsibility if councillors are not accessing them," Mr Lappin said. Galway 2020 said it is "currently working with over 350 local and national artists and cultural organisations", and would announce details of its re-imagined programme "in the coming weeks". Meanwhile, Galway International Arts Festival has announced its own autumn programme, while Irish language theatre company Fibin stages its own "drive-in drama" as Gaeilge - independent of the Galway 2020 programme - from next Monday in south Connemara. Air India has changed its social media display pictures to black colour, following the tragic Kozhikode plane crash. Social media display pictures of Air India Express the Air India subsidiary involved in the crash has also been changed to a black-colour profile photo. The Air India Express flight IX 1344 from Dubai to Kozhikode crashed after it overshot the runway while landing at the Karipur Airport in Kerala at 7.41 pm on August 7. The Vande Bharat Mission flight had 190 people on board-- 184 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew members. As many as 18 people died in the crash, including both pilots. Follow LIVE updates on the Air India Express Flight Crash Following the incident, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a statement saying that on landing, the aircraft skidded to "the end of the runway and fell down in the valley and broke down in two pieces. Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri is currently on-ground to take stock of the status and implementation of relief measures at Kozhikode. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will also be visiting Kozhikode on August 8. Aug 8 (Reuters) - Bath Iron Works, a unit of General Dynamics Corp, and a union reached an agreement to end a strike by shipyard workers in Bath, Maine, the defense contractor said on Saturday. About 4,300 workers of represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local S6 have been on strike since June 22, General Dynamics said in a statement. A local media report https://bit.ly/31t2Pzo suggested that dispute was centered on subcontractors, seniority and work rules rather than on wages and benefits, with the proposed contract giving shipbuilders annual wage increases of 3% over three years. The agreement is subject to a ratification vote by the union's members, the company said. "We greatly appreciate the assistance of Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro and AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department President Jimmy Hart for their help in bringing the parties together," General Dynamics Chief Executive Phebe Novakovic said https://prn.to/30EUyt3. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis) Pull on the green jersey and have a summer holiday at home, urges the Government - staycation for Ireland. August needn't be a wicked month if everyone spends some spare cash on Irish turf while recharging their batteries. So I took on board the advice and did the right thing. Off to the Burren with us, to one of the most magical places on the island, with the added advantage of never being too crowded. But - unfortunately, I have a list of those buts. The pubs were shut. Well, I was expecting that, but it was a disadvantage all the same. Many restaurants and cafes also had 'closed' signs on the door. Ditto the shops. Some cafes which were open would only allow outdoor dining - and that's a weather contingent arrangement. Lots of tourists plus a reduced number of places to go equals busy-busy-busy. Where something was open, such as The Burren Perfumery, it was likely to be mobbed on weekends. I queued to enter the shop for half-an-hour before throwing in the towel. Super place, though - an Irish company which makes organic scents and skincare inspired by the landscape. What's not to like? Read More On wet days - and let's face it, Ireland's 40 shades of green has its basis in a damp climate - there were hordes of bored holidaymakers with crotchety kids. Did we all feel it was worth it because we were doing our bit for Ireland? Put it this way: I suspect relationships were strained in many's the rented cottage. 'Reader, I sulked at him', rather than 'Reader, I married him', seems closer to the mark. People anticipate their summer holiday all year long. When it disappoints, there's little enough stored up against the winter ahead. What I found hardest to bear was a sense that some of the locals just didn't want us there because of fears we might be spreading Covid-19. It's understandable. Everyone is prone to nerves in these disrupted times. But guardedness is not conducive to that warm holiday glow. "Visitors are welcome," they smiled, always polite, "but maybe not right now. Where did you say you were from?" 'Fess up to driving there from Dublin and they look anxious. Counties that have escaped relatively unscathed from the virus are worried about it being imported - and to them, the capital is a danger zone. In fact, the latest figures show the midlands has that dubious honour with clusters emerging there. But fact can't compete with perception during a pandemic. So, effectively the Government has corralled the lion's share of its population onto Ireland for the summer. It's a gift to the hospitality sector. Scenic areas dependent on the tourist trade have a captive market - they can show those who usually travel abroad what they've been missing. But not everyone is pleased about outsiders piling in. And other Irish people are included in that definition of outsiders. Overseas visitors are even less welcome. Heads were shaken at mention of nearby Shannon Airport. And who can blame the locals? Mandatory quarantine has been ruled out by the Government because it's impossible to enforce - which doesn't engender trust. On the other hand, thousands of jobs are in jeopardy in hospitality, tourism and airlines. Where visitors are social distancing and wearing masks, it's regrettable if they are being treated as potential virus transmitters. Naturally, people in hospitality are stressed. But we saw nervousness in staff even when we arrived wearing masks, and stood at the door of their premises waiting for permission to enter. A difference in attitudes is apparent between those who benefit directly from tourists, such as business owners and their employees, and those who work in other industries. Even so, staff in the cafes where I ate often appeared ill-at-ease. The hundred thousand welcomes was muted. The problem is that customers are a managed risk - but no customers is a greater risk. No customers, or seriously reduced footfall, means businesses will close. And repercussions will spiral out to the wider community. The staff in these outlets made me anxious, too. Some had face coverings and some hadn't. Dealing with customers all day long, it was particularly important for them to be masked up because they interacted with a variety of households from different locations. If they picked up the virus, they could spread it further. Mask-wearing becomes mandatory from Monday and it's long overdue. The Government has been inexcusably slow to impose mask-wearing, although we know it to be an effective protection against the coronavirus. Recently, a passenger flew from China to Toronto in Canada, where he tested positive for Covid-19. He kept on his mask during the flight and not one of the 25 passengers in proximity to him was infected. It is a simple but effective tool. A comparable case has been reported in the US, where two hairdressers who had the virus came into close contact with 140 people - but none tested positive. In common with other countries, our stats are going in the wrong direction, with an R or reproduction rate of almost two. Everyone has to increase their vigilance. But if no one eats out there'll be no pubs, restaurants or hotels left in business. We have to learn to live with this. Back to the Burren - and incidentally we travelled about in Co Galway, too, with similar experiences - finding places to eat out was a challenge. You couldn't book in any of the restaurants we tried. We'd turn up in hope, and be told to chance it again (no guarantees) in two hours. That's some wait if you're hungry. Or we'd be told our best chance of getting a table was at 5.30pm the next day. But they wanted the table back as soon as possible as per government guidelines - eating out in this environment is no leisurely activity. In another pub-restaurant we tried, just as we arrived the kitchen closed for an hour-and-a-half at peak time because the chefs were desperate for a break. In the grand scheme of things, these aren't major complaints. But if it weren't for the Burren's natural attractions, which are indisputable, I'd have been just as happy at home. That's a real problem for Irish tourist destinations. This is the industry's opportunity to show us what we've been missing all those years we cleared off to France, Spain or further afield. And that golden chance is being fluffed. On a more positive note, a cafe I came across in Wicklow on Thursday was doing something proactive. When customers paid their bill, staff asked for their mobile phone numbers in case they needed to get in touch with them. Contact tracing helps to reduce transmission. But many patrons didn't want to supply their number - fearful of data protection breaches or unwanted marketing. Buy-in from customers would increase if they offered reassurance that the information was only for contact tracing. Just a thought. People tend to want to do the right thing, after all. Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita appointed nine judges to the Constitutional Court on Friday, by decree, as part of a compromise intended to ease the country's months-long political crisis. The poor Sahel nation is in the grip of a political impasse between Keita and an increasingly strident opposition which is intent on securing his resignation. Last month, 11 people died over three days of unrest following an anti-Keita protest -- in the worst political strife, Mali has seen in years. Heads of government from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) stepped in, suggesting on July 27 the formation of a new unity government to include opposition members, while sticking by Keita. They also urged the appointment of new judges to the Constitutional Court to resolve a festering election dispute, among other measures. Much of Mali's current tension was sparked in April, when the Constitutional Court tossed out 30 results from long-delayed parliamentary elections -- a move that benefited Keita's party, but triggered protests. Mali's opposition June 5 Movement has repeatedly spurned the ECOWAS proposal, however, and continues to demand the 75-year-old president's resignation. On Friday, according to a presidential decree seen by AFP, Keita nevertheless appointed nine new judges to the court. Officials from Mali's presidency, who declined to be named, said that the judges are due to be sworn in on Monday. Opposition figures appear unlikely to back down, however. The June 5 Movement earlier on Friday said that it would stage nationwide anti-Keita demonstrations on Tuesday. The group has been channelling deep anger over Mali's eight-year jihadist conflict, a dire economy and perceived government corruption. The government has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that first emerged in the north in 2012, before spreading to central Mali and to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed in the conflict. A 26-year-old pharmacist with a private firm in Gurugram was arrested Friday for stalking a prominent Telegu cinema woman actor, sending her lewd messages, threatening her with images of guns, and finally landing outside her home in Delhis Rohini, the police said on Saturday. Investigators said the suspect, Nikhil Gangwar, was obsessed with the woman and was angry with her for repeatedly ignoring his social media proposals for marriage. While the stalking dates back to as early as 2016, it began to take the form of threats and lewd messages about a year ago. The woman ignored him for a long time believing him to be an obsessed fan, but she decided to approach the police after he revealed to her on social media that he had tracked down her Delhi home address, a senior police investigator, who didnt want to be identified, said. PK Mishra, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), confirmed the incident and said Gangwar has been arrested and booked for stalking and criminal intimidation. The suspect, who belongs to Jharkhand and holds an MSc degree from a reputed college, was working as a pharmacist with a private firm in Gurugram. He lived alone in a rented flat in Rohini, police said. The woman actor has had a successful career as a model and has been working in the Telugu film industry of late. She has over 1.5 million followers on social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook, police said. Her family lives in Delhi while she shuttles between Mumbai and Hyderabad for work, another investigator said. The first time the actor recalls noticing Gangwar was in 2016 when he allegedly began posting multiple comments on her social media posts. She just saw him as a fan at that time, the investigator said. But, last year, he began posting marriage proposals on her social media posts. Such comments went unnoticed until their frequency increased. The actor finally blocked his account, the first officer said. But Gangwar allegedly went on to create other profiles to continue stalking her. When she realised that these profiles belonged to the same man, she began blocking all those accounts until she tired of it, the officer said. Gangwar, meanwhile, was angry at not receiving any response from her and began sending her lewd messages. In early 2020, the messages turned into threats warning her of physical harm. At one point, he even sent her images of guns to frighten her, the officer said. The actor finally decided to seek police help late last month after he turned up outside her house.She had come to her Delhi home to visit her parents in March and hadnt been able to return due to the lockdown. It was during this period that Gangwar managed to procure her Delhi address, the officer said. In July, he allegedly visited her neighbourhood, but found her house locked. So, he took photos of her house and sent them to her on social media as evidence that he had tracked her down. It was then that she decided to file a police complaint, the officer said. The FIR was registered at Rohini (North) police station based on her statement. We then procured details of all the accounts he had used to harass the woman. That led us to Gangwars home in Gurugram and wee arrested him on Friday, the investigator said. The actor refused to speak to HT about the case. The U.S. election won't be resolved on election night. Here's why Imagine the following U.S. election scenario: It's the night of Nov. 3, and Donald Trump vaults into a staggering lead, the kind that normally assures re-election. His jubilant supporters are convinced he's won a second term. That joy, however, soon turns to white-hot rage. An extraordinarily high number of people this year are voting by mail and it generally takes longer to count mail-in ballots, which require separate identity checks and separate processes for disputes. Days later, Trump's lead has vanished. That's because city-dwellers in Philadelphia, Miami, Detroit and Milwaukee are more likely to support presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden, less inclined to venture out to a polling station during a pandemic and far more likely to vote by mail. Imagine the disputes that would follow. For a glimpse of how ugly it could get, a 55-page paper from the head of the election-law program at Ohio State University lays out a series of potential legal and political feuds. "This country would break in half," a Fox News host, Brian Kilmeade, said this week, envisioning a scenario in which Trump, a Republican, appears to have won on election night, only to be declared the loser days later. Now stop imagining this scenario. And start bracing for it. The United States is lumbering toward a perfect electoral storm that could test the foundations of a democracy already battered by partisan loathing. Tim Kindrachuk/CBC News That's why election experts are warning that the public had better prepare for a topsy-turvy post-election period following the Nov. 3 vote. It has already begun unfolding, according to a warning this week from a Michigan state official. A recipe for turmoil Mailed ballots are the latest battlefield in the country's myriad political culture wars. Trump is dominant among voters who intend to cast ballots in person. National and swing-state polls in Florida and Arizona show Republicans as much as 33 points likelier to vote that way. Story continues The same polls show Biden leading the race overall because he has an even larger edge among those who intend to vote by mail. Nicole Hester/Mlive.com/Ann Arbor News via The Associated Press Add a few more ingredients to this perfect recipe for chaos. Trump supporters have said they would not accept a Biden win based on mailed ballots, according to one poll. They also want the winner declared immediately on election night echoing Trump's own demands. That leads to the final variable: Trump himself. The inimitable president, with his never-admit-failure personality, declares U.S. elections rigged even when he's not on the ballot. He did so again and again in 2012, even calling for a revolution against Barack Obama; he did it in 2016; and he's doing it now, tweeting repeatedly without evidence about fraudulent mail-in ballots. He's doing more than complaining. His campaign is also involved in lawsuits to constrain mail-in voting, and Trump himself has suggested these suits are central to his election strategy. "My biggest [re-election] risk," is how Trump, in one interview, described losing these suits. The strategy: disrupt and discredit Call it a disrupt-and-discredit strategy. His administration is disrupting mail delivery before the election, with weeks-long delays reported in Pennsylvania amid new cost-slashing measures by Louis DeJoy, the new head of the U.S. Postal Service appointed last month, who has been a donor to Trump and the Republican National Committee. A postal union official told CBC News that most parts of the country are seeing a smaller backlog of a few days but that it's growing amid a halt to overtime for workers and other measures. "The mail's going to keep piling up. And it's going to be a snowball effect," he said, speaking on background. That matters because a mailed ballot that arrives late will not count in most swing states some will accept a late envelope if it carries a postmark predating Nov. 3. Tom Brenner/Reuters Already in this year's primaries, tens of thousands of ballots were delivered too late to count in various states. Meanwhile, Trump's lawyers are suing Pennsylvania over its effort to speed up delivery of mailed ballots through community drop-off locations. Months ago, early in the pandemic, Marc Elias, an election lawyer for the Democrats, predicted problems handling all of the new mailed ballots. "We're going to have a real crisis," he told CBC News. The nightmare scenario New York illustrates his nightmare scenario. Six weeks after a primary in that state, officials have yet to finish counting ballots. This would be disastrous in a presidential election, threatening a full and fair vote. That's because each state is supposed to have certified its official result by early December so that, under the formal 18th-century rules of the U.S. Constitution, members of the electoral college can meet on Dec. 14 for the official vote for the next president. What the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its notorious 2000 Bush-Gore decision was that the Florida recount could not continue past then. Reuters "That's a real deadline," said Edward Foley, director of Ohio State University's election-law program and author of different books on the electoral college and disputed elections. His above-mentioned 55-page paper evokes scenarios so messy and complex they make the Bush-Gore recount look like a church bingo game. Foley maps out potential legal and political battles for a vote-by-mail count involving state and federal legislators, governors, lawyers, state elections agencies and, in the most extreme scenario, the U.S. military trying to decide who should get the nuclear launch codes on the next inauguration day, Jan. 20, 2021. Reasons for optimism The good news is he thinks the vote counting can happen on time. Probably. "Yes, I'm worried, but I don't want to be overly alarmist," he said. "I think there are reasons to be concerned. "It's not that America is inevitably heading to failure not at all. I still think [a fair vote count] is still more likely than not." Foley said he's been heartened lately by state-level Republican officials pushing back against Trump's rhetoric and defending mailed ballots. Another leading expert on mail-in voting, Paul Gronke, said he's not especially worried. He said several states have proven this can be done smoothly, and he suspects New York's problems were a unique failure. Gronke, a political scientist and director of the Early Voting Information Center, did identify places with a higher likelihood of problems with counting. The potential trouble spots are states that delay the start of counting mail ballots, he said. Tim Kindrachuk/CBC News Among swing states, some allow mail-in ballots to be inspected and counted before election day some as of the morning on election day and only Florida forbids mail-in ballots from being processed until after all polls close on election night. Wisconsin is one of the states that allows election officials to start counting ballots the morning of the vote. The Democrat who chairs the state's bipartisan elections commission said she's not worried about completing the count in a reasonable number of days. It's her job to eventually certify the Wisconsin result. "We'll have to work really, really, really hard," Ann Jacobs said. "[But] I feel confident we can get that count in." She said states can also help by making the process more transparent. For example, some intend to publish, early on, the number of uncounted mail ballots, and Jacobs said all states should do this. What she's more concerned about is the front end of the process with what she described as the sabotage of the postal service. WATCH | Trump's suggestion of changing election date quickly rejected: One political scientist who studies failing democracies said there's one step officials can take now to cool the post-election climate. Steven Levitsky is a Harvard professor and co-author of a book How Democracies Die, which argues that the U.S. is in the midst of a decades-long democratic erosion now accentuated in the Trump era. He said state officials need to start warning the public immediately not to count on full election results the night of Nov. 3. "Say, 'There will be no election results for a week. You'll get your election result on Nov. 10 or 11,'" Levitsky said. "State officials should dramatically dampen down expectations of a result on [election] night.... That would help to defuse a little bit of Trump's antics." Washington: Russia is using a range of measures to try to "denigrate" former Vice President Joe Biden, ahead of the November election, including selective leaks of information and efforts on social media, a top US intelligence official said in a statement on Friday. The government of China prefers that President Donald Trump not win reelection in November, seeing the incumbent as "unpredictable," said William Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Centre. The statement was notable for identifying three countries seeking to influence the 2020 election - China, Russia and Iran. Rudy Giuliani, pictured with Ukrainian official Andriy Derkach, has been named as part of a Russia disinformation effort. Credit:AP But Evanina portrayed Russia as the most active source of interference. A third of secondary school staff in England admitted to believing their students are involved with knife and drug gangs, a new investigation has found. Children as young as eight years old are being exploited by drug dealers and groomed by gangs, a poll of teachers at nearly 1,300 schools revealed. The survey, conducted by the Times before the coronavirus pandemic, discovered that students are bringing weapons, including zombie knives, hammers and knuckle dusters, into classrooms. During the 2018-2019 academic year, 61 per cent of secondary schools searched their pupils for weapons, with some even going as far as to use police officers or security guards with sniffer dogs. A survey, conducted by the Times, has found that children as young as eight years old are being groomed by gangs and exploited by drug dealers (file photo) Some schools searched students more than once a week, with others using airport-style security, such as metal wands. More than 60 per cent of schools searched students for weapons in the 2018-2019 academic year, with 52 per cent of those that did finding them. The analysis was conducted by the Times at schools with around half a million students and it is currently thought to be the largest of its kind. The findings also revealed that more secondary schools believe their students are involved with gangs than primary schools. Just two per cent of primary schools think their pupils have an involvement with gangs, compared with more than a third of secondary schools. Commenting on the Times's survey, Anne Longfield, the children's commissioner for England, said: 'This investigation shows how criminal gangs operating in England are ruthless organisations, using sophisticated grooming to lure children in and then use violence to keep them compliant.' This comes as there are concerns from experts that the influence of gangs will get worse when students return to schools following the coronavirus lockdown. Last month, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson warned that easing lockdown could see an increase in criminal activity by gangs, the BBC reported. He added that teenagers who have now spent months out of school, and young people who have lost jobs, are especially vulnerable to gangs. The Government have promised to have all students back in school full-time when the next academic year starts next month. There are concerns from experts that the influence of gangs will get worse when students return to schools following the coronavirus lockdown (file photo) The Times poll also found that county lines drug dealing affects schools across the entire country - not just within inner-city areas. One Oxford school said it had fears about students being involved in county lines gangs and drug exploitation. A primary school in Oxfordshire claimed the police informed them that children 'as young as 13' are involved in gangs in the surrounding area. The school said: 'We have had a child breaking into property because he was told to by older children. Social care is extremely stretched and thresholds of need are ridiculously high.' A Hampshire primary school told the Times that an eight-year-old attending the school was identified as a 'mule' for distributing drugs. The survey found that 24 per cent of the secondary schools polled referred students to either police or social service for potential gang involvement. Vicky Ford, the children's minister, said social workers are being placed in more than 150 schools to help teachers 'identify and support pupils most at risk'. Lessons on drugs, county lines and gangs are being given at 85 per cent of secondary schools and 34 per cent of primary schools, the poll found. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made a controversial remark saying he would not attend the inauguration of the mosque to be built in Ayodhya, replacing the demolished Babri Masjid. After the bhoomi pujan for a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Adityanath had said on television that "as a yogi and as a Hindu" he couldn't go for the inauguration of a mosque. Reacting to the remark, the opposition SP said he should seek an apology from the people of the state. When contacted, a UP Congress spokesperson, however, refused to comment on the chief minister's remarks over the mosque. "If you ask me as a chief minister, I have no problem with any belief, religion or community. If you ask me as a yogi, I will definitely not go because as a Hindu I have the right to express my 'upasana vidhi' (way of worship) and act accordingly," Adityanath had said. AFP "I am neither 'vaadi or prativadi' (petitioner nor respondent). That is why neither will I be invited, nor will I go. I know, I won't be getting any such invitation, he said. The day they invite me, secularism of many will be in danger. That's why I want that their secularism should not be in danger and I continue to silently work to ensure that everyone benefits from government scheme without any discrimination," he said. Here's how people reacted towards the statement : I don't think people, even those holding constitutional positions, should be asked to go against their religious beliefs. https://t.co/VvwQFWFNUn Harini Calamur (#StayHome) (@calamur) August 7, 2020 " Would a Hindu feel safe in Pakistan or Afghanistan if he was fighting for a temple? As expected, Aditya Yoginath continues to lower the bar for India. We are now to be compared with 2 failed democratic states and are supposed to be proud of it. https://t.co/fohA5vdYpQ Mohan Kumaramangalam (@MKumaramangalam) August 7, 2020 I dont discriminate as CM, but as Hindi speaking wont attend Tamil event- I dont discriminate as CM, but as Rajput wont attend Dalit event- All this are crazy ones ! The below one too ! https://t.co/LkFqKNCJLY Manickam Tagore MP (@manickamtagore) August 7, 2020 Yogi Adityanath had attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a Ram temple in Ayodhya, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the main guest. Last November, the Supreme Court had settled the Ayodhya land dispute, allowing the construction of the temple at Ram Janmabhoomi by a trust. The apex court had also ordered the allocation of a five-acre plot of land elsewhere in Ayodhya for the construction of a mosque, in place of the Babri Masjid which was demolished by kar sevaks' in 1992. A trust has been formed by the Sunni Waqf Board for building this mosque. The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns have increased stress and anxiety in people. Ahead of Social Justice Sunday, August 30, Australias Catholic bishops have released a statement urging all to make mental health a priority. By Vatican News The Catholic bishops of Australia are encouraging faith communities, governments and individuals to make mental health a priority, especially during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic when feelings of anxiety and despair are building in people. In view of Social Justice Sunday, celebrated on 30 August, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) released a statement entitled, To Live Life to the Full: Mental health in Australia today. Releasing the Social Justice Statement 2020-21, Auxiliary Bishop Terence Brady of Sydney, Bishop Delegate for the ACBC Commission for Social Justice, Mission and Service, calls on all Catholics to take up the message and challenges contained in the statement. The 19-page statement carries a foreword by ACBC president, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane. Anxiety and despair This is a timely message in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is affecting many members of our parishes, schools and communities, Bishop Brady says. The personal feelings of anxiety and despair we all share at this time, he continues, provide an opportunity to become more aware and active in fostering the mental health of all. The statement says that parishes, organisations and communities can be places of acceptance, inclusion, care and healing, not places of rejection, judgment or stigma against those experiencing mental health issues. Vulnerable and disadvantaged people The Catholic Church in Australia demands the commitment of governments and policy-makers to prevent so many people from falling through the cracks of the mental health system. Citing Pope Francis, the statement says that the test of our societys commitment to the common good is the care we show for the people who are most vulnerable or disadvantaged. In this regard, the Australian Church calls on the nation to address policies that exacerbate the already precarious circumstances of Aboriginal Australians, refugees, asylum-seekers, homeless people and those who are in prison. Not Jesus's way Our society tends to push away or draw away from those who confront us with our frailties and limitations, Bishop Brady points out, adding, This is not the way of Jesus. Let us follow Him in drawing near to those who are experiencing mental ill-health and acknowledge that they are members of the Body of Christ they are part of us. Only then can we say we are all in this together. Only then can we live life to the full. TORONTO, Aug. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fura Gems Inc. (Fura or the Company) (TSXV: Fura, OTC: FUGMF and FRA: BJ43) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a share sale agreement (the Share Sale Agreement) through its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary, Capricorn Sapphire Pty Ltd (the Capricorn), with Mosley Mining Pty Ltd (the Vendor), pursuant to which the Company will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Great Northern Mining Pty Ltd (the Target), a mining company located in Australia (the Acquisition). The assets of the Target consist of 73 mining leases (the Tenements), each located in Australia, as well as certain buildings, plants, fixtures, tools, and other equipment related to the Tenements. As consideration for the Acquisition, Fura agreed to pay A$2,987,933 (approximately C$2,860,632) to the Vendor, subject to certain adjustments, and less (i) an amount payable to a bank to release a security interest on certain of the Targets assets, and (ii) an amount equal to any royalties that become payable by the Target in respect of mining activities conducted on the Tenements prior to completion. In accordance with the Share Sale Agreement, on or about the date that the agreement was signed, Fura paid a portion of the consideration (A$293,093 (approximately C$280,465)) as a deposit to be released to the Vendor upon completion of the Acquisition. The Acquisition is an arms length transaction for the purposes of the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) and the Company understands that the Acquisition qualifies as an Exempt Transaction under TSXV Policy 5.3. Fura is not paying any finders fees in connection with the Acquisition. The closing of the Acquisition is subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions precedent; however, the Foreign Investment Review Board of the Australian Government has already indicated that it has no objection to the Acquisition. Closing of the Acquisition is expected to occur in early to mid-August 2020. Story continues For more information about Fura Gems Inc., please contact: Fura Gems Inc. Dev Shetty President & Chief Executive Officer Tel: +971 (0) 4 240 8760 dev.shetty@furagems.com Rupak Sen Vice President Marketing and Sales Tel: +1+(778)386-1313 rupak.sen@furagems.com Public Relations Tavistock (UK) Jos Simson / Barney Hayward Tel: +44-207-920-3150 fura@tavistock.co.uk About Fura Gems Inc. Fura Gems Inc. is a gemstone mining and marketing company which is engaged in the mining, exploration and acquisition of gemstone licences. Fura owns ruby, emerald and sapphire resource properties in Mozambique, Colombia and Australia, respectively. Furas headquarters are located in Toronto, Canada and its administrative headquarters are located in the Gold Tower, Dubai. Fura is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol Fura. Regulatory Statements This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, assumptions and expectations with respect to Capricorns ability to complete the Acquisition and the expected timing to completion, the Companys exploration activities and mining activities and the Companys performance. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; the actual results of exploration, development and production activities; access to sufficient financing to continue the development of its assets; regulatory risks; risks inherent in foreign operations, uncertainties with respect to the Companys assets; legacy environmental risks, title risks and other risks of the mining industry. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. 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. Gregory said he is looking forward to a time when quick testing allows his business to operate on firmer ground in challenging times. If an employee did turn up positive, the restaurant still might have to close due to a shortage of hands, but if not, it could operate with more certainty. A quicker turnaround time, good Lord, at least would let you sleep at night, he said. It would make your decision a lot easier from a health standpoint. Priority groups The Virginia Department of Health acknowledged delays in a letter to physicians on July 13, urging them to ensure testing of priority groups, according to the agencys guidance. The agency has so far declined to issue public guidance asking people to forgo testing if they do not fall into a high-risk group or have symptoms a measure that would be reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic. Jaberi, the COVID-19 testing task force leader, said the state has not ruled out the measure but that its usefulness would be limited without a concerted national strategy, since many of the labs facing backlogs serve multiple states at once. "They (evangelicals) seem to have gotten more angry and extreme and are turning more people way from religion than drawing them in," says Tulsa resident Pat Ford. I am writing this special note to humbly call on Ghana Psychology Council, Ghana Psychological Association, Ghana International Union of Psychological Science, and Psychologists in general to assist the fourteen (14) final years students who have been dismissed by the Ghana Education Service (GES) as a result of their gross indiscipline and violence behavoiurs on some of the campuses of secondary schools. My request is special as a result of the fact that the fourteen students have been dismissed, as well as stopped them from writing the ongoing final examination. In fact, they are young boys and a girl who has largely misconducted themselves especially looking at the level of vandalism caused to the school's properties, chasing examination officials to beat them up, beat of a journalist, and the insult on the president is extremely unacceptable. Although, their indisciplined behaviours should not and never be accepted at all in our society we should be extremely careful about the consequences of the extreme punishments thereof. Sincerely, I strongly believe that they need special counseling from your specialists fields of the profession in Psychology. Again, I passionately feel that the students might have heard about the announcement of their dismissals as a result, may be psychologically facing challenges. Indeed, following the nationwide condemnations, I think it is enough. However, most importantly, let us be in a careful mood as well as to consider their future progression. As a society and a country, we should not leave the above students alone for them to be contemplating anything negative and in a worst-case scenario. In fact, I dont need to overemphasize the reasons of my appeal for consideration. Thank you. Yours sincerely, David Agbee Executive Director, GIGS Britain has summoned China's ambassador following "unacceptable" comments he made over London's criticism of the situation in Hong Kong, a source told Reuters. The ambassador, Liu Xiaoming, said earlier on Wednesday that the British seem to have forgotten that Hong Kong is no longer a colony, and that London should keep its hands off the territory. The source, who declined to be named, said the ambassador had been called in to the Foreign Office. Search Keywords: Short link: More than 200,000 people remained without power Saturday in Connecticut as the slow recovery from Tropical Storm Isaias continued. As of 9:30 p.m., Eversource reported about 195,608 households were without power. That included, about 1,521 customers in Cheshire; 2,487 in Guilford; 2,027 in Madison; 4,143 in Norwalk; 1,794 in Seymour; 3,166 in Stamford; and 6,216 in Westport. Eversource said in a statement Saturday night that it has more than 1,600 crews working on the ground in Connecticut. Eversource said crews have restored power to about 717,000 customers since the storm hit as of 10 a.m. Saturday. The utility company said it expects to have the vast majority of the remaining customers without power back on line by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, with many expected to get their lights back on sooner. Eversource is running six satellite command centers in some of the states hardest-hit areas: Berlin, Cheshire, Madison, Norwalk, Tolland and Torrington. The utility company said these centers ensure efficient crew deployment through a more localized approach. These satellite command centers put our crews and materials closer to the areas where theyre needed most, providing us greater flexibility to more quickly deploy the massive crew resources that weve brought into Connecticut, said a statement Saturday from Eversource President of Regional Electric Operations Craig Hallstrom. United Illuminating reported around 9:30 p.m. that about 12,402 households were still without power. That included 907 customers in New Haven; 948 in Bridgeport; 598 in Milford; 1,058 in Woodbridge; 394 in East Haven; 273 in West Haven; 1,294 in Easton; and 1,578 in Shelton. On Friday, the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down briefly in Westport during the storm. The NWS said the storm on Tuesday produced a waterspout, which made landfall as an EF1 tornado around 1:40 p.m. As restoration continued, Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker called on Eversource to provide a single make safe crew to help clear town roads, saying the community was approaching a crisis due to its inaction. As of around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, 3,590 Eversource customers remained without power in Bethel. (W)e have had over a dozen key roads remain closed since the storm due to trees and wires hanging or on the road (our DPW crews very quickly cleared every road blockage where no wires were involved by Wednesday morning), Knickerbocker wrote in an email to the utility company Friday. We have multiple critical facilities still running on generators, and now we are having trouble getting the fuel trucks in to keep them running. Knickerbocker also wrote to the office of Gov. Ned Lamont Thursday night, arguing that Eversource had inappropriately focused on restoring power to a limited number of customers. While I can only speculate, it would seem quite transparent that prioritizing easy restoration over make safe operations makes the outage numbers appear to be improving faster. But this was undertaken at the expense of public safety, said Knickerbocker. Harwinton First Selectman Michael Criss said on Facebook that some residents, based on the lackluster performance of Eversource and false information, should please be prepared to be out until Thursday this week and to be patient as we fight for you with them. The crews working for Eversource are not the issue, so please respect them and stay clear if you see them working as they are working long days and hard in the field, it is the bureaucracy within Eversource creating the long delays and problems with the restoration efforts, said Criss. On Thursday night, the states two largest utility companies said residents could see their power restored as early as this weekend, and no later than Tuesday. Eversource said it expects to make significant progress by the end of the weekend, with most of its restoration efforts substantially complete by midnight Tuesday. Fewer than 1 percent of customers may be without power for longer, they said. In an email obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media on Thursday, United Illuminated representatives told state officials that they expect most customers to have power back by midnight Saturday. At latest, they wrote in the email, all customers should have power back by midnight Monday. We understand it may not be welcome news that some customers may still be without service this weekend, said a statement from Tony Marone, UI president and CEO. We ask customers to plan accordingly. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More YES Securities' research report on Narayana Hrudayala Narayana clocked largely in line quarter as guided in the April update and subsequent Q4 call. While EBIDTA loss was expected given that April revenue run rate was just 35% of pre COVID level (with pick up in May and June), management remains cautious on revival due to high degree of uncertainty. Costs cuts, like in pharma, would be visible but no permanent savings feasible; as revenues rebound, so will costs. With no visibility on resumption of international flights and uncertainty on domestic rebound in elective surgeries, FY21 will be a wash-out year as expected with strong recovery built in FY22. Outlook We raise our FY22 estimates (~+9%) and retain Reduce mostly due to lack of comfort on valuation as we reckon hospital players should trade at a discount to branded pharma companies especially those with sizable India revenues. Key risk to our EBIDTA/EPS estimates is faster than expected 27% growth in hospitals revenues assumed in FY22. For all recommendations report, click here Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Read More The leadership of Parliament has called for major reforms in the processes and procedures political parties use to determine and select their leaders, particularly those who become Members of Parliament (MPs). It said a critical review of the structures and the constitutional provisions of parties that required parliamentary primaries to be conducted every four years was not the best, hence parties must find other ways of choosing or affirming their MPs. Such reforms will not only help to protect important legislators but also help end what they described as the opulent and shameful monetisation that was making competitive democracy, and by extension Parliament, the preserve of the elite and wealthy. Dialogue The leaders were speaking at a dialogue for the core leadership of Parliament which was held on the theme: The Committee System in Ghanas Parliament: An assessment, organised by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Speakers The speakers included the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu; the Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, and the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu. The meeting allowed the leaders to deliberate on the prospects and challenges of nurturing career legislators and identify institutional and systemic factors fuelling the high attrition rate that is depriving Parliament of the requisite skills and competencies to execute its mandate. First Deputy Speaker Mr Osei-Owusu lamented the lack of interest of legislators in the crafting, implementation and monitoring of the impact of law-making on Ghanaians and, therefore, said it was disturbing for Parliament to lose some of its excellent lawmaker in primaries. The evidence is that those who choose to be good at doing the legislative work do not last in Parliament because your constituents are not interested in your legislative work, he said. My suggestion is, let us review the existing structures of political parties. If we want career MPs then the two major political parties must agree on a new structure and they must see themselves as agents of change and rethink the system of selecting, nurturing candidates. It is extremely important that we have people who are career legislators because the system where anytime we are making laws, people are fresh learners and their experiences are new affects the speed and quality of law-making, Mr Osei-Owusu said. Majority Leader Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said established democracies the world over were guided and guarded as party executives were not elected but chosen by party leaders at the national level. He, therefore, questioned why at the end of the life of Parliament, the slews gate would be opened for all newcomers to compete with incumbent MPs for seats, a practice that was subject to corruption. In his view, the wholesale primaries that were conducted in all the constituencies, whether there were incumbent legislators or not, were causing parties to lose control over their MPs as candidates singularly dictated their way to Parliament, with the highest bidder winning the slot. He, therefore, urged political parties to amend their constitutions and resort to other methods of choosing their MPs. Minority Leader Mr Iddrisu noted that Ghanas democracy was one of the success stories in Africa, thus the renewal of MPs remained imperative. However, he said there were imminent and major threats to the countrys democratic processes, particularly vigilantism and the inability to punish perpetrators. The Minority Leader said he was worried that the recent monetisation of the countrys democracy would not only create an unstable Parliament but would undermine the countrys entire democratic process and deny Ghanaians their democratic dividends. He denounced the manner in which bribery and corruption in primaries was appearing permissible under law to the utter disrespect of the provisions of the Political Parties Act and our commitment to fight corruption. Such practices, including the doling out of money by chief executives of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, portray that Ghanas democracy will be the preserve of the elite and the wealthy, Mr Iddrisu said. He, therefore, suggested major reforms of political parties in the way they were organised and administered, as well as the way our political party leadership is determined and the manner and process and procedure for the determination of MPs will have to change. The Minority Leader called for a definition of upper and a more considering rule for the parties in Parliament, probably to do an assessment of the MPs to guide the political parties themselves in their way forward. Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video MUMBAI: Actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found dead at his Bandra residence on June 14, was in talks with some leading filmmakers, including Ramesh Taurani and Nikkhil Advani, for a film project just a day before his death. The actor's call record data revealed that he, along with Advani, Taurani and his agent Uday Gauri Singh, was on a four-way conference call for the narration of an untitled film project. As per details available, the conference call between the 'Dil Bechara' actor and filmmakers was held on the afternoon of June 13, a day before he was found dead at his rented apartment at Bandra Palli Hill in Mumbai. The Mumbai Police, which began an investigation into the case, called it a case of 'suicide', saying the actor was suffering from depression and was on anti-depressant pills. On the other hand, Sushant's family accused his alleged girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty of foul play in his death and registered an FIR against her under the various sections, including abetment to suicide, cheating and wrongful confinement. Sushan't death has also sparked a major debate on social media with fans demanding to probe the link between his and his former manager Disha Salian's death. Disha was found dead on June 9 after reportedly jumping off or accidentally falling from 14th-floor residence of her fiance in Malad. Sushant was found dead five days after Disha's death. Sushant's death is now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the central government approved the Bihar government's recommendation to do so. The CBI has filed a case against six people, including Rhea, her family members and two of her associates. Actor Swara Bhasker took to Twitter on Saturday to rebuke conspiracy theorists spreading rumours around the death of Disha Salian. Disha was the former manager of late Sushant Singh Rajput and reportedly died by suicide on June 8. Swara retweeted a news story by Hindustan Times about Dishas father refuting rumours surrounding her death. Conspiracy theorists really have no shame and no sense of decency! Leave grieving families alone, she wrote. Conspiracy theorists really have no shame and no sense of decency! Leave grieving families alone!!!!! https://t.co/ymbAMSgjep Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) August 8, 2020 Every statement that doesnt fit their fake narrative will not be shared.. will not be believed. If youve already decided what you want to believe, stop pretending to find the truth. Please dont act like you care. https://t.co/bHzbNxiBIl Kritika Kamra (@Kritika_Kamra) August 8, 2020 Actor Kritika Kamra also tweeted on similar lines. Every statement that doesnt fit their fake narrative will not be shared.. will not be believed. If youve already decided what you want to believe, stop pretending to find the truth. Please dont act like you care, she wrote. Dishas father Satish Salian told India Today that the rumours being spread about his daughter and her death were false. As media has freedom of speech, we also have right of privacy, do not interfere in our life please. I request you all please. Police have explained me. They showed whole case evidences, post mortem report. My daughter was never pregnant, she never got pregnant. Rape never happened, organs are clear, he had said. Disha allegedly killed herself by jumping off a high-rise in Mumbais Malad area on June 8. Also read: Rana Daggubati shares pic with father, uncle Venkatesh before wedding to Miheeka Bajaj, says hes ready BJP MP Narayan Rane on Tuesday claimed Disha was killed, and indicated the murder may have been preceded by her rape. He claimed the postmortem report mentioned injuries to her private parts. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON According to Ralby and human rights activists, the Houthis are seeking to sell the oil on the Safer, valued at as much as $40 million at one point, though Ralby and other analysts say the cargo is worth far less now, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the global glut in crude and five years of sitting in corroding tanks. Alternatively, the rebels hope to use the oil as a bargaining tool against the internationally recognized Yemeni government and their primary benefactor, a U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the Houthis for more than five years. At Milans Eurodomus 3 trade show in 1970, Florentine manufacturer Poltronova unveiled Mobili Grigi, a far-out bedroom collection that had been designed by architect Ettore Sottsass. Fashioned from slick, vacuum-molded plastic and cast fiberglass, it was part of the brands mission to bring novel industrial materialswhich had already revolutionized nautical and automobile designinto the home. The radical range was produced in a very limited edition, with one exception: the neon-lit pink mirror called Ultrafragola, or the ultimate strawberry. Nicole Cohen The thermoformed plastic reflector (which debuted a decade before Sottsass established the Memphis Group) celebrated femininitythe curves of a womans body; the waves of her hair; some other choice elements of her anatomy. Today we might call that objectification. But women the world over have embraced the mirror ($10,500; now available in LED), still made using the original 1970 mold. Belen Imaz Were trying to keep the history alive, says Raquel Cayre (raquelcayre.com), the furniture adviser behind Instagrams @ettoresottsass. She placed an Ultrafragola in her 2018 exhibition, Raquels Dream House; it sold to artist Katherine Bernhardt. Since then, Lena Dunham and Bella Hadid have each acquired one. All my clients want one, designer Sasha Bikoff says. Its the ultimate selfie mirror. Thats not to say that Ultrafragolas are off-limits for men: Frank Ocean and Nicolas Ghesquiere are fans, too. As Keith Johnson of Urban Architecture (718-349-3837), Poltronovas U.S. retailer, explains, Theyre the antiques of the future. Pietro Savorelli Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest Actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death probe is turning into a mud-slinging match between the Mumbai Police and Bihar Police at the top court. On Saturday, the Mumbai Police filed an affidavit stating that the FIR lodged by Bihar Police on a complaint filed by Sushants father was politically motivated and done at the instance of the chief minister of Bihar. This has given an interesting turn to the case ahead of the Supreme Court hearing the transfer petition filed by Sushants girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty on Tuesday. She has sought transfer of the FIR lodged at Patna to Mumbai. Mumbai Police even called out the indecent haste shown by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in lodging a FIR on the recommendation from the Bihar government and even constituting a team to begin probe into abetment of suicide charge against Rhea, her family members and two friends. The indecent haste with which the CBI has proceeded in this regard, speaks for itself, regarding the bonafides of all involved in this exercise, stated the Mumbai Police in its affidavit filed through advocate Sachin Patil. The affidavit termed the CBI FIR without legal sanctity as it was filed without consent of Maharashtra, which alone is entitled to give consent under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act and not Bihar. The developments came on a day when Sushants father KK Singh filed his reply in the apex court terming Rheas petition as infructuous following CBI taking over the case. The late actors father even accused the Mumbai Police of inaction as he questioned why even after 54 days of enquiry no FIR was registered. If the respondent No.3 (State of Maharashtra) has found no evidence qua the petitioner (Rhea) in 54 days of enquiry, it only reflects one conclusion that the Respondent No.3 is trying to shield the Petitioner for the reason best known to them, Sushants father stated in his affidavit settled by senior advocate Vikas Singh. Defending the charges against them, Mumbai Police wondered why the father of the late actor did not approach them for registering FIR against Rhea and her family members. Citing a Ministry of Home Affairs circular of May 10, 2013, the Mumbai Police claimed that at best, Bihar Police ought to have registered a Zero FIR and transferred the same to Bandra Police. Making a big charge against its Bihar counterpart, the Mumbai Police said, The registration of the FIR at Rajeev Nagar Police Station, Patna, Bihar was politically motivated and due to extraneous reasons. To support this statement, the affidavit cited a newspaper report annexed to Rheas petition which said that while Bihar Police was hesitant to file FIR, it was the Bihar chief minister and another minister who persuaded them to register it. The mud-slinging was not limited to that alone. Commenting on Bihars decision to recommend a CBI probe, the Mumbai Police said, Recommendation of respondent no 1 (Bihar government) to transfer investigation into FIR by CBI bristles with malafides and same is void ab initio. Such a thing could lead to a chaotic situation as the accused or complainant would then choose their own state police to initiate investigation into a case. Already, the Bihar Police had accused Mumbai Police of shielding Rhea and obstructing probe into the FIR lodged at Patna. The turf war between the two police forces was at display when Bihar-cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Vinay Tiwari who landed in Mumbai on August 2 to expedite probe was forcibly quarantined. The Bihar government had claimed this was an afterthought as the four officers of Bihar Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) who landed in Mumbai on July 27 were not similarly quarantined. The Mumbai Police has denied of having obstructing the probe and claimed that Vinay Tiwari was quarantined by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and not the police. Further, it said that the four officers who landed earlier ought to have quarantined themselves. Undeterred by the coronavirus, schools in several US states have reopened for in-person classes -- but some have already been hit by large quarantines of students and staff following fresh outbreaks. In Mississippi -- the state with the country's highest positivity rate at 22 percent of everyone tested, sick or otherwise -- the Corinth School District has so far seen eight confirmed cases across several schools, according to officials. As a result, over 100 people who came into close contact with them have been asked to quarantine, swiftly disrupting local authorities' plans for a return to normal. The city of Corinth is located in Alcorn County where positivity rates are 25 percent and ICUs are full, according to the tracking site CovidActNow. Health experts say that if the proportion of positive tests in a given location is above five percent, the virus is spreading rampantly. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves told Fox News the quarantine was in fact evidence things were working as they should. "Those who want to attack everyone look at that as a negative, I actually look at it as a positive," he said. "We've identified positive cases, we've contract traced those back and we're trying to protect those kids." - 'Cautionary tale' - The district's troubles highlight the dangers of reopening schools, a key priority of President Donald Trump as he tries to kickstart the economy ahead of the election. After pressure from the president, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month issued new guidelines on how to open up classrooms. It firmly weighed its recommendations in favor of in-person learning because of the negative impact of lockdowns on social development and mental health. Data also shows distance-learning exacerbates educational attainment gaps between socioeconomic groups. This goal is shared by outside experts including the American Academy of Pediatrics, but a major problem is a lack of clarity around when it is safe to reopen. Story continues In the absence of official guidance, experts have devised their own metrics. "The Mississippi example is a clear cautionary tale of what reopening will look like unless the community level transmission is contained," said Thomas Tsai, a Harvard professor and member of the Harvard Global Health Institute. Harvard has created a dashboard that gives every county in the country a color rating based on a seven-day average of its per capita daily cases. With an average of 37 daily cases per 100,000, most of Mississippi is in the "red" -- meaning it is clearly unsafe to reopen. "No amount of mask wearing and HVAC filtration in the schools is going to minimize risk if there's a wildfire of COVID burning in the surrounding community," stressed Tsai. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters Friday that schools will be reopening, citing his state's success in battling the virus, with schools planning for a part-time approach. The state averages three daily new cases per 100,000, placing it in the "yellow" category on the Harvard dashboard, meaning schools can open with a robust testing plan. "It's not zero risk, but it's acceptable risk given the benefits of in person education," said Tsai. Several other large cities, including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami have announced they will stick to distance learning for now. But Republican-led states of Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee and Indiana opened this week and last. - 'Good and necessary trouble' - There are also strong indications that officials in Georgia have rushed to open too soon and without adequate measures. Two North Paulding High School students were suspended after posting pictures of crowded hallways that went viral on Twitter, according to reports. One of them, 15-year-old Hannah Watters, told CNN: "I'd like to say this is some good and necessary trouble," quoting the late civil rights leader John Lewis. "My biggest concern is not only about me being safe, it's about everyone being safe." The school, which is also in a county where there is rampant community transmission, later reversed its decision, she told CNN Friday. For University of California Riverside epidemiologist Brandon Brown, the visuals painted a disturbing picture. "The high school students who took photos of others walking around school unmasked revealed a truth that needed to be seen," he said. "They are saving lives by their actions, if decision makers seeing the truth leads to change, and sadly that is what it usually takes to do the right thing." ia/ft Bexar County continued to show improvement in the rate of spread of COVID-19, as officials reported 360 new cases on Friday. Mayor Ron Nirenberg also reported 16 more deaths. In mid-July, at the peak of the recent coronavirus surge, the number of new cases in Bexar County sometimes grew by more than 1,000 a day, reaching a one-day high of 2,202 on July 19. The daily totals have declined markedly since then. The 360 new cases reported Friday pushed the countys total since the start of the pandemic to 42,299. The countys death toll, as tallied by the Metropolitan Health District, now stands at 422. Nirenberg said the number of COVID-19 patients in San Antonio hospitals had dropped to 770 as of Friday, down from 801 the day before. And there were fewer in intensive care 339, compared with 345 on Thursday. Some 231 were on ventilators, down from 238 the previous day. The hospital system, even as these trends are improving, is still under severe stress, Nirenberg said at his daily coronavirus briefing. Thirteen percent of the citys staffed hospital beds and 51 percent of ventilators were available for new patients. Nirenberg said the 16 deaths occurred between July 14 and Aug. 5. The deceased included seven Hispanic men in their 30s, 50s, 60s and 70s; three Hispanic women in their 40s and 70s; an Asian man in his 70s; a Black man in his 80s; a Black woman in her 60s; a white man in his 60s; and a woman in her 40s and a man in his 80s, whose race/ethnicity was not specified. City staff members said that progress is being made in reconciling disparities between Metro Healths COVID-19 death toll and the significantly higher number reported for Bexar County by the Texas Department of State Health Services. The state recently began counting COVID-19 fatalities based on the causes of death listed on death certificates issued by funeral homes and hospitals. Metro Health officials say they employ a more rigorous process, investigating to determine whether the deceased ever tested positive for the coronavirus before classifying a death as COVID-related. Metro Health officials also say that the states higher total includes people who died in San Antonio hospitals but who did not live in Bexar County. Those deaths should be assigned to the persons county of residence, they say. Area report Comal County reported 46 new COVID-19 cases but no new deaths on Friday. Most of the new cases are in New Braunfels, officials said. Of the 46 cases, 19 involved people younger than 30 and one is a baby not yet a year old. That puts the total number of cases in Comal at 2,359 since the pandemic struck the area in mid-March. There were 26 people with the virus in Comal County hospitals as of Friday, including 14 in intensive care and eight on ventilators. The death toll in the county stands at 60; 34 were residents of nursing homes. Bruce Selcraig is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Bruce, become a subscriber. BSelcraig@express-news.net Mainstream political parties in the Valley on Saturday reacted sharply to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam's remarks accusing them of misgovernance and corruption, saying such allegations put a big question mark on his professionalism and impartiality. The chief secretary seems to have forgotten the service conduct rules and he should work to strengthen institutions of governance on the ground rather than talk about political issues, they said. Earlier, Subrahmanyam had said Jammu and Kashmir was a "broken state" and there was "no system" in place due to years of misgovernance, corruption and "unbelievable levels of fraud" committed by leaders of mainstream parties and separatist organisations. Therefore, not a "single soul had cried" over the detention of political and separatist leaders in August last year, when the Centre announced its decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 of the Constitution, he had said. The government also bifurcated the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into Union Territories (UT) -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh -- on August 5 last year. Terming the chief secretary's allegations baseless and politically motivated, the National Conference (NC) said Subramanyam's remarks had brought forth the "veiled political affiliations" of Jammu and Kashmir's top bureaucrats. "It cannot be a coincidence that BJP and its leadership have been parroting the same line of thought over the past one year. The language used by the chief secretary while hurling allegations against mainstream political parties is exactly similar to what BJP is saying," NC spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said in a statement here. Such sordid allegations by a civil servant put a big question mark on his professionalism, work culture and impartiality, he said. The NC leader said it is "quite alarming" that a serving civil servant is "overtly spewing venom against the entire mainstream political spectrum to hide the abject failures of the administration under him since 20 June, 2018". "The allegations should not be seen in isolation, they are aimed towards uprooting the leftover roots of an already withered democracy in J-K. "It won't be an exaggeration to say that such statements emanating from the top administrative positions seek to give credence to its unresponsive, undemocratic, unrepresentative rule in J-K," Dar said. Subrahmanyam's statement also reveals his "own hyper-partisan disposition and the proclivity of the GoI (government of India)" to maintain the status quo of confusion, chaos, misgovernance and fear in Jammu and Kashmir, he added. Subrahmanyam, a 1987-batch IAS officer who was hand-picked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "clean up" the Jammu and Kashmir administration, said misgovernance and corruption had continued for so long that the system collapsed from inside. The chief secretary said he has been working sincerely to create a robust institutional infrastructure that is free of corruption. Senior CPI(M) leader MY Tarigami asked what the chief secretary's administration had done to eradicate corruption in Jammu and Kashmir in the last two years when there was no elected government in the region. "If frauds have been committed by some people who have remained in authority, what is stopping the administration from making them public and booking the offenders?" he asked. "We had been demanding transparency in the functioning of every branch of the administration, including J&K Bank, for a long time," he said. "Levelling baseless allegations against politicians without any credible evidence is fraught with serious consequences," Tarigami said, adding that bureaucrats come and go. The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference (JKPC) termed the chief secretary's remarks "delusions of grandeur". "Kashmir has this problem where people get delusions of grandeur. It seems like the chief secretary is the latest victim. We extend our sympathies and hope he comes out of it. We also hope that Delhi comes out of its delusions," party spokesperson Adnan Ashraf Mir said. "If the utterances of the chief secretary are any indication of what he thinks of himself and what he briefs his bosses in Delhi, then Delhi doesn't need enemies in Kashmir," he said. The JKPC leader said the last one year has been the "tyranny of the unelected" in Jammu and Kashmir. "Sitting in ivory towers and lecturing politicians is easy, let these officers come on the streets to display their public support now that they have aspirations of replacing the elected representatives," he said. The fledgling Jammu Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) said the chief secretary seems to have forgotten the service conduct rules. "All the government employees including bureaucrats are supposed to remain apolitical and give people a fair deal of governance which is entirely lacking in J-K," senior party leader Ghulam Hassan Mir said. The remarks by the chief secretary were legally and ethically unwarranted, he said. says a professor whose salary is paid mostly by Republicans. Campus Reform reports on Professor Bart Knijnenburg of Clemson University, who apparently hates Republicans: Clemson School of Computing Assistant Professor Bart Knijnenburg took to Facebook in July and wrote, Trump is xenophobic and racist. Trumps administration is xenophobic and racist. The Republican Party is xenophobic and racist. He continued on to say that, anyone who voted Republican in 2016 is xenophobic and racist, and concluded by stating, anyone who still calls themselves a Republican despite all this is xenophobic and racist. In 2017, Professor Knijnenburg wrote that all Trump supporters, nay, all Republicans, are racist scum. Heres the thing: Clemson is a public, taxpayer funded university in South Carolina. South Carolina has a Republican Governor. It has two Republican Senators. Five of its seven Representatives are Republicans. Republicans control both the South Carolina House and the South Carolina Senate. It is safe to conclude that most South Carolina voters and taxpayers are Republicans. They pay Professor Knijnenburgs salary. Further, most of Professor Knijnenburgs students are Republicans, or at least the sons and daughters of Republicans. Why should the people of South Carolina fund this bigot? Why should they allow him to teach their children? They should fire him. Yeah, sure, tenure. But tenure should not protect a professor who is guilty of this kind of overt bigotry. Then too: why does Professor Knijnenburg want to work for a state that consists mostly of racist scum? Why does he want a job where his salary is paid by racists? If he had any integrity at all, wouldnt he resign? It is impossible to overstate how sick academia is, even in public universities, and even in a place like South Carolina. Port City Colombos new competition for university students View(s): Port City Colombo is marking yet another milestone event in the country in its next phase of development. The project recently launched Envision the Future a sculpture design competition to design a beach sculpture and an interactive wall targeted at budding local designers. The iconic sculptures and first of its kind interactive wall that will adorn the countrys largest landmark development project, Port City Colombo, are set to become local monuments that will be identified globally, the company said in a media release. Adopting the post COVID19 New Normal, the entire competition will be conducted on a digital platform via www.envisionthefuture.lk Partnering with Academy of Design to mentor design concepts in the competition and ARTRA magazine as the official ART partner, Port City Colombo invites its stakeholders, the next generation, to contribute to the design of this monumental project. The sculpture design and interactive wall concept competition is open to Sri Lankan nationals who are undergraduate and Masters students currently enrolled in any registered university in the country or overseas and reading in the fields of art, architecture, design, engineering and/or any other programme that aligns with creativity. Graduates who have completed their degree in the academic year 2019/2020 are also eligible to apply. Individuals can apply as a solo applicant and as a member of a team (a maximum of 2 submissions), however, a team is limited to a maximum of 3 members. The winning concepts will be awarded with more than Rs. 700,000 in cash prizes and will be chosen to construct at the Marina District beach at the Port City Colombo premises. The winning individual/team of each competition will be called upon to cooperate with an international construction company selected by CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Limited to create the sculpture. SOCIAL contracts have existed ever since people joined together to form communities. Simply put, people enter into agreements that define the rights and duties granted to and expected of each other. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/8/2020 (528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion SOCIAL contracts have existed ever since people joined together to form communities. Simply put, people enter into agreements that define the rights and duties granted to and expected of each other. When I began my career as a police officer, whether I knew it or not, I entered into a social contract with the community I wanted to serve. It began with the premise that I would conduct myself with honesty and integrity, that I would perform my duties to the best of my ability without fear or favour, and would treat all people equally and with respect. In return, I agreed to be held to a higher standard, to be accountable for my actions. I viewed policing as an honourable profession, and expected to be treated accordingly. As police officers, we play by the rules and there are a lot of rules. We are guided by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Criminal Code, the Police Services Act, and the City of Winnipeg Charter. These acts establish systems and remedies when police break the rules or make a mistake: 1. It can result in an independent criminal investigation. 2. It can result in an independent or internal regulatory investigation. 3. It can result in a civil lawsuit. During the 145-year history of the Winnipeg Police Service, all of these remedies have been used. Consequences have ranged from police officers being admonished, for minor regulatory infractions, up to and including individual officers being charged and convicted of murder. The systems established by our government hold police accountable. They may not be perfect, but they have proven to work, and they continue to be revised and improved upon. The social contract between the community and the police has been showing signs of erosion for some time. I remember the exact moment when I experienced this shift: I was testifying in a criminal case and was being cross-examined by a defence attorney about my observations of his client; he was rigorously contesting my testimony when suddenly he suggested that I was lying to the court. I was gobsmacked. A well-known defence lawyer was calling me a liar in a public court, without any evidence to support his assertions. I was stunned, and greatly offended; the social contract that I had entered into had been breached. That was more than 20 years ago. Today, that shifting social contract is being amplified by a loud and self-righteous segment of our community that uses social media as a platform to reject the need for police. People associated with important societal institutions have been emboldened by what appears to be a demonstration of how "woke" they are about movements like #DefundPolice. In an age that demands instant gratification, this is a dangerous combination. It has become de rigueur to challenge the integrity of police officers, except now on a much broader scale. This isnt a defence attorney questioning the integrity of an individual officer; now it is an editorial board challenging the integrity of police leaders without having all the facts. Now its selected academic "experts" who take the opportunity to denounce the police. All of this serves to undermine the social contract between the community and the police. 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. I am not oblivious to the social movements going on around us. I support changes that address the inequalities experienced by those who identify as Black, Indigenous and people of colour. As chief of police, I have endeavoured to meet the needs of our diverse community through a strategy that includes recruitment, policy and training. These efforts are inclusive of our community. The fact remains that police are being called upon by the community more than in the past. The social contract I entered into with our community is unique. I didnt enter into an agreement with the people of Minneapolis, or the people of Atlanta. I am accountable to the people of Winnipeg. Police in our community are among the most regulated professions in society. It is alarming to see systems established to hold police accountable being cavalierly dismissed by those in favour of immediate and drastic changes, without first taking the time to learn or understand what currently exists. The idea that police officers or anyone, for that matter should be publicly shamed or held publicly accountable without first establishing whether theyve done anything wrong is a further erosion of the social contract between us. Frankly, the steady and constant drumbeat of criticism is taking a toll on the well-being of the women and men who dedicate themselves to serving our community. There is nothing honourable in that. Danny Smyth is chief of the Winnipeg Police Service. Chad's President Idriss Deby said Saturday that Boko Haram jihadists would continue to wreak havoc in the Lake Chad region despite a huge military offensive against the group earlier this year. Lake Chad -- a marshy region dotted with islands near the border of Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon -- has been battered by attacks from jihadists crossing from Nigeria. "We will have this Boko Haram phenomenon for a long time yet," Deby told Radio France Internationale in an interview. "The incursions will continue," he said, adding that the group "will continue to cause great damage," in the Lake Chad area. Boko Haram's insurgency, launched in northeast Nigeria in 2009, has killed more than 36,000 people and displaced more than two million from their homes. The violence has since spread to Niger, Chad and Cameroon. In March, Chad's armed forces suffered their biggest single-day loss, when 98 soldiers were massacred in their base at Bohoma, on the banks of Lake Chad. In response, Deby launched an offensive from March 31 to April 3, declaring at its end that there was "not a single jihadist left" in the Lake Chad region. But sporadic violence has continued, with an attack attributed to Boko Haram on an army vehicle earlier last month killing eight Chadian soldiers. Deby on Saturday insisted that there were no Boko Haram fighters left on Chadian territory but that cross-border raids from Nigeria and Niger were continuing at night. BEIJING (Reuters) - China's iron ore imports in July surged to a record, up 24% from a year earlier, customs data showed on Friday, driven by shipments from miners and resilient demand as the economy bounced back after disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic. Arrivals of the key steelmaking ingredient were 112.65 million tonnes last month, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. That is up 10.8% from 101.68 million tonnes in June and above the 91.2 million imported in July 2019. Over the first seven months of the year, China brought in 659.6 million tonnes of iron ore, rising 11.8% from the same period last year, the customs data showed. China iron ore imports https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/xlbpgbdxzvq/ChinaIronOreImportsthroughJul2020.png "The jump in imports mainly came from non-mainstream suppliers as shipments from Brazil are still hurt by the pandemic," said Wu Shiping, analyst with Tianfeng Futures, adding that strong demand in China has also propped up purchases despite surging iron ore prices. The most-active iron ore futures contract in China gained more than 14% last month. Average capacity utilisation rates of blast furnaces at 163 mills in China, indicating input of the steelmaking ingredients, was at an average of 86% in July, dipping a bit from 86.4% in the previous month but still at a relatively high level, according to Reuters calculations based on data from Mysteel consultancy. STEEL PRODUCTS TRADE Data released by the customs office also showed China's steel imports were 2.61 million tonnes in July, the highest since April 2004. Steel exports from China were 4.2 million tonnes last month, down 25% from July 2019. (Reporting by Min Zhang and Tom Daly; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Simon Cameron-Moore) The father of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput has told the Supreme Court that the petition filed by his sons girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty seeking to transfer the police case from Patna to Mumbai has become unnecessary after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took up the case. The statement came on a day when Mumbai police informed the Supreme Court, in a sealed cover, about the status of its probe into the actors death at his Bandra house on June 14. In his response affidavit filed ahead of the hearing of the case on Tuesday, Sushants father stated that even after 54 days of inquiry, the Mumbai police had not found any ground to register an FIR. If the respondent No.3 (State of Maharashtra) has found no evidence qua the petitioner (Rhea) in 54 days of inquiry, it only reflects one conclusion that the Respondent No.3 is trying to shield the petitioner for reasons best known to them. He informed the Court that prior to his sons death, in two complaints dated February 19 and February 25, he informed the Mumbai police about an apprehension of threat to his sons life on which no action was taken. The father further accused the Mumbai police of showing no urgency in conducting the inquest proceedings in order to find the culprits responsible for his sons death. Pointing to the language employed in Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) relating to inquest, he said, The Inquest proceeding under Section 174 CrPC refers to term such as immediately and forthwith which reflect the nature of urgency expressed by the legislature in preparing an inquest report by the police officer. In the present case, Rhea was questioned four days after the incident. With his complaint now entrusted to the CBI, father of the late actor said, the present transfer petition has become infructuous. He said that Rhea will now have to file a fresh petition challenging the probe by CBI as the case no longer rests with Bihar police. He referred to Rheas tweets on social media platform where she had requested the Union home minister for a CBI enquiry into Sushants death. Now since the Respondent No.1 (State of Bihar) has entrusted the FIR to the CBI and Union of India has accepted the said request, the Petitioner should not have any grievance in this regard, the affidavit said. The affidavit further explained that CBI can proceed with the case even if Maharashtra was unwilling to give consent. It referred to a recent case decided by the Supreme Court in Kanwal Tanuj v State of Bihar (2020) to state, no consent would be required from another state once consent is given from the state which had registered the FIR. The late actors father even defended the registration of his FIR with Bihar police, claiming that the consequence of a criminal breach of trust and criminal misappropriation suffered by his son would impact him as he was the Class I legal heir of his unmarried son and the money (left by his son) was required to be returned or accounted for to him. Note: This story has been updated to indicate the shooting victim was a woman, not a man as originally reported GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A woman showed up at a Grand Rapids hospital after being shot in the neck in the latest incident of violence for the city. The woman showed up at Spectrum Health Butterworth hospital about 8:50 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6 with gunshot wound to the neck. The wound was described as serious but not life-threatening. She told investigators he was shot in the area of Kalamazoo Avenue SE and Alger Street. Police responded to that area, the 2000 block of Kalamazoo Avenue SE, about 8:35 p.m. on a report of about 20 shots being fired. They learned that three vehicles were seen leaving the area. Police said they found 14 9mm shell casings at the shooting scene. No other information about the shooting was immediately available. More from MLive: Sprinkling ban begins Tuesday for 13 West Michigan communities during water line repair 19 vehicles stolen from auto dealer, largest theft of its kind in Grand Rapids Some of SOMs clients are installing plexiglass dividers between desks, which has been recommended by OSHA for all work environments, particularly in retail and manufacturing. Many employers are also peppering their businesses with signage, said Ms. Brink, whether its a reminder for employees to wash their hands, wear masks or limit occupancy in common areas. The goal is to clearly communicate, and enforce, safety precautions that may put employees at ease. You may not notice invisible changes, like improvements made to the spaces air quality. There are advanced cleaning technologies somebody can put in that require a specialist, said Joseph Gardner Allen, the deputy director of the Harvard Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health. Find out whats expected of you. Enforcing social distancing and the use of face coverings in the workplace are the most critical safety measures, Dr. El-Sadr said, but you may encounter other precautions, too. For example, your employer may be staggering employees return dates. If so, you could find out who goes first: those deemed most essential or those who volunteer? Will shifts be staggered throughout the week to reduce density in the office, or throughout the day, so employees relying on mass transit can avoid commuting during rush hour? The C.D.C. suggests employees fill out daily health surveys and disclose whether they have Covid-19 symptoms before coming into work. But that comes with limitations. You have some people who may minimize the symptoms, and you have some people who might exaggerate the symptoms, Dr. El-Sadr said. But she has found that most people will be quite honest. Employers may also implement daily temperature screenings. Related Companies the main developer behind the Hudson Yards complex in New York City has installed infrared cameras in the lobbies of several large office buildings in the city that signal when a persons temperature is over 100 degrees, said Philippe Visser, Relateds president of office development. Some companies are putting technology in their employees hands: The staff returning to work at Rudin Managements New York office has been checking symptoms using an app from a company called TrueCare24, said Samantha Rudin, the firms senior vice president. While not all people who test positive for the coronavirus have a fever, if an employee is feeling feverish and knows her temperature will be checked before going into the office, she may be more inclined to stay home, Dr. Allen said. Anil Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor and Kiara Advani were spotted outside filmmaker Karan Johars Mumbai house on Friday. Karan hasnt made a public appearance for several weeks, after he was subjected to sustained online vitriol following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Pictures of the three, in which each of them are wearing masks, were shared online. Earlier in the day, Kiara and actor Varun Dhawan were seen at Karans Dharma Productions office in Mumbai. The filmmaker, after weeks of radio silence, made a social media return recently, when he commented on actor Ranveer Singhs Instagram live post. Karan hasnt made a single social media post himself, since his last one, on Sushants death. In his post, he had expressed regret at not staying in touch with the actor, despite noticing that he wasnt doing very well. Sushant and Karan worked together on the ill-fated film, Drive, which was denied a theatrical release and put out on Netflix. It received overwhelmingly negative reviews. Sushants Dil Bechara co-star Sahil Vaid, who has worked often with Karan as well, said in a recent interview to Navbharat Times, Unfortunately, Drive turned out to be a bad film and he was stuck with it. It became difficult for Karan Johar to find theatres for the film. It is a lie that the film was intentionally released on OTT. Also read: Karan Johar makes social media comeback after trolling over Sushant Singh Rajputs death, comments on Ranveer Singhs post Sushants death triggered a debate around the existence of nepotism in the film industry. Several filmmakers in the industry, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Aditya Chopra, have also been questioned by the Mumbai Police in relation with the case. The actors suicide is now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Karans next film is the upcoming Gunjan Saxena biopic, starring Janhvi Kapoor and Pankaj Tripathi, which will be released on Netflix on August 12. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In his memoir, The Answer Is, the host of Jeopardy!, Alex Trebek, explained that he wasnt born with an innate respect for women. It happened in the most unlikely of places: while the television icon was moving furniture, of all things. Alex Trebek | Ben Hider/Getty Images Alex Trebek calls his wife Jean a saint The 80-year-old Trebek, who was diagnosed with advanced cancer in March 2019, has said of late that his wife, Jean, has been unwaveringly by his side. Even when he has gotten testy with her. There was one day a few weeks ago when [my wife] Jeanie asked me in the morning, How do you feel?,' he told ABC News in July 2020. And I said, I feel like I wanna die. It was that bad. I apologize to her and explain that it has nothing to do with my love for her or my feelings for her. Jean and Alex Trebek | ADRIAN SANCHEZ-GONZALEZ/AFP via Getty Images RELATED: Jeopardy!: Alex and Jean Trebeks Generous Decision It just has to do with the fact that I feel like Im a terrible burden to her, and that bothers me tremendously. The quiz show host is grateful for his wife of 30 years and her rock-solid support. Shes a saint, he said. She has so much goodness in her that she is always giving out, always putting out to help me get over difficult moments. And there have been some difficult moments. Im just in awe of the way she handles it. Moving a couch and getting stumped In his memoir, The Answer Is, Trebek relates the story of the day he and his father, George, were trying their best to get a sofa through a door. The authors mother and father had divorced, with his mother having moved to the United States and his father remaining in their native Canada. George had been working as a chef at an Ontario restaurant and with business slow, asked his son, Alex, to help him move a couch into another room. RELATED: Alex Trebeks Wife, Jean, Opened Up About the Moment She Suspected Her Husband Was Not Well I was visiting him one holiday, Trebek wrote, and he wanted to move a sofa from one room to the next. He asked if I would help him. The two men, working together, were having a difficult time getting the furniture through the door. We tried to move the sofa, he recalled, but it was too wide to go through the doorway. We stood it on end and tried to twist it in, but it was too deep to go through the doorway. We were going crazy. We were there half an hour trying to get this through the door. The woman who changed Alex Trebeks view The fact that Trebek included this story in his one and only memoir says so much about him as a person. One, that the event stuck in his mind after all these years. And two, that hes clearly teachable and humble enough to be open to a new way of viewing a situation. His story continued with his fathers neighbor, Evelyns, arrival. Evelyn, one of his neighbors, who also happened to be the head waitress at the restaurant, walked by, took a quick look, and said, Why dont you open the sofa into a bed?' Evelyns suggestion was the ticket. Alex was impressed with Evelyns thinking outside the box. His father? Not so much. We laid [the sofa] flat, stood it up on its edge, and slid it easily through the doorway, he explained. No problem at all. My father was p*ssed as all get-out. It was as if his manhood had been attacked. Me, I thought, Holy smokes, shes brilliant. Women are sharp. And that little incident colored my view of women from that day forward. I never underestimated women after that. RELATED: Alex Trebek Gets Emotional About This Famous Jeopardy! Fan He Was My Hero Europeans warned not to forget virus as temperatures soar People relax in the hot weather in Green Park as the heatwave continues in London Sun-seekers flocked to beaches Saturday as parts of western Europe baked in a heatwave, but authorities urged people to avoid crowded areas and keep wearing their masks over concerns at rising numbers of coronavirus cases. The day after Britain recorded its hottest August day in 17 years, at 36.4 degrees Celsius (97.5 Fahrenheit), much of its southern coastline was packed with visitors, many of whom had been forced to abandon foreign holidays because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Authorities in Bournemouth, home to a golden seven-mile beach, warned at lunchtime that most of the stretch was so busy that "safe social distancing is not possible", and urged people to stay away. There was a similar story across other parts of Europe, where many residents endured weeks of lockdown earlier this year but face a continuing virus threat. In recent days, France warned about an uptick in cases, Spain locked down a town of 32,000 for two weeks, Britain imposed new regional restrictions and Germany closed two schools. Crowds of Germans headed for their country's shores on Saturday, but local authorities warned some beaches and lakes would be closed if there are too many people. Police in the capital Berlin told residents to avoid the popular lake Mueggelsee, while in Brandenburg state, the beach at Prenzlau lake was turning people away. "First time I've experienced that in 30 years," said the manager of the Prenzlau site, Ronny Klein. - Masks and fans - In France, alerts have been issued across the country and the health minister has urged people to keep wearing face masks even as temperatures hover around 40 degrees Celsius in some places. Temperatures have been high for a few days and are set to continue into the middle of next week, sparking warnings for vulnerable people to stay inside. For some, it was too hot. Roland and Helene, retirees in suburban Paris, said they go out early "to get some fresh air," but spend the rest of the day in their apartment. Story continues "We fear the heat a lot," Helene said. For the third day in a row, officials in Paris and the southern French port city of Marseille imposed driving and other restrictions to limit ozone pollution that affects people's breathing. The Belgian capital Brussels recorded its hottest August 8 since 1975, with 34.3 degrees reached mid-afternoon. Authorities there have warned against using fans to cool off, except at home, because of the heightened risk of spreading coronavirus. The Netherlands also recorded its hottest August 8 since temperature measurements started in 1901, and alerts were issued for three southern provinces as temperatures topped 35 degrees. Thousands of visitors flocked to Dutch beaches on Saturday including in The Hague, where many ignored the coronavirus social distancing 1.5 metre rule, an AFP correspondent saw. Researchers warned this week that climate change would bring more hot weather to Europe. A drought that affected more than half of central Europe during the summers of 2018 and 2019 was "unprecedented in the last 250 years", according to a study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports. It predicted that if greenhouse gas emissions continue their inexorable rise, the number of extreme two-year droughts will increase sevenfold in Europe in the second half of this century. burs-ar/lc Jerry Falwell Jr, a key ally of Donald Trump and one of the country's highest profile evangelical Christians, has agreed to take an indefinite leave of absence from his position at Liberty University. The move comes days after he was forced to apologise for a photograph he posted to social media showing him with his trousers unzipped, his shirt pulled up over his stomach and his arm round a woman in a similar pose. Mr Falwell deleted the social media post following uproar over the photo, including from Republicans. In a statement on Friday afternoon, Liberty University a private college in Lynchburg, Virginia said that the board had asked him to take an indefinite leave from his posts as president and chancellor, "to which he has agreed, effective immediately". The statement made no reference to the photograph. Mr Falwell has held positions at the university, which was founded by his father, the Rev Jerry Falwell, since 2007. He has been an outspoken supporter of Mr Trump, who maintains enthusiastic support from evangelical Christians. Recommended Jerry Falwell Jr tells hundreds of students to return to campus Earlier this week Mr Falwell addressed the controversial photograph in an interview with the radio station WLNI, saying the woman standing next to him was his wife's assistant and that it was taken during a costume party. He explained the pose they were both in by saying she was pregnant and could not fix her shorts, and that the picture was just "good fun". "I've apologised to everybody, and I've promised my kids ... I'm going to try to be a good boy from here on out," he said in the interview. Mark Walker, a Republican congressman for North Carolina and a pastor who has previously taught at Liberty University, called the picture "appalling" and called on him to resign. Conservative television personality Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Republican senator and presidential candidate John McCain, tweeted: "How is this Jerry Falwell Jr. photo even real? "Also if you're running the largest Christian university in America maybe don't put photos of yourself on social media with your pants undone on a yacht with random women in bad wigs. So gross, so hypocritical." The Associated Press contributed to this report Opposition is growing among postal workers to the ongoing efforts of the ruling class to privatize the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the increasingly unbearable work regime. On Friday, Louis DeJoythe newly appointed postmaster general, former corporate executive and Trump mega-donorattempted to deny that he was pursuing privatization, while at the same time voicing his commitment to organizational realignment and operational efficiency, telling the Postal Service Board of Governors meeting, We are at the beginning of a transformative process. Our financial position is dire, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, a broken business model and a management strategy that has not adequately addressed these issues, he continued. The World Socialist Web Site recently spoke to postal workers about their work conditions and the privatization drive. The names of the workers have been changed in order to protect their identity from management. USPS mail carrier (Credit US Postal Service) James, a postal worker in Pennsylvania, said, Ive honestly been surprised by how few people at work are talking about the new postmaster general. Ive literally only heard one coworker talking about it so far. This might partly be because the city carrier union (which is my union) has been completely silent on a national and local level, but also because the pandemic has left us so short-handed. Many people are working two weeks at a time without a day off and around 12-13 hours a day one new guy just worked 21 days in a row. A lot of carriers seem too tired to even think about the future right now, and I suspect it wont occur to them until Trumps appointing starts affecting them directly in terms of management trying to cut labor costs. When asked about what postal workers need during the pandemic, James responded: Testing would be a huge relief to many though I think we understand the current limitations of how difficult tests are to attain. Nonetheless, we are working in extremely close quarters until we leave the office every morning, and nobody knows whos carrying what. What we need in the long term is a little less clear, he said. I know the DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] Labor Commission is holding a call this week for USPS employees. The goal seems to be pressuring Congress to support the post office, which is simply not enough. The postal unions already have their own infrastructure in place to lobby congress, and it has gotten us nowhere. There is a lot of incentive for capital to privatize the USPS and the new postmaster general may only accelerate this process, and community support for postal workers will be crucial if were ever forced to take action. Richard, a worker in the Morgan facility in New York, described the rise of worker deaths, which has been deliberately hidden by management from workers. I would say I know six workers who have died from COVID-19 at Morgan. I know a few of the people who have died. I know one coworker who had a locker close to mine. He had a minor accident with his van one day. They took him to the hospital. They released him from the hospital, and he decided he would come back to work the next day. He died on his way in to work. Most of the people who passed away had underlying conditions. My friend was 67. He was going to retire in a year and move back to Trinidad. He used to be a smoker, but then quit. I was proud of him for that. Referring to the recent George Floyd protests, Richard said, I have seen the protests. I havent joined because I am working 12 hours a day. The working class needs to take action. Workers should defend the protesters. The protesters are a voice for the people trying to be heard. I knew our society was moving along toward dictatorship a long time ago with Bush. They are trying to take away our rights and rule by martial law. When reporters had asked about USPS ongoing funding crisis, he said, About three weeks ago, the post office got rid of the full-time outside cleaners they brought in for about two months to clean the Morgan facility to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. I called them the quarantine people, and they were always working and cleaning. This was needed for us because we are essential workers. We work on four floors of our nine-floor building. We used to work on many more of the floors. They washed the handrails on the escalators. They cleaned the doorknobs everyone used. They cleaned the tables in the cafeteria and the chairs. They used to clean the vending machines, and all the knobs and buttons on the elevators. They were doing a good job, I thought. Nobody bothered them. There were about five on my shift, and they were always working. They worked on other shifts as well, but about three weeks ago they were let go. Then they tried to get us to do that work. A supervisor told one coworker to start doing the quarantine work after the others left. She did it on her overtime for two hours, but she couldnt do all that work. So she started doing it on her eight-hour shift, and then she couldnt get her work done. Then she told them she couldnt do it. Now no one is doing this important health and safety work. The nearby Farley post office has been sold. The buildings that are being built around the Morgan post office here are very expensive. It is near the new Hudson Yards project, and that may determine the outcome of our building here. Expressing his support for the perspective of the Socialist Equality Party, he concluded, There is nothing good in privatization. I dont do anything the Republicans or the Democrats say, and I dont vote. I am down with what you are talking about. The history of the Democrats, Republicans and all of them, is they are just making promises. This is what living is like now, and it is getting worse. This is war, and we have to fight. If youre a USPS worker and want to share your story or discuss the formation of rank-and-file safety committees to fight the pandemic, contact the World Socialist Web Site today. Last month, Max Bohnel did something that is central to New Jerseys efforts to get a handle on the coronavirus pandemic: He went to a community center in his hometown of Montclair and got tested for the virus. Then he waited for his results. And waited. And waited. Maria Balshaw, the first female director of the Tate, today hits out at the sexism she has experienced due to her choice of bright and non-conformist clothing The first female director of the Tate today hits out at the sexism she has experienced due to her choice of bright and non-conformist clothing. Maria Balshaw said her fondness for daring, often clashing colours, has seen her subjected to the kind of scrutiny not experienced by her male predecessors. Dr Balshaw, who took over the galleries in 2017, said she viewed her clothes as armour which made a statement about her personality. She added: The endless commentary on my gold shoes just the remarks always about the colourful dress. It ought to be applied to men as well as women and I kind of sometimes feel exasperated. 'Really I am running a museum I am not a clothes horse. The 50-year-old, who was last week named by Vogue as one of the top 25 women shaping the year 2020, also reveals her father Walter died during the pandemic. Its hard to talk about him at the moment because part of my lockdown has been very sad because Dad died in his care home, which was a very strange experience because I realised we mourn collectively, she tells BBC Radio 4s Desert Island Discs today. Dr Balshaw (pictured with 2018 Turner Prize winner Charlotte Prodger, centre, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, left) says she views her clothes as armour I hadnt thought about that. Dad was a man who liked to go to the pub, went most evenings and had a wide network of pub friends. 'And we were only eight of us at his funeral. She also defends plans to axe 200 staff who work in the shops, cafes and restaurants at the Tates sites in London, Liverpool and St Ives. We are facing 50 per cent fewer visitors coming to our galleries for probably quite a long time we wont be able to open all the cafes and the shops in the same way, she says. By PTI KANPUR: An accused of the Kanpur ambush during which eight policemen were killed by henchmen of slain gangster Vikas Dubey surrendered before the Chaubepur police on Saturday in a dramatic manner, wearing a confession placard and seeking forgiveness for the crime. According to a senior officer, Umakant, alias Guddan, was accompanied by his wife, daughter and other family members at the time of his surrender. He came to the police station wearing a confession placard and sought forgiveness from police, the officer said, adding that members of his family pleaded with them to save his life. He was taken into custody and will be produced before a court, he said. The UP Special Task Force (STF) and the Kanpur police had been on the lookout for Umakant since the ambush at Kanpur's Bikru village on July 3. They had raided several of his possible hideouts. The Kanpur police in a press release on Saturday claimed that his surrender was the result of their alertness and frequent raids that built pressure on him. Police said Umakant was carrying a cash reward of Rs 50,000 and confessed to the crime. ALSO READ | Kanpur ambush: Slain UP cop suggested links between now-suspended colleague, Vikas Dubey During questioning, he confessed that he resorted to indiscriminate firing at the police party along with Vikas Dubey and his associates Amar Dubey, Atul Dubey, Prem Kumar, Prabhat Mishra, who were gunned down in separate police encounters, the release said. Umakant said he felt he was guilty for the brutal killing of policemen and decided to surrender after facing tremendous pressure and frequent raids at every possible hideout, the press release said. Umakant is one of the nine accused who have either been arrested or surrendered till now. A hunt is on for the other six remaining named accused. Earlier, several aides of Vikas Dubey, including Daya Shankar Agnihotri, Shyamu Bajpai, Jahan Yadav, Shashikant, Monu and Shivam Dubey were arrested either by the UP STF or the Kanpur Police, while Gopal Saini surrendered before a special court in Kanpur Dehat about 10 days ago. Those who are still at large are Chotu Shukla, Shiv Tewari, Vishnu Pal Yadav, Ramu Bajpai, Hiru Dubey and Bal Govind. As many as six prime accused-- Vikas Dubey, Prabhat Mishra, Amar Dubey, Bauan Dubey, Prem Kumar Pandey and Atul Dubey-- have been gunned down in separate encounters since July 3. 1. The most resonant political issue in this society is education, in terms of numbers affected and intensity of reaction. Its now become part of COVID. Ontario says itll reopen schools next month almost exactly as they were at the shutdown especially for the youngest, kindergarten to Grade 3, who are least able to act with restraint and irresistibly throw their arms around each other in joy or combat. The question isnt if theyll have to reclose schools but when. The key is space and distance. The plan makes no reduction in number per class, at those young levels, or teachers per student. Hence my pessimism. If that doesnt impress you, consider Israels botched reopening. Parents are torn, I can attest after a highly sophisticated survey of passersby from my porch. Many are, and here only cliche suffices, at their wits end. But they want healthy kids not bringing a virus home with them. This engenders fury, politically directed. The U.S. had a national day of resistance to reopenings on Monday. Cities like Chicago cancelled live classes. The sole big city still set on an in-person relaunch is New York. We shall see. 2. The only possible rationale for this, ugh, plan is a hope that enough parents will reluctantly keep their kids home, thus halving class sizes, while saving money and, incidentally, lives. If this were the U.S., Id say the goal is also to privatize public schools, but thats less plausible here, where Conservatives have focused on privatizing and profiting from long-term-care homes. 3. The spacing in DOFOs head. Doug Fords defaults are still set to neocon, as when he spoke with a farmer (hes a great guy) who told him migrant workers wont take tests, leading to a Doug eruption. It was classic boss bias. Hes not entirely stuck, though. The gravy train still runs in his head but hes willing to spend for janitors, nurses, buildings. Just not teachers. Is this the old rightwing anti-intellectual, anti-teacher and, above all, anti-union bias? Doug rarely references unions; Jason Kenney in Alberta wont even take their calls. But Doug has also proclaimed that in-class teaching is the best by miles. Thats a shift. In an earlier incarnation, he was uniquely keen about online courses. One of the few perks of COVID has been a nearly universal recognition that online teaching sucks, as Jake Tapper said on CNN. Unions will be central in resisting the relaunch. Theyre not legally allowed to strike, but refusal to work in unsafe conditions is available as a legal justification and, in an unhappy coincidence, reflects reality. 4. How does anti-racism factor in? Same thing. Reopening schools raises all the issues of equality. The well-off can afford to keep kids home, hire tutors, set up pods with other parents or send kids to private schools where the ratios are just fine. Itd move us toward a U.S.-style public system for the poor only. Kenya is at least dealing with this. Theyve closed all their schools for the coming year, in order not to exacerbate the class (!) gap. *** Perry Masons enchanting return. Those of us addicted to the ancient black-and-white Perry Mason courtroom series share a sorry secret: they stank. Characters were dull; plots, uninspired. Of the hundreds I watched, exactly one had a delightful, unexpected, satisfying twist. Mason didnt just get acquitals, the real killers always confessed stupidly in court. I think the shows appeal in eternal late-night reruns was it helped people fall asleep. Someone told me: I always drop off right after the judge says, Well now take a recess. This summers reboot rectifies that. It explains why Perry wants more than acquittals. Della and Paul become complex and attractive. It uses historical context like The First World War and Christian revivalism in 1930s L.A. It takes the time for details (as the original Perry, Raymond Burr, always yearned to do). The Conservatives on the House Committee that interrogated Justin Trudeau seemed stuck in the old show: Answer the question... Yes or no How many?... Whats the number? Its not appealing and theyre not D.A. Hamilton Burger. They should have a look at the new version, now in session. Beirut residents are still clearing rubble from streets that appear war-torn, days after a blast that shocked the country and horrified the world. Why it matters: The explosion is likely to accelerate a painful cycle Lebanon was already living through discontent, economic distress, and emigration. The big picture: Lebanon was already undergoing a massive financial crisis, deepening coronavirus outbreak, and political instability following months of protests. It was also recovering from devastating wildfires last year. The economic crisis had left 75% of Lebanese in need of aid, 33% unemployed, and 15% one million people below the poverty line, BBC reports. Lebanon already had among the lowest life satisfaction levels in the world, wedged between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, according to Gallup. Add to that an explosion which killed over 150 people, injured more than 5,000 and left as many as 300,000 homeless in a matter of minutes. Where things stand: While countries such as France have offered to help, it's unlikely the international community can truly come to Lebanon's rescue financially or otherwise during a pandemic that is sapping most attention and resources. Lebanon's middle class has been outraged by the government negligence that allowed 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate to be unsafely stored in the city's port for six years, and by a "slow and ineffective rescue effort," The Wall Street Journal reports. Blame-shifting and an unwillingness to allow international experts to lead an investigation into the explosion are doing little to restore confidence. Between the lines: There is general agreement in Lebanon that the political ruling class is corrupt, the Middle East Institute's Hassan Mneimneh tells Axios. As the dust settles in Beirut, there will likely be more protests calling for "the fall of the regime." Yes, but: "As dramatic as this event is, it does not seem to be a break from the cycle of trauma," Mneimeh says. What to watch: Educated younger Lebanese, already struggling with high unemployment, are likely to head West in search of employment, Mneimeh says. Many have the skills and means to find work outside of Lebanon. That could drive a brain drain just as Beirut and Lebanon are attempting to rebuild. Financially, foreign governments have said they will provide Lebanon with short-term aid, but many will be cautious in dealing with a government that is notoriously corrupt and associated with Hezbollah, per the Journal. foreign governments have said they will provide Lebanon with short-term aid, but many will be cautious in dealing with a government that is notoriously corrupt and associated with Hezbollah, per the Journal. The International Monetary Fund and the Trump administration have already said they'll oppose a $5 billion bailout Lebanon is seeking absent major economic overhauls. The bottom line: The chances of "organizing something constructive" in the aftermath of the explosion appear low, according to Mneimneh. London: A British-Muslim activist has launched a legal action against the UK governments anti-extremism strategy after he was labelled a non-violent extremist" on Tuesday. Salman Butt took his case to the High Court accusing the governments Prevent strategy of breaching free speech rights. Last September, Butt was named in a Downing Street press release about an aspect of the strategy, known as the Prevent duty, being used to stop extremists radicalising students on university campuses. He was listed as one of the six speakers who gave talks on campuses and was said to have views that violated British values - such as democracy, free speech, equality and the rule of law. The 31-year-old denies holding views contrary to British values. Im a father of three, Im a British-Muslim, a writer, an activist. I am not an extremist, either violent or non-violent. Being labelled as some kind of extremist does have a stigmatising effect. I have not spoken at any universities since I was named in the (Downing Street) press release, he told BBC. My aim isnt just to clear my name, it is to bring transparency to the hidden processes by which individuals are tarnished with the label of an extremist, to ensure it is brought into the scrutiny of the courts, he said. Earlier this year, a High Court judge ruled Butt had an arguable case against the UK Home Office, and permission was granted to take the judicial review case to a full hearing, which starts this week. Butts lawyers are challenging part of the Prevent strategy that aims to stop people becoming or supporting terrorists. The Prevent duty guidance issued to higher education institutions is flawed because it conflicts with the right to free speech which is enshrined in the Education Act for higher education institutions, said Saimo Chahal from Bindmans LLP. The challenge, if successful, could have major implications for the controversial policy as it applies to universities and higher education, she said. The hearing this week is scheduled for three days. It would be inappropriate to comment on ongoing legal proceedings, a UK Home Office spokesperson said. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Ankara and Nur-Sultan discussed the possibility of resuming international flights between Kazakhstan and Turkey, the press service of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry reported. "In Ankara, the Kazakh delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yeraly Tugzhanov held a meeting with the Minister of Health of the Turkish Republic, Fahrettin Koca," the diplomatic department informed. Following the talks, the head of the Turkish Ministry of Health, Fahrettin Koca assured that this issue would be included in the agenda of the next meeting of the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board. Householders have been urged to be vigilant for markings on their properties which criminals may be using to single out for burglaries or thefts of dogs. A number of community alert groups across the county have urged people to be aware of the practice and to contact gardai if necessary. Gangs have been known to 'mark out' properties for accomplices so that the same vehicles or individuals won't be seen in the same area twice. Marks with aerosol paint or chalk are often left on front walls or cable ties may be attached to gates to tip off a would-be burglar that it is a potential target. There has been a surge in thefts of dogs in recent weeks, possibly because a demand for pets that began during the lockdown has inflated prices for the animals on online market sites in Ireland and the UK. Last week, gardai seized ten dogs believed to be stolen following a search in Rathkeale. They included Labradors, Springer Spaniels, English Setters, Cavalier King Charles and Huskies which were cared for in a local shelter while the owners were traced. In late July, Gardai seized two stolen male springer spaniel dogs in Castleconnell, Co Limerick despite two men claiming they owned them. One of the pets was later returned to its rightful owner in Co Cork. In July, gardai seized eight dogs believed to worth in the region of 5,000 when they stopped a van exceeding the speed limit on the M8 motorway in Co Tipperary. Also in June, Gardai in Cork seized 22 dogs during a search operation at locations in Gurranabraher and Knocknaheeny. Voters brave COVID fear: Lanka shows how elections can be held amid pandemic View(s): Fears of low turnout owing to COVID-19 proved unfounded as voters swarmed out for Wednesdays 2020 Parliamentary elections. The first poll to be conducted in South Asia amidst a global pandemic is testimony to the organisational skills of the Election Commission which was assisted by numerous others like Government officials, police and, this time, the health sector too. Their efforts and repeated assurances of safety led to a healthy overall voter turnout of 71 percent. Admittedly lower than the 77 percent notched at the 2015 Parliamentary poll, it was a victory for planners given the circumstances. There were unprecedented features in the manner the election was held. Voters had to wear masks, maintain the one-metre social distancing, wash or sanitise their hands and have their temperatures checked before entering the polling centre. Contact was minimal between election officials and voters. EC Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya was confident enough to publicly declare that polling centres were 100 percent COVID-19-free. To demonstrate, he cast his ballot at Lindsay Girls School in Colombo. It was the first time he voted since 2011. He said he did so to prove that elderly voters need not fear participating at the poll. Our teams witnessed many elderly voters at polling centres from the early hours. We travelled through the Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts and saw brisk voting in most areas. There was a good turnout in Colombo. Bad weather in some areas did not keep people away. In some locations, however, COVID-19 health guidelines were lax. For instance, there was no social distancing or temperature checks. At one centre in Kaduwela, a voter argued with election officials who refused to let him vote with a photocopied national identity card (NIC). They told him in no uncertain terms to return with an identity document that is recognized under election law. In the Gampaha district, there were long queues outside polling centres in Ekala, Mabole and Wattala. These areas have a good mix of voters from different communities. There were no major incidents reported from the district. In the Kalutara districts Beruwala electorate, as voters entered the Naleem Hajiar Ladies College, chits with party symbols and preference numbers lay scattered on the ground near the entrance. A nearby shop owner said they were thrown the previous night by supporters. A slow pace in the morning gave way to good momentum in the afternoon. The district recorded a 70 percent turnout by 5 p.m., compared with 80 percent in 2015. There is an influential gem business community in Beruwala and many preferred a stable government to rescue the countrys sinking economy amidst the pandemic. Mohammed Askar, 29, appreciated the way President Gotabaya Rajapaksa handled the COVID-19 crisis and said his main reason for voting was to herald in a strong, stable administration. The previous Rajapaksa Government, he said, had brought in business-friendly regulations. There were many rumours spread about us, particularly about Muslim women, in the past, he said. We are hopeful that the new Government will ensure the security and prosperity of all communities. N.N.M. Nufail, another resident, said, We were duped by the previous Government with false promises but this time we will correct it. What was important for him, he said, was the wellbeing of his community. Janaka Priyantha, a 42-year-old father of two, was registered to vote at Walatara in Beruwala. Together with his wife, he had travelled a long distance from Akuressa in the Matara district to cast his vote. He said he hoped the new administration would reduce the cost of living and continue to keep the COVID-19 crisis under control. There was no violence in the run-up to the election in the Kalutara district, but one serious incident drew national attention. On Monday, around 10.20 p.m., three people in a vehicle solicited polling cards from locals in Mulliyamale in exchange for Rs 5,000. They were told they could take the money and hand over the cards by the morning of the next day. The police were tipped off and two men were arrested and remanded till August 18. They were charged under the Parliamentary Elections Act. Police said the two suspects, along with a man identified as Rumi, arrived at the mosque on Monday night offering the bribes. They recovered Rs. 33,950 in the vehicle along with propaganda material of Samagi Jana Balavegaya candidate Rajitha Senaratne and two other candidates from the district. On election day, we met W.H.S. Nandajith, Kalutara Coordinator of Peoples Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL). He told us voting was peaceful with only minor violations reported. He said he toured centres across the district. Those who completed mandatory quarantine were allowed to cast their votes from 4-5 p.m. By 4.10 p.m, a 29-year-old returnee from the Maldives who had completed the 14-day isolation as well as another two weeks of self-quarantine at home came to Pothupitiya Maha Vidyalaya with his father to cast his vote. Our local Public Health Inspector educated us on the special procedures, he said, requesting anonymity. I was told to go to the polling centre during the designated time and meet a person from the local health authority. He had to come back later as the PHI was not present at the time. Tragically, two voters died at polling centres or while returning home after voting. Eighty one-year-old Garlin Peiris collapsed while leaving Bekkegama Maha Vidyalaya in Panadura while 69-year-old Seelawathi was rushed to hospital from the polling centre in Aluthepola Walagamba Maha Vidyalaya in Panadura. Both died of heart attacks. One person was hospitalised after a wasp attack at the polling centre in St. Thomas College, Guruthalawa. At 5p.m., ballot boxes were sealed and placed inside special polythene bags. The boxes from each centre were then put inside a larger cardboard box and sealed again before being taken to counting centres under guard. They were stored under lock and key inside a designated room watched by police until the next morning when counting began. Police and Special Task Force personnel provided security to counting centres, most of which were in schools. Counting officers were subject to temperature checks and had to sign an affidavit swearing to follow health advice. They worked in shifts. Like a puppy chasing its tail, some new investors often chase 'the next big thing', even if that means buying 'story stocks' without revenue, let alone profit. But as Warren Buffett has mused, 'If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.' When they buy such story stocks, investors are all too often the patsy. So if you're like me, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, like Dunelm Group (LON:DNLM). While profit is not necessarily a social good, it's easy to admire a business that can consistently produce it. While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, unless its owners have an endless appetite for subsidizing the customer, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else breathe its last breath. Check out our latest analysis for Dunelm Group Dunelm Group's Earnings Per Share Are Growing. The market is a voting machine in the short term, but a weighing machine in the long term, so share price follows earnings per share (EPS) eventually. It's no surprise, then, that I like to invest in companies with EPS growth. We can see that in the last three years Dunelm Group grew its EPS by 9.0% per year. That's a pretty good rate, if the company can sustain it. I like to take a look at earnings before interest and (EBIT) tax margins, as well as revenue growth, to get another take on the quality of the company's growth. The good news is that Dunelm Group is growing revenues, and EBIT margins improved by 2.2 percentage points to 13%, over the last year. Ticking those two boxes is a good sign of growth, in my book. The chart below shows how the company's bottom and top lines have progressed over time. For finer detail, click on the image. Fortunately, we've got access to analyst forecasts of Dunelm Group's future profits. You can do your own forecasts without looking, or you can take a peek at what the professionals are predicting. Story continues Are Dunelm Group Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders? Like the kids in the streets standing up for their beliefs, insider share purchases give me reason to believe in a brighter future. This view is based on the possibility that stock purchases signal bullishness on behalf of the buyer. However, small purchases are not always indicative of conviction, and insiders don't always get it right. The good news for Dunelm Group shareholders is that no insiders reported selling shares in the last year. So it's definitely nice that Independent Non-Executive Director William Reeve bought UK26k worth of shares at an average price of around UK8.62. The good news, alongside the insider buying, for Dunelm Group bulls is that insiders (collectively) have a meaningful investment in the stock. Notably, they have an enormous stake in the company, worth UK872m. That equates to 33% of the company, making insiders powerful and aligned with other shareholders. So it might be my imagination, but I do sense the glimmer of an opportunity. While insiders already own a significant amount of shares, and they have been buying more, the good news for ordinary shareholders does not stop there. The cherry on top is that the CEO, Nick Wilkinson is paid comparatively modestly to CEOs at similar sized companies. For companies with market capitalizations between UK1.5b and UK4.9b, like Dunelm Group, the median CEO pay is around UK1.7m. Dunelm Group offered total compensation worth UK1.4m to its CEO in the year to . That seems pretty reasonable, especially given its below the median for similar sized companies. While the level of CEO compensation isn't a huge factor in my view of the company, modest remuneration is a positive, because it suggests that the board keeps shareholder interests in mind. It can also be a sign of good governance, more generally. Is Dunelm Group Worth Keeping An Eye On? As I already mentioned, Dunelm Group is a growing business, which is what I like to see. On top of that, we've seen insiders buying shares even though they already own plenty. To me, that all makes it well worth a spot on your watchlist, as well as continuing research. We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 2 warning signs for Dunelm Group that you need to be mindful of. There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. So if you like the sound of Dunelm Group, you'll probably love this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying. Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction. 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 60m Parkway Valley development will have office space for up to 1,000 people, developers have said. Hundreds of building jobs look set to be created, as well as at least 100 direct jobs as part of the ambitious plan green-lit by council. It will feature 245 bedrooms across a range of blocks ranging in height from three to 14 storeys. Of these, the plans provide for 122 duplex units and 123 apartments. Some 76 one-bed units are planned, 127 two-bed units, and 42 three-bed units. Four office blocks are in the plan, over basement parking. A 152 bedroom, four storey hotel also forms part of the mammoth development, alongside a filling station, and a community building which will rise up three-storeys. Four office blocks are in the plan, over basement parking, providing 12,262 square metres. Therell also be a creche, a multi-use games area and a public park. David Goddard, chief executive of Davy Real Estate, which manages the Novelty Icav fund, said the site is optimally positioned and that development works will start in 2021, supporting several hundred jobs. On completion, this development will create upwards of 100 jobs directly and, subject to successful leasing, the proposed office complex could also accommodate up to 1,000 staff. The combination of investment expenditure, commercial activity and the creation of a vibrant new local community is expected to have a significant positive impact on the local economy, he said in a statement to this newspaper. Its all a far cry from plans for the site at the height of the Celtic Tiger period in Ireland. Then, the site named the Parkway Valley was earmarked for a shopping centre, multiplex cinema and even an ice-rink. Even as late as 2013, when retail strategies disallowed major out-of-town retail, plans for a shopping centre at the then renamed Horizon Mall were mooted. It would have seen Marks and Spencer open its first Limerick store. Instead, the British retailer is focusing its attentions on the city, after its Parkway plans were allowed, but only subject to very strict time conditions. Shells of buildings had dominated the site since the onset of the economic meltdown as ownership of the site passed between parties. Its only been in the last few months these were cleared from the site. This came after a derelict notice order was slapped on the developer by Limerick City and County Council. Welcoming the granting of permission, Cllr Sarah Kiely said: The office blocks will bring a lot of employment, as well as a creche and a hotel. Obviously, these will all bring employment. The location is perfect when it comes to a multi-use residential site. I think it will be great for the area. It wont damage the city centre at all I feel it will be positive for the centre. For more Limerick news click here Hospital officials in Madagascar's capital Antananarivo say they are struggling to cope with a rush of coronavirus patients despite the distribution of a herbal drink touted as a remedy by the president. President Andry Rajoelina has been promoting an infusion derived from artemisia a plant with proven anti-malarial properties as a homegrown cure for COVID-19. He has brushed off warnings by the World Health Organization (WHO) that there are no published scientific studies of the drink which has been called COVID-Organics and that its effects have not been tested. But COVID-designated hospitals in Antananarivo warn they are starting to run out of beds. We are now only accepting severe cases, Andohotapenaka Hospital director Nasolotsiry Raveloson told AFP on Tuesday. The number of cases is increasing more and more, he explained. We now have 46 severe cases and so we only have four spaces left. At Joseph Raseta Befelatanana Hospital, director Mamy Randria said the facility was overwhelmed. It is impossible to free up spaces for the moment, he said. The head of Anosiala University Hospital, Rado Razafimahatratra echoed the concerns, noting that the facility was constantly overwhelmed. To date the Indian Ocean island-nation of Madagascar has recorded 7,548 coronavirus cases, including just 65 deaths. Infections have spiked over recent days, however, raising concern in a country where three-quarters of the population live on less than $1.90 per day, according to the World Bank. A patient seriously ill with COVID-19 coronavirus is being treated at the Andohatapenaka University Hospital in Antananarivo on July 20, 2020. RIJASOLO / AFP 'Notable Flare-ups' In a letter on Monday, the health ministry made an urgent appeal to development agencies to support its fight against coronavirus. Over the past weeks, the COVID-19 epidemic has evolved in a very critical way in Madagascar with notable flare-ups in certain regions, particularly in Antananarivo, said the letter. The ministry asked for oxygen bottles, 227 ventilators, 2.3 million face masks, 697,000 pairs of gloves and 533,200 medical blouses. Government spokeswoman Lalatiana Rakotondrazafy said the state was aware it faced certain shortages but was working hard to find solutions citing new treatment centres in the capital and eastern city of Toamasina. Two factors have contributed to the spread of this disease, said health department official Zely Arivelo Andriamanantany on local television. Firstly people took CVO (Covid-Organics) and then didn't respect social distancing. Secondly, CVO only guarantees protection for two to three weeks, he said. The government, meanwhile, has blamed the rise in cases on increased testing capacity. Positive COVID-19 cases did not take CVO or only took it sporadically, without following the prescribed dosage, said official documents sent to AFP on Tuesday. Almost systematically, within the same family unit, those who result positive were not drinking CVO or at least not regularly while those who tested negative were taking the solution (and) remained negative despite living together without necessarily social distancing. By Trend Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has described Russian President Vladimir Putin as his elder brother, Trend reports citing TASS. "I regard Putin as my elder brother, and I sincerely believe that he is my brother," Lukashenko told Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon in a TV interview. "Not in the sense one in command as a senior and the other is junior. He is really like an elder brother in terms of age and [political] weight An elder brothers role is to help, support and advise. Not to make you stumble, but to provide support." Lukashenko acknowledged that certain tensions in his relationship with Putin did exist. "Yes, there are certain tensions, because both of us are persons of strong character, if you dont mind my saying so," Lukashenko said. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Credit: CC0 Public Domain Paris on Saturday made face masks compulsory outdoors in crowded areas and tourist hotspots, as infections in and around the French capital rose and the global death toll crept past 722,000. The decision to make face masks mandatory outdoors in Paris and its surrounding areas from Monday morning was widely expected after a formal request earlier in the week by mayor Anne Hidalgo. The mask will be obligatory for all those aged 11 and over "in certain very crowded zones", said a police statement. They include the banks of the Seine River and more than a 100 streets in the French capital, including tourist destinations like Montmartre, where the Sacre Coeur basilica is located. "All the indicators show that since mid-July the virus is again circulating more actively in the region," said the statement. Around 400 people were testing positive for COVID-19 in the region every day, with the 20-30 age group particularly affected. Several French towns and cities have already introduced similar measures, as well as parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain. As temperatures soared across western Europe, holidaymakers crowded beaches despite health warnings about the risk of infection. On Saturday, a day after Britain recorded its hottest August day in 17 years at 36.4 degrees Celsius (97.5 Fahrenheit), much of its southern coastline was packed with tourists. By lunchtime, officials in Bournemouth were calling on people to stay away from the golden seven-mile beach, warning that most of the stretch was so busy that "safe social distancing is not possible". Local authorities in Germany warned that some beaches and lakes would be closed if there were too many people. In Brandenburg state, police were already turning people away from the beach at Prenzlau lake. "First time I've experienced that in 30 years," said Prenzlau site manager, Ronny Klein. Some places of work remain vectors of infection. Meat giant Danish Crown announced Saturday that it had shut down a major slaughterhouse in Denmark after nearly 150 employees came down with the virus. Indian strike As of 1600 GMT, Europe has recorded more than 3.3 million cases of coronavirus and suffered 212,861 deaths from the virus, according to an AFP tally drawn from official sources. But the hardest-hit region, is now Latin America and the Caribbean, with more than 5.4 million cases and at least 215,944 deaths as of Friday. India meanwhile, has more than two million infectionsits caseload having doubled in three weeksand has recorded 42,518 deaths. It now has the world's third-highest pandemic caseload after the United States and Brazil. Women health workers in several Indian states staged a two-day strike from Friday and plan a mass protest in New Delhi on Sunday for better pay, a higher pension and anti-virus protection equipment and testing. Shiksha Rana, a social health activist in New Delhi, told AFP at least 200 health workersand their familieshad been infected in the Delhi region alone. "We had to crowd-fund money for their treatment and food for their families," she said. Back to school in Gaza Palestinian children returned to school in Gaza after a five-month suspension due to a coronavirus lockdownbut with fewer classes and special safety measures in place. The United Nations agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, said over 285,000 pupils had returned to its 277 schools. It had provided material to sanitise the schools and trained staff on the measures to take and would review the situation in a week. Gaza, under Israeli blockade since 2007, has reported 78 cases of the COVID-19 illness, with one death. Germany meanwhile expanded its list of high-risk countries and regions. Travellers returning from some regions in Bulgaria and Romania will have to take a coronavirus testunless they can supply a recent results showing they have tested negative. Taiwanese airlines have been innovating to try to alleviate the financial hit for the coronavirus downturn. China Airlines is offering children courses on how to be flight attendants. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 AFP A protest in Portlands east side escalated early Saturday morning after an hours-long standoff between demonstrators and police. Officers used stun grenades, pepper spray, impact munitions and physical force to push a crowd of 300 protesters away from a police building on East Burnside Street. Police detained multiple people as they advanced through residential streets. The response by police followed a barrage of eggs thrown by protesters at officers. Police had declared the gathering unlawful more than three hours earlier and repeatedly warned people to leave. Early in the night, police arrested a photojournalist and accused him of trespass. Portland police later said officials ultimately decided to break up the crowd after people threw rocks and explosive devices at officers, something two Oregonian/OregonLive journalists did not see while they observed interactions between protesters and police. A loud firework did explode near a building shortly before officers advanced. The confrontation unfolded hours after President Donald Trump voiced renewed criticism of the demonstrations and the local police response. Trump said anarchists and mobs have been given free rein in the city since federal officers stopped policing the downtown demonstrations last week. Instead of downtown, a small group of protesters has gathered in recent nights for direct action events at Portland police buildings. Several people have lit fires in trash cans, damaged doors and windows and thrown things at officers. Portland police have responded in force every night, including once with tear gas. That core group of protesters gathered Friday at Laurelhurst Park in Southeast Portland to march to the Penumbra Kelly Building on East Burnside Street and 47th Avenue. City and county law enforcement share the building. It has been a frequent site of clashes between police and protesters. As a crowd started to gather at the park around 8:30 p.m., some people handed out handmade plywood shields in preparation for a potential clash with police. A group of about a dozen people practiced formations with the shields. Several tables nearby offered resources, such as snacks, water, protective gear and pamphlets about teargas. Many protesters were dressed in black from head to toe, as requested by a flyer on social media promoting the event. The crowd had grown to a few hundred people by 9:20 p.m. People started to march to the Kelly building soon after that. When the crowd arrived, they were greeted by a row of officers in riot gear. Some officers flashed bright lights at the crowd. Police declared the gathering to be an unlawful assembly within a few minutes and ordered people to go. The crowd stayed. Drumming and chanting drowned out the police orders to leave and go east. People chanted, I dont see no riot here! Take off your riot gear. The crowd converged near a driveway next to the building, which sits several yards away from the street. Traffic cones and hedges that surround the building mostly kept protesters far away. Some officers advanced toward a group of journalists standing near the property. The journalists, including an Oregonian/OregonLive photographer, were staying behind a line of orange cones that police had set up. Police moved in and detained one photographer working on behalf of The Daily Mail. The photographer was identified as Michael Arellano by his partner on Twitter. Arellano was booked into jail at 3:17 a.m. Saturday on a misdemeanor trespass charge. Police said in a statement early Saturday morning that officers arrested people who remained on police property despite warnings. The statement did not mention Arellano by name. After Arellano was detained, police backed away from the crowd. Protesters prepared for the potential of more clashes. Many people stood behind a row of protesters carrying the homemade shields. Some people pointed flash lights at police. But at that point in the night, there were no larger coordinated actions such as throwing objects or pointing lasers that have prompted police response in the past. Police announced to the crowd that some officers had been hit by thrown objects. The claim drew widespread boos from the crowd. Three Oregonian/OregonLive journalists on the scene did not observe people throwing things, but there were some water bottles near the front line. Portland police soon issued a follow-up announcement on Twitter to say some people had thrown stones at officers or shined lasers toward them. Police said some of the stone pieces were pulled from a concrete retainer wall near the building. An Oregonian/OregonLive could not find the damaged wall. Police also said on Twitter they were keeping the loudspeakers farther away from the crowd than usual to avoid the items being used as weapons against us. That meant protesters often could not hear what was being said. The faceoff continued past 10:45 p.m., an hour after police labeled the gathering unlawful. Around 10:50 p.m., one person walked beyond the protester line and approached the building. Police quickly detained the person. There was little effort beyond that to provoke police. Most people in the frontline focused on holding up their plywood shields. Others in the crowd stood around in Burnside Street as music played, including Dear Portland Police, a recently released song by Jasey Cordeta, Swiggle Mandela and Anael Jeannis. The demonstration entered its third hour amid more drumming and chanting. People chanted, No cops, no prison. Total abolition! Around 11:55 p.m., the noise increased as some people started to hit a flagpole and other people slammed the bottom of their shields onto the street. One person periodically pointed a green laser toward the building and officers atop it. Most of the visible officers stayed several yards back in the parking lot. Police made another announcement to the crowd around midnight. As before, the instructions were lost to the noise of the protest. Tensions soon escalated after dozens of police briefly rushed toward the crowd, then backed away. It was not clear what prompted the response. The music resumed, and the crowd danced to Rage Against The Machine. Some people threw empty drink cans and water bottles onto the property. Two people threw eggs, then several more people joined in. Police launched some devices that released some type of irritant near the crowd. Officers made another announcement, but it was again impossible for most people in the crowd to hear. By 12:45 a.m., the standoff remained static. A few people started throwing eggs again and a water bottle, drawing out several officers for a few minutes before they retreated. A loud firework exploded near the side of a building at 12:50 a.m. At 1 a.m., police arrived to press people away from the building. Dozens of officers were trailed by police vehicles with sirens and lights. Some of the officers were state troopers. When officers converged with the crowd on Burnside Street, some officers pushed, shoved and detained protesters as they forced people to move east. Police used pepper spray, flash grenades and impact munitions such as pepper balls. In a statement, Portland police said the force was necessary because people were still throwing things at officers. Police said they also discovered a pool noodle filled with nails in the roadway, presumably meant to damage the tires of police vehicles. Police pressed people south from Burnside onto 50th Avenue, a residential street. Police continued to detain people, including a volunteer medic. Officers walked and sometimes ran toward the crowd. A woman invited protesters off the street and onto her property. Dozens went only to be followed by police, and pushed forcefully back into the street. An officer used a loudspeaker to warn people to stay off private property. When 50th Avenue dead-ended at Stark Street, police forced the crowd west for a few more blocks. Officers stopped at 48th Avenue, where they faced off with about 100 protesters for more than 10 minutes. They eventually retreated around 1:35 a.m. Officers and demonstrators remained scattered throughout the area until much later. At times, officers advanced on small crowds or detained people. Police said Saturday that 24 people had been arrested in connection with the demonstration. Police did not use gas during the overnight demonstrations. Protesters did not start any fires. Police confirmed late Saturday that arson investigators were looking into videos that show explosive devices thrown at and detonated near protesters at Laurelhurst Park around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, as the demonstration came to an end. No injuries were reported. Witnesses followed one person who may have thrown the devices and shared information about the man on social media. Police said they had not verified the mans involvement. Police asked people to share information about what happened, as well as remnants of the explosive devices, with Detective Meredith Hopper by emailing meredith.hopper@portlandoregon.gov. Although the overnight demonstration was the most high-profile protest in Portland, it was not the only one. People also gathered Friday night downtown. Police said they did not engage with that crowd. The demonstrations started in late May after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd Dave Killen, Kale Williams, Jayati Ramakrishnan, Samantha Swindler, Ryan Fernandez, Jim Ryan, Betsy Hammond, K. Rambo and Mark Graves of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report. -- Piper McDaniel; @piperamcdaniel -- Molly Harbarger; mharbarger@oregonian.com; 503-294-5923; @MollyHarbarger Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Sometimes one would wonder why a particular bizarre thing is trending and when it comes to Twitter such days are quite common. On Friday, #Binod was trending almost throughout the day. Slayy Point, a famous YouTube channel run by Abhyudaya and Gautami recently went down the rabbit hole that is the Indian comments section in one of their videos and a meme was born. Both Abhyudaya and Gautami gave us a glimpse of what really goes on in the "filthy" comments section of videos where the commenters leave behind stuff that will have you scratching your heads. Titled "Why Indian Comments Section is Garbage (BINOD)," one of the comments that stood out in their now-viral video was from a certain person Binod Tharu who simply wrote "Binod". Also Read: Internet Got Paytm to Change its Name to Binod and We Have Peaked As a Meme Nation Soon, Binod became a viral meme in India. A user named Gabbar Singh had tagged Paytm asking them to change its name to Binod. And guess what? The brand actually changed its name to Binod on Twitter. Tinder too joined the league. The company in a tweet said, Yes Binod is on Tinder. Following this, the dating app came up with a fun conversation around this. Yes Binod is on Tinder Tinder India (@Tinder_India) August 7, 2020 Update - Binod just matched with Binodini https://t.co/QmV4IHwgCY Tinder India (@Tinder_India) August 7, 2020 Binod just messaged her saying 'naam toh suna hi hoga' https://t.co/FhOHPiGK7u Tinder India (@Tinder_India) August 7, 2020 Binodini replied 'tere binod nahin lagda dil mera dholna' https://t.co/jdtgj1spBB Tinder India (@Tinder_India) August 7, 2020 Apart from these fun conversations, the Uttar Pradesh immediate assistance portal, Mumbai and Nagpur Police departments too joined the league. However, they took this opportunity to raise awareness about cybersecurity and coronavirus. The Mumbai police used this to create awareness about cybersecurity. The department in its tweet said, Dear #binod, we hope your name is not your online password. Its pretty viral, change it now! #OnlineSafety Dear #binod , we hope your name is not your online password. Its pretty viral, change it now! #OnlineSafety Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) August 7, 2020 The Uttar Pradesh and Nagpur departments raised awareness about COVID-19. The UP Police took this opportunity to tell people that they need to wear masks. In a skilful throughout the graphic, the police wrote Binod in bold capitals and red color. In the subsequent line, they said, now, since we have your attention after this line in red color it is written, please wear a mask. #Binod might not write anything else, but we do have a message for you! pic.twitter.com/1It1yZE7Tq Call 112 (@112UttarPradesh) August 7, 2020 Nagpur police too urged people to stay home during these times. The department tweeted, Dear #binod, we know you have gone very viral, But your safety is important. corona is more famous than you so stay home, stay safe. #SafetyFirst. Dear #binod, we know you have gone very viral, But your safety is important. corona is more famous than you so stay home, stay safe.#SafetyFirst Nagpur City Police (@NagpurPolice) August 8, 2020 No one knows where Binod is. I hope we find him soon. Karnataka SSLC Result 2020: Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) is likely to announce the result for SSLC or class 10 exams on August 10, 2020. Here's all you need to know about it. Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board is set to release the Karnataka SSLC Results 2020 (Karnataka class 10 results 2020) on August 10, 2020. The date has been confirmed by Karnatakas education minister S. Suresh Kumar, he informed that the results will be released online at 3 p.m. on August 10, 2020. However, earlier the minister reportedly stated that they were trying to release the results for SSLC in the first week of August. This year around 8.5 lakh students sat in the SSLC exams in Karnataka. SSLC exams in Kerala were conducted from June 25 to July 5. As the exams were held amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, all the precautionary measures were taken during exams. The exam centres had to ensure availability of hand sanitizers, thermal scanners and facemasks. Most of the boards had to cancel or postpone the exams this year due to the highly contagious coronavirus. Check Karnataka SSLC Result 2020 online: Go to the official website of Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board, karresults.nic.in or kseeb.kar.nic.in. Click on the link that reads SSLC result. Enter your Login credentials, Roll Number, and other details mentioned on the Hall ticket. Click on the Submit button. Your Karnataka SSLC Result 2020 will appear before you. Print/Download your result for future reference. Also read: WBJEE Results 2020 DECLARED: Heres how to check your result and toppers list Also read: Delhi HC gives DU green signal to hold OBEs for final year students Check Karnataka SSLC Result 2020 via SMS: As soon as the news of result declaration goes out, most of the students start checking their results immediately. Due to high traffic on the website, the website crashes. To avoid this, the board will release the Karnataka SSLC Result 2020 through SMS also. To get the result through SMS, students have to simply send an SMS to 56263 in the format mentioned below: KSEEB10(Roll Number) Also read: Debate on NEP healthy, raises no concern of bias: PM Modi Some liberal Zionists are finally becoming aware of the inherent contradiction in their views on Israel and Palestine. I first met American writer Peter Beinart in March 2019 during my speaking tour in the United States, which was organised by American Friends Services Committee. He invited me as a guest on his podcast, Occupied Thoughts, published by the Foundation for Middle East Peace. I knew of his political stance on Palestine but I, nevertheless, saw my participation in the podcast as an opportunity to engage him and his Jewish American audience in a critical discussion about Palestinian rights. He asked me about violence and armed struggle and I explained that Palestinians are under military occupation and have suffered decades of violence at the hands of one of the most advanced armies in the world. He also asked about how Palestinian refugees can return when there are Israeli families who have already build lives on top of their land, and I explained that the process would not be that difficult and emphasised reneging the Palestinians right to return would encourage more ethnic cleansing around the world. It was clear to me that Beinart disagreed with what I had to say but he was polite and respectful. So when in July, I saw his article, titled I no longer believe in a Jewish State, in the New York Times I was a bit surprised. But I guess the transformation of his view of Palestine made sense. In the piece, Beinart wrote that he used to believe in Israel as a Jewish state because he saw Israels impact on his grandfather and father. I knew that Israel was a source of comfort and pride to millions of other Jews, some of whose families had experienced traumas greater than my own, he said. He thought Israel was wrong to deny Palestinians citizenship, free movement and the right to vote, but hoped this would be remedied when a Palestinian state is established. Eventually, however, Beinart realised that such a state is no longer possible, especially after the release of President Donald Trumps so-called peace plan, which gave Israel even more control over the West Bank and normalised Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law. Beinart concluded that changing the status quo requires a vision powerful enough to create a mass movement. A fragmented Palestinian state under Israeli control does not offer that vision. Equality can. The significance of Beinarts article does not lie in its intellectual propositions. For decades, Palestinian intellectuals have been talking about the failure of separating Palestinians from Israelis and have called for a solution based on equal rights. Rather, it is important because of who Beinart is: He is one of the most prominent figures of the liberal Zionism in the US. The change of his position can be seen as an indication of a slightly positive development within Zionist liberalism, as some of its members are no longer able to reconcile their liberal values with their support for Israel and the injustice and inequality of its policies. Israel has long drawn its legitimacy among Jewish communities around the world by presenting itself as a safe haven for the Jewish people that can protect them from hostility and genocide. The establishment of Israel gave Jews, such as Beinarts father and grandfather, a sense of pride and comfort. This has been seen by liberal Zionists like Beinart as the moral justification for the existence of Israel. But this moral justification has always had one gaping weakness: The Palestinians and the injustice, displacement and death they have had to suffer so that European Jews would feel safe. Early liberal Zionism sought to erase the existence of Palestinians and their suffering, propagating the myth that Palestine was a land without a people for a people without a land. But as Palestinians resisted erasure, colonisation and occupation and their identity, culture and activism grew stronger and more visible to the rest of the world, the liberal Zionists had to seek another solution. So they mollified their unease about the victimisation of Palestinians with the idea of a Palestinian state and embraced the peace process after the first Intifada. But the only thing the Oslo Accords did was create an illusion, a fake optimism that Palestinian rights will be heeded and that a Palestinian state is possible. While many Palestinians did not believe in it, Oslo became a sedative for the conscience of the pro-Palestinian movement and a convenient cover for the colonial face of Israel. This cover has now been finally lifted, as the Trump administration has said and done publicly what successive US administrations had said and done only behind the scenes. The Israeli political elite never intended for a Palestinian state to be created; the goal has always been full control and colonisation of historic Palestine. And that cannot be ever achieved without the gruesome massacre, subjugation and expulsion of Palestinians. Some liberal Zionists like Beinart seem to have finally opened their eyes for this simple inconvenient truth and have decided to speak up. This has rattled Tel Aviv. The hardline Israeli leadership and their supporters see such support for the one-state solution even among a minority of Liberal Zionists as a grave threat. They are staunchly opposed to equality between Israelis and Palestinians because that would undermine the Zionist project founded on the idea of inequality between the colonial settlers and the native population. Israeli hardliners also fear that equality would allow Palestinians to achieve demographic and eventually political dominance. That is why, the reaction to Beinarts article has been vicious. US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, for example, chastised the writer, saying: Beinarts advocacy of a binational state to replace the Jewish State of Israel is far more insidious than it may appear at first glance. That advocacy, if actualized, would ultimately destroy Israel and bring as calamitous a result. While Beinarts article is an important development as it signals a shift in attitudes among some liberal Zionists, there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve justice for the Palestinians. Israels hardliners and their allies will continue to resist the one-state solution with any means possible. The pro-Palestinian movement will have to resist this enormous pressure and continue building a wide coalition which can eventually force Israel to abandon its racist regime and embrace equality and justice. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. One man has died in protests in Belarus as demonstrators clashed with police for a second night after a disputed election handed a sixth term to strongman Alexander Lukashenko. Thousands took to the streets of the capital Minsk Monday night, saying Lukashenko had stolen the election from his surprise challenger, political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Police used rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas but demonstrators fought back with stones and fireworks and built makeshift barricades, AFP reporters, protesters and witnesses said, in chaotic scenes of defiance in the authoritarian former Soviet republic. "Too many people are against Lukashenko," Pavel, a 34-year-old protester, told AFP. A police spokeswoman could not immediately say how many people had been injured in Monday's clashes / AFP "Our goal is to depose Lukashenko. He is not worthy of being president." At one flashpoint in Minsk, protesters -- mostly men but also several women -- used sacks, buckets and metal barriers to build barricades, an AFP photographer said. The whereabouts of Tikhanovskaya -- who has claimed victory in Sunday's poll and called for Lukashenko to step down -- were unknown as of late Monday. A man died when an explosive device went off in his hand Monday night, police said, confirming the first casualty of the post-election protests. "One of the protesters tried to throw an unidentified explosive device at members of law enforcement. It exploded in his hand," the interior ministry said, adding that he died of his injuries. A police spokeswoman could not immediately say how many people had been injured in Monday's clashes. Tikhanovskaya had said earlier she would not take part in the demonstrations to avoid "provocations." Lukashenko was re-elected for a sixth term, officials said, saying he had won more than 80 percent of the vote / AFP "The authorities should think about how to peacefully hand over power to us," she told reporters. The 37-year-old mother of two decided to run for president after the authorities jailed her husband, popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, and barred him from contesting. Her campaign galvanised the opposition, presenting the most serious challenge to former collective farm director Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994, brooking no dissent and earning the nickname of "Europe's last dictator". - Whereabouts unknown - Tikhanovskaya's whereabouts were not known to her campaign staff on Monday night, her spokeswoman Anna Krasulina told AFP. On Monday Tikhanovskaya went to lodge a complaint with the Central Election Commission where she spent three hours, Krasulina told AFP. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya decided to run for president after the authorities jailed her husband, popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, and barred him from running / AFP After leaving the commission headquarters she had gone incommunicado, Krasulina added, without providing further details. The foreign minister of EU member Lithuania, another ex-Soviet republic, said he could not reach Tikhanovskaya as of late Monday. "I tried to reach her for several hours but her whereabouts are unknown since she went to the election commission to file a protest over the vote count," Linas Linkevicius told AFP. "It raises concern about her safety," Linkevicius said. Earlier Monday, election officials confirmed Lukashenko's re-election for a sixth term, saying he had won more than 80 percent of the vote, with Tikhanovskaya coming second with 10 percent. - White House 'deeply concerned' - The White House said Monday it was "deeply concerned", adding that "intimidation of opposition candidates and the detention of peaceful protesters" were among numerous factors that marred the election and its aftermath. Police used rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas / AFP European governments also questioned the results, with Germany voicing "strong doubts" about the conduct of the vote and France urging restraint. But Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Lukashenko, a longtime ally, as did Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Lukashenko was defiant, vowing he would not allow Belarus to be "torn apart." "We recorded calls from abroad. There were calls from Poland, Britain and the Czech Republic, they were directing our -- forgive me -- sheep," Lukashenko said. Belarus / AFP Thousands took to the streets in cities across Belarus on Sunday night to denounce the vote, sparking clashes with members of law enforcement. Police said they detained some 3,000 people, around 1,000 of them in Minsk, after those clashes. Images released by pro-opposition media showed police firing stun grenades and rubber bullets into the crowds and a police van ramming into the demonstration and running down a protester. Young protesters were seen covered in blood, lying immobile on the ground or being dragged away by police. The interior ministry said dozens were injured in the capital, accusing some protesters of sparking confrontations. The Belarusian Investigative Committee said it had opened 21 criminal probes into "mass unrest" and using violence against police and detained more than 80 people. "I am ashamed of what interior ministry forces did, I served in these forces," Sergei, a 45-year-old sheet metal worker, told AFP. Mr John Peter Amewu, the Minister of Energy, says the government has taken steps to address the challenges it inherited in the renewable energy sector. He identified as a major challenge the signed Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to the tune of 2,265MW with an average price of cent19/KWh, which was far above what the electricity network could accommodate. Additionally, PPAs were signed for tariffs as high as cent31/KWh more than twice the average end user tariff. Mr Amewu made the remark when he spoke to the media in Parliament after responding to a question by Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh, Member of Parliament (MP) for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, on the floor of the House on what the Ministry of Energy had done by way of investment in renewable energy for the past one year. Mr Amewu indicated that the government had reduced the capacities from 2,265MW to 515MW, which could be accommodated within the countrys electricity network. He said further that the government had re-negotiated and reduced the price/KWh from an average of cent19/19KWh to cent12/KWh; and that further engagement with scheduled PPAs was ongoing to achieve tariffs below cent10/KWh, which is the ministrys ultimate goal. He said those actions were undertaken to correct the imbalance in investment by renewable energy of Independence Power Producers (IPPs). Mr Amewu said the ministry had put a moratorium on new PPAs until the 515MW signed PPAs had been executed. It had also developed a Renewable Energy Master Plan, which clearly provides the capacity and investment required on yearly basis. He said the government had introduced competitive bidding process for renewable energy projects with focus on Utility Scale Solar power plants. Mr Amewu explained that besides the investment by IPPs in the renewable energy sector, the ministry was also facilitating investment by the government in projects such as the construction of the first phase of 17MW Solar Park by VRA in Lawra and Kaleo in the Upper West Region at a cost of US$25.3 million. He said the rest included the construction of the Pwalugu multipurpose hybrid (50MW solar and 60MW hydro) project and the construction of the first phase of 50MW solar PV plant to be hybridised with the 400MW BPA hydro power plant, which had commenced at a cost of US$48. He said 10MW of solar power was expected to be connected to the national grid by the end of this quarter and the remaining 40MW completed in November 2020. Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, former Minister of Energy, reacting to the claims by Mr Amewu, said the minister, instead of responding to the question on how much investment the government had made in renewable energy, rather sought to talk about the re-negotiation of PPAs. He said since the government assumed office in 2017, all it had been trumpeting was re-negotiation of PPAs without coming up with any effective policy on renewable energy. Mr Buah said the NDC government passed the Renewable Energy Act to ensure that 10 per cent of the countrys energy sources were from renewables. He said the key policy in the law was an aggressive drive to ensure that by 2020, 10 per cent of the power generated came from renewable sources. We know we have not even crossed one per cent; where we left off is where we are. In the last budget of 2019 investment by the government in renewable energy was zero, he added. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Joe Biden is expected to announce his choice of running mate any day now, which means that political journalists are scrambling for find any piece of insider information or, better yet, the scoop on his choice. But amid the frenzy of speculation as to who he will pick, and a dose of politicking among donors and delegates for their chosen favorite, are the inherent risks in breaking the story as in, you better be pretty damn sure. More from Deadline And perhaps even more so than in previous cycles, Bidens decision-making process is being held close to the vest to family members and a circle of longtime advisers. Over the past week, the speculation has been running rampant that his choice has come down to Kamala Harris and Susan Rice, Karen Bass and Tammy Duckworth. Then VP watchers got thrown for a bit of a loop on Friday, when the Associated Press, citing flight records and other sources, reported that Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, visited Biden last weekend. On top of all this is the coronavirus pandemic, which has made the VP process a bit more opaque for reporters than it usually is, limiting stakeouts and in-person sourcing. Andrea Mitchell, MSNBC anchor and NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent, said that trying to report on the VP search, or get the scoop, is always tricky because you can never fully know what the principal is thinking. In this case we pretty much know who would likely be in the room, but I certainly say that Jill Biden, Dr. Biden has more influence than anyone on her husband, she said. And ultimately it is up to Joe Biden, and he trusts his gut. I think if given a his choice would want a Joe Biden to be vice president because he has had that job for eight years. He wants someone who does for him what he believes he did for Barack Obama loyalty, trust experience, ready to take over. Story continues She said that any story requires being extra careful, but on something like this you really have to be absolutely sure. You have to know that the nominee made the decision, that he has informed the person chosen and that he has informed those not chosen. Then its critical to be confident that your source has first-hand knowledge of it, she said. It is not worth the risk without having those conditions having been met. Even then, any scoop will require running it by other top anchors and correspondents and the president of the news division before going with it, she said. On one level, the pursuit of the running mate is a reporting contest, but at a deeper level, it is a huge moment for Bidens campaign, said Robert Costa, moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and national political reporter for The Washington Post. Its the ultimate revealing decision of his candidacy. So as much as the reporting can sometimes trend towards speculation, it is an important moment to cover and to cover well. He added, Everyone wants to scoop. Everyone is working their Democratic sources, day in and day out, to try to figure out tidbits that would lead you closer to the goal, whether it is a formal interview, a conversation with the campaign. Mitchell broke the story in 1988 that George H.W. Bush picked Dan Quayle as his running mate, and then in 2004 that John Kerry selected John Edwards. In the latter case, Mitchell recalls that it was on a July 4 weekend, and our team was working around the clock on it, from the president of NBC News down, we were all looking for strands, down to who had chartered planes and might be painting the side of a plane with a namePeople were looking for who was printing posters. It was high tension, big pressure. She said that on Sunday night, she finally nailed that it would be Edwards, but they needed a second source. On anything, were going to be right than first, and this, with the exposure it gets. They waited overnight for hours until they got the second source, and I was really grateful we did. In her office, she said, is a framed reminder of how a scoop can all go wrong: The front page of the New York Post at the time: Kerrys choice: Dem picks Gephardt as VP candidate. Its a dangerous game, said Mark Lukasiewicz, who at the time was at NBC News as senior vice president of specials. Now the dean of the Lawerence Herbert School of Communication at Hoftra University, he said that the risk is you will end up with egg on your face, but for a lot of political journalists it is kind of an irresistible story. Costa said that in 2012, he was told by someone close to Mitt Romney that he was picking Paul Ryan, and go with it, and I had the scoop. But it was one source, and I decided not to go with it at the time, because it was one source and you have to be so careful. These things are so fluid, the discussions are fluid. You dont really know unless you have spoken to Romney himself or this time Biden himself, where theyre actually going to go. And you cant always trust if sources are fully read into the decision. He added, Its such a personal decision, reporters have to be so careful, and thats why you dont see people leaning into this too much. He did get some insight last week when he interviewed Duckworth last week for a Washington Post Live chat. She revealed that she had been interviewed by the campaign. And that to me was kind of a breakthrough in trying to trudge closer and closer this scoop. But its hyper-competitive, and the thing about the vice presidential reporting, is that I always approach it with caution and care. That may be especially true in talking to party donors and top supporters, who may be talking to sources who also have their own preferred choices and agenda, even more so this cycle. David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Barack Obama, tweeted on Friday, I cant remember any VP selection process where so much oppo research has been dumped. If I were @JoeBiden, looking for a good and loyal partner, that should be a source of concern. Mathew Littman, Los Angeles political consultant and former Biden speechwriter, attributes the tension to the pandemic and the worries among Democratic activists about beating Trump. There is angst on every level, he said. Having a lot of time on your hands, being at home, brings up a lot of anxiety. He said that the scrutiny and speculation out there over various contenders tends to be around the question of, Is there someone who helps us win, or is there someone who helps us govern, or is there someone who does both? As such, the conversation tends to get a bit heated. Last week, after Politico reported that one of the figures helping to lead the VP selection process, former senator Chris Dodd (and former chairman of the MPAA) expressed concerns over Harris loyalty, there was an almost immediate pushback from her supporters. Sources said Californias lieutenant governor Eleni Kounalakis even led a call with a number of Harriss supporters, including Secretary of State Alex Padilla, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Chad Griffin, the former president of the Human Rights Campaign, as well as industry figures like CAAs Bryan Lourd and NBCUniversals Jeff Shell. Harris was a favorite of Hollywoods donor base in the early stages of her presidential campaign, and Shell hosted her first major industry event. Bass, meanwhile, has her own share of fervent supporters. More than 300 delegates to the Democratic convention signed on to a statement supporting her, Politico reported, including Dolores Huerta, the civil rights and labor activist. Her boosters say that she not only has strong progressive credentials, but for trying to build coalitions and consensus. Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who worked with Bass when she was speaker of the state assembly, praised her in an interview with Fox 11, calling her a trustworthy person, she kept her word, she was great to work with, she went beyond ideology, she was able to reach over across the aisle. Yet as Bass star rose last week, so too did negative stories emerged, including a 2010 clip of her the Church of Scientology and further reporting on her work in Cuba in the 1970s. Duckworth also has been praised in top donor circles, particularly after defense of impeachment witness Alexander Vindmans and her response to attacks from Tucker Carlson. Some industry donors also hold out hope for Elizabeth Warren, who draw substantial industry support for her bid, but there is some recognition that she may not be among the finalists. With pundits, the media and donors sizing up and speculating about the field, in a campaign you just ignore them and move ahead, said Bob Shrum, the director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, who was senior adviser to the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000 and the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004. Shrum said that ultimately, the true knowledge lies with a candidate and his or her spouse, until advisers are informed. He said that Bidens campaign likely did not take a meeting with Harris supporters because it was likely to shape their recommendations or choice, but because allies in California wanted to be heard. The word ally has popped up a bit in reporting in recent weeks, Costa said, because a lot of times stuff is not coming from a campaign per se. Its not coming from the Biden people. But it is coming from allies of Vice President Biden, people who have supported his campaign. When you start seeing that word ally in stories, you know people are casting a wide net, because there are only a few people on the Biden campaign, probably a hundred people, maybe a couple hundred people directly involved, he said. But the orbit of allies is thousands strong, and they all think they have some in in the campaign. And sometimes these allies will have their own horse in the race, and they will be floating positive stories about their contender and negative stories about another. That is why reporters cant get too swept up into the conventional wisdom, Costa said, and that is at a fever pitch right now. The coronavirus has limited much in-person interaction at all between reporters and campaign advisers, at a cost of catching a senior officials for a pull aside on the campaign trail and the opportunity to hear a whisper or two about what is happening, Costa said. You just got to work the phones as much as possible. Stakeouts are impossible. Vice President Biden could easily be doing everything by Skype or Zoom, Costa said. Its not like we can stake those out. So it has lost a little bit of the magic this time around. The pandemic also has put things in a bit of perspective. If an outlet does break the story of the VP pick, it will certainly be a feather in a cap, and show up for years in a reporters bio, but its not the most critical thing at all, Mitchell said, even more so this year, as the virus and the countrys racial reckoning dominates many news cycles. Much more important is how we, day to day, 24/7 on all of our networks are covering the most important story of our generation, of decades, of the century, she said. A global pandemic robbing people of their life, their health, their family life, their jobs, their source of income, destroying the economy. She added, There are so many big things to cover, this is a blip. Getting it wrong, though, does tend to linger in memory longer than getting it right. Shrum said of the 2004 snafu, Where in the world Rupert Murdoch got the idea that it was Gephardt, who knows? Then, noting how the race came down to midwestern Ohio, Shrum added, In retrospect, he might have been a better choice. Dominic Patten contributed to this report. Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The top US counter-intelligence official on Friday warned that Russia, China and Iran will all try to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, with Russia already trying to undercut the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said the three countries were using online disinformation and other means to try to influence voters, stir up disorder and undermine American voters confidence in the democratic process. US President Donald Trump said, Were going to watch all of them, we have to be very careful. He said he believes Russia, China and Iran want him to lose. On Saturday, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and Chinas top representative in the city Luo Huining took pot shots at the US, which sanctioned them and nine other officials. Lam took to Facebook to say the US got her address wrong, listing the official address of her chief deputy instead. Luo said, I dont have a penny of assets abroad. Isnt it in vain to impose sanctions? Of course, I can also send $100 to Mr Trump for freezing. Food delivery company Deliveroo said it signed up more than 600 new restaurants since January this year as more outlets supplied delivery services due to the Covid-19 lockdown. The company said that 64% of the new sign-ups were in Dublin, 11% in Cork; while Galway and Limerick saw a 6% and 4% increase respectively, as well as growth in Northern Ireland with 15% in Belfast. Teachers unions in West New York and Bayonne dont want kids or teachers in classrooms this fall, giving the county at least two contingents of educators publicly against the states current school reopening plan. Both unions have posted positions on social media emphasizing that protecting human lives during the global coronavirus pandemic should be their schools top priority right now. Whose lives can be spared? the West New York Education Association wrote in a Facebook post. Would it be your mothers, fathers, sisters, or brothers? How about your sons or daughters? How valuable are we, your employees, and students? Are any of you willing to sign the death certificates? The unions president, Anita Kober, said she spoke against the district reopening plan before the Board of Education approved it Wednesday. The plan will rotate students into school in a hybrid remote and in-person fashion. Kober said she hopes that the state approves plans by Jersey City and Bayonne, which would start the school year with fully remote learning. Gov. Phil Murphy has said he wants at least a partial reopening of the schools with in-person learning. A Bayonne teachers union encouraged its members to call state officials and urge them to pass the plan. We should not be putting our students, our staff, or any of their family members into potential life-threatening situations, the Bayonne Education Association wrote in an Instagram caption last week. Jersey City Education Association President Ron Greco has never stated his unions position on whether schools should start remotely in September. But several members, including Greco, have been involved in committees to help create the districts plan for reopening. Other area teachers unions did not respond to requests for comment. Kober said discussions among teachers have been about the anxiety theyre feeling toward the impending school year. I dont think its safe at this time, she said. I think it should be taken month by month, quarter by quarter to wait until the numbers really come down. Apple (AAPL) is facing off against its fellow tech giants Facebook (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT) about the iPhone makers App Store policies in a showdown that comes just as a week after Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, among other CEOs, appeared before a House Judiciary hearing about Big Techs market power. The dustup has to do with Apples responses to Facebooks new Facebook Gaming app and Microsofts xCloud cloud gaming app. Both companies submitted their apps for review and had them rejected by Apple for violating the App Stores terms of service. Apple CEO Tim Cook testifies remotely via videoconference during a U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law hearing on "Online Platforms and Market Power" in this screengrab made from video as the committee meets on Capitol Hill, in Washington, U.S., July 29, 2020. U.S. House Judiciary Committee via REUTERS Now Facebook and Microsoft, smelling blood in the water, are hitting back, calling out Apple with statements that echo the kinds of complaints antitrust investigators have heard from other developers who say Apple is hurting competition and consumers. And that could be a problem for Apple in the long run. The audience for [last weeks hearings] was not just a domestic audience, it was an international audience, it included competitors, third parties, and competition authorities, explained former Federal Trade Commission Chairman William Kovacic. So [Apple knows] that every time they twitch now, they will have close scrutiny from many different eyes including quite a few astute observers, added Kovacic, who now serves as a law professor at George Washington University, where he specializes in global competition. Shots across the bows Apples current antitrust problems stem directly from its App Store policies and how it enforces them. App developers, Spotify (SPOT) being one of the most prominent, have complained to investigators and regulators about Apples app review guidelines, saying they arent applied evenly. Developers have also taken issue with the 30% commission Apple collects on app sales through the App store, saying its unfair because Apple sells competing apps, like its Apple Music service, and doesnt have to pay a commission to itself. Apple also operates its own gaming service called Apple Arcade, which is available as a subscription and lets users play games across their iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. Story continues Investigators are looking at whether Apples tight control over the App Store, which is the only means developers have to get their apps on the companys iOS devices, stifles innovation and unfairly targets competing apps. Cook denied such accusations during a recent hearing before the House Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, pointing to the fact that the App Store has helped generate 1.9 million jobs and is host to 1.7 million apps, of which Apple only competes with a few dozen. Facebook and Microsoft are well aware of the accusations Apple is facing, and appeared to purposely use language supporting the argument that Apple is operating an illegal monopoly in their surprisingly public responses to Apples decision. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies remotely during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on antitrust on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, July 29, 2020, in Washington. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP) Even on the main Facebook app and Messenger, weve been forced to bury Instant Games for years on iOS, Vice president of Facebook Gaming Vivek Sharma said in a statement following Apples decision to reject the portion of the Facebook Gaming app that allowed gamers to play Instant Games. This is shared pain across the games industry, which ultimately hurts players and devs and severely hamstrings innovation on mobile for other types of formats, like cloud gaming. And while its disheartening to deliver only part of the Facebook Gaming app experience on iOS, our gaming creators have asked for it for awhile. We thank them for waiting this long. None other than Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg even hit out at Apple saying in a statement, Unfortunately, we had to remove gameplay functionality entirely in order to get Apples approval on the standalone Facebook Gaming app meaning iOS users have an inferior experience to those using Android. Microsoft, meanwhile, issued a statement through a spokesperson specifically saying that Apple treats gaming apps differently than other apps. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) Apple stands alone as the only general purpose platform to deny consumers from cloud gaming and game subscription services like Xbox Game Pass, a spokesperson said. And it consistently treats gaming apps differently, applying more lenient rules to non-gaming apps even when they include interactive content. Those statements were each crafted specifically to hit Apple where it hurts when it comes to the antitrust investigations into the App Store. Apple, for its part, points specifically to two sections of the App Store policy that the Facebook and Microsoft apps violate. Microsoft, the company says, violates Apples policies regarding remote desktop clients, while Facebook violates terms for HTML 5 games and bots. Apples will need to respond With Facebook and Microsoft clearly appealing to arguments that Apple is using its market power against competitors, the Cupertino-based company will need to prove its moves are intended to benefit consumers, Kovacic explained. To me the crucial question would be how well developed is the justification that [Apple is] going to present for the current policy. How convincing is that story going to be, not just to insiders who watch the sector carefully, but to this larger audience thats now watching every single move, as well as law enforcement authorities around the world that are now watching this. According to Kovacic, Apple will have to show that its current policies provide a significant benefit to its users. The company may also be able to rely on the fact that the relationship between leading enterprises is changing, and that they are each now competing against each other in similar industries. Apple is all but certain to face additional challenges from competitors as the antitrust investigations into its App Store continue, and itll need the right answers if its to escape unscathed. Got a tip? Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com over via encrypted mail at danielphowley@protonmail.com, and follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley. More from Dan: Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit. Washington, Aug 8 : US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have agreed to send immediate aid to Lebanon in the wake of the two deadly blasts in capital Beirut which killed over 150 people. In a phone call on Friday, the two leaders "expressed their deep sadness over the loss of life and devastation in Beirut", Xinhua news agency quoted the White House as saying in a statement. They agreed to work together with international partners to provide immediate aid to the Lebanese people, the statement added. Taking to Twitter later in the day, Trump said: "Had a lengthy discussion this morning with President Macron of France concerning numerous subjects, but in particular the catastrophic event which took place in Beirut, Lebanon. "At 3 p.m. this afternoon, spoke to President (Michel) Aoun of Lebanon to inform him that three large aircraft are on the way, loaded up with Medical Supplies, Food and Water. Also, First Responders, Technicians, Doctors, and Nurses on the way. "We will be having a conference call on Sunday with President Macron, leaders of Lebanon, and leaders from various other parts of the world. Everyone wants to help." Meanwhile, Macron said that France has already sent support to Lebanon and it would send more medical equipment in the coming days. During his trip to Beirut on Thursday, the President had announced that France would organize an international aid conference to raise funds for emergency relief. Two massive explosions rocked the Port of Beirut on Tuesday evening, killing at least 154 people and injuring about 5,000 others. For Corey Doyle, 2019 was a year of dizzying firsts. The 29-year-old carpenter finished his apprenticeship, married the love of his life, Caitlin, 31, with the couple moving into their first home together - before welcoming their first child, a boy they named Mason, in January this year. Then just five months later in mid-June, the new dad from Geelong, Victoria, started to feel unusually tired and developed an increasingly bloated stomach with sharp pains shooting down the lower right side. Then, inexplicably, he lost 9kg in the space of three weeks. Corey didn't know it then, but the painful swelling was caused by 12 litres of fluid steadily leaking from his stomach lining - caused by the rapid spread of stage four bowel cancer. Scroll down for video In a year of extraordinary loss and hardship, Corey and Caitlin Shadbolt (pictured) have still endured a tougher time than most Corey plays with his son Mason, born in January 2020 After three inconclusive visits to his GP in early July, wife Caitlin couldn't shake a 'gut feeling' that something more sinister was wrong and insisted Corey see a specialist for further testing. The newlyweds told Daily Mail Australia they are 'so grateful' she did because two weeks later, Corey was given the devastating news that a large tumour was obstructing the lower part of his bowel. 'When you hear the word 'cancer', it sends a chill down your spine,' Corey said. 'You don't expect it. You never expect it'll be you.' Corey is one of 8,340 Australian men who have been diagnosed with bowel cancer this year to date, according to figures from the Australian Health Department. Bowel cancer was the second most common cause of cancer death in Australia in 2018, and it is expected that it will remain the second most common in 2020. Corey and Caitlin Shadbolt's seven-month-old son Mason, who has been 'their only shining light' in an incredibly difficult year Corey (pictured with Caitlin at their wedding in 2019) said he felt 'chills run down his spine' when doctors diagnosed him with stage four bowel cancer The early symptoms most bowel cancer sufferers feel are easily confused with everyday complaints, which often causes people to dismiss warning signs leading to lengthy delays in diagnosis. Tiredness, bloating and unexplained weight loss all of which Corey experienced can have relatively innocent explanations, but persistent stomach pain or bleeding from the rectum should be reported to a doctor as soon as possible. The chance of successful treatment and long-term survival improves dramatically the sooner cancer is diagnosed, which means early intervention can make the difference between life and death. After the immense happiness Corey and Caitlin enjoyed in 2019, 2020 has wrought a series of crushing blows on their newlywed bliss. 'The only shining light has been Mason, our son,' said Caitlin. Mason (left and right, with Corey) has no idea of the battle his father is fighting In the past month, Corey has had 22.4 litres of fluid drained from his stomach which has been weakened by the insidious cancer cells spreading through his organs. Last week, he started his first round of chemotherapy which doctors say will continue indefinitely until the tumours have shrunk. A full prognosis has not been given, but by stage four cancer has spread to distant sites like the liver, lungs and or abdomen, and may have grown through the walls of the colon into the lymph nodes, which makes treatment complex. Corey's oncologist has warned the cancer looks to be incurable. With Geelong at the epicentre of Victoria's second COVID wave, Caitlin cannot hold his hand during treatment under the terms of the virus-stricken state's stage four shutdown which ban visitors from hospitals and clinics. She is fearful about the side effects of chemo, which severely weakens the immune system putting patients like Corey among those most vulnerable to secondary illnesses like the deadly respiratory disease. The signs of bowel cancer Everyone is at risk of developing bowel cancer, however the risk greatly increases with age, particularly from age 50. You are also at greater risk if you have: - A previous history of polyps in the bowel - A previous history of bowel cancer - Chronic inflammatory bowel disease (eg. Crohn's disease) - A strong family history of bowel cancer - Increased insulin levels or type 2 diabetes. How can you prevent it? Your most effective protection is to: - Do an foecal occult blood test (FOBT) every two years from the age of 50 - Do 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day - Maintain a healthy body weight - Eat a well balanced diet - Avoid processed and burnt meat; limit red meat intake to three to four times per week - Limit alcohol - Quit smoking Source: Cancer Council Australia Advertisement Corey encourages young men to cast off their stereotypically dismissive attitude to health and take more notice of changes in the body Due to the gruelling toll of treatment, Corey has been forced to down tools and is no longer working. Lauren is still on maternity leave, caring for baby Mason. A crowdfunding campaign launched by Corey's sister Lauren to ease financial pressure has raised $37,710 at the time of writing. All she can do is make life as easy as possible for her husband in the hope he will beat this disease and go on to raise their infant son together, just as they planned. 'We're just trying to control what we can, so we're focusing on the little things like making sure he's getting lots of healthy food and having hand sanitisers and masks all around the house,' Caitlin said. Corey encourages young men to cast off their stereotypically dismissive attitude to health and take more notice of changes in the body. 'I'm a typical stubborn male and I've never worried too much about my health, but if you feel something's not right just go and get it checked, be persistent,' he said. For more information on bowel cancer in Australia, please visit CancerCouncil.org. BUNKER HILL The Macoupin County Public Health Department reporting a COVID-19 outbreak among staff at BGs Grub and Pub. The restaurant and bar, located at 110 E. Warren St. in Bunker Hill, has temporarily closed due to the outbreak. Upon notification of the fourth positive case within their restaurant and bar, they were in direct contact with the Macoupin County Public Health Department. BGs Grub and Pub and the county health department are working together closely to ensure the safety of their patrons and staff. If you patronized their restaurant and bar between Aug. 1 and Aug. 6, you are at risk for exposure. The health department encourages anyone exposed to closely self-monitor for COVID-19 related symptoms. If you have any concerns or want to be tested, call the Macoupin County COVID-19 Hotline at 217-313-5078. BGs Grub and Pub said they thank everyone for their continued support. As a reminder, COVID-19 is an active virus in the U.S. The Macoupin County Public Health Department always encourages the wearing of masks, social distancing, frequent hand washing and the cleaning of common-touch areas regularly. The state 24/7 COVID Hotline is 800-889-3931. Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday called for refraining from speculative observations about the accident involving an Air India Express in Kozhikode Friday night and that issues red flagged by DGCA were addressed and rectified. I will encourage all to exercise patience & refrain from making speculative observations bordering on the irresponsible. Again to emphasize, all the issues were addressed & rectified, Puri tweeted. In another tweet, he said the probe report of the accident will be made public. In case of Kozhikode accident, an enquiry has been ordered under Aircraft Act, black boxes of flight IX-1344 have been recovered. Findings of this investigation will be made public. Puri who visited the crash site earlier in the day, also had a word of advice for opposition MPs and insisted that the plane involved in the crash was not a wide body aircraft. I would like to remind my colleagues that the aircraft involved in the incident at Kozhikode was a B-737-800 which is NOT a wide body aircraft. As far as wide body aircraft are concerned, DGCA had carried out a thorough assessment & prescribed comprehensive mitigation measures. I would like to remind my colleagues that the aircraft involved in the incident at Kozhikode was a B-737-800 which is NOT a wide body aircraft. As far as wide body aircraft are concerned, DGCA had carried out a thorough assessment & prescribed comprehensive mitigation measures. pic.twitter.com/7jjQS3deAd Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) August 8, 2020 The Air India Express flight from Dubai crashed while landing at the tabletop airport in driving rain. It overshot the runway and plunged into a road 35 feet below killing 18 people including both pilots. There were 190 people on board the aircraft. The fight was part of the Vande Bharat mission. The aircraft was commanded by Captain Deepak Sathe, a former Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter pilot. Two airlines will enforce stricter face mask policies beginning Friday as carriers adopt a zero tolerance approach for fliers who refuse to wear facial coverings. Alaska Airlines will adopt some of the toughest punishments among U.S. carriers for passengers who defy its mandatory facial covering policy on planes and at airports. All Alaska passengers age 2 and older are required to wear a facial covering. The airline began issuing unmasked fliers written warnings in the form of yellow cards handed out by flight attendants in June outlining its mask policy. (More about that here.) Starting today, if fliers still refuse to wear a mask, the airline said it will suspend the passenger immediately upon landing. Competing U.S. airlines have said suspensions will be handed down following a company review of an incident, but Alaska is taking swifter action. Related: Restricted states under New York's travel advisory Alaska will cancel the offending passengers connecting and return flights, along with future itineraries booked with the airline. Full refunds will be provided, but fliers will be responsible for their own travel arrangements from that point on. If you don't wear a mask, you won't be flying with us, Max Tidwell, Alaska Airlines' vice president of safety and security said in a statement. As for how long the suspension will last, an airline spokesperson said each case will have an investigative review to determine the length of suspension. That suspension could last for the duration of Alaskas mask policy. The airline declined to say if any Alaska passengers have had their flight privileged suspended for refusing to wear a mask. Most U.S. airlines said passenger flight bans are only temporary and will be lifted once masks no longer need to be worn. Delta Air Lines and American Airlines have adopted a no exceptions masking policy, similar to Alaskas new rules. Airlines are also cracking down on the type of facial covering that passengers wear. Under Alaskas stricter policy, face coverings must be made from a cloth or other barrier material that prevents the discharge and release of respiratory droplets from a person's nose or mouth. Sign up: Get the latest updates in the coronavirus newsletter Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. It specifies that masks with valves or openings, plastic face shields, or masks that do not cover the mouth and nose are not acceptable. United Airlines said it will ban masks with built-in openings, valves and vents on its flights starting Friday. Airlines are growing increasingly worried that valve masks will allow potentially infectious droplets from a travelers nose and mouth to escape through those vents. Delta Air Lines also specified those type of masks did not meet their safety standards and banned them last week. All U.S. carriers are providing free masks to fliers if they do not have one that meets the airlines standards. Most airlines are now requiring masks be worn during the entire travel journey at the airport, lounges, boarding areas, and onboard flights. All carriers say the vast majority of fliers are choosing to comply with these policies. Since Alaska's mask enforcement policy was enacted in May, the overwhelming majority of guests have respected the requirement and many guests have raised concerns about the few who do not, the company said. Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. (CNN) The original buyers of the ammonium nitrate that was left at Beirut's port have told CNN that it had been bought for use in mining. Fabrica de Explosivos Mocambique (FEM), a Mozambican explosives manufacturing company, told CNN that they were the ones who originally ordered the ammonium nitrate that was left at Beirut's port for nearly seven years. The order of ammonium nitrate was intended for manufacturing explosives for mining companies in Mozambique, the spokesperson said. "We can confirm that yes, we did order it," a spokesperson for FEM told CNN. The ammonium nitrate never made it to Mozambique, the source said, and instead was kept in a container at Beirut's port for over six years before exploding earlier this week. The catastrophic blast has resulted in widespread devastation to Lebanon's capital city and left at least 154 dead, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. FEM told CNN this was the only shipment of the chemical ordered by the Mozambican firm that never arrived. "This is not common. It's absolutely not common," the spokesperson said. "Usually, when you place an order for whatever it is that you're buying, it's not common that you don't get the goods. This is a vessel, it's not like one thing that was lost in the mail, it's a big quantity." The spokesperson has been with the company since 2008 and said there had been no similar lost shipments of ammonium nitrate since then. CNN agreed not to publish the spokesperson's name due to the employee's privacy concerns amid a sensitive international story. The September 2013 shipment of ammonium nitrate began in Georgia, where the chemical compound was produced. It was transported on the Russian ship, Rhosus, which docked in Beirut, where the chemical compound had been in storage for more than six years. The shipment never made it to Mozambique, the source said. FEM had worked with an outside trading company to facilitate the transfer of the chemical compound from Georgia to Mozambique. But several months after the ammonium nitrate left Georgia, the spokesperson said the trading company told FEM it would not be arriving: "We were just informed by that trading company: there's a problem with the vessel, your order is not going to be delivered," the spokesperson said. "So, we never paid for it, we never received it." They added that FEM then purchased another order of ammonium nitrate to replace the lost one and that one was delivered. The spokesperson said they had planned to pay "a significant amount" for the chemical in the first order but the payment was never made. While the company was aware that the vessel had been detained in Beirut and later impounded by Lebanese officials, the spokesperson insisted "that was absolutely out of our control." The spokesperson said that colleagues at the company were very "surprised" to learn how long the chemical had been stored at the port as "that's not a material that you want to have stored without having any use for it." Adding, "this is a very serious material and you need to transport it with very strict standards of transportation." The source added, "it's a dangerous material, it's a very powerful oxidizer and is used for producing explosives. But it's not like gunpowder that you just light a match and it will immediately go off like pyrotechnics. It's a lot more stable." The quantity -- 2750 metric tons, according to lawyers representing the ship's crew -- was also small compared with other commercial shipments of ammonium nitrate, the FEM spokesperson said. "That quantity -- it's far less than what we use in a month of consumption," the source said. Adding, "there are some countries in the world with an annual consumption of over 1 million tons. This was just 2.7 thousand (tons)." The spokesperson revealed that the Mozambican company only learnt of their involvement in the story from news reports on Wednesday that talked of a destination in Mozambique. "On Wednesday there was some news saying that the cargo was originally intended to go to Mozambique. So, when that happened, we knew it was probably for us," the spokesperson said. "It's absolutely massive and devastating to see all of that (the events in Beirut). And it's with great sorrow that we see that," they added. "And unfortunately, we see our name attached, even though we have absolutely no part in it." This story was first published on CNN.com Ammonium nitrate that exploded in Beirut bought for mining, Mozambican firm says Gardai are seeking the public's help in finding a 15-year-old boy who is missing from the Dublin 1 area since last week. Husseyn Souleymani is described as being 5'11", with short black hair, of slim build with brown eyes. He has been missing since August 1 and when last seen, Husseyn was wearing a black Under Armour tracksuit and a blue sleeveless coat. Husseyn is known to frequent the Tallaght and Firhouse areas of Dublin. Anyone with information on his whereabouts are asked to contact Gardai in Store Street on 01 666 8000 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111. Catalonia's regional parliament on Friday passed a non-binding motion condemning the monarchy in the wake of the abrupt departure abroad by Spain's former king Juan Carlos amid a cloud of scandals. Three separatist parties, which hold a majority of seats in the parliament, voted in favour of the motion which criticised the decision of Juan Carlos to go into exile. The separatists do not recognise King Felipe VI, the serving monarch. The proposal "Catalonia is a republic and does not want a king" was passed by 69 votes in favour and 65 against. Spain's royal palace said four days ago that the former monarch had decided to leave the country. His whereabouts have yet to be officially confirmed since he left Spain aboard a private jet on Monday. This has left the door open to an international guessing game about where the 82-year-old could be, with Spanish media placing him in Portugal, the Dominican Republic and Abu Dhabi. "Neither Spaniards nor Catalans deserve such a loud and ridiculous scandal on an international scale," Catalan leader Quim Torra told the regional parliament in a special session that he called to discuss the monarchy. The northeastern Spanish region's separatist leaders want to build a Catalan republic that would break away from Spain, and the latest scandal is an opportunity for them to push their anti-monarchy agenda. Catalans are split over independence. "We Catalans do not have a king and we do not want one," Torra said. "What authority will we have to enforce the rules against corruption if we accept a royal family that escapes when they are investigated after taking millions and millions of euros in terrible business commissions?" In a letter published on Monday by the royal palace, Juan Carlos said he was leaving the country so that his son King Felipe's reign would not be troubled by his woes. While not formally under investigation, Juan Carlos is at the heart of two probes in Spain and Switzerland over suspicions surrounding a multi-billion high-speed Saudi train contract won by Spanish firms. Spain's supreme court prosecutor opened a preliminary probe in June to decide whether to extend a corruption investigation into the train contract to the former monarch. Via his lawyer, Juan Carlos has repeatedly denied to comment on the allegations. Flash China urges the United States to stop arms sales to and military ties with Taiwan to avoid further harming China-U.S. relations and cross-Strait peace and stability, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday. Spokesman Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing when asked to comment on reports saying the United States plans to sell arms to Taiwan again. U.S. arms sales to Taiwan seriously breach the three China-U.S. joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique, severely undermine China's sovereignty and security interests, and gravely violate basic norms of international relations, said Wang. "China firmly opposes this." "The Taiwan question concerns China's sovereignty, territorial integrity and core interests. China has firm resolve in upholding its sovereignty and security," said Wang. "We urge the United States to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques and stop arms sales to and military ties with Taiwan, lest it should further harm China-U.S. relations and cross-Strait peace and stability," he said. 'Sinha's skills at resolving contradictions will be required to smoothen the functioning of the bureaucracy which has been so fractious that it tripped up even a seasoned bureaucrat like his immediate predecessor, G C Murmu,' notes avid Devadas. IMAGE: Manoj Sinha takes the oath as Jammu and Kashmir;s new lieutenant governor in Srinagar, August 7, 2020. Photograph: PTI Photo In choosing a new lieutenant governor for Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to have prioritised the ability to connect with the grassroots and to reach out across ethnic, religious, and ideological divides in the Union territory. Manoj Sinha, who has been entrusted with the challenging task, will have to be innovative to employ his grassroots connect, for security threats in Kashmir could bog down his efforts to reach out. However, those who have known him for decades say that he reaches out not only to those who share his ideological positions but to others as well. A highly-placed official who knew Sinha as a senior at Benaras Hindu University points out that Sinha used to treat the elder Communist Party of India leader Sarjoo Pandey from his native Ghazipur as a role model, particularly for his work among the poor, even though Pandey's politics was very different from Sinha's affiliations. Sinha continued to speak highly of Pandey even as recently as during the 2019 election campaign. His junior at the university says that although Sinha was a leading light of the Jana Bharatiya Janata Party-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, he had friends even in the Left-oriented All India Students Association and the Congress. No doubt this openness to dialogue stood him in good stead when the prime minister sought a replacement for G C Murmu as lieutenant governor. The Union territory, which has a Muslim majority, is extremely diverse in terms of ethnicity, religion, and regional affiliations. Its mountainous terrain has created several small niches which have remained largely isolated from each other for centuries. The need for inclusion is one of the key reasons Modi retained N N Vohra as governor of the erstwhile state for four years of his first term, and chose to replace Vohra with Satya Pal Malik, who was sent almost two years ago and remained the governor until the state was reduced to a Union territory with a lieutenant governor. Malik had once revealed that one reason the prime minister preferred him to run J&K was that he had worked with a range of political parties, and had been a party colleague of former chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed in the Janata Dal. Malik had at various times been in five other parties, including the Congress, before he joined the BJP. Manoj Sinha is known as a quiet doer who manages work efficiently so that deadlines and standards are met. He was regarded as one of the most efficient performers in the council of ministers when he was the minister of state for railways from 2014 and minister of state with independent charge of communications from 2016. Sinha's reputation for honesty must also have been a factor in his selection for the new job. He will be tested on that score, for he must clean up a compromised administration. Corruption is said to have scaled new heights (external link) in the Union territory. The well-placed official reveals that Modi has particular regard for Sinha's background in science. The prime minister is reported to have told colleagues not to go by Sinha's preference for the dhoti, and realise that he is an engineer. Indeed, Sinha was known as a topper when he joined the IIT at BHU where he was elected its president of the students union at the age of 23. He earned his BTech and MTech degrees at the institution and was well-respected as a fine student with outstanding leadership qualities. Sinha's skills at resolving contradictions will be required to smoothen the functioning of the bureaucracy which has been so fractious that it tripped up even a seasoned bureaucrat like his immediate predecessor, Murmu. Malik stated a few weeks before he was transferred out to Goa that the prime minister had told him he wanted the state to shine, so that it was the envy of those across the Line of Control. Tragically, the ego tussles within the bureaucracy over the past couple of years have prevented that. Lobbies loyal to certain top bureaucrats, to ministers at the Centre, and to certain regional and caste cliques have a tendency in some places to vitiate the cohesive functioning of an administration. Being a politician, Sinha will no doubt be better able to resolve any such issues and ensure that the bureaucracy works as a team and delivers on the government's priorities. Afghan Loya Jirga Meets to Determine Fate of 400 Taliban Prisoners Ahead of Peace Talks By Ayaz Gul August 07, 2020 A traditional public assembly, known as a Loya Jirga, opened in Afghanistan Friday to determine whether a last set of 400 hard-core prisoners from the Taliban insurgency should be freed to clear the way for long-awaited direct peace talks between Afghanistan's warring sides. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani argued in his speech as he convened the meeting that because the prisoners in question are convicted of "serious crimes" he was not empowered under the law to set them free without consulting the nation. "(The) Taliban have promised that within three days of the release of these 400 prisoners they will begin direct negotiations with the government and agreeing on a permanent cease-fire will top the agenda of these negotiations," Ghani said. He cautioned the jirga participants, however, that the Taliban has threatened to continue with their violent campaign if these inmates are not released. Afghan officials said that more than 3,000 delegates, including tribal elders, leaders and politicians, are attending the consultative assembly tasked to advise the government on what to do about the prisoners. Around 700 women are also among the participants in the meeting that is expected to remain in session for several days. A landmark deal the United States sealed with the Taliban in February to end a nearly 19-year-old Afghan war called for immediately opening peace talks on the condition that Kabul release 5,000 insurgent prisoners in exchange for 1,000 government security personnel that the Taliban was holding captive. The insurgents have already freed all the prisoners they were to release in a phased process that concluded a week ago. The Afghan government has released all but 400 Taliban inmates, saying they have been convicted of serious crimes, including murders. Afghanistan's chief peace negotiator, Abdullah Abdullah, also addressed the Jirga meeting, stressing that the only way toward for resolving the conflict is through "honest and direct" talks to end Afghans' suffering. "I hope you decide about the fate of the 400 Taliban prisoners during the first day of your deliberations. We have to remove all the remaining obstacles and start the long-awaited intra-Afghan talks as soon as possible," said Abdullah, a political rival-turned-governing partner of Ghani. Washington is pushing all sides hard to finish the prisoner exchange and get the talks started to end to years of bloodshed. "We acknowledge that the release of these prisoners is unpopular," U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo said in a statement on the eve of the Afghan jirga meeting. "But this difficult action will lead to an important result long sought by Afghans and Afghanistan's friends: reduction of violence and direct talks resulting in a peace agreement and an end to the war." In his Friday speech, Ghani stopped short of blaming the U.S.-Taliban pact for the controversy surrounding the prisoner swap. The U.S. excluded the Afghan government from the dialogue with the Taliban that led to the signing of the February 29 agreement in Doha, Qatar. "I will say very clearly that the problem is not in numbers. We are not part of the agreement that was signed in Doha between U.S and Taliban," said the Afghan president. U.S. special reconciliation envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the deal with the Taliban, stressed Friday that Afghan parties are ready to embark on a political process to negotiate a settlement and they all must seize the "historic opportunity" to end decades of hostilities in the country. In a series of tweets issued just before the Loya Jirga started in Kabul, the U.S. envoy cautioned the participants not to further complicate matters ahead of the impending peace talks. "Afghans have waited far too long for this moment. We wish the Jirga participants success in their discussions and urge them not to allow those who prefer the status quo and seek to complicate the path to peace to manipulate the process," Khalilzad stressed. The Afghan-born American diplomat has previously warned that Islamic State terrorists and other militant groups operating in Afghanistan are opposed to the peace process and intend to derail it. As part of its commitments under the deal with the Taliban, the Trump administration has reduced the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to around 8,600 troops before staging a complete withdrawal along with all coalition partners by July 2021. President Donald Trump said earlier this week in a TV interview that the U.S. troop size in Afghanistan will reduce to "between 4,000 and 5,000" by election day in November. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Red Sox have optioned right-hander Ryan Weber to their alternate training site, as per a team announcement. Recently-acquired righty Dylan Covey has been called up to take Webers spot on the MLB roster. The 2020 season has been a struggle for Weber, who has a 9.90 ERA over three starts and only 10 innings pitched. Weber has allowed five home runs over that brief sample size, as well as nine walks and only three strikeouts. Clearly the Sox had been enough to continue with Weber as a starting pitcher, as strapped as Boston is for arms. It was due to this pitching shortage that Weber found himself in the rotation in the first place, after working as a reliever for 31 of his 42 Major League appearances prior to this season. Weber had only a 5.04 ERA and 5.7 K/9 through 114 1/3 innings from 2015-19, though his strong ability to generate grounders and limit hard contact gave the Red Sox some hope that he could at least tread water as a regular starter. Webers grounder rate is down to only 40% this season, however, and opposing batters are teeing off to the tune of a 54.8% hard-hit ball rate. Covey might step right into Webers rotation spot, though while the 28-year-old righty brings more experience as a starting pitcher, he also has a rather shaky track record. Covey posted a 6.54 ERA, 6.2 K/9, and 1.52 K/BB rate over 250 1/3 innings with the White Sox from 2017-2019, also posting some solid ground-ball rates and exhibiting some problems with the long ball (1.6 HR/9). Over 63 appearances for Chicago, Covey started 45 of those games. The Red Sox acquired Covey from the Rays just a few days prior to their July opener, and he made one relief appearance for Boston before being sent to the alternate training site. That one outing didnt go particularly well, as Covey gave up two earned runs over two innings in Bostons 7-2 loss to the Orioles on July 25. Venezuela is once again shuttering gas stations across the country as the chronic shortage of fuel deepens due to ailing refineries and crippling sanctions limiting imports into the country. State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA is rationing fuel nationwide, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information isnt public. The move is partially a result of two of the countrys biggest refineries suffering serious breakdowns in recent weeks amid sweeping U.S. government sanctions banning the sale of gasoline to the country. The shortage has deepened since Iran sent sent five tankers laden with fuel in May and June to Venezuela, causing U.S. officials to issue warnings to Tehran. No more shipments have been received since. Iran also sent technicians to help improve the reliability of the countrys refineries to little avail. A PDVSA spokesperson declined to comment. Venezuela is back to where it was in March, when residents in Caracas -- usually the last to experience fuel shortages -- lined up for days or paid as much as 4 dollars per liter to fill up their cars in the black market. Some 950 out of 1,570 gas stations have been closed or are operating on a very limited schedule, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, who also asked not to be identified because the information isnt public. The lines are forming despite a nearly five-month long quarantine that has severely limited transportation nationwide. Public transportation has almost disappeared and workers walk even dozens of kilometers to get to their jobs. The situation also presents a logistical crisis, with 90% of commercial goods reliant on road transportation to move around the country. Our freight cargo services have slowed down due to lower supply of diesel at fuel stations in five states," said Jonathan Durvelle, head of the cargo transportation chamber in Puerto Cabello, Venezuelas biggest port. Some 3,000 affiliated cargo trucks now queue for 12 hours, affecting timely delivery of goods and raising costs. Manolo Ferraz, a farmer from Bailadores in the Andean region of the country, is running at a loss. Ive thrown cabbage, pepper, carrot crops away because of the lack of gasoline to move them to distribution centers," Ferraz said. Ive had to sell milking cows to slaughterhouses." The region produces 85% of vegetables in the country, according to farming federation Fedeagro. Three years ago, three to four trucks per day used to haul produce to distribution areas in the center of the country from 480 kilometers (300 miles) away. Now, only two or three come per week, according to Ferraz. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. After allegations against the leaders of the NRA, New York Attorney General Letitia James made public that the state will seek the dissolution of the association in a lawsuit. According to the New York AG last Thursday, leaders used the funds of the association that should have been kept in trust. These individuals willfully channeled millions that were not legal because it was not their money. As a result, the National Rifle Association lost millions, reported CNBC. Based on the lawsuit that was forwarded, the senior leaders of the organization used the money on such expenses as trips, private jets, and really expensive meals in top restaurants. Their incompetence caused the loss of approximately 64 million dollars in thirty-six months, according to the suit filed against them. The filing of the suit was in New York county at New York State Supreme Court. A press brief held by GA James who said that the NRA is where greed, misuse, and illegal activities are rampant. She is asking the courts to dissolve the National Rifle Association and demand all their executives guilty of malversation and pay all the mony in full, no less. Charged in the suit are the four executives, who were unnamed) as of this reporting. Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre said that he was not fit to chair any charity in NY, cited the New York Times. As an organization, the NRA has exerted much influence over national affairs for a long time. Practices by their executives have been unchecked while profits were channeled to their own pockets. GA James added that it has been untouchable and that is why it needs to be ended. No organization should ever wield that much power and influence ever again. Also read: Trump Funnels $35M Grants to Provide Housing for Human Trafficking Survivors The suit filed against the organization is about civil anomalies, not criminal or any violations. Though New York also said that if the investigation discovers felonies, it will be immediately forwarded to the Manhattan district attorney. Last Thursday, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine said that they were suing the NRA Foundation, which allowed the illegal transfer of funds. Irregular use of the funds, and transfers that were kept under the table, outline the shady activities of the organization. NRA president Carolyn Meadows, who responded to the suit and the charges against the NRA, said that it was an attack on their organization, noted NBC News. Meadows added that the events of the investigation are primed to reach its highest point in the 2020 elections moved to its climax. She blasted the move as a way to get political mileage and paint the National Rifle Association that is against the left, which is ruining America. The suit against the state and gun rights organization has been lon-running since it existed in New York from 1871. GA James is a Democrat, who threatened to probe the gun associations designation as a non-profit organization, said that during her campaign in 2018, she compared the NRA to terrorists. Related article: US Election 2020: Guardrails on Mail-In Ballots is the Last Line of Defense Against Electoral Fraud @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The US State Department has lifted its international travel advisory advising Americans against travelling during the coronavirus pandemic, stating it would now look at countries on a case-to-case basis. In March, the department first implemented an international travel advisory as the coronavirus ravaged through parts of Europe and China. It was then announced in a statement on Thursday that the department would lift the advisory which has remained at the highest alert level as a level 4 since 19 March in collaboration with the Centres of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the Department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice ... in order to give travellers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions," the release said. More follows A 'back home' last selfie of passenger who died in crash goes viral State will bear treatment expense of all injured in crash: Kerala CM Hardeep Singh Puri chairs meet to take stock of situation after Kozhikode accident Findings of probe in plane accident will be made public: Hardeep Singh Puri Officials inspect the wreckage of an Air India Express jet Day after an Air India Express plane overshot and fell 50 metres off the end of the runway at the airport, Union minister of civil aviation Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday reached the crash site to take stock if the situation. Puri said that 18 people died in the tragedy while 149 are being treated at the hospital. He also announced 10 lakh assistance for the next of kin of the deceased. Two black boxes have been recovered from the Calicut bound flight from Dubai that crashed with 190 people onboard on Friday, the minister said. Here are the live updates on Kerala plane crash Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 30, 2020. (Sean Davey/Getty Images) Australian Government Introduces Plan to Access Private Networks to Prevent Cyber-Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled on Thursday a new cybersecurity strategy (pdf) to protect the countrys critical infrastructure against cyber-attacks. New legislation will be introduced to give law enforcement agencies powers to access the networks of companies deemed critical infrastructure to protect them against potential cyber-attacks. The strategy says, The Australian Government will ensure law enforcement agencies have appropriate legislative powers and technical capabilities to deter, disrupt and defeat the criminal exploitation of anonymizing technology and the dark web. These powers will allow offensive disruption capabilities and will empower law enforcement to take the fight to the digital front door of those using anonymizing technology for evil purposes, according to a joint statement by Morrison and Australias Minister of Home Affairs Peter Dutton. To support the new strategy, Australia will spend A$1.67 billion ($1.2 billion) over the next 10 years, Morrison said. The increased spending is intended to fortify critical infrastructure, boost police efforts to disrupt criminal activity on the dark web, and strengthen community awareness. The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)a government intelligence agency focused on cybersecurity and cyberwarfarereceived government funding in June to enhance its capabilities to identify and disrupt cyber threats, and the new strategy will direct more funding to expand ASDs data science capabilities. The government will also invest in Australian universities to strengthen their cyber security and fund their cyber threat intelligence sharing network. Companies will also be legally bound to ensure that their networks comply with cybersecurity standards. A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters) The new strategy expands the list of industries that will be protected. In 2018 the Australian Government introduced reforms to protect critical infrastructure sectors such as the telecommunications sector and certain electricity, water, gas and port assets against cyber threats. The new strategy will build on this foundation to include other sectors critical to the Australian way of life. The Government will work with owners and operators of critical infrastructure to update legislation to ensure that critical infrastructure sectors deliver their essential services with security front of mind, Dutton said in the joint statement. Agencies will be equipped to help address sophisticated threats, particularly to the essential services all Australians rely oneverything from electricity and water, to healthcare and groceries, he added. The banking sector will also be considered critical infrastructure, Dutton said at a press conference. A Telstra logo adorns a phone booth in the central business district (CBD) of Sydney in Australia, on Feb. 13, 2018. (Reuters/David Gray) The strategy was developed in consultation (pdf) with a community and industry expert panel chaired by Andrew Penn, chief executive of TelstraAustralias largest mobile network provider. Penn said that the new powers, which allow the government agency into the networks of critical infrastructure operators, were needed, but they should be done with close and careful consultation with industry, according to The Sydney Morning Telegraph. Dutton told media that the new strategy will assist law enforcement agencies in countering terrorists, drug or human traffickers, pedophiles, and other criminals who operate on the dark web which allows them to remain anonymous, according to The National Digest. Alastair MacGibbon, a former director in the ASD said the government agency would access networks to monitor and defend them, not to spy, reported The Sydney Morning Telegraph. If the strategy gets implemented, Australian spy agencies could for the first time directly target specific Australian citizens. Cyber-attacks in Australia Australias Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton announces measures against online sexual exploitation during a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington on March 5, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) Some controversies in Australia have risen over power given to the ASD. In 2019, government agents raided the home of a News Corp journalist who reported about the Ministry of Home Affairs attempting to use the ASD to spy on Australians. Dutton denied the allegation that his ministry sought ASD powers to spy on Australian people. Cyber-attacks on businesses and households in Australia cost about A$29 billion ($20.83 billion) or 1.9 percent of Australias gross domestic product (GDP), Morrison told reporters in Canberra. During the COVID-19 crisis, malicious cybercriminal activity intensified targeting Australian households and businesses with a goal to steal personal information and distribute malware through COVID-19 themed phishing emails. The ASD used its offensive cyber capabilities to disrupt foreign cyber criminals behind those attacks, disabled their infrastructure and prevented them from accessing stolen information. According to data provided by the new strategy, the most targeted sector in the country within the 12 month period ending in June was the Australian government, where over 400 cybersecurity incidents occurred, and Australian state and local governments which reported more than 350 incidents. Individuals reported almost 200 incidents and the health sector more than 150. The lowest number of incidents occurred in water, communications, transport, and mining sectors. Morrison said in June that a sophisticated state-based actor had spent months trying to hack all levels of the government, political bodies, essential service providers, and operators of critical infrastructure. Sources told Reuters that Australia views China as the chief suspect, a suggestion swiftly dismissed by Beijing. Much of Australias cyber policy to date has focused on bolstering the defenses of government agencies after an attack on the parliament in 2019, but malicious cyber activity is increasing against small and medium businesses, universities and households, Morrison said. The ASD determined China was responsible for hacking Australias parliament and will be given new funding to counter foreign cyber-attacks. Reuters contributed to this report. The Panda Cares Center of Hope at Cook Childrens is a specialized program dedicated to promote healing and inspire hope through child life programming and playrooms. Currently, the program is available in five playrooms at Cook Childrens, but will transition to its own space with construction of a new facility on the medical centers campus. The goal is to bring courage and hope to patients, helping them heal and thrive through programs and services that focus on each childs entire well-being. Cook Childrens is incredibly grateful for Panda Express. Panda associates continually go above and beyond their call of duty to impact the patients and families of Cook Childrens. Today, we look toward the future as we continue to partner with this amazing organization through Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals. The Panda Cares Center of Hope supports our Promise to improve the health of every child, and we are thankful for Panda Express dedication to providing these programs and services in our community, Grant Harris, SVP, Chief Development Officer of Cook Childrens Health Foundation. We are proud to partner with Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals to bring the vision of the Panda Cares Center of Hope to life and are humbled to be able to be part of the healing journey for the families and kids at these hospitals, said Dr. Peggy Cherng, co-founder and co-CEO of Panda Restaurant Group. Children are our future, and we hope that through this partnership and curriculum designed to give children the strength to thrive, we will bring smiles and hope to communities nationwide. The Panda Cares Center of Hope will include therapeutic play and art, music therapy and family centered care. Made possible by Panda Express guests and associates donations, the eight Panda Cares Centers of Hope across the country are celebrating Panda Cares Day on August 8the anniversary of its philanthropic arm Panda Careswith a virtual surprise story time and book donation from Panda. To extend festivities to its guests, the American Chinese brand has organized a virtual fundraiser on August 8, to continue to drive donations to support Cook Childrens. When a guest places an order on the Panda Express mobile app or website using the promo code PandaCaresDay Panda Express will donate 28% of the pre-tax sales to Cook Childrens. Following a commitment of $25 million to Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals to fund Panda Cares Centers of Hope in 2019, Panda and CMN Hospitals have debuted Center of Hope locations across several hospitals in the U.S. including California, Texas, Nevada, Hawaii, Washington D.C., Arizona and Illinois. Panda Express guests and their associates in the greater north Texas area have raised more than $1.8 million for Cook Childrens over the past 11 years. About Cook Childrens: Cook Childrens Health Care System embraces an inspiring Promise to improve the health of every child in our region through the prevention and treatment of illness, disease and injury. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, were proud of our long and rich tradition of serving our community. Our not-for-profit organization encompasses nine companies a medical center, two surgery centers, a physician network, home health services and a health plan. It also includes Child Study Center at Cook Children's, Cook Children's Health Services Inc., and Cook Children's Health Foundation. With more than 60 primary, specialty and urgent care locations throughout Texas, families can access our top-ranked specialty programs and network of services to meet their unique needs. About Panda Express On a mission to inspire better lives, Panda Express, an American Chinese Trailblazer, is the largest Asian dining concept in the U.S. Family-owned and operated since 1983 by co-founders and co-CEOs Andrew and Peggy Cherng, Panda Express is best known for creating a wide variety of industry-first recipes, including its best seller the Original Orange Chicken and award-winning Honey Walnut Shrimp, which have defined the category of authentic American Chinese cuisine. Each dish at Panda Express, including the Wok Smart selections, is thoughtfully crafted with quality ingredients and inspired by bold Chinese flavors and culinary principles. The restaurant brand has more than 2,000 locations throughout the U.S. and has introduced American Chinese cuisine to more than ten international countries. Powered by this global family of associates, Panda Cares, the organizations philanthropic arm, has raised more than $212 million and countless volunteer hours in bettering the health and education for over 12 million youths as well as supporting communities in need since 1999. For more information, visit pandaexpress.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. About Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals raises funds and awareness for 170 member hospitals that provide 32 million treatments each year to kids across the U.S. and Canada. Donations stay local to fund critical treatments and healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care. Since 1983, Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $7 billion, most of it $1 at a time through the charity's Miracle Balloon icon. Its various fundraising partners and programs support the nonprofit's mission to save and improve the lives of as many children as possible. Find out why children's hospitals need community support, and learn about your member hospital, at CMNHospitals.org and facebook.com/CMNHospitals. A man has appeared in court accused of attempting to murder a pregnant woman with a piece of broken bannister. Francis Christopher Osemwegie face five charges in relation to the alleged attack in north Belfast on Thursday. The 46-year-old is charged with attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm, possession of an offensive weapon, namely a broken piece of bannister, and possession of the same weapon with intent to causing grievous bodily harm. He faces a further charge of assault. Osemwegie, of Ainsworth Drive in the city, appeared before Belfast Magistrates Court on Saturday where no bail application was made. District Judge Fiona Bagnall remanded him in custody to appear again via videolink on September 4. A police spokesperson said the woman is in a stable condition in hospital and that all charges will be reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service in line with normal procedure. Former Debenhams staff and their supporters have gathered outside the company's closed premises on Henry Street in Dublin this afternoon. The group are calling for further support as they pursue a better work redundancy package. Former Debenhams staff have been holding round-the-clock pickets for the last 121 days and have prevented stock being removed from some of Debenhams' stores. The workers received only the minimum redundancy payment allowed by law when they were laid off by the company in April. Former Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger was among the speakers at today's event. She stated that other retail workers should show their support for the former Debenhams staff by staging a one-day national strike: Theyre taking a stand for all workers to be honest, because this pandemic is being used to shed workforces and to protect the profits of their shareholders. Amazing day of protest by Debenhams workers. Tactical insolvencies & reneging on redundancy payments should be outlawed. We need a 1 day retail strike to win & stop other companies following #Debenhams #standwithdebenhamsworkers pic.twitter.com/zbHEpvOQ7i Ruth Coppinger (@RuthCoppingerSP) August 8, 2020 "Its absolutely critical that mandate that the union representing retail workers considers organising a ballot for a one-day or a half a day strike of retail workers to support these workers and get them their dues, because if they win, that will protect workers going forward. "We also need a huge change in the law so that these tactical insolvencies by multinationals don't happen again. "successive governments have failed to do anything about it, so the Debenhams workers are calling for legislation in line with the Duffy Cahill report from many years ago." Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids at several places in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday (August 8, 2020) looking for financial links between former DSP Davinder Singh and Pakistan-based terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen. The development comes almost a month after the NIA filed a chargesheet against six persons, including suspended Jammu and Kashmir DSP Davinder Singh, NIA has named Naveed Mushtaq alias Naveed Babu, Irfan Shafi Mir, Rafi Rather, Tanveer Ahmad Wani, and Syed Irfan in its chargesheet. Earlier, the NIA had claimed that its probe had revealed that the accused were participants in a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched by Hizbul and Pakistani state to commit violent acts against India. Investigation revealed that Singh was "being groomed by Pakistani officials for obtaining sensitive information". He was posted with the anti-hijacking wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police in Srinagar, and was part of the security staff that had received a group of foreign diplomats who visited Kashmir. On June 19, a Delhi court had granted bail to Davinder Singh in a terror case after the Delhi Police failed to file a chargesheet against him and a co-accused within the stipulated time. Singh was arrested by the police on January 11 on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway while transporting two Hizbul terrorists -- Naveed Babu and Rafi Ahmad Rather -- and a law school dropout Irfan Shafi Mir to Jammu. The J&K Police conducted an initial investigations before the case was handed over to the NIA. Police had said that the two terrorists and the lawyer had planned to travel to Pakistan. The suspended police officer is currently lodged in Kathua jail in Jammu division. Is the coronavirus seeping into every faultline in this country? The honest answer is: We dont know. Six months into the pandemic, there are more questions than answers about the virus. No one really knows how many Indians have been infected by the new coronavirus, nor how many have died. Perhaps we will never know because so many are asymptomatic and there are cracks in our death registration systems. This week, a young copywriter told me that his father had died of Covid-19 but the family had managed to persuade the hospital authorities into changing the cause of death into something else because they wished the body to be cremated traditionally. Meanwhile, Indias official Covid-19 tally has crossed the 19-lakh mark; and the death toll is close to 40,000. Currently, India has the largest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Asia and the third highest number of confirmed cases in the world, after the United States and Brazil. There are masses of data swirling around. According to government data, a cumulative total of 2,14,84,402 samples had been tested till August 4. At 2.10 per cent, Indias Covid-19 case fatality rate since the first lockdown is low compared to the global average; 50 per cent of deaths have happened in the age group of 60 and above; 37 per cent deaths belong to the 45-60 age group; 11 per cent deaths belong to the 26-44 years age group; while 68 per cent of people who died were men and 32 per cent were women. The government says 28 states/Union territories show a Covid positivity rate below 10 per cent, and this indicates that the testing strategy is on the right track. But the numbers we have dont tell the whole story. Dr Hemant Shewade, a Bengaluru-based community medicine expert tracking the discourse around Covid-19 data in India points out that nationally, only 86 per cent deaths are captured by the civil registration system and only 22 per cent are medically certified for cause of death. The Medical Certification of Cause of Death is not enforced in every state with equal efficiency. So far, it has been implemented only in certain hospitals and mostly in urban areas. This can give a very skewed picture even now, when there is a parallel system of Covid-19 death reporting (which are compiled by the district administration and shared with the state government and then with the Centre). There is a high possibility of the official Covid death figures coming from Covid-designated hospitals where only confirmed Covid cases, those suspected of having Covid and who reach the Covid hospital in an extreme condition are factored in, says Dr Shewade. Not all states are equally equipped in terms of health and diagnostic infrastructure and human resources. Where testing is very low, and where medical certification of cause of death is low, it is likely that there will be a gross under-estimation of Covid-19 deaths. For example, Bihar, which has a population of over 120 million, has the lowest testing rate in the country, a mere four tests per 1,000 persons. This means a large number of cases may be going undetected. There are other gaps in the data which impede our ability to understand the pandemics trajectory. The data on Covid-19 tests in India doesnt make clear the distinction between the number of samples being tested and the number of people tested. There is also no official disaggregated data for every state on the RT-PCR tests (gold standard of coronavirus testing) and rapid antigen tests, says Dr Mohak Gupta, now part of the iCART Covid-19 research team and creator of www.covidtoday.in, an open source project tracking Indias statewise progress against the Covid-19 epidemic. Only a few states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Delhi share this information publicly but there are no updated national figures. We dont know how many among those who have antigen tests go for a follow-up RT-PCR test and what the results are. We also dont have statewise gender-disaggregated data on Covid deaths in any official portal nor the breakup between deaths in rural areas and those in urban areas. Dr Gupta points out that there is scant contact tracing data so we dont have a granular picture of how and where the virus is spreading, and stresses the need for real-time hospitalisation data and influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance data in the public domain. Then there is fear, which prevents insiders from coming forward to tell the truth. Unfortunately, there is no law in force that encourages potential whistleblowers in the public sector to bring complaints of corruption and wrongdoing to the attention of the competent authorities. Nor is there any mechanism to protect a whistleblower from reprisals for pointing the finger at wrongdoing. An available recourse is to make complaints to the lokayuktas. Hardly any parent law of such bodies empowers them to protect whistleblowers. The only remaining option is to move the courts directly, which few would want to do given the length of time it takes to get a conviction, says Venkatesh Nayak, programme head of the Access to Information Programme of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. As for whistleblowing in the private sector, the extremely limited provisions in the 2013 Companies Act or the Limited Liability Partnerships Act dont inspire much confidence in potential whistleblowers, says Mr Nayak. There is also no mention of whistleblower provisions in the laws governing societies and trusts, which are of colonial vintage. It comes as no surprise that doctors and nurses working in entities regulated by any of these laws continue to suffer in silence or at the most make complaints through official channels at considerable risk to themselves and their careers. The only remaining option is to go on mass strike, as is now happening in Zimbabwe. However, the government will clamp down on such legitimate protests by invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act or draconian provisions of the Disaster Management Act, he adds. Succesive governments have pushed the six-year-old Whistleblowers Protection Act under the carpet without bringing it into force despite repeated reminders from civil society and the media. Telling the truth has never been easy. However, there are those who persist. As Mr Nayak points out, despite the restrictions imposed by the Covid-related lockdowns, citizens are using the Right to Information Act to demand details of action by governments to tackle the epidemic. But delays and refusals are common as are attacks on RTI activists. Cutting and transporting ice from the Han River, circa 1920s. Robert Neff Collection By Robert Neff It is said that, as time passes, everything changes unfortunately this is not true in regards to Seoul's oppressive summers. In the late 19th century, it wasn't uncommon for the more affluent residents of Seoul to abandon the city and seek relief in the mountains or along the coasts. Those who were left behind had to contend with, in addition to the heat, swarms of flies during the day and mosquitoes at night. Life in Seoul was miserable. The heat also made it difficult to keep food from spoiling and ice became a luxury that few could do without. Of course, the palace and court favorites had little problem obtaining ice. Harvesting ice in the late 19th century. Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection The Korean government maintained two large ice storage facilities at Seobinggo and Dongbingo, where huge slabs of river ice (nearly two meters long and about 12.5 centimeters thick) were covered with straw and preserved throughout the year. Court officials and others who possessed bingpae an ice ration card were regularly able to obtain a certain amount of this valuable commodity (based on their rank) for their own use. The common people, however, had to either purchase ice on the black market or from ice merchants. The black market ice obtained illegally from one of the government ice storage facilities was probably considered to be safer but much more difficult to obtain and so most people had to rely on local ice vendors. Many of the Korean ice vendors sold ice taken from the river, but other less-scrupulous vendors sold ice from rice paddies which, considering the fields were fertilized with night soil (human waste), was deemed unsanitary and facilitated the spread of diseases such as cholera. Early Western residents also had difficulty obtaining good ice. The Seoul Ice Plant, circa 1953-54. Robert Neff Collection In a letter to her family in the summer of 1893, Sallie Swallen an American missionary happily informed them that her husband had made her an icebox and that they had ice delivered twice a day. "We think we are fortunate that we can get ice," but it wasn't cheap every day she paid nearly 280 Korean cash (about nine American cents). Despite the price, she felt it was money well spent as it kept "all the food so nice." There also were other perks. She could make ice cream a rare delicacy in Korea and had a steady supply of "almost ice-water." The latter was made by boiling water and, once cooled, pouring it into glass bottles that were then placed on the ice to cool. No one dared use the purchased ice in their drinks. Eventually the Westerners began to make their own ice. In the winters, Horace N. Allen, the American Minister to Korea, had his Chinese servant freezing water every day. According to Allen: "I had lots of kerosene tins out and he freezes them full of well water, then heats the tin a little and knocks out the block. I could get paddy field ice, but prefer to freeze the good well water so that we can use the ice without danger." A military vehicle loading ice at the Seoul Ice Plant, circa 1953-54. Robert Neff Collection Of course, as Allen soon found out, the ice had to be stored correctly if it was going to last throughout the summer. In a letter to his sons he complained: "Our ice has given out. A week ago there was a good supply, but when it gets so low it turns in and melts all at once. I am going to build the house up just twice as high for next winter so I can put in as much again." Realizing there was a market for safe ice, Lucien Martin a French hotelier established the Astor House Ice Plant in late spring 1909. According to his advertisement, his plant was able to supply "pure artificial ice made with the best and most up-to-date machinery. The purity of the ice is guaranteed as it is made from water supplied by the Seoul Water Works and filtered again before use." The entrance of the Ho Yang Ice Plant in Seoul, circa 1953-54. Robert Neff Collection Not only was his ice safe, it was also cheap only two sen (about one American cent) a pound. The company also delivered the ice to its customers in Seoul. Despite the introduction of modern ice-making to Seoul, small shops continued selling blocks of ice. Not too many years ago, there was a small shop in my neighborhood that sold large blocks of ice to the fish merchants in our market. Unfortunately, like many things, it is now gone unable to compete with modernization. Ho Yang Ice Plant employees, circa 1953-54. Robert Neff Collection A small, indie short film made in Ireland and starring a young woman from The Rower is making waves on the international film festival circuit. When the Wind Can Touch Your Skin is a short film made by an almost all French and Italian crew in the west of Ireland. It tells the tale of a French photographer who comes to Ireland and is captivated by a girl from the Aran Islands. Michelle Rosemarie Miley, from The Stripe, The Rower, is the actor that portrays that girl. Her success has come as a surprise to Michelle, who is a biochemistry graduate and is actually working as a teacher in Dublin, these days. After she completed her degree at Trinity, Michelle did an acting course, to get in touch with her artistic side. She got an agent and auditioned for what was to become When the Wind Can Touch Your Skin. Her first professional acting project. The production was delayed and in the meantime Michelle stepped away from acting. She thought acting was out of her system when, out of the blue, she got a call asking if she was still interested in the film. It was shot in Galway and on the Aran Islands, and it is acted in English, French and even Irish. I didnt realise how successful it would be. I was happy to be a part of the project but I really didnt think I would win any kind of awards for it. Im really blown away. It was an honour to be part of the process. So far, Michelle has won the Best Actress award at the Istanbul International Film Festival and Best Supporting Actress at the Varese International Film Festival in Italy. The film is scheduled to be part of upcoming film festivals in Athens, Rio, Prague, as well as the Vesuvius International Monthly Film Festival in Italy. Unfortunately Michelle cant travel to the festivals because of the coronavirus. Recently the film was shown as part of the Underground Film Festival in Dublin, but there are no plans to show it in Kilkenny - yet. Michelle hopes that it might be shown in Kilkenny as part of the Arts Festival or the Subtitle Film Festival, next year. Although teaching now, Michelle has been asked to take part in a new film by the writer and director of When the Wind, Michael Kuntz. The new movie will be set during the Irish Famine and will be in Irish and English. Michelle is the daughter of Theresa Miley, from The Rower, and the late Billy Miley. Her sister Angelina is about to move to Dublin for her studies, and Michelle is excited to be living with her sister again. Before going to university Michelle attended national school in The Rower and St Marys Secondary School in New Ross. SOUTHAMPTON, NY With President Donald Trump in the Hamptons for a series of fundraising events, a group of protesters is expected to gather in Southampton Saturday night to speak out against his policies. The "East End Together Against Trump" rally is planned for 5:30 p.m. at the corner of Hill Street and First Neck Lane in Southampton Village. Participants must wear masks; hand sanitizer will be provided. Donations of water bottles will be accepted. It's not the first time a fundraising visit by Trump to the Hamptons sparked protest: In 2019, Trump headed to Southampton for two fundraisers and hundreds turned out across the East End to protest against the president. "Stop hate, save America," protesters chanted at a "Rally to Save America, Stop Hate" hosted by the Progressive East End Reformers/NYPAN in Water Mill. "I feel it's my duty to as an American citizen to speak out," said Angela Giovanniello, of East Quogue, one of of about 250 protesters at the rally in 2019. "I feel our government is no longer working in our best interests." Reported preparations for Trump's arrival took place Wednesday, with military helicopters engaging in a "practice run" at Southampton High School. Trump's fundraising visit to the Hamptons reportedly began with a dinner Thursday attended by Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, according to CNBC.com. Tickets were reportedly slated to cost up to $50,000. On Saturday, tickets to the Hamptons fundraiser include a photo opportunity, roundtable and an event where tickets will fetch up to $500,000 per couple, with proceeds benefitting the Trump Victory Committee and Republican National Committee, the post said. A "TrumpStock" boat parade was held Friday, with a crowd of celebratory supporters gathering together for a flotilla, singing, and decorating their vessels. The event was the second TrumpStock boat parade on Long Island in recent months; the first was held in June with separate routes in Patchogue and Massapequa. Story continues Trump's visit comes amid social distancing protocols and a statewide ban on gatherings of more than 50 people put in place by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Southampton was recently in the spotlight for a controversial Chainsmokers concert in Southampton, where a packed crowd was caught on video violating social distancing protocols. Guilfoyle tested positive for the coronavirus in July, according to an NBC report. This article originally appeared on the Southampton Patch (Natural News) Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said that his companys no-fly list has greatly expanded after they started banning passengers from flying with Delta if they refuse to comply with the companys COVID-19 mask mandate. Weve had well over 100 people that have refused to keep their mask on during the flight, Bastian said in an interview. The CEO further said that while a vast majority of Deltas flyers have complied with the companys mask mandate, the few who did not have been blamed for causing flight disruptions. A company spokesperson confirmed that these people have lost their ability to book future flights with Delta. Bastian said during his interview that passengers are not allowed to board a plane if they arent wearing masks. However, employees have reported that once people are on the plane many try to take off their masks. Flight attendants have regularly tried to get the passengers to keep their masks on for the duration of the flight, warning that if they continue with their behavior they will not be allowed to fly with the company. One infamous incident occurred on July 23. A Delta flight going to Atlanta, Georgia, went back to Detroit, Michigan after two passengers refused to keep their face coverings on. The flight later departed for its original destination. Social media has been flooded with viral videos of people asserting their individual rights. (Related: Harvard doctor wants US to enforce national mask mandate; Surgeon General says order may lead to REBELLION.) Mask fight on a plane. The goal of all global corporate media is to create then grow this kind of division amongst people so that the most evil people in the world can consolidate wealth & power. They are satans mouthpiece pic.twitter.com/MbQRUigPQ9 George (@jitotweets) August 2, 2020 Bastian has urged people who are considering flying without a mask to consider traveling with other airlines that have fewer restrictions, to figure out other means of traveling or to simply not travel at all. Listen to this episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about how people can use the logic employed by the lunatic liberal mob in order to claim that they are wearing a face mask despite their objections over being forced to wear one. Delta Air Lines more focused on profits than on upholding individual rights In a letter Bastian sent to Delta employees on Thursday, August 6, the CEO talked about how the company needs to not only keep customers happy, but to also ensure that public health protocols are met. He emphasized that this was going to be Deltas business strategy for the foreseeable future. We want to ensure that those who travel now are choosing Delta, the letter read. This strategy will allow the company to bring in additional revenue, which will help keep them afloat and also build additional loyalty and affinity for our brand, which will power our growth when demand begins to come back. Delta and other major American airline companies are focused on making sure that they make enough money, as the COVID-19 pandemic has tanked much of their revenue due to the slowdown in worldwide travel. From April to June, the company reported that it had 93 percent fewer passengers than it did during the same three months last year. In July, the companys second quarter report showed that Delta had a net loss of $5.7 billion, the largest since the 2008 financial crisis. Delta and several other airlines announced early in June that they would be forcing their passengers to wear face masks whenever they fly on their planes. Other airline companies that have announced similar mask mandates include United Airlines and American Airlines. Deltas own mandatory mask policy came into effect on May 1 and it required all of the companys passengers to wear a mask for the duration of the flight. The company has distinguished itself as having some of the strictest rules regarding masks among airline companies, such as preventing middle seats from being sold in order to maintain some level of social distancing between passengers. Deltas policy also requires people who want to be exempted from wearing a mask due to health concerns to go through a process known as the Clearance to Fly screening process before being allowed to board a Delta plane. This screening takes place over the phone and is conducted in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). A physician has the final say over whether or not a person looking to fly can board the Delta plane without a mask. It can take up to an hour to complete. If the physician finds that they are not allowed to fly without a mask, the customer can ask to be rebooked for a later flight or get a refund. If they insist on boarding the plane or if they make false medical claims, Delta can temporarily blacklist customers from booking flights with their company. The worst offenders, the company warns, can be permanently banned from flying with Delta. Delta has not stated when their mask mandate will end. Learn about all the other companies that are using the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic to impose their will upon their potential customers with tyrannical policies such as mask mandates by reading the articles at Pandemic.news. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk Edition.CNN.com BusinessInsider.com FoxBusiness.com Novelist William Faulkner once wrote, The past is never dead. Its not even past. I thought of this line as I followed the trial of Bruno Dey, a 93-year-old former Nazi SS concentration camp guard in a Hamburg, Germany, court this past month. Dey served as an SS private 75 years ago at the Stutthof concentration camp east of Gdansk in northern Poland. The Hamburg court found him guilty of 5,230 counts of accessory to murder, one for each person believed to have been killed while he worked in a Stutthof guard tower during 1944 and 1945. The court gave him a two-year suspended sentence, acknowledging his contrition and willingness to cooperate with authorities. Prosecutors had sought three years in prison. I have been to the Stutthof camp twice, most recently this past December. It is a quiet and somber place where the silence is broken only by low voices and the shuffling of visitors feet. As a guide once pointed out, even the birds abundant in the fields around Stutthof do not come into the camp or fly overhead. They must sense even today the horror that was Stutthofs gas chamber and gallows. More than 60,000 people, half of them Jews, died in Stutthof. The camp opened Sept. 2, 1939, the day after Germanys invasion of Poland. It was one of the last camps to be liberated, on May 9, 1945. More than three dozen survivors testified in Deys trial. They told the court of seeing relatives die on the electric fence surrounding the camp and hearing the screams from the gas chamber. Winters were brutal, with the living given little food and clothing while facing subzero temperatures. Disease claimed the lives of thousands. The death toll continued well after the camps liberation. Dey acknowledged that the images of misery and horror have haunted me my entire life. But, as one observer pointed out, although he had decades to confront the horrors of what he witnessed, he remained silent. The trial changed that, with Dey telling the court, Today I would like to apologize for those who went through the hell of this insanity. Something like this must never happen again. While it must indeed never happen again, we must also take every measure possible to keep alive awareness of places such as Stutthof. Yet that is a challenge. According to a 2018 poll commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, 7 of 10 American adults believe that fewer people seem to care about the Holocaust as much as they used to. The same poll found that 22 percent of millennials (those born from 1981 to 1996) have not heard or are not sure if they have heard of the Holocaust. Almost half (45 percent) of adults cannot name one concentration camp or ghetto in Europe during the Holocaust. Further, while 84 percent do correctly identify Germany as a country where the Holocaust happened, just over one-third are able to identify Poland as a Holocaust location. This is truly amazing considering that 90 percent of Polands Jews (3 million out of 3.3 million) perished during the Holocaust and all six of the major extermination camps were located in Poland. And the most infamous of all extermination camps Auschwitz remains a mystery for many. Some 41 percent of all adults are unable to identify what Auschwitz was, with 66 percent of millennials unable to correctly identify it. This may be connected to the fact that 80 percent of Americans have never visited a Holocaust museum. Obviously, Holocaust educators, of which I am one, have much to undertake. But the heartening news is that the Claims Conference poll found 93 percent of adults believe all students should learn about the Holocaust while at school. To its credit, Texas has made progress. Recently the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission helped establish Holocaust Remembrance Week in public schools and Gov. Greg Abbott set aside the week of Jan. 27 for it this year. It was selected because that is the date in 1945 that Auschwitz was liberated by Allied troops. So, Faulkner was correct The past is never dead. Its not even past. But we all must work at keeping the history of the past alive. It is our moral duty to do so. Roger C. Barnes chairs the Sociology Department at the University of the Incarnate Word where he teaches a course on the social history of the Holocaust. New Delhi, Aug 8 : According to a new global study on travel in the post-COVID world, India and Thailand have the most citizens confident of travelling in the "new normal", with a score of 76. It also reveals that Asian countries like India, Thailand, China, Indonesia, and Singapore are more eager than their Western counterparts when it comes to resuming travel. Conducted by Blackbox Research, Dynata, and Language Connect, the research 'Unravel Travel: Fear and Possibilities in a Post Coronavirus (COVID-19) World' examined the sentiments, preferences, and expectations of 10,195 people across 17 countries regarding travel in the post-pandemic world. For the study, countries were measured on a Travel Confidence Score, by considering - how comfortable a person is to travel internationally in the next 12 months, and how well prepared they feel about their country reopening its tourism and leisure activities. Asian countries dominated the list of countries that scored above the global average of 61, including China (69), Indonesia (65), and Singapore (64). France, Germany, and Denmark also rated above the global average. At the other end of the spectrum, Japan rated the most cautious with a score of 40, followed by the Philippines (43) and Hong Kong (50). Other countries that scored below the global average included Sweden, New Zealand, UK, Canada, and USA. Saurabh Sardana, CEO of Blackbox Research, says: "The scores revealed that a number of countries have had their confidence towards travelling severely battered, which can be attributed to the negative reporting on COVID-19 cases. For them, sustained control in COVID-19 numbers domestically and globally is needed before they begin revisiting international travel as a lifestyle priority. "Meanwhile, with a significant part of Asia having experienced similar epidemics, it is not surprising that Asian travellers would be more resilient and optimistic about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Despite countries like India and Indonesia recently seeing a higher number of cases, their reputations as tourism powerhouses means it will be hard for them to neglect the travel industry in the long term. In the short-term, international leisure travel also seems to be off the table for most people, with 44 per cent of respondents still keen to avoid international vacations. Notably, Japanese, Filipinos, New Zealanders and Australians are least eager for long-haul trips. Australia and Japan emerged as the two most popular destinations for Asian travellers, while China, Italy, and the US are the countries whose tourism appeal took the biggest hit during the pandemic. What does the future of travel look like? The study found that e-boarding passes, touchless lavatories, contactless journeys from airports to hotels, no more middle seats in transportation, and digital health passports are some of the new ideas which global travellers hope to see implemented soon. "Governments will need to play a key role in messaging and ensuring travellers' safety, as well as empowering the tourism industry through investment in new technology and innovation that would ensure a seamless, contactless travel experience that is sustainable. The first movers will cash in on the pent-up demand as borders open," Sardana signs off. (Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in) At least 20 bodies have been recovered so far from the debris of the landslides that flattened a row of 20 houses of tea estate workers in the high range Idukki district in Kerala, as efforts were underway amid continuing rains to locate those missing. Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have initiated search and rescue operations on Saturday morning. "On Friday night we had recovered two bodies. Today we retrievedtwo more. With this the toll has gone up to 20. There was some confusion regarding the total number of persons at the location at that ... Scholarly, a social movement has been defined as an extra-institutional collective action with the purpose of propagating or denying a change. They are the ways of expressing grievances and concerns (sometimes extremely) about the practice of state about rights, welfare, and wellbeing through the means like street protests, Satyagraha, art, and various other creative forms like the recent fashion show in the #EnoughIsEnough movement. Throughout the history of Nepal, there have been countless civil movements in which people exercised their power. Today, we look at the history of such movements that either promoted or resisted any changes. Social movements during the medieval era Not much has been written about social movements during the ancient and medieval eras when Malla kingdoms were flourishing in the Kathmandu valley. However, Rishikesh Shaha mentions of two or three incidents of people resisting the despotic acts of the rulers during the time of King Sadasiva Malla of Kathmandu, King Jitamitra of Bhaktapur and his minister, the unfortunate Bhagirama. Similarly, he mentions of people revolting during the time of King Mahendrashimha of Kathmandu and Patan when he appointed a Muslim as the chief minister, with such movement forcing the king to cancel the appointment. Shaha also mentions of Thimis action and popular clamour when Ranajit Malla wished to nominate his illegitimate son as his successor, forcing him to apologise to people and drop the proposal. Moreover, Shaha argues that peoples reaction to the murder of King Visvajita Malla by a court officials son is another example to prove that people were not docile and unconcerned with the politics during the time. Social movement during the modern era Like the medieval period, historical evidence provides little clue upon any civilian unrest during the early modern period after Prithvi Narayan Shah unified the kingdom. But, people in the western part of Nepal including Tanahun district did revolt against the confiscation of Birta lands given to Brahmins and Guthis in 1805-1806, popularly known as Baasaththi Haran. Although society and politics are inter-related, very few historians have written upon the social unrest during the Rana period and have mostly covered political developments and political movements. The Rana period The century-long Rana period started in 1847 when Bir Narshingh Kuwar, who adopted the name of Jung Bahadur Rana, seized political power after the Kot Massacre and was declared Mukhtiyar or Prime Minister shortly afterwards. During this time, the kings became more ceremonial while the Ranas became the de facto rulers of the country. Ranas were oppressive as they were more interested in securing their status quo and had invested little in health and education, exploiting the people and economy. The sparks of anti-Rana movements started with the coronation of King Tribhuvan in 1911. It was the time when the political consciousness of the people was growing, inspired by similar movements against the British rule in India. Gorkhali, a Nepali newspaper published from Banaras, fuelled the anti-Rana feelings when it became one of the first newspapers to boldly criticise the policies of Rana regime, demanding political rights for the people. The paper was later banned in 1922. Sukraraj Shastri established a new organisation called Nagarik Adhikar Samiti which used to overtly organise religious meetings but covertly aimed to throw light upon the autocratic rule. Realising that normal social meetings were not feasible, a secret organisation called Prachanda Gorkha was established in 1931 to pursue underground revolt. But, the revolt failed when key members of the organisation were captured and imprisoned. A similar organisation named Praja Parishad was established which included members of various castes and ethnic groups, notably Tanka Prasad Acharya, Dashrath Chand, Ram Hari Sharma, and Dharmabhakta Mathema. As Mathema was the physical instructor of the king, the king was updated about the movements. However, Praja Parishad also failed when its members were captured and many of them executed between 1940 and 1941, including Dasharath Chand, Dharmabhakta Mathema, Shukraraj Shastri and Gangalal Shrestha. Meanwhile, the Nepalis exiled in India started anti-Rana activities despite the strict watch of the British government. An organisation titled Gorkha League was founded by Thakur Chandan Singh in Dehradun in 1921 which would publish a paper titled Gorkha Sansar (called Tarun Gorkha later), highlighting the conditions of Nepalis and the tyrannical rule of the Ranas. Having realised that the British government in India supporting the Rana rulers immensely, many Nepalis joined the anti-British movements in India in 1942. The 1951 revolution In 1947, two political parties set up by the exiled Nepalis in India, All India Nepali National Congress and All India Gorkhali Congress, came together to form a mass political party called National Nepali Congress in Calcutta, electing Tanka Prasad Acharya as the president and BP Koirala as the acting president. The party participated in a labour strike in Biratnagar Jute Mill in March 1947. Inspired by Indian counterparts, they organised the civil disobedience movement the April of the same year. Later in May, the then Prime Minister Mohan Shamsher promised to associate commoners in the administration in a meaningful way and announced some reforms. The party halted the movement for the time being. In 1948, a draft of Nepals first constitution was written by a team of constitutional advisors for Mohan Shamsher. However, the situations changed when a new political party called Nepal Praja Panchayat was established, and it demanded the implementation of the 1948 constitution. The demand was denied, and the party was subsequently banned. But still, it organised a Satyagraha campaign with hundreds of people participating. The Congress, alongside, decided to launch a non-violent protest for political rights. BP Koirala and his colleagues sat in a hunger strike for 21 days in jail. In 1950, the Nepali Congress, which was formed by merging the National Nepali Congress and Nepali Democratic Congress, decided to wage a violent protest against the regime. King Tribhuvan, along with his family members left the palace and took asylum in the Indian Embassy and later departed for India after four days. The event reignited the movement as Nepali Congress announced armed conflict throughout the country while KI Singhs Mukti Sena disrupted the administration in various places. Mohan Shamsher had tried to bring the king back unsuccessfully and thus had declared and held the coronation of Gyanendra, the second grandson of Tribhuvan as the new king. However, he was constantly pressurised by the Indian government to agree to the demands. Prime Minister Mohan Shamsher agreed to fulfil the demands of the movement and issued a statement that the election of the Constituent Assembly would be held before 1952 and an interim cabinet would be formed that would include Ranas and the peoples representative in an equal faction. On February 12, 1951, a tripartite meeting was held in New Delhi between the king, the members of the Congress, and the Ranas, which agreed upon a 10-member cabinet to be led by Mohan Shamsher while the king Tribhuvan to be recognised as the constitutional head. After the successful meeting, king Tribhuvan returned to Kathmandu and declared that people would be governed by a new democratic process under a new constitution made by an elected constituent assembly in the near future. That is how the social movement, popularly known as Saat Saalko Kranti, ended the 104-year-long oligarchic Rana regime. The aftermath For the first time in Nepal, the issue of peasants was on the rise in the Nepali politics during the 1951 revolution, but it was raised mostly by the elites, most of whom were banished by, or dissatisfied with the Rana regime. The powers and rights were promised to the people through the election of the constituent assembly by King Tribhuvan in his historical 1951 speech. However, the power, which was monopolised by the Ranas was transferred to the king, and the palace was fearful of losing a significant amount of power after the constituent assembly. King Tribhuvan had declared in January 1954 that the supreme power in every sphere vests solely to the king, which was the expression of undermining the democratic development. Nepal, nonetheless, was going through a process of socio-political changes and restructuring after the 1950 revolution, although it took a significant time for the stability of the governments formed afterwards. King Mahendra ascended to the throne after his father, King Tribhuvan, died in 1955. Mahendra did not want to continue the democratic experiments either and, therefore, ignored and stalled the mandate of the constituent assembly. However, because of the rise of the popularity of the Nepali Congress and the international pressure, he held elections in February 1959 but promulgated a new constitution before one week of the election that bestowed his control over the national assembly and the government. Nepali Congress won the first-ever election of Nepal by the vast majority and BP Koirala became the first elected Prime Minister and the government brought significant structural changes: it introduced the first five-year development programme focusing upon health, education, agriculture, resettlement programmes, transportation among others, the commoners issues which were neglected in the Rana regime. Despite uncertainties, the government looked to democratise the polities and sought egalitarian reforms, while a new bureaucratic system was incorporated. ~ Wearing of masks in public places mandatory, violators can be jailed or fined NAF. 5000.00~ PHILIPSBURG:--- Ministers of TEATT Ludmilla de Weever and Minister of VSA Richard Panneflek signed a Ministerial Decree on Friday to further enforce the sanitary guidelines in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. De Weever said that violators can find themselves behind bars for a period of 4 months or fined NAF.5,000.00. Restaurants, bars, nightclubs, discotheques, restaurants, hotel bars, casinos, rooms rented for meetings, events and parties. The restrictions do not apply to hotels that must close off their businesses by midnight until 6 am. Minister of VSA Richard Panneflek said that on Friday another person died due to COVID-19, he said during the past weeks the numbers in COVID-19 cases continue to rise rapidly as such it is now mandatory for persons to wear a face mask in public places. Employers and employees must also wear masks and ensured that proper social distancing and hygiene measures are practiced. St. Maarten Epidemiologist Eva Lista de Weever from CPS said currently there are 74 active cases as of August 7th, 2020, 4 of which are hospitalized, 4 in isolation, while 86 persons have recovered and 17 deceased. De Weever said based on the current trend, a large amount of younger people are being infected with the COVID-19 virus. She said the clusters have been identified and cleared. However, it is of uttermost importance that social distancing guidelines are followed. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 22:06:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- President of the European Council Charles Michel said on Saturday that the European Union (EU) will help Lebanon in the long term by reconstructing the destroyed buildings and infrastructure. After meeting with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace, the president said that reforms must be adopted to support governance in Lebanon, including reforms in the banking sector and combating corruption through taking decisive measures. "We know that Lebanon was facing, before this catastrophe, great challenges, especially the burdens resulting from hosting a large number of displaced Syrians," he added. "After returning to Brussels, I will urge my colleagues in the European community to work together to stay committed to an effective partnership with Lebanon. I will also meet the director of the International Monetary Fund, who can contribute to the economic support of Lebanon," he said. Michel's visit comes following two huge explosions that rocked Port of Beirut on Tuesday. The Lebanese Health Ministry announced on Saturday that 158 people died and 6000 were wounded by the huge explosions that hit Beirut's port on Tuesday. The health minister announced on Saturday that over 60 people are still missing due to the explosions and local and foreign rescue teams are searching for the missing people through the rubble. Enditem Beirut, Aug 8 : Three senior officials at the Port of Beirut, where two deadly explosions earlier this week killed over 150 people, have been arrested. Lebanon's discriminatory Attorney General Judge Ghassan El-Khoury said on Friday that the arrested officials are General Director of Customs Badri Daher, former Customs Director Chafic Merhi and Director General of Beirut Port Hassan Koraytem, reports Xinhua news agency. Friday's development comes a day after 16 port employees were arrested over the devastating incident. On Thursday evening, Government Commissioner to the Military Tribunal Judge Fadi Akiki said that more than 18 people have been questioned so far, including port and customs officials as well as people in charge of maintenance at the hangar where explosive materials have been stored for years. Beirut's First Investigative Judge Ghassan Oueidat has also issued a decision prohibiting the travel of seven port officials. Two huge explosions rocked the Port of Beirut on Tuesday evening, killing at least 154 people and injuring nearly 5,000 others, while causing massive damages in the city. Primary information has revealed that ammonium nitrate stored since 2014 in the port's warehouse No. 12 might have caused the explosions. Meanwhile, the UN Refugee Agency said on Friday that it was mobilizing assistance to support its staff and refugees affected by the deadly blasts. The UNHCR has confirmed that areas hosting refugees were affected by the explosions, but the did not provide details about fatalities or injuries. It was also announced that the UN is releasing $6 million in immediate emergency funds for urgent care for the blast victims and also for fixing up homes for the vulnerable. The money is being added to the $9 million released earlier from the UN's Lebanese Humanitarian Fund, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "The allocation will fund trauma care and other urgent support to hospitals, the repair of damaged homes for the most vulnerable people affected by the explosion, and logistical support." The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for another $15 million to cover immediate needs and to ensure the continuity of the COVID-19 response across the country, he said. The explosions destroyed 17 containers of WHO essential medical supplies with personal protective equipment items completely burned. The World Food Programme (WFP) is allocating 5,000 food parcels to affected families in Lebanon, the spokesman said. Each package is enough to feed five people for one month and includes basic food items such as rice, pasta, oil, sugar, salt and tomato paste. Unicef reported that up to 100,000 children are among those whose homes had been destroyed or damaged and who have been displaced. Fifteen primary health centres have sustained some damage. Connor Michael Lewis, 16, is charged with murder over the shooting death of Artavious Quarterman A Florida teenager, 16, shot an 18-year-old in the head while mocking him as 'so scary' after the alleged killer had a fight with his girlfriend. Connor Michael Lewis, 16, of Sanford, shot Artavious Quarterman, 18, through the window of his front door Wednesday all the while on the phone to 911 complaining about several people banging on his door and window. Sanford Police said the dispatcher could hear Lewis saying 'Oh, you're so scary. You're so scary' before gunfire rung out. Lewis was charged with murder Friday after Quarterman died of his injuries. The suspected murderer called police just after 8 p.m. Wednesday to report multiple women banging on the front door of his home, police said in a press release. Lewis told the dispatcher he and his girlfriend had got into a verbal argument and he told her to get out of the house. His girlfriend's family then turned up at the property and were banging on the door and window, Lewis told authorities. Police said the alleged killer could be heard taunting the people outside saying they were 'so scary' as they shouted his name through the door. Lewis then fired one bullet through the window of his door striking Quarterman, who police said had gone with the mom of Lewis's girlfriend to collect her belongings from the home. Quarterman, 18, (pictured) died Thursday one day after Lewis shot him in the head through a door while mocking his victim as 'so scary' Lewis shot Artavious Quarterman (pictured left and right) Wednesday while on the phone to 911 complaining about several people banging on his door and window Quarterman was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries, before he died Thursday. Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith branded the shooting 'senseless'. 'Sanford police officers were minutes away from the home, and I believe would have been able to separate and de-escalate the situation in a matter of moments,' he said in a statement. Lewis was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on Wednesday, before the charge was upgraded Friday when Quarterman died. He is now charged with second-degree homicide and shooting into a dwelling. Specialists from China warn the population about the spread of a dangerous SFTS virus, which may be lethal, the Chinese newspaper Global Times informs. "Doctors believe that this virus is transmitted mainly through insect bites ... Over the first six months of the year, more than 60 people were infected in China, seven of them died," the newspaper quotes the doctors as saying. According to Chinese virologist Sheng Jifang, who works at the hospital at Zhejiang University, the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the virus cannot be ruled out. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8, 2020 07:00 529 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c6edd1 1 National sexual-abuse,Surabaya-Police,airlangga-university,Sexual-assault,East-Java Free The police in Surabaya, East Java, have detained a former student of Airlangga University (Unair) alleged to have sexually assaulted multiple victims after tricking them into helping him to do academic "research". The suspect, identified only as Gilang, was apprehended on Thursday in Kapuas, Central Kalimantan, with the cooperation of local police personnel, the head of Surabaya Police's mobile detective unit, First. Insp. Aris Risky, said. "[Gilang] was transported to Surabaya this morning after undergoing a COVID-19 rapid test in Kapuas Regional General Hospital," Aris said as quoted by kompas.com on Friday. At least three people have reported Gilang to the police. Officers have questioned them and several other witnesses and raided his rooming house to collect some of his belongings as evidence, Aris said. Gilang is currently in the custody of the Surabaya Police to be questioned intensively over the allegations, he added. Read also: Surabaya student investigated for so-called sexual mummification of multiple victims The case gained nationwide attention recently after several victims took to Twitter to share their accounts of being tricked by Gilang into performing an act known as bondage mummification under the pretense of academic research. One user with the handle @m_fikris wrote that he and his friend agreed to participate in Gilang's thesis "research" about "wrapping" in July after Gilang persistently begged him, saying he was at risk of failing his studies for not finishing his thesis. Gilang was in his fifth year of university. Gilang sent instructions for @m_fikris and his friend to take turns covering each others bodies, including their mouths and eyes, with duct tape. He also instructed them to wrap their bodies in jarik (traditional Javanese cloth) and later asked them to record the process and to send him the footage afterward. Another victim who spoke to The Jakarta Post said that when they were both university freshmen, Gilang had drugged him, covered his entire body with a blanket, and groped him when he was sleeping at Gilang's rooming house after a university event in 2015. "I confronted [Gilang] the next day, and he admitted all his actions, said the victim. On Wednesday, Unair announced that it had officially expelled Gilang from the university's School of Cultural Sciences as its investigation had found that he had committed sexual assaults on the victims. (nal) Disqualified candidates should be banned from possible temporary LegCo: analysts Global Times By Zhang Hui and Chen Qingqing Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/7 20:13:40 The standing committee of China's top legislature is likely to approve a resolution during the four-day session starting Saturday on the outgoing Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to avoid a potential "vacuum period" resulting from the postponed LegCo election. Although the agenda of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), which will convene its 21st session from Saturday to Tuesday in Beijing, has not mentioned discussions on the related issue, it's very likely that the topic will be proposed by the chairman of the NPC Standing Committee during the session, Chinese legal experts said on Friday. There have been growing calls in Hong Kong to extend the term of the current LegCo for one year, allowing a majority of the lawmakers to continue their work, but that previously disqualified candidates should banned from returning, analysts said. Kennedy Wong Ying-ho, solicitor of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, told the Global Times on Friday that after being proposed by the chairperson, the arrangement is likely to be discussed by lawmakers, and then a decision is expected to be approved during the session. The Basic Law of Hong Kong does not make clear about the detailed arrangement under such circumstances, and as the body that adopted the Basic Law, it's legitimate for the NPC Standing Committee to make the decision, Wong said. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on July 31 that she submitted an emergency request to the central government on the legal questions of the postponement, and the State Council will submit it to the top legislature for a decision. Tam Yiu-chung, a member of the NPC Standing Committee, also believes lawmakers will come up with a decision during the session on how to deal with the "vacuum period." Tam, who arrived in Beijing on Friday, told the Global Times that he will report different opinions on whether a temporary LegCo should be established during the "vacuum period," and whether the previously disqualified candidates will be eligible for the temporary LegCo. Many analysts in Hong Kong urged not to let disqualified members back in the legislature. The decision to disqualify was made by the electoral officers in accordance with related laws and regulations, and the national legislature will take reference and respect the electoral officers' decision in arranging the LegCo, Wong said. Former chief executive Leung Chun-ying said that those disqualified candidates cannot be lawmakers anymore, as they have already been deemed ineligible, the Sing Tao Daily reported on Friday. Twelve candidates for the LegCo election previously scheduled in September, including secessionist Joshua Wong, have been disqualified for failing the requirements of the elections. In the "vacuum period," Wong said extending the term of the majority of the current lawmakers is feasible. Tan echoed that opinion and further suggested establishing a temporary LegCo. "It's necessary to establish a temporary LegCo to continue the important agenda, such as the budget. But defining the temporary LegCo remains to be decided," Tam said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The bill, of course, wasnt his idea. It was written and introduced by Georgia Democrat John Lewis, the longtime congressman and civil rights icon who died last month and who Trump dissed this week because he declined to attend his inauguration ceremony. Lewis bill passed the Democratic-controlled House 310-107 and the GOP-led Senate 73-25 after some Republican senators, worried about the condition of national parks in their Western states, rallied several of their colleagues to pass it and send it to Trump. But, that didnt stop our modest president from taking credit and inviting only Republicans six senators and three House members to the bill signing. At some point, theyll have to start thinking about the Republican Party and all of the incredible things weve done on conservation and many other fronts, he declared. Yes, Trump has done such a good job protecting the environment and our national parks that he cant even pronounce the name of the much-visited Yosemite National Park in California, the park that naturalist John Muir convinced Teddy Roosevelt to place under federal protection. Yo-semites, the great conservationist Donald Trump called it during the bill signing, adding another first to his list of achievements, this one being the only president in American history who doesnt know the name of a national park that draws 5 million visitors a year. Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times. He can be reached by email at dzweifel@madison.com and on Twitter @DaveZweifel. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 8) Two rebels and one soldier were killed in an encounter between the New People's Army and government troops Saturday afternoon in Ilocos Sur, Armed Forces officials said. The incident began at 2 p.m. in Barangay Suagayan, Candon City, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines Northern Luzon Command. Authorities said they received reports from residents who were concerned that an armed group was in the area. The Armed Forces warned that the "incident is still progressing," adding that the public should remain alert. I know my children and they learn best in-person and they want to be in the classroom, she said. But this is not about what I want. I am not sitting at this table to get what I want. I am sitting here with the responsibility to make choices that are best for our district. Yves here. An important talk with Larry Wilkerson about conflict with China as a clear and present danger. However, it is distressing to see Paul Jay exhibiting BlackRock derangement syndrome in his podcasts. BlackRock has an unseemly tight relationship with the Fed (as did Pimco back in the day; Pimcos excess returns back in the day were not explainable save by getting too much intel on Fed thinking early) and its role in running bailout vehicles for the Fed is grotesque. However, to depict BlackRock as having any special influence outside the US or with military/security policy is simply incorrect. McKinsey is a much more credible uber villain than BlackRock. That does not mean that the particular report that Jay cites might not be insightful, but so could a good report on China by any major Wall Street analyst. By Paul Jay. Originally published at TheAnalysis.news Paul Jay Hi, Im Paul Jay and welcome to theAnalysis.news podcast. Recently, a past Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said that war between the US and China is possible before the November elections. The current Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, says thats overstated, but said that a conflict is no longer inconceivable. In a recent document from BlackRock, the massive financial services firm that is massively influential in making government policy almost everywhere, said in a research document, quote, The pandemic added fuel to the geopolitical dynamics already underway. The post coronavirus world is likely to be characterized by four key themes. First, the world is increasingly becoming bifurcated with the U.S. and China at opposite poles, intense rivalry looks set to affect nearly every dimension of the US-China relationship. Regardless of the US election outcome, other countries will increasingly be pushed to choose sides. Decoupling is focused on, but not limited to the technology sector. This means investors need exposure to both markets, as the center of gravity of global growth is moving to Asia. Second, the pandemic is poised to accelerate de-globalization as it magnifies nationalist and protectionist trends. The crisis adds to existing pressures such as global trade tensions and populism. This threatens to disrupt the web of global supply chains at the expense of efficiency. It may lead to on-shoring the production of strategic goods, thats from BlackRock. Thats advice to their investors. One thing is certain, as the US-China relationship deteriorates if the U.S. and China dont cooperate in fighting the pandemic and the climate crisis, were pretty much doomed, even if by some miracle we avoid nuclear war as inherent to the geopolitical and economic realities, the rivalry is we must find a way to overcome it. Now joining us is Lawrence Wilkerson. Hes a retired United States Army colonel and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. Larry is a distinguished adjunct professor of government and public policy at the College of William and Mary. Thanks for joining us, Larry. Larry Wilkerson Good to be with you, Paul. Paul Jay So, first of all, what do you make of what the two Australian, former and current prime ministers are saying about Australia? One saying its really dangerous, and the other one says, yeah, maybe not that dangerous, but dangerous. And Im talking about actual conflict, armed conflict, between the United States and China. Larry Wilkerson Kevin Rudd is a Mandarin speaker and in many respects an expert on China. I dont happen to agree, full-throatily, with what he said, but I do think that, like my conversation not too long ago with John Mearsheimer, where John said its inevitable that we go to war with China, China goes to war with us, that its getting closer to that possibility and its extremely dangerous, as you intimated, that that possibility is closer. Its extremely dangerous that its anywhere out there in our future if it is. As for the sitting prime minister, Im not aware of his intellectual bona fides or his predisposition toward China one way or the other, so I cant really comment. I am aware of a lot of my Australian friends who dont think hes a very good prime minister. All in all, this is, as you intimated, again, a very, very dangerous time. Not simply because we have an incompetent baboon sitting in the Oval Office with all manner of sycophant baboons arrayed all around him. But we also have a situation in the world that ought to be turning primus inter pares, that is to say, several states that more or less look at each other as equals and work diplomatically, economically, financially and otherwise to try to cooperate, to meet some really awesome challenges, two of which you hinted at climate crisis and nuclear weapons rather than be as we are, sitting around contemplating, not just contemplating, but working up new reasons for warfare. You can say that its a product of the national security state that the United States has most assuredly become since World War Two, you can say its a product of Xi Jinping and the enlarged power and capability within their national security decision making the process of their military. Thats what you do when you feed it with lots of money and grow it up and stoke it with some nationalism and so forth. You turn around one day if youre a civilian on the Politburo and you say, My God, what have I created? Well, thats where they almost are now in China, much the way weve been for some time now, at least since 9/11, possibly even before that, dominated by the military instrument, dominated by war, dominated by national security. Chinas very much in that boat too. The belligerence theyve shown recently towards India in the South China Sea and elsewhere is an indication of that. So its not a good time. Im sitting at lunch with one of the premier, if not the premier realist thinkers in America, John Mearsheimer, as I said, and he tells me its inevitable that were going to war with China. Paul Jay Well, within what time frame is he talking about? Larry Wilkerson We didnt have a chance to discuss that. I suspect John would say, Well, it will take a confluence of events that will take in itself a precipitating event. I think the assassination of the archduke in Sarajevo in 1914, I could think of several precipitating events. The most likely in my mind is something to do with Taiwan, although increasingly I see Taiwan as almost a fait accompli, should China decide to move. It will not move in an overt military fashion, it will simply let Taipei know that if it doesnt cooperate much, the way it let Hong Kongs leaders know, if it doesnt cooperate more fully with the mainland and it will spell out what that more fully means, time is running out for Taipei, and I think that pressure will probably be acknowledged, perhaps protested for a short time, probably not publicly, but in private over Beijing, Taipei channels. And then Taipei will more or less, as Hong Kong has done, subside. That is to say, it will become a part of the imperial mandate of heaven. And I dont think the United States will do a darn thing. Well probably issue demarches. Congress will stand up on its hind legs and pontificate and pass all kinds of Taiwan protection acts and everything else. I dont think were going to go to war with China over Taiwan. I may be wrong. Congress may just plunge us right into it, and well find out very quickly that the way to resolve that conflict after weve taken brutal blows on both sides is nuclear weapons and then were at a really bad place. Paul Jay Well, what youve said in interviews with me, previously, that every war game that you were part of, the kind of work through what would happen with an armed conflict with China, winds up in a nuclear war. And everybody, in theory, everybody that is at all informed knows thats the end of China, the United States and most human life on Earth. So presumably theyre in no hurry to get to that, even in spite of saber-rattling. Larry Wilkerson I dont know that the central party school, the strategic thinkers for Beijing and the Politburo itself, and Xi Jinping himself, I dont know that they think that way. I hope they do. I certainly hope they do, but I dont know that. Paul Jay I mean, China, for the last while, has been objecting. It gets almost no coverage in the American press and Western press objecting to the Trump getting out of these nuclear treaties and calling nuclear arms treaties and calling for new ones. Larry Wilkerson And China is probably right now, I wont say probably they are, all my contacts tell me they are embarked on a review, thorough review, of their own nuclear policy, the result of which will probably be a much more robust Chinese nuclear stockpile, one that can, as much as we used to say in the old days, ride out a first strike and respond massively. That means lots more nuclear weapons for China. Most people dont understand that China doesnt have very many nuclear weapons at all. Mao Zedong thought they were stupid weapons, they didnt make any sense. But if others had them, he ought to have a few just so he could threaten those others in case. Theyre getting ready to change that, I think, and become a full up, I can strike you and get away with it power, which of course is nonsense, nonsense for Russia, nonsense for the United States, nonsense for anyone to think that they can strike first and get away with it, as you intimated, we will have started a cycle of environmental change that added to the climate crisis will put us out of action as human beings probably 50 years earlier. Paul Jay Well, if the scientists are correct about nuclear winter, you only need a first strike, a successful first strike to end most human life on Earth because within a year the atmosphere is filled with so much smoke and soot from the cities burning that theres no agriculture left. Larry Wilkerson Its worse than that. So, Paul, if you read Will Perrys and Tom Collinas new book, The Button, you understand that book ought to be read by every citizen of the world, certainly by every American, that things on such a hair-trigger are now. Hair triggers, incidentally, what we tried to disassemble in 1991/1992/1993 when Chairman Powell was head of the military. We tried to disassemble a lot of these things, but theyre back in place again now. So your intimation that a first strike would do it? Look, its not going to be just the first strike because within seconds the response will come, within seconds. Paul Jay Define hair-trigger. What exactly is the mechanism, the steps within a hair-trigger? Because Ive heard anything from like ten seconds to make a decision to 20 minutes. Larry Wilkerson It just depends on the scenario. But you could get down, as Will points out in his book, and I trust Will Perry, the only engineer ever to be Secretary of defense, Will Perry knows what hes talking about. Not only was he there when several crises occurred, but he knows the engineering concepts behind these weapons and behind the structure thats been set up to use these weapons. So if youre looking at a situation where the president of the United States is going to act on information, in other words, hes going to act as soon as someone tells him that missiles are inbound. Youre talking about seconds, minutes at most, perhaps 8 to 10 minutes to make up your mind as to what youre going to do. And no one, here it is, no one in the national security establishment, indeed in the country needs to be consulted. The president can turn to that major, that lieutenant colonel carrying the box the package and say, Give it to me, enter the codes and were away with our strike back. Paul Jay And hes not the only one that can do that. Apparently, theres several hundred, if they think for some reason theres been an attack and the president maybe is incapacitated. But apparently, according to Ellsberg and some others, a couple of hundred people, if not more, that can actually do the same thing. Larry Wilkerson Thats a little bit of a stretch. But its technically true because there are things within the continuity of government cog highly classified things that make that sort of a scenario possible, but there are also checks and balances within that system. Its scary, I dont want to downplay that, its scary but scarier to me is the fact that the president, without consulting anyone, can pop that button. Paul Jay In the BlackRock document, it says, The intense rivalry looks set to affect nearly every dimension of U.S. China relationship, regardless of the U.S. election outcome, meaning whether Bidens in or not. The rivalry gets intensified,. Do you think the danger of conflict is less if Biden is president? Larry Wilkerson I think weve got a lot of speculating going on right now, and I dont see a lot of it is very informed. And I dont necessarily include the BlackRock assessment in that because I havent read the whole thing, but a lot of what Im hearing is not very well informed. The first thing thats going to confront Biden is, if not cause massive problems with the election, and Trump standing up MAGA TV on Inauguration Day and beginning to delegitimize the Biden administration from the very start to include if we dont change the Senate, not confirming any of his appointments, cabinet or otherwise. I mean, aside from that, Joe Biden is going to face an economic crisis probably more intense and deeper than the one Franklin Roosevelt confronted in 1932/33. So Joe Biden is going to be utterly consumed by the fact that the American economy is collapsing all around him, that 30-40% of Americans are out of work, that weve already printed trillions and trillions of extra dollars with absolutely nothing behind them to pay people to keep this from happening, to sort of hold back the wave, as it were. Thats whats going to confront Joe Biden. Thats whats going to confront his administration, a catastrophic economic situation. So its going to be extremely difficult to focus on getting a foreign policy in order, getting things corrected, like Iran, like Russia, like China and so forth. Trump is leaving him a disaster in foreign policy, a disaster, and a security policy. Just look, we have Elliot Abrams taking over from Brian Hook with regard to Iran. Brian just announced hes leaving two disasters, but Elliot makes Brian look like a success. Paul Jay Oh, I didnt see that. Elliot Abrams is going to be in charge? Larry Wilkerson Yeah, hes going to handle Venezuela and Iran. Paul Jay Are they getting serious about the conflict with Iran? Larry Wilkerson I think we probably are in for an October surprise that would involve Iran more than it would involve China. So thats where I differ with Kevin Rudd between now and November if there is an October surprise, so to speak, its probably going to involve Iran, not China. It might involve China because China makes it involve China, but I think the US is going to seek to make it with Iran. Paul Jay I cant see China getting militarily involved. But on the other hand, theres a growing Iran/China economic relationship. Larry Wilkerson 400 billion dollars. I mean, look at what weve done to ourselves. Here, we have Gazprom, (a partially state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg, Russia), completing the last leg of some 12 billion dollar Nord Stream pipeline, which is going to bring the rest of Europes needs in terms of energy to it from Gazprom. thank you very much, Mr. Putin, all at the same time that, my electric company, for example, the second largest on the East Coast behind only Duke Power, has put some 12 billion over the last four years, ten-year program, to build the only LNG plant on the east coast of the United States and ship it all to where? Europe. Well, Europe doesnt need it now. Im waiting for the stock and dominion to plunk. Paul Jay In BlackRocks advice to investors, their way to deal with this growing rivalry is to invest in both polars, put your money in China and the United States. Larry Wilkerson Put it in China, the United States, Iran, pick someone who might come out at the other end. Unfortunately, were all in this together. Paul Jay One of the people being talked about as vice president for Biden is Susan Rice. Larry Wilkerson I can just see Trump now, Benghazi Rice! Benghazi rice! Paul Jay If Biden actually goes there, it tells us something about what he thinks of where his foreign policys going, and shes quite the hawk. Larry Wilkerson Yes, and I hope he doesnt go there. I hope he doesnt go there. I hope we have someone, one, who at least looks competent and isnt a member of the national security state in good standing. Two, someone who is capable of becoming president not just after Biden, but perhaps even during Biden. And three, someone whom the American people can look at and say, finally, finally, someone who tells the truth, someone who is humanly decent, someone whom we probably can trust and someone who has the best interests of the United States foremost in their mind, because for almost four years now, weve had the exact opposite of that. Paul Jay Do you see that person? Larry Wilkerson Not immediately, and thats a problem. I had a conversation with someone the other day. I started out being opposed to what the person was proposing. The more he talked, the more I thought it was a positive idea. And the person he was advancing was Michelle Obama. Paul Jay Ive been predicting that for about a year and a half. Larry Wilkerson I understand that from other sources that she has been approached, whatever that means, and that theres no chance. Paul Jay I cant see why shed want to do it. Larry Wilkerson I wouldnt blame her a bit. Paul Jay Lets go back to the Biden situation. So whoever the vice president is, hes dealing with an economic collapse, as you said, worse than the 1930s. And of course, it wont be just the United States, the United States is in such deep shit economically. Its going to be a global crisis. Theres no way its going to be confined to the United States. Its going to involve China, too, because China is still very dependent on the American market. This decoupling hasnt happened. Larry Wilkerson Im on a call yesterday with a group of people, one of whom was an investment banker from Germany, and she began to talk about Stuttgart. I know Stuttgart well, thats where the headquarters for European Command is, thats where I used to take my Marine Corps seminars. I love Stuttgart. She said its going to be a basket case in a very short time, that the automobile industry and all the ancillaries around it are just collapsing and that soon Stuttgart will be the poor man of Europe. I couldnt believe it, but she knows more about the situation than I. Paul Jay So does this make conflict more or less likely with China? I mean, China and the U.S. and most of the world is in deep, deep crisis. Is conflict more or less likely? Larry Wilkerson History sort of screams that these are the sorts of situations that produce conflict and produce intense and difficult and sometimes, you know, world-spanning conflict, although we only have the last century or so to judge that from, but I would say yes. Paul Jay Well, is that ever a call for a peoples movement in the United States that demands a different kind of foreign policy? Larry Wilkerson Very much so, and a different culture. You know, this consumption culture is driving us into hell. We have to figure out a way to get off this predatory, capitalist fuelled consumption culture. We must. Its debilitating for our minds, our souls, our psyche. It destroys us when all we do is think about the next 24 hours of consumption. Its incredible. Its ruined even the productivity of this country to the extent that we now make products and products to last two or three years when we used to make them to last 20 because we want to sell eight or nine of them in that 20-year span rather than just one. We have built a system that is poisonous, perverse, and its killing our very soul, and not to mention our pocketbook. Paul Jay You get to talk to a lot more people in the elites than I do the peoples movement that I say we have to have, and that insight at the moment, and thats something of the scale that can really put pressureForget Trump, lets assume theres a Biden government because its going to have tremendous pressure on it to do what were talking about because the pressure coming from the financial sector and the military-industrial complex and so on is going to be enormous, and his history says hell bend to it. But, within the elites themselves, whether its military or diplomatic or finance, whatever, do you see any sense from people that they get there needs to be a transformative movement here? Larry Wilkerson No, I dont. In fact, as you were just talking, I was thinking about what I just read a moment or two ago about Mark Thornberry and Jim Inhofe and others involved in apportioning massive amounts of coronavirus intended dollars, taxpayer dollars, to the Pentagon and trying to justify based on the Pentagon and its hospital ship to New York and so forth and so on. Thats a pittance. And so tell me, Mr. Thornberry, tell me, Mr. Inhofe, what more F-15s lightning strike fighters have to do with the Pentagons coronavirus contributions? Give me a break. These people are brain dead, Paul. Theyre brain dead. And theyre so captured by the money that Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors dole out to them on a routine basis. Theyre so dependent on that largesse, they couldnt get out of this mindset if they tried. So if were going to get out of it, its going to take some kind of really apoplectic event or its going to take a massive awakening of at least a sizable minority, if not the majority of the American people. And a complete slate cleaning of the current leadership in Washington and possibly some of the leadership across the states, too, and a replacement of them by people who understand at least somewhat what youre talking about. Paul Jay All right. Thanks for joining us, Larry. Larry Wilkerson Thanks for having me, Paul. Paul Jay And thank you for joining us on theAnalysis.news podcast. BEARDSTOWN A tragic discovery has been made in a massive search and rescue operation expected to continue into Saturday. Authorities have recovered in the Illinois River at Beardstown the body of one of two boys whose disappearance Thursday night launched a search and recovery operation that involved members of at least eight agencies. The boys, ages 12 and 15, were pulled into the river while wading in shallow water near the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Bridge, according to a Beardstown Fire and Rescue Department official. They last were seen about 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Beardstown Fire and Rescue was called to the scene to initiate a search and were joined by dive teams from Jacksonville/Morgan County, Havana, Cooperas Creek and Mason County. Crews searched into the early morning before briefly suspending the operation. One boys body was found Friday morning, shortly after the search resumed and near where he had disappeared. Rescue teams spent the rest of the day searching the area for the second boy. Neither boy has been identified and officials would not say whether the boy who was found was the 15-year-old or the 12-year-old. Family members of the missing boys camped near the rescue team staging area all day Friday, awaiting news. A woman who identified herself as an aunt of the two boys said they were brothers. Family members are not being named because the identities of the boys have not been released. The woman said the family remained in disbelief about the situation as they grappled with the uncertainty surrounding the search, but they were trying to stay strong during the duration of the search. The woman said the older boy turned 15 at the beginning of August. She described him as a reserved young man who also knew when to be more outspoken. She also said he could be funny and was eager to learn. The younger child was outgoing and known to be a daredevil, the woman said. He enjoyed spending time with his family and was willing to try new things. Theyre our next generation and we want to see them succeed and fulfill their lives, she said. The woman said the community needs to educate its children about the river. We need to bring awareness that children need to be educated about the dangers of the river, she said. She said the family was grateful for the communitys support in trying to find the boys. The search for the second boy continued until nightfall Friday. Beardstown Fire/Rescue Chief Brian Becker said the search would resume around 9 a.m. Saturday. On behalf of our community, and our department, I cant begin to express my sincere appreciation for all of the agencies and all of the people who have offered their assistance and support, Becker said. The response shown by our community and our neighbors is truly heart-warming and appreciated. Rescue officials were assisted by Beardstown police, Cass County sheriffs deputies, Illinois State Police, the Illinois Department of Conservation, Mason County Emergency Management and Havana Fire Department. Head of Operations of Forestry Commission, Charles Owusu has condemned the insubordinate behaviour of some SHS students towards President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Some WASSCE students were captured in a viral video disrespecting President Akuffo Addo over their examination questions. The students were seen insulting the President because they couldn't write their exams. Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Charles Owusu was disappointed in the students for behaving rudely towards the President but called on the education authorities not to focus on punishing the students alone. He urged them to also investigate the root cause of the student's insubordination so as to avoid a repetition of such character in the future. ''It is important that we delve deep into this issue and ask more questions than answers. We should look at the root cause of the matter and make sure that these things won't repeat themselves in the future.'' Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Williams and his wife, Faith, whom he met while he was in law school, were married in 1966. The family lived in Boulder, Colo., for many years, and Williams taught law at the University of Colorado. He was also a visiting professor of law at UCLA, the University of Chicago Law School and Southern Methodist University. He was a consultant to the Federal Trade Commission. He learned the Russian language with the help of a tutor and traveled there on several occasions in the early 2000s to conduct research and lecture on the rule of law. He wrote several books, including the two about Russian history in which he argued that if Russia had turned to a free-market economy sooner it might have averted the 1917 revolution. It was a minor miracle that Democratic leaders and White House negotiators even met Friday afternoon to discuss the stalled coronavirus relief package. The Thursday evening negotiating sessions between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchintheir tenth daily meeting in a rowhad ended theatrically. According to Pelosi, Meadows had slammed the table in her suite of offices and walked out of the meeting, to which Pelosi said, You are slamming the table on our children and our schools. Meadows denied slamming anything, calling the story a fabrication. Advertisement These were not promising signs that a dealone day before negotiators self-imposed deadline for reaching a tentative agreement and with the sides still trillions apartwas within reach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its been a week since the CARES Acts enhanced unemployment benefits expired, and two weeks since its eviction moratorium expired. The Paycheck Protection Program, designed to keep small businesses afloat and their employees on board, expires Saturday. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, remains in the double-digits. These deadlines did not sneak up on anyone. The House had passed its sequel to the CARES Act, the $3.4 trillion HEROES Act, in May. But Senate Republicans took a wait-and-see approach until the last minute and, when McConnell finally released his counteroffer, half of his own conference instantly rejected it. With McConnell throwing his hands in the air, the business of propping up the American economy for another few months was left to negotiations between Democratic leaders and Trumps White House envoys. Its been a train wreck. Meanwhile, the evictions are set to begin. Advertisement Advertisement But negotiators gave it one last try Friday afternoon. After a swift hour-and-a-half of position reiteration, negotiators came out with the news that there would be no news. It was a disappointing meeting, Schumer told reporters Friday. No progress had been made from the previous evenings session, in which no progress had been made either. The two sides are at a standstill on both the overall size of the package and the policies within it. Its not that one side is choosing to walk. Neither has anything else to offer the other. Advertisement Ive told them, come back when you are ready to give us a higher number, Pelosi told reporters Friday. Mnuchin and Meadows, meanwhile, said that theyre willing to come back whenever Democrats offer a new proposal on the two most glaring outstanding issues: the extension of enhanced unemployment benefits, which have currently lapsed, and aid to state and local governments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think if we can reach an agreement on state and local and unemployment, we will reach an overall deal, Mnuchin told reporters, and if we cant, we cant. White House negotiators and Senate Republicans have been musing all week that they didnt think Democrats wanted a deal and were just stringing Republicans along. Democrats, they argued, expected President Trump would take the public blame for any economic catastrophe initiated by the expiration of CARES Act provisions like enhanced unemployment benefits, the Paycheck Protection Program, and eviction moratorium. The politics of no-deal favored them, and Democrats knew it. The White House tried to temper Democrats leverage by presenting an alternative should Congress not reach a deal. The President threatened to take executive action where he could: by scrounging the couch cushions for unused governments funds that could be repurposed to keep some federal unemployment benefits flowing, by deferring payment of payroll taxes, or by offering some kind of eviction relief. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement None of these moves, though, would be an adequate replacement for congressional action, so Democratic held their unwavering line for most of the last week. They insisted on a $3.4 trillion package that matched the HEROES Act, including an extension of the full $600-per-week enhanced unemployment benefits through at least the end of the year and about $1 trillion in aid to state and local governments. Pelosi has been in rare, brash form publicly, taunting Republicans as not giving a damn about either working people or children, and boasting that in terms of this legislation, Chuck and I are master legislators. But with Pelosi and Schumer starting to face questions about whether they were overplaying their hand, they moved Thursday night: They offered to meet Republicans somewhere in between the two sides $1 trillion and $3 trillion positions. Advertisement Advertisement I said Would you meet us in the middle? And they said No, it has to mostly be their way because the President wants it that way, Schumer said Thursday night. Fridays meeting was a rehashing of that discussion. We reiterated in very strong terms our offer, Schumer told reporters Friday afternoon. We come down a trillion from our top number, which was $3.4 [trillion]. They go up a trillion, from their top number which was $1 [trillion], and that way, we could begin to meet in the middle. Unfortunately, they rejected it. They said they couldnt go much above their existing $1 trillion, and that was disappointing. Advertisement Mnuchin, heading into Fridays meeting, had called a roughly $2 trillion compromise a non-starter. Besides, he and Meadows said afterward, they hadnt even seen a serious Democratic proposal on what that $2 trillion bill would even look like. How would it close the gap between each sides stance on additional aid for state and local governments which, at the moment, are $150 billion from Republicans and $915 billion for Democrats? What about enhanced unemployment insurance, where Republicans have offered $400 per week to Democrats $600? Advertisement Republicans also saw Democrats offer to cut $1 trillion off their package as little more than a budget gimmick or, as Meadows put it, a Washington D.C. magical way of saying they had trimmed their ambitions. That is, the Democrats offer is more about adjusting timelines on the expiration dates of certain provisions so that they would cost less on paper, even though Democrats would want to extend them later on. Pelosi basically confirmed this. Can we trim back some of the timing that goes for X number? Pelosi explained her thinking to reporters. We fully expect to correct some of that in a short period of time, anyway. Advertisement Advertisement For now, Meadows and Mnuchin said they would urge the president to go ahead with the executive orders hes been prepping. Neither side, though, sees these as an adequate replacement for Congress power of the purse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You cant do unemployment benefits in as good a way as you can legislatively, Schumer said of the moves Trump was eyeing. You cant do a payroll tax cutwhich even their own Republicans are againstif you dont do it legislatively. All these things you cant do, student loans, some forbearance, if you cant do it legislatively because you cant spend the money, as I understand it. You just have to delay it. You think a small business person is going to want to pay 12 months or six months of payroll tax all at once, six months from now? This is not a perfect answer, Meadows said. Well be the first ones to say that, but it is all that we can do, and all the president can do, within the confines of his executive power, and were going to encourage him to do it. Advertisement Talks may have collapsed for now, but this may not be the final word. At the moment, the White House and the scant Senate Republicans who are open to expensive coronavirus relief legislation say they wont support any bill that costs $2 trillion or more. At the moment, Democrats say they dont have the votes for any bill that costs less than $2 trillion. They may each be telling the truth, at the moment. But mass economic calamity, and the pressure that comes with it, has the ability to expand lawmakers view of the possible. For more of Slates political coverage, subscribe to the Political Gabfest on Apple Podcasts or listen below. Disease expert warns that public health measures will still be needed to control the pandemic in the United States. An approved coronavirus vaccine could end up being effective only 50 to 60 percent of the time, meaning public health measures will still be needed to keep the pandemic under control, Dr Anthony Fauci, the top United States infectious diseases expert, said on Friday. We dont know yet what the efficacy might be. We dont know if it will be 50 percent or 60 percent. Id like it to be 75 percent or more, Fauci said in a webinar hosted by Brown University. But the chances of it being 98 percent effective is not great, which means you must never abandon the public health approach. The novel coronavirus has infected nearly five million people in the US and killed more than 160,000. Lockdown measures imposed to keep the virus from spreading have devastated the economy, which suffered its biggest blow since the Great Depression in the second quarter, with gross domestic product dropping at its steepest pace in at least 73 years. As infections have spiked around the country after states started to open up, public health experts, including Fauci, have stressed the importance of steps that each American can take, including social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks. Fauci said on Friday that studies of Modernas COVID-19 vaccine could produce definitive data in November or December of this year. He said earlier this week that he expects tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to be available by early 2021, and a billion doses by the end of that year. US President Donald Trump has put forward a more optimistic forecast, saying on Thursday that the country could have a coronavirus vaccine before the November 3 election. The Governing Council met on Friday, August 7, 2020 under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. The ministers meeting in cabinet chambers prioritized action to be take on the current situation point regarding Coronavirus SARS-Cov2 -"COVID-19" in the Grand Duchy. The Community Haven was anything but serene during Fridays rally against police brutality and systemic racism. Originally planned to take place in Miller Park, the event had to change venues after the city strongly advised the group of Chattanoogans and Atlantans to stay away off any city property. Were glad that were at the community haven and feel welcome here with brother Muhammad and his crew here, said one speaker. We are here because of the Good Trouble Freedom Ride. We will not be deterred or dismantled, and we will go on in the pursuit of justice. Protest leaders said the city cited COVID-19 as the reason the large gathering was being heavily discouraged, as three buses with people from Atlanta were to make a stop in the Scenic City as part of the Good Trouble Ride, which honored the late Rep. John Lewis. However, Rev. Timothy Careathers was unconvinced by this explanation. We all know that camouflaged in this rhetoric, that seems to have concern for our community, is a letter from the city strongly discouraging this gathering today, Rev. Careathers said. A city that continues to gentrify neighborhoods like the one I pastor in, where average income is well below the poverty rate. The same city that has a racist sheriffs department that has terrorized black people, women, and the poor community with impunity, and mysteriously loses 15 months of dashcam footage. But all of a sudden are concerned for our health and safety. Marie Mott, the most visible leader of the I Cant Breathe Chattanooga movement, took the microphone several times during the rally. She too railed against the city for not allowing the protesters to use the public space of Miller Park, while also critiquing local law enforcement. We aint here to be nice. How are we going to be nice, when we pay for places to be able to gather, and we are told we cant do that because we are fighting injustice, Ms. Mott asked. How can we be peaceable if we see video after video of black men and women, white men and women, latinx men and women, be racially profiled and pulled over to the side of the road, be beaten for walking while black or being baptized in freezing water by a sheriffs deputy? Among those in attendance from the Peach State was Georgia House Rep. David Dreyer, who had travelled with the caravan from Atlanta to Louisville to Chattanooga. He said the United States has changed immensely since Colin Kaepernick first took a knee during the anthem in 2016. I know change is coming, and we are walking shoulder to shoulder, Rep. Dreyer said. Yall are making change on the ground, and its a big damn project to break systems of oppression, isnt it? Were not stopping until we break these systems of white supremacy. Gerald Griggs of the Georgia NAACP was also in attendance, blasted current political leaders by saying If they cant put real policy in place that holds racist police officers accountable, and cant support families that have been victims of police brutality, they have to go. Its on us to get in good trouble, to speak truth to power, to get justice for every single family throughout the United States. Some of us are going to have to go to jail, some of us are going to have to go to the mayors, governors and states house, because we demand justice now. The woman Marie Mott proclaimed as the peoples pastor, Charlotte S.N.N Williams, also had a chance to address the crowd of around 200. She praised Kevin Muhammad for helping to create the same community haven the rally was now taking place in, saying that the leaders of the city have demonized Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. I want you to know that in the spirit of Assata Shakur, never let your enemies tell you who your enemies are, said Rev. Williams. This should be a wakeup call for all of us, that we should have our own. This community haven is our own. Dotted around the field were vendors under tents. Among them was Megan Ruiz, who is part of HeadCount, which helps people register to vote. Ms. Mott and the movement have stressed voting as an extremely effective way of making change occur in the community. I like to go on social media and we do everything we can to make sure our friends go vote, since were part of the younger generation, said Ms. Ruiz. I think that its necessary to get your voice out there and be heard [through your vote]. While many speakers gave passionate speeches to the crowd, Marie Motts words seemed to encapsulate the overall message of the rally. We dont need any overseers in our community. We need to control our own economics, and take power back over our own education. Because if you cant read, youre a slave. We need to teach our children what it means to fight and get into the struggle. Weve got to learn how to turn over tables and drive the evil out of our buildings, said Ms. Mott. If we are silent about these things, we are complicit and have blood on our hands. And we have enough blood crying out from the soil. It is time for us to demand equity, liberation, and love and justice for all people, no matter who they are, where they come from, what they look like, or how much money they make. Last time we checked, we are all human beings. Indian HC meets Premier Rajapaksa View(s): Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay called on the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday to congratulate him on the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramunas victory at Wednesdays general elections. A statement from the Indian High Commission said Mr. Baglay during his meeting with Mr. Rajapaksa recalled that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had complimented the people and Government of Sri Lanka on the successful conduct of elections and had acknowledged the impressive electoral performance of the SLPP. The High Commissioner reiterated the strong desire and the commitment of the Government of India to work very closely with the new Government and Parliament in Sri Lanka for further strengthening comprehensive bilateral cooperation, the statement added. It said the strong mandate received by Prime Minister Rajapaksa provided a fresh opportunity for the two countries to enhance bilateral engagement, including mitigating the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. A resident of Lamashegu in the Northern Region, Madam Hajia Maria, heaved a sigh of relief as a waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), in partnership with the Sanitation Ministry, embarked on a clean-up exercise to clear a heap of refuse in the community. The exercise followed a virial video by Madam Hajia Maria, appealing to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the sanitation ministry to intervene in ensuring that a hump of refuse in the community which was posing health risks to the residents was cleared. And following that appeal, Zoomlion responded swiftly by evacuating the refuse, bringing smiles to the faces of the community members. The exercise was carried out as early as 7:00 a.m., Zoomlion had deployed a wheel loader and five garbage trucks at the refuse location to facilitate the exercise. The exercise, which lasted for five (5) hours, witnessed many of the community members expressing delight at the clearing of the refuse. The Assemblymember for the area was equally glad and thanked Zoomlion and all the stakeholders who helped in the exercise. Speaking shortly after the exercise, Hajia Maria, who was highly elated, expressed her gratitude to President Akufo-Addo, the sanitation minister and ZGL. She gave the assurance that she will lead the attitudinal change in the community. Family of Ontario man who died of COVID-19 in U.S. custody are angry with Canadian Embassy The family of an Ontario man who died from COVID-19 while in U.S. custody awaiting deportation to Canada is blaming the Canadian Embassy for not doing enough to bring him home. "They did not do their job. They did not protect my uncle, who was a free Canadian citizen," said Jessica Marostega, the man's niece. Her uncle, James Hill, died this week after contracting COVID-19 while at a detention facility run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He was scheduled to fly to Toronto on July 9 after being held at the facility in Farmville, Va., since April. A judge ordered his deportation in May. But his departure for Canada was delayed due to "medical reasons." "My cousin got an email from the Canadian Embassy saying that his travel had been postponed due to medical reasons, and that's all they would tell us at that time," Marostega said. It was later confirmed that he tested positive for COVID-19. Formerly a practising doctor in Louisiana, Hill had been serving more than 14 years in prison for health-care fraud and distributing a controlled substance before being transferred to the detention centre. He was 72 and considered at high risk when he was transferred to Farmville. After contracting the coronavirus, Hill was taken to a local hospital, where he died about a month later. Almost every single detainee at the detention facility has contracted COVID-19. "It was devastating," Marostega said. "Fourteen years waiting, we find out he is finally going to be released." Ellen Mauro/CBC She said the family was told in April it would take only a few weeks before Hill could come home. But his return was pushed back to the beginning of July. "It shouldn't have taken this long," she said. "We blame the Canadian [Embassy] for that when they could have asked, 'Why is he not coming home earlier?' I think [they] should have advocated for that a little more for him. To me, that's their job." Story continues In a statement, Global Affairs Canada offered "sincere condolences to the family," but it did not respond to the family's criticism. "To be honest, all the emails that my family sent that got responses back, they were all very blanket responses somebody else was looking into it.... And in terms of the embassy, I felt like they just passed a message back and forth but there was no saying to ICE this wasn't OK," Marostega said. "Our family offered to pay for transportation, medical check, everything and it was all brushed under the table." WATCH | Family speaks out after Canadian man dies of COVID-19 is ICE custody: Marostega also reached out to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and to her local MP but said the responses were inadequate. Now, she and her family are left to clean up the room they had set up for her uncle's arrival and return items that were donated from relatives. While she knows Hill won't be coming home, she said she hopes a situation like this won't happen to someone else. "I can't bring my uncle home, but if I can bring somebody else's home, right?" The sixth evacuation flight from the U.S. has departed for Abuja and Lagos with 325 passengers on board. In the manifest are 128 males, 174 females and 23 infants, according to the Consul General of Nigeria in New York, Benaoyagha Okoyen. This brings to 1,739 the total number of stranded Nigerians evacuated from the U.S. by the Federal Government so far. According to the flight schedule, the Ethiopian Airlines plane will fly directly to Abuja, and then proceed to Lagos. Mr Okoyen told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that 101 of the passengers were Abuja-bound, while the rest are heading to Lagos. As with the previous flights, all the evacuates were subjected to the Federal Governments COVID-19 safety requirements before boarding. These include temperature checks and presentation of negative coronavirus test results, among others. (NAN) (Corrects sheriff's first name to Ron in paragraph five) By Brad Brooks Aug 7 (Reuters) - At least 100,000 people are expected to attend the 10-day annual Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota's Black Hills opening on Friday, with its economic heft overriding concerns it could be a coronavirus super-spreading event. This year is the 80th anniversary of the event that in normal years sees upward of 500,000 motorcycle enthusiasts descend on the small town of Sturgis and the surrounding area. The rally injects $800 million into South Dakota's economy. Local authorities expect to take an economic hit with fewer in attendance this year and have halved the number of vendors allowed to participate. But they are still counting on a massive crowd - one of the biggest in the world since the coronavirus pandemic began - to pack concerts with at least 34 national acts playing. Most rallies bring a sea of black leather, boots and bandanas into Sturgis, population 6,900 in normal times. "The rally is going to stay the same in many respects," said Meade County Sheriff Ron Merwin. "It's going to be a lot of people and a lot of motorcycles all over the place. People are tired of being penned up by this pandemic." Merwin said many locals have voiced concerns about the public health impact the rally will have. South Dakota has fared better than most states - it ranks No. 38th in COVID deaths per capita, according to a Reuters tally - but cases have spiked in recent weeks as hotspots move into the Midwest. The sheriff's office overlooks Sturgis' Main Street and from Merwin's vantage point, he saw few precautions taken as the town began to fill up Thursday evening. "I'm sitting here and I'm watching people walk up and down the street, watching people ride up and down the street. A few have masks - most don't," he said. "There's not much we can do. Everybody is coming here with their eyes wide open, they know what they're getting into." 'FREEDOM STATE' Story continues Over 60% of Sturgis residents who responded to a survey the City Council mailed out in May said they wanted the rally canceled. But on June 15 the council voted to move ahead with the rally, though they canceled all city-sponsored events associated with it and included measures such as hand sanitizing stations. Merwin and others interviewed said the event is considered an annual headache by most residents, but one that must be stomached considering the money and jobs it brings to the region. With the rally lasting over a week and people flocking to massive campsites in the Black Hills National Forest and in nearby towns, trying to halt the event would have been fruitless, local officials said. "It would have been just as irresponsible for us to not prepare for these people who were going to show up regardless of what we wanted," City Councilwoman Beka Zerbst said. "It's just common sense to be prepared." Zerbst said before the pandemic, organizers were expecting upward of 800,000 people this year. She said it was anybody's guess how many will actually show up, but local leaders were counting on at least 100,000 people. In a videotaped address to city residents the day after the City Council voted to move ahead with the rally, Mayor Mark Carstensen said throughout the pandemic, "the state of South Dakota has been the freedom state and the city of Sturgis has stayed true to that." Carstensen emphasized that public health could not be pitted against the economy and people's ability to maintain livelihoods. "It's a situation where those can work together. It's not easy," the mayor said. "But we're all in this together." (Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; editing by Bill Tarrant and Lincoln Feast.) Lucknow: E-commerce marketplace Flipkart has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the One District, One Product (ODOP) scheme of the Uttar Pradesh government to bring artisans, weavers and craftsmen into mainstream business. Flipkart said that the partnership will enable these under-served communities to showcase their specialised products and crafts to millions of customers across the country. The initiative called `Flipkart Samarth` will enable them to break entry barriers by extending time-bound incubation support which includes benefits in the form of on-boarding, free cataloguing, marketing, account management, business insights and warehousing support. "The ODOP scheme was introduced to give a boost to the MSME sector while preserving and promoting the exquisite, indigenous legacy of art in Uttar Pradesh," said Navneet Sehgal, Additional Chief Secretary for MSME and Export Promotion. "We are confident that the partnership with Flipkart will enable artisans and the MSMEs in Uttar Pradesh to scale up their business and showcase their skills to a national audience," he said. Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Flipkart Group, said that the rich art and handicrafts of Uttar Pradesh will now be available to our more than 250 million consumers across India. "We are delighted to partner with the Uttar Pradesh government to leverage the power of technology and innovation through e-commerce to enable artisans and craftsmen to realise their full potential," he said in a statement late on Friday. Flipkart has previously signed an MoU with the Uttar Pradesh Khadi and Village Industries Board to benefit weavers and artisans by introducing khadi fabrics and village industry products on the Flipkart marketplace. Great expectations from new rulers, womens chamber says View(s): The Womens Chamber of Industry & Commerce (WCIC) has welcomed the result of the parliamentary election saying that with great victories come great expectations. Its chairperson Chathuri Ranasinghe said in a statement that the convincing landslide is an expression of the great hopes of the people for a new era of peace, growth and stability. The mandate given to the government is to rejuvenate the economy with new and bold initiatives and the WCIC has immense confidence that the newly elected parliament will grant, (1) increased opportunities for women entrepreneurs especially the SMEs; (2) an education policy which would meet the needs of the labour market; and (3) assist in job creation and the realization of entrepreneurial aspirations or academic and professional ambitions of the women, she said. The WCIC said in the free market the business community is the engine that will drive the economy. Like all other global economies our economy too is hampered by COVID-19. The business community can only look up to the government as the main source for recovery. In times of grave crisis governments have always stepped into rescue the economy by stimulating the private sector. The future of the economy and business community depends on the extent to which the government and the business community can build mutually constructive and cooperative consultative mechanisms and norms for speedy growth, the statement said. The hospital director told PTI that the 80-year-old also underwent ultrasound, blood test and urine test. Lucknow: The condition of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav who was admitted to a hospital in Lucknow a day ago is stable, the medical facility said on Saturday. Medanta Hospital director Rakesh Kapoor told PTI that Mulayam was admitted early on Friday following infection in urinary tract. He was tested for COVID-19 and was found negative. "His treatment is going on under the strict monitoring of doctors, and, at this point of time, his condition is stable," Kapoor said. The hospital director added that the 80-year-old Samajwadi Party leader also underwent ultrasound, blood test and urine test. Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav had gone to the hospital on Friday night to know about the health of the party patriarch. (8 August 2020) We, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers, on the 53rd anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN, recall the aspirations of the 1967 ASEAN Declaration to promote regional cooperation in the spirit of equality and partnership, and contribute towards peace, progress and prosperity in the region. We note with satisfaction the achievements made by ASEAN in the past 53 years, in particular the progress in the realisation of a rules-based, people-oriented, and people-centred ASEAN Community. We reaffirm our strong commitment to ensuring the effective implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, and sustaining the momentum of ASEAN Community building beyond 2025. Having closely followed the growing uncertainties resulting from the changing geo-political dynamics in the regional and global landscape, noting with concern that these may have detrimental ramifications for the region, and acknowledging that without peace and stability, sustainable progress and prosperity would be unattainable, we, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers: The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday announced that small temples with an annual income below Rs 10,000, mosques, dargah, churches and other religious places in the corporation areas will be opened for worship from August 10. IMAGE: Artisans paint idols of Lord Krishna at a workshop ahead of the Krishna Janmashtami festival, in Chennai. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo Also, driving schools across the state shall function from August 10 adhering to the standard operating procedures (SOP) to be released by the government. Temples and other religious places of worship were closed for darshan since March 24, when the state government enforced a total lockdown. However, the government permitted all religious activities including daily puja in the temples by the priests. Apparently, with the coronavirus spread under control in Chennai and parts of Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced relaxations in the lockdown restrictions. 'Permission should be obtained from the commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation and district collectors, concerned, for allowing public worship,' Palaniswami said in a statement in Chennai. The state government has already allowed public worship in small temples, mosques, darghas, churches in panchayat, town panchayat and municipality areas, he said. The chief minister called upon the public to adhere to the SOP and contain the spread of COVID-19. The government had already issued SOP for opening places of worship, he added. The Minister of Aviation, Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, has expressed satisfaction at the progress of work on the redevelopment of the Kumasi Airport into an international aerodrome. Currently, the total work done on the project which started in May, 2018 is about 55 per cent complete. The project is expected to be completed by April 2021 and will be ready to receive international flights and accommodate the predicted increase in passenger turnout in the near future. Working tour Mr Adda, who paid a working visit to the site to inspect the progress of work, said he was impressed with the level of work done so far and was hopeful that the contractors would be able to deliver on schedule. The Phase three of the redevelopment of the project is being undertaken by Contracta UK Limited and involves the expansion of the apron and runway, building of two new fire stations and control towers, and two new boarding bridges. Impact He said when completed, the airport would improve the countrys operational capacity in the aviation industry and also increase passenger traffic, as the airport will be in a position to accommodate more aircraft. The minister said it would also create job opportunities for the people in the region as there would be the need for more people to work at the facility. Kumasi being a place for business, this is going to make it possible for moving in and out to wherever we need to go. Generally all aspects of aviation operations will be enhanced, business at the airport will also be expanded and the economy of Kumasi will be improved, he said. Annually, he said it was expected that the passenger traffic at the airport would go up to one million. So far, the structure of the terminal building has been completed and works on the apron are also ongoing and expected to be completed within the next three months. All in all it is very impressive and I think they are doing a good job, he said. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), I was frustrated to see far-left activists and elected officials in New York, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., attack the NRA and law-abiding gun owners across America who value our Second Amendment rights. While these progressive politicians seek to trample on our constitutional rights and posture to shut down our nations largest, longest-standing defender of our Second Amendment rights, I invite the NRA to relocate to Montana, Gianforte wrote in a letter Friday to Wayne LaPierre, the NRAs executive vice president and CEO. The NRA is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. Basil Rajapaksas strategy works; President gets two-thirds majority to carry out his programme UNP suffers its worst-ever defeat, but Ranil indicates he will stay on as leader Premadasas SJB fares significantly well, but fails to secure Sinhala-Buddhist vote despite campaigning in that direction Sri Lankas voters have spoken, spoken so eloquently at Wednesdays parliamentary elections where records tumbled, and political history was created. The first was the landslide 145-seat victory the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)-led alliance won, much to the surprise of even President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Both, like many others in their ilk, had thought of a lesser number though confident of a comfortable majority. There was no issue over being short of just five seats for a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Four other smaller political parties which favour the SLPP and won five seats will bring the total to 150. They are Eelam Peoples Democratic Party leader Douglas Devananda from the Jaffna District and Kulasingham Thileepan from the Wanni District (two seats). Others are A.L.M. Athaullah, representing the National Congress (Digamadulla District); Sivanesatthurai Chandrakanthan (alias Pillayan, his nom de guerre as an LTTE cadre earlier) from the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) and Angajan Ramanathan (Jaffna District) who contested on the Sri Lanka Freedom Party ticket. In addition, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politician from the North is also expected to join in. Up to now, without the expected addition, that will mean 149 seats. Leaving a seat for the new Speaker of Parliament, what is required to pass a resolution or legislation with a two-thirds vote would only require one more which is within easy reach of the alliance. The Proportional Representation system, introduced with the 1978 Constitution, has not stretched so much unusually to one political grouping, the SLPP. Its aim was to ensure broader representation by candidates from political parties and independent groups. Therein lay an important message most voters had made up their mind, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, in opting for the SLPP. There are a number of reasons for it. That includes the voter disgust over the conduct of opposition members. This was mostly when they were in power as the Yahapalana (good governance) government. Their lapses were far too many. It was largely allegations of bribery and corruption against those of the previous administration. Those accusations were not matched by any action. Most cases were suppressed. Ministers were known to have pussy footed and even changed the course of some investigations. At the end, the same accusations befell those in the Yahapalana government, with most claiming that the wrongdoings were to a much higher degree. Some of the major transactions came to light and they continued as if nothing had happened. In this exercise, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya, Basil, and members of their families then became the targets and accusations continued. Then came a rapid transformation of the political landscape. Ahead of the local council elections in February 2018, Basil Rajapaksa formed the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). It polled 40% of the votes (15.7 million were eligible to vote) and won the highest number of seats and local authorities. Then at the presidential election in November, last year, SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa won 52.25% or 6.9 million votes. Another strategy of Basil Rajapaksa paid off last Wednesday. It was he who had asked the SLFP to contest the Jaffna district instead of fielding a candidate from his own party. Similarly, he urged M.L.A.M. Athaullah to contest under the National Congress ticket. They won. The two-and-half-year-old SLPP has thus placed a firm footprint in Sri Lankas political firmament. Wednesdays elections furthermore displayed the SLPPs multi-dimensional direction. That was the addition of new parliamentarians from Viyathmaga, Gotabaya Rajapaksas own political organisation. They have joined the traditional followers at onetime SLFP and thereafter the SLPP. Until now, some of them have only been named to top official positions in Sri Lanka and abroad. A few examples Nalaka Godahewa came first on preference votes in the Gampaha district polling 325,429 and Professor Channa Jayasumana with 125,980 came second in the Anuradhapura district. Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera came first in preference votes winning 328,092 votes in the Colombo district. Viyathmaga candidates have also found places in the SLPP National List and are set to become Cabinet Ministers. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will swear-in brother Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister at a ceremony at the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihare today. Thereafter, the new cabinet of ministers, not expected to exceed 26, was to be appointed tomorrow at a ceremony at the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy. It was to be held at the Magul Maduwa (Auidience Hall). It has now been put off till Friday August 14. This indicates a delay in Cabinet formation with many aspirants claiming positions. The new Speaker is expected to be Chamal Rajapaksa, who has previously held this position. Among new faces in the Cabinet are most likely to be Maithripala Sirisena, Namal Rajapaksa, Udaya Gammanpila and Ali Sabry. Premier Rajapaksa polled the highest number of preference votes. Contesting from the Kurunegala district, he received 527,364 votes. The earlier record was held by former Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe who won 500,566 votes in the Colombo district at the 2015 parliamentary elections. On Friday, the SLPP handed in a list of 17 names of those who will be on their National List. They are: Prof G.L Peiris, Sagara Kariyawasam (lawyer/SLPP Secretary), Mohamed Ali Sabry (lawyer), Jayantha Weerasinghe (lawyer), Professor Charitha Herath (who is an expert in media matters), Manjula Dissanayake, Senior Professor, Gevindu Kumarathunga, Mohammad Muzzammil, Prof Tissa Vitharana, Engineer Yadamini Gunawardena (son of Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena), Dr Surendra Ragavan, (former Northern Province Governor), Tiran Alles (businessman and publisher), Dr Seetha Arambepola, Jayantha Ketagoda and Mohomad Faleel Marjan. There are some potential ministerial, state minister and deputy minister candidates from this National List. There were three other important measures adopted by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. They won much traction in the SLPP polls campaign. One was the measures taken to contain the deadly Covid-19 from spreading. At present the number of those afflicted by the disease remains below 3,000 with only 11 deaths. The other is the major crackdowns he ordered on the illegal drug trade and the bosses who ran them, even from jails together with an order to crackdown on the underworld. His meet the people election campaign where many questions on these issues were raised was much in focus and won him wider public support. That, together with Premier Rajapaksas campaign was cause for victory. UNPS CATASTROPHE The two-and-half year-old baby SLPPs victory dealt a severe blow to the United National Party (UNP). It won no Parliament representation barring one a National List position. The UNP polled only 249,435 votes countrywide. This is a mere 2.15% of the votes cast. As can be observed, twice that number of votes came for Premier Rajapaksa through preference votes in Kurunegala district. This is in marked contrast to 5,098,916 or 45.66 % of the votes UNP received at the 2015 parliamentary elections. Other than that, rejected votes countrywide on Wednesdays poll amounted to 744,373 or 4.58%. That is much more than the votes the UNP polled throughout Sri Lanka. The spoilt could include would-be UNP voters who were angry over the party breakup. Quite clearly, in the four and half years the UNP was in power, its support base had deteriorated at the grassroots level and its branch organizations had remained in disarray. It was a humiliating defeat was for UNP leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Onetime Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, who easily ran the costliest high-profile campaign in Colombo, also lost like many other UNP ministers and stalwarts. They included Navin Dissanayake (Nuwara Eliya district), Vajira Abeywardena (Galle district), Akila Viraj Kariyawasam (Kurunegala district), Arjuna Ranatunga (Gampaha district) and Daya Gamage (Colombo district). Other major UNP losses Palitha Thevarapperuma and Lakshman Wijemanne (Kalutara district), Palitha Range Bandara (Puttalam district), Lakshman Seneviratne and Ravi Samaraweera (Badulla district), Wasantha Aluvihare and Ranjith Aluvihare (Matale district), Vijayakala Maheswaran (Jaffna district) and Anoma Gamage (Digamadulla district). Some of the controversial issues during the tenure of UNPs Yahapalana government did affect its public image. Main among them is the Central Bank bond scam over which President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has declared during the campaign trail that action will be taken against all those involved. Another is the attack by Muslim extremists on Easter Sunday last year. The attacks left 268 men, women, and children dead. Some startling details have unfolded in the recent weeks. This has disproved or contradicted the findings of a Parliamentary Select Committee known to have protected some former ruling party personalities. The State Intelligence Service (SIS) then Director, Nilantha Jayawardena, head of the countrys premier agency told the Commission that he had warned the then Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake, a year before the attacks about serious threats. Ratnayake also functioned as Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister. Of course, compounding all these factors was the internecine fighting that led to a division in the party and the exit of a larger faction. As results of postal voting followed by electoral constituencies began flowing through the electronic media on Thursday, one factor was becoming increasingly clear. The UNP was being mentioned almost every time as taking the fourth place that is after the SLPP, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya, and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna-led National Peoples Power (NPP). In fact, the JVP recorded a marginal increase in its vote base compared to the 2015 parliamentary elections. It is amidst this that the Galle district defeated candidate, Vajira Abeywardena, a onetime minister, held a hurriedly summoned news conference on Thursday afternoon. He said that the split in the party was not a big issue and there was no need to change UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. He claimed that the party was in the process of being re-organised in 2019 when the presidential elections were called. He also claimed that what was required in the party was tough discipline. Those remarks, coming just when the results were being released, make clear Abeywardena wanted Ranil Wickremesinghe to continue as leader. The question is whether he has received his leaders concurrence before making a public plea. One source familiar with the developments said he did. This is over an issue that was one of the main causes for Wickremesinghe and his partys defeat. He refused calls to cede the leadership to Premadasa. Besides this, there is also the issue of who will represent the UNP on the National List slot. The UNP policy has been that it will not give National List seats to those who have lost at the elections. It is highly unlikely Wickremesinghe will go for that slot, said a leading UNPer who did not wish to be named. UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, however, conceded on Friday that people have given a mandate to the Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) and declared that the UNP is prepared to accept responsibility for failures and shortcomings. Here is the full text of the statement: The United National Party (UNP) wishes to convey its appreciation to the National Elections Commission for conducting the 2020 Parliamentary Elections successfully. It is the 19th Amendment brought by our Government that ensured this election was conducted in a free and peaceful manner. The UNP also wishes to take this opportunity to thank all public officers, tri-forces and the police who got involved in conducting a free and fair election. This election was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic which partly contributed to the destruction of our economy. The UNP is the only party which presented a strategy to control COVID-19 and to resuscitate and strengthen the home economy. However, the people have given a massive mandate to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and the UNP has encountered the greatest setback in its history despite many achievements which brought long-lasting benefits to the country and the people. As a party we faced many challenges internally as well as externally. The UNP is prepared to accept the responsibility for failures and shortcomings, both the result of its own actions and the actions of others. It is evident that in this election the political parties based on policies have been overtaken by political movements. This could lead to an unstable political situation in the years to come. The UNP would like to appeal to its supporters and the general public to accept the outcome of the election peacefully. The party will be re-organised and restructured to face the challenges and we will be moving forward with determination and vigour as has been done on previous occasions. It is noteworthy to mention that the UNP statement reiterates that the party will be re-organised and restructured to face the challenges . Is this not an assertion that have been made ad nauseum when the party was embroiled in a crisis situation? No doubt, it is a public admission that the party had not been, contrary to all pledges, re-organised or restructured. It went to the poll without that. Would that satisfy the concerns of the UNP supporters? What of the formidable group that broke away to form the Samagi Jana Balavegaya? What was their grouse? Is there no move to win them back, at least at the grassroots level? What is needed for that and also to regain UNPs credibility? These questions appear to be overlooked. On Friday, UNP leader Wickremesinghe and General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam met some members of the Working Committee and office bearers at the party headquarters in Srikotha, in Rajagiriya. Many were invited but only a few turned up. Wickremesinghe declared that he would now re-build the party from zero or scratch onwards the first formal statement that suggests that he wants to continue as UNP leader. Kariyawasam said he was not discouraged by the election results and others too should not be. The defeat should be taken as a challenge to build a strong and forceful party, he pointed out. Would that mean Kariyawasam would continue as UNPs General Secretary too? Srikotha has come under police guard since Thursday after fears that SJB factions would take control. Such a move was ruled out by their leader, Sajith Premadasa at a news conference yesterday. He said the question would not arise since his party would not re-join the UNP. THE SJB SAGA Like the SLPP, which is a two-and-half-year-old political party, the SJB is an infant, less than six months old. Its garnering 2,771,980 or 23.99 % of the votes cast has won it 54 seats including seven from the National List. A close perusal of its win highlights an incredibly significant message. In most instances, the SJB has received a substantial volume of votes from the minority communities, Tamils, Muslims, and even Christians. At least 18 of their MPs are Muslims and Tamils. Thus, quite clearly, the SJB has not garnered a higher number of Sinhala Buddhist votes. For example, in the Kandy district, the only Sinhala MP is Lakshman Kiriella. In the Colombo district, it is only Premadasa and Champika Ranawaka. The votes have gone mostly to the SLPP underscoring a new and important reality. Even the SJBs other front-line leaders are from different parties. Examples: Champika Ranawaka, Mano Ganesan, Rauff Hakeem and Rishad Bathiuddin. Former ministers P. Harrison and Chandrani Bandara, now with the SJB, who contested from the Anuradhapura district were defeated. Others who lost include A.H.M. Fowzie, Sujeeva Senasinghe and Hirunika Premachandra (Colombo district); Ajith Manapperuma, Vijith Vijayamuni Zoysa, Chatura Senaratne and Edward Gunasekera (Gampaha district); Ajith B. Perera (Kalutara district); Piyasena Gamage (Galle district); Indika Bandaranayake (Kurunegala district); Ananda Kumarasiri (Moneragala district); Ali Zahir Mowlana (contested as SLMC candidate from Batticaloa district) and Karunaratne Paranavithane (Ratnapura district), Noticeably, there was also a marked shift in SJB campaigning by Premadasa and some of his close colleagues in the party. In a bid to woo the Sinhala Buddhist vote, they leaned on a good volume of nationalistic rhetoric. Even this did not pay off but only drew the votes of the minorities. This was amidst the absence of key players like Mangala Samaraweera, Malik Samarawickrema and Kabir Hashim (who was busy with his own campaign) who were responsible for forming the SJB. Instead, non-UNPers including Tissa Attanayake (SJB National Organiser), Shiral Lakthilaka (earlier Senior Advisor to former President Maithripala Sirisena), Dayan Jayatilleke and others had become Premadasas think tank. Thus, the UNPs secular ideals were almost lost and the SJB was charting a new course wittingly or unwittingly. This, no doubt, will become a formidable challenge for Premadasa in the weeks and months to come. He has to keep his 54 MPs together, that too for five years barring any eventuality. It is also clear from the votes cast for the JVP led Jathika Jana Balavegaya (National Peoples Power), that a sizeable segment of UNP votes had gone to the NPP. Notably, the JVP (through the NPP) has secured a marginal increase in votes as against the 2015 parliamentary elections. This is while another sizeable segment refrained from voting either for the UNP or the SJB in the light of their split. JVPs Sunil Handunetti lost in the Matara district. He served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE). He was widely respected for his dispassionate outlook towards various issues and for avoiding politics in this role. Here are a few examples from different electoral districts: GALLE DISTRICT Balapitiya electorate SLPP 25,850 votes or 73.05 % SJB 6,105 votes or 17.25% The margin 19,745 or 55.8 % Hiniduma electorate SLPP 50,395 votes or 68.91% SJB 16,587 votes or 22.68% The margin 33,803 votes or 46.23% MATARA DISTRICT Deniyaya electorate SLPP 51,681 votes or 72.66 % SJB 11,619 votes or 16.34% The margin 40,062 votes or 56.32% Hakmana electorate SLPP 52,245 votes or 78.84% SJB 8,701 votes or 13.00% The margin 43,544 votes or 65.64% Akuressa electorate SLPP 51,167 votes or 74.28% SJB 10,052 votes or 14.59% The margin 41,115 votes or 59.69% Kamburupitiya electorate SLPP 45,783 votes or 78.17% SJB 7,512 votes or 12.83% The margin 38,212 votes or 65.34% These southern electorates, besides others, are largely Sinhala Buddhist strongholds. The wide disparity in the margins show that the SJB has not been able to chip into those votes. Yesterday, former Chairman of the UNP and now with the SJB, Kabir Hashim telephoned his leader, Sajith Premadasa and urged him to name Mayantha Dissanayake on the National List. Dissanayake did not contest Wednesdays elections reportedly at the request of SJB Kandy district candidate Lakshman Kiriella. Hashim was elected from the Kegalle district while Kiriella too won. Hashim pointed out that Dissanayake brother of Naveen Dissanayake (UNP) who was defeated in the Nuwara Eliya district, had been assured a National List position if he did not enter the polls fray. EQUATIONS CHANGE IN THE NORTH The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which contested northern and eastern polling districts under the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi also suffered a blow. The 16 seats it held in Parliament have now been reduced to ten a reality which lowers its political clout. This is particularly in the backdrop of the two-thirds majority the SLPP has received obviating the need to bargain on any deal with the SLPP-led government. Moreover, Douglas Devananda, tipped to be a cabinet minister and Angajan Ramanathan, will overshadow the TNA when it comes to negotiations with the government. The TNA has already lent cause to it by demanding in its manifesto a federal set up under a unitary state. Past political developments have made the word federal a dirty one. The TNA also sought a re-merger of the north and east. There was commotion at the Jaffna counting centre in the early hours of Friday morning when preference votes of the electorate were being counted. One of the main candidates, Abraham Sumanthiran, was not present for some time. When he returned in the wee hours of Friday, accompanied by his supporters, Police blocked the entry of others barring the candidate. The crowd hurled bottles and stones at the Police. A team of STF commandos rounded up a few during the commotion. Crowds then began hurling abuse at Sumanthiran but he was safely escorted by the Police when he moved. A supporter of Angajan Ramanathan was injured and hospitalised. Around that time, Raviraj Shasikala, who was then in second position, was escorted away. Videos on the melee are widely circulating not only in Sri Lanka but also in some European capitals. She is the wife of Nadarajah Raviraj, a lawyer, MP, and onetime Mayor of Jaffna. He was shot dead in Colombo in 2006. She has been elected from the Jaffna district together with C.V. Wigneswaran and Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam. In a sense, this means that there is now representation for hard-line Tamil opinion in Parliament with the entry of the two newcomers. A setback for the TNA was the defeat of its leader, Mavai Senathirajah and Jaffna Mayor Emmanuel Arnold, who took leave to contest. OUTLOOK Wednesdays poll began on a slow note with a national average of 25 percent of the votes cast in the forenoon, according to an Election Commission official. This prompted the Commission to believe polling would not go beyond 55%. Concerned EC officials urged state run media, particularly the radio, to make repeated appeals to the voters to go and vote. The announcement said there was no threat of coronavirus since health guidelines were in force in all polling stations. This could be a contributory factor. Polling in the afternoon became brisk and the voter turnout rose to 71 % at the end of polls, still 6% lower than the 2015 parliamentary election. There were no major incidents barring a murder in Anuradhapura but it was not related to polls. The man who was at the helm of the poll, Mahinda Deshapriya, received both bouquets and brickbats during the campaign. He was also in an unenviable position due to his views coming into conflict with other members of the EC, sometimes very unfairly. These notwithstanding, however, all credit should go to Deshapriya, for conducting a trouble free, partiality-claims free and orderly parliamentary election, his last during his stint. Throughout the polls campaign, SLPP leaders have reiterated that they would fulfil the pledges made to the people. They had earlier pointed out that the absence of a Parliament hindered the enforcement of most of them. Now, a new Parliament is in place and will meet for the first time on August 20. So, it is now up to them to keep their word. They are aware that otherwise they could face the same fate that befell the UNP a total public rejection. BENGALURU (Reuters) - Serum Institute of India said on Friday it would receive $150 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the GAVI vaccines alliance to make 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for India and other emerging economies as early as 2021. The candidate vaccines, including those from AstraZeneca and Novavax, will be priced at $3 per dose and will be made available in 92 countries in GAVI's COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), the company said in a statement. The Gates Foundation will provide the funds to GAVI, which will be used to support Serum Institute. GAVI, backed by the Gates Foundation, is a publicprivate global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunization in poor countries. It co-leads COVAX - a scheme designed to guarantee fast and equitable access globally to COVID-19 vaccines - along with the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). COVAX aims to deliver 2 billion doses of approved and effective COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021. India reported a record jump in daily coronavirus infections on Friday and became the third country in the world to surpass 2 million cases. It lags only the United States and Brazil in the number of infections. (Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M. and Anil D'Silva) MONSON The former Monson Academy site may finally be redeveloped, but not everyone is pleased and a protest of the applicant and proposal is set for Sunday. Earlier this year, an architect and developer met with the towns Technical Review Group to explore the possibility of establishing a retail development at 96 Main St. At that point, there were no names or specifics given. The Route 32 site contains debris of the Holmes gymnasium, which was built in 1900, and the Harper building, which was dedicated in 1961. The vacant buildings were torn apart by the 2011 tornado and demolished by crews the following year. Monson Academy left town in the early 1970s and merged with the former Wilbraham Academy to become Wilbraham & Monson Academy. In March, plans were submitted for the site from the Meriden, Connecticut-based civil engineering firm BL Companies Inc. While the architect and developer has stated that they did not know what the retail site would be and still have not confirmed their intentions, Monson Town Administrator Evan Brassard says that in the corner of one of the submissions the plans said Dollar General. Since then, a series of remote public Planning Board meetings have been held via Zoom conferencing with attendance at times including 140 people, who have noted concerns over the traffic and safety that the site could generate, as well as potential issues with water run-off. While many locals have stated theyre interested in development, residents like Mary Ellen Aronson say shes not interested in that kind of development. Its 100 percent out of place, said Aronson, who has lived in Monson for 34 years. It would stick out like a sore thumb. Instead, she said shed like to see something that would match more of the character of the community like an antiques shop, similar to that of the neighboring Brimfield, or even an ice cream shop. Aronson will be among those marching in a protest, opposing the development. Kathleen Flanagan Richards says shes been helping to organize the protest nearly four weeks. Richards, who has lived in Monson since 1972, says she loves her community and feels as though Dollar General would character of the quaint town. There is currently a Dollar General near Monson, located at 2 Breckenridge St. in Palmer. Richards contends that the other site is near businesses. Look up at the white church, which heralds us to the start of our town. Look over to the Monson Free Library, which gives us knowledge and quiet moments. Look down the Main Street to see the stately, well-cared historic homes on each side of the street This is the proposed site for a Dollar General? said Richards. The contrast between the three sites is as clear as night and day. Residents also began signing a petition via Change.org urging the Planning Board to deny the developers application after the June 16 hearing. The petition garnered 1,437 signatures. Additionally, the proposal has generated much conversation via social media on a Facebook group called Monson Speaks, which has more than 5,000 members. However, Brassard says that there has been much misinformation spread about the project and the Planning Boards role in that. Everybody thinks theyre going to get a vote on this, but people dont understand that their vote took place at town meeting when the bylaw was passed for commercial zoning there Thats when your vote was, said Brassard. We set guidelines on commercial development, not what development is going to go in the specific space because thats not legal. Those rallying against the development intend to gather at Town Hall on Sunday at 10 a.m. and march up Main Street to the 96 Main St. site. Organizers ask that all those protesting wear a mask and stay 6 feet apart, which will be outlined by sidewalk chalk. Mexican authorities have released more information on the gunfire that caused a partial shutdown at the World Trade Bridge. At about 5 p.m. Thursday, gunmen on board two vehicles shot at Tamaulipas state police officers who were patrolling in Nuevo Laredo. Gunfire struck, damaged and disabled one marked unit. Furthermore, the assailants allegedly attacked state cops en route to provide back up. Other shootings and blockades were reported near the bridge and throughout the city. But no injuries were reported, authorities said. The armed confrontation caused authorities to close down the World Trade Bridge for about two hours. The closure caused traffic congestion on the U.S. side, according to a post on Facebook by Laredo police. On Tuesday, Mexican authorities said they dealt a blow to the Cartel Del Noreste with the arrest of Eden Guadalupe Villarreal Gomez. She is also known as La Teniente, a high-ranking leader and hitmen recruiter for the cartel in Nuevo Laredo. To combat criminal activity, Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca announced on Friday the creation of a special operations squad tasked with special missions and combatting organized crime organizations. We tell the criminals that are in Tamaulipas violating the law and threatening the peace of our state, putting the safety of our people at risk, that will have an immediate and an energetic response from the state, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 21:06:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BUCHAREST, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Border police in northwest Romania have detained 14 foreign citizens who tried to cross the border illegally into Hungary on foot, the General Inspectorate of the Border Police said on Saturday. Border guards found a group of people walking to Hungary late Friday in Diosig of Bihor County, over 600 kilometers northwest of the capital Bucharest. The group was stopped by police about 250 meters away from the border line with the neighboring country and taken to the police headquarters for investigations, the police said in a statement. Initial investigation revealed that the group, 10 men, a woman and three minors, are citizens of Iraq and Syria, and they tried to cross the border into Hungary on foot to reach a Western European state, the police said. The Romanian judiciary began to investigate the incident on charges of attempting to cross the border illegally. In recent years, Romania has become a springboard for refugees from the Middle East and Africa seeking to enter the Schengen zone via Hungary. Enditem The city police have filed First Information Report (FIR) against two men from the city who were claiming to be businessmen from Zambia in Africa and duped a businessman and eight others to the tune of Rs 1.63 crore. The victim identified as Vikas Sawant ( 59), a businessman from Model colony, has lodged a complaint against the accused identified as Ajaz Riyaz Sherkar (49) , a resident of Kondhwa and Praveen Vasant Mate, a resident of Karvenagar under relevant sections of breach of trust and cheating of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). According to the police, the victim runs a firm by the name Indway International which is into export and import business. He was introduced to Ajaz Sherkar in 2016 by a common friend during a meeting held in Cafe Coffee Day. Sherkar claimed that he was a Zambian national engaged in the business of importing goods from the said country to India and gave a proposal related to importing goods to the victim. Police said it was decide that that Sawant would import books wherein Sherkar asked him to meet a businessman in Sangli who was into notebooks business. Sawant and his wife went to Sangli and met him personally and the said person gave his approval for proceeding ahead with the business of book buying. However, he asked him to meet another person in Mumbai for moving ahead in the business deal to which he complied. The two accused then imported notebooks, sanitizers, napkins and electronic equipment in the name of Samruddhi Investment and Logwalk Zambia in seven containers. They returned only 43,000 US dollars to the complainant and reneged on the remaining payment of Rs 2.33 lakh dollars totally estimated to be worth Rs 1.63 crore and cheated him. Deccan Police Station in-charge, Police Inspector Deepak Lagad said that the case was initially lodged with Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and was transferred to Police station for investigation. We have registered a case against the duo based on the complaint. Besides, Sawant, there are eight others who have been cheated by them. Investigation is on to find out more in detail, he said. No arrest has been made so far. Students in the capital of Illinois are not allowed to wear hats, bandannas, sunglasses, pajama pants or slippers in school buildings. And that dress code now extends to their bedrooms and kitchen tables. We dont need students in pajamas and all those other things while on their Zoom conferences, Jason Wind, the districts director of student support, explained during an online board meeting of Springfield Public Schools this week. Along with the clothing requirements, the districts remote learning guidelines mandate that students be sitting up out of bed, preferably at a desk or table. A district spokeswoman, Bree Hankins, said in a statement that the remote learning guidelines were developed collaboratively with teachers, administrators and parents, and that the dress code reflected what the students would be wearing when in school. By Alexandra Alper WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China on Saturday called for frank dialogue and closer cooperation in reaction to news that Trump administration officials had urged the U.S. president to delist Chinese companies that trade on U.S. exchanges and fail to meet its auditing requirements by January 2022 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Treasury officials revealed the development on Thursday, which came after President Donald Trump tasked a group of key advisers, including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, with drafting a report with recommendations to protect U.S. investors from Chinese companies whose audit documents have long been kept from U.S. regulators. The development also came amid pressure from Congress to crack down on Chinese companies that avail themselves of U.S. capital markets but do not comply with U.S. rules faced by American rivals. "We are simply leveling the playing field, holding Chinese firms listed in the U.S. to the same standards as everyone else," a Treasury official told reporters in a briefing call. China's top securities regulator on Saturday reacted to the U.S. securities regulators' revelation from Thursday cautiously. "We think that solving problems of mutual concern through dialogue is the only way toward win-win situation," the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a statement in response to the U.S. recommendations. The Chinese watchdog also said it has been proposing joint accounting inspections with U.S. regulators with a show of "total sincerity towards cooperation". CSRC argued in the statement that China has never forbidden or prevented accounting firms from providing overseas regulators with auditing working papers, though such information exchange should be made through regulators' cooperative channels according to Chinese law.The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation in May that could prevent some Chinese companies from listing their shares on U.S. exchanges unless they follow standards for U.S. audits and regulations. "IMPORTANT FIRST STEP" Story continues Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, who sponsored the bill described the recommendations as "an important first step," but said that "without the added teeth of our bill, this report alone does not implement the requirements necessary to protect everyday American investors. The administration's recommendations, if implemented via an SEC rulemaking process, would give Chinese companies already listed in the United States until Jan. 1, 2022, to ensure the U.S. auditing watchdog, known as the PCAOB, has access to their audit documents. They can also provide a "co-audit," for example, performed by a U.S. parent company of the China-based affiliate tasked with auditing the Chinese firm. However, companies seeking to list in the United States for the first time will need to comply immediately, the officials said. A State Department official told Reuters the administration plans soon to scrap a 2013 agreement between U.S. and Chinese auditing authorities to set up a process for the PCAOB to seek documents in enforcement cases against Chinese auditors. The PCAOB has long complained of Chinas failure to grant requests, giving it scant insight on audits of Chinese firms that trade on U.S. exchanges. The report also recommends requiring greater disclosure by issuers and registered funds of the risk of investing in China, as well as mandating more due diligence by funds that track indexes and issuing guidance to investment advisers about fiduciary obligations surrounding investments in China. The moves come amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over China's handling of the coronavirus and its moves to curb freedoms in Hong Kong, among other issues. (Reporting by Alexandra Alper; additional reporting by Samuel Shen in Shanghai and Cate Cadell in Beijing; editing by Norihiko Shirouzu and Angus MacSwan) PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron will host a donor conference for Lebanon via video-link on Sunday, his office said, as countries mobilise to help rebuild Beirut after this week's massive blast. The conference, which will be co-chaired by the United Nations, will seek pledges from participants including U.S. President Donald Trump. It is expected to decide how to distribute the aid so it benefits the people directly. Macron, who visited Beirut on Thursday, promised angry Lebanese crowds that aid to rebuild the city ravaged by Tuesday's huge explosion would not fall into "corrupt hands". (Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Richard Lough) The We Shall Overcome generation are saying their last goodbyes. Hours after John Hume was buried, news came that iconic Irish-American journalist Pete Hamill had also crossed the great divide It was apt that at Hume's graveside, a last act of remembrance was a lyrical refrain of the old civil rights anthem - the words of the song an echo from times slipping ever further away. Obviously of much more niche interest - compared with the great Derry man who bestrode our consciousness for so long - was the life of Hamill who also really came of age in the 1960s. Both men shared some surprising parallels. Most of all, the residue of that stirring decade when so many believed so much was possible would always remain granite-like in their thoughts. Back then unstoppable undercurrents were being unleashed. Events such as the 1965 Selma to Montgomery civil rights march - highlighting widespread racial discrimination in the US - flashed across the world's television screens. The power of TV as a catalyst for unprecedented social change had arrived. It's force would be unstoppable. The lessons were obvious for Hume and a new generation of articulate, assertive nationalists. They were the children of the 1947 Education Act, who faced a blighted world in Northern Ireland's sectarian cauldron. They would use a new era of mass communication to fight old battles. And so all week we have had countless black and white flashbacks stirring the memory bank. Hume, nearly always bedecked in suit and tie, is enveloped in endless grimy street scenes, facing down what seemed insuperable odds. He was fortified by what was surely the supreme hallmark of his life. A doggedness which in retrospect was the ultimate defiance. This, coupled with raw physical courage, made him an unyielding force for change. No matter what - everybody knew - he simply would not give up. Pete Hamill was born in New York less than two years before Hume but his links with Northern Ireland also ran deep. Both his parents left poverty stricken, sectarian-dominated Belfast in the 1920s, seeking a new life across the Atlantic. They made the New York borough of Brooklyn their home. It was there Hamill grew up, fostering an unending love affair with the Big Apple which would underpin much of his writing. During a hugely productive life as a newspaper reporter, columnist and editor, not to mention authoring several books, the effect of epoch-making events in the 1960s would always linger. I remember meeting him for lunch in Dublin some years ago. How could he be other than a man of his time, he mused. The mid-century influences of his childhood and early years in Brooklyn would never leave him. As he grew older, the residue of many civil rights confrontations, the embrace of the Democratic Party, and an inevitable love affair with the Kennedys, all fused as one. Equally, the legacy of his Belfast family background would never go away. For a period he came to live in both Belfast and Dublin. He could explore at first hand a sense of rooted Irishness. In America, he was irreversibly drawn to the emotional pull of the civil rights struggle. He campaigned for Robert Kennedy in the 1968 presidential election; he was with him when his run for the White House ended in 1968 with his assassination in a Los Angeles hotel. But whether on long winding roads in America's Deep South, or on the streets of Belfast and Derry, a flame of resistance still burned. Hamill would say he could never be unmoved. The chimes of We Shall Overcome would never go away. And so the decades tumbled one into the other. John Hume and Pete Hamill would find their sunset years drove a hard bargain. The vigour of good health abandoned them. But Hume had fought the good fight for a long, long, time; Hamill still weaved his way with words. For so long they were on the high side of optimism. But as Hume was lowered into the Derry soil it is good the old song -uplifter of so many hearts - should be heard once again. We Shall Overcome sung one more time - if only for old time's sake. Afghan Loya Jirga Meeting To Decide Fate Of Remaining 400 Taliban Prisoners By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan August 07, 2020 KABUL -- Several thousand Afghan politicians and community leaders are meeting in a traditional grand assembly in Afghanistan's capital to decide whether the government should release 400 Taliban prisoners that have been convicted of involvement in deadly, high-profile attacks in the country. The release of the prisoners is the last hurdle to opening peace talks between the internationally backed government in Kabul and the Taliban under a peace deal between the militants and the United States. Kabul said it has released 4,600 Taliban inmates out of the 5,000 pledged in the landmark agreement signed in February by the United States and the Taliban, but authorities have balked at freeing the remaining prisoners demanded by the Taliban. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said that according to the Afghan Constitution, "the release of these 400 prisoners is not within the authority of the president of Afghanistan...these 400 people have serious cases." Ghani, addressing the 3,200 delegates who gathered in a massive tent in Kabul on August 7, stressed that he would "strongly endorse and support any decision." The three-day Loya Jirga is a traditional gathering of ethnic, religious, and political leaders who decide on matters of national importance. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged attendees "to take advantage of this historic opportunity for a peace that benefits all Afghans and contributes to regional stability and global security" and promised to hold the Taliban to the commitments it made to enter peace talks. "We acknowledge that the release of these prisoners is unpopular," Pompeo said in a statement on August 6. "But this difficult action will lead to an important result long sought by Afghans and Afghanistan's friends: reduction of violence and direct talks resulting in a peace agreement and an end to the war." Lawmaker Belquis Roshan, a women's rights activist attending the gathering, protested against the potential release of the prisoners. As Ghani spoke, she stood in the hall and unfurled a banner that read: "Redeeming the Taliban is national treason." Roshan was escorted out of the tent by security guards. Last week, Ghani ordered the release of 500 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture amid a three-day cease-fire proposed by the Taliban and agreed to by the Afghan government that ended on August 2. But those prisoners were not on the Taliban's list. Ghani then announced that the Loya Jirga delegates would decide whether to release the remaining 400 prisoners on the Taliban's list. The Loya Jirga is headed by Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, who took over the leadership of the Loya Jirga from its previous head, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a former warlord and close ally of Ghani's. Abdullah, Ghani's bitter rival in a disputed presidential election last year, was appointed to lead the council to end political infighting in Kabul. Critics have accused Ghani of delaying peace talks with the Taliban to retain power because it is widely speculated that negotiations could seek a neutral interim government. Ghani has insisted he will complete his five-year term. Abdullah said on August 7 that Afghanistan was at a critical juncture. "Our decisions are linked to the fate of the country. It was not an easy decision on the 4,600 detainees.... It was a big decision. But what does it show? The determination of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in removing obstacles to achieving intra-Afghan talks and ultimately peace and stability in this country," Abdullah said. The Taliban, meanwhile, has denied that the 400 inmates are especially dangerous. "The accusations [the Afghan government is] now making are not true. In fact, these accusations were made by the Kabul administration for delaying the process and taking advantage of it. Other than that, those [accusations] have no basis," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told RFE/RL from Qatar, where the militants have a political office. But Afghan officials have described the remaining prisoners as dangerous. Of the 400 Taliban prisoners left, around 200 are accused by the Afghan government of masterminding attacks on embassies, public squares, and government offices, killing thousands of civilians in recent years. They include militants linked to the 2018 attack against the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul that killed 40 people, including 14 foreigners. Another Taliban prisoner is linked to the massive May 2017 truck bombing near the German Embassy in Kabul that killed over 100 people. Also on the list is a former Afghan Army officer who killed five French troops and wounded 13 in 2012 in an insider attack. The Taliban says it has freed all 1,000 prisoners it had pledged to in the agreement with the United States and insists on its demand for the release of the remaining 400 prisoners on its list. The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, the architect of the deal that potentially allows the United States to withdraw its forces and end its longest-ever war, warned against the Loya Jirga throwing up any complications. "We wish the jirga participants success...and urge them not to allow those who prefer the status quo and seek to complicate the path to peace to manipulate the process," Khalilzad said on Twitter. The United States has reportedly proposed the Taliban prisoners be transferred from Afghan jails to a location where they would be under both Taliban and Afghan government surveillance. The Loya Jirga is a centuries-old institution used to build consensus among Afghanistan's rival tribes, factions, and ethnic groups. Such a meeting is traditionally convened under extraordinary circumstances. Since the U.S.-Taliban agreement in February, 3,560 Afghan security personnel have been killed in attacks by militants, Ghani said last week. He said thousands more have been wounded. In the same week, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a report that more than 1,280 Afghan civilians had been killed during the first half of 2020 -- mainly as a result of fighting between Afghan government forces and Taliban militants. With reporting by Reuters and AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-loya-jirga- taliban-prisoners/30770715.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hyderabad, Aug 8 : As the unlock process started across the country, the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IITH) is also preparing to resume academic activities on campus - albeit in very measured steps. The decks have been cleared for the first batch of 70 doctoral scholars to return to the campus from August 10. IITH Director Prof BS Murthy said, "It is the 'thrust on research' which has placed IIT Hyderabad as one of the prominent and promising institutions in the country. To enable our PhD students to carry out their experimental research amid this pandemic situation, we have decided to invite them, particularly those in their final year, to the campus. All the precautionary measures have been put in place and will be followed to ensure the safety of our students." The PhD students whose work is mostly computational have been advised to work from home. In view of transportation curbs due to the Covid lockdown, faculty have initially identified students hailing from Telangana and nearby states. Only students willing to reside on campus are being allowed to return. As per IITH plans, the first batch will initially spend two weeks in self-quarantine in designated quarters on campus before moving to their own hostel rooms. Thereafter they will be allowed to take their meals at the mess in accordance with physical distancing norms. Mess workers stationed at IITH, have already undergone two weeks of self-quarantine on the campus, and will stay on campus to serve the students. Other than the mess, no other eateries will be operative on the campus. The students, who are allowed into the campus, will not be allowed to go outside the campus until the social distancing is lifted by the government. Wearing a mask and maintaining social distance will be strictly enforced. After the first batch of students complete their self-quarantine and move to their hostel rooms, they will be under observation for a week or two before the second batch of students are allowed into the campus. Each batch will comprise 70 students. Subsequently, MTech/MDes students, whose thesis depend on experimental work, will be allowed in the campus in batches of about 70. IITH plans to continue this practice till the government withdraws social distancing norms. Meanwhile, the course work students will be allowed to come into the campus only after the government lifts the social distancing. Offline teaching will start after these students return to the campus. Until then the students will be imparted online learning. China on Saturday slammed the United States for imposing "barbarous" sanctions against Hong Kong officials, capping a dramatic week of deteriorating relations between the world's two biggest economies. In the toughest U.S. action on Hong Kong since China imposed a sweeping new security law on the territory, Washington on Friday sanctioned a group of Chinese and Hong Kong officials including the city's leader Carrie Lam. The move came after President Donald Trump's administration forced Chinese internet giants TikTok and WeChat to end all operations in the U.S., in a twin diplomatic-commercial offensive set to grow ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. China on Saturday criticized the sanctions as "barbarous and rude". "The ill intentions of U.S. politicians to support people who are anti-China and messing up Hong Kong have been clearly revealed," Beijing's Liaison Office in Hong Kong said in a statement. The Treasury Department announced it was freezing the U.S. assets of Chief Executive Carrie Lam and ten other senior officials, including Luo Huining the head of the Liaison Office. It accused the sanctioned individuals of being "directly responsible for implementing Beijing's policies" in Hong Kong. The move criminalizes any U.S. financial transactions with the sanctioned officials. In a short statement, Luo said he welcomed the blacklisting. "I have done what I should do for the country and for Hong Kong," he said. "I don't have a dime's worth in foreign assets." The Hong Kong government described the sanctions as "shameless and despicable". A city government spokesman said in a statement that Washington was using "Hong Kong as a pawn in its ploy to create troubles in China-US relationship". Participants hold up their cellphone's flash lights as they take part in a rally in Central district on June 9, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. Photo: AFP Tensions spike ahead of election Beijing's security law was imposed in late June, following last year's huge protests in Hong Kong, sending a political chill through the semi-autonomous city. Since then, authorities have postponed elections, citing the coronavirus pandemic, issued arrest warrants for six exiled activists and launched a crackdown on other activists. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the security law violated promises made by China ahead of Hong Kong's 1997 handover that the city could keep key freedoms and autonomy for 50 years. "Today's actions send a clear message that the Hong Kong authorities' actions are unacceptable," Pompeo said in a statement. The U.S. measures come three months ahead of the November election in which Trump, who is behind his rival Joe Biden, is campaigning hard on an increasingly strident anti-Beijing message. As public disapproval has grown for his handling of the pandemic, Trump has pivoted from his previous focus on striking a trade deal with China to blaming the country for the coronavirus crisis. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC, on April 22, 2020. Photo: AFP Tik Tok, WeChat bans On Thursday, Trump made good on previous threats against WeChat and TikTok two Chinese-owned apps with major audiences that U.S. officials say pose a national security threat. In an executive order, Trump gave Americans 45 days to stop doing business with the platforms, effectively setting a deadline for a potential, under-pressure sale of TikTok to Microsoft. The move also threw into doubt the American operations of WeChat's parent firm, Tencent, a powerful player in the video game industry and one of the world's richest companies. China condemned the move as "arbitrary political manipulation". The new restrictions sent Tencent shares tanking as much as ten percent at one point in Hong Kong trade on Friday, wiping almost US$50 billion off its market capitalization. Trump's order claimed TikTok could be used by China to track the locations of federal employees, build dossiers on people for blackmail and conduct corporate espionage. TikTok has repeatedly denied sharing data with Beijing. WeChat is a messaging, social media and electronic payment platform and is reported to have more than a billion users, with many preferring it to email. The latest U.S. actions follow a protracted battle over Huawei, the Chinese network and smartphone giant accused by the Trump administration of being a tool for espionage. On August 7, 2020, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) was informed of a confirmed case of strangles in a five-year-old Standardbred gelding in the Greater Hamilton area. Strangles is a highly contagious and serious infection of horses and other equines caused by the bacterium, Streptococcus equi. Testing of other horses in the barn is planned for Monday, and the trainer of the affected horse has scratched his horse that is in to go. Horsepeople are reminded to remain vigilant and institute appropriate biosecurity measures and should consult their veterinarians for advice. The AGCO will monitor the situation and any further developments will be reported. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/03-037.htm https://aaep.org/sites/default/files/Guidelines/Strangles_Final.pdf Le 7 aout 2020, la Commission des alcools et des jeux de lOntario (CAJO) a ete informee dun cas confirme de gourme chez un hongre standardbred de 5 ans dans la region du Grand Hamilton. La gourme est une infection tres contagieuse et grave des chevaux et autres equides, causee par la bacterie Streptococcus equi. Des tests sur dautres chevaux dans lecurie sont prevus pour lundi, et lentraineur du cheval atteint a biffe son cheval qui devait courir. Il est rappele aux professionnels du cheval de rester vigilants et de mettre en place des mesures de biosecurite appropriees, et de consulter leurs veterinaires pour obtenir des conseils. La CAJO suivra la situation et tout nouveau developpement sera signale. RESSOURCES SUPPLEMENTAIRES http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/french/livestock/horses/facts/03-038.htm https://aaep.org/sites/default/files/Guidelines/Strangles_Final.pdf (AGCO) Residents in the United Kingdom witnessed the hottest day in the past 17 years after temperatures soared to 36 C or 96.8 Fahrenheit in the Southeastern part of the country. According to reports, at 3pm (BST)the temperatures reached 36.4 C at Londons Heathrow Airport, making it the hottest since 2003. Though a heat-health warning is already in place, residents were seen flocking to the beaches. Read: Beaches Packed As UK Records Hottest Day Of Year Warning issued As per the Meteorological office, Exceptionally hot weather was set to torch the country throughout the weekend. "Temperatures today will be around average for the time of year across northern parts of the UK... ...but elsewhere we will see them rise well above average once again, with a peak around 36C across southeast England," they said in an online statement. In addition, the department also warned that a band of rain would move towards Scotland. Staying very warm in the south this evening, although showery rain is possible in places Cooler in the north with rain moving across Scotland pic.twitter.com/cbWC9O7mvA Met Office (@metoffice) August 7, 2020 Read: Suspected Migrants Brought To Dover By UK Forces As the heatwave continues to affect residents, officials have warned the public to take additional care in the heat. This summer, many of us are spending more time at home due to COVID-19. A lot of homes can overheat, so its important we continue to check on older people and those with underlying health conditions, particularly if theyre living alone and maybe socially isolated," Ishani Kar-Purkayastha, consultant in public health at Public Health England told AP. Meanwhile, a Scottish man expressed his ' sympathy' for Britons on Twitter, writing, "'m finding it hard to dredge your much sympathy for everybody in Britain experiencing a heatwave. Its 13 degrees, grey, and raining heavily here. And it rained every day bar one throughout July. Scottish Summer. Read: UK Faces Massive Heatwave: Britons Share 'misery And Memes' As Sun Shines Bright Read: Assam Flood Misery Worsens As Toll Nears 90; Rain-related Incidents Kill 5 In UP, Ukhand STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The vast majority of Consolidated Edison customers will have their power restored by Sunday night, according to the man who heads the companys New York operations. Consolidated Edison Company of New York President Tim Cawley said 2,700 Con Ed employees are working to restore power with a focus on easier jobs that will restore a large number of customers. He said 1,000 more crews are set to arrive in the area on Saturday. Approximately 107,000 customers remain without power after Tuesdays Tropical Storm Isaias damaged wires across Con Eds service area leaving approximately 300,000 customers without power. More than 6,300 customers remain without power on Staten Island, according to the companys outage map. The numbers will come down significantly, and it really depends on precisely what the damage is at each location, Cawley said. I would expect a number of customers to certainly go into Monday. The numbers will decrease significantly, but these will be smaller jobs involving lots of labor. Politicians have called for answers from the utility company for what theyve characterized as a slow response to the damage wrought by the storm, and limited information on expected restoration times. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) reached out to John McAvoy, who is Con Eds president and chief executive officer, to see what is being done to restore power across the state and specifically in Staten Island. My call had one purpose: Get the power back on and get out the accurate information, Schumer said. The bottom-line here is we need to know why so many New Yorkers have been left in the dark, both literally and figuratively -- three days after the storm -- and get S.I.s power back on ASAP. Damage has been so significant in some parts of the area that Con Ed crews have needed to fully replace infrastructure like poles and wires. Cawley said the extent of the damage Isaias caused was second only to Superstorm Sandy in 2012. This was really a wind-and-tree-damage storm, and it is as significant as I have seen in my 33 years with the company, he said. For those without power concerned about spoiled food, Con Ed is handing out dry ice at various locations across the area including the Staten Island Mall. Money raised by saving 1,000 dong each day by Tran Quang Khai High Schools students has helped build houses, roads and power lines in Khoai Chau District, the northern province of Hung Yen since 2015. A new house of Nguyen Khac Lang and Trinh Thi Quyen in the communes Yen Vinh Village, built by the students' donation. Photo: VNN The movement that called upon every student to save VND1,000 (US$4 cents) each day was launched by the schools youth union to raise students awareness of saving money and encourage them to do kind things for others. Tran Xuan Dong, principal of the school, said: When the movement was launched, it received applause from both students and their parents. The funds are used to build public works and help local disadvantaged people, he said. We want to tell the students that although VND1,000 is a very small amount of money, many VND1,000 notes can do big things, he said. After a month of the movement, the schools youth union had collected VND30 million ($1,300), he said. Then, the youth union contacted Da Trach Commune, Khoai Chau District, to ask for a list of disadvantaged people, Vietnamnet online newspaper reported. The youth union decided to give the money to Nguyen Khac Lang and his wife Trinh Thi Quyen in the communes Yen Vinh Village to help them build a new house. Lang served in the war against the US while Quyen was a member of the Vietnam Young Volunteer Force during that war time. The couple has been married for more than 30 years. They and their four children lived in an old house that had become seriously downgraded by 2015. During the rainy season, rainwater would pour in due to the cracked roof, Quyen said. She added that after returning from the war, her husband was often ill so Quyen had to work very hard to provide for them. After the house was downgraded, the couple had to use their savings and borrow money from relatives to re-build it, she said. When they prepared to borrow money to re-build the house, the schools youth union offered them help, she said. We felt very happy with the offer, she said. Three months later, the couples new house was completed. Dong said the funding was also used to help build a road connecting Ung Dinh and Dong Tao communes, a power line between Yen Vinh and Da Trach villages and another power line in Binh Minh Commune. The students of the school also helped out with the construction. The move aimed to train the students to love labour and be responsible towards the community, he said. The movement had also been run this year in the school and the funds would be used to help disadvantage students, he said. VNS Village saving helps address money need in northern highlands The wind whistles through Lau Thi Xinh's hair as she drives her motorbike down the mountain. Dallas and Robo (Syfy at midnight) An animated comedy following the adventures of ex-stock car racer Dallas and her friend Robo as they try to make money in the world of interplanetary big rigging. Starring Kat Dennings and John Cena. After tensions erupted over a staff member wearing a protective face shield last week, the Ontario Ministry of Labour has ordered the Rainforest Cafe in Niagara Falls to provide eye protection for its workers serving unmasked customers. The written order, following the ministrys recent visit to the Clifton Hill restaurant, states if there are no protections and a worker is required to work within two metres of an unmasked person, the PPE (personal protective equipment) is required in the form of droplet precautions, and a mask and eye protection is a minimum. The order gives the restaurant until Aug. 11 to comply. Last week, Rainforest Cafe employee Camille Sneddon said she was told by a supervisor she could not wear a face shield in addition to her mask while serving customers. When she refused to take it off, she was sent home on at least two occasions. Her concern was that while customers wear their masks into the restaurant, they take them off while ordering and eating. It is impossible to physically distance from the guests in the restaurant, she said. Servers at the Rainforest Cafe are represented by the Workers United Canada Council union, which stresses employees have the right to feel comfortable and safe on the job. As there is no universal masking at the workplace, employers need to provide droplet protection to the workers, said Inderdeep Sidhu, the unions health and safety specialist. It is worth noting that MOL (Ministry of Labour) inspectors do not write orders in situations where the worker does not have a valid complaint, and where the employer is in compliance with the Act. The point is that the employer said current conditions are safe and that is not what the ministry said. The inspector ordered that the employer must now come up with proper eye protection for staff who are working within two metres of unmasked guests, which is most staff. The Niagara Falls Rainforest Cafe is among several hotels and restaurants owned by Canadian Niagara Hotels in the Clifton Hill area. Contacted Friday, spokeswoman Sarah Vazquez said the order has already been complied with and that the notice of compliance has been sent to the labour ministry. But while the company has relented on Sneddon wearing a face shield while working, it said it does not interpret the ministrys order to mean face shields are now to be required. A letter posted for staff at the restaurant said Sneddon is now allowed to wear the face shield, since it provides her increased emotional comfort at this time. Union representative Mike Ward said the letter, posted in the employees lunchroom, was humiliating for Sneddon, and called it just one more form of harassment. A high society drug dealer who was arrested after he tried to import hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine into Australia once boasted 'I like to make money.' Matthew Doyle, 32, from Burraneer in southern Sydney, was arrested in September 2019 in an elaborate police sting after conspiring to import 50kg of cocaine and handing over $500,000 in cash. Doyle pleaded guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and appeared in Downing Centre District Court on Friday. His glamorous wife, Kelsea, 30, who has not seen her husband in months due to COVID-19 restrictions, has supported Doyle since his arrest and sat in the public gallery during his court appearance. The Crown prosecutor Emma Blizard told the court that Doyle was driven by 'greed' once saying 'I like money, I love making people money,' The Daily Telegraph reported. Matthew Doyle, 32, from Burraneer in southern Sydney, was arrested in September 2019 (pictured: Doyle and his wife, Kelsea) Doyle pleaded guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and appeared in Downing Centre District Court on Friday Defence barrister Philip Boulton QC argued Doyle would have not been involved in the plot to import drugs into the country if he was not approached during the police sting. He also told the court the cocaine never existed. 'This is not a standard police entrapment case there was never any drugs, he was never going to effect an importation, he was never going to obtain possession of drugs,' Mr Boulton said. Ms Blizard accepted the drugs never existed but claimed Doyle wanted to be a part of the plot so he could make a lot of money. 'He saw an opportunity that presented itself and his greed took over that is why he became involved in this offending behaviour,' she said. Ms Blizard said Doyle's actions over several months, including handing over $500,000 in cash, proved he wanted the plot to import drugs to be a success. His glamorous wife, Kelsea, 30, who has not seen her husband in months due to COVID-19 restrictions, has supported Doyle since his arrest and sat in the public gallery during his court appearance The Crown prosecutor Emma Blizard told the court that Doyle was driven by 'greed' because he said during the sting: 'I like money, I love making people money.' Mr Boulton said that Doyle was aware that his life has been 'wrong' and he is trying to better himself. 'He knows that he has caused a lot of harm, he is doing what he can to make amends for his past and I would ask your honour to accept that his arrest has led to a readjustment of thinking,' Mr Boulton told Judge Penelope Hock. He added that Doyle's wife and family will continue to support him which he claimed improved his chance of rehabilitation. His co-accused Raoul Kesby, 29 and Jared Hart, 31, both pleaded guilty to supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug. They appeared in court alongside Doyle and all three of them will return to court in September for sentencing. An ATV driver was under the influence when he crashed the vehicle last year in Buena Vista and caused the death of his passenger, authorities said. Michael Brown, of Buena Vista, was charged with vehicular homicide, receiving stolen property, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash resulting in death on July 26 and was arrested at a business in Camden County on Wednesday, the New Jersey State Police announced Friday. On Sept. 20, at 9:29 p.m., state troopers were called to the scene of the crash on West Colton Lane, and an investigation revealed that Brown was driving a Honda ATV which left the road in the area of West Cushman Avenue, according to a statement from the police. The ATV then hit a tree and ejected Brown and his passenger, Christopher Vasinda, 34, of Williamstown, who was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Brown was originally arrested for suspicion of DWI at a home in the area shortly after he fled the scene of the crash, authorities said. The investigation later determined that he was under the influence at the time of the crash and we was charged and arrested, police said. Police did not immediately provide more information about the stolen property charge He was taken to Atlantic County Jail pending his detention hearing. 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. During Emily Ramshaws maternity leave four years ago, she heard many conversations around electability and likeability. These gendered conversations sparked an idea. We were having those conversations because there was a woman running for president, Ramshaw says. And I thought to myself, What would the news environment look like if there was a news source, a politics and policy news source, that was by women and for women? With a newborn at home, she put her idea on pause. But four years later, it came back to me in another election cycle, a historic election cycle where we had more women running than we'd ever seen before, and these same conversations around electability and likability were at the forefront. And in that moment, I just thought, You know what? I thought about this four years ago, I can't wait another four years. I have to get this off the ground. Related: 7 Ways to Improve Focus and Performance Ramshaw talks with Jessica Abo about The 19th*, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom focused on women, politics and policy. She also shares tips on how to get involved in the political process and provides details about The 19th*s upcoming virtual summit. Jessica Abo: When people go to your site, what will they find? Ramshaw: What they will find at our site is not the day's news but pink. They will find serious journalism that really aims to expose the disparities, the ways that women remain at a disadvantage in virtually every arena, whether it's the healthcare system, whether it's the economy, whether it's representative government and the ways that women of color, in particular, have faced the hardest hits. Where do you have staff around the country? Ramshaw: We are launching with what is probably the most diverse newsroom staff of any news organization in America. These are predominantly women of color who are based all over the country, whether that's Des Moines, whether that's Orlando, whether that's here in Austin, Texas, in D.C., L.A. We're across the country and aiming to truly reflect the nation's women by being scattered around the places where the nation's women live. You've spent many years working as a journalist. Tell us a little bit about what you've learned when it comes to entrepreneurship. Ramshaw: First of all, I had never raised a single dollar before we decided to start The 19th, which I describe as really an entrepreneurial nonprofit. I knew how to run a newsroom. I knew journalism like the back of my hand. I knew storytelling. What I didn't know was really how to start a business from scratch. One of the things that I've learned in the last year that we have been trying to build this venture is how to make a compelling case for the work that you're trying to build. It's how to ensure that people financially get behind your message and your mission. It's building a sustainable business plan, an organization that is self-sustaining and really encourages extraordinary women journalists to leave their jobs to come work for us that sort of pathway and a track record of success. It's been an unbelievable year, a really steep learning curve for me, but really thrilling all the same. If someone is thinking, Wow, getting involved in the political process is so overwhelming, what are some small steps that people can take to get involved? Ramshaw: The first is to vote in every single election. No election is too big or too small. That means everything from your school board to president. It is the absolute best way that we can extend our voice and our collective strength, and so that's the first place to start. The second is it's really meaningful to go to your local city council meeting and see how the sausage gets made in person. The legislative policies that most directly affect women's lives are happening in their home communities. Start there, and if you're feeling ambitious, head up from there to your state legislature, testify before a legislative committee. You will never see government in more direct action than you will there. Related: How to Make Your Brand More Cohesive Three for me would be get out of your echo chamber. We all spend a lot of time in our own curated Facebook feeds, reading the news sources that we really trust. We aren't going to move the needle, particularly on gender equity, if the same women are talking to the same women all the time. We need to understand what the people who disagree with us think, why they think that way, empathize with their decision-making. That starts with leaning on and learning from sources of news and information that you aren't totally comfortable with. And then the final thing is if you check all of those boxes and you're still wanting to get even more engaged, run for office. We know that at virtually every level of government, women are underrepresented, whether that's running for city council or running for the presidency. An organization that's doing really great work in this arena is All in Together. You can check them out on their website. They're working to get nonpartisan women more deeply civically engaged, encourage them to run. It's a really great starting point if you're looking for information on how to get more involved. For the people who want to get involved from the comfort of their home, you have a virtual summit coming up. Tell us a little bit about that. Ramshaw: The 19th obviously is launching its news platform, but the week of August 10 through August 14, we are hosting a week's worth of virtual programming aimed at really elevating women's voices around the anniversary of the Centennial of the 19th Amendment. You can expect to see Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, Elise Stefanik, Melinda Gates, dozens of first-time elected officials, the first trans woman to be elected to a legislature, the first Native American woman in Congress in this country. And beyond that, some incredible arts and performances. Meryl Streep doing some really amazing suffrage readings with Zoe Saldana. We'll have the entire New York Philharmonic Orchestra performing the work of Black women composers. The Go-Go's are getting back together, the first all-female band to top the Billboard charts. It's free, you don't want to miss it. You can check us out at 19thnews.org. Related: How Your Company Can Have a Positive Social Impact Related: COVID-19 Is Changing How Women Think About Their Fertility Why This Nonprofit, Nonpartisan Newsroom Is Focused on Gender, Politics and Policy Free On-Demand Webinar: Making History as the NBA's First Black Female CEO Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Press Release August 8, 2020 Villar wants more areas protected under E-NIPAS Act Sen. Cynthia Villar moves to put more areas under government protection in filing bills that seek to declare protected areas in the provinces of Masbate, Negros Oriental, and Pampanga. Villar, chairperson of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, said there is a need to amend Republic Act 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-NIPAS) Act to include at least three areas in the Philippines. "We have to put in place adequate conservation measures and appropriate management schemes to safeguard the biodiversity of ecologically rich and biologically important areas in our country so that present and future generations will continue to benefit from it," Villar said. Villar filed Senate Bill 1712, which seeks to declare the Hinakpan Mystical Hills in Negros Oriental as a protected area with a category of a natural monument. Hinakpan Mystical Hills is a group of around 237 conical limestone peaks in unique shapes and sizes, found in the highland of Guilhulngan City. The hills which cover 1,331 hectares are scattered in the village of Hinakpan and resembles the Chocolate Hills of Bohol. A similar bill was also filed in the House of Representatives by 1st District of Negros Oriental Rep. Jocelyn Sy Limkaichong. Villar also filed Senate Bill 1711, which seeks to include the Tugbo Watershed Forest Reserve in Masbate as an E-NIPAS protected site. The watershed serves as the primary water source of Masbate City and Mobo. It is characterized by a moderate to intensive forest cover in a mountainous topography. Villar noted that the challenges confronting conservation efforts on the watershed include deforestation, illegal logging, hunting of wildlife, and other destructive human activities, which may include quarrying. A counterpart measure, House Bill 462, was also filed by 2nd District of Masbate Rep. Elisa T. Kho. Villar also pushed for the declaration of Mount Arayat in Pampanga as a protected area in SB 1713. Mt. Arayat, formely known as "Bunduk Alaya" or "Eastern Mountain," is a fabled mountain in the municipalities of Arayat and Magalang. It has a height of 1,026 meters above sea level and is considered as an extinct stratovolcano. Notable features include natural habitats of endemic and endangered flora and fauna; important source of water for domestic and agricultural use of the surrounding communities; clear water cascading from its waterfalls; and impressive rock formations. It is home to 49 species of trees, 86 species of wild birds, 14 species of mammals, and 11 species of reptiles. Also found here are threatened tree species such as Kamagong gubat, Tindalo, Kupang and Bangkal and endangered species such as Arayat Pitogo, Bitaog and Teak. The mountain is also home to the nearly threatened monkey species known as the Philippine macaque. A similar bill was filed by 3rd District of Pampanga Rep. Aurelio D. Gonzales Jr. At present, there are 107 protected areas covering 3 million hectares in the Philippines that have been so declared through legislation. Villar noted that based on records and suitability assessments by the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, there are still numerous sites in the country that have to be given 'protected area' status by legislative action in order to ensure its conservation. Villar was principal author of the E-NIPAS Act which expanded the list of protected areas from 13 to 107. These include popular tourism destinations as well as internationally-recognized critical zones. The law was signed on June 22, 2018. Millions set aside for coronavirus support will be return to the Treasury. Photo: Getty Coronavirus support funding for businesses will be returned to the Treasury if it is not claimed by the end of the month, business leaders have said. Almost 1.5bn ($2bn) of the 12bn on offer in support is still sitting in councils bank accounts, according to a report by the BBC and a warning by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The grants, announced on 17 March, are lump sums of 10,000 through the Small Business Grant Fund, and 25,000 through the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund and were intended to help cash flow throughout the pandemic. Data shows that as of 3 August, 10.83bn has been paid out to over 882,920 business properties. READ MORE: Furlough: Why the jobs market is facing a wakeup call It also shows that of the 314 English councils distributing the funds, 291 have had at least one business that was entitled to support that did not receive it. Alongside this, 24 authorities paid out more than their allocation. The data suggest that Westminster City Council paid out 17m more than it was entitled to, according to the BBC. The report shows that as of the end of July, Wirral Council held 14.7m of unspent funding. A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy told the BBC: "We are working with local councils to ensure funds get to as many eligible small business owners as possible. "Businesses that are eligible but have not yet received grant funding should speak to their local council as soon as possible." There are two types of grant available for businesses. Small businesses must be based in England, occupy property for business use and have been eligible by 11 March 2020. The retail, hospitality and leisure grant requires businesses to be mainly used as a venue for leisure, hospitality or retail. The Local Government Association (LGA) said local authorities needed more time and flexibility to ensure businesses benefitted from the funding. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has kicked off a consultation process to draft a new startup policy with industry leaders and young entrepreneurs aiming to give a fillip to startups in Delhi and making the capital their preferred destination. The objective of the draft policy is to support entrepreneurs and build a robust economic and policy infrastructure that will create new jobs and bring new competitive dynamics into the current economic system, a statement released by the chief ministers office said. Detailing the outline of the process of drafting the policy, the statement says consultations will be conducted in two stages including inviting inputs from industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and policy experts followed by seeking of public opinion. Also Read: Big push for electric vehicles to boost demand, cut air pollution Ajai Chowdhry (Co-founder, HCL), Rajan Anandan (MD Sequoia Capital), Padmaja Ruparel (Co-founder, Indian Angel Network) and young leaders like Sriharsha Majety (Co-founder and CEO, Swiggy), Farid Ahsan (Co-founder, ShareChat), Suchita Salwan (Founder and CEO, Little Black Book), Tarun Bhalla (Founder, Avishkaar), Riyaaz Amlani, CEO & MD, Impresario Handmade Restaurants etc were among the participants in the discussion held on Saturday, the statement said. In the meeting, Kejriwal cited a TiE report from September 2019, claiming Delhi region had over 7000 start-ups and the capital was on top of the list of cities with most number of active start-ups. He also said, citing the study, that valuation of the citys start-ups is about $50 billion. The report also states that Delhi-NCR is set to become one of the top five global start-up hubs with 12,000 start-ups, 30 unicorns, and a cumulative valuation of about $150 billion by 2025, said the statement. Also read: Delhi govt likely to transfer compensation to rape victims family today Right since my IIT days, I have seen some of the most brilliant minds from India go abroad looking for better opportunities. I believe Indians are the smartest entrepreneurs in the world and all they need is the right opportunity and the right conditions to help them thrive. With this start-up policy, we aim to make Delhi as one of the top 5 global destinations for start-ups, Kejriwal said at the meeting. The Delhi government said that the initiative by the chief minister was met with enthusiasm by the industry leaders New Delhi: Former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa was laid to rest with full state honours on at Marina Beach, Chennai. Thousands of big wigs and her supporters thronged to the marina beach in Chennai to pay their tributes to the AIADMK political stalwart of Tamil Nadu. The burial of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's body instead of creamating it was a major talking point in most of the media houses and the entire nation in general. Although Jayalalithaa belonged to the Iyengar community, her body was buried as "integral part of Dravidian culture", experts said. "Burial is an integral part of Dravidian culture," Ramu Manivannan, professor of political science at the University of Madras, told IANS. Precedences for the same have been set in the past with bodies of leading Dravidian leaders being buried, including those of her own AIADMK leaders. Bodies of prominent political leaders like DMK founder and Chief Minister C.N.Annadurai and AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) were buried at the Marina Beach and memorials for them have come up there. Hence, there is a strong case for a memorial for Jayalalithaa coming up in the near future. He also cited the ancient practice of preserving the aged dead in big urns. AIADMK members, who are not atheists but believers, do not see Jayalalithaa as an Iyengar but their 'Amma' (mother) and beyond any caste or religion. Jayalalithaa's relatives did not raise any objection to the burial as along with Sasikala a once close confidante, her nephew Deepak Jayakumar performed the last rituals. Furthermore, though the traditional practice in Hinduism is to cremate the body of a dead person, but burial is used for holy men, saints and children below the age of three. In many Hindu communities, the body of a holy person is buried in the 'Padmasana' (Lotus Position). Hindus believe that burning the body to destroy it, helps the departed soul get over any residual attachment it may have developed for the deceased person. Holy men and saints are however believed to have attained a level of detachment that makes cremation unnecessary, while for children, it is considered that the soul has not stayed in the body long enough to develop any attachment. (With inputs from Agency) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Fridays attack by President Donald Trump on WeChat may have pushed many investors to offload Asias technology shares. But for some, the selloff has presented a good buying opportunity. Jian Shi Cortesi, a portfolio manager at GAM Investment Management in Zurich, bought some Chinese internet stocks on Friday and plans to further increase holdings if the stock prices pull back more. The U.S. ban on Chinese internet companies will have little impact on the revenue and earnings of most listed Chinese internet companies," Cortesi said in an interview. Her Asia Focus Equity Fund has a third of its exposure in internet stocks, and beat 93% of its peers in the past year. It hurts sentiment, which could push the stock prices lower and create an opportunity to buy." Trumps escalation of his confrontation with Beijing, banning U.S. residents from doing business with the TikTok and WeChat apps, wiped more than $60 billion off the four largest Asia technology firms valuations and highlighted the political risks faced by regional companies, particularly those in China. But Asian tech bulls arent flinching. President Trumps noise provides a buying opportunity," said Gary Dugan, chief executive officer of the Global CIO Office in Singapore. Valuations are low on international comparisons and many are globally extremely competitive." The value of the four largest stocks on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, all of them tech firms, still lag their American peers. The group -- Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings Ltd., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. -- trade at an average of 25 times estimated profit for the next year, versus the 34 times of the more familiar tech giants atop the S&P 500 Index. The valuation gap had been narrowing since June, when the Asia companies traded at the cheapest since 2015. JPMorgan Asset Managements Oliver Cox, who manages the JPMorgan Pacific Technology Fund, says the U.S.-China tiff doesnt change the long-term story. He believes Asia has been repeating many of the U.S. trends in a earlier stage of evolution. That implies a much faster growth rate, more promising outlook and therefore greater upside potential for Asia Pacific tech stocks compared with the more mature, slower-growth U.S. names," he said. The four Asia tech titans gained an average 25% this year, lagging behind a 39% average gain in their U.S. peers. The gap could be closer," Pruksa Iamthongthong, a senior investment director for Asian equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said of the valuation difference. On a three-year trajectory we will see a clear pathway on how they want to monetize businesses that they have invested in a long time ago." Alibaba, Tencent Hold Their Lead as New IT Hastens Fintech Shift Still, U.S. capital markets remain by far the deepest, most diverse, and most attractive in the world, said Andy Wong, senior multi-asset investment manager at Pictet Asset Management, adding U.S. leadership in shareholder value, corporate governance, liquidity, and innovation warrant a higher multiple. Yet a weakening U.S. dollar may also prompt foreign investors to look at foreign assets, and Asia tech presents good opportunities given structural growth drivers, according to Suresh Tantia, a senior investment strategist at Credit Suisse Group AG. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics In an unrelated announcement Friday, federal prosecutors revealed the latest bribery-related charges in the red-light camera scandal. In a case that does not involve Helm, prosecutors charged Lou Presta, the mayor of south-suburban Crestwood, with taking money to promote the use of the cameras in his town. Federal authorities said they have a video recording of Presta accepting an envelope containing $5,000 in cash from a SafeSpeed official in March 2018. Presta has denied any wrongdoing, and authorities said he told them there was no money in the envelope. Six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmakers, who in 2019 merged with the ruling Congress in Rajasthan, moved the Supreme Court on Saturday seeking the transfer of a disqualification petition pending before the Rajasthan high court against them over the defection to the apex court. Rajasthan assembly speaker C P Joshi approved the merger a day after the six joined the Congress and prompted opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to seek their disqualification in February. Joshi on July 30 rejected the BJPs disqualification petition. The high court sought replies of Joshi and the six lawmakers by August 11 after BJP lawmaker Madan Dilawar moved the court against the speakers order. The entire basis for the petition [by Dilawar] pending before the high court is that there has been no merger between the BSP and the Congress. It is submitted that the speaker of the legislature, while acting under Paragraph 4 [Constitutions 10th Schedule], is not concerned with the happenings outside the legislature, so long as two-thirds of the legislature party (ie members of a party within the assembly) has accepted the merger, the six said in their plea. The 10th Schedule contains provisions relating to the disqualification of lawmakers for defection. One of the grounds for disqualification as per paragraph 2 of the schedule is voluntarily giving up membership of a political party on whose ticket a lawmaker is elected. According to paragraph 4, when two-third members of a political party merge with another political party, they are immune to disqualification. The six pleaded BSPs entire legislative party merged with the Congress and therefore, the condition laid down in paragraph 4 is met and does not attract disqualification. The petitioners sought the transfer of the petition as the issues raised in it are under the Supreme Courts consideration in another--Mithou Krose--case from Assam. The Mithou Krose case relates to an appeal against a 2015 Gauhati high court judgment, which said the only requirement under paragraph 4 is the merger of the legislature party and there is no requirement of the merger of parent political party. There is an urgent need to clarify the law in respect to the scope of paragraph 4 of the 10th schedule to ensure that there are no conflicting judgments, the petitioners said, seeking the transfer. Therefore, the present transfer petition is being moved so that there may be a uniform interpretation of the law, the six said in their plea filed through advocate Amit Pai. The six lawmakers are crucial to chief minister Ashok Gehlot as he faces a revolt by his former deputy, Sachin Pilot, and 18 Congress lawmakers supporting him. The Gehlot camp has claimed support of 101 legislators in the 200-member assembly. The BJP has 72 members in the House. Yves here. Even though the elements of this explanation of why the monied are hostile to democracy will be familiar to readers, its a tidy, high level recap. And you can always send this to your conservative friends to get them worked up. However, I regard this piece as naive in its depiction of Democrats. As Thomas Frank has chronicled at length, the Democrats have become the party of the professional/managerial class, aka the top 10%, and they dont like the poor any more than the Republicans do. Witness how Obama went to the opening of an Amazon factory, despite the fact that Amazon had recently been publicized for having up to 100 degree temperatures in its then un-airconditioned warehouses, and declared them to be good middle class jobs. The top 10% also typically needs servants in the form of nannies, and failure to make payroll tax payments when the help is full time is widespread. Readers can no doubt provide numerous details about how the party played dirty tricks during the primaries to hurt Sanders chances of success. And let us not forget the point Lambert regularly makes: if the Democrats really wanted to represent working people, voter registration would be an ongoing activity. By Richard D. Wolff, professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a visiting professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, in New York. Wolffs weekly show, Economic Update, is syndicated by more than 100 radio stations and goes to 55 million TV receivers via Free Speech TV. His two recent books with Democracy at Work are Understanding Marxism and Understanding Socialism, both available at democracyatwork.info. Produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute The capitalist economic system has always had a big problem with politics in societies with universal suffrage. Anticipating that, most capitalists opposed and long resisted extending suffrage beyond the rich who possessed capital. Only mass pressures from below forced repeated extensions of voting rights until universal suffrage was achievedat least legally. To this day, capitalists develop and apply all sorts of legal and illegal mechanisms to limit and constrain suffrage. Among those committed to conserving capitalism, fear of universal suffrage runs deep. Trump and his Republicans exemplify and act on that fear as the 2020 election looms. The problem arises from capitalisms basic nature. The capitalists who own and operate business enterprisesemployers as a groupcomprise a small social minority. In contrast, employees and their families are the social majority. The employer minority clearly dominates the micro-economy inside each enterprise. In capitalist corporations, the major shareholders and the board of directors they select make all the key decisions including distribution of the enterprises net revenues. Their decisions allocate large portions of those net revenues to themselves as shareholders dividends and top managers executive pay packages. Their incomes and wealth thus accumulate faster than the social averages. In privately held capitalist enterprises their owners and top managers behave similarly and enjoy a similar set of privileges. Unequally distributed income and wealth in modern societies flow chiefly from the internal organization of capitalist enterprises. The owners and their top managers then use their disproportionate wealth to shape and control the macro-economy and the politics interwoven with it. However, universal suffrage makes it possible for employees to undo capitalisms underlying economic inequalities by political means when, for example, majorities win elections. Employees can elect politicians whose legislative, executive, and judicial decisions effectively reverse capitalisms economic results. Tax, minimum wage, and government spending laws can redistribute income and wealth in many different ways. If redistribution is not how majorities choose to end unacceptable levels of inequality, they can take other steps. Majorities might, for example, vote to transition enterprises internal organizations from capitalist hierarchies to democratic cooperatives. Enterprises net revenues would then be distributed not by the minorities atop capitalist hierarchies but instead by democratic decisions of all employees, each with one vote. The multiple levels of inequality typical of capitalism would disappear. Capitalisms ongoing political problem has been how best to prevent employees from forming just such political majorities. During its recurring times of special difficulty (periodic crashes, wars, conflicts between monopolized and competitive industries, pandemics), capitalisms political problem intensifies and broadens. It becomes how best to prevent employees political majorities from ending capitalism altogether and moving society to an alternative economic system. To solve capitalisms political problem, capitalists as a small social minority must craft alliances with other social groups. Those alliances must be strong enough to defuse, deter, or destroy any and all emerging employee majorities that might threaten capitalists interests or their systems survival. The smaller or weaker the capitalist minorities are, the more the key alliance they form and rely upon is with the military. In many parts of the world, capitalism is secured by a military dictatorship that targets and destroys emerging movements for anti-capitalist change among employees or among non-capitalist sectors. Even where capitalists are a relatively large, well-established minority, if their social dominance is threatened, say by a large anti-capitalist movement from below, alliance with a military dictatorship may be a last resort survival mechanism. When such alliances culminate in mergers of capitalists and the state apparatus, fascism has arrived. During capitalisms non-extreme moments, when not threatened by imminent social explosions, its basic political problem remains. Capitalists must block employee majorities from undoing the workings and results of the capitalist economic system and especially its characteristic distributions of income, wealth, power, and culture. To that end capitalists seek portions of the employee class to ally with, to disconnect from other, fellow employees. They usually work with and use political parties to form and sustain such alliances. In the words of the great Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci, the capitalists use their allied political party to form a political bloc with portions of the employee class and possible others outside the capitalist economy. That bloc must be strong enough to thwart the anti-capitalist goals of movements among the employee class. Ideally, for capitalists, their bloc should rule the societybe the hegemonic powerby controlling mass media, winning elections, producing parliamentary majorities, and disseminating an ideology in schools and beyond that justifies capitalism. Capitalist hegemony would then keep anti-capitalist impulses disorganized or unable to build a social movement into a counter-hegemonic bloc strong enough to challenge capitalisms hegemony. Trump illustrates the current conditions for capitalist hegemony. First and foremost, his government lavishly funds and celebrates the military. Secondly, he delivered to corporations and the rich a huge 2017 tax cut despite their having enjoyed several prior decades of wealth redistribution upward to them. Thirdly, he keeps deregulating capitalist enterprises and markets. To sustain his governments largesse to its capitalist patrons, he notoriously cultivates traditional alliances with portions of the employee class. The Republican Party that Trump inherited and took over had let those lapse. They had weakened and led to dangerous political losses. They had to be rebuilt and strengthened or else the Republican Party could no longer be the means for capitalists to craft and organizationally sustain a hegemonic bloc. The GOP would then likely fade away, leaving the Democratic Party for the capitalists to ally with and use for such a hegemonic bloc. Capitalists have switched hegemonic allies and agents between the two major parties repeatedly in U.S. history. Just as the Republican Party let its alliances with sections of the employee class lapse, opening the space for Trump, so too did the Democratic Party with its traditional allies. That opened space for Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the progressives. To revive and rebuild the Republican Party as a hegemonic ally with U.S. capitalists, Trump had to give a good bit more to Christian fundamentalists, white supremacists, anti-immigration forces, chauvinists (and anti-foreigners), law-and-order enthusiasts, and gun lovers than the old GOP establishment did. That is why and how he defeated that establishment. For historical reasons, Clinton, Obama, and the old Democratic Party establishment survived yet again despite giving little to their employee class allies (workers, unions, African Americans, Latinx, women, students, academics, and the unemployed). They kept control of the party, blocked Sanders and the growing progressive challenge, and won the popular vote in 2016. They lost the election. Capitalists prefer to use the Republicans as their hegemonic partner because the Republicans more reliably and regularly deliver what capitalists want than the Democrats do. But if and when the Republican bloc of alliances weakens or otherwise functions inadequately as a hegemonic partner, U.S. capitalists will shift to the Democrats. They will accept less favorable policies, at least for a while, if they gain a solid hegemonic partner in return. Were Trumps alliances with portions of the employee class to weaken or dissolve, U.S. capitalists will go with the Biden-Clinton-Obama Democrats instead. If needed, they would also go with the progressives, as they did in the 1930s with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Trump repeatedly aims to strengthen his alliances with the more than a third of American employees who seem to approve of his regime, no matter the offense given to others. He counts on that being enough for most capitalists to stay with the Republicans. After all, most capitalists prefer Republicans; his regime strongly supported the military and corporate profiteering. Only Trumps and the Republicans colossal failures to prepare for or contain both the pandemic and the capitalism-caused economic crash could shift voter sentiment to elect Democrats. So Trump and the Republicans concentrate on denying those failures and distracting public attention from them. The Democratic Party establishment aims to persuade capitalists that a Biden regime will better manage the pandemic and crash, deliver a larger mass base to support capitalism, and only marginally reform its inequalities. For the progressives inside and outside the Democratic Party, a major choice looms. Many have felt it. On the one hand, progressives may access power as the most attractive hegemonic allies for capitalists. By sharpening rather than soft-pedaling social criticisms, progressives may give capitalist employers stronger hegemonic alliances with employees than the traditional Democratic establishment can or dares to offer. That is roughly what Trump did in displacing the traditional establishment of the Republican Party. On the other hand, progressives will be tempted by their own growth to break from the two-party alternation that keeps capitalism hegemonic. Instead, progressives could then open up U.S. politics so that the public would have greater free choice: an anti-capitalist and pro-socialist party competing against the two traditional pro-capitalist parties. Capitalisms political problem arose from its intrinsically undemocratic juxtaposition of an employer minority and an employee majority. The contradictions of that structure clashed with universal suffrage. Endless political maneuvers around hegemonic blocs with alternative sections of the employees allowed capitalism to survive. However, eventually those contradictions would exceed the capacity of hegemonic maneuvers to contain and control them. A pandemic combined with a major economic crash may provoke and enable progressives to make the break, change U.S. politics, and realize the long-overdue social changes. Tiflet (Morocco), 8 August 2020 (SPS) - Sahrawi civilian prisoner Mohamed Hasena Ahmed-Salem Bourial, in the local prison of Tiflet 2, Morocco, on Friday announced waging a warning hunger strike for 24 hours in protest against the discrimination and racist practices to which he is subjected to in the prison. In a testimony of the sister of the Sahrawi civilian prisoner, Mohamed Hasena Ahmed-Salem Bourial, to the Association for the Protection of Sahrawi Prisoners, he was exposed on Wednesday to ill-treatment and confiscation of some of his belongings by the local prison staff and guards, who broke into his cell in an arbitrary and degrading manner aimed at exerting further restrictions against him. Sahrawi civil prisoner Mohamed Hasena Ahmed-Salem Bourial, is in the local prison of Tiflet 2, east of Rabat, under an unjust and harsh sentence of 30 years imprisonment, during an unfair trial that lacks the guarantees and standards of a fair trial, took place in the Moroccan city of Sale, with the testimony of major international organizations concerned with human rights, such as Human Rice Watch and Amnesty International, on the background of his participation in 2010 in the events of the Gdeim Izik camp, east of El-Aaiun, the capital of the occupied Western Sahara. (SPS) 062/SPS/T TDT | Manama Bahrain yesterday welcomed the maritime deal signed by Egypt and Greece as an important and successful decision opening up new horizons of economic cooperation. Bahrains Foreign Affairs Ministry said the deal, which demarcates an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas drilling rights, is in line with the rules of International Law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The deal signed on Thursday by Egypt and Greece designates an exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean between the two countries, an area containing promising oil and gas reserves. Bahrains Foreign Ministry statement said the deal would enhance bilateral constructive cooperation, achieve joint benefits from the available resources in the EEZ of each of them and meet the aspirations of their peoples for further progress and prosperity. The deal is in response to a similar agreement signed by Turkey and Libyas Tripoli-based government last year raising tensions in the East Mediterranean region. The deal was widely dismissed by nations Cyprus and Greece as an infringement on their economic rights. European Union has said that the Turkish deal violates international law and threatens stability in the region. Turkish deal In Greece, diplomats said the deal effectively nullified an accord between Turkey and the internationally recognised government of Libya. Last year, those two parties agreed to maritime boundaries in a deal Egypt and Greece decried as illegal and a violation of international law. Greece maintains it infringed on its continental shelf and specifically that off the island of Crete. Following the deal, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said, This agreement allows both countries to move forward in maximizing the utilization of the resources available in the exclusive economic zone, especially promising oil and gas reserves. His Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias said the agreement with Egypt is within the framework of international law. He further said the Turkey, Tripoli memorandum of understanding is illegal, void and legally unfounded and that the non-existent Turkish-Libyan memorandum has ended up where it belonged from the beginning: in the trash can. His statement came hours after Greece said it is ready to start exploratory talks on the demarcation of maritime zones with Turkey as soon as this month. Earlier this month, Egypt said that part of a seismic survey planned by Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean potentially encroached on waters where Cairo claims exclusive rights. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category A kindhearted Californian has completely transformed the life of a 94-year-old wheelchair-bound man she found selling street food in a parking lot. After learning of the mans hand-to-mouth existence selling tamales to passersby, Kenia Barragan immediately went home and launched a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe that pulled in $84,000 in just a week. By the time her fundraiser closed, Kenia had received $85,535 in total. The act of kindness by strangers has reduced amputee Jose Villa Ochoa to tears. Their chance encounter earlier this month in Santa Ana, related in Kenias Facebook video, touched the hearts of people worldwide. It has also brought in enough cash to ensure Jose Villa can enjoy his twilight years a little more at ease. Among other things, Jose Villa, who goes by the nickname Don Joel, now sits more comfortably in a new wheelchair with a new pair of black shoes. But for his lucky meeting with 28-year-old Kenia, senior citizen Don Joels story may have remained untold and ignored. Kenia shared: He was selling tamales, so I approached him and gave him the cash I had and told him to keep the tamales for someone else. I started talking to him, and he told me that because hes old, no one will hire him, so he sells tamales for a lady, and then she gives him money at the end of the day. (Courtesy of Kenia Barragan) Shocked by what she learned, Kenia struck up a long conversation with Don Joel to find out more. What she heard left her moved and determined to do something to relieve his plight. Kenia took to Facebook to highlight what was happening in Don Joels life. In her post, she wrote: He can barely afford to buy his coffee and bread in the morning to eat, and doesnt have money to pay for a phone, let alone his medication. I found all this out, just by taking a few minutes out of my day to acknowledge a stranger. I gave him my phone number and told him to call me whenever he needs anything this breaks my heart. If anyone wants to help him out, please reach out to me. Within a week, her plea to the world was answered, bringing in an astounding $84,000 in just seven days. Updating her original post, Kenia said: My heart is touched. Thank you to everyone that donated, supported, and reached out. In an interview with Fox LA News, Kenia explained: I felt for him, my parents are older, and I would hate to see my dad out selling tamales for somebody and barely making ends meet. An awestruck Don Joel told the news outlet the gifts and financial support he has received are life-changing. Kenia added: Definitely! Ive always wanted a purpose in my life, and I wanted to help people. This was the starting point for me. I hope people take care of our community. We need to take care of each other. Even if you cant give moneydonate a prayer, give something back, take the time to get to know someone. Acts of kindness, even in these uncertain times, go a long way. It is difficult not to come away from this story without feeling both Don Joel and Kenia benefited in very real but different ways. We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc 31 Shares Share It was April 5, 2020. In the months prior, I imagined, she had been grappling with the isolation of her newfound unemployment. The pandemics solidarity was possibly a relief: the rare solace of the permission to take a pause. Her new days were partly spent with long walks near Baker Beach, saluted by the loyal, majestic Golden Gate, the cool San Francisco sun embracing her and her high-spirited two-year-old son. Nearby, rainbows of tulips dappled grassy fields, and perfect sun rays streamed through the California redwoods, a beauty so typical of the area. We had been playing the proverbial phone tag between two coasts. Missed calls took the form of hey hows it going texts, elongated voicemails with humored venting, and exchanged pictures of our everyday happenings. As COVID loomed across the country, our lives and responsibilities were different. I began to fear for my patients lives in New York City, for my elderly parents in the Bay Area, and for the consequences of having to halt my fertility treatments. Meanwhile, partly due to necessity and partly to her enjoyment, she cradled the full-time art of motherhood. It was the longest we had gone in our 20-year friendship without directly speaking. Overnight, sometime between a jovial Saturday evening family Zoom call and an anticipated Sunday morning breakfast, her heart stopped. 100 percent blockage of her proximal left anterior descending artery, they said. Medical school had taught me that blockage of this artery was the classic widow-maker, and rarely thought to be a widower-maker. So rare in fact, the idea of a cardiac arrest in a female in her 30s was not considered, and even less so in the panic of the pandemic. At first, when she woke up from sleep strained for air, the paramedics surely thought her symptoms were just COVID. She was treated cautiously, with no medical workup, and taken to a hospital with ironically only a few COVID cases. She was secured in an isolated emergency department room no guests permitted left alone to the sounds of her own slow gasps and uncomfortable bouts of nausea. Her only lifeline seemed to be her sister, a physician, who was a phone call and an hour away. She vomited, felt misleadingly better, but as pain crushed her chest and classically radiated to her back and down her left arm, she called her sister back in terror. Somethings really wrong. I cant breathe. Get. Help. Now. With steel strength and sheer will, she somehow stumbled to the nurses station, as nutrients and oxygen stopped flowing to her most vital organs. She collapsed on the cold ED ground, finally, finally, finally getting the attention of medical staff, now credulous. Forty-five to ninety minutes of desperate CPR ensued, I was told. *** By this time, New York was swimming in COVID. At my hospital, the sights of people piled in the ED, heaving for air, breaths away from intubation, had become familiar visuals; for survival, as many physicians did, I numbingly focused on the tasks of patient care. I got the text from her husband during morning rounds: She had a massive heart attack an hour ago. Shocked out of my numbness, I excused myself, pain searing my chest, to call him. Words blurred, and news shattered. They are rushing to put her on something called ECMO. ECMO? I screamed silently, equating this life-sustaining machine with ultimate death. Im here with you, I said bravely. Decades of friendship and rainbows of memories flooded my mind, tormented by the prospect of life without her; tormented by her present-day image, body fighting on ECMO and breathing by a ventilator, a now hauntingly inevitable fate. Only a miracle could turn this around, we said. *** In the deliberated weeks that followed, waiting took agency in fervent texts, get-well-soon videos, prayers, Zoom, GrubHub gift cards, fresh meals, care packages, candlelight yoga. GoFundMe triumphantly raised tens of thousands of dollars overnight, to help where no help could be given. In silence, we waited, sometimes eagerly and often helplessly, mulling on every update. Shes had multiple strokes. She opened her eyes once today. She spiked another fever. Shes getting a tracheostomy. She may never regain neurological function. Shes being transferred to a new hospital. No, she cannot have visitors. On May 1, I tested positive for COVID; the suspense of waiting for her prognosis became a definitive intermission. My thoughts forcibly migrated inward, while my body fearfully battled the virus of the pandemic. Body aches rendered into a relentless fever, aching to the bones, unshakable chills, and leaden bedbound fatigue. In my quarantine and my illness, I wept for my deceased COVID patients, for our ED doctor who tragically died by suicide, for my friend, an indirect casualty of the pandemic. As I lay prone to offset my wheezy, precariously shallow abdominal breaths, I wondered: Would my husband get ill? Would my lungs deteriorate irreversibly? Was I forming ominous clots? Could the virus ruin my reproductive organs, still aching to bear a child? Would my insides ever be the same; would she ever be the same? *** It was May 27. My fever had broken, aches subsided, breathing eased. Two days prior, George Floyd had been killed by asphyxiation, and the nation erupted through lockdown in fires of protest. Amidst it all, I still felt the desolate silence of her absence. Then her number appeared on my phone. Exhaling, I accepted the FaceTime. There she sat, an unassuming symbol of mercy and victory. A neck bandage sealed her previous tracheostomy; a tube dangled precariously from her nose, a telemonitor with a low battery beeped auspiciously. The strokes had impaired her vision. But life was returned in her brilliant smile and characteristic laugh. On the hospital patio, adorned in a hospital gown, gently hugged by the Palo Alto sun, tulips speckled by her wheelchair, she squinted her tired eyes happily towards the phone, listening carefully to my voice. It is so good to see you again. Sujana Bhattacharyya is a family physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment As Congress negotiates the terms of another Covid-19 stimulus package, it is critically important that Democrats and Republicans do not neglect to generously fund U.S. efforts to help those in need around the world. To begin with, 70% of countries across the world are ill-equipped to deal with a public health threat like Covid-19. There are also dozens of conflict-affected countries where further destabilization could have catastrophic and rolling consequences across whole swaths of our world. Take Nigeria and Lebanon as examples. Maj. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, who heads the U.S. Special Operations Command in Africa issued a sober warning this week, extremists will look to exploit any opportunity they get, and COVID presents those opportunities. What could happen if an already weakened Nigeria, ridden with sectarian and religious conflict, were to suddenly lose control of a growing pandemic? Could we see whole regions of Africas largest country devolve into failed-states-within-a-State? Lebanon, another state already weakened by political corruption and Iranian interventionism, is in a similar position. Could the country withstand a humanitarian crisis such as Covid-19 on top of the near nuclear explosion that decimated Beirut this week? A health crisis, unaddressed, is an inevitable accelerant to humanitarian, political and security crises. Former South Carolina Governor David Beasley now chief of the World Food Program fears that another 300,000 people could starve to death around the world every day for the next three months as a second-order effect of the pandemic. As an advocate for human rights, and particularly for religious freedom, we have watched for months as the pandemic has created an even tougher situation for religious minorities. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Iran and Turkey. In Cuba, human rights violations are on the rise with the government especially targeting Evangelical Christians. In many nations, religious minorities have been denied healthcare by governments who are favoring their majority populations. Religious prisoners of conscience have been refused humanitarian release by countries who view the pandemic as a convenient opportunity to rid themselves of opposition, and worst of all an increasingly aggressive China has accelerated its vile efforts against Muslim Uyghurs, Christian pastors and a once-free Hong Kong. An insurgent China is also another reason why members of Congress ought to generously boost U.S. foreign assistance. The Peoples Republic of China is undeniably exploiting this crisis, for which it bears much responsibility, in order to advance its international ambitions. It is in the critical, national security interests of the United States to ensure that China isnt allowed to use humanitarian assistance to force its Communist ambitions upon fragile countries during their vulnerable moment. We simply cant cede an ounce of influence to Chinas disingenuous efforts at mask diplomacy. Add to it all, by the way, sudden and deadly floods in East Africa and the worst locust infestation in decades ravaging the Horn of Africa and the Middle East with vast swarms that move up to 100 miles a day and eat their equivalent in weight daily. Its as if the world is witnessing plagues of biblical proportions! Yes, this is a once-in-a-century crisis that calls for a historic response. Thankfully, the United States has done much already, providing at least 60% of the global response so far but, astonishingly, this simply isnt enough. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo put it clearly in May, As we work together to defeat the coronavirus at home, the United States stands with our global partners in their time of need, as we always have. A healthier world means a healthier United States. For good, or for ill, COVID-19 has shown us how interdependent our world has become. Despite our own moment of scarcity, our interests and our ideals (which are worth comparing to Chinas communist ideals) demand that we respond. But, beyond geo-political considerations, Americans are a caring, generous people. Our politicians can rest in the fact that four-in-five Americans agree that this should be a priority. Can we call a ceasefire on the broken fields of Congress and just do the right thing? Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 09:30:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia confirmed three new imported COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 246, the Health Ministry said a statement. The new cases were three Cambodian men, aged between 24 and 27, who arrived in the kingdom on July 31 from Pakistan via a connecting flight in Malaysia, the statement said, adding that they were on the same flight with the five positive cases found recently. "Their samples were tested for the second time during their quarantine, and the results available on Friday showed that they turned out to be positive for the COVID-19," Health Ministry's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said in the statement. The new patients have been sent to the Chak Angre Health Center in southern Phnom Penh for treatment, she added. The Southeast Asian nation has so far recorded a total of 246 COVID-19 cases, with 215 patients cured and 31 remained in hospital. Enditem Hybrids Still A Big Part Of Toyota's Future Latin for prior, the Prius was, at its inception in 2000, always destined to be the predecessor of a new generation of hybrid vehicles. Now 20 years later, its clear the car was aptly named. Toyota has been at the forefront of hybrid technology ever since, selling more than 15 million hybrid electric vehicles as of January 2020. These numbers underscore how hybrid technology has become a core strategy for Toyota. The automaker envisioned a world where a fuel-efficient engine was not the alternative, but rather the norm. And with annual global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) at approximately 1.5 million cars, Toyota became the first automaker to establish global mass production of EVs, enabling the evolution of a diverse fleet of hybrids with something for every customer. Now, with the growth of the lineup comes a shift in perception. Whereas hybrids were formerly the standard bearers for environmental stewardship, they are now thrilling experiences in their own right. Quicker and more desirable, with strong design, new features and impressive performance beginning to take shape in many alternative-fuel powered models, Toyotas hybrid vehicles are surging ahead, no longer considered a rolling science project. To gain insights into the evolution of hybrid technology and what it means for the future of Toyotas electrification strategy, we turned to Doug Murtha, group vice president, Corporate Planning and Strategy, and Heather Updegraff, general manager, Vehicle Marketing & Communications. Murtha and Updegraff have not only helped steer the course of the hybrid to this point, they are on the leading edge of where the industry-changing technology is headed next. More Than Just Fuel Economy The new revolution in hybrid driving begins with power. Says Murtha, If were going to sell across the model line-up, it cant just be about fuel economy. Until now, fast zero-to-60 acceleration or robust torque were not expected from the hybrid driving experience. When the Prius was introduced to the world, the name became synonymous with going green, not pulling Gs. And while this reputation appealed to ecofriendly drivers, Toyota wanted to diversify its hybrid offerings. Many people want to take care of the environment, but also need a big car to handle family and gear. So, we moved hybrid into other vehicles so that people didnt feel like they had to make a choice between taking care of the environment or taking care of their own needs, says Updegraff. When Toyota began developing hybrid versions of vehicles like the Camry or Highlander, the goal was to produce cars that drove farther using less fuel. However, the company quickly realized that in order for this technology to really appeal to the average driver, its products performance needed to compete with gas engines. Drivers may want to get good MPG, but still feel the power of the engine, says Updegraff. So weve been developing different types of hybrid engines, including the RAV4 Hybrid, which is the highest-performing RAV in the RAV family. In June of 2020, RAV4 Hybrid sales were up nearly 90%, accounting for slightly more than half of RAV4s total June sales, the first time ever a hybrid has outsold its gas counterpart. Like other new-generation hybrids, the RAV4 Hybrid is prized for its pick-up, what Updegraff calls the feel off the line. Murtha agrees: Whats selling is acceleration. In fact, many dealers cite the vehicles get-up-and-go rather than fuel economy as customers main reason for purchasing it. Some of the dealers basically dont tell the customer its a hybrid when they send them out for a test drive, says Murtha. And when they come back and they love the acceleration and all these different things about it, then theyll tell them. Building a Diverse Lineup When searching for a new vehicle, drivers expect exciting, new features that will suit their lifestyle. Do they take frequent road rips? Are they looking for a smooth, powerful ride? Do they need space for camping or carpooling? It became clear that Toyota needed to develop hybrids that move quicker, travel farther and feel stronger. And there is something else driving the momentum of hybrids. Toyota has set ambitious sales goals designed to foster a culture of hybrids here and around the world. By 2025, the company intends 25% of new vehicle sales in the U.S. to be hybrid and 50% globally to be electrified, which includes plug-in hybrid, fuel-cell electric, battery-electric, and hybrid vehicles. Therefore, the entire Toyota lineup is filling out with hybrid options, each one adding design, technology, engineering and safety features. Customer demand is high, including for the Toyota hallmark, the sedan. The Mirai was the first production hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) offered for sale to retail customers in North America. And small wonder: Mirai means future in Japanese. The all-new 2021 Mirai, with a 30% target range increase, will be on sale by the end of the year. Hybrid editions of Corolla, Camry and flagship sedan, the Avalon, are strong performers, with the all-new 2020 Corolla and Corolla Hybrid winning the 2020 Green Car of the Year award. Vehicles that move quicker, like the RAV4 Hybrid, demonstrate their evolved state as soon as you press your foot on the pedal. But its still important for some drivers to stay close to the original mission of the hybrid by maxing those MPGs. In an era interested in electrification, yet clamoring to go the distance, hybrids ability to combine a gas and electric engine addresses both needs. As Updegraff says, Range anxiety is not an issue. Meanwhile Toyota is creating stronger vehicles that have added torque, developing cars that can carry a solid load something usually looked for in pickup trucks. These benefits are exactly what prospective buyers can expect in the coming generations of Toyota. In fact, the company recently announced two new all-hybrid vehicles: Sienna minivan and the Venza SUV, both designed with a modernized look and powered with a fuel-frugal electric hybrid powertrain. Fittingly, the Sienna is modeled after Japans Shinkansen bullet train, easily a first for a minivan. The Sienna and the Venza show that hybrids not an offshoot fuel economy story, its the core product, says Murtha. It can be everything you need it to be. On the Horizon That core product will continue to be on the move, speeding towards the future. When Toyota Motor Corporation announced that by 2025, every vehicle in the lineup will have an electrified alternative, this is very much the world the company envisionedmaximum choice While the hybrid powertrain will certainly be present in many new models, the company will continue to develop cars that utilize a variety of alternate fuel sources, such as fuel cell (FCVs), plug-in and battery electric vehicles. The 2025 goal, says Murtha, is true to our history. This multifaceted approach will help Toyota optimize the potential of future cars powered by alt-fuel sources, allowing them to create cars that move faster, travel farther and feel stronger, while also reducing emissions. Says Murtha, This is our next shock to the system and challenge to the industry. For example, FCEVs utilize a fuel cell instead of, or in combination with, a battery to power the on-board electric motor. Toyota has long believed that hydrogen fuel cell technology could be a zero-emission solution for a wide array of vehicles. The Mirai represents approximately 75% of fuel cells sold in the U.S. There are currently approximately 42 hydrogen stations in California with several more in development. In addition to cars, the company is partnering with the Port of Los Angeles to establish a fuel cell electric technology network for freight to move goods from shore to shore. The project includes 10 new zero-emission fuel cell electric Class 8 hydrogen-powered on-road trucks to help transport cargo from the Port of Los Angeles. A Hybridized World Since the debut of the Prius, Toyota has embraced hybrid as a key strategy and embedded its ideals into each car it develops. In the process, the company is harnessing a wealth of fuel-source discoveries that could very well lead to the next generation of automobiles. Vehicles powered by alternate fuel sources can do more than reduce carbon emissions, and Toyota has set out to push the limits on what these cars can achieve. Were placing a bet on a technology, says Murtha. But we think that hybrid eventually becomes the future, where we look back and everything is largely hybridized. Or, as Updegraff says, Cars evolve along with the society they mirror. This week, Adrian talks to Alan Holland, founder and CEO of Cork-based Keelvar, a procurement AI technology firm that recently raised 16m in a funding round. Adrian asks Alan about the growing trend among Irish tech founders to go abroad for venture funding instead of relying on investment sources here. The two also discuss the transition from being an academic in a university to a startup entrepreneur and the change of pace required. Syracuse, N.Y. The state confirmed 703 new coronavirus cases on Friday after getting results from nearly 75,000 tests, a return rate of 0.93%, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomos office. The positive rate in Central New York on Friday was 0.8%, according to the state. Cuomo has said if a regions positive rate is below 5%, schools can reopen. Five additional people died related to Covid-19, according to the state. New York has reported 25,195 deaths since the first confirmed case was diagnosed in March. Cuomo is continuing to urge people to take the virus seriously, especially to wear masks and socially distance whenever possible to stop transmissions. In a tweet Friday night, he reminded New Yorkers not to drink and drive -- and to avoid crowded indoor parties. Its Friday night. Friends dont let friends drive drunk. Friends also dont let friends go to crowded indoor parties. Enjoy the weekend safely. Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 7, 2020 Overall, the state has confirmed 420,345 Covid-19 cases. The numbers people hospitalized, and those in intensive care units continued to drop slightly in the past day. Heres a look at the states update: Patient Hospitalization - 573 (-6) Patients Newly Admitted - 84 Hospital Counties - 29 Number ICU - 133 (-6) Number ICU with Intubation - 64 (-2) Total Discharges - 73,609 (+79) MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Cuomo says schools can open, but theres much more planning to do Dorm life with coronavirus: 23 hours inside, with no air conditioning 21 new cases in Onondaga County Coronavirus: Read our complete coverage Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274. The HBO television series The Plot Against America, based on Phillip Roths 2004 novel of the same name, presents an alternative reality in which famed aviator Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/8/2020 (528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion The HBO television series The Plot Against America, based on Phillip Roths 2004 novel of the same name, presents an alternative reality in which famed aviator Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election. Upon assuming the presidency, Lindbergh signs a neutrality treaty with Nazi Germany, assuring Adolf Hitler that the U.S. will not intervene in the Second World War. He also embraces anti-Semitic policies and advances the American government toward fascism. In other words, as James Poniewozik of the New York Times wrote when the show debuted in March, "HBO asks the audience to imagine the outlandish idea that the presidency might have been won by a celebrity demagogue new to politics who appeals to bigotry and fear, who ran on the slogan of America First, who boasts of having taken our country back, who sees fine people on the most reprehensible side of history, who cosies up to despots and behaves as if he were their puppet." Sound familiar? In real life, Lindbergh, who became a revered hero after he flew solo from New York City to Paris in 1927, never ran for president. But from 1939 to late 1941, as a staunch isolationist and the chief spokesman for the America First Committee, he did advocate U.S. neutrality in the war in speeches that were tinged with pro-Nazi sentiments and anti-Semitism. Lindberghs perceived racism was widely denounced and his popularity faded. Not so with Donald Trump, however. The members of his diehard base inexplicably remain loyal to a president who has done next to nothing to improve their lives; in fact, quite the opposite, as his terrible mismanagement of the coronavirus shows. It is not surprising that many political commentators are wondering if the country is veering toward fascism and authoritarianism. "I have held off using the F word for three and a half years, but there is no longer any honest alternative," former secretary of labour Robert Reich, who served in Bill Clintons cabinet, tweeted on June 2. "Trump is a fascist, and he is promoting fascism in America." In truth, Trump is not so much a fascist as an authoritarian; or more accurately, a would-be tin-pot dictator: "An autocratic ruler with little political credibility and delusions of grandeur." He declared last year that article II of the U.S. constitution which defines the powers of the president gives him the right "to do whatever I want." In an interview a few months ago, he claimed that as president his "authority is total." It is not, but by his impulsive actions Trump has shown time and again that he has no understanding or will not abide by the "checks and balances" system of American government if he can help it. During the COVID-19 crisis, he has denounced the actions of mostly Democratic governors stating he has the absolute right to determine the countrys health and economic policies, only to be told that he does not. He admires authoritarians such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un and has insulted democratic leaders, including Justin Trudeau and Emanuel Macron. In the wake of the recent protests, he has portrayed himself as a "law and order" president, ready to stand beside the police and to quash all resistance; protesters against racism and police brutality whom he has labelled "domestic terrorists" or alleged proponents of "toe-tally-terry-tism" as he called them in his July 3 speech at Mount Rushmore who need to be treated harshly. Moreover, like a classic dictator, he and his attorney general William Barr, who sees almost no limits on executive power, have manipulated the justice department to do Trumps bidding. On the pretext of defending federal property, Trump, in a transparent ploy to boost his faltering re-election campaign, has dispatched without being asked to do so by state or city officials heavily armed federal Department of Homeland Security agents to Portland, Ore. 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. Dressed in military fatigues, they have surreptitiously patrolled the streets and arbitrarily arrested and assaulted protesters. According to Oregons governor, Kate Brown, their actions have exacerbated the situation. Nonetheless, Trump has threatened to send the DHS agents to other cities. He regularly castigates the media as the "enemy of the people," declaring all reporting and analyses critical of him and his administration as "fake news." He has concocted imaginary threats, the so-called and unnamed "radical left mob" who are allegedly engaged in a "merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children." He has promoted ridiculous conspiracy theories and generally ignored medical experts during the COVID-19 pandemic, foolishly insisting that he knows more than they do about the spread of the disease (and everything else). And he has lied nearly every day of his presidency, adhering to the well-known fascist dictum that the bigger the lie and the more you repeat it, the greater the likelihood that it will be believed as the truth. Yet the news is not all bad, and there are limits to support for Trumps authoritarianism. In March 2018, a survey by the bipartisan Democracy Fund Voter Study Group found that close to 75 per cent of Americans continue to support democracy and democratic institutions, while about 25 per cent would embrace a powerful leader who would not have to heed Congress or worry about elections. That 25 per cent is vocal and worrisome, but not large enough to keep Trump in office for four more years. Now & Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context. His next book, Details are Unprintable: Wayne Lonergan and the Sensational Cafe Society Murder, will be published next month. President Donald Trump has ordered a U.S. ban on dealings with the owners of the popular social media apps TikTok and WeChat. The action came in the form of two executive orders issued on Thursday. The measures are set to take effect in 45 days. The orders state that the Chinese-owned apps threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. Trump issued the action under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The law gives the administration wide powers to bar U.S. companies or citizens from trading or completing financial dealings with identified parties. Steven Weber is with the Berkeley Center for Long Term Cybersecurity. He told The Associated Press, This is a pretty broad and pretty quick expansion of the technology Cold War between the U.S. and China. The exact transactions that will be covered by the orders are to be defined by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross by mid-September. The action could result in the two apps being barred from the Apple and Google app stores, effectively making them unavailable for download in the United States. However, technology experts have noted that any attempt to ban Americans from using the apps would be nearly impossible to enforce. Chinas ByteDance owns TikTok. The video sharing app is hugely popular in the United States and many other countries, especially among young people. The company says it has 100 million users in the United States and hundreds of millions worldwide. WeChat, owned by Chinas Tencent Holdings, is a hugely popular messaging app that links to financial and other services. It has more than 1 billion users. Around the world, many people of Chinese descent use WeChat to contact friends and family and to carry out business in mainland China. One of Trumps orders stated that TikTok could be used for disinformation campaigns to help the Chinese Communist Party. The U.S. must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security, the order said. Earlier, Trump had threatened to close down TikTok in the U.S. unless Microsoft Corporation or another company bought it. The other order said WeChat could easily capture large amounts of information from its users. Such data collection threatens to give Chinas Communist Party access to Americans personal and proprietary information. The Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly warned that TikTok could be misusing private user information. They have also expressed concerns about laws requiring Chinese companies to share data requested by the Chinese government. TikToks parent ByteDance has denied the company is influenced by Chinese officials and says it does not provide any user data to the government. TikTok and the Chinese government condemned the executive orders. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said ByteDance and Tencent obey all U.S. laws. The U.S. is using national security as an excuse and using state power to oppress non-American businesses, the spokesman said. In a statement, TikTok expressed shock at the order and said it is a violation of U.S. law. The company said it tried unsuccessfully for nearly a year to reach a constructive solution with the U.S. administration. TikTok promised to seek all remedies available to make sure the company and its users are treated fairly. A spokesman for Tencent told Reuters news agency the company was reviewing the executive order to get a full understanding. The orders were issued one day after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced an expansion to a U.S. program to prevent Chinese apps and telecommunication companies from accessing sensitive information on U.S. citizens and businesses. Im Bryan Lynn. Reuters and The Associated Press reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story app n. a program for a smartphone or other device that performs a special function transaction n. an occurrence in which goods, services, or money are passed from one person or account to another access n. the right or opportunity to use or see something proprietary adj. owned or controlled by a company excuse n. a reason someone gives for why they did something wrong remedy n. something that helps solve a problem review v. to consider something in order to decide if changes should be made Throughout our schooling years, weve been taught about the history of India, especially Indian Independence during our History classes. 8 books to read on India's freedom struggle While we had to mug up everything from Gandhis Quit India Movement to Nehrus Independence Day speech in order to get good marks, we forgot to re-think, question and appreciate everything that our leaders and freedom fighters did during those years to fight against the British rule. This Independence Day, re-visit those crucial moments of our culture, our past and our historic struggle for freedom with the help of these books. 10 books to read on India's freedom struggle Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins: This book chronicles the events around Indian independence and partition in 1947-48, beginning with the appointment of Lord Mountbatten of Burma as the last viceroy of British India, and ending with the death and funeral of Mahatma Gandhi. BUY HERE for 29% discount at Rs. 729/- 10 books to read on India's freedom struggle The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru: This was written by India's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru during his imprisonment in 19421946 at Ahmednagar fort in Maharashtra by the British during the British Raj before the independence of India. Nehru uses his knowledge of the Upanishads, Vedas, and textbooks on ancient history to introduce to the reader the development of India from the Indus Valley Civilization, through the changes in socio-political scenario every foreign invader brought, to the present day conditions. BUY HERE for a 39% discount at Rs. 423/- 10 books to read on India's freedom struggle Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh: Published in 1956, this historical novel recounts the events of the partition of India in 1947, through the perspective of Mano Majra, a fictional border village. Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war. BUY HERE for 38% discount at Rs. 153/- 10 books to read on India's freedom struggle India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha: Indian historian Ramachandra Guha retells the story of the Indian nation after it gained independence from the British Empire. It was chosen as the Book of the Year by The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and Outlook, among others. The book also won Sahitya Akademi Award (one of the highest literary honours in India) for English in 2011. Story continues BUY HERE for a 29% discount at Rs. 565/- 10 books to read on India's freedom struggle The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor: Shashi Tharoor has masterfully recast the two-thousand-year-old epic "The Mahabharata" with fictionalized - but highly recognizable - events and characters from twentieth-century Indian politics. Blending history and myth to chronicle the Indian struggle for freedom and independence, Tharoor directs his hilarious and often outrageous satire as much against Indian foibles and failings as against the bumblings of the British rulers. BUY HERE for a 25% discount at Rs. 371/- 10 books to read on India's freedom struggle Remnants of a Separation by Aanchal Malhotra: Remnants of a Separation is a unique attempt to revisit the Partition through objects that refugees carried with them across the border. Written as a crossover between history and anthropology, this book is the product of years of passionate research. It is an alternative history of the Partition - the first and only one told through material memory. BUY HERE for 18% discount at Rs. 486/- 10 books to read on India's freedom struggle A Passage to India by E. M. Forster: This novel is set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement. Based on Forster's experiences in India, this book was included in Time magazines "All Time 100 Novels" list. BUY HERE for Rs. 399/- 10 books to read on India's freedom struggle Indian Summer by Alex Von Tunzelmann: This book re-creates of one of the key moments of twentieth-century history: the partition and independence of India, and the final days of the Raj. BUY HERE for 18% discount at Rs. 491/- Text sources: Wikipedia and Goodreads - More about Indian books: 12 best Indian novels that everyone needs to read 8 books to immerse yourself in Hindu mythology - For more stories on Shopping, click here. - The editors at Yahoo Lifestyle are committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. Yahoo may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of publication. BEIRUT Arab League Chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Saturday he would seek to mobilise Arab efforts to provide support to Lebanon after this weeks catastrophic explosion in Beirut destroyed parts of the capital. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, he also said the Cairo-based league of Arab states was ready to assist the investigation into the blast. We are ready to help with all our means," he said, adding that he would take part in an international conference call to be organised by France on Sunday to discuss aid for Lebanon. Also speaking after meeting Aoun, Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay said his country is ready to help rebuild the port. Turkeys Mersin port, on the Mediterreanean, is ready to help Lebanon with customs clearance and warehousing services of large shipments until the Beirut Port is reconstructed, he added. We have said the goods could be transported with smaller ships and other means of transportation from Mersin to Lebanon," he said. The explosion killed more than 150 people, injured 5,000 and left up to 250,000 without habitable homes. The blast occured at a port warehouse containing 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilisers and explosives. Oktay also said in a speech that Turkish air ambulances could transport injured Lebanese to Turkey for treatment. Turkish authorities have sent a medical team and supplies as well as a search and rescue team. The disaster struck as Lebanon is struggling with a deep economic crisis. Oil-rich Gulf Arab states, which have long channelled funds into Lebanonas fragile economy, had refrained this time from providing financial assistance, alarmed by the rising influence of Hezbollah, a powerful group backed by their arch-rival Iran. The recent, dangerous, painful events prove that there is no alternative (for Lebanon) to preserving the bridges with the Arab environment," the Emirati minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Twitter. Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor 08.08.2020 LISTEN ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to analyze how human (clients) rights appear to be abused through the unintended consequences of certain judicial decisions. Of particular importance are the recent cases which have nullified the proceedings conducted by unlicensed Lawyers. This research is normative juridical research which is fortified with empirical data, using a statute and conceptual approach. The collected legal materials are then analyzed qualitatively and presented descriptively. The results show that 100% of the litigants who are also lawyers clients are always not happy when a blunder of a solicitor is transferred to them albeit indirectly. From a juridical perspective, it is not only produced unjust results but also tend to infringe on the fundamental human rights of innocent clients. In this regard, this medium is being used to provoke the intellectual debate on the subject, solicit and procure a fair resolution to the seemingly unjust situation. The paper also calls on human rights institutions to join the race and if possible, seek favorable interpretation at the Supreme Court. Now is The Time for Change. The Need for Change. The Case for Change. This article examines key areas of human rights, the legal profession, and the concept of liability, and discusses how these issues must be examined concerning the problem statement. It further highlights vital issues that the Courts should take into consideration when determining issues concerning uninformed Clients. The article is divided into four sections. The first section introduces the article while the second section emphasizes the methodology used in coming out of this research piece. The third section delves into the legal profession, the concept of human rights, and the role of the Judiciary in the interpretation and enforcement of human rights in Ghana as well as perspectives on the concept of Solicitor and Client liability. The final section concludes the article and articulates some practical recommendations. SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION As we face a new reality precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the dreaded microbiological weapon as some conspiracists called it, shouldnt intimidate us or quarantine the passion for our advocacy for the protection of the fundamental human rights of the citizenry. So far as the Constitution has not been suspended, learners and the learned alike still bear the duty to sustain this noble fight. This view, however, counters the view of some legal brains. Justice Alexander Osei Tutu in his article "Pandemic scare! No time to waste on the coronaviruses said: "concentrating on legal issues at this crucial period is virtually an impossible task when survival remains our utmost priority. Every situation presents opportunities and threats. In this global pandemic, the cherished merit lies in the availability of ample time to read the backlog of cases and relevant literature necessary to challenge the status quo. This is a key character and attitude of Students of Law and budding Lawyers. The view of Ghanas first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah remains instructive on the subject as follows: You must remember at all times that law does not operate in a vacuum. Its value and significance must be related to its impact and the overall importance of the people and the state. In recent years, some judgments of our Court appear to have the unintended consequence of visiting the sins of defaulting Solicitor on their innocent clients. This is feared to perpetuate an unhealthy situation if the status quo ante is allowed to be entrenched. Some clients have had their cases struck out by the Courts because their Solicitors failed or neglected to secure a valid practicing license. A case in point is that of Henry Nuertey Korboe v. Francis Amosa (2016 Unreported) is a locus classicus on the subject. In this case, the Supreme Court speaking through Her Ladyship Sophia Akuffo, a former Chief Justice of Ghana held as follows: if the Applicant (or any member of the public for that matter), whether out of diffidence or ignorance, fails to exercise his clear right to verify the credentials and legal capacity of his lawyer to perform the services he is engaged to undertake, that cannot give rise to an exceptional circumstance which has resulted in a miscarriage of justice such as would merit the exercise of our review jurisdiction". Though the principle to place the responsibility on Clients to ascertain the status of Lawyers before procuring their services, the discharge of this duty on a majority of Clients in a Developing Country such as ours may be seriously undermined, because of the high illiteracy level. To this, several questions may be posed. (1) How does an illiterate Client differentiate a fake solicitor license from the genuine one? (2) How does a Client who lacks knowledge of courtroom procedure assess the quality of his or her Lawyers performance? (3) What is the likelihood that a hungry Lawyer would disclose his lack of capacity to perform legal services? In our society, Lawyers are regarded in very high esteem. Lawyers are hard to find and as of today, Ghana's population per lawyer ratio stands at 7,900: 1. With the extremely low number of Lawyers in the country, finding a qualified Lawyer becomes an expensive venture. It appears that not much efforts are being made by the country to address the problem of scarcity of Lawyers. The former Chief Justice, Her ladyship Sophia Akuffo who also delivered the majority decision in the case of Henry Nuertey Korboe v. Francis Amosa (2016 Unreported) had the following to say when she addressed a Conference at Labadi Beach Hotel on the theme "The Changing Landscape in the Law-the Judge, the Lawyer and the Academic: Those of you Lawyers and those of you Lecturers who are busy advocating free scale, mass admissions into the professional law course, and mass production of lawyers, be careful what you wish for. She further hinted that, So long as I have anything to do with it, it wont happen SECTION 2: RESEARCH METHODS This research is normative juridical research which is fortified with empirical data, as well as the 1992 constitution, Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32), decided Ghanaian and foreign cases, biblical quotations, and conceptual approaches. The strength of this research is its basis in a series of indepth interviews conducted with Lawyers and Clients. In all, I conducted interviews with 20 Clients who had cases pending before divisions of the High Court. The other interview involved Lawyers and Clients before Circuit Courts. The secondary data used legal instruments, journals, books, legal research reports, articles, lecture notes, online media news among others. The collected legal materials are then scrutinized qualitatively, then presented descriptively to answer the problem in this piece. The unholy prophecies from our court vis-a-vis the shackle for discussion is bound to have ripple effects on many Clients and the problem statement infra has become like a coronavirus in the laboratory of human rights Courts. Problem Statement The problem is whether or not visiting the sins of an unlicensed Lawyer on an innocent Client infringes on the latters fundamental human rights. SECTION 3: ANALYSIS Whoever sows injustice (iniquity) shall reap vanity and the rod of his anger shall fail (Proverbs 22:8) . The Judiciary as one of the three organs of government is responsible for interpretation and enforcement of laws. In so doing, the Courts are obligated to protect the human rights of citizens and they must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of human rights. Their obligation to protect human rights requires them to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses, including Clients whose only safe refuge lies in the Courts. This obligation further implies that the Courts must take positive action to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights especially in adjudicating matters concerning human rights. However, the seeming practice of dismissing cases on the ground of Lawyers' lack of valid license and thereby punishing Clients for the misconduct of their Lawyers is capable of eroding public confidence in the Courts. The good book in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 instructs that for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be repaid according to practices he has practised. This is further reiterated in Revelation 22:12 which posits that each one must be paid according to his act or work [emphasis mine]. From the above biblical quote, it would amount to perversion of justice to judge one based on what one has not practiced. It is the case in our Courts that Clients whose cases are struck out due to the sins of their Lawyers are not always given the audience to express their thoughts before such harsh decision is made and that is against the rule of natural justice encapsulated in the legal maxims audi alteram partem (hear both sides, no party should be condemned unheard). Article 296 (a) and (b) of 1992 Constitution states: Discretionary power vested in the Judiciary must be exercised fairly and candidly and also shall not be arbitrary, capricious or biased either by resentment, prejudice or personal dislike and shall be following due process of law [emphasis mine]. A case in point is Glynn v. Keele University where a breach of natural justice was held to have occurred when a student was fined by the University without first being told the reason or being granted a hearing. The decision of the Vice-Chancellor was dismissed on the ground that the power to suspend a student from the residence was quasi-judicial and not purely disciplinary one so that it had to be an exercise per the rules of natural justice. Also, in the case of Awuni v. West African Examination Council , the defendant, an examination body canceled the entire results of the plaintiff and his twelve colleagues on the ground that they had engaged in examination malpractices. An appeal by the plaintiff to the defendants for the reversal of the decision was refused. Plaintiff applied to the High Court by originating motion to seek redress under Article 33 (1) of the constitution, 1992. The defendant sought to justify its action on the ground that its rules made it unnecessary to invite the plaintiff to the proceedings. The High Court rejected the defendants defense and held that the council breached its duty to act fairly and reasonably under Article 23 of the constitution, 1992. Being dissatisfied, the defendant appealed to the court of Appeal. The appellate court reversed the High Court decision in favor of the defendant. The plaintiff thereafter appealed to the Supreme Court, which unanimously allowed the appeal on the ground that the defendant failed to observe the rules of natural justice as mandated by Article 23 of the Constitution, 1992. Concerning the problem statement, the Judges should have considered listening to the affected clients side of the story before making a decision. Duty of Lawyers to obtain Valid Annual Licence All Lawyers, except the Attorney-General and officials of his Department, are required to obtain a valid annual Solicitor's license to enable them to practice their trade. Section 8(1) of the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32) stipulates that: A person, other than the Attorney General, or an officer of the Attorney-Generals department, shall not practice as a Solicitor unless that person has in respect of that practice, a valid annual Solicitors license issued by the Council duly stamped out in the second schedule. The Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32) which is the principal statute, was enacted chiefly to regulate the legal profession and implant some discipline in the profession. It means from the section 8(1) supra that, apart from the Attorney-General or an officer in the Attorney-General's office, for a person to practice as a Solicitor, that person must have a valid Solicitors license issued by the General Legal Council. Section 8 (6) of the Act provides that: "(6) A person who practices in contravention of this section commits an offense and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding two hundred penalty units and shall not maintain an action for the recovery of fees, reward or disbursement on account of, or concerning, an act or proceeding did or taken in the course of that practice." Practicing law without a practicing certificate is criminalized and a recent Techiman case is a lesson for those who impersonate themselves as lawyers and hold themselves as such. https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Overconfident-fake-lawyer-jailed-two-years-912823?channel=D In the case of The Republic v. High Court; Ex parte Teriwaja & Korboe [2013-2014] (complete the citation) Anin Yeboah, JSC (as he was then called) said: ".the learned judge obviously would have erred under section 8(b) of Act 32 if he had granted the first applicant audience when he had not complied with the said section. The legal profession keeps on the fight to uphold such esteem. The legal profession has been regarded as an honorable or noble profession by the world for several centuries. No other profession touches human life at so many points than law. It has always been held in high esteem and its members appear to have played an enviable role in public life than any other profession. It is different from other professions in that what the lawyers do affects not only an individual but also the administration of justice, which is the foundation of any civilized society. The Judiciary is estimable to keep on such good work. ` Justice Yaw Apaus contribution to upholding the legal profession has said: The spirit of the Legal Profession Act is to instill discipline and order in the profession that is why penalties (both civil and criminal), have been prescribed in the law for members who breach the Act. The act of practicing law without practicing a certificate is a criminal offense by the illegitimate Solicitor alone, and the same should not be transferred to his or her innocent Client. It, therefore, follows that nullifying the processes that belong to the Client is a harsh decision. This view is shared by Akoto-Bamfo JSC (as she then was) in Henry Korboe v Francis Amosa (Civil Appeal No.J4/56/2014) said: it is my considered view that nullifying processes filed on behalf of clients by such errant lawyers, would be manifestly unjust to the said client. In similarity to what Professor Date-Bah, JSC. said in his article Enforcement of Third-Party Contractual Rights in Ghana (1971): "it is believed that legal doctrine should be used as a tool for achieving socially or commercially desirable results. Correlating the above views from the two learned formal Supreme Court Judges, legal doctrines and decisions should not be an albatross on the neck of the people (Clients). There is no modicum of doubt that, lawyers are also officers of the Courts. Lord Denning, MR in one of his pronouncements said when an officer of the court itself makes a mistake, the consequences should not be visited on the unfortunate litigant, but they should be remedied by the court itself. To promote good governance and human rights, Lord Denning, MR again admonished Judges to heed to his advice given in R v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis . His Lordship said we will never use this jurisdiction as a means to uphold our dignity. That must rest on a surer foundation. Nor will we use to suppress [Others]. [Emphasis mine]. This advice is relevant and when Judges are adjudicating for the reputation of the legal profession, our noble Judges must make sure their decision never suppresses others [litigants] as cited supra. The Concept of Human Rights Justice must be upheld in society since God loves righteousness and justice (Psalms 33:5). The idea of human rights is as simple as it is powerful that people have the right to be treated with dignity. Human rights are inherent in all human beings; whatever their nationality, place of residence, gender, ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. Every individual is entitled to enjoy human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent, and indivisible. Rights are inherent in every human being and rights can be applied in every scope of life. Human rights are entitlements, which every human being possesses under his or her humanity. Human rights law guarantees the enjoyment of human rights and they are expressed in constitutions, treaties, bodies of principles, and customary international law. Note that, rights that are not enshrined in law may be recognized by a natural law affiliate but not a positivist. The 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana forms the bedrock for human rights in Ghana and is supported by other laws, as well as by human rights instruments to which Ghana is a signatory. The preamble to the Constitution upholds a guiding principle, the protection and preservation of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms. The central passage on human rights is Chapter Five ---Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms sets out a range of rights to which every person in Ghana is entitled to. The Constitution further names the Supreme Court (see Article 2(1), (b)) as having exclusive and original jurisdiction in interpreting and enforcing the constitution but also states in Article 140(2) that, the High Court shall have jurisdiction to enforce the Fundamental Human Rights and freedoms guaranteed by [the] Constitution. It appears then that the constitution gives the High Court and the Supreme Court the primary responsibility to protect rights and address rights violations; however, in practice and by legal precedence, the High Court has its primary jurisdiction over matters of rights enforcement and redress, while the Supreme Court limited itself to questions of interpretation (Quashigah, 2007). The supposed failure by the Supreme Court to lay down in Re Akoto the criteria for the protection of human rights and its interpretation under the Constitution as well as the arguments of J.B. Danquah did not fall on deaf ears. It was for this motive that Dr. S.K.B. Asante, said; Although Danquahs submission did not prevail in the Re Akoto case, they subsequently became the cornerstone of the juristic edifice which was erected after his death for the protection of human rights. All Constitutions promulgated after 1966 have faithfully incorporated Danquahs arguments in the [Re Akoto Case]. The truism of this statement is that in Ghana since the 1960 Constitutions, all succeeding constitutions until this era made appropriate establishment for the protection of the fundamental human rights. Equality before the law has no exemption. Concerning equality and freedom from discrimination the constitution stated in Article 17 (1), (2) and (3); All persons shall be equal before the law A person shall not be discriminated against on grounds of gender, race, color, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or economic status. For this article, "discriminate" means to give different treatment to different persons attributable only or mainly to their respective descriptions by race, place of origin, political opinions, color, gender, occupation, religion or creed, whereby persons of one description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of another description are not granted to persons of another description. Sources of our laws include the common law (Article 11 (1) (e)) which comprises of decisions or orders determined by our Superior Court of Judicature (Article 11 (2)) and any law found to be inconsistent with any provision of this constitution (article 17 (1)) shall to the extent of this inconsistency, be void (Article 1(2)). Keeping the analysis in mind, a client must be equal before the law likewise his or her solicitor. but an instance where his or her processes (documents) that he or she initiates are struck out in court could be deemed as discriminatory. Role of the Judiciary in Interpretation and Enforcement of Human Rights in Ghana The acceptable approach of interpretation is the Modern Purposive Approach (MOPA). In regards to the interpretation of the statute, it involves the process of ascertaining or finding the meaning of words or provisions in a statute or subsidiary legislation. Benjamin T. Antiedu (Reading the Law) said any method of interpreting the legislation should be to ascertain the intention of Parliament or what Parliament intended the words or provision to achieve. Justice Marshall in one of his dicta said it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. The Supreme Court solely has exclusive and original jurisdiction in interpreting and enforcing the constitution. Ghanas Judiciary needs to be distinguished after over 20 years of constitutional instability under military regimes. The story of human rights development in Ghana cannot be effectively discussed without acknowledging the contribution of our superior courts in different areas of activism. But the fallibility of mankind sometimes leads our prophets in the Sanhedrin to think myopically forgetting the injuries the stranger and innocent client will incur. On 18 November 1980, Professor Adu Boahen (of blessed memory) in a contribution to a symposium on the concept and practice of Human Rights in Ghana organized by the Ghana Academy Arts and Sciences said: one of the reasons why democracy has not done too well in this country and why human rights have often been trampled upon has been the rather timid and conservative role played by the Judiciary. I can imagine that the case of In Re Akoto and 7 Others [1961] was what he was referring to. A decision by the court to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual (clients) should not be narrowly construed in a manner that produces anomalies, inconsistencies, and infringements. Dworkin (2003) argues that a conception of judicial interpretation must follow from a more general interpretation of what it means to interpret anything, be it a text or a work of art. In these latter cases, interpretation proceeds "from the inside out." To grasp the meaning of a play, for instance, one must understand what it means not only to the author but to the actors, director, audience, and critics, whose play it is. So, too, to understand a social practice such as the law, involves the attempt to understand it as a way of life created and sustained by its members, people who see themselves as part of a larger community ("a community of principle," "an interpretive community") held together by a commitment to the rule of law. And this means, Dworkin believes, that interpretation must involve more than discovering the intent of the author of a play or the drafters of a statute. Justice Aikins (as he then was) said in Amuzu v Oklikah [1998-1999] concerning the interpretation of statutes that "after all we must construe the words of the section according to the ordinary canon of construction, that is to say by giving them the ordinary meaning in the English Language as applied to such a subject matter unless some gross and manifest absurdity or injustice or hardship would thereby be produced". Interpretation must be constructive. Interpreters must see the play or the law in its best light, as the coherent embodiment of some theme or point. This is what might be called the realist's rule-skepticism: "The law consists of decisions, not of rules." The law is not a rigid body of fixed and unchanging rules but a shifting and flexible social institution, with sufficient play, sufficient give-and-take, to accommodate the balancing of competing interests within society. In considering the majority decision in Henry Nortey Korboe v Francis Amosah's case, I observed that the learned Judge, Atuguba, JSC in his concurring decision emphasized much on the legal profession but failed to consider the repercussions of visiting the sins of the unlicensed Solicitor on the innocent client. In our contemporary business entity, customers are given priorities in any matter. That is why we have a customer care unit in many businesses in the world. The aspiration and interest of the customers are paramount and decisions are not to hurt them. Any entity that fails to honor its customers, the competitors capitalize on that to penetrate on their side. Researchgate (2020). Concerning our judicialization, the litigants who are clients to the Solicitors are the court customers hence their aspirations and interests must be paramount in anything the court decides for them. If the judiciary thinks that being extremely strict (or raising the legal professional standard) would bring sanity for the litigant or solicitors' clients to suffer, a time will come when people might lose interest in the judiciary. People might take the law into their own hands and there would be a possibility of chaos in our country. The Concept of Liability In law, liability (in general) may be strict, absolute, vicarious, or based on fault. Where liability is based on fault, a persons actions or omissions by themselves would not render him culpable unless he is morally blameworthy for that act or omission. Liability is said to be strict as long as it can be shown that a persons act or omission has resulted in a particular undesired result. In this case, it is immaterial whether he was at fault or whether he is morally blameworthy. However, he is afforded defenses if any defense is available to him (Kissi Agyabeng) Liability is absolute where the defendant's moral blameworthiness is immaterial and he is afforded no defense whatsoever. According to Catherine Elliote and Frances Quinn (2009), one person will be held legally liable for torts committed by someone else; this is known as vicarious liability. In the law of tort, it is trite law that, vicarious liability deals with a situation in which an individual has committed a tortious act whilst acting on behalf of another, in the gravamen of this paper, it is neither objectively nor subjectively applied in a situation where a client should be held vicariously liable to the penalties of his solicitor blameworthiness because there is no tortuous act the solicitor has committed for the client to be held liable. Even if that was so, the ratio decidendi of the decision from the majority side in Henry Nuertey Korboe v. Francis Amosa in the review motion and Republic v High Court; Ex parte Teriwaja & Korboe would have captured that. In criminal law, the general rule is that there cannot be liability without fault or blameworthiness. Concerning the Lawyer and the Client, it will be awkward to blame the Client for the Lawyers crime. In respect of the offense of "compounding crime," it will be frail for the Client to suffer the harm since clients' are always ignorant of their solicitor's licensure undertakings. Each one must "carry his own load" as the Bible says. Innocent clients do not fall squarely in any of the liabilities discussed supra. Justice Yaw Apau in his dissenting opinion in Henry Korboe v Francis Amosa, Review Motion made an intelligent dictum and I wish to quote him. He said The question is; for what purpose was the Legal Profession Act, [Act 32] passed? In other words, who are the targets of the law? As the majority rightly stated, it was enacted for the regulation and discipline of the profession. It is meant to regulate the practice of law by members of the legal profession to avoid any abuse. This means that it is only members of the profession that have to suffer the consequences of any breach of its provisions, not outsiders. The learned supreme Court judges decision is tantamount to the Biblical quote in Jeremiah 17: 10 KJV, which states I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways , and according to the fruit of his doings.[Emphasis mine]. It is trite fact that mankind is fallible. We embark on commercial bus and taxi without asking for a license, we allow medical practitioners like a surgeon to operate us without asking for their license, teachers teach us without asking of their certificate or license, all because of our confidence we have in them. Ordinary humans have inherent confidence in their systems which makes us ignore the rigor of scrutinizing certain details. So, it will be unfair for someone to be punished for anothers error. The old law in respect of intestate succession before 1985 was similar to visiting the sins of a recalcitrant solicitor on the innocent client. In the olden days, the rights of innocent children of a deceased person were not the same. Innocent children who knew nothing about their parents' marriage were denied their succession right. This was gross injustice tot the rights to succeed the parents depending on the type of marriage contracted by their parents. If the parents were married under the Marriage Ordinance, Cap 127, the children were entitled to 7/9 of the estate. If a person was married under the Marriage Ordinance and had a child outside wedlock, such a child was regarded as illegitimate and was not entitled to any share of 7/9 of the estate, so it was decided by the Court of Appeal in Coleman v Shang [1959] GLR 390 CA which decision followed a Nigerian case that was decided by the Privy Council in London titled, Bambose v. Daniel [1952] 14 W.A.C.A 116 where a child was regarded illegitimate irrespective of the fact that the father might have during his life-time acknowledged paternity of the child and treated him equally with his other children born in wedlock. It is an undeniable fact that children have no hand in themselves being brought into the world and it is not just biased but lacks logic that their rights of succession should depend on the mistakes made by their parents. To punish children by depriving them because of the injudiciousness of their parents is a classic example of the saying that - The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge (Ezekiel 18:2). We have seen the growth and development of our Intestate Succession Laws since 1985 (PNDC LAW 111) which statutorily regulates rights to intestate succession in Ghana where the illegitimate child doesnt suffer from his or her parents sins. The laws of our land cannot be equated to our humdrum economy and must reflect the changing times of the global order. Sowah, JSC (as he then was) professed this stance in the landmark case of Tuffuor v Attorney-General [1980] GLR 637 at 647 about the Constitution when he accentuated that, "Indeed it is a living organism capable of growth and development, as the Judges made laws of Ghana (Article 11 (2) of the Constitution) are capable of growth and development. Scrubbing the sins of "recalcitrant solicitors on innocent's clients will be like when the Israelites crossed the red sea. It was such an amazing moment for the Israelites when they saw that their enemies had been capsized. That released their fardel of hopelessness. We are hopeful to see this prophecy fulfilling in our Sanhedrin "in those days they will no longer say, 'the fathers ate sour grapes, but the teeth of the sons were set on edge. But then each one will die for his error. Any man-eating sour grapes will have his teeth set on edge" (Jeremiah 31:29, 30). As the Supreme Court is not bound by its own previous decisions (see Article 129 (3) of the Constitution) for the interest of peace and justice, it is the writers humble prayer to see and sense the growth of our laws where each one will suffer his error or wrong. In the year 2017, the Hon. MP for Ashaiman Constituency, Mr. Ernest Norgbey, and the Hon. MP for Juaboso Constituency, Mr. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh filed a writ at the Apex Court challenging Madam Otiko Djaba's legality as a Minister because she had not done her National Service. The suit was dismissed because the lawyer for the two MPs Godwin Tamakloe had not renewed his solicitors license. The dismissal of the "Otiko Afisa Djaba case represents a situation of what may be viewed as compromised justice, falling short of the absolute justice that may be expected by our LORDS of the land. Is it a practice or even a legal obligation for clients to demand the license of a solicitor before they engage them to work on the clients behalf? If I may ask. Imagine an illiterate peasant farmer from a very remote area like Assin Bepokoko who raises One Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH1,000.00) only during the cocoa season. Imagine such a farmer requests the services of a renowned lawyer, who sometimes the media engages to share opinions on legal subjects, and it is revealed that the popular lawyer had not renewed his Solicitors License for which the case is dismissed. Granted that this dismissal occurred after the farmer incurred some substantial costs, this could lower the farmers confidence in resorting to the Courts again. This decision can lead the poor farmer to depression and possibly trauma. It is a life-threatening loftiness of injustice to make this poor farmer suffer the consequences of his defaulting lawyer when he could not, by any bit of fancy, have speculated that his lawyer had not complied with Section 8 (1) of Act 32 . This means visiting the sins of a Lawyer on his Client is not only synonymous with a miscarriage of justice but an ignominy to our Judiciary. CONCLUSION This article has tried to articulate several perspectives with regards to this Latin maxim res inter alios acta alteri no cere non-debet meaning one person ought not to be injured by the acts of others to which he is a stranger. It has also noted the contribution of the Courts towards enforcement of fundamental human rights enshrined in the Constitution and other laws. This article essentially argues that the issue of visiting the sins of a Lawyer on innocent and unsuspecting Clients infringes on the client's fundamental human rights. The article also looked at the implications of clients when embarrassed by thrown-out suits when they are not heard. It is there imperative that when it comes to fundamental issues, the Courts should be circumspect in their adjudication. Exculpating clients from offenses of their Solicitor will be observed as a fight against impunity aimed at ending litigants (human) rights abuses in our Courts. In this light, the author humbly calls on Human Rights Activists, Human Rights Institutions like Amnesty International (AI), Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Human Rights Watch (HRW) among others to add their voice to this infringement of clients rights in our Sanhedrin. The writer would like to conclude this article on this Latin phrase Sapientia et Doctrina Stabilitas meaning wisdom and knowledge should be the stability of these times. In the interest of justice and moral verticals, it will be idoneous for Clients to enjoy immunity from their solicitor's guilt. Hence, our Judges should learn from the Great Judge [God] as the Psalmist defined him well at Psalms 62:12 for you [God] repay each one according to his deed. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am grateful to the following for their constant support and motivation, particularly in my legal academic journey. Mr. Sadick Abubakar Yahya., Deputy Chief Registrar and the Substantive Court Registrar at the District Court, Assin Fosu. (You have been more than a father) Lawyer Benjamin T. Antiedu, Author of the Book Reading the Law. (My inspirational and Mentor). Prof. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu, Honorary professor of Holistic Medicine and the president of Nyarkotey College of Holistic Medicine, Tema Community 7, Ghana. (My Research Mentor) Mrs. Regina Asiedu, the wife of Dr. Richard Asiedu of St. Andrews Group of Company, Assin Fosu. (God bless you, Mummy). My parents Samuel Larbi Appiah and Esther Nkum (a.k.a Yaa Mantebea) (I am most grateful to your parental roles; I say Jehovah bless you all) I owe debts of gratitude also to Benjamin T. Antiedu, Prof Raphael Nyakotey Obu, Frederick Kofi Tse, and Rahman Gyimah for spending time of their busy schedules to proof-read this piece. ABOUT THE AUTHOR The writer is an Activist, Independent Researcher and LLB Law Student, Faculty of Law, Governance and International Relations, Kings University College, Accra-Ghana. The writer can reach via: Email: [email protected] Tel: 0549-657873 / 0591-040426 REFERENCES Journals/Articles /Online News Justice Alexander Osei Tutu on Pandemic Scare! No Time to Waste on the Corona Virus Message from Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the President [1964] vol 1 no. 1 UGLJ 23. On the occasion of the enrolment of the first group of lawyers at the Ghana school of lawon Saturday, June 22, 1963. The Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights, An Interpretive Guide by United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner. Christopher Y Nyinevi, Spare the Sinner; Punish the Righteous: A Review of the Supreme Court of Ghana Jurisprudence on International Business Transactions. Civil Society Perspectives on the Criminal Chamber of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights by Benson Chinedu Olugbuo. Disciplining the Lawyers: Law and Professional Ethics by G. Geethisha. Article on Legal Positivism vs. Natural Law Theory Dr. S.K.B. Asante, "Reflection on the constitution, Law, and Development" (J.B.Danquah Memorial Lecture Series. March 2002) ResearchGate, (2020). Customer Service Orientation. Retrieved on 28th July 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268363066_Customer_services_A_part_of _market orientation https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Overconfident-fake-lawyer-jailed-two-years-912823?channel=D https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Supreme-Court-Case-Challenging-Otiko-Djaba-s-Legality-As-Minister-Dismissed-609384?channel=D1 Books or Legal Monographs referred Catherine Elliott & Frances Quinn, Tort Law seventh edition (2009). Kissi Agyebeng Criminal Lecture Notes, Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, page 54, 55. Seth Y. Bimpong-Buta, Dissertation on The Role of Supreme Court in the Development of Constitutional Law in Ghana, Chapter vii. Fred Obikyere Legal Resource Book, page 420. New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition). Quashigah, Kofi (2007). Trends in the promotion and protection of human rights under the 1992 constitution, in K. Boafo-Arthur (ed.), Ghana: One decade of the liberal state. London: Zed Books, Senegal: CODESRIA. Benjamin T. Antiedu, Esq. Reading The Law (2019). Statutes 1992 Constitution of Republic of Ghana (Amendment) Act, 1996 (Act 527) Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32) Intestate succession Act, 1985 (PNDC Law 111). Cases Awuni v. West African Examination Council [2003-2004] SCGLR 471 Amuzu v Oklikah [1998-99] SCGLR 141 at 159,160. Henry Korboe v Francis Amosa, Review Motion, Suit No. J7/8/2016. Henry Korboe v Francis Amosa Civil Appeal No. J4/56/2014. Glynn v Keele University [1971] 2 All ER 89. R v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [1968] 2 QB 150 at 154 quoted in op cit at pp 34-35. Re: Akoto and 7 Others, [1961] GLR 523-535 Tuffuor v Attorney General [1980] GLR 637 at 647 Coleman v Shang [1959] GLR 390 CA Bambose v. Daniel [1952] 14 W.A.C.A 116 The Republic v High Court; Ex parte Teriwajah & Korboe [2013-2014] 2 SCGLR 1247 BEIRUT, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The death toll from the Beirut port explosion has risen to 154, state news agency NNA cited Lebanon's health minister as saying on Friday. Minister Hamad Hasan said one in five of the some 5,000 people injured in Tuesday's blast had required hospitalisation, and 120 were in critical condition, NNA reported. (Reporting by Ghaida Ghantous; editing by John Stonestreet) The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has condemned reported violent clashes during the chairmanship election of the Enugu chapter of the association. In a statement posted on the NMA official website, the associations president, Innocent Ujah, said he had gotten unverified reports of skirmishes during the conduct of elections in some state branches of the association in the country with some becoming outrightly violent. He said the association condemned in its entirety all forms of electoral violence. Some persons alleged to be medical doctors were spotted in a viral video destroying election materials on Thursday. Some were with bloodied faces. READ ALSO: Many Nigerians took to social media to condemn the development in the video which has been trending in the past 24 hours. In the two minutes, 21 seconds video, ballot boxes were destroyed and ballot papers scattered on the ground as persons in doctors traditional sky-blue shirts exchanged fisticuffs while a few security operatives tried to restore calm. PREMIUM TIMES could not independently verify where and when the video was shot. But according to Sahara Reporters, it happened on Thursday at the Michael Okpara Square in Enugu where medical doctors in the state gathered to elect members into leadership positions. The process turned violent after thugs invaded the venue, the newspaper said. Some members of the association suffered serious injuries from the thugs allegedly sponsored by a faction of the body, it said. Condemning the incident, Mr Ujah, who was elected NMA national president in May in the associations first-ever virtual election, said the body will deliberate on these cases during her next National Executive Council (NEC) meeting scheduled for the 27th to 30th of August 2020 with all cases verified, thoroughly investigated and all those found culpable brought to book to serve as a deterrent to others. In the statement signed by the NMA national publicity secretary, Aniekeme Uwah, the president assured all members that the association will not fold its arms and allow a few persons to bring it to disrepute. NMA believes in the sanctity of the ballot and members must be allowed to exercise their franchise through a free, fair and credible process devoid of any form of rancor or violence. As members of the noble profession, we must continue to exhibit the highest levels of decorum in all our affairs, including before, during, and after elections. In conclusion, we want to reiterate our belief in the sacred democratic values of one man, one vote and we also urge all the state branches of NMA yet to conduct their elections to ensure that these values and inalienable rights of members are never eroded, the statement read. NMA, the professional association for registered Nigerian doctors and dentists, elects its leaders biennially. The association has thousands of members across Nigerias 36 states and capital, including those registered in the diaspora. The NMA was established in 1951. Advertisement Blood lead levels were measured in all children. The scientists discovered that children living closer to the mine had blood levels that were three times higher than that of children living further away.They then used a technique called methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) to determine the methylation of the DNA sequences. Methylation is a process by which methyl (CH3) groups are added to DNA; this modification generally causes the activity of genes to reduce.Increased blood lead levels correlated positively with aberrant, increased methylation of DNA responsible for the expression of genes. The genes affected were ALAD, which synthesizes a key compound in the development of red blood cells; and p16, a tumour suppressor gene, which is frequently inactivated in different types of cancer.This study has established the correlation between blood lead levels and aberrant methylation of DNA. It has also revealed a major healthcare issue in children in the region. Future work in this area would involve large-scale studies to determine the true extent of lead poisoning, as well as setting up an effort to provide children in the region with the necessary care and treatment.Dr. Yared B. Yohannes, Assistant Professor Shouta Nakayama, and Professor Mayumi Ishizuka from the Laboratory of Toxicology were the key contributors to this research. The laboratory has been studying lead poisoning in Kabwe for over half a decade. Their research is part of ongoing collaborations with eight African countries on the project Clarification of the Effect of Continued Environmental Contamination in Africa on Humans and Animals.Source: Eurekalert India has formed an expert committee comprising representatives from all relevant ministries and institutions to oversee all aspects of its Covid-19 vaccine plan, from identification of the vaccine to buying to financing the purchase to distribution and administration a move that comes even as six vaccines are in Phase 3 or combined Phase 2-3 trials and as countries around the world scramble to strike deals with multiple vaccine makers. According to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named, the panel will be led by Niti Aayogs Dr VK Paul and co-chaired by health secretary Rajesh Bhushan. It will pick the vaccine or vaccines that India can use, plan the finances for what is sure to be an expensive purchase running into billions of dollars, and prioritise the sequence of administration. In the absence of a vaccine or a cure, the only way to slow the spread of Covid-19 has been wearing masks, social distancing, and restricting regular activities things that have taken a toll on life and work. Till Friday night, the coronavirus disease had infected 19,385, 292 people around the world and killed 720, 053. In India, the corresponding numbers are 2,083, 835 and 42,566. HT was the first to report on July 27 that Indian officials were already discussing a wide range of issues related to the vaccine, from logistics to prioritisation, to setting the stage for a smooth supply and effective use of the vaccine. Click here for Covid-19 live updates The high-level panel, formed by the cabinet secretary on Friday, includes AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria, representatives of the ministries of external affairs, biotechnology, information technology, the Director General of Health services, Indias Aids Research Institute, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and also representatives from states. The panels task starts with identifying the vaccine, or vaccines. Countries such as the US and the UK are spreading their risks, striking deals with multiple vaccine makers who are ahead in the race to develop a vaccine. It will then decide how the vaccines should be procuredwhether foreign agencies should be involved or whether state governments will be allowed to procure on their own or if there should be a central procuring system directly under the supervision of the central government. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic A government official familiar with the matter said that the panel would co-ordinate this with Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organisation. India is already set to be a beneficiary of the Covax programme of GAVI and will get enough vaccine doses through the agency to administer to 20% of its population. The group will also draft a financial plan, plan a budget and discuss how many can be raised for the mammoth exercise of procurement, distribution, and administration. Also Read:South India accounts for over 40% of Indias active cases, Delhis count continues to improve Finally, the panel will prepare a strategy on inventory management, distribution, and administration. Many of these issues have been discussed over the past month across ministries and institutions, the officials cited in the first instance said. Covid-19: What you need to know today The authorities are carefully watching the development of at least nine vaccines, including at least two Chinese ones, and hoping that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, being made in India by the Adar Poonawalla-led Serum Institute of India, works. The internal discussions have started so that we are fully prepared, and to avoid any last-moment glitches. One of the key issues is distribution in remote areas such as North East India and how we have to set up large-scale cold storage facilities in such areas, added the government official. Covid-19: SOP ready, no plan to open schools for now That, though is a second-generation problem. India first needs to identify a vaccine and procure enough doses of it. Dr. Sanjay Chatterjee of Calcutta Medical College said, Its good that centre has formed such a committee in advance to sort out logistical and related issues in a huge and populous country such as India. But as (with regard to) many things including the final status of the vaccines in the race, some key decisions can be only taken at a later stage. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Michigan Legislature did not meet this week (it is scheduled to meet next on Aug. 12). Rather than votes, this Roll Call Report describes some current proposals related to gender. House Joint Resolution T: Repeal constitution's recognition of marriage as only between one man and woman Introduced by Rep. Jon Hoadley, D, to place before voters in the next general election a constitutional amendment to repeal a provision of the Michigan constitution approved by voters in a 2004 ballot initiative that states the following: To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purposes." The bill is cosponsored by 20 House Democrats and accompanied by a 28 bill package eliminating gender references that are not neutral from state statutes. House Bill 4688 and Senate Bill 351: Expand civil rights law "protected class" status to sexual orientation and gender expression Introduced by Rep. Jon Hoadley, D, and Sen. Jeremy Moss, D, respectively, to add sexual orientation and gender identity or expression to the characteristics that define membership in a protected class, against whom it is a crime to discriminate under the states Elliott-Larsen civil rights law. This would make it a crime to deny employment, housing, use of public accommodations, public services, and educational facilities to another person on the basis of an individuals assertion of a particular sexual orientation or gender identity. Note: A coalition of big business and other interests including the Consumers Power regional utility monopoly and the Business Leaders of Michigan group are funding an initiated law petition campaign to put this proposal before voters on an upcoming ballot. House Bill 5499: Mandate gender identity and sexual orientation training in public school sex education classes Introduced by Rep. Rachel Hood, D, to mandate that public school sex education classes address issues related to sexual orientation and gender expression and gender identity, and also must explore the harm of negative gender stereotypes. The bill would explicitly prohibit instruction or materials that teach or promote religious doctrine. Senate Bill 503 and House Bill 4720: Authorize new birth certificate based on gender assertions Introduced by Sen. Curtis Hertel, Jr., D, and Rep. Rachel Hood, D, respectively, to permit an individual who asserts a gender identity different than the one on their birth certificate to get a new birth certificate that reflects this. Senate Bill 284 and House Bill 4515: Ban conversion therapy on minors Introduced by Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D, and Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D, respectively, to prohibit a mental health professional from engaging in conversion therapy with a minor, defined as a practice or treatments that seek to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity including efforts to change behavior or gender expression and more. Senate Bill 593 and House Bill 5193: Add sexual orientation and "gender identity" to ethnic intimidation law Introduced by Sen. Adam Hollier, D, and Rep. Tim Sneller, D, respectively, to add gender identity and sexual orientation to a state ethnic intimidation law that authorizes penalties for intimidating or harassing another person because of that person's race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. The law authorizes up to two years in prison and triple damages in lawsuits for violations. SOURCE: MichiganVotes.org, a free, non-partisan website created by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, providing concise, non-partisan, plain-English descriptions of every bill and vote in the Michigan House and Senate. Visit www.MichiganVotes.org. Viktoria Sundqvist / Hearst Connecticut Media A dentist who practices in Connecticut has to pay back more than $148,000 to resolve allegations that he caused over-payments by the state Medicaid Program, according to federal authorities. Dentist Ean James, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, entered into the civil settlement with the federal and state governments through which he will make the payment, according to the offices of Connecticut U.S. Attorney John H. Durham and state Attorney General William Tong. Prince Harry reportedly cooked a three-course meal for his wife Duchess Meghan's 39th birthday. The former 'Suits' actress' mother, Doria Ragland, is believed to have babysat the couple's son Archie, 14 months, on Tuesday (04.08.20) whilst the 35-year-old royal tried to impress his spouse with his culinary skills. However, it appears he got a help in hand from Meghan's parent, as he "still has a way to go" in the kitchen. A source told Us Weekly magazine: "They spent the day as a family and in the evening, Doria looked after Archie so that Meghan and Harry could enjoy some couple time. "Harry cooked Meghan a three-course dinner, but Doria helped him with the preparation. While Harry has become a better cook since marrying Meghan, he still has a way to go!" As for gifts, Harry is believed to have bought Meghan a custom-made necklace and a framed photograph of them. On the day, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wished The Duchess of Sussex a happy birthday. Harry's brother Prince William and his wife Catherine sent their message via their Kensington Royal Twitter page. The post read: "Wishing a very happy birthday to The Duchess of Sussex today!", and a cake and red balloon emoji was added to the end. The note was accompanied by a picture of Meghan - who was known as Meghan Markle before tying the knot with Harry in May 2018 - on a royal engagement at Broom Farm Community Centre in Windsor in November, days before the couple left for their getaway in Canada. Meghan can be seen holding hands with a little girl with a cupcake in her hand. Harry's grandparents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, also posted their own message to Meghan. On the Royal Family's official Instagram account, a photograph of the 94-year-old monarch and Meghan on a visit to Chester in 2018 was shared. The picture was captioned: "Wishing The Duchess of Sussex a very happy birthday! "The Queen and The Duchess of Sussex during a joint visit to Chester in 2018." She is set to welcome her first child with her rugby player boyfriend Matthew Sarsfield later this year. And Charlotte Dawson looked radiant as she headed to dinner at Liverpool's San Carlo restaurant with Matt on Saturday. The former Ex On The Beach star, 27, dressed her growing baby bump in a colourful patterned mini dress as she cosied up to her beau during their date night. Mother-to-be: Charlotte Dawson looked radiant as she headed to dinner at Liverpool's San Carlo restaurant with Matt on Saturday Charlotte put on a jubilant display as she larked around outside ahead of their romantic dinner. Dressed to impress for the occasion, the reality star teamed her chic, long-sleeved dress with a pair of pointed, clear heels. Her brunette tresses were blow-dried to perfection, while she completed her look with a glam palette of make-up. Cute: The former Ex On The Beach star, 27, dressed her growing baby bump in a colourful patterned mini dress as she cosied up to her beau during their date night Meanwhile, Matt kept things simple in a white polo shirt, blue skinny jeans and white trainers. Their night out comes after Charlotte revealed her heartache at late father Les Dawson not being a grandad to her child and expressed her desire to give birth on what would have been Les' birthday. Alongside a snap of her hugging a cardboard cut-out of the comedian, she penned: 'Wish I could tell you your going to be a grandad. 'I really hope baba comes out my chuffin womb on your birthday too ... I really feel like you sent our little gift. so lucky I have you as a cardboard cut out.' Comedian Les passed away from a heart attack aged just 62 when Charlotte was only eight months old. Bumping along nicely: Dressed to impress for the occasion, the reality star teamed her chic, long-sleeved dress with a pair of pointed, clear heels Happy couple: Charlotte put on a jubilant display as she larked around with Matt outside ahead of their romantic dinner Charlotte recently revealed that her baby is due just a week before what would have been her late father Les's 90th birthday, on February 2, 2021. She told OK!: 'We went for the first scan and my due date is actually the week before, but theres every chance I could give birth on his birthday. What a tribute that would be!' She added: 'He wouldve been the best grandfather. Its bittersweet because he would have been here, making everyone laugh.' Charlotte even said that she felt her dad's presence when she found out she was expecting, but isn't planning on honouring her father with the baby's name and would prefer something modern like 'Lily-Rose or Noah'. Grandad: Their night out comes after Charlotte revealed her heartache at late father Les Dawson not being a grandad to her child Heartache: Alongside a snap of her hugging a cardboard cut-out of the comedian, she penned: 'Wish I could tell you your going to be a grandad' She told OK! that although she was home alone, the TV turned on and off very quickly making her think that Les was trying to show her his support. The TV personality and rugby league player Matthew have been together for four years, with the couple recently buying a house. Charlotte has been documenting her pregnancy to fans and on Thursday Charlotte admitted she feels 'so tired all the time' and has a phobia of being sick as she revealed how pregnancy is impacting her. The TV personality confessed she's become 'obsessed with cereal' while discussing her pregnancy cravings. Saying it how it is: Charlotte admitted that she feels 'so tired all the time' as she revealed how pregnancy is impacting her, on Instagram on Thursday Yucky: The mum-to-be also confessed that she has a phobia of being sick The mum-to-be sat in a Christmas-themed onesie as she told her followers: 'Don't ask why I'm in a Christmas onesie but it's just really comfy. 'I just wanted to say: Loads of people messaged me like: "are you not feeling like s**t?" - I genuinely haven't really been sick. 'I just feel so tired all the time, and I'm just obsessed with cereal! I just can't stop eating cereal... Golden nuggets... obsessed! 'So yeah, I'm not feeling, like sick, I do feel a bit sick though but never actually sick. I've got a phobia of being sick, so I'm like "hold it back!" - I'm just so tired all the time.' But later, Charlotte returned to her Instagram Stories and admitted: 'Spoke to soon... Feel so sick and tired,' as she rested on the couch in a pink hoodie. Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Several organisations, the world over, have provided various forms of relief to countries since the outbreak of the coronavirus. The pandemic has led to a loss of lives and has left families and institutions affected in ways they may not recover from soon. Ghana has implemented a number of measures since it recorded its first case of the coronavirus and it has also received support from various institutions to combat the epidemic. READ ALSO: Banks to sack customers who visit banking halls without face masks Measures adopted included closure of borders, the shutdown of institutions and the implementation of safety measures such as the wearing of face masks. Support has also been received in various forms from numerous organisations all over the world. YEN.com.gh has sampled a list of entities that have thrown in support in both cash and kind since Ghana recorded its first case: 1. $69 million from the African Development Bank: The African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a $69 million grant to Ghana to combat the outbreak of the coronavirus. The decision was reached on Friday, July 24, 2020, and is intended to help reduce the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus on Ghana. The grant was received from the African Development Fund (ADF), which is the concessional arm of the AfDB. President Akufo-Addo Source: Al Jazeera Source: UGC 2. Jack Ma gives Ghana medical supplies: Ghana has received its share of the medical supplies donated by billionaire Jack Ma to Africa. The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Dr Abiy Ahmed, revealed that Ghana received its share of the consignment on Wednesday, March 25, 2020. The Chinese business magnate and the Alibaba Foundations donated 1.1 million testing kits, 6 million masks and 60,000 protective suits to Africa to help fight the spread of the Coronavirus. 3. Cuba assists Ghana with doctors to fight COVID-19: The Cuban government revealed its preparedness to assist Ghana with medical doctors and health experts to combat the COVID-19 if a formal request is made in that direction. This follows an intervention by the African Union (AU) Commission through its Deputy Chairperson, Mr. Kwesi Quartey, on behalf of Ghana. The commission is, therefore, encouraging the Government of Ghana to put in a formal request to the Cuban government to that effect. Mr. Quartey made this known in a letter of commendation signed by him and dated March 30, 2020, to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on efforts he had put in so far against the disease. 4. IMF approves $1 billion package for Ghana: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given its approval for a $1 billion credit facility to Ghana to combat the coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged the economy and inflicted hardship on Ghanaians. The IMF, on Monday, April 13, 2020, approved the fund, which would be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility. The outbreak of the coronavirus has negatively impacted Ghanas economy and has led to a slowdown of growth, the tightening of financial conditions and placed pressure on the exchange rate. 5. Mastercard and NBSSI provide almost 40,000 Ghanaians with jobs: The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) and Mastercard Foundation have teamed up to create 39,000 jobs in Ghana. The two bodies, through a three-year programme known as Young Africa Works, will focus on empowering young people. YEN.com.gh understands that the programme is particularly focused on young women, who are expected to make up about 70% of the participants. READ ALSO: EBID supports member states with almost $3 billion Read the best news on Ghana #1 news app. Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos Source: YEN.com.gh Many unemployed Americans will more likely lose jobless benefits as talks on the vital coronavirus aid collapsed Friday. In a last-ditch effort to revive the coronavirus aid talks in Capitol Hill, Democrats were disappointed by the results of their attempt to lessen further damage to the economy. The extra jobless benefit could have helped millions of Americans, who were laid off from work because of the coronavirus. Now, many unemployed workers are straining to afford basic needs. They have been like that since the $600 a week in unemployment benefits expired. Coming from the virus aid talks, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said, "It was a disappointing meeting." The Democrats are looking for a coronavirus aid that meets the current concerns of the country like the surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths, double-digit joblessness, and a threat of poverty for millions of new jobless, as reported by the Market Watch. According to an Associated Press report, Schumer said the White House rejected an offer by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to limit Democratic demands by about $1 trillion. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also said there wasn't any progress on the aid from their meeting. Impact of Delays Most of the time, disagreements in Washington have little impact on the public. It is not the case when it comes to coronavirus aid. Delays in agreeing to a budget lead to longer and maybe a permanent expiration of the $600 jobless benefit. It also delays more than $100 billion to help schools reopen this fall. More funding for testing is also blocked, even as cases are surging this summer. States and local governments are also left with low budgets to work with. With no deal in sight, the country could be left with no virus aid even well into August or September. "My worst nightmare is coming true," Liz Ness, a laid-off worker, told to CBS News. She fears she will be evicted from her home by next month without help from Washington. Business CEO Brian Gallagher said he knows that Congress members have the "luxury to come to an agreement this week and vote next week and then roll it out over several weeks." But he added that many families in America don't have that time on their hands. "They are out of money tomorrow," Gallagher said. On Friday evening, President Donald Trump said if the House and Senate still can't see a bill that they will agree upon, he will "act under [his] authority as president to get Americans the relief they need." What does Trump plan to do? The Al Jazeera said in a report that, as per what Trump has said on social media, he was thinking of putting some executive orders in place. His plans include expanded jobless benefits, reinstating a moratorium on evictions, cutting payroll taxes, and a continued suspension of student loan repayments. While there are plans on Trump's end, the law states that Congress has to decide on federal funding. No one from the White House has provided specifics on the negotiations yet. Want to read more? Take a look at these! Are You in the First Line of Receiving the Second Stimulus Check? Will You Receive Your Next Stimulus Payment Sooner Than You Think? What Can Recent College Grads Do During an Economic Fallout Brought by the Pandemic Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Saturday said the farm sector of the country has remained largely unaffected by the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at a webinar organised by Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), he said the farmers were able to do full harvesting of the rabi crops and the ongoing kharif season is progressing well. "The agricultural sector is largely unaffected. The rural economy remained stable and there was a bumper harvest of the rabi crops. The ongoing kharif season is progressing well," Tomar said. He said the government ensured that the plans and programmes drawn up for the rural sector reach the people by plugging the leakage. "Tomorrow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will transfer Rs 17,500 crore to the farmers through the press of a button using DBT (direct benefit transfer)," he said. The government is stressing on organic farming, which will help the farmers to get better prices of their produces and also facilitate exports, Tomar said. The agricultural reform measures announced by the government will also help the farmers to get remunerative prices sitting at home as they are not needed to go to the mandis to sell their produce, the minister said. On contract farming, he said the farmers will get the minimum support price, and will also be ensured of a buyer of their produce. He said the government is now preparing the guidelines for the Farmer Producer Organisations and Rs 6,500 crore will be spent on this. Tomar, also the Minister for Rural Development, said the government is spending in boosting rural infrastructure such as roads. Also Read: Will adopt wait and watch strategy in 'dream job', says Nokia's new CEO Pekka Lundmark Also Read: Air India Express crash: Deceased passenger tests COVID-19 positive Strict health regulations for Parliaments first session on August 20 By Damith Wickramasekara and Sandun Jayawardana View(s): View(s): The number of visitors, dignitaries and members of the media who will be in attendance at the first session of the Ninth Parliament on August 20 has been severely curtailed owing to the COVID-19 prevention guidelines. There are 674 seats in the visitors gallery, 96 seats in the VIP section and 65 in the media gallery of the Parliament Chambers. In accordance with COVID-19 operational guidelines, Parliament staff will ensure that a person is seated only on every other seat to maintain physical distancing. A senior Parliament official said they would probably have to limit the number of persons in the visitors gallery to between 275 and 300, while the number of those allowed into the VIP section and the media gallery would also be limited to about half the number of seats. Given the large number of new MPs who have been elected this time, we will do our best to admit two members of their immediate family into the visitors gallery. We may only be able to admit one immediate family member of other MPs, the source added. Journalists who miss out on watching the proceedings from the press gallery will still be able to watch them on television from Parliaments Press Room. Face masks are mandatory for everyone in Parliament including those in the Chamber. Under the operational guidelines handed over to Parliament by the Health Ministry, MPs have been instructed not to remove or pull down their masks even while speaking, while all those entering the Chamber must first use hand sanitizers installed at the entrances. While physical distancing is not possible within the Chamber as far as the seats are concerned, MPs have been instructed to only sit in their designated seat and avoid cross movements within the Chamber. Whenever members are not seated, they have been advised to maintain a 1m distance from each other at all times in the Chamber. Members have also been discouraged from shaking hands or hugging and have been asked to adopt other non-touch greetings. MPs will also be told not to share personal items such as mobile phones, headphones and pens. Parliament officials expect that the first session on August 20 will be the most difficult for them in ensuring that the guidelines are adhered to since all 225 newly elected MPs will be present on that date. Usually, the number of those in attendance drops significantly afterwards and we normally have only about 125 or so MPs at the most on other sitting days. So it will not be difficult for us to enforce the guidelines after the first sitting, an official noted. The Sunday Times understands that Parliament has been informed to allocate 151 seats for MPs in the government benches. Seats are allocated based on seniority and there is no room to allocate all government MPs seats on the government side. As such, officials will allocate seats for the junior government MPs on the back row in the opposition benches according to alphabetical order. Meanwhile, the traditional orientation programme for newly elected MPs will be held online this time. San Antonio police said Friday they believe Army Staff Sgt. Jared Esquibel Harless and his wife, Sheryll, murdered their four young children and killed themselves two months ago. The cause of death: Carbon monoxide poisoning. Harless, 38, and his wife, Sheryll Ann, 36, were found in the back of an SUV in the garage of their Northwest Side home on June 4 along with their children, Esteban Lorenzo Harless, 4; Penelope Arcadia Harless, 3; Avielle Magdalena Harless, 1, and Apollo Harless, 11 months. San Antonio Police Lt. Jesse Salame said investigators believe the couple both planned the killings. Until now, Jared Harless had been suspected of killing his wife and the children Police arent sure of the motive, though Salame said it appeared a combination and life stress that was exacerbated by some mental health issues, and the stress that is not uncommon with having children with special needs as well, were major factors in the deaths. Police arriving at 106 Red Willow, a two-story home in a gated subdivision said they saw a cryptic note at the front door that contained military jargon. Investigators havent yet released the contents of the note. The Harlesses had moved from Washington state to San Antonio last January, and were known by neighbors to be quiet and even reclusive. This is a developing story and will be updated. Sig Christenson covers the military and its impact in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Sig, become a subscriber. sigc@express-news.net | Twitter: @saddamscribe Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Reuters) Berlin, Germany Sat, August 8, 2020 16:05 528 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c8015a 2 News Germany,coronavirus,COVID-19,couples,travel,separation Free Germany will give a welcome break to the coronavirus lovelorn from Monday - easing its border controls to allow unmarried couples to reunite after what has been months of separation for some. The exemption will apply to the partners of Germans from countries that Germany considers high-risk - currently most of the world outside the EU - and couples will have to provide some proof that they were in a relationship before the pandemic, the interior ministry said on Friday. Most European Union borders have been closed to non-EU travelers since March, unless they are essential workers or married to an EU resident. On social media, separated couples have been lobbying under the hashtags #LoveIsEssential and #LoveIsNotTourism for governments to allow them to reunite. Read also: 'Love is not tourism', says couple separated for 6 months by coronavirus A few European countries including Austria, Norway and Denmark, have heeded the call, introducing "sweetheart visas" that exempt couples from the travel ban. In Germany, couples will have to present an invitation by the partner who lives in Germany and sign a statement confirming that they are in a relationship. They must also provide proof, such as stamps in passports or plane tickets, that they have met in person in Germany at least once or that they have lived abroad together. The European Commission on Friday renewed a call for the remaining EU member states to exempt the unmarried partners of European citizens from travel restrictions into their countries. Abhishek Bachchan has tested negative for COVID-19. Sharing the news on Twitter, the actor expressed gratitude for the doctors treating him at the hospital. He also thanked his fans for their prayers. He first tested positive on July 11 following which he was admitted at the Nanavati hospital in Mumbai. Bachchan tweeted: "A promise is a promise! This afternoon I tested Covid-19 NEGATIVE!!! I told you guys Id beat this. thank you all for your prayers for me and my family. My eternal gratitude to the doctors and nursing staff at Nanavati hospital for all that they have done. THANK YOU! (sic)" A promise is a promise! This afternoon I tested Covid-19 NEGATIVE!!! I told you guys Id beat this. thank you all for your prayers for me and my family. My eternal gratitude to the doctors and nursing staff at Nanavati hospital for all that they have done. THANK YOU! Abhishek Bachchan (@juniorbachchan) August 8, 2020 "I TOLD YOU!!! Discharge plan: YES!! This afternoon I tested Covid-19 NEGATIVE. Thank you all for your prayers and wishes. I'm so happy to be able to go home," Abhishek wrote alongside a picture of his 'My Care Board' from the hospital. Abhishek and his father Amitabh Bachchan were admitted to Nanavati Hospital on July 11 after testing positive for coronavirus. The senior actor tested negative for on August 2 and was discharged from the hospital. Abhishek actress wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and their daughter Aaradhya Bachchan had tested positive for COVID-19. The actress and her daughter were living in isolation at home after testing positive, however, on July 17 they were shifted to Nanavati after complaints of breathlessness and mild fever. Only July 27, their reports came negative and the two returned home. 'The Modi government's grandstanding has hardened the reflexes in Beijing, Islamabad and Kathmandu and complicated India's relations with these three countries, which were even otherwise highly problematic.' 'Whatever prospects existed for a fair and balanced resolution of the territorial disputes may also have receded,' observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar. IMAGE: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The unveiling of a 'new political map' of Pakistan in Islamabad on August 4 marks the aggravation of a bizarre period of South Asian politics that draws comparison with a controversial slice of the medieval history of England known as the Wars of the Roses (external link) (1455-1485), a dynastic conflict where the nobility and monarchs of England intermittently battled for supremacy over a period of four decades swapping thrones and creating mayhem in the political environment. The dynastic conflict was really a series of intermittent, often small-scale battles, executions, murders, and failed plots as the political class of England fractured into two groups. The Wars of the Roses displayed an extreme tendency to use violence to achieve political aims. It was a phenomenon of 'bastard feudalism' -- the partial degradation of medieval feudalism -- somewhat akin to South Asia's social formation today. Alas, the squabbling ruling elites of three impoverished countries of South Asia -- India, Nepal and Pakistan -- threaten to usher in a prolonged period of zero-sum contestations and disjointed history. The Wars of the Maps involving the nobility of these countries began on November 2, 2019 when the Government of India released a new map that showed that Jammu and Kashmir would henceforth also include the territories of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and the so-called Northern Areas of Gilgit-Baltistan (that are administered by Pakistan) as well as Aksai Chin (which has been under China's occupation.) Unsurprisingly, China protested. But India shrugged it off. There is much speculation that China since decided to settle the dispute through coercive diplomacy. But what took India by surprise was that Nepal took the cue and also protested that the Indian map wrongly showed Kalapani, a 35 square-kilometre area in Nepal's far-western region as part of India. In a statement on November 6, 2019, Nepal's foreign ministry said, "The Nepal government firmly believes that the Kalapani is a part of Nepal." Of course, India disdainfully brushed aside Nepal's protest. The Indian spokesman said, 'Our map accurately depicts the sovereign territory of India. The new map in no manner has revised our boundary with Nepal.' He went on to reiterate India's 'commitment to find a solution through dialogue (with Nepal) in the spirit of our close and friendly bilateral relations. At the same time, both countries should guard against vested interests trying to create differences between our two countries.' The insinuation that Nepal doesn't even have a mind of its own apparently infuriated the elites in Kathmandu. Nepal, thereupon, proceeded to draw a new official map of its own showing Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura as its territory. The parliament in Kathmandu has since approved the new map, which will now be notified to the United Nations as an official document. Pakistan, in contrast, was biding for an opportune moment to put India on the mat. It came, finally, on the eve of the first anniversary of India's abrogation of Article 370 and the 'integration' of J&K, a decision by Delhi which had sowed the germane seeds of the Wars of the Maps. Islamabad gave a shocker by releasing a political map of Pakistan underscoring its counter-claim to the disputed territories of Kashmir and Northern Areas as well as the Siachen glacier and the Sir Creek in Gujarat. Within no time, an Indian statement (external link) repudiated the Pakistani claim. But, unwittingly, though, the Indian repudiation also called attention to the whole absurdity of the Wars of the Maps. The point is, skill in cartography doesn't make territorial boundaries. In fact, India knows this better than Pakistan from experience. In the early 1950s Nehru ordered then director of the Historical Division in the ministry of external affairs S Gopal to unilaterally create a boundary on a map where none existed previously, and apportion the vacant spaces that existed between Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and China's Xinjiang province. Although Nehru knew it pertained to geography where not a blade of grass grew, he decided -- rightly so -- that as a sovereign country, India must have a boundary after all. We are still grappling with the problem that ensued as a result of that ingenious cartographic exercise. Now, Pakistan is following India's footfalls. So is Nepal. Yet, the fact of the matter is that, conceivably, none of the three countries would have faith in their respective cartographic exercise. How could India possibly exercise 'territorial sovereignty' over the vast territories to the north touching the Wakhan Corridor that separates Afghanistan from China? Or, can it ever annex Aksai Chin like it did in the case of Sikkim or Pondicherry? And it is even more preposterous that India will ever hand over J&K and Ladakh on a platter to Pakistan or concede Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura to its tiny neighbour Nepal. Put differently, India's boundary disputes with three of its northern neighbours have become even more intractable than before. The Indian statement of August 4 is spot on by describing the Pakistani map as 'an exercise in political absurdity'. But then, so are the Indian and Nepali maps. To borrow from the Indian statement, all three countries -- Pakistan, Nepal and India -- are making 'ridiculous assertions (that) have neither legal validity nor international credibility'. Indeed, 'territorial aggrandisement' on parchment paper amounts to nothing. What matters is internationally recognised boundaries. In fact, a prominent think-tank in Australia (external link) openly tore into India's November 2 map! Worse still, the Modi government's grandstanding has hardened the reflexes in Beijing, Islamabad and Kathmandu and complicated India's relations with these three countries, which were even otherwise highly problematic. Whatever prospects existed for a fair and balanced resolution of the territorial disputes may also have receded. One notable consequence of the Wars of the Roses was that over four decades, the nobility of England was severely reduced through deaths in battle, murder plots, and executions. Before the Wars of the Roses started, there were around 60 noble families in England, but by the end of it, this number had fallen to around 30. The sheer absurdity of it all provided continued inspiration to creative minds from William Shakespeare to Walter Scott and George Martin (whose novels in turn inspired the television series Game of Thrones.) The remnants of the Wars of the Roses can still be found in the number of tombs with armour-clad effigies of dukes and earls, barons and viscounts in the dark corners of many a country church across England. Similarly, the Wars of the Maps are also destined to witness destruction and disruption. The main causes for the initial outbreak of the Wars of the Roses were the incompetent rule and episodes of insanity of the ruling class. The historical parallels are striking. As the wars rumbled on, the economy got impoverished. They ultimately led to the destruction of half the nobility of England. Will that be the grand finale of the Wars of the Maps too? Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar served the Indian Foreign Service for more than 29 years. He has served as India's ambassador to Turkey and Uzbekistan and has been a contributor to Rediff.com for well over a decade. Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com A memorial service for James Craig is held at his tomb every year The restoration of the tomb of Northern Ireland's first Prime Minister has been welcomed by a local historical association. Located in the grounds of the Stormont Estate, the tomb of Lord and Lady Craigavon was said to have fallen into a state of disrepair in recent years. The Ancre Somme Association in Northern Ireland organises an annual Captain James Craig memorial service every November. A spokesperson for the group told the Belfast Telegraph that members were left "disgusted" at last year's service by the lack of care and attention the tomb had received. James Craig is considered by unionists as the founding father of the Northern Ireland state, having mobilised opposition to Home Rule before the First World War and serving as Prime Minister from 1921 until his death in 1940. While revered by many unionists, he was equally criticised for failing to address the needs of an alienated nationalist minority having famously said "all I boast is that we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State". Expand Close Before the restoration / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Before the restoration The ASA spokesperson said there was disbelief when members made their pilgrimage to his final resting place last November. "It wasn't just the actual tomb, there were weeds everywhere growing for years," he said. "It was really shocking so we're now more than happy with the work that's been done. "The difference is night and day. I actually forwarded the photographs to Lord Craigavon's granddaughter and we got a message from her. "She actually said she was disappointed the last time she was over but didn't think it was her place to say anything." With the help of DUP MP Carla Lockhart, the matter was raised with the Assembly Commission. The spokesperson said he was informed that the restoration work taken required specialist cleaners to avoid damage to the stonework. He added that Lord Craigavon's granddaughter was "over the moon" to hear of the improvements. "We're really pleased by that because it is ultimately the final resting place of her grandparents," Mr Davidson said. Expand Close After the restoration / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp After the restoration Looking ahead to this year's service, he said numbers could be limited due to any coronavirus restrictions. "It's really irrelevant as to how many are there, for us what's important is that we keep remembering." DUP MP Carla Lockhart thanked the Association and the former Assembly Speaker Robin Newton for raising the matter. "I'm delighted to see it restored to its former glory, it was in a terrible state of disrepair. Obviously Lord Craigavon was an influential figure in the shaping of Northern Ireland and I think it's very apt as we face the 100th anniversary of the country that this tomb is restored." Kerala Gold Smuggling: NIA team will visit Dubai to quiz prime accused India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 08: A team of the National Investigation Agency will travel to Dubai to question Fazil Fareed, the prime accused in the Kerala Gold Smuggling case. The NIA had registered an FIR naming Fareed, Swapna Suresh, Sandeep Nair and Sarith P S as the prime accused in the case. On the other hand, the NIA has arrested two more accused persons in connection with the case. They have been identified as Sharafudeen and Shafeeq. Kerala Gold Smuggling: ED gets custody of Swapna Suresh The National Investigation Agency said that the accused in the Kerala Gold Smuggling case made a deliberate attempt to undermine the economic stability of the country. Gold and narcotics are the most preferred means of funding for terrorist activities. After the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, the agencies are on high alert regarding terror funding, the NIA also said. The submissions were made during the hearing of a bail plea filed by Swapna Suresh one of the key accused in the case. The NIA said that the accused persons used the lockdown period to smuggle the gold and this shows the intent of these persons to destabilise the economy. These persons smuggled 200 kilograms of gold on 20 occasions since June 2019, the NIA further submitted. The agency has so far arrested 12 persons in connection with case. The NIA had said that there is a terror angle to this case. The NIA had also arrested one Muhammad Ali, who was charged by the Kerala police in connection with the hand chopping case involving a professor. On Sunday, the NIA made six fresh arrests in the case. Ali was arrested after the investigation revealed that he was part of the conspiracy. He is alleged to aided and assisted arrested accused, Jalal A M in collecting the smuggled gold from Ramees K T at Thiruvananthapuram and distributing the contraband amongst other conspirators. The NIA also conducted searches at six places. During searches, 2 hard disks, 1 tablet PC, 8 mobile phones, 6 SIM cards, 1 Digital Video Recorder and 5 DVDs were seized besides various documents including bank passbooks, credit/ debit cards, travel documents and identity documents of the accused. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 8, 2020, 16:34 [IST] Egypt is operating an air bridge to send medical and food supplies to Lebanon The bodies of three Egyptians killed in the massive Beirut explosion were repatriated on Saturday, state-run MENA agency reported. The bodies of the victims were transported to their hometown in Gharbiya governorate shortly after arriving at Cairo International Airport from Beirut. The three Egyptians killed in the explosion are Ibrahim Abu Qasaba, Aly Shehata and Roshdy El-Gamal, said the Egyptian Embassy in Lebanon. A massive blast at the citys port on Tuesday damaged buildings across the capital and sent a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. Lebanese officials said the explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate, 2,750 tons of which had been stored in a warehouse at the port for six years after being confiscated from a ship. The explosion killed at least 150 people and injured around 5,000, according to data released by Lebanons health ministry. Egypt has taken several measures to provide assistance to Lebanon, including sending a planeload of medical supplies to Beirut on Wednesday and operating an air bridge to send medical and food supplies, including flour, amid a near food challenge in Lebanon resulting from the crisis. An Egyptian field hospital in Beirut is also providing aid to victims of the blast.Egypt repatriates bodies of three nationals killed in Beirut blast. Search Keywords: Short link: Congress claims BJP hired Chinese firms during Lok Sabha elections India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P New Delhi, Aug 08: The Congress has accused central government of having surrendered before China, claiming that the BJP had hired three Chinese companies during the Lok Sabha elections, a decision that may have compromised user data. Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, "UC Web Mobile got banned in July this year. According to the expenditure report submitted by the BJP to the Election Commission, they (the BJP) hired this company in 2019 to run their campaign. It is the same Alibaba- owned company, which was also red flagged by the Modi government in 2017 for sending crucial data of Indians to China." How 'Vande Bharat' mission is beating tough flight restrictions in COVID-19 era "There is another company called Gamma Gaana Limited. Po Shu Yueng, one of the directors of this company, is also the director in 10c India pvt ltd. Gamma Gaana Ltd is funded by Tencent of China. Last month, the government banned it, saying the company was directly connected with the PLA (People's Liberation Army)," Khera alleged. Kerala plane crash: How it happened | Why plane overshot runway | Oneindia News The Congress spokesperson further went on to say that ShareIT Technology, whose ShareIT app was banned last month, was also hired by the BJP during the general elections. "We wish to ask some direct questions to the Prime Minister. Why did your party take the help of China in the Lok Sabha elections? In doing so, why did you give away vital data of Indian citizens to China?" he asked. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, August 8, 2020, 10:12 [IST] Hong Kong, Aug 8 : China's top representative in Hong Kong has mockingly offered to send US President Donald Trump $100 as "assets" for the latter to freeze in response to the American government's move to impose sanctions due to the national security law imposed in the city by Beijing, the media reported on Saturday. "Being put on the US sanctions list just means that I have done what I should do for the nation and Hong Kong," the South China Morning Post newspaper quoted Luo Huining, director of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong, as saying. "Isn't such a 'sanction' in vain as I don't have any assets abroad? Of course, I can also send $100 to Trump for freezing." While Luo ridiculed the sanctions, his office issued a separate statement, denouncing the US move as interference in Hong Kong affairs. It added that the national security law enacted on June 30 was needed to maintain Hong Kong security and order, and China was determined to protect its sovereignty. The Trump administration on Friday imposed economic sanctions on 11 current and former Chinese officials, including Luo and Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The US Treasury Department singled out Lam for "implementing Beijing's policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes," citing her role last year in attempting to pass an extradition law and, more recently, her involvement in "developing, adopting or implementing" the national security law, which criminalises a broad range of behaviours under the four categories of secession, terrorism, subversion and collusion with a foreign power, the SCMP newspaper reported. Besides Lam and Luo, the others on the sanctions list included Hong Kong's secretaries of justice and security and the city's current and former police chiefs. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Editorial board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, August 8 2020 It is a rather solemn day for ASEAN to commemorate its 53 years of existence. A year ago, Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo inaugurated a newly expanded ASEAN Secretariat building that he expected would usher in an era of more engagement among member states a place where ASEAN nationals would learn about the institution that seeks to bring this community of nations together to realize a dream of shared prosperity. But here we are today, faced with a pandemic that shows no signs of abating, with borders between neighboring countries unwillingly closed off and every man (and country) left to fend for themselves. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login A former Deputy Minister of Education, Okudzeto Ablakwa has described the sanction meted out to the 14 deviant West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) candidates as hash, high-handed, whimsical and could prove counterproductive. The 14 students were involved in acts of indiscipline and vandalism during the ongoing WASSCE. Their actions have been condemned by many with a call for them to be punish to deter other students from doing same. The Ghana Education Service (GES) in a swift reaction to the pockets of disturbances barred 14 final year students from writing the examination forthwith. But Mr Ablakwa said The offending students could be made to sign a bond of good behaviour, allowed to complete the final examinations after which the release of their results may be delayed until surcharging and counselling obligations have been carried out. We do not have to destroy the future of these teenagers. He also urged the GES to conduct an independent investigation into circumstances that led to the incident rather than resorting to harsh punishments to tackle the problem. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A flagbearer hopeful of the Peoples National Convention, Samson Asaaki Awingobit has urged the partys Council of Elders to intervene in the disagreement among the various intra-factions. Mr Awingobit who has been meeting PNC executives across the country said their members are clamouring for a united front ahead of the December polls. The electoral fate of the PNC towards the December general election remains unknown to internal party wrangling. While a faction led by the National Chairman, Bernard Mornah, claimed there has not been enough preparation for an internal elections towards the selection of a flagbearer, other faction led by a former flagbearer and leader of the party, Dr Edward Nasigiri Mahama think otherwise. In an interview, Mr Awingobit pleaded with the partys Council of Elders to find a lasting solution to the challenges hindering the conduct of the congress for the selection of a flagbearer and other national executives. After my declaration, I started meeting interest groups in our party. I met, Dr Edward Mahama, the national executives, all the 16 regional chairmen of the party, and the regional secretaries. I went on a tour of the Upper East Region. I will want to implore our Council of Elders to step in and take leadership of the party and form an ad-hoc committee and let them go with the EC officials to affirm by popular acclamation to those that are contesting to be executives and move ahead to conduct the congress to elect the flagbearer for the party because there is no time on our side. It is not because of their challenges that my ambition will be in vain, he stated. Meanwhile, General Secretary of the PNC, Attik Mohammed noted that with barely five months to the 2020 election, the processes for the congress should be finalised by the end of August. At the congress, we hold the two activities concurrently, whereby we elect the flagbearer and new national executives to run the affairs of the party for the next four years. So hopefully, by the end of August, we should be heading towards congress. This is because the tenure of the current executives has expired and we should have renewed our mandate through Congress by December last year, he added. On his part, the PNCs national youth organiser, Awudu Ishak, was oblivious of such a plan to elect a flagbearer for the December polls. The leader of the party who is Dr Edward Mahama is serving as an Ambassador-at-Large under the Akufo-Addos government and seem not to be interested in the forward march of the PNC, he asserted. On a number of occasions, when the National Chairman of the party, vested the necessary powers to convene a national executive committee meeting in consultation with the leader of the party for all of these matters to be discussed, the leader usually shoots down such proposals insisting that at an appropriate time, he will call for that particular meeting as far as the reorganisational plan is concerned, he said. He added that Dr Mahama did not want to hear anything about the national executive committee meeting that will set the motion and propel the PNC for the general election. Apart from Mr Awingobit, who is also the Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association, a former PNC Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, David Apasara, has also served notice to contest for the flagbearer slot. The PNC has contested all national elections since the inception of the Fourth Republic apart from the 1992 parliamentary election, which it boycotted along with other opposition parties. The last time the PNC elected new officials was in 2015 when Edward Mahama became its presidential candidate for the 2016 elections. 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 Co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar, who died in ill-fated Air India Express plane crash at Kerala's Kozhikode last night (August 7), is survived by his pregnant wife, reports NDTV. According to the report, his cousin Basudev said the delivery is expected in 10 to 15 days. "He was a very humble, polite and well-behaved person. His wife is expecting to deliver their child in the next 15 days. He joined Air India in 2017," Basudev said, adding the couple got married in December 2018. Kumar (32) and Captain Deepak Sathe, among the 18 passengers who died, piloted the flight from Dubai. Akhilesh was part of an Air India Express plane crew which was the first repatriation flight under the Vande Bharat Mission to land in Kozhikode, bringing back several stranded Indians in Dubai. His father Tulsi Kumar told news agency ANI that they were told about the crash landing of the plane at night on August 7. Later, they received a call informing them about the demise of their son. The plane overshot the runway and went down a slope, following which it split into two. The incident took place at around 7.30 pm on August 7. The flight had nearly 200 people onboard, of which 184 were passengers and six were crew members (including two pilots). The fact is that majority of people have voted for Rajapaksas giving the President and Prime Minister brothers the benefit of doubt, inspite of their nearly unimpressive governance. by N.S.Venkataraman As predicted by several pollsters, the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party (SLPP or Peoples party) led by Rajapaksa brothers has gained majority in the Sri Lankan parliamentary election. This verdict is no surprise, particularly considering the anxiety of Sri Lankan citizens, who want strong leadership . President Gotabaya Rajapaksa getting ready to vote for the election. While Rajapaksas have gained overwhelming majority , this does not really mean that majority of the people are entirely satisfied with the style of governance of Rajapaksas during the last few years. Obviously, Sri Lankan people , owing allegiance to different religions and life style, must have carefully weighed the options before them and must have decided that Rajapaksas are the best option in the given circumstances, though they very well know that Rajapaksas are not blemishless leaders. It is a fact that most of the Sri Lankans including Sinhalese and section of Tamils feel grateful towards Rajapaksas for decisively defeating the secessionist forces and restoring the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. What Rajapaksas achieved is what several Presidents and Prime Ministers before them could not do. Perhaps, this gratitude of Sri Lankans will be there for all time to come. The fact is that majority of people have voted for Rajapaksas giving the President and Prime Minister brothers the benefit of doubt, inspite of their nearly unimpressive governance. Obviously, this will be the last time that such benefit of doubt would be given to them and certainly people will not react in the same way in the future elections , if Rajapaksas would not deliver in the coming years. As it happens in several democracies , many political leaders win elections by securing negative votes, as the votes in their favour may really be more the votes against their opponents in the elections. One conspicuous factor that one should not miss about the politics in Sri Lanka is that the leaders of the political parties in the Tamil region were not united and were more fighting the elections against each other rather than against Rajapaksas. This too has helped Rajapaksas to some extent. Certainly , people are deeply aware that Rajapaksas have reduced the government of Sri Lanka virtually to a family rule in the past. This family ownership of the government may become even more obvious and cause concern, as one brother would be the President and the other brother would be the Prime Minister. Both these brothers would be accompanied by a few other family members in the pivotal positions in the government. This may lead to a disturbing situation , where no one can get top positions in the government or government owned institutions or even in judiciary , if they would not show their loyalty outwardly to the family of Rajapaksas. People who have given the benefit of doubt to Rajapaksas in the election would be keenly watching the emerging scenario and would view the scenario disapprovingly , if Rajapaksas family members would become the be all and end all of Sri Lankan government. In the past, it is a fact that Sri Lanka has not been governed at the best of standards and Sri Lanka has been made into a debt ridden country, inspite of the several advantageous resources that the country has and the talent at individual level that many Sri Lankans possess. With the poorly managed economy due to misgovernance , Sri Lanka is now facing a debt trap, with Chinese government hanging like a Democles Sword over the country. Sri Lankan government has been forced to hand over the Hambantota port to Chinese company over 99 year lease and this means that Chinese government would be occupying the port for many many years to come and would be breathing down the neck of Sri Lanka. Like putting all eggs in the same basket, Rajapaksas have entertained several projects with Chinese support and money, which is bound to cost Sri Lankas sovereignty dearly in the coming years, if corrective steps would not be initiated. In the present situation, when it is obvious that Sri Lankan government would not be able to repay the debt to China in the foreseeable future, it is a big challenge for Rajapaksas and one wonders whether they would be able to extricate Sri Lanka from the vice like grip of China. Rajapaksas should clearly understand the challenges before them and understand that hard and intelligent work needed to make Sri Lanka realize its full potentials, instead of rejoicing over their victory in the parliamentary election , assuming that the family can be in power for all time to come. The primary requisite now is that Rajapaksas should erase the impression that it is family rule in Sri Lanka. They should also clearly ensure that they would not continue to appease China and continued appeasement would inevitably mean sacrificing the interests of Sri Lanka in favour of a foreign country. China is already deeply entrenched in one way or the other , Congratulations to Rajapaksas for the victory in the election and the fervent hope is that they would not repeat the mistakes of the past and provide quality governance to Sri Lanka, which the Sri Lankans deserve. Taking along all Sri Lankans including Tamils in governance is a compulsive need to make Sri Lanka a vibrant country . Opportunities before Sri Lanka are plenty and what is needed is a long term and lofty vision for the leaders in the Sri Lankan government. Rajapaksas have the challenges and opportunities before them and they will be tested. By Express News Service KOCHI: Rehana Fathima who circulated a video in which her children were seen painting on her semi-nude body surrendered at the Ernakulam South Police Station on Saturday after the Supreme Court dismissed her anticipatory bail plea. Around 5 pm on Saturday, Rehana appeared before the police in connection with a case under the Prevention of Children against Sexual Offence (POCSO) and Information Technology (IT) Act after the Kerala Police's Cyber Dome reported the circulation of the video through social media. "After the Supreme Court rejected anticipatory bail, she was summoned to the police station. After appearing before us, we recorded her statement. She will be produced before the magistrate court to be remanded in the case," a police official at Ernakulam South Police station said. Earlier, the police had searched her residence and recovered a mobile phone used to shoot the video and a laptop in which the video was edited and uploaded on social media. The seized goods were sent to the forensic laboratory for further examination and retrieval of the content. Another case was also registered against her at Thiruvalla Police Station. On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed her anticipatory bail petition after the Kerala High Court had also taken the same stand on her petition last month. Justifying her act, she had submitted that her children need to be imparted sex education and made aware of the body and its parts as well enabling them to view it as a different medium altogether rather than seeing it as a sexual tool alone. Her children, a boy and a girl aged 14 and 8, were found painting on her semi-nude body in the video uploaded in June this year. The Kerala State Commission of Child Rights also had sought a report from the police and directed to register a case in the matter. Rehana who was an employee of BSNL was dismissed from service this year. Rehana who advocates for gender equality came to the limelight after she attempted to enter Sabrimala following the Supreme Court order over the entry of woman in 2018. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 20:49:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland exported 470 million U.S. dollars worth of anti-epidemic supplies to Hong Kong during the first half of the year, up 130 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce said Saturday. Besides the anti-epidemic supplies including face masks, protective clothing, ventilators, thermometers, goggles and test kits, the mainland exported 1.8 billion U.S. dollars worth of pharmaceutical products to Hong Kong during the period, up 14 percent from a year earlier. The central government has also been working to ensure adequate supplies of agricultural products to Hong Kong since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak. Currently, about 85 percent of live food animals, 90 percent of vegetables and 60 percent of aquatic products in the Hong Kong market are supplied by the mainland. The ministry will closely track market changes and work to ensure the demand in Hong Kong is met in a bid to support the region's fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. Enditem live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More DCB Bank on Saturday posted a marginal decline of 2.5 percent in net profit at Rs 79 crore for the first quarter of the current financial year. The private sector lender registered a net profit of Rs 81 crore in April-June, 2019-20. During the quarter under review, the bank made an overall provision of Rs 85 crore, it said in a release. Of this, Rs 32 crore was additional COVID-19 provision while Rs 13 crore was regular NPA provision. "The bank already holds a provision of Rs 63 crore for COVID-19 as on March 31, 2020 taking the total to Rs 95 crore as on June 30, 2020. This is considered adequate and above minimum regulatory requirements," it added. As on June 30, 2020, the bank had a floating provision of Rs 99 crore and standard assets provision of Rs 121 crore. Total income of the bank in the quarter also fell by 2 percent to Rs 384 crore from Rs 392 crore in the year-ago same period, it said. Interest income, however, was up 1 percent at Rs 307 crore during the quarter as against Rs 305 crore earlier. At June-end 2020, the net restructured standard advances stood at Rs 469 crore (commercial vehicle Rs 239 crore, mortgage Rs 147 crore, SME/MSME Rs 65 crore, corporate Rs 11 crore and others Rs 7 crore), the bank said. The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rose to 2.44 percent of the gross advances as on June 30, 2020, from 1.96 percent by June 2019, while the net NPA increased to 0.99 percent from 0.81 percent. "NPAs are likely to increase once the moratorium period ends on August 31, 2020. The bank intends to support its customers within the guidelines in order to cope with the COVID-19 stress. The bank intends to make provisions higher than regulatory minimum on a consistent and prudent basis," DCB Bank said. The provision coverage ratio as on June 30, 2020 was at 75.2 percent. "The lockdown disruptions are slowly reducing. We have to be cautious. We are concentrating on collections and recoveries, implementing the guarantee scheme, home loans, gold loans and Agri related loans. "As part of the strategic cost management, we are accelerating our digital agenda in order to achieve long-term cost efficiencies," said Murali M Natrajan, Managing Director & CEO, DCB Bank. TOWN OF LINN Illinois residents with second homes in the Lake Geneva region are trying to enroll their children in schools here this fall during the coronavirus pandemic. School administrators speculate that parents are seeking school districts with more options for in-person classroom instruction, or are looking for schools where their kids will not be required to wear face masks. State law allows Illinois families to transfer their children into Wisconsin school districts, as long as the families own property north of the border and can establish residency in their new district. At Reek Elementary School in the town of Linn, five families from Illinois already have come forward to inquire about crossing the state line to enroll their children this fall where the families own second homes. Reek Elementary is offering in-person classroom instruction with no requirement that students wear face masks. Principal and district administrator Samantha Polek said she instructed those families that they are welcome to enroll their kids in the Reek Elementary district. If theyre residents and they have that proof of residency, she said. they certainly can attend their local school. At Walworth Elementary School in Walworth, principal Phill Klamm said he, too, has heard rumors about Illinois families coming across the state line to enroll their kids this fall. So far, Klamm added: I wouldnt say that we have anyone coming up to their second homes and asking about enrolling here. Although Illinois is allowing schools to offer in-person classroom instruction, many school districts are planning strictly online remote instruction. That includes districts just south of the Lake Geneva region, including the McHenry High School District, the Harvard School District, the Huntley School District and the Prairie Grove School District. Wisconsin state officials say cross-border enrollment is permitted and local school districts set their own procedures for verifying a familys residency. Chris Bucher, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instructioin, said each school district determines its own policies and requirements for proving residency. Schools can demand pay stubs or utility bills, or simply check that a familys address is in the district. Residency determinations are made by local school districts, Bucher said. The Department of Public Institution doesnt play a role in that. It comes down to the school districts. Even if a family is found not to be a Wisconsin resident, parents can still enroll their child by paying a non-resident tuition, possibly thousands of dollars a year. In the current coronavirus pandemic, Illinois families might be shopping for school options, particularly if they own property in Wisconsin. Polek said she believes one reason families may be moving their kids is to ensure that their students receive in-person instruction, as opposed to remote learning from home. Polek said families might also be looking for a geographic area with fewer cases of coronavirus, or they might want a school where students are not required to wear face masks as a safeguard that some families find objectionable. With enrollment open until Aug. Polek said, it was too early to forecast class sizes, but she does not believe an influx of Illinois transfers will cause a dramatic increase at Reek. Its a small pickup at this point not huge for us, she said. Other area school districts said they have not detected any Illinois residents moving to second homes for the schools. Kellie Bohn, administrator of Brookwood schools in Genoa City, said despite being close to the state line, she has not received any inquiries about Illinois residents enrolling this fall. Bohn said open enrollment rules allow such cross-border residency moves, but she said said the Genoa City area does not have many second homes for Illinois residents. We havent had parents coming to inquire about alternative open enrollment in that situation, she said. Traver Elementary School administrator Allyssa Andersen said she has not received any specific inquiries, either. Anderson, however, said the Traver area does include many secondary homes used for vacations. We wouldnt have anything on the school side of things that would tell us anything about tax records or anything like that, Andersen said. If they say they are living in the district and we can verify their address is in the district, then we would say yes. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-08 06:48:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Friday agreed to provide immediate aid to the Lebanese people. The two leaders in a phone conversation expressed their deep sadness over the loss of life and devastation in Beirut. They agreed to work together with international partners to provide immediate aid to the Lebanese people, the White House said in a statement. U.S. Air Forces Central Command tweeted earlier in the day that two loads of humanitarian aid supplies had been delivered to Beirut. Macron said Thursday in his visit to Lebanon that France had already sent support to Lebanon and it would send more medical equipment in the coming days. Two massive explosions rocked the Port of Beirut on Tuesday evening, killing at least 154 people and injuring about 5,000 others while causing massive damages in the city. Enditem German fintech company Wirecard was allegedly looted before its collapse in June, according to speculations from German prosecutors. Even though the payments group denied claims of deception at the time, around $1 billion was moved to unclear partners, the Financial Times said in its news report on Friday. The basis of the investigation are the loans granted to associate partners in Dubai, Singapore and the Philippines, which contradict the statements of former chief executive Markus Braun and other top ex-employees. According to people familiar with the probe and a document seen by the Financial Times, the embezzlement is suspected to have taken the form of unsecured loans, which Wirecard claimed were for advance payments to merchants processing card transactions through its partners in Asia, the Times report reads. Braun has rejected any act of alleged wrongdoing. Those arrested in the case last month, apart from Braun, were three former executives. In June, Wirecard filed for insolvency after $2 billion went missing as The Block reported. At the time, the company was examining whether insolvency proceedings needed to be filed for its two subsidiaries: Wirecard Card Solutions and Wirecard Singapore. Both subsidiaries issue crypto Visa debit cards for corporations such as Crypto.com and TenX. The two companies told The Block at the time that their performance remained unaffected by the case. The troubled German payments processor subsided in June under 3.5 billion of debt, which came to be known as one of Germanys large-scale postwar accounting frauds. 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. Special Adviser to the President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina has said that Nigerians will only see the achievements of the President Muhammadu Buhari, if they calm down. Adesina said this in an article he published titled Why We Need to Calm Down. Making reference to a viral video of the little Oreofeoluwa Babalola pleading with his mother to calm down after she attempted to beat him for a wrongdoing, Adesina said Nigerians need to calm down and stop being angry about the problems plaguing the nation. Those things are there, as they are also in many countries of the world. But they are not the only things happening in Nigeria . Only that we would not see the positive things, except we calmed down. We would never enjoy the rainfall, if we expect rainstorm to carry away our rooftop at any moment. Calm down. Im just telling you to be calming down. his article reads If you listen to some people; angry youths, religious leaders, political analysts, newspaper columnists, news reviewers, so-called activists, then nothing positive is happening in the country. It is all about insurgency, banditry, killings, joblessness, corruption, lack and deprivation. True? False! But if the truth be told, that message from the boy is for the entire country. We need to calm down. We are too uptight, nervy, edgy. We grumble, murmur too much, call the government a lot of names , try to demonize those serving the nation, when it could be our last chance. Last chance in the world to really fix things. Listing some of the achievements of the Buhari administration, Adesina further wrote One of my favorite boyhood songs is the one by Jimmy Cliff. Keep Your Eyes on the Sparrow. Here I stand with my head down in my hand Wondering what on earth I have done wrong Theres a cloud that has overshadowed me Blocks the light from my eyes, I cannot see But I know where I wanta be Right or wrong, Ive got to face my destiny Somebody tell me to Keep your eyes on the sparrow Keep your eyes on the sparrow Keep it on, keep it on now Keep your eyes on the sparrow. That is a song of hope. Its a song of encouragement. The God Book says God keeps His eyes on the sparrow, and none can fall down without His permission. If He watches over a bird, how much more we human beings, created in His image? But man has walked away from that original estate. We sit on the complaint counter. We murmur, curse, cavil. We rail against God, against man, against government, even against our own selves. We indulge in hate speech, concoct and spread fake news. And it blinds our eyes. It blocks the light from our eyes, and we cannot see. We never see good, even when it surrounds us. We focus only on negative narratives. Let me give a practical example. Last Sunday, one of the guests on Sunday Politics, hosted by Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television, was one Group Captain Sadeeq Garba (Retd). He was also deputy head of safety and security at the African Union Commission, and now a private security consultant. The retired Air Force Officer was asked to talk about the worrisome trend of killings in the country. The man said the killings were sad and regrettable, but things were not as completely negative as some people and interest groups would want to make them seem. Quoting what he called reliable statistics from the Centre for Research in the United States, he gave these figures of the evil development from 2011, in number of total killings: 2011-1096 2012-3761 2013-7167 2014-15,600 2015- Not available 2016-4618 2017-5763 2018-6565 2019-8350 2020-6195, as at June. Now, one life lost is already too many. One single life should not be taken wantonly, not to talk of in hundreds and thousands. It is bestial, inhuman. But why do some people want to make it appear as if we hadnt passed through worse times in this country? Forget about who was in power as President. It is not about individuals now, it is about the descent of a country into the Hobbesian state of nature, where life is nasty, brutish and short. For President Muhammadu Buhari, its a solemn pledge that lives and property would be secured. And a lot is being done in that direction, though we are not there yet. Unkind, negative comments can only demoralize those fighting to secure the country. When the President said recently that things were better in the area of security than what he met in 2015, some people wailed endlessly, as is their wont to. But when the Group Captain came with facts and figures on national television last Sunday, not one word was heard. Not even a whimper!Why do people like to spread negative, rather than positive developments? Killings dropped from 15,600 in 2014 to 4,618 in 2016. But not one positive word. Simply because their eyes are blinded by negative thoughts and sentiments. And they now need to calm down. Rather than upbraid, our security agencies should be challenged and encouraged to rediscover what they did in 2016. During the week, Ministry of Power said electricity generation had returned to over 5,000 megawatts. Not a word from professional complainers. If it had dropped to below 1,000 megawatts, we would not have heard anything else. Calm down. Im just telling you to be calming down. If we calm down, what would we see? Massive infrastructural developments. Roads, rail, airports, bridges, efforts to reverse power deficit of many decades, newly approved Youth Bank to empower the younger generation, strident efforts to secure the country, N2.3 trillion stimulus package to combat the negative effect of COVID-19, and many other positive developments. There are many, and many more. Jesus looked at Jerusalem, and wept over it, saying: if thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto thy peace. But now, they are hid from thine eyes. (Luke 19:42). Hundreds of students were sent home from school on Friday in Germany because of a spike in coronavirus cases, only days after they reopened. Officials in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have shut down two schools after new cases of coronavirus were confirmed only days after the northeastern German state became the country's first to resume classes. It comes as fears of a second lockdown have erupted in Germany after new coronavirus cases reached the 1,000-a-day threshold for the first time since May. Germany's public health agency, reported 1,045 new cases in a single day on Thursday. Jens Spahn, German health minister, said that the increase was partly due to more tests taking place. The dpa news agency reported Friday that a high school in Ludwigslust was shuttered after a teacher tested positive for the virus and a primary school in Graal-Mueritz has been closed for two weeks after a student was confirmed to have COVID-19. Students at the Christophorusschule School in Rostock, northern Germany, were some of the first children in the country to return to school after the summer break amid the pandemic Because of the short notice in the closure, classes on Friday went ahead but took place outside, reports the DW. The sparsely populated state has been Germany's least affected by the pandemic, with 910 positive tests for COVID-19 and 20 virus-related deaths among its 1.6 million residents. Schools fully reopened on Monday with no mask or distancing requirements, but with children divided into fixed groups for classes in an effort to compartmentalize possible outbreaks. The news raises concerns as Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, prepares to send its 2.5 million students back to school next week. It has the country's strictest guidelines, including a mask requirement at all times in school buildings. Schoolchildren in the capital of Berlin and the most-populous state of North-Rhine Westphalia are due to head back to school next week. Authorities said there was no indication the infection had spread at either school but both were closed as a precaution. Bettina Martin, the regional education minister for Mecklenburg-West Pomerania told the Telegraph: We said that from the start there would be suspected cases in schools. 'As long as the coronavirus has not been eliminated and there is no vaccine, we have to deal with it. The protection of pupils and staff comes first.' Students in two schools Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region were sent home on Friday Before the summer break, schools in most regions across Germany divided classes into smaller groups so social distancing could be observed. However, German authorities have ordered full classes to resume after parents complained that the arrangements left many children only able to attend classes for a few days a week. Anja Karliczek, the education minister, has previously called for face masks to be worn in classes. A study in Saxony, the only German region to resume full classes before the summer break, found no evidence schools play a major role in transmission. Scientists from Dresden University tested 1,500 children and 500 teachers for the virus and found antibodies in only 12. Thousands of people protested Germany's coronavirus restrictions last Saturday in a Berlin demonstration that insisted 'the end of the pandemic' has arrived. The declaration came despite authorities voicing a growing concern about an uptick in new infections. The country has recently battled to contain local outbreaks in various regions, and it recorded more than 1,000 new infections nationwide for the third day running on Saturday. Germany's reported over 216,000 coronavirus cases in total, and more than 9,000 related deaths. Photo credit: Hermeus The U.S. Air Force is funding an aviation startup working on a combined cycle engine. Hermeuss combined cycle engine can work like a regular turbofan or ramjet engine, reaching a speed of Mach 5. The Air Force thinks the best application for the engine, oddly enough, is a future Air Force One. Hermeus, a Georgia-based aviation startup, has announced a contract with the U.S. Air Force to develop its idea for a hypersonic aircraft engine. The Air Force department funding the project is the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate, the team that manages Air Force One. A Mach 5 aircraft could allow the president to fly from New York to London in 90 minutes, instead of the 7 hours it takes today. You like badass planes. We like badass planes. Let's nerd out over them together. The Air Force made the investment after Hermeus demonstrated its Mach 5 engine, developed in just 9 months, back in February. The engine is a combined cycle turbofan design that fuses both a normal turbofan engine and ramjet into a single engine. A normal turbofan engine sucks in air from the front and pushes it, along with exhaust gases, out the rear to generate thrust. This generates enough thrust to drive an aircraft at subsonic speeds. A ramjet engine, meanwhile, is specifically designed to ram greater amounts of air into the engine using the forward speed of the aircraft, allowing for greater thrust. A major problem is that ramjets dont work at subsonic speeds, so most designs envision a separate engine or rocket booster as a first stage. This adds complexity and cost to any ramjet transportation project. But an aircraft equipped with a combined cycle engine, on the other hand, can take off like a regular airplane from regular airports with the engine in subsonic turbofan mode. Once the aircraft is airborne, it could switch to ramjet mode, then back to turbofan mode to land. One combined cycle engine can work in either mode, negating the need for a separate engine or rocket booster. Story continues Photo credit: Hermeus Then there's the matter of a ramjet's air temperature. At high supersonic and low subsonic speeds, the air ingested by an engine gradually increases in temperature, and this hot air makes a ramjet engine less efficient. In its press release, Hermeus seems to indicate its solved this problem with a pre-cooler that chills the air before it enters the engine combustion chamber. The company also claims it was able to achieve speeds faster than the famous SR-71 strategic reconnaissance aircraft with nothing more than a company modified off the shelf engine. A turbojet/ramjet-powered engine could solve the problem of precision-guided missiles, like the Chinese DF-21 medium range ballistic missile , blasting nearby friendly air bases into rubble. A bomber, tanker, or even heavy fighter equipped with a combined cycle engine could take off from a more distant air force base, sprint into a combat theater in ramjet mode, and fly home in turbojet mode. Photo credit: Chris Graythen - Getty Images The big question is why the Air Forces Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate is funding the program. The Air Force is currently paying for the construction of two new Air Force One airplanes, specially modified Boeing 747s designed to carry the President of the United States and his or her entourage. The new planes will be ready in 2024 and will probably fly for at least 30 years. That means replacements are already lined up, and there wont be an opening for a new plane until 2054 or later. If the technology works, don't be surprised if it makes it onto a completely newer plane before that. You Might Also Like This week we answer a question from Pakistan. Shahid writes: Question: What is the difference between these terms: place, location, position, site and situation? -- Shahid, Pakistan. Answer: Dear Shahid, The five terms you gave are very close in meaning. The English language often has more than one word to describe a similar idea or action. Place The word place is used to describe an area that may not have an exact border. In fact, it may not be a particular or special area. Place is so general it could be a room, a building, a town, a country, or something else. For example, in a news broadcast, I heard this sentence: The beach is one of the safest places to be these days. Official documents may ask for your place of birth, which usually means a city and country. Have you ever been waiting in line but need to leave for a short period? Then you might ask someone: Will you hold my place in line? This use of place is the same as how we use the word position. Position Position means a specific point. The position of something is relative to other things. For example, in an auto race, the pole position is in the first row on the inside lane. She earned the pole position for the race because she was the fastest driver this year. A position can also be a way of holding ones body, as in this example. Most office workers spend the day in a sitting position. Location The word location is used to describe a specific point in physical space. For example: The location of a business is very important to its success. People who buy and sell homes and buildings often use the expression: Location, location, location! That means a store on a busy street corner is more likely to be successful and a house that is in a nice neighborhood will be easier to sell. Site A related word is site, which we can use for the present or past location of a building or an important event in history, as in: This was the site of the first battle in the war. We also use site to talk about the future location of a building or structure: The mayor chose the site of the new memorial. Situation Finally, Shahid, you asked about the word situation. This is an old-fashioned and more formal, or official, way to talk about a place: The house is in a wonderful situation close to the water. However, American English speakers generally no longer use this word when talking about specific places. I hope these answers help when you want to use these five place terms. Your questions What questions do you have about English? Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com. And that's Ask a Teacher for this week. Im Jill Robbins. Dr. Jill Robbins wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story location n. a place or position site n. the place where something (such as a building) is, was, or will be located beach n. land along a body of water row n. several objects organized in a straight line lane n. a narrow road or path for a single line of vehicles old-fashioned adj. of or related to something from the past Do you have a question for the teacher? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com. 'It cannot be that only in this case the CBI has developed a spine, refusing to heed the advice of its political masters.' 'There is something that does not meet the eye here,' notes Virendra Kapoor. IMAGE: Bharatiya Janata Party Margdarshaks Lal Kishenchand Advani, left, and Dr Murli Manohar Joshi. They say justice is blind. We have cast-iron proof it is. For incontrovertible evidence, consider but only two cases of the sheer blindness of justice. Both were tried by the special CBI court. In one case where there was ample evidence of the innocence of the accused, they were convicted of corruption. And, in the other, where there was fool-proof evidence of corruption, they were allowed to go scot free. That is justice, nay blind justice, for you. Let us explain. Last week, a special CBI court convicted Jaya Jaitley, a former president of the erstwhile Samata Party (now the Janata Dal-United) and three others for corruption and sentenced them to four years of imprisonment for trying to influence a defence deal and accepting illegal gratification for the same. The facts are simple. The Tehelka magazine undertook a sting operation against then defence minister George Fernandes and a few other notables associated with the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Fernandes, one of the fiercest critics of the Nehrus, was the main target of the entrapment sting. Unable to reach him, the sting operators managed to speak to his associate, then Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitley. Claiming they were treated unfairly by people in the defence ministry, they sought her help. She said she had no say in the ministerial matters. However on their persistence, pleading grave injustice was being done to them, she asked them to leave a petition which she would pass on to the minister's PA. That was that. Now comes the crucial part. And it is all on tape. The stinger now says they want to give donation to the party. Jaitley says she does not concern herself with the party finances and if they so insist they can approach the party treasurer. But determined to trap her, and show that illicit money changed hands for defence deals in the minister's house, the undercover reporter pretending to be a representative of a London-based arms company, insists on giving money anyway. Now the reporter changes tack, saying that the Samata Party convention is to be held in Bengaluru soon and the party would need funds. Again, her response remains unchanged. She does not accept donations. But determined to target Fernandes, the stinger finds an unknown person hanging around in the house. They thrust Rs 2 lakhs (Rs 200,000) into his hands and secretly record the video. Mission accomplished. But here is the point. Neither the Tehelka reporter nor his bosses knew vaguely the identity the person on whom they had forced a wad of cash. It was much later they would find out that the person concerned was an old Socialist party worker from Rajasthan who had come to meet Fernandes in connection with the upcoming Samata Party convention in Bengaluru. Twenty years later, on the basis of the above entrapment tapes, a CBI court convicted Jaitley and three others. Mercifully, the Delhi high court stayed the order in the nick of time. Hopefully, on appeal the conviction will be overturned. Because the facts fly in the face of what is the real truth. Now take the 2G case. Here again the facts are simple. Consider them. In only one of the several transactions in which bribes were paid and duly established by the CBI, Rs 200 crores -- yes, two hundred crores -- was given by one of the parties that had applied for the 2-G license -- and which was duly granted. The money trail was clearly traced, and the link between the party that had bagged the license and the bribe-taker in Chennai was clearly established beyond an iota of doubt. Only after the 2-G scam became public and rocked Parliament, did the bribe-taker post-haste raise funds from third parties to return the bribe amount to the licensee in order to claim that no bribes were taken. The investigation was so thorough that it had also traced the source of funds the bribe-taker had raised after the scandal became public. The evidence of the bribe being accepted, and much later, being returned from funds hurriedly raised through third party sources was presented before the special CBI court. Yet, the court allowed all the accused to walk free. IMAGE: Kar sevaks storm the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. Photograph: Sunil Malhotra/Reuters Meanwhile, it is a moot point why the CBI cases in the Ayodhya demolition case against a number of high profile accused is still being tried, especially at a time when the bhoomi puja for the Ram temple has taken place. Given that the CBI has withdrawn several cases on political grounds, the continuation of the trial in the Ayodhya demolition case is particularly surprising. No less surprising is the fact that veteran BJP leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, were made accused in the case well after the Modi government came to power. It cannot be that only in this case the CBI has developed a spine, refusing to heed the advice of its political masters. Even if Advani, Joshi and others were made accused at the instance of higher courts, the CBI was expected to press for relief, which it has failed to do so far, especially given the age of the BJP Margdarshaks. There is something that does not meet the eye here. Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com It looks like Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (NYSE:LPX) is about to go ex-dividend in the next four days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 13th of August will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 1st of September. Louisiana-Pacific's next dividend payment will be US$0.14 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.58 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Louisiana-Pacific stock has a trailing yield of around 1.8% on the current share price of $31.39. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to check whether the dividend payments are covered, and if earnings are growing. See our latest analysis for Louisiana-Pacific Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Last year, Louisiana-Pacific paid out 380% of its profit to shareholders in the form of dividends. This is not sustainable behaviour and requires a closer look on behalf of the purchaser. A useful secondary check can be to evaluate whether Louisiana-Pacific generated enough free cash flow to afford its dividend. Thankfully its dividend payments took up just 41% of the free cash flow it generated, which is a comfortable payout ratio. It's disappointing to see that the dividend was not covered by profits, but cash is more important from a dividend sustainability perspective, and Louisiana-Pacific fortunately did generate enough cash to fund its dividend. Still, if the company repeatedly paid a dividend greater than its profits, we'd be concerned. Extraordinarily few companies are capable of persistently paying a dividend that is greater than their profits. Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends. Story continues Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing? Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. It's encouraging to see Louisiana-Pacific has grown its earnings rapidly, up 23% a year for the past five years. Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Since the start of our data, two years ago, Louisiana-Pacific has lifted its dividend by approximately 5.6% a year on average. Earnings per share have been growing much quicker than dividends, potentially because Louisiana-Pacific is keeping back more of its profits to grow the business. The Bottom Line Has Louisiana-Pacific got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? It's good to see earnings per share growing and low cashflow payout ratio, although we're uncomfortable with Louisiana-Pacific's paying out such a high percentage of its profit. In summary, it's hard to get excited about Louisiana-Pacific from a dividend perspective. In light of that, while Louisiana-Pacific has an appealing dividend, it's worth knowing the risks involved with this stock. For example - Louisiana-Pacific has 4 warning signs we think you should be aware of. We wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see, though. Here's a list of interesting dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend. 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.